A Deal

Corpse collectors came into contact with bodies day and night, inevitably picking up some corpse qi, death qi, and yin qi.

Otherwise, the higher-ups would never have issued the Tortoise-Snake Fist for them to practice.

But for most corpse collectors, hauling bodies all day was exhausting enough. They had no energy left to practice martial arts.

Lu Mian relied on his Gluttonous Stomach to keep his energy up, and even then, he had to consume plenty of meat and eggs every day. The other corpse collectors simply lacked the means.

After years of wearing themselves down, most corpse collectors had long since reached their physical limits.

It was only natural that they would fail to hold out in this heavy snow.

"Put him on the cart too. Let's get to the Corpse-Burning Valley first."

Chen Xiuzhu had no better solution, so he could only make this temporary arrangement.

Lu Mian came over to lend a hand, and together they lifted the body onto the cart.

The group set off again.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

The youngest man's coughing kept getting worse.

Eventually, his coughing grew so severe that he even coughed up blood.

"Stop pushing, lad."

"Just follow behind us."

Chen Xiuzhu spoke quickly.

If the man kept coughing like this, he might not make it to the Corpse-Burning Valley.

"Captain... my head's spinning."

The last corpse collector also began to feel unwell, his face frighteningly red.

Chen Xiuzhu touched the man's forehead. It was burning hot.

"Damn... he's running a high fever."

"You stop pushing too."

"Leave the rest to Lu Mian and me."

Chen Xiuzhu waved a hand.

Now, only he and Lu Mian remained unaffected.

There was nowhere nearby to shelter from the wind and snow. Staying where they were would only get them frozen to death.

So he planned to grit his teeth with Lu Mian and see if they could push the cart all the way to the Corpse-Burning Valley.

He had barely finished speaking when two thuds rang out.

The feverish corpse collector collapsed onto the ground and began babbling.

"Father... Mother... your son's home..."

"Don't go..."

Lu Mian frowned slightly.

Clearly, the fever had grown so severe that the man was becoming delirious.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

The youngest man had also fallen to the ground, coughing blood and convulsing.

Chen Xiuzhu was stunned.

Why were they all collapsing, one after another?

"Captain, something's wrong."

"This might not be an ordinary illness."

Lu Mian's voice was grave.

He crouched down, took the waterskin from the youngest man's waist, and poured a mouthful straight into his mouth.

Once the talisman water reached his stomach, the man's coughing noticeably eased.

"What?!"

Chen Xiuzhu's eyes filled with shock.

This talisman water was no miracle medicine. Its only effect was to dispel evil.

That meant the youngest man had been afflicted by an evil presence!

"One of the corpses has turned."

Lu Mian stared coldly at the bodies piled on the large cart.

This transformation was not as obvious as the previous one. Instead, it had been silently spreading pestilence.

He had only escaped its effects because his minor mastery of the Tortoise-Snake Fist had made his qi and blood vigorous.

"Run!"

At those words, Chen Xiuzhu immediately decided to abandon the three corpse collectors and flee back to the shack's quarantine area.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

An eerie coughing suddenly came from the pile of corpses.

The coughing seemed to carry some strange power. Chen Xiuzhu felt his throat itch and began coughing involuntarily. Even his legs went weak, leaving him unable to run.

His expression changed drastically. He hurriedly took a waterskin from his waist and drank a mouthful of talisman water.

At that moment.

An eerie figure had already climbed out of the pile of corpses.

It was a man in his forties, bald and skeletal, his face covered in mold patches of various colors. He was hideous and revolting.

Whoosh!

The creature leaped from the pile of corpses and lunged at Chen Xiuzhu.

Just as it came down, Lu Mian darted to its side and struck out with a vicious palm!

Subduing the Waves, Calming the Sea.

The erupting Tortoise-Snake force made the muscles of his entire arm swell.

Bam!

His palm slammed into the creature's temple, cracking its eye socket and driving it back four or five steps.

Seizing the opening, Lu Mian spat out a mouthful of talisman water.

He had already held a mouthful in his mouth beforehand.

The talisman water sprayed over the middle-aged man in a fine mist, burning him with a sizzling hiss and sending smoke rising from his body.

"Hrrgh, hrrgh..."

The creature roared in pain and charged wildly at Lu Mian.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

It flailed both hands in a frenzy of slashes, its sharp, pitch-black nails descending in streaks of black light.

Lu Mian dodged with the sinuous movements of a snake.

Those nails had to contain deadly poison. If they scratched him, he would surely be infected with pestilential qi.

Chen Xiuzhu snapped out of his daze. Gritting his teeth, he took a bamboo tube from his waist and held its contents in his mouth. While the creature attacked Lu Mian, he ambushed it, spitting out a cloud of mist.

Ssssss!

Chen Xiuzhu's mouthful of talisman water produced a far stronger reaction than Lu Mian's. Like sulfuric acid, it rapidly ate away at the creature's body until it dissolved into a puddle of black water.

"Detected dissipating wraith energy. Spend ten years of lifespan to absorb it?"

The system's voice sounded in Lu Mian's mind.

He hesitated briefly, but still chose to absorb it.

This creature should have been a Sickness-Death Wraith. The supernatural ability it yielded ought to prove useful in future battles.

"Congratulations, host. You have obtained a supernatural ability: Sickness-Death Wraith · Plague Miasma."

[Plague Miasma: You can invisibly release pestilential qi, causing your target to become critically ill within a short time.]

This supernatural ability is downright sinister. It gets people without a sound.

I like it.

Despite losing another ten years of lifespan, Lu Mian was still quite pleased.

He concealed his feelings, showing no change on his face as he looked up at Chen Xiuzhu. "Captain, why did your talisman water seem stronger?"

Chen Xiuzhu shook his head. "The talisman water we use in the Dust-Returning Courtyard is diluted from genuine talisman water. The concentration should be one percent."

"What I just used is reserved for the Guard Hall. It's diluted to one-thirtieth strength, so naturally, it's much more powerful."

"I spent a hefty sum to buy it through certain channels."

Lu Mian nodded. "Good thing you still had that trump card, Captain. Otherwise, I really couldn't have dealt with it."

This Sickness-Death Wraith had completed its transformation and was completely different from the earlier Book-Reading Wraith. His meager qi and blood could not destroy it yet. Staying alive would have been no problem, but he would have had to abandon his companions.

"If you hadn't kept it occupied, I wouldn't have succeeded so easily either."

"You reached minor mastery in the Tortoise-Snake Fist in just over half a month."

"Lu Mian, I underestimated you."

Chen Xiuzhu spoke abruptly.

He did have some knowledge. Judging by the strength of Lu Mian's burst of qi and blood, he could never have achieved such an effect without reaching minor mastery in the fist technique.

"I was just practicing on my own without knowing what I was doing." Lu Mian found Chen Xiuzhu's mood strange.

The man probably bore him no ill will, but he sounded somewhat excited.

"I practiced the Tortoise-Snake Fist hard for almost six months, watching group after group of people around me die, before I finally reached the beginner level."

"You weren't just fumbling around. You're a born martial artist."

Chen Xiuzhu enunciated every word.

"Captain, let's check on the others first."

Lu Mian wanted to change the subject.

"There's no need... their constitutions were weak to begin with. Now that evil energy has invaded their bodies, they're certain to die."

Chen Xiuzhu shook his head, his eyes fixed on Lu Mian as he asked in a complicated tone, "Lu Mian, do you dare make a deal with me?"