Chapter 271 : Emergence of the Golden Armored Corpse
Chapter 271: Emergence of the Golden Armored Corpse
Deep within the underground tomb, at the very core of the Coffin of Heaven Corpse-Suppressing Triple Calamity Formation—
A mournful yin wind howled, as if ten thousand ghosts were weeping softly.
Seventy-two black coffins were arranged in a circular formation. Each coffin was inscribed with abstruse and obscure corpse-refining blood sigils, entwined and linked together by chains of baleful qi. They channeled stellar baleful energy and exuded a chilling aura of resentment.
Beneath the cluster of black coffins, dark red blood seeped continuously from fissures in the ground, converging into seven winding streams of blood that slowly flowed into a golden coffin suspended upside-down from the central dome.
“Creak!”
The coffin lid opened halfway, revealing a narrow gap.
In the next second, a dark-golden arm slowly reached out. Its nails were like blades, gleaming with a cold, metallic light, and the hand gripped the edge of the coffin.
Corpse qi bred yang from extreme yin. With golden skin, it could move freely under sunlight, and each motion could shake mountains and collapse earth—this was the Golden Armored Corpse, whose Five Metals Body was indestructible.
And one with dark-golden skin signified a terrifying existence only two steps away from the Golden Armored Corpse King, with strength comparable to a late-stage Golden Core cultivator.
However, upon sensing the formation’s fluctuations, this Golden Armored Corpse did not fully emerge. Instead, it retracted its arm, letting the coffin lid fall shut again, hiding once more within the golden coffin.
“Haa… finally… you’ve come!”
A voice emanated from within the golden coffin, like rusted iron grinding against itself, sending chills down one’s spine.
“But just one Golden Core… far from enough.”
As the words fell, the Golden Armored Corpse within lifted its head entirely, revealing a face of exquisite beauty.
Its eyes were void of pupils, holding only two remnants of golden corpse-fire, like flames illuminating the netherworld.
“Boom!”
“Boom!”
“Boom!”
Three of the pitch-black coffins encircling the golden coffin exploded simultaneously.
As fragments of silver-stone wood scattered, three silver streaks fell to the ground. Opening their mouths, they spewed dense corpse qi and burrowed into the earth, vanishing without a trace.
—
Outer perimeter of the Serpent Den.
Chen Beiwu lightly tapped the formation-breaking jade slip with his fingertip, illuminating streams of formation nodes.
These formation veins not only recorded the critical mechanisms of the Coffin of Heaven Corpse-Suppressing Triple Calamity Formation but also clearly pointed out how to dismantle the foundational array.
With the jade slip’s guidance, even though Chen Beiwu and Yun Yishu were both second-tier high-grade formation masters—still short of the third-tier treasure array master—they were still able to burn the key nodes with Yang Fire and easily dispel the third-tier array concealing the corpse baleful energy.
“Woof, woof, woof!”
Just then, Iron Egg gave a few low growls, his gaze fixed on the ground.
“They’re here. Right below.”
Sounding the alarm, Chen Beiwu stood on Golden Egg, riding clouds and mist into the sky. Behind him, the Cold Pool Spirit Sword shot from its sheath, turning into a streak of sword light and piercing the ground.
The moment the sword light touched earth, the ground exploded—three Silver Armored Corpses suddenly emerged.
One Silver Armored Corpse broke through the soil, its ashen-white palm striking toward Chen Beiwu. The other two each lunged toward the Senior Sister and Yun Yishu respectively.
“Whoosh!”
Under Chen Beiwu’s spiritual sense control, the Cold Pool Spirit Sword arced through the air in a half-moon trajectory, aiming precisely for the Silver Armored Corpse’s skull.
The latter gave up its sneak attack, neither dodging nor retreating, instead thrusting its right palm backward.
“Clang!!!” A piercing screech of metal rang out.
The Cold Pool Spirit Sword struck the corpse’s arm but failed to sever it. Instead, it clashed with the corpse’s claw, bursting into a shower of sparks.
Seeing this, Chen Beiwu narrowed his eyes.
Skin like silver, impervious to spiritual tools, joints nimble like the living, strength boundless, able to cast spells from life—it far surpassed Foundation Establishment cultivators of the same realm.
This was precisely the Silver Armored Corpse recorded in the Three Tablets Corpse Scripture.
Able to withstand his Cold Pool Spirit Sword, this Silver Armored Corpse’s defense alone rivaled that of a False Nascent Soul True Person.
Any ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator would likely flee upon encountering such a corpse. But Chen Beiwu had studied the texts and knew well the weaknesses of the Silver Armored Corpse.
Shua!
Chen Beiwu raised his right hand, fingers forming a sword shape, channeling mana from his dantian’s qi sea. He invoked the power of the Five Elements Mountain to convert his mana into the fire attribute, condensing a point of blistering white flame at his fingertip.
He then pointed directly at the Silver Armored Corpse.
As the fire spark left his finger, it rapidly expanded, becoming a blazing pure-yang tiger—a nemesis of yin and corpse entities—which instantly pierced through the Silver Armored Corpse’s skull.
The so-called Silver Armored Corpse, of which it was said “neither blade nor spear could harm it, nor water nor fire nor spiritual tool,” crumbled like paper beneath the pure-yang tiger’s shadow, disintegrating into ashes in just a breath’s time.
Even the residual embers continued to burn the ground for three meters upon landing.
“Qian Buhuan really did leave a backup plan,” Chen Beiwu remarked, unsurprised.
A Golden Core True Person, in pursuit of another lifetime, might abandon clan, formation, and body cultivation altogether, turning to the path of corpse refinement.
Creating a few Silver Armored Corpses to guard the refining grounds, warding off intruders, was to be expected.
Not to mention, a Golden Core cultivator’s methods were far from limited to this.
It had been worth the cost in Spirit Yuan for Chen Beiwu to purchase the second-tier supreme-grade complementary spiritual art [Blazing Sun Flame Finger] from the Immortal Alliance Official Website, specially designed to counter corpse spirits and yin fiends.
“This Silver Armored Corpse is nicely refined… just a bit lacking in realm,” the Senior Sister casually commented after igniting her opponent with a single strike.
She cultivated the pure-yang fire art Threefold Pure-Yang Multitreasure Heart-Lantern Calamity-Dissolving Scripture, a perfect counter to corpse spirits.
Had she not been studying this rare Silver Armored Corpse, she would’ve dealt with it even faster than Chen Beiwu.
“Destroy!”
Catching their gazes, Yun Yishu drew on the Luminous Formation Disk, shifting the array’s configuration, forcibly refining the Silver Armored Corpse into dregs.
“Wouldn’t taking out the Silver Armored Corpses so quickly risk alerting the enemy?” the Senior Sister asked Chen Beiwu.
The enemy’s decision to deploy Silver Armored Corpses indicated that Qian Buhuan, hidden in the depths of the tomb, had already awakened.
If things turned unfavorable, Qian Buhuan might abandon the refining site and flee at any moment.
Zhu Qiong had finally located a Golden Armored Corpse to validate her studies in spellcraft and didn’t want to miss the chance due to carelessness.
“Ownerless Dragon Vein locations are extremely rare,” Chen Beiwu smiled. “Unless absolutely forced to, Qian Buhuan will never abandon this Dragon Vein site and the Coffin of Heaven Corpse-Suppressing Triple Calamity Formation he set up in life.”
Chen Beiwu was well aware—the three Silver Armored Corpses just now had merely been Qian Buhuan’s probe, not his true trump card.
They now only needed to continue breaking the formation, force out the hidden trump cards Qian Buhuan had left behind in life and neutralize them, and they could directly enter the depths of the tomb to eliminate the not-yet-fully-formed Golden Armored Corpse.
“Junior Brother is right. It can't escape,” Yun Yishu said succinctly.
For the sake of safety during this operation, Hall Master Yu had specially bestowed upon her two third-tier Luminous Formation Disks.
These modified Luminous Formation Disks required no time-consuming setup, no spiritual sense to activate, and no special terrain to act as an array node—just the injection of mana would trigger them and automatically unfold the formation.
Even before breaking the outer formations of the corpse-refining grounds, Yun Yishu had already deployed the [Eight-Gate Reverse-Fiend Corpse-Binding Treasure Formation] disk, locking down the geography of the entire island.
Let alone Qian Buhuan not yet becoming a true Golden Armored Corpse—even if he had, he would still need to use Corpse Dao Arcana and spend over ten breaths of time to break the Eight-Gate Reverse-Fiend Corpse-Binding Treasure Formation.
And they would certainly not sit idle and let him do so.
What’s more, Yun Yishu still held the second third-tier corpse-suppressing Luminous Formation Disk bestowed by Hall Master Yu.
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
Just then, the ground surged like the Yellow River.
From all directions around the Serpent Den, thirty-six black coffins burst forth, closing in to encircle Chen Beiwu and the others.
“Boom!”
As the coffin lids flipped open, one after another Silver Armored Corpse clad in tattered Daoist robes and with skin like silver rose abruptly into the air, drawing near and exuding a heavy stench of decay.
Behind them, hundreds upon hundreds of rust-covered Iron Armored Corpses rose like a regimented army and charged forward.
Though these Iron Armored Corpses were rigid and far less agile than the Silver Armored Corpses, they could condense corpse baleful resentment to both enhance the corpse baleful power of the Silver Armored Corpses and divert incoming damage.
Gulp.
Golden Egg did not practice fire arts but could carry Chen Beiwu through the corpse horde, occasionally smashing in the skull of an attacking Silver Armored Corpse with a tail swipe, forcibly carving out a path of blood.
Iron Egg, meanwhile, threw his head back and let out a long howl. The cloak covering his body suddenly ignited, transforming into a silver stream of flame that cloaked him entirely.
His front paw stomped the ground, becoming a streak of silver light that charged the corpse horde head-on.
Where the silver flames swept, the Iron Armored Corpses combusted like oil touched by fire. Their armor melted into molten iron, their decaying flesh reduced to ash.
Only the stronger Silver Armored Corpses could barely survive by spewing corpse qi, even attempting to strike back at Iron Egg.
But Iron Egg’s expression did not change. As the Sky-Draping Cloak billowed, the sea of fire surged like waves, carrying the imposing presence of a third-realm Beast General. He clawed down upon a Silver Armored Corpse, incinerating it completely in the pure-yang blaze.
‘This black dog is not normal!’
Witnessing this, Zhu Qiong’s eyes narrowed.
No matter how restrained by pure-yang fire arts, Silver Armored Corpses were still peak Foundation Establishment entities. With their “impervious to blades, fire, and spiritual tools” trait, they could even battle a False Nascent Soul True Person.
Thirty-six Silver Armored Corpses attacking in unison could easily overwhelm several False Nascent Soul experts.
Even Zhu Qiong, being a Golden Core True Person, would need to expend real effort to annihilate thirty-six Silver Armored Corpses in one swift strike.
Yet the black dog at Junior Brother Chen’s side, despite only radiating a peak Foundation Establishment aura, was slaying Silver Armored Corpses with a speed nearly on par with her own.
‘I can't let a black dog outshine me.’
Raising her slender hand, the storage ring between her fingers glimmered. A phoenix-shaped golden hairpin shot out, transforming into dozens of golden dragons that pierced through the brows of over a dozen Silver Armored Corpses in succession.
Then, the Pure-Yang Calamity-Dissolving True Flame exploded, unleashing a sea of fire that engulfed all the Silver and Iron Armored Corpses present, melting them into surging crimson magma.
In the next instant, Zhu Qiong’s golden hairpin returned to her, and the island’s temperature soared to a level even Foundation Establishment cultivators found unbearable.
The corpse horde surrounding Chen Beiwu and the others evaporated into wisps of mist, dissipating into the heavens and earth.
‘Something’s wrong. Including the three earlier, Qian Buhuan has at least thirty-nine Silver Armored Corpses under his command,’ Yun Yishu frowned slightly.
Refining a Silver Armored Corpse was no simple task. It required the corpse of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
And Foundation Establishment cultivators were not cabbages—kill one and another sprouts.
No exaggeration—ordinary peak Qi Refining rogue cultivators had no chance of obtaining a Foundation Establishment Pill. Most Foundation Establishment cultivators in the Mountain Submergence Realm came from cultivation families affiliated with Mirror Moon Sect.
Under such circumstances, if large-scale Foundation Establishment casualties occurred in the Mountain Submergence Realm, the sect would surely learn of it—and might even step in directly.
Where, then, did the Qian Clan Patriarch obtain so many Foundation Establishment corpses? Grave-robbing alone couldn't explain it.
As Yun Yishu pondered, the earth shook and the stars shone like blood.
Corresponding to Tian Shu, Tian Xuan, Tian Ji, Tian Quan, Yu Heng, Kai Yang, and Yao Guang, seven stone steles arranged by the Big Dipper began to tremble, transforming into the Star Map of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions, activating the grand array and drawing in the baleful aura of the Greed Wolf Star to form the anomaly Greed Wolf Devours the Sun.
Under the gaze of Chen Beiwu and the others, the lingering corpse qi of the Silver and Iron Armored Corpses converged into a torrential stream of death, swept up by the Greed Wolf Star’s baleful force and drawn deep into the formation.
“Boom!”
Deep within the tomb, the golden coffin shattered completely—a Golden Armored Corpse, cast entirely in dark gold, took a step forward, its figure vanishing instantly.
“Be careful.”
Sensing an indescribable threat, Chen Beiwu’s expression changed slightly as he looked toward Senior Sister Yun.
“This is bad!”
Seeing golden light and baleful qi suddenly surge before her, Yun Yishu’s heart sank. She immediately activated the third-tier Luminous Formation Disk bestowed by Hall Master Yu.
“Buzz!”
The Corpse-Suppressing Formation Disk of Star-Severing and Vein-Breaking on her sleeve shattered, transforming into seventy-two Geng Metal formation flags that stabbed into the earth, forcefully anchoring the Coffin of Heaven Corpse-Suppressing Triple Calamity Formation.
After finishing this, Yun Yishu summoned her will. The third-tier treasure talisman at her waist flared brightly, forming an almost imperceptible defensive barrier over her body.
Seeing this barrier, Qian Buhuan’s eyes showed disdain. Activating Corpse Dao Arcana, his right fingernails suddenly extended, forming a three-foot-long golden light that pierced through the defense.
“Pfft!”
The golden light flashed past—Yun Yishu’s left arm was severed at the shoulder.
Before the severed limb even hit the ground, the terrifying corpse qi surrounding the Golden Armored Corpse corroded it into bare white bone.
‘To think you actually survived my strike,’ Qian Buhuan murmured with faint surprise, though he didn’t dwell on it.
He had deployed the Silver Armored Corpse horde for three purposes:
First, reconnaissance—to test and observe the cultivation realm, cultivation methods, mana fluctuations, preferred arts, and personal artifacts of Chen Beiwu and the others.
Second, resource reclamation—to use the Corpse Baleful Return to Source secret art alongside the Coffin of Heaven Corpse-Suppressing Triple Calamity Formation to extract the essence corpse qi from the Silver and Iron Armored Corpses and bolster his own strength.
Third, terrain alteration—to generate dense yin corpse mists from the mass death of Silver Armored Corpses, shaping an environment suitable for executing Corpse Dao Arcana and seizing the opportunity to ambush the weakest yet most troublesome third-tier formation master.
That’s right—Qian Buhuan had died too early to know about the Luminous Formation Disks created by Yu Shuiyao.
He mistakenly believed Yun Yishu was a third-tier formation master who had fallen from Golden Core to peak Foundation Establishment, and thus had to be eliminated first.
“Buzz.”
Elsewhere, Yun Yishu ignored the annihilated two third-tier treasure talismans at her waist. Her hands weaved seals rapidly as she used her mana to suppress the spreading poison of the Golden Armored Corpse in her left shoulder, forcibly calming her panic and barely maintaining her mental clarity.
Having lost an arm and suffering the corpse poison’s effects, her combat strength had plummeted.
Let alone deploying the Star-Severing Vein-Breaking Corpse-Suppressing Formation—if she continued to engage in the battle, she might not even be able to prevent herself from turning into a corpse.
That was why Qian Buhuan didn’t attempt to pursue her with further Corpse Dao Divine Abilities.
What was a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator suffering from corpse poison worth, even if she was a third-tier formation master?
A formation master unable to use mana would only become a liability—a flaw in her companions’ defenses, or even spark distrust among them.
‘So, are you planning to save her—or face me with everything you’ve got?’
Qian Buhuan curled his lips slightly, eyes filled with cold intent, and said, “If you make the wrong choice... it’ll be total annihilation!”
The moment his voice fell, Qian Buhuan vanished.
Even a lion uses full strength to hunt a rabbit.
One early-stage Golden Core cultivator, two peak Foundation Establishment cultivators, a peak Foundation Establishment canine beast, and a late-stage Foundation Establishment dragon beast—each was fine blood nourishment.
If he could absorb and refine them all, he might be able to further awaken the power of the Corpse King Pill within his body and solidify his cultivation realm.
His only regret was that despite using the dragon vein’s energy to nourish and refine the Corpse King Pill for years, and deliberately setting a legacy artifact trap, he had only managed to lure in one early-stage Golden Core cultivator.
He wasn't sure if that counted as the karmic tribulation he had to face on the path to becoming a Corpse King.