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"The corpse retriever has six treasures."

Li Jitong then spoke up: "The Soul-Returning Hook!"

At this moment, Zhou Xun took out an iron hook from the boat. This hook was specially made with barbs, so that once it hooked a corpse, it would be difficult for it to break free.

Zheng Xuan took the iron hook from Zhou Xun and tried it out; it was quite easy to handle.

Following this, Li Jitong continued, "The remaining items are: the Homesickness Net, the Yellow River Shovel, the Corpse-Binding Rope, and most importantly, the Soul-Stabilizing Bell and the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman!"

Li Jitong explained to Zheng Xuan that the Homesickness Net, Yellow River Shovel, and Corpse-Binding Rope were all standard tools for retrieving corpses, with the most important being the Soul-Stabilizing Bell and the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman.

The Soul-Stabilizing Bell is the bell that hangs at the stern of the corpse-retrieval boat. This bell is not something you can just buy anywhere; you have to go to the Dragon King Temple outside Tianjin to buy it from the old temple keeper. This old temple keeper is said to be a master who has entered the ranks of experts and specializes in making bells.

This bell has the effect of calming the soul.

Secondly, there's this corpse-suppressing talisman. Zheng Xuan had seen this talisman before; it was used to suppress the female river drifter who had turned into a corpse in the morgue of the corpse retrieval team that day.

At this moment, Zhou Xun saw Zheng Xuan looking at the corpse-suppressing talisman and said, "Don't underestimate this corpse-suppressing talisman. It was made by my master himself. In our corpse-retrieval team, it's extremely rare to find one."

"With this talisman in hand, ordinary corpse transformations can be suppressed directly. It is also because of this skill that Master has firmly held the top position in our corpse retrieval team."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Xuan took the corpse-suppressing talisman from Zhou Xun's hand. He noticed that it was made of high-quality talisman paper and cinnabar. Zheng Xuan sniffed it and also noticed the smell of incense ash.

Zheng Xuan glanced at Zhou Xun while holding the corpse-suppressing talisman and asked, "Senior brother, can you also draw talismans?"

Zhou Xun shook his head and said, "I can't do that. That's my master's unique skill."

After hearing this, Zheng Xuan suddenly understood. This unique skill was probably not an inherited skill. It was more likely a skill obtained by a corpse retriever at the ninth or eighth rank. Was it talisman making?

Li Jitong then spoke up: "Alright, we've covered the tools enough. Now let's get to today's work: patrolling the river."

The work of body retrievers is divided into routine work and non-routine work. The routine work is to patrol the river. Every day, body retrievers need to patrol the section of the river they are responsible for to see if there are any drowned bodies floating on the river.

The unconventional task is a specific body retrieval mission, such as when someone reports that there are floating objects in the river, and the body retriever is responsible for retrieving them.

Li Jitong came with a teaching mission, so he took Zheng Xuan along to do normal tasks.

And so, the group traveled downstream along the river. Zhou Xun was in charge of steering the boat, while Li Jitong, smoking his pipe, looked at the Haihe River and pointed out where the undercurrents and reefs were. Li Jitong had spent most of his life on the Haihe River, so he knew its water conditions very well.

On the river, Zheng Xuan also got to know the city of Tianjin again. Tianjin belonged to Beizhili and should have been a prefecture city. However, after the outbreak of the First Opium War in 1900, Tianjin Prefecture was forcibly divided into a concession by foreigners.

One-third of Tianjin's land was forcibly seized, and Tianjin was divided into two parts by the concession: South Tianjin and North Tianjin. The imperial court set up two county towns there, each governed by a different magistrate.

The area in the middle was a concession area established by the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Standing on the ship, Zheng Xuan looked at the churches and buildings in the foreign concessions that had a distinctly European style. His gaze became solemn. Any Chinese person would be uneasy upon hearing the word "concession." This was humiliation!

As Zheng Xuan was thinking this, he noticed a large European-style building near the Haihe River. He glanced at it and asked, "What's that?"

Li Jitong glanced at it, took a puff of his cigarette, and said, "The Catholic church in the French Concession is said to be a place where foreign monks chant sutras."

"church?"

Zheng Xuan smacked his lips and asked, "Are there many believers?"

Li Jitong said, "There are many children in that neighborhood because the foreign monks at the church give candy to the children every five days."

Zheng Xuan nodded upon hearing this, indicating that he understood.

Zhou Xun continued rowing his famous boat downstream. Just as they reached the lower reaches of the concession, they suddenly saw a foreigner's iron boat moored on the river.

From a distance, it looked like the people on it were trying to retrieve something from the tin boat.

Drip!

Zhou Xun's small boat came from upstream, and just as it approached, the iron boat suddenly sounded its horn.

Immediately afterwards, two blond foreigners emerged from the boat, shouting at the top of their lungs, "Go away, go away..."

"What are those blondies yelling about?"

Zhou Xun frowned, and Li Jitong also furrowed his brows, unable to understand either. Zheng Xuan then spoke up, "He told us to get out of the way!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xun angrily retorted, "This Haihe River is part of China's territory! What right does he have to tell us to get out!"

Unlike Zhou Xun, Li Jitong wasn't as impulsive. He simply looked at Zheng Xuan in surprise and asked, "You understand foreigners' language?"

"Simple ones are no problem."

Zheng Xuan didn't explain how he knew it, he just said that he knew the simple things.

At this moment, Li Jitong said, "Tell them that we are from the Great Jing Kingdom's water rescue team, and we are currently on official duty!"

The body retrieval team was officially a government-affiliated water rescue team.

Upon hearing this, Zheng Xuan stood up and shouted those words at the foreigner.

"Get out, whoever!"

The foreigners on the ship continued to roar angrily.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xun asked, "What are these foreign devils saying now?"

"They said, whoever it is, get out of here right now!"

"Damn it!"

Zhou Xun was furious and rolled up his sleeves, ready to fight them. But just then, a foreigner on the iron-hulled ship pulled out a gun and fired a shot into the air.

Bang!

Gunpowder sprayed out, and gunshots echoed across the river.

The gunshot silenced Zhou Xun, who was about to rush forward and fight to the death. His face was full of anger, but he dared not charge any further. Li Jitong's face was also ashen. The foreigners' guns were indeed powerful; even ordinary players had to avoid their sharp edge.

Under the threat of foreign guns lies the tragedy of all those in the traditional Chinese professions, including those in the martial arts field.

There's a joke that goes: No matter how good your martial arts are, one shot can take you down.

Unless one can break through the eighth rank and enter the seventh rank, one cannot remain calm when facing firearms.

"Move or fire!"

"Go, go around them!"

As Li Jitong spoke, his gaze was unusually cold. Zheng Xuan glanced at Zhou Xun, who then rowed his ship around them. Watching the ships sail away, a blond foreigner on the iron-hulled ship said, "Let them go like that. It wouldn't be good if they spread the word."

Another foreigner said coldly, "They are government officials from Dajing. Killing them will cause unnecessary trouble."

"The official authorities? Haha, Richard, when have you ever worried about these sick Asians? Actually, if you ask me, we don't need to hide anything from each other. Even if those sheep find out, what can they do to us lions? Hahaha..."

"Anthony, you're too arrogant. China is far more complex than we perceive, especially considering the existence of Sequence Masters among them whom we can't fathom!"