Chapter 500: Fishing Corpses

Chapter 502: Fishing Corpses

Mo Hua hid to the side, controlling Elder Song to fight this newly arrived zombie elder.

Elder Song should have been stronger, but under Mo Hua’s control through the Spirit-Pivot Formation, he couldn’t act freely and could only bring out seventy to eighty percent of his true strength. So after dozens of exchanges, he gradually fell into disadvantage.

If one wasn’t enough, then two.

Mo Hua, utterly unashamed of fighting dirty, also controlled Zhang Quan, attacking from both sides.

With that, the newly arrived zombie elder was immediately forced into a flustered, defensive mess.

Mo Hua then observed its techniques.

The Zhang Clan’s zombie elders all shared the same mold: Divine-Sense Corpse Manifestation, close combat.

If they couldn’t win, they would undergo a further stage of corpse transformation—body swelling, bronze-like skin and iron bones, blue face and sharp fangs.

At that stage, they became faster, stronger, and their fangs far more vicious.

But there was nothing interesting about it.

The first time Mo Hua watched it, he found it novel. After seeing it a few times, it became boring.

Except for Elder Song, who knew the “skin-shrinking and bone-shrinking” escape trick, the rest of the zombies were all nearly identical.

He didn’t know if they were uneducated… or if their ancestors had hoarded all the useful techniques and never taught them anything else.

This zombie elder also had no new moves.

Mo Hua was disappointed.

Time was limited; he didn’t drag things out. He focused fully on controlling Zhang Quan and Elder Song. The two surrounded the zombie elder, beating it back step by step.

The zombie elder grew furious, went all out—still couldn’t win.

It corpse-transformed—still couldn’t win.

Not only that, its injuries accumulated bit by bit. If it went on like this, death was inevitable.

The zombie elder’s eyes flashed gloomily. He swallowed a mouthful of blood, his aura surging as he knocked Zhang Quan aside with one punch, then struck Elder Song away and attempted to flee.

But Mo Hua was never going to let it run.

With a light tap of his finger, the Water Prison Technique condensed instantly.

The zombie elder, just about to escape, was bound on the spot by spiritual-power shackles.

The zombie elder was horrified.

Mo Hua slowly walked out from the corner.

He looked young, even childlike—but his Divine-Sense was dense, his aura thick and unfathomable.

The zombie elder’s eyes went wide with fear.

“Who are you?!”

For ordinary elders like this, Mo Hua couldn’t be bothered to speak. He simply tossed out a Fireball Technique.

A fireball howled forth and splattered across its face.

The zombie elder collapsed instantly.

Mo Hua, still not reassured, threw several more fireballs—boom boom boom—blasting its form and spirit to near-collapse, leaving it dying and immobile.

Zhang Quan and Elder Song twitched watching this.

Before they could share in their mutual suffering, something even more terrifying happened.

Right in front of the two of them, Mo Hua began to deploy the Spirit-Pivot Formation.

He calmed his mind, pointed at the zombie elder’s collapsing consciousness and immobilized heart pulse.

Taking the heart pulse as the formation core, faint blue array lines—like bright ghostly orchids—bloomed over its chest, then extended outward, rooting through the body as soil, layer upon layer, until everything fully meshed…

Just like that, this Iron-Corpse-realm elder was turned into a puppet—alive.

Zhang Quan and Elder Song stared in absolute horror.

What kind of formation was this?

Was this kid using this formation to control bodies infused with Divine-Sense?

Did he plant this same formation inside the two of them?

What formation… was this?

The formation was masterful—so close to Dao, so close to the uncanny.

Utterly absurd—completely beyond anything they could understand.

Zhang Quan suddenly froze.

This formation… looked very similar to the corpse-control formation that Lu Chengyun treasured…

Except not nearly as sinister—and it looked far more complex, more profound, more advanced.

But that formation—hadn’t Lu Chengyun said it was extremely difficult? That its threshold was extremely high? That its formation principles were complicated?

Zhang Quan remembered Lu Chengyun’s words:

“…Without decades of painstaking study… without delving into sinister arrays… without fusing evil thoughts into one’s consciousness… without using bone as pen, blood as ink, and corpses as medium—how could he possibly learn it?”

Then when did this kid learn it?

Zhang Quan wanted to ask, but couldn’t speak.

He was now already a Divine-Sense puppet under another’s control… no longer able to act of his own will.

After finishing the Spirit-Pivot Formation on the zombie elder, Mo Hua refined the two zombie disciples he had just slain into mist-like energy and fed it to the new puppet to restore its strength.

Moments later, the zombie elder’s hazy form stabilized, and it slowly opened its eyes.

Its gaze was dazed.

The only lingering memory was Mo Hua’s merciless fireball.

Soon it realized… its body was no longer its own.

Mo Hua controlled it, making it stand beside Zhang Quan and Elder Song. Its mouth was sewn shut with threads of spiritual power, preventing speech. It could only exchange a brief look with Elder Song.

That one glance contained thousand-layered emotion.

At last, it understood Elder Song’s suffering.

Their fates were no longer in their own hands.

They were held firmly… by that cute—but terrifying—little cultivator standing next to them.

Mo Hua held three Iron-Corpse puppets, continuing to “wait by the tree for rabbits.”

He remembered Elder Song saying that the Zhang Clan’s zombie patriarch relied on his descendants’ Divine-Sense offerings and would not personally feed.

Although Mo Hua didn’t know exactly how this “offering” worked, logically the Zhang Clan’s old patriarch should not enter his Sea of Consciousness—

Unless Mo Hua captured all the Zhang Clan’s elders at once…

Soon enough, two more Iron-Corpse elders entered Mo Hua’s Sea of Consciousness.

Mo Hua repeated the same procedure.

This time it was three versus two in a chaotic battle.

Once they’d exhausted their tricks and were almost done fighting each other, Mo Hua appeared, using Fireball Technique, Water Prison Technique, and Groundfire Array in combination—quickly finishing off both elders.

Then he repeated the same steps—

Deploy Spirit-Pivot Formation, control the Zhang Clan elders.

Thus the Zhang Clan lost two more elders, and Mo Hua gained two more Iron-Corpse puppets.

Mo Hua was like a fisherman.

Catching them one by one.

Every catch added to his basket, and the river lost another.

Within the Zhang Clan Ancestor Diagram, every Iron-Corpse elder was Mo Hua’s fish…

…

While Mo Hua was “fishing,” the city of Nanyue was also roiling beneath the surface.

All sorts of cultivation forces converged upon the city.

There were many unfamiliar faces on the streets.

Ordinary Qi-Refining cultivators knew nothing, still struggling daily for a single spirit stone.

Those caught within the true storm, however, wore grave expressions.

The mountain storm was about to break.

But though they sensed the wind, they still did not know what kind of storm was coming.

The Situ Family.

Inside a discreetly elegant yet concealed hall—

Various powers had gathered:

Those transferred by the Dao Court, commanders of the Dao Soldiers under the Dao-Soldier Division;

Foundation Establishment elders from nearby cultivation forces summoned by the Dao Court;

And those searching for Mister Zhuang—families and sects connected to the Heavenly Pivot Pavilion—the emaciated elder, the youth in white, and the middle-aged cultivator were among them.

…

These family forces arrived secretly. The Dao Soldiers were stationed at an abandoned mine outside the city to avoid alerting the Lu Clan—

And also to bypass the Nanyue City Dao Court Division entirely.

The Dao Court officers present were all from nearby immortal cities or directly under the Dao Court.

The only one from Nanyue City’s Dao Court Division was Situ Fang.

But she was allowed in only because she was a Situ family disciple and knew many inside details.

The one presiding was a Dao-Soldier commander—surname Yang—mid-Foundation Establishment, square-faced, stern-eyed, steady in bearing.

Commander Yang spoke directly:

“I am Yang Jishan, Commander of Second-Rank Dao Soldiers.”

“By order of the Dao Court, our task this time is to suppress the corpse mine, capture Lu Chengyun, seal the Corpse King, burn the hordes, avoid triggering a corpse tide, avoid a corpse disaster, and prevent Nanyue City from falling into ruin…”

His gaze swept the room solemnly.

“In Nanyue City, the Lu Clan is powerful, and the corpse mine houses countless zombies.”

“Thus, every action must be cautious. Otherwise, disaster is inevitable!”

“Please follow orders. If something goes wrong and the Dao Court holds us accountable, none of us can bear that responsibility.”

Seeing no dissent, he nodded and continued:

“This operation will split into two groups:”

“One group will suppress the Lu Clan.”

“Seal off the Lu Clan manor, apprehend its Foundation Establishment cultivators, use Second-Rank Spirit-Binding Chains to restrict their cultivation, and soft-detain the Qi-Refining disciples. After the corpse-mine affair is settled, they will be handled together.”

“No killing of innocents.”

“But any rebellious Lu Clan member—kill without mercy!”

“The second group will gather the cultivators, rendezvous with the Dao Soldiers outside the city, and launch a covert attack on the corpse mine.”

“Move in secret, aim for swift victory—suppress the corpse mine, capture Lu Chengyun, and extinguish the corpse threat before it erupts…”

“Next comes the detailed tactical arrangement…”

Author Notes:

Had some matters to handle—sorry for the delay.

There’s still one more chapter tonight, but it’ll be a little late.