Chapter 178 – Iron Plate Corpse (1/2)

The boat travelled with the flow. For a moment, the boat was quiet. The atmosphere was rather cold.

Hao Pingyang’s face was completely sunken as he sat at the very front, gazing at the depths of the cave as splashes of water landed on him. Zhang Lanqing frowned, focusing on steering the boat with his head lowered.

Jin Yuan and Jin Bao both felt rather awkward and ashamed. They said nothing either.

Suddenly, He Yishi said, “How many years have we known each other? We only met Li Qingshan less than a day ago. Are we supposed to drift apart as seniors and juniors over a single outsider now?”

They had all entered the Academy of the Hundred Thousands when they were young, and they had joined in the same year. Although a difference existed between their strengths due to their varying talents and level of work, it had never affected their relationship. Or in other words, Hao Pingyang did not look down on them due to being stronger. Instead, he took care of them.

Jin Yuan said, “Yishi is right. Senior brother Hao, please calm down. Qingshan will be fine. Our priority right now is to work together against the Zombie Daoist so that we can complete the mission our master gave us.”

After a moment of silence, Hao Pingyang sighed heavily and nodded slightly. He said, “Prepare yourselves. This time, that kid’s not here to take care of you anymore.”

Jin Bao said confidently, “Don’t worry. We’ll definitely do well this time!”

These scenes and images flashed through Jin Yuan’s head, but they had already lost their original colour. They were pale white. All that was left was Jin Bao’s dead expression.

His tears fell endlessly. He took one last glance at his younger brother. He was afraid to stop, so he continued to run around mindlessly in the pitch-black caves like a headless fly. The heavy, beastial breathing from behind drew closer and closer.

A boulder suddenly appeared before him. The path ahead had ended. Unknowingly, he had actually reached a dead end!

Why would this happen? If he had stayed behind and received the enemies with Li Qingshan, would he have suffered the same fate? Yeah, it must have been different. Even a Black Hawk commander could not be more terrifying than this monster.

Bang!

Jin Yuan abruptly turned around, and he saw a head fly over in the darkness, bouncing a few times on the ground before rolling over to his feet. It was the head of a puppet. He had released it to block the monster, but it had been completely destroyed in a single stroke.

A tall, wide figure walked over from the darkness in front of him. Its shoes seemed to be made out of metal as they scraped against the ground. Its eyes revealed a bloodthirsty light as four, long canines protruded from its lips. It heaved constantly like a starving beast.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

They only produced sparks when they landed on the black figure. The sharp bolts failed to pierce the monster’s hide, and the string of explosions failed to harm it at all. Instead, that infuriated it, making it let out a roar.

It was possible to see through the firelight that the monster was adorned in a set of iron plates. It did not wear it like armour. Instead, it was embedded in its body, covering its every inch and muscles. Even half of its face was metal, which made it seem particularly cruel and vicious.

“D- don’t come over! Senior brother, save me!”

The monster lunged at Jin Yuan with lightning speed. A sharp claw stabbed viciously into Jin Yuan’s chest, lifting him up into the air. It bit down on his neck and gulped down the fresh blood.

Jin Yuan struggled for his life, constantly beating the monster’s body, but it was useless. His body gradually weakened, drooping down after twitching a few times. His last thought flashed through his head.

If I didn’t flee, I could have died with senior brother and everyone else at the very least. Senior brothers, I’m sorry!

The frantic sound of a bell suddenly rang out in the depths of the cave. The monster raised its head and let out a furious, reluctant roar while holding Jin Yuan’s corpse. The monster rushed off in the direction of the bell.

The monster arrived in a spacious cavern with the two corpses before leaning on Jin Yuan’s corpse again, sucking blood from his neck.

The stone coffin was now gone from the altar in the cavern, while the thick chains around the coffin now wrapped around Hao Pingyang firmly. Surprisingly, He Yishi and Zhang Lanqing were right beside him. They were tied up as well. They seemed haggard, barely breathing.

The horrific deaths of the siblings left Hao Pingyang utterly devastated. He roared out, “Jin Yuan! Jin Bao!” The chains rattled from his movement; the sight saddened Zhang Lanqing and He Yishi as well.

“Jejejeje!” The Zombie Daoist let out a crazy laugh. “Did you really think that a bunch of trash like you could deal with this daoist? Have you finally witnessed how powerful the Iron Plate corpse is?”

He spent all these years hidden underground, studying the art of refining corpses. Useless rotting corpses and zombies were not the only things he refined. Things like that could only be considered as the very basics in the path of refining corpses. They could be used for dealing with the weak, but against stronger Qi Practitioners who were skilled in battle, they were basically useless. Only when he had refined an Iron Plate corpse could he be considered someone who knew how to refine corpses.

The Zombie Daoist said, “Do you know just how much effort I spent refining this Iron Plate corpse?”

Hao Pingyang and the other two cursed aloud.

The Zombie Daoist paid no heed to them and continued, “It took me several years of work. I dug up graves everywhere, and who knows how many people I had killed. I had only managed to find twelve suitable corpses from over a thousand. Afterwards, I forged steel until it was molten and poured it onto these corpses, layer by layer, replacing their flesh and blood. Just this process took me three years and destroyed half of the corpses that I had.”