Chapter 1: Yingque

Chapter 1: Yingque

Nameless Graveyard!

This was the largest cremation ground in the southern part of the Empire. There were tens of thousands of graves, all burying unknown souls.

A single house stood surrounded by tens of thousands of graves in the middle.

It was lonely and desolate!

A person sat inside the house, quietly eating.

His entire body was hidden under a cloak; his face could not be seen. Only a pair of dark, hollow eyes were visible, glowing like weak flames.

The only parts of his body exposed were his hands, but even they were covered by thin gloves.

His name was Yingque. No one knew where he came from. He was the mortician of this vast cemetery.

The door opened, and several burly men carried three coffins inside.

“Work’s here. All died just today.” Then, those men hurried away, avoiding Yingque as if he were a plague.

Yingque looked at the rice in his bowl. There were only two mouthfuls left. He hesitated for a long moment, but still put down his bowl and chopsticks.

Eating could wait. His duties were more important.

He stepped forward and opened a coffin. Inside lay a corpse in a very wretched state.

It was a male corpse, handsome and powerfully built. Even in death, he looked fierce and terrifying.

This man had died of a stroke during sexual intercourse, suffering a stroke while doing that kind of thing.

Yingque changed into a pair of film gloves. He tidied the male corpse’s appearance bit by bit and dressed him in decent clothes.

For a full hour, Yingque dressed the corpse and applied makeup.

Dead people were never very pleasant to look at, but after Yingque’s makeup, the corpse’s face seemed to come alive with vividness.

After finishing this, Yingque took out a brush.

The brush handle was made of white bone. The brush head used hairs of unknown origin—completely transparent when not dipped in ink. There were easily over tens of thousands of hairs, and they seemed alive, wriggling on their own, with dreamy, flowing light shimmering within.

He dipped the brush in ink and painted with extreme seriousness and intense focus.

For a full hour, Yingque painted a portrait of this male corpse.

It was utterly unimaginable how a portrait could be so vivid, as if the person were about to come alive from the painting.

The portrait was complete!

Suddenly, a light drifted out from the corpse and entered Yingque’s body.

“New ability extracted: Everlasting Vigor!”

This male corpse had been a top entertainer in pleasure houses during his life—truly a master of his trade.

With the portrait done, Yingque began to skin the corpse.

The tip of the White Bone Brush was sharper than any small knife. The process was smooth and fluid, without the slightest damage.

This process was called Skin Artistry.

Next was dissection and bone removal. Yingque moved swiftly, like a master butcher dismembering an ox. In just a short while, he had separated a complete skeleton.

This process was called Bone Artistry.

Finally, he extracted the tendons, pulling out the complete sinews and laying them on white paper.

It looked like an exquisite painting, even possessing a postmodern beauty.

This process was called Vein Artistry.

With the entire set of processes complete.

The hairs of the White Bone Brush suddenly elongated, like ghostly tentacles burrowing into the corpse’s skin and flesh, skeleton, and sinews, devouring them wildly!

Instantly, the entire White Bone Brush emitted a dazzling light.

After the devouring was done, the corpse turned directly to ash.

When the relic at the very tip of the White Bone Brush lit up, it meant the three skills were successfully accomplished.

Ten thousand corpses, feeding the White Bone Brush for its rebirth.

Yingque wrote “9995” on the wall.

…

Yingque continued his work with the remaining two corpses—one male, one female.

The male corpse was around fifty years old, very handsome yet also very disheveled. He had drowned in a river, clutching a black, dolphin-shaped pendant in his hand.

The female corpse was aged like dried wood.

After preparing the middle-aged male corpse, the portrait was completed.

Extracting the deceased’s memories.

Instantly, a blue light drifted out from the male corpse’s brain and entered Yingque’s brain.

What an incredibly bizarre memory! Such a lingering, entangled love story. Was it like an otherworldly Titanic? Except this version was tragic and dark.

Human joys and sorrows were not the same; Yingque did not care.

Next, he prepared the elderly female corpse.

Again, an extremely lifelike and vivid portrait, again as if the person were about to step alive from the painting.

Extracting this deceased’s skill.

Suddenly…

The forehead of this elderly female corpse split open, as if a third eye had appeared.

Utterly eerie!

The light from this eye on the forehead was blue, but it was concentrated so intensely it turned nearly white.

The light gathered to its extreme, then abruptly darted into Yingque’s forehead.

“Ability extraction successful: Heaven’s Eye!”

Yingque was shocked.

It was actually Heaven’s Eye, a skill truly one in a hundred million.

Every successful Three-Eyed Master was a vital asset to the nation.

For fifteen whole years, he had extracted countless skills. Some were incredibly powerful, some were quite useless, but this skill was still utterly astonishing.

Who was this elderly female corpse in life? As a Three-Eyed Master, why would she die here?

Yingque couldn’t help but activate this ability.

Immediately, his forehead grew hot. Within his vision, he could see through layers of matter, spotting mineral deposits and white bones underground, and withered trees behind walls. He saw several treasures buried in the backyard. All substances presented different glows within his sight, like a giant X-ray machine.

This was an Earth Vein lineage Master!

…

As dusk fell.

Yingque wrote “9997” on the wall. Today’s work was finished.

Then, he sat quietly by the door, as if waiting for something.

Yingque had been here for fifteen whole years.

Every day, he dealt with corpses. Ever since his master left, he had hardly spoken to anyone. Everyone who saw him avoided him like the plague because he resembled a vicious ghost.

Only one person was an exception; he was Yingque’s only close friend and confidant.

The sun went down, and footsteps came from outside, along with affectionate calls.

“Fifth Brother, Fifth Brother, your Third Brother is here, you must be starving!”

Then a young nobleman entered, as handsome as they come, tall and straight like jade. He was an absolute beauty among ten thousand, even prettier than a woman.

After coming in, he directly sat down across from Yingque, handed over a roast chicken, and poured wine for both of them.

This nobleman wore clothing as white as snow, yet he sat right on the dirty, blood-stained ground, drinking and eating heartily with Yingque.

This nobleman and Yingque did not know each other’s names.

Yingque was the fifth child among his siblings, and this nobleman was the third child in his own family.

Thus, one was called Third Brother, and the other was called Fifth Brother.

A jug of wine was finished.

The handsome nobleman was in tears, crying, “Fifth Brother, do you know? The woman I love got married, but the groom wasn’t me.”

Yingque said nothing, just silently toasted him.

The handsome nobleman continued, “I’ve loved her for over ten years. For her, I fought with my family. For her, I publicly abandoned my new wife at the wedding ceremony and fled, wandering the world.

It’s been eight years. I left home eight years ago. All because she told me she wanted to find something.” The nobleman then wept uncontrollably.

Yingque asked, “What thing?”

His voice was as terrifying as a ghost’s, as if his throat had been burned, making it extremely unpleasant to hear.

The handsome nobleman said, “A treasure, something you wouldn’t understand.”

After that, the two kept drinking. The nobleman got drunk, constantly calling out his beloved woman’s name.

“Caiwei, Caiwei…”

“I abandoned my family’s riches and honor for you. I abandoned my beautiful new wife for you. Why didn’t you wait for me? Why did you marry someone else?”

He cried as he called out her name.

Yingque settled him into a room at the back hall, tucked him in properly, poured warm water, and took meticulous care of him before leaving.

Third Brother suddenly grabbed Yingque’s hand and said emotionally, “Fifth Brother, over these years, you’ve eaten with me every day, listened to my complaints. We’re not brothers by blood, but we’re closer than real brothers.”

For a full five years, Third Brother had brought food to Yingque every day and accompanied him each night in this Nameless Graveyard.

They talked about almost everything and were as close as brothers.

Yingque said, “Everyone who sees me looks at me as if I’m a ghost. Only Third Brother is willing to get close to me.”

Third Brother said, “My beloved woman is married. After I complete the task she gave me, I’ll stay here with you, okay? That wealthy, glorious family of mine, I don’t want it anymore. I’ll just rely on you here, and we’ll face life together.”

Yingque patted Third Brother’s hand, rasping, “Third Brother, sleep now. It won’t hurt so much when you’re asleep.”

Third Brother silently wept, his heartbreak hard to cure.

Yingque left.

Third Brother fell asleep, softly murmuring, “Caiwei, Caiwei…”

…

Yingque staggered, hunched over, opened a hidden door on the ground, and went down into the basement to sleep.

Although he was alive, he lived underground, like a dead man.

His room in the basement was small, containing only a chest, a bed, and a mirror.

He lit a candle, and the basement brightened.

Yingque came to the mirror, still hunched over, and took off his cloak.

Instantly…

An incredibly ugly and terrifying body appeared in the mirror.

He had no skin all over, only raw, red, bloody flesh, wrapped with greenish veins.

Like a demonic ghost.

Such a horrifying thing could only live in a place like the crematory, accompanying corpses. If he appeared in a village or town, he’d probably be beaten to death as a monster.

This wasn’t his natural appearance. Fifteen years ago, he had been skinned alive and buried in this Nameless Graveyard.

But for some reason, though clearly dead, one night he suddenly came back to life and crawled out of the grave.

The watchman of the Nameless Graveyard at the time was the previous generation’s mortician, a blind old man.

Perhaps dead inside, or perhaps having seen too much, the old man calmly pulled Yingque out.

From then on, Yingque became his apprentice, learning how to prepare corpses, carve tombstones, and make coffins.

Master and apprentice relied on each other for ten years, but they spoke fewer than three sentences in total.

Five years ago, his master disappeared, never to return.

Thus, Yingque became the new master of the Nameless Graveyard, managing tens of thousands of graves and preparing bodies every day.

And this White Bone Brush was what his master passed down to him.

Not long after that, the handsome nobleman Third Brother came, becoming Yingque’s close friend who relied on him for support.

Over these fifteen years, Yingque had prepared 9,997 corpses.

He had extracted the soul memories of 4,999 people and the skills of 4,998 people.

What kinds of skills were they? Far too many to count.

There was the extraordinary memory ability of A Bing, the first treasure of the Great Xia Empire’s secret service organization—his ability to remember everything after seeing it once.

There was the incredibly skilled gambling technique from a certain gambler.

Also skills from a famous singer, a thief, a prostitute, a rogue, a juggler, and many more.

Out of these 4,448 skills, most even Yingque had forgotten, and he had hardly used them.

What he valued most were Bone Artistry, Vein Artistry, and Skin Artistry.

These three skills were the ones that could truly Defy Heaven to Alter Fate.

The so-called talent in Martial Arts lies in one’s roots and bones!

The reason most people progress slowly in Martial Arts is because their roots and bones are inadequate.

But once Bone Artistry is mastered, one can create whatever roots and bones they want.

The attacking skill “Dragon Soaring in the Sky,” the defensive skill “Black Tortoise Anchored on Earth,” and the assassination skill “Lightning Cleft.” All of these required roots and bones that were one in a million.

Not only could he create roots and bones for himself, he could also do it for others, altering their fate.

What are spiritual veins?

Spiritual veins determine all mental and spiritual talents, such as Alchemy, Yin-Yang Master abilities, array magic, painting, calligraphy, music, and so on.

Martial artists with top-tier roots and bones are one in a million, but those with top-tier spiritual veins are one in a hundred million.

Spiritual veins are the most brilliant light of civilization.

Once Vein Artistry is mastered, one can create the highest spiritual vein talents for oneself.

Not only for oneself, but for others as well.

The supreme Nine Yin Profound Veins, Nine Yang Profound Veins, and Chaos Divine Veins.

As for Skin Artistry?!

For Yingque, it was the most important skill of all.

By mastering this skill, he could draw skin for himself, take on the appearance of a normal person, leave this Nameless Graveyard, go into human society, and fulfill his great mission.

The White Bone Brush needed the nourishment of ten thousand corpses to achieve its Nirvana/Rebirth.

Over fifteen years, Yingque had completed 9,997. Just three more corpses, and it would be accomplished.

For fifteen whole years, he stayed in this hell, neither man nor ghost.

He was only three corpses away from freedom.

…