“Boom!” Just then, the Hairy Zombie’s massive hammer swung down towards Xu Taiping once more.

But with a “whoosh,” Xu Taiping, having already removed his iron weights, left an afterimage in his place, dodging the hammer and appearing beside the Hairy Zombie. He then raised his saber and slashed at the Hairy Zombie.

With a “swoosh,” the Spring Tiger saber cleanly severed the arm of the Hairy Zombie that was wielding the hammer.

The arm was cut off, and the Hairy Zombie suddenly roared in a frenzy, then pulled out a long saber from its waist with its other hand and swung it down at Xu Taiping with a “boom.”

But this strike only hit Xu Taiping’s afterimage.

Xu Taiping himself had already flashed behind the Hairy Zombie.

He lifted the Spring Tiger saber and with a “swoosh,” he chopped off the Hairy Zombie’s legs.

“Bang!”

The Hairy Zombie, with its legs severed, fell to its knees with a thud.

Even so, it didn’t give up and tried to twist its body to attack Xu Taiping.

Xu Taiping didn’t give it the chance.

He gripped the handle of the Spring Tiger saber with both hands, and with a swift motion, “swoosh,” he decapitated the Hairy Zombie.

“Phew…”

Xu Taiping exhaled deeply, but he didn’t let his guard down.

Because the Hairy Zombie had delayed him quite a bit, and now he was surrounded by over a hundred Corpse Ghosts, including numerous White Zombies and possibly another Hairy Zombie.

He quickly collected the hammer and long saber used by the Hairy Zombie into his green gourd, then once again dashed towards Lin Buyu.

However, the Corpse Ghosts were astonishingly fast, and in the blink of an eye, they had him encircled.

With no other choice, he had to raise his saber again and fight his way out of the encirclement.

Fortunately, due to the commotion he caused, the attention of the Corpse Ghosts in the graveyard was almost entirely on him, even those that had been wandering near Lin Buyu were now rushing towards him.

At least for the moment, Lin Buyu was safe.

“Bang!”

“Swoosh!”

With Xu Taiping smashing the head of a White Zombie with a punch and then toppling two more with his saber, he finally broke through the encirclement of Corpse Ghosts once again.

“Argh!…”

But just as he was about to use Shadow Wind Step to rush to Lin Buyu’s side, the Ghost-Sealing Talisman in his left palm throbbed with pain once more, even more intensely than before.

“Whimper…”

At that moment, a chilling, sorrowful whimper carried by a bone-chilling breeze drifted through the woods.

Almost instantly, the Corpse Ghosts that had been attacking Xu Taiping suddenly stopped and stood motionless, their faces twisted into eerie smiles as they all turned their gaze towards the forest ahead.

This creepy behavior sent shivers down Xu Taiping’s spine.

He wanted to rush over and rescue Lin Buyu, but the pain in his palm and his instinctual sense of danger reminded him—”Going there means death!”

In the end, he abandoned the thought and took out a concealing herb, using the method taught by Fairy Lingyue to mask his own energy fluctuations.

The moment Xu Taiping concealed his presence…

A terrifying oppressive force swept through the woods like a wild storm.

Unlike the pressure exerted by ordinary high-level Cultivators, this force was filled with a despairing sense of death, as if one were in the legendary underworld, devoid of even a trace of warmth from head to toe.

“Could it be that a powerful ghost is lurking?”

A dreadful thought suddenly crossed Xu Taiping’s mind.

Almost simultaneously with this thought, a striking red figure emerged from the woods ahead.

Upon closer inspection, Xu Taiping saw it was a woman in blood-red garments.

The woman was extremely tall, at least nine feet, with long hair that reached the ground and a pale face shrouded in a thin mist, making it impossible to discern her features.

As she walked, she continued to whimper in a mournful tone.

But what concerned Xu Taiping the most wasn’t her appearance.

It was the way she moved—her feet didn’t touch the ground. It was as if she was just a spirit, but Xu Taiping’s soul perception revealed that, like the Corpse Ghosts, she had a physical body.

“Flying Zombie?!”

A name suddenly sprang to Xu Taiping’s mind, accompanied by an ominous premonition.

“Isn’t it said that Flying Zombies only appear in the depths of ancient ruins? Why is there one here? Wait, could it be that I’m already in the depths of the ruins?!”

With this realization, a cold sweat broke out on Xu Taiping’s forehead.

At that moment, the female ghost’s gaze suddenly turned towards Xu Taiping.

Despite his confidence in the concealment technique given by Fairy Lingyue, it consumed a great deal of True Qi and couldn’t be sustained for long, so he still felt uneasy when the female ghost looked his way.

To his slight relief, the female ghost soon looked away and continued her mournful advance.

But then Xu Taiping noticed that the female ghost was heading straight for the clearing where Lin Buyu lay unconscious.

“Is Buyu her target?”

Xu Taiping had thought the female ghost was coming for him, given the commotion he had caused. It would have made sense for her to investigate.

“I need to do something.”

While keeping his eyes fixed on the female ghost, Xu Taiping began to plan how to lure her away from Lin Buyu, his hand also clutching the Talisman Scroll given to him by the Fifth Peak’s Master.

“Bang!”

But just as the female ghost was about four or five steps away from Lin Buyu, runes suddenly lit up on Lin Buyu’s clothing, quickly forming a spherical barrier that enveloped her and repelled the female ghost’s reaching hand.

Seeing this, Xu Taiping breathed a sigh of relief.

Clearly, Lin Buyu’s unassuming garment was a high Quality Grade robe.

But the next moment, Xu Taiping was taken aback.

After being repelled, the female ghost didn’t retreat. Instead, she let out a piercing shriek and her hair, like a waterfall, swept towards Lin Buyu, ignoring the spiritual attacks from Lin Buyu’s robe and forcibly entangling Lin Buyu within her hair.

Then, the female ghost continued to whimper as she moved towards the western side of the woods.

“Buyu’s robe should protect her for a while. I’ll follow and see what kind of ghost this is and if there’s a chance to act. If there’s truly no opportunity, I’ll have to confront her directly.”

After calming himself, Xu Taiping popped a Gathering Qi Pill into his mouth and, shaking off the surrounding Corpse Ghosts, chased after the female ghost.

He was almost certain that the female ghost was a Flying Zombie.

Although he wanted to rescue Lin Buyu immediately, facing such a high-level ghost, it would be unwise to engage directly, as he had not anticipated the female ghost’s method of abduction.

He had to be more cautious; otherwise, both he and Lin Buyu might perish here.