Ghoul Soldiers

Two companions, one with a good head severed from his body, the other with all his bones shattered.

Xu Qing was kind-hearted and couldn't stand seeing people dismembered. So, he reattached the head to the headless Li Shuangxi, roughly stitching it up with a large needle used for sewing sacks, and called it a day.

After all, he still relied on the Duren Sutra to get by. If someone was headless, how could he guide their soul?

After dealing with the bodies, the familiar scripture sounded once more—

"The Human Way is vast and obscure, the Immortal Way is boundless.

The Ghost Way is joyful, the gate of life for mortals.

The Immortal Way values life, the Ghost Way values endings.

The Immortal Way is always auspicious, the Ghost Way is always ominous."

The scripture repeated endlessly at this point. Xu Qing frowned, as if triggered, and immediately leaned back.

He remembered clearly that the first time he encountered a reanimated corpse, this scripture had echoed in his mind.

Hearing it again, how could he not be prepared?

He put on his knuckle dusters and fixed his gaze on Li Shuangxi.

As expected, when the Duren Sutra got stuck repeating the line "The Ghost Way is always ominous," the corpse in the courtyard, whose head had just been sewn back on, suddenly took a deep breath and sat bolt upright, its chest puffing out like a fish's bladder.

Fortunately, Xu Qing was a zombie. If it were a living person, they would likely have their vital energy sucked dry by that single breath, turning them into a shriveled, cold corpse!

Looking at the resentful corpse turning its head to suck in air towards him, Xu Qing was full of disdain and not the least bit afraid!

You were useless in life, died by my hand, and now you're thoroughly dead, yet you still want to fight for this breath?

Where do you get off thinking you can win?

The night mist was thick. Xu Qing swung his cold, gleaming Vajra Knuckle Dusters, teaching the ghost to be a dead person once more.

"The Immortal Way is always auspicious, the Ghost Way is always ominous. High above, pure and clear, a sad song echoes in the vast sky."

He retracted his iron fists, and the stuck chanting resumed its normal flow. The Duren Sutra began to turn its pages.

Li Shuangxi's life had nothing remarkable about it. His greatest moment was probably that brief reanimation just now, but before it could fully shine, Xu Qing extinguished it with a single move.

The Duren Sutra also felt it was lackluster, giving him a mid-grade "Human" evaluation and rewarding him with a pack of Cooling Powder commonly used by Corpse Drivers, and two Forgetfulness Pills.

Cooling Powder could be applied externally to remove any smell, including the scent of death that Corpse Drivers accumulated from constant contact with corpses.

When taken internally, depending on the dosage, it could temporarily block the sense of taste, making one oblivious to sour, sweet, bitter, or salty.

After learning its uses, Xu Qing found it to be a chicken's rib. Who would go around blocking their sense of taste for no reason? Perhaps removing smells might have some use.

However, he didn't expect there to be even more useless items later.

Forgetfulness Pill—a pill that, when consumed, allows one to forget their past and present lives and start anew, lasting for three days.

A three-day "Idiot Spring" trial card?

Xu Qing felt that these two items, along with the Wine Bug and Cooling Powder he had obtained earlier, could all be stored away and forgotten.

After guiding Li Shuangxi's soul, he casually searched the man's body.

He found a few silver notes, a Dao Soldier corpse talisman, and a wanted poster from the Shu region.

Xu Qing glanced at it. It depicted two people, Shi Jiulu and Qiu Ping, were listed, but Li Shuangxi's large portrait was conspicuously absent.

Your presence is so low that even the wanted poster found you unsightly!

Xu Qing pondered for a moment and roughly guessed why Li Shuangxi kept this wanted poster.

Most likely, he was saving it for a day when his tracks were exposed and he was captured by the authorities. He could then use this wanted poster to clear his name.

After all, it only had portraits and names of Shi Jiulu and Qiu Ping, not his, Li Shuangxi's!

After guiding the extremely low-profile Li Shuangxi, Xu Qing moved to Qiu Ping, whose bones were scattered.

The Duren Sutra slowly turned its pages. Fortunately, the background chanting didn't get stuck this time. After successfully guiding his soul, the Duren Sutra rewarded him with a Corpse Guiding Lantern, a small and exquisite Snuff Bottle, and a Corpse Training Scripture for training Dog-headed Corpses and Cat-faced Corpses.

The Snuff Bottle and the Corpse Training Scripture were used together.

The Snuff Bottle's function was simple: as long as you opened its small lid and brought it close to a corpse, the corpse would act like a puppy smelling a steamed bun, following you wherever you went, becoming incredibly obedient.

"Train dead people like cats and dogs to guard the house?" Xu Qing's mind inexplicably conjured an image of Constable Zhao Zhonghe wagging his tail at him.

This thing is good!

Coincidentally, he still had a Dog Beating Staff on hand. Wouldn't this come in handy!

After guiding the two corpses, the matter wasn't over. After all, the corpse soldiers they had refined were still hidden in the house!

In the dimly lit room, a pot of wine was warming on the stove. Xu Qing went into the inner room and lifted the white cloth covering a corner of the wall, revealing two corpses standing upright with their eyes closed and exuding no breath.

It must be said that these two corpses were no ordinary people in life; they were special troops trained by the Nantang Yin Family.

Because they died on the battlefield and their bodies were left exposed in the wilderness, they were later found and refined by Li Shuangxi and others into corpse soldiers.

Xu Qing knew very little about Dao Soldiers before. If he hadn't guided these soldiers returning from the border battles tonight, he probably wouldn't even know what a Dao Soldier was.

He raised his hand and guided the two corpse soldiers. Various sights and sounds from the southern border unfolded before Xu Qing, who was far away in Linhe.

The Great Yong Dynasty, under its seemingly 'peaceful' facade, was actually a crumbling embankment, on the verge of utter ruin.

The southern border's troubles were particularly severe. Ever since the Nancuo Army invaded, the lands south of the Hejing River had long since fallen into a state where Imperial Power was disrespected and Noble Families wielded undue influence.

At this time, only military might could control both internal and external affairs. However, it was unknown how much of this military authority still remained in Emperor Longping's hands.

After all, it was questionable whether the emperor, who was already over eighty years old, could even lift the Emperor's Sword. How could one expect him to reorganize military power and pacify the realm?

After reviewing the chaos in the southern prefectures, Xu Qing knew that the Great Yong Dynasty was terminally ill, requiring someone with the strength to turn the tide to heal it.

After finishing the biography, he looked at the rewards.

Both of the well-traveled zombie soldiers were veteran warriors, rated as high-grade in the Human Way.

The Duren Sutra rewarded him with the Method for Raising Ghoul Soldiers, a Ghoul Banner for commanding Ghoul Generals, one Blade Aversion Talisman, one Disease and Plague Dispelling Talisman each, and a archery skill called Hundred Paces Through the Willow.

The method for raising Ghoul Soldiers was similar to raising zombie soldiers, but instead of refining corpses, it involved refining ghouls using malevolent energy. It utilized the death aura of fallen soldiers on the battlefield. For every hundred corpses' malevolent energy refined, one Ghoul Soldier could be obtained, and a thousand corpses' energy could yield a Ghoul General.

Xu Qing took out the Ghoul Banner, which was as crimson as blood, and a thought struck him.

The haunted house he had just bought was an excellent place for gathering malevolent energy.

According to the Method for Raising Ghoul Soldiers, if he buried a hundred ordinary corpses in the house and utilized its properties for generating and gathering malevolent energy, wouldn't that allow him to refine a Ghoul Soldier?

If the malevolent energy was sufficiently potent, it wasn't impossible to condense a Ghoul General from every hundred corpses!

Hiss, thinking of this, Xu Qing suddenly had a bold idea.

Zombies had infinite lifespans. If he buried corpses for ten, a hundred, or even a thousand years, wouldn't he be able to refine and accumulate an army of Ghoul Soldiers numbering in the thousands or even tens of thousands?