Deep Within the Living-Chapter 11: Special Handling

The process of retrieving and moving the corpses proceeded without incident.
The four bodies lay quietly in their sleeping bags, waiting to be burned.
Besides the corpses, everyone was also concerned about the bizarre Chinese scholar tree in the backyard. Burning it alongside the bodies would have been ideal, but the risk of igniting the backyard was far too great.
Even if they tried to burn it from a distance, any resulting explosion could spread uncontrollably, potentially engulfing the entire mountain in flames.
If that happened, they would be forced to flee, which would mean leaving the practice zone and failing the exercise.
For now, they decided to focus on burning the corpses. The tree could be dealt with later—perhaps cut down with a chainsaw or ax. Either option seemed feasible.
[Outside the Mansion]
On a relatively flat patch of ground, the group divided tasks: digging a pit and chopping wood would proceed simultaneously in pairs.
Gao Yuxuan, eyeing the four body bags, recalled some knowledge from their cultural lessons.
“I’ll collect the firewood. For burning these yin-influenced corpses, the best choice is lychee wood, which is said to carry strong yang energy. I saw plenty of it on the mountain earlier.”
The class leader patted Luo Di on the shoulder. “You two boys can go chop the wood. Luo Di has a chainsaw, so you should be quick enough. We’ll handle digging the pit. If the bodies start acting up, we’ll yell for help. Don’t wander too far.”
Anna found two rusty shovels in the mansion and lent her tactical ax to Gao Yuxuan for chopping wood.
With their tasks assigned, the team split up. Gao Yuxuan led the way, quickly locating a lychee tree. Modern chainsaw technology made the process surprisingly efficient, allowing them to cut through a tree thick enough to require two people to encircle it.
All that was left was to drag the tree back and split it into thin, burnable strips.
As they hauled the tree back, Luo Di struck up a conversation, curious about what Gao Yuxuan, the top-ranking student in cultural lessons, had deduced about their situation.
“Vice rep, have you figured anything out?”
“Ninety percent sure,” Gao Yuxuan replied. “A traditional Chinese mansion, a Chinese scholar tree, yin-influenced corpses… If we leave these bodies unattended, they’ll likely turn into jiangshi by tonight. Four at once. Even if they’re just simulated anomalies, we’d struggle to handle them.
On top of that, we could get infected with corpse poison, which would ruin our health, studies, and everything else. Burning them is the best option. And as for that tree in the backyard…”
“Cut it down,” Luo Di finished for him.
“Exactly. Burn it first, then deal with the tree.”
The two seemed to develop an unspoken understanding.
When they returned to the open area in front of the mansion, dragging the tree behind them, the digging wasn’t finished yet.
The two girls’ short sleeves were almost entirely soaked with sweat, creating a distinct summer scene.
But Luo Di wasn’t focused on their appearance. Instead, he paid attention to their movements.
Both girls were quite strong, especially Anna, who seemed to have an abundance of energy to burn. However, her efficiency at digging was poor; her usual training clearly hadn’t included any practice in this area.
Luo Di stepped forward to ask, “Do you have another shovel?”
“Just these two,” Anna replied.
“Let me do it.”
He took the shovel from Anna’s hands. Gao Yuxuan, meanwhile, stayed on the sidelines, as he had no experience with digging either.
Half an hour later, a pit large enough to hold all four corpses—and then some—was completed.
The class leader, who had been helping the whole time, gave Luo Di a thumbs-up. Nearly two-thirds of the pit had been dug by him alone, his skill and proficiency in digging impressing everyone. She even picked up a few tips from watching him and joked that the skill might come in handy someday.
Meanwhile, Anna hadn’t been idle after being relieved of her digging duties. She had chopped the dragged-back tree into perfectly sized wood strips for burning.
Working quickly, they filled the pit with the chopped wood, using a combination of lighters, tissues, and other flammable materials to ignite the fire.
Once the flames were strong enough, they added the four corpses one by one. The fire, fueled by the lychee wood, consumed the yin corpses rapidly.
Crackle, hiss!
An unpleasant odor wafted from the pit, making everyone uncomfortable.
Just as they thought the cremation was proceeding smoothly—
Plop!
A single raindrop landed on Luo Di’s cheek.
Suddenly, a torrential downpour began without warning.
“Quick!”
The group sprang into action, dashing back into the mansion to grab tents. They raced to cover the pit, hoping to shield it from the rain. However, the rain was so heavy that water quickly pooled on the ground and began flooding into the pit.
Within moments, the fire was extinguished by the deluge.
The only silver lining was that the burning had already lasted nearly an hour before the rain started.
Although the burning hadn’t lasted as long as a typical cremation, most of the bodies had been reduced to ash and charred remains, with only a few scraps of scorched flesh and bone left behind.
Using flashlights, the four of them hurried to inspect the pit. Inside, they found a pile of burned bones. However, something immediately caught their attention—something that sent chills down their spines and froze them in place, rendering them speechless.
One of the corpses had remained intact, largely unaffected by the flames.
“That’s... the old man who was hanging at the top,” someone finally said.
After confirming that the other three corpses were reduced to bones, the group worked together to lift the elderly man’s body out of the pit.
His clothes and outer skin had burned away, his flesh was blackened, and a few areas were damaged by the fire, but overall, his body remained mostly intact. Burned flesh continued to seep a foul-smelling liquid, which seemed to have shielded him from the flames.
It was clear this corpse was different. How should they deal with it?
With the sudden downpour showing no signs of letting up, and with the heavy rainclouds likely to linger all day, it seemed a second attempt at burning the body would need to be done indoors.
However, considering how resistant the corpse was to fire, even burning it indoors for hours might not suffice.
The mansion, being made entirely of wood, posed a major risk. If they lost control of the fire, it could spread to the entire structure, creating an even bigger problem.
Gao Yuxuan stared at the bizarre corpse, muttering under his breath, “If we leave it like this, it’ll definitely transform into a jiangshi tonight. We need to either burn it again or…”
The class leader’s round eyes lit up as she seemed to come up with a risky idea. But just as she was about to speak, Luo Di crouched down by the corpse and began tying its hands to a leftover wooden stick with rope.
“I’ll handle this corpse. Vice rep, come with me. You two should head back to the house and change into dry clothes. I’ll finish this quickly.”
The class leader hesitated, glancing at the unsettling body. “We should stick together. This corpse is too strange.”
But Luo Di’s tone was firm. “It’s fine. The two of us are enough, and we’ll be back soon.”
Reluctantly, the class leader relented. With her and Anna’s clothes thoroughly soaked, they needed to change anyway. “Turn on your wristband trackers. If you’re not back in fifteen minutes, we’ll come looking for you.”
“Understood.”
Dragging the corpse with the stick, Luo Di led Gao Yuxuan to a steep slope nearby. Gao Yuxuan watched in puzzlement, asking, “You’re planning to toss the corpse down the slope and hope it rolls to the bottom? That’s not going to work. The forest is too dense; it’ll just get stuck after rolling a short distance.
“Plus, it’s already showing signs of transforming. Even if you toss it, it’ll just climb back up tonight. At best, you’re buying us half an hour.”
“No,” Luo Di replied curtly.
“Then what are you planning—”
Crack!
A thunderclap interrupted Gao Yuxuan’s question. In the lightning’s glare, the silver sheen of a chainsaw came into sharp focus in Luo Di’s hands, its blade spinning at high speed.
“You!” Gao Yuxuan gasped in shock.
Gao Yuxuan immediately understood everything—and why Luo Di had refused to let the girls come along.
Luo Di’s expression hardened, becoming both resolute and faintly terrifying.
“When the time comes, throw the pieces as far as you can,” Luo Di instructed calmly.
“Got it,” Gao Yuxuan replied, swallowing hard. A wave of nausea rose in his chest as he fixed his eyes on Luo Di.
He hadn’t expected this quiet classmate, known for barely speaking and consistently excelling in sports, to come up with such a grim plan.
But as horrifying as it was, there truly wasn’t a better, faster, or safer solution available.
...
Inside the Research Facility.
A group of observers stared at the monitors displaying the events in real time.
One of the supervisors in charge of psychological analysis approached Director Qin. “Are you certain this guy’s psych evaluation came back clean?”
Director Qin, who always carried their psychological s, produced the files on the spot.
Luo Di’s was unremarkable, except for one tag: “Introverted.”
“This is their best course of action under the circumstances,” Director Qin explained. “Such decisive intentional actions should be commended, not questioned.”
“Agreed. If his psychology is really sound, then this young man shows promise,” the supervisor replied, nodding thoughtfully.