Ox Riding Technique

Without a doubt, Chen Yutang's entire family had been killed to scare the monkeys.

Lu Xiang had used the lives of Chen Yutang's family to establish his authority.

Why Chen Yutang?

Simple. Chen Yutang had only just made the leap from small peddler to wealthy merchant. His foundations were still shallow, and he had yet to integrate among the wealthy merchants represented by the Donglin Party.

To put it bluntly, he had picked the soft persimmon to squeeze.

Truth be told, Chen Yutang had been a merchant with a conscience. Of the thousand shi of grain Lu Xiang had purchased earlier, two hundred shi had been sold by Chen Yutang.

But in factional struggles, they only ever looked at where you stood. Who cared whether you had a conscience?

Lu Xiang had squeezed the wealthy merchants for a sum of money. They could only swallow their shattered teeth with blood, but if he truly killed someone, things would be difficult to smooth over.

The Donglin Party could contend evenly with the Eunuch Faction; they were no pushovers.

Otherwise, why did the Imperial Lord spend all day doing carpentry instead of attending court?

He feared those people. Open their mouths, and it was the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors; close them, and it was benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith. The moment the Imperial Lord wanted to do anything, they called it competing with the people for profit.

So after picking and choosing, Chen Yutang was the most suitable.

He had ties to the Donglin wealthy merchants, yet he was not one of them. Killing him could intimidate those merchants without provoking too great a backlash.

The measure was just right.

Chen Yutang's family had originally been harmonious and happy. His three sons had all found success in letters, martial arts, and trade. Their Lineage had been on the verge of flourishing, spreading its wings and soaring into the sky.

Yet he watched helplessly as his family members lost their heads one after another. He immediately spat blood and died.

The executioner took one look and figured the dead belonged under King Yama's care, saving him a stroke.

Falling straight from heaven into hell, Chen Yutang's Resentful Energy surged to the skies, and he became a vicious corpse.

As for how he had undergone that vicious transformation, whether he had taken revenge, and how he had arrived at the Corpse Burning Hall in the capital from Xuzhou two months later, Qin He had no way of knowing.

Shadow Play Performance recorded only a person's life, not what came after death.

Judgment Weighing. The Black Robed Man visibly raised his hand, then opened his golden mouth. "There is no light above Guangming Mansion, no righteous qi within Zhengda Yanei. Amid countless barren mounds, where can one speak of desolation?"

Reward: Internal strength +5 years.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me?"

The instant the delighted Qin He saw the reward, his face darkened completely.

Such a vicious corpse, and it had only given him five years of internal strength?

It was not that internal strength was bad; the gap was simply far too great.

Corpses like this normally rewarded things on the level of the Corpse Eating Immortal Skill, Qi Gazing Technique, or Merit Golden Body Art.

Internal strength +5 years—burning any two corpses in the Mass Grave would yield no less than that.

If the last time had been a fluctuation in his luck, then this time, his luck should have fluctuated back.

Qin He's instincts told him something was wrong.

The rewards for burning corpses seemed to have been deliberately downgraded.

Qin He could not make heads or tails of it. Could the Corpse Burning Hall interfere with the rewards?

That was too mysterious, wasn't it?

After pondering for a moment, Qin He decided to test it again.

Perhaps he was overthinking things. Maybe he was currently in a low point of his luck.

After all, waves had their highs and lows, didn't they?

He stopped the furnace, shoveled out the ashes, and went to the corpse selection area again.

Just as before, he dawdled and dawdled until he reached the edge of the corpses covered in yellow cloth.

When no one was paying attention, he scooped up a corpse bound in iron chains and ran.

Wei Wu saw the scene again, and his mind could barely process it.

What was wrong with this world?

Was there actually a Corpse Burner who specifically sought out vicious corpses?

Had burning one corpse in shackles not been enough for him? Now he wanted to burn one bound in iron chains?

Wei Wu was beginning to doubt his life. Even he, a four-cash Corpse Burning Official, was not confident he could suppress a corpse bound in iron chains completely. He was still accumulating Dao Xing, yet this mere Corpse Burner was being far too bold.

Still, he did not make a sound. Qin He's strange behavior had piqued his curiosity.

He would wait. Once this brat could no longer keep things under wraps, he would deal with him.

A petty trick like this, and he dared flaunt it before an expert?

In a moment, he would make him look good.

On Qin He's side, the corpse truly deserved to have been bound in iron chains. Its appearance was even more vicious.

Corpse Claws, sharp teeth, and tough skin went without saying. Those were practically standard features once a vicious corpse rose. This corpse had even grown white fur.

How could he describe it? It was like hairy stinky tofu, covering its entire body, a full inch long.

This was clearly a corpse on the verge of turning into a jiangshi, vicious beyond measure.

Among Corpse Burners, corpses were roughly classified by danger level as: dead corpses, Mutated Corpses, vicious corpses, jiangshi, and corpse demons.

What Corpse Burning Facilities handled were Mutated Corpses. If a Mutated Corpse attacked someone, was stimulated by fresh blood, or possessed excessive Resentful Energy, it would become a vicious corpse.

Once a vicious corpse evolved further, it would become a jiangshi impervious to blades and spears, untouched by water and fire.

As for corpse demons, they were terrifying beings in which a corpse was reborn with intelligence. They existed only in legend.

Without question, this vicious corpse on the verge of becoming a jiangshi was the highest-quality corpse Qin He had encountered.

The highest quality naturally deserved the highest respect.

Qin He bestowed twenty Corpse Suppressing Nails upon it in one go. As he hammered them in, he discovered that the corpse was already as hard as stone. Had Qin He's internal strength not been approaching eighty years, driving them in would have been troublesome.

As usual, he put away the Corpse Suppressing Talisman and set the corpse alight.

The corpse remained perfectly quiet. It could not be helped—Qin He had shown it such enormous respect.

If it was a dragon, it had to coil up; if it was a tiger, it had to lie down.

Besides, there was still the Soul-Capturing Lamp.

This corpse was harder to burn as well. It took a full three hours before it was completely incinerated.

Soul-Snatching Shadow Lamp, Shadow Play Performance, Judgment Weighing.

Like Chen Yutang before him, the deceased had also been a ghost who died unjustly.

The difference was that Chen Yutang's entire family had been executed by the authorities, while this man had been murdered through the joint scheme of his clansmen. There was no need to say more about the hatred involved.

In an age of chaos, the strong did whatever they pleased while the weak became fish on the chopping block. Human hearts were blacker than coal briquettes; murder and arson won golden belts, while those who built bridges and paved roads left not even corpses behind.

After death, the deceased's Resentful Energy had run deep. Perhaps he had succeeded in taking revenge after rising as a corpse, which was why he had evolved more drastically and grown jiangshi fur.

Reward: Ox Riding Technique.

Ox Riding Technique: Upon learning this art, you will become one in heart and mind with oxen. Crossing mountains and ridges will be as easy as walking on level ground.

The instant Qin He saw the reward, ten thousand bolts of thunder crashed through his heart.

What the hell was an Ox Riding Technique? Were oxen meant to be ridden?

Where was a horse supposed to put its face?

Where was a donkey supposed to put its face?

At that moment, Qin He was certain beyond all doubt that the Corpse Burning Hall was absolutely suppressing the rewards. Otherwise, it could not have produced such a disgusting skill.

It would have been better to give him five years of internal strength.

This was the fiercest corpse he had ever encountered.

Qin He looked around. Sensing something, he turned his gaze toward the Soul-Capturing Lamp slowly rotating in the center of the Corpse Burning Hall.

Could it be... because of the Soul-Capturing Lamp?

Was this thing... external assistance?

The more Qin He thought about it, the more likely it seemed. The Soul-Capturing Lamp counted as external assistance; with external assistance, the rewards were downgraded.

At the East City Corpse Burning Facility, he had no external aid to rely on. He had made the Corpse Suppressing Nails himself, so the rewards had been normal.

But the Soul-Capturing Lamp here belonged to the Corpse Burning Hall.

Corpse Suppressing Talismans were posted in the Corpse Burning Rooms, vicious corpses were bound with iron chains, and so on. Those were all minor factors. The biggest factor was the Soul-Capturing Lamp.

Among the Nine Corpse Suppressing Artifacts, it was the highest-grade item with detailed crafting methods recorded. It could be called a divine artifact.

Qin He's heart instantly went cold. What was he supposed to do?

If this continued, he might as well go to the Mass Grave. The rewards had been reduced far too severely.

Destroy the Soul-Capturing Lamp?

Then the Corpse Burning Hall would descend into complete chaos. If even half of these corpses climbed back up, the Corpse Suppressing Nails on him would not be enough.

Especially those lying inside those coffins—who knew how vicious they were?

Besides, the Corpse Burning Officials would never allow him to destroy the Soul-Capturing Lamp.

Unless... the Soul-Capturing Lamp had an accident?