Hearing that a snake demon had been caught, Yan Wushuang hurried to the scene. Was there something wrong with the feng shui of this town? First ghosts, then zombies, and now a snake demon?
When he saw Li Huaian, he paused for a moment.
"So ugly."
Fang Zhiyi smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "When the world is at peace, the number of monsters and ghosts will decrease."
"Really?" Yan Wushuang didn't want to look at Fang Zhiyi.
Fang Zhiyi nodded. "Really."
Watching Fang Zhiyi turn around to direct the townspeople in setting things up, Yan Wushuang felt a strange sense of admiration. Sure enough, Taoist priests knew how to do everything; he even knew how to run a tourism business.
As the news spread that there were zombies in Qingxi Town, it attracted a crowd of onlookers, as expected. A group of reporters with cameras also arrived—reporters Fang Zhiyi had specifically asked to be invited.
True enough, after the reporters' publicity, photos of the Qingxi Town zombies instantly sparked a nationwide craze.
Another piece of news was published in an inconspicuous corner. It was a photo of Nightingale, accompanied by her stage name, Thousand-Hand Guanyin.
Fang Zhiyi's initial prediction was correct. In this era of scarce entertainment, the existence of zombies was major news. People came in an endless stream to see them. Of course, besides those there to see the zombies, there were also victims who had been harmed by Nightingale.
Nightingale's self-delusion failed to work, especially when the families of those who had been wrongly imprisoned arrived to spit on her and throw stones. Nightingale completely broke down.
When Fang Zhiyi received the news that Nightingale had gone mad, officials sent down from the province were waiting for him. He simply nodded to the guard and walked inside to the meeting.
Yan Wushuang remained rigid. He insisted that since Fang Zhiyi caught the zombies, all decisions required Fang Zhiyi's approval, which led to this meeting.
Fang Zhiyi looked at the foreigner in front of him and mentally swore using a choice piece of national slang.
"Hello, Fang. My name is Smith." The foreigner extended his hand.
Fang Zhiyi reached out and shook it.
"It's amazing! The corpse is actually alive!" Smith gesticulated wildly. "Such a discovery could change the world!"
The official beside him forced an obsequious smile.
Smith looked at Fang Zhiyi seriously. "Fang, I want to buy one. Just one. I want to take it back to my country for research."
Fang Zhiyi frowned.
Yan Wushuang frowned as well. Others might not know, but he knew that these zombies were merely trapped for the moment; essentially, they were still bloodthirsty monsters.
"This is our national treasure," Fang Zhiyi said with a heavy tone and a solemn face. "My disciple and I exhausted ourselves to capture them..."
Yan Wushuang almost spat out his water. National treasure? That thing? But thinking about it, it didn't seem wrong. Zombies were unique to this place. He hadn't expected his master to have such moral integrity!
"You have to add more money," Fang Zhiyi continued.
Yan Wushuang actually did spit his tea all over his superior's face. Was this a matter of money?
But the foreigner didn't hesitate. He nodded at whatever Fang Zhiyi said, delighting the accompanying official.
The first zombie was sold. Fang Zhiyi distributed the money to every townsperson. Yan Wushuang felt this was inappropriate, but he couldn't do anything about it. Leaving aside Fang Zhiyi's eccentric way of thinking, even his own superior wouldn't refuse; after all, if the deal went through, he would get a hefty commission too. Sometimes Yan found it strange that Fang Zhiyi seemed to understand how to deal with higher-ups better than he did.
Once there was a first, there was a second. When the fourth buyer appeared, speaking broken Chinese and bowing at a standard ninety-degree angle, Fang Zhiyi was overjoyed.
"Friend, no problem. Just add more money."
Yan Wushuang really disliked these islanders, but seeing his master beaming with joy, he could only sulk on his own.
However, not long after that, Yan Wushuang received a piece of grapevine news. The island nation seemed to be in trouble. A blood-sucking monster had gone on a rampage in their territory. To suppress this monster, they lost dozens of Onmyoji. In the end, they had to resort to a suicidal technique to perish together with the monster to end the disaster.
Putting down the phone, he glanced at his master, who was reading the newspaper with reading glasses, and felt a sense of suspicion and awe.
Tao Yao was a tree spirit. It only needed to undergo one more lightning tribulation to take human form. Although the years had been long, it felt that everything was worth it.
Until one evening, a water ghost carrying bags large and small passed through its territory.
Tao Yao was puzzled. How did this ghost, who was incredibly fragile out of water, dare to pass through its territory?
So, it intercepted the water ghost. The water ghost was very agitated, gesticulating wildly as it spoke. Tao Yao's face turned paler and paler.
Can't stay in this damn place anymore! Gotta go!
Qingxi Town had made a lot of money from the gimmick of the zombies and that half-human, half-snake creature. Later, Fang Zhiyi sold the zombies. Although everyone got a share of the money, no one complained about having too much. At this time, Fang Zhiyi launched his new product.
The "Demon Catching and Ghost Hunting Rookie Starter Pack."
It contained enchanted peach wood swords, yellow cloth for wrapping ghosts, talismans to weaken monsters' abilities... And so, the townspeople of Qingxi began a vigorous mass capture campaign.
In the past, spirits and monsters abounded here because humans feared them. But now the tables had turned. When those humans saw a monster or ghost, they would howl and charge forward. The demons and ghosts within a hundred miles of Qingxi Town all fled.
It wasn't that no demons fought back, but these humans weren't afraid at all. They had powerful backing. At the slightest disagreement, they would pull out sticks that breathed fire and go "rat-a-tat-tat." Any blind demon facing this concentrated firepower was blown to smithereens.
Cursing under its breath, Tao Yao struggled to pull its roots out of the soil. It was going deep into the mountains to find a place without humans! It would never come out again in this lifetime! Never!
A hundred years later, inside a dormitory.
"These photos come from a foreign reporter and have been preserved in their library for over a century." The AI voiceover in the short video explained as a photo appeared on the phone screen. In the black-and-white photo, there were several iron cages. Standing inside the cages were several "humans" with bared fangs. Below the cages stood a police chief with perfect posture, a man in casual clothes, and a foreigner.
Several more photos followed.
"Locked in this cage is a half-human, half-snake monster. According to investigations, this monster didn't live for long. The woman next to it with messy hair was likely a mental patient. Perhaps there were no medical conditions to treat her at the time..."
"The one in the middle is the locally recorded Mr. Fang, a renowned Feng Shui master. Local opinion of him is mixed. According to records, he was the first to sell zombies to foreigners as 'national treasures.' At the same time, he used zombies and monsters as exhibits to attract tourists, boosting the local economy."
"Hahaha, that's ridiculous!" A girl laughed, rocking back and forth.
"What a genius! Selling zombies as national treasures, I never would have thought of that!"
"Short videos these days are getting more and more outrageous. Yesterday it was dragons, today it's zombies."
"Hahahaha..."
The girl holding the phone let out a soft sigh. "I was originally curious about the history of Qingxi Town—you know, how it was abandoned and became a famous ghost town. But all I found were wild rumors and folklore."
She was just about to swipe to the next video when another photo popped up with a caption: "All the preserved zombie specimens in our country were destroyed during the war. However, word is that a Western nation possesses a perfectly intact body and intends to return it to us."
"For real?"
A video clip followed, showing the zombie sealed inside a glass case. Its protruding fangs were terrifying. Even though its eyes were closed, looking at it evoked a suffocating dread, as if an invisible hand were squeezing one's heart.
"As for whether it's true or not, folks will just have to wait for the official news. But if zombies really do exist, this could be a monumental discovery in human history."
The girl stared blankly at the phone screen, seemingly entranced, until her roommate nudged her.
"What was that for?"
The girl shook her head, looking perplexed. "It sounds strange to say, but... I feel like I've seen that man before..."
"The zombie? Is he a relative of yours?"
"Get lost. I'm talking about that Mr. Fang. He looks so familiar..." Her face was filled with confusion.
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
