Tsk. Lin Shou watched as the corpse on the cold bed in the Lantern of Life suddenly raised a hand to grab someone, and frowned slightly.
This time was different from when the headless No. 6 corpse-stitcher he'd stitched before had frightened himself.
That time, it had been a human trick. The Scalp-Cutter had pretended to be a ghost to scare someone into opening the door. But what about this time?
The Lantern of Life had shown it clearly: no one had been behind it. The corpse had moved on its own.
Could it really have been a haunting?
Lin Shou had his doubts. All kinds of eerie things happened in this place, and people spoke about ghosts and gods with great confidence, as if they knew them inside and out.
But even now, Lin Shou had never seen a real ghost. He'd never seen a ghost harm anyone.
He had, however, met plenty of people with ghosts in their hearts.
The Lantern of Life continued.
After the corpse grabbed Number Twenty, he froze in place, as though he'd been electrocuted.
After about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he suddenly began scratching himself frantically, as if his whole body itched. He clawed at himself from head to toe until his skin was torn and bloody, but he didn't stop. It was as though he were possessed.
At last, he gave a strangled cry and died on the spot.
The Lantern of Life ended.
Lin Shou watched with a grave expression and said nothing.
The Yin-Yang Abacus jingled: Heaven, Earth, Dark, and Yellow—each had its price.
The Record of Selling Corpses appraised the corpse at Yellow-Grade Fifth Rank.
The Record of Selling Corpses rewarded Lin Shou with a page from an ancient text.
The fragment described mechanical principles, master craftsmanship, and ingenious techniques. It recorded how to use ordinary wood, earth, metal, and stone in place of the human body and its limbs.
The Book of Lu Ban: Chapter of Human Replacement
Lin Shou spent the whole night by lamplight reading through it. Amazed by the exquisite workmanship and bizarre ideas, he had mastered the techniques of crafting artificial limbs and the art of human replacement by dawn. Then the heavenly text vanished.
Lin Shou casually grabbed the stool beside him, shaved away the wood, and threaded it with string, applying the art of human replacement to craft an artificial limb.
The time it took an incense stick to burn.
In Lin Shou's hands hung a lifelike wooden palm, suspended by threads. Its joints were crafted with exquisite precision, and threads ran through its interior like tendons.
Lin Shou worked the threads in his hands. The wooden palm moved as if alive, able to grasp, clench into a fist, raise its middle finger, and even flutter its fingers in a flower-like flourish. It was every bit as nimble as a real hand.
Lin Shou clicked his tongue in wonder. This art of prosthetic substitution was incredible.
This bizarre, ingenious technique was more advanced than every piece of bionic prosthetics technology he'd ever seen in his previous life.
The flexible joints were impressive enough, but the key was the way threads were used to imitate nerves.
According to the Book of Lu Ban: Chapter of Human Replacement, this device could not only be operated by hand like a marionette, as Lin Shou was doing now, but could also be connected directly to a person's nervous system.
It was a miracle of bionic medicine, a blessing for everyone with a disability. A prosthetic limb made using this technique could perform at least eighty percent as well as a real one.
Tsk, this thing was cyberpunk as hell.
Lin Shou fiddled with his "third hand" for a long time, marveling at its bizarre ingenuity.
Corpse-stitchers sometimes had to make prosthetic limbs, too.
People could meet with misfortune at any moment. Even in death, some were lucky and some unlucky. Sooner or later, there'd be someone missing an arm or a leg, or some other part that couldn't be found.
The dead were supposed to be buried whole, but they still had to be laid to rest. So if a missing limb could be found, they'd use the original. If it was truly lost, the corpse-stitcher had to mold a fake one from clay and sew it on.
According to the old saying, this was called "Deceiving the Ghost Ferry."
On the road to the underworld, there was a checkpoint before the Sanzu River. The underworld officials checked whether you looked human. If you were missing an arm or a leg, they wouldn't accept you, and you'd be tossed into the Animal Realm in your next life.
Some people were so afraid of being reborn as beasts that they lingered in the human world, unable to enter the cycle of rebirth. They'd return as ghosts to seek out their relatives.
So you molded a fake limb to "Deceive the Ghost Ferry," tricking the underworld officials into thinking you still looked human. Then they'd let you pass.
Of course, all of this was just old folklore, something to take as a story. It was simply the trade's custom: if a whole corpse couldn't be pieced together, the corpse-stitcher molded a fake.
"If anyone dies in my shop, they'll be in for a treat."
Lin Shou thought to himself that with his flawless corpse-stitching needle technique and the art of prosthetic substitution, even if someone brought him nothing but a head, he could stitch them into Iron Man.
With his skills, if he set up shop on his own, there probably wouldn't be a single corpse-stitching shop in the Capital City that could rival his.
Unfortunately, the Great Jing Law didn't seem to allow private corpse-stitching. If you were caught, you'd be beheaded.
Corpse-stitching was an officially run trade, entirely controlled by the Bureau of Corpse Management under the Ministry of Rites.
Lin Shou had always found that puzzling. Corpse-stitching wasn't like salt or iron, which could make money. In fact, running it on a large scale could even lead to losses. So why did the imperial court keep such a tight hold on it?
Forget it. It wasn't his concern.
Daylight broke. Lin Shou had spent the whole night reading and was exhausted. Once an official from the Bureau of Corpse Management came to collect the body, he lay down on the cold bed and went to sleep.
That night, Lin Shou stitched a corpse—a medicine peddler from the Skin Sect.
Yellow-Grade Ninth Rank. He stitched out a Strength Pill.
Lin Shou was utterly speechless, but he figured the Record of Selling Corpses wouldn't stoop to selling fake medicine. He downed it in one gulp to see what would happen.
To his surprise, it worked remarkably well.
After swallowing the Strength Pill, Lin Shou felt the muscles throughout his body grow hot. His strength surged, leaving him refreshed and invigorated all night.
His previous body had been weak and gaunt from years of malnutrition. But after that night of transformation,
his body, once skin and bones, became much fuller, as if he'd been eating nourishing food. He'd even developed some muscle definition, like someone who'd followed a sensible workout routine and healthy diet for a year. He seemed to have grown a little taller, too.
Lin Shou tried jumping and stretching in the room. His muscles and bones popped, strength flooded his body, and he felt refreshed and invigorated.
When Ning Luowei came to deliver tofu in the morning, she pushed open the door and caught Lin Shou exercising. His upper body was bare, his long, muscular frame glistening with fine beads of sweat. His collarbones were sharply defined, his abs faintly visible, and deep grooves traced his V-line. Lower down...tsk, those clothes were in the way!
Ning Luowei secretly licked her lips, then walked over with a beaming smile and said to Lin Shou, "Sir, come have some tofu."
"I'm not doing business. You've come to block my door first thing in the morning."
Lin Shou wiped the sweat off his body with a towel, then put on his clothes, concealing his impressively sculpted physique.
It was as if he were still that frail, insignificant, dim-witted little fool from the No. 9 Corpse-Stitching Shop.
After eating the tofu, Lin Shou sent Ning Luowei on her way.
Over the next few days, the Strength Pill greatly improved Lin Shou's physical condition, so he increased the intensity of his daily workouts.
At the same time, he started looking around for Skin Sect medicine peddlers selling their wares in the martial world, hoping to pitch them his services: if they died, they should come to his No. 9 Corpse-Stitching Shop, where they'd get twenty percent off.
He wondered if he'd get another chance to obtain a Strength Pill from the Record of Selling Corpses.
This stuff was great for building strength and staying healthy.
Of course, since Lin Shou was so enthusiastic about promoting his corpse-stitching services, it was only natural that a bunch of people were chasing him down the street, cursing him out.
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