邪神之道 B1

僵尸

"Hahaha everyone has the same reaction upon coming here for the first time."

Elder Shu who stands besides Ye Gui Feng laughs heartily with a broad smile on his face.

The room that they are in may as well be the butcher's workshop. There were various sharp tools on the side tables.

On top of the bigger table is a body, a corpse to be more specific.

"Our work here in the Awakened Corpses Faction is quite simple. We make combat dolls, Jiāngshī (僵尸) as they are commonly called."

"Ugh..."

Looking back at the corpse that's had it stomach cut right open with its guts sticking right out Ye Gui Feng turns back around to puke a bit more.

"In this line of work I highly suggest that you don't have anything to eat beforehand."

Ye Gui Feng can understand why but-

"I-Is this really work?"

"Of course it is."

Working with corpses, it's no wonder that the Awakened Corpses Faction has the lowest number of disciples.

"In total we have only 30 disciples counting you as the newest addition. Don't worry everyone here is quite friendly since our community is so small."

Anyone insane enough to work here must all be some kind of psychopath... There's no way a normal human being would want something like this as a job.

"Now then shall I show you how it's done?"

"M-Maybe... At another day..."

Despite not having anything to throw up Ye Gui Feng feels like he'll be throwing up his own organs if he doesn't get out of here soon...

"That won't do... It's best to learn as soon as possible youngster."

Perhaps this old man was doing all of this on purpose seeing as how he is smiling happily at the sight of Ye Gui Feng's miserable self.

"F-Fine..."

"Heh you've got courage that's for sure. Here."

Elder Shu gives Ye Gui Feng a thick book. Everything that Ye Gui Feng needed to know about making a Jiangshi is written in there.

"Now then watch carefully."

(Ah... I'm gotta be having nightmares for weeks now won't I?)

"Now before you begin you must always remember to pay your respects to the dead."

Clapping his hands together Elder Shu bows to the corpse before him and offers a prayer to the soul in heaven.

(This is actually a lot more civilized then I would have thought... But...)

With the practiced hands of an expert surgeon Elder Shu demonstrates the crude art of Jiangshi making.

Despite not wanting to see any of this Ye Gui Feng knew that this is going to be his craft from now on so he forced himself to stand there and endure the gruesomeness of what he is shown.

"First you must remove all the internal organs. Hmm this cut is too small to work with."

Taking a knife Elder Shu widens the cut. The pieces of the stomach area that is cut off is left off to the side as blood flows out excessively.

The veteran Jiangshi maker carefully pulls out the guts and tosses it to the side.

Blood stains the clothes and hands of Elder Shu in the midst of his works. There is a reason as to why all the disciples of the Awakened Corpses Faction wore red as their main colors. It was so that the bloodstains won't be as obvious in the process of their work.

Following an order each and every organ is quickly removed in under 30 minutes.

"Be careful to not damage the skeleton. It's used as the support of the fleshly body and it continues to do so even in death when a corpse is made into a Jiangshi."

"Wh-What happens if there was already damaged by the time we get the corpse?"

"Excellent question youngster. If that happens you must find a replacement if it's bad or use the bone mending art in the manual that I've given you. In this line of work you must have delicate hands and a few magic techniques as support. Working with a corpse is difficult. If you are not fast enough in making it into a Jiangshi the flesh will stiffen and eventually rot."

Naturally Ye Gui Feng had thought of that. Rigor mortis kicks in after three hours of death and reaches maximum stiffness in 12 hours.

"Won't the stiffness go away after three days?"

"Yes it will. But once that happens the corpse just won't be fresh anymore. If it's the body of a cultivator then they would have lost all their magic energy within that timeframe."

"I-I see..."

In essence work fast and work swiftly.

"Now you must drain the blood. This can be done using the art of blood manipulation that's also in your manual. Don't worry for the first few years of your life here you'll be learning the basic skills so you'll have plenty of time to familiarize yourself with it."

"...Thanks..."

Waving a hand Elder Shu causes all the blood to flow right out of the pores and opened cuts on the corpse.

Within four hours Elder Shu finished the body preparation phase for the Jiangshi. He washes his hands with lukewarm water before coming back to do the fillings.

"It's called filling but for the sake of this demonstration I'll only fill it enough to allow it to move."

Fine sand like powders or Undead Ashes is used for the process of filling the corpse. As this is for demonstrations only Elder Shu quickly got it over with.

Rather quickly Elder Shu moves onto the process of stitching the corpse back up and closing up any open wounds that it may have had.

The final step is to place a special talisman onto the body of the Jiangshi to which Elder Shu took one out and pasted it onto the corpse.

"It's done."

Pouring a bit of magic energy into the Jiangshi Elder Shu causes his creation to stand up from the table.

(Is this the moment when I should be yelling "IT'S ALIVE" or something like that in those English movies?)

"Jiangshi manipulation can be quite difficult and only a few can brag about being a master at it. This is also something that you'll learn in time."

Elder Shu demonstrates by having the Jiangshi move its fingers and taking a few steps to get off of the table.

"There's also the matter of Jiangshi maintenance but if you can make one you can fix one just fine so I won't go over that."

Ye Gui Feng nods his head. His stomach is still feeling quite queasy.

"Now then it's time that I take you to your workshop and living place. If you need corpses don't hesitate to ask or if you have any questions feel free to come by."