Chapter 212

Chapter 212

This was… the blood fiend’s corpse core!

I gazed at the perfectly round bead, which looked like a crystal ruby, and could not help marveling at it.

“Who would have thought that a blood fiend so disgusting and horrifying in appearance could have such an exquisite, beautiful corpse core?”

Big Bull and the others also clicked their tongues in wonder.

But after rolling the corpse core around in his palm, Old Cao closed his fingers around it and sensed it for a while. A trace of disappointment appeared on his face.

He sighed, shook his head, and said,

“This corpse fiend fought us for far too long. You could basically say we wore it down bit by bit through a battle of attrition. Too much of the power in its corpse core has been consumed. It isn’t even as good as the core of a somewhat stronger vicious corpse. I’m afraid Xiao Wu probably can’t absorb it the way he did Zhou Min’s last time…”

I was startled when I heard that.

Then warmth welled up in my heart, and my nose began to sting.

Old Cao always thought of me first whenever something good came along.

I smiled, waved a hand, and said,

“The corpse core wasn’t mine alone to begin with. The six of us risked our lives fighting the blood fiend, so it should be our shared prize.”

“Besides, this is different from the corpse core Sister Zhou Min gave me last time. First, she wasn’t a corpse fiend. She was a vicious corpse created through forced transformation, so her core contained far less evil, violent energy. Second, that corpse core was essentially the payment from my nether covenant with her, which made it easier for me to absorb.”

“We were the ones who killed this strange and vicious blood fiend. That means we’ve become entangled with its resentment and karmic debt. I’m afraid I couldn’t absorb its corpse core even with Master’s help…”

“And like you said, Old Cao, there isn’t much energy left inside anyway. So I think we should ask Boss Duan if he can find some wealthy tycoon in the city proper who’ll buy it. Then we can split the money equally!”

After hearing my plan, Old Cao raised no further objections. He nodded with a beaming smile.

Then he patted me on the shoulder.

“Good! You’ve thought it through, Xiao Wu, so we’ll do as you say. We’ll have Boss Duan look around the city for a buyer who’s interested in such things and isn’t afraid of dying.”

Big Bull and the other three initially tried to refuse, saying that any money from the sale should go to Old Cao and me.

But after the two of us spent some time persuading them, they agreed.

Besides, nothing was settled yet!

It all depended on whether Boss Duan could successfully find a wealthy collector who liked such strange supernatural objects.

With the matter of the corpse core settled, it was time to deal with the blood fiend’s remains and the coffin…

Big Bull and the other three went to gather dry firewood nearby so we could burn the corpse.

Old Cao and I went to see whether the sinister coffin held any other clues. The blood fiend had appeared out of nowhere, after all. There had to be some cause behind it, right?

There was no point examining the lid or exterior anymore. We mainly wanted to take another look inside.

Old Cao and I stood one behind the other and stuck our heads inside. We shone our flashlights around and carefully inspected the coffin’s four walls and bottom…

And wouldn’t you know it, we really did find something new!

Several copper coins lay scattered in a corner at the foot of the coffin.

I immediately called out,

“Old Cao, I’ve got nine copper coins over here. They look like ancient coins from a long time ago. I can’t tell whether they were placed in the coffin to suppress the corpse or nurture it.”

Generally speaking, ancient coins would certainly have been used to suppress a corpse.

After all, many people in both folk arcane lineages and Daoist sects liked refining copper coins into ritual implements.

Old Cao raised his head as well.

“There’s nothing unusual on my side. The coffin’s four inner walls are just carved with some dark-red, sinister talisman inscriptions. They look like they came from the same source as the ones on the outside.”

He walked over and stared at the nine copper coins I had already taken out of the coffin.

Then he gave a soft exclamation.

His brow furrowed, and puzzlement showed on his face.

“What’s wrong, Old Cao? Is there a problem with these coins?”

I asked.

He took one from my hand and gently rubbed it a few times with his fingers.

Some of the caked dirt flaked away.

Four characters appeared on the face of the coin: Chunhua Yuanbao.

I was one of the top students at a leading middle school, after all, and I had done pretty well in history. The moment I saw those four characters, I understood.

“A copper coin from the Song dynasty?”

Old Cao froze, then looked at me in surprise.

“Impressive, Xiao Wu. You even know about this? The Immortal Lady really knows everything.”

Uh…

I scratched my head.

“No. Master hasn’t taught me anything about this yet. She’ll probably have me study it later.”

“Then how did you recognize it as a Song dynasty coin at a glance?”

Old Cao was curious.

I explained,

“Because Chunhua was the era name of Zhao Guangyi, Emperor Taizong of Song. It was used for only five years, so there probably weren’t many coins minted during that period.”
Ha ha!

Old Cao laughed twice and sighed with feeling.

“Looks like getting an education really is useful. Even if you couldn’t identify it with the trained eye of someone in our line of work, you still figured it out through your knowledge of history. No wonder Immortal Lady Qin insists that you study hard. I seem to remember my grandmaster saying that the Immortal Lady was quite well educated, too. Apparently, she even studied abroad once…”

What?!

I was instantly shocked.

Master had studied in another country?

That was simply unbelievable!

Back in 2000, some people from well-off families had already begun studying overseas, but there were not many of them.

Never mind Lianghe Town–there probably were not many in the entire county seat of Fubei County.

I truly could not connect Master with studying abroad. The two things seemed completely mismatched, almost jarring!

But on second thought, perhaps it was not so strange after all.

When I first met Master, she had deliberately dressed in rags and covered her face with her hair, looking like some “madwoman”!

Who could have known then that beneath all that disheveled hair was the astonishingly beautiful face of a woman who appeared to be in her twenties?

To me, the desire to learn about Master’s past was far more compelling than whatever Chunhua Yuanbao coins I happened to be holding!

“Old Cao, tell me about it. When did Master study overseas? Your grandmaster knew her too? That’s incredible…”

To my surprise, the fellow merely shook his head over and over.

“You’re Immortal Lady Qin’s disciple. If she hasn’t told you herself, she must have her own reasons and considerations. It wouldn’t be right for an outsider like me to tell you. Can’t say. Can’t say! Besides, I really don’t know much. I only heard my grandmaster mutter a few things under his breath when he got drunk now and then…”

Tsk!

I pursed my lips in displeasure.

“Stingy old miser! Fine, don’t tell me. Let’s get back to these Chunhua Yuanbao coins. What do you think is wrong with them?”

Our gazes and conversation returned to the coins in our hands.

Old Cao explained,

“Like you said, Xiao Wu, Emperor Taizu of Song used the Chunhua era name for only a short time, so Chunhua Yuanbao coins have always been relatively rare.”

“Money represents the will of the imperial court, so it naturally contains some of a nation’s fortune. And because it constantly passes between different people’s hands, it carries abundant yang energy as well, making it excellent material for warding off evil or crafting ritual implements.”

“But coins from different eras generally serve somewhat different purposes. During the Han and Tang dynasties, for example, the imperial courts were powerful, and myriad nations came to pay tribute. Ancient coins from the Han and Tang therefore contain the strongest aura and are generally used to make offensive ritual implements.”

“Coins from the Song dynasty… and especially these Chunhua Yuanbao coins, are mainly used to conceal an object’s aura. In other words, these nine coins were probably meant to hide this coffin’s location and make it difficult for anyone to find.”

So that was it!

Old Cao’s explanation brought me to a sudden realization.

I even slapped my thigh.

“I actually had a small doubt just now. Places where corpse fiends exist–especially places where one has been buried for a long time–will usually show fairly obvious changes in their feng shui formations.”

“Baijia Flats can be seen from the corridors of the teaching building at Lianghe District Middle School. When my classmates and I relax in the corridor between classes, I’ve examined nearly all the feng shui patterns of the surrounding mountains and rivers. I never found any baleful energy in the feng shui.”

“I thought my skills simply weren’t good enough! It looks like these nine ancient Chunhua Yuanbao copper coins concealed the sinister coffin’s aura.”

“That’s why I never noticed anything unusual around Baijia Flats when I looked out from the teaching building.”

After our discussion, Old Cao and I had completely confirmed one thing–someone had deliberately created this blood fiend!

And whoever created it seemed extremely conflicted.

Some of the methods had accelerated its transformation and created a corpse fiend, while others had suppressed and sealed it.

It was as if the person had two minds!

The whole thing made no sense at all…

But matters had already reached this point, and we had no other clues. There was no need to force ourselves to keep pondering it.

Old Cao put away the nine Chunhua Yuanbao coins for the time being. He would take them back to the coffin shop and see whether they might prove useful.

Although they had lain inside the blood fiend’s sinister coffin for more than a century, they were ordinary ritual implements for concealing auras, not anything evil. Naturally, we could keep them.

Before long, Big Bull and the others returned with plenty of firewood and piled it beside the blood fiend’s body.

We prepared to burn the blood fiend.