Chapter 36: The Corpse's Sudden Transformation

Following the gaze of everyone present, I hurriedly lowered my head to avoid attention, only to be startled to find that my clothes were stained with dirty, congealed blood.

Panic surged through me once more.

I hadn’t fought anyone just now, nor had I touched anything tainted by dark forces. How could I have become so covered in foul blood?

Could it… be from the coffin lid marked with those ink line patterns?

A chilling thought instantly flooded my mind.

Like a machine, I turned my neck with a grinding creak, numb as I stared at the motionless coffin of the old squad leader, at the lid I had personally sealed over it.

At that moment, the birch wood coffin lid was crisscrossed with uneven lines, not only coated with simple tung oil varnish but overlaid with a grid of ink lines freshly struck—like the squares of a Go board.

Only… the material forming these ‘ink line webs’ was not the pine soot I had imagined, but resembled the bloodstains of some unknown beast, stained and impure.

And what was on my clothes was exactly this half-dried, varnish-mixed filthy substance!

A terrible premonition assaulted my mind.

I immediately turned to Zhao Haikun and asked, “Did Master Duan make these ink lines on the coffin?”

Zhao Haikun responded without hesitation, “Yes! He made them himself!”

Hearing this, I bitterly smiled to myself, suddenly realizing that these ink lines might be flawed. Even if the ink-lined coffin was said to suppress the corpse, this one… was another matter entirely.

I had been desperately grasping at straws, only to take the wrong medicine.

Bitter and frustrated, I silently vowed: that bastard Master Duan! Once I catch him, I will tear him limb from limb!

Just as I hardened my heart, the sharp-eyed Xian Hongye suddenly remembered something. Her face changed dramatically as she shouted at me, “Old Tian! Take off your clothes quickly!”

Before I could respond, she was already pulling off her sports jacket with swift movements.

I watched her efficient motions, still unsure of what was happening, but I followed suit and began to undress.

But… I was too slow!

Just as I tore off the white linen vigil robe and unbuttoned the top button, the coffin of my old squad leader suddenly echoed again with that chilling sound of gnashing teeth.

That strange noise sent a shiver down my spine, and my hands faltered, slowing their pace.

But this hesitation cost me dearly.

At that moment, an immense force burst out from within the coffin, violently lifting the lid!

With a thunderous bang, the board arced beautifully through the air before crashing out of the spirit hall, smashing down right in the center of the Zhao family courtyard, overturning seven or eight of the chairs and benches set up for the morning banquet.

In an instant, chaos erupted.

The event was so sudden that none of us present knew how to react.

In the shock and confusion, everyone’s eyes were fixed solely on the squad leader’s coffin.

Coincidentally, the coffin fell eerily silent once more.

Amid the deathly stillness, burdened by immense pressure, I was the first to break the silence, daring to ask, “Is it over?”

Xian Hongye shook her head gravely and said, “This is just the beginning… Hurry and take off your clothes, or he’ll come for you first.”

“Why?”

“The scent of blood!” She said anxiously. “You reek of it, and this isn’t just a simple resurrection… it’s something else.”

But before she could finish, my old squad leader gave no chance for further explanation.

As if to confirm her suspicion, his corpse suddenly sat upright!

As he rose, an inexplicable chill radiated outward in all directions.

That bone-piercing coldness enveloped us all in an instant.

My old squad leader… had risen from the dead!

His ‘resurrection’ exploded the scene like a bomb.

“Mother of God!” Gui Yuxiu screamed loudly before fainting.

Zhao Shuihe’s legs gave way beneath her in terror, and she collapsed to the ground trembling uncontrollably.

Zhao Haikun was so frightened that he lost all will to resist, tears streaming down his face, helpless before the familiar figure of his second brother.

As for me, I frantically fumbled with the buttons, desperate to shed this bloodstained garment.

I did not understand why Xian Hongye said this resurrection was no ordinary one, nor did I have time to ask.

But I knew she must hold some inside knowledge about this event, knowledge linked to Master Duan and likely related to my very survival.

Her words had to be heeded without question!

So, at all costs, I struggled to remove the clothes as fast as I could.

Yet at that very moment, my old squad leader’s corpse acted before I could finish.

Accompanied by that grinding gnashing of teeth, he slowly rose from the coffin.

Startled, I instinctively looked up at him.

Suddenly, my hands froze.

Because my old squad leader, eyes blazing fiercely, had turned his head and was staring directly at me as I tore off my clothes!

Fear gripped me as we locked eyes.

In that one glance, a terror I had never seen before invaded my mind, and my body felt as heavy and unyielding as if filled with lead.

“Oh God!” I involuntarily cried out, barely able to believe what I saw.

The corpse before me… was indeed the very squad leader I had raised with my own hands, my master… Zhao Haipeng?!

His face had already turned a steel-blue hue, his brows furrowed in anger, his eyes glowing with a ferocious light.

The corpse was terrifying enough, but if that were all, I wouldn’t be so paralyzed with fear.

What unnerved me was that vicious glare… I recognized it!

That gaze was unmistakably the eyes of the “Bright Light King,” the one I had battled for three hundred rounds on the old Qi Road!

Confused and terrified, I clutched my head, questioning how this could be.

A coincidence? Or had my old squad leader’s corpse been possessed by that fiend…?

Amidst these strange and successive changes, I truly had no idea what was happening or what to do next.

By the time I gathered myself, the resurrected squad leader had already broken free of the coffin’s confines!

Suddenly, his corpse, as hard as black iron, surged forward, twisting his distorted arms and lunging violently at me.

As he charged, eerie sounds came from his body, and the chilling wind he stirred around me made the threat of death feel palpably real.

In terror, I had to abandon my attempt to remove the bloodied shirt.

Instinctively, I took a few steps back, then leapt down from the squad leader’s spirit hall.

After sprinting several strides through the Zhao family courtyard, I finally dared to look back and observe his movements again.

Had I not looked, it would have been better.

But what I saw nearly made my soul shatter.

Shockingly, my old squad leader’s hand was now less than three feet from the back of my head.

His deadly eyes fixated on me, and his body moved with the speed and agility of the living!

This defied all logic!

In my mind, even a resurrected corpse couldn’t run as fast as a living person.

After all, the energy left in a dead body—whether ‘electricity’ or ‘qi’—should never be enough to sustain such vigorous movement.

What on earth… was going on?