Chapter 7: At A Loss For What To Do
“Is it that serious?”
Jiang Ce became serious.
Chen Mian had worked here for over thirty years, from a clueless young boy at the beginning to a steady veteran who had seen it all now, naturally possessing some capability.
Jiang Ce had long heard that the funeral home decades ago was not as peaceful as it is now; there were far more strange incidents back then, and schools did not have specialized funeral majors either—mostly masters teaching apprentices, passed down generation after generation.
Chen Mian originally was not in this line of work either, but a university student studying history, who entered the trade out of financial necessity, learned some skills from his master at the time, and stayed in this place for thirty years.
Some spiritual communication methods could also suppress these corpses, and Chen Mian had good comprehension, surpassing his master; over the decades, he even made the funeral home’s yang energy much thicker.
However, such feudal superstition matters were not good to spread outside, so many specific incidents were just legends circulating internally at the funeral home.
In the past, Jiang Ce was very interested in these methods too, but now after truly coming into contact with cultivation, he understood that these so-called performing Buddhist rituals and spiritual communication were still within the scope of ordinary people.
Those performing Buddhist rituals themselves had no spiritual communication ability, relying on methods passed down from ancients to achieve spiritual communication effects.
For example, it’s like using a fixed problem-solving template to tackle a difficult question; if lucky, you might solve it, but if not, you won’t even get partial credit for steps.
Emphasizing form without seeing the essence.
Whereas a true jianghu sorcerer could solve it on their own.
Of course, this was also because Jiang Ce’s horizons had broadened; for ordinary people, this was already quite impressive, after all, even the template was not something just anyone could access casually.
Not knowing what Jiang Ce was thinking, Chen Mian explained worriedly:
“It is that serious. According to my observation, the corpse delivered today was not a sudden death as stated on the death certificate, but died possessed by evil.”
“Possessed by evil?” Fang Yihang finally spoke, flattering Chen Mian: “Uncle Chen, since you can tell it’s possessed by evil, you must have a way to solve it, right?”
Chen Mian shook his head with a bitter smile: “If I could solve it, I wouldn’t have called you. I can’t handle it alone. I’m old now; if I were twenty years younger, I might have been able to suppress it with yang energy, but now”
Jiang Ce’s words were much more straightforward and blunt: “No problem, Uncle Chen, just throw it straight into the incinerator. No matter how it died, it’ll end up as a pile of ash anyway.”
Fang Yihang sneered, looking at Jiang Ce with eyes full of mockery. Jiang Ce refused to back down: “What the hell are you laughing at? You’ll be a pile of ash sooner or later too!”
Seeing the two about to clash again, Chen Mian quickly called a halt: “Stop! If it could be solved that simply, I wouldn’t be worried. Anyway, I don’t need you to help with anything—just stand where I tell you to stand later, and after it’s done, two hundred overtime pay each!”
Jiang Ce immediately shut his mouth. Two hundred in bonus was already a full day’s wage for an unstaffed temporary worker, and the funeral home had this advantage—even temporary workers got good treatment; otherwise, he wouldn’t go to such lengths to keep this job.
Seeing the two quiet down, Chen Mian didn’t waste words, leading them to a small compartment deeper inside the morgue—that was their usual work area.
As soon as they entered the compartment, Jiang Ce understood why Chen Mian judged it died possessed by evil.
Because the death state was too bizarre!
The records showed the deceased was sixty-two years old this year, height one meter seventy-two, weight eighty-three kilograms; for a person of that age, this weight was undoubtedly on the obese side.
But what lay before Jiang Ce now was a skin-and-bones mummified corpse, visually weighing perhaps not even thirty kilograms.
The corpse’s skin already showed dark purple lividity, extremely shriveled and slack, like someone who had liposuction without skin tightening, covered in terrifying streaks and snake-skin-like scales.
Besides that, the deceased’s expression was ferocious, appearing to have suffered extreme pain before death.
In addition, even stranger, the corpse was in a curled-up position, completely rigid. Jiang Ce put on gloves and tried to pry it, but found that unless he broke the corpse’s bones, he couldn’t change its posture at all.
“This is…” Fang Yihang looked disgusted and instinctively stepped back a few paces.
Chen Mian introduced, “It is said that when he was sent to the hospital, he was still normal, and he still had one last breath at that time, but unfortunately, he couldn’t be saved.
There were no wounds on the corpse’s body, and the examination showed heart and lung failure. After death was declared, it was sent directly here. But within the few hours it took to arrive, the corpse gradually shriveled up and ended up like this.
As for why I’m so sure he was possessed by evil, it’s because I saw a corpse like this when I was young.”
A trace of fear flashed in Chen Mian’s eyes:
“That time, my master took a full year to recover.”
While Chen Mian was still reminiscing, Jiang Ce had already leaned in close and begun observing carefully.
Suddenly, he noticed something and turned back, calling out, “Uncle Chen, his eyelid seems to have twitched.”
Chen Mian was skeptical at first, but then he also leaned in. Within seconds, he paled in shock and said, “Get back quickly! We must act fast, or it might reanimate!”
With that, Chen Mian quickly took out some talismans and items from the cabinet and skillfully set up an arrangement in the small room. Though anxious, his hands remained steady, and everything proceeded in an orderly manner. As he set up, he directed Jiang Ce and Fang Yihang to stand in appropriate positions.
Fang Yihang trembled throughout the entire process, while Jiang Ce focused intently on observing how Chen Mian did it.
After listening to legends for a year, they had finally seen the real thing.
Once the setup was complete, Chen Mian began chanting incantations rapidly while continuously scattering glutinous rice over the corpse. Jiang Ce was quite interested in this. After all, having returned to secular life, he no longer had a monk’s identity and could now openly observe Taoist secrets.
But no matter how Chen Mian tried, the corpse showed no change at all, which frustrated him greatly.
“Oh no, my skills aren’t up to it; I can’t handle it.”
In anger, Chen Mian threw all the glutinous rice in his hand to the ground. Then, as he walked out, he anxiously said, “No, we must contact the deceased’s family. It has to be cremated tonight. Worst case, let it cause trouble for a few months—better than reanimating!”
Seeing Chen Mian leave, Fang Yihang didn’t dare stay a second longer. He followed behind, pretending to say something like “Let me help you” as he left the room.
The room was suddenly left with only Jiang Ce.
He looked at the closed door, thought for a moment, then took out the wooden fish from his shoulder bag and began chanting the Ksitigarbha Sutra while striking it.
Thump, thump, thump.
The sound of the wooden fish echoed in the room, sounding exceptionally ethereal and eerie.
And even stranger, the shriveled mummified corpse slowly sat up.
A wisp of green smoke emerged from the top of the mummified corpse’s head and transformed before Jiang Ce into the form of a plump old man. Clearly, this was the old man’s original appearance before he became like this.
Like other ghosts, the old man also had a blank expression, grim and terrifying.
Jiang Ce was pondering how to operate to make this corpse more normal when he suddenly realized he could hear the ghost’s inner voice.
“Great Immortal, save my family! Our whole family has been targeted by evil spirits!”
