Chapter 648: Total Annihilation

A chilling voice echoed in my ears. Chen Jiuge and I were truly locked in a fight to the death this time.

Corpse miasma shrouded the cavern. I gripped the Jade Bone, the only thing allowing me to stand calmly within it.

The Jade Bone trembled slightly in my palm, as if the Uncorrupted Bone were calling to it.

'Even separated by a distance, they can still sense each other. This piece of bone is far from simple.' I had gone through too much trouble stealing it from the coffin to just put it back. I would keep this bone; it might prove incredibly useful later.

Corpse miasma accumulated over twenty years surged outward like floodwaters bursting a dam. As a living man standing in its path, I suffered intense agony even without being directly targeted.

After just a few seconds, the cyan spots on my skin began to spread. These marks, resembling corpse spots, frequently appeared on tomb keepers. They called them cyan brands, or corpse brands—a chronic corpse poison. While not immediately fatal, it constantly drained a person's vitality.

I bit the bullet and pushed a few steps deeper, but the corpse miasma grew impossibly thick. I couldn't get anywhere near the Suspended Coffin and could only stand on the periphery, burning with helpless anxiety.

'I destroyed Chen Jiuge's body, but this guy is decisive. He burned his bridges and went straight for the Uncorrupted Bone, intending to use it as his new flesh. With a mindset like that, it's no wonder he managed to juggle the Live Show, the sect, and the Two-Faced Buddha all at once.'

Things had become extremely tricky. Inside the Suspended Coffin, the wills of Chen Jiuge and the ghost girl were locked in an invisible struggle.

The ghost girl's advantage lay in having lived alongside the Uncorrupted Bone for over two decades. If Mr. Paper hadn't interfered, she would have already fused with it perfectly. She held the innate upper hand.

But that didn't mean Chen Jiuge stood no chance. He cultivated the Dream Dao, mastered various spells, and possessed a will far stronger than an ordinary person's. Coupled with his ability to manipulate the Eight Immortals Coffin Suppression Diagram, he was more than qualified to stand toe-to-toe with the ghost girl.

I stared at the Suspended Coffin with concern. Emotionally, I obviously hoped the ghost girl would win, but logic told me that if Chen Jiuge dared to attempt this, he definitely had a trump card to rely on.

Don't forget, he was once a live show streamer. He likely still held a hidden card that could turn the tables in a desperate situation.

"Gu Bei jumped into the coffin?" Wang Wu's voice sounded from behind me. I didn't turn my head, keeping all my attention locked on the Suspended Coffin.

"I was a step too late. But it won't be easy for him to possess the Uncorrupted Bone. Mr. Paper failed to refine it over twenty years; Chen Jiuge still lacks the skill." Gripping the Jade Bone, I wanted to approach the Suspended Coffin, but my physical exhaustion was too severe. Combined with the near-total depletion of my Yin energy and true qi, I simply couldn't fend off the encroaching corpse miasma. My internal organs were already suffering varying degrees of damage.

Footsteps sounded behind me as Wang Wu approached. "You guessed wrong this time. I understand the Uncorrupted Bone better than you do. She is truly weak right now. Mr. Chen chose the perfect opportunity, and you've underestimated the influence of the White Ancestor constitution on the Uncorrupted Bone. By manipulating Gu Bei's body to enter the Suspended Coffin, Mr. Chen is very likely to gain its recognition. With his powerful willpower, the Uncorrupted Bone might even lean in his favor."

"The corpse miasma is too thick. Even if I wanted to intervene, I don't have the strength. The only plan now is to fall back for the time being." Before I even finished speaking, another deafening roar exploded from the Suspended Coffin. Two dragon poles snapped in half out of nowhere. Now, only four dragon poles remained in the cavern, struggling to support the load.

'The Suspended Coffin must weigh a thousand jin. The Uncorrupted Bone's strength is continuously recovering. Once the coffin touches the ground, the earth's natural energy will merge with the corpse miasma. That will be the moment the Uncorrupted Bone breaks its seal and emerges.'

The remaining dragon poles could barely bear the immense load, groaning and creaking under the pressure. Some were already bowing downward, on the verge of snapping.

"Crack!"

Another massive boom echoed through the cavern. As the sixth dragon pole shattered, a living corpse was hurled out. I squinted through the gloom—it was Gu Bei.

He was wearing a black suit, but he had been reduced to nothing more than bone and cracked, dry skin. Every ounce of his flesh and blood had been sucked away.

The corpse miasma roiling from the Suspended Coffin grew even denser. I shook my head, my desire to retreat mounting. "I can't stop this. I've done everything I could. I have to pull out."

Retreating through the corpse miasma would be just as difficult. The Uncorrupted Bone was on the verge of breaking free, devouring every living thing in its path. Had I not stolen one of its bones for protection, the miasma would have dragged me into the coffin by now.

'Gu Bei was reduced to a mummified husk. After absorbing his flesh and blood, the corpse miasma in the cavern spiked by thirty percent. It seems the Gu clan's bloodline is truly useful to the Uncorrupted Bone.' Wang Wu stood just outside the cavern, obscured by the miasma. Without using my Judging Eye, it was difficult to see exactly what he was doing.

"The Uncorrupted Bone is about to emerge. If its original consciousness wins, that's fine, but if Chen Jiuge consumes it, neither of us will walk away from this. Let's fall back outside the hospital and see what happens," I said, keeping my eyes glued to the Suspended Coffin. I stepped backward, my back facing the tunnel exit.

The footsteps at the tunnel entrance grew frantic, as if someone were sprinting toward me. "Fall back? No, I have a much better plan!"

Wang Wu's voice sounded wrong. My ears twitched. Even beneath the roaring corpse miasma, I keenly caught the sharp whistle of something cutting through the air!

I didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second, immediately throwing myself to the side.

"Clang!"

The heavy iron tool smashed into the ground, shattering the solid rock beneath it.

"You dare ambush me?!" Rage flared in my chest. Supporting my weight with one hand, I glared at Wang Wu, who stood just over a meter away.

He was gripping the iron pickaxe he had discarded earlier, a deranged smile twisting his ugly face. "You survived even that? You really are hard to kill!"

"How did you get in here? The corpse miasma is swirling everywhere; ordinary white fiends and Earth Corpses would be sucked dry the moment they stepped inside. Is it because you drank the Uncorrupted Bone's blood?" I had only managed to enter because I was holding the Uncorrupted Bone's spinal bone. On what grounds could Wang Wu walk right into the center of the miasma?

Pushing past my shock and anger, I quickly recovered my calm and started thinking.

Wang Wu took two steps back and dragged the unconscious Gu Tongtong out from behind him, handling her like a mere tool. "Under normal circumstances, I certainly couldn't come in here. Thanks to this little girl, I can. She also has the White Ancestor constitution. The Uncorrupted Bone won't hurt her."

"Her?" I thought back carefully. The first time I had entered this cavern, the ghost girl had brought Gu Tongtong along. At the time, Gu Tongtong had hidden right under the Suspended Coffin. An ordinary person would have died countless times over in that spot, yet the young Gu Tongtong had merely fallen unconscious.

'The ghost girl needed Gu Tongtong's blood to heal herself. Based on that, Gu Tongtong must have the purest white blood constitution,' I murmured to myself.

"Exactly. This child's bloodline is even purer than Gu Bei's or that girl's from twenty years ago." Wang Wu's eyes bulged with greed. He grabbed Gu Tongtong by the neck with one hand and hoisted her into the air. "At first, I wasn't sure how much influence this bloodline had on the Uncorrupted Bone, but with Mr. Chen setting an example, everything is crystal clear. Kid, since you dodged that strike, I don't feel like fighting you anymore. Hand over the Jade Bone, and I'll tell you the life gate to escape the feng shui grand formation."

"You still want the Jade Bone?" My gaze turned icy. The Writer's ambition was terrifying. Originally, I thought he just wanted to escape the hospital and gain his freedom. Now I realized his true goal was also to possess the Uncorrupted Bone!

By utilizing Gu Tongtong's pure white blood, he could enter the Suspended Coffin as well. If I gave him that piece of spinal bone on top of that, he would have the chips to compete against Chen Jiuge and the ghost girl.

"This is a win-win. Lend me a hand, and once I successfully possess the Uncorrupted Bone and my suffering is finally over, I'll naturally reward you. That's a much better outcome than either of those two getting it." Wang Wu threw out promise after promise, but I remained unmoved. Honestly, if I hadn't been afraid of catching Gu Tongtong in the crossfire, I would have killed him right then and there.

"Crack!"

Another dragon pole inside the cavern buckled and snapped. Now, only two poles remained to shoulder the crushing weight.

"Hurry up and give it to me!"

Wang Wu demanded harshly. I glanced at the Jade Bone in my hand, then at the unconscious Gu Tongtong, whose little face had turned a sickly blackish-red from the corpse poison.

"Fine, I'll give you the bone. But you have to tell me the way out first."

"Don't try any tricks, I'm warning you." Wang Wu gripped the iron pickaxe in one hand while throttling Gu Tongtong with the other. His sharp nails dug into the little girl's soft throat, ready to slice open her skin and bleed her at a moment's notice.

This bastard was even worse than the ghost girl. At least the ghost girl hadn't tried to murder Gu Tongtong, but Wang Wu didn't give a damn whether she lived or died.

"If you don't tell me first, how could I possibly hand over the Jade Bone?" The more critical the situation, the more I needed to keep my head. I channeled my Judging Eye and stared fixedly at Wang Wu.

Wang Wu lowered the arm holding Gu Tongtong, finally choosing to compromise. "The life gate of the Broken Face Wenqu is right where I live. Behind the Rehabilitation Center building, directly to the south, there's a water room. The window in that room leads straight out of the hospital."

"You're not lying to me?" I took a step forward, closing the distance between us.

"Do I have any reason to lie to you? I'm eager for you to get out of here and stop getting in my way!"

"Good. I'll trust you this once." I maintained a distance of exactly one meter—neither too far nor too close. It was a perfectly calculated gap.

I sidestepped until I was parallel to him, executing the plan in my head with absolute precision. "I can give it to you, but without the Jade Bone's protection, my body can't withstand the corpse miasma. We have to step outside the cavern first."

Wang Wu frowned. Deciding my logic made sense, he walked side-by-side with me toward the exit.

The cavern's entrance was wide on the inside but narrow on the outside. The further out we walked, the tighter it became. Imperceptibly, the gap between us began to shrink.

"The corpse miasma isn't too thick here. You can give it to me now, right?" Wang Wu remained extremely vigilant. But before he could even finish his sentence, I gently tossed the Jade Bone toward him, my movement completely casual and natural.

He hadn't expected me to hand over the Jade Bone so easily. Shock flashed across his face, instantly replaced by wild ecstasy. Right then, both of his hands were occupied—his left gripped the iron pickaxe, and his right held Gu Tongtong.

As the Jade Bone flew toward him, instinct took over. He let go with his right hand, dropping Gu Tongtong to the ground, and eagerly reached out to snatch the bone from the air.

I had been watching him intently. Every single one of his movements perfectly matched the plan playing out in my head.

"You're in such a rush... to die!"

My right foot stomped forward, kicking up dirt and crushed stone. Like a tightly coiled spring suddenly snapping loose, my body shot toward Wang Wu. The distance between us was now a mere half-step.

"Half-Step Crushing Fist!"