Chapter 41

"Master."

The two young disciples were frightened and turned to run.

Clang!

They didn't run slowly, but Zhao Yun was even faster. He killed the first disciple with one sword strike and then struck the second with a palm, crushing his internal organs and killing him on the spot.

Whoo...!

With the disciples dead, the zombies in the grave mound lost control and fell one by one.

"Damn it."

Niu Hong cursed, holding the Longyuan sword, looking rather disheveled. A deep gash on his shoulder was oozing blood, and green smoke was rising, indicating the presence of zombie poison.

However, it wasn't a major issue.

After all, these low-level zombies were far less dangerous than the old zombie that Yan Laogui had fought, and the level of the zombie poison was much lower. Such poison could be forcibly expelled.

Boom! Bang!

Zhao Yun and Niu Hong, one on the left and one on the right, simultaneously entered the temple.

The temple wasn't large.

Upon entering the temple gate, they found a courtyard with several ancient pines.

The priest wasn't visible, but he was there.

The small spirit pearl in Zhao Yun's chest glowed, indicating the priest's presence. It was likely that the concealment spell the priest had used the previous night had been destroyed by the explosive talismans.

"Old man, come out."

Niu Hong shouted and rushed toward the meditation room where the priest was.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Before Niu Hong could reach the room, three stone coffins rose from the ground in front of it. Niu Hong, caught off guard, hit his head with a loud thud.

When he regained his composure, the three coffin lids had fallen.

Inside each coffin stood a person, expressionless and with hollow eyes.

"More zombies."

Zhao Yun stepped forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with Niu Hong.

"These are puppets."

Niu Hong explained, noting that they were corpses but clearly not the same kind.

"Puppets?"

Zhao Yun raised an eyebrow, intrigued. He had only heard of them and had never seen them before. Compared to the zombies below, these three puppets had a much stronger aura.

Creak!

The door to the meditation room opened, and the priest stepped out, his face extremely fierce.

Seeing Zhao Yun, his expression became even more sinister.

His injuries were all due to Zhao Yun. The dozen explosive talismans had not only maimed his arm but also destroyed most of his life's savings—hundreds of small paper figures that had shielded him from the attacks.

"Good stuff."

Zhao Yun and Niu Hong ignored the priest and focused on the puppets, considering them valuable.

Kill!

The priest coldly snorted and issued the order to kill.

The three puppets understood the command.

They were indeed different from the zombies, moving with a thud and a gust of wind.

Vibrant Dragon!

Zhao Yun moved like the wind, his sword enveloped in purple lightning, piercing through one of the puppets.

However, the puppet showed no emotion or pain.

It retaliated with a palm strike, causing Zhao Yun to grunt in pain.

On the other side, Niu Hong was in a similar situation, his mouth already bleeding.

"Such powerful palm strength."

Zhao Yun muttered, estimating the puppet's combat strength to be comparable to a peak True Spirit martial artist.

"Be careful of the mechanisms." Niu Hong warned.

Without needing to be told, Zhao Yun saw the puppets shooting needles from their bodies, each coated with poison and as fine as a hair.

Boom! Bang! Crash!

The battle began, a three-on-two confrontation, intense and fierce.

Ding!

The priest didn't remain idle. With his remaining hand, he shook the soul-capturing bell, emitting a strange sound that could disrupt one's mind. Zhao Yun felt a dizziness in his head.

"Get lost!"

Niu Hong shouted, his voice full of authority.

This shout was not ordinary.

It carried the sound of a dragon's roar and a tiger's growl, with a powerful sound wave.

Ugh!

The priest grunted and took a step back, the sound of the soul-capturing bell disrupted.

"Family secret technique, impressive, right?"

Niu Hong grinned and shouted again.

"Impressive."

Zhao Yun laughed, his sword slicing through the air, aiming directly at the priest.

However, a ghostly figure appeared.

It was a puppet, blocking the priest and spitting out needles.

Zhao Yun easily dodged.

Before he could steady himself, the second puppet attacked with a powerful palm strike.

Dodge!

Zhao Yun entered the ground, circling behind the puppet, grabbing its arm, and throwing it to the ground with a loud thud.

The puppet's bones cracked, and it disintegrated on impact.

For this, Zhao Yun paid a price.

The third puppet, which had been fighting Niu Hong, struck him with a surprise attack.

Ah! Painful!

Even with his strength, Zhao Yun was forced to cough up blood, the puppet's strength was too great.

"What the hell?"

Zhao Yun cursed, directing his anger at Niu Hong. "Three puppets, and I have to fight all three! Can't you control yours and stop attacking me?"

"Use the explosive talismans, blow them up!"

Niu Hong coughed, knowing that Zhao Yun still had several explosive talismans.

Blow them up, and they were all blown up.

Zhao Yun, too, leaped back, throwing three flying knives, each attached to an explosive talisman. Two puppets were targeted, and the third aimed at the priest.

The priest, sensing the danger, turned and fled into the room.

To be honest, he had already been traumatized by the explosive talismans.

Boom! Bang!

The priest escaped, but the two puppets were blown to pieces.

"Old dog, where are you going?"

Zhao Yun, using the Wind God Step, crossed the smoke from the explosive talismans and entered the meditation room.

Niu Hong followed closely behind.

Strangely, the priest was nowhere to be found in the room.

"Where is he?"

The two, one holding the Longyuan and the other the Zixiao, looked around.

The room was small, but the priest was gone.

"He must have escaped!" Niu Hong looked at the open window, imagining that the priest had jumped out before they entered.

"He hasn't run, he's still here."

Zhao Yun took out the small spirit pearl, which was still glowing, alternating between light green and dark green. Light green indicated the small black fat man, while dark green indicated the priest.

As he watched, Zhao Yun instinctively looked down.

If the priest wasn't in the room, he must be underground, possibly in a hidden chamber.

As he watched, the dark green light from the small pearl faded.

This meant that the priest's location was beyond the range of the pearl's perception.

In other words, the priest had escaped.

Zhao Yun coldly snorted and immediately used the Earth Penetration Technique.

Embarrassingly, it didn't work.

"These aren't ordinary floor tiles." Niu Hong squatted down and tapped the ground with his sword.

The sound was heavy.

Zhao Yun's lips twitched. These weren't tiles; they were clearly steel plates.

"There must be a mechanism."

Niu Hong stood up and began searching the room, muttering to himself. "There was no mechanism when we came last time. Is the priest that clever?"

"His lair, he must have many survival techniques."

Zhao Yun was also searching, but the steel plates made it difficult to use the Earth Penetration Technique or pass through the walls.

After searching for a long time, they found no mechanism.

"Should we keep blowing it up?" Niu Hong looked at Zhao Yun, testing the waters.

Zhao Yun shook his head.

From the sound earlier, the steel plates were at least a meter thick and couldn't be blown up.

If they were to blow it up, they needed to find the right spot first.

"We should have left one of those disciples alive." Niu Hong scratched his head.

"Maybe they didn't know either."

Zhao Yun pondered. "A master always keeps a few tricks up his sleeve."

"Hey, open sesame."

Niu Hong suddenly shouted, mimicking the spell, thinking that the mechanism set by the priest required a specific incantation.

It wasn't impossible.

However, the incantation was clearly wrong.

Zhao Yun made a gesture, signaling Niu Hong to be quiet.

The small spirit pearl had lit up again.

Clearly, the priest had returned and might come out soon.

The two found a hiding spot, concealing their true essence and holding their breath to avoid detection.

Time passed slowly.

The two, hidden in the dark, kept a close eye on the room, trying to find the entrance, which might be right under their feet, aiming to strike and capture the priest in one move.

The legend of waiting for a rabbit to run into a tree was born this way.

At some point, a humming sound was heard, and a metal door on the ground opened, revealing a staircase.

Then, a head appeared.

It was the priest, being cautious, looking around to see if anyone was in the room and if Zhao Yun and Niu Hong had left.

Seeing no one, he stepped out onto the staircase.

"Something's wrong." As he walked, he suddenly changed his expression and retreated.

"Where are you going?"

Zhao Yun was the first to leap out, throwing a flying knife at the same time.

"Damn it."

The priest's face turned pale, and he ran away quickly.

Boom!

A loud explosion followed, clearly mixed with the sound of someone coughing up blood.

The metal door didn't close.

Or rather, it didn't have time to close, leaving the entrance open.

"I'll change my name if I don't kill you."

Niu Hong cursed, holding the Longyuan sword and entering the tunnel.

Zhao Yun followed closely behind.

Following the stairs, the two descended underground.

At the bottom, they found a tunnel.

It was dark, with no end in sight, and who knew where it led.

There were bloodstains on the ground, clearly from the priest.

The two were cautious, one leading the way and the other guarding the rear.

"This... is a tomb passage, right?"

Niu Hong, holding his sword, tapped the walls as he walked. The walls were made of special stone, with ancient images that couldn't be identified from any dynasty.

"It is a tomb passage."

Niu Hong and Zhao Yun both recognized it.

The place was filled with yin energy.

Therefore, it was definitely a tomb, and a large one at that. The construction of such a tomb would have required significant resources and manpower.

The priest and his two disciples couldn't have built it.

If the guess was correct, the priest had found this ancient tomb and built a small temple on top of it.

"Yin-Yang residence?" Zhao Yun muttered.

The tomb was a yin residence, and the temple was a yang residence. Using the yin residence for yang purposes and the yang residence for yin purposes, they formed a single entity, allowing them to borrow each other's energy, creating a mysterious and profound thing: qi.

This concept was quite eerie.

However, it was indeed mentioned in the mystical books.

Zhao Yun didn't understand why such a large tomb was built in an extremely yin location. Was it to nurture zombies? Or had the terrain and geography changed over time, turning a feng shui treasure site into a place of great evil?

"Not only stealing corpses, but also desecrating graves!"

Niu Hong sighed.

The priest was skilled in corpse driving and likely an experienced tomb raider. Apart from his lack of combat skills, he was quite capable.

Especially in the area of damaging yin virtue, he was the most reckless of all.