Night, the lights flicker in the Funeral Shop.
A western corpse swathed in cloth from head to toe, much like a tightly wrapped bandage, desperately tries to escape!
Yet no sooner had they taken a few steps when the grinning Shopkeeper grasped their ankles, dragging them back with brute force.
The sound of claws scratching the floor echoed, leaving marks on the surface like the final lament of pure white lilies before their defilement.
In the corner, a male corpse trembled; he never anticipated that just as he revived, he would find himself in the distant East, pursued by an Eastern death god akin to Anubis.
On the cold platform, another female corpse had lost the courage to resist, despairingly watching the shop door as the shroud wrapping her was peeled away layer by layer by her Eastern counterpart, resembling an oriental pharaoh.
At this moment, in Xu Qing's eyes, the dried corpse, devoid of any trace of its living appearance, seemed to have transformed into an alluring exotic beauty.
The Sutra of Salvation, experiencing its first exotic matter, intonated mantras distinct from those of the Great Yan's land, and Xu Qing glimpsed the Jiu Li tribe with bronze heads and iron foreheads, possessing eight arms and legs; the Quanrong People of the Western Strange People inhabiting the Kunlun continent; and the Gan Giant... innumerable faces of these kinds.
The three realms and six paths, the great thousand-world, humanity's myriad manifestations competed for attention, and for the first time, Xu Qing saw the Sutra of Salvation from an overarching perspective, observing countless living beings.
Red-haired ghosts, Rakshasas, blue-faced ghosts, blood-eating ghosts, the six paths of reincarnation make no distinction of nations or regions, making no exceptions for those needing reincarnation.
Xu Qing even caught sight of the black ghosts cultivating cotton.
Every land breeds its type.
At this moment, Xu Qing had new insights.
In harsh soils grow strong people, in soft soils grow fat people, in clay soils grow big people, in sandy soils grow delicate people, in dormant soils grow beautiful people, in depleted soils grow ugly people...
Among them, Great Yan stands central, pursuing the doctrine of moderation and harmony, balancing all sides.
And the corpse before Xu Qing's eyes was a standard person of the Kunlun continent, also the origin of the Western Strange People.
In ancient times, only high officials and pharaohs among the Western Strange People were privileged to enjoy the 'immortal flesh technique.' It was said that those who preserved their bodies with this method would have the chance to return to their bodies and resurrect after death.
Even if they could not resurrect, they could, after reincarnation, locate the Kunlun continent and be reborn into the Western tribes.
However, ordinary people of the Kunlun continent did not enjoy this privilege.
The corpse Xu Qing was now consecrating was a high-ranking western shaman in life, essentially a wise man of the region, adept in medicine and advanced reincarnation arts.
In simpler terms, he was actually a colleague of Xu Qing's, a funeral master proficient in human anatomy.
Yet, the funeral culture of the Misher Kingdom differs much from that of Great Yan. Still, when reduced to its essence, the practice of establishing graves and placing bodies in coffins remains unchanged.
Xu Qing considered this perhaps the difference between a native master and a foreign one.
The Sutra of Salvation ceased to turn pages. Having traveled thousands of miles, the foreign visitor to experience Eastern funerals revealed a transcendental smile.
Xu Qing, enlightened, then pulled the trembling foreign male corpse hidden in the corner onto the cold platform to begin the rites of passage.
In the dead of night, the foreign corpse on the cold platform once more felt the awe of Eastern mysterious powers.
Ancient, profound, vast, indefinable, unfathomable...
What kind of power could that be?
Perhaps only the master of wisdom, the pharaoh lying in the deep of the pyramid, could provide an answer.
When the carousel of bodies finished, Xu Qing looked toward the reward from the Sutra of Salvation.
The evaluation of the corpses yielded an Earth Grade Lower.
The reward was a method of mummification and a restoration technique.
The mummification method is the technique used to create mummies inside Pharaoh's tombs.
Before the mummification, the corpse needs to be cleansed and placed on a purification table.
The embalmer, wielding a sharp blade, must carefully extract the internal organs through an incision in the abdomen.
Then, using a golden hook, they explore the nostrils to suction the brain, before washing the inner cavity with fragrant liquor and stitching up the incision with secret ingredients and stitches.
Finally, the body is immersed in a basin of alkaline solution, exposed for forty days and nights, drying the torso.
If seventy days suffice, an immortal body is achieved, one that will not decay even after a millennium.
Xu Qing thought for a moment, realizing this method of mummification would likely not be feasible in Great Yan; if he wished to open up the market, besides engaging in foreign trade and attracting foreign clients, there was no other way.
Tsk, yet another skill that will lay dormant for now.
However, having multiple skills is beneficial, as one never knows if foreign visitors might come to the Funeral Shop in the future.
After studying the mummification method, Xu Qing turned to the restoration technique.
This technique was extraordinary for him.
By performing this technique, no matter how long a corpse has been dead or how it has changed, it can be restored to its original appearance, making it vividly life-like.
This is essentially the ultimate secret of morticianship, for who does not wish to retain their presence even after death?
With this technique, he could restore a corpse to its lifelike appearance without the need for powder or makeup.
Xu Qing used nearby materials, transforming a wisp of life-infused wind into needle and thread, weaving back and forth within the dry corpse on the cold platform, forming artificial blood vessels and networks. As the threads supported the withered flesh, the dry corpse began to grow into fleshy spores at a speed visible to the naked eye.
About half a cup of tea's time later, Xu Qing passed his hand over the white moss-like hair-covered corpse, and an eerie wind blew, causing the white hair to fall like willow catkins.
Simultaneously, a beautiful corpse appeared on the cold platform.
With sculpted features, a slender neck, smooth shoulders and arms, and a voluptuous body, it exhibited a typical exotic contour.