Soul Severing Saber Technique

The next day, Bai Yu got up early.

He arrived at the main hall of the funeral house and met the people currently doing the real work there.

Aside from Daoist Lin Jiu and Wu the Unvirtuous, there were only four others.

Zhu Tong, Bai Yu, and a handyman named Mangzi.

He was only sixteen, yet nearly two meters tall, built like an iron tower.

Bai Yu could not help secretly exclaiming, He's fucking sixteen?

There was also a lame old man responsible for collecting corpses. Everyone called him Old Zhang.

Early in the morning, just after breakfast.

Old Zhang returned, pulling a flatbed cart with three corpses wrapped in straw mats atop it. They were all bodies from the city that no one had claimed for burial.

He was only responsible for collecting the bodies; he did not care about anything else.

Daoist Lin Jiu recited scriptures twice over the corpses, saying it was to dispel their Killing Intent and prevent them from turning into corpses.

"Mangzi, take Little Bai to the Mass Burial Grounds behind the mountain and find a spot to bury them."

Mangzi, the hulking man built like an iron tower, and Bai Yu hauled the bodies up to the Mass Burial Grounds.

He called out:

"Kid, this place is full of wild graves. Anyone who drops dead on the road with no one to collect them gets buried here."

"Just dig a hole and bury all three bodies."

He was bullying Bai Yu for being new, shoving all the work onto him.

Who would have thought Bai Yu wanted nothing more? He grabbed a hoe and shovel and got to work.

Old Mo the Black Dog followed beside him as well, digging the pit with all his strength.

Unhurriedly, Bai Yu dug three earthen pits.

Then he placed the first corpse inside.

It was a gaunt young man, his body as light as a bundle of reeds.

After death, forget a coffin—even a straw mat was beyond him.

Almost every day, people in Jiang City starved or froze to death.

For all anyone knew, someone might collapse headfirst on the street and never wake up again. They were commonly called road-fallen.

Bai Yu thought of those resplendent mansions in the city.

Behind vermilion gates, wine and meat rotted; on the roads lay the bones of those frozen to death.

Ah, what a world this was.

Bai Yu covered him with earth and raised a small grave mound.

Then he took out his Suona and played a funeral dirge.

Mangzi had a blade of wild grass between his lips, his hands behind his head as he leaned against a large stone and stared at the sky.

Seeing Bai Yu work so hard, he instead felt somewhat ashamed.

"Hey, hey, hey, Little Bai, don't be such a stickler."

"Just dig a hole. It doesn't need to be that deep, and there's no need to play any Suona. Save some strength."

After finishing the Suona tune, Bai Yu said earnestly:

"The dead deserve the greatest respect. He had no family or friends, no one valued him in life, and no one cared about him in death."

"Let this tune be the last shred of dignity I can give him."

"May everyone receive the respect they deserve."

Mangzi heard this and froze where he stood, as though struck by lightning.

What a good person. He was far too rare.

Simple and kind—even toward the lowliest road-fallen, he bore goodwill in his heart.

Bai Yu found some branches and stones and arranged them as incense, candles, and offerings.

Funeral completed. Funeral participation: 61%!

Base reward: Vitality and blood +2, life experience +3.

Optional reward: Strength +1.

The first corpse had suffered far too miserably in life.

There was little worth mentioning in his life story, and the rewards it gave were scant as well.

Still, even a mosquito was meat. Bai Yu was not picky.

He placed the second corpse into the pit.

This corpse was even smaller. It was a child, starved until barely recognizable.

He covered it with earth, played a tune, and set branches and stones as offerings.

This time, the rewards were even more pitifully few.

Base reward: Strength +1, life experience +1.

Optional reward: Vitality and blood +1.

Bai Yu let out a long sigh and buried the third corpse.

This corpse was different, at least—it had a straw mat wrapped around it.

It was a young man whose face still retained a trace of childishness, his clothes stained all over with blood.

As usual, Bai Yu buried him.

He filled in the earth, made offerings, and played a tune.

Once the Suona tune ended, a notification came from the Burial World Record.

Funeral completed!

Funeral target: Yang Wei.

Funeral participation: 65%!

Base reward: Vitality and blood +15, life experience +12!

Optional rewards: Strength +12, Soaring Spirit Palm (fragmentary copy, Yellow Rank, Low Grade), Soul Severing Saber Technique (Yellow Rank, Middle Grade)!

From the Burial World Record, Bai Yu learned of Yang Wei's life.

He had been a poor boy from a mountain village. By chance, he discovered a dead martial artist and obtained the inheritance of two martial arts manuals.

Relying on his exceptional talent, he had actually become a first-rank martial artist with only the fragmentary Soaring Spirit Palm.

Filled with dreams, he entered the city to carve out a future for himself.

Yet only a few days after entering the city, he ran out of food. Other than fighting, he had no other skills.

In the end, he borrowed usury loans from the Black Wolf Gang and became one of their thugs.

Within the Black Wolf Gang, he relied on the Soul Severing Blade, daring to fight and daring to kill, and had managed to make something of a name for himself.

But less than a month later, during a conflict with the Divine Strength Sect, a second-rank martial artist pierced his heart with a spear.

Bai Yu could not help turning pale with shock.

Yang Wei was so much like him. Both were boys from mountain villages who had obtained martial arts techniques.

The difference was that Bai Yu had steadily kept his head down until reaching second-rank Flesh Refinement.

If he had rashly entered the city before, perhaps he would already have become a heap of dry bones.

Thinking of this, Bai Yu rose and gave Yang Wei a deep bow.

Only then did he pack up his things and head down the mountain.

All the way back, his mood was heavy.

Bai Yu's expression fell into Mangzi's eyes, making him feel even worse.

"Before, I suspected he was putting on an act. But look at him now—he's still this sad after finishing the burial. That sorrow from the bottom of his heart can't possibly be faked."

"What a good person."

At that moment, Bai Yu suddenly said:

"Brother Mangzi, from now on, leave your burial work to me."

Mangzi was even more dumbfounded upon hearing this.

What a good person. He was actually volunteering to take on more work.

"How could I possibly accept that?"

Bai Yu smiled.

"It's fine. I'm new here, so it's only right that I do more work."

"Besides, seeing people off, playing them a tune, and letting them receive that last bit of respect makes me happy too. It's an act of virtue."

He waved the Suona in his hand.

"Brother Mangzi, then it's settled from now on."

With that, he strode back into the funeral house.

Mangzi stood there in a daze, speechless for a long while.

After a while, he slapped himself across the face with a sharp Smack!

"Look at the kind of thing I did."

"Little Bai is such a good person, and I actually bullied him. I really deserve to die."

That night, Mangzi tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.

Thinking about it again, he gave himself another hard slap.

"What the hell was I doing? I really deserve to die."

Meanwhile, taking advantage of the dead of night, Bai Yu claimed the funeral rewards.

He first claimed the ordinary rewards, receiving 18 points of vitality and blood, 2 points of strength, and 16 points of life experience.

That was already comparable to several months of gains in a small mountain village.

Sure enough, great cities were full of opportunities everywhere.

Bai Yu then looked toward the final reward.

Optional rewards: Strength +12, Soaring Spirit Palm (fragmentary copy, Yellow Rank, Low Grade), Soul Severing Saber Technique (Yellow Rank, Middle Grade)!

Among the three rewards were 120 jin of strength, a fragmentary palm technique, and a saber technique.

Any one of them was exceedingly valuable to Bai Yu.

Strength was a relatively common attribute, something even ordinary people could develop, so there was no rush.

Of the two martial arts techniques, the Soaring Spirit Palm was lower-ranked, and Bai Yu already possessed the Five Elements Fist.

Thus, he ultimately chose the Soul Severing Saber Technique.