Star Odyssey

Chapter 612: Corpse King: Second Transformation

In the end, not even Lord Blackgown was able to stop Nightking Changfeng’s attacks, and the battle concluded after he was punched right in the chest. Nightking Changfeng then punched the Corpse King once more, destroying his brain. 

Hua Ying and the others stared at the body of Lord Blackgown in shock. What was this monster? 

Elsewhere, Xun Meiren was trying her best to stave off another Corpse King’s attacks.

“Die, you traitor!” With a shout, the Ming Constables’ Ming Zhaochen suddenly appeared and moved to attack her. 

Startled, she quickly pulled back. 

Ming Zhaochen looked at the Corpse King in shock. It was only after the creature charged into the gathered crowd and started slaughtering that he had acted. 

Only Ming Zhaotian, Ming Hao, and a few others were aware of the existence of the Neohuman Alliance. The previous master of the Demon Hunters Society had happened to find out through a coincidence, but that person had been eliminated because of his discovery. This was Ming Zhaochen’s first time seeing the Neohuman Alliance. 

The entire capital trembled as the ground cracked. Numerous people fled from the capital in terror. 

“Are you really going to let Shenwu Continent be destroyed, Ming Zhaoshu?” Ming Zhaotian had returned from the five planets, and he was now angrily shouting at the capital. 

Ming Zhaoshu appeared at those words. “You should change the way you think, brother. The major powers of the universe are pushing for our continent to join the rest of the universe.” 

“Do you want to die?” Ming Zhaoshu was furious. Soon enough, the sounds of them arguing could be heard resonating throughout the sky. 

Ming Hao stood inside the palace, his expression grim. Since their secret had already been uncovered, there was no way for him to take control of the situation anymore, let alone keep them concealed. While they might be able to stop Ming Zhaoshu in this battle, there was no way for them to explain the presence of the monsters. 

Underground, Lu Yin and a Corpse King were caught up in their own battle. Lu Yin had already put on his universal armor, so he was not at all afraid of directly fighting against this creature. Corpse Kings were not a clear-headed opponent, and they only knew how to recklessly charge at their enemies. Lu Yin was calmly waiting for the moment when that thing tired itself out. 

The defenses of a Corpse King were impressive. Lu Yin knew that, even if he used his full strength, none of his attacks would be able to deal any significant damage with the sole exception of the finger from his dreams. 

All of a sudden, the roars of the Corpse King changed, and its red eyes turned grey. The rune lines of the creature increased until they reached the amount that Lu Yin had observed beforehand. This creature’s power was now comparable to Kong Shi’s. 

“It’s a transformed Corpse King! RUN!” the monkey shrieked.

Run? Lu Yin had already noticed that this Corpse King’s rune lines were far fewer than what he had seen before. Thus, he had already guessed that it could transform. This was actually why he had come after this particular Corpse King. 

Boom boom boom boom!

The next ten consecutive exchanges proved that this grey-eyed Corpse King was much more powerful than before. Although Lu Yin was protected by his universal armor and remained uninjured, these impacts were still shocking to him. If his armor weren’t here, and if he was receiving these blows with just his body and Fatesand, then he wouldn’t be able to withstand the onslaught. These attacks had reached the level of a peak Hunter’s attacks. 

Kong Shi was a peak Hunter who didn’t rely entirely on her body’s strength, but this Corpse King was the opposite. Lu Yin might be very confident in his physical prowess, but there was no way he could compete against a Corpse King that boasted the strength of a peak Hunter in terms of pure body strength. 

With a boom, Lu Yin was forced to retreat multiple steps after taking a punch. The next instant, Lu Yin’s forcefield appeared, and massive tree branches wrapped around the Corpse King. It forcefully tore them apart and charged at Lu Yin again, who grabbed the creature’s arms and shot through the ground and towards the sky. They arrived high above Mingdu. At that moment, the capital itself was split asunder. 

Nightking Changfeng looked up, and his pupils shrank. What the hell is that?

All of a sudden, he felt a chill crawl down his back as his body was struck by a tremendous force that threw him forwards and forced him to cough up some blood. A young man had appeared behind him. 

Hua Ying and the others saw him and exclaimed in surprise, “Ruthless?”

Ruthless was the number one expert on the List of Tempering.

Nightking Changfeng turned around. Ruthless? He had heard of this person before and knew that Ruthless was ranked first on the List of Tempering. Originally, Nightking Changfeng hadn’t actually cared much about that list since there were only Limiteers on it. This meant that Ruthless also had to be a Limiteer, but if so, how had this person hurt him, Nightking Changfeng? Even when Lu Yin had been a Limiteer, he wouldn’t have been able to hurt the Nightking. 

Ruthless continued moving towards Nightking Changfeng. If Lu Yin were present, he would have quickly noticed that this was most definitely not Ruthless. This person was Wu Shang, one of the people who had entered Shenwu Continent with Lu Yin to participate in the Outerverse trials. Wu Shang had tried to join the Ming Constables, but he had been noticed by Ming Zhaocai and chased out. After that, he’d gone missing. 

At that time, Lu Yin had a vague feeling that this person’s abilities were very cold and that they gave off a sensation that was similar to the Neohuman Alliance. Now, his initial suspicions were confirmed. Wu Shang’s eyes changed and turned… grey.  

Corpse King Transformation. Even within the Neohuman Alliance, there were not many Corpse Kings that could use it. However, on just this tiny Shenwu Continent, two such Corpse Kings had appeared at the same time. 

Wu Shang’s abilities were completely unleashed at this moment, and it could be seen that he was no Limiteer but rather an Explorer. On top of that, he had broken through quite some time ago.

Nightking Changfeng could feel the power radiating from Wu Shang. Those grey eyes, in particular, made him feel a chill. “Grey eyes… Corpse Transformation.” 

As a member of the Nightking clan, the Corpse King Transformation was not unknown to him. Numerous powerhouses from the Daynight Clan had died to these abominations, and he had an instinctive fear towards this thing. 

Boom!

Soon enough, the two young men were locked in battle. Nightking Changfeng activated his Nightking’s Body and also unleashed his full strength. The Corpse King Transformation had boosted Wu Shang’s strength to another level, and just a single clash between the two was enough to send Hua Ying and the others flying. 

Far off in the distance, a cultivator in another area was panting hard after finishing off a Corpse King. All of a sudden, he felt pain blossom in his chest, and he looked down only to see a blade poking through him. Blood dripped down from the tip of the blade and slowly landed on the ground. Soon enough, his vision went black. The cultivator had died. 

Li Zimo put his sword away. He looked into the distance and then dashed off once more. 

On this day, all of Mingdu was completely destroyed. Even over the course of countless years, the Shenwu Empire had never suffered such a calamity before. The crown prince, Ming Hao, could only watch as his country fell into ruins. He felt as though he was watching the end of the empire. 

Explosions could be heard in the sky above the capital. It was day, but the city was shrouded in darkness as if it was night. The intense battle between Ming Zhaoshu and Ming Zhaotian, as well as the one between Lu Yin and the Corpse King, were occurring high up in the sky, and the collisions nearly shattered space. 

The capital was enveloped in terror.

Ming Hao summoned all of the experts who were hidden within the palace in an attempt to deal with the foreign cultivators who were cooperating with Ming Zhaoshu’s men.

The five planets trembled, which gave rise to tsunamis and volcanic eruptions all across Shenwu Continent. All of the hidden experts rushed into the sky, determined to protect the five planets.

These people might not be involved in the contest for the emperor’s throne, but there was no way that they would sit by and allow the five sealing planets to be destroyed. 

Boom boom!

There were two loud explosions as Lu Yin and the Corpse King each took the other’s attack. Lu Yin was sent crashing towards the ground and into a lake while the Corpse King was forced further up into the sky, right next to where Ming Zhaotian and Ming Zhaoshu were fighting. 

Ming Zhaoshu’s forcefield appeared, and the figure dressed in imperial robes moved to grab the Corpse King. It looked up with its terrifying grey eyes, causing Ming Zhaoshu to instinctively retreat. 

“It’s still not too late to stop, Ming Zhaoshu.” Ming Zhaotian continued attacking even as he warned his opponent. 

Ming Zhaoshu snorted. “Don’t you see that monster? It isn’t human! Do you want to hand the entire Shenwu Continent over to a monster like that? How are you going to answer to our ancestors?” 

“As long as we manage to remove them from this region, I’m willing to do anything!” Ming Zhaotian howled. 

With an explosion, the two of them collided once more.

The Corpse King had its sights set on Lu Yin, and it fell down from the sky like a meteor. Lu Yin evaded the attack, letting the Corpse King smash straight into the ground. A huge crack appeared in the lake that not only evaporated all the water, but also extended all the way to the capital city. 

Lu Yin’s eye twitched. A Corpse King that had transformed could not be killed and essentially had an endless amount of power. With this creature’s innate gift of metal, it was basically indestructible without any way to pierce its defense. Lu Yin brought out his spear. 

The moment it appeared, the wind blew away as clouds formed overhead. The spear itself passively released spiritual force attacks around it, and it had also been upgraded six times by Lu Yin, which had eaten up 20,000 of his star essence. The amount of spiritual force damage that it could cause was far beyond what it had been capable of before. 

The spear released invisible undulations that covered the entire capital. People with weaker wills simply fainted on the spot. 

Nightking Changfeng’s expression changed; was this a spiritual force attack? How could it be this powerful? It seemed to be covering the entire capital! 

High in the sky, Ming Zhaoshu and Ming Zhaotian could also sense the spiritual force attacks, and they both looked down in surprise.

Lu Yin clasped the spear and thrust it forward. It pierced through the void and went straight through the Corpse King. The creature grabbed the spear and roared, causing Lu Yin to frown. This thing didn’t possess any intelligence, and its strength increased along with its transformation. In other words, spiritual force attacks would not be of much use against this opponent. Thankfully, it wasn’t just the spear’s spiritual attacks that had been upgraded; the spear itself was also very sharp. 

The Corpse King grabbed the spear and Lu Yin quickly lost his grip on it. It then ripped the spear out of its body, tossed it into the air, and smacked Lu Yin. With a wave of his hand, Lu Yin activated the Yu Secret Art, causing the spear to suddenly vanish. When it reappeared, it was already in Lu Yin’s hands, and he thrust it forward. This time, the blade went right through the Corpse King’s head; it stabbed in between its eyes and exited through the back of its skull. 

The Corpse King stood there, frozen in place. Besides its trembling fingers, there was no other movement from its body, and its strength slowly drained away. 

Lu Yin sighed in relief. This truly was an ancient weapon, as it’d been able to pierce through the defenses of a transformed Corpse King. Those 27,000 star essence that Lu Yin had used to upgrade the spear had proven to be well spent. That gun had held twenty three shots, and it had been upgraded to the point where each shot could kill an Enlighter. He had used about half as much star essence on that gun compared to the spear, but still, even that gun had been able to kill an Enlighter. 

After pulling the spear out of the body, the Corpse King’s brain exploded, and its body collapsed to the ground, no longer moving. Even the metallic luster covering its body had dimmed. 

Lu Yin stored the spear away and sighed. 

Elsewhere in Mingdu, Nightking Changfeng was engaged in a fierce battle with Wu Shang, though he was trying to get away. His goal during this conflict wasn’t the Neohuman Alliance, but rather Lu Yin. As long as he killed Lu Yin, he didn’t care what the Neohuman Alliance did to this place. At the worst, he’d just ask those Enlighter experts from the Ironblood Weave to come and destroy Shenwu Continent. This place didn’t matter to him at all. 

After being forced back by Wu Shang, Nightking Changfeng tried to escape. He was going to look for Xun Meiren and team up with her to kill Lu Yin. However, this meant that he didn’t notice that, at the same moment he tried to leave, Wu Shang’s eyes turned from grey to green… This was a Second Level Corpse King Transformation. 

Nightking Changfeng only managed to take a few steps away when he felt his scalp tingle. When he turned around, there was a pair of green eyes as well as a raised hand aimed at him. He instinctively raised an arm to block the incoming attack. All of his defensive abilities were currently active—his Nightking’s Body, seven lined battle force, and innate gift of Ice Jade. These gifts had allowed him to rise to the twenty first rank in the Top 100 Rankings, but it was all casually destroyed by the approaching palm. It pierced through his abdomen, and when it exited his body through the back, it was holding onto a bloody, throbbing heart. 

Nightking Changfeng gaped as he stared at the green eyes that were just a few centimeters away from him in total despair. This creature had undergone a Second Level Corpse King Transformation, but how was that possible? Why was a monster capable of such a thing even here in the Outerverse? Even in the Innerverse, such creatures rarely appeared. Shouldn’t they all be in the Neoverse? Shouldn’t they be fighting the Hall of Honor?” 

His vision faded to black, and his body went cold as he listened to the beating of his own heart. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hua Ying and the others go pale, but his thoughts faded there.