I Can See Your Combat Power

Chapter 835: One hundred twenty-nine: Wáng Shī Hàn Bá

The luminescent glow shone brightly, allowing people to discern the specks of light in the sky were not ghostly flames or phosphorescence but the ominous gleam in the eyes of monster soldiers and ghost generals.

It turned out that when the famous gate opened, a team of grim ghost soldiers arrayed themselves in the void, but because dark clouds had obscured the sky and cast shadows upon the land, no one could see them clearly.

Now, because of the silver light, the ranks of the sinister ghost soldiers could be seen standing in solemn order, and everyone immediately understood why the silver giant had not initiated an attack, as the Xuanwu Faziang roared repeatedly at the void.

The green light from within the gate grew brighter, and the grating laughter louder, as countless ethereal poisonous gases surged out. A purple-pupiled ghoul with a green face, sharp teeth, and a corpse crown stood atop the toxic clouds at the end of the ghost soldiers’ formation.

The plague of toxic clouds that welled up from the netherworld infused the bodies of the ghost soldiers. Originally fierce and terrifying, the monster soldiers and ghost generals grew green fur all over their bodies. The ghost soldiers, who were merely at the level of flying stiff-haired corpses, suddenly acquired the toxic characteristics of green stiff zombies—all thanks to that purple-pupiled ghoul.

“Beast King Cao really adores his grandson to death, bestowing the divine item like the Ghost King’s gold disc, fretting over Cao Changqing’s safety all the way from Long Valley to Kunwu. He doesn’t seem to consider that with the reputation of the Beast Taming Sect, it’s good enough not to oppress others; who would be so heedless as to rob the Beast Taming Sect’s beast carriage? Truly an unnecessary move.”

“Indeed, Martial Saint Mountain and the Beast Taming Sect are as close as two peas in a pod. It was clear that they were bested fair and square, but they still sought ways to turn the tables and took out treasures from the Beast Taming Sect’s foundation to compete, it’s really just…”

In ancient times, there was a technique of refining corpses by selecting corpses with extremely yin life patterns and nurturing them in places of quadruple yin and fierce evil, communing them with secret arts and condensing them with essence blood. It required a painstaking process lasting multiples of the number forty-nine until one could obtain a spiritual corpse.

Spiritual corpses were categorized into nine grades, namely the ninth grade subdued corpse, eighth grade roaming corpse, seventh grade stiff-haired corpse, sixth grade white stiff, fifth grade flying stiff, fourth grade green stiff, third grade purple stiff, second grade ghoul, first grade Haunt.

The art of refining corpses was one of the initial fundamental techniques of the Beast Taming Sect at its founding. However, as martial arts flourished thereafter, the corpse refining technique, which required the expenditure of essence blood and was not fundamental, fell by the wayside. Yet, high-grade spiritual corpses preserved from ancient times, each possessing tremendous combat capabilities, were treated as treasures of the Beast Taming Sect’s foundation.

This purple-pupiled ghoul wearing the corpse crown was especially renowned for its fearsome prowess: capable of slaying dragons and scorching the skies, summoning the plague gods, traversing a thousand miles of barren earth, and spreading epidemics at will.

Ordinary warriors from the Fierce Realm, let alone facing this purple-pupiled ghoul, would painfully perish just by mistakenly entering its toxic clouds. Not to mention that this ghoul had been nourished by Spiritual Energy for hundreds of years, impervious to myriad laws and invulnerable to saints, even a Martial Arts Grandmaster facing this invincible ghoul would find it challenging.

And this was the source of Cao Changqing’s greatest confidence!

Holding the golden disc high, he arrogantly said to the silver giant on the back of Xuanwu, “I know that you possess the divine ability of the Innate Yin-Yang Millstone, but this ghoul has neither soul nor spirit, exists beyond the Three Realms, and is not within the Five Elements. The only thing your Yin-Yang Grinding cannot deal with is this ghoul’s Senluo deathly aura. I advise you to admit defeat sooner and give up your spot for questioning the path; after all, only the wise know when to yield.”

Transformed into the silver giant, Tang Luo glanced down at the cloud platform below and then said indifferently to Cao Changqing, “It seems Young Master Cao has been busy these past three days, gathering thorough intelligence on me, even about the Yin-Yang Grinding. But to think that a mere thousand-year-old corpse could make me, Tang, concede defeat, is utterly delusional. We shall see whether I crush your bones first or if this corpse king breaks my battle body!”

“Obstinate fool!” Cao Changqing coldly snorted as he poured a massive amount of Spiritual Power into the gold disc. The engraved patterns on it spun, and the drought demon wearing a corpse crown seemed to receive an order. With its pair of purple eyes fixated on the silver giant, it opened its fang-filled mouth to let out a roar and transformed into a green glow that hurtled forward.

On the other side, the strength of the clouds and rain from the Xuanwu Faziang turned into towering waves, propelling the Xuanwu Dharma Aspect towards the army of ghost soldiers, as if it didn’t even notice the approaching drought demon. Meanwhile, the Mysterious Snake had already positioned itself in the path of the drought demon, spitting out a breath of netherworld poison at the zombie.

The purple-eyed drought demon did not dodge or avoid and allowed the netherworld poison to corrode half of its body, punching through the Mysterious Snake’s vitals and carrying the morbid Evil Qi and poisonous liquid as it lunged toward Tang Luo’s eyes. Its thick arms were drawn back like a bowstring at full moon, the ten sharp claws gleamed with a cold light, and a green toxic cloud lingered behind it.

Had it been an ordinary person facing the ferocious approach of the drought demon, they would have already dodged away, but the silver giant remained expressionless, lifting its totemic thick right arm and raising a fist the size of a battering ram to smash at the drought demon!

The silver-gleaming fist collided with the ten sharp claws of the drought demon, and one would expect the drought demon to be sent flying. However, this zombie, just over three meters tall, withstood the punch from the silver giant without any leverage, not budging an inch.

Putting aside his father, Tang Sen, the zombie before him was, perhaps, the strongest creature (or should it be dead thing?) Tang Luo had ever encountered. No matter how hard he tried, his right fist couldn’t make any progress, as if what stood before it wasn’t a zombie, but rather a steel plate several meters thick or a mountain of iron weighing billions of tons.

Luckily, he wasn’t a one-armed giant, or else he’d truly have no way to advance.

The giant, unabashed, swung its left arm, the intense whooshing of the wind parted even the dark clouds in the sky, sweeping them away like a split, and with a motion as casual as swatting a mosquito, it sent the over three-meter-tall drought demon flying. The giant’s knees buckled beneath him as it forcefully launched itself from the Book of Prophecy as the ground, with a mighty push.

The violent sonic boom dissipated the ring of clouds and rain, the powerful shockwave blew away the gathered miasma, and the silver giant transformed into a hunting tiger pouncing on its prey, rushing towards Cao Changqing behind the army of ghost soldiers.

From the ground’s perspective, the towering giant’s speed was just somewhat fast, but through Cao Changqing’s eyes, Tang Luo was approaching at an astonishing pace, and the eerie, ghostly army in front of him couldn’t give him the slightest sense of security.

Switching the gold disc to his left hand, he issued instructions to intercept, while drawing out the Spiritual Sword and releasing a sharp crescent of sword energy towards the giant’s brow. Despite all these actions, Cao Changqing did not forget to retreat hurriedly, but all of this was futile in Tang Luo’s eyes.

With his steel body and the heaven-sent silver armor, he didn’t fear the attacks of the ghost soldier army. Even with the addition of the drought demon’s violent corpse poison, if they couldn’t break through the defense, the poison couldn’t take effect on him.

His goal had been clear from the start, to get past the drought demon and defeat Cao Changqing. He just didn’t expect things to go so smoothly.

At the same time, Tang Luo also realized why the art of corpse refining, though alluring, ultimately became a second-tier practice. Such a zombie technique, requiring the consumption of the master’s vital blood, simply couldn’t match the benefits of strengthening oneself. After all, while a soulless zombie might have astounding strength and defense, its offensive capabilities were limited. Against average experts, it would naturally be invincible, but in extreme conditions, it inevitably faced difficulties at every turn.