On the underwater altar, the woman with the same face as Su He suddenly opened her eyes. She looked at Li Mu and gently sniffed.
Li Mu's mind was in chaos. He felt that his blood, his soul, and the three spirits that he had just condensed were about to be sucked out of his body.
In the next moment, a suction force came from above. His body quickly rose up. The moment he rushed out of the water, Li Mu saw the woman on the altar slowly close her eyes again.
Li Mu landed on the ground in a sorry state. He looked at Su He and said in disbelief, "She is …"
"It's me."
Su He glanced at the water and said indifferently, "To be exact, it's my physical body. The one standing in front of you now is my soul."
Li Mu thought that Su He was only left with her soul. He did not expect that her physical body was still there. Moreover, it had strangely appeared on the underwater altar. That terrifying gaze just now seemed to have sucked away all of his blood essence and soul. Li Mu still had lingering fears when he thought about it.
He could not help but recall the records of zombies in the "Monster Records of the Ten Continents".
Jumping zombies could suck a person's blood essence and soul by biting them.
Once a jumping zombie evolved into a Flying Stiff, it would be able to suck a person's blood essence and soul from a distance. The "Su He" under the water was definitely a mature flying zombie.
After a person died, their soul would dissipate. Under a certain probability, the corpse would become a zombie. Low-level zombies did not have intelligence. However, when they evolved into a Flying Stiff, they could develop their own intelligence.
Zombies that developed intelligence were no longer related to their original bodies. They were independent entities.
For example, although Su He and the female corpse under the water came from the same source, one had inherited Su He's spirit and will, as well as all of her memories and emotions. The other had only inherited her physical body.
Of course, according to common belief, the one standing in front of Li Mu was the real Su He. The one under the water was just an inhumane evil creature.
He looked at Su He and asked, "Has she already gained sentience?"
Su He nodded her head and said, "Twenty years ago, when I died, my body sank into the river and was attracted by that strange stone platform. My soul was lucky enough to escape, but since then, I couldn't go too far from the Bay of Clear Water. My body, in these twenty years, was constantly nourished by the spiritual energy contained within the stone platform, and gradually gained sentience. If it wasn't for the fact that she couldn't leave the stone platform, I would have already been devoured by her …"
Li Mu wrinkled his brows. The reason why Su He couldn't go too far away from the Clear Water Bay should be because of this stone platform.
He looked at Su He and asked, "Do you still remember the grooves on the stone platform?"
Su He nodded. "I'll draw it for you."
When Li Mu left the Bay of Clear Water, it was already very late. He planned to ask Old Wang when he went to the yamen tomorrow. Perhaps he would know the mysteries of this altar.
If he couldn't resolve internal matters, he would ask Li Si. If he couldn't resolve external matters, he would ask Old Wang. This was the experience that Li Mu had after getting familiar with them.
When it came to matters of the heart, Li Si always had a unique view.
And Old Wang was very knowledgeable. Whether it was the postpartum care of a sow, or the problems that one needed to pay attention to in the process of cultivation, he could talk tirelessly about them.
Thinking about Su He's matter, Li Mu went to the yamen early the next morning to find Old Wang.
Old Wang was in the middle of organizing the household register. Li Mu handed him a piece of paper with all kinds of crisscrossing talisman characters. He asked, "Old Wang, can you tell what this is?"
Old Wang put down the household register and took the piece of paper. He looked it up and down, left and right. After a long time, he looked at Li Mu and asked, "Where did you get this?"
"You don't have to worry about that." Li Mu stood by his side and said, "Can you tell what it is?"
Old Wang placed the piece of paper on the table and said, "This is a formation, an extremely complex formation. Five different formations are nested together to form a great formation with many functions. The person who came up with this formation is extremely brilliant."
Li Mu quickly asked, "What is this formation used for?"
Old Wang said, "It's used to raise corpses."
He stood up and walked to his own room. He wandered around a row of bookshelves for a moment and took out a book. He opened it and flipped through a few pages. He pointed at a strange symbol and circled an area on the paper. He said, "Look, the function of this part of the formation is to raise corpses."
Li Mu carefully compared it and found that the part that Old Wang circled on the paper was very similar to the strange symbol on the book.
There was a description of this symbol in the book.
This talisman was a kind of formation pattern. Its main function was to prevent corpses from rotting. If it was carved on a coffin, the corpse could be preserved for a long time.
Old Wang stroked his beard and explained, "This kind of formation is very common in some tribes with special funeral customs. The North County doesn't have such customs. The government also forbids people from raising corpses. If corpses don't rot for a long time, it's easy for them to turn into corpses. People who don't know Taoism and raise corpses privately are courting death."
Li Mu finally understood why Su He's body was still like an 18 or 19 year old girl even though she had been dead for 20 years. It was most likely because of this formation.
He pointed at the other parts of the talisman on the paper and asked, "What about these?"
Old Wang explained, "This is a combination formation. Each part of the formation pattern has a different function. The bottom left part of the formation pattern is used to raise corpses. However, if this formation pattern doesn't have spiritual energy, it won't last long. Therefore, the person who set up the formation added a Spirit Gathering Formation on top of this. It's used to gather spiritual energy and provide it to the Corpse Raising Formation to maintain its long-term operation."
When Li Mu recalled the spiritual energy flowing on the altar, it was as if it had materialized. He was full of admiration for Lao Wang.
He couldn't help but ask, "What about the two on the right?"
"The one on the top right is a seal to prevent the raised corpse from escaping. As for the one on the bottom right …" Old Wang stroked his beard again and said, "If I'm not wrong, this formation should be set up at the bottom of the water."
Li Mu was shocked, but his face didn't change. He asked, "Why?"
Lao Wang said, "He was probably worried that others would destroy this formation, so he set up an additional defensive formation. This formation needs to cut off a water vein. If you want to destroy this formation, you have to destroy this water vein or wait for the corpses in the formation to be strong enough to break out of the formation on their own …"
Li Mu was puzzled. This array formation had trapped Su He's physical body, so why would it affect her soul as well?
He thought about it and asked, "What if the corpse's soul is still here?"
"Then she definitely can't go too far from this formation." Lao Wang pointed at the piece of paper and said, "Do you see the rune in the middle? This rune has combined with the rune at the bottom left corner to form a very powerful seal. Although it's mainly used to trap corpses, the soul and the physical body are of the same origin. Similarly, it can't leave the formation too far, or it will directly dissipate …"
Old Wang's eyes were filled with admiration. He said, "The person who set up this formation is a genius. The five formation patterns complement each other. It's amazing, amazing …"
Li Mu wasn't interested in the person who set up the formation. This altar had existed before, and it was probably just a coincidence that Su He fell into it.
Li Mu was thinking about how to save Su He. According to Old Wang, the formation had to be destroyed from the outside, or her body had to be destroyed from the inside. Only then could Su He be free.
Destroying the formation from the outside meant destroying the water vein, which meant changing the direction of the river that flowed through Clearwater Bay. This was impossible. The county's water vein was the most important thing. Li Mu would probably be caught by his colleagues and brought back to the yamen before he could excavate it.
He didn't know how long it would take for her body to be strong enough to destroy the formation. Even if she could come out, it wouldn't be a good thing for Su He.
Putting all this aside, what was sealed in the altar was a Flying Stiff. It was a Flying Stiff that could suck a person's blood essence and soul from a distance. The zombie disaster in Zhou County was caused by a Flying Stiff, and it still hadn't subsided. If another Flying Stiff appeared in Yangqiu County, who knew how many more people would die.
Li Mu walked out of Old Wang's room with a heavy heart. He had to think about Su He's matter at length.
He walked to the corridor and raised his head to take a look. He saw a fifteen or sixteen year old monk standing in the yamen's courtyard, holding a Buddhist staff that was taller than him.
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