Chapter 1 Sometimes Taking Risks is the Only Way

"Cough cough!" Zhang Yuanqing cleared his throat and said, "In high-difficulty dungeons, sometimes taking risks is the only way. Not every crisis can be cleverly resolved. It's okay to go directly into the main hall, but I'm still a little worried."

He looked at the several pavilions and quiet rooms, and said, "There may be other clues in the living area. I plan to control the Yin corpses to go in and take a look."

Although drones are excellent scouts, they can't perform delicate operations. And Fu Qingyang's soldier puppets can't share his vision. The Night Wanderer's Yin corpses are the most useful, equivalent to an avatar.

Zhang Yuanqing took out Little Red Riding Hood and shook out two Yin corpses. One was a transcendent Enchantress of bewitchment in tattered armor, and the other was Princess Yinyao in slim-fit jeans and a light-colored T-shirt.

Princess Yinyao looked around, raised her small horn, and muttered, "Another dungeon?"

As an ancient cultivator, she couldn't handle the frequency of the Lingjing Xingzhe (Lingjing Xingzhe) dungeons.

Every now and then, there's a life-or-death crisis. Who could stand that? Ancient cultivators valued emotional purity and desired little, retreating to the mountains for quiet cultivation, away from the mortal world. Even if they were limited by their talents and couldn't become influential figures, they could still live freely in the world.

But the Lingjing Xingzhe were either fighting or preparing to fight, a bunch of try-hards.

"You unfilial bastard born of a concubine, follow me, the direct disciple of this master, and there will be no shortage of benefits for you in the future." Zhang Yuanqing patted Yinyao's cold shoulder and controlled the Yin corpse to enter the open ground.

He walked quickly, heading straight for the pavilion on the right.

This pavilion had a distinct Tang Dynasty style, with large Dougong brackets, thick pillars, and a uniform and orderly color scheme that wasn't rigid.

It was magnificent but not delicate, with a dignified atmosphere that Song Dynasty architecture lacked. The door of the pavilion was not a latticed door, but a sliding door similar to those in Japan.

Zhang Yuanqing stepped onto the steps and tried to pull open the sliding door, but found that after being sealed for endless years, the door was long stuck.

So he simply kicked the wooden door into pieces. As the objects inside the building came into view, the only lively eye on the Yin corpse's face slightly narrowed.

The pavilion was full of corpses, all beheaded. They were either beheaded while trying to escape, their bodies lying face down, or their heads had rolled off.

Not understanding what happened in an instant, their bodies fell stiffly to the ground. Some fell at the door, some in the room, and some on the stairs leading to the circular building.

The floors and grass mats were rotten and moldy, and the air was filled with a stench.

The clothes on their bodies had long been chlorinated and faded, like rags wrapped around them, but the flesh and blood of the corpses, after a long period of time, were only shriveled and wrinkled, and so were their heads.

"These should be the disciples of Mount Shu, all dead in the house," Zhang Yuanqing thought in shock.

Mount Shu was a Xianmen (immortal sect) of the Tang Dynasty. Bu Liang Shuai (the Bad Marshal) once borrowed the White Emperor's Crown from Mount Shu. To be able to borrow from Mount Shu, even for a demigod like the Bad Marshal, the sect's level would certainly not be low.

He wouldn't dare say peak dominator, but there must be high-ranking dominators, and more than one. Such a force was the envy of Jianghu (the martial world) in the Tang Dynasty.

"As long as the imperial court doesn't launch a large-scale encirclement and suppression, it's almost impossible to be wiped out. If they encountered a strong enemy, the corpses should be all over the pavilion, the main hall, and the houses should be destroyed in battle. But they seemed to be hiding in the pavilion for refuge, but they still encountered misfortune. This is a bit terrifying!"

What kind of enemy could make Shu Mountain, a top force at the time, so fearful? Thinking of this, Zhang Yuanqing withdrew from the pavilion and explored the weeds under the eaves, trying to find traces of a formation. But after the passage of time, all traces had disappeared.

Zhang Yuanqing returned to the pavilion and briefly searched the first floor. Apart from the rotten furniture, decorations, and corpses, there were no other discoveries.

Just as he was about to go to the main building, billowing black smoke poured in from outside the pavilion. His vision quickly lowered until he couldn't see anything.

"It's Yin energy, powerful Yin energy." Zhang Yuanqing continued to move forward in the dark for about two minutes. He heard faint footsteps in his ears, footsteps with a strange rhythm.

The next second, his vision returned to his teammates.

"Ugh~"

Zhang Yuanqing groaned painfully, clutching his head, veins popping out on his forehead.

Gongzhu (Palace Master) was startled, "What's wrong?"

"Part of the spiritual body that entered the Yin corpse has been sealed and cannot be recovered." Zhang Yuanqing's face twitched with veins, and beads of sweat rolled down. He had been torn apart from part of his spiritual body.

Hearing this, the expressions of Gongzhu, Fu Qingyang, Xiahou Aotian, and Demon Eye Heavenly King all changed.

Fu Qingyang's sword-like eyebrows furrowed slightly: "I had already thought that after the black smoke surged, if it only picked one target each time, then Yuan Shi's Yin corpse could infinitely expand our survival rate."

"Now the effect of this strategy will be greatly reduced, or even unworkable. Each time a Yin corpse is lost, part of the soul will be sealed. Yuan Shi will either lose his memory and his strength will be damaged, or he will lose his soul and go crazy. The former will become a walking corpse, and the latter will become a lunatic who doesn't recognize his relatives."

Xiahou Aotian immediately said, "Then use my drone instead. The drone is an inanimate object, and it doesn't matter how many are lost."

Demon Eye Heavenly King "Heh" said, "Then we have to test another set of data to see who the black smoke will attack first, an intruder with intelligence or an intruder without intelligence."

At this time, Zhang Yuanqing had already used illusionist methods to smooth out the soul trauma, and said, "Then let's try the first floor of the pavilion again. I haven't been to the second floor yet, and there may be clues inside. This dungeon is very strange."

He told his teammates what he saw in the pavilion: the corpses were separated, their deaths were uniform, the Nanyuan (Southern Courtyard) disciples gathered together, as if they were taking refuge.

What kind of enemy could force a Xianmen like Shu Mountain into such a situation? Everyone frowned in thought.

"I'll go." Princess Yinyao volunteered to share the pressure for the direct disciple of San Dao Shan (Three Daos Mountain).

"No need, my spiritual body is stronger than you think, and I can sense that the lost part of the spiritual body has not disappeared, but has been sealed!" Zhang Yuanqing pinched his swollen eyebrows and said, "When the seal is lifted, that part of the spiritual body can be taken back."

After saying that, he looked at Xiahou Aotian, "Control a drone to follow me."

Xiahou Aotian immediately took out a black metal box, opened the lid, connected the nerve wires, and controlled a drone to follow behind Yuan Shi Tianzun (Primordial Heavenly Lord) and enter Nanyuan.

Small dungeons of the checkpoint type have one advantage: with enough methods, you can explore slowly and have a strong fault tolerance rate.

Of course, what happens after formally entering the dungeon depends on the situation.

At least for now, they have plenty of time.

Zhang Yuanqing led the drone to run quickly, re-entering the pavilion, and saw his Yin corpse lying on the stairs, the head and body separated.

The drone hovered in mid-air, the equipped camera lowered, staring at the corpse, and Xiahou Aotian's voice came from the speaker, "The death is the same as the corpse. It turns out that the one who killed these Shu Mountain disciples was that footstep sound."

Zhang Yuanqing "Mm" said, reached out and touched the Yin corpse, and said, "Part of my spiritual body is in the Yin corpse, but it cannot be recovered. It is sealed by a mysterious force."