Chapter 21

What the…?

Cheng Hui woke up and opened his eyes, only to see a man in gray clothes with a malicious grin lunging at him.

What the… ghost?

Startled, Cheng Hui instinctively tried to dodge.

However, his body wasn’t cooperating, and he failed to evade, ending up pinned under the gray-clothed man.

Cheng Hui was utterly confused, not knowing what was happening.

Though he had some fighting experience, his body not responding was a major issue. He could only barely manage to grab the gray-clothed man’s hands, rolling around on the ground with him.

Luckily, this gray-clothed man, aside from being strong, seemed a bit lacking in intelligence. Cheng Hui managed to hold on using some small tricks, barely sustaining for a short while.

Unfortunately, the difference in strength between them was absolute. Cheng Hui estimated that at this rate, he could only hold on for two or three minutes at most.

“Heh, Junior Brother’s life-bound mysterious corpse is indeed different. It can actually last this long against my refined corpse.” A voice, extremely unpleasant to hear, suddenly rang out.

Only then did Cheng Hui notice a man in blue clothes standing not far away, accompanied by a refined corpse with a green face and fangs. The corpse had a layer of fur and scales on its skin, looking not quite human.

At this moment, Lin Qingyang had already been knocked to the ground, unable to get up with a foot on his chest.

Cheng Hui was instantly furious. How could an adult bully a child like this? Have you no shame?

“Hui Hui…” Lin Qingyang, seeing Cheng Hui awake, was overjoyed, but there was an inexplicable hint of grievance in his voice.

Hearing this, Cheng Hui’s heart ached. This child, so young, being bullied like this, and I, a grown man, can’t even protect a child?

This world is really messed up!

Cheng Hui didn’t know that while he was feeling sorry for Lin Qingyang, Lin Qingyang himself was surprised that his emotions actually contained a sense of grievance.

Why did you abandon me? Why didn’t you protect me? You clearly said you would always be with me, accompany and protect me, but you broke your promise…

These sour emotions almost brought Lin Qingyang to tears. Even though he quickly realized and suppressed these feelings, he couldn’t help but look at Cheng Hui with a bit of resentment.

He was certain that something unknown had happened between him and Cheng Hui.

He even suspected that his rebirth into an eight-year-old might be related to this matter.

He lowered his eyes to hide his deep thoughts, his face showing confusion and helplessness, yet not much panic.

Being stepped on like this was, for many, not very harmful but extremely humiliating. He even suspected that the blue-clothed man did it on purpose, to provoke him into a more intense reaction, giving him a chance to ‘accidentally’ injure him more severely, or even destroy his cultivation foundation.

Even though he rarely left the Thirteen Peaks, he knew that recently, the conflict between the Xuan Corpse Sect and the Puppet Sect had intensified. The Corpse Puppet Sect was in turmoil, and everyone knew a battle between the two factions was inevitable, but how it would erupt was uncertain.

Lin Qingyang wasn’t as angry as the blue-clothed man imagined.

This level of humiliation was almost harmless to him.

The day he became a blood slave, he had already given up on meaningless pride. When surviving until tomorrow becomes a luxury, many things can be let go.

Lin Qingyang might not be able to endure being spat on, but in such a clearly disadvantaged situation, showing a bit of submission was definitely the right choice.

He didn’t care about this humiliation. He had already noted this person down in his little mental notebook. When his cultivation was successful in the future, he would find everyone who had humiliated him and settle the score one by one.

But the prerequisite for all this was—Hui Hui must not get hurt.

Lin Qingyang didn’t want to cause trouble, but that didn’t mean he could tolerate others bullying Cheng Hui.

His right hand, hidden beneath him, flashed with a dim blood color, his fingers gradually transforming into sharp protrusions.

The blue-clothed man didn’t notice his small movements; all his attention was on Cheng Hui.

He saw that Lin Qingyang was only at the fifth level of Qi Refining, which meant his refined corpse was at most at the level of a wandering corpse.

A wandering corpse was barely a newly revived body. Even if refined as a life-bound mysterious corpse, its intelligence couldn’t be fully developed.

However, Cheng Hui’s performance shattered his usual understanding.

Clearly, from all aspects, his wandering corpse should have the upper hand, yet this wandering corpse cleverly used some techniques to entangle with his wandering corpse.

Though their fight looked like two rookies pecking at each other, the blue-clothed man knew very well that for a beginner wandering corpse to show such wisdom, this kid must have some special method.

Could it be… the Xuan Corpse Sect invented a new refining method? One that could foster more complete intelligence?

The blue-clothed man was instantly intrigued.

The biggest difference between the Xuan Corpse Sect and the Puppet Sect lay in their attitude towards corpses.

The Xuan Corpse Sect treated their life-bound mysterious corpses as partners. Their relationship could be familial, friendly, or even romantic.

Sometimes, when faced with deadly danger, cultivators were even willing to sacrifice their lives to protect their refined corpses.

Conversely, the Puppet Sect treated these refined corpses purely as tools.

Perhaps it’s a case of gains and losses. The Xuan Corpse Sect, though they could only have one life-bound mysterious corpse, their corpses, after certain refinement, were like living beings. Once they reached the level of a copper-armored corpse, they had fairly complete intelligence. They could even actively cooperate with cultivators when necessary.

But the Puppet Sect couldn’t do that. The puppets they refined had almost no autonomy, relying entirely on their control.

This required them to master multitasking skills. Although the Puppet Sect had special techniques to train this, it still required personal control. If those puppets could have more complete intelligence, it would undoubtedly greatly enhance their strength.

Unfortunately, the Puppet Sect’s main belief was in controlling more refined corpses, making it impossible for them to focus on nurturing a single life-bound mysterious corpse like the Xuan Corpse Sect. As a result, their puppets couldn’t compare to life-bound mysterious corpses.

Now, he suddenly discovered a method to enhance puppet intelligence, which could help a large number of Puppet Sect cultivators improve their strength. Of course, he was very interested.

Seeing no one around, the blue-clothed man couldn’t help but have some other thoughts.

It’s forbidden to harm fellow disciples, but if he captured the boy and extracted the method to enhance refined corpse intelligence from him, even if the Xuan Corpse Sect made trouble, his master would surely protect him.

Besides, what secret could an eight-year-old boy keep? Maybe just scaring him would make him spill everything.

The blue-clothed man’s eyes lit up, as if he had discovered a hidden treasure.

He ordered the copper-armored corpse guarding him to attack Cheng Hui as well. Since he decided to act, this obviously intelligent wandering corpse was the best evidence and must be taken away.

Seeing this, Lin Qingyang felt a nameless rage deep inside.

Why is it always like this?

Why do these people always want to hurt his Hui Hui!

His Hui Hui did nothing wrong. Why can’t they come at him instead!

If it weren’t for noticing that the copper-armored corpse didn’t intend to kill Cheng Hui, Lin Qingyang might have already lost his patience.

Fortunately, the copper-armored corpse leaving provided him some convenience. As long as he could successfully ambush, without a commander, neither the copper-armored corpse nor the wandering corpse would be a problem.

Just as he was about to attack, a man’s cold voice suddenly came from not far away: “What are you doing!”

Lin Qingyang’s expression shifted slightly, his transformed right hand hidden away again, slowly returning to its original form.

At this moment, Cheng Hui was already knocked to the ground by the copper-armored corpse and the wandering corpse, struggling to even turn over with his already uncooperative body.

Damn! Why is Ouyang Zheng here?

The blue-clothed man saw Ouyang Zheng striding over and cursed his bad luck.

To say Ouyang Zheng wasn’t really part of the Xuan Corpse Sect but belonged to the neutral faction. He himself refined a life-bound mysterious corpse, but he didn’t reject refining other puppets.

The Corpse Puppet Sect managed to hold together for so many years without splitting, largely thanks to these neutral factions.

It was precisely because they were neutral that the Enforcement Hall had always been under their control, making relatively fair judgments, a compromise between the two factions.

“So it’s Senior Brother Ouyang.” The blue-clothed man greeted reluctantly.

Ouyang Zheng glanced at Lin Qingyang, who was being stepped on, then at Cheng Hui, who was tied up like a pretzel, showing a displeased expression: “What are you doing?”

The blue-clothed man secretly rolled his eyes, but smiled and said, “I saw this junior brother and was so happy that I sparred with him a bit.”

Ouyang Zheng’s mouth twitched. The reason he treated Lin Qingyang of the Xuan Corpse Sect so well was indeed because of the contrast with the Puppet Sect.

Whether it’s birds of a feather or something else, most of the Puppet Sect people he met had questionable character. This one, who could lie with a straight face, was already considered decent. There were even those who dared to provoke him to his face.

He said coldly, “Is the sparring over now? Can you let go of the junior brother… and his mysterious corpse?”

The blue-clothed man unwillingly glanced at Cheng Hui: “Senior Brother, we sparred with stakes…”

Ouyang Zheng squinted and sneered: “You’re not trying to say his stake is his life-bound mysterious corpse, are you?”

The blue-clothed man originally intended to say just that, thinking that with Lin Qingyang knocked to the ground, whatever he said would be taken as truth.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Zheng wasn’t easy to fool. If it were other neutral members, they might have let him take Cheng Hui away, considering the Puppet Sect’s influence.

But Ouyang Zheng was notorious for giving no face to anyone, and his claim was indeed unbelievable.

No one would believe that someone from the Xuan Corpse Sect would use their life-bound mysterious corpse as a bet.

In the end, the blue-clothed man had to leave dejectedly.

However, the look he gave Cheng Hui before leaving made both Lin Qingyang and Cheng Hui realize that this matter wasn’t over…