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Chapter 742: Chapter 748: Surprise
Li Zhirui didn’t respond, but in the next instant, countless thick vines burst forth from the ground, filling the empty cave completely and transforming into several giant pythons that shot towards the zombie’s limbs and head.
It seemed to sense a trace of danger and, with a flicker, left its original position, the disdain in its eyes dissipating quite a bit.
But before it could breathe a sigh of relief, hundreds of twined vine whips tore through the air from the side and, with a bang, sent it flying, smashing into the vines. Like myriad snakes surging, they relentlessly moved to engulf it, unleashing an unending barrage of attacks.
Roar!
Accompanied by an angry roar, the disheveled zombie struggled out of the vines, "I’ll have you dead!"
Li Zhirui stepped back, and Da Qing promptly acted, throwing out an azure-colored tortoise shell to shelter the three of them. Regardless of the zombie’s attacks, the defense remained as solid as a fortress, unshakable.
Da Qing’s abilities were focused entirely on defense, and with its natural racial talent, it could hold off a Nascent Soul perfection enemy for a significant time, let alone this mere fourth-order advanced zombie?
With Da Qing taking the brunt of the defense, Li Zhirui could attack with all his might without any guard, not needing to be distracted. Suddenly, the zombie found itself in grave danger.
The limited space indeed made it difficult for some techniques to be used, but it also made it easier to construct a battlefield suited to oneself – like now. The Spirit Seeds he was using were far fewer than before, but their power was even greater.
Xiaoqing wasn’t idle either, releasing various razor-like wind spells that kept appearing from his hands. Even though the zombie’s body was exceptionally strong, it still suffered many cuts that oozed a thick stench.
Having ’resurrected’ not long ago and not fully recovered its strength, it was no match for the lethal blows from the three Nascent Soul enemies. As time went by, the zombie plunged deeper into a life-or-death crisis.
"Impossible! I defied the heavens to change my fate and underwent countless hardships to transform my body into an immortal form. I should be on the path to Ascension; how could I possibly die here!"
The zombie, realizing its life force was rapidly slipping away, suddenly became frantic, its eyes reddening as its original rationality was drowned in chaos, reverting to a regular fourth-order zombie!
It still possessed Spiritual Intelligence but was no longer as indistinguishable from a regular person as before.
"Could this be a backlash from a Secret Technique?" Li Zhirui speculated upon seeing this.
From the words it had spoken earlier, it wasn’t difficult to guess that the zombie was transformed from a Nascent Soul cultivator through a secret technique, seemingly in pursuit of immortality.
Uncovering the truth was simple: just deal with this zombie and check the two storage rings on its right hand, which should contain the relevant information.
Facing a zombie whose Spiritual Intelligence had not fully developed, Li Zhirui and his companions, working together, quickly managed to decapitate it and finally incinerated it to ashes with Spiritual Fire.
"I wonder if there’s anything inside the coffin."
Just as Li Zhirui was preparing to investigate the storage rings, Xiaoqing curiously approached the massive coffin.
Inside the wooden coffin was a smaller jade coffin. Even without touching it, one could feel the chill emanating from it, "A fourth-order Spiritual Object?"
Although Xiaoqing wasn’t keen on reading, by observing the Spirit Light emanating from the jade coffin with his Divine Sense, he could roughly judge the grade of the Spiritual Object.
Xiaoqing’s voice drew Li Zhirui and Da Qing’s attention. After a careful examination, they said, "This is Gathering Yin Nourishing Soul Jade, a pity, what was clearly a fifth-order heavenly material and earthly treasure has lost much of its Spirit Light due to that unknown secret technique." 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝖕𝖚𝖇.𝖈𝔬𝔪
Gathering Yin Nourishing Soul Jade was a treasure that all ghosts longed for in their dreams. Owning a small piece could greatly benefit a ghost’s cultivation, let alone such a large chunk.
"This outer wooden coffin is also a fourth-order Spiritual Object called Condensed Evil Wood, but its damage is more severe, having dropped to second-order."
Li Zhirui sighed and said, "No wonder there aren’t many Spiritual Objects or Spirit Stones in the two storage rings; it all must have been spent on these two items."
He hadn’t looked carefully just yet, merely glancing and memorizing the contents.
In the vast space, there were only about a dozen sealed Jade Boxes besides, several hundred Jade Slips.
"Ah! So, we’ve made this trip for nothing much in the way of gains?" Xiaoqing cried out in disappointment.
"The gains are still significant, those few hundred Jade Slips are a valuable treasure."
Li Zhirui was very curious about the identity of the zombie before his death, and wondered who he was to have collected so many Jade Slips and such a large piece of Gathering Yin Nourishing Soul Jade.
Hearing this, Xiaoqing couldn’t help but pout, as the Jade Slips were what he found most tiresome.
"Let’s go, our business here is done, it’s time to head back to Wanxian Island."
Before leaving, Li Zhirui used a Memory Stone to record the Array Patterns on the ground, thinking that he could have Jiang Fengwu study them later, then he completely erased them.
"Jiu, are we really not going to look for the Secular Clansmen scattered in this area?" Xiaoqing suddenly asked as they were flying over Bailang County.
Li Zhirui shook his head, "There’s no need, several hundred years have passed, how much blood and kinship can there be between the two families?"
More importantly, how was he to distinguish if they were indeed members of the Li family? He hadn’t learned any Divine Ability Spells for tracing bloodlines.
Seeing this, Xiaoqing did not bring it up again, although he was a bit curious about the current situation of the Li family members, if Jiu was unwilling to look, then they could only let it be.
The next day, the group returned home.
"You’re back already?"
Jiang Fengwu showed some surprise when he learned of their return, as it was only three days in total.
"Did you not find the treasure location, or was the Treasure Map a fake?"
Li Zhirui smiled, "Could it not be that we have already obtained the treasure?"
"Did you get any treasures?" Jiang Fengwu got excited all at once.
Xiaoqing curled his lips and said, "Just some low-order Spiritual Objects not worth much, and the rest are all Jade Slips."
On their way back, they had opened those dozen or so Jade Slips; they were all second-order, third-order Spiritual Objects.
Li Zhirui ignored him and said, "There are still a few hundred Jade Slips to look through, we’re going to be busy for a while."
——
"Huff huff huff—"
Li Chengsheng hid in a secluded corner, trying hard to calm his breath, but his wildly pounding heart was not so easily soothed.
"I never imagined I’d stumble upon such an opportunity!"
The thought of the Spiritual Object in his hands prevented Li Chengsheng from calming down.
He was incredibly lucky to have obtained a Great Illusionary Dream Fruit!
After consuming it, one could construct a dream realm on their own!
Although it was just an illusion, the insights gained from it were all real!
In this way, Li Chengsheng could construct his own vision of transforming the Golden Core into a Nascent Soul, gaining the insights needed for a breakthrough!
