Chapter 459: Charging into the Mine, the Strange Corpses Reappear

"Understood!"

The guards, previously fearful, scattered and roared their assent in unison. As they split into two columns and charged past Du En, subtle expressions of eager anticipation and supplication appeared on their faces.

As long as we perform well this time, the Master will surely bestow rewards! Medicinal pills, magic artifacts, treasures...

Thinking of this, their eyes burned with intensity and their hearts grew hot, causing them to quicken their pace, fearing they might fall behind.

Even the four wounded men wore expressions of shame turning into courage, equally unwilling to miss the opportunity.

They had performed poorly just moments ago and had already lost face for the City Lord's Mansion and the Master; naturally, they could not expect any rewards, and they felt this was only to be expected.

But now that they were injured, especially the two whose foundations were damaged, if they did not strive to be at the forefront now, how would they stand or find a place in the City Lord's Mansion after this? Fight, and there is still hope for the future; don't fight, and their prospects are visibly bleak.

Thus, they appeared exceptionally proactive.

"Should I say they have been blinded by greed?"

Sheng Zhaoshui spoke up again, unsurprisingly and quite leisurely. Du En did not answer, merely saying to Zhu Qing, who was currently anxious and nervous about his sister's situation, "Follow closely, don't move around," before strolling behind the exceptionally proactive guards.

They stepped into the mine shaft one after another.

"Kill!"

"Evil beasts, die!"

"Hahaha! Not worth mentioning! Not worth mentioning at all!"

The pitch-black mine tunnel was now rapidly illuminated by human torches.

The Nascent Soul guards, wearing wanton and arrogant expressions, charged like vicious tigers pouncing on prey into the demonized beasts that had originally retreated into the darkness to lick their wounds. Like a hot knife through butter, they easily slaughtered and dismembered them, showing no mercy or restraint.

"Awooo—"

"Roar—"

*Squish—*

The demonized beasts were, after all, in a state of demonic madness. Although they initially had an instinctive fear and dared not approach the guards who were imbued with solar power, as their companions died miserably around them and the stench of blood and gore filled the surroundings, their ferocity was quickly ignited.

They charged forward, fearless of death.

Furthermore, deeper in the mine shafts, even more demonized beasts surged out, as if the place had suddenly become rich in mineral deposits again—only now, the "minerals" were beasts that had failed their transformation, gone mad, and become bloodthirsty.

"Not good!"

"Form up quickly!"

The previously high-spirited offensive momentum slowed immediately. These Nascent Soul guards also reined in their wild behavior slightly, though their eyes remained bloodthirsty; one look told you they were no good people.

They stood like a dam, blocking the many demonized beasts, and continued to push forward at a rapid pace.

The constant surge of demonized beasts, while seemingly bringing deep darkness from the earth, could not cover or extinguish the sunlight upon the people.

This was normal, as it was Du En's doing.

Never mind mere third or fourth-tier beasts that had failed their crude transformations; even if a group of ordinary fifth-tier great demons came to charge, they could not annihilate the radiance he emitted.

So, at this moment, the guards, for the sake of that illusory reward, continued to push forward, wantonly slaughtering the demonized beasts.

Du En and Sheng Zhaoshui walked behind them in a relaxed manner, stepping over the thick, strange, melted remains covering the ground.

"These beasts..."

Du En spoke, raising his hand to lift and draw in something from the demon-tainted bodies that had been melted and destroyed by the solar power.

Bones.

Some pale, some yellowed, some decayed; their specific states varied, but they all had the same origin.

Humans! Zhu Qing followed behind Du En, cautious and pale-faced. Seeing this, he couldn't help but sway, his pace slowing down.

"Qi Refining stage, Foundation Establishment stage... none above Foundation Establishment. The years in which the mutations occurred are all recent. It seems there were previously missing rogue cultivators who vanished without a trace, but it doesn't seem to include those who went missing in recent years; the timeline of the artificial interference causing the mutations doesn't match."

"Prematurely forcing the beasts to transform, causing them to go mad, and even being extremely countered by solar power due to deeper reasons, to the point of perishing at a touch... Strange. This form of combining humans and beasts is very much like the tricks of the Fu Dong Immortal Sect, but specifically speaking, it is clearly different. It is far too crude, as if they are just starting to experiment."

Sheng Zhaoshui took some of the residual bones, examining and probing them up and down, finally sighing and shaking his head: "On the surface, adding elements countered by the sun is to prevent them from running out and attracting attention, but what about at night? Do they just sleep obediently? Or is it that even lunar and stellar power can counter them? Therefore, there must be other factors. It's a pity I can't see through it. What exactly is it that causes these beasts to end up in this state?"

"They are clearly just some failed products, so there's no need to dwell on it too much. Perhaps we will encounter the successful works from recent years later, and then we will be able to learn the secret."

Du En appeared calm, as he had already seen some clues.

The reason for the defects was the instability of the life source. Since solar power has a restraining effect on demonic evil, it would naturally appear exceptionally effective. In essence, it acted as a trigger, the final push that caused the body to collapse.

As for the night, these demonized beasts were indeed likely sleeping.

Because whether it was the dark of night or lunar power, both should be able to nourish their unstable life sources. Even if it couldn't restore them to stability, it would cause these beasts to fall into a dormant, stable state.

Since these circumstances were truly too common and provided no clues pointing to the mastermind, Du En didn't mention it. After all, he and Sheng Zhaoshui were not on the same path, so it was better to leave some room for maneuver.

The other party seemed to sense this, so he did not press the topic.

Then, while discussing the truly strange situation of spiritual sense failure—which was destined to yield no results—Du En began to collect the pieces of bone, cremating them into ash, and then sending them far outside the mine mountain to be buried in a concentrated manner, letting them rest in peace.

Sheng Zhaoshui was naturally not idle either; with a flick of his finger, flowing water washed over, dissolving and consuming the remaining matter to prevent any further mutations from occurring in the residue.

To Zhu Qing, who was behind them, it looked as if the City Lord, Master Jiuyun, was skillfully performing a profound technique, simultaneously cremating the bones and eliminating the terrifying, melted remains at the scene.

Then, looking at those bones, deep worry couldn't help but rise in his eyes, but Du En said nothing, and he dared not ask.

Thus, with the front pushing forward and the rear cleaning up, they soon penetrated several hundred zhang deep into the ground.

This journey could not be called entirely without setbacks; after all, there were bound to be forks in the mine tunnels. If they continued to push straight through, they would inevitably be flanked, but if they split their forces, they feared encountering accidents.

Of course, with the current state of these guards, who were killing more and more fiercely and believing themselves to be invincible, they clearly wouldn't fear splitting up.

However, Du En naturally wouldn't let the speed of the advance slow down, so his method was very simple. While it looked like he was using magic to destroy the mine tunnels and block the forks, in reality, he was already beginning to brew a true offensive.

Green trees grew quietly from the darkness, emitting a vibrant, life-filled radiance, drawing in the demonized beasts that were lurking in the darkness and had been stirred into restlessness.

They pounced over viciously, opening their mouths wide and baring their claws. Then, their teeth shattered, and their claws snapped.

The Wood Domain spread and expanded. These failed, demonized, transformed beasts could not resist at all and quietly disappeared into the growing forest, leaving behind only some residual bones that were constantly collected and cremated.

Although the overall pace was somewhat slow and gentle, as he did not want to startle the snake, the guards were naturally able to move straight forward like an arrow.

However, at this depth, it was about time for a different situation to appear.

Du En and Sheng Zhaoshui watched the front in secret.

As the last few demonized spirit beasts were eliminated, the guards stepped into a new space containing other light sources.

It should have been a hub transfer cavern for underground spirit mineral excavation, but it had been artificially installed with eternal lamps; their light was not incandescent, but permeated with a deep, dim yellow, casting a faintly lingering sense of horror, and the cold air flowed like wind, causing one to shiver involuntarily upon being blown by it.

Most crucially, there were crystal bodies standing here, dense and grey, making it impossible to see the situation inside for a moment; needless to say, divine sense was also useless, as even those demonized spirit beasts could not detect them, let alone these obviously stranger things?

"You, go take a look!"

The guard leader's inner sense of satisfaction had vanished before he knew it, and with a furrowed brow and a sense of trepidation, he instructed a subordinate thus.

The other party was still hot-blooded, his arrogance not yet dissipated, and although he began to cool down under the influence of this place, he still strode forward aggressively to the nearest crystal body.

Seeming to sense someone approaching, this crystal body began to glow, becoming translucent.

"Boss, this isn't right, this, is this a spirit stone?!"

The guard was stunned for a moment, then widened his eyes.

A spirit stone!? The guard leader was also stunned, and then, like the other guards, his gaze suddenly became scorching.

Such a volume and quantity of spirit stone pillars was simply unheard of; even if the quality might not be high, the key was that they were heavy and numerous—if they were all scavenged and carved into standard blocks, they could surely yield over a million! If they were lucky enough for them to be of high-grade or even top-grade quality, they would be rich!

Realizing this, these greedy fellows naturally had scorching gazes and heavy breathing; even if, in the end, the lion's share had to go to the Venerable One behind them, they could at least get a piece of the pie...

"Ah!"

Just as they were thinking about it happily, a sudden scream made the guards' bodies tremble, thinking that some other demon or monster had emerged; they assumed a defensive stance and looked around, but saw nothing unusual at all.

Coming back to their senses and narrowing their focus, it turned out to be the guard who had gone to investigate.

At this moment, he looked terrified, having already retreated a few steps in fright, his legs giving way as he sat directly on the ground, appearing particularly pathetic, which made people frown involuntarily.

The guards' gazes shifted upward and forward, seeing the culprit of everything.

The thing inside that spirit stone pillar.

There was a person, looking like a bloated, water-logged corpse, their chest and abdomen sliced open, yet the internal organs inside were exceptionally fresh and crimson, faintly still pulsating.

There were also tiny spirit beast heads, their neck stumps equally fresh, crudely and randomly stitched onto the internal organs; their closed eyes at this moment actually revealed a touch of serenity.

Looking at the fluttering of the fuzz around the mouth and nose, it seemed as if they were still breathing, yet the whole thing exuded a feeling of having long since died, especially that corpse—the host—which looked exactly like someone who had drowned long ago...

Bizarre, awkward, and grotesque!

By comparison, the sense of bloodiness was secondary.

Thus, it brought an indescribable impact, as if being carved into one's memory and spirit bit by bit with a chisel while still alive!

Therefore, in a flash, even the City Lord's Mansion guards, who usually bullied the city and were full of evil, could not hold up at this moment, emitting various screams like three-year-old children startled, with some even directly losing control of their bladders.

Having practiced Inedia for many years and not having eaten, they still lost control, and it was not any other situation, just simple incontinence; the fishy, pungent odor permeated, even more piercing, trickling and gushing as if flowing in their hearts...

"This is truly a long time no see, strange corpses, evil corpses."

Calm words broke the flow of evil, and the stepping footsteps crushed the mischief in the dark; Du En appeared before that spirit stone pillar, his gaze flowing with brilliance.

"Ah!"

The corpse seemed to be startled, suddenly opening its rotten eyes and emitting a sharp shriek from its mouth, carrying a thick evil nature as it struck directly outward.

Then it was pinched by a hand.

In a trance, the guards only saw a large hand open, covering this underground space, and then close, grabbing the shriek—which should have been formless and already spread to the surroundings—in its hand, and then applying force gently.

Boom! It was crushed.

Du En looked at his own hand, observing carefully, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Didn't see anything?"

"No, I saw it."

"So that's how it is."

It was precisely because it was easily seen that it felt particularly wrong.

"This is actually just the result of a clumsy imitation; in essence, it is the chaotic origin of the body, then absorbing a certain evil fluctuation, thereby promoting its disorderly development and brewing, which in turn derives a plausible, evil, and wicked nature."

"In other words, the key lies in the master of that fluctuation—no, the evil nature is also just a spreading thing; it should be said to be the master of the master."

"Mm."

Du En nodded slightly and looked back into the spirit stone pillar.

At this time, the bloated corpse had quietly turned into fly ash, but those dense, tiny spirit beast heads quietly detached from the stitching, one after another opening their ferocious eyes, appearing ready to devour people.

Then they suddenly disappeared.

Neither Du En nor Sheng Zhaoshui stopped them, only turning their heads to look around.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The other spirit stone pillars shattered one after another, and headless corpses jumped out from within; those spirit beast heads flashed and appeared, having already returned to their original size, and the cross-sections of the two combined, instantly turning into beings with beast heads and human bodies.

This is a stage of spirit beast transformation, only missing a head to become completely human.

And now, here in the Profound Mystery Star Realm, someone has used demonic and evil means to directly stitch humans and spirit beasts together, creating these similarly plausible human-shaped demons! (End of chapter)