‘I shouldn’t have come here.’
After fighting for who knows how long, the sky-covering giant hand was battered and broken. The violent magic power was burned away by Ji Xuerou’s scorching sun, while the extending flesh and blood were severed by Wu Yan’s storm.
During the battle, their spiritual power had nearly run out several times, and she was ready to make her victory speech. But then that little girl from Medicine King Valley tossed them a few elixirs, restoring their spiritual power to its peak. All that fighting for nothing made her head ache.
The ship’s cannons kept roaring, shattering her already precarious Ghost Domain even further. Everything was going wrong.
She sighed silently inside, then sent a message in a certain direction.
“Flowing Light Thousand Blades!”
Blades filled the sky, falling like a torrent. The giant hand of flesh and blood melted like snow in spring beneath the dazzling golden light, while the remains were swept away by Wu Yan’s wind. The woman hidden behind the giant hand was now completely exposed to everyone.
She was beautiful, but upon closer inspection, there was an eerie strangeness to her. The bare skin was sickly pale, with blue-purple veins pulsing visibly beneath the surface. Her dark green hair was wet, draping over her shoulders. A pair of gray vertical pupils glowed faintly in the fading Ghost Domain. Her cyan-green scale dress looked especially sinister under the light.
“It’s over.”
Ji Xuerou’s voice reached her ears, the lightning-wreathed girl’s sword tip pointing directly at her.
Ji Xuerou was not in good shape either. Enduring both light and lightning spiritual power was a heavy burden on her body. Wu Yan stood beside her, after devouring the miasma of the Ghost Domain, Wu Nian’s originally cyan-glowing blade became even clearer, chaotic currents surging to block all escape routes.
The Ghost Domain was broken. The backlash made her cough up blood violently: “Cough, cough, cough.” Her vertical pupils stared coldly at Ji Xuerou and Wu Yan: “You think that’s the end? Did your master forget to tell you something?”
Crack—
A crisp sound came from her waist. Her damaged scale dress suddenly bulged, and beneath her pale skin, moss-like cyan-green scales shot out, turning into poisonous snakes shrouded in green mist, lunging at everyone.
“Ethereal Sword Arts, Myriad Transformations!”
Wu Yan flicked her wrist, sword chi crisscrossing, cutting the snakes midair.
The change didn’t stop there. Her body and face gradually became covered in dense snake scales, and her long legs fused into a thick snake tail.
“Xuerou!” Wu Yan keenly sensed the abnormality in her magic power and immediately warned Ji Xuerou.
Ji Xuerou reacted quickly. She had already begun charging power when the counterattack started.
“Thunderfall!”
With that strike, Ji Xuerou’s spiritual power was exhausted, and Lin Wan’er’s supplies were also used up. The purple lightning tinged with gold shot straight toward her.
Bixiao slipped from her hand weakly, her body swayed, then she fell toward the deck. If Wu Yan hadn’t been watching her closely and caught her in time, she would have crashed onto the deck.
“Ah, what a pity.” On the deck, a female cultivator retracted her outstretched hand with a regretful expression.
In midair, facing Ji Xuerou’s overwhelming strike, not only was there no panic on her face, but her vertical pupils were filled with mockery as she looked at Ji Xuerou and Wu Yan.
“It seems your master forgot to tell you one thing,” her cold voice was surprisingly clear amid the rumbling thunder. “When facing me, don’t let your guard down until the very last moment, Saintess Ji, Miss Wu~”
Above her head, at the point where the lightning landed, space was torn open, swallowing Ji Xuerou’s attack.
“As one of the Three Corpses, being forced to reveal your true body—I really should feel embarrassed for you.” A cold voice came from within the rift.
Then a pair of gauntleted hands grabbed the edge of the rift and tore it open. A woman who looked exactly like her, but clad in dark red armor, stood in front of her.
As the best fit for this mission, her tricks weren’t limited to domain skills like Ghost Domain that could trap everyone at once. She also had another move—the so-called “calling in reinforcements.” But the one she called was just herself.
“Come on, you know perfectly well that I’m not good at dealing with these kinds of opponents.”
“And…” her voice trailed off, her snake tail swaying, her gaze shifting to Ji Xuerou. “Besides the mission target, there’s someone here you’ll definitely be interested in. That woman’s disciple~”
“Oh?” The armored one looked at Ji Xuerou with interest upon hearing the half-snake woman’s words. “She’s Shen Qingzhou’s disciple?”
“Three Corpses…”
Their conversation wasn’t hidden, so Wu Yan could hear every word clearly. She had seen that term in some ancient text. To cultivate the Three Corpses, one had to split themselves into three, each an independent entity with their own personality, walking different paths of cultivation. Once the Three Corpses reached great mastery, they could be merged back into one. At that time, the cultivator’s power would reach a terrifying level.
She never thought that the one blocking them this time would be so formidable.
“I never imagined you’d be this popular.” Ji Xuerou rested her head on Wu Yan’s shoulder, speaking faintly. “Normally, each of the Three Corpses has their own duties. Unless it’s a special situation, they aren’t supposed to meet each other.”
As they spoke, a cyan-gray mist entered the armored one’s body. Her dark red armor instantly turned dark green, while the half-snake woman’s body coiled around her, gradually merging into her.
“Because if the Three Corpses meet, fusion is inevitable.”
A half-human, half-snake magical pattern appeared on her dark green armor. Her normal pupils turned into vertical pupils at that moment. Her cultivation level surged abruptly, finally settling at the same level as the Demonic Ape in the Cangwu Secret Realm—Mid Transformation God.
“In other words, we’ve got a huge problem now.”
“Hey, you little girls over there!” Unlike the previous one, this one was more straightforward. “I have to admit, you’re strong enough to force ‘me’ to call for support even at the risk of fusion.”
She slammed her right hand backward, causing a ripple in space. Then she plunged her hand into it and pulled out a massive black sword as wide as a door panel. “But the farce ends here.”
Her snake-like vertical pupils swept over Wu Yan, then past Ji Xuerou, finally landing on the crowd on the deck.
Her scarlet tongue licked her lips, revealing a row of white teeth. “I’ve always believed in survival of the fittest.”
Her voice was chilling, and her words sent shivers down everyone’s spines. “After I capture you mission targets alive, I’ll enjoy the remaining weaklings properly. I hope your flesh and blood will satisfy me.”