Chapter 483: An Endless Horde

"As expected." Sun Mengmeng seemed to have guessed it all.

Shicang panicked a little at the sudden revelation of his secret. Even when his most elite zombies were killed, Shicang didn't panic; now that his true appearance was revealed, however, he hurriedly tried to cover his head with his robes, even hooding himself in shame.

"As our captain hypothesized, you aren't a member of the sura."

In fact, he wasn't even a lifeform—only an experiment produced by the monarch of stars.

Shicang's body was made of spiritual matter that had been polluted by a concentrated source of negative emotion. The reason he liked collecting corpses was because he didn't have a body of his own, and he coveted what he didn't have.

The reason he collected these bodies wasn't to turn them into a necromantic army, but rather because he wanted one of his very own.

Sun Mengmeng clearly seemed to have touched a nerve. Shicang roared, "The sura—I'm stronger than any of them! I'm even able to kill a sura king. Except for the lack of a body, I'd be stronger than any sura around!"

Considering that his kingdom bordered sura territory, Shicang had been very careful to hide his secret in order to avoid being discovered as an outsider. The fact that he wasn't a sura made him self-conscious and caused him to harbor a grudge, and his personality gradually grew more and more twisted as a result.

He shouted, "I'm better than any of the other sura kings that the monarch of stars had claimed as godsons—why won't he recognize me?!"

Sun Mengmeng raised her bow. "I don't know what your backstory is, but at this point, we're enemies on the battlefield.

Black mist roiled around his body. "Everyone who knows this secret has to perish—everyone in the empire of stars, all of you, everyone except the monarch of stars!"

This was the reason that Shicang had transformed his entire kingdom into one of corpses, the reason that he had subsumed his brother's army. Only corpses would view him without any disdain, and only they could keep his secret.

The corpses all began to howl as Shicang's rage and anger spread to them. Their eyes turned blood-red as they rushed toward Renhuang's forces.

"[Lunarflame Shot]!" Three arrows, brimming with purple flame, flew toward her opponent.

The elite zombies stood in front of Shicang, blocking the attack and firmly protecting him. Two more elite zombies quickly rushed over.

"[Baptism of Hellfire: Full Moon]!" Sun Mengmeng whirled her daggers all around her as a black moon rose into the air. The zombies were sent flying by her attacks.

As Shicang howled, the black fog surrounding his body began to dissipate through the air, snaking toward the corpses on the battlefield. Each corpse touched by the effect gave up on the enemy before them and began rushing over to Shicang.

Sun Mengmeng's surroundings began to burn with dark red flames as she loosed arrows toward Shicang.

On Shicang's command, two of the elite zombies surrounding him began to charge toward Sun Mengmeng.

"[Lunarflame Shot: Ninefold Phantasmagoria]."

Nine purplish-black phoenixes rose around her and shot toward the zombies. Two struck the approaching zombies, incinerating them instantly. One phoenix shot toward an elite zombie and exploded by his chest, sending him flying. Three more chased after him. The zombie took down one, but two more charged him in a pincer attack and cremated him.

The final three shot toward Shicang, who summoned three elite zombies to fend off the blow.

While they delayed Sun Mengmeng for him, Shicang continued massing a zombie horde. Black mist filled the air like fog as the corpses massed together into a gigantic two-headed sura.

Shicang commanded this monstrosity from where the heart of the sura would be, secure and safe in the very middle. The remaining elite zombies formed the hands and feet of the gigantic two-headed sura.

As Shicang released more and more black fog, the two-headed sura seemed to come to life with an astoundingly strong aura.

Sun Mengmeng's peak-grade bow began to burn. She fired an arrow into the sky, creating a glowing purple-black moon which burst apart into a shower of arrows. However, the sura dispersed the attack with nothing more than a simple punch from his fist.

Sun Mengmeng's expression turned serious.

"[Lunarflame Shot]!" Fire-attuned genetic energy burst from Sun Mengmeng's body as her body erupted in flames. She pulled her greatbow taut.

The two-headed sura roared as he charged toward Sun Mengmeng, leaving deep imprints on the ground as he ran, shooting forward like a cannon. The leader of the rock spirits stood firm against his charge, but the two-headed sura knocked him aside as easily as a child would knock over a tower of blocks.

Nevertheless, the leader of the rock spirits had created an almost infinitesimal window of opportunity for Sun Mengmeng.

Sun Mengmeng's right hand blurred as countless arrows of purple flame shot out of her bow like a meteor shower that tinted the air purple and gave the valley a phantasmagorical appearance. The air turned dry and arid, as though a cataclysm was nigh.

Under the brilliant purple sky, the zombies began to burn, drowned in a sea of purple flame. Even the gigantic two-headed sura seemed to be taken aback.

"[Baptism of Hellfire: Full Moon]!" Sun Mengmeng whirled her daggers all around her as a black moon rose into the air.

The two-headed sura's fists fended off the daggers. As the black moon exploded, Sun Mengmeng was sent flying out of the melee. She landed on the ground as purplish-black flames raged all around her.

With [Flameburst Step], she halted her backward movement and made use of that momentum to pull her bow taut.

"[Netherworld's Gaze]!" A pillar of purplish-black flame flared toward the sky, exploding in mid-air and transforming into a violet moon, which shot down rays of light that pierced the two-headed sura.

"[Lunarflame Shot]!" Three arrows, brimming with purple flame, flew toward her opponent, straight at where Shicang was located by what would be the two-headed sura's heart.

The arrows burst on impact with the two-headed sura's chest, revealing Shicang's original form. His black fog was intermingled with the corpses. Layer after layer of genetic energy shielded him from attack.

As her peak-grade bow began to burn, Sun Mengmeng fired an arrow into the skies, creating a glowing purple-black moon which burst apart into a shower of arrows. The two-headed sura deflected the arrows with his fists, and Shicang covered up the wound on the two-headed sura's exposed chest with a new group of zombies.