PCJ – Chapter 488 Dangers Everywhere

Dozens of walking corpses immediately threw Zhang Jiaohua and his group of four into a panic. Initially, these corpses moved slowly and were very sluggish in their actions. However, when they got closer, they suddenly accelerated, and more shockingly, they showed no fear of death. This instantly put Zhang Jiaohua and his group into a perilous situation.

“Don’t panic! Prepare to fight!” Zhang Yichen, who had been through many battles, was momentarily flustered by the sudden danger, but he quickly regained his composure. He threw several talismans, causing the group of walking corpses to explode in all directions. The crisis was immediately alleviated.

However, unlike the corpses overturned by Zhang Jiaohua’s bell, these corpses did not lose their combat ability. They quickly got up and continued to charge toward Zhang Jiaohua’s group, as if their strength was unaffected, still howling and rushing forward.

“These ghostly creatures are being controlled. Everyone, be careful.” Zhang Jing reminded.

Zhang Jiaohua quickly calmed down and realized why the bell had failed. It wasn’t that the bell no longer worked, but there were simply too many corpses. Only those directly attacked by the bell had their controlling souls consumed by it. Since the bell’s power was limited, its effect was significantly weakened when spread across many targets.

“If I could reduce the target size, the effect might improve.” An idea flashed in Zhang Jiaohua’s mind. He used his divine sense to control a magic artifact to attack a corpse approaching him. Sure enough, this time, the effect was much better, and the corpse fell to the ground.

However, there were still seven corpses charging at Zhang Jiaohua. It seemed that the controlling entity believed Zhang Jiaohua was the greatest threat, and focused all attacks on him.

“Be careful!” Zhang Yichen, seeing the situation with Zhang Jiaohua, shouted in concern. However, he was unable to help because he, too, was surrounded by several corpses. These corpses were incredibly troublesome—he kept knocking them down, but they could crawl back up and charge again, overwhelming him.

“Freeze!” Zhang Yichen stuck a binding talisman on the forehead of one of the corpses in front of him. The corpse immediately froze, its eyeballs moving incessantly, but its body remained completely still.

Seeing that the binding talisman was effective, Zhang Yichen relaxed a little and prepared to use the talisman on the other corpses. However, the talisman on the frozen corpse’s forehead only lasted a moment before it turned into a small fireball and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The corpse sprang to life again, charging at Zhang Yichen. Caught off guard, Zhang Yichen was struck by the corpse.

Hiss!

Zhang Yichen quickly retreated a few steps but was still scratched by the corpse, ripping a large piece of cloth from his clothes.

“Junior Brother, are you alright?” Zhang Jing asked anxiously. Zhang Jing and Zhang Yichen were close, like brothers, so he was very concerned when something happened to Zhang Yichen.

“I’m fine. Brother, the entity controlling these corpses is quite powerful. Ordinary talismans won’t work on them.” Zhang Yichen quickly shared his experience with the others.

On the other hand, Zhang Jiaohua had become increasingly skilled. His training in the Meishan Stance was showing results. He deftly used his movement techniques to dodge the corpses, which appeared perilous, but none of the corpses even touched the hem of his clothes. Instead, he knocked them down one by one with his magic artifacts.

In no time, Zhang Jiaohua had knocked down all the corpses surrounding him. They lay sprawled across the ground, unable to move. The entity controlling these corpses was manipulating the remnants of their souls, but now that their souls had been devoured by Zhang Jiaohua’s magical artifact, the corpses were completely dead. No matter how powerful the entity controlling them was, it couldn’t control them anymore.

After dealing with the seven corpses around him, Zhang Jiaohua went over to help Zhang Yichen and the others.

Of course, Zhang Yichen and the others were capable of dealing with the controlled corpses, but they didn’t want to waste too much energy before seeing the real enemy. Thus, they couldn’t use large-scale spells and were forced to rely on low-level talismans and their physical strength, putting them at a disadvantage.

Zhang Jiaohua, on the other hand, was growing more and more efficient in battle. Like a master of the “Lingbo Weibu” technique, he swiftly took down all the corpses with ease.

“Daoist Zhang, your magic artifact is truly amazing,” Meng Guoshen said enviously, looking at the bell in Zhang Jiaohua’s hand.

“It was passed down by my master,” Zhang Jiaohua replied.

“That’s a fine treasure. When we encounter the mastermind, you’ll likely play the lead role. These corpses are clearly the ones who went missing recently. But I think this house has been around for over a hundred years. There must be something more to it,” Zhang Jing said.

Zhang Yichen nodded, “Young brother, you don’t seem like a first-timer in this kind of battle.”

Zhang Jiaohua smiled, “Indeed, it’s not my first time.”

“Good. I was worried you’d be in danger since it’s your first battle. Now I can rest easy,” Zhang Yichen said, glancing at the corpses on the ground with a sigh.

Though they were all cultivators, seeing the corpses of the dozens of people who had been alive not long ago made them feel a sense of melancholy. Life was so fragile.

“We’ll continue forward,” Zhang Yichen said.

No one objected, and they all agreed silently.

Zhang Jiaohua took a lantern from the wall and lit all the lanterns along the way. The dim yellow light, however, failed to illuminate the deep underground tunnel. The further depths remained shrouded in darkness.

The cave was silent, except for the sound of their footsteps echoing.

“We’ve been walking for at least ten minutes, right? At our pace, we must have covered several miles. Why haven’t we reached the end yet?” Meng Guoshen asked, puzzled.

Zhang Jiaohua, Zhang Yichen, and Zhang Jing also felt something was wrong. Several miles? Where could they be? They hadn’t taken any detours along the way, so where did this tunnel lead? What exactly awaited them up ahead? And why was such a tunnel built in the first place?

No one could answer these questions. Perhaps only when they faced the entity ahead would they have their answers. Or maybe, everything would remain an unsolvable mystery.