Chapter 169: Such Sorrow

After being struck by Zhou Qing’s Peerless Phantom Blade, the corpse fiend let out a pained howl. As its cry echoed, dozens of lesser zombies that had been lurking nearby surged forward in unison.

If it were only one or a few of these lesser zombies, Zhou Qing would not have given them a second thought, but a whole swarm was more than he could withstand. Should they all attack at once, he doubted how long his Eight Extremes Shield could hold. Moreover, in the midst of fighting these zombies, others would surely arrive.

Thinking of this, Zhou Qing withdrew the blade resting on the corpse fiend’s neck and transformed it into a spear, thrusting it straight at the fiend. The corpse fiend, sensing danger, darted into the crowd of lesser zombies, having been wounded by Zhou Qing’s earlier strike and now harboring a deep fear.

Zhou Qing had no time to ponder further as the lesser zombies leapt at him. He moved swiftly, breaking through towards an opening. As he dashed beyond the heap of bodies, he reached into the treasure pouch at his waist and pulled out a talisman, slapping it onto a zombie.

With a quick gesture and a word of command, flames ignited on the zombie’s body. The fire spread rapidly, engulfing the creature and soon catching several others nearby. In this gray world, the light was dim; though the sun should have been blazing overhead, North Que Mountain’s forest was shrouded in mist.

Having barely run a few steps after casting his talisman, Zhou Qing sensed the glow of flames behind him. The crackling fire was accompanied by shrill, mournful howls. He glanced back to see a horde of lesser zombies leaping towards him, the corpse fiend at the forefront, its blood-red eyes fixed upon him with a piercing gaze.

As he turned his head, movement stirred in the gray woods beside him. Suddenly, a figure burst from the trees, charging straight at him. Caught off guard by the ambush, Zhou Qing was slammed into an old wall nearby.

The village's ruined walls had been abandoned for countless years; when Zhou Qing collided with it, the wall collapsed instantly. On the ground, he caught a clear look at the figure from the woods: it was another corpse fiend.

Had this happened outside North Que Mountain, Zhou Qing would never have been ambushed so easily; the corpse aura these fiends carried would be obvious to his cultivated senses. But within this forest, corpse aura filled every inch, allowing the fiend to hide without detection.

Though he had been rammed into the village’s earthen wall, Zhou Qing’s Eight Extremes Shield protected him, leaving him unharmed. Rising from the scattered bricks, he fixed his gaze on the fiend that had ambushed him, but it merely watched from the side, not advancing.

While Zhou Qing assessed the threat, another corpse fiend, leading dozens of lesser zombies, bounded towards him. Simultaneously, several more zombies emerged from the woods at the far end of the abandoned village, converging upon his position.

Zhou Qing felt no fear toward these undead; his retreat was not from cowardice, but from a desire not to waste his strength. To annihilate the two fiends and their horde would not be difficult, but it would cost him some spiritual power.

In a place such as this, conserving spiritual power was tantamount to preserving his strength. Yet, at this point, he had no choice but to expend his energy to destroy them. If he did not, the undead would pursue him relentlessly, their numbers swelling, and his troubles would only multiply.

Resolute, Zhou Qing transformed his Peerless Phantom into a mighty sword and sent it flying toward the corpse fiend, scarcely three yards away. At the same moment, he drew a Fire Command talisman from his treasure pouch.

Seeing the sword approach, the corpse fiend raised its hand to deflect it, but as it did so, the talisman followed, affixing itself to its body. With a gesture and the utterance of a command, blue flames ignited on the fiend.

The blue fire flared; the fiend let out a long, guttural howl, then its body dissolved into nothingness with the Fire Command’s blaze.

Witnessing the destruction of its kin, the other corpse fiend, leading the lesser zombies, let out a low growl and halted. Its followers stopped as well, freezing in place.

“You have only yourselves to blame for courting death. I had no wish to entangle myself with you, but you insist on dogging my steps, pursuing me every turn. Truly, it is a sorrowful thing,” Zhou Qing remarked, knowing full well the zombies could not comprehend his words. Nevertheless, he picked up the Peerless Phantom blade lodged in the ground and charged at the fiend and its followers.

As Zhou Qing surged forward, the fiend shrieked in terror, darting into the woods, and the lesser zombies scattered, fleeing in all directions.

Having just destroyed a fiend, the situation reversed entirely: a moment ago the zombies had been chasing Zhou Qing, but now the roles were switched.

Condensing Peerless Phantom into a sharp broadsword, Zhou Qing severed the leg of a lesser zombie, then pierced its nape, severing its bloodthirsty ability. He then turned the blade into a whip, lashing it around another zombie’s legs, dragging it to the ground, and with his other hand drew the Ruthless blade, stabbing it into the zombie’s head.

After dispatching several zombies, only a few dead corpses remained nearby; the surviving zombies and the fiend had already fled far away.

“If you wish to court death, follow me,” Zhou Qing called out. Sweeping his gaze around, he saw the lesser zombies fleeing into the woods, while the fiend stood behind an ancient tree, watching him intently.

Seeing this, Zhou Qing shaped Peerless Phantom into a sharp blade and charged at the fiend, hurling it like a flying knife as he ran.

Seeing Zhou Qing approach, the fiend howled in terror and vanished into the gray forest. Not being adept with throwing weapons and with the distance between them, Zhou Qing’s throw missed, but it was enough to frighten the fiend deeper into the woods.

Returning from the forest’s edge to the abandoned village, Zhou Qing found that the fiend had not fled far, but was hiding behind a distant tree, staring at him in stupefied silence.