Chương 167: Chapter 56: The Vile Corpses

Eight millennia ago, the Shiyin Sect reigned as the undisputed titan of Yan Province. Their martial might was staggering, boasting dozens of Golden Core masters and three supreme sovereigns at the Nascent Soul stage. Yet, this monolithic power crumbled in an instant, not by the hand of a rival, but by their own hubris. The Ancient Corpse-Controlling Gu, a parasitic horror they had secretly bred, underwent a sudden and violent backlash.

From the lowliest disciple to the highest elder, not a single soul escaped the ensuing slaughter. These insects, which thrived and multiplied with terrifying speed within the warmth of a cultivator's flesh, surged outward like a tide of death. They swept across the Zhao Kingdom, turning a land of prosperity into a sprawling necropolis. Countless cultivators fell, their bodies becoming mere vessels for the swarm.

It was only when several Soul Transformation Great Powers from the Central Province intervened, wielding world-shaking techniques to purge every last trace of the rot, that the extinction-level catastrophe was finally averted. However, the true horror of the Corpse-Controlling Gu lay in its parasitic evolution. Upon seizing a host, the insect could perfectly preserve the victim's original cultivation, refining and elevating that power by devouring the surrounding essence.

By the time the Central Province masters arrived, the Gu swarm had birthed Gu Kings—monstrosities possessing human-like intellect and cultivation levels rivaling the Soul Transformation stage itself. The final confrontation was a cataclysm that dimmed the sun and moon. Though the human experts emerged victorious, the self-destruction of the final Gu King instantly annihilated one Great Power and left the others grievously wounded, forced into a bitter retreat.

This war shattered the foundation of the Zhao Kingdom's cultivation world. High-level experts were wiped out, divine techniques were lost to time, and the region's spiritual standing plummeted, eventually becoming the most desolate backwater of the Mitian Continent. Despite the legendary infamy of the Gu, the dozen or so corpses shuffling toward the trio were merely at the Qi Condensation stage.

The parasites within had yet to undergo their first evolution, allowing Reyn and his companions to maintain a grim, calculated composure. The sound of the dead echoed through the chamber— Pa! Pa! Pa! —as the animated husks, sensing the heat of living blood, accelerated their advance, their movements jerky and unnatural.

"Strike now!" Yang Dawei's voice cut through the gloom like a whip.

"We cannot allow them to encircle us." He slapped his storage bag, retrieving a command flag of burning crimson, embroidered with a sky of roiling fire clouds. With a surge of spiritual power, the artifact expanded violently, swelling until it stood three zhang tall. The Fire Cloud Command Flag unfurled, its fabric snapping in an invisible gale as a wave of oppressive heat radiated outward, distorting the very air.

"Go!" Yang Dawei roared, swinging the massive banner. Several spheres of concentrated scarlet flame, each the size of a millstone, erupted from the flag's surface. They streaked through the dark like meteors, slamming into the leading corpses. The impact was visceral; the fire clung to the rotting flesh like hungry leeches, instantly transforming the monsters into screaming pillars of light. The corpses managed only a few more staggering steps before the intense heat reduced them to heaps of fine, grey ash.

Li Zhupu, the favored daughter of the Purple Mist Sect Leader, was equally prepared. She drew a hairpin from her storage bag—a delicate piece of red jade that shimmered like flowing magma. With a flick of her wrist, she launched the artifact. It became a streak of crimson light, a blur that pierced the air with a high-pitched whistle. Puff! The pin buried itself deep into the chest of a charging corpse.

Almost instantly, thousands of hair-thin red filaments erupted from the wound, weaving through the creature's anatomy before detonating into a localized inferno. In the blink of an eye, the corpse vanished, consumed by the jade-red flames. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Zi Luanxing, the premier genius of the Huayun Sect, watched the carnage with a gaze of pure loathing.

His sect hailed from Yan Province, the ground zero of the ancient plague, and his hatred for these abominations was etched into his very bones. He produced a fire-red jade slip, carved with the likeness of a Fire Qilin treading upon celestial clouds. The artifact pulsed with a light so intense it looked like a solidified flame.

"Qilin Fire Talisman—summon the eternal heavens to incinerate all filth!" he intoned coldly. He cast the slip into the air, where it shattered with a crystalline ring. A torrent of white-hot spiritual fire exploded from the fragments, twisting and coiling in the air. Within breaths, the flames coalesced into the translucent, towering phantom of a Fire Qilin. The beast let out a silent, earth-shaking roar, its eyes burning with the promise of total annihilation.

The Qilin phantom unleashed a silent, heaven-shaking roar. Its maw unhinged, spewing a torrential wave of flame that swept across the cavern, instantly engulfing the shambling corpses. Within moments, the phantom and the sea of fire dissipated, leaving nothing but drifts of grey ash where the dozen corpses had stood.

"Daoist Luanxing," Li Zhupu began, her beautiful eyes shimmering with bewilderment.

"Those were merely low-level Qi Condensation corpses. The three of us could have dispatched them with ease. Wasn't using a Tier 3 Low-grade Qilin Fire Talisman a bit... excessive?" Yang Dawei nodded in agreement. A Tier 3 talisman carried the destructive weight of a Golden Core fire cultivator's full-strength strike. Using it on a handful of low-level fodder felt like using a mountain-splitting axe to kill a fly. Zi Luanxing, however, remained grim. He shook his head slowly, his voice heavy with solemnity.

"The Corpse-Controlling Gu is a supreme peril. A single lapse can trigger a cataclysm. Since the Shiyin Sect fell eight millennia ago, every cultivator in Yan Province has sworn a blood oath: should we encounter these Gu, we must annihilate them utterly, regardless of the cost." The expressions of Yang Dawei and Li Zhupu shifted. Gravity replaced their doubt as they realized the weight of his words, nodding in silent acknowledgment.

Deep within a subterranean grotto, the heavy, rhythmic sounds of labored breathing echoed, punctuated by the wet, slapping impact of flesh against flesh.

"Hah!"

"Hah!" In the oppressive gloom, two silhouettes were locked in a primal, desperate embrace. The larger figure behind drove forward with frantic intensity, clutching the smaller form in front. After a prolonged, violent shudder, the movements ceased. They decoupled slowly, allowing a trail of viscous, yellowish-brown fluid to drip onto the cold stone floor.

"Get up," the larger figure rasped, his voice sounding mechanical and distorted. He slumped onto the ground.

"Light the illumination stone. Even though I've become... this, I still despise the darkness." The smaller figure gathered herself with a rustle of movement. She tossed an irregular, oval stone into the air. It hung suspended, radiating a soft, pervasive glow that revealed every wretched detail of the chamber. Both figures were stark naked, their skin coated in a thin, glistening layer of purple-black grease.

One was tall and masculine; the other possessed a lithe, curvaceous frame that would have been breathtakingly beautiful if not for the horrific, monstrous texture of her flesh.

"Don't lose heart, Senior Brother," the woman said, her voice raspy yet retaining a ghost of its former melodic grace.

"Since we have successfully subverted the Corpse-Controlling Gu within us, it is only a matter of time before we reclaim our place under the sun." Despite their monstr ous appearance, their words revealed a shocking truth: they were animated corpses who had somehow managed to enslave the very parasites intended to control them.