The floating mausoleum smelled of funeral incense and rotting peaches.
Luo Feng stood at the base of its jade steps, staring up at the massive stone doors carved with a single repeating image—a man being flayed by his own shadow. The Fox Spirit's sixth tail had gone rigid the moment they arrived, its burnt tip trembling as it whispered:
"He waits inside. The other you."
Li Qing flexed her bandaged hand. "This is a terrible idea."
[System Alert: Check-In Location – Corpse Emperor's Resting Place]
[Mission: Reclaim What Was Stolen]
[Reward: Original Memories (20%)]
[Failure Penalty: Becoming the Corpse Emperor's New Skin]
The doors groaned open before Luo Feng could touch them.
A voice like dry bones rubbing together echoed out:
"COME IN, LITTLE STITCH. LET ME SEE WHAT HE LEFT OF YOU."
[The Guardian: A Face Without Skin]
The Corpse Emperor wasn't a corpse.
He was worse—a living man flayed down to muscle and sinew, his organs visible through the gaps in his ribcage, his smile a horror of exposed teeth. He lounged on a throne of yellowed bones, picking at his own femur with a rusted knife.
The Fox Spirit's tails puffed to twice their size. "Oh. Oh no. No no no—"
Li Qing's sword was out, but her stance was all wrong—defensive, not offensive.
The Corpse Emperor chuckled, the sound like rats scurrying in walls. "QING'ER. YOU'VE GROWN."
Li Qing flinched.
Luo Feng's stomach dropped. "You know him?"
The flayed man leaned forward. "SHE SHOULD. I'M HER GRANDFATHER."
[The Revelation: A Family of Knives]
Three truths hit Luo Feng like a blade between the ribs:
Li Qing's master—the Sword Saint—was the Corpse Emperor's son.
The flayed man had volunteered for his condition to "better understand pain."
He'd been dead for 300 years.
The Fox Spirit inched backward. "Okay, new plan—we run—"
"STAY." The Corpse Emperor's voice pinned them in place. "YOU WANT TO SEE THE ORIGINAL? THEN SEE."
He snapped his fingers.
The throne room's floor split open, revealing a glass coffin—and inside, a perfectly preserved body wearing Luo Feng's face.
The corpse opened its eyes.
[The Original: A Voice From the Grave]
"Took you long enough," the corpse murmured through the glass.
Its voice was Luo Feng's, but older, frayed at the edges like a well-worn rope. The Fox Spirit made a choked noise, her tails wrapping around herself like a shield.
Li Qing looked ready to vomit.
The Corpse Emperor sighed. "HE'S BEEN WHINING FOR CENTURIES. TAKE HIM."
Luo Feng reached for the coffin—
—and the corpse sat up, shattering the glass.
"Careful," it said, catching Luo Feng's wrist. "I don't feel dead, but the last guy who touched me turned inside out."
The Fox Spirit's sixth tail screamed a prophecy:
"DO NOT LET THEM TOUCH!"
Too late.
[The Transfer: A Soul's Weight]
Skin contact was all it took.
The corpse's memories flooded into Luo Feng—not as fragments, but as a tsunami:
The War God begging him to reconsider.
The Thunder God weeping as he drove a nail through his own hand.
The Void Emperor's final words before the rewrite: "Forgive me."
And her. The silver-haired woman. His wife.
The Fox Spirit—Xiao Jiuying—staggered as the memory hit her too.
"You lied to me!" she screamed at the corpse. "You said the nails would save us!"
The corpse smiled sadly. "I lied about a lot of things."
Then it dissolved into light, pouring into Luo Feng's chest—into the hollow space where the mirror's nail had been.
[Memory Unlocked: 20%]
[New Truth: You Were Never the Original. You're the Backup.]
The Corpse Emperor clapped. "CONGRATULATIONS. NOW YOU GET TO DIE PROPERLY."
The throne room's walls melted, revealing the true horror—
They weren't in a mausoleum.
They were inside the Corpse Emperor's ribcage.
[Check-In Complete (Existential Horror)]
[Reward: Original Memories (20%)]
[Penalty: Corpse Emperor's Mark (He Can Find You Now)]
They escaped by the skin of their teeth—Li Qing carving a path through living bone, the Fox Spirit's tails shrieking warnings, Luo Feng vomiting silver nails.
Outside, the Void Emperor waited.
"NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" he asked, staring at Luo Feng's newly scarred hands. "YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO REMEMBER."
Then he was gone, leaving behind only a single clue:
A lock of silver hair tied with a red string.
END OF THE CHAPTER27