The desert corpse collector

In the dim cellar, a lamp burned with a pale blue flame. A young man in black lay before it, pinned to the ground by four heavy iron chains.

Scarlet light flared in the young man's eyes the instant he opened them, only to vanish a moment later.

Yang Xiao knew nothing of this.

He looked around, a bitter smile touching his lips. Three years ago, he had been struck and killed by a car while saving a child who had run a red light. When he woke, he found himself in another world.

The original owner of this body had suffered from a congenital illness similar to rabies in his previous life. It flared up periodically, driving him into a demonic frenzy and leaving him wishing he were dead. His grandfather had built this cellar and these four heavy chains especially for him, lest the pain become unbearable and drive him to suicide.

"Grandpa!" Yang Xiao called loudly. Normally, the old man would have come to unchain him by now.

A possibility occurred to Yang Xiao. Had the old man gone out again? He looked down. The key that should have been hanging around his neck was gone.

By the dim lamplight, he finally spotted it half a meter away on his left. He must have flung it there while struggling during his fit.

Time crept by, but the old man still did not come down. By now, Yang Xiao was certain he had gone out.

"Looks like I'll have to use that trick again." Yang Xiao smiled bitterly and looked at his right hand, a ruthless gleam flashing in his eyes.

Yang Xiao strained his right hand against the chain, and the sound of cracking bones rang out.

"Aah!"

He cried out. Had he not been through this twice before, he would have passed out from the pain.

He slowly pulled his right hand out of the shackle. The flesh on the back of his hand split, and blood dripped down the chain onto the ground. At last, his hand came free.

He lay on the ground, drenched in sweat. A faint white glow radiated from his right hand as the flesh stirred and slowly healed.

This was his secret. After coming to this world, he had discovered that his ability to recover was extraordinarily strong. So long as an injury was not fatal, he would always heal.

Twice before, he had used this method to "unlock" the chains.

By the time his right hand recovered, two hours had passed. He twisted around, retrieved the key, and unlocked the chains one by one.

He cleaned the blood from the chains and floor so the old man would not see it and worry.

Walking over to the table, he blew out the lamp, plunging the cellar back into darkness.

He emerged from the cellar into slightly dazzling sunlight.

He lived in Ancient Sand Town, a small town bordering the desert, where the sun was particularly fierce.

His home consisted of two rooms and a small courtyard. He occupied one room, and his only relative, his grandfather, occupied the other.

"He went out without even telling me beforehand," Yang Xiao muttered.

After spending half the day in the cellar, he was a little hungry. He opened the gate and headed right, arriving at a noodle shop.

The shop's owner was Aunt Lü, a widow who had lost her husband years ago and now lived alone.

After her husband died, she had opened the noodle shop to support herself. Since their homes were close, Aunt Lü had taken pity on the two males living together, one old and one young, and looked after Yang Xiao well. Over time, she had come to regard him as her own son—or perhaps... her grandson.

It was already noon. Just as he reached the noodle shop, a stranger approached from the opposite direction.

The man wore clothes made from brown animal hide and carried a Pig-Slaughtering Saber at his waist, giving him the appearance of a butcher. Oddly, he had a wound on his chest wrapped in plain white cloth, which was almost entirely soaked red with blood.

"What a strange fellow." Yang Xiao shook his head. In his three years in this world, this was the first time he had seen someone so odd. Instead of resting at home with an injury, the man was wandering around.

The noodle shop was packed. When the customers saw him, they called out, "Brother Yang!"

Yang Xiao nodded. Hearing their voices, Aunt Lü emerged from the kitchen. At the sight of him, she smiled as though she were seeing her own child.

Though Aunt Lü was getting on in years, her skin looked like that of a woman in her twenties. Combined with her alluring face, it would not have been a stretch to say she was twenty.

"Aunt Lü." Yang Xiao smiled in greeting at the beautiful woman before him.

"Xiao, you must be hungry. I'll make you some noodles." Aunt Lü came over and cleared a table for him, then returned to the kitchen and brought out a bowl of Beef Noodles, half noodles and half beef.

"Oh, Xiao." Aunt Lü seemed to remember something. "Someone was asking me about you just now. He's probably looking for you to go into the desert."

"Got it, Aunt Lü," Yang Xiao replied with a smile. Only in front of her and his grandfather could he be a child.

As the saying went, those beside the mountains lived off the mountains, and those beside the sea lived off the sea. Naturally, those beside the desert lived off the sand.

At some unknown point, a rumor had spread that a true dragon lived in the desert. Every year, it drew many young would-be dragon slayers. Yang Xiao had traveled in and out of the desert over a hundred times. He had never seen a true dragon, but he had seen plenty of dead people.

Naturally, a peculiar profession had arisen: desert corpse collectors. Yang Xiao was Ancient Sand Town's finest corpse collector, so most outsiders came to him when they needed a body found.

He searched for bodies in the desert and transported them back to Ancient Sand Town. Any money on the corpses naturally belonged to him, and if relatives came to claim them, he could also collect a fee for retrieving the bodies.

After finishing his noodles, Yang Xiao gathered up his bowl and chopsticks and went to the kitchen, where Aunt Lü was sweating profusely as she prepared noodles.

With practiced ease, he placed his bowl and chopsticks in a bucket already filled with bowls.

This was usually Aunt Lü's busiest time of day, leaving her no time to wash dishes. Whenever he had time, he would come and help her.

He scooped up some clean water and spent an hour washing all the bowls.

"Aunt Lü, I'm heading back." Yang Xiao washed his hands and smiled. She nodded. "All right. Take that wine over there back to your grandfather."

A jar of wine sat in the corner. Yang Xiao picked it up with one hand and sniffed it. "What fragrant Daughter's Red!"

Aunt Lü scolded him in mock anger. "Off with you, you little brat! Always teasing your Aunt Lü. That's plainly ordinary wine."

Yang Xiao darted aside and waved it in front of Aunt Lü, then hurried out before she could get angry.

As soon as he stepped out, he heard a grating voice.

"Well, if it isn't our little Yang Xiao."

Without even looking up, he knew the speaker was Gu Chen, Ancient Sand Town's eternal runner-up.

Gu Chen sat at a table near the entrance. When he saw Yang Xiao, he approached with a bowl and tossed it at him. Yang Xiao caught it in one hand, set it on the table, and prepared to leave.

Gu Chen bore a deep grudge against him. He had once been Ancient Sand Town's finest corpse collector, but ever since Yang Xiao entered the trade, Gu Chen had been relegated to second place.

From then on, Gu Chen had regarded him as a thorn in his eye and a splinter in his flesh.

"Yang Xiao, is that how you treat your elders? Do you need me to teach you how to behave?" Gu Chen asked in a sneering tone.

"You dare?" A cold gleam flashed in Yang Xiao's eyes, frightening Gu Chen into taking a step back.

Because of his extraordinary ability to recover, Yang Xiao had never feared a fight. In fact, when it came to fighting, he was more ruthless than anyone.

Sensing something amiss, some customers left their money and departed. Others lowered their heads over their noodles, occasionally stealing glances at the two men.

"What's going on?" Aunt Lü rushed out of the kitchen with a ladle. Seeing the two poised to clash, she shouted, "Gu Chen, what are you doing? If you're here for noodles, eat your noodles. If you're looking to trouble Xiao, you're not welcome here!"

She pulled Yang Xiao behind her. He parted his lips, wanting to say that he could beat Gu Chen, but seeing her protect him like a mother hen shielding her chicks sent a warm current through his heart, and he said nothing.

"Qing, I was only joking with the boy." Gu Chen breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Aunt Lü.

Aunt Lü snorted and turned around. "Xiao, head home first."

Yang Xiao glanced at Gu Chen and left the noodle shop. With Aunt Lü here today, the two would not be fighting.

Once Yang Xiao's figure disappeared, Gu Chen beckoned to the side, and a pockmarked young man hurried over.

"Gu Lian, why did you ask me to come?" Gu Chen asked.

"Uncle Chen, didn't you ask me to keep an eye on Yang Xiao?" Gu Lian said quietly. "A stranger came looking for him just now. I reckon he's heading into the desert."

A cold gleam flashed in Gu Chen's eyes. Remembering the humiliation he had just suffered, he took a bottle from inside his clothes and pressed it into Gu Lian's hand. "Find a chance to sprinkle what's inside on Yang Xiao."

Gu Lian's hand trembled. An ominous feeling came over him, and he asked quietly, "Uncle Chen, what is it?"

Gu Chen sneered. "The ashes of a jackal pup."

Gu Lian's hand jerked violently, and he almost dropped the bottle.

Jackals had a keen sense of smell and held fierce grudges. If they caught the scent of a pup's ashes, the consequences needed no imagining.

Meanwhile, Yang Xiao was walking home when he suddenly stopped. "I forgot to tell Aunt Lü that Grandpa's gone out and won't be back for a few days," he muttered.

He looked at the wine in his hand and licked his lips. With the old man away, didn't that make the wine his?

As he approached home, he found someone standing outside the gate. It was the "Butcher" who had left the noodle shop earlier.

He had not expected the man to be so persistent. An hour had already passed since Yang Xiao left the shop. It seemed the man had urgent business.

He opened the gate and stepped aside. "Come in."

Sitting on a stone stool, he poured himself a bowl of water and drank without ceremony. "Looking for a body?"

The man dressed like a butcher entered, first inspecting the courtyard, then Yang Xiao. "You're Ancient Sand Town's best desert corpse collector?"

Yang Xiao leaned against the stone table and drank another bowl of water. Near the desert, water was what people needed most. He set down the bowl, the corners of his lips lifting slightly. "You won't find a better desert corpse collector anywhere in Ancient Sand Town."

The Butcher shook his head. "I'm not here to find a body. I want you to take me somewhere."

Yang Xiao paused, then immediately resumed his usual manner. In eighteen years of life, he had never encountered a job like this. "Where?" he asked curiously.

The Butcher looked him in the eye. "Severed Dragon Valley."

Pfft!

Yang Xiao spat out a mouthful of water. No desert corpse collector was ignorant of Severed Dragon Valley. It was known as a deathtrap for all living things, a place teeming with evil ghosts. People had been seen going in, but no one had ever been heard of coming out.

To become the finest desert corpse collector, he naturally possessed abilities beyond those of ordinary people. After dealing with corpses for so long, he could smell their stench from a great distance.

Yang Xiao had once sniffed the air from far away. Plenty of things had definitely died in Severed Dragon Valley.

He turned and headed back toward his room. "No. Not for any amount of money."

The Butcher narrowed his eyes. "One hundred taels of gold. You don't need to take me into the valley, just somewhere nearby."

Yang Xiao stopped in his tracks, his heart giving a violent thump. One hundred taels of gold! He earned only about one tael a year. The Butcher's offer amounted to a lifetime's earnings.

He turned to examine the man before him. The first thing that caught his eye was the knife at his waist. An ordinary Pig-Slaughtering Saber was less than a foot long, but this one was twice that size.

Then he looked at the man's clothes. He had never seen animal hide like that before. At a glance, it felt as though a savage beast were staring at him, making his hair stand on end and sending a chill creeping up his back.

Seeing the hesitation in Yang Xiao's eyes, the Butcher raised his offer. "Two hundred taels. That's all the money I have on me."

"I'll... take the job," Yang Xiao said after a moment's hesitation. Two hundred taels of gold would be enough for them to move to nearby Duskwater City and become small landowners.