To Ning Xuan’s utter surprise, the Daoist acolyte let out a wail and started crying, leaving him dumbfounded.

You dare to play ghost in the gloomy Cang Jue Ling to scare people, yet a few words from me are enough to make you cry? Who’s the real villain here, you or me?!

"Stop crying," Ning Xuan sighed, his voice softening.

This only made the Daoist acolyte cry harder, but Ning Xuan immediately sensed that something was wrong.

What a crafty little devil! He’s stalling for time!

Ning Xuan, however, remained impassive, feigning ignorance. He was curious to see what tricks this kid had up his sleeve.

Just then—BOOM!

The ground around him exploded. From the very spot where he stood, two massive skeletal hands shot out and seized his ankles. Like iron pincers, they began to drag him underground. At the same time, corpses surged from the ruptured earth all around him! Some were fresh, while others reeked of rot. The former brandished weapons, while the latter used their sharp claws as their most potent weapons.

At the same time, Ning Xuan heard the acolyte’s laughter, which carried a strange Magic Power. The spot where the acolyte had stood was now shrouded in mist, making it seem like some lost, otherworldly place.

It was an utterly bizarre scene, a place where the sacred and the profane intertwined.

Once again, Ning Xuan felt dizzy and disoriented. This was clearly a continuation of the earlier trick, but far more terrifying. It was a formidable mental assault, and if he wasn’t mistaken, the Daoist acolyte was behind it all.

"Well, well. I underestimated you," Ning Xuan muttered.

His opponent had been setting this trap from the moment the acolyte started crying. Now, all of Ning Xuan’s escape routes were sealed. Thanks to his brief delay, all the attacks launched against him had landed, yet none of them managed to cause him any harm. Instead, with a cold snort from Ning Xuan, they all shattered into pieces.

"That kid was telling the truth!"

"No! This precious physique is even more alluring than he described!"

"Remember, the physique is mine! No one is to damage it!"

Eerie voices rose from all directions, making it impossible to pinpoint their locations. But this didn’t trouble Ning Xuan.

WHOOSH!

His body vanished. An instant later, Ning Xuan had the crying Daoist acolyte in his grasp.

The Daoist acolyte looked as if he was about to cry again, but his expression suddenly turned sinister. Without a second thought, Ning Xuan shot backward.

BANG!

The acolyte exploded. A thick cloud of smoke immediately billowed toward Ning Xuan, enveloping him.

BANG!

Ning Xuan struck out with his palm. A gigantic Dao Mark descended from the sky—the very technique he had learned from the strange beast on Trial Mountain. However, Ning Xuan’s version of the seal was even more powerful. He could form it with a simple lift of his hand. As the mark crashed down, the enveloping smoke was instantly dispersed.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

But that wasn’t all. With a wave of his sleeve, Ning Xuan reshaped the dissipating smoke into a volley of arrows that shot into the empty air around him. Though there was apparently nothing there, a scream pierced the air as the arrows found their mark before being cut off abruptly. Ning Xuan’s attack had succeeded.

"He’s a tough one! Let’s get out of here!" a voice called from the shadows.

Immediately, tranquility returned to the area. Even the lingering fog began to dissipate.

Ning Xuan, however, only sneered. Do these guys take me for a fool? Or do they look down on my initial-stage Holy Realm cultivation? His Six Senses were sharper than those of countless Holy Realm experts. No movement within a hundred-mile radius could escape his perception! How could they possibly have fooled him into thinking they had left?

What they didn’t realize was that their actions had exposed even more of their numbers. These people must have been rooted here for who knows how long. Some of them had been as dormant as the corpses in the earth, emitting no aura whatsoever. But when that order was given, they moved, revealing their positions.

Ning Xuan didn’t act rashly. Instead, he waited, curious to see what other tricks they had in store.

A moment later, Ning Xuan couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration, "Impressive!"

The ones who had seemingly fled hadn’t returned, but all the corpses underground were reanimating. One by one, the dead bodies climbed to their feet. A terrifying aura radiated from every single one of them. The area felt like a sealed domain as their auras instantly merged into one.

They’re sharing information!

ROAR!

An exceptionally tall corpse let out a deafening bellow. The single roar filled the air with a foul, putrid stench. In Ning Xuan’s eyes, however, he saw something else: a pillar of black energy! It shot from the corpse’s mouth, unleashing an immense and unparalleled power that sought to pulverize him into paste.

Ning Xuan didn’t face the attack head-on.

WHOOSH!

He vanished, his afterimages flickering everywhere. In the next instant, the heads of the surrounding corpses began to roll. Moments later, only headless bodies remained standing.

"Damn, he’s fast!"

"Incredible! Not only does he have a precious physique, but he also possesses extreme speed! This is the body I have always dreamed of!"

「Far away, deep underground」

Several Daoists were gathered. Before them was what appeared to be a wall of earth, but it clearly displayed the ongoing battle between Ning Xuan and the corpses. And their leader was none other than the young acolyte who had cried so pitifully before Ning Xuan! He had completely deceived him.

Meanwhile, Ning Xuan found himself besieged once more. The beheaded corpses hadn’t fallen. On the contrary, their auras grew even more terrifying! One corpse in particular carelessly attached a new, mismatched head to its neck, and its aura surged explosively. A blood-red light ignited within its empty eye sockets, locking onto Ning Xuan.

Suddenly, thin scarlet threads materialized on Ning Xuan’s body without any warning. They instantly wrapped around him, tightening rapidly as if to bundle him up like a rice dumpling.

"What do you think he’ll do now?" the young acolyte asked his followers underground, his eyes gleaming.

"Sect Master, didn’t you say you wanted his precious physique?" one of them asked in return. "The Corpse-pulling Thread is incredibly sharp. If he struggles, won’t he be torn to pieces?"

"That’s right, Sect Master," another chimed in. "Even an expert just shy of the Peak of the Holy Realm can’t resist the Corpse-pulling Thread!"

"Just watch," the young acolyte said.

The others immediately fixed their gazes on the image.

A moment later, everyone except for the young acolyte was dumbfounded. They watched in disbelief as the man actually fought back against the Corpse-pulling Thread! The threads tried to bind his limbs together, but he refused to submit, directly challenging their constricting force. As the threads tightened inward, he strained outward with all his might.