From Paper Craftsman to World-Suppressing Immortal

When the coroner Meng lifted the white sheet, a pungent, putrid stench immediately wafted out.

Shen Yanqiu and Zhang Zhixuan frowned as they looked at the corpse. At this moment, Shen Yanting's skin had turned black and bluish, and he was becoming increasingly decomposed.

Zhang Zhixuan's gaze swept down from the face of the deceased, and he saw that Shen Yanting's face was pale, his lips were purple, and there were two particularly glaring holes in his neck.

"What's this on the neck?" Zhang Zhixuan looked at the two hole-like wounds on the corpse's neck. The skin and flesh at the edges of the wounds were turned outwards and were black in color, as if they had been burned.

The coroner, Meng, raised his hand to signal the two to move away a little. Then, he picked up a thin silver needle from the table and inserted it into the deceased's throat. When the needle was pulled out, the tip of the needle had turned black.

"poisonous."

The coroner, Meng, washed the silver needles in an enamel basin, then picked up a narrow knife. The blade was long and slender, and its edge gleamed with a cold, menacing light, clearly indicating that it was an extremely sharp object.

He heated the tip of the knife over the oil lamp, wiped it slowly with a cotton cloth dipped in wine, and then prepared to start cutting.

The knife tip cut into the collarbone, moving down to the abdomen, tearing open the skin and flesh to reveal the bluish-gray fat and dark red muscle underneath.

Strangely, there was no blood inside Shen Yanting's body, as if all the blood had been drained out; only a little pale yellow liquid seeped from the edge of the knife wound.

Meng Wu used his hands to pry open the skin and flesh, revealing the internal organs in the chest cavity. The heart was deflated, like a punctured balloon, and the lungs were black, but not the kind of greasy lungs of an old smoker; instead, they were a strange color filled with black mud.

"He didn't drown. His lungs were empty, and he bled out first. The body was submerged in water before the water entered his lungs."

As the coroner spoke, Meng took out a thin wire and slowly inserted it into the hole in the deceased's neck. The wire went in more than an inch, and when it was pulled out, it was covered with black scabs of blood.

"The victim's blood was drained right here. This method of murder is too bizarre..."

The coroner, Meng, put away the wire, wiped his hands, stared at the corpse for a long time before continuing, "Based on the current situation, the deceased was estimated to have died about seven days ago. The cause of death was excessive blood loss. The murder weapon is a bit strange; I haven't figured out exactly what it is yet."

"To be honest, in my thirty years of performing autopsies, I have never seen a death like this. To put it bluntly, the manner of death is too gruesome, as if something bit his neck and then drained his blood."

Shen Yanqiu stood aside and listened quietly, her brows furrowing involuntarily, her fists clenched so tightly that her nails dug into her palms.

Zhang Zhixuan remained silent, staring intently at Shen Yanting's corpse, his mind replaying the autopsy conducted by coroner Meng, pondering and deducing.

Just then, the Book of a Hundred Trades suddenly appeared, its pages flipping rapidly until it stopped on a new page, at which point a pale blue light screen unfolded before Zhang Zhixuan's eyes.

[Complete one autopsy, coroner proficiency +5]

[All Trades: Coroner]

[Level: Lv1 (5/100)]

[Rank: 0]

[Corpse Whispering Psychic Lv1: A skeleton, half a lifetime of grudges, a touch of fingertips, a connection between life and death. You can sense fragments of the deceased's final moments by touching the corpse. The current duration of perception is 5 seconds.]

[Table Inspection: Wherever the eye can see, there is no hiding injury. Through visual observation, you can automatically analyze the characteristics of the deceased's injuries and the type of cause of death.]

[Corpse Suppression Seal: Uses the power of the palm to suppress corpse transformation, temporarily suppressing abnormal corpse movements]

[Upgrading to the next level will unlock new skills.]

Zhang Zhixuan was delighted to see the newly activated trades and professions. Then, he looked at the corpse of Shen Yanting lying on the table and immediately had the idea of ​​conducting an autopsy himself.

"Master Meng, could I take another look at the body?" Zhang Zhixuan asked.

Coroner Meng glanced at Zhang Zhixuan, then nodded and made way for him.

Zhang Zhixuan walked to the table, stretched out his hand, and gently pressed his fingertips on the corpse's brow. Then he closed his eyes and cleared his mind.

In an instant, a torrent of darkness poured in, accompanied by the gurgling sound of water all around. As far as the eye could see, there was only cold, murky, and impenetrable darkness.

Zhang Zhixuan knew that this was the last scene Shen Yanting was seeing before he died.

"Waaaaah..."

A chilling roar and howl came from all directions, followed by countless pale hands reaching up from the bottom of the water and grabbing Shen Yanting's ankles, calves, waist, and arms.

Shen Yanting struggled desperately, but those hands locked him up like iron hoops. The last image was a huge shadow vaguely visible underwater, with hands and feet but no head, a large mouth on its chest, and a thin, forked tongue sticking out of its mouth, writhing like a snake.

The long, thin tongue split in two, like two nails driven into Shen Yanting's neck. Before he died, Shen Yanting clearly felt his blood being drained from his body. Fear and despair surged into his heart, and gradually the scene ended and disappeared.

Zhang Zhixuan suddenly opened his eyes, his forehead already beaded with sweat. Looking at the gruesome state of Shen Yanting's corpse, Zhang Zhixuan felt as if he had personally experienced the helplessness, despair, resentment, and fear before death...

Zhang Zhixuan sighed, then picked up a pair of gloves from the table, put them on, and began to examine Shen Yanting's body personally.

After activating the coroner's role, Zhang Zhixuan acted like a seasoned veteran. The discomfort that ordinary people felt when seeing a corpse completely disappeared, as if he were touching something that wasn't a corpse at all, but just an ordinary object.

Zhang Zhixuan's fingers traced the deceased's ribs one by one, then suddenly stopped at the third rib on the left.

"Huh? What's this?"

Zhang Zhixuan pondered for a moment, then rubbed his fingertips back and forth on the bone surface, carefully feeling it. After a while, Zhang Zhixuan clearly felt the subtle unevenness in this area.

He looked closer and saw that there were several strange engravings on the surface of the ribs, twisted and arranged to form a bizarre symbol.

"Master Meng, look here." Zhang Zhixuan pointed to the several engraved marks.

Coroner Meng put on his reading glasses, leaned closer to examine it, and his expression changed: "This! I hadn't noticed it before, what kind of symbol is this?"

"It might be a talismanic mark of some kind of evil magic."

Coroner Meng reached out and touched it, his expression turning even more grim.

Zhang Zhixuan took a small piece of black substance from the deceased's chest cavity, placed it on an oilcloth, and used a wooden stick to pry it open, revealing tiny things inside.

"Look at this." Zhang Zhixuan pointed to the tiny fragments of the deceased, which turned out to be a clump of wriggling worms.

"These are corpse fly larvae. Unlike other flies, corpse flies are insects that truly feed on carrion and suck blood. In Tianjin at this time of year, it takes about four days for a corpse fly to go from laying eggs to hatching and for the larvae to grow to this size. If it has been dead for seven days, the larvae should have already pupated. Therefore, the time of death should be about four days."

Coroner Meng's face turned completely pale. He had been a coroner for decades and believed that his autopsy skills were among the top five in Tianjin, if not the top three. However, today a young man pointed out two very important oversights, each of which was a major taboo in the coroner's profession.

"Mr. Zhang, your autopsy techniques are truly exceptional! May I ask, who is your teacher?"

Zhang Zhixuan smiled faintly and made up a story: "I learned it from a distant uncle of mine."

"There is no order of precedence in learning; those who are accomplished come first. I admire you greatly!"

"Meng Wu is too kind."

Standing to the side, Shen Yanqiu listened as Zhang Zhixuan and the coroner Meng discussed and deduced the cause and time of Shen Yanting's death. Overwhelmed with grief, Shen Yanqiu asked, her eyes red-rimmed, "Mr. Zhang, Coroner Meng, how exactly did my brother die?"

At this moment, the coroner Meng looked at Zhang Zhixuan.

"Your brother, Shen Yanting, was deliberately marked and eventually died at the hands of a demon summoned by an evil spell. The cause of death was that the demon drained his blood and dragged him into the water."

Upon hearing this, Shen Yanqiu trembled all over, clenched his fists tightly, and his expression was one of barely suppressed anger.

"I understand how you feel, Shen Yanqiu. Please accept my condolences. We will find the real culprit and avenge your brother," Zhang Zhixuan comforted her.

As soon as Zhang Zhixuan finished speaking, a strange, eerie wind suddenly rose in the morgue, and the surrounding temperature plummeted.

With a loud "bang!", the morgue door was suddenly slammed shut.

At the same time, Shen Yanting suddenly emitted a series of strange "hoho" sounds from his throat.

Then, a terrifying scene unfolded before everyone's eyes.