161: The altar master appeared

Facing Qin Feng's "Withered Wood Burying Flowers" sword strike, which carried the Concept of Reincarnation between withered silence and new life like a meteor falling to earth, the Black-robed leader of the Corpse Demon Sect at the Early Stage Martial King turned pale with horror. He gave a strange cry, waving a ghastly white Bone Banner in his hand as the two Talisman-covered leather pouches at his waist exploded simultaneously!

"Roar! Roar!"

Two Silver Corpses, their bodies shimmering with a dull silver light and their Auras comparable to a Peak Grand Martial Master, suddenly leaped out. One on the left and one on the right, they brandished their pitch-black sharp claws, fearlessly meeting the sword light that seemed slow but actually contained destructive vitality!

However, the tough bodies that the Silver Corpses took pride in were as fragile as rotten wood beneath the ink plum sword, which fused the sharpness of the Sword Heart and Sword Bone with the mysteries of Hunyuan True Qi!

The sword light swept past, like the autumn wind sweeping away withered leaves.

There was no sound of a violent collision; the Silver Corpses' forward charge suddenly froze. Then, withered gray lines centered on the sword marks instantly spread across their entire bodies! In the next moment, under the Black-robed leader's disbelieving gaze, the two precious Silver Corpses actually crumbled and disintegrated inch by inch like withered wood that had weathered for thousands of years, turning into a pile of decayed, grayish-white powder on the ground!

One sword strike, two Silver Corpses, vanished into thin air!

The Black-robed leader was scared out of his wits and turned to flee, but Qin Feng's sword was faster! A condensed finger wind arrived first, instantly piercing through his protective black qi and his heart from behind. The Black-robed leader trembled all over, looking down at the Sword Qi emerging from his chest; the life in his eyes quickly dissipated as he collapsed to the ground.

Meanwhile, the battle on the other side was an even more one-sided crushing defeat.

Ji Ruxue's figure had completely transformed into a shadow of death. She did not clash head-on with those Bronze Corpses, but instead drifted like a ghost between the corpse crowd and the black-robed Cultivators. With every flash, the short sword in her hand would bring forth a spray of blood or accurately pierce the core of the control runes on the back of a Bronze Corpse's neck.

"Finger Sword Among Flowers: Pointing at the Stamen!"

After dealing with the leader, Qin Feng also joined the mopping-up operation. His finger wind was precise and lethal, specializing in breaking evil qi nodes. Often with just a point from afar, a snarling Bronze Corpse would stand frozen, the green fire in its eye sockets extinguished.

Those black-robed Cultivators at the Grand Martial Master and Martial Master levels were like clay chickens and pottery dogs before two true Martial Kings. They tried to form a formation and control the corpse crowd to attack, but under the absolute gap in speed and power, all resistance seemed pale and weak.

A quarter of an hour, just a quarter of an hour!

Aside from the leader killed by Qin Feng at the beginning, the remaining two Peak Grand Martial Masters, five Martial Master-level black-robed Cultivators, and all the Bronze Corpses and Walking Corpses were completely eliminated! In the burning village, only the crackling of fire, the weeping and moaning of the surviving villagers, and the lingering stench of blood and burning remained.

Ji Ruxue sheathed her short sword, her figure appearing beside Qin Feng, not a speck of dust on her, with only a single drop of black blood slowly dripping from the tip of her sword. She looked at the black-robed corpses scattered across the ground and said in a cold, mocking voice:

"Your Corpse Demon Sect has been quite active lately. In the past, you were just rats hiding in the gutters, only daring to dig up old corpses from mass graves. Now you actually dare to slaughter villages and refine corpses in broad daylight?"

Qin Feng walked up to the only survivor—a black-robed Cultivator at the Grand Martial Master level who had been the first to be subdued and now lay limp on the ground with his Meridians sealed by Ji Ruxue's Sword Qi. The tip of the ink plum sword pointed directly at the center of his forehead, his voice icy:

"Speak. What is your purpose for being so rampant and slaughtering everywhere? Where is your headquarters?"

The black-robed Cultivator's face was deathly pale, his whole body shaking like a sieve, but there was still a fierce malice in his eyes as he gritted his teeth and said, "Kill me if you want! Don't think you'll get anything from my mouth..."

"Squelch!" Before he could finish, Qin Feng's sword tip trembled slightly, and a thin wisp of Sword Qi sliced off one of his ears, leaving it dripping with blood.

"For evil Cultivators like you who refine corpses from the living and have no humanity, I will not have the slightest mercy." Qin Feng's tone was calm, yet it contained a killing intent more chilling than any torture. "Speak, or I have a hundred ways to make you wish you were dead, and then I'll perform a soul search. It's a bit more troublesome, but I'll still find out what I want to know."

Feeling Qin Feng's coldness, which was by no means an empty threat, and the emotionless, icy gaze of Ji Ruxue beside him, the black-robed Cultivator's psychological defenses completely collapsed.

"I'll talk! I'll talk!" he screamed. "We... our Corpse Demon Sect was recently... recently absorbed by the 'Yin Demon Sect'! The lords of the Yin Demon Sect told us to step up our preparations and refine enough corpse swarms, as well as Bronze Corpses, Silver Corpses, and even... try to refine Golden Corpses... They said it's to cooperate with them in attacking several important towns and strongholds soon! We were just following orders to expand the source of corpses!"

"Yin Demon Sect! Them again!" A cold light flared in Qin Feng's eyes. This hauntingly persistent great sect of the Evil Path had reached from Star South City to West Lake City, and now it had extended its tentacles to the Corpse Demon Sect. Their goal was bound to be immense!

"Where is your Corpse Demon Sect's Sect Master and the General Altar?" Qin Feng pressed, as this was the key to finding the root of the problem.

The black-robed Cultivator's eyes flickered as if he were still hesitating.

Ji Ruxue's finger moved slightly, and a surge of yin-cold energy pierced into his body, instantly making him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, his Meridians gnawed by ten thousand ants, his face twisting in agony.

"It's... in the Southwest direction, in the 'Soul Burying Valley' deep within the 'Black Swamp'... The Sect Master is..." Tears and snot flowed down his face as he was about to reveal the information.

Just then, a sudden change occurred!

A terrifying pressure, several times stronger than the previous leader's and filled with the Aura of decay and death, swept in from the dense forest outside the village like an invisible tide! It instantly enveloped the entire Green Ox Village!

The temperature in the air dropped sharply, and the pools of blood on the ground even showed signs of congealing. The surviving villagers were awestruck by this Aura, trembling so much that their cries were choked in their throats.

"Oh? Is Your Excellency... looking for my Corpse Demon Sect's General Altar?"

A feminine and hoarse voice, like the sound of metal plates rubbing together, slowly drifted over.

At the edge of the dense forest, three figures appeared at some unknown time.

The leader was dressed in a magnificent dark purple robe with black trim. He was fair-faced and beardless, with sinister eyes, and was playing with a string of prayer beads made of tiny skulls. His Aura was as deep as an abyss, and he was shockingly at the Late Stage Martial King level! He was the Southern Altar Master of the Corpse Demon Sect!

Standing to his left and right behind him were two black-robed elders with grim Auras and stiff faces. Their cultivation had also reached the Early Stage Martial King level; they were Deacons under the altar!

Three Martial Kings! The leader, a Late Stage Martial King!

The Altar Master's gaze slowly swept over the shattered corpses of the Corpse Demon Sect members on the ground, finally landing on Qin Feng and Ji Ruxue. A smile that seemed peaceful but was actually hair-raising appeared on his feminine face:

"This Seat is the Southern Altar Master of the Corpse Demon Sect. You two killed my disciples, destroyed my Corpse Puppets, and even wanted to pry into the secrets of my General Altar... How should we settle this debt?"

A powerful Aura locked onto Qin Feng and Ji Ruxue; the battle was about to break out!