Chapter 1 Death Trial
Xie Que opened his eyes, and the disgusting smell kept pouring into his nose.
This is where? He was a little confused.
Looking around, it was pitch black.
He seemed to be in a small cabin, with only a little light coming from the stern.
Chaotic memories flooded into his mind, and Xie Que finally realized that he had traveled through time.
Now is the first year of Fengyu in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and the new emperor has not long since ascended the throne.
He is a corpse fisher by the Wuding River outside Jinmen City, specializing in salvaging corpses from the river.
Today's world is absurd, demons are in power, people are in dire straits, and many people drown themselves in rivers.
In the Zhou Dynasty, after death, the most important thing was to rest in the grave.
If the body sinks in the river, it will be difficult for the wronged soul to enter reincarnation, which can easily lead to bad luck.
In order to pacify the souls of the dead and fulfill the wishes of their families, the profession of corpse collectors emerged.
The surrounding villages are all villagers who rely on the water to draw water. If the bodies in the river are not fished out. The villagers were too afraid to go into the water.
Therefore, the corpse collectors can be regarded as being supported by several surrounding villages, and they also receive a subsidy from the government.
As a business of fishing for ghosts, you have to deal with dead people every day. Ordinary people really don't have the courage.
Moreover, it is best for those who work in this industry to have five disadvantages and three deficiencies. Those whose destiny is not evil enough will easily get into trouble.
I learned from my memory that Xie Que was an orphan who was abandoned by his family.
The predecessor suffered from laughing disorder since birth, and he could not control himself from laughing when his mood fluctuated.
Although this is not a crippling and terminal disease, in this era, ordinary people are also extremely superstitious.
Xie Que didn't know his own life, but he only knew that he was raised by Dashun, a corpse collector outside the city.
After becoming an adult, Xie Que followed Dashun to fish out corpses and make a living.
Xie Que became extremely uneasy. The world he had traveled through was so dangerous.
This world is not only filled with natural and man-made disasters, but also seems to be filled with fierce spirits, ghosts, and weird monsters.
Xie Que was thinking about it when he saw an old man with a stooped body and white beard and hair coming from the stern of the boat with a hemp rope.
This is his adoptive father, Dashun.
Dashun is a deaf-mute man with no family, and has been working as a corpse hunter here for decades.
He frowned and looked at Xie Que, with a hint of surprise in his eyes.
Xie Que shuddered suddenly.
He was a little embarrassed by his adoptive father's gaze, and goosebumps kept appearing on his skin.
Although Dashun is his adoptive father, Dashun, who is deaf-mute, does not communicate much with him.
Moreover, his adoptive father behaved strangely, making Xie Que afraid of him since he was a child.
Xie Que felt as if he was being stared at by a poisonous snake, and that kind of fear came from his biological instincts.
It even became difficult for Xie Que to breathe, and cold sweat broke out on his back.
"What's wrong with me..." Xie Que felt that his heart was being grabbed tightly by a big hand.
Dashun's eyes became cloudy again. After looking away from Xie Que, Xie Que returned to normal.
I touched my neck, and there was still a trace of residual pain there.
Xie Gao exhaled a thick breath, and the adoptive father in front of him dropped the hemp rope in his hand to the ground.
Da Bian pointed to the water surface, indicating to Xie Que that he was ready to enter the water.
"I...I can't..." Xie Que suddenly became nervous, completely forgetting that Dashun couldn't hear him.
For more than ten years, Xie Que had never personally retrieved a corpse. It was always Dashun or several of his brothers who did it.
Dashun once had four adopted sons, corresponding to "Heaven and Earth".
But all three brothers accidentally drowned in the water, and now only the youngest Xie Que is left.
Since then, Xie Que has become even more afraid of his adoptive father.
Dashun took out a few sticks of incense from the cabin, lit them, and stuck them in the bow of the boat.
Then he turned to look at Xie Que again.
Xie Que has been following Dashun for many years and understands that when these three sticks of incense burn out, it is time for him to enter the water.
He gritted his teeth and tied the hemp rope tightly around his waist.
Dashun nodded, took out a black cockroach from the gourd on his waist, and stuffed it forcefully into Xie's gap.
Xie Que was horrified, but Dashun was extremely strong and could not tolerate his resistance.
But he didn't expect that the cockroach was as silky as Dove, and he swallowed it quickly after entering his mouth.
Xie Que had seen his father and brothers eat it, but as a time traveler, he still felt a little alienated in his heart and started to cough.
The three sticks of incense in front of him were about to burn out, and Dashun lit another stick of incense as thick as his finger.
The three sticks of incense were used to pay homage to the dead souls in the water, to feed them and prevent the little ghosts from causing trouble.
And this big incense is used to summon spirits.
If the body has not been fished out when it is completely burned, it should not be immersed in water again.
After completing this, his eyes focused on Xie Que again.
Xie Que also knew that the arrow had to be fired when it was on the string, and he could not allow him to think twice.
He still remembered that the third brother was unwilling to go into the water before.
Then Dashun kicked him into the water and even locked him and his body in a net bag.
He gritted his teeth and picked up the big net on the side and jumped into the water.
Due to the effect of the crickets, Xie Que could see very clearly in the water at night, just like during the day.
Moreover, years of training have made Xie very good at losing water.
It's no problem to dive into the water and hold your breath for three to five minutes.
He looked at the "drifter" about ten meters away from the ship.
It was the floating corpse, and Xie Que's inner fear began to spread.
Xie Que floated up and put his head above the water.
This "drifter" had been soaked in water for too long, and the body had begun to swell, and the stench continued to enter Xie Que's nose.
Bai Huahua's corpse seemed to have swelled into a ball, looking very disgusting and terrifying.
When Xie Que swam closer, he was shocked to find that the body was bent over, face down.
He quickly raised his hand three times as he remembered what his adoptive father had taught him.
This is a sign of good luck, and the facing of the corpse is an ominous sign.
Dashun then sprinkled a handful of paper money into the river and tied a red rope to the bow of the boat.
The paper money is to pacify the dead souls and let their souls enter the body with peace of mind, while the red rope is to avoid interference from imps.
Then, Xie Que swam three times around the corpse, which was one of the ways to recall the soul of the corpse.
Moreover, corpses in the water are very likely to be entangled in aquatic plants or other things.
These invisible factors require the person who retrieved the body to go into the water to check, otherwise there is no need to go into the water.
Then Dashun took out a big rooster from the bag, cut the chicken's throat and spilled the blood into the water.
It is also to avoid attracting evil spirits.
This chicken was raised free-range by farmers dozens of miles away. Usually, the old meat and firewood would be used by the people who fished out the corpses.
Immediately afterwards, Xie Que opened the big net in his hand, then raised it over his head and threw the big net out in an arc.
The big net caught the floating corpse in one stroke.
This corpse net is not an extraordinary thing, but is made of black dog hair.
It needs to be soaked in black dog blood for 7749 days and finally exposed to the sun for 9981 days before it can be made.
Xie Que forcibly suppressed the fear in his heart, held his breath, swam around the corpse, and closed the body net.
The rule for those who fish for corpses is "don't let corpses touch the boat", which means that when you are fishing for dead people, you can't let the corpses touch the hull of the boat.
So generally speaking, the corpse is tied with a rope and pulled away.
If the body has swelled, pulling it away with a rope may tear the body apart, so the entire body needs to be wrapped in a corpse net.
Immediately, Xie Que untied the hemp rope around his waist and tied it to the edge of his net bag.
He exhaled and was about to swim back to the boat when a trance suddenly began in front of him.
A scroll of bloody brocade suddenly appeared in front of him, with four strange words engraved on it.
But Xie Que also understood the meaning of these four words in an instant.
Death trial!