Chapter 3

The "Book of Scriptures" had nothing special about it; it contained the textual meanings that scholars needed to study and master before the prefectural examinations.

The scholar liberated by the Scripture of Salvation had also been preparing for the prefectural examinations, but unfortunately, he had strayed onto an evil path halfway, not only delaying his bright future but also losing his life...

Xu Qing calmed his mind, and countless classic meanings, like trickling streams, moistened his literary thoughts in silence.

When the entire Book of Scriptures turned into faint fluorescent light and integrated into his mind, he suddenly opened his eyes, feeling refreshed.

People say that "a belly full of poetry and books makes one naturally elegant." Now that he understood the classic meanings, although his appearance didn't seem to have changed much, he had gained an indescribable scholarly temperament.

He inexplicably had a feeling that if he went to take the prefectural examination another day, he would surely be able to easily pass as a Licentiate.

However, even if he didn't go to seek fame, just being literate and knowledgeable was his biggest gain tonight.

He was a stranger in a strange land; if he could know the local language and characters in advance, that was undoubtedly the greatest luck.

After digesting the Book of Scriptures, Xu Qing picked up the other reward: a deep blue Heart-Clearing Pill.

The infatuated scholar had a moment of enlightenment before jumping into the river, seeing Su Hongxiu's true face. Although the scholar was unwilling to face it, he could be considered to have understood human nature.

One Heart-Clearing Pill, and from now on, no more foolishness.

After taking the pill, Xu Qing immediately felt his ears and eyes clear, and some thoughts that had been influenced by desires also became clear.

At this time, the rooster crowed for the fifth watch, and dawn was about to break.

Xu Qing, with his clear mind, was instantly awakened. Previously, he had been too greedy for the "gossip" of liberation and had forgotten the time.

If he waited until dawn and the mill manager discovered that more than half of the zombies here were lying down, he was afraid there would be a strict investigation immediately. If there was any mistake, as the culprit, he would definitely not have a good ending!

Putting the infatuated scholar back in his place, Xu Qing turned and looked around, only to see that every corpse-laborer he had liberated had their eyes closed, with strange smiles on their faces, as if they had remembered the happiest and most joyful things from their lives.

A breeze blew by, and the scene before his eyes made one's hair stand on end.

Xu Qing looked down at the double-layered delivery uniform he was wearing—blue and yellow sandwich, yellow inside, blue outside—his attire was vastly different from the local natives in the courtyard.

After pondering for a moment, Xu Qing turned around again, stripped the scholar's long gown, and put it on.

If he wanted to escape this place, he would inevitably have to pass through the bright streets and dark alleys of Linhe Ward. If he still wore his strange clothes, he feared his target would be too conspicuous and easily attract attention.

After changing his clothes, Xu Qing set his sights on the direction of the wall. Just as he was about to take a few steps to jump up, he discovered that as soon as he moved, the gold and silver clappers hidden on his body started clattering because of the shaking.

"..."

Tearing off a few strips of cloth and wrapping the clappers tightly, Xu Qing jumped on the spot. Without using much force, he jumped three feet high.

At this time, the clappers on his body no longer made noise, but then again, when did his jumping ability become so good?

Xu Qing felt that if there were a standard basketball backboard in front of him, he could easily reach the top of it with a little effort.

If he had this athletic ability in his previous life, who would still be delivering food!

Sure enough, poor people still have to rely on mutation!

Eager to try, he came to the courtyard wall. Xu Qing set his sights on the wall edge, his Achilles tendon suddenly exerted force, and with one leap, he vaulted onto the zhang-high wall without any effort at all.

Zombies see night as day. Standing at a high place, borrowing the night, he saw the general structure of the corpse-labor mill clearly.

Not to mention the entire mill, just within Xu Qing's line of sight, there were two corridors and three large courtyards, each with corpse-laborers busy at work.

"This mill owner is truly wicked, bringing in so many dead people to hoard wealth; isn't he afraid that one day his virtue will run out and he'll be struck by lightning!"

In the mill, although the movement of the corpse-laborers was not loud, it was not small either, just enough to cover up some subtle movements.

Xu Qing quietly climbed over several courtyard walls, bypassed the houses under the corridors, and before long, arrived at the last courtyard wall near the street.

On this side of the wall was the place where the dead worked for free; on the other side of the wall was the world of the living.

"Some zombies cannot be locked up..."

Xu Qing did not hesitate at all and decisively climbed over the wall to break out of prison.

As for his future plans, he already had a clue.

Zombies, stiff but not dead, are born with the characteristic of "longevity." After escaping this place, he would find a mass grave or a cemetery. With the Scripture of Salvation by his side, maybe if he "crouched" for a few hundred years, he could become a corpse immortal; at the very least, being a zombie king wouldn't be bad either.

Holding expectations for the future, Xu Qing climbed down the high wall and landed in the alley.

His current location was an alleyway immediately adjacent to the mill. At the end of the alley, he could vaguely see the light shining from the main street of Linhe Ward.

It was like the lights of a shop, or perhaps the worldly bustle rising from the gathering of people.

At first, Xu Qing walked slowly toward the street, but slowly his speed became faster and faster. In about ten breaths of time, the street of Linhe Ward was right before his eyes.

At this time, the sky was still dark, and heavy, damp fog lingered at the alley entrance.

Suddenly, a bare-bottomed figure appeared at the corner, almost colliding with Xu Qing, who had walked to the alley entrance.

"Move! Move quickly!" The person coming was in a hurry, panting heavily.

Xu Qing quickly retreated two steps before he could see the other's appearance clearly.

It was a thin, tall young man without a stitch of clothing.

Behind the young man, human voices could vaguely be heard—"Where is the person?"

"Reporting to the head constable, that flower-picking thief ducked into the alley!"

"Heh, if I remember correctly, that should be a dead-end alley."

"You all follow me!"

At the alley entrance, Xu Qing dodged the man running naked in the early morning, then poked his head out to look outside the alley, only to see several aggressive constables chasing from the left side of the street.

Even on the right side of the street, there were night-patrol soldiers holding knives and sticks approaching the alley entrance!

"..."

Your grandmother's leg! Seeing this, Xu Qing hissed and quickly retreated. Inside the alley, the bare-bottomed youth who had lured the officials over was reaching out, anxiously trying to reach the high wall.

The chaotic footsteps on the main street approached rapidly, and the light of torches had already appeared at the alley entrance.

The more you fear a snake bite, the more the snake wraps around your feet; truly, what you fear is what comes.

Xu Qing had thought the road ahead would be difficult, but he hadn't expected that as soon as he left the high wall, he would encounter such a group of fierce people blocking his path.

Without thinking, he turned his head and ran back, the shouts behind him rising and falling.

"Stop! Where are you running!"

"Why are there two people? Could it be an accomplice coming to meet him?"

Xu Qing did not respond. He ran to the high wall he had climbed over when he came, exerted force with his legs, and climbed back over exactly the same way he had come out.

On the high wall, aggressive crossbow arrows spread from the middle of the wall to the top.

Not far from the foot of the wall, the naked youth was terrified and lost the thought of running away, decisively kneeling on the ground and surrendering.

"My lord, one ran away."

"He was hit by my Lianying arrow, he won't run far... No! There is corpse qi!"

The leading constable's nostrils flared, smelling an unusual scent in the air.

"Don't fight, ask him first, who is the one who ran!"

The bare-bottomed youth, who had been maliciously retaliated against by the officials, hissed in pain: "I don't know him! You were chasing so fiercely, who wouldn't be afraid, who wouldn't run?"

"Bullshit! If you don't do anything wrong, you don't fear the ghost knocking at the door. If he were a good person, why would he climb over the wall!" an experienced night-patrol team leader retorted.

The leading constable, holding a Lianying crossbow and carrying a tiger-head saber at his waist, also spoke at this time: "That person has corpse qi on him; he is likely not an ordinary person."

"Does Team Leader Cao know what kind of place is behind this high wall?"

Inside the mill, Xu Qing passed through the corridors. Before returning to his workstation, he pulled out the arrow that had pierced an inch into his arm. Reddish-dark liquid overflowed from the wound.

He didn't have the overly sensitive pain sensation of a living person, but he wasn't completely without feeling either.

He could clearly feel a dull pain coming from the wound, but it was like the "numb pain" during acupuncture, not a sharp, direct pain.

Passing by a corpse-laborer courtyard, Xu Qing threw the arrow into the mill trough. The massive, upright millstone ground over the stone trough, making a creaking sound, and the wooden shaft of the short arrow snapped on the spot.

Then, Xu Qing climbed over the neighboring wall and returned to his original workstation.

Before that, he didn't forget to return the long gown he was wearing to the infatuated scholar.

Outside the mill, there were sounds of roosters crowing and dogs barking everywhere. Xu Qing was a "black household" (unregistered person) and had been refined into a zombie; his identity was vastly different from ordinary people. If he were captured by the constables, he would likely not have a good ending.

The only plan now was to muddle through, and only after avoiding this storm could he consider other things.

But what about those corpse-laborers in the courtyard who had been half-liberated?

"Go to bed early and get up early! Take care of your body—"

At the fifth watch, the sound of the night watchman hitting the clapper traveled far into the Cui Family Mill.

Zhao Zhonghe, the head constable of the Linhe Ward patrol, was negotiating with the Cui family manager.

"I heard people say that your mill doesn't use donkeys to grind grain, but uses wandering corpses made by corpse-drivers to do the work. I wonder if there is such a thing?"

Manager Cui, who had just woken up, was not in a very good mood, but he still kindly advised: "Head Constable Zhao has just arrived and doesn't understand many things. Another day, I will host a gathering, invite the private secretary and the registrar to get together, and hold a welcome banquet for Head Constable Zhao at the Chunfeng Tower. If there is anything, we can speak heart-to-heart then, it's not too late."

Hearing this, Zhao Zhonghe chuckled and waved his hand in refusal: "That's quite unnecessary. Zhao is here for public business, not to build friendships with the likes of you."

"I won't speak in riddles. Just now, I and a group of soldiers discovered a person outside the mill. This person had corpse qi on him. After I shot and injured him with a crossbow arrow, he climbed over the high wall and fled back to your mill."

"Manager Cui, I don't care if you use corpse-laborers, but if there is a corpse monster that goes out from here to harm people..." Speaking of this, Zhao Zhonghe's face sank, and the meaning was self-evident.

Manager Cui frowned: "Absolutely impossible! The corpse-laborers here are all..."

Seeming to realize he had said something he shouldn't have, Manager Cui added: "Head Constable Zhao probably doesn't know how much coal is mined in the Western Jing Mountains every year, right? Half of those coal miners are wandering corpses sent from the prefectural city."

"Ordinary people don't know these things, but could it be that the Prefect doesn't know either?"

"As for whether these zombies refined into corpse-laborers are safe, I can tell Head Constable Zhao an insider's word: since this craft spread, there hasn't been a single case of harming people."

Zhao Zhonghe was not surprised to hear this.

He had heard of corpse-laborers for a long time; in previous years, there were even cases where the dead were more expensive than the living.

When the sixteen counties of Yingzhou were suffering from famine, a liter of rice could be exchanged for a person, while a corpse-laborer refined by a corpse-driver cost more than ten taels of silver.

It was precisely because of this that the matter of corpse-laborers dared not be publicized.

Zhao Zhonghe didn't have a good impression of Manager Cui and warned him several times until the other party promised to thoroughly investigate the safety hazards of the mill, only then did he leave.

On the side, the hired thug looked at Head Constable Zhao's departing figure and asked: "Manager, should we still go and inspect?"

"Inspect my ass. Go back and nap for a while. A small head constable, he really thinks of himself as a dish."

Manager Cui yawned and was just about to walk back when a retainer suddenly rushed into the front hall, anxiously saying: "Disaster! Disaster! Manager, come and take a look. Those 'donkeys' newly brought into Courtyard C don't know why, but more than half of them are lying down, and Old Lin and I can't see what the problem is..."

Manager Cui, who had just said he was going to take a nap, immediately lost all sleepiness, stared wide-eyed, and shouted: "Speak clearly! Those 'donkeys' in Courtyard C were brought in just a few days ago; how could they have a problem just like that?"

The retainer stammered and gestured, unable to explain the reason.

Seeing this, Manager Cui immediately pointed to the hall door and urged: "You, lead the way! I'll go see for myself!"

Courtyard C.

Manager Cui looked at the corpse-laborers lying down in half, his face extremely ugly.

The "donkeys" they spoke of earlier were corpse-laborers, which belonged to industry jargon.

Manager Cui reached out and lifted the collar of a corpse, revealing the skin on its chest, on which there was a red talisman formed by complex patterns.

"The walking corpse talisman is intact, but the resentment and corpse qi of the corpse transformation are all gone. It couldn't be that a high-level expert from the Buddhist or Daoist schools came to liberate them..." Manager Cui turned to look at the remaining half of the zombies still working in the courtyard, quickly ruling out this possibility.

If there really were a high-level expert, why would the other corpse-laborers in Courtyard C be fine?

Standing up, Manager Cui pondered for a moment and then took out the coping method that businessmen have engraved in their bones.

"Old Lin, go to Jingxia Street and invite the corpse-driver who refined this batch." After finishing, he looked at the burly and strong hired thug, who was clearly a martial artist: "This corpse-driver is a stranger from Xiangyin; there's no guarantee what he's hiding, so I'll have to trouble Mr. Lu to accompany him."

Not far behind Manager Cui, a corpse-laborer was pushing the mill handle unhurriedly, as if it couldn't hear the conversation of the few, just doing the work in its hands on its own.

Corpse-driver? While pushing the mill, Xu Qing analyzed the current situation.

The Cui manager in the courtyard didn't discover his abnormality, but the corpse-driver the other party spoke of was an unknown variable.

However, at this time, he had nowhere to run. Dawn was already visible on the horizon, and the craftsmen and public servants of the corpse-labor mill were starting to change the "donkey and mule" grinding materials, not to mention that Manager Cui and others were counting the number of corpse-laborers in the courtyard.

At this time, the only thing to do was to meet the changing situation with an unchanging one.

The corpse-laborers who had been busy all night were pasted with a yellow talisman, and then those corpse-laborers stopped their work and stood still.

When it was Xu Qing's turn, he followed suit, as if he had really become a corpse-laborer without self-consciousness.

After about an hour, an irregular bell sound came from outside Courtyard C. Xu Qing used the corner of his eye to look in the direction of the sound.

He saw a withered, thin old man wearing a dark blue Daoist robe with Eight Trigrams stepping into the courtyard gate.

At the old man's waist, there were three corpse-controlling bells—one large and two small—jingling.

(End of chapter)