Chapter 244
Chapter 244
With soldiers under the God of Slaughter Bai Qi guiding them, Hua Jiunan’s party soon reached the outskirts of Xiaoyu Mountain.
The Hundred-Battle Warrior Spirit in the lead stopped well before the boundary.
“The Han army’s garrison lies ahead. It would be improper for us Qin spirits to enter without invitation.”
“Please continue on your own. This is where we part!”
As Hua Jiunan bowed in farewell, General Li Guang was already leading a group out to welcome them.
The Snow Corpse looked the same as ever.
He stood three meters tall, an icebound Female Corpse seated upon his shoulder.
Bloodstained iron chains wound around and around his body.
The far end of the chain pierced through more than a dozen emaciated, battered evil ghosts, who stumbled forward trembling.
“Mom! Uncle Snow Corpse! Are you all right?”
Overcome with emotion, Hua Jiunan leaped from Eighth Master Chang’s back and rushed into the Snow Corpse’s arms.
Hua Jiunan stood over a meter eighty himself, but before the three-meter Snow Corpse, he truly did look like a child.
The Snow Corpse’s ugly, rigid face filled with tender affection as he gazed at Hua Jiunan.
One withered hand clumsily ruffled Hua Jiunan’s hair. From his throat came a dry, halting rasp like metal grinding against metal.
“Good!”
Chen Daji watched the demon-god-like Snow Corpse and edged forward hesitantly.
“H-hello, Uncle Snow Corpse.”
“I… I’m new to the family. My name is Chen Daji…”
“Oh, right! The day your temple ‘opened for business,’ I spent the whole day kowtowing with all the other worshippers.”
“I almost knocked my skull till it farted…”
Afraid his contribution did not sound impressive enough to win the Snow Corpse’s favor, Chen Daji hurriedly added,
“And there’s more! Big Brother and I cleaned every inch of your statue ourselves.”
The Snow Corpse slowly lowered his head and grinned at Chen Daji.
He tried his best to look friendly, but his appearance was simply too fierce.
The smile made Chen Daji shudder.
Realizing how rude that was, Chen Daji scratched his head and gave an embarrassed laugh.
“Uncle… Snow Corpse, those front teeth of yours sure are big…”
The Snow Corpse did not blame him in the slightest.
He had already recognized the boy before him as the one who, together with Hua Jiunan, had “given him form and clad him in armor.”
Once again, a single word forced its way from his dry throat.
“Good!”
Clearly delighted to have earned the Snow Corpse’s approval, Chen Daji scampered over to General Li Guang.
But what Chen Daji had just said left Eighth Master Chang quite dissatisfied.
He was the one who had dipped his great tail in snow and cleaned the temple bit by bit. That brat Daji was stealing the credit!
On second thought, though, it was enough that the young master physician knew the truth. There was no real need to argue.
More importantly, with General Li Guang present, if he tried to teach the little bastard a lesson now, he might be the one to receive a brutal beating instead…
While Eighth Master Chang’s thoughts wandered, General Li Guang had already welcomed everyone into the command tent.
All the way there, the Snow Corpse’s dry hand held tightly to Hua Jiunan and never let go.
His once ferocious, peerless gaze now held nothing but paternal love.
He looked like a mighty lion protecting its cub.
Or a proud eagle reluctant to leave its fledgling, trying its best to fly beside him a little longer.
Once everyone had taken their seats, Hua Jiunan could restrain himself no longer.
“Uncle Snow Corpse, what happened to my mother? Why hasn’t she said anything?”
The Snow Corpse’s unusual constitution made speech extremely difficult for him.
General Li Guang knew this and answered in his place.
“There is no need to worry, Little Brother. Your honored mother’s souls are merely unstable.”
“No one in the Yin-Yang Realm can perform Soul Nurturing for her, so she has temporarily fallen into a deep sleep.”
“Once you return to the mortal realm, you need only set up a memorial tablet for her in the General’s Temple and let her receive the incense offerings of the living.”
“Within a few years, she will recover completely.”
Only then did Hua Jiunan relax.
He would not need to trouble anyone else to “set up a tablet and receive offerings.” He could do it himself.
All the necessary arts were recorded in the Baopuzi Inner Chapters.
As the story quietly reveals, once Hua Jiunan returned to the mortal realm, his eagerness to save his mother made him forget that everything he had learned was a “forbidden art.”
That oversight would give rise to many more incidents…
Now that his godmother was safe, Chen Daji could no longer suppress the curiosity wriggling inside him.
“Uncle… Snow Corpse.”
“Why have you got a whole string of evil ghosts chained up behind you?”
“What did they do-kick in a widow’s door or dig up the grave of a family with no heirs…?”