Chapter Twenty: The Tomb of the Living Dead

“Heh, Xiaobai, that’s nothing. Go ahead and take care of it, remember—get as much as you can!” Tang Yi chuckled at Bai Dongfang. Bai Dongfang answered and left, though his steps seemed a little unsteady.

Once Bai Dongfang was gone, Tang Yi resumed tinkering with his contraption. He was assembling a super teleportation array intended for delivery to the Blood Demon, using a method that combined various components. This array was far larger than Kuafu’s ancient teleportation array; if it were crafted as a single unit, the laboratory would never contain it. The modular approach to forging soon became widely adopted in the cultivation world.

“Come out, Thunderchild.” Tang Yi suddenly called. A cluster of pale blue threads floated out of a box, swirling through the air to form a smiling face.

“Enough of that, let’s hurry up and get to work.” Tang Yi scolded Thunderchild, and the smile in the air swiftly turned to a frown. The thread dove into a pile of materials before Tang Yi, and with a whooshing sound and a flurry of dazzling movements, a component for the super teleportation array appeared in front of him.

“Good, excellent—five seconds faster than yesterday. Keep it up, I have high hopes for you!” Tang Yi checked his watch and encouraged. Poor Thunderchild had become Tang Yi’s forge worker after Tang Yi discovered, quite by accident, Thunderchild’s innate talent for crafting. Through a mix of cajoling and trickery, Tang Yi had persuaded Thunderchild to spend these past days manufacturing parts for the super teleportation array. In return, Thunderchild received Heaven Thunder Stones, which were rich in electrical power and fueled his cultivation. And so Tang Yi bound Thunderchild to his side once more.

After more than ten days of intense negotiation, both parties finally reached an agreement. The marks of several major leaders were etched onto the jade slip containing the cooperation protocol.

“Ah, you needn’t tell me anything. This matter doesn’t concern me much. I have to hurry back and chat with the Blood Demon.” Just as Tang Yi noticed Lu Changsheng was about to say something to him, he spoke first.

“Fellow Tang, I’m not here to ask anything of you. It’s just, as Ling Ren said, you set up protective arrays around the teleportation array at Mawei. You’ll have to help us access it, won’t you?” Lu Changsheng said.

“That? Too easy. Here, this jade slip contains clear instructions for passing through the protective arrays and electric nets. I won’t be staying on Mawei Star; Blood Demon business takes priority. That’s it.” With that, he summoned Bai Dongfang, Hua Shaojie, and the others onto the spaceship to return to Earth.

“This Tang Yi—who knows what corner he crawled out of? He’s always so peculiar!” Lu Changsheng muttered as he read the jade slip, then shook his head and left.

……

The spaceship traveled through the void, guided by Jet’s intelligent navigation. Meanwhile, the group gathered in the entertainment room, playing games. A child-sized machine roamed back and forth, occasionally tumbling to the ground, prompting bursts of laughter.

“Tang Bro, this model is awful—and hard to control, it’s exhausting!” The little machine got up from the floor and spoke.

“No choice, we’ll have to make do for now. We can talk about upgrades later!” Tang Yi spread his hands.

“Tang Bro, actually, there’s another way. It’s a thousand times better than this machine!” Li Zhan chimed in.

“Oh? What way? Tell me!” Tang Yi’s interest was piqued.

“It’s possession. Earlier, Thunderchild could control Elder Zhang’s body, so possession should work.” Li Zhan explained.

“Possession? No, we’re civilized people—we don’t do that sort of thing. Think of something else. I oppose it.” Tang Yi immediately rejected the idea. He knew there was some superpower that could perfectly clone a person, but that complicated relationships immeasurably, and possession only made things messier. He’d abandoned the idea long ago.

“Tang Bro, I’ve got it…” Bai Dongfang suddenly cried out.

“Really? But you’re not a woman, so how could you ‘have it’?” Tang Yi teased, and everyone burst into laughter.

“Uh, I mean I’ve got an idea—not what you’re thinking…” Bai Dongfang hastily clarified.

“Enough, no need to explain, just joking. Tell us your idea.” Tang Yi smiled.

“I know you’re a good man, Tang Bro, unwilling to harm others. Though my method could be considered a form of possession, the difference is that the target is a living corpse.” Bai Dongfang finished and looked at Tang Yi expectantly.

“Living corpse? You mean a body still alive but brain dead—a vegetative state?” Tang Yi thought of vegetative patients.

“Brain dead? Vegetative? What sort of people are those?” Bai Dongfang asked, unfamiliar with the term.

“Well, it’s those without a soul or spirit. Right?” Tang Yi rephrased.

“Exactly, those people. Possessing them shouldn’t count as harming anyone, right?” Bai Dongfang said, and the others nodded in agreement.

“Perhaps, but we still need to ask Thunderchild if he’s willing, and besides, living corpses aren’t easy to find.” Tang Yi turned to the little machine, “Thunderchild, would you be willing?”

“Of course I would! Even being a freak would be a million times better than this form! I’ve been lonely for three thousand years.” The little machine answered as he practiced walking.

“Uh…fine, but since we can’t find any living corpses right now, let’s leave it at that!” Tang Yi said helplessly, then resumed his game of CS. Bai Dongfang shrugged and went back to his chess.

“Tang Bro, I know a place with a large number of living corpses—Thunderchild could pick and choose, tall or short, thin or fat, any type imaginable!” Ding Pengfei chimed in with an astonishing revelation.

“That’s impossible! How could such a place exist? Why didn’t you mention it before?” Hua Shaojie demanded.

“You never asked! Can’t blame me—I just heard my grandpa mention it once when he was drunk.” Ding Pengfei made a face at Hua Shaojie.

“Oh, did your grandpa say what the place was, or where it is?” the little machine asked urgently.

“I recall my grandpa called it the Tomb of Living Corpses…” As Tang Yi heard this, he sprayed juice all over the floor!