I exhaled in relief. “That’s good.”

Li Mazi asked the villagers to head back as it wasn’t safe to stay by the lake. Of course, I knew what he was up to. He was worried that the villagers would compete with him and steal the valuable corpse crystals. If that happened, we would suffer a big loss.

Although we couldn’t take the Corpse Scattered Essence, we could still collect some corpse crystals.

The situation seemed to have calmed down. The Corpse Scattered Essence had whip marks all over its body, and it slowly sank back into the water. The bearded man wore a proud face and threw a mocking look at Senior Shu.

Senior Shu smiled awkwardly. He wanted to say goodbye and leave.

However, I wasn’t satisfied. “Senior Shu, aren’t we going to collect some corpse crystals?”

Senior Shu rolled his eyes at me. “It’s good enough that we could keep our lives. Don’t think about gaining anything here.”

Although I felt reluctant, I could only follow him to the village; we had to pick up our belongings.

As we were about to leave, Senior Shu looked at the general direction of the Heavenly Dragon Lake, keeping silent for quite a long time.

I urged, “Senior Shu, let’s get in the car. If we bump into those people from the Zhang family, they’ll make fun of us again.”

Senior Shu shook his head and motioned at me to not talk. He closed his eyes and entered a meditating state.

Li Mazi and I exchanged looks. Li Mazi was puzzled and asked, “What is he doing? Does he want to imprint the scenic sights here into his head?”

“That stuff only happens in dramas. Let’s wait and see what he is doing.”

“What a strong wave of Yin energy…” Senior Shu muttered as if he was sleep-talking.

I was confused and looked at him. “Did something wrong happen?”

“Let’s go.” Senior Shu ran towards the Heavenly Dragon Lake without any explanation.

I was startled and hurried to follow behind him. “Senior Shu, what’s going on?”

Senior Shu ignored me. He kept looking at the sky over the Heavenly Dragon Lake and started to run faster.

When we reached the Heavenly Dragon Lake, what we saw frightened us. Li Mazi screamed and landed on his butt.

I pulled him up and looked at the scene in a daze.

The experts from the Zhang family were nowhere to be seen while the Corpse Scattered Essence still calmly hovered above the water. The water in the lake was now blood red.

The bearded man stood by himself on the lakeside. The muscles on his body bulged, and his veins looked like green worms. He angrily looked at the Corpse Scattered Essence. Clenching his jaw, he faced the sky and roared like a wild animal.

I sensed that his body was swelling up. He looked taller, and there was a strange rune made of blood on his forehead.

Senior Shu was startled. He rushed forward and shouted, “That’s the Superior Mao Technique! Second Brother, don’t you want to live anymore?!”

“All my men are dead!” the bearded man howled painfully. “I’ll use my life to kill this thing!”

“No, we'll think of a solution!” Senior Shu stopped the bearded man. “Wait for me, we’ll take action together!”

“Move aside!” The bearded man pushed Senior Shu aside. “This is my branch’s business. No need for you to get involved!”

Then, he jumped into the lake and stretched his hands, grabbing onto the Corpse Scattered Essence!

“Die!” The bearded man thundered in his wrath and tightened his grip. As Senior Shu had said earlier, the Corpse Scattered Essence was a flesh body created by resentful energy. As such, the bearded man was able to smash it with his fingers.

However, the damaged part recovered at a very fast pace.

Senior Shu cursed something under his breath. Then, he took out a small tool that looked like an iron wok and smashed it on the Corpse Scattered Essence’s head.

I couldn’t stay idle even though I knew it was very dangerous. The bearded man’s Superior Mao Technique was our only shot at winning. If he was defeated, we wouldn’t be able to shoulder the Corpse Scattered Essence’s attack.

However, after just a few steps, I felt two hands pulling at my legs. I didn’t say a word and squatted to pull the hands out of the lake.

Then, I saw that it was a member of the Zhang family. At this moment, his appearance had changed beyond recognition. His entire face was covered with blisters, and each blister had a floating corpse crystal inside.

My trypophobia kicked in. I screamed and kicked him away.

I ignored the corpses beneath my feet and ran crazily toward the Corpse Scattered Essence.

Before I could approach it, I heard the bearded man screech. His body was knocked back to the lakeside, and he created a hole after landing on the shore.

His face was also full of blisters, and he looked utterly disgusting. Needless to say, corpse crystals floated inside the blisters. He looked much worse than the other members of the family.

I knew I couldn’t beat the Corpse Scattered Essence, so I immediately turned around and retreated.

Senior Shu ran behind me and scolded, “You damn kid, why are you running away?!”

I retorted, “You are also running away—”

Before I could finish, he had already surpassed me. Senior Shu had erupted all of his potential at this critical moment.

As soon as I decided to increase my speed, a soft hand grabbed my arm and hair covered my shoulders.

I turned my head to look and saw a stunning beauty. She looked as though she had just walked out of a bathtub. Her hair was wet, and her jade-like skin was pale and soft.

Just a frown or a smile of hers could make people intoxicated. It was already a pleasure to see her. Moreover, she was so close to me that I could smell the aroma from her breath.

“He… Hello,” I stammered.

The woman was graceful and polite. She said softly, “Darling, come with me.”

Then, she pulled my hand. I immediately felt something sticky crawl on my body.

I knew that the sticky substance was corpse crystal. I was aware that the Corpse Scattered Essence wanted to trap me. Just like the other fellows of the Zhang family, I would end up with blisters all over my body. Then, I would wholeheartedly serve this thing.

My heart throbbed as my fate would be decided next. I couldn’t just stand with my hands tied and wait for death. I drew the Sirius Whip and lashed at the Corpse Scattered Essence.

As it had absorbed a lot of blood essence from the Zhang family members, the Corpse Scattered Essence had become formidable. On the surface, it didn’t appear to be that different from an ordinary person. When the Sirius Whip hit her, it felt like hitting a real person. However, she just felt some pain and wasn’t injured gravely.

She was enraged and roared indignantly. The corpse crystals moved faster and covered me entirely.

My body felt hot and itchy. The corpse crystals crawled and wiggled like worms, trying to dig into my skin; the itch was unbearable. Since I couldn’t harm the Corpse Scattered Essence, I had to deal with the crystals on my body first.

I didn’t hesitate to whip myself with the Sirius Whip in an attempt to get rid of the corpse crystals. However, those crystals didn’t have minds of their own as they were completely controlled by the Corpse Scattered Essence. As soon as I managed to whip a part of them away, others took their place!

I felt as though I was going to suffocate, and things were likely over for me. The Corpse Scattered Essence was so strong that even the bearded man’s Superior Mao Technique didn’t work. While using the technique, he had traded part of his life force to obtain the attacking power of a deity for a short time. Since it didn’t work, it meant that the Corpse Scattered Essence’s power had already surpassed that of most supernatural beings!