Disturbance on the Mountain Peak

Chu Xiaotian prepared to use the art of corpse-leading to guide his ten uncles back to the small mountain village where they had lived. A terrifying scene unfolded: a young man, wearing a Taoist crown and holding a copper bell and wooden sword, walked slowly out of the place where they had previously stayed. Behind him, ten corpses—eyes tightly shut, bodies stiff, faces pale, and long since deceased—followed him step by step.

This spectacle stunned everyone. In a society that prided itself on atheism, such an inconceivable sight immediately caused a stir. The entire engineering team emerged, partly drawn by the bizarre scene and partly to pay their final respects to the ten men who had once been their friends.

Those who had been driven away by Chu Xiaotian earlier had immediately called the police, but upon seeing the scene before them, they were too shocked to regain their senses for a long time. Paralyzed by the sight, everyone forgot what they were supposed to do, only able to watch with astonished eyes as Chu Xiaotian led the ten corpses, dead for several days, forward. Not a single person dared to step in and stop him.

It was a scene that modern science could not explain. Consequently, its appearance immediately drew a massive crowd, even causing a bottleneck. Swarms of media personnel scrambled to take photos and record footage, eager to capture this monumental news. Many began to question Chu Xiaotian, wanting to know how he had achieved such a feat. To all of this, however, Chu Xiaotian remained indifferent. He looked straight ahead, saying nothing, simply continuing his slow march with the ten corpses in tow.

A youth leading ten wrongfully dead souls through a city was undeniably terrifying. Yet, no one dared to try and block this strange procession. No one knew if this boy, who could make the dead walk, possessed other horrific means to turn a living person into a corpse. No one is without fear when faced with the unknown.

This sensational news, fueled by the media's aggressive reporting, spread like wildfire. Through layers of investigation, the truth—that ten men who should not have died had perished underground due to a single word from a rescue expert—became common knowledge. Countless interviews and rumors exaggerated the story, claiming that these ten souls were filled with lingering resentment and were protesting their unjust treatment in this manner.

The departments that had previously been dismissive of Chu Xiaotian began to panic. While they usually cared little for public opinion, they did not want such a high-profile matter to continue. They sent people to find Chu Xiaotian, claiming they had resolved the issues regarding his ten uncles and offering double the burial expenses and compensation. They also offered to send a special vehicle to transport the bodies back to his mountain village.

They hoped to use this to quell the situation; after all, further escalation would benefit them in no way. However, Chu Xiaotian's only response was silence—endless silence. He acted as if he were mute; no matter what they said or did, he remained wordless, eyes fixed forward, firmly taking his steps as he led the ten corpses onward. When bribery failed, they resorted to secret threats, yet Chu Xiaotian showed no reaction, as if he hadn't heard them at all. He knew very well that with the matter blown up to such a scale, those people would never dare to lay a hand on him.

He did not attempt to take any other vehicle, knowing no one would dare carry them, and he had no desire to ride anyway. He wanted to lead these ten corpses, step by step, from the city back to the small mountain village where they had lived. He wanted to use this journey to vent the gloom in his heart and let others see just how dark this world truly was. It was a journey without distinction between day and night. When hungry, Chu Xiaotian ate bread bought along the way; when tired, he would lie down in a street corner or a park, resting only long enough to continue his trek.

For the first leg of the journey, Chu Xiaotian was followed by throngs of onlookers and media. As time passed, while the onlookers remained, most of the media vanished. The people who had previously threatened and bribed him also disappeared. From a casual glance at a news report on a television, he learned that those officials had been dismissed. Yet, Chu Xiaotian felt no joy; he knew they would soon reappear in other departments. He no longer cared. He had made up his mind: once he returned this time, he would never leave the mountain village again.

After a full month of arduous travel, Chu Xiaotian finally arrived with his ten uncles in the great mountains not far from their village.

He only needed to cross the forest he was currently in and climb over two mountains over a thousand meters high to reach their village. A month of trekking without a proper bath, a decent sleep, or a good meal had left Chu Xiaotian utterly exhausted. He longed to reach the village, lay his uncles to rest, and sleep for three days and three nights. Still, being able to lead them "safely" back made every bit of exhaustion worth it.

As he neared home, he was met with the sight of chaotic lightning and rolling black clouds, forcing him to lament his poor luck. He knew well that this weather wasn't a sign of the heavens opening for him, but simply an impending storm. Having avoided rain the entire journey, to encounter it at the very end left him speechless. In the art of corpse-leading, wind and rain were the greatest fears. The process relied on a single talisman; if the wind blew or the rain soaked it, the talisman would be ruined, and the corpses could no longer be led.

However, Chu Xiaotian was prepared. He stopped, took ten more talismans from his pocket, and affixed them to the foreheads of the corpses. These were water-repellent talismans, essential for any corpse-leader. Their purpose was to prevent rain from touching the corpses for a limited time. According to the records he had studied, they could hold for at least an hour. Yet, in this world where spiritual energy was far too thin, the talismans could last at most a quarter of an hour. If the rain were heavy, they wouldn't even last that long.

To others, such things would seem utterly inconceivable, but Chu Xiaotian knew that the world held countless things that science could not explain. The art of corpse-leading itself was far from ordinary; an extra water-repellent talisman was nothing new.

After Chu Xiaotian finished, another flash of lightning tore across the sky, and the rain began to fall. The talismans on the ten corpses began to take effect. A faint white light shimmered, forming a thin barrier that encased the bodies. As the raindrops hit the barrier, they slid off silently.

The rain grew heavier, and the barriers began to thin and flicker, as if they might dissipate at any moment.

Chu Xiaotian sighed softly. The rain was too heavy, and his water-repellent talismans, drawn without sufficient spiritual energy, were far inferior to those described in the records. Seeing that the rain would not stop anytime soon, he had no choice but to take out ten more talismans to reinforce the ones on the corpses.

"Boom..." The moment the talismans were applied, a deafening explosion rang out. A blinding bolt of lightning streaked across the sky and struck a giant tree on the mountain peak behind him—a tree that had already been scarred by lightning before. Then, several more thunderclaps followed, shattering the giant tree into splinters. Even then, the lightning did not cease, continuing to strike the same spot, churning the soil and sending boulders tumbling down the peak.

"This is bad. That place is no sanctuary; it is not safe to linger here," Chu Xiaotian muttered to himself, his brow furrowed as he looked at the mountain peak behind him. He had noticed something unusual: the lightning struck nowhere else but that ancient tree. There had to be something strange there. Lightning was the most yang element in the world, the bane of all dark and evil things. A place struck repeatedly by it could never be good. According to folklore, lightning strikes trees because there are demons within. While there was no scientific basis for this, it was not far from the truth. A place "favored" by lightning would harbor either a demon or something equally ominous. As a corpse-leader, he had ways to perceive such things; upon closer inspection, he felt a powerful, sinister aura emanating from that spot.

Sinister energy was everywhere, but to be strong enough to attract lightning was extraordinary. This place was not to be stayed in. Chu Xiaotian decided to leave immediately. He covered the ten corpses with a large plastic sheet he had prepared and continued his journey.

"Boom..." Another thunderclap echoed, a silver snake of light crossing the sky to strike the peak once more, shattering a boulder into a thousand fragments.

"Screech..." Just as the boulder shattered, a piercing, shrill cry erupted from the mountaintop. The sound was terrifying; hearing it felt like a giant hammer striking his chest. Chu Xiaotian felt his blood churn and the world spin, an overwhelming sense of agony washing over him.