The Old Patriarch of the Yu Family's home did not have the lively mourning scene I had imagined. On the contrary, it was cold and deserted.
There was not even a mourning hall.
The Old Patriarch's body lay on a wooden bed board in the main hall, without so much as a covering.
The Old Patriarch's family was absent. Only a few younger members of the clan stood watch.
"Yu Chong, what's going on? Where is your master?" Fan Dazhi asked a young man.
The master Fan Dazhi referred to should have been Yu Bo, the Old Patriarch's eldest son.
Seeing that it was Fan Dazhi, the young man named Yu Chong hurried over at a jog. "Guard Captain, the master took most of the Yu Family to Crying Beach. They're preparing to arrange a Sea Sacrifice there."
Fan Dazhi frowned and said softly, "How did I forget about that?"
I quickly asked, "What is it?"
"The Old Patriarch died an unnatural death. By custom, he cannot be buried in the ancestral graveyard or enter the ancestral hall. Across the Sixteen Islands of Phantom Sea, there is a shared rule: regardless of who they are, those who die unnatural deaths can only be used for a sea offering. But among the older generation, we do not call it a sea offering. We call it a Sea Sacrifice."
I frowned. I had not expected there to be such a rule.
"The Sixteen Islands of Phantom Sea abolished living sacrifices long ago, but those who die violently must still be used as dead sacrifices, to beg the Sea King for safe and smooth voyages. If we cannot even carry out dead sacrifices, the Sea King certainly will not agree. So even though the Old Patriarch was the head of a clan and