Chapter 149
Coffin and Corpse
Chapter 149 Coffin and Corpse (Two-in-One)
Chen Miao was not surprised by Zhong Cai's words, because he had already opened the book and read its contents when he found Zhong Cai.
Naturally, they also learned about the "Three Scholar Trees Gathering Yin Formation" that Zhong Cai mentioned later, as well as the method to restore Zhong Cai to normal.
In fact, Chen Miao had previously guessed that the big locust tree was somewhat special.
However, he did not sense anything amiss in the locust tree, nor did he understand the underlying reasons, so he could not act based on guesswork.
Now that Zhong Cai is involved, the content of the book has also undergone new changes.
Although the final outcome was still a total wipeout, at least Chen Miao had seen a glimmer of hope.
“This is not the place to talk. Let’s go back and let Brother Zhong rest for a while before we discuss what to do next.”
Qi Ning placed full trust in Chen Miao, who was able to find Zhong Cai.
He carried Zhong Cai on his back and headed towards the village.
The three of them did not go to any other houses, but returned to the house where Chen Miao and the other person had lived before.
When the old man saw that the two had brought back another person, he didn't ask any further questions.
As Chen Miao went in, he suddenly asked a question.
"Old man, have you seen him?"
The old man looked at Zhong Cai's face and shook his head.
"No."
Chen Miao nodded and went back to his room on the second floor.
Qi Ning soaked some biscuits in boiling water for Zhong Cai, and fed them to him after they softened.
Zhong Cai originally wanted to share his experiences, but Chen Miao stopped him.
Chen Miao didn't rush to have Zhong Cai tell them about the village's situation. Instead, he told Zhong Cai to rest first. After thinking about it, Zhong Cai didn't hesitate and quickly fell asleep.
After chatting with Qi Ning, Chen Miao began to study the changes in the book.
After Zhong Cai was rescued, a lot of new information appeared in the book that Chen Miao had never known before.
He had only glanced at it briefly before, but this time he planned to study it carefully to see if he could make a breakthrough in future operations.
Chapter Seven
"..."
"After rescuing Zhong Cai, I learned about his situation from him."
"When Zhong Cai arrived at Fengmen Village, he didn't find anything unusual in the village, but Xiao Bai's situation made him realize that these were all just appearances."
"So he began looking for suspicious points in the village."
"Zhong Cai discovered the coffins in the village and learned some things about the funeral customs of Fengmen Village from the villagers. He felt that this custom seemed to be serving some kind of conspiracy!"
"But he didn't act rashly. He continued to learn about the situation in the village and search for the young man who had suddenly disappeared."
"He searched all day, going to every house, but still couldn't find the young man."
"So he decided to stay overnight in Fengmen Village."
"As expected, Zhong Cai encountered the same situation as us: someone was cooking at night!"
"But Zhong Cai did not choose to remain still; instead, he went downstairs."
"I think this might be related to the fact that he hadn't heard about other customs of Fengmen Village from others; otherwise, Zhong Cai would have been more cautious."
"Zhong Cai, who went downstairs, discovered that the coffin had been opened."
"He checked the coffin and found nothing unusual inside, but that's the biggest problem!"
"A coffin that has contained a corpse for so long doesn't smell of decay!"
"But at that time, Zhong Cai couldn't care less about anything else, after all, the body was already being cooked outside."
Holding a peach wood sword and talismans, Zhong Cai stepped out of the room.
"Upon seeing the figure cooking in the kitchen, Zhong Cai activated a talisman to suppress yang energy. Then, he walked into the kitchen and, without hesitation, affixed a spirit-suppressing talisman to the figure."
"Only after the other party stopped moving did Zhong Cai begin to examine the situation."
"After examining it, Zhong Cai was surprised to discover that the other party was a zombie, not some corpse possessed by a ghost!"
"What he found even more incomprehensible was that the zombie's body wasn't stiff at all!"
"This was beyond his expectations, but after all, he was trained by the Zhong family to control corpses, so he had nothing to fear as long as it was a zombie."
"Zhong Cai carried the zombie back to the room, put it in the corresponding coffin, and closed it."
Afterwards, Zhong Cai left the room, intending to explore the village at night and see if he could make any new discoveries.
"An hour later, Zhong Cai rushed back, his forehead covered in a fine sweat. He saw people cooking all over the village, and he also saw people walking around in some empty houses."
"Zhong Cai checked all those houses during the day, and they were completely empty!"
"But that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is that Zhong Cai discovered that every time he passed an empty house, the 'person' inside would gather at the window and stare at him in the darkness!"
"Fortunately, they didn't leave the house, otherwise, Zhong Cai might not have survived until we rescued him."
"But in reality, Zhong Cai was too happy too soon."
The next day, Zhong Cai wanted to leave the village to report the situation to the management bureau, but he was shocked to find that he couldn't leave!
"Zhong Cai immediately produced one of his last two Illusion-Breaking Talismans!"
"The illusion-breaking talisman has been activated, but Zhong Cai is still unable to leave the village. However, Zhong Cai has not given up. Since he has been targeted, what is there to fear?"
"Immediately, they began searching the village in an attempt to find the key."
Soon, his gaze fell on the three large locust trees in the village.
"The three large locust trees are located at three different corners of the village. Because there are many trees around the village, Zhong Cai did not notice anything unusual about the three locust trees when he first arrived. It was only after he experienced so many things that he remembered a feng shui arrangement that his master had once told him about!"
"Three scholar trees gather in a yin formation!"
"By using three locust trees, in accordance with feng shui principles, the yin energy can be gathered into the triangular area formed by the three locust trees."
"What Zhong Cai couldn't understand was why he couldn't sense any unusual yin energy within the Three Scholar Trees Gathering Yin Formation. The entire village didn't seem like what a Gathering Yin Formation should look like."
Zhong Cai didn't understand, so he wanted to figure it out.
"When he climbed up a locust tree and saw the skeletons inside the hollow trunk, he made a decision: he would destroy the locust tree!"
"Zhong Cai is not a feng shui master and does not know more sophisticated ways to break the feng shui pattern, but since he knows what the most important thing that constitutes this feng shui pattern is, destroying it will naturally break the feng shui pattern."
So Zhong Cai went to the villagers' houses to borrow tools, preparing to cut down the trees!
"It's not difficult to cut down a hollow locust tree."
"But Zhong Cai never expected that after he swung his axe at the base of the locust tree, a strong, cold aura that blew him back several steps came from the locust tree."
Before Zhong Cai could even be shocked by the density of the Yin energy, he suddenly noticed something. Above his head, in the sky above the village, a layer of gray mist had appeared, blocking out the light.
"This situation made Zhong Cai stiffen all over. He knew what would happen after the sun was gone and there was this yin energy."
After making a decision, he climbed the locust tree and jumped into its heart.
"Inside, Zhong Cai activated the life-saving talisman on his body."
"As Zhong Cai finished all this and his consciousness began to fade, he heard a noise outside the tree. He struggled to get close to the crack he had cut earlier and looked out!"
Outside, dozens of figures crawling on the ground were pacing back and forth in the open space, seemingly searching for something.
"This was the last scene Zhong Cai saw."
"When Zhong Cai regained consciousness, it was because of my calling."
"I have to say, although I guessed Zhong Cai's location wrong, the result was correct; I did make sure Zhong Cai heard me."
"After hearing Zhong Cai's account, Qi Ning was the first to react. He wanted to leave the village and report the situation."
"What Qi Ning didn't expect was that he couldn't get out! Not only him, but me too!"
Zhong Cai wasn't surprised by this, after all, he had experienced this scene before.
With their escape route cut off, the three of them could only discuss their next steps.
"Qi Ning proposed an idea: three people would cut down three trees simultaneously!"
"That way, perhaps we won't encounter the same problems as Zhong Cai before."
"But Zhong Cai rejected this idea because he knew that cutting down one tree or three trees would have the same result, unless we had a way to stop those zombies."
"But after calculating, we only have about twenty talismans left to deal with zombies, which is far from enough to handle at least thirty zombies. Besides, this village isn't just infested with zombies!"
"We revised the plan because Zhong Cai's understanding of feng shui is the best among the three of us, so Qi Ning and I listened to Zhong Cai's opinion."
"Since we cannot break this feng shui formation at its very foundation, we will try to break it from within."
"As long as we get rid of the zombies and ghosts in the village, what does it matter if this Yin-gathering formation still exists?"
"Then we can cut down that locust tree, and there won't be any danger."
"Based on the village's situation, we have divided the plan into two steps."
"First, the zombie in the coffin."
"Second, the ghosts in the empty house."
"We don't plan to split up. After Zhong Cai has rested and recovered for a day, the three of us will begin our operation that night."
"Although I don't know what the villagers' attitude is towards the zombies in those coffins, I'll try to avoid them if possible."
"At nine o'clock in the evening, the three of us started our operation. We were worried about waking the old man, but when Zhong Cai accidentally broke a teapot due to his health condition, we realized how soundly the old man was sleeping."
"Thinking about it, it makes sense. If the old man wasn't in a deep sleep, how could he not know that the zombies were cooking every night?"
"Or perhaps, his sleep quality is beyond his control?"
"With the old man's worries gone, the three of us were more at ease. After some arrangements, Qi Ning stood guard at the door to observe the situation outside, while Zhong Cai and I dealt with and studied the problem of these zombies."
"Because Zhong Cai has not fully recovered, the task of opening the coffin lid has been entrusted to me."
"I pushed open the coffin lid, revealing the corpse inside, which showed no signs of decay except for some bluish-black skin."
"Zhong Cai and I are both very puzzled about how this corpse became a zombie."
"As far as Zhong Cai knows, even the Three Scholar Trees Gathering Yin Formation only gathers Yin. To raise a corpse, you need to create a corpse-raising site. But Zhong Cai has not found where the village's corpse-raising site is."
"Perhaps this body can give us some answers."
"After we placed a talisman to ward off evil spirits on the body in the coffin, Zhong Cai and I began to study the coffin."
"If there is anything that could cause this corpse to change like this, besides the Three Scholar Trees Gathering Yin Formation, it would be this coffin."
"But Zhong Cai and I didn't find anything unusual inside the coffin. It was just an ordinary coffin, and even the wood was common cypress."
"Just when we were both at our wits' end, I suddenly remembered a place we hadn't checked yet!"
"The bottom of the coffin!"
"The two coffins were placed close to the ground, so we had no way of seeing what was underneath them."
"So we called Qi Ning and asked him to carry the body out, and then we prepared to lift the coffin to take a look."
"But after Qi Ning carried the body away, I discovered something."
"There are two holes, each less than an inch in size, in the middle of the coffin!"
"The hole was blocked by the corpse, and Zhong Cai and I didn't notice it. I moved closer to the hole and shone my flashlight inside. A sharp glint appeared in my eyes!"
"That's... a needle!"
"Inside the hole, there are two needles stuck upside down!"
"This discovery left Zhong Cai completely baffled, but then something occurred to me, and I quickly walked over to the corpse and looked at its hands!"
"The nails on this corpse's hands were slightly longer than normal, about one centimeter. After searching for a while, I found two small, hardened holes on the middle fingers of both hands."
"Just as I expected, I know what those two holes are!"
"My knowledge is very diverse. I don't remember where I read it, but it was in a book that I read about some techniques for sewing corpses. One of the methods used by corpse sewers to preserve corpses was called 'coffin-linked corpses'."
"The term 'coffin-to-corpse' refers to the practice of joining the corpse and the coffin together using the techniques of a mortician, achieving a 'grafting' effect so that the corpse can utilize the coffin's resistance to decay and thus achieve the purpose of preservation after death."
"After having this guess, I lifted the clothes on the back of the corpse again, and sure enough, there were still zigzag stitches on the back of the corpse. But the stitches were poorly done, even worse than mine, so the person who did it was probably not an experienced one."
"I shared my guess with the two of them, and they were both surprised and relieved that a problem had been solved."
"I originally thought we wouldn't have to carry the coffin anymore, but Zhong Cai still wanted to see it."
"Upon closer inspection, the problem became apparent."
"At first, only Zhong Cai and I were carrying the coffin, but the coffin didn't budge, so Qi Ning joined us."
"Logically speaking, even without a body in the coffin, the three of us should be able to lift one end, but in reality, we couldn't do that."
"After that, we switched to prying. We used a hoe from the room to pry open the coffin."
"After a 'pop,' the coffin finally moved, like a suction cup that had been stuck to the ground being deflated. After that, it was much easier for the three of us to lift the coffin."
"Soon, the three of us placed one end of the coffin on a bench. Zhong Cai lay half-reclined on the ground and shone his flashlight on the bottom of the coffin!"
Seeing Zhong Cai's stunned expression, I also looked down at the bottom of the coffin.
"A huge talisman carved on the bottom of the coffin appeared before my eyes!"
……
P.S.: I haven't been able to finish writing this two-in-one piece yet; it still needs some more space, so I have to stop here.
(End of this chapter)