Chapter 178: Chapter 128: The Emergence of the Evil Corpse
"Evil corpse!" Liou Yuan spat out the words, unable to hide the dread in his voice, his eyes wide with horror as he stared at the characters on the Fixed Star Compass.
The evil corpse is also a kind of living corpse, but the difficulty of its formation is ten—hundred times greater than that of ordinary zombies.
Even those Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators specializing in this path would struggle to create even a single evil corpse in their lifetime.
This level of living corpse already possesses consciousness, its intelligence no less than that of a cultivator.
If ordinary zombies are like walking steel and iron, then the evil corpse’s body is untouchable by water or fire, virtually impervious to magic or magical artifacts.
Even a Foundation Establishment Great Cultivator would find it difficult to resist its sharp edge, left with no choice but a desperate escape.
Liou Yuan recalled that in the library, there was a tome dedicated to various demonic cultivation magics, which included a passage about the evil corpse.
Spring, Year 6794 of the Tianyuan Calendar. Danzhou of the Jiuli Domain suffered a sudden, great drought. In a single day, rivers dried up, deep wells dozens of feet deep were depleted overnight. Shrubs and trees on the mountainsides all shriveled, and humans and beasts alike were afflicted by the Red-eye Plague. The infected wasted away, their eyes blood-red, unable to speak, howling like beasts, even devouring their own kind—over a million died.
The drought dragged on for half a year. Within a thousand miles, Danzhou’s lands were barren. The ruler of Danzhou, from Out-Cloud Gate, sent three Foundation Establishment cultivators to investigate the source of the pestilence. Not long after, all their Life Mirrors shattered—the entire sect was shaken.
Danzhou then appealed for aid from the Lingxiao Sect. The Supreme Elder Yuyun personally descended the mountain and rushed to Danzhou. After a thorough investigation, he forced out the true culprit behind the calamity—a Red Training Evil Corpse. Elder Yuyun fought it in the Ancient Yellow Mountains for seven days. The mountain range was cleft, leveled to the ground. In the end, he finally slew it.
Yet the flesh of the evil corpse was so tough it could not be destroyed. Elder Yuyun brought the corpse back to Lingxiao Sect. There, the sect refined it into a peerless magical artifact, which remains in Lingxiao Sect to this day for later generations to study.
The Red Training Evil Corpse in that account had already achieved great power, such that only a Supreme Elder of Golden Core level could suppress it personally.
Obviously, the evil corpse before him could not rival that one.
But its danger was no less—it was graded First Class, Grade A.
Virtually at the peak of Foundation Establishment Realm.
Wouldn’t that mean this evil corpse’s strength was already on par with a Foundation Establishment peak cultivator?
No wonder Liou Yuan was so shocked. The calamity-level Star Evil of Chouhuai City was merely First Class, Grade C.
That had required four Foundation Establishment cultivators working together, with the luck of an Auspicious Star day, to slay it.
But this Grade A evil corpse?
Liou Yuan could not even imagine what kind of storm would be unleashed if this evil corpse were to be set free.
"And it’s an alien evil corpse, damn it." Liou Yuan swallowed hard.
After encountering the calamity-level Star Evil of Yanhe City, he finally came across another entity labeled with the words "alien."
That meant, before death, this evil corpse—Han Zhenzi—must have been a cultivator with innate talent.
First Class, Grade A, on top of Variant Talent—who in the Foundation Establishment Realm could stand against it?
Liou Yuan felt that unless a Golden Core cultivator personally intervened, there was almost no possibility for anyone in the Foundation Establishment Realm to destroy this alien evil corpse.
As for the reward listed by the Fixed Star Compass, something called "Netherworld Baptism"—Liou Yuan didn’t even dare to imagine it.
"Han Zhenzi was definitely tricked and killed—someone set their sights on his extraordinary talent and used some method to refine him into an evil corpse."
"That Foundation Establishment Compass must have been his means to suppress himself before dying, to prevent the evil corpse’s consciousness from taking over his body."
A sudden clarity came to Liou Yuan, who began muttering his deductions to himself.
"So many years have passed—unless that person who killed Han Zhenzi was a Golden Core, he couldn’t possibly still be alive."
"So the reason the Jiuli Travelogue contained a map of this Corpse Nurturing Land must have been a scheme by the one behind Han Zhenzi’s death."
"They just wanted to use someone from later generations to release this evil corpse."
The more Liou Yuan thought about it, the more terrified he became.
This trip had begun as a simple quest for opportunity at the Foundation Establishment cultivator’s place of sitting death, but now he’d been drawn into a grand conspiracy.
Fortunately, Liou Yuan possessed Evil Eyes, enabling him to see truths hidden from others—he hadn’t taken away the suppressing Foundation Establishment Compass at first sight.
If it had been any other cultivator, they probably couldn’t have resisted the temptation of a Foundation Establishment magical artifact, and would’ve taken it from Han Zhenzi’s remains.
The consequences need not be imagined.
"Let’s go, this is no place to linger."
Having figured out the crucial points, Liou Yuan had no more courage to stay, fearful that something else would go wrong.
He put away the Fixed Star Compass, shifted his gaze from Han Zhenzi’s remains, and turned to the three living corpses outside the array barrier.
And to Pan Yang, whose face had already been chewed beyond recognition by the zombies.
He was almost dead—his half-mangled face staring, pupils dilated, all consciousness already gone.
Liou Yuan’s eyes settled on the map that was half exposed from Pan Yang’s chest.
Liou Yuan had confidence he could get past these three living corpses.
The only problem was the Illusion Array outside the Corpse Nurturing Land. Without that map, it would be truly difficult to get out.
Thinking of this, Liou Yuan glanced again at the three living corpses—all of them crouched on the array barrier, their ghastly eyes watching his every move.
"Heh!" Liou Yuan chuckled; these walking corpses had no real intelligence to speak of, very easy to deal with.
With that in mind, Liou Yuan ambled toward the other end of the array, away from Pan Yang’s body.
The three living corpses followed Liou Yuan, finally gathering at the other end of the array.
And the instant the three corpses left Pan Yang’s body area—
Whoosh! Treading Flowing Waves activated.
Liou Yuan’s figure turned into an azure stream of light, vanishing from his original location, shooting straight toward the other side of the array.
