Shocking Change, Betrayal, Illusion Array, Perilous Situation

"Looks like an arrangement meant to gather yin and concentrate baleful energy. Combined with these corpse-preserving techniques, someone wanted to use this place to refine a zombie."

Nan Yun ran her hand over the formation beneath her feet and spoke.

"Hmph. Judging by the furnishings around here, this tomb has been around for quite some time. It was probably built by that Hidden Moon Sect disciple back then. Using the village that raised him to refine corpses—what a promising talent."

Zhu Zihua took up Nan Yun's words with disdain. Though he was still clutching his waist, his overbearing air remained as strong as ever.

So that Hidden Moon Sect disciple set up the formation here and wanted to nurture a zombie with the resentment of the village elders. But before he could succeed, he died somewhere else, leaving this whole arrangement unused? Xu Yuan muttered inwardly. Just then, Nan Yun suddenly stepped forward and pried at the ground with her ritual sword, digging out a round object.

"Formations like this generally have an object that suppresses the formation. This should be it."

Nan Yun toyed with the object for a moment, then tossed it directly to Xu Yuan. "Fellow Daoist Xu contributed the most this time. It should rightfully go to Fellow Daoist Xu."

As soon as she said that, Zhu Zihua shot Xu Yuan a cold look. He snorted, but said nothing further.

"This is... yin jade?"

Delighted, Xu Yuan recognized the spiritual material in his hand. A tiny piece of yin jade like this was probably worth fifty low-grade spirit stones.

Still, after considering it, Xu Yuan clenched his hand hard and split the yin jade into three pieces—one large and two small.

"Everyone contributed this time. This yin jade should be divided among us all."

With that, he lifted the pieces of yin jade with spiritual energy and sent them before the other two.

Nan Yun did not refuse. Smiling sweetly, she accepted her piece. Zhu Zihua's gaze flickered, and in the end, he too put away the yin jade while pretending not to care.

After leaving the tomb, the battle had eased the tension between the three somewhat. Even Zhu Zihua no longer wore such a sour expression.

"These ignorant fools. The Daoist masters have returned after slaying ghosts, yet not a single one comes out to welcome us. Did they get so frightened that they crawled under their beds?"

Muttering in displeasure, Zhu Zihua looked at the silent village ahead and was about to cross beneath the archway when Xu Yuan, behind him, suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

When they had arrived during the day, there had still been a trace of spirituality on this archway. How had all its spirituality dissipated in a single night?

And there was another problem. Earlier, inside the tomb, he had smelled Nan Yun's incense. That could still be explained by the distance not being too great. But now that they had returned to the village, why could he still smell it?

Alarm bells blaring in his heart, Xu Yuan turned to Nan Yun, about to question her. At that moment, she looked over as well, but there was not the slightest hint of surprise in her eyes. She still wore the same smiling expression she had in the tomb.

"Fellow Daoist Xu, is there a problem?"

As the words fell, she suddenly raised her ritual sword. Before Xu Yuan's shocked eyes, she stabbed at Zhu Zihua ahead with the force of a thunderbolt.

The glow of the ancient jade Zhu Zihua carried had already faded. Attacked without warning by a companion, he had no chance to react. With a wet SPLURT, Nan Yun's ritual sword pierced through his protective spiritual aura and ran him through.

"Ah!" Zhu Zihua cried out in pain, shocked and furious. When he turned and saw that Nan Yun was the one attacking him, disbelief filled his heart.

Nan Yun—the woman who even pitied mortals—had actually done something like this.

Instinctively gathering spiritual energy, he was about to retaliate, but before he could, Xu Yuan had already taken a step forward. The terrifying power of Spirit-Martial Unity erupted onto Nan Yun.

The situation was too strange. Zhu Zihua could not die yet.

With a BANG, Xu Yuan's fist landed. Nan Yun exploded instantly, yet no flesh or blood splattered out. Her figure seemed to flicker where she stood, and in the next moment, began reforming by the archway.

"What domineering Spirit-Martial Unity. Fellow Daoist Xu truly is a heaven-blessed genius."

The "reborn" Nan Yun sighed in admiration, then turned toward the horrified Zhu Zihua. "And Fellow Daoist Zhu—though your aptitude is not exceptional, you have blood relatives to aid you. Your path of immortality should not be too difficult."

"Only I have poor aptitude, and no powerful connections. From the moment I entered the Hidden Moon Sect, every step of my immortal path has been fraught with hardship!"

Her gaze sharpened, losing all its former gentleness. Nan Yun clapped her hands, and villagers began filing out from the village behind her. Their eyes were vacant, and their bodies were covered in a layer of white fur. They resembled walking zombies, no longer human.

Looking at her two uncertain fellow disciples, Nan Yun, surrounded by the zombie horde, smiled and waved her hand. "Kill them."

"Slaughtering fellow disciples? Nan Yun, have you gone mad?"

First clawed by a baleful corpse, then stabbed by Nan Yun—despite Zhu Zihua's solid cultivation foundation and the fact that he was nearing the fifth level of Qi Refinement, his face was now pale. Facing the charging zombie horde and his cold-eyed fellow disciple, he hurriedly shouted.

Nan Yun had no intention of answering. She merely followed the zombie horde toward the two of them. Her ritual sword flashed with cold light and let out a piercing shriek as it shot through the air, stabbing directly toward Zhu Zihua.

He hurriedly drew his own ritual sword to block. His spiritual power truly was deep; even with grievous injuries, he forced Nan Yun back. Then his sword swept back in an arc, killing two white-furred zombie villagers before him.

Having displayed great might, he turned toward Xu Yuan—only for his expression to instantly twist with rage.

"You wretched Daoist disciple Xu Yuan! You actually dared abandon me and flee!"

Xu Yuan: "..."

Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan would truly have been too lazy to deal with this brainless second-generation immortal if the man were not still somewhat useful.

"Idiot. This is an illusion formation. Why are we fighting each other to the death? Breaking the formation is the key!"

"I..." Zhu Zihua wanted to snap back after being scolded, but his head was not stuffed with straw. He knew that listening to Xu Yuan was the only way they would survive.

Running all the way to where the three had sat in meditation earlier, Xu Yuan followed his memory to the spot where Nan Yun had placed the incense. This place had now become a formation eye. Strange formation patterns spread outward from its center, like the veins of the earth.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Yuan stomped down hard. Red and white light flowed beneath his feet, and all the earth within a radius of one zhang shattered. The formation collapsed in an instant.

"It's done."

Zhu Zihua, who had rushed over from behind, spoke with a smile. But in the next moment, that sword light, like a festering sore clinging to the bone, came slashing toward them once more.

"The illusion formation hasn't broken!"

Zhu Zihua gave a strange cry and hurriedly met the attack. But after several fierce battles, more than half the spiritual energy in his body had been exhausted. For a time, he was actually suppressed by Nan Yun and the white-furred zombies working together.

At the same time, Xu Yuan was likewise surrounded by a large number of white-furred zombies. But his defense was simply astonishing. He ignored the zombies lunging and killing toward him, allowing them to bite his body again and again while he focused on finding a way to break the deadlock.

An illusion formation set up by someone merely in the middle stage of Qi Refinement could never cover an area as large as the distance from Soul-Severing Forest to the village.

In other words, within the illusion formation, he had arrived at the village—but his real body had to still be in Soul-Severing Forest!