A series of panicked shouts erupted from the room, accompanied by figures fleeing in terror. Chaos instantly spread through the guests and relatives seated in the courtyard.

BANG!

Someone flew out of the room like a cannonball, crashing into several people and sending them tumbling.

Severed limbs also came flying out, spattering blood everywhere in a gruesome display.

"Brother... Brother Mu, look... That’s a dried corpse!"

Xu Yuan pointed in utter terror at the corpse that had been thrown from the room, his words a jumbled mess.

The recent string of disturbances had hammered one undeniable truth into the minds of every Inspector in Nanshan Town, and even the local townsfolk.

And that was: a dried corpse... meant a Resentful Soul!

A few of the braver Inspectors in the courtyard had intended to investigate, but the sight of the dried corpse instantly extinguished any thought of resistance.

Run!

Some scrambled over the walls, others shoved their way through the gate. The courtyard devolved into utter pandemonium.

"Run! Brother Mu, run!"

Xu Yuan grabbed Chu Mu’s arm, ready to leap off the roof, but Chu Mu remained motionless, unmoved by the tug.

"Brother Mu!"

Xu Yuan cried out again, his voice laced with confusion and alarm.

Chu Mu didn’t answer. Instead, his eyes were fixed on the room where the disturbance had originated.

Unable to help himself, Xu Yuan followed his gaze. The scene that unfolded before him drained the remaining color from his already panicked face, leaving it a ghastly white. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

What had appeared?

A Resentful Soul?

No. It was a man who had died last night—a desiccated corpse.

It should have been lifeless. In fact, it should have been cremated on Li Jinghong’s orders.

Yet now, here it was, hopping stiffly out of the room.

Its rigid hands were locked around the throat of a heavyset woman in a thick, fox-fur coat.

"SCREECH..."

The dried corpse let out a screech, the sound as sharp and piercing as scraping metal. Its fangs sank into the woman’s neck. Within a few short breaths, the once-plump woman began to visibly shrivel.

’A Zombie?’

The word surfaced in Chu Mu’s mind instinctively.

This time, he wasn’t particularly horrified. He had witnessed far more advanced forms of the Extraordinary, after all. A Zombie appearing now wasn’t so hard to accept.

’But... why would this Zombie appear?’

’Serves them right!’

As if a thought struck him, Chu Mu cursed under his breath. Without another moment’s hesitation, he pulled Xu Yuan along and leaped off the roof.

The eaves were only a little over two meters from the ground. With Chu Mu’s current Martial Arts, the jump was easy. He even managed to steady Xu Yuan on the way down, preventing the younger man from getting hurt.

As for why the Zombie had appeared...

The reason wasn’t hard to guess.

Chu Mu remembered it clearly. Back when the first Resentful Soul appeared, Li Jinghong had ordered all corpses to be cremated immediately.

During the subsequent disturbances, the order to cremate the bodies had always been given at the first possible moment.

Before, the reason for this was merely speculation. Now, this dried corpse had undoubtedly revealed the truth.

It was obviously a thankless and difficult task, the kind Chu Mu always made a point to avoid.

After landing, Chu Mu didn’t hesitate for a second, making a beeline for the street outside the courtyard.

BOOM!

However, what happened next was beyond Chu Mu’s expectations.

With a thunderous crash, the courtyard wall just a few meters away from him collapsed, revealing a man-shaped hole in the swirling dust.

Beyond the gap, the ferocious dried corpse was clearly visible.

"SCREECH..."

The dried corpse screeched. Though its cavernous sockets were empty, Chu Mu had the uncanny feeling that it... was staring right at him!

Chu Mu froze. ’There are so many people, and there was a wall between us. Why is it targeting me?’

"Give me your saber! You run!"

Chu Mu said urgently, drawing the saber from Xu Yuan’s waist.

Xu Yuan panicked. "Brother Mu, you have to run too!"

"You go first!"

"Go get help! Now!"

Chu Mu’s expression was grim, his voice heavy with urgency.

’Of course I want to run,’ he thought. ’But I’m not blind. Judging by the speed and Power it just showed, if it’s really locked onto me, running is just a death sentence!’

"SCREECH!"

With another screech, the dried corpse in the gap in the wall vanished in the blink of an eye!

In the corner of his eye, a terrifying face was closing in at incredible speed!

Chu Mu’s pupils constricted. He tightened his grip on the saber’s hilt, and a familiar sensation of power flowed through him.

The next second, Chu Mu lunged forward. He burst out with all his might, his figure moving so fast it seemed to leave afterimages in its wake!

Saber held high, he flashed past the charging corpse in a blur of steel!

With such force and the blade’s sharpness, an ordinary man of flesh and blood would have been sliced in two in that instant.

But as the blade struck, Chu Mu once again felt the jarring sensation of steel hitting stone.

As they crossed paths, the Inspector’s Saber, forged from nothing more than common pig iron, snapped on impact.

Chu Mu gripped the broken half of the saber, his expression turning utterly grim.

’This world is completely unreasonable!’

’I’ve practiced Martial Arts, toiling for months, only to become just a little stronger than an ordinary person.’

’Yet this thing, when it was alive, was just some debauched second-generation brat that I wouldn’t have given a second glance.’

’But now, less than a day after dying, it’s impervious to weapons and strong enough to lift a bronze cauldron!’

’That boy was the same. In our first fight, even a dabbler like me could trade a few blows with him. But in just a month, he became completely inhuman!’

There was no time to think. A withered claw whistled through the air, right before his eyes. Chu Mu retreated as fast as he could, but the corpse was faster. It pressed forward, swiping with its other desiccated claw.

The seemingly brittle claws were sharper than any blade. Chu Mu only had time to twist his body slightly before the claw struck!

His Inspector Armor, sturdy enough to deflect a saber, tore like paper. With a sickening RIP, a gash several inches long was ripped open.

The only silver lining was that his instinctive twist had saved him from being disemboweled a second time.

"Get away!"

Veins bulged on his temples. Chu Mu dropped the broken saber and threw a punch with every ounce of his strength. His Qi Blood flared as his fist slammed into the corpse’s head at point-blank range.

There was a dull THUD, like his fist had struck an iron plate. The corpse merely tilted its head, seemingly unfazed by the blow, and its withered claw swung at Chu Mu again.

Retreat!

Leaping back several meters, Chu Mu sprang up, using a roof ladder to vault onto the rooftop. He then kicked the ladder, sending it toppling down onto the screeching corpse.

The heavy wooden ladder did nothing to harm it. The corpse tore it to splinters with a few swipes of its claws, and its black, eyeless sockets seemed to fix on Chu Mu once more.

Then, a sight that made Chu Mu’s eyes widen in disbelief appeared before him.

He watched as the corpse, despite its obvious stiffness, merely bent its knees slightly and leaped into the air!

The jump carried it far higher than the ridge of the roof.

Under the night sky, the soaring corpse shot toward Chu Mu again.

Those desiccated, sharp claws were reflected in his eyes once more, growing larger and larger, closer and closer!

...