TAP, TAP!

A series of fragmented footsteps echoed from the coffin chamber ahead. The sound was like several middle-aged women walking, very slowly and leisurely.

"What's coming this time?" Qi Li released Su Xuan and peered intently in the direction of the sound.

A corridor connected the antechamber and the coffin chamber of the tomb, and the footsteps echoed incessantly within it.

"Whatever it is, it's not human," Su Xuan said, his eyes narrowing as he stretched out his right hand, conjuring a black sword from thin air.

Immediately after, the footsteps grew denser and more chaotic, converging until the sound was enough to make one's scalp tingle.

Qi Li's scalp really did tingle.

She saw one shadow after another appear shoulder to shoulder in the corridor ahead. Her mouth fell open. "Mummies!"

They were indeed withered corpses, clad in ancient clothes and shuffling toward them. The mummies seemed to have just been awakened. Their gait was wobbly, yet they emanated the power fluctuations of the Earth Profound Initial Stage!

I can't let Su Xuan be the only one to fight this time! Qi Li took a deep breath and gripped her longsword. I can handle mummies at this cultivation level!

"Kill?"

"Kill!"

Qi Li and Su Xuan exchanged a glance and shot toward the group of mummies.

"Floating Cloud Blade, sever!" she cried. Qi Li raised her longsword high, exuding a fierce aura, and viciously slashed at an oncoming mummy!

SCHLICK!

The mummy was cleaved in two, sent flying backward to crash heavily onto the ground. Qi Li's slash even left a straight sword mark on the floor!

She was very pleased with her strike. With her confidence boosted, she began a beautiful sword dance in the narrow corridor, a true feast for the eyes!

Two! Three! Qi Li mentally tallied the number of mummies she had slain.

She counted roughly twenty to thirty mummies in total. This is going to take a while.

She stole a glance at Su Xuan to see how he was doing. After all, he's a Heaven Severing Realm expert now; his attacks are sure to be extraordinary. To her surprise, however, Su Xuan hadn't made a move. Instead, he simply held his black sword and watched her fight alone.

She didn't find it strange at all. Instead, she gave a faint smile and her sword dance became even more ferocious. It feels like an honor to show off my skills in front of him.

Actually, she still felt a sense of inadequacy. The first time I saw him in the world below, he didn't even know how to channel his qi and couldn't climb a building. Now, he's a Heaven Severing Realm expert. It's truly astonishing! I really wish there were fewer cultivation freaks like him. Otherwise, someone as slow-witted as me would have no right to call herself a cultivator.

Qi Li wasn't actually slow-witted; on the contrary, she was exceptionally talented. But compared to Su Xuan... I feel like a little fool who learns everything at a snail's pace.

My eyes...

Su Xuan indeed hadn't moved. While Qi Li slew a dozen mummies, he hadn't killed a single one. He was just amazed by his own eyes. After absorbing the crimson bead the scholar had given him, his eyes seemed to have gained a strange new ability.

When Qi Li executed her Floating Cloud Blade, he watched in admiration. Suddenly, he found he could clearly see how the qi flowed within her body! He saw how she mobilized her qi, how she unleashed the powerful sword technique, and even how her qi circulated back in preparation for the next move! He saw everything with crystal clarity.

This means... I can learn her Floating Cloud Blade without needing any cultivation manuals or verbal formulas!

HUFF!

Qi Li suddenly retreated a few steps to stand beside Su Xuan, letting out a long breath. Beads of sweat dotted her forehead.

She realized that the deeper she fought into their ranks, the harder the mummies were to kill. It wasn't that their combat strength had increased; their skin had just gotten thicker! Their defenses were incredibly strong. Her Floating Cloud Blade could no longer cleave a mummy in two so easily.

GULP!

Determined not to let Su Xuan look down on her and to prove she could be his comrade-in-arms, Qi Li swallowed a pill to restore her qi, preparing to charge back into the fray.

But a hand settled on her shoulder.

"You rest for a bit," Su Xuan said gently. "I'll take it from here."

"Su Xuan, it seems like they're thinking, putting the low-defense mummies in front and the tough-skinned ones in the back. Try not to use brute force; just go for their—" Qi Li stopped mid-sentence.

She stared as Su Xuan stepped forward, raised the black sword, and shouted, "Floating Cloud Blade, sever!"

What?! How does he know the Floating Cloud Blade?! Even if his learning ability is incredible and he memorized my movements, there's no way he could successfully perform it without the proper cultivation technique! Is he just messing with me?

SWOOSH!

A moment later, a blinding beam of sword light erupted from Su Xuan's blade, slashing toward the mummies!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The instant the mummies touched the sword light, they exploded, disintegrating into clouds of fine dust. The dust hung in the air like a field of gray, floating clouds.

Su Xuan swung his sword again, unleashing consecutive beams of light. In the blink of an eye, the remaining dozen or so mummies were annihilated.

So this is the true Floating Cloud Blade! Staring at the gray clouds of dust dissipating before her, Qi Li's mouth fell open in shock. It was the first time she had ever seen someone execute the technique to such a terrifying degree. And it really does create floating clouds!

The Heaven Severing Realm truly is immensely powerful! Su Xuan couldn't help but feel a flicker of satisfaction with his own combat prowess. He had never imagined he could become this formidable. If I returned to the world below, what kind of terrifying existence would I be? Business rivals wanting to plot against me? They'd have to find someone unbelievably powerful just to touch a single hair on my head.

"Something's not right!" Qi Li suddenly cried out, her eyes fixed on the ground.

The mummies she had killed earlier were twisting on the floor. Their shattered limbs and body fragments were slowly crawling toward one another, starting to fuse! They weren't re-forming into their original shapes, however. It looked like they were trying to combine into... a single entity!

Su Xuan watched, amazed. He couldn't help but be reminded of a cartoon he watched as a kid where characters would combine during a fight.

"I'll form the legs!" "I'll form the arms!" "I'll form the head!" He remembered them shouting those lines at the top of their lungs. In the end, they'd merge into a giant creature and defeat any fearsome foe. The mummy fragments in front of me seem to be doing the exact same thing!

In just a few breaths, the assorted body parts had assembled into a monster over three meters tall, its head already scraping the ceiling of the corridor!

The monster grinned, stretched out a massive palm, and lunged for Qi Li...

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.