Zombie Life Begins in Hongxi Village

For two whole hours, Ren Tingting went from actively cooperating at the beginning, to being in a daze in the middle, and finally to losing herself in the process, as if she had been dragged step by step from the shallow waters into the deep sea.

For the first time in her life, she experienced what "great joy" meant. It wasn't just physical pleasure, but a feeling of being completely filled, occupied, and melted by the sensation.

Following the great joy comes the "Great Emptiness," like being washed ashore by waves and then back into the sea. The beach is clean and tidy, all distracting thoughts are swept away, leaving only an unprecedented tranquility.

This tranquility was more relaxing than sleeping, and more liberating than daydreaming. She felt so weak that she couldn't even move a finger, but she felt as at ease as if she had finally reached the shore after drifting at sea for half a month.

Lin Yi was also surprised.

Ever since he was bitten by Jiang Chen and turned into a second-generation zombie, his physical condition in his normal state has completely surpassed that of ordinary people.

The advantage is that it's ridiculously strong, but the disadvantage is that your energy also increases many times over.

It was alright when I was with Michelle. She was a cultivator, so her foundation was stronger than that of ordinary people, and she could last longer.

But it only takes a little longer. Every time it gets to the final stage, he still has to learn from Homelander and do it himself to fully release his power.

Ren Tingting, an ordinary girl, was able to keep up with him from beginning to end.

The secret technique of "Joyful Double Void" is practically tailor-made for extraordinary individuals like him.

He sat up in bed and stretched his shoulders.

Ren Tingting reached out from behind and hugged his waist, burying her face in his back and rubbing against him.

She looked up at Lin Yi's profile. Her eyes were still the same, but her gaze was different now.

In the past, her feelings towards Lin Yi were a mixture of gratitude and calculation.

Now her gaze was like a silk handkerchief soaked in warm water, damp and soft, clinging to him, carrying a thin layer of mist.

"Ayi," she called to him.

"Um?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to call out."

Lin Yi placed her hand on the back of her hand and patted it.

Once her breathing became long and steady again, he gently removed her hand from her waist, got out of bed, and got dressed.

He buttoned up his collar, glanced back at Ren Tingting, a green glint flashed in his eyes, and then disappeared from the room.

When he reappeared, he was already on the same road where he had met Chu Liu.

Lin Yi stopped an old farmer carrying a load on his shoulders and asked him for the exact location of the mortuary.

Upon arriving at the mortuary, Lin Yi pushed open the slightly ajar door and stepped inside, unconsciously sniffing the air.

It was clean, without that nauseating stench. The air was filled with only a faint scent of sandalwood and the acrid aroma of burning paper money, almost exactly the same feeling he had when he first stepped into Uncle Jiu's mortuary.

He used to think that the reason why people could live in the mortuary was because it was cleaned frequently, but now it seems that frequent cleaning is only part of the reason.

Lin Yi's gaze fell on the row of coffins in the courtyard. Each coffin lid had a talisman pasted on it, made of yellow paper and cinnabar. The talisman was not the same as the one used by Uncle Jiu; it was a Tantric talisman for cleansing impurities.

This talisman has no other use than to purify the air and eliminate stench.

He found the method of making this talisman in the memories of the Qinghai monk—using the power of Tantric mantras mixed with sandalwood ash and cinnabar, drawing it on yellow paper, and sticking it on the coffin lid to continuously purify the corpse's aura.

One talisman can last for three months, the cost is low, and the effect is much better than frequent cleaning.

As expected, the mortuary still needs to be managed by professionals.

Otherwise, a single rotting coffin could make the entire courtyard unbearably smelly.

He walked across the courtyard to the backyard and found the empty coffin in the innermost room, following the directions in the Qinghai monk's memory.

The coffin lid wasn't nailed shut; it slid open with a gentle push.

The first thing Lin Yi saw was a handwritten scripture, with the title "The True Scripture of the Great Sun Tathagata" on the cover. It wasn't the one from Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, but a true scripture handwritten by a monk from Qinghai.

The scriptures contain Buddhist teachings and have a certain exorcising effect. Although they are not very useful for someone with Lin Yi's level of combat power, they would be a good gift.

He put the scriptures into his Qiankun Ring and continued flipping through the pages.

There was a rolled-up animal skin underneath the scripture.

Upon unfolding it, one could see a Buddha image painted on the leather, seated in the lotus position, with the right hand in the abhaya mudra and the left hand in the varada mudra, exactly the same as the golden Buddha that Xu Jingjiang had sold to him.

There was also a talisman on the back of the leather. Lin Yi recognized the talisman as a Tantric exorcism talisman, one of the Qinghai sorcerer's trump cards.

According to Qinghai's memory, if this talisman were redrawn using the molten gold from the Buddha statue, it would unleash an extremely powerful effect in exorcising evil.

In the original drama, on the sixth day of the first lunar month, this talisman was used to kill the newborn demon infant and the little fish that had become a puppet demon mother.

Lin Yi rolled up the leather and put it away, finally turning her gaze to the row of magical artifacts at the bottom of the coffin.

Vajra, Vajra bell, Vajra dagger.

These three items are orthodox Gelugpa ritual implements, cast in bronze and gilded. The vajra is engraved with intricate mantras, and the bell lip is inlaid with a ring of turquoise. The square nail heads of the pegs are polished to a sharp, new edge.

It feels warm and smooth in your hand, not the coolness of metal itself, but a warmth that comes from years of incense burning and chanting.

Then there are the bone-type magical artifacts.

An authentic kapala. An authentic kapala bowl is made from the skull of a high-ranking monk, with the edges polished smooth as a mirror and the surface of the bone subtly displaying gold-like patterns.

The shinbone horn, also a relic of a high-ranking monk, is engraved with esoteric Buddhist mantras and feels very light in the hand.

The White Bone Sword has a blade made from a single shinbone, a hilt wrapped with silver wire patterns, and a blade engraved with esoteric Buddhist mantras for subduing demons.

If Lin Yi hadn't intervened in the plot, this white bone sword would have been broken by the newborn demon infant, so it wouldn't have been considered a top-tier magical artifact.

Although the materials used in these bone ritual implements sound terrifying, they are actually not evil at all.

Each item is a piece of the remains voluntarily donated by eminent monks after their passing. They have been consecrated and blessed in a proper Buddhist ceremony. Holding them in your hands, you will feel only purity, solemnity, and dignified Dharma.

Lin Yi turned the White Bone Sword over to look at the incantation on its blade, then put it back, and put each of the magical artifacts into her Qiankun Ring one by one.

At the very bottom, he saw the human skin thangka and the sister drum.

Lin Yi frowned as soon as the two magical artifacts were revealed.

Human skin thangkas are pendants made of strung amber beads, with a guardian deity tattooed on the human skin of the thangka.

Mahakala, with six arms and three eyes, has a blue-black body and holds a halberd, a kapala bowl, a rosary made of human bones, a hand drum, a trident, and a vajra rope.

In Qinghai's memory, this Mahakala is the most orthodox transcendent protector of the Gelug school, a wrathful manifestation of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, and the three major Gelug monasteries all regard him as their protector.

But this one, tattooed on human skin, doesn't look authentic at all.

The thangka exudes a rich, dark aura, and the veins beneath the skin seem to be alive, undulating slightly.

Ordinary people would feel dizzy and nauseous just from looking at it, and prolonged contact could even affect their mental state and turn them into puppets!

The Sister Drum is only the size of a fist, like a child's rattle drum. The drumhead is covered with human skin and tattooed with an eight-armed Bodhisattva sitting on a white bone lotus platform.

In Qinghai's memory, this Bodhisattva is the guardian deity worshipped by the White Lotus sect, while in the orthodox tradition, it is the compassionate image of Guanyin, who saves people from suffering.

But the white bone Bodhisattva before them was also permeated with a dark aura.

Eight arms stretched out in eight directions, and each arm had a blood-red eye in the palm of its hand. The eye was slowly turning, as if it were sizing up Lin Yi.

If an ordinary person were stared at by those eyes for too long, their soul would become unstable!

Lin Yi dug out her memories of Qinghai and compared them.

Mahakala and the White Bone Bodhisattva were originally the orthodox protectors of Tantric Buddhism and the orthodox protectors of the White Lotus Sect, respectively, both being deities with positive attributes.

However, the Qinghai monk used the evil Bon religion to refine the souls of a wicked couple into a ritual implement, turning two righteous gods into evil gods.

That couple were no ordinary villains—they had run a shady shop for half their lives, robbing passing merchants, killing and stealing, and even selling human flesh as pork.

What's even more outrageous is that these two are also a pair of wicked lovers who have been husband and wife for three lifetimes. They have committed murder and robbery in all three lifetimes, and their karma has piled up three times, making their resentment so thick that it cannot be dispelled.

The Qinghai monks peeled off their skin, extracted their souls, and used Bon religion secret methods to refine them into guardian deities, which were then sealed into human skin thangkas and sister drums.

The forged items are indeed powerful.

Unlike righteous gods, evil gods are not bound by precepts. They can not only protect the law, but also take the initiative to kill people, and their bottom line is more flexible.

But the price is also deadly. Evil gods are unruly, and even if the master holds the spell to control them, there is still a risk of being devoured.

The Qinghai monk was extremely cautious when using these two evil artifacts, and would never use them lightly unless absolutely necessary, for fear that he might be bitten back by them if he was not careful.

In Qinghai's memory, even he himself dared not summon two evil gods at the same time for too long, as there were signs of things getting out of control if it went on for too long.

Lin Yi didn't have this concern.

When an evil god turns against its master, it is essentially a spiritual conflict.

When the will of the evil god overrides the will of the master, the control spell becomes ineffective.

But he was a second-generation zombie; his celestial soul had long since transformed into a divine soul, which was tightly bound to his physical body.

If those two evil gods could turn against him, Master Qinghai would have been devoured long ago.

What he cared more about was the fighting power of these two evil gods—things that could make the Qinghai so fearful could be two good weapons if used properly.

As for the skin of that wicked couple—to be honest, he doesn't have any moral fastidiousness about the material itself.

Two scumbags who committed murder, robbery, and human flesh trading, who killed countless people while they were alive, had their skin used to make magical artifacts after they died. In a sense, this is a cycle of cause and effect.

He hung the human skin thangka around his neck and tucked the sister drum into his bosom.

The Qinghai monk remembered three sets of incantations to control these two evil gods:

Summoning spells can summon them from magical artifacts.

The Immobilization Spell can immobilize them, while the Soul Devouring Spell can activate the hidden forces planted within them during the crafting process, causing them unbearable pain.

Lin Yi mentally reviewed the incantation, confirming that each syllable was accurate, and then activated her energy to recite the summoning spell.

The Thangka hanging around her neck and the sister drum tucked in her bosom both vibrated at the same time.

Large amounts of black smoke billowed from the two ritual implements, as thick as ink poured into clear water, and quickly filled most of the mortuary.

The black smoke billowed for a moment, then condensed into two statues—Mahakala, with six arms and three eyes, a blue-black body, and a writhing black snake beneath his feet.

The White Bone Bodhisattva sat regally on a lotus platform made of white bones, with eight arms outstretched behind him. The blood-red eyes in the palms of each hand were rolling around, all locked onto Lin Yi.

The two evil gods had just been summoned, and before Lin Yi could even speak, he could smell the fresh blood emanating from them.

Mahakala raised all six arms at the same time, and the halberd, kapala bowl, and vajra rope all came at Lin Yi.

Seven or eight sharp bone thorns suddenly emerged from beneath the white bone lotus platform of the White Bone Bodhisattva, stabbing towards Lin Yi's back from all directions.

The two evil gods cooperated extremely well, clearly having been husband and wife for three lifetimes in their previous lives, and then being refined together as guardians after death; their tacit understanding had been etched deep into their souls.

Lin Yi's eyes turned cold, and he pressed down with his right hand, unleashing the Great Compassion Seal.

A primal, violent force erupted from his palm, like a mortar fired at close range, slamming solidly into the two evil gods.

The black celestial being was blasted seven or eight meters away, crashing into a row of empty coffins against the wall, with splinters of wood pelting it.

The White Bone Bodhisattva fared even worse, rolling off the lotus platform with its eight arms flailing wildly across the ground, overturning several coffin lids in the process.

The dark aura emanating from the two evil gods weakened for a moment, but the next second, instead of retreating, they were aroused with even more ferocious malevolence.

"roar!"

The Great Black Heaven raised its head and let out a deafening roar. Its body swelled to three zhang tall, and all the magical artifacts on its six arms were enveloped in black energy, turning into six burning black flames.

The body of the White Bone Bodhisattva also swelled up, and all the blood-red eyes on its eight arms opened, shooting out eight beams of blood-red light from their pupils.

The roof of the mortuary was ripped open by their swollen bodies, and tiles and broken wooden beams crashed down from mid-air, revealing a patch of sky covered by dark clouds.

The black aura surrounding the two evil gods was like tangible flames, flickering and surging. Dark clouds covered the sky above the mortuary, completely obscuring the midday sun, making the entire courtyard seem as if it had suddenly fallen into dusk.

"They're quite resilient." Lin Yi looked up at the two three-zhang-tall evil gods, and was more pleased than surprised.

Although that palm strike wasn't delivered with full force, an ordinary evil spirit would have been reduced to ashes long ago. Yet these two only weakened for a moment before leaping back up and charging forward again.

Thick-skinned, resilient, and strong in combat—its value is higher than expected.

In Qinghai's memory, there are special spells to restrain them: a spell to immobilize and a spell to torment. The former immobilizes, and the latter tortures. The two spells can be used together to subdue evil gods.

But Lin Yi didn't use it.

The control spell was created by the Qinghai sorcerer, not by himself; he was a new and unfamiliar master to these two evil gods.

If you suppress the evil god with a spell right away, it may appear to obey on the surface, but its inherent ferocity will not disappear, and it may even cause trouble when the time comes.

First subdue them, then apply incantations and establish rules; this is much more effective than simply chanting incantations directly.

Lin Yi's eyes were instantly covered by a thick emerald green, fangs protruded from his upper jaw, and a low roar like a dragon's cry and a tiger's howl came from his throat.

The roar, carrying the overwhelming pressure of Pangu's bloodline, swept outwards in all directions from him.

The violent roars of the two evil gods were drowned out by this low growl, and the black flames on their bodies were forced back by the sound wave.

The bloodshot eyes on all eight arms of the White Bone Bodhisattva narrowed simultaneously, and the red light in their pupils flickered rapidly like a candle being blown by the wind, almost going out.

Daheitian was stunned for a moment.

Although they are evil gods, they were human in life and became ghosts after death. Even if they are refined into guardians, they are only at the level of ghost kings, which is several dimensions lower than the oppressive feeling of demigods like the Pangu bloodline.

Lin Yi's roar was like a wolf hearing a tiger's howl; instinctive fear overwhelmed the ferocity.

Their attack was interrupted by a very brief moment of stiffness in mid-air.

Lin Yi teleported to the top of Daheitian's head and punched its head, which was bigger than a millstone.

The three-zhang-tall body of Daheitian sank into the ground with a loud thud, like a wooden stake being hit by a pile driver.

The White Bone Bodhisattva reacted, and all eight arms simultaneously grabbed at Lin Yi. Each arm's blood-red eye shot out a beam of crimson light, which struck Lin Yi and made a sizzling sound.

Lin Yi didn't even look at it—the beams of light fell on him as if he had been shone with a flashlight, without even breaking his skin.

He grabbed the White Bone Bodhisattva's arm with his other hand and yanked it off the White Bone Lotus Platform like a sack of potatoes, then slammed it onto Mahakala.

The two evil gods crashed into each other, and the bluestone floor of the mortuary was smashed into a spiderweb-like pattern of cracks.

Lin Yi rushed up and gave them a good beating.

He didn't use any magic, just his fists. Each punch was imbued with the power of Pangu's bloodline, cracking as it struck the bones and thudding as it hit the demonic body.

Four of Daheitian's six arms were broken by his punches, one after another. The remaining two arms were no longer as fierce as before, trembling as they protected their heads.

He dismantled the White Bone Bodhisattva's lotus platform into a pile of broken bones. Six of its eight arms were broken, and the remaining two hung limply at its sides. The bloodshot eyes in its palms were all closed, leaving only traces of blood on its eyelids.

The roars of the two evil gods grew fainter and fainter, turning from the initial furious roars that shattered the roof into mournful wails.

They tried to transform into black smoke and escape back into the magical artifact, but each time they turned into smoke, Lin Yi used the Great Compassion Hand Seal to knock them back into their original form, and they were beaten again after landing.

They then tried to retaliate with curses and evil magic—

Mahakala spewed out a ball of black karmic fire from his mouth, and several gray-white soul chains shot out from the wound on the White Bone Bodhisattva's severed arm, all landing on Lin Yi.

The karmic fire couldn't burn through his skin, and the soul chain was bounced back by the force field inherent in the Pangu bloodline as soon as it touched his body.

The mortuary is in a terrible state.

The coffin was shattered on the ground, the bluestone floor was pitted and uneven, and the roof had completely collapsed, revealing a sky covered with dark clouds overhead.

Two evil gods lay in the ruins, their black aura dimmed to the extreme. The body of Mahakala had shrunk back to its normal size, and only a few broken skeletons remained of the lotus platform of the White Bone Bodhisattva.

They lay motionless, sprawled out on their backs, two lines of blood-red tears streaming down their faces. They looked nothing like the fierce and domineering creatures they had been moments before; they resembled two pitiful worms being bullied.

Lin Yi withdrew her fist, stood up straight, and took out a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe the black aura from her knuckles.

Seeing him wipe his hands, the two evil gods assumed he had finally finished fighting and breathed a sigh of relief—but before they could fully relax, Lin Yi's lips moved, and he uttered the Soul Devouring Curse.

The hidden power that the Qinghai monk had planted within them was activated.

The two evil gods simultaneously let out a roar more piercing than all the previous screams combined, their bodies tumbling wildly through the ruins, smashing the broken coffin lids into countless pieces.

The bloodshot eyes on all eight arms of the White Bone Bodhisattva opened and closed repeatedly, the light in their pupils flickering chaotically.

The four broken arms of the Great Black Heaven were twisted in an unnatural posture, as if being repeatedly twisted by an unseen hand.

They rolled around and knocked down the last few walls of the mortuary that were still standing. Bricks and stones rained down on them, but they were completely unaware.

Lin Yi read for about half a cup of tea's time before stopping.

Two evil gods lay sprawled in the ruins, their bodies convulsing, their black aura so faint as to be almost invisible.

Lin Yi floated into the air, looked down at them, and spoke softly, but every word was clearly audible to them: "Can we talk now?"

Mahakala and the White Bone Bodhisattva quickly recovered, but their bodies were much dimmer than before, clearly indicating that there was a price to pay for their recovery.

They nodded with difficulty.

Lin Yi's lips curled up slightly, and she said without hesitation, "Your master, Master Qinghai, lost a lot of money playing mahjong yesterday."

He had no money to pay, so he gambled you all over to me. From now on, you'll be my servants. Any objections?

Upon hearing this, the two evil gods simultaneously displayed an extremely complex and indescribable expression on their two ferocious faces.

Playing mahjong?

We lost?

Did they use the guardian deities to pay off gambling debts?

Having served as protectors of Master Qinghai for so many years, they naturally know that Master Qinghai doesn't play mahjong, since monks are not allowed to gamble!

But the current situation didn't allow them time to think things through. If they didn't agree to what this devil was saying, they might be tortured by him in some way.

Mahakala nodded first, followed closely by the White Bone Bodhisattva.

"Very good." Lin Yi nodded in satisfaction, then her tone changed abruptly, her voice turning cold, "I heard from the Qinghai monk that you are not very obedient..."

"If you ever disobey me in the future, I won't scold you. I'll just beat you for three days and three nights at the same intensity as today."

Three days and nights.

The two evil gods trembled simultaneously.

—Don't even mention three days and three nights, another beating for the duration of a cup of tea would reduce him to ashes.

They kowtowed desperately, the forehead of the Great Black Heaven cracking the bluestone ground, and the head of the White Bone Bodhisattva pounded loudly, breaking several bricks.

"Alright, go back to the magical artifact. Be available whenever I call."

Before the words were even finished, the two evil gods transformed into two wisps of black smoke and, with unprecedented speed, swooped into the human skin thangka and the sister drum.

The Mahakala on the Thangka returned to its motionless posture, the sinister smile on its lips vanished at some point, replaced by a docile expression with its eyes closed and its mind at peace.

The drumhead of the elder sister's drum trembled slightly twice, and the bloodshot eyes of the White Bone Bodhisattva were tightly closed, not daring to open even a crack.

Lin Yi hung the human skin Thangka back around her neck, tucked the sister drum into her bosom, patted the dust off her clothes, and looked around.

The mortuary has been completely destroyed. The place that Qinghai had guarded for decades is now in ruins, with not even one of the four walls remaining intact.

Just as he was about to emerge from the ruins, he suddenly heard a series of chaotic footsteps and the neighing of horses in the distance.

The footsteps were very close, at least twenty people or more, interspersed with the crisp sound of metal clashing – the sound of soldiers hitting their belt buckles with their rifles.

Lin Yi stood still, her gaze passing through the collapsed courtyard wall towards the direction from which the sound came.