??

  I never thought that such a ferocious thing existed in this world. There have been rumors among the people about zombies, saying they suck blood, kill people, and can be infected by being bitten. I remember when I was young, there was a rumor circulating among my classmates that a certain doctor at a certain hospital was a zombie. One day, he bit several patients, and then the zombies started to break out. Students with news would say, "My so-and-so told me that the zombies have already arrived in such-and-such village, just a few days away from us."

  At that time, I always believed in such stories because the people who told them were all my close friends and they told them as if they had seen it with their own eyes. Almost every year, there would be several outbreaks of such rumors in school, and each time I was scared to death. When I grew up and looked back on those childhood days, most of the time I would just laugh at how silly I was back then.

  In the eyes of Taoist priests, however, jiangshi have always existed and many of them have had encounters with such creatures. In fact, China's real jiangshi are yin shi, referring to a corpse placed in a dark place with energy or near life, this corpse does not rot and for various reasons absorbs the energy or vitality leading to transformation into a jiangshi. A "living being" that can possess mobility and cognitive abilities is what a jiangshi is.

  This thing actually happened once in our village, fifteen years ago when I was still young. A family in the village asked my grandfather to help them relocate their ancestral tomb. My grandfather found that the ancestor's body had become a yin corpse, and despite being buried for decades, it hadn't rotted, with its mouth open. Later, my grandfather said that if this family had waited a few more years, they would have been finished, and all their descendants would have been eaten by him. Fortunately, the excavation was done just in time.

  Actually, Wen Bin later told me that my grandfather was the lucky one among the unlucky ones back then, because he chose to open the coffin during the day. As a zombie is something that cannot be exposed to light, and daylight is the strongest yang energy, it would naturally suppress the zombie's power. So, no matter how ferocious the zombie was, it wouldn't have been able to cause any harm under the sunlight. There is only one exception, the Golden Armor Zombie, which can supposedly move freely day and night. Therefore, my grandfather should have avoided a disaster by opening that coffin back then.

  Now in front of my eyes are such zombies, I don't understand why they can die without rotting, and like guards guarding this underground world. However, their ferocity has long exceeded my imagination. Ye Qiu was knocked down several times and struggled to support himself several times. At this time, my arm had also started to recover a bit, so I slowly moved my body to pick up the 56 semi-automatic rifle not far from me.

  One of my arms can only be lifted now, I put the gun on my arm and slowly raised it, but the two corpses on the other side have already fought together. The Taoist symbols flew horizontally, the weapons clashed, and the fight was so lively that you came and went between them, and the one with the big knife broke through the fourth coffin several times, it seems that China's zombies are really not bad.

  "I heard Cha Wenbin say from the side: 'This won't work, if things go wrong, we'll all be dragged down. You take Xiaoyi and run first.'"

  Run? Where are you running to, it's easy to get in this hole but hard to get out, humans aren't necessarily more agile than that thing, but guns can be used! So I shouted: "Start running, make a circle, and scatter your position!"

  Everyone understood, Cha Wenbin and Ye Qiu each shook off their opponents and ran around in circles. In my mind, the dumpling would definitely follow behind them, opening up a gap for me to attack. But I was wrong, they were much smarter than I thought. When Cha Wenbin and Ye Qiu escaped from the battlefield one after another, those two didn't follow them but instead charged directly at me!

  It's just a few meters away, the speed of transformation is far beyond human imagination, without the constraints of physical limits, they can burst out with their maximum limit, and it's just a blink of an eye. In an instant, that big knife had swung to my front. The five-six semi-automatic rifle isn't a machine gun, one shot can only fire once, fortunately I fired successfully, almost hitting the blade's forehead with one shot.

  The huge impact of the bullet delayed the big knife's attack, and this shot almost blew away half of the opponent's head. I'm not a super warrior who has been trained, and before that, I occasionally hit a mountain sparrow, where can I withstand such a test? The second shot hadn't come yet, and a stick had already smashed down on me with a crash, I thought my forehead would bloom from then on, fortunately, Ye Qiu timely swung out the corpse-binding rope in his hand to hook the stick's legs.

  He pulled back and the stick still came crashing down, but it was off target, brushing against my left cheek with a whistling sound. Instantly, I felt my head go "buzz", then my ear started to throb with a searing pain. I felt something hot and sticky on my cheek, which turned out to be half of my ear had been sliced off...

  The one I hit is now motionless, Zha Wenbin was slower than Ye Qiu by a few beats, but he quickly caught up and directly sent a Heaven's Punishment Seal towards that half of the brain, after a wave of burnt smell came over, the Seven Star Sword coated with Black Dog Blood pierced through the chest of the Golden Armor Greatsword.

  Severe pain began to stimulate my nerves, and when the pain reached a certain limit, it made me forget what fear was. This might be what they call "the more you fight, the braver you become" on the battlefield. I covered half of my face with my hand, and the dangling ear that still hung down drove me into madness. In an instant, I jumped up, wildly shouting and losing my sanity, and charged at the buck-toothed man who was holding a stick and being pulled by Ye Qiu.

  I think it definitely didn't know what was in my hand, maybe it thought that was just a fire stick. This toothy creature actually bit down on the barrel of my gun with one bite, and the club in its hand was picked up again. This time I didn't miss the opportunity, proletarian bullets have always been used to eliminate all the evil spirits who dare to resist. After one shot, a blood corpse that had lived for many years also grew a mouth on the back of its head, I think its toothy may have already been crushed into powder.

  I don't know what's meant by "all things have their nemesis", nor do I know how those Taoist incantations can subdue these so-called thousand-year-old monsters, but they ultimately cannot withstand the power of bullets. I looked at Zhang Wenbin's complex eyes, he looked at the three incomplete corpses on the ground, and then at the ancient sword in his hand that had been passed down for countless generations, with the talismans still smoldering with flames. At that moment, he felt defeated, because if it weren't for me today, without the gun in my hand, this would have become a place where he would meet his demise.

  At that time, the injuries I suffered were very serious, and Ye Qiu and Cha Wenbin were not much better off. The three of us had basically reached our limits, and with four coffins left, who could still guarantee they could fight again? Going down the mountain was the only choice.

  I forgot how I climbed down that towering Eagle Cave, but it's true that after overcoming fear, one can become incredibly brave. I stayed in the county hospital for three days, and later my ears were saved, but one of the nerves was permanently damaged.

  After this battle, Zha Wenbin was depressed for a long time. In his understanding, the Taoist skills were not the only way to defeat the enemy. Those seemingly absurd Taoist skills in front of bullets were so vulnerable.

  He asked me: "Why are there fewer and fewer people learning Taoist scriptures? Maybe it's really too old and is about to be eliminated."

  I was speechless, those zombies that looked so fierce were like ferocious beasts in front of guns. I think the ancients may not have been able to tame these things, so they invented talismans. However, after many years, just like traditional Chinese medicine which once flourished but gradually disappeared from the historical stage as modern hospitals' nurses drew blood from my body for testing, those traditional Chinese medical practices of observation, listening, questioning and pulse-taking also gradually disappeared, with fewer and fewer people understanding them.

  After that, Cha Wenbin left, and Ye Qiu also left with him. I thought they could only talk to each other when they were together, but I didn't expect Ye Qiu not to follow Cha Wenbin.

  The Feng Shui of Hong Village was indeed bad those few years, and that year the walnut tree still didn't bear fruit. I knew that in the depths of the high mountains, in the Old Eagle Cave, there was something that restrained everything in Hong Village, but this secret I kept to myself, promising him that when he returned.

  That May, the first month after Zhang Wenbin and Ye Qiu left, I was fishing by the small river at my home's entrance, feeling extremely bored. By my side was Dazui, who had been following me since Ye Qiu left. Suddenly, someone patted my back, and I thought it was Dazui playing a prank on me again, so I waved my hand and said: "Stop messing around, do you still want to drink fish soup tonight?"

  "Of course I want to... Hehe..." A silvery laughter echoed from behind me, the voice was so familiar. I turned around and it was indeed her, that eccentric girl from Gulin was bowing with a smile on her face while backing away. Suddenly, she threw a stone at me and then took off running. Yuan Xiaobai, you're finally back.

  She was laughing and running up the slope of my house, her luggage had been left at the bridgehead. This guy hasn't changed a bit, leaving me to deal with all the hard work. They were two heavy trunks with many letters on them that I didn't recognize. As I dragged the trunks across the bridge, I suddenly felt something was off - there's another woman in this house!

  That's right, that woman is indeed Fang Fei. If Yuan Xiaobai is the Zhao Min of Jin Yong's pen, then Fang Fei is the Sun Xiao Hong of Gu Long's pen. Over the years, I have come to realize that this young girl only has eyes for a man named Cha Wenbin. But what about this little servant girl in front of me? I shook my head, reminding myself not to think wildly again. Anyway, she definitely won't be looking for me.

  ...