I Only Want to Lie Flat But Am Forced to Cultivate Immortality-Chapter 239 - 136: Funeral Loan, The Enclosed Hall

The next day, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

Outside the Incense Hall, raindrops dripped from the eaves while the moss-covered temple walls appeared faintly through the thin mist.

Since yesterday, when Sun Erzhuang went out of the city to fetch a coffin for Guan Hua’s mother, he had not eaten a single grain of rice.

Xu Qing couldn’t just watch their client collapse from hunger, so he took some boiled eggs given to him by Huang Laoxu and handed them to the chubby man to eat.

However, although the man was plump, he was not one to hoard food for himself.

Xu Qing, not having advanced to Hidden Corpse, couldn’t stomach cooked food. Seeing Sun Erzhuang peeling an egg and offering it to him, he waved it off and declined. Sun Erzhuang then handed the peeled egg to Guan Dazhuang.

"Brother, you’re injured and weak, you must eat something."

Guan Dazhuang, unable to refuse his brother’s kindness, shared the dozens of boiled eggs with Sun Erzhuang until they were all gone.

Xu Qing, watching the two finish their breakfast, smiled and asked, "Erzhuang, where did you leave the coffin you bought for your mother yesterday?"

Upon hearing this, Sun Erzhuang suddenly came to his senses and, feeling guilty, said, "Yesterday, I tied the donkey outside the temple, only to have it killed by some creature. Now I don’t know where the coffin and the donkey cart have gone."

"Don’t worry, Teacher. Let me go and look for them."

The coffin currently holding Guan Hua’s mother’s body was an old one, temporarily placed in the Mountain Monarch Temple by the charity house. It had held many bodies before.

If a proper burial was to be done, such a coffin certainly couldn’t be used for the burial.

It’s less about whether the dead care, but more about the living feeling uneasy.

If one day the family recalls their relative being buried in a worn-out coffin, how could they feel at peace?

This is one reason second-hand coffins are rare.

Of course, the main reason is the Imperial Court’s strict prohibition against grave robbing!

How do second-hand coffins come about? As soon as the body is buried, someone digs up the new grave and takes the coffin to sell it. Isn’t that how you get a second-hand coffin?

This harms one’s virtue and is illegal!

There are also various rules and rituals for funerals.

The deceased must be dressed in new clothes, with new makeup, in a brand-new coffin.

Just as Sun Erzhuang stood up to go search for the donkey cart and coffin, the rope hanging from his waist suddenly sprang to the ground.

Xu Qing, with his Yin Pupil, swept over it and saw a dense aura of sinister energy surrounding the rope, faintly revealing the ghostly image of a donkey’s head, black and white.

That was a donkey spirit, and the rope was what had bound it when it was alive.

Now, though the donkey was dead, it had turned into a donkey spirit, possessing the rope.

Donkeys are ghosts of the underworld, which is why the donkey rope turned into a noose.

However, not all donkeys become spirits after death; there are reasons for this.

Donkeys are hard-working and seldom hold grudges, making it rare for them to transform into spirits unless they die with unfulfilled wishes or suffer immense pain and injustice.

Gazing at the dark red bloodstains on the rope, Xu Qing realized that this donkey must have been mistreated before it died.

The donkey rope clearly knew the whereabouts of the donkey cart and coffin. It faithfully led the way ahead, resembling a loyal dog guiding its master.

The group followed the rope outside the temple, their legs getting damp from the wet grass.

After walking for about two miles, they came to a low cliff. Sun Erzhuang stumbled along the edge, with Guan Dazhuang growling low to catch his attention. When Sun Erzhuang turned his head, a majestic tiger appeared beside him.

The tiger spoke in human language, "Erzhuang, I’ll carry you down."

Xu Qing’s eyes brightened at the sight of the mighty beast before him.

How impressive!

The tiger’s roar echoed through the mountains as it leapt across the gorge.

Xu Qing followed in a jump off the low cliff.

Below the cliff, the water flowed gently, while the donkey rope, about five feet long, trailed along the stream. As they passed a rocky beach, a faint scent of blood reached their noses.

Being a zombie, Xu Qing was highly sensitive to the smell of blood. Likewise, Guan Dazhuang, as the Tiger Monarch of the mountains, also caught the unusual scent in the air.

Finally, after a few dozen steps, they saw spots of blood on the rocky beach.

Despite a night of wind and rain, the blood remained, suggesting how intense the scene was before.

"Bitter bones—bitter bones—"

The distinctive call of a pearl-necked dove echoed in the empty valley of the cliff.

Holding his breath, Sun Erzhuang’s face turned pale when he saw the completely skinned donkey hide.

Xu Qing looked past the hide to a bloody, mangled lump not far away, stuck on the rocky beach.

The donkey rope circled its own hide a few times, then moved over to its bloody body, emitting a mournful wail.

"Do all leopards hunt so viciously?" Xu Qing clicked his tongue.

Next to him, Guan Dazhuang immediately denied, "I am not like it. I never torture my prey, nor would I skin them alive. Such acts are not righteous."

Xu Qing looked at Guan Dazhuang in surprise.

Who knew this tiger had such righteous principles.

Continuing their search along the rocky beach, it wasn’t long before Guan Dazhuang discovered the shattered donkey cart and the coffin among the rocks.

The ten-foot cliff had splintered the donkey cart into dozens of pieces, even breaking the coffin into two.

Seeing the coffin lid on the side, marked with scratch marks from a tiger’s claws, Xu Qing surmised that after Guan Xiaohu ate his fill of donkey meat, he used the coffin lid as a scratching post for his claws.

"I can fix this coffin."

Xu Qing glanced sideways at Sun Erzhuang, asking, "Erzhuang, do you want to bury this donkey? I happen to have a corpse sewing business. If you’re interested, I can stitch up the donkey’s skin and flesh and give it a proper burial."

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