But he had exhausted all his strength trying to break the formation, yet in the end, he still failed to break it.
Then he grabbed me and threw me into the formation, and it kept attacking me.
So the seal weakened a little more, and he took advantage of that opening to blast through a crack and escape.
Then the formation knocked me to the ground and gravely wounded me. I nearly had my soul scattered.
After that, I returned to the stone coffin where he had lived before to heal my injuries. When I recovered and came out, I saw all of you.
In the end, all those corpse subordinates of mine were slaughtered clean.
Even that well was destroyed by you, and that brought things to the present."
I hurriedly asked the female ghost, "Were the people in the village outside killed by you?"
She froze, then asked back in disbelief, "Everyone outside is dead?"
"Yes. I'm the village's only survivor."
After I finished speaking, she looked at me with a strange expression.
There seemed to be killing intent in her eyes, along with something else, as though she were considering whether to kill me.
I quickly explained, "What happened before has nothing to do with me.
My grandfather only moved to Lin'an Village over forty years ago. I'm not originally from this village.
Besides, every grievance has its debtor, every debt has its creditor. What happened to you was thousands of years ago.
If you want revenge, you should go find them. It has nothing to do with me."
After hearing me out, she nodded. Then she looked at me again, her gaze somewhere between gentleness and admiration.
She stared until I felt uncomfortable. I didn't dare look at her and lowered my head.
After a while, she looked elsewhere, and I raised my head to look at her again.
I saw what seemed like the joy of a great vengeance avenged in her eyes, but also anger that she had failed to personally kill her enemies' descendants.
After another moment, her eyes became calm again, as though she felt melancholy, yet also relief.
It was as if something she had kept buried in her heart for countless years had suddenly been let go.
Breaking the silence, I asked the female ghost, "Do you know who killed the people in the village?"
She said it wasn't her. She had never been able to leave, so it should have been that zombie who escaped.
I asked how she could prove it.
She asked whether none of the people outside had left behind corpses.
I said yes. She said that confirmed it—most likely, he had eaten them all.
I said that was impossible. How could one person eat so many? There had been over four hundred people outside.
Before I could finish, she interrupted me. "He doesn't eat people with his mouth."
Confused, I asked the female ghost, "Not with his mouth? Then how does he eat?"
At that moment, Martial Uncle said from the side, "Zombies at the level of a Corpse King or Corpse Venerable do not eat with their mouths.
Their cultivation is powerful enough that they can draw blood from afar. If they are starving enough, they can absorb everything—flesh, blood, and bones—until nothing remains.
They use immense energy to compress those bones into material they can absorb."
Then Martial Uncle frowned. "How could things like Corpse Kings and Corpse Venerables still exist in this era?
By rights, they should have been thoroughly cleared out in the last century.
Our problem now is that we aren't sure whether he really is a zombie."
Then Martial Uncle asked the female ghost, "Was his body's defense exceptionally powerful? Could he speak? Did he have thoughts?"
The female ghost replied, "He could speak, though he spoke very little. He also had his own thoughts.
His physical defense was indeed extremely strong. Neither my Soul Artifact nor my Ghost Art could injure him."
Then Martial Uncle asked her, "Did he have fangs? Normally, they can't be seen.
But on the night of a full moon, they emerge. On a full-moon night, the fangs cannot be controlled."
The female ghost thought for a moment, then replied, "Yes. There's no need to wait for a full moon—they can be seen normally too."
Martial Uncle said that meant he was definitely a Corpse King. Otherwise, he could not have been trapped for so many years.
If he were a Corpse Venerable, this formation absolutely could not have trapped him.
I asked, "Then what do we do?"
Martial Uncle said, "What can we do? Who knows where he has run off to.
Besides, even if he were here, with my current cultivation, I could at most perish together with him."
"He's that strong?" I asked Martial Uncle fearfully.
Martial Uncle nodded and said he was indeed very strong, especially his physical defense.
After hearing what Martial Uncle had said, I thought it over myself.
I felt that the female ghost's earlier words definitely contained some bragging.
I didn't believe her claim that she and the Corpse King had fought until heaven and earth went dark, or anything of the sort.
The reason was simple: the female ghost couldn't beat Martial Uncle, right?
If Martial Uncle fought the Corpse King, he would have to be prepared to perish together with him in order to kill him.
In other words, the Corpse King was on Martial Uncle's level, perhaps even slightly stronger.
So all things considered, the Corpse King was far, far stronger than the female ghost.
Most likely, the Corpse King woke from his slumber and found a female ghost inside his burial chamber.
The Corpse King then flew into a rage, thinking, How can another be allowed to snore beside my bed?
Without another word, he rushed up and knocked the female ghost to the ground in just a few moves.
Then the seal loosened somewhat, and the Corpse King tested it, only to find that he still could not break through it.
Seeing the female ghost beside him, he decided she could be used, so he seized her and made her bear the seal's attacks.
While the seal was attacking the female ghost, its defenses weakened.
Taking advantage of that moment, he charged out with all his strength, while the female ghost was struck to the ground by the seal.
Afterward, the female ghost was injured and returned to the stone coffin where the Corpse King had once slept to recover.
Then Martial Uncle and I arrived and slaughtered all her subordinates—the corpses.
Then she ran out of the stone coffin again, wanting to avenge her little brothers.
In the end, Martial Uncle beat her into complete submission, and she had no choice but to seek peace.
Damn, this female ghost was really pitiful!
When she was alive, bandits had done that to her. After she died, she finally gained a little cultivation and thought she could take revenge.
Then someone even more overbearing than her appeared right where she cultivated.
He pinned her to the ground and taught her how to be a person—no, how to be a "ghost."
Then he used her body as a shield to bear the formation's attacks.
Afterward, she obediently returned to the stone coffin to nurse her wounds. Once she recovered, she wanted to come out and show off again.
But all her underlings had been slaughtered clean, leaving her a commander without an army.
Then a single Golden Light Purple Thunder Talisman from Martial Uncle scared her into shrinking back and cowering.
For a dignified Ghost King to end up in such a state, all I could say was that her fate was full of twists and turns—full of twists and turns indeed!
Damn, that was too cruel.
Just look at her now, holding half a flatbread in her hand, paired with her current appearance.
She looked exactly like a beggar. If Su Qier passed by, he would probably give her two coins.
That was truly enough to make those who heard it sad and those who listened weep. If she took a broken bowl onto the streets, she would surely rake it in hand over fist.
Uh... I was so evil. How could I talk about the Ghost King like that?
If she could read minds, I would probably have already been chopped into eight pieces.
So I asked Martial Uncle what we should do now. Things here were already over.
Although we did not know the whole story, we understood seven or eight parts out of ten.
Martial Uncle thought for a moment, then said, "Let's get out first. We can make plans after we're outside.
There are also some things I want to verify. Many things from the past seem to have finally revealed a few clues.
But I'm still not sure whether they are true or false. It seems I'll have to make the trip myself.
Perhaps I still won't find the answer in the end, but at least I'll be able to give myself an explanation."
I asked Martial Uncle what it was about. He said it concerned my grandfather.
But it was entangled too deeply, and telling me now would do me no good at all.
Hearing Martial Uncle say that, I stopped asking. Though I had no great abilities,
I understood one principle: the less a person knew, the happier they were.