Chương 40: Chapter 41: Claiming the Treasure (Part II)

Before the creature could even register the shift in the air, a dark shadow descended with predatory speed, swallowing it whole. Reyn's hands moved in a frantic blur, withdrawing over a dozen stacks of Sealing Talismans from his storage bag. He slapped them onto the container in thick, overlapping layers, not pausing until the violent vibrations from within finally subsided into a dead silence. Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, a wave of lingering dread washed over him.

Had the Golden Seal not possessed such peerless purifying properties against lethal toxins, he would have undoubtedly been a dead man several times over.

"It seems the ancient records aren't entirely reliable," Reyn muttered, shaking his head with a wry, self-deprecating smile.

"This Guardian Snake was not only hyper-venomous but possessed a speed that defied logic." He carefully stowed the jade box into his storage bag; a specimen of such lethal potential might prove invaluable in the future. Turning his attention to the now-withered Ginseng Fruit tree, Reyn plucked the fruit—which bore the uncanny resemblance of a curled, sleeping infant—and felt a surge of adrenaline. Throughout this trek, he had already harvested over a dozen varieties of ten-thousand-year-old spirit herbs.

Most were so rare he couldn't even put a name to them, yet their sheer potency was beyond any shadow of a doubt.

"Abominable... he even dared to take the Ginseng Fruit!" Inside the jade platter, the mysterious woman's eyes snapped open once more, her teeth gnashing in a display of suppressed fury. To see the fruits of eons of painstaking cultivation snatched away by this brat was an insult she could barely endure.

"Just wait. Once this Venerable One escapes this prison, I will flay you alive and ensure you suffer ten thousand years of torment!" Yet, for reasons she couldn't explain, a flicker of bashful irritation crossed her features. Perhaps due to the intensity of her rage, a faint crimson hue dusted her cheeks, adding a touch of mortal vulnerability to her natural, soul-stirring allure. Her gaze alone, a mixture of indignation and shame, was enough to ensnare the three souls and seven po of any man.

As her ethereal glow flickered, the blood-red patterns on the platter pulsed with an eerie, predatory light, closing in on her. The woman bit her lip, forcing her mind into a state of absolute, mirror-like stillness. Only then did her protective glow stabilize, resuming the precarious stalemate with the encroaching crimson threads.

"ROAR!"

"ROAR!" Thunderous roars shook the very foundations of the cavern, the sheer sonic pressure causing boulders to disintegrate into fine dust. Within the Path of Extinction, the entity inhabiting the Ghost-Corpse Sovereign had shed its former guise, revealing its true, hideous form: a pale-faced, fanged Psychic Zombie. For reasons unknown, its body had ballooned to a monstrous height of six meters.

Along with this physical metamorphosis, its spiritual pressure surged, stabilizing at the Middle Stage of the Golden Core Realm. Though its aura fluctuated wildly, its raw power had undeniably tripled. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. It advanced with heavy, earth-shaking strides. Though the restrictions of the grotto were fully active, lashing out with lethal intent, the creature seemed intimately familiar with the layout.

Its massive frame moved with surprising agility, stepping precisely into the safe zones of the formation. Minor attacks were ignored entirely; its toughened zombie hide shrugged off the strikes with nothing more than a dull thud. Nevertheless, the relentless barrage left it covered in jagged wounds, dripping ghastly green corpse blood that hissed as it corroded the stone floor into pitted craters.

"Seal... Master's command... intruders... Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!" The words were a guttural, broken rasp, ending in a chilling mantra of slaughter. Despite the complexity of the ancient arrays, the creature's suicidal charge allowed it to bridge the distance with terrifying speed.

"Watch out! The Ghost King is going to self-detonate!" The chubby Daoist's face paled with absolute terror. He hurriedly threw an artifact from his storage bag, conjuring a translucent barrier while layering multiple spiritual energy shields before sprinting deeper into the cave. The old woman's expression darkened with a flash of reluctance, but she didn't hesitate. Shrouded in a streak of black light, she accelerated, her speed doubling as she trailed close behind him. BOOM!

A cataclysmic explosion tore through the silence. Massive stones were tossed like autumn leaves as a wall of destructive energy swept toward them like the end of the world. The chubby Daoist watched in horror as his translucent barrier shattered instantly under the pressure.

"Puff!"

"Puff!" His successive spiritual shields were pierced like wet paper. A titanic force slammed into his chest, and the chubby Daoist sprayed a mist of blood as he was sent flying backward like a broken doll. The old woman, sensing the shockwave, threw a finger-sized, bone-white shard behind her. Upon infusion with her True Essence, the shard expanded into a massive Bone Shield. Though it looked unremarkable, it held for two breaths longer than the Daoist's barrier.

That brief window allowed her to ignite five more talismans, manifesting a kaleidoscope of protective layers. CRASH! The shockwave eventually shattered her defenses as well, and she was hurled through the air, coughing blood as she landed not far from the chubby Daoist. It took a full fifteen minutes for the dust to settle. The cavern had been violently reshaped, the blast carving out a hundred-yard radius.

Fortunately, the mountain's interior was reinforced by ancient magic; had it collapsed, two Golden Core masters dying under falling rocks would have been a pathetic joke. The two survivors exchanged looks of lingering dread.

"A Ghost King's self-detonation... it is no less potent than a human cultivator detonating their Golden Core," the chubby Daoist gasped, his breath ragged and his face ashen.

"If we had been a second slower, we would have perished here."

"That cursed creature," the old woman hissed, her eyes burning with spite.

"To destroy its own inner neidan... had it fallen into my hands alive, I would have ground its soul to dust!"