Chapter 113: The three evils are removed, the corpse comes from a thousand miles away

"It's going to rain."

Sending away Huang Laoxu, Xu Qing stood at the door of the mortuary shop and looked at the sky.

At this time, frogs were croaking and cicadas were noisy, and the air outside the street was extremely muggy.

Only the shop, which had pasted the *Ice Soul Talisman*, was as cool as the second month of spring.

Xuanyu walked with small steps to the threshold and learned from Xu Qing to look up at the sky.

Before long, the sky was indeed covered with dark clouds, and the sound of lightning and thunder rang out.

Xu Qing shrank his neck, fearing that the thunder would strike the door of his shop.

Xuanyu widened its eyes and looked at Xu Qing in surprise.

"It's really going to rain. Can Immortal Xu also calculate?"

Xu Qing smiled and said: "Earth energy produces dampness, frogs croak in chaos, cloud energy intersects, and swallows fly low. I don't need to calculate these things; these clever birds and beasts tell me."

Xuanyu seemed to understand: "I understand. In the future, I don't need to calculate when it rains; the clever Immortal Xu will tell me."

"..."

Xu Qing's gaze fell on the black cat looking at the street in a daze, not knowing whether this cat was praising him or scolding him in a roundabout way.

Wind and rain arrived outside the shop, and rainwater scraped onto the threshold, wetting Xuanyu's front paws.

It shook its front limbs, took two steps back, and stretched out its small tongue to lick the rainwater on its cat paws.

Seeing this, Xu Qing suddenly had a movement in his heart.

"Xuanyu, I brought you a gift; do you want to see it?"

The black cat stopped its paws, lingering in the air.

It looked up at Xu Qing and asked curiously: "What gift?"

The latter smiled mysteriously, and like a magic trick, his palm turned, and a white, glowing bead appeared in his palm.

"So beautiful."

"This is a water-avoiding bead. As long as Xuanyu carries it on your body, you won't be afraid of rain, and even if you jump into the river, you can walk as if on land, without being soaked by water."

Xuanyu stood up like a human, half-squatting and half-standing, took the water-avoiding bead, and held it in the soft pad of its cat paw.

It opened its mouth and, as if holding a cicada on a normal day, held the round bead in its mouth.

Coming to the threshold, Xuanyu carefully probed its cat paw under the eaves.

Before the raindrops, which were connected like strings of beads, could hit its fur, a thin layer of halo appeared around its body, blocking the rainwater outside.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm..."

Xuanyu, holding the water-avoiding bead, made unintelligible syllables.

However, looking at its joyful and leaping appearance when it turned its head, Xu Qing could probably guess what it was saying.

"As long as you like it. Speaking of which, I have relied on Xuanyu to manage the shop for these days, so this white bead will be a reward for Xuanyu..."

Looking at the cat, which was playful and running around in the rain, Xu Qing smiled slightly.

The heavy rain was like a waterfall, and in just a short while, there wasn't a shadow of a person on the street.

Xuanyu was still playing in the rain, while Xu Qing, holding a bamboo umbrella without a cover, came to the coffin shop on the street.

"This umbrella of yours has some tricks."

Wind and rain were raging outside the shop, and Hu Baosong was comfortably nestled in a rattan chair inside the shop.

Xu Qing, who had just put away the bamboo umbrella, smiled and said: "A broken bamboo umbrella, where could it have tricks?"

"It's you, how did you become a lone person again? Where is Senior Sister Yizhen?"

"Are you here to see me, or to see her?"

Looking at Hu Baosong's vigilant appearance, Xu Qing couldn't help but find it funny: "What you said is strange. Could it be that I ran here in the rain just to see your old bones?"

"Xu kid, don't mess around!"

The two were bickering when Daoist Yizhen came out with a knife.

Xu Qing turned his head to look and felt tight in his heart, but when he saw the pear in Yizhen's other hand, he relaxed again.

"Senior Sister, I was joking with Old Hu. I came here actually to borrow the coffin shop's cart to go to the wharf to pull some goods back."

Xu Qing was telling the truth. The corpse of Zheng Deli, who had disguised himself as a merchant, was still stored at the wharf after dying at the hands of the ferryman and Yuan Hu.

Although he had done a simple preservation for Zheng Deli's corpse when he left, the weather was muggy after all, and two days had passed. No one could say for sure whether the corpse would have a strange smell.

So, if he could send the corpse to the government office as soon as possible, he had to send it as soon as possible.

Yizhen couldn't help but glance at Xu Qing, thinking to herself, why are you explaining so much?

Hu Baosong's expression eased upon hearing this, looking like he had successfully guarded the tower.

"This rain is too urgent. Sit for a while, wait for two cups of tea, and then go to the wharf."

Xu Qing heard the subtext in Hu Baosong's words and asked curiously: "You are sitting in the shop, just by taking a look, you know when the rain will stop?"

Hu Baosong raised an eyebrow and said: "When you reach my age, let alone calculating when the weather will clear, even calculating how many drops this rain will fall and how long it will last is not a problem."

"How do you say that? How come people become clearer when they get old?"

"Not so." Hu Baosong shook his head: "Clear ears and eyes are just appearances. You need to know that a treasure mirror is polished clear, only reflecting one room; a heart mirror is polished clear, and can reflect the six directions."

"Heavenly secrets seem mysterious, and mortal eyes are difficult to foresee, but most of them are because the heart is not clear."

"To clear the heart, one must first experience the world, grind countless times, and only then can one reflect the original heart and see the heart of heaven."

Hearing this, Xu Qing's mind suddenly flashed with the image of a monkey holding an unpolished stone, grinding it between the streams.

He realized and said: "Most people pursue external methods all their lives, but few seriously polish their heart mirrors to reflect their true self."

Xu Qing clapped his hands and sighed: "Old Hu, you are following the will of heaven. Today I finally know that I am me!"

Hu Baosong scolded with a smile: "At your age, where do you get so many strange theories?"

Xu Qing chuckled and said casually: "They all say that if you hear the Dao in the morning, you can die in the evening. Old Hu, why don't you tell me what principles you have realized in these days, so that I and Senior Sister can realize them early and pass them on to the world in the future."

"I don't have the ability to pass the Dao to the world. If you ask me what I saw, I have some clues."

At this time, the time for a cup of tea had passed, and the rain had reached its peak, but there was no sign of it diminishing.

Hu Baosong said gloomily: "This year is originally a year of dragons and snakes rising, a year of many events. I calculated that there are three evils in Linhe, making people restless."

"But a few days ago, when I and Yizhen went out for a stroll, I saw a snake and a mad dog blocking the middle of the road."

"Do you know what happened later?"

Hu Baosong smiled and said: "A drunk madman, driving a carriage, hit the mad dog to death on the side of the road, and the carriage wheel crushed the snake's head to powder..."

"The madman was awakened by this and stopped driving."

"I saw this situation and took out the magic money to divine, and got the hexagram of 'three evils removed, three talents settled'."

"Originally, I was still thinking that Linhe would be restless in the future. Now it seems that I was overthinking it..."

Xu Qing moved slightly in his heart and asked: "Then have you calculated what the dog, snake, and person refer to respectively?"

Hu Baosong's gaze fell on him, and he pondered: "Water monster, person in the temple, and an evil demon who is neither human nor ghost and whose roots are unknown."

"..."

Xu Qing pondered for a moment. The water monster could be the water tiger or water monkey; the person in the temple could be the water-worker Daoist from Tianwu Temple; as for the evil demon...

Xu Qing thought, this evil demon wouldn't be referring to him, would it?

That definitely couldn't be!

Living people do good deeds and accumulate virtue, which also has to wait until they die to cash in. Like him, a zombie who is always doing good deeds, he is already half-dead and half-alive. Virtue can be said to be used as soon as it is accumulated. With so much virtue, how could these three evils fall on him...

But Xu Qing thought about it again, that Zhou Chu removing the three evils, wasn't the last evil removed Zhou Chu himself!

This made even him doubt whether a zombie turning over a new leaf counts as removing evils for the people!

"You are getting more and more transparent as you live. You can calculate so many things just by encountering a small thing on the road." Xu Qing clicked his tongue in wonder.

"You are still young and don't understand the Dao here." Hu Baosong took the pear peeled by Yizhen and said: "When a person is about to die, they are closest to the heart of heaven, and they can often see mysterious opportunities that they usually can't see. But this kind of opportunity is like a flash in the pan and cannot last long."

"You say those fortune-tellers who are disabled and incomplete, why are they so accurate?"

Hu Baosong pointed his finger and said: "This Old Heaven, he is staring from above!"

Xu Qing came to the door and looked at the sky, feeling inexplicable.

At this time, two cups of tea had passed, and there were more pedestrians on the street. It turned out that it was just the time when the wind stopped and the rain cleared.

Xu Qing looked up at the sky, trying to feel that trace of energy.

Since a person about to die is closest to the heart of heaven.

Then wouldn't he be able to touch the heart of heaven if he reached out?

Xu Qing reached out a hand, but didn't touch the heart of heaven; instead, there was a peeled pear in his hand.

He turned his head and saw Yizhen standing beside him, also looking up at the sky.

A breeze blew, blowing a wisp of green silk falling from the Daoist nun's temple.

Xu Qing blinked, and before he could open his mouth to thank her, the sound of Old Hu's exasperated voice came from behind.

"Xu kid, didn't you want to borrow the cart to go to the wharf to handle things? Now that the sky has cleared, why don't you hurry up? Don't blame the old man for not reminding you; in another half an hour, the sky will change again!"

Baisha Ferry Wharf, Xu Qing came here again, and just happened to meet Manager Cai registering new corpse-salvagers.

"What I just said, you must keep in mind. The water area at Baisha Ferry is a forbidden area. There are water ghosts, and you must not set foot there. If any of you don't listen to advice and have problems, then don't talk about rescue; even the corpse won't be salvaged by anyone."

A few new corpse-salvagers, and a few old people transferred from other places, nodded in agreement.

"Old Cai, busy!"

A familiar voice rang out. Manager Cai turned his head and saw Xu Qing's smiling face at the first glance.

"!"

"Don't come over!" Manager Cai reacted quickly. He subconsciously picked up the water sickle used for cutting waterweeds and began to stumble backward.

"Old Cai, what are you doing? I have something to find you for."

"Don't come over! You tell me clearly first, are you a human or a ghost."

"Nonsense, look at my shadow on the ground. Can a ghost have a shadow?"

Seeing that there was indeed a shadow on the ground, Old Cai moved to Xu Qing's side with suspicion.

It's just that he still couldn't be sure in his heart, so he leaned forward, like lighting a firecracker, and reached out his finger to test Xu Qing's breath.

"Slap!"

Xu Qing slapped that meddlesome palm away in annoyance.

Zombies can smell the breath of living people and can spit out cold yin energy, but they can't spit out the hot breath of living people.

But if he really spat out a mouthful of yin energy, the manager's arm wouldn't be paralyzed on the spot, and even if he had a hundred mouths, he wouldn't be able to explain it clearly.

"Don't do these useless things. Can I not know whether I am a living person? Hurry up and take me to the place where the corpse-salvagers store corpses; I have urgent matters!"

Hearing this, Manager Cai finally believed the "fact" that Xu Qing was still alive. He led the way while couldn't help but inquire.

"Brother Xu, how did you survive from the mouth of the water ghost?"

"Hey, you don't understand this. I know some secret recipes. These ghosts and monsters are most afraid of filthy things. After that water ghost pulled me into the water, I got nervous, and my back door started to release gas, which smoked it so hard that it let go..."

Xu Qing was talking nonsense with a straight face.

However, what he said wasn't entirely false. Filthy things do have a restraining effect on some low-level ghosts and monsters, and even some extraordinary talismans, when polluted by menstrual blood or human waste, will lose their effect or have their power greatly reduced.

Manager Cai didn't doubt it, but instead kept these words in his heart.

In addition to registration, his duty in the corpse-salvage team was to purchase the equipment needed for the corpse-salvagers to go out.

Things like pig bladders, water sickles, salvage nets, and salvage ropes were all essential things for corpse-salvagers to go into the water.

Now he had a new procurement plan, which was to get some filthy things for the corpse-salvagers to carry to prevent accidents.

Passing through a few fish fences and a few water trestles, the two finally stopped in front of a storied boat.

"This is the place to store corpses?"

Manager Cai nodded and said: "This storied boat has been parked here for some years. It is said that it was a viewing boat built by King Changting when he was training the navy. Later, the imperial court was tight on money and ordered to stop building navy warships, so this boat was abandoned."

Xu Qing followed Manager Cai onto the storied boat. The corpses salvaged by the corpse-salvagers were just parked on the deck, covered with a straw mat for people to identify.

On the deck, there was a sunshade made of wooden boards as a cover. This place was close to the river, and there was river wind blowing from time to time, so the corpses wouldn't rot within a day or two.

It's just that if no one claimed them within the limited time, these corpses would be sent to the righteous village to be dealt with.

Xu Qing saw this source of corpses and began to calculate in his heart.

He had already agreed on a long-term cooperative business with Li Siye of the tooth shop, and unclaimed corpses were one of his main sources of goods.

Logically, these corpses should also have been sent to the mortuary shop, but Li Siye was not competitive and was seized by the Jinmen Gang at this wharf.

With the Jinmen Gang obstructing, these corpses were all sent to the righteous village outside the city, and not a single one was collected by him.

"Jinmen Gang..."

Xu Qing pondered for a moment, then opened his mouth and said: "Manager Cai is busy with official business. I will carry and send Zheng Deli's corpse alone; I won't trouble the manager."

The two exchanged a few more polite words, and Manager Cai turned and went down the boat.

Looking at the corpses placed on the boat, Xu Qing happily began to save them.

These corpses were all ordinary goods, including fishermen, passengers, and adults or children who were accidentally washed away by the water flow while playing in the water.

Xu Qing saved them all the way, and besides gaining some rewards that were not worth mentioning, he also found the corpse of a Rong warrior who had traveled thousands of miles from the Dog Hill tribe in the west.

What was even more bizarre was that the time of death of this corpse was only five days.

Excluding the time the corpse was parked, that is to say, this corpse drifted for thousands of miles and only took two or three days.

Looking at the corpse's face again, it was still lifelike, and there was no trace of corpse smell, but instead, it emitted a faint strange fragrance.

As the saying goes, high mountains have drums, and things happen for a reason.

Xu Qing, who had seen the other party's memory, was not surprised by this. As for how this Rong warrior kept the corpse from rotting and could drift for so long without being gnawed by river fish, the specific reason had to start from five days ago...

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 114 =====