The little demons finally stuffed the pills into their mouths.
As the pills entered their stomachs, a surge of warmth rose within them, and the terror on their faces finally faded slightly.
Chen Zhou's Ghost Domain was still expanding.
The defiled earth had already covered most of the Earth Dissolving Cave, and bone hands reached out from all directions, dragging one hundred corpse patchwork after another into the ground.
He counted them; there were already at least a thousand.
But many more hundred corpse patchwork were still crawling out from the cracks in the ground, and their tiers were getting higher and higher.
At first, they were around the fifth-stage, but now there were sixth-stage hundred corpse patchwork mixed among them.
Chen Zhou frowned. His current reserves of death qi were not plentiful, and continuing to keep the Ghost Domain open like this was not a sustainable solution.
Without a godhead in hand, Chen Zhou did not want to waste an upgrade opportunity just to restore his health and energy for now.
Chen Zhou roughly sensed the direction from which the hundred corpse patchwork were swarming and shouted, "Huaishuang."
"I am here, My Lord."
"Over there. Seal off that tunnel."
Jian Huaishuang nodded, his figure turning into a white blur as he landed at the tunnel entrance.
Countless pieces of white paper flew out from his paper armor, layering themselves over the tunnel mouth.
The moment the white paper touched the rock, it stuck firmly, growing more numerous and thicker until it finally formed a massive paper cocoon, sealing the entire tunnel entrance tightly.
The hundred corpse patchwork were blocked outside the tunnel.
The Earth Dissolving Cave fell quiet, leaving only the suppressed sobbing and panting of the little demons.
Chen Zhou turned around and looked at Plague Rat.
"When you went up just now, did you really not notice anything unusual?"
Plague Rat's expression was grave as it shook its head.
"No."
"This rat took that thing to the surface and dissolved it completely with my Ghost Domain, and the marks around it didn't move either."
"This rat has lived in Tianchi Province for over three hundred years and knows these things inside out; there's absolutely no way anything went wrong."
Chen Zhou nodded.
If nothing had gone wrong on Plague Rat's end, then the problem lay elsewhere.
What had caused so many hundred corpse patchwork to be activated at once, and clearly targeting the Earth Dissolving Cave?
Chen Zhou narrowed his eyes.
Wan Xiu.
Had that fellow noticed someone crossing the realm barrier and sent these things to test them?
If that were the case, he was quite cautious.
Using these unkillable, disgusting things to scout the path and gauge the newcomer's depth first.
The enemy was in the dark while they were in the light, which was not good news.
But it wasn't a major problem either.
Those who liked to hide their heads and tails were unlikely to be very powerful themselves.
If the Judge were like Wan Xiu, having developed freely for ten thousand years and absorbed all the Dragon-Suppressing Stakes in the provincial capital, he certainly wouldn't continue hiding in Yin Wudao's eyes.
He would have sacrificed the entire Gloomlight Province to the Vermilion Judgment long ago.
As Chen Zhou was thinking, he suddenly felt the ground vibrate.
Jian Huaishuang's expression changed.
"My Lord, this is bad!"
He looked toward the tunnel entrance.
A crack suddenly appeared on the paper cocoon.
The crack spread rapidly, becoming more numerous and dense.
Boom!
The paper cocoon exploded.
Countless paper scraps danced in the air.
A massive hand reached out from the tunnel.
The hand was over a hundred feet long, entirely gray-green, and rotted beyond recognition, with shreds of putrid flesh hanging from the bones and pus dripping from the fingertips.
After the hand emerged, it pressed down.
With another explosion, a large section of the ground collapsed.
Several little demons could not dodge in time and fell into the pit, vanishing after a single scream.
Jian Huaishuang's face turned ashen.
His paper seal had actually been breached.
Although his cultivation had dropped to only the third transformation of Eerification, these were just mindless dead things; hundred corpse patchwork should have been absolutely unable to break through his white paper.
As paper scraps continued to flutter in the air, the giant hand squeezed out of the tunnel, and countless hundred corpse patchwork surged out through the cracks like a bursting flood.
"Holy shit!!!" Plague Rat cursed, releasing its Great Plague Heaven as mist permeated the air, attempting to block the tunnel entrance again.
The mist collided with the hundred corpse patchwork at the front, and their bodies began to fester, pustules bursting and flesh falling away as they were wrapped in the green mist to prevent the cavern floor from being contaminated.
But the hundred corpse patchwork did not stop at all; they continued to walk forward even as they rotted, their decaying feet leaving smoking footprints with every step.
"Damn it, these things aren't right!" Plague Rat shouted. "They dissolved at a touch earlier, so how can they still move now?"
Chen Zhou's expression also turned serious; there were many hundred corpse patchwork, but the most terrifying thing was likely that giant hand.
The owner of the hand had not yet emerged.
Chen Zhou looked at the tunnel entrance and saw the giant hand still squeezing out; after the wrist came a forearm that was equally rotten, followed by the elbow.
That thing was dragging itself out of the crack inch by inch.
Chen Zhou could feel its aura.
Seventh-stage.
"My Lord!"
Wu Gou's voice came from behind.
Chen Zhou turned his head and saw Wu Gou running over with Jing Hui and a group of little demons.
Jing Hui was stumbling as he ran, one hand still gripping the necks of two little demons he had pulled out of a rock crevice.
"There are more behind us!" Wu Gou shouted. "The hundred corpse patchwork throughout the entire Earth Dissolving Cave have been activated, and they're all swarming here!"
Chen Zhou looked around.
Sure enough, gray-green figures were starting to crawl out of the small caves at the edges of the cavern.
Some squeezed out of rock cracks, some stood up from puddles, and some even peeled directly off the rock walls, hitting the ground with a splat before wobbling to their feet.
In every direction, there were hundred corpse patchwork.
The little demons screamed in terror and scattered in all directions.
Some ran in the wrong direction and crashed straight into a hundred corpse patchwork, getting a face full of turbid air and instantly turning into a pool of pus.
"Don't run around!" Plague Rat roared, its Great Plague Heaven expanding to wrap around the scattering little demons and forcibly dragging them behind it.
It looked up at Chen Zhou. "My Lord, there are too many; we can't keep this up!"
Chen Zhou didn't speak; he was calculating.
Calculating his current death qi reserves, the number of hundred corpse patchwork, and when the owner of that giant hand would fully emerge.
Then he spoke. "Plague Rat, how long can your Ghost Domain hold out?"
Plague Rat was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood.
"My Lord, you want to..."
"Yes," Chen Zhou nodded. "Drive the hundred corpse patchwork toward you and lock them all inside."
Plague Rat's expression changed. "My Lord, there are too many! This rat's Ghost Domain can't fit them all!"
"You have to fit them even if you can't," Chen Zhou said. "We cannot kill them indiscriminately."
Plague Rat also understood that these things had to be isolated.
Every hundred corpse patchwork was a living plague container; if one was killed and the rotten flesh hit the ground, a new mark would form.
And from every mark, more hundred corpse patchwork would crawl out.
If not handled properly, the Earth Dissolving Cave would be doomed forever.
"Fine!" Plague Rat grit its teeth. "This rat will give it everything!"
It spread its paws, and the mist of the Great Plague Heaven grew even thicker, forming a massive sphere of mist behind it.
The mist sphere continued to expand, quickly reaching over a hundred feet high like a giant overturned bowl.
"Drive them over here!" Plague Rat shouted.
Wu Gou and Jian Huaishuang immediately understood and cooperated fully, stuffing piles of hundred corpse patchwork into Plague Rat's Ghost Domain.
Rate on N.U.
