Chapter Seventeen: The Undead Beast

  About twenty kilometers ahead, the yellow sand grains gradually turned into dark brown soil. In the distance, clusters of black shadows lay on the dark wasteland like ferocious beasts, as if waiting to pounce and devour people.

  With Guo Fei's eyesight, several kilometers away, under the cover of darkness, he couldn't make out what was in front of him, only seeing an outline.

  Guo Fei hesitated for a moment, carefully directing the vanguard of corpse soldiers to lead the way, slowly approaching this vast and boundless black shadow.

  "Withered trees!" At a closer look, Guo Fei was astonished for half a moment. This was row upon row of withered trees, their leaves having long since fallen and rotted away. But the massive tree trunks stood in a complex, disorderly manner, some lying on the ground, others still standing upright, while some had already decayed into fragments. Some precious, sturdy trees still stood strong, resisting the erosion of time, stubbornly erect, as if waiting for sunlight to shine once more upon this cold land.

  There is no doubt that this was once a vast and dense forest, with the remaining trees and broken branches telling the story of its former luxuriance.

  "What happened to the once sunny and lush forest, why did the sunshine stop blessing it, turning it into a desolate region?" Guo Fei walked quietly along the broken giant tree, with doubts growing in his heart.

  "Ahh!" A mournful cry echoed from afar, like a fierce ghost wailing.

  Guo Fei proceeded with even greater caution, scanning his surroundings everywhere. In a grove of withered trees, there seemed to be signs of a struggle. Guo Fei bent down and picked up a handful of dirt, sniffing it, and the smell of blood wafted into his face.

  Upon closer inspection on the ground, it's indeed bloodstains and there are many of them.

  As Guo Fei lowered his head to examine, on a withered tree as thick as a house next to him, about three meters high, a pair of dark red eyes appeared in a tree hole. The two eyes observed for a moment, and suddenly, the two eyes floated out of thin air and rushed towards Guo Fei. As they approached, it turned out to be a python as thick as a water bucket, opening its big mouth from above and biting towards Guo Fei.

  "Hiss!" The corpse soldier standing guard beside him suddenly spun around, his long sword dancing in his hand as he stabbed at the giant python. An invisible sword aura shot out and made contact with the snake's neck, producing a fierce shattering sound.

  At this time, Guo Fei quickly reacted and jumped out three meters away. It was seen that the giant python had been struck by a sword from the corpse soldier, its neck split open with a big gash, revealing its waxen yellow flesh.

  "It's a dead spirit!" Guo Fei's heart was shocked, this giant python wasn't a living thing, but a dead spirit.

  The giant python stared fiercely at Guo Fei, spewing out clusters of gray mist from its mouth, and the dark red glow in its eyes grew brighter and brighter, clearly showing an extremely strong desire for Guo Fei's flesh.

  Guo Fei did not dare to slack off, this python's body was enormous, its attacking power was astonishing, and what was even more frightening was that its body was impervious to injury. From Guo Fei's experience of fighting against the ghost tribe soldiers, he knew that he had to dig out the crystal block from its eye socket, eliminate the place where its soul resided, only then would it stop attacking.

  Ninja curved sword retreats, sword shadow enters the body, transforms into a sword soldier. Guo Fei took out the Xuan Tie sword. If it were just one person, today would probably only be able to escape with their life, but after gaining a corpse soldier, Guo Fei had confidence in dealing with this giant python. The giant python seemed to have low intelligence, only staring at Guo Fei and attacking him, the corpse soldier did not actively attack it, so it ignored it.

  "Die!" Guo Fei let out a low shout, his body suddenly rising into the air, his feet pushing off against the withered wood, his body shooting up one zhang high, chopping down towards the giant python.

  The giant python's body twisted and lifted its massive head off the ground, swallowing Guo Fei whole.

  At the same time, Guo Fei's spirit stirred, and he commanded the corpse soldier to suddenly rise up, inserting his sword fiercely into the middle of the giant python's body, pinning it to the ground, instantly stopping its jump.

  Kuo Fei had been waiting for this moment, the Xuan Tie sword fiercely chopped down on the giant python's neck, which had lost its ability to move in an instant. The water bucket-sized head fell off with a loud thud, and the python's body suddenly collapsed to the ground, emitting a thick cloud of grey gas. Kuo Fei quickly dodged out of the way, as this grey gas made him extremely uncomfortable, seeming to be able to dissolve the vitality within his body.

  The corpse soldier was different, seeing the thick gray gas swirling out of the giant python's body, he cheered and moved to the side of the gray gas, opened his big mouth, and suddenly sucked the gray gas into his mouth, just like a whale sucking water, and absorbed the thick gas into his body.

  After the gray gas on the giant python's body dissipated, its withered skin and flesh instantly turned to dust, leaving only a skeleton. On its head, two fist-sized crystal blocks flickered with a blue light.

  "What a huge Soul Crystal!" Guo Fei exclaimed in surprise, quickly taking it into his hand and storing it away in the Martial Symbol space.

  "Huh!" Guo Fei took a look at the corpse soldier and found that his face was much rounder than before, and his dry skin had actually puffed up.

  Could he have absorbed the dead energy and made it his own?

  Guo Fei couldn't think much, transformed into a ninja, his body floated up, carefully jumped onto the trunk, and cautiously explored the tree hole. With the ninja's keen senses, Guo Fei didn't discover any other strange objects inside the tree hole, but still carefully let the corpse soldier go in first before cautiously entering himself.

  The space inside the cave is very large, like a room, with many messy objects placed inside, including a large number of skeletons and clothes. Guo Fei took a look and found that this giant python had swallowed several human soldiers, its flesh and blood may have been digested by the python, leaving behind only clothes and bones, which were excreted out, there are also two swords, three bows and three quivers on the ground.

  Guo Fei directed the undead soldiers to tidy up and pick up the valuable things, all of which were wealth. Guo Fei was poor and clinking, so he naturally took away the valuable things.

  In the clothes, twelve skull crystals the size of fingernails were found, two bags of fried noodles, and two intact water bags filled with water.

  Man is iron, rice is steel. Food was too important to Guo Fei, entering the setting sun desert, he only brought a few days of food, no water, no food, can't hold on for long.

  Guo Fei put away the weapons, soul crystals and food into the Soldier Symbol space. He then took out his own rations and water, and began to eat.

  The corpse soldier had just absorbed the gray dead energy, and he was much more spirited at this time. Guo Fei discovered that the corpse soldier was not infinite in his energy, and he also consumed energy during battles. Once his energy was depleted, he would lose his combat effectiveness. His energy was precisely these gray gases, and with his current cultivation, Guo Fei could already sense it - a stream of dead energy.

  It was exceptionally hidden here, and the corpse soldiers didn't need to eat either. Guo Fei had the corpse soldiers guard the entrance of the tree hole, while he himself leaned against the wall of the tree hole to rest for a bit.

  It's been two days since the war started, and I haven't had a rest yet. As soon as I closed my eyes, I fell asleep. In my dream, Guo Fei seemed to have returned to his university dormitory again. His classmates were back from their hometowns for the holidays, each bringing out local specialties to share with everyone, telling stories of their romantic encounters and dates during the break. They ate with gusto, laughing and shouting, their mouths greasy with oil.

  "Psst!" A faint rustling sound came from outside the tree hole. Guo Fei smacked his lips, savoring the "small salty fish" from his hometown, and felt a sudden craving for something savory. It seemed like he hadn't had a decent meal in ages, and the noise startled him awake, leaving him annoyed that something had disrupted his beautiful dream.

  The corpse soldier was lying in wait at the entrance of the tree hole, staring intently outside. Guo Fei went over to take a look and suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air.

  A pack of wolves, about fifty or sixty, surrounded the big tree in a circle. Not living creatures, but dead spirits, with dark red glows flashing in their eyes, staring fixedly at Guo Fei.

  Kuo Fei's eyes narrowed, a wolf seemed to have just eaten a live person, with blood still dripping from the corner of its mouth, and fresh flesh stuck to the edge of its mouth. A piece of dry skin on its back was torn apart, revealing white bones, but at this moment, the skin outside the bones actually healed slowly, as if new flesh had "replenished" it.

  Kuo Fei suddenly understood why these spirits were "infatuated" with the flesh and blood of the living. This flesh and blood could supplement and strengthen their bodies, and at the moment when a person's body died, a large amount of life energy would turn into dead air, which was absorbed by them. Instinctive evolution made them extremely sensitive to the flesh and blood of the living.

  Sorry, there was a power outage today, so this chapter's update is a bit late!!