After a while, once the Natural Force had calmed his nausea, all that remained in Ling Qing's heart was disgust for this species that disrupted the balance of nature.
To keep them from thinking he wanted a share, Ling Qing had no intention of stepping forward to help. Instead, he looked over the plants nearby.
He hadn't forgotten why he had come: to earn as much experience as possible.
He checked his panel. He had killed four Purple Zombies in total and gained 20 points of kill experience, which could also be used as general experience.
Ling Qing wasn't too concerned about that, though. To him, the way to gain a large amount of experience was never to toil away killing a fixed number of zombies.
It was the forested hills stretching far into the distance around him.
Especially the trees contaminated by the zombies' turbid yin energy. If he could purify them, the experience gained would surely be no less than what he could earn by killing zombies one at a time.
"Wicked fiend, don't you dare run amok!"
Just as Ling Qing was calculating how much experience he could earn, a roar rang beside his ear.
He turned to look and saw an old Daoist making a hand seal with his left hand. He whipped his horsetail whisk forward with his right, and a bolt of lightning shot toward Zhang Zhe and Li Jun, who were digging at the grave.
Boom!
Only after the lightning struck did a clap of thunder that made Ling Qing's mind tremble reach his ears.
"Zhang Zhe!!"
"Jun!!"
Seeing this, Tian Yong and Li Dezhang were beside themselves with rage. One drew his sword and sprang forward, while the other pulled his bow taut as a full moon. An arrow appeared in an instant before the old Daoist, shooting straight for his chest.
Whoosh!
The old Daoist flicked his horsetail whisk, winding it around the incoming arrow. With a shake of his hand, he dispelled its momentum.
Then he swung the whisk, sending the arrow spinning back to strike Tian Yong's sword.
Clang! The light ring of steel made Tian Yong's body shudder. He couldn't help taking two steps back, while the sword in his hand continued to hum and tremble.
"Please, both of you, don't be alarmed!"
Everyone had been stunned by the lightning-fast turn of events and the old Daoist's strength, and didn't know what to do.
"Cough, cough!"
"Cough, cough!"
Two coughs rang out as Zhang Zhe and Li Jun crawled out from beneath the loose earth, covered in dirt.
"The two young friends are unharmed."
The old Daoist flicked his horsetail whisk and gave a Daoist salute.
"Jun, are you all right?"
Li Dezhang hurried over to Li Jun, brushing the dirt off him as he asked anxiously.
"I'm fine, Dad. Cough, cough." Li Jun coughed as he dusted himself off.
"Daoist, what happened? Are you blaming us for digging up the grave?"
Tian Yong put away his sword and cupped his fists, just about to explain himself to the old Daoist.
"Please, young friend, wait. A fierce ghost was hiding in the grave, intending to ambush you both. I had no time to warn you, so I had to act first."
The Daoist raised a hand to stop him. "But you both had Ghost-Repelling Pills on you, so it likely couldn't have harmed you. I was indeed too rash."
"So that's what happened. Not at all—rather, we should thank you for saving our lives."
Only after seeing that Li Jun was truly unharmed did Li Dezhang relax. Hearing the old Daoist's explanation, he hurriedly pulled Li Jun along to thank him.
"Thank you, Daoist!" Li Jun and Zhang Zhe, who had just finished brushing the dirt off themselves, also thanked him.
Although Li Jun was somewhat confused, both the worldly Uncle Li and the quick-witted Zhang Zhe understood.
Someone with such power, capable of wielding thunder, had no need to lie to them.
"May I ask how we should address you, Daoist?"
"I am Wenxi. I practice at Qingyuan Temple nearby."
After talking for a while, they learned that Daoist Wenxi had been cultivating in the temple when he suddenly sensed a surge of sinister energy in the mountains.
After searching, he found a mountain spirit contaminated by the evil energy. Only after subduing it had he followed the energy's trail to this graveyard.
He had just arrived when he spotted the evil ghost hidden in the graveyard and rescued the two men who had been digging for treasure.
At his words, Zhang Zhe and Li Jun couldn't help feeling embarrassed and lowering their heads.
"By the way, Daoist, what caused such a large-scale reanimation at this graveyard? And how did that Hairy Zombie possess a little intelligence?"
Partly to change the subject and spare the two men further embarrassment, and partly out of curiosity, Tian Yong asked Daoist Wenxi.
"It was because of this Corpse-Suppressing Ring." Daoist Wenxi flicked his horsetail whisk, and a copper ring mottled with verdigris burst out of the earth and floated before them.
"This Corpse-Suppressing Ring can both restrain and control zombies, and reduce the erosion of their minds by turbid energy during corpse refinement."
Everyone's eyes lit up at his words, but no one asked him for it. They were simply fascinated by the sight of a magical artifact.
Seeing their reactions, Daoist Wenxi nodded to himself and swept it into his sleeve with a wave.
"It wouldn't be convenient for me to give you this artifact right now. Once I've cleansed it, I'll hand it over to you."
"No, no. We were just worrying about how to repay you for saving our lives."
Hearing this, Li Dezhang pulled Li Jun, whose face had lit up with delight, behind him and hurriedly waved his hands.
"We can discuss that later. For now, please help me deal with this place."
Daoist Wenxi changed the subject without committing either way.
Everyone had assumed that dealing with the place meant simply putting in the effort to bury the bodies again, and that would be the end of it.
Unexpectedly, Daoist Wenxi told them to notify the people in town so they could handle it together.
Though they didn't understand, they did as he asked.
After Tian Yong and Zhang Zhe, the two fastest on their feet, made a trip to town, everyone joined the townspeople, who had been stunned by the sight of the graveyard, in piecing the dismembered zombies back together.
Fortunately, the stiffened corpses could still be recognized by their former appearance. Each family claimed the remains of their own relatives.
Then, at the Daoist's urging, they even dug open graves where no reanimation had occurred and removed the bodies.
After that, in front of the whole town, the Daoist performed a ritual and cremated them all. The collected ashes were temporarily placed in the ancestral hall.
They would be buried again once a new grave site had been chosen. In any case, they could no longer use the old graveyard.
They worked until deep into the night before all the bodies had been cremated. Some people had initially refused to burn their relatives' remains, no matter what.
But after seeing with their own eyes how the bodies kept twitching after nightfall, they all changed their minds.
Ling Qing and the others prepared to spend the night in the ancestral hall with Daoist Wenxi.
Daoist Wenxi stayed because he knew that without him keeping watch, the villagers wouldn't feel at ease.
As for Ling Qing and the others, they had no choice. Nobody was willing to take them in.
Although they had slain the zombies and spared the townspeople from disaster, those zombies had been transformed from the villagers' dead relatives.
Ling Qing and the others had desecrated their dead relatives' bodies, leaving them dismembered. Since the villagers held such strong clan ties, they were deeply conflicted and didn't know what to do for the time being.
Even in modern times, some people couldn't accept this. How much less could the villagers, who had been raised with these beliefs from childhood?
Fortunately, the others didn't mind. Besides, with a big shot like Daoist Wenxi right there, why not seize the chance to see if they could get something out of him? What were they waiting for?
Before you continue