Chapter 138

In this day and age, once people get old, they will actively save up for their "coffin money."

"Coffin money" has the meaning of retirement savings, but it also has a literal meaning.

Why are there cases of selling oneself to bury one's father or mother? It is because funeral expenses have never been a small sum from ancient times to the present.

Because this thing really burns money!

In the eyes of the world, there are two things that cannot be delayed: one is the money needed for medical treatment when one has a sudden illness, and the other is funeral and white affairs.

As the saying goes, there is no major event except death; even the poorest will go begging.

A sudden illness is a matter of life and death and must not be delayed; after a person dies, the corpse will rot in a few days, so it cannot be delayed either.

It is precisely because of this that people who encounter these two things and are short of money are very likely to take desperate actions.

Now, Xu Qing not only handled Granny Guanhu's funeral properly but also found a livelihood for Sun Erzhuang, allowing him to work to pay off his debts.

Such funeral services would be hard to find a second one, not to mention in Jinmen, but even looking at the entire Yong Dynasty.

Sun Erzhuang was a reasonable person. Although Xu Qing opened his mouth like a lion and asked for a high price of one hundred and twenty taels, he didn't feel it was excessive at all; he even felt it was too little.

"Sir has the grace of saving my life, and now he has helped me find a livelihood. It is no exaggeration to call it the grace of rebirth. I also understand that sir collecting this one hundred and twenty taels of silver is actually because he is afraid I will have a burden in my heart..." The big fatty's eyes turned red as he spoke.

"I have had no father since I was small. It was sir who made me feel what it's like to have an elder helping out..."

Xu Qing felt his teeth ache listening to this. He just simply wanted to open a branch hall, make the Cat Immortal Hall's business bigger and stronger, and let his eyes and ears be all over Jinmen, that was all.

You must know that there are few people in this world who know how to repay kindness, and many who are heartless. The two brothers, Sun Erzhuang and Guan Dazhuang, happened to be people of excellent character who valued relationships and righteousness. Meeting the right candidates at the right time, how could he not have the intention to recruit them?

As for what Sun Erzhuang said, he really hadn't thought about it carefully.

Guan Dazhuang was also moved in its heart upon hearing its brother's words.

"It was I who misunderstood sir. It turns out sir is a great benevolent person."

"..."

Xu Qing gave two dry laughs, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

He just gave better employee benefits, how did he become a benevolent person?

During the few days he stayed in Guan Family Village, Xu Qing was not idle. He set up the Circle Hall and recorded Guan Dazhuang's name on the hall list, which also included the name of the Immortal disciple Sun Erzhuang.

In the courtyard, Xu Qing set up a ritual altar and taught Sun Erzhuang to recite the "Helping Soldiers Incantation" to establish a connection with Guan Dazhuang.

After doing this, Guan Dazhuang separated a wisp of spirit and, according to the "Inviting Yin" method taught by Xu Qing, used offerings and incense to attract nearby Immortals to walk in the Yin and enter dreams.

The so-called "walking in the Yin and entering dreams" is essentially a means of communication for Immortals. Whenever a new hall is established, this method is needed to greet nearby Immortal halls.

In the Guan family courtyard, there were gusts of Yin wind. Before long, some wild Immortals, true Immortals, or other dirty things were all attracted.

A tiger has tiger prestige. With one tiger roar from Guan Dazhuang, those shadowy ghosts who wanted a free meal scattered like mice seeing a cat.

After burning three sticks of incense, the Immortals who came were about all there. Xu Qing took a look and saw that many of them were familiar guests.

The little yellow weasel from Huangtiao Mountain recognized Xu Qing and knew that this was a great senior whom even Grandpa Huang treated with three points of courtesy.

"Hello, Grandpa Xu!"

The little yellow weasel had a very sweet mouth, but this little guy clearly hadn't learned human social etiquette.

Xu Qing patiently taught it to speak like a human: "You must remember, in the future, when you meet a young-looking mage, you must call them 'Sir.' Only when you meet an old one can you call them 'Grandpa' or 'Grandma'."

Besides the yellow weasels from Huangtiao Mountain, there were also crows from Luan Shi Mountain and little snakes from Yuehua Mountain. One might have thought they had arrived at a flower and bird market, with the chirping discussions of small animals everywhere.

Xu Qing informed the various halls about the Cat Immortal Hall opening a branch hall and wrote invitations for holding the Immortal ritual, letting these errand-runners go back and pass the message.

Guan Dazhuang to the side was stunned; it had never thought that the Cat Immortal Hall's connections would be so extensive.

There were even Gray Immortals who rushed over to bow and greet Xu Qing.

It was truly a living ghost!

Jinmen is not small, but it's not big either. After notifying the nearby halls, Xu Qing began to invite incense and recite incantations alone, passing the news of the branch hall preparing to cut the ribbon and open for business to the Mortuary Worker Shop.

Chanting the "Helping Soldiers Incantation," Xu Qing searched his body for a long time. He didn't find any cat fur, but he did find quite a few golden rooster feathers.

Fine, let's make do with them!

Using the chicken feathers as a medium to communicate with the Immortals, Xu Qing continued to chant the "Helping Soldiers Incantation."

"Left hand picks up the King Wen drum, right hand picks up the driving whip—

Drive the mountains and the mountains will move, drive the rivers and the rivers will dry, what I am driving is the old Immortal who cannot be at peace."

The "Helping Soldiers Incantation" is divided into civil and martial invitations. If inviting the Cat Immortal of his own hall, Xu Qing would definitely use a civil invitation, but to invite that fat chicken in the shop that only eats and doesn't work, there was only the martial invitation option.

At the third watch, a huge golden rooster shadow suddenly appeared from the darkness in the Yin-wind-filled courtyard.

The chicken is one of the birds with the heaviest Yang energy in the world, and among them, the rooster is the most.

The rooster has extreme Yang and lacks Yin, and likes to eat food with heavy Yin energy, such as scorpions, centipedes, and earthworms. In the funeral industry, the rooster is also the only bird that can freely travel between the "Yin and Yang worlds."

This is also why when presiding over rituals, mages often use roosters over three years old to lead the way for the deceased.

It's just that Xu Qing didn't expect that the Dharma-realm manifestation revealed by this golden rooster would have such power.

"Your grandfather—"

A familiar cursing sound rang out, and the proud and otherworldly image of the divine bird collapsed instantly.

Jin Luan had never been threatened by the "Helping Soldiers Incantation" before; this was the first time.

It stepped out of the Yin-Yang Dharma realm in a rage, but before it could vent, the remaining dirty words in its mouth were forcibly held back.

Not for anything else, but because it couldn't beat the person who had used the martial invitation on it.

"Jin Luan, I have something I need you to convey..."

The golden rooster hummed and hawked for a long time, not daring to say a word of refusal.

Eating someone's food makes your mouth soft, taking someone's things makes your hands short. Now that it had to be cursed and have its feathers plucked, it simply pretended to be confused.

After Xu Qing finished explaining everything, Jin Luan finally couldn't help but say something to him before leaving.

The general meaning was that next time he invited an Immortal, he should say some pleasant words and not sing the martial invitation tune; that was too embarrassing!

Sun Erzhuang didn't understand the language of birds and beasts, so he asked the tiger beside him: "What did that chicken say with its cooing?"

Guan Dazhuang said with an inexplicable expression: "That chicken is a messenger. As long as the message is delivered and the main hall records the new hall list, the incense of the Mountain Lord Temple will merge into the main hall in the future, and we will be considered people of the Cat Immortal Hall."

One night passed without incident. When the next day dawned, Xu Qing took some silver and gave it to Sun Erzhuang, saying:

"Take this money to repair the temple. In the future, the affairs of the Circle Hall will be left to you..."

Besides soliciting business for the Cat Immortal Hall, the Circle Hall could occasionally pull some business for his funeral shop. These were all incidental benefits, and Sun Erzhuang could also earn some remuneration by looking at things for people.

As for Guan Dazhuang, it used incense as its salary.

In these few days, the incense in Xu Qing's hands had never stopped. At every moment, more or less incense was pouring into the Immortal Hall's Dharma realm.

Xu Qing could roughly guess the origin of this incense. Most of it was because the matter of the Son-Sending Temple had already spread. The Cat Immortal Hall had eradicated a major disaster, so naturally, there would be people burning incense to thank them.

By the third day, the Immortals from all walks of life who could come had basically all arrived.

Sun Erzhuang acted as the cook, setting up pots and cooking in the Mountain Lord Temple. The Immortal banquet was not that complicated; there was no need to cook specially, but today, not only were there Immortals, but also the incense-children and horse-riders from various Immortal halls.

These people all had quite a bit of prestige in their respective villages, and even outside the village, within a radius of a hundred miles, there were few who didn't know them.

And these people had now all come to the Mountain Lord Temple to bear witness, just to wash away the old impression of this temple in people's hearts, and at the same time, to make the name of the Cat Immortal Hall famous.

The Immortal banquet sounded quite ethereal, but in Xu Qing's eyes, it was about the same as eating a banquet in the countryside.

Xu Qing was the Grand Master of the Cat Immortal Hall, so he sat in the incense hall with the leaders of other Immortal halls to dine.

Other Immortals or incense-children and horse-riders were divided according to seniority; some were arranged in the side rooms of the incense hall, and some were eating in the open air in the courtyard.

During the banquet, Huang Laoxu was offering a toast to Xu Qing with red grain and fine water.

"The old man has long known that Fellow Daoist Xu is not an ordinary person. That shepherd is extremely cunning, and the nuns of the Son-Sending Temple are more vicious than snakes and scorpions..."

Before Huang Laoxu could finish speaking, a Willow Immortal was dissatisfied.

"Old thing, make it clear, who exactly is vicious?"

Huang Laoxu knew he had made a slip of the tongue and hurriedly changed his words: "The nuns are vicious, it must be the nuns who are vicious! All you Willow Immortal fellow daoists have the hearts of Bodhisattvas..."

After apologizing, Huang Laoxu continued: "As soon as Fellow Daoist Xu came, he solved all these difficult problems. Now, in just a few days, the tiger monster that was doing evil in Mount Taodou has also been eradicated by Fellow Daoist Xu. I, Huang Laoxu, have never admired anyone, but Fellow Daoist Xu is the first."

Xu Qing watched the yellow weasel flattering him with a smile.

It is said that people get clever as they age, and horses get slippery as they age. A yellow weasel with years on it is both clever and slippery.

When he originally promised to solve the hidden danger left by the hunters for the yellow weasels of Huangtiao Mountain, he only collected some hard-boiled eggs and wolf-hair brushes as a deposit. Huang Laoxu hadn't settled the subsequent remuneration at all.

Now this old guy was good; he just patted him with a few flattery words and said a few complimentary things, wanting to skip over this matter.

This won't do!

Xu Qing said in front of all the Immortals and horse-riders: "I am not as compassionate as Fellow Daoist Huang says. Punishing the shepherd was because Fellow Daoist Huang invited my Cat Immortal Hall to help. Burning the Son-Sending Temple was also because the shepherd had connections with them. As for the tiger monster of Mount Taodou..."

"The Guan brothers who invited me are honest and kind by nature. To repay this grace, they came to my Cat Immortal Hall to help me manage this branch hall."

Xu Qing looked at Huang Laoxu, whose beard was trembling, and his smile became even kinder: "In my opinion, Fellow Daoist Huang is also an honest and kind Immortal."

Huang Laoxu gave a dry laugh: "Fellow Daoist Xu is right, the old man will naturally not forget this favor."

"Look at what you're saying, fellow daoist, am I the kind of person who dwells on such small matters?" Xu Qing paused and then said: "But having said that, I do have a small matter I would like to ask Fellow Daoist Huang to help with."

Seeing that the surrounding Immortals were all staring at him, Huang Laoxu had no choice but to bite the bullet and say: "Fellow Daoist Xu, just speak your mind. As long as it is within my power, I, Huang Laoxu, will definitely not refuse."

"It's not a big deal, it's just that my Cat Immortal Hall is missing a manager for the Transmitting Hall."

The Transmitting Hall is one of the ten major halls of the Immortal Hall, mainly responsible for message delivery, transporting goods, and other errand-running tasks. It is generally held by a Yellow Immortal.

Hearing this, Huang Laoxu widened his mung bean eyes, shook his beard, and said: "You want the old man to be an errand-runner for you?"

"If Fellow Daoist Huang has this thought, it's not impossible." Xu Qing smacked his lips and said: "Although your arms and legs are a bit old, I don't mind."

Is this something a human would say!

Huang Laoxu said suspiciously: "Since Fellow Daoist Xu doesn't have this thought, why bring up the Transmitting Hall to the old man?"

Xu Qing looked happily at the other side of the incense hall. There, a young yellow weasel was serving dishes.

Huang Laoxu had countless descendants, but there was only one who was talented and could sit in the hall and look at things at a young age.

"This young man is not bad. If Fellow Daoist Huang doesn't mind, why not send him to me to train for a few years? I happen to be missing a main general for the Transmitting Hall."

"..."

By the time the banquet was almost over, Xu Qing had an extra clever yellow weasel by his side.

Human life is short, and those who work in the horse-riding industry are all short-lived ghosts.

Huang Laoxu just thought he was sending his grandson to stay with Xu Qing for a few days. When the other party got old and useless one day, his grandson could still return to his side.

Thinking of this, Huang Laoxu became happy again.

Xu Qing was also happy.

What he was thinking was that the yellow weasel by his side would sooner or later take over its grandfather's shift. When Huang Laoxu got old and his life ended, wouldn't all the yellow weasels of Huangtiao Mountain be incorporated into his Cat Immortal Hall?

With this foundation, Xuanyu's future cultivation path would likely be much smoother, and his Mortuary Worker Shop could have more eyes and ears. Who knows, he might be able to know all the major and minor affairs of Jinmen without leaving his house...

After the Immortal disciples were full of food and drink, everyone pulled Guan Xiaohu's corpse and began to parade through the village.

At first, some villagers watching the fun were skeptical, but when they saw the corpse of the big tiger and the guarantees from famous shamans and horse-riders from various villages and townships, they were already twelve points convinced.

There was no entertainment in this day and age, and even a small matter could be blown up into something huge, let alone the major event of the tiger monster that hurt people in Mount Taodou being executed!

The horse-riding disciples had different temperaments; some were crazy, some were like beggars on the roadside, and even those who were clean and neat had more or less eccentric personalities.

In the past, it would not have been easy to gather these people together because many of these shamans and horse-riding disciples had old grudges.

For example, the Gray Immortal horse-riders had always been at odds with the Willow Immortal horse-riders, and the Yellow Immortal horse-riders and the Phoenix Immortal horse-riders were not very harmonious either.

So generally, it was difficult to gather these people or Immortals together.

But Xu Qing was different. The few things the Cat Immortal Hall had done recently were almost all major events. These things were what everyone wanted to do but didn't dare to. Now that Xu Qing had eradicated the disaster that had been rooted in Jinmen for a long time for them, he would naturally receive the common recognition of these horse-riding disciples.

As for the Immortals...

A big fist is the hard truth. Immortal halls, in the end, compete for strength and connections. If you can't beat them by inviting people, invite Immortals. If inviting Immortals still can't solve it, then invite a few more.

The strength of the Cat Immortal Hall was obvious to all, and the local Immortals were naturally happy to be on good terms.

(End of chapter)