Luo Zhen swept the cavern floor with a practiced gaze, sifting through the debris until he secured the prize: five gray-white Corpse Beads.
They were identical in size and hue, resting in his palm like marbles carved from bone. Clearly, they originated from creatures of the same rank. He focused his attention on one, mentally triggering his scanning interface. A translucent holographic display materialized in his peripheral vision, overlaying the dim reality of the cave.
Item: Gray-white Corpse Bead
Grade: Low-grade
Description: A byproduct of ferocious undead creatures nourished by corpse qi. These beads are concentrated nodes of virulent poison and body-tempering essence. A rare and coveted resource for practitioners of poison arts or physique refinement.
Satisfied with the appraisal, Luo Zhen swept the handful of beads into his Silver Space Ring.
Technically, he could have devoured them on the spot. His system allowed him to refine such energy instantly, bypassing the tedious meditation others required. However, the dank, hostile atmosphere of the corpse cave wasn't exactly the ideal setting for a cultivation session.
"Fellow Daoist Luo," the Green Wolf King spoke up, his voice tinged with a newfound deference. "Since the beads have been recovered... do you think we should press forward?"
The dynamic of the group had shifted palpably since their last skirmish. After witnessing the terrifying efficacy of Luo Zhen's Exotic Flame, the Green Wolf King and his entourage had abandoned any pretense of hierarchy. Originally, the Wolf King had been the expedition leader, the one calling the shots. Now, he and his subordinates looked to Luo Zhen not just as an ally, but as their vanguard and protector.
They couldn't help it. Luo Zhen was simply too powerful. His strength didn't just command respect; it demanded submission. It was the kind of overwhelming force that made weaker cultivators subconsciously want to cling to him for survival.
Luo Zhen sensed the change in their demeanor. He didn't dislike it. It was certainly more efficient than arguing over directions.
"Let's keep moving," Luo Zhen said, waving a hand dismissively as he took the lead, stepping deeper into the gloom.
The Green Wolf King and the others scrambled to follow, falling into step behind him like disciplined soldiers.
After a few minutes of silent trekking through the winding tunnels, Luo Zhen broke the silence. "Green Wolf King, you mentioned you've attempted this run several times. Walk me through what's coming next."
"Right, of course." The Green Wolf King trotted up to walk slightly behind Luo Zhen's shoulder. "Based on our past failures, if we continue for another mile or so, we'll hit the territory of the Corpse Scorpions."
"And their capabilities?"
"They specialize in chemical warfare," the Wolf King explained grimly. "They release a dense, poisonous miasma. The elites among them can also fire toxic stingers from a distance. They're tricky, certainly, but honestly? They aren't nearly as repulsive as those White-Haired Spiders we just cleared out. The webbing those spiders spat... it was a nightmare to untangle."
"I see," Luo Zhen nodded. "And once we clear the scorpions?"
The Green Wolf King's expression tightened, a shadow of genuine fear crossing his face. "If we get past the swarm, we reach the domain of the Iron-Armored Centipede. It is... a monstrosity. Incredibly resilient and ferocious. In our previous attempts, we usually cleared the scorpions and retreated immediately. We never dared to actually engage the Centipede."
Luo Zhen absorbed this information. "So, essentially, your knowledge of this cave ends at the Centipede. Anything beyond that is uncharted territory."
"That is correct," the Wolf King admitted.
The group moved with the speed of seasoned cultivators, covering the mile-long distance in moments.
As predicted, the tunnel opened up to reveal a writhing sea of chitin and venom. A massive swarm of Corpse Scorpions blocked their path. Each was the size of a millstone, their carapaces slick and dark, covered in patches of green, mold-like fur.
The moment the creatures sensed the intruders, the air turned acrid. Hundreds of tails snapped upward, venting a cloud of neon-green gas that hissed as it expanded. From the backlines, the larger alpha scorpions launched jagged stingers like quarrels from a crossbow.
Luo Zhen didn't break stride.
He raised a hand, his movements casual, bordering on bored. The Essence Restoring Red Fire, which had been hovering obediently at his shoulder, surged forward. It didn't just burn; it hunted.
First, the crimson flame expanded into a wall, incinerating the incoming cloud of gas and melting the flying stingers into harmless slag mid-air. Then, responding to Luo Zhen's mental command, the fire split. It fractured into hundreds of razor-thin threads of superheated plasma.
The fire-threads danced through the swarm.
There was no screeching, only the wet thud of pierced carapaces and the crackle of instant combustion. In less than thirty seconds, the writhing army had been reduced to a silent field of ash.
Luo Zhen recalled the flames with a flick of his wrist. As the fire returned to him, he began sifting through the piles of soot, collecting the Corpse Beads left behind.
Behind him, the Green Wolf King and Xie Jun exchanged glances. Their expressions were a mixture of awe and bitter amusement. A threat that would have cost them hours of grueling combat and significant injuries had been erased by Luo Zhen with a literal wave of his hand.
"Let's go," Luo Zhen said, pocketing the last of the loot. "Time to meet this Iron-Armored Centipede."
Mention of the Centipede sent a jolt of adrenaline through the group.
To the Wolf King, the spiders and scorpions were merely gatekeepers—trash mobs. The Iron-Armored Centipede was a true beast, a catastrophe-class entity. And in the world of cultivation, the greater the danger, the greater the rewards.
They pushed deeper until the narrow tunnel abruptly widened into a subterranean plaza. The space was vast, several hundred square meters of leveled stone. In the center, half-buried in the soil like a dormant volcano, lay the Iron Centipede. Behind it, a massive, jagged opening in the rock wall led even deeper into the mountain's bowels.
The path forward was clear: kill the guardian, or turn back.
The Centipede had been slumbering, but the vibrant, pulsating life force of the cultivators acted like a beacon in the dark. The ground rumbled as it woke.
It erupted from the earth, a towering nightmare of segmented armor. It possessed a pair of mandibles large enough to snap a man in half and hundreds of scythe-like legs that clattered against the stone.
Luo Zhen didn't give it time to roar.
He pointed a finger. The Essence Restoring Red Fire condensed, shaping itself into a spear of pure thermal energy. With a sonic boom, it launched toward the beast's skull.
The Iron Centipede reacted with surprising speed, unhinging its jaw to spew a torrent of gray venom.
Sizzle!
The collision of fire and poison sounded like water hitting a hot skillet, magnified a thousand times. The venom evaporated instantly, utterly outclassed by the intensity of the Exotic Flame. The spear punched through the mist, slamming into the Centipede's armored head.
BANG!
The impact was visceral. The flame spear didn't just pierce the shell; it burrowed inside. Luo Zhen clenched his fist, and the fire detonated within the creature's skull.
The Centipede thrashed, a high-pitched shriek of agony echoing off the cavern walls. The Exotic Flame consumed its head from the inside out before cascading down its long body, turning armor and flesh into fuel.
One minute.
That was all it took. The beast that had terrified the Green Wolf King for years was now nothing more than a smoking heap of carbon.
Amidst the ashes, a cherry-sized bead pulsed with a silver-gray light. Beside it lay the creature's massive mandibles and several indestructible legs that had survived the inferno.
"It's... Is it dead? Just like that?" Xie Jun stammered, his eyes wide.
The Green Wolf King swallowed hard, his throat dry. The gap between them and Luo Zhen was no longer a gap; it was a chasm.
Luo Zhen ignored their shock, stepping forward to claim the prize.
Item: Silver-Gray Corpse Bead
Grade: Medium-grade
Description: The core essence of the Iron Centipede, a minor commander of the corpse cave. Contains potent toxins and superior body-tempering properties.
"Medium-grade," Luo Zhen murmured, a smile touching his lips. He tossed the bead into his ring, his eyes drifting to the dark tunnel beyond the plaza. "If the grunts drop low-grade, and the sub-boss drops medium-grade... the depths must hold something truly spectacular."
He kicked at the debris pile, revealing the massive green mandibles and the scythe-legs. They were high-quality materials, proof against his fire, but to him, they were clutter.
"These are yours," Luo Zhen said, gesturing to the leftovers.
"Truly?" The Green Wolf King's eyes bulged. He scrambled forward, hoisting a two-meter-long mandible that curved like an ivory tusk. "Fellow Daoist Luo, this is incredible! This mandible alone could be refined into two Medium-grade artifacts! The legs, the carapace—this is a fortune in crafting materials!"
"I have no use for them," Luo Zhen said indifferently.
While the group happily scavenged the carcass, Luo Zhen wandered the perimeter of the plaza. He found a formation of Spirit Stones embedded in the floor—high-grade, with a few top-grade gems mixed in. He plucked them out without hesitation. The formation died, but nothing else happened. He shrugged and pocketed the lot.
"Move out," he commanded once the team had finished looting.
The new tunnel was different.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the corpse qi thickened into a suffocating fog. It wasn't just a smell anymore; it was a physical pressure. Luo Zhen felt his Spiritual Consciousness—his mental radar—slam into a wall. Previously, he could scan yards ahead; now, his senses were crushed back to a radius of barely six feet.
"Careful," Luo Zhen warned, his voice low. "My senses are dampened. We're flying blind."
The Green Wolf King and the others nodded, their faces pale. They felt the pressure too.
Luo Zhen innovated on the fly. He manipulated the Essence Restoring Red Fire, stretching it into a long, thin filament. He sent it ahead like a glowing tripwire, a probe into the darkness. If anything was waiting for them, it would have to burn through his fire first.
They walked in silence for what felt like hours, the oppressive weight of the mountain pressing down on them.
Suddenly, the tunnel flared open again. Another plaza.
This one was occupied.
Two serpents, known as Withered Corpse Snakes, lay coiled in the center. They were a hundred meters long, their dry, desiccated skin covered in patches of black fur. They didn't look physically massive compared to the Centipede, but the aura they projected was heavy, dense, and malevolent.
"Back up," Luo Zhen ordered. "I'll handle this."
The team retreated instantly, cheering him on from the safety of the corridor. "Give them hell, Daoist Luo!"
The twin snakes sensed the living intruders. Uncoiling with terrifying speed, they reared back and opened their maws. Instead of venom, they spat beams of condensed darkness—necrotic light that seemed to eat the air itself.
Luo Zhen's expression hardened. He flicked his finger, and his scouting fire expanded, forming a shimmering crimson shield.
BOOM!
The black beams slammed into the fire shield with the force of a heavy artillery barrage. The sound was deafening, a rapid-fire drumming of energy against energy. The shield held, but just barely. It was a stalemate.
Behind the shield, Luo Zhen's eyes narrowed. "Annoying."
He gripped the hilt of his Green Brilliance Saber.
"Tyrant's Slaughter!"
He slashed. A spectral green blade, over three hundred feet long, manifested in the stagnant air of the cavern. It carried the weight of an emperor's execution decree.
One of the snakes tried to recall its dark beam to defend itself, but Luo Zhen was faster. He manipulated the fire shield, turning it into tendrils that grappled the necrotic light, pinning it in place.
Defenseless, the snake could only watch as the green doom descended.
CRACK-BOOM!
The shockwave nearly knocked the Green Wolf King off his feet. Dust rained from the ceiling. When the air cleared, the first snake had been bisected cleanly. Even in death, its halves writhed, thrashing against the stone floor.
The second snake panicked, redoubling its attack on the fire shield, but it was futile.
Luo Zhen raised his saber again. The rhythm of the battle was his to control.
Blade shadow after blade shadow rained down, a relentless bombardment of green energy. The Tyrant's Slaughter was a technique of pure overwhelming force, and within minutes, the plaza was silent save for the heavy breathing of the cultivators.
The two snakes lay in ruined segments. Their dark beams dissipated into smoke.
Luo Zhen lowered his blade and sent his fire forward to cremate the remains. The flames roared, purifying the rot, leaving behind two gleaming silver-gray spheres in the ash.
They were Medium-grade, just like the Centipede, but larger—the size of plums.
Luo Zhen snatched them up, then kicked a pile of sharp, venomous fangs toward his awe-struck entourage.
"I'm keeping the beads," he said, his voice cutting through the silence. "The fangs are yours. Call it a guiding fee."