Zhu You Control Corpse

His cousin was done only after he'd puked until he was nearly bringing up bile. He clutched his waist and waved a hand.

"I'm never doing anything that gets my heart racing again."

Hanyu looked around. Phoenix trees stood thick all around him, and deep in the grove, a faint light flickered on and off.

He followed the leaf-strewn ground toward the light. After about a hundred meters, he spotted a small, crescent-shaped lake. Sunlight glittered across its surface, and the rippling water flashed white.

So this was where the light came from. Beside Crescent Lake grew a patch of unidentified plants with purple roots, red leaves, and white flowers.

Before Hanyu even got close, he caught the flowers' faint, delicate fragrance.

"This scent is so unusual. It makes me feel comfortable all over."

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a strange sound rang out above him. Hanyu hurriedly looked up. A white figure had somehow been hiding in a phoenix tree and was now diving toward him with a dagger in hand.

Hanyu hastily raised his arm to block. With a clang, a large piece of fabric was sliced from his sleeve, exposing his fair skin. The figure followed up with a heavy kick to Hanyu's chest, then swiftly sprang back into the tree.

Both men on the scene frowned at the same time.

What a tough body!

What nimble footwork!

Hanyu studied the figure in the tree. He had thick eyebrows and a pale face, with a long, narrow face and utterly ordinary features. He was dressed like a scholar.

The scholar looked Hanyu up and down as well, but for some reason, anger flared in his heart.

"Die!"

The scholar gave a sharp cry and dove down again. True Essence surged in an instant, making his white robe snap in the wind. Wrapped in True Essence, the dagger struck with even greater force, its tip stabbing toward Hanyu once more.

Hanyu's gaze flickered. He thrust out a hand and forcibly caught the dagger. Once its tip met his palm, it couldn't advance another inch. At that moment, his other fist shot toward the scholar's chest.

The scholar's expression twisted in shock. He hurriedly abandoned the dagger and crossed his arms over his chest, but a tremendous force blasted him away.

After landing a successful hit, Hanyu couldn't help laughing. He sprang three zhang into the air, ready to slam the scholar down again.

But the scholar forcibly steadied himself. His True Essence gathered beneath his feet, and in an instant he walked through the air as if on solid ground, taking three steps that sent Hanyu crashing past him.

When they both landed, the scholar's face was grim. He was already thinking of retreating.

Hanyu, on the other hand, was in high spirits. He shook out his arms and charged again. The scholar had no choice but to meet him head-on. The two traded blows back and forth, and the longer they fought, the more horrified the scholar became.

Hanyu's somewhat clumsy punches had grown much faster. A closer look showed he was learning the scholar's nimble fighting style. Before long, he was pressing the scholar relentlessly.

What a terrifying Corpse King! He can even learn! The scholar was shaken.

By now, Hanyu had drawn back his fists and feet. The scholar's strange ability to tread through the air was a real nuisance. Hanyu was about to use the Hungry Ghost Path's power to subdue him when he started to raise his hand, but his cousin suddenly came running over at the sound of the commotion.

"Stop!"

His cousin shouted repeatedly. Seeing the two men facing off, his expression changed...

"So this one was Mortal in disguise too?"

A quarter of an hour later, Hanyu sighed and said helplessly.

With all this changing back and forth, it really wouldn't do if someone accidentally killed him one day. And it wasn't as if it had to wait for some other day. If Hanyu had been a little harsher just now, Mortal wouldn't have needed his cousin to save him...

His cousin was just as helpless. That unlucky fellow, Mortal, had nearly been taken out by his own people, without even a place to go complain.

Mortal wore a strange expression as he repeatedly looked Hanyu over. Only then did he notice Hanyu's chest rising and falling. He was clearly a living person—nothing like a Corpse King.

But that only made him more astonished.

A cultivator had tempered his body to this degree? What for?

His cousin began introducing them to each other. Since they were all on the same side, there was no need for hard feelings. They could just say they had met through a fight.

Mortal secretly tugged at his cousin and asked curiously, "Where did you find someone like him?"

His cousin chuckled and shook his head. "That little Daoist, Yixian, recruited him."

Mortal looked at Hanyu with admiration. "His body is so tough that at first I mistook him for a Corpse King sent to capture me. It's absurd. I've seen plenty of Body Cultivators, but this is the first time I've seen one like him."

Body Cultivator? Hanyu had never heard of that before, so he asked about it.

"They're heretics!"

Mortal said with obvious indignation.

His cousin smiled and explained that it was a kind of cultivator from Mortal's homeland.

After hearing the details, Hanyu was surprised. Mortal was actually from the Overseas Islands. He'd heard rumors that there were cultivators overseas, but they'd always been no more than hearsay. He hadn't expected to meet one for the first time today.

Body Cultivators were a rather unusual branch among overseas cultivators. Their cultivation was similar to Hanyu's current state, but unlike him, they didn't neglect cultivation in their inner world while tempering their bodies. It was a path that cultivated both.

"Imagine everyone fighting along just fine, then suddenly the other side charges over without a care and thumps you with two punches. Isn't that crude?"

Mortal looked at Hanyu and asked for his agreement, clearly displeased.

Hanyu merely rubbed his nose and smiled, since he'd just done exactly that. Judging by the look of it, Mortal had probably suffered at the hands of quite a few Body Cultivators.

Back to business, his cousin's expression turned serious as he looked at Mortal and asked, "What on earth is going on with you this time?"

The two explained the situation outside the valley. Mortal looked enlightened and nodded. "No wonder I haven't seen Bao Ruijie outside the valley for the past two days. He must've gone out to find someone who can keep me in check."

The unfamiliar name, Bao Ruijie, left the other two looking puzzled.

Mortal beckoned to them and said he'd first take them to see something. Then he set off ahead of them.

It wasn't far. They walked a few dozen meters north and stopped beside a mountainside.

A row of commoners in various kinds of clothing leaned against the stone wall with their eyes closed, motionless, as if they were asleep.

Mortal took out a bell about the size of his palm. He pulled the scraps of cloth from its opening, then infused it with True Essence. The bell immediately began to glow. Mortal reached out and shook it, making it ring again and again.

The row of silent commoners suddenly raised their arms straight out and opened their eyes, which had no whites. They began to dance along with the ringing.

"Corpse refinement!"

The two cried out at the same time.

This was the second forbidden art Hanyu had encountered, after Beastmaking.

Unlike Beastmaking, which had been deliberately buried beneath the dust of history, this art was especially famous. One sect had once dominated the cultivator world with it for several decades.

But in the end, it had gone too far against the natural order and was wiped out by a coalition of sects. It was said that there were still sects in the Southern Border that excelled at the art, though no one could tell if the rumors were true. They were taken as mere hearsay.

Who would've thought someone would still dare practice this art?

Mortal began recounting what had happened to him. After he and his cousin had agreed on a time to meet and gone their separate ways, he had entered Hidden Moon Valley.

The strange plants beside Crescent Lake were the reason for his trip. The flower was called Gentleman's Intoxication.

When he arrived, however, he discovered that someone had already taken over the place. Since they were all cultivators and there were quite a few of them, he guessed they were acting on behalf of a sect.

Mortal lurked there for half a day, seeing only cultivators carrying commoners inside. At first, he couldn't figure out what they were after. Then night fell.

"What? Gentleman's Intoxication is an auxiliary ingredient for corpse refinement?"

That was what Mortal had discovered after nightfall. The two couldn't help exclaiming.

When night came, a man in his forties arrived at Crescent Lake. He picked Gentleman's Intoxication, mixed it with a pot of medicine, and concocted it. Then he fed it to the unconscious commoners one by one.

What happened next was rather cruel. As Mortal recounted it, his expression grew slightly tense.

The middle-aged man used eight coffin nails on each person to seal their Ren, Du, Chong, and Dai meridians, along with their Yin Heel, Yang Heel, Yin Linking, and Yang Linking vessels. Then he refined them into Corpse Puppets while they were still alive.

Mortal had already been thinking of retreating after seeing that. With methods that ruthless, they couldn't possibly be from a respectable sect.

But just as he was about to leave, a tall cultivator who had come with the middle-aged man spotted him. The cultivator was imposing, his face a livid green, and his eyes had no whites at all.

More importantly, his body was incredibly strong. After a fierce fight, Mortal couldn't get the better of him.

"Damn it, I only found out later that he was a Corpse King."

Mortal cursed bitterly.

Hanyu thought it over. With a whole group of people gathered outside without going in, there had to be more to the situation. "What happened after that?"

Mortal pointed at the bell in his hand. "I saw the middle-aged man controlling the Corpse King with a bell, so I figured it was probably the tool he used to control him. I could only steal the bell first and subdue the Corpse King, then figure out what to do next."

"But that man's cultivation wasn't bad. He might've even been in the See Me Realm. I couldn't get the upper hand. All I managed to do was steal a Command Token and another bell from his robes, then use my unique footwork to run circles around them here."

As he spoke, Mortal took out a Command Token inscribed with Zhu You Sect and Bao Ruijie.

Overseas cultivators really were different. Even See Me Realm was only "not bad" in his eyes.

Hanyu gave Mortal a strange look. If he could fight a See Me Realm cultivator like that, maybe he was a See Me Realm cultivator himself.

Thinking of Lu Dayou, who'd stubbornly traded a year of his luck to break through the See Me Realm, Hanyu wondered what he would think if he were here.

"Since you've already shaken them off, why didn't you fly away on your sword?" his cousin asked, puzzled.

Mortal spread his hands, looking helpless. "I didn't know he was a Corpse King before. I tried to stab him in the mouth with my Flying Sword, but the Corpse King bit it in half. Otherwise, I'd have been long gone."

At the thought of it, he sighed. "I can't fly out, and the bell that controls the new corpses Bao Ruijie refined is in my hands. That's how things ended up like this."

Without the bell, there was no way to take this group of Corpse Puppets away, and Bao Ruijie certainly wasn't willing to leave them behind. But the bell was with Mortal, whose nimble footwork made him especially at home in this Dense Forest.

Bao Ruijie had chased him for three days, trying every trick in the book to no avail. Mortal was like a slippery loach, always managing to slip away.

But Mortal had his own troubles. He could move through the Dense Forest like a fish in water, but he couldn't get out. He couldn't fly, and the Corpse King guarded the Valley Mouth.

His disguise skills, normally so useful, were completely ineffective against the Corpse King. It recognized scents, not faces.

Mortal had disguised himself again and again to leave the valley, but the Corpse King spotted him every time.

Now, neither side could do anything to the other. But Bao Ruijie hadn't appeared for two days, so he was probably getting desperate. Maybe he'd already found some help.

That's the third bonus chapter today! Please enjoy. I'm off to prepare tomorrow's new dishes for the bonus update. If you enjoy this book, please give it some recommendations, favorites, and monthly tickets to support me. It'll put some pep in my writing. If you don't vote, and I don't vote, the author will cry until he turns into a little old man.