Corpse King

When Liu Chang'an was traveling alone and not in a hurry, he always walked. For ordinary people, too much long-distance travel would be tiring and damaging to the body, but for Liu Chang'an, all activities that would cause damage were ways to accumulate, grow, and evolve.

Although walking was of little help to him, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and a great river is formed from countless small streams. Even a fine horse cannot leap ten steps in one bound, but a slow horse can travel ten times the distance if it perseveres.

Ordinary people value efficiency because time is limited, but for Liu Chang'an, time is endless and hard to spend, so efficiency isn't that important. He's the kind of person who finds it easy to persevere, like grinding an iron rod into a needle or water dripping through stone.

Comparatively speaking, starting a fire by friction is a very efficient method.

When talking about making fire by rubbing wood, one has to mention lightning. When Liu Chang'an first saw this magical phenomenon, he felt the power of the origin of heaven and earth and all living things contained within it. But most importantly, after lightning struck the trees, it caused fires, burning all the birds and beasts in the forest until they smelled delicious. Liu Chang'an then learned that meat that had been burned tasted better.

Barbecue is just like that, except you add more seasonings to change the flavor.

Actually, many wild game dishes have a lingering gamey smell even after frying, stewing, or stir-frying; they're just better suited for grilling. Many people have the impression from movies and TV shows that the rabbits, pheasants, and river fish roasted by ancient heroes look incredibly delicious, but when they try them themselves while camping, they taste nothing at all. This is simply because the ingredients you buy in supermarkets are not suitable for grilling.

Barbecue is fine, but wild game is still the best.

Thinking about food, Liu Chang'an slowly walked to the vicinity of Gao Dewei's house. However, he did not go directly to Gao Dewei's house, but instead went to the back of the mountain where Li Hongfang's team had been researching for a long time and where a large tomb was hidden.

Behind the mountain is a river, and in the river, a sand dredger is close to the steep mountain wall. Tree branches extend out to cover the hull, and the sand dredger is in operation, with the water appearing to be very deep.

Liu Chang'an looked around and abandoned his plan to jump onto the boat. He first called Li Hongfang, but there was no answer. She was probably busy working. It wasn't suitable for them to carry cell phones while working, because radio waves, radiation, and magnetic fields are key factors in the formation of mysterious phenomena. Cell phones might even trigger some mysterious phenomena.

Liu Chang'an circled around and found a reef in the narrower part of the river. He skipped and hopped across it, then traversed through the forest and quickly found the sand dredging boat.

As Liu Chang'an expected, the sand dredging boat was not stopped here to dredge river sand, but to load the soil that Li Hongfang and his team had dug out.

Several men who were carrying soil were startled when they saw Liu Chang'an, and for a moment they seemed to freeze, looking left and right.

"Thank you all for your hard work." Liu Chang'an waved with a kind and gentle smile.

A shirtless man quietly circled around from behind and struck Liu Chang'an with a stick. Liu Chang'an grabbed the stick with his backhand and turned around to strike back without any hesitation.

The man felt dizzy and fell against the tree. He tumbled and fell into the river with a splash.

"Quick, save them!"

The other two quickly jumped down to rescue the person, while the remaining two watched Liu Chang'an warily.

"You guys do your work, I'm going to find Li Hongfang." Liu Chang'an could understand the other party's intention to strike first, so he hoped they could also understand his reaction of striking back. One blow from you, one blow from me, we're even, and we can talk properly.

Upon hearing Liu Chang'an mention Li Hongfang's name, and seeing that he didn't seem to be a civil servant of the violent authorities, they immediately breathed a sigh of relief. A man then pulled on a rope hidden among the leaves.

"Wait a moment," said the man with a thick beard and rust on his face, neck, and arms calmly, while keeping an eye on his three brothers who were splashing in the river.

After a while, Li Hongfang came down and waved to Liu Chang'an.

Liu Chang'an followed, smelling the earthy odor on Li Hongfang's body. There weren't many women working on the front lines because they lacked the physical strength; the work was too arduous. As Gao Dewei said, women are inherently unequal to men, and they shouldn't try to talk to men about equality or the laws of nature.

"Why are you here?" Li Hongfang was surprisingly not wary when she saw Liu Chang'an. Women's intuition is naturally sharp, especially in this line of work. Although it is said that people's hearts are unpredictable, some people can just exude a clean aura, making it hard to suspect that they have ulterior motives.

"I've been making some money selling rice noodles lately, and it reminded me of the work you guys do, so I thought I'd come and take a look," Liu Chang'an said.

Li Hongfang didn't bother to figure out how Liu Chang'an could connect selling rice noodles to treasure hunting; she was simply pleasantly surprised, "Want to join?"

Now that Liu Chang'an has joined in, Li Hongfang will naturally be at a disadvantage, but it also shows the utmost sincerity. They are doing business for the long term, and they don't care about losing a hole or two.

"No, I make quite a bit of money selling rice noodles." Liu Chang'an shook his head. "Is someone watching me?"

Li Hongfang was taken aback. She removed the cloth bundle from her head, letting her long black hair fall down. She shook her head. "How could this be? My mission that day failed, but I proved to them that the Living Coffin was indeed with you. They didn't want to use me anymore, so why would I still be monitoring you?"

"That's what I thought too. I discovered someone was watching me, so I beat that person up and left it at that. By the time I finished my business and came back, the person had already run away." Liu Chang'an nodded.

"You should lock that person up, imprison him in a dungeon or something, and slowly extract a confession. No one can really hold their tongue forever; after all, they're just doing someone else's job, there's no need for them to risk their lives," Li Hongfang said regretfully.

Liu Chang'an glanced at Li Hongfang.

Li Hongfang was a little embarrassed. "I'm different. You didn't threaten me that day, and I told the truth."

There was a hint of coquetry in her tone, but Li Hongfang didn't feel awkward or embarrassed. When facing a man who was too powerful, this was a natural reaction.

"I remember you mentioned last time that Mrs. Karnstein was a vampire, right?" Liu Chang'an continued.

"Yes, China has Living Coffin, the Balkans have vampires, and the Nile has a Corpse King. Myths and legends are mostly just baseless rumors."

"The meaning of words is not static; what was once considered 'out of nowhere' may now be used to describe baseless rumors."

"A rumor without a basis may not be without cause."

Liu Chang'an thought for a moment, "According to you, Lady Xin Zhui proved that the Living Coffin really exists. So, have you ever heard of any real cases of vampires or those so-called Corpse Kings?"

Li Hongfang wrapped her hair tightly with cloth again. It was too unlucky for her body hair to accidentally fall into a tomb hundreds or thousands of years old and end up being buried there. Li Hongfang was very concerned about this.

"I've never heard of vampires actually existing, but there are so many mummies, they must be zombie kings!" Li Hongfang lowered her voice, as if the place she had dug was also hiding some kind of zombie king.

So the mummy was the Corpse King? Liu Chang'an shook his head; this was clearly something Li Hongfang had presumptuously assumed.