Unleashed

The sucking stopped, and Aunt Mei crumpled to the floor like a rag.

Zhong Fa watched everything unfold before him, his face expressionless.

"Uncle Dong is awake. Aunt Mei, I've done everything I promised you."

Zhong Fa shifted his gaze from Aunt Mei to the coffin.

Thud!

A figure sprang rigidly out of the coffin lying tilted on the floor and landed beside it.

At the sight of that figure covered in black hair, a flush crept into Zhong Fa's face.

He raised the bronze bell and flicked his wrist.

The clapper struck the bell's inner wall in a specific pattern.

Ding—ding, ding—

The dull ringing echoed through the room. As it sounded, Uncle Dong's body stopped trembling.

Suddenly, Zhong Fa swung the bell to one side.

"Move!"

Thud!

Uncle Dong leaped at his command, landing to one side.

"Heh... hahaha... cough, cough!"

Zhong Fa laughed until he coughed, but his eyes never left Uncle Dong.

"I did it, Master! I did it! But... it's not enough. Not yet!"

Zhong Fa set the Lotus Lantern aside. With his freed left hand, he took the tube of pure yang boy's blood from his pocket and approached Uncle Dong.

After examining the black hair on Uncle Dong's body up close, Zhong Fa trembled all over.

It was excitement, exhilaration!

White Jiangshi, Black Jiangshi, Leaping Hopping Corpse, Flying Jiangshi—he had produced a Black Jiangshi on his very first attempt!

But that still wasn't enough!

White Jiangshi moved slowly, Black Jiangshi could tear livestock apart alive, and Leaping Hopping Corpses possessed boundless strength, blue faces, fangs, and nails like knives!

Only by refining a Leaping Hopping Corpse and controlling it on his return to the mountains could he make those people realize that "Corpse-Driving Zhong" was back!

Madness filled Zhong Fa's eyes. He opened the test tube and poured its contents into the corner of Uncle Dong's mouth.

Slurp!

Uncle Dong sucked the blood into his mouth in an instant.

Suddenly, wisps of black vapor seeped from every patch of black hair on Uncle Dong's body.

Zhong Fa quickly backed away at the sight.

This was corpse qi, the very reason Zhong Fa had fed Uncle Dong pure yang boy's blood.

After leaving his body, the corpse qi did not disperse. Instead, it swirled around Uncle Dong.

Gradually, the corpse qi began to permeate and corrode the black hair on Uncle Dong's body.

The liquid left by the dissolved hair coated his body, forming a layer of black keratin.

Just then, the black vapor began streaming into Uncle Dong's body through his nostrils.

As it entered, his black nails began growing longer, thicker, and sharper!

When the last wisp entered his body, a trace of scarlet appeared in Uncle Dong's white eyes.

Watching Uncle Dong's transformation, Zhong Fa walked over, reached out, and lifted his lip.

Inside were canine teeth twice their former length!

"It worked, it worked! Hahaha, it worked!"

"Master, do you see this? A Leaping Hopping Corpse! A Leaping Hopping Corpse! Hahaha!"

"After seven times seven days of nurturing, the corpse qi in this body, born in a yin year, yin month, and yin hour, had already spread throughout it. Master, you once said most of the corpse qi produced during nurturing would dissipate once the refinement succeeded. Haha, what a waste."

"You old bastards only cling to what the ancestors left behind. You never explore or innovate!"

"But of course, with everything handed to you, who would bother thinking? Only a wicked disciple like me, who never received the complete legacy, would think to try every possible method."

"Master, do you know how many years it took me to reach this step?"

"Twenty whole years before I thought of using something as supremely yang as pure yang boy's blood to stimulate the corpse, drawing out its corpse qi before it could dissipate!"

"A Black Jiangshi that has just drunk human blood craves everything. That craving makes it reject nothing, absorbing every bit of corpse qi escaping its body and breaking through to a Leaping Hopping Corpse in one stroke."

"Heh, a Leaping Hopping Corpse. In this day and age, how many people can refine one like I can?"

"None! Even Xiangyin has no genius like me!"

After venting his frenzied emotions, Zhong Fa gradually calmed down.

"Master, rest assured."

"I'll pass this corpse-refining method down. Rest assured, 'Corpse-Driving Zhong' will reach heights you never attained!"

After his laughter faded, a cold gleam flashed through Zhong Fa's eyes.

Recalling his earlier encounter, he snorted.

"The road to making 'Corpse-Driving Zhong' famous again will begin with you..."

Zhong Fa turned to look at his masterpiece, intoxication in his eyes.

But suddenly, he saw Uncle Dong's eyes move, shifting from staring straight ahead to staring at him.

While he stood stunned, Uncle Dong's arm swung around, sweeping toward him.

Zhong Fa only managed half a step backward.

That half step should have taken him out of Uncle Dong's reach, but now Uncle Dong's nails were an inch longer than before.

That extra inch left several gashes more than ten centimeters long across Zhong Fa's chest.

Bang!

Zhong Fa staggered into the spare bedroom door, shaking the bronze bell frantically.

Uncle Dong's body began trembling as the bell shook!

Suddenly, Zhong Fa thought he heard a ripping sound.

It sounded like paper tearing.

Looking at Uncle Dong, who had stopped trembling, Zhong Fa went deathly pale.

Had Uncle Dong broken free of the Corpse-Control Talisman?

Why?

Why could he break free of the Corpse-Control Talisman?!

That was something Master had left behind!

Fury seized Zhong Fa!

Seeing Uncle Dong turn his head, Zhong Fa rolled out of the spare bedroom without looking back. He pulled the door shut as he went and hid to one side outside it.

He slapped a handful of glutinous rice onto his chest, producing a sizzling sound.

Grimacing in pain, Zhong Fa took another talisman into his right hand.

It was the Spirit-Sealing Talisman he had removed from Uncle Dong earlier!

Even though Uncle Dong had broken free of the Corpse-Control Talisman, Zhong Fa did not want to abandon the Leaping Hopping Corpse he had refined.

As long as he could restrain Uncle Dong, he could find a solution for the Corpse-Control Talisman later.

If he lost this Leaping Hopping Corpse, finding another suitable body would be far too difficult.

Crack!

Two hands pierced the door. The solid wooden door, a full three centimeters thick, was torn apart as though made of paper.

A figure leaped out through the shattered remains.

Enduring the pain in his chest, Zhong Fa sprang out and used his own blood to stick the Spirit-Sealing Talisman onto Uncle Dong's back.

Uncle Dong stopped abruptly halfway through turning, and Zhong Fa felt a surge of relief.

Ignoring the wounds on his chest, Zhong Fa entered the spare bedroom and picked up the Lotus Lantern.

But as soon as he turned around, he saw the Spirit-Sealing Talisman on Uncle Dong's back begin losing its color at the edges, fading from dull yellow to ashen white.

As the ashen color spread across the talisman, Uncle Dong's body began swaying.

Zhong Fa's expression darkened.

Everything was heading in the worst possible direction.

Was this Leaping Corpse, beyond the limits of his abilities, never meant to be his?

Zhong Fa's face twisted.

"Heh, if I can refine one, I can refine another!"

He had already mastered the method for refining a Leaping Hopping Corpse. If this attempt failed, so be it—but he had to survive!

Putting away the Corpse-Control Bell, Zhong Fa shielded the Lotus Lantern with both hands and rushed toward the front door.

As he opened the security door, the Spirit-Sealing Talisman on Uncle Dong's back turned completely ashen white.

Whoosh!

Uncle Dong's eyes, glowing red again, turned toward the doorway.

Without bending his legs, he leaped from the floor and landed more than two meters away.

His next leap brought him to the door.

Click!

The door opposite Aunt Mei's apartment opened.

"Noise, noise, noise! What the fuck is all that racket?!"

A furious shirtless man stepped out, rolling pin in hand.

Then he saw Uncle Dong hop past him with his arms raised and his eyes glowing red.

"D-D-D-Dong..."

The man's face went blank, and sweat soaked his crotch.

Once outside the apartment building, Uncle Dong headed straight after the distant figure holding a Lotus Lantern and smoking a cigarette.

At two thirty in the morning, a figure whose face could not be made out, with eyes glowing dark red, hopped through the residential complex.

Each leap carried him two or three meters.

The thudding continued, waking who knew how many people from their dreams.