Liu Fu was a night watchman in Wendeng County. Every night at midnight, he went out to make his rounds, calling, "The air is dry, so mind your candles and lamps." That was his job.
A few nights ago, he had gone out on his rounds as usual. His family hadn't thought much of it. But when Liu Fu came home after the third watch, he seemed like a different person and behaved extremely strangely.
According to Liu Fu's wife, Madam Liu, he had entered the house with a bizarre grin, making a creepy "Heh heh heh" sound.
From time to time, he would also murmur frightening things like, "The water is so cold," and, "Come join me."
It had sent shivers through the whole family. It was as though the person before them was no longer their beloved family member, but a stranger who looked exactly like Liu Fu.
That night, before going to bed, Liu Fu had gone to draw water from the well in the courtyard and wash his face. When he didn't return for a long time, Madam Liu finally stepped outside, puzzled. But Liu Fu had vanished.
She searched the entire courtyard and even went outside to look around the neighborhood, but couldn't find any trace of him.
Madam Liu had found it strange, but she was used to an uneventful life and hadn't taken it to heart. She'd assumed Liu Fu had something to attend to and left without having time to tell the family.
Who could have imagined that the last time she saw him that night would be the last time ever?
The next day, Madam Liu's family received the dreadful news from a neighbor: Liu Fu's corpse had been found floating on the Changxia River.
"Officer, Brother Fu died unjustly. He hardly ever drank, and he was an excellent swimmer. There's no way he could have accidentally fallen into the water and drowned. Please, you have to find the person who killed my husband." Overcome with emotion, Madam Liu wiped away her tears and spoke in a trembling voice.
Fang Ping nodded, his expression grave. "I understand. If things happened as you've described, then this is indeed a bizarre and inexplicable case."
Madam Liu hurriedly said, "Officer, every word I've said is true. I haven't told you a single lie."
"May I ask whether Liu Fu's coffin has been sealed? Would it be possible for us to examine his body?" Ning Xiu, who had been silent until then, suddenly asked.
The old woman and Madam Liu exchanged glances, looking hesitant. Fang Ping immediately said, "This is an expert we've specially brought in from the yamen. If you want the real culprit caught, you'd best cooperate with everything he asks."
Hearing this, Madam Liu could only nod. "Then please, officer."
Several days had passed since Liu Fu drowned, and the coffin had already been nailed shut. If the seventh day after his death hadn't yet passed, Madam Liu would have hired someone to bury him in the coffin.
They entered the room where the coffin was kept—the very room Ning Xiu had seen shrouded in black qi. All of that black qi was coming from the coffin inside.
"What's going on in here? It's much too damp." Looking at the beads of water covering the coffin and the soaked beams and pillars, Fang Ping couldn't help saying.
Madam Liu shook her head. "I don't know. Ever since I put Brother Fu's body in the coffin, the room has been like this. It isn't even the damp season, but the place is still terribly wet."
Ning Xiu walked over to the coffin and immediately started prying out the nails. Judging by these strange circumstances, something had definitely changed in Liu Fu's corpse.
If this kept up, the corpse might even rise from the dead.
Fang Ping hurried over to help. After they had pulled out more than twenty nails, Ning Xiu shoved the lid aside with one palm. A pale, swollen face with its eyes staring wide open appeared before him.
A faint black line was clearly visible between Liu Fu's brows, stretching all the way down to his neck. Ning Xiu had no idea what had caused it.
"Why didn't you close his eyes?" Ning Xiu asked, puzzled.
"We couldn't," Madam Liu explained. "Mother and I tried all sorts of ways, but we couldn't get Brother Fu's eyes to shut. We had no choice but to put him in the coffin like this."
Fang Ping looked astonished. "Could this be that legendary 'death without closing one's eyes'? Tsk, I've been a constable for years, but this is the first time I've seen it. What an eye-opener."
Drip!
Just as Ning Xiu was about to check Liu Fu's body for any other abnormalities, a drop of water suddenly fell from above and landed right on Liu Fu's forehead.
The bead of water was as big as a pea and impossible to miss. What was even stranger was that it was black.
Ning Xiu hurriedly looked up. The beam directly above the coffin had turned black, its color completely different from the other damp beams around it.
At the sight of this, Ning Xiu instantly recalled a passage he had once read in the Compendium of Demons and Evil Spirits.
If someone had fallen victim to an Evil Spirit, they must never be left in a dark, damp place, lest the corpse become a Fiend.
More importantly, there must be no wooden beam overhead. Otherwise, the Evil Qi emanating from the corpse would be absorbed by the beam and turn it into Evil Wood.
Once water from the Evil Wood touched the corpse, the corpse would rise, just as the stories foretold.
Drip!
Another drop of black water fell. Liu Fu's corpse, which had been completely still, suddenly twitched.
Ning Xiu knew that once a corpse became a Fiend, there was no reversing it. To prevent an accident, he immediately told Fang Ping, "Take them outside and close the door. Whatever you hear, don't pay attention to it. Don't come in without my order."
Fang Ping didn't know what Ning Xiu meant, but he knew how formidable a Demon Subduing Captain was. Their commands had their own special reasons.
So Fang Ping immediately grabbed Madam Liu and Liu Fu's mother and dragged them out of the room. As soon as he shut the door, the entire room fell into darkness.
Another drop of black water fell. Before Ning Xiu's eyes, Liu Fu suddenly sat up in his coffin, then climbed straight out.
If Fang Ping and the others had seen this, they would surely have been scared half to death.
Liu Fu, now a Corpse Fiend, had completely lost his human awareness and become a walking corpse, with nothing left but an instinct to attack.
Sensing Ning Xiu nearby, he stiffly walked toward him and reached out to grab him.
Bang!
But what greeted him was a scarlet fist.
Corpse Fiends were slow-moving. Before Liu Fu could grab Ning Xiu, Ning Xiu had already struck him in the chest with a punch.
Fueled by Ning Xiu's Internal Energy, the scorching Pure Yang Extreme Fist caved in Liu Fu's entire chest in an instant. His body flew backward like a cannonball and slammed heavily into the wall.
The tremendous commotion inside left Fang Ping and the others baffled. Was Ning Xiu fighting someone in there?
But there wasn't anyone else in the room besides him.
The Corpse Fiend slowly climbed to its feet. Even with its entire chest caved in, its movements remained unaffected.
That was the one advantage of a Ninth Rank Evil Spirit like a Corpse Fiend: as long as all its limbs were intact, it could keep hurting people no matter how grievous its injuries were.
If it advanced one more rank, it would become an Eighth Rank Corpse Stiffener, with white hair hard as iron and astonishing strength.
Seeing the Corpse Fiend come toward him again, Ning Xiu leaped up and closed the distance in a flash. When he was only half a step away, he suddenly slapped the Corpse Fiend across the face and shoved it forward with all his might.
Boom!
The tremendous force slammed the Corpse Fiend against the wall. With Ning Xiu's Internal Energy behind it, the instant its head hit the wall, the whole wall cracked apart in a vast web of fractures.
The Corpse Fiend's head shattered completely from the impact, its face caved into its skull. At last, it stopped moving.
Evil Spirit slain. Universal Proficiency +500
The whole combo had been simple, brutal, and decisive, without a hint of flashy nonsense.
Back when Ning Xiu had been an apprentice at Champion Camp, he had imagined what he would be like after joining the Demon Subduing Bureau. First, he'd learn an awesome sword technique.
Then he'd wear white, glide through a bamboo forest beneath the moonlight, and wield his sword with the ethereal grace of an immortal.
Wouldn't everyone who saw him call him Sword Immortal Ning? He'd be incredibly cool.
But for some reason, he felt like he was getting farther and farther from that image.
Seeing that the Corpse Fiend had stopped moving, Ning Xiu used the Spiritual Eye Qi Observation Technique to examine its body carefully. The source of the heavy Yin and Evil Qi in the room was this Corpse Fiend.
But under normal circumstances, a Corpse Fiend couldn't possibly cause such a commotion. There had to be some secret behind it.
Soon, as Ning Xiu searched the body, he found the secret.
On Liu Fu's back, amid the swollen skin that had been soaked in river water, was a runic diagram that had faded almost completely.
Without looking closely, the naked eye could hardly make out the runic diagram at all.
Unfortunately, runes belonged to the art of talismans, which only Dao cultivators studied. Ning Xiu knew nothing about them. Even though he had found this clue on Liu Fu's body, he couldn't make heads or tails of it.
With no other choice, Ning Xiu put Liu Fu back in the coffin, then called Fang Ping, who was waiting outside, to find paper and a brush. He planned to copy the runic diagram and send it to Su Qianqian in Chaotian Capital.
If anyone could figure out what it meant, she could.
She might even find some useful clues about the series of drowning deaths in Wendeng County.
Madam Liu's family had no idea what had happened in the room, but when they saw the state of Liu Fu's corpse in the coffin, they were all completely dumbfounded.
Those who knew the truth knew Liu Fu had drowned. Anyone who didn't would probably think Ning Xiu had beaten him to death.
Ning Xiu briefly explained how Liu Fu had become a Corpse Fiend and why the room had been so damp.
After successfully copying the runic diagram, he gave Madam Liu's family some silver as compensation. He also told Fang Ping to hurry back to the yamen, inform Dong Fu that the drowned victims' corpses were changing, and have him send constables to check whether the other victims' homes were like Liu Fu's.
Ning Xiu himself left at once, heading for the post station in Wendeng County to send the runic diagram to the Demon Subduing Bureau in Chaotian Capital.
The second half of yesterday's chapter honestly wasn't very good; it fell a little flat, so I made some last-minute changes.
Sorry to everyone who already read it. The plot has changed.
Before you continue