Chapter 156: Battle in the Batcave (4)

"Watch out, Brother Yi!" Mu Chen shouted in warning upon seeing the corpse standing directly behind Zhou Yi.

Instantly, Zhou Yi instinctively lashed out with Lihuo. Seeing the blade thrusting toward it, the corpse leaned straight backward, lowering its stance as it did so. Lihuo swept past the very top of the corpse's head.

The last few coarse, dark hairs on the crown of the corpse were sheared off. Now completely bald, the corpse threw its head back and let out another earth-shaking roar.

"Not good! This flying corpse is undergoing a transformation!" Being the closest, Zhou Yi could discern the subtle changes in the corpse and shouted a warning to the others.

"Amitabha!" Mingyu chanted, and waves of Buddhist light radiated from his hands, directly enveloping the corpse. Yet at that moment, a thick, dark mist erupted from the corpse's body, wrapping it tightly so that Mingyu's Buddhist light could not penetrate the shroud.

Right then, the clothing on the corpse's back slowly split open, and a pair of newly formed fleshy wings gradually stretched out. The dark-purple skin on its body slowly shifted toward a natural flesh tone.

These changes were all taking place at a visible rate. The wings continued to unfurl, covered by a translucent membrane. If this corpse was allowed to develop unchecked, its evolution into a dreaded Drought Demon was only a matter of time.

"Stop it, quickly!" Yuan Tingyu roared. Everyone's attention had been entirely focused on the corpse; only when Yuan Tingyu shouted did they realize that Gongyang Lingfeng had already struck and wounded him. Yuan Tingyu stood on the ground with a flushed face, pressing a hand to his chest, looking heavily injured.

Seeing Gongyang Lingfeng charging toward him, Mingyu quickly withdrew his palms and turned to face the oncoming adversary. The corpse roared once more, and the dark-purple hue on its body faded another shade.

Gritting his teeth fiercely, Zhou Yi circled rapidly behind the corpse and brought Lihuo down upon the pair of fleshy wings. With a clang resembling a strike against metal, the newly formed wings suffered not a single scratch—even these newly grown appendages were astonishingly tough.

"Mu Chen, help me find the corpse's vital gate!" Zhou Yi yelled to Mu Chen. Every second now was critical; the corpse had to be stopped. Otherwise, combined strength of everyone present would be no match for the creature once it transformed into a Drought Demon.

Mu Chen quickly lowered the child in his hands and turned back, his treasured sword thrusting forward at blinding speed. In a mere moment, Mu Chen delivered over two hundred strikes, every point of the blade targeting vital acupuncture points and lethal apertures—the potential locations of a vital gate.

After executing those two hundred-odd strikes, he had expected the corpse's transformation to fail due to the destruction of its vital gate, but it had no effect whatsoever. At that moment, Zhou Yi recalled the method Baozi had used against that flying corpse at the cave entrance. Reluctant as he was to use Lihuo to stab the corpse's rear end, he reached down, pulled a dagger from his trouser leg, and drove it straight at the corpse's backside.

The dagger was made of ordinary steel, and Zhou Yi applied a bit too much force. With a crisp snap upon impact, the blade broke in two.

"Master, I can't find this corpse's vital gate!" Mu Chen cried out in desperation to Yuan Tingyu. Corpses were already rare, and a flying corpse transforming into a Drought Demon was rarer still. The Mao Shan scriptures contained no records of it, leaving both Yuan Tingyu and Mu Chen entirely ignorant of what this transitioning creature feared most.

Yuan Tingyu had been observing the situation all along. With a deep furrow in his brow, he reached into his robe once more and drew out a purple talisman. Pinching the purple talisman between his index and middle fingers, he chanted subduing-demon incantations at the top of his lungs.

As the incantation finished, Yuan Tingyu's spiritual energy appeared entirely drained, and he collapsed limply to the ground. Forcing himself through the exhaustion, he hurled the purple talisman forward before coughing up a mouthful of blood.

The purple talisman flew rapidly toward the corpse. Seemingly sensing that the spiritual energy imbued within the talisman was its nemesis, the corpse let out a roar at the approaching charm and spat a stream of dark mist from its mouth.

Upon encountering the dark mist, the purple talisman crackled loudly. In an instant, the dark mist dissipated, and while the purple aura swirling around the talisman dimmed slightly, it continued its flight toward the corpse.

Gongyang Lingfeng also knew this was a critical juncture; he had to ensure the corpse completed its transformation successfully. Amidst his battle with Mingyu, he forcibly channeled a surge of spiritual energy and struck out at the purple talisman. Seizing the opening, Mingyu drove a palm straight into Gongyang Lingfeng's chest.

Setting aside Gongyang Lingfeng's injuries, the burst of spiritual energy he had unleashed struck the purple talisman mid-air. The talisman wobbled violently, its spiritual power seemingly exhausted as it plummeted toward the ground.

Zhou Yi, having waited on standby, snatched the purple talisman out of the air and slapped it directly onto the corpse's forehead. The moment the talisman touched the corpse, it detonated with a thunderous roar. With a tremendous blast, the corpse was sent flying backward to slam directly against the rock wall. Half of its head was blown completely away by the explosion.

Caught near the epicenter of the blast, Zhou Yi forced his remaining spiritual energy and retreated several dozen steps before steadying himself. Focusing his gaze, he saw that the corpse's transformation had finally halted.

"Quick! Throw the infant to the corpse!" Gongyang Lingfeng shouted at the top of his lungs. This was the exact moment the corpse needed infant blood for nourishment the most. If it failed to transform now due to a lack of sustenance, all their efforts would come to nothing.

Upon Gongyang Lingfeng's command, the Miao tribesmen rushed toward the corpse en masse. Stopping them now would be no easy feat for Zhou Yi and Mu Chen.

By now, the corpse seemed to have gained some level of sentience. Knowing that the infants held by the Miao people were precisely what it needed, it bypassed Zhou Yi and Mu Chen, snatched an infant directly from a tribesman's arms, and bit down. Pitifully, the infant died without even letting out a single cry.

Having fed on the infant's blood, the half of the corpse's head that had been blown apart began to slowly regenerate. But a single infant was not enough; spotting the Miao tribesman who had handed it over standing right in front of it, the corpse lunged forward and bit down again. It was not only drinking the infant's blood; it refused to spare even the Miao tribesman who had delivered the offering.

The tribesman's body withered away at a visible rate, while the previously shattered half of the corpse's head fully regenerated. Without pausing, the corpse snatched another infant and bit down.

However, the bite produced a sharp *crack*. A closer look revealed that the corpse had bitten directly onto Mu Chen's treasured sword. Though a counterfeit of the Tianqian Sword, it was crafted from top-tier materials and workmanship, and miraculously, it did not snap under the corpse's bite.

Meanwhile, the battle between the three elder grandmasters—Sun, Moon, and Star—and Mufeng, Muyang, and the others was drawing to a close. The outcome was without suspense: all three Miao elder grandmasters were utterly defeated. Just as the group prepared to rush over and assist Zhou Yi, the four elders—Sun, Moon, Star, and Chen—sat down in a tight circle and began chanting in unison.

"Our ancestor Chiyou, protect our Jiuli! Nine stars aligned, the blood pool reaches the netherworld! Take our physical bodies, attach our souls..." The incantation chanted by the four elders was neither a spell nor a true mantra; while loudly reciting the words, they performed a series of bizarre, erratic gestures.

Seeing that the elders had commenced the ritual, the Miao tribesmen laid their infants upon the ground and joined in, chanting along with the elders' cadence. The incantation grew faster and faster, and the gestures of their hands accelerated in tandem.

The corpse did not remain idle. Without even needing to bend down, it lowered its torso and began feeding directly on the infants lined up on the ground. Zhou Yi and Mu Chen could only scramble to snatch the infants away from its jaws; whenever their movements lagged, another baby would perish in the corpse's maw.

With the Miao people abandoning all resistance, Mingyu and Jiechen held their ground against Gongyang Lingfeng without losing the upper hand.

Paying no heed to what the Miao people were doing, Muyang, Mu Chen, and the others hurried back to help Zhou Yi rescue the surviving infants on the ground...

There are no more surprises, haha, another chapter coming shortly!