Rebirth as a Demonic Cultivator: Starting with a Zombie Planet

Chapter 28: You’ve Got That Backwards

“I have nothing to hide,” Chu Xuan said, his voice a placid pool. “My name is Xu Ming.”

Ouyang Hao offered a thin, aristocratic smile. “Xu Ming? Excellent. You have the honor of becoming the twenty-fifth soul to perish beneath my blade.”

*Xu Ming?*

Chen Ge and Wei Hua exchanged bewildered glances. The real Xu Ming was currently cultivating back at the Wu Family Manor. He certainly wasn’t standing right in front of them. This stranger had to be a fellow Wuji Sect disciple, hiding his true identity under a borrowed name.

“Are you going to leave, or do you want to stay and watch?” Chu Xuan shot them a sidelong glance.

Taking the hint, Chen Ge and Wei Hua gave him a look of profound gratitude before supporting each other’s weight and fleeing into the shadows.

Ouyang Hao licked his lips, a predator robbed of a meal. “You let my prey escape. You had better entertain me for a few exchanges, or I promise to make you beg for death.”

Without another word, his sword flared with blinding light as he slashed forward!

Chu Xuan’s lips curled into a faint, mocking smile. “You’ve got that backwards.”

With a casual flick of his wrist, two towering figures—Xiao Long and Xiao Hu—materialized out of thin air, flanking the arrogant swordsman from the left and right.

Simultaneously, a vicious crimson thread erupted from Chu Xuan’s palm, slicing through the air with lethal intent. It was his rank-one Gu worm: the Blood Steel Wire.

Unconcealed disdain flashed in Ouyang Hao’s eyes. Shenggang Sect sword cultivators were the undisputed masters of sword qi. Even at the Qi Condensation stage, their Heavenly Gang Sword Qi was renowned as indestructible and absolute.

How could a mere bug possibly withstand his edge? “I’ve already butchered three fools who thought their pathetic Gu worms could block my blade,” he sneered.

His sword qi surged, a blinding crescent of energy poised to snap the crimson thread in two. As for the two Yin Corpses lumbering toward his flanks? He didn’t even spare them a glance. Once he decapitated this overconfident Demonic Cultivator, the mindless puppets would collapse on their own. It was simple logic.

But a fraction of a second later, reality shattered his arrogance.

*Clang!*

The feedback shuddered up his arm as if he had struck a mountain of solid steel. Ouyang Hao’s eyes widened in shock. His ever-victorious sword qi had been effortlessly parried by the hair-thin thread.

Chu Xuan’s smile didn’t waver. After its first refinement, the Blood Steel Wire boasted a tensile strength far surpassing most mundane metals. It could casually deflect point-blank gunfire. Bullets were faster than Ouyang Hao’s sword qi. They hit harder, too. Blocking this flashy, theatrical strike was child’s play.

Rather than retracting after the parry, the Blood Steel Wire flared with a sinister crimson light. It whipped forward like a striking viper, instantly coiling around Ouyang Hao’s wrists and ankles.

The Blood Binding Technique!

Caught completely off guard, the swordsman found his limbs locked in place. Fury twisted his aristocratic features. He hadn’t anticipated that this lowly Gu worm possessed an innate spell!

By now, the jaws of the trap had snapped shut. Xiao Long unhinged its jaw, unleashing a deafening, soul-tearing shriek.

The Corpse Roar Spell!

Ouyang Hao’s vision swam. It felt as though a sledgehammer had been driven directly into his skull. His mind fractured into a dazed, ringing static, completely severing his focus.

The very same roar acted as a stimulant for Xiao Hu. The second zombie bellowed, its muscles bulging as the Bloodlust Technique took hold. It lunged, its jagged claws descending in a relentless, frenzied blur.

In the blink of an eye, Ouyang Hao was flayed. Dozens of deep, bloody gashes opened across his pristine robes. Blood sprayed into the air, accompanied by wet tearing sounds as chunks of flesh were ripped away.

Capitalizing on the carnage, Xiao Long stepped in, gripping its bone spear tightly. With a brutal, mechanical thrust, it drove the weapon forward.

*Schlick.*

Straight through the heart.

Ouyang Hao’s eyes bulged, utterly devoid of comprehension. He hadn’t even processed that the battle had begun, let alone that it was already over. A single miscalculation—underestimating the density of a Gu worm—had plunged him into an inescapable chain of crowd control. He was dead before he could even mount a counterattack.

There were no grand final words. No righteous declarations. His vitality simply drained away like water down a sink, leaving him to be swallowed by the cold, indifferent dark.

Chu Xuan beckoned with his hand, recalling both Xiao Long and Xiao Hu back into the Corpse Nurturing Tower.

He looked down at the mangled remains of the Shenggang Sect genius, shaking his head in mild disappointment. The man’s cultivation base was solid, but his arrogance was a fatal flaw. Charging in blindly, leaving his flanks completely exposed to two Yin Corpses just because he assumed a single flashy sword strike would solve all his problems.

“They call this a genius?” Chu Xuan chuckled dryly. With a casual wave, he swept Ouyang Hao’s corpse into his Storage Bag.

The fresh corpse of an eighth-layer Qi Condensation cultivator was prime loot. Whether he refined it into Blood Beads or used it as high-grade fertilizer for his Yin Corpses, it was an excellent harvest.

Without lingering, he melted into the shadows and left the scene.

***

Back at the Wu Family Manor.

Chen Ge and Wei Hua slipped through a side gate and stumbled into their usual courtyard, finally letting out a ragged sigh of relief.

Liu Zhenxiong was currently in the courtyard, patiently lecturing Xu Ming, Bai Feng, and a few others on the intricacies of cultivation. Seeing the pale, sweat-drenched faces of the returning duo, he immediately knew something had gone terribly wrong. He stepped forward, demanding an explanation.

Not daring to hide anything, Chen Ge and Wei Hua quickly recounted their brush with death and the sudden intervention of their mysterious savior.

Liu Zhenxiong’s brow furrowed into a deep V.

Xu Ming, however, looked utterly bewildered. “He claimed to be me? Is he a disciple of our Wuji Sect?”

Wei Hua nodded emphatically. “It’s highly likely. And he was incredibly confident. He didn’t show a single ounce of fear when facing Ouyang Hao.”

Xu Ming instinctively shook his head in denial. “Impossible. The top ten inner disciples are either dead or have already surrendered. There isn’t a single person left who could survive even one exchange with Ouyang Hao. It makes no sense. Who would have the guts to intervene?”

A spark of intense interest lit up Liu Zhenxiong’s eyes. “Regardless of his identity, this person is undoubtedly a disciple of our Wuji Sect. To think we still had such a hidden talent surviving on the outside. For him to dare confront Ouyang Hao, his strength must be extraordinary.”

He began to pace the courtyard, a rare, hopeful smile breaking across his weathered face.

Xu Ming crossed his arms, a sour note of jealousy in his voice. “Who knows? Maybe he just had a momentary lapse in judgment. A rush of hot blood to the head.”

Wei Hua sneered openly. “If it were you, would you have a ‘lapse in judgment’ and risk your neck to save us? I highly doubt it. You would have tucked your tail between your legs and run for the hills.”

Xu Ming’s face flushed a brilliant, embarrassing red, but he couldn’t muster a single word of rebuttal.

Liu Zhenxiong stopped pacing, his expression hardening into resolve. “Where exactly did Ouyang Hao corner you? Take me there immediately. We absolutely cannot allow a disciple of this caliber to perish.”

Chen Ge and Wei Hua nodded vigorously.

A short while later, the trio arrived at the forest clearing. It was eerily quiet. The battle was clearly over, and the combatants were nowhere to be seen.

“Did they move the fight somewhere else?” Chen Ge asked, scratching his head.

Liu Zhenxiong shook his head, his gaze fixed on the gruesome tableau painting the forest floor: splatters of blood, shredded chunks of meat, and torn fabric.

“The battle ended right here. Those fabric scraps belong to a Shenggang Sect Qi Condensation robe. And that scattered flesh… it’s not hard to guess. It likely belongs to Ouyang Hao.”

He closed his eyes, sensing the lingering aura. “There is a dense, lingering Yin energy in the air. Our disciple must have summoned Yin Corpses to fight.” Liu Zhenxiong stroked his chin, piecing together a completely inaccurate conclusion. “Given the sheer amount of blood, Ouyang Hao must have barely escaped with his life, severely wounded.”

Chen Ge and Wei Hua exchanged a look of pure shock. That pale-faced cultivator had actually managed to critically injure the monstrous Ouyang Hao? Just how terrifying was his cultivation base?!

“Ouyang Hao’s severe injuries will inevitably trigger another massive sweep of this area by the Shenggang Sect,” Liu Zhenxiong warned solemnly. “None of you are to leave the manor for the next few days. Keep your heads down.”

“Understood, Martial Uncle,” Chen Ge and Wei Hua replied in unison.

“What about you, Martial Uncle?” Wei Hua asked hesitantly.

Liu Zhenxiong’s eyes gleamed with determination. “That disciple should still be somewhere near Taiping Market. Wandering alone out there is far too dangerous. I am going to find him.”

Chen Ge and Wei Hua felt a warm swell of emotion in their chests. This was exactly why they were willing to follow Liu Zhenxiong through hell and back—the man possessed a genuine, unwavering sense of loyalty and humanity. To think he was willing to risk his own life to search for a disciple whose name he didn’t even know.