Managing one's affairs in the mortal world, often assisting others.
Outside the Funeral Shop, Hu Baosong straightened his hunched body slightly and bowed to Xu Qing, who stood at the doorway.
Xu Qing nodded and watched the old man leave.
The couplets at the entrance of the Funeral Shop remained unchanged.
Xuan Yu walked up beside Xu Qing, glanced in the direction Hu Baosong had departed, and then looked up at him.
"The Ancient Yin River Dao is not peaceful. If you must go, I can accompany you."
Xu Qing shook his head, saying, "This business is mine alone to handle. You take care of the shop here. If Yizhen comes looking for you, pretend not to know; customer service first, that's Hu's requirement, and we must abide by our promise."
Xuan Yu widened his eyes, looking at Xu Qing as if he had already seen through everything: "Old Hu didn't say only you had to go, nor did he say I had to stay to watch the shop. We can close the shop, and if Senior Sister comes, she won't find us here, yet we are still honoring the agreement."
This cat is getting increasingly difficult to deceive.
"The shop and the Cat Immortal Hall are our foundation and cannot be easily abandoned; someone must oversee the entrance."
"Moreover, I have another reason for keeping Xuan Yu at the shop." Xu Qing reached into his chest to retrieve a golden cicada's shed skin and continued, "A few days ago, while at Flower and Bird Street, I accidentally obtained a pair of cicada sheds. Xuan Yu wears the larval shell, and I carry the adult shell. If danger ever threatens life, the owner of the cicada shed can use this item to perform a 'golden cicada escaping the shell,' transporting to the location of the other shed..."
"Imagine, Xuan Yu, if we encounter danger together, and need to escape using the cicada shed, won't we just keep transferring back and forth, stuck here, won't we become entrapped?"
Hearing this, Xuan Yu sat up, holding the golden cicada shed tied around his neck with his cat paw, curiously examining it,
Could this tiny insect shell truly hold such mystical power?
Seeing Xuan Yu engrossed, Xu Qing laughed and said, "With this cicada shed, Xuan Yu is like the Nine-Life Profound Cat again."
Xuan Yu withdrew his cat paw, sat upright in front of the shop door, and then looked up at Xu Qing earnestly: "This life belongs to the Xu Immortal Family, and I will keep this cicada shed safe for the Xu Immortal Family."
...
That night, Xu Qing sat at the counter, crafting with slivers of white paper, and before long, the table was filled with white paper lanterns.
Apart from the lanterns, Xu Qing used his paper crafting skills to make a Paper Tiger to lead the way.
The Paper Donkey and Paper Horse carried the paper-made golden youths, while their bellies were stuffed with Paper Money for burning; in the funeral industry, this is called sending wealth children.
Though Xu Qing agreed to go to the Ancient Yin River Dao to find Hu Yang Tomb for Hu Baosong's funeral, he did not plan to personally venture into danger.
The Ancient Yin River Dao is a boundary separating the ghost realm and the mortal world, with earth qi extremely chaotic; no one knows what beasts or demons lurk within.
Previously, Xu Qing had inadvertently traveled to the Yin River through the Funeral Shop's Twin Coffin, and the Ghost King Mausoleum he reached was only at the outermost areas of the Ancient Yin River Dao. Yet, from Princess Yan Ning's revolving lantern, he learned that the Ghost King in the Ghost King Mausoleum had existed for a thousand years, and its cultivation approached the thousand-year threshold...
With even the outermost areas guarded by millennia-old ghosts, how many unprecedentedly evil spirits and monsters might hide deeper inside?
Even though Hu Baosong gave Xu Qing the Corpse-Seeking Compass, taught him the methods to invite fortune and avoid adversity, and bestowed upon him the Grotto Heaven Talisman for protection, Hu Baosong couldn't guarantee that Xu Qing would safely deliver him to Hu Yang Tomb.
Xu Qing knew well that if it weren't for this, when he and Hu Baosong made their agreement, pointing at the lamp and setting down the Heaven and Earth Red Character Post, he wouldn't have made tricky statements, such as if lacking honesty, becoming a Zombie after death, forever unable to reincarnate for eternity as an oath.
Now, the time to fulfill the promise has arrived. Though Xu Qing still had no intention of personally exploring deeper into the Ancient Yin River Dao, if it truly came to fulfilling the promise for Hu Baosong, he wouldn't shy away from the challenge.
As the shopkeeper of the Funeral Shop, an emerging force in Jinmen Prefecture's funeral industry, honest business is always his priority.
After fully arming his paper crew to the teeth, Xu Qing still didn't stop.
He wanted to make some Paper Cranes to explore safe paths.
These Paper Cranes were not the large ones capable of carrying people airborne, but palm-sized 'scouting sentries'.
Early the next morning, after Hu Baosong found a reason to send Yizhen Taoist away, he came alone to the Funeral Shop.
Xu Qing, already prepared, couldn't help but ask, "Old Hu, are you truly decided? Must you really go to Hu Yang Tomb? If you ask me, it'd be better to have Yizhen Senior Sister take you back to the Five Elders Temple..."
Hu Baosong shook his head, saying, "I am a direct descendant of the Hu Yang clan, a recorder. Now, besides me, only Yizhen remains in the entire Hu Yang clan."
"Hu Yang clan members who recorded the lineage must return to the Ancestral Mausoleum to report duties. This is the clan's rule and ritual law, not to be violated."
Xu Qing has no clan to depend on and naturally lacks Hu Baosong's strong sense of belonging.
Even the Dayong Dynasty, to him, lacks the Funeral Shop's sense of belonging.
This innate homecoming reminds him of the parables of elephants returning to their burial grounds, and foxes dying with their head towards the hill.
The rumor has it elephants know life span, and when life nears its end, they trek hundreds of miles to return to the burial ground, the legendary elephant grave.
Besides, there's also the saying, "a bird flies back to its old home, a fox dies facing its native hill."
This saying implies a bird flies a thousand miles to eventually return home; a fox's head will always face its birthplace when it dies.