Chapter Forty-Five: Poisoned by Corpse Toxin

  I held that little girl in my arms, looking like she was only about 5 years old. She stopped crying and slowly looked up at me. I saw her smile at me! It's a zombie!

  My hand was bitten by her, I felt the flesh was about to be bitten off, I jumped up in pain and tried to shake her off, but couldn't. In a panic, I slammed her against the wall, finally shaking her off. I saw her crawling towards me with a piece of my skin still in her mouth... I looked at my hand and saw that a chunk of flesh had been bitten off.

  That little girl was covered in blood and kept laughing as she crawled towards me, I panicked! "In the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, the three births and five elements, Li Huo Sheng! Li Huo Fen!" When I cast the Li Huo curse, I thought it wouldn't work on her at all, but the result was unexpected. The Li Huo flames engulfed the little girl even more fiercely, leaving behind only a charred corpse lying on the ground. What's going on? Suddenly it worked again?

  I get it! Except for the undead zombies, everyone who was bitten by it has a soul! That's why the fire is useful! But looking at my hand being bitten, will I become a zombie?

  "Zi Chuan! Where are you!" I heard Ze Heng's voice, what to do! Can't let them know I've been bitten, I put on my clothes and picked up some straw from the ground to cover the wound, I feel blood constantly flowing and I'm sweating profusely.

  "Zi Chuan, what's wrong?" Ze Hong saw me like this and supported me.

  "It's okay, go find Zilin, I just encountered a zombie that was a bit too powerful...". I didn't dare to tell them the truth, so the three of us walked out, and not a single villager noticed. I felt like my body was floating, and my head was completely blank.

  "Zehong, you guys come quick, we found it." I vaguely heard Zilun's shouting voice, and the three of us walked over to see Zilun waiting for us at a house door. "Follow me," he said without looking at me, walking into the house instead. Inside was a tunnel, which was quite wide and could fit two people side by side. After walking for a while, we saw some signs of light in front of us.

  "I felt myself getting weaker and weaker, and before I could say anything, I fell down."

  ......

  "He was bitten by a corpse, but it's not too late, junior brother, you go and force the corpse poison out of him." My hazy consciousness vaguely heard their conversation.

  "Senior brother, it won't work. This person doesn't know why all the corpse poison is gathering towards his heart, as if the blood in his body is extremely compatible with the corpse poison."

  "Is there a way?"

  "I... I'm not doing well yet, can only suppress the corpse poison from spreading inside for now, but must bring it back to Mao Shan within three days," I heard that person sigh, everything I saw was very blurry...

  "Let's just suppress it for now..."

  I felt my body being occupied by silver needles, it was strange, there was a feeling of something rushing to my head, my consciousness slowly cleared, and I saw that person holding five needles in each hand, stabbing them into my fingertips, the pain made me cry out.

  "Ugh!" I involuntarily spat out a mouthful of black, foul-smelling blood. "Zikawa! You were bitten by a zombie, why didn't you tell us?!" I saw Zehong still glaring at me, it was because I didn't want to drag them down.

  "Will I become a zombie?" I said gloomily... Who would have thought that I would actually become a zombie.

  "No way, once we're out I'll take you to Mao Shan! You won't become a zombie!" Ze Heng shook me desperately, shaking me very uncomfortably. "Okay, okay, if you shake me again I'll die..."

  "How long was I unconscious?"

  "It's almost an hour." I looked at the time and it was already after 4 o'clock. I was in a large hall of the underground, where many village names were afraid of me, fearing that I would become a zombie?

  "Is the village chief still here?" I saw Zi Lin call out, and an old man came out, "I... I am." He looked a bit awkward.

  "I'm a Taoist, and I've come here this time to find out what's happened." The villagers who heard that Zilong was a Taoist were somewhat excited, because they also knew how serious the things that had been happening in their village were.

  "Ah, Daozhang... you must save us." I saw all the villagers kneeling down and staring at Zilong, what on earth was happening?

  "We... our village... has zombies!"

  I looked at the village chief's unsettled expression and continued: "Our village was originally the hometown of a hero named Yang Tie during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Because his courtesy name was Panshi, it was named Panshi Village. Our ancestors have been farming and living here for generations. Yang Tie died in war because of his outstanding achievements and was buried in his hometown by Liu Xiu. We regard him as a village guardian deity."

  Every year, our village holds a sacrificial ritual to express our reverence for him. However, there was a person in the village named Zhang Sheng, who was a grave robber. I saw that he had lost his parents at a young age and was an orphan, so no one paid attention to him.

  Grave robbing? In simpler terms, it means digging up graves.

  Who knew that he actually set his sights on Yang Tie's tomb? After I discovered him, I chased him away. We didn't know what happened afterwards, but the next day when we saw him return, his face was deathly pale. Whenever he saw someone, he would bite and turn into this...

  "Hmm, it seems like something's happened at Yang Tie Mu's grave. We'll go take a look tonight. Zi Chuan, you come meet me later, first go rest in the tent." Zi Lin seemed to have an idea after hearing this, but seeing that I was injured, he instructed me to move aside. "I'm fine... let me come along too." If they left me alone by myself, I wouldn't accept it either.

  "Hmm... then if something happens, you can come down from the mountain." Zi Lin said slowly, seemingly in agreement.

  "Kokawa, don't worry, I'll protect you." Seeing Ze Heng swing his life-taking sword twice, I couldn't help but laugh.

  "Exactly, Brother Zikawa! And what about me?" Shiteng also followed his senior brother to do it. Was I moved by the two of them?

  We took the villagers out, and Zi Lin ordered Captain Luo to prepare some black dog blood. We sat in the tent for a rest, while Zi Lin was constantly drawing something on the side, it turned out that he was drawing talismans.

  After a short rest, Captain Luo brought several thermoses of black dog blood. Zi Lin gave each of us one thermos. Zombies are actually afraid of a few things: peach wood swords, glutinous rice, black dog blood, and black donkey hooves.

  Because these are all positive yang objects that have a great restraining effect on zombies, the peach wood is mentioned in "Shan Hai Jing": "There is a Du Shuo mountain, with a large peach tree on top. Its branches stretch for three thousand miles, and between its branches to the northeast is the Ghost Gate, where millions of ghosts enter and exit. On top are two divine people, one named Shen Tao and the other Yu Lei, who are in charge of reviewing and leading millions of ghosts. The evil and harmful ghosts are captured with a reed rope and fed to tigers." Peaches can restrain evil spirits, so there is the peach wood sword, all of which are positive yang objects.

  After a while, the five of us went to Yang Tie's tomb again. In the meantime, I learned that Zi Lin's junior brother next to him was called Zhang Zhihai, who inherited the medical pulse. No wonder... I didn't see him take action, the only thing I saw was saving me..

  As soon as I went up the mountain, I felt that the fog on the mountain was very thick! "This is not fog, it's miasma!" I heard Zilong say. Miasma is toxic. "Furthermore, the stillness of the mountain, stillness brings peace, unmoving like a mountain!" When I used the Lin character incantation, I felt as if my heart was stabbed with pain, and stopped.

  "There is corpse poison in your body, it's best not to perform the ritual. The mysterious ancestor of heaven and earth, the root of all energies, cultivating for billions of kalpas, proving my divine powers. Inside and outside the three realms, only the Tao is revered, my body has golden light, covering and reflecting my body. Golden light appears quickly, protecting the true person, urgent like a law! The Jade Emperor's decree orders the descent of the golden light!" I saw Zi Lin throw out the talisman paper and recite the incantation, as if the great golden light was protecting us inside.

  We continued up the mountain, and on the way, we saw many wild beasts' corpses that had been sucked dry. Slowly, a tomb appeared in front of us, and as we approached, we realized it was Yang Tie's grave. The tomb was made of stone, with an epitaph engraved on the tombstone, signed by Liu Xiu! It seems that Yang Tie's contribution to Liu Xiu was not small...

  We walked around the tomb and saw a hole on the ground at one side of the tomb, which was probably Zhang Sheng's lair. "Shall we go down?" Ze Hong asked Zi Lin. "Yes, let's go down."

  We went down the cave one by one, and it wasn't small, enough for a person to crouch forward, but as we walked further inside, we found that the space was getting bigger and bigger, and slowly we could walk upright. No, this doesn't look like Zhang Sheng dug it! It must have been here before!

  "Be careful! This tomb has been dug up before!" They all saw the problem, it seems that many have taken a liking to this place, thinking that inside would be dark and gloomy, but who would have thought that inside was actually brightly lit, with seven oil lamps lined up, why didn't they go out?

  "This is a wick made from corpse oil refining, does Liu Xiu hate Yang Tie?" Zi Lin fell into deep thought.

  I saw these seven lamps arranged in a neat and orderly manner, like something...

  "Big Dipper! In the order of the Big Dipper!" I exclaimed. What's going on?

  "Yes, this is a method of borrowing a corpse to revive the soul. Liu Xiu seems to have deliberately made Yang Tie's corpse change, and the wick of the oil lamp was also refined with corpse oil, using the method of arranging the seven stars of the Big Dipper, the seven stars of the Big Dipper are the Seven Primordial Star Lords who govern human fate, hence Zhuge Liang's method of lighting the seven-star lamp to extend one's life, and this is also a way to make Yang Tie revive his corpse." What exactly happened between Liu Xiu and Yang Tie?

  "No! These oil lamps are not ancient things, but modern ones! Someone can bring Yang Tie back to life! What's the point of this?" Hearing Zi Lin say this, we were all shocked. Someone deliberately brought Yang Tie back to life? But for a moment, no one could understand why.

  I and Ze Hong looked at the holes on those walls, when we shone our flashlights inside, we saw quite a few human skeletons, as well as some gold, silver, and jewels. People die for wealth, birds die for food. I reckon it's because the people who were fighting met zombies and hid in this hole with the result...

  I went to another cave, but didn't find anything. However, it seemed like there was a gap at the end of the cave, so I crawled in with my flashlight in my mouth. Suddenly, a human face emerged! It was a zombie! As I retreated backwards, that zombie let out a cry and one after another, zombies climbed out from other caves.

  Zehong and Shiteng protected me from behind, "Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, the true fire of the Threefold Command burns away evil! The Supreme Lord Lao orders it to be done quickly!" Zilun threw the talisman paper into the air, "Go, hurry back, Yang Tie probably went down the mountain to the village!" Our group quickly ran out and directly towards Luo Team Leader's place.