Jade Pendant
A severed arm struck He Yiting. The corpse puppet stared at its severed limb in confusion, but the arm quickly began to regenerate. Qin Hao and the others had finally arrived. In an instant, Chen Jianqiu’s sword cut through the fist aimed at He Yiting. Qin Hao closed in with a kick, sending the corpse puppet flying into the distance, while Feng Lan pulled He Yiting away.
“Mu Yuan, get some rest. We’ll handle things from here!” Chen Jianqiu said confidently to He Yiting, then joined the fray. Feng Lan changed into casual clothes and drew the twelfth-ranked weapon bestowed by the dean—a pair of eight-foot golden fans. Each fan, crafted entirely from refined gold, was divided into eight sections with riveted holes, threaded through with a jade pendant. The fans were indestructible.
Because the corpse puppet was large, Feng Lan closed the distance and struck vertically with both fans united—slash! The newly regenerated arm was severed again. As the corpse puppet attempted to counterattack, Chen Jianqiu unleashed the Six Veins Severing Emotion Sword Technique—six swift sword strikes twisting through the air, releasing six vast crescent-shaped azure sword energies toward the corpse puppet. The puppet responded with an eighth-level fist intent, not with the usual “Heavenward Eight Punches,” but directly punching into the sword energies. The collision of fist intent and sword energy triggered a massive explosion, sending dust billowing everywhere.
Emerging from the dust, Qin Hao charged forward, thrusting his spear into the puppet’s abdomen. Gripping the spear shaft, he spun into the air six and a half times, channeling his energy into the spear, which surged into the corpse puppet, causing chaotic internal disruption. Then—an explosion ripped through the puppet’s body, scattering flesh and blood.
The combo left the corpse puppet disoriented. Watching from afar, He Yiting couldn’t help but sigh:
“Why can’t my teammates and I perform maneuvers like that?”
But the battle was far from over. To everyone’s shock, the corpse puppet rapidly regenerated once more.
“What the hell! How do you kill something that won’t die?”
“No, the corpse puppet seems incapable of exhaustion!”
“Stick to the plan!” Qin Hao produced the jade pendant he’d stealthily stolen from the ancestral hall before the fight. Seeing the pendant in another’s hands, the corpse puppet lunged at Qin Hao in desperation.
Qin Hao ran, and the puppet chased him. He glanced back tauntingly:
“Come on, chase me! Catch me, and I’ll make you regret it!”
He Yiting, Feng Lan, and Chen Jianqiu watched Qin Hao’s retreat, while He Yiting, bewildered, asked:
“Fairy Tianhua, why isn’t Brother Zuo Qiao going to help?”
“Ru Yuan is doing this on purpose—he’s deliberately drawing the corpse puppet to one person.”
“Who?”
...
While He Yiting’s group confronted the corpse puppet, Qin Hao and his companions were searching elsewhere for clues, which explained their delayed arrival. They headed south of the town, opposite the direction of the Wan family ancestral hall, and along the way heard rumors of real “zombies.” They inquired about the whereabouts of these creatures and learned of a nearby cave. Without hesitation, they rushed there.
Inside, there were no zombies—only the stench of decay. From signs of life, they deduced the corpse puppet must have devoured the zombies. They questioned the town mayor:
“Has anything strange happened? Anyone missing?”
“There’s one,” the mayor said after pondering—“a scholar named Wu Xiucai who disappeared years ago.”
“He left town and lost contact with us. At first, we thought he had forgotten us poor villagers after getting into high school. But when we investigated, we found he never even took the exams. Recently, some villages have been plagued by deaths. We thought it might be monsters, but someone found a piece of clothing at one scene—it belonged to Wu Xiucai. We suspect he might be involved.”
“Did Wu Xiucai have anything important or family?”
“He was an orphan, raised by many households. But there was a special girl.”
“Oh, is this some melodramatic story?” Chen Jianqiu perked up at the mention of a girl.
“That girl was Xiao Qing. She was the only one who wanted to play with Wu Xiucai since childhood. Wu Xiucai was strong but called a monster by peers, so no one else wanted to befriend him. They grew close and, as they reached adulthood, became lovers and shared a forbidden fruit. For his future and responsibilities, Wu Xiucai took the imperial exams and quickly passed. Xiao Qing bore his child.” The mayor sighed deeply at this point.
“Xiao Qing’s father always opposed their relationship. When he learned his daughter had lost her virginity to Wu Xiucai and was pregnant, he was furious and disowned her. Without her father's protection, Xiao Qing and her mother soon committed suicide.”
“Suicide?”
“After Wu Xiucai went to take the exams, the mother and daughter were left alone. Then a band of horse thieves attacked the town, breaking into where they lived. Then...” The mayor paused, and everyone understood what had happened.
“The thieves wanted to assault Xiao Qing because of her looks, but she resisted fiercely. They then stabbed the child. The baby's sharp cries pained Xiao Qing. She begged the thieves not to harm her child, willing to do anything. So they forced her to serve them. After they were done, Xiao Qing was broken, lying naked on a straw mat. Seeing her dying child, she couldn’t care about clothing and came to me, tearfully begging me to take in the child. I couldn’t refuse, and then... she hanged herself.” The mayor’s eyes glistened with tears, and none of them felt any better.
Chen Jianqiu declared, “I will cleanse these beasts with blood! They’d better pray they never fall into my hands!” Qin Hao remained calm, having heard too many such stories and long since grown numb, but he kept the matter close to his heart.
“Before she died, Xiao Qing gave me a jade pendant she always carried. I placed it in the Wan family ancestral hall.”
Thus, Qin Hao and his companions had gone to the Wan family ancestral hall. Upon arrival, they stumbled into the crisis involving He Yiting. Qin Hao wielded the jade pendant, while He Yiting saved the others. The corpse puppet was originally fashioned from Wu Xiucai’s body, so the pendant greatly provoked it...