Through the Forest, Across the Graves

Apart from the corpse laborers who sold their physical strength, the Cui Family Mill also employed quite a few living servants to handle odd jobs and maintain the workshop's daily operations.

All of them came from the Linhe Cui Family branch. Even the few outsiders owed favors to the Cui clan, so their sense of belonging was naturally strong.

When they heard something had happened in Courtyard C, a crowd gathered around the courtyard gate, scrutinizing the Corpse Driver who entered.

When there were enough people, there was momentum. The reason a clan grew powerful was precisely because of this cohesion.

A strong dragon could not suppress a local snake. Judging from the situation before him, if this Corpse Driver dared to pull even the slightest trick, he would certainly suffer for it!

When he arrived at Courtyard C and saw the corpses laid out in a neat row, Liu Youdao, dressed in a dark blue satin Daoist robe, immediately knitted his brows.

"We finally managed to invite Mr. Liu here!" Steward Cui greeted him with a broad smile.

After asking about breakfast and exchanging a few polite words, Steward Cui got down to business.

"These are all new goods purchased from you, sir. Now that something has gone wrong for no reason, we'll have to ask you to give us an explanation."

"Of course, it's not that my Cui Family Mill wants to make things difficult for you, sir. It's just that this is a small business, and we can't afford to bear the loss."

Liu Youdao was around fifty years old. He was tall and gaunt, and his pair of murky eyes held the sinister look unique to an old fox.

His gaze swept over the zombies in Courtyard C. Without saying a word, Liu Youdao removed the Corpse Control Bell from his waist and began shaking it while chanting an incantation.

"Old sparrow turn to toad, command the nine corpses, bodies crouched beneath the earth, answer my summons, swiftly manifest, display your might and reveal your forms."

The old Daoist first used the larger Soul-Snatching Bell, while chanting the General Toad Corpse-Driving Incantation.

"Rise!"

The Soul-Snatching Bell continued to sway and ring. But when Liu Youdao issued the command, the rhythmic bell chimes abruptly ceased.

The courtyard fell so silent that one could hear a pin drop. The zombies that had gone on strike still lay on the ground, without the slightest reaction.

Liu Youdao finally changed expression. His voice was hoarse, as though he had a mouthful of iron filings in it, and he said, "Someone broke my spell. This isn't my fault—it's because you failed to take proper care of them."

Steward Cui's expression visibly darkened at this.

This Daoist Liu claimed to be a Corpse Driver from Xiangyin, but his background was unclear. When Steward Cui had sought him out to purchase corpse laborers, he would never have made the deal if the man had not asked for far less than the other corpse peddlers.

He had thought a direct source of goods would save them the middlemen's markup. Yet who could have expected the new source to develop quality issues in such a short time? And judging from the other man's words, he seemed to be implying that he took no responsibility once the goods had been sold.

The Cui clan had done business in Linhe Fang for so many years, yet they had never suffered such a setback.

Steward Cui was displeased at once and said bluntly:

"All the Walking Corpses in this courtyard were purchased from you. The Walking Corpses in the other courtyards have no problems at all. Before cooperating with you, old sir, my Cui Family Mill had never encountered anything like this!"

"Old sir, don't assume we're easy to fool!"

As soon as his words fell, more than a dozen guards and household servants burst into Courtyard C. Judging from their appearance, they looked ready to overturn the table at the slightest disagreement!

Liu Youdao's slightly stooped back slowly straightened. After looking around, he finally lowered his eyelids.

"I began driving corpses at the age of twelve. Yin paths and burial points, funerals and other rites—who doesn't know me? You say your family's business has never gone wrong. Could it be that I've been making mistakes all these decades?"

Liu Youdao muttered as he spoke, yet his feet never stopped. He slowly came to stand before a stiff, upright corpse and looked at the collar Steward Cui had earlier pulled open.

On the corpse's chest, the vermilion Walking Corpse Talisman bore the words "Imperial Edict: Sun, Moon, Spirit-Piercing Feathers." Beneath the talisman script were various lines and patterns carved with a knife.

He reached out and straightened the corpse's collar. Then Liu Youdao rose and turned to look at the people before him.

"But the Cui Family shopkeeper is right. People miss their mark, and horses stumble. Perhaps I was the one who caused this mishap." Liu Youdao sighed. "The goods have a problem because my own learning is inadequate. I admit responsibility."

Steward Cui's expression eased somewhat at this, and he said with a smile, "A deal may fall through, but friendship remains. My Cui Family has been in business for so many years and made many friends in the Jianghu. Though the goods have a problem this time, we won't truly hold it against you, old sir."

"As for these defective goods, you only need to refund ninety percent, old sir. I can make the decision regarding the rest. So long as there are no more problems in the future, we can make do with them for now."

Liu Youdao waved his hand and said indifferently, "I wouldn't dare keep these defective goods. Damaging my reputation would be a minor matter, but harming your business would be a grave offense."

As though he failed to understand the Corpse Driver's unspoken meaning, Steward Cui chuckled and actually agreed.

As for whether he would offend this old sir or not—

Steward Cui honestly wasn't afraid of him at all!

When it came to the tricks of the Jianghu's occult trades, the Cui Family was the foremost old hand in Linhe Fang.

Yet even within the occult trade, there was a clear hierarchy of contempt.

People who drove corpses, handled funerals, or worked as second-skin tailors were engaged in disreputable occupations. Steward Cui looked down on them from the bottom of his heart!

Xu Qing, mixed in among the corpse laborers, watched the commotion in the courtyard without daring to move a muscle.

Perhaps because the Duren Sutra had purified him, the Still Corpse Talisman stuck to his forehead seemed to have no effect on him.

He could sense this from his toes, which he could move, and from the muscles in his buttocks, which he could clench and relax.

After Steward Cui and Liu Youdao finished haggling, the zombies in the courtyard once again returned, in a roundabout way, to the Corpse Driver's hands.

Steward Cui had at least not gone too far. He called over a cart driver and had all the zombies from Courtyard C—whether they could move or not—loaded onto a handcart. He then pulled over a sheet of burlap and covered them.

Xu Qing lay in the middle of a pile of corpses, unsure what to do.

When the cart wheels began to creak, he looked outside through the holes in the coarse burlap.

There were already pedestrians on the bluestone-paved street. As the peddlers and laborers who rose earlier than chickens began hawking their wares, the street that had lain silent all night instantly came alive.

The fragrance of steamed buns and stuffed buns filled the air, while steaming-hot tofu carried its unique bean aroma.

A tofu seller scooped soy milk with a bamboo ladle. The bright-white liquid traced a smooth ribbon through the air before falling into a bowl of soup.

Through the gaps, Xu Qing peered at the bustle outside. Perhaps the ingredients used to make that soy milk were what he had ground at the mill two days earlier. Perhaps the flour used for those steamed buns and stuffed buns had also benefited from his labor.

The corpse cart rolled through a street thick with the scent of ordinary life, yet Liu Youdao, following behind the horse-drawn cart, could not feel the slightest hint of liveliness.

He only found it noisy.

The dead were quieter.

Remembering what had happened at the Cui Family workshop that morning, Liu Youdao felt increasingly stifled.

Though he was not exactly a dazzling figure in the occult trade, back in the years he had driven corpses in Xiangyin, who had ever failed to give him face?

Who could have imagined that the moment he came to Linhe, he would be bullied by a bunch of local snakes until he could barely hold his head up!

Others might not know, but he understood perfectly well! The corpse laborers he refined would not be damaged in three or five years. If used properly, they might not suffer any damage even after ten or twenty years.

The people from the Cui Family workshop were clearly bullying him because he was an outsider.

"Hah—ptui!"

Liu Youdao spat out a glob of phlegm, feeling that the local merchants' association was utterly discourteous.

Ultimately, this was nothing more than one side believing outsiders could not be trusted, while the other believed locals had no sense of honor. Without those prejudices, everyone could have calmly searched for the root of the problem and talked through what had happened that morning. They might even have followed the vine to find the "flaw" hidden inside the corpse laborers.

In front of a bun shop, Constable Zhao Zhonghe, who had pursued the naked young man the previous night, was having breakfast.

Several yamen runners followed behind him, chatting intermittently.

When the horse-drawn cart carrying the zombies passed before him, Zhao Zhonghe glanced over instinctively, then withdrew his gaze and continued gnawing on the bun in his hand.

Behind the cart, Liu Youdao's lips moved soundlessly, while his wide sleeves trembled faintly.

This was the Dog Mute Curse from the art of corpse driving. Combined with certain powders, it could keep ordinary people from smelling the zombies' Corpse Qi. It could also seal the zombies' seven senses, making them resemble stone sculptures or wooden carvings.

After passing through several streets bustling with people, Liu Youdao followed the cart to a storefront on Jingxia Street.

This was the shop he had purchased. It had previously been a Coffin Shop. He had seen that the feng shui of the place was good, so he had taken out his accumulated gold and silver and bought both the storefront and the courtyard behind it. He planned to run a small business and use it to support himself in his old age.

Yet before he had even gotten the business started, he had encountered such an infuriating matter.

Liu Youdao unloaded the goods returned by the Cui Family. The cart driver who had come with him did not even turn his head, driving the empty cart back to the mill.

"What bad luck!"

After closing the shop door and glancing at the corpse pile covered by burlap, Liu Youdao cursed inwardly.

Compared with them, the people of Xiangyin were simple and honest. Unlike the people of Linhe, every one of whom was as sharp and sly as a ghost!

Under the burlap, Xu Qing could not see what the Corpse Driver was doing in the shop. He only occasionally heard sounds of disdainful spitting and cursing, along with the drilling noises of bamboo poles and wood being struck with a clanging rhythm.

He did not even dare breathe heavily. An ordinary zombie encountering a Corpse Driver was like a mouse meeting a cat, while Liu Youdao was an experienced old cat. If the man noticed anything unusual, the consequences would be impossible to predict.

Xu Qing had never felt time pass so slowly. It was not until evening, when people's spirits were at their most relaxed, that the burlap covering him was suddenly lifted by a withered hand!

Fine powder and dust billowed through the air. Xu Qing's nerves drew taut like a bowstring snapping back.

"The sun's gone down. Eat your fill, brothers, so you'll have the strength to follow this old man to Yi Zhuang." Liu Youdao's voice was exceptionally gentle and calm, as though he were speaking to an old friend—or training the cats and dogs he kept at home.

Beside Xu Qing, the zombies he had not yet transcended slowly raised their upper bodies, their nostrils twitching.

He imitated them. After sitting up, he saw Liu Youdao holding a handful of Yellow Incense. The thick white smoke resembled the mist blown from an ox's nostrils in the depths of winter, carrying a strange fragrance that hooked the soul.

There were seven living corpses in the shop. From right to left, Liu Youdao had the sitting corpses inhale the Spirit Incense one after another.

From the corner of his eye, Xu Qing saw that the chests of the zombies that had inhaled the Spirit Incense had all expanded by a full circle, as though they had taken protein powder and worked out for an entire year.

Before long, Liu Youdao brought the incense to him.

Xu Qing had already been drawn to the strange fragrance. Now, to muddle through, he imitated the others and gave it an epic lungful!

"Look how badly they starved you. These profiteering merchants who won't lift a finger before profit had better die without descendants!"

Liu Youdao cursed, then put away the Spirit Incense and began shaking the Soul-Snatching Bell.

Drawn by the soul bell, the seven zombies lifted a stretcher bound together from bamboo poles. Their movements seemed to have been copied from the same mold as they marched forward in perfect unison.

Xu Qing was at the rear end of the stretcher. The corpse being carried on it was one he had previously transcended.

There was an old beggar, a lovesick scholar, and several other vagrants who had begged in the prefectural city.

Liu Youdao came to the shop door and opened it a crack to look outside. Seeing that darkness had fallen and the pedestrians on the road could no longer make out details at night, he changed out of the satin Daoist robe he had worn during the day and put on his corpse-driving attire.

Grass-headed shoes on his feet, blue cloth clothes on his body, a blue cloth cap on his head, and a black sash tied around his waist.

This was the distinctive outfit of a Corpse Driver. If one traveled by night and encountered disciples of the occult trade, they would not deliberately make things difficult upon seeing this attire.

After all, those who worked as Corpse Drivers were famous within the trade for being poor.

Poor enough that even ghosts would find them shabby!

Driving corpses at night was the rule.

After arranging his equipment and replacing the bell with the Corpse Driving Bell, Liu Youdao led a procession of the dead toward Yi Zhuang.

After leaving Jingxia Street and turning past the vegetable market, the group deliberately chose places with little light.

Xu Qing followed at the very back and did not dare entertain any thought of leaving the formation. Although the Corpse Driver was at the front, who could say whether someone like that had grown a third eye in the back of his head?

After walking roughly five or six li, the bluestone road beneath their feet began to turn into a dirt road.

After another dozen or so li, Liu Youdao suddenly took a different route, turning off the broad official road into the woods beside it.

Listening to the rustling of leaves in the surrounding wind and the calls of unknown night birds in the distance, Xu Qing felt a chill creep up his back, as though countless eyes were watching them.

After passing through a stretch of woods, the outlines of tombs glowing with flickering green light emerged before them.

Xu Qing suddenly felt a little admiration for the Corpse Driver leading the way.

Leaving aside the fact that ordinary people would never dare pass through woods and tombs at night, merely leading a group of dead people while they followed behind required extraordinary courage.

Just as Xu Qing's thoughts began to wander, a chattering sound suddenly came from the Mass Grave they had just passed behind them. It sounded like rats, yet also like three or five young children hiding in the woods and playing.

The sharp, childish voices were initially somewhat indistinct. After a few breaths, however, they grew clearer and clearer, as though echoing right beside his ear.

A chill ran down Xu Qing's neck. That thing seemed to be coming over!

He did not dare lower his head. He only felt something climb from behind his heels up his back, then onto his shoulder, and finally to the top of his head.

Xu Qing screamed inwardly. Never before had he hoped so desperately that Liu Youdao would turn around and take a look!

Fortunately, the unknown creature on his head did not stay long before jumping down. It seemed to have merely wanted to hitch a ride.

When the sky grew darker still, Liu Youdao at the front of the procession somehow produced an incense burner. He lit it with a firebrand, and in an instant, wisps of hazy smoke drifted past both sides of the procession like two slender ribbons of silk, sheltering everyone within.

In a daze, Xu Qing felt wind spring beneath his feet. Each step seemed to land on a layer of cloud, carrying him in a weightless stride nearly three meters at a time.

When he looked again at Liu Youdao, the old man was no longer leading the way. Instead, he sat at the front of the stretcher, holding the incense burner in one hand and the Corpse Driving Bell in the other, shaking out a strange, rhythmic chime.

At that moment, they were like clouds drifting through the mountains, or a light breeze threading through the woods. In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, they crossed the mountain forest and arrived on an unfamiliar dirt road.