Lin Jin was quite satisfied.
He only found it somewhat disgusting that Xiao Huo decided to eat the skull. Though, now that he thought of it, it wasn’t all that bad. Xiao Huo’s stomach was a burning furnace from hell, so even if there were remnants of death aura, Xiao Huo’s digestive system would likely get rid of it completely.
“Was it tasty?” asked Lin Jin asked when Xiao Huo approached him.
Of course, it wasn’t like Xiao Huo could answer him.
After retrieving his pet beast, Lin Jin glanced at the ruined environment. He took out the water reservoir scale and activated it. In an instant, water energy flowed from the scale. One could see the vague silhouette of a hand made of condensed water energy caress and comfort the damaged land. The remaining flames were put out and the smoke dispersed. Although life couldn’t be rebuilt immediately, it was only a matter of time before this land becomes teeming with life.
Then, Lin Jin used his Cosmic Ink to return to Shu Xiaolou’s painting realm.
The moment he entered the realm, he noticed a drastic change in his surroundings.
The ground was now pitch black. The zombie body continued to exude dark energy, corroding Shu Xiaolou’s painting realm to a severe extent.
Shu Xiaolou seemed to have run out of ideas, as did Shang’er.
While Lin Jin was outside, the zombie body experienced change. Perhaps it had sensed its head had been destroyed, or perhaps it was due to the decapitation from earlier, a slit resembling a mouth had opened up on its belly.
Two bloodshot eyes popped open on its chest and its devilish pupils kept darting around. It was a harrowing sight to behold.
“What happened?” Lin Jin was shocked. This zombie’s aura grew several times stronger than before. That head couldn’t even compare to this.
Frankly speaking, if they were to release this thing outside for Xiao Huo to fight it, Xiao Huo might not win the battle.
“The death aura inside this zombie has reached a maximum. It’s now at the level of an immortal. Because death aura can’t be destroyed, the more we dismember it, the stronger its remaining body would become. Our plan from before won’t work anymore,” explained Shu Xiaolou whose face looked far grimmer than before.
Perhaps she was reminded of the past that Shu Xiaolou couldn’t help feeling apprehensive when it came to zombies.
“Let it out then. We’ll fight it to death.” Lin Jin had a feeling that with the three of them combined, they had a chance at winning this battle. Since his flames were the zombie’s natural enemy, they might just win.
Shu Xiaolou shook her head.
“I’ve been subduing its death aura all this while. If it gets outside, its aura would be ten times more than what we’re experiencing now. No one could ever stand up to that.”
Shu Xiaolou wasn’t making baseless claims. It was a fact. Inside the painting realm, she did have the ability to subdue others. This meant that if they couldn’t even beat the enemy inside the painting realm, they surely wouldn’t be able to handle it outside.
“What do we do then?” Shang’er got nervous. She had tried everything, but be it spells or the Phantom Blade. None of her attacks left permanent damage on the headless zombie.
“This headless zombie is starting to demonize. Looks like the loss of its head has turned into an obsession, demonizing it,” commented Lin Jin as he observed his enemy. Immediately after, an idea came to mind.
With a flip of his hand, a unique blade appeared.
This blade was none other than the museum’s Demon Slayer.
The appearance of this blade startled the headless zombie. Those eyes on its chest immediately looked up while the mouth on its stomach bared fangs to unleash an earth-shattering roar.
The next instant, it broke free from the immortal binding rope. This was the first time the immortal binding rope’s golden glow had been affected by the fatally ominous death energy. Its golden light gradually grew dimmer as a result.
The headless zombie had now exceeded the standard of an average immortal that the immortal binding rope couldn’t restrain it anymore.
Lin Jin quickly retrieved the rope. This was an authentic magic treasure and should it be lost, Lin Jin’s heart would ache terribly.
Without the immortal binding rope to restrain it, the headless zombie leaped up, carrying its vicious aura with it. Seeing this, Lin Jin could only try attacking with the Demon Slayer and pray for it to work.
“Shang’er, pierce it with this sword!” Lin Jin called. Shang’er quickly invoked a spell. Using Object Manipulation, she pierced the zombie with the Demon Slayer.
Wrapped in a layer of pure air, the Demon Slayer deftly pierced into the headless zombie’s abdomen.
The death aura that Shang’er’s Phantom Blade failed to cut through was penetrated by the Demon Slayer, like a hot knife through butter.
The Demon Slayer managed to skewer the headless zombie. With Shang’er’s manipulation skill, she threw them both to the ground.
Following a loud rumble, the headless zombie was pinned to the ground by the Demon Slayer.
To their surprise, the headless zombie stopped writhing around after it was stabbed by the Demon Slayer as if it was really just a corpse. Still, they knew it wouldn’t be that simple.
Lin Jin could tell that it was only being subdued by the Demon Slayer. If they pulled the sword out, the headless zombie would be alive and kicking again.
To be able to subdue it temporarily was good enough for them.
“It’s a pity that my painting realm isn’t strong enough. If it was, I can seal this headless zombie here completely so that it can never leave this realm,” said Shu Xiaolou as the creases on her forehead finally flattened out.
Looks like she could also tell that their crisis was temporarily averted.
Not only did the Demon Slayer subdue the headless zombie, but it also sealed off the zombie’s overflowing aura. Although it couldn’t eliminate the enemy, so long as they didn’t pull the sword out, there shouldn’t be any problems.
“Lin Jin, where did you get that sword?” Now that her troubles were gone, Shu Xiaolou’s innocent curiosity was reawakened.
She was curious about the Demon Slayer that Lin Jin used to seal off this headless zombie.
She’d always try to obtain whatever thing she was curious about, and Lin Jin knew that well.
“Don’t even think about it. Even I can’t take it back. If I do, we’d have to release this headless zombie.” said Lin Jin as he held up both his hands in surrender. Speaking of which, his heart was aching as well. This was the museum’s Demon Slayer. Now that it was used to seal the headless zombie, what would he use to slay demons in the future?
Still, there was no helping it. They could only proceed without a plan for now.
This headless zombie would be temporarily sealed in Shu Xiaolou’s painting realm. Meanwhile, Shu Xiaolou and Shang’er asked about the zombie’s origins.
Lin Jin suddenly remembered the other door he had missed in the Visitation Hall.
If there had been another zombie in there, things could get troublesome.
At the thought of this, Lin Jin’s expression darkened. He knew full well that sealing one immortal-level zombie was all he could achieve right now. If another one showed up, they wouldn’t be able to handle it. There was only one Demon Slayer, after all.
However, just because they couldn’t handle it did not mean he couldn’t go and take a look.
Lin Jin remembered seeing a mysterious door and a silhouette on the other side of door number three.
That person was trying to release the zombie from this door but Lin Jin got to it first. Would that person release the one inside door number two instead?
Lin Jin couldn’t be sure.
