Corpse Recovery Diver

Short Man: "Should I go and probe a little?"

Zheng Ruxue hesitated for a moment, but when her gaze fell on Leng's chest, she nodded: "Go confirm, but be careful."

"Aren't you confident in my movement technique?"

The short man left the room.

The others remained in Zheng Ruxue's room, waiting.

Also waiting with them, were Run Sheng and his companions who stayed in the room on the first floor.

Although they were all covered in blankets, supposedly sleeping, Run Sheng hid the Yellow River Shovel under his blanket, and Yin Meng hid the Demon Exorcism Whip under hers.

Lin Shuyou placed the trident under his pillow, pretending to sleep on his side with his legs clamped around the blanket.

Even Tan Wenbin, seemingly asleep, kept his hands on his belly, maintaining the first seal of the Ghost Control Skill.

The only one who slept normally was Li Zhiyuan.

Because he trusted his companions to alert him, he could not waste their efforts.

This night, not only did we walk slowly, but we also walked silently.

Zheng Ruxue waited in the room for a long time. There was no sound, nor did the short man return.

"Something happened."

She got out of bed.

The man in the cotton coat and the short-sleeved man both stood up.

The short-sleeved man first opened the door, discovering the short man holding his chest, limping towards them, looking disheveled yet silent.

His movement technique was inherently magical, able to fly over eaves and walk on walls, like Earth Xing Sun.

Zheng Ruxue breathed a sigh of relief. Although injured, he had tested the waters.

The short-sleeved man turned sideways, intending to let his companion in.

But just as the short man approached the door, his hands suddenly plunged into the short-sleeved man's chest.

"Puh!"

Everything happened too quickly, in a flash. Given the assumption of being a companion, the short-sleeved man was completely unguarded.

Though they were human hands, they were now as sharp as blades, penetrating not only the skin but cutting through bones instantly.

In shock and pain, the short-sleeved man, disregarding everything else, embraced, with his muscles rapidly swelling, pulling the short man into his arms.

The expected explosion never came. The short man's entire body showed dense cracks, then shattered completely, turning into fragments of porcelain that splattered outward.

"Uh..."

A piece of porcelain embedded itself in the short-sleeved man's neck, making it difficult for him to make a sound.

The injury could no longer be described as severe, as the vital points of his whole body were stabbed, making it impossible to treat or extend his life.

The short-sleeved man's body collapsed to the ground, his vitality quickly extinguishing.

Originally, some shattered porcelain pieces flew toward Zheng Ruxue and the man in the cotton coat, but the man in the cotton coat spread his hands, forming a frost that blocked them.

However, even so, these porcelain fragments still penetrated deep into the frost, forcing the man in the cotton coat to mobilize more power for defense.

Because of this, the cold air within him used to suppress the broken jade was weakened, allowing corpse energy to seep out.

Strands of black energy swirled around his chest.

A voice eerily rose from underneath the floor:

"Corpse energy, evil, must be exterminated!"

This was a statement of exoneration.

Not slaughtering ordinary people, nor the righteous path fellows, only suspecting them of being evil, now confirmed without mistake, thus blameless and meritorious.

Zheng Ruxue bit her silver tooth, reaching out to push away the man in the cotton coat, as the voice came from downstairs.

The next round of attack would be launched from below the floor.

Yet, due to the corpse energy of the broken jade seeping out from within him, the man in the cotton coat felt tortured and his body was quite stiff. Zheng Ruxue's push, intended to aid a fellow during battle for better evasion, caused him to fall forward instead.

"Puh!"

A sharp instrument emerged from between the floorboards, directly piercing through the man in the cotton coat.

Zheng Ruxue's eyes almost popped out as, in a short span, all three of her subordinates had died!

If the opponent were overwhelmingly powerful, it would've been understandable, but the opponent didn't even reveal any terrifying strength, yet her side had died one by one, falling easily and swiftly.

Zheng Ruxue retreated, trying to leave the room, with a window in her retreat direction.

She moved quickly, but just as she was about to reach the window, she suddenly turned, in an extremely bizarre position, forcibly changing direction to move forward instead of retreating.

The window was opened, a figure waiting there for her.

Zheng Ruxue: As expected, you predicted my next move all along!

Zheng Ruxue dashed forward to the man in the cotton coat, waved one hand, flipping his body. She reached out and grabbed his chest, extracting the broken jade emitting black energy into her hand.

But at that moment, the long porcelain shard that had pierced the man in the cotton coat emerged once again.

Its timing was perfect, aligning with the moment Zheng Ruxue touched the broken jade and, influenced by its corpse energy, fell into a momentary stasis.

"Puh!"

Zheng Ruxue's body was pierced, the part embedded inside her crumbled into countless tiny porcelain shards, wreaking havoc within her body.

"Thud..."

Zheng Ruxue's body dropped to the ground, twitching a few times before going still.

The shadow outside the window manifested, not a person set up for an ambush but a portrait of a lady that had been hung there in advance.

After a while, someone came upstairs, pushed the door open, and it was the lone woman who lived downstairs.

Ignoring the bodies on the ground, she first took the broken jade from Zheng Ruxue's body and placed it in her delicate porcelain bottle.

The blue-and-white porcelain bottle gradually took on black patterns.

The woman sighed:

"Alas, it cannot be suppressed for long."

Then the woman clapped her hands, and a series of delicate porcelain dolls walked in from outside. As they approached the bodies, they shattered, becoming patches that enveloped the bodies of Zheng Ruxue and others.

Soon, "Zheng Ruxue and the others" all stood up and started cleaning the room of any traces.

After tidying up, "Zheng Ruxue and the others" took their luggage and went downstairs.

The front house was where Brother Pang Jin and his parents lived.

Brother Pang Jin was woken up by a knock on the door, rubbing his eyes, looking at the four guests who checked in today, and asked puzzledly: "What's the matter? Do you need anything?"

"Zheng Ruxue" spoke: "We have an emergency to attend to, we need to check out."

Her voice was hoarse and grating, causing Brother Pang Jin's eardrums to ache.

"Leaving Lijiang, not coming back?"

"Not coming back."

"Then let me refund you for the remaining days of your stay."

"No need, farewell."

"Hey, that won't do."

Brother Pang Jin rushed to the counter, using a key to open a drawer, took some money, and immediately ran after them.

"Where are you going this late at night? I can drive you, and the money..."

When Brother Pang Jin chased outside, he was astonished to find that "Zheng Ruxue and the others," who had just left, were nowhere to be seen.

Outside the house were village paths and farmland, under the bright starry sky with good visibility, but no matter how he looked around, he couldn't spot any figures.

Only by the edge of the field were four mounds slightly more prominent than their surroundings.

...

Morning.

Li Zhiyuan opened the door, walked outside his room, and stretched lazily.

By the wooden table at the opposite room's door, the lone woman sat there sipping tea from a very fine tea set.

The woman raised her teacup, gestured towards Li Zhiyuan with a warm smile:

"Good morning, little brother."

Li Zhiyuan reciprocated with a shy smile, waving back:

"Good morning."

———

Tomorrow during the day there's another chapter, to make up for the word count of this one.