The Living Dead Man in the Coffin

"Li Feng is a quack! Li Feng has no medical ethics! The surgery succeeded, so how could the patient still die?"

"Beat this quack to death! Make him pay with his life!"

Outside the hospital, huge banners had been strung up. The patient's family members picked up stones from the ground and hurled them into the hospital, cursing the doctor who had treated their relative to death. Li Feng! Li Feng pressed his lips tightly together. After a long internal struggle, he finally walked out of the hospital, his expression bitter as he said apologetically, "I'm sorry, everyone. Please calm down first. I did everything I could. I truly did everything I could. This surgery... urgh..."

"Pfft!"

Li Feng felt a sharp pain in his chest, and his voice abruptly cut off. He touched his chest, only to find his hand covered in blood.

Someone had stabbed him from behind. The icy blade pierced his heart, and he did not even have the chance to turn around and see who had killed him. Darkness swept over his vision, and he tumbled down the steps.

"Call the police! Doctor Li has been murdered!"

That was the last sound he heard. Then his consciousness sank completely into darkness and cold.

Yulan Empire, Eastern Outskirts Cemetery.

A massive Gold-Wrapped Coffin, pulled by two dragon-elephants, slowly entered the cemetery filled with towering stone steles. The iron chains clattered loudly.

There were many people in the funeral procession, likely several hundred.

Li Feng's consciousness awakened inside that enormous coffin, which weighed a thousand jin. He had awakened within the corpse of a fourth-generation descendant of the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion.

All around him was darkness. He only felt bone-deep cold throughout his body and excruciating pain where his heart was. He could not even open his eyelids.

"My heart was stabbed through, yet I'm not dead? Whose medical skills are this extraordinary? There definitely isn't anyone like that in the country. Abroad... there probably isn't anyone like that either."

Li Feng himself had been a top cardiovascular physician. Within the country, he was second to none, and even internationally, few could compare to him.

With modern medical standards, having one's heart stabbed through meant certain death. Thus, when the blade had pierced his heart from behind, he had known that he was doomed.

He had died in that medical dispute!

But what was happening now? His entire body felt numb and cold. He could not move his fingers or open his eyes. Only his thoughts remained active.

In the darkness, unfamiliar voices sounded.

"We've arrived at the cemetery. Carry him down and bury him! What a pity. Third Master's only heir is gone too."

"Don't put on such a hypocritical act! My brother isn't dead! He won't die, he won't..." A beautiful young girl's voice rang out, filled with indignation and sorrow as she wept.

Though Li Feng lay inside the coffin, he could tell that the girl's voice was very young and immature. She could not have been very old.

"Your brother clearly couldn't cultivate Martial Dao Profound Qi, and his body was weak, yet he insisted on imitating those wastrel young masters and competing for a courtesan in a brothel. He lost, failed to catch his breath, triggered his congenital illness, and died in the brothel. His heart stopped four hours ago."

There seemed to be many people around, but every voice was cruelly sarcastic.

"What a disgrace. A descendant of the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion actually got so angry over losing a courtesan that he died in a brothel. His corpse was even sent back to the Marquis Mansion by a brothel woman. If his father were still alive, he would probably be angered to death too."

"The Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion has truly lost face this time. Just wait and see! Who knows how the other princes and marquises will mock us."

"It's good that this cripple is dead. At least the Old Marquis won't have to expend a huge amount of Earth Martial Essence Qi every month to keep him alive. What a waste. If that Earth Martial Essence Qi were given to me, I'd already be an unrivaled expert capable of splitting mountains and severing rivers."

Ning Qianwu coldly stared at the girl in green blocking the coffin and said, "Xin'er, the weather is hot. A corpse cannot be kept overnight. It will stink if it is left until tomorrow."

Ning Xiner knelt beside the coffin, clutching it tightly and refusing to let anyone carry it away. "Fourth Uncle, are you really this eager to bury my brother? Are you afraid that after the Old Marquis comes out of seclusion, he'll examine my brother's body and discover the flaws? Was my brother truly angered to death?"

Ning Xiner's voice passed through the thick coffin walls into Li Feng's ears. She sounded tearful, helpless, and utterly alone. "You all killed my brother. My brother was already unable to cultivate Martial Dao Profound Qi, so he could never have become the Title Heir of the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion. Yet you still weren't satisfied. You persecuted him to death!"

Everyone around them fell silent!

After a long time, someone went to console her. In the end, Ning Xiner was pulled away.

The coffin was lifted, ready to be carried off for burial.

Li Feng roughly understood his situation now. He was inside a coffin. If he were buried beneath deep soil, then he would die a second time today.

Could anything be more damnable than this? Li Feng wanted to open his mouth, but his throat was unbearably dry. He could not make a sound, not even the three words, "I'm not dead."

"Lower the coffin," Ning Qianwu said coldly.

Ning Xiner wept nearby, watching helplessly as her only blood relative, her brother, was lowered into the grave pit and gradually buried beneath shovelful after shovelful of dirt.

Li Feng panicked. He gritted his teeth, raised his stiff hand, and knocked against the coffin wall.

"Knock, knock!"

A knocking sound came from inside the coffin.

The coffin was thick, and the sound was muffled, but it could not escape the ears of Martial Dao experts. Ning Xiner herself had Divine Body Realm cultivation, and her hearing was keen. "Stop! There's a sound inside the coffin!"

"Xin'er, you heard wrong. The greatest taboo during burial is being interrupted halfway through. It will prevent the dead from resting in peace. Keep shoveling," Ning Qianwu ordered.

"Knock, knock!"

The knocking inside the coffin grew louder.

This time, even the two Marquis Mansion servants shoveling dirt heard it clearly. They stopped and backed away two steps, their expressions uncertain and startled. Could the corpse have risen?

But Ning Xiner did not care about any of that. She leaped into the grave pit, hooked her fingers beneath the coffin's base, and accelerated the flow of blood within her body as Martial Dao Profound Qi circulated through her bloodline.

"Crack, crack!"

Her slender arms actually lifted the thousand-jin Gold-Wrapped Coffin and placed it beside the grave pit. The coffin was so heavy that it sank an inch into the earth.

"Bang!"

Her palm struck the coffin lid, unleashing more than ten thousand jin of force and sending the lid flying.

Who could have imagined that such a delicate-looking girl could erupt with such terrifying strength?

Ning Xiner was a cultivation genius of the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion. At only fourteen, she had already reached the Divine Body First Level. Among the fourth-generation descendants of the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion, she was considered outstanding.

The strength she had displayed just now made even the elders of the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion slightly startled.

How formidable! She had cultivated a Divine Martial Body! Fortunately, she was a girl. If she had been born male, she would certainly have been a powerful contender for Title Heir.

"Bang!"

The coffin lid flew away and knocked over a tombstone.

The coffin had been opened! Sunlight streamed into it, falling across a young, pale face.

Ning Qianwu's cultivation was unfathomably deep. His gaze was like lightning, and he strode forward with the bearing of a dragon and tiger, carrying an oppressive aura.

He walked to the coffin and saw that the corpse inside still had its eyes closed. Only then did he relax, scolding, "Xin'er, are you satisfied now? Your brother is already dead. He could have been laid peacefully to rest, but you forcibly interrupted it. By doing this, you've denied your brother's soul its peace!"

"I heard that if the coffin is lowered and then interrupted during burial, causing the proper hour to be missed, then after entering hell, the ghost will be cut in half at the waist!"

Another wave of accusations rose from all around. Ning Xiner lowered her head and bit her lip tightly. Brother, you're already dead. I interrupted your soul's journey. Brother, I'm sorry! Brother won't be cut in half! He won't!

From inside the coffin came an incredibly hoarse voice. "Cough, cough! S-sorry, everyone, I... I'm... not dead yet..."

Li Feng was also anxious, afraid that they would bury him again.

At the same time, he slowly opened his eyes.

The reason Li Feng had kept his eyes closed was that he knew someone who had remained in darkness for too long would go blind if suddenly exposed to intense sunlight! When Ning Qianwu saw the youth in the coffin open his eyes, his face changed drastically. His eyeballs nearly bulged out of their sockets, and he was just short of roaring, "You're fucking not dead?"

This useless congenital cripple had actually come back to life.

How could his life be so tough? So many people were disappointed! Ning Xiner, however, wept with joy. She helped the youth in the coffin sit up, pressed his face against her chest, and hugged him tightly. "Brother, I knew you weren't dead. I was so afraid you would truly leave me."

"Water... water..." Li Feng's voice was hoarse. He had no idea who this rather beautiful girl was. Right now, he only wanted water.

After Li Feng drank some water, his complexion gradually recovered.

Ning Xiner personally helped Li Feng onto a luxurious ancient carriage. Yet the beast drawing it was not a horse, but an azure mystical beast with a horse's body and a deer's head, its entire body covered in metallic scales!

The Azure Deer Horse pulled the ancient carriage away from the cemetery and back toward the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion.

Li Feng's body was extremely weak as he sat in the carriage.

Ning Xiner held him in her arms, supporting his head against her small chest as she said strange things. "Brother, your heart channels have been blocked since birth. You already can't cultivate Martial Dao Profound Qi. If anyone bullies you, tell your little sister! I'll teach them a lesson for you."

Li Feng did not know what she was talking about, so he could only remain silent.

To Ning Xiner, it seemed that her brother's childhood inferiority was why he had become so quiet and withdrawn. She sighed. "I don't believe you were angered to death at all. Fourth Uncle and Eldest Uncle must have been plotting behind the scenes again. I truly don't understand why they are so ruthless. We're family, so why must they drive us to extinction? They actually struck at you while Grandfather was in seclusion cultivating. It's utterly hateful!"

Li Feng still said nothing. He dearly wanted to say, "Little sister, you've got the wrong person."

But he was simply too weak right now, and his chest hurt terribly. Without anyone to care for him, he would likely starve to death in the wilderness before long.

For now, he could only accept this bargain-bin little sister. He would repay her kindness for saving his life someday.

From Ning Xiner's scattered remarks, he also roughly understood several things.

The owner of this body was named Ning Xiaochuan. He was sixteen this year, a direct fourth-generation descendant of the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion. Ten years ago, his parents had both died, leaving the young brother and sister to depend on each other.

Ning Xiner possessed extraordinary talent. At only fourteen, she had cultivated a Divine Martial Body. Her future was boundless, and she was among the finest of the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion's fourth-generation descendants.

But Ning Xiaochuan could not cultivate martial arts. It seemed to be due to a hidden illness carried from the womb: blocked heart channels and obstructed blood and qi. Even slightly strenuous activity would cause his heartbeat to speed up, make breathing difficult, and give him splitting headaches. He could even faint. Thus, among the fourth-generation descendants of the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion, he had earned the nickname "Sickly Ning."

"I must have possessed a corpse and returned to life." Li Feng had never wanted to believe in superstition, much less acknowledge the existence of supernatural phenomena, but now he had no choice but to accept the truth. He had arrived in a new world.

"Accelerated heartbeat, difficulty breathing... Could this be a cardiovascular blockage?"

Li Feng had been one of the country's finest cardiovascular physicians. Before his death, he had treated a patient suffering from a severe cardiovascular blockage.

For other doctors, this illness might have been quite thorny. Major surgery would be unavoidable, and the success rate would be low.

But with his medical skills, this illness had been a piece of cake. He had claimed a ninety percent chance of success.

The surgery had succeeded, but the patient died! Only later did he discover the cause: the nurse responsible for administering the anesthetic had gotten the dosage wrong. The patient's body had already been weak for a long time, and no detail could afford to go wrong. In the end, the patient died on the operating table.

Surgery inherently carried risks, and deaths were normal. Yet the patient's family refused to accept it. They stormed the hospital, cursed Li Feng as a quack, and demanded that he pay with his life.

Li Feng understood the consequences of a medical dispute very well. If he told the patient's family the truth, he could naturally clear himself of blame, but that nurse would certainly be beaten badly. She might even be beaten to death by the enraged family members.

Naturally, he could not do that.

The patient had died on his operating table, and Li Feng blamed himself deeply as well. Rather than hiding like a turtle with its head tucked in its shell, he bravely stepped forward to apologize to the patient's family and shouldered all responsibility alone.

But the patient's family was in the midst of their fury. Seeing him walk out of the hospital, they rushed him and beat him viciously. Some grabbed at his clothes, while others punched him in the head.

Before Li Feng could even finish apologizing, someone stabbed him through the heart from behind. Then his consciousness vanished, and afterward, he came to this world.

"Since I've come to this world and appeared in this body, then from now on, I'll be called Ning Xiaochuan. It will count as repaying that little girl for saving my life." That was what Li Feng thought to himself.

Since he had come, he might as well make peace with it.

From this day onward, his name was Ning Xiaochuan. He would accept this identity, learn to blend into this new world—a wondrous world!