Lu Yun and Chu Xingran could act without reservation if Haidong Lin was already dead. But since he was alive and held by the Corpse Refiners, they couldn’t very well let him die before their eyes. Sometimes, death wasn’t the most horrifying outcome. A life in which death was more preferable was even worse.
In the split second that Chu Xingran hesitated, countless zombies piled on top of him. The thirty-six golden warriors flared with power to dig him out of a mountain of snarling bodies.
“What do we do?” He was at a loss and looked at the thirty-six shining figures. However, they weren’t Lu Yun’s replicas at the moment, so they didn’t have any answers.
Jiang Kui stood behind the army of zombies and held Haidong Lin with his hand. The man was fully restrained; only his eyes were free to watch everything that took place in front of him.
The zombies rushing them stopped and surrounded Chu Xingran and the thirty-six warriors; they were in no hurry to proceed to Lu Yun’s location. It seemed that they were suddenly in no hurry at all.
Since Corpse Refiners were present on the scene, the battle zombies were more berserk than usual. All of the ones mobilized now were the strongest specimens from the zombie farms of these countless eons. They’d originally left the yin tomb to fight for the world of sequence in the yang tomb, but since Lu Yun had claimed it, there was nothing else left for them to do other than rage through the Land of Reincarnation.
“Hello, Chu Xingran.” Hate flashed through Jiang Kui’s eyes when he looked at the man. He’d fallen into Chu Xingran’s trap last time and nearly died to Lu Yun, and his zombie king replica had just been destroyed not too long ago.
All of that was intense humiliation for Jiang Kui.
“What do you want?” Chu Xingran ground his teeth to see Haidong Lin in Jiang Kui’s hands. He’d struck up a sort of friendship with Lu Yun and Haidong Lin last time they entered the land of darkness. He wasn’t a cold-blooded sort either. If he was, he wouldn’t have immediately killed Xie Tianxun when he detected the latter’s arrival with the Esteemed Nebula. He would’ve ignored the ramifications of their involvement and gone on his merry way.
“Don’t talk to him, he’s just stalling for time,” the Demonic Vine suddenly said in a small voice and tugged on his sleeve.
“Mm, I know.” Chu Xingran nodded and responded matter-of-factly, “So am I.”
Their volume was neither big nor small; it was the perfect loudness to travel into Jiang Kui’s ears.
“He’s waiting for the twentieth level sequence zombie to arrive and so are we waiting for Lu Yun to finish.” A dangerous curve played at Chu Xingran’s lips. “The Azure Dragon King has taken my primary body as his foster son in the outside realm, so I’m also a crown prince of their race. If he dares hurt a single hair on Haidong Lin’s head, I’ll take an army and march on Jiang Kui’s home of Darklake!
“Let’s see if the Corpse Refiners are willing to be enemies with the dragons just for a mere Jiang Kui!” Chu Xingran bared his teeth. “Sadly for you, the dragons are perfectly willing to declare war on the Corpse Refiners on my behalf!”
If it’d been the Chu Xingran of old, the dragons would only be grateful to him and consider him one of their crown princes. They wouldn’t go head-to-head with the Corpse Refiners for him. But things were different once he gained Qing Buyi’s support and an even more frightening Chen Xiao behind the latter.
Just one of Qing Buyi’s replicas alone was powerful enough for him to threaten the Moran Clan—the dragons would never give up the opportunity to befriend him as well. However, if Jiang Kui defeated Chu Xingran’s replica in proper and open combat, the dragons wouldn’t seek revenge. That would be a display of small-mindedness.
But if Chu Xingran moved on Darklake because Jiang Kui killed Haidong Lin, that would only be the ruthless scuffles of the younger generation—the wild escapades of youth. Since Jiang Kui would’ve acted dishonorably, Chu Xingran wouldn’t be wrong to enact revenge.
“Hahaha!!” Jiang Kui threw his head back with laughter. “Chu Xingran, do you really think you can do whatever you want just because you’ve attached yourself to the dragon race’s thigh?”
“Yep,” Chu Xingran nodded earnestly. “I can indeed do whatever I want when I hug the dragon race’s thigh. What are you going to do about it, beat me?”
Crunch!
Jiang Kui’s hand tightened around Haidong Lin’s throat in a series of mind-numbing crunches.
“I’ll kill him right in front of you and see if you dare march on Darklake!” Jiang Kui forced out through grit teeth. His pale fingernails had already sunk into Haidong Lin’s neck.
Rumble—
The void shook violently as a colossal figure broke through the air. The very earth quaked with the impact.
Bam!
Bam!
Bam!
Enormous footsteps approached from the distance, accompanied by a pungent stench of rotting bodies. Chu Xingran and the Demonic Vine swiftly pinched their noses, but the Corpse Refiners luxuriated in the smell. It came from the twentieth level sequence zombie!
Like a moving mountain, it blotted out the gray of the Abyssal Hell from a long distance away.
Boom!
A pillar of black light erupted from another distant point before the zombie could draw near. It connected solidly with the zombie’s chest.
“What is that?!” Jiang Kui gasped. He could only stare as the black light blasted the zombie away, throwing it to the ground.
Roaring with anger, the zombie struggled back to its feet and ran at the source of the light. Since zombies couldn’t fly, it had to rely on its legs.
Boom!
A second pillar of light pummeled the zombie’s right leg, ripping it off and throwing it to the ground again.
Rumble—
A black battleship sailed majestically out of the void with a dull thud. Lu Yun stood at its bow with his hands behind his back, looking coldly down at Jiang Kui and his peers.
“This was a trap!” Jiang Kui realized when he saw Lu Yun. The young man hadn’t really wanted to destroy the tomb, it’d all been an act for the soul ghost so that it would deliver a wrong message! All of this had been done to targed the twentieth level sequence zombie!
It would be very difficult for Lu Yun to eliminate it if it didn’t come to the yin tomb. He couldn’t draw from the yang tomb since it was formed out of Ruina’s power and it might even hinder his usage of the Abyssal Hell’s strength. Only when the zombie came to the yin tomb could he fully deploy his strength.
Of course, he had to put on a very convincing act. And he did plan to use the method he’d learned from Xie Tianxun, but not right now.
A tremendous cannon mouth poked out of the ship’s bow, one larger than any hell cannon. Lu Yun had specifically prepared it for the zombie and it’d taken the bait.
