The years I was in the human world

The night was as dark as ink, with a waning half moon hanging high in the sky. Its light could not illuminate the dead silence of the entire city. Crows stood on branches, singing hoarsely, and stared coldly at the fields with their dark eyes.

The old and yellowed silk silk under the withered branches swayed in the wind, the tattered lantern that rolled to the ground whimpered, and a pale and skinny arm stretched out from the equally pale sleeves, gently lifted up the lantern, and floated away slowly.

“Wow—wow—wow—” The crow on the branch was startled and flapped its wings to fly up. Before it could fly away, a green-haired hand reached out from the branch and grabbed the crow, swallowing it whole. A few drops of blood dripped onto the ground, and a pair of blood-red eyes slowly opened from the tree trunk, then looked in the direction of the inn…

"Hurry up, put it away and go back quickly. It's getting late. The Grand Elder has told us to go back early."

"Do you think the elder is overthinking? Is it necessary to be so vigilant against a mere green-haired zombie?"

"Who cares? The Grand Elder has issued a clear order. Don't dawdle any longer. Go back quickly. Otherwise, you will miss the time and you will be in trouble."

The monks moved the body wrapped in white cloth to the charity cemetery and placed it there. Someone had already sewn the head of the body during the day. Now they just had to wait for Baili Changqing to be buried the next day after the ritual of salvation for his soul. Only then could the body be laid to rest in peace.

"Swish——" A gust of wind outside the window blew away the white cloth covering the corpse's face, revealing a bluish-white face.

"You scared me." A monk was startled and muttered as he picked up the white cloth and covered the corpse's face again. Another monk beside him saw this and laughed, "It's just a dead man. Can he really get up and pounce on you?"

"Stop talking nonsense here." The wooden door of the charity cemetery was gently closed. The voices of the monks gradually faded away. Under the white cloth that no one could see, the corpse that should have been sleeping peacefully with its eyes closed quietly opened its eyes.

After the monks sent the bodies back to the inn, Wei Ruge counted the number of people according to Baili Changqing's instructions, but found that several people were missing. He immediately became serious and shouted to suppress the whispers of the crowd: "Seven are missing, who else hasn't returned?"

Although Baili Changqing only brought more than a hundred people this time, all of them were elites from various sects, but Wei Ruge didn't know all of them.

It was already late, and the green-haired zombies were hiding somewhere. No matter how powerful the monks were, they were still in Rongcheng, which was backed by the ghost den of Dongshan. For a moment, Wei Ruge became a little anxious.

The monks recognized each other and soon someone answered, "Master Jiang and his six disciples haven't returned yet."

Jiang Ling only brought seven disciples with him this time. One died on the way, so there are six left, but none of them are in the inn.

"Didn't Master order everyone to return to the inn at night? Why is Sect Master Jiang not here?!" Wei Ruge asked.

The cultivator who replied thought for a moment and said uncertainly, "It seems that Sect Master Jiang found the body of his disciple on the pork stall. He has been outside with people investigating for the whole day, and he doesn't know about the green-haired zombie..."

“This…” Wei Ruge was dumbfounded. Jiang Ling didn’t even know about the green-haired zombie and he hadn’t returned yet. He didn’t know how to deal with it, so he turned to ask Baili Changqing: “Master, what should we do now?”

"Let's do as I arranged this afternoon. Set up the formation and create the barrier." Baili Changqing looked at the monks who were on high alert in the inn and said, he did not easily change the original plan just because Jiang Ling had not returned.

"But... Master Jiang and his disciples are still outside..." Wei Ruge hesitated. The barrier and formation were set up to protect other young cultivators with low cultivation. Once opened, no matter if it was a person or anything else outside, no one could get in.

"Jiang Ling is a swordsman at the Refinement Void Realm after all. Rongcheng, a mere city, should not be unable to protect his disciples." Baili Changqing opened his eyes, with a look of indifference in them, as if he had forgotten that one of Jiang Ling's disciples had just been skinned right under his nose.

No matter what Wei Ruge wanted to say, he had to obey his master's decision. This was the ruthless way. There was no sympathy or mercy, only the overall situation. Now the safety of nearly a hundred cultivators in the inn was more important, so Jiang Ling and his disciples were placed in the back.

"Bai Li Chang Qing is a really weird guy." Wei Ruge did not deliberately avoid the public when talking with his master, so Xiao Fengzhuo naturally heard it clearly. He raised his head to glance at the white-clothed swordsman who was always in charge on the second floor of the inn, and laughed meaningfully.

Lu Zhouxue asked him why he said that, and he said, "He is merciful because he lets life and death go and never interferes in other people's affairs; he is ruthless because he works hard for justice."

Lu Zhouxue understood the second half of the sentence, which meant that Baili Changqing personally reinvestigated the old case in order to exonerate Yu Zhao. But she was puzzled by the "letting life and death go" mentioned in the first half of the sentence, and didn't know where Xiao Fengzhuo got this evaluation from.

Xiao Fengzhuo laughed again and leaned close to Lu Zhouxue's ear. His voice was so soft that his breath almost blew into his ear, making him feel a little itchy: "Mianmian, why do you think Jiang Ling's disciple died tragically?"

"Although it is natural that killing someone means paying with one's life, he is a righteous cultivator after all. The right and wrong should be brought back to the Final Court for judgment. However, your cheap master allowed his disciple to be killed." Xiao Fengzhuo said.

As if he was afraid that Lu Zhouxue would not believe him, he added: "If Jiang Ling can't keep an eye on his disciple, then how can Baili Changqing not keep an eye on him? What kind of evil spirit do you think can kill people under the nose of the great master who transcends tribulation?"

Xiao Fengzhuo had just finished saying this when he felt a strong gaze. Looking up, he saw Baili Changqing sitting on the second floor of the inn, looking at him coldly. The hearing of a cultivator is so sharp, let alone a master like Baili Changqing?

Xiao Fengzhuo didn't think that the other party wouldn't be able to hear him if he lowered his voice deliberately. He said that on purpose.

So at this moment, Baili Changqing stared at him, and he stared back without showing any weakness. He even raised his eyebrows provocatively. However, Baili Changqing did not bother with him. He quickly withdrew his gaze and continued to take a nap with his eyes closed.

What Xiao Fengzhuo said was true, but it didn't matter to Baili Changqing.

"Jiang Ling's disciple, do you know something?" Lu Zhouxue naturally felt Baili Changqing's gaze, but just like the latter didn't care about what Xiao Fengzhuo said, he didn't care about Baili Changqing's actions, and would not comment on it. He was just a little curious about the information revealed in Xiao Fengzhuo's words.

"This matter is complicated and cannot be explained in a few words, but I can tell you that Jiang Ling cannot protect his disciples." Xiao Fengzhuo said.

When Lu Zhouxue was about to ask why Jiang Ling couldn't protect those disciples, there was a slight sound from the wooden door of the inn. The sound was not loud, but it seemed abrupt in the extremely quiet environment.

"Who's outside?!" Wei Ruge asked sternly, drew his sword and tiptoed towards the door.

The sound outside the door suddenly stopped, and it was quiet, as if the sound just now was just an illusion, but everyone present knew very well that it was definitely not an auditory hallucination.

"Playing tricks!" Wei Ruge snorted coldly, but opened the wooden door directly. He saw fallen leaves outside and nothing else. Wei Ruge stuck his head out fearlessly to take a look. The night was dark and silent everywhere.

"Nothing?" Wei Ruge closed the door with doubt in his heart, but Xiao Fengzhuo moved his nose and smelled the stench of a rotting corpse. He was a cat demon, and his sense of smell was more sensitive than that of a human cultivator. He immediately said, "Be careful, that thing has sneaked in!"

His words caused a huge uproar, and the whole lobby was instantly in chaos.

Although the monks, due to their own cultivation, would not panic as easily as ordinary people, they were just a group of young people after all. They would still be at a loss when faced with a situation where they were unaware of the unknown danger lurking around them.

Some people did not believe it and firmly believed in their own perception. They thought Xiao Fengzhuo was just making wild guesses and said contemptuously, "He is just a beast who always likes to make a fuss."

"The Grand Elder hasn't said anything yet, but you're the first to make a fuss. Are you more perceptive than the Grand Elder?" The man said, looking at the person next to him, and then sneered disdainfully.

"You are so stupid and unaware. It must have been hard for your brothers and sisters to live to this day, right?" Xiao Fengzhuo sneered. His words made the man so angry that he started cursing, but he ignored him and just looked at Baili Changqing, waiting for him to make a decision.

Baili Changqing naturally didn't sense anything unusual, but for a powerful man like him, not being able to sense anything unusual was the biggest anomaly.

He thought about it, and used his spiritual power to explore the entire inn. As expected, he sensed a place that was out of place. He then used his spiritual power to seal that place, and then told Wei Ruge the location and said, "Disciple, go and take a look."

Wei Ruge soon came back with a grim look on his face. He said, "The tiles on the roof of the room at the end of the third floor have been taken away, and something came in from there."

This means that he didn't see what came in.

Everyone was a little disappointed, but Lu Zhouxue looked up at the beam of the inn thoughtfully. Seeing this, Xiao Fengzhuo asked, "Mianmian, what are you looking at?"

"The beam is very suitable for people to stand on." Lu Zhouxue said softly, as if it was just a casual remark. Xiao Fengzhuo looked up and suddenly smiled as if he understood something: "Not just people, you can also climb something else."

Suddenly, a scream was heard from the crowd. A monk was bitten on the neck by a man wrapped in white cloth. He tried his best to resist, but his spiritual power seemed to be sealed and he could not use it. He could only feel his spiritual power flowing away with his blood. Before he died, he desperately stretched out a bloody hand to the crowd, and said in fear and unwillingness: "Help--"

The words of cry for help came to an abrupt end, and his entire body turned into a shriveled piece of human skin in an instant, while the rotten body of the person who bit him was visibly filling up. The man licked his lips, turned around and stared at everyone with only the whites of his eyes.

Lu Zhouxue saw appetite in those eyes.

The monks were stunned for a moment, and then another scream rang out, accompanied by the flash of spiritual power explosion. The attacked monk used magic to fight off a zombie that tried to bite him, but he could not resist more zombies swarming over and eating him into a pile of bloody bones.

There were more than one zombies coming in from the hole in the roof, and it seemed that their number was no less than that of the monks.

There were traces of stitches on their necks. They were all corpses sent to the charity cemetery during the day. The monks had originally asked them to connect the corpses with kindness, but they didn't expect that they would become death talismans at night.

"What are you standing there for? Fight, are you a group of Jindan cultivators afraid of just a few corpses?" Wei Ruge's loud shout awakened the stunned crowd, and they all began to draw their swords to resist. For a moment, the bright light from the explosion of spiritual energy illuminated the entire inn.

Before he could open his mouth, Baili Changqing's sword energy had already arrived. Wherever it passed, tables and chairs were shattered into pieces, and the zombies cut by the sword energy were instantly separated.

But to everyone's surprise, the headless corpse was still moving, and the spiritual power used for attack was absorbed by the zombies like a fish into the sea, and became even stronger.

Suddenly, everyone's faces showed fear: "How could this happen? They ate my spiritual power!"

Swords cannot kill them, and spiritual attacks will make them even stronger. However, in just one stick of incense, five or six cultivators were devoured because they failed to resist in time.

Lu Zhouxue protected Xiao Fengzhuo behind him. Although he was particularly attractive to zombies because of his human-demon hybrid, his feet left no footprints on the snow and he was still able to handle the zombies with ease.

Knowing that using spiritual power to attack the zombies would be absorbed, Lu Zhouxue simply pulled out a willow branch and wrapped it with a little Yin energy, so that he would not be discovered and could still repel the zombies.

After three lashes of the whip, a zombie lost its life and fell to the ground. However, his ease made it even more difficult for others to deal with it.

A cultivator looked resentfully at Lu Zhouxue, who looked relaxed, and Xiao Fengzhuo, who looked as if nothing had happened behind him, with a flash of resentment and jealousy in his eyes.

Baili Changqing and Wei Ruge were busy protecting others and had no time to pay attention to this side. He gritted his teeth, kicked away the zombies that pounced on him, and turned to hide behind Lu Zhouxue.

Xiao Fengzhuo was busy helping Lu Zhouxue deal with the zombies that he couldn't handle, and he was knocked off balance without paying attention. Half of his body was exposed from behind Lu Zhouxue. Some of the zombies who had been eyeing him for a long time immediately changed their targets and pounced on Xiao Fengzhuo.

"Fuck." Xiao Fengzhuo glanced at the cultivator who bumped into him. He could see the emotion in the other's eyes clearly, but he didn't have time to question him. He just took the time to curse.

"A Zhuo!" Seeing him suddenly surrounded, Lu Zhouxue's heart tightened and he changed his position. The person hiding behind him was exposed and torn to pieces by the zombies who rushed over.

Lu Zhouxue waved the willow branch in his right hand as fast as wind and lightning, pulling off a piece of his head. He then struck out with his left hand, but it was not the powerful force he usually used, but a gust of extremely cold and chilly air.

In an instant, the entire inn became cold, and the zombies that had been rushing around with ferocious faces were frozen into motionless ice sculptures.

Baili Changqing's sword energy followed one after another, directly cutting all the frozen zombies into fingernail-sized pieces. After being broken into pieces like this, no matter how strong the zombies were, they had no ability to cause any trouble.

Baili Changqing sheathed his sword, his snow-white clothes still neatly on. He walked up to Lu Zhouxue and lowered his eyes to glance at the broken pieces on the ground. Even the flesh and blood inside were frozen. This showed the power of Lu Zhouxue's palm.

The monks had just been chased by zombies and were running for their lives, but suddenly their trouble was solved. Although they did not react to what had happened, they knew that Lu Zhouxue's palm should not be underestimated. They immediately watched Baili Changqing approaching him quietly, not daring to say a word.

"You..." Baili Changqing looked at Lu Zhouxue with a complicated expression. He wanted to say something but didn't know where to start. His apprentice Yu Zhao was a top-grade fire spiritual root and a rare swordsmanship genius. He didn't expect Lu Zhouxue to not only not practice swordsmanship, but also to use extremely cold and yin skills when he attacked. Just looking at the power of that palm, one could tell that he was a top-grade ice spiritual root.

Although Baili Changqing knew clearly intellectually that Lu Zhouxue and Yu Zhao were completely different people, now that he saw the difference between them with his own eyes he couldn't help but sigh: How could he become a completely different person after experiencing Nirvana?

"He's injured." Baili Changqing still had a blank expression on his face, but Xiao Fengzhuo saw through what he was thinking at a glance. He did not point it out, but just interrupted him. At the same time, he pulled up Lu Zhouxue's right hand that was bitten by a zombie in the chaos to check it. The worry in his eyes was real.