Chapter 11 What Treasure Could It Be?

Leaving the village chief, the group hurried towards the Wu family's mansion, their destination being the Dahe Niangniang Temple. They needed to find Dahe Niangniang's treasure before nightfall.

"What could it be?" Lei Mingyu frowned. "Will Dahe Niangniang cry if she can't find it at night?"

"Could it be that skeleton?" Fatty turned his head.

Chen Hao hesitated for a moment, then said in a somewhat uncertain tone, "Perhaps, but I always feel that this matter isn't that simple. I think… that thing should be related to the paper scholar."

Jiang Cheng ignored their conversation and turned to Yu Chengmu. "Mr. Yu," Jiang Cheng said, walking beside Yu Chengmu, engaging in a friendly conversation, "Please tell us about the taboos of corpse driving."

Yu Chengmu glanced at him, his smile not reaching his eyes. "Telling you about it isn't a problem, but is young friend Jiang willing to believe the words of an old fogey like me?"

"Mr. Yu is highly respected. If you are willing to teach us, this junior will be eternally grateful," Chen Hao chimed in.

"Hehe." Yu Chengmu stroked his goatee and chuckled a few times. "Alright, I don't know much, so I'll just say a little bit."

"Corpse driving, also known as spirit shifting, is a part of the Wu culture, and together with Gu poison and Luohua Dongnu, it is known as the Three Evils of Xiangxi."

"In ancient times, there were eight professions, and corpse driving was the leader. Corpse drivers hold a very high position in the Yin profession. At the same time, this lineage has the most cumbersome rules. Simply put, there are three that can be driven and three that cannot."

"The so-called three that can be driven refers to three types of people who were beheaded, strangled, or died standing in a cage. Corpse drivers can accept these three types of corpses."

"Legend has it that because these people all died against their will, their resentment is suppressed in their bodies. They are unwilling to die, miss their relatives, and are attached to their homeland. Therefore, incantations can be used to hook out their souls, and after obtaining the corpse's consent, it is treated with secret methods and suppressed within the body. Then, it is driven to cross mountains and ridges, or travel by boat, to return to their hometown, see their relatives one last time, and fulfill their wishes."

"The so-called three that cannot be driven refers to three types of people who died of illness, drowned themselves, or were struck by lightning and had incomplete limbs. Corpse drivers will never accept these three types of corpses."

"Among them, the souls of those who died of illness have already been taken away by Impermanence, and no matter how great the corpse driver's ability is, he would not dare to ask for them from Impermanence."

"As for those who drowned or hanged themselves, their souls are entangled by those dirty things, and they may be fighting over them. If the corpse driver rashly intervenes, he will be burned."

"Those who die from lightning strikes are all people with deep sins. Driving corpses for such people will ruin their Dao practice."

"Most of the corpses after being burned are disfigured and incomplete, making it impossible to identify their faces and origins. Even if such corpses are driven back to their hometowns, relatives will find it difficult to recognize them, and thus…" Yu Chengmu paused, "They won't pay."

After listening to Yu Chengmu's words, the atmosphere became stagnant. After a moment, someone spoke, "What do you think… how did the night watchman die?" Jia Jinliang's tone was playful.

"He should have died of illness," Chen Hao speculated based on the village chief's words.

Fatty swallowed secretly and said in a very small voice, "Perhaps he drowned, too. Don't forget that the corpses we saw in the village were almost all wet."

"That means whether the night watchman died of illness or drowned, he would fall into the category of those who cannot be driven," Jiang Cheng said, stroking his chin. "As a night watchman, he wouldn't be unaware of this, so tonight's corpse driving… shouldn't exist at all."

"This is a conspiracy," A Biao said in a hoarse voice with a hint of vigilance, "It's directed at us."

Yu Chengmu narrowed his eyes, put his hands behind his back, and paced gently. "Think about each stage of this mission together. The first night was guarding the spirit, which corresponds to the spirit guard. The second night was choosing paper figures, which corresponds to the paper craftsman. The third night was sewing up corpses in the Yizhuang, which corresponds to the corpse sewer. The fourth night was drawing faces in the ancestral hall, which corresponds to the corpse painter. And tonight… our mission is corpse driving."

Jia Jinliang and A Biao frowned slightly, and the look in their eyes towards Yu Chengmu changed. It seemed that they didn't understand why he was telling Jiang Cheng and the others so much.

Yu Chengmu's words stopped there, but Chen Hao and the others quickly reacted, "Guarding the spirit, preparing underworld money, encoffining the corpse, drawing the face, driving the corpse… the order is wrong, it's reversed!"

Yu Chengmu nodded slightly, his face grave. "That's right, it's reversed. If I'm not mistaken, there may be one last step tonight, which is exactly what we need to do: retrieving corpses from the water, which also fits our identity as corpse retrievers."

Fatty raised his hand, interrupting inappropriately. "Mr. Yu, you don't need to guess that. The village chief already said it. His original words were that after the night watchman's body is thrown into the river, Dahe Niangniang's corpse will float to the surface, and then we need to hurry up and retrieve the corpse, seal it in a coffin, and finally nail the coffin lid shut with seventeen 3-cun (approximately 10 cm) long soul-suppressing nails." Fatty, relying on his excellent lung capacity, said it all in one breath, his thinking unusually coherent.

Yu Chengmu: "…It's really hard for you, you fatso."

Seeing that Yu Chengmu was silent, Fatty suddenly lowered his voice, a little self-doubtful. "What, am I wrong?"

Yu Chengmu took a deep breath, "No."

As he spoke, they had already returned to the Wu family's mansion. The group did not hesitate and went straight to the Dahe Niangniang Temple.

Stepping into the temple gate, perhaps it was a psychological effect, they suddenly felt a chill. It wasn't entirely cold, but a pure chill, like a thin blade scraping against one's hairs.

The layout of the temple was the same. The hanging coarse white cloth and white streamers were already scattered. Everyone looked up and faced the eyes of the Dahe Niangniang statue.

The exquisiteness of the statue was something Jiang Cheng and the others had never seen before. The woman's beauty was unostentatious. Her eyebrows, lips, and even the wrinkles on her clothes were all lifelike.

It was as if a gust of wind would blow, and the woman would jump down and dance gracefully beside them.

Yu Chengmu was the first to look away, his eyes scanning the not-so-large temple. "Time is limited. We must find that treasure before night falls. Everyone, split up and search. This way, we'll be more efficient…"

Before he could finish his words, Yu Chengmu stopped because he saw Jiang Cheng walking towards the statue, and then with a "plop," he knelt on the prayer cushion and kowtowed respectfully.

While kowtowing, he muttered something. It was easy to guess that they were some polite words.

The others seemed to have found the key to survival and immediately followed suit, one after another going to worship Dahe Niangniang. Soon, they spontaneously formed a line. Yu Chengmu's throat moved slightly, and after a while, he also went to join the line.

He was the last one, in front of Jia Jinliang and A Biao.

Among these people, the most devout was Fatty. He kowtowed a full dozen times. If Lei Mingyu, who was behind him in line, hadn't stopped him, he would have kowtowed a few more times.