What do you mean by saying that the corpses I sew are all ominous creatures?

I stepped out of the room and saw Li Qing sitting on a stone bench in the courtyard, looking at his compass with a worried expression.

Wang Daya helped chop firewood, working up a sweat.

Guan the Blind sat in a rocking chair under the old locust tree, holding a purple clay teapot in one hand and a pipe in the other, looking quite relaxed.

"Awake?" Guan the Blind Man didn't turn around, but his voice was very loud.

I walked over and replied, "Yes, thank you for saving my life, Lord Guan."

"Thank me for nothing. If you hadn't saved my granddaughter, I wouldn't have gotten there in time."

Guan the Blind took a sip of tea and pointed to the stone bench next to him.

"Sit down. Now that you're awake, there are some old grievances I should tell you about."

I sat down, and Li Qing and Wang Daya quickly came over as well.

"That beast last night was named Mo Kui, an old black bear spirit from the northern slope of Changbai Mountain."

Guan the blind man's tone became somewhat serious.

Thirty years ago, this beast massacred three villages outside the pass in order to forge some kind of magical artifact.

Back then, the Bureau of Folk Customs didn't have the power it has now, and we, the江湖人 (jianghu people) from outside the Great Wall, couldn't stand by and watch.

Under that old man's leadership, a dozen skilled fighters were gathered and surrounded it in Black Wind Valley.

He sighed and continued, "That battle was fierce."

My eyes were blinded by its demonic poison back then.

But at the time, none of us were confident we could completely destroy its demonic soul, so we could only work together to seal it within the ley lines of Black Wind Valley.

"Sealed?" Li Qing interjected. "Then how did it escape?"

"That's the crux of the problem."

Guan the Blind Man snorted coldly.

"The expert who oversaw the sealing back then left a backup plan within the seal."

Unless someone destroys the array's core from the outside, it has absolutely no chance of escaping.

However, in recent years, the earth's veins around Fengtian have been turbulent, which suggests that someone has tampered with them.

He paused, then turned to look at me.

"The black stone that Xiaoya brought back is actually a core fragment of the seal."

Unfortunately, I'm blind and can't see the stone, and besides, I wasn't the one who sealed it back then.

That's why I never recognized the beast's origin!

This old beast has been imprisoned for thirty years, and his resentment is boundless.

It knew I had been guarding Guanjiatun all these years, and it didn't dare come directly to me. So it used Xiaoya to lure me there, and then take revenge for what happened years ago.

I frowned slightly: "So, it was actually aimed at you?"

"That's right." Guan the Blind nodded.

"It thought I was blind and too old to lift the knife."

"Hey, it never expected that its greatest nemesis in this life wouldn't be me, but you, the corpse stitcher."

Upon hearing this, I remained silent for a while.

I never imagined there was such a hidden story behind this.

"But now it's all right. That beast is dead and gone, and I can finally put my mind at ease."

Guan the Blind Man lit the welding torch in his hand and took a deep breath.

"Young man of the Chen family, I not only owe your grandfather a favor, but now I owe you a favor as well."

After that auction tomorrow, you and your friend should come to see me again. I need to find a way to repay this favor.

Otherwise, I won't have the face to see your grandfather when I get down there.

Guan the Blind Man spoke in a somber tone.

After he finished speaking, he ignored us and was clearly thinking about something.

We rested for another whole day in Guanjiatun.

Although Guan the Blind Man ignored us on the surface, he secretly had Wang Daya go to the city to buy a large amount of precious medicinal herbs and boil them into a dark, black liquid for Li Qing and me to drink.

The medicine was so bitter it made you want to vomit, but its effects were surprisingly good.

After finishing the bowl, I felt the burning sensation in my meridians subside by more than half, and the previously depleted evil energy began to slowly recombine.

Li Qing also regained his spirits. Although his magic weapon was still broken, he was already thinking about how to use that piece of Star Fiend Meteorite Iron to recast the Apricot Yellow Banner.

The next night, darkness fell.

We decided to enter the city.

Because tomorrow, the top-level auction at Fengtian Ghost Market will begin.

The "ambergris" we were looking for was on the list from that auction.

Wang Daya drove us back into Fengtian city.

Compared to our low-key approach a few days ago, this time we checked into the most luxurious five-star hotel in Fengtian.

According to Guan the Blind Man, if Wang Daya dared to let us stay in those kinds of small hotels again, he would be dead.

As I got off the bus, I looked up at the hotel's magnificent lobby.

I know that tomorrow's auction will definitely not be peaceful.

Ambergris, Master Liu, and those eyes lurking in the shadows.

I tightened my collar, and my right hand instinctively reached for the scalpel tucked into my sleeve.

Although my killing intent hasn't fully recovered, I've already prepared the means to kill.

……

The Fengtian Shengjing Grand Theater, a hall that usually hosts high art performances, was shrouded in a somber and mysterious atmosphere today.

The area within a 500-meter radius of the theater had already been cleared out.

Security personnel dressed in black suits and wearing walkie-talkies were stationed every three or five steps.

When Wang Daya led Li Qing and me through the gate, we went through the identity verification and body search three times.

"Master Chen, Master Li, in this place today, money is just the first step to get in."

Wang Daya lowered his voice, his gold tooth gleaming faintly in the dim light.

"Those guys sitting up there all have life-or-death weapons in their hands. Let's make our move after we've seen enough."

Upon hearing this, I nodded and glanced across the lobby.

Sitting here were monks wearing robes but exuding a menacing aura, an old man wearing a traditional Chinese jacket and holding a pair of blood-red walnuts in his hands, and even a few foreigners with blond hair and blue eyes who smelled strongly of medicine.

The top-tier auction at Fengtian Ghost Market has begun.

The lights on the auction stage suddenly came on, and a woman in a cheongsam walked onto the stage.

Without wasting any words, she directly pulled back the red silk covering the first item up for auction.

"The first item is a century-old jujube wood heartwood struck by lightning, containing the righteous energy of heavenly thunder. The starting bid is three pieces of high-grade Geng metal iron or magic artifacts of equivalent value."

A slight commotion arose from the audience.

Li Qing sat next to me, his eyes fixed on the piece of wood, muttering, "What a treasure! If we could get our hands on it, and combine it with that piece of Star Fiend Meteorite Iron, we could make a superb Thunder Pattern Magic Sword."

Unfortunately, they wouldn't accept the little money we had in our pockets.

I patted him on the shoulder, signaling him to calm down.

As one rare folk artifact after another was auctioned off, the atmosphere in the venue grew increasingly tense.

When the woman in the cheongsam clapped her hands and four burly men carried a tray covered with gold velvet onto the stage, I felt the air in the entire venue freeze.

In the center of the tray lay a roll of dark gold, semi-transparent material, about the thickness of an adult's arm.

It was covered with mysterious scale patterns, and even from more than ten meters away, I could still feel an extremely cold and grand aura coming towards me.