“Gu Hongchen, that guy! He really is unreliable!”
Seeing that the zombie monster had escaped, Gu Qingying, who had originally counted on Gu Hongchen’s strength to deal with the Foundation Establishment-level zombie, suddenly panicked.
“Hm? Junior Sister, what are you muttering about?”
Gong Shangyu asked curiously, unaware of the situation.
Gu Qingying’s heart tightened at his words.
She hurriedly gave a perfunctory answer to Gong Shangyu, “Oh… it’s nothing…”
To divert the topic and prevent Gong Shangyu from discovering that she hadn’t fully subdued her inner demon—something that could be used against her—Gu Qingying immediately put on a stern face and forcefully shifted the conversation, “Senior Sister! Now is not the time to fuss over trivial formalities!”
“The important thing is that zombie! That old thief Zhao Zongchang actually turned his deceased daughter Zhao Mingyin into a zombie! And that monster just used the surrounding formation’s power to forcibly break through to the Foundation Establishment realm!”
“I barely managed to repel it with all my strength, and I was completely exhausted and fainted afterward.”
“The broken coffin you saw just now was definitely smashed by it when it broke free and escaped!”
Gu Qingying’s speech was rapid, her tone filled with genuine worry and lingering fear.
“Master is currently outside, fighting that scoundrel Zhao Zongchang!”
“If that zombie escapes outside, it will definitely join forces with Zhao Zongchang against Master!”
“Even though Master’s cultivation is profound, two fists cannot fight four hands—he will be in grave danger!”
She suddenly stood up with determination in her eyes despite still feeling weak.
“Senior Sister… time is urgent. We must go immediately to help Master! We absolutely cannot let the zombie formed from that Zhao family young lady unite with Zhao Zongchang!”
Seeing her genuine expression and realizing that a Foundation Establishment-level zombie escaping from the dungeon could mean a siege for their Master, Gong Shangyu decisively suppressed the mocking, indifferent look on her face and replied solemnly to Gu Qingying.
“Alright! Let’s go!”
Without further delay, Gong Shangyu supported the still unsteady Gu Qingying.
In a flash, the two swiftly left the gloomy dungeon, rushing toward the sound of continuous fighting and fierce energy clashes above the city lord’s mansion living hall.
Yangzhou City, above the City Lord’s Mansion, sword qi clashed with deathly aura, erupting in endless thunderous roars.
Lu Li’s twelve flying swords swirled like a reversed galaxy, continuously tearing apart and purifying the deathly aura surrounding Zhao Zongchang.
Though Zhao Zongchang could barely sustain himself with his false pill cultivation, he was clearly losing ground.
Deep sword scars, bone-deep, had already been carved on his body by Lu Li’s spiritual swords, and even his breath grew chaotic.
“Pfft!”
Zhao Zongchang took a fierce sword qi strike head-on and staggered back dozens of yards, a trace of black blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.
The madness on his face dimmed slightly from the pain, replaced by a mixture of resentment, grievance, and a stubborn conviction he considered righteous.
“Master Lu! Why must you force me to this point?”
Zhao Zongchang’s hoarse voice echoed through the night sky as he tried to shake Lu Li’s resolve with words.
“Yes! I admit I colluded with the Yin Corpse Sect, tampered with the earth veins, and indeed abducted children from the city!”
“But I, Zhao Zongchang, swear to Heaven that I never intended to harm the lives of the city’s people!”
While desperately fending off the soul swords of the Zhou Kingdom—like maggots eating at the bone—he hurriedly explained.
“Those children! I feed them well, never harming a hair on their heads! Compared to some who are beaten and scolded at home or starve, my care is countless times better!”
“As for their parents? Hmph… many of their homes are so poor they can barely put food on the table. If not for my secret aid in the name of City Lord, they would have sold their sons and daughters long ago!”
“Taking those children was, in a sense, saving them!”
“Hmph… and the materials for the formations! I used unclaimed bones from the burial mounds and the essence blood from livestock discarded at slaughterhouses!”
“At most… at most, I ‘borrowed’ some recently deceased corpses from graves whose families had agreed to relocate! Have I ever killed a single civilian for this?”
Zhao Zongchang’s words twisted with a warped sense of justification.
“Among all officials in Jin Kingdom, I, Zhao Zongchang, am perhaps the most diligent.”
“Since I took office as City Lord of Yangzhou, I have risen early and worked late, never shirking my duties!”
“I led the people in cultivating spiritual fields, opened up all the trade routes around Yangzhou City! Using the Zhao family’s connections, I attracted wandering cultivators for trade!”
“Over the years, I never collected extra taxes, even spent my own money to subsidize public needs! Yangzhou City has transformed from the barren land it was when I first took over decades ago into one of Jin Kingdom’s richest cities in the southeast!”
“I dare say, I have a clear conscience!”
“But the court? Those parasites who eat away at the system! They never once acknowledged my achievements! I have no hope of promotion or transfer! Guarding this city feels like being trapped in a well, seeing only the sky above!”
His voice turned resentful but was immediately covered by a deeper obsession within.
“But I don’t care about any of that! Fame and fortune are like drifting clouds to me!”
After saying this, Zhao Zongchang’s eyes turned fanatical again, locking onto Lu Li.
“I only… only want to resurrect my daughter, Yinyin!”
“Yinyin was so young, so obedient… her life shouldn’t have ended like this!”
“Though I used demonic methods, I never harmed innocent lives!”
“When my daughter was seriously ill, I sought help from the Jin Kingdom’s king and court, begged you righteous grand sect cultivators to save her…”
“But who among you truly helped her? Meanwhile, the Yin Corpse Sect promised to resurrect her, requiring only some earth energy from Yangzhou City, some neglected corpses from the burial mounds, and some children with special four-yin destinies who were never truly harmed under my care!”
“I exchanged my achievements and my past contributions to this city for a glimmer of life for my daughter. What is wrong with that?”
“I have worked my whole life for this city. In the end, am I not even entitled to this bit of selfishness?”
Lu Li listened to Zhao Zongchang’s twisted justifications with a calm, icy gaze.
His sword technique showed no hesitation or pause, and his voice cut through the night sky with an undeniable authority.
“Zhao Zongchang! No matter how eloquent you are, you cannot hide the facts of your crimes!”
“You claim you never harmed anyone? Yet the earth veins of Yangzhou City are disturbed, the yin sha flows backward, causing countless citizens to fall ill with strange diseases, their bodies weak and lifespans shortened!”
“Hmph… is this what you call not harming the city’s people?”
“Zhao Zongchang! Open your eyes and look! See the miserable state the city’s people are in now because of the formations you set!”
“Moreover, you grave-robbed, disturbing the dead, leaving their bones unsettled, their souls unable to ascend! You caused a surge of living corpses outside the city in the burial mounds, these living corpses harm the people outside. Is that not harm to the people?”
“Oh, and you say abducting those children was to help them escape suffering? Then tell me, are all those children’s parents truly so despicable and unworthy?”
“Zhao Zongchang, you create living corpses, practicing demonic, treacherous sorcery that violates the laws of Heaven and Earth, disrupting the order of yin and yang. This alone is unforgivable!”
“But you made it worse by abducting children, separating those with four-yin destinies from their parents, bringing pain and despair to countless families. Even if you didn’t abuse them, your actions have caused great suffering!”
“You claim to work for the people, yet for your own selfish desires, you placed this entire city under a demonic formation, treating thousands of innocent lives as your pawns!”
“Zhao Zongchang, your diligence and contributions are no excuse or justification for trampling on the Heavenly Dao’s laws, colluding with demonic rebels, and committing such evil!”
“Since you stubbornly refuse to repent, I will wake you up with my spiritual swords!”
Before Lu Li’s words fell, the twelve spiritual swords flared brightly once again, forming an even more mysterious and fierce sword array—like a celestial net—pressing down on the now beyond reasoning Zhao Zongchang!
At almost the same time, amidst the guards and Zhao family members standing watch around the battlefield, a sudden commotion erupted.
Somebody suddenly screamed in panic from the crowd below, “Monster… there’s a monster!”
Immediately following that, from the chaotic crowd, a zombie’s howl rang out sharply:
“Roar!!!”
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