Dead trees made up the bulk of the dusky withered forest, and a thick mist pervaded them, bringing with it the unignorable stench of corpses. In addition to the stench were figures standing upright amid the forest’s mulch. Some wore tattered clothes, others even had broken limbs, yet they stayed firm regardless. As though driven by an ineffable spell, they stood upright in the distorted forest.
“What are those things?” Su Yu watched the inky specks in his vision, “Are they floating?”
“!” Zhang Fugui looked at the corpses with broken legs, and he somewhat agreed. The ‘golden rooster standing on one leg’ poses of these corpses were truly a tad like they were floating…1Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg (金雞獨立) is a Tai Chi posture.
But it didn’t need to be said out loud! Now he wished he would float away!
As the pitch-black mist overflowed, the mountain forest was almost fully shrouded. Amid the black mist, the rotten soil gradually revealed its true appearance; withered bleached bones climbed up from the soil, swaying one by one, growing in number.
A terrifying thought emerged in Zhang Fugui’s mind. He remembered the rumor he’d heard from his ghost friends when they wandered Nanwu Mountain—The Tomb of the Living.
Nanwu Mountain’s seal had existed for a long time. It’s said that hundreds of years ago, an evil cultivator entered Nanwu Mountain by mistake, and that due to his devilish cultivation method, he and the scattered yin qi residing in Nanwu Mountain had complemented one another. The land in which he died became a corrupt land within Nanwu Mountain, and rumor has it that those who die in Nanwu Mountain and aren’t devoured by its evil spirits, along with cultivators that stray into the mountain, become living dead after dying in that same tract of land.
Thinking of this, Zhang Fugui backtracked a bit in fear: “Daoist Master, wait! These seem to be living dead people…”
Living dead people? Su Yu gazed at the inky specks in his vision—
Are these inky spots ‘people’?
As Su Yu looked in their direction, their lifeless eyes locked onto Su Yu.
In the next instant, every one of the living dead pounced at the lone human and ghost.
A blast of wind came at them, and without wasting a word, Zhang Fugui ran wildly “Daoist Master. Run!!!”
The living dead in the forest were startled and began to move at almost the same time. The walking corpses rushed at the only living person there. Su Yu just saw the inky specks in his sight gathering in his direction and hastened to instinctively step back. He then felt the wind blow past his head, and a noisy sound reached his ears.
A sense of crisis heavily dominated Su Yu’s mind. He had just taken a few steps back when he bumped into a withered tree behind him. Just then, a living dead pounced on Su Yu and bit his arm, its fangs biting through his skin. Su Yu hurriedly withdrew his hand, only to tear off a patch of skin.
Blood spurted out!
The living corpses nearby seemed to smell something and turned around, dashing towards Su Yu.
Not long after Zhang Fugui ran away, he found that he couldn’t run anymore. The chain around his ankle tightly constrained him. He had to turn around on the spot and go back, but with a single glance, he saw Su Yu trapped among the withered trees.
How could he forget! The Daoist Master’s blind, he can’t flee!
Seeing the other living dead charge at the Daoist Master, Zhang Fugui turned around to help wordlessly. He was able to cultivate his current soul body in Nanwu Mountain over a long time, and had received guidance from many fellow evil spirits. He reluctantly moved the yin qi in his body and blocked the living dead in front of the Daoist Master before another could attack and bite him.
The living dead were much stronger than Zhang Fugui. As soon as Zhang Fugui blocked two of them, the yin qi in his body had already waned a bit. He barely managed to sweep away the living dead that rushed at him, but just as he was about to carry the Daoist Master on his back and leave, his wrist was abruptly grabbed.
“Daoist Master!” Zhang Fugui was startled.
Su Yu stared at Zhang Fugui’s arm, his eyes fixated on it: “What’s this?”
“Ah…?” Zhang Fugui realized that the Daoist Master was asking about his arm, “The Vajra Iron Fist?”2金剛鐵臂 – In Buddhism, the term ‘vajra’ refers to one of the five central Buddhist principles, representing an indestructible substance that cuts and penetrates through emotional instability.
He’d been taught this move by the evil spirits he used to work with. Concentrating yin qi in the arm can enhance it enough to fight something three times one’s size. Apparently, the mighty figures of the cultivation world liked to add a few prefixes to techniques they were proud of. They called this thing the Vajra Iron Fist.
“Daoist Master, do you know this trick?” Zhang Fugui asked.
Su Yu: “I don’t.”
The white humanoid smoke ball stood in front of him. Its white smoke, which previously let off vapors, seemed to have solidified a bit, especially around Zhang Fugui’s arm. Su Yu could see the yin qi was much more condensed along that area.
When Su Yu viewed his ocean of consciousness in full, he saw that the yin qi that he hadn’t mobilized before was still scattered near his dantian.3The actual term used here is 內觀 (Sanskrit: vipassana) which, in Theravada Buddhism, refers to concentrating to ‘super-seeing’ or ‘introspecting’ in order to gain a clear awareness of what’s happening. He tried to activate the unmoved yin qi scattered near his dantian again, trying to direct the yin qi in his body to near his arm…
At that moment, even more living dead discovered them.
Zhang Fugui turned and instantly saw countless heads rushing towards them. Now wasn’t the time to talk about the Vajra Iron Arm. Even a steel bastion couldn’t stop so many living dead from pouncing on them. These living dead didn’t feel pain, nor did they know of life and death. Even if they were just heads, they would still pounce and kill them.
The living dead have no awareness or feelings, they will only obey the tomb owner’s—the evil cultivator’s—dying wish; to turn all the living who stray into this land into living dead.
Zhang Fugui was thinking about which direction to run in with the Daoist Master on his back when two living dead suddenly dashed out from the group. Their forms suggested they had died fairly recently. and they still wore relatively complete clothes…He immediately resisted them, but a burning sensation in his arms immediately made him take a sharp breath.
“It’s over! These living dead were cultivators when they were alive!”
Zhang Fugui’s cultivation was enough to deal with a few ugly, ordinary living dead, but up against these living dead cultivators, wouldn’t it be futile? He had never heard of so many living dead cultivators being in the Tomb of the Living before!
Suddenly, the surrounding living dead pounced again, and their overwhelming attack was unstoppable and unrelenting.
When the claws of a living dead swung before him, Zhang Fugui lived through his decades of life as a man and ghost in just a few breaths. The person behind him immediately pulled on him hard, and the sharp claws of the living dead scratched the side of his face.
“Daoist Master!” Zhang Fugui exclaimed.
As soon as Su Yu pulled Zhang Fugui away, he bumped into a withered tree behind him. As soon as he stepped back, his path was immediately blocked.
The clear sound of an attack sounded in his ears, and the inky dots in his field of vision surrounded him in every direction. Su Yu endured the pain in his back. The pain from his broken leg almost made walking challenging for him. However, the whooshing in his ears got closer and closer, accompanied by sounds of some living creature running. It was very close by. Only a few steps away from him.
Zhang Fugui fell behind and looked up out of lingering fear. His mind went numb.
A living dead appeared high up on a withered tree, right where the two of them were. Its head was half flesh and half bones, and the teeth in its bared mouth were abnormally sharp. It crawled atop the withered trees like a reptile, and it was as if its empty eyes were locked on the prey right before it.
It swooped down from the trees.
Zhang Fugui shouted urgently; “Daoist Master! Above!”
No! It’s too late!!!
Su Yu caught the sound of a fast and fierce wind in his ears, but his body seemed to be one step faster than his mind. The blood in his meridians almost stagnated momentarily, then, the yin qi in his dantian began to course rapidly. He subconsciously raised his hand, and his arm collided head-on with the living dead falling from a height. The pressure weighing down on him made his body suddenly sink.
The living dead’s sharp fangs pierced his skin, and a numb and painful sensation spread from his arm. He could clearly feel the fangs on his skin. Digging into it. But not biting through.
Su Yu was startled. The elbow between him and the fangs of the living dead was covered with yin qi. The pure yin qi in his dantian had gathered in his left arm. His arm seemed to be tempered with a thick barrier, which looked like it had blocked the living dead’s fangs.
Zhang Fugui, eyes half-covered, quietly peeked out from between his fingers. Hold on? It was blocked…?
The living dead couldn’t bite through, so it then opened its mouth wide once more and bit down hard.
But its tender prey seemed to have turned into hard rock. It didn’t break into it with one bite, and when it bit down again, it just heard a tiny cracking sound.
Zhang Fugui was shocked to see what had rolled to his feet. Gray-black stones akin to the fangs of the living dead had fallen down…Its teeth?? Broke???
Sensing a claw strike coming from the side, Su Yu swung the living dead on his arm with force and blocked the attack on his other side with the back of his hand.
Zhang Fugui no longer cared to look at how many teeth the living dead had knocked out. In his panic, he only heard a strong wind blow past his ears. When he took a closer look, the living dead had already been thrown dozens of steps away. He looked at the youth beside him with wide eyes, glimpsing two living dead hanging on his arms. The living dead opened their mouths, and their saliva dripped off their fangs onto Zhang Fugui’s face.
Su Yu didn’t say anything. The weight of one living dead was acceptable, but two living dead pressed down on his arms. They were so heavy he could hardly lift his hands. He tried his best to make use of the living dead on his elbows, sweeping them outwards to knock the numerous ink spots gathered around him away.
“Daoist Master! The cultivator!” Zhang Fugui.
Su Yu came to his senses with Zhang Fugui’s exclamation. Then, he saw several strange spots emerge among the inky specks in his field of vision.
The inky spots that eagerly neared weren’t really pure black. Instead, there were faint dots of red lingering on them. He was about to examine them further when he suddenly noticed a fiery qi up-close in his face.
No! He tried to block it as best he could, but his whole body was pushed back by the claws filled with fiery qi, and he hit a withered tree behind him.
The palm of the living dead cultivator was filled with scorching flames. This man was a flame cultivator when he was alive. The instant the flames in his palm hit the Daoist Master’s arm, they seemed to evaporate. Zhang Fugui was dumbfounded. The few moves he had were nothing like a Vajra Iron Fist, the Daoist Master was the one with the real Vajra Iron Fist!
“We have to run out quickly!” Zhang Fugui said.
Su Yu was aware of the strain on him. He could feel a soreness and discomfort in his arms after resisting the living dead multiple times. The injuries on his body made him gasp for breath. He squinted his eyes and looked at the inky spots gradually gathering around him. He saw something similar to the variegated, unique inky speck of the living dead from a moment ago.
The pure inky dots are ordinary people…are these strange ones cultivators?
As more inky specks appeared in his field of vision suffused with yin qi, Su Yu felt the fatigue in his ocean of consciousness more acutely. He seemed unaccustomed to using his eyes to see anything for a long period of time, or in other words, he hasn’t used these eyes that much. The more he used his eyes, the more tired he felt. The subtle sense of dissonance became doubly heavier.
As soon as his injured leg sank into the rotten soil, the severe pain from his broken leg pulled Su Yu back. He woke up with a start and found that the inky spots in his field of vision had begun to blur. His physical fatigue increased incrementally too.
He was nearly exhausted.
If this continued, he would be skinned by this band of living dead
“You said these are all influenced by the tomb owner?” Su Yu asked.
Zhang Fugui nodded: “Yes.”
He didn’t know which of the olden great masters the evil cultivator was—he couldn’t even rest in peace after death, confined in a place like Nanwu Mountain. There was only one way to leave after entering the grounds of the Tomb of the Living; those living dead, affected by the evil cultivator’s tombstone, wouldn’t leave. So, as long as they leave the Tomb of the Living, they’ll be safe.
More and more living dead flocked from the environs towards them. Su Yu looked up at the inky spots in the distance, most were on their side, but fewer and fewer were inward…It was as if they were just wandering the periphery and not entering any further.
Before Zhang Fugui had finished replying, he saw the Daoist Master walk a few steps deeper inside.
He was stunned in place. He’d understand running out, but why was the Daoist Master running inwards?
The chaotic inky specks rushed at Su Yu. He couldn’t judge their directions, left to dodge the inky specks by instinct.
As he walked inwards, the soil around him turned soft and wet.
“Daoist Master, wait! In front!” Zhang Fugui yelled.
The young Daoist Master in front of him crashed into a tree.
Zhang Fugui covered his eyes.
It seems like the living dead around him hadn’t expected the human before them to hit a tree either. Seeing this, they instantly pressed forward. At this moment, the youth stepped back from the withered tree in front of him and swept away a couple of the tree’s broken branches, knocking away the several living dead that rushed at him.
Zhang Fugui: “…”
Do all blind people walk like this!
The living dead charged over once more, and Zhang Fugui hurried to catch up. This time, he shouted in advance: “Daoist Master, right!”
The youth up ahead heard Zhang Fugui’s call, just grazing a tree. It looked like he’d fully mastered the technique for moving forward. He held onto a withered tree to relieve the pain in his injured leg.
The further in he went, the fewer living dead there were. But there were also more living dead cultivators who were extra challenging to deal with.
The inky spots in Su Yu’s field of vision spread out a bit, and an irritation in his eyes made him blink. He took advantage of the gap between blinking to peer inside, and just then, he suddenly noticed that there was an empty space at the center of these scattered ink dots.
It was very odd to have an empty space there. The identical spots in his field of vision avoided that area, as though deliberately distancing from it, or, deliberately surrounding it.
The living dead seemed to have discovered how difficult the intruders were. They surrounded Su Yu, and soon, blood started to drip down his body again. His previous injuries hadn’t healed, plus there was his broken leg too. It was somewhat strenuous for him.
Zhang Fugui had no choice but to carry Su Yu on his back. As soon as he carried him onto his back, the living dead attacked him. At that moment, Su Yu’s left arm blocked Zhang Fugui’s face, and the living dead bit him on the arm. The yin qi condensed in Su Yu’s arm burst out, knocking the living dead dozens of steps away.
Zhang Fugui: “The Divine Vajra Fist…”
Su Yu looked into the distance and spoke coldly: “Run east.”
The yin qi in his body seemed to become active after Su Yu moved it, and it began to rampage and rush through Su Yu’s meridians. The totem entrenched in Su Yu’s dantian inadvertently revolved a little faster, and the yin qi condensed in Su Yu’s arms swelled.
Zhang Fugui looked at the other living dead cultivators coming to surround them. Several holes had been burned through his soul body as he carried Su Yu on his back. It wasn’t easy to cultivate a soul body, the several holes had burned decades of his cultivation!
Su Yu felt like the meridians in his arms were about to explode, and it became increasingly difficult to raise them. But he had no time to deal with this, his eyes constantly searching for the empty space that the inky specks scattered from—There!
At that critical moment, Su Yu, supported by Zhang Fugui’s shoulders, jumped forward. The chain on his ankle grabbed Zhang Fugui and forcefully pulled him along. The human-ghost duo were hurt from the fall, and a rotten smell filled the tips of their noses. The surroundings suddenly died down.
The living dead surrounded the perimeter, watching them with eager gazes like tigers do their prey. Zhang Fugui shrank back in fear, and his hand suddenly touched a stone that hit his hand. When he lowered his head, he saw a fallen stele half buried in the ground.
What is this thing? Zhang Fugui swept away the mulch on the stele with his hands. Much of the inscriptions on the stele had worn away, but he could vaguely make out that—
—This was a tombstone.
“They haven’t come over yet,” Su Yu said.
Zhang Fugui shook his hands and looked at Su Yu, “Daoist Master…below! The stele!!”
The stele! They were sitting on the tombstone!
Su Yu touched the convex and concave thing under his hands. He didn’t restrain the yin qi around his arms. He pressed down on a corner of the thing just for a moment, and then he heard a simple, short and sharp sound. The ash-black stone surface immediately cracked, and there were a number of clear fractures on it.
There was a deadly silence all around. The living dead baring their teeth and claws at them came to a standstill in an instant.
Zhang Fugui opened his mouth, but not a word came out.
Just then, the weather-worn tombstone seemed to suffer some sort of heavy blow, and the cracks instantly intensified. They only heard a crisp crackle ring out. In that single moment, Su Yu had broken a corner off.
Su Yu frowned: “Something broke.”
Zhang Fugui: “!”
The living dead: “!!!!”
Author’s Postscript:
The half-baked coach: Young comrade Zhang
The new driver: Yu-ge
The destroyed training ground: The Tomb of the Living Dead
The ones holding a grudge: The living dead and yet-to-appear tomb owner
alverose: Just in case anyone’s curious, the tomb is called both ‘Tomb of the Living’ and ‘Tomb of the Living Dead.’ I can’t say for sure why, but it’s likely either an abbreviation of the full name, or a reference to how it becomes the tomb of any living person that enters.
Also, for those who want to be notified when a new chapter gets posted—this novel now has a role on the KnoxT discord! Make sure to join the discord and head to the roles channel to get notified for updates!
