95: The Cave of Ten Thousand Corpses

After leaving the Small World, Zhang Daobai steered the spirit boat and continued flying toward the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave.

To Zhang Daobai's slight disappointment, he didn't encounter another Robber Cultivator for the rest of the journey.

The Ten Thousand Corpse Cave was near the Yinyue Mountain Range, but fortunately, it was far from the main battlefield between the evil cultivators and the Demon Slaying Alliance, so it was relatively safe.

The Ten Thousand Corpse Cave was located at the bottom of a cliff. The entrance was only three meters wide, and an indescribable stench of corpses lingered around it.

When Zhang Daobai and Lin Luoxue arrived, a group of people happened to be coming out of the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave.

However, they all bore various degrees of injuries and looked extremely disheveled.

Upon seeing Zhang Daobai and Lin Luoxue, these people suddenly became excited.

"Fellow Daoists! We are from the Rogue Cultivator Alliance. Do you two have any spare healing Medicinal Pills and evil dispelling talismans? We are willing to buy them at a high price!"

A burly man whose chest had been slashed by sharp claws stepped forward and pleaded with Zhang Daobai and Lin Luoxue.

Hearing this, Zhang Daobai took out a bottle of Grade Three healing Medicinal Pills and several evil dispelling talismans that could remove evil Qi and threw them to them.

"There's no need for Spirit Stones, but you must tell me the situation inside."

The burly man nodded after taking the pills and talismans. "No problem. Please wait a moment, Fellow Daoist."

After saying that, the man went back and distributed the pills and talismans to everyone.

After stabilizing their injuries, the burly man walked over alone: "I am Lin Fierce Tiger. Thank you for your generous help, Fellow Daoist."

"Tell us about the situation inside."

Zhang Daobai nodded and spoke after glancing at the entrance of the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave.

"No problem, I will tell you everything I know!" Lin Fierce Tiger nodded without hesitation.

Then, Lin Fierce Tiger detailed everything his team had experienced after entering the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave.

The cave was filled not only with evil Qi but also with foul corpse poison. In such an environment, their team's combat power was suppressed by ten percent.

As they went deeper into the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave, the corpse puppets they encountered became stronger. The reason they were so badly injured was that they had encountered five Rank Three Perfection corpse puppets.

"Are there any other Loose Cultivators inside the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave now?"

Zhang Daobai asked further after listening to Lin Fierce Tiger's account.

Lin Fierce Tiger shook his head. "No more. Other teams have either died inside or retreated."

"Please don't blame me for being talkative, but I see that you both are at the Purple Mansion Stage. There's really no need to take this risk. This mission to clear the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave requires at least a Golden Core Stage Cultivator."

There wasn't a hint of disdain in Lin Fierce Tiger's eyes; he was reminding them out of kindness.

"Thank you for the reminder, Fellow Daoist. We won't go too deep; we only plan to kill some corpse puppets for contribution points," Zhang Daobai explained with a mix of truth and lies.

Lin Fierce Tiger could naturally tell that Zhang Daobai wasn't telling the whole truth.

But he didn't think too much about it. After all, it was their own choice, and he couldn't say much.

"In that case, I wish you a safe return. We need to hurry back and heal our wounds, so we'll take our leave now."

After saying goodbye, Lin Fierce Tiger led his teammates away.

Once they were far away, Zhang Daobai and Lin Luoxue approached the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave.

"Such dense evil Qi!"

Lin Luoxue frowned as she looked at the pitch-black cave entrance.

"Let's put on the evil dispelling talismans first."

Zhang Daobai took out an evil dispelling talisman for Lin Luoxue and stuck a few on himself.

Then, Zhang Daobai summoned White Moon and pointed at the cave entrance: "Go and see if you can devour the corpse poison here."

corpse poison was also a poison; theoretically, it could be devoured by White Moon.

Upon hearing this, White Moon flew into the cave and gulped down the corpse poison permeating inside.

After a while, White Moon sent a mental transmission: "Master, I can devour this corpse poison, but it's a bit smelly."

White Moon's tone was full of disgust.

"How does this corpse poison compare to your own poison?"

Zhang Daobai ignored White Moon's complaints and continued to inquire.

"It's nowhere near as good." White Moon's voice was full of pride.

"That's good."

With the Immunity to Ten Thousand Poisons Physique, as long as the toxicity was lower than White Moon's, Zhang Daobai would be immune.

White Moon's kin were similar; they were naturally highly resistant to poison and wouldn't be affected by this corpse poison.

As for Lin Luoxue, she possessed Golden Thunder Sword Intent, which naturally countered evil Qi and such yin-evil poisons, so she wasn't afraid either.

After summoning White Moon's kin, Zhang Daobai and Lin Luoxue entered the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave under the cover of the Spirit Concealing Mist.

The cave was dim, with only green fireflies burning on the walls every few meters providing a bit of light.

Along the way, they didn't encounter any corpse puppets because the ones on the periphery had already been killed by the Loose Cultivators who came before.

The deeper they went, the denser the evil Qi and corpse poison became.

Although Zhang Daobai was immune to corpse poison, he couldn't immune the erosion of evil Qi.

Almost every half hour, Zhang Daobai had to replace an evil dispelling talisman, and this interval was constantly shortening.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Zhang Daobai finally heard footsteps.

In this Ten Thousand Corpse Cave, there were no living people besides him and Lin Luoxue, so the owner of these footsteps was definitely a corpse puppet.

After turning a corner, Zhang Daobai saw a corpse puppet with grayish-white skin, covered in black vein-like patterns, and long, dark nails.

"This is a Rank One Perfection corpse puppet," Lin Luoxue reminded him via transmission.

Seeing the corpse puppet walking back and forth in the passage like a walking corpse, Zhang Daobai felt a strange sense of familiarity.

"If this corpse puppet bites someone, will it be contagious?" Zhang Daobai asked thoughtfully.

"They will be infected with corpse poison. If the poison isn't removed in time and reaches the brain, they will become a walking corpse."

"Isn't that just a zombie?"

"zombie?"

"A corpse that has lost its reason."

"Your description is quite apt."

Zhang Daobai and Lin Luoxue stood not far from the corpse puppet, chatting as if no one else were there.

"Let's test the poison first."

After finishing their chat, Zhang Daobai immediately ordered White Moon.

Upon receiving the order, White Moon controlled the poisonous mist to quickly envelop the corpse puppet.

Just like a zombie, the core of a corpse puppet was in its head. As long as the core in its head was destroyed, it would lose its ability to move.

Although the corpse puppet didn't breathe, the mist was pervasive.

Under White Moon's control, the poisonous mist seeped into the corpse puppet's head through its seven orifices.

When the poisonous mist began to erode the core, the corpse puppet instantly went berserk, frantically attacking everything around it.

However, after only a few seconds, the corpse puppet collapsed to the ground, becoming a true corpse.

"The effect seems good."

Zhang Daobai stepped forward to look at the corpse puppet on the ground and nodded in satisfaction.

Soon, under the busy work of tens of thousands of Mist Concealing Worms, a continuous stream of poisonous mist quickly filled the passages of the cave.

These Mist Concealing Worms shuttled rapidly through the passages, precisely delivering the poisonous mist into the brain of every corpse puppet.

Meanwhile, Zhang Daobai and Lin Luoxue followed far behind them, unhurriedly collecting the corpse puppets on the ground as if taking a stroll.

After walking deeper into the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave for a while, Zhang Daobai heard the sound of intense fighting.

After walking quickly for a distance, Zhang Daobai arrived at a huge cavern.

Inside this cavern, over a thousand corpse puppets were tearing each other apart like madmen.

Yes! Literally tearing each other apart!

With their cores eroded, these corpse puppets had all entered a berserk state, frantically attacking everything around them.

For a moment, the cavern was filled with severed limbs, various internal organs mixed with black corpse blood, emitting an indescribable stench.

Even Zhang Daobai and Lin Luoxue, who had experienced many battles, couldn't help but feel nauseous and disgusted by this scene.

"Since they're in pieces like this, can they still be exchanged for contribution points?"

Zhang Daobai frowned, looking at the severed limbs all over the ground, feeling a bit worried.

"Probably. As long as the head is still there, we can count them by the heads," Lin Luoxue said after thinking for a moment with a slight frown.

After a while, only five corpse puppets remained in the entire cavern. These five were all at or above the Rank Three Late Stage.

Although White Moon's poison worked on them too, they could hold out for a while with their physical constitutions.

"I'll go." Seeing this, Lin Luoxue rushed out with her sword.

A flash of golden light appeared, and the heads of the five Rank Three Late Stage corpse puppets were instantly severed by Lin Luoxue.

With the elemental advantage and the sharpness of the Geng Metal Sword Intent, Lin Luoxue could fight a Rank Four Early Stage corpse puppet even without the poisonous mist's depletion.

After slaying the five Rank Three Late Stage corpse puppets like chopping vegetables, Lin Luoxue flew back to Zhang Daobai's side without her feet touching the ground.

"I feel a very powerful evil Qi over there; it should be from a corpse puppet of Rank Four or higher."

Lin Luoxue pointed to a passage on the right, her gaze solemn.

"That should be the Ten Thousand Corpse Pool."

Zhang Daobai turned to look and speculated after thinking for a moment.

The Ten Thousand Corpse Pool was a place used to create corpse puppets. One only needed to throw processed corpses into it, and after a while, they would turn into corpse puppets on their own.

It was the core area of this Ten Thousand Corpse Cave and also the place that the mission required to be destroyed.

After picking through and collecting the heads of the corpse puppets in the cavern, Zhang Daobai led Lin Luoxue toward the passage on the right.

There were many corpse puppets in this passage, and their strength was at or above the Rank Two Middle Stage, with quite a few Rank Three ones as well.

To avoid alerting the enemy, Zhang Daobai asked Lin Luoxue to cut through the mess quickly, slaying all these corpse puppets rapidly and advancing toward the Ten Thousand Corpse Pool.

After passing through a dark passage, Zhang Daobai soon saw a glowing cave entrance.

After walking over quickly, Zhang Daobai was stunned in place by the scene before him.

Before his eyes was a huge green pool that looked like a lake.

Floating within this pool were dense clusters of corpses. These bodies were a grayish-white all over, their faces twisted into hideous and terrifying expressions, looking as if they were evil ghosts crawling up from Hell.

Large numbers of corpse puppets surrounded the pool as well, all kneeling in the same direction as if paying homage to their emperor.

Following the direction of their prostration, Zhang Daobai immediately spotted a corpse puppet over three meters tall. Its skin looked as if it had been cast in gold, and it wore a set of blood-red battle armor.

The aura emanating from this corpse puppet made Zhang Daobai feel extremely oppressed; it had clearly reached the Middle Stage of the Rank Four.

Furthermore, this corpse puppet possessed a significant level of intelligence, unlike the other corpse puppets that were merely the walking dead.

“A Corpse Puppet Commander?”

Recalling information regarding corpse puppets, Zhang Daobai quickly realized the origin of this golden corpse puppet.

A Corpse Puppet Commander is a variant among corpse puppets, possessing the ability to command lower-level corpse puppets.

Every Corpse Puppet Commander is at least Rank Four, but not every corpse puppet of the Rank Four or higher is a Corpse Puppet Commander.

Even with White Moon's assistance, Lin Luoxue wouldn't be able to handle this Corpse Puppet Commander, so they had to let Shadow take action.

Otherwise, even if the surrounding toxic mist could drive those lower-level corpse puppets into a frenzy, they would quickly be brought under control by the Corpse Puppet Commander.

Soon, a thick white mist that made it impossible to see one's own hand emerged from the tunnel, spreading throughout the entire cavern.

Wherever the white mist passed, all the low-rank corpse puppets began to go mad, frantically attacking everything around them.

Even the unformed corpse puppets soaking inside the Ten Thousand Corpse Pool began to twitch incessantly.

The abnormal movement of the corpse puppet swarm quickly caught the attention of the Corpse Puppet Commander.

Although it couldn't see what was happening within the white mist, it instinctively sensed a dangerous aura.

“Roar!”

The Corpse Puppet Commander opened its bloody, foul-smelling maw and let out a tyrannical roar.

Hearing the roar, the corpse puppets rose one after another and converged toward the Corpse Puppet Commander, surrounding it so tightly that not even water could leak through.

At the same time, the corpse puppets driven mad in the white mist couldn't help but follow their instincts upon hearing the Corpse Puppet Commander's summons, converging toward it as well.

But as they advanced, the white mist was also rapidly expanding.

Despite the Corpse Puppet Commander being aware of the threat posed by the white mist, it had no way to disperse it.

However, a red light soon lit up in the Corpse Puppet Commander's eyes, and a large amount of black Qi surged from its body.

Simultaneously, the surrounding low-rank corpse puppets also exhaled large quantities of black Qi.

This black Qi was a mixture of corpse poison and evil energy, and it was extremely corrosive.

After all the black Qi gathered together, it formed a black mist that was the complete opposite of the white mist.

The Corpse Puppet Commander then manipulated the black mist to sweep toward the white mist, hoping to use it to block the white mist's intrusion.

But to its surprise, the white mist was not blocked by the black mist; instead, it swallowed and fused with the black mist.

Seeing this, the Corpse Puppet Commander was instantly enraged, feeling as if it had done something incredibly stupid.

Before long, the white mist completely enveloped them, and several thousand corpse puppets went mad simultaneously.

Those at the Rank Three and above fared better; although they went into a frenzy, they didn't completely lose their minds and would only attack corpse puppets that initiated attacks against them.

Meanwhile, the Corpse Puppet Commander was also extremely furious. It could only hear the sounds of various slaughters around it but could see nothing, and it couldn't even catch a scent of any aura.

This sensation of having lost its senses made it very annoyed, but it couldn't think of a way to deal with it.

Although it possessed intelligence, it wasn't very high, only having simple thinking abilities. It truly couldn't come up with a solution for the current situation.

“Roar!”

In desperation, the Corpse Puppet Commander could only let out a roar, forcibly ordering all corpse puppets to stop.

When the order was issued, all corpse puppets stopped out of instinct.

However, after a moment, under the stimulation of the toxic mist, they quickly resumed their fighting.

Seeing this, the Corpse Puppet Commander, in its extreme rage, charged directly toward the direction of the sounds. It tore apart dozens of corpse puppets by hand and then let out another roar.

This time, the corpse puppets stopped again, but they soon went back to fighting once more.

Left with no choice, the Corpse Puppet Commander could only repeatedly issue the order to make the surrounding corpse puppets stop, but the effect remained minimal.

Just as the Corpse Puppet Commander was raging in futility, a dark Shadow suddenly appeared behind it. A scythe-like claw silently reached for its neck.

The Corpse Puppet Commander instantly felt a sense of danger from behind and hurriedly raised its arm to block the attack.

But facing Shadow's claw, it didn't feel a powerful impact; instead, the force felt very light.

However, in the next second, its arm was instantly severed. Before it could even react, the arm had been separated from its body.

Shadow's claw didn't pause, continuing its trajectory toward the Corpse Puppet Commander's neck.

In this moment of crisis, golden light erupted from the Corpse Puppet Commander's body, making it look like a little golden man as it deployed its strongest defensive measure.

“Clang!”

A piercing sound of metal clashing rang out as Shadow's claw landed heavily on the Corpse Puppet Commander's neck.

The impact instantly sent the Corpse Puppet Commander flying, only stopping after it had knocked down several corpse puppets in a row.

With just one strike, the Corpse Puppet Commander understood that it was far from being Shadow's match.

Thus, relying on its familiarity with the terrain, the Corpse Puppet Commander hurriedly charged straight toward a tunnel. The desire for life was an instinct carved into its very bones.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast it ran, how could it possibly outrun Shadow, who could use spatial teleportation?

With a surge of power in its legs, the Corpse Puppet Commander's body flew toward the tunnel entrance like a cannonball. But just as it reached mid-air, Shadow instantly appeared behind it.

With a gentle swipe of Shadow's claw, a Spatial Blade compressed from Spatial Power flew out in an instant, slicing across the Corpse Puppet Commander's neck.

In a flash, the Corpse Puppet Commander's head fell with a look of terror, while its body crashed straight into the rock wall, shattering a large piece of stone.

Without the suppression of the Corpse Puppet Commander, the remaining corpse puppets began to riot.

Seeing this, Lin Luoxue also flew out, raising her sword to quickly dispatch the corpse puppets of the Rank Three and above within the army.

Under the harvesting of Lin Luoxue and Shadow, all corpse puppets of the Rank Three and above were soon slain.

As for the corpse puppets below the Rank Three, they didn't last long before their cores were eroded by the toxic mist, causing them to collapse one after another.

As for those unformed corpse puppets in the Ten Thousand Corpse Pool, they once again floated quietly on the water's surface, completely devoid of movement.

“We're rich!”

Looking at the corpse puppets covering the ground, Zhang Daobai's eyes instantly lit up, and he couldn't help but get excited.

One had to know that corpse puppets were counted individually. Zhang Daobai estimated that all these corpse puppets added together must be worth at least a hundred thousand contribution points!

Furthermore, if he could destroy the Ten Thousand Corpse Pool as well, he could earn another massive sum.

With an excited heart, Zhang Daobai and Lin Luoxue quickly harvested the heads of these corpse puppets.

Although the corpse puppets in the Ten Thousand Corpse Pool weren't fully formed yet, there were so many of them. Even if ten of them only counted as one, Zhang Daobai would still make a huge profit.

After storing the corpse puppet heads, Zhang Daobai began to ponder how to destroy this Ten Thousand Corpse Pool.

The Ten Thousand Corpse Pool was very large, shaped like a small lake, and the liquid inside was all corpse nurturing liquid prepared by the Corpse Puppet Sect.

For such a large Ten Thousand Corpse Pool, the Corpse Puppet Sect must have spent at least several hundred thousand Spirit Stones to build it.

If the Yinyue Mountain Range hadn't been surrounded, this Ten Thousand Corpse Cave would likely have at least one Golden Core Stage evil cultivator guarding it.

Burn it? Strike it with lightning?

That was certainly impossible. Using fire or lightning on such a large Ten Thousand Corpse Pool—who knew how long that would take.

After thinking carefully, Zhang Daobai finally decided to first store this corpse nurturing liquid into the Small World and then find a place outside to dump it.

Thinking of this, Zhang Daobai immediately had Long Li use Spatial Power to partition off a separate space in a remote corner of the Small World.

After all, this corpse nurturing liquid contained dense corpse poison and evil energy. Once it spread, it would be comparable to a biological crisis.

Once Long Li had finished creating the space, Zhang Daobai reached out and took all the corpse nurturing liquid from the Ten Thousand Corpse Pool into the Small World.

After the corpse nurturing liquid disappeared, the Ten Thousand Corpse Pool turned into a giant deep pit.

Seeing this, Lin Luoxue used a shadow retention token to record it as proof for claiming contribution points.

“Eh? What's that?”

While recording the proof, Lin Luoxue suddenly discovered a green glowing object at the bottom of the Ten Thousand Corpse Pool.

Hearing this, Zhang Daobai turned his head and waved to Shadow nearby, then pointed there to signal it.

Seeing this, Shadow reached out and grabbed it. A crystal the size of a soccer ball, emerald green with black spots, appeared before Zhang Daobai.

This emerald green crystal emitted a cold aura and had a very wicked feel to it.

After looking at it closely, Zhang Daobai couldn't figure out what it was, but his intuition told him that this thing was definitely not simple.

Lin Luoxue also didn't know what it was, but as she looked at this emerald green crystal, she instinctively felt a bit uncomfortable.

“Forget it, let's just put it away for now.”

Because he wasn't clear about the nature of this object, Zhang Daobai didn't dare put it with his other things, so he took out a separate storage ring to store it.

After searching a bit more and finding nothing else useful, Zhang Daobai and Lin Luoxue turned and continued searching the other tunnels.

The remaining tunnels mostly contained insignificant small fry and posed no danger. Before long, the two of them had cleared the entire Ten Thousand Corpse Cave.

Overall, Zhang Daobai was very satisfied with this trip to the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave.

On the way out of the Ten Thousand Corpse Cave, he began to think about what he should exchange for once he returned.