Chapter 057: [A Finger Moved]

As expected, Duan Feihong’s group was completely wiped out this time. The barbarians under their control were all dead. If Su Jingxing wanted to collect more Martial Demonstration Cards, he would have to find another source.

Corpse puppets? That idea was unreliable. No sooner had it occurred to him than Su Jingxing dismissed it.

Since he couldn’t find any Martial Demonstration Cards for now, he decided to put the matter aside. After all, he wouldn’t be needing them anytime soon. The mastery he’d achieved in several martial disciplines was enough to handle most situations. Not to mention, he possessed a hundred thousand catties of immense strength!

Thinking thus, Su Jingxing let the matter rest.

...

The next day, he returned to work, moving corpses as usual.

“A corpse has been found. Do you wish to collect?”

“Yes!”

“A corpse has been found. Do you wish to collect?”

“Yes!”

...

The daily routine of moving corpses remained as dull and yet delightful as ever. Of course, the delight was exclusive to Su Jingxing. For Kong Dabao and Feng Tiejian, it was merely a way to make a living.

But Su Jingxing was different. As his soul power increased, so did his collection range, which now extended to five meters. Within a five-meter radius, as long as there was a corpse, the prompt would appear.

This was a great help to Su Jingxing, saving him much trouble. To say nothing else, the number of corpses he collected cards from had increased by half compared to before. Even the newly delivered bodies, lying across the corridor, could be harvested for cards with ease. As for the mortuary, every corpse brought in was immediately collected...

Hmm?

As usual, Su Jingxing stepped into the mortuary, ready to move another body, when he suddenly halted. Kong Dabao, following close behind, nearly bumped into him. He hastily dodged, grumbling, “Xiao Su, why are you stopping so suddenly? Don’t you know I’m right behind you?”

“Sorry, sorry.” Su Jingxing resumed walking and apologized. “I just remembered something and wasn’t paying attention. Please forgive me.”

“What was it?” Kong Dabao waggled his eyebrows. “Don’t tell me your ‘Wanrong’ is pregnant? You youngsters never pay attention to safety. Let me tell you, you must always take precautions. After all, you’re still young...”

“You’re overthinking things.”

Su Jingxing cut him off with a look of exasperation. Before Kong Dabao could continue teasing, Su Jingxing’s expression turned solemn as he pointed to a corpse ahead on the right. “Dabao, I think I just saw that corpse’s fingers move.”

“What!” Kong Dabao leapt backward, face filled with terror and disbelief. “You... You didn’t see wrong?”

Su Jingxing did not answer but walked straight to the corpse. As he moved, he activated the secret technique “Voice Within Earshot,” listening for any heartbeat from the body.

Sure enough, he heard one.

The reason he had stopped earlier was precisely because, although the corpse was within his collection range, no prompt had appeared. There could be only one explanation: the person was not dead yet!

If they weren’t dead, they didn’t count as a corpse. Naturally, there would be no prompt from his golden finger.

Su Jingxing had been moving corpses for a while, but this was the first time he’d ever encountered such a situation. He couldn’t help being slightly taken aback. Collecting his thoughts, he decided to investigate further, as this concerned a human life.

Now, hearing the faint heartbeat, his suspicions were confirmed. Of course, this was thanks to his secret technique—no ordinary person could have such acute hearing.

If he wanted to save the man, Su Jingxing would have to come up with another excuse. After a brief consideration, a plan formed in his mind.

Under Kong Dabao’s shocked gaze, Su Jingxing approached the body, lifted the shroud, and bent low, pressing his cheek to the man’s chest. After a moment, he straightened and called excitedly to Kong Dabao, “Dabao, there’s a heartbeat! He’s not dead!”

Kong Dabao was speechless.

To be honest, he was bewildered. Su Jingxing was really bold—just seeing a finger twitch, he’d actually check for a heartbeat! Wasn’t that a bit reckless?

He’d grown numb to corpses over the years, but this was a first—even for him. A not-quite-dead corpse—no, a not-quite-dead person—if they were cremated alive, it would be a terrible sin.

Of course, sometimes a corpse’s movement could be due to corpse maggot eggs, but that was extremely rare. The crematorium always verified the time of death for each body. Generally, those who died within a day or night wouldn’t be infested so quickly, and in the city, corpse maggots were especially rare. If more than twenty-four hours passed, there would be no changes; only after forty-eight hours was there any risk of infestation.

Most of the crematorium’s corpses came from the city, so the chances were minuscule. Even in the rare event that a body did become animated by corpse parasites and hurt someone, the odds were virtually nil.

Because at the crematorium, bodies were replaced so swiftly—unless there was a sudden influx of corpses, they were burned the same day. Perhaps elsewhere, a crematorium might have had a corpse puppet incident, but in Qinghe City, there hadn’t been a single case in decades. In fact, the odds of encountering a corpse puppet here were lower than in a city apartment. Otherwise, who would ever dare work at a crematorium?

This time, Kong Dabao had truly been frightened. It took him a while to close his gaping mouth and, step by cautious step, shuffle over to the body. At Su Jingxing’s urging, he bent down and listened for a heartbeat.

Thump—thump!

“There really is one!” Kong Dabao’s head shot up, his face incredulous. “Are the hospital staff all idiots? They actually sent a living person here! If you hadn’t noticed, this man would have died for nothing!”

Now certain the man was alive, Kong Dabao’s fear was swept away, replaced by righteous indignation at the incompetent doctors. He spoke up for the “corpse”—no, for the man lying there.

“Xiao Su, you wait here. I’ll fetch the superintendent. We must get an explanation for this!”

Waving his fist, Kong Dabao stormed out of the mortuary in a fury.

Su Jingxing let out a breath of relief. Regardless of the circumstances, saving a life was always a good deed. Of course, if the person had been a vicious criminal, someone deserving of death, even if Su Jingxing had noticed, he wouldn’t have said a word. He had his principles—those who should be saved, he would save; those who deserved death, he would not hesitate.

This time, the man who’d survived—Su Jingxing glanced over the records—was an honest fellow named Zhang Shanfuk, an ordinary middle-aged man of forty-three. At that age, many men on Terra were already grandfathers.

Zhang Shanfuk fit the type—he had a son and a daughter, and a grandson less than half a year old. He’d drowned, and was the main provider for his family before the accident. Saving someone like that was truly an act of virtue.

...

“Over here, over here!”

The sound of hurried footsteps was followed by Kong Dabao’s voice as a group of crematorium administrators, including Superintendent Wu Shouhan, rushed into the mortuary.

Su Jingxing quickly called out to them, then stepped aside to let Wu Shouhan and the others check.

Each of them bent down to listen for a heartbeat; as they confirmed the man was alive, their faces grew more astonished one after another.

In the end, Wu Shouhan, while channeling internal energy into Zhang Shanfuk, sighed, “Thank goodness, thank goodness. If Xiao Su hadn’t been so observant, we would have made a terrible mistake!”

“I’ve decided—Xiao Su will be made a regular employee ahead of schedule. Does anyone have any objections?”