Double-Qualified Zombie

March came with orioles singing, peach and plum blossoms stirring in the spring breeze.

The locust tree in Xu Qing's courtyard had already sprouted new leaves. Beneath the eaves, the wind chimes shaped like beast-headed skulls tinkled softly, while the traps dug deep and carefully concealed along the base of the walls and around the front and back doors quietly awaited some fated visitor.

After cultivating for an entire night, the yin energy within Xu Qing had grown denser and more concentrated. Under his universal perception, he could faintly sense an inner strengthening, as if clouds were churning and mist roiling.

Unfortunately, he currently possessed only a body full of cultivation and no means of transforming his power into techniques. Put simply, he was in a red state now—a zombie who knew only how to rely on brute force against his enemies.

With such vast reserves of yin energy, he ought to have been a mage proficient in demonic arts. Yet he spent every day wearing brass knuckles and using cheap street-fighting tricks. What kind of appearance was that?

After learning his lesson the hard way, Xu Qing reflected on himself and decided to make more poison powder and carry lime powder with him, using them to shore up his weakness in magical attacks.

As for venturing out to seek the Dao, that was impossible. His funeral shop's business was excellent, his neighbors were all pleasant people, and not a single customer had ever left a bad review.

With such a peaceful life at hand, would he have to lose his mind before going outside to seek the Dao and study magic?

He spent every day transcending corpses, and while enjoying free gossip, he occasionally gained abilities that could protect and strengthen his body. Wasn't that much safer than running around blindly outside in such chaotic times?

Besides, zombies had no lifespan limit. He could guard a single shop and courtyard, transcend the dead, hone his skills, become an outsider who found tranquility amid the bustle, and watch white clouds turn into gray hounds while observing seas dry up and rocks crumble.

As for Daoist arts, demonic arts, and the like—if fate brought them to him, so be it. If not, he would not deliberately pursue them.

After all, only the one who endured to the very end was the victor.

At daybreak, outside the residence by Shuimen Bridge.

Xu Qing wore a black-fronted long gown, with a blue cloth bundle hanging half off his side. If he were also holding a cloth banner, he would have been the spitting image of a wandering fortune-teller roaming the Jianghu.

Unfortunately, he had never learned the skills of divination and physiognomy. Otherwise, he could have gone to Cuiyun Tower to read the palms of the girls too poor to afford clothes and calculate their pregnancy luck.

After leaving the residence, Xu Qing kept this outfit on as he walked through the streets and alleys. From time to time, passersby even asked whether he had any secret medicines for strengthening yang and nourishing the kidneys. After all, his attire looked far too much like that of a traveling medicine peddler from the diaomen.

The diaomen was one of the Jianghu's Eight Gates, consisting of quack doctors who treated venereal diseases and sold folk remedies.

Xu Qing rubbed his chin, wondering. Aside from his somewhat pale complexion and the faint rouge scent clinging to him, there was nothing particularly unusual about him. So how had he become a doctor who treated venereal diseases?

Did he look like that kind of disreputable person?

Xu Qing could not be bothered to argue with them. He was merely puzzled by how the flow of people in Linhe seemed to have suddenly increased again these past few days. At first, he thought it was an illusion, but after repeatedly encountering scholars and young attendants carrying book chests and baskets, he suddenly remembered: the day for traveling to take the Spring Examination had arrived.

Linhe Fang was lively to begin with. Now that this group of scholars had arrived, it was even noisier than usual.

The poorer scholars set up bookstalls in the streets, earning money by writing and reading letters for others. It counted as working their way through school.

Xu Qing watched as two or three impoverished scholars gathered together, competing to name someone's month-old child, and was just sighing with emotion.

But after the scholars collected the red envelopes they had earned from naming the child, Xu Qing heard the leader say, "I asked around. Even the worst brothel in Linhe costs several qian of silver for one night. We're still far short. We scholars must work harder."

Xu Qing silently withdrew his evaluation. So these poor scholars were not working their way through school—they were working their way through brothels!

Looking again at the well-off scholars with greasy hair and powdered faces, he saw that most of them had attendants, pages, or maids and old women following behind them. Anyone who knew would say they had come to take the examination; anyone who did not would think some young master from a wealthy family had come out for a spring outing and some amusement!

Xu Qing was not of the same path as these scholars. He first went to an early-food stall for a bowl of duck-blood soup, then went to the market entrance to order several hens, and only afterward sauntered back to the Corpse Driver's Shop.

About half an hour later, the poultry seller from the market entrance delivered more than a dozen hens. Xu Qing released them in the shop's back courtyard, scattering wheat and millet for them in ordinary times so he would not have to buy chickens whenever he went out in the future.

Xu Qing genuinely intended to settle down and live a proper life.

As for why he did not raise chickens at the new residence he had arranged for by Shuimen Bridge, it was because that residence was far too baleful. Ordinary poultry could not easily survive there.

After settling the hens, Xu Qing returned to the front shop. He heard quite a commotion outside, and when he stepped out to look, he saw Wu Yaoxing encouraging and cheering on two young men at the entrance.

One of the two young men was Wu Yaoxing's own son, while the other was his distant nephew. This distant nephew had come from the countryside to stay with him because he was now hoping to pass the examination and obtain the status of a child student.

"Zhiyuan, you've taken the child student examination before, so you must teach Wencai more. When all is said and done, we're family—we're all written into the same genealogy!"

Wu Wencai was the child of Wu Yaoxing's distant relative. Seeing his elder signal him with his eyes, he somewhat awkwardly called out a greeting to Wu Zhiyuan.

"I'll be counting on you from now on, Brother Zhiyuan."

Hearing the names of these two brothers, Xu Qing muttered inwardly.

Wu Zhiyuan, Wu Wencai—the Old Wu family's skill at naming people really was extraordinary.

"Little Brother Xu—come over here, you two. This is your Uncle Xu, our neighbor. He's a very good man!"

When Wu Yaoxing saw Xu Qing standing at the shop entrance, he called for the two young men to come over and pay their respects.

"Uncle Xu."

Xu Qing nearly choked to death when he heard that. He was still in the prime of his life—how had he suddenly become an uncle?

Wu Yaoxing said with a chuckle, "Speaking of which, my boy has been cooped up at home studying all day and has never met you properly. Now he finally has the chance."

What was that supposed to mean? Was he expected to give the boy a red envelope or something?

Faced with inexplicably gaining an entire generation, Xu Qing could only helplessly accept it.

Who could blame him when he had become the shopkeeper of the household at such a young age?

After chatting with them for a while, Xu Qing learned that these two fine nephews were planning to go to the government office for the identity examination held before the Spring Examination.

The so-called examination was actually just taking one's Travel Permit and Identification Plaque to the government office to register in advance. Once they confirmed that one's background was clean and there was no criminal record, the officials would issue a written receipt—something similar to an admission ticket.

When Xu Qing heard this, he realized it was a good thing!

"I'm coming too, I'm coming too!"

The current situation was turbulent, with chaos repeatedly erupting in the borderlands. Setting aside the military mutiny in Beizhao Prefecture, Nancuo had repeatedly invaded Great Yong. If not for the divine soldiers and fierce generals of Shu Land and the natural barrier of Taodu Mountain, they might already have fought their way into the heart of Great Yong.

To say nothing of the Tianxin Cult, which was already showing signs of raising the banner of rebellion. When that happened, the imperial court would inevitably conscript able-bodied men into the army. Xu Qing did not want his funeral business to be flourishing one day, only for him to be pressed into service and forced to shutter the shop the next.

But if he obtained the status of a licentiate, he would no longer have to worry about such troubles.

After all, according to Great Yong's laws, anyone who possessed the honor of licentiate was exempt from corvée service. They could also remain standing before an official instead of kneeling, and enjoyed many other conveniences, such as not having to pay taxes.

"The end of the world really is taking the civil service examination."

Xu Qing thought that if the Land of the Wa from his previous life had possessed such a regulation, then every year the people taking the licentiate examination would have lined up from the southern end of the city to the northern end!

If someone asked where he got the nerve to take the licentiate examination, they had to mention the Book Scripture he had obtained after transcending the Sycophantic Scholar at the Corpse Labor Mill.

The Book Scripture was filled with nothing more than the classical essays and commentaries needed for the imperial examinations. Now that the opportunity to obtain the honors of child student and licentiate had arrived, how could Xu Qing not seize it properly?

Once he obtained licentiate status, he could finally be called a double-qualified zombie—accomplished in both letters and martial arts!