Chapter 79: Fighting the Corpse Beasts

Ding Longyun acknowledged with a sound. “It looks like we really need to prepare to leave this place.”

Leaving the Corpse Ship, the four returned to the building.

Ding Longyun and the others questioned Su Li about the Nightmare Beast’s death. Su Li didn’t hide anything and told them about the Corpse Mother hidden deep underwater. Of course, he didn’t mention the Spirit of Talent or his awakened talent, ‘Enhancement Favor,’ as everyone has a small secret they don’t want to reveal publicly.

“So the Nightmare Beast and the Corpse Mother killed each other. I never thought there’d be such a terrifying monster hiding down there.” Ding Longyun clicked his tongue in amazement. Since Su Li hadn’t mentioned severing the Corpse Mother’s root stalk and killing it himself, Ding Longyun assumed the two monsters had perished together.

Su Li handed the machete to Gong Xiao and said to Ding Longyun, “It’s a shame I lost your steel shovel.”

Gong Xiao refused to take it. “You keep the machete. I see you lost your weapon too, and I still have my baseball bat.” Su Li accepted the machete without arguing.

Afterward, the four rested briefly. The dinner Ding Longyun had prepared earlier was cold, so he reheated it. It was late by the time they finished eating.

“With everything that happened today, I think we should get some rest. There’s no way we can hunt tonight,” Ding Longyun said, checking the clock on the wall and noting it was ten o’clock at night.

Gong Xiao was disappointed. “We’re not hunting tonight? The monsters are evolving every day. If we don’t work hard, I’m afraid…” She was eager to grow stronger. Especially after witnessing Su Li’s performance today, she was more anxious than ever to catch up to and even surpass him.

Su Li was only one Spiritual Source away from leveling up. He was extremely curious about his ‘Enhancement Favor’ talent and was eager to test it out. Due to the Nightmare Beast and the Corpse Mother, there wasn’t a single monster visible in the water; all living monsters had been frightened away. Otherwise, he would have tried to hunt one already. Now, he wanted to see if the fleeing monsters had returned.

“Ten o’clock isn’t too late. Gong Xiao is absolutely right. These monsters are getting stronger every day. Just like the sudden appearance of the Nightmare Beast today, who knows if an even more terrifying monster will appear tomorrow? We can’t miss any opportunity.”

Su Li decided to try. He wanted to get stronger. His success in pitting the Corpse Mother and the Nightmare Beast against each other was largely due to luck, but he couldn’t rely on luck every time. He needed to become powerful enough. Only by being strong could he survive better and protect those he cared about.

“Alright.” Seeing that both Su Li and Gong Xiao agreed to continue hunting tonight, Ding Longyun nodded in assent.

The four made preparations. Su Li kept the machete as his weapon. Gong Xiao picked up the baseball bat she originally used. Ding Longyun took the axe left behind by Fang You. Xu Xuehui continued to use her dagger and iron hammer.

Blowing out the candles in the room, the four closed the door and went up to the roof.

Although the Nightmare Beast had destroyed several walls and left many large holes, the building was still sturdy and showed no signs of imminent collapse.

Half of the large pile of corpses on the roof had been thrown into the water by Su Li earlier, leaving about twenty left.

“Let’s throw eight down first and see what happens tonight. Who knows what effect the Nightmare Beast’s appearance had,” Ding Longyun said, lifting two corpses, carrying them to an edge of the roof, and throwing them over.

Su Li followed suit, throwing two corpses down as well.

They quickly threw down eight corpses, then watched the water below for any changes. The eight corpses slowly sank, but the water’s surface remained still.

“What’s going on? Were all these monsters really scared off by the Nightmare Beast and that… Corpse Mother?” Ding Longyun frowned.

Su Li said, “This building is their nest. Even if they were scared away, they should be back after all this time. Maybe there aren’t enough corpses. Let’s add two more.”

They threw two more corpses down.

A total of ten corpses had now been thrown, leaving only about ten on the roof. The group waited, with Gong Xiao, participating in her first hunt, being the most anxious.

The four waited for a full four or five minutes before the water below finally showed a reaction.

First, a human head surfaced—a Corpse Beast—followed by a second Corpse Beast.

Soon, a total of eight Corpse Beasts appeared.

Su Li activated the ‘Peering Rune’ and noticed that among the surfaced Corpse Beasts, there were five Low-Level Corpse Beasts and three Advanced Corpse Beasts.

“As expected, they’ve evolved again.” Out of eight, three were Advanced, a surprisingly high ratio. Last night, among so many Low-Level Corpse Beasts hunted, only two Advanced ones appeared in total.

The moment they appeared, the Corpse Beasts began to climb up, especially the three Advanced Corpse Beasts, whose movement was extremely fast.

“Watch out, three of them are Advanced Corpse Beasts. These Advanced ones are very tricky to deal with.”

As Su Li warned them, the three Advanced Corpse Beasts were already climbing onto the roof. The other five Low-Level Corpse Beasts were much slower and had only just reached the 31st floor.

“Gong Xiao, be extra careful with the Advanced Corpse Beasts,” Ding Longyun said, having suffered at the hands of one before, worried Gong Xiao wouldn’t know.

“I know,” Gong Xiao nodded, tightening her grip on the baseball bat. Seeing one of the Advanced Corpse Beasts poke its head over the edge of the roof, she was the first to strike, swinging the bat with a rush of wind toward the beast’s head.

The Advanced Corpse Beast twisted its body sideways with remarkable agility, while its right arm shot out simultaneously.

“Huh?” Gong Xiao’s cherry lips parted slightly, and her eyes suddenly contracted. She realized that the surface of the Advanced Corpse Beast’s outstretched right arm was covered in scales, like fish scales. The baseball bat struck the scale-covered arm, producing the muffled sound of leather against leather.

The Advanced Corpse Beast extended its right hand, grabbed the bat with a backhand grip, and tried to wrench it away. Gong Xiao felt a surge of massive force and her pretty face paled slightly. She quickly tightened her grip and pulled the bat back.

Seizing the opportunity, the Advanced Corpse Beast leaped, jumped onto the roof, released the bat, and lunged at Gong Xiao.

At this moment, Su Li and Ding Longyun also engaged the other two Advanced Corpse Beasts.

Xu Xuehui gripped the iron hammer in her hand, slowly approaching to look for an opportunity to strike. She was already a Level 2 Spiritual Source Wielder and had gained some experience from the previous battles, no longer as afraid or terrified as she was initially.

The Advanced Corpse Beast that Su Li faced had a mutated right leg, covered in a hard shell. Su Li did not attack it while it was climbing. Instead, he intentionally stepped back, allowing it to successfully climb onto the roof, before finally raising the machete and hacking down.

(End of Chapter)