135: Chapter 135 Zombies? — Heavenly Eye Sees Truth, Blood Splatters Before the Hall

The door to the main hall was half-open, and the faint fragrance of roasted tea drifted from within.

Uncle Nine was sitting by the Eight Immortals table, holding a white porcelain teacup in his hand, frowning as he pondered things.

After finishing Master Ren's affairs yesterday, he had felt uneasy, always feeling that the Hopping Zombie of Old Master Ren was not that simple.

Lin Zhe said it was nailed down on the back mountain, but he still felt anxious and had been waiting all morning for Lin Zhe to return so he could ask clearly.

Hearing footsteps, Uncle Nine looked up and, seeing Lin Zhe enter, quickly put down his cup and stood up, cupping his hands with a smile:

"Fellow Daoist Lin, you've finally returned! Where have you been these past two days? I thought you had gone to handle the lingering troubles of Old Master Ren; since I hadn't seen you return, I was worried something had happened to you."

"I was handling some private matters." Lin Zhe returned the salute, his tone flat, and walked over to the table to sit down.

Uncle Nine's gaze crossed over him and landed on Ye, who had followed him in, and the smile on his face instantly froze.

At first glance, he felt it was familiar.

These brows and eyes, this bridge of the nose, especially the outline of the corners of the mouth—the more he looked, the more it resembled Ren Tingting.

Looking closer, it also carried a hint of Master Ren's shadow; it was the spitting image of a male descendant of the Ren family.

But Master Ren only had one daughter, Ren Tingting, and the Ren family had been a single line for three generations; where could such a grown young man come from?

Uncle Nine muttered to himself, unable to resist taking another look.

It didn't matter until he looked; upon closer inspection, his heart skipped a beat, and a chill instantly rose on his back.

This young man's physiognomy was wrong.

He had been a Daoist his whole life, and reading faces and Qi was a basic skill. The physiognomy of a living person carried a fiery energy, with Life Qi supporting the flesh, and the Life Palace shining brightly.

But this young man before him had not a shred of fiery energy between his flesh, and his Life Palace was completely dim.

The root of the nose was blackened; according to physiognomy books, this was the face of a dead person.

But what was strange was that within this Death Qi, it was wrapped in a layer of indescribable, clear light.

That light was clear and bright, drifting toward the top of his head, looking like the legendary divine light, so sacred that one wanted to kneel upon seeing it.

Half-alive, half-dead; resembling a corpse, yet resembling a god.

Uncle Nine had lived for most of his life, traveling north and south, catching ghosts for decades and subduing demons for decades.

He had never seen such a strange physiognomy, and for a moment, he stood there, forgetting to speak.

Ye stood behind Lin Zhe. Seeing Uncle Nine staring at him, he didn't react, just imitated Lin Zhe's manner, nodding slightly at Uncle Nine as a greeting.

Uncle Nine was startled back to his senses by this nod, quickly gave Lin Zhe a look, and quietly moved two steps to the side.

He reached out to pull Lin Zhe's sleeve, tugged him to the side, and lowered his voice, asking in a breathy whisper:

"Fellow Daoist Lin, this… how should I address him? Why does he look so wrong to me?"

Lin Zhe did not answer immediately; he reached out to pick up the teapot on the table, poured himself a cup of cold tea, and took a sip.

Ye stood where he was, watching Lin Zhe's actions of pouring water and drinking tea. He tilted his head slightly, staring at Lin Zhe's hand for two seconds.

He also walked to the other side of the table, reached out to pick up an empty cup, and used his other hand to grab the teapot handle.

He had just learned to use his hands and didn't have a sense of the force; the first time he grabbed it, the pot wobbled, and some tea spilled, dripping onto the table.

He paused, adjusted the force of his fingers, grabbed the handle steadily, and poured the tea into the cup—not too much, not too little, exactly seven-tenths full.

He put down the teapot, picked up the cup, sat on the chair opposite Lin Zhe, and imitating Lin Zhe, lowered his head to take a sip of water.

He placed the cup back on the table; his movements were awkward but precise, like a cat imitating a tiger, looking very serious.

Uncle Nine stood by, looking at Lin Zhe, then at Ye. The two were separated by an Eight Immortals table, one holding a cup to drink tea, the other also holding a cup to drink tea.

Their movements were absurdly synchronized; it was indescribably eerie, making him feel a bit creeped out, with goosebumps rising all over him.

He endured and endured, but still couldn't help it; he leaned in closer, lowered his voice even more, and asked almost right against Lin Zhe's ear:

"Fellow Daoist, give me the truth—could this person… be that Old Master Ren who ran away?"

Once the words were out, he felt they were absurd himself.

He had seen Old Master Ren with his own eyes; when he was unearthed, he was covered in rotting flesh, with a green face and fangs.

The young man before him had delicate features, was wearing a cyan Daoist robe, and was clean.

There was not a shred of corpse stench on him, and his breathing was just like a living person's; how could it be the same thing?

"It is him." Lin Zhe put down his cup, answering frankly without any intention of concealing it.

Uncle Nine's eyes widened instantly, and he almost couldn't control his voice, raising it by eight octaves: "How is this possible?!"

He subconsciously took a step forward, leaned his nose in to sniff hard, and reached out to probe the Qi on Ye's body.

Not to mention corpse Qi or fishy smells, Ye actually carried a faint, clear scent of grass and trees.

It was somewhat similar to the scent on Lin Zhe. Although his body temperature was a bit cooler than a living person's, it was indeed the temperature of a living person; he had breath, a heartbeat, just beating a bit slowly.

What exactly was going on? A zombie could turn into a handsome young man?

Lin Zhe had no intention of hiding it from him.

Having reached his current Realm, he increasingly felt the importance of cultivating Heart-Nature.

One must be honest with oneself, and there was no need to use those deceptive or manipulative methods on others; it was meaningless and beneath one's dignity.

"I recently created a new Inner Elixir Cultivation Technique, divided into two parts: day practice and night practice. During the day, it absorbs solar essence; at night, it absorbs lunar essence. Together, it's called the Sun and Moon Co-shifting Method."

Lin Zhe tapped his fingers on the table, his tone flat, "It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a heaven-reaching technique."

The Immortals and Immortal Masters in the ancient era, to put it plainly, walked this path. Once connected to Subspace, they naturally possessed great Divine Ability.

He paused, glanced at Ye, who was sitting opposite him obediently drinking water, and continued:

"This technique was just created and hadn't been verified, and there was no suitable test subject, and Old Master Ren just happened to be in my hands."

"So I used him to test it. I didn't control the force well, and he turned into what he is now."

"His spiritual intelligence is newborn, much like a newly born child, but his body is already completely different from the previous zombie."

Uncle Nine listened, stunned, his mouth hanging open for a long time without closing.

Using a Hopping Zombie to test a new Cultivation Technique? And testing it into a fully living person? What kind of godly method was this?

Records he had seen in ancient books flashed through his mind, and he instantly shivered, his voice trembling slightly:

"Corpse Immortal… Fellow Daoist, you wouldn't have trained him into the legendary Corpse Immortal, would you?"

He had lived this long and had only seen the words 'Corpse Immortal' in books; he had never imagined that in his lifetime, he could see a living Corpse Immortal.

Lin Zhe shook his head: "I don't know either. I haven't seen a Corpse Immortal, and I don't know what a Corpse Immortal should look like."

He was indeed not sure.

Ye's current state was that he had directly rooted himself into Subspace, naturally grasping the authority of spiritual energy; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him a god.

Uncle Nine steadied himself, cupped his hands toward Lin Zhe, his expression serious:

"Fellow Daoist, it is my presumption. I will open my Heavenly Eye to see what the situation is."

"Feel free." Lin Zhe nodded, not stopping him.

Uncle Nine immediately stepped back two paces, stood at the door of the main hall, stood with his feet apart, and quickly pinched the Heavenly Eye seal with both hands.

His thumbs pressed against the roots of his ring fingers, his index and middle fingers joined and held upright in front of his brow, and he began to chant the Heavenly Eye Incantation in a low voice:

"Heavenly Eye opens, Wisdom Eye brightens, the Ten Directions World reveals its true form, the Three Realms of Yin and Yang are all seen through, Grand Supreme Elderly Lord, act swiftly in accordance with the law, Command!"

After finishing the incantation, he joined his two fingers, gently wiped them across his eyelids, and suddenly opened his eyes.

Two faint golden lights shot out from the depths of his eyes; the gaze of the opened Heavenly Eye fell straight onto Ye, who was sitting on the chair.

At this glance, Uncle Nine's brain went "buzz," and he froze completely.

Where was there any young man or Corpse Immortal? This was a Heavenly Immortal from legend about to merge with the Dao!