Chapter 136

Chapter 136

Yan Zhengchu had barely left when Xia Ximo silently rose to her feet and followed him straight out.

Ren Fengjue felt the space beside him go empty and was taken aback. He looked toward her retreating figure, about to speak.

“Don’t follow me.”

“…”

Her tone was as forceful as ever. Without even turning her head, she followed in Yan Zhengchu’s footsteps.

Yan Zhengchu, walking ahead, was startled when he suddenly saw her catch up. He hurriedly said, “My dear lady, why are you following me?”

“Who says I’m following you?”

That same proud attitude.

“…”

For a moment, Yan Zhengchu did not know what to say to her. But then, on second thought, he vaguely felt that the Giant’s sudden restraint just now might have had something to do with her.

Could it have been her?

Xia Ximo gave him a cold sideways glance, then asked, “Do you have a way to subdue the walking corpse while preserving Huang Yuqiong’s soul?”

Yan Zhengchu had not expected her to ask such a question. After a brief hesitation, he replied, “There is a way, but it’s a bit tricky. We’d have to take the Soul-Nurturing Pearl out of her body.”

If his guess was right, that pearl had already been swallowed into her stomach.

“I thought of using the Corpse-Stabilizing Curse to restrain her first, then remove the pearl.”

“It’s just… I suddenly forgot how to draw that charm…”

Xia Ximo shot him another cold glance. That look seemed to be saying again-just admit it, you’re useless.

Yan Zhengchu felt utterly humiliated under her stare. After a light cough, he added, “But after thinking it over just now, I do have a rough outline again. I’ll try it in a bit.”

“…”

As they spoke, something seemed to be slowly approaching from behind.

Yan Zhengchu whipped around, only to find a pair of cloudy, dead-fish eyes glaring viciously at him. Seeing that the other party was about to pounce in the next second, he immediately covered his mouth and nose and quickly crouched down.

The walking corpse lost its target at once and turned toward Xia Ximo instead.

Yan Zhengchu broke out in a cold sweat. In a flash of inspiration, he picked up a stone from the ground and threw it to the side.

Attracted by the sound, the walking corpse really did hurry over.

Yan Zhengchu let out a slight breath of relief and tugged at the hem of Xia Ximo’s clothes, only to find that she was still standing perfectly straight.

This woman! She feared neither man nor ghost, and now she was not even afraid of a vicious corpse like this!

“My dear lady…”

Yan Zhengchu lowered his voice as much as possible and pleaded, “Could you please crouch down too?”

Under his earnest gaze, Xia Ximo finally, and very reluctantly, slowly crouched down.

Yan Zhengchu made a gesture for silence, then took out yellow paper and a vermilion brush from his robes.

He pictured that blurry Talisman in his mind several times, but the more anxious he became, the less he knew where to start.

Xia Ximo did not make a sound, but those bright, shadowed eyes and that condescending gaze were oppressively intense.

Under her stare, Yan Zhengchu could not help but tremble in both hands.

“Can you do it or not?”

“…”

Xia Ximo seemed unwilling to waste any more time with him. She stood up directly and headed after the walking corpse.

“You… wait…”

Yan Zhengchu was burning with anxiety, but out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of the Bagua Jade Gourd hanging at his waist.

The key to that charm-wasn’t it related to the Eight Trigrams Formation?

Enlightenment struck him at once. Vermilion touched the paper, and his brush moved as if guided by a divine hand.

–

At that moment, Axia was crouched in place, guarding the wind lantern, staring wide-eyed at Thirteen beside him.

Inside the cave, it was so quiet that the sound of the wind threading through could be heard. The lamplight could only illuminate the tiny patch of ground beneath their feet.

Beyond that, everywhere the eye could reach was swallowed in gloom.

Then, all of a sudden, a figure slowly emerged from the darkness.
Axia shot to his feet on instinct. Seeing that the figure was slender and clearly a woman, he called out, “Miss Xia?”

At the sound of his voice, the person seemed to falter for a moment, then suddenly quickened her pace.

For some reason, however, the way she walked looked extremely strange.

Only when she drew closer did Axia gradually realize something was wrong. Fourteen, lying on the ground, also let out a low growl.

The next instant, that figure lunged at him…

Before Axia could even get a clear look, a pair of ice-cold hands clamped down on his arms.

In his panic, he focused his eyes-and found a deathly pale face right in front of him.

From the bluish pallor beneath that whiteness, she looked as though she had been dead for quite some time. Faint corpse spots had even begun to appear in several places.

And those “eyes,” showing nothing but the whites, held not the slightest trace of life.

Could this be a corpse that had crawled out of some grave deep in the mountains?

Axia tried to struggle, but the woman’s strength was astonishing. Even with all his might, he could not break free in the slightest, and terror surged through him.

Just as she abruptly opened her mouth, revealing a row of stark white teeth, and was about to bite down on him…

He saw another figure appear behind the female corpse.

“Miss Xia!”

Axia cried out at once.

He had thought he was doomed this time, yet even as cold sweat slid down his temple, nothing happened.

The female corpse before him seemed to have been restrained by some force.

Her mouth was still open, her teeth only a hair’s breadth from his neck.

Axia was so frightened that all strength left his legs. Then he heard Yan Zhengchu’s voice: “Axia, don’t panic!”

“Daoist Yan!”

Yan Zhengchu, who had arrived just in time, wasted no words. He slapped the Corpse-Stabilizing Talisman in his hand onto Huang Yuqiong’s forehead.

Seeing her fixed in place at last, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good thing I wasn’t one step too late!”

Yan Zhengchu, whose body had been strung tight the entire time, went weak and sat down on the ground. He could not help sighing. “Luckily, at the critical moment, this Daoist Master remembered. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable.”

Though the female corpse in front of him had stopped moving, Axia was still badly shaken. He could not help asking, “What exactly is going on?”

By then, Ren Fengjue, Yu Lang, and Thirteen had all hurried over.

Working together, everyone separated the now “subdued” female corpse from Axia.

Yu Lang patted Axia on the shoulder and said, “You had quite a scare. I’ll explain the details to you later.”

Beside them, Thirteen could not help walking up to Huang Yuqiong. His expression carried indescribable grief and regret.

He stretched out his trembling hands, as though wanting to touch her face, but in the end, he only called out, “Sister Yuqiong, Thirteen was wrong…”

After resting in place for a short while, Yan Zhengchu knew it was time to get down to business.

He walked over to the female corpse and Thirteen and said, “I am going to cast a spell to force out the Soul-Nurturing Pearl she swallowed. Only by releasing her soul will she have a chance to enter the Underworld Administration and be reborn.”

Hearing this, Thirteen was about to kneel again, but Yan Zhengchu stopped him. “No more kneeling. She died with such injustice. If her resentment still hasn’t dispersed, we’ll have to rely on you to resolve it…”

As Yan Zhengchu spoke, he immediately pressed his index and middle fingers together, formed a hand seal, and struck it into the female corpse’s brow.

A wisp of black qi instantly shot out from her eyes.

He then tossed out a copper coin and silently chanted an incantation. The Soul-Nurturing Pearl inside the female corpse’s belly seemed to respond.

Immediately afterward, a pearl the size of a pigeon’s egg flew out of her mouth, fell to the ground, and split in two.

At that moment, a shadow flew out from within it and swiftly rushed toward the cave entrance…