Chapter 255: White Fur

Daoist Priest Xianqing's words left me puzzled, but I couldn't press the issue. Whatever corpse he was driving was his secret; such things weren't meant to be pried into.

"Dao Zheng, the old man in the West Wing Room has grown White Fur." Yun Chuan returned a moment later, his face perfectly calm, though his words left me deeply unsettled.

"Old man? White Fur?"

"The morning sun is up and Yang Qi is at its peak. What could have disturbed the corpse?" Daoist Priest Xianqing grabbed his Yin Gong and Bronze Bell, rising to head outside. "Destined Patron, please excuse me for a moment."

"It's fine, go ahead." Driven by curiosity, I waited for Daoist Priest Xianqing to leave the room before following him outside.

The temple was small, divided into four rooms across the east and west wings. The eastern side was normal enough, but the West Wing Room radiated an undeniable strangeness. Even in broad daylight, its doors and windows were sealed tight and draped in thick black gauze, as if to block out every last ray of sunlight.

'Is the West Wing Room not meant for the living?' The construction of Daoist temples followed strict rules: the sun to the east and the moon to the west, neatly dividing Yin and Yang. The eastern rooms housed the living, and the western rooms nurtured spirits.

Daoist Priest Xianqing cracked the door open just enough to slip inside with Yun Chuan, immediately pulling it shut behind them. Moments later, a heavy thumping echoed from within, like a freshly caught fish thrashing on dry land.

"Yun Chuan, fetch my Divine Talisman!" Daoist Priest Xianqing chanted his incantations inside, punctuated by the sharp ringing of his Bronze Bell. The suspense gnawed at me until, unable to resist, I crept over to the window of the West Wing Room and lifted a corner of the black gauze.

Peering through the glass, I saw that the small room was laid out like an old-fashioned communal sleeping hall with a long earthen bed. But there was no fire lit in the hearth beneath it; instead, basins of water had been lined up below.

A thick black cloth draped over the bed. Judging by the rigid outlines pressing against the fabric, it was covering a row of corpses.

I did a quick count—six or seven bodies in total, men and women of varying heights.

'This is corpse driving? Why does it feel so sinister?' Activating my Chasing Eye, I peered toward the far wall. Daoist Priest Xianqing and Yun Chuan stood there. The priest was rapidly weaving hand seals and chanting, while his disciple did the heavy lifting, using his body weight to pin something against the corner.

Even pushing my vision to its absolute limit, I couldn't see it clearly. I only caught faint glimpses of White Fur—strands that were longer and more resilient than human hair.

Five or six minutes later, Daoist Priest Xianqing finished his incantation. He drew two Talisman Papers inscribed in cinnabar and slapped them onto the entity. Snatching a vibrant green willow branch from one of the water basins, he bound the creature. Only then did the thumping in the room cease.

After throwing a black cloth over it, Yun Chuan hoisted the thing from the corner onto his back and laid it out on the earthen bed. The master and disciple worked in tacit coordination; throughout the entire process, I never caught a full look at whatever they had just subdued.

Creak.

The door pushed open, and Daoist Priest Xianqing and Yun Chuan stepped out together. What had just happened seemed to be a routine occurrence for the two of them.

"Destined Patron, I apologize for the fright." Daoist Priest Xianqing still wore his breezy composure. He didn't seem the least bit angry to catch me peeking at the window; it was almost as if he had expected it.

Caught red-handed, I scratched my head in embarrassment. "Daoist Priest, what exactly was thrashing around in the room just now? I heard the noise..."

"Since you've seen me driving corpses, I won't keep it a secret from you." Daoist Priest Xianqing stuck a talisman onto the doorframe before ushering Yun Chuan and me into the eastern wing. "The thumping you heard was made by the corpse. I can't elaborate further. You aren't part of our lineage, and knowing too much wouldn't be good for you."

"Made by the corpse? Was that the legendary Corpse Reanimation?"

Daoist Priest Xianqing nodded. "When a person dies, their obsession transforms into a ghost, while their flesh turns into nourishment to feed the earth. However, due to various special reasons, some bodies retain a portion of their memories. If Yin energy and baleful aura then seep into them, you get the situation you just witnessed."

"Such a change can happen even with the morning sun blazing in the sky. Isn't corpse driving entirely too dangerous?" I glanced toward the West Wing Room shrouded in black gauze. I couldn't quite accept a profession that required eating and sleeping alongside the dead.

"It's not as scary as you make it out to be." Daoist Priest Xianqing took a sip of clear tea from his cup. "The Corpse Driving Lineage performs acts of charity, mostly helping those poor souls who die far from their homelands. This accrues great merit, making us impervious to ghosts and gods."

"We've already had six corpses reanimate this month. I haven't seen any of this merit, and we barely even have money for rice left," Yun Chuan muttered softly from the doorway. Cultivators possessed sharp senses, so both Daoist Priest Xianqing and I heard him clearly.

"Yun Chuan, have you mastered the Standing Corpse Skill I taught you?"

"Your disciple is dull-witted and hasn't grasped the basics yet. I just can't seem to get the hang of it."

"Then shouldn't you go practice?" Daoist Priest Xianqing pulled a stern face. Yun Chuan meekly excused himself. Watching his disciple leave, the priest finally sighed. "Don't listen to his nonsense. Corpse Reanimation is extremely rare; you just happened to catch it. My temple hasn't been peaceful lately. It seems we've been targeted by something."

I was thoughtful, unable to shake the feeling that Daoist Priest Xianqing was hiding something. My thoughts drifted to the extra memorial tablet in the Hall of the Three Pure Ones. After a long moment of deliberation, I finally asked, "Could you elaborate on that? Perhaps I could lend a hand."

The Daoist priest hesitated for a moment before finally speaking. "This matter starts with that old Daoist. He visited Qingtu Temple a few weeks ago, saying he planned to transport a Corpse Immortal to the Northeast, and offered five hundred thousand right off the bat. You've seen my situation; we were incredibly hard-pressed, so I agreed. In the dead of night on the second day, the old Daoist carried the Corpse Immortal over by himself. But when Yun Chuan and I pulled back the black cloth, we realized something was wrong."

"What was wrong?"

"The Corpse Shroud wasn't wrapping a human corpse. It was a fox corpse." Daoist Priest Xianqing smiled bitterly. "I've been driving corpses for half my life, and that was the first time I'd encountered such a thing. I was ready to refuse right then and there, but the old Daoist threw an absolute fit, and his strength was remarkably high. Yun Chuan and I combined were no match for him. With no other choice, we had to bite the bullet and agree, waiting until the time of the mourning apparel, condolence visitor, and funeral door to set off and drive the corpse to the Northeast."

Daoist Priest Xianqing's words held a massive amount of information. Corpse driving was mysterious enough to me already, but now a fox corpse had popped up. Most crucially, I had just heard the words 'mourning apparel, condolence visitor, and funeral door' from Daoist Priest Xianqing's mouth. I had heard those exact same words from Lu Xing before.

"May I ask, Daoist Priest, what exactly does the time of the mourning apparel, condolence visitor, and funeral door mean?"

"You've entered the path of cultivation. Surely your master didn't fail to teach you even these basic things?" Daoist Priest Xianqing blanked for a moment, but seeing that I wasn't joking, he explained. "These are specific hours on the lunar calendar. These days are suited for funerals and burial rites, making them the most valued days for the Corpse Driving Lineage. Furthermore, if someone is born during these hours, their eight characters will carry the three inauspicious stars of draping hemp, Mourning Guest, and mourning gate."

Prompted by Daoist Priest Xianqing's words, I subconsciously thought of Lu Xing and the rainy night serial murders from five years ago. "And what would happen if, at this exact time every year, someone murdered a person whose destiny bore the mourning apparel, condolence visitor, and funeral door?"

"That would be violating a massive taboo. Nothing would go right, and the passing years would be cursed with misfortune. It wouldn't just affect the killer; even the surrounding region would be implicated."

"It's that severe?" My heart pounded wildly. I felt like I was faintly grasping something. "Daoist Priest, what exact date on the solar calendar is the time of the mourning apparel, condolence visitor, and funeral door this year?"

"Normally, these three hours don't align; they're usually spaced a few days apart. But once every five years, a white omen occurs, such as this year. In three days, the moment the clock strikes exactly midnight, it will become the time of the mourning apparel, condolence visitor, and funeral door."

"The night three days from now?!" The night three days from now was exactly the time of my eighth livestream! The stream was scheduled to overlap with the most inauspicious time of the year. This eighth broadcast would very likely become a turning point in my streaming career.

"Are you that surprised? Lunar calculations and reading the birth Eight Characters are elementary skills. Your foundation is robust, and the great dragon of your spine is fully unblocked. You should have already cultivated to the Following the Middle Path Realm, so how do you not even know these basics?"

I had no way to answer Daoist Priest Xianqing's question, as I could never clearly explain the origins of an unshared secret like the Profound Truth Mental Method, so I quickly changed the subject. "My cultivation method is different from yours. Rather than secluding myself from the world, I cultivate by immersing myself in it. I can't disclose the specifics, so let's get back to that fox corpse."

Daoist Priest Xianqing didn't press the issue and simply nodded. "I originally planned to set off in three days and personally drive the fox corpse to the Northeast. But human calculation is no match for heaven's. Now that the time is upon us, we've realized that the corpse cannot be touched."