Five
Since entering the city, Zhan Xiao had already severed no fewer than fifty corpse heads.
Due to excessive force, his long sword had begun to curl at the edge. No matter how carefully he maintained it, the blade seemed unlikely to hold up much longer.
His waist ached deeply, and his legs had long lost all sensation. This endless cycle of days appeared increasingly difficult to endure.
"Are we done here?" he murmured softly, leaning the purple coffin on his back against a withered tree before settling beside it.
"I know it's not enough yet. What I promised you remains unfulfilled." After a moment, he spoke to himself again, slowly closing his eyes.
The night moon hung perfectly in the sky. For one fleeting moment of silence, he felt transported back to those peaceful, beautiful days of old.
"Until this sword fails me. The sword and I stand or fall together—this I promised you." Resolving himself, he straightened up, pried open the heavy lid of the purple coffin, and dragged his stiff legs forward step by step.
The purple coffin emitted a faint fragrance, yet inside lay completely empty, devoid of anything.
After just a few steps, Zhan Xiao stepped inside, standing upright within the massive vertical coffin. With effort from within, he slammed the lid shut with a resonant "bang."
Having been haunted by countless spirits since childhood, Ban Xia had never experienced such a sensation. She was aware of what was happening, aware that someone was carrying her at breakneck speed, yet she couldn't wake up. Her body felt weighed down by heavy clouds of cotton, refusing to obey her mind.
The one carrying her was a corpse, silent but incredibly swift. Battling against the wind, they soon arrived in a desolate desert.
The biting wind, laden with sand, irritated her skin unbearably. Clenching her lips tightly, Ban Xia finally awoke from her dazed dream.
Corpses surrounded her, all with disheveled long hair, staring at her expressionlessly.
Ban Xia bit her lips harder, her body limp as rubber candy. Struggling to sit up, she glared back at them defiantly.
The corpses remained silent, stepping forward in unison with a rustling sound, closing in around her tighter.
As the wind blew, their straw-like hair brushed against her face, nauseating her so much that she vomited a mouthful of dark green water.
"You're dying," one of the corpses suddenly spoke, his words surprisingly clear. "So you can't blame our master."
Ban Xia stared at him, inexplicably finding him intensely familiar.
"Have we met before?" she asked hazily.
"We have met."
The reply came not from the corpse before her, but from outside the circle.
Someone was approaching, his footsteps on the sand still light and cautious, almost imperceptible.
The corpses gradually retreated, clearing a path for him.
And so Ban Xia saw his face—a pale, sharply defined face.
She had no interest in pretty boys with delicate features and slim waists, but this face left an indelible impression on her.
A youthful face and build, yet with eyes that held restrained heaviness, always slightly lowered when looking at others, respectful yet distant.
This was Xia Zhi, the employer who had offered them a hundred taels of gold to capture Zhan Xiao alive—the nineteen-year-old young master of the Xia family.
"You've contracted a fever and won't make it out of this desert," he said to Ban Xia, still maintaining his politeness with a slightly bowed head.
"And so?""Then I wish to purchase something from you—your heart." Xia Zhi remained amiable. "Name your price."
"You're insane."
"I am not. You may state your price now. Perhaps... you could demand that I end your man's life before he turns into a corpse puppet." Xia Zhi spoke lightly, his elegant slender fingers pointing toward Ban Xia as they gradually began dissolving into black smoke in the desert night breeze.
Having been gone barely two hours, Xuan Ye returned to the dilapidated temple to find Ban Xia missing, while Chi Xue was repeatedly smashing his head against a wall with loud thuds.
"So these two corpse puppets coordinated—one distracted you while the other seized the opportunity to take someone?"
After hearing the account, Xuan Ye grew increasingly perplexed: "Corpse puppets have no consciousness or intellect. How could they suddenly gain insight and coordinate their actions?"
Chi Xue pursed his lips, stopped headbutting the wall, and instead furrowed his brows so deeply they nearly twisted into knots. "My master must have taught me about these aspects of corpse puppets, he definitely did! I'm sure I can remember!"
Xuan Ye fell silent, suppressing his emotions as he waited for the recollection.
"Corpse puppets... for them to develop consciousness, they'd need either extreme trauma or profound obsession—the odds are merely one in ten thousand... It can't be such a coincidence..." Chi Xue muttered, his brows contorting violently, yet still failing to produce an answer.
"I'm going out to search." Xuan Ye finally lost patience, rising with his hand on the sword hilt. In his agitation, his sleeve brushed against the still-burning temple fire, producing a sizzle and the smell of scorched fabric.
The dazed Chi Xue watched the black smoke and suddenly had an epiphany, sharply recalling something.
"There is one type of corpse puppet," he declared—after all, he was half a Seer, and once grasping the thread of memory, could quickly unravel it. "If they remain conscious during the transformation process and consume their master's heart raw, they permanently retain their own consciousness."
Xuan Ye's heart gradually sank.
Chi Xue continued: "With timely nourishment, this type of corpse puppet can evolve, transform into smoke, travel thousands of miles in a day, and ultimately might even..."
"Nourishment? What kind of nourishment?" Xuan Ye interjected.
Chi Xue looked uneasy and began stammering: "That is... eating living human hearts. He he he... exists between corpse puppet and human..."
Before he could finish, a gust of wind swept through as Xuan Ye vanished.
"Elegant Confinement! I haven't finished! This kind of corpse puppet may evolve into a Corpse Fiend! Immortal and indestructible, more troublesome than an Asura!!" Chi Xue stood muttering, finally locating his luggage and flower pot after some searching. Clutching them tightly, he stumbled after Xuan Ye.
"You Huang..." Xuan Ye released his signal firework just steps outside the temple. "Appear."
Before the sparkling embers fully dissipated, the dashing bamboo gentleman materialized elegantly at the street center, arms crossed, eyes curved in amusement: "You said you'd never use this firework, that you'd never beg me."
"I'm begging you now—find Ban Xia for me."
"Her affairs don't concern me. Besides, I lack such capabilities."
Xuan Ye fell silent, his right hand tracing an eerie symbol followed by a crisp snap of his fingers.A blue, ghost fire-like entity materialized in response, perching on You Huang's shoulder. Apart from being somewhat translucent, it was essentially a miniature humanoid with alarmingly large eyes that now gazed at You Huang in confusion.
"You can't find it, but this thing certainly can." Xuan Ye's voice was cold.
"How did you summon my Ghost Domain? Damn it all to hell!"
"Tell it I'm looking for a corpse bearer carrying a purple coffin, named Zhan Xiao."
"It can't do that!"
The blue Ghost Domain appeared rather dull-witted, but upon hearing this it grew visibly agitated, hopping and twisting its ghost fire-like body while blinking its enormous eyes repeatedly in solemn protest.
"Even if it could, I wouldn't take you. If I took you, that corpse bearer would be doomed for no good reason." You Huang tactfully changed his tune.
"But if you don't take me, Ban Xia will die - have her heart torn out while still alive."
"She's important to me."
The words were spoken with profound sincerity, softly uttered yet carrying immense weight.
You Huang remained standing in the street center, arms crossed, listening as a slow bitterness seeped into his heart.
"Every damn lifetime, you always have someone important." He murmured softly, extending a finger to massage between his brows, smoothing the furrowed skin. Then he turned and gave the Ghost Domain a sharp knock on its head: "Lead the way, you idiot! So stupid - if you ever go out, don't you dare tell anyone I'm your master!"
After sleeping for approximately two hours, Zhan Xiao awoke.
He simply woke up, indifferent as always, still inside the purple coffin with his head slightly tilted against the coffin wall.
To this day, the only parts he could move freely were his head, neck, and upper limbs.
From the waist down, all his joints had stiffened completely.
Thus he could neither sit nor lie down - only stand. Standing to speak, standing to eat, standing to sleep, standing to think.
It wasn't that it wasn't exhausting, but he never spoke of it.
Who would he tell anyway? Why burden others with his own heaviness.
"Two more hours until dawn." He said to himself, counting his heartbeats to track time - always remarkably accurate.
After about fifteen thousand beats, a new day would begin, and he would take up his sword to continue his journey.
The first five thousand beats passed normally, the desert at night utterly silent except for the drum-like rhythm of his heartbeat.
At the five thousand and first beat, unusual sounds emerged from outside - someone approaching with hurried footsteps, the rustling sound reaching him in moments.
Without any greeting, the newcomer drew their weapon. A silver flash cut through the night sky, and with one strike, the coffin lid was cleaved in two.
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