The neon lights of Lion City blurred in the rain, and Hao Tian rubbed his sore eyes. His security uniform felt icy cold from the air conditioning. This was his 37th night shift, and the mall's surveillance screens glowed with a pale light.
"Section B patrol complete," he said into the walkie-talkie, his voice echoing through the empty corridor. His wristwatch read 1:15 AM. Once he finished the underground parking lot patrol, he could finally rest.
As the elevator descended, Hao Tian suddenly shivered. The parking lot felt colder than usual, with the fluorescent lights buzzing and casting spider-web-like shadows. The ordinary baton on his waist suddenly felt heavy—it was a prize from last month's security skills competition, engraved with the faded golden characters "Outstanding Security."
"Ssss—"
A viscous, writhing sound came from behind the concrete pillar. Haotian spun around abruptly, the beam of his flashlight piercing the darkness to reveal a pool of black-green liquid corroding the ground. His chest suddenly grew hot, and the ancestral bronze pendant burning through his shirt.
"Who's there?" His voice tightened as he gripped the baton in his hand.
A twisted figure darted out of the shadows. The suit was tattered, but the tie was neatly knotted. Beneath the grayish-blue skin, veins pulsed with emerald-green patterns. At its feet lay the unconscious cleaning lady—Aunt Wang, who had given him two tea eggs the day before.
"Corpse poison?" Haotian's mind flashed with his grandfather's ancient texts, and his body charged forward before his thoughts could catch up. The baton struck the monster's shoulder, but it felt like hitting rotten wood, and the recoil caused his palm to split open. The zombie screamed and swiped its claws, and he barely managed to dodge, but his shirt was still torn open by three claw marks.
In the midst of excruciating pain, the pendant suddenly exploded. Bronze shards sliced open his chest, and blood seeped into the ancestral Bagua tattoo. Before Haotian's eyes flashed the scene from when he was six years old, when his grandfather had written the "Golden Light Mantra" on his back with cinnabar.
"Heaven and Earth, the Mysterious Origin; the Root of All Qi!"
As the incantation left his lips, nine chains within his body shattered with a thunderous roar. His spine awoke like a dragon, and every drop of blood boiled with golden runes. This was the initial awakening sign of the "Hun Yuan Tian Shi Body" as recorded in the "San Qing Dao Zang"—the pinnacle of the Tong Xuan Realm, half a step away from the True Gangs!
The zombie was struck in the chest by the golden light, its腐肉 falling away to reveal exposed white bones. Hao Tian seized the opportunity to bite his index finger and draw a blood symbol on the baton. The ordinary baton was instantly covered in spiritual patterns, upgrading it into a temporary magical artifact. The second strike, accompanied by the sound of wind and thunder, crushed the monster's skull.
"I actually had to use the power of the Tongxuan Realm..." Haotian gasped as he inspected his wound, the black mist already spreading to his elbow. He recalled his grandfather's words: once zombie poison enters the heart, one becomes a walking corpse. Just as he was about to tear off his clothes to bind the wound, a crisp bell sound echoed from the shadows.
A woman in a black windbreaker walked through the puddles, her ponytail adorned with a bronze bell. Her left hand formed the Buddhist Fearless Seal, while her right hand held the Daoist Sword Seal. A faint golden true qi swirled around her—at least the mid-stage of the True Qi Realm.
"A corpse poison that even the Lingpin-grade 'Reincarnation Mantra' can't suppress?" She frowned as she pressed down on Haotian's wound, a swastika-shaped light wheel appearing in her palm. "It seems to be a variant of the Dìpǐn-grade 'Blood Demon Corpse Emperor Sutra.'"
In the midst of excruciating pain, Hao Tian noticed a faint lotus tattoo on the woman's neck. When the Buddha's light collided with the corpse poison, the tattoo transformed into a blood-red mandala. He suddenly recalled a secret his grandfather had mentioned while drunk—the contemporary saintess who practices both Buddhism and Daoism must inherit the "Mingwang Holy Seal."
"Bear it." The woman's fingers formed a knife-like shape and suddenly slashed across his entire arm. As black blood gushed out, she flung three purple talismans into the air, which ignited into a fiery net, enveloping the toxic blood. Heaven-grade talismans! Hao Tian's pupils contracted—there were only three such talismans in his grandfather's collection.
When the last trace of black mist was burned away, the woman suddenly grabbed his throat: "Speak! Who taught you the 'Sanqing Daozang's' Hun Yuan Foundation-Building Technique?" Her fingertips glowed with golden needles, aimed directly at Haotian's Lingtai acupoint between his eyebrows.
As he neared death, the Bagua pattern on his back suddenly flew out of his body, forming a Taiji diagram between the two of them. The woman let go as if struck by lightning, and the golden needles clattered to the ground.
"The bloodline of the Celestial Master... and the Kunlun Seal?" She took two steps back, and the bells rang without wind. Suddenly, the sound of shattering glass echoed from the distance, and the woman's expression changed drastically: "They actually used zombies as bait!"
She tossed a bound volume to Hao Tian, its cover inscribed in cinnabar with the words "The Scripture of Spiritual Flight." "Master the first three pages within three days, or the zombie poison will resurface and you will die." Before her words had faded, she had vanished into a blur.
Hao Tian flipped open the first page, revealing a top-tier lightness technique. The last page had a note tucked inside: "Come to the fourth floor 'Ancient and Modern Pavilion' after closing tomorrow night." The signature was a drawing of a lotus flower about to bloom.
In the surveillance room, Security Captain Zhang Dahai shut off the replay. In the depths of his drawer, half a blood talisman was quietly burning on Aunt Wang's ID badge.
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**The story may unfold around the following key points**:
- **The origin of the bronze bell**: The bell on Xiao You's ponytail had the words "Soul-binding" engraved on the inside, identical to the ritual object depicted in the thousand-year-old tomb mural that Hao Tian saw in his dream. This ancient tomb was precisely where the Corpse King Xie Kui was sealed.
- **The mystery of conflicting cultivation techniques**: When Hao Tian reached the third page of the *Lingfei Jing* in his cultivation, a sudden surge of Buddhist Vajra power erupted within him. This conflict with the Taoist arts will tear golden cracks along his spine.
- **The Undercurrents of the Security Team**: The ashes left behind after the blood talisman in Zhang Dahai's drawer burned formed an ancient prophecy: "When bronze meets blood, the Tian Shi will emerge." Meanwhile, the night shift schedules of all the security guards in the mall all indicated the "Death Gate" direction from the奇门遁甲 system.
I hope this version meets your detailed requirements for cultivation levels and cultivation techniques. If you need further refinement of the characteristics of a particular realm or additional plot elements involving cultivation technique conflicts, I can adjust accordingly at any time.