"So even if a Mortal returns the Soul-Snatching Bell now, it won't help. Refining living people into corpses is something the Zhu You Sect can't get past the Imperial Court for, let alone the sects that helped wipe out the Corpse Refining lineage back then."
Hanyu murmured thoughtfully, watching the two of them.
"So besides reclaiming the Soul-Snatching Bell and moving the corpses, they'll definitely silence the Mortal, too." Cousin said gravely.
Just then, Mortal suddenly said, "Wasn't Bao Ruijie off getting reinforcements? Let's go now! Hurry up and bring out your Iron Kite."
Cousin shot him a look and said irritably, "My Iron Kite falls apart after one hit. There's a crowd of cultivators outside. If it gets smashed apart once we're in the air, the Medicine Master might survive, but we'd both fall to our deaths. We might as well fight our way out."
"I couldn't even deal with that Corpse King outside. How am I supposed to—"
Mortal's words cut off. His eyes shifted as he looked at Hanyu, and he muttered, "Actually, you could fight the Corpse King!"
Thirty li outside Shuzhou City, beneath the long slope.
Pian Shi Gang.
It was merely an unremarkable little village, one of many scattered across Shuzhou Prefecture. It had a small population, and narrow paths between the fields crisscrossed in every direction. Now and then, farmers could be seen working in the fields.
Beside a small melon patch stood a little thatched shelter. Ran Shiqing, whose hair and beard had gone gray and who was nearing fifty, had a deeply weathered face and looked no different from an ordinary farmer. He lounged beneath the shelter, his bamboo hat covering half his face.
With a heart full of unease, Bao Ruijie entered the village.
"Ran Shiqing? Never heard of him."
A sturdy young man shook his head at Bao Ruijie, who had stopped to ask for directions.
Bao Ruijie thought for a moment, then tried again with different words. "An old man who moved here not long ago."
The young man suddenly understood and chuckled. "You mean the old fellow who grows melons? He's on the east side of the village. At this hour, he should still be asleep in the shelter by the melon patch!"
After thanking the young man, Bao Ruijie hurried east.
A short while later, he found the shelter, but he felt uneasy and hesitated to approach.
He stood there for a long time, his expression shifting between light and dark. At last, he gritted his teeth, stepped forward, bowed respectfully, and called, "Elder Ran!"
The old man seemed not to hear. Bao Ruijie called out several more times.
At that, the old man lifted his bamboo hat and sat upright. His cloudy eyes suddenly gleamed as he fixed his gaze on the visitor, sharp enough to pierce the soul.
"What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you I needed to stay hidden, and to return as soon as the job was done? Don't come here unless there's a reason."
Ran Shiqing's face darkened with anger. Bao Ruijie was so frightened that he stumbled and nearly fell to his knees.
"Speak. What happened?"
Ran Shiqing saw Bao Ruijie's hesitant expression, sensed something was wrong, and asked with a frown.
Bao Ruijie looked terrified as he whispered, "The Soul-Snatching Bell for the newly refined corpse was stolen."
At those words, Ran Shiqing sprang to his feet, his Killing Intent bursting forth. His eyes blazed with murderous fury. "Say that again."
Bao Ruijie dared not hide anything. He recounted everything, from refining the corpse to being discovered and then having the Soul-Snatching Bell stolen.
Ran Shiqing's face turned as dark as water. If he hadn't been somewhere he couldn't act, and they'd been back at the sect, Bao Ruijie would have taken a palm strike full in the face.
"You useless fool! You can't even handle one little thing!"
After giving Bao Ruijie a furious tongue-lashing, Ran Shiqing gritted his teeth. "You'll accept your punishment when we get back!"
"Then..."
Bao Ruijie timidly raised his head to ask for instructions.
"I'll go with you and deal with that little loach first."
Ran Shiqing waved a hand and started to leave.
But after only a few steps, he suddenly stopped.
"Wait for me at the village entrance."
Bao Ruijie didn't dare ask questions. He simply nodded and left.
Once Bao Ruijie was gone, Ran Shiqing suddenly coughed a few times, bent forward, and called, "Venerable!"
A voice drifted over, ethereal and impossible to place. It sounded rather cold. "The people from Hidden Moon Peak have been exposed, haven't they?"
Just one sentence was enough to make cold sweat pour down Ran Shiqing's face.
"Y-yes."
But he didn't dare lie, so he stammered out his answer.
The owner of the voice fell silent for a long time. At last, he gave a cold order. "For now, abandon the operation in Shuzhou Prefecture. Go there as soon as possible and clean up every loose end. If necessary, abandon the Corpse Puppet, too. Since Bao Ruijie has been exposed, don't leave him alive either."
Ran Shiqing bowed again and again in agreement, cold sweat soaking through his back.
"Since we no longer need the Shuzhou Prefecture operation, you shouldn't stay there either. Make sure you clean everything up."
The voice fell silent after that. Ran Shiqing stayed bent over for a while. Only after he was sure no one remained did he slowly straighten and let out a long breath.
Night had fallen. After discussing it, the three decided that Hanyu, whose body was the strongest, would hold off the Corpse King, while the other two dealt with the remaining cultivators.
If all went well, once the cultivators were taken care of, the three of them could join forces against the Corpse King.
After settling the details, they began sneaking toward the Valley Mouth.
Soon they spotted a group of cultivators standing at the exit, looking around. Mortal pointed out the tallest figure, who hadn't moved once, and said, "That's the Corpse King. You'll have to deal with it."
Hanyu nodded in understanding.
Once they were ready, Hanyu ran forward, his steps growing faster and faster. In an instant, he caught the attention of the cultivators at the Valley Mouth.
"Who's there? Stop!"
The cultivators hurriedly drew their blades and took up defensive positions. Hanyu smiled faintly, then leaped forward at full speed. The three cultivators nearest him were sent flying.
Cousin and Mortal exchanged a nod, then charged in as well, joining Hanyu in the fight.
A few foolish cultivators, relying on their Divine Bridge cultivation, thought they could rise into the air and attack from afar with Flying Swords. But Hanyu hurled several clumps of flame into their faces in quick succession, and one by one they came tumbling down, wailing.
The Corpse King seemed to catch Mortal's scent and sprang into action. Hanyu had been keeping an eye on it the whole time. The instant it moved, he dodged and threw a punch, then slapped a fireball against its face.
"Why didn't that do anything?"
Seeing the Corpse King completely unharmed, Hanyu was the first to be taken aback.
Even Asura, who had feared those flames, had been vulnerable to them, yet they had no effect on the Corpse King. And its body really was as hard as Mortal had said.
"Idiot. Asura and Hungry Ghosts are products of the Nether Path, so of course they fear Yang Fire. The Corpse King was refined by people. Think of it like someone forging it as though it were a magic weapon. Naturally, they wouldn't leave it with a weakness."
Little Glazed's voice sounded in his mind.
Hanyu's heart turned cold. How cruel, to refine a person as if they were an object.
The Corpse King seemed enraged by Hanyu. It stopped going after Mortal and charged at him instead.
Bring it on!
Hanyu threw a punch straight at it. The Corpse King punched back, and their fists collided with a tremendous shockwave.
The man and the corpse each stumbled back several steps.
"It hits hard, too."
Hanyu frowned as he assessed it. Its body was like bronze skin and iron bones, and it had plenty of strength behind its blows.
Hanyu himself was fine. The Corpse King's arm, however, kept trembling. It seemed Hanyu had the edge in physical strength, but the Corpse King had no pain and could fight without regard for its own life.
What a pain to deal with!
After thinking it over, Hanyu couldn't help but reach out through his Sea of Consciousness, about to release the Hungry Ghost Path.
"No. The people in the Hungry Ghost Path won't distinguish friend from foe. Your two unlucky friends will be attacked by the Hungry Ghosts, too."
Little Glazed warned him through their connection.
Hanyu hurriedly calmed his Sea of Consciousness. With no choice, he charged forward again and traded blow after brutal blow with the Corpse King.
On the other side, Mortal moved nimbly through the fight, darting back and forth. Every few moves, another cultivator fell.
Cousin had joined three Iron Bone Flying Swords together and flung them out like a windmill. The swords spun continuously above the cultivators' heads, knocking them to the ground whenever they caught them off guard.
The lucky ones only had their wrists cut. The unlucky ones had their throats sliced and died on the spot.
Only Hanyu's fight remained locked in a stalemate. The Corpse King felt no pain at all. Even after its chest had been caved in several times, it remained unmoved. Before long, it would heal again, then come charging back with a roar.
"Looks like I'll have to wait for those two to come help."
Hanyu sighed and muttered to himself.
But plans often went awry.
Just then, a furious roar came from the air.
"You wretches deserve to die!"
As the words fell, two figures descended, one after the other.
Ran Shiqing watched the Corpse King being beaten down by Hanyu, its chest caving in again and again, and his eyes nearly bulged with rage. The sect had spent decades and an enormous price to refine it. Now it had been beaten to this state.
As soon as Bao Ruijie landed, he spotted Mortal weaving among the disciples. Enemies meeting were like sparks meeting tinder. Gritting his teeth, he roared, "So it was you, you thief!"
"Take care of those two brats."
Ran Shiqing turned and gave the order, then fixed his gaze on Hanyu.
His True Essence surged. In an instant, he vanished. Hanyu had just blocked an attack from the Corpse King when a fierce gust struck from his left. Before he could react, he was sent flying by a heavy blow.
Damn it, another case of a high-level cultivator bullying a rookie.
Hanyu hit the ground, his shoulder numb and aching. He gritted his teeth in fury.
"Half-step Divine Peeking!"
Mortal dodged one of Bao Ruijie's attacks and glanced over this way, shouting in shock.
"Your body's impressive. It seems as strong as the Corpse King's—no, even stronger. Heh heh!"
Ran Shiqing had been about to kill him, but suddenly checked himself. Someone with such a sturdy body could be captured alive and taken back to be processed into a corpse. That would give the sect another Corpse King.
"Hanyu, he's lusting after your body," Little Glazed reminded him in his mind.
Hanyu's face darkened. Lusting after him or not, he knew what it meant for this crowd to have their eyes on him: they wanted to refine him into a corpse.
"Stay here and become a guardian Corpse King for our sect!"
Ran Shiqing gave a sinister smile and closed in.
Hanyu's heart turned cold as he kept backing away.
On the other side, after Bao Ruijie failed again and again to catch Mortal, he turned his attention to Cousin. He secretly manipulated his True Essence to control two blades on the ground, then sent them shooting forward.
Pfft! Pfft!
Cousin was busy dealing with the remaining disciples and didn't notice. By the time he reacted, two blades had already pierced his chest.
"Bastard!"
Mortal watched, his eyes nearly bulging with rage. He shook off several disciples and charged over.
Bao Ruijie had planned for this. At that moment, he rose into the air, overtook Mortal, and swept a hand back behind him. A short blade shot from his sleeve like a bolt of lightning.
Pfft!
The short blade pierced Mortal's left leg, spraying a fan of blood.
"You're so good at running, aren't you? Then I'll start by breaking your leg."
Only after Mortal hit the ground did Bao Ruijie walk over with a cold smile.
Before you continue