The next day, Yan Hongxia followed Liu Qingyan to Renxin Hall for her shift. In the afternoon, with free time, the two women went to Yuling Garden to watch a play, while Lu Zheng tidied up and headed out to Shaotong Mountain.
Traces of a zombie in Tonglin County’s jurisdiction naturally warranted a report to his sect.
“A zombie?” Daoist Mingzhang stroked his beard, puzzled. “Zombies are fairly common. Most who undergo corpse transformation become zombies, weak enough for ordinary people to kill and burn.
But as you described, this zombie can turn a martial artist into a corpse puppet, meaning it has at least a hundred years of cultivation, though the martial artist couldn’t have been too strong.”
“Only a hundred years?” Lu Zheng blinked. That weak?
Daoist Mingzhang glanced at him. “With your current cultivation, small-time demons and ghosts causing local trouble can be dealt with easily. No need to run to the mountain for help every time.”
Mingzhang had a rough sense of Lu Zheng’s strength, so when Lu Zheng rushed up the mountain for aid today, he was startled, thinking some great demon had descended on Tonglin County.
His own cultivation was only about three hundred years; he might not handle it!
And it was just a zombie they hadn’t even seen?
Lu Zheng blinked. Since this wasn’t an emergency, wasn’t it just his habit to call for backup…
“Master! Master!”
Yuanning’s shout came from outside the courtyard. “Senior Brother Yuanjing is back, he’s injured!”
As the words fell, Yuanning and another daoist supported Yuanjing into the courtyard. Knowing Lu Zheng was with Mingzhang, they weren’t worried about disturbing his practice.
Mingzhang remained seated, his eyes flashing with divine light.
Lu Zheng rushed to their side, helping support Yuanjing.
Yuanjing’s daoist robe was torn with four long gashes across the chest. Though the bleeding had stopped, a faint stench lingered, his face bluish-black, lips purple, and faint black qi drifted from his mouth with each breath.
“Corpse qi!” Lu Zheng said gravely.
Yuanjing, focusing on resisting the corpse poison within, looked up weakly at Lu Zheng, smacking his lips. “Cough, cough, I was careless…”
Lu Zheng nodded. Alright, if he could say that, it wasn’t too serious.
Mingzhang flashed to Yuanjing’s side, grasped his wrist, and channelled true qi to expel the corpse qi.
“Hm?” Mingzhang’s eyes narrowed, looking at Yuanjing oddly. “You got lucky this time.”
Lu Zheng raised an eyebrow. “Could it be…”
“This zombie’s not simple.”
Mingzhang didn’t even consider if it was a different zombie; such a powerful one was unlikely to have two appear at once.
“Help him sit.”
Mingzhang gave the order, holding Yuanjing steady, true qi flowing continuously. Decades of cultivated true qi, thick and pure, soon improved Yuanjing’s condition.
Strands of black qi drifted from Yuanjing’s chest wounds and mouth, thickening then fading to nearly nothing.
“All good?” Lu Zheng asked.
“Not yet,” Mingzhang frowned. “A deeply hidden strand of corpse qi clings to his heart meridian, impossible to expel.”
He turned to Lu Zheng. “The stalactite essence you got from the cave, any left?”
“None,” Lu Zheng shook his head. “But I can get more.”
Mingzhang nodded. “Go get some, about ten… twenty drops.”
“Alright, I’ll go now,” Lu Zheng nodded, not wasting words. He borrowed a porcelain bottle from Yuanning and left.
…
Half a day later, Lu Zheng returned to Shaotong Mountain with half a bottle of stalactite essence, over a hundred drops.
“All smooth?”
“All smooth!”
“Good!” Mingzhang didn’t hesitate, feeding Yuanjing twenty drops, then guiding the qi to finally expel the corpse qi.
A mouthful of black blood spurted out.
Eyes brightening, spirit lifting, Yuanjing finally recovered. “Thank you, Master! Thank you, Junior Brother!”
“Mm, tell us what happened,” Mingzhang said, relaxing, handing the bottle to Lu Zheng, who placed it on a table in the meditation room.
Mingzhang saw, nodded, and said nothing.
Though the corpse qi was fully expelled and Yuanjing’s soul wasn’t corrupted, the prolonged struggle left him quite weak.
So Yuanjing unceremoniously took a big swig of lingzhi wine.
“Yesterday, returning from Yuhe County, I passed Jiaotian Town west of the county. I heard a tomb north of the town, twenty li away, was breached by tomb robbers, discovered by a farmer heading to the fields at dawn.
Tomb robbers don’t work in daylight, so the farmer thought they’d left and went in to see if he could find anything valuable.
A few steps in, he felt dizzy and stumbled out, collapsing in the field. His family took him home and called a doctor.
The townsfolk planned to report it the next day. I figured since the tomb affected ordinary people, it might hide some evil creature, so I went to check and deal with it if needed.
But a few steps into the cave, a zombie rushed out, swatted me aside, and fled the tomb, vanishing.”
“It got out?” Mingzhang frowned.
Yuanjing nodded. “It did. It didn’t seem to target me, just swatted me because I was in its way…”
“No wonder,” Mingzhang nodded. “Facing a zombie with at least three hundred years of cultivation, you’re lucky to be alive.”
Yuanjing: “…”
“Rest now. I’ll take a look,” Mingzhang stood. “If the zombie’s still in the tomb, fine. If it’s out, that’s trouble.”
“Master, I’ll go with you,” Lu Zheng said.
Mingzhang nodded. “Good.”
…
The two left Shaotong Mountain, each casting a divine travel spell, moving like the wind toward Jiaotian Town, west of Tonglin County.
When they reached the tomb, twenty li north of Jiaotian Town, dusk had fallen, but the site was lit with torches, at least a hundred people present.
“Foolish!” Mingzhang scolded, hurrying forward. Besides Liu, the head constable of Tonglin County, with a group of constables and yamen runners, there were two daoists, one old, one young, by their side.
“Hm?”
“Hey? Young Master Lu!”
“Daoist Jiuzhen, what are you doing here?”
