Chapter 246: Dark Tiger's Town Execution, Fierce Battle Slaying Enemies

A combo attack instantly brought down Red Fiend. Already severely wounded and entangled by the Fiend-Suppressing Malicious Curse, her power had plummeted to rock bottom. Even the demonic core within her body was unstable, indicating fundamental damage.

As for White Fiend, aside from the golden armored zombie he released, all his cadaveric accumulated power had been shattered to dust by the Thunder Black Tiger. The ancient Heavenly Soul Sect truly lived up to its reputation as a dominant force. The power of the human formation, derived from the earth formation, was terrifying!

As a life-bound zombie, the golden armored zombie was also severely damaged when its master died. However, it gained freedom and transformed into a wild zombie. Logically, it should have fled immediately. Yet, for some unknown reason, it lunged towards Red Fiend. How could Wang Yu tolerate such a sight?

*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!* Five black ice wheels shot forth. With a spread of his Frost Moon Wings, he gave chase alongside the Lunar Fiend Corpse.

What happened next utterly astounded him. He finally understood why the Listening Wind Pavilion had deemed the cultivation method practiced by the Red and White Fiends as an evil art; this stuff was simply perverse, even by Chiyuan's standards.

The golden armored zombie embraced Red Fiend, and its golden armor spread, encasing them both in a golden egg covered in ridge-like scales. The five ice wheels struck fiercely, sparking a large burst of flames, but shattered in unison within two or three breaths. The golden egg's barrier, appearing hazy as if veiled by thin gauze, remained. Although fine cracks appeared, they healed instantly.

The most significant part was the hazy image within.

—Copulation!

He had thought "dual cultivation" referred to the Red and White Fiends as a cultivation couple, but in reality... it was indescribable.

In short, the reason the golden armored zombie saved Red Fiend was now clear. It was an instinctive action. Years of evil qi from yin-yang harmonization had transformed its zombie body. It not only possessed the instinct to protect Red Fiend but also an evil art to merge with Red Fiend's soul.

Wang Yu took a deep breath. He stepped on the empty air, as if standing on the wind. Pulling his right hand back, power flowed from his feet, through his waist, and then twisted his hip bone to drive his spine, unleashing his right hand like an arrow from a bow!

"Aung—"

His qi and blood transformed into a dark demonic flood dragon. This punch manifested a ferocious twenty-meter-long flood dragon, and the Profound Yin Hand detached from his body. The two surprisingly merged in mid-air. A perfect combination of power and technique! The grayish-black giant hand grew scales, forming dragon claws, and roared forth with an unparalleled might!

The combined power unleashed by the two was Wang Yu's strongest trump card, aside from his divine abilities. Even the defensive golden shell formed by the golden armored zombie's armor shattered with a roar.

The golden armored zombie was knocked to the ground, and Red Fiend's tattered body was torn into pieces. A Core Formation cultivator's physical body wouldn't explode into mere flesh, but such injuries were undeniably fatal.

Wang Yu's divine sense swept over, launching several Soul-Shattering Fingers directly at the golden armored zombie. A low groan echoed, but it was a woman's voice: "You—deserve to die!!!"

The piercing shriek swept away the dust. Only then did Wang Yu discover that Red Fiend's corpse had a blood-filled hole through her body, and the golden core inside had vanished.

The golden core is a product of cultivation reaching a certain realm. It is neither entirely tangible nor intangible; trying to extract it directly from the chest or abdomen is incorrect and would yield nothing. Generally, only when the physical body dies does the golden core, where the spiritual soul resides, gain true physicality.

However, the golden core is a treasure much coveted by demonic cultivators. A technique called "Core Extraction Hand" was developed by an old Nascent Soul demon, eventually spreading throughout Chiyuan, though rogue cultivators couldn't hope to learn it. This is an advanced technique for manipulating energy. Wang Yu had naturally learned it; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to extract the Golden Core and obliterate the spirit of the Blazing Master after killing him.

But for a zombie to use such an advanced technique was truly strange. Taking over the zombie body caused an extremely severe backlash to Red Fiend's soul. The fiendish qi of heaven and earth is most harmful to souls, and zombies are born from refined fiendish qi. She had almost lost her sanity.

She roared and charged towards Wang Yu. Just then, the belated Lunar Fiend Corpse charged headlong, knocking Red Fiend flying with a headbutt, while also being sent flying backward itself. The Fiend Corpse's physical body was no match for the Armored Corpse's. But it had more transformations. Red Fiend, having taken over the corpse's body, seemed to have forgotten a cultivator's methods and was clumsily fighting with an unfamiliar physical body.

When it charged again, the Malicious Corpse-Suppressing Curse descended once more. The Lunar Fiend Corpse controlled the moon fiend qi, scattering the golden armored zombie's armor into disarray. Layers of grayish-white flesh were scraped off its seemingly bronze-skinned, iron-boned body.

At that moment, the Ice Chi Pill Flame transformed into a long blue dragon, another trump card in his hand capable of inflicting fatal damage on Core Formation cultivators. His right hand felt somewhat drained after the previous full-power strike. So he fully unleashed the Ice Chi Pill Flame. The surging flames, combined with the moon fiend qi, created a dual assault of ice and fire, forcing the golden armored zombie to its knees.

Bones audibly dislocated with a crunch. The Fiend Corpse roared, moon fiend qi forming corporeal claws that, with a *plop*, disemboweled the target, now unprotected by its golden armor. With multiple layers of weakening, the Lunar Fiend Corpse completely suppressed its opponent.

Wang Yu seized the opportunity to rush forward, fully activating his divine sense. He fiercely tapped with a Soul-Shattering Finger, disrupting Red Fiend's consciousness. Extending his left index and middle fingers, he swiftly pierced the abdomen as if through mere flesh, gripping a still-warm Golden Core and rapidly extracting it.

The Golden Core's fluctuating state quickly stabilized. Red Fiend's wailing face faintly appeared on it. Wang Yu snorted coldly, clutching it tightly, his fist enveloped in materialized killing intent. After a few breaths, the Golden Core's vibrations settled. When he opened his hand, the previously perfectly round core showed several cracks. This was unavoidable; obliterating the spirit residing within would cause the Golden Core to crack. With the Golden Core's protection, neither the Soul-Devouring Evil Armor Art nor the Ghost Cry Flute could extract her. It was a matter of trade-offs.

The most intense battle concluded. Wang Yu looked at the golden armored zombie, now suppressed by the Fiend Corpse, and took out a corpse-suppressing talisman bag. A dense multitude of talismans wrapped it like a mummy. He then used a Soul-Suppressing Bell to lock the golden armored zombie's consciousness, superimposed a double seal with the Ice Coffin Sealing Art, and finally stored it in the Lunar Fiend-Nourishing Coffin. He had no intention of keeping such an ordinary armored zombie. It would be better to feed it to the Thunder Zombie to help it advance to the third tier.

The spoils from this fight were meager: only Red Fiend's corpse and her storage ring. The corpses of the two Wan family brothers also yielded some minor gains. Excluding magic treasures and spiritual items, the total spirit stones amounted to roughly 600,000, mostly contributed by Red Fiend. Her storage ring contained the most peculiar items. It was evident that most of them came from targets she had killed, primarily second-tier, with at least a dozen such items. Her life-bound magic treasure, the Ten Thousand Ghosts Red Sleeve, was only low-grade, and its value was greatly diminished after being severely damaged by the Thunder Black Tiger.

Recalling the Thunder Black Tiger, Wang Yu slapped his palm. "Damn, I forgot about Array Master Long!"

After a search, Wang Yu found her behind a large boulder. Her aura was very weak; she looked as if she had been soaked in blood, with burst blood vessels all over her body. Despite her weakness, her condition was stable, and her life was not in danger.

Fumbling with the Sea Heart Ring on his index finger, he hesitated whether to save her. Due to their contract, he couldn't personally harm Long Yiran, but if he didn't save her, she would surely die on this demonic mountain. Yet, he recalled Long Yiran's words "found it" before she fell unconscious, which was clearly a hook to entice him to save her. She knew the risks of activating the geomancy formation here. But she did it anyway.

"Right, I still need her help to find the Heavenly Soul Sect ruins. She can't die yet," Wang Yu muttered to himself.

He found several top-grade second-tier spiritual pills for healing, force-fed them to Long Yiran, and then carried her away, temporarily leaving Ghost Mountain. At the edge, he burrowed underground. He used a set of second-tier concealment array flags to temporarily hide.

Several days passed. Only when he had fully recovered did Long Yiran awaken from her coma.

"Ugh—" She rubbed her head, which felt like it was splitting. Her Niwan Palace was empty, her true essence less than fifty percent, and her entire body ached intensely. As she struggled to sit up, she saw Wang Yu's figure and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Brother... Wang... Where are we? What happened to the Red and White Fiends?"

"They're dead. We're underground, at the edge of Ghost Mountain." Wang Yu's expression was complex as he continued. "You should focus on healing. We'll search again once you've recovered."

"Alright."

Seeing her take out her combat provisions and begin recovering, Wang Yu also moved to another corner and started cultivating. After the fierce battle, the true essence within him was incredibly active. Although he was still mentally fatigued, he didn't want to delay further. He took out the Black Cloud Wormgrass he hadn't fully refined before. He silently refined it, increasing his true essence.

Slot Six also continuously provided him with information and experience regarding geomancy secret arts. He was very curious about Long Yiran's method of activating a "formation." If he could master even a little, he would gain another trump card. It would be most suitable for pursuit or escape, allowing for instantaneous counter-kills, an unreasonably powerful ability.

Several more months passed. When the Black Cloud Wormgrass was completely refined and Wang Yu's true essence limit surpassed 3,300 drops, the sickly Long Yiran finally recovered. She then answered the question Wang Yu had long been curious about.

"That ability can only be used through array formations combined with geomancy. You saw the consequences: spiritual sense depletion, dried-up true essence, and severe physical injuries. These are side effects from being suppressed by the power of heaven and earth, providing only one strike. And it was only possible because this place was special enough, having been improved by a geomancer. That's how I could activate it relatively quickly. Truly applying it in combat is much more difficult than you imagine."

Hearing this, Wang Yu couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Requiring array formations and specific terrain meant the conditions for use were indeed quite stringent. But if it were in ruins... He thought of the ancient ruins of Dongji Jing. Such places should also have special earth formations. Once his Qi-Gazing Golden Eyes reached minor accomplishment, he might be able to observe them upon returning.

Now possessing two types of eye techniques, there hadn't been any conflict. The Lunar Nether Eyes, like the Corpse Demon Secret Art, were both transformation-type secret arts, deepening step by step, extremely stable and practical. The Qi-Gazing Golden Eyes, however, were purely a secret art, only effective when used. Since the two secret arts were not of the same type, they did not conflict.

At this point, Long Yiran spoke. "After such a long delay, I'm finally recovered. Let's return to Ghost Mountain. I know where the Heavenly Soul Sect ruins are."

"How so?"