Sky-shattering roars echoed in the night for nearly a quarter of an hour. For just as long, the screaming, desiccated corpse was pummeled like a punching bag.

When the final roar faded, the desiccated corpse, once seemingly impervious to all weapons, simply exploded.

The desiccated corpse... Li Jinghong had punched it again and again until it literally exploded!

"Whose corpse was this?"

"Why wasn’t it cremated?"

As fragments of the corpse rained down from the sky, Li Jinghong’s face was dark as he snapped out the words.

His sharp gaze swept over the nearby Inspectors, who were gathered in small groups. None of them dared to meet his eyes.

"Wu Shuo!"

"Here, sir!"

"Who was responsible?"

Wu Shuo hesitated for a moment, but then cupped his fist in a salute. "Reporting to the Thousand Households, it was the He Family. The corpse was He San!"

"Useless trash!"

"Tell He Ning to get his ass over here!"

Li Jinghong vented his fury, cursing nonstop.

The surrounding Inspectors trembled, not daring to breathe too loudly for fear of drawing his wrath.

Chu Mu was quite a ways off, so he could only hear the sounds of Li Jinghong’s fury. Separated by a street and several courtyard homes, he certainly wasn’t about to go looking for trouble.

He leaped down from the roof into an identical scene of chaos. Pots, bowls, and pans were scattered across the courtyard. Several bodies, drained dry as withered wood, lay strewn about. On the ground, mottled patches of blood were clearly visible.

Following the trail of blood, he saw that the coffin in the main hall had been shattered. The accompanying Incense Burner and memorial tablet were scattered across the floor.

There were several more corpses inside the room, their deaths just as gruesome as the desiccated corpse that had been beaten to a pulp.

Severed limbs lay everywhere. A complex web of bloody streaks covered the entire room. Bathed in the flickering firelight, the scene was truly horrifying in the dead of night.

"*S-sob... sob...*"

As he was taking in the scene, a faint whimpering sound reached his ears. Chu Mu, who had just started to relax, instantly tensed up.

Focusing his eyes and using the flickering firelight, Chu Mu saw a figure in white huddled behind the shattered coffin.

The faint whimpering was clearly coming from behind it.

"Who’s there?"

Chu Mu took a few steps back before calling out tentatively.

At the sound of his voice, the suppressed whimpering grew louder. Chu Mu’s heart pounded in his chest as he backed away a few more steps, stopping only when he reached the doorway.

Then, the figure in white rose from behind the shattered coffin. Only then did Chu Mu get a clear look at who it was.

The "white clothes" were actually mourning garments, complete with a mourning cloth on her head. The source of the whimpering was the young woman he had just been talking about.

The young woman was in the prime of her youth, and even the loose-fitting mourning clothes couldn’t conceal her graceful figure.

Tears streamed down her face, her slender, White Jade-like fingers covering her face as she sobbed uncontrollably. In the dim light, a single glance at her would stir compassion in even a heart of stone.

Chu Mu’s hand, which had been gripping his saber hilt, slowly relaxed. His voice softened. "It’s all over now. Don’t worry."

Though they were simple words, the young woman’s delicate figure swayed, and she collapsed to the ground. Her suppressed sobs erupted with even greater intensity.

Chu Mu sighed softly. ’This young woman’s fate is truly pitiful.’

’First, her father and sisters are brutally killed. Then she’s forced to marry He San. But before the marriage is even official, He San dies. A single night passes, He San comes back from the dead, and her entire family is wiped out.’

’Just like that, a perfectly fine unmarried young woman becomes a widow...’

"Get up."

Chu Mu brought over a stool and placed it in front of the young woman.

The young woman continued to sob to herself. Seeing this, Chu Mu didn’t press the issue. He walked past the weeping woman and entered the main hall where the coffin had been kept.

Compared to the beautiful, weeping young woman before him, Chu Mu was far more interested in the cause of the reanimation.

’Why did it reanimate? Or, what triggered the reanimation? Is there a pattern to it?’

Chu Mu was intensely curious. After all, this meant that the truly Extraordinary had just lifted another corner of its mysterious veil for him.

Unfortunately, after walking a full circle around the room, he had gained nothing but blood on his boots. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Everything else in the room seemed normal. It was as if the corpse had simply reanimated on its own, broken out of its coffin, and begun a massacre.

Just that. Nothing else seemed out of the ordinary.

"Mu, are you alright?"

As Chu Mu was lost in thought, Wu Shuo entered the courtyard surrounded by a dozen Inspectors. He spotted Chu Mu wandering inside the room and called out to him.

"I’m fine."

Chu Mu walked out of the room and handed the Long Saber he was holding to Wu Shuo.

"Good to see you’re okay, kid!"

"That son of a bitch He Ning... He went behind my back and brought He San’s body back..."

Wu Shuo spat viciously on the ground as he took the Long Saber.

"That animal nearly got me killed. He’d better pray he doesn’t end up in my hands, or I’ll finish him myself!"

Chu Mu gestured helplessly toward his own house. "I’m even angrier than you are, Squad Leader. I nearly lost my life out of nowhere, and now my home is gone!"

"Don’t worry, He Ning won’t get away."

"As long as he doesn’t want to die, he’ll pay every last copper of what he owes you!"

Chu Mu felt greatly relieved to hear that. He was dirt poor right now; forget about rebuilding, he didn’t even have the money for repairs.

"Squad Leader, do you know... why corpses reanimate?"

Chu Mu asked tentatively.

"You’re asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?"

Wu Shuo waved his hand, clearly as clueless as he was.

"Alright then, I’ll take my leave. I’ll let you get back to it."

Having failed to get an answer, Chu Mu had no desire to linger. He was supposed to be on leave recovering from his injuries, and he didn’t want to get involved in the Inspection Office’s business one bit!

"You little rascal..."

Wu Shuo didn’t call him out on his obvious attempt to slack off. With a laugh and a curse, he led the accompanying Inspectors into the blood-soaked room.

The young woman was still collapsed in the courtyard, helpless and lost.

Chu Mu glanced at her, and his stride faltered for a moment. In the end, though, he didn’t stop. He passed through the collapsed courtyard wall and returned to his own yard.

What greeted him was a scene of rubble and ruins. Except for the kitchen on one side, which was barely intact, all the other rooms had been reduced to rubble.

Chu Mu hurried into the ruins of what was once the guest room. After rummaging through the debris for a while, all he managed to salvage were about a dozen medical books. Everything else had become one with the rubble.

Staring at the medical books in his hand, which were now mostly soaked through, the corner of Chu Mu’s mouth twitched. If Wu Shuo hadn’t promised there would be compensation, he really would have had to pay the He Family a visit.

This was a complete and utter disaster, and none of it was his fault!

’What rotten luck!’

"Brother Mu!"

Xu Yuan came running over, panting heavily. "Brother Mu, are you okay?!"

"I’m fine."

"Brother Mu, they killed the desiccated corpse!"

"Why don’t you just crash at my place tonight? Your house is a wreck..."

"Thanks, but I’d better not. I’ll find an inn to stay at for the night."

Chu Mu waved a hand dismissively. Xu Yuan’s house was certainly big enough, but Chu Mu had met his uncle a few times—a man who indulged in every vice imaginable—and found him utterly insufferable.

’That’s the kind of guy you give an inch, and he takes a mile. It would be best not to strain their friendship over it.’

...