The Twelve Priests' Hunt

In the northern part of the city, at the abandoned "Red Star" Machinery Factory.

Pale moonlight struggled to pierce the shattered dome, casting mottled patches of light onto the ground covered in oil stains and rust residue.

The air was filled with the heavy scent of rust, the acidic stench of decaying engine oil, and a… sweet, cloying aroma of fresh earth mixed with potent blood.

Deathly silent. Absolutely deathly silent. Even the scurrying of mice had disappeared.

Fang Gang, carrying the Bronze Battle Halberd, his dark golden bald head like a mobile searchlight, cut through the darkness deep within the factory.

His footsteps echoed in the empty ruins, piercingly clear.

The Grudge Pupil brand on his left arm pulsed with a continuous, cold thrum.

It wasn't greed, but a warning, like being targeted by a venomous snake, carrying the scent of blood.

"They're here," Fang Gang stopped, his voice cutting through the dead silence.

His only response was a sharp, shrill whistle, as if bones were scraping against glass!

"Woooo—!!!"

The whistle, like water dropped into boiling oil, instantly shattered the silence!

"Rumble… crackle…"

From all directions, countless piles of debris covered with oilcloth exploded open!

One by one, piece by piece… dense ranks of figures crawled out!

These were no longer the singular ghosts of Lost Alley or Fu Shou Yuan.

This was a zombie tide!

Hundreds of corpses! Some wore tattered work clothes, clearly missing factory workers; some wore cheap casual clothes; there were even tattered figures in Special Affairs Bureau uniforms!

Their common characteristic was: skin with an abnormal dark red hue, as if soaked in blood, muscles abnormally swollen and taut, exposed veins like twisted earthworms!

Eyes cloudy and yellow, with only the most primal greed for the flesh and blood of the living!

Blood Corpses! Cultivated by dark magic, immensely strong, bloodthirsty and frenzied!

Each one exuded a ferocious aura far exceeding ordinary White Zombies or Green Zombies! They were all at the peak of Grade D, with a few even reaching Grade C!

"Hsss… roar… meat!"

The zombie tide let out chaotic growls, thick, foul-smelling saliva dripping from their gaping mouths, forming a sickening "curtain" of rain.

They were like piranhas smelling blood, surging from all directions, like a dark red, murky tide, towards the sole source of light in the center of the field – Fang Gang!

The ground vibrated under the trampling of countless heavy footsteps! A foul wind swept towards him!

At the highest point of the factory, on a broken steel beam, a gaunt figure appeared silently. He was wrapped in a loose, dark red cloak that seemed dyed with congealed blood, his hood revealing only a shriveled, skull-like face painted with eerie greasepaint.

In his withered hand, he held a pale, white bone flute carved from the leg bone of some massive creature, its body entwined with wisps of black and red blood threads.

One of the Twelve Priests of Nightmare, the Blood Sacrifice Priest!

"Heh heh…" he let out a leaky chuckle, his withered fingers lightly stroking the bone flute, "Fang Gang? I heard your bald head… is very hard? I wonder if it can withstand the gnawing of my 'Hundred Bone Grudge Flute' and these… hundred Blood Corpses?"

He abruptly brought the bone flute to his lips!

"Woooo—!!!"

The second whistle sounded! Sharper and more piercing than the first! Carrying a soul-piercing, evil magic!

As the whistle spread, the surging zombie tide below underwent a terrifying transformation!

The eyes of all the Blood Corpses suddenly lit up with dazzling red light! Their already bulging muscles expanded further, and the veins under their skin writhed like living things!

Speed, strength, and ferocity instantly surged! The growls from their mouths turned into wild roars! They had completely fallen into a berserk state!

The Blood Sacrifice Priest's whistle was like a combination of a stimulant and a berserk spell, transforming these already bloodthirsty monsters into true killing machines!

"Tear him apart! Use his flesh and blood and that shiny head to offer to the Sacred Eye!" the Blood Sacrifice Priest's voice was filled with cruel fanaticism.

The zombie tide completely engulfed the moonlight, charging towards Fang Gang with the momentum to destroy everything!

Facing this terrifying zombie tide, which could make even a Grade B cultivator's scalp tingle, Fang Gang's eyes showed no fluctuation, only cold fighting intent and a trace of… disdain.

"More trash is still trash."

He casually planted the heavy Bronze Battle Halberd into the hard cement floor beside him, driving it in up to the hilt!

The next second, he moved!

No evasion, no circling! Instead, he was like an arrow loosed from the bowstring, advancing instead of retreating, fiercely charging into the most violent vanguard of the zombie tide!

The complete Nine Yang vital blood erupted! Golden-red molten lava flowed beneath his skin!

His entire being seemed to transform into a human-shaped little sun! His dark golden bald head, illuminated by his vital blood, shone with increased brilliance!

"Eight Extremes! Prison Quake!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Where his fists passed, the air let out groaning explosions from the strain! The five or six berserk Blood Corpses at the forefront were like being hit head-on by a speeding heavy truck!

Their swollen, dark red bodies couldn't last even half a second before, under the dual impact of terrifying power and supreme Yang true fire, they… exploded into pieces like overinflated balloons!

Sticky, dark red blood and flesh, shattered bones, and foul bodily fluids rained down like a torrential downpour!

However, before this filth could even hit the ground, it was instantly ignited and incinerated by the Nine Yang True Fire accompanying Fang Gang's punches, turning into a sky full of flying ash with a burnt, foul odor!

Fang Gang's footsteps didn't falter! His fists became two furious storms of gold and red! Each punch thrown created a dull sonic boom!

With every punch that landed, one or even several Blood Corpses were brutally blown apart and incinerated! He was like a red-hot iron poker thrust into solidified lard, unstoppable!

The charge of the zombie tide? It was like paper before him! The biting and clawing of the Blood Corpses? On the defense of his perfected Vajra Indestructible Body, they couldn't even leave a white scratch, but instead, their bones were shattered!

Strength! Pure, unadulterated strength! Defense! Unbreakable defense! Speed! Overwhelming straight-line charge speed!

This was the dominance of physical cultivation! This was the truth of breaking all techniques with sheer power! No matter how many mountains of corpses or seas of blood, I shall break them with a single punch!

"Roar!" An exceptionally tall Grade C Blood Corpse roared and lunged forward, its muscles bulging like iron, its nails black and sharp as blades!

Fang Gang didn't even look. He backhanded a palm strike! Golden-red flames condensed in his palm, with a faint phantom image of the Great Sun appearing!

"Great Sun! Demon Burn!"

"Bang!!!"

The Grade C Blood Corpse was hit as if by a red-hot cannonball, its entire upper body instantly carbonized and disintegrated!

The remaining lower half was blasted backward by the furious palm force, knocking over seven or eight of its kin behind it!

[Ding! Killed Grade D/C Blood Corpse… Obtained Evolution Point +1… +1… +1… +5…]

The system's prompt sounded in Fang Gang's mind like the beating of war drums! But he ignored it, his eyes only seeing destruction!

Fists and palms alternated, golden-red light rampaged through the zombie horde, clearing out an area with every outburst! His dark-gold bald head, amidst the firelight and blood rain, was like an indelible mark of a war god!

"Trash! A bunch of trash!" The Blood Sacrifice Priest on the beam watched, his eyes about to burst! He hadn't expected this bald man's physique to be so incredibly strong! A hundred berserk Blood Corpses were like fragile dolls before him!

Blood light shot from his eyes, his withered fingers sliding rapidly over the bone flute! An even more piercing and sinister flute melody struck Fang Gang like invisible steel needles!

"Wooooaah—!!!"

The mental shock contained within the flute melody, mixed with the resentful wails of a hundred dead zombies, formed a foul spiritual torrent! This attack was more direct and brutal than the illusions of a Phantom Nightmare Priest! It targeted the soul directly!

Within Fang Gang's sea of consciousness, the clear and resilient mirror of his mind (Spirit: 30!) shone brightly! His partially mastered "True Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra" was operating at full capacity!

"Buzz!"

The foul spiritual torrent violently collided with the mirror of his mind! The mirror's surface vibrated intensely, ripples spreading across it, but it remained as stable as a mountain! It firmly blocked the evil sounds and resentments from entering! Fang Gang's movements didn't even falter in the slightest!

"What?!" The Blood Sacrifice Priest cried out in shock! His mental impact was also ineffective?! This bald man's mental defense was also this monstrous?!

The moment his mind was shaken!

Below, Fang Gang suddenly looked up! His icy gaze was like two solid sharp swords, piercing through the chaotic battlefield, accurately locking onto the Blood Sacrifice Priest on the beam!

The Blood Sacrifice Priest stiffened all over, as if targeted by an ancient ferocious beast!

The ground beneath Fang Gang's feet exploded! He transformed into a golden-red meteor tearing through space! Extremely fast! He ignored the remaining zombie horde below, his target was singular – the one playing the flute!

"Stop him!" The Blood Sacrifice Priest screamed in terror, frantically blowing his bone flute!

The remaining several dozen Blood Corpses, as if receiving the most severe command, leaped forward without regard for their own lives, forming a wall of flesh and blood in Fang Gang's path!

"Get out of the way!"

Fang Gang roared, golden-red flames condensing to the extreme on his fists! His brute strength erupted without reservation!

"Rumble—!!!"

A thick pillar of golden-red fire, like city-burning flames, spewed from his fists! It instantly engulfed all the obstructing Blood Corpses! Burning them into a sky full of flying ash!

The pillar of fire continued its momentum, like a roaring angry dragon, fiercely smashing towards the Blood Sacrifice Priest on the beam!

The Blood Sacrifice Priest's soul scattered! With a strange cry, the dark red cloak on his body exploded, transforming into a patch of viscous blood mist to protect him! At the same time, his body retreated backward as if boneless!

"Boom!!!"

The golden-red pillar of fire fiercely struck the blood mist! It erupted with a deafening roar! The blood mist churned violently, evaporating, emitting a "sizzling" scream! The terrifying impact force shattered the beam itself!

"Aah!" A pained scream came from the blood mist, and a withered figure was blasted out like a tattered rag doll, smashing through the broken factory window, disappearing into the vast night!

Only half a charred cloak fragment and drops of viscous black blood remained.

Fang Gang landed on the wreckage of the broken beam, the golden-red flames around him slowly receding. His dark-gold bald head, amidst the dust and firelight, was like a burning sun.

He glanced at the messy battlefield below. A hundred Blood Corpses had all turned into flying ash and charcoal. The intense smell of blood and burnt odor mixed together, making one feel nauseous.

"A rat escaped." Fang Gang's eyes were cold, not particularly surprised. The Twelve Priests were indeed not that easy to kill.

He pulled the Bronze Battle Halberd stuck in the ground and slung it over his shoulder.

A faint, blood-scented feedback wave emanated from the Grudge Pupil brand on his left arm, seemingly having absorbed some power that had dispersed during the battle.

"Hunting order?" Fang Gang looked in the direction the Blood Sacrifice Priest had disappeared, his lips curling into a sharp arc. "This is just the beginning."

He carried the halberd and strode out of the bloody ruins.