Chương 1277: Chapter68: Lustful Corpses, Devouring, and Slaying (Part 1)

Huuu... Huuu... Huuu... Heavy, labored, and turbid gasps drifted slowly from the abyssal depths of the cavern, punctuated by the suppressed, agonizing whimpers of a woman whose spiritual power was being forcibly plundered and whose physical form was being ravaged. This was an exceptionally vast subterranean grotto, its floor polished to a smooth, glass-like finish by human hands, furnished with various stone tables, chairs, and bedding.

Upon a massive stone slab, several zhang in both length and width, four figures were inextricably entangled by a sinister occult law, each using malicious secret techniques to violently usurp the primordial essence within the others. Among them were Zi Luanxing and Li Zhupu. The other two figures were corpse-monsters whose cultivation had reached the Golden Core stage, sustained only by the inhalation of Yin-Fiend evil energy.

Currently, the robes upon Li Zhupu's body had been entirely shattered by the erupting malevolent force. Her cheeks were flushed with an unnatural, feverish crimson due to the invasion of necrotic qi; her consciousness was hazy and scattered, her mind firmly shackled by the venomous technique, rendering her unable to mobilize even a shred of spiritual power for self-preservation. Behind her, a male corpse locked her body in a vice-like grip with its rotting, rigid limbs.

It catalyzed a unique evil art, ruthlessly siphoning the spiritual power, blood vitality, and primordial essence that she had painstakingly accumulated within her meridians and Dantian over many years. The corpse's palms, covered in wrinkles and ulcerated sores, clamped tightly onto Li Zhupu's waist. A low, gluttonous growl constantly rolled from its throat, its entire face masked in a thick, viscous, and foul-smelling purple-black corrosive oil.

Its expression was one of hideous, predatory greed, reveling in the successful harvest of nutrients. Two opposing forces clashed and surged violently at the point of their technical connection. Muffled vibrations and thuds echoed throughout the cavern, while a turgid liquid—a mixture of turbid breath and putrid decay—dripped from the junction of the spell onto the stone bed, blooming into filthy, dark stains. On the opposite side of the slab lay a female cadaver.

Vast tracts of its skin were ulcerated and suppurating, coated in a layer of thick, nauseating, purple-black slime that reeked of gore. Its original clothing had long since disintegrated into ash under years of necrotic erosion and the tearing of evil spells; the bloated, rotting corpse lay naked and stiff upon the stone surface. Zi Luanxing's eyes were clouded with a murky grey mist, his pupils vacant and devoid of light.

He leaned close to this corpse, continuously operating a cruel and sinister 'harvesting' art, forcibly seizing the Yin-Fiend corpse qi that the creature had stockpiled over centuries to supplement his own cultivation. With every cycle of the technique, the malevolent power surged through him, tearing at his viscera and meridians, causing suppressed, pained growls to leak from his throat.

The female corpse's limbs were swollen and puffy, its fingernails blackened and curled into talons as they rigidly anchored Zi Luanxing's torso. It emitted a hoarse, turbid sound—not of pleasure, but of the violent collision between two streams of sinister energy, churning the long-decayed internal organs within its chest cavity and inducing a bone-piercing agony. Whenever it made a sound, dark, turgid pus would seep from the cracks in its skin, trickling slowly along the contours of its rotting flesh.

After a prolonged, uninterrupted period of power plundering, the two sites of spiritual conflict simultaneously reached a frantic tipping point. The cavern was filled with the jarring sounds of fluctuating spells and the friction of crushing necrotic flesh. Two muffled roars, laden with malice and corpse poison, erupted alongside the turbid moans squeezed from the corpses' chest cavities.

Only after a long moment did the chaotic commotion slowly subside, leaving only several heavy, turbid breaths—thick with the stench of death—to echo within the sealed underground space.

"Hehe... Senior Brother, the quality of the primordial essence distilled from this female cultivator can be considered top-tier, can't it? Seeing how obsessively you are absorbing and refining it, I imagine it has been a long time since you encountered such high-quality living nourishment." After a brief moment of breath regulation, the female corpse's throat bobbed, squeezing out words that were soft, supple, yet laced with a hint of jealousy and sinister intent.

Between the gaps of its everted, ulcerated lips, several strands of blackened, dried necrotic flesh were stuck—a truly revolting sight.

"Heh, Junior Sister, there is no need for resentment. This cultivator is still alive; her primordial essence is still quite abundant. It would be a waste to drain her entirely in one go. I intend to slowly squeeze the spiritual power from her Dantian and the blood foundation from her body in stages. Once her lifeforce is completely severed, I will refine her soul and flesh together to charge toward a higher realm of cultivation."

The male corpse's facial skin was shriveled and ulcerated, with purple-black oil dripping steadily from the furrows of its face. It reached out and dragged the female corpse before it. The two established a power link via an evil art, exchanging the stockpiled Yin-Fiend toxins and the essence plundered from the cultivators.

"You and I have cultivated together for hundreds of years using this symbiotic evil art. I would never allow a mere prisoner, who can be discarded at will, to cause friction between me and the Junior Sister who has accompanied me for so long."

"At least you haven't entirely forgotten our past sentiments... Ugh..." The female corpse's chest cavity, filled with decayed organs, was churned and squeezed by the circulating malevolent force, producing a raspy, muffled sound. As the venomous aura circulated through its body, more pus oozed from the patterns of its ulcerated skin, leaving large, viscous stains on the stone bed. After an exceptionally long cycle of cultivation, the male corpse finally severed the link between them.

Foul-smelling liquid dripped from its ulcerated limbs onto the stone. It turned to look at Li Zhupu, who was already drained of spiritual power, slumped weakly on the bed, unable to even lift a hand. The flesh at the corner of its mouth tore into a crooked, hideous rift as it spoke with a low, predatory laugh: "Junior Sister, go and meditate to stabilize the Yin-Fiend aura you just absorbed. I shall extract another portion of refined essence from this female cultivator to store for future use."

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Filled with lingering dissatisfaction and resentment, the female corpse dragged its bloated, rotting body over to Zi Luanxing. Seeing that the male corpse had already resumed its plunder of Li Zhupu, it squeezed a grunt of foul-smelling breath from its throat and clumsily rolled over to pin Zi Luanxing down.

A dense black mist swirled around it as it frantically catalyzed its secret technique, ruthlessly crushing the remaining blood vitality, spiritual power, and even the soul essence out of the cultivator. Puchi! Puchi! Puchi! The sounds of the evil art tearing through meridians and forcibly extracting soul essence became increasingly rapid and ear-piercing. Large patches of necrotic skin sloughed off the female corpse, falling onto the stone bed mixed with thick, viscous pus.

As a massive influx of nutrients was sucked into its frame, the ulcerated body received minor repairs, and the restless, decaying aura around it stabilized slightly. Meanwhile, Zi Luanxing, pinned firmly beneath it, found his skin burning a scalding, brilliant red under the assault of the sinister power. Veins bulged abruptly beneath his skin like crawling worms. A roar of agony, like flesh being shredded by a blade, erupted from his throat. His eyes were entirely filled with extreme pain and burgeoning violence.

His hands clawed deep into the slimy, ulcerated flesh of the female corpse, exhausting the last remnants of his spiritual power as he passively allowed the evil art to hollow out the entire foundation of his years of cultivation. When the loss of blood and spiritual power exceeded the limits of physical endurance, Zi Luanxing's entire body turned a crimson hue, as if soaked in blood. Countless eerie, pitch-black blood-threads crawled over every inch of his skin like venomous insects or vines.

His remaining lifeforce, essence blood, and all spiritual power converged toward the focal point of the evil spell. His arms locked onto the female corpse that was dripping with rot, and amidst a hoarse, uncontrollable roar, he poured out every shred of his hard-earned primordial essence without reservation. The female corpse above him was suddenly struck by this massive, pure influx of essence, its chest cavity emitting a sharp, piercing hiss beyond its control.

A violent roar, carrying infinite pain and total despair, exploded from Zi Luanxing's throat. His arms suddenly surged with power, tightening around the creature's rotting frame. The blood and spiritual power within him, surging like a torrential sea, turned into a raging flood. Following the eerie blood-threads covering his body, it all poured into the junction of the evil art. The scalding, majestic primordial power was funneled entirely into the broken, decayed body of the female corpse.

As his flesh and blood essence were completely siphoned away, Zi Luanxing's lifeforce vanished at an incredible speed. His body withered and shriveled before the naked eye, becoming a gaunt, distorted husk. Even so, a trace of relief appeared on his pale, shrunken face, his body mechanically maintaining the posture of power transmission under the momentum of the spell. Conversely, the female corpse acted as if it had consumed a supreme heavenly treasure.

Its cultivation aura surged violently; the purple-black corrosive grease coating its surface faded significantly, and the turbid, yellow light in its eyes lost some of its gloom. The corpse-body began to shift, drawing closer and closer to the physical form of a living cultivator. Snap! The final wisp of primordial essence drained completely from Zi Luanxing's body. His frame, already withered like rotting wood, suddenly stiffened.

For a fleeting moment, his vacant eyes regained a sliver of clarity, shimmering with a trace of liberation before the light vanished. His corpse collapsed heavily onto the stone bed, every spark of life extinguished forever. The female corpse's eyes flickered with a cold, indifferent malice. She continued to circulate her cultivation art for a few moments longer. After a violent tremor wracked her frame, she finally rose from the desiccated husk, foul bodily fluids dripping slowly down her legs.

"Hmph. Senior Brother, stay here and refine the essence at your leisure," she sneered, glancing at the male corpse who was still plundering Li Zhupu's cultivation.

"I shall head to the other secret chamber to digest the essence blood and mana I just seized. I must strive to break through to the mid-tier of the third rank." With a twist of her body, she turned and walked straight out of the cavern.

"Heh heh... go in peace to your secluded cultivation, Junior Sister. I shall join you shortly!" the male corpse replied with a sinister cackle. He accelerated his cultivation technique several-fold, and the rhythmic, percussive sounds of their collision resumed within the cave. Yet, the very instant the female corpse stepped out of the cave mouth, a flash of brilliant light erupted in the air. It manifested into a three-foot azure blade.

Amidst the flickering spiritual radiance, it swept down toward the corpse's head with blinding speed. Pfft! Her skull was cleaved in two instantly. Within the brain matter, a bizarre, pitch-black demon insect—roughly the size of a child's palm and possessing eight legs beneath its belly—was also sliced in half. It let out a shrill shriek as it fell to the ground, twitching violently as it struggled to pull the severed corpse back together. It was not yet truly dead.

This creature was none other than the Corpse-Controlling Gu that had been puppeteering her! A figure completely shrouded in black robes slowly materialized within the cave. With a cold snort, he flicked his wrist, sending out two fireballs that instantly reduced the two halves of the Gu's carcass to ash. A corpse equivalent to an Early Golden Core cultivator had been slain in a single stroke by this hidden assailant, left with no chance to resist.

"No!!" The male corpse, still mounted atop Li Zhupu, widened his jaundiced eyes and let out a roar of fury. Seeing his companion slain, he prepared to withdraw and strike at the black-robed intruder. But at that exact moment, Li Zhupu—pinned beneath him—suddenly snapped her eyes open. Her autumn-water gaze was filled with a concentrated, venomous hatred. Her long, slender legs instantly locked around the male corpse's waist, while her arms wrapped around him in a death grip.

A canopy of eerie blood-light erupted from her body, manifesting into several sanguine ropes that bound her and the corpse together.

"Kill him!" she shrieked. Caught completely off-guard by Li Zhupu's sudden outburst, the male corpse was lashed tight by the blood-red cords. Alarm and rage flared in his yellowed eyes. Black light surged from his body as he struggled frantically, yet no matter how he thrashed, he could not break free from the binding of those sanguine ropes.