Chapter 29

The mourning hall was not far from the Five Lakes Hall; white silk fluttered in the night wind.

This night had dragged on too long—nearly as long as ten chapters—now it was time to end. The distant sky seemed to be turning pale. Qian Chen entered the mourning hall, where the bier held a fine casket containing the body of Bi Tongtian, Hong Sihai’s sworn brother.

Huang Yuhuan’s corpse lay on a low couch beside it.

His ruddy face had turned purple, yet his expression was calm, serene—he had died from a heavy blow to the chest.

Qian Chen placed the severed heads of the Four Divine Lords—Sichen, Jiaodou, Shigui, and Feihuang—before the altar. Hong Sihai, overcome with grief, clung to Bi Tongtian’s casket, muttering softly: “Second brother, I’ve brought you the head of the man who killed you! … I’ve avenged you! …”

Qian Chen had no interest in listening.

He noticed someone burning paper money in the courtyard nearby. He pulled back the curtains surrounding the mourning hall and saw the boy who had hidden in the kitchen, trembling in the wind as he burned a brazier. So many had died in Haihai Hall this night. The boy sobbed uncontrollably, clutching the paper money as if he would faint; his thin voice drifted out.

“Uncle Wang, Aunt Hua, Chef Fan… and Uncle Yuhuan… may you all travel safely…”

Haihai Hall had countless hidden sentries around the mourning hall, yet even those disciples concealed in the shadows looked upon the hall with sorrow and reverence. Huang Yuhuan was a man of charisma. Qian Chen stepped out of the hall when a nearby sentry approached him, bowing low: “Are you Master Qian?”

Qian Chen nodded: “It’s me.”

The sentry looked up: “Master Qian, I heard you uncovered the killer of Master Liang Dou, captured Feihuang Divine Lord, and solved the mystery of Master Tang Da’s death. Please help us find the assassin of Grand Manager Huang! We cannot accept this!”

“Grand Manager Huang entrusted his life to us. Earlier, my brother and I noticed he trusted you deeply. When he went alone to meet you, my brother and I tried to stop him—but he ordered us to guard outside. Clearly, he trusted you. We were sworn to protect Grand Manager Huang. Now that he’s dead, we still live only because our one wish is to find his killer!”

“I’ve guessed who killed Brother Huang,” Qian Chen sighed. “I only mourn for him.”

The guard cried out: “Please tell us, Master Qian!”

“It was Rihuang Divine Lord—he can earth-dive.”

“Impossible… Grand Manager Huang planted listening jars throughout Haihai Hall, with men monitoring day and night. Any tunneling or earth-diving would be detected. Our defenses were flawless—no one could enter without alerting the guards. Though Grand Manager Huang, to maintain solemnity, did not bring guards, he personally arranged the mourning hall.”

“But we’ve searched every inch of the hall, inside and out, more than once.”

“No,” Qian Chen shook his head. “There’s one place you wouldn’t search.”

“Are you referring to the coffin?” Hong Sihai stepped out of the hall, voice grave.

Qian Chen nodded: “Precisely. Bi Daxia is your sworn brother. Out of respect, no one would dare open the coffin.”

“Then open it!” Hong Sihai said. “But it may be too late. When you were absent, we failed to expose Rihuang Divine Lord’s scheme. After Yuhuan’s death, chaos broke out—he must have fled!”

“Not too late!” the guard dared to interject. “I’ve guarded the hall’s entrance the entire time. No one came out. Besides me, one hundred and thirty brothers have kept the mourning hall and Five Lakes Hall under unbroken watch—even in the worst chaos, someone held their post. Though we lost eighty-nine men, every survivor never abandoned duty.”

“This is the discipline Grand Manager Huang established!”

Qian Chen sighed: “No wonder Haihai Hall stands as the pillar of the martial world. With such disciples, how could it not thrive?”

“Without Yuhuan, there is no Haihai Hall,” Hong Sihai mourned. “Too bad… though we crushed the Twelve Zodiacs, so many righteous heroes, so many of Hong’s good brothers and friends… they cannot return.”

“Since we now have a lead on Yuhuan’s killer, open the coffin!”

Hong Sihai returned to the hall, stared at his sworn brother’s casket, and fell silent for a long while. Suddenly, he slammed his palm onto the lid—shattering the heavy, fine huanghuali coffin cover with one blow. He leaned in to peer inside: Bi Tongtian’s corpse had swollen grotesquely, like a giant, its internal tissues fermented into corpse-qi, inflating the skin.

The sight was horrific. Hong Sihai turned away, unable to bear it.

“It seems Rihuang Divine Lord isn’t inside… perhaps he escaped during the chaos!”

Qian Chen stared at Bi Tongtian’s corpse and murmured: “Earlier, Sichen Divine Lord and the Ghosts of Youming Cave infiltrated Haihai Hall to create chaos—not only to test our defenses, but to prepare for the next phase. Sichen used thunderfire to detonate, not merely to cause disorder, but to give Rihuang Divine Lord the chance to earth-dive into Haihai Hall.”

“The explosion masked the sound of earth-diving.”

“But Huang Yuhuan was shrewd, cautious, and his movements were never certain. Even if they knew his location, he would always be surrounded by Haihai Hall’s elite guards, in the most secure part of the defense system. As long as Huang Yuhuan lived, the Twelve Zodiacs could never break through Haihai Hall’s defenses. This created a dilemma.”

“This scheme began the moment Sichen and Rihuang Divine Lords delivered their ‘gift’ this morning.”

“The Twelve Zodiacs killed Hong’s sworn brother not merely to provoke, to spread terror, nor even solely to cripple Hong’s hand. In truth, Hong’s injury was an accident. The Twelve Zodiacs, with their petty minds, could never have imagined Hong would risk his own safety to preserve Bi Tongtian’s corpse.”

“Their goal was to plant something that didn’t exist—into the very core of Haihai Hall’s defense.”

“That something was Hong’s sworn brother’s corpse…”

“Hong and his sworn brother shared deep bonds, so he would surely erect a mourning hall to honor him. In such dire times, Hong couldn’t spare time to visit often—so the hall would be placed near the Five Lakes Hall, the most solemn, central location in Haihai Hall.”

“This created a flaw in the otherwise tight defense. They first used Sichen’s thunderfire to detonate, giving Rihuang Divine Lord time to infiltrate. The window had to be brief—the Twelve Zodiacs had precisely timed Bi Tongtian’s burial, striking just as the coffin was about to be placed inside. At that moment, the coffin was outside the central defense.”

“Rihuang Divine Lord could earth-dive into the coffin’s resting place and slip inside.”

“Then he only needed to wait for Haihai Hall’s disciples to carry the coffin into the mourning hall. Brother Huang was under the tightest protection. The Twelve Zodiacs, disguised as others, could not approach him—so they chose a place Huang would inevitably visit. As Hong’s chief steward, Huang would naturally be entrusted with arranging his sworn brother’s mourning hall.”

“And to maintain solemnity, Huang would not bring many people to disturb the hall’s quiet.”

“That was the opportunity…”

“Rihuang Divine Lord had lain in wait inside the mourning hall—and seized the chance to assassinate Huang!”

Hong Sihai suddenly understood. Qian Chen saw through the Twelve Zodiacs’ scheme as clearly as if it were daylight—his mind was terrifyingly meticulous. He sighed: “Master Qian’s wisdom is truly extraordinary. Now that you’ve analyzed it, the plan is indeed bold, cunning, and flawless. Not just you…,” he turned to comfort the guard, “even I was used by them.”

“The Twelve Zodiacs are treacherous and cruel. Had Master Qian not aided us, the righteous martial world would have faced disaster.”

“This plan has one flaw,” Qian Chen said calmly.

“What flaw?”

“Weight… the coffin now contains an extra person—the weight has changed. Wouldn’t the bearers have noticed?” Qian Chen suddenly produced a talisman and slapped it onto the swollen corpse’s forehead.

Hong Sihai’s face turned ashen. He raised his fist to smash the corpse inside.

The corpse inside suddenly stirred—its legs straightened, rising upright. Pus gushed from its body. The corpse of Bi Tongtian inside the coffin was now merely a human skin, worn by Rihuang Divine Lord, filled with corpse-liquids, and sealed with the Turtle Breath technique—thus silently infiltrating the most heavily guarded place in Haihai Hall.

From returning Bi Tongtian’s corpse to assassinating Huang Yuhuan, the Twelve Zodiacs’ scheme was flawlessly linked.

Originally, they may have planned to poison the corpse or breed venomous insects. In Qian Chen’s memory, Chengwu Divine Lord possessed a method of cultivating poison within corpses—planting a gu mother inside Bi Tongtian’s body could have triggered a plague of venomous gu during the mourning period, far deadlier than this. But Qian Chen killed Chengwu Divine Lord, throwing the plan off course—so Rihuang Divine Lord replaced him.

Qian Chen said coldly: “Rihuang Divine Lord, haven’t you realized you can’t take off that skin anymore?”

The Rihuang Divine Lord, clad in Bi Tongtian’s skin, spoke with difficulty: “What did you do to me?”

“I merely gave Brother Bi Tongtian the chance to avenge himself,” Qian Chen said coldly. “Had you not been so cruel, so insane, I wouldn’t have done this. It’s too sacrilegious to the dead… but for you, I believe Brother Bi Tongtian would approve.”

“What have you done!” Rihuang Divine Lord screamed in agony, clawing at the skin on his body. But now the swollen, pale skin had regained its former elasticity, turning rosy and taut. Bi Tongtian’s face wore a sinister smile. The skin clung to Rihuang Divine Lord, absorbing his blood, flesh, and marrow.

The scene was so grotesque that Hong Sihai and the guards who rushed in were frozen in horror.

Rihuang Divine Lord keened in terror, his screams louder than a girl’s. Before their eyes, he was drained into an empty shell. The skin spat out a small hoe, grinned wickedly, and lay back inside the coffin. Now Bi Tongtian’s corpse had regained its normal shape—flesh and bones restored.

Though it was stolen from another.

“You pushed too far. Three days and nights of torment filled Bi Tongtian with hatred and rage. After death, his corpse became the perfect vessel for demonic arts. If any demon cultivator had seen it, they’d have called it a treasure. This hatred clung to the only intact skin left. I sensed its heavy malice the moment I opened the coffin.”

“How could the dead rest without purging such malice? So I used the Spirit-Linking Body Talisman to sense Bi Tongtian’s lingering hatred, giving him a chance to vent. This way, you receive fitting retribution—and Brother Bi finds peace.”

Qian Chen felt the malice on the skin gradually fading. He then used a Dew Purification Talisman to cleanse the remaining hatred, resealing the corpse in the coffin.

Any demon cultivator who saw this would curse Qian Chen for wasting a priceless treasure.

A corpse of a cultivator who had broken through the Qi barrier, cruelly tortured for three days and nights yet still alive, steeped in malice, then forced to devour another cultivator brimming with essence—this skin, entwined with dual hatreds, would have become a perfect artifact embryo.

But Qian Chen guided the skin to absorb essence and restore flesh and bone—not to further strengthen the skin… he’d wasted over half the potential. Even with meticulous refinement, the skin’s instinct to devour essence could no longer be preserved. Then he washed away the malice with the Dew Talisman—rendering this supreme material useless.

Qian Chen walked away calmly… indifferent to the wary, fearful glances cast his way.

What do cultivators care for others’ opinions? As long as one’s conscience is clear, that’s enough.

Qian Chen uncorked the red gourd on his back and raised it in tribute to Huang Yuhuan: “Brother Huang, drink this cup—may you travel safely…”

He poured the gourd’s spirit spring into the air, offering a handful of spiritual energy to the four directions of heaven and earth.