I long to return home!

"Are you alright?" Xu Tao's hands were stained with blood and clenched tightly, his arms still wrapped around Mu Xiyao.

"Cough, I can hold on." Mu Xiyao coughed up a mouthful of blood. If Xu Tao hadn't protected her, she would never have been able to withstand it.

Upon hearing this, Xu Tao coughed up the blood clots in his body, gripped his chest with his five fingers, and felt the biting cold freeze his sensory nerves, temporarily relieving him of the pain caused by his injuries.

"Senior Brother Xu, your injuries are too severe. Before you left, Master gave me two life-saving talismans so I can escape in case of danger." Mu Xiyao took out two talismans with runes drawn on them from her bosom and handed them to Xu Tao.

“Senior Brother Xu, Xi Yao knows you are eager for revenge, but you cannot put him to death.”

Xu Tao grabbed the talisman and stuffed it into his robes, then staggered to his feet. "Xi Yao, this is my only chance to become a core inheritor. Only a core inheritor has the opportunity to take control of the Sword Sect and avenge themselves against the Falling Cloud Sect." As he spoke, his blood-stained fingers traced the blade of the sword.

"Water Spirit Sword Technique".

He swiftly approached the ghost zombie, dodging several attacks from the bloody hand with agility and skill. "Against the Current!" Xu Tao roared, severing one of the ghost zombie's bloody hands with a sword strike comparable to that of a Golden Core cultivator.

The six-armed ghost zombie seemed to feel no pain, and its axe-wielding ghost hand slashed horizontally. Fortunately, Mu Xiyao swung her sword and unleashed a water crane to neutralize the killing blow.

Seeing this opportunity, Xu Tao swung his sword, and the water droplets surrounding him condensed into dozens of water swords, which struck the ghost zombie in unison.

The ghost zombie staggered back a few steps, its entire body sprouting chilling bone spurs. Its speed and physical strength increased several times over. In the blink of an eye, it regained its composure and began wildly wielding its axe and halberd.

Xu Tao dodged. Mu Xiyao formed hand seals, gathering spiritual power into the sword, which instantly grew several times larger and attacked the ghost zombie.

The ghost zombie neither dodged nor evaded; its three bloody hands gripped the sword, while its two ghostly hands, holding the axe and halberd, defended against Xu Tao's opportunistic sword strikes.

"Two bugs, I've had my fill of them."

The ghost zombie roared, shattering the giant sword. The bloody hand that had been severed earlier grew back, and two more bloody hands emerged from its back, making it an eight-armed ghost zombie.

A powerful aura, truly belonging to the late Golden Core stage, swept out, and the aftershocks of the ghostly howl forced Xu Tao back several meters away, leaving him unsettled.

"I spared your life earlier because you were somewhat attractive, but now that you've killed this man, I won't kill you." The ghost zombie looked at Mu Xiyao, its enormous eight-armed body inspiring awe.

"Dream on." Mu Xiyao shouted sharply, spreading her hands out and lightly touching them with her fingertips, and a water mirror suddenly formed in front of her.

"Sword Heart Clear." With that, he swung his sword, the sword energy passing through the water mirror, the sword intent becoming even more fierce. When it struck the ghost zombie, it felt like it was being burned, and black smoke rose up.

Without batting an eye, the ghostly zombie ripped away the black, oozing flesh and blood, tossing it to the ground without a trace of confusion. Its halberd and axe then cleaved away the incoming sword attacks. Six bloody hands plunged into the ground, trembling violently. Before they could react, more bloody hands shot out like vines, reaching for Xu Tao and his companion.

Just then, hurried footsteps echoed within the stone chamber, and a third person suddenly appeared in the ghost zombie's sight. Huai Zhen's figure had appeared above the ghost zombie's head, stepping across the stone wall, seemingly out of nowhere.

His face was terribly grim, his hands clenched into fists, and he glared at the grotesque face of the ghostly zombie, roaring, "What did you do to His Highness!"

A bloody hand emerged from the ground and reached out to grab Huai Zhen in the air. The enormous bloody hand was enough to crush the person in front of it, but at the moment of contact, Huai Zhen inexplicably felt an irresistible pressure.

Huai Zhen swung his fist, banishing all thoughts, and threw a heavy punch. As his fist collided with the blood-stained hand, the blood energy within it seemed to be drawn in, surging into the latter's fist.

The absorption and resonance of this blood energy made Huai Zhen feel inexplicably familiar, and a vague memory flashed through his mind. He felt that facing this blood energy was like facing an absolute monarch, something that would make it submit.

boom!

Cracks appeared in the blood hand, and after a loud bang, it exploded into blood energy. The ghost zombie was startled, as the blood energy it emitted was out of control and could not condense into a new blood hand.

Xu Tao and Mu Xiyao were both shocked. Huai Zhen, who had suddenly arrived, was now competing with a ghost zombie in the late stage of the Golden Core realm in terms of physical strength, and had even destroyed one of the zombie's bloody hands.

"I'll kill you!" Huai Zhen's eyes rarely showed killing intent, and his powerful physical body made it easy for him to dodge the halberd and axe.

He leaped to the ghost zombie's abdomen, and every punch and palm strike rained down on its exposed belly, shattering some of the bones. With each palm strike, the blood energy that had been maintaining the status quo within the body became chaotic.

Perhaps Huai Zhen's personality was not like this in the Xiaoyao Sect, but seeing Lei Mengying injured, his instinctive anger and killing intent took over his body.

The enormous body of the ghost zombie gradually shrank, and its eight arms transformed back into its original six arms. "I'm going to kill you, devour your soul, and prevent you from entering reincarnation!" it roared, as its four bloody arms simultaneously reached out to grab Huai Zhen.

"Use Qi to defend." Huai Zhen took a step forward, his palms facing the bloody hand that was grabbing at him. Centered on himself, a ball of Qi expanded into a barrier to block it.

In that instant when he was defending with both hands, the ghost zombie swung his halberd and axe down fiercely, cracking the ground deeply.

Huai Zhen flew backward and landed steadily on the ground, seemingly without much injury.

Seeing this, Xu Tao gritted his teeth and replaced the Reverse Cold Sword in his hand with "Snowfall". A bone-chilling cold burst forth, freezing the ghost zombie's feet in a single exchange.

"Xi Yao, now's the time!"

With that, he strode away, gritting his teeth to endure the cold and pain, each strike accompanied by a chill. Most of the ghost zombie's body was frozen solid, unable to move for the time being.

Seeing this, Mu Xiyao gripped the sword hilt and planted it in the ground. Her beautiful eyes slowly closed, and her lips moved as she uttered a spell.

The next moment, a sword array rose from the ground, and another sword array appeared above the ghost zombie's head. Three unique water swords emerged from the sword array and pierced the ghost zombie's crown and two withered ghost hands, respectively.

Xu Tao's frozen hands gripped the sword hilt tightly, unleashing a sword strike without snowflakes but with a bone-chilling cold, shattering the ghost cultivator's enormous ghost body.

Although no injuries were visible, the withered body swayed unsteadily. In that instant, Huai Zhen's figure rapidly approached, and he threw another punch.

The ghost cultivator's ghost body was destroyed, and the blood energy within his body was also thrown into chaos. Unable to gather his blood energy, he was unable to use his Golden Core cultivation.

Xu Tao strode forward, wielding his sword to force the ghost cultivator back. Under Huai Zhen's astonished gaze, he slashed off the ghost cultivator's head with a single stroke. As the head separated, the hundreds of fierce ghosts turned into malevolent energy and dissipated.

"His life cannot be given to you." He looked at Huai Zhen and said coldly, then carried the head to Mu Xiyao's side with one hand.

“Senior Brother Xu, the ghost cultivator from Ailao Mountain has been beheaded. We should return to the sect to report back,” Mu Xiyao said.

"Okay, let's go." Xu Tao glanced at Huai Zhen one last time before leaving with Mu Xiyao.

Huai Zhen was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly ran to Lei Mengying's side. Lei Mengying was leaning against the wall, her complexion was obviously much better, and the black lines spreading on her neck were slowly fading.