Chapter 48
Chapter 48
The weather had taken a sudden turn over the past few days, with the meteorological station issuing multiple orange alerts for blizzards.
Snowflakes as large as an infant’s fist drifted densely from the sky, landing on the ground with a soft, rustling sound. It was truly a scene where “a thousand miles are sealed in ice, and ten thousand miles are veiled in drifting snow.”
The entire Northern Lands were draped in a coat of silver.
Yesterday, Chief Zhou had come to deliver winter clothes to Hua Jiunan. At the same time, he brought news that left the boy deeply troubled: Tian Zhigang was dead!
Furthermore, he had been bitten to death by his own dead father!
With this, the men of Old Fourth Tian’s family were completely gone; the lineage had reached its end.
The Gray Family Immortal Spirits responsible for monitoring the village had witnessed the event: after Tian Zhigang died, he underwent a Corpse Rising on the spot. He and Old Fourth Tian were then led into the mountains by a Red-Dressed Female Ghost.
However, the trail went cold there.
No matter how hard the various Immortal Spirits and Hemp-clad Grandmother searched, they could not find where the pair was hidden.
Since Tian Zhigang was a public official, his sudden “disappearance” drew high level attention from the township government. They had ordered the police station to solve the case within a set timeframe.
Hua Jiunan’s mind wandered during class, which was noticed by Teacher Zhang. A half-piece of chalk suddenly went *whoosh*, flying toward him.
Sniping people with chalk-and with perfect accuracy-was perhaps a universal skill possessed by all teachers under the sun.
Just as it was about to strike Hua Jiunan’s forehead, the “fiercely loyal” Chen Daji punched the chalk away. He even mimicked Bruce Lee, letting out a loud, “Watahh!”
Chen Daji’s stunt thoroughly enraged Teacher Zhang.
“Both of you, go stand outside!”
Hua Jiunan and Chen Daji were not the type to be pedantic, so they naturally didn’t stand obediently in the wind and snow. Instead, they found a large tree and squatted beneath it.
“Big Brother, were you just thinking about kissing Xu Fangcao?”
“Otherwise, with your reflexes, there’s no way you wouldn’t have dodged Old Lady Zhang’s ‘hidden weapon’!”
Hua Jiunan gave a cheeky grin. “The kissing stuff… I usually only think about that at night.”
“Cough, cough. Let’s talk business. Another person from the Old Tian Family is dead!”
After hearing Hua Jiunan’s explanation, Chen Daji wasn’t afraid; instead, he seemed a bit excited.
“Big Brother, Big Brother! So you’re saying there are two zombies in the village now?”
“What are zombies like?”
“Are they like in the movies, just hopping around and biting everything they see?”
“With my agile moves and a forty-meter-long machete, could I take on a zombie?”
This question actually stumped Hua Jiunan. He wasn’t even sure if Old Fourth Tian and his son counted as zombies, as he had never seen such things himself. He had only heard Deaf Granny talk about them.
Zombies were created when a person died with their eyes open, causing resentment to gather in the throat. Due to infection by corpse poison or the feng shui of the burial ground, a transformation occurred.
In Daoist scriptures, zombies have three aliases: Moving Corpse, Walking Shadow, and Walking Corpse.
In the book *New Tales of Qi*, there was a mention of Yunnan miners who were trapped by collapsing earth. Whether it was decades or a century later, they were nourished by the metallic essence of the earth, and their bodies did not decay, turning into Gan Jizi.
Zombies are classified into eight levels based on their form.
From lowest to highest, they are: Purple Corpse, White Corpse, Green Corpse, Hairy Corpse, Flying Corpse, Wandering Corpse, Crouching Corpse, and Unrotting Bone.
A Purple Corpse is a zombie that has just formed. At this stage, the entire body appears purple, and the corpse is in the initial stage of resisting rot. While corpses turning purple is a real phenomenon, at this level, it is still just a body. Modern science suggests the purple color comes from a toxin that dyes the blood, spreading throughout the body after death.
White Corpses and Black Corpses have bodies that are white or black, with hair of the same color. They move slowly and are very easy to deal with. They fear sunlight, fire, water, chickens, dogs, and even humans.
Green Corpses emit a green miasma, and their bodies are green. Compared to White and Black Corpses, they jump extremely fast. They do not fear humans or livestock, fearing only sunlight.
Hairy Corpses grow hair on their bodies and are famous for having skin like copper and bones like iron. They are agile, leaping onto roofs and trees as if flying. They begin to lose their fear of ordinary fire and even sunlight.
Flying Corpses are thousand-year-old zombies that have succeeded in their cultivation. In ancient times, one was recorded in Anzhou, Zhili. Flying Corpses are skilled in magic and possess indestructible bodies. Because they can fly, they are called Flying Corpses.
Unrotting Bone refers to specific parts of a human body that do not decay after death because of a concentration of spiritual essence. If an Unrotting Bone later absorbs the essence of the sun and moon, it will cause trouble. The “Millennium Wraith Bone” mentioned at the beginning of this story is essentially a type of Unrotting Bone.
Crouching Corpses are thousand-year-old bodies that do not rot but cannot move. They can be described as Unrotting Bones in the form of a complete, intact corpse. Over time, after absorbing enough solar and lunar essence, they gradually transform into Wandering Corpses.
Wandering Corpses are zombies that have survived the initial tribulation of “Heavenly Thunder.” Born from the gathered resentment of heaven and earth, they are ageless, undying, and indestructible. They are cast out of the Six Realms of Reincarnation by Heaven and Earth. Once one becomes a Wandering Corpse, they can enter and exit both the Yin and Yang realms, soaring to the Nine Heavens above and descending to the Netherworld below.
They truly possess the power to traverse heaven and earth. They move according to the lunar essence and the seasons, having no fixed abode. Given enough time, they can even transform into a Flying Yaksha.