The scene fell abruptly into silence.
The little fox looked at Feng Jin; Feng Jin glanced sideways at Yan Zhao, while Yan Zhao’s eyes skewed over to Black Sky Tyrant.
Feng Jin’s gaze settled on Yan Zhao, and the corner of her mouth twitched as if cramping. “Little lover?”
Yan Zhao’s frame was skinny and small; her tattered clothes hung on her, flapping in the wind and letting in drafts. Her unruly hair was scattered down, making her look like a female ghost.
Was she blind, or were Black Sky Tyrant’s eyes defective?
For a moment, she didn’t even know where to begin refuting this.
She hugged the silver fox tighter and retorted defiantly, “Then just make your move.”
“?” Black Sky Tyrant’s face darkened. “You’re quite the good actress. One moment you’re desperately worried about this wench, specifically chasing after her from the stronghold to rescue her. The next, you’re feigning heartlessness. Don’t think I can’t see through your scheme! You must be thinking of taking advantage of my distraction to act and save her!”
The look the little fox directed at Feng Jin shifted from initial shock to gradual complexity. Recalling Feng Jin’s various unusual behaviors today, it thought to itself: So that’s how it is.
Feng Jin was utterly speechless, glancing coldly at Black Sky Tyrant. “What exactly do you want?”
“Don’t you know what I want?” Black Sky Tyrant said sternly. “Feng Jin, I want you to cripple your own cultivation base! Kneel and kowtow, calling me Grandfather three times, and then present the Secret Key to the Xuanhuang Secret Realm with both hands!”
Hearing this, Feng Jin laughed instead of getting angry. “You certainly dare to dream. A man’s greed is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant!”
The other party’s attitude was entirely within his expectations. Black Sky Tyrant’s lips hooked into a sinister, chilling sneer. “So you’re refusing?”
The old man’s bony, withered five fingers clamped tightly around Yan Zhao’s throat. Yan Zhao had difficulty breathing and couldn’t help but cough and choke.
“You won’t even pay this small price. It seems this little lover of yours isn’t that important to you after all! You cultivators are truly cold-blooded and heartless, fickle in human relationships!”
Feng Jin: “…”
Truth be told, she really wasn’t that important.
If Senior Sister hadn’t insisted, she wouldn’t have bothered to chase after her.
“In that case…” Black Sky Tyrant deliberately dragged out his words. “Then don’t blame this old man for being ruthless!”
He tied Yan Zhao to a pillar. With a probing wave of his hand, a dull, heavy mechanical sound instantly echoed around the courtyard.
Then, rustling sounds, barely audible at first, grew clearer and clearer as they slowly approached the courtyard.
The fox’s ears twitched, and Feng Jin frowned slightly. “What’s that sound?”
They understood very quickly.
Several venomous snakes crawled out from the corners of the small yard.
The sound of snakes slithering grew louder and denser.
Venomous snakes appeared from all directions, one after another, covering the entire courtyard in an extremely short time.
At a glance, they were densely packed, their number likely no less than a hundred.
Under the moonlight, the snake scales shimmered with a faint purple glow. One look was enough to know they were no ordinary venomous snakes, but highly venomous spirit snakes that had been tamed.
These venomous snakes had been starved for several days. Entering the yard, they did not attack Black Sky Tyrant or Pang Da; their target naturally fell upon Yan Zhao.
The hissing of snake tongues filling the courtyard was enough to make one’s scalp crawl.
The fox’s tail bristled with fur, and Feng Jin’s expression changed slightly.
So many venomous snakes, each biting once—how could Yan Zhao possibly survive?
Even though she didn’t like Yan Zhao, she had no choice but to save her for Senior Sister’s sake.
She immediately formed a hand seal and cast out several streaks of Sword Qi. The Sword Qi flew into the small yard with swishing sounds, severing several venomous snakes approaching Yan Zhao into pieces.
But because she was wary of Yan Zhao also being in the yard, Feng Jin was constrained, and with the sheer number of venomous snakes, she simply couldn’t kill them all.
In just that brief moment, a venomous snake had already crawled onto Yan Zhao’s ankle and wrapped around her calf, seeking a suitable spot to bite.
The little fox could no longer sit still. It jumped down from the crook of Feng Jin’s arm and charged directly toward Yan Zhao.
A thin layer of Protective Spiritual Qi surrounded its body, making it difficult for low-level venomous snakes to get close.
Black Sky Tyrant’s gaze focused sharply. “A Spirit Fox?”
Feng Jin’s expression finally changed drastically. She didn’t hesitate to undo her Sword Riding Art and jump into the courtyard.
She had left in a hurry and hadn’t brought a Magical Artifact, so she could only snap off a nearby branch, using the dead wood as a sword to clear a path for the spirit fox.
Black Sky Tyrant withdrew his gaze from the spirit fox, a terrifyingly sinister smile squeezing onto his harsh face. He ordered Pang Da, “The opportunity is here! Make your move!”
Pang Da pulled a bottle from his chest and smashed it hard against the ground.
The porcelain bottle shattered, splattering a pool of dark red Beast Blood.
Buzz—
A piercing noise assaulted the eardrums, and the Spirit Platform felt shrouded in fog. Feng Jin suddenly lost her Dharma Power. The dead branch in her hand snapped with a crack. A venomous snake lunged at her, nearly biting her.
Only then did she realize that a formation had already been drawn on the ground at some point. The bottle of Beast Blood just now had activated the Array Core.
So this was Black Sky Tyrant’s true goal: to lure her into the formation!
As long as this formation remained unbroken, she would be no different from a mortal and would also fear the venomous snakes on the ground.
The little fox had already pounced to Yan Zhao’s feet. The formation suppressed cultivation, preventing it from using its Dharma Power, so it used its mouth to bite at the rope around Yan Zhao’s ankle.
Yan Zhao looked down at it and muttered softly, “Weren’t you going to follow that female bandit leader? Why did you still run down here to find me?”
The fox was startled, a trace of surprise flashing in its emerald-like eyes.
In that split second of distraction, a thumb-thick spotted venomous snake lunged forward, opening its jaws to bite its neck.
A hand reached over from above, blocking in front of it, and the snake bit directly onto the palm.
Somehow, Yan Zhao had already untied the ropes binding her. Without even glancing at the venomous snake dangling from her hand, she casually plucked it off and threw it aside, then bent down and picked the fox up.
She showed no awareness whatsoever of being in mortal danger. Holding the fox up, she leveled it with her own eyes and said, very seriously, “If you choose someone else, then I won’t want you anymore.”
Feng Jin fought her way through obstacles and reached Yan Zhao’s side, scanning the little fox.
Confirming it wasn’t injured, Feng Jin breathed a sigh of relief, then immediately said to Yan Zhao, “Something’s wrong with this formation. We need to get out of here, quick!”
Yan Zhao was displeased to see her, gave a cold snort, and tucked the little fox into her own embrace.
“Think you can leave?” Black Sky Tyrant sneered coldly. “You’re not going anywhere!”
As he spoke, he quickly pulled out two bright yellow talismans. He slapped one onto Pang Da’s chest and held the other himself.
Suddenly, a sinister wind whipped up within the small courtyard, howling mournfully. The courtyard gate slammed shut with a heavy bang.
The wind that blew onto them was cold, damp, and chilling.
Feng Jin caught a strange, musty smell in the air, and her expression changed drastically.
The ground trembled, cracking open a fissure as thick as a small arm, splitting the courtyard in two.
The crack continued to widen as earth and stones fell away, revealing a black coffin beneath.
The coffin was plastered all over with yellow talismans and sealed with Beast Blood.
Now the coffin trembled violently. Something inside was struggling madly, trying to smash open the lid.
The coffin burst out of the ground. The venomous snakes on the ground, sensing danger, actually stopped their attack and shrank back, cowering one after another.
“Oh no!” Feng Jin said grimly. “It’s a Corpse Puppet!”
With a thunderous boom, the coffin lid shattered into pieces, and instantly, Evil Qi soared into the sky.
Wood splinters scattered in all directions, and the earth, stones, and mud were stained with a thick, putrid stench.
Feng Jin swept her sleeve to blast away the muck cascading down on her, her expression heavy. “A Third-Tier Corpse Puppet, its strength comparable to a Body Tempering Realm cultivator!”
A withered hand, its skin an ashen black and veined with knotted sinews, grabbed the side wall of the coffin and began crawling out.
Even Yan Zhao could feel the pressure bearing down on her.
Corpse Puppets were refined from the corpses of cultivators after death. They needed no Spiritual Qi to drive them. Within this Grand Array in the courtyard, it was virtually invincible.
Feng Jin cursed aloud. Where in the world had Black Sky Tyrant found such a formidable corpse?
At this rate, they would all perish here today.
This was precisely the effect Black Sky Tyrant desired. Clutching his protective yellow talisman, he laughed heartily. “Feng Jin! Kneel down and beg me! Hand over the Xuanhuang Secret Key! I might consider leaving your corpse intact!”
Pang Da hid behind Black Sky Tyrant, so frightened his legs trembled uncontrollably. “V-Village Chief, isn’t this going too far…”
Black Sky Tyrant had never told him that a genuine fierce ghost was buried beneath this courtyard.
He had only said that the Beast Blood would activate the formation, which would restrict the movements of cultivators. Had he known about this beforehand, he definitely would not have run into this courtyard.
“What are you afraid of?!” Black Sky Tyrant scolded him. “Look at your pathetic, cowardly state!”
The Corpse Puppet crawled out of the coffin and swiped a claw at Feng Jin.
Feng Jin raised both arms to block, but felt as if she had slammed against an iron wall.
Her body was slammed downwards heavily, then lifted into the air, sent flying backward.
Her two arms, injured by the Corpse Puppet, bore blackish-green claw marks. Affected by the evil filth, the wounds bled profusely.
On the other side, having repelled Feng Jin, the Corpse Puppet immediately shifted its target, locking onto Yan Zhao.
Yan Zhao was slow to react. The little fox swiftly sprang onto her shoulder, directly confronting the Corpse Puppet. It spat out a stream of Origin Ice Soul Qi.
The ice soul was intensely cold, condensing into a shield in mid-air.
The Corpse Puppet slapped down with its palm. The Ice Soul Shield crackled and cracked loudly, shattering in an instant.
That ashen-black claw continued its assault unabated, grabbing toward its head as fast as lightning.
Swoosh—
The little fox’s vision went dark. Warm blood splattered onto its nose, and a thick scent of blood quickly diffused.
It opened its eyes and found itself safely held in Yan Zhao’s embrace.
Yan Zhao held the little fox tightly, turning her back just before the Corpse Puppet’s sharp claws could fall.
The Corpse Puppet’s razor-sharp nails sliced open her shoulder, and the vile Devil Qi seeped into her flesh along with the wound.
Unable to withstand the immense force, she staggered forward a couple of steps.
Scarlet blood scattered onto the ground, mixing and merging with the Beast Blood in the formation.
Feng Jin looked up and saw this scene, her pupils constricting.
The little fox struggled violently, but Yan Zhao’s arms clamped around it like pincers, preventing it from breaking free. Urgent whines rose from its throat.
Black Sky Tyrant tutted twice, his tone laced with unconcealed regret. “What a pity.”
Yan Zhao’s thin, weak little frame was as flimsy as paper. Taking a direct hit from the Corpse Puppet’s claw, she was surely dead for sure.
He had lost a chess piece to restrain Feng Jin.
But things had come this far; Feng Jin was already trapped with no escape. If the hostage died, so be it.
This thought had just flashed through his mind when suddenly, a gust of wind blew, a foul, fishy wind slapping against his face.
The temperature in the courtyard began to rise. The color of the Beast Blood used to draw the formation on the ground turned red, and with a burst, a flame ignited, self-combusting without fire and spreading along the trails of the Beast Blood.
After delivering that palm strike, the Corpse Puppet suddenly froze, motionless. The atmosphere gradually became bizarre.
The person who should have been dead was still standing in place.
In the uncanny silence, Yan Zhao’s shoulder moved.
Bones mended with brittle cracking sounds.
She lifted her head. Her wild hair covered her eyes, but a fleeting, indistinct flash of red light could be glimpsed.
The Corpse Puppet, like a marionette with rusted joints, suddenly swayed left and right, haphazardly performing several strange, erratic movements.
Then, it turned its body to face Black Sky Tyrant.
The instant its gaze met Black Sky Tyrant’s, two dark blue ghostly flames ignited within its deep, dark eye sockets, staring at him without blinking.
