Lü Zhong’s perpetually calm mood finally wavered.

He placed the Vein Protection Pill into his main Storage Bag before continuing to inspect Chen Shaoyan’s.

Piles of Spirit Stones, numbering just over three thousand.

There were also crates upon crates of low-level spiritual medicine, along with over a hundred bottles of Low-tier Pills. Their effects ranged from healing injuries to boosting cultivation. They had clearly been plundered from an Alchemy Workshop, and now, they all belonged to Lü Zhong.

The rest was just miscellaneous junk, nothing worth a second look.

As for Cultivation Techniques and Magic Skills, after searching the entire Storage Bag, he found only a single scroll: the *Luoyun Water Technique Prequel*.

He skimmed through it. The scroll contained some of the Luoyun Sect’s basic Magic Skills, such as the Water Binding Technique and Water Dragon Scroll. The most advanced was only Tier One Middle Grade; there wasn’t a single Late-stage Qi Refining Technique to be found.

’A Magic Technique Book like this probably won’t fetch a high price.’

Shaking his head, Lü Zhong still stored it away carefully.

As he continued along the underground waterway, the air grew increasingly damp and cold.

Every so often, he would see traces of combat—sometimes large, splattered pools of blood, other times one or two mutilated corpses.

These signs of combat often appeared near the strongholds of the Allied Army Cultivators.

The strongholds were typically located in wide, open underground halls and consisted of moisture-proof stilt houses encircled by dedicated defensive structures. The enemy would lie in wait in these places, continuously raiding and plundering the workshops in Yongling City in an attempt to destroy the Heling Sect’s war potential.

The stronghold before him had already been breached by the Heling Sect and was engulfed in a sea of flames.

Lü Zhong’s gaze swept over a large, overturned cauldron on the ground.

He could see that there was hardly any Spirit Rice in the cauldron. It was mostly filled with edible moss and stinking fish caught in the waterway. ’Their lives must have been hard.’

At the edge of the burning complex, corpses littered the ground.

However, these were not the bodies of Allied Army Cultivators; they were mostly abducted mortals.

Most of them were young women.

Pressing onward, Lü Zhong soon reached the front lines.

He was now within the ancient city’s waterway network.

At that moment, a group of disciples was in the middle of attacking a stronghold.

As was standard for the Heling Sect’s battle tactics, they first lined up to bombard the target with the Fireball Skill. They would continue until the outer defensive structures and traps were destroyed, only then forming up for a formal assault.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Batches of Fireball Bullets exploded, hammering the Allied Army’s Defense Array until it wavered on the verge of collapse.

Upon seeing Lü Zhong appear, three Heling Sect cultivators in Inner Sect Disciple Robes approached, escorting a blood-soaked Golden Rainbow Sect Sword Cultivator. The one in the lead was a Female Cultivator with short hair.

"Senior Brother Lü, we just found a letter on him. We learned that the stronghold ahead is a critical location for the Allied Army, but the letter doesn’t specify its exact purpose. Our interrogation yielded no results, either."

"Oh? A critical location." Lü Zhong’s gaze fell upon the Golden Rainbow Sect Sword Cultivator.

He quickly averted his gaze. ’Since the three of them couldn’t get anything, I probably won’t be able to pry anything out of him either. Sword Cultivators are known for their mental fortitude. The only way is to use the Soul Searching Technique to forcibly search his soul.’

However, the Soul Searching Technique was a Tier Two Spell; Qi Refining cultivators were unable to practice it.

His interest piqued, Lü Zhong walked up to the Allied Army stronghold and watched the defensive shield. It was already starting to flicker constantly under the bombardment of Fireball Bullets, and he began to contemplate how to break the array.

There were three ways to breach the shield. The first was to launch a saturation attack that would overwhelm the Defense Array and cause it to shatter. The second was to slowly grind down the shield’s power; by exploiting the fact that its recovery rate was slower than the rate of damage, they could attack continuously until a final wave broke through. The third method was to make the cultivators inside exhaust their Spirit Stones, letting the Array collapse on its own.

Right now, they were clearly using the second method.

For a single Qi Refining cultivator to break what was obviously a Tier Two Defense Array was clearly impossible.

What Lü Zhong could do was join the bombardment and help speed up the process.

With a hand seal and a quick chant, dozens of Fireball Bullets materialized before him.

After so many years of cultivation, the power Lü Zhong could channel into this skill was no less than that of Yuo Qing, the "Blazing Sword" of the Qingyang Sect, in his prime. In fact, thanks to the boost from the unique nature of the Four Spirits Technique’s Spiritual Power, his Magic Skill was now significantly more potent.

"Go!"

Joining the fireballs launched by the others, over a hundred Fireball Bullets rained down at once.

The faces of the Allied Army Cultivators defending within the shield were masks of despair. Their leader, a Late-stage Qi Refining Sword Cultivator from the Golden Rainbow Sect, had a savage expression, his eyes completely bloodshot.

The Sword Cultivator strode to the center of the stronghold, where black qi churned and billowed.

Billows of black gas surged from a mountain of corpses. It was all incredibly foul Corpse Qi and Ghost Qi, which twisted and mixed together as it converged into a black Array on the ground below.

At that moment, the Golden Rainbow Sect Sword Cultivator took out a purplish-black Talisman and, with a grit of his teeth, slapped it onto his body.

This talisman was known as a Corpse Evil Charm.

It was originally used to refine Corpses. When placed on a cultivator, it would forcibly convert all of their Immortal Spiritual Qi into Corpse Qi, thereby refining them into a Corpse with strength comparable to Qi Refining Perfection.

The moment the talisman touched his body, it immediately began to flash and glow.

The surrounding black qi was drawn to it, gathering into wisps and surging over.

"AAAAAAAGH!" A pained, inhuman scream tore through the air.

Outside, Lü Zhong conjured a Qingyang Fire Rain Technique and blasted it at the teetering array.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! A chain of explosions erupted.

At last, the shield’s power could no longer negate the force of the Fireball Bullets, and it shattered with a tremendous crash.

At the same time, a strangled roar, accompanied by a chorus of bloodcurdling screams, echoed from inside the Allied Army stronghold.

Immediately after, a black shadow leaped out, landing with a heavy THUD just outside the stronghold.

The swirling black qi dissipated to reveal a terrifying Corpse. It stood about ten feet tall, its body a mass of knotted muscle. It had a green face, sharp fangs, and teeth that jutted out from its mouth.

"A Corpse!" someone with a sharp eye shouted, identifying the creature.

"Quick, get into formation!" The squad leaders shouted, jolted from their stupor, hastily urging their team members.

Lü Zhong’s expression changed. With a wave of his hand, he flung out more than ten small spheres. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

But before the Mechanical Beasts could even deploy, a greatsword as wide as a door panel swept across, and the Giant Strength behind the blow smashed them into a pile of parts.

"I’ll hold it off! You all get into formation!" Lü Zhong summoned his two swords, Shuo Jin and Golden Devourer. A Spirit Wind swirled around him as a water-blue shield condensed over his body, and he shot forward.

As their leading Senior Brother, he had a responsibility to protect his junior brothers and sisters.

If his losses were too severe, he would surely be punished by the sect, and it would seriously impact his future acquisition of legacy Cultivation Techniques. Therefore, Lü Zhong had no choice but to take action himself.

His master, Shuini, had told him a great deal about this type of undead: Corpses.

Their strength varied widely. Some were only as strong as an Early-stage Qi Refining cultivator, while others, like the Late-stage Foundation Establishment Corpse slain by Shuini, were far more powerful. A Corpse’s strength was primarily determined by its refinement method.

The Corpse before him was at the level of Qi Refining Stage Perfection.

All such undead were, without exception, incredibly difficult to handle. They had thick hides and tough flesh, making them hard to kill.

Lü Zhong had learned that lesson well from the Copper Armored Corpse. He never thought he would now encounter a Corpse that was even more difficult to deal with.

What made Corpses so difficult was that they often retained some of the Spiritual Wisdom they possessed in life. They knew how to exploit their natural advantages of immense strength and a tough hide, and they knew how to dodge attacks. Engaging one in combat was no different from fighting another cultivator.

They clashed in an instant. Both the Corpse and Lü Zhong moved with extreme speed, leaving a blur of afterimages in their wake.

The dull clang of striking metal rang out continuously, the sparks bright enough to illuminate the underground hall.

The twin phantoms of a golden sword and a red sword slashed at the Corpse again and again, but it parried every blow, wielding its greatsword with practiced Swordsmanship.

Just then, Lü Zhong’s figure flickered into existence before the Corpse. A greatsword of sapphire blue materialized in his hand, its surface shimmering with Spiritual Light and pulsing with immense power.

This was the Magic Sword Skill.

He swung the greatsword, and it sliced into the Corpse’s scarred hide, but only penetrated less than an inch.

Lü Zhong sucked in a sharp breath. ’This Corpse’s hide... it’s probably tougher than a Lower-grade Magical Artifact.’

With no time to think, he kicked off the ground and shot backward.

BAM! In the next instant, the door-panel-wide greatsword slammed into the spot where he had just been standing.

Its hilt was buried deep in the earth!

Dirt and stone flew everywhere. The force of the blow was no less than that of a siege-style Bed Crossbow.

The force behind that strike was terrifying; the entire underground hall trembled from the impact.

One could only imagine the fate of anyone hit by it.

"Senior Brother Lü!"

A shout came from behind him.

Lü Zhong, just starting to breathe a sigh of relief, glanced back. He saw that his junior brothers and sisters had already formed an array. The Spiritual Light of their Magic Skills shimmered in their hands, ready to launch a combined attack.

Realizing this, he performed a few quick leaps to get out of the attack’s path.

Instantly, everyone unleashed their Magic Skills.

Under the combined assault of more than thirty Heling Sect disciples in formation, even a creature as tough as the Corpse couldn’t withstand such a ferocious barrage of Magic Skills. After tanking a dozen Fireball Bullets with its physical body, it abruptly turned and charged back into the stronghold.

Immediately, the disciples adjusted the trajectory of their Fireball Skill and sent another volley of Fireball Bullets after it.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

In an instant, the stronghold was once again swallowed by a sea of fire.

After several more volleys, Lü Zhong began to feel that something was wrong.