Chapter 291: Old Tang's Story

"You beast!"

"This little brat whose fuzz hasn't even grown in yet."

After shutting the door.

Old Tang paced furiously around the room, but even though his fury had his beard bristling straight, he didn't dare curse Wu Xian out too loudly.

The moment he recalled Wu Xian's enraged appearance.

Everything in Old Tang's mind seemed to be drained away; even Wu Xian's features blurred, leaving only a pair of furious eyes brimming with killing intent that saw through his skin and flesh and struck straight at his heart…

"Old Tang, tell them everything."

Suddenly Old Tang heard another old man's voice in the room, and he angrily turned his head to fire back.

"Easy for you to say—why don't you go yourself?"

The old man lying there was stunned: "I didn't say anything?"

Old Tang felt as if he had fallen into an ice cavern.

He saw that on the body of the lying old man, there was unmistakably a ghost-thing like a spider with four legs and four hands clinging to him; the ghost-thing was covered in bloodstains, its head pressed against the old man's, and it spoke in a voice exactly like the old man's.

"Old Tang, tell them everything!"

Clearly this monstrous thing was right there on the old man's body, yet the old man still wore a puzzled look, utterly unaware of the terrifying thing unfolding beside him.

The ghost-thing crawled toward Old Tang, endlessly repeating the same line.

"Old Tang…"

……

Seeing Du E's confident look.

Wu Xian knew she had played some little trick again, so he didn't worry; he found a small stool and sat in front of Old Tang's door, waiting for him to come out and confess to everyone.

Creak!

Old Tang flung the door open and grabbed Wu Xian's hand.

"Didn't you have questions you wanted to ask? Ask away—I'll tell you everything I know, hold nothing back!"

Old Tang had been terrified of Wu Xian just moments ago, but now he felt Wu Xian was incredibly amiable, giving off a warm sense of safety.

Wu Xian narrowed his eyes.

He had originally only wanted to ask about matters related to porcelain and paper effigies, but since Old Tang was being uncharacteristically forthcoming, his questions would have to start from a long time ago.

"Mm… let's start from the creation of the world."

Saying "start from the creation of the world" was just a joke, but the time span of Wu Xian's questions was indeed very long.

The history of this world was completely different from the real world.

Technological progress lagged by over a hundred years, and the last feudal dynasty had only collapsed with a thunderous crash forty years ago; after that, new forces should have taken over the country.

But just as the old gave way to the new.

Something terrifying happened.

At first it was just a craftsman who carved tombstones, who accidentally drove his chisel into his own eye.

Then a paper funeral-goods shop was set alight by ash.

After that, an employee at a funeral parlor, while cleaning corpse oil and bone ash from the crematorium, was forgotten inside and burned to ash…

These were only the disappearances of a few people.

Until the crisis touched everyone directly—flower fields withered, birds vanished from sight, and large patches of dead fish floated up in the waters…

People discovered in terror that every industry related to funeral rites had become extremely dangerous; some began to leave the dead unburied, simply tossing the corpses into the wilderness.

Slowly, this world twisted into the appearance it wears today…

Old Tang was just an ordinary old farmer; he didn't understand the higher-level, more secretive matters, but from his account the Lotus Juanren also understood the process by which this world had changed.

After the questions on historical change were done, Wu Xian began to press about matters related to porcelain and paper effigies.

The ideal situation would be that there were shops selling blue-and-white porcelain and paper effigies in Immortal-Death City, so that they would only need to buy one set to fulfill the requirement of being buried correctly.

But no sooner had Old Tang heard these two items than his face turned ugly.

"In Immortal-Death City, it's impossible to buy these things."

"Paper effigies, paper money, porcelain vessels—keeping them at home invites disaster, so all such things have been smashed by everyone; the craftsmen who knew the manufacturing techniques either killed themselves, or were killed by others, or died mysteriously at home…"

"In short, there is no one who can supply you with these two items."

"What you can buy in Immortal-Death City is only the most ordinary paper and earthen plates and bowls; anything more complicated, don't even think about it."

Wu Xian and Jian Lingyu exchanged a glance, both seeing the bitterness in each other's eyes.

The others, too, felt a chill in their hearts.

Although they hadn't yet shared information, from Wu Xian and Jian Lingyu's questions they could guess that these two items were essential to completing the correct ritual.

Wen Chao's brow furrowed slightly.

"Paper effigies are easy enough—as long as paper is still being sold, we can buy some pigment and make them ourselves; at worst they'll just look a bit ugly."

"But blue-and-white porcelain… that's not so easy."

"Give me enough time and reference material, and I should be able to replicate it, but we probably don't have that much time."

The situation reached an impasse.

Even though Wu Xian and his companion had obtained information about the correct funeral rites, it was useless if they couldn't find these two items.

Du E stared into Old Tang's eyes, sensing he still had things he hadn't fully said; so she flicked her finger slightly, and Old Tang seemed to be suddenly startled.

"It's not that there's no way, it's just that I don't know if it'll work…"

Old Tang hesitated briefly.

"That was something from when I was young."

The Old Tang of those days was a famous local street loafer, born with a fearless, dauntless nature; although the world was gradually growing strange, he believed that as long as his gall was bold and his blood hot, even ghosts would give way.

There were even rumors in the streets of female ghosts being forcibly driven off by virile men.

Old Tang back then was no longer young, and had no wife, so his passions ran high and he thought about women all day long, until one day he could hold back no longer and snuck to a widow's house nearby at night.

He had the thief's heart, but not the thief's nerve, so he just lay atop a low wall, peeking through the window.

As he watched, something happened.

He saw the pretty young widow sitting at the window, combing her hair before a mirror, and as she combed, her scalp came right off — the terrifying sight nearly scared Old Tang to death.

When he climbed down from the low wall, he discovered in horror that what he had been lying on was no low wall at all, but a tall tombstone!

He looked around behind him, to the left and right.

He saw moonlight pouring down from the sky, the scenery of Immortal City vanishing in a flash, replaced by grave after grave, with eerie will-o'-the-wisps drifting through the air and faint, ethereal laughter lingering all around.

Old Tang never did figure out how he got home.

In any case, when he woke up the next day, one leg was lame, and he remained crippled for the rest of his life.

After hearing his story,

Wu Xian asked him in confusion, "What does this have to do with us looking for porcelain and paper effigies?"

Old Tang slapped his thigh.

"It has plenty to do with it!"

"Since the Great Calamity, every graveyard has been smashed up."

"That mass grave I saw might be the only cemetery you can find. Inside it there are offerings left from forty years ago — paper effigies, burial goods, funerary objects… only there might you find any!"

(End of chapter)