Back in the Corpse Handling Room, he opened one of the packets.
The so-called Lime Powder certainly lived up to its name. Inside was a grayish-white powder that gave off a pungent smell, like quicklime.
He gritted his teeth, steeled himself, and poured the crude powder directly onto the blackened wound.
"Sizzle—!"
An indescribable agony, like a red-hot brand pressed fiercely into his flesh, surged through his entire body in an instant!
Lu Chen let out a muffled groan. The veins on his forehead bulged as his body shook violently.
The powder seemed almost alive, scorching his wound in a frenzy. It clashed with the cold Corpse Poison, annihilating it as wisps of foul-smelling black smoke curled into the air.
The excruciating pain lasted for a full incense stick before gradually subsiding.
Lu Chen was drenched in cold sweat. He leaned against the icy stone wall, utterly spent, and gasped for breath.
He looked down. The wound was no longer black. Though his flesh was mangled, the cold Corpse Poison had indeed been purged by the powder's crude, overpowering potency.
His relief at surviving soon gave way to an even colder reality.
He closed his eyes and replayed every moment of his fight with that Corpse Badger, over and over in his mind.
His openings, his clumsiness, his wretched helplessness—all stood out as clearly as brands.
"The Demon Suppressing Saber Technique is a butcher's blade, not a warrior's..."
"Body Evasion Steps can help me dodge, but they can't help me win..."
"I need... I need a way to truly fight and kill!"
Early the next morning, Foreman Wang came to find Lu Chen.
He glanced at Lu Chen's pale face, a look of disdain flickering through his eyes.
"Though we didn't catch that beast on our last outing, at least that report of yours kept me from making a wasted trip before the Captain."
He stared at Lu Chen and spoke with a false smile. "Fine. Merit is merit, and fault is fault. I've always rewarded and punished fairly."
Foreman Wang put on an air of deep contemplation, as if he were agonizing over some extraordinary reward.
In truth, the pills and silver bestowed by the Captain had already gone into his own pockets. He hadn't intended to give Lu Chen so much as a hair's worth.
He rummaged around for ages in a dusty wooden chest in the corner, then casually pulled out a booklet even more tattered than the Turtle Breath Meditation Method and tossed it at Lu Chen's feet.
Its cover had fallen off, its pages were yellowed and curled, and it gave off a heavy, musty smell.
At the same time, he took several stacks of dull-colored, coarse yellow paper and a small chunk of cheap cinnabar, so gritty it might as well have been mixed with sand, from a drawer.
"Boy, swinging a blade isn't enough. You need to learn more skills." Foreman Wang crossed one leg over the other and spoke earnestly, in a tone that suggested "I'm doing this for your own good." "The art of making talismans is profound and mysterious—a method of the immortals. Take this Detailed Explanation of Basic Talismans (Fragment) and study it well. It might come in handy when you have to deal with some unusual corpses."
By dumping this worthless junk that nobody could master on Lu Chen, he could pass it off as a reward and silence the gossip. He could also make Lu Chen waste his time and energy on something useless, keeping him from getting any other ideas.
It was killing two birds with one stone, and Foreman Wang was thoroughly pleased with his own cleverness.
Lu Chen looked at the reward at his feet. His heart was cold, but his face instantly lit up with delighted surprise, as if he'd been granted an honor beyond his wildest dreams.
He hurriedly picked up the tattered book, talisman paper, and cinnabar, clutching them to his chest as if they were priceless treasures. Then he bowed deeply to Foreman Wang.
"Thank you for your guidance, Foreman Wang! I... I swear I won't let you down. I'll study it with all my heart and live up to your expectations!"
Lu Chen's voice even trembled with excitement. His performance was so convincing that Foreman Wang felt thoroughly pleased.
"Mm, you're a promising lad." Foreman Wang nodded in satisfaction, then straightened his expression and announced something else.
"Since you've got some luck in this area, from now on, all the demon and devil corpses in the department with particularly strong Killing Intent—the ones prone to causing trouble—will pass through your hands first. If you can't handle them, then pass them on to Zhang Mazi and the others."
He paused and continued in a tone that suggested, "I'm giving you an important role." "This is a test, and a chance for me to nurture you. Do a good job, and there'll be plenty in it for you!"
On the surface, he called it entrusting Lu Chen with an important responsibility. In truth, he was dumping all the riskiest work on him.
If Lu Chen handled things successfully, Foreman Wang could take the finest materials and claim credit with his superiors.
If Lu Chen failed, or even died in the process, then it would only be the death of an insignificant corpse handler—no loss to him at all.
It was a vicious scheme, and a loud one.
Outside the door, Zhang Mazi and the others happened to be passing by. They overheard everything, and their eyes turned red with envy.
To them, the right of first handling was an incredible opportunity!
It meant getting first pick of the valuable demons and devils—and the biggest cut of the spoils.
They saw only the benefits and completely overlooked the deadly risks involved.
But Foreman Wang's authority weighed heavily on them. They only dared curse him in their hearts, not letting the slightest hint of displeasure show on their faces.
Lu Chen's heart, meanwhile, began thumping wildly in spite of himself.
Risk?
Behind the risk lay a mountain of Demon Devil Lifespan!
Foreman Wang's arrangement was like a pillow delivered to someone who was nodding off—it was exactly what Lu Chen wanted!
"Your subordinate... obeys! I'll serve Foreman Wang with all my heart until the day I die!"
Lu Chen bowed deeply again, his voice brimming with the excitement and determination of someone entrusted with an important task.
Back in the cold, damp Corpse Handling Room, Lu Chen barred the stone door shut. The excitement and gratitude vanished from his face in an instant.
He set the tattered Detailed Explanation of Basic Talismans on the stone bed and studied it closely.
Sure enough, this fragment was even more absurd than he'd imagined.
The talisman characters were twisted like the scrawls of ghosts, and many of the crucial strokes had blurred beyond recognition. The so-called annotations were even more incoherent, riddled with contradictory claims.
"Draw the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to your fingertips, infuse your brush with clarity of mind..."
Reading these abstruse descriptions gave Lu Chen a headache. Forget practicing—just understanding them was harder than reaching the heavens.
He didn't lose heart. Instead, he sank his consciousness into his mind and issued a command to the Bronze Tome floating there.
"System, can you infuse the Detailed Explanation of Basic Talismans?"
[Detected incomplete skill book: Detailed Explanation of Basic Talismans (Fragment). It can be infused and extrapolated, but due to the severe damage, the required lifespan will increase substantially, and initial efficiency will be extremely low.]
"As long as it's possible!"