Corpse Driver

The Book Scripture held no special significance; it contained only the texts and meanings that scholars and students needed to master before the prefectural examinations.

The scholars previously transcended by the Duren Sutra had also been preparing for their prefectural exams. It was a pity that they went astray halfway, not only ruining their bright futures but also losing their lives…

Xu Qing calmed his mind. Countless classical meanings flowed into his thoughts like a gentle stream, permeating his literary mind in silence.

After the entire Book Scripture transformed into a faint fluorescence and merged into his mind, he suddenly opened his eyes, full of vigor.

People say that a person's elegance naturally shines through when they are well-read. Now that he understood the classics, although his appearance hadn't changed much, he possessed an indescribable scholarly aura.

He had a strange feeling that if he were to participate in the prefectural examination another day, he would easily become a Xiucai Scholar.

However, even if he didn't pursue academic success, simply being literate was the biggest gain of the night.

He was a stranger in a strange land, and being able to understand the local language and script in advance was undoubtedly the greatest fortune.

After digesting the Book Scripture, Xu Qing picked up another reward: a dazzling blue Heart-Clearing Pill.

The foolish scholar had a moment of clarity before drowning himself, seeing Su Hongxiu's true face. Although the scholar was unwilling to face it, he had at least understood human nature.

One Heart-Clearing Pill, and from then on, no more foolishness.

After swallowing the pill, Xu Qing instantly felt his ears and eyes clear, and his thoughts, previously clouded by desire, became sharp.

At this moment, the fifth watch crowed, and the sky was about to break.

With a clear mind, Xu Qing was instantly startled. He had been too engrossed in transcending and gossiping about the Duren Sutra that he had forgotten the time.

If dawn broke and the manager of the mill discovered that more than half of the zombies here were lying around, they would surely launch a strict investigation. If anything went wrong, he, as the instigator, would not get away scot-free!

After returning the lovesick scholar to his original spot, Xu Qing looked around. All the Corpse Laborers he had transcended had their eyes closed and wore strange smiles, as if recalling the happiest moments of their lives.

A breeze blew past, and the scene before him sent a chill down his spine.

Xu Qing looked down at the double-layered delivery uniform he was wearing, blue and yellow sandwiched together, yellow inside and blue outside. His attire was vastly different from the local inhabitants in the courtyard.

After a moment of thought, Xu Qing turned back and took the scholar's long gown, putting it on.

To escape this place, he would have to pass through the bright streets and dark alleys of Linhe Fang. If he continued to wear his peculiar clothes, he would be too conspicuous and easily attract attention.

After changing his clothes, Xu Qing aimed for the wall and was about to run a few steps to jump over it when he realized that his movement caused the gold and silver clappers hidden on his body to rattle noisily.

"…"

He tore off a few strips of cloth and wrapped them tightly around the clappers. Xu Qing hopped in place. He didn't exert much force, but he jumped nearly three feet high.

The clappers no longer made noise, but when did his jumping ability become so good?

Xu Qing felt that if there were a standard backboard in front of him, he could easily reach the top of it with a little effort.

If he had this athletic ability in his past life, who would be delivering food?

Indeed, the poor had to rely on mutation!

Eagerly approaching the courtyard wall, Xu Qing aimed for the top edge. His Achilles tendon exerted force, and with a single leap, he shot up the ten-foot-high wall with no effort.

Zombies could see in the dark as if it were day. Standing at a height, he used the darkness to get a general understanding of the Corpse Laborer mill's structure.

Not to mention the entire mill, but within Xu Qing's line of sight, there were two corridors and three large courtyards, with Corpse Laborers busy in each courtyard.

"This mill owner is truly wicked, bringing so many dead people to make money. Isn't he afraid of running out of virtue and being struck by lightning one day!"

Although the noise of the Corpse Laborers working in the mill was not loud, it was not small either, and it was enough to mask some subtle sounds.

Xu Qing stealthily crossed several courtyard walls, bypassing the houses along the corridors, and soon arrived at the last courtyard wall near the street.

On this side of the wall was where the dead worked for free; on the other side was the world of the living.

"Some zombies can't be contained."

Xu Qing did not hesitate and decisively climbed over the wall, escaping.

As for his future plans, he already had an idea.

Zombies, being stiff but not dead, naturally possessed the characteristic of 'longevity.' After escaping this place, he would find a mass grave or a cemetery. With the Duren Sutra by his side, perhaps he could survive for a few hundred years and become a Corpse Immortal, or at the very least, a Zombie King.

With hopes for the future, Xu Qing jumped down from the high wall and landed in the alley.

He was currently in an alley adjacent to the mill. At the end of the alley, he could vaguely see the light from the main street of Linhe Fang.

It was like the lights of shops, or perhaps the rising smoke and bustle from the gathering of people.

Initially, Xu Qing walked slowly towards the street, but gradually his speed increased. In about ten breaths, the street of Linhe Fang was within sight.

The sky was still dark, and heavy mist lingered at the entrance of the alley.

Suddenly, a naked figure appeared at the corner, almost colliding with Xu Qing, who had reached the alley entrance.

"Get out of the way! Hurry, get out of the way!" The person was in a hurry, panting heavily.

Xu Qing quickly retreated two steps before he could see the other person clearly.

It was a tall, thin young man, completely unclothed.

Behind the young man, faint voices could be heard— "Where is the person?"

"Reporting to the constable, that flower thief ran into the alley!"

"Heh, if I remember correctly, that should be a dead-end alley."

"Follow me!"

At the alley entrance, Xu Qing dodged a naked man streaking by and peeked outside. He saw several menacing constables chasing him from the left side of the street.

Even on the right side of the street, night patrol soldiers armed with knives and clubs were closing in on the alley entrance!

"..."

Damn it! Xu Qing hissed and quickly retreated. Inside the alley, the naked youth he had lured the officials to was reaching up, frantically trying to grab the high wall.

The sound of hurried footsteps on the street rapidly approached, and the light of torches already appeared at the alley entrance.

The more you fear snakes, the more the snake bites your feet. It was true, what you feared most always happened.

Xu Qing had expected his journey to be difficult, but he never imagined that as soon as he climbed over the high wall, he'd encounter such a group of thugs blocking his path.

Without a second thought, he turned and ran back. Shouts erupted behind him.

"Stop! Where do you think you're going!"

"Why are there two people? Are they accomplices?"

Xu Qing didn't respond. He ran to the high wall he had climbed over earlier, used his legs, and climbed back over exactly as he had come out.

On the high wall, aggressive crossbow bolts stretched from the middle of the wall all the way to the top.

Not far from the foot of the wall, the naked youth, trembling with fear, lost all thought of escape. He decisively knelt on the ground and surrendered.

"Sir, one got away."

"He was hit by my volley arrow, he can't have gone far. Wait! There's corpse qi!"

The leading constable's nostrils flared as he detected an unusual scent in the air.

"Stop shooting, first ask him who that person was!"

The naked youth, suffering from the constables' malicious retaliation, cried out in pain, "I don't know him! You chased so fiercely, who wouldn't be scared and run?"

"Nonsense! If you have a clear conscience, you don't fear ghosts knocking at your door. If he were a good person, why would he have climbed the wall to get in!" a seasoned night patrol leader retorted.

The leading constable, holding a volley crossbow and a tiger-head saber at his waist, also spoke, "That person has corpse qi on him, he's likely no ordinary person."

"Captain Cao, do you know what lies behind this high wall?"

Inside the mill, Xu Qing walked through the corridor. Before returning to his workstation, he forcefully pulled out the arrow embedded an inch deep in his arm. Dark red liquid oozed from the wound.

He didn't have the same acute pain sensation as a living person, but he wasn't completely numb either.

He could clearly feel a dull ache from the wound, but it was more like the 'numbness' felt during acupuncture, not a sharp pain.

Passing by a courtyard for Corpse Laborers, Xu Qing casually tossed the arrow into a grinding trough. The large, upright millstone rolled over the stone trough, making a creaking sound. The wooden shaft of the short arrow snapped immediately.

Then, Xu Qing climbed over the adjacent wall and returned to his original workstation.

Before that, he didn't forget to return the long robe he was wearing to the infatuated scholar.

Outside the mill, there was a commotion of crowing roosters and barking dogs. Xu Qing was an unregistered resident, and having been refined into a zombie, his identity was vastly different from ordinary people. If he were caught by the constables, he likely wouldn't have a good outcome.

For now, his only option was to blend in and wait for this current storm to pass before he could consider anything else.

But what about the Corpse Laborers in the courtyard, who were only half-transcended? How should he deal with them?

"Sleep early, wake early! Take care of yourself—"

At the fifth watch, the sound of the night watchman's clapper reached the Cui Family Mill from afar.

Zhao Zhonghe, the Linhe Fang patrol captain, was negotiating with the Cui family manager.

"I heard that your mill doesn't use donkeys to pull the millstones, but instead uses Wandering Corpses made by Corpse Craftsmen as labor. Is this true?"

The Cui manager, who had just woken up, was in a bad mood but still spoke politely, "Captain Zhao is new here and doesn't understand many things. I'll host a gathering another day, invite the secretary and the registrar, and treat you to a welcoming feast at Spring Breeze Tower. We can discuss everything then, no rush."

Zhao Zhonghe chuckled upon hearing this and waved his hand, refusing, "No need. I'm here on official business, not to form connections with you."

"Let's be frank. I and a group of soldiers found someone outside the mill just now. He had corpse qi on him. After I wounded him with a crossbow bolt, he climbed over the high wall and fled back into your mill."

"Manager Cui, I don't care if you use Corpse Laborers, but if a Corpse Monster goes out from here and harms people..." Zhao Zhonghe's face darkened at this point, his meaning clear.

Manager Cui frowned, "Impossible! All the Corpse Laborers here are..."

Seemingly realizing he had said too much, Manager Cui quickly added, "Captain Zhao probably doesn't know how much coal is mined in West Capital Mountain every year. Half of those coal miners are Walking Corpses sent from the prefectural city."

"Ordinary people don't know these things, but surely the prefectural lord knows?"

"As for whether these zombie-refined Corpse Laborers are safe, I can tell you something from an insider's perspective: ever since this craft became widespread, there hasn't been a single case of injury."

Zhao Zhonghe wasn't surprised.

He had heard about Corpse Laborers before. Years ago, the dead were even more valuable than the living.

During the famine in the sixteen counties of Yingzhou, a measure of rice could be exchanged for a person, but a Corpse Laborer refined by a Corpse Driver required more than ten taels of silver.

It was precisely for this reason that the matter of Corpse Laborers dared not be publicized.

Zhao Zhonghe didn't have a good impression of Manager Cui. He warned him multiple times until the manager agreed to thoroughly investigate the safety hazards in the mill before he finally left.

Beside him, a guard watched Zhao Zhonghe's departing figure and asked, "Manager, should we still investigate?"

"Investigate what? Go back and get some more sleep. Just a petty constable, thinking he's something special."

Manager Cui yawned and was about to head back when a servant rushed into the front hall, saying anxiously, "Disaster! Disaster! Manager, come quickly and take a look. Most of the 'donkeys' newly brought into Courtyard B have collapsed for some reason. Old Lin and I can't figure out what's wrong."

Manager Cui, who had just said he was going to catch up on sleep, instantly lost all drowsiness. He widened his eyes and barked, "Explain yourself clearly. Those 'donkeys' in Courtyard B were just brought in a few days ago. How could they have problems so soon?"

The servant stammered and gestured, unable to explain properly.

Seeing this, Manager Cui immediately pointed to the hall entrance and urged, "You, lead the way! I'll go see for myself!"

Courtyard B.

Manager Cui's face turned extremely grim as he looked at the Corpse Laborers, half of whom were lying down.

The 'donkeys' they had mentioned earlier were Corpse Laborers, a term from their industry jargon.

Manager Cui reached out and lifted the collar of one of the bodies, revealing the skin on its chest, which bore a complex pattern of red runes.

"The Walking Corpse Talisman is intact, but all the resentment and corpse energy from the Corpse Transformation are gone. It's not possible that some expert from Buddhism or Taoism came to perform a deliverance, is it?" Manager Cui turned to look at the remaining half of the zombies still working in the courtyard, quickly ruling out this possibility.

If there were truly an expert, why would the other Corpse Laborers in Courtyard B be unaffected?

Standing up, Manager Cui pondered for a moment and then resorted to the methods ingrained in businessmen.

"Old Lin, go to Well Street and invite the Corpse Driver who refined this batch." After speaking, he looked at the burly and strong guard, who was clearly skilled in martial arts. "This Corpse Driver is a stranger from Xiangyin, and there's no telling what he might be hiding. I'll trouble you, Mr. Lu, to accompany him."

Not far behind Manager Cui, a Corpse Laborer was slowly pushing the millstone, seemingly oblivious to their conversation and just continuing with its work.

Corpse Driver? Xu Qing mused on the current situation as he pushed the mill.

The leading Manager Cui in the courtyard didn't notice his abnormality, but the Corpse Driver he mentioned was an unknown variable.

However, there was nowhere for him to escape now. The sky was already showing the first light of dawn, and the craftsmen and servants of the Corpse Laborer mill were starting to change the 'donkey and mule' grinding materials. Not to mention, Manager Cui and the others were in the courtyard counting the number of Corpse Laborers.

At this moment, all he could do was to respond to change with constancy.

The Corpse Laborers, who had been toiling all night, were affixed with a yellow talisman. Immediately, they stopped their work and stood still.

When it was Xu Qing's turn, he did the same, acting like a Corpse Laborer without self-awareness.

About half an hour later, a series of irregular bell sounds came from outside Courtyard B. Xu Qing glanced in the direction of the sound with his peripheral vision.

He saw a gaunt old man dressed in a dark blue Bagua Taoist robe stepping through the courtyard gate.

Tied to the old man's waist were three Corpse Control Bells, one large and two small, tinkling as he moved.