My Cultivation Techniques Upgrade Automatically

Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Finally Took the Bait

Wu Chen’s attack was astonishing; two Demon Corpses were instantly killed.

But this had no effect on the massive horde of Demon Corpses, nor did it slow their charge.

At the low growl of the Demon Corpse leader, the monsters didn’t charge head-on, but instead fanned out to the left and right.

The thundering sound of their footsteps spread to his left and right. Then, their lines connected, forming an encirclement that trapped Wu Chen and cut off his escape.

Wu Chen glanced at the densely packed figures of the Demon Corpses surrounding him from ten feet away. It reminded him of when he had first arrived and was surrounded, about to become a meal.

He couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

”This moment is just like that one, isn’t it?”

As he chuckled, the encirclement of Demon Corpses closed in. A foul, stinking gust of wind swept over as one lunged, snapping its jaws at the wrist of his saber hand.

It was trying to disarm him!

What the Demon Corpses feared most was the gleaming weapon in Wu Chen’s hand, so naturally, they wanted to cripple his ’claws’ first.

But Wu Chen’s Gravel-Shattering Saber Technique had long since reached the stage of Great Success. He had even used Sun Sheng, a Flesh Refining Realm Martial Artist, to hone his saber skills and elevate his state of mind.

’How could I possibly let a mere beast snatch my saber?’

With a flick of his wrist, the foul wind came to a halt.

Then, a horrifying, savage head was sent spinning across the ground.

The third Demon Corpse, slain!

Wu Chen didn’t stop there. He raised his saber again and again, silver light flashing repeatedly.

The fourth and fifth Demon Corpses near him were disemboweled in unison, their sticky organs and entrails spilling onto the ground as they writhed in their death throes.

In just a few exchanges, five Demon Corpses had been slain. And it had been effortless, with a mere flick of his blade.

This caused the surrounding Demon Corpses to briefly pause their attack.

After all, this human seemed even more relaxed than he had yesterday. How could they not be afraid?

The Demon Corpses halted, looking at one another. None of them wanted to be the first to charge; they only wanted to be the ones to feast on the flesh.

’Hmm, it really does feel different.’

Taking advantage of this brief pause, Wu Chen didn’t press the attack. Instead, he took a moment to savor the sensation of his blade slicing through the Demon Corpses’ neck bones and piercing their bodies.

Smooth as silk.

So slick!

That was his first impression.

Not only did his saber technique no longer meet any resistance, allowing him to easily lop off the Demon Corpses’ heads, but he was also using less than half the strength he used to with his old brute-force slashes!

AWOOO!—

Before Wu Chen could savor the changes in himself for too long, the Demon Corpse leader let out an ear-piercing roar.

It was ordering all the Demon Corpses to attack!

As the roar faded, the brief pause ended. Compelled by the pressure in their bloodline, the Demon Corpses began their second wave of assault against Wu Chen.

This time, the Demon Corpses were fearless. Six of them swarmed him at once, ready to trade their lives for a single bite of his flesh.

But as one Demon Corpse’s chest caved in and its body went flying backward, Wu Chen’s figure flashed out right behind it, dodging the deadly pincer attack.

”Sorry, you haven’t surrounded me.”

”You’re the ones who are surrounded by me!”

Wu Chen had now gauged the strength of this Demon Corpse horde. He decided to stop defending passively and begin the hunt.

He charged into the horde. Faced with the densely packed Demon Corpses, he simply raised his saber and started hacking and slashing.

When his hands were full, he’d use the Spiritual Snake Step to land a vicious kick to the chest.

His figure weaved through the horde of Demon Corpses. In the blink of an eye, another five were slain.

The strength and ruthless methods Wu Chen displayed struck fear into the hearts of the Demon Corpses.

Their narrow eyes met, and they decided to stop clashing head-on. Instead, they began to circle Wu Chen, darting left and right, trying to confuse him with feints.

Not every Demon Corpse would simply offer its neck to be slaughtered, letting him strike the gaps between their bones every single time.

As Wu Chen continued to swing his saber, the newly cautious Demon Corpses began to dodge, avoiding any direct contact.

’Are they trying to wear down my stamina?’ Wu Chen realized.

After killing two more Demon Corpses, his saber began to miss its mark. Sometimes it took four or five slashes just to hit one that was snapping at him.

And even then, he sometimes only managed to inflict a shallow wound, failing to deal a fatal blow.

Wu Chen dodged and weaved, constantly avoiding the ever-present snapping jaws of the Demon Corpses.

His Qi Power consumption was increasing exponentially. Combined with his wide, sweeping saber style, his Qi Power was depleting even faster.

By the time he had slain the twentieth Demon Corpse, Wu Chen’s expression had grown weary, and his movements had slowed considerably. Every one of his moves was now riddled with openings!

HRRRNNNN—

Hiding among the other Demon Corpses, the leader saw this and grew ecstatic. It had been waiting for this exact moment!

Wearing down its prey’s stamina before delivering the final, fatal blow was its usual tactic.

The leader of the Demon Corpses tilted its head and sniffed the air, its rotten nose twitching. It confirmed that the Qi and Blood in Wu Chen’s body was in disarray and that he was on the verge of exhaustion.

But its cautious nature kept it from striking immediately. It remained hidden in an inconspicuous spot, directing the horde to tighten its formation.

They launched a ferocious assault on the seemingly exhausted Wu Chen.

...

”Damn it! Something’s about to happen!”

「On a distant earthen slope.」

The tall Zhou Yuntao craned his neck, keeping a close eye on the battlefield. When he saw Wu Chen in peril, he slammed his fist down, his heart leaping into his throat.

He hated that he wasn’t down there fighting side-by-side with that lonely figure. Even if he wasn’t much help, he could at least hold off two Demon Corpses!

If he could just relieve some of the pressure from the surrounding horde, Wu Chen could focus his energy on killing more of them. Perhaps then the remaining Demon Corpses would break and scatter on their own.

He wasn’t the only one. The other observers on the slope could also see that Wu Chen was in a bad spot.

The speed of his saber had visibly slowed.

His reactions to the Demon Corpses that lunged out at him were also a bit sluggish.

In a horde teeming with danger, this was fatal!

And there were still nearly eighty Demon Corpses left—a massive number!

”If there had only been fifty of them, perhaps Young Master Wu killing those twenty would have been enough to make the horde scatter. But alas...”

Everyone knew that Demon Corpses didn’t just fight to the death at any cost. They felt fear, they feared death, and they would eventually flee in disarray.

But alas, there were no ’ifs’. With such large numbers, the loss of twenty Demon Corpses was an insignificant blow to the horde.

Even if Wu Chen gave it his all and killed another ten...

...for the horde, trading thirty Demon Corpses for the life of a Flesh Refining Realm expert was a trade they’d make any day. It was a guaranteed win.

”It’s worth it! We’re not losing out!”

Watching Wu Chen trapped in the encirclement, the small, dark-skinned, and hot-tempered Zhang Qing impatiently drew his saber and slung it over his shoulder.

He knew that if Wu Chen died, the seventy or eighty Demon Corpses would charge them next, and he wouldn’t last long. A sudden surge of courage rose in him.

”Damn it all! Brother Wu bought us so much time, letting us live a little longer. It’s worth it!”

”It’s too late to go save Brother Wu. I’ll just wait here for this horde to come over. Let’s see if I can take them down!”

”You?”

Yue Changfeng gave the man’s scrawny frame a speechless look. ”You’re so skinny I doubt you’d even be a full meal for them.”

”Screw you!” Zhang Qing cursed.

Yue Changfeng shot him a sidelong glance but didn’t retort.

Mockery aside, seeing the steel saber on Zhang Qing’s shoulder, he also gripped the hilt of his own weapon and looked fearlessly in the direction of the Demon Corpses.

They watched the lone figure in the distance, struggling to hold on.

Unconsciously, the three men’s bodies stopped trembling. They silently awaited the final, desperate moment.

Liu Linshan’s gaze was also fixed on the overmatched figure. Normally calm and collected, even he was now uncertain.

He had thought that with how confident and composed Wu Chen had been, he must have had a brilliant plan for slaying the Demon Corpses.

At the very least, a Flesh Refining Realm young master raised by some great family surely had a wondrous family treasure on him.

That was why he had believed Wu Chen must have had a way to shock and awe the horde.

But seeing Wu Chen just fight head-on with a single saber from start to finish...

Liu Linshan was truly dumbfounded.

Just as everyone was bracing themselves for a fight to the death...

On the battlefield, the Demon Corpse encirclement began to tighten like a noose.

Over seventy Demon Corpses surrounded the weakened Wu Chen in layer upon layer, so tightly that not even the wind could pass.

Under the command of their leader, the Demon Corpses became utterly fearless. The frequency of their attacks suddenly increased, and they would even take a direct hit from Wu Chen’s blade.

All just to drain the last shred of Wu Chen’s Qi Power.

At the cost of three more of their own, the horde finally created the huge opening they had been waiting for.

His Qi Power nearly depleted, Wu Chen staggered, barely able to stay on his feet!

The already tight formation suddenly clenched like a fist, and countless gaping maws tore toward Wu Chen’s body.

Just then, a stream of azure light flashed in the depths of Wu Chen’s eyes.

[Ding!]

[Riding Skill has reached Great Success!]

A warm current flowed through Wu Chen’s body. His stamina, which had never truly been depleted, surged back to its peak!

”Heh!”

He looked at the Demon Corpses, finally clustered together, no longer dodging, no longer forcing him to hunt them down one by one.

Wu Chen cracked his neck from side to side and let out a long sigh, a smirk on his face like a conspirator whose plot had just succeeded.

”Finally... you took the bait!”