Opportunity Declined Brings Heaven's Wrath

Around the Bronze Corpse, the slaughter continued unabated, yet another group of cultivators saw a flickering ray of hope.

The forty-odd cultivators who had been hiding in the shadows finally broke cover, rushing frantically toward the exit.

Xue Yao and his four companions were the first to reach the edge of the exit. Turning back to look at the cultivators charging from every direction, Xue Yao let out a sinister cackle.

"Let's stir up a little trouble for these opportunists."

Hearing his words, the eyes of the other four lit up.

Each of them produced a jade vial and opened it. Instantly, thick, crimson mist surged out from the bottles.

This crimson mist was laced with a lethal venom. The moment it brushed against the surrounding foliage, the massive trees withered rapidly. Their vibrant green leaves rotted and turned charred black in an instant, falling to the ground.

Within breaths, the toxic fog carpeted a hundred-meter radius directly in front of the exit, drifting further outward under the guidance of a gentle breeze.

"It's Zhen venom! Watch out, everyone! Even a cultivator at the ninth layer of Qi Refining will be in dire straits if they touch it!" someone recognized the poisonous mist and shrieked in terror.

The fleeing cultivators ground their teeth in sheer hatred at the sight.

By then, the Bronze Corpse had already torn eleven cultivators apart with its bare hands. With no one left in its immediate vicinity, the remaining crowd had scattered. The fiend bounded from the ground, hurtling straight toward the exit.

Time was running out. Yet, at this critical juncture, Xue Yao and his cohort had acted with utter ruthlessness, deploying the venomous fog to block them.

Having unleashed the Zhen venom, the five of them turned and stepped through the exit.

Because of their interference, many cultivators missed their best window of escape.

Only six individuals managed to force their way through the toxic barrier using unknown methods, plunging into the exit.

Every other straggler was intercepted at the threshold by the arriving Bronze Corpse before the mist could even dissipate.

Among the trapped were many who had just fought alongside Xue Yao against the fiend. They were now screaming curses, damning his name.

In the distance, Song Wen shook his head at the spectacle as his Black-armored Gu returned to him, bearing another eleven Storage Bags.

These demonic cultivators truly embodied the basest traits of humanity.

They lacked unity, were driven purely by selfishness, and looked upon one another with constant suspicion.

There were over eighty Qi Refining cultivators present, including more than a dozen at the ninth layer, and over half were in the late stage. Yet, they were utterly helpless against a single Pseudo-Tier 2 Bronze Corpse.

Had they unified their strength, let alone a pseudo-tier 2 fiend, even a genuine Tier 2 Bronze Corpse would have been forced to flee from them.

What made Xue Yao truly despicable was his utter perfidy. He had harmed others without gaining anything substantial in return, robbing so many of their chance at survival.

Still, none of this concerned Song Wen. He was more than happy to follow in the wake of the Bronze Corpse, reaping a massive harvest without lifting a finger.

The eleven cultivators the fiend had just slaughtered still had their Storage Bags intact, and the creature hadn't even stopped to drain their blood.

The Black-armored Gu dragged both the bags and the corpses back to Song Wen. Though most of the bodies were mangled and had lost a significant amount of blood, they were still the remains of cultivators. Their vital energy was dense, and their souls had not yet dissolved. For Song Wen, this was a massive windfall dropped right into his lap.

Song Wen gazed toward the exit, watching the retreating cultivators with a tinge of disappointment.

'Why stop now? Keep fighting!'

The Bronze Corpse seemed somewhat fatigued after the prolonged battle. It stood quietly beneath the exit, making no move to attack the survivors.

'Go on, fight! If you don't drive the Bronze Corpse away soon, the exit will close. If you don't die, how am I supposed to reap more benefits?'

Song Wen, who had just been lamenting the flaws of human nature in the other cultivators, completely failed to realize that his own thoughts had transcended mere selfishness-they were entirely sinister.

Time ticked away.

Slowly, less than an hour remained before the exit would close.

Over sixty cultivators were still stranded near the portal.

The few ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivators, who had previously maintained an air of calm, could no longer sit still.

They began actively communicating with one another, intending to gather the highest-tier strength to breach the Bronze Corpse's blockade together. As for whether the weaker cultivators survived or died, it was none of their concern.

To them, the fact that they weren't actively sabotaging the others like Xue Yao did was already a display of immense benevolence.

After a quick tally, they found eight ninth-layer cultivators. Together with their immediate kin and close companions, a group of seventeen individuals formed a temporary coalition to confront the Bronze Corpse.

Every single one of them was a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator. A vanguard of this caliber was easily one of the strongest forces within the entire Withered Blood Secret Realm.

"Strike!"

With surging morale and murderous intent, the seventeen cultivators charged the Bronze Corpse.

Perhaps intimidated by their collective aura, or perhaps genuinely exhausted from the prior slaughter, the Bronze Corpse did something unexpected. It actually showed a rare hint of hesitation and actively retreated from the summit, allowing the seventeen cultivators to pass through the portal unhindered and return to the cultivation world.

The remaining crowd, including Song Wen, had been eagerly anticipating a fierce clash so they could slip through in the chaos. Seeing this play out left them completely dumbfounded.

This Bronze Corpse wasn't as unyielding as they had thought.

Song Wen was equally speechless. His anticipated windfall had evaporated. The cultivators left in the secret realm now were all weaklings. Out of the forty-three remaining, twenty-six were only in the mid-stage of Qi Refining. Of the seventeen late-stage cultivators left, most were at the seventh layer; only six had reached the eighth layer.

Expecting such a fractured, cowardly rabble to defeat the Bronze Corpse was a fool's errand.

'It looks like if I want to get out of this secret realm, I can only rely on myself.'

Song Wen's gaze swept over the surrounding woods. Hidden within the dense foliage were forty-three cultivators.

To the Bronze Corpse, these people were a disorganized rabble. To Song Wen, they were exactly the same.

They were isolated, terrified, and lacked a single ninth-layer cultivator to lead them. It was the perfect opportunity for a harvest.

It was time for a slaughter.

An opportunity like this would not come twice.

Opportunity declined brings Heaven's wrath!

Two Beetle Gu scouted the path ahead, followed closely by eight Black-armored Gu to execute the killings. Song Wen walked at the rear to deliver the finishing blows, systematically devouring essence blood and souls while pocketing Storage Bags.

Because the cultivators were riddled with mutual suspicion, they remained scattered across the forest. Even when close companions stuck together, it was only in groups of two or three. This allowed Song Wen to pick them off one by one with ease.

He encountered no meaningful resistance, and his movements didn't even draw the attention of the others.

In a mere fifteen minutes, Song Wen silently slaughtered thirty-five people.

Now, including Song Wen himself, only eight living cultivators remained in the entire secret realm.

He purposely spared these eight. If he were the sole survivor to emerge from the secret realm, it would inevitably draw severe scrutiny from the cultivators outside.

Song Wen's eyes burned with a dark intensity as he looked toward the Bronze Corpse guarding the mountain peak.

Now, only the fiend remained.

However, before dealing with the Bronze Corpse, he needed to organize his spoils.

Enduring a wave of sharp agony, Song Wen ordered a Black-armored Gu to slice open his chest, tearing through the flesh of his heart that had only just begun to knit back together.

He retrieved his hidden Storage Ring and transferred the Spirit Stones, spirit herbs, pills, and other valuables from the fifty-odd captured Storage Bags directly into it.

Once the transfer was complete, he sealed the Storage Ring back inside his heart.

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