Cutscene (Part One)

It came back to that same old saying.

If I don't see what's going on in this final act and get this out of my system, I won't be able to sleep!

The Fortune-Enhancement Method could wait.

Whether he could buy anything could wait, too.

But he simply had to see what this next act was all about!

The long string of blood-red text had caught Lin Feng's interest. From his perspective, it seemed to be patiently coaxing him along, telling him not to give up. His predecessors had faced far greater difficulties and still made it through, so why couldn't he?

Generally speaking, anyone who said that was more afraid than anyone else that you would quit halfway.

Go on, shove that motivational crap down my throat!

He mulled over the information he already had.

In truth, Lin Feng knew exactly where things stood.

The next part of this game was definitely not going to be easy.

Although [Western Hunan Blood God] imposed no penalty for death, the eight-hour cooldown afterward was hardly short.

That counted as a kind of punishment, too.

Besides, Lin Feng knew perfectly well that the final act had been clearly labeled: one life per attempt.

If he died, he would have to start over.

That actually made clearing it harder.

In other words, once he died, he was truly dead. He would have no chance to get back up and keep fighting.

The cheap trick of resurrecting and throwing lives at the final boss until he wore it down would no longer work.

Eight hours was far too long a cooldown.

Taking three deaths as an example, he would have to sit through at least twenty-four hours of cooldowns to clear the game.

What a heartwarming time commitment.

Having thought this through, Lin Feng chose to watch the cutscene first.

You there? Let's see what you're made of. Draw your weapon!

He wanted to know.

Just what sort of scene awaited him that could drive someone to despair?

He selected [Act Four: Hymn of Despair], and the cutscene began!

The instant the scene appeared, rolling thunder threatened to shatter everyone's eardrums.

Dazzling white flashes and booming thunder were like a war horn that never stopped sounding.

It was almost impossible to keep their eyes open!

Anyone who didn't know better might have thought they were aboard a plane that had flown straight into a thunderstorm!

If the thunder on the front slope of the mountain had at least paused occasionally, giving them a moment's respite, the thunder here was endless!

It sounded as though it were exploding right above their heads!

A bolt could strike someone dead at any moment.

Lin Feng, Hundred-Household Officer Zhu, the guide, Li Pusa, and Li Pusa's clients emerged from Yin Roadwalking. Before any of them could speak, the torrential rain soaked them to the bone, washing away every trace of incense scent and human-fat salve from their bodies. Even Li Pusa froze.

He had never imagined anything like this happening.

A bolt of lightning struck, reducing every one of the clients behind Li Pusa to ashes!

One after another, they became great balls of fire.

Lin Feng didn't even have time to examine his surroundings. His [Sword Heart Clarity] activated, and above, below, left, right—in every direction, there was nothing but mortal danger!

Goosebumps erupted across his skin, and every hair on his body and head stood on end!

He threw himself flat on the ground and flung away his metal sword!

In weather like this, a reanimated corpse was a natural lightning rod!

Seeing this, Li Pusa had no time even to shout. He flung himself to the ground as well!

Hundred-Household Officer Zhu, however, clung tightly to his Wild Goose Feather Saber. Apparently, he would rather die than abandon his weapon.

Beneath heavenly lightning, all things burned!

Even someone of the seventh rank could not withstand the heavenly lightning over the Western Hunan Mountains.

Besides, Lin Feng sensed that this heavenly lightning was probably different from ordinary lightning in nature.

It might even be the divine lightning of legend.

Thunder that shook the soul!

Li Pusa couldn't even spare a thought for why he had appeared out in the wilderness instead of inside the Jixi Inn.

He could only tremble beneath heaven's might and wait for the thunderstorm to pass!

In the remote borderlands of the Great Ming Empire's southwest, Jixi Inns appeared unpredictably along the earth veins, deep in the wilderness.

Folk traditions could only spread from the top down, because in ancient times, common people could barely survive. They had no means of passing down knowledge and rituals.

Ordinary people at the bottom of society could hardly organize a sacrificial ceremony, either.

The origins of these Jixi Inns were also deeply mysterious.

Corpse drivers all believed that these inns must have been built by masters of their trade, using craftsmanship of extraordinary ingenuity.

After all, Jixi Inns could be found in the mountains, deep ravines, and deserted villages alike.

The local native chieftains and county magistrates were all well aware of the Jixi Inns and corpse drivers.

They simply turned a blind eye.

There was no helping it. Returning to one's homeland after death was a custom even scholars could not escape.

Loyalty and filial piety were principles every scholar had to bear in mind. They might not practice them, but they could never fail to profess them.

Where there was demand, there was business.

The profession of corpse driving had arisen to meet that need.

Yet when it came to corpse drivers who helped others return to their roots after death, the gentlemen in power...

Mostly regarded them with loathing.

The main reason was that, throughout history, corpse drivers had never even qualified for the lowest of the nine social classes. Their status was lowly, and their conduct improper.

They were dangerous people who existed outside conventional society, surviving through shady trades.

In the imperial court's eyes, these people had no respect for order!

No fields or land, no father or mother, no wife or daughter, no sons or grandsons.

Who liked people with no attachments?

There was no leverage over them!

Take Li Pusa's master, for instance.

Among corpse drivers, he could more or less be considered a good man.

He had never done anything particularly evil.

Yet when he spotted Li Pusa on the street and saw that his birth chart was strong enough to withstand baleful forces, he abducted him without even telling his family. After completing his apprenticeship, Li Pusa never dared return home.

Once he became a corpse driver, he no longer had parents!

He feared that the ill fortune clinging to him would spread to the elderly couple and harm his family.

Corpse drivers rarely started families, either.

Their lives were that miserable, yet the lineage of corpse drivers still continued without end?

Why?

Because corpse drivers at least didn't have to starve to death. They could even live without worrying about food or drink.

For some people, even avoiding starvation was an unattainable dream!

Compared with the torment of starving to death, corpse driving didn't seem entirely unacceptable.

Li Pusa's mind was actually blank. These were all Lin Feng's thoughts. He was bored stiff during the cutscene, mainly because he knew the lightning couldn't kill him.

If it killed him, how would the game even begin?

For a quarter of an hour, though, Lin Feng and Li Pusa had the same thought: where was the Jixi Inn?

Wasn't he supposed to appear in front of the Jixi Inn, somewhere shrouded in mist?

There was something strange about that mist. It could keep out the pouring rain.

But now, the moment they emerged, the rain hammered painfully against them.

Where was the inn?

Had something happened to the inn on Bull-Head Mountain, too?

After they had lain on the ground for who knew how long, the thunder finally eased a little. Lin Feng was the first to get up, and he saw the "Jixi Inn" before him.

If this really was the Jixi Inn.

Amid swirling clouds and mist, an ancestral hall stood silently in place.

The thunderstorm and hail outside seemed to have nothing to do with it.

Two couplets written in purple ink on white paper flanked its vermilion doors. The writing was an illegible scrawl that no one could decipher.

Children knelt as ever-burning lamps, their green light falling upon the vermilion doors.

It exuded a quiet eeriness.

It should not have been here.

Yet here it was.

Beneath the ceremonial bells of the ancestral hall, "bats" with the skin color of corpses hung upside down.

As though sensing Lin Feng's gaze.

The vermilion doors opened a crack, releasing an air of decay!