Chapter 319: Silver Shell Corpses
Translator: 3heryl Editor: Hitesh
"Everyone, be careful!" Once out of the water, Xiao Heng and Long Yue took out their own weapons. What really surprised Ye Chen was that both of them had mid-rank great weapons. Xiao Heng used a blade while Long Yue used a half-moon saw. As they were being suppressed by them for security reasons, the aura as mid-rank great weapons was not released completely, but that light hint of pressure was already scary.
The Fire Man had also noticed it. As the growth of the cultivation, the importance of the weapons had grown more and more. Low rank weapons could only increase the attacking power by ten to twenty percent for the Astral Reaching Realm warriors, in the condition that they did not break under the intense power. However, mid-rank weapons were a completely different story. It would be able to increase the attacking power by more than thirty percent for the Astral Reaching Realm warriors, and the top quality mid-rank weapons would be able to increase it by forty percent. Xiao Heng and Long Yue were already mid-rank Astral Reaching Realm warriors, and with the enhancement of the mid-rank weapons, they would be able to fight peak-level Mid Astral Reaching Realm warriors. In other words, their attacking power would not be weaker than any of the others.
"Mid rank weapons, how rare!"
Ye Chen had been to the trading markets in the Martial City, so he naturally knew how valuable those mid-rank weapons were. If one were lucky, one might be able to see one or two in a month’s time, and if unlucky, one might not see one in a year’s time. Those weapons would be sold out the moment they appeared in the market, and rarely anyone could complain about its price. The cheapest of them were all fifty times more expensive than any low-rank weapons. Normal Astral Reaching Realm warriors would not be able to afford it at all, unless they were high ranked warriors from a rank 6 martial institution.
"However, the attacking power being increased by thirty to forty percent does not mean the actual battling power would increase by thirty to forty percent. There are a lot of factors in play, and it does not mean one equals another."
Letting out a breath, Ye Chen took out his Star Scar Sword from his storage ring and wore it on the left side of his waist. He bought this sword when he was in the Martial City. It was definitely the top among the low-rank weapons, and able to increase twenty percent of the attacking power for Clasping Yuan Realm warrior. Once one reached the Astral Reaching Realm, the Star Scar Sword would not be able to make a difference anymore. But, Ye Chen had other plans, and attacking power was not something he lacked as of now.
"Let’s go!"
The Fire Man looked away from the weapons, then glanced at Ye Chen as he said.
"Hehe, this time, the Corpse Man is… doomed." The Mountain Main sneered. The last few characters had been stressed.
Ye Chen looked very relaxed, his eyes half closed.
…
Pada, pada!
The light footsteps sounded extra loud in that dark environment.
The soul power had spread out with Ye Chen’s body as the center. Ye Chen realized that this strange underworld was indeed big. Even with his soul power now, he would still only be able to explore a very small area. Even if he formed the soul power into a straight line, it was not able to touch the edge of the underworld.
This area of the underworld was not very humid. On the contrary, it was a bit dry. A normal human being would experience dehydration symptoms.
"These many crossroads?" Pang Nie’s eyebrows flicked.
Lake Man was fanning himself as he laughed, "Don’t worry, let me use my secret martial skill to search the area."
"Oh? Lake Man, you have such martial arts?" Everyone was a bit surprised. Normally, Astral Reaching Realm warriors used normal methods to scan places, which would employ soul power. And, all of them had done their individual inspection of the place, but they had found nothing.
Lake Man smiled. A water-like, dim and very thin light spread out from his body. It seemed to have made some kind of connection with the water-element in the air. He stopped talking and tried to sense something.
"All of those water element yuan seemed to be vibrating. They are sending some kind of information!" Ye Chen used his even more powerful soul power, which allowed him to see what was really going on.
After a long while, the light around the Lake Man disappeared. He pointed to the east and said, "There seem to be noises coming from that direction, about five miles ahead."
"Let’s not waste any time. Let’s go!"
Following the Lake Man, everyone’s body turned into a shadow, disappearing from the crossroad.
There were way too many intersections. If they followed every one of them, it would take a tremendous amount of time. Therefore, it left the group with no choice but to break all the walls in between, creating a straight path.
"It’s right here."
Lake Man pushed out his protective zhen yuan, breaking the mud wall in front of him.
"Help me! Save me!"
What they saw behind the wall had changed everyone’s expression a little bit. A man had been soaked in a pond full of black liquid. His shoulder blades had been hooked by two arm-thick iron chins, both of his hands and feet pinned in the pond, leaving him no leverage to move even an inch.
"A Clasping Yuan Realm warrior." Lin Shuihan slowly let out the words.
Xiao Heng said, "If I had guessed it right, the Corpse Man wants to make him into a rank 6 zombie warrior, turning him into a heartless killer."
"Let’s save him first."
Long Yue said. Suddenly, the chains made some noises before breaking one after another. She turned her head to see Ye Chen putting his sword back in his scabbard.
"Move!"
Activating her water element zhen yuan, she waved her hand. The black liquid in the pond started to move in a circle quickly, turning into a water column.
Gag!
The iron chins had been broken, and the pond had been emptied. However, Long Yue started to puke.
Inside the pond, the naked man had not one inch of his skin still fine. His stomach had been sliced open, and his legs’ muscles had been torn apart. All of the blood and black liquid had started to fuse together, giving out a light hint of a metallic shine.
"How cruel. What wouldn’t the Corpse Man do?!" Xiao Heng frowned.
Lin Shuihan said, "The Corpse Man is already not a human being anymore. He is indeed a zombie warrior himself. Hence, it is actually quite reasonable for him to be so cruel."
Ye Chen nodded. When he was in the Heaven Dream Ancient Place, he had heard Lin Yue mention that there were two ways of creating zombie warriors. One method had to be under certain conditions, where the warrior had died, but his zhen Qi had not disappeared completely. It then combined with the corpse Qi for a long time, and then the dead warrior’s body would become almost immortal in a sense. However, if a living person happened to come to this place, then the corpse would have a certain mutation, and become a killing and blood-craving zombie warrior.
The second method was to manufacture the zombies. One of the one hundred and eight ghost warriors from the Nine Ghost Cult was a zombie warrior himself. However, he was unlike the normal ones. Because of some special circumstances, he had somehow regained his mind, and was somehow even smarter than humans. The most horrifying thing was that when he was still a zombie warrior, he was able to turn living warriors into his own zombie warriors. In his terms, he referred to them as Shell Corpses, and placed them in ranks from low to high as Iron Shell Corpse, Bronze Shell Corpse, Silver Shell Corpse, Gold Shell Corpse, and so on.
According to the Corpse Man’s ability, the Iron Shell Corpse should be a rank 4 zombie warrior, the Bronze Shell Corpse would be rank 5, Silver Shell Corpse would be rank 6, and Gold Shell Corpse would be rank 7. If it were not for the group arriving on time, the man in the pond would be made into Silver Shell Corpse.
"There is no hope for him, so let’s show him some mercy." Ye Chen scanned the man with his soul power, then shook his head. The man’s human body had already been heavily decomposed. It was his last spirit that had held him together for so long. Even if there were such powerful medicine out there, he would still be beyond saving. Instead of carrying on living like this, ending his life now would probably be better. After giving it some thoughts, Ye Chen took out his Star Scar Sword seriously and then moved it towards that man.
Pooh!
The man’s head had been blown away. However, there was not a single drop of blood.
The Fire Man sneered inside, then gave Ye Chen a look without the others noticing as he thought, ‘What would it feel if I turn Ye Chen into something like this? It must be such a good feeling.’
Meanwhile, the Mountain Man and Lake Man had their own thoughts.
"Lake Man, would you mind to use your secret skill again to find where the Corpse Man?" Lin Shuihan said.
"Alright!" Lake Man was about to use his martial art again when he frowned suddenly, "We are surrounded."
Surrounded!
Everyone could not help but tense up a bit.
Woo! Woo! Woo! …
In that dark environment, couple of dried-up zombie warriors with a silvery shine appeared and attacked towards the group. Their green eyes had lost the sight of human emotions. Only that sense of unnatural, blood-craving brutality and evilness was left.
"These are the Silver Shell Corpse, rank 6 zombie warriors!"
Long Yue waved her half-moon saw without hesitation, as countless blade lights shot out, cutting down the groups of those incoming zombie warriors.
Awoo! Awoo! Awoo! …
More Silver Shell Corpses rushed out from all directions. Looking over, it would impossible to count them all, as there were at least one thousand of them.
"How many Clasping Yuan Realm warriors had he captured?" Right then, even Ye Chen could not help but gasp. Every single one of the Silver Shell Corpses was a Clasping Yuan Realm warrior. One thousand of them meant one thousand Clasping Yuan Realm warriors, which was unthinkable.
"They are beyond saving! Kill!"
Xiao Heng yelled, while his mid-rank great blade had been waved out. An ocean-like sound was heard, as a horrifying blade light landed on the area where there were the most Silver Shell Corpses.
Boom!
Dozens of zombie warriors were decapitated by that beam of blade light.
"Snow Blade!" Lin Shuihan also brought out his power, but did not activate his seventy percent blade intent as he waved out his long snow-white blade. The blade qi was like an arrow on a fully extended bow. It then shot out in a flash, and wherever it reached, countless heads were blown away.
"Break Mountain Fist!"
Pang Nie’s aura was extremely rich. Each punch blew away a lot of incoming zombie warriors, shattering their metal-like bodies.
Zhuang Qinghe had trained a similar martial art as Zhuang Qingxian and Zhuang Fei; it was all a part of the Mountain River Great Art. Each of its movement was extremely visual, full of layers.
"Cut!"
After cutting dozens of zombie warriors with one sword attack, Ye Chen had noticed the Fire Man, Mountain Man and Lake Man’s attacks seemed very powerful, but the actual power was not very intense. He sneered inside, as he would like to see what those three people were planning to do.
While watching the three, Ye Chen continued to kill the incoming zombie warriors effortlessly.
"Lake Man, why is the Wood Man still not here? We are running out of time." Amongst that chaotic battlefield, Fire Man communicated with the Lake Man through zhen yuan.
The latter responded, "No hurry! Today, half of them would have to stay here. The Wood Man had lost two Gold Shell Corpses. They could be the perfect ingredient for making those."
"Hehe, that little brat would be perfect too. Too bad he has not reached the Astral Reaching Realm yet. Otherwise, he would make a Gold Shell Corpse as well."