Chapter 109: Corpse Refining

The Qiu Lin Mountain Range was not very far from Yu Prefecture, but it wasn’t very close either. When Chen Mu followed Xu Hongyu across the area and reached the foot of the Qiu Lin Mountain Range, the sun had already passed noon and was gradually sinking towards the west.

"It seems we’ll have to rest in the mountains tonight."

Xu Hongyu looked at the sun and estimated the group’s pace.

Xiao He hesitated slightly and said, "Is it a little… much to spend the night in the mountains?"

"It’s fine."

Xu Hongyu shook her head and said, "There aren’t any dangerous demons in the Qiu Lin Mountain Range. We can hunt some meat along the way. Actually, there’s nothing wrong with traveling all night, but if we do that, we’d have to rest for a night in the city when we get to Anyu County."

For a martial artist at the Tendon Transformation Realm, as long as they had meat and water, it wasn’t a problem to go without sleep for two or three days. However, the purpose of this trip was to deal with demons, so they naturally needed to maintain a state of abundant energy and qi and blood before reaching their destination.

Chen Mu had no objections to Xu Hongyu’s suggestion.

Although camping in the wilderness seemed a bit rough, it was nothing when he was with two women who were both pleasing to the eye. His days in the city had been rather dull for many years.

Seeing that Chen Mu and Xiao He had no other objections, Xu Hongyu immediately set off and entered the Qiu Lin Mountain Range, with Chen Mu and Xiao He following closely behind.

And just as their figures disappeared into the mountain range.

In the bushes.

Some grey insects that had been lying on the dry, rotten wood silently flapped their wings, blended into the forest, and disappeared.

…

The sky gradually darkened.

The group had already entered the heart of the Qiu Lin Mountain Range.

They didn’t encounter any demons along the way, and they even saw few wild beasts. However, Chen Mu had a faint feeling of being watched, but when he leaped onto trees and looked around, he couldn’t see any trace of anyone or any demons. It was as if it was an illusion when he first entered the dense forest.

"Let’s settle here."

Xu Hongyu looked at the sky and slowed her pace. She then drew her sword and slashed a few times, and several trees with the thickness of a bowl near her were chopped down, slowly falling with a loud crash.

Chen Mu saw that Xu Hongyu seemed practiced at building a temporary shelter, so he said, "I’ll go hunt some meat."

After speaking.

He got up, made a few leaps, and disappeared into the woods.

After Chen Mu’s figure disappeared, Xiao He looked at Xu Hongyu and smiled, "He’s as obedient to Miss’s orders as ever. He didn’t have any other suggestions today."

Xu Hongyu’s expression was calm. She said, "It’s his first time out of the city. He doesn’t know much about the outside, and he doesn’t have much experience fighting demons. Naturally, he won’t interfere with things he’s not familiar with. He knows what he’s doing."

Chen Mu never showed the frivolous behavior of young people.

This was one of the reasons why she only brought Xiao He and Chen Mu to carry out this mission. Xiao He would definitely obey her every command, and Chen Mu knew what was important and would definitely not act rashly or hold the team back.

…

Far away from where Xu Hongyu was.

Chen Mu looked up and found the tallest tree. He quickly leaped onto the treetop and looked down at the forest below. Although the dense leaves obscured his vision, he could still see some movement.

After a while, his gaze landed in a direction in the distance. He immediately made a leap and quickly moved past the trees. When he arrived at the place, he raised his right hand, took out a pebble, and threw it downwards.

Pa!

In the forest below, a grizzly bear that was foraging was struck directly in the skull by the pebble in his hand.

"Not a demon…"

Chen Mu landed from the tree and examined the grizzly bear’s corpse, shaking his head slightly.

Demons were both great evils that caused havoc to mankind, but they were also valuable treasures. Even a low-level demon’s skin and bones had value, and their flesh and blood contained more qi and blood than ordinary beasts.

If one regularly consumed fresh demon meat, their qi and blood would be much more abundant than others. They would often train in Body Tempering Methods faster, and they would find it easier to reach the Tendon Transformation and even Bone Forging Realm.

Xu Hongyu had hunted demons outside before and had reached the Perfection of Tendon Transformation after a period of quiet cultivation. It was precisely because demons had appeared frequently during that time that she had trained and accumulated qi and blood, allowing her to progress rapidly.

However.

Demons weren’t very common during normal times.

Although their intelligence was not as high as that of humans, they were still more cunning than ordinary beasts. They were very good at hiding themselves, and they often only appeared frequently when the world experienced certain changes that caused them to become somewhat agitated.

The previous winter was an example of celestial phenomena changes that affected many demons.

This grizzly bear weighed seven or eight hundred pounds.

Chen Mu reached out and lifted it up, easily hoisting it with one hand. After the limit of Tendon Transformation, the strength that his limbs could exert far exceeded the imagination of ordinary people.

"Hmm… what’s that?"

Just as Chen Mu was planning to carry the grizzly bear back, he suddenly narrowed his eyes and looked in a direction not far away.

He didn’t see anything, but as the qi and blood in his body surged, he faintly felt a decaying and rotten aura, which made him feel slightly unwell.

Chen Mu frowned. After pondering slightly, he put down the grizzly bear and walked in that direction.

A moment later.

A swamp appeared before his eyes.

The swamp emitted a strong stench of decay, and strange gray insects were buzzing as they flapped their wings in the air. This made Chen Mu feel more and more uncomfortable. He frowned and was about to turn around and leave.

But then he had a thought. After taking a few steps back, he drew his refined iron saber and swung it out.

Whoosh!

Several gray insects were torn apart by the wind created by the saber, and at the same time, the rotten swamp exploded, splashing out countless rotting mud and murky water.

Chen Mu leaped into the air the moment he swung his saber and landed high up on a tree, avoiding the dirty water and mud. He also looked at the puddle of rotten swamp, his gaze slightly narrowing.

"Indeed…"

His face became somewhat unpleasant.

In the exploded rotten mud, a corpse appeared. It wasn’t lying down, but standing upright in the silt, covered in filth and mud.

No wonder he felt so uncomfortable, and faintly felt that the stench was wrong. It turned out to be the stench of a corpse!

He had suddenly attacked because he had recognized the strange gray insects as a type of insect called a "corpse worm," which he had seen in a ‘Record of Insects.’ They were low-level demons, and they often only stayed near corpses.

In addition, he had been a yamen runner for many years and had often transported corpses. He was very sensitive to the smell of decay. Now that he had reached a higher realm and his qi and blood were abundant, his senses were far more acute than before. Even if the stench of the corpse was mixed in with the silt and mud, he could still capture it sensitively.

How could there be a corpse buried in a swamp in the depths of these mountains, and it didn’t seem to be rotting yet?

Chen Mu examined the corpse carefully, eventually shaking his head.

Ordinary people wouldn’t come into a place like this in the depths of the Qiu Lin Mountain Range. He wasn’t a constable or head runner now, so there was no need to start investigating a case just because of a corpse. The matter of hunting demons was more important.

With this thought in mind.

Chen Mu was preparing to leave the tree.

But he suddenly thought of something that didn’t add up. He turned his head again, narrowed his eyes, and looked at the corpse in the swamp that was gradually about to be submerged again. He suddenly took out a pebble and threw it.

Clang!

The pebble hit the corpse’s head, but the scene of the corpse’s head exploding didn’t occur. Instead, a strange metallic sound was heard, as if he had hit not a corpse but a figure made of bronze and iron!

Seeing this strange scene, Chen Mu narrowed his eyes.

He thought of a demonic technique from the Great Xuan Forbidden Record that could make a corpse as hard as bronze and iron. It was called "Corpse Refining," and it was said that it could make corpses invulnerable and incredibly strong. However, this technique was forbidden in the Great Xuan, and those who were involved in it would be sentenced to death by waist chop!

"Corpse Refining Technique…"

Chen Mu muttered and another piece of text emerged in his mind.

"In the 458th year of the Great Xuan Calendar, the demonic sect ‘Heavenly Corpse Sect’ emerged. The disciples of the sect used Corpse Refining to wreak havoc on the world. The Great Xuan Imperial Court was shaken and ordered the Azure Dragon Army and White Tiger Army to be dispatched to exterminate them. Afterward, it was announced to the world that anyone who practiced Corpse Refining would be severely punished and could be killed on sight without reporting."

This was a record he had seen in the Great Xuan Annals.

Although it was just a light mention, every record in the Great Xuan Annals was about a major event that had once shaken the world. This so-called "wreaking havoc on the world" was definitely not as simple as those words. It was most likely that it had truly caused great chaos, which had caused the entire Great Xuan to be shaken. In the end, it had led to the imperial court sending a large army to encircle and annihilate the sect.

After all, it was very rare for a sect to be specially recorded and destroyed by the Great Xuan Court and for it to even issue an edict afterward that anyone could destroy them.

Whoosh!

Chen Mu’s figure blurred as he landed from the tree and came to the corpse. He suddenly drew his yamen saber and slashed at it.

With a loud clang, another metallic sound was heard. But this time, Chen Mu’s saber momentum was fierce and managed to cut off the corpse’s head.

The entire corpse wasn’t a figure made of bronze or iron. It was indeed a corpse, but its insides were filled with a strange dark black color that resembled cast iron.

This was an iron corpse.

It was said that among the corpses refined by the Heavenly Corpse Sect, iron corpses were the lowest quality, but they were still as strong and tough as iron. After they were refined, they could be controlled by secret methods, like puppets.

"Who is so bold as to refine corpses in this place?"

Chen Mu looked at the corpse and whispered to himself.

In this current world, the power of the Great Xuan Court was weak. As expected, all kinds of demons and monsters were appearing. Previously, he had encountered the forbidden "Corpse Poison Jade" in Yu City several times, and now he had encountered the even more forbidden corpse refining.

It was said that the Corpse Poison Jade seemed to be a remnant of the Heavenly Corpse Sect from that time. Somehow it hadn’t been completely wiped out by the imperial court. As a result, an edict had been specially issued later to strictly forbid the refining of this item, with those who violated it being punished. Now it seemed that this item had not appeared in Yu City out of nowhere.

Thinking of this, Chen Mu shook his head again.

The Heavenly Corpse Sect had been destroyed hundreds of years ago, but now some of its remnants had reappeared in the world, which further showed that the Great Xuan Court’s deterrence no longer existed. In the chaotic times to come, perhaps all the forbidden items of the past would reappear in the world.

"I wonder if Xu Hongyu is aware of this."

After a brief moment of contemplation, Chen Mu stopped picking up the grizzly bear he had hunted. Instead, he determined his direction and quickly returned the way he came.

…

The sky was dark.

A clearing that had been cut down appeared amidst the dense forest. On the clearing, several thick tree trunks leaned against each other, forming a rather rough but spacious shed.

A fire was lit in front of the shed, and Xu Hongyu stood quietly before it.

Behind her, Xiao He was busily adding leaves to the shed, completing the final construction.

Suddenly.

Xu Hongyu’s gaze shifted and looked to the side, as she heard some movement.

"Is he back… no."

She first looked over calmly, her hands behind her back. But then, she noticed something and her expression changed slightly. One hand immediately rested on the hilt of the sword at her waist. She coldly shouted towards the forest, "Who’s there? Come out!"

Chen Mu was alone.

But the sound of footsteps approaching from the forest was dense and heavy, and there were many of them.