Chapter 61: The Technique of Memory Retrospection

Once all the zombies had been burned to ashes, the divine entity possessing Li Yan departed directly.

As his consciousness gradually returned, Li Yan looked at Shi Fou with a serious expression and asked, "Senior Brother, did I succeed?"

Shi Fou nodded, though his demeanor remained utterly indifferent.

Li Yan could not quite understand why his Senior Brother had suddenly adopted such an attitude toward him, but he chose not to dwell on it. He simply stood up from the ground and began to pace back and forth in deep thought.

"Since the village chief said that everything originated from the Wang family, I must find a way to thoroughly investigate what happened to them. Why did everyone in the Wang family turn into paper figurines?"

Puzzled beyond measure, Li Yan paced around before finally looking at Shi Fou with firm determination. "Senior Brother, I am going to use the Memory Retrospection technique to uncover what truly happened to the Wang family. However, my individual power is not enough. Please assist me."

Shi Fou nodded and replied, "Very well."

Thrilled to receive a reassuring answer, Li Yan quickly stepped into the center of the Wang family courtyard, closed his eyes, and began drawing circles on the ground with a long brush soaked in cinnabar.

Before long, a red circle surrounded him. Once the circle was complete, Li Yan dipped the brush into fresh blood and painted numerous intricate patterns within the boundary. These patterns appeared chaotic and disorderly at first glance, yet they followed a strict, hidden order.

When the patterns were finished, Li Yan began to hop around them while chanting incantations. He jumped and chanted for a full quarter of an hour until sweat began to bead on his body. Even then, the Memory Retrospection was not yet complete.

Li Yan stopped his jumping and chanting. A bizarre red light began to emanate from within the entire circle, forming a beam of light that surged upward into the sky. Soon, a smattering of raindrops began to fall from the heavens.

Upon seeing the raindrops, Li Yan closed his eyes and sat cross-legged on the ground as visions began to manifest in his mind.

"It has finally succeeded. I must observe closely to find out what really happened."

Seeing that Li Yan had succeeded, Shi Fou stood quietly to the side to guard him.

Meanwhile, inside Li Yan's mind...

A large crowd of people had gathered in the Wang family courtyard. They were all dressed in white garments that looked remarkably like the white coats worn by physicians. They stood in the courtyard, discussing something among themselves with such a chaotic uproar that Li Yan could not make out a single word.

Not long after, Master Wang emerged from the house.

As soon as he stepped out, he fell directly to his knees before the crowd, pleading anxiously, "Good doctors, divine healers, I beg you, you must save my mother! She has contracted a very strange illness."

"How strange... I feel as though I have seen these doctors' faces somewhere before..."

As Li Yan watched the projection and studied their faces, a sense of oddity washed over him. However, pushing the thought aside, he continued to watch with intense concentration.

After Master Wang finished speaking, the physicians helped him to his feet. One of them said to him, "Do not be afraid. We will find a way to cure her."

With that, they allowed Master Wang to lead them to his mother. Once they were inside the bedchamber, Master Wang stepped back out and closed the door behind them, a sinister smile playing on his lips.

A primal instinct told Li Yan that something was terribly wrong.

"He was crying just a moment ago; why is he smiling now?"

Even as Li Yan pondered this, Master Wang vanished from the scene within the vision, and the sound of piercing screams rang out.

"Why are there screams?"

Confused, Li Yan continued to watch, only to find the Wang family courtyard completely deserted. He shifted his perspective inside the house.

There, Li Yan saw that the elderly matriarch of the Wang family had already transformed into a zombie—though at the time, she was still of a very low rank. She was in the midst of draining someone's blood.

The victim shrieked in agonizing pain while the others huddled together in terror, desperately bludgeoning the door with various objects. Their efforts were entirely futile, however; the door seemed welded shut, refusing to budge an inch.

Paralyzed by despair, the trapped people began screaming outward for help, praying that someone on the outside would open the door. Yet no matter how long they cried out, no one came to their rescue.

The old matriarch soon advanced upon the remaining people, grabbing one person with each hand and effortlessly snapping their necks. They died in excruciating agony.

Once they were dead, the hopping corpse moved directly upon them, draining the blood from their bodies and tearing their flesh to shreds. For a time, agonizing shrieks echoed endlessly through the house, completely ignored by the outside world.

Before long, all the physicians had been slaughtered. Once dead, their bodies were carried away by the Wang family and delivered to the mortuary village.

Witnessing this, Li Yan finally understood why their faces had looked so familiar to him. They were simply among the numerous corpses housed in the mortuary.

Taking a deep breath, Li Yan was shocked to realize that Master Wang had deliberately lured them in only to murder them. He patiently continued to watch.

Not long after those victims were delivered to the mortuary, they rose as corpses and began rampaging through the village, slaughtering people at will. Meanwhile, the Wang family began luring others in under various pretexts, sending them to their deaths as well.

After several waves of people were sent to their doom in this manner, the number of zombies in the village multiplied. Unable to bear it any longer, the village chief invited a Daoist priest to intervene.

To everyone's surprise, the priest proved to be no better. Upon arrival, he merely suppressed the zombies. Although the suppressed corpses remained dormant for a short period, it accomplished nothing. Before long, they awakened once more, shattered their restraints, and went on another rampage.

For reasons unknown, the zombies broke free with far more ferocious attacks this time, claiming an increasing number of lives.

When the Daoist priest attempted to act again, the villagers had lost all trust in him and drove him away with violence. His departure did nothing to alleviate the crisis.

The village chief could only repeatedly warn the residents never to venture outside at night, to ignore any knocking on their doors, and to remain wary of those around them.

At first, everyone obeyed, and the situation temporarily stabilized. Gradually, however, people grew lax, and bolder individuals began venturing outside after dark.

The zombie terror erupted once more.

"The origin of the zombies is somewhat clear now, but I still don't know how the old Wang matriarch died. I must check further back."

Thinking this as he watched the unfolding chaos of the zombies, Li Yan reached out and swept his hand across the void.

After shuffling through several scenes, he finally located the memories concerning the elderly matriarch. These encompassed all her memories of living within the Wang family courtyard.

Li Yan began to watch with meticulous care.

"I must not miss a single detail."