3: Kill by rules, borrow a zombie's knife

The cold wind from the Burial Mounds scraped across his face, a sensation like a dull knife slowly flaying his skin.

The stench of decaying earth and fermenting corpses mixed together, drilling into his nostrils and causing his stomach to churn.

Li Mo was prostrate behind a crumbling tombstone, his chest heaving like a broken bellows, each breath bringing a burning sting to his throat.

His gaze was fixed on the half-collapsed entrance of the Ancient Tomb not far away.

The darkness of the opening was bottomless, silently awaiting its prey.

Lifespan: 25 minutes.

The blood-red countdown on the light screen was a guillotine hanging over his Divine Soul, cold and merciless.

He had, after all, made it just before his stamina ran out.

But as soon as he got close, a cold, viscous Evil Qi rushed at him, making the hairs on his body stand on end.

The Exchange's prompt appeared immediately.

Low-level Iron Corpse, strength comparable to Qi Refining eighth layer, extremely sensitive to the aura of living beings.

Qi Refining eighth layer.

In Li Mo's current state, let alone an eighth-layer cultivator, even a fierce wild dog could easily tear him apart.

Forcing his way in would be like packaging himself up for the zombie's dinner table.

He forcefully suppressed his pounding heart, commanded his brain to calm down, shifted his gaze from the deadly Ancient Tomb, and began a "market scan" of the surrounding environment.

He needed a variable.

An "external variable" that could break the current deadlock and be utilized by him at a low cost.

On the light screen, countless gray, worthless information flowed by.

A wild dog will pass by this location in a quarter of an hour.

A hundred-year-old Corpse Head Grass will mature in three days.

Too slow, too weak.

These were all junk assets that could not be traded.

Li Mo's heart tightened inch by inch, but the light in his eyes became sharper as it compressed.

Suddenly, a piece of information, of extremely low value but causing his pupils to contract sharply, popped up.

Target: Another stronger wandering zombie, the 'Evil Corpse,' is in a berserk state, attacking all living creatures and its own kind indiscriminately.

Call Option: The 'Evil Corpse' is attracted to the Ancient Tomb within half an hour.

Price: 1 Karma Point.

A terrifying glint shot from Li Mo's eyes.

Using an uncontrollable risk to hedge against a certain death risk!

"Purchase."

The command was given in his mind without any delay.

karma points: 8.1 → 7.1.

He drew the qing feng sword he had obtained from Lu Yuan, and with his last ounce of strength, he quickly carved a simple yet provocative Yin Gathering Formation pattern on the ground at the entrance of the Ancient Tomb.

Then, he sliced his fingertip and dripped a drop of hot blood into the center of the Formation's eye.

The extremely dense living human blood Qi exploded in the cold air.

After doing all this, he immediately activated the Turtle Breathing Technique, which he knew by heart, retracting all his bones, flesh, blood, and aura, and then scrambling and rolling into a deeper gully far away, completely burying himself with rotten earth.

He became one with this land of death.

Time, in the torment of suffocation, passed by minute by minute.

Lifespan: 10 minutes.

Just as Li Mo's lungs were about to burst, a violent roar, not human, tore through the night sky, coming from far to near.

Boom!

A dark shadow rushed over with astonishing speed, carrying visible Evil Qi, and heavily landed in front of the Ancient Tomb.

It was a zombie a head taller than the Iron Corpse, covered in dark red corpse hair, with blood-red eyes; it was precisely that 'Evil Corpse.'

It had been attracted by the scent of blood and the fluctuations of the Formation.

Roar!

Inside the Ancient Tomb, the entrenched Iron Corpse felt its territory invaded and let out an angry roar, rushing out.

The two zombies had no communication whatsoever, following their most primitive instincts, wildly biting and fighting each other.

The tearing sound of claws ripping through rotten flesh and the crisp crunch of bones being forcibly broken echoed intermittently in the silent Burial Mounds.

Now!

Li Mo broke out of the ground, operating the Turtle Breathing Technique to its extreme, suppressing his presence to the limit, and silently infiltrated the chaotic Ancient Tomb.

The tomb was in a mess, with grave robbers' tools scattered everywhere.

Beside a disemboweled corpse, he immediately spotted the broken "Soul Guiding Banner Fragment" and a muddy Medicinal Pill box next to it.

He grabbed the fragment.

He silently chanted in his heart.

"Exercise."

Contract settlement.

A cold voice sounded.

The Medicinal Pill box shook, then was snatched by an invisible force; it ignored gravity and the obstruction of the mud, transforming into a precise streak of light, and swiftly flew into his embrace.

Li Mo's heart pounded, not daring to linger for a moment, and turned to flee.

When he rushed out of the Ancient Tomb, the two zombies were still fighting frantically, completely oblivious to the tiny thief protected by the rules.

He fled several miles in one breath, found a new, absolutely safe hiding place, and only then dared to collapse, exhausted.

He opened the Medicinal Pill box with trembling hands.

Three dusty Medicinal Pills, emitting a faint medicinal fragrance, lay quietly inside.

He picked one up and swallowed it without hesitation.

A warm current flowed through his limbs and bones, his parched Dantian was nourished, and the nearly extinguished flame of life was refilled with fuel.

Lifespan: 1 month and 25 minutes.

He swallowed the other two consecutively.

Lifespan: 3 months and 25 minutes.

He survived!

The ecstasy of surviving a disaster, like a mountain flood bursting its banks, broke through his nerves, which had been taut all night.

This time, he was no longer the prey awaiting death, but the hunter taking the initiative.

He used the smallest transaction cost to leverage the greatest chance of survival, completing a textbook "asset restructuring."

After completely escaping danger, Li Mo leaned against the cold rock wall, calming his emotions.

He opened the Exchange.

He wanted to find a truly worthwhile future to invest in for these hard-won three months.

Just then, a piece of information appeared from the top of the light screen; it glowed with a molten gold luster, like a star, capturing all his attention.

Super High-Value Target: In three months, the 'nine revolutions soul returning grass' will appear in Black Wind Abyss.

Efficacy: Perfectly repairs the Dao foundation.

Li Mo's breathing suddenly stopped.

Repair the Dao foundation!

His gaze was fixed on that line of text, almost piercing through the light screen.

However, the next line of small text, marked in gray, plunged his newly ignited hope into an ice cellar.

Current Observers: 3 (all in the Golden Core Stage).

Golden Core Stage.