Volume 1 Chapter 28 Nine-tailed Civet Cat
When Gu's father heard that there was hope, he immediately cheered up and asked the two doctors, "Do you know how to do the needle picking method?" The two doctors were famous doctors invited by the Gu family, but they looked at each other and didn't know how to answer. After a long while, the oldest one said ashamedly, "We have never heard of the needle picking method."
Old Qi asked the dead face: "Mr. Zhong, what is so special about this needle picking method?"
The dead man said expressionlessly, "When corpse miasma enters the body, it will eventually form corpse poison veins. To treat this disease, you must use excellent eyesight and extremely fast techniques to sever the poison veins one by one. The needle must be left in place, otherwise the corpse poison will enter the heart and you will die. To be able to do this, you must have a deep understanding of the human body's meridians and have worked hard in this field for many years."
After hearing what Dead Face said, the tent fell silent. The two doctors kept shaking their heads and sighing, and Old Qi and the others were at a loss. At this moment, my heart was beating wildly. Although I had never heard of this needle picking method, my family had a unique skill.
Since I was eight years old, I have been following my uncle to help him. Generally speaking, I am mainly responsible for applying makeup to corpses, which means trying to make the corpses look good. However, sometimes due to various reasons, the corpses of the victims cannot be kept in the best condition, such as due to the weather or being stored for too long, which may cause the corpses to become disintegrated.
Such corpses are often very scary, with a foul odor, bloating, and even oozing poisonous pus. No matter how good your makeup skills are, you can't make such corpses look good. So I have been practicing a family craft since I was a child, finding the ulcers on the meridians of the corpse and inserting needles to prick them one by one.
As long as it is done successfully, the ulcer will be reversed and the body will return to its original appearance. I have been practicing this skill since I was eight years old, and I don't know how many corpses I have used needles on. Until two years ago, I was finally able to easily prick all the ulcers on the corpse with just one needle, without damaging other veins.
I saw Gu Sihan standing there, his eyes were red, his whole body was shaking, and I couldn't help feeling uncomfortable, so I asked in a deadly face, "Should I go forward or backward to pick the poison vein?"
"Forward and retrograde" is actually a jargon, which means starting from the head and moving downwards, while "starting from the feet and moving upwards" means starting from the feet and moving upwards.
The dead face looked at me and said, "Go against the flow."
I said "OK", took a step forward and said, "Let me try."
As soon as the words came out, they immediately attracted countless surprised looks. Father Gu looked at me hesitantly: "You..." Gu Sihan was also stunned and grabbed my arm: "Lu Jing, how are you going to try?"
I spread my hands and said to the two doctors, "Lend me a tube of silver needles." The two doctors hesitated for a moment, and then when they saw Gu's father nod, the older one immediately took out a tube of silver needles from his bag and handed it to me.
"Isn't this just nonsense?" The man in the melon-shaped hat said sarcastically. At this time, the dead face said: "Let him try."
The second uncle of the Gu family and the beautiful aunt hesitated to speak, thinking that they were very worried, but with the dead face around, they couldn't say anything. Father Gu's eyes were sharp and he said, "Let Xiaojing try!"
I walked to the bedside of the little girl from the Gu family, sat down and adjusted my breathing for a moment, letting myself hold my breath and concentrate, clearing away distracting thoughts. Then I stood up and took off all the little girl's clothes. The body was in a very serious state of corpse decay, with corpse spots all over the body, which was shocking, and there was almost no intact skin.
The strong stench of corpses hit my nose, but I was used to it. I carefully observed the distribution of corpse spots, silently memorized them in my mind, and then took out two triangular needles, one short and one long. When I handled corpses before, I usually used a single needle. But this time, for the sake of caution, I used a double needle.
With a light breath, he swept his hand across the area, and immediately inserted a needle into the left ankle, piercing one of the poisonous veins. The needle passed through without leaving any trace, and another needle was inserted. Under the supervision of my third uncle, I have honed this skill on countless corpses. My heart and the needle are in place, and there is no hesitation.
Where the needle passed, a dark bead of blood oozed out of the little girl's skin, like an evil black pearl, hanging on the skin, condensed and not dispersing.
I held my breath and concentrated, not daring to hesitate for a moment. I inserted both needles simultaneously, and soon they reached the top of my head. Finally, I inserted both needles in parallel, from the center of the dantian to the Baihui. After the needle treatment, all 363 corpse poison veins hidden in the veins of my body were punctured.
I let out a long sigh, covered her with clothes, and climbed down from the bed. I took a few steps, and I felt dizzy, my legs went weak, and I almost fell. There are only a hundred or so ulcers on an ordinary corpse, far less than the number of poison veins in this corpse. And after all, I was facing a living person at this time, and the pressure was extremely high. I dared not relax for a moment after the two needles were injected, and my mind was greatly exhausted.
Gu Sihan hurriedly came up to support me, and the others immediately went in to check. After a while, there were exclamations of joy. Gu Sihan supported me while constantly stretching his neck to look into his sister's tent, looking impatient. I patted him and said with a smile, "Okay, I'm fine, you go and have a look."
Gu Sihan hesitated for a moment, but couldn't resist the eagerness to see his sister, so he rushed into the tent.
I sat on the ground, breathing slowly. With a "meow", the big cat limped over and rubbed its head against my arm. I slapped it on the forehead: "Idiot!"
The big cat let out a "wow", and I forgot that its ears were still folded.
Actually, thinking back on it, I was still a little scared. What if I failed? I didn’t know why I became so impulsive at that time. Later, I thought it might be because of Gu Sihan. I was called a freak since I was a child and I didn’t have any playmates. He was the first friend I made, so I cherished him especially.
Dead Face was the first to come out of the tent and glanced at me.
"Not bad, I'm leaving first." After saying that, he walked past me and left the tent.
After a while, Father Gu and others came out one after another, all with happy faces. The two doctors came around me and kept asking me about the needle picking method, asking me to teach them. I hurriedly said that I didn't know anything about the needle picking method. This was a skill passed down in my family and could not be passed on to others.
Old Qi looked relieved: "Don't worry, Boss. The corpse poison in the young lady's body has been removed. As long as she takes good care of herself, she will definitely recover as before."
The Gu family was also very happy. Father Gu asked me why I didn't see Mr. Zhong, and I said he went home first. Seeing that it was getting late and I had recovered some strength, I stood up and said goodbye.
Gu's family tried their best to keep me here, asking me to stay for a while longer, and to prepare a valuable gift to thank Mr. Zhong in person. After much persuasion, I finally escaped from the tent, and Gu Sihan accompanied me up the rocky slope. I said I really had to leave, so you should go back quickly.
Gu Sihan left me a note with his contact information, asking me to go find him later. I took the note and told him to go back quickly and stop nagging.
He nodded and climbed down the slope. I rested for a while at the top, then climbed down again. When I returned to the base, Uncle San had already returned and was talking to Dead Face. As soon as I arrived, the whole team set off and changed direction.
I asked Uncle San what happened ahead. Uncle San looked tired and said, "Damn it, a huge piece of the mountain collapsed ahead, and a bunch of dead heads fell out!"
I was surprised: "Dead head? Just a head without a body?"
Uncle San cursed: "It's just a bald head, and it's a dried corpse with flesh on it. It's probably a ghost!"
I said, "What kind of explanation is this? Why do you have to chop off a bunch of heads and bury them together?"
Uncle San sneered: "This is called the Human Head Sacrifice. There should be a Yin Gathering Pool under those heads. Hehe, this place is really weird!"
I felt a little cold when I heard it. The so-called Yin Gathering Pool is what we call it in our industry. It actually refers to a special terrain space. The Yin Gathering Pool is also called the Pure Yin Land. In this terrain, Yin Qi constantly flows in, and the bodies buried in it can remain intact for a thousand years. In this pure Yin land, some incredible and strange things are often prone to happen.
The team reached a stream, and saw towering ancient trees on both sides, with green shades. The team took water and rested there. Uncle San went to the back to see two coffins. I took a few sips of stream water and saw a dead face standing on the shore looking into the depths of the mountain. I went over and asked a question that I had never figured out.
"How did you know that the raccoon cat blocked the funeral aura?"
Dead Face kept looking in that direction. After a long while, he said, "That's a nine-tailed raccoon cat."
I was surprised: "How can it be a nine-tailed raccoon cat? Shouldn't a nine-tailed raccoon cat have nine tails? How can there be such a strange thing in the world?"
Dead Face sneered: "Remember I told you that many things you find incredible are just because you don't understand them, it doesn't mean they don't exist. You can't see the other eight tails just because you can't see them, that's all."
Damn, he's so arrogant! I was so annoyed that I didn't bother to pay attention to him. I turned around and went back to the camp to sit and chew a piece of dried beef to kill time. Thinking carefully about the appearance of that stupid big cat, except for the stupidity, it seemed to be no different from an ordinary raccoon cat. How could it be a nine-tailed raccoon cat?
Later, Uncle San came back and the team continued to move towards the mountain. The old woman of the Liu family was also very stubborn. She finally couldn't walk anymore, but she insisted on following, saying that she must watch with her own eyes that the bastard was crushed to ashes. Liu Wenchong and Liu Zian had no choice but to have someone prepare a rattan chair and carry the old woman.
The further you go in, the steeper the mountains become, and the more rugged and dangerous the mountain roads become. Sometimes there is not even a proper mountain road, only a winding yellow mud path, probably trampled out by the mountain dwellers coming in and out over a long period of time.
The outposts came back and said they could see the village ahead. Everyone was excited, thinking that they would have a hot meal soon, so they said hello and prepared to rush to their destination before dark.
