Chapter One: Return from Death, Transformation of the Corpse
July 15th.
The Greedy Wolf enters the chamber; the yin energy is at its peak.
Late at night.
On the outskirts of Song Mountain City.
Mass grave.
A beautiful, voluptuous young woman in a gray woolen dress stood over a corpse, grief-stricken.
“Feng, tonight is precisely July 15th, the night when the gates of the underworld swing wide open, the day when yin energy is at its strongest all year.”
“Years ago, by chance, your aunt acquired the inner core of a corpse king. With tonight’s surge of yin energy, it will surely allow you to undergo a swift transformation.”
“Then, with fresh blood to nourish you, you’ll awaken your intelligence sooner.”
“By then, you will repay your grievances and avenge your enmities!”
Mu Ruxue pulled out a blood-red bead, the size of a thumb, from her person.
The bead radiated a chilling aura, its surface glowing with a sinister scarlet light.
She pried open Qin Feng’s mouth and pushed the bead inside.
Immediately, the corpse king’s inner core unleashed a strange black radiance within Qin Feng’s mouth.
A wave of energy, incomparably refreshing, swept through his entire body.
His dead cells revived in an instant, every cell bursting into jubilant celebration.
His once pallid face began to wrinkle and swell, eventually bulging with uneven corpse boils.
His fingernails darkened and sharpened, growing rapidly before the naked eye.
At his lips, two sharp fangs emerged, gleaming with a chilling light.
His eyes, once dull and lifeless, shifted to a ghostly gray.
His stiff mouth slowly parted.
“Huh!!”
A jet of black corpse breath erupted from Qin Feng’s mouth.
His arms, once limp, shot upright.
At that moment, Qin Feng felt himself return to ‘life’.
With a single thought, his body, lying flat on the ground, rose upright, defying gravity.
“Aunt!”
Qin Feng called out in excitement.
Yet what emerged from his throat was a guttural, hoarse growl.
His aunt was not his mother’s sister by blood, but adopted by his grandfather, only four years his senior.
Since childhood, she had been frail and sickly, forever surrounded by medicine; eventually, his grandfather sent her to White Cloud Temple.
Until he turned twelve, when disaster struck his family.
His parents and grandfather all died mysteriously and horribly.
Upon hearing the news, his aunt descended from the temple, caring for him by day and studying the Dao by night.
“Pa!”
Mu Ruxue, swift as lightning, produced a yellow talisman and pressed it to Qin Feng’s forehead.
“The corpse king’s inner core combined with the yin energy of July 15th is truly potent.”
“Xiao Feng, this is the binding talisman. Aunt is only immobilizing you, not harming your life.”
“You’ve just undergone corpse transformation, still the lowest-grade white corpse, without awakened intelligence, driven only by bloodthirst and violence.”
“Aunt fears you might run wild and cause trouble. Now, I must go fetch fresh blood for you. Stay here and wait.”
Mu Ruxue stroked Qin Feng’s rigid cheek with affection and left without looking back.
No sooner had she left the cave than Qin Feng, frozen in place, bent his left arm and tore the binding talisman from his forehead.
“Aunt left too hastily. When I spoke to her just now, she ignored me.”
Qin Feng examined the talisman closely.
Through his crimson vision, he could see the mysterious, intricate lines drawn on the paper.
In the center were five characters: ‘The Great General Arrives’.
It had a faint fragrance, and strangely, it seemed quite appetizing.
Unable to resist, Qin Feng popped the talisman into his mouth and chewed.
Once swallowed, it dissolved into a surge of energy.
Dense black corpse breath radiated from within, enveloping him.
With a roar, Qin Feng felt his internal power grow even stronger, his entire body brimming with inexhaustible strength.
His crimson vision stretched farther and sharper—previously only two or three meters, now nearly four.
His sense of smell grew keener.
He detected a flock of bamboo partridges roosting on a tree about twenty meters outside the cave.
His hearing sharpened.
He distinctly heard earthworms crawling in the soil outside.
In that instant, he felt he had stepped into a whole new world.
Suddenly, Qin Feng was seized by overwhelming hatred in his ghostly gray eyes.
This morning.
On his way to work.
Having forgotten his laptop, he returned home, only to find Liu Xue and Li Bufan in the midst of an affair.
Liu Xue was his girlfriend.
Recently graduated, she worked at the same company, thanks to his introduction. He supported her through college.
Li Bufan was the son of his company’s owner—short, fat, and covered in freckles.
In a fit of rage, Qin Feng tried to kill Li Bufan.
After wrestling Li Bufan to the ground, Liu Xue—using a hairpin he had bought her—stabbed him through the neck from behind when his guard was down.
Afterwards, the pair conspired to dump his body in the mass grave.
He had no idea how his aunt found him here, nor how she located the grave.
“Liu Xue, Li Bufan, you accursed pair of adulterers—I will make you pay in blood!”
Qin Feng howled at the sky, his cry morphing into a deafening corpse shriek.
The sound was wild and fierce, sharp and deep, with immense penetration.
Birds and beasts nearby fled in terror.
At that moment, Qin Feng caught a whiff of two alluring scents.
The aroma matched the aura his aunt emitted.
“Is this human presence? Someone’s coming? Or two?”
Qin Feng’s brow furrowed, his heart pounding.
These two seemed powerful—their aura was thick, and they approached at great speed.
“Could they be Daoist cultivators like Aunt?”
“No, I must hide quickly. I’ve just become a corpse, and my vengeance remains unfulfilled—I cannot die yet!”
Qin Feng leapt, his body springing three meters in a bound.
He reached the mouth of the cave.
Peering around with crimson vision, he surveyed the surroundings.
Then, he moved beneath a towering tree nearby.
The tree’s branches were dense and low.
Qin Feng tensed his legs and sprang up.
His heavy body landed atop a branch more than three meters high.
Soon after, Qin Feng, peering through the foliage with his crimson eyes, saw two Daoist disciples in yellow robes.
A man and a woman.
Both young, about twenty-four or twenty-five.
The man was dignified, righteous.
The woman was petite and mischievous.
On their backs were peachwood swords; at their waists hung soul-capturing bells.
“Stop!”
The man reached the tree beneath which Qin Feng hid and signaled to halt.
“What’s wrong, senior brother? Let’s hurry—the corpse breath and shriek came from the cave.”
“If we kill this zombie, we can return to the sect for our reward.”
The junior sister looked at her senior questioningly.
He did not reply.
Instead, his brow furrowed, his face growing serious.
He swiftly formed hand seals, his fingers flying.
Complex and intricate mudras took shape in rapid succession.
Simultaneously, he chanted: “I am the Celestial Eye, pursuing the heavens. My eyes thunder, illuminating the eight directions. Command!”
At the end of the incantation, he drew his fingers like sword blades across his eyes.
“Whoosh!”
A golden light flashed in his eyes.
He scanned the surroundings.
Then, raising his gaze, his eyes widened and he barked, “Up in the tree!”
With a wave of his right hand, a yellow talisman appeared.
“Whoosh!”
The talisman shot forth like a bullet.