Karmic Slaughter Surges, Purple-Scaled Corpse King

Seeing the corpse blotches on Liu Meng's wrist, Chen Mu was first startled, then his brows suddenly jumped.

Something was wrong!

He secretly touched the Yin Jade burning against his chest, and his heart settled somewhat.

"So this treasure can absorb yin energy too?"

Chen Mu was secretly delighted. He tightened his grip on his saber and said to Liu Meng:

"Get up first. We keep moving."

Liu Meng also knew this was no time to linger. Corpse Venom would not kill him immediately; as long as he made it back alive, there would always be a way to treat it.

The two continued scouting ahead.

Chen Mu did not dare let down his guard. Just now, he had nearly been swept up by that yin energy.

Fortunately, the Yin Jade protected his body.

Before those sinister ghostly vapors could touch him, they were like water striking a black hole—whooshing into the Yin Jade and vanishing without a trace.

Not only had he avoided Corpse Venom, he was now brimming with energy.

A steady stream of cool air flowed from the Yin Jade, replenishing his strength and sharpening his mind.

In this manner, the two searched more than ten households, one before the other.

Most of the unlit houses were utterly empty. Some were already covered in cobwebs and dust, looking as though they had been abandoned for a long time.

Yet every lit house concealed a Refined Corpse.

These evil fiends disguised themselves as sleeping villagers and only woke when someone approached, as though they were not deliberately hiding.

Chen Mu concluded that this was likely because no one controlled them.

Like a preprogrammed routine, their behavioral patterns were fixed.

With this discovery, he immediately agreed on hand signals with Liu Meng and searched only the illuminated houses.

Liu Meng would break down the door, while Chen Mu drew his saber, cutting down the Corpse Fiends with lightning speed before swiftly withdrawing.

[ Ding! Killed one Corpse Fiend. Seized Blood Essence: +10. Gained Karmic Slaughter: +10 ]

[ Ding! Killed one Corpse Fiend. Seized Blood Essence: +10. Gained Karmic Slaughter: +10 ]

Working together in perfect coordination, the two ambushed and killed several Corpse Fiends in succession, never again allowing yin energy to entangle them.

Chen Mu discovered that these Refined Corpses possessed scant Blood Essence, but yielded abundant Karmic Slaughter. In just a short while, he had accumulated nearly a hundred points.

Kill two more Corpse Fiends, and he would have enough Karmic Slaughter to deduce and fuse an internal cultivation method!

He was greatly invigorated. Leading Liu Meng, he arrived before the final lit house.

"This is the last one. Are you still going to do the killing?"

The way Liu Meng looked at Chen Mu had changed by now, and he secretly admired him.

How could he know that Chen Mu had merely grown accustomed to being cautious, using the Yin Jade to conceal his cultivation?

In Liu Meng's eyes, Chen Mu only possessed the Blood Essence of the Body-Tempering First Stage, yet his saber technique was truly fierce and razor-sharp.

Every swing of his blade carried the sound of wind and thunder. Liu Meng could barely see the saber's trajectory before the Corpse Fiend had already lost its head.

Liu Meng asked himself whether, in a frontal battle, his own second-stage cultivation would likely be no match for this kid.

It seemed he would have to build a good relationship with Junior Brother Chen from now on, he thought.

Chen Mu had no idea that this fellow still dared to let his mind wander.

After unleashing his full strength repeatedly, his blood and qi churned, and he had expended quite a bit of stamina.

Fortunately, the Yin Jade had absorbed plenty of ghostly energy and fed it back to him, allowing him to retain his fighting strength.

"You go. Break the door."

After slightly steadying his breath, Chen Mu gripped his saber and signaled Liu Meng to prepare to break in.

Liu Meng immediately stepped forward. The moment Chen Mu waved his hand, he kicked out fiercely.

The wooden door shattered into four pieces on the spot. A wild gust surged backward, extinguishing the lamp within.

Just as Chen Mu was about to dart inside and kill as before, a warning blared in his heart. He roared, "An ambush! Retreat, quickly!"

By the time he shouted those words, it was already too late!

An enormous black shadow burst from the house ahead. Its purple-black body stood nearly three meters tall like a giant, covered from head to toe in scales!

If Qin Tieya had been here, he would have recognized it at a glance:

It was actually an Ironclad Corpse King, forged by refining the essence blood of a hundred dead!

Its body of purple scales and iron armor was impervious to blades and spears; only true qi could wound it. An ordinary Body Tempering martial artist could not last a single exchange against it.

Though Chen Mu sensed the danger beforehand and leaped back, the Corpse King was swift as the wind. Its iron-pillar arm rose high and smashed down at his head.

"Junior Brother Chen!"

Liu Meng cried out from the side, watching helplessly as Chen Mu was sent flying seven or eight meters by that arm and crashed into a haystack.

"ROAR!!"

After displaying its ferocity, the Corpse King threw back its head and let out a thunderous roar. It swung its massive arm in a full arc, sending Liu Meng flying with another blow.

Only then did Chen Mu crawl out of the haystack.

He had only had time to raise his saber to block. The Corpse King's strike had been too heavy, smashing the flat of his blade against his own chest.

Chen Mu felt as though two of his ribs had broken, and he nearly coughed up blood.

But before Chen Mu could move, the Corpse King stomped the ground and soared into the air, charging at him again like Mount Tai bearing down overhead.

"I'll hold it off! Hurry and fire the signal arrow!"

There was no time to regulate his breathing. Chen Mu let out a fierce shout and rolled away across the ground.

The earth behind him exploded into a crater. After landing, the Corpse King spun around violently and pursued him again.

Chen Mu resisted with all his might, his saber striking the Corpse King's arms, shoulders, and back with loud clangs, throwing off blinding sparks.

He could not break its defense at all.

The recoil traveling through the blade numbed Chen Mu's arms.

Over there, Liu Meng coughed up two mouthfuls of blood before struggling to his feet. Without a second thought, he fired the signal arrow.

Whoosh—!

The signal arrow streaked into the night sky, trailing a fiery tail.

Liu Meng had just breathed a sigh of relief when he suddenly saw signal arrows rise from three other directions in the village at the same time.

"This is bad!"

Liu Meng was greatly alarmed, then gritted his teeth. "Junior Brother, I'll help you!"

As he spoke, he slashed fiercely at the Corpse King's lower back from behind, drawing the monster's roar as it turned and charged at him.

Chen Mu seized the opportunity to retreat, gaining a brief moment to catch his breath.

He quickly glanced at the night sky illuminated by the signal arrows and knew that fellow disciples in every direction had likely encountered danger.

Qin Tieya most likely would not be able to come. He had to deal with this monster himself.

At that thought, Chen Mu knew he could no longer hide his trump card.

Liu Meng had already been battered into rolling across the ground by the Corpse King's repeated heavy blows, fleeing in a panic.

Chen Mu swiftly pulled a Bone-Strengthening Pill from his clothes and swallowed it.

The pill melted as soon as it entered his mouth, and a surging heat instantly flooded through his limbs and bones.

His broken ribs crackled, recovering seven or eight parts out of ten in a short time.

A sharp gleam flashed through Chen Mu's eyes. He raised his saber and charged forward again, roaring:

"Senior Brother, watch out!"

As he spoke, he shot forward and punched Liu Meng in the back of the head with a bang, knocking the fellow unconscious on the spot before tossing him into the nearby haystack.

The Corpse King had been charging toward Liu Meng, only to find the space before it suddenly empty—Liu Meng had already been flung away by Chen Mu.

"Now it's just the two of us."

Chen Mu gave a cold smile and no longer held back, fully releasing the aura of the Body Tempering Third Tier.

An eerie, profound Killing Intent instantly coiled around his saber tip, condensing into a half-inch saber radiance.

The Corpse King seemed to sense the threat. It threw back its head and roared, then shattered the earth beneath its feet as it charged over.

"Good."

This time, Chen Mu faced it without fear and raised his saber to meet it.

Bang! Riiip!!

Amid the tooth-grinding sound of tearing, Chen Mu's strike succeeded. His saber radiance cleaved through the Corpse King's arm, splashing out a shower of foul black blood.

The monster grew even more violent from the pain. Its two massive arms lashed out with savage force, smashing the ground and leaving crater after crater.

Chen Mu had already grown familiar with its methods. He did not meet force with force, relying only on his movement technique to circle and fight as his saber struck again and again.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A string of sparks burst forth. Soon, more than a dozen saber wounds had been carved across the monster's body, splitting flesh and tearing skin.

Its iron-armored purple scales were cut apart and scattered in all directions, black blood spraying through the air.

Chen Mu did not have it easy either. This Corpse King's physique was stronger than Yan Rong's, but fortunately, Chen Mu's own strength had improved greatly as well.

After more than ten exchanges, Chen Mu spotted an opening and suddenly shouted:

"Die!"

Shhk! In an instant, he unleashed three swift saber strikes. The icy saber radiance surged to three inches long, striking the Corpse King near the shoulder and neck with three bangs.

The three slashes landed almost simultaneously. The first only sent a few purple scales flying, but when the second fell, the monster's flesh had already split open.

When the final stroke flashed down like lightning, the Corpse King's neck was abruptly ripped apart, Chen Mu's saber buried deep within it.

"ROAR—!!"

Even at death's door, the monster tried to retaliate, spewing dense green Corpse Venom and Killing Intent from its mouth. Yet before it could reach Chen Mu, the Yin Jade hanging on his chest swallowed it like a great whale drawing in water.

Seizing this fatal opening, Chen Mu pressed both palms against his saber and cut deeply through the Corpse King's neck.

The saber radiance grew ever more brilliant, its edge advancing another three inches!

Chen Mu bellowed fiercely, the saber light in his hands spinning and cutting, tracing out a crescent arc.

In an instant, a wet tearing sound exploded, and foul, reeking blood splashed across the sky.

The Corpse King's neck was completely severed. Its head spun through the air, while its massive body crashed to its knees and died on the spot.

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