Chapter 183 — Underworld Raid

Those corpses were corpses indeed, but the souls of the departed still dwelled within them. That Daoist on the river was performing an art, using the Soul-Drawing Incantation to summon back the souls of every dead member of the Netherworld Sect, causing their souls to return to their bodies and launching a surprise raid on Lu County's garrison!

Some of the corpses had rotten, tattered bodies; some had heads connected to their necks by nothing more than a layer of skin; some had a great hole broken through their chests; some lacked arms or legs — their faces were ghastly and ferocious. They were truly dead, yet a spell had dragged their souls back from the underworld and restored them to their mortal frames, and their might was just as it had been in life.

Shen Wanyun was stupefied, standing dumbfounded on the gate tower. Shen Mu looked again at Dijiang County on the other shore; it was already veiled in black mist, and only the indistinct sound of magical powers exploding could be heard.

"Abandon the city, out the east gate! " Shen Mu said decisively.

Shen Wanyun and the others were shocked.

Shen Mu raced along the city wall, crying out at the top of his voice, summoning the dragon-qilin and Little Snow Fox; by now the city of Lu was in complete disorder, taken by surprise by the "corpses" that the Netherworld Sect had revived after death.

The armies of Jingping had generally trained in combined-attack arts, all cultivating the same spell or the same sword art, in groups of three and five; if a dozen or so soldiers cooperated closely, they could even kill an opponent a whole level above them. In large-scale warfare such tactics were supremely effective; one could say they slaughtered the enemy like snapping rotten wood and routed the sects that dared resist until they were broken and scattered. But this very battle within the county town of Lu exposed the weakness of such a mode of war.

The revived "corpses" of the Netherworld Sect charged into the city; the garrison soldiers, before they could even re-form their ranks, were broken apart and forced to fight singly. The individual soldier was far inferior to a disciple of the martial world's sects, and so it became almost a one-sided massacre!

The sky grew darker and darker.

Those Netherworld disciples, risen from death, could see as clearly in the darkness as in broad daylight, and were savage and reckless of death.

They had been dead flesh to begin with; they felt no pain, had no need to fend off an enemy's techniques; they simply flung themselves at their foes and killed. What is more, the Netherworld Sect, as a religious order, was not without powerful experts; even mighty masters of the Heaven-Man realm and the Life-Death realm had "revived.

" Yet this revival was not true resurrection; it was merely that a spell had summoned the lost souls back, and those souls would, after all, still have to return to the netherworld.

But this stretch of time was already enough to sweep away all who defended Lu County! "Lu County's defenders are finished. " Shen Mu's heart sank.

Only when he saw Little Snow Fox and the dragon-qilin arrive did he breathe a slight sigh of relief. Then they all leapt down from the east gate and fled through the darkness out of the city.

Behind them, the east gate collapsed with a thunderous roar, smashed to fragments by a Heaven-Man realm expert. Shen Mu looked back and saw a Heaven-Man realm general being ripped apart by the combined might of several revived Netherworld Sect experts!

There were also a few Daoists treading through the air on sheets of yellow paper, spurring them along, and the sight made Shen Mu's heart sink once more.

Those Daoists were survivors of the Corpse Immortal Sect, which had joined hands with the Netherworld Sect — one controlling corpses, the other souls. Of the soldiers in the city, it was to be feared very few would escape. "Doctor Shen, we should cross the river and return to Dijiang County!

" Shen Wanyun said gravely. Shen Mu shook his head.

"Quite a few corpses lie sunk in the river as well.

We cannot go back. " He had just spoken when suddenly the sound of water rose at the river's edge.

In the black mist, resurrected "corpses," dripping wet from head to foot, climbed out of the riverbed onto the shore; catching sight of them, they abruptly sprinted over. "We can only make for the Southern Wastes and look for a chance to return north.

" Shen Mu's face showed no change of expression.

He raised his hand and patted his waist; a beam of sword-light shot out from the Taotie pouch, transforming into the Cloud Sword form. The sword-light whirled, slicing off the heads of the Netherworld disciples who came rushing at them.

Those Netherworld disciples turned into headless corpses, then at once bent down, picked up their own heads, tucked them under their arms, and came on to kill nevertheless!

One head tucked under a corpse's arm opened its mouth wide and shrieked, "Come quickly!

There are a few fish that slipped through the net here! Come quick, everyone! " For all that Yun Que, Yue Qinghong, Shen Wanyun, and the others had seen a great deal of the world, they had never witnessed magic so diabolical.

The one who remained composed instead, perfectly self-possessed and not the least bit flustered, was Si Yunxiang, usually so shy and faint-hearted.

Shen Mu spread his five fingers wide and abruptly clenched them; the sword-light of the Chubao Sword at once turned into the Coiling Sword form, spinning and cutting, shredding those Netherworld disciples to pieces.

"Quick — go! " he said in a low voice.

"Lest the Netherworld Sect's experts pursue us.

" The group hastened into the darkness. Yun Que looked back at Lu County, wreathed in firelight, and felt a chill and a sorrow in his heart.

"To the Southern Wastes? That is the enemy's lair.

. .

"