Chapter 10: Corpse Fiend

Under the tense gazes of the two, a series of squeaking sounds came from the dark hole. A small grey-black mouse crawled out of the hole and then scurried away in panic.

“Phew…” The Old Man relaxed when he saw it was just a mouse.

But Zuo Qingcang, standing nearby, frowned. He asked, “Did you survive here by eating mouse meat?”

“No, I ate other things, and there are no mice in this tomb…” Before he finished speaking, he and Zuo Qingcang both reacted at the same time and looked toward the dark hole.

‘No mice means the first hole leads outside?’

Just as both of them thought of this, a transparent tentacle shot out from the hole, instantly grabbed the mouse, and pulled it back inside.

It was truly absorbing. The transparent tentacle looked like a pale green slime, wrapping around the mouse all at once. The mouse seemed to be thrown into a small water tank, struggling desperately.

No matter how it struggled, it couldn’t escape from the transparent slime. Instead, more and more slime emerged from the hole, like a lump of green paste, engulfing the mouse deep within.

At the same time, bricks were pushed aside by the slime, making clattering sounds. Only then could Zuo Qingcang and the Old Man see that the sounds were actually caused by various bones hitting the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the hole stopped releasing slime, and the monster before them had transformed into a pale green, transparent slime ball about the size of a furnace. Clearly visible inside were numerous bones, rotting flesh, organs, and various other corpse parts.

“What is this thing?” Zuo Qingcang whispered as both of them stepped back.

“This… this is…” The Old Man turned pale and trembled as he said, “This is a Corpse Fiend! I’ve never seen one before. It’s said these things only appear where a Dao Sect practitioner has died. They’re formed when the Spiritual Power in a corpse becomes unstable. I thought it was just a legend…”

In the Dao Sects of the Central Plains, the Spiritual Power within humans, perhaps because humans consider themselves the wisest of all beings, is always regarded as different from any other Spiritual Power in the world. Such Corpse Fiends often appear in the burial sites of Dao Sect practitioners.

Watching the mouse struggle inside the Corpse Fiend’s transparent slime as its fur gradually dissolved, Zuo Qingcang narrowed his eyes and urgently asked, “Does this thing eat people?”

“I don’t know. I only heard about it in legends. Probably not…”

While the two were speaking, a lump suddenly bulged on the Corpse Fiend’s slimy body. Vaguely, it seemed to be a human face filled with sorrow, resentment, and hatred. The face was entirely made of slime, with empty holes for eyes and a mouth.

As the face turned to look in their direction, Zuo Qingcang’s expression darkened. He asked, “Do you know how to deal with this thing? It seems interested in us.”

“I don’t know, but according to legend, Corpse Fiends are formed from the corpses of Dao Sect practitioners and the Spiritual Power within them. They are the most Yin and evil beings in the world. Things that are most Yang and righteous should be able to counter them.”

Hearing the Old Man’s words, Zuo Qingcang frowned. This was as good as saying nothing. They were currently in an underground tomb chamber—where could they find anything most Yang and righteous? He stared intently at the Corpse Fiend and saw the ghostly face it had produced continuously rotating.

He then said, “Wait, don’t you know Dao Arts? What about that fire-from-blinking trick?” Zuo Qingcang was about to ask the Old Man to try setting the Corpse Fiend on fire but then reconsidered. He wasn’t sure if the fire could handle the monster, and if it couldn’t, it might just anger it.

Looking at the Corpse Fiend’s empty eyes, Zuo Qingcang suddenly thought, ‘This thing has no eyes, so it probably doesn’t rely on them to see us. And if it’s been living in the dark underground, it might not even use vision to sense prey. Could it rely on hearing?’

While the two were thinking, the Corpse Fiend suddenly moved. It rolled like a large lump of mud, swiftly charging toward their location. The bones and debris inside it occasionally clattered against the ground.

The Old Man screamed, turned, and ran toward the crevice they had come from, but Zuo Qingcang grabbed him tightly and pulled him in another direction.

“What are you doing! Let me go!”

“Calm down. The crevice is too narrow. If we go in, we’ll move too slowly, but the Corpse Fiend’s body can change shape and isn’t affected by terrain. It will catch up.”

The Corpse Fiend was much faster than it looked. In the time it took them to speak, it had already closed within five meters behind them. Zuo Qingcang gave the Old Man a hard push and ran in another direction, shouting, “Split up! Don’t stop!”

Watching the Old Man and Zuo Qingcang run in opposite directions, the Corpse Fiend let out an angry roar. Then, a sound like tearing cloth was heard, and the Corpse Fiend split into two lumps, each chasing Zuo Qingcang and the Old Man separately.

Hearing the strange noise and roar, Zuo Qingcang ran forward without looking back. Only when he couldn’t sense any movement behind him did he turn to look. He found that the Corpse Fiend, perhaps because it had split in two, was much slower than before and had fallen more than ten meters behind.

‘After separating its body, it didn’t die. Is this Corpse Fiend some kind of collective organism?’

Next, he tried running into the Shadows of the Sacrificial Chamber, but the change in light and darkness seemed to have no effect on the Corpse Fiend. Instead, Zuo Qingcang had to be careful of the changing terrain and burial items in the dark, slowing him down.

Thinking back to how the two of them had whispered in front of the Corpse Fiend, Zuo Qingcang thought to himself, ‘So it doesn’t use vision. Does it move based on hearing?’

With that in mind, he grabbed a jar by the roadside and flung it forcefully to the side. A crisp shatter was heard, followed by a series of clattering sounds in the Sacrificial Chamber. The jar had smashed an unknown number of burial items, and the Corpse Fiend’s body came to a complete stop.

Meanwhile, as Zuo Qingcang threw the jar, he dropped to the ground and lay flat. He held his breath, kept his body still, and tried not to make any sound.

After doing this, Zuo Qingcang kept his eyes fixed on the motionless Corpse Fiend, ready to jump up and run at any moment.

After hesitating for a while, as if sensing something, the Corpse Fiend eventually ran toward where the jar had fallen, paying no further attention to Zuo Qingcang’s location.

Relieved, Zuo Qingcang slowly stood up and quietly headed in the direction where the Old Man had run. Hiding in the dark and moving stealthily, Zuo Qingcang could occasionally hear the Old Man’s shouts, the Corpse Fiend’s roars, and the sounds of burial items being smashed.

When he arrived, the Old Man’s lower body was completely engulfed by the Corpse Fiend’s slime. He struggled constantly, trying to break free from the slime, but it was useless. The Corpse Fiend was like a giant cell, continuously devouring the Old Man before it. No matter how hard the Old Man struggled or how strong he was, it was ineffective against this method of attack.

Zuo Qingcang could easily imagine the Old Man, once fully wrapped in the slime, like a fish in a fish tank, gradually suffocating to death before being digested and broken down by the Corpse Fiend.

However, as the Old Man struggled, his eyes occasionally blinked open and shut. Each time they opened, a small spark would appear on the Corpse Fiend’s surface. Every time a spark appeared, the Corpse Fiend would let out a cry of pain. However, the spark was too weak and would be extinguished by the Corpse Fiend’s slime shortly after appearing.

Seeing this, Zuo Qingcang’s eyes lit up. ‘It seems this thing really is afraid of fire, but the old man’s Dao Arts are too weak. His blinking-to-make-fire trick might scare people, but it can’t burn the enemy to death.’

Just then, another Corpse Fiend appeared. It seemed drawn by the Old Man’s struggling sounds and immediately charged toward the Old Man’s head.

Seeing this new Corpse Fiend, the Old Man’s face changed, and his eyes showed extreme fear. He shouted, “Save me! Come save me!”

His body shook violently, but he couldn’t shake off the slime on his lower body. His legs were trapped as if wrapped in jelly, unable to move. He could only watch as another lump of Corpse Fiend charged toward him. Gradually, despair filled his eyes.

A dozen seconds later, the entire back of his head was covered in slime—the other Corpse Fiend had begun slowly enveloping his head. The Old Man could clearly feel the disgusting slime flowing over his scalp, and a strong stench of decay kept filling his nostrils.

His feet continued to struggle, but aside from touching various half-dissolved hairs and bones, it had no effect. Even his hands were bound by the slime. He felt as if his hands had touched the dead mouse from earlier.

In his moment of despair, a two-meter-tall figure suddenly charged toward him from the darkness.

‘A giant?’ As he thought this, the figure emerged from the darkness. It was Zuo Qingcang. The reason it looked two meters tall was because he was carrying a dried corpse, rushing toward the Old Man’s location.

The Old Man looked closely and saw that the dried corpse was the Liaobo from the crystal coffin. Zuo Qingcang’s voice shouted, “Light it! Light it!”

The Old Man blinked, and a spark ignited on the dried corpse. The next moment, the dried corpse, having undergone artificial drying and two thousand years of aging without any moisture, became the perfect kindling.

With a roar, a large flame burst into life on the dried corpse, thick black smoke billowing out. Zuo Qingcang slammed the dried corpse onto the Corpse Fiend’s body.

A moment later, a piercing shriek echoed as the Corpse Fiend released the Old Man and frantically retreated.

Zuo Qingcang immediately charged forward, smashing the burning dried corpse onto the Corpse Fiend again. This time, the dried corpse shattered into countless pieces, falling into the Corpse Fiend’s body. Zuo Qingcang then leaped toward the other Corpse Fiend and threw the still-burning remains into it.

A few minutes later, the two gasped for breath, watching the vanished Corpse Fiends. Only two patches of black scorch marks and clumps of dark residue remained on the ground.

At this moment, Zuo Qingcang gasped in pain, noticing a sharp sting in his hands. Clearly, his actions had caused minor burns.