Chapter 110
Chapter 110 The Ground Undead
Suddenly, the pagoda tree branches extended themselves like tentacles . The branches reached toward her; they tied up all her limbs and immobilized her . Then, even more branches wrapped her up in layers . She slowly disappeared into the thick layers of branches . Minutes passed, and the branches finally loosened up and retracted . No traces of the girl remained . Even the rope had disappeared . The illusion had ended; everything had returned to its previous state, as though nothing had happened .
“So, this was how she died . ” Ye Shaoyang frowned . He recalled the girl’s actions at the final moments of her life . She had picked out something from her pocket, and it looked like a deadly coin dart . A deadly coin dart was made of three copper coins attached together in a triangular form . Folk sorcerers commonly used this as their weapon . Attaching the copper coins in such a shape would produce more power for a sorcerer to use . They could also use it as a dart, so it was a folk sorcerer’s preferred weapon .
If I am not mistaken, that girl was definitely a sorcerer . Why did the tree demon kill her?
To find the answer, Ye Shaoyang needed to find the girl’s corpse and soul first . Ye Shaoyang wielded his date wood sword and walked toward the pagoda tree . He had reached a distance of about twenty meters from the tree when it suddenly shook vigorously for a brief moment . Then, it stopped .
“What happened?” Zhou Jingru asked . Suddenly, she felt something grasp her ankle . She looked down and saw a pale and rather large human hand that protruded from the ground . She screamed in reaction . Ye Shaoyang slashed out with his sword and sliced off the palm . It fell onto the ground and black blood oozed out of it . The rest of the hand retracted into the ground, which left a crack .
Ye Shaoyang dipped a finger into the black blood and smelled it . He frowned, “Corpse blood!”
“Was it an undead?” Zhou Jingru wiped away the blood on her foot with a hand towel . The blood seemed to create a poison-like reaction, which made her foot a little numb .
“This is not a normal undead . This one can burrow into the ground . ” Ye Shaoyang observed the crack that the hand left behind, “This is a ground undead . It is extremely good at ambushing . A pain in the ass . ”Just as he finished this sentence, another pair of hands raised up from the ground and grabbed Ye Shaoyang’s legs . Ye Shaoyang avoided its attempt, and the hands immediately retracted into the ground again .
“There’s more than one here!” Ye Shaoyang frowned a little, while he came up with a plan . He sheathed his sword and took out a cinnabar brush instead . He drew a Tai-chi seal on both of his palms . He took a few steps forward and hoped to lure them out . As he had hoped, a pair of hands broke out of the ground to grab him .
“That’s it!” Ye Shaoyang slapped the hands with both of his palms . The four palms met in the air, and the Tai-chi Seal instantly sucked in the hands in a forceful manner .
Ye Shaoyang held his breath and backed off a few steps . He tugged hard and pulled a corpse out of the ground . It was a creature with a fat body and pale skin . It had a beer belly covered in layers of wrinkles . Instead of a pair of legs, it had a tube shaped like a root for its lower body . The ground undead lacked eyes, ears, and a nose . It had empty eye sockets . Two pairs of fangs made its huge mouth even larger—a pair at each of its jaws . It looked more like a scary insect rather than a human . After Ye Shaoyang captured it, the creature hissed like an angry cat and attempted to bite him . Ye Shaoyang let go of it and wielded his date wood sword . He stabbed into the ground undead’s head . Black blood oozed out like a fountain, as it struggled for a few seconds . Then, it finally laid still, dead . Its previously bloated stomach began to deflate like a balloon and green liquid flowed out from its wound .
Zhou Jingru was scared to the point where her legs felt weak . She grabbed Ye Shaoyang’s back and cried in fear, “What was that creature?”
“That was a ground undead . It differs from the normal undead we see . It was actually a corpse buried in the ground, but either ghost Qi or demon Qi infused into it . It was cultivated into another form so that it could burrow into the ground . ” Ye Shaoyang explained as he pointed his finger at the creature .
“What is this then?” Zhou Jingru pointed at the tube connected to the ground undead .
Ye Shaoyang moved closer to observe, “This is the source that provided it with demon Qi . While it feeds on the Qi, its lower body degenerated into this . ” He picked it up and saw tiny tree roots connected to it . Suddenly, he realized, “This is a root! A root from the tree demon!”
He slapped the tree roots with his palms, which damaged it . Green liquid flowed out, and the tree roots suddenly retracted into the ground .
Ye Shaoyang sniffed the liquid . It had the same smell as the liquid that leaked out from the ground undead . This confirmed his suspicions . Zhou Jingru asked in desperation, “These ground undead can move underground . It’s hard to expect where they will come out from! How do we deal with them?”
Ye Shaoyang did not answer . Instead, he quickly drew on a talisman paper and chanted in his heart . He waved his hand, and the talisman paper instantly ignited and burned up . Then, it dropped to the ground . He picked out a bunch of ancient Chinese coins and placed them on his left palm . Then, he cut a finger on his right hand for blood and drew a rune on the coins . He chanted aloud, “O' mighty Kṣitigarbha, shield me from all evils . Let your light shine through the darkness . Annihilate!”
He threw out the coins in pairs . It formed a path half a meter wide, which led straight to the pagoda tree . As Ye Shaoyang walked, he threw out more coins . Not a single ground undead emerged .
“How did you do that?” Zhou Jingru asked as she walked behind him . She could not hold back her curiosity .
“I notified the Kṣitigarbha . With his divine help and my power, I created a Path of Gold . That’s why the ground undead cannot enter . You should stay here too . As long as you don’t exit the path, you will be safe . ” Then, Ye Shaoyang continued walking . Soon, he was just a few meters from the tree . Suddenly, the tree shook again, this time even more vigorously . The ground shook with the tree, and a crack appeared right in front of Ye Shaoyang . The crack continued to grow wider and wider . It finally stopped when it had reached a width of almost half a meter . The duo looked into the crack . It had a depth of almost two meters . Intertwining tree roots filled the crack . The roots moved like colossal snakes . It truly formed an eerie sight .
Zhou Jingru covered her mouth and collapsed into a sitting position on the ground . Soon, the roots parted to the side, and a huge hand emerged from the middle . A big, bald head followed . Then, a body appeared . It was another ground undead, but it had a size at least three times larger than the earlier one!
However, this ground undead had a complete body; tree roots were connected to his back . The creature shook its head and opened its mouth to let out a furious roar . This created such a scary scene that even Ye Shaoyang could feel goosebumps rising up all over his body . The tree demon must have summoned it at this time because it was the head of all the ground undead . This creature was surely not an easy one to deal with .
“Stay here! It can’t get to you as long as I’m here!” Ye Shaoyang ordered without even turning around . He wielded his date wood sword and charged toward the creature . The ground undead leaped into the air under the control of the tree roots . It waved its arms and swept away the date wood sword in mid-air . Then, it extended its arms and grabbed toward Ye Shaoyang’s direction . Ye Shaoyang avoided its hands and took a few steps back using his Maoshan Qinggong . He swiftly picked up the sword again in time .
Suddenly, a pair of hands appeared from the ground and caught both of his feet out of the blue . Then, Ye Shaoyang realized that he had accidentally stepped out of the Path of Gold . He was not under its protection, and a ground undead could attack him at any minute . He slashed the hands with his sword, but another pair of hands quickly grabbed his calves .
“This is so irritating!” Ye Shaoyang wielded his sword, ready to slash at the hands again . However, a blunt force suddenly struck his chest . The huge ground undead had leaped toward him and smacked his chest . This hit could have thrown him a few feets away, but he somehow remained stuck to the ground because of the hands that grabbed his feet . So, he fell down on the ground instead . To make matters worse, a huge wave of hands suddenly appeared around him and grabbed him before he could react .
“Sh*t!” Ye Shaoyang exclaimed . These hands tightly gripped his whole body, so he could not even move a muscle . A bunch of heads started to appear from the ground, and they moved closer to Ye Shaoyang . He felt an excruciating pain in his calves . Needless to say, these ground undead had bitten him .
“Brother Shaoyang!” Zhou Jingru cried out in horror . What she currently had to witness was too much for her . Disgusting pale corpses had surrounded Ye Shaoyang . It seemed like his fate was sealed and there was no escape!