Several officials from the Marshal's Office spoke up: five taels of silver as a heavy reward for burning the corpse, paid upfront.
The corpse burners looked at one another, but no one dared agree.
It was money one could take but not live to spend.
The officials grew anxious, and Xu Changshou grew anxious too.
If this matter went badly, the officials would at most lose their posts. Xu Changshou, on the other hand, might end up facing the executioner's blade.
After all, the Mutated Corpse had escaped while he was on duty.
But this sort of rule-breaking could not be forced in front of the Vice Minister.
Besides, forcing them would not work. Either way meant death, and if the corpse burners made a scene, things would turn ugly.
Just as the standoff dragged on, Qin He raised his hand. "My lords, I'll do it."
Xu Changshou was overjoyed at the sight. The officials had stepped in, and someone had taken the job; the matter of him taking the blame could now be put behind him.
Looking at Qin He again, the little fool seemed more pleasing the longer Xu Changshou looked.
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 made it through 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 livelihood. Taking a gamble might not be worse than clinging to this place and waiting to die.
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 the day's work began.
Qin He examined the corpse. Well now, what a handsome fellow—lips like painted vermilion, a face like polished jade, swordlike brows sweeping into his temples. Dressed in white silk, he fairly radiated nobility: a truly elegant young gentleman.
The wound was in the chest. His heart and lungs had likely been torn out by the Mutated Corpse.
There were bloodstains, but not much. The body was still fairly clean.
After donning hemp mourning clothes, Qin He first cleaned away the bloodstains. As he undressed the corpse and stitched the wound, he discovered that it had already healed more than halfway and was on the verge of scabbing over.
A dead corpse growing flesh was a dire omen.
Just then, the corpse suddenly opened its eyes, revealing a pair of amber-like vertical pupils.
Qin He's heart trembled. What kind of 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 its ears, a forked tongue flicking amid a mouthful of fangs.
Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!
Shadowless Hand!
In the span of a single breath, Qin He, his adrenaline surging wildly, slapped all two hundred Corpse Suppressing Nails on his body into the monster.
The monster stopped moving—or rather, it could no longer move. Two hundred Corpse Suppressing Nails had pinned even its eyelids shut. Its vertical pupils were filled with disbelief and terror.
Qin He wiped the cold sweat from his brow and immediately heaved the corpse into the furnace. He pulled the oxhide bellows until they bulged, then began Fierce Fire Corpse Burning.
All the television shows and movies from that other time and space had one thing in common: those who were not fast enough and talked too much always died in the end.
The night was long... and dreams multiplied.
Seeing Qin He move so quickly, the monster inwardly cursed, Damn it, how heartless! As it burned, it revealed its true form: an enormous snake.
Two hours later, the giant snake became a charred corpse.
The gray-white curtain slowly descended. In the Shadow Play Performance, Qin He saw the giant snake's life.
It had been a descendant of a Snake Immortal lineage beneath Changbai Mountain in the northeast. After cultivating for more than a hundred years, it took human form and named itself Liu Cang. The elders of the Snake Immortal lineage had sent it to the Capital City of Great Li to assist a man named Liu Changan. Outwardly, they addressed each other as uncle and nephew. There was no specific mission; whenever Liu Changan needed it, Liu Cang was simply to use whatever means it had to help him.
Liu Cang came from the deep mountains and old forests to the bustling Capital City of Great Li, and before long, the sights dazzled him. He lingered among the flower-and-willow lanes, so delighted he forgot the way home.
Yet it had not delayed its duties. A Snake Immortal with a century of Dao Xing possessed immense abilities. With Liu Cang's help, Liu Changan rose like a dragon on the clouds from a mere Subordinate Fifth Rank Hanlin Academy Scholar. In just four short years, he had climbed to Principal Third Rank Left Vice Minister of War, overseeing confidential military affairs.
Yesterday, after leaving the courtesan queen of Yihong Courtyard, Liu Cang had been eating hotpot and singing songs when he was suddenly attacked by a Mutated Corpse. Under normal circumstances, even if he could not defeat it, he would not have been injured. But that day, he had indulged in pleasures on horseback and drunk a great deal of wine, slowing his reactions considerably. The Mutated Corpse had torn out his heart.
But he had not died. Instead, he used a secret technique to protect his vital channels and feigned death for a time.
After returning and discussing matters with Liu Changan, they decided that the identity of "nephew" could no longer be used. Surviving such a grievous injury would arouse suspicion.
Both were clever men, and in a few words, they had devised a plan.
Send him to the Corpse Burning Facility and let him make a trip through it. Otherwise, following the proper procedures, Liu Cang would have been handed over to the Flying Fish Guard.
The Flying Fish Guard was the Great Li Dynasty's specialized agency for handling Supernatural Incidents. If Liu Cang entered that place, even a century-old Snake Immortal could not escape death, and his identity as a Snake Immortal would certainly be uncovered.
The plan was simple. Liu Cang would first go to the Corpse Burning Facility, escape at night, and claim outwardly that it had been a Corpse Mutation. He could emerge later under a different identity. While he was at it, he could devour a corpse burner's flesh and blood to heal his wounds—killing two birds with one stone without arousing the slightest suspicion.
Thus came the scene of the corpse being delivered at dusk.
Yet those too clever in calculation often miscalculate their own lives.
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 he had actually tried to frighten Qin He.
Had he immediately launched a killing strike in the instant Qin He was stunned, perhaps there might have been a turn for the better.
But while this world had every kind of fruit, it had no "if." Mercilessly, he was nailed into a hedgehog by two hundred Corpse Suppressing Nails.
Soul-Snatching Shadow Lamp, judgment weighed; the Black Robed Man spoke with golden words: "A hundred-year guest amid vast mountain forests, craving the mortal world, no longer an immortal. How tragic."
This time, the Scales of Judgment lifted high. When the ripples faded—
A technique appeared in Qin He's mind: "Corpse Eating Immortal Skill."
Note: With this technique, you may eat your way into becoming an immortal of the mortal world.
He learned it without hesitation. This was a cultivation technique.
Those wandering martial heroes of the Great Li Dynasty all cultivated internal force.
Ordinary ones included the government runners at the Corpse Burning Facility. More advanced were the pole masters and gang chiefs of the Grain Transport Gang and Porter Gang. Higher still were External Force experts.
External Force experts could command an entire region and lead an army with ease. Once their External Force was unleashed, it could pierce gold and split stone; every one of them was a supreme master.
The elder and younger General Cao, who commanded the Guan Ning Iron Cavalry and whose courage overshadowed the Nine Borders, were famous External Force experts. Rumor also had it that External Force experts guarded the Imperial Palace.
Learning the technique took far less time than Qin He expected. Crackling sounds came from his mouth as his teeth fell out one after another. A mouthful of Copper Teeth and Iron Jaws grew back in their place, dazzlingly white. His stomach also writhed, forming a belly capable of dissolving gold and iron.
The Corpse Eating Immortal Skill required no daily fist practice or body tempering. One merely 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 technique's wonders.
But a cultivation technique gained in exchange for a century-old Snake Immortal could hardly be inferior.
Upon the Corpse Burning Furnace, the snake corpse gradually turned to ash.
Who could have imagined that the dignified Left Vice Minister of War of the Great Li Dynasty was actually a Spirit Medium Disciple from the north, and that the Spirit Medium Immortal behind him was the renowned Snake Immortal Liu Clan of the northeast?
After taking human form, Liu Cang had accompanied the lineage elders into the golden tents of the Di Barbarians several times. Every person in those tents wore the money-rat tail hairstyle.
Half a year ago, eighty thousand troops of the Great Li Dynasty had fallen into an ambush at the Daling River and been utterly annihilated by thirty thousand Di Barbarians. No one knew how much that had to do with this Left Vice Minister of War who controlled military secrets.
In the struggle for supremacy between dynasties, the shadows of Demonic Creatures and Ghosts were ultimately unavoidable.
Even the Mutated Corpse that attacked Liu Cang did not seem to have pounced at random; it appeared to have been a deliberate attack.
But for now, none of this had anything to do with Qin He.
When the nation prospered, the people suffered; when the nation fell, the people suffered.
The rise and fall of the realm were matters for those who ate meat to scheme over.
He was merely a lowly corpse burner, nothing more.
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