Chapter Thirty-Eight: Corpse Bait

  "Isn't it just some evil spirit at work?"

  Meng Xuan slightly furrowed his brow, he was bold and had high skills, and his cultivation was also high, so he directly took the sword of beheading the traitor in hand and walked towards the grave. At this level of cultivation, he was no longer afraid of ordinary ghosts and monsters. The so-called lonely souls and wild ghosts were just ordinary people who died, either due to injustice or coincidence, and a wisp of residual consciousness was left behind because their true energy had not dissipated, it wasn't as frightening as the legends said.

  With Meng Xuan's current cultivation level, if he really encountered such a thing, one mouthful of true energy would be enough to disperse it.

  The burial mound was surprisingly large, with broken and fragmented stone monuments everywhere, looking like they had been there for a very long time. Some of the graves were overgrown with wild grass, while others had been dug up by wild dogs, exposing white bones. The area was shrouded in a layer of black fog due to the heavy yin energy, making it impossible to see one's hand in front of their face on a misty rainy night. However, for Meng Xuan, with his level of cultivation, seeing things was not a problem.

  "Stop making me lose face in front of Grandpa, or I'll chop you all up with one knife!"

  Suddenly a cold drink sound came, and that crying voice was stunned for a moment, but there was still a suppressed sobbing sound.

  "Someone!"

  Meng Xuan's heart skipped a beat, and he slowed down his footsteps, moving forward for another dozen or so yards before hiding behind a stone tablet to look out.

  But behind the stone tablet, it was a large empty space. In the empty space, there were more than ten people sitting and lying on the ground, with men and women, all dressed as villagers, crying in a suppressed manner. Their feet were locked with iron chains, and a huge nail was hammered into the ground, seemingly to prevent them from escaping. On one side, three sturdy men with broad shoulders stood, occasionally threatening them with knives.

  "Now, all of you bite your middle fingers and index fingers to make them bleed, and spill the blood into the soil. If not, I'll kill your children!"

  One of the big men shouted loudly and pointed with his knife at an iron cage seven or eight zhang away.

  Meng Xuan looked over and was shocked to see that there were four or five children locked in the iron cage, with the older ones being around seven or eight years old, and the younger ones only two or three years old. They were all lying on the ground, motionless, and it was unclear whether they were dead or unconscious.

  As soon as they threatened their own children, the villagers cried even harder, but under Da Han's rebuke, they did not dare to resist and followed his instructions, biting open their middle fingers, squeezing out blood, and sprinkling it on the ground.

  Seeing them shed blood, three big men immediately retreated seven or eight zhang away, quietly looking around, as if waiting for something.

  "I'm asking you, Old Sun, can that thing really be lured out?" one of the burly men asked in a low voice.

  Another sturdy man wiped the rain from his face and said, "It should be okay, otherwise, with our little sister's lazy personality, how could she possibly come to this godforsaken place in the rain? Hey, I'm telling you, Zhang Laosan, you'd better perk up your spirits. That corpse demon is extremely formidable. Don't end up getting bitten by it while trying to hunt corpses... if it bites you, little sister may not necessarily save you..."

  That burly man named Zhang Lao San turned pale, spat on the ground with force and said: "Sun Lao Da, don't scare me, Little Sister's orders were clear. If that demon is lured here, it will definitely eat these corpse baits first. When it has eaten enough, we'll quickly escape with the iron cage, and every 100 feet, throw down a child to slowly lure it into Little Sister's encirclement. Compared to those boys and girls, our few rotten bodies won't even interest that demon..."

  "Shut up! Look at how scared you are, just trying to boost your own courage..." Sun Lao Da scolded with a laugh.

  On this side, Meng Xuan was already burning with anger, he never thought that these people were actually grave robbers.

  Moreover, it uses the most damaging method of using living people as "corpse bait" to hunt corpses.

  There are people in the world who, after dying, cannot exhale their last breath of true energy and become trapped within their corpse. After several years of incubation, it is possible for them to come back to life as a half-dead, half-alive zombie-like creature. These monsters are born with boundless strength and extreme malevolence. Some evil practitioners covet their power and have researched methods to control them, calling themselves the "Spirit Refining Sect". They once caused great calamity on the Tianyuan Continent.

  In recent centuries, the "Lian Shen Pai" has disappeared without a trace, but unexpectedly encountered here.

  "The Refining Spirit Sect" is most concerned with searching everywhere for the half-dead corpse demons, and after finding them, figuring out a way to subdue them, then using secret methods to refine them into corpse puppets that listen to their commands. The group of people in front of us undoubtedly discovered that there was a corpse demon lurking underground here, so they used living humans as bait to lure it out, then enticed it into the ambush circle to subdue it.

  It's just that the "Lian Shen Pai" is extremely evil, and adding to that they use living people as bait for corpses, it's really intolerable. Meng Xuan can't tolerate them anymore.

  "Hum, sparing your lives would be a betrayal of my own conscience!"

  Meng Xuan drew his sword of beheading the rebellious and strode into the arena with big steps.

  The ordinary people inside the tomb didn't have his good eyesight, vaguely saw a black shadow walking towards them, and thought it was the appearance of the corpse demon, immediately panicked and cried out loud. Even those three strong men hastily hid behind a large tomb, holding their weapons in hand.

  Meng Xuan walked directly through the crowd of villagers and headed straight for the three big men, his true energy already rising up, concentrated in his sword.

  "Uh-oh, why is it coming towards us... Sun Lao Da, what are we going to do..."

  A voice rang out, panicked to the extreme.

  "No, there's no demonic aura... That's a human..."

  Sun Lao Da's voice rang out, and then he jumped up from behind the grave, shouting: "Who comes?"

  "Using a living person as bait to catch a corpse, you guys are really bold, aren't you afraid of losing your good fortune?"

  Meng Xuan's voice was cold as he tightened his grip on the Jian Nie sword.

  "Sure enough, he's a live one! Damn it, who dares to ruin our little sister's good fortune?"

  Sun Lao Da cursed and suddenly threw something to the side, which fell to the ground and ignited, rising into a blaze that illuminated the surroundings.

  "Turns out he's just a young punk..."

  Those three sturdy men saw Meng Xuan and immediately let out a breath of relief, in their eyes, Meng Xuan's age was really not threatening at all.

  "Damn it, you little brat, are you looking for death? You almost scared Grandpa to pee just now!"

  Zhao Lao San burst into a loud scolding, putting on a fierce face, but his face still showed lingering fear, obviously having been quite frightened just now.

  "Which faction are you from? And where is that young master again?"

  Meng Xuan didn't rush to make a move. He knew that these three guys were just pawns, and the real mastermind was hiding somewhere, waiting for the perfect moment to strike!

  "Hmph, young one, you haven't even grown a full head of hair yet, and you think you can interfere with our family's affairs? Fine, since you've stumbled upon this matter, you might as well stay here too. Someone as pale and tender as you would make a perfect bait..."

  Sun Lao Da sneered and directly raised his knife to chop over.

  The sword's cry was like a hurricane, as if it could split mountains. His true energy cultivation had actually reached the fourth level.

  However, Meng Xuan welcomed this sword with a swing of his own, without even looking at his opponent's move.

  "Whoosh"

  The Reversal Sword flashed a cold light in the firelight, directly chopping off the Great Han's steel knife and splitting open his chest.

  "Hmmph..."

  Sun Lao's face showed an expression of utter disbelief, his mouth opened as if to say something, but instead a mouthful of fresh blood spurted out.

  He didn't seem to have expected that he would be killed by Meng Xuan in one move.

  However, if he truly understood Meng Xuan's strength, he wouldn't be surprised at all.

  In this sword, Meng Xuan had already used the "One Question" sword technique learned from Leng Dashi. This sword technique emphasizes one move without prior thought, invincibility, and cutting down all obstacles. Although the Zhan Nie Sword was only a little over a foot long, after being infused with Meng Xuan's true energy, it could unleash a sword aura of several feet in length, making it easy to kill a roughneck with four times his true energy.

  "Sun the Eldest..."

  The other two shouted loudly, their eyes suddenly wide with fear.

  "It's up to you two now, answer my question!"

  Meng Xuan took another step forward and coldly asked.

  "Shoulder to shoulder, kill this little brat..."

  The remaining two people didn't even have the guts to move, their faces turned pale with fear. Zhao Lao San's eyes rolled around and suddenly he let out a loud shout, pushing his companion in the back, sending him tumbling towards Meng Xuan, while he himself turned around and fled like a rabbit.

  "Zhao Lao San, I curse your eight generations of ancestors..."

  The sturdy man who was pushed by Zhao Lao San towards Meng Xuan shouted loudly, and even Meng Xuan saw this scene and couldn't help but laugh.

  However, he naturally wouldn't be polite to this person either, and directly swung his sword to kill him. Then, at a steady pace, he chased after Zhao Lao San.

  Zhao Lao San's lightness skill was actually quite good, and in order to escape with his life, he made an extraordinary effort, dashing several zhangs (a unit of length) in an instant and escaping from the chaotic burial mound.

  However, this was also the reason why Meng Xuan deliberately let Zhao Lao San escape. He would definitely go find their so-called "Little Aunt".

  Thank you for the reward from Dainan Dada, Lao Gui will work hard... By the way, I want to say that Blue Sky Cloud 66 in the book review section guessed wrong, Lao Gui and Hei Shan Lao Yao have no relationship at all... One is a ghost and one is a demon, they are different species, okay?