Planning the Route

Since his master had called him over, Xu Feng stepped forward and gave him a couple of sips of water while he was at it.

Leaning against the wheelbarrow, his master sighed. "The world's been getting less peaceful by the day!"

Then he changed the subject. "By the way, how did you get along with the two little ones at your Uncle Liu's place?"

Xu Feng said, "Well enough. They're both adorable."

His master asked, "And the dog?"

Xu Feng said, "What a formidable dog! Master, I bet it could chew a person to pieces and eat them. It's fierce!"

His master said, "Of course it is. That's your Uncle Liu's closely guarded secret: an executioner's Ghost-Eating Servant!

"It can read people's hearts and terrify evil ghosts.

"Without it, your Uncle Liu would never let his two children play in the courtyard!

"Those child snatchers don't care whether you're home. If they see a child, they'll grab them or coax them away."

Xu Feng asked, "Have child snatchers grown that brazen these days?"

His master said, "Brazen? What's so brazen about that? There are worse ones yet!"

After a brief silence, Xu Feng gave his master more water and changed the subject. "Master, what are those bottles behind us?"

Zhao Er said, "They're Soul Bottles. We have to bury them beneath the Land God Temple."

Xu Feng asked, "Soul Bottles?"

Zhao Er said, "That's right. Soul Bottles."

Seeing that his master had no intention of explaining, Xu Feng tried another question. "Then what are these shovels for, Master?"

This time, his master glanced back. His eyes lit up as he looked at Xu Feng. "To loosen up your muscles and bones."

Now it was Xu Feng's turn not to answer.

Zhao Er asked curiously, "Why aren't you asking why I want to loosen up your muscles and bones? You've never struck me as someone who doesn't like questions.

"What, don't want to loosen up?"

Xu Feng answered calmly, "Master must have his reasons. I understand, so I'll do as you say. You wouldn't harm me."

Zhao Er laughed. "Good. As long as you know I wouldn't harm you."

He looked left and right, then said to Xu Feng in a mysterious hush, "Didn't you want to learn how to keep ghosts and gods in check? I'll teach you when we get back. But to learn those methods, you have to start with the fundamentals.

"And that's exactly what I'm teaching you now!"

Without explaining further, the two reached the Earth God Shrine before dark. Even his master let out a breath of relief when they entered.

They offered incense to the shrine's Land God. Then his master pulled a lotus-leaf parcel from his robes. Inside was some spiced braised meat.

He told Xu Feng to eat it with a steamed bun; he still had things to do.

Setting the short knife wrapped in cloth beside him, he spread yellow ritual paper across a table in the side room. After pondering for a while, he began writing furiously.

Xu Feng grew thoughtful. He did not know what Uncle Liu the executioner had told his master, but he could clearly sense a new urgency about him.

He could also tell that asking would get him nowhere.

For now, he was not someone his master could rely on.

Far from being a support, he could not even be someone his master could discuss matters with.

In other words, his master had no one to talk things over with, and Xu Feng, as his disciple, might even be a burden.

So after eating, Xu Feng picked up the Incense Divination manual and began studying.

Nothing mattered more right now.

A whole chapter of the manual was devoted to the Minor Ominous Sign. What his master had told him matched the book exactly—both accounts came from the same person, after all. But as Xu Feng read, he remembered the fragments he had seen in the Zhuyou healing arts and medical texts.

The Incense Divination manual and those scattered fragments all seemed to follow an "invisible" logic. It was like a growing person: first came the spine, then the flesh, sinews, bones, and organs grew around it.

Xu Feng could now sense that "spine," but its nature could be grasped intuitively, not put into words. Taken together with what his master had said earlier, he felt he had touched upon the most mysterious principle of the Corpse Sewer's craft.

Yet that glimmer of insight was scattered through a vast, murky darkness, impossible to seize.

Xu Feng picked up the book again and turned to the Major Ominous Sign. Reading it eased his mind a little: at least what he had seen before the Ancient People's Tomb had not been a Major Ominous Sign!

A Major Ominous Sign appeared in three incense sticks: first one short and two long, then two short and one long. Through the change, it was the middle stick that grew long, and the middle stick that grew short!

Not a speck of ash could remain on any stick! And the smoke did not coil at a distance of two palms. It cut straight across beneath the burning tips, as though those tips had been severed.

That was why the incense sign for a Major Ominous Sign was also called Beheading Incense!

Aside from the Major and Minor Ominous Signs, most of the other seven incense signs indicated that something was being sought.

These "requests" came from the lingering fixations of the dead. The remaining signs conveyed messages from deities—which, in this place, meant the Land God. It was a matter of reading the signs.

If that was so—

What I saw at the Ancient People's Tomb was something there trying to speak to me? Was it trying to communicate?

Xu Feng sank into thought.

As he read, the "Skills" section of his status changed again.

Incense Manual Omen Reading went from (I) to (IX).

But Xu Feng remained lost in his thoughts and noticed nothing. Some things mattered more than others. To him, understanding more about corpse sewing was far more important than Incense Manual Omen Reading reaching (IX).

Eventually, his master finished writing the "letter," performed a ritual alone, and burned it as an offering to the Earth God Shrine's Land God.

Then he returned to the side room to fetch Xu Feng.

"Time to loosen up those muscles and bones!"

"Coming!" Xu Feng called.

Armed with the shovels they had received as alms, the two began digging under the moonlight.

Xu Feng had done this sort of work before. He knew digging a pit could wear a person down to nothing!

Hands, arms, waist, legs—even his neck would ache if he used the wrong posture.

And that was without taking Zhao San's scrawny arms and legs into account!

Yet Xu Feng did not complain once. He just dug alongside his master.

He had calluses on his hands, but they were no help. Blisters rose after only a few strokes.

He took a clean needle, passed it through a flame, and pierced them! After sprinkling on medicinal powder and wrapping his hands, he went back to work!

Zhao Er watched without a word, nodding in approval inwardly. He worked even faster. The more he dug, the less his disciple would have to.

They worked from when the moon hung over the willow branches until it rode high in the sky, and still had not dug a proper pit.

But it was enough!

His master carefully placed the Soul Bottles in the earth. Then he and Xu Feng filled the pit back in. "I'm the one burying these executioner's Soul Bottles now. Later on, I'm afraid you'll have to bury them yourself!"

With that, he motioned for Xu Feng to go to sleep. But Xu Feng's whole body ached and twitched.

Gritting his teeth, he went back for a drink of water. Afterward, he found a comfortable spot and lay down. His master came over and began massaging him.

As he worked, his master said, "Don't go complaining about the pain, boy. You'll be hurting tomorrow too! Tomorrow, you'll take this thing and come with me to the burial ground outside the city.

"We'll do some good deeds there!"