The Buddha is actually me

Chapter 158: The corpse collector, the underwater corpse
"Old man, are you going to Yangzhou City?"

Zhang Jiuyang and others walked to the ferry and finally found a boatman. They quickly pulled him aside to ask him.

The boatman shook his head and said, "No, no!"

Zhang Jiuyang was a little confused. How come there was no boat willing to take them across such a large ferry? It was as if these boatmen were avoiding them.

He raised the price, and he could clearly see a hint of excitement in the boatman's eyes, but then he thought of something and shook his head again and again.

"Sir, it's not that we don't want to do business with you, but we have a rule here that we don't sail after sunset."

“Why is there such a rule?”

Zhang Jiuyang vaguely realized that it might be related to the demon dragon.

As expected, the boatman showed a trace of awe in his eyes and said, "This is the rule of Grandpa Zongsan. Sailing at night will disturb his sleep."

As he said this he sighed.

"Those of us who make our livings at Dongyang Lake have to worship Uncle Zongsan every day and offer three animals as sacrifices every month to bless our ships to sail smoothly."

"Grandpa Zongsan has been in a bad mood recently. The wind and waves in Dongyang Lake are very strong at night. Even if you look for all the ferrymen and offer a high price, no one will dare to go out with the boat!"

Su Lingshan snorted and said, "This is too overbearing. What kind of Uncle Brown is this? I think he is a monster!"

She followed Zhang Jiuyang, killing tiger monsters, entering the Dragon Palace, and riding crocodiles along the way. Her horizons were broadened, so naturally she was not very in awe of this Brown Three.

When the boatman heard this, his face changed drastically and he said, "Little girl, don't say that! Grandpa Zongsan is the Dragon King of Dongyang Lake!"

As he spoke, he bowed towards the direction of Dongyang Lake, as if he was afraid that Grandpa Zongsan would blame him as well.

Liu Zifeng stepped forward, stuffed a piece of silver into his pocket, and asked, "Old man, we have an urgent matter to rush to Yangzhou City. We must cross Dongyang Lake tonight. Is there really no other way?"

Tomorrow is Old Lady Shen’s birthday banquet. If they don’t set out tonight, they will most likely miss it.

The boatman quickly put away the silver and whispered, "If you are not afraid of bad luck, you can try to find someone."

"Who?"

"We all call him Lao Daobazi. He is a famous corpse retriever in this area. He is the only one who dares to sail at night. It is said that even Grandpa Zongsan will give him some face..."

Zhang Jiuyang's mind moved. Being a corpse retriever is a very niche profession with many taboos.

It is said that in order to become a corpse catcher, one must be a male, and his destiny must be Yin, and his five elements must belong to water. Only when these two conditions are met can one avoid being dragged into the water by the souls of the dead in the river.

Under the guidance of the boatman, Zhang Jiuyang and others came to the home of the old knife-holder.

Before he even stepped into the door, he smelled a strong odor of a corpse. His Dharma Eye between his eyebrows opened wide, and he saw that although the house was filled with a heavy gloomy aura, there were no resentful ghosts or dead spirits.

Pushing open the door, inside the cool, dark room, there was a large pool with more than a dozen swollen corpses floating on it.

The strangest thing is that among these corpses, there is a figure swimming, and it looks like a child.

He surfaced, ignoring the corpses around him, and shouted loudly: "Master, someone is coming!"

Then, an old man with a thin figure, a goatee, and a scar on his face walked out of the inner room. He glanced at Zhang Jiuyang and the others and said with a smile, "Don't be afraid. This is my disciple. He is training his courage in the corpse pool."

He explained aloud.

The so-called corpse pool is where corpse catchers temporarily store those floating corpses that no one cares about. There is a special preservative in the water that can ensure that the corpse will no longer continue to rot.

In this way, when the relatives of the body come to claim it, the original appearance can be preserved to the greatest extent possible, making it easier to identify.

As for the little boy swimming in the pool, he is his apprentice.

This job involves frequent contact with corpses, and only people with great courage can do it. The corpse pool is used to help apprentices build up their courage.

"Are you here to identify the body or retrieve it?"

"Neither. We are here to take a boat. We want to leave tonight and reach Yangzhou City as early as possible."

Hearing this, the old knife-holder laughed immediately, finding it very strange.

"It's not impossible, but don't you think it's unlucky to be on a corpse-recovering boat?"

Zhang Jiuyang smiled faintly and said, "Finding the body from the water, returning it to the relatives, and burying the deceased properly is accumulating good karma. How can it be unlucky?"

The old knife-holder's eyes lit up, and he laughed loudly. He found Zhang Jiuyang very pleasing to the eye and said, "Not bad. Although you are young, you have some experience. I will take this business, but the price..."

Before Zhang Jiuyang could say anything, Liu Zifeng took out a silver ingot.

"Haha, wait a moment, everyone. I'll get ready and start the boat right away!"

The old knife-holder first held up a statue of a god respectfully, worshipped it devoutly, kowtowed three times, and muttered something.

Zhang Jiuyang noticed that this statue was very similar to the demon dragon, except that the dragon's horn was broken off.

As if noticing Zhang Jiuyang's gaze, the old knife-holder said in a deep voice: "Guest, don't stare at that, or you might anger Grandpa Zongsan!"

He said solemnly, "I don't know why, but one of the horns of Grandpa Zongsan's statue has been broken recently. He got really angry, and the wind and waves in Dongyang Lake were particularly strong some time ago!"

Zhang Jiuyang showed a playful look.

Of course he knew that it was he who broke the dragon horn, and he asked Yue Ling to take it to a weapon-refining master to make a magic weapon, but he didn't know whether it was successful.

The boat of the corpse collectors was not very big, and the people were a little crowded in it. I don't know if it was an illusion, but there was always a faint smell of corpses. The sky had completely darkened, and the previously beautiful Dongyang Lake seemed to become mysterious in an instant. The dark water surface seemed like an abyss with no bottom.

The sound of water was crisp, and there was a faint smell of water in the night breeze.

The corpse catchers moved the statue of Zong San to the boat and brought a big red rooster. They did not kill it yet, but planned to cut off its neck with a knife and throw it into the lake for sacrifice when they collected the boat.

This is also the practice of corpse lifters.

The boat finally moved forward, following the river breeze, the speed was not slow, and soon disappeared into the night.

……

The trip on the boat was very boring. The place was small, the scenery was similar all around, and it was swaying around.

Zhang Jiuyang started chatting with Lao Daobazi. He was very interested in the life of corpse lifters.

The old knife-holder was also very talkative. He said, "In our line of work, we don't actually dare to retrieve just any corpse. We have three rules that we don't retrieve."

"Which three are not worth taking?"

"First of all, you can't go out on a boat to retrieve bodies during a thunderstorm."

Zhang Jiuyang nodded, this was reasonable.

"Second, if you fail to pull the same body aboard the boat three times, you can no longer pull it aboard. That kind of body is filled with too much resentment and doesn't want to leave..."

He pointed to the scar on his face, laughed at himself, and said, "When I was young, I didn't believe in evil. I fished for the fourth time in a fit of rage, and ended up with this scar. If it weren't for the amulet passed down from my ancestors, I would have become a water ghost in Dongyang Lake long ago."

Su Lingshan took a deep breath when she heard this. Although she was a little scared, she couldn't help but ask, "What about the third one?"

The old knife-holder's expression changed slightly when he heard this, and his voice unconsciously lowered a few notes.

"This third type is also the most dangerous and terrifying. I have been a corpse retriever for so many years, and I have only encountered it twice. Each time I turned around and walked away without even looking at it!"

After a pause, he whispered, "The third one is encountering a corpse that can walk upright in the water..."

call!
There seemed to be a cold wind blowing around, and as the night deepened, the chill became more penetrating.

Su Lingshan shuddered. A corpse that could walk upright underwater?

"Generally speaking, corpses will float in the water, with men lying face down and women lying face up, but this kind of corpse is an exception. They will maintain an upright posture and drift slowly with the water flow. It looks like they are walking underwater!"

"The weirdest thing is that this kind of corpse can understand human language. If you feel sorry for it and say you want to fish it out, it will follow your boat all the time..."

"The last few ships often mysteriously disappeared."

Zhang Jiuyang looked at the unfathomable Dongyang Lake with his eyes fixed.

As the saying goes, it’s not how deep the water is that matters, but the presence of a dragon.

Wherever a real dragon lives, there must be abundant spiritual energy and many auspicious signs, but this Dongyang Lake is full of evil spirits, which shows that Brown Three is indeed a demon dragon.

These strange corpses may be able to grow because of its evil spirit.

Just as he was thinking, Ali's voice suddenly rang out.

"Eh? Brother Jiu, is this the kind of corpse?"

She leaned her head out and looked, only to see a dead body floating at the stern of the boat. Its jet-black hair was floating on the water like a ball of black seaweed, and its pale face was vaguely visible.

It's a female corpse!
What made everyone gasp was that the female corpse was standing upright in the water, just as Lao Daobazi had said, and was quietly floating along with the boat.

As if eavesdropping on their conversation.

The old knife-holder was startled and his face changed drastically. He said, "Not good, let's go quickly and don't talk anymore, she can hear you!"

He rowed hard, and the speed increased a lot, but the terrifying thing was that the female corpse was still following closely behind the boat, and one of its hands had even touched the wall of the boat.

Her hands were swollen, her skin was pale, and she emitted a foul odor. When she touched the side of the boat, it quickly rotted and began to seep into the lake water.

"Oops!"

The old knife-holder's face turned pale. He picked up the bamboo pole used to retrieve corpses and prepared to stab the female corpse.

Although the rules passed down by our ancestors are to run away when you see this kind of corpse, when you can't run away, you can only fight hard.

He sewed black dog hair, which can ward off evil spirits, onto his corpse-retrieving pole, hoping it would be effective.

However, there was a crisp sound.

When the corpse-fishing rod landed on the female corpse, it quickly decomposed and finally broke into two pieces with a snap.

There was a hint of despair in the old knife-holder's eyes.

But at this moment, a small hand reached out and pressed on the head of the female corpse floating underwater.

Press it, it floats up, press it again, it floats up again...

Ah Li chuckled and said, "It's really fun."

……

(End of this chapter)