Chapter 31: I Got the Appointment! Big Bro’s Taking You to Bury Someone!

The three of them reached mealtime and fell upon their food with gusto. Having shaken off the pursuit from the Qingyun Sect, both Ye Changsheng and Su Qinqin found their appetites much improved.

Su Qinqin lay back in her chair, patting her belly with a look of contentment. "I'm so full..."

Ye Changsheng smiled and teased, "You're a young girl, aren't you afraid of getting fat from eating so much?"

Su Qinqin giggled. "I'm nothing like those people! They’re all as skinny as skeletons. I call this the blessing of a healthy appetite."

Hearing this, Wan Jianyi burst into hearty laughter. "The lass is right! As they say, a little plumpness is the peak of perfection!"

"See, Old Brother knows me best."

Su Qinqin suddenly remembered something and continued, "By the way, Brother Changsheng, when will you teach me how to cultivate? If I could cultivate, I wouldn't have been abducted by that bunch from the Qingyun Sect."

"We'll talk about that later."

"That phrase again..." Su Qinqin pouted, looking thoroughly indignant.

Wan Jianyi chuckled. "Lass, if Brother Changsheng won't teach you, your Old Brother here will."

"You're the best, Old Brother!"

"By the way, Old Brother, what is your cultivation realm?" Ye Changsheng asked, looking at Wan Jianyi with curiosity.

Wan Jianyi smiled and replied, "My cultivation isn't much. I can just barely manage to beat a few old fossils."

"Old fossils? Who are they?"

"Just a bunch of geezers who like to hide in coffins."

Since Wan Jianyi didn't want to elaborate, Ye Changsheng didn't press him. He only knew one thing: Wan Jianyi was strong—frighteningly strong. He suspected that even the Qingyun Sect's ancestor, Bai Tianyuan, didn't come close to him while he was alive.

"Right, little brother, why were those guys from the Qingyun Sect chasing you?"

Ye Changsheng didn't hide anything from Wan Jianyi and recounted the whole story from start to finish. After listening, Wan Jianyi couldn't stop laughing.

"You went onto their turf, dug up their ancestral graves, and even snatched their ancestor's corpse? Oh my, you really are something, little brother!"

"By the way, little brother, what do you do for a living?" Wan Jianyi asked curiously.

"Brother Changsheng is an undertaker. He buries the dead," Su Qinqin answered before Ye Changsheng could speak.

"The bald monks of Buddhism say that saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda."

"As for me," Ye Changsheng smiled faintly, "I see people off on their final journey, and that makes me happy."

He couldn't exactly tell Wan Jianyi that he had a system and that he grew stronger by performing burials, could he?

"You've got character! I like it!" Wan Jianyi laughed.

"Right, little brother, my lifespan is running out. When I die, just find some random place and bury me."

"Old Brother, how can you say that? If you really do pass on, I will certainly find you a prime piece of geomantic land and give you a grand burial. Of course, you’ll live to be a hundred..."

"A hundred?"

Ye Changsheng suddenly realized that with Wan Jianyi's level of cultivation, how could he only live to be a hundred? He hurriedly corrected himself. "May your fortune be as vast as the Eastern Sea and your life as long as the Southern Mountains!"

Wan Jianyi chuckled. "Little brother, you’ve got a sweet tongue, I like it! Then it’s a deal—when my time comes, you’re the one who must handle my funeral arrangements. Nobody else is allowed!"

"It's a promise!"

"Now that we're full, what shall we do?" Wan Jianyi scratched his head. After thinking for a long time, he still had no ideas.

"People have seven emotions and six desires. You have to indulge in something—eating, drinking, whoring, or gambling. What do you like, little brother?" Wan Jianyi asked with a smile.

"I don't like any of those. I like burying people."

"Burying people?" Wan Jianyi frowned slightly, then gave a wry smile. "That’s a rather unique hobby you have there!"

Ye Changsheng smiled. "I'm an undertaker; I don't really have any other hobbies besides burying the dead."

"Fair enough... Come! Little brother, I'll take you to bury someone."

Ye Changsheng looked puzzled. "Old Brother, who are we going to bury?"

"You'll know when you get there. It's an old friend of mine."

Ye Changsheng thought to himself, *Since Old Brother is so powerful, his friends must be quite something too.* The system's rules dictated that the stronger the person buried, the better the reward. Burying a powerhouse was a massive stroke of luck for him.

"Is your friend dead?"

"Not yet."

"Ah?" Ye Changsheng was shocked. "If he's not dead, why are we going to bury him?"

Wan Jianyi put his arm around Ye Changsheng's shoulder and grinned. "It's fine. We'll just beat him to death first."

Su Qinqin's mouth twitched. "Old Brother, is this person really your friend?"

"I've known him for so long, I suppose you could call us friends!"

...

Wan Jianyi led the two to a desolate wilderness.

The sky was veiled in vast, dark clouds, and the sunlight was deathly pale. The surroundings were eerie. The place was covered in graves, looking like sores upon the earth. Many mounds had been eroded by wind and rain, exposing rotting wooden boards that looked like cold, white bones. A biting chill rode the wind, and a foul, putrid stench wafted through the thickening mist.

Su Qinqin looked around, murmuring, "Old Brother, I get the feeling this is a mass grave."

"The lass is sharp. This is indeed a mass grave."

As an undertaker, Ye Changsheng was accustomed to dealing with the dead, so he was unfazed. He surveyed the area, thinking, *This place looks like a mass grave, but it is actually someone's domain. The death energy is incredibly thick, as if one were standing in the underworld itself.*

Su Qinqin clung to Ye Changsheng and asked hesitantly, "Old Brother, does your friend really live here? Can people even live in a place like this?"

"That old monster has a necrophilic streak; he loves being around corpses. He just likes living in places like this." Wan Jianyi looked toward the sea of graves ahead and smiled faintly. "Old monster, you know I'm here. Aren't you going to come out? Or do you need me to invite you out?"

Wan Jianyi lifted a foot and slammed it hard against the ground.

With that single step, the earth shook violently; the land quaked, and cracks spread across the area.

"Get out here!"

*BOOM!*

With Wan Jianyi's roar, the ground exploded, and a black stone coffin flew out from within.

"A coffin?" Ye Changsheng looked on in astonishment.

"These old bastards, when their lifespans are near their end, they hide in these coffins to play dead, hoping to cheat the heavenly punishment and live a little longer," Wan Jianyi explained.

"I see..."

Wan Jianyi looked at the stone coffin and said irritably, "What? Did you die in your sleep, you old bastard? Do you need me to wake you up?"

The next second, the lid of the stone coffin flew off, hurtling directly toward Ye Changsheng.

"Hey! I didn't do anything! Why is it coming at me?"

The stone coffin was carved with ancient runes and was clearly no ordinary object. Given the force behind it, Ye Changsheng knew he couldn't block it with his current cultivation.

Wan Jianyi flickered and stood before Ye Changsheng, lifting a hand to shatter the coffin lid into pieces.

"Thank you, Old Brother!" Ye Changsheng breathed a sigh of relief.

From within the stone coffin, a cloud of black mist billowed out, and a figure slowly drifted into the air.