The ancient corpse's waist was cut into two.
It used its hands as support and struggled to get up.
Its upper body stood on the ground, making it look like a dwarf.
Li Ran frowned slightly.
At this moment, the rotten organs of the ancient corpse were being dragged away.
It looked highly disgusting, but there was no trace of evil and filth.
On the contrary, its clear eyes faintly revealed a trace of Buddha's scent.
"I'm sorry for hurting you. This poor monk shouldn't be acting like this…" The ancient corpse's voice was hoarse and unpleasant.
Li Ran could clearly sense that the death aura that supported it was rapidly passing. It could not even last an incense stick's worth of time.
Thus, he was in no hurry to attack.
Lin Langyue asked curiously, "So are you alive or dead?"
The person in front of them looked like a dried corpse on the outside but talked to them with a clear mind.
This scene was indescribably strange.
The ancient corpse shook its head. "This poor monk has long been a dead man. Right now, he's only relying on the Corpse Puppet Technique and a mouthful of Buddhist Qi to support him. After a cup of tea, he will return to dust."
After saying that, he looked gratefully at Li Ran. "I didn't expect to meet an accomplished monk before annihilation! If it weren't for the fact that Master had used pure Buddhist power to awaken this poor monk, he would probably have lost all consciousness."
Li Ran shook his head.
The other party was treating him like a Buddha.
"You're welcome. I wanted to kill you, so it was purely an accident to awaken you."
“……” The ancient corpse paused for a moment before smiling bitterly. "Master is right. This poor monk should have died long ago."
Li Ran thought of something and asked, "Since you're a Buddhist, why do you know the Corpse Puppet Technique?"
The ancient corpse sighed and said regretfully, "Back then, this poor monk knew that he was about to die. Originally, he wanted to sit here safely, but he found an ancient book in this cave. It recorded the Corpse Puppet Technique."
“Refine a corpse into a puppet, seize the life force of the heavens and the earth, and forcefully maintain one’s life! This poor monk was originally disdainful of this Devil Dao cultivation technique, but as death approached day by day, this poor monk… was tempted."
Li Ran frowned. "So you refined yourself to survive?"
The ancient corpse nodded. "This monk refined himself into a puppet and slowed down the decay of the body. So it’s more like a monster that's not human or ghost."
Li Ran immediately understood.
No wonder this ancient corpse had not returned to dust in the past thousand years.
Furthermore, his body was like metal, and his movements were swift and violent. He had already refined his body into a Dharma treasure.
"There are those who die in the fall, those who die in the summer, those who die in the spring, those who die in the past ten years, and those who die in the past one hundred years. Although some of them die later than each other, are they really that different?”
"Death is only a necessary reincarnation. However, this poor monk is obsessed with the principle that even a child understands."
The ancient corpse's voice was desolate, its voice full of sighs.
"Wait a moment. Don't be in a hurry to sigh." Li Ran couldn't help but interrupt, "Tell me first, where is Yu Ye?"
“Yu Ye?“ The ancient corpse was taken aback before saying, "Is that the Yin Corpse Dao disciple Master referring to?"
"That's right. You know him?" Li Ran asked.
The ancient corpse nodded. "Although this poor monk's cultivation has dissipated and has been reduced to a Corpse Puppet, he is not someone that can be refined by a mere deity.
"Just now, he overestimated himself and wanted to possess me. His soul was instantly crushed by this poor monk, already completely disappearing into the world."
Li Ran and Lin Langyue looked at each other and heaved a sigh of relief.
No wonder there wasn't Yu Ye's aura. It turned out that even his soul had perished.
"Wait a moment,"
"A mere deity? Then what realm were you in when you were alive?“
The ancient corpse said, "This poor monk is the Monastery’s Governor, named Ming Yuan. This poor monk’s cultivation is at the peak of the Heavenly Tribulation Realm."
“Heavenly Tribulation?!”
The two of them opened their mouths wide, and the secret room instantly became quiet.
Lin Langyue snapped out of her daze and said, "Sheng Zi Li, you've actually cut a high monk into two?"
Li Ran gulped. "An accident, a pure accident…”
To think that this old monk would have such a high cultivation base!
If it weren't for the fact that the other party's Buddhist Dharma had been scattered and weakened for over a thousand years, the two of them would have been in danger.
"No wonder it caused such a great phenomenon, and it even triggered a Grand Myriad Mountain Range beast tide. It turns out that Yu Ye is going to refine a Heavenly Tribulation ancient corpse!"
The pressure of Ming Yuan's Heavenly Tribulation Realm and the aura of death that he had accumulated for over a thousand years not only caused a phenomenon in the heavens and the earth, but it also scared the beasts into running for hundreds of miles.
"Refining a Heavenly Tribulation… This Yu Ye was truly crazy," Lin Langyue muttered.
Li Ran shrugged. "God wants people to die, but he must go crazy first. Yu Ye has also suffered from his own evil…"
"Mm… Wait, who's God?"
"Cough cough, the moniker of the Ancient Immortal Emperor."
"Oh."
At this moment, Ming Yuan said apologetically, “This poor monk has committed quite a few mistakes in his life, but if this monk really were to say sorry to someone, it would be to you two."
"It doesn't matter; it was just a fight," Li Ran said indifferently. "Furthermore, it was you who died. We weren't injured."
Ming Yuan shook his head, "This poor monk is not talking about this…"
"Ah?" Li Ran was taken aback. "Then what else do you want to do to us?"
Ming Yuan said somewhat embarrassedly, "Back then, this poor monk was worried that he would become a monster that only knew how to kill, causing the outside world to suffer, so he set up a restriction in this cave of dwelling."
"Restriction?" A bad premonition rose in Li Ran's heart.
Ming Yuan said, "As long as this poor monk awakens unexpectedly, the aura of death will activate the restriction. However, if this monk cannot take the initiative to remove it within the time it takes an incense stick to burn, then it means that this poor monk has already lost his mind and the cave abode will automatically be sealed."
Li Ran stared blankly at him, "You mean…"
Ming Yuan scratched his head and said awkwardly, "When we were fighting, the cave gate was already closed. The two of you seem to be unable to leave…"
“……”
Li Ran and Lin Langyue exchanged a glance before turning around and running up the stairs.
They ran all the way to the entrance and found that the door was tightly closed.
"Get out of the way!"
Li Ran's entire body was enshrouded with blood energy. He used all his strength to smash into the door. An invisible ripple rippled, directly rebounding back.
The enormous power caused his flesh aura to churn.
This was a restriction placed by the Heavenly Tribulation Realm. It was simply impossible to break it with brute force.
Lin Langyue tried to condense Daoist techniques, but her meridians were still empty, and she couldn't muster up any qi.
"This won't do. This place is tainted by filth, and a forbidden technique was used. There's no qi available at all…" Her face was rather pale.
Li Ran gritted his teeth. "Old bald monk, you still want to scam me before you die!"
He clenched his fists and angrily walked down.
Lin Langyue asked, "Where are you going?"
Li Ran said hatefully, "Let's beat him up before he dies!"
“……”
