Ghost Immortal

Upon hearing this, Qiu Sheng felt a chill run down his spine.

He hurriedly followed Li Feng into the courtyard, closing the gate of the mortuary tightly and adding two extra bolts.

After seeing off Master Baihe, the mortuary remained quiet for the entire day.

Master Si Mei sent Qiu Lan to Hejia Village to help make paper money for the dead, while he, Qiu Sheng, and Li Feng stayed at the mortuary.

During lunch, Master Si Mei drank two extra bowls of wine, a rare occurrence for him, and remained silent throughout.

Qiu Sheng tried to ask about the Prince of Jingnan several times, but Li Feng kicked him back under the table each time.

In the afternoon, the weather began to change.

The once clear sky was now filled with thick, low-hanging dark clouds drifting in from the west, almost pressing down on the mountaintops.

The air became stuffy and hot. The gecko on the courtyard wall was panting with its mouth open. The old elm tree in the yard was motionless, not even its leaves trembled.

This oppressive heat felt like a giant pot being placed upside down on your head, making it hard to breathe.

Master Si Mei stood in the courtyard, looking up at the sky, his expression growing increasingly solemn.

He calculated for a moment, then went into the hall to offer three sticks of incense to the statue of the Three Pure Ones, muttering incantations as if he were praying for something.

As darkness fell, the gate of the mortuary was suddenly knocked on from the outside. The knocking was urgent and loud, as if someone was pounding on the door with their fists.

Qiu Sheng ran to open the door, and standing outside was Zhao, the head constable from the yamen.

Zhao, the head constable, is an old constable in Qingyan City. He is in his early fifties and his dark face is full of wrinkles etched by the hardships of life.

He usually interacted most with Master Si Mei. Whenever there were any strange cases in the city, he would go to Master Si Mei for advice.

But the expression on his face today was more unpleasant than when he was handling any murder case.

"Master Four Eyebrows, something's happened!" Officer Zhao said urgently as soon as he entered the courtyard.

"The brothers guarding the city just reported that merchants passing through on the official road south of the city found several corpses in the mountain god temple at Niutou Ridge. The corpses were in extremely gruesome condition, as if they had been torn apart by wild beasts."

"But strangely, there were copper coins and talismans scattered around the corpse, as well as half a peach wood sword. The hilt of the peach wood sword was engraved with the Maoshan Sect's mark. Could it be someone from your Maoshan Sect?"

The four-browed Taoist priest's face instantly turned deathly pale; his worst fears had come true!

He grabbed Zhao the constable's arm, his voice trembling with excitement: "What clothes were the people who died at Niutou Ridge wearing?"

"It looks like a Taoist priest's clothes." Officer Zhao was startled by the Taoist priest with four eyebrows' reaction.

"A gray Taoist robe, with white crane patterns embroidered on the cuffs, and..."

Before he could finish speaking, Master Si Mei had already rushed out.

Li Feng and Qiu Sheng quickly grabbed their weapons and followed closely behind.

Qiu Sheng ran and shouted, "Master! Has something happened to Uncle Baihe?"

The Taoist priest with four eyebrows did not answer. He ran very fast, his Taoist robe fluttering in the wind, his figure as fast as a gray lightning bolt.

Li Feng and Qiu Sheng had to exert all their strength to barely keep up with his speed.

The three of them ran wildly through the increasingly dark sky, passing through the city gate and rushing along the official road towards Niutou Ridge in the south of the city.

Darkness fell very quickly, with dark clouds churning overhead like ink.

In less than ten breaths, the scattered raindrops turned into a torrential downpour.

The rain was so thick that you couldn't see anything more than three feet away.

The soil on the official road was washed away by the rain and immediately turned into ankle-deep mud.

The three of them ran through the mud, their robes soaked through by the rain, clinging tightly to their bodies, and could be wrung out half a pound of water.

When we reached the foot of Niutouling Mountain, the rain not only did not lessen, but became even more torrential.

Rainwater rushed down the mountain path, forming muddy streams.

Li Feng looked up at the mountain and, through the dense rain, could vaguely see a faint light coming from the mountain god temple on the summit.

"Master! There are flames on the mountain!" Li Feng shouted.

Master Si Mei did not answer, but instead quickened his pace, climbing up the mountain almost using both his hands and feet.

As we approached the summit, a strong smell of blood suddenly wafted over with the wind and rain.

Several dark figures lay sprawled on the open ground in front of the temple.

Li Feng took out a tinderbox from his pocket, shielded his eyes from the rain with his palm, blew on it, and then looked at it closely. He froze on the spot.

Lying on the ground was none other than Master Baihe.

He lay face up on the stone steps in front of the temple, his gray-blue Taoist robe torn to shreds, revealing five deep, bone-revealing claw marks on his chest.

The claw marks stretched diagonally from the right shoulder to the left rib, the skin and flesh turned inside out, and the white ribs were broken into several pieces, piercing through the torn flesh.

His right hand was still tightly gripping half of the peach wood sword, the blade broken in the middle, the break not a clean cut, but a jagged crack that had been forcibly broken off.

He was clutching a handful of glutinous rice in his left hand, the gaps between the rice grains filled with dark red blood. Clearly, he had used all his strength to stuff the rice into something's body before he died.

His eyes were still open, his eyes filled with the resentment of his dying moments.

Master Si Mei knelt down beside Master Bai He's corpse, his hands trembling as he reached out, trying to close Master Bai He's eyes.

But his fingers stopped abruptly just as they touched Master Baihe's eyelids.

Master Baihe's eyes moved, and after a moment, a thin white worm crawled out from the corner of his eye.

The insect's body is only the size of a grain of rice.

"Gu worms!"

Li Feng recognized it at a glance.

He quickly squatted down, pinched the white worm with his fingernail, and pulled it out of the white crane's eye socket.

The insect wriggled wildly on his fingertips, spitting out white threads from its mouth, trying to burrow into his skin.

Li Feng ignited ghostly flames at his fingertips. The insects that encountered the flames screamed instantly, turning into wisps of smoke and dissipating in the rain.

"How come Uncle-Master Baihe has Gu worms on him?"

Qiu Sheng asked, his face pale.

Li Feng did not answer, but held up the tinderbox and shone it around the open space in front of the temple.

There were five other corpses on the open ground: four were the coffin bearers, one was the disciple of Master Baihe, and a young Taoist priest in his early twenties.

All the corpses had the same wounds: torn apart by sharp claws.

There were five deep claw marks on his chest or throat, the skin around the claw marks was black and rotten, and it emitted a putrid smell.

White worms were wriggling in the eye sockets, ears, and mouths of each corpse.

The coffin cart was overturned in the mud, its wheels pointing upwards, and its axle broken into three pieces.

The coffin lid was blown off and smashed into the temple wall, creating a large hole in the adobe wall.

The inside of the coffin was empty, with only a viscous, dark red liquid remaining at the bottom.

The liquid emitted a foul, fishy odor, and rainwater couldn't dilute it at all.

The sunshade on the coffin lid had long been blown away by the wind, and the remaining few skeletons stood crookedly in the rain.

Li Feng walked to the coffin and squatted down to examine the coffin lid.

The ink line drawn by the Taoist priest with four eyebrows was still on the coffin lid, but the color of the ink line had changed from dark red to grayish-white, as if all its power to ward off evil had been drained.

There were traces of water soaking around the ink lines, and several ink lines had been blurred by the rain, leaving only a faint gray mark.

"This humble Taoist priest is incompetent, allowing the corpse demon to escape."

There were also a few words engraved on the coffin, which were obviously left by Master Baihe before his death.

Li Feng brought the fire tinder close to the coffin lid to carefully examine the strokes of the six characters.

Although the handwriting was messy, every stroke conveyed a sense of determination.

Clearly, before being killed, Master Baihe used his last strength to carve these words.

He used this method to tell those who came after him that he was not a deserter, and that he fought to the last moment.

Master Si Mei walked to the coffin, reached out and stroked the inscription on the coffin lid, his fingers gliding over the strokes of each character.

Rain streamed down his cheeks, indistinguishable from tears.

"Clatter".

Master Simu suddenly knelt in the mud, his body hunched over, his shoulders trembling violently.

"It's my fault. If I had brought more people with you on this journey, if I had accompanied you myself, you wouldn't have..."

"Master!"

Qiu Sheng rushed over and grabbed the arm of the Four-Eyebrowed Taoist, comforting him, "This isn't your fault, it was the Corpse Demon who killed Uncle-Master White Crane!"

The Taoist priest with four eyebrows raised his head, his eyes blazing with a fury that Li Feng had never seen before.

He had cultivated Taoism for decades and his heart was steadfast, but at this moment he was filled with anger.

Master Baihe was his junior brother who joined the Maoshan Sect together. The two had been studying Taoism under the same master since they were teenagers, and their relationship was even deeper than that of blood brothers.

Now that Master Baihe has died so tragically, as his senior brother, he must bring the murderer to justice no matter what.

Master Si Mei slowly stood up, the tear stains on his face washed away by the rain, his eyes cold and stern.

"The Prince of Jingnan has turned into a corpse demon and killed my junior brother. Now he has fled into these mountains. If he kills more people, not only Qingyan City, but also the people within hundreds of miles will suffer."

He turned around, took out two talismans from his pocket, and stuck them on both ends of the coffin lid.

The talisman burned on its own in the rain, the orange flames leaping in the rain curtain, illuminating Master Baihe's final words with flickering light.

Master Si Mei then took out a small bronze mirror from his sleeve. This was a life mirror carried by the disciples of the Maoshan School.

The mirror contains the last trace of the owner's soul when he was alive.

The Taoist priest with four eyebrows placed the bronze mirror on his forehead and closed his eyes.

A moment later, he opened his eyes.

"The white crane's spirit told me that after killing them, the corpse demon fled into the deep mountains west of Niu Tou Ling. The corpse demon had just taken shape and was not yet fully stable."

"The more blood it drinks, the stronger it becomes. We must find it before dawn and destroy it completely. If we can't find it by dawn, it will be too late."

While he was speaking, Li Feng and Qiu Sheng had already carried Master Baihe and the other five corpses into the mountain god temple, covering their bodies with the remaining dry grass in the temple.

Li Feng then took out several exorcism talismans from his sleeve and stuck them on the foreheads of each corpse to prevent the white worms from continuing to devour them.

After doing all this, the three of them immediately followed the trail left by the corpse demon and chased after it into the deep mountains to the west.