Volume One, Chapter 155: “Corpse Mountain” Erupts

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Lu Jinyuan’s face had gone slightly pale. Qin Yu studied his rigid back. “You guessed it?”

Lu Jinyuan said nothing. He merely pressed his lips tightly together.

Qin Yu’s cool voice came again from behind him. “It is exactly what you think it is—corpse oil.”

Not only that…

Qin Yu glanced at the dust-covered luminous pearls around them. “Those pearls have been filled with corpse oil as well.”

Lu Jinyuan’s stomach churned violently. His mind conjured up one horrifying scene after another of corpses being boiled down, compounded by the sticky sensation beneath his shoes…

His scalp prickled.

“Urgh!”

Unable to hold it back, he braced himself against the wall and retched dryly.

The moment he realized that the wall he was touching might also be coated in corpse oil, his entire body stiffened even further.

“What exactly is this Mountain God? Why would he make so much corpse oil?”

Lu Jinyuan asked between dry heaves.

Qin Yu’s expression darkened slightly. “As early as the Tang Dynasty, certain secret histories recorded the use of the dead to make medicinal ointments for treating rare and difficult illnesses.”

Lu Jinyuan felt deeply sickened. “Would anyone really believe that?”

Qin Yu nodded. “When people are desperate enough, they would swallow not only corpse oil, but even an entire corpse.”

Lu Jinyuan’s eyelids twitched wildly. “Does it really work?”

Qin Yu clenched her palm tightly. “Its essence is simply fat, perhaps with a few medicinal herbs added. Besides, the process of making corpse oil is both cruel and unhygienic. The corpse is placed in a large cauldron and boiled until the flesh rots away and the bones dissolve.”

After death, the soul does not immediately leave the body.

Therefore, the soul could feel the torment inflicted upon the corpse.

Those who specialized in producing corpse oil usually possessed methods for restraining the dead souls’ revenge. Some even exploited the power of resentful spirits to improve the quality of the corpse oil.

In short, the process was utterly horrific.

Lu Jinyuan heard Qin Yu sigh and shake her head behind him, and he turned slightly to look at her.

Qin Yu froze, then instinctively touched her face. “Is there something on my face?”

Lu Jinyuan said, “I just think your explanation was a little too normal.”

It had not involved ghosts at all.

Qin Yu rolled her eyes at him. “Why are you in such a hurry? I’m not finished yet!”

“At first, it might have some effect. But backlash would follow very quickly. The first symptom would be the appearance of corpse spots. Then the entire body would break out in pus-filled blisters and gangrene, until the person ended up looking neither human nor ghost.”

Something filled with such overwhelming resentment could never bring about a good end.

Lu Jinyuan’s brows drew together. “Some people will do absolutely anything for money.”

Qin Yu blinked her slightly rounded eyes. She suspected that money was not the Mountain God’s ultimate goal either.

She simply had not yet determined what that goal was.

The deeper they went, the more wrong Qin Yu felt. It was far too quiet, and the huge cauldron she remembered still had not appeared.

Even after the two of them reached the end of the cavern, they found nothing.

Lu Jinyuan looked at Qin Yu in confusion. Qin Yu was equally puzzled.

The Changyi Grand Sword had only recovered to one-third of its former spiritual energy, and without the support of merit, her magic power had been greatly weakened.

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If only she could open her Celestial Eye at a time like this!

But when she thought of the side effects, she did not dare.

Qin Yu’s pupils contracted slightly. Suddenly, she saw the pile of white bones in the corner.

“I have an idea!”

—

Beneath the dim glow of the luminous pearls, a hunched old woman stirred the bones and flesh in a cauldron without pause. A mirror sat before her, and within it was a perfect image of Qin Yu and Lu Jinyuan.

“Heh heh heh heh heh heh! You still dream of finding the master’s cavern? Keep dreaming your foolish dreams! Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh!”

Her shrill, discordant voice filled the cavern, grotesque and repulsive.

With the echo from the cave entrance, her words were repeated again and again.

While she was still distracted, the two figures in the mirror suddenly vanished.

The old woman thought she had imagined it and frantically rubbed her eyes. But when she opened them again, there was still nothing in the mirror.

“Where are they? Where did they go? Where? Where? Where?”

Her rough fingers clawed wildly across the mirror. With every swipe, the scene within shifted, and before long she had searched every corner of the cavern.

Unfortunately, she still could not find any trace of Lu Jinyuan or Qin Yu.

“Are you looking for us?”

Qin Yu’s amused voice sounded from behind her.

The old woman’s eyes widened in terror. Her stiff body turned around, and sure enough, she saw the two people who had been in the mirror only moments earlier.

Her short, thick fingers pointed frantically back and forth between them. With a mind as underdeveloped as hers, she probably could not even decide which of them she was supposed to be pointing at.

“How did you find this place?”

“That was all thanks to her!”

Qin Yu moved two steps to the right, revealing a skeleton.

The skeleton was slender, making it easy to identify as a woman’s—and a young woman’s at that.

The old woman’s face was twisted with confusion, her features practically pressed into all the wrong places. Qin Yu continued, “Those ghastly white bones scattered throughout the cavern should be the failed products of your corpse-oil refining, shouldn’t they? To prevent the ghosts from taking revenge, you sealed them inside the bones.”

The method of refining corpse oil was cruel and contrary to the laws of Heaven, so the ancient texts recording it had long since been destroyed to prevent anyone from imitating it.

Therefore, if Qin Yu’s guess was correct, the bones outside were the remains of failed attempts by people who had not mastered the process. They could boil away the flesh, but not completely dissolve the bones.

Judging by the number of bones near the entrance, the production of corpse oil had begun long before the Mountain God’s marriage ritual. It might even have started during wartime…

In those days, someone died almost every day. Even if several unclaimed corpses went missing, no one would have paid much attention.

The hunched old woman’s face remained expressionless. Then her vacant gaze suddenly turned vicious, and she let out a hoarse roar.

“Since you know everything, then die!”

As she spoke, her stitched-together body immediately came apart, piece by piece, flying toward Qin Yu.

Qin Yu’s gaze sharpened. With a cold snort, she said, “So you really are made of paper.”

At the same time, the Frost-Embracing Sword flashed.

With no more than a slight wave of her hand, the fragments were sent tumbling in every direction. Some were even smashed into smaller pieces.

The fierce sword energy tossed up the hem of Qin Yu’s skirt. Lu Jinyuan stood there with his mouth slightly open, looking as though he had not seen nearly enough.

He had watched Qin Yu exorcise ghosts in her livestreams. She was decisive and ruthless then as well, but somehow, something always seemed to be missing.

As the old woman vanished, the enormous cauldrons used to boil the bones suddenly exploded where they stood with a deafening bang.

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Scalding liquid gushed out like a volcanic eruption.

Qin Yu’s heart lurched. Not good.

She immediately drew a protective talisman, shielding both herself and Lu Jinyuan.

Before Lu Jinyuan even understood what had happened, he was already outside the cavern.

He turned back. The cave now resembled a boiling kettle, with clouds of steaming vapor pouring continuously from it.

Then came another tremendous bang. The mountaintop was like a lid being battered by boiling water, and its shape visibly began to distort.

Qin Yu pressed her lips together, her expression growing increasingly grim. “Lu Jinyuan, take the villagers and leave. The farther away, the better!”

With that, she lightly touched the ground with her toes. Spiritual energy lifted her rapidly into the air. Without hesitation, she bit through her fingertip, formed a hand seal, and frantically swept her bloodstained finger across sheets of yellow talisman paper.

She drew extremely quickly, completing a yellow talisman in roughly three or four seconds. Once finished, the talismans obediently arranged themselves above the mountaintop, gradually forming the shape of a new peak.

Qin Yu’s face was deathly pale. She flew over and stood atop the talismans with both feet. Then she closed her eyes and began meditating on the spot.

Lu Jinyuan glanced at Qin Yu and turned away without lingering.

The villagers, however, had witnessed his earlier feat. They feared him even more than before and refused to listen to him at all.

Left with no choice, he darkened his face and threatened them ominously. “If you refuse to listen, you’ll end up just like Old Third Jia!”

None of them wanted to become the next Old Third Jia, so they followed Lu Jinyuan timidly.

But when Lu Jinyuan led them to the village entrance, they refused to take even one step farther.

He glared at them ferociously. “What? Do you want me to tear you apart with my bare hands?”

As he spoke, he tightened his fists. Beneath the sunlight, his fingers were slender and pale, his knuckles sharply defined.

The villagers shook their heads and waved their hands in terror. Some even collapsed to their knees.

“Please, Mister Lu, spare us! We can’t leave the village! We’ll die if we go outside!”

Lu Jinyuan turned as though seeking confirmation from the siblings of the Su family at the front of the crowd.

They were also afraid when they looked at him, but far less so than the others.

“Mister Lu, he’s telling the truth. Everyone in Jia Family Village has been cursed. Anyone who leaves will die.”

Lu Jinyuan’s handsome, swordlike brows drew tightly together. “You believe that?”

The villagers did not dare answer. They merely lowered their heads and stared fixedly at their toes.

It was Su Haohao who finally spoke. “Because my parents crossed the boundary at the village entrance, my father stabbed my mother to death right in front of me, then killed himself.”

Lu Jinyuan did not believe him. He opened his mouth. “Fine. I’ll walk out right now and show you.”

With that, he stepped across the boundary with one foot.

The villagers sucked in their breaths and hurriedly retreated half a step. Some even covered their eyes with both hands.

“Don’t!”

Su Xiuxiu stepped forward, intending to stop him, but Su Haohao pulled her back.

Yet even after Lu Jinyuan’s entire body had crossed the boundary, the curse they expected never descended upon him.

The villagers looked at one another, bewildered and uncertain how to react.

Lu Jinyuan glared at them sharply. “Rather than being trapped in this village until you die, don’t you want to come outside and see the world?”

Some of them were not native-born villagers of Jia Family Village.

His words stirred ripples in their hearts.