Chapter 61: Raising the Corpse

Thud!

The sound of something heavy hitting the ground startled Gu Xiaohan, who had been dozing in the living room.

"Wu... Wu Hao, did you just hear something?"

She asked uncertainly.

The noise came from the storage room next door, but apart from Miao Hui’s corpse, only some belongings from the previous owner were stored inside.

Wu Hao, feverish and muddled, shook his head.

Instead, Diao Tingting, whose symptoms were less severe, sat up from the bed.

"It sounded like something fell," she said.

Without much thought, the two women switched on a searchlight and walked over.

Perhaps because of excessive use in recent days, the searchlight was no longer as bright as before, its dim yellow glow flickering with signs of dying battery.

A clap of thunder suddenly illuminated the three-story house as bright as day, but the brightness lasted barely a second before darkness returned.

Diao Tingting reached out and twisted the door handle, opening the door slowly.

A faint, almost imperceptible smell of decay drifted into her nose, causing Diao Tingting to hold her breath instinctively.

Fortunately, everything in the room seemed unchanged.

The mat wrapped around the corpse still rested securely on a few stools, but a broom that had been leaning against the bed had fallen to the middle of the floor.

The nearby window swayed gently in the wind.

"Probably the wind blew the window open and knocked over the broom,"

Diao Tingting explained breezily to Gu Xiaohan behind her.

She crouched down, preparing to pick up the broom.

But just then, Gu Xiaohan’s trembling voice came from behind.

"Ting... Ting, was Miao Hui’s hand supposed to be outside?"

Diao Tingting’s head jerked up stiffly.

Beside the mat, a ghastly pale arm dangled, its inner elbow mottled with dark, bruise-like marks reminiscent of corpse spots, sending chills down her spine.

Most disturbing of all, the long, sharp nails on Miao Hui’s fingers stood out glaringly.

"Slow... slowly back out, and make no sound."

Overwhelmed by terror, Gu Xiaohan’s mind suddenly cleared as never before.

She gently helped Diao Tingting, who was crouched on the ground, and tiptoed out of the storage room step by step.

Just as the two relaxed and prepared to close the door,

Wu Hao in the living room let out a tremendous sneeze.

"Achoo~ Damn weather..."

Instantly, it was as if the whole world had paused; only the trees outside the house swayed violently in the wind, their shadows cast over Miao Hui’s corpse as if souls were struggling within.

Gu Xiaohan and Diao Tingting stared fixatedly at the body on the stools.

Clack, clack, clack—

A strange noise echoed in their ears, like powerful grinding between upper and lower jaws.

Crash!

The mat wrapped around Miao Hui suddenly fell to the ground, and the corpse inside abruptly sat up.

---

The half-collapsed skull quivered, and the eyeball that had been stuffed back into its socket rolled onto the floor with a soft thud.

Miao Hui, his face ghastly and tusked, glared at the two women at the door with his sole bloodshot eye.

"Aah!~"

Two screams pierced the air.

Gu Xiaohan and Diao Tingting slammed the door shut and bolted outside.

Guan Xingbang, seated at the doorway, had just stood up to see what was happening.

"Professor, run! Miao Hui's corpse just rose!"

...

"Who called me? Rose? What rose?"

Wu Hao, already delirious with fever, vaguely heard someone calling his name.

Annoyed, he flipped over and tried to go back to sleep.

The battle in the hallway two nights ago had been exhilarating, but now he’d caught a severe cold and could barely open his eyes.

But then,

Wu Hao sensed someone approaching from behind.

He assumed Gu Xiaohan had come to check his temperature, but after a long wait, the person made no move.

He turned over, forcing his eyes open a sliver.

In the dim room, he saw a bizarre figure standing there.

Lightning flickered.

In that brief moment of illumination, Wu Hao saw the face clearly.

A face that sent chills down his spine.

"Ah!"

...

"Oh no, Wu Hao is still inside!"

After running several hundred meters, the group remembered the sick one still asleep in the house.

"I... I can’t leave him behind."

Only now did Guan Xingbang regain his composure.

Dragged along by his two students, he had run far, soaked to the skin by the pouring rain. His hair, once streaked with gray, was now completely white.

His body hunched, aged by twenty years since they entered Old Grave Village.

Guan Xingbang picked up a stick he found somewhere, determined to return to the house and rescue his student.

But Gu Xiaohan and Diao Tingting held him back desperately.

Given the professor’s condition, returning would only add another corpse to the tally.

But whether out of resolve or loss of the will to live, Guan Xingbang, no matter how the two women tried to stop him, insisted on heading back toward the house.

Just then,

Something in the darkness seemed to be approaching.

Guan Xingbang quickly shielded the two students behind him, raising his stick and staring at the approaching figure.

"Old... Old Zhou!"

Finally, Guan Xingbang recognized the newcomer.

It was Zhou Jun, the school driver.

Zhou Jun had "revived" as well! Stiff and tusked, he staggered toward them.

Driven by rage, Guan Xingbang gritted his teeth and swung the stick at "Old Zhou’s" head.

---

A dull thud echoed.

The stick, used as firewood, splintered into pieces, yet Zhou Jun merely wobbled slightly.

Seemingly angered by the blow, Old Zhou slowly opened his mouth wide, letting out a guttural roar.

"Roar!"

In an instant, countless heads surged in the darkness.

Old Grave Village earned its name because a geomancer claimed the place was auspicious; from the late Qing era to now, hundreds of graves had been built on the wild hills behind the village.

Now, these graves all produced rising corpses.

Rotting bodies and skeletons clad in costumes from various dynasties struggled out of their coffins and pressed in on the three.

"Run!"

Run?

Turning around, they found that, at some point, corpses surrounded them on all sides.

The group had become fish on the chopping block, waiting for the guests to feast.

The two girls were already paralyzed with terror, while Guan Xingbang, wielding half a stick, desperately tried to protect his last two students.

But as the corpses drew closer, despair washed over his face.

"Dragon's Rise!"

Just then, a sharp cry rang in Guan Xingbang's ear.

Amid the rain, a flash of red light sent over a dozen skeletons flying and crashing to the ground in pieces.

Suddenly,

A delicate figure leapt into the midst of the zombies.

"Bai... Bai Xian!"

Bai Xian’s gaze was cold, the iron spear in her hand still bearing scraps of rotten flesh from some corpse.

She flicked her long spear.

The spearhead traced dozens of star-like arcs in the air.

A gap opened in the mass of corpses before them.

"Go!"

The group immediately followed Bai Xian out of the horde.

"Xiaohan!"

Having escaped, Meng Dejun, hiding nearby, rushed out to meet them.

Seeing her boyfriend, Gu Xiaohan could no longer contain herself and quickly stepped forward, embracing him and bursting into tears.

"Miss Bai... Bai Xian, where’s Ma Yu?"

Guan Xingbang looked around but didn’t see Ma Yu.

Bai Xian wiped the grime from her spear on a tree trunk, her voice icy.

"He’s dead. I killed him."

Seeing the remaining group’s eyes turn odd, Meng Dejun quickly released his girlfriend’s embrace.

"It’s not what you think..."