ff people's queue (topknot), those who had their queue cut would be imprisoned by their soul, becoming tools for others, and eventually their souls would dissipate and die.After several counties exper..."Apart from Lord Miao Wang, no one else has come. The mausoleum has been very peaceful since you last left."

I nodded and asked, "Has anyone gone in there since"

The guard nodded with certainty.

That is to say, since our last fight with the Dragon King in here, no outsider has come near.

It shouldn't be anything unexpected, right

I stood at the mouth of the mountain crevice and looked in. Soon, I saw several points of dark blue light. These were Mu Wanchen's soul lamps.

I rushed in and threw myself onto him.

Mu Wanchen followed me and reprimanded, "The cave is uneven, don't run so fast, what if you fall"

"How is it inside"

“The Mausoleum Hall was nothing out of the ordinary. Long Xiaoge had been repairing it these past few days. Besides him, no one else had come. I came to lead you in. Perhaps King Da Shi felt our presence and that's why there's this special aura permeating the air.”

"Are you really okay Why are you frowning"

Mu Wanchen was slightly taken aback, and chuckled: "You're quite observant... I noticed some marks on the ground, seeming to be from the last fire. I wonder if they will have any negative impact again."

"Oh..."

If it's just the trace of a fire, there shouldn't be anything strange about it, right

Mu Wanchen wasn't comfortable letting me walk alone. He picked me up, but my big belly made it impossible to sit in his arms, so he had to carry me princess-style through the narrow cave and into the front hall of the tomb.

This place was previously flattened by a giant snake. Brother Long cleaned it up all by himself, and there are still a lot of stones scattered around to this day.

The broken lampposts and the collapsed half of the mountain wall looked desolate.

All Chinese people practice ancestor worship. It's saddening to see ancestral tombs in such a dilapidated, desolate, and chaotic state. It's not something that descendants can bear easily.

"Why don't we get some trusted people to help" I looked at Long Ge as he casually arranged the stones, feeling a pang of sympathy.

"These things can't be entrusted to outsiders." Mu Wanchen shook his head and said, "You see, we felt something was amiss just now, right here."

He pointed to the entrance of the front hall.

This place was surrounded by the area that had burned down. The heavy stone bricks on the ground had a layer of black marks, as if they were left after...

"...Tar Like, the kind of people that are oily corpses" I whispered softly.

Before Mu Wanchen could answer, Long Xiao said, "When I came here to tidy up before, I was afraid of disturbing the Corpse Kings, so I didn't bring any light sources. Just now, Mu Wanchen's soul lamp illuminated this place, and we discovered that something was strange here..."

“This wasn't formed in a day or two…”

A grating, sandpaper-like voice suddenly appeared, drifting lazily through the front hall.

I stiffened and hid behind Mu Wanchen.

I don't think this is an offense, right This is just the front hall, we haven't even gotten close to the back hall entrance.

The Corpse King is the "Corpse Immortal" revered by generations of people. I have seen the gathering spirit form of the Corpse King, those Corpse Kings appear to be like walking corpses guarding the Corpse King, without much consciousness.

Whoever can speak must be the Great Corpse King.

"Great Corpse King…" Long Xiaoge called out softly towards the dark gate in the distance.

Fine, silvery threads drifted out from the tightly shut gate of the passage, swaying like hair rippling in water.

The eerie and unsettling feeling intensified. The grand entrance behind me seemed like a dividing line, with two distinct worlds on either side of it.

"...Something feels different about you...little girl..." a hoarse voice said.

“You’re talking to me” I was startled, clutching Mu Wanchen's arm as I poked my head out.

"You seem... a little different..."

"Huh What's different about me... My belly got bigger" I answered quietly.

"You've got some new things on you... different from when you were here last time..."

"I've been through some things...but that's not why we're bothering you, we have something we want to ask—" I hastened to change the subject.

The Corpse King let out a soft hum, then remained silent for a long time.

Long Xiaogē reacted, immediately walked behind me and closed the front hall door.

When it was time to close, I felt a bit nervous.

It feels like I'm being buried alive.

Only Mu Wanchen's soul lamp illuminated the front hall, but he seemed to sense our presence and extinguished it with a muttered incantation. We were plunged into darkness.

The only discernible thing was the countless threads that peeked from behind the door, gradually converging into a towering image of a desiccated corpse.

"The two characters 'fate' are the most difficult things in the world. Who would have thought that this king could one day gather spirits and take shape... If it weren't for being touched by the aura of immortals, how could I have the ability to care for my descendants today..."

The Great Corpse King muttered to himself in a raspy, low voice. I didn't dare interrupt him, waiting until his form became more complete before raising a hand, my thin fingers pointing at us, and whispering, "Come... speak..."

Long Xiaoge walked in front, Mu Wanchen held my hand and walked forward.

"You... want to ask what..." The Great Corpse King lowered his body slightly from mid-air.

My goodness... to be this close is so frightening...

"At your age, haven't you heard of the legend of the Gu King This memory was erased by the old monster and wasn't passed down. No one knows how to refine Mu Wanchen's current poisonous insect into a Gu King..." I quickly explained.

"Oh..." The Great Corpse King's semi-transparent body straightened up. He nodded slightly, pondering for a long time, as if searching for distant memories.

I vaguely remember something... it seems to be related to this... It should have been during the reign of Emperor Xianping...

"Ai ai ai I was taken aback and muttered, "During the Xianping era What time is that"

Mu Wanchen whispered, "Northern Song Dynasty, over a thousand years ago."

“It’s been so long!” Such memories from a thousand years ago, even if related to the Gu King, are impossible to verify!

Mù Wǎnchen glared at me, and I hastily covered my mouth to continue listening.

"That year, something happened…" the Great Corpse King continued.

He said that at the time he was still young, Miao Wang City was located in the southwest, and he traveled to the Central Plains all the way to the northern frontier, where he met a woman.

That woman was the concubine of a general. She wasn't particularly beautiful or stunning. The Great Corpse King noticed that her accent and mannerisms were very similar to those of a witch from the southwestern borderlands.

Grave robbing and corpse refining are also part of folk magic. The Great Corpse King did not approach this woman, but stayed on the border for over half a year, observing her all the time.

Back then, things were different from now. There weren't many migrations as far as from the southwest to the northern frontier. He felt that woman seemed to have ulterior motives, so the Great Corpse King infiltrated the general's army as a common soldier.

However, before the woman's identity could be discovered, a war broke out at the border.

The general went to rescue his comrade, but the comrade broke their promise and fled. The general fought alone and died on the battlefield. Among the corpses strewn across the field, a woman dressed as a man tore a piece of flesh from the general's body.

The Corpse King, lying amidst the corpses, vaguely heard the woman's anguished and resentful words: "If we have fate in the next life, I will definitely make you die at my hands. But your merits cannot be forgotten, nor can you be turned into blood by the Devouring Worm and become nameless in history... I will avenge you for those who harmed you..."

Worm cult

I heard the keywords.

Mu Wanchen also heard this. He frowned slightly, apparently, he didn't understand what the relationship between the Shegu and Guwang was.

I thought this story had a sequel, but the Great Corpse King only spoke up to here. He changed the subject and said: "A thousand years ago, the legend of the蝕蠱 was still prevalent in the witch's land... It is said that it is a kind of worm that can transform all poisons. Perhaps this is what you people later called the 'King of Ten Thousand Gu.' "

Yeah… The thing about gu, the most fearsome thing isn't a stronger gu, but being dissolved! I didn't dare go down any further. The staircase corner leading down was windowless, making it even darker and more depressing.Xuan Yue's big tail twitched, scratched my face, and pointed towards th...