During the Qin Dynasty, he was in charge of the net.

When Li Ji woke up, it was already the next morning.

Last night, after hearing a knock on the door, he realized that the person on the other end was neither breathing nor making any footsteps, so he decided to go out.

However, just as he was about to leave, the other person entered the house before him.

When he woke up, he found himself leaning against the door, having slept through the entire night!

Given his physical condition, it would have been absolutely impossible for him to fall asleep naturally under those circumstances.

There is only one explanation: the other party used some means to make him fall into a deep sleep.

Li Ji recalled that when that thing entered the room last night, it emitted a strange fragrance similar to corpse oil.

However, during that process, the horn-shaped jade pendant on his chest did not give any indication.

This puzzled Li Ji.

Just as Li Ji was pondering these things, a question suddenly popped into his mind: if even he was asleep, what happened to the old man who was guarding the door last night?

Li Ji had a bad feeling and quickly pushed open the door to go out into the courtyard.

However, the scene in the courtyard made his face darken.

The old man was lying by the door, his face filled with terror, his eyes wide open in fear, and a strange smile lingering on his lips.

Li Ji never expected that this kind old man, who had dinner with him the night before, would die mysteriously the next day.

What angered Li Ji was that the old man had given him his bed, and then the old man died right under his nose.

Just then, two constables burst in.

It seemed that these officials all knew that if the door was opened, someone inside would surely die.

Therefore, even though Li Ji did not report to the authorities, the officials came directly to him because the gate was half open.

Upon seeing the old man's gruesome death, the officials seemed unsurprised, having seen it all before; they simply ordered the body to be carried away.

Just as the old man's body was being moved, one of them suddenly pointed at Li Ji and asked:

"This old man doesn't always live alone, what are you doing in his house?"

Li Ji looked at the old man's corpse and replied expressionlessly:

"I am Uncle Wang's distant nephew. I came to visit him yesterday."

"Yeah?"

One of the officers looked at Li Ji with suspicion.

"Old Li, I think this brother should be fine. Let's go."

The officers beside them pulled the officer named Lao Li away.

On the way back, Lao Li couldn't help but ask, "Why did you pull me away just now? I thought the people in that old man's house were suspicious."

"That person is someone neither you nor I can afford to offend. He seemed far too calm in the face of the old man's death and your suspicions."

If he is the murderer, even if we were dead, we wouldn't be able to catch him. If he isn't the murderer, what's the point of angering someone we can't afford to offend?

"We're just here to collect the bodies. Don't worry about anything else. Catching the murderer is beyond our capabilities."

Li Ji didn't care about the two lowly officials; all he wanted to know was what had happened last night.

He decided to stay here tonight and wait for the other person to appear.

Moreover, he would personally stand guard behind the door tonight to see who this person really was.

That night.

Li Ji closed the door early and sat behind it waiting.

It seems that darkness falls exceptionally early in Nanyang; it was almost completely dark by evening.

Li Ji sat cross-legged, seemingly with his eyes closed, but in reality, he was constantly watching the doorway.

An hour later.

The same knocking, the same silence—no breathing, no footsteps—the same eerie scene from last night repeated itself.

"Knock knock knock!"

Similarly, the horn-shaped jade pendant on the chest still offers no clues.

Seeing this, Li Ji didn't hold back and kicked the door open with all his might.

"Bang!"

The seemingly sturdy wooden door shattered like paper under Li Ji's foot, and the things outside the door seemed to be kicked several meters away by Li Ji.

Through the door frame, Li Ji could clearly see that the thing fell to the ground and then quickly stood up again.

But when Li Ji saw that face clearly, he was extremely surprised.

The reason was that the face belonged to the owner of the house, Old Man Wang.

However, Old Man Wang now looks extremely strange. Not only does he retain the gruesome state he was in before his death, but his body is also covered in bloodstains, making him look no different from an evil ghost.

Li Ji's kick seemed to have stirred up a hornet's nest, as the corpses on the dark street all turned to look at him.

They landed on their toes and jumped several meters with a light leap.

Before long, along with Old Man Wang, more than twenty blood-soaked corpses stood upright not far from Li Ji, all staring at him in an eerie posture.

These corpses, when added together, represent exactly the number of people who have died on East Street in recent days.

Li Ji finally understood why he couldn't sense the footsteps and breathing outside the door last night. It was because these corpses were dead and naturally didn't breathe, and their footsteps, moving on their toes, were almost imperceptible.

Li Ji pondered to himself, these corpses were originally detained by the government, so why did they appear here? Was there someone controlling these corpses?

Just then, the corpses moved, lunging at him like demons.

Surrounded by the horde of corpses, Li Ji discovered that these corpses were not only impervious to swords and spears, but even after his longsword severed their limbs and heads, they could still continue to advance with a strange power.

And from the cuts of these corpses, a foul-smelling black blood would seep out.

Moments later, surrounded by the horde of corpses, Li Ji was ambushed from behind by a corpse and injured. Although he dodged to the side like a ghost, he was still a fraction too slow.

The corpse's hand grazed his shoulder blade, and a sharp pain exploded instantly, turning the wound a dark purple color.

Li Ji slashed backhand, splitting the corpse that had attacked him in two. He then tore off a piece of his clothing to wrap the wound tightly, and at the same time took out an antidote pill from his waist and swallowed it.

This is a secret medicine specially made by the Luo Wang (Net of Heaven). Although it cannot completely eliminate this strange corpse poison, it can temporarily suppress its spread.

As Li Ji took the antidote and continued to deal with the attacks of the surrounding horde of corpses, he suddenly made a crucial discovery:

The corpse that had attacked him earlier, having been cut in half at the waist, struggled on the ground for only a moment before becoming immobile and turning into a true corpse.

A thought struck Li Ji: he guessed that the weakness of these corpses might not lie in vital parts such as the head, but in the spine!

Thinking of this, Li Ji followed the same method, channeling his inner strength into his longsword. With a sweep of the sword, a large area of ​​the surrounding horde of corpses was instantly cleared away.

This time, the fallen corpse was indeed unable to move.

Just as Li Ji was about to completely destroy the remaining corpses, a long, black needle flew silently towards him.

Li Ji's pupils contracted sharply. In the critical moment, he bent over and tilted his head back, narrowly avoiding the black needle that grazed his nose.

The black needle was embedded in the tree behind Li Ji, and the tree trunk instantly showed signs of decay, turning blackish-brown.

Li Ji looked in the direction from which the flying needles came and saw a black shadow flash by.

Li Ji thought to himself, "Sure enough, there is someone controlling these hordes of corpses."

In fact, after being ambushed from behind by that corpse, Li Ji had suspected that these corpses might be controlled by someone.

Because the coordination between these corpses was so ingenious, something that inanimate objects could not possibly achieve, Li Ji remained cautious and prepared for any unforeseen events after that.

After Li Ji discovered the weaknesses of these corpses and killed most of them, the person behind them couldn't hold back and launched a sneak attack.

However, the attacker was very cautious; after missing his first strike, he immediately fled.

Seeing this, Li Ji decisively followed.

The two chased each other and soon arrived at a dead end.

"Boy, we have no grudge against each other, why are you forcing me?"

Seeing that there was no way out, the figure stopped running and slowly turned around to ask.

By the moonlight, Li Ji was able to make out the shape of the dark figure.

The man wore a black hooded cloak with the brim pulled low, obscuring nearly half of his face. His black hair was disheveled, and his skin was pale and bloodless. He held a bronze bell in his left hand and a bone staff with talismans hanging from it in his right.

"No grudge? You just tried to kill me."

Li Ji watched coldly. The other party's methods were extremely strange, much like the legendary spirit-sending rituals of the Baiyue and Xiangchu regions.

The person before him was indeed a descendant of the Baiyue people, who was once the head of the Baiyue Hidden Witch lineage and now called himself the Corpse-Driving Demon.

"That's because you ruined my plans!"

The Corpse Demon was practically seething with hatred at the thought. Most of the corpse puppets he had painstakingly crafted over the past few days had been destroyed by the person before him. How could he not hate them?

"Is this all the former Baiyue priests have become?"

Li Ji remained expressionless. The other party used the evil technique of refining living people into corpses to kill innocent people, framed ghosts and monsters, and was vicious and despicable. How dare they say that they ruined his good deed?

The Corpse-Driver's expression changed upon hearing this; the other party had recognized his former identity at a glance. He couldn't help but ask, "Just who are you?"

Li Ji slowly said, "Who I am is not important, but if Baiyue clings to its so-called secret treasure, it will definitely make many enemies."

"Oh, so you came here for that thing too."

But you've come to the wrong place. The things of Baiyue are not for outsiders to concern themselves with!

The Corpse-Driving Demon hardened his heart and pulled out a small bone cauldron from his bosom.

Li Ji stopped talking nonsense and slowly walked towards his opponent, holding his blood-stained longsword.

As soon as the lid of the cauldron was opened, a light purple powder drifted out with the wind. The powder actually avoided the Corpse-Driving Demon and silently entered Li Ji's nasal cavity.

Li Ji felt a tickle on the tip of his nose, and a strange fragrance entered his lungs, causing the scene before him to instantly distort...

Seeing that Li Ji had fallen for the trap, the Corpse-Driving Demon smiled sinisterly.

You should know that what's in his cauldron isn't some kind of powder, but the larvae of some kind of Gu worm, which can silently induce hallucinations or trap people in past memories, making it virtually impossible to guard against.

Unfortunately, this kind of Gu worm was only cultivated by the high priests of the Baiyue before they were extinct. Now, it is becoming increasingly rare, so the Corpse-Driving Demon will never use it unless it is in dire straits.

Just as Li Ji was immersed in his hallucination, the Corpse-Driving Demon had already arrived in front of him, raising his bone staff high and smashing it down towards Li Ji's crown...