In a one-on-one, Corpse Taoist couldn’t possibly match up to Tiger Taoist.
After all, he was using someone else’s body while his own was being trapped in a painting realm.
Shortly after, Corpse Taoist’s body was decorated with deep wounds, and he had lost one of his arms. It was torn away by Tiger Taoist and turned into mush.
“Run!”
Corpse Taoist knew he couldn’t win. He was never stronger than Tiger Taoist in the first place. Now that he had sustained such serious injuries, if he did not escape now, he would be unable to escape later.
When his own life was at stake, how could he even have time to care about Patriarch Xue Pao.
Death aura overflowed from his body and he planned to use this thick miasma to escape. Yet, Tiger Taoistprepared for this. Corpse Taoist had only taken one step back when Tiger Taoist roared and pounced forward. Swiping his claws, a gust of wind whirled forward, blocking Corpse Taoist’s path.
Wherever the wind passed, rocks shattered like they were being pummeled by axes.
A moment’s hesitation caused Corpse Taoist to be held up and he had no choice but to fight Tiger Taoist again.
Corpse Taoist tried to summon the zombie dragon a few times but Xiao Huo had fully occupied its attention. As if that wasn’t enough, Lin Jin summoned waves using the Four Ocean Gourd to push the zombie dragon back whenever it tried to leave. Facing both fire and water attacks, the zombie dragon couldn’t even return to its master, much less help him.
Corpse Taoist became increasingly anxious.
“Second Brother, are you really so heartless as to forget our brotherhood?” said Corpse Taoist out of desperation.
He was begging for mercy.
Deep lacerations covered his body. Had he been a normal human or an immortal, he would have died at this point, either from shock or loss of blood. However, a zombie’s body was undead, so even if his organs were to fall out, Corpse Taoist would not die.
“Old Fourth, when have you ever cared about our brotherhood?”
Tiger Taoist’s reply simply shut him up. Back then, it could be implied from Corpse Taoist’s actions that he had no concern for their brotherhood. It was a downright betrayal.
Of course, Corpse Taoist had only said that to buy himself time. After securing an opening, he invoked a spell, and his face contorted into that of a ravenous ghoul with a mouth full of fangs. He was able to twist and extend his neck, and with his newfound flexibility, he turned and chomped down on Tiger Taoist’s chest.
Imbued with death aura, his sharp fangs broke Tiger Taoist’s skin, piercing into his.
Tiger Taoist howled in pain. Together with Corpse Taoist’s eerie cackle, the atmosphere took a harrowing turn.
Even Lin Jin hadn’t expected this mishap. To think Corpse Taoist still had this trick up his sleeve. Ghouls were indeed scarier as they could contort their bodies as they pleased.
Right now, Corpse Taoist looked more like a ghost than a zombie.
Tiger Taoist seemed to be in a terrible state after being bitten. It didn’t take much to figure out that Corpse Taoist’s bite have been laced with lethal poison.
Lin Jin hurried over in a panic. However, Tiger Taoist opened his mouth wide and let out a roar. His face began to protrude as sharp fangs emerged, and then he lowered his head and bit down.
A tiger’s greatest weapon was its bite after all.
It was actually Tiger Taoist’s first time reverting to his primal form to use this attack. This bite turned the tide, as Corpse Taoist’s upper torso disappeared in mere seconds.
It had been torn away by Tiger Taoist.
Even with his undead body, Corpse Taoist couldn’t possibly survive with half his body gone. To finish the deed, Tiger Taoist gulped down Corpse Taoist’s upper torso and proceeded to help himself with the remaining half of his body.
After the second bite, Corpse Taoist’s head and body were gone, leaving only an arm and two legs that fell to the ground, where they emitted rotting corpse energy.
Lin Jin’s jaw hit the ground.
It all happened so quickly that Lin Jin didn’t know how to react. Who would have thought that Tiger Taoist would eat Corpse Taoist out of desperation?
A thought came to Lin Jin’s mind.
Didn’t Tiger Taoist find it disgusting? Wouldn’t his stomach hurt from eating Corpse Taoist?
After the thoughts passed, Lin Jin made his way toward Tiger Taoist to check for any abnormalities. Tiger Taoist was stood tall, and his triumphant posture reminded Lin Jin of the domineering God of War.
Black energy still lingered on his chest but it didn’t seem very problematic. Compared to the bite, Lin Jin was more concerned about the meat Tiger Taoist had just ingested!
At a loss for what to say, Lin Jin approached Tiger Taoist and studied him silently.
Slowly, black energy seeped out of his body. The energy contained traces of death aura. Lin Jin was shocked and quickly pierced him with a few Psyche-Refining Needles.
In an instant, Lin Jin gained the latest update on Tiger Taoist’s condition.
“What a powerful death aura!” Lin Jin frowned hard. This definitely exceeded his expectations. However, Tiger Taoist swallowing Corpse Taoist had been inevitable so he could understand his comrade’s decision.
After all, Corpse Taoist was also a zombie, and zombies couldn’t die. Just like the one sealed inside the painting realm, no matter what he and Shu Xiaolou tried, they could only lock it away for now.
Hence, one could imagine how challenging it would be to completely annihilate Corpse Taoist.
Besides their master Daojun, Tiger Taoist might be the only other person who knew Corpse Taoist best in this world, so he must already have a vague idea as to how to deal with him.
In the end, Tiger Taoist’s decision was to chew him up and digest him.
Simply put, it wasn’t a spontaneous act on Tiger Taoist’s part. He hadn’t done it out of desperation either; it was planned from the start.
Now came the hard part – digesting Corpse Taoist’s body.
Tiger Taoist was now resisting the invasion of Corpse Taoist’s death aura. At this point, it was a battle to see who was stronger and could hold out longer. Whoever could resist until the end would be the victor.
If Tiger Taoist won, the death aura would decompose completely and Corpse Taoist would be as good as dead. A bizarre creature like him would then cease to exist in this world.
However, if Corpse Taoist won, the situation would get tricky.
The death energy would corrode Tiger Taoist until he turned into a tiger zombie, and Corpse Taoist would subsequently gain a new body.
When he thought about the risk, Lin Jin came to appreciate just how powerful Corpse Taoist was. To think he actually came up with such a horrifying cultivation method that made him so difficult to deal with.
In a sense, this ‘zombification’ Corpse Taoist came up with was the true way to achieve immortality. So long as no accidents happened, he could use his death aura to infect other creatures to achieve reincarnation.
He would never actually die.
However, Lin Jin thought that such a survival method was no different from death.
To lose one’s sense and feelings was no different from being a walking corpse.
It was better to accept one’s mortality than to live like this.
Tiger Taoist was under immense stress. More accurately, he had underestimated Corpse Taoist’s death aura. They were currently stuck in a stalemate, but it became obvious that without external help, Tiger Taoist would soon lose the battle.
Lin Jin would never just stand and watch Tiger Taoist turn into a zombie. He invoked a spell to control the Psyche-Refining Needles, helping Tiger Taoist decompose the death aura.
Inside Tiger Taoist’s body, the death aura was running rampant like a horse, surging around as it pleased.
