Chapter 213
Chapter 213
Big Bull and the others came over and helped Old Cao and me push the coffin over as well.
Then we set everything on fire together.
The raging flames cast our faces bright red and illuminated the entire Bai family backyard…
Before long, both the blood fiend and the sinister coffin had burned to ashes.
Ergou carried several large wooden buckets–apparently ones the Bai family residence used to hold water–and filled them with the ashes.
It would not be good to leave such things at our employer’s home.
He said Boss Bai had paid a great deal of money, after all. Since we had taken the job and made our living from the dead, we had to handle it thoroughly and do our best not to leave the employer with any future trouble.
I gave him a thumbs-up.
“Ergou, I never would’ve guessed. You usually seem so careless, but you have quite the professional conscience. This little brother is truly impressed!”
Ha ha ha!
Everyone burst out laughing.
After leaving the Bai family residence, I found a nearby spot with a suppressive effect, dug a pit, and buried the ashes of the blood fiend and the sinister coffin.
Only then did we leave Baijia Flats and head toward Lianghe Town, our steps weary but light…
Half an hour later,
we returned to Old Cao’s coffin shop.
One look at the time showed it was almost three in the morning!
Tonight’s battle had been the hardest one I had fought since following Master onto the path of studying the arcane arts and cultivating.
All six of us had also come away injured.
“Boss, Young Mr. Wu, how did all of you get hurt? Are you all right?”
Wang Hu floated out of his coffin, and his first words upon seeing us were full of concern.
Old Cao waved a hand and grinned.
“It’s nothing. A few days of rest and we’ll be fine.”
Ergou sidled closer, waggling his brows smugly.
“Brother Hu! You know what? We took down a corpse fiend tonight. A corpse fiend! That’s a truly vicious creature. If it had actually broken out of its coffin, who knows how many people it would’ve killed? But we brought it down.”
Wang Hu sucked in a sharp breath.
“A corpse fiend? It was actually something that dangerous? That’s terrifying.”
He shook his head and sighed.
Clearly, merely hearing about it made him shudder.
That made sense…
Although Wang Hu was a spirit-type ghost, with his current cultivation, a creature on the level of a corpse fiend could probably immobilize him with its aura alone!
Then he could only wait obediently for death as the corpse fiend absorbed and devoured him, turning him into corpse qi stored inside its corpse core.
Grrrgle!
At that moment, Big Bull’s stomach unexpectedly began to rumble.
He looked rather embarrassed.
He scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
“Well… fighting that corpse fiend tonight took too much out of me. My stomach’s completely empty, and I’m so hungry it’s growling.”
The moment he finished speaking, my stomach immediately answered with a loud grrrgle of its own–as though the two of us were calling out greetings to each other!
Everyone in the room froze, then burst into laughter.
Big Bull was a muscular man and a coffin carrier who focused on physical conditioning. Every day, he ate at least two or three times as much as an ordinary adult, and he burned through it quickly too…
As for me, turbid qi had entered my body on Chinese New Year’s Eve half a year earlier and had been slowly strengthening it ever since.
I had also developed overt force in internal martial arts, strengthening my muscles, fascia, and bones.
On top of that, I was an adolescent in the middle of a growth spurt.
With all three factors combined, I ate no less than Big Bull!
So at that moment, the two of us were the hungriest people there…
Wang Hu turned toward the kitchen as he said,
“Boss, sit down and rest for a while. I’ll cook some late-night food.”
“All right. Thanks for the trouble, Little Hu.”
Old Cao smiled and nodded at him. We casually pulled over a few small stools, sat inside the shop, and continued chatting while we waited to eat.
Even for Old Cao, eliminating a corpse fiend was an achievement worth talking over at length.
By the time we finished the late-night meal Wang Hu had prepared, it was already four thirty in the morning.
It would not be much longer before daybreak!
Only then did we prepare to sleep.
…
Fortunately, I had the sleep cultivation Old Cao had taught me.
Although I had to get up and prepare for school after only two hours of sleep, I still felt full of energy!
When I passed through the shop downstairs, I saw that Big Bull and the other three had each chosen a coffin and lain down inside.
Coffin bearers and coffin carriers did not regard coffins with the same dread as ordinary people.
In the old days, those who roamed the martial world often lodged overnight in communal mortuaries out in the wilderness.
They had truly exhausted themselves fighting the corpse fiend last night, so all of them were sleeping soundly!
Ergou most of all.
I took a glance at him.
One foot stuck out over the edge of the coffin. His mouth hung wide open, a snot bubble puffed from his nose, and he was still snoring. The sight made me chuckle.
“Young Mr. Wu, you’re up early as ever.”
Wang Hu floated around the shop, cleaning as he greeted me.
I spread my hands.
“I don’t have a choice. I have to go to school.”
As usual, I went across the street to buy steamed buns.
Thinking that Big Bull and the others would probably want breakfast when they woke up, I bought thirty meat buns and twenty vegetable buns outright.
The huge order left the woman who ran the bun shop astonished.
…
Once I reached school, I settled into my seat.
Wang Dachun leaned over again, waggling his brows as he said,
“Boss, there’s a strange smell on you. Did you handle another big job last night? Run into something bizarre and sinister? Tell us about it!”
The moment he said that, Yao Nan and Zeng Jin looked at me like two curious children.
I had to admit, Wang Dachun was remarkably perceptive about this kind of thing!
I had battled the blood fiend the night before, so traces of yin energy and corpse qi inevitably clung to me.
Ordinary people… and perhaps even weaker practitioners would not have sensed them.
But Wang Dachun noticed them with ease!
I thought he might truly have excellent potential for cultivation…
His family was so well-off, however, that he had no reason to wade into these muddy waters.
It was not only grueling, but also extremely dangerous!
Once a person learned the arcane arts, dealings with demons, ghosts, and monsters were unavoidable. The only advantage was the amount of money one could earn–but Wang Dachun’s family had no shortage of money.
More crucially, he had no master or lineage!
I was still only half-trained myself, and I did not have Master’s permission. There was no way I could teach him.
As for Old Cao… Wang Dachun was unsuited to either of his professions, coffin bearer or funerary-paper artisan.
“Forget it. Everyone has their own fate. If Dachun truly has an affinity with cultivation, perhaps an opportunity will come his way in the future.”
I thought this silently to myself.
But now that the three of them had cornered me, I was afraid I had no choice but to tell them about last night’s battle with the corpse fiend…
Helpless, I hurriedly gave them the general story before morning reading began.
Even that was enough to make all three exclaim over and over, shouting about how thrilling it was!
Yao Nan in particular tugged and shook my sleeve, insisting that I continue after morning reading ended…
Clearly, this would be our topic of conversation between classes for the entire day.
Deep down, I was actually happy to oblige.
I was still a teenager, after all. Old Cao, Big Bull, Yuan Fei, Li Miao, and the others were ultimately quite a bit older than me, and spending time with them was different from being with other students.
I felt more relaxed around Yao Nan, Dachun, and the others. I was also more eager to talk and share what was on my mind.
The next day was Friday again.
It was time to go back to Wujia Village for the weekend.
Just before school let out, Wang Dachun suddenly stopped us and said his parents would both be away that weekend. He would be bored at home alone and hoped we could return to Lianghe Town a little earlier on Sunday afternoon so we could make hot pot together at his house…
It would be a little gathering among good friends!
Yao Nan and Zeng Jin immediately cheered. For well-off families in a town like this, inviting friends home was one way of deepening their friendships.
And in those days, there were not nearly as many hot pot restaurants as there were now. Making hot pot at home was also a favorite pastime among the people of the Mountain City.
“Wu Zhong, you have to come! Otherwise, your deskmate is going to get angry, hmph. Then I won’t lend you correction fluid or ink anymore.”
Yao Nan folded her arms and deliberately put on a haughty expression.
I thought it over, then agreed with a smile.
After school, I returned to the coffin shop and told Old Cao before shouldering my book bag and heading back to Wujia Village.
I greeted my parents, then hurried to Master’s house with the dinner my mother had prepared.
We had killed a blood fiend!
Merely thinking about such a “great achievement” filled me with pride. Of course I wanted to tell Master as soon as possible and make her proud of me.
To me, nothing could make me happier than Master’s praise and approval!
“Master! Master, I’m back!”
I pushed open the gate in the bamboo fence and called out as I trotted all the way to her door.
I could enter Master’s courtyard whenever I wished, but I still had to announce myself before going inside. Apart from the proper etiquette between master and disciple, I was a boy, after all. I could not simply barge in… ahem!
Creak.
The door swung open by itself.
Master’s clear, melodious voice came from the main room.
“Come in, Ah-Zhong. Judging by your voice, something has made you particularly happy. Tell your master about it.”
I walked inside.
Master was seated at the wooden table, drinking tea. She poured me a cup as well.
I picked it up and downed it in a single gulp, drinking like an ox.
Then I grinned foolishly.
“The tea Master makes is so good.”
“Enough flattery. Sit down and tell me all about it.”
All right!
I gazed at Master’s beautiful, delicate face and said rather proudly,
“Master, listen to this. The night before last, Old Cao and the others and I surrounded and killed a corpse fiend! And it was a very rare blood fiend at that.”
“Oh?”
Surprise flashed across Master’s lovely face.
Her bright, sparkling eyes fixed on me.
“Ah-Zhong, are you certain it was a corpse fiend, rather than an exceptionally strong vicious corpse?”
I thumped my chest.
“Of course! Old Cao was there too. Even if you don’t trust me, Master, surely you trust Old Cao’s judgment? Besides, that corpse-fiend’s joints were already extremely flexible, no different from a living person’s. It had to be a corpse fiend. A vicious corpse couldn’t reach that level.”
“And not only did all six of us risk our lives fighting the blood fiend, but one of Old Cao’s paper horses with spiritual resonance and one of his paper figures with spiritual resonance were destroyed. His heart nearly broke. But there was nothing we could do.”
“Oh, right. I still have the corpse fiend’s corpse core! Old Cao said there wasn’t much power left inside, so I planned to ask a wealthy boss in Lianghe Town to take it into the city and sell it. Then everyone could split the money equally.”
“But Old Cao said I should have you appraise it first, so I brought it back for you to take a look…”
As I spoke, I took the blood fiend’s ruby-like corpse core out of my pocket and handed it to Master.
She took it and needed only one glance before nodding.
“It truly is a corpse fiend! Ah-Zhong, your growth has genuinely made your master see you in a new light.”