I Only Want to Lie Flat But Am Forced to Cultivate Immortality-Chapter 44 - 34: Rampant Ghost Soldiers

Two companions, one had their head severed, the other had their bones scattered.

Xu Qing was a kind-hearted person and couldn’t bear the sight of others being dismembered. So, he reattached Li Shuangxi’s head to his body and roughly stitched it together with large burlap needles, and considered it done.

After all, he relied on the Sutra of Salvation to live, and without a complete head, how could he perform the ritual?

Once the body was processed, the familiar scripture started to echo again—

"The human path is boundless, the immortal path is vast.

The ghost path is joyous, it leads to the door of life.

The immortal path cherishes life, the ghost path treasures death.

The immortal path is always auspicious, the ghost path is always ominous..."

As the scripture repeated, Xu Qing frowned and felt compelled to lean back.

He distinctly remembered, the phrase echoed in his mind the first time he encountered corpse reanimation.

Upon hearing it again, preparedness was inevitable.

He put on the Finger Tiger and locked his gaze onto Li Shuangxi.

Sure enough, as the Sutra of Salvation repeatedly stuck at "the ghost path is always ominous", the freshly stitched corpse suddenly inhaled deeply and sat upright, its chest swelling like a bubble.

Fortunately, Xu Qing was a Zombie—if it had been a living person, they would have been drained of their essence and turned into a dry, lifeless husk!

Looking at the vengeful corpse inhaling violently towards him, Xu Qing showed nothing but disdain, completely unfazed!

He failed in life, died at Xu Qing’s hands, now utterly dead, and still wanted to fight back?

Where did it find such confidence?

In the heavy night fog, Xu Qing swung the shimmering Vajra Claw Tiger, once more teaching the ghost to stay dead.

"The immortal path is always auspicious, the ghost path is always ominous. The high and clear spiritual delight, mourning song across the space..."

With the Iron Fist sheathed, the stuck scripture resumed its normal recitation and continued to flip pages.

Li Shuangxi’s life had nothing notable, his only moment of brilliance was the brief corpse reanimation just now, sadly extinguished by Xu Qing before it fully shone.

Even the Sutra of Salvation found it disgraceful, offering a mid-level human rating, rewarding a bag of odor-removing powder commonly used by Corpse Drivers, along with two Forgetfulness Pills.

The odor-removing powder could eliminate any smell externally, including the corpse odor on those frequently dealing with the dead.

When ingested, it temporarily blocks taste, making one unaware of sour, sweet, bitter, or salty.

Understanding its purpose, Xu Qing felt it was quite pointless—who would need to block their taste unless removing odor?

But he hadn’t anticipated an even more useless item.

The Forgetfulness Pill—taking one lets you forget past and present life, allowing you to live anew for three days.

A three-day fool’s spring experience card?

Xu Qing felt these could be stored alongside the Wine Worm, cooling powder, and other previous rewards.

After completing Li Shuangxi’s salvation ritual, he absently searched the body.

He found several silver notes, a Daoist Soldier Corpse Talisman, and a Shu Region wanted notice.

Glancing at the notice, it depicted two men, Shi Jiulv and Qiu Ping, but notably lacked Li Shuangxi’s portrait.

His presence was negligible, even the wanted notice found him disgraceful!

Thinking briefly, Xu Qing roughly guessed why Li Shuangxi kept the notice.

Likely, he intended to use it to clear his name if ever captured by the authorities.

After all, it only depicted Shi Jiulv and Qiu Ping, excluding Li Shuangxi!

Completing the unnoticed Li Shuangxi’s salvation, Xu Qing moved to the scatter-boned Qiu Ping.

The Sutra of Salvation flipped pages smoothly this time, and after completing the ritual successfully, it rewarded a Corpse Guide lantern, a delicate Nose Snuff Bottle, and a Corpse Training Scripture for dog and cat-faced corpses.

The Nose Snuff Bottle and Corpse Training Scripture were used together.

The Nose Snuff Bottle was simple—open its lid near a corpse, and the corpse would follow you obediently like a dog smelling a bun.

"Training dead bodies to guard the Nursing Home like cats and dogs?" Xu Qing’s mind inexplicably pictured the constable Zhao Zhonghe wagging his tongue and tail at him.

This was wonderful!

He just happened to have a dog-beating stick, perfect timing!

Salvaging two corpses wasn’t the end—the corpse soldiers refined by these two men were still hidden inside!

Inside the dimly lit house, a pot of wine warmed on a small stove, Xu Qing entered the room, lifting the white cloth covering the corner, revealing two rigid, breathless bodies.

These bodies hadn’t been ordinary men in life; they were special troops trained by the Yin Family in the Southern Territory.

Due to dying in battle and being exposed in the wilderness, Li Shuangxi and others collected and refined them into corpse soldiers.

Previously, Xu Qing knew little about Daoist Soldiers; if not for tonight’s salvation of several border soldiers, he wouldn’t even know what Daoist Soldiers were.

Raising his hand, he performed the salvation ritual for the two corpse soldiers, revealing various Southern Border sightings to Xu Qing in distant Linhe.

The Dayong Dynasty seemed peaceful, but in reality, it was on the brink of collapse, one step away from complete ruin.

Among these, the Southern Border troubles were the most severe. Since the Southern Army’s invasion, the region south of Hejing had fallen under aristocracy power.

At this time, only military divine power could stabilize the inner and outer situation. But, how much of this power remained in Emperor Longping’s hands was uncertain.

After all, the old emperor was over eighty years old, whether he could wield the Emperor’s Sword was questionable. How could he be expected to reorganize the military to pacify the realm?

Seeing the chaotic Southern Territory, Xu Qing realized the Dayong Dynasty was gravely ill, requiring a mighty savior.

Reading through the lifetime records, Xu Qing then reviewed the rewards.

Two widely known corpse soldiers received high-level human ratings.

The Sutra of Salvation rewarded the raising techniques for Fierce Ghost soldiers, a command flag for Fierce Generals, a Knife Avoidance Talisman, a Disease Exorcism Talisman, and a Hundred-step Piercing Willow archery skill.

The techniques for raising Fierce Ghost soldiers were similar to raising corpse soldiers but instead used Evil Qi and battlefield spirit, refining one ghost soldier for every hundred corpses, and one Fierce General for every thousand spirits.

Taking out the blood-red command flag, Xu Qing’s mind stirred.

His newly purchased Haunted House was an excellent Land of Evil Gathering.

According to the raising techniques, if he buried a hundred ordinary corpses in the house, utilizing its evil gathering traits, couldn’t he refine a ghost soldier?

If the Evil Qi was concentrated enough, refining a Fierce General for every hundred corpses was possible!

Hiss, thinking this, Xu Qing suddenly had a bold idea.

As a Zombie with immortal lifespan, if he buried corpses for ten, a hundred, or even a thousand years, could he not refine an army of thousands or tens of thousands of ghost soldiers?