Fear was a curious thing. There were strange beings in the world that could consume it, and ghost zombies were a perfect example.
Zombies were born out of acc.u.mulated grievances and yin energy, abandoned by heaven and earth, wandering outside the three realms and cycle of five elements, and caught between life and death. If a zombie’s body remained intact after death, it would gather resentment and refine yin energy until, finally, it became a zombie again—a ghost zombie.
Unlike grudge corpses, the resentment of which had plateaued and given rise to a grudge spirit that turned it into something between a zombie and a ghost, ghost zombies were still fully zombies. Only, they could consume fear and feed on other zombies. They were to zombies what zombies were to humans.
……
The little fox’s whining rang through the body of water, her tone so pained and voice so pitiful that one couldn’t help feeling sympathetic and have their nose twinge in response. Although the Deaf Prince couldn’t hear the little fox, her expression made him greatly pity her. Subconsciously, he reached out to rescue her.
However, the human-headed octopi were even faster.
Shocked and terrified the moment Lu Yun threw her, the little fox radiated a small explosion of fear, horror, and other negativity. The octopi following the trajectory of the Great Formation of Corpse Refinement suddenly dissolved into chaos and rushed the little fox, waving their tentacles and scattering the almost finished formation.
“Wahhh! Wahhhhhh… help me!!” Tremendous fear paralyzed the little fox, wiping away knowledge of even how to move.
Clang!
Silver starlight flickered, followed by the powerful tolling of a bell. An enormous golden bell appeared out of nowhere and protectively clamped down over the little fox, its ringing undulations causing immense, dense ripples in the water that spread out in all directions.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three consecutive booms of sound blew the incoming octopi back and shattered the formation of corpses on the outskirts as well.
“Let’s go!” roared Lu Yun. Energy from Violetgrave and the Sugato Sword became one, wrapping around them all and bringing them to safety.
Bam!
The body of water shuddered and powerful hidden currents were whipped up. With the power of starstones, the Tiger Prince and the Dragon Prince manipulated the Arcane Golden Bell from within the Scroll of Shepherding Immortals and collected the little fox.
……
After an indiscernible amount of time, Lu Yun slowly came to a halt on top of a black reef, panting heavily. Humans shouldn’t be able to breathe underwater, but he could, since he’d inherited the talents of a water qilin, a mermaid, and a dragon.
The seawater here was clear and free of any yin energy. He’d brought everyone out of the corpse formation’s area of effect after his desperate escape.
The little fox clung to Qing Han’s hair, sobbing and sniffling up a storm. Even she herself didn’t know why she was so scared. What she didn’t realize was that she’d been knocked out by her fear after her resurrection, then had time to walk around in Myriad Formation Summit in a dream. Otherwise, she might’ve been scared dead again not long after she’d been resurrected.
“A golden immortal… crying from fear?” The Deaf Prince couldn’t hear her wailing, but he could see her pitiful expression. “The legendary Monster G.o.d who conquered the outskirts of Levitating Island in a year, scared to tears!”
The little fox looked at him with teary eyes. “I’m scared!”
Qing Han gently caressed the soft fur on the fox’s head with a wry smile. He didn’t know how to comfort her.
“The little fox is missing one part of her ethereal soul and one part of her corporeal soul,” Empress Myrtlestar said suddenly. “That makes her soul unstable and gives rise to her easily frightened nature.” [1]
“I see!” Lu Yun realized. The layout of resurrection in the burial mound had been set up for the little fox, but someone had interrupted the ritual and prevented her soul from fully rea.s.sembling. Out of her three celestial parts and seven corporeal parts, she was missing one of each.
“If you scare her again, even those remaining parts of her soul will be scattered.” Empress Myrtlestar shook her head.
Lu Yun shrugged awkwardly, he hadn’t had any other choices left to him at the time. Besides, Qing Han had been ready to activate the Arcane Golden Bell. Miao had been bait that wouldn’t actually be hurt.
Lu Yun turned to the slowly calming little fox. “I’ll take you out of the tomb.”
“No!” The little fox shook her head with great determination. “This place may have something to do with the tomb of the monster spirit ancestor. I have to get to the bottom of it!”
Lu Yun glared at her. “What if you get scared to death?”
“I...” she burrowed deeper into Qing Han’s arms, “I’ll stay with this ugly thing and cover my eyes and ears. Then I won’t be scared!”
Lu Yun shot her an envious look. …envious? Why would I envy her?
“What’s that?” The Deaf Prince goggled at where they had come from and said in a trembling voice, “Why is there such a large corpse here?”
Lu Yun and Qing Han whirled around and gaped. A gargantuan female body stood at an angle in the water. She was dressed in a tattered dress and had white bones poking out of her rotten flesh. The head facing them alone was a kilometer wide, and her body was at least fifty kilometers tall.
They’d just come barreling out of the body’s open mouth.
“Is that… a corpse coffin?” Lu Yun asked with some uncertainty. “Was Su Xiaoxiao buried in a corpse coffin as well?”
He took out his luopan. They’d left the water tomb and entered the inner sea of Levitating Island. Clearly, the land covered in yin energy was Su Xiaoxiao’s real tomb, a corpse coffin.
“It’s the poison ghost!” the Deaf Prince yelped. The ghost had left a deep impression on him after the single glance she’d thrown his way. Although the corpse had become bloated in the seawater, he could still recognize her. She was Guanqing, the maid who’d learned the skills of poison from Su Xiaoxiao.
“It really does seem to be Guangqing....” Qing Han’s eyes shot wide open as well.
“What’s going on?” Lu Yun mentally turned to h.e.l.l and contacted Yueshen, who swiveled to the immortal ghost next to her. Tinglan looked positively lost, unsure of what to say. She retained her memories before death, but she didn’t know how to explain this. She didn’t remember seeing Guanqing refined into a corpse coffin.
“There’s another body above her!” the Deaf Prince yelled at the top of his lungs, pointing at the s.p.a.ce above Guangqing’s body. There was another corpse of about the same size floating in the water.
Another corpse coffin. There was some distance between the two, but Lu Yun could sense a connection between them.
The tombs of yin and yang?
Two corpse coffins?
Can it be… Lu Yun and the others quickly made their way to the corpse coffin overhead and saw Tinglan’s true form.
1. The Chinese soul duality tradition indicates that there’s an ethereal (yang) and corporeal (yin) part to a person’s soul. The ethereal part leaves the body after death, and the corporeal stays with the corpse. Daoism takes the concept further and proposes there’s three parts to the ethereal soul (hun) and seven to the corporeal (po).