We had just sealed an old ghost in Lu Erzhong's house.
Uncle Li, who had taken Aunt Li to get vaccinated, fled back as if being chased by a ghost.
"Outside... there are ghosts everywhere!!"
Uncle Li's face was as pale as a sheet, and his forehead was covered with bean-sized beads of sweat.
I felt that the entire Lu Village had been enveloped in an eerie atmosphere.
The villagers had jointly raised Lu Dayong, who had turned into a hopping corpse. And a weasel had claimed that the villagers owed them a whole generation of lives. Now, the deceased elders of Lu Village had even taken over the bodies of the younger generation and were running amok...
Could it be that when dusk fell, ghosts would be roaming freely in their village?!!
I carefully opened the peephole on the door of Lu Erzhong's house and looked outside. There, just on the other side of the small window less than a foot wide, a pair of cloudy eyes was staring straight at me without a blink.
Instantly, all the hairs on my body stood on end.
Those were the eyes of a dead person who had been dead for at least a dozen days.
The cloudy pupils were covered with a milky film, and the blood vessels in the eyeballs had turned a purplish-black color!
"Slap!"
I quickly closed the shutter of the peephole. At the same time, there was a loud "boom" on the thick iron gate. Someone was ramming the door from the outside.
"Is it a ghost outside?"
Lu Erzhong hadn't seen what was going on outside and was actually a bit curious.
"It's not a ghost!"
I bit my lips and looked at Si Jiangchen, who had been idly watching the show. "It's a dead body!"
From that brief glance, I saw a corpse dressed in a relatively intact shroud. The dark blue satin jacket was stained black by the yellowish-green corpse oil. I could already smell the nauseating stench wafting in from outside the door.
"A dead body?! How is that possible for a dead body to..."
Lu Erzhong had only said half of his sentence when he suddenly stopped as if he had bitten his own tongue.
Why not?!
The villagers of Lu Village had been raising a zombie for decades!!
Although Lu Dayong was almost like a living person, showing no signs of decay and never eating people in front of them... Lu Erzhong had once followed his father to deliver "takeout" to Lu Dayong's cellar. The bloodstains and inexplicable pieces of meat scattered all over the place, even with a thick cotton mask on, Lu Erzhong could still feel the chilling stench!
"Hehe... They're coming, they're coming!"
Suddenly, Lu Erzhong's wife, with the yellow talisman stuck on her back, let out a sinister laugh. The old ghost sealed inside her spoke again, "The people of Lu Village have done too many immoral things. Their retribution is coming! Hahaha..."
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The iron gate of Lu Erzhong's house was being pounded violently. In response to the old and eerie laughter from the woman, the sun in the valley of Miaofeng Mountain finally "crashed" into the ground.
"What should we do?! Little Master, is the dead body outside Lu Dayong?!"
Lu Erzhong still held on to a glimmer of hope.
"No!! It's not!"
Uncle Li shook his head repeatedly. By now, he had finally managed to calm down a bit from his previous extreme panic. "The one outside... seems to be Uncle Youcai, who was buried last month!!"
"Him!! How could he come out?!"
Lu Erzhong was on the verge of collapse. He didn't believe it and rushed to the peephole to open the shutter. Unexpectedly, a hand covered with corpse spots suddenly reached in and grabbed Lu Erzhong by the neck.
"... Ahh!!"
Lu Erzhong was almost choked to death.
I was quick-witted and immediately grabbed his collar and pulled him back.
Fortunately, the hand was oozing yellowish corpse fluid. Although Lu Erzhong's neck was pinched black and purple, it wasn't scratched and bleeding.
"Outside... there are a lot of them!!"
Lu Erzhong turned his head, his face filled with despair!
As he spoke, the courtyard gate behind them let out a loud crash under the unbearable pressure and was pushed into the yard from the outside.
In the darkness outside, figures were standing vaguely. The moment the streetlights suddenly came on, I couldn't help but take a few steps back and bumped straight into Si Jiangchen's arms.
Those people... if they could even be called people, all had their eyes wide open and their limbs stiff as they walked towards us. On their hands, faces, and any exposed skin, there were all black fluff like fungus growing.
"Uncle Youcai?! Grandpa Si?! Uncle Laohan..."
Lu Erzhong's eyes widened more and more! Without exception, all these corpses that had turned into black zombies were the deceased elders of the village in recent years.
They had all broken out of their graves at the same time and flocked into the village in groups!!
"The sky is round, the earth is square, the laws have nine chapters. With my pen, all ghosts shall hide!"
The situation was critical. I pointed at the sky with my finger and made a Five Thunder True Thunder Talisman, trying to attract lightning into the group of corpses.
Unexpectedly, the Thunder Department's Dharma, which I had always been proud of, was completely useless here. There wasn't even a single cloud in the sky. In the pitch-black night sky, a thin crescent moon was emitting a hazy red light.
Why was it a blood moon again?!
I felt a little panicked in my heart, vaguely sensing something ominous. It seemed that every time a blood moon appeared, something unlucky would happen.
My mind wandered slightly for a moment. Just then, I heard a "boom" as those black-haired zombies reached out their hands and grabbed towards me.
I quickly reached into my pocket to get the talismans. Unexpectedly, Si Jiangchen behind me reached out his hand and pulled me into his arms. He bit his index finger on his right hand and let out a drop of blood. He casually flicked the blood bead into the dark group of corpses.
"Whoosh!"
Almost at the same moment, all the zombies seemed to have been cast with a freezing spell and stood still stiffly. Then, they all knelt down in front of Si Jiangchen in unison.
"Ugh..."
I was covered in goosebumps.
What kind of person was Si Jiangchen? With just a drop of blood, he could make these terrifying and disgusting things submit at his feet?!
Was he a Zombie King?
I couldn't help but look up at him and then at those stinking dead bodies...
"Don't compare me with them!"
As if knowing what was on my mind, Si Jiangchen lowered his head and nibbled on my earlobe, threatening in a low voice, "Or else, I'll eat you!"
I immediately shivered. The scene of seeing a zombie eating a person for the first time in Lu Dayong's cellar immediately flashed through my mind. It was bloody, cruel, and disgusting. Coupled with the stench in the air now, it made me feel nauseous and want to vomit.
My fear of Si Jiangchen deepened even more.
"Village Head Lu, what on earth have you guys done?!"
In order to suppress my fear of Si Jiangchen, I took the opportunity to question Lu Erzhong and subtly distanced myself from him.
"How could such a small Lu Village raise so many zombies?!"
I pointed at the corpses that were being suppressed by Si Jiangchen and kneeling on the ground. "These... are all the elders of your clan. How could you bear to let them be restless even after death? How could you let them drag such bodies and not be able to reincarnate?!"
"We're wronged! Little Master, we... we've never done such a thing!"
Lu Erzhong wailed and knelt down as well. He pointed at the sky and swore, "If we've done such a heartless thing, we're willing to be struck by lightning!"