At the command, everyone sprang into motion. Alicia rode the air currents, her hair flying as she darted behind the nude statue like an arrow, using it as cover as she sprinted toward the staircase.
Qingzhu burst forward like a leopard. His thin sleeves clung to his frame, outlining the lean, undulating contours of muscle that rose and fell with his stride, his speed not a hair slower than Alicia's.
Federation Has No History leaped into the air. The sea churned beneath him, coalescing into a magnificent steed that caught him right on cue. Its hooves flew as it overtook the two companions in an instant, pulling up behind the statue.
The Goddess of the Hunt had an attack range of fifty meters. They only needed to cross that fifty-meter stretch to reach the staircase.
With the statue running interference to block arrows, that distance took only a few blinks of an eye for Saints.
Mounted upon the golden-horned hind, the Goddess of the Hunt stiffly turned her neck a few times, seemingly discerning their numbers. Then she pulled four blood-red arrows from the quiver on her back, nocking them to her bow.
"Fuck!"
"Shit!"
Curses from the Beast King and the Siren sounded beside Zhang Yuanqing's ears.
This was not what they had expected. The Goddess of the Hunt was not limited to single shots; she could loose four arrows at once.
*Thwack!*
The snap of the bowstring rang crisp and powerful, echoing in the depths of everyone's hearts as four blood-red beams of light shot forth.
Seeing this, Qingzhu frantically swung down the gold-and-silver pingtuo qin from his back and plucked wildly at the strings.
Harsh acoustic waves rippled into physical reality, spreading outward with the body of the qin at their epicenter. The four streaks of light were slightly dampened, their brilliance and speed dropping abruptly, yet they still struck dead-on against the nude statue raising a single arm to block.
With a booming crash, the arrows struck the statue's head, shoulder, chest, and abdomen simultaneously.
The granite body violently came apart, scattering stone shards in all directions.
Alicia hastily raised a wind wall, while Qingzhu slammed a palm-sized stone tablet into the floor, generating a semicircular barrier.
This was no relic, but an Earth Monster item.
Having punched through the statue and been blunted by the qin's sonic waves, the four arrows lacked follow-through. After piercing the wind wall, they shattered against the barrier projected by the tablet.
They had blocked it!
All four breathed a sigh of relief, expressions brightening.
*Clack-clack-clack!*
Seizing the opening, the Siren Federation Has No History urged his steed into a mad charge toward the staircase. At the same time, he raised a shield over his head, and greenish-black fish scales surfaced across his flesh.
A dual layer of defense.
In the span of a breath, he had nearly reached the foot of the stairs.
Right then, the Goddess of the Hunt drew a pale gold arrow from the quiver on her back and pulled her bow taut.
The golden light passed silently through the knight's shield, pierced through the scales, and sank straight into Federation Has No History's skull.
The horse beneath him collapsed into foaming seawater. Carried forward by momentum, the Siren's body flew through the air, tumbled onto the steps, and died without a sound.
Zhang Yuanqing and the others, who had been scrambling forward, ground to a dead halt, their pupils constricting sharply.
The Goddess of the Hunt nimbly drew three golden arrows and drew her bow, giving the intruders no room to breathe.
Alicia shrieked, "Fall back!"
"You go first!" Zhang Yuanqing barked coolly. As he tossed the Gilt Silver Ewer into the air, he donned the Armor of Thunder and activated the Mark of the Thunder God, summoning lightning to strike the Goddess of the Hunt.
Bolts of electricity draped over the granite sculpture, inflicting no damage whatsoever.
The three relief carvings on the ewer sprang to life, leaping out one after another.
The moment he landed, the snow-white-skinned divine servant roared, "Insolent mortal, how dare you draw a bow before this god—"
As soon as he saw the Goddess of the Hunt riding her golden-horned hind, he shuddered violently, threw himself to the ground, and quavered, "Goddess above, forgive my insolence!"
The other two divine servants prostrated themselves immediately.
*These three servants are from the Greek pantheon too? A divine hierarchy suppression?* Zhang Yuanqing cursed inwardly. He hadn't expected them to beat the boss; he had only summoned them as arrow-fodder.
Who would have guessed these spineless lackeys would kneel at first sight, their knees weaker than anyone's.
*Thwack!*
The Goddess of the Hunt loosed the bowstring. Three golden streaks gave chase.
Zhang Yuanqing methodically engaged Astral Travel, his soul leaving his body and slipping into a yin corpse. Life instantly sparked in its hollow eyes.
At that moment, a golden arrow struck him, vanishing silently into the corpse's form.
The yin corpse snatched up his physical body and threw it toward Alicia, perfectly interposing it to block the arrow flying at her.
Simultaneously, the other yin corpse leaped forward on its own, taking the blow meant for Qingzhu.
Just as this finished, the Goddess of the Hunt attacked again, this time targeting the yin corpse inhabited by Zhang Yuanqing's soul.
Her attack speed was simply too high, offering not a second of respite.
Zhang Yuanqing decisively broke the astral trance, pulling his soul from the yin corpse and returning to his flesh. His eyes snapped open, and with a spring and a roll, he escaped the goddess's attack radius.
Behind him, the yin corpse collapsed stiffly, its already fragmented soul dissipating completely.
The three retreated quickly, putting plenty of distance between themselves and the staircase, gasping for breath with lingering terror.
The Goddess of the Hunt nocked an arrow, gazing coldly at them from afar.
Standing in the distance, Zhang Yuanqing watched the goddess and could not help but frown. Single shots, volleys, rapid fire, peerless destructive power with her blood arrows, and soul-targeting golden arrows.
Beating this through pure defense or interference was nearly impossible.
The reason he had pulled back was the realization that even if they exhausted every trick and reached the staircase, each of them would still have to take at least one hit.
Furthermore, during the charge, Zhang Yuanqing had attempted to manipulate her emotions using an Illusionist's ability, only to find her willpower as impenetrable as a block of solid iron.
There was no possibility of swaying or influencing her.
She was a stone statue, so the Rogue Dial's life-drain would be useless, and lightning was ineffective. Wind blades might do something, but hardly enough. Her will was unshakable, making illusions and charms pointless...
*The only thing I have that can unleash Dominator-tier power is the Thunder God Set. I could conceal myself with night travel, charge the railgun, and catch her off guard...*
Zhang Yuanqing's mind raced.
"What do we do?" Qingzhu glanced at the pondering Daode Tianzun, then at Alicia, whose brow was tightly furrowed.
Snapping out of her thoughts, Alicia said, "Keep subduing artifacts. We need relics that can defend against the golden arrows—artifacts of the spiritual realm. We also need physical defense, debuff, and crowd-control relics."
Having said that, she suddenly trailed off, her expression souring.
"What's wrong?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.
"There... there are no spiritual defense artifacts," Alicia whispered.
*I knew it!* Zhang Yuanqing sighed to himself. Since becoming a Spirit Realm walker, he had rarely come across items designed for spiritual defense.
There were plenty of spells in the spiritual realm, and plenty of immunity skills—such as a Scout's Steel Will, a Day Wanderer's divine power of the sun, or a Rain Master's Dragon Roar.
Yet none of those qualified as "defense"; they were methods of self-reinforcement to resist crowd control.
The only thing resembling true defense was the Blue Face on the Military Soul Mask, which granted three immunities to spiritual attacks.
However, the mask's grade was too low to fend off Dominator-tier strikes.
Qingzhu's face fell. "This is only the first floor. The mortality rate shouldn't be this absurd. We must have missed some crucial piece of information."
If it were the second floor, he could accept it.
Alicia said in a low voice, "This isn't a faction battle scenario. You can treat it as an S-rank dungeon. The greatest danger stems from the dungeon itself, not from walkers of the opposing camp."
An idea sparked in Zhang Yuanqing's mind. "Alicia, lend me your Eye of the Wind for a moment."
Both Qingzhu and Alicia looked at him with a hint of wariness. After hesitating for a few seconds, she pulled out the eyeball trailing nerve fibers and tossed it gently to Daode Tianzun.
Zhang Yuanqing caught it, stowed it into his inventory to complete the attunement, and immediately took it back out, activating its aerial view skill.
A gust of air lifted the eyeball high into the air, overlooking the entire exhibition hall.
For a full half-hour, the eyeball hung stationary before drifting back down into Zhang Yuanqing's palm. The next second, a deluge of information flooded his mind.
Profiles of every artifact, images, the layout of the hall—all poured into his brain at once.
Digesting so much information on the spot would have been excruciating for another walker, but for a Night Walker, it was everyday routine.
*There really isn't any relic that can reliably ward off the golden arrows. There are a few decent hard-control relics, but the Goddess of the Hunt is Dominator-tier, while Grade 1 artifacts only correspond to peak Saints; they can't affect her...*
*Win by sheer numbers? Gather every Grade 1 artifact in the hall? That would give us decent odds, but Alicia and Qingzhu's survival rate would be terrible. Such overtuned difficulty doesn't make sense...*
Zhang Yuanqing's brain ran hot like an overclocked processor.
Alicia and Qingzhu remained quiet, waiting while wracking their own brains for solutions.
Right then, as Zhang Yuanqing synthesized the artifact information, his thoughts turned to that Tang dynasty Buddhist corpse. Among the Grade 1 artifacts, it was the most unusual. All the others were inanimate objects; she alone was rattling her coffin like mad.
*Perhaps that's the dungeon's hint!*
Yet no matter how powerful a Grade 1 artifact was, it fell far short of S-rank.
*Doesn't hurt to try!* No sooner had the thought formed than Zhang Yuanqing started walking toward the Buddhist corpse.
Qingzhu and Alicia hurried after him. The Senior Enforcer from Heaven's Punishment glided forward to match his pace, asking with latent anticipation, "What are you planning to do?"
"Subdue an artifact!" Zhang Yuanqing didn't elaborate, since it was only a hunch.
Before long, he stood before the display case holding the Buddhist corpse. Atop the lotus stone pedestal, the blood-red coffin was shuddering violently.
Zhang Yuanqing raised his repeating crossbow, pulled the trigger, and shattered the glass seal.
*Crash!*
The coffin lid was instantly flung off. Qingzhu and Alicia felt the ambient temperature plummet, while in the eyes of Zhang Yuanqing and Commandery Princess Yinyao, the yin energy pouring from within rolled like billows of thick, terrifying smoke.
Through the churning "smoke," a dark golden hand gripped the edge of the coffin. It was slender and well-proportioned—a woman's hand.
Next, a woman who looked as though she had been coated in dark golden paint sat up from within. She was completely unclad, her proportions exquisite, her breasts taut and full.
Her face, however, was a raw mass of dark red sinew and muscle. Her skin had been flayed off by someone unknown.
Qingzhu and Alicia took several steps back—not out of terror, but because the raw power radiating from the female corpse made them want to maintain distance for combat.
The corpse's blank white pupils drifted across her surroundings. She opened her mouth toward Zhang Yuanqing and the others, the muscles at the corners of her lips snapping one by one, tearing all the way to her ears.
A terrifying shriek began to build.
Just then, starlight rose beside the coffin. A hand pressed firmly down upon her head, forcing the torn mouth shut.
Her neck twitched, the vertebrae popping with a crunch as she tilted her head toward the man beside her coffin, meeting a pair of eye sockets brimming with thick, pitch-black energy.
The roiling yin energy froze, as if confronted by its natural predator.
Gathering his mental power, Zhang Yuanqing gave a sharp heave of his throat, letting loose a piercing howl from his mouth.
The corpse stiffened instantly, her white pupils quivering violently as the residual soul inside her shell suffered a devastating blow.
Zhang Yuanqing maintained his Mental Strike, condensing lunar energy at his fingertips to trace corpse-suppressing and spirit-suppressing talismans through the empty air. With every talisman driven into her body, her aura weakened by a notch.
Paired with the continuous Mental Strikes, it took less than three minutes for the corpse to fall back rigid, drained of all vitality.
The Spirit Realm's notification chimed in Zhang Yuanqing's ears, announcing the artifact's subjugation and awarding thirty points.
Night Walkers were the absolute bane of yin creatures. Even against a Dominator-tier specter, Zhang Yuanqing could have put up a fight.
Alicia and Qingzhu were once again stunned by Daode Tianzun's strength. While envying the thirty points he had earned, they were also disappointed; as formidable as the corpse was, she was nowhere near enough to contend with the S-rank Goddess of the Hunt.
Qingzhu stepped forward and pinched the corpse's shoulder, shaking his head repeatedly. "Her defense is decent, but still inferior to Laos. Even your yin corpses aren't weaker than her."
Zhang Yuanqing, however, wore a confident smile.
"Before opening the coffin, I wasn't certain. But now that it's open, I've found our way through."
Alicia and Qingzhu whipped their heads around, overjoyed. "You have a way?"
"It all hinges on her!" Zhang Yuanqing pointed at the corpse's face. "She is an incomplete artifact. Her face skin is over in the eastern sector. Furthermore, there are two other Buddhist artifacts in Exhibition Hall 3 that should be related to her."
Alicia recalled briefly, her eyes lighting up. "Right! I remember now—there was a face skin classified as a Grade 2 artifact."
Qingzhu urged, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Zhang Yuanqing erased the talismans from the female corpse and led her toward the human skin's location. As they walked, Qingzhu suddenly spoke up:
"Huh, Sleeping Dragon Duke is first on the scoreboard, and he's miles ahead of second place."
*Sleeping Dragon Duke?* Information immediately surfaced in Zhang Yuanqing's mind. During his two months at Heaven's Punishment, he had thoroughly studied every wanted list and knew the First District Saints like the back of his hand.
Sleeping Dragon Duke was ranked first on Heaven's Punishment Headquarters' A-rank wanted list, of the Eternal Night class.
In overall combat power, he stood at the very top!
Zhang Yuanqing pulled up the leaderboard for a look. He had jumped from ninth to fourth. Second and third were familiar names: Osmond and Reilly Eugene.
Scanning further down, his expression hardened. He noticed that the scores for Jiang Ju, Huang Taiji, and Xiao Yuan hadn't budged in a long time; they were lingering near the bottom.
Setting Xiao Yuan aside, subduing artifacts shouldn't have been difficult for Huang Taiji and Jiang Ju given their prowess. Their scores should have risen steadily, not ground to a halt.
This indicated they were in an extremely dire predicament, unable to spare the time to gather artifacts and earn points.
Still, they weren't in immediate mortal danger.
Anxiety quietly mounted in Zhang Yuanqing's chest. He quickened his pace until he located the face skin.
It was a delicate, finely featured skin.
By now, the time limits on his Grade 2 artifacts had expired, and they had returned to their display cases. Only the Han eight-sided bronze sword remained. Zhang Yuanqing shattered the glass case with a single slash, liberating the skin.
The moment it broke free of the seal, the skin leaped into the air, attempting to paste itself across Zhang Yuanqing's face.
The female corpse stepped forward on her own, snatching the face skin and slapping it onto her raw, crimson sinew. The skin squirmed for a few moments, knitting tightly to the flesh until it formed a refined, pretty face.
Next, Zhang Yuanqing subdued the remaining two Buddhist artifacts: a golden-red kasaya and a dark red precept blade.
The moment he assembled all three items, the Spirit Realm notification chimed in his ear:
[Name: Blood Bodhisattva]
[Era: Tang Dynasty]
[Grade: S-rank]
[Description: She cultivated Buddhist arts in reverse and succumbed to demonic deviation. Once she began slaughtering and drinking blood, she spiraled out of control, until the monks of Jinmen Temple joined forces to subdue her, suppressing her beneath the Mahavira Hall.]
Chapter 785