The Eerie Headless Corpse

Tap, tap, tap...

Mud splashed as a figure stumbled miserably to the wall. He braced himself against the bluestone bricks, a trace of lingering fear on his face.

"Why have these eerie things gone mad? Why are they all coming after me?" Li Zhi looked alarmed and bewildered as he muttered, "Didn't I already add a little something to Chu He? Why aren't they chasing him?"

"Or has the village already been infiltrated by that many eerie things?"

Since leaving Chu He, Li Zhi had encountered three waves of eerie things in succession. If he had not known how to hide himself and secretly broken through to the second layer of the Golden Bell Shield, he might have died here today.

Yet even after encountering so many eerie things, Li Zhi had not suspected Chu He. He believed Chu He's earlier ignorance had been genuine, and that he could not possibly have such schemes.

Enough thinking. Once I get out of here, I'll be free!

Li Zhi gathered his chaotic thoughts, brushed aside the disheveled hair before his eyes, and, seeing the wall close at hand, leaped onto its top.

But before Li Zhi could inspect the world beyond the wall, thin mist churned to his left, and a headless corpse charged fiercely out of it.

The headless corpse was pitch-black from head to toe, without skin. Its exposed flesh was pierced and interwoven by countless black threads. On closer inspection, the threads seemed alive, writhing and threading through its flesh and blood.

It was like a high-speed train, closing in on Li Zhi in an instant.

Pfft!

Before Li Zhi could react, the impact sent him spraying a mouthful of blood. The bones in his chest creaked and cracked beneath the blow, caving deeply inward.

The airwave blasted away the surrounding mist, sending him flying backward like a cannonball. He only came to a stop after smashing through three or four trees as thick as bowls.

The leaf-strewn ground was gouged with a deep furrow as well.

With that single blow, Li Zhi had suffered grave injuries!

Several seconds later, Li Zhi used his twisted fingers to grasp a broken branch and staggered to his feet. As he watched the headless figure leap down from the wall, his legs began to tremble uncontrollably, and terror and despair filled his face.

He cried out, "Fierce-grade! It's a Fierce-grade eerie thing!"

Fierce-grade eerie things were a rank above Grudge-grade eerie things. A martial artist had to break through Blood Condensation and reach the Furnace Realm before they could possibly contend with one.

Even facing what seemed to be a Fierce-grade eerie thing, Li Zhi did not choose to give up. With an angry roar, golden light flared across his body, condensing into a ten-foot golden bell around him that protected him without a single gap.

Fifty feet away, the headless corpse halted and faced Li Zhi. It crouched down, the muscles in its legs rippling like waves as countless black threads gathered there. In the blink of an eye, its legs grew two circles thicker than before.

Its body began to tilt forward, its arms hanging in a pendulum-like posture as it assumed the standard stance for a sprint.

Watching this, Li Zhi swallowed, his spine turning cold. Sweat trickled down from his temples without him realizing it. Just as he raised a hand to wipe it away, an explosive boom rang out beside his ears like a thunderclap beneath a clear sky.

The headless corpse vanished from before his eyes. A massive three-meter-wide crater exploded where it had stood, while grass, trees, mud, and stones on both sides were torn into countless fragments by the suddenly erupting force and scattered through the air.

Bong—

The next moment, the bell rang out, its echoes reverberating.

At some point, the headless corpse had appeared before Li Zhi. Its fist slammed brutally into the golden bell's surface. Powerful ripples spread outward in visible waves, and the bell caved inward, pressed into the shape of a fist.

The golden radiance dimmed at once, nearly going out. Cracks spread across its surface like a spiderweb, and Li Zhi's heart nearly leaped into his throat.

Fortunately, the golden bell began to repair itself slowly.

The grass and trees for several meters around were shattered and flung away by the invisible impact, leaving behind a broad barren stretch of ground.

Affected by the aftershock, Li Zhi's face turned pale. He spat blood onto the inner wall of the golden bell, mixed with fragments of blackened organs.

Clearly, the shock had aggravated the injury in his chest. Yet instead of looking dead inside, a trace of delight appeared on his face.

"It didn't shatter! The golden bell didn't shatter!" He controlled his blood and qi to maintain the golden bell while his mind raced, searching for a way out.

If it had truly been a Fierce-grade eerie thing, one punch would have shattered the Golden Bell Shield.

Even if the headless corpse was not one, it was not far off.

Li Zhi was still in dire danger...

But in the next moment, something happened that plunged Li Zhi into even deeper despair.

After discovering that its charge could not break through the golden bell, the headless corpse fell still. The black threads in its hands wriggled and traveled, and like before in its leg muscles, black threads from all over its body began to frantically transfer into its hands.

Bong, bong, bong—

Once the black threads had accumulated to a certain extent, the headless corpse raised fists several times thicker than before and hammered the Golden Bell Shield again and again like a pile driver.

Li Zhi's expression changed drastically. Not only did the reverberating aftershocks torment him beyond measure, the rapid depletion of his blood and qi also filled him with panic.

The Golden Bell Shield's defense was indeed formidable, but it was not invincible. Its foundation lay in the strength of a martial artist's blood and qi. If that blood and qi was rapidly depleted, then without enough to support it, the Golden Bell Shield would collapse on its own.

Crack—

Another tiny fissure appeared on the golden bell's surface. This time, it repaired itself very slowly. Before it could fully mend, a second crack appeared, followed by a third, a fourth...

Li Zhi's face grew increasingly horrifying. It was not merely bloodless and deathly pale—even the contours of his features began to sink inward, leaving him like skin stretched over bones. His muscular body was also affected to some degree.

Finally, with a crisp crack, the golden bell shattered completely.

Li Zhi's legs gave way, and he collapsed in despair. He thought he would be smashed apart by a punch, only to find the headless corpse's incoming fist change into an open palm.

The next second, a sharp pain exploded at the back of his head, and darkness swallowed his vision.

The headless corpse carried Li Zhi away like a dead dog, striding toward the village's Land God temple. Yet halfway there, it tossed Li Zhi aside and headed in another direction.

The headless corpse had smelled the presence of another target...

"Screech, screech, screech..."

Sharp, frantic cries rang out as a human-headed centipede with six eyes lunged forth. Amid the swirling fallen leaves, its sickle-like finger joints whipped up gusts of bloody wind as it rushed toward Chu He at high speed.

"You sound awful. I'll punch a hole through your throat!"

Chu He threw back his head, bent his legs, and shot out his fist like a cannonball!

Bang!

Amid the explosive blast, the ground beneath his feet cracked and sank. Invisible waves surged from beneath Chu He's feet, and great clumps of dirt were kicked flying.

Chu He was like a blade drawn from its sheath, tearing through the air. He raised his left arm high, his five fingers gleaming crimson as they collided with the bladed joints in a clash like metal striking stone.

The next second, Chu He's strength erupted. He blasted open the human-headed centipede's guard, drove straight in, and smashed down upon the eerie creature's head in a furious barrage.

Smack!

A brilliant bloom of blood burst open in midair!

Ding-dong! Absorbed eerie qi. Energy +3!

The moment the prompt sounded in his mind, Chu He suddenly raised his head.

I can break through to the third layer now!

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