Chapter 1238: A Complete Victory

Killing someone and then stabbing the corpse; this action seemed truly cruel to others. But he and Fu Liushan both saw a streak of black light dart out from the head, like an eel leaving the reef it was hiding in, flying low toward the nearest death-defying soldier.

At this time, the six-tusked giant elephant also arrived, lifting its front leg and stomping hard toward He Lingchuan's head.

That streak of black light turned at the last minute, no longer looking for the death-defying soldier, but throwing itself toward the giant elephant.

Among all the corpse puppets on the field, this one was the tallest and thickest-skinned. If the Xuan Lu Ghost King could hide inside, the Fusheng Blade's length was limited, and it might not be able to pierce it.

At that moment, He Lingchuan had to dodge the giant elephant's stomp. Just as the black light was about to escape danger, it was caught off guard by a suction force from the side, pulling it hard backward.

Fu Liushan had seen the black light fleeing earlier and had grabbed his magic artifact, the Bellows, blowing and sucking hard twice—He Lingchuan only then realized that this thing could actually increase suction—Fu Liushan didn't delay his movements, running fast, almost sliding over, grabbing the Bellows and aiming it at the black light to suck hard.

This thing was like a Category 14 tornado when dealing with ordinary ghosts, usually sucking them in with a *slurp*. Of course, it wasn't enough to deal with a Ghost King of this tonnage.

But the current Ghost King had been weakened several times over, losing several avatars, and had been poisoned by the Ghost Poison Paste on the Folding Blade. Just now, he had to split his power to confuse He Lingchuan and disguise himself as being beheaded, so at this moment, he was actually blocked by the Bellows.

If he were in human form, this would be equivalent to being tripped, immediately standing firm and running forward again. In just one breath, the black light regained its speed, rushing toward the giant elephant puppet again.

However, the battlefield changed in an instant; this one breath was enough for He Lingchuan to act.

Aiming at the Ghost King, he threw the Fusheng Blade without hesitation.

For this, he didn't even dodge the giant elephant's tusks.

The giant beast swung its head, and the sharp tusk, comparable to a spear, pierced through He Lingchuan, entering from the left and exiting from the right.

Fu Liushan was shocked to see this; wasn't it over?!

But He Lingchuan's figure vanished immediately; the ivory tusk plunged into the air, not even staining itself with blood.

Oh, an illusion?

Fu Liushan only had time for a hurried glance, because after the Fusheng Blade was thrown, it made a small loop, bypassing the giant elephant's thick legs, and then caught up with that streak of black light—

It seemed like a slow-motion replay; Fu Liushan could even see the trajectory of it cutting through the black light.

A roar of unwillingness rang in his ears: "No—"

When the Fusheng Blade flew back, the Ghost King's cry came to an abrupt end.

The death-defying soldiers on the battlefield suddenly stood still, no longer swinging their blades, their faces showing confusion; the dozen or so corpse puppets also stopped their advance and collapsed to the ground one after another.

To He Lingchuan, Fu Liushan, and the others, the black threads on the death-defying soldiers all vanished, and the little evil ghosts responsible for driving them jumped out of the corpse puppets, fleeing toward the outside of the valley without looking back.

They had originally followed the Ghost King's orders and were ghost soldiers forced onto the field; with Xuan Lu dead, they had no fighting spirit at all and naturally followed their instincts to flee.

With Xuan Lu beheaded and Commandant Shi's unit missing, the few commanders saw that the defeat was irreversible, so they took the lead and retreated faster than ordinary soldiers.

From this moment on, the Pi Xia army truly collapsed like a mountain.

Boss Situ Yu's spirit soared; he waved his arms and pursued the fleeing enemy, chasing them for over ten *li* to the north.

The remnants of the Pi Xia army fled in a panic into Ju City, and Boss Situ Yu finally stopped, showing off his might outside Ju City a few times before returning in triumph.

And in the mirror world of the Soul-Sucking Mirror, Commandant Shi's army killed many iron-skinned men and finally found the exit, only to be met head-on by the Boss Situ family's army.

When the Soul-Sucking Mirror is placed stationary, it can open the mirror world for people to enter and exit.

Several hours had passed since the night raid launched by the Xuan Lu Ghost King. Commandant Shi was no fool; seeing that the ones entering were the Boss Situ family's army, all covered in blood and murderous intent, he understood everything.

On the Flash Gold Plain, victory and defeat were common occurrences for soldiers. Commandant Shi didn't want to fight to the death, and when he calculated that the enemy army far outnumbered his own, he surrendered quite readily.

In this battle, the Boss Situ family won a complete victory. Over 900 Pi Xia people were killed or wounded, and Commandant Shi's 700 men basically all became prisoners. In the end, only a few hundred managed to flee back to Ju City.

Boss Situ Yu brought the remains of his close friend Qi Tianbo back to Yaopo and buried him with honors.

He Lingchuan did not participate in these last few pursuits.

His target had always been only the Xuan Lu Ghost King.

Dong Rui didn't know where he had wandered out from, and ignoring everyone else, he directed the Ghost Ape to find the corpse puppets on the ground, picking and choosing.

He seemed very interested in these things. Others found them ugly and grotesque, but Dong Rui poked and touched them, even wishing he could dive into the giant elephant's belly to see what was going on.

He Lingchuan walked over and said: "These things look like your works."

All bizarre and deformed.

"Like? Are you insulting me?" Dong Rui glared, "Just because of this trash, you compare it to my painstaking works?"

"No, naturally not." He Lingchuan rubbed his nose. Not to mention anything else, the designs of the Ghost Ape and the Bat Demon Puppet, while also bizarre, were much more symmetrical and coordinated than these few corpse puppets.

Compared to the past, Dong Rui's aesthetic level had been improving. This was called "near vermilion, one gets stained red."

But these dozens of demon puppets on the ground were still grotesque, pieced-together things.

Fortunately, they were numerous; Dong Rui guarded them as if guarding a treasure vault, digging here and prying there, always able to find usable materials.

He Lingchuan asked him again: "So, do these corpse puppets also have a connection to that thing?"

"Definitely!"

Fu Liushan also happened to come over: "What riddles are you two playing?"

What were these ugly corpses related to? He could only see that these things should have been demons when they were alive, and their cultivation wasn't low. He didn't know how they became like this after dying, or if they became like this before they died?

"You came just in time." Dong Rui beckoned to him, "These corpse puppets, you said the Xuan Lu Ghost King had been hiding in the Screaming Forest all along?"

"Right." A little evil ghost slipped out of a ditch wanting to escape, and Fu Liushan sucked it into the Bellows, "When I was young... no, seven or eight years ago, I chased a man-eating demon into the Screaming Forest, and ended up almost being trampled into meat paste by that corpse puppet."

He pointed to the giant elephant corpse puppet: "Yes, that's the one."

He Lingchuan pondered: "Xuan Lu has occupied the Screaming Forest for hundreds of years; it's not excluded that he occasionally went out, but where did so many corpse puppets of great demons come from? And each one is bizarrely shaped."

"I've thought about this question before too." Fu Liushan shrugged, "Combined with the fact that the Xuan Lu Ghost King's appearance itself is an anomaly, the answer might be in the Screaming Forest."

Dong Rui was studying the giant elephant corpse puppet, wanting to pull out a whole white tendon from its long nose, but He Lingchuan stopped him: "Leave this one to me."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1239 =====