Chapter 1 : Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Money and Goods Settled, Favors and Feelings Severed!
“Old man, you know the rules we escorts live by. We never keep a delivery overnight once we’ve accepted it. But the thing inside this coffin... why does it have a heartbeat?”
A bolt of lightning tore across the night sky, illuminating a stooped old man standing beneath half a Buddha’s head inside a ruined temple.
He held a jointed candle in his hand and, by its feeble light, looked toward a vermilion-red wooden coffin before him.
Something inside that red coffin seemed to have been startled awake by the lightning. It struggled to break free, slamming into the coffin walls again and again and making the entire coffin tremble without cease.
Chen Guan took off his dripping bamboo hat and stripped off his rain-soaked straw cape, throwing it over the red coffin and blocking the old man’s view.
Only then did the old man turn his hunched body around and abruptly fix Chen Guan with a pair of eyes that had no whites.
After two seconds of silence, a withered hand emerged from his sleeve, a money pouch stuck to its palm.
“Escort Master Chen, within these eight hundred li, everyone knows your escorts are famous for never asking where the goods come from, nor where they’re going. So why... has your curiosity grown so heavy today?”
Chen Guan took the pouch, weighed it in his hand, then scratched his ear. He seemed unaccustomed to the man’s shriveled voice and curled his lip.
“I’ve got no interest in asking whether what’s inside is a person or a ghost!”
“Since you know my rules, then you should also know that my price for delivering dead things and living things is different.”
Thunk! Thunk!
He slapped the red coffin beneath his hand, which was still shaking from the thing inside trying to break out.
“Your little item here is neither alive nor dead. That alone is already inauspicious.”
“You’ll have to pay more.”
Another flash of lightning lit up the old man’s ghastly pale eyes and revealed the dark brown corpse spots mottling his face.
Then, all at once, the thing inside the red coffin went eerily still.
The old man’s gaze sharpened, settling on Chen Guan’s large hand. A trace of gravity surfaced on his gaunt face.
“That is... the Coffin-Suppressing Hand?!”
He muttered inwardly and took another careful look at Chen Guan.
Chen Guan was indeed the most rule-abiding escort among all those within eight hundred li.
That much was true.
But he was also the blackest-hearted of them all.
He had recognized what was inside the coffin, yet instead of withdrawing while he still could, the first thing he thought of was asking for more money. Sure enough, the man truly did have some... skill.
Pa.
The old man withdrew his gaze, then extended another withered hand from his sleeve and smashed half a string of copper coins onto the red coffin.
The thing inside seemed to be startled and immediately began struggling again.
In the courtyard beneath the lightning, the heavy wooden coffin let out a series of violent bangs. Even the coffin nails sealing the lid trembled from the impact, and not even the raging storm overhead could suppress the sinister yin aura spreading from it.
Chen Guan calmly took the extra half-string of coins and weighed it in his hand, the corner of his mouth lifting.
“Money and goods settled, favors and feelings severed!”
Leaving behind that single line, he tucked the money pouch into his robes, put on his bamboo hat, and draped the rain cape over himself again.
After adjusting the brim, Chen Guan lifted the cloth-wrapped horse-cleaving saber that had been resting nearby, slung it over his shoulder, and strode out of the ruined temple without looking back.
Rumble...!
The instant his front foot stepped over the rotting threshold, the lid of the red coffin in the courtyard suddenly exploded open. A surge of yin baleful energy billowed out and filled the entire temple yard in an instant.
“Good grandson, your grandfather raised you for seven years. Helping me extend my life by fifty years can count as repaying me for raising you!”
“Stop making trouble!”
The old man let out a savage laugh. His deathly white eyes and hoarse voice made the surrounding air turn frigid.
“Rise!”
He stepped forward. The black staff in his hand flew free, merged into the night, and dragged a cloud of black mist with it as it slammed fiercely down into the mouth of the red coffin.
Boom!
A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky.
The scene before them suddenly froze upon a black furry claw reaching out from within.
“That’s a yin wraith... not good!”
The old man’s face changed drastically.
Splurt!
In the next instant, a heart-rending pain tore through his chest.
“Chief Escort Chen! Save me—”
Before he could finish shouting, the muffled sound of a body being ripped apart rang out. Mixed with the thunder outside came the sound of flesh and bone being chewed within the ruined temple.
Outside the temple, Chen Guan glanced back and muttered,
“You already said it yourself. I’m the most rule-abiding escort within these eight hundred li. Money and goods settled, favors and feelings severed. Why are you still howling like that?”
He kept his head down and continued walking down the mountain at an unhurried pace.
The money pouch at his waist swung with every step, producing a crisp clinking sound that filled him with particular peace of mind.
“ROAR—!”
Suddenly, a low growl came from behind him, carrying a rank stench as something smashed down onto the path before him, splattering mud and water everywhere.
It was a black-furred monster, eight feet tall. Its clawed hands gripped half of the old man’s head, and it swallowed the remains in two bites.
Then it lifted its ferocious head, its pitch-black eyes locking tightly onto Chen Guan.
Chen Guan stopped walking and stuffed the money pouch more securely into his waist sash.
“Is this a robbery?”
He narrowed his eyes and, by the light of the lightning, gave the black-furred monster still gorging itself an up-and-down look. Then one brow lifted.
“Well now. I was wondering why there was only a heartbeat and no breathing... so it turns out you were that old man’s yin wraith.”
Chen Guan curled his lip, yet a trace of delight actually appeared in his eyes.
“What? Are you planning to hire me to escort you home? Don’t worry. As long as the money is right, I take yin-wraith jobs too!”
The yin creature obviously could not understand human speech. A growl rumbled out of its throat as its legs suddenly exploded with force, stamping two pits into the mud. In an instant it launched upward, tearing through the air with a sharp screech as it lunged straight for Chen Guan’s face.
The delight in Chen Guan’s eyes vanished at once, replaced by a coldness as deep as an abyssal pool.
“You refuse to talk business, and you still dare block my way?”
“So before leaving that temple, you didn’t ask that old bastard what kind of temper I have, huh?”
Boom!
Thunder exploded along the heavens.
What lit up in the night was not the sight of Chen Guan being torn apart, but a shrill blade-light. It flashed past from his shoulder in a single stroke, splitting even the moisture in the night air in two.
Splurt.
Then another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, and the scene froze once more. The black yin corpse split cleanly into two halves and fell to either side, crashing into the muddy puddles below.
Chen Guan flicked his wrist, and the cloth-wrapped horse-cleaving saber settled back onto his shoulder.
He stepped over the corpse, then could not help glancing back and cursing.
“Damn you. I carried that thing on my back for seven days and seven nights... bad luck.”
Just then, a line of blood-red characters that only he could see slowly surfaced within the curtain of rain.
【Mission: Escort the Demon Coffin】: Completed
【Reward Received】: Escort Points +10
【Trait Draws Received】: 2
Chen Guan fixed his eyes on the trait draw and, with a thought, activated it.
【Congratulations, you have obtained the Permanent Right-of-Way Trait】: Path-Cleaving Slash.
【Effect】: As long as you are on an “escort route,” the power of your blade techniques increases by 100%.
【Congratulations, you have obtained the Limited-Time Trait】: Indestructible Vajra Body.
【Effect】: As long as the escorted cargo remains within ten meters of the host, the host gains thirty seconds of invincibility.
“Path-Cleaving Slash? After seven days and seven nights of work, that’s not a bad return.”
Chen Guan put away his saber and, satisfied, tightened the soaked single garment clinging to his body, letting the rainwater stream down from the edge of his bamboo hat in thin lines.
He drew in a breath, tapped the tip of his foot against the mud, and his body shot forward like a black swallow threading through the forest, heading unhurriedly down the mountain straight toward Xiaohe Village fifty li away.
Chen Guan had lived in this Xiaohe Village for ten years.
This was now the tenth year since he had arrived in this chaotic age of demons, monsters, and strange horrors, and stubbornly survived.
Demons ran rampant. Human lives were worth less than grass.
Even the wild dogs by the roadside had grown so fat their fur had fallen out. After feeding on dead flesh for so long, they had become picky; these days, when they saw a living person, they even dared bare their teeth and growl twice.
Fortunately, he had the 【Escort Master】 System at his side, which at least gave him a foothold in this man-eating world.
When the road was peaceful, he traded money for wine. When the road was rough, he took escort jobs and delivered goods.
For all these years, he had been circling around this poor and remote backwater.
He had long dreamed of leaving this little corner of the world and heading to the great cities beyond to see the wider world. That dream had already simmered in him for ten full years.
“Now that I’ve got this 【Path-Cleaving Slash】, it’s about time I started taking long-distance escorts and heading farther out.”
The mountain road, washed by rain, was a mire of mud.
Yet that dark figure moved over it as though walking on level ground.
By the time Chen Guan returned to Xiaohe Village, the sun had already risen over the eastern ridge. Golden morning light drove away the damp chill that had lingered through the night.
Smoke curled from the village chimneys, carrying with it the fragrance of damp earth. Quite a few villagers had already hoisted hoes onto their shoulders and, in groups of three or five, headed down toward the fields at the foot of the mountain.
In times like these, farming and taking escort jobs were both trades where one carried one’s head at one’s waist.
Demons ran wild, specters prowled, and who knew on which night the chickens, ducks, cattle, or sheep one raised at home might suddenly become possessed and turn into fiends, devouring an entire village by dawn.
Because of that, the escort job Chen Guan had taken most often over these years was actually escorting old sows to be bred.
After all, in this world where any living thing could mutate into a fiend, an ordinary sow that could steadily bear piglets was practically a walking treasure basin.
“Oh? Little Chen, why are you only just coming back?”
At the village entrance, an old man with dark skin and a sturdy frame was carrying a hoe over his shoulder. Upon seeing Chen Guan, he grinned broadly, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.
His name was Zhang Wen, the only scholar in the village.
Of course, now he was also a genuine farmer.
In this age of chaos, scholars were useless. The writings of sages were far less practical than a handful of grain that could fill one’s stomach.
Chen Guan nodded, casually untied a bloodstained wild rabbit from his waist, and tossed it over.
“Uncle Zhang, we’ll have a couple of drinks tonight.”
The old man’s dark face, still retaining a trace of scholarly elegance, immediately lit up with delight. He caught the rabbit, then suddenly seemed to remember something, and a look of regret appeared on his face.
“Xiao Guan, I’m afraid that drink will have to wait until after you come back again. While you were away, an old gentleman came to the village specifically looking for you to escort something.”
“That old gentleman brought his granddaughter. He’s come here six mornings in a row. Today makes the seventh.”
Chen Guan lifted his head, followed Zhang Wen’s gaze toward the village, and curled his lip.
“What sort of escort is so urgent that they’re blocking my door every single day?”
The moment he finished speaking, a white-haired old man in the distance came hobbling over with a bent back, supported by a little girl at his side. As he walked, he coughed violently.
Each cough sounded as though it tore through his chest and shook his frail body to its core. He looked as if he would not stop until he had coughed up both lungs entirely.
Chen Guan tilted his chin in that direction.
“Them?”
“Right.”
Zhang Wen nodded, then pulled Chen Guan slightly aside and lowered his voice near his ear.
“That old gentleman said his time is running out, and he wants to entrust his granddaughter to you and have you escort her to seek refuge with a distant relative.”