Chapter 1 The Corpse

Without hesitation, Yu Chengmu looked at the corpse's face, leaned closer, adjusted his breathing first, and then slowly held his breath. He had heard that corpses with strong grievances were prone to corpse change once they came into contact with the breath of a living person. He picked up the needle and thread and began to sew from the damaged nose. Sewing facial wounds required more care. Yu Chengmu slowed down, as Jin Liang's safety depended on him ensuring his own absolute safety. But as he was about halfway through the sewing, Yu Chengmu's pupils shrank. He suddenly noticed something: the corpse's mouth was torn open, the upper lip split in two. In other words, to sew up the facial wound, he had to sew up the lips. But he was also a Yin Practitioner, and the Yin Practice had its rules. Without complete preparation, one must never sew up the mouth of the deceased. "Crap…"

Yu Chengmu cursed inwardly. He knew this mission wouldn't be so easy, and sure enough, here it was waiting for him. After a brief search nearby, unable to find a better way to break the situation, Yu Chengmu knew that dragging it out would only be in vain. He held his breath, gritted his teeth, and began to sew up the lips. He planned to win with speed. As long as he was fast enough, he would leave immediately after sewing and be safe once he exited the doors of the mortuary. As for Jin Liang… he would help if he could, and if he couldn't, he could only blame Jin Liang's bad luck. At worst, he could just find another partner after getting out. After all, he was capable, and he would be a welcome guest anywhere. Besides, Jin Liang was able to subdue someone like A Biao, so he couldn't be without his tricks. But all these thoughts were completely disrupted by the sound of a bell. "Jingle…"

It was a crisp bell sound. Fan Qiangzhu's first thought was the bell on the bluish-black foot of the corpse in the coffin. The corpse had crawled out. A corpse change was happening…

If it were outside, Jin Liang would still have a way to deal with it, but this was a mortuary, full of coffins and corpses. Moreover, he hadn't finished sewing up the corpse in front of him yet. He needed time. He made up his mind that even if the corpse outside rushed in, he couldn't leave this mostly-repaired corpse, because leaving during the sewing process was also a great taboo. Moreover, he also vaguely felt that the corpse outside wouldn't necessarily take his life, but if the corpse in front of him stood up, then he would surely die today. Many thoughts flashed through his mind, but reflected in reality, it was only a moment. Jin Liang calmed down and continued to sew up the corpse, trying to speed up as much as possible. "Jingle—"

"Jingle"

The bell sound was like a death knell, getting closer and closer to him. From time to time, there was also a dull thud of a heavy object on the ground. Jin Liang deserved to be someone who had seen big scenes. While sewing up the corpse, he thought about the bell sound outside. Slowly, he also noticed something was wrong. The sound of heavy objects on the ground was obviously the sound of coffin lids being pushed open and falling to the ground. Judging from this line of reasoning, the corpses inside should have been stimulated into corpse change and pushed open the coffin lids from the inside. In other words, with each landing sound, a corpse was rising. But why was there only one bell sound?

Could it be that the remaining corpses didn't have bells on their feet?

Jin Liang didn't think so. He listened carefully, and soon, another bold guess took shape in his mind. Perhaps there was only one corpse rising outside, and at this moment, this corpse was opening the lids of the other coffins one by one. It... it was going to release all the corpses!

Jin Liang didn't dare to think about it anymore. Finally, after suffering so much torment, the last stitch was completed. The task of sewing up the corpse…

Was completed. At that moment, the bell sound outside also disappeared. Jin Liang's forehead was covered in sweat. He knew he had succeeded. He turned around and carefully pulled open a gap in the white cloth, looking out through the gap. The scene in front of him was truly shocking. The lids of more than a dozen coffins outside had been opened, not just simply opened, but blown away. Some were even shattered into pieces on the ground. The dark clouds dispersed, and a clean moonlight poured down. Fan Qiangzhu's pupils suddenly constricted. A row of wet footprints appeared on the ground, extending sparsely to the wooden door of the mortuary, and then disappearing. That's not right!

He suddenly understood. The thing just now… wasn't from inside the mortuary, it came from outside, and looking in the direction the footprints left, Jin Liang couldn't help but swallow. He vaguely heard the sound of waves in his ears. That thing… came from the big river. But no matter what that thing was, Jin Liang was sure that he, who had completed his mission, was safe. Since there was danger, he had to continue with the next thing. His incense had almost half remaining, and he still had time to leave some gifts for the next person. He slowly lifted the cloth of the next room and walked in. The layout inside was similar to his side. He walked back to the three sticks of incense on the ground, pondered for a moment, and gently broke two of them with his fingernails, from one-third of the way down. Then, he arranged the incense in the order of short, long, short, and inserted them into the incense burner. He inserted the middle long incense an extra third of the way in, so that from the outside, the three incense sticks were the same length and there was no problem. But if someone rashly lit it, they would trigger the taboo of "two shorts and one long" when offering incense, and the consequences would be unimaginable. Jin Liang seized the time and carefully checked the corpse on the shelf. The corpse's left hand was indeed there, but it was also broken off. It could be picked up directly. Another left hand…

After thinking for a moment, Jin Liang looked to the other side. A very important question appeared. There would only be three people coming tonight at most, so why were there four isolated small rooms?

What was the last room, without a number, used for?

He slowly walked over, passed through Yu Chengmu's Room 3, and came to the last small room. The layout in front of him was exactly the same as the rooms of the other three. There was also a corpse lying on the shelf. A guess emerged in Fan Qiangzhu's mind. He slowly walked over, picked up the incense on the ground, and prepared to break it. But just as he had exerted a little force, suddenly, the corpse lying on the shelf opened its eyes without warning. Jin Liang immediately didn't dare to move. Now, Fan Qiangzhu understood in his heart that this room was probably used as a control group, to prevent the first person from destroying all the props of the people behind them. For example, even if he destroyed the next person's incense, as long as the next person had the guts to come and take a look at this last room, they would find the difference. At the same time, they could take the incense here to replace the destroyed props. "How thoughtful." Fan Qiangzhu's face twitched, and a venomous look appeared on his face. After testing, all the props here could not be damaged. But just as Jin Liang was trying to test the corpse that looked the most problematic, the corpse closed its eyes. "So that's how it is…"

Jin Liang narrowed his eyes.