Seven Brothers. Seven gourds on a single vine. Aren’t those the Calabash Brothers?
I asked again, “Who exactly are you people?” Under the moonlight, I finally got a clear look. Their hair was long, each with a braid trailing behind their heads. They were all dressed in black clothes, looking nearly identical, though for easier identification, they had white circles pasted on their chests with the numbers one through seven written on them. I guessed their names were just numbers.
The eldest, First Brother, said, “We are the Zombie Seven Brothers under the command of the Old Lady of Western Hunan.” I shook my head. “I’ve never heard of any Old Lady of Western Hunan.”
Second Brother was displeased. “A frog in a well knows nothing of the vast sky. You don’t even know the fame of the Old Lady of Western Hunan? How can you call yourself a zombie?”
The Old Lady of Western Hunan? Could it be that I’d traveled from Jiangnan City in Hubei all the way to the border of Hunan and Guizhou?
As I pondered this, Third Brother spoke up: “This guy doesn’t seem like a zombie. Probably some stinky Taoist who snuck into our zombie world. Look, he doesn’t even have zombie fangs.”
Hearing this, the Seven Brothers started murmuring among themselves, hopping around, closing in on me. I found it strange too, but as they encircled me, fear gripped me. If these zombies, fresh from their coffins, decided to drain my blood, it would be my end.
I let out a shout and realized I could move again. I prepared to flee, but it was too late. The seven zombies hopped around, eventually converging on me, only to be repelled by the strange stench on my body, too afraid to get close.
Finally, they surrounded me in a circle. I asked, “What exactly do you want, Seven Brothers? I’m not some snake demon. Aren’t you supposed to be dealing with snake demons?”
Just as I regained movement, I realized I could no longer understand what they were saying. I reached for the jade ruler at my waist—thank heavens, it was still with me. Though I didn’t know where I was, the moment I could move, I felt alive.
Touching the jade ruler, my mind raced, quickly piecing together some answers. Back on the fishing boat in Jiangnan City, I’d been bitten by the steel wire worms of Insect Fourth’s Golden Mantis Gu, my body slowly numbing into a rigid living corpse. By the time Zhen Yangzi and Insect Fourth dealt with Mayor Wu and Secretary Jia, I’d lost consciousness, missing everything.
When I came to, I was in a truck full of chickens, ducks, and geese, jostling for a day before winding through the mountains late into the night, ending up in this courtyard. And waiting for me were the Zombie Seven Brothers of the Old Lady of Western Hunan. The black-clad driver had cut his own finger to draw blood, likely to lure the Seven Brothers out.
Speaking of the Old Lady of Western Hunan, she wasn’t unfamiliar to me. Back in Shangri-La, the Wrinkled Old Lady had initially wanted to kill me but later realized her misery had been caused by a woman called the Old Lady of Western Hunan.
In her youth, the Old Lady of Western Hunan had seduced the Wrinkled Old Lady’s husband, Ruan Jinluan, ruining her life and leaving her lonely in old age. After leaving Blue Moon, the Wrinkled Old Lady had vowed to go to Fenghuang in Hunan to seek revenge.
Insect Fourth had planted steel wire worms in me, turning me into a living zombie, then shipped me to this decrepit house in Western Hunan—not to feed the Seven Brothers, but to have me deal with them.
He’d left me the jade ruler to take them down, timing it so I’d regain movement at the critical moment.
Thinking this, I cursed Insect Fourth’s ancestors. If he’d been any slower and I couldn’t move, I’d have been drained dry by the Seven Brothers, left as a bloodless corpse by the roadside, covered in feathers.
As a living zombie, I could understand the Seven Brothers, but once I regained normal senses, their words became gibberish. The poultry in the courtyard, overwhelmed by the thick corpse miasma, flapped and squawked wildly. Two chickens crashed into Seventh Brother, instantly shredded into bloody scraps.
Now I understood why I’d been locked in with the poultry—the stench had protected me. The Seven Brothers’ refinement method was bizarre, unlike anything I’d seen. Their corpse miasma was black, not too vicious, but Sixth Brother’s was odd, tinged with red.
Eyeing the poultry droppings, I thought, *If only I had some glutinous rice right now, these seven zombies would be easy prey.* Plug their mouths with rice, strike their weak points with the jade ruler, and drive steel nails through their hearts—it’d be a breeze.
Then I noticed a black pouch at my waist, stuffed with glutinous rice and a box of nails.
*Insect Fourth, you sly bastard. You planned this perfectly—using me to fight your zombies.* I stepped forward, and Fifth and Fourth Brothers retreated two meters. If these were the Old Lady of Western Hunan’s zombies, they’d be different from any I’d seen. But no matter how different, zombies feared the jade ruler, glutinous rice, and the filth underfoot.
Impressed by Insect Fourth’s foresight, I charged ahead. Blue light flared from the jade ruler as I recited the “Six Ding Six Jia Seal.” The blue talisman shot out, slamming Fifth and Fourth Brothers into the courtyard wall with a dull thud.
First Brother, seeing his brothers hurt, lunged at me. I dashed forward, smeared glutinous rice with chicken droppings, and shoved it into Fifth Brother’s mouth. “Enjoy your sticky rice and chicken shit roll!”
I flipped him over, drove the jade ruler into his rear, and hammered two nails into his back. Thick corpse miasma billowed up. I inhaled some before I could dodge, dizzying me instantly. Gasping, I leaned against the wall to recover.
Fourth Brother seized the chance to rise.
First Brother roared angrily, baring black teeth. Facing the remaining six, I sighed—*I’m destroying my childhood heroes, the Calabash Brothers. Now I’m the villain, the snake demon or the Great King.*
First Brother barked at Sixth Brother, who responded. Clearly, the leader was ordering him to act. My stench shielded me, and I repeated my tactics, taking down Third and Seventh Brothers. But First Brother’s sharp claws raked my back, drawing blood.
Only Sixth Brother remained standing. The others were stuffed with rice, nailed through the heart, their miasma drained—helpless.
Throughout, Sixth Brother hadn’t intervened. But now, his black miasma was turning red.
According to *The Compendium*, corpse miasma comes in three types:
1. **White**—From corpses buried less than twenty years. Harmless, like smoke.
2. **Black**—Denser and deadlier, from century-old coffins. Inhaling too much causes fatal swelling.
3. **Red**—The rarest and most lethal. Even in the most yin-infested lands, it rarely appears. Sixth Brother’s red miasma was a first for me.
Taking down all seven brothers was bad enough, but red miasma could kill instantly, rotting the body. It was profoundly sinister. For one of seven coffin-nurtured zombies to develop it marked Sixth Brother as unnatural.
I said, “Don’t blame me. Blame the one who raised you here—the Old Lady of Western Hunan.”
Sixth Brother shrieked, the sound piercing the distant mountains. The darkness amplified its horror, chilling my bones. My organs churned. The courtyard fell silent, devoid of poultry cries, eerily still. A cold wind howled.
The jade ruler vibrated sharply in my hand, emitting a warm flow that eased the discomfort in my chest.
Sixth Brother’s screams lasted minutes before fading, deepening my dread of the wilderness.
Facing him, I felt unprecedented fear. His eyes were green with white pupils, his face expressionless, flesh dried black. If not for the “6” on his chest adding absurdity, his terror would surpass even bronze and silver armored zombies.
I retreated, eyeing the two-meter wall. Escaping was possible, but unlikely. Worse, curiosity overpowered me. *What was Sixth Brother screaming for?*
Was he summoning the Old Lady of Western Hunan? And where exactly was I? Somewhere in Fenghuang’s outskirts?
Western Hunan’s occult arts—witchcraft and gu-raising—were legendary. But truth and myth blurred here.
The moon brightened. A distant cry echoed, growing closer. The terror overwhelmed me, and I collapsed.
Meanwhile, the brothers I’d “killed”—First through Fifth and Seventh—rose unsteadily to their feet.
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