Fatty's personality was such that he'd never experienced anything romantic or beautiful like fireworks growing up. What he liked were the heavy firecrackers that made the entire village think a war was about to break out.
The moment he realized Wu Tianzhen's intention, his mind wandered further, recalling his childhood with rapturous abandon. As he reminisced, a skyrocket shot upwards incessantly!
The ill-fated Jade Platform, before it could properly savor its transformation into a bald goose, was shattered by this barrage of sky-rockets.
The corpse landed on the branches, its lower half limp and light, like a sack of flour hanging from a tree.
After Wu Tianzhen and Fatty finished their business, they braced themselves, expecting the corpse to retaliate with materialization. But after waiting and waiting, the corpse fell silent, showing no reaction.
Wu Tianzhen was puzzled. He shone his flashlight on it. The shriveled body was like a sheet of paper, the parts showing the fabric even appearing translucent.
...Wait, where did the one-eyed worms they stuffed in earlier go?
He suddenly realized something was wrong. When the corpse first lunged, it was stuffed with one-eyed worms, but now it had become a tattered sack?
An idea suddenly popped into his head. The flashlight beam followed his thoughts, and indeed, the one-eyed worms in the branches, caught off guard by the sudden change, were struggling to wriggle along the thin branches towards it.
Could it be...
Wu Tianzhen thought of a possibility, a chill running down his spine. Without waiting to confirm, he began firing madly at the corpse!
"What are you doing?" Fatty, seeing this, immediately joined in the shooting, but his mind was utterly confused.
"We have to shoot that corpse down as quickly as possible!!" Wu Tianzhen didn't even have time to look at Fatty. The corpse was too far away, and they weren't sure if the materialization power would succeed every time. All they could do now was pray that their bullets would be accurate enough!
"I've never understood how a corpse could have such active subconsciousness..." Wu Tianzhen spoke rapidly amidst the gunfire, as if explaining or analyzing himself.
"...I suspect its head was merely a subconscious transmitter waiting to be activated. What truly provided it with soul power were those one-eyed worms!"
"I don't know how these worms work, but they only provide subconscious power after entering the torso. And once the corpse uses the bronze tree for materialization, these worms are consumed and need constant replenishment!"
"Right now, it's in a state where it can't materialize. Before those worms get in, we have to shoot it down or smash it!"
"Holy crap!" Fatty, upon hearing this, immediately dropped his gun and reached for explosives.
"Damn it, why bother shooting? Let's just blow it to smithereens!"
As soon as he spoke, the explosives in his hand were thrown with all his might!
The distance was too great, and the explosives lost momentum halfway, about to fall. But then Fatty leisurely lit a cigarette and, with a precise shot, hit the casing of the explosives!
The powerful impact sent the explosives shooting forward, and this collision made the explosives' power even more significant!
Seeing Fatty's display of power, Wu Tianzhen felt a slight relief and subconsciously looked at the corpse. To his shock, he discovered—
The expression on the head was gradually turning malicious?!
Wu Tianzhen felt a jolt of horror. He quickly looked around and finally found the problem!
"No..." he muttered, then shouted loudly. But his voice was drowned out by the explosion of the explosives, barely reaching Fatty's ears.
"No, Fatty!! I was wrong just now. The worms don't work by entering the body, but by touching his head!"
"His head hasn't decayed for thousands of years, and the explosives might not destroy it. However, the shockwave from the explosives will shake the one-eyed worms on it loose!!!"
Although he had discovered the truth, Fatty's explosives were already a done deal.
A massive cloud of gray smoke erupted with a deafening roar, and the corpse, under the immense force, shot out of the smoke!
The shriveled lower body had been blown apart, hanging in tattered strips below the head.
And the head, as expected, was not destroyed by the explosives. Its surface was merely cracked, floating like paper over the muscle tissue, revealing half-white, half-red rotten flesh beneath.
The one-eyed worms, shaken loose from the tree trunk, scattered like a chaotic rain, and the area around the head was soon surrounded by approaching worms!
...It seemed unstoppable.
But just as the triumphant smile on the head grew increasingly wild, Wu Tianzhen and Fatty heard the familiar hum!
Two black-gold ancient swords, engulfed in blazing Qilin flames, tore through the air with destructive force!!
One sword came from the side, a wall of fire sweeping past. Countless one-eyed worms still in mid-air exploded into ash with crackling sounds like popcorn!
The other sword shot straight down like an arrow. The head's expression froze instantly. The blade pierced its temple and shot out, knocking it away from the swarm of one-eyed worms!
The black-gold ancient sword, with the head impaled on it, plunged deeply into a distant stone wall. Beside it, a water outlet roared, its deafening sound completely burying the head's final roar.
Flames filled the entire field of vision. Black-clad figures emerged from the flames, two people with identical appearances stepping forward, a ferocious black cat at their feet.
Wu Tianzhen and Fatty felt a massive dark shadow crash down beside them, creating a colossal wave in the water pool below. Scarlet blood splattered across the sky; the eagle had met the same fate as the giant lizard.
The head let out a resentful hiss in the Qilin flames. It still had many countermeasures to implement. At this moment, it could have turned the tables with just one one-eyed worm—!
...But unfortunately, not a single one remained.
Sooty ashes fell, carried away by the rushing water and into the pool below.
Perhaps in a short while, its remnants would become a new toy for the water monkeys.
The cat stretched, jumped onto the stone wall, and retrieved the two swords. Although the two black-gold ancient swords were identical, the two "Little Brothers" recognized them perfectly and took their respective swords without hesitation.
"Little Brother!" Wu Tianzhen hurried over, only to be surprised to find that only (Zhang Qiling) had a cut on his left hand. He wondered why, then suddenly remembered that the real Little Brother was covered in blood and didn't need a new cut. For a moment, he didn't know whether to be happy or sad.
As he began searching for bandages, the bronze tree suddenly shook violently. The one-eyed worms, which had suddenly gone still after the head burned out, all transformed into white light spots and disappeared into the trunk of the bronze tree!
They fell like pure snow, appearing almost sacred.
"What is this..."
Then he heard Zhang Qiling softly reply:
"Souls."
He tilted his head slightly, looking at these light spots. The white light reflected in his eyes, clear and pure.
The ugly one-eyed worms, now returned to their essence, finally revealed their original forms.
...Soul materialization had truly succeeded.
These one-eyed worms were the souls lost by the simple people in the secret chamber, who had harbored beautiful dreams and allowed themselves to be used as experimental material.
How could they have imagined that after dying with a smile, they would be trapped in the bronze tree as worms for a thousand years, serving as slaves to the powerful, their subconsciousness exploited?
He took out the human skin scroll and showed it to the other three. Amidst the beautiful light spots, the document seemed to exude a heavy scent of blood.
They watched silently as the light spots completely merged into the bronze tree. Just then, as if the heavens and earth were about to split, the main trunk at the base of the bronze tree suddenly erupted with dazzling multicolored light!!!