After My Paranoid Act to Woo My Cold Master Failed - Chapter 30

Shen Shuheng had not anticipated such an outcome. The dense crowd of Blood Corpses continued to surge in like a relentless tide, making the entire cavern rumble and echo as if thunder were crashing directly against their ears.

The stench of decay grew heavier, ferociously flooding their nostrils and slamming into their lungs. Shen Shuheng furrowed her brows and pinched her nose; she feared that before the Blood Corpses could completely surround them, the foul rot would stifle them to death.

Ye Changzhen lowered her gaze. A crack finally appeared in her usually emotionless expression, revealing a deep sense of self-reproach. If the Daoist Sect had divined this earlier, perhaps none of this would have happened it was yet another catastrophe for all living beings. She watched the scene before her; the terrifying heads of the Blood Corpses surged like a river of blood, laden with a heavy aura of death.

Shen Shuheng could not allow those things to draw any closer. She swung her sword forward desperately, weaving a dense net of sword qi to trap the corpses firmly within. But before she could breathe a sigh of relief, her round apricot eyes widened in shock.

The Blood Corpses that had been shredded by her sword qi felt no pain. Even with missing limbs or severed heads, they continued to advance. Furthermore, their mangled bodies were slowly regrowing their lost parts. Severed hands, feet, and heads hopped forward on their own, gradually converging to merge back into a single entity.

Before Shen Shuheng’s eyes was a mass of bloody, writhing torsos. Her hair stood on end, and a wave of nausea rose in her heart.

Fu Xueke stood by her disciple’s side. She raised her blade, and a freezing gale howled forth. The surging sword qi carried a force of a thousand tons, like a collapsing snow mountain, sweeping directly toward the tide of corpses. The moment a Blood Corpse touched Fu Xueke’s sword qi, it was encased in ice, becoming a frozen statue. With a crisp, thunderous crack, all the frozen corpses shattered into fine powder.

She reached out her free hand and gently took her disciple’s hand. “Do not fear,” she said, her voice incredibly tender a stark contrast to her chilling sword intent.

The moment her Master held her hand, Shen Shuheng’s heart settled instantly, and even her sword strikes became far more steady.

The Nine-Tailed Fox stood at the other end. She made no move; her clone technique had expired at some point. She hadn’t taken the chance to ambush them while they fought the corpses—it was unclear if she was simply certain they would die or if she had other plans.

“I told you all to die at my hands. Now look, you’re going to die at the hands of these disgusting, ugly things and turn into monsters just like them!” The fox demon laughed, fiddling with the bells in her hand. It was time for her to leave; if she stayed and the corpses went out of control, she might get caught in the mess herself.

Suddenly, a pure white barrier appeared before the fox. A pair of slender, jade-like hands reached out from within, tearing a rift directly through the barrier. The hands grabbed the fox by her shoulders and dragged her inside. The fox vanished completely, and the barrier followed suit as if it had never existed.

Shen Shuheng blinked, confirming she hadn’t seen it wrong. The fox had vanished right before her eyes, and those hands were truly eerie. However, she had no time to worry about that now. Their most urgent task was escaping this place; she absolutely refused to become one of those hideous monsters.

Shen Shuheng tried to use her Master’s method, but her cultivation was insufficient. She could only kill a few corpses at a time; at her current speed, it would take a year to clear them all.

Yue Bai and Ye Changzhen stood in the opposite direction. Yue Bai was hurling talismans as if they cost nothing, hoping they would stall the advancing corpses. First, she threw a handful of Slowing Charms, which as the name implied—made the target’s movements sluggish. Once the charms took effect, she followed up with Exploding Talismans.

BOOM! Bright yellow flames erupted, the searing waves swallowing the corpses on their side. The smell of scorched flesh filled the air. But before Yue Bai could celebrate, the flames receded to reveal that the corpses were merely charred—they remained active and unbothered.

Refusing to give up, she continued to rain down Exploding Talismans, determined to turn them into ash.

“Sword, rise!” Ye Changzhen shouted. A peach-wood sword flew up, purple lightning runes covering its blade as a crackling electrical hum echoed. This was the “Purple Lightning Green Frost Sword,” designed to suppress evil. Malign entities feared the pure lightning of the Nine Heavens most of all. While this sword hadn’t been tempered by that specific lightning, it had been tempered by ordinary thunder, making its aura enough to temporarily suppress the corpses.

With the sword out, the corpses’ terrifying self-healing ability was weakened. The blade darted through the crowd as fast as the wind. Working in tandem, Ye Changzhen and Yue Bai forced the tide of corpses back significantly.

Shen Shuheng realized that quantity produced a qualitative change. She decided to combine her “Thousand Swords into One” technique with what her Master had taught her. She raised her blade and swept it horizontally. A wave of snow surged forth, rushing toward the corpses like an all-consuming sea.

Fu Xueke turned her head just as the girl beside her looked back. Their gazes met, and the girl gave her a brilliant smile—like the March sun, warm but not scorching. In that instant, Fu Xueke’s heart trembled.

“This cannot continue. We will eventually be exhausted, but they will not. Their numbers are still growing,” Shen Shuheng said, her voice tinged with fatigue. She was indeed exhausted; her hands were numb and her arms ached after swinging her sword incessantly. Even as a Five-Element cultivator with several times the usual spiritual energy, she couldn’t sustain the drain indefinitely.

“I can’t hold on much longer either. I’m only staying up out of a sheer desire not to die,” Yue Bai rasped. If it weren’t for Ye Changzhen, she would never have come to this godforsaken place.

Shen Shuheng looked up at the solid rock ceiling. They weren’t very deep in the cave. If they blasted the ceiling open, they might escape, though there was the risk of being crushed by falling debris.

“Should we carve a path through the corpses, or blast the ceiling and escape through the top?”

“If they weren’t Blood Corpses, carving a path would be best. But if we are even slightly scratched during the process, we’ll turn into those things,” Ye Changzhen noted.

“Then blast the ceiling,” Shen Shuheng said. She’d rather be crushed than become a monster.

“Your magical treasure has an independent space. You and the others hide inside; I will lead you out,” Fu Xueke said, rubbing Shen Shuheng’s head, the coldness in her eyes melting into tenderness.

“No, Master! It’s too dangerous for you alone!” Shen Shuheng disagreed. Her Master’s wounds hadn’t fully healed; she couldn’t let her be hurt again. After all, Master was only at the Soul Transformation stage; her physical body wasn’t that much tougher than theirs. The thought of her Master being injured made her heart feel like it was being sliced by a blade.

Fu Xueke gave a smile, looking into Shen Shuheng’s eyes as if coaxing a child. “A-Heng, be good and listen. Don’t worry, nothing will happen.”

Shen Shuheng shook her head resolutely. “I’m staying to help Master. You two, go inside and hide.”

Yue Bai and Ye Changzhen also refused. “We are staying too. You came here because of us; you shouldn’t have to suffer this alone.”

Fu Xueke sighed. “Staying here is of little use. Do not delay,” she said, pointing to the encroaching corpses. “If we wait, we all die. I can move more easily alone. A-Heng, bring it out.”

Shen Shuheng said, “If Master is willing to kiss me once, I’ll go inside.”

She said it intentionally, hoping to force her Master to let her stay. No matter the danger, she wanted to be by her side. Fu Xueke leaned in and pressed a light kiss against her brow before quickly pulling away. Shen Shuheng stared blankly at her Master, her heart filling with a faint joy.

“There,” her Master’s voice said, sounding like it had been dipped in snow. Fu Xueke waited for her answer, noticing the tips of the girl’s ears had turned a sharp red.

Fu Xueke didn’t wait for her disciple to act; she took out the magical treasure herself. “You must keep your word.”

Shen Shuheng couldn’t refuse now. She promised to go inside and hide—but she hadn’t promised she wouldn’t come back out. With that in mind, she gave her Master an obedient smile. “Naturally. I’ll keep my word.”

She followed Yue Bai and Ye Changzhen into the small realm, planning to sneak back out as soon as she had the chance. She would always stand with her Master; there was no way she’d leave her to face this alone.