The custom of the charity morgue had originated from a practice in the Song dynasty.
Among the clans across various regions, some branches were wealthy while others were poor. The rich would put up funds to establish a clan charity estate, which held not only ancestral shrines and communal fields, but even private tutors to teach the clan's impoverished children their letters.
Anywhere a wealthy person founded such an estate, it was praised by all as an act of great benevolence.
Naturally, maintaining an estate of such scale cost a fortune. As clans declined, many of these estates were eventually left with only a single purpose: storing unburied corpses.
This was especially true in a major city like Xianyang. Lying near an ancient ferry crossing, it saw merchants coming and going from north and south, alongside out-of-towners trying to make a living, so people inevitably died far from their ancestral homes.
The people of the Divine Land believed in returning to their roots upon death, like falling leaves returning to the earth. When these travelers died, they were often kept in a charity morgue, waiting for generous townspeople to take pity on them or for kin to arrive and transport their remains back home.
The Xianyang charity morgue was situated west of the city walls.
In ancient times, this area had been an imperial hunting ground, so the terrain was expansive, featuring vast forested hills and a Medicine King Temple.
Forested hills flanked both sides of the road leading to the morgue.
Many coffins rested within the woods as well, usually placed upon stone-and-brick platforms raised three inches off the ground and sheltered beneath curved brick domes.
Some had been there so long that the brickwork had collapsed and grown thick with moss...
Others had not even been given stone platforms, resting only on wooden trestles that had long since rotted and crumbled, leaving the blackened wood of the coffins cracked and splintered...
Seeing Li Yan and Sha Lifei looking around, Wang Daoxuan explained, "This is called temporary encoffining. According to funeral rites, a coffin must not touch the ground before it is buried in the earth. When descendants cannot break ground in time, or when someone dies away from home, their coffin is kept aboveground in temporary encoffining first."
Sha Lifei clicked his tongue. "Looks like no one cares about these ones. Poor during life, and unable to find peace in the soil after death. Truly..."
"It isn't just the poor," Wang Daoxuan said, shaking his head. "Many wealthy families do this as well."
Li Yan frowned. "Why?"
Wang Daoxuan chuckled wryly. "Because they want to find a satisfactory piece of auspicious land so burying their ancestors will bless their descendants. But prime feng shui spots are hard to come by, so many coffins belonging to wealthy households have sat unburied for over a decade."
"What a sin!" Sha Lifei cursed. "Those unfilial brats! Leaving their elders exposed to the wind and sun, denied rest in the earth just so they can chase wealth and rank—aren't they afraid of divine retribution?"
Wang Daoxuan sighed with some helplessness. "The imperial court has issued ban after ban against this, but to no avail. It all stems from high officials and nobles doing it, wealthy families imitating them, and commoners following suit in turn."
Hearing him explain, the two took turns asking questions.
"Daoist Wang, does feng shui really work?"
"Of course it does. Burial in an auspicious cavern along a spiritual vein blankets the spot in gang qi, bringing good fortune to future descendants. But as bloodlines thin with each generation, the effect diminishes. Even the finest auspicious cavern can only bless three generations.
"Yet a century is enough to forge a family's prosperity. That is why so many geomancers travel across the north and south—finding a single good cavern fetches a handsome price.
"Even so, these are merely minor trends!
"Look at the imperial clans and noble houses. Which of them hasn't spent vast manpower and silver searching for premier caverns? Yet beneath the grand tide of the mortal realm and human destiny, they all vanish like smoke.
"Take the Zhou family. When Monkey Zhou's mother died, he spent a fortune hiring a master from the Jiangxiang Sect in Ganzhou to locate an auspicious burial site, staging a lavish funeral. That was barely two or three years ago.
"When virtue does not match one's station, even the finest feng shui is useless..."
Chatting as they walked, the trio soon neared the charity morgue.
As the morgue serving Xianyang, it covered considerable ground. Yet having stood for so long, it looked rather dilapidated, with some of its earthen walls half-crumbled.
Li Yan had learned his lesson. Whenever he approached places like this, he made sure to form the Yang hand seal first and activate his divine sense of smell to check for anything unusual.
In an instant, an onslaught of odors flooded his nostrils.
Li Yan grimaced, nearly bowled over by the stench.
The scents wafting from rotting corpses of different vintages were truly difficult to stomach.
Seeing this, Wang Daoxuan smiled. "The Xianyang morgue is guarded year-round, and the City God Temple sends people regularly to perform rituals that cleanse foul, negative sha qi. No wicked creatures will cause trouble here.
"In remote areas, however, strange occurrences plague charity morgues all the time. The caretakers must be Xuanmen practitioners just to keep things suppressed..."
As they spoke, the trio entered the morgue.
Thanks to Li Yan's specific instructions and Sha Lifei's generous silver, Wu Laosi's coffin had been well cared for. It was kept in its own space, shielded from wind and rain.
Wang Daoxuan had purchased offerings along the way. After the three took turns burning incense, they arranged a date and time to move the coffin with the old caretaker before heading out.
Just outside the gate, Li Yan sensed something amiss.
He whipped his head around. Deep in the dense woods to the left, a figure clad in blood-soaked clothes, pierced through by iron chains, slowly raised an arm and pointed toward a certain direction.
It was identical to what he had seen in his dream that night!
A shiver ran down his spine. Li Yan reached for his blade while forming the Yang hand seal.
Yet his nose caught no unusual scent whatsoever.
In the blink of an eye, the figure vanished.
"What's wrong?" Sha Lifei asked hurriedly, noticing his reaction.
Li Yan's expression was grim. "I think I've been tainted by something unclean."
He then recounted what had happened in his dream the night before and what he had just witnessed.
"You're definitely seeing things!" Sha Lifei shook his head. "The Daoist and I didn't see a thing. Besides, you didn't smell anything either."
"No," Wang Daoxuan said, his brow furrowed. "The circumstances you describe match records I once read in an ancient text. It is likely a cold-altar wandering master!"
***
"Here, look."
Upon returning to Wendao Hall, Wang Daoxuan rummaged for quite a while before finding a page in a damaged ancient tome and pointing it out to Li Yan.
It read: *During the Daxing era, the Golden Tent Wolf Nation invaded south. In my dreams, I beheld my late master, and the same occurred in broad daylight, filling me with great dread. Later, guided by an itinerant Daoist, I learned of the cold-altar wandering master. I entered Mount Zhongnan, located a cold altar within a cavern, enshrined Heavenly Lord Chen, and inherited the lineage of Xixuan...*
Wang Daoxuan patiently explained, "This is a record from my Xixuan lineage, though unfortunately incomplete. Later, I consulted Senior Qingyangzi, and only then did I understand the lore of the cold-altar wandering master.
"You've seen a cold-altar rampaging soldier before; a cold-altar wandering master is somewhat similar. When certain masters of profound arts die without disciples to carry on their lineage's incense, they cast a ritual to transform into wandering spirits solely to seek out an heir for their legacy.
"This is also known as immortal destiny. In the chaotic decline of the late Tang, when demons flourished and the Dao waned, many lineages were severed, making the activity of cold-altar wandering masters most frequent. Some accounts filtered into folklore, giving rise to tales of immortals imparting the Dao in dreams..."
Li Yan frowned slightly. "Is there any danger?"
Wang Daoxuan said thoughtfully, "According to Senior Qingyangzi, when encountering such a situation, one need only follow the guidance to the cold altar. If you are unwilling to inherit it, that simply means the lineage's destined affinity has completely ended, and the spirit will not pester you further.
"Furthermore, such matters often depend on destiny. Did you encounter anything strange before this?"
"Strange doesn't begin to cover it..."
Li Yan sighed. Raising his palm to show the imprint of the nether warrant, he recounted what had happened in the cave and Luo Mingzi's warning.
"Then this is for the best," Wang Daoxuan said in a low voice. "Didn't Luo Mingzi say you needed to determine its origin first? Perhaps by following the cold-altar wandering master, you can trace it to its source!"
***
Over the next few days, the cold-altar wandering master appeared frequently.
Li Yan grew thoroughly annoyed, but he also figured out its pattern.
The entity occasionally showed up in his dreams, which could be avoided simply through spirit preservation. But whenever it appeared in broad daylight, no matter where Li Yan was, it always pointed southward.
And in that direction lay the Qinling Mountains!
Fortunately, just as Wang Daoxuan had said, aside from occasionally appearing to point the way, the figure did nothing else. Once Li Yan grew accustomed to it, his worries faded.
Of course, another item was added to his plans.
After escorting Wu Laosi's coffin back to his hometown, he would head into the Qinling Mountains first.
After all, this was an opportunity. If it proved more suitable for him, he would have a better choice when building his Daoist tower.
And so, before they knew it, the ninth day of the ninth month arrived.
The Double Ninth Festival: nine and nine return to truth, the primal beginning of the cycle—a day of great auspiciousness.
Since ancient times, common folk had observed customs on this day: ascending heights to pray for blessings, worshiping gods, honoring ancestors, and holding feasts to pray for longevity. In some places, harvest rituals offering sacrifices to Heaven were also held.
Today was the appointed day to meet Luo Mingzi and go to the mass graves to witness the investiture of the mountain god, so they rose early to prepare.
Before dawn broke, someone knocked at the door.
Li Yan opened it to find their neighbor, Granny Liu.
She carried a bamboo basket filled with a dozen persimmons, ciba cakes, and a small jug of wine, all neatly arranged and lovely to behold.
"Young Brother Li, it's the Double Ninth Festival, and I doubt you boys prepared a thing," Granny Liu said with a smile, handing the basket over. "Homemade. Have a taste."
"Granny, you're too kind."
Before Li Yan could say another word, Sha Lifei snatched the basket, grabbed a ciba cake, and stuffed it into his mouth, mumbling, "Delicious! Granny, your cooking is top-notch."
"Eat, eat, you unlucky wretch!"
Granny Liu's expression soured instantly.
Sha Lifei gave an impish chuckle and hurried to bring out a roast chicken wrapped in lotus leaves from inside. "Granny, don't be mad. Wishing you good health and peace."
Accepting the roast chicken, Granny Liu softened slightly and looked over the three of them. "Dressed so neatly—are you going climbing?"
With that, she hurried back to her house and returned with three sprigs of cornelian cherry, their leaves emerald green and berries red as fire. Handing them to Li Yan, she said, "You're all grown men who don't understand a thing. How can you climb heights without wearing cornelian cherry? You really can't manage a household without a woman."
"Right, right, of course," Sha Lifei humored her. "Granny Liu, we're pressed for time, so we must be off!"
With that, he ushered Li Yan and Wang Daoxuan outside, hurriedly shutting the door behind them.
"Hey! Hey!"
Unable to stop them, Granny Liu stamped her feet in annoyance. "You wicked bald rascal!"
Only after the three rode their horses out of Xianyang's city gates did Sha Lifei chuckle and say, "Gifts like that are only given by a mother-in-law to her future son-in-law. Granny Liu was probably looking to take you as a son-in-law!"
Li Yan stared blankly. Looking at Wang Daoxuan, who merely smiled without speaking, and then recalling what Granny Liu's daughter looked like, cold sweat beaded on his forehead. Cupping his hands, he said, "Thank you for saving me, Uncle Sha."
"As long as you know!"
Sha Lifei laughed heartily, handed out the cornelian cherry sprigs Granny Liu had given them, and each of them tucked one into their collars before spurring their horses toward the mass graves...
Chapter 84