While feeding blood to his children, Zheng Dashan softly said,
"When that yellowish river water rushed over earlier, I died on the spot once. Later, I don't know what happened, but I came back to life.
After coming back to life, I became this ghostly appearance. Also, yesterday and the day before yesterday, I bled too much and couldn't stop it, dying twice.
But after a while, I would come back to life again."
Zheng Dashan was confused, but Li Hai, who had learned his skill, knew very well that the reason he could revive was due to the skill "Enduring Death and Stealing Life."
This skill, as the name suggests, allows one to absorb Yin Qi from the outside world and convert it into so-called evil power after completely dying without any life force, then consume that evil power to revive and return to the Human Realm.
In a sense, this could be considered a divine skill.
"Li Hai, you've seen it all."
After feeding blood to the two small dried corpses, Zheng Dashan knelt down and kowtowed to Li Hai again, "They really aren't dead, they just have a strange illness, a sickness caused by that yellow water. Li Hai, I beg you, please save them!"
"Alright."
Li Hai nodded, "Let me give it a try."
"Good! Good!" Zheng Dashan quickly got up and stood aside, "You try."
Immediately, Li Hai stood before the three dried corpses and began to draw talismans in the Void Realm, performing the miraculous life-extending art from the "《Heavenly Lotus Earthly Sage Scripture》":
"The original root, the Five Elements' rotation, the lotus as a guide, saving your remnant souls, spirits return to their positions, continuing in the mortal dust,
Hurry!"
Buzz—as illusory golden lotuses flashed and vanished one after another, a jade light with a refreshing fragrance suddenly emerged from Li Hai's fingertips, shining upon Zheng Dashan's wife's dried corpse.
No movement occurred; the dried corpse in front of Li Hai remained still, unmoving.
"...Let me try again."
Under Zheng Dashan's eager gaze, Li Hai mumbled and once again drew talismans in the Void Realm, beginning to perform the life-extending Dao art from the "Lotus Sutra."
The golden lotus and clear light flashed and vanished once more.
Looking at the still unmoving dried corpse in front of him, Li Hai frowned and said, "Sigh—failed again?"
Just as he was feeling a bit disappointed, the dried corpse in front of him suddenly trembled and slowly sat up.
"It moved! It moved!"
Zheng Dashan quickly ran over, supporting the sitting dried corpse, and eagerly asked, "Yu Fen, Yu Fen, how do you feel?"
At this moment, the face of this dried corpse suddenly underwent a drastic change.
From its original dry and withered but clear-featured appearance, it transformed into a twisted, struggling, ugly and unbearable sight.
At the same time, the eyeballs within its two eye sockets spontaneously ignited without fire, turning into two faintly flickering phosphorescent blue flames.
And in Li Hai's vision, the originally blank personal interface of this "dried corpse" suddenly became identical to Zheng Dashan's.
In other words, after experiencing Li Hai's Dao art, Zheng Dashan's wife, Yu Fen, had actually transformed into a so-called evil parasitic body, gaining the skill of "Enduring Death and Stealing Life," which allowed her to revive.
"Li Hai, this—this isn't right."
Zheng Dashan saw his wife's appearance and hurriedly stood up, asking, "Why—why has Yu Fen also become this ghostly appearance like me?"
"Don't rush." Li Hai crossed his arms and frowned in thought, "Let me think."
"Okay, okay." Zheng Dashan quickly nodded, then ran back to his wife, who was not yet fully conscious, and began to massage her arms and shoulders.
Meanwhile, Li Hai took a step and swiftly flew ten zhang away, facing another dried corpse floating on the turbid river water.
He began to perform the life-extending Dao art from the "Lotus Sutra."
But strangely, he used the Dao art four or five times on the same corpse consecutively, yet he couldn't awaken it or transform it into an evil parasitic body.
"What's going on here?"
Li Hai walked back to the stone platform and began to ponder.
"I understand!"
A short while later, he suddenly lifted his head and murmured, "That's right, although both Zheng Dashan and his wife died from being washed by the Yellow Springs water, they are both Ghost Folk, while that unknown corpse just now was a human before death.
Ghost creatures are not afraid of Yellow Springs water, but humans die upon contact. Ghost Folk are between humans and ghosts; after touching Yellow Springs water, they enter a state of suspended animation. After a period of suspended animation, they transform into an evil parasitic body with the ability to revive.
And the "Lotus Sutra" I've learned is a Dao art that only extends the life of living beings. If one is completely dead, it is no longer effective. Sigh~"
Understanding all this, Li Hai turned to Zheng Dashan and his wife, revealing his guess and thoughts:
"Zheng Dashan, you saw it just now. If I use the Dao art to extend their lives, your children can be saved, but their appearance will also become like yours. So, think carefully about whether you want me to save them."
This choice was cruel; Li Hai could only leave the decision to Zheng Dashan himself.
"I—" Zheng Dashan hesitated, unsure of what to do.
"Li Hai."
At this moment, his wife, Yu Fen, spoke, her voice extremely hoarse, "Please allow us, husband and wife, to discuss it properly."
"Alright." Li Hai nodded and walked aside, letting them discuss it themselves.
This woman named Yu Fen, after waking up and finding that both Zheng Dashan and herself had become so ugly, neither human nor ghost,
did not break down but quickly calmed down, which was truly remarkable.
It seemed her character was very resilient.
Perhaps the true backbone of their family was not Zheng Dashan, but her.
Just then, a group of yellow talisman paper birds descended from the sky and flew in front of Li Hai, collectively vibrating and emitting a voice he was extremely familiar with:
"Lieutenant Li, I'll keep it short. Just now, I saw you perform the Dao art of saving from suffering and disaster. You want to save those two dried child corpses, right?"
"Commander Gai?"
Li Hai looked at the flock of yellow paper birds hovering around him and asked, "Is this a Shadow Talisman Array? Interesting, it can even transmit sound remotely?"
"Lieutenant Li, that's not important."
Gai Fu said through the talisman birds from a distance, "I don't know where you learned the "《Heavenly Lotus Earthly Sage Scripture》." That's irrelevant now. What I want to tell you is this:
The incomplete version of this Scripture cannot save any deceased. Rashly casting Dao art on dead bodies will either have no effect, or, with an extremely, extremely small probability, give birth to a non-human, non-ghost evil spirit anomaly.
And any evil spirit, no matter how much memory it retains from before death, will gradually lose it over time. At the same time, no matter how gentle its temperament was in life, it will become increasingly cruel in the future, eventually degenerating into a bloodthirsty beast that can continuously revive as long as there is an endless supply of Yin Qi from the outside world.
I boldly guess that the evil spirit you, Lieutenant Li, just stimulated with your Dao art, was probably one of the legendary Ghost Folk before its death. This kind of half-ghost, half-human, half-alive, half-dead anomaly, as long as it is stimulated by the life-extending art of the incomplete "Lotus Sutra," will inevitably turn into an undead evil spirit, causing endless harm."
"So you mean—"
Li Hai's expression was solemn as he said, "You want me to—not save those two children?"