Salted Fish Zombie

This courtyard was very similar to the one at Boss Qi’s place, with a large lake in the middle.

They suspected that every courtyard in Furen County had a lake.

A wooden bridge on the lake led to six doors. When the doors were opened, there was a small tea room inside where one could enjoy the scenery, drink tea, chat, and have meals.

On both sides of the tea room, there were two separate rooms.

When Ning Changfeng closed the door, a young man was sitting on the wooden floor.

The wide hem of his clothes cascaded down on the wooden planks, and his smooth long hair spread behind him. He looked up with a pair of beautiful peach blossom eyes, staring at him.

Ning Changfeng turned around and saw this scene, unable to describe the feelings in his heart.

He felt that the young man must be the Creator’s most perfect masterpiece, with every part of him growing in his tender heart.

Suddenly, he saw the layered hem of the young man’s clothes move.

Ning Changfeng acted faster than his thoughts and used something in his hand to directly lift the red hem on the wooden plank, despite the two-meter distance.

Under the gorgeous and mysterious rune red gauze, a slender and attractive hand was holding the only plate of snacks in the tearoom, moving it towards him.

Ning Changfeng: “...”

Ning Su: “...”

A silent night.

In each person’s individual room, there was a stream flowing through.

The rooms were made entirely of unknown wood, and the stream flowed past the sleeping wooden pallet, allowing people to soak their feet in it at any time.

The stream flowed over a layer of beautiful pebbles, presenting a faint green color. It came from an unknown source, passed through the rooms, and converged into the lake in the courtyard.

Players who slept on the wooden pallet at night all had a strange feeling.

Dryness.

It’s a different sensation from dry skin and the feeling of thirst, it’s a withered feeling from the inside out.

They really wanted to soak their feet and sleep in the stream, but they resisted.

They knew they couldn’t do that.

They were human.

The courtyard was extremely quiet at night.

They could clearly hear the sound of the wind in the latter half of the night, the wind blowing from behind the courtyard, making a mournful sound, like the cries of thousands of people.

This mansion was located on the outskirts of Furen County, and behind the courtyard was like a forest. They didn’t know what was there exactly.

Several players curled up their bodies, covered their ears, blocking out the heart-corroding sound of the wind, and eventually fell asleep, exhausted and disoriented.

The next morning, they woke up feeling exhausted, as if they had been through a night-long battle.

Only Ning Su, Ning Changfeng, and the four flower servants from the original world looked spirited.

The old woman brought food to them with her servants, and each person’s breakfast included a bowl of green water.

Two players didn’t drink it and secretly poured it into the lake below the house.

Yenan Wang, who had just arrived at the courtyard gate, saw this scene.

Yenan Wang was the person who bought them back at the auction last night.

He walked into the pavilion in the center of the lake and said, “It seems that this morning I should first tell you about the rules of being a flower attendant.”

The players looked at him from various tea rooms.

“All of you are flower attendants of my Yenan family. Flower servants are the ones who serve the flower god. In this kingdom, your identity is noble and respected.”

“Therefore, our Yenan family will provide you with the best treatment and will not restrict your freedom. However, there are two things you must do.”

“First, as flower attendants, it is natural to attend to flowers. You need to learn how to take care of flowers.”

“Second, you should eat well, drink water, and soak in water to transform your body.”

“To serve the Flower God, you must meet the Flower God. However, humans are too small and fragile. They crumble from soul to body before even getting close to the Flower God. Therefore, you need to transform your body in order to meet the Flower God.”

“The water in this bowl and the lake are both sacred waters that will transform your bodies.”

The players were stunned.

They simultaneously thought of the failed flower attendant from Boss Qi’s place.

Thick and clearly exposed blood vessels, incredibly hardened, with thin blood blisters popping out of the skin.

When Yenan Wang saw their serious expressions, he smiled and said, “Alright, today is the first day of welcoming the gods. It’s lively outside. Since you’ve finished breakfast, take this opportunity to go out and have a look. Starting tomorrow, you’ll be busy, and you might not have time to play.”

As soon as Yenan Wang left, they immediately came out of that courtyard.

While going to see the welcoming of the gods, they discussed everything all at once.

“Are we going to transform our bodies to become like that failed flower attendant?”

“Why do we need to make our blood vessels so hard? Is it to prevent them from being too fragile and breaking during the ritual of meeting the god?”

“Why does she have so little blood in her blood vessels? Where did the blood go?”

“How do we learn to attend to flowers? Are they going to find us a demigod to serve?”

“Is it true what Yenan Wang said, that we can only see the god if we transform our bodies?”

Their mission in this instance was to find a way to see the god or find a method to see the god.

Logically, it seemed that they should find a method to see the god first before actually seeing the god. Therefore, in the early stages, they should make efforts to search for a way to see the god.

This didn’t mean that seeing the god later on was not important.

Finding the method was not so easy. If they truly could not find it, as flower attendants, they might still be sent by the influential families of Furen County to the side of the god to meet Him.

This was their common goal, so they could mutually benefit and work together.

The new problem now was, according to Yenan Wang’s words, as a small and fragile creatures, humans would be destroyed before they could approach god, so they could not see god.

If what he said was true, they would have to modify their bodies as he suggested.

There was a great risk in the modification process, and there was a possibility of turning into something neither human nor ghost.

“So, the problem we currently need to solve is to determine whether Yenan Wang’s words are true or false,” Zhu Shuangshuang said.

Dai Dong said, “First, let’s follow President Jia’s suggestion and exchange information. If every family is like this, it means what he said should be true.”

“It’s fortunate that they don’t restrict our freedom, which makes communication easier.”

That’s the only way.

So the group of people didn’t waste any more time and went directly to the main city street to see the welcoming of god.

As believers of the Flower God, flowers were planted everywhere in the city of Furen County. These flowers had dark colors and peculiar shapes.

Fresh flowers were meant to please the eyes, but these flowers caused intense physical discomfort.

Especially in narrow and dark streets, the faint stench intensified the discomfort, making people irritable, restless, and suffering from headaches.

The group hurriedly passed through these small paths and arrived at a wider street, following the crowd.

Many people were walking in the same direction, and while they were walking in that direction, they encountered Jia Chensheng and a few others. They were bought by another family and came to see the welcoming of God after finishing breakfast.

They exchanged information while walking.

Jia Chensheng said, “We’re currently heading towards the Temple of the Flower God. On the first day of the welcoming, many families will bring gifts prepared for the Flower God and go there to receive blessings from the Holy Maiden.”

Zhu Shuangshuang asked, “The Holy Maiden? Is that the same person the system mentioned who has seen God?”

“Should be.” Jia Chensheng said, “The water we drank, I heard, is the holy water made by the Holy Maiden.”

In that case, the Holy Maiden was the most important NPC.

She had seen the god, knew how to meet Him, and knew many clues that they were eager to know.

As they walked with the crowd to the Temple of the Flower God, they saw countless people kneeling and worshiping toward the temple, and at the entrance of the main hall stood a black-clad young woman.

She wore numerous layers of black veils, with a black silk robe on the outermost layer. On the smooth and glossy silk, blood-red runes twisted and cascaded down, hanging two meters long.

Ning Su only then noticed that she was the young woman who sat beside Yenan Wang last night.

When Yenan Wang asked Boss Qi who his companion was, Boss Qi mentioned Zhu Shuangshuang, but this girl denied it and said it was Ning Changfeng.

Ning Su blinked and felt that this girl was really extraordinary.

Just as Ning Su was looking at her, the Holy Maiden also turned her head and looked at him accurately.

She was dressed in a solemn and gloomy black robe, with blood-red lips like the runes on her robe. She slightly raised the corner of her mouth, revealing a smile with an ambiguous meaning.

Just then, a commotion came from ahead, accompanied by exclamations and applause.

“Is it the first gift?”

“I wonder which family came first to pray for blessings this year.”

The surrounding people became excited, craning their necks in anticipation.

“They’re here! It’s the Li family from the Jewelry Store!”

“What a grand display!”

The players followed their gaze and looked ahead. At this sight, their backs shivered under the sun.

The first person they saw was someone familiar, someone they had seen with Boss Qi before—the woman who was the first to come and buy the ‘human bouquet’.

She was still adorned in gold and silver, exuding an air of wealth and luxury.

She walked to the front, filled with excitement and anticipation, exuding a strong scent of blood.

Behind her followed two robust men dressed in black, silently carrying two blood-red wooden logs as they moved forward.

Apart from the two in front, there were also two black-clad men on each side and two more at the back, all together lifting a white porcelain jar with red wooden supports.

Given that it required eight people to lift it, the white porcelain jar must have been exceptionally large and heavy.

Indeed.

Inside that white porcelain jar were six blood-soaked humans.

Their necks extended out from the jar’s opening, and the hem of their dresses circled around the six heads perfectly.

Although the white porcelain jar was large, it had an octagonal shape, with elegant lines tapering delicately at the closure. It was impossible for such narrowness to accommodate the shoulders of six adults.

The screams they had heard that day revealed how the “flowers” were inserted into the jar.

Each “flower” had a different pose, some with exposed white “stamens”, some with upward-turning “petals”, and some with outwardly turned “leaves”.

Originally, there were two players here, but now they could hardly recognize them.

Only when they saw the two people with wide, frantic eyes, desperately rolling, did they realize it was them.

As their eyes rolled, the muscles beneath their facial skin twitched in pain.

The two of them begged for their help.

They felt that perhaps the two were not pleading for their rescue, but rather begging them to end their lives.

That day, Boss Qi assured the middle-aged woman that they would have people within seven days, and today was the busiest time.

Busiest with what?

The middle-aged woman walked up to the Holy Maiden and, like the others, knelt before her.

The Holy Maiden touched the drooping “flower branches” and said, “Such vibrant and lively gifts. The Flower God will surely appreciate them.”

She clasped her hands together over her chest and raised them upward, saying, “May the Flower God bestow blessings.”

Once the words were spoken, a dense crowd knelt in front of the Temple of the Flower God. They scrambled to be the first, eagerly kowtowing to the temple, repeatedly and fervently knocking their heads against the ground, not even stopping when blood flowed.

The people from the surrounding Furen County applauded excitedly, and even the children happily jumped and clapped along. Their faces were filled with smiles, as if they were enveloped in divine radiance.

Meanwhile, the players stared at the flower vase, which “flowers” twisted in agony and silently screaming. They couldn’t help but feel a shiver run down their spines.