The moment I heard the noise, I was on high alert.
Holding the Tianpeng Ruler in my hand, I cautiously moved towards the source of the sound.
Not far from the Zhang family's ancestral tomb, about ten meters away, was a small grove of trees.
The grove was lush and green, but the Zhang family's ancestral tomb was barren, creating a stark contrast.
The sound was coming from that grove.
Zhang Yunyao stayed close to me, the girl was quite brave, venturing into the graveyard with me in the dead of night.
Soon, we entered the grove.
Once inside, we saw a yellow glow emanating from somewhere.
We soon witnessed an incredible sight.
In front of us was a man, shirtless, holding a red candle, walking towards a large tree.
He was walking while making creepy, eerie laughter.
As soon as she saw the figure, Zhang Yunyao gasped, "It's my brother..."
I recognized him too, the man with the candle was Zhang Yunliang.
I was also very confused, what in the world was he doing, holding a candle, shirtless, in the middle of the night.
I motioned for Zhang Yunyao to stay silent, then pointed towards Zhang Yunliang, indicating we should follow him.
So, we followed him, maintaining a distance of about seven or eight meters, as we slowly approached his destination.
After following him for half a circle, we reached behind a large tree and saw a terrifying scene.
Leaning against the tree was a person.
He was wearing a shroud, his face was pale, clearly a dead person.
From his attire, it appeared to be a deceased ancestor of the Zhang family dug up from the ancestral tomb.
I wasn't sure how this body ended up in the grove.
Next, Zhang Yunyao and I witnessed an even more horrifying scene.
Zhang Yunliang was holding a lit red candle.
This candle was one of the incense sticks used during the ground-breaking ceremony for the tomb.
He held the burning red candle close to the corpse's chin and began to roast it with the fire.
Soon, the area under the corpse's chin turned pitch black, and then, drop by drop, a liquid began to drip.
Zhang Yunliang was roasting the corpse fat.
What in the world was this kid doing?
I've always been brave, and though my heart was pounding, I remained calm.
However, Zhang Yunyao couldn't handle it, she covered her mouth tightly and couldn't help but gag.
The sight was truly unbearable for anyone.
On top of that, Zhang Yunyao was filled with deep fear.
She unconsciously drew closer to me, wrapping her arms around my waist, her whole body trembling.
"Ma... Master Wu... what is my brother doing?" Zhang Yunyao asked in a trembling voice.
"Keep it down, don't alarm him, he might be possessed by something unclean," I whispered in reply.
Zhang Yunliang continued to roast the corpse's chin with the candle, drop by drop the corpse fat dripped down, and he caught it with his other hand.
Because Zhang Yunliang had his back to us, we couldn't see his face.
We saw him take the corpse fat and bring it close to his face.
We didn't know if he was smearing it on his face or drinking it.
Seeing this, I couldn't take it anymore.
It was just too disgusting.
Whatever Zhang Yunliang was doing, it was clearly detrimental to him, it could very well cost him his life.
I had to stop him.
Right then, I turned to Zhang Yunyao and asked, "The talisman I gave you, do you still have it on you?"
Zhang Yunyao nodded, "Yeah, it's still here."
"Stay here, don't move, I'll go save your brother." I said.
"Ok," Zhang Yunyao nodded heavily.
However, I didn't move, I continued to watch Zhang Yunyao.
Zhang Yunyao's hands were still tightly gripping me, she was terrified by the eerie scene.
Soon, Zhang Yunyao realized what she was doing and her face flushed a bit, she let go of me.
Then, I held the Tianpeng Ruler and slowly walked towards Zhang Yunliang.
As I got closer to Zhang Yunliang, the candle in his hand illuminated the corpse's face, making it look even more ominous and frightening.
When I was about three or four steps away from Zhang Yunliang, suddenly, I didn't know if it was my eyes playing tricks on me.
The corpse leaning against the tree actually opened its eyes.
The pupils were entirely white, staring directly at me.
Seeing this, I shuddered.
The corpse came back to life?
I froze for a moment, my heart pounded, but after a while, I realized the corpse just opened its eyes, it didn't make any further move, so I calmed down.
At that moment, I gathered my breath, and let out a loud shout at Zhang Yunliang, "Zhang Yunliang!"
This roar was like a clap of thunder, if an ordinary person heard it, their soul would fly away.
I was using a technique called the Daoist Roar, if any unclean spirit possessed Zhang Yunliang, this roar would scare the spirit away.
After this roar, Zhang Yunliang trembled, he actually stopped his actions, his head turned slowly like a doll.
When his face was facing me, I noticed that Zhang Yunliang's face was oily and shiny, like he had smeared oil on it.
At this point, Zhang Yunliang's face was contorted, his eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, and he was making a beast-like growl in his throat.
Seeing him like this, my heart sank.
There was no ghost or evil energy around this kid, he wasn't possessed by a ghost.
But why was he like this?
The next moment, Zhang Yunliang threw the red candle in his hand at me.
I swung my hand and knocked the candle away.
As he threw the candle, Zhang Yunliang lunged at me.
He was only three or four steps away from me, and with a leap, he pounced on me, his hands wrapped around my neck.
I could smell a horrible stench coming from him, like rotting flesh, it made me want to puke.
The key was that this kid was now incredibly strong.
He pushed me back a few steps, then knocked me to the ground, his hands went for my neck, and he kept growling.
He was clearly trying to strangle me.
Of course, I wasn't going to sit there and take it, I was still holding the Tianpeng Ruler, and I swung it heavily towards his body.
This Tianpeng Ruler was for dealing with ghosts, one hit should be enough for him, but the Tianpeng Ruler landed on Zhang Yunliang's body, and there was no reaction whatsoever.
At the same time, I saw out of the corner of my eye that the corpse leaning against the tree seemed to move...