Chapter 26: The Heavenly Master in the Coffin

  Guanshi Village and Longhushan have a deep connection, and they are not far apart. After the zombie incident, the village cadres went to invite Xu Qi.

  If he hadn't arrived in time, I would have become a soul in the fire. Of course, I had to thank him sincerely. He told me not to be polite and asked about what happened last night. Especially when pouring water, he winked at me behind his back, as if telling me not to tell the truth?

  I don't know what Yu is up to, but he just said that he knows the truth about me being moved into a coffin, and it's likely that he exchanged information with Liu Weimin last night, and it's possible that Liu Weimin told him to remind me to keep last night's events secret.

  This feeling of being manipulated is unbearable, I resisted it from the bottom of my heart, and for a moment, I even thought of closing the door and revealing the purpose of my visit to Xu Qi and Pan Tuo. But this idea flashed by quickly, because I didn't know what Liu Weimin's background was, but he must have had some official backing, let alone Xu Qi who was just an ordinary member of Longhu Mountain.

  But I still told the truth because I myself don't know what happened last night.

  Fell asleep soundly and opened eyes to find myself in a coffin.

  Xu Qi asked me if I heard any sound or had any special feeling at that time.

  I said no.

  Xu Qi sank into thought, and then nodded at me, asking: "Xu Daozhang, what exactly happened to my brother? Was he taken away by a zombie?"

  "It should be him! No one else would do such a thing."

  I said that it's still uncertain whether the village has been infested with zombies, although two little girls have been drained of blood and only have one puncture wound on their necks. Moreover, Qing dynasty officials are buried in official attire, so it's impossible for them to become zombies.

  Being dragged into its coffin by a zombie is unbearable for me. In fact, this sentence is mostly comforting myself.

  Ke Xuzhi looked surprised and asked me where I heard this saying.

  I don't know how to explain, but You Moshen was quick-witted and laughed to smooth things over: "Permitting the Daoist, we've been traveling all over the place for years, so naturally we've heard some rules. The master who brought us up was also a famous feng shui master in the area."

  Xu Qi patted his forehead and said with a sigh of relief, "Forget it, forget it. You two are also old hands in the antique business, so you can understand this kind of thing. It's good that we can work together to solve the problem here. Let's go take a look at where Old Patriarch was buried, and you'll know why he became a zombie!"

  He got up and led the way, leaving the hostel, but Kang Jiuxiang came out wearing slippers, twisting and turning to follow us.

  Although I couldn't understand why this young widow had such deep feelings for me, being remembered by a beauty made me feel quite pleased with myself. So I let her wait in the room for my return. Kang Jiuxiang nodded cutely and went back, while You Mochen said a few sarcastic words with a sour tone.

  On the way, Xu Ji asked where the old man who came with us had gone. You Wu lied to him and said that Liu Weimin was our teacher's uncle, and he had returned home first because of a family matter. Xu Ji didn't ask again.

  The old patriarch was not buried in the ancestral tomb of the village, but like his coffin, he had chosen his own burial site decades ago, on the waist of a small mountain at the edge of the village. When we arrived, many villagers were already gathered there, holding flashlights, torches and lanterns.

  After seeing Xu Qi, the village chief yelled at everyone to disperse and ran up to us, greeting us before awkwardly saying to me: "Young brother, I owe you an apology this morning. You're a magnanimous person who doesn't hold grudges against petty people like me, so please forgive me this time. The black goods you want, I'll provide them for free, and they'll definitely be the best."

  When I was in the coffin, I was forced to jump out and swallow him alive, but actually there wasn't much resentment. The village chief apologized so sincerely that I felt embarrassed instead. After saying a few words, the scene was covered up and the matter was passed over.

  The village head nodded and bowed excessively, appearing overly humble, completely unlike the commanding presence he had when shouting at the villagers early in the morning, which made me somewhat curious.

  Xu Qi asked him who loved to answer but didn't care, and when he came to the grave, he asked us where we felt uncomfortable!

  I looked around with You Wu, it was just a pit without a coffin, nothing special. I was about to say I didn't know when You Wu said seriously: "Hmm, there's a corpse aura."

  I almost burst out laughing, but Xu Qi nodded and stopped being mysterious. He pointed at the broken grave and said: "You two young men take a look, this is where our ancestor was buried. I'm not sure if he sucked Xiaoyi's blood or not, but it definitely wasn't someone who coveted his official robes that dug up his grave. Just take a look at the soil mound and you'll understand."

  Thanks to his reminder, we also found the problem.

  If it were a human digging the grave, they would scatter the excavated soil on one side of the mound, but Laozu Gong's grave was like an underground bloom, with the piled-up soil spreading out in all directions and forming a circle, as if the coffin had risen from beneath the ground and burst through the mound.

  Xu Qi asked him, but he didn't answer. Instead, he took the flashlight from a villager's hand and shone it into the pit, saying: "Take another look at what's inside!"

  Yu Wu and I poked our heads out and said in unison: "It's earth."

  The village chief came over to take a look, and immediately turned around to scold the villagers: "Who told you to fill in the soil? Hurry up and shovel it away with an iron shovel, let the two young brothers see clearly."

  A man ran out of the villagers, with a small flat head, holding a cigarette, looking very unfriendly. He first glanced at me with disdain and then said to the village chief: "Fourth uncle, no one is filling the soil, everyone followed Master Dao's orders, hand in hand, surrounding a circle from afar, definitely no one approached."

  The village chief was stunned for a moment, then ordered: "Find two people and go down to collect them."

  Xu Qi let him not busy, his eyebrows twisted into a knot, his face solemn, and said to us: "Young man, there are hard objects below, it's not good to move around, I'll tell you about it. The old clan chief's coffin was indeed pushed up from below. At first, I thought the same as you, that he would never have risen from the dead. Until I came here and took a look, I found the anomaly of the soil on the grave, and I thought it was the tomb next door playing tricks."

  Xu Qi said that the overlapping tombs were two tombs stacked together, and under the coffin of the old clan chief was another person's coffin being pressed down. The one below must have been unhappy, so he pushed him up.

  This kind of thing is not rare, China has lost countless people over the thousands of years, and if you were to connect all the corpses together, they would circle the earth several times. Everyone is dead, so it's no big deal if they're squeezed in tightly. However, when one or two people are unhappy, strange things can happen. Generally speaking, it's just a matter of having a dream, or some unusual plants growing on the grave mound. The most severe case of overlapping graves that I've ever seen is just a tombstone falling over.

  Push the coffin above, this is still the first time to see, it seems that the old clan chief below is quite fierce, so at the beginning, Xu Qi thought that the zombie was not the old clan chief, but the one below who was anxious and jumped out.

  It's hard to say how fierce it is, and we have to fight to know. Xu Qi let the villagers start digging, wanting to dig out the coffin below to determine the year and identity.

  The grave excavation was proceeding under Xu Qi's guard, with four apricot-yellow small flags inserted on the edge. As a result, after digging for only a few minutes, it seemed like something was about to drill out from underground, and the four small flags also broke off. The villagers scattered and fled in all directions, but Xu Qi still didn't believe in evil omens. He grasped his treasured sword and took up an iron shovel, personally jumping down to dig the earth. Then he dug up a golden wooden coffin.

  Nanmu wood, the best coffin board, the tomb owner must be a high-ranking official.

  On the coffin lid, a pattern was inlaid. Xu Qi looked carefully and was so frightened that he hurriedly jumped out of the grave and knelt on the side to kowtow with a loud bang, knocking his head more than a dozen times.

  No wonder I saw a lump on his forehead, and I thought it was true what was written inside, this guy has been practicing and has grown horns, he's about to become a dragon!

  What did he see exactly?

  Xu Qi smiled wryly and said: "The Ancestral Heavenly Master's Seated Meditation Diagram."

  Taoism has four great heavenly masters, Zhang Daoling is naturally Zhang Tian Shi, Longhu Tian Shi, but the disciples of Longhushan all call him Laozu Tian Shi. Xu Qi said that the pattern he saw was Zhang Tian Shi sitting in a coffin with his right hand holding a sword and his left hand pinching a key.

  I asked him what it meant?

  Xu Qi asked us if we knew the origin of Guan Cun Village.

  I said I knew, was it your senior from Dragon and Tiger Mountain in that coffin?

  Xu Qi's face turned ugly, and he said: "It's not that simple. The pattern itself has a coffin, and the old ancestor Tian Shi is sitting on it. You should know that emperors of all dynasties have conferred official titles upon our Tian Shi in Mount Longhu. Even if the emperor doesn't confer a title, Tian Shi will still enter the imperial court to seek office. The reason is that there's a saying circulating in the mountain: 'Tian Shi holds office, ranking among the immortal officials!'"

  Xu Qi closed his mouth and looked at us with a profound gaze. I asked, "Is it that after serving as an official in the mortal world, one can become an immortal?"

  Xu Qi said that everyone had always understood it this way until he saw the pattern on the coffin during the day and figured out another layer of meaning.

  The Heavenly Master sits in his coffin, ranked among the immortal class.

  No matter whether he is an official or a coffin, the primary condition is still Tian Shi. Xu Qi said that with his status in Longhushan, he didn't even know the true meaning of those words, and the person who carved the pattern on the coffin lid must be higher than him.

  I think Xu Qi meant to say that the person in the coffin is the 46th generation of Tian Shi, Zhang Yuanji?

  Zhang Yuangui is Zhang Yuangui, whether he becomes a god or a dead ghost has nothing to do with me. I just don't understand what Xu Ji meant by saying these things, so I asked him: What does the zombie have to do with Laozu Gong and your Zhang Tian Shi? Why did he put me in the coffin?

  Xu Qi said: "You don't understand what I mean, the Heavenly Masters of all generations must be buried in the Heavenly Master Mausoleum on Mount Longhu, and Yuanji Heavenly Master is no exception. And here appears a coffin that may contain his remains, together with that pattern...... During the day, I dug up the coffin lid, and several hours later, it was inexplicably covered with a layer of soil. You tell me, are the ancestors in the coffin still alive? Going out to suck blood at night and coming back to sleep during the day?"

  We stared at him in disbelief, I really wanted to ask, have you ever seen a dentist before, had any cavities extracted?

  Xu Qi chuckled and also felt that his idea was a bit exaggerated, saying: "If it wasn't for the old ancestor, then the zombie is the old clan lord. In connection with what he said before he died, it's very likely that he already knew that this heavenly master coffin would turn him into a zombie. But what I don't understand is, why did he want to harm the children in the village? Why did he put you in his coffin? There must be some secret we don't know about, what do you think?"