Chapter 363: Paper Money Ghost Faces

A foul, decaying stench assailed him. A cold glint appeared in Xu Qing's eyes as his body rapidly retreated; he didn't want to waste time getting entangled with this zombie elder.

Now that he had the fragment, he intended to leave.

But the zombie quickly pursued him, the malevolent aura emanating from its body growing increasingly dense, clearly indicating it wouldn't stop until one of them was dead. A cold glint flashed in Xu Qing's eyes as he closely observed the zombie elder.

The opponent felt somewhat similar to the Sea Corpse Clan, but its joints weren't flexible. Yet, its physical toughness and regenerative abilities were far more exaggerated.

It also possessed some seemingly immortal characteristics.

"No heartbeat, no blood, lacking intelligence. It resembles a fierce beast more than a mutated cultivator, and its body is permeated with traces of time.

It seems to have no spells, but its aura and the wind it stirs up contain potent venom. This poison is a type of corpse poison, primarily causing decay.

Its physical body is robust, its combat power is above four palaces. Combined with its regeneration and immortal characteristics, it's infinitely close to five palaces." After Xu Qing's body swayed, again evading the zombie elder's pounce, he had already thoroughly analyzed the opponent in his mind.

"Its speed is slightly weaker than mine. If I use a poisonous curse, I could eliminate it, but that would be a bit wasteful.

After all, its poison is good, and its fingernails also look like excellent refining materials.

If I can find the source of its regeneration, its value would be even greater, and my time won't have been wasted."

As Xu Qing analyzed in his mind, the zombie elder, unable to touch Xu Qing several times in a row, became somewhat agitated and suddenly opened its maw, spitting something towards Xu Qing.

Immediately, a cloud of black mist surged from its mouth, rapidly enveloping Xu Qing.

"Then, I'll suppress it first, and strip it of its resources one by one." Xu Qing made his decision. Though his figure was swallowed by the toxic mist, the next instant, the mist violently exploded outwards.

A terrifying aura erupted from within, causing the toxic mist to be swept away as if by a gale, rapidly spreading outwards. A phantom blur instantly emerged from the mist.

Its speed was so great it surpassed the limits of what the naked eye could perceive, and even exceeded the zombie elder's perception. The zombie only noticed the toxic mist exploding, and the very next breath, its body was struck with a resounding thud by a powerful force that suddenly erupted before it. Its body was violently sent flying backward.

It crashed directly into the muddy wall of the deep pit hundreds of feet away.

The muddy wall trembled as the zombie elder's body was dented. It was just about to struggle, but in the blink of an eye, a black palm landed directly on its face, pressing it down fiercely.

With another roar, its head was completely pressed into the deep pit wall. No matter how it struggled, it was futile. It was at this moment that the owner of the black palm revealed his figure beside the zombie elder. It was a completely black figure; clothes, skin, and everything else were black.

And now, this blackness rapidly gathered at the figure's brow, eventually forming an eye, revealing the figure's true appearance: Xu Qing.

After merging with the shadow, Xu Qing lost his spellcasting abilities but gained extreme body refinement power. His physical combat power surpassed four Heavenly Palaces, reaching the peak of five palaces.

To Xu Qing, the zombie elder's speed was incredibly slow. At this moment, Xu Qing expressionlessly raised his right hand, grabbed the zombie elder's fingers, and with a cracking sound, snapped off all ten of its sharp, black fingernails one by one.

After a moment's thought, his right index finger landed on the zombie's neck, slowly sliding down as if searching. It finally paused at the zombie's chest and plunged fiercely inward.

Soon, he dug out a fist-sized black mist cluster. This cluster contained dense corpse poison.

After doing this, Xu Qing searched again, wanting to find the source of the zombie's regeneration.

But just then, after losing the black mist cluster, the trembling zombie suddenly paused, rapidly decayed, turning into black blood, which flowed down the indented deep pit wall.

Xu Qing watched this scene. The shadow eye on his brow spread, eventually covering Xu Qing's entire body. After re-enveloping him, it transformed into the shape of a coffin, and Xu Qing's figure then emerged from within.

His body swayed as he continued deeper into the chasm.

The surroundings grew increasingly dark, the foul stench became denser, and the feeling of coldness intensified. In the relative silence, only the faint, intermittent sound of opera singing, always present from below, continued to echo.

It carried a sense of sorrow, despair, etherealness, and chilling shrillness.

This sound constantly assailed Xu Qing's entire body, making him increasingly uncomfortable, and he couldn't block it out. At this moment, he landed on a protruding rock wall and looked down into the darkness below.

"How deep is this place?" Xu Qing murmured to himself. He continued to descend until, more than half an hour later, his figure suddenly paused, his pupils contracted, and he looked down.

Dozens of feet below, Xu Qing saw suspended corpses, not just one, but dozens. Among them was a minor sect cultivator who had once climbed a thousand feet up the Grand Beginning Isolated Abyss Pillar.

But it wasn't the young man who had attacked Xu Qing; it was a young adult.

As for the other corpses, Xu Qing also saw cultivators from the Eight Sects Alliance and disciples from the Grand Preceptor Immortal Sect.

All these people had died here. What was bizarre was that their faces were covered with yellow paper money.

The faces beneath the paper money were pale green and distorted, as if they had endured extreme agony before death. Several even held teleportation jade slips in their hands, suggesting the unexpected attack had been too sudden for them to teleport away.

On the muddy walls around them, dozens of Grand Beginning Isolated Abyss Pillar fragments were sparkling. It could even be imagined that there were certainly more fragments in their storage bags.

After all, these were the people who were among the first to leave after the trial participants entered the deep pit.

But Xu Qing did not act rashly. On one hand, everything looked like a trap; on the other hand, sheets of paper money were fluttering around these corpses.

They flew back and forth, like yellow paper butterflies, swirling and rising and falling with the aura emanating from the deep pit below.

Just as Xu Qing gazed at them, these yellow paper monies suddenly stopped fluttering and collectively turned up, like ghostly faces, looking towards Xu Qing's location.

Being watched by so many sheets of paper money, this scene was enough to send shivers down one's spine.

A sharp glint flashed in Xu Qing's eyes. The paper money collectively soared into the air with a whooshing sound, rushing straight towards him. Even joyful sounds emanated from within the paper money.

These laughs were eerie and filled with greed, seemingly craving flesh and souls. Their speed was incredibly fast, approaching in an instant.

Just as they approached, Xu Qing raised his right hand and slammed it downwards.

With this press, the power of his three Heavenly Palaces erupted. The Golden Crow materialized behind him, letting out a cry. Its wings flapped, stirring up flames that swept in all directions, intending to incinerate the paper money.

For a moment, the paper money rolled back, unable to approach. Yet, the eerie laughter from within them not only didn't disappear but became even clearer.

Immediately after, these paper monies astonishingly converged. Under Xu Qing's direct observation, a large amount of paper money formed a gigantic paper cicada.

Its wings were also formed from paper money. At this moment, the paper cicada spread its wings, flapping rapidly. As it emitted a buzzing cicada cry, the laughter from the paper money turned into spoken words, echoing through the vibration of its wings.

"Are you hungry? Do you want to eat me?"

This voice was demonic, sharp, and incredibly grating. As the sound waves crashed towards Xu Qing, they even caused the flames around Xu Qing to roll back.

The paper cicada seized the opportunity, swaying and hurtling towards Xu Qing. Its body displayed countless ghostly faces, all exuding greed and longing.

"Eat me, eat me, eat me..."

The voices were dense and constantly echoed, like countless invisible barbs piercing Xu Qing's mind.

A cold glint appeared in Xu Qing's eyes, and he was about to make a move. But the next instant, his expression suddenly darkened, and his body abruptly retreated.

Almost at the instant he retreated, the muddy wall of the pit beside him suddenly blurred. A gigantic centipede, fully ten zhang wide, emitting a strong, foul stench of decay, its body semi-transparent and appearing ethereal and illusory, directly pierced through the muddy wall of the pit. Its target was not Xu Qing, but… the paper cicada that was emitting eerie sounds.

Its speed was astonishing. In the blink of an eye, the gigantic centipede bit the paper cicada, went directly to the other end of the deep pit wall, and there, its body twisted as it bit and swallowed with all its might.

One could see a figure surprisingly seated on the centipede's back. It was a woman whose lower body was integrated into the centipede, as if they had grown together.

Her exposed upper body was unclothed, and long, black hair covered her form.

At this moment, she was holding a comb, and while combing her hair, she let out a burp and spit out a piece of undigested paper money. She then turned to look in Xu Qing's direction, raised the paper money, and smiled.

"It's quite delicious, aren't you going to eat some?"

Xu Qing was wary. This scene was too bizarre. He vaguely felt that the other party wasn't talking to him, but looking behind him.

Behind him, a black coffin now rose, emitting waves of ominous aura.

It was the shadow, stimulated, appearing on its own. A large number of eyes emerged on its surface, staring intently at the paper money in the woman's hand and blinking continuously.

"What does 'blinking' mean? Are you looking at this?" The woman on the centipede lowered her head to look at the paper money in her hand. But just then, an anomaly occurred: A ghostly face suddenly appeared on the paper money in the woman's hand and giggled at the woman.

"Are you full?"

As the words were spoken, the next instant, the centipede carrying the woman trembled, and countless paper monies visibly emerged all over it. These paper monies spread across the centipede's entire body, causing the centipede to instantly lose its semi-transparent state and become a paper centipede.

All the paper monies on its body now displayed ghostly faces, and laughter successively emanated from them, speaking the same words: "Are you full?"