With virtue

Meanwhile, Zhao Yunshu walked all the way to the foot of the mountain, preparing to find the mastermind behind it all.

As he walked, the young Taoist suddenly felt something moving in the bushes ahead. Before he could get a closer look, several walking corpses darted out from them!

The zombie pounced like a hungry dog, drool dripping from its mouth, its jaws wide open!

You startled me by unleashing your martial arts!

The young Taoist priest was startled at first, then with a light step, his body slid backward, and his iron sword slashed horizontally. A flash of cold light appeared, and the heads of the first two walking corpses flew up.

But these zombies were no ordinary zombies; their headless bodies could not stop their movement. They continued their momentum and pounced on him!

But he remained calm and unhurried. With a slap of his left hand, a burst of flames shot out, instantly engulfing the two mutilated bodies. The crackling sounds were incessant, and in the blink of an eye, the corpses were charred black and burned.

A fire was lit, illuminating the dark forest. The young Taoist priest used the flickering light to look around.

He didn't realize it until he looked, and found that five or six more zombies had run out from the sides and surrounded him.

The young Taoist priest spat, "Isn't it over yet?"

After speaking, he plunged his longsword into the ground, then struck his liver and gallbladder with his right hand, and with a thunderous roar, the walking corpses fell to the ground, their seven souls scattered.

Before he could catch his breath, another rustling sound came from the mountain path. By the moonlight, he could vaguely see that there were about a dozen more walking corpses not far away!

Zhao Yunshu cursed and had no choice but to grit his teeth and fight again. Taking advantage of the fact that they hadn't been surrounded yet, he rushed in directly. His sword flashed like lightning, and he took down one enemy after another. Fireballs flew everywhere, and he managed to take down seven or eight more.

The reason for their impatience was that they were afraid of being surrounded. Even a hero can't fight against four hands with two fists. If they were surrounded, and one of the zombies grabbed them, they would be doomed.

The young Taoist priest was seen slaughtering his way through the horde of corpses!

Stepping on floating dust and raging flames, drawing a green blade, its cold light flashes!

After valiantly annihilating so many walking corpses, many wild grasses around them were also set ablaze, and the flames spread. Then, the young Taoist priest looked up and his heart sank.

But along the winding mountain path, overgrown grass and wild slopes, behind the jumbled rocks, a dense mass of walking corpses gradually approached, numbering no less than thirty or fifty, and the more they were killed, the more there seemed to be.

Some of these zombies had broken arms but were still walking, while others had their intestines hanging out of their mouths but were still crawling. The low growls that made your teeth ache blended together, as if the gates of hell had opened!

"You bastard, how many do you have?!" the young Taoist priest couldn't help but curse.

We absolutely cannot get surrounded here!

Seeing the villagers in such a terrible state, and with his escape route blocked, and now stuck here, Zhao Yunshu naturally felt a surge of anger in his chest. However, he also knew that this was not the time to be reckless.

The zombies surged forward like a tide, one wave after another. If he continued to fight like this, he wouldn't be able to find or even capture the mastermind; he would probably be exhausted and torn to pieces first. He changed his mind, no longer wanting to fight, hung his iron sword at his waist, pushed aside the obstructing grass and trees, and slipped into a small path.

The zombies were hot on their heels, their footsteps a jumbled mess.

As Zhao Yunshu fled, he didn't forget to turn back and curse, "I just came to ask for directions, you bunch of scoundrels are being far too hospitable! No need to see me off any further!"

As he spoke, he suddenly ducked and hid behind a large rock to catch his breath. When several fast-running zombies caught up, he suddenly leaned out from behind the rock and swept his leg across the ground, tripping the zombies.

The mountain path was already rugged. Several zombies fell down and tried to get up, but they lost their footing and rolled down the mountain, dragging the zombies behind them down with them, causing a stampede. The zombies behind stepped on the ones in front, and all that could be heard as they were trampled were the sickening sounds of bones cracking and breaking.

Zhao Yunshu didn't look around much, turned around and ran again, deliberately choosing to walk on the uneven, rocky road.

Walking corpses are not living people after all; their joints are not as flexible. They can manage on flat ground, but they keep falling on the uneven mountain paths, which slows them down considerably, and many of them fall to their deaths.

But the young Taoist priest was not having an easy time either. The grass was wet and the path was slippery. He almost twisted his ankle several times, but luckily his new shoes were comfortable and he didn't slip and fall.

He ran for two miles in one breath, with more than a hundred zombies following behind him.

Seeing that he couldn't shake them off, he suddenly pulled out a talisman from his pocket.

That was the only remaining tooth-ache talisman. Originally, I wanted to save it for a useful big guy, but I couldn't care less about that now. I turned around and flicked my hand, sending the yellow talisman flying and hitting the mouth of the first walking corpse.

The first update is on suduɡu.cc, with no typos. If you can't see the ".cc" suffix in the address, you can access the first update site. The zombie suddenly clutched its jaw, writhing in pain on the ground, knocking down a group of zombies chasing after it.

Zhao Yunshu hid behind a rock again, intending to use the same trick again.

If we can't be surrounded, then we'll use this method: use the terrain to throw all these zombies to their deaths!

Just then, a soft laugh came from afar: "Fellow Daoist, slow down. The night road is difficult to travel. I'll see you off. Why are you running so fast?"

Zhao Yunshu looked in the direction of the sound and saw a pine tree growing horizontally on a cliff about a hundred paces away. On a small section of the treetop, a figure was standing.

The man was so thin that he seemed to have no weight, bending the treetops only slightly. When the night wind blew past him, his body bounced up and down on the tree, as if it would blow him away.

He tucked his hands into his sleeves and placed them in front of him, looking down at Zhao Yunshu, who was being forced to jump up and down by the horde of corpses.

When the gaunt Taoist saw Zhao Yunshu looking over, he chuckled again: "Fellow Taoist, I was just passing through this place tonight and, on a whim, decided to tinker with some little gadgets. I thought there wouldn't be anyone worth watching in this desolate village, but unexpectedly, I found you, young fellow Taoist. Your fire magic is quite impressive. Why don't you come out and find a clean spot to sit down and have some tea with me?"

Zhao Yunshu remained hidden in the crevice, only half his face showing. While adjusting his breathing, he called out, "No need for tea. This humble Taoist is poor and lowly, I'm not used to good tea! I especially dislike tea brewed by the dead. But senior, you're incredibly audacious to release corpses everywhere. Why do you only dare to talk nonsense while standing in a tree?"

Zhao Yunshu retorted. Although he hadn't lost verbally, his heart sank and his palms were sweating.

When he was facing so many zombies, he had actually overestimated the gaunt Taoist. But now that he saw the man standing lightly on the treetop, he knew that he had underestimated the man's cultivation.

This is a technique of lightness. It's not the kind of trick martial artists use to climb walls or fall off buildings without getting hurt, relying on brute force or skill. The lifting techniques of ordinary martial artists are just simple tricks to deflect and reverse force.

Lightening the body is a top-tier method in Taoism.

In Taoist cultivation, the art of lightness of body is the foundation for ascension and flight. It cannot be achieved without pure Taoist practice and clear breath. One can shed the weight of the mortal body and gradually attain a pure and ethereal body.

It's not about working on the strength, but rather... truly making your body feel light and airy, and your weight lighter.

In the past, Zhang Liang practiced abstinence from grains and cultivated Taoism, hoping to follow the example of Chisongzi. So he learned abstinence from grains and used Taoism to lighten his body.

Even a dignified Marquis Liu had to put in a lot of hard work to learn this skill, which shows how difficult it was, but also how powerful it was.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, there was also a remarkable man named Li Bi, who was proficient in astronomy, geography, military strategy, and Taoist arts, and whose skill in lightness of body was renowned far and wide.

He once served as an official, serving under both Emperor Xuanzong and Emperor Suzong. He was a mentor and friend of Emperor Suzong, and also a strategist in suppressing the An Lushan Rebellion. Later, he firmly resigned from his official post and lived in seclusion on Mount Heng, practicing Taoist cultivation.

Legend has it that in the eighth year of the Tianbao era, at the home of his cousin Zheng Shuze, he was already over 30 years old and had stopped eating. He was so light that he could walk on a screen, control his breath, and extinguish a candle by flicking it from dozens of steps away. Whenever he performed exercises, his joints would creak and crack, and people called him "Lock Bone," having mastered the wonders of the art of lightness.

To be able to walk on a vertical screen without collapsing the fabric is something beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Not to mention the legend in Zhuangzi that Liezi rode the wind and flew through the clouds, returning in five days, which is the realm of a legendary flying immortal.

For thousands of years, Taoist practitioners have cultivated diligently, all for the sake of achieving the four words "ascending to heaven amidst the clouds." The art of lightness of body is an indispensable step in achieving this ascension.

Although the gaunt Taoist in front of me was far from being able to ride the wind and clouds, the fact that he could stand so casually on the treetop, with the treetop only slightly drooping, showed that his lightness skill was at least as light as a swallow, if not as light as a feather.

This single move alone is enough to demonstrate that his cultivation level is far superior to Zhao Yunshu's.

He'd mastered the Lightness Technique and the Soul Control Technique—two profound arts—to a considerable degree. How come someone like him is doing this kind of thing? Damn it!

Zhao Yun unconsciously loosened and tightened his grip on the sword, then loosened and tightened again.

He was bold in his actions, but no matter how bold he was, he still had to consider his own limitations first.

Given the current situation, a direct confrontation is absolutely out of the question.

However, even if he turned and ran, he would still face the pursuit and interception of the walking corpses all over the mountain, not to mention that this person's lightness skill might lead to him catching up.

He cursed under his breath, thinking to himself that he had really had the worst luck tonight.

If I had known this would happen, I would have been better off staying at the local temple with the sorceress and tending the fire; at least I could have kept my body intact.

Seeing Zhao Yunshu's appearance, the gaunt Taoist chuckled. This little Taoist had probably already seen the difference in their abilities and was feeling a bit insecure.

So he laughed and said, "Attacking Dingzhou is the inevitable trend, so why do you have to go against it? Little do you know that Laozi, the founder of Taoism, once said, 'The highest good is like water.' Natural and spontaneous, going with the flow, is the true principle of cultivation." When Zhao Yunshu heard him say something about "the highest good is like water," he immediately felt disgusted.

This kind of person does bad things and then makes excuses for himself. He can't even be a bad person properly!

Unable to contain himself, he stood in the crevice of the rock and shouted, "Fuck your mother! The highest good is like water! You've created this mountain full of zombies, letting them bite their own relatives and friends to death. How cruel and senseless! And you're still pretending to be a hermit here?"

"Creating zombies, slaughtering living beings, and without any reason—isn't it just to create more chaos and act as accomplices to future wars?!"

"Laojun taught you the principle of natural non-action, the principle of non-contention and non-interference, yet you used it as a pretext for murder. Aren't you afraid that Laojun, the Dao Ancestor, will hear this from heaven and strike you down with a bolt of lightning, you wicked Taoist!"

Upon hearing this, the gaunt Taoist priest was not angry. Instead, he stroked his sparse goatee and said with a smile, "Young fellow Taoist, you are indeed a practitioner of fire magic. Your temper is quite fiery."

"But you must know that I am merely following the trend of the times. Dingzhou City will soon change hands, and these villagers outside the city will sooner or later be killed. The highest good is like water, so when the water becomes a flood, those who stand in front of it will naturally die. This is the natural order. They are the ones who blocked the highest good, so they die. It is not I who kill them, but the world."

He paused for a moment, then looked past Zhao Yunshu towards the village in the distance—not just the one Zhao Yunshu had come from, but several surrounding villages.

Then, he sighed softly: "Once the army arrives, how many families in these villages will be left? I've only brought forward the date a little to save them from future suffering. Look at those villagers, law-abiding and impoverished. Can they withstand the sword? After a war, they won't even have a place to be buried. It's better to let them die knowing why now, at least... I can help their souls pass on and prevent them from suffering in the mortal world."

Yes, the three souls have been delivered to be reincarnated, leaving behind this stinking skin and seven spirits, which are simply driven by this Taoist priest.

They might even use the corpses to perform curses on Dingzhou City!

Zhao Yunshu trembled with anger at these words! But he also knew that he definitely couldn't win, and arguing would be pointless. He had to think about what to do first.

Escape first.

As for how to escape... his trump card is this.

Thinking about all this, he took out the Six Jia Talisman.

Then, he affixed the Six Jia Talisman to his body and chanted incantations.

"Jiazi protects my body, Jiaxu preserves my form."

"Jiashen (1644) is my destiny, Jiawu (1655) is my soul."

"Jia Chen pacifies my spirit, Jia Yin nurtures my truth."

"May the six Jia spirits possess you, so be it!"

But this Six Jia Talisman had attracted some kind of divine power.

The young Taoist priest felt a powerful and righteous force surging from the talisman, as if six invisible divine generals were standing beside him, protecting him from all six directions: front, back, left, right, up, and down.

The Six Jia protects you! This Six Jia talisman is a universal talisman. It can be used to exorcise ghosts, ward off evil spirits, or protect objects.

At this moment, he attached it to his body, thus borrowing the power of the Six Jia to enter his body.

He suddenly gathered his breath, and his body, which was weak from running, was extremely strong. He moved with the speed of the wind, and with a leap, he was several times faster than usual!

Using the divine power within him, he swayed and lunged toward a slope to the side.

There were seven or eight zombies on that side, which could have delayed him for a while, but now that he was protected by his six armors, he only needed two light sword strikes to kill all seven or eight zombies!

This Six Jia Talisman has such powerful energy!

However, Zhao Yunshu still dared not linger. He did not dare to hope that a single Six Jia Talisman could deal with the Taoist on the treetop. He only hoped to seize the opportunity in the chaos and perhaps escape.

In the distance, the young Taoist priest saw that he had applied the Six Jia Talisman to himself, but the gaunt Taoist priest remained calm and unhurried.

He simply peeked his fingers out of his sleeve and then tapped them down lightly.

Without him making any move, the more than one hundred walking corpses on both sides of the mountain path turned around as if they had received a command. Moreover, these walking corpses suddenly seemed to have been freed from some kind of restraint, and their speed was several times faster than before, chasing after Zhao Yunshu!

The Taoist shook his head and said softly, "Since you are so ungrateful as to refuse to drink tea with me, then don't blame me for being ruthless."