Chapter 40: Zombies!

The girl in front of him suddenly vanished, causing Zhao Xun a sense of impending doom. In the next moment, Chu Sang appeared ghost-like behind him and kicked him down.

“Off you go, Pikachu Xun!”

Before him was a sunken altar, and Chu Sang unceremoniously kicked Zhao Xun right into its center. The fall caused rocks to scrape his arms, drawing blood that seeped into the altar’s engravings.

The altar seemed to come alive, devouring every drop of blood. Within moments, the engravings glowed blood-red, revealing a massive and intricate formation.

A blinding light flashed, and the previously mundane cave transformed into a new scene. An entrance appeared before Chu Sang.

The passage ahead was pitch black, its depths invisible. No one knew if opportunity or danger lurked inside.

“It’s the entrance to a secret realm, hurry inside!”

The group was thrilled, rushing to push their way in.

“Move aside for me!” Zhao Xun’s heart burned with excitement. Forgetting his recent humiliation, he scrambled to his feet, eager to enter.

But just as he was about to step in, a crimson-gold chain shot out like a serpent, binding his limbs tightly. With a harsh yank, he was thrown to the ground, landing awkwardly with a thud. Though he was just a step away from the entrance, he couldn’t move an inch.

It was more unbearable than death!

“Fifth Senior Brother’s creation really works wonders! The Locking Immortal Chain, a top-grade spirit tool, should keep you tied up for quite some time.”

Chu Sang clapped her hands and walked up to him, picking up the dropped map scroll. She whistled cheerfully at the contorted face of Zhao Xun, “Thanks for leading the way these past few days. Consider this map your repayment for saving you earlier. No need to thank me for such a great favor. Farewell!”

“I’ll kill you!” Zhao Xun finally realised he had been tricked all along, his anger burning so fiercely it felt like his lungs might explode.

His hysterical roar quickly faded into the distance as Chu Sang entered the passage. Darkness swallowed her vision, and a small spiritual flame flickered at her fingertips, illuminating the way.

After making sure they were far away from those people, Chu Sang and her companions removed the human-skin masks they wore. These masks, a small spiritual tool crafted by Su Chen’an called “A Thousand Faces,” allowed them to switch between a thousand different faces at will. It was perfect for deceiving others while travelling. However, these masks couldn’t be worn for too long, or they risked causing facial decay.

“Be careful,” Chu Sang said, taking a few steps forward. Her ears twitched. “There might be traps ahead.”

No sooner had she spoken, Tantai Ming seemed to step on something, and a crisp “click” sounded. The walls began to hum with the sound of mechanisms activating, and thousands of spirit arrows shot towards them.

Chu Sang quickly threw a golden cauldron into the air, blocking the barrage of arrows.

Before setting out, her Fifth Senior Brother had given her a bag full of spirit tools. Having a brother who was a master Artifact refiner certainly had its perks.

Tantai Ming unleashed a sharp sword aura, destroying the mechanism, and the arrows stopped.

They barely had a moment to catch their breath before Mu Chihuai casually pressed his hand against the stone wall. With a light push, a section of it sank inward. “…We’re doomed.”

One obstacle followed another. The tunnel wasn’t particularly long, yet it took them half a day to reach the end.

Tantai Ming had swung his sword nearly ten thousand times. Stretching his sore wrist, he said, “I feel like I’m on the verge of a breakthrough.”

At the end of the tunnel, there were three paths.

On the surface, they looked identical.

But only one was the correct path; the others were traps leading to death.

Zhao Xun must have known this in advance, which is why he wanted them to act as bait and explore the paths.

Chu Sang studied the paths for a moment before confidently saying, “We’ll take the middle one.”

She always trusted her luck.

…

A scream echoed through the air.

The path was correct, but who could have expected it to end at a cliff hundreds of feet high?

Tantai Ming reacted quickly, his sword whipping out to catch him as he gracefully landed on one knee.

Another figure soon tumbled down from above.

With quick reflexes, Tantai Ming caught Mu Chihuai, who, feeling touched, was about to thank him. But a second later, he was unceremoniously tossed to the ground. Tantai Ming dashed forward in time to catch Chu Sang as she fell. “Junior Sister! Are you alright? Was my catch perfect or what?”

Mu Chihuai, gritting his teeth as he climbed to his feet, muttered to himself. Great, now he knew who his next poison-testing subject would be for the next half month.

Meanwhile, Cheng Ying and Sikou Qiu landed safely as well.

Despite the danger, everyone made it through unscathed. Chu Sang’s luck was simply extraordinary.

Looking up, Chu Sang glanced back at the tricky exit. She asked her senior brothers and sisters to wait a moment, then flew back up on her sword, returning to the three doors. She pulled out a sheet of paper and scribbled a few large characters—

“Exit here.”

She stuck it on the middle door.

When she returned, Tantai Ming asked, “Why did you go back up there?”

Chu Sang smiled sweetly and innocently, “Just did a good deed.”

Tantai Ming shivered at her smile. Someone was about to have a very bad day.

The inner secret realm wasn’t all that different from the outer one. Rugged mountains and perilous waters stretched as far as the eye could see. By spreading out their spiritual senses, they could detect several demon beasts lurking nearby, none of them weak. Even a single one could pose a serious threat.

Could the Chaotic Green Lotus Seed Zhao Xun mentioned really be in this place?

“The inner secret realm is the core of the outer secret realm. The demon beasts here are far stronger than the ones we’ve encountered before. Everyone, stay vigilant,” Cheng Ying advised, looking up at the darkening sky. “It’s getting late, and this is prime hunting time for demon beasts. It’s best not to venture out.”

“It’s cold and damp at night. Let’s rest and head out tomorrow morning.”

“Agreed.”

They found a secluded cave nearby. Cheng Ying pulled out two blankets. “You rest first. I’ll take the first watch.”

Tantai Ming yawned and raised his hand, “I’ll take the second half.”

Chu Sang also pulled a few defensive arrays from her storage bag, setting them up around the area. She affixed several concealment talismans at the cave entrance.

Late at night, as Chu Sang slept soundly, she suddenly heard a faint rustling noise.

Having overly sensitive spiritual senses was sometimes a curse; even the slightest disturbance could wake her.

Chu Sang opened her eyes lazily and saw faint green ghostly flames flickering in the nearby forest. At the same time, eerie footsteps approached closer and closer.

… Could it be demon beasts?

Cheng Ying also heard the sound. His gaze turned cold as he gripped his sword, his body tensed.

As the flames drew nearer, Chu Sang realised it wasn’t ghost fire at all but the glowing green eyes of skeletons. The creatures approaching them—were none other than white-haired zombies!

Zombies were extremely sensitive to the presence of the living. Even though there were concealment talismans and arrays in place, the zombies still managed to surround the cave unknowingly, repeatedly testing the arrays.

Under the relentless assault of hundreds and thousands of zombies, the barrier trembled, barely holding up.

“… How could there be zombies here?!” Sikou Qiu’s face went pale.

In places as abundant in spiritual energy as secret realms, powerful demon beasts were common, but evil creatures like zombies should never appear!

Unless someone had deliberately created them.

The Cloud Abyss Secret Realm opened once every hundred years, attracting thousands of cultivators each time.

Among them were treasure-hunting novices, overly confident practitioners, and the unlucky ones… Every time the secret realm opened, more than half of the cultivators perished inside.

From another perspective, the secret realm wasn’t just a place of opportunity; it was also a massive graveyard.

Some ghost and demonic cultivators took advantage of this, turning natural mass burial sites into massive zombie-raising grounds for their own use.

Who would have thought they’d encounter such a thing so soon after entering?

Everyone’s hearts sank.

The white-haired zombies weren’t particularly strong individually, but their sheer numbers made them a real headache.

What they feared most was that the noise and bloodshed would attract nearby demon beasts or, even worse, stronger zombies.

The best course of action was to lure the zombies away and wait until morning when they would disappear on their own.

“Miss, stay here with the sect’s immortals. Don’t get lost. I’ll draw them away,” Cheng Ying said.

“Be careful,” Sikou Qiu urged.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.” Cheng Ying nodded to Chu Sang and the others. “Please take care of the young lady.”

With that, he tore off his concealment talisman and dashed out of the barrier. In an instant, the thousands of zombies became agitated, sensing fresh prey, and hurled themselves in his direction.

Cheng Ying’s sword flashed, decapitating dozens of zombies in a single stroke as he darted into the depths of the forest.

Though his strength in the mid-golden core stage made dealing with these white-haired zombies not too difficult, their numbers were overwhelming, and a prolonged battle was not a viable option.

He had an idea and led hundreds, even thousands, of zombies in the opposite direction.

Ahead was a hundred-zhang-high cliff.

These low-level zombies could only hop forward. Once they fell into the abyss, they would never get out.

Chu Sang and the others took this opportunity to climb to a higher, safer place.

Along the way, they encountered a few stray zombies, far fewer in number than before. Chu Sang and Tantai Ming cleared the path, swiftly taking care of the remaining dozen or so zombies.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been useless this whole way, constantly dragging you down. If I had known, I wouldn’t have come…” Sikou Qiu, who had fallen behind several times and was almost caught by the zombies. Each time, Chu Sang had to step in, and several times she was nearly injured.

Sikou Qiu clenched her sleeves tightly, filled with guilt.

As a senior disciple, she was supposed to protect her junior sister, but she had been of no help and had only caused trouble.

Compared to the rare heavenly spiritual root she possessed, her five-element root was an even more paradoxical existence.

It was not only rare but utterly useless.

Sikou Qiu, currently in the early stage of foundation building, had mostly reached her level through her father’s wealth, who spent millions of spirit stones on pills to force her cultivation up. It was clear that her path to cultivation was far more arduous than that of ordinary cultivators.

If not for being born into a wealthy family, she probably wouldn’t have been able to set foot on the path of immortality in her lifetime.

In past training trips with her senior brothers, sisters, and junior disciples, she had always been the burden. If not for Cheng Ying constantly staying by her side to protect her, she might have died countless times.

This was a deep-seated issue for Sikou Qiu, and it later became the root of her inner demons.

In fact, her karma and inner demons had already started to form at this moment.

[Sikou Qiu’s Corruption Value: 30]

Chu Sang frowned, recalling some of the plot from the original story.

…

As dawn broke, the white-haired zombies let out screeches and evaporated. Not long after, Cheng Ying returned.

He had sustained some injuries; his right arm had been scratched by a flying zombie, leaving three deep claw marks. That patch of skin had turned a ghastly zombie-blue. Without hesitation, he pulled out a dagger and cut off the infected flesh.

He didn’t even flinch.

Chu Sang couldn’t help but admire him—he was almost inhumanly tough.

Sikou Qiu applied medicine and bandaged his arm. Aside from looking slightly pale, he seemed otherwise unaffected.

“Zombies will reappear at night. We must hurry,” Chu Sang said, pulling out a map scroll she had borrowed from Zhao Xun and memorising the direction. She led them deeper into the secret realm.

By midday, they had encountered other teams—disciples from the Myriad Sword Sect and the Beast-Taming Sect.

Disciples from the eight great immortal sects and various prominent families had almost all gathered in the Cloud Abyss Secret Realm.

However, only a few could enter the realm within the realm.

The two sects just happened to meet and agreed to collaborate.

They too had encountered zombies the night before and were thoroughly exhausted, looking utterly drained.

“Chu Sang!”

Lin Qi’s eyes lit up as he ran over. “I didn’t expect to run into you here! Did you come on your own without teaming up with other sects?”

Chu Sang nodded, also surprised to see a familiar face.

“This secret realm is so dangerous. Last night, we encountered zombies too. Who knows what we’ll face today… Why don’t we travel together?”

Lin Qi remembered that Chu Sang had plenty of talismans and treasures. His instincts told him that as long as he stuck with her, he could breeze through this adventure.

He felt a surge of security.

“Sure,” Chu Sang nodded. These people could be trusted, and the realm within the realm was indeed dangerous. Their group’s strength was not enough to traverse it freely.

As night fell, they set up camp.

This time, they found a hidden hilltop, and watched as hordes of zombies emerged from the forest below, wandering aimlessly along the mountain path. Occasionally, eerie zombie howls drifted up… The scene was indescribably horrifying.

Chu Sang rubbed her arms, noticing that everyone’s expressions were grim, except for Shen Rufei, who was preoccupied with examining a communication jade disc, an aura of melancholy surrounding him.

“Hey, what’s wrong with your senior brother?” Chu Sang asked, sitting next to the junior disciple from the Beast-Taming Sect.

Ge Xiang, who was staring at the ugly zombies below, had lost her appetite for bean cakes. She sighed, “You’ll get used to it. He’s been acting strange for a year now, and it’s only gotten worse in the last two months.”

“Don’t worry about him. He’s probably heartbroken.”

Chu Sang, intrigued, asked, “Really? I wouldn’t have guessed. Shen Rufei always seemed so dignified and calm, like a gentleman. I didn’t think he’d get dumped.”

“Yeah, apparently, the other person called him useless, and he’s been depressed for months,” Ge Xiang said.

Chu Sang thought to herself, that was quite harsh.

No man likes to hear those words.

She asked, “What did she say to your senior brother?”

Ge Xiang thought for a moment, “Something like, ‘Don’t come near me, you useless thing.'”

Chu Sang, “…”

Why did those words sound so familiar?

Could it really be that much of a coincidence?

…

(Author’s Note: Different novels have different settings. The settings here, such as the Chaotic Green Lotus Seed and other celestial treasures, are based on this story’s lore.)

(End of Chapter)