Start with everyday skills and grind your way to immortality.

Chapter 76 The Floating Town

Li Chengyun said no more. He slowly raised his withered right hand, interlocking his thumb and middle finger.

"Snapped!"

A crisp snap of fingers suddenly rang out in the deathly silent underground space.

"roar"

The dozens of skinning monsters that had been lying quietly suddenly seemed to have been injected with stimulants and rushed over like madmen.

Chen Qian instinctively gripped the knife and stepped back, only to find that they weren't targeting him at all.

They rushed to the side.

It's not tearing, it's digging!

Dozens of sharp, hook-like claws frantically scrambled at the ground.

Hard rocks crumble like tofu under their claws.

Mud and gravel flew everywhere.

They are tireless, regardless of their broken nails.

Some of the monsters even had their claws bleeding, yet they continued to dig deeper and deeper mechanically and frantically.

The scene was both spectacular and eerie.

Chen Qian watched from the side, but caught a glimpse of Li Chengyun out of the corner of his eye.

Zhang Da's body, which was originally pale, was now turning black and festering at a visible speed.

Patches of lividity, each the size of a coin, quickly merged into one.

The flesh that had just been torn from his face was now oozing yellow bodily fluids, emitting a stench even stronger than the surrounding environment.

Even his standing posture began to hunch, as if his spine could no longer support the weight of his body.

"This body can't hold on much longer."

Chen Qian thought to himself.

Possessing a corpse to return to life is, after all, going against the will of Heaven. After such a long period of torment, the large corpse is deteriorating at an exponential rate.

Li Chengyun seemed to have noticed this as well.

He looked down at the back of his hand, which was dripping black blood.

His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, and an unprecedented urgency shone through his cloudy eyes.

"Faster...faster..."

He muttered to himself, his voice hoarse:

"You need to go to the third level to obtain the Soul Soil, but remember not to be greedy!"

"Click..."

With a cracking sound of a dislocated spine, Zhang Da's body seemed to have its last support removed, and he suddenly tilted to one side.

That previously effortless control suddenly suffered a fatal breakdown.

"roar?"

The frantic digging of the skinned blood slaves suddenly stopped.

They stopped what they were doing, and their eyelidless heads slowly turned.

The fear that originated from the bloodline is fading, and in its place is a long-suppressed bloodlust and greed.

They smelled it...it was the smell of rotting flesh.

The largest monsters began to scratch nervously with their claws, emitting low, threatening growls, and the encirclement gradually tightened.

"Damn it!"

Although Li Chengyun's voice was hoarse, it still carried a chilling calmness.

He struggled to lift his head, his cloudy eyes fixed on Chen Qian, and spoke rapidly:

"Listen up, kid."

"Third level, remember, the dead must cross, the living must stop."

"and……"

"Click"

With a cracking sound of a dislocated spine, Zhang Da's body seemed to have its last support removed, and he suddenly tilted to one side.

Before the words were even finished, the skinned monsters could no longer contain themselves.

With a sharp screech, it surged forward like a tidal wave!

Claws tore through the air, and a foul stench filled the air.

"You all like playing riddles, huh! Don't give me the chance, or I'll just leave you guessing without saying a word!"

Seeing that things were not going well, Chen Qian cursed under his breath.

He took a step forward, and the flag in his hand slammed into the ground beneath his feet.

Eight steps to catch the cicada, and the cicada leaps!

Chen Qian's strength erupted instantly, but he did not escape.

Instead, it swooped down on Zhang Da, who was about to fall, like a predatory eagle.

"Excuse me!"

Chen Qian's left hand is shaped like a claw.

With a sharp gust of wind, it ripped open the already rotten clothes and flesh on Zhang Da's chest.

"Sizzle!"

Amidst the splatter of black blood, he forcefully ripped out a yellow paper figure soaked in dark red blood!

The paper figure detached from the body, and the enlarged corpse instantly collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, immediately overwhelmed by the swarming, skinning monsters.

"roar!"

Enraged at losing their target, the monsters turned their claws toward Chen Qian in mid-air.

The foul-smelling mouth was only millimeters away from his ankle!

Chen Qian forcibly twisted his waist in mid-air.

Using the momentum, he curled up into a ball.

Ignoring everything else, they headed towards the newly dug pit, ten meters underground.

He plunged headfirst into it!

The body instantly loses weight.

The monster roared in frustration from above, and several pieces of rock hit Chen Qian's back, causing a burning pain.

Some even fell into the book.

But he couldn't care less.

The darkness faded from his eyes, and although his vision was dim, it was still clearly discernible.

As the descent deepened, the space below suddenly opened up.

"That is..."

When Chen Qian saw the scene below, even with his composure, he couldn't help but gasp.

What kind of tomb is this?

Beneath his feet was a huge underground cavity.

At the bottom of that hollow cavity stands a small town!

The houses stand side by side, and the streets crisscross.

But all the buildings, whether towering skyscrapers or low-rise houses, have been abandoned for a long time!

The entire town was submerged in stagnant water.

"Thump!"

My thoughts were interrupted the moment I entered the water.

The water level just covered the rooftops of the houses, leaving only the pointed eaves visible, like solitary graves.

A certain luminous planktonic organism drifted on the water's surface, like a wandering, lonely ghost.

"This... is the second level?"

Chen Qian was utterly shocked.

And in the depths of that stagnant water, in the center of that dead city, there seemed to be a pillar.

It was emitting a faint red glow, like a heart beating slowly in the darkness.

"Gurgle"

Bubbles rise to the surface.

Chen Qian held his breath tightly.

There was nowhere to put your feet, only a faint glow above your head.

He kicked hard with both legs and swam toward the light.

"Splash!"

Panting heavily, Chen Qian used both hands and feet to scramble up to the nearest exposed rooftop.

My gaze pierced through the thin mist that clung to the water's surface, sweeping to the left and right.

This sight made his heart sink slightly.

About a hundred paces to his left, there was a half-collapsed stone archway, with only half of its pillar protruding from the water.

In that narrow space at the top of the pillar, three or four figures were crammed together, looking like drowned rats.

The man in the lead was dressed in tattered clothes and had disheveled hair.

Although the goose-feather saber in his hand had several chips, it still radiated a chilling light.

It was Zhao Feng.

Behind him, only Old Master Liu, Master Xuanyin, and two people from the martial arts school remained.

They looked extremely disheveled, clearly having paid a heavy price to fight their way out of there.

At this moment, because the environment was pitch black, Chen Qian was not found.

To Chen Qian's right, on the rooftop of a building some distance away, stood four figures.

Those were members of the Wang family who took a different path.

"Indeed, evil lives on for a thousand years."

The folding fan in Wang Tong's hand was nowhere to be found, and his brocade robe was covered in mud.

But he seemed more composed than Zhao Feng and the others, and he didn't even have many wounds on his body.

Beside him, the Ghost Hand Li was hunched over.

In his hand, he was carrying a human skin lantern that emitted a pale white light, the light dispelling the surrounding yin energy.

But this is not all.

After sweeping over Zhao Feng and Wang Tong, Chen Qian's gaze did not stop, but instead turned with extreme vigilance to the corner at the very edge of the water, where the shadows were heaviest.

There, there is a stage that has not yet completely collapsed.

Half of it was submerged in the water, with only the upturned eaves showing.

And on that stage, seven people were standing quietly!

The seven people remained silent, their breathing so faint it was barely perceptible.

If Chen Qian didn't possess night vision and auditory recognition, he would almost have overlooked them, treating them like puppets on a stage.

Their attire was completely different from everyone else present.

It was neither a martial arts outfit nor a Taoist robe, but rather a colorful garment.

The lapel was embroidered with intricate patterns of insects and birds, the cuffs and trouser legs were tightly bound, and a number of silver ornaments and an unidentified small bamboo basket hung from the waist.

What's most unsettling is their faces.

The faces of these seven people were all heavily painted with greasepaint.

It resembles a mask from some ancient Nuo opera, or perhaps ghost makeup applied for some kind of ritual.

In this environment, these red and green painted faces exude an indescribable eeriness.

Of the seven men, six held curved swords and formed a circle around the one in the middle.

That's a woman.

She was petite and adorned with silver bell-like ornaments, yet strangely, she made no sound.

Her face was also painted with red and green paint, only her eyes were visible.

Those eyes had no whites, were pitch black, yet were frighteningly bright, and were staring intently at the pillar emitting red light in the center.

A sudden turn!

In the pitch black, their eyes met.