Chapter 50: The Zhang Family Corpse Puppet (Bonus for Alliance Leader "Qingshan Bugai Liuyi")

Led by Zhang Yue.

A group of bailiffs directly surrounded the Zhang residence.

This sudden turn of events naturally piqued the curiosity of many commoners.

"What's going on? Why are the people from the yamen surrounding the Zhang family?"

"I don't know. Could it be that the Zhang family is also colluding with evil spirits?"

"Who knows? Looks like there's some good drama unfolding—"

Watching the scene of the bailiffs besieging the Zhang house from a distance, the commoners huddled nearby whispered amongst themselves.

They did not leave, but they did not dare to approach without permission.

The people from the yamen and the common folk had always belonged to two different worlds; if one were to accidentally collide with the other, no one would step forward to speak up if someone were beaten to death in the street.

"On the surface, the Zhang family doesn't seem to possess any sinister aura," Cui Cheng remarked, his brow furrowing slightly as he looked at the walls of the Zhang residence.

If an evil spirit were present, there would certainly be a leakage of sinister aura.

But looking at it now, the Zhang residence appeared peaceful and serene, with no sign of any sinister aura leaking out, making it look nothing like a place inhabited by evil spirits.

Upon hearing this, someone immediately chimed in.

"On the surface, the Zhang family may not show any sinister aura, but it's possible they have hidden the evil spirit away. You must realize that if an evil spirit is hidden well enough, its sinister aura won't leak out."

Hearing the reply, Cui Cheng turned his head toward the source of the voice. He saw a handsome young man dressed like a scholar and couldn't help but offer a slight salute.

"Brother Ming is truly the rising star of the Seven Luminaries Sect; you are indeed well-informed."

"Brother Cui is too kind."

Ming Zhengyang smiled faintly, showing no hint of arrogance. However, his gaze lingered slightly as it passed over Zhao Yue before quickly withdrawing.

At this moment, Shen Changqing stood outside the gate, looking at Zhang Yue. "Without my command, absolutely no one is to leave the Zhang residence. However, anyone who attempts to trespass shall be killed without mercy."

"As you command!" Zhang Yue nodded.

The gates of the Zhang residence were left ajar. With a forceful push from Shen Changqing, the doors swung halfway open, and he stepped inside.

As a prominent clan in Lin'an City, the layout of the Zhang residence was no inferior to that of the Zhao family.

But the only difference between the Zhangs and the Zhaos was that the Zhang residence gave him a sense of emptiness.

Yes!

Extremely empty!

As he entered the estate, no guards appeared, nor was there any sign of servants. It gave Shen Changqing the impression that this was not the manor of a great clan, but rather an abandoned courtyard.

"Something is strange!"

One couldn't see much from the outside, but upon truly entering the Zhang residence, Shen Changqing began to notice clues.

As far as his eyes could see, everything appeared normal.

The only abnormality was the lack of vital energy.

Without pausing, Shen Changqing walked toward the main hall.

Before long, an elderly man resembling a butler approached him, looking at Shen Changqing with displeasure. "You are not one of our Zhang family members. Why have you suddenly appeared here?"

Shen Changqing did not reply, walking straight into the main hall.

In contrast to the outside, the main hall was brightly lit, with lamps burning even in broad daylight.

At a large table, a group of people sat eating, while servants and maids moved among them, serving various dishes.

Seeing Shen Changqing enter, the person sitting in the seat of honor paused his movements and a smile appeared on his face.

"So, we have guests. I am Zhang Sheng. May I ask your name?"

As Zhang Sheng spoke, everyone's movements paused. They then turned their heads toward Shen Changqing, staring at him with unblinking, fixed gazes.

In that instant, a flicker of wariness rose in Shen Changqing's heart, but he quickly regained his composure.

"I thought the Zhang family's involvement was as simple as colluding with evil spirits, but I did not expect that the Zhang family is no longer the Zhang family of old."

He shook his head and sighed, his voice filled with regret.

At this point, the others withdrew their gazes.

Zhang Sheng smiled and said, "Since you have come from afar, why not join us at the table?"

As he finished speaking, a servant walked up to Shen Changqing. While speaking, he reached out to grab Shen Changqing's shoulder. "Please!"

Before his palm could touch the shoulder, the servant's body was sent flying.

As he fell, he happened to crash into several other servants.

Dishes scattered across the floor, and the massive commotion in the hall caused the others to pause once more. They turned their heads in unison to stare at Shen Changqing, their eyes just as vacant and fixed as before.

The difference was that their gazes now held a bone-chilling coldness.

At the head of the table, the smile on Zhang Sheng's face seemed to freeze, yet it also became somewhat eerie.

He rose from his seat, his voice sounding ghostly. "Why won't you show us some respect?"

"Respect is for the living, not for monsters like you!"

Shen Changqing sneered. He had no intention of hiding anything and chose to tear off the mask immediately.

"I just didn't expect that the Zhang family had been completely wiped out. The former grand estate of the Zhang clan is actually inhabited by a pack of evil spirits!"

To an outsider, the people of the Zhang family seemed fine.

But in Shen Changqing's eyes, not a single person in the Zhang family was alive.

That sinister aura had been hidden perfectly; had he not gained a keen perception of sinister energy after breaking through his cultivation realm, he might not have discovered this anomaly.

Even so, with so many evil spirits gathered here, there should have been some leakage of sinister aura.

But the Zhang family had none.

The entire Zhang manor seemed to be covered by a massive barrier that masked the relatively weak sinister aura.

At that moment, a gust of wind rushed toward his back.

Shen Changqing pivoted, his long blade unsheathing from his waist, instantly severing the gust of wind mid-air.

Black blood sprayed as two halves of a corpse fell to the ground. Upon closer inspection, it was indeed the elderly butler he had encountered earlier.

However, the difference was that the butler's face was now rotting, as if he had been dead for a long time. Even though his body had been cut in two, he was not truly dead; instead, he was crawling slowly on the ground like a worm.

Another strike.

He decapitated the elderly butler.

The upper half of the body, which had been crawling, immediately lost its final spark of life, and a stench of rot wafted toward him.

"Corpse puppets!"

Seeing this, Shen Changqing immediately recalled certain knowledge.

Corpse puppets!

It was a bizarre method used to refine the corpses of dead living beings into puppets.

These puppets retained some of their memories from life and, in the absence of any command, would act according to their former instincts.

If the elderly butler was a corpse puppet, then the others—

At this thought, Shen Changqing looked toward Zhang Sheng and the others. Sure enough, their previously peaceful expressions had turned violent, and they began to charge at him one after another.

Taking a step back, his long blade swept out like moonlight, decapitating a charging servant. Black blood gushed out, and the fallen corpse began to rot at a visible speed, releasing a foul stench.

"More corpse puppets!"

Seeing this, Shen Changqing confirmed his suspicion.

Corpse puppets!

The entire Zhang family had been refined into corpse puppets.

Previously, he had thought the Zhang family had become something like the demonic humans such as Zhuang Mingyuan, but now it was clear that their situation was even more severe.

To refine someone into a corpse puppet, a dead person must be used as a medium.

This meant that without anyone noticing, the entire Zhang family had been slaughtered, and everyone had been turned into corpse puppets to maintain their daily activities so as not to arouse suspicion.

Before Shen Changqing could think further, the others had already lunged at him.

Without hesitation, his long blade erupted with a piercing wind, cutting down every corpse puppet that approached him.

Though corpse puppets were strong, they could only threaten martial artists in the Body Tempering Realm.

As long as one had reached the Pulse Opening Realm, ordinary corpse puppets could do nothing to them.

The puppets the Zhang family had become were merely low-level corpse puppets; in terms of actual strength, they were not particularly formidable.

However, corpse puppets had a troublesome trait.

If their heads were not severed, they would not die easily; even if cut in half, they could still survive.

This—was the most difficult part of dealing with corpse puppets.

If one could not guarantee a decapitation with every strike, there was no way to clear them quickly. If the battle dragged on too long, one could easily be overwhelmed.

The greatest trouble with corpse puppets lay in their numbers.

Fortunately, although the Zhang family had all become corpse puppets, their numbers were not vast—only a few dozen at a glance—making them not too difficult for Shen Changqing to handle.

However, Shen Changqing's attention was no longer on these puppets.

He had originally thought the Zhang family had defected to the evil spirits, making them a certain threat, but now it was clear the Zhang family had long been wiped out, and only puppets had been active all this time.

This meant things were not as simple as they seemed.

"There are only two possibilities for the refinement of corpse puppets: either a Malice-grade anomaly has appeared, or a powerful demonic human exists."

"Guangyuan Prefecture has a Guardian. If a Malice-grade anomaly truly existed, it would be impossible for there to be no news of it. While the barrier covering the Zhang residence is powerful, it certainly wouldn't be able to block the sinister aura of a Malice-grade anomaly."

"That leaves only one explanation: the Zhang family is currently hiding a powerful demonic human!"

Shen Changqing's gaze turned cold, but he felt no great fear.

No matter how strong the hidden demonic human was, they could not exceed the Xiantian Realm. After all, a small town like Lin'an was not worth a Grandmaster-level demonic human lurking in.

As for whether their goal was that drop of demon blood, that was nonsense.

While the blood of a low-level demon was precious, it held little allure for a Grandmaster.

If it were the blood of a mid-level demon, that would be a different story.

Furthermore, after he had disrupted the Eternal Alliance's plan, the demonic human hidden in the Zhang residence had not truly shown their face from beginning to end. There were only two explanations.

Either the demonic human found it inconvenient to appear—perhaps they were injured, or they were not confident they could deal with him—or...

The demonic human had originally been at the Zhang residence but had since left.

But looking at the current state of the Zhang family's corpse puppets, Shen Changqing did not believe the demonic human had left.

Therefore, only the first possibility remained.

The demonic human was hiding in the Zhang residence, but due to certain matters, they could not easily reveal themselves.