At the same time, in the eastern part of the city.
Zhou Hui hung up the phone, grabbed Zhang Shun, and shoved him in front of the Cursed Corpse. “Quick, purify him! Now!”
Zhang Shun opened his eyes to find himself face to face with the Cursed Corpse’s murky, grayish-blue eyes and immediately wet himself in fear. “I-I-I don’t know how to do anything! How do I purify it? Can I chant sutras?”
“You have Buddha bones and you can’t even purify a hanged ghost? Try reciting the Diamond Sutra twice first!”
Zhang Shun wanted to say, I was born with this, for crying out loud! I never went to a Buddhist crash course! Diamond Sutra, Diamond Sutra, how did they recite it on TV? Namo Amitabha, Om Mani Padme Hum…
The Cursed Corpse suddenly opened its mouth, revealing rotten gums, and let out a puff of air at Zhang Shun.
Zhang Shun didn’t react at first, but when he came to his senses, he immediately felt a stinging pain on his face. He let out a loud cry and tumbled to the ground. “It moved! It moved, ahhhh!”
The Cursed Corpse’s stiff, foul-smelling hand slowly and eerily rose, untied itself from the noose, and fell to the floor with a thud, splattering a few drops of corpse fluid. It then got up and staggered towards Zhang Shun.
“Ahhhh! Zhou Hui! Zhou Hui!” Zhang Shun stumbled over the sofa and pushed the large leather sofa hard against the Cursed Corpse. The corpse staggered, and Zhang Shun took advantage of the opening to turn his head. He saw that Zhou Hui had already retreated to the doorway and was quickly rummaging through something in the corner of the living room.
“What the hell are you looking for! The corpse is moving, it’s moving, ahhhh!”
“Don’t disturb me! I’m looking for the key to dealing with a Cursed Corpse!” Zhou Hui said without looking back. The next second, he finally found what he was looking for in a cabinet and said with relief, “Good, good. I knew it. Putting the router in the bedroom is too bad for your health.”
Zhang Shun looked and was instantly furious. “Is the key to dealing with a Cursed Corpse restarting the router—?!”
Zhou Hui flipped the router over to find the password, quickly took out his phone to connect to the internet, and sneered, “Foolish human, I can’t be bothered to explain to you… I’ve used up this month’s data plan. Damn China Mobile, what a ripoff.”
Zhang Shun grabbed a chair to hold off the Cursed Corpse, but the corpse’s strength was immense. Amidst the dangerous cracking sound of the chair legs, it forced Zhang Shun back several steps until he fell onto a storage cabinet in the corner of the room. The Cursed Corpse took the opportunity to throw the chair aside and pounce. Zhang Shun desperately jumped to Zhou Hui’s side, looked over, and saw him surfing the internet. He immediately went crazy. “What time is it now, and you’re still on Taobao looking for black donkey hooves?!”
“It’s hard for deliveries to get into this neighborhood,” Zhou Hui said. “Actually, I’m on our Heavenly Dao’s internal network’s universal search engine. By the way, I’m one of the shareholders of this search engine company… Oh, here it is, found it.”
He clicked on the search result and entered a sub-entry on the “Tian Dao Zhihu” website: “What are the emergency measures for dealing with a Cursed Corpse?”
“The danger of Cursed Corpses is not their immense strength or their craving for human flesh. These are easy to solve,” Zhou Hui read. “Their real danger lies in their power to curse and summon.”
Zhang Shun was pinned to the ground, using all his strength to barely hold off the Cursed Corpse’s large mouth as it reached for his neck. He said intermittently, “Easy to solve… then just come… and solve it…!”
“Don’t panic,” Zhou Hui continued reading. “The so-called curse and summon means that the Cursed Corpse, as a type of array core, can attract vengeful spirits and fierce ghosts from a hundred-mile radius to carry out indiscriminate massacres of the surrounding humans. Therefore, in the history of human warfare, Cursed Corpses have been used as a means of ‘netherworld warfare’ and played an important role in ancient wars and the Asian theater of World War II.”
Countless mournful wails of ghosts echoed in the hallway. The fierce ghosts dragged their heavy footsteps, howling as they stepped onto the corridors of every floor of the building.
Zhou Hui was surprised. “This answer is very accurate!”
Zhang Shun watched with wide eyes as the Cursed Corpse’s black-blood-dripping teeth got closer and closer. He used all his strength to hold the Cursed Corpse’s neck, unable to even make a sound, only repeatedly cursing Zhou Hui’s ancestors for eighteen generations in his mind.
“The best way to deal with a Cursed Corpse is to purify it before it reanimates. Recommendation: His Highness the Phoenix Wisdom King has been elected as the number one purifier in the heavens for many consecutive years and has profound attainments in this area. He is the first choice for an economical and environmentally friendly solution to Cursed Corpses. However, if the reanimation is sudden and the Phoenix Wisdom King cannot be contacted, you can try the following emergency measures: First, feed the Cursed Corpse a large amount of meat. It will eat without consciousness until it bursts, and then it will be over.”
Zhou Hui looked back at Zhang Shun and muttered to himself, “Hmm, he doesn’t look like he’d be very filling.”
Zhang Shun said with heartfelt sincerity, “You… mother… f*cker…”
“Second, leave quickly and let the fierce ghosts summoned by the Cursed Corpse slaughter all the surrounding humans. The Cursed Corpse will then rot on its own and will probably no longer be a threat in three to five years.”
Zhou Hui opened the door and glanced into the hallway, then closed the door with an expression of someone who couldn’t bear to watch. “…Forget it. This place will become a dead city in three to five years.”
Zhang Shun gritted his teeth. The Cursed Corpse’s teeth were only three inches from his throat, and black blood was already dripping all over his neck. Zhou Hui casually grabbed the Cursed Corpse’s hair, forcing it to raise its head, while continuing to read from his phone. “Third, if you have a consecrated Buddha seal on hand—note, it must be a real Buddha seal, not the thirty-yuan-for-two consecrated Buddha statues from Mount Emei in the human Path—you can cover the Cursed Corpse’s three fires, five platforms, and seven orifices with the Buddha seal, supplemented with the Peacock Vidyaraja’s mantra, and it will take effect immediately.”
Zhou Hui paused, then said angrily, “I’m not going to recite that little bastard Moha’s mantra!”
Zhang Shun roared, “I have a Buddha seal! I have a Buddha seal! Please, hurry up and do something—!”
Zhou Hui grabbed Zhang Shun’s hand and pressed his palm onto the Cursed Corpse’s rotting face. In an instant, Young Master Zhang let out a scream mixed with disgust, fear, and utter desperation. The next second, the living room door was kicked open, and shadowy fierce ghosts crowded in, dragging their feet, and rushed towards Zhang Shun amidst the Cursed Corpse’s roars.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh—”
The Buddha seal in Zhang Shun’s palm erupted in a golden light, instantly piercing through the Cursed Corpse’s head and enveloping all the ghosts in a vast Buddha light!
Zhang Shun’s scream stopped abruptly. The next second, the Buddha light retracted with a whoosh, and with a thud, the Cursed Corpse’s headless body fell heavily to the ground.
The living room was clean, the ghosts in the hallway were gone, as if the chaotic scene just now had been a mere illusion. Zhang Shun, still in shock, sat up, panting. He saw Zhou Hui nod in satisfaction and give a thumbs-up to the Zhihu answer.
“Not bad,” he said. “Tian Dao Zhihu has a promising future. The venture capital wasn’t in vain.”
“…” Zhang Shun looked at his palm, which was dripping with black blood, and his mouth twitched. “This is the first time I knew I was this awesome… Can I beat you up?”
“If you beat me up, you won’t have time to save your brother. Isn’t your favorite game ‘Little Tadpole Looks for His Brother’?”
Zhang Shun: “…”
Zhou Hui said, “Although I don’t know what the other party’s ultimate goal is in all this, your brother must have found some clue at the hospital, which is why he was cornered by Team Five. Those team members are not a threat, but Team Five has a Living Buddha as a team leader. If he also rebels, it would indeed be some trouble.”
Zhou Hui walked towards the door, then suddenly remembered something. He turned back and rummaged through the Cursed Corpse’s body. After a moment, he said, “—Huh?”
Zhang Shun asked, “What’s wrong?”
“…This isn’t Yangjin Pingcuo,” Zhou Hui frowned. “Deputy Team Leader Yangjin was injured in his early years and has a scar here on his chest. This Cursed Corpse doesn’t have one.”
Indeed, the Cursed Corpse’s tattered clothes revealed its chest. Although the flesh had begun to rot, one could still see that there were no obvious scars on the skin before it rotted. The stench made Zhang Shun take half a step back. “What does that mean? The Cursed Corpse is a stand-in? That deputy team leader is also on the side of the rebellious team members?”
Zhou Hui stared blankly at the Cursed Corpse and said, “No wonder, I should have thought of it sooner…”
“Thought of what?”
“Yangjin Pingcuo can disguise himself,” Zhou Hui said. “He disguised the corpse as himself. Anyone who saw it would think he was already dead. Then, knowing the various secrets of the Special Affairs Department and having the identity of a dead person as a cover, he could easily assume the identity of other internal personnel without arousing any suspicion… No wonder for so long, no one had any doubts about ‘Yu Jingzhong’s’ words and actions.”
Zhang Shun hesitated. “But… you’re so sure that the Deputy Chief Yu I saw was a fake? Fang Pian’er said that Yangjin Pingcuo got off the plane with him in Beijing!”
“This impersonation plan must have started long ago. The other party took the opportunity of my departure from Beijing to swap Yu Jingzhong with Yangjin Pingcuo, and then had another person disguise themselves as Yangjin Pingcuo and place them in H-City. This way, even if someone noticed that ‘Yu Jingzhong’s’ behavior was slightly different from usual, they wouldn’t think of impersonation. After returning to Beijing, the fake Yangjin Pingcuo had no more use, and it’s better for fewer people to know about such things. Therefore, the people from Team Five killed the fake Yangjin Pingcuo, made it into a Cursed Corpse, and placed it here, so that everyone would think Deputy Team Leader Yangjin was already dead.”
Zhou Hui paused, then said, “As soon as I returned to Beijing and found that Yu Jingzhong had actually sent someone to assassinate Fang Pian’er, I felt that Lao Yu was not right. I discussed it with your brother and had him investigate secretly, just as a precaution. To explain your brother’s sudden departure, I even had to put a green hat on my own head, saying he had a fight with me and went to find Fan Luo in a fit of pique—damn it, my head is practically a Hulunbuir grassland of green. How am I supposed to face people in the future?”
Zhang Shun still tried to struggle. “Wait, wait, is it that easy for your State Security to impersonate someone? Even if they look the same, Yu Jingzhong’s complex background would be impossible to hide!”
Zhou Hui didn’t answer, instead asking, “Do you know why I trust you?”
“Isn’t it because I’m reliable?” Zhang Shun was dumbfounded.
“Bullshit, you little brat. If you were reliable, pigs would fly.” Zhou Hui said with particular cruelty, “It is precisely because an identity like Yu Jingzhong’s can be so easily replaced that it shows the water behind this matter is very deep. There must be a force with immense power and an extremely high status manipulating the whole process. Who knows how many people have already been dragged into this. And you, as an outsider, have a clean background and a low IQ. More importantly, you have no value to be won over, which is why you are trustworthy, understand?!”
“…” Zhang Shun, having suffered such a heavy blow, did not retort, nor did he pick up a stool leg to give Zhou Hui a face full of blossoms. He stood there, stunned, his lips trembling, his face pale.
“Zhou… Zhou Hui,” he trembled. “What do you think these people are… are trying to do by going through such a big… detour?”
Zhou Hui said impatiently, “How would I know? I’m still thinking about it. What’s wrong with you?”
Zhang Shun looked at him, rolled up his sleeve with trembling hands, and revealed a band-aid on his arm. “That fake… fake Yu Jingzhong, today he said he wanted to save Yan Lanyu, and he drew a tube of my blood…”
The room was silent. Zhou Hui stared fixedly at Young Master Zhang’s arm, as if the arm had suddenly turned into a red and fragrant Dongpo pork knuckle.
“Little brother-in-law,” he said after a long pause with deep affection, “if it weren’t for your brother’s sake, I’d want to pull your intestines out through your throat right now.”
At the Military Commission’s internal hospital, in the ICU monitoring hall.
Chu He took a step forward, and a blade of wind swirled around him. Amidst his fluttering robes, he slammed his silver long spear onto the ground and shouted, “Where is Team Five’s Shenwan Tiansi?!”
That shout was like a sharp blade cutting through the wind, stirring up thousands of shockwaves. The ears of a few team members who had struggled to their feet instantly burst with blood, and they fell to the ground, screaming.
“He’s… he’s really Team Leader Feng Si. Is this the legendary Heavenly Dao Dharma form?” Bagna, his mouth bleeding, leaned weakly against a collapsed centrifuge in the corner. He coughed up bloody saliva as he spoke. “But, even if you kill all of us today, it’s useless. Team Five has long…”
“Why?” Chu He interrupted him.
Bagna was stunned, then laughed while coughing up blood. “Why? How could you understand our ‘why’? Why can someone like Boss Zhou, who plays around as he pleases, represent the supreme Heavenly Dao? Why can people like you, who are tainted by the mortal world and have no intention of turning to Buddhism, live for hundreds or thousands of years and still attract so many followers?!”
“Killing! Lewdness! Lying! Greed for pleasure! Since you have chosen to enjoy these filthy pleasures in the mortal world, why can you still enjoy the supreme status of the Heavenly Dao and eternal life?! Since this world is so unfair, someone should come out and change everything, and you still have the face to ask why!”
Chu He was silent for a long moment, then said, “But how do you know… that your Tibetan Buddhism’s Yellow Hat school is the true Buddhist path?”
Bagna stabbed the tip of his saber into the ground, suddenly pushing himself up, and said angrily, “We sincerely worship the three secret vajras of the body, speech, and mind of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We take the Anuttarayoga Tantra as our creed and do not recognize your status. Everything you have comes from demons. These karmic debts must be repaid. What’s wrong with that?”
“…” Chu He let out an imperceptible sigh and muttered, “Another one who bought into the Heavenly Dao’s fake Amway…”
“Didn’t you want to see our team leader? Towards us, you can still maintain your hypocritical non-killing,” Bagna pointed the tip of his saber behind Chu He and sneered, “If you’re up against Shenwan Tiansi, do you still have that kind of confidence?”
—Chu He turned his head.
A young man in a dark blue Dharma robe stood quietly at the entrance of the monitoring hall, almost blending into the dark background.
He held a vajra demon-subduing pestle. The Laughing Buddha, Angry Buddha, and Cursing Buddha were one, and various small, colorful gems were inlaid on the staff, reflecting a brilliant and strange light.
“…Tiansi,” Chu He narrowed his eyes and asked, “Even you are involved in this kind of thing?”
Shenwan Tiansi’s face was wooden. The next second, he flew up, appearing before Chu He like a ghost, and swung the pestle at his neck with lightning speed!
Chu He quickly retreated, blocking with his spear held horizontally. With a loud clang that almost shattered one’s eardrums, the demon-subduing pestle and the long spear collided, creating a large shower of sparks!
A normal vajra is five, eight, or twenty fingers long, but Team Five’s leader, Shenwan Tiansi’s demon-subduing pestle was connected to a staff, making it almost as long as the Phoenix long spear. Unlike the light and sharp long spear, the demon-subduing pestle was extremely heavy and powerful when used. When swung, it created a terrifying whirlwind, and within ten moves, it had forced Chu He into a corner.
Chu He twisted his body to avoid the incoming gust of wind. With a sharp whoosh, the demon-subduing pestle grazed past his hair and slammed into the wall, instantly creating a deep crater over two meters long in the wall!
Chu He said angrily, “Old Five!”
He backhanded with his spear, sending Shenwan Tiansi flying back. He then lunged forward, the tip of his spear aimed at the youth’s throat. However, under the cold light, Shenwan Tiansi did not dodge at all. The tip of the spear instantly reflected his wooden, dazed face.
Chu He’s pupils widened in an instant. He said in disbelief, “…You turned your own team leader into a puppet?!”
The next second, Shenwan Tiansi reached out and grabbed the tip of the spear, not dodging, not caring about the flames that instantly ignited in his palm, and sent Chu He flying back with a swing of his pestle!
With a loud bang, Chu He hit the wall and bounced back. In a flash, he swept his long spear backhanded. With a loud clang that shook the ground, he instantly blocked Shenwan Tiansi’s incoming staff!
Shenwan Tiansi had just caught the blade with his bare hands, and half of his arm was already charred black, but his expression did not change at all, as if he felt no pain. Chu He frowned, panting. He heard Bagna sneer intermittently from not far behind him. “Since we dared to do such a thing, we must have strong backing… The Heavenly Dao is unfair, so of course we will turn to someone who can give us fairness. In your words, Team Leader Shenwan and we ‘walk different paths,’ so this is his final end.”
—Turn to someone who can give us fairness?
A trace of doubt flashed in Chu He’s mind. Then, he suddenly exerted force with his wrist, pushing Shenwan Tiansi back several steps. He then swept his spear across his chest, sending him flying, spitting blood from his mouth and nose.
But the next second, Shenwan Tiansi staggered back to his feet, his sternum strangely collapsed, and he slammed the demon-subduing pestle onto the ground with a thud.
—Since he realized the other party was being controlled, Chu He could no longer strike too heavily. However, Shenwan Tiansi had no such scruples. The moment the demon-subduing pestle hit the ground, a black wind erupted with the staff as its center, instantly sweeping through the entire space. The fierce wind blades, like hundreds of lightning bolts, cut dozens of bloody gashes on Chu He’s body in the blink of an eye!
Chu He dodged and flew back. His collar, cuffs, and waist were all slashed, and blood splattered on the ground in several long streaks. He leaned against the wall, catching his breath. In an instant, he saw Shenwan Tiansi slam his pestle down again. As the wind blades came from all directions, he also flew through the air.
His dark blue Dharma robe billowed in the wind, like a silent, ferocious bird of prey. The heavy demon-subduing pestle was instantly upon him!
Chu He was furious. He grabbed his long spear—a green flame quickly ignited on the silver-white spear. The high temperature caused the wall behind him to crackle and burst. It drew an extremely brilliant fan-shaped arc of light in the air and struck Shenwan Tiansi heavily!
—Bang!
This strike was originally aimed at Shenwan Tiansi’s arm. Even if it hit squarely, it would only be a broken arm, not life-threatening. But at the critical moment, Shenwan Tiansi shrunk back to dodge, instead meeting the blow with his shoulder. The entire shoulder bone immediately made a cracking sound.
The sound of the bone breaking was so crisp it made one’s scalp tingle, but he seemed to feel no pain at all. He raised his hand and grabbed the burning spear.
Chu He shouted sharply, “Old Five! Let go!”
Before he could finish, with a loud boom, his entire arm was charred. At the same time, Bagna, not far away, took out a packet from his clothes and quickly threw it at them. “Catch!”
Shenwan Tiansi raised his hand and caught it. Chu He took a closer look, and his expression changed slightly—
It was a small packet of blood.
Shenwan Tiansi bit the blood packet open and sprayed it on the demon-subduing pestle. With a sizzle, currents of electricity swirled up the golden vajra staff, like a long dragon clad in lightning, erupting in a dazzling white light at the top of the three-Buddha-in-one staff.
Chu He was stunned. “—Buddha’s blood?!”
At that critical moment, Chu He wanted to pull back, but the Phoenix long spear was still held tightly by Shenwan Tiansi’s charred hand. He decisively let go of the long spear, but it was too late.
The demon-subduing pestle swept through the air, and with one strike, it hit Chu He’s side, sending him flying like a cannonball!
—Boom!
Chu He crashed through the entire wall, but didn’t even pause. He flew straight out and crashed through two or three more walls before finally falling into the collapsed rubble with an earth-shattering crash.
“…” For a full few seconds, he could barely move. His ears were ringing, and he couldn’t hear anything. His vision was extremely blurry. Blood flowed down from his temple, gathered at his chin, and dripped down, soaking his tattered snow-white robes.
“Truly worthy of being the famously beautiful Team Leader Feng Si…” In a daze, he saw Bagna walk up to him and say coldly, “Even in such a sorry state, you can still inspire such an exclamation… What a pity.”
Chu He squeezed his eyes shut. He opened them after a few seconds, and his scattered vision finally managed to focus on the smoke-filled ceiling.
“Such precious Buddha’s blood was originally all to be used for the final purpose. It’s a pity that we can only use half of it now.” Bagna paused, then added, “—But it doesn’t matter. Soon there will be more Buddha’s blood to help us achieve our final goal.”
He squatted down and sneered, “At such a memorable moment, what are your thoughts?”
“…” Chu He swallowed the blood that was rising in his throat and said hoarsely, “I was thinking… our family’s Zhang Shun is a prime example of a brother-sabotaging expert. I should have thought of it sooner…”
From Bagna’s expression, he definitely didn’t understand what that meant, but it didn’t matter anymore. He sneered, stood up, and backed away. He heard footsteps not far away, and then saw Shenwan Tiansi walking over, step by step, holding the demon-subduing pestle.
Half of his body was already charred, black blood flowed from his eyes, and half of his sternum was collapsed. After getting closer, he stood in a very deformed posture, raised the vajra staff like the god of death, and brought it down high on Chu He’s face—
The next second, Chu He raised his hand and pulled out his hair ribbon.
His long hair instantly fell loose. At the same time, the hair ribbon transformed into a huge, pure azure longbow in the light. Chu He drew the bow, nocked an arrow, aimed, and said hoarsely, “—Wake up, Tiansi.”
With that, the arrowhead streaked across the sky like a meteor, instantly sending Shenwan Tiansi flying horizontally, and with a loud boom, pinned him to the ceiling!
As the floor shook violently, Chu He spat out a mouthful of blood. For a good few seconds, he almost lost consciousness, and the longbow slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.
—In his confused state, many distant memories suddenly flooded his mind, devouring all his consciousness like a rising tide. He remembered the last time he had used this longbow, thousands of years ago. It was on the nine heavens battlefield of the great war between gods and demons. He stood on the city tower, drew his bow, nocked an arrow, and aimed at the demonic war general rushing towards him at high speed from the sky. However, the full eleven-arrow chain shot was dodged with exquisite skill by the other party.
When the last arrow was still on the bow, that person came from the sky, his blood-tinged hand grabbing the arrowhead like an iron clamp.
Before he could draw his saber, he saw that person kneel on one knee, his face extremely handsome, his eyes flashing with a chilling cold light. “Please don’t move…”
“I’m not here to fight. I’m here to propose to you.”
“…Zhou Hui,” Chu He thought in a daze, “if you don’t come soon, you’re really going to have to find a stepmother for the children…”
