From a paper-making apprentice to a celestial master

Chapter 10 Opening the Coffin to Defeate Oneself

"My mother was very particular about appearances when she was alive. She always kept her nails neatly trimmed and would never have grown long nails."

These fingernails... grew out after death.

Huang Guan sighed and continued.

At this moment, Liu Quan had already walked around the entire coffin once, then squatted down and carefully examined the bottom of the coffin, his brows furrowing slightly.

After a while, he got up and started walking to the four corners of the coffin. At each corner, he would reach out and gently tap on the coffin, then listen carefully.

There were no abnormalities in the three consecutive attempts.

But when he reached the last corner of the coffin and tapped it with his finger, a muffled response came from inside, as if something inside had turned over.

The relatives who had been discussing the matter in the courtyard fell silent upon hearing the commotion.

Zhao Lei instinctively put his hand on his waist again, only then realizing that he hadn't brought any weapons with him for the funeral. He immediately swallowed hard, "Master Liu, this..."

"What's the panic?"

Liu Quan stared at the coffin for a long time without turning his head before slowly saying, "The old lady's soul is still inside her body; she hasn't left."

However, it wasn't that she didn't want to leave, it was that she couldn't.

"Can't leave?"

Huang Guan hurriedly stepped forward, "Master Liu, what do you mean by that?"

Liu Quan did not answer directly, but turned to look at the two outsiders standing awkwardly to the side.

One of them was a thin old man wearing a gray cloth long gown with a few wisps of goatee on his chin, holding a copper coin in his hand. The other was a woman in her forties with a blue cloth turban wrapped around her head and a string of copper bells hanging from her waist, looking like a sorceress.

"Did you two perform a ritual earlier?"

Liu Quan asked.

The gaunt old man cupped his hands and said awkwardly, "Replying to Master Liu, my surname is Ma, and people in the trade call me Ma Banqian."

The Huang family invited me here, and all I did was perform a ritual to appease their spirits, recite the Rebirth Mantra a few times, and burn some paper money.

Who knows if it will be of any use?

The sorceress quickly nodded, "Me too, she's the ghost woman from the village up ahead, surnamed Zhang. I called her spirit half the night, my voice is hoarse, but she just won't leave."

"Calling back the soul?"

Liu Quan sneered, "You're trying to call out to a dead person whose soul is trapped inside their body. You could shout until your throat is hoarse, but she wouldn't hear you."

Upon hearing this, everyone in the courtyard changed color.

Huang Guan's face turned even paler: "Master Liu, are you saying... my mother's soul is trapped inside her body?"

"That's right."

Liu Quan nodded and said, "After a person dies, their soul should leave the body within three days."

If it is not removed for three days, the yin energy will flow back and infiltrate the coffin. Touching it will feel like being in an ice cave, extremely chilling.

The old lady has been dead for seven days.

The yin energy inside this coffin was extremely strong.

Even if it were just an ordinary corpse lying inside, let alone the old woman whose soul was trapped inside her body, it would still turn into a zombie.

"It's perfectly normal for things to become stiff."

Upon hearing this, everyone's expression changed again, and the timid ones couldn't help but head towards the door.

"Also, who authorized this arrangement of the food?"

As Liu Quan spoke, his gaze suddenly fell on the bowl of white rice with three chopsticks stuck in it.

Upon hearing this, Huang Guan glanced at the old woman, who was none other than Zhang the Ghost Woman.

"I asked them to do it."

Everything was prepared according to custom. Half-cooked rice was used, and three chopsticks were stuck straight into the ground, offered as a final meal for the departed soul before their journey.

The old hag gave a dry laugh and said with evasive eyes.

"A wicked person's elaborate scheme is no match for a fool's clever idea."

Get out of there quickly.

Liu Quan shouted, "The 'overturned meal' is for those who die a violent death."

Serving a meal to the dead, even if the person did not die a violent death, is tantamount to telling the deceased that they died unjustly.

You're pushing the old lady down the path to becoming a vengeful ghost.

The color drained from the old hag's face instantly, and her lips trembled as she couldn't speak.

Huang's son-in-law, Zhao Lei, quickly stepped forward, grabbed the bowl of rice that had been turned upside down, and threw it, along with the chopsticks, into the stove to burn.

Granny Zhang's face turned pale and then red, and she dared not say another word, shrinking her neck and retreating to the back of the crowd.

Ma Banqian, being sensible, cupped his hands in greeting and quietly slipped out of the courtyard.

Liu Quan ignored them and turned his gaze back to the black coffin, his face as calm as still water.

"Master Liu," Huang Guan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his voice trembling slightly, "what... should we do now?"

Liu Quan did not answer directly, but waved to the people in the courtyard: "Everyone, please go outside the courtyard for a while. Just leave Mr. Huang and Constable Zhao here."

Qin Shuang, come here.

The crowd was already feeling uneasy, and upon hearing this, they felt as if they had been granted a pardon and quickly withdrew.

The courtyard suddenly became empty, leaving only the black coffin under the mourning tent, four living people, and a few white banners that were blown askew by the wind.

"Master—" Qin Shuang had just opened her mouth when Liu Quan raised his hand to interrupt her.

"I'll teach you your first lesson."

Liu Quan's voice was not loud, but it carried an undeniable weight: "When encountering a situation, first observe the situation and assess the circumstances."

Look at this coffin, the head faces south and the feet face north, and the offering table is placed directly in front of it. Normally speaking, these orientations are not wrong.

But because the old woman's soul hadn't left.

So the direction is reversed.

This reversal will accelerate the growth of yin energy.

Look below.

He pointed to the bottom of the coffin.

Qin Shuang followed his master's finger and looked. At first, he didn't see anything wrong, but when he squatted down and his line of sight was level with the bottom of the coffin, his pupils suddenly contracted—the two long bench legs supporting the coffin were actually slightly sunk into the compacted mud. There was a ring of fine cracks around each bench leg, radiating outwards.

"This..." Qin Shuang gasped.

Huang Guan and Zhao Lei also came over to look, both of them looking shocked. Zhao Lei even blurted out, "Is this coffin heavy? How did it manage to push the stool legs into the ground?"

Although the rammed earth courtyard is not as hard as stone slabs, it can easily support a weight of several hundred kilograms. A coffin plus the body of a thin old woman weighs no more than three or four hundred kilograms, which is far from enough to push the stool legs into the ground.

"It's not that the coffin is heavy."

Liu Quan stood up, dusted off his hands, and looked at the black coffin. His tone was as calm as if he were talking about something trivial: "The contents inside are too heavy."

These words caused the expressions of everyone present to change instantly.

Huang Guan said in a trembling voice, "Master Liu, now..."

"Opening the coffin to vent our anger!"

Liu Quan interrupted him, asserting, "After seven days of reversed Yin energy, your mother's body has already begun to change."

Unfortunately, the sun is not shining today; the sky is overcast and dark clouds obscure the sun. It looks like it's going to rain. If we delay any longer, the yin energy will dissipate at noon, and the corpses will immediately rise to life.

That would be a difficult situation.

"Does the yin energy dissipate at noon?"

Huang Guan asked a question after a slight hesitation.

"When yin reaches its extreme, yang is born; when yang reaches its extreme, yin is born."

At midnight, a wisp of yang energy descends, while at noon, a wisp of yin energy dissipates.

Mr. Huang isn't in our industry, so it's perfectly normal that he doesn't understand.

Liu Quan explained.