Martial Cultivator
chapter-243

Countless skeletons gripped the war sword in their hands, standing solemnly in place, all looking at the same spot.

They did not speak, nor could they.

The cemetery was eerily quiet.

The cultivators stared blankly at the upright skeletons, looking at the war swords in their hands. For some inexplicable reason, they felt like these skeletons were a well-trained army. Perhaps in ancient times, the sects were not like the sects now, focused on recruiting disciples, but more like the secular dynasty of today, forming a large army.

The bloody glow in the eyes of the cultivators did not fade. But at this moment, they merely looked at this skeletal army. It was unclear what they were thinking.

After a moment, one skeleton stepped forward from the ranks, war sword in hand. It arrived in front of a cultivator, raised the war sword in its hand, and beheaded the cultivator with a single swing.

The war sword which looked like it had decayed for countless years, appeared extraordinarily sharp at this moment. With a gentle swing, it severed the cultivator's head.

The head rolled on the ground like a round ball.

Then, the skeleton emitted an extremely incomprehensible sound. It was impossible to discern its meaning.

That was when the people seemed to wake from a dream, snapping back to reality.

"RUN!"

A cultivator yelled out, turning around and running for the outskirts.

But it was still a moment too late. The skeletons carried their war swords and advanced towards the crowd. The eerie green light in their eyes now seemed incredibly terrifying, like malevolent spirits from the abyss!

The scene erupted into chaos. The skeletal army dispersed, carrying their war swords as they approached the cultivators, bringing with them the scent of death.

Wind suddenly arose in the cemetery. It was bone-piercingly cold, as if it came from the deepest part of hell.

A cultivator collided with the skeleton in front of him. In his panic, he quickly invoked a talisman. In an instant, the talisman in his hand ignited, conjuring a fire dragon out of thin air. The fire dragon roared towards the skeleton, engulfing it in a second. However, even though the flames had not yet extinguished, the skeleton emerged from the inferno.

That talisman had no effect on it.

A blazing fire could burn people to death, but what if he was long dead?

That skeleton walked out of the blaze, then it raised the war sword that was still flaming and chopped down towards that cultivator's head.

When the flames touched the cultivator's body, it made a sizzling sound first. Then, there was the smell of burnt skin and hair which was very unpleasant.

If you looked closely, you could even notice that there was some oil coming out of that gap in the neck.

When the skeleton army was killing people, some cultivators already crushed the various magic artifacts used to protect their lives, and fled toward the distance.

But at that moment, as the skeleton standing in the middle suddenly thrust its war sword into the ground with force.

A berserk aura suddenly surged out. At the boundary of the cemetery, there was a sudden tremor and a crack rapidly formed there. It swiftly expanded to encircle the entire cemetery. Then, within the crack, massive stone monuments emerged, rapidly ascending at a frenzied speed.

……

……

Chen Chao was the first to sense that something was amiss. When he was running towards the distance, the skeletons had not moved yet. However, without his cultivation, no matter how strong his physical body was, he could not run very fast. So, when he reached the boundary of the cemetery, the stone monuments had already emerged from the crack. Countless massive stone steles emerged from the underground, like tombstones?

No wonder there were no tombstones on the graves before.

Chen Chao did not have time to think much. He swung the broken saber in his hand towards the massive stone monument.

He was not sure of the origin of this broken saber, but ever since the black substance on it fell off, revealing the sword's original sharpness, this broken saber had hardly fallen short in any clashes with other magic artifacts. In fact, Chen Chao believed that this broken saber was even sharper than the flying swords of ordinary sword cultivators. When he saw Yu Xiyi's Wild Grass, he even had the thought of comparing it with that flying sword.

However, this time, when the broken saber collided with the stone monument, it did not leave any marks on it. With sparks flying, the webbing between Chen Chao's thumb and index finger stung from the impact.

Although it was a strike without cultivation, given the sharpness of this broken saber, the fact that it did not leave any marks on the stone monument was enough to illustrate the problem.

Chen Chao watched helplessly as those stone monuments surged toward the sky.

Without cultivation, he could not get out of this place. Furthermore, he had a hunch that even if he could arrive on top of the stone monuments, there was probably no way to leave this place at all.

Chen Chao furrowed his brows, his expression becoming very ugly.

Chen Chao suddenly turned around, a corroded war sword was already slashing toward his head!

The rust on the war sword even kept falling as it swung. Chen Chao already smelled the scent of decay.

The smell of the air here was very unpleasant.

Chen Chao raised the broken saber and clashed with that war sword!

There was no loud noise, only a series of rustling sounds as countless pieces of rust fell down!

The falling rust was carried by the wind as it rushed towards Chen Chao!

Chen Chao rolled up his sleeves and swept towards the rust. But his sleeves were soon torn apart, turning into strips of fabric.

But fortunately, the broken saber did not lose this time. It actually pushed the war sword away.

Chen Chao did not hesitate, taking a step forward and swinging his saber towards that skeleton's head.

The skull that was shimmering with an eerie green light turned around, but it still failed to avoid this attack.

The broken saber cleaved through the skull from the middle. Then, the two faint green lights vanished, never to be seen again.

After the skull was split open, that skeleton also scattered, turning into white bones that littered the ground.

The decayed war sword also fell down, shattering on the ground, and turning into real rust.

Chen Chao took a deep breath and lowered his head to look at the hand holding his saber. The webbing between his thumb and index finger had already split open and blood was currently oozing out.

When that slash earlier was executed, it seemed smooth, but in reality, he had exerted a tremendous amount of effort. In his current state without cultivation, he would likely die from exhaustion here if he could not leave this place.

The story about that peerless martial artist would definitely play out here. But this time, the only difference between Chen Chao and that peerless martial artist was that there would definitely be many people dying with him.

……

……

Tragic screams persisted and grew increasingly intense.

Those cultivators were not Chen Chao, they did not have an unparalleled physique, nor a sharp broken saber. When facing these skeletons, they had few means of dealing with him.

So, they quickly died.

One miserable cry after another kept appearing here.

And also kept fading away.

This might not be a cemetery, but it was a real hell.

Not all cultivators were defenseless, some from major sects possessed their sect's secret techniques. They continually wielded magic artifacts with immense power that did not require the use of cultivation. In contrast, cultivators from smaller sects suffered greatly.

At this moment, lives were expendable, and the disparities between cultivators and sects were portrayed to their fullest.

Many skeletons were destroyed by these cultivators using various means, reduced to piles of bones.

In truth, they should have remained buried underground, never to appear in the world.

But if someone had to be blamed, it should be blamed on these cultivators who unearthed them from their graves, allowing them to return to the world.

If they had known that this would be the outcome, would they regret their initial actions?

The answer wasn't necessarily yes.

Cultivators fought with these skeletons. Chen Chao watched the battle from a distance, occasionally shattering several skeletons and then taking the time to observe something.

Soon, he identified the problem.

Amongst those graves, there was one seemingly ordinary skeleton that did not join the battle. It stood in place, occasionally emitting incomprehensible sounds. As it produced those special syllables, the skeletons on the battlefield reacted accordingly.

Chen Chao understood. This skeleton was the leader of this skeletal army.

In other words, to resolve the current predicament, they would likely need to finish him off first.