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

Chapter 209 The Light-Up Cup, Paper Doll

The two exquisitely carved dolls, in the blink of an eye and in the blink of an eye, transformed into two golden streaks and disappeared into the water.

Xu Qing stared intently at Bai Shahe, his eyes now as black as ink.

Xuan Yu perked up his ears and stared at the river as if he were still.

When the zombie and the cat released the golden carp, neither of them noticed anything wrong with the fish. But who would have thought that as soon as they got close to the water, a wave of water vapor swept over them and the fish turned into human form?

"Mermaid." Xuan Yu, regaining her senses, suddenly uttered the two words.

"It's incense."

Xu Qing withdrew his gaze and offered an explanation.

The two golden carp didn't have much cultivation, but when they approached the Baisha River and transformed into human form, Xu Qing smelled a peculiar incense scent.

He had smelled this smell before; it was present during the annual river sacrifice at Baisha River, when people worshipped the Water Dragon King.

In the territory of the Dayong Dynasty, natural disasters and man-made calamities have created a complete mess.

Today the river bursts its banks, tomorrow locusts darken the sun. People burn incense and pray to Buddha, asking gods and ghosts for help. They can wear down the threshold of the City God Temple and knock a hole in the iron-hard ground in front of the statue!

Many people kneel down and kowtow when faced with problems, but no one is willing to stand up and look with questioning eyes at those adults who are high above, detached from worldly affairs, and living like gods.

After all, kneeling is so easy, but standing up is so tiring!

If you ask who enjoys seeing everyone kneeling the most, besides the one on the dragon throne, there's no one else!
The master was just looking for an excuse to shirk responsibility. Since you've given me a reason, I have no choice but to accept it.

"Wow! This is too much!"

The old emperor ordered the Ministry of Works to build a hundred-zhang-high sacrificial altar. The new emperor took office and supervised the construction. The beams had to be made of Phoebe zhennan wood and the steps had to be paved with white marble.

The higher the altar to Heaven was built, the deeper the suffering of the people became. Isn't that strange?
River God, Plague God, Wealth God, Happiness God. There are gods and immortals that you can't even imagine, and the Great Yong Dynasty doesn't have them.

The annual festivals are incredibly diverse: during droughts, people worship the Dragon King; during floods, they pay homage to the River God; during locust plagues, they invite the Hen Goddess; and during epidemics, they invoke the Five Plague Gods.
The incense money is burning brighter than a blacksmith's furnace.

At that time, Xu Qing's Cat Fairy Hall had just been established and had not yet received much incense offerings. He could smell the incense from afar across the riverbank and fantasized that one day his own hall would also be so prosperous.

Now, when he recalls this event, everything has changed. Xu Qing no longer cares about the incense burning at the river sacrifice held in Baisha River.

Ultimately, no one has ever seen the Dragon King in the Baishui River or Baisha River in Tianjin. Those places that should be arid are still arid. How can the incense offerings obtained through such deception last?
It's like when ordinary people have nothing to eat and can't defecate, but the officials who are supposed to cure the world's ills prescribe a laxative. How much incense offering can this empty prescription actually swindle out of them in the end?

But Xu Qing is different. He follows the rules. If you contribute one part of your effort, you give him eight cents as incense money, and the remaining two cents are considered as payment for the incense.

This is the business philosophy of Maoxiantang, and it remains the same for Baoshengmiao.

The result of this continuing is that, since everyone has to burn incense anyway, they might as well burn it for the gods who are willing to help.

Otherwise, when Xu Qing was hiding from the lightning disaster at the imperial mausoleum, he wouldn't have been able to casually offer hundreds of thousands or even millions of incense sticks.

Hearing Xu Qing's words, Xuan Yu asked curiously, "Are there immortals in the river too?"

There are no immortals in the river, but who knows what other things might be hiding there.

"These incense sticks have mixed scents; they must be from the River Sacrifice. Immortal Xuanyu, think back to who participated in the River Sacrifice in previous years?"

"dragon!"

Xuan Yu's eyes lit up.

Xu Qing remained silent, lost in thought.

Does the Baisha River really have dragons?
The stiff creature and the cat arrived at the spot where the little boy had stood earlier. In the damp sand, there was a jade cup, its surface shimmering with light.

Xu Qing examined it closely and discovered that inside the Huguang cup, there was a clump of golden blood floating up and down.

It looks like a living thing.

"This Blood"

Zombies have an extremely keen sense of blood. Although the liquid in front of him was golden, not the common blood red, Xu Qing could still tell at a glance that it was blood, and not just any blood.

Xu Qing frowned slightly, while Xuan Yu beside him twitched her nose and blinked, saying, "It smells so good. Haven't we eaten this before?"

"It's those lapis lazuli scales!"

Xu Qing took out a scale from the landscape painting. It had been stewed two or three times and its color had faded. The smell on it was almost exactly the same as the viscous blood in the Huguang Cup.

The flavor was just stronger in the Huguang cup.

"Dragons fight in the wild, their blood is black and yellow."

Xu Qing looked at the vibrant, unyielding golden blood before him with a strange expression.

This stuff really looks like dragon blood!

When Xu Qing returned to the coroner's shop, a sudden downpour began, and the entire Baisha River churned up, filled with mist. In the hazy distance, it seemed as if a colossal creature was leaping into the clouds, emitting a thunderous roar.

The enormous creature opened its eyes, and lightning streaked through the clouds.

When it leaps to a certain height, a portal seems to appear above the thick clouds.

But just as the behemoth was about to go further, a boundary marker covered with fiery runes descended from the sky in the boundless void and then fell mercilessly.

Amidst the thunder and rain, accompanied by an angry and unwilling cry, the enormous creature slipped into the bubbling river water before the boundary marker could fall.

Inside the coroner's shop, Xu Qing paid no attention to the sounds outside the window, focusing all her attention on the Huguang Cup in front of her.

Zombies belong to the extreme of Yin. Apart from death energy, Yin energy, and corpse energy, finding even a trace of life energy is harder than climbing to heaven.

There are three types of wandering corpses and three transformations of lumped corpses. No matter how they change, they cannot escape this category. Only when they reach the point of not dissolving into bones can they truly begin to change.

The "Unmelting Bone" technique involves refining a bone to its ultimate form. Only when one's spirit is continuously poured into it, and a particular bone develops a spiritual quality, can it be considered a minor achievement.

When is it considered that the Undying Bone has reached its peak?

It's not enough to cultivate bones to the point where they can store spiritual energy. You must use extremely yin substances to continuously deepen the death energy in your body until the bone you are cultivating is completely transformed from death to life. If it doesn't turn into bone, then it's considered successful.

Taoism speaks of the three treasures: essence, qi, and spirit. The incorruptible bones are, to some extent, also the place where the three treasures of a zombie converge.

As long as the Three Treasures remain, the spirit and essence will be immortal, and the bones will not crumble, allowing flesh and blood to regenerate, thus enabling the zombie to reach a state of immortality and indestructibility.

Xu Qing often uses yin and evil objects to refine his left hand. In time, the death energy in his hand will reach its peak, but he still lacks a treasure to provide life force so that the death energy can be transformed into life.

Death energy can be nurtured by suppressing objects, yin objects, and evil objects, just as vital energy also needs corresponding nurturing treasures.

Life force, spirituality, and vital energy. Xu Qing wasn't worried about life force. In the Dharma realm of his Baosheng Temple, there was a lake called Du'e Blood Lake, which contained vibrant life. In addition, the Mother Qi Bottle held by the Goddess of Life also contained a continuous stream of life force.

As for spirituality, it takes time and effort; as long as one cultivates it over a long period of time, one will eventually achieve it.

Xu Qing was most lacking in essence and blood.

Even if you drain all the blood from a zombie, you will never find a trace of its vital essence or blood; you will only find endless dead blood and yin energy.

The key to the ability of the Undying Bone to reshape the corpse lies in the life essence and blood that is immortal and incorruptible hidden within it.

This vital energy and essence will not flow to other parts of the body; it will only stay in the uncorrupted bones, just as there is always a wisp of yin energy hidden at noon and a wisp of yang energy emerging at midnight.

Xu Qing had caused this medicine a lot of trouble, but now, in the Huguang Cup in front of him, there happened to be a ball of highly active essence blood.

This essence and blood is a consumable substance. It is stored in the Undying Bone. When the physical body is no longer present, this essence and blood can be consumed to provide the most basic nutrients for the Undying Bone to regenerate flesh and blood.

If there isn't enough essence and blood to provide the power, does that mean there's absolutely no chance?

Not at all.

Without the basic essence and blood to absorb, the incorruptible bones can only rely on their own climbing, jumping, and hunting for blood to reshape their bodies.

Human hands are the most flexible part of the body. However, it is much more difficult to reconstruct a corpse if the bones are inconvenient, such as the tibia, sacrum, or skull.

At this time, if someone helps by soaking the insoluble bone in blood every day to nourish it, the insoluble bone will grow skin, flesh, fascia, arms, head, and even the torso more quickly.

Xu Qing examined the dragon blood in the Huguang Cup. If his physical body were ever damaged, he could use this dragon blood as a catalyst, combined with the abundant life force in the Blood Lake, and he would probably be able to regain his vitality immediately!
Seeing Xu Qing staring at the Huguang Cup with amusement, Xuan Yu finally couldn't help but ask, "When does Immortal Xu plan to go out next?"

"Why are you asking this?" Xu Qing asked, puzzled.

Xuan Yu sat on the counter, staring intently at Xu Qing: "Every time Master Xu goes out, he always brings back some strange and unusual things. I'm wondering what Master Xu will bring back next time."

"."

"This isn't a flower and bird shop, where would I get so many strange and unusual things?"

"The sleepyhead from before, the big idiot and the little white snake from the other day, and those two golden fish that can transform today."

Xuan Yu spoke with such familiarity that Xu Qing was left speechless.

Recently, the variety of things he's been bringing to the shop has indeed become quite diverse.

"I won't go out for the next two days, so Xuan Yu won't have to worry about me bringing anything back, right?"

Xuan Yu stared at Xu Qing for a moment, his gaze revealing a hint of distrust.

The next morning, the wind stopped and the rain ceased.

Xu Qing opened the shop door and resumed business as usual.

Around noon, a customer came into the shop.

Xu Qing glanced at him and recognized him. Wasn't this the owner of Tongyue Restaurant?
"Boss Yan, what's wrong?"

Mr. Yan, the owner of Tongyue Restaurant, looked very unwell. He sighed and said, "Mr. Xu, I've heard that in Tianjin, among all the funeral service businesses, the Xu family shop on Jingxia Street is the most capable and competent."

"I have a mangled corpse here right now. I would be grateful if you could take the trouble to clean it up. I will cover all the funeral and burial expenses, no matter how much."

Not a good look? Xu Qing didn't care much. He had the technique of sewing together the dead, and he could sew up even the most disfigured corpses. Even if a corpse was missing an arm or a leg, he could use paper arms and legs to replace it, and the appearance would be just like the real thing. No one could tell that the corpse was incomplete before it was born.

"Everyone has their own expertise, Mr. Yan, please don't worry. Let me see what the customer looks like first."

Stepping out of the shop, Xu Qing lifted the shroud draped over the cart and glanced at it—

Oh, so this is what it looks like!

Underneath the shroud, a large, pancake-like corpse lay sprawled on the cart, its blood splattered everywhere, resembling a freshly made egg pancake.

"How could this person be in such a state? Did he get crushed like this by a millstone used to thresh wheat in the threshing ground?"

Boss Yan shook his head and sighed, "It's all my fault. If it weren't for me, he wouldn't have died."

"What do you mean by that?"

Seeing that Boss Yan hesitated to speak, Xu Qing reminded him, "Manager Yan, you must tell the truth. If this corpse has a bloody case on it, then send it to the yamen as soon as possible."

"There was no bloodshed, Mr. Xu, you can rest assured. I have documents issued by the government, and the neighbors in Dongdaokou can all testify to this."

Upon hearing this, Xu Qing felt even more puzzled. If the corpse had nothing to do with you, why did you say that you killed him?
Upon receiving the official document, Xu Qing glanced at it and learned that the deceased was named He Xiaosheng, a fisherman from Dongdaokou, and had died from being run over by a horse-drawn carriage.

Seeing that Boss Yan was not in good spirits, Xu Qing did not press him further.

After returning the documents, Xu Qing carefully removed the body from the cart, wrapped it in a shroud, and then successfully transferred it to the coroner's shop.

After leaving Boss Yan waiting outside, Xu Qing went to the side room alone and began to perform a ritual to pray for the deceased.

As he turned the pages of the Sutra of Salvation as usual, Xu Qing froze for a moment when the slideshow of the corpse in front of him appeared.

The reason was simple: he recognized the corpse as Eagle Beak, the fisherman who had sold the golden carp to Zhang Junjin a few days earlier outside Deshunlou.

Eagle Beak's real name is He Xiaosheng. He has been fishing since he was a child. While others use the best fishing hooks and lines, he can catch fish that others cannot catch with just a bamboo pole and a thin rope used for sewing shoes.

You say he's a great fisherman? When he was running around naked, he caught all the fish in the pond behind the house. When he was a teenager, he would take a fishing rod to the river and catch all the fish in the pond in just seven or eight days, not even the small fry could escape.

As he grew older, Eagle Beak became much more restrained, only catching rare, good-looking fish.

What kind of fish is good these days? Besides the silver carp, the golden carp is one of the rarest.

Eagle Beak was a mortal, unable to catch spirit fish, so he tried to catch those golden carp.

When the sun rises early in the morning, the river surface glistens, and a few golden carp always peek out and frolic on the surface.

Eagle Beak paid close attention, observing the movement of the golden carp along the riverbank every day until, two months later, he finally found a way to catch them.

On thundery and rainy days, these golden carp always fight desperately, putting all their strength into jumping against the waves, as if they've gone mad or are possessed.

Eagle Beak was overjoyed. Now he didn't even need to prepare bait. He took the landing net and, as the golden carp were exhausted and being carried by the water to near the shore, he gently scooped them up with the net, and the golden carp was in his hands.

Catching the golden carp wasn't the end of the matter. Eagle Beak, a man who loved fame, even pierced the carp's mouth with the fishhook. Once he saw blood, he put the fish back in the basket.

Now anyone who sees this will have to say he's incredibly skilled, able to catch an entire brood of golden carp.

But it was because of this golden carp that Eagle Beak gained fame, but lost his life!

As for the specifics of what happened, we have to start from yesterday.
(End of this chapter)