Chapter 229: Section 17: Digging Up Corpses at Midnight
In the dark, decrepit dock, moonlight seeped through the cracks.
The gaunt old scholar before them now showed eyes cold as frost, as the souls of the two thieves continuously begged for mercy before him.
Bai Ya, now unshackled, regained his freedom. He fell to the ground, feeling an unforgettable sensation from just a moment ago.
The souls of the thieves flew past his ear, brushing against much of his body, bringing with them a chilling coldness.
“Please, spare us!”
“Don’t kill me, don’t kill me. I have money, I’ll give you all my savings.”
The souls writhed and wailed continuously.
The scene suddenly shifted.
Undead Mage!
The rot of darkness, the mystery of death, chilling and brutal, toying with the dead, manipulating souls…
Undead Mages had always been shunned by the orthodox, universally hunted. Within the Holy Bright Empire, the efforts to kill Undead Mages were even more severe. Discovery led to vigorous warrants for their murder, without ever showing leniency.
Bai Ya uncontrollably started shivering.
Throughout his life, he had heard many terrifying stories. And the protagonists of these stories were often Undead Mages.
Although he had already known about Cang Xu’s identity, the eerie and terrifying scene of Cang Xu interrogating souls now aroused an endless fear in Bai Ya’s heart.
Cang Xu inquired about matters concerning the cultists.
Thieves always had good information.
One spirit of a thief spoke hastily, “The Mayor led a large force and surrounded this little dock. After the City Defense Army burst in, they saw the cultist flipping open the floorboard trying to escape underwater. The priest and the commander of the City Defense Army took action together and subdued him.”
Another spirit of a thief quickly added, “After the cultist was captured, the Mayor and others discussed, and decided to hang him publicly in the afternoon a week later.”
“The Mayor, the priest, and the commanders of the City Defense Army, for the sake of political achievements and glory, highly publicized the event and even hired bards to compose a song. Every evening, in the Mermaid’s Bar, it’s sung at least once.”
“In fact, the actual capture went very smoothly, nothing like the complexities in the song.”
Cang Xu narrowed his eyes; he found it very strange.
The symbol under the floorboard was clearly etched deliberately; with such a sign, how could someone be caught so easily?
“Where is his body?” Cang Xu asked.
“He was hanged, and then left hanging on the noose for a week. Finally, he was buried in the Burial Mound behind the village,” the thief’s spirit knew everything.
Cang Xu fell silent.
His gaze shifted back to the wooden floorboard that could be lifted.
He now felt this piece of wood was very strange.
If this cultist was the person Cang Xu thought he was in his mind, he would not have been captured and hanged so easily. Also, this wood floorboard was completely unnecessary.
“No, this might be a disguise!”
A sudden insight flashed in Cang Xu’s mind, giving him a new perspective.
“How was the identity of this cultist exposed?” Cang Xu asked again.
This time, both spirits of the thieves shook their heads.
They only knew it was some rumors. The priest of the church first received a tip, noting the cultist’s strange behavior. Then the priest found the Mayor, who dispatched City Guards to investigate and confirm the evil faith of the cultist.
Cang Xu nodded and started singing again.
The two spirits of the thieves immediately writhed in agony, screaming shrilly, tumbling wildly in midair.
After a dozen breaths, one of the spirits suddenly burst apart, while the other stabilized. Its previously translucent human form transformed into a deep blue color. The human features remained quite distinct, but after the transformation, his face became very vague, leaving only a mouth and two eye sockets, with the nose and ears completely vanishing.
Undead Magic—Ghost Creation!
This spell used the living soul as material to create a ghost. Obviously, the spell had a certain success rate, like now: Of the two souls, only one transformed into a ghost.
After the transformation into a thief ghost, many things were lost, not just the human appearance; he no longer begged for mercy but floated silently in mid-air, waiting for his master—Cang Xu’s next instruction.
“Float down, check the underwater situation nearby,” Cang Xu commanded, and the ghost drifted gently, directly passing through the dock’s wooden floorboard, quickly merging into the water.
“Young man, I hope you can keep watch for me again, can you?” Cang Xu said to Bai Ya with a smile.
Bai Ya was momentarily stunned, then quickly nodded, hurriedly ran out, and stood guard outside.
Cang Xu sang again, this time pulling out a pitch-black bone.
After he finished chanting, the pitch-black bone also disintegrated into dust and completely scattered.
With the help of casting materials, Cang Xu successfully cast another Undead spell—Ghost Eye.
When he opened his eyes, they were pitch black.
The situation underwater appeared directly in his mind as he meticulously searched the seabed while using his spirit to control the ghost.
A discovery!
Soon after, he noticed an Array hidden at the seabed, cloaking an entrance.
Due to its location underwater, the entrance resembled a circular valve.
“It’s highly likely that there’s an underground lab below this valve!” Cang Xu estimated internally.
Then, he manipulated the ghost, cautiously probing for a while.
The Array only had a function of disguising and isolating, with no counterattacks or traps.
As it was protected by magic power, the thief ghost couldn’t utilize its own advantage to penetrate directly.
Cang Xu didn’t rashly attempt.
He thought for a moment, and for now, decided to give up on breaking through the Array and the valve.
Bai Ya circled around the small dock, patrolling the sandy beach. The moonlit beach should have been beautiful, but the young man, having just witnessed the Undead Mage killing two thieves and extracting their souls to produce a ghost, had no mood to appreciate the scenery.
He looked up at the moon, feeling bewildered.
“I wanted to be a knight. Why am I here? Am I an accomplice to an Undead Mage? In those stories and poems, I’m the villain after all.”
Bai Ya was deeply troubled.
He wanted to become a knight, not a wicked Undead Mage’s evil henchman.
Creak.
A sound echoed as Cang Xu pushed open the door, walking out of the small boathouse.
Bai Ya hurried forward to meet him, but soon his steps hesitated slightly.
Behind Cang Xu floated the ghost of the thief.
“Let’s go,” Cang Xu said indifferently.
Bai Ya obediently followed, but subconsciously always maintained a distance from Cang Xu.
The young man originally thought they were going to meet up with Sanda and Lan Zao, but the road they were on was obviously wrong.
“Where are we going?” Bai Ya asked anxiously.
“Heh heh, to a more important place, to verify a guess of mine,” Cang Xu smiled.
If one didn’t know Cang Xu was an Undead Mage, that smile would seem very natural. But at this moment, Bai Ya always felt Cang Xu’s smile carried a chilling coldness, profoundly unsettling.
The young man had mixed feelings about Cang Xu.
On one hand, he had saved Cang Xu’s life. If it wasn’t for Bai Ya’s intervention, Cang Xu would have been eaten by a green lizard.
On the other hand, after Bai Ya had passed out, Cang Xu had suggested using Bai Ya’s flesh as food. Knowing this afterward, despite understanding, naturally made Bai Ya feel disgusted.
Moreover, Cang Xu had taught Bai Ya many times, and his knowledge deeply impressed the young man.
Lastly, when Cang Xu revealed his identity as an Undead Mage on Mysterious Monster Island, Bai Ya became even more fearful of him.
With the ghost leading the way, the two quickly arrived at the Burial Mound behind the mountain.
Looking at the haphazard tombstones and overgrown weeds, with the night wind whistling, Bai Ya was surprisingly calm.
He wasn’t worried about any ghosts coming to trouble him.
“I do have an Undead Mage by my side,” at this moment, Bai Ya felt a subtle sense of safety because of Cang Xu.
The ghost floated around for a while and then slowly stopped at a spot.
It pointed towards the ground below it and made a wailing sound.
Cang Xu turned to Bai Ya, “Young man, there’s something here that needs your effort.”
Soon, Bai Ya found a piece of dead wood, which he split into a rough wooden shovel.
With the wooden shovel in hand, he began to dig.
“What am I doing?”
“I can’t believe I’m digging up a corpse!”
“How did it all come to this?”
“I wanted to be a knight, not an accomplice to an Undead Mage.”
As the soil gradually turned over, Bai Ya suddenly got startled, nearly falling back to the ground.
He discovered a corpse buried in the dirt.
“Well done, young man, take it out carefully. Don’t be too rough,” Cang Xu said.
Bai Ya held his breath, the corpse was too stinky, its flesh half-rotten with bones exposed in some areas, and other areas still clad in decomposed flesh with white maggots wriggling inside.
Struggling with fear and disgust, Bai Ya used all his strength to dig out the corpse.
But Cang Xu crouched down, showing no aversion, examining the male corpse. His actions were very skilled, and what scared Bai Ya even more was Cang Xu’s attitude.
He treated the male corpse no differently than he did the bodies of wild animals.
On Mysterious Monster Island, Bai Ya had seen Cang Xu dissect the bodies of man-made magical beasts more than once. Beneath his calm gaze was hidden curiosity and a peculiar pleasure from satisfying that curiosity through practice.
“Young man, do you know? Even though a person is dead, often their body can tell us many secrets,” Cang Xu sounded quite pleased.
Bai Ya was puzzled, “Sir, why didn’t we just use that spell just now? If we summoned this dead man’s spirit, we could ask everything.”
Cang Xu shook his head, “After death, a spirit’s existence has a time limit. This not only constraints Resurrection Divine Skill but also limits Undead Magic. He has been dead for too long; his spirit has dissipated. But because of this, it indeed explains some problems.”
“What problems?”
“The deceased isn’t really the cultist.”
“What?”
“He found a poor soul to die in his stead.” Saying this, Cang Xu stood up straight, stretched out his foot and gently hooked the corpse, flipping it over to lie face down.
Then, Cang Xu took out a pouch from his bosom, sprinkling some powder.
He muttered under his breath, spirit manipulating the magic power within the powder, causing the air to subtly ripple.
The powder fell onto the corpse, quickly raising spark-like illusions.
The illusions shifted constantly, resembling the tentacles of blue seawater and slightly glimpsing fish scales.
“These are probably the Divine Arts of the Mei Lan God,” Cang Xu smiled again, “Now please bury him back.”
“Ah? Bury again?”
“Respect for the dead, let’s bury him for peace,” sighed Cang Xu.
Bai Ya couldn’t help but mutter in his heart, “It’s clearly because of you that we are here digging up corpses.”
Fortunately, after the reburial, Cang Xu led Bai Ya back to the town.
The two of them successfully met up with Lan Zao and Sanda.
“We’ve checked everything; there’s no problem at the docks. We found many supplies, including the items we mentioned. The Empire is sincere; it’s not a trap,” Sanda said.
Cang Xu nodded, “I’ve also made significant findings here. If the truth is as I’ve guessed, perhaps we can resolve the issue of the Mermaid’s Fairy Tale!”