Chapter Nineteenth: Miao King Drinks Bitterness and Preserves Blood Eyes

  After a flurry of activity, it was Old Man Wang who walked in front as usual. This old fellow, although his hair was white and he was approaching seventy years old, had a straight back and not a single tooth missing, and his voice was still as loud and clear as that of a middle-aged man in his forties. At a glance, he appeared to be a rather cultivated practitioner.

  Following the elders, I couldn't help but secretly glance at this mysterious Miao tribe's sacred place. It was a huge stone hall, several times more spacious than the stone corridor we had just passed through. The walls were filled with giant pine oil lamps, making the entire hall very bright. On both sides of the hall were two small springs that flowed out from underground, and the water vapor rose gently from the springs, making the whole hall seem like a fairyland.

  At the end of the stone hall, a high stone shrine was set up on the spot using the protruding stones from the cave wall. The shrine is carved with a giant single-headed snake image with sharp claws. Strangely, there is no deity being worshipped on the offering table in front of the snake head, only an empty octagonal small cauldron.

  "I've long heard that the Miao people have a sacred object. Has this sacred object been lost? Or has it been hidden away in another place?" Looking at the empty octagonal small cauldron on the shrine, I always feel that there should be something being offered inside the cauldron.

  In front of the shrine, ten coffins were neatly arranged in a very regular manner. I thought that the Miao king who was driven back from Ji by me should also be lying inside one of the coffins.

  We soon arrived in front of the shrine, but these ten black and shiny high-quality nanmu coffins were motionless on the ground, looking a bit eerie. Of course, even if they all turned into dumplings, they couldn't jump out of this secret room. Just thinking about it, I saw Wang Zonglao staring at me with an extremely expectant gaze.

  Knowing it was time for me to get to work, I signaled Old Six to bring over the mourning clothes. The elderly men knew in their hearts that I was about to open the coffin and without saying a word, they all began to kneel down and pay their respects. Seeing this scene, Old Six also wanted to kneel down and pay his respects.

  Seeing this, I hastily stopped him with my hand and scolded in a low voice: "What the hell are you doing? You're not even a Miao person."

  The elders finished their worship and lit incense in the censer for a long time before telling me that it was okay to open the coffin.

  I've been waiting impatiently for two reasons: first, I want to see what's going on with this old Miao Wang and whether he'll turn into a zombie or an evil spirit; if that's possible, we need to get rid of him before he becomes one. Second, it's almost midnight, when the yin energy will be even heavier, making it riskier to play with corpses, especially in a place like this where there are so many coffins and snakes gather, which belong to the big yin category, the yin energy here is so heavy that it feels like you can grab it with your hands.

  Last time I went to catch the green-haired corpse king in Guzhang, it took a whole night and almost lost my life. So, I'd better finish things early and find an excuse to investigate whether Master's curse is related to the Miao people here.

  At the moment, he ordered Wang Lao to go and open the coffin lid. Since this dead Miao king had not been formally buried, the coffin lid was not nailed like the other nine with long iron nails, which saved a lot of trouble.

  As soon as the coffin was opened, a strong medicinal smell wafted out, pungent and irritating to the nose, yet also carrying a refreshing sensation that made me feel dizzy. I asked Wang Changlao and learned that this was a special anti-corrosion medicine made by the Miao people, which only the Miao king or important figures in the tribe had the privilege of using after death. Its purpose was not only to prevent the corpse from rotting but also to drive away all insects that wanted to eat the corpse until the body was naturally dried and became a mummy inside the coffin.

  I slung the travel bag over my shoulder, bent down close to the coffin and took a look. As old Miao Wang and those other Miao people had said, the blood in his eyes was like water droplets, constantly seeping out from under his eyelids, gradually gathering into a line that wound around the protruding cheekbones, flowing over the withered face and disappearing into the collar of the burial clothes.

  The corpse was still relatively well-preserved, except for the skin color on his face which had started to turn black and dehydrate. There were no signs of decay on the body. I couldn't help but feel amazed at the Miao family's secret medicine formula's preservative function, which could keep a corpse so well-preserved for over a month.

  The elders stood beside me, waiting for me to finish speaking, knowing they were anxious in their hearts, but at this moment, where was there time to consider their mood.

  I shook my head, looking at the old Miao Wang lying in the coffin, and a question arose in my mind: "This person is dead, and when people die, their blood dries up and their energy is exhausted. How can the blood in his body not have dried up and solidified?"

  A huge question mark was floating in my mind as I gently lifted the eyelids of Miao Wang, but there was no sign of life inside. His eyes were like those of a dead fish, with blood slowly seeping out from under his eyelids and flowing down his face, making him look even more terrifying.

  In a hurry, unable to find the source of the bleeding in Lao Miao Wang's eyes, he turned to Wang Zhanglao and said: "May I take Lao Miao Wang out for a thorough examination?"

  "You just let go and do it, I think Lao Miao Wang will also agree as long as he can leave with peace of mind." Elder Wang replied.

  Lao Liu knew what I was going to do and quickly moved the corpse of Miao Wang from the coffin and laid it flat on the ground for me to cast a spell and examine.

  Open the bag, take out ten incense sticks and place one at each of the east, south, west, and north points in the room. Then draw a diagram of the five elements and eight trigrams on the stone chamber floor, and light an incense stick at each of the five corners of the diagram. After making a brief offering, take the last remaining incense stick and hand it to Old Six, instructing him: "If the incense shows any sign of going out, you must use your mouth to blow it back to life - absolutely do not let it go out! Or else, just go get some fire from the oil lamp on the wall."

  This Wu Xuan Ba Gua diagram is a special talisman in my sect to suppress evil spirits and yin energy. I painted it on the ground with cinnabar water mixed with peach wood powder to suppress the evil energy here, after all, there are still nine other coffins here.

  The old six in his hand held that incense we called it the soul-testing incense. Once the incense head has a tendency to go out, it indicates that the yin energy here is too heavy and the corpse cannot be moved at all. Otherwise, there will be a danger of zombie transformation. Or there are other ghosts passing by, which is also extremely dangerous because the yin energy brought by the ghosts will also cause zombie transformation. This is the same reason as the cat causing zombie transformation.

  Everything was ready, he rolled up his sleeves and came to the body of King Miao, planning to take off the dead man's clothes. In his heart, he silently recited: "Uncles, aunts, grandfathers, grandpas, today this ugly boy disturbed your good dreams. Although it's noisy outside, I sincerely hope you all treat it as if you didn't hear or see anything and don't get up."

  The corpse of King Miao had already stiffened, and it was extremely difficult to take off his longevity clothes. When there was no other way, I had to use my hands to tear them apart. After a series of tugs and pulls, the emaciated body of Old King Miao finally stood before me, completely naked.

  Several elders rushed to the side, bowing their heads and muttering words in their mouths. Seeing them so devoutly mourning the deceased Miao king, he couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration in his heart.

  When the time was right, he took out the Zhēnzhōu symbol from his bag and applied the prepared glutinous rice paste to it. He stuck it on the Miao king's forehead. After burning the paper money, he softly recited in his mouth: "Heaven and earth have a righteous energy, mixed and assigned forms flow. Below is the river and mountain, above are the sun and stars... The wise man has long since gone, the classics were written in ancient times. The wind blows, the book unfolds, reading the ancient way, shining with color..."

  The voice had just finished, and in the dim light, only the oil lamp on the stone wall flickered. The naked corpse of Old Miao King suddenly stood up at the sound. Several elders hadn't prepared themselves mentally yet, and they were startled to see Old Miao King standing in front of them with his hands clasped together. In their panic, they instinctively jumped back hastily. Seeing how frightened they looked, he couldn't help but want to laugh. If you wanted him to examine the corpse, then you should have been prepared to see a dead person stand up.

  After carefully examining Miao Wang's corpse, it was strange that there were no abnormalities on his body except for the slow flow of blood in his eyes.

  "This is strange, why would there be blood in his eyes for no reason? I didn't see any signs of him being physically harmed." I thought to myself, "It seems like we need to examine his body more carefully."

  I pulled out the autopsy needle from the bag and gently inserted it into Miao Wang's finger. The blood didn't flow out like it did when I poked my eye. It seems I was overthinking things - how can blood still be alive after a person is dead?

  Everyone stood quietly beside me, the entire hall was silent without a single sound. It's almost midnight by estimate, but things haven't made any progress yet. My forehead couldn't help but sweat coldly.

  They might not know the reason for my tension. Just now, I had to use the Hurried Corpse Technique because I was anxious to find out why Miao Wang's eyes were bleeding. I knew that corpses couldn't be driven away casually, so just now I made him stand up without a reason, and now I couldn't let him lie down again without a reason. However, I also couldn't let him stand for too long, or else something unexpected would happen. Unless I could find a feasible way to handle the situation as quickly as possible, things might get out of hand here, and the entire Mount Penglai would be in chaos.

  Unconsciously I have already committed a great taboo in the door, and the hour of Zi is almost here.

  My anxious heart was like an ant on a hot pot, when suddenly Old Six next to me shouted at me: "Ghost Boss, the incense head is going out and no matter how hard you blow it's useless."

  I hastily shouted at him, "You numb skull, quickly go to the oil lamp and get fire, don't let the incense be extinguished by the yin wind. After igniting it, stand inside the Five Elements Eight Trigrams diagram. Tonight, try your best to get to the bottom of this matter."

  He didn't dare to slack off, hastily took out a special Zhēn Shī (restraining corpse) talisman from his bag and stuck it on the back of Miao Wang's head. As long as he could restrain the corpse, he would restrain it for that long.

  Lao Liu, standing in the Wu Xuan Ba Gua diagram, slowly ignited the incense. Unbeknownst to him, time had passed and the yin energy that appeared earlier almost extinguished the incense head, he didn't know if it would affect the other nine elderly people who were sleeping. To be on the safe side, he still honestly pasted a "镇尸符" (a symbol to calm the corpse) on their coffins.

  The king of wheat still stood upright, blood still flowing out of his eyes. Standing like this wasn't going to work, but from the examination just now, there was nothing unusual about him. His heart felt suffocated and he couldn't think of any countermeasures.

  There's no way out, for now the only thing that can be done is to find the source of the yin energy from earlier. It's certain that a ghost passed by here, otherwise the incense wouldn't have been extinguished like that. If it's disturbed by the ghost, who knows what other disasters might occur.

  At this time, Wang Zhang suddenly exclaimed: "Why is the finger of the Great King of Guǐ Dào dripping with water?"