Chapter 68: Zombies Part 1

He said the Nether King was coming.

But what they awaited first was not the Nether King, but Jiang Liluo.

Jiang Liluo had deliberately arrived a bit late. She was unhappy with Ren Qianjing’s arrogance and naturally hoped that Jin Banwei could kill Ren Qianjing. However, she had not expected that someone of Ren Qianjing’s level would die so easily at Jin Banwei’s hands, with Jin Banwei not even suffering a scratch. This made her uneasy, so she had prepared a bit more time.

She had even retrieved the puppet ghosts that Ren Qianjing commanded.

“Jin Banwei, we’ve met again. We must settle the grudge from Ghost City properly.”

The moment Jiang Liluo appeared, Jin Banwei remembered the person who had repeatedly yanked the silver chain, thinking of the sharp knife that pierced Yu Li’s delicate skin. Her blood surged to her head once more: “Jiang Liluo, where is Zhuo Ning?”

Jiang Liluo slowly stepped out from the black mist, a smile still lingering on her face: “If you want to see my master, you have to defeat me first.”

The aura around her was stronger than it had been in Ghost City, and the witch patterns on her face were deeper.

At her waist hung the bell that resembled white jade porcelain. The bell swayed at her waist, and dull, muffled striking sounds emanated from it one after another. White mist drifted from the bell, trailing the ghosts behind her.

She had brought seven in total: two men, two women, one cat demon, and the sisters Cheng Lanyi and Cheng Langui.

Jin Banwei’s pupils contracted sharply. Among the two men and two women, she recognized one man and two women—they were Cheng Ying’s parents, the couple Chen Weigun and Hua Yunxiu, as well as Bai Cheng. She had only seen Chen Weigun and Hua Yunxiu from afar before, but she had seen Bai Cheng up close. Jin Banwei remembered Bai Cheng as a girl with fair skin, willow brows, and cherry lips, whose smile was very sweet. But now, her skin was stiff and pale, dotted with faint green spots. Her beautiful pupils were slightly sunken, devoid of luster, her lips dark blue, and two sharp fangs like icicle edges protruded, with blood slowly dripping from them.

She was not walking, but hopping along one hop at a time.

Bai Cheng and the others were no longer human—they were zombies.

Jin Banwei’s breath hitched: “What did you do to them?”

Jiang Liluo reached out and gently pulled Bai Cheng’s stiff body into her embrace.

Holding Bai Cheng, Jiang Liluo chuckled softly: “Can’t you tell? They are now my puppet zombies.”

Puppet zombies were puppets for sorcerers to command, just like puppet ghosts, but making puppet zombies was even more cruel.

To make a puppet zombie, one had to carve open the chest of a living person beforehand, then daily pour in mercury mixed with one’s own blood to ensure the living person did not die from mercury poisoning, and use soul-locking incense to prevent the soul from dissipating from the unbearable pain and fleeing early. After seven days like this, they severed the living person’s vitality, turning them into a puppet zombie. The puppet zombie’s flesh body was indestructible, its soul unable to enter reincarnation, fully fused into the body, devoid of its own consciousness or thoughts, forever enslaved.

Evil sorcerers were cruel. They had many ways to torment ghosts and even more to torture the living.

Jiang Liluo was as vicious as her master Zhuo Ning—they were both ruthless enough, utterly devoid of humanity.

A playful smile even appeared on Jiang Liluo’s face as she stroked Bai Cheng’s stiff cheek: “Bai Cheng is such a fool. She thought a spirit talisman cat would scare me. Never mind her mere two thousand years of cultivation—even higher cultivation, I’ve killed before. I haven’t touched them these years only because my plan wasn’t complete yet. What a pity, this demon’s soul is incomplete, so I can’t turn her into a puppet ghost. I can only temporarily control her with the jade pipa bell.”

Jin Banwei’s gaze fell on the cat demon. The cat demon’s soul was very faint, as if on the verge of dissipation.

This spirit talisman cat had occupied two souls and seven po of Du Ruoyi, bearing nearly half of Du Ruoyi’s power—it should not be this weak.

Jin Banwei narrowed her eyes slightly, an answer forming at her heart: “You ate her soul?”

Jiang Liluo glanced at Jin Banwei’s eyes in surprise: “It seems your eyes are indeed strange, just as Master said. You can even see that? Then, can you see what’s inside my jade pipa bell?”

She shook the bell at her waist, and Jin Banwei suddenly recalled the hands she had seen in Ghost City. She held her breath and focused on the bell, but saw nothing.

An inexplicable panic rose in her.

Jin Banwei subconsciously gripped Ren Qiao’s hand tighter. Jiang Liluo glanced meaningfully at Ren Qiao and chuckled lightly: “It seems your eyes aren’t that useful after all. I just added another seal on it, and you can’t see it anymore.”

Jiang Liluo did not know that Jin Banwei had guessed part of Du Ruoyi’s soul had been eaten not because of her eyes, but because she remembered Zhuo Ning was a shaman who devoured spirits and trapped them in her body—naturally, her disciple Jiang Liluo could be just as cruel.

However, her eyes were indeed blocked by the seal. After Min Ziyu had placed a seal on the remnant painting, her eyes had clearly upgraded, yet she still could not see Ren Qiao’s sorrow po.

Seals largely obstructed her vision, but since Jiang Liluo asked like this… those pale, weak hands covered in blood, skin peeling bit by bit—if they were Ren Qiao’s hands, it seemed possible.

There had been no seal on the remnant painting before, so her eyes had not upgraded then and she had clearly seen Ren Qiao’s eyes.

Jiang Liluo’s bell definitely had a seal, a very strong one—after all, it was clearly a powerful artifact, so the seal would not be weak. But for some special reason, the seal on her bell was damaged. Yet since it still had a seal, what Jin Banwei saw was not the more recognizable eyes, but a pair of somewhat blurry hands.

Thus, there might be part of Ren Qiao’s soul in this bell!

Jin Banwei’s heart was in turmoil.

Resentment filled her chest. She was already on the edge of collapse.

Whether it was Yu Li’s death or the miserable state of Cheng Ying’s parents, it all filled her with unprecedented rage. But she could not let anger cloud her judgment. She had to protect Ren Qiao and everyone trapped in the silkworm cocoons.

The burden on her shoulders grew heavier.

She took a deep breath and fed Ren Qiao several soul fusion pills. Watching the pre-death true form on Ren Qiao slowly fade, her reddened eyes finally eased a bit.

Calm down—she needed to calm down.

She plastered pure heart talismans all over her shoulders, one overlapping another. Ren Qiao felt some discomfort: “Little Jin, this is harmful to your body too.”

“Ghost Sister, it’s fine.” She still had spirit nourishing pills, which could repair most bodily fatigue and wounds.

The one she held was her wife; the ones she guarded were her friends.

Jin Banwei bit her lip hard and gathered a bit of black mist at her fingertips: “Ghost generals, heed my command—slaughter all evil!”

“Yes!” The five yin generals charged out instantly, straight for Jiang Liluo.

The powerful pressure did not frighten Jiang Liluo. She merely smiled faintly: “Jin Banwei, you’ve grown more ruthless than in Ghost City.”

She touched the bell at her waist, and her body suddenly retreated. She raised the bell, and the four puppet zombies and Cheng Langui tangled with the yin generals respectively. Only Du Ruoyi and Cheng Lanyi, who did not obey her control, dissatisfied her.

Jiang Liluo shook the bell again. White jade-like luster glowed from the bell, and Cheng Lanyi and Du Ruoyi moved as well. As they moved, the yin marshal beside Jin Banwei finally stirred. The yin marshal frowned and bellowed angrily: “Cheng Lanyi, you’re a disgrace to yin messengers!”

His voice boomed like a great bell, shaking in Cheng Lanyi’s ears. Cheng Lanyi briefly regained clarity. She saw the yin marshal’s face and realized her body was uncontrollably charging at him, her eyes filled with terror: “Lord Shan Ling, there’s something wrong with her bell.”

Shan Ling!

Hearing Shan Ling’s name, Jin Banwei and Jiang Liluo were stunned simultaneously.

A flicker of unease flashed in Jiang Liluo’s eyes. She touched the bell at her waist and calmed down. She sneered slightly: “When did the Underworld’s underworld officials lower themselves to be summoned at will by shamans?”

Jin Banwei had not expected the yin marshal she summoned to truly be one of the Ten Great Yin Marshals of the Underworld, Shan Ling. The Ten Great Yin Marshals held chief yin official positions—even high-level underworld officials could not command them at will, let alone shamans.

The Ten Great Yin Marshals of the Underworld were divided into upper yin marshals and lower yin marshals. Though both yin marshals, the top five and bottom five had clear differences: the top five held chief yin official positions, the bottom five deputy positions, while yin messengers were half-officials. Yin servants, yin soldiers, and such did not count as officials.

The four great soul-reaping messengers among the lower yin marshals served in the Chen Yuan King and Mingyou King’s halls, managing soul-reaping in the human world. The lowest of the lower, Bai Lian, could only guard the Curse Spirit Stele and Yin Street, as the ghosts there were hard to harm yin marshals.

The lowest of the upper yin marshals was the missing Fu Xi. Yang Street was full of great demons with top cultivation—Fu Xi’s strength to guard it was unquestionable.