Chapter 1626 - 1473: Yin Yang Inn 29
Chapter 1626: Chapter 1473: Yin Yang Inn 29
This corpse looks suspicious at first glance. Before starting to dig up the grave, Shuangshuang had specifically inquired; this person had been dead for a month.
With such a long time, and not being stored in a refrigerator, any corpse would have decomposed to the bones.
However, this corpse was completely intact. Apart from the skin turning a frightening dark blue, there were no signs of decay.
This was clearly abnormal. Shuangshuang and Li Yu exchanged a glance and jumped down together to check the state of the corpse.
The pit below wasn’t big. After Shuangshuang and Li Yu jumped down, there was no spare space left. Feng Lin, who was still above, looked down and directly transformed into his tanuki form, jumping down and crouching on Shuangshuang’s shoulder.
Shuangshuang and Li Yu rummaged through the corpse, checking various conditions, and Shuangshuang pointed at the heart area of the corpse.
"His heart blood essence has been taken. He died because of this. Apparently, the culprit was picky and only took the best part of the essence."
The heart blood essence is the essence of a person’s vital energy. When demons extract essence, there are generally two types: one doesn’t harm life, only taking a portion. This can result in a few days of illness or reduce the lifespan by two years, but compared to losing one’s life, this is considered lucky.
The other method is to extract all the vital energy completely. In this case, the person who has their entire body’s vital energy extracted naturally can’t survive. Not only that, the corpse would become shriveled and emaciated.
Li Yu, after his inspection, thoughtfully said, "If only the heart blood essence was taken, then it’s indeed unlikely the work of a monster.
Monsters wouldn’t waste like this. If they’ve decided to take a life, naturally it makes sense to extract all the essence.
It’s known that harming anyone incurs karma, and not extracting all essence would mean bearing that karma in vain—no monster would do something so unprofitable."
Shuangshuang tapped on the corpse, making a sound like striking iron tools: "Moreover, this corpse is so hard, which isn’t consistent with a corpse that has had all its essence drained by a monster.
The only reason a corpse could become this hard is if, at the moment of expelling its last breath, severe resentful energy invaded the body, causing this result.
Monsters are living creatures; they don’t possess Yin Qi or resentful energy, so naturally, they can’t cause this result. Those capable of this are either evil cultivators with methods to cultivate yin ghost or some powerful ghostly entity causing harm."
"No matter what, let’s check the conditions of the other corpses. If they’re all like this, then it’s likely a powerful ghostly entity causing trouble."
Li Yu expressed dissatisfaction here; he had to dig up graves again. He was a fox with a cleanliness obsession and particularly disliked such dirty tasks. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help it; since he couldn’t beat the shopkeeper, he had to be exploited by Shuangshuang.
While busy dispelling the corpse’s resentful energy to prevent any chance of corpse transformation, Shuangshuang had no idea what Li Yu was thinking. If she did, she would’ve complained loudly.
Though she had Li Yu do work, apart from fighting, she did other tasks herself, right? When had she ever exploited him? She really didn’t know.
Unfortunately, Shuangshuang was unaware of what Li Yu was thinking, so she continued to busy herself dispelling the corpse’s resentful energy, swiftly putting the lid on the coffin, and refilling the grave as quickly as possible to restore it to its original state.
Because once the resentful energy dispersed, the body would decompose rapidly. If she didn’t act fast, the stench of decomposition would cling to her clothes. Shuangshuang couldn’t stand being covered in the smell of a corpse.
Afterward, Shuangshuang, Feng Lin, and Li Yu spent the entire night exhuming and inspecting all the male ghosts who went to the Yin Yang Inn.
Standing in front of the last corpse, Shuangshuang frowned and said, "The body doesn’t decompose, it’s hard and dark blue, and it sounds like striking iron when knocked upon, killed by having its heart blood essence taken.
All these corpses exhibit the same conditions; clearly, they were harmed by the same ghostly entity, which is very fierce and highly capable. But what exactly is it?"
Li Yu, standing with his arms crossed, said, "Indeed strange. This ghostly entity, capable of harming so many people, must be incredibly powerful. Wherever powerful ghosts are, Yin Qi would be dense, and resentful energy would boil.
Yet on our way here, we didn’t sense any Yin Qi or resentful energy. Isn’t this abnormal? What kind of ghostly entity can hide its aura so well, even we couldn’t detect it?"
Feng Lin, sniffing with his small nose, said to Shuangshuang, "I smell a strong ghostly scent on this body; it definitely wasn’t an ordinary ghost that killed it."
"Well, that’s obvious. This corpse is as hard as iron just lying there; anyone with eyes can see something’s wrong, okay? Besides, we already said earlier that this wasn’t a natural death; do you really need to sniff it out specifically?"
Li Yu seemed only comfortable when mocking Feng Lin, and as soon as Feng Lin spoke, Li Yu immediately ridiculed him.
Feng Lin wasn’t bothered by Li Yu’s jibes; he was used to Li Yu’s barbs and completely ignored this trouble-making fox.
In his cat form, his feline instincts took over. Feng Lin instinctively rubbed Shuangshuang’s face, as if seeking praise: "Shopkeeper, I mean to say that I can smell what kind of ghostly entity it is."
Though Feng Lin was a cat demon, his sense of smell was even keener than a dog demon’s. He could remember any scent he had ever encountered, regardless of how long it had been, and he could detect it regardless of how faint it was.
Knowing Feng Lin’s capability, Shuangshuang raised an eyebrow and looked at Feng Lin: "You can smell what kind of ghostly entity it is?"
Feng Lin nodded, "I can. These corpses have a lot of Yin Qi and resentful energy on them. These energies emit a distinctive scent that masks another very faint scent.
This scent is so subtle that other monsters probably couldn’t detect it, but I can smell it; it’s the smell of a Corpse Ghost."
"So it’s a Corpse Ghost!" Shuangshuang and Li Yu had a sudden realization.
A Corpse Ghost is formed when the corpse of a deceased person is accidentally buried on a Yin Vein, and the soul refuses to leave the body, cultivating by absorbing the Yin Qi of the Yin Vein.
Corpse Ghosts are similar to zombies, but the difference is that zombies have stiff limbs and low offensive power and cannot appear during the day, fearing sunlight.
On the other hand, Corpse Ghosts have flexible limbs, moving similarly to humans. More importantly, Corpse Ghosts merely dislike sunlight but don’t fear it.
Therefore, Corpse Ghosts can still roam during the day, and if a Corpse Ghost mingles among humans, ordinary people would have difficulty distinguishing between a Corpse Ghost and a human.
If this Corpse Ghost possesses some skills and knows some Concealing Spells, then cultivators would also struggle to differentiate between a Corpse Ghost and a human.
However, forming a Corpse Ghost requires an immense amount of Yin Qi. Even small Yin Veins cannot cultivate a Corpse Ghost, hence, while Corpse Ghosts are difficult to deal with, they aren’t often encountered.