Chapter 9: Making Up for Lack of Skill with Strength
Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Making Up for Lack of Skill with Strength
Wu Chen chose not to travel through the night as he usually did, for he had noticed a rapid surge in the number of Demon Corpses.
Not only were their numbers surging, but the beasts were also much closer to the fleeing refugees than before.
Wu Chen suspected the Demon Corpses would attack within the next day or two.
If they advanced rashly onto the vast, exposed crimson plains, they’d be devoured, with not even a scrap left behind.
But if they used the village’s terrain to their advantage, employing the walls to outmaneuver and halt the Demon Corpses’ offensive, they might just have a fighting chance.
As he pondered, the flickering, firefly-like lights in the distance seemed to grow a little larger, and the stench on the night wind became more potent.
The Demon Corpses were drawing nearer to the village.
’Looks like... it’s tonight, then?’
’A lot sooner than I expected.’
The rancid stench sent a jolt through Wu Chen.
He shed his lazy demeanor, breathed warm air onto his palms, and rubbed them together vigorously.
As he watched the shadowy figures crawling out of the darkness to encircle them, a nameless rage suddenly welled up inside him for reasons he couldn’t quite pinpoint.
’I’ve been in constant danger ever since I arrived in this world, barely escaping with my life.’
’Days have passed, and my cultivation has soared. I’ve gone from a regular person to a martial artist at the Sixth Layer of the Body Tempering Realm.’
’But my situation hasn’t changed in the slightest. I’m still just desperately trying to survive.’
’Damn it all, did I go through all that advancement for nothing?!’
Wu Chen’s mood soured even further.
He glared at the distant figures and spat viciously.
"Damn it... I’ve had enough of this shitty life!"
"I’ve got to slaughter a couple of these bastards to blow off some steam!"
SWISH!
He drew his blade from its sheath. Watching the approaching horde of Demon Corpses, he hardened his resolve, deciding to kill at least a couple of them to scratch his battle itch.
’And maybe see if they drop anything good.’
AROOOO—
Perhaps sensing Wu Chen’s killing intent, a piercing howl erupted from within the Demon Corpse horde.
As the howl died down, five figures shot out from the horde, charging toward the man with the blade at the village entrance.
These were scouts, the Demon Corpses’ first probing attack on the village.
The night wind slammed into him, thick with a putrid stench. Five crawling figures tore through the darkness, their eyes leaving green trails in their wake as their limbs clawed deep gouges in the dirt.
Unlike the mindless husks he had seen before, these Demon Corpses moved like wild animals, their charge filled with a primal savagery.
Wu Chen took half a step back to absorb the impact of their charge, his heels sinking half an inch into the soil. The knuckles of his gaunt hands cracked audibly.
ROAR!
The Demon Corpse in the lead moved so fast it left afterimages in the night. It opened its fang-filled maw, and a piercing shriek scraped its way out of its rotten throat.
"Bring it on!"
As he prepared to fight for his life, Wu Chen understood that he had to cast aside all thoughts of living or dying.
With a low shout, his muscles tensed like iron. He didn’t retreat but advanced, moving to meet the oncoming figure.
The fastest Demon Corpse was the first to reach him. As it leaped with its gaping maw, Wu Chen made a single, direct strike.
He was better with his fists and palms than he was with a blade.
Watching the leaping Demon Corpse, he shot out his gaunt, well-defined hand.
With a single, effortless motion, his hand precisely closed around the throat of the leaping Demon Corpse, which, caught mid-air, had no way to dodge or brace itself. He hoisted it into the air with one hand.
Its throat gripped in a death lock, the Demon Corpse sensed the immense danger and began to struggle frantically.
Driven by combat instinct, its sharp and mutated claws, like daggers, slashed toward Wu Chen’s heart.
Wu Chen wore no armor, only a few pieces of ragged cloth protecting his body. If that attack landed, the Demon Corpse would surely tear out his heart and lungs.
Watching the gleaming claws, Wu Chen’s expression remained unchanged. His five fingers, wrapped around the Demon Corpse’s throat, suddenly exerted their full force.
The nearly seven hundred pounds of force from his Sixth Layer Body Tempering Realm gathered in his fingertips—enough power to crush stone, let alone a throat.
CRACK!
With a sickening crunch, the Demon Corpse in his hand went limp, and the green glow in its eyes faded.
Despite his initial victory, Wu Chen didn’t get complacent and think the Demon Corpses were nothing to worry about.
He hurled the dead body at the two closest Demon Corpses, which were running side-by-side, hoping to knock them back and avoid being surrounded.
Seeing the dark shape hurtling toward them, the two Demon Corpses moved with surprising agility, about to split left and right to continue their pincer attack.
But Wu Chen was faster.
Before the corpse he’d thrown could even hit the ground, he was already upon the two Demon Corpses as they began to dodge.
A flash of silver!
The wind from his blade howled as it sliced between the necks of the two Demon Corpses.
Wu Chen knew no formal sword techniques, but he made up for his lack of technique with pure strength.
This single slash was more than enough to decapitate them!
Besides, after his fight with Liu Linshan’s disciple, he had practiced swinging his blade every day, gaining some real experience with it.
Under the moonlight, the silver arc of his blade flashed through the air.
Before the two Demon Corpses could even react, a brute force slammed into their necks, ripping their heads clean off their shoulders.
A testament to the sheer power behind Wu Chen’s strike!
In the blink of an eye, three of the five Demon Corpse scouts that had charged from the darkness were now lifeless bodies.
They seemed like simple moves—a grab and a squeeze, a throw and a slash.
Yet they had consumed half of Wu Chen’s focus and stamina.
"Hah..." Wu Chen exhaled a puff of white mist.
But before he could even catch his breath, two nauseating gusts of foul air rushed up his back.
It was the two remaining Demon Corpses, which had circled around to attack him from behind without him noticing.
One lunged for the back of his neck, while the other went for his ankle.
If either of them connected, Wu Chen would surely die tonight.
As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Wu Chen tapped his toes to the ground, leaped three feet into the air, and twisted his body with fluid grace.
One of his legs whipped out like an iron rod, viciously striking the Demon Corpse that had lunged for his neck.
The Demon Corpse, suspended in mid-air, had no way to dodge and took the full force of the blow.
SMACK!
With a dull thud, its body shot toward the ground like a cannonball, making the earth tremble on impact.
Most of its bones were shattered on impact, and it immediately went still.
Having dealt with the mid-air threat, Wu Chen lowered his gaze to the ground.
There, the other Demon Corpse had just snapped its jaws on empty air where his ankle had been.
Perfectly calm, he flicked his wrist, flipping the steel blade so its tip pointed straight down.
SHLIIICK!
Using the massive inertia of his descent and his own body weight, the palm-wide blade met no resistance as it pierced flesh and slid, smooth as silk, into the Demon Corpse’s body.
The immense force carried the blade’s momentum, allowing it to pass clean through the Demon Corpse’s torso and pin it to the ground.
"GURGLE... GURGLE..."
The Demon Corpse’s limbs thrashed wildly as a wretched gurgle escaped its throat.
Despite being impaled by the steel blade, it displayed astonishing vitality, still struggling to rise from the ground.
Wu Chen simply brought his foot down, crushing the back of its neck and ending its struggles for good.
And with that, all five Demon Corpse scouts had been slain.
The area fell silent. Even the agitated Demon Corpses observing from a distance grew quiet for a moment.
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
Wu Chen pulled his blade from the last corpse, flicking away the foul-smelling gore. With several swift kicks, he sent the five bodies tumbling toward the distant horde.
Staring at the figures shrouded in the hazy night, the desire for slaughter welled up inside him, growing ever stronger.
Even though he had spent most of his stamina, he was still determined to kill a few more Demon Corpses and get his fill of battle.
AWOOO!
As if in response to his thoughts, several shrill howls suddenly pierced the night, followed by the heavy thud of footsteps that made the ground tremble.
Just as Wu Chen stood with his blade at the ready, eagerly anticipating a satisfying slaughter...
...he was surprised to find...
...that the bobbing, ghostly eyes shrank back to the size of fireflies, before finally fading into the night and disappearing completely.
The Demon Corpses had retreated for now.