Chapter 232: The Living Dead (1/2)

It was a corpse—a woman’s corpse.

The long years it’d endured had left behind a rank smell of rot and decay. Bloody maw yawning open, it bit at Lu Yun’s head.

“Ahhh!!” the corpse screamed like it’d been hit hard, and its body disappeared in the next instant.

Hellfire slowly dissipated from Lu Yun’s eyes. The woman had become a ghost, and an extraordinarily vicious one at that. The energy of the Tome of Life and Death wasn’t enough to intimidate it, but hellfire was the bane of all ghosts. That was how he’d injured it.

“Watch out. That thing is thick with grudge energy....” Shock overtook his face. “What the hell?!”

Other than Qing Han, Lu Shenhou, and himself, the other four had all turned into something like the ghost. Ripped open mouths reached their ears, and two bloody sockets were found in place of their eyes. Rotting away, their eyes had fallen out of their heads.

Wobbling, they made their way toward the large bronze door.

“Don’t go. Don’t....” Lu Shenhou stumbled back, the memories he dreaded most surfacing in his mind.

Finally, he remembered what had happened after they’d entered the door. It was a terrifyingly horrible place that turned his friends, brothers, and the woman he loved into monsters, then eventually killed them.

He’d barely escaped with the power that Lu Daoling had gifted him. And now Wu Tulong and the other three had met the same fate!

“Why haven’t the two of you—” Lu Shenhou turned to Lu Yun and Qing Han.

Qing Han’s face was pale. If it weren’t for his Imperial Star and the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals, he would’ve turned as well.

Lu Yun threw a conflicted look at Lu Shenhou, then growled, “Stay here and wait for us to return! Qing Han, come with me!”

He grabbed Qing Han and rushed for the bronze door. Wu Tulong, Zi Chen, and Dongfang Hao had entered the chamber behind the door. So had Mo Qitian, after he’d struggled free of Lu Yun’s talisman.

“I’ll help too,” Lu Shenhou blurted.

“Don’t!” snapped Lu Yun. “Stay here on guard until we return!”

Qing Han turned to look at Lu Shenhou. The Lu scion stood rooted to the spot, lost and helpless.

“Will he be alright?” Qing Han asked worriedly.

Lu Yun nodded and said with certainty, “He’ll be fine as long as he doesn’t enter the third chamber.” He pushed the door open with a loud creak.

“What is this place?” Qing Han looked around with wide eyes, his gaze fearful and stunned.

“I don’t know.” Lu Yun shook his head, his expression matching that of Qing Han’s. Behind the bronze door was a vast, boundless ocean of blood!

Countless black ships drifted about, but they looked like they’d been folded from paper. Within every paper ship was a person. A stark-white lantern hanging at the bow of every ship cast the passenger’s face with ghostly white lumination.

“Is this real,” Qing Han muttered, his face devoid of all color, “or an illusion created by formations?”