"Ring, ring, ring..."
As dawn broke, the dormitory doors opened one after another. The students who had survived the previous night finally breathed a sigh of relief. They hurried straight to class, not daring to waste a moment in case they missed any of today's three lessons.
Yet from the dormitory at the very end of the second floor, the muffled sound of chopping meat could still be heard from time to time.
Dark-red drops of blood fell from the bed frame to the floor.
A slender finger slid up along the dry skin, gently parting the cut to reveal the red-and-white layers of muscle beneath. The sliced blood vessels below were even clearly visible.
"Flesh Suturing Technique!"
Xiao Ran took out his needle and thread and began stitching the flesh together. This time, he chose the more difficult inward-stitching method, sewing directly beneath the skin.
As a technique within Master-level Suturing Technique, Xiao Ran had tried it on Xue Hongling before, but the results hadn't been good.
Put simply, his skills still weren't up to par. After all, the work of a second-rate craftsman didn't actually demand much in the way of suturing. A dead person's heart had stopped beating, and their blood was mostly stagnant, so there was no danger of heavy bleeding. The craftsman only needed to make sure the surface looked properly stitched.
What lay beneath the skin and flesh had nothing to do with a second-rate craftsman.
If something troublesome got in the way, such as broken bones or ruptured organs, they would simply remove it if it interfered with the suturing.
Compared with modern cosmetic procedures and surgery, there was no denying that this approach was far behind.
But now Xiao Ran wanted to try stitching more deeply. On the one hand, Sleight of Hand had given him a deeper understanding of technique. On the other, he wanted to see whether this might earn him a higher rating.
If it worked, would that mean he could move toward the kind of suturing done in real-world medical surgery?
This was his second time using the Flesh Suturing Technique. His movements were a little clumsy at first, but soon his hands began to move faster and faster.
The old man lay on the bed, but there was no light left in his eyes.
A little over ten minutes earlier, the old man had still been trying to fight back against Xiao Ran. But when the bell rang outside, he went completely still.
These night ghosts seemed to be subject to some kind of special restriction. Once their time was up, the heavy Death Qi that covered them vanished at once.
Perhaps that was why they could only appear at night.
For now, though, Xiao Ran wasn't thinking about any of that. He focused on the wound, quickly stitching it closed and making sure every detail was as perfect as possible.
Soon, when Xiao Ran finished stitching, a pleasant notification rang in his ear.
[You have met the conditions to activate a special privilege. Would you like to activate the special privilege, Spirit Seizing?]
"Spirit Seizing!"
A string of memories immediately surfaced before Xiao Ran. They were scattered memories from the old man's life. To his surprise, the old man had been a teacher.
He had taught history at the school.
The images shifted again and again. In his spare time, the history teacher had also collected antiques, calligraphy, and paintings.
"You repaired Guo Zhenglin's corpse. Rating: A. You received 30 Energy Value."
"Calamity Suppressing Token Spirit Seizing successful. You acquired Guo Zhenglin's ability: [Qing Dynasty Porcelain Identification]."
Before long, the relevant knowledge flowed into Xiao Ran's mind. He couldn't help feeling a little amused. After all that effort, the ability he'd ended up with was just a knack for identification.
"It seems the Calamity Suppressing Token is mostly useful for acquiring the abilities these Yin Souls and monsters had in life."
Thinking back to how he had obtained Sleight of Hand on the bus, Xiao Ran had a rough idea.
"Ding! Calamity Suppressing Token Energy Value has reached 100. Please complete a special mission to upgrade it!"
The notification that followed made Xiao Ran pause. He'd just remembered that the Calamity Suppressing Token could be upgraded.
"Special Mission Discovered: Calamity Suppressing Token"
Mission Conditions: Use the special privilege of the [Calamity Suppressing Token] to stitch an E-class Corpse and a D-class corpse, and obtain a rating of A or higher!
Mission Time Limit: None
Mission Reward: Calamity Suppressing Token will be upgraded to D-class.
(Note: D-class creature corpses may manifest various strange curses during suturing. Be careful!)
"So I still need to complete a mission."
Xiao Ran pursed his lips. This was just making things harder for him.
An E-class Corpse was easy enough to find. For example, the beggar on the bed beside him should definitely qualify. But corpses of D-class or higher probably wouldn't be so easy to come by.
He glanced at the old man again. Since the man had only been a teacher in life, Xiao Ran decided not to waste any more effort on him.
He turned and walked over to the beggar.
The beggar's corpse was covered in knife marks. Zhao Jiguang had struck hard with his greatsword, and where the blade had cut, the flesh had curled back on both sides. That meant the blade had been extremely hot as it sliced through the flesh; otherwise, it couldn't have left wounds like these.
Xiao Ran frowned. These were the most troublesome kinds of wounds. No one at a crematorium would take the job, no matter how much you paid. They were incredibly difficult to deal with. Anyone who had killed people often knew that skin gradually lost its elasticity after death.
Once the burned skin had been removed, stitching up the wound would look awful.
But none of that was difficult for Xiao Ran. He found a fruit knife and cut off the curled skin on the outside. Then he removed the charred flesh inside along both sides of the wound, hollowed out the two edges, and reshaped the gap between them.
Xiao Ran worked quickly. His slender fingers combined steadiness and dexterity perfectly. The needle and thread danced like nimble sprites at his fingertips, yet every stitch was precise, steady, and clean, without the slightest hesitation.
In the blink of an eye, Xiao Ran had stitched up six of the seven knife wounds. Only the fatal stab to the chest remained.
Xiao Ran reached into the wound to examine it. Just then, something suddenly changed. A bone-chilling cold swept over his hand, as though someone had abruptly grabbed it.
"Is the corpse reanimating? No! This isn't a reanimation."
He instinctively tried to pull his hand back, but it was as if his hand had sunk into a swamp. Not only could he not get it out, it was being sucked in farther and farther, as though there were a black hole inside the corpse. In the blink of an eye, half his hand had disappeared into it.
Then Xiao Ran suddenly felt as though his hand had found something.
His fingers probed at it. It was long and round, with a rectangular shape—like an iron spike?
He tried pulling it out a few times, but the suction only grew stronger.
Seeing this, Xiao Ran didn't hesitate. He immediately took out the [Calamity Suppressing Token] and slapped it against the beggar's chest. "Suppress!"
A dark-red glow appeared on the [Calamity Suppressing Token], then it slammed down hard against the beggar's corpse.
"Bang! Bang!"
The beggar's body jerked on the bed. Wisps of black mist poured from his chest like worms. Xiao Ran could clearly sense a powerful malice within them. He didn't know what it was, but with the Calamity Suppressing Token's help, the suction from the beggar's chest seemed to be weakening.
Xiao Ran immediately took out three Talismans of Strength and crushed them. A wave of heat surged through his body, invigorating him. He gripped the unknown object inside with one hand, planted a foot on the beggar's corpse, and yanked with all his strength.
"Pfft!" A black iron rod was wrenched out.
"Clang!"
Xiao Ran threw the iron rod onto the floor and shook the blood from his hand. His whole arm was numb and aching. Only then did he turn to examine the rod.
It was about as long as an adult's palm.
At the bottom was a spike shaped like a triangular pyramid. Carved along its shaft were three naked women holding up a skull, surrounded by dark patterns depicting numerous skeletons.
At the very top sat an armored general holding a treasure fan.
"What kind of design is this..."
Xiao Ran couldn't make head or tail of it. It wasn't a Cursed Object, but it was shockingly cold in his hand. "Could it be some kind of magical artifact?"
In the old days, when someone died a violent or especially gruesome death, their family would sometimes drive cinnabar nails into the coffin when burying them to prevent the corpse from reanimating and suppress evil spirits.
But he'd never heard of anyone driving a nail into a corpse. Still, no matter how he looked at it, it seemed like some kind of vicious curse, meant to keep the soul trapped forever in its body and prevent it from ever finding peace.
Unfortunately, Xiao Ran didn't know much about such supernatural rumors.
"No need. I'll take a look myself!"
Thinking of this, Xiao Ran grew even more curious about the beggar's origins. He took up his needle and thread and began stitching the final wound on the man's chest.
"Spirit Seizing!"
As soon as he had finished stitching, Xiao Ran eagerly activated the special privilege, Spirit Seizing.
In an instant, a string of memories surfaced before him.
In the images, the beggar was begging by the roadside with two young beggars. From the surroundings, it was easy to tell that people still wore cotton clothes in those days. The streets had no cars—there was hardly even a bicycle to be seen. When a passerby walked by at a slightly brisk pace, they could kick up a cloud of dust.
The beggar glanced around, then fixed his gaze on a house across the street. A woman was leading a little girl through its front door. Just from looking at the gate, it was clear that the family must have been well-off.
The scene ended there, and the memories began to jump ahead. When the beggar appeared again, he was fleeing in terror, looking utterly ragged.
He ran while glancing over his shoulder every so often.
Suddenly, the beggar stopped and warily stared at the bushes in front of him.
"Who's there? Come out!"
The bushes rustled a few times, and three or four people emerged. There were men and women among them, and the things they carried were distinctive: one had a suona, another held a fan, and yet another carried a pair of stone weights.
The woman in the flowered padded jacket had her long hair tied in a braid and held a lotus in her hands.
Beside her stood a square-faced man with a shoulder pole across his shoulder, two bamboo baskets hanging from it.
The baskets opened, and several bloody heads rolled out.
The beggar saw that every head belonged to one of his underlings. His face changed on the spot.
He dropped to his knees with a thud.
"This little brother didn't know the rules of the trade and offended you all. Please show mercy. From now on, I swear I'll never set foot in the Central Plains again."
As he spoke, the beggar raised his hand and swore an oath. He even took out all the money he'd extorted during that time.
The others exchanged glances. Then a mocking voice came from the bushes nearby. "Too late. Under the bridge, martial performers show off their skills and literary performers use their tongues. Fortune-tellers, skinmen, bodyguards, pickpockets—anyone who pays the entry fee gets a place. But there's no place for a trade like yours."
Hearing that, Xiao Ran nodded. Put simply, the line meant: "In the local trades, all sorts of people had a place, from fortune-tellers and medicine peddlers to bodyguards and thieves. Anyone who paid the entry fee was welcome, but there was no room for this kind of underhanded business." It also meant that the beggar had no way out.
The voice sounded familiar. Xiao Ran turned toward it and saw three people emerge from the bushes. At their head was a middle-aged man who wasn't very old, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, dressed in a coarse cloth jacket.
The more carefully Xiao Ran looked, the more familiar the man seemed. Then the beggar suddenly turned to glare at the three of them, his eyes blazing as he cursed, "Bah! Xiao the Cobbler! Since when did the Changchun Association have your family's name on its sign? If I survive this, I'll turn around and kill your whole village!"
"Xiao the Cobbler?"
Xiao Ran's mind went blank. He looked again at the middle-aged man who had appeared, and his head started buzzing. "My grandpa?"
This kind of shady trade referred to businesses that made money through fraud and deceit, even at the cost of people's lives. For example, they might tell a family that their daughter was pregnant with a ghost child that would bring disaster, then kill the baby when the pregnancy was nearly ten months along. The money made by taking a life was called "extreme fraud." People who traveled the rivers and lakes didn't mind being cheated out of money, but they hated this kind of murderous business most of all. (The above is from the book Anecdotes of the Rivers and Lakes.)
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