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

Once the dizziness subsided, Xie An carefully examined the coffin. The iron chains wrapped around it were not locked; they were just tied in a knot, which could be untied by hand.

Click~

Xie An tried a few times and successfully unlocked the chains. He then took out a heavy jujube wood crowbar from the toolbox in the corner. This thing was not only a tool, but peach wood was also considered yang, so it could ward off some yin energy.

The tip of the crowbar wedged into the gap between the coffin lid and the coffin body. It was extremely heavy, as if it were filled with lead. He moved with perfect harmony between his waist and stance, the steady strength he had developed from practicing the Hunyuan stance rising from the soles of his feet, and let out a low shout.

"Crunch—Bang!"

With a sickening thud, the nails that had been driven into the coffin were pried off.

A strange odor, a mixture of watery smell, rust, and some kind of rotting flesh, suddenly wafted out from the crack, making one want to vomit.

This wasn't the usual stench of a corpse; it smelled more like the putrid smell of something rotting in a damp cave.

Xie An held his breath, moved the crowbar to the other side, and repeated the process. After a few muffled thuds, he put down the crowbar, braced his hands against the edge of the heavy coffin lid, and slowly pushed it open.

"Cluck...cluck...cluck..."

The coffin lid rubbed against the coffin body, making a dull sound, and slowly slid open to reveal the scene inside.

The first thing that catches the eye is a tattered, gray-blue military uniform soaked in black and red stains. Next, there is a face with a dark, bluish complexion and stiff muscles like cheap leather.

The deceased was young, at most twenty-five or twenty-six, with prominent cheekbones, sunken eyes, purplish lips, and blackened foam remaining at the corners of his mouth. It appeared he had died from a deadly poison.

But the most shocking thing was the left side of his neck, where there was a fist-sized wound, with the flesh torn up and the edges irregularly torn, showing the terrible appearance of being bitten and gnawed by a huge force.

"By bitten to death?"

Having seen many corpses and even sewing them up frequently, Xie An was naturally not afraid of the dead and didn't find anything repulsive about them. He reached out and carefully pried open the wound to examine it, finally finding two rows of small teeth marks deep within the flesh.

Judging from the shape of the teeth marks, it should be... a human bite.

people……

Xie An felt a chill run down his spine and continued to examine the size of the teeth marks...

"It looks like it was bitten by a small child? Maybe three to five years old? Or even younger..."

After confirming it several times, Xie An became a little uneasy.

Could a child bite a well-trained soldier to death?

Moreover... the area around the bite mark was clearly infected by some kind of special poison; the skin and flesh had changed color, and the coffin lid had been banging loudly when the corpse hit it earlier...

As a fan of Uncle Ying (Ying Shu), Xie An instinctively thought of a special figure:

Zombies!?

If the mountain demon hadn't drained all the Yin energy from his body, he would have turned into a zombie.

Although it feels abrupt, in this world where even radish shreds and mandrills exist... it seems that having multiple zombies isn't too surprising.

"But why am I able to gain the ability of shadow from this soldier...?"

Xie An thought about it again and again but still couldn't figure it out. But since the coffin had already been left here and had been opened, he had to give that female officer an explanation. So he decided to do it in a respectable way...

According to the old rules of the mortuary, if the body is not in good condition after the coffin is opened and examined, it must be stitched up in order to ensure that the body is buried intact and to appease the soul of the deceased.

Xie An went to the tool shed next door and took out a blue cloth bag containing tools for burying and sewing corpses.

He first washed his hands, then returned to the mortuary, where he placed a new white candle steadily on the ground in the northeast corner of the coffin and lit it with a match.

The candlelight flickered twice, then stabilized, spreading out a small, dim yellow light.

This candle is called the "Soul-Stabilizing Candle," not for illumination, but for observing "qi." If the candle flame flickers and suddenly goes out for no reason, it means that yin qi is clashing and the evil spirits have not been appeased, and the corpse should not be moved easily.

With the candlelight now quiet, Xie An opened the cloth bag.

Inside were several rolls of mulberry bark thread of varying thicknesses, several suture needles of different lengths, and a small jar of specially made ointment mixed with cinnabar powder and incense ash, used to temporarily seal wounds and suppress odors.

In addition, there was a small, sharp pair of hand scissors.

He put on coarse cloth gloves and first applied ointment around the wound, the pungent smell of decay slightly masked by the spicy aroma of the ointment. Then, he picked up a medium-sized needle, threaded it with a thick mulberry bark thread, and quickly ran the end of the thread across the candlelight—according to the elders, this would borrow a bit of yang energy.

The needle tip was aimed at the edge of the flesh torn by the gruesome bite mark, and then the needle was inserted.

Xie An's technique was steady, with fine and even stitches. He used the "Hidden Soul Needle," where most of the stitches were hidden under the skin and flesh, leaving only very fine traces on the surface, striving to restore the original appearance.

Just as he was completely focused, stitching up the middle of the wound, and the needle pierced the flesh again—

hum!

A tingling sensation, as if an electric shock had struck his fingertips, was followed by a surge of cold, chaotic fragments of thoughts filled with resentment and fear, which crashed into his mind along the needle and thread!

The candlelight flickered violently.

This feeling was something I'd only experienced once before, when I first ruled over Roberts. It was like reading the memories of the dead.

It is also called Tongshiyi.

Now you can read corpse memories even without being in control?

Could this be a change brought about by the mandrill's improved progress?

Having learned from his previous experience, Xie An wasn't too surprised. After all, he had been involved in the business of dealing with the underworld since he was a child, and he had heard that some experienced masters possessed the ability to perform rituals for the dead.

The so-called "death ritual" involves a shaman performing a ceremony to allow the deceased's family to communicate with the deceased, thus easing the family's longing and also granting them the ability to read the deceased's memories.

Many bereaved families in Yongning County and Tianjin hire people to perform this ceremony.

As for whether those shamans can truly understand the memories of corpses... that remains to be seen.

But Xie An was truly capable of doing it.

He cleared his mind of distractions and began to read the deceased's memories.

The deceased was named Chen Daquan. He was originally a tenant farmer on the outskirts of Tianjin. Having suffered enough under the previous dynasty, he once passed by the recruitment grounds of the new army and heard his officer's speech:

Throughout history, every reform and revolution has been accompanied by bloodshed and sacrifice. Today, we must strive to strengthen ourselves, overthrow the imperial system, establish democracy, and usher in a golden age…

At the time, Chen Daquan was still an ignorant teenager, but these words became a burning fire in his chest, scalding him.

In the end, Chen Daquan believed these slogans and thought that the gun in his hand could really open up a new world, so he joined the new army.

Countless images flashed by afterward: training, guard duty, and the occasional satisfaction of being thanked when helping villagers repair their houses or fetch water. Although his military pay was often delayed and his superiors sometimes withheld it, the slogan "Today we must strive to be strong, overthrow the imperial system, and establish democracy..." continued to propel him forward.

The scene then shifts to a recent, late-night emergency assembly. There was no explanation, only the order: take all equipment and march at full speed. Destination—north of Yongning County, to Laojun Mountain.

Mission: Eliminate a group of exceptionally fierce "water bandits" who are entrenched in the riverbed at the foot of the mountain.

The officer's eyes darted around, and he only said that the bandits were ruthless and might use "extraordinary means," so they had to be careful.

Chen Daquan and a dozen soldiers arrived at the dark riverbank at the foot of Laojun Mountain overnight. They lay in ambush in the reeds, where the night dew was heavy and cold. They waited until midnight, but did not see any bandits.

Just as people's hearts were in turmoil, the river water suddenly thickened, like ink that couldn't be dissolved. Then they heard the intermittent cries of a baby, and immediately saw a swaddled baby wrapped in a dark red tattered cloth at the edge of the murky eddy in the middle of the river, with a small hand weakly stretched out and occasionally twitching.

Although it was strange to find a baby in the middle of nowhere, the platoon leader still ordered two soldiers to bring the baby up.

The baby's skin was as black as charcoal, which terrified everyone.

The experienced platoon leader yelled: "What's the panic! Back when I was working at the Tianjin docks, I saw those black guys who came on foreign ships... Yes, they're called 'non-Africans'! People from that place are born this color! Who knows, they might be some runaway foreign black guys. At least they're alive. Quick, does anyone have any dry rations? Let's get some gruel to feed them."

Someone handed over half a piece of softened mixed flour cake and brought it to the baby's mouth.

The baby's lips moved, as if it had smelled the food.

Then--

The tiny head suddenly sprang up at a speed and angle far beyond what an infant could achieve! Its mouth opened to a terrifying degree, revealing two rows of fine, sharp teeth... and it bit anyone it caught.

Soldiers fired at the baby, but it was no use...

A group of soldiers were so terrified they wet themselves. Forgetting all orders, they turned tail and ran towards the edge of the reeds. Just as they were about to reach the riverbank—

boom! boom! boom!

A crisp gunshot rang out ahead, bullets striking the mud beneath the fleeing soldiers' feet, kicking up clouds of dust.

The momentum of their escape suddenly came to a halt.

Chen Daquan and the other survivors looked up in horror.

On a slope not far above the riverbank, a row of figures appeared out of nowhere. They were dressed in neat military uniforms, with machine guns and rifles mounted, their muzzles coldly pointed in their direction.

The two leading figures were Shen Molan and a section chief named Shen Qianjun.

Shen Molan's voice came through the cold night wind:

"Military order from the Governor's Office: Anyone who retreats without authorization before completing their mission will be considered a deserter and executed without exception."

"Return to your positions. Do not retreat another step."

At that moment, all sound disappeared.

Only the sobbing wind of the Black River and the desperate roars of his companions growing weaker behind him remained.

"What bandit suppression, what mission, what bullshit revolution... it's all a lie! They... they're using our lives... to feed the things in that river!!!"

This desperate cry became the last echo in Chen Daquan's memory.

Immediately afterwards, a bone-chilling pain shot through the side of my neck... and my vision was swallowed by darkness.

……

Snapped.

A soft sound.

Inside the Hall of Restraint, the "Soul-Stabilizing Candle" went out as the most desperate cry from the fragments of memory erupted. Only a wisp of smoke, carrying a strange, fishy smell, rose and quickly blended into the dense shadows and incense scent of the Hall of Restraint.

Xie An's hand, which was holding the needle and thread, suddenly stopped.

It's not a bandit, it's an evil spirit, and even more so, a man-made disaster.

Under the guise of "bandit suppression" and "experimentation," they used the living, breathing young lives, once filled with laughable yet genuine passion, to feed and test the unknown and terrifying creature on Laojun Mountain.

The Governor's Mansion... the Commander-in-Chief...

Xie An silently picked up the tinderbox and relit the extinguished candle.

This time, the candle burned steadily without any further abnormalities.

He lowered his head and continued his unfinished work of sewing up the corpse.

The suture thread moved swiftly in his hands, not only stitching up the wound on the corpse's neck, but also seemingly stitching up some remaining tenderness in his heart.

The darkness of this world is more terrifying than he imagined.

Living in this world, simply hiding won't help.

After the last needle was inserted, Xie An removed the needle and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Brother, may you be reborn into a better family in your next life."

The coffin lid was closed again, and the iron chains were fastened. Xie An walked out of the Tingshu Hall, leaned against the door frame, looked at the bright moon overhead, and his thoughts raced.

"Shen Molan is raising something like a zombie or a zombie. This time, she placed the coffin in my mortuary, probably to use the dead energy of the mortuary to further revive Chen Daquan. And the lives of all the workers in my mortuary are the nourishment Shen Molan uses to raise Chen Daquan."

"No wonder Liu Ziming was so enthusiastic in recommending this place to me; he had ulterior motives."

"The coffin will be taken away in seven days... Wicked woman, vile woman."

Despite his anger, Xie An, having lived two lives, quickly composed himself and began to consider his next move.

Seven days from now, we'll have to be very careful about how we deal with Shen Molan.

There are only two methods.

Firstly, she claimed that she had calmed Chen Daquan down while sewing up the corpse. This is the official explanation, but the problem is that Shen Molan clearly knew that Chen Daquan had already turned into a zombie. Could a mere employee of the mortuary calm down such a zombie? Wouldn't she be taken back to the warlord's mansion to be used as a lab rat?

Secondly...

"When a person dies, there's no need for explanations..."

"The problem is that they have Shen Qianjun behind them, and Shen Qianjun has the Governor's Mansion behind him... We need to find a scapegoat..."