Shen Yi looked at the map in his hand. With a thought, he stepped into the Life Gate teleportation array.
This was the very place where Shen Yi had first entered the ruins. The sight of that blood-colored vine controlling nine flesh-and-blood monsters remained vivid in his memory.
With the Coiled Dragon Halberd in hand, Shen Yi was unstoppable this time, cutting his way straight to the vine. Sensing living vitality, the vine danced excitedly. In an instant, the nine puppet monsters surrounded Shen Yi, raising their long blades as they closed in to kill him.
Shen Yi's gaze turned cold. His halberd swept through the air, yet even surrounded, he remained utterly composed. With one strike, he knocked away a long blade; with one punch, he knocked down a puppet. Seizing the opening, Shen Yi leaped beneath the vine and raised his halberd.
"Cloud Shatter!"
The halberd danced, tracing countless streaks of light as it struck vine after vine, scattering sparks in every direction.
"Break!"
Shen Yi shouted, pouring even more force into his halberd. The vines snapped one after another beneath its blade. Deprived of support, the puppet monsters instantly dissolved into pools of blood, corroding the ground into a stretch of pitted craters.
The vine lashed its tendrils about in pain. Powder from its stamens sifted down in a flutter, drifting toward Shen Yi like an attack.
"Sun Piercer!"
Shen Yi circulated his spiritual power, forming a shield around himself. His halberd thrust into the countless particles of powder. The strike carried the might of a rainbow cleaving through the sun, piercing the flower and shredding innumerable stamens with violent spiritual power.
Shen Yi put away his halberd and turned to leave. Behind him, the blood-colored vine exploded, transforming into a rain of blood that filled the sky.
Returning to the teleportation array room, Shen Yi rested briefly before taking Little Black into the radiance of the Death Gate teleportation array, where they vanished.
This place was utterly silent. Its rotten, decaying aura made Shen Yi deeply uncomfortable. Little Black, however, chirped happily around him, seeming to like this environment very much.
A sudden chill ran down Shen Yi's back. He grabbed Little Black and leaped aside, summoning the Coiled Dragon Halberd as he watched the direction behind him warily.
Black mist spread through the area. Two flashes of red light gleamed within it, and a pair of lantern-sized eyes appeared in Shen Yi's field of vision.
"Clop! Clop!"
The hoofbeats were like drums summoning souls to the underworld, pounding against Shen Yi's heart. His expression changed sharply. Those hoofbeats made his heart race wildly, as though it would burst apart the next moment. He hurriedly circulated his spiritual power and sealed off his hearing, only then feeling somewhat better.
"What a terrifying sound!"
The next moment, a warhorse standing ten feet tall appeared before Shen Yi. It had no flesh or blood; beneath its skeletal remains, its heart beat heavily. Seated atop it was a headless corpse, holding a bronze war spear.
"A Foundation Establishment stage Corpse Puppet!"
Shen Yi stared at the man and horse before him, his expression grave as his grip around the halberd tightened unconsciously.
The horse raised its head high, and the two red lights condensed into tangible killing intent that shot toward Shen Yi.
Shen Yi flicked his halberd left and right, deflecting the killing intent. Two deep pits exploded open in the ground. Seeing its attack neutralized, the headless corpse thrust its spear and charged in. Black mist coiled before the spear, corroding everything it touched. Not wanting his halberd damaged, Shen Yi turned to flee—only to see Little Black roll over and chirp, swallowing that mass of mist.
"Hic—"
With the black mist broken, Little Black's body visibly swelled by a full circle. Seizing the chance, Shen Yi swung his halberd horizontally, smashing it fiercely against the war spear.
"Such strength!"
Shen Yi steadied himself and exclaimed. Then he swung his halberd again and rushed forward. A dazzling beam of light shot from the halberd, while the warhorse's eyes once more fired crimson killing intent, canceling out the light. The headless war corpse thrust its spear, like a flood dragon diving down from the heavens.
"Rumble!"
Halberd and spear collided. The enormous impact crashed into the distant rocks, erupting in a thunderous roar as the mountainside stones shattered.
The blood-red cloak on the headless corpse fluttered without wind. A murderous aura burst from its body, stirring up a violent gale. The entire space seemed to twist. The warhorse beneath it vanished, while the headless war corpse split into two. Blurred figures moved like lightning, and then two war spears, trailing comet-like tails of light, stabbed viciously toward Shen Yi.
Shen Yi had no time to think. He surged forward at high speed, sweeping his halberd behind him. With a heavy bang, it struck the pursuing war spear and sent it flying away. Then he abruptly halted and leaned backward. The tremendous momentum sent him sliding away, his nose barely brushing the spear's tip. He could even clearly see the flickering killing intent upon it.
"Heh heh!" Shen Yi rose with a cold laugh, holding the halberd one-handed as he pointed it diagonally toward the southern sky. A vast pressure spread out from him, and boundless power swept in all directions like raging waves crashing upon stormy seas. "Facing the Heavenly Palace!"
With the force of raising a torch to burn the heavens, Shen Yi hooked his halberd upward at the headless war corpse before him.
"Clang!"
Amid an ear-splitting metallic collision, a blinding burst of light erupted in the air. Spiritual power and deathly energy raged wildly. The second war spear was forcibly smashed away by the halberd as well, while a shocking wound opened across that clone's chest. The headless war corpse's aura instantly withered.
Seeing this, Little Black puffed up its body, now swollen by a full circle, and actually charged straight at the injured headless war corpse. It swallowed the corpse into its body in a single bite, becoming round and plump like a ball.
The remaining clone visibly panicked at the sight. It did not even care about its war spear, summoning the warhorse and vanishing swiftly into the mist.
"This..."
Shen Yi looked at the ball before him, unsure whether to laugh or cry. Little Black also noticed its own sorry state. Huffing angrily, it climbed onto Shen Yi's head and rolled around wildly.
After making a fuss for quite some time, Little Black finally calmed down. It dragged Shen Yi over to the war spear and gestured for him to use the Coiled Dragon Halberd in his hand to fuse with it.
"It can do that?"
Shen Yi looked astonished, but he still followed Little Black's gestures and used spiritual power to refine the two weapons.
The instant the war spear merged into the Coiled Dragon Halberd, black radiance bloomed from the halberd, instantly filling the entire space. The dragon patterns on its shaft seemed to come alive, releasing dragon roars one after another. The air even gained several traces of deathly aura.
"Yiyi yaya!"
Seeing this, Little Black gestured for Shen Yi to quickly infuse it with a drop of blood essence and refine it.
Shen Yi did as instructed, dripping in a drop of blood essence and hastily refining the halberd. Once the refinement was complete, Shen Yi discovered with delight that an invisible thread of connection had formed between himself and the Coiled Dragon Halberd. Now, wielding it felt even more natural and effortless.
As for Little Black, it had also digested the energy within its body and returned once more to a mass of blackness.
Seeing that the Coiled Dragon Halberd in his hand had advanced to a high-grade spirit artifact, Shen Yi joyfully grabbed Little Black and turned it over repeatedly, trying to see what secrets it was hiding. This made Little Black furious.
"Let's go. On to the next area."
Shen Yi glanced into the depths of the mist. He had the urge to rush in and drag out the headless war corpse, but he ultimately gave up. Being able to refine a war spear was already an immense stroke of fortune. It was enough.
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