Gou Zai, a corpse sewn into a spirit in a mortuary during the Republic of China era, became a spirit

Qinghe Mortuary was situated on a small hillside on the southern edge of the city. Only a narrow, hard-surfaced path led out of the woods.

Shen Molan sat in the back of a black T-type vintage car with a brass-trimmed radiator grille. She leaned against the hand-cranked window, the chrome trim on the window frame gleaming coldly in the bright moonlight.

Manager Liu rode alongside on a 28-inch bicycle, its manganese steel frame rattling and creaking on the bumpy dirt road. He had to raise his voice, "Commander Shen, placing this coffin in the Qinghe Mortuary is definitely the right thing to do. Seven days later, I guarantee the patron inside will be safe and sound. It's just that I'm afraid there won't be anyone left alive in the mortuary."

Shen Molan took out a pair of sunglasses from her briefcase and put them on, which made her look even more gloomy. "Keep a close eye on the mortuary and don't let them move the coffin. But don't let the soldiers block people from entering or leaving, lest the reporters find out and spread rumors that the commander-in-chief condones the soldiers' oppression of the people. I will come back in seven days. If this matter is resolved, you will be rewarded handsomely."

Having gained approval, Manager Liu raised his voice several decibels, his tone filled with endless flattery. "Don't worry, Commander Shen, leave this to me. When you come back in seven days, I'll make sure there are no living people left in the mortuary, and that the customers in the coffins are well-fed."

"If anything goes wrong, you won't keep your head." Shen Molan coldly uttered these words, then rolled up the car window. The car sped away, kicking up a cloud of dust that splattered all over Manager Liu.

Manager Liu dared not show the slightest dissatisfaction, continuing to watch the departing vintage car with a forced smile. Only when the car disappeared from sight did the smile on Manager Liu's face gradually fade, finally turning cold.

Pooh.

He spat angrily on the ground, "You damn snobbish jerk, always trying to act tough in front of me. Don't let me get ahead of you, or I'll have you pinned to the bed sooner or later..."

As soon as he finished speaking, another police car drove up. Manager Liu immediately suppressed his anger and put on a smiling face, "Take care, Section Chief Li."

After the police car drove away, Manager Liu washed his face by the stream, wiped the dust off his body, and looked back at the Qinghe Mortuary in the distance, his eyes revealing a chilling intent.

"Heh heh, Xie Bingxiang, you've been competing with me for business for half your life, this time... you'd better go report to the King of Hell. You're dead, let's see what you have left to compete with me."

"However, this coffin is indeed strange and malevolent, and I'm afraid it has attracted some strange creatures from Laojun Mountain. I need to go to the Fushou Guild Hall to report this matter. After all, my Liu family's business is not far from here, and it would be a great loss if we were to be affected."

In the end, Manager Liu's face darkened, and he climbed onto the old-fashioned scooter and stomped away.

……

Not far from Qinghe Mortuary was a wasteland, with a railway track running across it, leading towards Jinmenwei. At this moment, an old steam train was parked on the track. Soldiers carrying rifles stood guard and patrolled beside the track.

There is a bumpy road on the edge of the wasteland.

Shen Molan's car stopped by the roadside. She gave the driver a few instructions, then got out of the car with her briefcase and walked towards the railway tracks. The soldiers on guard duty immediately stopped and saluted when they saw Shen Molan.

Shen Molan didn't say anything and strode onto the train.

The old steam locomotive, with its locomotive burning coal, has a special steel carriage at the rear, its exterior paint already peeling.

Shen Molan pushed open the door and entered the carriage.

The carriage was a converted old-style compartment, with walnut wood wainscoting darkened by smoke and lined with faded velvet padding.

A middle-aged man wearing a navy blue satin long gown with floral patterns and a black mandarin jacket was sitting at a square table covered with a white linen tablecloth. He held a large Havana cigar in his left hand and a silver fork in his right, slowly twirling the oily pasta on his plate. On another porcelain plate next to him was a thick-cut steak with glistening veins.

After entering the room, Shen Molan gave the middle-aged man a military salute, "Section Chief Shen."

The middle-aged man didn't look up, only letting out a soft "hmm" from his throat. "Is everything settled regarding the coffin?"

Shen Molan took out two sealed silver dollars from her briefcase and gently placed them on the table: "Originally, I contacted Liu Ziming, the manager of the Liu family's brokerage in the southern suburbs of Yongning County, but Liu Ziming is a sensible person and gave me fifty silver dollars as a donation. He also introduced me to the Qinghe Charitable Estate. With the help of Li Zhonglin, the head of the Special Affairs Section, the charitable estate accepted the coffin."

Section Chief Shen's original name was Shen Qianjun. He was the head of the Special Affairs Section of the Tianjin Garrison Commander's Office. This title may not seem like much, but it was a prestigious position within the Commander's Office, far superior to the bureaucratic duties of a small place like Yongning County.

Shen Qianjun glanced at Da Yang, nodded slightly, and asked, "You didn't bring your soldiers to bully anyone, did you?"

Shen Molan shook her head: "No, that's not true. It was Li Zhonglin who did all that bullying."

Shen Qianjun slurped up a mouthful of spaghetti. "That's good. The commander has just taken up his post in Tianjin, and countless eyes are watching. Especially those journalists, who are eager to find any fault with the commander. As the commander's confidants, we can't give outsiders any leverage, lest we cause trouble for the commander."

"What the section chief says is true. I've been careful about what I say while I'm out here." Seeing that Shen Qianjun's attitude had softened, Shen Molan sat down opposite him. "But... Section Chief Shen, about what we did at the foot of Laojun Mountain this time... the things in that coffin..."

Shen Qianjun put down his cutlery and wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth with a napkin. "Now the foreigners' ironclad warships are anchored at the estuary, eyeing the Commander-in-Chief covetously. The Commander-in-Chief has no choice but to try raising something to make things easier. This time, we came here under the pretense of suppressing bandits, precisely to test the effectiveness of that thing in Laojun Mountain. This matter must not be revealed. If it is successfully raised in seven days, all those who know about it will be exterminated. If it fails, it will be treated as a martyr's corpse turning into a zombie."

Shen Molan said, "The section chief is very thoughtful. Whether it succeeds or not, we will always maintain the initiative and leave no trace."

Shen Qianjun laughed and said, "This thing is strange; it's best kept in a place like the Gangfang Mortuary, where the yin energy of the dead is heavy. These next few days, you'll stay at the Yongning County government office under the guise of official business and keep a close eye on the Mortuary's affairs. Remember, try not to show your face yourself. If you succeed in serving the Commander, it's a merit; if you fail, you can't cause trouble for him."

"Yes." Shen Molan nodded in agreement, then said, "There's one more thing... I've noticed that Liu Ziming has sharp eyes; he probably figured something out, through a combination of guesswork and deduction. I've already arranged for two soldiers to secretly follow him. If he makes any other moves..."

Shen Molan didn't continue speaking, but instead made a throat-slitting gesture.

Shen Qianjun nodded: "Well done."

……

Qinghe Charity Estate, Tingshu Hall.

The moment Xie An made the thought, he suddenly felt a slight twitch between his brows, and a chilling tremor came from deep within, as if something... had been awakened.

Immediately afterwards, the thing under the coffin lid seemed to realize something and became even more frantic, making the iron chains rattle and clang, like a trapped beast making its final desperate attempt.

Xie An pressed his palm against the cold coffin, and the chilling and violent aura surged into his arm like a bursting dam!

"Well……"

Xie An groaned, his entire arm instantly went numb, and fine white frost condensed on his skin.

He felt a chill rushing up his meridians, straight to his heart and lungs, as if the blood in his whole body was about to freeze. His jaw trembled uncontrollably, and his vision began to black out and spin.

Deep within his brow, the phantom of the mountain demon suddenly became active, emanating a greedy yet restless throbbing, like a starving young beast that had caught the scent of blood, desperately trying to devour the chilling aura within the coffin.

But it was quickly met with fierce resistance from the thing inside the coffin. This caused the coffin to shake even more violently, the entire floor of the suspension hall to tremble, and dust to fall from the beams.

It seems... the two sides are locked in a stalemate.

Xie An knew he couldn't afford to be careless at this moment, so he quickly used all his energy to "grasp" the torrent of icy coldness that was rampaging through his body. He endured the excruciating pain as if his meridians were being scraped by ice blades, and slowly, bit by bit, "drove" it toward the mountain demon between his eyebrows.

The process was so slow it was agonizing, each breath like wading through a quagmire. His body became a battlefield, the extreme Yin Sha corpse energy and the mountain demon's instinctive suction wrestling between every inch of his bones.

The pounding inside the coffin gradually changed tone, from frantic smashing to a kind of resentful, viscous scraping. The eerie green flame of the eternal lamp flickered, casting a deathly pale light on Xie An's face, his cold sweat freezing as it just broke out.

He didn't know how much time had passed—perhaps an incense stick's time, or perhaps an hour. When the last trace of bone-chilling cold was dragged away by the mountain demon between his eyebrows, Xie An's legs went weak, and he almost collapsed to the ground.

He gripped the edge of the coffin, panting heavily, his breath lingering in the cold air.

The coffin fell completely silent.

The flickering eternal lamp in the suspension hall gradually regained its stability, and the flame's core changed from green to a dark yellow. Even the surrounding temperature rose considerably.

call!

Xie An let out a long sigh of relief and stretched his limbs. He felt a sharp pain and numbness in his body, and his mind was also exhausted, resulting in a stinging feeling of extreme fatigue.

"It's finally over..."

You should know that in order to place this coffin in Qinghe Mortuary, the old manager Liu Ziming went to great lengths, and even Li Zhonglin from the Special Winds Division and officers from the Governor's Mansion were mobilized.

"Luckily I have the mandrill spirit, otherwise I probably wouldn't have made it through tonight..."

He opened the control panel.

[Coffin owner: Xie An]

[Spirit Acquired: Mandrill]

Mandrill Level: Level 1 (3/100)

[Ghoul Essence: 3]

[Mountain Demon: It can devour mountain spirits and moonlight, and consume the aura of corpses and ghosts. It is adept at sensing the earth's veins and yin orifices, and is a malevolent spirit of the dark and turbid mountains and forests.]

[Currently Commanding a Corpse: Level 3 Skeleton]

[Gained Talent: Shadow]

"The mandrill's progress increased by two points, and the ghoul essence also gained three points... Shadow talent?"

Xie An paused for a moment when he saw the last line of text.

This has never happened before.

"Could it be a kind of ability?"

Xie An stared intently at the last line of small text. As his attention continued to focus, several other lines of even smaller subtitles slowly appeared below that line.

[Shadow Level 1: You are in complete darkness, your body blends into the darkness, and you are invisible to the naked eye.]

[Consuming 3 points of Ghoul Essence will upgrade Shadow to level 2.]

Xie An was very excited.

Mandrills possess such abilities? After absorbing the corpse energy and yin energy of monsters, they can also acquire the monsters' innate skills. Furthermore, consuming the essence of corpse demons can evolve these innate skills.

That's pretty good.

"With this shadow... none of those who bullied my mortuary will live!"

Xie An's first thought was to get rid of these traitors.

He quickly suppressed the distracting thoughts in his mind. "However, killing is ultimately a life-or-death matter, and I can't be careless in the slightest. I need to familiarize myself with the effects of Shadow's abilities before making any plans. The most urgent thing is to open the coffin and see what's inside. I have a feeling that my Shadow ability is somehow connected to what's in the coffin..."