Corpse Retriever

Li Zhuiyuan had not wanted to tattle. After all, no child likes their elders sneaking a look at their diary.

But Ah Li was too clever. Li Zhuiyuan did not even need to struggle over whether he should come up with some excuse. She already knew exactly why he had done it.

Still, Ah Li was not angry.

She did not think there was anything wrong with outsiders seeing the image of the boy she had drawn.

But Li Zhuiyuan had to think of Granny Liu’s health.

These past few days, Granny Liu had been coughing nonstop.

A true martial expert could crush a solid wooden chair into fine powder in a fit of anger. How could someone like that catch a cold and fail to recover for so long?

The only explanation was that she had peeked at something she should not have. Sigh. Such a curious and mischievous old lady.

Ah Li put away the design sketches. She would take care of it.

“In a little while, I’m going on a long trip.”Ah Li had just picked up her brush, ready to continue finishing the scroll. Hearing that, she silently set the brush back down.

She stood and left her seat.

The boy was going far away, so she needed to help him prepare in advance and pack his things.

During the third wave, the team had used up a great deal of Yellow Talismans and other tools, and they had not yet had time to restock. On top of that, resupplying on a long trip would be inconvenient, so they needed to bring extra for emergencies.

So now she had to go to the third floor and fetch materials.

The ancestral memorial tablets were treasures through and through.

The hard bases could be used as handles and external fittings. The outer surface could be used as talisman paper. The inner wood could be made into purple wood shavings, and if ground up, it could also serve as thunder-gathering material.

Especially the side with writing on it. Even if the ancestors’ spirits were gone, that side could still sometimes exert a kind of “intimidating” effect. Every time Ah Li gathered materials, she would carefully peel off that side first.

That was not what Li Zhuiyuan had meant to imply. If he needed these things, he could have said so directly. But seeing Ah Li already step out of the study, he could only follow after her.

They went up to the third floor, pushed open the door, and entered the room where the ancestral memorial tablets were stored.

Li Zhuiyuan went ahead first and took down all the tablets that looked a little older. Then he and Ah Li each carried an armful downstairs.

Now that they had developed more tools, and the number of users had expanded from just himself to the whole team, the rate at which they consumed ancestral memorial tablets had increased greatly.

It was already hard to tell new from old. In truth, they all still looked fairly new.

As they were heading downstairs, Liu Yumei came out holding a copy of The New Liu Clan’s Art of Observing Qi. When she saw the two children carrying so many ancestors downstairs, she immediately stopped, turned around, sat back down, and continued drinking her tea.

Downstairs, Uncle Qin came in carrying a bucket of water. Seeing the two children coming down, he immediately went into the kitchen. At the same time, he pulled Aunt Liu back inside just as she was about to come out with a rag to wipe the dining table, and said, “Think again. What other vegetables would grow well in the yard?”

Back in the study, Li Zhuiyuan helped Ah Li stack the memorial tablets neatly.

It felt like piling up firewood for later use.

After that, Li Zhuiyuan did not stay at Granny Liu’s house for lunch. He returned to the dorm first.

Almost right on his heels, Tan Wenbin came back too, carrying an insulated food container.

“Little Yuanhou, my mom made spring rolls and lotus-root patties. Want to try some?”

“Sure.”

Tan Wenbin opened the container.

“I’ll go get some vinegar from the dorm supervisor so you can dip them.”

Tan Wenbin went out carrying a bowl. When he came back, he had not only a small bowl of vinegar, but also a large bowl of bone broth.

“The auntie is stewing marrow bones. She gave me a bowl.”

Li Zhuiyuan began eating lunch, while Tan Wenbin started talking about what had happened at noon.

He said that Luo Mingzhu was really annoying. Not only did she want to get close to him, she also wanted to pull him into forming a new exploration team.

Tan Wenbin made a finger-gun gesture and pressed it to his forehead. “I’d have to be crazy to team up with someone like her.”

Li Zhuiyuan picked up a spring roll and dipped it in vinegar. “As a method, though, it could work.”

“Hm?” Tan Wenbin immediately asked, “Little Yuanhou, do you have some kind of plan?”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. He was not used to talking while eating, so he sped up, finished lunch, and began tidying the food container.

Seeing that, Tan Wenbin knew something serious was about to be discussed. So while Li Zhuiyuan was at the sink washing the container, he ran downstairs to the hot-water room and filled two thermoses. After pouring two cups of water, he added some bottled water to cool them down. Then he picked up a notebook and pen, ready to take notes.

Yin Meng was at the hospital with Runsheng, and Lin Shuyou had a major class that afternoon he could not skip.

Strictly speaking, even if the three of them were present at this discussion, their role would mostly be one of “participation matters.”

At present, in the whole team, the only one who could really help Li Zhuiyuan spot gaps and assist in refining the plan was Tan Wenbin.

The two sat facing each other in the dorm room. Li Zhuiyuan handed Tan Wenbin the things he had written the previous night: River Walk Code of Conduct 2.0, Proposal for Taking the Initiative to Walk Toward the Waves, and the scroll painting of the corpse-driving Daoist.

Then he began recounting what had happened that morning and explaining his current ideas.

Tan Wenbin was reading the code of conduct while reading the proposal, and every so often he also had to glance at the scroll, all while keeping his ears open to catch what Little Yuanhou was saying. He was busy as could be.

He was not a genius who could split his attention effortlessly, but fortunately, he knew how to work in coordination.

He would read what needed reading, understand what needed understanding, and listen to what needed listening. He did not need to interpret or correct the theoretical side of things. He only had to rely on his familiarity with the situation to help Little Yuanhou turn ideas into reality.

Beyond that, he also had to digest everything himself and then find time to pass along Little Yuanhou’s intentions to the other team members, so that Little Yuanhou would not have to go around repeating himself one by one.

When Li Zhuiyuan finished speaking, he picked up his cup and drank two sips of water.

Tan Wenbin also set down the notebook and scroll in his hands and nodded. “I understand, Little Yuanhou. We’re going to deliberately create karma?”

“Yes. Before, it was always the river that pushed karmic threads to our side. Even when we noticed them in advance and traced them back, that was still only after the structure had already been built.

Even if we arrived early, the feast had already been laid out.

This time I want to try a different approach. I want to test whether the river will acknowledge karma that we create ourselves.”

“I get it. We need to manufacture a reason. That’s why you just said Luo Mingzhu’s new exploration team could be used. Like this time, the Xie family, Zhangjiajie.

We have to first create a reason for why we need to go to Zhangjiajie.”

“Exactly.”

“If I join Luo Mingzhu’s exploration team and then hint to her that we should go to Zhangjiajie, would that make our reason for going there valid?”

“I said it was feasible as a method. I did not say it had to be Luo Mingzhu.”

Tan Wenbin carefully chewed over the meaning of that sentence, then suddenly understood. Little Yuanhou had only been using Luo Mingzhu’s exploration team as an example, not saying they actually had to use that method.

“Little Yuanhou, it’s because that method has a flaw...” Tan Wenbin made a digging gesture with an imaginary shovel. “We’d be digging a channel ahead of time before the water arrives. But afterward, water is bound to flow through that channel.”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. “Dragging ordinary innocent people into this could easily create secondary trouble.”

Those people would very likely suffer karmic backlash.

Tan Wenbin suddenly slapped his hands together. “That’s easy. If we do not involve innocent people, then we can involve guilty people instead.”

Then Tan Wenbin looked at Li Zhuiyuan and said, “Little Yuanhou, you’d already thought of that, hadn’t you?”

“Yes. But I need you to help work out the practical details.”

“That part’s easy. First I’ll go to my dad’s bureau. They have all kinds of wanted criminals there, and plenty of requests for investigative assistance too. I’ll find one fugitive who is either hiding in Zhangjiajie or might be there.

As an outstanding youth officially commended by the police bureau, I definitely have to do my part for social harmony and stability. If I carry a wanted notice, then I can go to Zhangjiajie.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “One thread isn’t enough. It could break too easily, and it would be hard to keep extending it.”

Before, whenever they did reverse tracing, they used several threads at once. Like the last time they went to Min’an Town, when they reverse-pushed along three threads simultaneously.

Tan Wenbin pulled out a cigarette case from his pocket and took out one cigarette. This time he did not bother to hide it even with Little Yuanhou sitting right there. He lowered his head, lit it, took a deep drag, and slowly exhaled.

“I’ve got it. Add another thread. Have Yin Meng or Ah You—one girl and one who looks young and soft-faced—carry a bit of cash and also a treasure map claiming that gold bricks are buried somewhere back home in Zhangjiajie. Then let them deliberately show it off in front of some social scum.

Let those scumbags make a move and rob them. The money will boost their confidence, and it also serves as travel money for them. Let them head to Zhangjiajie first. If our people get robbed, then obviously we’ll have to retaliate and get the money back. That gives us another reason to go to Zhangjiajie.”

River walk itself was about suppressing evil things and accumulating great merit to bring peace to the world. Using human trash as bait and chum only made that “clean upon clean.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Mm, not bad. The first thread, the fugitive line, gives us a lot of freedom. As long as we haven’t found him, we’ll have a reason to keep moving all around Zhangjiajie.

As for the second thread, we can guide it too. We can chase after that group of robbers while leaving hints ahead of them, nudging them along our chosen rhythm. Wherever we want to go, we can steer them there first.”

Tan Wenbin said, “Then for the third thread, can’t we just do the same thing again...”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “No. We already have two guilty-party threads, and both have a darker tone. The third thread should have a more normal tone. That would better match the river’s sense of aesthetics.”

Tan Wenbin dragged hard on his cigarette, his right hand constantly scratching the back of his head. “That’s really hard...”

“If we want to avoid involving innocent people and causing secondary trouble, then remove that category from the range entirely. What kind of people would not care about becoming entangled in karma?

People with extremely strong purpose who are actively willing to pay the price for it, and people who either do not care about the cost or are barely affected by it.”

Following Li Zhuiyuan’s train of thought, Tan Wenbin said, “The first kind is hard to find. That takes luck. The second kind is easier. To give a simple example: a dead old person’s final wish, or the wish of someone with a terminal illness.”

Of those two kinds, one was already dead, and the other no longer cared about anything else.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Actually, that’s where the real difficulty lies. Precisely because the first two threads are easy to design, and the third thread depends on luck, this third thread is the most important foundation.”

Tan Wenbin nodded. “Got it.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “The third wave has just passed. We still have plenty of time. There’s no rush. We can look slowly and think it through carefully. Maybe we’ll come up with an even better method.”

“Okay, Little Yuanhou. Then I’ll go to my dad’s bureau first and pick out a suitable fugitive. After that I’ll head to the hospital to visit Runsheng and Yin Meng and tell them all this too. I’ll take these documents and the scroll with me for now, all right?”

“All right.”

Tan Wenbin left.

Li Zhuiyuan sat alone in the dorm for a while. Then he got up and first turned the Bronze mirror to face the dorm door, cutting off any possible outside interference.

Then he walked to the corner, picked up the evil book that had been wrapped into a ball, and set it on the desk. He peeled off the wrappings and took it out.

Li Zhuiyuan picked up a brush, dipped it in ink, and casually wrote out a simple damaged formation.

After he finished writing, the ink vanished and new text emerged, completing the simple formation.

The boy did this only to test whether the “ink” of the book had started replenishing itself again.

And indeed it had. The writing it produced was dark and clear.

This meant that the last time it had shown that no-ink state, it had been deliberate blackmail. It had not wanted to be used for free. It had wanted some compensation.

But Li Zhuiyuan had not indulged it. After resealing it, he had tossed it aside and ignored it for good, and that was that.

It had gotten scared, and it had caved.

What was more, it had even started making excuses for itself. A new line of text appeared on a blank page:

“I’m rested now.”

Rested now?

Then let me try something.

Li Zhuiyuan took out a paint tray, mixed the colors, and began painting on the blank page of the evil book.

What he painted was the corpse-driving Daoist.

Since this evil book could distinguish techniques and repair formations... could it also recognize people?

Ideally, the moment he finished drawing someone, it would produce a record of that person’s life.

Of course, Li Zhuiyuan knew that possibility was extremely slim, almost impossible.

So the reason he was making this painting in the book was to verify something else.

This painting had been drawn by his own hand. The corpse-driving Daoist in it was the target he had chosen for the fourth wave. In other words, it was steeped in his own river-walk karma.

Although the matter was still in its planning and early stages, the boy wanted to see whether it was already touching upon heavenly secrets.

Heavenly secrets could not be revealed, but they could be sensed. Zhao Yi of the Zhao Family of Jiujiang had once had a sliver of the Gate of Life on his forehead, and it had produced a similar effect, helping him avoid misfortune and seek fortune.

But if one were to ask who was best at sensing heavenly secrets, best at seeking fortune and dodging disaster... it would be evil things.

The very existence of such things was itself a provocation against the heavenly way. If they had no sense for heavenly secrets at all, they could never have lasted until now. They would have long since vanished in the river of history.

This evil book was frighteningly wicked. Every time Li Zhuiyuan used it, he was extremely cautious. Because of that, he had great confidence in the sharpness of its perception.

As long as it gave any response at all, even the slightest one, then from the side it would prove that this attempt he was making now, this path he was taking, had some chance of succeeding.

Really, only a boy like him would be willing to use something so precious as a disposable tool for probing heavenly secrets.

Anyone else, even a righteous cultivator who would never touch this evil book, still would not bear to use it as firewood just to get a little light out of it. That would be true wanton waste.

At first, when Li Zhuiyuan had just begun drawing, the evil book seemed to know he was drawing a person, and it even added a few strokes of its own to save him effort.

When he began adding color, the evil book even helped quickly fill things in and shade them.

Sometimes it helped in the wrong way. In those cases, Li Zhuiyuan only needed to pause the brush tip there for a moment, and the evil book would erase the part where it had overhelped and misunderstood, letting Li Zhuiyuan handle it himself.

But by the time the painting was almost complete, even the spirit money had been painted in, and still the evil book remained calm and unconcerned.

Li Zhuiyuan could not help but wonder: could it be that he really was just amusing himself?

Still, since he had started the painting, he ought to finish it completely and do the details properly.

Li Zhuiyuan began writing the characters on the spirit money as well, switching to a finer brush for the task.

On the first spirit note, he wrote: When the dead travel, the living make way.

He had only just written the first character, “dead,” when the evil book thoughtfully imitated his handwriting and filled in the remaining seven characters on its own.

Li Zhuiyuan nodded, then raised his brush over another spirit note in the painting and wrote the character “Xie.”

The moment that character appeared, the evil book did not fill in the rest.

What should have followed was: Bestowed by the Xie family, with thanks and obeisance from this little ghost.

More than that, Li Zhuiyuan sensed the evil book trembling. It was afraid—terrified.

There was no way a mere Xie family could make it so frightened.

Li Zhuiyuan had once used it to test the advanced version of The Liu Clan’s Art of Observing Qi, and it had generously displayed the answer, telling him exactly what technique it was.

No matter how powerful or terrifying the Xie family might be, it still could not compare to the true Dragon King’s clan.

So what it feared was not the Xie family. What it feared was...

Bang.

A ball of flame leaped up.

The book had caught fire! 

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