Chapter 76: The Flawless Bronze Armored Corpse

Sometimes, things change far beyond what a person can handle.

Lin Danan was rescued by a green light. I couldn’t even see what it was clearly—could it really be her elder sister, the banshee?

Hu Yin from twenty-five years ago had turned into a bronze-armored corpse. His body, buried at Mount Zheying, had been stolen and placed in a cave to be refined for twenty-five years. Now it seemed the cave behind the mountain, from which a spring flowed, was likely a place for corpse refinement.

Just like a woman’s womb.

Even stranger was the banshee sister who had emerged—utterly inscrutable.

Hu Sanmei recognized Hu Sanyin and rushed forward, calling out, “Third Uncle, are you still alive?” completely disregarding her own safety. I cursed, “Hu Sanmei! He’s been dead for over twenty years! That’s not your third uncle—it’s a corpse! If you don’t want to die, get the hell away!”

The bronze-armored corpse turned its head to glance at Hu Sanmei, sniffed the air, and found her scent lacking compared to Little Rascal’s blood. It stomped a single foot on the ground and prepared to chase after Lin Danan.

I couldn’t let it go after him, so I thrust out my jade ruler. Guess where I stabbed it?

The jade ruler inherently had the power to suppress evil. Its blue light could repel fierce ghosts and drive away zombies with ease.

The bronze-armored corpse feared neither bullets nor poisoned darts, but it seemed to have some fear of the jade ruler.

Especially where I stabbed it—and I swear, I didn’t do it on purpose.

I don’t know if the corpse had any sensation, but after I poked it, it turned its head to look at me, then opened its mouth and spewed a cloud of black corpse miasma at me.

“Overwhelming corpse miasma” wasn’t an exaggeration. I hastily retracted the jade ruler.

The bronze-armored corpse let out a strange shriek.

In my panic, I had shoved the jade ruler right up its ass. I swear, it wasn’t intentional—it was just the height my hand reached when it was turned away from me. It was a natural position. I really didn’t mean to.

Now things were worse.

Instead of chasing Lin Danan, the bronze-armored corpse turned to bite me, to drink my blood.

Uncle Jianguo was still hanging from the tree, seemingly unconscious, so he couldn’t save me.

Hu Sanmei stepped forward to block the bronze-armored corpse. Raised by Hu Yin, she had always regarded him as a father. She cried out, “Third Uncle, Third Uncle, are you still alive? It’s me, Sanmei! It’s Sanmei!”

Seeing that Hu Sanmei refused to see reason, I grabbed the rooster blood and shouted, “Get out of the way! That’s not your third uncle!”

Hu Sanmei wouldn’t budge.

Before I knew it, the bronze-armored corpse Hu Yin grabbed her, looking like it would tear her apart in an instant. Though Hu Sanmei and I had no deep enmity, the bronze-armored corpse had already killed too many. I splashed the rooster blood at it.

The moment I threw it, I realized something was wrong.

That damn liquid wasn’t rooster blood at all—it smelled more like duck blood, maybe even mixed with pig’s blood. Probably the two young soldiers had hastily cobbled together a bottle of blood. It was my fault for not preparing the materials myself, leading to this mess.

The bronze-armored corpse’s bronze skin was now drenched from head to toe in a mixture of duck and pig blood. It glared at me furiously and hurled Hu Sanmei twenty meters away.

Hu Sanmei landed hard, breaking three ribs and inhaling two mouthfuls of corpse miasma. She seemed on the verge of passing out.

A venomous king cobra struck swiftly, biting Hu Sanmei’s hand. Her reflexes were slow, and by the time she reached for it, the snake had already slithered away.

Hu Sanmei felt her life slipping away. In her despair, she thought of the deceased Ruan Sanjia and the bronze-armored corpse before her—her once-beloved third uncle, now neither man nor ghost. And all of it had been bestowed upon her by Dao Jiumiang.

Gritting her teeth, Hu Sanmei mustered every last ounce of strength and screamed hoarsely, “Dao Jiumiang, I wish I could chop you into mincemeat… You coward, hiding like a turtle! You’re nothing but a worthless whore—”

A light floated over—it was a Seven-Star Insect.

Dao Jiumiang, dressed in mourning robes, smiled coldly. “You want to chop me into mincemeat? And who did you just call a whore?”

Ruan Yue stood beside her, his eyelids twitching as he shouted, “Mother, let me kill her!”

Dao Jiumiang wasn’t ready to kill Hu Sanmei just yet. Coughing lightly, she said, “Let’s see who chops whom into mincemeat.”

Hu Sanmei clenched her teeth and spat out a thin black needle, shooting it straight at Dao Jiumiang.

Ruan Yue, protective of his mother, pushed her aside. The black needle struck him squarely between the eyebrows, embedding itself in his skull without emerging.

A trickle of blood seeped from his forehead. Hu Sanmei laughed. “Sanjia… Third Uncle… We’ll meet again in the underworld…”

She opened her mouth to bite off her tongue.

With her son Ruan Yue dead from the poisoned needle, Dao Jiumiang strode forward and grabbed Hu Sanmei’s jaw. “Death is too kind for you. You killed Sanjia’s son—even in the underworld, he’ll never forgive you. I’ll make sure you suffer, unable to live or die, your soul forever trapped!”

Hu Sanmei’s pupils filled with terror. “No… No… I killed that bastard for Sanjia… He’ll love me… He’ll always love me…”

The bronze-armored corpse, covered in duck and pig blood, wiped itself off and lunged at me. I unleashed all the corpse-suppressing talismans I had prepared, but the corpse swatted them away like flies—effortlessly.

What the hell was this thing?

None of the talismans worked. I poured out all the prepared materials—nail clippings, urine from a virgin boy—but the bronze-armored corpse remained unfazed, only growing angrier.

My mood couldn’t have been worse.

The only thing left in my hand was the jade ruler. As the bronze-armored corpse charged, I gripped it tightly and silently chanted, “Seal.”

I thrust out my hand, forming a great seal, but it was utterly useless. The backlash sent me flying several meters away. Damn it, there were no weaknesses left—except for a small, egg-sized spot on its forehead that hadn’t fully hardened into bronze.

I shouted at Dao Jiumiang, “Ruan Sanjia’s death had nothing to do with me! You should call back your bronze-armored corpse!”

Dao Jiumiang was too busy tormenting Hu Sanmei to pay me any attention. Besides, the bronze-armored corpse was rare to let loose, and she wasn’t even sure she could force it back into the cave in the village.

And she didn’t want to.

I cried, “Bronze-armored corpse Hu Hansan—no, Hu Yin, big brother—I shouldn’t have poked your… backside… I really didn’t mean to!”

The bronze-armored corpse shook the chains on its legs, tore off the talisman stuck to its chest, and lunged at me. I had nowhere to dodge.

No retreat.

Pinned beneath it, I was bombarded with thick corpse miasma from its gaping mouth. Meng Liuchuan had once pinned me down too, but he had been sucking my energy.

This thing was different—it wanted to bite into my neck, drain my blood, and only then would it be satisfied.

My legs were crushed under its hundred-pound chains, and to make matters worse, my only lifeline—the jade ruler—had fallen out of reach. I was completely at its mercy.

A piece of meat on the chopping block.

A grape on the vine, ready to be plucked and eaten. I didn’t dare breathe, clamping my mouth shut. If I inhaled even a wisp of that black miasma, I’d be done for.

The bronze-armored corpse’s arms were immensely strong. I felt my bones creaking under its grip, my entire body suffocating, my veins on the verge of bursting.

This was it. Damn Ghost Sect—useless to the last.

Ancestor Donglingzi had tricked me. That so-called “peerless divine manual,” the one that claimed no zombie was beyond suppression—all of it was bullshit.

Suddenly, Little Rascal leaped down from midair, landing beside me. His eyes glowed red as he barked fiercely, his voice filled with anguish, as if he was about to open his Yin-Yang Eyes.

With his Yin-Yang Eyes, Little Rascal could handle fierce ghosts. But against a bronze-armored corpse? He was nothing—an ant. The corpse could crush him with a single finger.

I screamed, “Little Rascal, get the hell away! Run! Stay back!”

Little Rascal’s eyes burned brighter, his barks echoing through the mountains. On the rooftop, He Qingling also began to yowl. The combined cries of the cat and dog were eerily synchronized—piercingly loud.

The bronze-armored corpse covered its ears, slapping its head violently.

I pounded the ground with one hand. “Come out! Kill him! This damn bronze-armored corpse—”

Every shout drew more corpse miasma into my lungs, weakening my will. The bronze-armored corpse stood up, ripped the chains apart with sheer strength, and flung two heavy iron shackles at He Qingling and Little Rascal. Both dodged, and behind them, a house collapsed with a thunderous crash.

I lay on the ground, exhausted. My hand, still pounding the earth, grew weaker. “Come out… come out… I need you to kill the bronze-armored corpse…”

The poisonous snakes in the distance heard my call but lacked the courage to approach, lingering at the periphery.

Then—the earth trembled. The soil shifted.

Dao Jiumiang had already stabbed three knives into Hu Sanmei’s hands and feet. She stopped abruptly, kneeling reverently, pressing her forehead to the ground.

Uncle Jianguo, still hanging from the tree, remained unconscious.

The bronze-armored corpse raised its powerful arms, ready to smash my skull into paste.

My brains would be splattered across the ground.

Damn it. The one getting chopped into mincemeat wasn’t someone else—it was me.

Where was the justice in that?

I spotted two snails nearby, watching me with what seemed like apologetic eyes. It made me feel worse.

The snails shook their heads and crawled away.

Xie Lingyu shouted, “Xiao Qi—” Two vines lashed out, wrapping around the bronze-armored corpse’s arms, straining to hold it back.

But Xie Lingyu was no match in raw strength.

The vines snapped. Xie Lingyu stumbled back, too late to help. She stamped her foot in frustration. “Why did I have to say the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart was in Yunnan-Tibet?”

Regret was written all over her face.

The ground continued to churn. Dao Jiumiang remained kneeling, muttering strange incantations. From the village, the sound of monks chanting sutras rose in unison.

Everything happened in an instant, each person’s mind racing with bizarre thoughts.

Then—a shadow burst from the earth, coiled around the bronze-armored corpse Hu Yin, and rolled away with it…