Knife splashing

Chapter 341 Funeral Ceremony

"Quick, over there!"

In the mountains and forests, Wang Daoxuan was running with a group of people.

Among them were servants of the Shen family and people from the opera troupe.

The fastest one was Wu Ba. He ran while shouting loudly into the air.

In the night sky, the flying wooden magpie was only a dozen meters above the ground. Under the lantern-like light, Lu San's face was clearly visible. He was lying on the window, waving at them.

Inside the Teng Pavilion, Li Yan was also in a panic.

After floating in the air for a long time, he finally figured out how to control this thing. There was a mechanism on the copper basin that could adjust the rise and fall of the flame, while the wooden magpie wings and tail on both sides were used to control the direction.

However, it seems easy, but it is not that simple.

Controlling the direction requires sensitivity to air currents, and this thing requires practice. He just fiddled with it gently a few times, and it swung all over the air. It took a lot of effort to control it to fly towards the shore.

What's more troublesome is the fuel.

No one knows what the paraffin-like oil is made of. Although it has a strong burning power, it is also consumed quickly.

In a short time, only a thin layer remained.

Li Yan cannot land too fast, otherwise the thing will crash, nor can he land too slowly, otherwise it will not be able to land.

The leather bag above is made of some unknown animal's leather, but it has great elasticity and can shrink gradually as the flame gets smaller.

Finally, the flying wood magpie landed at a suitable height, but there was no place to land. The bottom of the vine pavilion kept bumping against the branches, and broken branches and leaves flew everywhere, making crackling sounds.

"Roar!"

Seeing this, the savage Wu Ba below roared, used his hands and feet to quickly climb up the tree trunk, jumped high, and actually grabbed the bottom of the vine pavilion.

He didn't understand what this thing was and thought it was a trap that trapped Lu San, so he wanted to pull Tengge down.

Upon seeing this, Lu San hurriedly shouted in the upper language.

When Wu Ba heard this, he immediately understood. He grabbed the wooden magpie with both hands, roared, and kicked out suddenly with his muscles bulging.

Click!

A tree trunk as thick as a bowl broke, and the flying wood magpie used the force to slide to the open space nearby.

At the same time, the fuel was completely exhausted.

As the flames went out, the skin bag above shrank completely. The savage Wu Ba relied on his brute strength to hold up the vine pavilion, with mud splashing under his feet, trying to stop it.

Li Yan and Lu San, of course, would not just sit there and wait. They also leaped out, held the wooden magpie with both hands, and exerted all their strength.

The three of them worked together and finally stopped the object and placed it carefully on the ground.

Li Yan finally breathed a sigh of relief, patted Wu Ba and said with a smile: "Well done, this thing is a treasure."

Wu Ba was immediately flattered and a little overwhelmed.

Although he was simple-minded, he was very smart. He could sense Li Yan's vigilance towards him, so he was a little afraid.

It was the first time that Li Yan praised him.

Wang Daoxuan was relieved to see Li Yan and the other two escape safely. Then his attention was drawn to the flying wooden magpie. He asked in doubt, "Is this... the one Yu Liang saw?"

"Yes."

Li Yan sighed, "Back then, those Xuan soldiers from the late Tang Dynasty were also fighting for this item."

Even for a hot air balloon, this thing is amazing enough.

It is just a rarity for them, but if used on the battlefield, it may very well determine the outcome of a war.

Thinking of this, Li Yan said, "Please help me carry this thing back to the Shen family."

The head of the squad, Wu, who was standing next to him, asked curiously, "Can't we fly back?"

Li Yan shook his head and said, "The fuel is gone. We can't fly anymore."

This flying wooden magpie is very delicately made, with a hip roof structure above the rattan pavilion. Although the leather bag is large, it shrinks to 20% after the fire is turned off. When it is stuffed into the top and the lid is closed, there is no sign of anything unusual.

When he was carried back to Shen's house, he attracted another crowd of onlookers.

Li Yan didn't plan to stop them. After all, there were too many people watching tonight, and it would not be long before all kinds of absurd stories would spread.

He had spoken to Lu San in a relaxed manner before, but in reality, there were dangers aplenty in the ghost town. Fortunately, he was able to survive thanks to his Daluo Dharmakaya who maintained his combat power.

Exhausted, after giving some instructions, he went straight to bed.

I slept for three hours.

The next day, at dawn, Sha Lifei returned to the Shen Mansion.

Li Yan and Lu San also got up quickly.

After hearing what happened last night, Sharifei was also shocked, and quickly told the information he had obtained.

"Zen Master Tonghuan and Chengjue have already gone to that village and sent soldiers to capture the Maitreya followers. They are probably already in the tomb..."

"I didn't find you and was worried that something might happen, so I ran back to the Shen family to get information. Fortunately, you escaped..."

"The Vajrayogini sect, Krishna Vidyaraja descended to the mortal world?"

The news about Sharifei shocked Li Yan even more.

He also knew something about this matter.

This matter was mentioned in the booklet left by Liu Gang.

Both Heaven and the Underworld will be affected by the mortal world. As the national sacrifices in the human world change, Heaven and the Underworld will also change.

It can be said that the two interact with each other.

This kind of thing has happened in history, but the "Heavenly Laws" are more stringent than the "Laws of the Underworld". Once you descend to the earth, you will be struck by five thunders.

But this kind of thing has not been unsuccessful before.

Some folk stories about immortals wanting to descend to the mortal world come from this, but the endings are often much more tragic than the stories themselves.

Therefore, the number of gods who descend to the human world is far less than the number of ghosts who return to the world.

As for the deeper secrets, no one knows. After all, both the "Yin Law" and the "Heavenly Law" stipulate that one should not interfere with the human world.

Thinking of this, Li Yan couldn't help but shook his head and said, "It's really a humanitarian change. All kinds of messy things want to get involved."

Sha Lifei whispered, "Brother Yan, from what the old monk said, that tomb might not be simple. Should we go take a look?"

Hearing this, Li Yan shook his head and said, "Since it's not simple, it must be dangerous inside. Besides, even if there are good things, they must be occupied by Baotong Zen Temple. We don't need to join in the fun."

As he said this, he stood up and walked to the bedside, and took out a piece of meat with white hair from the package, "This is the meat of the centipede. Please ask the Shen family to send someone to tell Master Lin of Wenjin Academy to come and get it."

As the Dragon Boat Festival came to an end, Master Lin had brought his disciples back to Wenjin Academy. The place was a bit far away, and it was good enough that they had found something, so there was no need to run back and forth.

"makes sense."

Sharifei also nodded in agreement.

……

In the following days, everything was calm.

All official roads near Baihe Bay were under martial law by soldiers from the imperial garrison, and outsiders were prohibited from entering or leaving. No one knew what was happening inside.

Before we knew it, the day of burial had arrived.

Before dawn, the Shen family's house was already brightly lit.

All members of the Shen family, from top to bottom, were dressed in white mourning clothes, with hemp ropes tied around their waists, and were preparing for burial under the command of Wang Daoxuan.

In front of the coffin in the mourning hall, Wang Daoxuan, wearing a yin-yang Taoist robe, swung his whisk and shouted, "Filial sons and virtuous grandsons see the deceased." This is for the relatives to see the deceased for the last time before the coffin is closed.

Even though they had gotten used to it these days, at this moment, Shen Jinghong and his relatives were still filled with grief and cried bitterly.

Inside the coffin, Mr. Shen and Mr. Shen's face were covered with a layer of white paper, leaving only their eyes and nostrils exposed, as if they were wearing masks.

This is a local custom, which means to prevent other ghosts in the underworld from recognizing the deceased and harassing them due to grudges during their lifetime.

Just as they were grieving, several men came forward with coffin nails and tried to push the relatives away, but Shen Jinghong and others cried loudly to stop them.

After a struggle, they were finally stopped by the servants.

The men closed the coffin lid, took out the long coffin nails, and swung hammers, knocking it down bang on bang.

"Dad, big brother, you two should hide away!"

"Dad, Grandpa, please hide away!"

The family members were in tears and cried continuously.

This is a custom. Outsiders may not notice anything, but for relatives, every hammer strike is like a blow to the heart, and they are completely separated by the Yin and Yang.

The pole bearers were also well prepared. First, the invited children and women sat on the pole to "press the dragon pole", and then eight big men bent down at the same time.

Eight people, also known as the Eight Immortals Arguing.

Wang Daoxuan took out a list of disasters that he had prepared in advance, read it out first, then burned a "road list", swung his whisk, and shouted: "The deceased is on his way!"

With a low roar from the sixteen pallbearers, the two coffins were lifted up one after the other, leaving the mourning hall and walking towards the outside of the Shen family mansion.

The servants of the Shen family set off firecrackers with a crackling sound. Along the way, they folded fire paper into a tic-tac-toe shape and put charcoal on it to press it down.

Shen Jinghong and other relatives followed suit and shouted in grief: "Dad, brother, I'm going out, don't be afraid..."

Once outside, the team changed again.

Shen Jinghong held a white banner to guide the way, the son of Shen Jiadalang held an incense jar, and the rest of the people followed with mourning sticks and sacrificial tents.

Wang Daoxuan walked in the front, waving his hands and throwing paper money, while shouting: "The sun rises in Fusang and turns east again, the remains are stored in the treasure box, the eight Vajra work together to gently send them to the Five Spirits Palace..."

Every time he played, there were accompanying gongs and drums, only odd and never even.

The people of Shenjiabao came out to see him off. Some of them thought of the good things that Mr. Shen had done when he was alive and couldn't help but wipe away their tears.

The funeral procession scattered paper money along the way and placed "road sacrifices" at every corner, stopping and starting all the way to the back mountain.

The feng shui of the Shen Family Cemetery is pretty good. It is located on a high ground and you can just see the scenery of Shenjiaba.

The hole for the tomb had already been dug, and Wang Daoxuan jumped in, scattered grains, and threw down a lot of paper money to burn. This was called "warming the well."

Afterwards, Wang Daoxuan took out another land deed and recited some incantations.

This is a copy of the title deed to the cemetery, indicating that this place now has an owner and wandering ghosts are not allowed to disturb it at will.

After the title deed was burned and the flames in the pit were extinguished, a group of men shouted and carefully placed the coffin into the tomb.

Then, the burial mound was built.

Seeing the coffin being buried bit by bit, Shen Jinghong and his relatives cried their hearts out.

After the burial was completed, there was another round of paper burning as a sacrifice. Paper people, paper horses, wreaths, faces covering the mourning sticks, and guiding banners all turned to ashes in the flames.

According to the local rules, a new grave will not have a tombstone in the first year, it must be marked in the second year, and a tombstone will only be erected in the third year.

Based on the Shen family's financial resources, they must have three visible and six hidden steles.

After a busy period, the sun had just risen in the distance.

The funeral procession slowly left, leaving only yellow earth and paper ashes floating in the air.

Back at the Shen family mansion, the servants had already prepared a banquet and invited those who came to help to eat.

Shen Jinghong's face was pale. After offering a few glasses of wine, he returned to the main hall. Looking at the empty hall, he thought that his loved one was gone and he would be the only one to support the family from now on. He felt sad again.

As for Li Yan, Sha Lifei and others, they continued to eat.

They had followed Wang Daoxuan to attend several funerals of this kind and were used to seeing life and death, so they drank when they should drink and ate meat when they should eat meat.

But halfway through the meal, Li Yan quickly stood up.

I saw a dozen people coming together at a distant intersection, led by Chengjue, and beside him were Master Lin and two old Confucian scholars.

Behind them were all the garrison soldiers.

"I have met Master Chengjue."

Li Yan cupped his hands and looked to the side, "Master Lin, just ask the servant to get it. Why did you come here in person?"

He was not surprised that Chengjue came. After all, there were some things that the other party would definitely ask about. But why did Master Lin come with a group of Confucian scholars?
"There are so many people around, let's go in and talk."

Master Lin's eyes were full of excitement, but he didn't say much.

After entering the house, Shen Jinghong hurried out to greet him.

Although he was a local tycoon, the status of the old scholars in the academy and the monks in Baotong Temple were much higher than his, so he had no chance to curry favor with them on weekdays.

Of course, he also knew that everyone must have important matters, so after inviting them into a large room, he prepared to leave.

"Is this Mr. Shen?"

Chengjue suddenly stopped him and said in a deep voice: "I am here to inform you of something. All your uncles and children have been killed by the evil spirit."

"To prevent ghosts from haunting them, their bodies must be cremated, and someone will deliver the ashes to the mansion later."

"what?!"

Shen Jinghong was stunned as if struck by lightning.

He just wanted to drive away the second and third wives to prevent the entire family from falling into decline, but he never thought of taking their lives.

Li Yan knew what he was thinking at a glance, shook his head and said in a deep voice: "This matter has nothing to do with you. Shen Jingcan has secretly colluded with Maitreya Sect. Even if you don't give those things to them, they will snatch them away."

"Haunted by greed, they can't escape this disaster!"

Shen Jinghong's face turned pale, he gritted his teeth and said, "Please keep this matter secret for the time being. My grandmother can't bear it, and my Shen family can't bear it either."

"Row."

Li Yan nodded and agreed immediately.

Shen Jinghong is quite smart. Once this news is exposed, it will be another blow to the Shen family. After all, the second and third branches are still members of the Shen family.

When a whole generation of people died unexpectedly, gossip was bound to spread.

After returning to the room, Li Yan immediately took out the centipede meat and smiled at Master Lin, saying, "Master, I am glad that you have fulfilled your mission. But we are not sure whether it will work."

"Thank you, Mr. Li!"

Master Lin quickly stood up, bowed respectfully, and then took the centipede meat with trembling hands. Thinking of the hardships he had experienced over the years, he couldn't help but burst into tears.

He is old and the only thing he is worried about is his second son. With this thing, his illness can be cured and he can at least become an ordinary person.

"Hahaha, that's a good thing. Why do you have to do this, Brother Lin?"

One of the old scholars stroked his beard and smiled.

Li Yan looked at Chengjue and asked in a low voice: "Master Chengjue, did those people succeed?"

Chengjue looked serious and nodded.

Li Yan felt a chill in his heart, "How is it possible that you didn't stop it?"

Cheng Jue shook his head and said, "We only found the altar. Everyone is dead. The real place of death is not in the tomb..."

(End of this chapter)