It was noon by the time everything was settled. The elders were deeply grateful to Long Xiao and the others, insisting they come to their homes for a meal.
During the meal, Long Xiao inquired about the number of new graves in the vicinity. The elders immediately called some of the younger men from their clan and dispatched them to inquire in villages within a ten-mile radius.
After the meal, the information came back: there were fifteen new graves in the surrounding dozen villages, and two of them had been buried just the day before yesterday.
Long Xiao took out his phone and opened the map, asking the young men who had returned to pinpoint the exact locations of the villages with new graves.
Long Xiao pointed to a village where someone had been buried the day before yesterday and said, "Min Lan, you two are responsible for dealing with these two corpses. Be careful when you act, there might be Japanese people among the villagers who will cause you trouble."
"Don't worry, Brother Zhao. If we confirm they are Japanese, I'll take care of them."
After the three members of the Zhang family left, Long Xiao and Xiao Ming prepared to head to a nearby village. As soon as they stepped out, they saw someone watching them from a distance.
"Brother Long, someone is monitoring us."
"Let him follow. He's likely Japanese," Long Xiao said in a low voice.
The two bid farewell to the villagers and got into the car. Not long after driving out of the village, they encountered a herd of cattle blocking the road, forcing them to stop the car by the roadside and wait for the cattle to pass.
After a few minutes, Long Xiao suddenly saw a figure flash in the distance and disappear. He quickly lowered his head, and with a bang, a bullet pierced the glass, grazing his scalp.
As Xiao Ming and Long Xiao got out of the car, the cattle suddenly went mad and charged at them.
The two scrambled off the road, trying to evade the relentless stampede.
"Xiao Ming, watch out for the gunman. Don't give him a chance to aim," Long Xiao instructed Xiao Ming while using the 'Gui Xuan' steps to dodge the cattle.
Xiao Ming and Long Xiao used the 'Gui Xuan' steps to evade the herd, and soon the cattle had passed them. They found themselves behind the stampede.
Before the cattle could turn back, the two of them rushed onto the road, dodging shots as they approached the distant sniper.
Puff, puff, two more bullets landed on the ground, the kicked-up dirt not even touching their clothes.
As they crossed the road and entered the fields by the roadside, the ground suddenly cracked open with a bang, and two long sabers swung towards them.
The two didn't stop their pace, dodging the sabers. Long Xiao punched towards the person wielding the saber with his left hand. With a bang, the chest of the young man holding the saber caved in, and he was thrown back more than ten meters like a rag doll, falling to the ground motionless.
Xiao Ming dodged the saber, swept his cleaver horizontally, and then quickly moved forward, avoiding the spray of blood.
The person holding the saber, upon falling to the ground, discovered that their body was almost completely severed in the middle.
Seeing that the ambush had failed, the two quickly closed in. The sniper fired two more shots and then turned to flee.
Long Xiao approached the sniper and swung his right hand. A wooden stick from the ground whistled out, piercing the back of the sniper's head, pinning him to the ground.
The two returned to the road, and the cattle, with no one controlling them, had scattered and fled.
Upon arriving at the entrance of the next village by car, Long Xiao saw a villager standing at the entrance, seemingly waiting for someone.
The car stopped, and the villager, seeing Long Xiao and the others, hurried over.
"You two are here. My uncle said you were coming and asked me to wait for you here," the young villager said, taking out a box of cigarettes and preparing to offer them.
Long Xiao got out of the car and waved his hand, saying, "Neither of us smokes. Did your uncle tell you why we're here?"
The villager nodded and said, "He told me everything. My father asked me to wait for you. He's already taken people to the graveyard."
"Alright, let's chat as we go. Take us to the graveyard."
Long Xiao and Xiao Ming followed the villager to the graveyard. In the graveyard, a middle-aged man, accompanied by seven or eight young men, was already standing by the new grave, preparing to dig it open.
Long Xiao inquired, and the new grave had been buried for about a month. He circled the grave and sensed that the malevolent energy here was even heavier than the previous one.
Since the 'Chi Yan Worm' was still dormant, Long Xiao decided to make preparations before digging, so as not to disturb the nearby villagers.
"Let's not dig it open yet. I have cinnabar, brushes, and yellow paper in my car. I'll draw some talismans and set up a simple arrangement."
Long Xiao asked Xiao Ming to go back to the car to fetch the items, while he walked around the vicinity of the grave. Like the previous location, only the new grave contained Yin malevolent energy; the other graves were normal.
This grave was located in the 'death gate' of the graveyard. Long Xiao observed it carefully for a while but couldn't figure out the source of the malevolent energy.
Soon, Xiao Ming returned with brushes and yellow paper. Long Xiao found a place to spread them out and quickly drew more than a dozen talismans for suppressing malevolence.
He placed the talismans at key points around the graveyard and pointed to the grave mound, saying, "Dig it open. Leave when you expose the coffin."
The villagers worked diligently and soon dug open the grave, revealing a blood-red coffin.
Long Xiao pointed to the coffin and said, "Open it."
The middle-aged man who had brought the villagers hesitated and said, "Sir, will it be dangerous?"
Long Xiao shook his head and said, "No."
As the young men, working together, managed to pry a gap in the coffin lid with their shovels, Long Xiao heard movement inside and hurriedly shouted, "Stop prying, get up here quickly."
As the young men just got out of the grave, they heard a bang, and the coffin lid was smashed open. Startled, everyone dropped their tools and fled in disarray.
Long Xiao retreated a few steps. As the coffin lid landed, two male corpses, dressed in dark blue robes, leaped out of the coffin.
The 'Chi Yan Worm' was still asleep, refining the Yin malevolent energy, so Long Xiao had to act himself.
Long Xiao and Xiao Ming rushed forward. Xiao Ming's black iron cleaver struck down fiercely. With a clang, the cleaver was directly shaken away, and Xiao Ming was sent flying backward.
"Damn it, too hard to cut through," Xiao Ming shouted as he got up.
Long Xiao struck the abdomen of one of the corpses with his left fist. With a bang, the corpse flew backward.
Long Xiao had used his full strength with this punch. He had expected to shatter the corpse, but instead, it only flew back a few meters and fell to the ground. It then flipped over and charged at Long Xiao again.
Long Xiao and Xiao Ming continuously dodged and weaved with the two ferocious corpses. The corpses' speed was far too great for them, and they couldn't catch them, but they also couldn't damage the corpses.
"Brother Long, let's burn them," Xiao Ming shouted.
Long Xiao nodded and said, "I'll tie them down. You go get gasoline."
Xiao Ming retreated to the outside of the graveyard and shouted to the middle-aged man, "Uncle, hurry and get some gasoline. These two ferocious corpses are too hard to cut."
The middle-aged man led his men to fetch gasoline. Xiao Ming picked up his cleaver again and charged forward, occasionally slashing at the two corpses.
As it was getting dark, the middle-aged man finally arrived with two buckets of gasoline.
Long Xiao and Xiao Ming each took a bucket of gasoline, doused the two corpses, and threw in lighters.
To their surprise, the lighters couldn't ignite the gasoline at all. Seeing that they couldn't ignite the gasoline, the middle-aged man quickly had the young men find dry grass to make torches and throw them.
The result was the same; the torches extinguished as soon as they touched the ferocious corpses.
The torches were useless against the corpses, but they were effective on the ground. Soon, the dry grass in the graveyard caught fire. The grass, doused in gasoline, burned fiercely, and before long, the graveyard became a sea of flames.
The talismans on the ground were ignited, and streams of vital energy were drawn from the earth by the talismans, rushing towards the ferocious corpses.
The vital energy drawn by the talismans disoriented the two ferocious corpses, causing them to spin around in place.
Seeing that the talismans could draw vital energy from the ground, Xiao Ming shouted happily, "Brother Long, draw more talismans and burn them!"