Chapter 5: Walking Corpse

“You’ve ruined my hundred years of cultivation!” The fox let out a shrill howl from its mouth. However, it was no longer as crisp and pleasant as when it had transformed into a woman. Instead, it sounded like an infant, extremely discordant to the ear, though anyone could hear the hysteria in it.

“Die for me!”

The fox howled and lunged at Li Si, aiming to bite his throat.

Li Si’s eyes narrowed, and he stepped forward, meeting the attack with a punch. He had been prepared when he exposed the fox earlier, but he had no intention of retreating. Even without the protective charm he was wearing, he wouldn’t have backed down.

In this bizarre world, retreating meant he would never obtain soul points, leaving only death as an option.

Unfortunately, even though Li Si had abandoned thoughts of life and death, his punch was as light as a feather, weaker than even a woman from Earth.

At this moment, the fox’s teeth had already made contact with Li Si’s skin. Li Si’s weak punch landed on the white fox’s body, but it didn’t even cause a ripple, the force absorbed by the fox’s glossy fur.

However, at this instant, the fox let out a miserable cry. Blood suddenly burst from between its teeth, spraying Li Si’s face. Where his fist had landed on the fox’s body, blood appeared as if injured by some inexplicable force, creating a wound as large as a fist.

The fox fell to the ground with a hoarse wail, mud splattering onto its snow-white fur. But the fox was decisive. Enduring the pain, it quickly got up and scurried under the stalls, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Li Si touched the cloth bag hanging on his chest, his eyes revealing a regretful expression. He had hesitated to release the Beheaded Ghost to pursue due to the presence of people nearby. By the time he made up his mind, the fox had vanished without a trace.

Feeling somewhat disappointed, he resolved to be more decisive next time. What did it matter if others saw? The soul points in hand were what mattered.

At this moment, Li Si turned his attention to the corpse on the ground, slowly lifting the white cloth. Underneath was the naked upper body of a middle-aged man, with a pale, greenish complexion and an emaciated appearance.
Seeing this corpse, Li Si felt something strange. In his previous life, he had lived opposite a crematorium and had researched this topic out of curiosity.

The livor mortis on this emaciated corpse had already formed in patches, indicating it had been dead for over 4-6 hours. Normally, around 6 hours after death, the internal organs in the belly would start to decay, causing the stomach to bloat. However, this corpse showed no such signs. On the contrary, its stomach was sunken, with ribs protruding.
There were no holes in the skin either. If there were, it could be explained by decay gases escaping, but Li Si looked carefully and found none.

Li Si pondered for a moment, then crouched down and touched the corpse with his right index finger. With a thought, a message immediately entered his mind.

“You have encountered a low-level ghost creature—Walking Corpse. Do you want to sign a contract? This contract signing requires 2 soul points.”

Li Si was stunned, not expecting the corpse to be a ghost creature. He suddenly understood that this wasn’t a traditional corpse, but actually a jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampire/zombie).

What puzzled Li Si was why this jiangshi hadn’t risen to bite him, instead looking just like a real corpse.

This reminded him of what the fox spirit had said about ruining its cultivation. He recalled hearing about “asking for a seal” in his previous life. “Asking for a seal” was a shortcut some monsters took in their cultivation.

When certain creatures like snakes, rats, hedgehogs, foxes, and weasels reached a certain level in their cultivation, they would dress up in hats and clothes, looking human-like. They would then ask passersby, “Do I look human? What do I look like to you?”

If you said they looked human, their cultivation would advance greatly. But because you helped them defy heaven’s will, your own lifespan would be greatly reduced. If you said they didn’t look human, their cultivation would suffer, and they would seek vicious revenge, determined to bring chaos to your household.

What had Li Si done earlier? He had cursed the fox, saying its nose wasn’t a nose, its eyes weren’t eyes, that it wasn’t human at all, causing the fox to lose its human form. When its true form was revealed, everyone nearby had shouted “fox.” This had ruined its cultivation. No wonder it had looked ready to devour Li Si on the spot.

It seemed that some of the legends he had heard in his previous life also applied in this world.

Given this, the jiangshi was probably unable to move because the sun had risen.

“Don’t sign the contract,” Li Si thought. He didn’t have any soul points now, and even if he exchanged all his remaining lifespan, he would only get 1 soul point.

At this time, seeing that the fox spirit had fled and Li Si was pondering in front of the corpse, the surrounding people gathered around again.

“I thought that woman didn’t look like a good person. Sure enough, she was a monster,” someone cursed the fox.

“Young Master Li is truly a person with righteous qi. His words alone made the fox spirit reveal its true form,” someone praised Li Si.

“That woman was so beautiful, how could she be a fox spirit?” someone lamented.

…

The surrounding discussions grew louder, giving Li Si a headache. He stood up and made a downward gesture with both hands, and the crowd immediately quieted down.

“The fox spirit has fled, but this corpse was dug up from a grave by the fox spirit. Disturbed by the fox’s yang energy, it could turn into a jiangshi at any moment. Can anyone lend me a knife? I’ll dispel the corpse’s yin energy.”

Hearing Li Si say the corpse might turn into a jiangshi at any moment, the crowd immediately stepped back several paces, leaving a clear space around him.

The air grew quiet for a moment as people looked at each other. Finally, a young man in short work clothes couldn’t resist stepping forward, offering a three-foot long flat-headed chopping knife with both hands. “Please, sir, dispel the evil!”

Li Si didn’t actually know anything about yin energy or dispelling evil. He just figured that chopping off the jiangshi’s head would surely kill it. His current act was just a pretense of profound knowledge.

Li Si took the chopping knife. He considered running his finger along the blade to appear more like an exorcist, but quickly dismissed the idea, worried about tetanus.

Without further thought, Li Si crouched down, raised the chopping knife high, and brought it down on the corpse’s neck.

Thwack!

It sounded like chopping into a wooden stake. Due to Li Si’s lack of strength, the chopping knife got stuck in the corpse’s neck.

The corpse’s eyes suddenly opened, revealing a pair of dark red eyes full of ferocity. It opened its mouth and began to “howl,” sounding like a wild beast’s frenzied roar. The surrounding people’s faces immediately showed fear, and they stepped back again, ready to flee at any moment. It was only Li Si’s presence that gave them confidence; otherwise, they would have long since disappeared.

However, for some unknown reason, the jiangshi’s body couldn’t move at all, as if restrained by some force. This allowed Li Si to relax a bit. It seemed the jiangshi indeed couldn’t move under the sun.

Li Si looked at the yellow teeth covered in black, sticky substance revealed by the jiangshi’s howling mouth. He felt nauseous, almost vomiting up the tofu pudding he had eaten earlier.

“Today, it’s either you die or I live!”

Although he had lived in peaceful times in his previous life, Li Si couldn’t show weakness now. A fierce expression flashed across his face. He stood up, placed one foot on the jiangshi’s chest, suddenly exerted force with both hands to pull out the chopping knife, then swung it down hard. With one stroke, the howling head fell off.