From Under One Person: Sincere Journey Through the Heavens

It is precisely his literary talent.

"You're... the one who had coffee with Tingting's older sister." Wencai still didn't know Jiang Liu's name. "What are you doing at the mortuary? Did someone in your family die?"

"..."

Ok!

This person's emotional intelligence is incredibly low!

"No, I need to talk to Uncle Jiu. Is he here?" Jiang Liu went straight to the point.

"Here I am."

Wen Cai then belatedly opened the gate, let Jiang Liu into the courtyard, and called out to Lin Jiu, who was practicing calligraphy in the main room, "Master, someone is looking for you!"

"Ah."

Lin Jiu nodded slightly, turned around, and saw that it was Jiang Liu. He quickly walked over and said in a low voice, "Young people are so anxious. I have to prepare for the relocation of the Ren family's graves in these three days. I really don't have time to memorize the Twenty-Eight Constellations Chart. In addition, I also need to practice my writing. I usually set up altars and draw talismans. If I don't practice my writing, I guess you won't be able to understand what I write."

"That's not it."

Realizing that Lin Jiu had misunderstood, Jiang Liu was somewhat amused and exasperated. He quickly took out the rouge and lip powder he had smeared on Ren Wei's neck and the Miao-style homemade rouge he had bought from Qiu Sheng, explaining their origins.

"This is indeed a traditional Miao-style rouge."

Hearing that Jiang Liu had come for other matters, Lin Jiu blushed with embarrassment at his earlier somewhat impatient behavior. Fortunately, he was an old hand at the game and brushed it off with a few words. He then touched up his rouge and lip powder and began to talk about the rouge, saying, "Qiu Sheng's aunt is from Xiangxi. She also knows some Gu techniques, but she's not like us. She doesn't use Qi, but she can raise Gu worms with medicine and knows some methods to treat poisons."

This rouge is made from the excrement of a creature called the Rouge Gu. When applied to the face, it is believed to invigorate blood circulation and enhance male virility.

However, this is only a medicinal effect.

If we're talking about processing with Qi, I've only come across one type: Qi that can adhere to the human body and absorb the Qi that naturally dissipates.

It's used for flirting between men and women in the Miao region.

flirt?

Jiang Liu was taken aback. Could it be that the strange woman from outside had really taken a liking to Ren Wei?

That's like slicing your butt with a knife—

This is eye-opening!

However, Lin Jiu's expression suddenly turned serious as he said, "However, while this thing is used for flirting between men and women over there, it can also become a form of evil magic used to harm people in the hands of others!"

"How to say?"

Jiang Liu was not surprised.

For example, the magical treasures of Laozi in Journey to the West, such as the Purple Gold Red Gourd, Jade Purification Bottle, Banana Leaf Fan, Golden Rope, and Seven Star Sword, were used to hold elixirs, store water, fan the flames to control the fire, bind the waist, and refine demons. However, in the hands of the Golden Horn and Silver Horn, who were reincarnated and descended to the mortal world, they became evil weapons used to fill people with pus, set fire to forests, bind people, and kill, completely lacking any true virtue of alchemy.

It all depends on how people use them.

He was just curious how this flirtatious rouge could be used to harm someone. Could it be used to amplify the effects of drugs, causing someone to die from exhaustion?

"This rouge has the effect of strengthening qi and blood. If it is mixed with qi for a period of time and then applied to a person's body, and a talisman is set up in another place afterwards, it can draw the person's qi and blood to refine it and improve their cultivation."

Lin Jiu's expression was extremely serious. "Some unscrupulous people from the Wild Maoshan Sect would do this, using deception to fool young people with strong blood and qi, planting these rouge-red lip prints on them, or directly finding some women and having them apply this rouge to get close to men with strong blood and qi."

But then Lin Jiu became puzzled again, "However, I also know that the town's military captain, Ren Wei, doesn't have strong blood and energy; in fact, he's somewhat kidney deficient. Who would seek him out?"

"Uncle Jiu, if this rouge can be processed into something harmful, why is it circulating in the market?" Jiang Liu asked.

"It has a large yield. And it really can improve blood circulation and enhance male virility."

Lin Jiu revealed a meaningful look in his eyes, "There are many rouge poisons in the Xiangxi area, and the people there cannot go their whole lives without contact with people from other places. Through mutual exchange, this kind of rouge powder has been circulated to the outside world. It has existed since ancient times!"

However, in recent years, the daughters of high-ranking officials and wealthy families have preferred to buy Western rouge, and the sales of this traditionally made rouge have decreased.

I remember five years ago, Qiu Sheng's aunt sold rouge sourced from the Miao region of western Hunan. Now, most of her rouge comes from larger towns.

Jiang Liu: "..."

Unexpected!

And that makes perfect sense!

He was certain that in the ancient world of "Under One Man," every dynasty must have considered banning the production of this kind of rouge powder, which would become the source of evil magic used by the Wild Maoshan sect, but they couldn't stop it because of its large production volume and the fact that it did have practical effects such as improving blood circulation and enhancing male virility.

Unexpectedly, during the Republic of China era, the market for traditional rouge gradually shrank due to the influx of various imported Western products.

After this little incident, Jiang Liu pondered for a moment and tentatively asked, "Uncle Jiu, I don't know much about zombies. To put it in the worst-case scenario, if Master Ren's father, Old Master Ren, was really turned into a zombie by that feng shui master, wouldn't he immediately start drinking the blood of his loved ones?"

# Chapter 87 Zombies Don't Suck Blood from Their Own Family

"Who told you that?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Jiu had a strange expression. "Oh! I almost forgot, although you are exceptionally talented, you are ultimately not from my Daoist sect."

Will zombies feed on the blood of their closest relatives immediately?

Did you read it in a picture book?

"I hope Uncle Jiu can give me some guidance."

Jiang Liu clasped his hands in a gesture of respect.

"cough!"

Having satisfied his vanity, Lin Jiu smiled and swayed his head slightly, like a teacher lecturing to students in an academy. He cleared his throat before saying, "Zombie, as the name suggests, is a stiff corpse. And how can a stiff corpse move when its blood and qi are not flowing?"

Even for someone with unfathomable cultivation, attempting to directly control a stiff corpse with Qi would be extremely taxing, and they might not be able to sustain it for long before becoming exhausted.

Jiang Liu could understand. After all, when a person dies, their internal organs fail, their muscles die, and their blood stops circulating. Even if someone is a highly skilled person, to use Qi to control a stiff corpse to move like a normal person, they would have to control most of the organs related to the musculoskeletal system within the corpse at all times.

To achieve this level, one must not only consider the consumption of one's own Qi, but also have extremely exquisite control, and even have a sufficient understanding of the human body.

Then the question comes-

Those who can meet the above conditions must have reached the pinnacle of their abilities; would they still need to manipulate corpses?

and so!

Those who control corpses inevitably need a medium to assist them in manipulating the actions of the corpses.

For example: Gu (蛊).

"Therefore, throughout history, those who possess the skills of corpse driving and corpse manipulation have mostly used Gu worms to control them."

as predicted.

Lin Jiu confirmed Jiang Liu's guess: "The specific reason why the Gu worms can control the movement of corpses is unknown. Many of my disciples from the Shangqing Maoshan Sect who make a living outside often have to deal with corpses, even though they are unwilling, but they do not practice this kind of technique. However, the ability to control the movement of corpses is probably related to the primordial spirit."

The primordial spirit, also referring to the brain.

Therefore, Lin Jiu believes that controlling a corpse with Gu worms means that the Gu worms replace the primordial spirit of the deceased. The person controlling the corpse Gu is manipulating the primordial spirit of the deceased, except that this primordial spirit is not the brain of the deceased, but an external "Gu worm".

"As for zombies sucking blood..."

Lin Jiu pondered for a moment before saying, "That's true, but generally speaking, those who refine corpses feed themselves with their own essence and blood."

No matter how special a zombie is, even if it is refined to be as hard as iron and stone, it is still a corpse, an inanimate object.

Like swords and knives, they need to be maintained regularly, but they don't need to eat. It's just that cultivators need to use Qi to nourish the corpse.

However, Gu is a living creature and needs to eat.

The person controlling the Gu (a type of worm) uses their own blood to feed it, coordinating their Qi (vital energy) to make the Gu recognize them as its master. But if someone else's blood is used to feed it…to whom will the Gu recognize as its master?

In conclusion, Jiang Liu fully understood.

That is, after a person dies and becomes a corpse, even if they are refined into a zombie, they do not need to drink blood. What really needs blood is the corpse gu inside the zombie.

Zombies are inanimate objects, but the corpse gu used by the supernatural to control them is a living thing. It is impossible for the normal metabolic processes of life to be ignored simply by feeding it with qi.

have to say--

It's quite biological.

"Uncle Jiu, do those who control corpses possess the ability to remotely manipulate them, allowing the corpses to precisely locate and kill their intended targets?"

Jiang Liu asked again.

"some."

Lin Jiu was not stingy, after all, these contents were not inherited from the Shangqing Maoshan Sect. "However, at a distance of more than 100 meters, there are only a handful of people in the world who can control corpses."

Beyond this distance, the connection between the person controlling the corpse and the corpse-devouring insect will continuously decrease, and they can only transmit some simple commands, unable to accurately command the corpse to act.

But if it's only for killing, that is, to make the zombie only attack the target, that's possible. They would take that person's vital energy and blood, process it with their own vital energy, and feed it to the corpse-eating gu, so that the corpse-eating gu would be sensitive to that person's vital energy and blood…”

That's all for now.

Lin Jiu was taken aback, recalling what Jiang Liu had said—that Ren Wei had been implanted with this rouge-red lip powder processed with Qi—and his expression suddenly became somewhat strange: "Why Ren Wei?"

If the feng shui master wanted to take revenge on the Ren family, shouldn't he have approached Ren Fa?

Could it be that Ren Wei also offended that feng shui master?

Or perhaps it's another group?

"Is it possible that the feng shui master didn't have a chance to harm Ren Fa, so he went to Ren Wei instead? After all, he's related to Ren Fa, so his qi and blood would be effective, right?"

Jiang Liu guessed.

"No way."

Lin Jiu denied this conjecture, saying, "Everyone's Qi is unique. Even twins from the same root have different Qi. Guided by Ren Wei's Qi, the zombie will only look for Ren Wei and not Ren Fa."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Liu frowned slightly.

They only know how to contact Ren Wei?

Considering the theft of corpses from the nearby cemetery, could it be that Ren Wei really offended some outsider?

Given his personality, it doesn't seem impossible that he unintentionally offended some strange outsider...

“Don’t worry. In three days, when the relocation of the grave begins, we’ll dig up the body and the truth will come out. If the body was indeed refined, I suggest that you burn it to end the matter once and for all.”

After saying that, Lin Jiu added, "How about this, you come with me to that auspicious feng shui site and take a look. If that feng shui master really wants to take action, he will definitely go there to check it out soon."

"it is good."

The river should flow downstream.