Da Xuan Martial Saint

The campfire flickered.

Under the dim night sky, it barely pushed back some of the darkness.

Xiaohao stopped moving with one hand already resting on the soft sword at her waist, her gaze alertly scanning the surroundings.

Finally.

The figures in the dimness gradually emerged.

About dozens of figures appeared from all directions, surrounding the makeshift wooden shelter the two had erected. The movements of these figures were very strange, as they moved rigidly and with a faint stench of decay.

As the first figure slowly approached and was illuminated by the campfire, its body showed a strange copper color, its eyes rotten and sunken, emitting bursts of decay, and its limbs seemed unable to bend as it moved.

Seeing this scene,

Xu Hongyu's pupils narrowed slightly, but then her gaze swept around coldly, saying, "Corpse Refinement? Indeed, the Corpse Poison Jade that flowed into Yu City was not lost in ancient times but was made in recent years... Did you by chance acquire the secret technique of the Heavenly Corpse Sect, or has the sect been hidden in the world all along?"

Initially, the villain Tang Quan had infiltrated the Yu Family under the guise of a servant, concealing his identity for many years. He finally seized the opportunity to steal a Thunder Seismic Inscription, which the Yu Family had obtained by accident. Though he managed to flee to the Outer City, the Yu Family quickly uncovered his hiding place.

She personally went to capture him; during the escape, Tang Quan used a Corpse Poison Jade in front of her.

That was the first Corpse Poison Jade she ever saw.

Although she had heard of the appearance of Corpse Poison Jade in Yu City before, the news was not from South City, and hearing is not as good as seeing; hence, she did not pay much attention until she encountered one herself, prompting her to investigate the matter.

After the battle at the Black Crow Sect Main Altar, when she encountered the second piece, she returned to the Yu Family, mobilized some of their informants, and further investigated the matter. However, all these investigations came to nothing, only knowing that the Corpse Poison Jade had likely come from outside the city.

At that time, she did not consider the Heavenly Corpse Sect, given it had been extinguished hundreds of years ago and had vanished, with only historical records remaining. But later, when she personally seized one and had it thoroughly investigated, they discovered that this particular piece of Corpse Poison Jade was not left from ancient times but was recently refined.

Thus, she suspected that the secret technique of the Heavenly Corpse Sect had resurfaced.

And now,

with the appearance of refined corpses, there was no longer any doubt.

The only uncertainty was whether those who dared to use this method to refine corpses had coincidentally acquired the secret techniques buried by the Heavenly Corpse Sect, or if they were remnants of the sect that had been hiding since hundreds of years ago.

These two possibilities were quite different. If it was the former, it was not too surprising, as the Heavenly Corpse Sect's influence had spread to various areas of the Da Xuan Dynasty hundreds of years ago. Some broken inheritances buried underground that were later discovered by descendants were quite normal.

But if it were the latter...

That the remnants of the Heavenly Corpse Sect had evaded the encirclement and suppression of the Da Xuan Dynasty Court for hundreds of years, only to emerge now when the Court was weakening, was undoubtedly a much more serious situation.

"No comment."

From within the dark forest, a dry, hoarse voice replied indifferently, "You don't have anything you need to know, Demon-Slaying Office White-Clothed Guard, huh... it just so happens to be perfect for making two new corpses."

As the voice fell, the nearby copper corpses that were gradually approaching suddenly moved, all at once surging with stiff bodies but terrifying force, creating gusts of wind as they lunged towards Xu Hongyu and Xiaohao.

However,

Both Xu Hongyu and Xiaohao remained calm, swinging their soft swords in an instant, casting sheets of sword light like raindrops under the reflection of the campfire, instantly colliding with the corpse puppets attacking from all sides.

The sword light struck the multiple corpse puppets, sparking sounds of metal clashing and sending sparks flying. Yet, even as the corpse puppets, with heads and arms as hard as copper and iron, charged, they were still forcibly slashed at by the soft swords of Xu Hongyu and Xiaohao, chopping notches all around them and being consecutively repelled.

However,

These corpse puppets, despite being mutilated, seemed not to be too affected. After being repelled, they immediately lunged again, their bodies strong as copper and iron and seemingly ignoring their wounds.

Xu Hongyu, however, still maintained a cool gaze, suddenly wielding her soft sword and sweeping out a lingering sword light that abruptly slashed through, severally cutting off the neck of another approaching corpse puppet, thus decapitating it.

Thud!

The beheaded corpse puppet finally paused, like a kite with its string cut, and fell to the ground.

"Just as recorded in the books, to fell a corpse refined with a copper head and iron arms, impervious to knife and spear, one must either sever its neck or destroy its head, breaking the connection with the corpse controller," she thought to herself, looking at the fallen corpse puppet.

Seeing Xu Hongyu dispose of a corpse puppet with a single strike, Xiaohao immediately followed suit. She swung her sword, though with slightly less force, not completely severing the head of the corpse puppet but cutting off most of it.

However, even so, that corpse puppet also exhibited problems, staggering a few steps and falling to the ground, beginning to wave its limbs randomly as if out of control.

Having identified the vulnerability of the corpse puppets, Xu Hongyu and Xiaohao's sword techniques became even sharper, targeting vital spots. In a moment, they caused five or six corpse puppets to either be decapitated or fall and not get up.

But just at that moment.

That dry, hoarse voice from the dense forest once again transmitted, "The skills of the White-Clothed Guard from the Demon-Slaying Office are indeed not ordinary, my Copper Corpses seem to be of no use… Hmm, those with insufficient foundation can only be refined to this extent."

There seemed to be a hint of a sigh in the tone.

Whoosh!

A trace of cold harshness flashed in Xu Hongyu's eyes, discerning the direction from which the voice in the dense forest originated. She suddenly leapt up, lightly touched the trunk of a large tree, borrowed force in mid-air, and transformed into a beam of flowing light, heading straight towards the source of the voice.

Although it was her first encounter with corpse refinement and corpse controllers, she had thoroughly researched various materials beforehand. Not only did she understand the classification of 'Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron' in corpse refinement, she also knew that the strength of the corpse controller's original body was usually not strong.

If she could kill him, all the refined corpses would lose control, falling down like disconnected puppets.

However, before her figure could penetrate into the dense forest, a gray-white corpse puppet with a hint of silver light and markedly more agile movements suddenly appeared in the darkness ahead. It swung a punch with immense force and ferocity. Even before it reached her, a fierce gust of wind rushed towards her face.

Silver Corpse!

Xu Hongyu's expression slightly changed.

In corpse refinement, the four types of Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron corpses roughly corresponded to the Four Realms of a martial artist's flesh, skin, tendons, and bone.

Unlike the previous Copper Corpses, which, though as tough as copper and iron and far stronger than a regular Body Refinement Perfection, could match a Horizontally Trained Body, they were not agile and had no technique mastery to speak of, let alone Momentum.

They didn't even have basic boxing techniques and purely relied on their tough physiques, so in a one-on-one situation, a legitimate Martial Man with Blade Momentum who had reached Body Refinement Perfection could handle them.

And naturally, it would be very easy for someone like her, who had reached Tendon Changing Perfection, to kill them.

But Silver Corpses were different.

According to the books she had read, Silver Corpses were not only physically stronger than Copper Corpses, but the power they could unleash was also much greater than that of Copper Corpses, and they were also a bit more agile.

Whoosh!

Xu Hongyu, agile in her movements, changed her Sword Momentum in mid-air, turning it from a pointed stab to a circular arc. The two types of Sword Momentum interwoven, forming a pattern, collided with the punch thrown by the Silver Corpse.

Accompanied by a dull humming sound, the sword light unleashed by Xu Hongyu burst open.

"Indeed a bit tricky."

Xu Hongyu's attack didn't achieve the desired effect, so she borrowed momentum to leap backward, returning beside Xiaohu, and glanced at her.

The earlier attempt to assassinate the corpse controller was more of a probe since anyone daring to target her, a White-Clothed Guard of the Demon-Slaying Office, would naturally have some confidence. Now with the Silver Corpse stepping in, she immediately retreated back to the campfire.

Xiaohu repelled a corpse puppet right in front of her, and her gaze also turned to Xu Hongyu. The two didn't speak. Years of master-servant tacit understanding allowed them to understand each other's intentions just by eye contact.

Chen Mu still hadn't returned…

In the darkness of the night, the situation in the mountains was utterly unclear, and they didn't know where Chen Mu was. Since they had been attacked, it was possible that some ambush had happened to Chen Mu as well, albeit more likely on his way back.

The best strategy now was to regroup with Chen Mu and then seek an opportunity to retreat. After all, they were outnumbered and completely unaware of various aspects of the situation. There was no need to hazard continuing the battle. If they were to retreat now, they would be safe, but if Chen Mu returned later alone and fell into an ambush, his situation would be perilous!

However.

Before the two could make any decision, a dull thud suddenly came from the pitch-dark dense forest.

They saw a Copper Corpse from within the forest, its whole body flying horizontally like a cannonball, its body bending and bowing as if it had borne the brunt of an exceptionally fierce attack.

This Copper Corpse, wrapped in a gust of wind, crashed across the battlefield, straightforwardly and forcefully smashing through the three Copper Corpses in front of Xiaohu, and then tumbled chaotically to the sides.

"Has the world become so chaotic that the remnants of the Heavenly Corpse Sect dare to attack the Demon-Slaying Office?"

Along with this cold voice.

Chen Mu's figure appeared from the direction from which the Copper Corpse had flown.

Seeing Chen Mu appear, Xu Hongyu and Xiaohu immediately felt assured. Xu Hongyu, without any hesitation, immediately leaped towards Chen Mu, with Xiaohu quickly following her.

"Let's go!"

Xu Hongyu said calmly.

No sooner had her words fallen than she and Xiaohu had already passed by Chen Mu's side.

Now that Chen Mu had returned, there was no need to entangle with the opponent any further. A swift retreat was the best option. The Demon-Slaying Office was not responsible for this kind of situation. They just needed to quickly report the information back to Yu City, and naturally, personnel from the Bone Tempering Realm or even higher would come to handle it.