C35 Deaf

I looked up, and there she was—the woman had returned. From this angle, peering upward, I could just make out half of her face beneath the red veil.

Even in the pitch darkness, where her features were indistinct, I could at least be sure that her face wasn't a maggot-infested skull.

"I almost forgot—you'll die if you don't eat corpses. Here, take this," she said, tossing a dark object my way.

Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a human arm, charred to the point of being unrecognizable. Trembling, I inquired, "Where... where did this come from?"

"I retrieved it from the most prominent grave," she replied, gesturing to a lavish and grandiose tombstone nearby.

Driven by curiosity, I approached and read the inscription: The tomb of Sunn Xingwang, his beloved son.

A bitter laugh escaped me. It made sense now why the arm was charred.

As a child, I remembered tales of feuding armies whose enemies would curse each other with threats of cannibalism. I never imagined I'd face such a fate myself. This must be what they call karma.

After consuming the "medicine," I turned around only to be startled by the woman's disappearance.

Her departure left me feeling weak, though my condition had ceased to deteriorate. Fighting back nausea, I took another bite of the charred flesh.

Gradually, I felt my strength returning, and a powerful energy surged within me, reminiscent of the vitality I'd felt after drinking a bowl of porridge last time.

While I was still processing my amazement, the sound of footsteps rustling behind me caught my attention. Assuming it was the woman returning, I didn't think much of it until a sudden gust of wind barreled towards me.

I quickly sidestepped, just in time to see a black horsewhip lash out. The whip was wielded by a tall, burly man.

"Who are you?" I asked, startled, but he didn't respond, instead raising the whip for another strike.

The black whip sliced through the air with a menacing force, its path nearly invisible in the dark.

Before, such a vicious attack would have been unavoidable, but now my body was nimble and quick. Still, constantly evading was no strategy. I needed to figure out how to fight back.

Unexpectedly, just then, the burly man began to speak, stuttering, "I didn't... I didn't expect you, this... this creature, to be so formidable."

"Creature? What creature? I'm human!" I exclaimed, bewildered. My momentary lapse in focus was punished with a vicious lash from the horsewhip.

I screamed in agony. The pain was unlike that of a whip—it felt as if I had been slashed with a knife! It was so intense that I fell to my knees, unable to straighten my back. I thought to myself that another strike like that, even if it didn't kill me, would surely leave me battered and torn.

"Hey, you... you're not a ghost, nor... nor a zombie? You... you can speak?" The man spoke again, his speech halting and stuttered.

"I'm definitely not a ghost. I'm human! I've already told you that!" I yelled, frustrated.

"Sorry... sorry about that. I'm a bit hard of hearing and didn't catch what you said before," the man apologized, scratching his head with a sheepish smile before helping me to my feet.

I gave a resigned smile and spoke loudly into his ear, "Who exactly are you, and what brings you here? You don't seem to be from our village, are you?"

"I... I'm not from your village. My name is Zhang Ergou, but some call me Deaf Zhang. I'm a Pond Collecting Man; my master sent me here," Deaf Zhang explained to me, his voice booming so loudly that my head began to spin.

"Keep it down. Did you just say you're a corpse collector?" I inquired.

"See... if I speak softly, you can't hear me clearly, can you? I'm not a corpse collector; I'm a pond collector. I'm headed to Hundred Ghost Slope!" Deaf Zhang clarified, raising his voice.

"You're going to Hundred Ghost Slope!" I exclaimed, astonished. I was even more taken aback by his identity—he was the legendary Pond Collecting Man!