All around, there was no airflow, but Zhao Zhu felt a cool breeze constantly hitting his body.

  This chilliness has penetrated through the skin and frozen into the depths of the bones.

  And the scholar who was originally sitting in front of him also slowly stood up, his body looking very stiff, but with a kind of frightening rhythm, which was a very strange feeling.

  Although he was a zombie, he still had a refined and elegant demeanor of a scholar. Zhao Zhuo believed that the person in front of him must have been Nalan Xunde when he was alive. Probably only the most famous and talented scholar of the Qing dynasty could still exude such elegance and refinement even after death and becoming a zombie. Unfortunately, a zombie is still a zombie, and the young singing girls who admired him in his lifetime probably wouldn't have any romantic thoughts about him now.

  Nalan Xingde stood up, his icy eyes staring at Zhao Zhu's eyes. The wind around him seemed to blow more urgently, making Zhao Zhu feel a chill in his heart, and his courage was also blown away bit by bit. Because Zhao Zhu found that he was almost afraid to look into those eyes again. The resentment on the other person's body was too heavy, so heavy that it could suppress the emotions of everyone around him, making people lose their composure under this intense resentment, even collapse!

  Nalan Xingde raised one arm and reached out to Zhao Zhu, his speed was not very fast, it was a slow step by step walk, no, his way of moving was different from the zombies that Zhao Zhu had seen before, he did not hop around, but could take steps like a normal person, only slightly stiffer than usual.

  Thank goodness, just as the hand was about to grab Zhao Zhu's neck, Zhao Zhu suddenly woke up and his body leaned back, with both feet quickly retreating.

  It seems that Nalan Xingde also realized that this grab would not be successful, and his claws transformed into a fist, directly hitting Zhao Zhu's chest. Zhao Zhu was knocked flying out, crashing into the wall before falling to the ground.

  "Hmm...hmm..."

  Zhao Zhu spat out two mouthfuls of fresh blood on the ground, but didn't feel much discomfort. Instead, he felt a lot lighter. Looking at the blood he had just spat out, it was thick and black, which meant it was stagnant blood. It seemed that Nalan Xingde's previous actions had inadvertently helped him to activate his blood circulation and dispel the stagnant blood. The many injuries he had suffered previously had left a lot of stagnant blood in his body.

  However, Zhao Zhuo also knew that whether the next time would still be a good thing was unknown, and he was facing a zombie rather than a physical therapist.

  Nalan Xingde approached Zhao Zhu again, his speed still very slow, but the pressure emanating from his body was still mesmerizing. Zhao Zhu gritted his teeth and stood up, casually taking a knife from one of the guards beside him. Although he didn't believe that this knife could pose any threat or harm to the zombie in front of him, at least having a weapon in hand made him feel slightly more at ease.

  "Hum!"

  All he could hear was the sound of fabric shaking, and Zhao Zhuo subconsciously crouched down.

  "Bang!"

  Nalan Xingde's palm directly slapped the wall behind Zhao Zhu, and the incredibly hard wall was actually slapped with a white palm print, showing how great the force of this slap was. It is estimated that even an ox would be killed instantly if it were here.

  Zhao Zhu saw the situation and immediately turned his knife sideways, with the handle pressing against Nalan Xingde's armpit. He then lifted his leg and kicked Nalan Xingde's abdomen with great force. This kick was made with all Zhao Zhu's might, while Nalan Xingde, due to having a knife pressed against his armpit, had already lost his balance. Adding to this, Zhao Zhu's kick sent him tumbling down. As he tried to get back up, Zhao Zhu straddled him and continued to press the handle of the knife downwards with both hands.

  Nalan Xingde tried to get up several times, but each time his body was lifted halfway and then ruthlessly pressed back down by Zhao Zhu.

  Zhao Zhu's face was tense, his teeth clenched, and he looked even more ferocious than Nalan Xingde below. At this time, Zhao Zhu couldn't think clearly about how the strength in his body had suddenly increased, but he knew that he must suppress it, absolutely cannot let it go free.

  Nalan Xingde's physical strength was absolutely beyond Zhao Zhu, but his body was too stiff and was grasped by Zhao Zhu's leverage point. At this time, he suddenly fell into a disadvantage and was completely suppressed by Zhao Zhu.

  "Fu paper... Fu paper."

  Zhao Zhu shouted, but soon he realized that his backpack was gone, and the remaining talismans and equipment were probably sunk to the bottom of the water. At present, he really didn't have a way to deal with this zombie.

  At this time, Zhao Zhu really wanted to curse his mother, he couldn't keep going like this with this zombie forever. If it was the living Nalan Xinde drinking tea and bragging together, that would be fine, but in front of him was a real zombie, who could still have fun with a zombie?

  "No, why were you infused with mercury and yet you can still transform into a corpse, while the other guards are all stiff as boards? I walked over to them and they didn't even flinch, they must have also been infused with mercury!"

  Zhao Zhuo then discovered the difference in this zombie under him, and by looking at the color of its skin and the stiffness of its body, he could tell that it also had a large amount of mercury inside.

  "Oh... I get it, they all had their bodies treated with mercury after death to prevent decay. But you were injected with mercury while still alive, damn! This is a ruthless move, no wonder even the number one scholar of the Qing dynasty had to fake his own death. Anyone would rather die than be subjected to this."

  Zhao Zhu was able to think of the key to the problem so quickly also because he had heard some things from Xiong Zhiqi, which was a task world that Xiong Zhiqi had experienced, and it was also related to tombs. The only difference was that the tomb was in the ancient country of Loulan, and its mysterious degree was not much different from Zhao Zhu's current location in Manqing Longmai.

  Xiong Zhiqi also encountered the corpse-changing zombies. After their team spent a great deal of effort to get rid of those zombies, they saw some murals depicting the process of how these zombies were "baptized with piety". This was done when they were still alive, by peeling off their scalp, injecting mercury into their body, and using various herbs and life-prolonging substances to prevent them from dying before the mercury injection was complete. After the mercury injection was finished, further processing was performed on the body, and a Taoist or Buddhist master was invited to perform a soul-sealing ritual to ensure that the soul would be forever suppressed within the body. Only then could they truly let go of their lives.

  Mercury is poured into one's own body, which is a more painful punishment than being slowly executed by a thousand cuts. This is truly a fate worse than death, yet one must endure this suffering and then die, with their soul forever trapped in the body that has endured such immense pain.

  In history, the first talented man of the Manchu Qing dynasty, Nalan Xingde, never thought that he would end up in such a situation. Is it because the emperor wanted to bring him to boast about his own achievements in governing the Manchu people's culture to his ancestors in the mausoleum?

  As for Nalan Xingde's situation, Zhao Zhu didn't have any sympathy or pity in his heart. He remembered that Xiong Zhiqi had said that the weak point of this mercury corpse was actually on its scalp. If he could find the first opening where the mercury was poured in and use a knife to break it open, the grievances inside the corpse would be released, and the zombie would basically be finished. If he couldn't break it open, then this thing would be almost invulnerable to swords and guns, and ordinary talismans wouldn't be able to subdue it either.

  "Scalp, scalp, scalp!"

  Zhao Zhu continued to press down on Nalan Xingde with one hand, while his upper body also leaned in, because he had to use his other hand holding the military knife to find the location of Nalan Xingde's life gate on his scalp. Also, due to losing a hand to restrain him, Nalan Xingde began to gradually turn the tide, as if he might get up at any moment.

  At this moment, Zhao Zhu's face and Nalan Xingde's face were less than half a centimeter apart. The teeth in Nalan Xingde's mouth had also turned silver, seemingly due to the mercury inside his body. There was no bad breath or odor, but he kept stretching out his head trying to bite Zhao Zhu. If Zhao Zhu wasn't careful, Nalan Xingde might have bitten off a piece of flesh from his face.

  ……

  PS: Nalan Xingde, also known as Rongruo, can be called either Nalan Xingde or Nalan Rongruo.