Chapter 5: The Undead Realm of Demons

  The moment the dark portal connecting the underground and the Nether Realm of the Undead was opened, a chilling aura that seemed to freeze one's soul swept in, making it impossible for even thoughts to function normally.

  When he regained consciousness, he found himself standing on a vast and endless plain, the ground and sky were dark gray, deep and oppressive, the air was filled with a strong smell of death and a pungent stench.

  On the hard gray-brown ground, there were deep scars crisscrossing each other, as if carved out by a powerful giant weapon.

  Zhu Jiu suddenly turned his head, and the ripples in the void behind him slowly subsided. Zhu Jiu suddenly realized that he must have been thrown into this world from the void.

  Not far from the line of sight, there was a wolf-like monster with no hair on its body, empty eyes, and shallow red soul fire burning fiercely inside. Its entire body was covered in thick, dark brown skin that tightly adhered to its skeleton, with sharp teeth and claws, and an emaciated and ferocious appearance.

  In the distance, even more yao corpses can be seen, with different shapes and appearances, ferocious and ugly, strange and powerful, it's hard to believe that the distribution of yao corpses is so dense.

  These ferocious and eerie creatures were all shrouded in a thick deathly aura, with red soul fires flickering in their eye sockets. They must be the undead soldiers nurtured by the hundred-year-old corpse energy.

  At this time, the wolf-like corpse closest to Zhu Jiu slowly turned around with its fangs exposed.

  What a terrible luck! Not only did I encounter a zombie as soon as I came out, but it's also in a vast plain area with hardly any place to hide.

  This wolf-like corpse was only a dozen or so zhang away from Zhu Jiu, and the crisis could be said to be imminent. Although Zhu Jiu's heart was shocked, he remained calm and composed. The strength of these corpses was unknown, but judging from their appearance, it should be far above that of ordinary people. Therefore, direct confrontation was the most unwise choice. As his mind rapidly turned over ideas, Zhu Jiu flipped over and leapt into a nearby ditch two or three meters deep to temporarily avoid danger.

  Her feet made no sound as she swiftly opened the item box she had picked up before entering the Netherworld, this thing was now her only hope for survival.

  The introduction paper in the box was picked up by Zhu Jiu, and after a glance, it wrote about the functions of various items in the box. One line read "Invisibility Dan", which made Zhu Jiu extremely happy.

  Quickly found a red pill sealed with wax from the box, pinched open the wax seal, and swallowed it with his head raised.

  She immediately sat quietly at the bottom of the long ditch, evened her breath, and slowed down her wildly beating heart.

  The instructions on the pill say that this medicine is made from the characteristics of the corpse demon, which has no eyes and relies on the perception of the soul fire to find prey. It is specifically designed to protect novice disciples who enter the Corpse Demon Realm, quickly weakening the yang energy in humans and deceiving the corpse demons' senses, so it's called Hidden Body Pill.

  The corpse with a wolf-like appearance quickly approached, lingering nearby for a while, seemingly perplexed that the vital energy it had sensed earlier suddenly disappeared; with its simple intelligence, it naturally wouldn't understand why this was.

  After a brief inspection, nothing was gained, and the dark brown wolf corpse quickly turned around and left.

  Jiu slowly opened his eyes, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and was relieved to be safe for the time being. He lowered his head again to carefully read the remaining content on the note, then looked up and whispered:

  "This place surprisingly doesn't prohibit slaughter, including killing the young boys who came together to take the assessment. It's truly a lawless land. The Red Soul Corpses are divided into several types based on their combat strength. The most common type is the one that uses its body to fight and is immune to swords and guns. Next are some corpses that wield residual weapons, which are relatively rare. Among them, those with long-range bow and arrow-type weapons have even stronger fighting power. Hmm! Finally, it's written that among the Red Soul Corpses, there exist extremely rare spellcaster-type corpses, which are the kings of their peers. Heh heh!"

  Next, he examined the remaining items and found a blood-colored small sword about the length of a ruler, two soul-calming green copper coins, an invisibility pill that had been taken by Zhu Jiu, and finally, a six-sided metal product the size of a palm, which was a special tool for returning after completing the assessment.

  The inscription on it says that the blood-colored small sword is called the Corpse Severing Sword, a primary-level cultivation tool. As long as you use the Blood Spirit Brush to draw the mysterious talismans that have just appeared in your Sea of Consciousness onto the sword body, this small sword will have the ability to cut open the bodies of the Red Soul Corpses that have been nurtured for hundreds of years with dead force. It is a desperate measure used when disciples encounter danger.

  The description above also detailed the steps and principles of capturing the yao corpses, it turned out that the Town Soul Green Copper had the complete soul aura of the engraver embedded in it, which had a fatal attraction to these yao corpses that lacked souls.

  Simply use the Sea of Recognition symbol to draw the green copper closer to yourself, and the Red Soul Corpse will absorb it into the soul fire, merging with its own soul fire. If the corpse absorbs the green copper, it can communicate smoothly with the caster, and from then on, this Red Soul Corpse will become a loyal slave of the Green Copper Engraver.

  Only then did Jiu realize that everyone's soul aura is different, so the recognition sea talismans they create are also different. As their knowledge and magical powers deepen day by day, the recognition sea talismans will gradually improve, and the higher-level yao shi can be controlled.

  Apart from the green bronze that was already drawn during the assessment, the other two town soul green bronzes are used as backup. If all three town soul green bronzes are discarded and one still can't successfully obtain a corpse, then it's an eliminated fate.

  Jiu looked clearly at the introduction of the items on the paper, and immediately took action. He pulled out the evil spirit pen from his pocket, grabbed the blood-colored small sword, mobilized the recognition sea talisman, and once again quickly drew the brain internal talisman on the small sword with a dragon-snake-like stroke.

  When the last stroke was completed, a thread of blood edge appeared on the small sword, slowly extending from the tip of the sword to about two feet long, adding to the original one-foot-long sword body, becoming a three-foot-long thin blood sword.

  Jiu Da pondered over this strange long sword, thinking to himself:

  "This thing is probably similar to the symbol sword in our Xiangxi corpse-hurrying technique, having a special lethal power against corpses. I don't know if there's such a thing as a symbol sword in this world, but when I get the chance, I'll try making one to play with."

  Reached out to touch the chest, wanting to take off the ancestral mirror from his neck to protect himself from rebirth, carefully looked for any mysterious place, and felt that he was still being tested at this time, and maybe all his actions were secretly monitored by someone, so he decided to endure temporarily.

  Cautiously poking his head out of the shallow pit, he found that there were no scarlet soul corpses within over ten zhangs. Zhu Jiu leaped out of the shallow pit.

  In front of him, not far away, stood a human skeleton, its entire body a gleaming white, with a faint red soul fire burning in the skull. This was an initial-stage skeletal corpse.

  He cautiously approached the skull, which was only a skeleton, and found that its white skull slowly rotated, apparently checking for any other soul fire fluctuations to select prey. It turned in Zhu Jiu's direction, but didn't stop at all, finally choosing a direction and walking away with big strides of his bony legs.

  Jiu stood still, smiled suddenly, and it seemed that the effect of the hidden body pill was good. One pill had a three-day effect, and he should also seize the time.

  Taking steps on the gray-brown ground, Zhu Jiu gradually went deeper into the plain, slowly searching for his first favorite demon corpse.

  This plain is filled with naked survival of the fittest everywhere, and war fires are all over.

  Wishing you a smooth journey, almost every inch of land has been ravaged by war, and the deeper-colored soul corpses are constantly hunting and devouring weaker peers, tirelessly and without stopping.

  The types of yao corpses are diverse and bizarre. Zhu Jiu categorizes the ones he has seen in his mind, some resembling mummies with shriveled muscles, others like skulls with gleaming skeletons, and the most disgusting ones have dried blood and flesh congealed on their bodies.

  Beast-type, human, and even some plant-type yao corpses. These yao corpses are mostly physically strong, immune to knives and guns, and as for the technique-type yao corpse, Zhu Jiu, not a single one has been seen.

  Wishing for a Nine to find a Taoist corpse as his first corpse servant.

  Zhu Jiu suddenly lit up in front of his eyes as he continued walking, and a fierce battle was unfolding ahead, with quite a commotion.