Individual in the Coffin
The floor started turning to frost as the room in the temperature abruptly plummeted. Mu Yu felt he was the closest he had been yet to the unidentified aura that he had been fretting over, and it was right behind him!
Mu Yu pivoted and thrust at the same time, hearing it plunge through. Once his head caught up, he saw his sword in Elder Zhao’s chest. Startled, he pulled his sword out and dashed for the door, only for it to slam on him. Mu Yu quickly unleashed a wave of sword qi. He expected to tear through the door, yet a menacing qi raced to the door to thwart the attack.
By the time Mu Yu looked over his shoulder, Elder Zhao was already there. None of it made sense. Elder Zhao was supposed to be slow, wasn’t he? He had a hole in his chest, yet he wasn’t bleeding or bothered.
Mu Yu cast a formation from his hand, spreading the formation lines ubiquitously, yet something limited the range to his immediate surroundings, forbidding him from lighting up the room.
“Be a man, and show yourself.”
Elder Zhao charged Mu Yu again. Mu Yu didn’t desecrate Elder Zhao’s corpse because he held the opinion that Elder Zhao couldn’t hurt him based on experience. The bigger problem was that the temperature in the room plummeted ceaselessly, penetrating even his coat of spiritual energy.
Mu Yu turned Wood Spirit Sword into a big tree to restrain Elder Zhao with branches and used the leaves’ death qi to counter the yin qi in the room. As he triumphed, his restricted formation lines spread again, finally lighting up the room. As such, Mu Yu left just the branch restraining Elder Zhao and got rid of the qi so that the tree branch could absorb the yin qi oozing out of Elder Zhao.
Mu Yu placed Elder Zhao’s corpse on the bed once it reverted to being just an ordinary corpse and checked the room. As soon as Mu Yu breached the door, he activated a formation with his foot, leaving no shadows to hide in the courtyard. The weird air in the atmosphere had vanished without a trace. Puzzled, Mu Yu inspected the store, yet it was also perfectly normal.
“What the hell is going on?”
***
Chen Erzhuang and his four clerks, all of whom were carrying shovels, darted across a series of ridges under the cover of the night. The four clerks dug up the coffin they buried within fifteen minutes. It was faint, but there were slow breaths audible coming from within the coffin that the four jumped down to lug back out.
The old lady in her graveclothes wasn’t breathing. Chen Erzhuang fumbled around in the coffin until he heard a click, moving the corpse to the bottom and bringing an identical individual to the top section. The only differences between the two were that the one brought to the top had wooden eyes and chest movements. Chen Erzhuang took out a brush he kept in his pouch and dabbed two eyes onto the wooden parts using the rancid red ink, bestowing her with jet-black eyes.
Yin qi travelled from the new eyes on the wooden mannequin to the rest of her body, bringing her to life. She sat up in her coffin, eyes blank. Chen Erzhuang, in a monotone voice, commanded, “Go home and pick up your descendants.”
The mannequin wobbled out of her coffin and made her way home. Meanwhile, Chen Erzhuang’s four clerks shovelled the dirt back into the ground and took the coffin back to the store with them.
***
Elder Xu couldn’t stop his shaking, somewhat regretful he told Mu Yu about the event. “Did he deliberately leave some of the curse on me? Nah, he helped me treat all of my other conditions; he wouldn’t leave just the curse.”
Elder Xu started coughing, craving for a smoke. He gave into his urge, climbing out of bed, brushing aside the curtain separating his room from the living room to grab his tobacco. He took out his matchstick from his pocket and lit it up for a big inhale. He propped himself in a chair and exhaled hard. “I know he said not to smoke, but I might was well enjoy myself if I really am going to die.”
Curious about the white spiritual qi around his neck, Elder Xu gave it a touch. Alas, he couldn’t touch it. “The little rodent sure is amazing. If only my dog was half as smart. Wait, why do I feel as if this is a leash on me? Hahaha.”
Elder Xu had another puff, thankful for all the recent blessings. Suddenly, he heard his dog barking aggressively, reminding him of how envious he was of Mu Yu for having a talking pet. He thought it would’ve been nice to have someone he could talk to.
“Dahuang, stop barking!”
Much to Elder Xu’s chagrin, Dahuang kept barking. Before Elder Xu could scold his dog, he heard footsteps. Thus, Elder Xu hurriedly put out his pipe and fanned the smoke in the room.
“Sir Mu Yu, is that you?”
As Elder Xu went to answer the door, the person outside pushed it open.
“Y-y-y-”
“You don’t recognise yourself?” asked the individual with jet-black eyes outside, wearing a cheshire smile and white spiritual energy ring around his neck.
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