Chapter 55: Escape By the Skin of Ones Teeth (1/2)

Lips pursed, Qing Han rested his head on Lu Yun’s chest, listening to the strong heartbeat echoing beneath his ear. The burial mound was crumbling around them, and a terrifying creature out of their worst nightmares was chasing them.

However, he felt strangely at peace

To him, this is a time of life and death, but to me.... Qing Han sighed faintly. I’ve never felt as safe as I do now. Not even my cousin or big brother ever helped me feel this much security.

Qing Han looked down at the starstone on his chest. The empty painting may or may not be able to break the coffin formation, but the stone could certainly do it.

Even if it won’t hurt the undead hag, it’ll break the formation. Qing Han closed his eyes and quietly gathered his strength to activate the stone. If I use it again, will that weird scroll be able to save me this time?

If it can’t, the starstone will become an unclaimed treasure after my death. He’ll see my true form then. What will he think? Will he still call me an old hag?

“Here it is!” Lu Yun suddenly stopped. Nine pitch-black coffins sat at the center of the tunnel, obstructing the way forward. Sensing danger, the gargantuan undead hag came to a halt and growled deeply.

“Scared now?” He curled his lip. “Too late!”

They were near the outer fringes of the burial mound. Although the structural integrity of this area was also compromised, the tunnel remained intact, for the moment. As he approached the coffins, the undead hag screamed crazily, seemingly having figured out his plan. But Lu Yun didn’t budge.

“It looks like you don’t dare come any closer.” He smiled and stepped into the formation. The layout of nine sectors and eight trigrams activated, and his surroundings changed.

At the same time, Lu Yun felt a tremendous force emanating from the young man in his arms. He quickly called out, “Wait! If you destroy the formation now, we’ll be eaten by the bloodcorpses!”

After a pause, Qing Han nodded and tamped down the stone’s power.

Lu Yun sighed in relief and quickly jumped out of the formation in a few leaps and bounds. He’d been here before and still remembered his past experience, immensely speeding up his escape.

“Now—” Qing Han spoke up.

“Don’t do anything yet!” Lu Yun interjected, frowning in deep thought. He could see the undead hag’s venomous glare of resentment from across the formation. The coffins were set up to allow only one escape route, which meant the undead hag had to walk it herself in order to get to Lu Yun.

Rumble rumble, crack!

An enormous rumble deep within the tunnels presaged to the walls cracking around them. The undead hag shook dramatically, ready to charge. The burial mound was falling apart around them; the moment it was completely destroyed and took with it the corpse coffin, the consciousness trapped within would be gone as well.

“Aha!” Lu Yun’s eyes lit up. “We’ll have the undead hag break the formation herself!”

“What do you mean?” Qing Han blinked in confusion. The undead hag was plainly too afraid of the formation to come closer.

“She may be afraid of the bloodcorpses, but the consciousness in the corpse coffin isn’t.”

Bam!

A giant floating summit emerged in the tunnel, filling the narrow path almost to the brim. On one side was the lifeless death pole; on the other side, the lush life pole. Combined, they formed the layout of resurrection.

The undead hag hollered unintelligibly at the sight and dashed toward the peak with reckless abandon.

Crash!

The undead hag’s giant body rammed headlong into the black coffins and reduced them to splinters. Bloodcorpses crawled out of the debris, strange and chilling smiles splitting their faces.

“Where are the ghostface maggots?!” Lu Yun tensed when he saw only nine bloodcorpses, but no maggots. However, he almost threw up in the next moment.

The bloodcorpses opened their mouths wide to bite the undead hag, revealing gaping maws teeming with maggots. The maggots were residing in the bloodcorpses’ stomachs!

The undead hag shrieked with terror as her skin, flesh, and even her bones were relentlessly devoured by the bloodcorpses. She struggled to climb the floating summit, but the bloodcorpses overpowered her and pinned her down.

“Ehehehehe!” They broke into spine-chilling laughter as they fed on the undead hag, then, one by one, looked in Lu Yun and Qing Han’s direction.

“Shit, we’ve taken the undead hag out, but the bloodcorpses are even worse!” Lu Yun’s stomach lurched. “Let’s hope they’ll stay in the burial mound, like most zombies.” He put the floating summit away with a wave of his hand and turned around to bolt.

From behind came the hellish cacophony of bloodcorpses masticating flesh and bone, and the undead hag’s tormented screams.

“Don’t look!” Lu Yun hurriedly covered Qing Han’s eyes before the imperial envoy could look back. “If you do, the bloodcorpses will follow us!”

“But they’re already following us,” Qing Han replied in a shaking voice, his eyes fixed somewhere above Lu Yun’s head. Nine crimson shadows floated over his head, and he could even make out dark red eyes glinting coldly within the shadows.

“Doesn’t matter. Just ignore them!” The noises behind them had died down, the bloodcorpses having devoured the titanic undead hag at a stunning speed.

“Are they corpses, or ghosts?” Lu Yun flew outside via Violetgrave, but the nine bloodcorpses doggedly chased after him, hovering above him.