Chapter 46: Furry Corpse.....

"My Lord!"

Several constables behind wanted to stop him, but were held back by Old Du and Lin Bao. Given this lord's capabilities, if he truly intended to use lethal force, no one here could stop him. Taking such an extraordinary action must have a reason.

Besides, even if something went wrong, it was Magistrate Zhang himself who struck the blow; the blame could not fall on their heads as constables. At worst, it would just be a reprimand for a lapse in supervision.

Thud!

To Lin Bao's surprise, this lord's blade was not just for show; it actually slashed straight across Yang Jie's face.

The blow was heavy and powerful. Although it did not look like the technique of a grandmaster, the force behind it was evidently substantial. For an ordinary person, such a strike would likely have split the facial bones in two, but the following scene left everyone gaping in utter shock.

The broadsword struck Yang Jie's face, instantly generating a shower of sparks, and the saber in Zhang Zhang's grip was violently deflected, flying out of his hand.

The group of scholars who had just regained consciousness wanted to hurl abuses, but now they were struck dumb, unable to utter a single word.

"My Lord... this is..." Lin Bao cautiously stepped closer. On Yang Jie's pale face, the strike had only left a shallow white mark, without even a single drop of blood flowing out. Combined with the man's pitch-black lips and the fine white down covering his entire body, Lin Bao instinctively gripped the hilt of his saber.

He had a lingering sense that this creature might leap up at any moment.

"A hairy zombie..." Zhang Zhang said, rubbing his wrist.

When he delivered the slash just now, he had used a whipping motion without gripping the hilt too tightly, which was why the blade was knocked away and his wrist was slightly injured; otherwise, the web of his hand would likely have split open.

"A hairy zombie?" Lin Bao asked with a puzzled expression.

Zhang Zhang looked at him. "You northerners don't know what a hairy zombie is? Having been a constable for so many years, have you never encountered one?"

Lin Bao and the others shook their heads one after another, causing Zhang Zhang to furrow his brow immediately.

In his discarded drafts back then, hairy zombies were a very common type of evil spirit, caused by a person's unyielding resentment after death, leading their corpse to turn into a zombie.

Such creatures would absorb moisture, causing the earth to dry up and the geomantic balance to fail. Everyone killed by a hairy zombie would themselves turn into a hairy zombie. Once their numbers multiplied, vast stretches of land would become utterly parched, and on a larger scale, thousands of miles would be reduced to barren earth, which was why they were also known as drought demons.

Even high-end evil spirits like painting spirits and camellia sprites had appeared here, yet no one had ever seen a hairy zombie, a spirit so common and easily formed?

That shouldn't be the case...

Zhang Zhang felt certain that something must have happened. It would be one thing if this world completely lacked such evil spirits, but since they existed, this kind of entity was extremely easy to form. Why had an apparently experienced constable like Lin Bao never even heard of them?

"My Lord... I don't know what this hairy zombie you speak of is. Is it an evil spirit?"

"Consider it as such..." Zhang Zhang nodded.

Hearing this, the group of people was so frightened that they immediately backed far away from the corpses.

"My Lord, when faced with such a monster that is impervious to swords and spears, how should one deal with it if it suddenly rises to harm people?"

"This creature does not touch fresh blood or black cats, so it cannot rise..." Zhang Zhang gazed at the corpses with their bizarre manners of death and said, "Even if it does rise, it doesn't matter. Such creatures have stiff bodies and inflexible movements. Smearing weapons with human blood will allow you to wound them; dealing with them is not difficult. The crucial point is whatever lies behind all this."

What Zhang Zhang truly dreaded was the entity that had trapped them here—the thing that could put people to sleep and transform them directly into hairy zombies upon waking. How had it accomplished that?

Hairy zombies required an environment extremely heavy with Yin energy to form. For them to take shape overnight, just how dense was the Yin energy here?

Yin energy?

Zhang Zhang suddenly realized something. The coldness here at night penetrated to the bone; perhaps it wasn't caused by any supernatural trickery at all, but purely by dense Yin energy?

In a place overflowing with Yin energy, having vigorous vital essence and blood would naturally protect one against all evils. But once the Yang energy dissipated, death would naturally follow, much like carbon monoxide poisoning—when a body absorbed too much of a certain substance, it simply could not bear it.

And after death, the body would transform into a hairy zombie due to the overwhelmingly heavy Yin energy.

The question was, where had such intense Yin energy come from?

"You..." Zhang Zhang looked at the closest person, the dejected fat scholar. "The one who died this morning... his name was Lin Ye, right? You said he was carried away by his own coachman. Which way did they go?"

The fat man was in a daze. Startled by Zhang Zhang's sharp rebuke, he trembled and pointed toward the northwest outside the door. "Th... that way..."

"How many carriages do you have in total? How many coachmen?"

"I... we had ten people in total, renting four carriages and four coachmen."

Hearing this, Zhang Zhang glanced at Old Du. Old Du caught his meaning and immediately went outside to investigate. In less than a moment, he hurried back to report, "My Lord, all four of their carriages are still there."

The several coachmen turned pale with fright upon hearing this. Where had the coachman who carried Lin Ye on his back gone if he hadn't gotten into a carriage?

"You came from Yunzhou. If that coachman intended to return the corpse, he should have taken the exact same route we did. Yet we didn't encounter him on the way, which only proves he never went back at all."

"Then... where did he go?" Several scholars asked, looking around in terror.

"Could it be that L... Lin Ye came back to life and bit the coachman to death?" the fat man stammered.

"If it were only that, it would still be a minor matter..." Zhang Zhang sighed.

The scholars swallowed hard. A living corpse biting people, and that was still considered a minor matter?

"Does the Lord mean there is an even worse situation?" Lin Bao asked hurriedly.

According to what the lord had said earlier, even if these hairy zombies woke up, they were not particularly tricky opponents. It was highly likely that a far graver situation awaited them.

"My Lord, there is a situation outside!"

Suddenly, the constable guarding the door stumbled inside, his expression filled with extreme terror.

"What is it?" Lin Bao frowned. That constable was his trusted subordinate who had followed him through numerous cases and had seen plenty of evil spirits; his courage was above average, so why was he scared to this extent?

"Let's go take a look..." Zhang Zhang gestured, and Lin Bao promptly took the lead in heading outside.

The crowd followed behind them, and upon stepping outside, everyone felt their scalps prickle.

Right outside the divine temple, the shadows of people were densely packed, yet everyone knew those were definitely not living humans.

amidst the freezing snow, those figures had pale skin, pitch-black lips, and long, dark fingernails. Pairs of green eyes stared fixedly into the courtyard, sending a chill straight down everyone's spines.

"These damned things... where did they pop up from?"

The group of constables drew their blades one after another, but looking at the sheer multitude outside, every single one of them had hands that trembled as they gripped their sword hilts.

At a single glance, there were at least a thousand of them out there.

"Third Master Ma?" Lin Bao suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure and said in disbelief.

Zhang Zhang looked over. It was a hairy zombie covered entirely in black fur, carrying faint wisps of black Qi, which clearly showed it had been dead for quite some years.

"You know him?"

"My Lord..." Lin Bao swallowed hard. "This subordinate recognizes him. Years ago, people actually lived on this desolate mountain—a village of a hundred people called the Ma Family Village. The villagers were exceptionally skilled at hunting and digging for ginseng. Over a dozen years ago, Third Master Ma was quite a famous ginseng hunter. An avalanche occurred here back then, and the entire Ma Family Village went missing without a trace, not even their corpses being found. I never expected they turned out to be the hairy zombies the Lord mentioned, hiding in this mountain all along."

"They haven't been hiding in the mountain..." Zhang Zhang shook his head. "Take a close look behind them. Is that anywhere near the path we just took to return?"

The crowd looked over as directed and immediately noticed the difference. Earlier, everyone's attention had been focused on these suddenly emerged living corpses, and none of them had noticed that the scenery outside had completely changed. Although it was still a world of ice and snow, there was clearly a large bridge behind the crowd. Though partially obscured by thick fog, upon closer inspection, it could still be discerned—a massive bridge looming vaguely behind the mist!

In these wild and desolate mountains, where on earth could there be such a huge bridge?

"Hairy zombies are Yin corpses mingled with Yang; they belong to the realm of ultimate Yin yet linger in the mortal Yang world. If such a creature drinks fresh blood, it completely severs its connection to the Yin path and becomes a purely secular evil spirit. However, before tasting blood, it exists between Yin and Yang, capable of opening the Yin path. Legend has it that if someone is brave enough to carry such an unblemished hairy zombie on their back, they can behold the Underworld."

"Are you saying... the things in that fog are from the Underworld?" Lin Bao and the others widened their eyes. As border garrison constables, they had witnessed quite a few evil spirits and phantoms, but this was the first time they had ever encountered the legendary Underworld.

According to legends, after people died, the Underworld received them, King Yama judged them, and they entered the six paths of reincarnation. Yet some people claimed it was real, while others said it was false.

At least none of them had ever heard of anyone actually witnessing it, including those renowned aristocratic families.

"If it were the Underworld, these living corpses shouldn't be able to walk out of it..." Zhang Zhang frowned.

In his discarded design drafts, only Yin energies were retained within the Underworld, while Yang was excluded. A hairy zombie walking into it should never be able to come back out unless the Underworld had broken down.

"Then what could it be?" Lin Bao swallowed hard and asked.

"Whatever it is, it's definitely not the Underworld..." Zhang Zhang narrowed his eyes, recalling everything that had happened recently.

The divine temple, the desolate mountain, Lady Qingfeng—a deity holding sway over the seasonal winds and rains—and the fact that the scholars were the very ones lured in by Yang Jie.

What on earth was the connection between all of this?

With so many hairy zombies, what was the mastermind—or rather, the evil spirit behind the scenes—trying to achieve by stirring up all this trouble?

He felt a profound sense of disorder; it seemed as though none of these elements were connected, yet Zhang Zhang had a strong intuition that the entity behind the scenes was orchestrating everything to accomplish a specific goal.

"This lord... why do you say this place is not the Underworld?"

Abruptly, a hoarse voice rang out from within the horde of corpses.

Everyone instantly tensed up. Could these living corpses actually speak?

Zhang Zhang grew tense as well and looked over. Emerging from the swirling mist was a female figure wreathed in black Qi, her eyes glowing crimson. The oppressive aura she exuded was completely different from that of the densely packed crowd of ordinary living corpses.

The mere moment she appeared, Lin Bao and the others felt as though they could barely breathe.

A hairy zombie that could speak...

Zhang Zhang's heart tightened. According to his own design lore, a hairy zombie that had reached this stage was no different from an immortal of the mortal realm...