Chapter 495: Ancestor

Chapter 497: Ancestor

Mo Hua used his Divine-Sense to communicate with the Spirit Pivot Array and control the Corpse King, instantly sensing three coexisting but distinct powers within it.

One was the corpse-controlling technique mediated by the Corpse Control Bell, commonly used by corpse cultivators.

One was the evil array-based control, rooted in the Spirit Pivot Evil Array.

The third was Mo Hua’s own, orthodox, top-grade Twelve-Rune Spirit Pivot Absolute Array spirit-control technique.

These three forces intersected and conflicted with each other, making it impossible for anyone to fully dominate the Corpse King in the short term.

Mo Hua felt a bit disappointed.

He had planned to fully control the Corpse King, command all the iron corpses, team up with Zhang Quan to kill Lu Chengyun, and then turn around and kill Zhang Quan.

Using someone else’s hand to kill, taking two lives with one “corpse.”

But now, with three powers dividing control, Mo Hua couldn’t be sure he could suppress the Corpse Control Bell and the Spirit Pivot Evil Array to completely dominate the Corpse King in a short time.

Still, this was within his expectations.

Mo Hua didn’t force the array to act and seize control of the Corpse King.

If a single strike failed and Lu Chengyun survived, it would alert him and reveal the methods Mo Hua had embedded in the Corpse King.

While the Corpse King couldn’t be controlled, the iron corpses could.

Like Lu Chengyun, Mo Hua began indirectly controlling the iron corpses through the Corpse King.

There were twenty-four iron corpses on the altar.

Zhang Quan commanded eleven, Lu Chengyun thirteen.

Using the Spirit Pivot Array on the Corpse King’s heart veins, Mo Hua stealthily converted some of Zhang Quan and Lu Chengyun’s iron corpses to his side.

Mo Hua’s methods were subtle.

Lu Chengyun and Zhang Quan, locked in deadly combat, were completely unaware that some of their iron corpses had “betrayed” them.

Below the altar, in the Ten-Thousand-Corpse Array,

Lu Chengyun held the advantage, pushing Zhang Quan back step by step.

Zhang Quan struggled, his injuries worsening, and the iron corpses under his command began to falter.

Lu Chengyun sneered, controlling his iron corpses to join him in attacking Zhang Quan, intending to kill him and leave no future trouble!

Zhang Quan must die!

In this world, only he could control the Corpse King!

A cold gleam blazed in Lu Chengyun’s eyes, and his sword’s power surged.

Zhang Quan, now a corpse with bronze skin and iron bones, barely blocked a few strikes, but one sword pierced his left shoulder. Pain revealed a flaw, and an iron corpse knocked him flying to the ground.

Lu Chengyun pointed from afar, controlling his iron corpses to encircle Zhang Quan.

Zhang Quan struggled to rise but it was too late; he could only shakily ring the bell to summon a few iron corpses for protection.

But his vitality was low, his wounds severe, and he could only summon four iron corpses, insufficient against Lu Chengyun’s more than ten iron corpses.

Lu Chengyun’s calm eyes radiated killing intent.

The iron corpses, brimming with bloodlust, charged at Zhang Quan.

Some were blocked and engaged by Zhang Quan’s iron corpses, while the rest rushed to him, faces twisted in a feral snarl, jaws gaping.

“Death!”

Zhang Quan’s heart nearly shattered.

Facing imminent death, he struck out with palm force, repelling one iron corpse, then kicked another away.

Yet the remaining iron corpses grabbed him, long claws sinking into his limbs, pinning him tightly.

Another iron corpse’s claw, imbued with corpse poison, surged toward Zhang Quan’s heart vein.

A single strike through the heart vein meant certain death!

Zhang Quan’s eyes widened, struggling in vain.

Just as the claw was about to claim his life, it suddenly stopped.

The sharp claw hovered mere inches from his chest.

He could even feel the sharp, cold, decayed aura of death emanating from it.

Zhang Quan froze.

Lu Chengyun was also stunned.

What happened?

Out of control?

Zhang Quan, alive by a thread, realized not just this one iron corpse but several nearby had frozen.

Though he didn’t know why, he felt relieved, immediately retreating several steps to escape the iron corpses’ encirclement.

Lu Chengyun frowned.

With a thought, he resumed controlling the iron corpses.

This time, they moved according to his mind, with no anomalies.

“What’s going on…”

A control conflict? A flaw in the array?

Lu Chengyun couldn’t figure it out, suppressing his doubts; the priority was still to kill Zhang Quan.

He once again commanded the iron corpses to encircle Zhang Quan.

Yet what followed was unexpected.

Whenever the iron corpses were about to end Zhang Quan, they hesitated, letting him escape.

After several attempts, Zhang Quan realized:

The iron corpses were sparing him!

Why?

Why did they always leave him alive when he was on the verge of death?

Zhang Quan frowned, then suddenly understood.

He got it!

The iron corpses spared him at the last moment for one reason:

It was the Ancestor!

In some mysterious way, the Ancestor was helping him!

Zhang Quan’s mind raced.

The Corpse King had been nurtured using the Zhang family’s bronze ancestral coffin, with the family’s traditional corpse-refining methods, day and night.

Now Lu Chengyun wanted to use the Zhang family’s own corpses to kill this Zhang heir.

The Ancestor’s spirit in heaven could not stand it, so when Zhang Quan’s life hung by a thread, he gave him a helping hand, preserving a sliver of the Zhang family’s legacy.

Grateful beyond words, Zhang Quan immediately knelt toward the sky, kowtowing loudly:

“Your disciple Zhang Quan thanks the Ancestor!”

This kowtow even stunned Mo Hua.

After a moment, he thought to himself, secretly scoffing:

“You shouldn’t be thanking the Ancestor… you should be thanking your ‘little’ Ancestor.”

Lu Chengyun, seeing this, also became wary, a chill running through him:

The Zhang family truly is a corpse-refining clan, capable of such unimaginable methods—using the Ancestor to control iron corpses.

He had never heard of it!

In that case, Zhang Quan could not be allowed to survive!

Lu Chengyun raised his slender sword, the sword-light flowing like water, fierce and ruthless, and struck at Zhang Quan.

Though Zhang Quan was still retreating, his spirit soared.

“The Ancestor is helping me! I will not die!”

Indeed, his Ancestor’s spirit protected him.

Whenever he was at death’s door, the iron corpses attacking him “malfunctioned,” hesitating in place.

Zhang Quan’s face lit with joy.

Lu Chengyun grew anxious, fearing Zhang Quan’s “Ancestor” even more.

He ceased relying on the iron corpses, instead using his own Dao methods and superior sword to slowly wear Zhang Quan down, intending to slay him.

Yet in focusing on killing Zhang Quan, he unknowingly exposed a large flaw in his back.

Mo Hua’s eyes lit up.

Now was the moment!

He moved his Divine-Sense, manipulating the array pivot. Simultaneously, one of Lu Chengyun’s iron corpses suddenly “betrayed,” pupils shrinking, glowing blue, claws like wind, slashing toward Lu Chengyun’s back.

The strike was fast, precise, vicious, and extraordinarily insidious.

The timing was perfect.

Lu Chengyun didn’t see it coming and couldn’t defend!

The iron corpse’s claw pierced his back, tearing his robe to shreds.

Mo Hua smiled in triumph, but halfway through laughing, he sighed, disappointed.

Lu Chengyun, ambushed by the iron corpse, spat blood but was unharmed.

Beneath the torn robe was silver-threaded soft armor, a superior spirit item.

The iron corpse’s claw couldn’t pierce the armor or damage Lu Chengyun’s heart vein; it only battered him with force.

As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, this wound was insignificant, far from lethal.

Mo Hua regretted the wasted opportunity.

Lu Chengyun wiped the blood from his mouth, his heart racing.

He almost got killed!

Without the silver-threaded armor, the iron corpse would have pierced his back, the corpse poison would have invaded his body, and with Zhang Quan and the iron corpses attacking him, today’s outcome could have been fatal.

Eyes sharp, strikes vicious!

This Zhang family Ancestor—human, corpse, or ghost—was truly ruthless!

Or perhaps the Zhang family’s corpse-controlling techniques possessed incomprehensible supernatural powers?

A chilling dread seeped into Lu Chengyun’s heart.

He had to finish this quickly to avoid complications!

Lu Chengyun’s expression darkened; he threw all his effort into the sword strike, the sword-light deepening to a pale black-gray.

Zhang Quan’s face changed: “Lu family’s Opening Mountain Sword Technique! You’ve cultivated it so deeply?”

Lu Chengyun smiled faintly. “You recognize this sword technique?”

Zhang Quan’s expression hardened.

Lu Chengyun said calmly:

“The Opening Mountain Sword Technique… I found it in a jade slip buried with a Lu family elder in their ancestral tomb. I’ve diligently cultivated it for decades…”

He raised his long sword, sword energy splitting to both sides, sweeping outward like opening mountains and plains, terrifying in momentum.

Lu Chengyun said coldly: “I never use this technique in daily life to avoid being discovered. Today, dying under this sword is my gift to you.”

Zhang Quan’s eyes darkened, teeth gritting:

“Fine, let’s see whose technique is stronger—your sword or my corpse method!”

The two clashed, fire and water, life and death.

Mo Hua couldn’t help but scoff at Zhang Quan in his mind:

“Idiot! Of course the sword is stronger! Your corpse technique? It can’t even beat my Little Senior Brother…”

“About to die, yet you don’t flee, trying to fight here.”

“He’s using his ultimate sword technique, and you don’t even realize it. Still trying to compare strengths? You’re hopeless!”

“When he charges his sword, just run! Why stay?”

“Always refining corpses, your brain must be as stiff as your creations…”

Mo Hua, this “Little Ancestor,” seethed at Zhang Quan’s stupidity in his heart.