The Hundred Corpse Wilderness stretched out to a staggering extent, its borders invisible to the naked eye. The ground was soft and spongy underfoot, like treading on rotting flesh.
A stench of decay permeated the air, thick and inescapable.
Jian Huaishuang followed behind Chen Zhou in silence.
After walking for about fifteen minutes, Chen Zhou suddenly came to a halt.
Jian Huaishuang paused. "Lord?"
Chen Zhou turned back to look at him, a slight smile playing on his lips. "Summon the paper people."
Jian Huaishuang was puzzled, but he complied nonetheless.
With a wave of his hand, sheets of white paper flew out from his paper armor, dancing through the air and fluttering down like snowflakes.
As the paper touched the ground, it folded automatically, transforming into hundreds of paper people in the blink of an eye.
"Ah! Finally out!"
"I was suffocating in there! I was suffocating!"
"Boss, you finally remembered us!"
As soon as the paper people emerged, they began chattering away, jumping and hopping around like prisoners finally released for some fresh air.
Jian Huaishuang frowned. "Quiet."
The paper people shut their mouths instantly, standing in a neat row, but their crudely drawn eyes darted about, and they nudged and winked at one another.
Jian Huaishuang looked at Chen Zhou. "Lord, what are your orders?"
Chen Zhou pointed to the human-shaped markings on the ground. "Have them step on those markings."
Jian Huaishuang was taken aback for a moment, but then he understood.
He looked at the paper people and commanded, "Go. Step on every one of those markings."
The paper people froze, looking at each other.
"Step on the markings?"
"Boss, why the hell are we stepping on those things?"
"They look filthy. We'll have to wash our feet afterward, or they'll stink to high heaven."
Jian Huaishuang remained expressionless. "Execute the order."
The paper people gave a cheer and immediately scattered, rushing toward the markings on the ground with laughter and shouts.
Some stomped with their feet, some pressed down with their hands, and some even lay flat on the ground to roll over them with their bodies.
Soon, the trampled markings began to squirm.
Streams of air thick with decay and death surged from underground, the earth began to tremble, and hundreds of hundred corpse patchworks crawled out.
Seeing this, Chen Zhou immediately activated his Ghost Domain, enveloping himself and Jian Huaishuang to completely hide their presence.
In the perception of the hundred corpse patchworks, only those lively and animated paper people remained in the area. Following their instincts, they lunged at the paper people.
The paper people shrieked with laughter, nimbly dodging the lunges of the hundred corpse patchworks while making faces and weird noises at the monsters.
Jian Huaishuang watched the scene, deep in thought.
"Lord, do you intend to artificially replicate a hundred corpse patchwork riot?"
Chen Zhou nodded. "Let's give it a try."
"There's no harm in it anyway. Let's see what happens when a massive number of hundred corpse patchworks converge on the Royal Capital."
Jian Huaishuang nodded and, following behind Chen Zhou, issued orders to the paper people.
The paper people ran ahead, looking back as they went.
"Hurry, hurry! Keep up, keep up!"
"You're too slow! Can't you go any faster?"
"Exactly! At this rate, when are we ever going to reach the Royal Capital?"
The hundred corpse patchworks ignored their taunts, simply chasing them mechanically, one step at a time.
Sometimes they would stop or veer off course.
When that happened, a paper person would run back and hop around in front of them.
"Over here! Over here!"
"Don't run that way, there's nothing interesting over there!"
"Come on, follow me!"
With living things moving frantically before their eyes, the hundred corpse patchworks would turn back and continue the pursuit.
One paper person ran too fast and didn't watch his step, getting snatched up by a hundred corpse patchwork that had just crawled out.
"Aah!"
He let out a startled cry as he was stuffed into the creature's mouth.
The other paper people looked back and burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! Junior Brother got eaten!"
"Serves him right for running so fast!"
The eaten paper person had only his head sticking out, still struggling.
"Dammit! I let my guard down!"
He opened his mouth and bit down hard on the hundred corpse patchwork's finger.
The creature didn't react and continued to chew.
The paper person's head lolled to the side as he was swallowed completely.
The other paper people laughed even harder.
"Oh, Junior Brother is gone~"
"My condolences. The idiot Junior Brother is gone, but you still have your lovely, beautiful, gentle, and virtuous Junior Sister here~"
Just as the words left its mouth, a new paper person peeled off from Jian Huaishuang and jumped out.
"What are you shouting for? Yours truly is back!"
He stretched his limbs and chuckled.
"These things are pretty tough. I'm almost at the sixth-stage, and I still got downed in one go."
The other paper people crowded around, talking all at once.
"How did it feel?"
"What's it like being eaten?"
"Was it satisfying?"
The paper person rolled his eyes. "Satisfying my ass. It was pitch black and stank like hell. You lot try it next time."
With that, he charged back toward the hundred corpse patchworks.
"Come on! Let's keep going!"
The paper people continued to lure the hundred corpse patchworks forward.
In this manner, a vast swarm of hundred corpse patchworks marched across the wilderness. Wherever they passed, they stepped on new human-shaped markings, and more creatures crawled out from the earth to join the ranks.
The horde grew larger and larger, expanding from the initial hundreds to thousands, and eventually, they became too many to count.
From a distance, it looked like a gray-green tide.
The speed of the hundred corpse patchworks was too slow. After traveling for half a day, they had covered less than fifty miles.
Sometimes, when a hundred corpse patchwork fell behind, a paper person would run back and lure it back into the formation.
Sometimes, when a new human-shaped marking was activated, the paper people would wait a while for the new hundred corpse patchwork to crawl out before moving on.
The horde grew more massive and slower.
But the paper people were in no hurry; they had plenty of time.
After all, they didn't need to eat or sleep, and they feared neither death nor pain. They could keep walking forever.
Three days later.
The horde finally approached the Royal Capital.
The stench of decay in the air grew even stronger, enough to make one gag.
Chen Zhou stood on high ground, gazing into the distance.
Ahead was a colossal city.
The walls were massive, towering dozens of yards high, but they were in a state of utter ruin, riddled with cracks and gaps.
Flesh-colored vines crawled all over the walls—some unknown plant covered in dense clusters of human-face sores.
At the city gates, countless skeletons were piled up, covered in moss and mushrooms, with strange insects crawling in and out of the bones.
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