These corpses wouldn't stir without cause; either they were controlled by a Ghost Cultivator or some other cultivator was manipulating things from the shadows to make them move. Though Ye Qin was inwardly shocked, his mind remained sufficiently cool, rapidly considering every possibility.
Thinking it over carefully, the likelihood of these corpses being controlled by a Ghost Cultivator was extremely low. If a Ghost Cultivator who had lived for thousands of years were in this mine, the thirty-plus colossal stone pillars of Ten Thousand Skeletons Ridge wouldn't be enough to seal it.
This Ridge would have long become the Ghost Cultivator's main stronghold; they wouldn't allow low-level Qi Refining stage cultivators like them to barge into this cavern and disrupt its cultivation. Therefore, the possibility of manipulation by cultivators from other sects was significantly higher.
Ye Qin swiftly swept his gaze over the two to three dozen cultivators from various sects surrounding him. They had entered together, making it unlikely they were setting a trap amongst themselves.
But one couldn't guarantee that before they entered, disciples from other sects hadn't been teleported in earlier, staging spectacles to frighten everyone and scare off the disciples of all the sects present. In this enormous cavern, many cultivators had already retreated close to the teleportation array, their eyes darting everywhere, ready to defend or flee.
The moment things went south, they would use the array to escape. However, the teleportation array could only send one person at a time.
Even if they wanted to leave, they had to go sequentially; there was no way for all of them to depart at once. These immortal cultivators clustered around the array, glaring at each other, momentarily unsure of what to do.
Among these twenty to thirty disciples, two cultivators stood out as the most formidable. One was the golden-robed young man from the Ancient Artifact Sect, at the ninth layer of the Qi Refining stage, brandishing a Flying Sword magic tool that made the other cultivators extremely wary.
The other was the middle-aged, yellow-robed brute from the Earth Fissure Sect, also at the ninth layer of the Qi Refining stage; although he hadn't revealed his magic tool, judging by his expression, he showed no fear toward the golden-robed man. Both were clearly core disciples from the Ancient Artifact Sect and the Earth Fissure Sect, possessing magic tools and known for their overbearing methods.
The disciples of the other sects were mostly ordinary; even if a few core disciples were present, they didn't dare confront these two, mostly waiting to see how these two giants acted before making their own decisions. Ye Qin surveyed the skeletons slowly rising throughout the cavern while the cultivators confronted each other by the teleportation array.
His heart sank. The opponent's shadow hadn't even been seen, yet these people were probably about to start fighting amongst themselves over control of the array.
He cursed inwardly but had no choice but to patiently watch the situation evolve. The golden-robed man from the Ancient Artifact Sect saw that the yellow-robed cultivator from the Earth Fissure Sect refused to yield.
This stalemate couldn't continue. His gaze locked coldly onto the yellow-robed middle-aged cultivator, and he spoke softly: "Senior Brother Zhong, if there truly is a Ghost Cultivator thousands of years old in this cavern, even if we fight each other to the death, perhaps none of us will escape.
It would be better if we work together to eliminate these skeletons first, and then find out who is manipulating things in the dark. Perhaps we are only scaring ourselves, and there is no Ghost Cultivator here at all.
What do you think, Senior Brother Zhong?" This proposal from the Ancient Artifact Sect disciple was immediately met with approval from the other cultivators. They knew they couldn't win a fight for the teleportation array.
Rather than fighting over who went first until few remained, it was better to destroy all these skeletons and find the manipulator. They suspected there was no Ghost Cultivator here.
Seeing everyone agree, the yellow-robed cultivator found it difficult to object, merely stating coldly, "Junior Brother Yu's words are sound. The ghost energy here isn't heavy; it doesn't seem like a place where a Ghost Cultivator would reside.
Let us act together then. Junior Brother Yu, please lead the way!" The golden-robed man surnamed Yu made no further argument.
He immediately summoned his golden Flying Sword, sending a beam of golden light swirling through the cavern, piercing and shattering dozens of the approaching skeleton puppets. "Kill!" The other twenty to thirty cultivators immediately surged forward.
Among those currently in this cavern, few were not hardened veterans of life-and-death struggles, decisive in slaughter. These skeleton puppets were the remains of low-level Qi Refining cultivators who had died.
To mortals, they might be terrifying, but in the hands of cultivators at the eighth or ninth layer of the Qi Refining stage, they were flimsy targets. Under the assault of blades, swords, and spells, the skeletons crashed down in swaths, never to rise again.
"Pah, they break so easily!" The skeleton puppets were quickly swept clean. The cultivators looked around; seeing no standing corpses, their expressions immediately relaxed.
If there were a Nascent Soul stage Ghost Cultivator controlling these puppets in the cavern, they absolutely wouldn't be this weak. It seemed someone was deliberately causing mischief.
They wondered which sect's disciples dared to offend all the other sects so brazenly here; they had to be found. The immense cavern contained four spirit stone mining tunnels leading underground.
In the tunnel directly opposite the teleportation array, an extremely faint, dark shadow flickered. The shadow moved with surprising agility, suggesting someone was moving swiftly inside.
"Who is pulling tricks in there? Show yourself!" A sharp-eyed, dark-faced cultivator spotted the shadow, immediately brandishing his spirit blade and flying to the entrance of the spirit stone tunnel.
Staring inside, he roared loudly, "State your name and sect! If you don't come out, don't blame me for showing no mercy!" Four or five nearby cultivators instantly grew excited, rushing to the tunnel entrance, each forming hand seals, ready to attack the shadow.
In their minds, that shadow, having entered the cave first, must have already searched the corpses and likely held valuable items, perhaps even a map scroll. Since the shadow had wantonly controlled the skeleton puppets to attack the cultivators, it had incurred the collective wrath and deserved to be looted once killed.
Old Man Kong was about to move forward. But Ye Qin stopped him, shaking his head.
"Let's wait and see; the situation is still unclear. It's not wise to take risks now.
We should prioritize preserving our strength." Old Man Kong frowned, hesitated, and then stopped. He had intended to sneak in for some small gain, but if Ye Qin wasn't going, he couldn't expect much benefit going alone among the crowd of cultivators.
As if sensing the cultivators' killing intent. The dark shadow suddenly shot out, bursting from the spirit stone tunnel and appearing in the vast cavern.
"A Jiangshi!" The cultivators were instantly startled. A bluish-black Jiangshi—this creature's flesh and bone had not decayed; its size was similar to when it was alive, but its entire body shimmered with a bluish-black sheen, its face devoid of expression.
Its movements were exceptionally agile, its eyes glowing a pale, ethereal green. One hand was a sharp claw nearly half a foot long, while the other grasped a spirit whip, its appearance chilling the blood.
The dark-faced cultivator who had rushed to the front showed no courtesy to the Jiangshi. He immediately raised his spirit blade and cleaved fiercely at the creature's neck.
"Bang!" The dark-faced cultivator watched in horror as the Jiangshi's skin and flesh proved astonishingly tough; the spirit blade was simply repelled, failing to cut even slightly into the creature's muscle. The cultivators following behind the dark-faced man had already prepared their spells.
Instantly, fireballs and gusts of wind rained down upon the Jiangshi. But after a volley of magic, although the Jiangshi was scorched red in patches and singed blue in others, it sustained no significant damage.
The Jiangshi's simple mind couldn't process much. It sniffed the air with its nose, detecting abundant life energy.
Annoyed by the presence of so many invaders attacking it, it opened its maw wide and spewed out a large cloud of bluish-black mist. While the dark-faced cultivator was still recovering from the shock of his spirit blade being deflected, he was enveloped head-on by the bluish-black mist.
His protective shield immediately hissed, followed by a miserable cry, as he was swallowed by the mist and collapsed onto the ground. "Ah, no, it's a Poison Corpse!" "Fall back, it's Poison Corpse Qi; the protective shields won't hold!" The five or six cultivators retreated in alarm.
Ordinary Jiangshi are mostly tough-skinned, have sharp claws, and are agile. But Poison Corpses are a type of Jiangshi that, besides being extremely sturdy, can release Poison Corpse Qi, which is notoriously virulent.
Cultivators from the various sects in the Spirit Mist Mountain Range rarely encounter Jiangshi, let alone Poison Corpses. When they first saw it, they assumed it was an ordinary Jiangshi.
Only when it exhaled poisonous fog did they realize it was a Poison Corpse. Poison Corpse Qi belongs to the category of vile, foul energies that can usually penetrate a cultivator's protective shield directly.
They scrambled to evade it, unwilling to approach. However, a mere Jiangshi was not enough to terrify the twenty to thirty cultivators present.
Many cultivators stood at a distance, watching the Poison Corpse that had emerged from the spirit stone tunnel with cold eyes. Ye Qin's eyes brightened, and he too examined the Poison Corpse with surprise.
Judging by its attire, this Poison Corpse was clearly a foreman miner. This creature must have been a corpse left over from thousands of years ago.
Perhaps the previous skeletons were related to this Poison Corpse. Ye Qin speculated on the origin of this Poison Corpse.
His guess was very close to the truth. This Poison Corpse was once a disciple of a minor sect called the "Gloomy Profound Sect" thousands of years ago, a foreman miner at the fifth layer of the Qi Refining stage.
A demonic beast tidal wave erupted in the mine, and he couldn't escape in time, leading to his death. However, the disciple's nascent soul survived, attempting to rely on a secret technique passed down by his sect seniors, the Gloomy Profound Soul Refinement Art, to step onto the path of Ghost Cultivation.
He even went so far as to refine his own deceased physical body into a Poison Corpse, anchoring his nascent soul within it. Alas, decades flashed by, and this disciple who attempted Ghost Cultivation never reached a higher stage.
When his lifespan ran out, his nascent soul directly disintegrated and vanished. This Poison Corpse, however, was preserved, lying in this mine for a full several thousand years.
It continuously absorbed the spiritual energy emanating from the spirit stones in the mine, eventually developing the most basic instinct of a Jiangshi: the ability to move and wander within the tunnels. As a mid-stage Qi Refining "Ghost-Type Spirit Tool," this Poison Corpse absorbed a vast amount of spiritual energy from the cavern, gradually growing stronger until it became a high-stage Qi Refining "Ghost-Type Spirit Tool." It slowly developed a degree of sentience and even mastered Puppet Control techniques, allowing it to manipulate skeleton puppets.
Its current strength far surpassed that of an ordinary ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivator. However, its foundation was too low; it was tempered from the physical body of only a fifth-layer Qi Refining cultivator.
Therefore, even though it had been slowly absorbing spiritual energy for millennia within the spirit stone cavern, it still ranked as the highest tier of "Spirit Tool" and could not reach the strength level of a true Magic Tool. This Poison Corpse used the spirit stone tunnels on the cavern's second level as its lair and had resided there for thousands of years.
The sudden influx of cultivators naturally caused it great unease, leading it to instinctively attack these intruders. Given the Poison Corpse's strength, an ordinary one or two ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivators couldn't stop it.
It would require at least seven or eight ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivators attacking simultaneously with full force to potentially subdue it. With so many cultivators in the cavern, eliminating this Poison Corpse was more than sufficient.
However, to conserve their magical power, they all kept their distance and looked toward the golden-robed man from the Ancient Artifact Sect, hoping he would take the initiative to deal with the creature. The golden-robed man saw that the Poison Corpse could spew Poison Corpse Qi and possessed astonishing defensive capabilities, causing his expression to darken slightly, though he was secretly pleased.
He was reluctant to act; if he could use this Poison Corpse to eliminate a few cultivators in the cavern, that would be ideal. But as he glanced over, he saw the yellow-robed cultivator surnamed Zhong smirking at him.
After a moment of thought, he finally decided to strike. If he didn't act, the man surnamed Zhong might eliminate the Poison Corpse, and if Zhong gained significant prestige among the cultivators as a result, it would be detrimental to his own plans.
Thinking this, the golden-robed man waved his sleeve, and a dazzling golden sword light shot out. Puchi!
A small hole, several inches wide, appeared on the chest of the Poison Corpse, which was frantically chasing and attacking the cultivators in the cavern, leaking out extremely nauseating, thick green fluid. The Poison Corpse halted, staring blankly at its chest.
In all its thousands of years, its physical body had never sustained damage. A primal fear took hold, causing it to turn and flee, diving back into a spirit stone tunnel.
The golden-robed man retrieved his golden Flying Sword but did not pursue. Instead, his expression changed drastically.
On the body of the golden sword, small, mottled green marks had appeared, clearly etched by the Poison Corpse's green fluid. It was as jarring as seeing large green blemishes on a beautiful woman's face, causing intense distress.
The Gold Element magic tool was the most resilient of all magic tools, yet it had suffered slight damage from the Poison Corpse. Anyone in his place would be heartbroken.
"It seems this Poison Corpse hasn't reached the point where Magic Tools are completely ineffective. Junior Brother Yu has broken its flesh and exposed a weakness.
Fellow Junior Brothers, follow me and pursue! As long as this Poison Corpse is not eliminated, none of us will have peace in this tunnel." The yellow-robed cultivator from the Earth Fissure Sect, seeing the slight damage to the golden-robed man's magic tool, let out a smug cold laugh.
He casually took out a palm-sized round shield magic tool and charged after the fleeing Poison Corpse. With a tear in its hide and a hole in its body, killing the Poison Corpse was much easier; even an ordinary spirit tool could now pierce it.
The golden-robed man felt a pang of intense pain. Seeing the yellow-robed cultivator leading a group of cultivators in pursuit, he stomped his foot and swiftly followed.
If he couldn't gain something from this Poison Corpse to compensate for the minor damage to his Flying Sword, this loss would be for nothing. The majority of the remaining cultivators followed them into the tunnel.
Old Man Kong glanced at Ye Qin. "Senior Brother Ye, what do you think we should do..." His posture was utterly deferential, following Ye Qin's lead.
Ye Qin calmly uttered, "Let's go," and followed them into the tunnel. Of course, he had to go.
Whether they could find the map scroll depended on this Poison Corpse that had transformed from a miner foreman. Yan Xuan, Shen Bao, and Zhang Yun had already entered one after another.
They hadn't seen the earlier commotion, but that didn't stop them from joining the chase against the Poison Corpse. ----－ Last day, asking for monthly tickets!
First published