119. The Blood Bat

At the same time, they noticed a faint figure moving swiftly within the medicinal garden. Though his actions were unclear, it was evident he was digging up some rare herbs.

Chen Fengyun had already heard the howls of zombies outside the garden and spotted other martial masters nearby. He hadn’t expected the zombies to be so obsessed with the spiritual herbs, to the point of disregarding the humans around them.

Still, he paid them no mind. The garden’s defensive formation was expected to hold for another five or six minutes, and only two types of spiritual herbs remained unexcavated ahead of him.

“Whoosh…”

Chen Fengyun darted quickly to a patch of herbs, skillfully dismantling the formation’s seals. His proficiency had improved considerably; what once took three minutes now took only two.

“Everyone, attack the light barrier together! We can’t let him take all the immortal herbs!” Martin shouted, sensing a familiar presence inside the garden. More than a dozen martial masters, alongside zombies, launched a joint assault on the defensive formation.

“Boom…”

After just three strikes, the garden’s defensive formation collapsed. The zombies roared and surged into the garden, with human martial experts following closely behind. But Chen Fengyun had already unearthed the last spiritual herb and leapt toward the chasm ahead.

“Quick, pursue him! Don’t let him escape!” someone shouted as they charged toward the fissure.

“Howl…”

However, as the zombies reached the edge of the chasm, about a dozen lost their footing and fell in. The rest hesitated, seemingly fearful of the abyss, then turned back to attack the surrounding humans.

“Uncle Hong, I’ll go down to check. You lead the others out first,” Martin said, convinced the figure she saw resembled Chen Fengyun, who had fallen into the chasm earlier. Despite sensing danger below, she leapt in, instructing Hong Zhongshan accordingly.

In the ruins of the garden, the remaining zombies and human martial experts clashed fiercely again. Aside from the angelic mercenary Greger who followed Martin into the chasm, the others retreated fighting, heading toward the outer buildings in search of valuable items.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh…”

After dropping into the chasm, Chen Fengyun’s flying sword appeared beneath his feet, carrying him down swiftly. The surrounding temperature plummeted to near freezing, with the howling wind echoing below.

“Howl…”

Above, a series of howls rang out as over a dozen zombies tumbled down. Chen Fengyun reacted quickly, unleashing more than ten strands of spiritual energy to form ropes that bound and drew the zombies to him.

Having broken through the tenth level of Qi refinement, his spiritual energy had nearly doubled, allowing him to fly while capturing so many zombies at once.

He sought to capture the zombies because their bodies contained malevolent energy, which he regarded as precious—ripe for conversion into attribute points.

Sure enough, as he drew each zombie near, he rapidly absorbed their malevolent energy, gaining 28 attribute points in total. Once drained, their bodies turned to ash and scattered on the wind.

By now, Chen Fengyun had descended dozens of meters. The temperature grew colder still, forcing him to form an energy shield around his body to resist the chill.

This chasm was far wider than the other side, broadening as it went deeper. At a depth of a hundred meters, it spanned over ten meters across. The earth and stone had been forcibly torn apart—no one could fathom what tremendous power had ripped such a rift.

“Whoosh whoosh…”

Suddenly, the sound of rushing wind came from above. Chen Fengyun saw two figures falling—Martin and the angelic mercenary Greger, descending at different speeds and from slightly different locations.

“Roar…”

During her descent, Martin summoned the spectral image of a divine dragon, coiling around her body to slow her fall. She scanned her surroundings carefully, seemingly unaware of Chen Fengyun’s presence.

“Hum…”

Behind Greger, a pair of glossy, angelic wings suddenly emerged, identical to those of a true angel, accompanied by the faint sound of sacred hymns. No wonder he dared enter the chasm—he possessed the power of flight granted by angelic wings.

“Squeak squeak squeak…”

Just as they neared the bottom, a dense chorus of squeaks erupted from deep within the fissure. A vast cloud of blood-red mist surged toward the trio, engulfing the area.

“Blood bats? So many of them?” Chen Fengyun’s divine sense detected the crimson cloud was composed of thousands of blood bats, each no larger than a palm but swift as lightning. Their teeth were razor-sharp, their eyes glowing with a bloodthirsty gleam.

The bats seemed to have spotted the three. They divided into three groups: the largest swarmed toward Chen Fengyun, while the others charged at Martin and Greger respectively.

“I wonder if the malevolent aura of these blood bats can be converted into attribute points,” Chen Fengyun pondered. With so many of them, if conversion was possible, it would be a windfall.

“Golden Bell Shield.” As the blood cloud enveloped Chen Fengyun, a golden defensive dome materialized around him. The bats struck against the shield but couldn’t harm him.

Yet Chen Fengyun stretched out his hand and caught a blood bat. To his disappointment, his cultivation system showed no reaction, and he couldn’t absorb any special energy from it.

“Not even a trace of energy? You’re utterly useless,” Chen Fengyun muttered, shaking his head. Then his flying sword emitted a dazzling light, releasing countless sword energies that instantly slaughtered hundreds of blood bats.

Their tough, leathery skins required two or three sword strikes to fell each one. Otherwise, a single wave of sword energy might have wiped out most of the swarm.

“Xuan Yin Mirror, sweep the area,” Chen Fengyun commanded, summoning the mirror. It emitted a dense white frost that instantly froze hundreds of blood bats, causing them to fall like raindrops and shatter into powder upon impact.

“Roar…”

At the same time, recalling the bats’ malevolent aura, Chen Fengyun tested the power of his Redemption Sutra. He let out a mighty roar, and golden beams of light emanated from the sutra, touching dozens of blood bats and igniting them in flames.

The bats screeched wildly, thrashing through their swarm but unable to extinguish the burning fire. One by one, they turned to ash. With several more roars, Chen Fengyun incinerated hundreds more of the blood bats.