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

As the gunshot rang out, Xie An clearly felt a slight heaviness in his right wrist, as if a terrifying drill had been piercing his skin.

But... I felt absolutely no pain!

Moreover, the bullet only left a burnt mark on the skin with a scorching smell... but it did not penetrate the skin.

hiss!

Xie An gasped as he looked at the burn marks on his skin.

"This corpse's innate ability is truly monstrous! Right now, I'm just like Shen Qianjun back then... As long as I'm not hit by a barrage of bullets, I shouldn't be afraid of bullets. Of course, my eyes, mouth, and ears... are obviously less defensive."

Xie An conducted a deduction of the possible battle scenarios for the next step:

Openly confronting multiple armed soldiers head-on is definitely not an option.

However, if you encounter one or two lone soldiers, you can simply kill them head-on.

Even if you encounter a skilled gunman, as long as you respond properly and the sudden burst of power can lead to a head-on kill.

Although it couldn't withstand continuous bullet fire, it greatly increased Xie An's chances of survival in this chaotic world.

For martial arts practitioners, the most feared thing is guns and cannons.

Xie An, with his talent for molting corpses, has already taken a crucial small step on the path to immunity to guns and cannons.

"Let me test the defense capabilities of other parts of my body..."

Xie An then fired the pistol at other parts of his body like a machine gun, only stopping when he had thoroughly mastered the defensive capabilities of each part of his body, and then mentally exited the corpse-molting state...

hum.

Having just emerged from his corpse-molting state, Xie An felt as if he had been completely drained, unable to even stand, and collapsed to the ground. Immediately afterward, his entire body felt numb and convulsing, the stinging pain felt like a thousand arrows piercing his heart, his stomach churned, his head throbbed with pain, and his brain felt like it was about to explode.

Even a tough guy like Xie An couldn't help but cry out in pain at this moment.

I felt like I was about to die; I almost couldn't catch my breath.

After a long while, Xie An finally felt a sense of relief.

"This must be a side effect of the corpse shedding..."

"The corpse shedding must have instantly drained my strength and spirit, allowing me to reach a terrifying life form in a short period of time. Once I withdrew... the side effects began to manifest."

Xie An now had a clearer understanding of corpse molting.

After all, I am still a human being, unlike Shen Qianjun who has turned himself into a corpse...

So here's the question...

Could I remain in the corpse-shedding state indefinitely without exiting? Wouldn't that eliminate the side effects?

Xie An, reflecting on his previous feelings, denied them.

The reason is simple: the body in its corpse-molting state puts immense strain on its muscles, bones, and flesh, consuming a huge amount of energy. The longer one remains in this state, the greater the drain on the body. If the body can no longer withstand the demands of corpse-molting… Xie An felt he would have to forcibly exit the state, or experience irreversible side effects.

So far, the side effects are only fatigue, pain, and hunger... and no other irreversible damage has been caused.

After a full quarter of an hour, Xie An finally felt that he had recovered about 30 or 40 percent of his strength. He got up, stretched, and moved his body around.

There was no physical injury.

Just hunger, fatigue, and aches.

call.

Xie An took a deep breath. "While the ability of corpse molting is abnormal, it also has significant side effects. It can only be used as a trump card, otherwise it won't be able to withstand the strain. To survive in this world for a long time, I need to strengthen my basic strength."

Moreover, the stronger one's basic strength, the more powerful one becomes after entering the corpse-molting state. After all, corpse-molting is a dimensional advancement based on the basic body.

Having gained a sufficient understanding of the abilities of the corpse shedding its skin, Xie An felt much more at ease.

With this trump card, dealing with a Blood Reaching Realm expert shouldn't be too difficult. I just wonder how strong a Ming Jin expert above the Blood Reaching Realm is... I'll find someone to test my skills against later.

Just then, Roberta rushed back and continued to move the bodies to the riverbank.

Perhaps because she had handled so many corpses, Luo Bosi had gained some experience. She even stripped the soldiers of their clothes and dragged the corpses to the riverbank to feed Snake Lao Er.

On the one hand, it made it easier for Snake Two to bite, and on the other hand, it also plundered all the valuables from the soldiers and handed them over to Xie An.

Xie An did not disturb Luo Bosi's work. Instead, he drew the dagger from his arm, whittled a piece of wood to use as a long needle, and took a soldier's shoelace to use as a rope. He walked to Shen Qianjun's flesh and prepared to sew up the corpse.

Despite this resounding victory, Xie An was not blinded by it.

He needed to confirm one thing: whether Shen Qianjun had reported Chen Daquan's body to the Qinghe Mortuary and whether this operation had been reported to the higher-ups of the Governor's Office, or to others.

If Shen Qianjun reported this to someone else, then they can't return to Qinghe Mortuary. They'll have to find another place to make a living with their father and the workers.

If Shen Qianjun did not report it to anyone else, then he could return to the mortuary.

After all, everyone who knew the truth was dead.

stab.

As Xie An's wooden needle pierced Shen Qianjun's flesh, an electric shock-like sensation came through him, followed by access to Shen Qianjun's memories from his previous life.

When Shen Qianjun was six years old, Yongning County was hit by a great flood, followed by locusts. The fields yielded no harvest, tens of thousands of displaced people were left homeless, and corpses of the starving littered the fields.

The father led the family to flee south.

The road is long, and filled with despair.

His mother died on the way and was hastily buried. His father struggled to survive by begging and doing odd jobs, but eventually collapsed on the road in the cold winter. Six-year-old Shen Qianjun became a starving orphan.

It was then that his extraordinary "senses" began to manifest. He could feel the "coldness" and "heaviness" gradually settling within his father's body, see the ashen "aura" stained with old cloth strips on the dilapidated temple beams, and even vaguely perceive faceless shadows wandering in the corners of the walls at night. This led the villagers to regard him as a jinx with "heavy yin energy," subjecting him to endless scorn and being driven away.

To survive, he resorted to theft, often getting beaten half to death.

Shen Qianjun thought he was going to die.

Later on the road, I met an old man wearing an indigo homespun jacket and with a black bell hanging from his waist.

The old man was named Chen Qingshuo, a master of the Dong-Dong lineage. He saw that Shen Qianjun had the "Yin Six Roots" physique, which was one in ten thousand, and was born with the ability to sense and communicate with Yin Sha corpse energy. He was an excellent candidate to learn the art of corpse refining.

Chen Qingshuo gave him two steamed buns and a promise: "Come with me, and you'll have plenty to eat and the skills to learn. In the future, people will fear you, instead of you fearing people."

In order to avoid starvation, Shen Qianjun grasped at this straw and followed Chen Qingshuo into the Dongdong lineage.

Learn a craft, memorize incantations, identify herbs, squat in mass graves, and handle all kinds of corpses by hand, from vomiting to numbness.

Shen Qianjun learned extremely quickly, becoming a qualified corpse refiner at a young age. However, there were too many geniuses in the Dong-Dong lineage, and even with Shen Qianjun's desperate efforts, he could not rise to the top and could only take on some shady dealings, living in the shadows.

Later, upon hearing of the upheaval in the north, with warlords carving up the land and General Liu employing people without regard to background, Shen Qianjun began to consider leaving. Chen Qingshuo saw through his apprentice's ambition and, with a sigh, wrote a letter recommending him to General Liu, using a small "favor" he had shown him years ago.

"The art of corpse refining is a weapon; it can protect you, but it can also harm you. Never forget the fundamentals."

Shen Qianjun did not fully heed his master's admonition, but thanks to that letter, he was granted an audience with Commander Liu.

At that time, the commander-in-chief was struggling to build an "unconventional" force and was eager to find such "special talents". In addition, Shen Qianjun was Chen Qingshuo's top student.

Thus, Shen Qianjun rose to become the head of the "Special Affairs Section" of the Governor's Office, donned a crisp military uniform, and recruited his cousin Shen Molan into the ranks. He described to the Commander-in-Chief his blueprint for forming a "fearless and incredibly strong" Corpse Puppet Army, and in doing so, he obtained resources.

However, creating a large-scale controlled "corpse puppet" proved far more difficult than anticipated. The experiments consumed a large number of prisoners and refugees, yet progress was slow, drawing the displeasure of the warlord. Under immense pressure, Shen Qianjun had no choice but to seek help from his master, Chen Qingshuo, who was far away in the southwest. Over the phone, he vividly described the abundance of "materials" and the immense opportunities available to the Tianjin guards, and conveyed the warlord's sincere intention to treat him as an honored guest.

Chen Qingshuo remained silent for a long time before finally agreeing to go south, but first he had to give instructions: he needed to find a secluded place in Yongning County with a lot of yin energy, preferably related to "rebirth", to set up his "laboratory".

Shen Qianjun immediately bought the "Yongning Mortuary" in the southern suburbs, a building constructed in the previous dynasty but later abandoned. The place was spacious, with underground ossuaries, and a sinister atmosphere pervaded the area. He secretly sent people to renovate and modify it according to the eerie blueprints passed down by his master.

During the preparation of the laboratory, Shen Qianjun did not stop his experiments. While cleaning an old chimney deep inside the funeral home, his men discovered something astonishing: a black baby wrapped in rags and hidden in a crevice.

The baby's skin was as black as ink, it had no breath or heartbeat but did not decay, and it exuded a pure and violent Yin energy, the concentration of which far exceeded any corpse monster Shen Qianjun had ever seen.

Even more bizarrely, after one of his men was accidentally scratched by the tiny fingernails of the black baby, he suddenly turned completely black and blue, his eyes bulged out, and his teeth became incredibly sharp and powerful, undergoing a rapid and intense "zombie transformation"!

This phenomenon gave Shen Qianjun hope of breaking through the bottleneck.

He tried to capture the black baby, but found that the baby was hiding in the reeds by the Qinghe River.

The process of arranging for Chen Daquan and his group to be bitten by the black baby and subsequently undergo a transformation into corpses was the starting point for the subsequent experiments.

Shen Qianjun excitedly reported this discovery to Chen Qingshuo, emphasizing the "black infant remains" and the rapid corpse transformation it triggered.

On the other end of the phone, Chen Qingshuo's usually calm voice trembled violently for the first time. He murmured, "The Source of Yin Marrow... Qianjun, seal off the news, and strictly forbid anyone from getting close! That thing is likely related to the 'Source of Yin Marrow' recorded in the ancient texts of the Dharma lineage! I will set off for Yongning immediately to take charge!"

Master's eagerness and determination gave Shen Qianjun a glimpse of the possibility of regaining the warlord's favor and even advancing further. He tightly sealed off the funeral home, awaiting his master's arrival, and also planned how to make great strides by utilizing this "Source of Yin Marrow".

Therefore, Shen Qianjun did not inform the commander-in-chief about Chen Daquan's matter.

What happened next was the Qinghe Charity Estate.

It can be inferred that... all those who knew the truth are already dead.

Xie An withdrew his hand, and a trace of dark blood appeared on the tip of the wooden needle.

Although he deduced that all those who knew the truth were dead, and that Xie An could return to the mortuary to continue his family business passed down for three generations, he was not happy at all.

"The black baby, Yongning Mortuary, Chen Qingshuo, a master of the Dong-Dong lineage, the source of Yin Sui..."

"It seems that my absorption of two pork ribs to reshape my bones and obtain Jade Bone Ice Marrow... was due to the Yin Marrow within the pork ribs? Is this related to that black baby?"

"It feels like there's an invisible hand controlling all of this from behind the scenes..."

Xie An looked toward the county town, his gaze deep and thoughtful.

Although Shen Qianjun is dead, an even greater storm seems to be gathering on the horizon.

It seems that he and Qinghe Mortuary have been pushed into the eye of the storm by an unseen hand.

Just then, footsteps sounded behind him, interrupting Xie An's thoughts.

Xie An turned around and saw Luo Bosi walking excitedly towards him, gesturing wildly and pointing to the riverbank, while a mental connection was established:

Xie An was taken aback: "That second snake knows you have a master behind you, and even thinks your master, me, is somewhat interesting... and wants to see me?"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

P.S.: I can't release a lot of content during the new book period, so please give me a monthly vote at the end of the month! If you like it, please give Shoucheng a monthly vote to support him.