Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

Chapter 416: Chapter 290 Daoist Soldier Corps

“Huff, huff!”

Under the gloomy heavenly curtain, ravines stretched across the land. Zhao Shiluo rolled far away, not stopping until he tumbled into a narrow depression in the ground. There, he lay on his back, chest heaving rapidly, taking great gasps of air.

At this moment, his lips were blackened, his eyes were tinged green, and a more than a foot-long wound had been torn open in his abdomen. Pus and blood unceasingly gushed out, and from deep within, the darkened sheen of his intestines was faintly visible.

The persistent stench of pus from his wound could attract zombies from the surrounding area at any moment.

Since entering the Purgatory Map, Zhao Shiluo had initially been very lucky, decapitating two waves of walking corpses in succession. But later he had an unexpected encounter with an iron armor corpse.

Zhao Shiluo, who had become an Innate Martial Artist just a few years ago, was no match for the iron armor corpse.

This type of undead monster, which dared to treat Qi Refining Clan Members as food, could only be independently slain by Innate Grandmasters!

Encountering an iron armor corpse meant only one thing: bad luck!

Luckily, the iron armor corpse lacked spiritual wisdom and was relatively slow.

Zhao Shiluo risked his life, throwing away his Thousand Refinement Saber and scurrying and dodging like a rat to barely escape the relentless pursuit of the iron armor corpse.

Even so, at the very end, he was still struck by a claw from the iron armor corpse.

However, in just a short moment, the corpse poison had spread throughout his body.

Facing the horrific corpse poison, his 60 years’ worth of Innate True Qi was like a joke, and his Great Success Realm Iron Body Refining merely prolonged his survival a little.

“Dammit! I wanted to hold on longer. It seems this is the end. Grandfather, I am not willing to accept this!”

As his last shred of clarity was about to dissipate, Zhao Shiluo’s heart was filled with unwillingness. A multitude of mad, bloodthirsty thoughts involuntarily surfaced in his mind, along with a surge of intense resentment out of nowhere.

Roar, roar!

Two breaths later, Zhao Shiluo’s corpse shakily rose from the ground, his green, eerie eyes staring straight up at the heavenly curtain as he suddenly let out a spiteful howl.

Suddenly,

On the high platform, Zhao Shiluo’s body swayed, and his head throbbed with a sudden, sharp pain.

He clutched his forehead and barely opened his eyes to see the Zhao Clan Members meditating around him, and realized he had already extricated himself from the map.

Seeing this, Zhao Shiluo felt a pang of regret.

Yet, before he could let out a sigh, his mouth was forcefully pried open, and an elixir pill was stuffed inside.

“Get up! Make space for the others. It’s normal to feel a headache, just rest for a while when you get back, and you’ll be fine,”

“Oh, oh!”

The person speaking was a Cultivator of the ‘Qing’ generation. Zhao Shiluo, seeing this, hurriedly nodded and dragged himself up, enduring the headache as he hastily descended from the high platform.

The grand competition was drawing to a close, and nearly no one paid attention to an unremarkable Innate member, except for Zhao Sheng.

On the Mountain and Sea Jade Couch, Zhao Sheng withdrew his distant gaze, having already taken note of Zhao Shiluo’s name with one of his “consciousnesses”.

At the same time, the pressure caused by so many people entering the map simultaneously for trials had exceeded his expectations.

As a result, Zhao Sheng had to use most of his energy and True Yuan to maintain the normal operation of the Corpse Demon Purgatory Map.

Luckily, he could split his consciousness into more than forty parts.

With so many consciousnesses working together in coordination, each with their own responsibilities, he was still able to handle such complex and tedious matters with ease.

Inside the hundred-zhang scroll, over the vast expanse of gray, dusty land, members of the Zhao Clan were engaged in extremely fierce battles against one ferocious and terrifying zombie and ghostly creature after another.

The Cultivator flew through the air and burrowed underground, employing all kinds of True Talismans and wondrous techniques, struggling to keep up with the Corpse Ghosts.

Most chose to fight head-on, showing their courage and fearlessness, while others dodged and hid, doing their best to drag out time.

In this trial named as a grand competition, the performance of everyone was being observed by Zhao Sheng, and he recorded each one for reference in later arrangements.

The competition lasted an entire day and night.

When the last member exited from the Purgatory Map, not only the participants of the grand competition but even Zhao Sheng was somewhat surprised.

Because the one who persisted to the end was not one of the high-ranking Qi Refining Clan Members, but an ordinary-looking middle-aged person.

This man’s name was Zhao Zhao, just over thirty years of age, yet he was already a Half-step to Divinity Realm Martial Artist.

How did he manage to hold out until the end? From the start, Zhao Zhao had chosen to hide everywhere, never confronting any zombie demon ghosts head-on, not even the weakest living corpses.

It is known that from low to high, zombies rank as living corpses, walking corpses, iron armor corpses, copper-armored corpses, golden armored corpses, Flying Sky Netherworld King, and the Undying Zombie Emperor…

An average Martial Artist could easily dismantle a living corpse, indicating how weak a living corpse actually is.

Zhao Zhao appeared to be someone who had maximized his survival skills.

To cling to life, he had done everything within his power.

Towards the end, he even managed to attract the pursuit of eight iron armor corpses simultaneously.

If not for the eventual arrival of a copper-armored corpse, Zhao Zhao might have lasted another half an hour.

Nine out of the top ten in the grand competition were Cultivators, yet the first place fell into the hands of a mortal.

This made all the Qi Refining Clan Members of the Zhao Family utterly disgruntled and unwilling to accept the results. However, they dared not express any objections.

After all, the Golden Core Ancestor was watching, and even the elders had no objections. How could these younger members dare to protest?

As for this outcome, Zhao Sheng was actually quite satisfied.

After the grand competition, he rewarded Zhao Zhao greatly, gifting him a Divine Communication Pill and a hundred mu of inheritable spirit field.