Chapter 4: Corpse King

  There was no one else here, it should be calling himself, as for how the other party found out that he was at the door, he didn't want to pursue it anymore. There were too many things in this place that couldn't be explained by science.

  A young man was lounging in a rocking chair under the pagoda tree in the small courtyard, playing with his iPad. He caught sight of Shi Yian coming in out of the corner of his eye, rocked the chair back and forth a few times before sitting up straight, put down the thing he was holding onto the low table beside him, and picked up the teapot from the table to fill two cups, saying "Let's have some tea."

  There was another rocking chair by the low table, and the tea in the two cups was just right, not hot or cold. It seemed to be specially waiting for him to arrive. Suddenly, Shi Yinan remembered what his younger uncle said this morning, "Can you tell fortunes?"

  "I just know a little more than others, that's all." Master Shi Yan slowly sipped two mouthfuls of tea, put the cup down, and crossed his pale hands over his lower abdomen.

  "Your uncle said your body is not very good." Shī Yǐ ān didn't know what to say either, so he just said whatever came to mind.

  Shi Yu Xing listened and then smiled as if it was nothing, saying: "Leaking heavenly secrets always requires paying a price."

  After finishing speaking, he also gestured for Shi Yi'an to stretch out his hand.

  Shi Yi An's hesitant hand was grasped by Shi Yi, whose palm was hot and fingertips were icy cold. The feeling made Shi Yi An involuntarily shudder.

  "Career is going extremely well, love life is booming. However..."

  Shi Yian got a score of 134 in the Chinese language exam, and various answer strategies were all professionally trained, so it's natural to hear that this turning point is the key.

  "Your descendants' luck is almost non-existent, there are two possibilities, one is that you're incompetent, the other is that you're gay." Shi Yue continued to say.

  "This kid must be joking."

  "If it's the former, I advise you to either go to a hospital for infertility or early treatment. Although this treatment cannot reverse your destiny of having no offspring, at least you can enjoy the happiness that everyone has the right to enjoy. If it's the latter, then you should start facing your sexual orientation from now on. After all, you're already destined to be childless, so don't pretend to get married and deceive a girl."

  Shi Yi's face suddenly had a played look, pulling a long face and saying: "Shi Yi Xing, I guess you definitely don't have any friends."

  "Each other."

  Thus the two people destined to have no friends used tea instead of wine and had an in-depth exchange on recent cultural, economic, entertainment and other common concerns, reaching a consensus in a friendly atmosphere.

  Shi Yi Xing has been living in the mountains for some years, but in fact, he used to attend ordinary schools at the foot of the mountain before that. However, he had the ability to predict the future through divination, and many times, he foresaw things and couldn't just stand by and do nothing. The more he did such things that leaked heaven's secrets, the shorter his lifespan became. In the end, his younger uncle had no choice but to force him back to the mountains, out of sight, out of mind. After that, he was not even allowed to do fortune-telling or divination anymore.

  "My great aunt couldn't stand the loneliness in the mountains and my great uncle's dullness, so she divorced him shortly after giving birth to my eldest brother. My third aunt was always abroad for work, as for me... well, I'm just the product of a one-night stand between my dad and someone else. My mom was young at the time and thought she had just gained weight, but by the time she realized she was pregnant with me, it was too late."

  Shi Yi An didn't know whether he should comfort him after listening to it.

  Shi Yi, who was originally lying calmly in the rocking chair, suddenly sat up, his face a bit dazed, and said: "Third Uncle is in trouble."

  Shi Yi'an and Shi Yi hurriedly ran towards the entrance of the Shi Manor, and just as they arrived, they saw Wen Xiu carrying Third Uncle walking in. Eldest Uncle was as usual, even Fourth Uncle, who was normally not serious, had a solemn expression on his face.

  Third Uncle's whole body was covered in blood, looking extremely disheveled. Wenxiu placed him on the couch beside the main hall and retreated to one side. Eldest Brother put the medicine box on the low table and sat down beside the couch, first pressing Third Uncle's chest, then observing his complexion. Third Uncle's face was deathly pale, and he kept coughing, with tiny spots of blood spraying from his mouth onto Eldest Brother's cyan long robe, the bloodstains spreading out like plum blossoms.

  "Third Uncle might have hurt his trachea or lungs, let's send him to the hospital." Shi Yi'an was getting anxious, he feared that these people would only believe in feudal superstitions and miss Third Uncle's best treatment opportunity.

  "The ambulance is on its way, Third Uncle has been infected with corpse poison. If we can't get the corpse poison out first, even if we make it to the hospital, he won't survive." Shī Yì pulled Shī Yì ān away from Third Uncle, creating enough space for Big Brother and Little Uncle to rescue him.

  The little uncle pulled out a talisman and stuck it on the third uncle's chest, muttering something to himself. The words on the talisman began to shine, and the paper slowly merged into the third uncle's chest.

  "The poison is very potent." said Xiao Shu, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

  "I know, Third Brother has already taken the emergency antidote pill, and yet he's still reacting this badly. Looks like he's run into a formidable old fellow." Eldest Uncle used his hand to support Third Uncle's shoulder, flipping him over and tearing open his clothes.

  There was a huge, dry palm print on San Shu's back, and Shi Yi An could even see the black purple smoke rising from the claw marks. Da Bo took out a white bag, put something unknown inside, and covered it over the palm print, and the bag began to change color slowly.

  "What's going on." Shi Yian felt like a complete idiot right now, and he didn't even know what they were doing, let alone how to help.

  Shi Yi coughed twice, his face turned pale as he sat on the stool and replied: "My dad sealed Third Uncle's heart meridian with talisman paper to prevent corpse poison from invading the heart meridian. Eldest Uncle is now using glutinous rice to absorb the toxin for Third Uncle."

  "So, how's Third Uncle doing?"

  "It's fortunate that you've returned in time, basically there aren't any major issues now, but the corpse poison can't be completely eliminated. With Third Uncle's cultivation, being able to turn him into this kind of zombie is definitely not simple, and only Grandfather can contend with it." Shi Yue spoke while coughing twice.

  Shi Yi'an saw that San Shu's complexion had begun to improve, and his heart also slightly put down a bit.

  Before long, the sound of an ambulance came from outside, and several medical personnel rushed in to lift Third Uncle onto the ambulance. Eldest Brother followed the vehicle as it left, leaving Fourth Uncle to guard the house.

  "Don't they think it's abnormal here?" Shi Yi'an watched as the ambulance sped away with its siren blaring, her face full of incredulity.

  Young uncle is now completely different from his usual careless self, staring at the trees by the door with sharp eyes. After hearing Shi Yian's question, he smiled lightly and said: "It's just a trick to distract your attention. You should reflect on your mistakes in the past. Tonight, no matter what happens outside, you are not allowed to come out. Did you hear that?"

  "Oh."

  "You have to promise me, absolutely don't come out."

  Looking at Third Uncle's expression didn't seem like a joke either, so I could only stretch out three fingers and say: "I guarantee it."

  As the sun was about to set, Third Uncle came to Si Wei's residence again. First, he confirmed that Shi Yi'an hadn't left the house and then repeatedly reminded Yun Mo to be vigilant tonight. Even someone as dull as Shi Yi'an understood that something big would happen tonight.

  Although he couldn't help much, he still couldn't help but feel a bit restless. He picked up a book of talismans and sat by the window, half-reading and half-staring blankly until 9 o'clock. Outside, the wind started to pick up. The strong gusts blew trash from the window into the room, landing on Shi Yian's body.

  Shi Yi'an picked up the object on his body, only to find that it was a talisman paper, which was more complicated than what he had drawn before. What's even stranger was that the talisman paper felt heavy in his hand, and the contents written with cinnabar on its surface were emitting a faint glow.

  He folded the talisman and put it in his pocket, closing the window. He had gotten up too early this morning and was already feeling a bit tired. Shi Yi'an went to the bathroom to take a bath, but before he could even finish washing, he heard the high-pitched ringing sound outside the house. The ringing grew more urgent and louder.

  Shi Yi'an burst out of the bathroom with a head full of foam, hastily put on his pants and ran outside. It wasn't until he touched the door handle that he remembered he had promised Third Uncle that he would absolutely not go out. An abnormal stench wafted in from the courtyard, accompanied by faint gasping sounds, which piqued Shi Yi'an's curiosity to its highest point.

  Shi Yian looked out the window, outside was dark without any lights, only two red dots. Shi Yian took two steps back and turned off the house light, now the thing outside revealed a shadow, it had four legs on the ground but its body shape seemed to have some human-like features. It seemed to be bound by something in the middle of the yard.

  That thing swung its front paws back and forth, the bell sound began to weaken, the monster made a forward pouncing motion, and actually rushed towards the gate. Shī Yǐ ān's heart suddenly quickened.

  A figure flashed out from the opposite collapsed house and entwined with the monster, relying on the faint light in the darkness to carefully identify it as Yun Mo.

  At this time, Yun Mo was no longer the child he once was, but a young man over eight feet tall. A faint blue glow emanated from his palm, and it seemed that as a house spirit like Yun Mo, dealing with ordinary ghosts should be more than enough, but facing this demon now was extremely exhausting.

  Yun Mo was knocked flying several times by his opponent and it was clear he was starting to tire.

  Shi Yian knew his abilities were limited, and with a surge of adrenaline, he gripped the door handle tightly, his knuckles turning white. The creature outside had knocked over Yun Mo once again and was now charging towards the main gate. Shi Yian felt the windows shaking violently. In desperation, he covered his head and crouched down, but in an instant, the glass shattered, shards flying into the room from outside, scattering all over the floor.

  Fortunately, Shi Yi had been hiding behind the wooden door early on, otherwise being sprayed with these glass fragments would have made him a sanding board.

  Inside and outside, the stench became even more obvious. The smell was very familiar to Shi Yian, a mixture of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. Anything that could produce these two gases seemed to be nothing but a rotting corpse.

  It turned out that Third Uncle was actually injured by this guy.

  However, this guy is quite bold and actually came to the master's house. Shi Yian is now somewhat regretful, if he had known earlier, he would have asked San Shu some things about this aspect, at least to save his life first.

  Shi Yi An's palm suddenly touched a hard object in the pocket beside him.

  The talisman paper blown in by the wind earlier?

  Shi Yi'an took out the talisman paper, pinched it in his hand, and his forehead was covered with bright sweat beads. He wanted to take a few deep breaths to calm down, but the stench of the corpse was really too nauseating. He held his breath, gazing at the talisman paper in his hand, and could only vaguely see that there was a "ding" character written on it in the darkness.

  The monster's strength was enormous, and with one swift motion, it sent the door panel flying out along with Shi Yian. Shi Yian crashed into the desk behind him and fell to the ground, feeling as though his spine had almost been shattered by the massive impact.

  Hiss. The monster stopped at the door, its skin had rotted and turned brown, a pair of crimson eyes stared at Shi Yian, revealing greed and bloodlust. Shi Yian was slightly flustered, he wasn't sure if he could handle this situation.

  What to do, Shi Yi'an is now sweating profusely, his hand grasping the talisman paper was dripping with sweat, and the originally soft talisman paper was almost soaked into a ball.

  Yun Mo flipped in from outside the house, blocking Shi Yi'an's path and saying: "I'll block for you, you run outside to find Third Young Master."

  The monster didn't even bother with Yun Mo, and instead pounced directly at Shi Yi'an behind him. In a state of panic, Shi Yi'an threw the talisman paper in the direction of the monster, which stuck to its body all crumpled up.

  The monster was fixed in a posture as if it were about to attack.

  "What's going on?" Yun Mo didn't have much time to react, and he quickly pulled Shi Yi'an's hand as they ran out of Si Wei's residence. In an instant, the faint panting and intense stench of death caught up with them.

  In the peach blossom forest, Shi Yi and San Shu were rushing towards Si Wei's residence. As soon as Shi Yi saw them, he thought they were his saviors and loudly shouted: "Save me!"

  Third Uncle's hand shone brightly for a moment, and a pink talisman paper shot out like lightning. The monster behind him wanted to escape when it saw Third Uncle, but the talisman paper was faster. As soon as it touched the monster's body, a fierce flame erupted, burning much faster than the fire Shi Yi'an had set in the study earlier.

  The monster wailed as it was burned into a ball of ash, leaving Shi Yian staring blankly from several steps away.