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

Xie An was stunned for a moment, then blinked and looked again, and the panel had indeed changed.

Corpse Demon Essence?

He quickly moved closer and saw several scattered coffin boards piled in the corner, along with some rotten bamboo strips left over from decaying paper effigies. Due to their age, they emitted a strong smell of decay.

Reaching out and parting the bamboo strips, one is startled to see a stark white skeleton lying inside, clutching a small red stone tightly in its hand.

As Xie An's gaze fell on the stone, the line of subtitles became clearer.

Could it be that the essence of the ghoul comes from this small stone?

Xie An curiously reached out his hand, and the moment his fingertips touched the dark red stone, a sticky, cold sensation washed over him, but before he could react—

Click.

A faint yet unmistakably clear sound of bones grinding together rang out in the deathly silent clean room.

Xie An's pupils suddenly contracted.

The pale white skeleton that had been curled up in the corner of the clutter, its empty eye sockets facing upwards... suddenly moved!

Its head turned a tiny angle very slowly.

Its eye sockets, which had no eyeballs but only two black holes, were aimed directly at Xie An, who was bending down to touch the stone!

That empty "gaze," seemingly carrying the chilling death that had accumulated over countless years, was fixed directly on Xie An's face. His jaw even opened and closed slightly, making a soft "clunking" sound, as if he were chewing silently, or perhaps uttering some kind of mockery.

"It's alive?!"

Xie An's scalp tingled instantly, and a chill shot from his tailbone straight to the top of his head, almost making him jump up on the spot.

But in that instant, the icy aura belonging to the mountain demon deep between his brows suddenly surged, and the golden panel in front of him flickered wildly, overshadowing his instinctive fear:

[1 point of Ghoul Essence Absorbed]

[Remains of a century-old abandoned corpse detected]

[Status: Weak Yin energy present, basic skeletal instincts exist]

[Capable of being commanded]

As the information on the panel appeared, the skeleton lay back down, motionless. The pebble it had been clutching slipped from its grasp and fell to the ground.

"Died again?"

Xie An mustered his courage and pushed the skeleton. Seeing that it was dead and unresponsive, he breathed a sigh of relief.

A logical chain of events also emerged in his mind: the reason the skeleton could move was probably because the stone in its hand contained the essence of the ghoul. Now that his hand had touched the stone and absorbed the essence of the ghoul, the skeleton had "died."

Now that you mention it, my cheat ability really is weird.

So here's the question.

These are the remains of a century-old abandoned corpse; they can be governed...

To rule or not to rule?

Xie An fell into deep thought.

With the fall of the previous dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China, Western warships stormed the gates, plunging the country into chaos and suffering. In such turbulent times, guns and cannons were the only means of survival, and joining the army to become a minor warlord was naturally the best way out.

But this new Republic of China is different from what Xie An imagined; it's now rife with demons and monsters...

No matter how powerful guns and cannons are, they are probably no match for ghosts and gods.

Perhaps I can take a different path.

With this in mind, Xie An no longer hesitated.

"Give me command, thank you!"

The moment the thought crossed his mind, a strange rune appeared in his palm, carrying a chilling aura as it shone on the skeleton.

Xie An vaguely knew what he was about to do. He then pressed the talisman in his palm onto the skull.

"Buzz!"

A stream of dark red energy, far purer and colder than when it had been used to obtain the mandrill, and carrying a strong aura of decay, was suddenly injected into the skeleton.

Immediately afterwards, he felt a very fine spiritual thread split off from the illusory image of the mandrill deep between his brows, traversing a short distance and silently "connecting" to the pale white skeleton.

There were no earth-shattering phenomena, but the feeling he got from the skeleton completely changed.

Previously, it was a cold, lifeless, and hostile "other thing".

Now, it seems to have become an extended tool that can be vaguely perceived and even attempted to be "commanded".

He tried to concentrate and conveyed the simplest thought to the skeleton: "Look up."

Two grayish-white sparks lit up in the skull's empty eye sockets. Then, with a tooth-grinding "click...click..." sound, its stark white head slowly rose and "looked" at Xie An once more.

This time, however, there was no longer a cold and eerie gaze in that "gaze," but rather a submissive look awaiting instructions.

Does this work too?

"Get up and do a zombie dance for me."

Click, click.

The skeleton actually crawled out of the clutter and then started performing a zombie dance right in front of Xie An.

The dance moves are naturally not pretty, but the main point is to be obedient.

Xie An then gave it other orders, which it did exactly as instructed.

After all this commotion, Xie An no longer found the skeleton scary; on the contrary, he found it...somewhat cute.

Xie An pinched the other's bones; they were quite hard.

Harder than stone.

Xie An quickly lost interest.

It's nothing more than a puppet; its usefulness... seems limited.

Right at this moment.

A mental connection appeared in my mind.

It turned out to be the memories and consciousness of this corpse.

In his previous life, this skeleton was a mountain herder struggling at the bottom of the previous dynasty, making a living by collecting herbs, prospecting for minerals, and robbing tombs in the deep mountains and forests.

About a hundred years ago, deep in a secluded cave in a desolate mountain outside Tianjin, he unearthed a strange, dark red stone. At the time, he only felt that it was damp and yin to the touch and thought he had found a treasure, but he did not know that it was a "yin marrow stone" that had gathered the yin energy of the earth and the resentment of nameless dead souls.

Once the stone left the cave, it began to turn against its master. He carried it close to his body, but the yin energy invaded his body, and his flesh began to fester and rot inexplicably from his fingertips. In just over a month, he died a miserable death in his dilapidated shack, his body left unburied, gradually turning into a skeleton. Only the yin marrow stone, having absorbed his resentment and unwillingness before his death, maintained a wisp of his skeletal instinct, so that although he was dead, his bones were not completely scattered, and his fingers clung tightly to the stone.

A century later, times changed. This skeleton, kept afloat by a trace of yin energy from the Yin Marrow Stone, wandered aimlessly and hid in the wilderness and mass graves, driven by its survival instinct.

Until about twenty years ago, it was accidentally dug out along with the soil by workers from Qinghe Yizhuang who were expanding the cellar at the time. It was mixed in with the building materials and used to build the corner of this "clean room".

From then on, it lay dormant in this place where yin energy gathered, slowly absorbing the corpse energy and evil energy that lingered in the mortuary by relying on the Yin Marrow Stone. It actually regained its freedom and lived in hiding near the mortuary.

Last night, after Master Wang's body was sent to the purification room, the lingering vitality and abundant blood energy of his soul strongly stimulated the skeleton that relied on yin energy for sustenance.

The skeleton couldn't resist the urge to devour Master Wang the first time. However, after biting Master Wang a few times, Master Wang inexplicably sat up. The skeleton immediately sensed something was wrong and tried to push Master Wang back into the coffin. But Master Wang had consumed too many tonics in his life, and after death, he had become incredibly strong. The skeleton couldn't hold him down... and could only watch helplessly as Master Wang dug a hole in the corner of the wall and left.

After reading this memory, Xie An sighed deeply.

A mountain herder, led to a bizarre end by greed, could not find peace even in death. His remains were transformed into a sinister creature that relied on evil things to survive and instinctively plundered other people's corpses. To this day, he has become Xie An's skeletal puppet.

Xie An composed himself and glared at the skeleton: "It was you who let Master Wang escape, bringing disaster upon my estate!"

Upon hearing Xie An's anger, the corpse trembled violently, its bones clanging against each other with a "crackling" sound. Then it prostrated itself on the ground, begging for mercy.

Seeing how cooperative it was, Xie An waved his hand: "Alright, alright, I'm not a cruel customer. Do you think you can find that Master Wang?"

The skeleton nodded repeatedly. Although it couldn't speak, its meaning was still transmitted to Xie An's mind through the mental link. It was probably because it had bitten Master Wang and could smell Master Wang's scent to find him.

Even a skeleton can smell something… Xie An thought to himself, “This is so weird,” but said aloud, “What are you waiting for? Go find it!”

The skeleton nodded repeatedly, then lifted the debris in the corner, revealing a hole resembling a dog's burrow. The corner was piled with stones, difficult for an ordinary person to dig through, yet Xie An noticed prominent scratch marks on the stones, indicating that the old man's fingernails were harder than iron after his resurrection.

Just as the skeleton was about to crawl into the dog hole with its rear end sticking out, Xie An shouted to stop.

The skeleton hurriedly crawled out, looking at Xie An with a puzzled expression.

Xie An said, "If you run out like this and the people outside the manor see you, they'll beat you to death. You should find a place to hide first."

The skeleton nodded in agreement, then walked to the wall. There was a skull mark in the corner, which it curled up inside, completely pressed against the wall, making it difficult to spot...

Xie An then called out towards the door, "Father, Uncle Zhou, come in quickly, there's a hole here."

Upon hearing the noise, Xie Bingxiang and Zhou Xuli rushed into the clean room. Following Xie An's pointing finger, they saw the hole in the corner filled with clutter and gasped in shock.

"A zombie apocalypse! This is a zombie apocalypse!!" Zhou Xuli exclaimed. "Look at the claw marks on the stone wall, it's a fierce corpse! Manager, what should we do?"

Xie Bingxiang's voice was also a little weak, "I've guarded the mortuary my whole life and seen a lot of strange things. But I've never seen anything as strange as this before. We absolutely cannot lose Master Wang's body. Old Zhou, go and call all the men in the manor to grab their weapons and go look for Master Wang. If we can't find Master Wang, and Wang Qinian comes tomorrow, it's a small matter if our manor closes down, but if Wang Qinian gets angry and opens fire, people might die."