Mutate Corpse

Back in the room.

After opening and closing the Daily Settlement Panel repeatedly for nearly a quarter-hour, Wen Jiu's excitement finally receded like a tide.

Sleepiness once again carried him into dreams.

The next morning, before dawn had even broken, Wen Jiu jolted awake on his wooden bed. The first thing he did upon waking was open the Daily Settlement Panel. Seeing that it truly existed, he let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Good thing it wasn't a dream."

Lifting his gaze, a pale fish-belly white was already seeping through the window, and a fierce hunger surged over him.

Just as he was about to gulp down some water to fill his empty stomach before finding food, a knock on the door came along with a woman's voice.

"Brat, get up."

"Open the door."

The voice was gentle yet carried a hint of sharpness.

And it was very familiar.

Wen Jiu hurried to open the door, and what came into view was a woman in a plain green cloth dress.

Though her clothes were simple, her features were quite striking—dark brows, almond-shaped eyes, skin as white as snow.

But the moment he saw her, the memories of her came flooding back.

Wen Ya.

His sister!

"How is it? After a night's rest, are you feeling any better?" Wen Ya entered the room, set a large bowl covered with a lotus leaf on the wooden table, and lifted the leaf as she spoke.

Wen Jiu knew what she was asking about and answered while looking at the fragrant bowl, "Not bad, I think I can eat something... Sis, what's this? It smells amazing."

When the lotus leaf was lifted.

It turned out to be a bowl of rice.

He really must have been starving—a bowl of plain white rice could smell so good it made his mouth flood with saliva.

"Smells good, right? This is a bowl of Spirit Rice. Though it's low-grade, it's still something those Immortal Officials eat!"

With that, Wen Ya handed him the bowl and chopsticks.

Wen Jiu didn't take them, his face full of doubt, "Sis, how did you get Spirit Rice?"

In his memory.

He had signed a contract and become a Corpse Burier.

His sister had become a menial laborer at Corpse Peak.

Even though a menial's wages were three to five taels more than a Corpse Burier's, they were still nowhere near enough to afford even low-grade Spirit Rice.

Wen Ya forced a faint smile, "An Immortal Official in charge of the Corpse Buriers appreciated how cleanly and neatly I work, so he took me on as a maidservant... Eat up. This low-grade Spirit Rice can purge impurities from your body and protect your internal organs from erosion by Blood Qi, Corpse Qi, Death Qi, and Yin Qi."

"Sis, you didn't agree to this just for the Spirit Rice, did you?" Having lived two lives and spent seven or eight years in the workplace, how could he not see through Wen Ya's forced smile? There was probably more to it!

Wen Ya quickly shook her head, "No, no. Why ask so many questions? Just eat quickly, or soon you'll have to gather and go bury corpses again. If you don't eat your fill, where will you get the strength to bury them?"

After saying that.

Wen Ya gave him no chance to speak, turned to leave, and left one last sentence before going, "Do your best. And remember... the only reason we can stay on this Immortal Mountain is because our parents traded their lives for it."

Bang!

The wooden door shut tightly.

Wen Jiu stood frozen for a few moments, didn't chase after her, but instead picked up the bowl and began eating ravenously.

Things had come to this.

There was nothing he could do.

Nothing he could change.

The only thing he could do was eat his fill and, step by step, use the Daily Settlement Panel to grow stronger.

Soon.

Wen Jiu returned to that Dead Corpse Land.

Compared to yesterday, today's Dead Corpse Land felt even more bone-chillingly cold. The moment he stepped within a hundred zhang of it, a piercing cold seeped in. The Corpse Buriers around him couldn't help pulling their clothes tighter, but it still couldn't block the chill.

But compared to yesterday, standing in this land littered with corpses today, Wen Jiu felt like a fish in water.

That so-called chill.

That so-called Death Qi and Corpse Qi.

All of it was something he thoroughly enjoyed.

If not for the need to avoid showing anything unusual, Wen Jiu would have stripped off his coat and mask, and greedily, deeply inhaled the Death Qi and Corpse Qi in great gulps.

"All of you, get a move on. We need to finish early today. Anyone who dares to rest, don't blame me for giving you a lash." After the Middle-Aged Steward's warning, Wen Jiu picked up his spade and began turning over the bloody mud, loading the broken corpses onto the cart.

As far as the eye could see.

The scattered limbs and broken corpses no longer seemed so horrifying.

Instead, they stirred in Wen Jiu the thought of mutating them all and making them his own.

But considering that his current mutation count was only one, combined with the information from the panel about being a Level 1 Corpse Nurturer, Wen Jiu decided to take his time and find a complete corpse. Because a complete corpse, once mutated, would be stronger than Corpse Remnants.

However.

After half a day, Wen Jiu still couldn't find a single complete corpse.

The same was true for the other Corpse Buriers around him.

The most intact corpse Wen Jiu had seen in half a day was a Middle-aged Male Cultivator with only an upper body.

But although he hadn't found a complete corpse, listening to the conversations of others gave Wen Jiu a profound understanding of the cruelty of the Cultivator world. It turned out that all those who died here were those lofty Immortal families.

Not mortals!

Though he didn't know how many Cultivator Corpse Remnants lay in this Death Ground, Wen Jiu estimated at least ten thousand.

Ten thousand Cultivators, left to rot in the wilderness.

After death, only Corpse Buriers buried them on nameless green mountains.

Truly lamentable.

"Mortals all dream of becoming Cultivators. The original body's parents even sacrificed their lives to serve the Cultivators, hoping their children could stay on the Immortal Mountain... But who among them knows the brutality of the cultivation world?"

Wen Jiu couldn't help sighing inwardly.

Just as Wen Jiu was sighing, a male Cultivator's corpse came into view—kneeling on the ground, his clear face etched with unwillingness and anger, his chest seemingly hollowed out by some strange beast. As Wen Jiu walked toward him, he felt the Yin Qi around him was three parts heavier than the surroundings. Don't underestimate those three parts; if he hadn't already become a Corpse Nurturer, being invaded by this level of Yin Qi would have left him bedridden for two days, if not dead.

"You're the one!"

Wen Jiu slowly walked toward him.

The simple information of the male corpse gradually appeared before his eyes.

[Nameless Male Corpse]

[Bone age thirty-five, Body Refining First Layer at time of death]

[Mutate?]

Wen Jiu glanced around. Seeing no truly complete corpse, he immediately chose yes.

The moment he made that choice, Wen Jiu secretly bit his finger and dripped three drops of his blood onto the corpse's crown and both shoulders. In an instant, the three drops of blood were violently absorbed into the body.

With the blood rushing in, the Yin Qi around the male corpse also surged a few parts heavier. Fortunately, he was far enough from the Middle-Aged Steward that the other didn't notice anything unusual—Wen Jiu knew the mutation had begun.

Next, he only needed to place the male corpse near the Death Ground and let it quietly absorb Yin Qi and Death Qi.

After some time.

It would transform into a White Zombie!

No need for the traditional Corpse Nurturing methods of corpse selection, corpse resting, corpse bathing, and corpse refining.

He only needed to choose a Corpse Nurturing Ground.

As for what corpse selection, corpse resting, corpse bathing, and corpse refining meant?

Corpse selection, as the name implies, meant choosing a suitable corpse—one whose fate was Yin-aligned and who died on a broken day and at a Yin hour.

Corpse resting was also a form of corpse selection; the corpse had to be placed in the chosen location for five to seven days. If it didn't decay and instead grew heavier with Yin Qi like this male cultivator's corpse, it was deemed qualified.

As for corpse bathing and corpse refining.

The former involved washing the corpse, cleansing it of past affairs and completely removing all traces of the mortal world. Corpse refining was more complex—at least forty-nine days, with livestock blood poured over the corpse three times a day—morning, noon, and evening—supplemented by the Corpse Nurturing Incantation.

But with the secret art of mutating corpses, he only needed to leave the corpse near the Death Ground and drip his own blood onto its burial site every day. Then he could let it absorb Yin Qi and Death Qi on its own.

When it had absorbed enough to reach fullness, it would naturally transform into a White Zombie covered in hair. But White Zombies feared sunlight, fire, water, chickens, dogs, and even people, so he couldn't retrieve it yet.

He needed to continue nurturing the corpse.

When the White Zombie shed all its white hair and turned into a Black Zombie, that would be the day of success!

At that point, the Black Zombie could be used by the Corpse Nurturer as a means of attack.

By then.

He would be a true Corpse Nurturer.

A true Cultivator.

Soon, Wen Jiu dragged the corpse with difficulty toward the green mountain where corpses were buried, and buried it alone three feet deep in the yellow soil of the mountain.

After finishing all this, Wen Jiu returned to the Death Ground to continue moving corpses, continuing to accumulate Corpse Qi and Death Qi into his body through breathing.

Corpse Qi could be applied to corpses.

Death Qi could be used for cultivation.

Although he hadn't started cultivating yet, stockpiling a bunch of Death Qi was certainly the right move.

Shen hour.

Before sunset, the Middle-Aged Steward called everyone to a halt.

As if there was some urgent matter, he quickly led everyone back, but after returning, he didn't let them go back to their wooden huts.

Instead, he brought Wen Jiu and the hundred others to the market district where Cultivators lived, three li away from the Corpse Buriers' quarters.