T/n: Content warning — zombies and their associated body injuries

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[T/n: note on chapter title]1

“Old Huang… is this guy… a lunatic?”

Several of the people inside were perplexed at the absurd events just now. The man had just gone outside with a bandit over his shoulder while it was pitch black, raining, slippery, and cold.

“Yeah, why didn’t you call him back?”

Huang Zhixian glanced at the people around him. These people beside him had also seen Ji Yuan leave, and from their expressions, he knew he wasn’t just seeing things.

“When I wanted to call him back, there was no one in sight. In any case, let’s be careful tonight.”

He wanted to put the yellow paper in his sleeve, but when he realized that he was still soaked and surrounded by fires, he suddenly felt that there was nowhere suitable to put it, and could only hold it in his hands.

They closed the door of the main house. Regardless of whether that gentleman had been talking nonsense, he had at least succeeded in making everyone more cautious.

In the rainy night, Ji Yuan grabbed Ba Zi by the collar, and walked away like a dragon in flight.

The bandit, who had initially been shouting and struggling to get back, was now speechless.

Upon exiting the house, it was pitch black, and they couldn’t even see their fingers. But then, with the rumble of thunder, lightning illuminated the earth.

In this brief flash of light, Ba Zi could see that the surrounding scenery was rapidly receding, and they had already left the deserted village far behind. They had only been outside for a short moment, so they should not even have left the village yet.

Ba Zi then looked back at the gentleman holding him, only to find that the latter was walking as if he were taking a stroll, not even running, while Ba Zi was practically choking from the wind.

Ba Zi shivered, not sure if it was from shock or the cold, but it seemed that this movement caught Ji Yuan’s attention. In just a few breaths, Ba Zi clearly felt that the clothes on his body had become strangely dry.

Only then did he realize that, despite the fierce wind, he had never once been hit by the rain.

“Pay attention when the lightning strikes to identify the path. Let’s go to the place where you fought just earlier. Are we heading in the right direction?”

Ji Yuan’s voice echoed from the side. The world in the pouring rain, though colorless in to his senses, was far clearer to him than it would be on a sunny day. He could even clearly “see” the footprints left by the warriors on the ground.

He was just asking now to confirm.

“Yes, that’s right. There’s a dirt hill just down the road, we need to turn there.”

Ba Zi didn’t dare to argue anymore. He suddenly felt that this man’s earlier words might be true, and that following him might even be safer than staying in the abandoned village.

The two moved very fast. In moments, Ji Yuan had already reached the dirt hill Ba Zi had mentioned, confirmed he was headed in the right direction, and continued straight ahead.

After a short while, the two returned to the battlefield where the warriors and the bandits had clashes, and saw the corpses strewn about.

“Looks like this is the right place!”

Ji Yuan muttered to himself with a sigh. He endured the unpleasant odor and approached the area where the bodies were the most densely packed. Without even needing to search, he followed the scent and inspected a corpse’s neck.

“Boom…”

More lightning flashed across the sky. In Ba Zi’s vision, he saw a gruesome bite mark had been gouged into the corpse’s neck, nearly ripping half of it away.

“Ah aaah…!”

Ba Zi screamed in fright.

“There is no blood or vital energy left in these corpses. These ones are all the same, but there’s some blood over there. They must have died in the fight. This thing likes to prey on the living, sucking away even the three souls and seven spirits2 alongside their blood and vitality.”

The more Ji Yuan spoke, the more frightened Ba Zi became. However, Ji Yuan didn’t care to consider the bandit’s mood at the present moment. His gaze fell upon the bodies of the bandits that had perished in battle.

A few new souls, bewildered, lingered around the corpses. It seemed unlikely that any underworld officials would come to collect their souls, leaving them with the only option being to truly become wandering ghosts.

“Let’s go to your encampment. Show me the way.”

“This… this way!”

Ba Zi suppressed the fear in his heart and pointed in the direction the bandits had left in. Ji Yuan listened quietly for a moment, and could hear the faint traces of a large group of people advancing.

“Alright, stay alert. Don’t point me in the wrong direction. Let’s go.”

Ji Yuan pushed off the ground and led Ba Zi in pursuit, even faster than before.

Obviously, the bandits never returned to their hideout directly. They would take detours along the way, such as through rivers and other places where they could erase their tracks. However, with a guide, Ji Yuan naturally chose the shortest route.

As they hurried along the path, Ji Yuan also inquired to Ba Zi about the size of the bandit camp, the number of people there, and other basic information.

Judging from the remaining auras at the moment, it seemed that the wounded bandits had all died at the hands of the same evil creature. It somewhat resembled a zombie.

This creature was extremely thirsty for blood, sucking out all the vital essence of the human body. Since the dead were devoid of vitality and energy, they naturally could not transform into demonic corpses. But this thirst for blood was excessive. Could it have possibly drained a whole village of hundreds of people dry all by itself?

. . .

Atop Ai Nan Mountain3 stood the Southern Great Stronghold.4 A few bandits had initially named it the Southern Great Stronghold as a gesture of arrogance, claiming to be the local rulers of the vast land around the Nanyuan Road.

They certainly had the means to be arrogant: they now commanded an army of four to five hundred fierce bandits, many of whom were deserters from the country’s army. Even the second-in-command of the bandit group was once an officer.

Despite its name, the path up the Ai Nan Mountain where the encampment was located was extremely rugged.5 The encampment was built atop a rocky hillock, and the surrounding terrain was steep, with a narrow, long entrance that made it easy to defend, but difficult to attack.

The bandits who had previously attacked more than a dozen warriors earlier were none other than the fiercest bandits of this Southern Great Stronghold.

More than half an hour ago, these exhausted bandits had returned, many hurriedly filling their bellies and going to sleep in their huts.

As Ji Yuan hurried on carrying Ba Zi, he saw that inside the main hall of the Southern Great Stronghold, unlike that group of compatriots who had retired early to bed, the six leaders and several vice leaders of the stronghold were gathered together for a feast.

There was mutton and stew, baked bread and turbid wine… The group ate and drank happily, noisily shouting as they drank.

“Hey! If we had kidnapped those women, he could have enjoyed ourselves tonight. What bad damn luck that we encountered an evil spirit!”

Hearing the third commander complaining, the eldest leader, sitting at the head of the table, couldn’t help but ask.

“Third Brother, what kind of evil spirit did you encounter?”

The fifth commander, who had accompanied him, took a sip of wine and hurriedly responded.

“Elder brother, you didn’t see it — third brother asked second brother and me to go over there to look. We checked all of our brothers’ bodies. They were all bitten in the neck. Two of the marks were particularly deep, which directly pierced the veins in their necks, and they died tragically.”

“That’s right. They died so silently, it was chilling to see. I even examined some of the bodies and saw scratch marks all over them. There were traces of a struggle on the ground around some of them. In short, they had been pinned to the ground by something very powerful, and then eaten alive.”

The Third Commanded added another sentence.

“The blood of the bodies had all been drained. They must have been sucked dry.”

“Hiss……”

Many of the leaders who had not participated in the ambush gasped, finding it eerie.

“So we withdrew, leaving the group of warriors behind. Beauties and gold are very nice, but you have to be alive to enjoy them!”

The eldest leader raised his wine bowl and clinked it against those of his brothers.

“Well said. Come, come, drink!”

“Let’s drink!”

“Yes, let’s drink, let’s drink!”

…

Amidst the lively conversation, one of the vice-leaders, drunk and urgently needing to pee, stepped outside.

It was still raining outside. He opened the door of the main hall and exited, shivering in the cold wind.

It was inconvenient to walk too in the pouring rain, so he walked past the main entrance of the stronghold hall, walked along the eaves to the back, and unzipped his pants to relieve himself.

After a short while of releasing water, his body suddenly shivered violently a few times, which made it easy for him to finish.

“Huh… It’s still cold in March.”

At this moment, lightning flashed, accompanied by a roar of thunder.

“Boom…”

The lighting flashed briefly across the mountain stronghold, allowing the vice-leader, who was in the midst of pulling his trousers back up, to suddenly see someone holding another person outside a hut in the distance.

The captured individual’s feet were hanging off the ground, twitching and spasming violently. It was a terrifying sight.

‘What’s going on over there? ’

Just as he had that thought, there was another “boom!” and a bolt of lightning flashed. Turning, the vice-leader suddenly saw a small bulge in the ground nearby, rapidly moving towards him.

“What was that?”

“Boom…”

Two clawed hands suddenly stretched out from the ground and grabbed onto his feet.

“Aaah–ugh…”

The high-pitched scream came to an abrupt end, but it still made a sound.

Inside the stronghold hall, several of the leaders who had been drinking and feasting on meat stopped what they were doing. They were relatively skilled in martial arts, so although the other vice-leaders may not have sensed anything, they all heard a terrified scream.

“Silence!”

The head chief shouted. The stronghold hall suddenly became silent. For a moment, all that could be heard was the sound of wind and rain and the occasional crack of thunder. The quiet brought with it a sense of unease.

“You, you, and you, go out and take a look!”

The Third Commander immediately ordered a few people near the door. The latter all looked at each other, drew their swords, opened the door, and walked out.

They exited, seemingly all safe. Then three short noises could be heard.

“Aah…”

“Ugh…”

“Clang…”

“Bang…”

Something struck the wall of the hall with a powerful blow.

“Not good! There’s danger! Brothers, to arms…”

“Boom…”

“Boom…”

Two large holes were blasted through the main entrance and one wall of the stronghold hall. In the light of the torches, two ragged figures stood, one at each hole.

“Who are you!?”

“Watch out, the ground!”

“Aaah…”

Several of the leaders used their own skills to escape. At the same time, amidst the screams of their men, two holes exploded from the ground, and from them leaped two terrifying muddy-brown figures.

One of them swung his hand, and with a smooth “pfft” sound, he decapitated a vice-leader.

Seeing the blood spurting out, the two monsters suddenly rushed over to the headless figure, hugging it tightly and gnawing at its bloody neck.

The Third Commander felt a chill run through his body and he roared.

“Dammit! Those foul creatures followed us into the stronghold! If we don’t fight to the death today, we will be punished in the afterlife!”

The sound attracted the evil creatures outside. They rushed in one after another, reaching the bandits in a single leap.

“Everyone, fight to the death!”

“Kill…”

“Swish…”

“Clang…”

The First Commander noticed a monster coming towards him, moving so fast that he couldn’t even see it clearly. Without thinking, he channeled all of his inner energy and slashed forward with his nine-ring broadsword.6

“Clang…”

Sparks appeared before his eyes, and his hands almost went numb. He couldn’t penetrate the creature’s body. Moreover, the creature did not stop at all.

“Bang…”

The chief was hit with a heavy blow, a pair of sharp claws dug into his back, and a gaping mouth came for his shoulders and neck.

“Ah–!”

“Boom…”

The monster grappled the chief commander and smashed through the back wall of the stronghold, escaping into the night with a demonstration of its immense strength.

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T/n: Okay, this makes like the third or fourth time that something bad has happened to someone specifically because they went to go pee in the middle of the night. I’m sensing a theme here

1. 邪 (xié): demonic/evil/abnormal, 尸 (shī): corpse, 者 (zhě): indicates personhood. Could also be translated as “Ghoul,” “Zombie,” “Evil Dead,” I chose the most literal translation

2. 三魂 (Sān Hún): 3 spiritual aspects of the soul associated with Yang and heaven, governing a person’s spiritual life, morality, and destiny, which ascend to heaven after death. 七魄 (Qī Pò): 7 mortal aspects of the soul associated with Yin and the earth, governing physical drives and instincts, which dissolve and return to the earth after death alongside the body.

3. 矮 (ǎi): short, 南 (nán): south, “Small Southern Mountain”

4. 南 (nán): south, 王 (wáng): best/great, 寨 (zhài): stronghold/stockade/camp

5. i.e. the mountain’s name has the word “short,” but it’s not that easy to climb

6. See image