A hint of lucidity seemed to flash through the zombieâs eyes when it heard Haidong Linâs voice, but raging violence swiftly drowned it out. It went berserk and brought forth the hand of a beast to slash at the man.
Haidong Lin jerked backward with shock. Heâd correctly identified the zombie as mutated from Sea Lord Mayfly, but the two of them werenât friends. Though they both served the Sea Emperor, they bore distinct hostility for each other. It wouldnât be hyperbole to call them rivals, and the zombie continuing to attack after hearing him was proof of that.
Evading the latest swipe, Haidong Lin brought out his metal bident to meet tit for tat. He raised Myriad Sea and brought it crashing down on the enemy.
âSea Lord Mayfly, since youâve died and become a zombie, I will do right by the people and destroy this unholy evil of yours!â Haidong Linâs weapon seemed to be bolstered by a hundred million tons of seawater and released immense force with every gesture and movement. He sent the green-furred flying with a single blow.
âROAR!!â snarled the zombie as it turned around in the air, then came pouncing back with shrieks and snarls.
Haidong Linâs eyes widened as an enormous vortex manifested over his headâthe power of Ruina.
Having resided in Myriadsea World for countless eons, heâd become familiar with Ruina, studied it, and even incorporated it into his Myriad Sea combat art. A humongous vortex formed by a hundred million tons of seawater filled the void; Haidong Lin used his bident as a club and smashed it into the zombieâs head.
BOOM!
The zombie shattered with a muffled thud; rotten flesh and yellowish-gray corpse water sprayed in all directions.
âThat easy?â Haidong Lin looked on incredulously. âSea Lord Mayfly is just a touch weaker than me, he should be even stronger as a zombie. My Ruina Myriad Sea shouldnât have been able to kill himâŚâ
âThatâs because somethingâs refined his corpse.â Lu Yun bent down and picked up a piece of rotten flesh to study it. âAt least seventy percent of his strength had been refined away. If heâd been in peak condition, there wouldâve been nothing for us to do but run.â
Haidong Lin wasnât very receptive to the explanation, but he didnât argue with the young man.
â...Corpse Refiners!â A sudden thought struck Lu Yun. Only the Corpse Refiners possessed these kinds of methods. The sect had been conquered on the world of immortals and their corpse refining dao become part of the immortal dao, but there were also rumors of Corpse Refiners in the fourth realm.
They were a horrifying sect from the unknown expanses that could refine and control zombies. Lu Yun hadnât delved into the secondary worlds after traveling to the unknown, so he didnât pay much attention to them. But now theyâd come across traces of the Corpse Refiners in the Abyssal Hell!
âDid you say the Corpse Refiners?â Haidong Linâs face snapped with shock. âTheyâre one of the three great unholies of the secondary realms! It would make sense if it is them, they do have the ability to refine that much of the zombieâs strength.â
âThe three great unholies?â Lu Yun blinked.
âThatâs right. At our cultivation levels, we donât dare easily commit to karmic relationships. We understand there is no such thing as good or evil. The three great unholies are an exception. They collude with creatures of the darkness to prey upon the rest of us. Theyâre one of the few common enemies of all beings of order in the secondary worlds!â Haidong Linâs face darkened. âThe Corpse Refiners is one of them, and the strongest of them!â
âWho are the other two?â Lu Yun asked with surprise.
When it came to good and evil, it was simply a matter of perspective and morals. To creatures of order, those of the darkness were evil because they killed and ate those of order, attempting to turn the lands of light into dark. But to the endarkened, the same could be said for their enemies.
That was perspective.
Morality was the fundamental reason why intelligent life was called what it was. Whether it was denizens of order or darkness, either side adhered to their own principles and ethics, ones that determined their behavior and rules. To violate them was to be evil.
The stronger oneâs cultivation level was, the closer one drew to the core essence of dao. Certain restrictions appeared at that timeâkarma, for instance. Thus, the strong were separated only by different positions on various matters. They would never violate morality to give rise to karmic repercussions.
But there were always exceptions, and the three unholies were one of them.
âThe other twoâŚâ Haidong Lin scowled. âThe second is Myriad Ghost Order and the third is the Celestial Dark. They used to be sects of the secondary worlds, but theyâve helped the endarkened swallowed countless major worlds. I thought theyâd been razed out of existence, but it turns out they fled here instead!
âI even suspect that Sea Lord Mayfly didnât become a zombie after death, but that he was refined alive!â
Haidong Lin had clearly captured the moment of lucidity in the green-furred zombieâs eyes. Itâd been filled with desire and pleading; it begged Haidong Lin to kill him and free him from his eternal anguish.
âWe leave, now!â Lu Yun barked and utilized abyssal hellfire to conceal their life force, then whisked them away.
âWhat is it?â Haidong Lin had been dragged away mid thought, so he was rather confused.
âThe Abyssal Hell is where all the corpses of the dead used to be kept. Now that the layoutâs changed into one of nurturing a world of sequence, itâs also perfect for raising zombies!â An extremely ugly expression was present on Lu Yunâs face. âSince the Corpse Refiners are here, theyâll turn this place into a massive zombie farm! If a herd of them attacked us, there wouldnât even be bone dust left of us. We might even become zombies too!â
He would never forget the two great treasures the sect possessed in the world of immortals: the Bag of Corpse Refinement and their great Formation of Corpse Refinement. Both could turn the living straight into zombies.
Not only would the sect commit such an unthinkable deed, they could boost themselves with the zombieâs strength. Lu Yun highly suspected that theyâd been standing in one such formation.
Color drained from Haidong Linâs face.
âNo, we need to eliminate the Corpse Refiners!â He set his jaw and screeched to a halt. âI canât sleep easy with that massive threat on the loose!â
âCan you fight them?â Lu Yun sneered. âThis is the Abyssal Hell. I might not be a match for them even if I borrow the hellâs power!â
âWhat if you count me in?â came the Curse Kingâs irritated voice before his bedraggled form stumbled out of the void.