I Only Want to Lie Flat But Am Forced to Cultivate Immortality-Chapter 174 - 108: Three Perils of Linhe_2

"Why did you come back alone, where are the others?"

Xu Qing was astonished: "What do you mean by that? Are the other corpse collectors not back yet?"

He wasn’t pretending to be confused. This time, the Corpse Recovery Team had twelve members, with only Lu Ping and five others who perished by his hands. Logically, there should be six searching elsewhere.

His return was not that early; normally, those six corpse collectors should have been back as well.

"Strange, usually before dark, the Corpse Recovery Team is all back. But today, only you returned."

The steward asked suspiciously: "Didn’t you encounter them halfway?"

Xu Qing shook his head: "I just joined the team today. I’m not skilled at rowing the boat yet, so I couldn’t catch up with them, let alone encounter them."

"Then let’s wait a little longer."

The steward didn’t take it seriously; he then noticed the corpses placed in Xu Qing’s black canopy boat and asked with curiosity: "You retrieved all these?"

Xu Qing smiled slightly and said: "I was just lucky. I hadn’t been in the river long when I stumbled upon a hidden pit with several corpses inside. I hauled them up and started back, then found another halfway."

"Judging from its appearance, this corpse should be the Trader Zheng you mentioned."

The steward quickly came forward to identify. After a while, he turned back: "It’s undoubtedly him, you really are fortunate."

"Blessed in disaster, it’s a good thing you are unskilled at rowing and took your time, otherwise perhaps you wouldn’t have this luck."

Xu Qing chuckled, and the two chatted casually.

"By the way, Steward Cai, I can’t keep these corpses on the boat forever, can I? We need to find a place to store them."

Steward Cai nodded and agreed: "That’s easy. In a moment, I’ll lead you to the place where the Corpse Recovery Team stores corpses. You can just leave them there!"

The two continued chatting, and as it grew dark, Steward Cai finally sensed something unusual.

He frowned at Xu Qing, instructing: "Don’t rush off yet. I’ll keep watch here, while you go to the watchtower and light the torches to guide them."

Xu Qing nodded in agreement. The Corpse Recovery Team doesn’t consist only of Lu Ping’s squad. By now it’s late and those people still haven’t returned, which defies logic.

Upon reaching the watchtower, Xu Qing did not climb up. Instead, he performed the Lighting Technique, snapping his fingers, and all the torches on the watchtower lit up.

At the stroke of the first watch, some late-returning fishermen spread the word that they found six speedboats of the Corpse Recovery Team at Baisha Port, with everyone onboard lifeless.

Xu Qing was stunned for a moment upon hearing this news.

He had tossed Lu Ping and others’ boats into the Reed Marsh, a forbidden area for fishers and ferrymen, so they wouldn’t be discovered soon. Even if by chance someone found them, it would be the work of the Water Tigers, and it had nothing to do with him.

Unexpectedly, aside from Lu Ping’s squad, another team of corpse collectors also met the same fate.

"You mean the corpses of those corpse collectors are still on the boats?"

Xu Qing grasped the critical information.

"Indeed! Those corpses died in a very eerie manner. You should have seen it; they looked like all the blood had been sucked dry. We dared not touch them, thought it would be better to leave it to your Corpse Recovery Team since it’s your domain, and you surely have more experience than us..."

Steward Cai’s face turned dark upon hearing that. With almost all the corpse collectors gone and only Xu Qing, a newbie, left, where would he find the manpower to recover bodies from the river?

"You go to the Government Office and report this. I’ll gather our people; this matter cannot be taken lightly!"

Everyone scattered in all directions, busily working, and by the second watch, the Linhe night patrol soldiers and constables from the Government Office had arrived.

The leading tall guy scanned the area and asked for key details. Upon noticing Xu Qing beside Steward Cai, he was evidently surprised.

"Why are you here?"

Xu Qing looked at Zhao Zhonghe and retorted, "This place isn’t your home, why can’t I be here?"

Steward Cai who had benefited from Xu Qing quickly chimed in: "Officer, Younger Brother Xu is from my Corpse Recovery Team..."

Zhao Zhonghe was taken aback, looking at Xu Qing: "Since when did you join the Corpse Recovery Team? Aren’t you running a Funeral Shop?"

"That’s a strange thing to say, constable. Recovering corpses is also a funeral business, both deal with dead people."

"..."

Zhao Zhonghe shook his head helplessly.

He couldn’t understand why someone who had already become a scholar would still be hung up on dealing with dead bodies.

"Officer, what about the matter at Baisha Port..."

Seeing Zhao Zhonghe remain silent, Steward Cai hurriedly changed his tone: "It’s hard to see at night, this issue isn’t urgent. If the officer wishes to wait until tomorrow, it’s understandable."

Zhao Zhonghe looked up at the bright moon, then spoke: "Tomorrow has its own matters. Since we’re here, we might as well escort the bodies from Baisha Port back to the Government Office first."

"Steward Cai, since you are responsible for this river area, please find some corpse collectors to lead the way and guide us to Baisha Port."

"Officer, officer, there are no more corpse collectors left!"

Zhao Zhonghe was shocked, looking at Steward Cai.

"Officer, the duty roster for today’s Corpse Recovery Team had twelve members. Six died at Baisha Port, five are still missing..."

Zhao Zhonghe narrowed his eyes: "Six dead, five missing. Where is the remaining one?"

Steward Cai’s gaze turned towards Xu Qing.

The latter chuckled inwardly and volunteered: "I’m close with the Corpse Recovery Team’s brothers; I can’t ignore their plight."

"Even if I can’t find the real culprit, I should at least collect their bodies, which I should do."

Zhao Zhonghe nodded: "Then you lead us to Baisha Port."

Xu Qing blinked his eyes and asked: "Where is Baisha Port located?"

"..."

Zhao Zhonghe frowned. Steward Cai quickly interjected: "Younger Brother Xu just joined the Corpse Recovery Team today and is not familiar with the river routes. But I know where Baisha Port is. I’ll accompany the officer on the boat."

Xu Qing glanced at Steward Cai, thinking he was much more sensible than Lu Ping and his group.

The group boarded the ferry and sailed towards Baisha Ferry under the moonlight.

The moonlight was bright; the river surface reflected shimmering waves. Zhao Zhonghe, having nothing better to do, began asking Xu Qing about his activities earlier that day.

Xu Qing recounted what he had explained to Steward Cai earlier.

"If it hadn’t been for this incident, I would have taken Trader Zheng’s body to the Government Office for Senior Brother Wang to examine."

Zhao Zhonghe nodded; Xu Qing’s words and actions matched up without any discrepancy.

Furthermore, Xu Qing often assisted Wang Lingyuan in examining corpses and solving cases for the Government Office, making him seem like half of their own.

After some thought, Zhao Zhonghe ruled out Xu Qing as a suspect.

Soon, they arrived at the shallow beach of Baisha Ferry.

Xu Qing and the others disembarked and approached the speedboats stranded on the riverbank.

Zhao Zhonghe frowned as he eyed the disarray of corpses on the boats.

Some of the corpses had water plants growing from their eye sockets, sticky and hanging on their faces. Others had noses and mouths filled with river sand and water, each looking more bizarre and uncanny.

Zhao Zhonghe suddenly remembered something. He grabbed a corpse by its jaws, forced its mouth open, and used the knife’s handle to strike its abdomen heavily.

With that, the corpse’s abdomen was compressed, spurting out a lot of mud, river water, and even dead small fish and shrimp from its mouth.

"It’s the Water Control Daoist who escaped from Celestial Wu Temple!"

Zhao Zhonghe immediately deduced the culprit: "This demon possesses a water monkey and specializes in water manipulation and suffocating techniques. Months ago, the entire household of Old Lady Cao from the Salt Gang was killed by him."

Xu Qing remained silent.

This case was solved with his aid; otherwise, nobody would have known the real culprit behind the massacre of Cao’s family.

"This area is close to the river and abundant in humidity. If we encounter the Celestial Wu Demon Daoist, we certainly won’t stand a chance!"

"It’s not safe to linger here; let’s move the corpses onto the boat. As for capturing the demon —— let’s hand the case over to the Demon Hunting Bureau once we return to the Government Office for further investigation."

The surrounding government officials nodded in agreement.

They weren’t paid enough to take risks on this matter.

While the officials hesitated to handle the bizarre corpses, one young man was surprisingly adept at it.

Xu Qing quickly hoisted each corpse onto the boat with ease, as if he were carrying a bride rather than a corpse.

Seeing the corpses loaded onto the boat, Zhao Zhonghe turned to lead everyone back. Just then, a figure appeared on the opposite riverbank.

The person wore a dark green Daoist robe, accompanied by a child-like figure resembling a monkey.

The Daoist smiled eerily at the government officials, casting a sinister shadow under the moonlight.