Zombie Life Begins in Hongxi Village

Just then, the sound of orderly footsteps came from outside. They were not scattered, but organized, with a unified marching formation.

Lin Yi emerged from behind the broken walls of the ruins and saw a scene that made him frown slightly.

Outside the building was a wide parade ground, now filled with a dense mass of soldiers.

More than two thousand soldiers, divided into more than a dozen ranks, are methodically unfolding the encirclement.

The soldiers in the front row had already set up light and heavy machine guns, while the soldiers in the rear row were setting up mortar mounts. Two infantry companies on each of the left and right flanks were flanking the enemy.

All the movements were orderly and without any chaos.

They were well-trained and disciplined. Even though half of the building had collapsed and officers had suffered heavy casualties, these rank-and-file soldiers and junior officers were still able to quickly organize an effective encirclement.

Lin Yi's expression darkened. It wasn't that he felt these one or two thousand people posed a threat to him—

These conventional weapons were no different from toys to him.

His pale face was due to the contrast—

He looked at the Japanese soldiers on the parade ground, their formations neat and their movements synchronized, and then thought of his own soldiers in the Yunxian Independent Regiment. The difference was simply too great.

These bastards are really high-class. Compared to them, their soldiers are just a bunch of peasants who have just learned to hold a gun. They can't even stand in formation.

He was too lazy to watch the Independent Regiment's morning exercises; watching them would only make him angry.

"Since they are of such high quality, they should be kept even more."

Kill them all!

A cold glint flashed in Lin Yi's eyes, and she released everything she could in one go.

The human skin thangka on her neck and the sister drum in her hand vibrated simultaneously, and Mahakala and the White Bone Bodhisattva stepped out from two wisps of black smoke.

The Hundred Ghosts Banner was thrown into the air, and a burst of black light erupted. A large amount of dense Yin energy poured down from the banner, enveloping the entire military camp in a sinister ghostly aura.

He released all one hundred Japanese soldier spirits sealed inside the banner, which floated in the air above the parade ground in a dark mass, emitting a series of ghostly howls.

However, after the Japanese soldiers' spirits emerged, they did not immediately pounce down to tear them apart.

They are ghosts, and they have no feelings for their former kin.

After being refined by the Hundred Ghosts Banner, the ghosts have long lost their humanity and will only obey the banner master's orders.

But the military aura and menacing presence emanating from the more than two thousand soldiers on the parade ground were creating an instinctive deterrent effect on them.

The Yin energy of the Hundred Ghosts Banner was also blocked by the military aura. The two invisible forces collided in mid-air and canceled each other out.

Mahakala and the White Bone Bodhisattva were also somewhat hesitant.

The two evil gods looked at the living people on the playground, their mouths watering, but they hesitated and refused to take a step forward.

They were clearly also wary of military aura and malevolent energy.

Looking at the bunch of cowards under his command, Lin Yi was furious and humiliated. He raised his hand and slapped Daheitian and Baigu Bodhisattva across the face—slap, slap.

"Damn it! You guys are utterly useless, and you still have the nerve to call yourselves evil gods?!"

The two evil gods shrank back simultaneously as they were slapped, their bloodshot eyes flashing aggrievedly, but they still didn't take another step forward.

"It seems the White Lotus Sect's Five Ghosts Magic Trick still needs to be implemented. At worst, we can use daily necessities as consumables."

The Puppet Demon Mother can withstand the erosion of pure Yang military energy, making it ideal for dealing with armies!

Lin Yi ignored these good-for-nothings.

With a thought, he used the Vajrabhairava exorcism technique.

A huge, blood-red Vajra statue with wings on its back slowly rose from behind him, and the statue looked exactly like him.

The Vajra statue was surrounded by dark red blood light, and its huge blood-red eyes looked down at the soldiers who were still forming ranks on the parade ground.

The statue stretched out a blood-red hand that blotted out the sky, its five fingers spread wide, and boundless destructive power gathered in the huge blood-red palm, which then slammed down on the soldiers' formation below.

Boom—

The moment the bloody hand fell, the ground felt as if it had been slammed down by an invisible giant hammer.

A huge handprint appeared on the playground, with the soil around its edges still churning outwards, and everything inside the handprint had been crushed into dust.

Hundreds of soldiers who had just been standing in neat rows, along with their light and heavy machine guns, were all crushed into a layer of blood-red mud by this palm strike.

Blood mixed with dirt seeped out from the edges of the palm print, and the air was filled with a strong, nauseating smell of blood.

The morale of the group was completely shattered by this divine punishment.

The encirclement that had been painstakingly organized collapsed instantly.

At the same time, all the survivors threw down their guns and ran, running in no particular direction, as long as they could get as far away from the blood-red monster standing on the ruins as possible.

As the morale of the troops dissipated, the Japanese soldiers' spirits released by the Hundred Demon Banner, like a pack of hunting dogs finally released from their reins, howled and pounced on the fleeing soldiers.

They showed no hesitation in wielding their knives against their own kind, and were even more ruthless than their true enemies.

Several military spirits simultaneously pounced on a fleeing soldier, tearing open his chest with their ghostly claws and biting through his throat with their ghostly fangs.

Countless new souls are continuously pulled and absorbed by the Hundred Ghosts Banner. For every additional person who dies, the black light of the Hundred Ghosts Banner shines brighter.

Mahakala and the White Bone Bodhisattva finally moved as well.

They each used their unique abilities to pounce on the fleeing soldiers.

The Great Black Heaven swung its six arms in turn, each palm capable of shattering the heads of more than a dozen soldiers. It devoured flesh and souls faster than the Hundred Demon Banner.

The White Bone Bodhisattva sits on a lotus throne, with white bone spurs emerging from the ground like bamboo shoots beneath it. Each spur can string seven or eight soldiers together like candied hawthorns.

The killing lasted for more than half an hour.

When the last ghostly howl dissipated into the night sky, the entire Huaqing County military camp had become a dead zone.

There are no more living people.

The huge bloody handprint on the playground was still oozing blood.

The stench of blood in the air was so strong that it made it hard to open one's eyes.

More than 2,500 Japanese soldiers, including a marine corps and an army garrison squad, from officers to privates, were all wiped out.

The Hundred Ghosts Banner slowly rotated in mid-air, with 1,500 military spirits moving in and out of its surface, the black light becoming so dense as to be almost tangible.

Several dark red lines appeared on the banner, pulsating slightly like blood vessels—a sign of the magic weapon's advancement.

The current "Hundred Ghosts Banner" can no longer be called the "Hundred Ghosts Banner"; "Thousand Ghosts Banner" would be more appropriate.

Mahakala and the White Bone Bodhisattva also ate their fill, and the black aura swirling around them expanded to more than three times its previous size.

Countless pained human faces appeared densely on the surface of Mahakala's body, ferocious and terrifying.

The White Bone Bodhisattva appears elegant and aloof, but two additional layers of lotus pedestal have appeared beneath her, each layer of petals constructed from countless human bones, exuding a chilling and oppressive aura far surpassing its former self.

Lin Yi stood atop the ruins, summoned the Thousand Ghost Banner back into her hand, retrieved the Mahakala and the White Bone Bodhisattva, hung the human skin Thangka back around her neck, and tucked the Sister Drum into her bosom.

He collected some intact mortars, then leaped into the sky and flew towards Yun County.

He had barely walked for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn when two figures entered the deathly silent military camp.

One was an old monk in a gray robe, and the other was a seventeen or eighteen-year-old peach-like girl.

They had just reached the gate of the military camp when they seemed to be nailed to the spot—

What they saw was a huge crater of blood. The lingering stench of blood and the faint, eerie atmosphere in the air made the old monk, who had practiced Zen for decades, feel his legs go weak.

The girl covered her mouth, squatted down, and vomited.

The old monk's eyelids twitched violently. He grabbed the girl, turned around, and ran away, not even having time to chant any sutras for her salvation.

It was already past midnight when Lin Yifei returned to the Marshal's Mansion in Yun County.

He landed by the dry well in the backyard, put the Thousand Ghost Banner back into the well, and then checked the condition of the human skin thangka and the sister drum.

The aura of the two evil artifacts was several times stronger than before. The Mahakala pattern on the Thangka was shiny black, and the drumhead of the Sister Drum was pulsating slightly, like a heart beating.

He went back to his room, changed his clothes, and lay down on the bed.

In his sleep, four memories flashed through his mind like four movies on fast-forward.

Tsuchimikado Natsusa has the largest and most valuable memory.

This guy is indeed a member of the Tsuchimikado family, but his claim of being the head's third son is pure self-aggrandizement.

He was the illegitimate son of the patriarch, and could not even be included in the family genealogy. He was sent away to be raised by foster families from a young age.

His Yin-Yang technique was incomplete; he didn't learn any of the core secret techniques of the Tsuchimikado school, only some side-line techniques.

The pentagram Kikyo Seal is his only skill that he can rely on. This barrier technique is both offensive and defensive, capable of trapping people and providing protection.

When the Kikyo Seal unfolds, it forms a pentagram barrier that has a natural restraining effect on demons and monsters.

The Spirit Nourishing Technique is the Shikigami cultivation method of the Tsuchimikado family. It involves nourishing the spirit with essence and blood to refine it into one's own exclusive Shikigami.

That's how he raised his dog demon—unfortunately, it was torn apart as snacks by Lin Yi's five demon children as soon as it appeared.

This spell is not very useful to Lin Yi, since he already has the Thousand Ghost Banner and doesn't need to raise shikigami from scratch.

Edogawa Nojiro is the worst.

This priest's spells rely entirely on the tiny bit of divine power bestowed by the gods through offerings, and more often on props—holy salt, exorcism bells, and divine talismans. Once those are used up, he is a lamb to the slaughter.

The most useful part of his memory was his understanding of Shinto rituals and various Japanese deities, but these were of little use to Lin Yi.

The deities associated with these days are mostly monsters or powerful ghosts.

The Great Tengu he worshipped was actually a great demon, but it had gained divinity after receiving incense offerings.

Liu Yuxiang was from the puppet Manchukuo regime and practiced shamanistic spirit summoning techniques.

The core of this spell is to invoke the spirits through specific rituals and incantations, and then use their power to fight.

For Lin Yi, it was also a double-edged sword—the speed of summoning the god was too slow. Liu Yuxiang had to recite several incantations before the tiger god could barely descend, and there was also the side effect of blurred consciousness after the god descended.

And those so-called gods can't even beat him!

However, it seems that he could also ask the gods for help, since his Thousand Ghost Banner is still missing a main soul!

Michiko Nishiwaki's memories are also garbage.

This woman is a troublesome villain in "Exorcist Cop," but her Nine Chrysanthemum School is essentially just a smattering of Qimen Dunjia (a form of divination) stolen from China.

The true Jiuju School was originally the Xiaoju School in the Tang Dynasty, specializing in palace feng shui. After it was introduced to Japan, it was localized and modified by the Japanese, who added a lot of evil magic to it and renamed it Jiuju.

Michiko Nishikyo studied a branch of a branch, the core of which had long been lost. Only some methods of using Yin energy and evil arts to maintain one's appearance remained, which were no match for true Taoist arts.

The only interesting thing is the Frostbite Corpse Control Technique; I can use it on my daily life later.

What Lin Yi didn't know was that the news of the complete annihilation of 2,500 Japanese soldiers in Huaqing County had already caused a huge uproar.

Newspapers across the country rushed to report on it, boosting public morale and spreading various opinions throughout the streets and alleys.

The government newspapers widely publicized that the attack was launched by patriotic heroes who had infiltrated behind enemy lines.

Local tabloids exaggerated the cause and effect, claiming that the Japanese army had been massacring civilians for years and had been punished by heaven. Most ordinary people were willing to believe this story.

In contrast, Japan shamelessly slandered us for using unknown weapons of mass destruction and demanded that all parties exert pressure to investigate.

Amidst the undercurrents of various forces, a large number of high-ranking sorcerers from Japan rushed to Huaqing County, determined to find the true culprit behind the massacre of the military camp. Among them was someone Lin Yi would never have expected.

Lin Yi didn't know because Yun County is located at the border of Guangdong and Guangxi, and is remote and isolated. There isn't even a newspaper office there, so the uproar from the outside world can't get in.

……

The next morning, just after Lin Yi had finished breakfast with Ren Tingting and Michelle, Uncle Shou hurriedly entered the main hall, carrying a name card and a letter of appointment.

"Sir, there is a young man named Charlie Cao outside requesting an audience. He says he is the newly appointed mayor of Hanging Coffin Town and has come to pay his respects with his letter of appointment."

"Hanging Coffin Town?"

Lin Yi took the letter of appointment, glanced at it, and paused for a moment.

This letter of appointment was indeed issued by the provincial capital and has a red seal on it, but when did this strangely named town appear under his jurisdiction?

I had to search through my memory several times before I vaguely remembered that there was indeed a remote town with this name in the southwest of Yun County, near the border with Guangxi.

And it seems that Ren Tingting's cousin is also there...

"Let him in!"

"Yes, sir."

Soon, Uncle Shou led in a young man in a suit and tie.

Charlie Cao.

Lin Yi recognized the face at a glance.

He had slicked-back hair, a face full of powder, gold-rimmed glasses, a mole on the corner of his mouth, and a slightly raised chin, with an air of superiority that he couldn't hide no matter what.

Charlie Cao, Hanging Coffin Town...

The Movie: Maoshan Academy!

Lin Yi silently recited the movie's name in her mind.

Although this movie isn't particularly famous, the character of King Ai of Zhou in it is a ruthless one that left a deep impression on him—his jade burial suit made him impervious to swords and spears, earning him the title of the number one zombie in China.

Charlie Cao also saw Lin Yi, adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, stepped forward, and bowed slightly.

"General Lin, my name is Charlie Cao. I have just returned from studying in Great Britain. I am honored by the government's favor and have been appointed as the mayor of Hanging Coffin Town."

I have come today to pay my respects to the Commander-in-Chief, and I hope the Commander-in-Chief will take good care of me.