Chapter 146

: Flame suppression
Ye Chen tried extremely hard to keep holding the sword and maintain the posture. That stream of sword Qi was connected to his Zhen Qi, which meant that every single moment of the sword Qi would consume a huge amount of Zhen Qi, therefore, he wouldn’t be able to do this for too long. If he was alone in this place, facing only one martial zombie, he could surely try a little harder and kill that zombie for good, but sadly he was not; in the current situation, he couldn’t be sure about what other unexpected things might happen after he uses up all of his Zhen Qi,.
Ye Chen put the sword down, and the enormous stream of sword Qi dissipated along with it.
As for that martial zombie, which was pressed into the wall, it now looked to be completely out of shape. Its body was nearly cut into two by the sword stream while its dark internal organs and pure black spine were now clearly visible.
Aoo!!
This martial zombie abruptly howled out, at the same time, green airwaves spurted out from its pure black body, they slowly got its broken chest back together, and then began resealing it.

How can I let you do that?

Ye Chen curved his lip upwards as he pulled out the iron spear that was on his back. After that, he lifted his body and stood on his tiptoes, he then suddenly darted out like a fire-red stream of light.
Boom!
The iron spear directly pierced into the martial zombie’s broken chest along with a raging flame that wrapped around the zombie turning it into a human-shaped torch.
A series of loud sizzling noises came from the flame. The flame seemed to be able to restrain the zombie’s body. As Ye Chen continuously injected his Zhen Qi into the flame, it stared to grow larger, hotter, and even started to melt the zombie’s body. The zombie now seemed just like a burning candle, with a sticky liquid dripping down from it in thick streams.
Ye Chen’s eyes shone. Earlier, he was wondering if the flame could suppress the zombie for a little bit, but he didn’t think that it would work this well, its effects were even better than his full-strength sword attack. Generally, flames shouldn’t have such an immense effect, but it’s probably due to the iron spear being a Low-rank Treasure and the flame contained in it being more powerful and violent, this allowed it to even melt the zombie down.
Seeing this, Ye Chen stopped thinking about finding other solutions, he gripped the spear with both of his hands and firmly nailed the zombie to the wall.
Waves of howls suddenly burst out from the zombie. It was already severely injured, and by now, its body was already filled with scorching flame.

Damn! Martial zombies are afraid of fire! Now I’ve got it!

Lin Yue yelled as he took out a handful of exploding pellets.
Exploding pellets were not that powerful. Even from a short distance, one exploding pellet could only hurt an Early Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist, but can’t kill them. They were also way weaker than Silver Light Thunderbolt Bombs and Red Light Fireballs. However, they were one of the most common weapons in the martial world at present. The only reason for that was that the exploding pellets could be produced in small batches, while the manufacturing methods of both Silver Light Thunderbolt Bombs and Ted Light Fire Balls had already been lost. This meant that every time someone used a Silver Light Thunderbolt Bomb or a Red Light Fire Ball, the total amount of these two kinds of weapons would be reduced. Last time, those Silver Light Thunderbolt Bombs that Luo Hanshan had were probably everything the Sky Cloud Martial School had, and since Luo Hanshan had used up all of them, the school wouldn’t have any more left in the storage, and neither could they produce any; unless an ancient tomb that had Silver Light Thunderbolt Bombs buried inside was found.
Nevertheless, the exploding pellets were not too easy to get either. Among all of the nine nations, only a few institutions had the manufacturing method of the exploding pellets. The Dragon and Tiger Mountain, where Lin Yue came from, was one of them. As for the other institutions, they could only purchase the exploding pellets at a high prices if they need them. No institution would try to snatch this manufacturing method, after all, the Dragon and Tiger Mountain was a mid-grade rank 7 institution, even if a peak grade rank 7 institution tried to snatch the manufacturing method from the Dragon and Tiger Mountain, they have to prepare to suffer severe losses, and maybe even destruction; rank 6 institutions would never think about destroying a rank 7 institution for the mere manufacturing method of exploding pellets, they might have something much more powerful than exploding pellets, all in all, the power and wealth of rank 6 institutions were great and difficult to imagine.
While another martial zombie was busy howling madly, Lin Yue swiftly threw a handful of exploding pellets into its mouth. The howl suddenly stopped. Except for a few pellets that bounced back against the zombie’s face, all the others had been swallowed straight away by the zombie.
Boom, boom, boom boom boom…Within a single moment, countless earth-shaking booms burst out from the zombie’s chest, along with which, wisps of fiery lights spurt out from the zombie’s ears, nostrils, mouth and eyes, while streams of smoke came puffing out.
Yin Wuqing paused for a second. He either didn’t have any low-rank treasure weapons that contained a fierce fire power or something effective like the exploding pellets, it seemed that he could only deal with the last zombie using pure violence.
Without too much hesitation, Yin Wuqing took out a pair of black silk gloves that were shining with a frosty lustre, and put them on his hands. As he slightly activated his Zhen Qi, a pair of dark, purple, thickly saw-toothed, arc-shaped Zhen Qi blades emerged, and attached to the edges of his palms.
This pair of gloves were also a low-rank treasure, named ‘Gold-tearing Glove’, gifted by the leader of his institution. He had hardly used this pair of gloves because he believed in his own power.
He moved as fast as a lightning bolt, and fiercely hacked at the zombie’s neck, where it had been wounded by him once before. The old wound had by now almost entirely healed, only leaving behind a faint mark; Yin Wuqing then hacked again at the original wound and it broken again and was now twice as big as before, the zombie’s head was nearly about to fall off.
Ye Chen clearly saw the moves made by both Lin Yue and Yin Wuqing, he gave a faint smile and injected a huge stream of Zhen Qi into the iron spear. The zombie was forcefully suppressed all this time and couldn’t even move an inch no matter how loud it howled, almost half of its iron-like solid body had melted down and it now hardly had its human-shape.

Go!

Almost there. Ye Chen swallowed a round pill that could quickly replenish his consumed Zhen Qi, and then abruptly flicked his wrist. Following his move, the roaring flame exploded inside of the zombie’s body.
The zombie’s broken body was finally struck into pieces, it then fell on the ground and melted into puddles of sticky liquids.

My two friends, I’m leaving now.

Ye Chen didn’t know Lin Yue and Yin Wuqing well, neither did he plan to explore this tomb along with them, therefore, once he took out one of the three zombie, he immediately prepared to leave.

Ha, good, this tomb is huge, we better go our separate ways.

Lin Yue was about to destroy another martial zombie, hearing Ye Chen’s words, he laughed out loud and seemed to not care about it at all.
Yin Wuqing remained silent. If he had been the first one that managed to take out a martial zombie, he would definitely have done the same. This tomb was enormous, and would have more treasures hidden in it.

Good then, I’ll see you guys around.

Ye Chen flashed across the hall, he then moved into a tunnel and soon disappeared.
Lin Yue turned his head around and said to Yin Wuqing,
I assume that more changes will take place in the next Hidden Dragon Ranking, Yin Wuqing, your strength seems a bit low now.


You should be worrying about your own position! This Heavenly Dream Ancient Region is one of the four inherited ancient regions, the other three are under the control of institutions from other nations. When all those legendary regions are unlocked one by one, I assure you, many more people will step into the Clasping Yuan Realm.


Hm, you’re right. The Hidden Dragon Rankings have risen and fallen multiple times since the beginning, now it seems to be thriving. Marvellous talents from all the institutions have all gathered together, without any great and special abilities, we can never stand out among our generation.

……
The path extended in all directions. While he was moving, Ye Chen saw quite a lot of dead bodies of disciples from different institutions. Some of them had been killed by each other, some had their brains eaten by some unknown creatures, and some had been smashed against the wall, and became a pile of bloody paste, emitting a dense scent of blood.

This Heavenly Dream Ancient Region unlocks every ten years, every time it opens, it offers an opportunity, and also creates disasters. Before this, at least half of the entrants had managed to come out alive, but this time, keeping the death rate under fifty percent might only be a dream. No wonder the others say that all powerful martial artists tread on a sea of blood and a mountain of corpses, and have taken countless lives.

As he sighed lightly, Ye Chen realised that in this martial world, only continuous improvement could ensure one’s safety, unlike those ordinary people who had been living happy and peaceful lives, but when faced with wars or natural disasters, they could never protect themselves.
Of course, even if natural disasters and wars did not exist in this world, Ye Chen would still be unwilling to live an ordinary life. He had only seen a corner of the world of martial artists, and was still far from experiencing any of the really interesting things. In his view, it would be a great shame if he couldn’t live an exciting life. Apart from that, in his world there was a common saying － ‘as a living person, you need to be outstanding, and when you die, you should still be mighty as a ghost’. Wherever he lives, Ye Chen would always want a splendid life.
While thinking of this, Ye Chen arrived at the entrance of a broad tunnel.
At the end of the path, there was a stone gate, guarded by a pair of fierce-looking stone beasts. A candle was placed on each beast’s flat heads, with a dim candle light blazing over them.
Ye Chen gasped slightly and pulled out the Hidden Cloud sword as he walked towards the gate step by step.
Swish!
From a small and dark hole to the side, a slim and cold shining silhouette suddenly darted out towards Ye Chen’s face.

Die!

With his keen senses, Ye Chen swiftly attacked and pierced the sword through the creature’s head.
Puff!
The creature fell to the ground, it screamed out loud and immediately fled away.

There are so many weird things inside this tomb.
Ye Chen clearly saw the appearance of that creature when it showed up, it was a monkey-shaped, scrawny and hairless creature. Ye Chen’s attack only left a shallow wound on its face, it barely did any harm to it.
Right in the next moment, seven to eight monkey-shaped creatures launched their attacks at Ye Chen. Just like the first one, all of them were injured and fled right away. They let out waves of screams, making the dark tunnel feel even weirder than before.
Ye Chen abruptly stopped, thirty steps away from the stone gate, he hacked to the side.
A dazzling stream of sword Qi fiercely clashed against the engraving on the wall.
Crack!
It shattered, and from it a gigantic monkey-shaped creature that had a deep sword cut across its chest came swooshing out.

Demonic beast? Zombie?
If Ye Chen was not wrong, those smaller monkey shaped creatures and this gigantic one were all zombies, and had all been sealed inside the wall by someone. They were woken up by the smell of fresh blood that was being released from Ye Chen’s body, and broke out of the wall, intending to eat some of his fresh flesh.
This monkey-shaped creature was enormous, it was over three meters tall and was also hairless, it had iron-like solid skin and muscles, and could seemingly perfectly withstand the sword Qi.
The zombie beast let out a shrill scream and swung its claws towards Ye Chen’s face.
Puff!
It moved incredibly fast, Ye Chen swiftly gripped the iron spear that automatically flew out from his back, and he then directly thrust the spear into the zombie beast’s widely opened mouth.

Go! Go! Go!

Thunderous booms came along with Ye Chen’s voice, and the zombie beast hurriedly stepped backwards. The dark and hard skin on its face was broken and was melted by the flame bursting out of its own mouth, disabling it from fighting back.
Ye Chen generated another stream of power in his arms, and pushed the zombie beast back into the wall with the iron spear and burnt it down.
Seeing the zombie beast die, Ye Chen pulled the iron spear out, he turned around and walked up to the gate.
There was a handle beside the gate, Ye Chen grabbed it and pulled it downwards.
Followed by a rumbling noise, the stone gate slowly opened and exposed a room.
A bookshelf was placed on one side of the room, it had a few old books.
Ye Chen walked straight to the shelf, he picked up one of the books and began reading,
‘Scorching Sun Heart-Ripping Claw’, Low-rank Earth Realm Claw art, powerful enough to melt metals.

He put it down and picked another one, Ye Chen continued reading,
‘Mysterious Lunar Finger’, Low-rank Earth Realm finger martial art, with one move, the enemy’s blood will be frozen, internal organs and meridians will also be injured…

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