Chapter 143: Banner Flags, Corpse Roar Art

When Xu Qing arrived at Second Master Feng's house, he happened to see several assistants tying up four-seasons paper flowers.

He was very familiar with this thing; whenever a family had a funeral, they would use willow branches at the entrance to tie up colorful, yellow-and-white paper strips, the purpose being to 'announce the death'.

The intricacies within announcing a death are also quite particular.

Besides the simplest method of tying paper strips, some families holding funerals would also hang 'Heaven-Connecting Paper' at the entrance.

What is Heaven-Connecting Paper? Folded old white hemp paper, cut at the head and tail, cut into strips three fingers wide and one and a half chi long, linked together into a chain, is called Heaven-Connecting Paper.

The quantity of Heaven-Connecting Paper is generally cut according to the deceased's age, one strip per year of age, plus one for Heaven and one for Earth.

For instance, when Emperor Longping passed away at eighty-three, announcing the death would require cutting eighty-five paper strips.

Besides this, there are also taboos and proprieties when hanging Heaven-Connecting Paper.

The normal method requires finding a red string to tie one end, attaching a piece of black charcoal, and hanging it on one side outside the main gate.

If the deceased was male, hang it on the left side; if female, hang it on the right side.

Left is Yang, right is Yin, corresponding to male and female.

The Heaven-Connecting Paper before him consisted of five bundles, fanning out from the left door outward, extending about a zhang in an eight-character shape, resembling a silver tree street scene.

After counting the number of paper strips on them, Xu Qing shifted his gaze to the tightly closed courtyard gate.

At this moment, the couplets at the courtyard gate had been torn down, and what was newly pasted was a sheet of white paper.

Xu Qing was also familiar with this thing; in the funeral trade, its formal name is 'Gate Report'. A Gate Report means pasting a white paper at the home entrance, with the words 'Obituary' or 'Funeral Affairs' written on it, clearly stating the deceased's name, gender, age, date of death, former profession, or former status.

Besides these, some would also write down the specific arrangements and dates of the funeral.

The purpose of announcing a death is also very simple: to clearly tell relatives, friends, and neighbors that someone in the family has passed away, so that relatives and friends can come to mourn or offer assistance.

These things sometimes seem dispensable, but since they have continued to this day and become part of funeral rites, there must be some reason for it.

Less idle talk; let us say that Xu Qing stood at the door, and with just a glance, he already knew in his heart how many people in this household had died, whether the deceased were male or female, and their ages!

"Five deceased, all men of prime age; the oldest was forty-five years old, the youngest was merely twenty."

Xu Qing sighed with relief; it seemed Second Master Feng was still stubbornly alive, but he did not know what relationship the five dead had with him.

Beside him, Xuan Yu followed Xu Qing's gaze to look at those paper effigies and said with an odd tone, "You secretly divined again?"

"Divined?" Xu Qing shook his head: "Divination should not exceed three times; who among proper people would idle away their time constantly divining?"

"Then how do you know these things?"

Xu Qing chuckled, pointed his finger at the decorations at the door, and said, "They told me."

"Paper effigies can speak too?"

"One could say that."

Xu Qing suddenly thought of Master Wang, the coroner at the government office, and said with emotion, "All things in the world have a language; even the dead can speak, so it is not strange that paper effigies can speak."

While speaking, Xu Qing knocked on the courtyard gate, and an assistant welcomed him inside.

The assistant did not recognize Xu Qing, yet he did not ask about his identity.

This was because when a family had a funeral and hung paper banners at the door to announce the death, most tacitly allowed people to enter and pay respects.

Even if a stranger passing by arrived at the door and said they wanted to enter to mourn, the host family generally would not block them; this was considered a custom of following established precedents and sticking to old rules.

On this side, Xu Qing followed the assistant through the courtyard gate, went around the screen wall, also called the Xiao Wall, and arrived inside the residence.

"Master Xu! Oh my, you are a rare guest!"

The butler saw Xu Qing at first glance and thought, "Oh no!"

This place, Jinmen, is truly sinister; just recently we were talking about the master of the affair, and now the master of the affair has come to the door!

Fortunately, the butler reacted quickly; he suppressed his emotions, clasped his hands, and came out from the inner room to welcome him.

"Butler He, long time no see."

Since the household had a matter of mourning, Xu Qing did not feel right greeting people cheerfully, so he simply returned the courtesy normally, then followed the butler to the spirit hall, thinking to first offer a stick of incense to the deceased, go through the motions, and then discuss serious matters.

Following Butler He, who was sweating profusely all the way, to the spirit hall, Xu Qing heard the sound of people arguing.

"Second Master Feng, let us discuss the matter on its merits; if the T'ai'an Escort Agency had a problem with escorting, then it is our fault. Regardless, the cargo payment must be compensated threefold; as for the personnel my escort agency lost..."

"... their vengeance, my escort agency must also avenge. Do not stop me on this matter, Second Master; whoever dares to stop me is an enemy of the T'ai'an Escort Agency!"

Xu Qing stopped outside the spirit hall and looked in through the threshold, seeing a youth of about twenty leading several escort masters confronting Second Master Feng.

"Young Master Xie, you do not understand the reasoning within; the Jinmen Gang is vastly different from before. Of the three salt gangs of Jinmen, two are under his control. The only one who could challenge the Jinmen Gang, Old Lady Cao, had her entire family exterminated a few months ago. Behind Old Lady Cao stood Grand Marshal He, yet this matter has had no outcome to this day."

Second Master Feng did not want to make the words too explicit; although there were rumors that the Jinmen Gang had been co-opted and bribed by a Grand Councilor in the imperial court, who would dare to bring this up?

The youth called Young Master Xie stuck out his neck and said angrily, "I don't care if he is a Grand Councilor or not! In our line of work, we speak of trustworthiness to clients, righteousness to those in the escort agency, and rules of the underworld; if the Jinmen Gang does not speak of righteousness and rules, then I must deal with them!"

Second Master Feng's head buzzed from listening; this young man's temper was simply more impulsive than his own.

"Second Master, do not speak further. My father went out escorting two years ago and has not returned; everyone in the escort agency, hundreds of mouths waiting, must be fed by me, so the rules of business must absolutely not be broken; I cannot let everyone's hearts grow cold!"

Finally, Xie Yunyan clasped his hands and said, "Second Master is a honored guest of our escort agency; since my grandfather, we have done business with Second Master's family; it is not an exaggeration to say it is a three-generation friendship. Today, I entrust the bones of my brothers here to Second Master's care; once I have settled this matter, I will come to thank Second Master again."

After inserting the incense and mourning his own brothers, Xie Yunyan led the several escort masters beside him and hurried out in a rush.

Walking to the door, Xie Yunyan glanced at Xu Qing, who was watching the spectacle, and the black cat at his feet, then suddenly stopped and said, "Is this your cat?"

Xu Qing nodded his head.

"The spirit hall is a sacred place; no domestic or wild cat is allowed to intrude without permission; if it disturbs the deceased..."

Xu Qing opened his mouth to interrupt: "I am a mortician; this cat has been with me for a long time and understands reason well; it will not disturb the corpse."

"If you do not believe me, I can demonstrate it for you."

Saying this, Xu Qing jerked his chin at Xuan Yu, "Come, perform a backflip for this Young Master."

"..."

Xuan Yu looked at Xu Qing expressionlessly, then darted out of the courtyard without looking back.

Seeing this, Xie Yunyan's mouth twitched, but he did not say anything further.

As long as the cat does not enter the spirit hall, the problem is not great.

After the Tai'an Escort Agency's escorts departed, Xu Qing turned and walked into the mourning hall.

"Second Master, what are you doing?"

Seeing Xu Qing, Second Master Feng's old face turned red.

"Don't mention it! Brother Xu, to be honest with you, I have botched the matter I promised you."

Second Master Feng chattered on, recounting the troubling events of the past few days one by one.

After hearing Second Master Feng's words, Xu Qing's brows immediately furrowed.

He had previously entrusted Second Master Feng with searching for high-quality Yin Gold Burial Coins; there were plenty of such items in the Jingcheng antique market, so Second Master Feng had people collect a sufficient quantity of Yin Gold in Jingcheng and entrusted them to the Tai'an Escort Agency, asking the agency to dispatch escorts to transport the goods via water route to Jinmen.

The water routes in Jinmen were well-developed; barring any accidents, those burial artifacts and Yin Gold would have arrived in Linhe within a few days, but just as the convoy reached the Linhe ferry dock, the Jinmen Gang detained Second Master Feng's boat, claiming they were searching for smuggled salt.

Inside that boat were not only Xu Qing's goods but also many burial artifacts and coffins; although these items looked valuable, only Second Master Feng knew that inside were all dead man's money, such as Wuzhu coins, horseshoe gold, and hoof gold.

Even now, Second Master Feng could not figure out why the Jinmen Gang wanted to seize these things.

Although these items were antiques, their value was far lower than that of calligraphy, paintings, and porcelain; thinking it over, perhaps the Jinmen Gang members who hijacked the boat did not understand the ins and outs, seeing those burial artifacts and thinking a windfall had arrived!

A smuggled salt gang, instead, turned the tables, hijacking legitimate boats under the banner of investigating smuggled salt, and even telling them that the dead man's money on their boats was all salt from the Great Yong Dynasty.

Who can you appeal to for justice in this matter?

The Jianghuai Salt Gang, a distorted product closely related to the state-run salt and iron system, was exactly this kind of thing, yet it managed to beat the native people of Linhe into silence; even Second Master Feng, a person who could command wind and rain in Jingcheng, suffered a setback.

Looking at the bodies neatly arranged in the mourning hall, Xu Qing stepped forward, picked up three sticks of incense, and silently inserted them into the incense burner.

"Brother Xu, this matter has nothing to do with you; do not take it to heart."

Second Master Feng sighed: "This Salt Gang is not something we Xianxia families can deal with; the Jianghuai waterways are treacherous, and the Jinmen Gang can come and go at will, surely there is a capable person stationed there; Brother Xu had best not provoke them; as for those goods..."

"In a few days, I will send someone to Jingcheng again; this time we will not take the water route; at most it will delay by one or two months, but the goods can still be procured properly."

Xu Qing shook his head and said, "Second Master need not trouble yourself; I do not need those goods for the time being."

Changing the subject, Xu Qing then said, "I wish to perform a ritual for these escorts; may I do so conveniently?"

"Conveniently, yes, but since I could not help with this matter, how could I bear to trouble Brother Xu further?"

Xu Qing shook his head: "Second Master has already done very well; I am very grateful to Second Master."

"Hey, what is there to be grateful for!" Second Master Feng waved his hand and said, "I was even thinking of inviting some monks and Daoist Priests from the temple to perform the ritual; now that Brother Xu has stepped in, it saves me the worry."

In the mourning hall, Xu Qing burned incense and performed the ritual, preparing the faces and granting salvation to the several corpses.

The Sutra of Delivering People turned a page, and the River of Forgetfulness appeared.

Xu Qing granted salvation to five corpses in succession and gained a rich harvest.

Five martial arts classics, four banner flags, one Black Cloud Mace, one Poisonous Dragon Nine-Section Whip, and some Force Pills, Golden Wound Powder, and other medicines commonly used by escorts.

The Black Cloud Mace and the Nine-Section Whip were both Human-Grade items; the four banner flags were also originally Human-Grade items, but these flags held some significance within them.

Banner flags originally referred to the flags planted on the backs of generals on the opera stage, symbolizing the momentum of "thousands of troops and ten thousand horses."

The function of the four banner flags in Xu Qing's hands was similar; they could split into four illusory clones; these clones had no physical form, but the person possessing the flags could shuttle freely between the clones formed by the flags.

As for the origin of Xu Qing's four banner flags...

In the escort profession, there were four types of escorts: accompanying escorts, flag-bearing escorts, gold-bearing escorts, and formation-stabilizing escorts.

To become an escort, martial arts alone were not enough; one also had to have a reputation in the Jianghu, so that when the banner was raised, others would yield three parts and make way for you.

When traveling on an escort mission, escorts would also raise their respective banners as a signboard to clear the way.

The five escorts Xu Qing granted salvation to happened to be a complete escort team.

The formation-stabilizing escort at the head was nearly fifty years old; he had been lame in one leg in life; although his martial arts were not as good as the gold-bearing escort, his prestige and escort experience were incomparable to other escorts.

And this formation-stabilizing escort had raised a deep purple commander's flag.

The gold-bearing escort was the most capable fighter among the five escorts; he wielded a refined steel mace, and his martial arts cultivation had reached the Condensed Qi realm.

This escort carried a golden flag.

The flag-bearing escort was the all-rounder in the team; surveying terrain, conversing with others, and protecting the escort during combat were all commendable, but if these abilities were singled out, they were inferior to the specialized gold-bearing and formation-stabilizing escorts.

Therefore, the role of the flag-bearing escort was as a substitute; once the commander and the main general were lost, he would take their place.

The remaining accompanying escorts and path-clearers were the guides of the team, responsible for building bridges, asking directions, stopping for meals, staying at inns, and all other tedious matters.

The flag-bearing escort held a red flag; the accompanying escort held a green flag.

Now that Xu Qing had obtained four escort flags, he could split into four clones; if added to his original body, it was exactly the configuration of a complete escort team.

Tsk, if he went to an escort agency for employment, wouldn't he receive five times the salary alone?

All in all, the reward was good; although it was Human-Grade, it was a prestigious set, and moreover, it was a complete set collected all at once.

Right now, Xu Qing was just going to have a chat with the Jinmen Gang; at that time, he could try out the effect of this set of banner flags.

Recalling his senses, Xu Qing turned his gaze to the five martial arts classics he had obtained.

Lion's Roar Art, Mountain-Splitting Mace, Six Harmonies Spear, Ghost Head Whip, Eagle Tear Eighteen Techniques.

The Lion's Roar Art was obtained from the path-clearer in the escort team.

The so-called path-clearer was the escort responsible for clearing the way and shouting slogans.

The slogans were generally two characters: "He Wu."

Meaning: friends who get along.

When borrowing passage at bridges or resting at inns, a long sound was emitted: "He—Wu."

When there was no threat and one could safely travel or rest, it was short and clear: "He Wu."

The long sound was also called the Phoenix Nods Three Times; when encountering bandits on the road and both sides reached an agreement, they would also say "He Wu."

These were the path-clearer's specialties, and the path-clearer Xu Qing granted salvation to possessed the unique skill of the Lion's Roar Art.

In the mourning hall, Xu Qing attempted to use the Lion's Roar Art's method of circulation to mobilize his breath, but as a zombie, he did not possess the breathing instinct of a living person practicing the Lion's Roar.

After pondering for a moment, Xu Qing simply replaced breath with Yin Qi; the next moment, he felt a strong desire to roar.

Suppressing that desire, Xu Qing opened his eyes and could not help but smile.

The Lion's Roar Art may not suit him, but the Corpse Roar Art seems not difficult to learn.

(End of this chapter)