Chapter 193 – War Breaks Out! The Gourd Spirit Weapon and the Crushing Might of a Fifth Rank Martial Artist - Part 1
Meadowview County, Northriver Prefecture.
This place sat behind Eastspring County. And as of late, Eastspring County had become the front lines.
The battles between the undying husks and martial artists raged in Eastspring and what was once Westplain County. Naturally, wounded martial artists weren’t suited to remain on the front lines, so Meadowview became the perfect place to house and treat them.
The two envoys, Mu Hua of the Holy Tree Temple and Shan Baishou of MountainHall, were both recuperating in Meadowview on account of their injuries.
Once a martial artist reached sixth rank, their recovery speed was nothing short of astonishing. As long as they weren’t killed outright, they could employ their ancestral seal shadow blood to mend their wounds. Even if a hand or foot were severed, or if their body was split in half, they could still regenerate.
But that only applied to normal wounds. The methods of the undying husk seemed inherently hostile to martial artists. Wherever their attacks struck, they tainted the flesh with an eerie Yin energy. To heal, martial artists had to bombard the injury with shadow blood, repeatedly purging it of that noxious Yin. Until the Yin energy was gone, the wound wouldn’t truly heal.
Mu Hua had almost been turned completely into sugar by an undying husk’s attack. Thankfully, he was quick to react, slamming shadow blood into the affected parts of his body during the transformation, preserving a sliver of life. Once he stabilized, his subordinates shielded him from further danger, and the undying husk made no attempt at a prolonged assault.
After all, undying husks were notoriously scarce in numbers and fought like assassins, striking once before vanishing without a trace. So, people in the martial world had begun calling them ghost assassins, distinguishing them from human killers who relied on poison, hidden weapons, or disguises. The bizarre capabilities of undying husks opened entirely new avenues for assassination.
While Mu Hua recuperated, he used shadow blood to gradually push the lingering Yin energy into his left arm, which had turned to sugar. A careless bump or crack would have cost him the arm altogether. Over time, that sugar arm was purged of Yin energy and restored to flesh and blood, once again circulating with shadow blood.
By now, Mu Hua was fully recovered. But instead of hurrying back to the front lines, he took to wandering about the county...partly to reacquaint himself with his renewed body, and partly to mull over strategies for dealing with the undying husk.