Chapter 46: The Original Owner (2/2)
the altar had stirred to life the second he’d taken the painting away, consuming all of the undead hags in the ruins. but these hags were half-dead monsters with no life essence whatsoever, so they were worthless offerings.
in that case, how did the city lord die? since she’d sealed the altar with the portrait of emptiness, that’s proof she was still alive then. but she’s dead now and has become part of the burial goods… is there something even more frightening in here?
a memory struck him all of a sudden. inside the layout of certain death, something had fooled both him and yueshen.
for a split second, he’d been confident that he’d unraveled the truth about the tomb, but now he faced another enigma. there was definitely far more here than met the eye.
no matter, first things first! secure that bronze outer-coffin and the resurrection layout!
with a single thought, a silent rumble echoed across the void as the gates of the abyss swung open behind him. a colossal devouring force erupted from within and swallowed the floating peak.
hum—
before momentum took over, an indistinct azure halo pulsed from the coffin’s surface and resisted the force, as if it sensed danger.
“i wouldn’t be able to do anything to you, had you been alive. the merest inkling resistance would’ve stopped me cold.” two black, ghostly fires ignited in lu yun’s irises. “sadly for you, you’re dead, and the dead are mine to command!”
boom—
a loud explosion seemed to rock the tomb’s very foundations. the next moment, the floating peak—and the coffin resting upon it—had vanished without a trace.
a muffled groan sounded out of lu yun and there was a trace of blood on the corner of his lips. the coffin itself had presented no great challenge, but taking the resurrection layout with it had been more of an ordeal. the enormous backlash hadn’t left him entirely unharmed.
“what a formidable storage item!” murmured the immobilized qing han as he looked upon the scene, leaning against a boulder. it was obvious that lu yun had called upon an incredibly strong immortal storage item; there was no other possible explanation.
“awoooo!” a ringing howl from below suddenly pierced the air. something seemed to be slowly clawing its way up from the abyss.
“what is that?!” lu yun flinched and looked down instinctively. an enormous hand, pale as death, abruptly lurched out of the gloom. “it’s a ginormous undead hag!” he blanched. “we’re leaving right now!”
he reached qing han in a single bound, flung the young man onto his shoulder, then turned and ran for dear life.
an undead hag! a titanic undead hag had crawled up from the abyss!
ghastly, pale eyes full of rancor, its enormous frame brimmed with a terrifying aura of resentment and hatred. corpse water overflowed from its body, and it reached surface level in no time at all. it slinked up the path through the mouth of the corpse coffin, accessed the body proper, and gave chase to lu yun’s group.
this hag wasn’t all that much smaller than the corpse coffin, but strangely enough, it had made its way inside with no issues whatsoever!
the moment it had appeared inside the corpse coffin, its fiendish aura began shredding monsters and living layouts alike. cracks even started crawling over the surface of the duality of dragon and tiger coiled around the corpse coffin.
“how can there be such an enormous undead hag?!” qing han groaned weakly on lu yun’s shoulder, struggling to lift his head to observe the creature. he’d previously seen a giant corpsefish, but that was simply dwarfed by this undead hag’s stature.
“an aura of malicious hatred covers it from head to toe. a foul taint born from accumulated grudge and fury... if my guess is right, this was the one originally buried inside yueshen, the burial mound’s original owner,” lu yun explained as he ran.
having broken through not long ago, his entire being was overflowing with strength. he hurtled forward furiously, wind beneath his feet. the hag would eat him alive if he were too slow.
he hadn’t thought that someone would throw the burial mound’s original owner into that bottomless abyss, turning them into an undead hag!
“i wonder what’s at the bottom; why’s there so much corpse water down there?” he mumbled under his breath. it was plain to see that the corpse water on the hag wasn’t its own, but had come from an outside source.
where? logic would dictate that it came from the bottom of the abyss.
“watch where you’re going so you don’t make a wrong turn!” miao floated beside him, his tail wrapped around lu yun’s arm as he let the governor drag him away. as for yuying, she brought up their rear.
“don’t worry, i won’t get lost.” two spectral rays of light burned in his eyes as he picked up speed and charged back to the location of truewater’s mistress. with yuying’s return, he was confident he could handle the malicious ghost that had risen from the city lord this time around.
“we’re clearly inside one of the corpse coffin’s meridians. how can such a gigantic hag fit inside?” wondered qing han.
the current tunnel should’ve been too narrow to accommodate the creature, but it moved unobstructed, as if it were perfectly at home.
“we’re inside its coffin in the first place, of course it can come and go as it pleases. look out, lower your head.” lu yun patted qing han’s thigh in warning. the next moment, he hunched down on himself and squeezed into an even narrower space.