I've been treated like a piece of merchandise by my parents since childhood.
A precious commodity that could buy peace and prosperity for the Du Clan in the turbulent times.
My father, Du Changqing, was the clan leader of the Du Clan in western Hunan, known for their skills in corpse - driving and resurrecting the dead.
I was born at an inauspicious time with a completely Yin horoscope.
When my mother was giving birth, my hand came out first. The midwife pricked it with a red - hot silver needle several times, but I didn't pull it back.
The midwife's face immediately turned grim. For such a dangerous fetal position, they had a special term, "debt - collector".
My mother endured the pain for two days and two nights and finally died of excessive bleeding during a difficult labor.
Despite the opposition of the clan members, my father still regarded me, a sickly child, as the apple of his eye.
For my sake, he remarried a gentle and kind woman who was very good to me. I grew up with her, so I didn't suffer the pain of losing my mother in childhood.
However, all this illusory beauty came to an abrupt end when I was sixteen.
My father made me eat A Wen!
It was the last medicine for me to become the "Eternal Undecaying Bone", but at the last moment, I suddenly woke up from the long - lasting illusion and escaped from the Du Clan with A Wen, who I had bitten.
Because of this, the Du Clan in Du Yang Town suffered a great disaster.
My so - called fiancé was the Si Family, a warlord family in central China who wanted to obtain the Du Clan's secret of immortality.
Since I had escaped, the Du Clan couldn't hand over the "Undecaying Bone" that could make people immortal. The Si Family had waited for more than a decade and would never believe my father's words. Si Jiangchen, the eldest son of the Si Family, personally led a troop to raid the Du Clan.
Unable to find the "Undecaying Bone", they naturally resorted to torture.
More than a hundred members of the Du Clan were massacred by those barbaric soldiers and bandits. Only a collateral branch of the Du Clan living in the mountains far from Du Yang Town managed to escape.
From then on, I knew that I was a man - eating monster.
Those bitten by me either died an unnatural death or turned into mindless zombies...
A Wen was an exception. Maybe it was because he had been taking that black Chinese medicine for a long time, or maybe it was because I hadn't fully turned into a zombie when I bit him.
Anyway, apart from the terrifying scar on his body, there was nothing abnormal about him.
Life was worthless in the turbulent times, but I didn't want to satisfy my hunger like a wild beast.
I found that I would only feel extremely hungry and have the urge to eat people when I was injured or sick...
A Wen and I were young. In the chaotic years of war, we had no means of making a living except begging and wandering between towns.
We had also done many things like stealing clothes and jewelry from dying people to exchange for money, but this was the first time we really wanted to eat people!
During the bandits' robbery of the famine - stricken people, A Wen and I got separated. I fell to the ground and was trampled on by countless feet. It seemed that several of my ribs were broken...
This young man was the first one I had the urge to eat!
Sure enough... God is never lenient to a creature like me, neither human nor ghost.
As soon as I had the thought of eating people, the thunder calamity came as if in response, almost blowing me to pieces!!
Thunder rumbled in the dark clouds, and lightning flashed on and off, rolling back and forth above our heads, but no more lightning struck.
Finally, the dull thunder gradually faded in the clouds, and the surroundings finally became quiet.
I shrank in the man's arms and secretly glanced at the sky.
I found that the dark clouds had suddenly dispersed completely. The pale moonlight had returned to its cold, silvery - white state, pouring down on the world like mercury.
It turned out that the methods of surviving the thunder calamity I had read in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio really worked!
For monsters like us who are not tolerated by heaven and earth, as long as we find someone to hide beside, the thunder gods dare not strike lightning casually. If they accidentally kill a living person, they can't bear the responsibility!!
Just now, in order to avoid the thunder calamity, I had crawled under the man. Now, when I tried to wriggle my body to push him away, I pulled my wound, and the pain made me moan involuntarily...
"Ouch... It hurts so much!!"
Ancient books say that zombies have stiff skin and flesh. They are fearless of pain, emotionless, and immortal.
But I'm an exception among zombies. Even when bitten by a dog during the famine - fleeing days, I would grimace in pain!!
Blood kept oozing from the wound on my chest, soaking another patch of my tattered robe...
Cold, in pain, and hungry, I covered the wound and took a look at the man beside me.
His handsome eyebrows were tightly knitted, his slightly upturned peach - blossom eyes were closed, and his face was as pale as if he was about to die.
"Are you going to die?"
I couldn't help but move closer and reach out to feel the blood vessel on his neck. His pulse was so weak that it was almost imperceptible!
"Then... Can you do me a favor! Let me take a bite!!"
I didn't know if he could hear my words, but as a monster with a remaining conscience, I still had to observe the proper etiquette.
"For the sake of you helping me survive a thunder calamity, I won't suck you dry."
I thought for a while and murmured softly before lowering my head and pressing my lips against his slightly cool skin.
"Evil spirits in the world, listen carefully..."
Just as I had bitten the man's neck, I suddenly heard his pale lips move slightly, as if he was reciting a spell. I had always been confined in the courtyard in the Du Clan and had never been exposed to any Taoism or the Du Clan's corpse - driving technique.
Hearing him muttering, I felt an inexplicable sense of unease.
Forget it, forget it!
The long - term wandering had made me cautious. Although I had already tasted the fishy and sweet liquid on my lips and tongue, I was scared and wanted to abandon him and find someone else!
"Want to run?"
The man suddenly twitched the corner of his lips, showing a cold smile...
"You're the monster the Du Clan spent so much effort to raise, aren't you!!"
His hand suddenly grabbed my chin. Clearly, I was the hunter, but now I was like a prey in his grasp.
"Nonsense!! I... I'm not!!"
The fear in my heart came in waves as he grabbed me. I knew that not only the only remaining collateral branch of the Du Clan was looking for me, but they had also spread the word that Du Wenzhong, the young book - boy of the Du Clan, had stolen the "Undecaying Bone" that the clan leader had painstakingly cultivated for more than a decade.
"Really not..."
The man held my chin with one hand and wiped the wound on his neck bitten by me with the other. "Du Xinghe, you've hidden well! It took so long for you to show your true colors! I had to be the bait myself to lure you out."
Saying this, he slapped the second half of the spell on me with a cold smile, "Evil spirits in the world, listen carefully. Above are the Six Jia, below are the Six Ding. Suppress your souls and fix them with thunder. The Supreme One has given the order, and I am to carry it out!"
Damn it!! He's no soldier!
He's clearly a Taoist priest, a priest who exorcises demons and catches ghosts!