The Eve of the Clash

Xu Feng answered yes and walked out of the side room.

The moment he stepped outside, he sensed that something was even more wrong with the wind tonight. The north wind blew every which way, without any pattern. Even the torch planted by the door swayed in its grip.

The foul wind was so fierce he could barely keep his eyes open!

Xu Feng picked up the torch from the ground and ignored the ghostly wails around him. He went to the front of the main hall of the Earth God Shrine and recalled the hand seals and incantations he had just learned.

Master's explanation had been vague.

Time was short, so his master had covered only what mattered most.

Someone else might not have understood, but Xu Feng did. He only had to connect what he had seen Master do before the hall with what Master had just told him.

Theory joined practice.

He had it straight in his head.

The essentials Master had just taught him matched what Xu Feng had seen and heard back then, step by step: four requirements and four hand seals.

First, burn paper and invite the god.

Then came an eight-character invocation.

For the local Land Spirit of the Earth God Shrine, it was almost always the same: "Vast are the ten directions, benevolent is the Earth Mother."

Next came the name, with his fingers forming the Sword-Finger Gesture.

Then came the request, with both hands forming the Lotus Platform Seal.

For the prayer, both hands formed the Alms Bowl Seal.

Finally, he would form the Crane Touches Incense Seal, step forward, and light the incense.

There was nothing wrong with the ritual itself. Whether it worked depended on whether the Land Spirit deigned to answer.

His master had not said outright why the Land Spirit might answer, but Xu Feng understood.

That was what accumulating Yin Virtue was for.

Lost in these thoughts, he reached the front of the Earth God Shrine.

He parted the curtain and bowed respectfully. Then he cupped his hands and gathered some incense ash.

Gathering incense ash required none of the earlier ceremony. He only needed to inform the Land Spirit.

Xu Feng carefully put the incense ash away.

Behind Xu Feng, Master began lighting the lanterns one by one, preparing for tonight's bitter fight.

The broken saber was strapped across Master's back.

Ordinarily, when sewing a corpse, one must not bring a baleful object near it.

But today was no ordinary day.

A corpse that had not yet undergone Corpse Transformation must be kept away from Baleful Objects, lest it undergo Corpse Awakening.

With one that had already undergone Corpse Transformation, there was no such concern.

The broken saber could be used to fight poison with poison!

Of course, this could also bring consequences beyond repair. The saber still carried the karmic debt from Old Master Liu's generation, in his previous life.

If that Killing Intent entered the corpses, the consequences would be even worse than the six female corpses before them.

So what they were doing today

came down to two words: weighing costs!

After hanging the lanterns by the entrance, Master came back, took out the wine at his waist, and drank a long, deep swig.

Then he sorted his satchel, laid out his tools, and began preparing to sew the corpses.

Just then, Xu Feng came in from outside with the torch. He looked at Master's back. Without turning around, Master said, "Do you still remember what I just taught you?"

"Go to the altar now and invite the god. Then take paper outside as an offering to the wandering souls of the four directions.

"I still need to make a few preparations here.

"I've already told you how to write the private prayer as well.

"Now it's time to see what you can do. Do you have any questions?"

Although Master was very pleased with Xu Feng, this had happened so quickly that he had not quite been ready.

What he was asking his disciple to do today was to stand on his own. This went beyond merely lending a hand.

Xu Feng said, "No."

He truly had none. It was simple enough.

If Xu Feng had been asked to learn how to write a formal prayer to the heavens in so short a time, he certainly could not have done it.

But writing a petition to the Land Spirit in that time was easy.

Besides, the petition's format was simple and contained no obscure characters.

There was only one problem.

Xu Feng's handwriting was ugly.

But that did not matter.

As long as it was legible, it would do.

Xu Feng set out from the side room again. He did not need to check his Character Panel to know that the [Inviting the God] entry under [Skill] had probably changed.

It had advanced from (Beginner) to (Familiar).

He had only been in this world for a few days.

Yet Xu Feng felt he could already pass, if barely, as a Corpse Sewer.

But that was not enough.

Even now, Xu Feng could not tell where the limits of someone like his Master lay.

And today's trouble had already left him

feeling a measure of helplessness.

If he had to take his master's place as the one holding everything up,

his only choices would be to run or wait to die!

We're already this hard-pressed, and we haven't even encountered the ancient corpses or the Yellow River Demon Corpse from the stories.

What would happen if we really met enemies like those?

Xu Feng did not dwell on it.

He had reached the main hall again. Before beginning the worship, though, he found a wine bottle, plates, drinking vessels, and a few other odds and ends in the kitchen.

Only after gathering everything did Xu Feng begin the ritual.

He followed every step to the letter.

"Vast are the ten directions, benevolent is the Earth Mother."

As he recited, he kept an eye on his hands.

Fortunately, he only had to change hand seals; he did not need to trace characters in his mind.

The entire process went without a hitch.

After burning the petition he had written, Xu Feng completed the final step.

During the ritual,

Xu Feng once again saw the familiar [Offering Received] and [Offering Received].

Once he was sure he had performed the ritual correctly,

Xu Feng saw a new benefit appear upon him.

[You have received the protection of the Land Spirit of Luoyin County].

With that protection, Xu Feng let out a small breath. Then, torch in hand and pot in tow, he headed outside to burn paper.

But before he could leave, trouble found him.

The first obstacle appeared when Xu Feng tried to open the door.

Some strange force seemed to be gripping it, refusing to let him open it!

At that, Xu Feng did not hesitate. Courage surged through him; his face flushed red as he roared, "Get out of my way! Get out!"

He swung the torch as he shouted.

Spittle flew and his face twisted fiercely, but his courage truly was rising.

Even the Protective Talisman seemed to give off heat in response to Xu Feng's actions!

After that one outburst, the strange force on the door vanished!

Xu Feng pulled the door open and stepped outside.

Beyond the Earth God Shrine, the darkness was deeper still.

The instant Xu Feng stepped out, he felt an eerie chill coil around him, trying to seep into his body.

He smelled the strong, earthy stench carried by the wind.

But at that moment, Xu Feng was afraid of nothing.

A surge of courage held him firm, and his anger burned hot. He planted the torch beside him. The light from the lanterns his Master had lit by the entrance had been squeezed down to almost nothing.

He could not see into the distance.

To be safe, Xu Feng went no more than a few steps farther.

The wind was fierce as Xu Feng tried to burn the paper in the large pot.

To his surprise, the torch would not set the paper alight.

Worse, his clothes and the paper money seemed to have been soaked by an invisible dampness!

They were wet!

They would not burn!

Xu Feng flew into a rage again. Every hair on his body stood on end. Forming a Sword-Finger Gesture with one hand and gripping the torch in the other, he stabbed hard at the space before him!

A gust of chilling wind swept toward him. Xu Feng swung one hand back, flung the incense ash from his robes, and snapped, "How dare you!"

At that instant, it was not only the Protective Talisman on Xu Feng's chest that shone.

Behind him, the two lanterns on the door seemed to lend Xu Feng a faint trace of mighty power.

Like eyes opening, they flashed for an instant.

Then the chilling wind retreated and the dampness withdrew. The paper money in the pot caught fire!

Xu Feng refused to let the matter rest. He spat toward the darkness beyond the entrance and cursed, "Give you an inch and you take a mile! Leave a sapling unpruned and it'll grow crooked; leave a person unchecked and they'll get downright ornery!

You're spoiled rotten!"