Ink Marker Lines

Watching Wencai sprint along with his head down, Qiusheng frowned. When he reached him, Qiusheng reached out and shoved him to a stop.

"Wencai, what are you doing? Why are you in such a panic?"

"Senior Brother, look! Master told me to burn incense, but look how it burned!"

Qiusheng looked at the three incense sticks in Wencai's hand and pretended to look shocked.

"How could this happen? Come on, let's hurry back and tell Master."

As soon as Qiusheng finished speaking, the two brothers ran toward the Public Mortuary.

The moment they entered the Public Mortuary, Wencai clutched the incense sticks and shouted, "Master! Master, come out and look!"

Still shouting, Wencai charged headlong into the mortuary and collided with Taoist Four Eyes, who had stuck his head out to see what was happening.

"Ow! My poor back! Wencai, what are you doing?"

"Martial Uncle, sorry for the trouble. Look, how did the incense burn like this?"

Rubbing his back, Taoist Four Eyes took the incense from Wencai's hand. He got to his feet and took a look, then cried out in surprise.

"Damn! Senior Brother, come take a look."

Hearing the commotion, Uncle Nine came out from the inner room. He snatched the three incense sticks from Taoist Four Eyes and examined them, then sighed.

"Alas, people fear three long and two short, while incense fears two short and one long. And yet this is exactly how it burned."

Hearing his master say this, Wencai immediately asked, "Master, what happens if incense burns two short and one long?"

As he spoke, he helped himself to a piece of flatbread from the altar in front of him.

Uncle Nine shot a sidelong glance at his sticky-fingered disciple, shook his head, and continued, "If incense burns like this in a home, someone there is bound to die."

"Is it at Master Ren's house?"

Wencai had very obviously asked a foolish question.

Sure enough, Uncle Nine immediately replied, "Do you think we're at his house?"

With that, Uncle Nine walked over to the coffin in front of the incense table. Old Master Ren lay inside.

"If it doesn't concern you, don't worry about it. Isn't that right, Senior Brother?"

"Heh. You don't need to worry about it. None of the Rens are related to you, anyway."

After answering casually, Qiusheng ran up to his master and asked, "Master, is there something wrong with the corpse in this coffin?"

"I've noticed that ever since it arrived at the Public Mortuary, you and Martial Uncle have been hovering around it."

"That's right, Nephew. The fellow in there is quite something."

"Come, Nephew, give me a hand. Your Martial Uncle wants a closer look at what this fellow looks like."

As he spoke, Taoist Four Eyes beckoned to Qiusheng.

Qiusheng was happy to oblige. He put a hand on the coffin, and together with his martial uncle, opened it.

As soon as the coffin opened, a plume of black vapor rose up, revealing the corpse inside to Four Eyes and Qiusheng.

"Damn, Senior Brother, come take a look! The corpse has swollen up. It really looks like it's about to turn into a corpse!"

"What!"

Uncle Nine's expression changed. He strode over, examined Ren Weiyong's condition, and immediately shouted, "Quick, put the lid back on!"

At Uncle Nine's command, Four Eyes and Qiusheng promptly closed the coffin.

Then Uncle Nine continued, "Wencai, Qiusheng, go prepare paper, a brush, ink, a knife, and a sword for me."

"No need, Master. Look, what's this?"

Instead of hurrying to fetch the things his master had asked for, Qiusheng went to the statue of the patriarchs and took down an ink marker.

Uncle Nine glanced at the object in Qiusheng's hand, momentarily taken aback. He took it from him, gave it a little boost of magical energy, then looked at Qiusheng in surprise and asked, "When did you get this, you little rascal? How come I didn't know?"

"Just a couple of days ago. When I heard you and Master Ren set the exact time to open the coffin, I talked it over with Junior Brother. We were worried something might go wrong, so we prepared this for you well in advance."

"Mm, good. You two did very well this time."

Uncle Nine looked at the ink marker in his hand and praised Qiusheng with satisfaction.

As he praised Qiusheng, Uncle Nine shot his junior brother a look of disdain.

The meaning was clear: Even if you offered to trade yourself for a disciple like this, I wouldn't take the deal.

"Pah."

Seeing the look in his senior brother's eyes, Taoist Four Eyes scoffed.

"Master, why did Master Ren Weiyong suddenly swell up inside the coffin?"

Wencai, still clueless about what was going on, suddenly spoke up.

"You and your senior brother draw ink-marker lines all over the coffin. Remember, cover every inch. Don't leave a single spot untouched."

With that, Uncle Nine handed the ink marker back to Qiusheng.

Qiusheng immediately got to work with his junior brother.

"People can be good or bad, and corpses can be dead or turned into zombies. Old Master Ren in that coffin is a corpse on the verge of turning into a zombie."

"That's right. A zombie is a person who dies with a breath still trapped in their body, stuck in their throat. That's what people mean when they say someone died without their breath leaving them."

Seeing his senior brother show off his knowledge, Taoist Four Eyes couldn't let the chance pass and joined in.

"Oh, Martial Uncle, does that mean every corpse becomes a zombie if a breath gets stuck in its chest after death?"

Hearing Taoist Four Eyes' explanation, Qiusheng immediately asked.

"Not necessarily. Becoming a zombie isn't that easy."

"First, the corpse must have a breath trapped inside. Then it must absorb a great deal of yin energy, which combines with that breath to form corpse energy."

"At that point, the corpse has basically become the weakest kind of zombie: a Walking Corpse."

Taoist Four Eyes explained it simply enough that Qiusheng understood at once. He said, "Martial Uncle, you really know a lot."

"Of course. I know more secrets than you could count. One of these days, I'll tell you all about them."

Four Eyes was pleased by Qiusheng's flattery. He nodded as he spoke.

After that, he and Uncle Nine turned and left, leaving everything else to Wencai and Qiusheng.

By then, Qiusheng and Wencai had drawn ink-marker lines across all five sides of the coffin, including both ends.

"Senior Brother, we're done. Let's call it a day."

"Done, my foot! What about the bottom of the coffin?"

At Qiusheng's reminder, Wencai scratched his head and smiled.

"Oh, right! Thanks for reminding me, Senior Brother. I really would've forgotten."

Still scratching his head, Wencai joined Qiusheng in drawing ink-marker lines all over the bottom of the coffin.

Once they had finished everything, Wencai immediately ran off, leaving Qiusheng alone in front of the coffin. He muttered to himself, "I've done everything I could. Tingting, if this zombie still manages to break out of the coffin and kill your father, don't blame me."

After saying that, Qiusheng put the ink marker away and turned to leave.