I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 109: Three Evils of Linhe
In the waters surrounded by boats, Lupin half emerged from the water, looking with a half-smile at Xu Qing who jumped into the water right after him.

The latter also showed a harmless smile.

The few corpse retrievers standing and watching on the surrounding boats were obviously used to it.

"Young man, it's not too late for you to regret now. Once you enter the water, winning or losing will no longer be up to you!" An old hand on the boat reminded.

Xu Qing seemed oblivious to the other party's implication. He glanced around and said, "You're blocking me here simply to get a piece of the money I've hidden. If you really wanted to help me, why wouldn't you move your boat and leave me a way out?"

"It's hard to persuade a damned person with kind words, why bother trying to persuade him, Old Song!"

Lupin had never seen such an energetic young man, but today he finally met one.

Xu Qing chuckled. These corpse retrievers in front of him were all from the same business, breathing through the same nostril.

However, if the other party really abides by the rules and can afford the gamble, he would be happy to continue to search for corpses in the body recovery team.

If you don't follow the rules
He can still touch the corpse!
Diving into the water, Xu Qing sat cross-legged with a very relaxed expression. He looked like a Zen master practicing meditation in a big temple, as steady as an old dog.

Seeing that the other party didn't even take a breath and went straight into the water, Lupin felt even more contempt in his heart.

After all, he is just a young boy, full of arrogance but without any experience in the underworld.

With a sneer, Lupin's chest was like a blower, with big gulps of air rushing in through his nose, and his chest bulged visibly.

Holding his breath, Lupin sank to the bottom of the water, grabbed the water plants with both hands to stabilize his body, and sat opposite Xu Qing.

The water surface was surging with waves, and several corpse retrievers were looking cautiously into the deep water.

After about a minute or so, one of the corpse retrievers exclaimed in surprise, "This kid is quite capable of holding his breath. Could Master Lu really be no match for him?"

Old Song said, "That's just the beginning. When Master Lu was in the underworld, he learned the breath-holding technique. He can at least stay submerged in water for an incense stick of time. Just wait, this kid won't last long."

After a stick of incense.

Old Song stared at the water surface, and the people around him who were trying to retrieve corpses looked at each other in confusion.

This, isn't this right?

Under the water, Lupin's face was tense, his fingers were clenched, and he looked like someone who had been constipated for years.

He stared at the young man who was sitting quietly not far in front of him. He felt surprised and puzzled, but also a little impatient and flustered.

After exhaling the last string of bubbles, the air in Lupin's lungs was completely exhausted.

He looked at Xu Qing and saw only a smile on his face, but not a single bubble coming out of his mouth.

No wonder this stupid boy is not afraid of fighting. It turns out that the other party also knows how to hold his breath, and it is even better than his.

Lupin's thoughts raced, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he silently untied the air-filled pig bladder from his waist.

Then, in front of Xu Qing, he sucked the swollen urine bladder into a cake.

You don't want any shame anymore, right?
Looking at Lupin who was cheating blatantly, Xu Qing finally felt a little emotional.

He untied the pig bladder from his waist, used the rope at the end to wrap a river stone around it, and threw it to Lupin.

The meaning is very clear. Even if I give you two pig bladders, what can you do?

Lupin's face turned red. He finally realized that the other person didn't take him seriously at all!

Feeling ashamed and angry, Lupin stepped on the pig blister in front of him, and bubbles gushed out.

He had a ferocious look on his face. He took out the corpse-fishing rope from his waist and pretended to put it over Xu Qing's head.

Facing the vicious underwater bandits, Xu Qing stretched out his fingers like an orchid and faced the enemy head-on with a smile.

Lupin didn't know what the young man was trying to do by making such a charming gesture, but he certainly couldn't be trying to seduce him with his sex appeal.

He continued forward until he saw Xu Qing flick his fingers and felt a sharp pain in his chest, neck and forehead. Only then did he react.

Unfortunately, everything has been settled at this time.

The object Xu Qing had just picked up an orchid and shot at Lupin was not an ordinary object, but three plum blossom needles that were tempered with cold poison.

Looking at Lupin who died in an instant, Xu Qing slightly pulled the three circles of red silk thread wrapped between his fingers, and pulled back the corpse that was about to float to the surface of the water.

Pulling Lupin's body in front of him, Xu Qing took a look and saw a layer of blood mist and frost on the place where the plum blossom needle had penetrated, just like a blooming plum blossom.

He retracted the plum blossom needle in the blink of an eye, and while Lupin's body was floating up, Xu Qing was the first to rush out of the water.

Countless waves splashed around.

Several corpse retrievers who were staring at the water surface were caught off guard and fell back on their backs.

Before they could react, seven or eight poisonous needles had already penetrated the water and shot towards their vital points.

When the water in the sky settled, only a few corpses were left lying crookedly on the deck.

Xu Qing landed on his own black-sailed boat, and Lupin, who had died in the water, was just about to surface.

While the bodies were still warm, Xu Qing didn't dare to delay. He started with Lupin and activated the Guiyuan Jue to squeeze out their residual value one by one.

Half a year of practice, one year of practice, two or three months of practice
Although it’s not much, it’s good enough!

Xu Qing gained a total of four or five years of Taoist practice from the corpse retrievers this time. Together with the vitality and Yin energy absorbed from the water tiger's corpse, he gained about ten years of Taoist practice just from this trip.

Ten years of spiritual practice is not as good as one day of retrieving corpses.

As the sky grew darker, Xu Qing reluctantly put all the corpses into the box, intending to perform the ritual of salvation when he returned to the coroner's shop.

When we returned to the port by boat, the person in charge of registering the information of the corpse retrievers immediately came forward to ask.

"Why did you come back alone? Where are the others?"

Xu Qing was surprised and asked, "What do you mean? Could it be that the other corpse retrievers haven't returned yet?"

He did not pretend to be confused on purpose. There were twelve people in the body recovery team this time, and only five of Lupin's men were caught in his hands. Logically, there were still six people searching in other places.

He didn't come back too early, so normally the six corpse retrievers should have come back by now.

"It's strange. In the past, the corpse recovery team would always return before dark. How come you are the only one back today?"

The steward asked doubtfully, "Didn't you meet them along the way?"

Xu Qing shook his head: "I just joined the team today, and I'm not very good at rowing the boat. How can I catch up with them, let alone meet them?"

"Then wait a moment."

The steward didn't take it seriously. He then noticed the bodies placed in Xu Qing's black-covered boat and asked curiously, "Did you salvage all these?"

Xu Qing smiled subtly and said, "I was just lucky. Not long after I entered the river, I happened to find a hidden cave in the river with several bodies inside. I fished out the bodies and paddled back, but halfway there, I ran into another body."

"Judging from the appearance, this body should be the Zheng Xing merchant you mentioned."

Upon hearing this, the steward immediately stepped forward to identify him. After a moment, he turned around and said, "It's definitely him. You're really lucky."

"Misfortune can be a blessing in disguise. Fortunately, you are new to rowing and row slowly, otherwise I wouldn't have had such good luck."

Xu Qing smiled, and the two chatted casually.

"Oh, by the way, Manager Cai, we can't leave my body on the boat forever. That's too unreasonable. We have to find a place to store it, right?" Manager Cai nodded and agreed. "That's easy. I'll take you to where the body recovery team is storing the bodies. You can just leave the body there!"

The two chatted, and when it got dark, Manager Cai finally realized something was wrong.

He frowned and looked at Xu Qing, and ordered, "Don't leave in a hurry. I'll keep an eye on them. Go to the watchtower and light the torch to guide them."

Xu Qing nodded in agreement. The body recovery team was not limited to Lupin's team. It was not normal for these people to not return at this late hour.

When he arrived at the foot of the watchtower, Xu Qing did not climb up. Instead, he used the lighting technique and snapped his fingers, and all the torches on the watchtower lit up.

At the first watch of the night, some fishermen who had returned late came running to tell others that six speedboats belonging to the corpse recovery team had been found at Baishakou, and all the people on board were dead.

When Xu Qing heard the news, he was stunned for a moment.

He threw the boats of Lu Ping and others into the reed marsh, which was a forbidden area for fishermen, hunters and ferrymen. They would not be discovered for a while. Even if they were discovered by someone, it would be the work of Shui Hu, and it had nothing to do with him.

What Xu Qing didn't expect was that in addition to Lupin's team, another team of corpse retrievers was not spared.

"You mean the bodies of the corpse-retrievers are still on the boat?"

Xu Qing grasped the key information.

"That's right! Those bodies looked horrible after they died. You didn't see it, they looked like all the blood had been sucked out of them. We didn't dare to move, so we thought we'd ask your corpse recovery team to come and retrieve them. After all, this is your profession, so you must have more experience than us."

Manager Cai's face suddenly darkened when he heard this. It seemed that the body recovery team was almost gone. Now there was only Xu Qing, a lone novice body recoverer, left in this area. None of the others had returned. Where would they get the manpower to go into the river to recover the bodies?
"You go to the government office to report to the authorities, and I'll gather the men. This matter cannot be left unresolved!"

A group of people were busy running around, and by the second watch, the night patrol soldiers along the river and the chief constables had all arrived.

The tall and strong man in the lead glanced around and asked for some key information. When he saw Xu Qing standing next to Manager Cai, he was obviously stunned.

"Why are you here?"

Xu Qing looked at Zhao Zhonghe and said unhappily, "This is not your home, why can't I be here?"

Manager Cai, who had benefited from Xu Qing's favor, immediately chimed in: "Sir, Brother Xu is a member of my corpse recovery team."

Hearing this, Zhao Zhonghe looked at Xu Qing in surprise: "When did you become a member of the corpse recovery team? Don't you run a funeral shop?"

"Look at what the captain said. Isn't retrieving corpses also a mournful business? It's still a business involving the dead."

"."

Zhao Zhonghe shook his head helplessly.

He didn't know what the other party was thinking. He was already a scholar, but he was still thinking about the dead person business.

"Sir, please take a look at the Baishakou incident."

Seeing Zhao Zhonghe remained silent, Manager Cai quickly changed his tone and said, "It's not urgent to observe people's behavior at night. If the official wants to wait until tomorrow, that's understandable."

Zhao Zhonghe looked up at the bright moon and said, "Tomorrow's business will be tomorrow's. Now that we're here, we have to get Baishakou's body back to the government office first."

"Manager Cai, since you are in charge of this area, please find a few corpse retrievers to lead the way and guide us to Baishakou."

"Sir, Sir, he has no one left in the corpse recovery team!"

Zhao Zhonghe looked at Manager Cai in surprise.

"Sir, there are only twelve people on duty today in the body recovery team. Six of them died at Baishakou, and five of the other six haven't returned yet."

Zhao Zhonghe narrowed his eyes and said, "Six are dead, five are missing, where is the remaining one?"

Manager Cai turned his gaze to Xu Qing.

The latter was delighted and volunteered, "The brothers in the corpse recovery team and I are like brothers. If something happens to them, I can't just ignore them."

"Even if I can't find the real culprit for them, collecting their bodies is what I should do."

Zhao Zhonghe nodded and said, "Then you will lead the way and lead us to Baishakou."

Xu Qing blinked and asked, "Where is Baishakou?"

"."

Zhao Zhonghe frowned, and Manager Cai beside him quickly said, "Brother Xu has just joined the corpse recovery team today, so he's not familiar with the river routes. However, I do know where Baishakou is. I'll go with you on the boat."

Xu Qing glanced at Manager Cai and thought that this manager was much more humane than Lupin and the others.

The group took a ferry and sailed to Baisha Ferry under the moonlight.

The moonlight was bright and the river was rippling. Zhao Zhonghe had nothing to do, so he began to ask Xu Qing about the corpse recovery incident during the day.

Xu Qing took the explanation he had given to Manager Cai and repeated it again.

"If it weren't for this incident, I would have taken Zheng Xingshang to the government office to ask Brother Wang to perform an autopsy and verify the facts."

Zhao Zhonghe nodded when he heard this. What Xu Qing said was consistent with what he did and there was no mistake.

In addition, the other party often assisted Wang Lingyuan in performing autopsies and solving cases for the government office, so he could be considered half of his own.

Zhao Zhonghe thought for a moment and ruled out Xu Qing as a suspect.

Soon, we arrived at the shallows of Baisha Ferry.

Xu Qing and others got off the ferry and came to several speedboats stranded on the river beach.

Zhao Zhonghe frowned slightly as he looked at the corpses piled up randomly among the chaotic boats.

Some of the corpses had water plants growing out of the corners of their eyes, hanging stickyly on their faces, and some had river sand and lung water filling their noses and mouths, each one looking more bizarre and grotesque than the other.

Zhao Zhonghe suddenly remembered something. He reached out and grabbed the upper and lower jaws of a corpse, forcing it to open its lips. With his other hand, he held the handle of the knife and smashed it hard on the corpse's abdomen.

The next moment, the corpse's abdominal cavity was squeezed, and the lips and mouth began to spew out a lot of mud and river water, and even dead fish and shrimps.
"It's the Taoist waterman who escaped from Tianwu Temple!"

Zhao Zhonghe immediately identified the culprit: "This demon has a water monkey. His specialty is controlling water flow and inflicting damage to the human heart. A few months ago, the entire family of Old Lady Cao from the Salt Gang died at his hands."

Xu Qing remained silent.

It was he who helped solve the case, otherwise no one would know the real culprit who wiped out Mrs. Cao's family.

"This area is close to the river and has abundant moisture. If we encounter the demons of Tianwu Temple, we will definitely not be their opponents!"

"We shouldn't stay here long. Let's get the body onto the ferry. As for the culprit, once we return to the yamen, we'll turn the case over to the Demon Hunting Division, and they'll send someone to investigate."

The yamen runners who followed around nodded in agreement.

They only make a few dollars a month, so there's no need to take the risk.

The yamen runners were somewhat restrained when carrying these strange corpses, but there was a young man who moved the corpses very skillfully.

Xu Qing swiftly carried the corpses onto the ferry, and it looked as if he was carrying his young wives instead of corpses on his shoulders.

After moving the bodies, Zhao Zhonghe turned around and was about to take everyone back home, but at this critical moment, a figure suddenly appeared on the river bank opposite the riverbed.

The man was wearing a dark blue Taoist robe, and a child who looked nothing like a human was following him, as if he was leading a monkey.

The Taoist priest looked at the yamen runners with a smile, which looked particularly creepy under the moonlight.

(End of this chapter)