Chapter 22: Qin Yun Takes Action

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One after another, the immortals who charged into the secret cavern were seized and dragged into the coffin. The stench of blood and corpse aura drifting from within grew increasingly intense.

The few remaining immortal experts were still struggling desperately, while the zombie inside the coffin began gathering its strength once more.

But my gaze had already settled on the dagger embedded in the coffin lid.

I was certain that it was the dagger’s suppression which had kept the zombie from breaking free.

But why had the person who drove it into the coffin back then not simply killed the zombie inside?

Just as I was beginning to lose my patience, I saw Qin Yun move in the distance. She quickly regained her composure, but she could not conceal that fleeting trace of panic.

Qin Yun was about to break.

At that very moment, while the two sides remained locked in stalemate, someone suddenly shouted, “Yuan Zheng, don’t hide behind the coffin! It’s dangerous!”

The voice startled me. The chains whipping through the air abruptly changed direction, and more than a dozen iron cables stretched taut in midair, flying toward me from every side like spears. In an instant, they sealed off nearly every avenue around me.

At the critical moment, I suddenly sprang up onto the coffin lid and stomped down on the exposed hilt.

Originally, the dagger had only driven its blade into the coffin. Now, under the force of my blow, it pierced straight through the lid and plunged into the coffin.

I distinctly heard the muffled sound of a sharp blade tearing through leather. The iron cables shooting toward me suddenly paused.

That faint hesitation lasted no more than a second. I slipped through the gaps between the cables and landed on the ground.

As I rose, my eyes met Qin Yun’s in the distance. Behind me came the explosive crack of the coffin splintering apart.

I wheeled around, and the Floating Snow dagger slid from my sleeve into my palm.

When I fixed my eyes on the zombie that had burst out of the shattered coffin, I saw exactly what I had expected: it was dressed in an apricot-yellow Daoist robe.

Then I looked at the dagger nailed into its chest, and a sharp glint flashed through my eyes.

Though the dagger had already disappeared into the zombie’s body, I could still see a streak of blood-red light moving beneath its guard. The hilt protruding from the zombie’s chest had also darkened to the color of blood.

The freed zombie crossed its hands and pulled them inward, gripping the hilt as it tried to wrench the dagger from its body. Instead, it seemed to have seized a red-hot iron. White smoke instantly rose from both hands, and the zombie retreated several steps amid agonized shrieks.

When it steadied itself again, the wound in its chest had actually collapsed inward.

I understood!

The person who had driven the dagger into the coffin all those years ago had not been using it to suppress the zombie. They had been using the zombie to temper the dagger.

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The zombie’s arms could already bend inward, which meant it had likely reached the level of a Flying Corpse. The reason it had never been able to break through the restriction was that this dagger, attached to its body like a leech, had constantly been feeding on its vital essence and weakening it to its present state.

Given the dagger’s length, when it pierced through the coffin lid, it should have been suspended just above the corpse without touching the zombie itself. Its absorption of the zombie’s vital essence would therefore have been gradual, and the creature inside the coffin would not have sensed much.

But my kick had driven the dagger into its body, causing it to devour the zombie’s essence at full force and forcing the creature into desperation.

Unless someone helped pull out the dagger, it had no choice but to resort to drinking poison to quench its thirst—continuing to capture prey and absorb their blood in order to cling to life.

Everyone in the secret cavern was its target!

Just as I realized this, the zombie turned its bloody eyes toward my throat.

It had chosen me as its first target.

The immortals had concealed their auras, while Qin Yun was a woman. Naturally, I possessed the strongest vitality in the entire cavern.

If the zombie did not target me, then whom could it target?

As the zombie fixed its attention on me, my gaze settled on its heart.

A zombie possessed no soul; it could move only through the resentment lodged within its heart. Even after reaching the stage of a Flying Corpse—or even an Indestructible Corpse—the heart remained its fatal weakness.

Warriors had a saying: “The longer the weapon, the greater the advantage; the shorter it is, the greater the danger.”

That danger did not apply only to the person facing a short weapon. The wielder of one was equally vulnerable.

Short weapons were often designed to kill with a single strike. Their users therefore had to move with unparalleled speed and attack with extraordinary unpredictability, striking an opponent’s vital points from angles he could never anticipate.

But if the first strike failed, there might not even be an opportunity to escape.

Zombies were famed for their skin of bronze and bones of iron, impervious to blades and spears. I had little confidence that my Floating Snow dagger could pierce its body.

The cavern was also far too cramped, leaving me no room to maneuver against my opponent.

I could only prepare myself for a desperate, life-or-death gamble.

Though the Floating Snow dagger in my hand pointed toward the ground, my gaze had already become a blade aimed directly at the zombie’s heart.

One man and one dagger stood motionless as a mountain. Yet the light flickering along Floating Snow was like lightning moving through the clouds—appearing and vanishing in an instant, while concealing the force of ten thousand weights. Once unleashed, it would surely tear apart the sky.

The zombie seemed to sense the danger as well. It growled and probed forward again and again, only to stop short each time.

But this stalemate was merely a fleeting illusion.

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Under the dagger’s threat, the zombie would not remain locked in confrontation with me for long. At any moment, it might launch a fatal strike.

“Third Young Master Xiao, watch your back!” Boss Hu’s voice suddenly rang out, and I instinctively whipped around.

At some point, Qin Yun had already moved behind me.

From the corner of my eye, I clearly saw a figure dressed entirely in red burst out of Qin Yun’s body.

At that moment, Qin Yun, I, and the coffin stood perfectly aligned.

Qin Yun charged straight toward me. At such close range, I had nowhere to evade, and could only swing my blade down toward the top of her head.

Though the weapon in my hand was merely a dagger, its sharpness was astonishing. One downward slash might not split a person in two, but it was more than enough to kill an opponent in a single blow.

Qin Yun clearly saw my blade descending, yet she merely stepped to the side. Though her movement was swift, she failed to completely evade my fatal strike.

The instant Qin Yun flashed past me, her left arm fell to the ground.

Before I could understand her purpose, I saw the iron cables that had been dancing through the air drop lifelessly to the ground.

Though grievously wounded and unable to rise, Boss Hu now shouted with all his strength, “Turn around!”

I spun around—and saw the zombie less than three meters away.

“Use the dagger in its body to kill it!”

The zombie had spoken in Qin Yun’s voice.

Had Qin Yun forcibly taken control of the zombie with her own spirit?

At this moment between life and death, I could not afford to wait—and there was no time to wait.

By the time I analyzed the situation and determined whether Qin Yun was truly trying to help me or merely luring me into a trap, everything would likely be over.

In that instant, I could only choose to trust Qin Yun.

I suddenly drove off with my feet. My body shot forward like an arrow, covering several meters in an instant. Reaching the zombie, I pulled out the dagger and plunged it into the creature’s heart.

As dense corpse aura poured outward along the blade, Qin Yun’s spirit also tore free from the zombie’s back and came to a halt not far from me.