"Dig with a little hoe, dig and dig and dig, plant what kind of corpse, bloom what kind of flower~ In the big garden, dig and dig and dig, plant cold corpses, bloom brilliant flowers."
Under the moon, Xu Qing hummed a cheerful little tune, holding a tiny hoe as he dug a huge pit.
In this day and age, all kinds of bull-demon and snake-god monsters existed. If you went out at night and your luck was just a little bit lousy, you might not come back alive!
Take this bunch of Tianxin Cult fiends handing out flyers and spreading subversive propaganda. They had done plenty of murder and robbery under cover of night.
If they encountered a somewhat muddleheaded commoner, things went smoothly. They would hand him a flyer, scatter a little spending money, then flatter and belittle by turns as they rambled on about how compassionate their Tianxin Holy Lord was—not only did he not impose exorbitant taxes and levies, he even gave people pocket change to spend.
Unlike that eighty-year-old geezer sitting on the Dragon Throne today. Without someone to support him down the steps, he could take seven or eight tumbles. Even taking a leak was a struggle. Their Tianxin Holy Lord, on the other hand, was young and strong, with a sturdy waist and back. He could spray two or three zhang when he took a leak—clearly a capable ruler who could govern the world!
After all that babbling, their ultimate purpose was still to bewilder the people and stir up popular sentiment.
But if they ran into someone who was half-bewitched and half-clearheaded, the man would hand out a flyer, and you would refuse it coldly, saying, "You're all heretical fiends, a bunch of liars! I don't believe you! I want positive energy! I'm going to report and expose you!"
When they encountered someone like that, the Tianxin Cult usually took responsibility for killing but not burying. Once they had killed you, they would ransack your body and home for anything valuable, then dole out a little favor to the people who believed in them. One side diminished as the other grew. They believed that sooner or later, the people of Great Yong would all take the shape of the Tianxin Cult.
Xu Qing did not care about any of that. Whether you were the eighty-year-old geezer sitting up above, or some twenty- or thirty-year-old punk below leading a rebellion and running wild, as long as you dared to come knocking, he dared to bury you!
The common people might indulge you, but he certainly would not!
After tamping the soil in the courtyard rock-hard, Xu Qing straightened his back. He looked like an old farmer who had just finished hoeing weeds and spreading fertilizer, his face filled with anticipation for a bountiful harvest.
Before burying the corpses, he had casually performed a rite of salvation for these few blind young men. The rewards were so-so: things like Great Strength Pills, Disease Removal Talismans, and Dog-skin plaster. As for the Disease Removal Talisman, one lit it with fire, mixed the remaining ash into water, and drank it to cure illness. It was exactly the sort of trick the Tianxin Cult habitually used to hoodwink the people.
Who knew whether their Talisman Water actually worked? In any case, the talisman medicines produced by the Duren Sutra were genuinely effective.
To say nothing of anything else, after Xu Qing swallowed a Great Strength Pill, his entire zombie body became energized. He felt that if he had possessed this thing back at the Corpse Labor Mill, then let alone pulling a millstone—even if they had strapped a plow meant for oxen to him, he could have plowed a hundred or so mu of land in one breath without even panting!
The strength came quickly, but it left just as quickly. In a mere hour and a half, Xu Qing felt that most of the extra force in his body had dispersed.
Fortunately, he still had some Great Strength Pills left. Perhaps they would come in handy someday when he needed them.
As for the Disease Removal Talismans and Dog-skin plaster, neither of those things was of any use to Xu Qing at all.
He was a zombie. What illness could he possibly catch?
Putting those useless items aside, what interested Xu Qing more was what this annihilated squad knew about current affairs.
The Tianxin Cult's "propaganda department" certainly knew a lot of inside information.
Previously, Xu Qing had remained only half-informed about this cult. The outside world's claims also varied. Some said it was a rebel organization founded by remnants of the former dynasty to restore the old empire.
Others said that the Tianxin Holy Lord had received the Heavenly Emperor's decree, descended into the mortal realm to save all living beings, and sought out a new Son of Heaven to rule the empire.
In short, no matter what excuse they had fabricated at the beginning, it all came back around to rebellion in the end.
Now that Xu Qing had watched the lantern shows of several Tianxin Cult disciples, he had a much clearer understanding of them.
The Tianxin Cult worshiped the Holy Lords of successive generations and proclaimed that they were Maitreya reborn and Acala descended into the mortal world. Their disciples were divided into four ranks: Sheng, Miao, Luo, and Jue.
The Linhe branch had originally been managed by an incense master of the Miao generation. Recently, with the parachuting arrival of White Luo Guardian, it had been promoted to a Luo character incense branch.
Before Bai Luo arrived, the believers of Linhe Fang often relied on burning incense and gathering crowds to avoid pursuit by the authorities. They gathered at night and scattered at dawn, like rats in dark alleys and ditches, living every day in fear and trepidation.
Once Bai Luo arrived, they completely changed their former mode of operation and began to act "boldly and recklessly."
First, they seized control of the Jinmen Gang's affairs in a short span of time. Then they began plotting to swallow up underground control of Jinmen Prefecture City and Linhe.
You might say they had changed their ways and were preparing to become Jinmen's gangland kingpin?
Not at all. They had built up such a huge operation for only one purpose—to assassinate the Young Dragon.
Only the little leader who handed out flyers knew about this plan, and even he had merely happened to overhear White Luo Guardian mention it in passing. As for who exactly the assassination target called the Young Dragon was, that had never been stated openly.
Leaning on his hoe, Xu Qing stood beneath the moon and pondered. He figured the assassination of the Young Dragon definitely had nothing to do with Emperor Longping. That Old Dragon was over eighty and had trouble even climbing onto a kang bed. How could he possibly have nothing better to do than come all the way to Jinmen so they could assassinate him?
After thinking it over, the only person who fit the designation of Young Dragon was the current Crown Prince, who had come to Jinmen on an inspection tour.
But supposedly, this Crown Prince was already past sixty. To assassinate such an old Young Dragon was somewhat inhuman!
Even if you waited a few years, he might not outlive his father. Besides, a man who had endured bitterly in the Crown Prince's position until the age of sixty was simply waiting for the day he could inherit the throne and be emperor for even one day.
If you really killed him, he would probably cry and throw a tantrum all the way to his next life.
What a pitiful man!
Xu Qing honestly could not bring himself to do such a thing. The Tianxin Cult was far too depraved!
But none of this had anything to do with him.
He was merely a diligent old farmer. When he had nothing to do, collecting and burying corpses, digging soil, and filling pits were all fine. But as for the Tianxin Cult's turmoil, how incompetent and benighted the Emperor of Great Yong was, or how fiercely the frontier wars raged, none of it had anything to do with a little commoner like him.
After tamping down the ground, Xu Qing hoisted the hoe over his shoulder and planted one hand on his waist. He looked hardly inferior to an emperor.
At least within this small patch of land, he had the final say.
Xu Qing made a rough estimate. There were already more than twenty corpses buried in the courtyard. Two or three more would make an even number.
"Earth is Kun, and Kun is yin. The feng shui in the southwest still needs more work. What a pity I didn't get any female corpses. Without an Earth Mother to hold down the formation, my courtyard's setup would be complete!"
Xu Qing arranged the Yang House's feng shui according to the Yin House methods of Arts of Civil and Martial Geomancy, using the formation's momentum to gather the baleful qi and draw it into the core, preventing it from showing on the outside. Nearly thirty corpses had now been buried in the courtyard, and the internal qi field of the entire residence had undergone a complete transformation.
If it had originally been a haunted manor, then now it was a mass graveyard placed inside a haunted manor—and a formation within a formation that constantly used the haunted manor's Yin Sha to nurture corpse fiends.
That was also why Xu Qing did not return to the Corpse Driver's Shop to cultivate at night, instead spending the night at his new residence.
A zombie was a corpse too. Now that he had such an excellent place to nurture corpses, he naturally would not leave it idle.
With the moon high in the sky and the surrounding corpses gathering baleful qi, Xu Qing sat steadily in the center. A faint fluorescent glow emerged from his skin as he devoured the moonlight's vital essence.
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