Bamboo Palace, Fan Wen’s residence, Bamboo Pavilion.

The koi fishes are freely swimming in the clear stream of water in the pond. The birds on the trees are chirping as if singing them a song, celebrating with them as their sect’s founder returned after a decade of seclusion.

Cheng Sheng looked at the hall inside the Bamboo Palace where the other 33 disciples are eating, turning it to a dining hall. He looked at the food on their table, his eyes longing but his mouth is watering. Fei Yin saw him and stuffed a chicken leg on his mouth. “If you are hungry, then eat.” Fei Yin said as he handed Cheng Sheng water when Cheng Sheng chew the chicken leg.

“Many thanks, da shixiong.” Cheng Sheng said after he gulped down the food with water.

Fan Wen, Xie Lan, Li Tian and Feng Mo watched Cheng Sheng being fed by Fei Yin. Why are they so blinding? They thought, feeling their eyes sore watching the two. Xie Lan secretly gazed at Fan Wen who chided Cheng Sheng for not eating properly, making Fei Yin serve him. Fei Yin, as usual, answered. “It is perfunctory.” with his cold voice.

Li Tian and Feng Mo felt they can’t watch any longer, realizing that they are the single dogs who are left. The wounded single dogs vented out their resentment by eating all the food, making Cheng Sheng complain that he is still hungry which Fei Yin gave him a steamed bun, and Fan Wen asking them filled with worry if they are really hungry. This made Li Tian and Feng Mo almost laugh and cry, being stuck in between.

Xie Lan decided to end this fiasco. He cleared his throat and spoke. “Last night, Xiao Yin and Xiao Sheng found a strange corpse.” He said, his voice serious. Leading the talk like the head of the family1.

Fan Wen nodded. “Yes. Xiao Sheng found it first and noticed it is sucking the blood of a living being.” He added, like the mother of the family.

Li Tian and Feng Mo looked at each other, then to Cheng Sheng and Fei Yin. Cheng Sheng nodded his head like a bobbling dog’s head while Fei Yin just nodded at them once. “Cheng-shidi told us about it earlier after the class.” Li Tian said. “But not the full details since he hadn’t got the chance.” He explained.

“Yes. He fell on the tree and…” Feng Mo said, then paused when he saw Cheng Sheng’s gaze. Feng Mo glanced at Fan Wen and Xie Lan before made a zipping mouth gesture.

Fan Wen sighed, decided to let Cheng Sheng off since they had a pressing matter at hand. “This corpse feed on fresh blood. If the target isn’t alive then they will rot.” He said and looked at Cheng Sheng.

Cheng Sheng took out the qiankun pouch but didn’t open it. He hovered his two fingers on the qiankun pouch, then raised his fingers in the air and made an incantation. The image of the rotting hand was projected like a hologram. “Usually, the walking corpses feed on the negative qi coming from the living beings.” He said. “Last night, I noticed that the walking corpse attacked the thief.” His face went serious. “It didn’t bite him, since it had no teeth. It used its hand to stab the thief and suck the blood of the thief.” He explained. “When I cut off its hand, the hand started to rot and disintegrate.” He said and saw that before Fei Yin could burn the walking corpse’s body, its cut off wrist is disintegrating like its hand that’s on the thief’s body. However, since the walking corpse’s hand was taken into the qiankun pouch together with the thief’s corpse, the disintegration was halted since time inside the qiankun pouch is unmoving, preserving the items taken inside it. His face went serious. “I think, if that walking corpse only has teeth, it would suck that thief’s blood through its mouth.” He said and looked at Fan Wen and Xie Lan. “The maggots from the walking corpse, too, I noticed they also became like the walking corpse and sucked the thief’s blood.” He added.

Fan Wen and Xie Lan looked at each other, their face grave. They looked at the 33 disciples happily eating in the dining hall. Fan Wen waved his sleeves and thin and wide fabric come out of it. The thin fabrics hang around the pavilion like drapes. Like in the Punishment Hall, the drapes were designed with moving figures sewn on it. But, unlike the Punishment Hall, the added drapes on the pavilion are transparent to the point they are invisible. They are acting as barriers preventing sounds from their pavilion coming out.

“When a person dies, they become corpses.” Fan Wen started as he renewed the tea that had gone called and replaced it by a warm one. “The person’s soul comes out of the body, making his body becoming a corpse. The soul that lived a satisfying life reincarnates. However, if a person’s soul has regrets and other negative emotions, their soul lingers.” He said. “Then, where are the walking corpses come from?” he asked.

This is their second lesson after they learned of the morality and philosophy when they studied in the sect. After learning things that could be learned from the mundane life, Fan Wen taught them of the things that should be learned in the immortal life. The two lessons’ difference is that, ‘could’ learn in the mundane life since a mortal’s life is unpredictable. There are many paths you can cross and take, many choices to make. The mortal, although his life is limited, but his destiny is unending. This is where the immortality enters. The mortals knew of the fact they can make many choices in life and thus wanted to try each choice, but since their life is limited they wanted to become an immortal whose life is long and can be infinite. And so, Fan Wen taught them things that ‘should’ be learned in this path to become an immortal. The things that are already tread by the people who first started to be immortals, these they should learn. Then, after that and they could go and continue their own path to take.

“The souls that could never rest in peace goes back to one’s body and the might of emotions becomes an attachment to his body when his soul entered his body again.” Li Tian answered. “He is restless and so he wanted to go back and resolve his problems left unresolved.” He explained.

As expected of a nerd. Cheng Sheng thought, referring to Li Tian. Li Tian is the scholarly type of a disciple. He excels in his studies and he and Fei Yin are on the top. Surprisingly, Cheng Sheng is the top three and Feng Mo is the top five. He landed on the fifth position and was ousted by another disciple in the fourth place. Feng Mo is average on his studies but he excels in the martial arts. He is on the top with Fei Yin. Cheng Sheng is the third and Li Tian is the fourth in the martial arts. Li Tian is average in this area.

Xie Lan nodded as he took the cup Fan Wen gave him. “Yes.” He said. “Thus, they became walking corpses.” He said. “Their negative emotions turn into black qi, corroding their soul. What are the types of qi?” this time, he was the one to ask.

“There are three types.” Fei Yin answered, his face emotionless as usual. He poured Cheng Sheng’s cup with the warm tea, then his cup before he continued. “Positive qi, negative qi and demonic qi.” He said. “Positive qi is the life qi. It stems from positive emotions and turns into a positive energy exhausted by the mortals, thus was recycled by them and is used to extend their life span.” He explained. This is the basic way of cultivation. “The negative qi is the negative emotions the humans feel. Regrets, hatred, vengeance, envy, greed. These are the common emotions the souls contain when they died.” He said, then paused. He raised his head and looked at them. “The demonic qi…” he said, his voice slowed down. “It’s the qi that turns a being into a different creature.” He said. “It was said that the source of this qi is the negative qi, but how did the negative qi converted to demonic qi… it’s unknown.” He finished.

the father