Chapter 237: Yi Wood Cleansing Thunder (1/2)

Lu Yun’s luopan shone brightly with aureate brilliance. Where the light touched revealed countless corpses, but outside its range, the chamber retained its modest and unassuming interior. It was as if the treasure’s golden light had forged a new world within the chamber.

Under the illumination, the bodies began to reanimate and rise. Their empty and strange faces became increasingly lively, and bleak laughter echoed hauntingly within earshot.

Bam!

The tomb suddenly trembled, opening up the room. Everything within the entire tomb seemed to become one at that moment. Within the golden light, the two previous chambers were reconstructed—the ashes of the burned bronze outer-coffins, the faintly glowing orb, and even the bronze door. The vicious ghost with its ripped mouth and empty eye sockets once again stood by the door, silently observing the five of them.

Outside the golden light, the room remained unchanged.

“Lu Yun is right,” muttered Wu Tulong. “If we hadn’t destroyed the first three formations, we’d be doomed after getting here.”

“It seems safe enough outside the light,” Mo Qitian spoke quickly. “Perhaps we’ll be fine once we step out.”

“How naive of you.” Zi Chen's face was steely. Lightning crackled around him, signalling his readiness to fight. “Senior brother Lu’s luopan is a great treasure. Its golden light reveals the truth of the scene in front of you. If you walk out of it, you’ll only be met with a grisly death.”

Rumble.

The electric current surged around him. With a push of his hands, terrible lightning shot out and struck the corpses. There were too many bodies here; if they all attacked at once, they would devour the living in an instant, bones and all.

“Wah!” Angered by the attack, the corpses roared in furious cacophony and lunged at them with claws extended and mouths agape.

“Keep going,” commanded Lu Yun. “Don’t stop!”

Zi Chen’s lightning technique wasn’t heavenly lightning, but it was still effective against all kinds of things that went bump in the night. His attack had momentarily slowed the bodies down.

“Take this, Qing Han.” Lu Yun handed the luopan to his hand. “Don’t let the light go out!”

Qing Han took it with a firm nod. Two silver starstones emerged and circled around his body, guarding the compass in his hand. The treasure revealed the fourth coiled mountain to them; without the golden light, the corpses would still exist, but they’d be invisible and intangible, which was infinitely more terrifying.

“Attack them with lightning techniques or talismans!” Wu Tulong exclaimed. He’d figured out what Lu Yun was going to do the moment the young governor had handed over his treasure. In response, Mo Qitian quickly rooted through his storage ring and flung a handful of talismans in all directions. Every talisman contained a lightning art—it might not be enough to destroy the bodies, but it’d be enough to briefly hinder them.

Rumble.

Wu Tulong joined in the fray as well, making use of the good number of lightning talismans in his possession. Lightning was the bane of all evils and ghosts, so it was only natural for them to bring many talismans of that element when exploring an ancient tomb.

However, the corpses were entirely too powerful. They’d been rendered invincible by the endless resentment within the tomb. The lightning arts the three of them released in concert were enough to destroy ten-thousand-year-old zombies, but here, the frenzied bolts barely proved to be a stumbling block.

Zi Chen channeled all of his energy into lightning and struck in all directions, while Wu Tulong and Mo Qitian continued flinging talismans around them. The three of them managed to keep the bodies about three meters away from the group.

Meanwhile, Lu Yun had taken to the air. He lifted his right arm and extended his fingers. Dark clouds gathered in the sky outside the tomb and silver bolts of heavenly lightning howled, transmuting to a strange power that entered underground and gathered at his fingertips.

Not enough! His heart sank. Lighting of this level wouldn’t be enough to destroy all of the corpses. Even hellfire wouldn’t work, not with the sheer amount of bitter venom coursing through them. It was the rancor of multiple generations!

The Firmament Prison had most likely been built here to concentrate the energy necessary to nurture these terrible corpses, imbuing them with enough strength to tear through any living souls foolish enough to intrude!

What a lot of investment to defend a tomb.

Compared to the fourth coiled mountain, the first three layers were child’s play. This was a killing layout that’d taken generations to complete!

Resentment was the source of strength for all zombies and ghosts. The denser the grudges, the more powerful the undead. Lu Yun would have to surrender control over his hellfire and allow it to eat through everything in order to destroy the corpses. What little bit he could muster at the moment wouldn’t even hurt them.

Pure and righteous heavenly lightning was the only thing that could suppress the terrifying undead and exterminate the festering malice. However, there was too much here. Countless aeons of accumulation had deposited an unfathomable amount of energy on these bodies.