Chapter 623: The One Calling the Calamitous Corruption

It was the fragment of the Pure Lotus Sword!

After Hu Chuan transformed into that disturbing shape, Lu Yibei immediately noticed the ferule floating among the objects around him. Her attention, however, was quickly diverted.

Her vision blurred. Before her eyes, the writhing pale flesh shrouded in chaotic light underwent a world-shaking change.

It became a fluffy, round pink rabbit several meters tall, wearing the crying-with-laughter meme as its face and constantly emitting irritating, chattering cries.

The sight was extraordinarily hypnotic.

Even the objects orbiting it were now densely covered in palm-sized Pink Fluffy Bunnies.

As Hu Chuan pushed the Calamitous Corruption’s power to its limit, the ideological stamp the PL girl had left in Lu Yibei’s mind began taking effect.

“…” Lu Yibei stared at the scene, the corner of her eye twitching.

Damn it. Am I fucking cursed when it comes to rabbits or what?

Why am I always fighting these freakish things that look like they crawled out of some cursed children’s show? Lu Yibei thought.

While she complained inwardly, another crimson streak followed the dark-gold alms bowl and shot toward the Shuishu Shou (Water Savage Beast).

As it approached, pale viscous liquid emerged, writhed, expanded, and changed shape. Within a breath, it became a half-human, half-tiger haunting and pounced.

Its claws raked across the Shuishu Shou’s jade-green scales with a piercing scrape, throwing sparks and leaving white marks.

Its mouth, packed with steel-needle teeth, bit into the Shuishu Shou’s throat and drew a pained howl.

“Awooo—!”

“Big Cousin!”

Seeing the Shuishu Shou in danger, Lu Yibei cried out and instinctively stepped forward to help.

At that moment, a hum like a struck bronze bell echoed beside her ears and drew her attention back to the warrior monk formed from the alms bowl.

Her focus had been diverted twice, and the monk was already before her. His muscular, nearly three-meter body moved sideways and blocked her view of the Shuishu Shou, as though reminding her who her opponent was.

“Damn it!”

Lu Yibei cursed softly and swept a row of Body Beyond the Body bubbles across the space before her.

Crimson light blazed from them, followed by thunderous explosions.

Concealed by the rising flames, Lu Yibei pushed off the ground and flew backward.

The next instant, the warrior monk tore through the fire and pursued her.

The resonant hum filled the deserted expressway in the rain. Golden patterns appeared across his dark-gold body, traveled along the sharp lines of his muscles, and converged on his back.

Another hum sounded, and a golden phantom with two heads and four arms appeared behind him.

“…”

That’s probably the Spirit Pattern he had in life. It seems damaged, so I can’t identify its type…

His psychic energy fluctuation is around Class B+. If I evade one strike, there’s a chance I can kill him…

His charge uses no discernible body technique. He’s relying entirely on physical strength and isn’t very agile…

As Lu Yibei retreated, she watched the phantom and rapidly assessed the warrior monk’s strength.

Then, like a faint current crossing her brain, a premonitory thought flashed through her mind.

【He throws a punch straight ahead.】

From more than ten paces away, the warrior monk punched.

The instant his fist moved, his speed surged. Maintaining the punching posture, he streaked across the expressway like a brilliant meteor. Water sprayed from the road as he closed the distance in an instant.

This punch packs 3.7 old rabbits’ worth of power!

Not bad. A little slower than I expected… Lu Yibei thought as he approached.

She twisted her waist and spun left.

Their figures briefly crossed.

The monk’s fist swept past the tip of her nose.

Then.

Then, while his momentum still carried him forward, Lu Yibei lowered herself, turned, stepped in, and struck.

Taihe Gentleman Sword: Wind Chasing Order!

The Pure Lotus Sword drew a blue-green arc across the monk’s waist.

Like a blade cutting metal, the angled sword-light carved through the dark-gold body covered in golden patterns and raised a shower of sparks.

It severed him at the waist!

Splurt—!

Thick pale liquid like blood plasma erupted several meters high from his waist as his upper body fell.

Then both halves exploded with a bang.

Like water balloons punctured by needles, they sprayed vast quantities of pale gore in every direction.

Lu Yibei’s eye twitched again. She dodged carefully and avoided being covered in rabbit fur.

“…”

The PL girl’s ideological stamp was absurd. It protected her from corrosion, but it was damn near becoming a new source of mental pollution.

As the monk burst apart, swarms of Pink Fluffy Bunnies fled in every direction, and the dark-gold alms bowl fell with a clang.

The sound drew Lu Yibei’s gaze. She frowned.

A savage crack now ran through the entire vessel.

It looked as though someone had cleaved it at the waist.

Could it be… Lu Yibei connected the damaged bowl with the strike that severed the monk and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully.

The Shuishu Shou’s furious roar suddenly came from nearby, hurting her eardrums and interrupting her thoughts.

“Roar—!”

She turned and saw that the Shuishu Shou had grown several times larger without her noticing. Like a small mountain, it stood atop the half-human, half-tiger figure and howled skyward. Its golden mane whipped like banners while brilliant blue lightning raced madly between its jade scales.

Rumble—!

Deafening thunder exploded, and a colossal bolt descended, instantly swallowing the figure beneath its feet.

“…”

Big Cousin was an A+ haunting, after all.

Although it had never systematically studied spell formations or martial arts, its terrifying physical strength and innate abilities alone could cause astonishing destruction.

I worried for nothing, Lu Yibei thought.

Then the same phenomenon that followed the warrior monk’s death occurred again.

The charred figure beneath the Shuishu Shou exploded, and a tiger-fang-shaped bone knife fell to the ground, its blade burned black.

Pfft!

The Shuishu Shou sprayed mist from its nostrils and glared fiercely at the knife. It raised a front hoof and stomped.

Angry! Stomp you to death!

With a brittle crack, the bone knife became powder.

Pink Fluffy Bunnies splattered everywhere.

Lu Yibei looked from the cracked alms bowl to the shattered bone knife, then toward the bizarre mass Hu Chuan had become. Her eyes narrowed.

“Heh. I think I understand what that fellow did to himself…” she murmured.

The Inverse-Form Evil Blossom Gu could indeed affect every sense of its victim, but only if the victim still possessed senses.

Lu Yibei had already seen what happened when Esoteric Society members were corroded by Pink Fluffy Bunny’s power: they fused with objects and entered a half-human, half-object state.

“Objects” had no senses…

As the agent of the Calamitous Corruption’s power, Hu Chuan could push his portion of that power to transform his body into something between human and object, similar to an offspring entity of the Calamitous Corruption, and easily discard every sense his original body possessed.

Ordinarily, abandoning one’s senses left a person unable to perceive the outside world and helpless as a lamb awaiting slaughter.

Hu Chuan was different. He could still observe the world through the objects he controlled.

Put simply, he realized the human body had limits—so he stopped being human!

This is troublesome… Lu Yibei thought gravely as she stared at the writhing flesh in the distance.

By becoming half human and half object, Hu Chuan had minimized the effects of her enchantment and Royal Authority, indirectly weakening her combat power.

In the past, Lu Yibei would already have begun planning her escape in such a situation.

But this time…

She looked toward the Pink Fluffy Bunny shrouded in thin mist at the far end of the expressway, her brows tightly knitted.

What am I supposed to do?

The fragment of the Pure Lotus Sword and the Ancestor’s remnant soul are in his hands. I can’t simply ignore them.

And I promised to avenge the headless senior sister. If Hu Chuan escapes now, he’ll probably be even harder to handle next time.

Most importantly, if word spreads that I was routed by a swarm of Pink Fluffy Bunnies and fled in terror… It would only ruin Gu Qianqian’s reputation, but that still seems bad, doesn’t it?

After pondering, Lu Yibei’s gaze abruptly sharpened. She spun toward the Shuishu Shou and shouted, “Big Cousin, go get help! Find Huá Sāng. She knows whom to bring!”

If I couldn’t win, calling reinforcements was perfectly reasonable, right?

“There’s no need to honor the martial code when facing a demon. Everyone, attack together!” That was the fine tradition righteous people like us should uphold, Lu Yibei thought.

The Shuishu Shou hesitated, scraping a front hoof anxiously against the road and raising sparks.

“Go! I may not be able to hold on for long.”

Only then did it snort, turn, set all four hooves pounding, and gallop toward downtown Shizhou City.

A piercing avian shriek suddenly erupted.

“Screech—!”

A pitch-black sickle covered in jagged notches shot from Hu Chuan’s side. In an instant, it became a stooped figure dressed in black feathers like a malformed giant bird.

Its psychic energy fluctuation was clearly stronger than the warrior monk’s.

The eyes beneath its disheveled hair locked onto Lu Yibei, and nearly solid bloodred flames erupted from them. With a strange cry, it swung the sickle and lunged toward the departing Shuishu Shou.

Clang—!

Metal hummed as the sickle was stopped.

Lu Yibei held the Pure Lotus Sword against its blade. Slowly raising her eyes to the foul, black-mist-wreathed face, she said in a low voice, “Your opponent is here.”

Brilliant silver light erupted from the Pure Lotus Sword.

Behind her, the soft rhythm of galloping hooves faded as the Shuishu Shou’s figure was swallowed by white mist rising from the heavy rain…

Soon, a heart-stopping silence settled across the fogbound expressway.

Lu Yibei looked back, and her body suddenly stiffened.

Nine figures of different heights had silently appeared in the fog ahead. They slowly approached, and terrifying psychic energy fluctuations made the air seem solid and suffocating.

The figure at their head carried a long sword, flowing robes fluttering around a strangely familiar silhouette.

That… can’t be the person I think it is, can it? Lu Yibei’s heart tightened.

As she wondered, the Pure Lotus Sword in her hand suddenly vibrated and released a high-pitched hum.

Lu Yibei fell silent. If I tell them this is all a misunderstanding, is it too late?

————

While Lu Yibei fell into danger, those inside the Calamitous Corruption’s Divine Land also reached an impasse.

Boom—!

An enormous shadow rose from the chaos and swept toward Zhang Huainan. His brows trembled. He grasped the air, and lightning burst in his palm.

Within a breath, heaven-shaking lightning rapidly gathered into a sword and released indescribably brilliant radiance.

Vast psychic energy, condensed in the simplest and most violent manner into a sword symbolizing the power of the Five-Qi Heavenly Sovereign, met the Calamitous Corruption’s attack.

Something shattered, and countless rays of light erupted.

In an instant, innumerable cracks split the Calamitous Corruption’s Divine Land.

After parrying the blow, Zhang Huainan stared at the dazzling, turbulent chaotic colors ahead, his gaze deepening.

According to Lu Yibei’s intelligence, the Codename F haunting had corroded at least seven regions. Four were backed by catastrophe-class forces. Under the plan, the leaders of those four regions would serve as the main force suppressing it.

Yet although Zhang Huainan had reached this place through Zi Xiao Terrace, the Evil God worshiped by the Tulip Club and the Sacred Gu-King Insect venerated for generations by the Miao Border Gu Cult had appeared, while the high priest of Pashupati Temple who possessed the Mythic-Type: Mahoraga Spirit Pattern still had not.

In fact, if the temple’s high priest had appeared and the Codename F haunting had not suddenly grown restless, they should have completed the suppression half an hour ago.

That was right. For some unknown reason, the Calamitous Corruption had suddenly begun stirring.

Moments earlier, just as Zhang Huainan, the Sacred Gu-King Insect controlled by the Gu Mistress, and the Evil God worshiped by the Tulip Club were about to complete the suppression, the sleeping Calamitous Corruption began resisting.

Its enormous gelatinous body, radiating chaotic colors, scattered vast amounts of illusory colored dust while strange whispers echoed.

It resembled someone on the verge of waking, tossing between sleep and consciousness and muttering in a dream.

…

As Zhang Huainan stared at the restless colors, his hands rapidly formed seals and performed a divination to determine the cause while he sank into thought.

What is that fellow Yadu doing?

Why hasn’t he appeared yet? Zhang Huainan wondered.

At that moment, the phantom of an enormous turtle carrying the River Diagram on its back suddenly collapsed in his hands, becoming specks of starlight that sank into the point between his brows.

Light flashed through his eyes, and his body shook.

The divination had finally produced a result…

The hexagram showed that someone was calling the Codename F haunting and trying to awaken it from its sleep.

This is bad. Something terrible is about to happen! Zhang Huainan thought.

When both sides possessed catastrophe-class power, killing the opponent was already extremely difficult. The Codename F haunting had been born from a concept, making it harder still. Their only option was to suppress it while it slept…

If it awakened now and was bent on fleeing, even Zhang Huainan could not stop it.