Translator: Cinder Translations
---
"I want you dead!"
A dense, malevolent aura surged around Shi Shou. His figure gradually became emaciated, his skin turning grayish and dry, and two long fangs extended from his mouth.
His appearance was not much different from when Song Wen had turned into a corpse, except that the malevolent aura around him was even denser.
Shi Shou suddenly exerted force with his feet, causing the rocks beneath him to explode. He shot forward like an arrow towards Song Wen.
Even before he reached him, Shi Shou's hands had transformed into claws, with dark, glossy nails like sharp iron blades.
Facing the oncoming Shi Shou, Song Wen's expression remained calm and composed, showing no signs of panic.
The recent surprise attack with the Cold Moon Blade had failed, which was somewhat disappointing, but just disappointing, nothing more.
Song Wen patted the corpse bag at his waist, and a pseudo-second-grade bronze corpse puppet was summoned.
This corpse puppet had a chance to be refined into a genuine bronze-grade corpse puppet, but Song Wen had only recently reached Foundation Establishment and had not yet collected enough spiritual materials.
The pseudo-second-grade bronze corpse puppet charged at Shi Shou's corpse puppet. Song Wen didn't expect it to block Shi Shou's attack, but hoped it could buy him some time.
As Shi Shou's claws were about to reach Song Wen, a green large shield suddenly appeared around Song Wen, completely enclosing him.
At that moment, the Cold Moon Blade struck from behind, piercing Shi Shou's back.
Song Wen had also transformed into a zombie, with dark claws emitting a chilling gleam, reaching for Shi Shou's head.
Song Wen's tactic was to trade injuries for injuries.
Shi Shou's lips curled into a disdainful smile. How dare a newly established Foundation Establishment cultivator like you challenge him, a veteran Foundation Establishment cultivator of twenty years, with such a tactic.
Although both were at the early Foundation Establishment stage, there was still a significant difference in their strength.
At this moment, Shi Shou's anger towards Song Wen for disrupting the formation had faded. He suddenly realized that with Song Wen, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he no longer needed to extract blood essence from the nine Qi Refinement cultivators.
Just Song Wen alone was worth more than all of them combined!
His only thought now was to capture Song Wen, devour his blood essence, and refine the spiritual energy within him to break through to the mid Foundation Establishment stage.
Shi Shou's claws struck the bronze bell, causing sparks to fly and an extremely uncomfortable, piercing sound to ring out.
The bell bore four long claw marks but did not shatter.
After Song Wen's breakthrough to Foundation Establishment, the power of the 'Ten Thousand Poisons Body' had also risen dramatically, successfully blocking Shi Shou's full-force attack.
At the same time, Song Wen's hands were covered in corpse poison and metal essence, reaching Shi Shou's left face.
Ghostly Claw!
Shi Shou's head jerked to the left, colliding with Song Wen's hand.
"Bang!"
Song Wen's fingers trembled slightly, and a wave of pain surged from his fingertips.
This claw strike didn't manage to shatter Shi Shou's hard skull; it only tore off a large piece of flesh from his face.
The flesh was tough, like old tree bark, and showed no blood.
Shi Shou's left face was stripped of flesh, revealing a somewhat blackened skull, with no blood at the wound, looking extremely terrifying and eerie.
At this moment, the Cold Moon Blade's attack also arrived.
A small shield appeared behind Shi Shou, perfectly blocking the Cold Moon Blade.
While Song Wen was attacking, Shi Shou was not idle.
He struck the bell with two more claws.
The green light of the bronze bell flickered and then dispersed into tiny green particles.
The bronze bell was shattered!
Shi Shou's face revealed a ferocious smile, and with his horrifying appearance, he looked like a demon emerging from hell.
"Die!"
Shi Shou's clawed hand grasped Song Wen's throat.
Song Wen neither dodged nor avoided; he clawed at Shi Shou's left eye.
Shi Shou's face showed a moment of delight as his claw pierced the fragile throat of his opponent, using his spiritual power to directly crush half of Song Wen's neck.
With no support, Song Wen's head slumped to one side, hanging on by a thin strip of flesh.
The joy on Shi Shou's face was short-lived. His eyes soon filled with disbelief as he realized that the throat he had torn open wasn't Song Wen but just an ordinary corpse puppet.
Shi Shou's heart sank in shock.
Where was Ji Yin? Where did he go?
Why was he killing a mere corpse puppet?
Could it be the rumored substitute corpse technique?
As these thoughts flashed through Shi Shou's mind, he suddenly felt something crawling in his left eye.
It turned out that when Shi Shou had grabbed Song Wen's throat, Song Wen's hand had also clawed at his left eye.
At that moment, Shi Shou had tilted his head back to avoid the sharpest nails, but his eye was still scratched by Song Wen's hand.
Before Shi Shou could figure out what was wrong with his left eye, he suddenly sensed a figure appearing behind him.
It was Ji Yin!
Ji Yin's left hand wielded a blade, and his right hand was a claw, thrusting towards Shi Shou's sides.
Shi Shou's face changed drastically. He hurriedly activated the small shield behind him while simultaneously turning to strike the figure behind him with a palm.
"Puff!"
The small shield blocked the claw strike from the right but failed to stop the Cold Moon Blade in the left hand!
The Cold Moon Blade pierced Shi Shou's left waist, with spiritual power like a raging torrent, flooding into Shi Shou's body through the blade.
Shi Shou's left waist instantly erupted with a large hole, exposing his internal organs.
Immediately, Shi Shou's left kidney was shredded by the spiritual power, and his vital energy rapidly drained away.
"Bang!"
Shi Shou's palm strike hit, and the head of the figure behind him exploded into pieces.
What made Shi Shou even more furious and helpless was that...
It was still a corpse puppet, a Qi Refinement Fourth Layer corpse puppet!
The figure flickered, and Song Wen's form appeared unscathed a hundred meters away.
Shi Shou glared angrily at Song Wen from afar, one hand supporting his injured left waist and the other taking out two healing pills, swallowing them.
"Ji Yin, I underestimated you."
"In just a few years, not only have you succeeded in Foundation Establishment, but you've also refined such a bizarre corpse substitute technique."
"I'm curious, where did you learn this substitute corpse technique, and how did you manage to refine two of them?"
Song Wen exhaled deeply. Although the battle had only lasted a few breaths, it had drained a significant amount of his spiritual power and mental energy.
Knowing that his opponent was buying time to heal, Song Wen wasn't in a hurry to act. He had a smile on his face.
He had more than just two substitute corpses. The most challenging part of refining substitute corpses was the soul extraction process. Repeatedly stripping the soul tether could cause irreversible damage to the soul.
However, for Song Wen, this was not an issue. Through repeated attempts, he was certain that each stripping of the soul tether required devouring the souls of two to three cultivators of the same level to repair the soul.
Thus, he was able to refine a large number of substitute corpses.
Given his cautious nature, he would never just refine one or two substitute corpses. Over the years, he had refined more than a dozen.
"Elder Shi, while you're still trying to buy time to heal, haven't you noticed something in your head?"
(End of the Chapter)
---
FUN FACT! You can now support me and read advanced chapters of RDC!
Currently up to 200 as of 26Sep24.
Just visit my p atreon: Pa treon.com/CinderTL
If you are content with the free chapters, you can show your appreciation by joining me for as low as $1. You can read this and other series (more coming in the future) on my Pa treon.
AND PLEASE LEAVE SOME REVIEWS, NEED MORE REVIEWS