Chapter 231: Ghostly Shadow (1/2)

Hum.

No sooner had Qing Han rushed out than the tendon tied to him blazed with gold. Tremendous might radiated from it and pulled him back from midair. A pair of strong arms wrapped around him as a familiar voice spoke into his ear.

“It’s okay, Qing Han!” garbled Lu Yun, his face pale and his clothes tattered. “I’m fine!”

The disguised girl bit his lip and nodded, blinking back the tears welling up in his eyes.

“What happened?” Lu Shenhou stared at Lu Yun with shock and confusion. “Didn’t the monster eat you?”

“You pulled me out as soon as I broke the formation.” Lu Yun sneered at the giant zombie howling within the circle of green flames. “That thing turned into a grudge corpse after being sealed inside the formation and saturated with grudges and malevolent intent for countless years. Grudge corpses are a mix of zombies and ghosts, with resentment that threatens even the heavens.”

He’d encountered a grudge corpse back in the Skandha Extinction Tomb. However, that corpse had been created out of the curse that embodied the tomb, while this particular one had appeared simply because it’d been here for too long and there was nowhere else for the resentment to go.

“It’s looking for a scapegoat,” Lu Yun spat out, his eyes fixed on the zombie. “Grudge corpses are sentient. This one wanted me to break the formation, so it allowed the fire to burn down the coffins. That should’ve made it easier for it to possess me and escape!”

He hadn’t known how he could break the formation, but when he restrained the two lanterns at the entrance, an errant thought had come to him, prompting him to keep their flames. Stray inspiration and experience with feng shui had prompted him to set fire to the outer-coffins.

Corpse-fostering formations not only fostered zombies, but were also a seal that trapped the zombies to guard the main tomb. The grudge corpse had planned to possess Lu Yun to regain its freedom, but Qing Han’s quick actions had prevented that possibility. It was part of the formation, and the formation’s destruction would bring about the corpse’s doom.

Sensing its imminent demise, the grudge corpse had released its consciousness to create the illusion that Lu Yun had been eaten to lure others in. It’d been here for a very long time, and had developed a very powerful consciousness. Without the formation suppressing it, it was easy enough for it to deceive a few cultivators.

As the grudge corpse shrieked with pain in the green fire, it kept its eyes focused on Lu Yun with pure malevolence.

“Fortunately, after years of deterioration, six of the seven zombies have disintegrated, leaving behind only one,” Lu Yun sighed in relief.

Zombies were creatures abandoned by heaven and earth, forgotten by life and death. They were essentially immortal, if nothing put them down. Sealed within corpse-fostering formations, however, they lived only as long as the formation did. Although Lu Shenhou had seen zombies lying inside all seven of the coffins, there’d actually only been one left.

In roughly four hours, the formation ahead was nothing but burnt remains. All that was left were two shriveled lanterns lying amidst the bone powder and ashes left by the grudge corpse.

“What was that fire?” Wu Tulong knelt down to pinch a fingerful of ashes. “It can burn zombies. Not even your Daevic Skyfire can do that.”

“How do you know it can’t?” Lu Yun shook his head. “The Daevic Skyfire can destroy the formation, but it’d also destroy the tomb in the process.”

The three immortal fires had once burned down a giant zombie tree, which was much more powerful than the grudge corpse. However, with their powers unleashed to that point, Lu Yun wouldn’t be able to control it and the fire would consume everyone.

“The fire is a ghostly fire refined from the living souls of 99,999 children born in a yin hour in a yin year. Their souls were extracted when they turned seven,” Lu Yun said in an impassive voice. “All things have their natural bane, and that flame happens to be the bane of all zombies and ghosts.”

Everyone shuddered involuntarily. The lantern spirits had been the living souls of children, and the lanterns themselves were made of their flesh and bones. Lu Yun had seen that all with his Spectral Eyes, and the lanterns’ destruction had freed the children.

“What a foul person the owner of this tomb was.” Qing Han blanched. “Lamps made of children and a corpse-fostering formation... they must have been a terrible scourge!”

Lu Yun nodded in agreement. He’d attempted to locate the tomb owner with his Spectral Eye, but there was too much information for him to parse through the great number of people who’d died here. He couldn’t determine who was the original buried dead.

“Lu Yun,” said Zi Chen. He’d been the quietest among them.

Lu Yun turned to him. “Yes?”

“Do you know what you’re doing now is much more terrifying than your ability to refine a Heaven Descent Pill?” Zi Chen fixated on Lu Yun with his light purple eyes.

Lu Shenhou had come with more than twenty people, and many of them had died in the first chamber. By contrast, Lu Yun had easily destroyed the terrifying corpse-fostering formation and kept his companions safe.

The others shifted penetrating gazes to Lu Yun. Tomb-raiding skills were the most useful in the current world of immortals, given the plethora of tombs. Excavating an ancient tomb that’d been built for an immortal could make an average house one of the top factions in the world.