Volume One: The Soul-Gathering Gourd, The Flame of the Spirit Chapter 13: The Foundation of Corpses!

A dull, heavy smack echoed through the dilapidated house, plunging it into a suffocating darkness. As their eyes met in the gloom, Feng Kaixuan and Gu Mo felt their hearts tighten with dread.

With trembling hands, Feng Kaixuan fumbled for the handcuff key, poking at the lock several times but unable to find the keyhole. Seeing this, Gu Mo shot Feng Kaixuan a fierce glare, snatched the key from him, and deftly unlocked the cuffs.

Holding their breath, Gu Mo and Feng Kaixuan tiptoed to the doorway, peered through the paper window, and were instantly struck by what they saw. In the pitch-black interior, a blood-red coffin loomed in the darkness.

Gu Mo shuddered violently, sweat beads the size of peas forming and rolling down his face. Suddenly, a chill wind swept through, heightening the eerie atmosphere. Both men felt an overwhelming sense of terror.

At that moment, a flash of white light accompanied by thunder burst forth, briefly illuminating the room’s interior. The fleeting brightness revealed a scene of utter gloom: the small house was so dark one could not see their own hand, icy drafts wafting through the air. Scattered across the floor were sheets of funeral paper, their pale colors starkly dividing the room’s darkness. Offerings lay overturned on the ground, and there was no sign of the infamous Feng Kai.

Above the sea of funeral paper stood two battered benches, propping up the coffin high. The lid was nowhere to be seen, and atop the coffin rested the corpse of a woman in a crimson dress.

Her waxen arms bore scattered corpse spots, while wisps of black mist drifted from the deep red coffin’s edge. Examined closely, the coffin seemed ordinary, yet distinctly ominous.

Gu Mo inwardly cursed his fate. "Damn it! What did I ever do to deserve this? I’m a decent young man—I’ve never kicked a widow’s door or dug up a cursed grave. Why do these supernatural horrors keep piling up?"

Feng Kaixuan, after a quick glance, clamped a hand over his mouth and nose, stammering in terror, "Mr. Gu... where’s my friend Feng Kai?"

Gu Mo rolled his eyes at the corpulent city inspector. "You ask me, who the hell should I ask?"

After a brief pause, Gu Mo asked, "Besides Feng Kai, was there anyone else in the house?"

Feng Kaixuan shook his head, pale and stupefied.

Gu Mo’s heart sank. Could it be that the bastard Feng Kai was under the corpse?

"If that’s the case, the girl must have risen from the dead! Let’s hope the zombie in the shop didn’t bite her, and, better yet, Feng Kai wasn’t bitten either."

After all, Yan Wang Jiang Jingxue still possessed his body—thinking of this, Gu Mo felt some relief. Jiang Jingxue, though not yet officially enthroned as Yan Wang, should at least be able to handle a female corpse. If not, he might as well give up.

Now was the perfect moment to test the red-skinned gourd in his bundle.

Summoning his courage, Gu Mo gently pushed open the door.

The long, chilling creak echoed endlessly in the pitch-black room, assaulting the last shreds of Feng Kaixuan’s resolve.

Cowardly to the extreme, Feng Kaixuan hid behind Gu Mo, though his bulky frame hardly concealed him.

Gu Mo’s heart pounded as he took a step forward, only to hear the sharp crackling of broken glass. He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight.

The faint white beam flooded the room.

Gu Mo looked down and saw the shattered remnants of the incandescent bulb strewn across the floor. But when his gaze fell upon the coffin, his soul nearly fled his body.

Inside the coffin, the female corpse wore a blood-red long dress, her exposed limbs pale and wax-like. More disturbingly, her belly was grotesquely swollen—she had been pregnant before she died.

A gust of cold wind swept by, and Feng Kaixuan dropped to his knees, his greasy forehead thumping repeatedly against the floor.

Bang, bang, bang!

Blood gushed from his brow as he cried, "Tingting, don’t blame me! Don’t blame me! You wanted to hang yourself—it had nothing to do with me!"

Gu Mo realized the fat fool had been hiding something.

Amid sharp screams, Gu Mo, equally frightened, noticed something amiss in the coffin.

Beneath the woman in red lay a slack-jawed, fat man. Both bodies were surrounded by the woman’s belongings, funeral paper scattered among them.

Examining the fat man under the female corpse, Gu Mo realized he looked almost identical to Feng Kaixuan, wearing the same clothes.

The only difference was the fat man’s contorted, bluish face, his eyes bulging to the size of ox eggs, mouth agape to reveal a tongue thickly coated in yellowish grime.

A foul stench filled the air.

Suddenly, Gu Mo’s mind cleared, and a bizarre term floated up—“corpse padding.”

Legend has it corpse padding is a vicious, self-destructive ritual. If someone bears a blood feud but is powerless to avenge it, this method is their only hope.

The ritual is strict: the vengeful person must die wearing red, find a “mother-child corpse”—a woman who died tragically while pregnant, her resentment heavy as lead. The stronger the resentment, the more effective the ritual.

On an unlucky day and hour, the vengeful person drips their blood into the mouth of the “mother-child corpse,” pulls her stiff body from the coffin with a slender rope, lies beneath her, and embraces her tightly.

After forty-nine days, the person becomes a savage ghost, impossible to pacify even by the most accomplished monks.

Yet Gu Mo was puzzled—the woman in red had only dragged a dead man beneath her, not a “mother-child corpse.”

If Feng Kaixuan was the culprit, why had the red-dressed corpse chosen an unrelated man as padding?

Confused, Gu Mo realized the ritual hadn’t been properly performed, so the woman wouldn’t be as ferocious as legend claimed.

Suddenly, a cold wind swept through. With a sudden motion, the woman in red stood bolt upright in the coffin.

The atmosphere instantly turned terrifying.

Her long hair hung over Gu Mo’s face, making him tremble like a leaf. On the floor, Feng Kaixuan was so scared he soiled himself, unable to move.

Gu Mo clenched his fists, waiting for the corpse’s next move.

Yet, after rising, she remained motionless.

Gu Mo furrowed his brow, recalling his grandfather’s ghost stories: if a corpse is left too long, and a cat or dog approaches, it can rise as a zombie. Thunder is also a trigger. The woman had awakened because of the thunder.

He slowly ducked, avoiding the corpse’s hair, and saw the coffin lid nearby.

Its edges were lined with sharp nails, and a crowbar lay on the ground.

Gu Mo realized the coffin must have been pried open by Feng Kai himself. Yet the burial goods inside were untouched—so why did Feng Kai open it?

Gu Mo then slapped Feng Kaixuan’s shoulder.

Startled, Feng Kaixuan jumped, nearly losing his soul. "Mr. Gu, you scared me to death!"

Gu Mo frowned, pointing at the man in the coffin. "Fatty Feng, is that Feng Kai in the coffin?"

Feng Kaixuan cautiously glanced over. "Yes! Yes, yes, yes! That’s him!"

Gu Mo took a deep breath, forcing himself to remain calm. "Help me. Let’s pull Feng Kai out together—maybe we can still save him. If someone dies, it’ll be disastrous!"

After a moment’s thought, Feng Kaixuan shuffled his trembling legs to the coffin.

Gu Mo, brows knitted, reached toward the man at the bottom.

A faint breath escaped.

With a glance, Gu Mo signaled Feng Kaixuan, who hurriedly helped.

Together, they dragged the man from the coffin.

With a clatter, Feng Kai’s pants fell to the floor.

A limp, greasy, overnight youtiao appeared, coated with a bit of white liquid.

Gu Mo was bewildered. "What’s going on? Your idiot friend was desecrating the corpse?"

Feng Kaixuan could only manage a bitter smile—wasn’t it obvious? Still, he hadn’t expected Feng Kai to go so far.

Just then, another cold wind swept by. The woman in red, who had been standing, collapsed back into the coffin.

Her resentful, dead eyes stared straight at Feng Kaixuan.

Steeling himself, Feng Kaixuan tried to close the corpse’s eyes, but when he moved his hand away, her venomous gaze remained open.

He tried again, but the stubborn eyes terrified him.

"Mr. Gu, what do we do if she won’t rest in peace?"

Gu Mo frowned, helpless. Clearly, the woman’s resentment was immense.

Suddenly, a rattling sound came from the coffin.

A pair of pale hands clamped around Feng Kaixuan’s throat.

In a flash, the shocked Feng Kaixuan grabbed Gu Mo by the coffin, panic-stricken.

Gu Mo, equally terrified, seized the corpse’s neck.

Damn it—three forces locked in a deadly struggle!