Cultivation: I have an omnipotent land

In the mountain valley, a narrow, winding path stretches northward.

Several horse-drawn carriages were traveling along the path. It was a small caravan, led by a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar.

His surname was Lü. He passed the county-level imperial examination at a young age, but failed to become a provincial-level scholar for many years. Disheartened, he abandoned his studies and went into business.

"Young man, where are you going?" Lu Xiucai asked the young man in front of him from inside the carriage.

"The Valley of Clear and Turbid Water," the boy replied.

"I have heard of this name before. It's about a hundred miles from here, but it's a dense forest overgrown with miasma. Are you really going there, young brother?" Lu Xiucai was a little puzzled. This kid looked to be only sixteen or seventeen years old. How could he be out adventuring all by himself?

This southern border region is teeming with poisonous insects, ferocious beasts, and miasma; any bandit or robber who encounters it is a death sentence. How could the boy's family dare to release him?

"I'm not in the wrong place. I'm looking for an uncle who's a hunter." To avoid arousing the leader's suspicion, Xiao Ming had no choice but to lie.

"I see." Upon hearing this, Lü Xiucai said no more, guessing that the child must be pitiful, that his family had suffered a disaster, and that he was going to seek refuge with relatives.

The horse-drawn cart, carrying goods, traveled along the river valley. Southern Xinjiang was rainy, and in some places the roads were washed away and difficult to travel, so Lü Xiucai asked everyone to get off and help push the cart.

Sometimes, if it's convenient, he'll fill in the potholes on the road. Although it wastes some time and causes some people in the group to complain, Lü Xiucai never tires of it.

He kept chanting about cultivating oneself, regulating one's family, governing the state, and bringing peace to the world, but he was too incompetent to bring peace to the world. Even paving a road would be a good deed.

The caravan traveled slowly and soon came to a mountain pass with towering cliffs on both sides and only a narrow path in the middle.

Upon entering this section of the road, the caravan members became noticeably more nervous, and several of the men had already taken out their weapons from the carriages.

However, what was bound to happen eventually did happen: a huge log lay across the middle of the narrow road.

"Everyone be careful!" Lü Xiucai shouted.

But it was too late. Accompanied by the sound of horses' hooves, a group of people wielding knives, spears, and clubs charged out from behind, blocking the caravan in the middle.

"Boss, it's bandits! We're surrounded!" The men looked at Lü Xiucai in a panic.

"What's the panic? I'm still here." Lü Xiucai tried to remain calm and walked up to the group of bandits.

"Gentlemen, I run a small business, barely making ends meet. I'm just passing through this place today, so please do me a favor." Lu Xiucai took out a money pouch from his sleeve and respectfully handed it over.

Xiao Ming sat in the carriage, watching this scene from afar. If these bandits were sensible enough to let it go, he would pretend nothing had happened. If they were still not satisfied, then he would have no choice but to cremate them on the spot.

The bandits opposite were oblivious to the fact that their lives hung in the balance, still laughing smugly. A long-haired man wielding a large knife stepped forward, hooked the money bag from the scholar's hand with his knife, weighed it in his hand for a moment, and then nodded.

"You're quite sensible. What's on the cart? Grain or medicinal herbs?"

"The cart is loaded with neither grain nor medicine, but with embalming wax for corpses," Lü Xiucai quickly replied, knowing that the bandits had their eyes on the goods.

"You say it's not, so it's not?" The man glared at him, then gave a wink to the person next to him.

The bandit beside him immediately understood and came over with two men. Lü Xiucai was worried that the bandits would be too rough and damage the goods, so he quickly called his assistant to lift up the oilcloth.

The three robbers searched the place thoroughly before returning to the long-haired giant.

"Boss, it is indeed wax."

"What bad luck." The long-haired man immediately lost interest.

"Sir, would you please let us go?" Before Lü Xiucai could finish speaking, the long-haired giant smiled knowingly and placed a knife against Lü Xiucai's neck.

"You seem like a cultured person, perhaps a scholar?"

"Yes." With a knife to his neck, Lü Xiucai quickly nodded.

"You see, it wasn't easy for the brothers to block the road?"

"It's not easy."

"This little bit of money isn't even enough for the brothers to have a drink," the long-haired burly man said, shaking the money bag in his hand.

"How about this, we'll return the money to you. I need a clerk on the mountain. You come with us, and I'll release all these people and goods."

"Okay... wait a minute." Lu Xiucai, who had been nodding, suddenly realized what was going on and exclaimed in surprise.

"what?"

Everyone says the bandits of the Song Dynasty are ruthless, robbing money, grain, and women. Why are they robbing men too?

Just as the situation became awkward, a loud bell suddenly rang out from behind the robber.

"On the road to the dead, the living steer clear."

A young corpse-driver was seen ringing a bell and scattering paper money, followed by more than a dozen hopping corpses. Seeing a group of robbers in front of him, he did not avoid them but went to meet them.

"Excuse me, everyone," the corpse-driver said calmly, looking at the bandits in front of him.

"I've seen people who aren't afraid of death, but I've never seen anyone this fearless! Corpse driver, are you insane?" The bandits were immediately enraged by the corpse driver and surrounded him.

"I'm just a corpse transporter, I don't have any treasure. Please make way, it would be bad if the corpse came back to life."

"You dare threaten me?" The long-haired man sneered.

"I've killed corpse-drivers before. Don't think I don't know your little tricks. It's nothing more than dismembering the corpse, preserving it, having a living person carry it, and then stitching it back together when you get to your destination."

"Boss, I heard from the brothers in the underworld that some people know that we are superstitious about these things, so they put gold and silver jewelry in the baskets used to carry corpses to deceive us."

"Don't talk nonsense, this is a real corpse. Moving it will cause it to come back to life," the corpse driver shouted hastily, his expression changing.

However, the long-haired giant snorted coldly, his gaze sweeping over the corpses, their bodies completely covered by long black cloth hats. "Enough nonsense, take off the black cloth."

The bandits exchanged glances, and one of the bolder ones stepped forward and, mustering his courage, ripped off the straw hat of the corpse at the front.

Beneath the black cloth was a female corpse, no more than sixteen years old, dressed in a bright red wedding gown and wearing a phoenix crown. However, instead of beads, the crown was adorned with strings of hanging copper coins, resembling a mask.

Through the copper coin mask, one can see that the female corpse was pretty and beautiful. At this moment, she closed her eyes as if she was asleep, but her skin was pale and the blood vessels under it were purple and black, giving her an eerie feeling.

"What a beautiful young lady," the robber said, mesmerized.

The next moment, however, the female corpse suddenly opened her eyes. Her eyes were black and purple, even the whites of her eyes were black. The female corpse roared, her blood-red fingernails plunging into the robber's arm, and then she bit down on the robber's neck.

"It's come back to life!"

"These are real zombies."

The robbers were terrified when they saw this.

"Get out of here!" The long-haired man flicked his whip and turned to run. He had robbed corpse drivers several times without any problems, but he never expected to encounter a real one this time.

Those bandits with horses fled in panic, while those without horses tumbled and scattered like birds and beasts.