Three Henchmen

Azure flames spread along Gu Yang's arm, instantly enveloping his entire body.

At this moment, he looked like a vicious ghost crawling out of the Nine Nether Underworld, exuding a chilling aura that could freeze one's very soul.

Gu Yang took a step forward and slowly pressed his palm, burning with azure ghost fire, against the severed neck of the headless Qilin.

Crack.

A faint, crisp sound echoed.

It was as if some ancient mechanism had been awakened.

The stone statue, dead and silent for three thousand years, suddenly trembled.

Its broken body actually began to greedily suck the Nine Nether Soul-Locking Flame from Gu Yang. The originally dark red stone skin quickly faded, taking on an eerie, pale bone-like texture.

Rumble—

A dull friction sound came from deep underground.

The ground beneath the stone statue did not crack open. Instead, like melting wax, it slowly collapsed, forming a pitch-black vortex just large enough for one person to pass through.

A decaying stench, ten times thicker than the outside world, surged out from the vortex, mixed with a bone-piercing gloomy wind.

If an ordinary person smelled this odor, they would probably vomit and faint on the spot.

But Gu Yang only frowned.

With a leap, he jumped directly into the vortex that seemed to lead straight to hell.

...

The feeling of weightlessness lasted only for a moment.

His feet hit the ground with a soft smack.

This was a long, narrow corridor.

The walls were built from countless white bones neatly stacked together. Every ten steps, a ghost eyeball emitting a pale green light was embedded, serving as an everlasting lamp.

Illuminated by this eerie green light, Gu Yang's scarred face looked particularly ferocious.

Roar...

A low, guttural roar, as if a throat was stuffed with gravel, came from the depths of the darkness.

Immediately following were heavy footsteps.

Thud, thud, thud.

Every step made the ground tremble slightly.

By the pale green light, Gu Yang saw the obstacles blocking his path clearly.

They were three giants, fully two meters tall.

Their skin was a metallic iron-cyan color. Their long-withered muscles wrapped around their bones like steel rebars. They had no eyeballs; in their eye sockets were only two clusters of burning ghost fire. In their hands, they dragged rusty, giant horse-chopping sabers.

Peak Rank Two Iron Corpses.

Their physical strength was comparable to peak-grade magical artifacts. They possessed boundless strength, felt no pain, and had no fear of death.

Gu Yang stood in place, not retreating a single half-step.

Under the eerie green light of the ghost eye lamps, the three iron corpses were like three moving hillocks. With every step they took, the white bone floor tiles of the corridor let out teeth-aching cracks, the wail of bones being crushed into powder.

Roar—

The leading iron corpse let out a muffled, low roar.

It had no eyelids, and the two clusters of green fire in its eye sockets suddenly flared up. The rusted giant blade in its hand, as wide as a door, was dragged across the ground, striking a series of dazzling sparks and letting out a harsh scraping sound.

Peak Rank Two.

In the outside world, these were war weapons capable of enduring a full-force strike from a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator without being destroyed.

Perfect.

Gu Yang cracked his neck.

My newly forged Crimson Blood Immortal Pedestal shouldn't be so weak that it can't withstand a few dead things.

A cold, hard smirk curled the corner of Gu Yang's mouth.

The next instant.

Without any flashy starting stance.

Boom!

The two bluestones beneath Gu Yang's feet instantly shattered, and fine stone fragments shot out like bullets.

His entire body turned into a gray afterimage. Instead of putting distance between them, he shot forward like a cannonball straight out of its barrel, crashing directly into the encirclement of the three iron corpses!

Since this was an Asura's battlefield, he would greet them in the most primal way.

Straight ahead.

The iron corpse seemingly didn't expect this puny human to dare actively seek death.

In its rigid mind, there was only the instinct to slaughter.

Whoosh—!

The giant horse-chopping saber carried a vicious wind. Even before it fell, the terrifying wind pressure had already blown Gu Yang's gray robe until it fluttered wildly, clinging tightly to his skin.

This blade was enough to cleave through gold and stone!

Gu Yang neither dodged nor evaded.

He took a deep breath, his chest puffing out high. His vital blood surged like a rushing river. His right arm instantly expanded a size, and a faint crimson blood-jade luster surfaced on his skin.

Break!

Gu Yang shouted in a low voice, his right fist blasting out like a heavy hammer. He actually chose to meet the rusted blade head-on!

Clang—!!!

A deafening collision of metal rang out in the narrow corridor.

Fleshy fist against refined iron.

A terrifying shockwave spread outward with the two at the center. Several ghost eye lamps on the walls were instantly extinguished, only to flicker on and off again, nourished by the Yin energy.

The iron corpse, weighing thousands of pounds, was forcefully blasted sliding backward by three feet from this punch!

Its iron feet, deeply sunk into the ground, plowed two deep trenches.

And Gu Yang merely stepped back half a pace.

He glanced at his right fist.

On the surface of his fist, the rusted blade capable of cutting gold and jade had left a white mark. The skin was broken slightly, oozing a few drops of golden blood.

Pain.

But it was merely pain.

Sizzle...

Almost the very second the wound appeared, the crimson lotus pedestal inside Gu Yang's body trembled slightly.

Those few oozing drops of blood did not drip down. Instead, they instantly turned into a red mist and were reabsorbed by the wound. Granulations wriggled, the white mark disappeared, and the skin became as smooth as new, without leaving even a trace of a scar.

Hardness comparable to a mid-grade defensive artifact, and recovery power... is decent.

Gu Yang now knew where he stood.

But this was not enough.

Roar!!

The other two iron corpses reacted at this moment. From the left and right, two giant blades swept over like scissors, sealing off all of Gu Yang's avenues of retreat.

It was a fatal blind spot.

A sharp gleam flashed in Gu Yang's eyes.

Instead of retreating, he advanced. His body twisted at an extremely bizarre angle, like a boneless snake, barely slipping through the gap between the two giant blades.

Bang!

He executed an Iron Mountain Lean, slamming fiercely into the chest of the iron corpse on the left.

In this collision, Gu Yang used seventy percent of his physical strength.

The muffled sound was like the beating of a drum.

The bronze heart-protecting mirror on the iron corpse's chest instantly caved in. Its entire body was knocked backward, crashing heavily against the wall and shaking loose countless bone fragments.

But it merely shook its head. The indentation on its chest let out a strange sound of metal compressing, and it lunged forward again as if nothing had happened.

As expected...

Gu Yang frowned slightly. Borrowing the momentum, he leaped backward, landing lightly thirty feet away.

These iron corpses had no sense of pain and no vital points.

Unless they were dismantled into pieces or blasted into slag with absolute power, they were tireless perpetual motion machines.

Although Gu Yang had the upper hand with that punch just now, he also felt the recoil force making his finger bones ache faintly.

To completely destroy them with his physical body alone would take at least half an hour, and he would need to use the Great Sun True Fire for enhancement.

This rough and thick texture...

Gu Yang looked at the three steel monsters adjusting their formation and approaching in a triangular array. The coldness in his eyes actually faded a bit, replaced by an examining gaze called evaluation.

Like a shrewd butcher inspecting prime livestock on a chopping block.

Sparring session is over.

"Perfect defense, perfect strength, but negative intellect."

Gu Yang nodded in satisfaction.

"These three Iron Corpses should be able to cause some trouble for Mo Bufan and that Golden Core cultivator leading the group."