The mourning hall lay not far from Five Lakes Hall, its white silk banners fluttering in the cold night wind.
This night had lasted far too long—perhaps a dozen chapters long—and it was finally time for it to end. In the distance, the sky seemed to begin to pale. Qian Chen stepped into the mourning hall. In the center rested a fine outer coffin holding the remains of Hong Sihai's sworn brother, Bi Tongtian.
Huang Yuhan's corpse lay upon a low couch nearby.
His ruddy face had turned purplish, yet the expression upon it was entirely relaxed and composed. He had died from a heavy blow to the chest.
Qian Chen placed the heads of four Lords—Dawn-Crowing, Jiaodou, Ghost-Devouring, and Flying Yellow—before the altar. Hong Sihai was overwhelmed with grief. Grasping Bi Tongtian's coffin, he muttered incoherently, "Second Brother, the heads of those who killed you... I brought them! I have avenged you!..."
Qian Chen had no mind to listen to this.
He noticed someone burning paper money in a courtyard nearby. Parting the curtains around the mourning hall, Qian Chen saw the youth who had earlier hidden in the kitchen tending a brazier in the wind. Far too many people from the Four Seas Hall had died tonight. The youth wept breathlessly, clutching paper money and nearly fainting, his thin voice carrying over the breeze.
"Uncle Wang, Auntie Hua... Cook Fan... and Uncle Yuhan! Have a safe journey..."
Numerous hidden sentries from the Four Seas Hall guarded the mourning hall's perimeter. Yet even those disciples lurking in the shadows looked toward the hall with sorrow and reverence; Huang Yuhan had been a man of deep charisma. As Qian Chen stepped outside, a sentry posted nearby approached him and bowed. "Are you Great Grandmaster Qian?"
Qian Chen nodded. "I am."
The sentry looked up. "Great Grandmaster Qian, I heard earlier that you uncovered the murderer of Grandmaster Liang Dou, captured Flying Yellow Lord, and unraveled the mystery of Eldest Master Tang's death. Please, Great Grandmaster, help us find the murderer who assassinated Grand Steward Huang! We cannot accept this!"
"Steward Huang entrusted his life to us. Earlier, another brother and I noticed that Steward Huang trusted you deeply, Mister Qian. When the steward went to meet you alone, my companion and I tried to dissuade him, but he ordered us outside to stand watch... It was clear that you were someone to be trusted. We brothers were responsible for Steward Huang's safety. Now that he has been murdered, the only reason we still cling to life is to find the culprit!"
"I have actually deduced who killed Brother Huang," Qian Chen said with a sigh. "I only feel sorrow for Brother Huang."
The guard asked excitedly, "Please tell us, Great Grandmaster!"
"It was Sun-Chasing Lord. He can use earth escape."
"Impossible... Steward Huang buried ground-listening urns throughout the entire Four Seas Hall and posted men to listen day and night. Anyone digging a tunnel or moving underground would be detected immediately. The defenses here are watertight. No one could possibly infiltrate without alerting the guards. Though Steward Huang did not bring guards with him to maintain solemnity and set up the mourning hall with his own hands, we searched the mourning hall inside and out more than once beforehand."
"No..." Qian Chen shook his head. "There is one place you wouldn't search!"
"Are you referring to the coffin, sir?" Hong Sihai said in a deep voice, having stepped out of the mourning hall upon hearing the conversation.
Qian Chen nodded. "Indeed. Hero Bi is your sworn brother, Hall Master. Out of respect, no one would open the coffin to inspect it."
"Then open the coffin!" Hong Sihai said. "I fear it might already be too late. You were not here earlier, Mister Qian, and failed to expose Sun-Chasing Lord's plot in time. In the chaos following Yuhan's death, Sun-Chasing Lord must have already fled!"
"It is not too late!" the guard ventured boldly to interject. "I have been guarding outside the mourning hall the entire time, and I saw no one leave. Besides me, one hundred and thirty brothers have kept this mourning hall and Five Lakes Hall under airtight surveillance. Even during the height of the chaos, men stood firm at their posts. Though eighty-nine of us died, none of the living ever abandoned their duty."
"Such is the rule established by the grand steward!"
Qian Chen remarked with emotion, "No wonder the Four Seas Hall could become a pillar of the martial world. With disciples like these, how could it not flourish?"
"Without Yuhan, there would be no Four Seas Hall," Hong Sihai said sorrowfully. "Alas... though we crushed the Twelve Yuan Chen, so many righteous heroes, so many of my good brothers and friends, can never be brought back to life."
"Since there is a clue regarding Yuhan's death, open the coffin!"
Hong Sihai turned back into the mourning hall. Gazing at his sworn brother's coffin in silence for a long while, he suddenly struck the lid with his palm. The fine yellow rosewood lid, weighing several hundred jin, flew open under the blow. Leaning over to inspect the interior, he saw that Bi Tongtian's corpse was already bloated like a giant; the minced flesh within had fermented into corpse gas, gradually puffing out the human skin.
The sight was too tragic to behold. Overcome with grief, Hong Sihai turned his head away, unable to look any longer.
"It seems Sun-Chasing Lord is not inside... Perhaps he took advantage of the chaos to escape!"
Qian Chen looked down at Bi Tongtian's corpse inside the coffin and said quietly, "Earlier, when Dawn-Crowing Lord and the Ghosts of the Netherworld Pit infiltrated the Four Seas Hall to cause chaos, they were not only testing the hall's defenses, but also preparing for their next step. Dawn-Crowing Lord created explosions with thunder-fire not just to sow confusion, but to grant Sun-Chasing Lord an opportunity to slip underground into the Four Seas Hall.
"The vibrations from the explosions masked the sound of earth escape.
"However, Huang Yuhan was resourceful, cautious, and vigilant. No one could pin down his movements, and even if they could, he would inevitably be heavily guarded by Four Seas Hall disciples in the most securely defended quarter of the entire compound. As long as Huang Yuhan lived, the Twelve Yuan Chen had no hope of tearing through the Four Seas Hall's defenses, creating an impasse for them.
"This scheme began early this morning, the moment Dawn-Crowing Lord and Sun-Chasing Lord delivered that 'arrival gift.'
"The Twelve Yuan Chen killed Hall Master Hong's sworn brother not only to provoke and spread terror, nor merely to scheme and cripple one of Hall Master Hong's hands. In fact, Hall Master Hong's injured hand was likely an accident, for with their petty minds, the Twelve Yuan Chen could never have guessed that Hall Master Hong would disregard his own safety just to protect Hero Bi Tiantong's corpse.
"Their goal was merely to set a trap—to send an object that had never been there into the very heart of the Four Seas Hall's defenses.
"And that was the corpse of Hall Master Hong's sworn brother...
"Hall Master Hong shared a deep bond of brotherhood with him and was bound to set up a mourning hall to pay respects. In such a perilous hour, Hall Master Hong could not afford to leave his post frequently to mourn, so the mourning hall could only be established near Five Lakes Hall—the center of the entire Four Seas Hall, its most solemn ground.
"Thus, a flaw opened in what was once an impenetrable defense. They first used Dawn-Crowing Lord's thunder-fire to cause explosions, facilitating Sun-Chasing Lord's infiltration. This window had to be brief. The Twelve Yuan Chen must have calculated the exact hour of Bi Tiantong's encoffining and launched a sudden strike just as he was about to be laid inside. At that moment, the coffin was not yet at the center of the defenses.
"Sun-Chasing Lord could use earth escape to slip into the place where the coffin rested and climb inside.
"From there, he needed only to wait for the Four Seas Hall disciples to carry the coffin into the mourning hall. At that time, Brother Huang was the focus of rigorous protection, and those among the Twelve Yuan Chen operating under hidden identities could not get close to him. So they chose a place where Brother Huang would inevitably appear... As Hall Master Hong's grand steward, Hall Master Hong would naturally entrust the arrangement of his sworn brother's mourning hall to Brother Huang.
"And Brother Huang, wishing to maintain solemnity, would not bring a large entourage to disturb the hall's quietude.
"That was their chance...
"Sun-Chasing Lord had long lain in ambush within the mourning hall, seizing the opportunity to assassinate Brother Huang!"
Hong Sihai realized the truth in an instant. Qian Chen's insight into the Twelve Yuan Chen's plan was clear as a blazing fire, his scrutiny frighteningly meticulous. Hong Sihai could not help but marvel, "Your intellect is truly extraordinary, Mister Qian. With your analysis, this plan was indeed exceptionally bold, cunning, and airtight. Let alone the rest of you..." He turned to comfort the guard. "Was even I not manipulated by them?
"The Twelve Yuan Chen are sinister and vicious. If not for Mister Qian's help this time, the righteous path of the martial world would surely have suffered a catastrophe."
"There is one flaw in this plan!" Qian Chen said calmly.
"What flaw?"
"Weight... With an extra person inside the coffin, the weight changed! Wouldn't the pallbearers notice?" A spirit talisman suddenly appeared in Qian Chen's hand, and he slapped it firmly onto the forehead of the bloated corpse within the coffin.
Hong Sihai's expression changed drastically. He raised his fist, about to smash down on the corpse.
At that moment, the corpse in the coffin suddenly moved. Without bending its legs, it rose straight up. Fetid corpse pus abruptly erupted across its body. The Bi Tiantong lying in the coffin was shockingly nothing more than a human skin draped over Sun-Chasing Lord! Packed with corpse fluid and supported by the Tortoise Breathing Technique, he had quietly infiltrated the most heavily defended place in the Four Seas Hall.
From the moment the Twelve Yuan Chen returned Bi Tongtian's corpse to the assassination of Huang Yuhan, every part of the plan had interlocked seamlessly.
Originally, they might have planned to use the corpse to spread poison or breed a nest of venomous insects. In Qian Chen's memory, Mist-Riding Lord possessed an exquisite method of cultivating poison with corpses; by embedding a mother gu inside Bi Tongtian's remains, they could have unleashed a plague of virulent gu during the mourning period, causing even greater destruction than this. But Qian Chen's slaying of Mist-Riding Lord had disrupted the plan, forcing Sun-Chasing Lord to take his place.
Qian Chen said coldly, "Sun-Chasing Lord, have you not noticed that you can no longer take off that skin?"
Sun-Chasing Lord, still draped in Bi Tongtian's human skin, stammered with great difficulty, "What... what did you do to me?"
"I merely gave Hero Bi Tiantong the chance to avenge himself with his own hands!" Qian Chen said coldly. "If you had not been so cruel and utterly depraved, I would never have done this, for it desecrates the dead... But used on the likes of you, I believe Hero Bi Tiantong would be willing."
"What did you do?!" Sun-Chasing Lord let out a heart-wrenching shriek. He clawed frantically at the human skin upon him. Yet the bloated, pallid skin seemed to have regained the elasticity of life, turning ruddy and taut. A bizarre smile formed upon Bi Tiantong's face. The skin clung tightly to Sun-Chasing Lord, absorbing his blood, flesh, and bone marrow.
The sight was so uncanny and horrifying that both Hong Sihai and the guards who rushed in stood petrified.
Sun-Chasing Lord wailed incessantly. This cruel, cold-blooded killer screamed in greater terror than a young girl. Right before their eyes, he was drained by the human skin until he was reduced to an empty husk. The human skin spat out a tiny hoe, smiled wickedly, and lay back down in the coffin. By now, Bi Tiantong had regained the appearance of a normal corpse, refilled with flesh and blood and supported by a skeleton.
Though it had been seized from another.
"Who told you to go too far? Three days and three nights of torture filled Bi Tiantong with boundless resentment and fury. After his death, his corpse became the ultimate vessel for demonic magical implements. Had someone of the demonic path seen it, they would surely have regarded it as an invaluable treasure. That hatred lingered on the only intact human skin left of the corpse. The moment the coffin opened, I felt that dense malice.
"Without dissolving this rancor, how could the dead rest in peace? Thus, I used a Spirit-Channeling Possession Talisman to connect with the resentment Bi Tongtian left behind, giving him a chance to vent it. In doing so, a man like you receives his due retribution, and Hero Bi can finally rest."
Sensing that the resentment upon the human skin was gradually dissipating, Qian Chen used a Sweet Dew Talisman to purify the remaining rancor on the corpse and laid it back into the coffin.
Had anyone from the demonic path witnessed this, they would have cursed Qian Chen furiously for wasting heavenly treasures.
Using the corpse of a martial artist who had broken through the Sensing bottleneck of worldly primordial qi as material, torturing him cruelly for three days and three nights while he clung to life, steeping him in venomous resentment, and finally using a secret technique to stir that malice so it devoured another martial artist brimming with vital essence and blood—the intertwined hatred of both men upon that human skin would have forged an incomparable embryo for a magical implement.
Yet Qian Chen had guided the vital essence devoured by the skin to restore flesh and bone rather than further reinforcing the skin itself... More than half of its potential was already wasted; even with the most meticulous refinement, it would be difficult to preserve the skin's instinct to consume essence and blood. In the end, he had even cleansed the malice with a Sweet Dew Talisman... utterly ruining this supreme material!
Qian Chen walked away with casual ease, paying no heed to the wary, fearful glances the others cast his way.
Why should a cultivator care so much about how others looked upon him? Having a clear conscience was enough!
Uncorking the red gourd at his back, Qian Chen raised it from afar to toast Huang Yuhan. "Brother Huang, drink this cup, and have a safe journey..."
He poured out the spiritual spring water from the gourd, offering a measure of spiritual qi to heaven and earth.
Chapter 29