Chapter 374 - 198: Heaven Ranking? Elder Chen is on the Heaven Ranking!

I glanced at the mission date.

'Hmm, the last update was a day ago.'

The mission detailed a stronghold under the Martial Alliance's control, a place called Yunshan Town. A demon was suspected to have appeared there, and the entire town's population had vanished. The local stronghold immediately dispatched all its experts to investigate, but they ended up losing an elder and seven members.

In a panic, the person in charge of the stronghold immediately reported the news up the chain.

Afterward, four genius disciples from the headquarters—Yan Jinghan, Su Jianxue, Yue Ling'Er, and Qinyun, all at the True Qi Seventh Layer—volunteered to go and resolve the situation.

The four were quite clever. They left two people to stand guard outside the town, while the other two went in to investigate with signal flares.

But unexpectedly, Yue Ling'Er and Qinyun, the two who went in to investigate, quickly disappeared as well.

Vanished without a trace.

No signal was ever sent out.

And no sounds of a fight were heard.

They just vanished, inexplicably.

The remaining two, Yan Jinghan and Su Jianxue, were overcome with a deep sense of unease and fled back at all costs. Upon returning to the stronghold, they immediately sent another urgent message to headquarters, requesting reinforcements from a True Essence Realm expert.

"Excellent. This is the one."

Chen Xuan closed the booklet, his tone impassive.

'They want backup from a True Essence Realm expert?'

'How troublesome!'

'Me, the fourth-ranked on the Heavenly Ranking, going to help them personally... a surprise, isn't it? Unexpected? Thrilling, even?'

'This is how you should treat your allies!'

Chen Xuan put away the two bones of the Primordial Giant Demon. With a smile, he vanished from the spot in an instant.

...

「Yunshan Ancient Town.」

A gray mist shrouded the area.

An invisible layer of sinister energy hung over the entire ancient town, giving it an indescribably oppressive atmosphere.

In a village not far from the ancient town.

A large number of experts from the Martial Alliance stronghold had gathered here, their expressions uneasy.

At their head, Yan Jinghan and Su Jianxue both had ashen faces as they stared at the two figures before them.

These two figures seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

Each one was burly and extremely well-built. Their faces were deathly pale, with a tinge of ghastly blue beneath their eyelids. At a glance, they didn't look like living people.

In fact, they looked more like corpses—the walking dead!

Only now did Yan Jinghan and Su Jianxue finally understand who was in the town.

The Ten Thousand Immortals Sect!

This was definitely the work of the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect!

Only they would fuse zombie bloodlines into human bodies, turning people into something neither human nor corpse.

"Ten Thousand Immortals Sect! You have some nerve, making an enemy of our Martial Alliance! I've already sent word back. Aren't you afraid of the reckoning to come?"

Su Jianxue gritted her teeth and shouted angrily.

'And here I thought we were dealing with some random demon or monster!'

'To think it was them!'

"We didn't want to make such a big scene either. You're the ones who insisted on meddling. Miss Su, our leader said he does not wish to be your enemy. As long as you promise not to pursue this matter and tell your superiors that everything has been resolved, we can return all the Martial Alliance experts we captured. Otherwise, you'll be seeing their corpses very soon, and you yourselves will have a hard time staying alive!"

one of the tall Corpse Demons said, his voice icy and stiff.

"Dream on!"

Su Jianxue roared, "You dare threaten us?"

"This is not a threat. It's a fact."

The tall Corpse Demon's voice was cold as he continued, "I know you are all geniuses of the Martial Alliance, and that the Alliance values you. But so what? Do you think the Martial Alliance would actually send an Inner Realm Level expert here in person? Let me tell you the truth: unless it's an Inner Realm expert, anyone who comes will be useless."

"Inner Realm!"

Su Jianxue was startled.

'Could it be? Is there an Inner Realm expert from the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect in this town?'

'No wonder our companions disappeared one after another without a sound.'

"Correct. A wise person knows when to yield. Your life is your own, but honor belongs to others. Why throw away your life for the sake of mere honor?"

the other tall Corpse Demon said coldly.

"And what if we insist on getting to the bottom of this?"

Yan Jinghan, standing beside her, said in a low voice.

"Insist?"

The tall Corpse Demon's eyes suddenly turned sinister and cold, glowing with a green light. Like a grotesque demon in the dead of night, they instilled an indescribable sense of dread.

BOOM!

Corpse energy billowed from his body, and sickly green vapors seeped from his pores. Even his fingernails began to grow rapidly. His entire body seemed to inflate, stretching from his original height of seven feet to about ten feet tall...

His aura instantly grew several times colder, and he stood like a massive iron tower.

His sickly green eyes stared at Yan Jinghan.

"Do you want to live, or do you want to die?"

His voice was frigid, devoid of all emotion.

"You!"

The hairs on Yan Jinghan's body stood on end, and he subconsciously stumbled backward.

With just a single glance from the creature, he found it difficult to resist, even with his cultivation at the True Qi Seventh Layer.

The many Martial Alliance experts behind him were even more terrified.

Suddenly, someone cried out in alarm, looking to the sides.

Su Jianxue and Yan Jinghan quickly looked as well, their hearts sinking in shock.

From the ground on both sides, one Corpse Demon after another was clawing its way out...

In the blink of an eye, hundreds of Corpse Demons had appeared, completely surrounding the group of Martial Alliance experts.

'They were lying in ambush?'

"I told you, we do not wish to be enemies with the Martial Alliance. You are the ones insisting on making an enemy of us."

The same tall Corpse Demon from before, his voice cold and his aura overwhelming, stepped forward. His sickly green eyes fixed on Yan Jinghan and Su Jianxue as he said icily, "Agree to our terms and ingest the corpse poison, and you can live. Otherwise, every last one of you will die..."