Zombie Life Begins in Hongxi Village

The ghost son didn't realize he was betraying his father at all. In the original series, it was because he took a liking to Charlie Cao's secretary, Susan, that the father and son ended up facing off against Maoshan Jian.

But just when his father was about to take Susan down with him, he had a change of heart and let Susan go, causing them to die in vain.

This thought process is truly bizarre and unbelievable.

Perhaps he was Chen Gui's doom!

By the time Chen Gui realized his son's intentions, it was too late—

The ghost son rushed out of the painting, grabbed a round stool next to the octagonal table, and swung it at the back of Lin Yi's head.

When Chen Gui saw this scene in the painting, he was almost scared out of his wits.

Without thinking twice, he rushed out of the painting, grabbed his son by the back of the collar, and tried to drag him back.

Lin Yi's lips curled up, and the instant she heard the sound of wind behind her head, she reached back with her left hand and caught the flying stool steadily.

He placed the stool on the ground and turned to look in the direction of the portrait—

Chen Gui was gripping his son by the back of his collar, frozen in place. A smile, more like a grimace, was forced onto his dignified official face, and his lips moved as if he wanted to say something.

Lin Yi didn't give him a chance to speak.

Black smoke billows on the human skin thangka, and Mahakala emerges from the smoke with six arms and three eyes, stepping on a writhing black snake.

It had become accustomed to being submissive in front of Lin Yi, but when faced with two lonely ghosts who weren't even ghost kings, it unleashed its ferocious aura of an evil god without any concealment.

"It's up to you, Big Black." Lin Yi pointed at Chen Gui and his son.

The Great Black Heaven let out a sinister laugh and transformed into black smoke, rushing into the painting.

Soon, screams of agony echoed from the painting.

Faced with the evil god Daheitian, Chen Gui had no power to resist at all and was eaten up bit by bit by Daheitian like a snack.

For the first time, Chen Gui regretted having this foolish son who had brought trouble to his father.

Unfortunately, there's no medicine for regret in this world, and he could only watch helplessly as he was eaten.

Then the terrified ghost son and the twenty ghost servants were also eaten by Daheitian.

Mahakala emerged from the space within the painting, respectfully handed the frame to Lin Yi, and then transformed into black smoke and disappeared back into the Thangka.

Lin Yi flipped the picture frame over to look at the back, then flipped it back to look at the front.

He probed the painting with his mind, and a space roughly the same size as his haunted house unfolded in his consciousness—

The courtyard is paved with bluestone slabs, the main hall has carved wooden windows, and there is a dry well in the corner of the courtyard, with dark green moss growing in the stone trough next to the well.

It's not some illusory illusion like being trapped in a maze, but a real, independent space.

Not only ghosts can enter, but living people can too. However, the yin energy inside is too heavy, and living people will not be able to stand it if they stay there for too long.

In the original series, Susan was trapped in the painting by Chen Gui, and it was only thanks to Mao Shanjian drawing a protective shield on the frame with cinnabar that her life was saved.

If that devilish son hadn't suddenly gone mad and pushed her out, she wouldn't have lasted long even with the cinnabar shield protecting her.

But this does not diminish the value of the painting.

Regardless, this is a treasure from a celestial cave, and in terms of value, it is no less valuable than that of King Ai of Zhou.

With this painting, he could store the Thangka and the Sister Drum within the painting's space, saving him from having to wear them around his neck all the time and flaunt them in public, lest a sharp-eyed Taoist like Maoshan Jian see right through them.

Now that's great, with the ghost painting, we can pretend to be weak to fool others again.

I have no idea how such a treasure could exist in such a remote and impoverished place.

He shook his head, putting the question aside for the time being.

Now is not the time for refining; let's finish drawing the corpse-controlling restriction first.

Lin Yi placed the picture frame on the armchair next to the octagonal table, then turned around to face King Ai of Zhou again.

The mixed ink had been sitting in the enamel cup for a while, and the surface of the liquid had a faint silvery sheen.

He picked up the coffin nailing knife, pressed the tip against King Ai of Zhou's withered skin, and pushed hard.

A white mark; the tip of the knife only made a shallow white cut.

The Golden Corpse's defensive capabilities are no joke; even after degenerating to the lowest level, the density of its skin still far surpasses that of ordinary zombies.

Lin Yi frowned and applied more force to her hand—this time the tip of the knife pierced her skin, and a dark, viscous liquid seeped out from the edge of the wound.

An indescribable, musty smell permeated the main hall, as if a stone coffin sealed for two thousand years had been opened.

As his body was being cut open, King Ai of Zhou moved.

It didn't move on its own—it was a zombie's instinct.

Although the intelligence of the golden zombie is far superior to that of ordinary zombies, when the body is directly injured, the zombie's instinctive ferocity will temporarily override its rationality.

It let out a hoarse roar from its withered throat, and its two dry arms suddenly rose up to grab Lin Yi's neck.

Lin Yi slapped its claw away with her left hand, while the carving knife in her right hand didn't even shake.

With a sharp crack, King Ai of Zhou's hand was slammed against the edge of the Eight Immortals table.

Lin Yi immediately slapped it hard across the face, nearly breaking its neck.

"Behave yourself."

King Ai of Zhou's head was turned halfway around by the blow, and his neck made a cracking sound.

It finally managed to turn its head to face Lin Yi's cold eyes.

King Ai of Zhou felt as if he had been doused with cold water. The fierce instinct aroused by the injury deep in his pupils quickly receded, replaced by a clear-headed fear.

It already possessed a considerable level of intelligence, and it knew very well that this person could kill it with ease—if that slap had been any harder, its neck would be broken by now.

It stopped moving, lowered its two arms that had just been raised, and slowly retracted its ten fingernails into the gaps between its fingers, like a helpless little girl about to be ravaged by a strong man.

Seeing that it had calmed down, Lin continued to cut.

First is the space between the eyebrows, which is the location of the Soul Control Contract Mark and the core of the entire Corpse Control Restriction.

The tip of the carving knife carved a complex rune on King Ai of Zhou's withered forehead, each stroke as precise as if measured with a ruler.

King Ai of Zhou's body trembled slightly, but he refrained from moving.

Then came the torso and limbs—the chest was engraved with a corpse puppet talisman, the arms with a spirit-connecting talisman, and the legs with a demon-suppressing talisman. The strokes and spacing of each talisman were strictly executed according to the corpse-refining technique in Wang Teng's memory.

The final cut landed on the spine, slicing from the back of the neck all the way to the tailbone, engraving the words "Tong You Kong Shi Jin" (通幽控尸禁).

This is the most crucial part of the entire restriction system. All the corpse-controlling runes are ultimately connected through the spine, forming a complete restriction network.

After finishing the carving, Lin Yi picked up the talisman brush, dipped it in dark red ink, and began to trace the lines left by the carving knife.

The talisman brush landed on the withered skin, and the ink seeped deep into the flesh along the knife marks.

After drawing each rune, he recited the corresponding incantation three times.

Just after he finished reading, the rune he had just drawn suddenly lit up with a blood-red light.

The light was bursting out from inside the ink, as if something within the ink had been ignited.

The crimson light spread rapidly along the strokes of the runes, turning the entire barrier a dark red.

King Ai of Zhou let out a mournful scream.

Its body convulsed violently, its limbs clawing and kicking wildly at the table, its fingernails scraping the surface with a sharp, piercing sound.

Those glowing runes were like red-hot branding irons, slowly searing into its flesh.

Each rune was frantically drilling into its body, not just staying on the surface of its skin, but penetrating its flesh, passing through its bones, and seeping deep into its remnant soul.

Lin Yi was also taken aback.

In Wang Teng's memory, it was absolutely impossible for runes to automatically glow and then burrow into the body.

This is no longer depicting a restriction—this is the restriction actively merging with the corpse.

He focused his senses and discovered that the runes that had entered King Ai of Zhou's body had not disappeared.

Lin Yi tried silently reciting a soul-controlling spell in her mind.

As soon as the incantation was finished, King Ai of Zhou rolled off the table as if he had been electrocuted, clutching his head. He curled up on the ground and let out an even more piercing scream than before.

At the same time, a clear thought appeared in Lin Yi's mind: "Master, spare my life!"

Lin Yi was stunned for a moment.

He looked down at King Ai of Zhou, who was curled up on the ground, and then at his own hands.

He just recited Wang Teng's Soul Control Spell. The original version's effect is to make the zombie feel pain through the magical fluctuations of the runes, thereby forcing it to obey commands.

But the current situation is completely different from the original—he can hear King Ai of Zhou's inner thoughts.

Moreover, King Ai of Zhou's fear, pain, submission, and all his emotions were directly transmitted into his consciousness through that blood-red rune array.

This isn't a soul-controlling contract anymore, this is a master-servant contract!

He quickly figured out the reason.

The root of the mutation lies not in Wang Teng's corpse-refining technique, but in his blood.

King Ai of Zhou was still trembling.

Lin Yi sensed the emotion mixed with pain and fear emanating from it, so she stopped chanting the incantation and instead squatted down to continue tracing the remaining runes.

He drew a stroke, recited the incantation three times, and each time the talisman glowed with blood-red light, King Ai of Zhou convulsed once.

Once the last stroke was completed, all the restrictions lit up simultaneously.

Blood-red lines spread from the center of his brow to his limbs, converged from his limbs to his spine, and finally descended along his spine, forming a dense, blood-red net all over King Ai of Zhou's body.

The net flashed three times, then tightened suddenly, disappearing entirely into King Ai of Zhou's body.

At that moment, King Ai of Zhou's body began to change.

The skin and flesh, which had been shriveled for over two thousand years, seemed to be infused with new energy, and began to swell up again at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Beneath the grayish-white skin, a layer of dark golden luster shone, emanating from deep within the bones and gradually covering the entire body.

Its muscles bulged back up, its nails turned from grayish-white to dark gold, and its fangs emerged again from its shriveled gums.

In no time at all, it transformed from a dried-up corpse into the appearance a golden corpse should have been—

Its body was plump and its bones were strong, with a dark golden luster that subtly flowed beneath its skin.

This is Lin Yi's blood at work.

While constructing the contract, the drop of second-generation zombie blood also injected a portion of its energy into King Ai of Zhou.

This energy was just a drop in the ocean for Lin Yi, but for King Ai of Zhou, it was like a long-awaited rain after a drought.

Its corpse energy rapidly recovered, and it jumped directly from the Black Zombie level back to the Golden Zombie level.

It looked down at its hands, then touched its newly swollen chest, and let out a low gurgling sound.

It felt the long-lost power return and couldn't help but raise its head, wanting to let out a long roar.

Lin Yi slapped it on the back of the head, turning its long howl into a muffled groan.

"Shut up. What's so great about being a mere Golden Corpse? Wait until you reach the Undying Bone realm before you start talking."

King Ai of Zhou let out a pitiful whimper, no longer daring to cry out. He wanted to ask for the jade burial suit, but dared not, and could only continue to express his aggrieved feelings.

Lin Yi assumed it was because she had been slapped, so she didn't pay much attention to it.

He glanced down at his watch; the hands were almost pointing to noon.

"Stay here and don't move, do you hear me?"

King Ai of Zhou nodded and replied in zombie language, "I heard you."

Humans have their own language, and corpses have their own language. Having Wang Teng's memories, he naturally also knows how to speak the language of corpses.

Corpse language isn't hard to learn; even Qiu Sheng can do it. What's difficult is ghost language, which requires you to hold mud in your mouth—that's torture.

After arranging things for his henchmen, Lin Yi picked up the ghost painting and teleported back to the inn.

Ren Tingting was already immune to his elusive nature. When she saw him return, she simply looked up and smiled slightly.

Lin Yi walked to her side, took the clothes from her hand and put them aside, then gently pressed her forehead.

He then called Ma Dayong over and instructed him to go downstairs, order some dishes, and bring them back. He then said to Ren Tingting, "We'll check out after lunch. I've found a place to stay."

"Where do you live?" Ren Tingting asked curiously.

"There's an empty house in the town center; you can tidy it up and move in."

"Okay." Ren Tingting didn't ask any more questions and started packing her clothes.

When Ma Dayong brought the food up, Lin Yi had already taken advantage of this time to start refining the ghost painting using the Vajrayana Prajnaparamita mantra.

The Prajnaparamita Mantra involves infusing one's intention into a ritual implement through chanting the mantra, essentially "certifying" the implement. Once it recognizes its owner, it can be used normally.

The standard ritual for refining ritual implements in Tantric Buddhism requires the use of ritual implements.

When Qinghai monks refine prayer beads, they use kapala bowls as ritual implements, tapping the rim of the bowl once while reciting a mantra.

Lin Yi gave the kapala bowl to Long Ci, and since she only had the sister drum left, she had to use the sister drum instead.

He held a ghost painting in his left hand and a drum in his right, striking it once while chanting a spell.

The Sister Drum is an evil artifact; the white bone Bodhisattva on the drumhead didn't seem to react much to the incantation.

It had been completely subdued by Lin Yi, and it ignored everything Lin Yi said.

But those passing by outside suffered.

The Prajnaparamita mantra was originally a grand and majestic esoteric Buddhist chant, but when it was played on the evil instrument of the Sister Drum, it became a sinister and eerie low murmur, as if someone was chanting scriptures deep underground.

Passersby who heard this felt dizzy, nauseous, and wanted to vomit, so they covered their ears and went around them.

Only Ren Tingting sat opposite Lin Yi as if nothing had happened, resting her chin on her hands and watching him chant the incantation without blinking.

When Ma Dayong knocked on the door to deliver the food, his face was pale. He put the food on the table and ran away.

Lin Yi didn't force herself. After finishing her meal and reciting the incantation for the ninth time, she felt her thoughts finally penetrate the internal structure of the ghost painting and gain initial control over this magical treasure.

He immediately tried to put the Thangka and the sister drum into the ghost painting—the two evil artifacts swayed in mid-air and turned into two black lights that entered the frame.

Lin Yineng could clearly sense that Daheitian and the White Bone Bodhisattva subconsciously tried to resist the moment they were taken in, but they immediately chickened out and obediently entered the space within the painting.

He shook his head—if the Great Black Sky creatures resisted even slightly, the Ghost Painting wouldn't be able to subdue them.

Its power is indeed average; it's okay as a storage device, but you can't rely on it for fighting.

After finishing their meal, Lin Yi, along with Ren Tingting and Ma Dayong, checked out of the inn and moved into the haunted house.

King Ai of Zhou was still standing obediently in the corner of the main hall. When he saw Lin Yi push the door open and enter, he let out a low gurgling sound.

When Ren Tingting first saw it, she was startled and instinctively hid half a step behind Lin Yi, but soon peeked out again to look at it curiously.

Lin Yi simply explained, "This is a newly recruited underling, don't be afraid," and then took King Ai of Zhou into the ghost painting as well.

This guy's corpse poison is astonishing; once scratched, you'll quickly turn into a zombie—it's practically a biological mother.

Until a suitable place is found to house it, keeping it inside the ghost painting is the safest option.

In the afternoon, Mao Shanjian heard that Lin Yi had moved into the haunted house, so he brought a basket of fruit to visit him.

He hesitated for a moment at the entrance of the haunted house before pushing it open and going inside. He found that the eerie atmosphere that had permeated the house for decades was completely gone.

He immediately realized that Lin Yi had already cleaned up the house and the family inside.

Lin Yi took the fruit and placed it on the table, then went straight to the point and asked Mao Shanjian if he had any talismans that could activate bloodlines.

Maoshan Jian said he did, and then introduced the talismans he knew.

"First is the Big Dipper Awakening Talisman." Maoshan Jian held up one finger. "The seven stars correspond to the seven souls in the human body. When the seven souls are asleep, the bloodline is not manifest. When the seven souls are awakened, the potential is opened."

This talisman must be drawn at midnight when the power of the Big Dipper is at its peak. After the talisman is completed, seven drops of the caster's blood are placed on the head of the talisman, representing the use of human blood to draw upon the power of the stars.

When using it, place it on the ancestral aperture between the eyebrows of the recipient, which is the gateway for the soul to enter and exit. It draws the power of the Big Dipper into the body, using the power of the stars to vibrate the seven souls and awaken the bloodline from the level of the soul.

The Big Dipper Awakening Talisman works extremely quickly; the stellar energy will react within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, and it is effective for the vast majority of bloodline types. Once the seven souls awaken, the bloodline naturally awakens as well.

"The second is the Three Officials Opening Talisman." Maoshan Jian raised another finger, "In the name of the Three Officials Emperors—Heavenly Official Bestows Blessings, Earthly Official Pardons Sins, and Water Official Relieves Calamities—the divine power of the Three Officials is drawn into the body, simultaneously opening the key points of the upper, middle, and lower dantian."

The moment all three barriers are opened, the potential within the body will surge out like a burst dam, and the degree of bloodline awakening will far exceed that of the Big Dipper Awakening Talisman.

The downside is that the power of the Three Officials is too fierce, posing a great test to the physical body and soul of the recipient. If they cannot withstand it, their dantian will shatter and their meridians will be broken.

My master used it on someone once, and that person did indeed awaken later, gaining immense strength. However, during the awakening process, he screamed in agony for an entire night and was bedridden for two months afterward before he could get up.

Lin Yi immediately decided: "The Big Dipper Awakening Talisman. Please have the Taoist priest draw one for my wife."

Mao Shanjian did not refuse, but said that the Big Dipper Awakening Talisman was a high-level talisman, and he had to bathe and fast for seven days to adjust his energy and spirit to the best state before he could draw it.

During these seven days, one must abstain from meat, alcohol, and women, and must recite scriptures and meditate every morning and evening.

"Then I'll leave it to you, Daoist Master." Lin Yi nodded and saw Mao Shanjian to the door.