74: A flash of inspiration came to him, and he realized that the immortal corpse was just bait!

"These weeds, why can't we kill them all?" Chen Ziliang gritted his teeth and cursed, his short blade already stained dark green with corpse fluid. He didn't have much spiritual energy left in his body.

Lu Ming's eyebrows furrowed, and just as he was about to make a big move, a cold voice suddenly came from behind him.

"Hmph, mere corpse puppets can scare you into a panic?"

Before he finished speaking, a light yellow figure shot out from the dark river's fork.

The newcomer was dressed in a Longhu Mountain Daoist robe, with an apricot-yellow sash tied around his waist, and a peach wood hairpin in his topknot. His face was thin, and his eyes were like torches.

It was Shen Shiyuan from Longhu Mountain.

He held a brass ritual sword, its blade inscribed with Daoist talismans, glowing with a faint golden light in the dim cave.

The moment Shen Shiyuan landed, he didn't rush to act. Instead, he took out a handful of yellow talismans from his sleeve, quickly drawing them through the air with his fingertips, and chanted:

"Heaven and Earth Profound Sect, Myriad Qi's Root. Cultivating countless eons, proving my divine powers. Righteous God of the Thunder Department, heed my command!"

As the last word fell, he tossed the talismans into the air, simultaneously pointing his brass ritual sword at them, and shouted, "Rise!"

The talismans instantly ignited in the air, transforming into several golden bolts of lightning that struck the hanging corpses falling from the cave ceiling.

"Boom!" With a loud bang, the golden lightning exploded among the hanging corpses.

The hanging corpses struck by the lightning instantly turned to ash, not even a trace of flesh remaining.

At the same time, a young monk radiating Buddha's light rushed into the corpse horde.

The young monk had a handsome face, with an expression of compassion between his brows, yet his actions were extremely decisive.

He moved nimbly through the horde of corpses, constantly forming hand seals. With each Demonic Subjugation Seal he cast, a group of corpse puppets would instantly perish.

The corpse puppets' attacks, however, landed on him without causing any pain or itch.

Ouyang Zhi's figure also arrived. Her attacks were not as violent as Shen Shiyuan's, nor as grand and sweeping as Ming Kong's.

A full moon appeared behind her back, and countless silver-white threads extended from the full moon, accurately landing on the corpse puppets.

With a gentle tug of Ouyang Zhi's five fingers, dozens of corpse puppets were torn into chunks of flesh.

"It's those few from the Hidden Dragon Ranking!"

"Awesome, is this the true value of the Hidden Dragon Ranking?"

Someone shouted this, and the rogue cultivators, who were still struggling to resist the corpse puppets, instantly erupted, their eyes filled with the ecstasy of surviving a disaster.

The morale of the rogue cultivators instantly soared.

With the monstrous talents from the Hidden Dragon Ranking holding the line, their pressure immediately eased.

Many even began to actively cooperate with the trio's attacks, cleaning up the stragglers.

Seeing this, Lu Ming instantly reined in his aura, happily taking a breather.

This was a good opportunity to observe these potential opponents.

This was his first time seeing the Heavenly Talents of this world in action.

Xie Jinyu didn't count; his title as Jiangcheng's number one young talent had more water than the ocean.

Soon, he reached a conclusion.

If he were to face a squishy character like Shen Shiyuan, who required a casting wind-up, one-on-one, he could kill him without a sound.

But the problem was that these three were clearly a team.

They had attack, defense, and control all covered.

Lu Ming was a bit speechless.

Teaming up to fish in a barrel, isn't that against martial ethics?

However, he wasn't too panicked. He held the Six Realm Fierce Blood given by Zhao Qingge, and could step into the Fourth Realm at any time.

Thinking of Zhao Qingge, Lu Ming's brows furrowed even deeper.

His cheap aunt had clearly already entered the Fifth Realm. Regardless of whether that was a true immortal corpse, wouldn't it be better to just snatch it first?

The strange thing was that she was so certain that the so-called immortal corpse was fake.

As for why she was so certain... unless she had witnessed it long ago!

As this thought emerged, Lu Ming's heart sank.

If that were truly the case, the uproar over the immortal corpse being so big might not be without her connivance.

It's just, what was her purpose in doing so?

Just as Lu Ming was lost in thought, his peripheral vision caught sight of Li Yan and Yu Changqing standing at the edge, their faces cold.

Although both were wrapped in black robes, Yu Changqing was short, not even half as tall as Li Yan, making it hard not to notice him.

It wasn't until Yu Changqing slightly raised his eyes, revealing his youthful face, that Lu Ming's heart suddenly pounded.

"Reincarnators!"

At this moment, everything suddenly became clear.

No wonder the Law Enforcement Team was infiltrated by the Myriad Gods Sect like a sieve and no one cared.

No wonder Shi Hu could escape from Jiangcheng to the Mist Zone unharmed.

Mere disguise—a behemoth like the Night Watch Division couldn't possibly lack countermeasures.

But the high-ranking officials of the Night Watch Division, including Zhao Qingge, were all played like fools, as if they were idiots.

Damn it, they were all veteran actors, playing a grand game!

Shi Hu, or the immortal corpse, perhaps they were all bait thrown out.

Just to lure out the young child beside Li Yan!

But then the question arose again: what was the identity of this old monster that she would go to such great lengths?

Yu Changqing seemed to sense his gaze, and a harmless smile suddenly appeared on his youthful face.

Li Yan also noticed the commotion. He subconsciously looked at Lu Ming: "Eh? It's that kid!"

Li Yan's voice carried a hint of surprise, which then turned sinister.

"Old Yu, didn't you ask me to investigate this kid before?"

"This kid is most likely not one of us, because Zhao Qingge married her niece off to him!"

"Oh? Zhao Qingge's niece?" Yu Changqing's youthful face lost its smile, and he asked, "Is that the girl who was crippled by Venerable Phoenix back then?"

Li Yan nodded slightly.

As a follower of Venerable Phoenix, Yu Changqing naturally participated in Zhao Li's incident back then.

Venerable Phoenix, as a Reincarnator who had already awakened before the spiritual energy's resurgence, possessed unfathomable strength and was one of the individuals with the greatest chance of taking that final step.

Yet, she was an out-and-out madwoman, consistently holding the top spot on the Great Xia's Black List.

This was because, in her pursuit of that ultimate step, this woman had constantly attempted to seize others' nine-star talents.

Over the years, no fewer than five core talents in Great Xia had died by her hand.

But she certainly had the right to be arrogant; the Night Watch Division's Azure Dragon Bureau had repeatedly attempted to encircle and annihilate her, only to return in defeat.

This was also why old monsters like Yu Changqing were willing to attach themselves to her.

"Since they're not on the same path," Yu Changqing's mouth curved into an eerie arc, "we'll find an opportunity to kill him later!"

Zhao Qingge had been troubling the Reincarnators all these years. If it weren't for her master, those old fogeys would have acted long ago.

However, if they couldn't touch the Zhao family members, couldn't they at least kill a little brat to vent their anger?

When these words reached Li Yan's ears, he smiled knowingly.

If Yu Changqing intended to kill, then Lu Ming would have absolutely no chance of survival!

This was an undeniable fact.

At this moment, Lu Ming's death sentence could be pronounced.

Tsk tsk tsk, what a pity, a talented young man indeed.

The two stopped talking, simply redirecting their gaze towards the cave.

The corpse puppets on the surface of the dark river had been mostly cleared. Looking at the high-spirited Shen Shiyuan, Yu Changqing's lips curled into a disdainful sneer.

If he didn't still need these cannon fodder, he wouldn't have wasted his time here at all.

Mere corpse puppets, he could suppress and kill them with a raise of his hand.

"Let's go!"

Yu Changqing flew up, quickly darting towards the depths of the cave.

Li Yan smiled and shouted, "Let's go! Hurry up, the immortal corpse is just ahead!"

...