Chapter Thirty-Four: The Demon Coffin of the Yellow River

Jin Yitiao looked at me. “What’s the catch?”

“I don’t know, but I keep feeling it’s somehow related to this damned place, yet at the same time, it isn’t. I can’t quite figure it out. Let’s wait until tonight and see if we can get anything out of that old bastard. If not, we’d better not get involved in this mess. Something about this whole thing just feels off.”

Jin Yitiao shot me a suspicious glance. “What’s been up with you lately? The female corpse you mentioned in the courtyard—what was that about? Does it have anything to do with what Jin Zhenbang asked you to do?”

I didn’t answer him. I still hadn’t figured it out myself, and knowing Jin Yitiao’s personality, I knew I couldn’t keep it from him for long. I lowered my voice and said, “Anyone who knows about this is doomed to die within seven days. If I tell you now, it all started that night…”

“I was just asking. If you’d rather not say, forget it. I’m going to check if Old Liu’s finished frying the fish. I need to make sure he doesn’t put too much salt in again—last night’s was way too salty…”

After sending Jin Yitiao off, I stood by the door and quietly called Tong Xiaomeng outside. The two of us, without a word, headed toward the water ghost’s house. But when we got to the door, we saw that the main gate was already locked.

“Did we come too early?” Tong Xiaomeng whispered.

I glanced around and spotted, some distance away on the banks of the Yellow River, the figures of a man and a dog. I quickly signaled for Tong Xiaomeng and hurried over.

A hunched water ghost and a gaunt black dog—no matter where you saw this pair, they would look strange. But only when facing the surging, endless waters of the Yellow River did they evoke a sense of tragic grandeur.

“Chen Tao doesn’t seem to be here,” Tong Xiaomeng said softly.

I looked at her. “Where did he go after you two broke up?”

“No idea. He said he was going to find someone. Jin Yitiao and I thought he meant this water ghost, but apparently not.”

We stood quietly behind the water ghost, not daring to disturb him.

After a while, the old water ghost shook his head and turned to walk toward us.

To this day, I still didn’t know his name, and since he never volunteered it, I’d never asked.

“Jade corpses come ashore, spirits unpredictable. Returning their jade pendants is only the first step to breaking free of their entanglement. What happens next depends on how these jade corpses react afterwards,” the old water ghost said, puffing on his pipe.

Tong Xiaomeng asked, “But what if we return the pendants and they refuse to let things go? What should we do then?”

The old water ghost smiled. “Heaven may have its cycles of fortune and loss, but it won’t sit by and let these female corpses, who should have long decayed, cause havoc. Just do what you must, and leave the rest to fate.”

I could hear the meaning behind his words: these female corpses were too powerful, and even he was helpless.

But after traveling over a thousand kilometers, I couldn’t accept such an answer.

I asked, “So even you can’t do anything about these corpses?”

The old water ghost shook his head. “I may be a water ghost, but I was given this role by the heavens to maintain peace along the Yellow River. Each of us has our duties—the Yellow River water ghosts and the Sea River corpse fishers. Overstepping our bounds only leads to trouble, and things could end badly.”

“Sea River corpse fishers?” I was surprised. “That’s still a real job?”

The old water ghost said, “If there are water ghosts in the Yellow River, then corpse fishers in the Sea River must still exist, even if hidden. But I can see from the filth clouding your brow that your troubles go beyond just those female corpses from the Sea River, don’t they?”

I stared at him. “Is there a solution?”

He sighed, his murky eyes fixed on the churning river. “You blocked the Yellow River King’s bridal procession, and in seven days, the Lady of the Yellow River will come for you as her husband. Am I right?”

I nodded dumbly, silent.

At that moment, the big black dog began barking at the river. Slow, steady, rhythmic barks echoed over the water.

“A dog in a hurry bites men; a dog at ease bites immortals; a dog neither hurried nor slow bites those from the underworld…” The old water ghost sighed and glanced at the blazing sun, murmuring, “Yang energy descends, yin energy rises. The Lady of the Yellow River is watching you from the water, right now. Isn’t there something you’d like to say to her?”

I took a deep breath, my mind filled with the memory of that woman gripping my back before I lost consciousness.

“Come with me,” the old water ghost said, tapping his pipe as he led the two of us, plus the dog, away from the riverbank and into his courtyard.

Inside, he didn’t let Tong Xiaomeng enter, but took me alone into a ramshackle house. The moment we stepped in, I saw, lying on the floor, a nearly translucent jade coffin!

“The Yellow River Demon Coffin?!” I blurted out.

The old water ghost turned in surprise. “You recognize it?”

I shook my head. “Heard of it. The Coffin of Ten Thousand Corpses. It was said the treasure suppressors sealed this very coffin. I thought it was just a legend, never expected it to be real!”

“Where did you hear about it?” the old water ghost asked.

I hesitated. “Why? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s just… I was the only survivor of that incident, years ago. So where did you hear of it? Does that mean there are descendants of my old village still alive?”

He was trembling all over, his cloudy eyes growing more excited. After a momentary daze, I couldn’t help but exclaim, “This used to be the old River Bend Village?”

The old water ghost nodded bleakly. “Back then, that treasure suppressor sealed this demon coffin beneath the riverbed. But things didn’t go as planned. A year later, the governor of Henan, Cheng Zhen, for reasons unknown, remembered the coffin and ordered the sluice gates opened, draining the river in this area and retrieving the coffin. He had the coffin opened on the spot, releasing the Yellow River Corpse King into the water. In one night, he slaughtered hundreds of my fellow villagers—River Bend Village was wiped out, the riverbed soaked in blood…”

“The Yellow River Corpse King…” I murmured, staring at the old water ghost. “How was it resolved?”

He sighed. “That treasure suppressor had foreseen Cheng Zhen’s actions. The night it happened, he rushed back, slew the Corpse King with the Water-Splitting Sword, and entrusted the coffin to me. He also taught me the ways of the water ghost—how to summon and ward off evil—and told me to guard this coffin well. He said that one day, when the Yellow River floods again and water demons wreak havoc, this coffin could subdue the demons and keep the region safe.”

I couldn’t calm myself for a long time after hearing this. The Yellow River Demon Coffin recorded in the ancient treasure suppressors’ texts was actually here, and I’d met the very descendant from the story. It was both astonishing and unexpected.

At the same time, I didn’t understand why the old water ghost had brought me here to see this coffin.

“Did the woman tell you where the wedding would take place, seven days from now?” the old water ghost asked.

“In Hezi Village,” I replied. “About two hundred kilometers outside Tianjin.”

“In a place like that?” The old water ghost shook his head, his gaze fixed on the jade coffin. “I was thinking that, on the seventh day, you could sleep in this coffin. Its evil aura would keep her from coming near you. But if the place isn’t here, things could get complicated.”

“What if I stayed here and didn’t go?” I asked worriedly.

He looked at me. “That won’t work. If I forcefully upset the balance between yin and yang, her wrath would fall upon this mountain village. Should the Lady of the Yellow River lose her temper, floods would devastate the land, and this village would share the fate of River Bend Village.”

At this, the conversation was at an impasse. I couldn’t possibly save myself at the cost of everyone here. It was shocking to realize that what I thought was just a warning in a dream had come true. The old water ghost had a solution, but it was useless unless the location was right. The whole matter was like a fish bone stuck in my throat—neither up nor down, impossible to resolve.

The old man asked, “Tell me everything about what happened in Hezi Village. I want every detail—nothing left out.”

I nodded and, inside the ramshackle house, recounted the entire story of the living sacrifice in Hezi Village.

After listening, the old water ghost coughed, and the big black dog immediately ran in.

Pointing at me, the old water ghost said to the dog, “Smell him.”

The big black dog sniffed me from feet to thighs, and then, at the old water ghost’s command—“Go!”—it turned and shot out the door like an arrow.