CHAPTER 660: [654] QING CHUAN CHENG WANGFEI 23 (3 MORE UPDATES)

The next day, when Yun Mi led his men to investigate the surroundings, he was stunned to find that the incident had spread to three or four neighboring villages, with even two of them being wholly consumed by fire overnight...

The most infuriating part was, when he ordered people to report the incident to the government, no one believed it. They simply said the corpses brought back were just that, corpses, and as to why so many died overnight, even without a clear explanation, no one acknowledged the fact that the dead could come back to life.

After all, it was Yun Mi, in his capacity as Prince Cheng, who was involved in this. But as outrageous as the resurrection of the dead sounded, unless one had experienced it firsthand, who would believe?

Yun Mi demanded that the government collect and burn the corpses, while he himself returned to Beijing to report to Yong Zheng. He even requested the Emperor to deploy more manpower to strictly guard the interior and exterior of Beijing, to inspect the villages in the suburbs, and burn them as well. This time, seeing the disaster caused by those irresponsible Taoists and the number of deaths, Yong Zheng realized that if he did not stop it, the Qing might indeed fall under his rule.

He issued an imperial decree to appoint Prince Cheng Yun Mi as the Vanguard Army, to take full charge of the matter. Since he had managed Yuanming Garden well, the task of dealing with such a major issue was thus entrusted to him as an experienced Prince.

Yun Mi, recognizing his own experience, took on the task. The first thing he did was to spare no effort in sending people to every household, every village, informing everyone not to leave their homes after dark, not to go out upon hearing any noises, and even warned them that if they encountered corpses on the road during the day, they must definitely behead them, or at the very least, burn them, and not bury them in the ground.

In just one day, Yun Mi made the secret of the living dead public. While everyone felt threatened, they were also skeptical about the matter.

But Yun Mi did what he needed to do. Whether people believed it or not, he couldn’t always keep a close watch, so this could likely be a long-term struggle, and he had to be prepared for a protracted battle from the start.

Xiyuan did not return to the Prince Manor but stayed in Yuanming Garden. Now that the hidden corners of the Garden had been cleared of corpses, she took charge of the management. The guards accompanied Yun Mi during the day, while at night, the eunuchs and palace maids cooked and did the laundry together, helping each other.

During the day, their task was simply to sweep the Garden floor by floor. Starting from the main gate, they poured poison into any rat holes they found to prevent any undead rats from infecting the normal ones.

Because the poison clearly distinguished between day and night, any livestock that was motionless during the day was poisonous and was to be disposed of immediately, while those that were lively and jumping were caught and brought back to be killed as a reward for everyone. Of course, the livestock here referred to wild chickens and wild rabbits.

Yuanming Garden also grew vegetables and fruits, but when Xiyuan led people out during the day to gather wild greens, serving them as salads became unexpectedly popular. Having witnessed the disaster, the survivors treasured their current lives even more dearly. They did what Xiyuan did without any laziness, for they had heard of the situation outside — to find such a haven at this moment was not at all easy!

Over the past few days, Xiyuan had become very familiar with Yuanming Garden, and what interested her the most was the Taoist Temple - she felt that there must be secrets hidden inside it.

However, after checking it thoroughly three times, she found no mechanisms or secret passages, yet she was reluctant to give up.

Finally, on the day Yun Mi rested, and just after it passed noon — there was still some time before dark — she asked him, "Do you want to go and see what secrets the Taoist Temple hides?"

Yun Mi, who had been dog-tired recently, just wanted to spend some time close to his wife, but she suddenly brought up this topic.

Subconsciously, he thought of the guards, palace maids, and eunuchs who kept mysteriously disappearing these past days and instinctively did not want his woman to witness what might be a very bloody scene.

"Woman, you are too curious. That place, usually only the Emperor’s personal guards can enter. Even now, I think it’s not safe," he said.

"But if we don’t go now, should we wait until the Emperor moves in and it’s guarded? I always feel there’s a big secret inside. Think about it, a random snake bite led to such a horrible aftermath; what kind of snake was it? If it was an undead snake, how could it move during the day? If it was a dead snake, why didn’t it bite back the person holding it? I believe this is an opportunity not to be missed. We must take a look; maybe there is a shocking discovery to be found!"

Finally, persuaded by Xiyuan’s persistence, Yun Mi thought about it and brought along a few first-class guards to enter a Taoist Temple in the northwest direction of Yuanming Garden.

At first glance, the temple did not seem large, but its yard was particularly vast, as big as several soccer fields. There were bamboo groves in the back and nothing but empty space in the front, which Xiyuan found bizarre.

She mused to Yun Mi in a whisper, not daring to question aloud. After all, Beijing, under the reign of Aixinjueluo Yong Zheng, was still his domain.

They circled inside the temple several times, even checking behind the statues of real people, but just like before, no breach was revealed. Seeing Xiyuan’s relentless determination, Yun Mi couldn’t help but suggest, "Maybe we’re overthinking it?"

"It’s impossible. For a temple so large, it can’t just be what we see before us. Have you noticed how little ash there is under the Alchemy Furnace? The shelves here that seem to store medicine are clearly mostly empty, so I’m confident they don’t usually practice alchemy here. There must be a secret passage."

Since she hadn’t found anything after more than ten searches, could that prove that a mechanism or something of that sort might be located in...

Xiyuan led everyone to the bamboo forest at the back. Although bamboo was not uncommon in Yuanming Garden, the forest seemed redundant, given the vast empty space in front, unless it was meant to conceal something within its dense thicket.

Xiyuan, taking the lead, was about to step into the forest when Yun Mi suddenly grabbed her arm, "Stay behind, just follow."

With gestures from him, the guards took the lead as they stayed in the middle.

Little did they expect, as soon as they entered, they seemed to have triggered a mechanism, and the uniformly aligned bamboos suddenly began to spin...