Corpse Eating Immortal Skill

Clang!

At first light, a gong rang out, and the doors to the Corpse Burning Rooms opened one after another.

The Corpse Burners emerged from their rooms and looked toward Room Seven.

No screams had come from there last night. No one knew whether Qin He was still alive.

Xu Changshou nervously opened the door to Room Seven and saw Qin He lying on the floor. His neck shrank back in fright, thinking, Just as expected.

He was about to announce that Room Seven was vacant when he saw Qin He's chest rising and falling, his snores rumbling merrily.

He wasn't dead?

Xu Changshou hurriedly inspected the room. Only embers remained in the furnace; the corpse had been burned, and there were even traces of ashes having been shoveled out.

Looking upward, he saw an extra hole in the roof.

The iron bucket beside it held half a bucket of fresh bone ash, still steaming.

Xu Changshou was baffled. The corpse should have been cremated, but what was the deal with this hole?

He slapped Qin He awake. Qin He jumped in fright when he saw Xu Changshou.

"When did you fall asleep?" Xu Changshou asked.

Qin He looked dazed. "No idea."

"Was the corpse burned?"

"No idea."

"How did the hole in the roof get there?"

"No idea."

Xu Changshou: "..."

Qin He looked at the Corpse Burning Furnace, then at the ashes in the bucket, his face full of disbelief. "Sir, did you burn the corpse for this humble one last night?"

Xu Changshou: "..."

After questioning him for a while, Xu Changshou determined that a Supernatural Incident had occurred in Room Seven.

Qin He, who should have died, had not died. The vicious corpse, which should have risen and pounced on someone, had been cremated. And Qin He had most likely not been the one to burn it.

There was no way to investigate exactly what had happened. Qin He knew nothing; whenever asked, he only said he did not know when he had fallen asleep, and that he had slept until someone woke him.

Xu Changshou could not be bothered to pursue it either. The corpse had been cremated anyway, so this matter was considered turned over.

After daybreak, Lord Liu arrived. The moment he saw the ashes in the bucket, his face turned as white as if it had been smeared with lime. He rummaged through the bucket twice, let out a wailing howl, then collapsed onto the ground, crying harder than if his own parents had died.

The Corpse Burners were utterly baffled. The Left Vice Minister had not even cried when he delivered the corpse yesterday, so why was he crying today?

After Lord Liu recovered, Xu Changshou led him to Room Seven. When he saw the hole in the roof, his face went green, then white, then red, as though a dye shop had opened across it. He staggered away.

The corners of Qin He's lips lifted slightly. All he wanted now was to quietly burn a few more corpses. He had no wish to catch the attention of a high-ranking court official.

The Mutated Corpse that had inexplicably attacked Liu Cang, along with the hole that had inexplicably appeared in the roof of the Corpse Burning Room, was enough to draw Lord Liu's attention away from him.

Qin He weighed the half-catty of silver in his hand and grinned. Today, he could finally eat something good.

Usually, fifteen copper coins a day covered three meals. If he wanted to fill his stomach, he could only eat mixed-grain steamed buns. His mouth had long since gone so bland he could taste bird droppings.

Tang's Restaurant was the finest restaurant near the Corpse Burning Facility. It had two floors and a dozen or so tables. Its proprietor was named Tang Tiankui. The restaurant had just taken down its door panels when he saw someone standing outside.

The man wore coarse linen clothes, blackened by smoke and fire. Strangely, his teeth were quite white and clean. With a chuckle, he said, "Shopkeeper, I'm here to eat."

Tang Tiankui could not make heads or tails of him. He dressed like a beggar, but he did not carry himself like one.

The Grand Canal was home to All Walks of Life. There were plenty of people who cheated their way into food and drink, and he did not dare invite just anyone inside.

Besides, who went to a restaurant so early in the morning? At the very least, it should be noon.

"I've got silver."

Qin He knew the drill. He took out the silver from his clothes and showed it to Tang Tiankui.

Tang Tiankui saw that the silver was genuine and immediately put on a smile as he ushered Qin He inside. "What would you like to eat, sir?"

"What have you got? Something quick. I'm hungry." Qin He rubbed his stomach.

He did not know just how powerful the Corpse Eating Immortal Skill was, but its side effect had appeared first: hunger. The kind of hunger that made his chest cling to his back.

"Oh, sir, you came a little early today. The kitchen hasn't lit the fire yet, but there's half a roast goose left over from yesterday. How about I have the cook heat it up and bring it out for you?"

The moment Qin He heard roast goose, he was all for it. He also ordered two bowls of shredded pork noodles, afraid it would not be enough.

Soon, half a roast goose was brought to the table. This was Qin He's first meal of meat since coming to this world. Its flavor could not compare with that of the time and space he had come from, but hunger was the best sauce—when you were hungry, anything tasted good.

After wolfing down half the goose along with two bowls of noodles, Qin He found that his stomach only felt the slightest bit less empty. He was still far from full.

"Shopkeeper, three more bowls of noodles." Qin He held up three fingers.

He finished the three bowls.

Still not enough.

More.

Not enough.

More.

Not enough.

More.

Tang Tiankui and the waiter were both dumbstruck.

A stack of noodle bowls had already piled up in front of Qin He—more than twenty bowls.

The waiter's face was full of alarm. "Shopkeeper, how can this guy eat so much? Won't he burst to death?"

Tang Tiankui was equally astonished, but he had seen more of the world and knew a few strange tales. This gentleman before him was definitely no ordinary man.

An ordinary person would have burst to death long ago. Yet from the look of him, he did not seem to be finished.

"Go tell the kitchen to keep making them. Anything extra can be our breakfast," Tang Tiankui instructed the waiter.

The waiter beamed with joy. This customer had ordered shredded pork noodles. He had not tasted meat in months; in a moment, he would secretly tell the cook to add extra meat.

After eating more than sixty bowls of noodles, Qin He finally received a prompt:

You have fed your temple of the five viscera. Internal strength increased by five years.

A feeling of being seven or eight-tenths full replaced the hunger from before.

"Shopkeeper, the bill." Qin He set down his chopsticks.

It was not that he could not eat anymore. He was afraid he did not have enough silver.

He had used all two hundred Corpse Suppressing Nails last night, and he still had to save some money to buy more nails today.

After leaving Tang's Restaurant, Qin He looked at the remaining half-tael of loose silver in his hand and felt troubled.

The appetite brought by the Corpse Eating Immortal Skill was terrifying. One meal had cost him more than four taels of silver, and that had only been noodles. What was he supposed to do from now on?

Even if he switched to mixed-grain steamed buns, they would not last him two days.

And that was only at seven or eight-tenths full. Qin He had a feeling that if he forced it, he could probably eat an entire cow.

But worry was worry; business still had to be handled. He went to the blacksmith's shop and bought another two hundred nails.

When he returned to the Corpse Burning Room, a mason was patching the hole in the roof. Xu Changshou, who was supervising the work, was in a fine mood. He chatted with Qin He smilingly for a few moments. To him, having survived one ordeal was like living through a calamity.

After the mason finished repairing the roof, Qin He rested in the Corpse Burning Room for the day. When night fell, he discovered that he was not hungry at all. It seemed the Corpse Eating Immortal Skill was not entirely out to screw him over. Once he was full, it should sustain him for a while.

Clang!

The hour had arrived. At the sound of the gong, the doors of every Corpse Burning Room were shut and locked. Another day's work for the Corpse Burners had begun.

What lay before Qin He was, unexpectedly, a woman's corpse. She wore red, and no one knew where she had come from.