A great battle was on the verge of breaking out.
The village defense team stood between the village and the forest. No one made the first move. They had to form a solid defensive line to prevent the monsters from entering the village.
If even a single corpse ghost managed to break through, the women and children inside could be in danger.
Shao Han frowned and twisted the blue ring on his left hand.
A long blue blade instantly appeared in his hand.
"Village Chief, you're responsible for defending the rear."
"As for the attack, leave it to us!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he gripped his blade and charged toward the army of corpse ghosts.
Blue, ice-attribute spiritual energy spread throughout his body. Both his body and the longblade in his hand were quickly covered in a thick layer of blue ice crystals.
He swung his blade fiercely.
Dozens of spiritual blades shot forward from the longblade.
"Frost Moon Flying Stream!"
Across a distance of dozens of meters, every corpse ghost struck by the spiritual blades was instantly sliced in two.
Zhao Mu, who had originally intended to observe the situation from the rear for a little longer, saw this and immediately leaped forward with his great halberd.
"Let's follow them too!"
Zhuo Yun asked, "Didn't you say this matter wasn't that simple and that we should be cautious?"
Zhao Mu shrugged.
"Others won't listen to me and insist on playing the hero."
"So let him be the vanguard."
Thirteen people from Qingfeng Camp had come on this mission.
Since Shao Han had already taken the lead, the others had no choice but to follow. They couldn't allow Shao Han to become surrounded by the swarm of corpse ghosts and suffer an accident.
The thirteen members were all basically at the Private Rank in terms of strength.
Even those whose Combat Levels were below 10, such as Meng Qiuqiu, possessed powerful Ember Remains that made up for their shortcomings in combat power.
As they advanced, Zhao Mu allowed Shao Han to remain at the very front.
He and Liang Zhichu worked together with remarkable coordination, using Shao Han as the tip of the spear while clearing out the corpse ghosts attacking from the flanks.
The heavenly halberd swept through the air.
This super-heavy weapon weighed a hundred jin, yet Zhao Mu wielded it as flexibly as an ordinary sword.
Whoosh!
Zhao Mu raised his hand.
The additional effect, [Roar], of the Ultimate Grade Ember Remains [Extinguish Ember] was activated.
With every sweep of the halberd, a powerful gust of wind howled within a one-meter radius, greatly enhancing its chopping and smashing power.
Three corpse ghosts charging toward him were smashed apart at the waist.
Rotting flesh splattered across the ground.
Yet even after being cut in half, they continued crawling toward Zhao Mu, desperately trying to bite him.
Zhao Mu swung the halberd backward.
Bang!
Their heads were smashed into pieces.
Even then, the scattered pieces of their corpses continued writhing disgustingly.
At that moment, a whistling sound came from the side.
A dazzling whirlwind of flames followed.
Mo Guanguan rushed over while riding the flames.
Wherever she passed, powerful flames erupted from both of her hands, instantly setting the corpse ghosts ablaze.
Zhao Mu silently gave her a thumbs-up.
Young Miss Guan Guan merely snorted, wearing an expression that seemed to say, What's so impressive about that?
In less than ten minutes, the thirteen members of Qingfeng Camp had completely slaughtered hundreds of corpse ghosts.
The remains were also burned with kerosene.
The corpses carried numerous pathogens, and if they weren't properly destroyed, they could cause an outbreak of disease and contaminate the surrounding land.
Shao Han carried his longblade on his shoulder and spoke smugly.
"Corpse ghosts are nothing special!"
"You don't need to do anything. I could handle all of them by myself!"
Looking at the corpses scattered across the ground, Shao Han was filled with a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
He felt like a hero who had rescued the helpless villagers from disaster.
Sure enough, the villagers looked at the elites of Qingfeng Camp with admiration and gratitude.
"They really are geniuses from Qingfeng Camp!"
"They dealt with those corpse ghosts so easily."
"However, it seems like the corpse ghosts in the forest are endless."
"What will happen in the future?"
The village chief's wrinkled face broke into a smile as he hurriedly approached Zhao Mu and the others.
"Many thanks for everyone's help."
"I'll report your achievements to the higher authorities."
"Since you're so capable, why not take advantage of this opportunity and eliminate the source of these corpse ghosts?"
"Go directly into the forest and destroy the place where they're being born!"
Wang Shou silently walked toward the forest.
Zhao Mu carried Extinguish Ember and looked at the enormous, pitch-black forest ahead.
It looked like a gigantic monster waiting to devour anyone who dared to enter.
Shao Han sneered.
"Scared?"
"Within hundreds of kilometers of the Empire's borders, powerful exotic beasts and the Dark Races are forbidden from entering!"
"If you don't even dare to fight at the Empire's border, how will you ever survive on the battlefield in the future?"
With that, he strode confidently in the direction Wang Shou had taken.
Mo Guanguan glanced at Zhao Mu.
"What's wrong with you?"
Zhao Mu slightly furrowed his brows.
"I've realized that what Wang Shou said is probably true."
He had grown up near Blood Bone Mountain and had entered it countless times with Bu Yanhuan.
Because of this, he possessed an innate and extremely keen intuition for danger.
He could always sense when something was wrong.
And right now, he felt that there was something unusual about this place.
But he couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was.
Shao Han was right about one thing.
If this forest were truly that dangerous, then with the level of defense possessed by Qingshan Village, the more than one thousand villagers should have been wiped out long ago.
But Zhao Mu trusted his instincts.
Perhaps it wasn't merely intuition.
Maybe his brain was subconsciously analyzing all the information he had gathered.
It was just that he hadn't yet organized his thoughts clearly enough to understand what was wrong.
"Let's follow them," Zhao Mu said.
The group entered the forest.
They switched on their lighting equipment, and beams of light illuminated their surroundings.
Meng Qiuqiu took lighting lamps from his backpack and distributed them to Zhao Mu and the others.
The palm-sized light sticks could be attached directly to their waists without affecting their movements.
After distributing the equipment, Zhao Mu glanced at Meng Qiuqiu.
"What about yours?"
Meng Qiuqiu replied, "You guys should take them first. I'll make do with whatever is left."
Just as everyone was marveling at how considerate Meng Qiuqiu was, he silently pulled out a pitch-black device nearly half an arm's length from the depths of his backpack.
He pressed a button.
A massive beam of light instantly pierced through more than a thousand meters of dense forest.
The powerful illumination turned the previously dark forest as bright as day.
Everyone:
"…"
Meng Qiuqiu scratched his head.
"I knew we were going on a night mission, so I specifically asked someone to prepare a professional-grade flashlight for me."
Zhao Mu and the others rolled their eyes.
Under the powerful beam, the dense forest was now almost blindingly bright.
There wasn't a single shadow in sight.
Wang Shou continued walking as he explained,
"Judging from the degree of decay and the number of these corpse ghosts, they should be coming from the Corpse Burial Pit deep within the forest."
"After the Demon Sealing War ten years ago, countless people died."
"There weren't even enough graves in Lujiang City to bury all of them."
"Moreover, many of the corpses were severely damaged, making it difficult to identify most of the ordinary soldiers."
"Therefore, a huge pit was dug to bury the remains."
"No one can say exactly how many corpses are buried there."
"If there really is a Corpse Mother, it must have been born there."
"Only the Yin Qi in that place would be strong enough to preserve the corpses for ten years without allowing them to completely decay."
Shao Han carried his longblade, his eyes sharp as he scanned the surroundings.
He looked like a great general walking through a battlefield.
He calmly responded to Wang Shou.
"Understood."
"Then we'll head straight for the Corpse Burial Pit."
"We'll dig out that damned Corpse Mother and burn everything there to ashes!"
Liang Zhichu narrowed his eyes.
"Judging from the strength of these corpse ghosts, they haven't been born for very long."
"The Corpse Mother shouldn't be very powerful either."
"There are thirteen of us here, and many of us possess powerful Ember Remains weapons."
"Even if we encounter an exotic beast or a member of the Dark Races with a Combat Level above 40, we should still be able to hunt and kill it."
"It's better to be a little more careful," Meng Qiuqiu muttered softly.
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