Deep Within the Living-Chapter 14: The Jiangshi

[One hour earlier]
In the mountains, at the hollow tree where Luo Di initially discovered the wooden box, an unsettling development was taking place.
Since the scholar tree at the house had been cut down, the bodies burned, and the corpse refinement ritual interrupted, guttural growls now echoed from deep within the tree hollow.
If one followed the hollow's depths, they would arrive at a hidden cave. Inside, a coffin sat, its lid already pushed open.
As the scene returned to the tree hollow’s entrance, a decayed, blackened, and cracked withered hand reached out. It was clear that
it
was not yet complete.
Without the chance to "absorb" its blood relatives, its consciousness remained fractured and incomplete.
Inside the mansion.
The group, still staring intently at the paper-sealed window, neither saw any shadow approach nor heard any footsteps.
Luo Di suddenly seemed to realize something.
In one swift motion, he dashed to his backpack, strapping a machete—complete with a leather sheath and securing chains—to his waist. In his right hand, he picked up a silver chainsaw case.
Though he said nothing, the others quickly followed suit, equipping themselves with their respective tools.
Gao Yuxuan armed himself with a single field knife.
Anna initially considered taking her entire backpack but, realizing it would drain her energy unnecessarily, settled on bringing only a tactical tomahawk.
As for Wu Wen,
Since the hike began, she hadn’t shown any kind of defensive gear. But now, she rummaged through her pack and pulled out a long object.
A cold gleam shimmered under the light.
It was a modern, eight-sided Han sword forged with precision craftsmanship. Its minimalist design emphasized clean lines and geometric shapes.
The handle was black, adorned with vertical grooves, and paired with a narrow, rhombic crossguard.
The scabbard, also black, fit perfectly with the guard thanks to modern magnetic alignment technology. At first glance, it resembled a sleek, black metallic rod.
With their gear ready, the group donned white masks.
Not a single word was exchanged among them; they all seemed to instinctively know where they needed to go and what they had to do.
Descending from the second floor, they walked down the familiar corridor to the backyard door.
The stench still lingered, but this time none of them reacted to it as if they couldn’t smell it at all.
Standing at the door, they shone their flashlights into the backyard, which looked more or less the same as before.
The fallen scholar tree lay horizontally among the pig and cow carcasses, blocking their view of anything beyond its trunk.
Unlike the earlier rainfall that masked many ambient noises, the late-night rain had diminished, leaving an eerie silence in its place.
The eerie stillness allowed them to hear a faint yet unsettling noise emanating from the far end of the backyard, its source obscured by the fallen scholar tree.
The class leader quickly raised a finger to her masked face, signaling the group to follow her silently.
With nearly soundless steps, they advanced slowly, their feet pressing into sticky muck.
Neither the stench nor the unpleasant texture beneath their shoes distracted their thoughts—all their focus was on the strange, discordant sound coming from beyond the tree trunk.
The closer they got, the clearer the noise became:
The sound of flesh being torn apart, bones crunching, and something hard being chewed.
When the four reached the tree, they extended their hands to part the branches blocking their view.
What they saw froze them in place as if a doctor had just delivered a terminal diagnosis. Disbelief etched itself onto their faces.
Though each of them had mentally braced for something grotesque, the reality presented before them hit with an intensity they hadn’t anticipated.
A figure clad in black cloth stood there.
The garment’s central seam was adorned with buttons shaped like the patterns of a Daoist
Bagua
.
Above the neckline was a head they recognized from the photograph: the sickly middle-aged man.
His face was veined with black blood vessels, the remnants of his disease leaving behind granular pustules.
His clouded, milky-white eyes seemed oblivious to the world around him.
He stood stiffly, his arms outstretched, holding a rotting cow’s head in front of him.
From his cracked, blackened teeth seeped dark mist as he voraciously bit into and sucked at the decayed mass, absorbing the residual
yin
energy from within.
The corpses of the pigs and cows around him had already been devoured almost entirely, his actions seemingly an attempt to make up for the incomplete ritual.
Perhaps because the cow's head was nearly drained,
Or perhaps because he sensed the group drawing closer—
Plop!
The cow’s skull dropped to the ground, stripped bare.
With a sharp push off the sodden earth, his black cloth shoes launched him into the air.
Using the momentum of his leap, he spun his body,
And as his milky-white eyes aligned with the fallen scholar tree, they locked onto the four young observers.
It was as though he could see straight through the gaps in the branches, directly into their terrified gazes.
To be precise,
It wasn’t that he saw the intruders, but rather that he sensed the living aura—something distinctly unlike the livestock he had been feeding on.
This creature didn’t move with the slow, bouncing gait of zombies in traditional films.
Instead, its feet began to rise onto their tips, touching the ground only with the toes, and it leaned forward at an unnerving 30-degree angle.
It slid.
As if propelled by a force of
yin
energy, its toes glided over the filth-covered backyard, rapidly closing in on the figures behind the fallen tree.
[Perspective Shift]
When the Jiangshi tilted its head, the four hiding behind the tree knew they’d been exposed.
A decision had to be made—quickly.
Fight or retreat?
Would they battle it out in the backyard or choose a different location?
But these questions had already been considered long before they descended the stairs.
Running or retreating wasn’t an option.
Since they had interrupted the ritual, now was the best chance to kill this thing. Any delay would only give the Jiangshi more time to complete its transformation, and hiding or fleeing would only exhaust them further.
That said,
They couldn’t stay in the backyard, which served as a sacrificial site and gave the Jiangshi a natural advantage.
The open area in front of the mansion, where the bodies were burned yesterday, was a much better battleground.
"Move!"
As the Jiangshi charged after them, the four broke into a sprint. The class leader and Luo Di were neck and neck at the start, with Anna close behind and Gao Yuxuan bringing up the rear.
The class leader was the first to cross the sticky mess of the backyard, stepping onto the mansion’s floorboards and preparing to accelerate further when she noticed something peculiar.
Luo Di was no longer beside her.
Instead, he had deliberately fallen to the back of the group.
Above her mask, her eyes betrayed no fear of being chased by the Jiangshi. Instead, they held a certain knowing, appreciative smile.
Their retreat was relatively smooth. All four of them were athletic, with even Gao Yuxuan—despite being the slowest—clocking a respectable 11.9 seconds for 100 meters. This level of speed was just enough to keep them ahead of the Jiangshi.
In front of the mansion.
The pit where they had burned the bodies yesterday was now filled with rainwater, and a few charred, blackened bones floated on the surface.
When the Jiangshi pursued them into the area, it paused, its nostrils flaring as it caught the lingering scent of its blood relatives in the air.
Instinctively, it shifted its focus toward the pit, drawn by the remnants of its kin.
As it reached the waterlogged hole, it realized that the flesh of its blood relatives had been completely destroyed and could no longer be absorbed.
A feral, deafening roar erupted from its throat, shaking the air around it.
But just as its attention was momentarily diverted,
someone from the group launched an attack.
A sharpened tactical tomahawk, etched with the emblem of a renowned military-industrial manufacturer, arced through the air in a perfect line, striking vertically.
Crack!
The axe landed squarely on the Jiangshi's shoulder.
But the razor-sharp blade sank less than three centimeters into its flesh.
Anna was stunned by the creature's incredible hardness. It felt nothing like cutting into flesh, but more like striking a material somewhere between stone and metal. The reverberation left her arms slightly numb.
Whoosh!
Pulling the axe free, Anna quickly retreated and shouted:
"This thing isn’t just tough—it’s almost impervious to regular physical attacks! I’ll grab something from the bedroom. You guys hold it off! I’ll be right back!"
With an idea suddenly forming in her mind, Anna dashed back into the mansion to retrieve something.
Though her strike hadn’t inflicted significant damage, it was enough to pose a threat and grab the Jiangshi's attention.
Its head immediately twisted toward the direction Anna had fled.
But before it could pursue her, another "prey" stepped into its path, blocking its way.
At the same time, the deafening roar of an engine pierced the night.