"Why?"

"Master, are you not only a reclusive master, but this is also your first time coming down the mountain?"

"That's true."

"It's no wonder you don't know, Daoist. The corpse chaos of a few years ago led to a decrease in the population of the mainland... by at least half. Many towns are now empty, with not a single living person left."

Listening to the coachman's words, Yong Li turned to look in the direction of the palace. "Do you think this disaster was a natural one or a man-made one?"

"Of course it's a natural disaster," the coachman said with certainty.

Yong Li paused for a moment, then replied, "Whether it's a natural disaster or not is actually quite easy to determine. Just see if there's any divine punishment. If not, then it's a natural disaster. If there is... then it's a man-made disaster! But six years ago, there was divine punishment. And that was during the time of the most severe corpse chaos."

"What did you say, sir?" Just then, a wedding procession passed by, and the coachman didn't hear what Yongli said.

Yong Li said, "Can you go faster? I want to leave the city before dark."

"Immediately." The coachman cracked his whip, and the carriage sped up considerably.

After passing through the city gate and walking for a while, Yong Li told the driver to stop, gave him a piece of silver, and said, "Don't go out at night, especially after midnight."

"We're all asleep at midnight, who's going to come out? Please take care, Taoist priest."

Yongli turned and walked onto a small path, then turned another corner and disappeared from sight.

The coachman smiled, pocketed the loose silver, and drove back.

That night, there was a knock on the driver's door.

"Old Huang, can we use the carriage?"

"Alright—" the driver replied, getting up.

The coachman and his wife stopped him, saying, "It's past midnight, don't go out."

"My son is getting married, so we should earn as much as we can to make the wedding more affordable." The driver insisted on going.

The driver and his wife still wouldn't let go of him. "No way." Then they shouted outside, "Brother, I'm sorry, you should try another place. We don't do any work at night."

There was no more movement outside the door.

The driver sighed and crawled back into bed. "Fine, what a spendthrift woman, she won't even let me make money."

The driver and his wife ignored him and turned over to continue sleeping.

The next morning, as the coachman hitched up his carriage to go out and find work, there was a knock on the door.

The banging was very rapid, clang, clang, clang...

The coachman and his wife came out carrying a basin of swill to feed the horses. Hearing the noise, they said, "This must be a death announcement. What bad luck so early in the morning."

The driver glared at his wife and went to open the door.

The driver was stunned when he saw the young man outside with a white cloth tied around his head. "Xiao Wang, what's this?"

"Uncle Huang, my father is gone. He took a job late last night, and when he got back he collapsed...and he's gone."

The driver, Old Huang, broke out in a cold sweat. "When did you call for a ride?"

Xiao Wang replied, "It's past midnight. I don't know who it was. I slept like a log last night, and my mother didn't hear anything either."

Old Huang looked back at his wife and saw that she also looked terrified.

"Last night, someone knocked on my door too. It sounded like the Zhang family's son." As he spoke, Old Huang looked at his wife.

Old Huang's wife nodded. "Yes, it's that kid. I didn't want you to go because his family never pays for the ride."

Old Huang said to Xiao Wang, "Why don't we go to the Zhang family's house and see if they're the ones who asked your family to use their car?"

"Okay, that's perfect, I was just about to go there too."

When the two arrived at the Zhang family's house, they found the door ajar. Xiao Wang gently pushed it open...

Corpses littered the ground!

The driver and Xiao Wang were so frightened that they hurriedly went to the government office to report the incident.

...

Read the latest chapter.

Don't go out after midnight (free reading).