Fourteen of the zombies were only equivalent to ordinary third-tier martial artists. They seemed to be locked by an invisible force, and even though they struggled desperately, they could not leave the bronze coffin.
Chapter Eighty: Leaving
Fourteen ordinary zombies could not break free of the invisible restraints, but the two zombies that were comparable to the peak of the third rank could!
Wang Xuan listened intently, and it seemed he heard the sound of chains breaking. Then the two zombies shot towards Li Yuanba like lightning, covering a distance of over a hundred steps in an instant!
"Dao Ancestor, save me quickly!" Li Yuanba knew his own strength; he wasn't much stronger than Yuan Tiangang. Yuan Tiangang was killed in one move, while he was being attacked by two perfect third-tier zombies and definitely wouldn't last a second move!
Without Li Yuanba's reminder, Wang Xuan had already made his move.
The Heavenly Dao Talisman floated above his head. He directly activated the Soaring Void Step and traversed the sky, his speed several times faster than those two zombies!
However, something unexpected happened to Wang Xuan. When the two zombies saw Wang Xuan flying over, one of them turned around and ran away without looking back, returning to the bottom of the bronze coffin.
Needless to say, this is the zombie that killed Yuan Tiangang. Having absorbed the life essence of Yuan Tiangang, the representative of Heaven's Will, it had developed a certain level of intelligence and knew that Wang Xuan was not someone it could afford to offend, so it immediately cowered.
"I didn't expect there to be cowards among the zombies. I'm so disappointed!" Wang Xuan cursed and flew to Li Yuanba's side. Another zombie at the Three Realms Perfection level also flew over.
"choke!"
A clear, resonant sword cry rang out, and Wang Xuan had already drawn his Azure Nether Sword. He had possessed this low-grade magic weapon for quite some time, but due to insufficient cultivation, he had been unable to wield it.
Now, with the blessing of the Heavenly Dao Talisman, Wang Xuan's strength is comparable to that of a fourth-order Transcendent Realm expert, and he can finally unleash the power of this magic weapon.
"Azure Sky Collapses!" Wang Xuan formed a sword incantation with his hands and unleashed the first move of the Burial Sword Technique.
A patch of bluish sky fell down, pinning the level 3 perfect zombie to the ground, rendering it unable to move.
A smile appeared on Wang Xuan's face as he pierced the zombie's chest with the Azure Nether Sword, its sharp sword energy penetrating the zombie's body.
The zombie immediately lost its ability to move, and if Wang Xuan wanted, he could have unleashed his sword energy with a thought and killed it on the spot.
Wang Xuan waved his hand, preparing to pick up the zombie and walk back, when he suddenly instinctively felt a chilling killing intent.
The Azure Sword slashed diagonally forward, its chilling light seemingly colliding with something. Even with the blessing of the Heavenly Dao Talisman, Wang Xuan was forced back more than ten steps, his sword-wielding arm going numb from the impact.
However, his sword strike was not without effect; at least he blocked the invisible attack and dragged back the third-tier perfect zombie.
"Is this the attack of the otherworldly invaders? It is indeed bizarre and powerful!" Wang Xuan stared intently at the bronze coffin, his mood extremely solemn.
It should be noted that he can now unleash the combat power of the early stage of the Transcendent Realm, yet he did not gain any advantage in the previous exchange.
This was only because the opponent was sealed within the ancient bronze coffin, with only a portion of their power seeping out through the seal. If the opponent were to break free, Wang Xuan would likely be instantly killed!
Based on Wang Xuan's judgment, this alien invader was probably a fifth-level expert equivalent to the Martial Dao Celestial Realm, no wonder the Sui and Tang world's Heavenly Will needed to suppress him with all its might.
Given the rich heritage of the Sui and Tang dynasties, if it weren't for the need to suppress this ancient bronze coffin, it would probably have already been upgraded to a mid-level martial arts world!
"Yuanba, this is no place to stay for long, let's go!" Wang Xuan didn't dare to linger either, carrying his spoils in one hand, and urged Li Yuanba to leave quickly.
This place was too close to the ancient bronze coffin, which made Wang Xuan feel a sense of unease.
Li Yuanba had been holding back for a long time. Now that he had Wang Xuan's permission, he took off running and ran out of the core of the Changping battlefield surrounded by the seven-colored light curtain.
But Wang Xuan stopped in his tracks, because he suddenly heard a hoarse voice in his ear: "Otherworldly powerhouse, help me escape, and I will grant you eternal life!"
"Immortality? Could it be that you want to turn me into a zombie too?" Wang Xuan sneered inwardly. "I will soon have a zombie avatar, so you won't waste your energy."
Wang Xuan carried the zombie for over a hundred steps, and the pressure from the bronze coffin dissipated considerably. Suddenly, he turned around and slashed his Azure Nether Sword down at the bronze coffin!
Wang Xuan showed no mercy with this sword strike; it was the strongest attack he could muster at the moment—the second move of the Burial Sword Technique: Burying the Mortal World!
The moment the sword was drawn, it seemed capable of cleaving through the mortal world and severing the mortal realm, instantly striking the ancient bronze coffin.
"Thump!" A muffled sound came from the bronze coffin, which trembled a few times in mid-air and then fell silent.
The item that Wang Xuan slashed with all his might didn't leave a single mark on it!
"As expected, this bronze coffin is also a magical artifact!" Wang Xuan felt even more pressure.
A Celestial-level expert paired with a powerful magic weapon would be practically invincible in this low-level martial arts world.
Wang Xuan had a premonition that even though the foundation of the Sui and Tang world had reached a level close to that of the Middle Martial World, it would definitely not be able to suppress that otherworldly powerhouse for long. Now, it was probably on the verge of the other party breaking free.
Once that powerful being from another world appears, the first one he'll probably deal with is Wang Xuan!
Although the enemy was extremely powerful, Wang Xuan had no intention of retreating.
He wanted to completely refine this world, while the powerful beings from other worlds wanted to destroy it and absorb its essence to break through their cultivation levels.
This has escalated to a conflict of principles; the two are enemies on the same path and there is no possibility of them compromising.
Moreover, Wang Xuan possesses the Eternal Tower of Heaven and Earth. If he wins, he can control a world; if he loses, he can escape at will. There is no reason not to take a gamble.
Wang Xuan gripped the Azure Nether Sword tightly in one hand and carried the third-tier perfect zombie in the other, quickly leaving the core area of the Changping Ancient Battlefield.
He looked around but couldn't see Li Yuanba anywhere, which puzzled him.
Li Yuanba was poisoned by corpse poison and was scared half to death just now. How come he left before the corpse poison was cured?
Wang Xuan didn't think much of it. After all, he wasn't the one who was infected with the corpse poison, so he wasn't in a hurry.
He looked at the zombie in his hand. This zombie had also reached the perfect level of the third rank, and was not much inferior to the one that had bitten Yuan Tiangang to death. It was just right for him to cultivate the Profound Yin Refining Form Technique.
No outsiders entered the ancient battlefield of Changping, and the zombies on the periphery had been wiped out, making it a perfect place for Wang Xuan to cultivate in seclusion.
He thrust his sword directly into the ground, and with a few casual strokes, he cut out a cave dwelling.
Wang Xuan carried the zombie and jumped into the cave. With a swipe of the Heavenly Dao Talisman, he smoothed out the ground, leaving no trace of anything unusual on the surface.
Chapter 81 Chen Qingzhi, the Incarnation of Xuan Yin!
Beneath the ancient battlefield of Changping, Wang Xuan sat cross-legged, closed his eyes and concentrated. Strands of azure light from the Heavenly Dao talisman hung down above his head, granting him power and mental state comparable to a fourth-tier Transcendent Realm expert.
Standing in front of Wang Xuan was another figure, the very zombie he had captured.
At this moment, the zombie's body was covered with dense runes. The runes seemed to have a strange, magical quality, and anyone who looked at them felt as if their mind was being sucked into them.
"Although I have never encountered zombies before, the enlightenment of the Eternal Tower of Heaven and Earth points directly to the level of laws, and the deduced techniques are absolutely correct!" Wang Xuan gritted his teeth, took the Azure Nether Sword and lightly slashed his palm, and blood immediately flowed out.
Wang Xuan, of course, wouldn't be so foolish as to strike himself with a sword out of thin air. He quickly cast several spells, guiding the blood to the zombie.
The blood was injected directly into the runes on the zombie's body, and the entire rune seemed to come alive, with countless blood-red lights flashing and writhing before finally disappearing into the zombie's body.
This was the initial refinement of the zombie. Wang Xuan had already established some connection with the zombie and was able to command it to complete some simple tasks.
But that's not enough. What Wang Xuan needs is an avatar!
He pointed, and a beam of azure light flew out from the Heavenly Dao talisman, striking Wang Xuan directly between the eyebrows.
A sharp pain shot through Wang Xuan, causing his entire body to tense up; the pain was so intense that he almost felt like he was suffocating.
This refers to pain at the soul level, because that beam of light just now severed a wisp of Wang Xuan's soul! To create an avatar, it is obviously impossible to control it perfectly without integrating one's own soul.
After waiting for a while, Wang Xuan felt the pain in his soul ease slightly, so he continued to use the spell to draw out a pea-sized amount of white light from between his eyebrows.
The white light was small, but it was a fragment of Wang Xuan's soul. Wang Xuan clapped his hands lightly, and the white light flew into the zombie's side, merging into its brow.
Zombies are born by absorbing the malevolent and deathly energy of heaven and earth. They are born without souls, and their inherent malevolent energy can even corrode their souls. If a fragment of a soul is directly injected into a zombie's body, it will be completely annihilated in a short time.
That's why Wang Xuan inscribed so many runes on the zombie's body beforehand; those runes were meant to hold fragments of the soul.
As Wang Xuan continued to cast spells, his fragments of soul gradually began to merge with the zombie. After a short while, they had become fundamentally different from a soul and transformed into a will!
Even ordinary zombies, once they reach the fourth tier, will develop willpower, granting them intelligence comparable to humans. For zombies, willpower is their soul!
Wang Xuan transformed his own soul into the zombie's will, thus refining the zombie into his own avatar. This is the Profound Yin Refining Form Technique, and this avatar can be called the Profound Yin Avatar!
After the Xuan Yin Avatar was completed, countless fragmented memories surfaced in Wang Xuan's mind.
These are the memories of that zombie before its death.
Wang Xuan seemed to see a general in white robes and riding a white horse, with a somewhat thin body, leading seven thousand Jiangnan youths across the river to launch a northern expedition, like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, to fight against a million Hu cavalry from the north!
"How is this possible! This zombie is actually him, General Chen Qingzhi in white robes!" Wang Xuan's eyes widened. He never expected that the Xuan Yin incarnation would bring him such a huge surprise.
Chen Qingzhi was born into a commoner family in the Southern Liang Dynasty. He was physically weak and could not draw a regular bow or crossbow. He was not good at riding horses or shooting arrows, but he was courageous, resourceful, and skilled at leading troops. He was a scholar-general who was deeply loved by the people.
He once led 7,000 white-robed soldiers on a northern expedition against the Northern Wei, penetrating deep into enemy territory and fighting across thousands of miles. In four months, he fought 47 battles, capturing 32 cities, all with fewer troops than his own, and ultimately defeated a million Hu cavalry, making him a formidable figure in the Central Plains.
While others typically win battles with superior numbers, Chen Qingzhi routinely defeated enemies ten or eight times his own strength. Because he favored wearing white robes, a saying circulated at the time: "Even renowned generals and strategists should not be overconfident, for thousands of troops will avoid those in white robes!"
Unexpectedly, this god-like figure turned into a zombie after his death, and then, by a twist of fate, was transformed into an avatar by Wang Xuan.
Wang Xuan couldn't help but burst into laughter; this surprise was far too great. He not only gained a powerful avatar, but also possessed Chen Qingzhi's experience in leading troops into battle.
When he returned to the main world, he was no longer afraid of even the great generals from the Three Kingdoms period.
After venting his excitement, Wang Xuan calmed down and carefully sensed the situation of the Xuan Yin Incarnation.
His avatar is a zombie body, impervious to swords and spears, and immune to water and fire. Even low-grade and mid-grade magic weapons can hardly harm him in the slightest.
To inflict damage on it, at least a high-grade magic weapon would be required.
Not only that, but this avatar has already reached the third level of perfection. As long as it absorbs the essence and blood of a few martial arts masters, and can transform from a hairy zombie into a flying zombie, it will be able to fly and escape into the earth, comparable to a fourth-level martial arts master!
Looking at his Xuan Yin incarnation, Wang Xuan couldn't help but think of another third-tier perfected zombie. If he wasn't mistaken, that zombie, like Chen Qingzhi, must have left behind illustrious achievements in history during its lifetime.
Do you really think that any human corpse can turn into a top-tier zombie?
Even if an ordinary soldier is infected with the corpse poison, after turning into a zombie, they will only become the lowest-level purple zombie. A highly skilled and valiant warrior, after death, will become a more advanced zombie.
Only those battle-hardened generals, war gods and killing gods, can accumulate enough ferocity and bloodlust to break through to the Flying Zombie level!
"It's a pity that the zombie escaped before. Otherwise, if I had caught it, I might have been able to create another Xuan Yin Incarnation." Wang Xuan felt regretful, but he didn't plan to go to the core area of the Changping battlefield again for a while.
The most urgent task now is to raise the strength of the Xuan Yin Incarnation to the fourth-order Transcendent level.
For Wang Xuan, this was not a difficult task. The outside world was currently in the late Sui Dynasty, and a great chaos was about to break out, with battles involving hundreds of thousands of people frequently occurring.
To break through the cultivation level of the Profound Yin Avatar, all you need to do is personally participate in the great battle.
Wang Xuan stood up, ready to leave. However, he suddenly felt dizzy, his face turned pale, and he collapsed back to the ground.
"The injuries caused by the splitting of my soul are too severe. It seems I will need to spend several months using my innate true energy to nourish and repair my soul before I can fully recover." Wang Xuan smiled bitterly, and with a thought, his Xuan Yin avatar suddenly punched the top of his head.
"boom!"
With a single punch, the soil above his head exploded, revealing a new passage leading to the surface.