Channeling water-attribute spiritual power, Qin Sang condensed an ice coffin, sealing the embracing couple inside to find a place to bury them once he got out. Then he put away Liu Shan's corpse as well.
Of their party of eight, five had already died. He did not know how Yu Daiyue and Li Zai were faring. According to Qingting, the restricted ground of the Heavenly Corpse Sect branch altar lay just behind this grand hall, and whichever cavern one entered from, all paths converged here. Yet neither Yu Daiyue nor Li Zai had shown up.
The Liu brothers had not told the whole truth. They had not cultivated the same cultivation method; rather, what had allowed them to combine attacks and unleash power rivaling a Foundation Establishment cultivator was a secret technique known as the Divine Art of the Two Principles.
This secret technique was exceedingly bizarre, and its origin was likely far from simple.
However, on one point they had not lied: it truly required two people with minds linked in harmony to cultivate together. Useless to Qin Sang, he put it away without much thought.
What piqued Qin Sang's curiosity most was still that talisman treasure. Upon the snow-white talisman paper of remarkable resilience was stamped a jade ruyi emitting a faint, clear glow. The petite jade ruyi seemed poised to break right out of the paper, brimming with spiritual vitality.
Although he had seen one more than once, in all his time cultivating, this was the first time he had possessed a talisman treasure. A single thin sheet of talisman paper had sealed within it a tenth of a magic treasure's power—truly marvelous.
The youth in tight-fitting clothes he had encountered in the Eight Trigrams Forbidden Ground had also possessed a talisman treasure, a crescent-shaped scimitar, but that youth had only been at the Qi Refinement stage and did not know how to properly refine it, able to bring out only a fraction of its might.
Senior Sister Qingting, however, was a Foundation Establishment cultivator capable of drawing out the talisman treasure's full might. Her display just now in activating the talisman treasure to assault the baleful corpse had been an eye-opener for Qin Sang.
Even a top-grade magic tool fell far short of a talisman treasure. Sadly, Senior Sister Qingting had suffered an ambush by the baleful corpse first and was grievously wounded, leaving the situation beyond salvage.
Moreover, activating a talisman treasure required a certain amount of time for sacrificial refining, as well as infusing massive amounts of spiritual power, exacting an enormous toll.
After inspecting the talisman treasure for a moment, Qin Sang put it away carefully and walked up to the heavy darksteel doors, breaking the restrictions on the iron doors according to Senior Sister Qingting's instructions.
Previously, he had relied on brute force to break restrictions. Using Senior Sister Qingting's method, the restrictions themselves would not be destroyed, allowing him to shut the heavy darksteel doors behind him once inside to ward off the yin baleful qi.
The Five Elements Dharma-Breaking Sword turned into a streak of sword light, repeatedly tapping the heavy darksteel doors, touching and withdrawing each time with seemingly effortless lightness. Before long, the restrictions were broken with effortless ease.
Qin Sang could not help marveling at Senior Sister Qingting's attainment in the art of restrictions. Once he confirmed there was no danger behind the heavy darksteel doors, he channeled his spiritual power into a palm and shoved them open with force.
*Clack, clack...*
The heavy darksteel doors slowly swung open. Unexpectedly, they did not lead into a stone corridor, opening instead straight into an incomparably vast, empty cavern. As the iron doors opened, spiritual power concentrated to the utmost came surging forth at once, invigorating Qin Sang's spirits.
This cavern was the core restricted ground of the Heavenly Corpse Sect branch altar!
Just as he was about to step inside, a muffled bang suddenly came from behind him.
Qin Sang paused in his tracks. Looking back toward the row of stone doors in front of the grand hall, he saw one covered with cracks before it shattered with a roar, and a dark figure darted out from within.
Qin Sang's expression shifted slightly. Thoughts racing, he chose not to conceal himself. He had already seen clearly that the dark figure was Yu Daiyue, not a baleful corpse. The traces of battle in the hall could never escape Yu Daiyue's eyes anyway, so there was no point in hiding.
Furthermore, he had already taken a rough glance just now: behind the heavy darksteel doors lay another expanse of ruins, already looted just like the areas before, with likely no treasures left behind.
"Huh? Junior Brother Qin?"
Yu Daiyue burst into the hall. Abruptly seeing someone standing ahead, alarms blared in his heart, and he immediately summoned a magic tool into a defensive posture. Once he saw clearly that it was Qin Sang, he could not help looking surprised.
"Greetings, Senior Brother Yu," Qin Sang greeted him. Glancing behind Yu Daiyue, he saw no sign of Li Zai. It seemed Yu Daiyue had also broken through alone.
Yu Daiyue let out a huge sigh of relief and put away his protective magic tool. Still visibly shaken, he said, "I didn't run into a single soul the whole way. I thought everyone had... Thank goodness! Thank goodness! Junior Brother Qin, you made such quick time. Did you encounter any baleful corpses on the road? Those evil corpses are terrifyingly strong..."
As Yu Daiyue spoke, he surveyed the grand hall. Mid-sentence, his gaze suddenly caught the baleful corpse lying on the floor, its skull pierced through by a spirit sword. His voice cut off abruptly, an expression of utter shock spreading across his face as he swallowed hard.
"Uh... was this baleful corpse killed by you, Junior Brother Qin?"
Seeing Yu Daiyue's startled, uncertain expression, Qin Sang said impassively, "Senior Brother Yu thinks too highly of me. Slaying this baleful corpse was mainly Senior Sister Qingting's doing. Fortunately Senior Sister Qingting was here, or else I might have already become another ghost under the corpse's claws."
Hearing this, Yu Daiyue brightened and hastily looked around. "Senior Sister Qingting has arrived as well? Where did she go?"
Qin Sang's expression grew solemn, and he said in a heavy voice, "Senior Sister Qingting has passed away."
"What did you say?"
Yu Daiyue's face fell drastically. He whipped his head around to glare at Qin Sang, his aura abruptly erupting.
Pressed by Yu Daiyue's aura and sensing the deep wariness in his gaze, Qin Sang remained unfazed. He retrieved the ice coffin from his mustard seed bag, recounted what had just transpired, and showed him the bodies of the Liu brothers as well.
The fatal wounds on Qingting's body were clearly left by a baleful corpse, and before her death she had embraced Senior Brother Jiang with a serene expression, showing not the slightest hint of anger at being plotted against. Yu Daiyue had no choice but to believe it.
Yu Daiyue let out a long sigh, his face full of bitterness. "The Liu brothers were forced apart and couldn't use their combined attack method—I had anticipated that much. But I never imagined Senior Sister Qingting, whose cultivation stood above us all, would die at the hands of a baleful corpse. I wonder how Junior Brother Wu and the other two are doing..."
Qin Sang said, "Although these baleful corpses are bizarre, they are unliving creatures after all. Senior Brother Wu and the others surely have no lack of life-saving measures, so there is no need to worry too much. Before Senior Sister Qingting passed on, she told me there must be a formation device in the restricted ground ahead that can be used to control the restrictions here. We might as well activate the restrictions first and wait patiently for our fellow Daoists..."
He knew full well that Baiyun Shanren and Wu Yuesheng would never appear, leaving only Li Zai to see if he had the luck to flee in alive, but the act had to be carried out to the end.
The greatest threat now was the earth fiend qi, which Yu Daiyue knew full well. He had simply been shaken by Qingting's death and momentarily panicked. Reminded by Qin Sang, he snapped back to his senses at once and said repeatedly, "Junior Brother Qin is right. Let us hurry and activate the restrictions to block the earth fiend qi. Did you try it yet, Junior Brother Qin? Is the restriction's formation device easy to control?"
Qin Sang pushed the iron doors wide open and shook his head. "When you arrived, Senior Brother Yu, I had just broken the restrictions on the iron doors and hadn't yet had time to go inside and look."
Yu Daiyue glanced past the iron doors, saw the sprawling expanse of ruins, nodded, and followed Qin Sang inside.
Chapter 174