54: The Strange Corpse of Kalzak

The Cat Demon jumped back with great agility, dodging Jian Wuxie's Greatsword. Then, it raised its claws as green magical light emerged, transforming into specks of green light that flew toward the spots where the seeds had just been buried.

Suddenly, a massive amount of life aura erupted from those pits. With a 'hula-la' sound, green plants instantly burst from the soil, growing to half a person's height before red flowers bloomed at their tops.

Xiao Hongyuan said with a grim expression, "We've been tricked. Everything it planted are those Trap Flowers!"

The Cat Demon's figure flickered in and out of sight within the flower patch, occasionally poking its head out to show a provocative expression to the four.

"Hmph, you dare provoke me after planting just a few of these things? Watch me cut them all down!" Jian Wuxie snorted coldly. He brought his sword to the edge of the flower patch and swung his Greatsword in a horizontal sweep, intending to cut the plants down first.

Just as Jian Wuxie approached the edge of the flowers, a cold flash suddenly struck. Caught off guard, three bloody gashes were left on his shoulder.

Jian Wuxie gritted his teeth and snorted, about to chase after and attack the Cat Demon. But as soon as he neared the flowers, the few closest to him suddenly retracted into the ground with a 'sou' sound, then shot out with a 'shua' sound, transforming into barbed thorns.

Jian Wuxie hurriedly jumped back to dodge, glaring through gritted teeth at the Cat Demon hidden in the flowers with a face full of provocation.

Xiao Hongyuan smiled at the sight and said softly, "Hehe, if one person came in, they might be helpless against it, but with so many of us, it's dead for sure."

After speaking, Xiao Hongyuan turned to A Fei and said, "The two of us will cut down these Thorn Flowers. Junior Brother, you keep your eyes on the Cat Demon. If it dares to come out and attack again, use Wave Split Slash to control it!"

With that, the group quickly took their positions. Xiao Hongyuan and A Fei stood on either side of Jian Wuxie and began swinging their swords to cut the Thorn Flowers, while Jian Wuxie held his sword and focused his attention, waiting for the Cat Demon to lose its patience and strike.

Quan Wudi stood behind Jian Wuxie, ready to step in at any moment.

As Xiao Hongyuan and A Fei cut down large patches of Thorn Flowers, the Cat Demon finally couldn't hold back. Using the flowers as cover, it suddenly lunged out, swinging its cold, flashing claws to attack A Fei on the side.

Jian Wuxie's eyes lit up, and he immediately unleashed a Wave Split Slash. The Cat Demon was caught, and a large area of blue sword shadows swirled, shredding an entire corner of the flower patch.

Quan Wudi saw his chance and grabbed the Cat Demon just as it broke free from the restraint of the Wave Split Slash. With a lightning-fast Suplex, he dragged the Cat Demon directly out of the flower patch.

The other three moved with perfect coordination to Block the Cat Demon's path of retreat, effectively surrounding it in a Zombie-style encirclement.

Jian Wuxie wiped the residual sap from his sword while looking at the Cat Demon surrounded by the four of them, saying, "Hehe, like sneak attacks, do you? Acting cute, are you?"

Jian Wuxie's Cross Slash struck directly, leaving a cross-shaped wound on the Cat Demon's body as blood sprayed out instantly.

"Weren't you acting all tough in the flowers just now?" Jian Wuxie gritted his teeth, shouting while hacking with his sword, "Scratch me! Go on, be arrogant again, you damn thing!"

The Cat Demon let out a miserable wail. Without the cover of the Thorn Flowers, its strength was not much greater than that of an ordinary Cat Demon.

Under the four's combined attack, the Cat Demon's counterattacks were all blocked by their Block skills.

Soon, the Cat Demon shrieked and vanished into a white light.

Quan Wudi laughed, "It seems not everything is dangerous; this Cat Demon was quite easy to deal with."

The four continued forward, chatting and laughing, only to find a familiar scene appearing ahead.

Corpses. Corpses lay scattered all over the ground. However, the difference this time was that the degree of decay didn't seem high. No bones were exposed; instead, it looked as if they had been skinned alive, with bright red flesh exposed to the air.

"Heh, expecting us to fall for the same trick again?" Quan Wudi laughed.

"Like lying there playing dead, do you? I'll let you play!" Jian Wuxie raised his Greatsword and chopped down at the corpse nearest to him.

With three muffled 'pu pu pu' sounds of flesh being struck, the corpse on the ground was chopped into three sections by Jian Wuxie.

"Hmm? It seems to be just an ordinary corpse, not a Zombie."

Quan Wudi said to Jian Wuxie, who was crouching by the corpse to observe, "Be careful. Give it a few more slashes, just in case it's faking."

Jian Wuxie thought that made sense and continued to swing his sword, hacking at the corpse on the ground.

As the Heavy Sword kept falling, bits of flesh flew everywhere, yet there was still no sign of anything unusual.

Xiao Hongyuan covered her nose and mouth with one hand and shouted at Jian Wuxie in disgust, "Stop hacking! You've almost turned it into dumpling filling. Isn't it gross? If it were a monster, it would have died long ago."

"Heh, Senior Sister, I wasn't disgusted before, but after hearing your analogy, I really am now," Jian Wuxie said with a bitter smile.

Quan Wudi chimed in from the side, "Hehe, better safe than sorry."

A Fei looked and said in a heavy voice, "It seems these are just ordinary corpses, not monsters."

Xiao Hongyuan's brow furrowed slightly as she said, "It's impossible for this room to have no monsters. Everyone stay alert and test every corpse."

Thus, Jian Wuxie took the lead in scouting, kicking every corpse he passed and waiting a moment to see if there was any movement before continuing forward.

After the four had passed about ten corpses, one ahead caught their attention. It looked the same as the others but was noticeably larger, with bulging, strange, blood-red flesh.

Xiao Hongyuan instinctively sensed something was wrong and signaled Jian Wuxie to test it first.

Jian Wuxie approached the corpse, and just as he was about to kick it, he suddenly heard the corpse on the ground call out in a raspy, blurred voice, "Karlzack!"

Jian Wuxie was greatly startled and immediately swung his sword in an Uppercut, wanting to strike first.

The corpse was indeed sent flying into the air by Jian Wuxie's Uppercut. After crashing heavily to the ground, it instantly and nimbly stood up.

It looked up to the sky and roared loudly, "Karlzack!"

Those red-fleshed corpses the four had just passed actually began to crawl up one after another. Behind the tall corpse, the sound of bone-on-bone grinding could also be heard, as clearly many more corpses were standing up.

"Crap, we still fell for it!" Quan Wudi roared.

Xiao Hongyuan remained calm and shouted, "Before they surround us, use the old method—break out of the encirclement!"

The four practicedly picked a corner of the forest and quickly ran toward it.

Those blood-red Zombies still slowly began to surround them.

Quan Wudi laughed, "Hehe, now that we have experience, these things aren't so scary anymore."

Just as the four were preparing to use their old method to slowly grind them down, the blood-red Zombies stopped approaching. Instead, they all raised their hands high. A pitch-black Magic Ball with purple light around the edges formed between their hands, and they threw them at the four.

Those dazzling Magic Balls instantly struck Jian Wuxie and Quan Wudi, who were at the very front. The two didn't even have time to let out a cry before their life values hit zero and they became corpses.

Xiao Hongyuan never imagined that these Zombies would have ranged attacks!

A Fei immediately moved to fill the gap, stepping forward to release a skill. A wave of Flaming Sword Qi appeared, lunging toward the crowd of corpses in front of him.

The other Zombies were pushed back by the Flaming Sword Qi, but the tall Zombie roared "Karlzack!" and actually ignored the skill's knockback effect. It lunged forward with extreme speed, grabbed A Fei, and opened its large mouth to bite him repeatedly.

Xiao Hongyuan hurriedly released a Wave Split Slash to save A Fei. Before A Fei could even catch his breath, the second wave of Magic Balls arrived, directly engulfing the two of them.

At this time, outside Tianquan Peak, the Divine Sword Sect Master stood in mid-air with an Old Monk, looking at Tianquan Peak surrounded by Devilish Qi with a face full of bewilderment.

"What's going on? I was only gone for a day, how did it turn into this?" Jian Wenxuan muttered to himself, his eyes wide with confusion.