Chapter 198 Burying Fox Tail
Shan Zhongfeng didn't recognize him, but the old Taoist Gulin did. Shan Zhongfeng went over to the old Taoist Gulin and rubbed against him. The old Taoist Gulin then remembered that his twenty-fifth senior uncle, who was about to pass away, was from the fox clan.
Qinghezi, the twenty-fifth senior uncle of the old Taoist Gulin, was a King Realm cultivator with limited lifespan and was about to pass away.
He possessed exceptional alchemy skills, but he was notorious for cutting corners, earning him a terrible reputation. Very few cultivators sought his help for alchemy, making him the first person Gu Lin, the old Taoist, helped after his reputation soared.
In fact, Master Gulin had several senior uncles who were excellent in alchemy and had reached the saintly realm, but they were either morally flawed or had some personality problems, and none of them were presentable.
Otherwise, the position of Danlou Master would never have been held by Qing Guangzi, who was equally successful in all aspects.
Old Taoist Gulin brought Ji Rong to Qing Hezi. When Qing Hezi heard that this young Ji Rong wanted to bury a fox that had died many years ago, he assumed that Qing Guangzi was worried about his funeral arrangements and had sent Old Taoist Gulin to inquire about it. He was very angry!
However, Qing Hezi couldn't escape from Gu Lin's grasp. After being forced to listen to the reasons, he sat down and was willing to talk to Ji Rong properly.
Ji Rong spent half a day with Qing Hezi and learned about the burial process of the fox clan.
When a fox dies, the foxes in the pack mourn around the dead fox for half a day before burying it in the ground.
But Ji Rong didn't want to do that, because Huang Pinjie was a wild fox spirit and had been dead for so many years. For her to go to her clan to mourn for her was nothing short of a fantasy.
Even if Ji Rong were caught, those newly born foxes would not be able to genuinely mourn for such a previously unseen original tail.
So Qinghezi, with a wag of his tail and a hint of regret, told Ji Rong about a grand burial method for a virtuous fox.
Upon hearing that there was such a grand burial method for the virtuous fox, Ji Rong immediately decided to use this burial method to settle Huang Pinjie's original tail.
For the burial of a virtuous fox, the coffin must be double-layered. The inner coffin should be lined with brown soil, and the outer coffin should be made of black wood. The room should be filled with yellow millet.
Outside the coffin, one inch of finely ground lapis lazuli, one inch of rose quartz, and one inch of gold powder were placed.
Since Huang Pinjie did not have a complete body, a doll made of spirit wood could be carved for her on top of the coffin, placed on gold powder, and finally decorated with flower petals and filled with fragrant wood before the coffin could be closed.
Then, take a bowl of Bai Ling Valley, use a tortoise shell to divine the future, and if the divination is auspicious, then search in Bai Ling Valley and find three round stones before burying the child and erecting a tombstone.
Qinghezi said that it would be very difficult to find three original stones out of thin air in this White Spirit Valley, so Ji Rong could ask other cultivators to bury three stones in the White Spirit Valley in advance.
Having gathered the information, Ji Rong made a list of the materials and asked Shan Zhongfeng to collect them for her.
The Jade Void Palace has all of that: brown soil, lapis lazuli, rose quartz, gold powder, flower petals, fragrant wood, top-grade yellow grain, and top-grade white grain. Shan Zhongfeng didn't spend a single spirit crystal and brought it back under the pretext of alchemy.
Ji Rong believed that these were funeral items she, as a junior, had prepared for her elder, and insisted on giving Shan Zhongfeng five thousand spirit crystals, which Shan Zhongfeng accepted with great joy.
As for the blackwood and spiritwood, Shan Zhongfeng and Shan Wu searched two peaks of the Jade Void Mountain Range on a dark and windy night. They found the oldest tree on each side, felled it, and Shan Wu made coffins on the spot. He had experience making stone coffins before, so he did it quite smoothly.
Ji Rong took the Spirit-Destroying Wood back to the Kun Dan Room, and used her wings and claws to carve their likenesses little by little, just as she remembered them.
The stone used to make the monument was dug up and polished by Shan Wutong.
Twenty-two days later, Ji Zhuang arrived with Gu Qingqing.
Ji Rong flew low ahead, carrying Ji Zhuang who was carrying Gu Qingqing, while Shan Wu and Shan Zhongfeng sped behind, carrying the coffin.
The sun was shining brightly at that moment, and they went together to Jiming Mountain to bury their deceased friends.
Arriving at the old spot on the hillside, Ji Rong led the four beasts to the cave where Huang Pinjie used to live. The cave had been abandoned for many years, and weeds had long since covered the entrance. Ji Rong used her wings and claws to quickly clear away the weeds, and then gently pushed open the dilapidated wooden door.
The cave, dormant for many years, was reopened. A gentle breeze swept in the decaying leaves that hadn't been cleared from the entrance, filling the cave with a damp, musty smell.
Warm light streamed through the opening door, illuminating the long-sealed cave and dispelling a trace of its chill.
Then the warmth was extinguished by the cold that had accumulated in the cave over the years, and the cave returned to darkness.
Ji Rong led Ji Zhuang and Gu Qingqing inside. The room had already been emptied, and some messy footprints were still faintly visible in the layers of dust on the ground.
Ji Rong and the others entered the quiet room and carefully examined it. There were still some old claw marks on the walls of the quiet room. Ji Rong asked her brother Ji Zhuang to mix mud and imprint some of those marks, and then take them out to dry in the shade. She wanted to bury these marks along with the tail.
After leaving the cave, Ji Ronghe said to Erhu, "This place is high up and has beautiful scenery, so let's bury Aunt Huang here."
Pointing to a spot, the group worked together to dig a hole. Once the hole was finished, Ji Rong took out all the materials one by one, and finally took out the jade box containing Huang Pinjie's original tail, the bluestone feathers, and the three wooden puppets—one fox and two birds—that Ji Rong had slowly carved. Ji Rong held one of the gray, sturdy wooden puppets in her paws and adjusted it according to the bird's claw imprint on the clay.
Then, she spread her wings and solemnly said, "Let's begin!"
"Put him in the coffin!"
Shan Wu and Shan Zhongfeng opened the large coffin, took out the coffin, and then placed the large coffin in the pit. Ji Zhuang and Gu Qingqing carried three large buckets of brown soil and evenly sprinkled them into the coffin.
After the soil was sprinkled, Ji Rong solemnly opened the jade box and gently placed the original tail into the inner coffin using a small manipulation technique.
Ji Zhuang and Gu Qingqing then slowly and evenly sprinkled the yellow millet into the coffin. Once the coffin was full of yellow millet, Shan Wu and Shan Zhongfeng lifted the coffin board from the coffin and covered it with the coffin, then lifted the coffin into the large coffin.
Gu Qingqing sprinkled an inch of blue gold on it.
Ji Zhuang sprinkled an inch of rose pebbles on it.
Ji Rong sprinkled an inch of gold powder on it.
Then Gu Qingqing placed the fox puppet in the center of the gold powder.
Ji Rong and Ji Zhuang each held a bird puppet in their hands and placed it on either side of the fox puppet. They also placed the paw prints and bluestone feathers they had made below the three puppets. Gu Qingqing then began to place pieces of high-quality fragrant wood one by one.
After the fragrant wood was filled, Ji Rong picked up a large bowl of spirit white grain containing three round stones and exclaimed, "Let's cast a divination."
Shan Zhongfeng then began shaking the tortoise shell, and the result was "great fortune".
Ji Rong then pecked into the White Spirit Valley. After consuming a small portion of the spirit valley, one round stone after another appeared. Ji Rong pecked out three stones, which were still grayish-black. The bowl containing the spirit valley had broken at some point, and perfectly round pebbles, like beans, emerged out of thin air from the bowl.
This was not what was agreed upon, so Shan Zhongfeng cast another divination: "Great fortune".
The pebbles continued to emerge like beans.
Shan Wu took the tortoise shell from Shan Zhongfeng's claws, divined it, and got a "very auspicious" result. He held the tortoise shell high and shouted excitedly, "Very auspicious!"
Ji Rong felt like crying when she saw this. So this was how the burial of the virtuous fox would be. She said in a hoarse voice, "Seal the coffin."
Shan Wu and Shan Zhongfeng then lifted the large coffin door and closed it. Ji Zhuang and Gu Qingqing each took a petal from a storage ring; one threw it into the air, and the other scattered it on the ground.
After the petals had all fallen, Ji Zhuang hovered in the air and performed a dance as Ya Nu had taught him.
After he finished dancing and landed on the ground, Ji Rong exclaimed, "Land on the ground!"
Upon hearing this, the several creatures simultaneously raised their claws and quickly filled the large pit filled with flower petals, piling it into a high mound of earth. They then gathered stones to surround the mound.
Then, Ji Rong took out the stone tablet she had personally inscribed and placed it on top, writing in the common language of all races: "Virtuous fox Huang Pinjie, virtuous bird Ji Er, together with Qing Shi."
The sun had already set, and the golden-red rays shone on the stone monument, making it resemble a grand monument.
After standing in front of the tomb for a while, Ji Xiu felt an unprecedented sense of relief.
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