Chapter 404: The People of the Desolate Lands Have Very Advanced Ideas
Chapter 404: The People of the Desolate Lands Have Very Advanced Ideas
Translator: yikaii Editor: yikaii
In just one night's sleep, they encountered two waves of living corpses.
The living corpses held shovels, rakes, and other farming tools, which seemed to have been taken from the villagers' homes. These tools had now transformed into dangerous weapons.
"You have to admit, this is quite something you'd only see in the Desolate Lands. You wouldn't run into this anywhere else, quite an eye-opener," Lu Yang joked, smiling as he unsheathed the Qingfeng Sword. His expression was relaxed, and the sword gleamed brightly under the candlelight.
Even though the number of living corpses was considerable and they were armed, surrounding the ancestral hall, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou were both Golden Core Stage cultivators. Each of them could easily establish a family or even found a sect. Being trapped by rural living corpses was out of the question.
"No wonder the villagers didn't want us to stay—they were probably afraid of the danger. When they said something about getting eaten by corpses, I guess this is what they meant," Meng Jingzhou remarked. Although the villagers hadn't been kind to them, Meng Jingzhou didn't hold grudges and saw no issue in helping solve their problem.
"Look! There's a woman among the corpses!" Lu Yang pointed to a disheveled female corpse and exclaimed in surprise.
Meng Jingzhou was confused. "What's so special about that? Dead people can be male or female, right? A female corpse isn't unusual."
"I mean, since you're currently under karmic backlash and can't be around women, this shows that your karmic backlash only applies to living people. Dead bodies and demons don't count. If you can't resolve this problem here in the Desolate Lands, you could always stay in the Demon Territory until you reach the Spirit Transformation Stage."
"Get lost! I refuse to believe that Eldest Senior Sister will never show up!" Meng Jingzhou snapped, angry, and charged at the living corpses first.
"Collapsing Fist!" Meng Jingzhou's fists clenched tightly as he charged, his arms forming a horn-like shape as he struck forward with force.
Boom!
The living corpse exploded. Meng Jingzhou's punch sent the rest of the advancing corpses flying, clearing a path.
"Huh, these corpses are tougher than I thought." Meng Jingzhou was surprised. He had assumed these were just ordinary, fragile corpses and that one hit would be enough to destroy them.
"Fairy, these living corpses aren't contagious, are they?" Lu Yang originally intended to stop Meng Jingzhou to figure out if there was any danger, but it seemed it was too late for that now.
"Contagious? What do you mean by that?" Everlasting Fairy looked puzzled by Lu Yang's question.
"You know, where if a living person gets bitten, they turn into a living corpse too."
Everlasting Fairy gave Lu Yang a bewildered look, as if he were an idiot. "Of course not! I've never even heard of such a thing. Why would you think that?"
"Just a random thought," Lu Yang said, relieved. Confident that there was no risk of infection, he boldly joined the battle.
Once in combat, Lu Yang quickly noticed how strangely tough these corpses were. They had clearly been refined by someone skilled.
"Do you really think you could eat us with just this? What a joke!" The two laughed as they tossed the living corpses out of the ancestral hall.
To the living corpses, it seemed like they had surrounded Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, but from the two cultivators' perspective, they were the ones surrounding the corpses.
"None of you will escape! Today, we'll rid this village of this menace!" they declared. Just as they were about to unleash their powerful techniques and wipe out the corpses, an old voice called out from a distance.
"Young men, please show mercy! They mean no harm!"
It was the elderly man who had refused them lodging earlier.
"They don't eat people—I was just trying to scare you. They only wanted to go to the ancestral hall to eat the offerings. You two just happened to be there," the elderly man explained.
Hearing this, both Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou were stunned. Thinking back, it did seem like the living corpses never actually intended to attack them.
They cautiously stopped attacking and noticed that the living corpses indeed ignored them, instead making their way around them and into the ancestral hall.
Once the corpses had all entered, the two approached the elderly man to ask for an explanation.
The elderly man sighed and said, "I am the village head of Jianshi Village. The situation with the living corpses may be hard for you to believe, but it's better to show you."
The living corpses surrounded the warm steamed buns, circling them. In a short time, the buns became cold, losing all their heat, and only then did the corpses stop.
When they left the ancestral hall, the corpses picked up their shovels, rakes, and plows, moving in sync as they walked out of Jianshi Village.
The three of them followed the corpses, who didn't go far. When they reached the fields, the living corpses stopped, picking up their tools and starting to dig and plow the land.
Some of the corpses carried water from the river, diligently watering the fields.
Others, lacking tools, knelt to pull weeds and pinch insects.
The living corpses worked methodically, like diligent farmers.
Once the farming tasks were complete, the corpses picked up their tools again and walked from the fields to the village entrance, then to the cemetery at the far end of the village. There, they dug holes with their tools and buried themselves back into the ground.
Lu Yang: "..."
Meng Jingzhou: "..."
The two rubbed their temples in disbelief, as if they had seen an illusion.
"Do people in the Desolate Lands all use living corpses to farm?"
This was far more advanced than anything in other regions—even their Dao Seeking Sect couldn't compare.
In the Dao Seeking Sect, they used the Blue-Eyed Water Buffalo Clan and the Third Elder for farming.
The village head of Jianshi Village sighed and explained, "It's not quite like you think. We're just ordinary people—there's no way we could afford to maintain so many living corpses."
"In fact, we don't even know where these corpses came from. One night, we were cooling off under a tree at the village entrance, and suddenly, this group of corpses appeared. At first, everyone was terrified, thinking the corpses were going to attack us."
"But after a while, we realized they didn't mean any harm. They just stopped moving, probably because they were out of energy."
"We don't have any corpse drivers in our village, but when I was younger, I spent some time with a corpse driver and learned a few basics. I decided to try steaming buns to feed the corpses."
"Sure enough, it worked. The corpses started moving again. Then someone suggested using them to farm, and I thought that was a good idea, so I began directing them to help us."
"Now, we rest during the day, steam a batch of buns in the evening, and place them in the ancestral hall. At night, the corpses climb out of their graves, absorb the yang energy from the buns, and start farming. Because everyone is still afraid of them, we lock our doors once night falls."
"After they finish farming, the corpses automatically bury themselves again, repeating the process the next night."
"To be honest, since the corpses started farming for us, life has gotten a lot easier. We now have more free time for other things."
"Then why didn't you let us stay?" Meng Jingzhou asked.
The village elder responded honestly, "I was afraid you'd find out that these corpses have no owners and report it to the authorities. The government would then find the rightful owner of the corpses, and we'd have to go back to farming ourselves."
"We wanted to scare you off, but who knew you'd not only stay but also choose to sleep in the ancestral hall. I realized there was no way to hide the truth, so rather than let you get hurt by the corpses, I decided to explain everything."
(End of the chapter)