Record of Selling Corpses

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Record of Selling Corpses (卖尸录)
Type	Supernatural record manifesting as a mottled scroll of stele inscriptions
Affiliation	Lin Shou; it manifests after he completes corpse-stitching work
Occupation/Role	Records a stitched corpse's life, appraises its value, and grants a corresponding reward
Status	Active
First Appearance	Chapter 1

Appearance

The Record manifests amid a vision of mist, burial mounds, tombs, mausoleums, grave markers, ghost money, paper treasures, and an underworld river. It appears as a mottled scroll bearing its name on the cover. 1

• Its text is written in seal script. 2
• Its appraisals are accompanied by the sound of a yin-yang abacus. 2
• It vanishes after completing a valuation, leaving Lin Shou with the reward. 2

Functions

Lantern of Life

After Lin Shou stitches a corpse, the Record can play the deceased's life story as a Lantern of Life. These visions reveal both public and hidden aspects of the subject's life, including Squire Gao's murder of his daughter and Rogue Wang's long history of abuse. 2 3

• The visions give Lin Shou information unavailable through ordinary investigation, including the circumstances behind other corpse stitchers' deaths. 14 18
• Lin Shou used knowledge from prior Lanterns of Life to anticipate the grave robber corpse's hand-grabbing danger and prepare remote-operated mechanical hands. 18
• Some mysteries remain unresolved even after a Lantern of Life concludes, such as the source of the grave robber corpse's corruption and the figure haunting the Examination Hall. 18 46

Corpse Valuation

The Record appraises corpses through four grades—Heaven, Earth, Dark, and Yellow—each divided into nine ranks. 2

Corpse / Trigger	Valuation	Result
Squire Gao	Yellow Grade, Fifth Rank	Human-Faced Beast-Heart Fruit 2
Rogue Wang	Yellow Grade, Third Rank	Greed-Abstinence Silver 4
Crippled corpse-stitcher of Shop No. 6	Yellow Grade, Seventh Rank	Golden Corpse-Stitching Needle and Flesh and Skin Scroll 7
Grave robber's corpse	Yellow Grade, First Rank	Burial Shovel 18 19
Grave robber's corpse	Heaven Grade, Third Rank	Classic of Burial 18 19
Repaired statue at the Examination Hall	Heaven Grade, Fifth Rank	Classic of Haoran Qi 43 44
Overworked scholar	Dark Grade, Seventh Rank	Ma Liang's Brush 41
Water Gate Escort Agency bodyguard	Xuan Grade, Fourth Rank	Thousand-Mile Lone Rider 50

The grave robber received two separate valuations after being stitched, a phenomenon Lin Shou interprets as possibly being “one corpse, two lives”; its cause is unknown. 18 20

Reward Distribution

The Record's rewards range from consumables and trade knowledge to cultivation methods, weapons, and supernatural arts. A low valuation does not necessarily produce an insignificant reward: the Yellow Grade, Seventh Rank crippled stitcher yielded the Corpse-Stitching Needle Manual. 7

Category	Documented rewards and effects
Corpse-stitching and craftsmanship	The Golden Corpse-Stitching Needle and Flesh and Skin Scroll let Lin Shou master the Corpse-Stitching Needle Technique, capable of restoring a torn cabbage leaf without visible seams. 7 The Book of Lu Ban: Chapter of Human Replacement teaches prosthetics that can be manipulated by threads or connected to the nervous system. 15
Forbidden and covert arts	The Human-Faced Beast-Heart Fruit grants the Beast-Making Art, which Lin Shou considers vicious and dangerous if exposed. 2 Three Immortals Return to the Cave conceals objects several times a person's size on his body. 27
Physical enhancement	Strength Pills and Dog Skin Plasters substantially improve Lin Shou's strength, flexibility, balance, and physical constitution. 15 16 21 Snake Gallbladders and Century-Old Ginseng each grant a year of cultivation power. 21
Combat techniques	Rewards include Amateur Kung Fu, Acupoint Striking Technique, Snake-Returning Art, Paoding's Ox-Carving Method, and Thousand-Mile Lone Rider. 7 29 50 Paoding's Ox-Carving Method refines mastered techniques through continued practice. 29
Perception and learning	Subtle Perception improves observation and deductive reasoning. 10 Medical texts and feng shui works grant knowledge of diagnosis, herbs, prescriptions, and residential feng shui. 21
Cultivation methods	The Heaven-grade Classic of Burial provides a cultivation method whose speed varies with feng shui. 19 The Classic of Haoran Qi allows Lin Shou to cultivate talent qi and form a Temple of Literature in his chest. 44
Special items	Ma Liang's Brush can “paint falsehood into truth.” 41 A Medicinal Bath of Six Diseases Immunity makes Lin Shou immune to disease. 33

History

The Record first manifested after Lin Shou restored a beheaded corpse at No. 9 Corpse-Stitching Shop. Its emergence transformed corpse-stitching from a dangerous livelihood into a means for him to acquire knowledge and power. 1 2

Its first recorded appraisal concerned Squire Gao, an outwardly charitable man executed for murdering his disabled daughter. The Record revealed Gao's concealed crime, assigned his corpse a Yellow Grade, Fifth Rank valuation, and granted Lin Shou the Human-Faced Beast-Heart Fruit. 2

The Record became crucial to Lin Shou's survival during the grave robber incident. Through the Lanterns of Life of the dead Shop No. 20 stitcher and other victims, Lin Shou learned that the corpse could seize a stitcher's hand and inflict a lethal corruption. He completed the final stitches remotely, sacrificing one mechanical hand but surviving to receive two valuations and two rewards. 14 18 19

During the Autumn Examination, Lin Shou deliberately arranged to receive the Examination Hall's corpses in bulk, treating the Record's rewards as the main benefit. The resulting series of appraisals supplied literary texts, Enlightenment Pills, Ma Liang's Brush, Yellow Millet, and eventually the Classic of Haoran Qi. 39 40 41 44

Relationship

• Lin Shou — Primary user and beneficiary. He relies on the Record's Lanterns of Life for intelligence and its rewards for cultivation, combat, craftsmanship, medicine, and feng shui. 2 21 29 44
• Stitched corpses — The Record treats completed corpse-stitching work as the trigger for life-recording, valuation, and reward distribution. 2 3
• Grave robber's corpse — The only documented subject to receive two valuations, including a Heaven-grade appraisal. 18

Unresolved Phenomena

• The Record activated when Lin Shou helped reattach the head of a statue at the Examination Hall, producing a Heaven Grade, Fifth Rank valuation despite no ordinary corpse-stitching taking place. 43 44
• The grave robber corpse's second valuation suggests an undisclosed connection beyond its visible identity; Lin Shou could not determine why it counted as two lives. 18 20
• The Record's origin, its appraisal criteria, and the full significance of its Heaven-grade valuations have not been explained. 18 19

Notable Quotes

“When a person dies, the lamp goes out; the coffin lid seals the final verdict. Good and evil lie within me; praise and blame rest with others.” 2

“The Yin-Yang Abacus clinked and clanked, setting prices for heaven, earth, and the realms between.” 7