The Quest for Immortality

The Earth Crack Formation had its limitations; it wasn’t very powerful but it did trigger chaos.

Then, with the Corpse King and the Iron Corpse as his escorts, Lu Chengyun fought his way out of the Corpse Mine. Find more chapters on freewebnovel.com

Groups of Walking Corpses, recklessly fearless of death, formed a Corpse Tide to cover the retreat of Lu Chengyun.

Yang Jishan, leading his Taoist Soldiers and cultivators from various factions, pursued them relentlessly.

The battle moved from below the Corpse Mine to above the Corpse Mountain.

Across the mountains and fields, cultivators and zombies engaged in a fight to the death.

Many zombies, having lost control, became Walking Corpses, wandering throughout the mountains…

The battle continued for an entire day, until at last Lu Chengyun fled to a desolate and gloomy mountaintop a hundred miles away from South Yue City.

The mountaintop was desolate and vast, devoid of human life.

All that could be seen were rugged rocks and withered black grasses.

Yang Jishan flipped through the Map and found the name of this place marked upon it:

Graveyard Mountain.

His expression instantly turned grave.

Other cultivators also had a sense of foreboding.

This place was obviously not a good omen.

Yang Jishan’s gaze became sharp.

Whether they could capture Lu Chengyun, slaughter the Corpse King, and exterminate the hordes of corpses all depended on this single battle.

He ordered, ”Proceed with caution, into the mountain!”

The Taoist Soldiers divided into teams and marched toward Graveyard Mountain.

But as soon as they entered the mountainous area, the ground pulsed, rocks shook, and zombies began crawling out from the earth.

These zombies, more ancient, bore stronger Corpse Poison.

Among them were several Iron Corpses as well.

Yang Jishan’s face was as still as water.

More?

Just how many years had this Lu Chengyun been refining corpses, and how many had he made?

Could it be that Graveyard Mountain, like the Corpse Mine, was another of his Corpse Refinement facilities?

Yang Jishan frowned deeply.

The Taoist Soldiers had been chasing for a long time and were growing weary. Just as they were about to catch up with Lu Chengyun, new zombies emerged.

It seemed never-ending…

Lu Chengyun’s scheming was indeed profound.

Yang Jishan had no choice but to station the group outside Graveyard Mountain to keep a constant watch on the movements inside, to prevent his escape.

The group discussed what to do next.

”The problem now is, how many zombies are there exactly inside Graveyard Mountain?”

One middle-aged cultivator sighed.

”If there are too many, we will undoubtedly be no match for them.”

”Not knowing their number, we will surely fall into an ambush…”

”We don’t have enough hands…”

Yang Jishan furrowed his brow, his expression stern.

They had already lost many soldiers in battle.

Most of the remaining cultivators were injured, and some had to use Serum Pills to suppress the Corpse Poison, rendering them incapable of fighting.

The strength that remained was now less than one-third of its original.

And it was still unknown how many zombies Lu Chengyun had at his disposal.

If Lu Chengyun was only feigning defeat to lure them into a deep chase for an ambush, they would surely suffer a significant loss.

But Graveyard Mountain was lonely and eerie, with a toxic miasma permeating the air.

How could they find out exactly how many zombies were inside?

After some thought, Mo Hua said, ”Capture a Walking Corpse, then capture an Iron Corpse.”

Yang Jishan looked slightly startled.

Mo Hua continued, ”Let me take a look at the Formation Patterns on their bodies, and I can estimate roughly how many Zombies Lu Chengyun still controls.”

Yang Jishan was somewhat stunned.

The other Formation Masters were also exchanging glances.

Yet Young Master Yun’s gaze became focused, as if deep in thought.

”You can estimate that?” Yang Jishan asked uncertainly.

”Mhm,” Mo Hua nodded.

Yang Jishan didn’t quite understand, but considering there were no better options, he pondered for a moment and nodded, saying,

”Alright.”

He took action personally, along with a few leaders of the Taoist Soldiers, capturing three Walking Corpses and one Iron Corpse and restraining them with iron chains.

The Zombies were howling and struggling.

Corpse Poison, like blood, flowed from the Zombies, soaking into the iron chains and emitting a pungent, rotten smell.

These Zombies were noticeably more violent and toxic.

Bai Zisheng stood in front of Mo Hua to prevent the Zombies from getting out of control and hurting Mo Hua.

Bai Zixi, on the other hand, was behind Mo Hua, her fair fingertips condensing Sword Qi, quietly on alert.

Mo Hua said, ”Uncle Yang, cut open the chest.”

Yang Jishan nodded.

This was something he had done once before, so he went about it quite efficiently.

Shortly after, the outer layer of the Zombie’s cardiac vessels was cut open, revealing the Formation patterns connected to the flesh and blood within.

Mo Hua took out paper and pen, traced the Formation, and after briefly differentiating, identified a few special Sequential Formation Patterns.

The Spiritual Pivot Formation uses Sequential Formation Patterns to ”code” the Zombies.

By deducing the Sequential Formation Patterns, one can reverse-engineer the ”coding” to find the total number of sequences in the entire Spiritual Pivot Formation system, in other words, the total number of Zombies.

Mo Hua had not been able to do this before.

Because such a Calculation was rather complex, it not only consumed Divine Sense but also tested one’s understanding of Formation technique.

But ever since assimilating the Contemplation Map and reaching the peak of Thirteen Stripes with his Divine Sense, and after drawing the Spiritual Pivot Formation hundreds of times, Mo Hua’s Divine Sense had grown powerful, and his understanding of the Spiritual Pivot Formation was crystal clear. Thus, he could attempt such a Calculation.

Mo Hua looked at the Sequential Formation Patterns with furrowed brows, deeply engrossed in the Calculation.

Yang Jishan and the others, watching Mo Hua fully concentrated, couldn’t help feeling anxious, not even daring to let out a breath.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Mo Hua finally came back to his senses, taking a long breath and looking slightly pale.

Yang Jishan asked anxiously, ”How is it?”

Mo Hua pondered before saying,

”I can only roughly estimate, it’s not particularly precise...”

”It’s fine, it’s fine,” Yang Jishan said.

Mo Hua then continued, ”…Based on the Sequential Formation Patterns, there are roughly over forty Iron Corpses and five thousand Walking Corpses inside this graveyard, under the control of the Corpse King.”

Yang Jishan nodded and furrowed his brows.

The situation was quite severe.

The Walking Corpses were manageable, but the over forty Iron Corpses were indeed beyond his expectation and not easy to handle.

However, Yang Jishan was more curious about another matter:

”How… exactly did you calculate this?”

Mo Hua scratched his head and, pointing to a Pattern, said,

”These Patterns are interconnected and have an intrinsic sequence. With a bit of Divine Sense, you can calculate it out...”

Yang Jishan didn’t understand.

He turned his head to look at the other Formation Masters and realized they were just as confused.

Only Young Master Yun stood there in a daze, murmuring to himself,

”Calculation...”

Was this... a Divine Sense Calculation technique that only the ancient forebear of the Yun Family’s Formation Masters knew?

So young, and he’s already capable of Calculation?

Was this something a person of his age should be able to learn?

Watching Mo Hua, with his childlike face, Young Master Yun’s thoughts were turbulent.