The next morning.
Lü Zhong got out of bed with dark circles under his eyes, the eerie faces of the Papermen still replaying in his mind.
Not daring to delay any longer, he scooped up a ladle of clear water to wash his face, lit a Spirit Stone, and pushed open the door to his house.
For some reason, the two Papermen that had been at the entrance to Zhao Fugui's courtyard across the way were gone. Only two pale white lanterns remained, swaying in the wind.
Normally, the weather should have started warming up quickly after the Lantern Festival.
But as Lü Zhong walked under the bright Sun, he felt no heat. Instead, a chilling wind seemed to blow right through him, waves of coldness surging into his body until he felt as if he were in an ice cave.
'What's wrong with me?'
Lü Zhong sensed that something was wrong with his body. Logically, a cultivator shouldn't be this weak.
He was no longer the same person he'd been when he first arrived. His body, nourished by Spiritual Qi, might not have been strong enough to lift a bronze cauldron, but it was certainly stronger than that of an average mortal man in his prime. He could lift over a thousand pounds without issue. And while his body hadn't reached the point of being impervious to fire and water, he definitely shouldn't be getting sick just from a chill.
'There's only one explanation for this. Something has to be wrong!'
As he neared the entrance to the alley, another cultivator approached from the opposite direction.
Upon seeing each other, both men froze, their expressions startled.
"What happened to you?"
They both blurted out the same question.
Lü Zhong hurried over to a nearby puddle and saw that his face was terrifyingly pale. There wasn't a trace of color in it; he looked like a corpse.
The other cultivator checked his reflection in a Copper Mirror and realized something was wrong with him, too.
"AHHHH!"
Suddenly, an utterly wretched scream came from the distance.
By the time Lü Zhong arrived, a crowd had already formed, everyone staring ahead in horror.
Pinned to the brick wall before them was a bright red corpse. The person's skin was completely gone, exposing all the flesh and muscle beneath. He was still screaming shrilly.
From the looks of it, he wouldn't be dying anytime soon.
Lü Zhong's brow furrowed at the sight. 'What kind of deep-seated hatred would drive someone to flay a person and pin them here,' he thought, 'forcing them to die screaming in absolute agony?'
At a time like this, the robust constitution that cultivators prided themselves on had become an instrument of their own torture.
A figure in the crowd caught his eye. It was Zhao Lin, his new neighbor. He was also watching, but something about his expression was off—there was a clear look of triumph on his face.
'Could this be his handiwork?'
Before Lü Zhong could think any more of it, he heard a soft THWIP.
An Ice Needle flew from the distance and struck the person on the wall right between the eyes.
"Make way, make way!"
A group of people shoved their way roughly to the foot of the wall. The leader, a cold-faced young man, stared at the corpse, his expression turning icy as his body began to tremble with rage.
Yuo Qing hadn't expected to encounter something like this right after taking over as the captain of the Qingliu Ruins Law Enforcement Team.
The man pinned to the wall was no nobody; he was the vice-captain Yuo Qing had just appointed. He never imagined the man would meet such a tragic end in the blink of an eye.
This was a clear provocation.
A blatant slap in the face to him, Yuo Qing!
Suddenly, his gaze landed on Lü Zhong.
Then, as if he had discovered something, Yuo Qing's eyes swept over the onlookers, and his expression changed slightly. He reached up to touch his own face, and his hand trembled involuntarily.
Without a word, he turned and strode away.
Lü Zhong was already worried about his own condition. Seeing that even a disciple of the Qingyang Sect looked that way, he knew something was terribly wrong. He immediately backed out of the gawking crowd and hurried toward the end of the street.
Along the way, he passed many pedestrians, and none of their faces looked right.
But for some reason, none of them seemed to realize it.
Spirit money had started to drift down along the roadside at some point.
A chill rose in his heart, and Lü Zhong broke into a run.
The place he was heading to now was the home of the Talisman Maker, Li Dong.
After Qingliu Ruins had been ransacked by Demon Cultivators, the shops that sold Talismans had either closed down for good or were still shut. Even those preparing to reopen were still sourcing their inventory and wouldn't be open for a while.
If Lü Zhong wanted to buy an Evil Exorcism Talisman now, his only option was to find Li Dong.
He didn't encounter any pedestrians on the way. The entire street was eerily quiet—a silence so profound it was bone-chilling.
'What in the world is happening in Qingliu Ruins? No, I have to get to Li Dong's house right away!'
Just as Lü Zhong reached the entrance to the alley where Li Dong lived, he suddenly heard footsteps up ahead.
The footsteps sounded like an old man's, yet they were messy and erratic.
A moment later, a figure covered in blood shambled around the corner.
Its face was a mangled mess of flesh, covered in what looked like bite marks. A large, bloody hole was torn in its stomach, with colorful entrails spilling out. The whole thing reeked of a foul stench.
Purplish-red patches gradually appeared on its pale, bluish skin.
Using his Qi Observation Skill, he saw that the figure was shrouded in a layer of black gas that was constantly radiating outwards.
When the black gas touched the weeds by the roadside, they instantly withered and turned black.
'It's Yin Qi! This person has undergone a corpse transformation!'
Lü Zhong's heart suddenly pounded as he instinctively backed away.
He'd never expected a corpse transformation to happen in Qingliu Ruins. The absurdity of it all struck him, but then he couldn't help but think of the strange changes in his own body and Yuo Qing's clearly abnormal behavior from before.
He felt for the Fireball Talisman in his robes, his first instinct to activate it.
Fortunately, he managed to calm down and didn't waste his life-saving Talisman.
His gaze returned to the newly transformed corpse. Lü Zhong noticed that its joints were twisted unnaturally, and it moved with an extremely bizarre gait, slower even than an old man with a cane.
'Looks like it just transformed not long ago. The stiffening process isn't complete yet.'
To be safe, Lü Zhong picked up a wooden stick from nearby before trying to approach.
"ROAR!"
Seeing a living creature approaching, the living corpse let out a roar and lunged, its blackened nails outstretched.
But it was far too slow. It had barely begun to move when Lü Zhong brought the stick down hard on its forehead. The bowl-thick stick snapped on impact, and the top of the living corpse's skull was knocked clean off.
White and yellow matter splattered everywhere, releasing a nauseatingly foul smell.
With a crisp CLINK, a copper ring rolled onto the ground.
Lü Zhong saw it and immediately picked up the ring. It shimmered with Spiritual Light, clearly no ordinary object.
Just then, he heard the sound of more soft footsteps behind him.
He turned to look and found a whole horde of living corpses.
'Too many of them! I can't fight them all!'
He quickly dropped the broken stick and sprinted toward Li Dong's house without looking back.
At the same time, Qingliu Ruins seemed to erupt into chaos.
Shrieks and screams rose and fell, mixed with wails of grief and roars of anger. Muffled booms from exploding Magic Skills echoed through the air.
Lü Zhong ran with all his might, and after rounding a corner, he finally saw Li Dong's house.
But his heart sank at the sight: Li Dong's door was wide open, and two bodies lay at the entrance.
Just then, with a loud BANG, a burst of fire erupted from inside Li Dong's house.
Immediately after, a charred corpse flew out and slammed into the wall across the way.
Li Dong then emerged from the house, holding a bloodstained longsword in one hand and a young boy in the other.
When he saw Lü Zhong, his expression was hesitant for a moment. But after a glance at the boy in his arms, his face firmed with resolve, and he flicked a Talisman toward him.
"Activate it and stick it on yourself. It will expel the Yin Qi from your body."
Lü Zhong did as he was told without a moment's hesitation and immediately felt strands of energy being drawn out of his body.
The sunlight on his skin finally felt warm again.
Meanwhile, the Ruins Market was growing even more chaotic.
"ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!"
A soul-shaking roar suddenly echoed from the distance.