Chapter 88

Shade-corpses, also known as "nurtured corpses," come in two types: dry corpses and wet corpses.

A shade-corpse is a corpse whose hair and nails continue to grow after burial; if the person was pregnant, the fetus also continues to develop, which is known as a "corpse infant" or "yin ghost infant."

The Corpse-Nurturing Scripture states that in the shade-corpse state, the corpse's hair and nails continue to grow because the corpse absorbs the essence of the sun and moon, or the "prosperous energy" within its own corpse-dwelling.

There is also a record in the Corpse Sayings stating that if an unearthed shade-corpse has its mouth wide open and refuses to close, it will actively eat people.

And the targets of its cannibalism will inevitably start with its own descendants.

Combining the Shade-Corpse Method with his past experience, Xu Qing's understanding of "corpses" became much deeper.

"As expected, saving peers is more cost-effective!"

Every reward he received from saving a corpse was related to the skills, experiences, or obsessions the corpse had in life.

Corpse-drivers often dealt with corpses, so it was easier to get skills or items that helped with zombie cultivation.

Xu Qing silently noted the Yin Corpse Sect; he might have to deal with these people in the future, though he had no intention of contacting them right now.

In Lu Ping's memory, Yang Qiying had used a jar of special lamp oil from Cizhao Temple to burn an Iron-Armored Zombie into charcoal, which forced him to be vigilant.

In the end, the three types of wandering corpses were still not strong enough, and Cizhao Temple's method of adding oil to fire to deal with evil spirits was a natural counter to them.

I examine myself three times a day.

Xu Qing reviewed his gains and losses for the day and identified two places he could not provoke for now: one was the Yin Corpse Sect, and the other was Cizhao Temple.

Thinking of the special lamp oil Yang Qiying used, Xu Qing suddenly recalled that under the shelf of miscellaneous items in his shop, there sat a narrow-mouthed, pot-bellied jar.

Yang Qiying had begged for two jars of lamp oil in total and used one to deal with Lu Ping's Iron-Armored Corpse, so the jar under the shelf in the mortician's shop must be the remaining one.

Tsk! Xu Qing rarely smiled, but although that lamp oil was a one-time item for dealing with evil spirits, it could be considered a new trump card.

Besides learning the use of the jar under the shelf, Xu Qing also realized many other things.

Earlier, he had only thought the black coffin in the mortician's shop was a vessel to seal Lu Ping, but now it seemed it was a vessel specially crafted by Yang Qiying for shading and nurturing corpses.

No wonder Lu Ping's face was covered in green hair.

Looking at the heteronymous zombie whose appearance was truly hard to compliment, Xu Qing took out a razor from the Mountain and River Map and shaved off the wild corpse hair on Lu Ping's body.

Then, he took out the cosmetics and cinnabar paper used for dressing corpses, applied powder to her face, drew her eyebrows, and painted her lips red.

A disciple walking the world must have a decent appearance.

After pulling out the corpse teeth and trimming the nails, by the time he was finished, a cold and beautiful female disciple with red makeup and powdered face appeared vividly before Xu Qing.

Not to mention whether this disciple was useful or not, just her appearance and figure were pleasing to the eye.

After dealing with Lu Ping's corpse, Xu Qing took out a Corpse-Nurturing Pill. The moment the pill appeared, a peculiar fragrance filled the air.

His nostrils flared, and even without saliva, Xu Qing couldn't help but feel the urge to swallow.

After swallowing the pill, it didn't dissolve immediately but remained in his body as an external elixir. From the pure white pill, wisps of yin energy continuously flowed into every part of his body, nourishing the entire corpse.

Xu Qing found the aftertaste endless, and his evaluation of the Yin Corpse Sect rose by several notches.

The taste of the Yin Corpse Sect's corpses was truly extraordinary!

The saturated yin energy soaked through his skin, continuously nourishing it.

Xu Qing felt as if he had found another path for his cultivation.

There are many ways for zombies to cultivate, the most common being shade-corpses, skin-corpses, and flesh-corpses.

Flesh-corpses are living dead; to keep their bodies from rotting, they usually rely on instinct to hunt for meat to supplement themselves, with no consciousness for cultivation.

Skin-corpses, as the name suggests, are essentially "empty stakes"—corpses without internal organs.

Such corpses grow hair like shade-corpses and are active at night and dormant during the day.

The internal organs of skin-corpses are mostly shriveled and degenerated, but their skin is exceptionally tough and can remain unrotted forever. The only drawback is that they have no consciousness from their previous life, and their temperament is extremely stubborn and persistent; they are the "honey badgers" of the zombie world and should not be easily provoked.

Xu Qing had possessed self-cultivation consciousness from the beginning, and now, with both internal and external cultivation, not only could his skin remain tough and unrotted, but the quality of his physical body had also reached a high grade.

If he didn't restrain his aura, he would likely become a treasure material for corpse refining in the eyes of Yin Corpse Sect cultivators if he ever ran into them.

"The outside world is ultimately too dangerous, and the Ancient Path of the Yinhe is a testing ground for the Yin Corpse Sect. If I encounter Yin Corpse Sect disciples on the way..."

Xu Qing frowned in thought. If he had known these secrets about the Yin Corpse Sect earlier, he would never have agreed to Hu Baosong's request to go to the Ancient Path of the Yinhe to find the Hu-Yang Ancient Tomb and perform the funeral for him.

Although doing business requires integrity, risking his life was not his intention.

"Forget it, there will be a way when the cart reaches the mountain. At worst, I'll just preserve Hu Baosong's corpse and wait until my cultivation is deeper before looking for the Hu-Yang Ancient Tomb."

Having made up his mind, Xu Qing returned to his senses and looked again at the coffin space, which resembled a tomb.

When he took the Corpse-Nurturing Pill, he had emitted a rich yin energy, but when that energy touched the walls of the coffin, it seemed to be met with a strong suction force that absorbed most of it.

Fortunately, this only lasted for an instant, and when things calmed down, the red coffin looked as it had before, with no other abnormalities.

"Strange."

It was one thing for the coffin not to nourish his body, but why was it stealing his yin energy instead?

Xu Qing examined the space inside the coffin; for some reason, he felt something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

After pondering for a moment, he suddenly remembered another thing: perhaps he could arrange a layout for nourishing corpses in here according to the Shade-Corpse Method.

The coffin before him was about a zhang in circumference. If he made some improvements using the Shade-Corpse Method and added a cold couch for lying down, wouldn't he be able to increase his cultivation even while sleeping inside?

Xu Qing paced back and forth, occasionally tapping the tomb walls, occasionally nodding in satisfaction, looking exactly like someone who had just moved into a new home and found everything fresh.

After looking at his new home, Xu Qing came to the entrance of the tomb; before him was still that lacquered red coffin lid.

Xu Qing touched the lid, but just as he intended to open it, his hand suddenly paused.

He finally remembered why he felt something was wrong.

The red coffin he was in had originally been placed in the corner of the west wall of the shop. Now that he was sitting cross-legged inside, the coffin door should be facing the direction his face was pointed.

But when he stood up just now, there was no coffin lid in front of him, only the gray-white tomb wall.

The dark wood coffin lid he was touching now was something he only saw after he turned around.

"Strange, did I accidentally move while I was cultivating after taking the Corpse-Nurturing Pill?"

Xu Qing turned his head to look at the cold and beautiful female zombie who was still kneeling on the ground with her head hanging low.

Could it be that he had also moved Lu Ping's corpse?

Suppressing his suspicion, Xu Qing looked at the coffin door again.

"Creak, creak—" The heavy coffin lid was pushed open, and before Xu Qing could step out, a gust of yin wind blew into his face, stinging his eyes.

His clothes fluttered and his hair drifted. Xu Qing squinted at the outside of the coffin, but there was no sign of the mortician's shop anywhere!

Outside the coffin, thin mist swirled and ghost shadows moved; a graveyard was hidden in the mist. Xu Qing instinctively used his Qi-Observing Technique, and this time he saw the situation clearly.

Hidden in the light-less mist was a large tomb with a wide burial mound, and in the distance, it was surrounded by graves, with no sign of human life.

Xu Qing's scalp tightened. He immediately picked up the coffin lid and, without the slightest hesitation, prepared to close it again and return to the coffin.

His current appearance was exactly the same as the reaction Lu Ping had when she encountered an immortal family blocking the door and opening the box.

The coffin lid made a dull sound. Xu Qing thought he had sealed the coffin, but he could still feel a draft at his feet, as if someone were pressing their face against the ground and blowing air at his ankles.

He looked down and found that the coffin lid had only closed on one end; on the other end, he didn't know when a pale little hand had appeared, gripping the gap in the coffin tightly.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A series of slamming sounds echoed. Xu Qing gathered his strength and shouted, "Let go!"

A shrill, miserable scream rang out from outside the coffin.

The next moment, Xu Qing felt a great force that even he couldn't resist, violently tearing the coffin lid away.

Xu Qing, who was still gripping the lid, was thrown out of the coffin by inertia.

The heavy dark wood fell onto the grave soil, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Xu Qing stood up in a disheveled state. The cool, damp night air mixed with the wailing wind in the distance made even him, a zombie, feel a chill.

He quickly stood up and looked back, only to see that the lacquered red coffin, now without its lid, was no longer in the mortician's shop but was standing upright in a grave that looked like it had just been dug.

The pale little hand that had grabbed the coffin lid had disappeared. Unable to find any trace of it, Xu Qing picked up the coffin lid and retreated toward the grave, alert.

The grave was filled with mist. Xu Qing hadn't walked many steps when a mournful chant suddenly arose from nowhere in his ears.

"On the Yellow Springs road, there are no old or young; at the Naihe Bridge, do not look back.

White Emperor's water, clear waves; ghost mandarin ducks, welcoming with flowers in their mouths.

Joined in the coffin, lying in the same grave; intentions before death, understood after death.

From now on, companions in the Yellow Springs; lonely souls in the blue sky, never to be parted..."

Following this, the sound of funeral music played from behind the grave.

Xu Qing's figure stiffened, and he didn't take another step forward.

This was because not far to the left and right of the grave where the red coffin was located, two teams of people dressed in festive attire were floating toward him.

The two teams had clear divisions of labor; some played sheng, flutes, and suonas, while others scattered paper money of the four seasons—blue, white, yellow, and green—along the way, making it quite lively.

Xu Qing watched the two groups surround the grave pit. At this moment, he suddenly realized that this grave was a "Mandarin Duck Grave" dug to the specifications of a joint burial for a husband and wife.

In the funeral trade, a Mandarin Duck Grave does not mean two people are buried in one coffin, but rather one coffin each, accompanying each other in the same grave.

There are also requirements for the wood used to craft such coffins; they must be "one-body twin coffins."

What is "one-body"? The wood used for both coffins must come from the same tree; that is one body.

But the problem was, in the grave pit before Xu Qing, there was only one coffin.

"Who is so wicked as to steal one of the coffins meant for a joint burial?"

Xu Qing's face turned green; this Liu Youdao was truly wicked!

Looking again at the lonely coffin left in the grave pit, it did not have the ink-line marks that Liu Youdao had snapped onto it.

In other words, the coffin before him was not the one from the mortician's shop at all, but the "sweetheart" of the one in the shop!

"Twin coffins." Combining this with the chant from the wedding procession, how could Xu Qing not know that he had been transported to this place by these twin-born coffins?

No wonder Liu Youdao had sealed the coffin and refused to open it for inspection; it turned out he was hiding such a big trap!

Since ancient times, there have been stories of ghosts moving wealth and objects; now, they had directly moved him here.

Xu Qing took out his Silver Snake Sword and put on his brass knuckles; the steel-boned puppet, like a gecko, clung to his shoulder, waiting for instructions.

To the right of the grave, a red sedan chair stopped. Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and saw a familiar pale little hand lift the red gauze curtain; the bright red bridal veil was blown by the yin wind, occasionally revealing a bit of fair skin.

"My heart was already like dead water and ashes, yet unexpectedly, in the cold night of the third nine, spring light shines through. Is it heaven's pity for the grass in the deep valley, or is it just fear of the world's coldness and frost... My husband, your concubine has kept an empty chamber for many years, finally hoping for your change of heart..."

The bride in the sedan chair opened her lips slightly, her mournful and lingering singing voice like the cold frost falling on the autumn moon. The silent ancient tomb did not become lively because of this, but rather appeared even more eerie.

Although the red sedan chair on the right had stopped, the wedding procession on the left did not stop its pace.

With hollow eyes, wearing bamboo hats and white veils, the ghostly shadows played festive music and arrived at the grave in the blink of an eye.

Xu Qing faced a formidable enemy.

However, those ghostly sedan carriers did not continue to approach; instead, they turned their bodies and, with their backs to him, began to return the way they came.

"Welcome the Prince Consort back to the mansion!"

Just as Xu Qing was confused, a scream suddenly came from the front of the wedding procession.

As the sound died away, countless paper money emerged from the grave soil at Xu Qing's feet, then, like wind-blown leaves, completely wrapped around him.

The paper money ignited without wind; although it had no offensive power, the thick incense smoke could block his vision.

When Xu Qing came to his senses from the smoke and fire, he found that he was somehow lying inside a tightly sealed coffin.

The space inside the coffin was narrow and cramped. Xu Qing frowned and pushed hard against the lid.

The red silk tied outside the coffin snapped suddenly, and the ghosts responsible for carrying the poles were in chaos. Only Xu Qing sat up from the coffin and looked around.

Beside him, the bridal sedan chair, topped with four large red lanterns, stopped slowly by a stone bridge.

There was no river water under the stone bridge, only surging, thick mist.

Seeming to sense Xu Qing's movement of lifting the coffin, the bride in the sedan chair suddenly spoke in a coquettish voice:

"If my husband does not wish to travel alone, why not come into this concubine's sedan chair and return together."

Xu Qing had just broken free from the coffin's restraint when another pile of paper money rose from under his feet and wrapped around him.

When the paper money vanished, Xu Qing's vision blurred, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying in the bridal sedan chair where the female ghost was.

And his head was currently resting on the bride's skirt.

The red bridal veil fluttered gently. Xu Qing lay on his back on the bride's lap; from his current perspective, he could just see her appearance hidden under the veil.

A touch of red lips, just like cherries; half a powdered face, just like a delicate flower.

Seeing that the other party was determined to entangle him, Xu Qing simply stopped struggling.

"My lady has such deep affection; if I were to refuse again, that would be ungrateful."

"But later, my lady, do not be a heartless ghost and abandon me."

(End of chapter)