“We’ll just have to take this gamble.” Resolution flashed through Leng Xian’s eyes.
Sacred palace disciples were very willing to take risks if they had a goal in sight. If they failed, they’d lose only their cultivation and treasures. But if they succeeded, they would reap untold benefits.
“There’s another way, we can refine the stones into a tiny boat and take it across the sea,” Ying Luo suddenly suggested. “If we’re disguised as zombies, the real ones in the sea won’t sense the presence of the living and therefore, won’t attack us.”
Standing next to Leng Xian, her skin crawled when she looked at the bobbing masses of zombies. Since she was a young girl, she wanted to avoid diving into them if at all possible.
“That’s a thought, too.” Lu Yun nodded. “But we still need to find a way to get past the zombie kings in the zombie sea. And whatever we do, we need to hurry. The zombie sea is about to disappear.”
“I’ll be in charge of refining the ship.” Leng Xian waved a hand and collected a bunch of gray stones scattered over the ground.
“That’s enough for the ship, we should also mix other materials in with the stones. They may evoke disgust from the zombies, but they’re also very fragile,” Lu Yun quickly added.
“Mm, I see.” Leng Xian was a master refiner. Tongues of flame shot out from her hands and swiftly refined the stones in her hand. At the same time, a steady stream of ultimate ingredients poured into the pile of stones. Meanwhile, Lu Yun focused on refining talismans—Shapeshifting Talismans.
He didn’t have anything else with which to make living beings exude the aura of zombies; only the talismans could turn them into one. However, he remained a little uncertain if his talismans would be able to fool the sovereigns of the chaos.
Though Shapeshifting changed the fundamental nature of something, it was still a combat art. As such, there were flaws in combat arts and Lu Yun wasn’t willing to bet his life like this at such a crucial moment.
He quickly created four Shapeshifting Talismans—he wasn’t going to leave Wang Shu behind.
Ying Luo and Wang Shu shuffled around, having nothing to do. They first looked over at Lu Yun, then at Leng Xian. Ying Luo was standing next to Lu Yun while Wang Shu stood awkwardly off to the side.
“Wait!” Lu Yun quickly stopped Leng Xian when he saw that she was about to really refine a boat.
“What is it?” She’d already refined the prototype of a boat, but immediately ceased her actions when she heard Lu Yun.
“Don’t make a real boat. The zombie sea is going to keep shifting around and if I could see through it, so can others. A boat on the surface of the sea is too big a target and will be easily attacked.” He pointed a few times at the air and delivered a small piece of paper to Leng Xian. On it was drawn… an Earth submarine from the twenty-first century.
“Use a kind of material that can repair itself and hide the aura of those stones. Don’t overly expose us,” he said.
If they used a type of material that constantly repaired itself to hide the aura of the stones, they wouldn’t elicit automatic avoidance from the zombies. They would be able to lower the submarine quietly into the zombie sea, and once the zombies jostled the surface of the submarine, the aura of the stones would leak out.
That would make the zombies halt their attacks against the group, and when the material recovered to conceal the stones again, the submarine would be able to proceed through the zombie sea without causing a disturbance.
Lu Yun also refined Size Manipulation and Shapeshifting formation talismans. He wanted to make multiple layers of preparations, first to turn the submarine into a zombie and then to shrink it down as much as possible. That would conceal them from the eyes of others to the greatest extent of his abilities.
Everything would be perfect then.
Leng Xian stared blankly for a while after hearing Lu Yun’s explanation before chuckling ruefully.
“I finally understand why my junior sister is like this now,” she mumbled and began refining a submarine according to Lu Yun’s instructions.
Ying Luo flushed beet red again.
“Bro, you’re going to become a public enemy of the six sacred palaces at this rate.” Wang Shu bumped his shoulder against Lu Yun’s, envy and admiration written all over his face.
He could naturally read Ying Luo’s attitude toward Lu Yun. Though she wasn’t the type to withdraw from anyone she didn’t know, she would never be so friendly with a man. And now she was blushing for Lu Yun?
If the young men of the six sacred palaces learned of this development, they’d probably mob him or line up to duel him!
Lu Yun shifted uncomfortably from side to side and looked at Ying Luo. She hastily ducked her head and avoided his eyes.
Leng Xian completed her refinement—creating a submarine that looked like a giant fish. It was fifteen meters long and quite spacious on the inside.
“Will this do?” she asked Lu Yun.
“That’s perfect. You guys go inside first.” He attached three Shapeshifting Talismans to their bodies.
They took immediate effect, turning the trio’s humanoid forms into zombies. The unique aura of a zombie wafted from their bodies.
“This… I’m… a zombie?!” Ying Luo looked at herself, wide eyed. Though she was still herself, she could clearly sense that due to the talisman’s effect, her body structure had shifted into that of a zombie’s.
“How can this be?” Leng Xian stared agape at herself as well, turning her hands over and over again incredulously. “You’ve transformed us into zombies on a fundamental level! But we’ll return to normal once we take off the talisman. This is amazing! Is this a talisman bestowed by the Inception monarch?”
“There’s no time for explanations, the zombie sea is about to leave. Move quickly, I still need to modify the submarine.” Lu Yun slapped a talisman onto himself. He couldn’t just use the actual death art in front of them.
Leng Xian snapped out of her daze and quickly herded Ying Luo and Wang Shu into the submarine.
Lu Yun then brought out the two formation talismans and applied them to the submarine at the same time, turning it into a zombie the size of a speck of dust. With everything complete, he burrowed into the submarine as a streak of light.
Since the submarine was a dead item, a treasure, regular talismans wouldn’t work on it. One had to use a formation talisman to achieve the same effect.
“Go!” Leng Xian urgently propelled the treasure once Lu Yun was aboard, darting into the zombie sea the second it vanished.
