Zhang Mei Jiang’s concerns made a great deal of sense.
So much sense, in fact, that even the eyeball itself sank into a long period of contemplation and self-doubt.
It jumped out of Qin Shu’s pocket and silently bounced away into the distance.
Yuanbao told Qin Shu that the eyeball was simply beginning to question its entire existence and wanted some time alone to clear its head. It would come back after it had managed to sort itself out.
Qin Shu did not press the matter. Holding Pei Zhao’s hand, he headed back toward the edge of the cave, and even when the sheer cliff appeared directly in front of them, neither of them stopped walking.
Getting back inside Phoenix Village was simple. After all, it had been the owner of the bright-red coffin who transported them near the cave tombs in the first place, so naturally, he could send them straight back just as easily.
For a decomposing corpse and a dead soul already teetering on the edge of collapse, being capable of something like this was honestly impressive. He certainly lived up to his reputation as the strongest Grand Shaman of his generation.
“Zhaozhao, what do you want those stalactites for?”
“They’re pretty.” The little stones in Pei Zhao’s pocket knocked against one another as he walked, producing a series of dull clicks. “There aren’t any impurities. They’re very pure. Once they’re polished, they’ll sparkle.”
He said it with complete seriousness.
Cute.
Qin Shu’s lips curved upward. “I see. But what kind of tools do you use to polish them? Do we need to find some kind of stone-processing workshop?”
“We can commission Chang Liu Yi to customize them. She makes things beautifully.” Pei Zhao shook the cat’s-eye bracelet around his wrist. It brushed against the red jadeite bracelet on Qin Shu’s wrist and produced a clearer, more crystalline chime.
“That makes so much sense. Then I’ll talk to her when we get back to Jiangcheng and have her make something for you.” Qin Shu abruptly changed his tone and put on his most shameless expression. “But I want one too. I want exactly the same design as yours. Okay? Okay?”
“Mm. There are enough stones.” Pei Zhao was not surprised at all. He had deliberately taken extra.
The two of them chatted as they walked. Beneath their feet, the ground gradually became flatter and softer, and the familiar light of the village slowly fell across them once more.
The cliff had already vanished without a trace.
Qin Shu looked up. Beneath the night sky, Phoenix Village glittered under a brilliant canopy of stars, its houses brightly lit. Bridges with upturned railings stretched across the mountainside, while the homes surrounding them released the warm fragrance of cooking fires.
In the middle of the square, the octagonal Drum Tower was covered in strings of lights. They resembled the brilliant wings of a phoenix wrapped around the structure, creating the warm illusion of flickering flames.
Several four- or five-year-old children were being chased around the square by elders trying to feed them dinner. The elders’ hair was already gray, yet every last one of them could run like the wind, catching the children one after another without difficulty.
One slap sent an entire group of children sprawling. Wails immediately erupted all across the square, displaying a very distinctive local Phoenix Village flavor.
“Ha. This place really is full of life.” Qin Shu stared for several seconds before chuckling. “I hope that so-called breach in the world doesn’t start leaking from here.”
“Let’s eat at the village chief’s house first. We need her permission before we can inspect the Drum Tower. If we want to find the Cave God’s corpse, starting with the Drum Tower won’t be wrong.” Pei Zhao studied the fiery-red light strips wound around the tower thoughtfully.
“Hungry?”
“No.”
“Zhaozhao, do you actually believe there’s a hole in this world? From the way Grand Shaman A-Bu spoke, it sounded like there might be more than one. Other places could have them too…”
“What would he gain by lying to us?” Pei Zhao asked in return.
“Maybe lying to me wouldn’t benefit him much, but what if he deliberately wanted me to trust him so he could use me as a messenger? You wouldn’t doubt me, right?”
Pei Zhao raised an eyebrow slightly but did not refute him.
“Exactly. Maybe he deliberately took advantage of my innocent and gullible personality so he could turn me into a tool and use me to deceive you, all for the sake of accomplishing some mysterious goal… I don’t know.” Qin Shu laughed and lowered his voice. “Better safe than sorry. Let’s not tell anyone else about this yet.”
“Mm.” Pei Zhao paused before adding, “You think about too many things. You’re not innocent or gullible at all.”
“What?! How am I not innocent? I’ve only ever held your hand in my entire life! My heart hurts. Pei Zhao, you heartless man. Bad guy.”
Pei Zhao: “…”
He froze.
Qin Shu’s acting was so outrageously dramatic that Pei Zhao had no idea how to respond. He stood there hesitating for ages and still failed to produce a single rebuttal.
He was also genuinely afraid that if he said one more word, Qin Shu might start fake-crying on the spot.
“Hahahahahaha!”
At that exact moment, a loud, vigorous laugh rang out nearby.
Qin Shu turned toward the sound and immediately recognized the person approaching them.
The village chief, Liu Bai Long.
She had vitiligo, with numerous sharply defined white patches across her face. The right side was especially noticeable, where a large white patch spread from the corner of her eye and continued upward into her scalp—a very characteristic manifestation of the depigmenting skin condition.
Vitiligo was not contagious, but it could make someone’s appearance extremely distinctive. There was no possibility that Qin Shu would mistake her for anyone else.
More importantly, Liu Bai Long was not ashamed of it in the slightest. She had deliberately added facial tattoos that emphasized the borders of the white patches, shaping them into something resembling a light, graceful white dragon resting between her brows and eyes.
“Boys, I thought the two of you had fallen down Granny A-Shu’s well! Turns out you were over here fooling around instead, hahahaha!” Liu Bai Long had obviously heard Qin Shu’s performance just now and could not suppress her amusement. The white dragon on her face seemed to dance along with her laughter. “Hungry?”
“Starving. Cough. Sorry, Village Chief Liu. We’re late. We almost got lost.” Qin Shu did not mention anything that had happened inside the cave, deliberately putting on an embarrassed expression instead.
“It’s fine. What’s there to apologize for? You’re guests. Of course you aren’t familiar with all the winding little paths around here, and at night they’re even harder to see. I was going to have A-Shui come pick you up for dinner, but that brat disappeared somewhere too… Honestly. Come on, come on. Let’s get you fed first!”
Liu Bai Long had an extremely hearty personality. As she led them toward her house, she occasionally stopped to chat with passing villagers, teased a few of the children who had been slapped into tears, and enthusiastically introduced the medicinal-herb fields and little flower gardens along the way.
She looked like someone who genuinely loved life and did not seem malicious in the slightest. As village chief, she was clearly respected and well loved, and she seemed to be living quite comfortably.
She herself was very strong, and her husband was an entire head taller than she was, his whole body packed with muscle. He was a corpse herder who looked considerably more reliable than Liu Yang Yang.
The couple had no children. They lived in a simple three-story house, cooking and eating around a warm brick hearth, with the entire home kept tidy and cozy.
Her husband handled the cooking, and he was extremely good at it. Perhaps because cultivation required them to pay attention to their diets from childhood, nearly every man in Phoenix Village was an excellent cook, especially when it came to preparing huge communal dishes.
Every dish on the table came in portions that someone from Jiangcheng would have found unimaginable. Qin Shu really was hungry, so he simply sat down and ate generously until his entire body felt comfortable.
The spotless plates were the highest praise a cook could receive. The towering man, nearly two meters tall, slowly revealed a somewhat reserved smile as he looked at Qin Shu. “If you ever have a corpse, come find me.”
“Shoo, shoo. What kind of strange things are you saying in front of children? Aren’t you afraid of frightening them?”
Liu Bai Long laughingly smacked her husband, then poured hot tea for the two boys. Afterward, her expression became slightly more serious. “Before we discuss anything important, I owe you an apology. We shouldn’t have hidden Phoenix Village’s special rules from you in the first place. We’ll pay more attention to that from now on.
“If there’s anything else about our hospitality that hasn’t been up to standard, please forgive us. The village is too isolated. A-Shui and the others know how to play around on their phones and sell mountain goods, but honestly, none of them are very good at dealing with guests. They’re all a little silly.”
Qin Shu smiled. “Chen Shui isn’t silly. I couldn’t resist the temptation and already bought a huge batch of mountain goods from him. I’m planning to order more.”
“Hahahahahaha! As long as you like them. Tomorrow I’ll send this giant of mine up the mountain to gather some rarer things for you. We’ll pack everything together with your luggage and send it to the airport. This time I’m not charging you a cent.”
Liu Bai Long joked with Qin Shu for a while before her mood gradually sank again. She sighed and poured herself a cup of rice wine.
“Even I haven’t seen outsiders in a long time. Phoenix Village rarely receives guests who stay overnight. If it weren’t for that child Mei Jiang this time… Her temperament was too fierce. Ah. I didn’t teach her well enough either. I share some responsibility.”
“Village Chief, the only person responsible is her father—the deranged murderer who caused all of this. He’s the one who ruined everyone’s lives. And those people at the First Municipal Hospital too… Mm. At least they died miserably enough.”
Qin Shu paused. “Everyone else was a victim of this tragedy. There’s no reason to keep passing the cycle of self-blame along. All we can do now is let the victims leave peacefully, without any regrets.”
“That’s true. Ah. Regrets are something we living people can keep for ourselves. Mei Jiang already did everything she could. She was a gifted child, a child favored by the divine. And she never betrayed the Cave God’s favor. That fierce determination of hers was worthy of the spirit of a daughter of Phoenix Village.”
Liu Bai Long put down her wine cup. Whenever she mentioned the Cave God, her expression became especially devout, and her tone turned solemn. “But I’m sure Liu Yang Yang already mentioned the danger involved in the joint burial. The dangerous factor isn’t Mei Jiang. It’s… Xu Qian’s instability. I understand children who grew up in Phoenix Village, but Xu Qian is an outsider, a malicious ghost from elsewhere. And she has been touched by the Cave God’s power.”
“Touched by the Cave God’s power… Village Chief, you mean the secret art the Cave God bestowed upon Zhang Mei Jiang?” Qin Shu asked without betraying anything in his expression.
“It seems you know more than I expected.” Liu Bai Long raised her brows slightly. The white dragon across her face shifted with the movement of her skin, appearing to twist slowly. “The Cave God gave her… no, gave both of them the power to avenge themselves. It was an extraordinarily rare act of mercy.”
At this point, Liu Bai Long patted her husband. The man immediately understood, got up, and went into the next room. He soon returned carrying an antique-looking wooden box without a lock.
She opened it, revealing a box full of dark-green mulberry leaves. At the same time, an exceptionally fresh fragrance surged outward and rapidly spread throughout the room, overwhelming every trace of food and rice wine left in the air.
Qin Shu knew what that meant the instant he smelled it. For ordinary plants to release such a refreshing fragrance, the spiritual energy contained within them had to be extraordinarily dense.
This loose box of green mulberry leaves was probably even more precious than the spirit tea at Lin Shi Yu’s place. Like the hand cream Pei Zhao had given him, it was something ordinary independent cultivators would rarely have a chance to encounter.
Liu Bai Long reached into the thick layers of mulberry leaves and removed two strange snow-white cocoons, then personally placed one in Qin Shu’s palm and the other in Pei Zhao’s.
Her expression was solemn. “Since the two of you already know about the secret art, you should understand our concerns. Xu Qian is not an evil person, but a malicious ghost is still a malicious ghost, and the power of the secret art is too strong and unpredictable. One moment of carelessness could cause it to go out of control. Mr. Qin, even you need to put your own safety first.”
“Okay. What are these cocoons for?”
“These are Dead Gu. I’m the only person in Phoenix Village who can make them.”
A hint of pride appeared in Liu Bai Long’s eyes. “I imagine neither of you is familiar with the process of refining Gu. To put it simply, a Gu creature is an insect king. You seal hundreds or thousands—no, sometimes even tens of thousands—of insects together inside a closed container. There’s plenty of spiritual energy, but absolutely no food. If they want to survive, the insects have no choice but to kill and devour one another…”
The moment Qin Shu heard this, his hand silently slipped into his sleeve. Two fingers swiftly caught Yuanbao and covered the little centipede’s cold, hard head.
Too scary. Yuanbao wasn’t listening, wasn’t listening. Qin Shu deliberately generated a pile of mental noise to interfere with the explanation.
Yuanbao: “…”
Liu Bai Long continued, “In the end, only one insect survives. After it devours all of its own kind and truly becomes a Gu creature… all that resentment, pain, struggle, and slaughter becomes nourishment that makes the insect king stronger. But the Dead Gu you’re holding are different.”
Her sudden change in direction immediately caught Qin Shu’s interest.
He lightly squeezed the shell of the snow-white cocoon. It had a fascinating texture—both soft and firm at the same time, like a tiny lump of melting frost that somehow never actually turned into liquid.
He asked curiously, “You don’t have to make the insects kill each other to refine a Dead Gu?”
“You do, but not very much. These little things can only really be called survivors. They lost in the struggle but somehow avoided being devoured by the insect king.” Liu Bai Long laughed. “Because they learned how to camouflage themselves. Through a special way of spinning silk, they create a cocoon around themselves that their own kind can’t recognize. Think of it like the radar-absorbent coating on a stealth aircraft.”
“That’s incredible!”
“Shameless. Cowards. Annoying insects,” Liu Bai Long’s husband muttered faintly, immediately earning another slap from her.
“Well, he isn’t exactly wrong. These insects are the highest-grade deserters imaginable. They hide inside the cocoons they build and shamelessly start playing dead. Even after the sealed container is opened again, they stubbornly continue pretending to be dead and can never become genuine Gu creatures.”
Liu Bai Long narrowed her eyes slightly as she spoke. The white patches on her face subtly shifted with the lines of her skin.
Her tone, however, remained serious. “Gu creatures are tools for killing. Although these things are extremely precious and have many uses… they cannot kill anyone. No matter how extraordinary the insect is, it’s no different from a dead object. That’s why I call them Dead Gu.”
Qin Shu finally understood. He cautiously squeezed the cocoon again. “So we keep these until the funeral? If something dangerous happens, can we use them to play dead too?”
“Exactly. If anything goes wrong during the joint burial, swallow the cocoon immediately. It can conceal every trace of fluctuation from your soul. A single Dead Gu is enough to withstand the soul-searching art of a Nascent Soul cultivator, and ordinary detection techniques won’t find anything either. You can disguise yourself as a completely, thoroughly dead corpse.”
Elio’s Notes: Nascent Soul is a high cultivation stage commonly used in xianxia settings. Liu Bai Long’s comparison emphasizes just how powerful the Dead Gu’s concealment is.
Liu Bai Long once again showed a faint trace of pride. She was clearly extremely confident in the Dead Gu she had refined.
“…Village Chief, these are so valuable. They could save someone’s life at a critical moment. Wouldn’t it be better for you to keep them?” Qin Shu hesitated. “Xu Qian and I get along pretty well. Hurting me wouldn’t be that easy for her anyway, but that might not be true for everyone else.”
Liu Bai Long waved him off and resolutely refused to take them back. “Don’t be polite, don’t be polite. Precisely because they can save lives, I insist that you keep them. Phoenix Village hasn’t suffered a disaster in a hundred years. I have more Dead Gu than I could ever use, hahahaha… Besides, everyone qualified to participate in the joint burial is more capable than I am. With all of you there, if I can at least make sure your lives aren’t in danger, I’ll feel much more at ease.”
“Who exactly is qualified to participate in the joint burial?” Qin Shu raised an eyebrow. “Granny A-Shu? Grand Shaman Chen? Anyone else? Was Liu Yang Yang originally supposed to participate too?”
Liu Bai Long froze for an instant. Something strange flickered through her eyes before she slowly nodded. “Have you already met Granny A-Shu?”
Qin Shu smiled, his voice so natural that it sounded like nothing more than idle conversation. “Not yet. We were planning to visit her shop tomorrow. I heard Granny A-Shu is incredibly capable—blind in the eyes but clear in the heart. Apparently, the Gu she refines are among the highest quality in the entire village, and if you mention the name of someone she knows, you even get a discount.”
“That’s true. Granny A-Shu… is very capable. Mr. Qin, thank you for taking such care to learn about Phoenix Village. Thank you both for putting in so much effort.” Liu Bai Long’s attitude became slightly more solemn. There was something difficult to describe about it, but the strangeness vanished almost immediately.
Then she had her husband fetch a fresh pot of hot tea. She stopped drinking alcohol as well and, cradling the tea in her hands, began carefully explaining the process and precautions involved in the joint burial.
Time passed before they realized it.
By the time Liu Bai Long politely escorted them outside, Qin Shu was carrying a packed portion of spicy beef to eat with drinks later. The moon that had only just touched the edge of the mountainside earlier was now suspended high in the sky, surrounded by the deep, clear darkness of the mountain forest and countless glittering stars.
On the way back, Qin Shu kept his head tilted upward, fascinated by the night sky and unable to stop talking. “It’s amazing without light pollution. The Big Dipper is so bright… Zhaozhao, is that Sagittarius? No? Then what’s that one? Wow, you can even see the Milky Way so clearly…”
“Don’t look at the Milky Way,” Pei Zhao suddenly said. “The Milky Way is no good.”
“Oh.”
Qin Shu lowered his gaze and glanced at him. Then he abruptly fell silent and quietly quickened his pace toward their spacious courtyard.
Neither of them was in any hurry to go indoors and rest. Without discussing it, they both decided to stay outside for a while.
Two woven bamboo loungers. One little bamboo tea table. Several bottles of cold drinks. A pot of piping-hot blood-red sour soup carried out from the heated brick hearth. And a plate of wild greens and beef stir-fried with enough chili to kill someone.
Comfortable.
Qin Shu exhaled and lay back on the cool bamboo lounger as it gently rocked beneath him. He wanted to let himself relax for a little while, but no matter what he did, he could not manage it.
His curiosity was simply too strong. He suddenly sat upright again. “Zhaozhao, where exactly did you hide my birthday present?”
Pei Zhao speared a small piece of beef with a bamboo skewer and chewed it slowly, appearing much more relaxed than Qin Shu. “It isn’t midnight yet. I’m not telling you.”
“Then what are we supposed to do now? Oh my god, every day feels like a year…” Qin Shu muttered before becoming thoughtful. “Speaking of which, I think the village chief is a little strange, but there’s nothing obviously wrong with her. I checked carefully just now. Nothing unclean is possessing her, and her vitiligo really is just vitiligo.”
“She doesn’t have any obvious problems, but her husband does,” Pei Zhao replied softly. “That man isn’t alive.”
“…Hm?” Qin Shu froze. “But aren’t they all corpses? There aren’t any living people in Phoenix Village.”
Pei Zhao shook his head. He idly played with the cat’s-eye stones around his wrist, his voice growing even quieter. “Even if he left Phoenix Village, he still wouldn’t become alive. He’s the same as A-Dou.”
“The same as A-Dou… You mean that huge, muscular corpse who follows Chen Shui around?” Qin Shu gradually realized what Pei Zhao meant, experiencing the illusion of a chill running down his back. “The village chief’s husband has been dead all along?”
“Mm. He’s a pure corpse.”
“A pure corpse can walk around and do things on its own, act as vividly as a living person? The only people capable of doing something like that are…”
Corpse herders.
Only corpse herders.
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