Chen Zhou didn't know what corpse refining was. All he knew was that Elder Ren's reaction was so intense that the thing must be extraordinary.

So although Chen Zhou wanted to escape immediately, it was too late. The corpses pushed off the ground and easily leaped up, landing steadily behind Chen Zhou.

Immediately afterwards, Chen Zhou's left and right sides were occupied by the corpses, and Chen Zhou was suddenly surrounded.

These corpses not only emanated fluctuations of true energy, but that true energy was also black. The rings of black true energy swirled around the corpses, as if they were about to burst out and devour Chen Zhou at any moment.

"That black true energy gives me a familiar feeling," Chen Zhou murmured as he looked at the rings of black true energy.

"What do you mean 'familiar'? Have you seen him before?" Elder Ren suddenly asked upon hearing Chen Zhou's words.

Chen Zhou shook his head. He had just carefully searched his memories but had not found any similar true qi.

Suddenly, Chen Zhou remembered the shadow he had absorbed before.

Didn't the shadowy figure absorb it itself?

Thinking of this, Chen Zhou suddenly slapped his thigh. The feeling of the fluctuation of the black true energy was very similar to the feeling that the black shadow had given Chen Zhou before.

"This feeling is very similar to the feeling I had when the dark figure appeared before," Chen Zhou said to himself.

Ren Lao nodded and said, "It seems that the black shadow is related to this black true energy. It seems that the black true energy is not the true energy that these corpses cultivated before they died."

“Indeed, I believe that all this black true energy should come from one person, namely the person who just spoke,” Chen Zhou calmly analyzed.

Everything here was probably done by him alone; those eerie black shadows were likely a strange manifestation of his true energy.

"All of this can be resolved once you meet that person. The most important issue now is this corpse refinement," Elder Ren said solemnly, seemingly quite wary of the corpse refinement.

"Corpse refining is an ancient technique. It involves killing a person and then refining their corpse into a puppet. Moreover, the puppet formed from corpse refining will be twice as strong as the deceased was in life, because all the power of the corpse will be extracted and brought to its maximum potential. Furthermore, the puppet is lifeless, so no matter how badly you injure it, it will not fall down. It will fight you until it is destroyed."

Ren Lao revealed his true fears.

What Elder Ren had always been wary of was that these corpses all appeared to be at least at the Foundation Establishment stage in life, and were definitely not ordinary people.

If Chen Zhou wants to break through these corpses, he must use all his strength.

Chen Zhou didn't want this to happen, but in order to meet that mysterious person, he had to overcome this obstacle.

Moreover, if he cannot break through these puppets, he will probably have a hard time rescuing Ji Lanying and the others.

Even though I haven't met the mysterious person yet, I've already revealed most of my strength. If I encounter that mysterious person later, I'm afraid I'll be at a great disadvantage.

"Dragon Imprisonment Formation".

Chen Zhou murmured softly, and a huge array eye appeared beneath his feet.

Previously, Chen Zhou had set up small-scale dragon-trapping formations, which were only enough to imprison one person. Now, Chen Zhou was going to set up a dragon-trapping formation that would imprison the entire area.

Since Chen Zhou lacked the resources to confront these puppets head-on, he could only trap them all.

The puppets slowly attacked Chen Zhou. Their movements were not uniform; some were slow, while others were extremely fast. One of them, a black tiger-shaped spirit beast, was already beside Chen Zhou. Chen Zhou only saw a huge tiger claw attacking him.

Seeing that the tiger's claw was about to strike Chen Zhou, Chen Zhou had no choice but to take a step back and first cast a small binding array to trap the tiger-shaped spirit beast in place.

Chen Zhou estimated that this tiger-shaped spirit beast should have been a level 5 spirit beast in its lifetime. Now, after the corpse was refined, that attack actually faintly resembled the physical attack of a Golden Core realm cultivator.

If the tiger-shaped spirit beast's attack succeeds, Chen Zhou will likely suffer serious injuries in multiple parts of his body.

Therefore, the small confinement array was completely unable to trap the tiger-shaped spirit beast. Almost the instant it emerged, it was shattered by the tiger-shaped spirit beast's slap.

Chen Zhou kept a distance of only a few meters from the tiger-shaped spirit beast.

As the distance increased, Chen Zhou immediately exerted force with both legs, and two streams of true energy wrapped around Chen Zhou's legs. With a powerful push, Chen Zhou lifted himself six or seven meters off the ground.

Chen Zhou, who appeared in the air, once again condensed two streams of true energy beneath his feet.

"Bang... bang..."

Two crisp explosions rang out, and a series of thrusts appeared beneath Chen Zhou's feet, causing his body to rise once more.

This layer of the castle is tall enough, reaching over ten meters in height.

Chen Zhou is now almost at the top of this floor.

Just then, a huge dragon-headed cage appeared below Chen Zhou.

Just then, the tiger-shaped spirit beast below leaped up and chased after them, colliding with the Dragon Imprisonment Formation.

"Boom boom..."

A series of loud bangs echoed throughout the castle. The tiger-shaped spirit beast's attack was completely unable to break through Chen Zhou's Dragon-Trapping Formation. The tiger-shaped spirit beast was blasted away and landed on the ground with another loud bang.

Unbeknownst to him, three small formations suddenly appeared beneath Chen Zhou's feet: the Intentional Gathering Formation, the Soul Ascension Formation, and the Berserk Formation. The three formations were activated simultaneously, forming a unified, interconnected array.

This was the first time Chen Zhou had used this three-in-one interconnected formation, and the effect was unexpectedly good.

The tiger-shaped spirit beast's physical strength had reached the Golden Core Realm, yet it was unable to break through the Dragon Imprisonment Formation for a time.

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