Chapter 83: The Seven Stars Align

Xun Feng Yi shouted loudly.
Xun Feng, hearing Zhou Yi's voice, let out a roar, knocked down a soldier in front of him, and burst out of the encirclement.
Zhou Yi saw Xun Feng had escaped and gave a cold, sinister smile. “I told you to focus on Xun Feng; this flying corpse is yours.” With that thought, he slipped through the crowd.
The soldiers, seeing the flying corpse trailing Zhou Yi, had only one thought—to run first and ask questions later. But Ji Liang was right beside them and would never let them flee so recklessly.
“Open fire!” Ji Liang commanded loudly.
A group of soldiers tried to escape through the large pit—they had been digging graves, and not just one, so their hearts were filled with dread. The flying corpse’s appearance coinciding with the blood spring only worsened their terror. Several soldiers standing by the spring fell in immediately.
The psychological pressure on the soldiers was immense, which explained why over two hundred of them had just fled in panic.
Now, seeing Zhou Yi approach with the flying corpse, they were mentally prepared and no longer afraid. Years of training made Ji Liang’s orders ingrained in their subconscious, compelling absolute obedience.
The soldiers, hearing his command, raised their guns and opened fire, forming a dense web of bullets before Zhou Yi. Zhou Yi had anticipated this and summoned his spiritual energy, leaping several yards into the air.
The soldiers had no idea Zhou Yi could jump so high; after all, their guns were aimed horizontally, not skywards. In midair, Zhou Yi couldn’t help but laugh heartily.
The flying corpse earned its name for its extraordinary speed, but it hadn’t mastered the art of soaring through the air. Instead, it used the tips of its toes to push off the ground, gliding swiftly before borrowing force again, never rising far above the earth. Its intelligence was low; when bullets came, it did not dodge but advanced straight into the hail of gunfire.
Bullets struck the flying corpse, causing it to pause and then howl at the sky. At this point, it had forgotten Zhou Yi and Baozi’s earlier attack, its focus shifting entirely to the two hundred soldiers ahead.
Ji Liang, seeing the flying corpse charging toward him, shouted, “Hit it hard! Kill it!”
The soldiers, following Ji Liang’s orders, unleashed a barrage of gunfire on the flying corpse. Bullets hammered its body with dull, heavy thuds.
Their aim was impeccable; every shot targeted the flying corpse’s head and heart—the places drilled during training. As a result, the head and heart of the creature suffered a concentrated storm of bullets.

If one bullet couldn’t penetrate the flying corpse’s body, the second followed, then a third struck the same spot. In this way, even a body of steel would eventually be pierced by bullets.
The flying corpse’s intelligence was low, slow to react, but after being attacked, it flew into a rage. It charged at the soldiers, arriving in an instant. One soldier, standing too far forward to dodge, was caught squarely by the creature.
The flying corpse opened its maw and bit at the soldier’s neck. Just as it did, Ji Liang drew his pistol and fired directly into the creature’s mouth. The shot was perfect, the bullet striking inside its jaws.
The flying corpse paused, abandoning its bite, and instead seized the soldier with both hands, tearing him in half and tossing the remains aside before lunging at Ji Liang.
Ji Liang, seeing the flying corpse coming for him, was terrified. He grabbed a nearby soldier and used him as a shield, turning to flee.
The will to survive is universal, and the soldier Ji Liang used as a scapegoat was no exception. In a critical moment, the soldier grabbed the grenade at his waist, pulled the pin, and shoved it into the flying corpse’s mouth.
After planting the grenade, the soldier turned and ran. Before the flying corpse could react, the grenade exploded with a deafening crash, its immense power blasting away half of the creature’s head.
Zhou Yi and Baozi, watching from the side, couldn’t help but grimace.
“Yi, aren’t we being a bit too ruthless?” Baozi remarked, watching the flying corpse being mobbed by the soldiers.
“If you think we’re ruthless, why don’t you go call the flying corpse back and we’ll keep running?” Zhou Yi replied, half in jest. But Baozi, taking it seriously, charged forward with his club and struck the creature’s half-destroyed head.
The flying corpse, having already fought Zhou Yi and Baozi, knew their strength. The current situation was clearly unfavorable, so it turned and fled, retreating to the blood spring.
Though the flying corpse could not soar, if it wished to escape, no one present could stop it. The soldiers, having suffered at its hands, dared not pursue and scattered.
Zhou Yi had already suspected a connection between the flying corpse and Lei Zhen, so he did not interfere, following from a distance.
When they reached the pit, they saw the flying corpse with its head buried in the blood spring, clearly using it to heal its wounds.
“Yi, what should we do now?”
Zhou Yi shook his head. The flying corpse was impervious to heavenly thunder, its body as hard as iron. For the moment, Zhou Yi had no solution. Just as the two were at a loss, the sound of hooves came from the south. They looked to see more than twenty people approaching, all dressed in Miao attire. Leading them was the Miao Holy Maiden, whom they had met once in Zhuolu.
What is the Miao Holy Maiden doing here? Zhou Yi’s mind was full of questions. Last time, the old woman behind the Holy Maiden had slapped Baozi with astonishing speed, leaving him no chance to react—their strength was impossible to gauge.
Moreover, the Holy Maiden and her twenty-odd attendants were not to be underestimated.
“Let’s hide for now,” Zhou Yi said, pulling Baozi along.
Baozi still hadn’t forgotten the slap from the old woman; though indignant, now was clearly not the time for a direct confrontation. He followed Zhou Yi up the mountain.
From a distance, the old woman saw the two fleeing at the sight of their group, suspecting something was amiss. She leapt from her horse, pushing off the horse’s head with her right foot, and chased after Zhou Yi and Baozi.
“Grandmother, don’t pursue them,” the Holy Maiden called out as the old woman rushed ahead.
Hearing the Holy Maiden’s command, the old woman immediately turned and headed for the blood spring. “Just as the Holy Maiden predicted—there is indeed a blood spring and a flying corpse here.”
As she spoke, the group arrived at the edge of the pit and looked down, grinning.
“This flying corpse is too weak. Even with constant nourishment from the blood spring, it would take a year to become a drought demon,” the Miao Holy Maiden said softly, her brows furrowing slightly. The white veil concealed her beauty but could not hide her ethereal elegance. Her gentle words carried an irresistible authority, as if kneeling at her feet was only natural.
“A year? Wouldn’t that miss the alignment of the Seven Stars?” the old woman asked, turning to her.
Zhou Yi and Baozi, not far away, overheard and could not help but exclaim in surprise, “The Seven Stars’ alignment?”