Dusk fell, and the setting sun bled like fresh blood.
Inside the yamen of Linyuan City, long icicles hung from the eaves like crystalline short daggers.
The atmosphere inside the room was heavy and tense, while a crowd of bailiffs stood on guard outside.
Inside the doorway, two of the most renowned physicians from the city's Baolin Hall broke out in a sweat of anxiety. After finally replacing a basin of black, bloody water, they withdrew from the room with expressions of profound terror.
"This is the corpse poison of a Flying Head Zombie. It cannot be resolved unless a powerhouse of the Force Condensation Realm takes action. There is no need to make things difficult for them."
Within the room, a basin of charcoal burned intensely. Opposite the brazier, Lin Hongtu lay pale and flat on his back, speaking in a weak, breathless voice.
Tian Youji looked at the iron-willed man who had been so robust and imposing not long ago, yet now his face had grown a circle thinner, his eye sockets were deeply sunken and blackened, his lips were chapped, and his skin even showed signs of livid corpse spots. The entire man exuded an aura of death, making Tian's heart race with raw panic and a suffocating dread.
Hu Xuezhi, who had hurried over and stood to one side, was in no better shape. His face was terribly unsightly, and his mind reeled with various rumors concerning corpse drivers, sorcerers, and other such practitioners of the Heretical Left Path.
Tian Youji said with unconvinced reluctance, "Lord Lin, you excel in the Demon Suppressing Division's extraordinary secret technique, the One-Character Lightning Spear. That spear technique is rumored to be capable of suppressing demons and subduing evils. Is that Flying Head Zombie really so formidable? Even you are no match for it?"
Lin Hongtu was already struggling to speak, drawing heavy, ragged breaths. "That Flying Head Zombie was likely refined from the skull of a former Force Condensation powerhouse, making it vastly out of the ordinary. If it were an ordinary flying head, I—I still wouldn't fear it.
"Yet that Flying Head Zombie possesses nearly half the power of a Force Condensation expert. I can only blame myself for my imperfect mastery; relying solely on extraordinary secret techniques, I am still no match for it."
As he spoke, the bloodshot veins in his eyes noticeably multiplied. His vital breath was chaotic, and he issued a strained warning.
"You must pay special attention above all else: do not let yourselves be entangled by the blind gut of that Flying Head Zombie, or you will end up just like me."
"And—and immediately report this to the division, requesting support from a Force Condensation lord. Otherwise, Linyuan City is afraid..."
Before Lin Hongtu could finish speaking, his voice grew increasingly faint, finally lapsing into unconsciousness as his face turned the color of ash.
"Lord Lin!"
Tian Youji immediately stepped forward to check his condition. Discovering that Lin Hongtu had lapsed into unconsciousness, he could not help turning his head to exchange a glance with Hu Xuezhi, and both saw the lingering terror in each other's eyes.
The two men unbuttoned Lin Hongtu's clothing to inspect him.
They saw that around his neck and arms were marks as though he had been whipped and bound.
Only now, those marks had turned pitch-black, looking grim and horrifying.
"I have already sent an urgent report regarding this matter to the Demon Suppressing Division, but even with a harrier eagle transmitting the message, it will take at least two days. Moreover, as for a Force Condensation lord..."
Tian Youji wore an ugly expression.
At present, chaos and turmoil were erupting in many towns throughout the Great Zhou realm, and Linyuan City was not the only place experiencing a crisis. Sending a Lin Hongtu had already been no small feat; would a high-level Force Condensation expert actually come?
Could they arrive in time?
"For now, we must first place the entire city under strict curfew, while persuading people not to leave the city, and quietly await rescue."
As Hu Xuezhi spoke, he glanced at Tian Youji again, hesitating with words on the tip of his tongue.
Tian Youji's gaze flickered, and he understood what his old friend wanted to say.
Given the strength of the two of them in such a perilous situation, if they abandoned the city and fled, they would in all probability save their own lives.
Tian Youji let out a low sigh, his gaze gradually growing firm. "Old Hu, you should go. If I were to simply up and leave, I would instead transform from an official into a bandit, becoming a wanted criminal of the Great Zhou. Since I've worn this skin for more than a dozen years, I cannot be the one to tear it off with my own hands."
The Chu Household.
Chu Ge stared blankly at the scorched-black yellow paper talisman in his hand, then looked across at the Auspicious Ruyi Charm hanging beneath the opposite eaves, which fluttered continuously without any wind.
He never imagined that no sooner had he crafted a pair of Paper Cuttings and successfully infused them with extraordinary power than the charm would react as if it had been instantly triggered.
Such a farce-like situation actually caused Chu Ge to suspect whether his charm had failed in its creation and suffered some flaw.
Yet he quickly dismissed this absurd notion.
Once a charm was capable of bearing extraordinary power, it meant its creation had succeeded.
The Auspicious Ruyi Paper Cuttings possessed a certain ability to foretell calamities.
The closer the user remained to the source, the more intense and imminent the danger, and the more efficacious the charm's disaster-foretelling function became.
Now that the charm had reacted, it was clearly predicting that a calamity was about to strike.
Even so, despite receiving the charm's early warning, Chu Ge could not determine what the disaster stemmed from, whether it was a natural calamity or man-made misfortune; he merely knew of its existence in advance.
Is it coming for me, or has it simply implicated me?
He quickly calculated in his mind, turning over every possible scenario.
Presently, the greatest known threat in the surrounding environment was naturally the Heaven and Earth Incense Cult.
Could it be that Lord Lin of the Demon Suppressing Division failed? Have strong reinforcements arrived for the Heaven and Earth Incense Cult stronghold as well?
Just as Chu Ge was pondering, he suddenly heard the sound of knocking and conversation drifting from outside the courtyard.
Steward Fu's figure appeared from the front corridor, leading a person in a hurried manner. Catching sight of Chu Ge standing tall before the main hall, the man immediately led the way over.
"Young master, Constable Qin says he has an urgent matter and has come to give a warning."
"Constable Qin! What brings you..." Chu Ge could not help but look surprised.
Constable Qin looked toward Chu Ge, cupping his fists with an expression of admiration as he smiled, "Young master Chu, when we met in passing outside the city last time, it was actually little old me who underestimated the young master. I heard that the young master is already on the verge of breaking through to the Bone Training Realm?
"Those two bandits who pursued you last time were also beaten back by you afterward, weren't they?"
"Those two outside the city last time?" Chu Ge was stunned, then smiled and nodded in confirmation, also cupping his fists politely. "Yesterday I was fortunate enough to break through to Bone Training, and right now I am in the stage of nurturing my foundation."
"You've already broken through?!"
Constable Qin was startled, then immediately offered envious and admiring congratulations, sighing inwardly that Young Master Chu's martial talent was truly formidable.
In a mere two and a half years, he had already broken through to the Bone Training Realm.
Yet he himself had been stuck at the peak of the Muscle Refining Realm for over a year, and though he had eaten a single Spirit Fish, his vital blood simply refused to rise.
"It's just right that Young Master Chu has broken through now! Times are uneasy these days, and my purpose in coming here this time is precisely to notify you."
As Constable Qin spoke, his expression turned solemn, and he informed Chu Ge of the matter Tian Youji had assigned him regarding the appearance of an Evil Path powerhouse and corpse driver outside the city.
At the end, he even shoved a small booklet into Chu Ge's hand, saying gravely, "Young Master Chu, the specific details have all been conveyed to you. I still need to go notify other households, so I won't stay long. For safety's sake, please be sure to remain within the city during this period."
"Corpse driver, Flying Head Zombie..."
Chu Ge was startled. He took the booklet handed over by Constable Qin and instructed Steward Fu to tip a ingot of silver to send Constable Qin on his way.
The fact that the other party needed to notify numerous merchant households and nobility was enough to show how severe the situation was.
Chu Ge opened the booklet in his hand to inspect it.
He saw that it was written in small standard script, containing some information regarding such Evil Path powerhouses as corpse drivers.
The ink was quite fresh and carried the scent of ink, clearly having been written only recently.
According to the introduction within this booklet, a corpse driver was a status designation for Evil Path powerhouses. Their martial strength varied in potency, and internally they were further subdivided into corpse raisers, sorcerers, and other differing specializations.
The one who had appeared outside the city this time was suspected to be a corpse driver specializing in sorcery.
His specific strength remained unknown, but he had driven a Flying Head Zombie to severely injure Lin Hongtu of the Demon Suppressing Division.
"Even that Lord Lin was severely injured?"
Chu Ge frowned, continuing to peruse the information in the booklet concerning the Flying Head Zombie, and discovered that the creation process of such evil entities was indeed sinister and grotesque.
Sorcerers often dug open graves when refining a Flying Head Zombie, extracting the corpse and forcing it to stand upright.
Afterward, they sliced open its chin with a small knife, then used a candle refined from human fat to roast the corpse's chin.
They continued until the corpse's skin burst open from the heat, revealing the fat layer, and allowed the fat layer to dissolve from the heat into oil droplets collected in a coffin.
Combined with secret techniques in this manner, a corpse could be gradually burned away until only a single skull and a small portion of the intestines remained.
This skull would then become a Flying Head Zombie—vicious and poisonous, it would feed on human blood, while its intestines would wrap around people like a whip, causing suffocation and even imparting corpse poison.
Having thoroughly read through the information inside the booklet, Chu Ge looked once more toward the Auspicious Ruyi Charm fluttering incessantly beneath the eaves.
The extraordinary power within the charm was still slowly draining away, continuing its early warning filled with ominous foreboding.
In the distance, the last sliver of twilight vanished as the heavens and earth plunged into a silent, profound dusk.
An eventful autumn... The yamen has issued notices to stay within the city—could it be that the Flying Head Zombie is already hunting outside the city walls? Are they simply waiting for more formidable experts to arrive as reinforcements?
Before you continue