Battling Spirit Corpses Outside Corpse Soul Mountain

By the time the two reached Chen Village, night had fallen.

Chen Village lay at the foot of a mountain and had just over twenty households. The moment Yang Xiao arrived, he sensed something wrong. With his knack as a desert corpse collector, he detected a faint corpse stench in the air. Yet there was something strange about it: another peculiar scent was mixed in, as though some special power had concealed it.

The two entered Chen Village. Not a single light shone anywhere, making it look like an abandoned village.

They exchanged a glance and approached a house. Shen Laodao slipped into the darkness to lie in wait, while Yang Xiao went to the door, raised his hand, and knocked. "Anyone there?"

No sound came from inside. Yang Xiao pushed the door, but it was locked from within. That posed no obstacle to him. He connected with the Earth Vein and flashed into the house.

The house was empty, and a sour smell hung in the air. Following it, he reached the kitchen. Half-cooked greens sat in a pot, the source of the smell. He ran his hand along the stove and came away with a palmful of dust. No one had lived here for roughly half a month.

The owner had left in such a hurry that they had not even cleared away the food.

As he left the house, Shen Laodao emerged from the darkness and asked, "How was it?"

Yang Xiao shook his head. "Let's search the whole village."

They split up and checked every house. All were empty. Chen Village had become an abandoned village.

Yang Xiao's expression darkened. Shen Laodao even took out his Short Staff and watched their surroundings warily. The village was far too eerie for them to let their guard down.

Just then, the corpse stench in the air grew stronger. Yang Xiao turned his head. "Follow me."

Following the stench, Yang Xiao reached the foot of the mountain and found a narrow trail leading uphill. Weeds choked the path, suggesting no one had used it in a long time.

The corpse stench drifted from the far end of the trail. Following it, the two reached a graveyard.

Yang Xiao stepped forward to investigate, but Shen Laodao held him back. He turned to see Shen Laodao gesture for silence, then point ahead.

Looking in that direction, he saw a black-robed man enter the graveyard from the opposite side. The man walked to its center, formed a hand seal, and uttered an incantation.

Suddenly, pairs of arms thrust out of the graves, and dozens of corpses crawled from the earth.

The first thing Yang Xiao thought of upon seeing them was zombies.

The black-robed man surveyed the corpses around him and gave a sinister cackle. "Another month of nurturing, and these corpses will be ready to transport back. Then I can become Master's personal disciple."

Yang Xiao stepped out. "You raised the zombies here?"

His appearance startled the black-robed man, but a moment later, the man laughed. "So it's just a Qi Gathering Realm cultivator. You gave me a fright. I thought another powerful cultivator had come."

Yang Xiao narrowed his eyes. Another powerful cultivator? Could this man have something to do with Senior Sister Lei's disappearance?

"Have you seen a gentle-looking woman?" he asked.

The black-robed man's laughter faltered. His gaze filled with killing intent. "You're connected to that woman?"

Joy stirred in Yang Xiao's heart. He had only just arrived, yet he had already found news of Senior Sister Lei.

He flashed forward, appeared before the man, and drove out his right fist. Nine Direwolf phantoms instantly sent the man flying.

The black-robed man scrambled up from the ground and cried in terror, "You're only in the Qi Gathering Realm! How can you be this strong?"

Shen Laodao came up behind Yang Xiao, muttering all the way, "Freak."

Yang Xiao approached the black-robed man and hauled him up. "Tell me where that woman went."

The black-robed man struggled but could not break free. He stared coldly at Yang Xiao. "I'm from Corpse Soul Mountain. You'd better let me go. Otherwise, when our experts arrive, they'll kill you for certain."

Smack!

Yang Xiao slapped him hard enough to draw blood from his right cheek. Before the man could speak again, another slap struck his left cheek, evening out the damage.

Not finding Senior Sister Lei had left him deeply agitated. Just as he was about to deliver another slap, Shen Laodao stopped him. "Keep hitting him like that and he'll die. If he dies, you won't be able to find your Senior Sister Lei."

Yang Xiao frowned. He had never interrogated anyone before. He looked at the black-robed man, who stared back in terror, with none of his earlier arrogance remaining.

He raised his right palm and said coldly, "Will you talk or not?"

The black-robed man hurriedly said, "I don't know whether that woman is the person you're looking for.

"A month ago, a fellow disciple of mine was refining corpses here when a woman killed him.

"Afterward, that woman used the information she got from him to find Corpse Soul Mountain, but our sect master drove her off."

Yang Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. If she had been driven off, that meant his senior sister had not fallen into Corpse Soul Mountain's hands. But a month had passed. Why had she still not returned?

"What cultivation realm is your sect master in?" he asked.

The black-robed man swallowed. "I don't know either, but I once heard my senior brother say our sect master is only one step away from becoming an Immortal."

Yang Xiao's expression darkened. He did not know what realm an Immortal belonged to, so he turned to Shen Laodao. The latter said, "A Living Spirit Realm expert. The same level as Chen Wuyou."

Yang Xiao's heart sank. To him, Chen Wuyou was already an unfathomable existence. If Senior Sister Lei had encountered someone that powerful, even if she had escaped, she had probably suffered grievous injuries.

"Where is Corpse Soul Mountain?" Yang Xiao asked. He felt as though he had heard the name somewhere before. Suddenly, a bashful youth and a little boy appeared in his mind.

He remembered. Those two had once asked him where Corpse Soul Mountain was.

The Hundred-Spirit Spider Rope at his waist crawled onto the black-robed man. Within moments, the man dissolved into a puddle of black water.

With the black-robed man's control gone, the surrounding zombies charged at them.

Yang Xiao unleashed the Hundred-Spirit Spider Rope. These people were probably Chen Village's villagers, murdered by the black-robed man's fellow disciple and buried here to be refined into zombies.

After the two left, puddles of black water flowed across the graveyard.

They hurried toward Corpse Soul Mountain. Senior Sister Lei had not returned for over a month, so she must have been badly injured. He had to find her quickly. If Corpse Soul Mountain's people discovered her first, her life would be in danger.

Ten miles from Corpse Soul Mountain, they stopped. Yang Xiao's brows knitted tightly. The mountain's corpse stench was so heavy that he could smell it from ten miles away. It seemed to envelop the entire mountain. He could scarcely imagine how many people had to be killed to produce such an overwhelming stench.

"What do we do?" Shen Laodao asked.

"Open the Heavenly Eye and search each area, especially the mountain forests," Yang Xiao said.

Earth Master can use Earth Vein Qi to heal. If Senior Sister Lei was injured, she would certainly seek somewhere rich in Earth Vein Qi to recover.

"But..." Shen Laodao looked toward Corpse Soul Mountain. "We're too close to Corpse Soul Mountain. If we open the Heavenly Eye, we're very likely to alert the people on the mountain."

A trace of killing intent flashed through Yang Xiao's eyes. He said coldly, "At least a hundred thousand people are buried on that mountain. Even without Senior Sister Lei's disappearance, I wouldn't spare them once my cultivation was high enough.

"This is just happening sooner."

Shen Laodao laughed. "This humble monk will join you in this madness. Afterward, you'll have to cover all my visits to the Perching Phoenix Pavilion for the rest of my life."

"Don't worry," Yang Xiao said. "Even if I stop cultivating, I'll scour the mountains and earth to find enough Earth Vein Crystals for you."

"May Heaven open its eye!"

The two opened their Heavenly Eyes and searched the surrounding area. They overlooked no patch of ground, especially mountains where Earth Vein Qi was abundant.

"Who are you? How dare you stir up spiritual energy near our Corpse Soul Mountain!" Three black-robed men flew over and stopped in midair, addressing them.

"Senior brother, this old man's cultivation looks decent. He'd be perfect for refining into a superior Spirit Corpse to offer Master," said a black-robed man with a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks as he stepped forward.

"One Soul Seed Realm, two Sea Condensation Realm," Shen Laodao whispered beside Yang Xiao.

"You take the Soul Seed Realm one. Leave the other two to me," Yang Xiao said.

The black-robed man who had spoken earlier laughed loudly. "What outrageous boasting! A Qi Gathering Realm cultivator says he'll take on two Sea Condensation Realm cultivators. You truly don't know how high the heavens are or how deep the earth runs.

"And you, old Daoist! Instead of waiting peacefully in the mountains for death, you actually dared provoke our Corpse Soul Mountain. Today, I'll refine you into a Spirit Corpse."

Shen Laodao's expression turned icy. Looking at the leader, he said, "Don't worry. Leave this one to me."

With that, he charged into the sky. The leading black-robed man told the two behind him, "Junior brothers, I'll leave this one to you. I'll go kill that old Daoist."

As his words fell, he flew up and engaged Shen Laodao. This was the first time Yang Xiao had seen Shen Laodao fight an expert at the same level.

Shen Laodao muttered a few words in the sky, and all manner of mishaps kept befalling the black-robed man fighting him.

Dizziness and vomiting were only the minor ones. Worse still, at one point the black-robed man unleashed a Spirit Artifact and actually injured himself with it. Yang Xiao's scalp prickled at the sight, and he recalled their first meeting.

Uncanny. Extremely uncanny. It was much like the sinister sorcery people spoke of in his previous life.

"Qi Gathering Realm brat, you'd better obediently kill yourself and let us brothers refine you into a Spirit Corpse," the monkey-faced black-robed man called from afar.

Yang Xiao unleashed the Hundred-Spirit Spider Rope, letting it swim around him. This was his first battle against two Sea Condensation Realm experts, yet he actually felt excited. Perhaps, deep in his bones, he was a man born for battle.

He pointed at the sky, and the Nine Thunder Formation flew upward. Dark clouds gathered from every direction.

"This is bad! He's a Heavenly Master! Stop him, quickly!" the other black-robed man shouted. Each slapped a bag at his waist with one hand, and two corpses flew out.

Yang Xiao glanced at the bags. They were only palm-sized, yet each could hold an entire corpse.

He had thought they were merely ornaments hanging from their bodies. He had never expected them to be treasures with a storage function.

Looking at the charging corpses, Yang Xiao's lips curled into a wicked smile. Heavenly lightning was what such evil creatures feared most. Although the Nine Thunder Formation summoned only the lowest grade of ordinary lightning, that was enough to deal with two Sea Condensation Realm Spirit Corpses.

Rumble!

Bolt after bolt struck the two Spirit Corpses. They threw their heads back and roared, only to be swallowed by lightning again the next moment.

Yang Xiao used Void Stroll and walked up to the two men. Below, the Spirit Corpses had been blasted to the ground, nearly all their corpse qi stripped away. They no longer posed any threat to him.

By now, both Corpse Soul Mountain disciples had gone pale.

Yang Xiao bared his white teeth in a grin. "Don't tell me you can't do anything besides control those two Spirit Corpses?"

The monkey-faced black-robed man turned and fled. Yang Xiao chuckled, and the Hundred-Spirit Spider Rope caught up and bound the man. Within moments, he dissolved into a puddle of black water.

Seeing this, the other black-robed man dropped to his knees and bowed. "Senior, spare my life!"

Yang Xiao circled him. It seemed he had guessed correctly: apart from their Spirit Corpses, these two Corpse Soul Mountain disciples knew no Spirit Arts at all.

Just then, Shen Laodao's battle also neared its end. A corpse fell from the sky. It was the leading black-robed man.

Shen Laodao had beaten him so badly that not a single patch of flesh on his corpse remained intact.