Chapter 235: Harvesting Merit, Executing the Corpse Buddha!

After settling into the frontline position, Xing Tianding hosted a banquet in the main camp that evening to entertain Lu Yuan; all the other Golden Core Cultivators were also present, serving as a welcome reception.

At the banquet, Xing Tianding was clearly very curious about Lu Yuan's background and origins, and he spoke up more than once to probe, but Lu Yuan used that same fabricated story he had long prepared to brush him off.

This welcome banquet ended with both host and guests enjoying themselves.

Afterwards, at Lu Yuan's own suggestion, he was officially stationed as a strong reinforcement to guard the auxiliary camp over a hundred miles away on his own.

This auxiliary camp faced the second-largest exit of the Yin Corpse Mountain Range, and its danger level was second only to the area guarded by the main camp; normally, it required three Golden Core Cultivators to be stationed here to block and deal with the Corpse Demons that swarmed out from within.

However, after the arrival of a Golden Core Late Stage cultivator with such astonishing means as Lu Yuan, it was clearly no longer necessary to do so, though Xing Tianding still generously allowed Lu Yuan to choose one Golden Core Cultivator to serve as his deputy.

This arrangement was exactly what he wanted, and Lu Yuan naturally went with the flow and chose Qin Ruoning, which caused the other Golden Core Cultivators' gazes to become slightly ambiguous, subconsciously assuming that this outsider First-class Guest Elder might be a philanderer.

Just like that.

Lu Yuan, having changed his status, took Qin Ruoning with him to guard the area together.

Although this place lacked an environment rich in Spiritual Machine, for him, who had mastered 【Nine Breaths Serving Qi】, the difference was not that great; the key was that there was vast experience waiting for him to harvest within the Yin Corpse Mountain Range.

After becoming thoroughly familiar with the environment of this area, one evening a few days later.

Lu Yuan left a Cloning in his cave dwelling at the station, and then he himself used the 【Flying Body Tracing】 Supernatural Power to leap through the void, sneaking into the Yin Corpse Mountain Range.

Woo, woo, woo.

All the peaks in the Yin Corpse Mountain Range were craggy and strange, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws like demons; everything in sight was lead-gray, and the shrill wind sounded like ghosts crying and wolves howling, accompanied by corpse energy that felt substantial, filling the heavens and earth. It pressed down heavily, a scene of the coming apocalypse.

Lu Yuan did not prepare any external objects to repel corpse energy or poisonous gas, but relied purely on the two Supernatural Powers of Obstacle Clothing and Wind Control to keep the death energy and corpse energy from getting anywhere near him.

The resistance and fighting by the cultivators of Longshan Immortal City for hundreds of years made the danger of the Yin Corpse Mountain Range self-evident; normally, one could not enter unless they were a Golden Core Cultivator, and even if one did enter, at least two True Persons had to join forces, and they would only dare to explore the outer perimeter of at most ten or twenty miles.

If one were to go deeper, one might encounter a siege by a powerful Corpse King, or even disturb a Four-Tier existence, which is why the Immortal City cultivators would never run here if they had nothing to do.

Yet at this moment, Lu Yuan was maintaining the Flying Body Tracing Supernatural Power, constantly going deeper, deeper, and deeper, and in a short while, he had entered over a hundred miles into the Yin Corpse Mountain Range!

At this distance, the ubiquitous corpse energy, poisonous gas, and miasma were even more sky-blocking and sun-hiding; between the gloomy mountains, the hills and plains were covered in hideous and terrifying human corpses, bird corpses, and beast corpses, many of which had powerful auras, and a very few were even fighting and devouring their own kind.

Lu Yuan knew that Corpse Demons like these that would devour their own kind were often seeds of Corpse Kings; as long as they were not strangled in advance, they would inevitably grow to the level of a Three-Tier Corpse King.

"Let's do it here."

Although his cultivation had greatly advanced and he possessed multiple Supernatural Powers, Lu Yuan was not too reckless; he dismissed the intention to go deeper and stopped in the sky above this area, then deactivated the Flying Body Tracing Supernatural Power and began to release his Dharma Power aura unscrupulously.

Rustle, rustle.

It was like lighting a huge torch in the darkness; as his powerful Dharma Power aura radiated, the tens of thousands of corpses covering the mountains and plains felt this aura containing intense vitality and suddenly turned to look.

Subsequently, within a radius of several miles centered on Lu Yuan, it was as if this dead and silent space had come alive in an instant. Countless Corpse Demons, like hungry ghosts smelling something delicious, rushed madly toward his location amidst hair-raising roars.

Tree branches shook wildly, and the earth beneath his feet began to tremble, as if thousands of troops and horses were trampling the ground in unison; as countless creatures moved at the sound among the mountains, a sky-covering, crazy, and fierce aura swept in from all directions, seemingly wanting to submerge the space where Lu Yuan was from head to toe!

Screech!

At the same time, shrill cries rolled across the gloomy sky; amidst the agitation of the corpse energy clouds, sharp, long cries that tore through the air and clouds could be heard, and one could see hundreds and thousands of flying corpse demons whistling over, carrying wild winds and evil waves—corpse doves with wings growing from their ribs, Corpse Bats with dense compound eyes and rows of rotating sharp teeth, Corpse Eagles with white bones exposed on their shoulders... large swaths of shadows overlapped, swooping down!

It was as if the gates of hell had been opened; countless hellish demons let out terrifying roars of ecstasy, coming from every direction without any blind spots, turning into a tidal wave of death. Lu Yuan, however, revealed a smile:

"Last time I was hiding and didn't have my fill, today is just right for a good slaughter!"

Clang!

A tyrannical starlight radiance erupted violently from between Lu Yuan's eyebrows, instantly illuminating the dim world, turning into a brilliant thunderbolt that spanned a distance of several miles; as the sword light swept across, amidst the flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, all the incoming corpse demons were instantly wiped out.

On the sword light, strips of violent lightning were entwined, forming a huge thunder dragon over ten zhang long; although it looked massive as a whole, it displayed true thunder-like extreme speed as it swept across the void, and in just a blink of an eye, it swept through all directions, and at least several hundred flying corpse demons were strangled in mid-air.

What Lu Yuan was performing at this moment was not just a 【Sword Technique Divine Ability】, but also infused with the Divine Thunder from 【Mastering Five Thunders】.

Divine Thunder focused on killing and was also a restraint against evil; although it did not have the wide range of Heavenly Thunder, the consumption required to perform it was much smaller, which was just right for the current situation.

Flap, flap.

The Sword Light Thunder Dragon swept across the firmament, and the thousands of flying Corpse Demons acting as the vanguard were directly dismembered, forming large swaths of vacuum; on the ground, the layers upon layers of surging Corpse Demons did not feel the slightest fear, still rushing forward like a world-destroying tide.

"Come, come, come!"

Lu Yuan laughed loudly, his movements not stopping; he manipulated the Sword Light Thunder Dragon, its radiance bursting forth in an instant, carrying flashing lightning and ruthless killing intent to tear through the heavens and earth, crisscrossing and shuttling!

The rumbling thunder roared, shaking the heavens and earth.

In this sea of corpses composed purely of madness and brutality, lightning crisscrossed, and the magnificent and brilliant sword light connected into one piece, refracting the dim light and setting off a storm of slaughter in the sky-covering Corpse Tide.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle.

In an instant, lightning raged, sharp energy overflowed, heaven was startled and earth moved, and the Sword Light Thunder Dragon swept away all obstacles in its path in large swaths, as easy and effortless as a sickle harvesting weeds.

Such power made even the Corpse Demons that approached Lu Yuan feel fear instinctively, but they were simply unable to resist this heaven-tearing and earth-splitting thunderous sword light, while the Corpse Tide behind continued to surge forward one after another, fighting and throwing themselves into a grand death.

Just look.

A Bone Armor Corpse King, similar in shape to a giant tiger and possessing a powerful aura, had just roared and charged toward Lu Yuan, but as the Sword Light Thunder Dragon slashed past, its seemingly indestructible body was as fragile as tofu, failing to resist even for an instant before splitting apart, and then being blasted into powder by the violent lightning;

In another direction, there was a Corpse Demon shaped like a mantis, moving as fast as lightning, impossible to capture with the naked eye, hiding in the Corpse Tide and attacking wildly; it also seemed to be a Three-Tier Corpse King.

However, Lu Yuan's divine sense and Sprout Sensing Technique controlled the entire field, and no attack could hide; with just a thought, the Sword Light Thunder Dragon killed this Corpse King from a hundred zhang away.

Just like that.

In just a moment, thousands of Corpse Demons became souls under Lu Yuan's sword, and the space for several miles around had been cut to pieces; the shocking, mangled corpses formed a huge quagmire.

And under such efficient clearing, the Heavenly Dao Merit fed back by the Heavenly Book was also growing rapidly.

One strand, ten strands, twenty strands, thirty strands...

It often took hundreds of ordinary First-Tier Corpse Soldiers to condense one strand of Merit Power, but starting from the Second-Tier Corpse Generals comparable to Foundation Establishment, one could obtain about one strand of Merit Power for every one killed, and if one killed a Corpse King, one could get anywhere from several to over ten strands.

And as sand gathered into a tower and many drops formed a sea, Lu Yuan's Heavenly Dao Merit soon broke the count of a hundred strands and was still growing rapidly.

But not long after.

Roar.

Suddenly, a huge sound wave like the roar of ten thousand demons rolled across the air and attacked; above the dense and gloomy forests among the mountains, thousands of tree crowns tilted to one side, and like a typhoon passing through, a tyrannical aura of death swept across all directions like a raging wave!

Amidst the heaven-startling and earth-moving event, Lu Yuan's vision darkened, and he saw a large, massive chaotic cloud in the distance, accompanied by shrill wails like ten thousand ghosts mourning, rolling over like an avalanche.

The cloud looked slow, but in fact, its momentum was already extremely rapid; in the blink of an eye, it had surged to within a few miles, covering the sky and earth, and it was only because this chaotic evil cloud was so massive that it gave people the illusion that it was slow!

And looking closer.

Within that cloud mass was, shockingly, a giant Buddha statue formed by the condensation of tens of thousands of corpses; who else could it be but the Four-Tier Heavenly Corpse, the Corpse Bone Giant Buddha, that had assaulted the defensive line over a year ago?

"It actually came. Good, very good!"

Seeing the appearance of this Four-Tier Heavenly Corpse with its heaven-shaking aura, a glimmer of joy appeared in Lu Yuan's eyes.

After all, the reason he had brazenly slaughtered his way into this Yin Corpse Mountain Range was, on one hand, to harvest Heavenly Dao Merit, and on the other, to test his cultivation.

Ordinary Corpse General and Corpse King levels were simply not a match for him in a single exchange; only the Four-Tier Heavenly Corpse level, comparable to a Nascent Soul, could serve as his whetstone!

Therefore, in an instant, he took a deep breath, and with the activation of 【Nine Breaths Serving Qi】, he drew vast and pure Original Qi from the void. In a few blinks, he replenished his Dharma Power, which had been more than half depleted. At the same time, rolling dark clouds surged crazily above his head, as if the firmament had awakened and was accumulating power, and the Sword Light Thunder Dragon struck out toward the Corpse Bone Giant Buddha with the force of a thunderbolt!

"Roar!"

At the same time, the giant Corpse Demon let out a heaven-shaking roar toward the sky, trampling and charging over with a rumbling sound, carving a path through the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, and its two massive skeletal arms grabbed fiercely toward the incoming Sword Light Thunder Dragon.

However, just as its pair of giant arms were raised, the Sword Light Thunder Dragon, blessed by Divine Thunder and possessing unparalleled violence, shredded the entire giant arm, then pierced through its chest, leaving behind a giant hole with a diameter of several dozen zhang.

Before it could even react, the Sword Light Thunder Dragon twisted back, and the Divine Thunder, containing pure destructive power, erupted in tandem with the sharpness of the Sword Technique Divine Ability. Thousands of lightning snakes burst forth and struck in an instant, actually shattering the entire body of the Corpse Bone Giant Buddha in one blow!

In just a single encounter, the Corpse Bone Giant Buddha, which True Monarch Huanglong and Guest Monarch Wei Bufan had only managed to repel by joining forces, was heavily wounded by Lu Yuan. For a time, its frantic, painful roars resounded across the wilderness, and clattering skeletons scattered down, triggering a frenzy in the sea of corpses.

Its Buddha body, condensed from tens of thousands of corpses, was naturally terrifying and impossible to deal with for ordinary cultivators, but to Lu Yuan, who possessed Sword Technique Divine Ability and the evil-breaking power of Divine Thunder, it was merely a huge and fragile living target.

And this was not the end.

While the Sword Light Thunder Dragon defeated the Corpse Bone Giant Buddha in an instant, thunder rumbled within the thunderclouds above Lu Yuan's head. In the sky full of black clouds, streaks of lightning snakes darted about chaotically, followed by thunderous roars that tore through the clouds and the void, striking straight down!

Boom, boom, boom!

Streaks of Heavenly Thunder descended into the world, and between Heaven and Earth, there was a flash of brilliance followed by extinction; all phenomena collapsed, scenes shifted and intertwined frequently, and a deafening sound that shook the very Heaven and Earth—indescribable by pen and ink—roared and vibrated between Heaven and Earth.

The sky collapsed and the earth cracked—a true collapse of the sky and cracking of the earth. The time and space surrounding the Corpse Bone Giant Buddha seemed to have been completely shattered by the streaks of thunder, then transformed into a vast sea of boiling, exploding, and raging waves composed of destructive light and fire, submerging and crushing everything.

The thunderous, tsunami-like roar shook the firmament until it trembled and the earth until it hissed. Within a radius of one mile where the Corpse Bone Giant Buddha existed, all corpses and evil, dead Qi evaporated directly, while the Corpse Demons further away scattered like a swarm of ants, their bodies torn apart in the destructive shockwave.

Lu Yuan's tactics were interlinked; it could be clearly seen that the Corpse Bone Giant Buddha had no power to resist, let alone escape, and almost all the skeletons that made up its body were smashed to pieces under the wild bombardment of Heavenly Thunder, turning into fly ash.

However.

It was at this very moment that Lu Yuan, whose full attention was focused and whose divine sense was locked onto dozens of miles, felt a sudden stir in his heart. He perceived that in the destructive zone of raging thunder he had created, a humanoid skeleton seemed to have dived into the ground at an extremely high speed.

A Four-Tier Heavenly Corpse would certainly bring a significant gain in Heavenly Dao Merit. Lu Yuan guessed in an instant that the one who had dived underground was very likely the true body of the Corpse Bone Giant Buddha, so he immediately leaped through the void, supplemented by the Earth Travel technique, and rushed into the ground at high speed to pursue it.

With the "Flying Body and Hiding Traces" technique combined with Earth Travel, he moved as if on flat ground even underground, allowing him to exert extreme speed. With his divine sense locked on, he caught up in no more than three to five blinks of an eye.

"Freeze!"

After approaching, Lu Yuan unleashed the Body Immobilization supernatural power with a low shout, ignoring the obstruction of layers of soil to instantly freeze the humanoid skeleton fleeing several dozen zhang below;

At the same time, the Flying Sword Sword Pill shot out from between Lu Yuan's eyebrows, breaking through layers of soil with the force of a thunderbolt, and pierced through its body in an instant with lightning speed!