Chapter 55: Escape By the Skin of One’s Teeth

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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 .

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“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 .

Cras.h.!.+

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 .

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“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 .

“s.h.i.+t, 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 h.e.l.lish 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 t.i.tanic 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 .

“You… have . . . destroyed . . . me!” a chilling voice slid into Lu Yun’s ear .

“You’re… just . . . a… f.e.c.king consciousness without a soul!” he sneered . “Stay down!”

He knew what the voice was; it was the consciousness sealed in the corpse coffin . It wasn’t a ghost, nor was it a zombie . It was just an untethered consciousness that would dissipate as soon as it left the burial mound .

There was no need to fear it .

“Take me with,” the voice sounded again, but with pleading tones this time . “Let me inside . Let me in, let me in!

“In?” After a brief pause, Lu Yun summoned the Gates of the Abyss, opening up the way to the other realm .

Swoos.h.!.+

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Something seemed to have entered the gates .

“Hm?” Both the consciousness and the nine bloodcorpses had entered, which was rather mystifying . Still, the world within the gates was his territory and the nine bloodcorpses wouldn’t be able to get up to any trouble .

He kept his guard up and sped through the burial mound . Something else had been awoken amid the destruction . Something terrible .

The corpse flies!

They were attached to the meridians of the corpse coffin . As the burial mound collapsed, damaging more and more of the corpse coffin, the walls fell apart and awakened the flies .

Palm-sized flies lunged spitefully at Lu Yun, and he could see the crimson venom in their mouths . That was the flies’ most terrifying weapon, as one bite would reduce their victim to a zombie .

Every one of the flies could rival a core realm cultivator, while Lu Yun was only in the qi transformation realm . He could deal with a couple of them, but not an endless swarm of flies .

hum .

A soft white light emitted from within Lu Yun’s arms, keeping the cloud of flies at arm’s length . Qing Han had finally succeeded in activating the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals, and the white glow acted like a barrier in keeping the flies out, but it couldn’t kill them either .

“I don’t know how to use it,” Qing Han said nervously, his face a shade paler . “This is the best I can do . ”

“It’s good enough!” Lu Yun sighed in relief and flew toward the exit with Violetgrave .

The first pond they‘d encountered was in shambles and the giant corpsefish was nowhere to be seen . It might be dead, or simply fled .

“Finally!” Miao and Yueshen, who was controlling Li Youcai’s body, had waited a long time in the ruins of the palace hall . They hurried to Lu Yun when they saw him arrive, Qing Han in his arms .

“Let’s get out of here! The flies are coming!” Staring at the swarm of flies, Lu Yun destroyed the tunnel with a flash of his sword, blocking the path . The palace hall was losing bits and pieces as well, and wouldn’t hold for long .

“This was where the formation was etched!” Miao hurriedly pointed out .

“Don’t use that . Use this!” A transportation formation disk emerged in Lu Yun’s hand .

“Uhh…” Miao paused .

The Dusk governor placed the formation disk on the portal they’d come through earlier, lining up the etchings on both . A rumble later, and no more figures could be seen in the hall .

Boom .

After twenty breaths of time, the palace toppled, buried under a landslide of mud .

In the outside world, great disturbances were rumbling from underground .

Mo Yi watched incredulously as Myriad Formation Summit sank . The mountain that had stood tall in Duskwater Prefecture for five thousand years had abruptly vanished from the face of the earth .

Every living soul in the prefecture was compelled to look in the direction of where the mountain used to stand .

“It’s gone,” muttered Mo Yi . “Did he really get the Formation Orb?”

Though Lu Yun had long taken the Formation Orb, it hadn’t affected the formations outside the mountain, since they’d formed a complete system themselves after five millennia . That was why the grand formation of the mountain had remained intact until this very moment .

Mo Yi had left the outskirts long ago . Ge Long stood by her side with a transportation formation disk, anxiously awaiting his master . It abruptly flashed, then some figures fell from midair .

Buzz buzz buzz .

A stream of palm-sized corpse flies swarmed out of the ruins and spread out in the vicinity .

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