A mouthful of blood from the tip of my tongue

I gripped the Heavenly Canopy Ruler tightly, my eyes fixed on the corpse that had turned into a jiangshi. It seemed wary of the Heavenly Canopy Ruler in my hand, too, and no longer dared approach recklessly.

While the jiangshi and I were locked in a standoff, I saw Zhang Yunyao still standing a short distance away, watching me with worry written all over her face.

I could tell she was terrified, but she hadn't simply abandoned me and run. Still, she couldn't help me here. Staying would only get in my way.

"Why haven't you left? Are you waiting here to die?" I shouted at Zhang Yunyao.

Zhang Yunyao froze for a moment before snapping out of it. She glanced around, then suddenly picked up a stone from the ground, apparently intending to come help.

I turned my gaze back to the jiangshi. It gave another low roar, spewed a mouthful of corpse energy, and sprang toward me again.

At that moment, I wondered whether my eyes were playing tricks on me.

I suddenly saw a dark figure appear among the trees a short distance behind the jiangshi.

He stood there motionless, looking in my direction.

A question suddenly struck me. Was that dark figure the person who had controlled Zhang Yunliang's mind earlier?

Had he controlled Zhang Yunliang and caused this corpse to turn into a jiangshi?

What was he trying to achieve?

Before I could work out the answers, the jiangshi lunged at me again with a gust of foul-smelling wind.

All I could do was raise the Heavenly Canopy Ruler and fight it head-on.

As it closed in this time, it swept both arms toward me. I ducked and drove the Heavenly Canopy Ruler hard into its lower abdomen.

The jiangshi shuddered and staggered back a few steps, then immediately lunged again.

My master had told me about jiangshi. Their bodies neither rotted nor decayed, becoming as hard as iron and impervious to blades and spears. There was no better way to deal with one than to immobilize it with a corpse-suppressing talisman, but this thing was so vicious that I couldn't get close enough.

While the jiangshi was driven back a few steps by the Heavenly Canopy Ruler, I quickly freed one hand. Retreating, I bit open my middle finger and drew a corpse-suppressing talisman on my palm. Once I found an opening, I would slap it straight onto the jiangshi's face.

But this trick wouldn't last long. At most, it would keep the creature motionless for four to six hours.

That was enough, though. With four to six hours, I had plenty of ways to drain the corpse energy from its body.

While I was drawing the talisman on my palm in blood, I looked up, and my face went pale with fright.

I had thought the jiangshi would keep chasing me. Instead, it had changed targets and was hopping toward Zhang Yunyao.

"Run!" Seeing that, I broke out in a cold sweat.

Only then did Zhang Yunyao react, running toward the Zhang Family's ancestral graves.

In a panic, I brought out the Heavenly Canopy Ruler again and chased after the jiangshi.

The jiangshi chased Zhang Yunyao, and I chased it.

Before long, Zhang Yunyao reached the Zhang Family's ancestral burial ground.

Many coffins had been placed there in preparation for exhuming the Zhang Family's ancestors and reburying their remains in new coffins.

Some had only recently been dug out of the graves.

Once there, Zhang Yunyao acted cleverly. The jiangshi's body was stiff and couldn't bend, so she ran around the coffins.

The jiangshi hopped after her, but it couldn't manage to land on her.

I couldn't help admiring Zhang Yunyao's courage. An ordinary girl would have been screaming and crying at the sight of something so unnatural, or standing frozen in terror.

Yet Zhang Yunyao was actually using the coffins to evade the jiangshi's lunges.

By then, I had caught up. Just as I was about to strike the jiangshi with the Heavenly Canopy Ruler, it suddenly sprang up onto a coffin.

That left Zhang Yunyao without anything to shield her.

With an angry roar, the jiangshi leaped down from the coffin and lunged at Zhang Yunyao.

Seeing that, I threw caution aside and jumped onto the same coffin, then launched myself at the jiangshi.

When the jiangshi landed, it missed Zhang Yunyao. As I came down, however, the Heavenly Canopy Ruler in my hand struck it squarely on the forehead.

It was a vicious blow. The jiangshi spewed a mouthful of corpse energy and fell flat on the ground.

Seeing my chance, I rushed to its side and brought the hand with the corpse-suppressing talisman down toward its forehead.

Without warning, the jiangshi struck. Its rigid body shot up from the ground and slammed into me, sending me flying.

Before I could get up, it pounced and pinned me beneath it.

The jiangshi's body was dead weight. When it landed on me, I felt as though it would squeeze out everything I'd eaten the night before.

But that wasn't the worst of it. A sharp pain shot through my shoulders as the jiangshi's long, razor-sharp nails sank deep into my flesh. The pain brought cold sweat pouring off me.

It opened its gaping, bloody mouth, expelled a nauseating blast of corpse stench, and bit straight at my neck.

Though my arms burned with pain, staying alive mattered more. I strained with both hands to hold back the jiangshi's jaws and keep it from biting my neck.

But it was far too strong. Its gaping mouth kept inching closer.

I felt as though both my hands were about to break.

In desperation, I steeled myself and bit through the tip of my tongue. Blood immediately flooded my mouth.

Just as the jiangshi's bloody jaws were about to bite down, I spat that mouthful of blood from the tip of my tongue straight into its face.

The entire mouthful splashed across its face.

A cloud of white vapor instantly rose from the jiangshi's face, as though a basin of hot water had been poured over it.

The crushing pressure vanished at once, freeing my hands.

I immediately slammed the palm bearing the corpse-suppressing talisman onto the crown of its head.

With a flash of golden light, the jiangshi's rigid body toppled to one side and lay motionless.

I sat on the ground, gasping for breath. My shoulders throbbed with agony, and blood had already soaked through my clothes.

"Young Master Wu!" Zhang Yunyao suddenly ran over, her voice thick with tears. "Young Master Wu, you're hurt..."

As she spoke, she tore several strips from her own clothes and used them to bandage the wounds on my shoulders.

I took a ragged breath, wiped the cold sweat from my forehead, and said weakly, "I'm fine..."

Then I struggled to my feet, took out a corpse-suppressing talisman, and stuck it directly onto the jiangshi's forehead for an extra layer of protection.