Stranger Danger

He’s strong…

The thought flashed through Ye Qing’s head as the terrifying aura the Corpse Spirits washed over him.

Every Corpse Spirit Cui Qiuyuan unleashed was at least a Grandmaster. While they weren’t as strong as the four female Corpse Spirits at the beginning, their numbers were more than enough to make up for the deficit in quality, and they were well-coordinated despite their apparent lack of will.

This was why Cui Qiuyuan, the “Mortician” was feared so. He was a literal one-man-army.

Despite this, the headless Sage was able to handle the Corpse Spirits’ coordinated assault with ease. Hardly any of the sword qi, saber force, yin wind and thunder managed to harm him at all. Most of them simply vanish into nothing like they never were. On top of that, the headless Sage was beheading a Corpse Spirit every time he took a step. It was insane to put it mildly.

A dozen Corpse Spirits fell dead beneath the headless Sage’s feet in just a matter of moments. That said, the assault wasn’t in vain. The headless Sage was dead and lacking a conscious will. He could only act on instinct, and he was much, much weaker than when he was still alive. Slowly but surely, his mountain of resentment was diminishing, and his movements were slowing.

While the headless Sage was battling against a Corpse Spirit, Cui Qiuyuan abruptly appeared behind his back with a willow branch in his hand. He swung it across the headless Sage’s back like a whip.

The willow branch looked frail and harmless, but in reality, it cut through the headless Sage’s back like a sharp blade through tofu and left behind a deep wound that was several inches deep.

The willow branch in Cui Qiuyuan’s hands abruptly burned into a crisp after the attack was performed. However, black blood sprayed out of the headless Sage’s back almost as if he had taken a grievous blow.

The Corpse Spirits who were touched by the black blood instantly turned pitch black as if they had fallen into a pool of ink. Then, they began disintegrating into dust like a burning paper.

Caught off guard, the back of Cui Qiuyuan’s hand was struck by a drop of black blood as well. The entire arm immediately began to turn pitch black just like the Corpse Spirits, and it was spreading rapidly to the rest of his body.

Having seen what had befallen his Corpse Spirits, Cui Qiuyuan dashed away from the headless Sage while cutting off his entire right arm. Almost as soon as the arm was cut off, it began disintegrating into dust earnestly.

On top of that, the black blood hit the ground loudly like it was some sort of metal or stone. It then spread to the surroundings at an insane rate, chewing through the earth like it was nothing and generating black clouds that were thick enough to blot out even the red moon. A bottomless pit about tens of meters wide appeared around the Sage in just a matter of moments.

Terrifying…

Ye Qing gulped as he stared at the bottomless pit and felt the terrible energy emanating from it.

The black blood that leaked out of the headless Sage’s body was overflowing with death qi and desolation. Such was its power that not even the Grandmaster-stage Corpse Spirits and the powerful Cui Qiuyuan could withstand it. As if that wasn’t enough, a single drop was enough to annihilate the earth like nothing and form a bottomless pit that was tens of meters wide. If this wasn’t terrifying, then nothing was.

The situation wasn’t looking good for the headless Sage, however. Although his black blood successfully eliminated all the Corpse Spirits and dealt a good amount of damage to Cui Qiuyuan, Ye Qing could feel that his presence was waning at a visible rate.

It was at this moment Cui Qiuyuan reappeared next to the pit and stared down at the headless Sage from above. Unlike before, he was wearing an ugly expression on his face.

He never imagined that a Sage that had perished for heavens-know-how-many-years could be so powerful. Not only did he kill off all of his Corpse Spirits, he had dealt him a severe wound as well.

The large majority of his strength was concentrated around his Corpse Spirits. Without them, he was far below his peak to say the least. Naturally, this was disadvantageous toward his goal of obtaining the Dark Overlord’s inheritance.

Despite this, Cui Qiuyuan could not help but feel a bit of excitement and expectation. Considering how strong the headless Sage was despite being dead for countless years, he must have been exceptionally strong when he was still alive. He could not have been an ordinary Sage.

If he were to stitch a Corpse Spirit with the headless Sage as the core, just how strong would it be?

Would it gain the power of a Great Grandmaster? A Half Sage? Maybe even a Sage?

It did not need to be said, but a Sage-stage Corpse Spirit would massively increase his strength. It was also his life’s dream to stitch such a Corpse Spirit.

If he could subdue the headless Sage, then it would be worth all the Corpse Spirits he lost earlier and more.

Unable to suppress his desire any longer, Cui Qiuyuan waved his hand and summoned his black coffin.

Floating at the center of the pit, the coffin turned upside down and poured what looked like innumerable arms down onto the headless Sage. It looked like a massive tree covered in blooming flowers was falling down on the Sage, except that the tree was made of fleshy arms instead of wood.

The arms enveloped the headless Sage from all sides after it reached the bottom. Despite his relentless struggles and continuous decimation of the arms, there were just too many of them. On top of that, the headless Sage was much weaker than before due to the grievous blow he sustained earlier. In the end, the arms managed to pin him down and drag him into the black coffin.

After the headless Sage was dragged inside the black coffin, it landed back on the edge of the pit. Cui Qiuyuan then appeared beside the coffin and slammed the lid on it.

Thump!

The coffin lid sealed off the opening completely.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The black coffin shook violently as something struck against the lid again and again. Countless runes flickered erratically around the coffin, and many weeping faces pushed out of its surface as if trying to break free.

Cui Qiuyuan didn’t look so good either. His face kept changing between male, female, old and young, and his aura was extremely unsteady.

Clearly, it cost him a ton of energy to seal the headless Sage inside his black coffin.

“Ooo ooo!!!”

A far distance away, Giggle struggled to break out of Ye Qing’s grip as it stared at the black coffin with great worry and anger.

“Calm down. Now isn’t the best time…” Ye Qing offered it some words of consolation while staring at the black coffin as well.

By now, Ye Qing had figured out the truth. Unless he was mistaken, the headless Sage was most likely Giggle’s first master.

This would explain why Giggle cared so much for the headless Sage, and why the headless Sage heeded Giggle’s cries and let him go even though it was entirely within his power to kill him.

Many years ago, the headless Sage left Giggle at the Celestial Spring because he wanted to enter the Death Sea to do something. He was probably planning to retrieve Giggle after he completed his business, but instead, he died.

Since the headless Sage was Giggle’s first master, he could not turn a blind eye to his fate.

Although the headless Sage was long dead, he could still stop the outsiders from defiling his corpse.

But of course, just because he had made up his mind to intervene didn’t mean that he should jump in recklessly. His opponent was Cui Qiuyuan the “Mortician”, the forty-fourth warrior on the Earth Champions Ranking, and he was just a Half-Step Grandmaster. Under normal circumstances, forget fighting Cui Qiuyuan, he couldn’t even earn a sideway glance from the man.

Luckily for him, the circumstances were decidedly not normal. The main reason Cui Qiuyuan was able to rank so high in the Earth Champions Ranking was thanks to his Corpse Spirits. However, not only did the man lose all of his Corpse Spirits, he himself was injured and exhausted. This was his chance to pull off the impossible.

There was no need to hurry, however. Yes, he could technically attack Cui Qiuyuan now as the man was at the lowest point of his power. However, not all opportunities were necessarily good.

Although Cui Qiuyuan possessed only a sliver of his original strength, he was still a Grandmaster. A lean camel was still bigger than a horse. One misstep, and the entire plan would go up in flames. Worst case scenario, they would die here.

That was why he must wait. He must wait for a better opportunity where success was guaranteed, preferably one where he could end Cui Qiuyuan’s life in one strike.

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