Chapter 23

February, dark incense.

Inside the Mortuary Shop, a thin, small gray mouse with a tuft of white hair on its head was squatting on a plate, holding a piece of air-dried, hardened sashimi and munching on it.

A ray of sunlight passed through a crack in the window and landed on the edge of the quiet altar, with dust motes floating in the air.

Just at this quiet and secluded moment, the sinking-wood coffin beside the altar, which had been motionless, suddenly made a light sound, and the dust-covered coffin lid revealed a clear gap.

The little gray mouse stealing the snack stopped chewing instantly, staring with a pair of black-bean-like eyes, watching the direction the sound came from like a statue.

"Clang!" The sound of the coffin lid being lifted and falling to the ground rang out suddenly, and immediately after, a slender, newborn-like palm reached out from the coffin.

And on those five extended fingers, there were long, sharp fingernails, looking exactly like the nail guards worn by the Empress Dowager.

"Hiss-ha—" The long-lost sound of exhaling and inhaling came out.

Xu Qing, who had been sleeping for a long time, seemed to have had a dream. In the dream, he became a cocoon, hanging on an ancient, deep mountain, on a lush green old tree, surrounded by clear winds and bright moons, birds singing and flowers blooming.

Day after day, as the weather turned warm and sunny, he split open the cocoon and turned into a butterfly.

At that moment, he felt his whole body was unbelievably light, as if he could land on the clouds by gently flapping his wings.

In the Mortuary Shop, Xu Qing, awakened from his big dream, reached out and grabbed the edge of the coffin stake. The moment he exerted a little force and sat up straight, the bones and joints behind him couldn't help but make a crisp cracking sound.

Opening his eyes, the world, which had become clearer again, came into view. Not far away, a startled gray mouse squeaked and ran into the corner.

He could even see the distinct hairs on its body, as if they were right before his eyes.

"I seem to have become whiter?"

Xu Qing looked down at his arms. The skin in the shadows was exceptionally fair, but the skin illuminated by that ray of sunlight through the window crack refracted a luster similar to iron metal.

Just like the cold light refracted when examining swords and blades by lamp light at night.

Seeing this, Xu Qing was not alarmed but delighted. The Corpse Records once recorded that there are five realms of zombie advancement: Wandering Corpse, Hidden Corpse, Unmelting Bone, Flying Zombie, and Corpse Immortal.

Among them, there are three types of Wandering Corpses and three transformations of Hidden Corpses. The three types refer to Iron Armored, Silver Armored, and Golden Armored Corpses.

These three types of zombies are difficult to distinguish with the naked eye if encountered in daily life, but there is a trick: by shining sunlight on the skin and observing the luster reflected by the skin texture, one can distinguish the strength of the Wandering Corpse.

Sunlight is the most yang and rigid, which happens to be the opposite extreme of the yin-loving Wandering Corpse.

The luster refracted on Xu Qing's skin at this moment was the hallmark of promotion to an Iron Armored Wandering Corpse.

Apart from the cold, iron-like Iron Armored Corpse, when sunlight shines on a Silver Armored Corpse, it emits crystalline light points like sunlight sprinkled on winter snow, just like silver stars dotted on it.

A Golden Armored Corpse would look like it was inlaid with refined gold and jade diamonds, extremely brilliant.

Fortunately, the Corpse Nourishing Scripture has a specific solution for this situation; one only needs to sprinkle the medicinal powder used with the "Dumb Dog Curse" on the body to avoid the problem of sunlight refraction.

Xu Qing recalled the entire evolution process. When he thought of a certain point, his heart suddenly stirred, and his gaze involuntarily fell on the two coffins covered by banners in the corner of the west wall.

Come to think of it, whether it was Old Man Yang or Liu Youdao, this pair of master and apprentice had been corpse-drivers for a lifetime. It was impossible that they only knew how to raise ordinary walking corpses. Wouldn't they have tried to cultivate a few Iron Armored or Silver Armored Corpses?

Xu Qing put on his clothes and silently walked to the two coffins.

On the left was still that pitch-black, thousand-year-old sinking-wood coffin bound with red ropes in three horizontal and two vertical lines.

On the right was the one with red skin and black edges, not bound by ropes, but using ink-line markers dipped in cinnabar water and rooster blood to snap "fake ropes" on it—eighty-one lines in total.

These two coffins looked much heavier than ordinary ones, and the various talismans pasted on them were made of some unknown paper; even after so long, they were still as new as if they had just been drawn and pasted on.

Xu Qing had just personally experienced the process of refining an Iron Armored Corpse. The scene of him cocooning in the small sinking-wood coffin seemed to overlap faintly with the two coffins in front of him.

"Old guy Liu Youdao wouldn't have been raising two Golden Armored Corpses in my shop, would he?"

If they were Iron Armored Corpses, based on his previous cocooning speed, these two should have lifted their coffins and risen long ago!

Even if they were Silver Armored Corpses, they shouldn't have remained silent for so long.

Xu Qing circled the two coffins that looked like they were not to be trifled with and observed them for a while. Seeing that all the seals, including the talismans, were intact, he felt slightly relieved.

The shop had been idle for many days without cleaning, and there was clearly dust accumulated everywhere in the store.

Xu Qing tidied up briefly. On the counter sat the clepsydra he had specially bought for timing, and the water inside had long since dripped dry.

Cultivation has no years; one does not know the years when realizing the Dao.

"It took so many days just to evolve into an Iron Armored Corpse. If one day I want to evolve into a Golden Armored Corpse, I'm afraid the Great Yong Dynasty would have fallen by the time I wake up, right?"

While Xu Qing was sighing, he walked through the backyard, climbed over the wall, and went around to the front door. At this time, Wu Yaoxing, who was squatting at the door of the paper-effigy shop making paper horses, was suddenly stunned.

"Brother Xu, you're back!"

Wu Yaoxing immediately put down his work and ran to him in two or three steps to look him over.

"You're whiter, and not as thin as before. It seems the family that asked you to look at the grave was a wealthy one. You must have been eating big fish and meat every day, right?"

Xu Qing smiled and said while opening the door: "You actually guessed right. That landlord's family had surplus grain and treated me well. Every three days or so, they were either slaughtering sheep or killing pigs. It would be hard for me to stay thin!"

"It's good to be fat. If you're fat, others can see that you eat well, and it'll be easier to find a wife in the future. Otherwise, if people see us looking sallow and thin, who would be willing to marry over?"

"Speaking of which, Brother Xu should also start a family. How about I let my family talk to you and find you a match?"

Xu Qing took down the two door panels, and the dust mixed with sunlight shone into the shop, stirring up a smell of old earth and wood.

"Forget it, you know me. I'm either running to the Youlan Courtyard or the Cuiyun Pavilion all day. I still want to be carefree for a few more years. If I took a wife, how could I be this free?"

What Xu Qing said was half-true and half-false. He did indeed want to go to the Youlan Courtyard and Cuiyun Pavilion, but not for the sake of being carefree; he just wanted to experience the local customs and feelings of Linhe.

To see if the humanistic care there was really as thoughtful and meticulous as the rumors said.

Furthermore, he had other reasons for not wanting to marry.

First is his zombie identity; living together day and night, he would be very easily exposed.

Secondly, zombies have no lifespan, and beauty fades easily.

A woman will slowly age after the age of thirty. Could it be that he would have to kill his own wife while she was still in her youth and refine her into a zombie too?

Even if he had such thoughts, it didn't mean the other party would be willing.

This isn't *Twilight*, and he isn't a vampire.

Wu Yaoxing still wanted to persuade him, but Xu Qing shifted the topic elsewhere.

"Old Wu, has anyone come looking for me these past few days?"

"Yes! On the fourth day you were gone, a few officials from the patrol office came. The leader was a coroner. He was carrying two strips of cured meat and said he had just arrived in Linhe. He was an old acquaintance of your master in Xiangyin County and wanted to come and chat with your master about old times..."

(End of chapter)