Chapter Fifty: Blood Pool

  In the darkness, an old man's corpse stood motionless, I felt his face was facing me, scanning my body. Leaning against the wall, my heart was extremely tense.

  For a long time, the dark cave was in a state of deathly silence. This silence was broken by a mournful cry that came from outside the cave. And at this moment, I saw the old man who had been hanging himself suddenly fall to the ground with a thud.

  I stared blankly at the hanged old man, somewhat puzzled. At this time, the hanged old man struggled on the ground, but he couldn't get up from the ground for a long time. In the end, he didn't move anymore.

  I felt a bit nervous, slowly walking towards the hanged old man. When I reached in front of him, I stretched out my foot and kicked his thigh twice. However, the hanged old man didn't have any reaction at all.

  I called out to him twice, but he still didn't respond, so I reached out to feel the old man's breath. Just then, the hanged old man stretched out his hand and grabbed mine. I was startled and struggled with all my might.

  In the darkness, I heard a hoarse and weak voice coming from the mouth of the hanged old man: "Are you Xiao Sen?"

  "I yelled at the top of my lungs: 'Old mixed hair, let me go.'"

  The old man's grip finally loosened, not because he wanted to let go, but because he had no more strength left. His voice grew even weaker, barely audible: "My life is at an end, I'm glad I got to see you before I die."

  "All these years, I've been living in hatred, making myself neither human nor ghost. That woman, I loved her so much, but she kept deceiving me, and finally turned me into this state. Twenty years have passed, yet I still can't forget, as if everything happened yesterday."

  The old man's voice was already choking: "For so many years, I've been living a life worse than death, but what I never expected was that the woman would be living extremely well, extremely luxuriantly. This time, riding on the flying corpse, I saw her, and for some reason, the hatred in my heart suddenly disappeared completely."

  The old corpse lay on the ground, starting to crawl towards me non-stop. I shrank into the corner of the wall and couldn't help but scream loudly. The old corpse crawled for a while, then ran out of energy, stretched out its hand and said to me: "It's you, it's you who awakened me, thank you, Xiao Sen. But my life is already at an end, it's all over."

  When I finished saying this sentence, the old man hanging in the air didn't have any reaction. I shouted: "You hairy old man, don't pretend to be dead, hurry up and get up for me."

  The old man's corpse was motionless, like a stone.

  I walked over and checked the old man's breath, finding that he was still breathing, but very weak. For some reason, I felt a little scared of his death. Firstly, if he died, I would be finished too, I wouldn't even be able to get down the mountain. Secondly, because I had listened to his words, my heart was somehow moved.

  I dragged him onto my bed, exhausted and panting, and fed him two mouthfuls of water in the dark. At this moment, I had also thoroughly exhausted all my strength. I sat leaning against the stone wall, using my last bit of energy to keep my eyelids from closing, staring rigidly at the outside of the cave. One hand rested on the human skin drum, ready to defend against the corpse monster's attack at any time.

  Perhaps, even if a person knows they are going to die, they will still make a resistant move. This may be an instinct, a born-to-be survival behavior.

  I quietly leaned against, and spent a very difficult night. The next day, when I opened my eyes in a daze, I found that the old man was still lying motionless, stretched out my hand to touch him, his breathing was still extremely weak, and there was no sign of him waking up at all.

  The corpse of the old man had a backpack on him, I opened it and found some dry rations inside. After wolfing them down, my hunger was gone, but immediately followed by a severe pain. In the end, I fainted.

  When I woke up, it was noon. Before opening my eyes, I felt that my whole body was soaked in sweat. I crawled up from the ground and took a look at the old man hanging from the beam, he was still lying there, motionless.

  I opened the package again and found some rice inside, with some unshelled grains of wheat.

  Rice is not much, and millet is also not much. I quickly picked out the millet and packed it up. Although these millets are few, they are life-saving grains. In case this hanged old man died like this, I would think of a way to survive anyway.

  After selecting the wheat, I took the rice to the kitchen and carefully put it away. Then, carrying the wheat, I went to an open area outside the cave, cleared a piece of land, and planted the wheat. It was just springtime, and the season was just right.

  In a flash, half a month has passed. The old man's corpse hasn't woken up, and the wheat seedlings have grown very tall. I've opened up a piece of farmland outside the cave and become a farmer.

  In the blink of an eye, half a month has passed, and the old man's corpse is still not awake. The seedlings in my field are growing very well, with a lush green color all over. During this time, I also found some wild vegetables around and opened up a vegetable garden next to the field.

  In the blink of an eye, two and a half months have passed, summer has arrived, and the weather is starting to get hot. The rice in the fields already shows signs of blooming. During this time, I went searching for food on the mountain and unexpectedly found a nest of rabbits next to the Hanging Coffin Cave.

  Then I caught the rabbit and raised it.

  After lunch, I returned to the cave and saw that the hanged old man was still lying there motionless. I couldn't help but sigh and scold him loudly: "You this hairy old man, you think you can pretend to be dead and stop me? Open your eyes and take a look, I'm not only not dead, but I'm also very much alive."

  Apart from trying to survive, I also try to practice the art of ghost doctor. The hanging coffin cave has many corpse monsters, just right for me to practice on.

  I chose a technique from Ghost Doctor that really interests me, called Puppet Silver Needle.

  This move is extremely evil, and the book comes with an illustration, the illustration even makes people feel a sense of horror.

  The background of the picture is a gloomy sky, with a person standing on a rock. The face is half illuminated by moonlight and the other half hidden in darkness, so only one eye can be seen.

  The only eye that this person could see was actually filled with a hint of evil, making one feel a chill in their heart just by staring at the eyes of the person in the illustration for a moment.

  What's even more frightening is that this person was actually holding a human head in his hand. The head looked very strange, with only a patch of white skin visible, and the mouth and face were not at all like those of a human being.

  In fact, this is not a real human head, but a puppet head made by the ghost doctor. The head was made from the hair of a dead person, including clothes, and then a face was painted on the clothes, so the puppet head was completed.

  Looking at the illustration again, the person with a wicked face in the illustration inserted a silver needle into the puppet's head, and his hand seemed to be turning. And not far from that person, someone stood upright. As the wicked-faced guy turned the silver needle, the person standing upright not far away from him seemed to move in sync with his rhythm.

  This is the Puppet Silver Needle. The method of use is to use a silver needle to pierce a corpse's head and create a puppet silver needle symbol. Then, take the hair from the corpse and create a puppet. After that, insert one array into the puppet's head.

  At this point, the Marionette Silver Needle Technique has basically been completed, and the final step is to recite the incantation and drive the marionette.

  The incantation is somewhat complicated, with over a dozen segments of incantations that control the puppet's different behaviors, such as moving forward and backward, and can even control the puppet to speak. If the silver needle practice reaches perfection, it can even make the controlled corpse look no different from a living person.

  These days, I successfully refined the puppet silver needle. Unfortunately, for this curse, I always grasped it poorly. Because of a slight carelessness, I made a corpse stiffly twist off its own head. And another corpse, I lost control and let that corpse jump off the cliff.

  However, after two months of practice, I can already control the puppet to do most things, such as helping me dig the ground, going up the mountain to fetch water, listening to my commands, and fighting with other undead creatures.

  Time has flown quietly, and two and a half months have passed unknowingly. On this night, I came alone to sit on a stone outside the cave. In the sky, another moon appeared, and I stared at the moon, thinking of many people.

  My heart is extremely uncomfortable, with an urge to cry. To numb myself, I started practicing puppet silver needle, controlling the corpse to move back and forth repeatedly, and also engaged in a tearing and biting match with another corpse monster. In the end, I was tired, and alone, dragging a long shadow back into the cave.

  As a result, when I arrived at the cave, I surprisingly saw the hanged old man lying on the bed, convulsing violently. My heart was shocked, and I rushed to the hanged old man. After lighting the torch, I saw that the hanged old man had opened his eyes at this moment, and those two eyeballs were actually blood-red.

  Suddenly, the hanged old man climbed up, his mouth opened, revealing a few fangs inside. It was only then that I reacted, realizing that on this full moon night, the hanged old man had transformed into a corpse.

  I hastily retreated and ran out of the cave. The hanging corpse old man followed, shouting fiercely in his mouth. I took out the human skin drum, two drums went down, and the hanging corpse old man let out a sharp cry and escaped.

  Looking at his back, I felt a bit tired. The next day, the hanged old man came back. When I saw him, I found that his eyes were still red. Fortunately, he woke up after last night's corpse change.

  Unfortunately, the hanged old man at this moment has not had a bit of human appearance. Even during the day, there are still four fangs growing in the mouth of the hanged old man.

  "Xiao Sen, is that you?"

  I nodded and walked silently to the bedside. The old man stretched out his hand, grasped for a while, didn't catch me, and then withdrew his hand: "Thank you for not killing me when I was unconscious. These days, I've been in a state of half-sleep and half-wakefulness, I know everything now. Thank you, Xiao Sen, I never thought that at my most helpless moment, it would be you by my side."

  I sneered: "I just wanted to wait for you to wake up and kill you when you're sober."

  The old man's corpse suddenly became agitated: "Xiao Sen, Xiao Sen."

  I saw that his whole body was convulsing, and his face turned whiter and whiter. I furrowed my brow and walked towards him, but unexpectedly the hanged old man suddenly flipped over and grabbed me tightly. At this moment, his strength was boundless.

  Then he took off running with me: "Xiao Sen, this is the only thing I can do for you."

  The old corpse brought me to the Hanging Stone Cave, before I could react, I was thrown into a pool. The pool was filled with blood, and several corpses were floating in it, twitching constantly.