Chapter 16: The Technique of Raising the Corpse

Xian Hongye shook her head and said she hadn't delved deeply into the "corpse summoning technique" either, and it wasn't mentioned in her thesis.

At first, she had only caught a glimpse of it while searching for materials, and because it seemed quite intriguing, the memory had remained vivid to this day.

Hongye explained that Daoists believed a breath lingered in the chest of a recently deceased person, especially one who had met a violent end. If this breath stagnated and refused to disperse, or if it suddenly erupted, the deceased would rise as a zombie.

By the same token, to prevent stagnated corpse energy from turning someone into a zombie, one had to force them to swallow down that breath. Once it was stimulated by external force or drawn upward from the crown of the head, the corpse would inevitably animate and harm others.

The corpse summoning technique was, in essence, a magical art used to artificially cause a corpse to "play dead."

When enacting such a malevolent spell, the practitioner would perform the "stepping on the kylin and treading the Big Dipper" ritual, dipping willow branches in secret medicines and smearing them across the four apertures and seven orifices of the deceased.

"In the end..." Xian Hongye extended a finger and pointed it directly at my nose. "Shine a Bagua mirror on the deceased's eyes, and the corpse will burst forth to harm people! Moreover, whoever holds the mirror will be the one consumed by the thing that rises."

Hongye's words were verified one by one on me and the old class leader.

After hearing this, my impression of the bastard Duantian Shi... was completely overturned.

Although his purpose in harming me remained unclear, his ancient scheming was every bit as venomous as a snake, and several streets ahead of Lei Ren's in sheer malevolence.

This bastard! Who could make Zhao Haikun and his wife bow their heads in submission, nearly turn my old class leader into a puppet, and the most chilling part was... he had almost taken my life, and I had remained completely oblivious.

His heart was worthy of killing!

Logically, this should have been enough to leave me terrified, yet what Hongye revealed next struck me with even greater horror.

Hongye continued, "I don't know Duantian Shi's true objective, but one certainty remains: he already plotted to take all our lives on the old Qi Road at Stone Man Ku. Moreover, Ming Deng Wang was undoubtedly his 'pet'!"

Xian Hongye's words sent a chill through me.

On the old Qi Road, we had clashed with the cat demon Ming Deng Wang, our forces scattered like leaves, yet we still had no idea who the true mastermind was.

After encountering the mysterious Lao Shi Jiu, however, he had clearly told me that everything had been orchestrated behind the scenes by someone. And that person had most likely been hiding within the Zhao family building.

Could the mastermind... be Duantian Shi himself?

I refused to believe it.

The reason lay in the profound impression Duantian Shi had left on me. He might command the corpse summoning art, perhaps wield the Six Pulses Divine Sword, yet I could not accept that he might summon the "Fire Tail Lian" known only to the five viscera temple or cast the "Shi Zhu" that could reduce Wang Hou to a lifeless coma.

Moreover, no matter how one looked at it, the same old question remained: we had never met, so why would he harbor such resentment toward harming me? It made no sense whatsoever!

Compared to my confusion, Hongye was far more objective and level-headed. She reached out, rolled up her sleeve, and explained to me,

"I know you won't believe it, and in truth I don't either, but I have evidence... that forces belief."

As she spoke, she exposed her fair arm, still bearing the scratches from last night's "cat person."

Five blood-brown lines slashed across her alabaster skin, making the sight unbearable to behold and stirring an instinctive question: what monstrous creature could deliver such precise, lethal wounds?

Suddenly, a lightning-fast idea pierced my mind.

I raised my head, pointed at the wound, and responded deliberately, "Duantian Shi's 'Six Pulses Divine Sword'!"

Xian Hongye nodded.

Everything clicked into place.

Last night, Hongye had been abducted by the hulking "cat person" in the pickup truck. The creature had even attempted to assault her, but its failure—thanks to Hongye's resistance and Wang Hou's intervention—had left her wounded.

At that moment, the cat-faced monster had raked Hongye with one claw, slicing through her thick jacket with effortless precision, as if scissors piercing skin. The speed and power were inhuman.

And Duantian Shi's casual flick of the Six Pulses Divine Sword against the table mirrored that claw stroke exactly.

Could the sneaky ambusher who attacked Hongye... have been Duantian Shi in disguise?

"This old fiend!" I seethed inwardly. "No wonder his eyes always lingered on you with such lewd intent! So that was the case!"

My words broke Hongye into a soft laugh. Her cheeks flushed an even deeper red, making her appear exquisitely beautiful.

Gazing at that lovely face, a warmth bloomed inexplicably in my chest. I opened my mouth to speak, but before the words could form, my thoughts were shattered by a sharp interruption. The sentence I had been about to utter vanished from my mind.

At that precise moment, Zhao Haikun, who had retrieved the white cloth, laboriously wheeled himself back into the room.

Beneath the spirit hall, clutching the three-foot length of white cloth, he addressed me alone: "Haipeng did not misjudge you. You are the only one worthy of inheriting his mantle."

Once Zhao Haikun finished speaking, I rose to assist with the wheelchair and inquired about Gui Yuxiu's aunt, wondering where she had gone and why she was absent.

Haikun sighed heavily. "He went to tend to Duantian Shi... and to sort through Haipeng's remaining belongings."

The moment I heard those two words—"belongings"—my thoughts immediately turned to Lei Ren.

That cunning old fox wasn't after my old class leader's possessions, was he? His generous offer to apply the Five Sons Moving Mountains method to "calculate" the death fate for my old class leader had been nothing but a pretext to examine that so-called relic.

Driven by curiosity, I asked Zhao Haikun, "What exactly did Lei Ren want to see? What's the grudge between him and our Zhao family that he wouldn't even allow us to enter the door?"

"This..." Zhao Haikun's face showed clear reluctance.

Seeing that he could not speak the words, I did not press further and instead changed the subject. "It's not convenient. Never mind, uncle. I was merely asking out of curiosity."

"There's nothing inconvenient about it!" Zhao Haikun abruptly turned the conversation. "You're not an outsider anymore. I'll tell you everything!"

As he spoke, he passed the white cloth to me and shook his head faintly. "What Lei Ren seeks is an imperial gift kitchen knife from our Zhao family."

Exactly as Xian Hongye had surmised!

It had to be that knife—the imperial gift kitchen knife wielded by Lu Nan's Shi Xia Zhao Qingshan to cook and to slay ghosts!

My heart clenched. I turned to look at Xian Hongye with admiration, then twisted back to listen as Zhao Haikun continued.

Zhao Haikun explained that the kitchen knife had been left by his grandfather Zhao Qingshan. In those turbulent times, such blades served dual purposes: cooks kept them close at all times, using them for cooking and, in times of peril, for self-defense.

The blade had originally belonged to my old class leader; now that he was gone, it had become my class leader's inheritance.

Zhao Haikun concluded, "The knife is said to carry some origin, though I cannot speak to the specifics. I only know that Lei Ren is deeply fascinated by it."

At this revelation, every piece of the puzzle locked into place.

Lei Ren's true goal in approaching the Zhao family was undoubtedly that ancestral kitchen knife.

My old class leader's suicide had likely been tied to these very events.