Fourfold Light Bone-Breaking Curse

Zhang Laifu had saved Li Yunsheng's life. If Li Yunsheng still refused to tell him the truth, even he would feel ashamed.

"I'd wanted to study medicine since I was little, especially Modern Medicine. I studied it extensively. Entering Zhu You Practice was an accident, but in the Trade Circles, I found many valuable medical ideas.

"Laifu, you're from the Outer Province. If you've studied Immunology, you'll know that the human immune system clears the vast majority of pathogens a person encounters in their lifetime. Only a small fraction are eliminated entirely by drugs."

"Zhu You Practice makes use of that biological trait. It cures disease by improving the body's own functions, so it has deep ties to Outer Province medicine."

Zhang Laifu knew nothing about medicine, but he understood the principle. "So when you treated the Yin Qi in me, you actually mobilized my body's own functions to drive it out?"

"Not just drive it out. Control and transformation are involved too. Yin Qi is a toxin with a well-defined chemical composition and properties. Controlling and transforming it requires certain special conditions..." As Li Yunsheng spoke, he wrote out equations.

Zhang Laifu studied them with a convincing show of concentration, nodding now and then. The dignity of a higher education mattered, but possessing dignity did not necessarily mean one could understand equations.

"Yunsheng, I understood everything you said before. But what about the night watchman? You pulled a worm out of his gums. What does that have to do with the immune system?"

Li Yunsheng first corrected a misconception. "Using Immunology to explain the nature of Zhu You Practice doesn't mean it can only mobilize the immune system's defenses. Zhu You Practice mobilizes the functions of the entire body."

"That treatment had three steps. First, I used an incantation to strengthen the night watchman's bodily functions and neutralize the Grudge Poison in the worm. Without it, the worm lost its special abilities and became an ordinary worm.

"Second, I used Talisman Paper to stimulate the night watchman's gums, making them contract rapidly and squeeze out the worm. It worked on the same principle as having you clutch Talisman Paper so you could run like the wind. Both were achieved by mobilizing the body's own functions."

Zhang Laifu had experienced the effects of Talisman Paper himself, so Li Yunsheng's explanation was easy to understand.

But there was another detail Zhang Laifu considered important. "When you treated the night watchman, you mentioned paper ingots and candles. Did he really go burn them afterward? Was that to soothe the Departed Soul's anger?"

"I did have him burn candles and paper ingots at the ash pit, but not to soothe the Departed Soul. The Police Station had already removed the body, and the Departed Soul wasn't there either.

"Burning those offerings was the third step of the treatment. It wasn't for the Departed Soul, but for the night watchman.

"His temperament is different from yours. He doesn't trust himself and is prone to doubt.

"Grudge Poison is also a toxin with a known composition. Although the treatment neutralized most of it, some remained. If the night watchman thought he hadn't been cured, the remaining Grudge Poison might flare up again.

"I had him burn the offerings to reinforce the belief that he was completely cured. That was an important way to help him clear the remaining toxin, much like a placebo in Outer Province medicine."

"So you can't do anything about the Departed Soul?"

Li Yunsheng nodded. "It's not that I don't want to help you. I genuinely have no way to deal with it. You need a Celestial Master for that. It's their trade."

"Old Yu from Hunlong Stronghold was a Celestial Master. He went there and got blown into fifty or sixty pieces."

"Fifty or sixty?" Li Yunsheng was a rigorous man. "Laifu, did you count them carefully?"

Zhang Laifu shook his head. "Just an estimate."

Li Yunsheng still found it unbelievable. "A Celestial Master should be able to deal with a Departed Soul with ease. If this one killed him instead, its background must be extraordinary. Do you know its name?"

"He's called Old Helmsman. He said he steered boats for the Lin Family."

"That makes it hard to say. Plenty of people who steer boats are called Old Helmsman. The Lin Family has many boats, and helmsmen thrive in Heishakou. I'm afraid we won't find a lead quickly."

Li Yunsheng paused. "There's a whole trade devoted to steering boats?"

"Of course! Lin Shaoming, the Lin Family's pillar and eldest young master, is a fifth-rank Craftsman, a powerful master who holds the fort. And he's a helmsman!"

Zhang Laifu shook his head. "Old Helmsman wasn't a helmsman. What was he again..."

After thinking for a long while, Zhang Laifu remembered what Old Yu had said. "He was a Drum Skinner. He gave me this drum."

"A Drum Skinner?" Li Yunsheng took the battered drum from Zhang Laifu and examined it closely. "That changes things. As the saying goes, three years make a carpenter, but five won't make a drum maker."

"Drum Skinning is a difficult trade to learn, and the craft is usually passed from father to son, with no outside apprentices. That makes him much easier to find. I can look into it for you. Heishakou can't have produced many drum makers..."

"By the time you find out, I'll probably have settled things with him." Zhang Laifu's expression was perfectly calm as he said it.

"Laifu, you've escaped the Old House twice already. Why insist on going back? Do you need that job so badly?" Li Yunsheng could not understand.

The job didn't matter. The Bowl did. He had to get it back.

But Li Yunsheng could not help with that. Ordinary Celestial Masters were no use, and powerful ones were hard to find. What else could Zhang Laifu do?

Old Yu hadn't been entirely useless. Hadn't he left a mark?

Zhang Laifu took paper and a pen from the table and drew the mark Old Yu had left as best he remembered. "Brother Li, take a look. What's this mark for?"

His drawing was rough. Li Yunsheng studied it for a long time before he finally recognized its general form. "That's the Bone Character in Seal Script. It should be the Fourfold Light Bone-Breaking Curse used by Celestial Masters."

"What's the Fourfold Light Bone-Breaking Curse?"

Li Yunsheng clarified something first. "I've studied some Celestial Master talismans and incantations, but I can't use them. There are boundaries between trades. No one may cross them.

"The Bone-Breaking Curse is one of the Talismans Celestial Masters commonly use. Its purpose is to destroy a Departed Soul's remains. Those remains are its last link to this world. Once they're destroyed, the Departed Soul dissipates."

"Celestial Masters often use the Bone-Breaking Curse to eliminate Departed Souls. If you see one use it, that means he's found the remains."

Zhang Laifu could not help admiring him. "Old Yu really knew his stuff."

When they had fought, Old Yu had been at an absolute disadvantage. He had been badly wounded and unable to fight back, yet he had still calculated where the Skeleton lay. No wonder they called him Yu Qiasuan.

Li Yunsheng took another careful look at the Talisman Zhang Laifu had drawn. He could not be certain either. "This drawing is incomplete. I can't say for sure that it's the Bone-Breaking Curse."

Zhang Laifu thought back to Old Yu's condition at the time and had his doubts too. "He wrote it on the spot. If it's a common Talisman, why didn't he keep one on him?"

Li Yunsheng shook his head. "You can't carry a Bone-Breaking Curse around. It can burrow into the ground and break through coffins. It can even drill through the stone in a great tomb. A Talisman that powerful has to be written in a Celestial Master's blood and used immediately. Once the blood dries, it stops working."

Written and used on the spot?

Zhang Laifu had hoped to buy a couple of Talismans from a Celestial Master. Apparently that was out of the question.

But Old Yu had left the Talisman on the ground, which meant he had pinpointed where the Skeleton lay.

Zhang Laifu had no Bone-Breaking Curse, but if he dug up the bones and destroyed them, would that not amount to the same thing?

"Yunsheng, Old Helmsman knows the Old House very well. He must have been there a long time. Surely he knows where his own Skeleton is and guards it closely?"

Li Yunsheng considered it, then shook his head slightly. "Most Departed Souls don't know where their Skeletons are. Their senses have changed fundamentally. Even if you put their Skeletons right in front of them, they couldn't recognize them."

"If this Old Helmsman has spent many years in the Old House, the Skeleton may be what confines him there. If he could find it, I imagine he would have taken it and left long ago."

Zhang Laifu's eyes lit up. "Li, do you have a way to destroy remains?"

Li Yunsheng stressed his point again. "I'm a doctor. I only save people."

"As for destroying bodies and erasing the evidence, I only do that occasionally. Sometimes it's unavoidable if you want to prevent a disease from spreading."

Zhang Laifu nodded repeatedly. "Yunsheng, you're a good man!"

Li Yunsheng gave Zhang Laifu a bottle of Potion.

"Pour this bottle of Potion over the Skeleton, and it'll dissolve within ten minutes."

The bottle did not look very big. Zhang Laifu worried there might not be enough.

Li Yunsheng sounded confident. "Even for a dozen or more people, one bottle of Potion would be enough. I'm not saying that because I've done anything. I've simply made a scientific estimate of the dosage."

Zhang Laifu took the Potion and nodded again. "Yunsheng, you really are a good man."