A Sudden Battle!

A sudden battle! Zhao Hao followed behind Lin Yaoyao, half a step back, neither hurried nor slow.

He quietly fed a wisp of spiritual power into the Bronze Compass in his hand, his movements concealed.

The compass face, which had originally held only a single dim point of light, abruptly lit up with countless fine bronze patterns the instant his spiritual power poured in, as if it had come alive.

In the blink of an eye, nearly forty densely packed points of light appeared on the compass face!

The vast majority of these lights were completely still, with only a scattered few moving slowly.

Zhao Hao's thoughts whirled like lightning. After a moment's consideration, he understood. These were all false trails that old sixth Wu De had laid out—probably objects stained with his aura, or perhaps even things that had been unwittingly carried off by some demonic beasts.

Only one!

Among all the points of light, one shone far brighter than the others. At that moment, it was at the edge of the compass, moving as if it had gone mad.

"Done!"

Zhao Hao's heart steadied, but his face remained calm as still water while he withdrew his spiritual power. The compass's glow receded, and it returned to that stupid appearance of having only a single dim point of light.

"Little Junior Brother, walk faster. What are you dawdling for?"

Lin Yaoyao, up ahead, turned back and urged him on. She shook the Tracking Compass in her hand; the lone point of light on it was pointing toward a deep, secluded valley three or four li ahead.

"Senior Sister, don't rush."

Zhao Hao caught up in a few steps, his tender face carrying a steadiness that did not match his age.

"Seventh Senior Brother is a senior brother of the Foundation Establishment Realm. His thoughts aren't something we can guess. That valley looks dangerous to me—there might be a pit waiting. How about we send a refined corpse in first to scout the path?"

He pointed at the valley. "That valley's terrain looks dangerous to me. There may be traps. Why don't we send a refined corpse in first to scout the path?"

"Aiya, how could there be that many traps?"

Lin Yaoyao curled her lips, unconvinced.

That said, when she saw Zhao Hao's solemn, serious expression, and then thought of his monstrous cultivation speed, she inexplicably believed him a little.

"Fine, fine, we'll listen to you. What a bother!"

With great reluctance, Lin Yaoyao released a mid-stage first-rank Walking Corpse from her Corpse Refining Bag.

The refined corpse moved stiffly. Under her control, it walked step by step toward the depths of the valley.

Without another word, Zhao Hao pulled her behind a huge boulder more than three men tall, even lightening his breathing.

The Walking Corpse had just stepped less than ten zhang into the mouth of the valley—

Rumble!

A world-shattering explosion blasted out from within the valley!

Violent flames mixed with black smoke shot into the sky. A terrifying heat wave swept out, snapping trees and shattering mountain rocks wherever it passed. Even the two of them, three or four li away, had their eardrums shaken until they buzzed, and the ground beneath their feet trembled violently.

Lin Yaoyao's Walking Corpse did not even let out a scream before it was torn into charred black chunks at the center of the explosion.

The blood drained from Lin Yaoyao's little face in an instant. Her whole body went stupid.

She stared blankly at the devastated valley mouth that was spewing black smoke, then mechanically turned her head to look at Zhao Hao beside her, whose face said "just as expected." A chill shot from her tailbone straight to the crown of her head.

If just now... she had rashly charged in like that...

"Little Junior Brother, how... how did you know there was a trap?" Lin Yaoyao's voice sounded a little adrift.

"Guessed."

Zhao Hao spat out two words, his tone flat.

"Seventh Senior Brother even dares to hide from Master. How could he not leave himself a few escape routes?"

Lin Yaoyao patted her chest, still shaken. This time, the look she gave Zhao Hao changed completely.

Aside from admiration, there was now an indescribable, inexplicable trust.

For the next half month, the two of them thoroughly entered "mine-clearing" mode.

Under the "accurate" guidance of Lin Yaoyao's ordinary Tracking Compass, every single marked point they found, without exception, was an explosive trap painstakingly prepared by Wu De.

Although Zhao Hao's repeated reminders kept Lin Yaoyao from suffering losses again, the low-level refined corpses she used to scout the path were completely exhausted in explosion after explosion.

"Ahhh! I'm so mad!"

When the final early-stage first-rank Walking Corpse was also blown into chunks of flesh that filled the sky, Lin Yaoyao finally broke down, stamping her feet in a frenzy.

"Wu De, that bastard who deserves a thousand cuts! When this old lady finds him, I'll refine him into a sieve covered in holes from head to toe!"

Zhao Hao looked at her furious, flustered state and knew the time had come.

He spoke at just the right moment. "Senior Sister, we've been out for more than half a month. Our spiritual power consumption has been huge, and the refined corpses are all gone too. I think it would be better if we each returned to the sect first to rest and replenish, then make plans?"

"That works too!"

Lin Yaoyao was in the weak period after her rage. Hearing this, she nodded powerlessly like a deflated ball.

The two agreed on a method of communication, then parted ways.

Watching Lin Yaoyao's figure disappear beyond the horizon, Zhao Hao immediately changed direction and sped toward the opposite location.

Find Wu De? What kind of joke was that?

He had strengthened the Tracking Compass for the sake of avoiding him more precisely!

However, just as he was returning to the sect and passing through a remote mountain hollow where few people ever set foot, the Tracking Compass gripped in his hand suddenly began trembling like mad, burning his palm until it went numb!

On the surface of the compass, the point of light representing Wu De himself was charging straight toward his location at an astonishing speed!

Had he been discovered? Or was it a coincidence?

Zhao Hao had no time to think. His body's instincts were already faster than his mind.

The Mysterious Yin Breath Concealment Art circulated to its limit, and his entire person seemed to turn into a lifeless stone. In an instant, every trace of his aura vanished without a shadow!

At the same time, the Earth Escape Art activated!

His figure made not the slightest sound, like a drop of water entering the sea, silently sinking into the mountain rock beneath his feet and becoming one with the earth.

In the next breath after his figure disappeared—

Boom—!

Deep within the mountain hollow, an incomparably terrifying fluctuation of spiritual power suddenly erupted!

A clear, stirring sword cry filled with endless killing intent and a cold, savage corpse roar exploded at the same time, shaking the entire mountain hollow violently!

They had already started fighting!

Zhao Hao hid within the mountain rock dozens of zhang deep, not daring to release even the slightest bit of his spiritual sense. He only dared to peer carefully through a crack in the stone with his naked eyes toward the direction the sounds came from.

With just one glance, his scalp went numb.

At the center of the mountain hollow, the ground had split apart, leaving the place in utter wreckage.

His Seventh Senior Brother, Wu De, was currently livid, his hair in disarray, cutting a sorry figure as he controlled two early second-rank refined corpses wreathed in dense black qi, desperately resisting the frenzied attacks of a white-robed sword cultivator.

That white-robed sword cultivator was extremely young, with a cold, stern face, and his eyes were filled entirely with icy killing intent that would not thaw.

His cultivation was shockingly at the Foundation Establishment Late Stage!

He held two fingers together like a sword, and a cyan flying sword circled and danced before him. When the sword struck, it was like a dragon, so fast that only streaks of cyan afterimages remained.

Where the sword light passed, even the air was torn apart, giving off ear-piercing shrieks.

Wu De's two second-rank refined corpses had bodies harder than refined iron, but before the cyan flying sword, they were like paper. Every collision left a sword wound on them so deep bone could be seen, and even large chunks of corpse flesh were sliced flying.

Wu De was being completely suppressed, without the slightest strength to strike back. He could only rely on the refined corpses' fearless, death-defying nature to bitterly hold on. The Daoist robe on his body had long since been cut to rags by crisscrossing Sword Qi, and fresh blood had dyed half his body red.

Zhao Hao's heart sank.

This sword cultivator's sword intent was pure and vast, incomparably sharp. He was absolutely no demonic cultivator. In all likelihood, he was the Dao Protector sent by the Heavenly Sword Sect!

Seeing that the wounds on the two refined corpses were growing more and more numerous, and that their movements had begun to slow, a hysterical madness suddenly flashed through Wu De's eyes!

"You forced me to do this!"

He roared furiously and abruptly slapped the Corpse Refining Bag at his waist.

An extremely yin cold air instantly exploded outward with him at its center!

Whoosh!

Thirty-six female corpses clad in thin gauze of various colors, each with an exquisitely beautiful face and a bewitching figure, appeared soundlessly around him, surrounding that white-robed sword cultivator from all sides.

They were precisely his thirty-six "Yin-Yang Heavenly Beauties"!

In an instant, the thirty-six "Yin-Yang Heavenly Beauties" formed a formation, trapping that sword cultivator inside.