Chapter 163: CH. 163 | Corpse on Floating Island
They continued their journey until they stopped on one of the floating islands.
An active volcano towered above it, surrounded by a dense tropical forest.
The reason Lin Tian decided to stop there was because of a strange yet heartbreaking sight.
The center of the island was filled with hills and volcanic terrain, but when they reached the edge of the island, the landscape abruptly changed into a barren stretch of sandy ground.
Scattered across it were numerous corpses.
Some had already been reduced to unrecognizable remains; Many others, however, were still completely intact.
"W-What happened here?" Li Qingxue asked, panic creeping into her voice.
She walked toward another area after noticing several corpses dressed in the robes of different sects. She recognized those robes.
Sect banners and swords were planted throughout the sandy ground.
Some had snapped in half, others were completely buried beneath the sand.
Lin Tian sensed that something wasn’t right about their deaths.
He raised one hand to chest level. White qi gathered at his fingertips as he activated his cultivation eyes.
His eyes glowed white while he examined the corpses before him.
Something about them immediately caught his attention.
"Wait, Qingxue," Lin Tian said firmly.
Li Qingxue stopped instantly and turned toward him, "What is it?"
"Don’t touch anything. Keep the qi you’re releasing to an absolute minimum," Lin Tian instructed.
His warning confused her. Still, she knew he wouldn’t say something like that unless he’d discovered something unusual.
She nodded obediently, suppressing the qi radiating from her body before returning to Lin Tian’s side.
Lin Tian raised two fingers. He traced three strokes through the air, forming an ancient white rune.
With a flick of his fingers, he shot the rune into one of the corpses lying nearby.
A burst of qi echoed through the air as the ancient rune disappeared into the corpse’s body.
The corpse’s eyes suddenly flew open.
It sprang to its feet and lunged toward Lin Tian and Li Qingxue, trying to bite them.
Li Qingxue gasped and instinctively hid behind Lin Tian.
Lin Tian immediately blasted the corpse backward with a surge of spiritual qi.
"W-What’s happening to them?" Li Qingxue asked nervously.
The corpse climbed back to its feet and let out a savage roar.
Its skin turned black, purple veins spread across its body, its eyes glowed crimson with purple qi, its teeth sharpened into fangs, its tongue stretched unnaturally long, and the nails on both its hands and feet grew into razor-sharp claws.
Even so, it was still wearing its sect robe.
Li Qingxue didn’t recognize which sect it belonged to, but she knew it was definitely a sect uniform, not the clothing of a wandering cultivator.
As the corpse charged toward Lin Tian again, he reacted instantly.
He extended his spiritual qi forward, forming a massive qi hand.
The giant hand grabbed the corpse tightly, trapping it in its palm and leaving it completely unable to struggle free.
"RAAAAGH!"
The corpse could only roar and thrash wildly. No matter how hard it struggled, it couldn’t break free from Lin Tian’s grip.
"Let’s see what’s really inside your body," Lin Tian said.
He touched his forehead, drawing out a golden sphere of soul consciousness. The golden orb shot into the corpse’s body.
His soul consciousness traveled through its meridians and veins; What he discovered made his expression change.
"That’s impossible..."
Li Qingxue heard him mutter, "What is it?"
"Its spiritual root is gone."
"Its internal organs have been completely burned away."
"There’s no trace of its soul."
"What surprises me is the crimson rune inside its body."
"It’s acting as the core that controls the corpse."
"So... that crimson rune is what’s making it attack us?" Li Qingxue asked.
"I don’t think it’s that simple," Lin Tian replied.
"I can’t kill it."
His answer caught Li Qingxue completely off guard, "Huh? Why not? Isn’t it dangerous?"
Lin Tian instinctively looked around; There were more than thirty cultivator corpses lying along the edge of the island.
There was a very simple reason he couldn’t destroy it.
"One of the formulas within the crimson rune is connected to another activation rune."
"This corpse..."
"...is basically a bomb."
"If I destroy it, the others will explode too," Lin Tian explained.
"T-That’s horrifying," Li Qingxue whispered.
Lin Tian didn’t respond. Instead, he formed another series of hand seals.
His spiritual qi flowed into the corpse’s meridians and veins as he began modifying the crimson rune inside its body.
Compared to the restriction rune inside Li Qingxue, this one wasn’t nearly as complicated.
All he did was activate a dormant state. That alone was enough to stop the corpse from acting aggressively.
A burst of white qi erupted from the corpse.
It immediately stopped struggling with eyes slowly closed, and its body went limp.
"What happened?" Li Qingxue asked.
Lin Tian released the corpse.
It fell onto the sandy ground without making another movement.
"I just activated its non-aggressive state."
"It’d be far too risky to destroy the crimson rune," Lin Tian replied.
The giant qi hand disappeared and the situation gradually returned to normal.
Li Qingxue let out a sigh of relief.
A corpse attacking them was something she’d never witnessed before.
She’d never imagined the victims of the tragedy seven months ago had suffered such a horrifying fate.
"I have to admit..."
"Your understanding of runes and restrictions is truly impressive, Fellow Daoist."
A mysterious man’s voice echoed from within the forest. Lin Tian and Li Qingxue immediately became alert.
A man dressed in black and crimson robes slowly emerged from the trees.
His face was clearly visible; His skin was unnaturally pale, and a mysterious crimson tattoo was engraved across his forehead.
A terrifying aura erupted from his body. One after another, every corpse on the island rose to its feet. The sound of cracking bones echoed across the entire island.
"They’re alive? You’re controlling them?!" Li Qingxue shouted.
"Controlling them?" the man replied with a cold sneer.
"They’re already dead."
"...And the two of you will become the finest corpse puppets I’ve ever created."
Lin Tian narrowed his eyes, bringing up spiritual qi gathered at his fingertips.
He had already recognized the technique the man was using.
No souls.
No spiritual roots.
Crimson runes served as the core that controlled their bodies.
Those three clues pointed to only one technique.
"The Soul Corpse Puppet Manifestation Technique."
"...You’re from the Yuanmo Sect, aren’t you?"