Chapter 143
Chapter 143
Once Old Cao and the others learned that Bai Su was one of us–or rather, one of our monsters–their attitudes transformed.
They became exceptionally enthusiastic.
Everyone crowded around Bai Su and Huihui, firing question after question.
The attention left both of them slightly embarrassed.
I could understand how the men felt. Anyone who encountered such a powerful monster with fully awakened intelligence would be unable to restrain their curiosity.
Even someone like Old Cao probably had few chances to meet a great monster with more than fifty years of cultivation.
He might have encountered one occasionally in the past, but probably very few that he could coexist with peacefully.
Bai Su was actually only in her teens. But after accidentally eating a fragment from the mysterious black plant beneath the river, her demonic energy had reached the level of a monster with more than fifty years of cultivation.
Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside.
They were accompanied by a deep male voice full of delight.
“Coffin-Bearer Cao! Young Mr. Wu! I obtained the photocopies of the Fubei County Gazetteer! I’m terribly sorry. Traffic was heavy on the way back from the main city. I drove straight here the moment I reached town.”
A man in an immaculate suit rushed from the darkness outside.
Though already in his sixties, he remained healthy and easily stepped over the high threshold into the shop.
Then…
He froze.
That’s right.
He had entered too quickly. As a living, ordinary man with no magical power, he couldn’t alert us to his presence from far away.
Therefore, the ghost and two monsters had no time to hide.
Boss Duan stared at Bai Su, Huihui, and the semitransparent Wang Hu floating in midair, as motionless as a wooden chicken.
Thud!
The two photocopies of the Fubei County Gazetteer fell from his hands.
“Th-this… What…”
He was too horrified to speak.
Obviously, anyone who saw a rabbit that enormous and a fox standing like a human would know they were anything but ordinary.
I felt somewhat helpless.
He had seen everything far too clearly for us to conceal it.
Besides, Boss Duan’s own daughter had once transformed into an exceptionally powerful vicious corpse. In terms of actual fighting strength, she had probably been considerably stronger than Bai Su.
As for Wang Hu, he likely wouldn’t have survived three exchanges against her.
There was no need to hide anything.
Old Cao stepped forward awkwardly.
“Boss Duan, several people from our trade happened to gather here tonight. I apologize for the unusual sight.”
Boss Duan finally recovered. Regaining some of a wealthy businessman’s composure and presence, he shook his head.
“No, I was the one who barged in. All I could think about was keeping my promise and delivering the photocopies of the Fubei County Gazetteer to you and Young Mr. Wu as quickly as possible. I entered without announcing myself. Please accept my apologies.”
As he spoke, his eyes instinctively flicked toward Bai Su, Huihui, and Wang Hu again.
Fortunately, he had entered alone. His driver and assistant were waiting outside the coffin shop.
Otherwise, they might have been terrified.
Not everyone possessed Boss Duan’s composure and courage.
I walked forward, accepted the two photocopies of the Fubei County Gazetteer from him, and smiled.
“Boss Duan, if you’re curious, feel free to look. Let me introduce everyone. This is Miss Bai, Little Brother Huihui, and Mr. Wang. As you can see, they are indeed monsters and a ghost, but they’re also our friends.”
When I said the words “monsters” and “ghost,” I distinctly noticed Boss Duan shiver almost imperceptibly.
No matter how much wealth and power he possessed, he was still an ordinary person.
He forced a smile, gave Bai Su, Huihui, and Wang Hu a cupped-hand salute, and said, “I am Duan Hong. It is an honor to meet you, Miss Bai, Little Brother Huihui, and Mr. Wang!”
“Greetings, Boss Duan. There is no need for such ceremony. Since we are all friends of Young Mr. Wu, if your family ever encounters trouble ordinary people cannot understand, you may send word to me.”
Bai Su’s gentle, gracious voice sounded directly in Boss Duan’s mind.
He was both shocked and delighted.
He was shocked that this monster could place her voice directly inside his mind. She had to be extraordinarily powerful.
He was delighted that although she was a rabbit, her intelligence equaled a human’s. Not only could she communicate through thought, but she also possessed impeccable manners.
Boss Duan repeatedly said he wouldn’t dare impose. After greeting everyone in the shop, he backed out through the door.
Once he left, Old Cao lightly patted my shoulder.
“Xiao Wu, you might be young, but you’re awfully shrewd. Were you deliberately flexing our muscles?”
I laughed.
“I can’t hide anything from you, Old Cao. Boss Duan is an important man in town. Letting him see more of our abilities is a good thing. Still, I misjudged him this time. He truly kept his promise.”
As I had noted before, the status of folk arcane lineage cultivators like us was somewhat awkward in modern society.
Building relationships with powerful and influential people wasn’t a bad thing.
Of course, we first needed to ensure they possessed good character.
If both sides were merely exploiting each other, the relationship would be meaningless.
Back to the matter at hand.
The moment Boss Duan left, we began reading the photocopies of the Fubei County Gazetteer.
He probably hadn’t thought too deeply about the number. Since he knew only Old Cao and me, he had brought two copies.
But that was fine.
Li Miao and I shared one, while Old Cao and Yuan Fei shared the other.
Bai Su, Huihui, and Wang Hu looked on from beside us.
Since we still needed to hurry to Xiaowan Village, we focused primarily on the account of the grain merchant Xu Xinyi encountering the “living corpse” Zhou Mu while traveling by boat.
As expected, the record contained far, far more detail than Wang Dachun’s retelling.
That fellow had cared only about the bizarre, terrifying story of the “living corpse.” He had completely overlooked many useful details about the people involved.
For example, the exact address of the grain merchant Xu Xinyi’s home in Lianghe Town.
Or the fact that Xu Xinyi had a family, with several children born to his wife and concubine.
Or that in his forties, Xu Xinyi suddenly left home. According to rumor, he followed an old wandering Taoist priest out of Lianghe Town and was never seen again.
Some of the information might not prove useful, but at least it gave me a fuller, more detailed understanding of the incident.
Most importantly, Xu Xinyi had descendants.
Some of them might still live in Lianghe Town.
We could certainly find time to locate them and hear what Xu Xinyi’s descendants had to say about the event.
After finishing Xu Xinyi’s account, Old Cao and I closed our copies of the Fubei County Gazetteer.
According to our earlier plan, we still needed to make another trip to Xiaowan Village.
First, we wanted to investigate the site again and see whether the object beneath the river remained.
Second, we needed to hurry and give the pill Master had provided to Xiao Sheng, the child corpse. That would at least ensure his safety and prevent him from transforming without warning and attacking people like Zhou Mu in the Fubei County Gazetteer.
“But it’s so late that no motorcycle taxis will be waiting at the intersections,” Yuan Fei said with a frown and a sigh. “How are we going to get there? Walking will take hours.”
Old Cao and I exchanged smiles.
A few minutes later…
“Holy fuck, Old Cao! Holy fuck, Coffin-Bearer Cao! You’re incredible! Your paper-crafting skill within the spirit-paper arts has reached this level? I admit defeat!”
Yuan Fei and I rode the same paper horse. Seated behind me, he shrieked in amazement.
Beside us, Old Cao and Li Miao shared another paper horse. Old Cao said helplessly, “Yuan Fei, could you stop putting my name directly after an exclamation like ‘holy fuck’? It sounds very strange.”
I considered the wording.
Then I burst out laughing so hard I nearly fell from the horse.
Huihui sat on Bai Su’s back as she ran as fast as a horse. He asked curiously, “Susu, what are they laughing about?”
Bai Su fell silent.
“Children don’t need to understand adult matters!”
Huihui closed his mouth, looking aggrieved.
Naturally, Wang Hu remained behind to guard the shop.
Although his strength had increased greatly recently, he had once been an ordinary ghost–and an exceptionally weak panhandler ghost at that.
There was no need to bring him along yet. If something happened, he couldn’t offer much help. Guarding the coffin shop was more useful.
When we reached Xiaowan Village, we headed straight for the Xiao family residence.
After waking Xiao Mao and his wife, we explained the current situation. With their permission, the four men and one monster–Bai Su–entered the cellar together.
Huihui was still young and weak.
Entering the cellar rashly and facing the strange living corpse might provoke some unexpected change and create needless trouble.
We left him outside the Xiao residence to play alone until we returned.
The cellar was frigid and filled with yin energy.
Li Miao said worriedly, “Sure enough, even if he does nothing evil, his mere existence constantly releases yin energy. Within two or three years at most, this entire area around the Xiao residence will change. It will also attract all kinds of sinister yin beings. When that happens, regardless of what happens to Xiao Sheng himself, those outsiders alone will cause the Xiao family tremendous trouble!”
Yuan Fei nodded in agreement.
This was his first time seeing something as strange as a “living corpse,” and he clicked his tongue in wonder.
“Indeed. Without the Immortal Lady’s pill, our only option would probably be to destroy him. Come to think of it, the pill is infinitely more valuable than any payment the Xiao family might give us. The Immortal Lady has gone to great expense on their behalf.”
Old Cao stared at the pill I had taken out, his voice full of emotion.
I smiled. “Master has no interest in money, and she doesn’t need it in her daily life. You can’t measure her help that way.”
As I spoke, I walked toward Xiao Sheng.
He was a corpse-fiend, but his false self-perception still made him believe he was alive, so he slept on a regular schedule.
After waking him, I lied that Brother Wu had come to visit, chat with him, and give him a piece of candy.
In short, after some well-intentioned coaxing, I persuaded him to swallow the pill.
The rotten odor and dense yin energy belonging to a corpse-fiend immediately vanished from his body.
Because I stood closest, I could even see the tiny wounds on his face slowly heal and disappear. A faint flush seemed to return to his deathly pale features, which had swollen slightly from soaking in river water.
“Th-this is unbelievable!”
Behind me, Yuan Fei and Li Miao exclaimed in lowered voices.
Old Cao remained relatively calm.
After all, he was Master’s fanatical admirer. No matter what she produced, he would consider its power perfectly natural.
Even I felt surprised.
Master had explained the pill’s effects when she gave it to me, but witnessing them with my own eyes was still incredible.
Once poor Xiao Sheng swallowed the pill, I finally relaxed a little.
According to Master, as long as he didn’t deliberately approach the mysterious object beneath the river again, nothing could “activate” his corpse transformation during the next two or three years.
The only exception would be a mysterious rogue occultist with cultivation surpassing Master’s, who forcibly extracted the pill and intentionally induced the living corpse to transform.
That possibility was vanishingly small.
Even so, to be safe, we left all the corpse-suppressing methods and ritual objects we had arranged earlier in place.
After leaving the cellar and returning aboveground, I hesitated, then told Xiao Mao that he and his wife could actually visit Xiao Sheng at noon on days when the sunlight was especially intense.
But they absolutely must not disturb any of our arrangements or allow him to leave the cellar.
Disturbing them probably wouldn’t cause a problem, but caution was always best.
I wasn’t afraid of trouble, but I had always handled real matters with great care. This wasn’t because I doubted Master’s pill. Caution was simply part of my nature.
After settling the Xiao family’s matter, all of us headed to the river bend outside the village.
Cold wind swept across the deserted countryside at night, beneath a sparse scattering of stars.
From far away, we saw broad banks of dense fog over the river.
But our large group gave us far more courage tonight.
When we reached the riverbank and confirmed the location, Li Miao prepared to enter the water.
He hadn’t brought his small wooden boat, so he would jump directly into the river from shore.
Our main objective was to see whether the River God and the sunken dead remained. He didn’t need to approach them too closely. A distant look would suffice.
At that moment, Bai Su spoke.
“My cultivation has increased considerably over the past few years because I ate the mysterious fragment of black leaf. I have also learned several new spells. One of them may help Mr. Li, although he must still exercise caution.”
Oh?
Her words filled us with curiosity.
Everyone turned toward Bai Su, eager to see what novel spell could make Li Miao, the corpse retriever, safer underwater.
Bai Su opened her mouth and exhaled.
Whoosh!
A stream of clear white energy flew from her mouth.
It circled in midair before us like flowing ribbons, then gathered into a white sphere that spun rapidly.
Gradually, the mist thinned and became a large, transparent bubble. It flew toward Li Miao and enveloped his entire body.