239: Chapter 239: An Unending Flow

Xiao Ran had already walked into the first row of the corpse phalanx.

The Long Halberd was less than three feet in front of him; the tip was rusty but still sharp.

Xiao Ran held his breath and passed between two corpses.

Just then, his sleeve accidentally brushed against a corpse's Long Halberd.

"Ding~"

A light sound of metal clashing.

In the corpse's eye sockets, the ghostly green fire suddenly flickered.

It slowly lowered its head, looking in Xiao Ran's direction.

Alarm bells rang in Xiao Ran's heart; without a word, he fully activated the Guixu Vortex.

A grey-black vortex condensed in his palm, and he slapped it onto the corpse's chest.

"Bang!"

The corpse was sent flying, knocking down several corpses behind it and scattering into a pile of broken bones.

But more corpses were disturbed.

The ghostly fire in their eye sockets lit up simultaneously, changing from ghostly green to blood red.

Long Halberd were raised in unison, tips pointed at Xiao Ran.

"Boom!"

More than a thousand corpses moved at the same time.

...

Xiao Ran drew his sword, Sword Qi crisscrossing, cutting the pouncing corpses in half.

The corpses fell, broken bones scattering, but they were soon crushed by the corpses behind them.

They knew no pain, no fear.

They only followed their final command—kill all intruders.

"Clang clang clang!"

Long Halberd were like a forest, stabbing from all directions.

Xiao Ran wielded his long sword, parrying, hacking, and dodging, but the attacks were too dense.

He dodged the left, and the right came.

Dodged the right, and the top came.

Dodged the top, and the bottom came.

It was impossible to guard against everything.

A corpse's Long Halberd stabbed his back; the Guixu Body swallowed most of the power, but it still shook his blood and Qi.

Xiao Ran swung his sword back, sending the corpse's head flying.

Before he could catch his breath, three more corpses pounced.

Xiao Ran gritted his teeth, the Guixu Vortex spinning wildly, swallowing the aftershocks of the surrounding battle to convert into his own spiritual power.

His left hand condensed poison mist while his right hand held his sword; poison mist and Sword Qi erupted alternately, pushing back a wave of corpses.

But there were too many corpses.

Kill one, and two more come.

Kill two, and four more come.

Moreover, they didn't get tired or stop; they only charged tirelessly.

Xiao Ran leaned against a pillar, panting heavily.

His spiritual power was more than half depleted, the back of his clothes was riddled with holes from the Long Halberd, and blood flowed down his legs.

"I have to find a way to destroy their power source." He looked toward the pit.

In the pit, the thick yellow spring qi was still churning.

It surged and ebbed with the corpses' attack rhythm.

The human faces trapped in the mist also emitted silent roars as the mist churned.

"Just like in the illusion, the power source is the yellow spring qi."

Xiao Ran narrowed his eyes.

But this time he didn't dare use the Guixu Vortex to swallow it directly.

Because in the illusion, after he swallowed the yellow spring qi, the Yellow Springs army stopped.

But that was just an illusion; he didn't know if the real yellow spring qi would have other reactions.

"I can't worry about that much anymore."

Xiao Ran took a deep breath, kicked away the corpses in front of him, and rushed toward the pit.

The corpses chased frantically, Long Halberd stabbing at his back.

He neither dodged nor avoided, letting the Long Halberd stab his body.

It hurt so much he bared his teeth, but the Guixu Body helped him digest most of the damage.

Reaching the edge of the pit, Xiao Ran slapped his palm toward the yellow spring qi inside.

The Guixu Vortex erupted, the grey-black vortex forming a massive black hole above the pit, frantically swallowing the ghostly green mist.

The human faces in the mist let out shrill roars, struggling to escape the black hole, but were sucked into the vortex.

But this time, the yellow spring qi was not sucked dry.

There seemed to be a continuous stream of yellow spring qi surging up from below the pit; however much the vortex sucked, it replenished just as much.

The concentration of the mist remained at a stable level, with no downward trend at all.

"Can't suck it all?" Xiao Ran's expression changed.

At this moment.

The corpses behind had caught up, Long Halberd stabbing from all directions.

Unable to dodge in time, he was stabbed in the shoulder by a spear, blood splattering.

Another Long Halberd stabbed his thigh, making him gasp in pain.

"Damn it!" Xiao Ran cursed, retracted the vortex, and turned to face the battle.

He fought while retreating, moving to the side of a pillar in the hall.

Leaning against the giant pillar, he reduced the angles he could be attacked from.

His long sword waved frantically, each strike carrying the swallowing power of the Guixu Vortex, grinding the pouncing corpses into broken bones.

But the number of corpses was too great, densely packed and stretching as far as the eye could see.

"Guixu Heaven-Swallowing!"

Xiao Ran condensed the Guixu Vortex into a zhang-sized poison Dragon, which charged into the corpse crowd with bared fangs and claws.

Wherever the poison Dragon passed, corpses were corroded into white bones, and white bones were corroded into dust.

But the poison Dragon only lasted for ten breaths before being submerged by the corpse crowd.

"Guixu · Ten Thousand Swords!"

Countless tiny Sword Qi erupted from all around Xiao Ran, shooting into the corpse crowd like a rainstorm.

The Sword Qi pierced the corpses' bones, pinning them to the ground.

But as one batch fell, another batch stood up.

Xiao Ran's spiritual power was consuming rapidly, and the Guixu Vortex in his Dantian grew smaller and dimmer.

He gritted his teeth and took out a blood burning pill from his storage ring, stuffing it into his mouth.

This thing had huge side effects, but he couldn't care about that now.

As the Medicinal Pill entered his stomach, a violent power exploded within his body.

Xiao Ran's aura surged, and his spiritual power recovered by more than half.

He roared and rushed into the corpse crowd with his long sword.

"Kill!"

...

The battle lasted for half an hour.

Xiao Ran didn't know how many corpses he had killed, only that he was stepping on broken bones, and the air was filled with a decaying, sour stench.

His black robe was soaked in blood, making it impossible to distinguish between the rotten blood of the corpses and his own.

Three of his swords had broken, and the fourth one's edge was curled.

Magic Treasures were used up, Talismans were all thrown, and even the poison gas in the ten thousand poison bead was empty.

Corpses were still pouring out.

Not from the pit, but from the walls.

Those pillars made of stacked skulls—skulls were falling off one by one, recombining on the ground into new corpses.

They then picked up Long Halberd and joined the battle.

"Is there no end to this!"

Xiao Ran cursed, the Guixu Vortex spinning frantically to swallow several pouncing corpses.

But his spiritual power was about to hit bottom again.

The effects of the blood burning pill were fading, and the side effects were starting to show.

His Meridians felt like they were burning, and his Dantian was empty; he couldn't squeeze out even a sliver of spiritual power.

Another corpse pounced, its Long Halberd stabbing toward his chest.

He couldn't dodge in time and was stabbed in the left chest; he groaned as blood gushed out.

"Dammit, I'm not going to die here, am I?" He gritted his teeth and smashed the corpse's head with a punch.

At that moment, Xiao Ran noticed a detail.

The new corpses recombining from the walls were not as agile as the previous ones.

The ghostly fire in their eye sockets was pale green instead of blood red.

When their Long Halberd stabbed, the force was also much weaker.

"So, the most powerful batch of corpses has been killed off, and these are just fillers?" Xiao Ran's eyes lit up.

He took a deep breath and pulled a Magic Treasure from his storage ring.

A yellowed Talisman.

It was the Nine Heavens Thunder Talisman he had obtained in the Ancient Battlefield, Heaven Rank Low Grade, capable of summoning Nine Heavens thunder.

The power of one strike was equivalent to an attack from the Early Stage of the Void Refinement Stage.

He had originally intended to save it for dealing with the Yao Race, but he couldn't care now.

The Talisman burned, and a clap of thunder exploded in the sky.

Purple lightning struck the center of the hall, turning all corpses within a ten-zhang radius into charcoal.

The aftershocks of the lightning spread out, shattering dozens of surrounding corpses.

A brief area of empty space appeared in the hall.

Xiao Ran seized this opportunity and, dragging his injured body, rushed toward the pit.

He leaped over the piles of corpses, crossed the mountain of broken bones, and stumbled to the edge of the pit.

The equinox flower was right before his eyes.

It was entirely purple, demonic and enchanting, with dark red patterns flowing along the edges of the petals.

The stamen was black, like a wriggling insect.

The entire flower emitted a blurry purple light, reflecting on his face, eerie and beautiful.

This time, he was not deluded.

He extended his right hand, the last sliver of the Guixu Vortex condensing in his palm.

The vortex was very small, only the size of a fist, but it was his only hope.

Xiao Ran didn't dare to pick it directly with his hand.

Because the equinox flower would delude the mind; the moment he touched it, he might fall into an illusion again.

He wanted to use the Guixu Vortex to isolate the petals' spiritual power and then retrieve it from a distance.

The vortex slowly approached the equinox flower.

The purple light on the petals trembled as if resisting.

The spiritual power at the edge of the vortex came into contact with it, making a sizzling corrosion sound.

Xiao Ran clenched his teeth, pushing the vortex bit by bit toward the petals.

Three inches.

Two inches.

One inch.

The moment the petals and the vortex touched, a massive repulsive force erupted from the stamen, knocking Xiao Ran back several steps.

He steadied himself, a trace of blood overflowing from the corner of his mouth.

"Again."

Xiao Ran once again condensed the vortex and pushed it toward the equinox flower.

Once, twice, three times...

Each time he was knocked back, and each time he spat out a mouthful of blood, but he did not stop.

The seventh time.

The vortex finally enveloped the petals.

The purple light on the petals dimmed, and the black insect in the stamen stopped wriggling.

The equinox flower seemed to lose its power, becoming wilted.

Xiao Ran retracted the vortex; the equinox flower broke off from the stem and floated in the center of the vortex.

He carefully moved it into a jade bottle and sealed it.

"Got it."