In an instant, the thick corpse qi enveloped the golden thread. But what shocked the Corpse Soldier was that his invariably effective corpse qi proved utterly useless against this single strand. The golden thread seemed to possess a spirit of its own — with just a faint tremor, astonishing vitality and blood-essence fluctuations surged from within, scattering the corpse qi in an instant. Then the golden thread shot toward his chest, and his extraordinarily sturdy body crumbled like tofu, pierced clean through.
The golden thread coiled several times, binding him tight.
The Corpse Soldier was horrified. Before he could make another move, Yang Kai had already sent a pitch-black, blade-like attack hurtling toward him. This strike carried not the slightest fluctuation of energy, yet the ghostly green flames in the Corpse Soldier's eyes flickered wildly — he sensed immense danger from it.
In a panic, he twisted his body and barely dodged the vital spot, letting the dark, blade-like slash carve across one arm.
An utterly bizarre scene unfolded. Without a sound, his severed arm fell to the ground, and at the cut, a portion of the limb was simply missing — the wound edges didn't match up at all.
The one capable of this was, naturally, Yang Kai's Spatial Blade.
Though the Corpse Soldier's physical body was incredibly tough, the Spatial Blade was equally devastating. The rift it carved in space was enough to swallow part of the opponent's arm into the void, banishing it there forever.
But when Yang Kai looked closer, only a pale green liquid oozed from the wound — not a drop of blood in sight. The sight was deeply unsettling.
Despite this, the Corpse Soldier seemed to have suffered a grievous blow. He let out a piercing howl, and then his entire body was enveloped in thick corpse qi.
Yang Kai was about to press his advantage and finish the job when his expression suddenly changed. He hurriedly waved his hand, and the golden thread binding the Corpse Soldier flew back to him.
In that instant, the Corpse Soldier regained his freedom. Shrouded in corpse qi, he seemed to glare viciously at Yang Kai. Then he snatched up his severed arm from the ground, transformed into a streak of yellow light, and fled at astonishing speed.
Yang Kai stood in place with a dark expression, glancing down at his golden thread. He discovered to his dismay that black qi clung to its surface.
He had only practiced the Golden Thread Secret Art for a short time and couldn't yet unleash its full power — otherwise this wouldn't have happened. Bound as the Corpse Soldier had been, no matter how strong he was, Yang Kai could have finished him off in short order.
With a flick of his hand, Yang Kai stored the golden thread inside his body and channeled his Sacred Yuan to purge the corpse qi from it. At the same time, he grabbed Yang Yan's shoulder, and with lightning speed, they gave chase after the Corpse Soldier.
The exchange between Yang Kai and the Corpse Soldier had lasted only a flash. Yang Yan hadn't even reacted yet — the Corpse Soldier she had considered a formidable enemy had already fled in disarray. Only now did she suddenly recall something, and she began explaining the origin of the Corpse Soldiers to Yang Kai.
Through her explanation, Yang Kai finally understood that "Corpse Soldier" was merely a title — a classification tier for this type of being.
Much like how Yin Souls could come into existence, these Corpse Soldiers were also born only under conditions of extremely dense Yin energy. When a living being died here, through some fortunate coincidence, its soul and body did not dissipate but instead became another form of existence — these were Corpse Soldiers.
Of course, not all Corpse Soldiers formed this way. Some were powerful Yin Souls that had forcibly seized other bodies, transforming themselves into Corpse Soldier-like beings through methods similar to soul possession.
Still others were artificially created using secret arts. On the Dark Star, many evil sects possessed no shortage of such techniques.
But overall, the formation of Corpse Soldiers was far more difficult than that of Yin Souls. Yin Souls could take shape as long as conditions were right and the soul didn't disperse. Corpse Soldiers were different — both the soul and body had to persist, and they needed to merge, making the process inherently more challenging.
These beings could generally be divided into three major tiers: Hundred-Year Corpse Soldiers, Thousand-Year Corpse Generals, and Ten-Thousand-Year Corpse Kings!
Hundred-Year Corpse Soldiers went without saying — their cultivation was extremely arduous because they were fundamentally dead things. Their bodies couldn't easily absorb the world's Yuan Qi the way living beings could, so their cultivation speed was countless times slower than any living creature. A Corpse Soldier that had cultivated for several hundred years might not even rival a Saint King Realm warrior.
The strength disparity among Corpse Soldiers within this tier was also enormous, ranging from insignificant Kaiyuan Realm practitioners to formidable ones at the Saint King Realm.
The one Yang Kai had just encountered was at the peak of the Saint King Realm — it had likely cultivated for at least seven or eight hundred years to achieve that level.
Once a Corpse Soldier advanced to the Thousand-Year Corpse General tier, it would possess strength no less than a Return Void Realm expert. As for the legendary Ten-Thousand-Year Corpse Kings, they had the qualifications to vie with Void King Realm powerhouses. One could even say that a Ten-Thousand-Year Corpse King was far more formidable than an ordinary Void King Realm cultivator. After ten thousand years of cultivation, a Corpse King's body was virtually indestructible.
Yang Yan spoke in detail, and Yang Kai listened with secret alarm.
He had never encountered this type of being before, nor had anyone ever mentioned them. He had never imagined such bizarre creatures existed in this world.
But Yang Kai was no ordinary person — he had witnessed all manner of strange beings in the past. So aside from a mild interest in the Ten-Thousand-Year Corpse King's indestructible body, he didn't show much surprise.
They chased onward, but who knew what strange method the Corpse Soldier had used — it had vanished without a trace somewhere fifty li away.