There is a poem that says: "In the spring breeze, my horse trots fast, and in one day I see all the flowers of Chang'an."
This poem describes the mood of Shi Xiaoyue, the sect leader of the Corpse Refining Sect, at this very moment.
His physical body had been destroyed by Ling Tian, forcing him to possess the body of a golden corpse he had refined, turning him into a monster that was neither human nor ghost.
He had originally thought that he would, like his deceased predecessors, have his soul and consciousness slowly eroded by the zombies, eventually becoming a zombie with only the instinct to kill.
As the saying goes, when heaven closes a door for you, it opens a window. Even Shi Xiaoyue himself never expected that the special environment in this cave would not only prevent his soul from being eroded but also allow him to continuously strengthen his soul using his sect's secret techniques.
This made him incredibly happy.
Furthermore, he discovered that after his body merged with the golden corpse, his control over other zombies became much more adept.
Previously, when Shi Xiaoyue controlled zombies, he merely gave them a command within his soul and consciousness, and the zombies fought based on their own instincts.
But now, he felt as if those zombies were extensions of his own body. With just a thought, he could make these zombies perform very complex tasks according to his instructions.
Moreover, the zombies' perception of the outside world could be transmitted to Shi Xiaoyue's mind at all times.
This was somewhat like a modern air force's battlefield data link, where a stealth fighter acts as the command center of the battlefield, and surrounding drones cooperate through real-time data transmission.
Drones could serve as the eyes of the stealth fighter, using high-power radar without fear. After detecting a target, they could transmit the data to the stealth fighter.
Even if a drone was locked onto by enemy radar or even shot down, as long as the enemy fired, their position would be exposed, and the stealth fighter could deliver a fatal blow.
Shi Xiaoyue now felt like the stealth fighter at the core, and those zombies were his drones.
More precisely, he was now a general commanding an army of thousands!
He no longer felt the dejection of having his physical body destroyed. He now planned to lie low in this cave for a while. Once these iron corpses evolved into bronze corpses, he could go out and wreak havoc, walking sideways in the outside world!
He could even refine more people into zombies, and then he would command an army of zombies. The thought of it made him incredibly excited.
Moreover, for Shi Xiaoyue, becoming a zombie also had another benefit: he gained theoretical immortality.
As long as he stayed in places with abundant yin energy and was not eliminated, he could live as long as he wished.
He also didn't have to stay in places that never saw sunlight, like other zombies. Zombies at the golden corpse level were no longer afraid of sunlight. Sunlight would only cause them slight discomfort; it posed no fatal threat.
Shi Xiaoyue was now focused on two things: one was to expand his forces and become stronger, and the other was to eliminate Ling Tian and get revenge!
As luck would have it, Shi Xiaoyue never expected Ling Tian to barge into the cave at this very moment!
At this point, Shi Xiaoyue decided not to wait any longer. Forget the saying "A gentleman's revenge is never too late," he wanted revenge now!
Ling Tian also never expected this fellow Shi Xiaoyue to be so perverse, having so many zombies in this cave!
Although Ling Tian had obtained Hu Lan's memories, Shi Xiaoyue had brought these zombies into the cave behind Hu Lan's back.
For these protectors of the Heavenly Demon Sect, there was intense competition among them. Only by eliminating their rivals could they obtain more and better resources.
Shi Xiaoyue secretly hid these zombies in the cave, partly with the intention of backstabbing Hu Lan.
Ling Tian looked at the zombies before him, his eyelids twitching. The visual impact of these creatures was too powerful, especially in the cave. With over two hundred zombies crawling towards him, anyone else would have been scared to death on the spot.
Ling Tian frowned. He raised his hand and threw a Burst Fire Talisman. The talisman instantly ignited, turning into a fist-sized fireball. The fireball quickly hit a zombie and exploded, engulfing that zombie and the one next to it in flames.
Under normal circumstances, the flames from a Burst Fire Talisman would last for more than ten seconds upon impact. If it hit an inflammable target, the flames would burn until it was consumed.
However, this time, in just two to three seconds, the flames attached to the zombies completely extinguished!
Looking at the two zombies, although their bodies were scorched black and constantly emitting smoke, they did not suffer fatal damage and continued to move unsteadily towards Ling Tian.
At this moment, another zombie lunged directly at Ling Tian. Ling Tian raised his hand again and shot out a Vajra Talisman!
"Boom!"
A beam of white light struck the zombie squarely, exploding instantly. The dark cave was illuminated as if a flashbang had been detonated.
However, the light dissipated in less than a second. Ling Tian was shocked to see the zombie again.
The zombie was blown to pieces, with almost no intact skin, and a large hole in its chest.
Yet, this zombie seemed to have suffered no fatal damage and was still stubbornly crawling towards Ling Tian.
Ling Tian raised his hand again and shot out another Vajra Talisman. The Vajra Talisman hit the zombie, causing a violent explosion. The zombie was directly blown onto the ground. This time, the zombie's fate was tragic: one arm was blown off, and half of its body was almost blown apart.
However, to Ling Tian's surprise, even with only half of its body remaining, the zombie was still trying very hard to wriggle towards Ling Tian!
As Ling Tian hesitated, a figure appeared before him. Ling Tian acted again, and a talisman crackling with electricity struck the figure.
"Sizzle!"
Electricity flashed. In the light of the electricity, Ling Tian saw that the figure that had appeared before him was indeed a zombie.
Lightning was one of the things that evil entities like zombies feared the most. Using lightning talismans to deal with zombies was also a very good choice, but it was less economical, as the materials for making lightning talismans were more precious, and the success rate of making such talismans was not high.
After the electrical energy from the talisman was fully released, Ling Tian suddenly felt stiff. This was because he discovered that although the zombie before him was smoking all over and severely injured both inside and out, it had still not died immediately!