Chapter 23 Happy Corpse

A/N: Trigger Warning, gory content ahead.

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"Don't worry about the children, benefactor. Take care", the monk said.

Zhao Ling's foot stayed rooted on the ground and stared at the monk.

Cough…cough!

The monk faked a cough and averted Zhao Ling's hawk-like eyes. He pretended to look into the distant sky.

Zhao Ling impatiently tapped her fingers on her arm rhythmically.

The monk sighed helplessly and said, "The secrets of the heavens cannot be revealed casually, benefactor"

He pinched his fingers and started calculating. After a while, he said, "Benefactor, there are things this monk can't reveal, I can only warn benefactor about one thing".

Zhao Ling's ears perked up. "What is it?"

"Your identity", said the monk.

Zhao Ling smiled under her veil and bowed lightly to the monk. "Thank you, master"

She turned to He Qing and said, "Let's go"

The monk let out a deep sigh and said looking at the red figure in the distance, "The intentions of Heaven are not something we, a mere mortal can comprehend"

Turning back to leave, he muttered, "Their fates had already started to entangle with each other"

The next day, before the break of dawn, Yan Xing and his group reached the outskirts of the Hua City.

Yan Xing raised his hand, indicating them to stop. Jingsheng pulled the reins of his horse and came to stop. The two shadow guards following behind from the shadows stopped too.

"How are we going to find Elder Mu?" Jingsheng asked.

Yan Xing didn't reply, but he narrowed his phoenix eyes and looked at the surrounding woods. After a while, he said, "Elder Mu should have left his trace for us. First, let's wait for everyone to gather"

Soon, all the shadow guards arrived from different directions. After making sure that everyone was present, they continued to move ahead.

"Senior brother, do you think the medicine valley will come or not?" asked Jingsheng.

"If they have gotten the news, they will", Yan Xing replied.

As they were conversing, Yan Xing pulled the reins of his horse and came to a stop. Under the mask, his expression distorted.

Jingsheng's expression was no better, his palm rested over the cloth mask.

"This stench…", Jingsheng said in a muffled voice.

Yan Xing jumped down from his horse and walked around the woods, searching for the source of that overwhelming stench.

Jingsheng followed suit.

Yan Xing parted the bushes and a big boulder came into his view. There were traces of conflict around the boulder. Yan Xing saw a trace of sword marks on the boulder.

"This is Elder Mu's sword mark", Jingsheng who was behind Yan Xing said in a solemn tone.

Yan Xing nodded his head in affirmation.

The foul stench was all over the atmosphere. It seemed to come from behind the boulder.

They walked behind the boulder and what greeted their vision was a rotting corpse on the grass accompanied by white maggots rolling and wriggling on it.

The corpse was wearing tattered clothes and its hair clumped together with the dirt. Its white eyes were bulging out, and the nose was almost gone. Its cheeks were swollen, and it had an eerie smile on its face. One cannot tell the gender and age of the corpse.

Yan Xing and Jingsheng were both stunned by the scene in front of them. It was not their first time coming across a corpse, but the corpse in front of them had a creepy smile on its face which stood out from the rest of the corpses they had seen before.

"This seems to be the new product of 'that sect'", Jingsheng muttered. There was a trace of horror between his brows.

Yan Xing was no better. "Looks like things are escalating out of hand this time"

There was a wound on the chest of the corpse. From the looks of it, it appeared to have been stabbed by a sword.

Looking around the surroundings more carefully, Yan Xing found that an intense fight had taken place in the area.

He walked towards the nearby tree and raised his hand to touch the body of the tree. There were traces of brown-colored powder on the tree which can be overlooked if not looked at carefully.

"Elder Mu should have left this for us. Let's go", Yan Xing said.

They left the horses behind and walked on their foot looking for the traces and went deeper into the woods.

Not long after they left that place, three figures came to that same place. One was wearing a red robe, and the other two were in blue.

The one in the red robe was none other than Zhao Ling. Her brows creased when she saw the corpse.

"Senior sister, this seems to be a handiwork of that psychopath", He Qing scoffed.

"What's with that creepy smile?" The young man beside He Qing rubbed his arms as he looked at the rotting corpse.

"Junior Brother, you are a man. Don't get scared easily", He Qing patted the young man's shoulder.

Zhao Ling chuckled and said, "Death by Hemlock Water Dropwort"

"What?" Both He Qing and the young man looked at Zhao Ling confused.

Zhao Ling pointed at the corpse and said, "This pitiful human here was poisoned to death by Hemlock Water Dropwort. It is a poisonous plant mostly found near water and if consumed can bring about an unpleasant death in a few hours. It will leave a creepy smile on the victim's face at the time of death".

Zhao Ling paused and said, "They are called Happy Corpse"

"Fudge!!"

Both He Qing and the young man cursed out.

"That psychopath probably poisoned them to death by that plant before turning them into a puppet", He Qing said.

"Who knows?" Zhao Ling narrowed her eyes and replied.

"It looks like we are not far from that location. Let's get going before it's late", said the young man.

"Someone has been here before us. They had not left for long", Zhao Ling said as she walked away from the corpse.

Yan Xing and Jingsheng followed the traces left by Elder Mu and soon came to a brook.

A similar stench assaulted their nose once again.

"Senior Brother, look", Jingsheng pointed his hand towards the brook.

Yan Xing's expression under the mask turned frosty.

"They are courting death"