Becoming a Fox Spirit from Under One Person

Chapter 95 This corpse-driving technique, isn't it romantic in a way too?

Chen Ruoan passed by a mountain ridge on the border of western Hunan. The mountains were bathed in the summer night. Moonlight spread over the mountains, mountain breezes rustled through the forests, and fireflies dotted the secluded path, creating a beautiful and gentle night scene.

The tranquility of the mountains and fields was suddenly shattered by a piercing wail.

Chen Ruoan spun around and landed on the ground. He saw a group of merchants sitting slumped on the ground. Some were ashen-faced and terrified, some had fainted from fright, and some were barely holding on, their faces calm, but their crotches were covered in a warm, wet patch.

*Ring ring, ring ring...* Someone rang the soul-summoning bell, complaining, "I told you to keep away from strangers! Keep away from strangers! But you all just wouldn't listen, wouldn't listen! You insisted on peeking, are you scared out of your wits now?!"

Behind him followed a string of corpses, creating a powerful aura reminiscent of ghostly soldiers using a passageway.

"Go, go, go! Traveling at night is not easy. Hurry up and leave. If anything happens, I'll have to turn you into corpses."

The corpse driver waved his hand to shoo them away, shook the soul-capturing bell, hoisted the soul banner, and continued on his way.

While chanting, they said, "The copper bells lead the way, the mountains and fields give way, the deceased returns home, do not be alarmed or obstructed~ Slow down on the path to the underworld, the living temporarily give way, may the soul return home in peace!"

In the gentle moonlight, only his voice remained.

"These past few days have really been a nightmare, dealing with corpses."

The fox followed for a while and discovered that the corpse driver's skills were truly remarkable.

Normally, being able to manipulate seven corpses is extremely rare, but this guy had a full twenty-four corpses strung together with straw ropes behind him.

The more walking corpses he commanded, the more tiring it became to transform the corpse energy with Qi. After traveling for a while along the mountain road, the corpse driver was panting heavily and leaned against a tree trunk to rest.

He glanced at the top of a camphor tree and laughed, "A friend who has attained Qi? The mountain road is long, come down and have a chat."

Upon being discovered, Chen Ruoan jumped down.

How did you find me?

The corpse-driver lifted the soul banner: "I know a little about corpse-driving and soul-summoning magic. Are you tired? Would you like to rest inside my soul banner?"

With just a few words, the fox knew that the guy in front of him was a natural social butterfly.

Recalling Mr. Liu, who had conspired with the county magistrate in Hubei, Chen Ruoan introduced himself and inquired about the other party's school of thought.

The corpse driver chuckled: "Where else could it be but the Liu family of Xiangxi, Liu Zhixing?"

"Your corpse-driving lineage has recently become infamous."

Liu Zhixing blushed: "A bunch of bastards causing trouble outside, truly airing their dirty laundry in public. Damn it, using the corpse-driving technique for fighting and bullying, they've really disgraced their ancestors."

"Here you go." The corpse driver waved his hand and took out half a meat pie from his bundle. "Want some? I broke it in half. Don't be disgusted by me, I'm not dirty at all."

Chen Ruoan was looking for a place to rest, so she hopped over there.

A meat pie was offered to him, and the fox reciprocated with an egg.

"My abdomen is like a storage artifact, so please don't dislike me."

"You're quite an interesting fox."

Liu Zhixing took the egg, peeled it, and put it in his mouth, gazing at the corpses strung together by the straw rope.

Chen Ruoan also glanced at it.

Liu Zhixing shook his head, recalling the merchants who had fled in terror: "How could such a romantic technique be spread as some kind of heretical practice? A bunch of people acted like they had seen demons and monsters."

The fox felt like it was choking on the pancake.

"I can understand the idea of ​​transporting corpses, but where does the romance in that come from?"

"Hehe, do you know what 'corpse transport' means?"

In Chen Ruoan's opinion, the corpse-driving school is a school destined to decline with the development of the times.

As far as I can remember, there was a girl named Liu Yanyan who appeared later. She was a rebellious and dim-witted young woman who was tricked into doing a lot of bad things like digging up graves and stealing corpses in order to join the "Quanxing".

The fox thought for a moment, then continued, "Everyone has their own expertise, and you must all have your own unique understanding."

"Mmm."

Liu Zhixing nodded, lay down comfortably on the ground, and started talking to himself, regardless of whether the fox wanted to listen or not. It seemed that he had been traveling for a long time and his only companion was his corpse. He was truly lonely.

He said that this practice of transporting corpses, also known as "spirit transport," is a type of corpse logistics. The original intention was to send the deceased's body back to their hometown for burial, allowing living relatives and friends to meet and say goodbye to the deceased, and then perform rituals to help them pass on to the afterlife.

The earliest corpse drivers were not very skilled in using the method. They could only drive the dead who missed their homeland. They would briefly seal the soul and use the soul-capturing bell as a guide to lead the corpse over mountains and across valleys back to its homeland.

In Liu Zhixing's understanding, corpse driving was initially linked to the local sentiment of "returning to one's roots".

He pointed to the corpses strung together with straw rope and asked, "Do you know how these guys got here?"

The fox shook its head, looking at the stitches on the corpses. There were knife wounds and gunshot wounds. Even if the origins were unknown, most of them were probably related to the battlefield.

"I've traveled to many places these days, and I've seen all sorts of massacres and purges. The bodies of some farmers and soldiers were just left there to be displayed, or thrown into mass graves or drowned in rivers. Those left on the spot were eaten by wild animals and rotted into bones..."

"I buried what I could secretly."

"Some of my fellow villagers asked me to take them away, so I used some tricks to do so."

Chen Ruoan looked up and saw that the corpses had wooden or bamboo slips hanging from their waists, engraved with their names and hometowns. They could be considered to have returned to their homeland.

"Now that you mention it, it's actually quite romantic."

"Hehe, I knew it." Liu Zhixing chuckled. "After this job, I'm done. I'll go home, get married, and live a stable and peaceful life."

After these words, which sounded like a flag, the fox immediately became alert.

You can't say that.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, I'm just tired and want to rest for a bit."

The loneliness of hiking in the mountains, the hardship of long journeys, and the danger of traversing post-war battlefields are all insignificant.

What Liu Zhixing found unacceptable was the expressions and reactions of his relatives and friends after he brought the body back.

"In this world of ghosts, how can there be an endless stream of corpses to be delivered?"

"Without corpses, your techniques will be lost."

"So what if it's gone? A trivial skill, if it could be exchanged for a few peaceful years, that would be a huge profit."

As Liu Zhixing spoke, he suddenly felt that his topic was getting a bit heavy, so he stopped going on to delve deeper. After talking for a long time, he still hadn't completely swallowed the egg in his mouth.

Chen Ruoan didn't mind listening more, but the atmosphere was somber that he gradually lost interest in speaking.

Corpse drivers travel at night and rest during the day, unlike foxes.

Chen Ruoan assumed that the Liu family member was a skilled and virtuous person, so he didn't pay much attention to him. He used wood element magic to weave a grass blanket, curled up under the tree, and planned to get through the clear night.

With nothing to do, Liu Zhixing simply stood up and stared at the fox as it slept.

Well, to be honest, foxes are like dogs; sometimes when they wake up, they kick their four legs out, looking quite like they're dead.

"Tsk tsk tsk, what a terrible sleeping posture."

Liu Zhixing shook his head and sighed. From the bushes not far away came a series of rapid, heavy breathing.

Zhang Huaiyi's feet were covered in armor, and the lightning on his body had long since disappeared. He saw corpses strung together with straw ropes, as well as a fox kicking its limbs under a tree.

"Wait, it's a misunderstanding..."

Or did Senior Brother Chen die?

Stab it!

Just as the palm lightning was gathering its power, the fox's ears twitched.