Chapter 1: Burying Corpses Under the Scorching Sun

The sun is scorching, the air humid and stifling.

The weather in the mountains and forests of the Southern Border is always like this, making one feel miserable.

Right under the roasting heat of this blazing sun, on a patch of barren mountain land where weeds struggle to grow and trees are scarce, Du En and five others are digging pits.

He is eighteen years old this year, over seven feet tall, dressed tightly, with a thick cloth wrapped around his hair and covering his mouth and nose; with only his brows and eyes exposed, he looks quite unremarkable, yet his eyes remain calm and spirited amidst the pouring sweat.

His movements are consistently methodical, never becoming distorted by physical exhaustion or the compounding heat.

Just like this, he uses the shovel made of refined steel in his hands to dig out chunks of soil.

The two of them walk together to a corpse.

Du En says nothing, merely turning his head to look at the row of people lying on the ground on the other side, being roasted by the blazing sun and stinking.

Du En shakes his head slightly in his heart, observing further to confirm there is only a foul stench and nothing else messy, before preparing to walk over and drag the other person away.

Opening it to look, inside are three low-grade spirit stones and a folded slip of paper.

It is fortunate that he fell backward and did not lunge forward into the corpse fluid; otherwise, he would have been truly unlucky.

Because after the steps of looting corpses, collecting corpses, and transporting corpses, it is finally the turn of wretches like them to bury the corpses.

It is equivalent to his monthly wages; this really is an unexpected windfall!

Normally, corpse-buriers do not have this opportunity to scavenge wealth from the dead.

Seeing this, Du En does not say much.

【Cultivation Technique: Yellow Earth Art (Beginner 9/10)】

This pitch-black clod of earth, after being flung out, disperses directly, transforming into a mass of black, sinister, ghostly smoke.

There is a problem!

"Slow..."

"Damn it, this is really not work for a human!"

"Okay."

Fortunately, this female corpse bitten to death by a demonic beast has no issues; placed flat into the pit and covered with a thin layer of soil, it is considered laid to rest.

Because this corpse-burying is no easy task; not to mention corpses of those who died from exhaustion or suicide, the others have all sorts of causes of death, and who knows what might still remain on them.

For example, those who died of poison might have toxins remaining; if one accidentally touches or gets contaminated, the outcome is no different from the one they are currently carrying.

Suicides, murders, those worked to death, those bitten by demonic beasts, those harmed by evil cultivators...

An accident occurred while moving this one.

Names unknown, causes of death varied.

Under the sunlight, this sinister, ghostly smoke dissolves rapidly.

Burying corpses.

He began cultivating for this reason, moved to this border city in the Southern Border for this reason, and was then assigned to this job, starting to dig pits and bury corpses; counting it up, it has already been a month and a half.

A lowly job!

The working environment is harsh, the wages are very low, and one is looked down upon by others.

"Let's continue."

Someone nearby cannot help but cough violently, as if their lungs are about to be coughed out, yet they dare not remove the thick cloth from their face.

【Spells: None】

Then, dragging Wei Ming, he arrives under one of the few strange trees on this barren land and leans him against the sparse shade.

After doing this, he takes the moment while no one else is paying attention to look at the item he just snatched up.

Crack—

Just as he lifted it up, Du En keenly heard a faint, crisp sound.

This is a female corpse, clothes tattered, covered in claw marks, half her face bitten away; the remaining half, still relatively intact, looks delicate and elegant, but it is already frozen, and in her wide-open, dead eyes, the despair and unwillingness from before her death remain.

"Fu—, cough cough cough!"

Thus, as he passed by and approached, he suddenly reached out and, without anyone noticing, snatched it up.

Then it is back to digging pits and burying the next one.

Having just arrived today, the newcomer Wei Ming, who is paired with him, also stops his movements upon seeing this, supporting his body with a shovel and breathing rapidly through the thick, damp cloth to take a short rest.

"Mother!"

But this is assigned and arranged by the border city, and barring any accidents, he will work until he dies.

So, it was hidden in the corpse's stomach before?

Sometimes, the person who was working with you yesterday is lying on the ground today, waiting to be buried by you.

Whether before or after transmigrating, Du En does not want to live this kind of life.

But there is no way around it; this world is just like this.

Du En's gaze flickers slightly; he ties the small bag tight again, not caring about the filth still stuck to it, stuffs it directly into his clothes, and then turns his head to look at the scene filled with the foul stench, not immediately returning to continue working.

It is a small bag made of some kind of supple leather; if Du En is not mistaken, this kind of leather is very resistant to acid corrosion.

He wants to wait for the smell to dissipate a little, then wake Wei Ming up before saying anything.

An extreme, foul stench erupts and spreads, directly scaring away the corpse-buriers.

This is the work of Du En and these people.

With a 'splat', this corpse actually breaks into two halves, and rotting, foul corpse fluid, with semi-liquefied internal organs floating in it, flows out directly, splashing and scattering on the ground.

【Spirit Root: Low-grade】

"Be careful."

Some people even curse and swear, their tone exceptionally resentful, yet helpless, they can only continue this work.

Every day they must report for work, and every day they must bury dozens of corpses; there are only more, never fewer.

The soil dug up by the shovel was greyish-white in its entirety, and from time to time, some strange, viscous, pitch-black clumps of dirt could also be shoveled out.

But immediately after, a thick, putrid stench would suddenly spread out.

Du En lifted the female corpse by the shoulders, and Wei Ming, the newcomer, went to lift the legs.

Du En opened his mouth to offer a reminder.

Reminded, Wei Ming only answered vaguely, his gaze wandering uncertainly, still not daring to look at those wounds.

He was just about to tell the newcomer he was paired with to slow down and set it down gently, but it was already too late.

Or rather, a row of corpses.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

And the two in the center did not have such good luck.

"That's about enough."

【Age: 18/91】

However, the way things are now, it could actually be considered fortunate...

But the newcomer Wei Ming couldn't handle it at all; he rolled his eyes back and passed out from the stench.

Du En, who had stepped back to avoid the spray, was doing alright; compared to this nauseating scene, he had already seen worse, so at this moment, he only narrowed his eyes, held his breath, and felt a bit nauseous.

"Yes, yes, I know."

Therefore, Du En, who had only been working for a month and a half, could actually be called a veteran of burying corpses here.

In short, these people were cultivators while alive; although they didn't even have a straw mat to wrap their bodies in now, they had been specifically gathered and intentionally transported to be buried here.

The Immortal Sects control the world, keep the mortals as livestock, screen and raise them in a directed manner, and ultimately harvest crop after crop of people with spiritual roots, only to make them cultivate so as to squeeze out more value.

In this gap where he could rest, as his thoughts stirred, a box appeared before his eyes, with lines of ethereal text upon it.

After shoveling out another clump of dirt and piling it up, Du En looked at the shallow pit that had taken shape, stuck the iron shovel into the mound, and spoke calmly.

【Cultivation: Qi Refining Initial Stage (12/100)】

Facing this face that was half-good and half-bad, his eyes showed not the slightest change, while Wei Ming's gaze dodged and flickered, not daring to look at those rotting, stinking, hideous wounds.

Just as he took a step, he noticed that something seemed to be floating inside that puddle of semi-liquefied internal organs.

"Back, ugh—"

【Divine Ability: None】

【Hundred Arts: None】

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(End of this chapter)