Yun Ze's mind flashed back to the scene in Han Shan Village as he witnessed this, his fists clenching.
Although the number of corpses before him was far fewer than before, in addition to human remains, there were also many spirit beast carcasses piled up.
Strangely, with so many corpses gathered, there was no hint of blood in the air, nor any sign of a struggle.
It was as if they had been deliberately dumped here, but even then, why would all the corpses be face down?
"Junior Uncle-Master, seal your sense of smell first, to prevent any toxins from entering."
"Alright!"
Yun Ze responded. Beside him, Tan Chenyu's brows were already furrowed. She stepped forward and squatted before a human corpse to analyze it.
"No external injuries on the body, spiritual energy depleted internally, souls and spirits dispersed, cause of death unknown."
Tan Chenyu took out a silver rod from her Sumeru ring and lifted the person's head, her brows knitting even tighter. "This person... is not on the Heavenly Rankings!"
Yun Ze also walked over and squatted beside Tan Chenyu. "Not on the Heavenly Rankings? Are you sure?"
"Of course."
Tan Chenyu nodded. "The day before entering the secret realm, I reviewed the information of everyone on the Heavenly Rankings. I can confirm this."
She then walked to another human corpse and used the silver rod to turn it over. Then came the second, the third...
"Junior Uncle-Master, help me turn everyone over! Be careful!"
"Alright!"
According to his sword qi sensing, Wei Lanshu was nearby. He also wanted to know if she was among these corpses...
Yun Ze dared not touch them directly, so he used the Mountain Ghoul to turn the corpses over one by one.
A total of thirty-six human corpses and thirty-six spirit beast carcasses.
The good news was that Wei Lanshu was not among the human corpses. The bad news...
Tan Chenyu's face was pale. She turned to Yun Ze and said, "Junior Uncle-Master, there are two pieces of bad news now."
"Tell me."
Yun Ze had only identified one piece of bad news so far. But just by looking at Tan Chenyu's expression, he could tell something was wrong, so he braced himself.
However, when Tan Chenyu spoke the second piece of bad news, he couldn't help but tremble!
"The first piece of bad news.
All of them died in the same manner as the first corpse, with no external injuries. After Tan Chenyu's examination, she could even rule out death by poison. The spirit beasts, however, looked much more normal in their deaths."
"Because of their core?"
While Tan Chenyu was examining the human corpses, Yun Ze hadn't been idle. He had also examined the spirit beasts.
All the spirit beasts' cores had been hollowed out!
The core was the condensation of a spirit beast's lifelong cultivation, similar to a human's spiritual root, but also possessing some functions of the Qi Sea.
Take the Spirit Whale as an example. If the spiritual fluid in its fifth stomach was emptied by Yun Ze, it could still cultivate it back. But if someone extracted its core, it would be certain death!
And the spirit beast cores in this Zhu Tian Secret Realm had another use... condensing Origin Qi!
As long as nine spirit beasts at the ninth level of Qi Refining were gathered, or a spirit beast core at the Foundation Establishment realm was found, a wisp of Origin Qi could be refined from it.
After all, not everyone was lucky enough to find one of the nine spiritual lakes and wait for the Origin Qi to appear on its own.
This was the normal way to collect Origin Qi.
And the lowest among these spirit beasts were at the ninth level of Qi Refining!
"Yes! The core!"
Tan Chenyu nodded. "Thirty-six spirit beasts at the ninth level of Qi Refining, that's enough to condense four wisps of Origin Qi! Even those at the ninth level of Qi Sea could establish their foundation!
If a certain bloodthirsty individual were to condense four wisps of Origin Qi and achieve Foundation Establishment, then... I might not even be able to protect myself in this secret realm!"
A certain bloodthirsty individual... you might as well just say Xiu Yun directly.
Yun Ze gave a wry smile and then asked, "What's the second piece of bad news?"
He had already guessed the first piece of bad news, but he had no idea what the second piece of bad news Tan Chenyu mentioned was.
"I don't recognize any of the thirty-six deceased individuals."
Tan Chenyu's brows were tightly furrowed, and her tone was extremely serious. "They have no identification marks on them. Forget about spiritual artifacts or elixirs, they don't even have a single spirit stone!
In such a situation, there is only one possibility: they were all looted after death!
After all, even if they were sent out on a mission by a family, they wouldn't come without any supplies."
"Perhaps they were really killed?" Yun Ze asked with a frown.
If Xiu Yun had achieved Foundation Establishment, it wouldn't be impossible for him to hunt down thirty-six Foundation Establishment cultivators at once, would it?
"Impossible..."
Tan Chenyu gave a wry smile. "I've studied some medical arts. Although I haven't reached the Dao realm, I can still determine the time of death from certain details of the corpse.
The time of death for these people and the spirit beasts is the same, no more than fifteen minutes ago. That means they were all alive before we saw them!"
"The same time as the spirit beasts died!?"
Yun Ze was stunned. Before he could recover, Tan Chenyu threw out another piece of information.
"And they... they are all Foundation Establishment realm cultivators! Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment, above the sixth level of Qi Sea!"
"What!"
Yun Ze exclaimed.
This was absolutely impossible for Xiu Yun!
Xiu Yun was indeed at the ninth level of Qi Sea. If he killed the spirit beasts first, used their cores to break through to Foundation Establishment, and then killed these humans, it would make sense.
But now, the death time of the spirit beasts and humans were the same, meaning Xiu Yun had no time to extract the Origin Qi from the cores.
With his cultivation at the ninth level of Qi Refining, he couldn't possibly kill these spirit beasts and thirty-six Foundation Establishment cultivators in such a short time!
Even his senior sister back then couldn't have done it!
"This place is not safe to linger!"
This place was too bizarre. Tan Chenyu said, preparing to pull Yun Ze away.
But Yun Ze raised his hand to dodge her, his brows furrowed. "Xiao Yu, you go first. I still need to find someone."
"Junior Uncle-Master!"
Tan Chenyu also knitted her brows. She wanted to protect Yun Ze, but that didn't mean she would risk her own life to do so!
They had only met twice, not enough to risk their lives for each other.
"I can sense she is nearby. You leave first, and we'll contact each other with our jade tokens later."
Yun Ze looked towards the front, where the ground was covered with corpses.
He didn't know how much error there would be in his sword qi sensing. However, since Xiao Shu was nearby, as long as he made some noise, she should be able to sense it!
Without waiting for Tan Chenyu's reply, he activated the Xing Wu Dao and rose into the air. After ascending about ten meters, he casually condensed a sword of earth and stone!
"Earth Stone Art?"
Tan Chenyu, as a disciple of Yun Xiao, had naturally learned the sword arts of the Gui Wu Sword Sect. She immediately recognized what Yun Ze intended to do!
This lunatic! Who was he looking for so desperately? Was it worth making such a big fuss!
Tan Chenyu bit her lip. After a few moments of thought, she also rose into the air, but instead of fleeing, she came to Yun Ze's side!
No matter what, he was her comrade. Abandoning a comrade in such a situation was not the way of the Pure World Society!
"How could you..."
Yun Ze was surprised, but before he could utter three words, Tan Chenyu interrupted him.
"After this sword strike, if you still can't find the person you're looking for, I'll knock you out and take you away!"
"...Alright!"
Yun Ze replied with a wry smile.
Earth Stone Art.
It was one of the Five Elements Sword Arts of the Gui Wu Sword Sect, with three accompanying sword techniques. One was to condense earth and stone into a sword with spiritual energy, called the Earth Sword Art. The second set of sword techniques was called Falling Stones.
If the two sets of sword techniques were integrated, it would be the third set of sword techniques!
It was called, Earth Shaker!
As soon as the words fell, the sword of earth and stone plunged straight into the ground, disappearing beneath the surface.
Boom!
A buzzing sound erupted!
The ground within a hundred-meter radius instantly vibrated incessantly!
This was just one earth sword.
Yun Ze could condense up to six earth swords and use the Falling Stones sword technique to transform these six earth swords into fifty-four flying stones!
If fire and earth were combined, these fifty-four flying stones would turn into meteorites, no less than a natural disaster!
Currently, he only needed to find someone, so there was no need to use this move.
The ground trembled non-stop, and Yun Ze and Tan Chenyu's gazes swept across the ground, hoping to find any signs of life!
But instead of finding signs of life, they discovered another surprise!
The 'corpses' that they had flipped over and examined earlier... had all stood up!
Each one looked as if they had been woken up, their heads raised, gazing at the two figures in the air.
"Ju... Junior Uncle-Master... did you see what that is?"
Tan Chenyu's voice trembled slightly. She pointed at the ground with her hand, her fear evident, and her body began to shake.
"Gulp~"
Yun Ze swallowed, naturally seeing the situation before him, and replied with a tremble, "I saw it."
"Then we..."
"Run!"