Chapter 468: The Last Corpse Driving Artisan

Qingtu Temple, built deep within the wasteland, remained the same as always. It hadn't changed despite what happened to Daoist Priest Xianqing.

When I pushed open the temple doors, I saw Yun Chuan sweeping the courtyard. He worked meticulously, clearing away the fallen leaves.

"Yun Chuan, is there anything you need help with?"

Seeing me enter, Yun Chuan offered a simple greeting. "Destined Patron, please rest in the East Wing Room for now."

Qingtu Temple was divided into eastern and western wing rooms. The east was for hosting guests and daily living, while the west was used to nurture corpses and cultivate the Dao.

I nodded and walked into the East Wing Room. Sitting in a roughly crafted wooden chair, I looked at the scattered health training advertisements and Tai Chi brochures on the table, inevitably recalling my last visit.

"People's fortunes can change overnight. In the blink of an eye, I couldn't even make it back in time to see him one last time."

I gathered up the scattered advertisements and put them in a drawer. Not long after, Yun Chuan finished his sweeping and walked in, a letter in hand.

"Master had a premonition before driving the Fox Immortal Corpse. He left this letter for me to give to you."

"He had a premonition back then?" I took the envelope. It was sealed with red wax and hadn't been opened.

I broke the seal and took out the letter. The vigorous handwriting had clearly been penned by Daoist Priest Xianqing himself.

"I, Xianqing, have cultivated the Dao for over forty years, and today I take the liberty of calling you my young friend. Yesterday, you caused a resonance with the Fox Immortal Corpse in the temple. This is not an auspicious sign; you must be extremely careful. This fox is dead but not stiff, neither rotting nor foul. It is bound to evolve into a disaster. Since you share a connection with it, there is an eighty or ninety percent chance it will attach itself to you."

"If my corpse driving is successful and I manage to send it to the Northeast, then all is well. But I fear a disaster will occur along the way, plunging Jiangcheng into misery and suffering."

"In recent days, my mind has been unsettled, and I know a great disaster is imminent. I should never have agreed to this corpse driving. I fear this trip will be extremely difficult to resolve peacefully."

"If something happens to me on the road, Yun Chuan will certainly deliver this letter into your hands. You must pay special attention to two things."

"First, the Fox Immortal Corpse will definitely come looking for you. Be prepared."

"Second, the Daoist priest who hired me for the corpse driving is surnamed Liu and calls himself Daoist Master Wine. If fate allows, perhaps one day the two of you will meet."

"The above are my warnings to you, my young friend. Below are a few matters I hope you can assist with."

"My disciple, Yun Chuan, has followed me in cultivating the Dao all his life and doesn't understand the ways of the world. I fear he will stumble in the future. Therefore, I want him to follow you for a while and learn some casual trade to make a living. As for the heritage of the Corpse Driving Lineage, if it is severed, let it be severed. I no longer insist on preserving it."

"Yun Chuan has an ugly face but a kind heart. He is a perfectly honest boy. After I am gone, you may freely choose from any of the items in the temple, large or small. I only ask that you allow Yun Chuan to return to a normal life."

"Do not let Yun Chuan see this letter. The child has had a bitter life; there is no need for him to feel sad over me."

"Finally, there is one more thing I must tell you. In the Hall of the Three Pure Ones rests a Wooden Spirit Tablet. It is the tablet of the Corpse Driving Lineage's patriarch. This item is connected to the fierce entity suppressed beneath the Bridge No. 3 Crematorium. Remember, it must never be lost, nor should outsiders be informed of it."

...

Daoist Priest Xianqing had explained many things, mostly concerning Yun Chuan. After reading the letter, my heart ached. I had long known that the master and disciple shared a deep bond—that despite having no blood relation, they were closer than father and son—yet I still felt a stifling weight in my chest.

After finishing the letter, I didn't do as Daoist Priest Xianqing asked. Instead, I handed it straight to Yun Chuan. He was Daoist Priest Xianqing's closest confidant and had the right to know everything.

After reading it, Yun Chuan narrowed his eyes to slits, seemingly to hide their reddening rims.

"You've read the letter. The choice is yours. If you want to return to a normal life, I can arrange for you to learn a trade to support yourself. Even getting married and having children won't be a problem in the future." I spoke with a degree of confidence. Whether it was Huang Boyuan's Qian Ding Pharmaceutical Company or Xinhu City's massive Li Family Enterprise, I could easily find a good job for Yun Chuan.

Putting down the letter, Yun Chuan shook his head. "I want to stay here, guard the temple, and continue learning corpse driving."

"You must think this through clearly. The Corpse Driving Lineage has declined. Modern people simply don't need this anymore. You live in poverty, and the Wondrous Corpse Driving Art has nowhere left to be used. You're not even doing as well as those charlatans running health training classes." I was speaking the truth. Daoists who possessed real skills but refused to lower their status, acting strictly on principle, generally lived rather impoverished lives. This was true for Daoist Priest Xianqing, and it had been true for Blind Liu.

"Thank you for your kindness, Destined Patron, but I must decline. I will pass down Master's Dao. The Corpse Driving Lineage will not end here." Yun Chuan stood up and handed the letter back to me, his attitude firm.

Just as I was about to try and persuade him a bit more, my phone rang. It was a call from Tie Ningxiang.

"I'll talk to you later," I said, standing up and walking outside to answer it. "Senior Sister, I'm at Qingtu Temple. Do you need me for something?"

"Gao Jian, I know you're busy, but you have to come to the Municipal Sub-bureau immediately."

Tie Ningxiang's tone was serious, giving me a bad feeling. "Did something happen?"

"Several bodies were found at the Jiangcheng Northern Suburb Subway Station. Preliminary judgment suggests the modus operandi is the same as the previous murders. And when we were screening the surveillance video, we unexpectedly discovered that you were at the crime scene during the time of the incident."

Listening to Tie Ningxiang's words over the phone, I slowly realized what was going on. Yesterday, when the Blood Fox went on a killing spree in the subway station, I had happened to be present. It was completely normal for me to be caught on camera. "You aren't suspecting me, are you?"

"This case is huge. The Municipal Sub-bureau can't keep a lid on it at all. The higher-ups are demanding that you come over immediately to cooperate with the investigation, otherwise they'll dispatch officers." Given the multiple lives involved, Tie Ningxiang adopted a strictly business-like tone.

"Alright, I'll head over right now." Hanging up the phone, I felt somewhat helpless as I went back to find Yun Chuan. He expressed his understanding and told me to take care of my own affairs first; I just needed to go directly to the Bridge No. 3 Crematorium at three in the afternoon for the farewell ceremony.

I nodded. After a moment's thought, I brought Yun Chuan to the main hall of Qingtu Temple. A Wooden Spirit Tablet sat next to the statues of the Three Pure Ones.

"Yun Chuan, this tablet is very important. You must keep it safe."

After giving this instruction, I left straight for the Municipal Sub-bureau, remaining extremely cautious along the way for fear of any accidents.

I didn't arrive until twelve-thirty. After I gave a standard statement, Tie Ningxiang dropped another shocking piece of news.

"There's still one survivor alive, but his mind isn't quite right. It seems he suffered a severe trauma." In the criminal investigation office, everyone—including Wu Meng and Zhao Bin—looked at me with strange expressions. Only when I was getting the creeps from their stares did they pull out a pencil sketch and hand it to me. "This sketch of the culprit was drawn based on the survivor's description. Take a look."

I took the paper and glanced at it, immediately freezing. The person drawn on the page looked eighty or ninety percent like me. "You guys really are suspecting me?"

The murderer behind the subway station massacre was the Blood Fox, but it had followed me into the Yin-Yang Boundary and drank the Sorrow-Forgetting Water. I had no idea if it had returned yet.

"Most of the wounds on the deceased are lacerations, leaving teeth marks and claw prints. According to our simulated wound comparisons, the real culprit should be a fox." At this point, Tie Ningxiang even gestured with her hands. "It should only be about this big."

Looking at her gesture, it wasn't just me; the expressions of every police officer in the criminal investigation room turned strange.

A fox barely larger than a badminton racket was actually the murderer who butchered people in the subway station. This was a result no one could accept. They couldn't even convince themselves, let alone report it to the Public Security Department to close the case.

"The investigation has hit a bottleneck, and you happened to appear during the time of the incident. You had both the time and rich experience with crimes, combined with your excellent physical fitness and highly formidable skills in crime scene disguise and deductive misdirection. Therefore, the higher-ups specifically ordered that you be classified as a key investigative target." Wu Meng pulled an officially issued document from his drawer. "If necessary, we can even take coercive measures."

"Coercive measures, my ass! What 'rich experience committing crimes' do I have? At a glance, this is obviously an animal kill. There are bite marks on their bodies—you can extract my blood and dental records for comparison!" I was truly speechless. I never expected that after being hunted by the Blood Fox all night, I would end up taking the blame for it. "You're all elites of the police force, can you be a bit rational here? Right, what about that survivor? I want to see him!"