Chapter 291: Seizing the Blade
As soon as Tom lunged into the embrace of the old corpse, he didn’t notice anything unusual at first. But in the next second, he was dumbfounded.
The Mo Dao was locked in place—it couldn’t be taken.
“Taotie, this guy’s handguard is fused with the blade. There’s no way to take it off!” Tom shouted in frustration while restraining the old corpse’s hands.
Taotie was momentarily stunned by Tom’s words.
While exerting all his strength to choke the old corpse’s neck from behind, he craned his neck to take a look at the corpse’s grip on the weapon.
At that moment, he almost lost his temper.
Sure enough, just as Tom said, the Mo Dao’s handle had no wooden guard. The blade was cast as a single piece, and the old corpse’s metal gauntlet had been fused with molten iron, making them as inseparable as if they had always been one.
Taotie pondered for a moment, gritted his teeth, and let out a low growl.
“Yahaha!”
With a roar, he exerted every ounce of strength in his body, tightening his grip around the old corpse’s neck, trying to rip the head off entirely.
From his experience, once a corpse lost its head, it would stop moving. Severing the cervical spine should have a similar effect.
Though the old corpse could move and swing a blade, it was not a living being. Its muscles and cells had long lost vitality. Its body lacked the resilience of living flesh and had become like a fully dried piece of jerky. In theory, Taotie’s monstrous strength should be able to rip its head off.
As he continued to apply force, Taotie’s broad, brutish face turned beet red, sweat dripping from his forehead.
Then—crack!
A crisp snap echoed as the old corpse’s neck was forcibly twisted.
But in the next second, Taotie was completely stunned.
Damn it!
Just as he had hoped, he had managed to snap the old corpse’s neck.
However, its bright armor’s neck guard had also been fused together with molten iron, firmly connecting the helmet and the rest of the armor. No matter how much Taotie had severed the corpse’s spine, the damn head simply wouldn’t come off.
And worst of all—the decapitated old corpse didn’t even seem to care. It kept moving, struggling fiercely, completely unaffected.
After a brief moment of shock, Taotie’s eyes turned ice-cold.
“Tom, pull! Take the gauntlet along with it! If you can’t pull it off, find a way to cut its hand off!” Taotie roared.
“If we don’t get rid of that blade, our weapons won’t do a damn thing against this tin can!”
While shouting, Taotie let go of his grip momentarily, snapping off the wooden shaft of his spear. Gripping the sharp spearhead, he stabbed it viciously into the eye socket of the old corpse’s metal mask.
Pfft!
The spearhead pierced through, unleashing a squelching sound as a foul mixture of greenish-black fluids and crushed insect carcasses oozed out.
A pungent stench instantly filled the air, making both Taotie and Tom gag.
But in the heat of battle, neither of them had time to wretch.
Taotie kept stabbing the old corpse’s eye socket over and over, while Tom, following Taotie’s instructions, gave his all to pry the corpse’s gauntlet free.
The way Tom was straining, it almost seemed like he was trying to snatch the Gauntlet off of Thanos on Titan in Infinity War.
Luckily, though the old corpse’s gauntlet had been secured to its armor with sinewy tendons of some unknown beast, it hadn’t been fused with molten iron.
As long as those tendons were severed, the gauntlet could be removed.
“Taotie! Hold its arms down! I need to free my dagger and sever its arm!” Tom shouted.
“Got it!”
Taotie immediately let go of the corpse’s neck and grabbed hold of its arms.
Without Taotie’s support, the old corpse’s head drooped limply. However, due to the neck guard, it remained attached to the body.
Taotie held the old corpse’s arms tightly, preventing it from moving.
Now free, Tom swiftly pulled out his black dagger and slashed at the beast sinews securing the gauntlet.
The tendons were as fine as bowstrings but shockingly tough. Even with Tom’s state-of-the-art black dagger, a single cut wasn’t enough to sever them.
“Hurry the hell up, Tom!” Taotie bellowed.
The old corpse’s struggles were growing fiercer.
Its terrifying strength was beginning to overwhelm even Taotie. He had to grit his teeth and wrestle with it to keep it restrained.
“Don’t rush me! These sinews are ridiculously tough!”
“I gotta hand it to your ancestors—managing to process animal tendons this well with ancient tools. These things are almost impossible to cut.”
“This durability is on par with steel-reinforced climbing ropes!” Tom grumbled while slicing away.
“Hell yeah!”
“Our ancestors were pure geniuses!”
“Anything made by them is top-tier!”
Taotie was beaming with pride, even while grappling with a reanimated corpse.
Tom, ignoring his bragging, focused on cutting.
At last, the final tendon snapped under his dagger.
Tom’s eyes lit up as he sheathed his dagger and grabbed the gauntlet, yanking it free along with the Mo Dao.
With one final heave, the gauntlet and Mo Dao came off—along with a severed portion of the old corpse’s forearm.
The next second—
Clatter!
A disturbing noise rang out.
From the corpse’s severed stump, a flood of black, finger-sized beetles gushed out like a cascade of spilled beans, swarming the floor.
“Holy—!”
“Taotie, what the hell are these things!?” Tom exclaimed, instinctively retreating while clutching the gauntlet.
Taotie, at first confused, then grinned darkly.
Without the Mo Dao, this old corpse was nothing but a toothless tiger.
And a toothless tiger? That was just a big cat.
To Taotie, that meant no threat at all.
More importantly, the Mo Dao now belonged to them.
And he was going to use it to carve up this tin can like a roast chicken.
Hearing Tom’s panicked voice, Taotie loosened his grip on the corpse’s arms and kicked it away. Then, curiously, he peered at the swarm of beetles pouring out…
