Chapter Forty-One: A Plan for Escape

Only one shot of the Fire Dragon's Wrath remained. Once it was used, he would have to wait three more years before he could unleash it again. If not for the urgency of the moment, Zhang Xiao would never have been willing to waste that final shot so casually.

Quietly, he sent a thought to Lazan. "Charge. No matter what happens, do not look back. Just keep going."

The Fire Dragon's Wrath erupted with a roar, and the crimson bolt shot straight toward the corpse fiend. Lazan, seizing the moment, sprinted after the bolt toward the gate behind the corpse fiend.

The corpse fiend guarding the gateway froze. For an instant, he did not know whether to stop Lazan, the monk, or to block the red bolt fired by Zhang Xiao.

That moment of hesitation was all it took.

A violent force suddenly burst forth from the crimson bolt. The corpse fiend's expression changed. Even with late Nascent Soul strength, he had no choice but to defend with all his power. He ignored Lazan and spat out a bronze shield, which rose before him in a flash.

With a thunderous crash, the impact hurled the corpse fiend aside.

Lazan took advantage of the opening without the slightest hesitation, rushing past the corpse fiend. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from Zhang Xiao's sight. Watching Lazan retreat into the distance, a faint smile appeared at the corners of Zhang Xiao's mouth.

"You bastard! I'm going to kill you!" The corpse fiend staggered to his feet. The bronze shield before him had already been pierced through, and from his left arm to his lower abdomen a ferocious wound was slowly knitting itself closed.

Zhang Xiao was inwardly startled.

As expected of a late Nascent Soul corpse fiend. Such a creature was only one step away from advancing into a dry corpse. By then, even a master of the Separation-Reunion stage would have to steer clear. The corpse fiend's hands lengthened into sharp claws as he charged toward Zhang Xiao.

Unfortunately, before he had taken more than a few steps, countless tendrils of branches suddenly shot out from the great tree behind Zhang Xiao, seeking to wrap around him.

Seeing this, the corpse fiend immediately calmed himself. Though he was only a clone, it was the only hope his true body had of ever escaping this place. He could not allow it to be destroyed so easily.

At once, his claws flashed through the air, cutting apart the surrounding branches before he retreated to the side and stared coldly at Zhang Xiao.

"Why go to all this trouble?" he said. "Letting that man escape won't help you at all. Besides, you are clearly enemies. Why do something so thankless?"

Hearing this, Zhang Xiao did not hurry. He sat cross-legged on the ground and smiled. "Then mind your own business. You said yourself that you are only a clone. I'm very curious, though. What exactly is your true body?"

"Hmph." The corpse fiend's face darkened, and he refused to answer. He sat at the gate instead.

Not long after, the wounds on his body had completely healed.

Then he raised his head and looked at Zhang Xiao, only to find that Zhang Xiao had already climbed up the tree and was reaching for the seven fruits hanging there.

At once, the corpse fiend roared, "Stop!"

Zhang Xiao blinked and looked back. Seeing the corpse fiend baring his fangs and claws at him, he could not help but laugh. "What, these fruits belong to your family?"

As he spoke, he plucked one of the human-shaped fruits in front of him and held it in his hand. It looked like a sleeping infant, tender and adorable, and a fragrance wafted from it, making Zhang Xiao swallow hard.

Of course, though the fruit looked like a baby, Zhang Xiao had already scanned it with his divine sense. Inside was nothing but a chaotic mass; there was no pulse, no flesh and blood of any human being. It was plainly a wooden fruit.

Yet when Zhang Xiao ignored him and picked one anyway, the corpse fiend beside him was so furious he nearly exploded.

He pointed at Zhang Xiao and cursed, "You damned robber! Despicable thief!"

Hearing that utterly unoriginal stream of abuse, Zhang Xiao sneered coldly. "What? The fruit is right here. Why shouldn't I eat it? If you don't explain yourself, I'll eat every last one of them today."

At that, the corpse fiend flew into a rage. "These fruits are the essence of my true body, drawn out by this damned Soul-Suppressing Tree. Stop at once, or my true body will certainly not let you go. I'll tell you this much: the seal here can last at most another hundred years. Once that time comes and my clone breaks out, I will rip out your soul and refine your spirit so that you can never be reborn!"

Only then did Zhang Xiao understand that this tree was called the Soul-Suppressing Tree.

No wonder. So his earlier guess had been wrong. The reason the spiritual energy here was so thick was not because the souls of the dead outside had been transformed, but because it had been drawn from some monster that was being suppressed here.

At that thought, Zhang Xiao could not help but shiver.

What ruthless methods. He had no idea which mighty being from the ancient era had been so merciless as to torment an enemy in this fashion.

Though he felt a little pity for the corpse fiend's true body, Zhang Xiao's hands were no slower. With a sweep of his sleeve, he plucked down the remaining six fruits.

Then he took out six jade boxes and separately stored the fruits away.

The corpse fiend standing guard at the gate nearly fainted from rage. The essence of his true body had been taken right under his nose by Zhang Xiao.

What was even more hateful was that Zhang Xiao could have been crushed with a single slap, yet the presence of the Soul-Suppressing Tree kept the corpse fiend from getting close at all.

If corpse fiends could cry, he would surely already be in tears.

But the corpse fiend could not understand this: did Zhang Xiao really intend to leave by killing himself?

Yet if he killed himself and lost one soul and one spirit, then even after they were restored, he would no longer be innately born. His future achievements would be limited.

Unless Zhang Xiao could find some heaven-defying treasure capable of transforming that soul and spirit from acquired to innate.

Of course, Zhang Xiao did not have such a treasure, nor did he plan to use such a foolish method to leave.

He took out a pile of metal frame pieces from his bone ring and began assembling them. In no time at all, he had put together a teleportation gate.

Though he did not understand spatial magic very well, he was no longer as clueless as before. Before coming here, Zhang Xiao had been thinking of ways to make it possible for him to return freely to the Mystic Heaven Grotto Manor and then easily make his way back to Huaxia.

Although he had never found a solution, his understanding of space had already surpassed that of ordinary spatial mages by a wide margin. Judging by the standards of the Western Mages' Guild, his current grasp of spatial magic was already enough for him to be considered a fifth-tier spatial mage.

In truth, the reason Zhang Xiao had gone to the trouble of letting that foreign monk leave was twofold. First, he wanted to keep all seven fruits from the Soul-Suppressing Tree for himself. Second, he wanted to use Lazan's departure to get out of here.

When Lazan had slipped away earlier, Zhang Xiao had lightly patted his shoulder and secretly left a spiritual imprint on him. With that imprint, Zhang Xiao could use spatial magic to teleport himself beside Lazan.

Of course, Zhang Xiao did not possess the strength of Karosius, so he still needed the help of a teleportation gate.

After checking it carefully, Zhang Xiao took out a jade block. One should not underestimate the coins of the Heavenly Frontier; it had already been mentioned before that jade coins could be used as a variety of energy sources. Whether for alchemy, artifact refinement, or cultivation, jade coins could all serve as auxiliary power.

It was just that ordinary jade coins contained too little spiritual energy and were nowhere near enough to activate a defective teleportation gate like Zhang Xiao's. So he could only use a jade block in their place.

Once the jade block was placed into the teleportation gate, the structure trembled for a moment, and then a spatial rift tore open with a crack!

Looking at the still somewhat unstable rift before him, Zhang Xiao turned and smiled at the corpse fiend. "Goodbye. When your true body gets out, remember to come find me for tea."

With that, he strode into the teleportation gate.

Watching Zhang Xiao's departing figure, the corpse fiend was already half terrified out of his wits. If looks could kill, Zhang Xiao would have been slain tens of thousands of times over by now.

On the other side, Lazan's figure had already appeared in the first section. Although corpse monsters were as numerous as the hairs on an ox, they could not possibly threaten a master like him in the slightest. Seeing the light curtain not far ahead, which was the exit, Lazan could not help but feel overjoyed.

Truth be told, though he hated Zhang Xiao in his heart, it was Zhang Xiao who had let him run out. Thinking of Zhang Xiao still trapped there, Lazan was almost absurdly pleased.

Then a group of figures appeared before him.

Nine Huaxia warriors in black armor were slowly fighting their way toward the light curtain. Seeing this, a sharp gleam flashed in Lazan's eyes.

The nine junior brothers who had come with him had all been killed by Zhang Xiao. Thinking of the scene where Zhang Xiao, transformed into Black Tortoise, had beaten him down so brutally, Lazan felt an emotion he could not quite name. Was it jealousy? Admiration? Or fear?

At that thought, Lazan sneered inwardly. Very well. Since he had run into them, he might as well send them back. It would also count as giving those junior brothers an account.

With that thought, his figure shot forward like lightning toward the nine elite soldiers who had entered with Zhang Xiao.

The nine elite soldiers were among the foremost masters stationed at the border fortress of Scarlet Blood Ridge. Each of them was a late Golden Core expert. Naturally, they immediately sensed the foreign monk Lazan charging at them with murderous force.

Their expressions changed. They knew their opponent was already at the equivalent of the Nascent Soul stage and far beyond what they could contend with. Yet not one of the nine took a single step back.

With spears leveled, they shouted, "Valiant old Qin, life and death together! Kill!"

The nine spears formed a formation and thrust toward Lazan with piercing whistles.

"Hmph. I couldn't beat that monster, but do you think I can't deal with you ants?" Seeing that these nine late Golden Core grunts dared to attack him first, Lazan was nearly mad with rage.

Being ignored by Zhang Xiao had been bad enough, but now even these people dared look down on him.

A trace of cruelty flashed through Lazan's eyes.

He would make the nine suffer every torment, force them to kneel and kowtow to him, and only then kill them.