Mysterious Master

Including the time spent burning corpses before and after, more than five hours had passed.

The Imperial Prison Factory guards were changing shifts, and patrols had grown more frequent. Qin He could no longer easily enter the Corpse Burning Hall.

But he did not want to go back anyway. Burning three or five corpses a day had never seemed like much before, but twenty-eight all at once left a wave of exhaustion in his mind, making him yawn nonstop and grow drowsy.

The Shadow Play Performance appeared in his mind and consumed mental energy. If he kept burning, something might go wrong. There was no need to take that risk.

Besides, most of the remaining corpses were locals from the Capital City. There was nothing worthwhile to gain from them.

Thus, in his groggy state, Qin He fell asleep—a dead sleep, the kind that came with thunderous snores.

About another hour later, the Corpse Burning Officials who had gone back to rest for the day began arriving one after another before the stone gate.

The Corpse Burning Hall had rules: the stone gate could only be opened with more than twenty people present, along with two Five-Coin Corpse Burning Officials or one Six-Coin Corpse Burning Official.

This was to guard against the corpses inside rising up and causing chaos when no one was prepared.

The seven or eight Corpse Burning Officials who had arrived were bored, so they went outside the cell to "watch the monkeys."

Wei Wu was among them, carrying a cage of buns.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

Wei Wu pounded on the door and shouted, "Get up and eat. We'll start work soon."

Some of the five Corpse Burners were already awake, while those who were not were jolted awake by the noise.

Except Qin He.

His snoring was utterly disrespectful.

Wei Wu was a little annoyed. This fellow was always marching to the beat of his own drum while working, and now he slept like the dead. Six hours had passed—no matter how tired he was, he should have woken up by now.

"Which Corpse Burning Facility is he from?" Wei Wu asked darkly.

The Corpse Burners looked at one another. In the end, Tao Dayong gathered his courage and replied, "R-Reporting, sir, his name is Qin He. He's from the East City Corpse Burning Facility."

"Wake him up."

"Yes, sir."

Several Corpse Burners hurried to Qin He's side, shoving him and patting his face until they finally woke him.

Qin He looked bleary-eyed, his face creased from sleep and drool hanging from the corner of his mouth.

He was not pretending.

"Greetings, sir."

After waking up, Qin He grinned with a simple-minded look on his face.

"Hurry up and eat. We start work immediately."

Half of Wei Wu's irritation vanished. He unlocked the door and placed a cage of buns on the ground.

Needless to say, the Corpse Burners pounced like starving dogs, wolfing them down.

After everyone else had taken theirs, Qin He went over and took two buns.

One bite told him that the pre-work meal had improved. They were vegetable buns with minced meat mixed in.

You could hardly buy these outside even with money.

Qin He hastily grabbed two more and stuffed a few into his clothes.

The door was not locked, so Qin He simply walked out of the cell, squatted in a corner, and gnawed on a bun while waiting to watch the show.

He was very curious what kind of expressions the Corpse Burning Officials would wear when they opened the stone gate and discovered—oh, the corpses were all gone.

Qin He loved watching a show.

After three buns went into his belly, twenty Corpse Burning Officials had gathered, and the stone gate rumbled open.

A blast of hot air rushed into their faces, and all the Corpse Burning Officials' expressions changed drastically.

Qin He had opened thirty fire covers in one go and left them open all night. Of course it would be hot.

The entire Corpse Burning Room looked as chaotic as if no one had cleaned up before leaving.

Even more horrifying, flames blazed brightly in every Corpse Burning Room, yet the Corpse Purification Platforms stood completely empty. The lids of the two coffins in the center had fallen to the side; they had already been opened.

"The corpses have rioted! Form up!"

A Six-Coin Corpse Burning Official among them cried out in alarm and hurriedly drew his sword.

The Corpse Burning Officials' scalps went numb, and they fumbled to pull out their weapons.

The more experienced ones shouted, "Raise the alarm! Raise the alarm!"

"Clang, clang, clang..."

Wei Wu reacted the fastest. He rushed to the side of the stone gate and struck the alarm gong.

The alarm echoed through the gloomy Imperial Prison corridors and spread throughout the entire Imperial Prison.

In an instant, the winds and clouds stirred. Large numbers of Flying Fish Factory guards rushed toward the Corpse Burning Hall upon hearing the alarm.

"What happened?!"

A roar came from behind them.

The Corpse Burning Officials looked over and immediately felt as if they had found their backbone.

Wei Wu cried out delightedly, "Master!"

It was Tu Baishou, the one-eyed Seven-Coin Corpse Burning Official and the Thousand-Household Commander in charge of the Corpse Burning Hall.

The Corpse Burning Officials quickly moved aside. Tu Baishou strode to the front, the Sha Qi around him stirring up Gale Winds as though it had taken tangible form.

Qin He's eyes lit up slightly at the sight.

As expected of the big shot of the Corpse Burning Hall. He did not know about his other skills, but merely looking at that Sha Qi, once he stood there, the overwhelming majority of vicious corpses would already be unable to move.

Sha Qi was also a kind of cultivation method, and it possessed a natural, miraculous effect in suppressing corpses.

Qin He did not know the mysteries behind it.

"Lord Thousand-Household Commander, nearly all the corpses sent from other provinces have vanished. The corpse-suppressing coffins have been opened, but there are no signs that the corpses rose," a Six-Coin Corpse Burning Official hurriedly reported.

A sharp glint flashed from Tu Baishou's lone eye as he swept his gaze through the Corpse Burning Hall. His gaze paused briefly on the Soul-Capturing Lamp spinning round and round before he slowly walked inside.

The Corpse Burning Officials tightened their grips on their various weapons and followed close behind.

Only after entering the Corpse Burning Hall did they clearly see the exact situation.

The fire covers in every Corpse Burning Room had all been opened, and atop the Corpse Burning Furnaces lay corpses bathing in blazing flames.

The great majority had already burned to ash. Only two had yet to be reduced completely.

One of them was a spectacular sight.

All eighteen types of weapons had been stabbed into the corpse in every imaginable pose. At first glance, it looked like an arrow porcupine with all its quills raised. The corpse lay facedown on the Corpse Burning Platform, its rear end thrust high into the air, with a Wolf Tooth Club brutally rammed more than halfway inside.

Everyone felt a certain flower clench in spasms.

Brutal!

Too brutal!

What exactly had this corpse gone through?

The entire hall fell silent, no one understanding what had happened.

Even the flesh on Tu Baishou's face twitched constantly. In thirty years of burning corpses, he had never seen such a scene.

Only after a very long time did they piece together one fact.

The thirty highest-ranked stored corpses in the Corpse Burning Hall had all been placed into the furnaces. Twenty-eight had been burned away, while the remaining two were still burning.

The shock was incomparable, especially when it came to the Charm Corpse before them, which had been ravaged for some unknown reason. Half a year ago, the Flying Fish Guard had joined forces with Lingyun Temple and Golden Light Temple. More than ten masters from the authorities, the Daoist sect, and the Buddhist sect had worked together to suppress this mutated zombie and seal it inside a corpse-suppressing coffin.

After it was sent here and examined, they found that it could not be cremated immediately. They could only use the Soul-Capturing Lamp to slowly wear it down before burning it once it had weakened enough.

Who would have thought it, but it too had been burned.

The corpse was already charred, with no possibility of rising again. Its complete cremation was only a matter of time.

"A master has visited this place."

After a long while, Tu Baishou spoke, his words filled with shock and admiration.

There were details others could not see, but he could.

The eighteen weapons embedded in the Charm Corpse bore corpse-suppressing Inscriptions: "Auspicious Talismans."

The weapons belonged to the Corpse Burning Hall, which meant the Inscriptions had certainly been carved onto them on the spot. Forget the carving technique—the inscription script of "Auspicious Talismans" itself had been lost for centuries.

The Soul-Capturing Lamp had not been damaged, clearly showing that these corpses had never risen. The coffin lids had also been pried open from the outside.

A mysterious master had entered this place, opened the coffins, severed the chains, carved Inscriptions on the spot, and burned thirty corpses in one breath.

The methods were violent, and the level was exceedingly high.