Chapter 208: Dragon Blood in Non-Decaying Bone, Hanging Person Outside Funeral Shop

Happy events make people feel refreshed. Yesterday, He Xiaosheng sold fish twice and gained more than ten taels of silver, which made him very happy.

The only fly in the ointment was that he didn't fulfill his promise to Shopkeeper Yan to release the fish.

But this matter couldn't be blamed on him. A nobleman from the capital wanted to eat fish; could he refuse? Even if this matter spread, no one would say he didn't handle things properly.

It's just that He Xiaosheng really didn't want to give up the merit silver used for releasing the fish!

What kind of person was He Xiaosheng? He was like a dumpling in a teapot—he had an entry but no exit!

It was said that if there were fish in any river ditch or water pit, he could fish them to extinction, not even letting the fry go!

For a person like this, you expect him to willingly return the release silver?

It was two taels of silver, after all. If he returned the money in full, it would be even more uncomfortable for him than if a fish he caught slipped off the hook and ran away!

But if he didn't return the silver, the neighbors would definitely poke his spine in the future, saying he was not authentic, not proper, and shameless!

So how could he save face and earn the silver at the same time...

He Xiaosheng used his fishing experience to ponder, and he really came up with a way to kill two birds with one stone!

That day, in Tongyue Restaurant, He Xiaosheng walked like a nouveau riche with silver in his bosom. When he arrived at the restaurant, he asked the waiter to bring out the best wine and dishes.

But there was a condition: he only wanted two taels of silver worth of wine and dishes. He wouldn't give a single wen more, and if it were a wen less, you had to grab a handful of peanuts to make up for it.

The waiter didn't think much of it. At most, he would add a dish later, counting it as a freebie, and he could always handle the two taels of silver.

He Xiaosheng ate and drank in the private room on the second floor, and others couldn't see him.

That day, it was pouring rain outside. He Xiaosheng drank hot wine and ate eight meat and eight vegetable dishes in the private room. He felt as comfortable as an immortal!

Today he earned a lot of money, and his heart was happy. After two pots of wine, by the time he settled the bill, his head was heavy, his legs were soft, and he walked like wind-blown lotus leaves or a boat on the waves, floating as if he had become an immortal.

"Master, that will be two taels of silver. The fish soup is on the house."

"What's the rush? I happen to have something to discuss with your shopkeeper. When I go downstairs, I'll bring the silver to your shopkeeper."

"The stairs are narrow, you should be careful, don't fall!"

"Don't worry about it, I'm happy today!"

Pushing away the waiter who wanted to come up to help, He Xiaosheng, with a red face, stumbled downstairs to the main hall.

At this time, there were quite a few people in the hall avoiding the rain and resting. He Xiaosheng took a look and raised his finger, pointing drunkenly and randomly.

"Boss Qin, Officer Wang, Physician Zhang, and this one... don't know him."

A group of people in the hall didn't pay much attention to He Xiaosheng's appearance. There was never a shortage of drunks in the restaurant, so it wasn't strange.

He Xiaosheng arrived at the counter and first chatted with Shopkeeper Yan of the restaurant.

Shopkeeper Yan asked him if the fish had been released. He Xiaosheng replied: "Released, released, all released."

"But how come I heard you sold the fish to someone else?"

He Xiaosheng denied it: "Nonsense! Absolutely not! I really released the fish. The shopkeeper of Deshun Restaurant wanted to buy them, but I didn't sell!"

"Is that so? Then where did you release them?"

"Fish are naturally released in the water. Could I release them in the field?"

Oily water, salty water, boiling water—it's all water, isn't it?

Shopkeeper Yan was half-believing. He pondered: "Whether you lie to me or not doesn't matter, but there is one thing I must say to you: this golden carp is an auspicious sign. It's a fish I promised to release to the Baosheng Goddess. Golden carp deliver children, and the Baosheng Goddess also manages the affairs of adding children and blessings."

"If you exterminate this nest of fish, not only will you damage your own yin virtue, but my family will also be implicated..."

"That's not something a person would do!"

He Xiaosheng was red-faced upon hearing this, not knowing if it was from drinking or from shame.

He snorted for a long time, slapped the two taels of silver on the counter, and said: "Stop saying these useless things. Look carefully, a total of two taels of silver, not a single wen more, not a single wen less, it's all here!"

Shopkeeper Yan still wanted to speak, but He Xiaosheng left the counter first. When he went out, he shouted at the top of his lungs and repeated it again.

"Two taels! Not a bit more, not a bit less. Shopkeeper Yan, look clearly, I'm going back now!"

The waiter heard this and thought it was about the wine money, so he put his heart at ease and went back to serve the guests.

Other guests who knew about the day's events thought it was Eagle-beak coming to return the fish money to Shopkeeper Yan!

At this time, the rain outside was showing signs of stopping, but there was still a drizzling rain falling.

He Xiaosheng carried his fishing rod, which he never left, and stumbled home on his cotton-like legs.

People who drink often know one principle—wine is a living thing!

If you lie on the armchair and don't move, the wine strength will slowly seep into your brain like a plaster. But if you stand up and walk a few steps, the wine strength will be like a carp turning somersaults in the river, drilling straight into your five internal organs along the blood vessels!

When He Xiaosheng was in the restaurant, he was already seven or eight parts drunk. Now that he was moving outside, the wine intent was ten parts or more.

At night, the streets were deserted, with only the bright moon reflected in the puddles, flickering like fish scales.

He Xiaosheng circled, swayed, and shook his head as he walked home. Logically, when the moon came out, the rain should have stopped, but strangely, not long after He Xiaosheng came out, the drizzling rain grew heavier for no reason.

The drunken He Xiaosheng didn't notice at all. Until he reached the vegetable market, he suddenly heard the sound of carriage wheels crushing water, coming from far to near.

He Xiaosheng turned his head back, his blurry eyes not yet clear, and saw two big lantern-like eyes staring angrily at him!

"What the hell?!"

He Xiaosheng sat on the ground, his wine intent instantly waking up a few parts. He looked closely and saw it was just a carriage, and those monster-like eyes were just lanterns hanging in front of the carriage.

"So it's a cargo carriage, scared me to death."

He Xiaosheng sat in place and laughed foolishly, until the carriage crushed him, he didn't react at all!

The rainy night was slippery. The first carriage couldn't stop its momentum and crushed the person. The few carriages following should have reacted in advance, but what was unexpected was that no matter how the driver shouted, the horse wouldn't stop, and even ran faster, as if possessed.

"Disaster! The first carriage crushed him, and there might have been a chance to save him, but now it's been crushed two more times. Even an iron man wouldn't survive this!"

The three drivers were afraid of being charged with murder, so they simply stopped pulling the horses and let the horses pull the carriages away from the vegetable market.

But what terrified the three was that the three carriages ran two miles away and actually returned to the vegetable market!

The driver of the first carriage, seeing he was about to hit the corpse on the ground again, used all his strength to pull the reins, but the horse was like a ghost leading the head, forcibly straightening the direction and crushing the drunken corpse again.

This happened ten or so times, until the horses had no strength left, and the "ghost wall" that trapped the three disappeared.

When dawn broke the next day, the peddlers who got up early passed by the vegetable market and were shocked to find a "piece of person" lying on the bluestone ground, looking just like a door god painting pasted on the ground!

Later, the government office investigated and learned the identity of the deceased from the fishing rod left on the ground, and also caught the three drivers who were pulling cargo that night. And the cargo the three drivers were pulling was all river fish caught from the pier during the tide the day before.

The three drivers said clearly that the drunkard was sitting in the middle of the road, and in the dark, who could see clearly?

As for why they could crush a person into a meat pancake, the three drivers stammered and couldn't explain it, finally only saying that the carriages were too heavy, and the three carriages "happened" to crush Eagle-beak's body with staggered wheels.

Thus, he became a pancake.

As for the ghost wall and crushing him ten or so times, even if they said it, not many people would believe it.

Even if they believed it, the government office couldn't record it in the case file.

The "Duren Sutra" stopped turning pages, and the appearance of the paper person He Xiaosheng was fixed on a page.

Xu Qing looked at the "Duren Sutra" evaluation: "Human Grade, Superior," and the reward was a "Dragon Fishing Technique."

It is said that in ancient dynasties, there were dragon-raising households who were skilled in finding, hunting, and taming dragons. Dragon-raising households could turn dragons into loaches to carry through special spells and seals, and could also use magic to restore loaches to dragon form.

In the previous dynasty, there was a Celestial Master Zhai who set up an altar to summon dragons to control floods and tame the dragons of rivers to calm water disasters.

According to the records of the Celestial Master's Mansion, Celestial Master Zhai was a descendant of the dragon-raising households, and what he performed at that time was actually the long-lost method of finding and taming dragons.

Besides this, there were also rumors of Western Taoists mastering dragon-raising techniques to trap dragons and bring rain to save the world.

When Xu Qing first obtained the "Dragon Fishing Technique," he thought it was some kind of extraordinary magic, but after carefully studying the usage of the "Dragon Fishing Technique," he found it wasn't like that at all!

The "Dragon Fishing Technique" does have a method for fishing dragons, but just like the golden carp caught by Eagle-beak, they are all opportunistic methods.

Besides opportunism, there are also some baiting methods that even Xu Qing felt were despicable and tricky.

"Dragon tracks are hard to find, but the cry of a lizard is just like that of a young dragon. One can bind a lizard in a jar, seal the jar mouth with beeswax, and tap the jar wall day and night. The dragon is the master of the water palace and can sense the sound of water veins from all directions. Hearing this sorrowful sound, it will definitely think it is a young dragon calling for help—this is called using sound as bait and the jar as a prison; the art of fishing dragons is all hidden here."

Dragon Fishing Technique, Part Two:

"Most dragons in the territory are mortal dragons and cannot yet rank among the immortals. These scales and claws have not yet shed their mortal bodies and must cross nine layers of thunder fire before they can transform into dragons and ascend to the sky.

In the thunder and rain season, there are many mortal dragons taking advantage of the rain curtain to try to cross the Heavenly Gate. However, the heavenly law is strict, and those mortal scales that fail to leap through the nine layers will definitely suffer heavenly punishment. The dragon seeker needs to observe the celestial phenomena. If there are meteors burning in the sky, it must be a sign of a falling dragon. At this time, the dragon is at its weakest, and one can use a dragon-binding rope to find the falling dragon and capture it.

Note: Falling dragons like to transform into loaches and carp to avoid mortal disasters, so one still needs to carefully identify them.

Dragon Fishing Technique, Part Three, Part Four...

The methods mentioned in the "Dragon Fishing Technique" are tricky and reveal a certain rationality, but Xu Qing doesn't think dragons are that easy to fish.

You must know, the "Dragon Fishing Technique" only teaches how to fish dragons, but it doesn't care about the life or death of the angler after the dragon is hooked!

The boy and girl Xu Qing met by the river were clearly not real dragons. The other party claimed to be ordered by their master to come and repay the favor. If they were dragons, I'm afraid they would have to be the master who sees the head but not the tail.

Fishing a dragon is easy; sending a dragon away is hard!

The big meat pancake that Xu Qing just repaired is a vivid counter-example.

He absolutely doesn't believe He Xiaosheng died by accident.

Xu Qing drew inferences from one instance; the "Dragon Fishing Technique" before him is too rough.

If he wants to fish a dragon, he can use paper-cutting skills to cut out a small paper dragon, then use a drop of dragon blood to dot it, and then use the "lively" little dragon as bait and hang it on a fish hook.

If there really is a dragon in the Baisha River, he doesn't have to worry about the other party not taking the bait.

But the problem is, can this Zombie Taigong really fish a Dragon King home?

"Shuyiji" states: A water snake transforms into a jiao in five hundred years, and a jiao transforms into a dragon in a thousand years.

Among them, the water snake is a big snake with true dragon blood.

Xu Qing estimates that a common dragon must have at least fifteen hundred years of cultivation.

And he is only a lying corpse at this time, far from having a thousand years of cultivation to protect himself. If he really dares to fish a dragon, I'm afraid he won't fish the dragon home, but will instead get himself involved.

Well, it seems to be another thing that will eat dust in the warehouse!

On this side, Xu Qing finished repairing the corpse and let Shopkeeper Yan of Tongyue Restaurant come in to take a look.

It was exactly the same as before death!

"Truly divine!"

Shopkeeper Yan looked amazed.

Xu Qing laughed: "These are all skills for making a living. If I didn't have a trick or two, I wouldn't be embarrassed to beg for food in this Jinmen."

"If Shopkeeper Yan is really satisfied, you can help me say some good words to the guests in the restaurant in the future, praising the craftsmanship of my Mortuary Service Shop..."

"..."

Shopkeeper Yan didn't answer. He ran a restaurant; if he advertised this kind of thing, would he still be able to do business in the future?

"Eagle-beak was such a capable person when he was alive, but now he's gone just like that."

Shopkeeper Yan was kind-hearted and always felt that he had killed Eagle-beak.

The day Eagle-beak had the accident, he did something unnecessary, saying he should release the golden carp. If it weren't for this, would Eagle-beak have died?

Shopkeeper Yan felt extremely uncomfortable, thinking that it was really hard to tell in this world whether releasing the golden carp was an evil act or a good deed?

Xu Qing saw Shopkeeper Yan's awkwardness, and before the other party left, he said: "It is said that good and evil follow people's actions, and blessings and disasters are invited by oneself. Shopkeeper Yan, don't think too much. If you had really kept those golden carp, perhaps the one lying on this table today wouldn't be Eagle-beak."

"Mr. Xu, what do you mean by that?"

Xu Qing stopped at the right point, which made Shopkeeper Yan even more unable to sleep.

That night, Xu Qing hid in the side room and tinkered all night, completely refining the dragon blood in the Hu-Guang cup into his left hand.

At this time, the black-purple spiderweb patterns spreading on his left hand had turned golden.

With the injection of dragon blood, Xu Qing's left hand was no longer stiff. He tried the "Tiger Seal Dragon Elephant" punch, but found that the power of the Dragon Elephant punch was even greater than before, as if a dragon were really waving its claws!

The fifth watch drum beat, when even dogs were sleepy.

The night owl Xuanyu suddenly knocked on Xu Qing's door in a hurry.

It was called knocking, but it was actually scratching the door panel with cat claws. That harsh sound, not to mention people, even Xu Qing, this zombie, couldn't stand it.

Opening the door, before Xu Qing could open his mouth to educate it, he heard a weird sentence:

"Xu Immortal! Someone is hanging themselves at our door!"

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 209 =====