I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 23 The zombie next door has grown up

February, blue fragrance.

Inside the coroner's shop, a skinny gray rat with a tuft of white hair on the top of its head was squatting on a plate, holding a piece of dried and hard sashimi and showing it off.

A ray of sunlight shines through the window and falls on the edge of the quiet desk, with tiny dust particles floating in the air.

At this quiet and silent moment, the gloomy wooden coffin that had been motionless beside the table suddenly made a slight sound, and a clear crack appeared on the dusty coffin lid.

The little gray mouse that was stealing the fish stopped chewing instantly, staring with its pair of black bean-like eyes, looking in the direction of the sound like a sculpture.

"Bang!" The sound of the coffin lid being opened and falling to the ground suddenly rang out, followed by a slender hand as if newly born extending from the coffin.

And on the five outstretched fingers, there are slender and sharp nails protruding, which look very much like the finger guards worn by Karl Lagerfeld.

"Hiss--" the long-lost sounds of breathing were heard.

Xu Qing, who had been sleeping for a long time, seemed to have a dream. In the dream, he became a cocoon, hanging on an old green tree in the ancient mountains. He was surrounded by beautiful scenery, clear moon, singing birds and blooming flowers.

Day after day, when the weather clears and spring comes, he opens his cocoon and transforms into a butterfly.

At that moment, he felt incredibly light, as if he could land on the clouds by simply flapping his wings.

In the coroner's shop, Xu Qing, who had just woken up from a dream, reached out to grab the edge of the coffin. The moment he exerted a little force and sat up straight, the bone joints behind him couldn't help but make crackling sounds.

I opened my eyes and the world became clearer again. Not far away, a frightened gray mouse was squeaking and running towards the corner.

He could even see each individual hair on its body, as if it were right in front of him.

"I seem to have turned white?"

Xu Qing looked down at his arms. The skin in the shadow was unusually white, but the skin illuminated by the ray of sunlight coming through the window slit reflected a luster similar to that of iron metal.

It's like the cold light reflected when you observe a sword under a lamp at night.

Xu Qing was not surprised but happy when he saw this. It was recorded in the corpse theory that there are five levels of zombie advancement, namely wandering corpse, crouching corpse, undecayed bones, flying zombie and corpse fairy.

There are three types of wandering corpses and three types of crouching corpses: iron-armored, silver-armored, and gold-armored corpses.

If you encounter these three types of zombies on a normal day, it is difficult to distinguish them with the naked eye, but there is a trick, which is to shine sunlight on the skin surface and judge the strength of the zombie based on the luster reflected by the skin texture.

Sunlight is extremely yang and extremely strong, and it happens to be at the opposite extreme from the wandering zombies who prefer yin.

The luster reflected on Xu Qing's skin at this time was the sign of his promotion to Armored Zombie.

In addition to the iron-armored corpses that glowed coldly like iron, the silver-armored corpses, when illuminated by the sun, would emit glittering spots of sunlight that spread across the winter snow, just like silver stars.

The golden armored corpse will be as dazzling as pure gold and jade diamonds.

Fortunately, there is a special solution for this situation in the Corpse-Raising Sutra. You only need to sprinkle the powder used in conjunction with the Mute Dog Spell on your body to avoid the problem of sunlight refraction.

Xu Qing recalled the entire evolution process. When he thought of a certain point, his heart suddenly moved, and his eyes involuntarily fell on the two coffins covered by banners in the corner of the west wall.

Speaking of it, whether it is Yang Taigong or Liu Youdao, this master and apprentice have been corpse drivers all their lives. It is impossible that they can only raise some ordinary zombies. Wouldn’t they try to cultivate a few iron-armored or silver-armored zombies?
Xu Qing put on his clothes and walked silently to the two coffins.

On the left was still the thousand-year-old dark wooden coffin, completely black and tied with three red ropes horizontally and two vertically.

The one on the right has a red skin and a black edge. It is not tied with a rope, but with a "fake rope" made by dipping an ink line in cinnabar water and rooster blood. There are eighty-one ropes in total.

These two coffins looked much thicker than ordinary ones. The various talismans affixed to them were made of unknown paper, yet even after so long, they still looked pristine, as if freshly painted and affixed. Xu Qinggang had personally experienced the process of cultivating an armored corpse. The image of him cocooning in the small, dark wood coffin seemed faintly reminiscent of the two coffins before him.

"Is it possible that old fellow Liu Youdao is keeping two golden-armored corpses in my shop?"

If it were an iron-armored corpse, based on the speed at which it transformed into a cocoon, these two should have opened the coffin and gotten up long ago!
Even if it was a silver-armored corpse, it wouldn't remain silent for so long.

Xu Qing walked around the two coffins that looked formidable and observed them for a while. Seeing that all the seals on them, including the talismans, were intact, he felt a little relieved.

The shop had been idle for many days and no one had cleaned it. There was obviously dust accumulated everywhere in the store.

Xu Qing tidied up hastily. On the counter was the clepsydra he had bought specially for measuring time, but the water in it had already drained out.

There is no time limit for practicing, and no time limit for enlightenment.

"It takes so long to evolve into an Iron Armored Corpse. If I ever try to evolve into a Gold Armored Corpse, I'm afraid the Great Yong Dynasty will be destroyed by the time I wake up."

While Xu Qing was sighing, he walked through the backyard, climbed over the wall and went to the main gate. At this time, Wu Yaoxing, who was squatting at the door of the paper-making shop and making paper horses, was suddenly stunned.

"Brother Xu, you're back!"

Wu Yaoxing immediately put down the work in his hands, ran over to him and looked him over.

"You've become whiter, and not as thin as before. It seems the people who asked you to look after the graves are from a wealthy family. They must be feasting on delicious food every day, right?"

Xu Qing smiled and said as he opened the door, "You guessed it right. The landlord has a lot of food and is well-served. He's always slaughtering sheep or pigs. It's hard for me to lose weight!"

"It's good to be fat. When I'm fat, others can see that I eat well. It will be easier to find a wife in the future. Otherwise, who would be willing to marry me if they see me looking pale and skinny?"

"By the way, it's time for Brother Xu to get married. How about I ask my family to talk to you and find a partner?"

Xu Qing took down the two door panels, and the dust mixed with the sunlight shone into the shop, bringing with it a smell of old earth and wood.

"Forget it. You know me. I'm either going to Youlan Courtyard or Cuiyun Tower all day long. I want to live a carefree life for a few more years. If I get married, how can I be so free?"

What Xu Qing said was half true and half false. He really wanted to go to Cuiyun Tower in Youlan Courtyard, but not for the sake of pleasure. He just wanted to experience the local customs and culture of Linhe.

Let’s see if the humanistic care there is really as considerate as the rumors say.

Besides, there were other reasons why he did not want to get married.

First of all, his identity as a zombie is very easy to be exposed since he married a woman and lived with her day and night.

Secondly, zombies have no lifespan and beautiful women fade quickly.

Women will gradually age after the age of 30. Does that mean he should kill his own wife while she is still young and turn her into a zombie?

Even if he had such thoughts, it was not certain that the other party would agree.

This isn't Twilight, and he's not a vampire.

Wu Yaoxing wanted to persuade him again, but Xu Qing changed the subject.

"Old Wu, has anyone come to see me these days?"

"Yes! On the fourth day after you left, several policemen came on patrol. The one leading them was a coroner, carrying two strips of bacon. They said they had just arrived in Linhe and were old friends of your master from Xiangyin County. They wanted to come and chat with your master."

(End of this chapter)