Grave Goods

People were creatures who could easily create miracles.

Because people always did things that defied common sense.

They knew the danger before them was immense, yet for those unknown strange objects, they were willing to stake their lives on that sliver of an uncertain future.

Because gambling with one's life was not frightening; what was frightening was that the other side's stakes were not rich enough.

Although Li Yi was not the first to act, his efficiency was the highest.

Most of the danger had been drawn away by Wang Hu, Wei Li, and Zhang Kaiwen. In the mud ahead of him, only a few strange corpses writhed, and they were all surging rapidly toward the others, overlooking his existence instead.

That was precisely why he dared to take this gamble.

"Very close now."

Li Yi's heart pounded wildly. He drew closer and closer to that lonely grave, until he could even make out the writing on the broken gravestone. Yet the characters twisted like tadpoles, unlike any writing from history. It was an unknown language and culture.

He did not dare stop for even an instant and continued forward at top speed.

At the same time.

An unwilling scream suddenly echoed from nearby.

Li Yi's eyelid twitched, and he instinctively glanced in that direction.

The man called Zhang Kaiwen had more than half his body trapped in the mud. Three or four strange corpses had entangled him, and his body was sinking rapidly, as though he were about to vanish from this world completely. Though he struggled desperately, it was still futile.

Those dirt-covered corpses seemed terrifyingly heavy, something no ordinary person could contend with.

"I refuse to fail! I was so close!"

Zhang Kaiwen was still shouting and struggling, but soon, a filthy, icy hand pressed his head alive into the mud.

The moment he was buried underground, all his struggling came to an abrupt halt. Only one mud-smeared arm remained exposed, twisted and grotesque, rigid and motionless.

"So everyone who dies here becomes one of the corpses in the mud, left here forever, unable to escape."

A chill ran through Li Yi's heart, but he quickly looked away, gritted his teeth, and continued onward.

Because after Zhang Kaiwen died, the soil nearby began to writhe. Those terrifying corpses raised their heads, let out anguished wails, and drew toward him again.

They were clearly rolling through the soil, yet they approached with astonishing speed, utterly defying common sense.

"Zhang Kaiwen is dead?" Wei Li grew increasingly anxious.

With one fewer person sharing the pressure, his danger increased by several degrees.

But his speed had already reached its limit. He did not know whether he could make it across, but he knew he had no way back, neither before nor now.

"Power! Get the hell out of my body already! It's still broad daylight—it's not time for you to sleep yet!" Suddenly, a shout and roar echoed through the darkness.

Wang Hu was covered from head to toe in mud. Once again, he unleashed unimaginable strength, breaking free from the grip of a corpse in the mud. Then he ran and leapt like a savage beast, overtaking Li Yi in a short moment and creating a miracle as he became the first to reach the vicinity of the lonely grave.

The ground beside the grave was solid and overgrown with weeds. It did not sink beneath their feet.

"How did that guy do it?" Wei Li, a doctor, was dumbfounded at that moment. He felt that Wang Hu, an ordinary man, had completely overturned common sense.

Once that thing had latched onto someone, could a few shouts really unleash enough strength to break free and escape?

What kind of joke was that?

Li Yi stopped, panting. His route had been better than the others', and he had also reached the lonely grave without incident.

There was no time to worry about the danger around them. He had to get the item and leave as quickly as possible.

Just as he had observed earlier, this lonely grave looked as though it had been visited by tomb robbers. The coffin lid had been thrown aside, the grave owner's remains discarded nearby, and the empty coffin contained only a pile of tattered clothes. There were no burial goods at all, nor any strange object in sight.

Li Yi and Wang Hu appeared to have made the trip for nothing.

But the next moment, Wang Hu unhesitatingly grabbed the mummified corpse from the ground and lifted it.

"Unknown mighty one, your bones have not decayed after all these years. Come with me, Wang Hu! I'll take you with me and turn this world upside down, hahaha!" He laughed loudly, then carried the mummy away in one direction without looking back.

His actions jolted Li Yi awake.

No one knew what a strange object was. Take whatever could be taken.

He rushed over, swept up the pile of tattered clothes from the coffin, then turned and ran.

As he turned, he saw Wei Li, who had just arrived.

The two exchanged a glance, neither interfering with the other.

Wei Li headed straight for the scattered offerings beside the gravestone, because several objects lay among them.

Like Li Yi and Wang Hu, he picked them up and fled.

Everyone knew they could not linger here, nor could they greedily take more things, or they would delay their escape.

The three scattered in different directions. As for whether the items in their hands were strange objects or worth anything, only heaven knew now.

The corpses in the mud continued to wail and writhe. These terrifying things seemed to have erupted into unrest, breaking free of the mud's restraints and beginning to crawl aimlessly in every direction.

The monster-like howls had even reached beyond the building.

"Someone has taken the strange object that held the dead's resentment. Only when the strange object containing that resentment leaves its original place will the dead souls and fierce ghosts bound by it lose control and spread everywhere."

"But how is that possible? They were clearly just five ordinary people. Why should they be able to survive in the hands of an Earthbound Spirit?"

"Could someone truly be born with an extraordinary fate? Or were they simply lucky?"

A flicker of surprise passed through the eyes of the woman who had activated Spirit Medium. She had thought those people had no hope whatsoever and would be wiped out on the second underground floor. She had not expected a miracle to actually occur.

"Now that they have the items, it's time for us to collect the goods." Excitement tinged Old Crow's low voice.

"Don't rush. We still can't approach this building."

Light gleamed in the woman's eyes. In her vision, countless wronged souls and fierce ghosts drifted around the collapsed building. Many of them had noticed her and all lunged toward her, but they quickly dissipated in midair.

Without strange objects to sustain them, these things could not amount to much and would soon all disperse.

This polluted world hindered people's cultivation, yet in another sense, it also protected the people of this world.

Otherwise, after the Skyfall Event, ghosts, monsters, and vicious objects would have long since been roaming all over the world.

"Someone's coming out."

Suddenly, Old Crow's gaze shifted toward the entrance of the abandoned building.

Amid the darkness and exhausted panting, a figure ran outside in panic.

"Help... help me!" the person cried.

"It's that woman, Liu Yan."

Old Crow recognized her immediately. "She was actually the first to escape alive? I'd guess she did not risk entering that core area. Good. Without greed, the chances of survival are much higher. Wait, something's wrong. What is on her?"

To ordinary eyes, Liu Yan was merely fleeing. But in Old Crow's vision, a cold, stiff, strange corpse was extending a twisted hand and clutching her ankle, dragged along as she ran. At the same time, its body was gradually vanishing, as though it were merging into her body.

As the fierce ghost's form gradually dissipated, Liu Yan's aura of the living weakened at a visible rate.

"She's possessed by a ghost."

The tall woman beside him said coldly, "This ghost is different from the other dead souls and resentful spirits. This thing has grown into something. It actually knows to borrow a living person's body to return to life. If it succeeds, Liu Yan will become something called a Walking Corpse. We cannot let her leave alive. Kill her immediately. If we let her go, once a Walking Corpse begins cultivating, it will be terrifying."

As soon as she finished speaking, a faint glimmer flashed through her eyes again.

Gaze Strike!

In an instant, Liu Yan's eyes rolled back. She lost her balance and fell straight to the ground. Blood then flowed from her seven orifices, and she died on the spot.

"Stop!"

An angry shout rang out. A vehicle sped over, and the people inside tried to stop this, but it seemed they were too late.

Before the car had even stopped, a figure sprang nimbly out of it.

"I've been following your group for a long time. I never expected you to come to the Ruined City to murder people. Do you really think there are no investigators in Tianchang City who dare deal with outlaws like you?" The man strode over, fury written across his face.

"An investigator, Wang Jian? When did he start watching us?" Old Crow's expression changed slightly.

"Since we've been discovered, deal with him."

The tall woman's expression remained indifferent. She did not take the fact that she had casually killed someone just now to heart in the slightest.

"Your eyes... Have you activated Spirit Medium? You are young, yet you have such talent in cultivation. Who are you?" Wang Jian sized up the woman before him and asked.

"My name is Ning Wu. I am a cultivator, not a criminal. I had a reason for killing that woman just now. She had already been possessed by a fierce ghost. Even if I had not acted, she would not have lived beyond three days. And if she were allowed to leave, she would only bring greater trouble to the district. Wang Jian, as an investigator, you do not want ghosts appearing and people dying in the area under your jurisdiction, do you?" Ning Wu said.

"You say she was possessed by a ghost, and I should believe you?" Wang Jian stared at her. "Your accomplices lured away three groups of people in the Old Town District. The first group had fifteen people, the second had ten, and today's was the third group, with five people. None of those people ever appeared again after disappearing. Based on that alone, I have the authority to take you all down right now."

Ning Wu said, "In this world, it is perfectly normal to pay people to do dangerous things. I did not force anyone."

Suddenly.

She sensed something and abruptly turned to look toward the building behind her.

Bang!

Accompanied by the sound of shattering glass, Wang Hu, covered in mud and looking utterly bedraggled, burst through a window. He carried a mummified corpse in his hand and fled in another direction without looking back.

"Wang Hu, where are you going?" Old Crow reacted and shouted.

"It seems he is not satisfied with two million. He wants to run off with the item. Hmph, how greedy. But he is still a little too naive."

Ning Wu's long legs suddenly exerted force, and she instantly vanished from where she stood.

Her figure swept swiftly over the ground, trailing a long black shadow through their vision.

Her speed was unbelievably fast, simply beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.

Yet the next moment.

Ning Wu's figure abruptly came to a halt.

"That distance is beyond the range of Gaze Strike, isn't it? You want to chase him down? Do you think I don't exist?"

Wang Jian intercepted Ning Wu, and the two exchanged a brief blow.

Bang!

A dull impact rang out, kicking up dust around them.

Ning Wu staggered back repeatedly. The sleeve on her arm shattered into several pieces, leaving a bruise on her snow-white skin.

"You..." Ning Wu glared furiously, rage rising within her.

"I'll chase him." Old Crow spoke.

But just as he was about to move, a red dot appeared on his body, and an intense sense of danger locked onto him.

"Try it. Let's see whether your legs are faster, or my sniper's bullets are faster." Wang Jian glanced at Old Crow and said.

Old Crow did not dare act rashly and merely stood there with a dark expression.

He might have cultivated, but he was still human. If he was hit, he would die.

Bang!

Another window shattered.

Li Yi appeared. He was equally bedraggled, but at least he had left the building alive.

"Li Yi, stop! Don't think about running. Did you get the thing in your hand from there? Put it down at your feet, and I'll transfer two million to you afterward," Old Crow shouted.

"Transfer the money now, and I'll put the thing down immediately." Li Yi stopped and turned back.

Old Crow said, "There's no way to transfer money to you right now. Once this matter is over, you will not be shortchanged."

"No money, no fucking deal. Do you take me for an idiot? You clearly don't want to pay, but you want the item, and you even want to kill us to silence us." Li Yi turned and ran after saying that.

He had understood what was happening just now. Investigator Wang Jian was confronting Old Crow's group.

No wonder that dangerous woman who had activated Spirit Medium had not stopped Wang Hu when he fled earlier.

Seeing Li Yi run, Old Crow was furious enough to kill. Those two had run off with items, and perhaps the things in their hands were strange objects.

"These money-grubbing bastards. I shouldn't have hired them from the start."

But no sooner had Li Yi left than Wei Li escaped the building from another place. He was injured and in terrible condition, but he had still survived.

Yet when he saw the two fleeing people and Liu Yan's corpse on the ground, blood flowing from her seven orifices, he fell silent for a moment.

Then he ran madly in another direction.

Seeing the last person also flee with an item, Old Crow was not the only one furious enough to kill. Ning Wu was so angry she nearly spat blood.

"Wang Jian, let me capture those people. I need to retrieve some things that belong to me. Then I will go back with you and assist with the investigation. How about it? I can guarantee that I will not harm them."

She was frantic, feeling as though a duck already in her hand had flown away.

But she did not dare mention the strange objects. Otherwise, it would not just be one investigator like Wang Jian that she attracted; likely every cultivator in Tianchang City would come looking for trouble with her.

"They are victims, and they are ordinary people. It is best to let them leave. Though I do not know what they took, it is not important to me. My responsibility is to keep the two of you here." Wang Jian bluntly rejected Ning Wu's proposal.

"Wang Jian, you will regret this."

Ning Wu gritted her teeth, able only to watch as those three disappeared from her sight.

"I can only find them later."

"Are you coming back with me to accept an investigation, or will you keep resisting? Choose one," Wang Jian said.

Ning Wu closed her eyes and steadied her emotions, then said, "I'll go back with you and assist with the investigation, but before that, I need to make a phone call."

"That's fine, as long as you do not resist," Wang Jian said.

Although he was confident he could take down the person before him, he did not want to fight these vicious criminals.