Morning light pierced through the smog over Jinling City, casting a hazy golden glow across the stone slabs of the Chaotiangong Antique Market. Rubbing his sore shoulders, Chen Jiuzhang squeezed into the crowd, clutching a jade cicada pried from the mouth of the bixi statue. Its icy chill reminded him of the foul black mist from the night before—thick enough to nearly corrode his compass.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a voice message from Zhang Chengying, laced with the sound of a distant scooter alarm."Bro! Old Knife has opened his stall today—they say he's got something so rare, it could make the entire Xuanmen Council flip the table!"
"Young man, this Qianlong Tongbao coin—does it catch your eye?"A vendor in a gray long robe pushed a red-wrapped copper coin toward him. But it was his clouded eyes—fixated on the faint Ziwei Yuan Seal peeking from under Chen's shirt—that truly unsettled him. Chen casually took half a step back, his peripheral vision catching sight of a bronze compass lying at the edge of the stall—its face carved with the long-lost trigrams of the "Hun Tian Yi" scroll.
Just then, a shriek sliced through the marketplace's hum.Shen Qingluan burst from the crowd, still gripping her magnifying glass, a few ginkgo leaves clinging to her ponytail."Chen Jiuzhang! Look at this!"She shoved her phone into his face. On screen was a blurry, black-and-white photo—taken in the 1930s on the banks of the Qinhuai River. Seven robed figures were lowering a bronze-armored corpse into the water. One of them had a birthmark on his chest identical to Chen's.
"Wait—you're talking about bronze-armored corpses?"Old Knife suddenly appeared beside them, the ember in his pipe flaring with each puff."I've got something fresh in the warehouse myself. The price, though..."He deliberately dragged out the word.The jade cicada in Chen's arms suddenly flew into the air, shooting straight into Old Knife's sleeve.
By twilight, Chen Jiuzhang was crouching in the backyard of Old Knife's shop, watching in grim silence as thirty-six bronze-armored corpses clawed their way out of the soil. The moonlight reflected off the yellowing Spirit Suppression Talismans on their foreheads, which glowed eerily blue. Just then, Zhang Chengying burst through the gate on his electric scooter, a trail of spilled glutinous rice in his wake."Help! I was just delivering food and ran into a mass zombie uprising!"
"Don't panic! Use glutinous rice flour to draw a Sanqing Demon-Warding Array!"Chen flung out his compass—only to realize the corpses' movements aligned perfectly with the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams from the "Tian Shu of Escape".Even more disturbing: when he used Qinhuai River water to set up a counter-control formation, images began surfacing on the water's surface—old wartime photos from the Japanese invasion era. Every corpse had a "731" unit badge nailed to its chest.
"I see now," Shen Qingluan said, now dressed in a Taoist robe.The bronze mirror in her hand reflected the half-piece of a Heavenly Master Talisman embedded in the corpse king's forehead."These bodies were created by Xuanmen traitors who collaborated with the Japanese during the war. And you…" Her gaze turned to Chen's chest. "Your birthmark resonates with the Heavenly Master Talisman. That means you're a direct descendant of the Zhang family—the guardians of its legacy."
Before she could finish, the corpse king let out a thunderous roar.The half of the Heavenly Master Talisman on its chest and Chen's birthmark simultaneously erupted in golden light. Chen felt a surge of heat rushing up to his crown chakra. In a daze, he saw Master Zhang standing among the clouds, gently flicking a horsetail whisk.In that instant, all the bronze corpses disintegrated into dust.
"This is just the beginning," came Old Knife's voice from behind.He was toying with the complete Heavenly Master Talisman, a knowing smirk on his lips."The real show is still to come."Chen Jiuzhang tightened his grip on the fragment of the Dragon-Shaking Sutra, staring at the coppery dust drifting in the air.He knew he was getting closer to the truth—And ever closer to mortal danger.