A Thousand-Year Flying Zombie

The world was about to fall into chaos; harsh rule was fiercer than a tiger.

Some clans migrated wholesale to sheer cliffs, carving out hidden paradises and guarding their poor, bitter days.

Some blocked roads and became bandits, collecting all manner of tolls from passersby.

Others claimed mountains as kings, becoming carefree Mountain Great Kings.

If one asked which Mountain Great King was the most imposing around Tuoyun Mountain—

That would require a proper discussion.

But if one asked which Mountain Great King kept the rules best? Lord Black Armor claimed second place; no one dared claim first.

"This is a bandit stronghold?"

On the hillside, Mo Chuan stared at the rows of field ridges in the valley, finding it hard to believe.

After learning from the ghost matchmaker that Lord Black Armor was the mastermind behind everything, the two had rushed without pause toward the fierce bandits' lair.

Mo Chuan had figured that, since they were bandits, they should at least occupy a place easy to defend and hard to attack.

At the very least, they ought to have built an earthen wall.

Who would have thought that what met his eyes would be an ordinary village?

It looked much the same as Li Guanqi's village.

Had they come across it under normal circumstances, they might even have gone in to ask for a bowl of water!

"You may not know this, fellow Daoist, but these are hard times. Many bandits are actually local villagers and hunters. They farm when busy and rob people when idle. Entire villages becoming bandit dens like this are not uncommon."

Wei Lai was clearly well-traveled and knowledgeable as he explained.

Mo Chuan fell into thought at those words.

"Let's go! They say Lord Black Armor is the most rule-abiding. This humble scholar would like to see exactly where his rules lie!"

Anger flashed in Wei Lai's eyes as he headed into the valley.

Mo Chuan followed close behind.

Before the two could approach the village, the farmers working among the field ridges cautiously rose to their feet and stared at them without blinking.

Some children in the fields even dashed into the village like smoke, rushing off to sound the alarm.

Before long, a lean, wiry man emerged, surrounded by several hunters.

"Who are you?"

"The ghost matchmaker sent us to deliver a message to Lord Black Armor."

"The ghost matchmaker?"

The lean man's expression shifted slightly. Muttering, he said, "That old hag's mouth is getting looser and looser, just like her birth gate!"

After cursing, he forced himself to ask, "Do you have a token?"

With a flick of his hand, Wei Lai tossed over a copper coin worn smooth and slick.

The lean man caught it and inspected it closely. When he saw that one of the characters on the coin was missing a stroke, relief immediately washed over him.

"Follow me!"

As he spoke, he made a hand signal and headed toward the village.

Seeing that signal, the farmers in the fields also relaxed and went back to facing the yellow earth with their backs to the sky.

As Mo Chuan and Wei Lai entered the village, they immediately felt as though thorns were pricking their backs.

Inside the thatched huts, behind earthen windows, beside the fences... countless pairs of eyes seemed to be hidden everywhere, staring fixedly at them.

It made them feel utterly out of place.

Fortunately, they had come looking for trouble in the first place, so that little discomfort did not matter.

Before long, the two reached the center of the village and stepped into a stilted building bearing the plaque "Hall of Loyalty and Righteousness."

More than ten burly men with backs like tigers and waists like bears sat in a circle inside, watching them with half-smiles.

Lord Black Armor sat prominently at the head.

The man lived up to his name. Black as the bottom of a pot, with his chest bared, dense chest hair made him look like a black bear.

"What should I call you two?" Lord Black Armor asked.

"This humble scholar is but a nobody. The ghost matchmaker's message is more important!"

"Oh? What message?"

"The ghost matchmaker asked this humble scholar to ask Lord Black Armor: when you ate people to refine wicked arts, did your conscience ever hurt?"

Wei Lai asked coldly.

Silence!

The rustling throughout the hall came to an abrupt stop!

Amid the uncertain looks of the burly men, Lord Black Armor gave a sinister chuckle.

"I knew something would happen to that old hag! A thing that could've been settled with one club strike, yet she insisted on going round and round, fussing with all that empty nonsense. Well, look at her now—she cast a long line and hooked a man-eating fish! Come to think of it, beneath this building of mine, I've buried Daoists and covered up monks, but I've never filled it with a scholar. Today, I can finally complete the set."

The moment his words fell, Lord Black Armor grabbed an axe and hurled it over.

Empowered by immense force, the axe flew as fast as lightning.

With a bang, it chopped into the threshold and split the waist-thick doorframe apart.

"Brothers, get them!"

Even as he threw the axe, Lord Black Armor roared and drew two huge axes from beneath the table.

Yet just as his shout rang out, the leaders large and small throughout the hall suddenly rolled their eyes back. Dense black curse marks crawled across their bodies.

Like insects, they gnawed flesh and sucked bone.

Their bodies shook as they vomited blood, then they collapsed to the floor with thuds, convulsing uncontrollably.

After a single breath, they were all completely dead.

Lord Black Armor froze.

Wei Lai froze as well.

"Witchcraft?"

Lord Black Armor was horrified by this strange and treacherous Daoist art.

"A protective divine ability?"

Wei Lai was shocked by the ability that ignored the Death Curse Daoist art!

"Die for me!"

After the shock came fury. Lord Black Armor shouted, seized his axes, vaulted over the long table, and hacked toward them.

Wei Lai raised a hand and flung out a talisman crackling with lightning!

Crack!

The talisman streaked through the air and slapped onto Lord Black Armor's body, instantly erupting in dazzling blue arcs of electricity.

Yet Lord Black Armor acted as though nothing had happened, still charging forward wildly!

A flash of panic crossed Wei Lai's face.

He instinctively took a step back and pinched another talisman between his fingers. Just as he was about to throw it, a figure sprang up from behind him and forcibly interrupted his movement.

Mo Chuan lowered his body and rushed forward. Like a nimble cat, he slipped past Lord Black Armor's wildly swinging twin axes, circled behind him, hooked his longsword across his neck, and slashed hard against the force of Lord Black Armor's charge.

The force that could have cut an ordinary man in two at the waist instead met a resistance that set one's teeth on edge.

It was as though the blade had pierced dried beef.

Unfortunately, even dried beef could not withstand the empowerment of the Dengchao Daoist art. That neck as thick as a bowl was still flesh and blood in the end.

Lord Black Armor's charge abruptly stiffened.

His eyes widened as he looked at the scholar close at hand, talisman poised and ready. The last shred of consciousness in his mind was filled with disbelief.

Clang!

The huge axes slipped from his powerless tiger grips. Their tips struck the ground and stood rigidly embedded in the wooden floorboards.

Thud!

Lord Black Armor's black-bear-like body could no longer maintain its balance and collapsed limply to the ground. His head had twisted into a knot, held to his body by only a thin layer of flesh.

"What fine footwork, fellow Daoist!"

Wei Lai could not help praising him as he looked at the corpse sprawled on the ground.

"You flatter me!"

Mo Chuan cupped his hands, then jerked his chin toward the others. "Before the village reacts, hurry and question them. Ask where they hid all their silver."

Wei Lai's expression immediately turned strange.

"This poor Daoist is merely a mountain hermit cultivator. I have no Daoist temple to support me, so I must find my own way to earn money for food, clothing, and daily expenses. We've caught a big fish this time—shouldn't we feast properly?"

Mo Chuan explained, his heart practically bursting with joy.

A bandit stronghold this large had to have at least a thousand taels of silver, right?

Converted into gold, that was more than a hundred taels of gold.

Good heavens, if he brought that back to Blue Star, he would never have to worry about food or clothes for the rest of his life!

Wei Lai found this rather absurd. After some thought, he bent down and tapped Lord Black Armor between the brows.

Yet Lord Black Armor's eyelids seemed to have been sealed shut by someone, refusing to open no matter what.

"No soul?"

Wei Lai furrowed his brow. As his thoughts wandered, his eyes suddenly widened. "Oh no, this is a black zombie!"

Roar—

A deep roar suddenly rose from below the village building, like spring thunder bursting forth. It made their scalps tingle and shook the small building until it trembled, as though an earth dragon had turned over.

"Run!"

Wei Lai shouted the warning and fled outside in panic, no longer carrying even a trace of his earlier gentleness and refinement.

Mo Chuan's face changed, and he hurried after him.

"What is it?"

"This is the lair of a thousand-year Flying Zombie!"

As they spoke, the two had just rushed out of the stilted building when, with a thunderous boom, the enormous building collapsed.

They turned back to look, only to see a humanoid figure slowly rising into the air amid exploding wood chips and rolling clouds of dust.

"...We're finished!"

Wei Lai turned to look at the hovering figure. Even with his long-standing Daoist lineage and countless methods at his disposal, his face had gone deathly pale, as though his parents had died.