Chapter 15: The Corpse Battle of the Yellow Springs

Third Master Li was also very agile. The moment he heard the commotion, he came to an abrupt halt and jerked his head back. This timely movement allowed him to dodge the reaching hand, leaving him sitting flat on the ground.

Failing to grab anything inside the chest, the thing inside pushed the lid further upward.

At that moment, Fox Fur let out a shout, "It will be disastrous if it gets exposed to the moonlight!"

Third Master Li immediately sprang up from the ground, circled to the back of the chest, and delivered a swift, powerful kick. The movement was executed in one fluid motion without a hint of hesitation. Since they were already standing near the edge of the large pit, Third Master Li put his entire strength into the blow, sending the wooden box tumbling down into the darkness at the bottom of the pit.

A sharp, crisp cracking sound of breaking wood soon echoed from below, followed immediately by a strange howl that resembled the wailing of a wolf.

Could this be a zombie? I thought, feeling a sudden surge of terror.

Third Master Li wiped the sweat from his brow, turned around, and smiled at us. "Alright, everyone, what are you standing around daydreaming for?"

Suddenly, I felt that this Third Master Li was truly capable. Although he looked ordinary and unassuming, his composure remained entirely unshaken no matter what he encountered. Not just anyone possessed such temperament; men like him were made for grand endeavors.

Both Fox Fur and Zhang San had their hired hands push their respective chests down into the pit without any unusual incidents occurring. The thin coffin carrying the Man-Wolf's son was also thrown down. I couldn't help but wonder: wasn't the person inside that coffin still alive? Doing this was essentially driving that person onto a path of no return.

Yet, there was no room for mercy here. Everyone had come for their own purposes, and everything else could be ignored.

The man surnamed Zeng waved his hand, and a laborer wearing a straw hat led a black donkey forward.

"Brother Zeng, surely you don't mean to tell us that this black donkey is what you brought?" Zhang San laughed. "I know you southerners have all sorts of bizarre methods, but this is a bit much."

Without a doubt, without a "living corpse," tonight's ritual could not proceed. I carefully scrutinized the black donkey for a long time; apart from noticing how exceptionally quiet it was, I could not detect anything unusual about it.

After leading the black donkey to the edge of the trench, the man in the straw hat walked back. At that moment, someone handed a dagger to the man surnamed Zeng. He took off his suit jacket, accepted the blade, and walked over.

"Son of a bitch. There's something alive inside that donkey's belly," Qin Feng muttered in a low voice.

We saw it too. As the man surnamed Zeng approached the donkey with the dagger, its belly began to heave and contract rhythmically. He pressed the flat of the blade against the donkey's back, made a gentle measuring gesture, and then suddenly drove the knife down with fierce force...

A massive gash was sliced open across the black donkey's belly.

With a heavy slop, a sticky mass of flesh tumbled out from the donkey's belly onto the ground.

What surprised me even more was this: throughout the entire ordeal, the black donkey showed no reaction whatsoever. Even after being disemboweled, it stood there as leisurely as ever, gently swaying its neck as if we people standing around it did not exist at all.

The mass that had tumbled to the ground had a pale pinkish hue, resembling a fleshy tumor. Yet, upon closer inspection, I realized to my horror that they were actually three sticky, underdeveloped little infants clinging together.

They genuinely looked like tiny babies freshly pulled from a mother's womb, their bodies curled up, eyes closed, and plump little legs slowly kicking.

Meanwhile, the woman trailing behind Elder Guizhu dragged a large trunk over. Oblivious to everything around her, she pushed her trunk down into the pit as well. At that moment, I noticed the man surnamed Zeng wearing a malicious grin. Before I could process it, a flash of white light cut through the air, and the three infants on the ground instantly lunged toward the woman.

The woman froze for a second. The next instant, the three infants had already latched onto her chest, their tiny hands clawing at her clothes. The woman did not even flinch; she merely raised her eyes to look at Elder Guizhu.

"Elder Guizhu, she belongs to me now. Next time, I'll definitely send you a better one," the man surnamed Zeng said with a smile, looking at Elder Guizhu.

Guizhu made no movement, only saying in a low voice, "Just make sure you don't forget."

"Heh, rest assured." The man surnamed Zeng's laugh grew even cruder.

On the other side, the woman's garments had already been torn open by the three bizarre infants. They immediately began scrambling to suckle at her breasts.

However, the woman had no milk to give. After sucking a few times, the three infants realized this, and a fierce, malevolent expression suddenly twisted their features. Their eyes slowly snapped open, and three glowing cyan pupils entered my field of vision.

Abruptly, someone beside me darted forward. In the blink of an eye, I saw Qin Feng grab the woman's arm and kick her straight down into the pit.

"You—what are you doing?" the man surnamed Zeng demanded, looking irritated.

Qin Feng glanced at him coldly. "I'm simply saving everyone time. You can save your peculiar tastes to enjoy by yourself when you get home."

I learned only later that those three children were the so-called "Ghost Fetuses." Despite their current infantile appearance, once fed a taste of human blood, there was no telling what manner of monsters they would transform into.

Fighting a corpse was by no means like the depictions in movies, where one simply found a suitable zombie and had a Daoist priest manipulate it at will. In reality, it was a terrifyingly dangerous gamble.

To this day, no one could give an accurate verdict on zombies, living corpses, or similar entities. Even those who frequently dealt with such things could never truly understand them. Unless you died and became a corpse yourself, you would never truly comprehend what a corpse actually was.

The living had no way to completely control the dead; at most, they could only utilize them. Yet even those deeply versed in these dark arts had to proceed with extreme caution, for once a single misstep occurred, the consequences would be unimaginably catastrophic.

The man surnamed Zeng's earlier stunt had been perilous in the extreme. Once he failed to control those three Ghost Fetuses, after they finished devouring that woman clean, every single person present would have been in mortal danger. Therefore, when Qin Feng took that action, no one around blamed him; instead, everyone cast deeply resentful glares at the man surnamed Zeng.

Seemingly intending to show off the formidable nature of his brought asset before the crowd, the man surnamed Zeng found his thunder stolen by Qin Feng, and he looked thoroughly displeased.

At that moment, Third Master Li spoke up, addressing my father. "Sixth Master Yuan, everyone else has finished their business. It is your turn to make a move. Heh, this venture was your proposal, so don't keep us waiting too long."

My thoughts finally snapped back to the main matter at hand. I turned my head and swept my gaze back and forth among my father's hired hands, yet none of them seemed to be carrying any large crates or items.

My father spoke in a deep voice, "Hasn't Old Master Sima yet to make his move? Third Master Li... are you really in such a hurry?"

Third Master Li burst into loud laughter, then cast his gaze toward the group standing at the very edge. "Old Master Sima's party won't be necessary."

Among everyone present, only Old Master Sima's group had not raised a single lantern. Sheltered beneath a massive black umbrella, Old Master Sima looked utterly eerie; whether his head was obscured by the shadow or missing entirely from his neck was impossible to tell.

Fox Fur and Zhang San exchanged glances. My father also wore a pensive expression. After a long pause, he asked softly, "Old Master Sima, have you truly already..."

A gust of chilling wind swept through, as if deliberately arriving to prevent my father from continuing. Instantly, my father clamped his mouth shut.

A ceaseless string of small bells began to chime. Old Master Sima shuffled forward a few steps, stepping out from beneath the shelter of the black umbrella. Under the moonlight, his face appeared deathly pale. Without a word, he walked alone to the edge of the trench and threw himself rigidly down into the pit.

I was utterly horrified, thinking to myself: What on earth is he doing? Didn't he harbor a number of strange figures hidden in the middle-aged woman's house earlier? Those must have been the "living corpses" he brought. Why is he jumping in himself now?

Before I even had a chance to ask my Second Uncle standing beside me, a bright beam of light suddenly flickered from not far away and began moving toward us. Not only that, but I also heard someone shouting my name over there.

"Yuan Jie..."

Everyone else was drawn by the sound, all turning their heads toward the approaching light.

Listening closely, I froze in bewilderment. Why did that voice sound so much like Yao Hui?

Before I could confirm it, the figure drew closer, and upon a second look, it was indeed Yao Hui, clutching a glowing smartphone.

"Yuan Jie."

"Yao Hui," I cried out, rushing over to meet her. Seeing Yao Hui, many people froze in astonishment, wondering who she was, why she had come here, and why she was so breathtakingly pretty...

"Yao Hui, how did you get to this place?" I asked hurriedly.

"It—it was Master Yuan who told me to come. What? Didn't you know?" Yao Hui looked around with a hint of apprehension.

Hearing this, I was stunned and immediately whipped my head around to look at my father.

Without turning back, my father merely said, "Bring her to the front."

An uneasy feeling churned in my stomach. Beside me, Third Master Li cast a suspicious glance at my father before carefully sizing up Yao Hui.

"Sixth Master Yuan, you don't seem like the kind of careless man to casually reveal this place to outsiders, do you?" Zhang San asked.

As soon as he finished speaking, Elder Guizhu suddenly let out a dry, rattling chuckle.

"Heh heh heh... ke ke ke ke... Yuan Long, you truly have formidable methods. You managed to find something like this. No wonder... heh heh heh..."

Unable to hold back any longer, I demanded of my father, "Dad, what on earth is going on here? Why did you have Yao Hui come to this place?"

My father still ignored me. Just as I was about to press him further, Yao Hui—who had been gripping my hand—suddenly released her hold. Her eyes locked onto something in the distance, her gaze abruptly turning vacant, and her entire body began to walk rigidly straight toward my father.

Third Master Li's eyebrows twitched, his expression darkening for the very first time.

Puzzled, I followed closely behind Yao Hui. When I pulled at her, she ignored me; when I called her name, she gave no reaction whatsoever. At that moment, Qin Feng suddenly reached out from behind and grabbed me by the shoulder.

"Young Master, don't go over there," Qin Feng said.

I tried to push forward, but Qin Feng pressed down on me with such crushing force that I couldn't move an inch.

Right then, I saw my father slowly raise his gloved right hand. Something was writhing beneath the fabric on the back of his hand.

Straining my eyes to look closer, I saw a pale yellow snake, roughly as thick as a thumb, coiled several times around my father's forearm.

It was precisely toward that snake in my father's hand that Yao Hui was marching. My heart skipped a beat, and in an instant, I understood what had happened to Yao Hui.

She walked right up to my father's side, staring unblinkingly at the pale yellow serpent. Before long, a faint smile began to tug at the corners of Yao Hui's lips; as her mouth parted, saliva began to trickle down her chin.

Yao Hui inched her face closer and closer, until it was practically touching the snake.

The small snake arched its body in alarm, flicking its tongue incessantly at Yao Hui. It looked ready to lunge straight at her face.

Yet right at that moment, Yao Hui suddenly opened her mouth wide and, with a sharp snap, bit the suspended snake's head clean off.

Everyone else stared in dumbfounded shock. I had no idea why my father would deliberately lure Yao Hui into doing this.

After chewing a few times, Yao Hui swallowed the snake's head down into her belly. Then, she ripped the remaining body of the snake off my father's arm and squatted down right beside him, devouring it ravenously like a beggar who had starved for days.

"A living corpse! She—she is a true living corpse!" Zhang San and Fox Fur cried out in sudden, terrified alarm.

Everyone stared at Yao Hui as if trying to avoid some horrifying plague; several people even instinctively retreated a few paces.

Third Master Li said in a grave voice, "Sixth Master Yuan, is this the living corpse you managed to find?"

My father gave a slight nod, casually reached out and plucked a few strands of hair from Yao Hui's head, and handed them to Third Master Li.

Third Master Li accepted the hairs, gave them a sniff, and his complexion turned even uglier.

"Dad, what nonsense are you talking about? How could Yao Hui possibly be a thing like that? She came here this time for you to cure her illness!" I shouted aloud.

My father glanced at me, then turned his gaze back to Yao Hui. "That younger paternal aunt of yours is truly something, actually sending you to handle a task like this. She has no illness... how could someone who is already dead fall ill?"

"What?" I stared at my father in absolute stupefaction, then involuntarily looked back at Yao Hui.

Yet my mind utterly refused to accept my father's words. How could Yao Hui possibly be dead? We had traveled here together, and we had even shared... "You're talking nonsense! She has a heartbeat and a breath, how can she be dead?"

"A living corpse is simply a living corpse—a dead person who happens to still be walking around. What are you shouting for? If I had a choice in this matter, I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole," my father said as he pulled Yao Hui up from the ground. By then, Yao Hui had already finished devouring the entire snake. Looking at Yao Hui's face once more, all the events of the past couple of days flashed vividly through my mind.

Though I had always felt that Yao Hui was deeply abnormal—and at times even made me feel a sense of dread—I still firmly believed deep down that she was... human.

"Yao Hui, come over here quickly! Don't stay near my dad," I immediately called out to her.

However, having consumed that snake, Yao Hui seemed utterly deaf to any sounds around her. She stood there mechanically, then slowly turned her body away.

"Tch, it seems you won't shed tears until you actually see your own coffin," my father muttered, shaking his head. He held out a hand toward Second Leng of the Liu family, who instantly produced a gleaming dagger and handed it over.

A jolt of panic struck my heart. "Dad, what are you doing?"

My father glared fiercely at me and suddenly drove the dagger straight into Yao Hui's shoulder blade.

"Argh—Dad, have you lost your mind? She's a liv—" I struggled to lunge forward, but suddenly found myself completely immobilized.

After plunging the dagger in, my father executed a smooth, upward slash with a level of practiced familiarity that was downright chilling. In the blink of an eye, a layer of skin and flesh across Yao Hui's back was sliced wide open.

Instantly, what manifested inside Yao Hui's body was not bone, muscle, or internal organs, but rather... thick, writhing clusters of snake-like entities squirming about.

After staring at the sight for a few seconds longer, I realized with absolute certainty that those things were, without a shadow of a doubt, actual snakes.

All the strength instantly drained from my limbs, and I collapsed heavily onto the ground. Every single interaction I had shared with Yao Hui over the past few days replayed in my mind relentlessly, clashing violently with the horrific tableau before me until my head felt fit to split.

I suddenly recalled the strange, knowing smile my younger aunt had worn as I was leaving.

Son of a bitch. So that was it—my aunt had simply wanted to use me to transport a living corpse right to my father's doorstep. This was beyond absurd.

Everyone around us swallowed hard. Zhang San and Fox Fur looked as though they were desperately considering making their escape.

Without another word, my father nudged Yao Hui forward and approached the edge of the trench. He murmured something softly into her ear, and suddenly, that eerie, bizarre smile bloomed across Yao Hui's face once again.

Yao Hui began shuffling forward toward the pit, and my father walked back to our group.

A living corpse—a true living corpse. To put it bluntly, they were a form of parasited human.

In extremely rare instances, these individuals were actually born already dead, though they remained entirely oblivious to the fact. Inside such a person's body, a peculiar, supernatural entity would grow, taking over the functions of the internal organs and sustaining the host so they could walk the earth like a normal human being.

As the person aged, their long-since-rotted internal organs would gradually disintegrate and vanish, leaving those parasitic entities to completely take over the physical vessel. Once even the brain was entirely consumed, the original human personality ceased to exist altogether. Their outward appearance and limbs would then be entirely manipulated by the entity residing within. Ultimately, that person would transform into a terrifying monstrosity.

In a sense, such an entity transcended the boundaries of life and death, able to freely traverse the realms of the living and the dead.

A sudden thought occurred to me: Did Yao Hui herself know about any of this?

I suspected she had no idea. My aunt must have faced countless inconveniences and found herself with no one else she could trust, which was why she had entrusted this matter to me.

Naturally, she could never have explained such a thing to me, so I had sleepwalked through the journey, bringing Yao Hui here as if trapped in a surreal dream.

And the moment Yao Hui leaped down into that trench, my dream would finally reach its end.

Now, that awakening was only a single step away.

Yet just as one of Yao Hui's feet crossed over into empty air, she abruptly whipped her head around, her lips parting as she whispered something low.

Watching from a distance, I suddenly understood: she had been calling my name.

An overwhelming, alien surge of emotion began to flood my system—or perhaps, it was simply raw impulse. As I watched Yao Hui's figure begin to slip into the abyss of the night, I violently jerked myself up from the ground, lunging past the crowd before Qin Feng could grab me again.

That primal impulse drove me straight toward the edge of the pit, but Second Leng intercepted me, slamming me down onto the ground and pinning my arms in place.

"Young Master, that woman isn't..." Second Leng choked back the rest of his sentence, his voice softening. "Let it go."

"Heh heh heh, Sixth Master Yuan, it seems your young master has rather unique tastes as well, keeping his deep affections even for a corpse," Third Master Li laughed mockingly.

At that moment, Zhang San stepped forward irritably. "Yuan Liu, finding a living corpse proves you've got skills, but how do you plan to clean up this mess once things start?"