72: Chapter 72 Copper Armored Corpse

This is a "Jiangshi."

And Tengteng Town is like a natural "Jiangshi farm." Every few years, when the subterranean Qi surges, it births a batch of the walking dead.

The Imperial Astronomical Bureau treats this place like a "leek field," sending people periodically to harvest a wave. This serves both to train troops and to obtain corpse elixir Materials.

But this time was different.

The last line of the dossier was annotated in cinnabar ink: Sudden mutation in Ren Family Village, suspected emergence of a "Bronze Armored Corpse," send reinforcements immediately.

Bronze Armored Corpse?

Chen Mo's eyelids twitched.

It sounded very tough just from the name.

"Boss, we're ready."

An old Runner carried a large bag of glutinous rice, holding a wooden bucket still dripping with blood in his hand. It was freshly slaughtered black dog's blood, its pungent stench filling the air.

Chen Mo closed the dossier, took a deep breath, and hung the fine steel saber he had extorted from Tiger Wang at his waist.

"Let's go."

...

They left the city and headed straight west.

The further west they went, the more desolate the road became and the colder the wind blew.

The moon in the sky had been quite bright, but after passing Shili Shop, it looked as if it were covered by a layer of frosted glass, dim and dismal.

The shadows of the trees by the roadside clawed at the air like ghosts ready to pounce at any moment.

Chen Mo rode an old horse, his neck tucked in as he traveled in the middle of the group. Jiang Hongli rode a date-red horse at the very front, her back held ramrod straight, her red clothes snapping in the night wind like a goddess of war.

"Heroine Jiang." Chen Mo urged his horse closer and lowered his voice, "What's the deal with this Bronze Armored Corpse? If I slash it once, can I break its defense?"

Jiang Hongli glanced back at him as if looking at an idiot. "A Bronze Armored Corpse is invulnerable to blades and spears, and immune to water and fire. If your crappy saber hits it, there will be no result other than a chipped blade."

"Then what do we do?" Chen Mo panicked slightly. "Are we going to our deaths?"

"Who told you to slash it?" Jiang Hongli rolled her eyes. "Your mission is to cast a net on the perimeter to prevent ordinary walking corpses from escaping and hurting people. Naturally, I will handle the Bronze Armored Corpse. Besides, don't you have black dog's blood? That is a filthy substance; splashing it on can break its corpse Qi."

Chen Mo felt slightly more at ease, but his hands still gripped the reins tightly.

They traveled for about another hour.

The smell in the air changed.

It was no longer the fresh scent of earth and vegetation, but a faint stench of rot, like spoiled pork mixed with aged mildew.

"We're here." Jiang Hongli reined in her horse.

Ahead, a pitch-black silhouette loomed indistinctly in the mist.

Tengteng Town.

This place didn't look like a town where the living resided; it looked more like a giant burial mound. It was deathly silent, without even the sound of a dog barking.

On the earthen slopes on the outskirts of the town, several bonfires had already been lit.

A dozen or so men in constable uniforms were gathered around the fires, their faces pale, clutching their sabers tightly as they stared fearfully toward the town.

This was the advance party that had arrived early, another group of Runners from the West City Yamen.

The leader was a head constable named Old Liu, in his fifties, with a face full of wrinkles.

Seeing Chen Mo and Jiang Hongli arrive, Old Liu acted as if he had seen his own father, scrambling to meet them.

"Oh! Lord Jiang! Head Constable Chen! You've finally come!"

Old Liu's voice was trembling. "This place... this place is too sinister! Just now, Old Zhang went over there to pee and was almost dragged into the ground by a hand! He ran back before he could even pull up his pants!"

Chen Mo jumped off his horse and scanned his terrified colleagues.

The bonfires flickered in the wind, making everyone's faces look like ghosts.

A large memorial archway stood at the entrance of the town. Most of the three characters for 'Tengteng Town' had peeled off, and the remaining half looked hideous and terrifying in the mist.

Under the archway, several dark shadows could be seen swaying vaguely.

Their movements were stiff, hopping along.

Chen Mo swallowed hard, feeling his saber hilt slick with sweat.

He turned to look at Jiang Hongli, hoping to find some sense of security from this expert's face.

Instead, Jiang Hongli simply drew her longsword and licked her lips. Her eyes were as excited as a cat seeing a mouse.

"Chen Mo."

"Present..."

"Take your men and guard the eastern entrance. Do not let even a single fly out."

After Jiang Hongli finished speaking, she tapped the stirrup with her toe and soared toward that eerie archway like a red bird.

"I'm going to meet that big fellow."

Chen Mo watched her back, then looked at the hopping dark shadows in the distance, and finally at the group of shivering Runners beside him.

He sighed, pulled a handful of glutinous rice from his robe, and gripped it tightly.

"Stop your damn shaking!"

Chen Mo cursed, though his voice lacked much confidence. "Get the black dog's blood ready for me! If anyone dares to screw up tonight, I'll throw him in to feed the Jiangshi!"

The wind grew stronger.

The stench of rot became thicker and thicker.

Jiang Hongli did not look back; her red figure had already plunged into the mist.

Chen Mo crouched behind a stone lion by the archway, showing only half his head.

The dark shadows ahead caught the scent of a living person. A sound like a wheezing bellows came from their throats, and with unbending knees, they hopped straight over. They weren't slow, covering two or three meters in a single leap.

"Begone!"

A sharp cry rang out.

With a flick of Jiang Hongli's wrist, three yellow paper Talismans seemed to have eyes as they slapped straight onto the foreheads of the first three Jiangshi.

The Jiangshi, which had been hopping, instantly froze as if hit by a paralysis spell.

But it wasn't over yet.

This girl wasn't the kind of mage who only stood at a distance throwing fireballs; she was a brute from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.

She kicked off the ground, shattering the bluestone pavement, and lunged forward with the momentum. Her longsword hummed. She didn't slash directly but instead wiped her left hand across the spine of the blade.

Sizzle—

It sounded like cold water being poured into a hot oil pan.

Chen Mo saw it clearly. There was no blood on Jiang Hongli's palm, but as she wiped, a visible surge of crimson heat instantly enveloped the blade. That was a martial artist's extremely condensed Qi and blood—masculine, burning hot, and specifically designed to break through Yin evil.

Chen Mo was familiar with this move.

Qi and Blood Enchantment.

At this moment, looking at the sword glowing red, Chen Mo felt the heat in his Dantian start to stir as well. The fine steel saber in his hand seemed to want a taste of Jiangshi flesh too.

"Should I... go up and land a couple of hits? Gain some presence?"

Just as this thought popped into Chen Mo's head, he saw Jiang Hongli strike down with her sword.

Crack!

A head covered in white hair flew into the sky, and black blood spurted out like a fountain. While the headless corpse was still twitching, Jiang Hongli had already turned and delivered a whip kick, sending another Jiangshi flying five or six meters and collapsing half an earthen wall.

Too brutal.

Too bloody.

Chen Mo silently sheathed his saber and shrank further behind the stone lion.

High-level matches like this were best left to the 'carry.' A bronze-tier player like himself would just give up first blood if he went in; staying hidden was victory.

"Head Constable Chen, don't... don't we need to go up and help?" Old Liu asked tremulously, the bucket of black dog's blood in his hand sloshing incessantly.

"Help with what?" Chen Mo glared at him. "Can't you see Lord Jiang is in the zone? If you go up and splash a bucket of blood, and happen to hit Lord Jiang, the Jiangshi might not die, but the two of us definitely will."

Old Liu nodded in deep agreement. "The boss is right. The boss is wise."