I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 147: Funeral of the Chu Spirit, Paper-Zha Art

When Xu Qing returned to the coroner's shop, it was already bright.

In the shop, Xuan Yu, who was possessed by a female zombie, was holding a fire stick and imitating the embroiderer's spear dance.

When he saw Xu Qing appear, Xuan Yu immediately put the fire stick behind his back and pretended nothing had happened.

Without waiting for Xu Qing to ask, Xuan Yu preemptively asked, "Did you go fooling around with the embroiderer last night?"

Xu Qing was stunned for a moment after hearing this.

But he quickly realized that based on his understanding of Xuan Yu, this cat would never say such a thing!

"Who did you learn this from?"

Xuan Yu blinked and said, "Last night, the owner of the incense and candle shop, Cheng, came to visit. She told me that the man didn't come home at night, so he must have been hanging out with some ghost."

"."

Xu Qing was speechless.

"That's not what fooling around means."

"what does that mean?"

Xu Qing thought for a moment and said, "It means I played with other cats all night long."

Xuan Yu looked at Xu Qing in shock: "Another cat?"

"Just an analogy. I was busy with a funeral last night, so how could I have time to look for another cat?"

Xu Qing decisively ended the topic and said, "Let's not talk about this. I bought some fried fish. Do you want some?"

"Hmm." Xuan Yu stared at Xu Qing, obviously still thinking about what he had said before.

"If you don't eat it, I'll feed it to other cats."

"."

After placing the breakfast on the coffin covered with a tablecloth, Xu Qing sat in the main seat. In front of him was a plate of neatly stacked candles, a bowl of well-done duck blood soup, and a small incense burner with incense sticks.

White smoke curled around. Xu Qing took out a dagger, cut the candle on the plate into small pieces, and put them into his mouth to chew carefully.

The candle has a strong aroma of wax and a light fragrance of laurel oil. It is the finest candle, the 'Fu Lu Candle' specially purchased by the owner of the incense and candle shop for her demanding customer. It is said that all the major temples and monasteries in the Yong Dynasty, including the Tianshi Mansion in Jingshi Mountain and even the palace and imperial tombs, purchased this kind of candle.

Beside Xu Qing, Xuan Yu was eating small bites of golden fried fish.

Jin Luan, who was not worthy of sitting at the table to eat, stayed by her own jar, pecking at the centipedes and scorpions crawling around inside.

When Xuanyu was eating, he couldn't help but look at Jinluan.

The big rooster looked like it was slurping noodles when it tilted its neck to eat the centipede, and it looked even tastier than its little fish.

After everyone had finished their breakfast, the scouts who had gone out to gather information finally returned to the hall.

Huang Xiaoliu bowed respectfully to Xu Qing and Xuan Yu, and then told them the news he had obtained last night.

When Xu Qing heard that the leader of the Jinmen Gang, Hong Baoya, was killed by a mob of swords, he felt a little sorry.

When he went to the port last night, Hong Baoya was not at the dock. Now, only one night later, the other party's head had been taken away by someone else.

I just don't know if the gang leader's body will be sent to the patrol office.
Speaking of the yamen, Xu Qing suddenly missed Senior Brother Wang. He was a very sentimental person. After just a few days of not seeing him, he missed his senior brother so much that he was obsessed with him.

In front of the coffin, Xu Qing continued to listen to Huang Xiaoliu's report.

He had been waiting for news from Chuan Tang during his meal. Now that he had heard Huang Xiaoliu's report, he felt completely at ease.

"Have the authorities found out who wiped out the Jinmen Gang?"

Huang Xiaoliu replied, "There are no bodies at the port. I heard from the authorities that a water monster from the Baishui River attacked the port at night and ate those people."

"."

Xu Qing raised his eyebrows. Who is the water monster? Why is he cursing at people from a distance?

Is there a water monster in the world that specifically targets the villains of the Jinmen Gang?
Anyone with a discerning eye can tell that this kind of talk is just a lie!
Xu Qing doesn't think that others are fools. Not to mention others, even Huang Xiaoliu might not believe it.

However, the next moment he heard Huang Xiaoliu say:
"The water monster at the port is very ferocious. I don't know how many years it has practiced Taoism. The messengers from other immortal halls don't dare to go near the river. Sir, you must be careful if you go to the port in the future."

Xu Qing was silent for a moment, then took out a bag of tea eggs, placed them on the coffin, and said earnestly, "Xiao Liu, these are tea eggs I bought for you. Eat more to nourish your brain."

In the side room of the coroner's shop.

Xu Qing placed the偃偶 outside the door, asked Xuan Yu to look after the shop, then closed the door and began to count last night's harvest.

Ignoring the bodies of the other Jinmen Gang members for the moment, Xu Qing's gaze fell directly on the bodies of Ling Yangzi, Jin Wanshan and other leaders.

After lining up the six corpses in a row, Xu Qing started with Ling Yangzi and favored them one by one.

He found these people annoying when they were alive, but now that they are dead, he finds them pleasing to the eye.

Sure enough, corpses are more exciting!

At this time, six corpses, covered in blood and with horrific appearances, were lying in the gloomy side room in various twisted and weird death postures.

In this room filled with a dark atmosphere, there was a young man with an excited face, staring at the corpse on the ground with green eyes.

It was as if those in front of him were not eerie corpses, but charming and beautiful women with seductive eyes.

Taking a deep breath to clear the resentment and evil spirits in the room, Xu Qing felt refreshed. To him who did not need to breathe, these breaths were like fresh air to a living person.

After taking a puff, the whole zombie became energetic!
The Sutra of Duren seemed to have felt the long-lost pleasure, and the frequency of turning pages became much faster.

Xu Qing saw the cutscene of the underworld again, and this time it was clearer than before.

A grayish-white mist filled my mind, and before my eyes there was a surging sea of ​​corpses and a forest of tombs. Above the Hades River, paper boats loaded with paper treasures and wealth from the world of the living flowed down the Three Paths River into the underworld.

In the murky, bubbling river, ghostly figures waved their withered, white arms, vying for the tolls scattered from the paper boats.
There were six corpses in front of him, one was of the lower grade of "Heaven", one barely reached the lower grade of "Earth", and the remaining four were all of the upper grade of "Ren".

The rewards from the Sutra of Salvation were: a Tongyin Treasure Mirror that could see through the Nine Netherworlds and illuminate the Yellow Springs and the Blue Sky, a paper-making skill of making paper people and paper horses, a bottle of Qingyuan Pill, and a technique of gambling on one's own death.

In addition to these Tongxuan treasures and skills rewards, there are also some common martial arts items, such as Mianyin Palm, Pojun Fist, Ten-Step Slashing Technique, Five Tigers Breaking Door Spear, Black Jade Paste, Bone Strengthening Powder, etc.
The Tongyin Baojian is similar to a magic mirror. Holding it, one can see some strange things that are outside the human world and between the yin and yang worlds.

Xu Qing took the treasure mirror and held it up to his face, only to see darkness in the mirror. When he took the treasure mirror away, the scenery around it could be reflected normally, almost indistinguishable from an ordinary mirror.

Xu Qing studied it for a while, but still didn't understand it.

This thing works fine when taking pictures of other things, but why does the screen go black when it takes pictures of itself?

After putting away the priceless seal, Xu Qing turned to learning the art of paper-making. The paper-making skills he acquired were different from those of ordinary funeral artists.

Wu Yaoxing's family next door has been making paper-making for generations. By his generation, the paper-making skill has been perfected, but they can only make inanimate paper objects.

However, the paper-making skills Xu Qing acquired allowed him to make living paper people and paper horses.

Xu Qing closed his eyes and thought, this method of refining paper puppets is somewhat similar to the method of refining five-colored horses and thousand-dollar fur coats he had learned in the past.

However, the fur coat worth a thousand gold pieces was just a dead object cut out of two taels of yellow paper. Only the five-colored horse looked more like a living thing, but that horse was a clay sculpture made of white bones and could not be made by cutting paper.

Xu Qing closed his eyes and concentrated, the scissors and talismans paper flying and changing in his mind, and countless rune veins took shape in his mind.

There are different levels of spiritual paper-made items, the upper level being paper horse, paper crane, paper donkey, paper horse, paper tiger, paper dragon, paper phoenix, etc.

Among them, the armor horse is also a paper horse, but it is slightly different from ordinary paper horses. It is made of gold foil paper. After the armor horse appears, it is wearing helmet and armor, with golden light on its body, and is quite powerful.

Although paper tigers, paper dragons, and paper phoenixes are top-quality paper-made items, they are ranked after paper cranes, paper donkeys, and paper horses. This is because although these objects have divine shapes, they do not have the corresponding power, and their use value is not as high as the former ones, so they are not highly regarded by psychic paper-making craftsmen.

Xu Qing opened his eyes, took out a pair of scissors and started cutting casually.

After a while, a lifelike tiger appeared on the table in front of Xu Qing.

He took out a wolf-hair brush, coated it with cinnabar ink, and wrote with the brush. The scarlet runes looked like tiger stripes, adding a bright and strange color to the paper tiger.

Finally, Xu Qing took some dead blood and dipped it into the tiger's eyes.

Strangely enough, after Tiger Eyes dotted its eyes, the paper tiger rolled its eyes and closed them by itself.

When Xu Qing saw this, he knew that the paper tiger had been formed, but it still lacked some driving force.

If paper objects want to move like living things, they also need some energy injection.

For example, Jianghu magic usually uses people's spiritual energy, while the driving force of paper puppets is yin energy and evil spirits.

Xu Qing opened his mouth and blew a breath of evil towards the paper tiger. The next moment, a gray-white mist surrounded the tiger's body. The paper tiger's tightly closed eyes suddenly opened, and the scarlet cinnabar color was terrifying.

Xu Qing's mind moved, and the paper tiger broke open the window and rushed to the chicken coop in the backyard with all its strength.

Outside the chicken coop, Jinluan was lying in the shade of the wall, leading a dozen hens to dig the soil and bathe themselves.

Most birds have the instinct to bathe in the earth. Jin Luan was accompanying his wives and concubines in taking a bath when suddenly a murderous white-browed tiger rushed in front of them!

Jin Luan was so frightened that the few feathers on its body stood up. In its eyes, with a fierce man like Xu Qing in this shop, who would dare to barge in?
But now, just in time, there happened to be such a strange and terrifying demon tiger that broke in.

How powerful is this evil?
Jin Luan was frightened, but the rooster's belligerent nature did not make it retreat at all.

Behind the chicken claws, the three-inch-long spur was like a golden hook. Without saying a word, Jin Luan pounced on the tiger in front of him.

The white tiger and the golden rooster each showed their ferocity. The paper tiger bared its fangs and claws, while the golden rooster flapped its wings to greet it.

However, the next moment, the golden hook of the Golden Rooster easily scratched the paper, making a sound of tearing silk.

The vicious tiger could not withstand more than two rounds and turned into fragments all over the sky, like snow in June.

That's it?

The golden phoenix was puzzled for a moment, then flapped its wings and let out a cry of victory.

In the side room, Xu Qing had a strange look on his face.

No wonder paper tigers are not accepted in formal occasions, and no wonder people often call those who appear strong but are weak inside paper tigers.

Isn’t this a typical case of looking good but not being practical?
However, even though the effect of the paper tiger in front of him was not satisfactory, Xu Qing was still full of expectations for the paper-making spiritual art.

People have three souls and seven spirits. The soul controls the spirit, and the spirit controls the body. Because of the existence of the soul and the spirit, the human heart is full of changes in desires and it is very easy to develop other people's hearts over time.

However, paper puppets have spirits but no souls, and form but no spirit. Without souls and spirits, they have no ulterior motives and can be ordered around by their masters.

In addition, if the paper-making is made of good materials, is well waxed, and properly maintained, it can be stored for hundreds of years without any problem. There is also a Yin-Gold paper-nourishing method in the paper-making art.

The reason why Ling Yangzi's paper figures have faces as white as gold paper and bodies as tough as iron and stone is because he uses the Yin Gold Qi from Yin Gold Burial Coins to nourish and refine the paper figures.

The paper tiger in Xu Qing's hand is currently extremely fragile. One reason is that the Golden Luan is specifically designed to ward off evil spirits, and another reason is probably because it is not maintained with Yin Gold.

In addition, paper tigers are just a trivial category in paper-making skills. In addition to paper tigers, Xu Qing has many practical paper-making items that he has not had time to make.

Coming to the table, Xu Qing used paper strips instead of straw and a clothesline as the frame, and soon made two straw dolls that were over a meter tall.

The so-called "Chu Ling" is a human doll used for funerals.

The Book of Rites says: "Painting carts with straw spirits has existed since ancient times and is a way of making fun of objects."

There is also a note saying: "Chu Ling" means a bundle of straw to make a human and a horse; the so-called Ling refers to a kind of god.

Later, someone said: The painted cart and straw are all funeral items.

As the head of the funeral business, Xu Qing has high demands on his own business capabilities.

But he never learned the true art of funeral rites.

Now, through studying the art of paper-folding, Xu Qing has already understood the method of refining Chu Ling.

Paper is a plant, and plants can also be used to make paper.

If he had some thatch by his side, Xu Qing believed that he could also make the legendary funeral straw spirit!

In the funeral procession, there are still guys carrying the poles, but in the past, when he buried the dead, he could only carry the body on his back. This is not the right way. Comparing the standards of the two funerals, it is easy to tell which one is higher or lower.

Now that there is a bamboo spirit about ten feet tall carrying the coffin, this person's status is suddenly different!

Xu Qing looked at the tall paper figure in front of him, which was as thin as a bamboo pole, and liked it more and more.

The straw spirit has a head like a cauldron and is more than ten feet tall. The people carrying it wear paper hats and paper quilts. When they walk, it is like walking on wind and fog, and they land silently.

The tomb guardian spirit wears gold foil paper armor and holds a painted halberd, like a golden armored general, to prevent tomb robbers.

There are also the straw spirits who carry the coffin and the sedan chair for the joint burial of a couple, and the night-walking straw spirits who hold high the funeral banners and walk through the underworld.
Xu Qing was extremely satisfied. He originally thought that his funeral business had reached a bottleneck and he didn't know how long it would take for him to make another breakthrough.

However, he never imagined that the secret to mastering these skills would be delivered to him so inadvertently.

At present, the level of his funeral business is not only well-known in Tianjin, but also in the whole Dayong!

With the psychic paper-made items as a guarantee, Xu Qing felt much calmer when he looked at the other rewards.

The gambling death technique, the lower grade of the word "earth", requires two people to spread their birth dates on the table, and then use blood as a guide to write a gambling oath. If anyone loses the bet, he will die on the spot.

As for the origin of this spell reward, it all started with Jin Wanshan when he was a child.
(End of this chapter)