Rat Auntie

Lu Yan pushed the door open and stepped inside, his gaze sweeping across the room to find seven or eight dilapidated, black-lacquered coffins. Before each coffin stood a wooden spirit tablet, inscribed with the name of the deceased.

He walked a few paces further in, only to be met with a pungent, foul odor and a heavy, oppressive gloom.

As Chen Yulou and the others entered, Luo Laowai clutched his nose and shouted, "Damn it, this corpse stench is potent. It's been here a while."

Chen Yulou opened his folding fan and gave it a wave, teasing, "Commander Luo, you truly live up to your reputation as a former corpse-driver; you can even smell the age of the rot."

"Ha!"

Luo Laowai waved a hand, pulled out a flask of liquor, and took a few swigs before saying, "When I was a teenager in Shandong, I couldn't survive, so I came to Western Hunan to rely on relatives, only to find they were all long dead. To stay alive, I apprenticed under an old master to learn corpse-driving. I'm well-versed in this trade."

As the group chatted and laughed, a sudden, chilling gust of wind swept through the Justice Manor. The lamps in their hands flickered as if about to extinguish, and a strange, creaking sound echoed through the room, as if something were scraping against the coffin lids.

Lu Yan paused, activating his Sharingan to scan the coffins, yet he detected no abnormal energy.

Chen Yulou gestured from behind, and he, Luo Laowai, and the others fanned out to surround the coffins, prying them open one by one to check if the corpses had undergone any transformations.

However, after this flurry of activity, the strange noises vanished as quickly as they had appeared, leaving only the mournful wailing of the mountain wind.

Chen Yulou frowned and looked at Lu Yan, who shook his head to indicate he had found nothing amiss.

After patrolling for a while and finding no irregularities, Chen Yulou simply ordered Hua Maguai to set trip-ropes inside the coffins. These ropes were soaked in cinnabar powder; once a person died and their body stiffened, the pressure of the trip-rope would prevent them from rising out of the coffin.

Lu Yan did not remain idle. He circled the Justice Manor twice, finding the buildings in a state of utter decay and filth, with only a small room near the back door fit for habitation.

The group followed Lu Yan into this small room and found places to settle down.

Lu Yan sat opposite Luo Laowai and happened to notice a stiff, upright corpse standing directly behind him. The body was wrapped in a large white cloth, revealing only its silhouette, with a wooden spirit tablet perched atop its head.

A mischievous smirk tugged at the corner of Lu Yan's mouth as he signaled for Luo Laowai to turn around and look behind him.

Luo Laowai turned, and despite a lifetime of killing without blinking, he was startled into a cold sweat, hurriedly drawing a pistol from his waist.

Chen Yulou quickly pressed down on Luo Laowai's hand and raised an oil lamp to illuminate the wooden tablet. A yellow talisman was pasted onto it—a common Corpse-Purification Talisman. Peeling it back, they saw the inscription: The Spirit of Rat Auntie, of the Wu Clan.

"She must be the woman who kept the coffins and stood watch. She died only two days ago; the body must undergo 'standing stiffening' before it can be interred. I hear she was a woman of misfortune. We shall leave her be, as we have no quarrel with her."

After speaking, Chen Yulou sat to the side, eating dry rations washed down with liquor while closing his eyes to meditate on the intelligence gathered today, envisioning the scale of the ancient tomb in Bottle Mountain.

Seeing that Chen Yulou had spoken, Luo Laowai felt it inappropriate to insist on burning Rat Auntie, so he sat beside Chen Yulou, drinking liquor and inviting Lu Yan to join him.

Lu Yan was still young, and as a wizard, he disliked anything that could cloud his senses, so he was a teetotaler and shook his head to decline Luo Laowai's offer.

Finding a clean spot, Lu Yan sat cross-legged and closed his eyes to contemplate the various talismanic arts he had exchanged with Simu.

"Hey, Red Maiden, I say, you're such a beautiful girl, why suffer these hardships trailing behind a bunch of old men like us? Why not just submit to me and become my eighth concubine? I'll see that you live in luxury."

Luo Laowai found drinking alone rather dull, and seeing Red Maiden's delicate, pretty face, his interest was piqued once more.

Luo Laowai had been eyeing Red Maiden for some time, but she was fierce and a capable subordinate of Chen Yulou, leaving him with nothing but greedy, unfulfilled desires.

Hearing Luo Laowai's lewd remarks, Red Maiden's pretty face hardened. She whipped out a flying dagger and flicked it; with a whoosh, the blade embedded itself directly into the stool Luo Laowai was sitting on, a mere finger's breadth from his crotch.

Luo Laowai shuddered at the sight of the dagger between his legs, but once he regained his composure, he laughed brazenly, "Spicy! I like it."

Hua Maguai shook his head, unfazed, and changed the subject: "Commander Luo, I heard this Rat Auntie was a giant rat spirit; her appearance is remarkably like a rat."

"Oh, is that so? Then I must take a look at this curiosity today!"

Luo Laowai stood up, walked to the door, and reached out to tear away the white cloth covering the corpse.

By the light of the lamp, everyone was shocked. The female corpse's skin was a sickly cyan, devoid of blood, and her facial features were cramped—a small nose, tiny eyes, slightly pointed ears, and prominent buckteeth. Her purple-black lips protruded outward; aside from the lack of fur, it was the face of a rat.

Seeing the others acting so flustered and inexperienced, Chen Yulou walked over and said, "This is a physiognomy of deformity. Though rare, there is nothing to be surprised about. You are making a mountain out of a molehill."

"The Chief is truly knowledgeable and experienced. I, Luo, am impressed."

Though Luo Laowai had a sinister face, his flattery was always smooth and pleasant to the ear.

Just then, a strange cry erupted from where Rat Auntie lay, and the corpse seemed to twitch. Luo Laowai recoiled in terror, falling to the ground.

Chen Yulou was startled, gripping his Little Divine Blade tightly as he stepped forward with the oil lamp to investigate.

Under the light, it turned out to be a false alarm: a lame, old calico cat, likely driven by hunger, had been perched on Rat Auntie's shoulder, attempting to gnaw on the flesh.

Chen Yulou had always held himself in high regard, and feeling humiliated by being frightened by a lame cat, he hurled his Little Divine Blade at the creature.

Unexpectedly, though the cat was lame, it was incredibly agile. It leaped down, not only dodging the strike but also managing to bite off half of Rat Auntie's ear.

This enraged Chen Yulou. While the Xieling sect often showed little regard for the remains of royals and nobles, they were respectful toward the corpses of the impoverished to accumulate merit, often even paying to bury those who died on the road.

Since ancient times, the integrity of a corpse's appearance during funeral rites was paramount. Seeing the cat bite off half of Rat Auntie's ear, Chen Yulou felt he could not let it go unpunished—at the very least, he had to retrieve that piece of ear—and he chased after it without a second thought.

"Hey, Chief!"

Luo Laowai had already scrambled to his feet, watching Chen Yulou's retreating figure with astonishment.

"Don't follow me, I'll be right back!"

Chen Yulou didn't look back, shouting into the distance as he sprinted into the pitch-black night.