Grandmaster, Emperor of Fengdu

I had already accepted the fact that I was about to become a Corpse Collector.

Hearing Corpse Head Song say that, I did not say much more.

As long as I could stay alive and make money, collecting corpses was fine.

It was better than dying with no one to see my grandfather off.

Besides, Corpse Head Song had not told me to give up my studies.

This semester was nearly over anyway. Next semester would be internship season...

Corpse Head Song packed up his fishing gear and had me carry the case and equipment for him.

He acted like a show-off.

Carrying that Giant Black Carp barehanded, he strode ahead by himself.

Once we left the pier, he deliberately headed toward the barbecue stalls, as though afraid no one would notice him.

It was only four or five hundred meters from the pier, yet he dragged it out for a full forty minutes.

At last, we arrived at a place called Yin Yang Street.

Walking inward from the street entrance, the thirteenth shop was Corpse Head Song's storefront.

I looked up and found it quite different from what I had imagined.

I had assumed that, as someone who collected corpses, Corpse Head Song would run a funeral service shop.

Something like a one-stop shop for weddings and funerals, or a Feng Shui Hall.

But instead, Corpse Head Song's shop was actually a fishing gear store.

And it had an especially tacky name: "Big Fish Fishing Gear Store."

Still, the fishing gear store was quite large.

It had three storefronts, and the decor looked rather luxurious.

Standing at the entrance, Corpse Head Song said to me,

"Xiao Jiang! This is my shop. Not bad, right?"

"It's very nice!"

I replied with a smile.

Corpse Head Song laughed a few times.

"Other than collecting corpses, this is my only hobby..."

As he spoke, he set down the Giant Black Carp and opened the glass door.

I followed Corpse Head Song into the shop.

Once the lights were on, I saw that the interior was spacious and genuinely well decorated.

Besides displays of various fishing rods and shelves full of bait and fishing gear, there was even a large aquarium ecosystem tank.

He was clearly a Corpse Collector, yet he had opened a fishing gear store.

Corpse Head Song did not explain much. He simply continued,

"Come upstairs with me. We're going to pay respects to the Grandmaster."

I gave a quiet "Mm" and followed Corpse Head Song deeper inside.

The shop was quite large, with two floors.

At the very back of the fishing gear store was a kitchen and a small dining room.

Then there was a wooden staircase leading upstairs.

The stairs creaked beneath our feet as we went up to the second floor. The ceiling was a little over a person's height.

There were three rooms, one of them locked.

Outside was a living room with a large television.

And beside the stairs in the living room stood a shrine.

It was covered with red cloth, so I could not tell what was being worshipped.

All I could see was a small bronze incense burner nearly filled with ash.

Corpse Head Song led me directly before the shrine, took out three incense sticks, lit them, and bowed toward the shrine covered in red cloth.

Then he said,

"Grandmaster above.

Your disciple Song Decai has an affinity with this young man, Jiang Ning.

I have decided to accept him as my disciple and pass down the Yin Sect Dharma Incantation.

May Grandmaster bear witness and grant us good fortune."

After saying that, Corpse Head Song respectfully bowed three more times.

Then he inserted the three incense sticks into the burner.

At the same time, he reached out and removed the red cloth covering the shrine's memorial tablet.

Only then did I clearly see what was inside.

Within the black shrine frame stood a red memorial tablet.

Six golden characters were written on it.

"Seat of the Emperor of Fengdu."

I knew Fengdu—it was the ghost city of the underworld!

But I did not know much about the Emperor of Fengdu.

Judging by the name alone, I knew the Grandmaster I was worshipping had to be incredibly formidable.

As I stared at the memorial tablet, Corpse Head Song spoke.

"Jiang Ning, today, before the Grandmaster, I will accept you as my disciple.

I hope that from now on, you will conduct yourself properly and study diligently.

Do not commit evil because it seems minor, and do not refrain from doing good because it seems minor."

Hearing that, I no longer had any hesitation.

Seeing a tea bowl nearby, I directly poured a cup of cold tea.

I knelt on the floor and kowtowed to Corpse Head Song three times.

Then I raised the bowl of cold tea.

"Master, your disciple will remember your teachings. Please drink the tea!"

At first, Master had not cared about such formalities.

He had merely seen that my Eight Characters were suitable and that I had some affinity with him, so he wanted to accept me as a disciple.

But seeing that I understood etiquette, he smiled at me.

"Good, good!"

With that, he took the cold tea I was holding out and sipped it lightly.

After drinking, he set down the tea bowl.

Then he spoke to me again.

"Xiao Jiang!

Since I accepted you as my disciple today, your master will give you a Dharma name.

Once you have a Dharma name, you will clearly feel the blessings you receive.

And the Grandmaster below will also know that he has a disciple like you.

When you go down there in the future, you'll have someone looking out for you."

I looked at Master, not fully understanding what he meant.

But I said nothing.

After thinking for a moment, Master spoke again.

"Your Eight Characters are light, and your fate is too thin.

You carry hardship and calamity, so your name shall be Du'e!"

Du'e.

The name sounded all right, and it was fairly auspicious.

I did not mind it either.

Whatever it was called, as long as it kept me alive.

Seeing that I had no objections, Master picked up a brush nearby.

He quickly wrote my date and hour of birth, along with my Dharma name, Du'e, on a sheet of yellow paper.

Right before my eyes, he burned the yellow paper before the Grandmaster's memorial tablet.

Then he gestured for me to kowtow to the Grandmaster.

He also said that I could only stop when he told me to.

I had never taken a master before, so I assumed this was one of the rules of joining the sect.

Thus, I bowed to the Grandmaster's memorial tablet.

One, two, three...

Meanwhile, Master stared at the yellow paper in the brazier.

It was not until I had finished eighteen kowtows that the yellow talisman paper in the brazier finally burned out.

Only then did Master tell me to stop.

My head was practically spinning from all that kowtowing.

Yet Master looked at me in astonishment.

"Xiao Jiang, you're something else.

When Yu Long and I entered the sect, we only had to kowtow three times.

But when you paid respects to the Grandmaster, you kowtowed eighteen times.

One kowtow, one blessing. The Grandmaster bestowed eighteen blessings.

It seems the Grandmaster is very pleased with you, his new disciple!"

As he spoke, he patted my shoulder and motioned for me to stand.

His eyes were filled with delight as he looked at me.

I gave an awkward smile.

I had kowtowed eighteen times, but I did not feel any blessings.

I was even wondering whether the paper had been too damp, causing it to burn so slowly.

My apprenticeship ceremony had been very simple.

I kowtowed a few times, acknowledged the Grandmaster, received the Dharma name "Du'e," and once the paper had burned, it was over.

Master Corpse Head Song did not immediately teach me anything.

He simply pointed to one of the rooms.

He said I would sleep in that room tonight.

After I woke up, he would accompany me to the school to see what was going on.

We would first settle the matter involving me.

If something unclean was causing trouble, we would collect some blessings along the way and stabilize the Four Calamities on me.

Finally, he would take me to receive the blessings bestowed by the Grandmaster.

Hearing that, I was stunned.

The earlier parts were easy enough to understand.

If there was a problem, deal with the problem.

But going to receive the Grandmaster's "blessings"?

Did such a thing really exist?

So I asked curiously,

"Master, are these blessings real? You can actually collect them?"

But Master merely smiled.

"Of course!

I don't know about other lineages.

But our lineage has these blessings.

Otherwise, why would I make you kowtow so many times?"