Chapter 118: The Corpse Matriarch

I stood frozen in place, utterly stunned. I never imagined that such a kind-looking old woman could be capable of something like this.

The old woman had noticed me, but she showed no sign of alarm. She continued to stir the large pot of broth with her massive ladle, occasionally bending down to grab a handful of blood sausage from the side to toss into the pot.

Right where she was grabbing the sausages lay a disemboweled corpse.

Finally, she added a bundle of firewood to the stove, turned her head, and said to me in a ghostly, hollow voice, "Hungry, young man? Don't worry, Granny promised you—as long as you're in my house, there's plenty of rice noodle rolls for everyone!"

My stomach heaved, and I began to retch violently. I scrambled toward Bai Rushuang and kicked over the table in front of her. "Stop eating, you glutton!"

"What are you doing?"

Bai Rushuang glared at me, but upon seeing the sheer terror on my face, her brows furrowed. "Muyu, what’s wrong?"

Knowing how much of the food she had already consumed, I didn't want to tell her the truth. But when a human finger tumbled out of the overturned dish, Bai Rushuang retched as well.

"What is going on?" she asked, her voice trembling with tears.

"What else? We've stumbled into the lair of a monster!"

Just then, the old woman emerged from the kitchen with two more bowls. Seeing us vomiting, her once-kind face twisted into a mask of ferocity. "Is my cooking not to your liking?"

"Who are you?"

I activated my Yin-Yang vision again, but looking at her, I still saw nothing unusual—except for the oppressive, freezing aura filling the room. It was so thick it felt as though it might condense into water droplets.

"You are such a waste! A complete waste!"

Seeing the food I had kicked onto the floor, the old woman flew into a rage. "You young people have no idea how hard it is to come by food. How dare you waste it like this!"

With that, she lunged toward us, dropped to the floor, and began grabbing the spilled rice noodle rolls, shoving them into her mouth. As she ate, she suddenly turned back to glare at me with a sinister grin. "A Nine-Yin destiny!"

I was startled and immediately formed a Palm Thunder seal, striking toward her. But she moved with lightning speed, darting aside like a monkey.

Just as I prepared a second strike, Bai Rushuang let out a sharp cry of agony. "Muyu... I... I feel terrible."

I turned to see her face deathly pale, covered in sweat, clutching her stomach in utter torment.

"Rushuang!" My nerves snapped tight. I scrambled toward her, shouting, "What's wrong? Are you alright?"

"It hurts... my stomach!"

I scooped her up, intending to flee, but the room's heavy wooden door creaked shut on its own, and the old-fashioned lightbulb on the wall began to flicker violently.

"Where do you think you're going?" the old woman’s hollow voice echoed from behind me.

I set Bai Rushuang down gently. "Hang in there, Rushuang. Let me deal with this old hag first, then I'll get you to a hospital. Don't worry, you'll be fine—it’s just a stomachache."

Despite my words, I was terrified. Heaven knows what state she was in; she had eaten human flesh, and who knows what else the old woman had seasoned it with.

I glared at the old woman, who was cackling at me, my blood boiling. I formed a hand seal and began to chant.

As I finished, I struck out with my palm, but the old woman stood motionless, wearing that skin-crawling, eerie grin. Just as my hand reached within an inch of her, a searing pain ripped through my stomach. My entire body spasmed, and I collapsed to the floor.

The old woman’s smile widened. She turned, walked into the kitchen, and returned with a razor-sharp meat cleaver.

"Nine-Yin destiny... hehe, I've been waiting for you for a long time!"

"You're a Corpse Crone!"

The name flashed in my mind. The *Book of the Yellow Springs* recorded the Corpse Crone as a rare and terrifying breed of monster.

According to the records, they first appeared in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, when war and famine turned the land into a living hell. As cannibalism became widespread, a horrific mutation occurred. Those who consumed too much human flesh, combined with the intense resentment of the victims' ghosts, became half-human, half-corpse entities. They were inherently cruel and continued to feast on humans even after the famine ended.

When Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he sent the strategist Liu Bowen to purge these creatures. It took Liu Bowen two years to wipe them out. The most terrifying one he encountered was a ninety-year-old woman who had devoured over twelve hundred corpses in three years. Her dark arts were so powerful she nearly killed Liu Bowen himself before a grand master of the Taoist sects intervened to destroy her.

The old woman before me was identical to those described in the texts. Given the great famine forty years ago, she had likely survived by feasting on the dead.

She was indeed a Corpse Crone. My skin crawled, and my stomach continued to spasm, leaving me paralyzed on the floor, drenched in cold sweat.

The Corpse Crone walked toward me, cleaver in hand, smiling. "Young man, looking at you, you clearly know who I am. Yes, I am a Corpse Crone. I've been eating people since the famine. Even I don't know how many I've consumed!"

She sighed heavily. "Born in the wrong era, I am. If only I lived in those chaotic times, there would have been plenty of bodies. That Corpse Crone Liu Bowen fought was lucky—she grew so powerful that even the underworld could not claim her. She could have become a ruler of the Ghost Realm!"

She looked down at me, her excitement mounting. "But I have a way. You have a Nine-Yin destiny—the 'Tang Monk meat' of the spirit world! If I eat you, I won't have to suffer in the eighteen levels of hell!"

With that, she grabbed my head and planted a firm, sickening kiss on my forehead.