Chapter 27
Chapter 27
That became the pattern of my daily life for some time afterward.
During the day, I followed Master and studied the various methods of the esoteric arts. At mealtimes, I used the Hand-Sealing Method to strengthen my body.
Whenever I had a break, or before going to sleep at night, I found time to study my middle-school textbooks in advance.
Once summer vacation ended, I would attend middle school in Lianghe Town.
Although Wujia Village lay deep in the mountains, the journey to town took only about two hours each way by road.
My parents worried that schoolwork would put me under enough pressure already. Spending four hours on the road every day would be far too exhausting, so they decided I would return home only on weekends and board near school from Monday through Friday.
Master agreed, but said that in that case, I would have to spend both days of every weekend studying with her. I would have to handle all my schoolwork during the week.
That put me under considerable pressure. I would have no time to review my lessons, yet I still had to rank first in the entire grade!
Master also said I should not live in the school dormitory, which was expensive and noisy.
She knew someone who did business in town, and said I could stay at his home. He would provide room and board, and all I had to do was help with a few odd jobs around his shop…
When I heard he was Master’s friend, I assumed he had to be an expert and readily agreed.
I got the address and set off eagerly early on the first day of school.
When I arrived, I was dumbfounded.
It was… a coffin shop!
And it stood at the easternmost edge of Lianghe Town, almost outside the town limits.
The friend Master mentioned was actually a coffin-shop owner?
Fortunately, I had been brave since childhood. Now that I was cultivating under Master, I supposed I had one foot over the threshold of the profession. Living in a coffin shop and helping out did not seem too bad.
An ordinary person would probably have been terrified!
An old man in black cloth shoes and coarse clothing sat outside the coffin shop smoking a long-stemmed pipe. White smoke curled from its bowl.
When he saw me standing there, he bared a mouthful of yellow teeth in a grin.
“What’re you doing at my coffin shop, kid? There’s nothing worth seeing here. Run along now. Hang around too long and you might have nightmares tonight.”
The old man’s skin was dry and wrinkled, and he was quite ugly.
Five black, scabbed wounds marred the left side of his face, extending from the corner of his mouth to the corner of his eye and making him look terrifyingly ferocious.
I answered politely, “Hello, sir. My name is Wu Zhong, and I’m from Wujia Village. My master’s surname is Qin. She sent me to the coffin shop at the east end of town to find Big Brother Cao. May I ask–”
Before I could finish, the old man interrupted me.
He shot up from his stool and stared at me.
“So you’re Wu Zhong–Young Brother Wu! What a fine-looking lad. I never expected the Immortal Lady–Immortal Lady Qin herself–to take a disciple. A Featherborn fate and Seven Killings destiny really are extraordinary.”
Uh…
So this old man was the coffin-shop owner Master had sent me to meet?
He looked to be well over sixty, about the same age as my grandfather! How could I possibly call him Big Brother?
I hurriedly shook my head. “Grandpa Cao–”
“Oh, no! The Immortal Lady is a revered senior I can only look up to. Her disciple can’t address me like that. Just call me Big Brother Cao or Old Cao.”
I scratched my head helplessly.
In the end, I found a compromise. “How about this? I haven’t been Master’s disciple for long and haven’t learned much. Since I’m here to help, I’ll call you Master Cao.”
He hesitated, then nodded in agreement.
Apparently, even he found the idea of calling a twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy his brother a little awkward.
This only made me more curious about Master’s true age!
But we had only just met, and asking him outright would have been terribly rude. I decided to wait until we knew each other better, then look for an opportunity to ask.
“Master Cao, this is a letter from my master.”
I took a wooden box and a letter from my backpack and handed them to him.
Master Cao opened the letter in front of me and read it carefully from beginning to end. Then he hugged the wooden box tightly, his face lighting up with wild delight.
“Xiao Wu, you’ll be helping out here for the next three years. Immortal Lady Qin considers coffin bearing and the funerary-paper arts the two most important branches of the eclectic arts. That means she thinks highly of me, Old Cao! I’ll absolutely teach you as much of my life’s knowledge as I can!”
He thumped his chest, looking utterly sincere.
Had a few compliments in Master’s letter really made him so happy that he was willing to teach me everything he knew?
That was unbelievable!
Or perhaps the real secret was whatever lay in the wooden box–some generous payment Master had given him? But Master had no money.
After studying under Master for two months, I already had a general understanding of the esoteric arts. The transmission and bestowal of an arcane lineage’s teachings were highly formal and serious matters.
There was no chance I could take Master Cao as a second master. Why, then, had he decided to pass on all his skills to me?
Unable to restrain myself, I asked him.
Master Cao gave me a mysterious grin, revealing teeth yellowed by pipe smoke. “Don’t worry about it. Immortal Lady Qin has shown me more than enough respect and compensated me handsomely.”
He led me into the coffin shop.
I had to admit, the place was remarkable.
The moment I stepped over its foot-high threshold, an icy chill struck me head-on.
It was only early September, and the weather in the Sichuan-Chongqing region remained sweltering. Yet that high threshold seemed to divide two different worlds.
I shuddered–not from fear, of course, but from the natural reaction to a sudden drop in temperature.
Old Cao laughed. “Well? Comfortable in here, isn’t it? I don’t even need air-conditioning. In a place where the summers are hot enough to roast a man, it saves me a lot of money every year!”
I nodded admiringly. “This must be your handiwork, Master Cao.”
“You’ve got a sharp eye, Xiao Wu! Indeed it is. I arranged these coffins into a Snowy Mountain Formation.”
He gestured at the coffins filling the shop. They appeared haphazardly placed, but their positions actually followed a special pattern.
Of course, I had only studied for two months and barely knew the thinnest layer of the basics. I was lucky to vaguely understand his explanation. How could I possibly have seen through the formation?
At most, I knew that Master Cao was highly capable. He was certainly not merely the amiable old man he appeared to be.
Over the past two months, Master had explained many arcane lineages of the eclectic arts to me in detail.
“Coffin bearing” referred to the work of a coffin bearer, while “funerary paper” referred to that of a funerary-paper artisan.
As the name suggested, a coffin bearer carried coffins in funeral processions. Chinese culture placed tremendous importance on funerals and burial, on returning to one’s roots and resting peacefully in the earth.
Carrying a coffin to its burial had therefore been a momentous affair since ancient times. It involved numerous rules and taboos, as well as many uncanny occurrences. Coffin bearers were the specialists responsible for the task.
When Master sent off the drowned revenant formed from Wang Fei’s corpse and took it by boat to the Hundred-Bone Pagoda, she had used quite a few methods belonging to coffin bearers!
Funerary paper meant spirit money that could be sent to ancestors in the underworld, as well as paper effigies, horses, houses, and other objects.
Because every one of those items was intended for the dead, the related techniques were collectively known as funerary-paper arts!
Someone who mastered those arts was a funerary-paper artisan.
It was difficult enough for most people to master either coffin bearing or spirit-paper arts. Yet Master Cao had mastered both, making him at once a coffin bearer and a funerary-paper artisan. He was truly remarkable!