Choosing the Far Road Instead of the Near One

Qin He turned back and walked straight up to the three men. "Officer, isn't Master Xu coming today?"

"He had something to do today, so he took his monthly leave early. He's not coming," Ling Zhonghai said with a smile.

"Alright."

Qin He turned around. The shovel on his shoulder traced a half-circle, then with a wham, smacked Ling Zhonghai right in the forehead.

"Ah!"

Ling Zhonghai cried out in pain and nearly fell to the ground.

"Officer, what's wrong?"

Qin He looked utterly shocked. He hurriedly turned around, and the shovel naturally completed its circle, striking Li Tie square in the face with another wham.

"Ah!"

This time, it was Li Tie's turn to cry out in pain.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Officer. I didn't do it on purpose."

Qin He jumped in fright, wildly waving the shovel.

Wham!

Before long, Gao Linkun failed to dodge in time and got hit too, falling straight down.

"You idiot, what are you doing?"

"I... I really didn't mean to. I'll help you up."

Qin He hurried over to help them, but this time the shovel came down even harder. He swung it in a full circle, sweeping Ling Zhonghai and Li Tie—whose eyes were still full of stars—off their feet and sending them crashing down onto the ground.

"Huh, what's going on... I-I... Officer, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"Alright, alright, stop moving! Put the shovel down first!"

"Yes, Officer!"

Clang.

"Ow, I'll XX your XX, you stabbed my foot!"

After night fell, Qin He looked at the three corpses lined up on the Corpse Purification Platform and smiled until his eyes narrowed into slits.

If he'd known that earning the hatred of officer NPCs would get him corpses +1, why had he gone to the Mass Grave to slaughter all around?

Once he realized this, Qin He suddenly felt that he had suffered a huge loss before.

He'd gone through it too fast and realized it too late.

He had chosen the far road instead of the near one.

Draping himself in hemp and mourning clothes, cleansing the corpses with clear water, opening the furnace to burn them.

After fighting through the night, all three corpses were successfully burned. With Corpse Suppressing Nails driven into them, even if they underwent a vicious mutation, they could only lie back down and obediently accept the arrangements of fate.

This day had truly been a bumper harvest for Qin He.

A full six corpses.

The three corpses from the Mass Grave had all rewarded Dao Xing, thirteen years in total.

The three corpses from the Corpse Burning Facility had yielded an Abyssal Fruit, a Marrow Cleansing Pill, and a Night Vision Technique.

Night Vision Technique: Learn this technique, and your vision will no longer distinguish between night and day.

He decisively learned the skill. The effect was immediately obvious. A faint glimmer flashed through Qin He's pupils, and the dark corners became as clear as they were in broad daylight.

His Dao Xing increased by thirteen years. Added to what he had before, it reached the level of twenty-three years.

With this much Dao Xing, even if he stood still, it would be enough to suppress some low-level Supernatural Incidents.

Marrow Cleansing Pill: A precious pill from the Abyss, capable of cleansing the sinews and marrow and remolding one's body. It is something one may encounter but cannot seek.

Qin He looked at the Marrow Cleansing Pill in his hand. It was crystal-clear, like a piece of jelly, and its pill fragrance seeped into the heart and spleen.

It had come from a vicious corpse deliberately selected by Ling Zhonghai and the others.

There was no doubt that it was exceedingly precious.

The description had stated it plainly: this was a precious pill, something one could encounter but could not seek.

And it had come from the Abyss. Qin He did not know what kind of place the Abyss was, but anything that emerged from there was surely far from ordinary.

Without thinking too much, Qin He swallowed the Marrow Cleansing Pill in one gulp.

An extreme, gentle chill dissolved in his abdomen and seeped into his limbs and bones. Then Qin He discovered that a great deal of greasy, sticky filth was oozing out from his body as though he were sweating.

He raised a hand and sniffed it. The smell was enough to knock someone's head off.

Qin He hurriedly stripped off his clothes and rinsed himself with clean water. He washed for a full half an hour before the foul stench finally ran clean.

Before he could feel anything else, the reward appeared first.

Internal strength +32 years, Dao Xing +20 years.

Qin He was ecstatic. This reward was simply outrageous. Ling Zhonghai truly deserved to be an old hand at the Corpse Burning Facility—his eye for things was viciously sharp.

Thirty-six years of internal strength directly doubled Qin He's internal strength, bringing it to fifty-one years.

Previously, ten years of internal strength had allowed him to casually smash a tethering post as large as a pomelo. With fifty-one years of internal strength, he should be able to shatter a huge rock with one palm, right?

Qin He thought.

There was nowhere for him to test it, so he could only let it go.

His Dao Xing had doubled as well, reaching forty-one years.

Qin He likewise had no idea what level that was. He only knew that the average lifespan in this era seemed to be just over thirty years—and that was without counting those who died young from natural disasters, man-made calamities, and misfortune. If they were counted, it would only be lower.

After experiencing it for himself, he found that his circulating internal strength had become far more powerful, while his whole body felt much lighter.

It was as though he had spent years training through the bitter cold of winter and scorching heat of summer while carrying a heavy burden, only to suddenly cast it off one day.

Finally, there was the Abyssal Fruit. He had already eaten two of these before; they increased strength.

But this time, perhaps because the Marrow Cleansing Pill had improved his foundation, the Abyssal Fruit directly caused Qin He's strength to soar as well.

He gave it a try. The coal tongs, warped by repeated exposure to the furnace fire, were lightly squeezed in Qin He's hand and bent straight again.

"Awesome!"

Qin He could not help letting out a low roar. The exhaustion from going several days without sleep was swept away, and he was brimming with vitality, as fierce as a dragon and vigorous as a tiger.

Outside Room Seven, the three men exchanged glances when they heard the commotion.

That low roar had sounded far too much like the roar of a corpse undergoing a vicious mutation.

"He's dead!"

Gao Linkun pronounced the verdict.

"Hmph, that's what he gets for offending us."

"That's right. He brought it upon himself."

Ling Zhonghai and Li Tie spoke in turn.

After that, the atmosphere fell silent.

For a very, very long time.

At some unknown point, an air of pity and guilt began to spread among the three men.

Gao Linkun said softly, "He's just an idiot. Don't you think we... went a little too far?"

It was not as though Corpse Burners had never offended officers before, but generally speaking, the officers would not make too much of it. After all, Corpse Burners were all people with one foot in the grave; the only difference was whether their lives would be long or short.

If someone occasionally offended them too badly, they would merely assign them one extra corpse as punishment.

If they endured it, they were lucky. If they failed to endure it, they deserved it.

But deliberately picking the three fiercest corpses from dozens of Mutated Corpses and stuffing them into the same Corpse Burning Room—that was excessive cruelty.

"He made us look so miserable, and the other Corpse Burners saw it too. We had to... kill a chicken to scare the monkeys." Li Tie craned his neck, but his tone was clearly lacking conviction.

Ling Zhonghai let out a soft breath. "What's done cannot be undone. Let's find him a good place to bury him."

Li Tie and Gao Linkun said nothing more.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo!"

The moment he finished speaking, a rooster crowed from the distant horizon.

Clang!

"Open the room doors!"

The sound of a gong announced the end of the day's work.

The three hurriedly took out their keys and rushed toward Room Seven, fumbling as they opened the door.

But the scene inside was completely different from the bloody mess they had imagined. Qin He stood bare-chested, dripping wet all over. Seeing the three of them, he grinned, revealing a mouthful of dazzlingly white teeth.

"Good morning, Officers!" Qin He greeted them.

"You... you're not dead?"

Ling Zhonghai was somewhat stunned.

"No."

Qin He shook his head. His expression was somewhat serious, yet somewhat blank. At last, he added, "I'm tough as nails. Even if you die, I won't."