Immortality Through Array Formations (The Quest for Immortality)

Chapter 953: The Flesh-and-Blood Corpse Effigy (Corpse Statue)

"What in the world… is this thing?"

Hui No. 2 said with a trembling voice.

Before opening the coffin, he had already suspected that such a large copper coffin might contain some "big thing."

But he hadn't expected it to be this big — or this horrifying. It looked like an effigy of flesh and blood, cobbled together from countless corpses, fused and poured into a single monstrous form.

This flesh-and-blood corpse effigy was more than ten men tall. Once its aura was fully unleashed, it reeked of rot and was steeped in chilling yin energy that struck terror into the heart.

Like all corpse-type entities, it craved flesh and blood.

This massive effigy was no exception.

Sensing the presence of the living around it, two splits cracked open across its deformed, massive head — forming what looked like two jet-black, blood-red eyes that locked onto Hui No. 2 and the others.

At the same time, its body began to writhe. A sweep of its fleshy, monstrous arm sent a bloody gale howling toward the group.

Hui No. 2 was shocked, but did not flee.

With such a foe, running would only hasten death.

Not to mention, he was the closest — even if he wanted to run, he couldn't.

"Everyone, attack together! Suppress this abomination!"

Hui No. 2 roared, then gritted his teeth and pulled out an entire bottle of blood wine, pouring it onto the formation. He also bit open his fingertip and dotted blood onto his forehead, forming seals with his hand while chanting a mysterious Daoist incantation, fully activating the strange array — neither true formation nor true talisman — that he had laid earlier.

In an instant, the ancient array lit up brilliantly.

Complex, archaic runes condensed, forming a protective light barrier.

The bloody hurricane unleashed by the corpse effigy, like a tide of crimson sludge, crashed into the barrier.

A massive explosion rang out. Violent waves of energy rippled outward.

The light from the array dimmed, but the bloody surge was also partially evaporated.

The first wave had been blocked — barely.

But in the blink of an eye, the effigy roared again, a stench of rot and filth in its voice, and raised its massive arm to slam down once more.

That arm — twisted and grotesque, covered in corpses — came crashing down like a falling mountain.

Hui No. 2 had no time to dodge as he focused on maintaining the array. Seeing the attack rush toward him, he gritted his teeth and detonated the Yellow Jade Blood Talisman.

With a blinding flash, the talisman exploded — releasing a radiant golden light that surged skyward and blew the effigy's arm to pieces.

Chunks of rotting flesh rained down from the sky.

Hui No. 2 hastily summoned his lifebound treasure — an earthen shield — to block the blood rain and avoid having his own qi and blood contaminated.

The arm had been destroyed.

But in the next instant, rotting flesh and broken limbs began to recombine, forming a new, even more grotesque arm — thicker, wrapped in black miasma, and dripping blood.

Before Hui No. 2 could react, the arm, heavy with fury and decay, slammed toward him again.

But his options were now exhausted.

If he took that blow directly, his lifebound shield would shatter, and he'd die on the spot.

"Help me!"

Hui No. 2 roared, turning his head in desperation.

Without hesitation, Stone moved to his side, shouted, and activated his Golden Core power, encasing himself in a layer of earthen armor, prepared to take the blow together with Hui No. 2.

Nearby, Mouse's eyes flickered — but he didn't act. Instead, he quietly stepped back.

Surprisingly, the four black-robed cultivators all made their move.

They apparently still had use for Hui No. 2 — they didn't want him dying here.

The black-robed young master waved his sword, slashing forth arcs of blood-colored light.

The old man in black released a strange short dagger, which exuded an inky black glow.

The two burly men didn't use magic tools or weapons — they were body cultivators, who charged in with brute strength alone.

A thunderous boom echoed. The corpse effigy exploded under their joint assault.

Chunks of zombies flew through the air — some even over Mo Hua's head.

Mo Hua, anticipating this, had long since drawn a Grade 2 Nineteen-Rune Goldenstone Formation on the ground and hidden inside to avoid collateral damage.

Though it was just shy of becoming a Twenty-Rune formation, and thus unable to block direct Golden Core attacks, it was still adequate to shield against the aftermath.

Mo Hua knew he was "squishy," so he had wisely curled up inside the array.

Waves of residual power swept through.

Powerful ripples struck his formation, making the glow flicker and the array lines begin to crack — it looked ready to collapse.

But the Goldenstone Formation held firm.

When the shockwaves subsided, Mo Hua peeked up to see the scene in front of the giant brass coffin:

Hui No. 2 looked battered and bruised. His lifebound shield was dim and dull.

Stone's armor was cracked and crumbling.

Mouse stood off to the side, a bit pale, but otherwise unharmed.

The two muscular black-robed men had torn cloaks, exposing their corded muscles underneath — though their faces remained hidden.

The black-robed youth and the old man had stayed farther back, so they remained mostly unscathed.

Across from them, the massive corpse effigy had had both arms blown off under the combined assault of these six or seven Golden Core experts.

Mo Hua's heart pounded.

The corpse effigy was powerful — but these black-robed cultivators weren't weak either.

Even Hui No. 2 had real skill.

Not only had they withstood the monster's attacks, they'd even blown off its limbs in return.

Mo Hua glanced at the flesh-born effigy formed in the brass coffin, eyebrows knitting together:

"That's definitely the aura of a Dao Sin."

"But… it's not fully mutated. Just a faint trace. It hasn't completely hatched. This is just a prototype…"

If that hadn't been the case — everyone here would be dead already.

Mo Hua understood the terror of a Dao Sin all too well.

Forget six or seven Golden Core cultivators — even sixty or six hundred wouldn't make a difference.

Against a true Grade Three Dao Sin, there was only one outcome — death.

Just one such creature could bring ruin to all of Lone Mountain Prefecture, even dragging the entire Qianxue Prefecture into a cataclysmic disaster.

"This Dao Sin… was it born naturally? Or…"

"…is someone nurturing it?"

Nurturing a Dao Sin…

Mo Hua shivered.

"Could it be… Shibo is the one raising it?!"

Dao Sin harbored the mutated energies of heaven and earth. Normal cultivators feared them like the plague.

The only one who could possibly have the qualification, capability, and will to raise one — and even successfully raise one — as far as Mo Hua knew, was his Shibo.

"Shibo…"

Mo Hua frowned, lost in thought for a while… then shook his head.

"That doesn't seem right…"

The Qianxue Prefecture was not like the Dahuangshan Prefecture.

Dahuangshan was a remote, Grade Two minor region — mountainous, impoverished, and harsh for cultivation.

Qianxue Prefecture, on the other hand, was a Grade Five major prefecture, rich in cultivation culture, densely populated with aristocratic families and sects, even guarded by Hollow Void Ancestors.

Even marginal territories like Lone Mountain still fell under the influence of powerful clans.

Small tricks and minor incidents might pass, but for a notorious devil cultivator like Shibo, who bore the title of "Daoist," there was no way the authorities here would not be vigilant.

Normally, Shibo's reach shouldn't extend to Qianxue Prefecture.

And given the bizarre fate Mo Hua shared with him, if Shibo had truly come, Mo Hua should've already bumped into him—or at least sensed something.

Of course, Mo Hua would prefer never to cross paths with Shibo again.

He feared Shibo's pettiness… that the man still held a grudge.

Given their tangled history, the moment they met, Shibo would definitely want him dead.

But that was a problem for later.

Right now, the bigger issue was this flesh-and-blood corpse effigy—tainted with the aura of a Dao Sin.

Buried deep within Lone Mountain, this creature was a massive hidden danger.

If it wasn't dealt with, it wasn't just a matter of whether they could escape the tomb — the entire Lone Mountain City might be in peril.

And if this creature truly matured into a Dao Sin, then all of Qianxue Prefecture might be plunged into a massacre and catastrophe.

In times of chaos, the great families might still rely on their legacies to survive…

But the ones who would suffer most were the scattered rogue cultivators at the bottom.

Mo Hua sighed inwardly.

Just as he was lost in thought, a disturbance came from the distance once again. With a blast of bloody wind, the massive corpse effigy began to reform itself.

Hui No. 2 and the others, who had just started to relax, immediately tensed up again.

The effigy roared—a terrible sound filled with resentment, as if thousands of the dying were screaming in anguish.

At the same time, its grotesque body began to writhe and mutate.

Countless severed limbs on its body twitched to life, and from its rotting flesh, twisted zombies began to emerge.

"This is bad!"

Hui No. 2 didn't know exactly what this change signified, but he knew one thing for sure:

In tombs, the weirder things got, the less you could afford to let them keep evolving.

He took out another yellow jade talisman, this one inscribed with even more crimson runes.

"Kill!"

Hui No. 2 activated the talisman, unleashing waves of golden light toward the effigy.

The others also realized how dangerous the situation was and launched a full assault—swords, talismans, spells, and brute force, all thrown at the corpse effigy and the smaller zombies it spawned.

The scene quickly became a blood-soaked battlefield.

After an intense round of killing, they finally managed to stop the effigy's mutation.

But the effigy itself still wouldn't die.

No matter how many times it was slain, it just kept regenerating.

Hui No. 2's face turned pale.

"What the hell is this thing? Why won't it end…?"

His spiritual energy was nearly spent, and his lifebound treasure had dulled. If they kept fighting like this, he'd be drained to death.

After a moment of thought, he gritted his teeth and said,

"This won't work. We need to fall back and regroup."

The others also knew the risks and nodded in agreement.

So they unleashed one final wave of attacks, then took advantage of the effigy's regeneration delay to begin retreating.

But as Hui No. 2 pulled back, the formation broke—the Feng Shui array suppressing the brass coffin collapsed.

The yellow jade talisman had been used, and the Daoist runes around the coffin were gone.

With those restrictions lifted, the corpse effigy began regenerating even faster. In just a few heartbeats, it had already returned to its massive form, writhing and whole again.

Seeing their prey escaping, the effigy flew into a rage. Its two monstrous arms, like giant pythons, thrashed wildly in the pit, sending dirt and blood flying as it tried to snatch Hui No. 2 and his companions.

But no matter how long its arms were, there were limits.

And having hatched from the coffin, it seemed unable to leave it.

So in the end, it failed to catch the fleeing Golden Core cultivators.

Watching the escaping prey grow distant, the effigy exploded with fury. Accompanied by a guttural howl filled with countless twisted shrieks, its body began to spawn hordes of smaller corpse-creatures.

These corpse-spawns were birthed from its own flesh, infused with its corpse poison and deathly aura, like its "offspring."

They tore free from its body, screeching and clawing, then surged like a tide in pursuit of the fleeing cultivators.

The spawn came in waves upon waves, so densely packed that even Hui No. 2 felt his scalp go numb.

Even Mo Hua was stunned.

He had hidden near the edge of the pit — safe from the effigy itself.

But these corpse-spawn were different.

If they overran him, he'd be torn to pieces — not even bones would be left.

Without hesitation, Mo Hua turned and ran.

But in the chaos, another person took notice of Mo Hua's retreating figure—

It was Mouse.

The moment Mouse saw Mo Hua, his greed flared like a cat spotting prey. Uncontrollably, he chased after him.

In his mind, the tomb raid was already a bust.

A monster like that was unkillable. Just surviving would be lucky.

Since the whole trip was doomed to fail, why not catch Mo Hua, and torture out the secret of the Tomb-Seeking Talisman?

As long as he got that talisman, he could vanish without a trace…

Change his face, start over, and seek some other great fortune.

Mouse's eyes turned slightly red, and a shadowy blue-black sheen appeared between his brows as he chased after Mo Hua, face grim.

The corpse-spawn chased him.

He chased Mo Hua.

But this was nothing like the forked tunnel from before.

Back in the tunnel, Mo Hua had space to dodge and maneuver with his movement technique.

Now, with the horde of zombies on their heels, they could only run straight.

If Mo Hua tried to sidestep or slow down with a few evasive steps, the spawn would catch up instantly.

If he got swallowed by the corpse tide, those hands and teeth would tear him apart — no amount of agility would save him.

So Mo Hua could only run in a straight line.

But his Waterflow Steps weren't suited for long-distance sprinting.

He was still only Foundation Establishment. At this rate, Mouse would close the gap quickly… and Mo Hua would fall right into his hands.

Mo Hua's brow furrowed slightly.

He'd been chased by this damn rat several times now—it just wouldn't end, and his patience had run out.

Mo Hua's expression gradually turned cold.

Mouse didn't notice anything. His mind was completely focused on how to catch Mo Hua, where to take him, and how to torture the truth out of him.

Eventually, after running for the time it takes to burn an incense stick, Mouse was only an arm's length away from Mo Hua—close enough to reach out and grab him.

A glint of excitement flashed in Mouse's eyes. He immediately stretched out his rough hand and grabbed at Mo Hua's shoulder—and as expected, he caught him.

Mouse's face lit up with joy, and his gaze grew greedier.

But that joy didn't last long. In the next instant, a mist of water dispersed, and Mo Hua's figure vanished from his grasp.

Mouse froze, dazed, and couldn't help but look up.

And in that moment, he saw a pair of golden eyes.

Within those eyes—a prison of swords, boundless sword qi. A razor-sharp sword intent pierced through the air and slashed straight into Mouse's own eyes.

An intense stabbing pain exploded.

Mouse let out a scream, clutching his face. His body staggered as his spirit shuddered in terror.

"What the hell kind of demonic art is this…?!"

Before he could even think further, he felt hands grabbing at his shoulders—and another pair seizing his legs.

Not just that—his body, his head—corpse spawn hands were grabbing him from all sides.

Then one of the corpse spawn opened its jagged mouth and started gnawing on his skull.

That momentary pause caused by Mo Hua's Divine Dread Sword gaze was enough. In that instant, Mouse was overwhelmed by the horde of corpse spawn chasing behind.

Mouse panicked and struggled frantically, but the more spawn he flung off, the more climbed onto him.

In mere moments, he was completely devoured by the tide of undead—alive.

Mo Hua didn't look back.

He didn't have the luxury.

In this life-or-death situation, being chased by a corpse tide, it was already his limit to find the time to cast a Water Shadow Phantom Body, topped with a brief use of Divine Dread Sword Eyes.

Even that sword gaze—he'd only activated it for an instant.

After that, he ran without looking back.

He kept running until he reached the passage they had used to enter the underground palace. Only then did Mo Hua finally breathe a sigh of relief.

This was the path they came from—the only way out.

Mo Hua quickly slipped into the tunnel—and it seemed there were no more corpse spawn chasing after him.

Turning back, he saw the corpse tide was indeed like a wave, but most of it remained gathered around the flesh-and-blood corpse effigy. The farther from the center, the fewer spawn there were.

By the time it reached the edge of the tunnel, only a few remained.

The coffin and the effigy shared the same root—the effigy couldn't stray far from the brass coffin.

And these spawned corpse minions, being like its "children," also couldn't go too far from the main effigy.

Mo Hua exhaled slightly in relief.

"Little brother."

Someone called him. Mo Hua turned his head and saw it was Hui No. 2.

Besides Hui No. 2, there were also Stone, and the few black-robed cultivators. They had all regrouped in the tunnel.

These people were Golden Core cultivators—far stronger than Mo Hua—and had naturally run faster when the danger broke out. So they too had escaped the corpse tide.

However, at this moment, everyone's auras were weak. It was clear that the battle against the effigy, followed by the frantic escape, had drained them all.

Hui No. 2 stared at Mo Hua for a moment, then asked:

"Little brother... you're alright?"

Mo Hua let a look of relief wash over his face and nodded,

"I was lucky. I made it out."

Hui No. 2 also let out a breath, his eyes flashing faintly.

"As long as you're okay."

Mo Hua began walking deeper into the tunnel. He had only taken a few steps when a dull, heavy voice rumbled behind him:

"Where's Mouse?"

"Mouse?" Hui No. 2 was momentarily stunned. Only now did he glance around and realize that Mouse was nowhere to be seen.

The one asking was Stone.

Stone furrowed his brows and looked toward Mo Hua:

"When we were running, I saw Mouse running with you. If you got out, there's no reason he didn't. Where is he?"

Among Hui No. 2's group, though Mr. Pi was only at Foundation Establishment, his status was special.

Hui No. 2 was the leader, but Stone and Mouse were the closest in terms of friendship.

So, at a time like this, Stone was the only one who genuinely worried about Mouse.

Mo Hua shook his head.

"I was just focused on escaping… I don't know what happened to him."

Stone stared at Mo Hua for a moment, suspicion in his eyes—but after a moment of thought, he felt it wasn't likely.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator, trying to kill a Golden Core?

That was… pretty unrealistic.

Just then, a heavy set of footsteps echoed from the tunnel entrance.

Mo Hua's heart trembled. He turned around—

And saw Mouse, covered in blood and rotting flesh, bite marks all over his body, slowly walking toward them one step at a time.

His face was twisted with hatred, his eyes bloodshot, and he stared daggers at Mo Hua as he growled:

"You little bastard… you got me killed…"

(End of this Chapter)