Chapter 83: Immortal Banquet

In addition to the immortal's Daoist name, the group also gave the black cat a common name, called Xuanyu.

Xu Qing returned to the mortuary, and Xuanyu ran back from the wall of the backyard in a flash, circling to his front and asking:

"When are you going to the pier to buy me fish to eat?"

"What fish?"

"The fish for hiring a cat; I heard everything you said just now."

Xu Qing pointed to the immortal tablet and said: "Look at that immortal tablet; 'Qing' is my name, 'Qing' is your name; only when combined is it a complete hall."

"In other words, I am an immortal, and you are also an immortal; the hall is a partnership. We don't have a horse-riding disciple, so where would the offerings come from?"

"But hiring a cat doesn't count as setting up a hall."

Seeing that he couldn't fool it, Xu Qing could only look at the clear-thinking cat before him and promise: "Our hall hasn't been fully built yet. Once it's finished, let alone fish, even if you want to eat a Chinese alligator, it won't be a problem!"

"Chinese alligator, what kind of dragon is that?"

"One that swims in the water, one that runs on the ground; it's just short of a dragon that can fly."

While painting a big picture, Xu Qing lit a yellow strip and brought over a jar of "Hala Qi," which is red-beam fine water, to use for the opening ceremony of his hall.

White smoke curled up, and Xu Qing began to recite the "Helper-Soldier Formula." The moment the yellow incense strip ignited, it seemed to become spiritual, splitting into several strands and drifting outside the mortuary.

The yellow strip he lit was not ordinary yellow incense, but spiritual incense he had carefully blended himself.

Xuanyu resisted the urge to inhale it, allowing the incense smoke to drill into the netherworld to find nearby immortals.

Xu Qing cast the "Gazing Qi Technique." He saw shadowy figures outside the mortuary—wood spirits, snakes, and rats, all sorts.

Under the guidance of the Helper-Soldier Formula and the spiritual incense, whether they were wild immortals, true immortals, or other dirty things, they were all attracted.

Powerful evil spirits would not look down upon the scent of spiritual incense, so Xu Qing was not afraid of attracting things he couldn't handle.

After the yellow strip burned out, the shadowy figures outside the mortuary disappeared.

Xuanyu widened its eyes, its childish voice carrying a hint of disbelief: "How can they eat for free?"

Xu Qing frowned slightly, wondering where the problem lay.

In theory, setting up a hall requires first establishing connections with immortals. As long as the notification is delivered, no matter which immortal it is, as long as they are local, they will come to support the newly established hall.

According to Xu Qing's understanding of horse-riding immortals, everyone is like a small group huddling together for warmth, acting in unison against outsiders.

To prevent outside immortals from stealing business and incense, local immortals are generally very united, occasionally choosing halls with high prestige to gather and exchange information.

But why, when it was his turn to set up a hall, did these immortals refuse to come?

Xuanyu asked in confusion: "Could it be that they don't like cat-immortals?"

"What kind of logic is that? Even a gray rat can be an immortal; why can't I?"

Xu Qing remained silent. Looking at the situation now, the reason probably didn't lie with Xuanyu, but with him.

One knows one's own affairs. The horse-riding disciple is a living body of flesh and blood. Even if he, a zombie, acts the part well, he doesn't meet the conditions for horse-riding, right?

As for whether Xuanyu could support the hall on its own, Xu Qing fell into thought.

Common immortals include the Hu, Huang, Bai, Liu, and Bei—these are the five mainstream branches. Outside of these, there are also miscellaneous immortal branches, such as chickens, monkeys, cats, and dogs—all sorts.

Xu Qing had once discussed these issues with an old horse-riding performer at White Horse Temple.

There are immortals that are monkeys. After possessing the incense-child disciple, that disciple can climb trees as if walking on flat ground. If you throw a stick at them, they can dance it into a flower.

There are also horse-riding immortals that are roosters. This type of immortal has the ability to walk in the yin realm and call the yin. If someone's child loses their soul, the horse-riding disciple invites the "Crowned Gentleman" to possess them, walks around the house clucking, and crows to call the child's lost soul back.

Dog-immortals are good at finding people and objects, specifically countering yin ghosts and evil spirits. After the Dog-Duke possesses the horse-riding disciple, the person's nose becomes as sensitive as a dog's, and they can also possess iron teeth and copper fangs. No matter how hard a bone you throw at them, they can chew it into mush.

Xu Qing looked at the cat-immortal before him, wondering if, were he to let this thing possess him, it wouldn't be able to resist catching mice upon seeing them.

That would be too embarrassing!

Fortunately, he didn't need possession. Other horse-riding disciples need to provide good food and drink, coaxing and licking the immortal to possess them.

After the immortal is full of food and drink, in order to enjoy the feeling of being human, they can't help but borrow the horse-riding disciple's body to act wild and reveal their true nature.

This is also why, in the eyes of outsiders, most horse-riding disciples are crazy.

After figuring out the problem, Xu Qing retreated behind the scenes, letting Xuanyu burn incense and invite the yin on its own.

Without him, the zombie, blocking the way, it wasn't long before nearby immortals left messages.

Xu Qing only heard rooster crows and snake hisses in the netherworld, as well as a burst of chattering, fragmented noises, like a child learning to speak but not yet having learned it well.

Perhaps these immortals didn't have enough cultivation to speak human language. Xu Qing listened for a long time without understanding what they were saying, but it sounded like there was a hint of flattery and fawning, as if they were very friendly toward Xuanyu, this cat-immortal.

"What did they say? Can this hall of ours be set up or not?"

Xu Qing's tone was clearly not very friendly when he said this.

Xuanyu jumped onto the offering table. At this time, the tablets of Yang Qiying and Liu Youdao had been squeezed to the sides, and the center position was occupied by the Cat-Immortal Hall tablet.

"They didn't object. Gray Grandfather and Gray Grandmother will come to visit in two days. Second Master Feng and Mr. Liu have things to do in their hands and will have to wait until they finish the work of their horse-riding disciples before they can come to visit."

Xu Qing's heart stirred upon hearing this. Gray Grandfather and Gray Grandmother, judging by the name, are likely Gray Immortals. As for the other two, let's ignore them for now. If they really come to visit, perhaps when verifying the coffins, he could invite them to consult together.

When he first returned to the shop, he had thought about assigning Xuanyu to verify the two coffins at the west wall corner, but when the cat said it might cause the things inside to "corpse-rise," Xu Qing refused to let Xuanyu verify the coffins.

The taboo between cats and corpses seems to contain some kind of rule; once crossed, it will produce ominousness.

For the sake of safety, he finally decided to set up a hall and sing the Helper-Soldier Formula to call people to solve the problem.

Xu Qing is a half-baked horse-riding disciple, and Lady Qingqing is also a half-baked cat.

Fortunately, two half-bottles of water shook together, and they really set up a hall in a decent way.

Xuanyu sat before the tablet, looking at Xu Qing with great focus.

"Other immortals will come to visit in a few days. Immortal Xu needs to make plans early and prepare some offerings."

Seeing Xu Qing look over, Xuanyu added: "I don't have silver; don't think about letting me go buy offerings. I can only steal. But doing so would lose the status of an immortal."

Xu Qing rubbed his chin and asked: "The shop has red-beam fine water and yellow incense candles. I'll go to the market tomorrow to make up for the rest."

"Go to the market?" The mysterious cat's ears twitched, clearly very interested in this matter.

Early the next morning, Xu Qing took Xuanyu and arrived early outside the agency.

The business dealings he had with the agency had been cut off for the months he was away. Now that he wanted to restore the former glory of the funeral industry, he had to rebuild his connections.

"Shopkeeper Xu, if you had come a month and a half earlier, the brothers lost by the agency should have been presided over by you for the funeral. But you weren't there, and I couldn't let the brothers' corpses dry out, so I had to find another lever-shop to preside over the funeral."

During the two months Xu Qing was away, the Linhe Agency and the Jinmen Gang had several conflicts, during which quite a few people died. Fourth Master Li, seeing he couldn't find him, found a lever-shop and set up the funeral business at the same price.

However, there is never a certainty in business. Xu Qing explained the pros and cons to Fourth Master Li. After all, when it comes to white funeral affairs, no one in the entire Linhe is more professional than him.

"Fourth Master Li, starting from my grandmaster Yang Qiying, my sect has been in this line of work. To this day, it can be considered a funeral family with an orderly heritage. You can definitely trust my skills."

"Furthermore, this is my student certificate. Fourth Master Li, think about it: having someone with an official background preside over the burial, how much face that has! Perhaps in the future, the ancestral grave will even smoke green, and a scholar or provincial graduate will emerge."

"In addition to these hardware conditions, for all business introduced by our agency, I will give a twenty percent discount on all funeral expenses. A twenty percent discount on the market price! The extra profit can be considered the agency's."

Fourth Master Li picked up the student certificate and looked at it again and again.

"It really is a scholar! No wonder I haven't seen you for two months; it turns out Shopkeeper Xu went to take the official examination."

"That's right, our academic qualifications must keep up; only then can we show our level of business, right?"

"Exquisite. Just based on this attitude of doing business, Shopkeeper Xu deserves to get rich!" Seeing this, Fourth Master Li had no objections and immediately made a decision to re-establish business dealings with Xu Qing.

Linhe Pier.

Xu Qing bought two fresh fish at the water market; one was a sturgeon, and the other was also a sturgeon.

Xuanyu looked at the fish, which were larger than its own size, and couldn't move its eyes away for even half an inch.

"This is the betrothal gift for you. From now on, you must sit firmly in the hall and don't let down my expectations of you."

Xuanyu tilted its head and said: "You give me a betrothal gift; shouldn't I also give a return gift?"

Xu Qing shook his head, indicating he had never heard of this saying.

Xuanyu continued: "I once lived in front of an official's daughter for a period of time. Later, someone gave her a betrothal gift, and she also gave a return gift."

"That is marriage between a man and a woman, and it is different from hiring a cat."

Xuanyu jumped onto the roadside steps, following closely behind Xu Qing's footsteps, and asked: "What is the difference?"

Xu Qing was annoyed and simply turned his head to issue a soul-searching question: "That young lady had a dowry; do you have one?"

"Besides, I have no interest in cats! By comparison, I still appreciate the roast chicken at Cuiyun Tower more."

"Roast chicken? Isn't that the 'wry-necked little phoenix' we want to buy as an offering?"

Xu Qing was speechless.

When immortals visit, one cannot help but spend effort to prepare a banquet of offerings as hospitality.

Among them, "wry-necked little phoenix" refers to roast chicken—not the kind from Cuiyun Tower, but properly five-spice cooked roast chicken.

In addition to the wry-necked little phoenix, the banquet must also have "snowflakes drifting," "large bowls of clear tea," "phoenix eggs," "incense treasure medicine," and "red-beam fine water" as essential offerings.

These things sound mysterious, but they are actually just immortal jargon.

If spoken plainly, "snowflakes drifting" refers to white flour steamed buns; "large bowls of clear tea" refers to plain water; "phoenix eggs" are chicken eggs; "incense treasure medicine" is coil incense; and "red-beam fine water" is just ordinary liquor.

Xu Qing had a wine worm, so unless necessary, he didn't need to go specifically to buy wine.

In his eyes, what kind of wine should a group of small animals drink? If they drink too much, it would just make it easier for them to possess the horse-riding disciple and go crazy everywhere, right?

After preparing the items needed for the immortal banquet, Xu Qing took a detour to the patrol office.

He hadn't used the wine worm to brew wine for a while, so this time he really bought a few pots of good wine.

Old Man Qin at the gatehouse saw him, let out an "Oh my," put down his chopsticks, and hurriedly greeted him to come into the gatehouse to talk.

"Haven't seen you for quite a few days; where have you been these days?"

Xu Qing presented a pot of freshly bought wine and said: "I went out to study; Old Qin, try this. It's a local specialty I brought back from Jiangnan. This is good wine."

Old Man Qin was eating breakfast. Seeing there was a side dish for the wine, he was overjoyed.

He poured a cup of wine, smacked his lips, and Old Man Qin sighed: "Good wine is good wine, but I still feel the wine you brought before had more flavor. It's just that you kid didn't tell the truth; I tasted all the wine shops you mentioned, and I couldn't taste the flavor of your wine."

Xu Qing thought to himself, is this person addicted to fake wine? He actually disliked the taste of the wine he bought with real gold and silver.

Leaving the gatehouse, Xu Qing met Zhao Zhonghe training new government office runners in the courtyard halfway. He didn't intend to pay attention to him, but the other party took the initiative to greet him.

Xu Qing thought the sun had risen from the west, or perhaps he had been possessed by an evil spirit?

This burly brute actually had a day when he understood etiquette!

Arriving at the mortuary, as soon as Xu Qing entered the door of the morgue, he felt like he was home, and he felt incredibly comfortable.

There were corpses in the morgue. To prevent Xuanyu from running around and disturbing the corpses, Xu Qing specifically instructed it to restrain its aura and not to touch those cold beds at will.

Wang Lingyuan saw the young man smiling and greeting him at the door, and his nose felt sour; he had a feeling of a prodigal son returning home.

"Senior Brother, all is well!"

While saying comforting words, Xu Qing's eyes drifted involuntarily behind Wang Lingyuan.

Having not touched a corpse for two months of seclusion, he was truly hungry now.

Xu Qing told Wang Lingyuan about his experiences along the way, describing the scenery of the six paths of Jiangnan, as if he had truly been to Jiangnan.

These were all things Guo Dongyang had told him about Jiangnan, and now they came in handy.

As he spoke, Xu Qing's gaze fell on a cold bed nearby.

"Senior Brother, did you encounter a new case?" Looking at the corpse on the cold bed with its clothes stripped off, he naturally walked up to it.

"Junior Brother came just in time." Wang Lingyuan, in front of Xu Qing, lifted several paper shrouds; corpses, men, women, old, and young, were all present.

"This is a major case of extermination. The County Lieutenant ordered the case to be solved within three days. If the case cannot be solved, I fear the County Lieutenant's official hat will be hard to keep."

"Could the deceased have been from a famous family?"

Wang Lingyuan shook his head: "Not a famous family, but the old lady of this family was a servant in the mansion of Grand Marshal He in her early years, and she was once a salt smuggler on the Linhe salt road."

"Grand Marshal He manages the capital camp and holds great power. Now that the Grand Marshal has sent a letter to inquire, the County Lieutenant has promised to solve the case soon. If there is still no progress by then, let alone the County Lieutenant, I fear this entire group in the government office will be implicated."

Xu Qing looked at the corpses of men, women, old, and young, straightened his expression, and said: "Senior Brother, don't panic. You must know that when a bird flies across the sky, it leaves a shadow; when the wind blows across the lake, it still leaves ripples."

"I don't believe that if you and I, senior and junior brothers, join forces, there will be a case we cannot solve."

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 84 =====