Chapter 5

Turning my head, I realized it was Yu Xiaoxue. Not only did she not dare to burn the incense, but she also held onto me.

"Brother Tian, the incense is almost gone, what should we do?" Yu Xiaoxue looked at me with a bleak expression, pointing to the pile of empty incense boxes on the ground and the few remaining sticks in the last bundle.

The spirits of the dead are the wandering ghosts that, for various reasons, were not taken away by the underworld's ghost catchers. They feed on yang energy and incense just as humans eat food, it's a natural thing.

Generally, the wandering ghosts are satisfied with the yang energy and incense from the human world, but the more greedy and resentful ones not only feed on the yang energy and incense from the human world but also on the yang energy of people. Someone like me, who is naturally heavy in yin energy and light in yang energy, is particularly attractive to these ghosts.

If I can't feed the ghosts outside, they will immediately start to haunt me.

So when we first entered Xiaoyi Village, they knew I was there. The Yin-Communicating Talisman still had some effect, but once the incense burned out...

Thinking of this, I panicked.

"I'll go to my grandmother's bedroom and see if there are any extra incense sticks," I comforted her.

"I've already been there. All the incense sticks here are from inside. Who has brought any incense these past two days?" Yu Xiaoxue told me, trembling.

Incense is a regular item in my grandmother's bedroom. Usually, there's a large box full of it. However, after Yu Xiaoxue stayed alone for two days and burned it at this rate, it's normal that it's now gone.

My heart leaped to my throat. It wasn't even midnight yet, and without incense, I would be devoured by a group of ghosts.

"I'll go check first," I said.

I approached the door of my grandmother's bedroom, and my sister-in-law suddenly pulled me. I sighed, with no way out, I pushed the door open.

As soon as I opened the door, a greenish face almost collided with me!

My hair stood on end, and I fell on my butt. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was the neighbor, Grandma Wu, who often chatted with my grandmother!

At that moment, Grandma Wu had a blank expression, her face was full of wrinkles, and her eyes were completely white, staring at me, making it hard for me to doubt that she would pounce on me with a fierce look.

In front of me, there were a few more ghosts wandering in my grandmother's bedroom.

Even my grandmother's room was haunted!?

I immediately crawled back to Yu Xiaoxue.

Regaining my senses, I looked at the open window in my grandmother's bedroom. My shock was no less than the first time I saw a ghost. The door god at the entrance seemed to have lost its power, unable to stop the ghosts!

This was my conclusion after careful consideration. Unlike humans, ghosts are not so complex; they are just fixated on something from their past or something they often did.

For example, visiting someone they once liked or a place they often went to. It made sense for Grandma Wu to be here.

I had messed up, leaving such a wretched impression on Yu Xiaoxue.

I am a normal man, and I always try to maintain my bravery in front of beautiful women. Now that I had lost face, I had to explain.

Turning awkwardly to Yu Xiaoxue, I planned to say something, but I found that she had already fainted.

I quickly patted her face and called her several times before she woke up.

Yu Xiaoxue woke up with a pale face, unable to speak, and started crying, clinging to me.

She wasn't afraid when she didn't know, but once she realized these things were not human but ghosts, she became terrified. I really don't know what her brain is made of.

However, after eating the Yin-Communicating Talisman, the ghosts didn't dare to approach her, which might have made her think they were just avoiding her. Now that she knew the real reason and was suddenly scared, she fainted.

Especially since Grandma Wu looked ghostly even when she was alive, often moving silently behind people. Now, with her completely white eyes, she scared me too, let alone Yu Xiaoxue.

To enter my grandmother's bedroom, I had to follow her old method. I picked up a few incense sticks, bowed forward, and recited: "Separated by the yin and yang, I burn incense to borrow the path. Please let me pass."

Incense communicates with the spirits, and indeed, as soon as I finished speaking, Grandma Wu moved aside, and I immediately stuck the incense in the door crack, entering the bedroom with Yu Xiaoxue.

Yu Xiaoxue was genuinely scared, clinging to my clothes, just like my sister-in-law, causing a constant cold wind around us. It seemed my sister-in-law was also a bit angry, but what could I do?

After searching for a long time with Yu Xiaoxue, I found no incense sticks, but there were a few cheap cigarettes my grandmother smoked. This made me happy: cigarettes and incense both have the character "xiang," so they might work.

There was nothing else left, only my grandmother's locked leather box, which I also brought out. The incense in the door crack might go out at any time, and I didn't dare to stay long.

Returning to the coffin, I opened the cigarettes, lit three, and inserted them into the ash tray. The smoke rose gently.

The cigarettes, though not being smoked by anyone, burned as if someone was smoking them, which was quite eerie, indicating that they were effective.

However, cigarettes burned much faster than incense. In less than a minute, the three cigarettes were gone, and the ghosts outside became restless.

It seems that cigarettes aren't very effective.

I looked at the ghosts getting closer, almost at the threshold. In the cool night, sweat dripped from my forehead. I had no choice but to sit in front of the ash tray, lighting cigarettes.

Yu Xiaoxue, sitting beside the coffin, had no idea what to do, just crying and looking at me.

I kept lighting cigarettes, and my sister-in-law didn't stop pulling my clothes. I knew there were a lot of ghosts behind me, and they could be fatal. Her reminders weren't wrong, and her anger from Yu Xiaoxue's actions earlier might make her more agitated.

By the late night, around three or four in the morning, I slowly stopped believing her warnings. I thought that even if she tore my clothes, I wouldn't bother to turn around to look at those eerie things.

After all, there were still several packs of cigarettes left.

Rip, what I feared came true, and my clothes were torn by my sister-in-law.

I immediately looked up at Yu Xiaoxue, who was trembling, pointing behind me, seemingly seeing something terrifying.

I realized something was wrong and turned around. Outside, the cold wind was howling, and the ghosts were moving aside, forming a path. In the middle of the path, a woman covered in blood stood at the door.

The woman was emaciated, with disheveled hair. Her eyes were hollow, and maggots with blood dripped from them, making her look extremely terrifying.

Blood Corpse! I shuddered. If it were just a ghost, with the cigarettes, I wouldn't be too afraid, but this was definitely a walking corpse!

What is a walking corpse? As the name suggests, it's a corpse that can walk.

Usually, walking corpses are formed from people who died with deep resentment and unclear causes.

Of course, just being a corpse isn't enough to be a true walking corpse. A true walking corpse is created by a corpse master using a corpse that has already undergone a transformation. Without a corpse master, a corpse cannot become a walking corpse.

As for a blood corpse, it is a type of walking corpse that has been refined to have a strong malevolent aura. It is extremely difficult to create but very powerful once formed.

The night wind blew, and the black hair of the blood corpse swayed. I saw her face clearly and was stunned.

Sister-in-law Zhou Xuan! Yu Xiaoxue instinctively called out, then covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face.

She is my good sister-in-law, Zhang Yidan's wife, Zhou Xuan!?

How could she be turned into a blood corpse? I was terrified, and a fire of anger burned inside me.

I remembered the days before Zhang Yidan's wedding. I was far away, and on the phone, Zhang Yidan tried to suppress his coarse language, exaggerating how virtuous and gentle his wife was, and how hard they worked to prepare for the wedding.

The happiness was so contagious that even I felt it.

When I saw their wedding photos, I was genuinely happy that my childhood friend had finally found his lifelong love, as Zhou Xuan, though not particularly beautiful, looked very virtuous.

I don't know much about the details of creating a blood corpse, but from the many books my grandmother had, I knew that when a walking corpse is transformed into a true walking corpse, it requires a cruel method to stimulate the corpse's malevolent nature. This involves continuously torturing the corpse with things, people, or events it cared about in life until it develops a strong malevolent, murderous, and vengeful nature.

So my grandmother said that a blood corpse is only for killing. Once unleashed by a corpse master, it will seek out living people to tear apart.

At that time, I asked my grandmother if she had ever seen a blood corpse. She shook her head and laughed, saying no one would be so cruel as to turn a person into a blood corpse.

I don't know how much inhuman torture Zhou Xuan endured in life, but now, as a blood corpse, she has told me.

Zhou Xuan looked at me with a terrifying smile, her small mouth split to her ears, and her teeth, sharpened on purpose, gleamed.

She pounced on me, and before I could react, she grabbed my neck!

I felt my neck almost sink into her bony fingers, but that wasn't the end. She opened her split mouth and bit into my shoulder!

I knew one bite would kill me!

At that moment, I forgot my fear and pushed her head away, my fingers even digging into her eye sockets, maggots and rotten flesh falling into my mouth, making me want to vomit.

However, Zhou Xuan's strength was so great that it didn't even give me a chance to vomit. She pounced on me again, overwhelming me!

Bang!

In a crisis, Yu Xiaoxue came to my rescue, hitting Zhou Xuan's head with a small stool, splattering brain matter. However, this seemed to have no effect on the blood corpse, and she still pinned me down, not letting go!