Chapter 2: Collecting Corpses

  In the car, Grandpa told Qin Feng about it.

  As soon as Grandfather said he wanted to let him try his hand, Qin Feng couldn't care about the unease and tension in his heart. Although he had learned some skills from his grandfather since childhood, until now he hadn't actually used them. Apart from showing off his eight-character forecasting skills to his girlfriend and some close friends, predicting some trivial matters in life, Qin Feng really didn't have any practical experience in catching ghosts or driving out evil spirits.

  Arriving at the bus station in Jingjiang City, it was almost dusk. As soon as he got off the bus, Qin Feng followed his grandfather to the funeral home without even having time to return to school.

  As the only crematorium in the whole Shizuka City, the funeral parlor looks a bit out of place. The funeral home is located on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by a desolate suburban forest, which was once a wasteland of abandoned factories. After being leveled and rebuilt, the municipal government established the funeral home here. Looking around, the surroundings are all withered yellow pines and flowers, and the concrete parking lot at the entrance is already filled with cars of various sizes that have come to hold funerals.

  Upon arrival at the funeral parlor, although it was not large, the hall was already packed with people. The buzzing and shouting seemed to be somewhat frightening.

  "Old Qin, you've finally arrived!" Grandpa and Qin Feng squeezed through the crowd, just poking their heads out, when a middle-aged man wearing a black suit, with a wide build and glasses, immediately came to greet them.

  "Director, what's going on?" Looking around at the scene, there were so many people standing in a disorderly manner, Grandpa didn't know what they were discussing.

  "These were all relatives of the deceased, but they were afraid and didn't dare go in."

  "Relatives? So many people?" Qin Feng said curiously.

  "Who is this?" The curator asked curiously as he looked at Qin Lao's silly expression and the young man accompanying him.

  "Oh, this is my grandson Qin Feng, a junior at the Normal University in the city. He learned some skills from me, so I brought him along to help out." The old man slowly explained to the curator.

  The curator glanced at Qin Feng and was somewhat surprised, jokingly saying: "Good kid, you're young but your Taoist skills are not shallow!"

  "Alright, never mind all that for now. Let's go take a look quickly. Everyone was frightened just now, so I had the morgue sealed off to prevent any further trouble. I'll bring you in." Without waiting for Qin Feng's response, the curator pulled them into the inner room.

  A tense and solemn atmosphere filled the entire mourning hall, a dead silence that was suffocating and lingering. Because of the suddenness of this incident, it caused the whole funeral home to be in a state of panic, so they simply locked up the inner chamber.

  Grandfather had seen "big scenes" before, and he seemed calm and collected. He handed the compass in his pocket to Qin Feng and said, "Xiao Feng, you go take a look inside first with the compass. I'll prepare some stuff."

  "Good..."

  Although I was a bit nervous, I still plucked up the courage to go in. The mortuary is often one of the places with the heaviest yin energy. Pushing open the door, the surroundings were eerily cold, even more chilling than winter wind. The mortuary was dimly lit and empty, with white cloth covering the entire floor of the small room. Due to the lack of sunlight, the room was dark and oppressive. And the deceased lay on top, seemingly not yet placed in a coffin.

  "How is it? Xiao Qin?" asked the curator who was standing outside and didn't dare to go in.

  "Do you know how he died?" Looking at the needle on the compass which didn't show anything unusual, Qin Feng turned his head to ask the curator.

  "This... I'm not quite clear either, you know, in our line of work we can't ask about the cause of death, that's disrespect to the deceased. But it seems like I heard from the deceased's family member that he died from a car accident."

  "Car accident?" Qin Feng involuntarily repeated.

  "Qin Feng, have you found anything?" Looking at the old man with a weathered face, Qin Feng carefully examined him but didn't find anything abnormal. "No."

  Qin Feng hastily left the morgue, just as Grandfather arrived. Seeing Qin Feng, he asked: "Xiao Feng, how is it? Is there anything unusual?"

  "No, Grandfather, are they seeing things?" Up till now, even Qin Feng has started to doubt the authenticity of this matter.

  Grandpa frowned and immediately responded: "Impossible, how could they casually say such a thing?"

  After some deliberation, Grandfather still wasn't at ease. He took the compass from Qin Feng's hand and turned to enter the mortuary. Now that Grandfather was here, Qin Feng no longer worried about evil spirits or ghosts, and followed him in with a swagger. Ever since he was young, Qin Feng knew that his grandfather's abilities were not just boasts. In the past, when a neighbor's child lost its soul due to playing too much, the doctor couldn't do anything, but Grandfather used a bowl of millet and recited an incantation to summon the child's soul back.

  Following behind Grandfather, I saw a short sword with an ancient look hanging from his waist under the bronze-colored shirt. The rough appearance suggested it was made of bronze.

  "Grandpa, why are you using this rusty bronze sword? It looks broken and worn out." Qin Feng muttered to himself, wondering why Grandpa didn't bring the peach wood sword, and asked curiously.

  "You kid, let you learn from me and you'll know that being lazy and playful is not good. This is no ordinary sword. You have to know that for driving out ghosts and evil spirits, swords are particular. Generally speaking, the older the sword, the greater its power. Don't look at this broken sword, it's actually an ancient artifact from the Eastern Han Dynasty, which I spent 480 yuan on in the antique market. It was so expensive that I didn't dare drink for a month! Grandpa is not only an expert in driving out ghosts and evil spirits but also has some skills in antiques."

  He brought the compass to the body and took a look. Grandpa's eyebrows furrowed involuntarily. "Huh, this is..."

  "What's wrong?"

  "Look at the compass needle!"

  "This is... a compass needle!" Looking at the suddenly rotating and unstoppable state of the pointer on the compass, Qin Feng suddenly understood what was going on. "Grandpa, it seems that this place has a strong resentment towards people!"

  According to the Eight Methods of Qimen, the pointers on the Luopan are classified differently due to their different directions of rotation. There are eight needles (Tuo needle, Dui needle, Chen needle, Zhuan needle, Tou needle, Ni needle, Ce needle and Zheng needle), and eight shapes (among which the Zhuan needle represents evil yin entering, resentful energy lingering).

  Grandfather nodded, squatted down to take a look at the deceased, and guessed the reason for the resentment here. In theory, the mourning hall should only have a gathering of yin energy, not resentful energy. But now, the strange needle eight methods have judged it this way, leaving Qin Feng confused and unsure what to do next.

  "It's not good to delay, I think it's better to bury him immediately." Grandfather suggested and paused for a moment before continuing: "If the resentment is too strong, it will break his three souls and seven spirits, then he may become a fierce ghost."

  "Evil spirit?" Qin Feng was shocked, because he had never seen this thing before, only heard about it from his grandfather, and knew how powerful it was. So, rather than letting the deceased rest in peace, they would rather bury him early to prevent him from becoming an evil spirit.

  "Excuse me, are you all relatives of the deceased?" Grandfather went to prepare for the burial of the deceased, and let Qin Feng come to ask the relatives for information.

  "Yes, I am his son." A man in his 40s, wearing a silver suit and standing in front of Qin Feng, looked at him with some curiosity before answering. Although he was wearing sunglasses, Qin Feng could still see the sorrowful and dispirited expression on his face.

  "Who are you?" At this time, a middle-aged woman with blonde hair and wearing a purple-brown mink coat, who was standing next to the middle-aged man, suddenly asked Qin Feng.

  "My name is Qin Feng, I'm in charge of collecting bodies for this funeral home." Under helplessness, Qin Feng had to make up a random excuse to get through.

  "Can't believe someone as young as you dares to work here?!" The middle-aged woman looked surprised.

  "Hmm." Qin Feng nodded, although he felt that what he was doing was a bit off, but after thinking about it, he figured that at least this way he could get some answers, so he didn't pursue the matter further.

  "What do you want to ask?" The middle-aged man saw Qin Feng's thoughts at this time.

  "Did your father die in a car accident?"

  "Ah, don't mention it, everything was fine yesterday, but then there was a car accident this morning..." The words were laced with sorrow, the middle-aged man was already too grief-stricken to speak.

  "Uncle, don't cry! The dead can't come back to life!" At this time, a young girl standing beside the middle-aged man saw the scene and began to comfort him.

  "What's this about him talking nonsense before he died?" In Qin Feng's eyes, as long as he understood this point, the problem wouldn't be difficult to solve.

  Moreover, Qin Feng also felt the doubt in it. If he had spoken nonsense before his death, then he was either possessed by evil spirits or haunted by a vengeful ghost, which is what northerners call being "bumped" by a malevolent spirit.