The Nine Abyssal Mysteries: The Gold Hunters' Cursed Spell

Ye Xiao, the 127th-generation heir to the art of tomb raiding; Xia Hongchou, a descendant of the Mountain-Moving Taoists; and Yu Qilin, a Maoshan Celestial Master.

Central Artifact: The Nine Abyssal Bronze Slips, a variant of the Cursed Slips. Nine bronze tablets seal the ancient “Nine Abyssal Resentments.” All nine must be gathered to suppress the corpse uprising in the Nine Netherworlds.

Central Curse: The Xia family’s “Blood-Sand Curse.” The Mountain-Moving bloodline is marked by the slips; unless the curse is broken before age twenty-five, the victim will turn into a blood corpse.

Ultimate Villain: The Corpse Venerable of the Nine Netherworlds, formed from the resentment within the slips. It seeks to resurrect itself through a zombie dynasty.

Seven Qing-dynasty coffins were unearthed here last night. Now the shovel is smeared with the brains of the fourth victim. Half an hour ago, the archaeologist was livestreaming the coffin’s opening; in an instant, his head burst like an overripe watermelon. Corpse spots spread along his neck, their strange patterns twisting into the shape of a bronze slip.

“Attention, passengers. A passenger in Car 2 has suddenly fallen ill...” The announcement shrieked to life.

A hunched black silhouette flashed past the window. A dried corpse in a faded imperial robe was crouched on the roof, gnawing at the cables. Its blue-black claws scraped the glass with a shrill rasp, and bloody saliva dripped from the corner of its mouth onto the upturned, terrified faces of the passengers. It suddenly twisted its head around. There were no eyeballs in its sockets, only two clusters of ghostly blue flames. Deep in its pupils floated the same blood-curse markings that had appeared before Ye Xiao’s master, Elder Tianji, disappeared!

“If you don’t want to die, help me find the bronze casket.”

A hoarse woman’s voice, reeking of blood, breathed against the back of Ye Xiao’s ear. Blood coughed up by the woman in black splashed onto his neck, scalding like molten copper. Her deathly pale finger pointed toward the connection between the cars. “The casket’s been awakened by corpse energy... Cough... There’s something inside that eats people...”

The roof collapsed with a crash.

A rainstorm of rotting corpses in official robes came crashing down. A female corpse landed right on Ye Xiao’s shoulder, its fangs lunging for his throat