Chapter 29

The mourning hall was located not far from the Wuhu Hall, white silk cloth fluttering in the cold night wind.

This night had passed too long, about a dozen chapters long; it was time for it to end. The sky in the distance seemed to be turning white. Qian Chen walked into the mourning hall. At the place where the body was laid, a fine coffin was placed, containing the remains of Hong Sihai's sworn brother, Bi Tongtian.

The corpse of Huang Yuhan lay on a low couch nearby.

His red face had already turned purple, yet the expression on his face was very relaxed and composed. He had died from a heavy blow to his heart.

Qian Chen placed the heads of the four Divine Lords—Time-Keeper, Horned Fighting, Stone Turtle, and Flying Yellow—before the mourning altar. Hong Sihai was overcome with grief. He held onto Bi Tongtian's coffin, muttering something incessantly. "Second Brother, I have brought the head of the person who killed you!... I have avenged you!..."

Qian Chen had no heart to listen to this.

He noticed someone burning paper money in the courtyard not far away. Qian Chen lifted the curtains around the mourning hall and saw the young boy who had previously hidden in the kitchen burning a fire basin in the wind. Too many people had died in the Four Seas Hall this night. The boy was crying until he was out of breath, clutching the paper money as if he were about to faint. His voice came through thinly.

"Uncle Wang, Auntie Hua... Chef Fan... and Uncle Yuhan! May you have a safe journey..."

There were many hidden sentries of the Four Seas Hall around the mourning hall, but even those disciples hidden in the shadows looked at the mourning hall with sorrow and respect. Huang Yuhan was a person with charisma. Qian Chen walked out of the mourning hall, and a hidden sentry on guard nearby came before him, bowing and saying, "Is it the Great Grandmaster Qian in person?"

Qian Chen nodded and said, "It is I!"

The sentry looked up and said, "Great Grandmaster Qian, I previously heard that you found the murderer who killed Grandmaster Liang Dou, captured Divine Lord Flying Yellow, and solved the mystery of Elder Tang Da's death. Please, Great Grandmaster, help us find the murderer who assassinated Chief Steward Huang! We are not convinced!"

"Chief Steward Huang entrusted his own life to us. Previously, another brother and I noticed that Chief Steward Huang trusted Mr. Qian very much. At that time, the Chief Steward went to see Mr. Qian alone. Another guard and I had even wanted to stop him, but we were called outside by Chief Steward Huang to stand guard... It is evident that Mr. Qian is a trustworthy person. We brothers were responsible for Chief Steward Huang's safety. Now that he has been murdered, our only wish while we still live is to find the murderer!"

"I have actually guessed who the murderer of Brother Huang is!" Qian Chen sighed with emotion: "I only feel pity for Brother Huang."

The guard said excitedly, "Please, Great Grandmaster Qian, tell us!"

"It is Divine Lord Sun! He can travel through the earth."

"Impossible... Chief Steward Huang buried listening jars throughout the entire Four Seas Hall, sending people to monitor day and night. Anyone digging a tunnel or traveling through the earth would be discovered. The defense here is watertight; no one could sneak in without alerting the guards. Although Chief Steward Huang did not bring guards in order to show solemnity, and instead arranged the mourning hall himself..."

"But before this, we searched the mourning hall inside and out more than once."

"No..." Qian Chen shook his head: "There is one place you would not search!"

"Is Mr. Qian referring to the coffin?" Hong Sihai heard the sound and walked out of the mourning hall, saying in a deep voice.

Qian Chen nodded: "That's right. Hero Bi is the sworn brother of the Hall Master. To show respect, no one would open the coffin to inspect it."

"Then open the coffin!" Hong Sihai said: "I am only afraid it is already too late. Previously, Mr. Qian was not here and failed to expose the conspiracy of Divine Lord Sun. After Yuhan died, the hall was in chaos. Divine Lord Sun should have already run away!"

"It is not too late!" The guard boldly interrupted: "I have been guarding outside the mourning hall and have not seen anyone come out. Besides me, there are one hundred and thirty brothers monitoring this mourning hall and the Wuhu Hall watertight. Even at the most chaotic moment, there were people holding their posts. Although eighty-nine of us died, those who are alive have never given up on the mission."

"This is the rule established by the Chief Steward!"

Qian Chen sighed with emotion: "No wonder the Four Seas Hall can become the pillar of the Wu Lin. With such disciples, how can it not flourish?"

"Without Yuhan, there would be no Four Seas Hall." Hong Sihai said sadly: "Unfortunately... although we defeated the Twelve Yuan Chen, so many righteous heroes, so many of Hong's good brothers and good friends, can no longer be brought back to life."

"Since there is a clue about Yuhan's death, then open the coffin!"

Hong Sihai stepped back into the mourning hall, looked at his sworn brother's coffin, and was silent for a long time. Suddenly, he slapped the coffin lid with his palm, slapping open the fine rosewood coffin lid weighing hundreds of jin. He leaned into the coffin to look, only to see that Bi Tongtian's corpse had already swollen like a giant. It was the meat paste inside fermenting into corpse gas, gradually inflating the human skin.

This scene was too horrible to look at. Hong Sihai turned his head back in grief, not daring to look again.

"It seems Divine Lord Sun is not inside... Perhaps he... took advantage of the chaos to escape!"

Qian Chen looked at Bi Tongtian's corpse in the coffin and said in a low voice: "Previously, Divine Lord Time and the Ghost of the Nether Cave snuck into the Four Seas Hall to create chaos, not only to test the defenses of the Four Seas Hall but also to prepare for the next step of the plan. Divine Lord Time used thunder fire to create an explosion, not only to create chaos but also to create an opportunity for Divine Lord Sun to sneak into the Four Seas Hall."

"The vibration of the explosion covered the sound of earth travel."

"But Huang Yuhan was resourceful and cautious, and no one could determine his whereabouts. Even if they could, he would inevitably be under the heavy protection of the Four Seas Hall disciples, in the most tightly defended part of the entire defense system. If Huang Yuhan did not die, the Twelve Yuan Chen would be unable to tear through the defenses of the Four Seas Hall at all, so this created a dilemma."

"This game started as early as the morning when Divine Lord Time and Divine Lord Sun sent the 'doorstep gift'."

"The Twelve Yuan Chen killed Hall Master Hong's sworn brother, not only to provoke and create a terrifying atmosphere, nor just to design and cripple one of Hall Master Hong's hands. In fact, the injury to Hall Master Hong's hand was more like an accident. Because with the petty hearts of the Twelve Yuan Chen, they could not guess at all that Hall Master Hong would disregard his own safety to preserve the corpse of Hero Bi Tongtian."

"What they aimed for was just to set up a game to send something that originally did not exist into the core of the Four Seas Hall's defense."

"That is the corpse of Hall Master Hong's sworn brother..."

"Hall Master Hong had a deep friendship with his sworn brother, so he would inevitably set up a mourning hall to pay respects to his sworn brother. And at such a critical time, Hall Master Hong could not often pull himself away to pay respects, so the mourning hall would only be set up near the Wuhu Hall. Because that is the center of the entire Four Seas Hall, the most solemn place."

"In this way, the originally tight defense appeared to have a flaw. They first used Divine Lord Time's thunder fire to create an explosion to facilitate Divine Lord Sun's sneaking in. This period of time must be fast. The Twelve Zodiac Lords definitely calculated the time of Bi Tongtian's encoffining. When he was about to be put into the coffin, they suddenly attacked. At this time, the coffin was not in the center of the defense."

"Divine Lord Sun could use earth travel to sneak into the place where the coffin was parked and enter the coffin."

"Then just wait for the Four Seas Hall disciples to bring the coffin into the mourning hall. Brother Huang was the focus of the Four Seas Hall's tight protection at that time. Those Twelve Yuan Chen who had other identities could not approach Brother Huang either, so they chose a place where Brother Huang would inevitably come... Because Brother Huang was Hall Master Hong's Chief Steward, Hall Master Hong would definitely hand over the arrangement of his sworn brother's mourning hall to Brother Huang."

"And Brother Huang, to show solemnity, would not make a big fanfare and bring many people to disturb the quiet of the mourning hall."

"At this time, it was the opportunity..."

"Divine Lord Sun had long been lying in ambush in the mourning hall and took the opportunity to assassinate Brother Huang!"

Hong Sihai suddenly realized. Qian Chen saw through the plan of the Twelve Yuan Chen like a fire... his mind was terrifyingly meticulous. He couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Mr. Qian's intelligence is truly superhuman. After your analysis, this plan is indeed very bold, cunning, and tight. Let alone you all..." He turned his head to comfort the guard: "Even I, wasn't I also used by them?"

"The Twelve Yuan Chen are insidious and vicious. If it weren't for Mr. Qian's help this time, the righteous path of the Wu Lin would inevitably be in trouble."

"This plan has a flaw!" Qian Chen said calmly.

"What flaw?"

"Weight... there is one more person in the coffin, the weight has changed! Wouldn't the people carrying the coffin notice?" Qian Chen suddenly had a spirit talisman in his hand, which he slapped onto the forehead of the swollen corpse in the coffin.

Hong Sihai's face changed drastically, and he raised his fist to smash at the corpse in the coffin.

At this moment, the corpse in the coffin suddenly moved. Its legs did not bend, and it stood up straight. The pus from the corpse all over its body suddenly sprayed out. This Bi Tongtian lying in the coffin was surprisingly left with only a human skin. Divine Lord Sun wore it on his body, filled it with corpse water, and then operated the Turtle Breath Technique, sneaking into the most heavily defended place of the Four Seas Hall silently.

From the Twelve Yuan Chen returning Bi Tongtian's corpse to assassinating Huang Yuhan, the plan was interlinked.

They might have originally planned to use the corpse to poison, or to raise a nest of poisonous insects. In Qian Chen's impression, Divine Lord Success-Martial had a wonderful method of using corpses to raise poison. Burying a Gu mother in Bi Tongtian's corpse could use the mourning period to erupt a plague of poisonous Gu, which would be more lethal than it is now. But Qian Chen killed Divine Lord Success-Martial, causing the plan to deviate, so he let Divine Lord Sun replace him.

Qian Chen said coldly: "Divine Lord Sun, didn't you notice that you can no longer take off that layer of skin?"

Divine Lord Sun, wearing Bi Tongtian's human skin, said in a strained tone: "What did you do to me?"

"I just gave Hero Bi Tongtian a chance to avenge this grudge himself!" Qian Chen said coldly: "If you weren't too cruel and insane, I wouldn't have done this. Because it is too blasphemous to the dead... but used on you, I think Hero Bi Tongtian would be willing."

"What did you do!" Divine Lord Sun let out a heart-piercing scream. He frantically grabbed the human skin on his body, but at this time, the swollen, pale human skin seemed to have recovered its elasticity from before his death, becoming ruddy and tight. A strange smile appeared on Bi Tongtian's face, his skin sticking to Divine Lord Sun's body, absorbing his blood, flesh, and bone marrow."

This scene was too evil, making Hong Sihai and the guards who broke in terrified.

Divine Lord Sun wailed constantly. This cruel, cold-blooded murderer screamed more fearfully than a little girl. Right before their eyes, he was sucked into an empty shell by the human skin. The human skin spat out a small hoe and lay into the coffin with an evil smile. At this time, Bi Tongtian had recovered the appearance of a normal corpse, with the filling of flesh and blood and the support of a skeleton.

Although it was snatched from someone else.

"Who told you to go too far. Three days and three nights of torture have already filled Bi Tongtian with resentment and anger. After his death, his corpse has become the best carrier for magic tools. If seen by people in the magic path, it would inevitably be regarded as a treasure. This resentment, entrenched on the only complete human skin left on the corpse, I felt that dense resentment as soon as I opened the coffin."

"If this resentment is not eliminated, how can the dead rest in peace? So I used the Spirit-Attaching Talisman to sense the resentment left by Bi Tongtian, calling him to have a chance to vent it. In this way, it can not only give people like you a suitable retribution but also let Hero Bi rest in peace."

Qian Chen sensed that the resentment on the human skin had gradually begun to dissipate, so he used a Nectar Talisman to purify the residual resentment on the corpse and put the corpse back into the coffin.

If a practitioner of the demonic path were to see this, they would surely curse Qian Chen for squandering such a heavenly treasure.

Using the corpse of a martial artist who had broken through the barrier of sensing heaven and earth's primordial Qi as material, subjecting it to cruel torture for three days and three nights while keeping it alive, soaking it thoroughly in resentment and poison, and finally using a secret method to incite that resentment to make it devour another martial artist full of vital blood—the resentment of the two entangled upon this human skin would certainly create an excellent embryo for a magic treasure.

But Qian Chen guided the vital blood devoured by the human skin to restore its flesh and blood, rather than continuing to strengthen the skin... This had already wasted most of it; even with meticulous refining, it would be difficult to retain the human skin's instinct to devour vital blood. In the end, he even used a Nectar Talisman to wash away the resentment... letting this top-grade material go to waste just like that!

Qian Chen departed nonchalantly... paying no mind to the wary and fearful gazes of the others.

For a person who cultivates the Dao, why care so much about the opinions of others? As long as one has a clear conscience, that is enough!

Qian Chen opened the red gourd on his back from afar and toasted Huang Yuhan: "Brother Huang, drink this cup, and go well on your journey..."

He sprinkled the spirit spring from the gourd, offering a handful of spiritual energy to the four corners of heaven and earth.