Chương 44: The Ghost-Corpse Displays Its Might

Boom! A cataclysmic roar, several times more violent than the previous impact, shook the very foundations of the hall. Where the Earth-Shaking Finger struck, the protective barrier rippled with a frantic, translucent wave, but the disturbance subsided into a deathly silence almost instantly. The barrier remained unyielding. Reyn's expression curdled into a mask of grim frustration.

With a flick of his wrist, he produced two medicinal pills and swallowed them dry, feeling the cool trail of energy slide down his throat.

"Since I cannot force my way through this barrier, I have no choice but to wait!" A cold, murderous glint flickered in Reyn's eyes. He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes, forcefully refining the medicinal potency. Around him, a faint, jagged aura of slaughter began to manifest, flickering like a dying candle in the dark.

"It's here!" Within the Blood-Veined Jade Platter, the mysterious woman's eyes snapped open. A thick, suffocating killing intent swirled within her pupils. At that exact moment, a bone-chilling roar reverberated through the grand hall. A Psychic Zombie, standing nearly two zhang tall with a pallid, corpse-like complexion and protruding fangs, manifested out of thin air. The spiritual pressure of a Mid-Golden Core stage cultivator swept across the room like a physical gale, heavy and smelling of the grave.

"Roar! Kill... kill... kill... intruders... must die!" The creature let out a series of jagged, broken growls. Its massive frame blurred, and with a ghostly shimmer, it phased directly through the restrictions and vanished into the inner sanctum. Meanwhile, the Chubby Daoist was at a critical juncture of breaking a restriction. His fingers danced in a blur, weaving complex mudras as sweat beaded on his forehead. As he unleashed the final incantation, the shimmering barrier before him began to dissolve.

However, instead of relief, a primal sense of impending doom seized his heart.

"Move!" The Chubby Daoist didn't hesitate. He threw his body backward with desperate speed, shouting a command as he layered three successive spiritual energy shields before him. A withered, skeletal hand with pitch-black claws—each several feet long—tore through the dissipating restriction. It lunged with predatory precision, aiming straight for the Daoist's chest. Crack! Crack! The first two layers of his spiritual shield shattered like glass, offering only a heartbeat of resistance.

The Chubby Daoist's eyes widened in terror; had his instincts been a fraction of a second slower, his heart would have been ripped from his ribs. Gasping, he downed two pills to stabilize his churning essence and threw up several more layers of protection. He struck his forehead, summoning the Buddhist Alms-bowl magic treasure. A halo of dim, golden Buddhist light descended, enveloping him in a protective cocoon.

"Roar!" As the Psychic Zombie's hulking form fully materialized from the shadows, the Chubby Daoist's face turned ashen.

"Ghost-Corpse Sovereign!" This Daoist, along with the Old Woman and the original Ghost-Corpse Sovereign, were notorious villains among rogue cultivators. They had collaborated many times to hunt treasures and slaughter rivals, so he recognized the Sovereign's physical vessel instantly. What terrified him, however, was the aura—the creature was radiating the spiritual pressure of a Mid-Golden Core master.

"How did this old corpse's cultivation jump an entire sub-realm after being possessed by that monster?" The Chubby Daoist felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He was already nursing significant internal injuries; though suppressed, he could only exert the power of an Early-Golden Core stage at best.

"Kill!" The possessed Ghost-Corpse Sovereign let out a low, guttural growl. Billowing clouds of grey corpse-qi erupted from its pores. Its bones began to pop and crackle as its stature swelled even further, reaching nearly three zhang. Its fangs lengthened into ivory daggers, and its black claws took on a metallic, obsidian sheen. In a terrifying surge, its spiritual pressure spiked again, reaching the Late-Golden Core stage in a matter of breaths!

"Shattering the Golden Core? Burning the Primordial Spirit!" the Chubby Daoist shrieked in horror. He scrambled backward, his mind consumed by a singular, paralyzing fear.

"I have to get out of here, or I die today!" Beads of cold sweat rolled down his face. His hands moved in a frantic blur, unleashing a barrage of divine abilities and spells behind him, hoping to slow the juggernaut's advance. Having sacrificed its future for temporary power, the Ghost-Corpse Sovereign now possessed the might of a Late-Golden Core titan. It roared at the ceiling and blurred into motion, closing the distance with terrifying ease. Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Sovereign didn't even bother to dodge the incoming spells. It used its monstrous physique to plow through the explosions. The Daoist's divine abilities struck the creature's skin with the sound of hammers hitting iron, failing to leave so much as a scratch on its grey hide. Stolen novel; please report.

"Run! Run! Run!" The Chubby Daoist's scalp went numb with dread. He wished he had another pair of legs as he fled deeper into the halls. Elsewhere, the Old Woman stood before a magnificent, empty hall, her face an unreadable mask. She had already dismantled seven or eight restrictions on her path and had gained a rhythm. She swept the area with her Divine Sense, then snapped her eyes open. Her hands wove a series of mudras, causing the air in front of her to ripple violently. Suddenly, her brow furrowed.

A premonition of disaster gripped her soul—a sixth sense common to high-level cultivators. She moved to retreat, but a spatial vortex suddenly yawned open before her, swallowing her whole before she could let out a sound. Back in the main corridor, the Chubby Daoist was in a wretched state. His face was ghostly pale, and a trail of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. The strain of the chase was causing his suppressed injuries to flare up.

"Dammit! If my foundation breaks now, even if I survive, my cultivation will fall a whole realm!" He threw a handful of high-grade talismans behind him, creating a brief wall of fire and lightning to buy a few more meters of distance. Had it not been for the hoard of talismans in his storage bag, he would have been caught long ago. But just then, the air ahead of him fluctuated. The Old Woman, who had vanished moments ago, suddenly tumbled out of the void.

"Fellow Daoist Honghua, strike now! Or neither of us leaves this place alive!" Seeing a potential ally was like finding a spring in a desert. The Chubby Daoist didn't feel a shred of shame for his earlier flight; he accelerated, reaching her side in an instant. The Old Woman's face was thunderous. Seeing the monstrous Ghost-Corpse Sovereign charging toward them, her expression darkened further. She shot the Daoist a venomous glare, but she knew she couldn't flee alone.

If they didn't stand together, the creature would hunt them down one by one.

"Daoist Liu, we strike together to slay this abomination!" The two turned in unison. Spells and divine abilities erupted from their palms. The Chubby Daoist chanted a rapid sutra. The Buddhist Alms-bowl above his head flared with brilliant auric light. Behind him, a miniature, translucent manifestation of a Buddha appeared. The air filled with the ethereal hum of chanting, lending him an air of solemn, divine authority.

"Go!" He pointed a finger. The Buddha manifestation opened its mouth and thundered: "Om! Ma! Ni! Pad! Me! Hum!" The Six-Syllable Mantra of Exorcism manifested as six ancient, golden characters. They surged forward, wreathed in holy light, descending upon the Ghost-Corpse Sovereign like celestial seals. The Old Woman reached into her storage bag and carefully withdrew a miniature, exquisitely carved skeleton.

After a moment of hesitation, she bit the tip of her tongue and sprayed a mist of Essence Blood onto the artifact. The skeleton absorbed the blood instantly, turning a vivid, visceral red. Its empty eye sockets flickered with a sinister light, as if a soul had just been breathed into it. She tossed it forward. The artifact exploded into a crimson light, expanding until it reached the size of a grown man. This was the Skeleton Guard. Its eyes burned with twin flames of soul-fire as it stood ready.

"Skeleton Guard, kill him!" the Old Woman shrieked. The construct let out a silent, psychic roar and charged. The Ghost-Corpse Sovereign, being a creature of darkness and malice, was naturally suppressed by the righteous energy of the Buddhist mantra. Even the entity possessing it felt a primal surge of revulsion and fear toward the holy light.

"Roar!" The Sovereign exhaled a massive cloud of stinking, grey corpse-qi. Above its head, the miasma coalesced into a zhang-wide, hideous ghostly face. The ghost opened its maw and attempted to swallow the six golden Buddhist characters whole. As it consumed the mantra, the ghostly face contorted in agony. Beams of golden light pierced through its smoky form, and the Ghost-Corpse Sovereign howled as the holy energy burned through its cadaveric miasma.

"No!" the Chubby Daoist suddenly screamed. He spat out a mouthful of blood as his aura withered instantly. The Buddha manifestation behind him popped like a bubble. The Alms-bowl magic treasure let out a mournful crack and fell to the floor, its surface spider-webbed with deep fissures. Having exhausted the Buddhist mantra, the ghostly face over the Sovereign grew more solid. It spat out several streams of concentrated corpse-qi, coiling like serpents toward the incoming Skeleton Guard.

The Skeleton Guard, crafted from unknown ancient materials, possessed a rudimentary intelligence. Seeing the miasma approaching, it roared and swung its bone-blades downward. A crimson light erupted from the blades, filling the air with the pungent scent of fresh blood. Boom! The bone-blades shattered the first wave of corpse-qi, but the Sovereign growled, unleashing even more miasma. The grey fog split into dozens of tendrils, swarming the Skeleton Guard from all sides. The Old Woman's face was grim.

She had found this Skeleton Guard in an ancient cultivator's abode; its blood-light abilities could corrupt treasures and wound the divine sense of enemies. It was her trump card, one she had used to slay several Golden Core masters in the past. But against a Late-Golden Core opponent, she dared not be careless. The shattered corpse-qi didn't dissipate; instead, it clung to the Skeleton Guard, slowly coating its red bones in a grey, necrotic film.

"Dammit! This corpse-qi is severing my Divine Sense!" The Old Woman's face changed. She let out a sharp whistle and fired off several mudras, trying to break the miasma's hold. The Skeleton Guard hacked wildly, attempting to retreat.

"Roar!" The Ghost-Corpse Sovereign let out a triumphant howl. The corpse-qi exploded outward, forming a massive sphere ten zhang wide that completely engulfed the Skeleton Guard. Muffled sounds of violent struggle echoed from within the grey sphere, but they grew fainter with each passing second. The Old Woman's face grew increasingly pale, twisted in a mask of sympathetic pain.

"Pfft!" She sprayed a fountain of blood, her face turning translucent as if drained of life.

"My Divine Sense imprint... it's been erased!" She locked eyes with the Chubby Daoist. In that moment, both saw the same thing in each other: absolute, cold despair. The Ghost-Corpse Sovereign let out a low, vibrating growl. The billowing corpse-qi began to spiral back into its body, slowly revealing the Skeleton Guard. However, the construct was no longer red. It was now wreathed in grey miasma, its eyes flickering with a sickly green light—it had been turned into a puppet of the ghost-corpse.