Dug Up from Underground

"Fellow Daoist Fangfei, this poor Daoist will be leaving for a while. It may be only a few days, or as long as a month."

As he spoke, Zhou Yi poured wine for the Peach Spirit.

The Peach Spirit loved wine, yet had an abysmal tolerance for it.

At the Qi Induction into Body realm, both body and spirit had already transcended the mundane. Ordinary wine was no different from plain water.

The Peach Spirit's cultivation was considerable, even deeper than Zhou Yi's, who had only just entered the Innate Realm. Yet a single bottle of wine left her tipsy.

Her branches swayed, and her thoughts grew hazy: Don't forget to bring wine...

Zhou Yi chuckled. "Don't worry. I've already arranged for someone to pour a bottle of wine over you every other day."

"I truly envy you. Your lifespan is long, you face neither calamities nor tribulations, and you won't die even after a thousand years."

On the True Self attribute panel, his cultivation had changed to Qi Induction into Body, and his lifespan was listed as the mortal limit of one hundred and fifty years.

Having reached Qi Induction into Body, Zhou Yi no longer had any cultivation technique to rely on. He could only use his soul to draw in spiritual energy and refine it, making his cultivation speed painfully slow.

Moreover, his True Self's aptitude was abysmal. He did not even possess a First Order Spiritual Root, so he absorbed spiritual energy at an exceptionally sluggish pace.

Slow upon slow—let alone one hundred and fifty years, even another one hundred and fifty years would not be enough for him to achieve success in cultivation.

After finishing the wine, Zhou Yi bowed to the Peach Spirit. "Chi Xiaozi thanks Fellow Daoist Fangfei. In the future, I shall certainly find a cultivation technique for spirit monsters to repay the debt of your spiritual energy."

After saying this, Zhou Yi found a cave near Peach Blossom Mountain.

Sword qi crisscrossed and sealed the cave entrance.

"Gateway to Myriad Wonders, enter Other Self."

With a thought from Zhou Yi, one hundred points of Origin were consumed.

Searching for Other Self...

Other Self found...

World marker found...

Transmission cost: 100 Origin...

Traversing the myriad worlds...

He opened his eyes.

Zhou Yi felt his body constantly swaying.

"Hm? Wasn't I in secluded cultivation at Black Mountain? Did a collapse occur?"

Zhou Yi spread out his Divine Sense. He seemed to be inside a large box, three or four feet wide and tall, and about ten feet long.

"Why does this feel... like a coffin?"

Zhou Yi found it strange, but he was not overly surprised.

By the time reckoning between the two worlds, more than sixty years had already passed in the world of A Chinese Ghost Story. It would not have been unusual for some accident to occur where he had gone into seclusion.

He checked the Other Self attribute panel. Sure enough, the age field now read 82/150.

The average lifespan in Great Jing was around forty years. Living to sixty was already considered longevity. During one session of Zhou Yi's secluded cultivation, one or two generations had passed.

"Sixty-two years, gone in the blink of an eye! Even if one held power over the entire court, even if one possessed wealth beyond measure, what of it? They have already become withered bones..."

"Even if one is invincible beneath heaven, what of it? After a hundred years, there is no difference from ordinary mortals!"

The thought shook Zhou Yi's mind. He hurriedly recited the Heart Calming Incantation in silence, soothing his soul.

Doubts about the Great Dao accompanied cultivators throughout their lives.

From Qi Induction into Body to refining the spirit and returning to emptiness, so long as one had not passed the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations and achieved a lifespan equal to Heaven and Earth, lifespan remained a great mountain pressing down upon them.

Zhou Yi listened quietly beyond the wooden box. Aside from the continuous sounds of leaping and landing, he could not hear a single person speaking.

True Essence emerged from his body. With a light tap, he opened a round hole in the lid above him.

The sky above was a deep, serene blue, studded with stars. It was the middle of the night.

The box rocked and swayed as it moved constantly forward. Someone was traveling through the night.

Zhou Yi pressed his palm against it, intending to lift the wooden box lid, but his force was unexpectedly neutralized by a gloomy aura.

"Eh?"

Zhou Yi was intrigued. A casual press from him carried no less than a thousand jin of force, yet he had failed to open a mere three-inch-thick wooden lid.

That gloomy aura clearly resembled True Essence, except it was mottled and impure, mixed with yin baleful energy and resentment.

He steadily increased his strength. At first, the gloomy aura could still offset it, but once his force exceeded ten thousand jin—

Boom!

The wooden lid shot into the sky and shattered in midair.

The leaping motion abruptly stopped, followed by a startled cry from ahead.

Zhou Yi sat up from the wooden box and looked around. The first thing he realized was that he was truly inside a coffin.

It was a Red Coffin, apparently made from some precious wood.

The four people carrying the coffin were equally strange. They stood twelve feet tall, wore bronze armor, had bluish-green faces and fangs, and their fingernails were over a foot long.

Zombies!

Zhou Yi instantly recognized the identities of the coffin bearers. They were extremely similar to the zombies of legend.

Looking ahead again, he saw an old Daoist wearing a black-and-white Daoist robe, holding Eight Trigrams in one hand and a bell in the other.

Upon seeing Zhou Yi sit up, the old Daoist's face filled with horror. He hurriedly pulled out a Talisman from his robes and began muttering an incantation.

"Freeze!"

With a flick of his hand, the Talisman shot through the air and stuck to Zhou Yi's forehead.

"Whew! Fortunately, he's been immobilized..."

Before the old Daoist could finish, he saw Zhou Yi raise a hand and remove the Talisman himself.

"What is this thing?"

At Zhou Yi's question, the old Daoist rolled his eyes back and fainted on the spot.

"Have cultivators' nerves become this fragile after a few decades?"

Zhou Yi jumped out of the coffin and landed directly beside the old Daoist. He searched him and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper.

The paper recorded the Corpse Driving Art, its hand seals, and the Magical Artifacts needed to accompany it.

There was also a stack of Talismans, along with miscellaneous bottles and jars.

"Corpse driving... This old bastard wanted to refine me into a zombie! Good thing I came back. Otherwise, fake death would have become real death!"

Zhou Yi snorted and raised his foot to kick the old Daoist in the head.

After sixty-two uninterrupted years of absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, and with no Divine Sense to refine it, ninety-nine percent of that spiritual energy had gone into nourishing his body.

At this moment, the strength of Zhou Yi's physical body far surpassed the True Essence within him. How could the force of a single stomp be less than a hundred thousand jin?

The supposedly unconscious old Daoist rolled aside like a donkey and avoided the blow, then knelt on the ground and kowtowed in frantic surrender.

"Mercy, Lord Zhou! Mercy, Sword Saint! This poor Daoist truly did not mean to steal your corpse—I was forced into it! Spare me, Sword Saint! If you've become a corpse, don't bite me! Go bite those grandsons from the Heavenly Corpse Sect!"

As he spoke, tears and snot streamed down his face. He looked utterly miserable.

Zhou Yi examined the Corpse Driving Art and discovered it was an incomplete technique, only a tiny fragment of the full text.

"Tell me. How did you dig me up? And what is going on with the Heavenly Corpse Sect?"

The old Daoist looked up and saw that Zhou Yi's complexion was rosy and his mind clear, with no signs of becoming a zombie. He could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Living people could still communicate. Zombies only cared whether flesh tasted good.

"This poor Daoist is Nanshanzi. I normally have no incense money, so I can only make a living by robbing tombs. About a year ago, the Heavenly Corpse Sect came looking for me and ordered me to rob your grave at Black Mountain..."

Nanshanzi glanced up. Only after seeing no anger on Zhou Yi's face did he dare continue. "This poor Daoist initially refused, but the Heavenly Corpse Sect poisoned me with corpse venom and threatened that if I did not obediently comply, I would become a Walking Corpse."

"Black Mountain was covered with Chen Family guards. Using my mountain-gazing and vein-probing technique, I dug a tomb raider's tunnel from ten li away and stole you out from your place of secluded cultivation."

To prove that he was not lying, Nanshanzi pulled open his shoulder, revealing a ring of purple tooth marks that continuously emitted the stench of rotting corpses.

"What is with these zombies?"

With great interest, Zhou Yi patted the zombie's body, producing a series of dull thuds.

The bronze armor worn by the zombie was exceptionally sturdy. Even a palm strike capable of turning iron to mud left only a shallow mark on it, as a gloomy aura offset most of the force.

A strand of True Essence transformed into a flying sword and lightly slashed across the zombie's bronze armor, carving a foot-long gash.

Beneath the armor were bluish-purple muscles. When he cut through the muscles as well, black, foul-smelling blood flowed out.

Nanshanzi stared in shock. The Bronze Armored Corpse was a secret treasure of the Heavenly Corpse Sect. Not only was it immensely strong and tireless, it was also Indestructible Vajra, impervious to water and fire.

He had once personally witnessed a martial arts master renowned throughout the land being torn apart and devoured by a Bronze Armored Corpse.

"Sword Saint Grandfather, this is the Bronze Armored Corpse the Heavenly Corpse Sect gave me to dig you up..."

Nanshanzi's back bent even lower.