Raul Master's words made Mr. Dai tense up again. If even Raul Master said so, then this matter was practically decided.
"Why? Couldn't you break this Malevolent Array with your skills?" Mr. Dai asked.
Raul Master shook his head. "I can't. This Malevolent Array is an inescapable cycle that can't be broken at all."
"An inescapable cycle? What does that mean?" Mr. Dai asked.
Raul Master pointed to the coffin and explained: First, regarding the corpse - this coffin cannot be moved. If moved, the corpse will certainly mutate into a zombie. Moreover, disturbing one part affects the whole. When the zombie mutation leaks cadaveric qi, all the corpses buried on this mountain will surely rise as jiangshi. At that time, chaos will ensue. Even with so many of us present, we wouldn't be able to capture so many jiangshi simultaneously.
Even if all the jiangshi could be safely captured, the corpses couldn't be reburied - they would have to be cremated, rendering the effort pointless.
But if the coffin remains unmoved, the feng shui cannot be reorganized. The Dragon Vein has already been destroyed, and without reorganizing the feng shui, there's no way to break this Seven Fiends Formation. This is an inescapable cycle - nearly impossible to break.
After Raul Master finished speaking, Webster nodded in agreement, while the other Erebus profiteers whispered among themselves, none offering a solution.
"Tch, small potatoes. A few tattoos would solve this," I said.
When those Erebus profiteers heard this, they all looked at me with sneers, even scoffing openly.
They thought I was boasting. Even Raul Master and the rest had no solution - how could someone as young as me possibly know? They probably assumed I'd just come along to watch and learn.
I remained silent. There was no urgency yet - we'd see what happened. If I jumped in now claiming tattoos could break the Seven Fiends Formation, I'd likely be thrown out immediately. Few people know that tattoos can also harness yin-related magic.
At this moment, Mr. Dai looked toward another person - a man dressed entirely in black wearing a hat, a small-framed man about fifty years old with a white beard. Tall but silent, he hadn't spoken until now.
Mr. Dai addressed him as Old Han and asked if Dead Body Running Technique could safely remove these corpses.
Dead Body Running Technique? Could this little old man be a Corpse Herder? A profession I'd only encountered in novels and movies - I'd never actually seen someone guide corpses in reality.
Besides, with today's advanced transportation where corpses are moved by cars or even planes, the Corpse Herder profession shouldn't be viable anymore, right?
Stella said, "Corpse herders are indeed rare now. Only those from well-established corpse-guiding families with strong reputations can still manage to make a living in this field—though not many remain."
If it's a normal corpse, transporting it by car isn't a problem. But if it's an evil corpse, many people wouldn't dare to handle it, so they have no choice but to seek out a Corpse Herder.
Stella had heard of a strange case involving corpse transportation—a dead body, supposedly someone who had been lured into the mountains and murdered by acquaintances, only to be discovered over a month later when the corpse was already rotting.
This kind of corpse carries intense ghostly resentment. Some people refuse to believe in such superstitions and, tempted by high payment, recklessly agree to transport the corpse.
But the moment the body was loaded into the car, the vehicle wouldn't start. Even when it finally did, it moved sluggishly, as if weighed down by dozens of tons.
Still refusing to believe in the supernatural, the driver switched to several different cars, and though they eventually got moving, the vehicle ended up in an accident midway. Fortunately, the driver escaped with only minor injuries.
Terrified, the driver immediately refunded the payment, admitting that he had underestimated the situation—he truly wasn't capable of transporting such a corpse.
As it turned out, while driving, he suddenly felt a pair of icy hands cover his eyes from behind, accompanied by eerie laughter. Yet he was alone in the car—there was no one else. Blinded, he lost control and crashed.
Even more horrifying was that after the accident, the corpse in the trunk sat upright on its own.
In the end, there was no other option—they had to hire a Corpse Herder to guide the malevolent corpse back.
Hearing Stella's story, I grew curious about this little old man. If he really was skilled enough to safely transport the Dai family ancestor's corpse without triggering a zombie mutation, then the Seven Fiends Formation could be broken.
But Old Han shook his head and said no. Not only was there something wrong with the corpse itself, but the coffin's placement was also inverted.
Normally, the head should face the southeast and the feet toward the northwest, but this coffin was reversed—head northwest, feet southeast. Combined with the corpse's inherent risk of mutation, neither the coffin nor the body could be moved without triggering a transformation. He couldn't guide this corpse.
After all, there's a difference between a corpse and a jiangshi.
If nothing could be done, Mr. Dai grew desperate. This concerned the survival of his entire family—if the Seven Fiends Formation remained unbroken, the Dai bloodline might end with his generation. He couldn't bear being the one responsible for their downfall.
"I refuse to believe it's truly this hopeless—that the corpse can't be moved at all!"
When people are in a hurry, they lose their rationality. Mr. Dai may seem like a wise man, but now he's like an ant on a hot pan—so frantic that he seems to disregard everything.
Mr. Dai waved his hand, signaling a few men to carry the coffin. He wanted to bring it up along with the corpse to see if it was truly as sinister as they claimed. Even as Raul Master and the others tried their best to stop him, it was no use.
At that moment, eight burly men in Western-style suits descended into the cemetery. Each took one side of the coffin and strained to lift it.
But just then, a foul-smelling wind swept through—and the Dai family ancestor inside the coffin opened his eyes!
His eyes were a vicious, bloodshot red. His mouth, lined with long teeth, seemed to exhale without inhaling, and his five elongated fingernails twitched slightly.
The eight men were so terrified that they froze, staring at the corpse in the coffin. Their faces turned pale, not daring to breathe. The coffin, half-raised, was hastily lowered back down.
"M-Master, this… this…" The men stammered in fear, urgently begging to retreat, refusing to lift it again.
Mr. Dai saw it too—and he was just as frightened. Helpless, he could only wave his hand and signal for them to come back up.
The eight men scrambled out in a flash, their speed lightning-fast—no doubt thoroughly terrified.
"Mr. Dai, do you believe us now?" Raul Master said.
Mr. Dai nodded reluctantly, admitting he did—but he still refused to accept it. He pressed Raul Master and the others again: Was there really no way at all?
Raul Master said there was none. Not only that, but the best course of action was to burn all the corpses on the spot to prevent them from escaping and harming people.
Mr. Dai's face darkened at that. Don't be absurd, he said. This mountain was filled with his ancestors—if they were all burned, how could he ever face them again? He couldn't let every ancestral grave be destroyed by his own hands. That was a sin he couldn't bear.
Burning them was out of the question. Now, not only could the Seven Fiends Formation not be broken, but they also wanted to incinerate all his ancestors? Mr. Dai's expression turned grim.
Just then, a man in sorcerer's robes suddenly stepped forward.
"I have a way to break this Seven Fiends Formation," he declared.