Snake Immortal Liu Cang

Several officials from the Marshal's Office spoke: a reward of five taels of silver for burning the corpse, paid upfront.

The Corpse Burners looked at one another, but none dared accept.

This money could be earned, but not spent.

The officials grew anxious, and Xu Changshou grew anxious too.

If this matter was not handled properly, the officials would at most lose their positions. He, Xu Changshou, might well be hauled off for execution.

After all, the Mutated Corpse had escaped while he was on duty.

Yet this sort of irregularity could not be forced in front of the Vice Minister.

Besides, forcing them would not work. It was death either way; if the Corpse Burners made a scene, things would turn ugly.

Just as the stalemate dragged on, Qin He raised his hand. "My lord, I'll do it."

Xu Changshou took one look and was overjoyed. The officials had stepped in, and someone had accepted the job. The matter of him taking the blame was now behind him.

Looking at Qin He again, the little fool seemed more and more pleasing to the eye.

A few days ago, he had even asked Xu Changshou for a bucket of bone ash. Perhaps there really was something wrong with his head.

The Corpse Burners shook their heads and left one after another.

No one mocked Qin He. If he could survive this trial, five taels of silver would last him a while even if he left the Corpse Burning Facility. Perhaps he could find some other means of living. Taking a gamble might not be worse than waiting here for death.

And so, Qin He collected the five taels of silver and took on the corpse of Lord Liu's nephew.

After night fell, the doors were shut and locked, coal was fed into the furnace, and another day's work began.

Qin He examined the corpse. Whew, what a handsome fellow—lips like painted cinnabar, a face like polished jade, sword-like brows sweeping into his temples. Dressed in white silk, he fairly radiated nobility. What a graceful young gentleman.

The wound was in his chest. His heart and lungs had likely been ripped out by the Mutated Corpse.

There were bloodstains, but not much. The body was mostly clean.

Donning mourning hemp and a mourning cap, Qin He first cleaned away the bloodstains. As he undressed the corpse and stitched up the wound, he discovered that it had already healed more than halfway, on the verge of scabbing over.

A dead body growing flesh was a dire omen.

Just then, the corpse abruptly opened its eyes, revealing a pair of amber-like vertical pupils.

Qin He's heart trembled. What person was this? It was a monster.

Seeing Qin He's expression change, the corpse gave a sinister chuckle. Its mouth split all the way to the roots of its ears, its forked tongue flickering amid a maw of fangs.

Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!

Shadowless Hand!

In the span of a single breath, Qin He, his adrenaline surging wildly, drove all two hundred Corpse Suppressing Nails on his person into the monster.

The monster stopped moving—rather, it could no longer move. Two hundred Corpse Suppressing Nails, with even its eyelids nailed shut. Its vertical pupils were filled with disbelief and terror.

Qin He wiped the cold sweat from his brow and immediately hauled the corpse into the furnace. He worked the oxhide bellows until they swelled full, then began Fierce Fire Corpse Burning.

All the television shows and movies from the world he came from had one thing in common: those who were not quick enough and talked too much always died in the end.

The longer the night, the more dreams it bred.

Seeing Qin He move so swiftly, the monster inwardly cried, Damn, ruthless! As it burned, it revealed its true form: a Giant Snake.

Two hours later, the Giant Snake had become a charred corpse.

The gray-white curtain slowly descended. The Shadow Play Performance began, and Qin He witnessed the Giant Snake's life.

It had been a descendant of a Snake Immortal family beneath Changbai Mountain in the northeast. After cultivating for more than a hundred years, it had assumed human form and named itself Liu Cang. An elder of the Snake Immortals had sent it to the Capital City of Great Li to assist a man named Liu Changan. Outwardly, they posed as uncle and nephew. There was no specific mission—whenever Liu Changan needed it, Liu Cang was simply to use its methods to help him.

Liu Cang had come from the deep mountains and ancient forests to the bustling Capital City of Great Li, and before long, its eyes had been dazzled. It lingered amid brothels and pleasure quarters, so delighted it forgot the way home.

Yet it had not neglected its duties. A Snake Immortal with a hundred years of Dao Xing possessed great abilities. With its help, Liu Changan had risen like a meteor from a mere Subordinate Fifth Rank Hanlin Academy Scholar to Principal Third Rank Left Vice Minister of War in just four short years, taking charge of military secrets and confidential affairs.

Yesterday, after Liu Cang emerged from the courtesan queen's chambers at Yihong Courtyard, eating hotpot and singing songs, it was suddenly attacked by a Mutated Corpse. Under normal circumstances, even if it could not defeat that Mutated Corpse, it would not have been injured. But that day, it had ridden hard in pleasure and drunk heavily, leaving its reactions much slower. The Mutated Corpse tore out its heart.

But it had not died. Instead, it used a secret technique to protect its heart meridian and feigned death for a time.

After returning and discussing the matter with Liu Changan, they decided that its identity as a nephew could no longer be used. Such grave injuries without death would arouse suspicion.

Both were shrewd men, and in just a few words they worked out a plan.

Send it to the Corpse Burning Facility and have it pass through there. Otherwise, under proper procedure, Liu Cang would have been handed over to the Flying Fish Guard.

The Flying Fish Guard was Great Li Dynasty's agency dedicated to handling Supernatural Incidents. If Liu Cang entered that place, even a hundred-year Snake Immortal could not escape death—and its identity as a Snake Immortal would certainly be exposed.

The plan was simple. Liu Cang would first go to the Corpse Burning Facility, then escape at night. They would claim to the outside world that it was a Corpse Mutation, and later it could emerge again under another identity. It could also devour a Corpse Burner's flesh and blood to heal its wounds—killing two birds with one stone without arousing the slightest suspicion.

Thus came the scene of the corpse being delivered that evening.

Yet clever schemes calculated to the last detail had instead cost it its life.

Liu Cang had encountered Qin He, a man who knew the Shadowless Hand and carried two hundred Corpse Suppressing Nails.

What was even more suicidal was that it had actually tried to frighten Qin He.

Had it immediately attacked and killed Qin He in the instant of his shock, there might still have been a chance to turn things around.

But while this world had every kind of fruit, it had no "if." Without mercy, it was nailed into a hedgehog by two hundred Corpse Suppressing Nails.

The Soul-Snatching Shadow Lamp took its soul, the Scales of Judgment weighed it, and the Black Robed Man spoke with a golden voice: "A hundred-year guest of boundless mountains and forests, craving the mortal world was no immortality. Alas."

This time, the Scales of Judgment rose high. When the ripples faded—

A cultivation technique appeared in Qin He's mind: "Corpse Eating Immortal Skill."

Note: With this method, you may eat your way into an immortal of the mortal world.

Qin He learned it without hesitation. This was a cultivation technique, after all.

The wandering martial heroes of Great Li Dynasty all cultivated inner strength.

Ordinary examples included the constables of the Corpse Burning Facility. More advanced were the pole leaders and gang heads of the Grain Transport Gang and the Porter Gang. Higher still were experts of external strength.

Experts of external strength could command an entire region and lead an army with ease. When their external strength was unleashed, it could pierce gold and shatter stone. Every one of them was a supreme master.

The Elder and Younger General Cao, who commanded the Guan Ning Iron Cavalry and stood unrivaled across the Nine Borders, were famous experts of external strength. Rumor also had it that experts of external strength guarded the inner palace of the Imperial Palace.

Learning the cultivation technique took far less time than Qin He had expected. His mouth crackled and popped as his teeth fell out one after another, replaced by a mouthful of Copper Teeth and Iron Jaws, dazzlingly white. His abdomen also writhed, forming a stomach capable of melting gold and iron.

With the Corpse Eating Immortal Skill, there was no need to practice boxing or temper the body each day. One only needed to eat one's fill to increase one's cultivation. It was truly miraculous.

There was no food at hand, so Qin He had no way to test the marvel of this cultivation technique.

Still, a hundred-year Snake Immortal had yielded this technique. It could not be bad.

Within the Corpse Burning Furnace, the snake corpse gradually turned to ash.

Who could have imagined that the dignified Left Vice Minister of War of Great Li Dynasty was actually a Spirit Medium Disciple from the north, with the renowned Snake Immortal Liu Clan of the northeast behind him.

After Liu Cang took human form, it had entered and left the Di Barbarians' golden tents with clan elders several times. Every tent was filled with men wearing rat-tail braids.

Half a year ago, eighty thousand soldiers of Great Li Dynasty had fallen into an ambush at the Daling River and been utterly wiped out by thirty thousand Di Barbarians. No one knew how much that had to do with this Left Vice Minister of War, who held the military secrets in his hands.

In the struggle for supremacy between dynasties, Demonic Creatures and Ghosts could never be absent.

Even the Mutated Corpse that had attacked Liu Cang did not seem to have pounced at random. It appeared to have been a deliberate attack.

But for now, none of that had anything to do with Qin He.

When the realm prospered, the common people suffered; when it perished, the common people suffered.

The rise and fall of the world was for those who ate meat to plot over.

He was only a lowly Corpse Burner. He was nothing.