Chapter 461: Copper-Boned Corpse Demon, Heart-Stopping and Life-Threatening Flight, Trial Insert

Sizzling…………

The instant he saw the opponent’s left eye flicker with faint light, Xia Hong had already slipped his hand into the Yellow Mustard Sack and gripped the yellow candle; when the man across from him smirked, he confirmed he had been tricked—without a moment’s hesitation, he lit the candle.

As the yellow candle flared to life, the light illuminated the figure before him—Cai Yunlan’s flesh and blood rapidly decayed, revealing copper-colored bones beneath.

Whoosh…………

At that very moment, a punch’s wind surged from behind; Xia Hong’s brows twitched violently, his body twisted sharply, he drew his Shattered Star Sword and thrust it straight through the fake Cai Yunlan, then bolted wildly to the left.

“All of this is aimed at me? So I’ve been following a group of Copper-Boned Corpse Demons this whole time? When did I get tricked—when I entered the Blood Miasma Zone, or when I killed that Blood Jade Xuan Snake…………”

Xia Hong was utterly stunned!

But there was no time to think now; seeing the fake’s smirk, he instantly realized he’d been deceived—and in that same instant, he understood the enemy’s intent.

The fifty men across from Fan Qinghu were real; his own fifty had long been secretly swapped out by Copper-Boned Corpse Demons—he’d been completely fooled the entire time, walking with them all this while.

“Mixing with so many Copper-Boned Corpse Demons, if Fan Qinghu’s group so much as glimpsed us, they’d instantly be certain we’re the fakes—and the fake me would become the real one!”

Whoosh…………

“Who are you!”

“One of us?”

“Attack—it’s a Copper-Boned Corpse Demon…”

“How can there be so many!”

“Impossible—this zone holds at most three Copper-Boned Corpse Demons; the rest must be Iron-Boned!”

………………

As Xia Hong erupted into action, Fan Qinghu’s group—already close by—also sensed the disturbance; they swiftly gathered around, and upon seeing the scene, let out several cries of shock.

A strange sight unfolded: whether the fake Cai Yunlan Xia Hong had just pierced with his Shattered Star Sword, or the other fakes in the group, none reacted after his outburst—none chased him; instead, they all tilted their heads upward and emitted a bestial, non-bestial roar toward Fan Qinghu’s group.

“Huh… huh… huh…………”

Over ninety percent of the fakes began rapidly shedding flesh and organs; the four in front—including the fake Cai Yunlan—had copper-colored bones, while the forty-plus behind had entirely black iron bones.

“Huh… huh… ah…………”

The purple Man Luo flower sea, already unnaturally alluring under the blood miasma, now grew even more chilling with the ceaseless roars of the corpse demons.

“Kill the most troublesome one!”

Whoosh…………

The real Fan Qinghu roared, drawing his blade alongside Cai Yunsheng, Cai Yunwu, Cai Yunlan, and the fake Xia Hong—and all four charged straight at the real Xia Hong.

Whoosh…………

Dressed in black armor, Fan Qinghu was the strongest and fastest; his black broadsword, one and a half meters long, slashed through the air with a dark blade, covering hundreds of meters in less than two breaths—its edge descending upon Xia Hong’s head.

“Grand Coordinator Fan…”

Shhh!

Xia Hong had barely uttered “Grand Coordinator Fan” when the blades of Cai Yunsheng, Cai Yunwu, and Cai Yunlan closed in from all angles; Fan Qinghu struck from above, the three Cai brothers attacked from top, middle, and bottom simultaneously—all four unleashed killing moves; Xia Hong had no choice but to retreat.

As Xia Hong stepped back, he glanced behind and saw that nearly all the corpse demons had revealed copper or iron bones—only himself and Zhu Long remained unchanged; instantly, he understood why Fan Qinghu saw him as the most dangerous.

Whoosh…………

There was no more room for restraint now; his right hand thrust the Shattered Star Sword upward, blocking Fan Qinghu’s greatsword, then used the rebound to hurl himself backward, dodging the three Cai brothers’ longswords.

Clang…

“Seventy jūn—not right, this Copper-Boned Corpse Demon is stronger than me!”

The greatsword and Shattered Star Sword clashed violently; two terrifying forces erupted into a massive shockwave. Xia Hong’s expression remained calm, but Fan Qinghu’s face darkened instantly after retracting his blade.

Clang… clang…

Xia Hong had abandoned all hope of explanation; he desperately parried the three Cai brothers, and as Fan Qinghu pressed in again from behind, his face twisted with fury—but before two breaths passed, he sensed another swordtip approaching from behind, his brows snapped tight, and he spun sharply to deliver a vertical slash.

Clang…………

The fake Xia Hong who had fought alongside Fan Qinghu just now had circled behind him; not only did he wield a Shattered Star Sword, but its strength was nearly identical to Xia Hong’s own.

But the power? There was a difference!

Unlike when he blocked Fan Qinghu’s greatsword, the instant his blade met the fake Xia Hong’s Shattered Star Sword, Xia Hong’s wrist trembled violently, his body shot backward over ten meters, the sword nearly slipping from his grip.

“A hundred jūn!”

Xia Hong’s heart reeled—he had already activated his Sacred Mark, and though he hadn’t used any martial art, his raw strength had genuinely reached over seventy jūn; to be pushed back and nearly disarmed by this fake… this fake’s power…

He looked up and saw the fake Xia Hong’s sinister smile; sensing Fan Qinghu and the others charging again from behind, he no longer held back—he gritted his teeth, leapt forward, and charged once more at the fake Xia Hong with his sword.

Hssss…………

His Shattered Star Sword whirled rapidly, unleashing countless black feather-like lights in midair; each feather glowed with countless tiny star specks, like a brilliant river of stars—that was the Shattered Star Sword’s appearance, amplified by the sword’s blinding speed into a unique visual effect.

In that instant, his blade carved out at least several thousand feather-blades, repelling Fan Qinghu and the three Cai brothers, while sixty percent of the feather-blades surged like a flood directly onto the fake Xia Hong’s body.

“Die!”

The Feather-Blade Art was the supreme sword technique Xia Hong had first created using the Awakening Lotus Platform; this move derived from Li Xuan’s Lingmiao Sword Art, originally tailored for Lu Yang; this technique measured mastery by the number of feather-blades summoned—over a hundred for entry, over three hundred for minor mastery, over five hundred for great mastery, over a thousand for transcendence.

As the creator of the Feather-Blade Art, Xia Hong’s mastery was beyond question; when he unleashed it, the sky was filled with star-river feather-blades—no fewer than five thousand; even sixty percent meant over three thousand blades, all crashing onto the fake Xia Hong’s body in an instant.

Quantity alone was secondary!

The key was that these blades piled upon each other like waves, instantly amplifying martial power by fifty percent—the true killing core lay in blades carrying nearly a hundred jūn of crushing force.

Shhh shhh shhh shhh shhh…………

As thousands of feather-blades struck, sensing Xia Hong’s true power, the fake Xia Hong’s expression changed instantly.

After enduring over a thousand blade strikes, seeing his body crisscrossed with countless cuts, he dared not continue blocking—he began retreating rapidly while raising his sword to deflect the feather-blades’ force.

But it wasn’t over!

Hssss…………

After the thousand feather-blades faded, Xia Hong’s left eye shot out a divine light, striking straight toward the fake Xia Hong’s body.

The fake Xia Hong’s brows snapped tight; the instant he saw the divine light, he bolted away, flying left.

“Trying to run!”

Too late—Xia Hong had already predicted his movement; his body leaned forward, he spun sharply toward the left and fired another divine light.

Hssss…………

The second divine light also missed.

Because the fake Xia Hong had, at the last possible moment, ducked behind the nearest Iron-Boned Corpse Demon.

That Iron-Boned Corpse Demon had been driven here by several Xianyang-level warriors from Fan Qinghu’s group—purely by chance, it became the fake Xia Hong’s shield.

Ding…………

“Huh… huh…”

The divine light struck the Iron-Boned Corpse Demon; its already minimal flesh instantly dissolved, its throat emitted strange shrieks, and its black iron bones began cracking with a spiderweb pattern.

Boom…………

Less than five breaths later, the Iron-Boned Corpse Demon’s bones shattered explosively, scattering into fragments on the ground.

Strangely, from the shattered bones flew a crystal identical in color to the Blood Jade Pearl; Xia Hong, closest to the corpse demon, noticed the greed in the surrounding warriors’ pupils and snatched up the crimson crystal instantly.

“This monster dares kill its own kind! Grand Coordinator Fan, you must not let it escape—otherwise the consequences will be endless!”

Hearing the fake Xia Hong’s words, Xia Hong’s brows snapped tight; he turned to see Fan Qinghu and the three Cai brothers, who had just been knocked back, now circling in again—his face darkened, especially as he noticed their wary, murderous glares; his expression turned grim beyond words.

Earlier, when the Copper-Boned Corpse Demons had mimicked their true forms and he hadn’t transformed, Fan Qinghu’s group had already labeled him the most dangerous; now, he’d revealed such terrifying power—and had accidentally killed an Iron-Boned Corpse Demon with his Shattered Divine Light.

Fan Qinghu and the three others, along with Cai Qiu’s entire Xianyang-level contingent, had all firmly decided—he was the fake.

No defense possible!

Since arriving at Cai Qiu, he’d never revealed his true strength—he’d planned to use it as a surprise in critical moments—who knew he’d be exploited by this fiend now?

The fake became real, the real became fake—what kind of twisted fate was this?

“Grand Coordinator Fan, the hundred-thousand-strong army beyond the miasma must already be in dire trouble—I urge you to go and check!”

“Don’t waste words with this monster—kill it!”

Fan Qinghu ignored Xia Hong’s explanation entirely; he didn’t even need the fake Xia Hong to incite him—he charged forward with Cai Yunsheng and the others.

Whoosh…………

The three Cai brothers each had peak strength around sixty jūn; combined with Fan Qinghu’s seventy-plus jūn, just these four were nearly impossible for Xia Hong to withstand.

Not to mention the fake Xia Hong, lurking like a venomous snake—pretending to have only sixty-some jūn, but striking with brutal force whenever Fan Qinghu’s group created an opening; within mere dozens of breaths, Xia Hong’s body was slashed with over ten wounds.

Worse still, as the surrounding Iron-Boned Corpse Demons were gradually eliminated, more Xianyang-level warriors joined the encirclement.

“If I don’t run now, I’ll die…”

During his defense, Xia Hong had pleaded his case countless times—but Fan Qinghu and the others were certain he was the fake, refusing to listen; realizing there was no hope of explanation and the danger worsening, he conceived an escape plan—he glanced northward, then immediately abandoned the idea of fleeing out.

His warning to Fan Qinghu about the army beyond the miasma wasn’t random—he’d finally realized: regardless of when he was tricked, this “fake Xia Hong” had orchestrated such a deadly trap specifically for him, proving it had been watching him even before he entered the miasma zone.

It even knew his strongest abilities and his Yin-Yang Mirror techniques; otherwise, while he’d been walking with those fifty Copper-Boned Corpse Demons, it could’ve struck at any moment.

Precisely because it lacked a sure kill, it had gone to such lengths to make him appear false—then used Fan Qinghu’s group to eliminate him.

Since arriving at Cai Qiu, he’d revealed his true strength and the existence of his Shattered Divine Light in only one place.

To date, he’d never encountered a Jieshen-level cultivator, so exposure was impossible; eliminating all other options, only one possibility remained:

The miasma’s fiends shared the same origin as the Shigudao; from the moment he stepped into the Blood Miasma, he’d been watched.

If so, then the movements of Cai Qiu’s hundred-thousand-strong army had long been under the fiends’ observation; it followed that the outer army had been compromised since the moment they entered the Blood Miasma.

Too bad—Fan Qinghu’s group was completely blinded and wouldn’t listen to a single word he said.

If the army was compromised, fleeing north wouldn’t help—it might only lead him deeper into the enemy’s trap!

Xia Hong swallowed a Sacred Vein Pill for healing; seeing Fan Qinghu and the others charge again, he hesitated no longer—he bolted straight west.

“The rest of you, continue exterminating these corpse demons; Yunsheng, Yunwu, Yunlan, Hong—follow me!”

Fan Qinghu naturally didn’t want to let him escape so easily; seeing that the Ironbone Corpse Demon at the original spot had been mostly cleared, he ordered the group, shouting for four men to leap after Xia Hong.

The Ironbone Corpse Demons’ strength ranged only between 5 and 15 jun; the Copperbone Corpse Demons had a wider range, weakest at 20 jun, strongest up to 100 jun—but the five left here, aside from the fake Hong Yu who fled, the other four were each around 30 jun, and his forty-plus Xianyang-level subordinates could handle them without issue.

But this Copperbone Corpse Demon impersonating Hong Yu had strength nearly approaching 100 jun—that was the real threat; if not eliminated, they would never dare enter this outer zone again in peace.

Fan Qinghu considered himself clear-headed, and his decision after careful deliberation carried no hesitation; he sprinted swiftly behind Xia Hong, leading Cai Yunsheng and the other four, relentlessly chasing westward for several miles.

Xia Hong glanced back and saw the five relentlessly pursuing him; his expression darkened to its utmost extreme—he was already wounded, and if caught, death was no longer impossible.

Realizing this, he moved like the wind, ignoring the dangers ahead, gritting his teeth to slightly veer southward, fleeing deeper into the Blood Miasma Plain.

“Faster! This beast is heading for the depths!”

Seeing Xia Hong’s movement, Fan Qinghu’s face darkened; he called out to the other four, quickening his pace further.

………………

As Xia Hong had guessed, the outer zone of Blood Miasma Plain Zone 21, where the army had temporarily camped, was now in grave trouble.

“Roar…………”

“Scream……”

“Squeak squeak squeak…………”

Tens of thousands of giant Cold Beasts had already surrounded the hundred-thousand-strong army; endless roars and shrieks echoed all around, every Cold Beast’s gaze fixed rigidly on the Golden Bone Crucible, their pupils brimming with bloodthirsty desire and greed.

Even without sight, merely listening carefully to the beasts’ roars, one could distinguish that the creatures surrounding the camp, though numerous, were dominated by three species, accounting for over eighty percent.

On the left flank of the camp were thousands of snakes of varying lengths—clearly the Blood Jade Xuan Snakes Fan Qinghu’s group had encountered inside the miasma;

On the right flank were thousands of rodent-like Cold Beasts, golden-furred, dragging long fleshy tails, with massive incisors;

Looking up, thousands of avian Cold Beasts hovered above the camp, wings spread wide; their blood-red wings, blotting out all skyward cold light, cast a shadow over the hearts of the hundred-thousand soldiers below.

“The Provincial Military Commander led the team in less than ten hours ago—how could so many Blood Cold Beasts suddenly emerge? There must be at least seven or eight thousand, over half high-grade Cold Beasts—what do we do, what do we do?”

“Outside the Blood Miasma, their strength drops by twenty percent, but even then, they’re still at least 40 zong—worse, this isn’t an ordinary beast surge; it’s a coordinated attack by three major clans. Past experience shows each clan’s Beast King hovers around ten—this overwhelming tide implies at least thirty Beast King-level entities behind it…”

“Previously, the Golden Bone Crucible never drew Cold Beasts from within the miasma—what’s going on now? Why did it lure them out?”

“Without Provincial Military Commander Fan, we only have fifty men—if we fight, even a victory would be a pyrrhic one. Deputy Commander Nie, the Zhenyuan Camp is only ten kilometers away—send someone to notify the fifty-thousand Garrison Troops there to hurry and reinforce us?”

“In my view, we must first extinguish the Crucible’s flame. Without Bai Yin’s stimulation, these beasts won’t be so frenzied. We have fifty thousand Silver-Scale Army troops—if we can hold out through a few waves, they’ll surely scatter like birds and beasts…”

…………

“Shut up! Fool! If you extinguish the Crucible, what happens to Provincial Military Commander Fan and the others? Even ignoring them, if the southern miasma loses its suppression and drifts toward us, the entire ten-thousand-strong Fanzhen army—including you and me—will die here!”

The supreme commander of the Zhenyuan Camp was naturally Provincial Military Commander Fan Qinghu; beneath him were two Deputy Commanders: Cai Yunwu and Nie Longxin.

The one who had just shouted, cutting off the reckless suggestions, was Deputy Commander Nie Longxin, left behind at the Golden Bone Crucible.

“They’ve only been inside ten hours—normally, no problems arise for days. This must be suspicious—something’s stirring again in the Blood Miasma Plain, and it’s starting to counterattack. Only this explanation makes sense!”

Nie Longxin stared at the overwhelming beast tide surrounding him, fists clenched, his face grim beyond measure.