75: Chapter 75 The Beauty in the Ice Coffin

"Hmm?" Gao Feng furrowed his brows.

"I have been tracking this pack of demon spawn for months, and it was not easy to find this stronghold of theirs."

Lin Xuan's eyes flashed with deep-seated hatred. "I will not be satisfied until I completely destroy their lair."

"But you are currently..." Gao Feng glanced at his bleeding wound.

"It is nothing."

Lin Xuan took out another Medicinal Pill from his bosom and swallowed it; his complexion improved slightly. "The Ghost King of the Hundred Ghost Cave is crafty and incredibly sly. Although this ambush failed, he must have already sensed the commotion here."

"If we leave now, it will be difficult to find this place again."

"Furthermore, I suspect that one of my missing Junior Sisters is likely imprisoned here."

Hearing this, Gao Feng fell silent.

Although he wanted to leave this place of trouble immediately, Lin Xuan's words were indeed reasonable.

One must cut the weeds by the root.

Moreover, the clues about the ancient ruins marked on the map were likely within this lair of the Hundred Ghost Cave.

Fortune is found in danger.

Since they had come this far, they might as well do something big!

"Fine." Gao Feng nodded. "I will accompany you."

"Many thanks, Brother Gao!"

Lin Xuan's eyes revealed a look of gratitude.

He did not waste any more words, but walked to the side of the corpse of the Man in Black he had killed, and skillfully rummaged through it.

Soon, he found a strange object inside the corpse's belt and pressed it firmly into a hole in the rock wall.

"Rumble..."

A dull sound of a mechanism turning came from behind the ice waterfall that they had been ignoring.

The thick layer of ice, along with the mountain wall behind it, slowly separated to the sides.

A pitch-black cave entrance emitting chilling cold air and a thick stench of corpses appeared before them.

A wave of evil energy, a hundred times stronger than before in the mountain stream, gushed out from the entrance.

Gao Feng and Lin Xuan looked at each other, seeing a trace of gravity in each other's eyes.

They knew that the real Dragon's den and Tiger's lair was right before them.

Without the slightest hesitation, the two gripped their weapons and carefully walked into this secret stronghold hidden behind the waterfall, one after the other.

Inside the entrance was a long staircase paved with bluestone, leading deep underground.

On both sides of the staircase, every ten steps, there was an eternal lamp burning with unknown beast oil.

The ghostly green flames burned silently in the darkness, pulling their shadows long and short, like ghosts.

The air was filled with a strange smell, a mix of heavy formalin and medicinal herbs.

After walking for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the staircase finally came to an end.

A huge underground space appeared before them.

It looked like a massive cavern excavated by man.

In the center of the cavern were a dozen huge bronze Pill Furnaces, with raging ghostly blue flames burning beneath them.

The pungent smell of medicine and the nauseating stench of corpses were emanating from these Pill Furnaces.

Surrounding the cavern were stone chambers of various sizes.

Some stone chambers were piled with all kinds of dried poisonous insects and herbs, some contained creepy torture instruments, and some even had corpses of humans or beasts that had not yet taken shape soaking in them!

This was actually an evil place for refining corpse puppets!

Gao Feng and Lin Xuan were both shocked and furious.

It was hard to imagine how many innocent lives had died here, only to be refined into those inhuman monsters.

"Beasts!"

Lin Xuan's teeth chattered.

"Be careful, the owner of this place is likely nearby."

Although Gao Feng's expression was calm, his hand holding the blade tightened a little more.

He could feel an extremely powerful and extremely evil Aura hidden in the depths of this space.

The Ghost King of the Hundred Ghost Cave was definitely an old monster with unfathomable strength.

The two held their breath and carefully traversed the corpse-refining square, which was like Hell on earth, and crept toward the depths of the cavern where the Aura was coming from.

The further they went, the more piercing the cold in the air became.

In the end, even their exhaled breath instantly condensed into frost.

Finally, they arrived at the deepest part of the cavern.

This was a circular stone chamber much smaller than the outside square.

In the center of the stone chamber stood a crystal-clear, transparent ice coffin carved from a single piece of massive millennium ice!

The biting cold was emanating from this ice coffin.

And when the two saw the person lying in the ice coffin, their breathing stalled for a moment, and their eyes revealed unspeakable shock.

Inside the ice coffin lay a young woman quietly.

She looked to be only eighteen or nineteen years old, with jet-black, shiny hair spreading across the entire ice coffin like a waterfall.

Her features were as exquisite as if they were the perfect masterpiece of the heavens, without a single flaw.

Her skin was as white as snow, delicate enough to be broken by a touch.

She lay there peacefully, wearing a gorgeous white palace dress, like a beautiful princess who had slept for a thousand years.

Any man would likely have his heart rate accelerate and feel enchanted at the first sight of her.

However, Gao Feng and Lin Xuan only felt a bone-chilling cold.

Because inside the ice coffin, the body of the beautiful woman was in a very strange state.

Her left half, from cheek to jade foot, had skin as clear as jade, delicate enough to be broken, exuding a faint Life Qi, like a sleeping beauty.

However, her right half was completely different.

A layer of dense and strange black patterns, like living things, began to spread from her neck, covering half of her exquisite face and her entire right side.

Beneath those patterns, the skin presented a lifeless, pale-green color, faintly revealing a deathly Aura of extinction.

Half was life, half was death.

Half was human, half was corpse.

This was a living dead, existing between life and death, half-human and half-corpse!

"Jun... Junior Sister!"

Lin Xuan's body trembled violently, his voice filled with endless grief and disbelief.

His red eyes stared fixedly at the woman in the ice coffin, as if he wanted to carve her image into the depths of his Soul.

Gao Feng's heart was also filled with horror.

He could clearly feel that the power radiating from this half-human, half-corpse woman contained both majestic Life Qi and cold, overbearing deathly corpse Aura.

Two completely opposite forces were strangely in a state of Fusion within the same body in a peculiar way.

What kind of terrifying monster was the Ghost King of the Hundred Ghost Cave trying to refine!

"Who!!"

"Who dares to touch my... 'Supreme Treasure'!!"

Just then, a hoarse, venomous roar, as if from the nine levels of Hell, exploded from the shadows in the deepest part of the stone chamber!

The voice contained endless anger and the irritability of being disturbed, vibrating the entire stone chamber like a thunderclap.

Gao Feng and Lin Xuan's expressions changed drastically; they turned around abruptly, looking in the direction the voice came from.

They saw a withered, thin figure slowly standing up in the dark corner.

It was a monster wearing a luxurious black robe with gold patterns, looking like a dried corpse that had been walking for a thousand years.

His skin was like the bark of an old tree, shriveled and stuck to his bones; there was no flesh on his face, only two deeply sunken eye sockets.

And in those sockets, what burned were not human eyeballs, but two ghostly green, strange flames like ghost fire!

A massive, cold, violent, and deathly Aura, almost tangible, erupted from his body, pressing down on Gao Feng and Lin Xuan's hearts like a mountain!

Facing this pressure, Gao Feng even felt his breathing become difficult, and his Internal Energy circulation became sluggish!

Strong!

Too strong!

This monster was the master of the Hundred Ghost Cave — the Ghost King!

His strength had definitely surpassed the category of an ordinary fourth-rank Martial Artist and reached the realm of a fifth-rank Grandmaster!

"It's you... two damned little bugs!"

The Ghost King's pair of ghostly green flames locked onto the two, his voice filled with undisguised killing intent.

"Not only did you destroy my corpse puppets, but you also dared to break into my secret chamber and covet my 'Yin and Yang Dao Body'!"

"Today, both of you will stay here and become nourishment for my new creation!"

Before the voice faded, the Ghost King's figure disappeared from the shadows as if teleporting!

The next moment, he appeared before Lin Xuan!

A withered hand, like a chicken claw, carrying a thick black energy, went straight for Lin Xuan's heart!

The speed was extremely fast!

Lin Xuan was already seriously injured, and now his mind was in chaos; facing this thunderous strike from the Ghost King, he couldn't make any effective reaction.

He could only watch helplessly as that claw of death enlarged in his pupils!

"Clang!!"

At this critical moment, a bright blade light, like a fairy flying from beyond the heavens, appeared and struck the Ghost King's claw with pinpoint accuracy!

It was Gao Feng!

The moment the Ghost King moved, he also moved!

The blade of the three-pointed, double-edged blade collided fiercely with the Ghost King's claw, splashing a string of eye-catching sparks!

An irresistible, massive force came from the blade, shaking Gao Feng until his blood surged, and he retreated seven or eight steps before barely stabilizing his figure.

And the Ghost King was also blocked by this blade for a moment; his pair of ghostly green flames shifted from Lin Xuan to Gao Feng for the first time.

"Oh?" His voice carried a hint of surprise. "To think you could block my strike? You little third-rank fellow, you are quite interesting."

"However, that is all."

The black energy on the Ghost King surged!

He did not use any more Moves, but instead, with the purest and most overbearing method, came directly to crush Gao Feng!

He wanted to use absolute power to completely crush this ant who dared to resist him!

For a time, the entire stone chamber was filled with ghost shadows and howling yin winds!

Gao Feng instantly fell into an unprecedented crisis; every attack of the Ghost King was simple and direct, yet contained terrifying power that made him difficult to resist.

He could only push his "Phantom Steps Without a Trace" to the limit, using his movement technique to dodge constantly, looking for an opportunity to counterattack.

But the Ghost King's speed was not the slightest bit slower than his; in fact, it was even a fraction faster.

Several times, Gao Feng narrowly escaped those lethal ghost claws, the fierce claw winds leaving deep, bone-visible wounds on his body.

"Brother Gao! I'll help you!"

Beside him, Lin Xuan finally snapped out of his grief.

He knew this was not the time for sadness.

If Gao Feng fell, then all of them would die!

He let out a roar, and the longsword in his hand once again bloomed with brilliant golden light as he desperately lunged toward the Ghost King's back!

However, facing Lin Xuan's attack, the Ghost King didn't even turn his head.

He merely waved his hand backhand, and a black blade of energy, condensed from pure corpse Qi, flew out and collided fiercely with Lin Xuan's longsword.

"Boom!"

Lin Xuan was struck hard, sent flying back like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily against the stone wall behind him. He spat out a mouthful of blood, and his Aura instantly withered.

In a single exchange, he was severely wounded!

The Ghost King's strength was so powerful it reached a level of despair!

"A piece of trash, daring to brandish a sword before this King?"

The Ghost King let out a disdainful sneer.

After dealing with the "fly" Lin Xuan, he once again focused all his attention on Gao Feng, his offensive becoming even more violent and lethal.

Gao Feng's range of movement was constantly compressed, and several more gruesome wounds were added to his body.

The shadow of death, like a maggot attached to bone, tightly entangled him.

He knew he couldn't go on like this.

If he fought head-on, he was definitely no match for this old monster.

The only chance of victory was to take him by surprise and strike when he was unprepared!

A sneak attack!

A flash of crazy determination crossed Gao Feng's eyes.

He deliberately exposed a flaw!

During one dodge, his footsteps seemed to slow by half a beat.

Seeing this, the ghost fire in the Ghost King's eyes flared brightly!

Seizing this opportunity, his withered right hand, carrying a thick black energy like a black war hammer, smashed fiercely toward Gao Feng's chest!

If this strike landed, it would be enough to shatter Gao Feng's internal organs into a pulp!

However, at the very moment the Ghost King's attack was about to hit him, a cold, eerie arc curled at the corner of Gao Feng's mouth.

His seemingly panicked eyes instantly became as sharp as knives!

He didn't dodge again!

Instead, he desperately poured all his Internal Energy into his left hand, which had been hidden in his sleeve!

There, he held a soft sword seized in Hanyang City, coated with deadly poison and sharp enough to sever a hair!

At the same instant the Ghost King's lethal attack landed on his chest, Gao Feng's left hand, like a viper striking, passed under the Ghost King's armpit at an unimaginable angle!

The essence of the Shadow Assassination Art was displayed to the fullest at this moment!

"Puchi!"

A muffled sound of a blade entering flesh was clearly heard!

The poison-coated soft sword pierced precisely into the Ghost King's heart from behind!

"Boom!"

At the same time, the Ghost King's terrifying claw landed solidly on Gao Feng's chest.

"Crack!"

A teeth-grinding sound of bones breaking rang out.

Gao Feng's sternum instantly collapsed, and he was sent flying backward as if hit head-on by an ancient Vicious Beast, blood spewing from his mouth as if it were worthless!

Trading injury for injury!

Gambling life for life!

"Ahhh!!"

A crazed roar, so shrill it didn't sound human, erupted from the Ghost King's mouth!

He looked down at the wound on his chest, which was constantly emitting black smoke, the two balls of ghost fire in his eyes flickering violently, filled with disbelief and endless fury!

He had actually been severely wounded by an ant in his eyes!

What a supreme humiliation this was!

"You... are... courting... death!"

The Ghost King's voice sounded as if it were being squeezed out word by word from between his teeth.

He had gone completely berserk!

He suddenly looked up and roared, letting out a terrifying corpse-howl sharp enough to pierce human eardrums!

As his howl rang out, the entire underground cavern trembled violently!

Outside on the corpse-refining plaza, the stone doors of all the stone chambers exploded!

Zombies and corpse puppets of various forms, their eyes flashing with scarlet light, surged out from the stone chambers like a tide!

They had only one goal—this small Spirit Refining secret chamber, guided by the Ghost King's howl!

"Not good!"

Lying on the ground, Gao Feng saw this scene, and his face instantly turned as pale as paper.

Although he had successfully severely wounded the Ghost King, he himself was exhausted, without even the strength to stand up.

And now, the Ghost King had summoned all his zombie armies!

Hundreds of zombies were surging toward them from all directions!

The exit had been completely blocked!

They were trapped in a truly desperate situation with no chance of survival!

"Brother Gao!"

Beside him, Lin Xuan struggled to crawl to Gao Feng's side, a flash of unprecedented determination in his eyes.

"It was I who implicated you."

"However, even if I die, I will drag this old ghost on the road with me!"

As he spoke, he took out a primitive, palm-sized Bagua compass from his bosom!

The material of the compass was neither gold nor wood, and it was engraved with incredibly profound runes.

The moment the compass appeared, a vast, sacred Aura, as if capable of sweeping away all evil spirits in the world, erupted outward!

"This is... a replica of my Qingcheng Mountain's sect-protecting Magical Artifact, the 'Heaven and Earth Demon-Subduing Compass'!"

In Lin Xuan's eyes burned a flame called "death-defying"!

"Brother Gao, this is my final strike. Whether it succeeds or not depends on heaven's will!"

He bit his tongue hard, and a mouthful of his life essence blood, containing all his vitality and Dao Spell Cultivator cultivation, sprayed fiercely onto the Bagua compass!

"Hum!!"

After absorbing Lin Xuan's essence blood, the primitive compass instantly flared with great light!

The runes on it seemed to come alive and began to rotate at high speed!

An invisible, profound ripple, centered on the compass, swept across the entire scene like ripples on water!

Those zombies and corpse puppets that were rushing forward frantically all shuddered the moment they were swept by this ripple!

The scarlet light in their eyes began to flicker violently!

The black corpse patterns on their bodies, branded by the Ghost King using secret techniques to control them, actually began to collapse and disintegrate inch by inch under the impact of this profound ripple!

"Roar!!"

Several powerful corpse puppets closest to them suddenly looked up and let out a roar full of pain and confusion!

They no longer obeyed the Ghost King's commands!

They no longer attacked Gao Feng and Lin Xuan!

Instead, they turned around, and with their scarlet eyes filled with tyrannical and bloodthirsty desires, they stared fixedly at the creature closest to them that contained the most massive energy—the severely wounded Ghost King!

"No!!"

The Ghost King let out a roar of disbelief, mixed with shock and anger!

He tried to regain control over these corpse puppets, but it was already too late!

These monsters, birthed by him using countless vengeful spirits and secret techniques, knowing only slaughter, immediately turned their attack targets toward their former master after breaking free from their shackles!

An unprecedented chaos erupted completely within the small stone chamber!

"Now is the time!"

Lin Xuan roared with his last remaining strength.

The fire of hope for survival ignited once again in Gao Feng's eyes!

Both of them understood that this was their only and final chance!

They struggled to stand up from the ground, gathering all their remaining strength onto the weapons in their hands!

Like two of the sharpest blades, they went against the chaotic tide of corpses, striking straight at the heart!

There was only one target—the master of the Hundred Ghost Cave, who was being frantically besieged by the monsters he had created with his own hands—the Ghost King!

"Ahhh! You pieces of trash that I created with my own hands! How dare you turn against your master!"

The Ghost King let out bursts of frantic, exasperated roars.

While having to fend off the attacks of those out-of-control corpse puppets, he also had to deal with the fatal, finishing strike from Gao Feng and Lin Xuan, instantly falling into a state of panic.

"Puchi!"

Gao Feng's three-pointed, double-edged blade, carrying an unstoppable momentum, fiercely pierced once again into the wound on the Ghost King that had previously been run through by the soft sword!

And Lin Xuan's longsword, like a golden lightning bolt, precisely pierced through the Ghost King's throat!

"Uh..."

The Ghost King's body suddenly stiffened.

His eyes, burning with ghost-green fire, were filled with unwillingness, resentment, and a trace of relief.

He slowly lowered his head, looking at his completely impaled body, then raised his head and issued his final, vicious curse in a hoarse voice:

"I... will be waiting for you... in Hell..."

Before he finished speaking, his withered body exploded, turning into black ash filling the sky.

The master of the Hundred Ghost Cave, a titan of the Evil Path, the Ghost King, had completely perished!

With the death of the Ghost King, those zombies and corpse puppets that had been in a frenzy seemed to have all their strength drained, stiffening in unison, and then falling straight down one by one.

The entire stone chamber instantly returned to a deathly silence.

Gao Feng and Lin Xuan could no longer hold on, collapsing to the ground simultaneously, gasping for air.

They had won.

In this desperate situation with no chance of survival, they had miraculously survived.

After resting for a moment, the two of them forced themselves to crawl up from the ground.

The first thing they did was to loot the spoils of war.

Although the Ghost King had perished and turned into fly ash, this Spirit Refining secret chamber, which he had operated for many years, was undoubtedly a huge treasure trove hidden underground.

Gao Feng and Lin Xuan forced their exhausted bodies and began to search carefully.

The structure of this circular stone chamber was not complex; besides the huge ice coffin in the center, several niches of various sizes and a small stone pill room had been carved into the surroundings.