For cultivators like Tang Tian, who did not practice yin-attribute cultivation methods, their desire to enter the tomb-cavern was firstly for training, and secondly, to acquire some mutated items. For example, certain burial offerings, after being nourished by Yin Qi for decades or even centuries, had a chance of transforming into Spirit Artifacts or even Magical Treasures. It was also not out of the question that some ghostly creatures were powerful cultivators in their past lives, and might have been buried with supreme-grade medicinal pills or magical treasures. This was what Tang Tian and the others were searching for.
After leaving the Foundation Establishment ghostly creature's tomb-cavern, Li Yan transformed into an extremely faint wisp of smoke and drifted forward aimlessly. Since he had gained no benefits here, Li Yan was considering whether he should now go and check out the other tomb-caverns of powerful ghostly creatures.
Just as he was contemplating the consequences of such an action, the advancing Li Yan's body suddenly stopped. Soon, a light flashed in his eyes.
"Oh, they've truly made their move!"
...
Tang Tian was carrying the unconscious Wu Yizhen on his back, fleeing rapidly. His heart was a storm of shock and rage. He let out roars from time to time, trying to suppress the fear in his heart and simultaneously attract the attention of others. However, this tomb-cavern was the lair of a Foundation Establishment ghostly creature, and the maze formation here also had a sound-insulating restriction. His voice could travel at most three or four li before dissipating. Unless someone with a powerful Divine Sense was focused on his location, he would not be noticed.
"Who... who are you? Why must you hunt me down so relentlessly? A-Aren't you afraid the sect will find out?"
Tang Tian could vaguely sense the distance of his pursuer. He also knew that with the other party's powerful Divine Sense sweeping the area, his words would be heard. The fear in his heart grew ever stronger.
Behind him, a figure was following at an unhurried pace, only about five li away from Tang Tian.
"You're screaming for help like that, you think it's useful? You two are the only ones left who came in this direction. How much further can you run? As for who I am? Whether here, or when I go out later, I will still be your Martial Uncle Fang."
If any of the Feng family members or Li Yan had heard that voice, they would have immediately recognized it as Fang Guangjun's.
"Fang Guangjun! Aren't you afraid the Feng family will find out about what you're doing? It was you, Fang Guangjun, who killed all the Feng family cultivators here..." Tang Tian yelled, no longer addressing him respectfully as "Martial Uncle."
"Hehehe, you're mistaken. I only killed the nine Feng family cultivators who came this way, not all of them. And it won't be all of them... You know this much, that's enough. You can die now!"
Hearing the other man calling out his name with every sentence, Fang Guangjun's brow furrowed. His Divine Sense had long since spread out to scan the surroundings. Although he had killed all the Feng family cultivators in this direction, nearly ten breaths had passed. He couldn't be sure that no other cultivators were approaching. Fortunately, no one else appeared nearby. However, his previously slow and deliberate tone suddenly turned savage.
Then, a roar was heard from Tang Tian up ahead. "It's Corpse Bees!"
As he ran with Wu Yizhen on his back, just as Fang Guangjun's voice fell, Tang Tian suddenly heard a faint buzzing sound from ahead. He was first overjoyed, thinking he had run into members of the Feng family and that Fang Guangjun was now trying to silence a witness. But in the next moment, a cloud of black mist abruptly appeared in his Divine Sense, and his face instantly paled.
Right on the path ahead of him, several hundred black, wasp-like creatures were flying straight toward him.
Tang Tian had never seen these things before, but now he could guess what they were. They were one of the ghostly creature's companion monsters that the Feng family's ancestor had described to the outsiders on their way here—Corpse Bees!
Although these things were a type of living creature, even on the Forsaken Continent, no one was willing to call them Demonic Beasts. Corpse Bees lived in dark, damp tomb-caverns, and they loved to feast on the thick, poisonous fluids that seeped from corpses.
A single Corpse Bee was not formidable, with strength only between the third and fifth levels of Qi Condensation. But their most terrifying aspect was that, like Snow Mosquitoes, they were a colonial species. They often moved in swarms of dozens, or even hundreds. A single sting or a drop of their sprayed venom could cause a cultivator's flesh to rot. A mortal would die instantly. They were a type of monster that Qi Condensation cultivators were extremely unwilling to provoke.
However, once a cultivator reached Foundation Establishment, they would not be able to get close just by relying on numbers. A Foundation Establishment cultivator could often crush them into powder by the swathes with their absolute power.
If Qi Condensation cultivators encountered Corpse Bees, they usually needed to be in a small team of several people to be able to contend with a swarm of a hundred. If there were more, they would have to flee immediately and gather more people to deal with them. The chances of encountering Corpse Bees weren't very high, but now, they had appeared here.
At this moment, a life-stealing devil was in hot pursuit behind Tang Tian, a presence ten times more terrifying than the Corpse Bees. He had no choice but to charge forward.
The muscles on Tang Tian's face twitched violently, but in less than a breath, he suddenly threw the unconscious Wu Yizhen from his back onto the ground. A brilliant spiritual light erupted from him as the jade belt around his waist transformed into a green light screen. With a low roar, his face twisted in a snarl as he charged forward.
In just three breaths, he collided with the dense swarm of Corpse Bees ahead.
Blades of wind immediately shot out from the green light screen around him, mincing the dozen or so Corpse Bees at the very front. Tang Tian, as if possessed, brandished a crimson red staff in his hand, which transformed into a strange flood dragon that danced and coiled around him. For a time, he was exceptionally valiant. Wherever he passed, the Corpse Bees would emit puffs of choking black smoke. Some would continue their attack, swaying unsteadily with greatly reduced power, while others would plummet to the ground.
But this momentary delay was all it took for Tang Tian to see a figure approaching leisurely from behind, its speed seemingly slow yet swift. He couldn't help but feel a surge of panic.
He once again mustered his full Spirit Power and charged forward desperately. Fang Guangjun, who had appeared behind him, did not seem to be in a hurry to attack. In any case, his Divine Sense confirmed that there was no one else nearby. If there was anyone, it was only Wu Yizhen, who had been thrown to the ground by Tang Tian.
This feeling of being gradually cornered was driving Tang Tian insane, and the fear and despair in his heart continued to mount. He had even abandoned Wu Yizhen, all for the sake of breaking out of this swarm of Corpse Bees. He could not die here like this.
Just as Tang Tian desperately charged forward for more than seventy zhang and killed over a hundred Corpse Bees, he suddenly heard a crisp "kacha" sound.
Stunned, Tang Tian realized that the jade belt around his waist had shattered. Before his horrified eyes, the green light screen around him disintegrated inch by inch.
This jade belt was his true life-saving item. It had been personally refined by his Martial Grandfather and could withstand three attacks from an initial-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. What made it most precious was that it was a treasure that combined both offense and defense. While defending, it could automatically trigger over a hundred wind blades to shoot out and shred incoming enemies. This was the main reason he had been able to kill so many Corpse Bees just now. Otherwise, with his cultivation alone, he could not have killed so many in just a few breaths.
His master had used this jade belt twice himself. By the time it was given to him, it had only one chance left to fully defend against an attack from a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Even so, Tang Tian treasured it.
This final defensive chance had indeed saved his life, allowing him to emerge unharmed from Fang Guangjun's surprise attack earlier. At the same time, if Fang Guangjun's primary target hadn't been him, Wu Yizhen, who was beside him, would have likely perished long ago. Even so, the mere shockwave from the attack had struck Wu Yizhen, causing him to spurt a large mouthful of blood and instantly fall unconscious.
The failure of that one strike had also made Fang Guangjun pause for a moment. Tang Tian, a malicious person himself, had then used Tian Denghu's life to snatch the already unconscious Wu Yizhen and escape. However, his jade belt had already shown signs of shattering after that one blow.
In his desperation just now, Tang Tian could only activate the jade belt again without regard for anything else. In his frenzied struggle, he had continuously pushed forward and, for a moment, had forgotten about this matter.
When he looked down at his waist in a daze, his eyes filled with despair. But his reaction was extremely swift, and he flung out a dozen more talismans from his robes.
But it was all too late. Before he could activate the talismans, his body shuddered violently. He had been stung by a Corpse Bee.
Then, his entire body began to tremble like a sieve. The crimson red staff dancing around him revealed an even larger opening, and in an instant, his body was covered by a dense black swarm. Even so, Tang Tian let out a great roar and forcefully took two more steps forward before he could no longer advance.
His body, covered in dense black insects, began to leak a thick, foul-smelling liquid. His tall frame was rapidly dissolving like melting snow.
At that moment, a soul, invisible to mortals, hastily drifted out from the swarm of black insects. Tang Tian was at the Great Perfection of Qi Condensation, and his Hun and Po souls were already quite consolidated, possessing a rudimentary art of escape. He actually intended to use this opportunity to have his soul escape. As long as he could get away and find someone for Body Seizure in a short time, he still had a chance to survive.
Just then, a hand formed from Spirit Power descended from the void and snatched his soul in its grasp.
Before Tang Tian's soul could beg for mercy, Fang Guangjun swiftly retracted the spectral hand, forced the soul into a jade bottle, and capped it in the next moment.
At this time, Fang Guangjun's face was incomparably savage. He glanced at the unconscious Wu Yizhen on the ground and, without hesitation, struck down with his palm. In the next instant, Wu Yizhen's physical body exploded into a bloody mist. As his somewhat dazed soul flew out, it was also swept up by Fang Guangjun and stuffed into another jade bottle.
The bloody mist from Wu Yizhen's exploded body immediately caused a commotion among the Corpse Bees ahead. A portion of them flew over from Tang Tian's corpse, which had already "melted" down to his abdomen.
Fang Guangjun's eyes narrowed. He chuckled and muttered to himself, "It's time to let others know what happened here."
The next moment, he released the immense pressure of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Spirit Power surged like a tide toward the large swarm of Corpse Bees ahead. At the same time, he roared, "Damnation!"
How could these mid-level Qi Condensation Corpse Bees escape the sweep of a Foundation Establishment cultivator's Spirit Power?
"Bang, bang, bang..."
In a series of explosions, the Corpse Bees burst into clouds of black smoke. Some turned to powder, while others, with large parts of their bodies blown apart, fell to the ground. Although the Corpse Bees were mangled by the Spirit Power, one could still tell at a glance that a large swarm had been here.
However, Tang Tian's two half-calves, which remained standing on the ground, were not crushed to powder by the spiritual pressure. They were left just like that, a gruesome sight.
Afterward, Fang Guangjun began to scatter some of the Corpse Bee carcasses further inward for several li. After finishing all this, he carefully scanned the area again with his Divine Sense and nodded in satisfaction.
He had killed a total of twelve people just now: nine from the Feng family, including a branch head, and the other three being Tang Tian, Wu Yizhen, and Tian Denghu.
He was very satisfied with this matter.
He had originally intended to gather more ghostly creatures into this passage to create the illusion that these people had died at the hands of a large number of monsters. But unexpectedly, there were nearly five hundred Corpse Bees in this passage. They were originally scattered and belonged to different swarms, but after Fang Guangjun discovered them, he quickly herded them all together.