Chapter 42
Chapter 42
The tremendous crash awakened the Duans, who had only recently fallen asleep.
Some leaned from their windows and looked into the courtyard by the streetlights.
They screamed in terror!
Many knew Duan Meng, while even distant relatives who did not had seen her in the coffin.
Now the dead Miss Duan moved through the courtyard and had knocked down an iron gate with her body. The sight made their blood run cold.
Boss Duan had never fallen asleep. Standing beneath an umbrella on the villa’s highest terrace, he watched his daughter rampage as a vicious corpse.
Tears streamed down his face.
Old Cao and Yuan Fei were horrified.
“There are too many people inside Duan Family Manor tonight! If the vicious corpse starts slaughtering them and absorbs the bloody aura, she may truly complete her transformation into a fiend.”
Fortunately, Big Bull and his strong companions were fastest. They dropped Yuan Fei and rushed to surround her, intercepting her before the villa entrance.
I helped the miserable Yuan Fei from the ground. “Are you all right, Mr. Yuan?”
He waved. “Fine. Big Bull simply threw me without warning… Ouch.”
I nearly laughed.
But this was no time. Big Bull’s group was desperate to save lives.
Their Great Corpse-Locking Formation had consumed immense physical and mental energy. Without preparation, they could not defeat a female corpse strengthened by the dead fetus inside her.
Old Cao gritted his teeth. “We’ll truly have to risk everything!”
He pulled several dark-red sheets from his fur pouch. They resembled spirit money, but light flowed across their surfaces.
“Red spirit money?”
I did not know its purpose.
Old Cao ignored me. His hands moved too quickly to follow, folding the sheets into a paper blade over a foot long!
The instant it took shape, my vision blurred and several muffled impacts sounded.
Big Bull and his three men flew in different directions and hit the ground, howling, unable to rise.
The corpse had defeated them all. Fortunately, none appeared mortally injured.
“This is bad!”
Unexpectedly, the corpse did not enter the villa. She turned toward a side courtyard on its right–a small garden where Boss Duan grew flowers.
Why go there?
“Xiao Wu, after her!”
Old Cao pulled me into pursuit.
The final moment had arrived!
Normally he would never let me fight a corpse directly on my first procession. I was still focused on theory and had little practical skill.
But Big Bull’s four men were down, Yuan Fei was exhausted, and only Old Cao and I retained our strength!
We chased the vicious corpse into the side courtyard.
The rain stopped.
Clouds dispersed, and the round moon hung high again, its silver light brightening our surroundings.
Two trembling figures crouched in a corner.
Duan Yi and Duan Tianbao!
They must have fled here in panic, too afraid even to knock on a door. They thought they had escaped this life tribulation, but the corpse found them.
“You bastards! You call yourselves experts? Why can’t you handle one corpse?”
Driven senseless by terror, Duan Yi blamed us.
“Woo!”
The corpse lunged, claws extended.
Fighting for his life, Duan Yi hurled a stone slab. It struck her and briefly slowed her.
Old Cao bit the tip of his tongue and sprayed blood over the short red paper blade.
Pfft!
The divine paper ignited with a roar, becoming a blazing red flame blade that bathed the garden in crimson.
The technique left Old Cao deathly pale, but he roared, “Divine paper destroys evil–sever!”
He charged and swung the flame blade at her neck.
But the rain had left the courtyard slippery. His foot slid during the strike, throwing him off balance.
The flame blade only grazed her shoulder…
Slash!
A deep wound nearly severed one arm.
I drew a sharp breath.
“What technique is this? It’s incredible!”
Baleful resentment filled the corpse and the fetus strengthened her. Though not a true fiend, her body was hard as stone.
Ordinary swords would leave only shallow marks.
Yet one light graze from Old Cao’s flame blade nearly severed her arm! A clean hit would kill her instantly.
“Woo…”
Again ignoring the fallen Old Cao, the corpse chased Duan Yi and Duan Tianbao, already five or six meters away.
“Ouch! Xiao Wu, I think I’ve dislocated my tailbone. I can’t get up. Destroy the vicious corpse–decapitate her or pierce her heart! Hurry, the blade is burning away.”
Old Cao threw the flame blade to me.
Whoosh!
It traced a crimson arc and landed accurately in my hand.
It was light, truly folded spirit money, yet red fire burned upon it with inexplicable power.
“Good!”
My eyes flashed, and I sprinted after them.
I had preserved more stamina than anyone by observing most of the fight, so I quickly caught up. The villains’ legs were weak with terror, while repeated battles had slowed the corpse.
Only twenty-odd meters separated the far end of the side garden from the archway to the main courtyard.
Perhaps heaven willed it. The two men missed the three-inch step beneath the arch and fell flat on their faces.
The corpse reached them and extended her claws.
I reached her back and aimed the flame blade at her heart…
At that critical instant, my foot slipped just as Old Cao’s had!
Thud.
I lost balance and fell past the corpse’s right side.
At the same moment, her claws plunged into the backs of Duan Yi and Duan Tianbao and pierced their hearts!
They died instantly, unable even to scream. They deserved it.
I did not give up. I had fallen toward the corpse’s front, moving from behind her to a diagonal position ahead. I sprang up and stabbed backward!
Slash!
The blazing flame blade entered her heart.
Boom…
It scattered into burned ash.
My palm was scorched and burned fiercely.
Black energy poured from the corpse’s eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and every other orifice. Her swollen abdomen collapsed, and her stone-hard body softened.
She fell forward onto the bodies of Duan Yi and Duan Tianbao.
All three villains were dead, each killed by the vicious corpse. Miss Duan had taken revenge with her own hands. But she too was dead, and her transformed existence defied heaven and earth, so Old Cao’s flame blade in my hand destroyed her.
At last, the night was over…
I sat panting on the ground and stared blankly.
Old Cao limped over and helped me up.
Yuan Fei and Big Bull’s men surrounded me with praise.
“Excellent, Xiao Wu! Calm in danger and resolute–your future is limitless,” Yuan Fei said.
Big Bull said, “That was close! I thought you’d missed too. After killing three, the corpse would’ve become too fierce to control.”
Ergou agreed. “Few inside Duan Family Manor would have survived.”
Flat-Top said, “Xiao Wu is remarkable. We couldn’t see the details, but he deserves to be the young talent Coffin-Bearer Cao calls brother.”
Mangdun struggled for words. “Same as them.”
…
Embarrassed, I scratched my head and grinned.
They marveled that I had been only two seconds late. Had I not slipped, I would have destroyed the corpse from behind, perhaps allowing Duan Yi and Duan Tianbao to live.
But such scum harmed heaven and reason merely by living. Dying with their hearts pierced by Miss Duan was deserved punishment–perhaps heaven had eyes!
The other Duans emerged and watched fearfully from afar.
Boss Duan approached with his three sons.
His youngest son, probably closest to Miss Duan, wept at the blood and three overlapping bodies.
“Little sister, why? You were dead and should have rested in the earth. Why become an evil ghost and enter our home to kill?”
Yuan Fei immediately explained, “Miss Duan wasn’t an evil ghost but a vicious corpse–they’re different. These two and Duan Ren, whom the lid crushed, deserved death. They caused Miss Duan’s death.”
“What?!”
Boss Duan could not believe his daughter had been killed.
Before he could ask more, Old Cao vomited blood and swayed.
I caught him. “What’s wrong, Old Cao?”
“Nothing. I exhausted myself. Divine-paper techniques consume the body.”
Boss Duan quickly offered to send Master Cao to the town clinic and then the county hospital.
“No need, thank you. I depleted blood essence but wasn’t injured. Several days’ rest will suffice. Mr. Yuan and Big Bull can handle the aftermath and explain the truth. Xiao Wu, help me home…”
No one could stop him.
Besides, Boss Duan now desperately wanted to know the truth from Yuan Fei and Big Bull.
…
I slowly helped Old Cao out of Duan Family Manor and onto the concrete lane toward town.
We passed Duan Ren’s crushed body and the empty coffin.
Neither of us spoke.
Only after crossing the bridge north of town did Old Cao suddenly ask, “Xiao Wu, did you really slip by accident?”