"One hand forming seals, the other holding that sinister heart?"
Seeing this scene, Zhongshan made the decision to retreat. Unusual situations often meant great danger.
Twisting the heads of the two women with both palms, Zhongshan gave them a signal to retreat quickly.
As Zhongshan twisted their heads, the two women snapped out of their trance and immediately nodded when they saw Zhongshan's expression. They gracefully backed away.
As the three retreated, Zhongshan kept his eyes on the distance, prepared for any changes.
On the third step of their retreat, the man in black suddenly opened his eyes. Zhongshan saw that the moment the man's eyes opened, they emitted a faint blue light, pointing directly at Zhongshan's location.
Simultaneously, all twenty-five zombies turned, their arms pointing toward Zhongshan.
"Run~~~~~~!"
Zhongshan roared, and he and Englan sprinted away, while Tianling quickly flew up on her red silk.
At a distance, the man's eyes widened, and one of the zombies suddenly leaped and jumped toward Zhongshan's location.
Although Zhongshan saw the zombies, the distance between them was still quite far. However, zombies were terrifyingly fast. One leap covered over fifty meters, and they were swiftly closing in.
Seeing one zombie rapidly approaching, the man holding the heart slowly closed his eyes as if the ritual wasn't over yet and needed to continue.
"Zhongshan, that green one is a Copper Corpse, and it's being chased by a Copper Corpse. My father said it's equivalent to the strength of someone in the early Golden Core stage. The poison of the corpse is lethal upon contact. What should we do?" Tianling flew in the air, shouting to Zhongshan who was running.
Golden Core stage power?
As Zhongshan ran, his heart tightened suddenly. He had felt relieved when he saw that the black-robed man and the zombies hadn't pursued them. But now, with a Copper Corpse on their tail, his relief vanished. After all, even though it was just one zombie, its strength was overwhelming.
Englan, wearing Wind Chasing Boots, was almost as fast as Zhongshan when exerting her full strength. However, compared to the Copper Corpse, there was a stark difference in speed. The zombie chased relentlessly, determined to kill them.
After crossing a large mountain, the Copper Corpse was still in pursuit. What should they do?
"Englan, split up. Ling'er, distract it!" Zhongshan roared, increasing his speed suddenly.
Englan was also a clever person, and she and Zhongshan had an understanding that had been built up over time. Upon hearing Zhongshan's command, she immediately veered off in another direction.
Separated into two paths, and as for Tianling, flying in the air, the Copper Corpse couldn't reach her.
Sure enough, after they split up, the Copper Corpse hesitated for a moment. Then, it jumped towards Englan with agile leaps.
The Copper Corpse was incredibly fast. By the time Zhongshan and Englan reached the second large mountain, it was less than a hundred meters behind Englan. It was getting closer and closer, about to catch up to Englan.
"Ling'er, use your red silk!" Zhongshan shouted from afar.
"Boom~~~~~~"
Red silk flew forward, crashing instantly into the bronze corpse's face. The bronze corpse hesitated for a moment, and in the distance, halfway up the mountain, a huge rock on Zhongshan came hurtling down.
"Boom~~~~~~~~~"
The rock thrown by Zhongshan was ultimately no match for the red silk. With a swift thrust of the bronze corpse's arm, it shattered without any effect. However, Zhongshan's goal had been achieved. Yinglan took advantage of the distraction to widen the distance, and the attention of the bronze corpse was now drawn towards Zhongshan, rushing towards him in the blink of an eye.
Zhongshan turned and ran, but he felt a surge of joy in his heart. Despite the bronze corpse's formidable strength and potent corpse poison, it was ultimately just a zombie, and a low-level one at that, lacking significant intelligence. This was a flaw, and for Zhongshan, any flaw was enough. Zhongshan's greatest skill lay in exploiting others' weaknesses.
Zhongshan ran swiftly towards the mountains, the bronze corpse hot on his heels, just as before. When they were a hundred meters apart, the previous scene replayed itself: Yinglan took on Zhongshan's role, attacking the bronze corpse with Tianling'er, allowing Zhongshan to escape, and the zombie changed direction, charging towards Yinglan.
"Zhongshan, do you need to use the jade talisman?" Tianling'er shouted from above.
Tianling'er's jade talisman had been given to her by Tianxingzi for self-defense. She had used one of them against Zhongdi and the others, employing a Fire Phoenix talisman. Later, in Zhong Mansion, she had used another one. Zhongshan regretted it after she had used the first one. Why bother with a jade talisman against that person? Now, there were only two left, and Zhongshan naturally didn't want to use them at this moment.
"Not for now. I have a way to deal with the bronze corpse," Zhongshan shouted as he ran.
Deal with the bronze corpse? Tianling'er was full of doubts. Even she didn't dare to confront the bronze corpse head-on. How could Zhongshan deal with it? Zhongshan only had that one big sword, but even that sword couldn't withstand the bronze corpse's arms thrusting into it. The bronze corpse's whole body was like bronze, extremely tough, and Zhongshan's big sword couldn't harm it.
But Tianling'er trusted Zhongshan. If Zhongshan said he had a way, then he must have a way.
With the three of them continuing to cooperate, they crossed over the second mountain. At this moment, just as Tianling'er landed and drew the bronze corpse away, it immediately turned around again, seemingly aware that it couldn't catch Tianling'er at all, and chased after Yinglan.
After crossing two mountains, Zhongshan suddenly found himself facing a dead end—a massive cliff, just like the one they had encountered before.
Seeing this scene, Tianling'er was startled in the air, quickly taking out a jade talisman. Apparently, she intended to deal with the bronze corpse at the most critical moment.
Faced with the predicament, Zhongshan not only didn't feel fear but instead felt a surge of excitement on his face. He shouted, "Yinglan, come over here."
Even though the bronze corpse was still two hundred meters away behind Yinglan, her heart was filled with tension but not much fear. Because Zhongshan was here, Yinglan believed that as long as Zhongshan was present, she would not be in mortal danger, absolutely not.
Hearing Zhongshan's call, Yinglan didn't hesitate. Even though there was a bottomless abyss ahead with no way to escape, Yinglan obediently ran over. The bronze corpse was getting closer and closer, and Yinglan even felt the vibrations every time it landed on the ground.
"Zhongshan~~~~~~~~" Tianling'er shouted anxiously from the air.
"I'm ok," Zhongshan stared at the bronze corpse in the distance, a strange smile creeping onto his face as he slowly drew out his big sword, 'Nightmare.'
Seeing Zhongshan's actions, Tianling'er became anxious once again. She had said before that the bronze corpse was stronger than her. Could Zhongshan deal with it using the big sword?
"Face slap!" Zhongshan suddenly shouted.
"Whoosh!" Red silk once again flew towards the bronze corpse's face. The bronze corpse hesitated slightly. At this moment, Yinglan also arrived in front of Zhongshan.
Watching the panting Yinglan, Zhongshan smiled faintly, reached out his left hand, and held Yinglan's waist. His right hand extended the sword straight towards the bronze corpse.
Seeing this scene, Tianling'er was getting extremely worried, but Yinglan, at this moment, had calmed down completely. Yinglan believed that she was safe here. She didn't consider Zhongshan's cultivation, only trusting Zhongshan as a person.
Disturbed by the red silk, and naturally irritable, the bronze corpse saw Zhongshan and Yinglan embracing each other, with Zhongshan pointing a sword at itself. It quickly jumped towards Zhongshan, only needing three steps to reach him.
Zhongshan's long sword aimed, his eyes narrowed, watching the bronze corpse's movements.
One step, Zhongshan didn't move. The second step, Zhongshan still didn't move. It wasn't until the moment the second step landed that Zhongshan moved, and the bronze corpse, seeing Zhongshan's movement, hurriedly took its third step.
Simultaneously with the bronze corpse's leap, it rushed towards Zhongshan, but Zhongshan simply jumped back slightly, his face showing a victorious smile.
"Whoosh~~~~~~~~~~"
Zhongshan and Yinglan disappeared, vanished into thin air, right in front of the bronze corpse. However, Tianling'er saw a terrifying scene. Zhongshan jumped off the cliff?
"Zhongshan~~~~~~~~~~~~" Tianling'er flew over in panic.
Meanwhile, the bronze corpse paused in mid-air for just a moment in confusion, then continued past the spot where Zhongshan had been before, tragically failing to brake, and plummeted down in a parabolic trajectory.
When Tianling'er rushed to the edge of the cliff, she was ecstatic to see that Zhongshan was unharmed. Zhongshan was holding Yinglan, suspended in mid-air, with the big sword 'Nightmare' firmly inserted into the cliff wall.
Tianling'er laughed, her emotions somewhat out of control. Not only did she laugh, but tears also filled her eyes, tears of joy streaming down. In that moment when Zhongshan jumped off the cliff, Tianling'er suddenly felt as if the world had turned dark. But now, everything was fine—Zhongshan was safe.
Looking up, Zhongshan happened to see Tianling'er's expression. His brows furrowed for a moment, then a warm smile spread across his face.
"Boom~~~~~~~~~~~~"
A heavy echo resounded from the depths of the 1,500-meter-deep cliff.
The three of them looked down together, but it was too deep and too dark, with some mist obscuring the view. There was no need to look, though; with a depth of 1,500 meters, the outcome of the fall was self-evident.
"Linger, pull us up from above," Zhongshan said.
"Okay," Tianling'er immediately stood excitedly at the edge of the cliff, using the red silk to extend down and pull the two up.
"Yinglan, come up," Zhongshan called to Yinglan in his arms.
"No, the environment here is so rare. Let's stay a little longer," Yinglan immediately coaxed.
Hearing Yinglan's words, Zhongshan was speechless for a moment. "Hurry up! The knife is slipping a bit."
"Alright." Only then did Yinglan reluctantly leave Zhongshan's embrace, reaching out to grab the red silk. With Tianling'er's pull, she was lifted up.
Soon after, Zhongshan was also pulled up.
The three of them stood still, Tianling'er feeling like she had survived a disaster, while Zhongshan and Yinglan seemed unaffected, as if it had been Zhongshan and Yinglan flying in the sky just now, and Tianling'er being chased on the ground.
"Grandpa, how should we proceed from here?" Yinglan looked around and immediately asked.
"To the southeast. Aren't there several high mountains and rivers ahead? With Linger, who can fly, even the most difficult environments can be overcome," Zhongshan thought for a moment and said.
Praised by Zhongshan, Tianling'er quickly revealed a happy smile on her face.