Despite the unexpected attack, Lihua however moved quickly and let go of Xian.
Bang!
Her foot landed squarely on his chest sending him flying back into the charging horde of demonic disciples. Using that inertia she retreated faster towards Li Shen and Li Wen.
However, a hand suddenly reached for her and latched onto her leg.
Without a second thought, a sword appeared in her hand, slicing off the demonic disciple's arm freeing her.
Her sword flashed a few more times as more Demonic disciples approached her.
“ENOUGH!!”
A bellow came from Li Shen before a powerful Divine Will burst forth and enveloped the entire cavern.
Tremble. Tremble.
Swoosh.
Swoosh.
Swoosh.
The bodies of the demonic disciple were flung away to crash against the cavern walls to be mangled and bloodied.
Lihua used this opportunity to regroup with them.
“What is happening all of sudden? Why are these disciples coming back to life like the living dead?”
Lihua asked as soon as she approached them.
“It’s a result of the experiment that went on here, it seems like whatever they experimenting with got out of hand and spread to them like a virus. Be careful to not get beaten by them.”
Lihua’s expression was solemn as she looked around the cavern to see the zombie disciples getting up.
“Worst of all, they have the ability of instant regeneration like Xian.”
“Xian...”
Hearing Xian’s name, Lihua turned to where she had kicked him. Though the only thing she saw was him slowly recovering from a sunk-in chest.
Without waiting for the injuries to his body to fully heal, he followed the other dead demonic disciples to attack her and the others.
“Li Wen, create a runic barrier around us.”
Li Wen heeded Li Shen’s command and after rapidly forming hand seals he slammed his palm onto the ground.
Under his palm, a red rune appeared and spread to thirty meters around them. A blood-red light then burst from it to encapsulate them.
At the same time, the bodies of the dead demonic disciple slammed against the barrier causing intense ripples. But the barrier held strong as Li Wen sat down cross-legged to manage it.
But as more and more Demonic disciples encircle the barrier, he frowned and said to Li Shen.
“Young Master, their strength has increased compared to the cultivation realm they were in when they died.”
Li Shen didn’t respond and only looked around at all the demonic disciples surrounding the barrier.
‘What the fuck is this?’
He moved closer to the barrier to stare at one particular demonic disciple.
“Young Master be careful.”
Li Wen warned.
“Why aren’t we killing them? This isn’t something that should exist in this world, it’s an abomination.”
Lihua spoke up as she looked at Li Shen’s back.
“Kill them...? Not yet.”
Lihua and Li Wen were taken aback by Li Shen’s words. But he didn’t give them a chance to speak before he suddenly reached passed the barrier and grabbed the head of the demonic disciple in front of him.
Li Shen stepped back and carried the demonic disciple into the barrier.
“Young Master! Wh-What are you…”
Li Wen went to say but had to stop to quickly stabilized the barrier after Li Shen just forcefully pulled that demonic disciple inside.
He and Lihua then watch as Li Shen threw the demonic disciple to the side.
“ARGHHH!!”
With an ear-piercing scream, it got up and charge back towards Li Shen.
Li Shen stood there calmly and sent out his Divine Will. An intangible blade materialized in front of him before it shot towards the beast’s mind.
But even after suffering a Soul Attack from Li Shen, it didn’t even flinch and only continue to attack.
‘Soul Attacks don’t work on it?’
Swoosh.
The beast appeared in front of Li Shen and with an attack, mouth first, it aimed to sink its teeth into the flesh on his neck.
Li Shen dodged to the side and he could hear the harsh sound of its mouth snapping shut next to his ears.
‘Its speed is even equal to a mid-stage Foundation realm cultivator. If I had to guess this demonic disciple was most likely in the Sea Expansion realm before he become this monster. Meaning its strength jumped a one major realm and two minor realms. Just what infected them?’
As Li Shen thought this, the infected demonic disciple attacked once again.
This specific infected demonic disciple's pattern of attack was the same, just lunging forward trying to bite its opponent. It was unlike the one's who attack using weapons', meaning they had different levels of intelligence.
Li Shen’s hand swung out and a sickening crack echoed out as it connected to the jaw of the demonic disciple shattering it. It was sent crashing against the barrier.
With Li Shen’s physical strength he was confident he could crack the skull of a mid-level Foundation Realm cultivator if they had allowed him to make that head-on attack. But this thing just had its jaw broken.
‘Increased cultivation, and increased physical strength as well as speed, interesting.
‘Hm?’
Li Shen suddenly felt a stinging sensation on his hand, and he looked down to see blood from the demonic disciple sizzling and giving off a green smoke.
‘Their blood is also poisonous. I read that demonic cultivators in the Poison Demonic Sect cultivate by absorbing various poisons into their bodies to use in battle. But the lethality in this blood seems a bit excessive, did the virus increase the potency of the poison as well?’
The more Li Shen found out the more he couldn’t understand the reason for creating something like this. It felt more like the person was aiming for something but creating this virus as a result.
However, he understood one thing.
‘If this virus spreads to the outside world then the consequences would be unimaginable.’
However, he then thought of the people in this city that were being controlled, and his heart sank.
‘Wait, is that a stage in the virus infection?’
If that was the case, Li Shen was relying on the academy getting here to deal with so many.
Looking up from his hand that had spots of skin burnt, Li Shen watched as the demonic disciple rose. Half of its face was caved in with its mangled jaw hanging loosely.
‘Plus it has instant regeneration, what terrifying combos.’
“ARGGHHH!!”
It let out a scream, its jaw already healed, before charging towards Li Shen.
“Alright, I’ve seen enough.”
Li Shen looked towards the demonic disciple and his Divine Will extended like two pairs of gigantic intangible hands. They grab and lifted the demonic disciple off the ground.
Its struggle was futile as its head was forcefully ripped off its body.
With his Divine Soul being close in strength to a Nascent Soul cultivator, Li Shen’s pseudo-Divine Will was strong enough to kill most cultivators in the Foundation realm. Though moving up to the Core Formation realm, despite their Soul not being at his level, their physical and cultivation strength made it so he couldn’t show such overwhelming strength against them.
Lihua and Li Wen silently watch as Li Shen fought the demonic disciple and then killed it. He looked to be in deep thought after.
“Young Master…”
Li Wen called out when he saw that Li Shen wasn’t speaking for a long while.
Neither he nor Lihua could understand what was going through his mind right now.
Li Shen came out of his thoughts at Li Wen’s call.
Turning to both of them, Li Shen apologized.
“Ahh, sorry about that, I was in my own world for a moment.”
He then looked at the infected demonic disciples outside the barrier.
“I was just thinking that whoever is responsible for this is a twisted version of me. Forsaking everything, even human morality, in the pursuit of finding power. I can see myself as the cause of this if things were different.”
Lihua and Li Wen were further confused by Li Shen’s words. Turning to see their expressions, Li Shen let out a sigh.
“Nevermind.”
His expression then turned serious as he said.
“Go all out and kill all the infected here. We’ll search the cavern after.”
Li Wen and Lihua nodded before Li Wen formed a hand seal that expanded the barrier around them pushing back all the infected demonic disciples. Then with another hand seal, he lowered the barrier and Lihua was the first to charge at the horde of infected.
Meanwhile, Lihua and Li Wen carried out a cleansing, Li Shen’s attention landed on one of the many pavilions in the cavern.
He wasn’t worried about Lihua and Li Wen, as the level of these infected demonic disciples was below the Core Formation realm. Li Wen would use his runes to manipulate puppets to aid Lihua while he himself decapitated them quite easily in hordes.
A few slipped passed them and approach Li Shen, but his fist would clench with veins bulging as he threw out a punch back by his fleshly body. With a loud bang, those infected heads would burst apart into a gory sight of flesh and bones.
‘Remember, to kill them so they don’t regenerate you have to destroy or cut off their heads.’
'Yes.'
'Yes, Young Master.'
After sending that spiritual message, Li Shen moved his attention back to that pavilion.
He sensed something inside and using his Heavenly Eyes, he didn't like what he saw.
The entire pavilion was radiating energy that was twisting and distorting the golden threads in its surroundings.
Li Shen’s expression was solemn as his body vanished from its position as he headed for it. He wanted to see what was causing even the natural flow of Heavenly laws to be affected this much.
It couldn't be anything good.
**
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