Corpse Retriever

A drafty attic, a rotten bed; warped floorboards, peeling walls.

Yin Meng sat on a wobbly stool, looking over her VIP room.

She knew perfectly well that if she used Walking the shade to look around right now, she would probably see dazzling splendor.

But she was terrified of Walking the shade now. Every brief attempt felt like someone was hammering nails into her skull.

Two maidservants stood outside the attic.

They would not actually be hard to deal with. She could avoid them by climbing down the other side. But although this place was tucked away on the edge of the palace grounds, mechanisms still covered the area.

More importantly, even if she left now, she had no idea where to look for her companions.

Left with no better option, she took out some powder from her backpack, something only mildly toxic but extremely reactive. After snapping off a piece of wood from the room, she sprinkled the powder over it and rubbed it in.

Crackle, crackle...

Red and blue smoke rose at once.She set the wood on the windowsill.

Instead of running around blindly, she would rather send a signal and wait in peace.

And she did not have to wait long. In the distance, she saw Tan Wenbin and a strange middle-aged man approaching with the shadow of a eunuch.

The eunuch dismissed the two maidservant shadows downstairs.

Xiong Shan stayed below while Tan Wenbin ran upstairs.

“Well now, come admire Mengmeng’s detached luxury villa.”

Yin Meng rolled her eyes at him, slung her hiking pack onto her back, and asked, “Can we go now?”

“Wait a little longer. First, hand me all the incense you brought for Runsheng. I need to take care of something.”

Yin Meng took two boxes from her bag and handed them over.

“What are you doing?”

“Preparing a proper gift, calling in a favor, taking a little shortcut through the back door.”

“Who’s that man downstairs?”

“Eunuch Wang. Nice fellow. He’s kind of a fellow townsman of yours too, from Shu. His family committed a crime when he was little, and after their property was confiscated, he was sent into the palace, castrated, and made into a eunuch.”

“You know that’s not who I meant.”

“His name’s Xiong Shan. He’s not one of ours.”

“I understand.”

Tan Wenbin packed the things away and waved a hand. “All right, wait here a bit longer. I’ll be right back.”

After going downstairs, Eunuch Wang left with Tan Wenbin.

Xiong Shan remained at the bottom of the stairs and did not come up.

Not long after, Tan Wenbin returned. Along with Eunuch Wang, he had brought a senior eunuch dressed in red.

This senior eunuch was older, but his skin was even paler, and there was an air of elegance about him.

Even Eunuch Wang, who had seemed fairly relaxed before, now acted cautious and ingratiating in the senior eunuch’s presence.

Xiong Shan genuinely felt that this young man surnamed Tan was something else.

He looked unassuming and a little unreliable, but every time, he managed to produce extraordinary results.

He himself was also a team leader, and from the standpoint of building a team, even if his second and third men had not died, his own group really did lack someone like this.

Sometimes, not everything had to be solved with force.

Then Xiong Shan let out a self-mocking laugh. What was the point of thinking about that now?

The deaths of his second and third men had completely shattered the defenses he had already been barely holding together. Now he only wanted to get through this round safely so he could complete his second lamp-lighting and retire from the jianghu properly.

Tan Wenbin led the senior eunuch over. As they walked, the eunuch said, “Little Bin, I’m only willing to help you because I trust you. I’m a pitiful soul too. Not only did I lose my root, I lost my life early as well. As for all those promises afterward, whether you honor them or not depends entirely on what little conscience you have.”

Tan Wenbin said, “Don’t worry, Godfather!”

Xiong Shan: “...”

Yin Meng was called down, and together with the senior eunuch, they arrived in front of that ruined palace.

As soon as he got there, he directly dismissed all the nearby maidservants and young eunuchs, making the whole area abruptly desolate and quiet.

Tan Wenbin lit a thin incense stick and planted it in the ground. “Brother Wang, have a smoke first.”

Then he lit a thick incense stick and held it up respectfully before the senior eunuch. “Godfather, have one too.”

“Stick it in the ground. No need to wear yourself out holding it.”

“Heh, there’s nothing going on right now anyway. Let me show a little filial devotion.”

“You brat. Were you ever this attentive to your real father?”

“I was. You just never saw it. When I was little, every time I did something wrong and the private tutor called my dad in for a talk, I was unbelievably diligent at home. Washing clothes, mopping floors. By the time my dad came back, I practically wanted to kneel at the door and change his wooden clogs for him.”

“Heh heh heh.” The senior eunuch laughed.

Eunuch Wang, squatting nearby and eating incense, laughed along with him.

“Put it down. Let’s sit and enjoy it slowly. Having someone feed you is never as satisfying as eating it yourself.”

“All right.”

Tan Wenbin planted the thick incense in the ground, then took out the alcohol he used for disinfecting wounds, poured it into plastic cups, and set one before each of them.

Eunuch Wang hurriedly took a breath of it from afar. A flush actually spread across his half-transparent face, and he looked blissful.

Seeing that, the senior eunuch spat in disdain. “Good-for-nothing thing.”

Then the senior eunuch took a bite of incense and a sip of alcohol.

“Hiss... Little Bin, this liquor of yours is truly strong.”

Eunuch Wang immediately nodded in agreement.

“Don’t worry, Godfather. From now on, every holiday, there’ll definitely be a share of this liquor for you.”

As he said that, Tan Wenbin secretly shot Eunuch Wang a look, meaning, you’ll get some too.

Eunuch Wang secretly returned a smile that said, understood.

“When I was still alive, I always thought flesh-and-blood offerings mattered so much. After I lost my root and entered the palace, I still had to support my brothers’ households properly, all so that later, those nephews and nieces would at least remember some good of me in their hearts. Then when they made offerings to their own fathers and mothers, they might at least leave me a little sip.

“But now that I’m dead... well, that’s all there is to it. Even if I didn’t vanish like a snuffed-out lamp, dead is still dead. There’s nothing much left worth clinging to.”

“Godfather, that’s not right. If someone shows you kindness, you should repay it. I may not be married yet, but I do have someone already. In the future, when I have children, and then they have children of their own...

“On summer nights, when we’re cooling off outside and telling ghost stories to the kids, your story will naturally be among them.”

“Hahahaha!” The senior eunuch laughed again. “Fine. Since you’ve called me Godfather, and it’s rare for me to have a godson who still has the proper equipment, then when you get married, Godfather ought to give a gift too.”

Tan Wenbin immediately rubbed his hands together and leaned forward. “Oh ho, so you’ve really got something hidden away?”

“Of course.” The senior eunuch glanced at him. “When they were buried alive as sacrificial attendants, they were all thrown into a single pit. Some of the maidservants were even penned in there and starved to death. I was different. When I was buried, I had a coffin. When you dig up my body later, remember to smash open the false compartment in the coffin. There are quite a few gold and silver treasures inside.”

“A gift from an elder must not be refused. After I dig them up, I’ll first use them to build you a proper tomb. Of what remains, ninety percent I’ll donate back home to build bridges and pave roads. The last ten percent will count as the wedding gift you gave me.

“Once your memorial tablet is made, I’ll bring my fiancée-to-be and pay our respects to you first.”

The senior eunuch looked doubtful. “Only ten percent? Isn’t that too little? Your godfather did hide some things, but not that much. The burial came too suddenly, and I didn’t have time to sell off my estates and shops.

“Your father may have been a yamen runner, but he was only in Moling. I’m afraid your family’s means were probably nothing special. What kind of man is your father?”

“Upright and incorruptible.”

“Oh, then that’s finished. Just a poor devil, then.”

“Not quite that bad.”

“What will you do for a living in the future?”

“Water conservancy projects.”

“What? You still have to go do corvée labor on the riverbanks?”

“Uh...” Tan Wenbin scratched his head. “Work that benefits the country and the people.”

“You’ve got some ambition. Good boy.”

“You flatter me, Godfather.”

Most of the maidservants and eunuchs here, including the Yuan soldiers and riders that had appeared before, did not know they were already dead. They still believed they were alive and carrying out the duties they had performed in life.

A senior eunuch of this rank, who knew he was dead, was already at the very top among this group of sacrificial dead.

But in truth, he was like those Unseeables as well. He possessed basic thought, but it was still limited. If you tried to tell him how many years had passed outside, or what age the world was in now, he would not be able to understand.

They were, in the end, thralls, each with their own limitations.

That was also why Jie Shunan had been able to trick the ancestors of those three families into gathering such dense, overwhelming curse-force.

Their self-awareness was enough for them to know clearly that their descendants had done wrong, and they were willing to use curses of their own accord to punish them.

But because of the limits of their thinking, they could not perceive or comprehend what kind of terrifying disaster such enormous curse-force would bring upon the human world of the present. It would not be something as simple as punishing those three families or wiping them out entirely.

Watching from the side as Tan Wenbin chatted so warmly with the two ghost eunuchs, Xiong Shan found it all astonishing.

Yin Meng, standing nearby, was not surprised in the slightest.

Everyone on the team, including Little Yuanhou, acknowledged Zhuangzhuang’s abilities.

Sometimes she worried that her own role in the team was not all that significant.

It felt as though her greatest value now lay mainly in the fact that her surname was Yin. After all, Little Yuanhou would definitely have to return to Fengdu Ghost City someday.

Sigh.

After being treated as an honored guest this time, Yin Meng could not help feeling a little helpless.

Even in her own generation, the Yin family was still living off the legacy of its ancestors.

At that moment, a ripple seemed to pass through the air.

The senior eunuch slowly lifted his head. “Oh ho, a message has come.”

Soon, a group of maidservants and eunuchs started heading this way.

Eunuch Wang got up and drove them off.

A little later, even more maidservants and eunuchs arrived, and Eunuch Wang could no longer stop them.

The senior eunuch glared at them and let out a sharp cough. “Get lost.”

The maidservants and eunuchs scattered again like startled birds and beasts.

Things stayed quiet for a while. Then several eunuchs in higher-ranking uniforms came over.

The senior eunuch stood up and walked forward. “What, do my words no longer count for anything in this general’s residence?”

The higher-ranking eunuchs immediately withdrew.

Xiong Shan stared with wide eyes from the side. He knew that by now he should already have been struggling through hard work.

And yet the hard work had simply been brushed aside like this?

The defensive battle that young Li Zhuiyuan had sternly ordered them to hold was apparently something he only had to stand beside and watch?

After another quiet stretch, the ground began to tremble.

This time, a group of riders had arrived.

The senior eunuch raised his voice and shouted, “I’d like to see just whose household this general’s residence really is, and whose surname has the final say here!”

The riders looked at one another, then wheeled their horses around and left.

And so time passed, second by second, in just this way.

But what was meant to come would still come.

They could block it for a while, but not forever.

Tan Wenbin licked his lips and cursed inwardly. Damn it. Just as Little Yuanhou said, Jie Shunan really does have partial control over this place.

This time, even more maidservants and eunuchs came, almost a human tide.

The order was stalled here, and that only caused more and more people to gather, forming a combined force that would eventually push the command through.

They were thralls. Their very nature was to be influenced and manipulated.

The senior eunuch’s expression also turned ugly, not because he was losing face, but because even he could feel the pressure driving him forward.

Not only could he no longer block the crowd in front of him, he could no longer control himself either.

Eunuch Wang had already moved to the other side. The respectful look on his face was gone. Like the others, his expression had darkened, and he began applying pressure together with the rest.

“Little Bin, I’m useless. In another moment, I’ll have to stand with them too.”

“Listen to you, Godfather. You’ve already been incredibly valiant. Here, let it go. We’ve got our own methods now.”

“Really let go?”

“Let go. If you can keep even a shred of clarity, you can still shield the three of us from getting crowded out.”

The real reason was that with the senior eunuch beside them, they did not have to carry straw poles and prop up straw men to blend in.

“All right then.” The senior eunuch let out a breath and waved his hand.

Tan Wenbin looked at Xiong Shan and said, “Your turn. The timing should be about right now. You only need to hold out a little longer.”

Xiong Shan thumped his chest. “Don’t worry. I can hold out as long as it takes!”

Tan Wenbin spread his hands helplessly. He still preferred the way Little Yuanhou arranged his words with precise care. With someone like Xiong Shan, if he were his boss, he would find it hard to adapt.

“No need. When my boss handles things, he likes them swift and decisive. You keep holding a little longer.”

Xiong Shan began using a Chenzhou talisman. He crouched down and pressed both hands to the ground.

Straw extended out from his body once more. Around him appeared eight piles of straw. One of those piles wove itself into two straw corpse-driving figures. The two straw men lifted a straw pole and entered the palace first.

Under Xiong Shan’s control, they moved as slowly as possible. By the time they reached the palace steps, even the motion of crouching down looked like it was being played in slow motion.

Once the first Unseeable climbed onto the straw pole, the two straw men rose slowly and then carried the Unseeable in circles through the spacious courtyard before the palace gate.

Then the second pile of straw wove itself into figures and went to fetch another one the same way, also circling around.

Then came the third, the fourth...

The Chenzhou talisman art that Xiong Shan specialized in had excellent camouflage here. Under the talisman’s effects, those straw corpse-drivers looked like locals to the real locals.

Because these fake locals kept appearing, going in, and circling, the real local corpse-drivers outside could only keep lining up and waiting their turn.

It was a loophole, basically. They had jammed up the positions.

Once the original eight piles of straw had all become corpse-drivers, Xiong Shan summoned another eight.

By then, he was already feeling the strain.

Still, Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng both looked at him with a little more respect because of it.

This was simultaneous control of eight puppets, and he was only somewhat strained.

Thinking back to how Little Yuanhou had used Li Hua as a comparison against him, Tan Wenbin had to admit that the overall quality and strength of Xiong Shan’s team really was far above his own.

But his own team was more well-rounded. For example, Xiong Shan’s team did not have a single person who could sit at the general’s VIP table and mooch a meal. His team did.

Still, the real credit had to go to Little Yuanhou’s intelligence.

It was Little Yuanhou’s brain, and his deeper understanding of River walk, that had lifted their team to another level.

At that moment, the Unseeables suddenly stopped coming out.

They began forming hand seals and casting curses.

Wisps of black mist rose upward from below, gathering in the air into a black vortex.

Xiong Shan froze for a second, his face turning dim. “Is it over?”

Tan Wenbin let out a sigh of relief. “It worked.”

Very soon, the black vortex began to break apart, turning back into stream after stream of black qi that returned to each Unseeable’s body.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

All the straw poles snapped. The straw men fell apart as well, and all the Unseeables riding the poles crashed to the ground.

After finishing their hand seals, they all returned to the palace, and everything fell silent again.

Tan Wenbin clapped his hands. “All right, that was the signal Little Yuanhou sent us.”

At that moment, Xiong Shan wiped the sweat from his face and suddenly said, “You people really do have it much easier than we do in the jianghu.”

Tan Wenbin glanced at him. “The job’s only half done. Don’t start wagging your tail yet.”

Xiong Shan stiffened. There was no anger in his face, only shame.

Tan Wenbin himself came from humbler roots than most drifters. He had not even originally belonged to the occult world, just been used as a temporary plaque.

But he really did look down a little on some of Xiong Shan’s habits. Always probing and testing people no matter the situation, and always ready to call in favors.

That really had nothing to do with background. A person spends their whole life breaking through their own limitations. The moment you get tired and stop, those limitations turn into a cage and trap you inside.

You really are not suited to walking this river anymore.

Tan Wenbin waved a hand. “Let’s go. Time to regroup.”

…

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