Sage of Humanity-Chapter 789 - 787: Is This Also the Corpse Race?

His mind raced with numerous thoughts, but Lu Ye's hands never stopped moving.

Ying Wuji had already entered the city with Yiyi following in secret, silent for the time being.

However, Lu Ye estimated that there probably weren't any useful clues in the city.

If the native cultivators of this world really had to hide due to some crisis, they definitely wouldn't choose such an obvious place. It's more likely that they would hide in some remote mountains or forests, or some other secluded location.

As time passed, at a certain moment, Lu Ye suddenly looked up and cast his gaze in a particular direction.

There was a fluctuation in spirit force coming from over there—it seemed someone was engaged in combat.

Just yesterday, that was how he had discovered Ying Wuji, and upon detecting the commotion, his heart stirred.

Could it be a fellow from the Nine Provinces nearby?

He quickly packed up the unfinished audio transmission stone he was working on and spurred his body to rush toward that direction.

As he drew closer, Lu Ye slowly realized his speculation was wrong; one of the parties involved in the combat was not from the Nine Provinces, as their spirit force fluctuation was not strong.

Upon approaching the battlefield, Lu Ye leaped onto the trunk of a large tree, overlooking the area from above, and finally saw the parties involved in the fight.

One side was a group of one man and two women. The man undoubtedly had the highest cultivation among them, with spirit force emanating from his body around the level of Cloud River Level 5.

The two women, one around thirty years old and the other a young girl of seventeen or eighteen, both had just barely reached the Cloud River Realm.

Among the three, the man was severely wounded, with a huge gash across his chest and abdomen, his flesh mangled, and even his face covered in an ominous aura.

Yet he fought desperately to protect the two women, preventing even the slightest harm from coming to them. Therefore, although the women looked disheveled, they weren't seriously injured.

Lu Ye then turned his gaze to their opponent, and his eyelids slightly narrowed.

Because that being could no longer be considered human.

With a shriveled and withered figure, it seemed like a corpse that had dried up for countless years, its exposed skin full of cracks. Yet such a seemingly long-dead corpse exuded an aura even stronger than the injured man's!

Moreover, its combat style was extremely brutal, and the force it could exert seemed unimaginably strong. It held no Spiritual Artifact in hand, but its sharp fingertips were the most practical weapons—the man's chest and abdominal wounds were inflicted by its nails.

Besides, Lu Ye noticed that its physical defense was astonishing. Facing the joint attacks of the three opponents, it showed no intention of dodging. The Spiritual Artifacts fell upon its body yet failed to cause any real harm, leaving only shallow marks on its dried-out flesh.

This… could it be a member of the Corpse Race?

A suspicion arose in Lu Ye's mind.

The member of the Corpse Race he had encountered yesterday was not very strong in itself, but capable of commanding tens of thousands of rotting corpses, somewhat resembling the style of a beast-taming faction.

But the one he encountered today was completely different from yesterday's.

This one had no rotting corpses under its control, relying solely on its unbelievably strong physique to overpower its opponents with brute force.

This style of the Corpse Race bore a faint resemblance to physique cultivators.

But compared to the physique cultivators of the Nine Provinces, this member of the Corpse Race seemed to have an even more remarkable physique.

By comparison, the Corpse Race that commanded swarms of corpses relied on the power of numbers, but this one relied on its own strength.

"Quick, run! I'll hold him off!"

As the situation worsened, the injured man shouted fiercely and, disregarding his own safety, charged at his opponent with reckless courage.

Their team originally consisted of six members, two of whom were even stronger than him.

However, after encountering this member of the Corpse Race, their group crumbled like tofu, and within moments, three had fallen in battle. He too had been injured, and only the two women remained unharmed, perhaps because they were well-protected, or because their lower cultivations drew less attention from the Corpse Race adversary.

But if they kept this up, they were bound to be utterly destroyed.

He was undoubtedly facing death. If he could delay the Corpse Race foe before dying, perhaps his companions would have a chance to escape.

In these end times, human nature was complex, full of deceit and constant betrayal, with fights among one's own people being all too common. However, there were also many who were sincere and genuine at heart.

"Husband!" As the man charged at the Corpse Race adversary, the woman couldn't help but let out a cry, as heart-wrenching as the call of a cuckoo.

The young girl urgently grabbed her wrist and said, "Aunt Shen, we must hurry!"

The woman looked back, with tears sliding down the corner of her eye. Despite her reluctance and anger burning like flame, what else could they do but flee in such circumstances?

"None of you will escape!" Noticing their attempt to flee, that corpse-like figure coldly snorted, its voice harsh and inhuman, more like ghostly wails and wolf howls from Deepest Hell Purgatory.

A claw-like hand stretched out, grabbing the male cultivator in a ferocious grip.

The rich corpse Qi, accompanied by a strong wind, made it nearly impossible for the male cultivator to breathe. The Corpse Race's claw dug into his chest, ruthlessly tearing off a chunk of flesh.

Struck by another punch, the man was flung into the air like a paper kite, only to crash heavily in front of the two women.

Just as the young girl, who was determined to leave with the woman, saw this, she knew there was no escape. She hurriedly helped the man up and as she rose, the Corpse Race had already closed the distance.

Facing imminent death, the woman seemed to find some peace, the hatred and fury in her eyes disappearing, replaced by a soft and tender gaze directed at the blood-coughing man.

After all, she couldn't leave her husband behind. Even if they could not stay together in life, dying together was an acceptable conclusion.

"Ah!" Just at that moment, the girl let out a shocked cry.

The Corpse Race member who was preparing to kill them thought it was the girl's terrified scream before death, but something felt off.

Because the girl's gaze wasn't looking at him, but rather over him, towards something behind his back.

Right then, a sound of something tearing through the air came, accompanied by strong fluctuations of spirit force.

There was someone else!

The Corpse Race member no longer cared about dealing with the three people in front of him and brashly turned around. What he saw was a fiery-red figure plunging from the sky, a long knife in hand not yet unsheathed, poised and ready to strike.

When locked by the opponent's sharp aura, for the first time in a long while, the Corpse Race member actually felt a tingling sensation on his skin.

This was very unbelievable for him because the Corpse Race didn't experience the sensation of pain.

He immediately understood that this tingling sensation of the skin was not conveyed by his body, but through his mind!

The newcomer was very strong!

"Roar!" The Corpse Race member roared in anger. His dessicated flesh tightened abruptly. His physique was already formidable, and with such actions, it became even tougher, almost invulnerable. Even cultivators of the human race who were stronger than him might not be able to injure him.

And as long as they couldn't harm him, he would be able to kill his enemies!

Clang...

The long knife was unsheathed. The fiery-red blade light sliced through the air, and Lu Ye had already brushed past the Corpse Race member, standing in front of the two women and a man.

The girl and the woman had looks of startled uncertainty, completely failing to understand what had just happened.

The middle-aged man, who was coughing up blood, had a slightly higher cultivation level, but even he hadn't been able to fully capture the trace of that strike.

Yet under that single strike, the Corpse Race member who had almost wiped out their entire team stood frozen in place, not moving at all.

Vaguely, a gurgling sound could be heard coming from the Corpse Race member's throat.

Lu Ye had already sheathed his knife.

The sound of the blade rubbing against the scabbard rang out, and as if startled by this small sound, the Corpse Race member's head suddenly rolled off his shoulders. The wound was as smooth as a mirror, with greenish Corpse Race blood spurting into the air, an utterly foul stench.

Lu Ye's body erupted with spirit force, and any splatters of Corpse Race blood were incinerated into nothingness before they could even draw near.

"Ah!" The girl cried out in shock again, her eyes brimming with astonishment and disbelief. Looking at the Corpse Race member who had now fallen to the ground, and then at the cold-faced Lu Ye in front of her, she couldn't believe that such a powerful member of the Corpse Race had been slain by a single strike!

And the one who had made the move seemed to be only a year or two older than her.

It felt as unreal as a dream.

Even Zui Shan, the strongest in the stronghold, wasn't this powerful, right?

"You've been poisoned, do you have a Detoxification Pill?" Lu Ye looked at the man among the three and asked.

The corpse Qi from the Corpse Race contained corpse poison, which he had noticed yesterday during his fight with many Corpse Race members. However, for cultivators, this level of corpse poison wasn't really a problem; generally, as long as they stimulated their spirit force to form a protective barrier around their bodies, they could prevent the corrosion from the corpse poison.

Even if corroded, the circulation and flow of their own spirit force would slowly dissolve it.

The man before him was severely injured, but with his cultivation level, recovery was not a difficult task.

What was critical was that he had been poisoned with corpse poison and needed to quickly detoxify, only then would he have the strength to recover himself.

Hearing Lu Ye's words, the middle-aged man gave a wry smile and shook his head weakly, "It's useless, I've been poisoned with the Primordial Corpse Poison of the Corpse Race, there's no need to waste a Detoxification Pill."

Lu Ye frowned, not understanding, "Primordial Corpse Poison?"

Was there a distinction between Primordial and non-Primordial corpse poisons?

But from the man's words, it seemed that once infected with the Primordial Corpse Poison, there was no cure.

Even on the brink of death, the middle-aged man's reaction made him seem puzzled.

The Primordial Corpse Poison was a direct means for the Corpse Race to transform their people. There was no cure for it; had this young man never heard of it?

Not in a hurry to inquire further from Lu Ye, the middle-aged man turned his head to the tearful woman, "Go deal with their bodies."

The woman kept shaking her head.

The middle-aged man said, "I can hold on for a while; I will wait for you to come back!"

Only then did the woman stand up, and casting back a reluctant glance at the man, she said, "You must wait for me to return!"

With her spirit force spurred, she soared into the sky, heading back the way they came to deal with the bodies of several companions.

After she left, the man sat down slowly with the help of the girl, panting. It was clear he was exerting his spirit force to suppress something, and looking at Lu Ye he asked, "Young brother, from which secret realm do you hail?"

Such a young age and yet so capable, only a few secret realms on the shattered Unparalleled Continent could cultivate such a person. People like them, scattered in strongholds struggling to survive, to raise someone like the girl next to him was tremendously difficult.