Chapter 10
Chapter 10
The two wooden oxen carried the coffin while Aunt Qin and I walked beside them.
Together, we crossed the riverbank and reached the foot of the mountain.
Graves lay everywhere. I could even see wisps of blue will-o’-the-wisp drifting about.
Yet it was exactly as Aunt Qin had said. I sensed nothing sinister or evil. Instead, the air felt clear and serene.
Faintly, I could hear men and women, old and young, laughing and talking near my ear. It felt as though we had entered some strange village.
But whenever I concentrated and tried to listen, the voices became indistinct.
Aunt Qin kept her eyes straight ahead and said calmly, “Some departed souls are unwilling to be reborn, so they remain in this Yishan Burial Ground. After enough time passes, their souls naturally dissolve into heaven and earth.”
“What?” I asked in surprise. “Does that mean ghosts can die too?”
“Of course.”
Aunt Qin nodded. “If a ghost refuses rebirth and lingers in the mortal world, it will dissipate after a certain length of time. Ghosts that have become revenants or vengeful spirits are an exception. Unless someone actively destroys them, they may exist forever.”
I frowned slightly. “So… good ghosts die young, while bad ghosts plague us for a thousand years?”
Aunt Qin gave me a surprised look.
She probably thought it was an unusual way of seeing the matter.
But she could only nod. Put that way, it really was true.
“That is why certain unusual people are needed to eliminate evil entities and vicious revenants before they can cause harm.”
“People like you, Aunt Qin?”
“Ha-ha! Your Aunt Qin isn’t actually one of those people.”
“Then why…”
“I’m only repaying the villagers’ kindness in letting me stay. I wanted to settle a karmic debt. But it seems the more one becomes involved in these things, the deeper the ties grow. Now you and I share an even greater karmic debt. Whether that will be good or bad for you, I cannot say.”
Aunt Qin ruffled my hair, then looked up at the sky. Her voice became distant and profound.
I did not understand what she meant then. By the time I grasped the deeper significance, ten years had passed.
We crossed the vast graveyard and reached its center. At last, the six-story Hundred-Bone Pagoda, roughly eighty-four feet tall, stood before us in full.
It was already several centuries old, and the outer walls were badly weathered.
There had once been a wooden door at the entrance, but after years without maintenance, it had fallen into ruin…
That was convenient. Otherwise, we might have needed to dismantle the door before the wooden oxen could carry the coffin inside!
Aunt Qin and I each raised a burning torch to illuminate the area.
Clack, clack.
The wooden legs struck the flagstones. In the still night, the sound traveled far and echoed through the valley.
The instant we entered the Hundred-Bone Pagoda, both wooden oxen collapsed into pieces with a clatter. The coffin crashed to the floor with a bang.
Aunt Qin explained that the two wooden oxen had lain sealed in the red boat’s hidden compartment for decades and were already badly decayed. Almost all the cursecraft infused into them had faded as well.
The fact that they had carried the coffin this far was remarkable.
“Inside the Hundred-Bone Pagoda, the drowned revenant will be suppressed, so there’s no need to worry. I’m going to light the lamps around us. Stay right here and behave, Little Wu.”
Holding her torch aloft, Aunt Qin circled the interior to light the lamps.
I crouched and curiously poked through the scattered frames of the wooden oxen. From the outside, their workmanship looked no different from that of Carpenter Liao in our village!
So how could these wooden oxen walk on their own?
I grew ever more curious about the world of the esoteric arts to which Aunt Qin and people like her belonged!
As lamps that had been dark for years were lit one by one, the interior brightened. At last, I saw the inside of the Hundred-Bone Pagoda clearly.
How should I describe it? It was called a pagoda, but the interior was hollow.
It resembled an enormous temple bell turned upside down.
In other words, standing on the ground floor and looking up, one had an unobstructed view of the roof more than sixty feet overhead!
Each story was carved into the thick walls around that hollow center. A spiral staircase of stone rose from the ground and connected the platform at every level.
Those platforms were only about five feet wide, with open air along the inner edge. One careless step could easily send someone falling.
The inner wall of the pagoda was honeycombed with densely packed niches.
Sigils had been painted around every opening. Each niche extended some distance into the wall, where one could dimly see a thin-planked coffin resting inside.
Some coffins had even rotted away, exposing parts of the skeletons within.
The spectacle was magnificent and eerie at once. I stared, transfixed!
Aunt Qin returned to my side and patted my shoulder. “Don’t be afraid. The Hundred-Bone Pagoda stands at the heart of the Yishan Burial Ground. It anchors the mountain’s ley lines and connects the greater feng shui formation, so no evil entities can arise inside. These skeletons may look frightening, but they won’t cause any trouble. What we need to worry about is carrying this drowned revenant up to a corpse niche without missing a step and falling.”
She pointed toward the highest story of the Hundred-Bone Pagoda, where several niches remained empty.
It turned out that the bodies kept inside the pagoda all belonged to people who had harbored particularly powerful obsessions in life.
If buried outside, their resentment would be difficult to resolve. After a Red-Boat Oarsman–a government river oarsman–recovered one of these bodies, it was stored here.
The great feng shui formation of the Hundred-Bone Pagoda would slowly wear away those obsessions.
In simpler terms, it was like confining an ill-tempered person in the peaceful surroundings of a Buddhist or Taoist sanctuary. Gradually, their hostility would fade…
“The two wooden oxen are broken, Little Wu. We’ll have to carry this baleful corpse–the drowned revenant’s body–to a niche at the top of the pagoda ourselves.”
“Once I harness the Hundred-Bone Pagoda’s feng shui formation, I can slowly erode its baleful energy and solve this problem for good. It will become an ordinary corpse and remain here.”
Oh.
I nodded, only half understanding.
In any case, Aunt Qin would never hurt me. All I had to do was follow her instructions.
From the moment we entered the Yishan Burial Ground, the corpse inside the coffin had become very docile. Neither Aunt Qin nor I needed to hold it down.
Now that we were inside the Hundred-Bone Pagoda, even opening the coffin posed no problem.
When Aunt Qin pushed aside the lid, I saw Wang Fei’s body. It looked nothing like him in life!
Wang Fei had once been a cheerful, optimistic boy.
But one glance at him lying in the coffin now sent cold through my entire body and made my hair stand on end!
The corpse wore a strange smile, its lips pitch-black. The nails on the hands folded over its stomach had grown three inches long and were as sharp as knives.
It wore the burial clothes Zhao Wenxiu had carefully chosen. Long white hairs had sprouted across every patch of exposed skin.
My heart pounded. I swallowed hard.
Honestly, if Aunt Qin had not been beside me, I would have turned and run at once!
“In a moment, I’ll lift the body out, turn around, and carry it on my back. You hold his feet and help guide us up the pagoda. Can you do that?”
“Yes, Aunt Qin. Don’t worry!”
My legs felt weak, but I puffed out my chest and tried my best to look like a little adult.
Aunt Qin went to the head of the coffin, slid her arms beneath the corpse’s armpits, and locked her hands over its chest. Then she pulled!
She dragged it out with ease.
Twisting her arms, she hoisted it onto her back.
At that instant, I saw Aunt Qin stagger.
“Little Wu, come help lift his feet.”
I hurried over, grasped Wang Fei’s ankles with both hands, and pulled upward.
So cold!
I shuddered.
It was like holding a block of solid ice. The cold bit so deeply that my palms began to ache.
Strangest of all, Wang Fei’s body was unnaturally heavy!
When he was alive, we often played together. Sometimes Liu Erwa and Wang Menden would carry him, and he always seemed light. They could even jog with him between them.
Now, simply helping lift his feet felt like trying to raise a stone!
I could only imagine how much weight Aunt Qin bore.
“Up!”
With a shout, she stepped onto the stone staircase of the Hundred-Bone Pagoda and began climbing one story at a time.
I followed behind, helping carefully.
Because Aunt Qin carried the corpse with both arms behind her, it faced upward. As I followed her up the stairs, I could see the full front of its body.
When we reached the fourth story…
Suddenly!
Wang Fei’s eyes snapped open. Still facing upward, the corpse stared straight at me with savage hatred.
“Mommy!”
I jolted in fright and lost my grip. Both of the corpse’s feet hit the floor. Its weight shifted, and it nearly slid from the narrow platform.
Fortunately, Aunt Qin reacted quickly. She lunged forward and hooked one hand inside a corpse niche, steadying herself.
“What happened, Little Wu?”
“Wang Fei’s corpse… opened its eyes. He… he was staring at me!”
“Even a powerful drowned revenant can’t do much inside the Hundred-Bone Pagoda. The feng shui and pure yin energy of the pagoda and Yishan Burial Ground suppress most of its abilities. Don’t be afraid, Little Wu. Be brave. It’s only using an illusion to frighten you.”
Aunt Qin spoke earnestly.
Since she was carrying the body backward, she could not turn to face me. Her voice echoed through the pagoda, sounding strangely hollow.
Was that true?
I cautiously looked at the corpse on her back.
Sure enough, its eyes were clearly closed. They had never opened at all.
Perhaps it truly had created an illusion to frighten me.
“I’m sorry, Aunt Qin.”
“What is there to apologize for? You’re only nine, and you’ve already done very well. When Aunt Qin was your age, I wasn’t nearly as brave as you.”
“Then how old are you now, Aunt Qin? Your voice sounds really young.”
“Ha-ha! You little rascal. I may well be older than your great-grandmother.”
Laughing, she settled the corpse on her back again. I lifted its feet, and we continued upward.
I admired Aunt Qin immensely, but I was sure she was boasting.
Even though I had never seen her face, her voice was crisp and youthful, and she possessed tremendous strength. She could not possibly be an old woman!
Besides, my great-grandmother had died several years earlier at the age of eighty-eight. How could Aunt Qin be that old?
At last, we reached the sixth story of the Hundred-Bone Pagoda!
The remaining empty corpse niches were visible only a dozen or so paces ahead. We would soon finish without further trouble.
But at that very moment, another accident occurred!
Every oil lamp inside the Hundred-Bone Pagoda went out at once. Aunt Qin and I were plunged into darkness.
There was not even the faintest breeze around us!
How could the lamps have gone out?
This journey to deliver a corpse into the pagoda had truly brought one danger and setback after another.
Many years later, when I too became an esoteric practitioner, I finally understood just how powerful a drowned revenant like Wang Fei was!
I had been only nine, yet I had followed Aunt Qin and accomplished such an extraordinary feat.
In the darkness, I faintly heard a strange sound.
Croak, croak, croak!
It sounded like a toad calling from the grass beside the river at night.
What was happening?
Why was there a toad inside the Hundred-Bone Pagoda? And why was its call so much louder than an ordinary toad’s? It sounded as though it were directly ahead of us.
“Aunt Qin, what… what’s going on? Why did all the lamps go out? And why is there a toad croaking?”
I spoke in a whisper.
She did not answer immediately. A moment later came another croaking call–clearly different from the first.
To my astonishment, I recognized Aunt Qin’s voice!
“Is she imitating a toad?”
I found it utterly baffling.
But in the pitch-black darkness, I could not see my own hand in front of my face. Aunt Qin kept croaking instead of answering me, and I did not dare move. I simply stood rigidly where I was, still holding the corpse’s ankles.
Then a third toadlike call rang out.
Croak, croak, croak… grrrrk!
It differed from the other two, carrying a sinister, icy quality.
The instant I heard it, my scalp went numb. A chill shot from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head, raising goose bumps over my entire body!
I could hear clearly that the third voice came from the corpse on Aunt Qin’s back.
It was Wang Fei’s corpse!
The sound came from its throat.
Truth be told, I was terrified.
Human beings possess an instinctive fear of the dark. In that total blackness, my terror became overwhelming.
“Didn’t Aunt Qin say the Hundred-Bone Pagoda–the entire Yishan Burial Ground–was safe and pure, without anything strange or evil? Then what is happening now?”
I desperately wanted to turn and run!
Only my final shred of reason held that fearful instinct in check. Even afterward, I thought I had been far too mature for my age!
Croak, croak, croak! Croak, croak!
Croak, croak! Grrrk, grrrrk!
Three voices, all resembling toads yet clearly distinct, answered one another in turn.
Aunt Qin’s imitation grew faster and faster until it became frantic!
At last, the first voice softened.
It croaked twice and disappeared.
I clearly felt a wave of reluctant, aggrieved fury come from behind us. The next instant, every oil lamp in the Hundred-Bone Pagoda sprang back to life.
The darkness dispersed, and light returned!
Ahead of me, Aunt Qin still carried the corpse. Sweat covered the backs of her exposed hands.
“Aunt Qin, what in the world was–”
“It’s all right now, Little Wu. Something happened that I hadn’t anticipated, but we resolved it in the end. The Corpse King of the Hundred-Bone Pagoda emerged just now. It didn’t want to let an evil thing like this drowned revenant inside. I was bargaining with it. But the drowned revenant is cunning and tried talking to the Corpse King as well. In the end, this pagoda is still a pure place. The Corpse King chose to believe me and gave its consent.”
I drew a sharp breath.
So corpses really had been talking!
That had been corpse speech.
Aunt Qin had bargained with a corpse. It was terrifying!