Cocoon

The last day of the first lunar month, Xu Qing closed the shop door and held three sticks of incense.

Before him were the memorial tablets on the offering table of Grand Ancestor Yang and Liu Youdao.

After silently offering the incense, Xu Qing watched the curling white smoke rise, feeling an unusual sense of peace.

Compared to wild zombies, he felt he was already fortunate enough.

If he were a wild zombie, he might be somewhere in a lonely mountain or old grave right now, howling at the moon and eating the wind, or perhaps he'd tried to steal a bite from the living territory and failed, only to be chased by a group of strong laborers wielding hoes and knives, swarming all over the mountains.

Or maybe it would be worse, to be pulled out of his coffin lid by a passing Corpse Driver or a Daoist priest with a unibrow, slapped twice on the face, and then sent on his way once he woke up.

Fortunately, Xu Qing wasn't a wild zombie. He had the inheritance of a Corpse Driver and knew how to cultivate better than any zombie. Even without corpse-raising materials, he could blend into the territory of the living and exchange worldly goods for various cultivation resources.

This was an advantage no other of his kind possessed, so he felt a degree of respect for the two Corpse Drivers enshrined on the incense table. They had given this zombie the foundation to grow strong and achieve greatness.

"Scholar Liu, Master Yang, I will be entering seclusion for cultivation today, for a period of seven days. I hope that if your spirits are aware, you will bless me to gain knowledge and achieve success in my Dao path."

Although Liu Youdao had not been a proper person before, he had given Xu Qing a new life in a different sense by awakening him as a zombie.

After that, he inherited the Corpse Driver's Shop and diligently studied the art of corpse driving, ensuring that the lineage of Yang Yingqi and Liu Youdao did not die out. In terms of both emotion and reason, there was a connection of teacher and student.

Therefore, Xu Qing felt it was reasonable for a teacher and a grand-teacher to offer a little protection for their student's studies.

He had already made up his mind: if his Metamorphosis into an Ironclad Wandering Corpse failed this time, he wouldn't bother with burning incense and offering sacrifices on holidays anymore.

A teacher who didn't protect their student and caused them to fail wouldn't have the thick skin to accept incense offerings, right?

After fulfilling his traditional filial duty, Xu Qing, with the pioneering spirit of "success or death," took out his axe, chisel, scissors, and needle and thread, and began to tinker on his workbench.

The so-called workbench was actually a simple tabletop made by joining two coffins together, covered with a flat, black lacquered wooden board. Normally, it was used for preparing bodies for burial.

At this moment, Xu Qing had a log of Darkwood placed before him. He was not familiar with carpentry, but he could hollow out the log to make a simple coffin.

The Darkwood was to be used as a sealed container. After being hollowed out with an axe and chisel, it was placed aside for later use.

Next was the main event. Xu Qing took out a large Corpse Nail, soaked in a secret method by Corpse Drivers, and used a hammer to firmly nail it onto the Mountain Ruffian Hide, which had a hardness comparable to iron and stone.

There was a specific method for nailing this complete Yin Creature Hide. First, cinnabar was applied to seven key acupoints: the center of the forehead, the center of the chest, the palms of both hands, and the soles of both feet. After applying Divine Talismans, the nail hammer could be used for preparation.

The nearly twenty-year-old Mountain Ruffian Hide contained an unshakeable Yin impurity. This was the dense resentment accumulated by a mountain anomaly before it was persecuted and failed to become a spirit.

After the nails were used to spread and fix the hide securely, he was still uneasy. He found some Five-Colored Cloth Strips and tied it tightly.

When everything was ready, Xu Qing lit the Green Lamp on the altar, took a deep breath of Spirit Incense to refresh himself, and after confirming that all doors and windows were closed, he took out a Wolf Hair Brush and used his own Zombie Blood as ink to carefully draw Corpse Shadow Yin Talismans on the inside of the hide.

A total of thirty-six Corpse Shadow Yin Talismans. Each time he carved one, the hide fixed by the Corpse Nails on the altar would twitch and tremble for a moment, much like freshly cut beef right after slaughter.

As Xu Qing, like a tattoo artist, carved the twenty-seventh Yin Talisman, the "beef" on the chopping board began to become agitated. Countless hairs started to grow wildly from the back of the hide, then climbed towards the edges of the entire hide, as if trying to find a new body to parasitize.

However, he had already drawn a circle of candles around the edges of the hide. When the wriggling hairs touched the heat, they quickly retracted like startled snails.

Deep in the night, the Corpse Driver's Shop was illuminated by flickering lights. The eerie, distorted beastly cries were sealed within the twitching, wriggling animal hide by the rustling ink of the blood talismans. The young Corpse Driver sometimes looked like an old tailor in a tailor's shop, and sometimes like an old painter in a painting studio, but he was more like a master puppeteer in a shadow play, manipulating complex lines with his skillful hands.

Once all the runes were drawn, the entire hide was divided into eleven regions by the brush, corresponding exactly to the five internal organs of a human.

By the time dawn broke, he removed all the Corpse Nails. The wrinkled old Mountain Ruffian Hide lay quietly on the chopping board, completely like a young bride who had been tossed around all night on her wedding night, with no trace of temper left.

Besides the scattered nail hammers and brushes, the altar was covered with remnants of various materials. Xu Qing, using his blood as ink, had battled all night. Now, his head felt heavy and his feet light, and he was too lazy to clean up the mess.

He opened the shop door and, with a sore back, walked to the Paper Craft Shop. Wu Yaoxing, who had just woken up, poked half his body out, shivering.

"Hiss, Brother Xu, what's wrong with you! Why do you look so haggard?" Wu Yaoxing looked at the gaunt, emaciated young man who looked like he would fall over in the wind, and all his sleepiness vanished.

"Cough, I stayed at Cuiyun Tower last night. It's just a hobby, I'll be fine in a couple of days."

He casually made up an excuse and then got to the point: "Old Wu, I recently took on a Feng Shui Geomancy job, which involves looking at graves and determining burial sites. I probably won't be back for the next seven or eight days. If anyone comes looking for me during that time, please tell them for me."

Wu Yaoxing still looked worried. "Are you really okay? How about I accompany you to the pharmacy to get some tonic and qi-boosting medicine?"

"Oh, and I have a few old hens at my old courtyard..."

Xu Qing eventually refused his neighbor's concern. He knew his own condition. If he really went to the doctor's, his own well-being would be secondary; he was afraid he would scare the doctor.

He was a proper zombie, after all. Why would he need to see a doctor?

Returning to his shop, Xu Qing locked the door from the outside, then went to the backyard, climbed over the wall, and returned to his shop.

On the chopping board, the eerie, dark Mountain Ruffian Hide still lay quietly. Xu Qing stripped off his clothes, took a deep breath, and said, "Ancestors bless me," before reaching out and wrapping the old hide, covered in runes and soaked in various materials, around himself.

The next moment, the dead hide suddenly came to life. Countless bluish-black blood vessels grew and emerged from under the hide, like branches sprouting after rain, their sharp tips piercing Xu Qing's body in various places.

The crimson and purple runes flashed with light. Xu Qing had no time to think as his entire body was completely wrapped and swallowed by the wriggling, distorted old hide.

Enduring the numb pain, similar to a short circuit, that spread through his body, Xu Qing, temporarily blinded, stumbled towards the Darkwood hollow log lying there.

When the body, indistinguishable between beast and man, fell into the hollow log, he laboriously fumbled for the nearby coffin lid and sealed himself completely.

Outside the window, the cold wind howled, and the sun rose and set.

Bright sunlight streamed through the cracks in the doors and windows.

The first spring rain fell silently.

One day, a knocking and talking sound was heard at the door of the Corpse Driver's Shop, and then it ceased.

The watchman's gong and drumbeat continued for seven days.

The log and coffin lying in the Corpse Driver's Shop were like forgotten thrones in an ancient ruin, allowing magpies and crows to caw noisily upon them.

On the eighth day of the second lunar month, in a corner of the Corpse Driver's Shop, a chrysalis broke open its shell. A sliver of light from the crack in the window shone on the corner, and a newly born butterfly, blue and black, spread its wings, fluttered past the chopping board, and landed on one end of the wooden coffin log.

At this moment, the long-silent coffin trembled slightly.