Chapter 82: Hu Yang Clan, Ghost King's Tomb

No money, and there's still such a good thing?

Xu Qing wore an expression of disbelief.

However, the next moment he heard Hu Baosong say:

"As long as you agree to this matter and fulfill my wish, afterward, however many corpses you want will not be a problem!"

Hearing this, Xu Qing, who had just been preparing to break free from the old man Hu's grip, immediately relaxed.

The two clasped hands and went together into the coffin shop; Hu Baosong closed the shop door, lit a candle, and the shop filled with coffins was dyed a dim yellow by the candlelight.

Xu Qing casually sat on a coffin; the Xuma disciple who followed behind him jumped onto the coffin and sat beside him.

Hu Baosong glanced at the black cat staring intently at the candle flame, his brows furrowing slightly.

"A Xuan cat? For those of us in this trade, raising such a thing is not auspicious!"

The Xuan cat bared its teeth and hissed, clearly very dissatisfied with the old man speaking ill of it to its face.

Xu Qing, however, didn't care; he had seen plenty of inauspicious things, and besides, those in the funeral business already carry bad luck by nature.

When one has too many lice on the body, one stops worrying about the itch; the bad luck on his body had long since been pickled into his very essence, so would he really fear it being inauspicious?

"Never mind the cat or not, let's discuss business first; what exactly did you mean by the corpses you mentioned just now?"

Hu Baosong took out a stick of incense, walked slowly to the candle, lit it using the flickering candlelight on the wick, and then inserted it into the incense burner.

Wisp of white smoke rose to the roof beams, wrapping the red lacquered square wood hanging from the beams in a layer of light gauze.

Only then did Xu Qing notice a heavy coffin capable of holding three people for interment on the roof beam above his head.

That coffin was wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, high at the front and low at the back; judging by its style, there should be a smaller coffin nested inside in the middle.

Could this be the coffin capable of holding two or three people lying flat that Wu Yaoxing spoke of?

Xu Qing felt surprised in his heart, but not because of how large the coffin was, but because the status symbolized by the coffin was quite high; unless the deceased was extremely wealthy and noble, or had official rank to their name, they absolutely would not be qualified to use a nested coffin.

Whether born or dead, people have distinctions of high and low.

In life, distinctions are seen in carriages and hats, official positions, noble salaries, and fields and houses; in death, distinctions are seen in coffins, shrouds, and burial garments.

According to the funeral rules established through the ages, when the Son of Heaven dies, the coffin has four layers, with the outer coffin eight inches thick; for dukes, marquises, and Physicians, the coffin has three layers, with the outer coffin six inches thick; while for commoners, the coffin is only permitted to be a small one four inches thick, with no outer casing.

The coffin Hu Baosong custom-made for himself has at least two layers of coffin and casing; he is a commoner who runs a coffin shop, so how dare he privately use such a large coffin?

If someone reported and accused him, perhaps even his ashes would be scattered by the imperial court!

Even if the person is still alive and has not yet been placed in the coffin, he would be punished according to the law for the crime of great disrespect.

"Old Hu, you say I raising a cat is inauspicious, but you making such a large coffin, aren't you afraid that if the matter comes out in the future, it will cost you your precious life?"

Hu Baosong stood opposite Xu Qing, his hands tucked low in his sleeves, looking up at the young man sitting high on the coffin, and asked with a smile:

"Why should this old one be afraid?"

"You are a commoner; according to ancient and modern laws, you have no qualification to enjoy a thick burial with a coffin and casing; these are treatments reserved for kings, dukes, and nobles."

Hearing this, Hu Baosong laughed heartily, revealing a mouth full of gaps where teeth were missing: "If people look back carefully for hundreds or thousands of generations, who was not not born from kings, marquises, generals, or ministers? Why do you think I am a commoner?"

Before Xu Qing could ask, he spoke first: "Young Xu, have you heard of the Hu Yang Clan?"

"Hu Yang?" Xu Qing was puzzled.

"The Hu Yang Clan can be traced back ten thousand years; even its decline has only occurred within the last thirteen hundred years. According to heavenly rules and ritual laws, any leader within a clan is entitled to be buried with a heavy casing and thick coffin."

"This old one, though lacking talent, is precisely the clan elder responsible for recording the genealogy of this generation of the Hu Yang Clan."

"The clan elder responsible for recording the genealogy?" Xu Qing was surprised.

"Exactly."

"Then how many people are left in your lineage now?"

"Only this old one."

"."

Xu Qing couldn't help but speak: "Old Hu, you are on the verge of your clan being exterminated! Otherwise, let me write you a prescription for aphrodisiacs, and we'll hire a matchmaker to arrange a marriage; perhaps you, though old, will still be vigorous enough to make a baby."

"Do you think I haven't tried? If it were useful, why would I have come to find you?"

Hu Baosong shook his head: "The Hu Yang Clan has branched out for many years; it cannot be said to be exterminated, but the branch that remembers the Hu Yang inheritance is about to break off; I came to find you for this very matter."

"What does this mean? Didn't you say you would give me endless corpses? Old Hu, if you start talking about other irrelevant things, I have no interest in that."

"Young people are just impatient; just listen to me explain slowly."

Hu Baosong, tired from standing, found a chair and sat down; at this moment, he looked like a skinny old monkey, curled up in the wide chair like a withered tree branch.

"Last year, your master Liu Youdao dug up a coffin on the Hekou Ancient Road; that coffin was a funeral object from the Ghost King's tomb, and what was sealed inside was either the Ghost King's concubines or the ghost generals and yin soldiers guarding the Ghost King."

"Your master was lucky; taking advantage of the moment when the yang fire sealed the tomb, he cunningly stole that coffin out; unfortunately, that fire came quickly and went quickly; Liu Youdao had the courage to steal the coffin, but he never had the courage to open that coffin; I figured according to his nature, he wouldn't be able to hold out for long; who would have thought he didn't die in the Ghost King's Tomb, but instead died outside."

Xu Qing said with a bad expression: "Last time I asked you, you didn't say there was such a thing!"

Hu Baosong smiled and said: "When meeting people, only speak three-tenths of the truth; do not pour out your whole heart; if I hadn't left room for maneuvering, how would you have been willing to sit here and listen to me tell these things?"

Xu Qing chuckled, committing this sentence to his heart.

"Master Liu Youdao's master, Yang Qiying, was once a registered disciple of the Yin Corpse Sect; the Hekou Ancient Road, a forbidden land for living people, is the Yin Corpse Sect's favorite cultivation ground."

"You have the inheritance of the Yin Corpse Sect for refining and raising zombies; if you enter that Yin River Ancient Road, perhaps you can obtain the protection of the Yin Corpse Sect and find the path leading to the Hu Yang Ancient Tomb."

"I only have this one matter for you, which is to return to one's roots."

"Yin Corpse Sect." Hearing this, Xu Qing's eyes flickered uncertainly.

When he guided the soul of Liu Youdao, he only saw scenes of Yang Qiying driving corpses in Xiangyin from the other's life review.

Yang Qiying did not inform Liu Youdao about anything regarding the Yin Corpse Sect.

Even at the moment of Liu Youdao's death, he still thought his own master was just an ordinary corpse driver in the Xiangyin region.

'Why did Yang Qiying refuse to tell Liu Youdao about the sect?' Xu Qing's thoughts turned rapidly.

He dared not gamble on the relationship between Yang Qiying and the Yin Corpse Sect; perhaps the other had betrayed the sect, or perhaps this sect had some unspeakable secret; all of this was as yet unknown.

If he went to that Yin Corpse Sect and was treated as an enemy, then who would he go to for justice?

Xu Qing attempted to ask for more details, but Hu Baosong could not tell him.

"The Yin Corpse Sect has always acted without convention." Hu Baosong hesitated for a moment, as if considering his words: "These are matters from over a hundred years ago. Back then, I had a fleeting meeting with Yang Qiying. The ones I met after that were you and your master."

"Over a hundred years?" Xu Qing looked at Hu Baosong in surprise. Could this old man live longer than Emperor Longping?

The black cat by the side perked up its ears; this was the first time it had seen such a long-lived human.

"The Hu-Yang lineage has been passed down in an unbroken line. By my generation, though fallen on hard times, we still possess strange arts and methods. If it were a thousand years ago, the Yin Corpse Sect, upon seeing us Hu-Yangs, would likely have called us ancestors. Pity they were not yet built back then!"

Xu Qing's heart stirred. He asked, "Yang Qiying bears the surname Yang. What is his relation to the Hu-Yang lineage?"

"You are indeed sharp." Hu Baosong could not help but sit up, saying, "There is indeed a bit of bloodline connection, though far less pure than mine."

"The Hu-Yang lineage, could it also possess skills of the Yin professions?"

"Heh." Hu Baosong let out a cold sneer, saying, "We Hu-Yangs are the ancestors of the Yin professions! Do you think I have lived so many years without any skill? When your master Liu Youdao came to seek my counsel back then, he called me 'Senior'."

Hearing this, Xu Qing's eyes lit up. "Senior, you wouldn't want your lineage to be cut off like this, would you?"

"Stop coveting my skills. You bear the surname Xu, I bear the surname Hu. Even if you speak until the sky breaks, you cannot enter the Hu-Yang family register."

Hu Baosong stood up and approached the incense burner; this time, he added three sticks of incense.

"However, as remuneration, if you send me to return to my roots, I can hand this shop over to you and give you a treasure for locating corpses."

As soon as the words fell, Hu Baosong took out a yellow poplar wood compass from his robes.

According to Hu Baosong, after a person newly dies, the aura around their body changes. At this time, one only needs to combine it with the corresponding technique to calculate whether there are any newly dead corpses within a radius of twenty li.

Looking at that compass, Xu Qing finally understood Hu Baosong's intention.

It turned out the corpse Hu old man mentioned that cost nothing was his own corpse, and the countless corpses he could obtain afterward referred to this treasure for locating corpses.

"Senior Hu, when do you plan to meet death?" Xu Qing almost blurted it out, then he quickly changed his wording, using a more euphemistic phrase: "What I mean is, when does the Senior plan to enter the family register?"

Hu Baosong looked at Xu Qing, smiling yet not smiling, saying, "If I die, how can I know whether you will fulfill your promise and send me back to the ancestral tomb?"

"You must take an oath!" After inserting the three incense sticks, Hu Baosong said, "I have here a Heart-Verification Method. If you dare to swear an oath before this lamp flame, I will teach you the Corpse-Locating Technique."

As the old saying goes, when a person dies, the lamp goes out; thus, swearing an oath before a lamp flame is a very serious matter.

Xu Qing looked at the corpse-oil lamp Hu Baosong produced and smiled, "Swear an oath before the lamp flame?"

"Swear an oath before the lamp flame!"

The two were in perfect agreement; immediately, they verified their hearts before the corpse lamp, wrote the Heaven-Earth Red Edict, and each recited a curse.

"Cinnabar verifies the mouth-spirit, the Heavenly Dao verifies the human heart. If what I say and describe today is false, let the common ones be exhausted, the high ones surely fall, the gatherings surely separate, and the living all die!"

Xu Qing heard this and his eyelids twitched; this oath of the Hu old man was truly poisonous!

When it was his turn, the lamp flame before his eyes had already leaped up three feet high.

There are spirits three feet above one's head.

Xu Qing gathered his spirit, and his expression suddenly became solemn.

"Faith is like the earth of the Five Elements; it has no fixed position, no established name, yet water, metal, and wood all depend on it to be born. Today, I and Senior Hu have reached a deal to move his spirit and bury him, returning his leaves to his roots. If I violate this oath, I shall become a zombie after death and never be able to reincarnate for all eternity!"

"When meeting people, speak only three-tenths of the truth; do not pour out your whole heart." Xu Qing remembered this saying; now he learned it on the spot and used it, just right to make a three-tenths oath.

As soon as the two oaths fell, the lamp filled with corpse oil suddenly flared with great light; the Heaven-Earth Verification Edict written by Hu Baosong using the Heart-Verification Method burned without wind, frightening Xu Qing to retreat repeatedly.

Seeing the firelight shoot up toward the roof beam, the black cat felt uneasy in its heart.

If a disciple of the Out-riding Sect violates an oath, would this immortal family member be struck by thunder?

Seeing this, Hu Baosong nodded in satisfaction, and his gaze toward Xu Qing became much softer.

"Little Xu, you are very good!"

Xu Qing coughed lightly and said, "In the way of business, trustworthiness comes first. We are also neighbors, so naturally I will not break the contract."

Hu Baosong let out a long breath and handed over the old compass along with the Corpse-Locating Technique.

"If this shop is to be passed to you, there must be neighbors as witnesses; the house deed and land deed will be transferred by the government. As for when to go to the ancestral tomb—"

"Seven days from now will be an auspicious day. At that time, I will trouble you to prepare my coffin and conduct the funeral."

Walking out of the coffin shop, Xu Qing kept thinking about the Hu-Yang lineage on his way.

Hu Baosong was too tight-lipped; he would rather take all his skills into the earth than teach them to the world.

How many skills throughout history have disappeared and vanished just like this; it is truly a pity.

But fortunately, he still had the Sutra of Delivering People.

He did not believe Old Hu's death-lantern would be as tight-lipped as his own mouth.

Arriving at the entrance of the Coroner's Shop, Cheng Caiyun, who was selecting vegetables, let out an "Aiya," twisted her plump waist and hips, and walked toward him.

"Yo, Licentiate Xu is back! It's been such a long time since we met; you look even more handsome than before."

Looking at the owner of the incense and candle shop before him, Xu Qing chuckled: "Thanks to Boss Cheng for your concern. I was fortunate enough to pass as a student. Actually, I shouldn't have passed, but later I remembered the prize Boss Cheng promised. At that moment, my literary inspiration flowed like a spring, and I took fourth place among the students!"

The prize he mentioned dated back to before the exam. At that time, Cheng Caiyun had jokingly said that when he passed as a Licentiate, she would give him a basket of fresh eggs.

Hearing this, Cheng Caiyun let out an awkward laugh, pretending not to hear the hidden meaning in Xu Qing's words.

"Since you passed as a Licentiate, you must hold a banquet and distribute some congratulatory money to the neighbors."

Xu Qing acted surprised: "I have only heard of giving congratulatory money when one passes as a Provincial Graduate. I am a poor Licentiate; how could I have the ability to show off?"

"But the matter Boss Cheng promised, I have always remembered."

"The weather has just started to warm up, and the chickens at home don't lay many eggs anymore."

"If you really cannot provide them, exchanging for something else is not impossible!"

Xu Qing smiled and sized up the woman before him.

Hearing this, Cheng Caiyun's ears turned red. She spoke with a hint of anger: "What nonsense are you talking? Who else do you want to exchange it for?"

"Exchange for two bundles of candles, made from high-quality bayberry oil. I am preparing to reopen for business; I cannot do without candles."

Cheng Caiyun pouted her small mouth, turned her head, and went back into the shop.

Next door at the Paper Effigy Shop, Hu Baosong summoned the Wu Yaoxing family. Seeing Xu Qing, they were extremely enthusiastic.

The Wu brothers wanted to know where he had traveled for study these past two months; perhaps he had stumbled upon a pink peach blossom, lingered so long he forgot to return.

Pity the two could not interject, for Wu Yaoxing was too talkative; once he opened his mouth, he never stopped.

"Brother Hu has been alone all his life; having Brother Xu to look after him henceforth is a good thing!"

"In a moment, I shall summon the four neighbors to bear witness for you two; from now on, you two shall be one family, sharing one family's affairs."

Wu Yaoxing's words effectively settled the matter; whenever Hu Baosong passed away, his coffin shop would naturally fall to Xu Qing.

Xu Qing held little interest in that storefront on the street, yet if Hu Baosong truly passed, the entire Funeral Street would lack a head.

After all, regarding funeral affairs, the most critical element is that coffin.

Without a coffin shop, could it still be called Funeral Street?

Xu Qing pondered that perhaps later he could visit the Horse Market to see Master Li Si; even if the rent were slightly lower, as long as he could find someone to take the place, it would suffice!

Having finished the miscellaneous tasks here, Xu Qing returned to the Corpse Examiner's Shop and began worrying again about establishing the spirit medium's altar.

The cat before him was establishing an altar for the first time; its only experience came from catching a lone Gray Immortal and torturing information out of it.

It asked Xu Qing if he understood.

How could Xu Qing tell it that he too had acquired spirit medium skills by catching a lone spirit medium disciple and torturing the knowledge out of him?

If not one family, do not enter one door.

The cat and the zombie, after much difficulty, exchanged experiences and established the Cat Immortal Altar.

Yet, having just entered the trade, the cat, who had not yet officially worked for him, threw a tantrum again.

"Who is called 'Happy to See Sweet Potato'?"

"This morning when you ate sweet potatoes, I gave you this spirit medium Dao name; it is so easy to remember, and you did not refuse, did you?"

"I did not hear! A Cat Immortal is also an Immortal; how can one take such a vulgar Dao name?"

"Then what do you wish to be called?"

"Just now someone said those two half-grown lads next door are the Licentiate top scholar and what was it again?"

"The Runner-up."

"Then go find them two and give this Immortal a Dao name with an immortal air; only then will I have face when I walk abroad!"

Xu Qing desperately wanted to use the spirit medium to see the origins of those two coffins in the shop; if his own great matter were delayed because of a name, how unworthy that would be.

Suppressing the impulse to toss Happy to See Sweet Potato onto the street for children to trample, Xu Qing ran next door late at night again to invite the two great talents of the Wu brothers to name the stray cat he had 'picked up'.

"Inappropriate, inappropriate; Brother Xu should go to the wharf to hire a fresh fish as a betrothal gift; that is the proper procedure for betrothing a cat."

Wu Zhiyuan and Wu Wencai chattered on and on; before the name was even chosen, they had drifted to other matters.

On the wall connecting the two neighboring houses, Happy to See Sweet Potato sat, looking at Xu Qing with hopeful eyes.

"."

I asked you two to choose a name, not to add business to my plate!

Xu Qing grunted in agreement.

After the group chatted for a while, upon returning to the Corpse Examiner's Shop, Xu Qing, now with a new name, took paper and brush and wrote the spirit medium's 'Respectful Name' on the altar tablet.

Written above: "The Seat of Lady Qingqing of the Cat Immortal Altar of the Xu Family Mansion."

Qingqing is the name of a famous ink among the Four Treasures of the Study.

The Wu brothers were well-versed in poetry and literature and held their own insights on how to choose names.

Merely naming by color, they could list no fewer than twenty famous inks from ancient and modern times, such as Yuan Guang, Green Pine, Black Fragrance, Qingqing, Pine Smoke, Yuan Frost, and Lacquer Smoke, reciting them as if listing their own treasures.

In the end, only the name Qingqing was a reduplicated word, suitable for calling a cat, yet not losing elegance, perfectly matching the appearance of the Black Cat.

Besides the Immortal's name, Xu Qing also wrote a couplet on the left and right of the altar list, following the procedure for establishing an altar.

The upper couplet read: "Cultivating the Dao and nurturing nature in the deep mountains,"

The lower couplet read: "Protecting the family and ensuring peace as one exits the ancient cave."

Thus, an altar was established on paper.

This time, the spirit medium disciple's name should be pleasant to hear, right?

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(End of this chapter)