My cousin vomited until he nearly brought up bile, then finally finished, supporting his waist with one hand and waving the other.
"I'm never playing heart-pounding games again."
At this moment, Han Yu glanced around, surrounded by abundant phoenix trees. Deep within the forest, there was a faint light flickering intermittently.
Walking on the ground covered with fallen leaves towards the light, after about a hundred meters, he saw a little moon-shaped lake. Sunlight shone on the surface, radiating brilliance, and the rippling waters sparkled with white light.
So this was the source of the light. Next to Crescent Lake grew an enigmatic plant with purple stems, red leaves, and white flowers.
Han Yu had not yet approached, but he already smelled the faint fragrance drifting from the flowers.
"This scent is so unique, it makes me feel completely at ease."
Whoosh!
Suddenly, there was a strange noise overhead. Han Yu quickly looked up and saw a white silhouette that had somehow been hiding in the phoenix trees. Holding a dagger, it swooped down.
Han Yu hurriedly raised an arm to block. There was a clang, and a large piece of fabric from his elbow was cut away, revealing his fair skin. Then a heavy kick struck his chest, and the white silhouette swiftly retreated back to the trees.
Both combatants on the scene furrowed their brows simultaneously.
Such a sturdy body!
Such a nimble body technique!
Han Yu looked up at the figure in the tree—bushy brows, plain white face, elongated cheeks, extremely ordinary appearance, dressed like a scholar.
The scholar naturally sized up Han Yu as well, inexplicably getting angry.
"Die!"
The scholar gave a light shout and swooped down again. True Essence surged instantly, making his white robe flutter. The dagger enveloped with True Essence became even mightier, thrusting towards Han Yu once more.
Han Yu's eyes flickered as he reached out a palm to meet it. After the dagger tip touched his palm, it couldn't advance further, and at this moment, his other fist swung directly towards the scholar's chest.
The scholar looked shocked, hurriedly abandoning the dagger and using both hands to protect his chest. A massive force sent him flying.
After successfully landing a hit, Han Yu burst into laughter. He leaped three zhang high, ready to strike the scholar down.
Unexpectedly, the scholar forcibly stabilized his stance, gathering all his True Essence at his feet. In an instant, he seemed to walk effortlessly on air, taking three steps in the void, causing Han Yu to miss.
Once both had landed, the scholar's face was extremely unsightly, already contemplating retreat.
Han Yu was in high spirits, shaking his arm and charging once again. Forced to confront him, the scholar and Han Yu clashed back and forth, yet the more they fought, the more the scholar was horrified.
Because Han Yu's seemingly cumbersome punches became much faster, and upon looking, he realized Han Yu was learning his nimble techniques. It wasn't long before the scholar was continually pressured.
What a terrifying Corpse King! It can even learn! The scholar's heart was in shock.
At this moment, Han Yu had retracted his attacks. The scholar's bizarre air-stepping technique was truly troublesome, and just as he was contemplating using the Hungry Ghost Path Divine Technique against him, ready to wave his hand, his cousin abruptly shouted as he caught up.
"Stop!"
His cousin shouted repeatedly, and upon seeing the two facing off, his expression changed...
"So, this guy was just pretending to be a secular person?"
A quarter of an hour later, Han Yu sighed helplessly.
These shifting antics, one day you might really get mistakenly killed. Never mind someday—if it had been a little more ruthless just now, his cousin wouldn't have needed to step in to save the secular person...
His cousin also seemed helpless. The hapless secular man was nearly dealt with by his own people, without even a place to cry out for injustice.
The secular man looked at Han Yu again with a strange expression, finally discovering that Han Yu's chest rose and fell—indeed a living person, not a Corpse King.
But this made him even more surprised.
A cultivator refining their body to this extent—what's the point!
His cousin began to introduce the two. Since they were on the same side, there was no need for any grudges; they just had to treat it as not having met under amicable circumstances.
The secular man quietly pulled his cousin aside, curiously asking, "Where did you find such a person?"
His cousin laughed lightly and said, "This was recruited by that young Daoist, Yi Xian."
The secular man, full of admiration, looked at Han Yu and said, "That body is so tough, I initially mistook it for the Corpse King coming to capture me. Truly absurd. I've seen many body cultivators, but this is the first time I've seen one like this."
Body cultivator? This was the first time Han Yu had heard of it, so he curiously asked.
"That's heretical!"
The secular man's face showed great disdain.
His cousin smiled and explained that it was a type of cultivator from the secular man's homeland.
In the detailed explanation, Han Yu was surprised. The secular man turned out to be from overseas islands. It was rumored that they have cultivators too, but it was only hearsay. To think it was his first time meeting one.
Body cultivators are a rather peculiar branch among overseas cultivators. Similar to Han Yu's state, but different, because besides refining their bodies, they don't neglect their inner world's cultivation. It's a form of cultivation that combines both.
"You say you're both fighting well, and suddenly the opponent charges in without a care and gives you two punches. Isn't that crude?"
The ordinary person looked at Han Yu and discontentedly inquired.
Han Yu just touched his nose and smiled, because he had just done the same thing. From the side, it seemed the ordinary person had probably suffered quite a bit at the hands of body cultivators.
Getting back to business, the cousin had a serious look, gazing at the ordinary person, asking, "What exactly is this about?"
The two of them described the situation outside the valley, and the ordinary person showed a look of dawning comprehension, nodding and saying, "No wonder Bao Ruijie hasn't been seen outside the valley these past two days; he must have gone out to find helpers to restrain me."
Bao Ruijie, an unfamiliar name, made the other two show puzzled expressions.
The ordinary person waved them over and said he would first take them to see something, and then he moved ahead to lead the way.
It wasn't far; they walked about a few dozen meters to the north and then stopped by a mountainside.
A row of differently-clothed villagers leaned against the stone wall with their eyes closed, completely motionless, as if they were asleep.
At this moment, the ordinary person took out a palm-sized bell, removed the cloth blocking its opening, and then infused it with True Essence. The bell immediately started glowing, and the ordinary person shook the bell, making it ring out with a tinkling sound.
The row of silent villagers suddenly raised their arms horizontally, opened their eyes devoid of whites, and began to move with the bell's sound.
"Corpse Refinement!"
The two exclaimed in shock.
Aside from creatures, this was the second forbidden technique Han Yu had encountered.
This technique was unlike creatures, which were deliberately buried in the sands of time. On the contrary, it was quite famous since a sect had once dominated the Cultivator Realm for decades using this method.
But eventually, it was deemed too harmful and unnatural, resulting in its eradication by many sects joining forces. It was said that sects in the Southern Border were adept at this technique, but whether it was true or not was just rumored.
Unexpectedly, someone truly dared to use this technique.
The ordinary person began recounting his encounters; after he and his cousin decided on a time to part ways, he entered Hidden Moon Valley.
The strange plants by Crescent Lake were his goal for this trip, and this flower was called Gentleman's Drunk.
When he arrived, he found that the area had already been occupied by others. Seeing that they were all cultivators and numerous in number, he guessed it to be the work of a sect.
The ordinary person squatted for most of the day, only seeing more cultivators continuously moving civilians inside, not knowing their purpose until night fell.
"What? Gentleman's Drunk is an auxiliary ingredient for corpse refinement?"
This was what the ordinary person discovered after dark, and the two couldn't help but exclaim.
At night, a man in his forties came to Crescent Lake, harvesting Gentleman's Drunk and mixing it with a concoction before feeding it to the unconscious villagers one by one.
What followed was rather cruel. The ordinary person's expression slightly tightened as he described it.
The middle-aged man used eight coffin nails to seal everyone's conception, governor, thoroughfare, belt, yin heel, yang heel, yin linking, and yang linking vessels, finally turning them into corpse puppets alive.
The ordinary person, having seen this, was already considering retreating, fearing that such ruthless methods wouldn't belong to a proper sect.
Yet, just when he was about to retreat, he was discovered by a tall cultivator brought by the middle-aged man. This cultivator had a tall figure, an ashen face, and eyes with no whites.
More importantly, his physical body was incredibly strong, and after a fierce struggle, the ordinary person couldn't gain the upper hand.
"Damn it, I later found out that was a Corpse King."
The ordinary person cursed hatefully.
Han Yu pondered for a moment; the fact that so many people were surrounding outside without advancing suggested the situation was not that simple. He asked, "What happened next?"
The ordinary person pointed to the bell in his hand and said, "I saw the middle-aged man controlling the bell; it seemed to be a tool to control the Corpse King, so I had to snatch the bell to subdue the Corpse King before making any plans."
"It turned out that man had not bad cultivation and was at the Seeing Me Realm, so I couldn't gain an advantage and only managed to steal a token and another bell from his pocket, then used my unique body technique to keep circling them here."
Speaking, the ordinary person took out a token inscribed with 'Zuyou Sect Bao Ruijie.'
Overseas cultivators indeed were different; even the Seeing Me Realm was merely considered 'not bad.'
Han Yu looked at the ordinary person with a peculiar gaze; to be able to fight on par with someone at the Seeing Me Realm suggested he too might be a Seeing Me Realm cultivator.
Thinking back to Lu Dayou, who had to exchange a year of Qi Fortune to break through the Seeing Me Realm, one wondered what he would think if he were here.
"Since you've shaken them off, why not evade using Sword Control?" the cousin asked, puzzled.
The ordinary person spread his hands, looking helpless, "I didn't know the opponent was a Corpse King beforehand; I stabbed him in the mouth with a Flying Sword, and the Corpse King bit it into two. Otherwise, I would have fled long ago."
Thinking about it, he couldn't help but sigh, "I can't fly out, and the bell controlling the new corpses refined by Bao Ruijie is with me, so this is how things turned out."
Without the bell, this group of corpse puppets couldn't be taken away, and Bao Ruijie wouldn't agree to leave it behind. However, the bell was in the ordinary person's possession, and his body technique was extremely agile, especially in this dense forest where he was even more at home.
Bao Ruijie chased him for three consecutive days, trying various means to no avail; the ordinary person was like a slippery eel, always able to escape.
However, the ordinary person did have troubles; while he could maneuver freely in the dense forest, he couldn't get out, nor could he fly away, and the valley entrance was guarded by the Corpse King.
His original skill in disguise was useless in front of the Corpse King, which recognized only his aura, not his face.
The ordinary person attempted several disguises to leave the valley, but the Corpse King always detected him immediately.
Currently, neither side could do anything to the other, though Bao Ruijie hadn't appeared in two days, probably getting anxious and possibly seeking help.