Mortal: The Path to Immortality

The tunnel was extremely cold and damp. After falling for about several dozen feet, the sound of wind rushing past my ears was replaced by the sound of waves crashing.

After landing, the two discovered that they were in a huge underground cave.

A wide underground river runs through it, its waters dark and calm, with slippery stone steps on both sides.

At this moment, the lingering smell of burning kerosene still remained in the air.

"Look there!" Lu Nanzhu pointed to the river upstream, where several obvious pools of blood were slowly drifting downstream, appearing particularly glaring under the faint glow of the magical artifact.

The two swam upstream along the stone steps, eventually meeting up with Zhou Tong and Han Ze. The group continued their search for the Snow Beast, following the trail of blood.

Turning past a protruding rock wall, there was a shallow water area. The Snow Beast was slumped on the stone steps, and bloodstains were slowly flowing down the steps into the river beside it.

It had long lost its former majesty; its once smooth skin was now charred black, and in many places, the tender, red flesh was exposed, curled up.

Seeing the crowd closing in, the Snow Beast let out a low roar, its azure eyes filled with rage.

It suddenly opened its huge mouth, but instead of spitting out white mist, it let out a high-frequency roar that made everyone's eardrums hurt.

"This beast is seriously injured and will fight to the death!" Kong Yuan reminded everyone, then raised the hammer with both hands.

The Snow Beast unleashed its long blue tongue, lashing it wildly. The tongue was like a steel whip, smashing the stone steps to pieces with every strike.

The group tried their best to defend against the monster's attack.

After a burst of fury, the Snow Beast turned and powerfully kicked off with its hind legs, creating a massive wave of water. This wave crashed towards the group like a small mountain.

The group activated their spiritual light shields to barely block the impact of the water waves. When they came to their senses, they discovered that the monster had plunged into the underground river and was trying to escape using the current.

"Want to leave? No way!"

A fierce glint flashed in Zhou Tong's eyes. He knew that if this monster were to infiltrate the underground river, it would be difficult to catch it again.

He slammed his hand on his storage bag, took out a bright yellow talisman, and said to everyone:

"Fellow disciples, please hold off this fiend while I use my talisman to deal with it."

Just as he began to fully activate the talisman, everyone released their magical artifacts and techniques to try to slow down the Snow Beast's escape.

Before long, the talisman transformed into an earthen-yellow Dharma wheel, on which were engraved dense inscriptions.

As the Dharma wheel spun, it emitted a sound like a grand bell tolling, and a bright yellow domain enveloped the demonic beasts lurking in the underground river.

The river water around the Snow Beast was dispersed, leaving it immobilized at the bottom of the river.

The monster was extremely resilient. Using the talisman's domain as leverage, it leaped forward, attempting to jump towards Zhou Tong.

Seeing this, Zhou Tong remained calm and manipulated the Dharma Wheel to fall, directly smashing it into the Snow Beast leaping in the air.

The monster let out a mournful cry, fell heavily to the ground, struggled a few times, its azure eyes gradually dimmed, and it completely lost its breath.

"Huff! Huff! Huff!" Zhou Tong immediately put away the talisman, his face pale as he gasped for breath.

At this moment, everyone was still somewhat shaken, and Han Ze spoke first:

"Thanks to Senior Brother Zhou's talisman, otherwise we might not have been able to subdue this monster."

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Zhou Tong quickly waded through the shallow water to the side of the Snow Beast's corpse.

It first used a magic dagger to confirm whether the monster was faking its death, and then roughly pried open the Snow Demon Beast's foul-smelling mouth.

He was practically halfway down that slippery throat. He frantically groped inside, muttering to himself.

"That shouldn't be the case! How could it not be there?"

After touching him for a while, he withdrew, his brows furrowing slightly: "Could it be that Elder Lin is mistaken?"

Just as he finished thinking and pried open the monster's mouth, intending to search again, a long sword, entirely dark blue, suddenly pierced out from deep within the monster's throat without warning.

"laugh--!"

Because of the close proximity and the excessive energy he had previously expended, Zhou Tong didn't even have time to scream before the long sword pierced through his neck.

Unable to maintain his balance after being attacked, Zhou Tong fell headfirst into the water. A large amount of bright red blood gushed from the wound on his neck, flowing down the river towards Lu Nanzhu's feet.

The scene before them was quite unexpected, and everyone quickly took out their magical artifacts to assume a defensive stance.

The Snow Beast's mouth was ripped open by two pale hands, and Luo Jin's youthful face peeked out from inside.

At this moment, his eyes shone with an eerie purple light, and his entire body displayed the cultivation level of a pseudo-core cultivator.

He walked up to Zhou Tong, holding a grayish-black, viscous sphere in his hands, which emitted a nauseating stench.

Luo Jin glanced sideways at the dying Zhou Tong, extended his left hand holding the gray-black sphere, and said mockingly:

"Is this what you're looking for?"

"Uh...uh..." Zhou Tong's throat was filled with blood and river water.

"Luo Jin! You slaughtered your fellow disciples! You stole treasures! What are you trying to do!?" Kong Yuan held the hammer in both hands, sweat beading on his forehead, and questioned him sharply.

"Stealing treasures!? The Snow Beast and this 'Snow Beast Incense' belong to me; how can this be considered stealing?"

Luo Jin glanced at the three of them with disdain before answering, then pulled the long sword from Zhou Tong's body, splattering a lot of blood on the stone steps.

He did not rush to deal with the crowd, but instead put the longsword and treasures into his storage bag. He slightly spread the five fingers of his right hand, and thin strands of spiritual energy emitting a dark purple light extended from his fingertips.

These fine threads burrowed into Zhou Tong's body through his mouth, nose, and wounds, rapidly traveling along his meridians.

Before long, with a flick of his fingers, Zhou Tong, who had already died, stood up stiffly.

Zhou Tong, who stood up, looked very strange. His eyes rolled back, and his body was covered with purple patches, emitting a strong corpse aura. He had obviously been refined into a corpse puppet.

"Two against three? Not enough, not enough," Luo Jin sneered.

Without moving, he once again drew a line in the air with his left hand. Dark purple spiritual threads once more materialized from his fingertips, forming a fine spiderweb that suddenly enveloped the enormous snow beast corpse behind him.

Spiritual threads surged wildly into the cracks created by the burning oil. The Snow Beast, which had been completely dead, suddenly shivered.

With a sudden tug from Luo Jin's finger, the mountain-sized monster corpse emitted a series of ear-piercing grinding sounds as its bones shifted and wobbled as it crawled out of the shallow water.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator and a peak Level 4 demon beast have both become puppets manipulated by Luo Jin.

At this moment, Lu Nanzhu's pupils suddenly contracted. This bizarre method of corpse refining instantly reminded him of the demonic cultivator he had seen in Kusong'ao; they were almost identical.

"This person's method of using spiritual energy is so similar to Elder Xiao's. Could it be that the two of them have some kind of relationship?" Lu Nanzhu tried to remain calm, but his heart was pounding with anxiety.

"Who exactly are you!? What are you planning to do here!?" Lu Nanzhu immediately questioned Luo Jin in a cold voice.

Luo Jin immediately stared intently at Lu Nanzhu, scanned him with his divine sense, and a smile appeared on his lips. He said, "You little rascal, you're quite interesting."

He actually possesses a Wind Spirit Body, and his origin is quite profound, tsk tsk tsk...

If you were to use your physical essence to refine a 'corpse pill,' the taste would surely be infinitely wonderful!

Sensing the killing intent, Kong Yuan took a step forward, blocking Lu Nanzhu's path, and urgently transmitted his voice:

"Junior brother, this person is very strong. I will try to hold him off for a while. You should find an opportunity to escape and return to the sect for help."

Then he shouted sternly:

"Luo Jin! You think you can hold us back with just these two newly formed corpse puppets? You're dreaming!"

Before Lu Nanzhu could respond, Han Ze, who was standing to the side, was terrified. His magic weapon was broken, and he was also seriously injured. His senior brother Zhou, whom he relied on, was now dead, and he felt that staying would likely be fatal.

Without saying a word, he turned around and fled downstream along the underground river, disappearing into the shadows of the tunnel.

"Escape? Where can you escape to in this deep underground?" Luo Jin chuckled mockingly, but did not give chase.

Han Ze fled desperately, and just as he was about to escape the shallow water, a sense of relief rose in his heart. Suddenly, a burly, dark figure fell from the rock wall above without warning, blocking his path.

The dark figure emanated a metallic, dark red luster, and its eyes were gray and lifeless. It was none other than Han Zhen, the head of the Han family, who had been refined into a hundred-refined corpse!

"Patriarch... Patriarch!? No, who are you? Ah—!"

The moment Han Ze's terrified scream faded, Han Zhen gripped his neck with both hands. A sharp "crack" rang out, Han Ze's voice abruptly ceased, his head lolled to one side, and he was dead.

Before Lu Nanzhu and Kong Yuan could even engage Luo Jin, they heard a scream coming from the lower reaches of the cave.

A short while later, footsteps came from the shadows downstream. A dark red body covered in blood emerged from the shadows.

The newcomer was Han Zhen, who was holding Han Ze's head in his right hand. Thick, sticky blood from the severed neck was dripping onto the stone steps.

At the same time, Luo Jin also controlled three corpse puppets to step forward and surround Kong Yuan and Lu Nanzhu.

The two surrounded individuals were back to back, gripping their magical artifacts tightly, poised to strike.