Deep in the Living

Chapter 701 Selected
The wooden structure was severely decayed, the beams were broken, and it was covered with cobwebs.

Dozens of coffins were piled up haphazardly, some with their lids open at an angle to reveal their dark interiors, while others were tightly sealed and covered with notes from the Jiang family.

Yellowed paper money and broken tiles were scattered on the ground, and the only light source was the pale moonlight shining through the broken window.

Above the main gate hangs a tilted plaque with the large character "驿" (post station) written in mottled vermilion.

A young man with slicked-back hair and frameless glasses stood at the door.

Whether it's his ordinary outfit of a t-shirt and jeans or his refined and gentle appearance, he has absolutely nothing to do with the word "monster".

The young man showed fear when he saw the rows of eerie coffins.

Just as he was about to give up and turn away, a cloth shoe stepped on his back, indicating that someone was behind him.

The young man quickly turned around but did not attack; he simply instinctively raised his hands to block in front of him.

This parry revealed a crack in his left palm and blocked a corpse-refining talisman thrown by the old man.

The talisman was swallowed whole by the crack in the palm, crushed and swallowed.

"Oh? You may be a little timid, and the plants are only just sprouting, but your hands are quite special."

"The Jiang family is currently short-staffed, so feel free to come if you wish... If not, that's fine too, you can just leave."

A smile appeared on the old man's lips, and a sharp tooth shrouded in eeriness was faintly visible.

How do I get there?

"Lie down in the coffin, and when you wake up, you will naturally be at the Jiang residence."

Don't worry, the coffin will give you a very good sleep, and it will also change your physical condition to some extent, making it easier for you to move into the Jiang residence.

"Okay, my name is..."

The old man interrupted the young man's self-introduction, saying, "You don't need to tell me anything about yourself. I'm only responsible for transportation, transporting promising young Chinese people like you... Whether you are selected or not is none of my business."

"understood."

The young man stepped into the gloomy inn. The extreme cold made him shiver. He didn't go any further inside, but found the nearest coffin and lay down inside.

As soon as the body was inserted, the coffin lid closed by itself.

A special seal was placed on the coffin lid, and wisps of yin energy began to seep in, like strands of eerie black hair drilling into the pores.

A strong sense of weariness swept over me.

Strangely, the young man did not fall asleep, and the yin energy that had seeped into his body had no effect on him.

Instead, it was absorbed by the tentacles that had been embedded in various parts of its body beforehand, and these gray tentacles then expressed the corresponding eerie aura.

It has achieved both environmental adaptation and freedom from any impact.

The imposter of the young man was none other than Luo Di.

This is a joint makeup work by Gustav and Wu Wen, a work that is enough to deceive the outer gods, and naturally it can also deceive the Jiang family.

Luo Di wanted to be recruited as an ordinary staff member so that he could see the true nature of the Jiang family more directly. If he found that there was no way to repair weapons or that it was too dangerous, he would choose to leave immediately.

Lying inside the coffin, Roddy began to ponder:
"So many coffins, how are we going to transport them? If we use horse-drawn carriages, it would probably take several... And why do we have to resort to this method? Are we trying to hide the location of the Jiang family mansion?"
Thinking about it carefully, it makes sense; the location of the Jiang residence seems to be quite mysterious.

During the extraterritorial invasion, the Jiang family neither participated nor was affected. Could the entire organization be operating from a clandestine, undisclosed space?

at this time.

Ring ring! A copper bell rang from outside.

Immediately following was the old man's shout:
"The time has come; the funeral procession is on!"

Roddy stopped thinking about it and quickly activated his sense of taste, using his tongue to sense the outside world.

The scene of all the coffins being loaded onto the carriage, as expected, did not occur. Instead, the entire ground began to tremble... This so-called post station cabin seemed to be alive.

The old man's ringing of the bell seemed to awaken the post station building.

Black hairs grew on the surface of the wall, and tooth-like structures grew on the threshold.

follow closely,

Several festering, blackened giant arms rose from the ground, propelling the entire station to crawl.

The old man in charge of recruiting new people was connected to the door by a spine extending from his back, just like the structure of an lanternfish.

Or,

From beginning to end, it was this post station that was responsible for recruiting new people; the old man was merely an external structure of it.

The station's movement speed is also astonishing, roughly twice that of the sorority's live bus.

Roddy was equally surprised when he read about the house's structure: "Green door monster, mature plants... and it always feels like this monster has been pieced together in some way, rather than being naturally like this."

Is this the standard of a monster responsible for accepting new recruits?

Hours passed.

The post station arrived at a place deep in a dense forest.

The trees here have become crooked and twisted, with an overall dark and gloomy appearance, and they are thick and large.

The trees were taller than the post station itself, but they were sparsely distributed, with just enough space between them for passage. Some branches bore hanging corpses, shrouded in white death banners.

The lower part of the corpse continuously releases yin energy, causing a layer of black yin energy to permeate this forest area, making visibility extremely low.

Unlike dense fog,
This yin energy can not only interfere with vision, but also affect living organisms.

If an ordinary person gets even a little bit of this, they will immediately fall ill, suffer from chronic coldness, and be easily attracted to unclean things.

Roddy also sensed that something was wrong.

Unlike the previous straight-line journey, the route here has become strange, constantly turning... To reach the Jiang residence, must we follow a fixed path through this forest?

Roddy silently memorized this route map.
But as he recalled the route, it outlined something very familiar to him in his mind: a Chinese character.

【corpse】

When this character is finished writing
Ring!

The old man hanging on the front door of the post station rang the copper bell in his hand again.

The two crooked trees in front were moved aside, and the ground transitioned directly from the relatively damp soil in the forest to the concrete ground.

A huge archway stood before us.

【ginger】

Looking deeper into the area along the archway, one sees a dense cluster of family-style buildings with white walls and black tiles.

The most eye-catching part is the area directly in front.

In a vast central courtyard sits a massive mansion completely shrouded in yin energy; this must be the core building of the Jiang family mansion, where the so-called Master Jiang resides.

The courtyard gate was open.

Enter the post station.

The building tilted, and all the coffins were dumped in the front yard area.

Because of this violent impact, the other "newcomers" who had fallen into slumber were awakened one by one, and their coffins were opened and they rose to their feet.

Another ringtone sounded.

The sound of a door opening came from the central mansion, and an old man who was over four meters tall and whose face looked as if it were covered with windproof yellow wax came out in front of everyone.

He pointed to five of them.

“You five come with me, the rest of you can leave… Wait, you come too! You’re young enough, you can be trained.”

The last finger landed on Roddy.

The six monsters with Chinese blood followed the old butler into the mansion, but even as they got closer, they still couldn't make out the mansion's exact appearance.

The only thing visible was a large gate deep within the yin energy, pitch black and unfathomable, a place from which there was no return.

Just as I was about to step through the front door,
Various screams came from behind the group.

Roddy's eyes shifted slightly, and he caught a peculiar stench in his nostrils. The other party's actions had clearly crossed his line; they kept saying he could leave if he wasn't selected, but instead, they were trying to kill him.

This malice allowed Luo Di to almost definitively characterize the Jiang residence.

Inside the palace.

Six prayer cushions were arranged neatly.

They obeyed the old steward's request, knelt down, and bowed their heads.

The curtain was lifted.

A black, festering, pus-filled foot, wrapped in a few bandages, stepped out.

The person reeked of a strong smell of Chinese medicine, mixed with a pungent stench of decay.

Roddy had already stopped tasting; he dared not continue to savor it here, as any sensory means might be detected.

A jet-black foot approached, and a weathered voice pierced the eardrums like nails:

"You...get up!"

Luo Di was taken aback, but he managed to calm himself down.

He slowly stood up and looked up at the so-called Master Jiang in front of him.

The weird thing is,
What appeared before them was not an old man, but a young man who looked to be no more than thirty years old and was quite robust.

However, the young man was covered in Chinese medicine, his right arm was completely detached, and his body seemed to be rapidly deteriorating.

Beneath his nose was a veil made from the eyelids of the dead, with writing in characters that Roddy couldn't understand; its purpose was unknown.

"Your hands are somewhat special; are you good at tasting flavors? There's a powerful monster in the corner with a similar ability to you."

"I'll have Uncle Neck arrange a private room for you later, so you can live alone... Your body is very fresh and special, but it's too immature and needs some proper nurturing."

"Thank you... sir."

"From now on, you will be the corpses of the Jiang family. Make good use of your bloodline and work hard to make the Jiang family the number one organization in the corner, cough cough."

(End of this chapter)