nashuaworldcup Chapter 533
Chapter 533
The night wind, carrying the stench of decaying leaves, wafted into the clinic, and Lin Yan's fingertips were already damp with cold sweat on the hilt of his sword. Dongfang Wan'er leaned against the medicine cabinet, her ears catching the faint cracking sound coming from the mortise and tenon joints of the wooden door—a prelude to death. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the veins bulging on her senior brother's hand as he gripped his sword, and suddenly remembered three years ago when she first entered the sect, he had stood before her in the same way, using the blade of his sword to shield her from a raging dog.
"They're here." Lin Yan's low shout pierced the deathly silence.
The door shattered into dust under the tremendous impact. The first zombie to rush in still had half a rotten piece of clothing hanging from its neck, its eyes bulging out with cloudy pupils, and it made muffled hoarse sounds from its throat. Dongfang Wan'er held her breath and counted. When the seventh zombie crossed the threshold, she finally heard the clear and melodious sound of her senior brother's sword being drawn.
The sword light flashed like an inverted Milky Way. The head of the first zombie rolled to the ground, but no blood was seen; only dark brown pus trickled down the sword's spine. Lin Yan frowned and retreated. The stench was even stronger than that of the White Fox Shrine. The wounds of the zombies glowed with an eerie, ghostly blue light, like the faint glow on the cover of an ancient book. He suddenly remembered the "corpse poison entering the meridians" mentioned in the book, and increased the force of his sword swing.
Dongfang Wan'er's willow-leaf blade traced a silver arc in the moonlight, specifically targeting the tendons between the elbows and behind the knees of the walking corpse. This was a skill she had learned from the "Golden Mirror of External Injuries," more like a butterfly flitting among flowers than her senior brother's fierce swordsmanship—until that shadow descended like Mount Tai.
The sound of the giant corpse crushing the blue bricks sent dust flying from the beams. It was at least two people tall, with bluish-purple skin exposed beneath its tattered coarse cloth. Half a piece of straw rope clung to its festering wounds, clearly indicating that it had been dragged from a grave. Lin Yan's Qingming sword struck its shoulder, producing a crisp, metallic clang, and a chipped inch long appeared on the blade.
"Watch out!" Dongfang Wan'er's cry was ripped apart by the sharp sound of claws cutting through the air. The moment the giant corpse swung its arm, Lin Yan did a backflip, only to see the corpse's claws plow five deep furrows into the blue brick floor. He felt a chill on his waist and realized that his back was already pressed against the medicine cabinet, with nowhere to retreat.
At the critical moment, the sound of silver needles piercing the air was like plum blossoms breaking through the snow. Dongfang Wan'er knelt on one knee, and from her sleeve, she shook out twelve bone-piercing nails, the tips of which were dipped in her uniquely concocted corpse-rotting powder. The first two nails pierced precisely into the giant corpse's eye sockets, black pus mixed with blood gushing out. The monster let out a deafening roar, its front paws covering its eyes as it thrashed wildly, crashing against the entire wall, making it tremble.
"Senior brother, an ancient book!" Dongfang Wan'er's throat was already choked by the corpse poison. Lin Yan then remembered the forbidden book in his arms. The moment his fingertips touched the pages, he suddenly recalled the hesitant look in Xuanqing Zhenren's eyes before his death—how could he hesitate now?
The moment the ancient book was unfurled, a sudden surge of eerie blue light erupted, and the tadpole-like ancient characters seemed to rise into the air as if alive, forming a Big Dipper-shaped array above the two people's heads. The first zombie to pounce on the light sizzled and burned as soon as it touched the light, its rotting flesh peeling away to reveal stark white bones, before collapsing to the ground as if its soul had been ripped away.
The giant corpse let out a defiant roar, but collapsed to its knees as the runes swept across its ankles. Lin Yan then realized that the straw rope wrapped around its ankles was the "Corpse Control Rope" recorded in the book, each knot corresponding to a different spell. The ancient book flipped through its pages in the air, finally stopping at the "Breaking Evil Chapter." Golden light sliced through the straw rope like a sharp blade, and the monster's massive body finally crashed to the ground, turning into a pile of rotting bones.
The clinic suddenly fell eerily quiet, save for the ticking of the water clock in the corner. Dongfang Wan'er staggered, grabbing the corner of the table for support, only then noticing that her sleeve had been torn by a corpse's claws, revealing a spiderweb of bluish-black welts crawling across her forearm—corpse poison. Lin Yan hurriedly pulled out an antidote pill, but she shook her head, stopping him: "Put it away first; now is not the time."
The two looked out the window in unison. Behind the heavy, dark clouds, a blood moon was slowly rising. The pages of the ancient book moved without wind, and on the last page that settled, there was a city shrouded in black mist, with the words "Netherworld" faintly visible on the city walls. Lin Yan recalled the legend of the "Corpse-Dissolving Immortal" mentioned in the book and felt a chill run down his spine.
“They won’t let this book go.” Dongfang Wan’er’s fingertips traced the incantations on the pages. Suddenly, she remembered that for a moment when the runes appeared, she seemed to hear her master’s voice. She turned to look at her senior brother, only to find his gaze fixed on the poison marks on her arm. In those usually calm eyes, a storm of emotions she had never seen before was surging.
While packing, Lin Yan carefully wrapped the broken blade of the Qingming Sword in cloth and hung two more bags of cinnabar on his waist. Dongfang Wan'er, on the other hand, soaked the willow-leaf knife in medicinal liquid to re-temper it. The firelight made her face flushed, but it couldn't hide the determination in her eyes. As the first rays of dawn pierced the darkness, the two stood side by side in front of the clinic, the shadows behind them gradually swallowed by the morning light, and the unknown and perilous road ahead.