Chapter 286

Because of the incident caused by the Green-Eyed Old Fox, the three of them were delayed on the road for a while longer. Therefore, when the bell tower eaves of the Bone Buddhist Temple came into view, the time had finally reached the Hour of the Rat.

The goat-bearded old Daoist had a grim expression, looking left and right: "The Hour of the Rat has arrived! The corpse qi stirred up by the Demon Corpse General's formation earlier does not seem to have settled!"

"Let's be careful..." Seeing Xiao Yu said vigilantly: "The Bone Temple that Senior Yan spoke of should be right ahead!"

At this moment, the big man stared at the curling, grayish-white corpse qi and shuddered.

The earlier corpse qi only rose when the group of corpses formed their array.

But now, the bone trees on this demonic land, the purplish-red soil, the shrubs that looked like twisted skeletons, and even the feng shui qi of this place all began to emit wisps of corpse qi.

This corpse qi gathered toward them, and soon it filled the air like a thick fog. The three of them could feel their life force attracting this corpse qi to close in on them.

Seeing Xiao Yu exhausted his life-essence true qi to force the little ghost on his back to blow a breath of ghost qi, igniting the three fires on his shoulders.

The orange-yellow life-fire manifested temporarily. Seeing Xiao Yu bit the tip of his tongue and sprayed a mouthful of tongue-tip blood onto the incense stick in his hand. The supreme yang qi of the essence blood ignited a point of yang fire on his head, which sprayed onto the sandalwood incense in his hand; as the essence blood splattered, the tip of the incense ignited.

He waved the incense around him and walked the Yu-Step, temporarily forcing back the corpse qi with the rolling smoke. However, that thin layer of incense fire was precarious under the assault of the boundless corpse qi and could not last long.

The little ghost on Seeing Xiao Yu's back, whose vitality was severely damaged, took advantage of his weakening life-fire to bite his neck and drain his yang qi.

Seeing Xiao Yu's face turned even paler, but he couldn't care about that: "My incense arts are fine for fooling little ghosts, but the corpse qi here is boundless and won't last long! We must either find a feng shui treasure land to stay the night or hurry to that ruined Bone Temple."

"It's just the beginning of the Hour of the Rat, and the corpse qi isn't fully active yet. After three quarters, all the demonic monsters and zombies not buried in feng shui treasure lands will likely be controlled by this corpse qi. Even if not attacked by monsters, just a slight contamination will likely turn one into a living corpse or zombie," the goat-bearded old Daoist also said solemnly.

The two of them were just about to lift their feet when they saw the big man looking dazed.

"Not good!" the goat-bearded old Daoist said in shock: "He has the death-face of a living person; his resistance to corpse qi is even lower."

Seeing Xiao Yu stepped forward to check and lifted his clothes, only to see that the big man had somehow been contaminated by a wisp of corpse qi. His skin had turned from a greenish-white to the grayish-white of a dead person, and when pressed with a finger, it began to stiffen.

At this moment, the mutton-fat jade fish the big man carried released wisps of yang qi, which temporarily suppressed this stiffness.

"Seeing Xiao Yu, Old Daoist, don't worry about me! You go quickly!" the big man said in a low voice: "I'm so cold; I'm afraid I won't make it out!"

Seeing Xiao Yu said angrily: "What nonsense are you talking about..." He took out the white fish gifted by Yan Jiming from his bosom and reached out to touch the big man's throat. The big man involuntarily opened his mouth, and Seeing Xiao Yu placed the jade fish under the big man's tongue.

At this moment, the big man shuddered, and the corpse qi began to recede.

"You've carried me out of graves so many times; even if I can't carry you, I'll drag you out!" Seeing Xiao Yu inserted the incense sticks he held all over the big man's body.

The goat-bearded old Daoist whispered: "Big man, our fates are linked. As the oath says, together we live, apart we die. If we leave you, we won't make it out of this demonic den either. I still have a jade fish here, enough to last until the Bone Temple!"

"We won't make it..."

The big man suddenly grabbed the two of them and ran at full speed toward the Bone Temple. Seeing Xiao Yu, clamped under his arm, roared: "Are you crazy? Big man, put us down! Running like this, the incense smoke can't isolate the corpse qi. The corpse qi will invade your body, and as your blood circulates, it will soon spread throughout your entire body."

"Even if the corpse qi can't suppress the yang qi protecting your internal organs for a moment, it will soon soak into your bone marrow... You are refining yourself into a living corpse!"

"Seeing Xiao Yu, your magic power is too poor! The incense fire can't protect us for long... If I circulate the yang qi to my head, I can maintain my sanity. The corpse qi refining my body will let me run faster, and we'll be there soon!"

The rolling corpse qi drilled into the big man's body like dragons and snakes. Soon, his body stiffened, forming a rigid, tough corpse-shell on his skin.

His bones began to stiffen, and the joints under his body were being tempered by the corpse qi to become increasingly tough. Soon, Seeing Xiao Yu felt the big man's grip on them becoming more powerful, as if a dragon-elephant were pressing down on them.

No matter how Seeing Xiao Yu struggled, he was just a fish in the big man's hand.

The old Daoist even saw the big man's fingernails gradually lengthening. He leaped several yards at a time, moving sideways through the Bone Forest, passing over the heads of countless big brothers without any zombies coming to block them.

Perhaps, in the eyes of the corpses everywhere, the big man had already become one of their kind.

Seeing Xiao Yu and the old Daoist both hid the terror of the corpse qi, although they did not know that a Core Formation old monster from the Jin family had not lasted long after corpse qi entered his body before unleashing a bloody massacre.

But Seeing Xiao Yu, relying on his Yin-Yang eyes and incense qi, and the old Daoist, relying on the insight inherited from the Yin-Yang School, also vaguely saw the terror of the corpse qi. They understood that even if they found a feng shui treasure land and borrowed land from a big brother, that feng shui earth qi could protect them, but it couldn't protect the big man.

Because the big man was already half-corpse; he grew up eating dead human flesh as a child, which filled his body with death qi. The Qi Refinement arts he practiced could protect the yang qi and life force of his internal organs, keeping him from dying, but as he entered more and more graves, the death qi would sooner or later invade his organs and bone marrow, turning him into a zombie.

Seeing Xiao Yu even suspected that the big man's master had never had good intentions and wanted to refine the big man into an excellent living corpse.

When the old Daoist found Seeing Xiao Yu and the big man, the two were originally in a relationship of mutual utilization. One was proficient in feng shui and yin-yang arts, and the other knew how to communicate with yin spirits and ghosts through incense. The two joined forces to crack the tomb caves of predecessors, taking away magic tools and spirit materials without moving the bones or remains, which gave them gains while minimizing risks.

Seeing Xiao Yu had been schemed against by his master since he was a boy, and the old Daoist was also an old hand in the world; there was no mutual trust in their cooperation, and each had their own plans.

It was when they met the big man—at that time, he had buried his master, had a death-face, and made a living entirely by carrying corpses back to their hometowns for those who died away from home.

The work was dirty and tiring, and although he met wealthy families with generous rewards, the big man was silent and naturally kind-hearted, often seeing poor people who died away from home and carrying their corpses back to their hometowns. Therefore, as a dignified cultivator, he ended up in a miserable state.

Seeing Xiao Yu and the old Daoist, considering that they needed someone to do the dirty and tiring work when entering graves, schemed to get the big man to join them. But the two were not selfish people after all; the three joined forces to enter graves, experiencing life and death several times, and it was always the big man who carried the two of them out. His tough muscles and bones blocked the way for them, and he suffered countless injuries for them.

The three had long since thrown the initial mutual scheming to the back of their minds, establishing a friendship through life and death, and swearing to live and die together.

Seeing Xiao Yu struck the big man's heart with his palm, sparing no effort to consume his life-essence true qi to suppress the corpse qi in his heart pulse. But at this time, the blood vessels in the big man's arms had turned black, and the old Daoist had to exert great effort to cut a wound and break through that tough skin and flesh.

Faint black blood seeped out, and the wound healed quickly.

The old Daoist wailed: "His constitution is too poor, the corpse qi has entered his heart! Big man, the big man is already dead!"

"Nonsense..." Seeing Xiao Yu struggled to lift his head, seeing fangs emerging from the big man's mouth, and choked up: "He just has corpse qi in his body, there's still hope! Old Daoist, bring your jade fish..."

The old Daoist handed the last jade fish he had for protection to Seeing Xiao Yu. Seeing Xiao Yu grabbed the big man's hand, turned it upward, and crushed the jade fish, forcing out the yang qi, which mixed with the incense and drilled into the big man's nose.

The big man's slightly reddish pupils returned to pure blue, and he lowered his head stiffly: "Seeing Xiao Yu... Old Daoist..."

"No!"

The big man suddenly reached out to lift them up, swung with force, and threw them toward the Bone Temple, which was less than a hundred yards away and appeared amidst the curling corpse qi. Seeing Xiao Yu and the old Daoist were thrown dozens of yards away by a vast force, like two light objects.

That force was immensely powerful, but they didn't suffer any injuries when they fell to the ground.

The big man's rapidly growing body, nearly a yard tall, just stood there, gazing at them deeply. His body paused for a few breaths, then stiffened completely, and he began to turn his head slowly, intending to walk into the deeper parts of the Bone Corpse Land.

"No... Big man!" Seeing Xiao Yu struggled to get up and began to frantically search his belongings and the old Daoist's satchel: "I still have incense, I still have incense!" But after searching, the miscellaneous items in the bag were all shaken onto the ground, and there wasn't a single stick of incense left.

The old Daoist said miserably: "When you dispersed the corpse qi, you used up the last bundle of incense!"

"No, I still have one stick of incense!" Seeing Xiao Yu lifted his head: "I am twenty-six years old this year. A Daoist can calculate his own limit. Although practicing the left-hand path has cost me much lifespan, I still have at least two sixty-year cycles of life. Life-oil can extend life, and life can also be turned into oil to light a lamp!"

"With my lifespan, I will ignite my life-fire; I am the incense!"

The little ghost on Seeing Xiao Yu's back suddenly revealed a ferocious look, intending to seize Seeing Xiao Yu's lifespan and leave. At this moment, the old Daoist slapped its head, drew a talisman with his essence blood, and suppressed the little ghost.

"The corpse qi obscures the five senses. Without the big man's intuition when transforming into a corpse, if you go out, you won't find the way back!" The old Daoist slowly turned his head and saw the Bone Temple's gate behind them, which was vast and sat on several acres of land, suppressing the surrounding corpse qi.

They were still ten yards away from the gate, but there was no corpse qi around them anymore.

"I will use my essence blood to activate the compass; I can show you the way!" The old Daoist tied up his Daoist robe and carried his satchel.

Seeing Xiao Yu shook his head: "You..."

"The oath we took in the past was no joke. And I have calculated that our fates are linked... together we live, apart we die! At worst, we will be buried in this feng shui treasure land together, cultivate as Earth Immortals, and entrust ourselves to the care of the big brothers; there might still be a chance to make something of ourselves!"

"Go!" the old Daoist shouted.

Seeing Xiao Yu climbed up, intending to open his own life-apertures, ignite his life-fire, and turn himself into a candle.

At this moment, a Bone Bhikkhu walked out of the temple gloomily, and solemn, orderly chanting came from behind it. Its whole body was devoid of skin and flesh, its head was perfectly round, and three ordination scars were burned onto its skull.

The Bone Bhikkhu reached out, holding three sticks of incense between its finger bones. The incense color was as pure as purple gold, carrying a sandalwood scent that made one's body and mind calm and contained Zen essence.

The old Daoist said in shock: "It says the Abbot gifts us three sticks of incense. Later, the bell will be rung to guide those with affinity!"

"Many thanks, Master!" Seeing Xiao Yu quickly took the sandalwood incense and ignited it with the life-fire on his shoulder. Strangely enough, without Seeing Xiao Yu needing to activate his incense arts, when the three incense sticks were ignited and swirled around them, the surrounding corpse qi actually retreated three steps rapidly.

Seeing Xiao Yu and the old Daoist looked at each other, knowing that the Bone Temple here was extremely strange and likely held some opportunities, but they still resolutely stepped into the corpse qi.

They rushed in the direction where the big man's figure had disappeared earlier. The old Daoist kept calculating the big man's position on the way, and soon, they caught up to the big man who had turned into a zombie.

They saw the big man limping along the road, his expression devoid of the ferocity and bloody aura of a corpse, and instead carrying a sense of bewilderment. It looked exactly like the honest and simple appearance when the three first met.

It unconsciously found a bone tree and bit toward the fungus growing on the tree.

Seeing Xiao Yu came before it. Surprisingly, the zombie the big man had become did not attack, but just chewed the grass leaves blankly, looking down at the little person in front of it. Seeing Xiao Yu gritted his teeth, went up to hug the big man's leg, and tried to lift him with all his might, but even with all his strength, he couldn't move the big man who had taken root in the ground.

Seeing Xiao Yu changed from lifting to pulling, but he couldn't move the big man at all.

The old Daoist said in horror: "Standing like a root, the big man has an earth-fate! It's a good thing that old fox from the Xin family didn't see it; otherwise, the three of us would likely have died when we met that old fox!"

"Old Daoist, stop talking nonsense! Come and see how to pull the big man back!" Seeing Xiao Yu said angrily.

The old Daoist sighed, took out the Three-Pure Bell from his satchel, stood the trident on his head, chanted a spell, and shook the bell, attracting the big man's attention and leading him toward the Bone Temple.

Halfway there, the big man refused to move his feet anymore, seemingly wary of the Bone Temple. Seeing Xiao Yu pushed him from behind, but the big man kept shaking his head, making "ah-ah" sounds.

"Is it true that humans and corpses are destined to be different!" the goat-bearded old Daoist said with grief and indignation: "At worst, we three brothers will die together and try our luck in the next life! I'll go find a deserted feng shui treasure land..."

"I've been loyal enough to live and die with you! When the time comes, I want to be buried in the main seat, and you two can only be buried with me!" the goat-bearded old Daoist said, giving up on everything.

At this moment, from the depths of the Bone Forest in the distance, the sound of suona and gongs and drums suddenly came...

"Deng, deng-deng-deng, deng, deng-deng..."

A team of "people," black and indistinct under the white mist of corpse qi, carried a coffin, walking in orderly steps to the rhythm of the melody, slowly coming from afar.

The old Daoist heard this music with exotic flair, and his expression became even more solemn.

"Walking in the corpse qi, these are likely not living people. Could it be another great evil on patrol?"

"The Demon Corpse General seemed to have mentioned earlier that those favored by the Bone Corpse Land would have coffin-bearers to collect their remains. Could these be the coffin-bearers?" Seeing Xiao Yu glanced at the sandalwood incense in his hand and found that it was burning very quickly; only a third of the incense had been used, and it was already about to burn to the end.

The coffin-bearers came toward them, but the big man refused to move, even trembling slightly as he looked in the direction the coffin-bearers were coming from.

"This time, I'm afraid we won't even have the chance to be buried in a feng shui treasure land!" Seeing Xiao Yu sighed sadly.

The old Daoist was also quite helpless: "It is time, it is fate!"

The coffin-bearers slowly arrived in front of the three. A strange existence, pitch-black all over and resembling a Kunlun slave from a wealthy family, said a few words to the big man. The old Daoist translated: "This is corpse language; it is asking the big man, since he has considerable yin-virtue, is he willing to be buried in the Bone Corpse Land?"

The big man gazed deeply at the two, and the coffin-bearers spoke a few more strange languages.

The old Daoist continued to translate: "It says that for the sake of the big man, it can give us the qualification to be buried with him..."

At this moment, the big man opened his mouth: "Ah-ah-ah... wai-bi-wai-bi... ba-bu-ba-bu..."

Seeing Xiao Yu turned to look at the old Daoist, only to see the old Daoist's expression was strange, and he whispered: "The big man asked them..."

A short while later, Seeing Xiao Yu and the old Daoist sat on the coffin, and the big man lay inside, watching the four coffin-bearers carry them into the Bone Temple. Just as they entered the gate, they heard solemn and bright Zen chanting:

Sa-po-la-fa-yi

Shu-da-na-da-xie

Namo-xi-ji-duo-yi-meng-a-li-ye

Po-lu-ji-di-shi-fo-la-leng-tuo-po

Namo-na-la-jin-chi

Xi-li-mo-po-duo-sha-mie

Amidst the orderly Zen chanting, the magnificent and solemn six-syllable mantra of Om Mani Padme Hum elongated its tone, like a great bell ringing, carrying a vibrato that rushed toward them, causing everyone who heard it to tremble in body and mind.

Hundreds of Bone Bhikkhus knelt before the main hall, solemn and dignified, with their hands pressed together chanting mantras. Above the crowd of Bone Bhikkhus, in front of the main hall, sat a bronze Buddha, sitting with legs crossed, left hand hanging down in front of the knee with the palm facing outward, right forearm raised in front of the chest in a palm-holding gesture.

The solemn Zen chanting echoed in the square.

Seeing Xiao Yu looked up and saw Qian Chen and his group sitting in the main hall, talking and laughing, as if ignoring this strange scene.