The Unexpected (Thanks to Ordinary Defense Tower)

After saying that, Master swept his gaze around the room once more before going out.

Xu Feng stayed inside, narrowing his eyes as he pondered something.

The door had been pulled to, but not shut. After Master went downstairs, a gust of yin wind came and tried to push it open. It failed: as soon as the wind rose, another force pushed the door closed.

It was Yin Virtue Protection!

A "person" was helping Xu Feng keep the door shut!

At the sight, Xu Feng murmured, "It hasn't even started, and you're already this impatient!"

The gust had come from nowhere. Coupled with what Master had said earlier, it seemed all the more malicious.

A few days ago, Xu Feng might already have grown nervous.

But now Xu Feng felt no such dread. Instead, he slipped a hand inside his clothes, where he still had some incense ash. With the ash, his Protective Talisman, and a little courage of his own, he could shout down a mere gust of yin wind even if it got inside!

He could even shout an ordinary case of Corpse Reanimation back down onto its bier!

And with Yin Virtue Protection on his side too, what did Xu Feng have to fear from one gust of wind?

Still, Xu Feng knew these were only appetizers. The Earth God Shrine was bound to be anything but peaceful tonight. Even Master was weighed down with worry.

The corpse sewing had not yet begun.

And already this sort of trouble had appeared.

Once the sewing began,

who knew what other twists lay ahead?

Yet Xu Feng felt "calm as still water" about the bitter fight to come. Emotions needed the vitality of flesh and blood to burn as fuel.

He had burned through too much today. There was not much left to burn.

Instead, everything he had learned over the past few days drifted through his mind. What he had studied before was his preparation.

What he would face tonight was merely an exam.

Xu Feng, who had once worked himself to death in the rat race, knew the feeling all too well. It was a rhythm he recognized.

He sat there alone, waiting for tonight's test to begin.

Once he had run through what he knew, he simply sat in silence, his mind clear.

Oddly, Master did not come back up for quite some time.

Before long, Xu Feng heard what Master had called "knocking at death's door."

The sound was more like someone pounding on it.

Wails accompanied the pounding.

Xu Feng narrowed his eyes. Things were getting more interesting.

A clamor of voices rose from below. Whether from panic or something else, the speakers' voices had gone shrill. If Xu Feng wanted to, he could have made out what they were saying by listening and guessing.

But he did not go looking for trouble.

When the voices gradually died away, Xu Feng heard the wind blowing wildly, wooo, wooo, like someone weeping.

A while later, someone finally came upstairs and pushed open the door.

Xu Feng clutched incense ash in one hand and gripped the chair beside him with the other. He looked up at the person entering and relaxed his grip when he saw it was Master.

Master, however, wore no trace of a smile. His expression was grave. He noticed Xu Feng's movements but paid them no mind. "A big job has come in."

He motioned for Xu Feng to follow him downstairs. Despite the strong wind, Xu Feng caught a strange scent in the courtyard.

It was the same scent that had lingered there the last time he had been forbidden to come out.

That meant the same person had come to the courtyard while he had been kept inside.

Ahead of him, Master carried a pinewood torch that spat and crackled with sparks. Xu Feng followed and glanced up.

When they had entered the tall building, the sky had been full of stars and moonlight.

Now dark clouds blanketed the sky, hiding the jade rabbit of the moon. The wind bore down on the place as though laying siege to a fortress.

There were familiar wheel ruts on the ground, too.

This time, Master offered no explanation.

Xu Feng could already make a guess.

The ruts and the scent had likely been left by whoever had delivered the corpses.

They returned to the side room. Master planted the torch outside the door and went over to the fire.

He lifted the kettle that had been simmering over it, peered inside, and said with some disappointment, "It's nearly boiled dry."

Then he poured out the tea, which had cooked down until it was thick as honey.

"But never mind," he told Xu Feng. "Boiled-down tea is just the thing to quench your thirst and sharpen your mind."

He handed it to Xu Feng and gestured for him to blow on it before drinking.

Xu Feng said nothing. The air had taken on the grim stillness that came before a final battle.

After Xu Feng had drunk the hot tea, Master finally spoke. "The plan has changed tonight. I thought there would be six corpses, but seven arrived.

"Six women and one man.

"Mr. Zhou from the county town sent the six women. But I've met Mr. Zhou on the street, and I'm afraid those bodies aren't from his household. They're from Qian Dayou's."

Xu Feng nodded, a thought stirring.

Was Qian Dayou Master Qian?

He had been wondering how this job would tie in with Master Qian.

He had never expected that if the mountain would not come to him, he would find himself brought to the mountain.

Now there was a connection.

But—

"Master, what about the man's body?" Xu Feng asked.

Master fixed his gaze on Xu Feng. "That body is even more trouble.

"It's a River Drifter."

"One that was pulled out not long ago."

Xu Feng fell silent too.

A River Drifter was a corpse carried along by the current. But what small rivers were there around Luoyin County?

Near the county town, there was one river and one river alone.

The Yellow River.

A River Drifter from the Yellow River, delivered in the middle of the night with someone "pounding at death's door"—he could tell it meant trouble without even thinking.

Xu Feng cleared his throat. The strong tea felt lodged there. "Master, do we Corpse Sewers have to deal with bodies from the river too?"

"That's a separate matter," Master said gravely. He stared at the torch outside, his thoughts unreadable. "River floaters are the Yellow River Corpse Collectors' work. But even they go out by day and return home at night.

"Only when something serious happens do they recover bodies after dark. And then they take several boats out together, lashed to one another, with every lamp blazing.

"Most bodies they recover have no need of a Corpse Sewer. But any that do need one now are fiendish corpses, every last one."

Master no longer had the attention to spare for Xu Feng's expression. He drew a deep breath, rolled up his sleeves, and said, "I'm going to teach you four hand gestures for honoring the gods. Whether you learn them depends on your luck. It's fortunate I haven't returned that Baleful Blade to your Uncle Liu."

He demonstrated them once, and Xu Feng followed along. Then, whether Xu Feng had learned them or not, Master put both hands on his shoulders. "Whether you live through tonight is up to the Heavenly Lord! Go, kowtow before the main hall again. Take those paper packets and scoop out more incense ash from beneath the Earth God of the Earth God Shrine's seat to protect yourself!"