Chapter 147: Chu-Ling Funeral, Paper-Cutting Craft

When Xu Qing returned to the mortician's shop, the day was already bright.

In the shop, Xuanyu, possessing the female zombie, was holding a fire poker, imitating embroidery ladies dancing with flower spears.

Seeing Xu Qing appear, Xuanyu immediately put the fire poker behind her back, pretending nothing had happened.

Before Xu Qing could ask, Xuanyu took the initiative and said, "Did you go fooling around with the embroidery lady last night?"

Xu Qing was stunned for a moment.

But he quickly reacted. Based on his understanding of Xuanyu, this cat wouldn't say such things!

"Who did you learn this from?"

Xuanyu blinked and said, "Shopkeeper Cheng from the incense shop came to visit last night. She told me that if a man doesn't return home at night, he must have gone fooling around with ghosts."

"..."

Xu Qing was speechless.

"Fooling around doesn't mean that."

"Then what does it mean?"

Xu Qing thought for a while and said, "It means I was playing with other cats all night."

Xuanyu looked at Xu Qing in shock, "Other cats?"

"It's just a metaphor. I was busy sending people to the afterlife last night; where would I have the time to find other cats?"

Xu Qing decisively ended the topic and said, "Let's not talk about this. I bought fried small fish. Do you want to eat?"

"Hmm..." Xuanyu stared at Xu Qing, clearly still thinking about his previous words.

"If you don't want to eat, I'll feed them to other cats?"

"..."

Placing the breakfast he bought on the coffin lid covered with a tablecloth, Xu Qing sat in the main seat. In front of him was a plate of neatly stacked candles, a bowl of half-cooked duck blood soup, and a small incense burner with spirit incense inserted.

With white smoke curling, Xu Qing took out a dagger, cut the candles on the plate into small pieces, and sent them into his mouth to chew carefully.

The wax fat had a rich fragrance, with a faint scent of laurel oil. These were the highest-quality candles, "Fortune and Prosperity Candles" specially purchased for him by the landlady of the incense shop, who was a demanding customer. It is said that the major temples and monasteries of the Yong Dynasty, including the Celestial Master Mansion on Mount Jingshi and even the imperial mausoleums, all purchased this type of candle.

Beside Xu Qing, Xuanyu was eating the golden-fried small fish in small bites.

Jin Luan, who didn't sit at the table to eat, guarded his own jar, pecking at the centipedes and poisonous scorpions crawling inside.

When Xuanyu was eating, she couldn't help but look toward Jin Luan.

The way the big rooster raised its neck to eat centipedes was just like slurping noodles; it looked even more delicious than her small fish.

After "everyone" finished breakfast, the scouts who went out to inquire about news returned to the hall.

Huang Xiaoliu respectfully bowed to Xu Qing and Xuanyu, then recounted the news he had inquired about last night one by one.

When Xu Qing heard that the Jinmen Gang leader, Hong Baoya, died under a flurry of swords, he felt a bit of regret in his heart.

When he went to the pier last night, Hong Baoya was not at the shipyard. Now, after just one night, the other party's head had been plucked by someone else.

It's just that he didn't know if the leader's corpse would be sent to the patrol office...

Speaking of the government office, Xu Qing suddenly missed Senior Brother Wang. He was a person who valued affection the most. It had only been a few days, and his longing for his senior brother had reached the point of haunting his dreams.

In front of the coffin, Xu Qing continued to listen to Huang Xiaoliu's report.

The time he spent eating was to wait for news from the hall. Now, hearing Huang Xiaoliu's report, he finally felt completely at ease.

"Did the government find out who wiped out the Jinmen Gang?"

Huang Xiaoliu replied, "There were no bodies at the pier. I heard from the government that it was a water monster in the Bai Shui River that raided the pier at night and ate those people."

"..."

Xu Qing raised an eyebrow. Who is the water monster? How can you curse people from afar!

Could there really be a water monster in the world that specifically picks Jinmen Gang villains to eat?

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that this kind of rhetoric was just to fool people!

Xu Qing didn't think others were fools. Even if it wasn't others, Huang Xiaoliu might not necessarily believe it.

However, the next moment he heard Huang Xiaoliu say:

"The water monster at the pier is making a huge fuss. I don't know how many years of cultivation it has. The scouts from other immortal halls don't dare to approach the riverbank. Sir, you should be careful if you go to the pier in the future..."

Xu Qing was silent for a moment, then took out a bag of tea eggs, placed them on the coffin lid, and said earnestly, "Xiaoliu, these are tea eggs I bought for you. Eat more to supplement your brain."

Inside the side room of the mortician's shop.

Xu Qing placed the puppet outside the door, instructed Xuanyu to watch the shop, then closed the door and began to count the harvest from last night.

Briefly skipping the corpses of the ordinary Jinmen Gang members, Xu Qing's gaze fell directly on the corpses of Ling Yangzi, Jin Wanshan, and other leaders.

Lining up the six corpses, Xu Qing started from Ling Yangzi and took turns "favoring" them one by one.

When these people were alive, he felt they were eyesores, but now that they were dead, he found them pleasing to the eye.

Sure enough, corpses are more exciting!

At this moment, the six corpses, covered in blood and with unbearable appearances, were lying in the gloomy side room in various twisted and strange death postures.

In a room filled with such an underworld atmosphere, there was a young man with an excited face, staring at the corpses with green eyes.

He looked as if these weren't gloomy and terrifying corpses, but peerless beauties with charming eyes.

Taking a deep breath of the resentment and Yin-Sha filling the room, Xu Qing felt refreshed. For him, who didn't need to breathe, these auras were no different from fresh air to the living.

Taking a breath, the whole zombie felt energized!

The "Scripture of Saving People" also seemed to feel the long-lost pleasure, and the frequency of page-turning became much faster.

Xu Qing saw the underworld scene again, and this time it was clearer than ever before.

Gray-white mist filled his mind, corpse seas surged before his eyes, and tomb mounds were like forests. On the Underworld River, paper-effigy boats were fully loaded with paper treasures and Yin wealth from the human world, flowing into the underworld from the Three-Way River.

In the bubbling river water, ghost shadows waved withered white arms, fighting for the road-buying money scattered from the paper boats...

Among the six corpses before him, one was "Heaven-grade Low-tier," one barely reached "Earth-grade Low-tier," and the remaining four were all "Human-grade High-tier" evaluations.

The Scripture of Saving People rewarded: a "Clear-Yin Precious Mirror" capable of penetrating the nine netherworlds and illuminating the Yellow Springs; a "Paper-Cutting Craft" for paper figures and paper horses; a bottle of "Green Origin Pills"; and a "Gambling-to-Death Technique."

Besides these profound treasures and techniques, there were also some common martial arts and items, such as the "Cotton Yin Palm," "Army-Breaking Fist," "Ten-Step Slash Technique," "Five-Tiger Gate-Breaking Spear," "Black Jade Paste," "Bone-Enhancing Powder," etc.

The Clear-Yin Precious Mirror is similar to a demon-reflecting mirror. Holding this object, one can see some bizarre things that wander outside the human world and are mixed between the Yin and Yang realms.

Xu Qing used the mirror to shine on his own face, only to see the mirror surface pitch black. When he took the mirror away, the scenery around the mirror could be reflected normally, almost no different from an ordinary mirror.

Xu Qing studied it for a while but still couldn't figure it out.

This thing is fine when shining on other things, so why does it go black when shining on himself?

Putting away this Heaven-grade mirror, Xu Qing turned to learn the paper-cutting craft.

The paper-cutting craft he obtained was different from the ordinary paper-cutting in the funeral industry.

Wu Yaoxing's family had been cutting paper for generations. By his generation, the paper-cutting craft was already superb, but he could only cut dead objects out of paper.

But the paper-cutting craft Xu Qing obtained could cut out living paper figures and paper horses.

Xu Qing closed his eyes and realized that this method of refining paper puppets was somewhat similar to the refining methods of the "Five-Flower Horse" and "Thousand-Gold Fur" he had learned in the past.

However, the Thousand-Gold Fur was just a dead object cut from two taels of yellow paper, and only the Five-Flower Horse was more like a living thing, but that horse was made of white bone and mud, not just by cutting paper.

Xu Qing closed his eyes and concentrated. Scissors and talisman paper flew and changed in his mind, and countless rune veins took shape in his heart.

Psychic paper-cutting is divided into upper and lower streams. The upper stream is, in order: Armored Horse, Paper Crane, Paper Donkey, Paper Horse, Paper Tiger, Paper Dragon, Paper Phoenix, etc.

Among them, the Armored Horse is also a paper horse, but it is different from an ordinary paper horse in that it is made of gold-foil paper. After the Armored Horse manifests, it wears armor and has golden light, possessing great divine power.

Although Paper Tiger, Paper Dragon, and Paper Phoenix are high-grade paper-cuttings, they are ranked after Paper Crane, Paper Donkey, and Paper Horse because although these objects have divine forms, they lack corresponding power, and their utility value is not as good as the former, so they are not favored by psychic paper-cutting craftsmen.

Xu Qing opened his eyes, took out a pair of scissors, and cut casually.

In a short while, a lifelike big tiger appeared on the table in front of Xu Qing.

Taking out a wolf-hair brush and wrapping it in cinnabar ink, the brush moved like a dragon and snake, and scarlet runes like tiger stripes added a bright and eerie color to the paper tiger.

Finally, Xu Qing took a bit of zombie blood and dotted the tiger's eyes.

Strangely, after the tiger's eyes were dotted, the paper tiger rolled its eyes and closed them on its own.

Seeing this, Xu Qing knew the paper tiger was formed, but this paper tiger still lacked some driving force.

If paper objects want to act like living things, they also need some energy injection.

For example, Jianghu strange arts usually use human spirit and energy, while the driving force of paper puppets is Yin Qi and Yin-Sha.

Xu Qing opened his mouth and sprayed a mouthful of Yin-Sha at the paper tiger. The next moment, gray-white mist swirled around the tiger's body, and the paper tiger's tightly closed eyes suddenly opened, the scarlet cinnabar color shocking the heart.

With a thought from Xu Qing, the paper tiger smashed open the window, shook its spirit, and pounced toward the chicken coop in the backyard.

Outside the chicken coop, Jin Luan was lying in the shade of the wall, taking a bath in the dirt with a dozen hens.

Poultry often have the instinct for dust baths. Jin Luan was bathing with his wives and concubines when suddenly a murderous white-forehead big worm rushed over!

Jin Luan was so scared that the few feathers on his body stood up. In his eyes, there was such a fierce god as Xu Qing in this shop; who would dare to trespass?

But now, there was this strange demon tiger with a terrifying face that had broken in.

How powerful must this evil spirit be?

Jin Luan was terrified in his heart, but the fighting instinct of a rooster didn't let him retreat in the slightest.

Behind the chicken claws, the three-inch-long chicken spurs were like golden hooks. Jin Luan didn't say a word and pounced toward the evil tiger in front of him.

The white tiger and the golden chicken each showed their ferocity. The paper tiger bared its fangs and brandished its claws, while the golden chicken flapped its wings to meet it.

However, the next moment, the golden hook of the golden chicken easily swept across the paper, making a sound of tearing silk.

The evil tiger couldn't withstand two moves and turned into fragments all over the sky, like snow in June, scattering everywhere.

That's it?

Jin Luan was puzzled for a moment, then flapped his wings and let out a victorious crow.

In the side room, Xu Qing's expression was strange.

No wonder paper tigers couldn't make it to the elegant hall, and no wonder people often called people who were fierce on the outside but weak on the inside "paper tigers."

Isn't this typically "looking good but useless"?

However, even if the effect of the paper tiger in front of him was unsatisfactory, Xu Qing was still full of expectations for the psychic paper-cutting craft.

Humans have three souls and seven spirits. The soul governs the spirit, and the spirit governs the body. Because of the soul and spirit, the human heart is full of emotional changes and is also very easy to evolve over time, producing "other hearts."

But paper puppets have spirit but no soul, form but no spirit. Without soul and spirit, there is no second heart, and they can be commanded by the master.

In addition, if paper-cutting uses good materials, is coated with good wax, and is well-maintained, it can be stored for hundreds of years without any problem. And in the paper-cutting craft, there is also a "Yin-Gold Nourishing Paper Method."

The reason why Ling Yangzi's paper figures had faces like gold paper and bodies as tough as iron and stone was because they were nourished and refined by the Yin-Gold Qi in the Yin-Gold Burial Money.

At this moment, the paper tiger in Xu Qing's hand was fragile. Besides the reason that Jin Luan specifically restrained evil spirits, there was another reason: it should be because it wasn't nourished by Yin-Gold.

In addition, the paper tiger was just an insignificant category in the paper-cutting craft. Besides the paper tiger, Xu Qing had many practical paper-cuttings that he hadn't had time to make.

Arriving at the table, Xu Qing used paper strips instead of thatch, took the clothes-drying pole as the skeleton, and soon cut out two more Chu-Ling puppets a zhang tall.

The so-called Chu-Ling are puppets used for funerals.

The "Book of Rites" says: "Painted carts and Chu-Ling have existed since ancient times; they are the way of burial objects."

There is also a note: "Chu-Ling, bundle thatch into people and horses; those called 'Ling' are a type of spirit."

Later, someone said: "Painted carts and Chu-Ling are all things for funerals."

Xu Qing, as the head of the funeral industry, had high requirements for his own business ability.

But he had never learned the true Chu-Ling funeral technique.

Now, through studying the paper-cutting craft, Xu Qing had already realized the refining method of Chu-Ling.

Paper belongs to the category of grass and wood, and grass and wood are also paper.

If there were thatch by his side, Xu Qing believed he could also cut out the legendary funeral Chu-Ling!

When the lever-room sends a funeral, there are still clerks to carry the levers, but in the past, when he sent the dead to the afterlife, he could only carry them on his shoulders. This was not the right way. Comparing the specifications of the funeral, one could see which was higher and which was lower at a glance.

Now with the Chu-Ling a zhang tall carrying the coffin, the status was different!

Xu Qing looked at the tall, thin paper effigy like a bamboo pole and liked it more and more.

Chu-Ling, head like a cauldron, height over a zhang, the lever-carriers wear straw hats and paper gauze, draped in paper quilts, walking like stepping on wind and mist, landing without sound.

The tomb-guarding Chu-Ling wears gold-foil paper armor, holding a painted halberd, like a golden-armored god-general, which can prevent tomb robbers.

There are also coffin-carrying and sedan-chair-carrying Chu-Ling for husband and wife joint burials, as well as night-walking Chu-Ling holding funeral banners to borrow the path of the underworld...

Xu Qing was extremely satisfied. He originally thought that his funeral business level had reached a bottleneck, and he didn't know when he would be able to break through again.

But he didn't expect that the way to master the skills would be sent to him so casually.

At this moment, his funeral business level, let alone Jinmen, was probably ranked in the entire Great Yong!

With psychic paper-cutting as a guarantee, Xu Qing's mood toward other rewards became much calmer.

"Gambling-to-Death Technique," Earth-grade Low-tier. When performing this technique, two people need to place their birth dates on the table, then use blood as a guide to write a gambling oath. Whoever loses the bet will die on the spot.

As for the origin of this curse reward, it has to start from Jin Wanshan when he was young...

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 148 =====