Fully alert, Lu Yun clutched an oversized black donkey hoof. He’d begun refining these items en masse soon after exiting Yuying’s grave, and completed the process the day before departing for Myriad Formation Summit. There were a dozen of them in total, and the one currently in his hand was the most powerful of the lot.
“Do I cram it inside her mouth?” He stared into the zombie’s eyes. Sparkling like rubies, her irises were shining so brightly they could move a man’s soul. He sensed no aggression or lust for slaughter from them, but her gaze seemed somewhat vacant, her eyes empty.
Lu Yun exhaled softly with relief when he saw that her soul had yet to fully take shape. “Actually, will it fit?”
Grasping the hoof tightly in his hand, he glanced at her dainty little mouth, a little stumped. Shoving a black donkey hoof in a zombie’s mouth was the way that tomb raiders usually dealt with them.
An ethereal voice floated to his ears just then, interrupting his thoughts. “You can stop your deliberations. I no longer fear the thing you hold.” As the voice sounded, Lu Yun saw the girl’s previously unfocused gaze come alive. She looked straight into his eyes without blinking.
Most importantly, the faint hint of death on her brow was nowhere to be seen. A zombie king!
She’d reformed her soul and come back to life as a true zombie king! Blanching, Lu Yun stumbled back in quick succession.
“How… what?!” he exclaimed incredulously. “Two hours should’ve been the bare minimum for you to absorb this dense concentration of extreme yang.”
“It is as you say.” The girl nodded. “But the three august immortals used weapons of lightning and thunder against me. The pure yang energy contained within them is the bane of all dead, and it scattered the last vestiges of death inside of me.”
Lu Yun glared sidelong at Qi Shenghui’s group. They were huddled together, strenuously resisting the crimson light. The governor ground his teeth together and thought, what a bunch of shit teammates!
Rather than helping, they’d facilitated her completion instead.
“You lured me here on purpose!” Realization dawned belatedly.
“Correct. I would’ve been powerless to do anything, had you stayed at your previous location.” The girl nodded. “There’s something on you that calls out to every fiber of my being. I would very much like to know what it is.”
The corner of her lips rose in a smile that could bedazzle every man in the world, but her scarlet eyes flashed hungrily in the next moment. “Whatever it is, it is inside your body. Allow me to cut you open and see what it is.”
She suddenly reached out with her delicate hand, her fingers forming a claw and grabbing for Lu Yun’s chest. In a state of heightened tension, the governor shot backward the moment he saw her move. In addition, a black figure appeared in front of him in the same instant, surrounded by a glowing white light.
Boom—
The girl’s hand clashed violently against the dazzling white halo surrounding the shadowy figure. The zombie king shook as her eyes gleamed with joy.
“The Yang Formation Orb! So you have it,” she enunciated to the black-robed woman, her red lips parting gently.
Feinie. Formation Orb in hand, she’d emerged from the Gates of the Abyss at this critical juncture.
The atmosphere about the two of them was strikingly similar in a way. Faint sorrow marked both of their faces, but instead of Feinie’s mournful melancholy, the girl displayed a more youthful resentment.
The zombie lifted her other hand, revealing a black, fist-sized bead pulsing with a dark glow that seemed to echo Feinie’s white pearl. Like hers, it was a Formation Orb, but one that was a jet-black hue.
“The Yang Formation Orb?” Lu Yun first sighed with relief, then blinked in startlement. “Following that logic, yours must be the Yin Formation Orb.”
The girl didn’t reply, but her eyes betrayed a building belligerence.
“Only by combining the two are they whole. That is when the true power of a connate treasure can be released. As you have delivered the yang half to me upon a silver platter, it would be rude of me to decline. Hand it over!” With a sudden growl, the zombie’s hand shot at Feinie.
“What incredible strength!” The envoy flinched. In her current state, she was no match for a being that undoubtedly stood above the golden immortal realm, so she shot backward instead. While guarding Lu Yun, she deployed the power of her orb and placed one hundred and eight formations in front of her enemy in less than the span of a single breath.
Without even resorting to using her own orb, the zombie king’s crimson hand tore through all hundred and eight formations with the sheer power of her flesh alone. It was a display of brute, savage force that had Feinie paling; her opponent was powerful beyond words.
She could’ve felled peerless immortals during her heyday, with the orb’s assistance, but the key issue was the presence of another orb in her opponent’s hand. In all likelihood, the zombie was just as much a master of formations as herself.
Outlined with reddish light, the girl’s hand struck viciously at Feinie’s chest. If the blow were to land, it would tear through Feinie and annihilate Lu Yun behind her at the same time.
“Stay back!!” Lu Yun suddenly barked out. From the corner of his eye, he’d noticed Qing Han ready to leave the security of the formations and charge their way. “Mo Yi, keep an eye on that kid!” he roared like an enraged lion.
“Don’t worry, nothing will happen to him.” Though Mo Yi didn’t know where the black-robed woman had come from, it was a sign that the governor still had cards left to play. As for Qing Han, attacking the zombie king would be nothing short of suicide.
On the other side, Qi Shenghui’s group lay sprawled on the ground, passed out cold.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Nine crimson shadows abruptly appeared around Lu Yun and slammed into the zombie girl’s palm nine times. Having always been on the offensive thus far, the girl fell back nine steps in succession. A chink had finally appeared in her unassailable confidence.
Nine faintly red shadows floated in the air and encircled her. Bloodcorpses!
They’d finally reemerged from the Gates of the Abyss.
After devouring the undead hag, these fearsome fellows were tamed inside the gates by Yueshen, with the help of Yuying and Feinie. They were initially immortal bodies meant for Yueshen. Though her spirit could no longer inhabit their bodies, it was still possible for her to exercise control over them.
For tomb raiders, zombie kings were brought up in hushed whispers and were the greatest of taboos. Even the tombs of the living they inhabited were classified as forbidden grounds.
Bloodcorpses, on the other hand, were the other horror tale. No ancient records spoke of them, but folk tales were nevertheless transmitted by word of mouth. Who would’ve thought that these two taboos would appear in the same place to face off in a clash of titans!