System Granted Me Immortality; I Outlived Everyone

Chapter 31: Chen Changsheng, Booming Business in Kuhai Town, Xuanwu Kingdom

Faced with Chen Changsheng’s absolute indifference, Yixiu rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“I truly cannot stand you, you heartless bastard. I’m leaving. I’ll come back to collect your corpse in eight hundred or a thousand years.”

Yixiu turned and departed. Wanyan Yue cast one final, deep look at Chen Changsheng before following in the monk’s footsteps.

Watching their retreating figures, a faint smile graced the corners of Chen Changsheng’s mouth, though he remained silent.

The little monk never wins an argument against me, but he is actually quite sharp.

I met him when Niansheng first began making a name for herself in the Linglong Sect.

At that time, she was already over sixty years old. Adding the years I spent lingering in Lingling Town, more than eighty years had passed between us.

Knowing that Niansheng and I were acquainted from an even older era, it only took a little thought to deduce exactly how long I had been alive.

Back then, I was merely a minor Qi Condensation cultivator. Living for centuries completely defied the laws of Cultivation.

Yet, Yixiu never once asked about it.

Stretching his stiff joints, Chen Changsheng turned toward the borders of the unfamiliar land before him and murmured.

“They call this place the Xuanwu Kingdom. I wonder what kind of business awaits.”

With slow, measured steps, he descended the mountain.

…

Kuhai Town, Xuanwu Kingdom.

“Sir, you must help me!”

A towering man, easily six and a half feet tall, shoved through the gathered crowd and dropped heavily to his knees before Chen Changsheng.

Chen Changsheng reached out, firmly grasping the man’s thick arms to pull him up.

“Dazhuang, speak plainly. If I can lend a hand, I shall.”

The large man wiped the grime and tears from his face, fishing several blood-stained Spirit Stones from his robes.

“Sir, this is my entire life savings. I swear to the Heavens, I will gather the remaining Spirit Stones for you.”

“I only beg that you restore my younger brother’s corpse to wholeness, so he may pass on with dignity.”

Glancing at the wooden plank draped in a white cloth just a few yards away, Chen Changsheng sighed softly.

“The rituals of the dead require strict adherence. I do not accept deferred payments.”

“I know you two brothers make a living foraging in the mountains.”

“It just so happens my apothecary is running low on certain roots. I will purchase your harvest. Does that sound fair?”

Swallowing his grief, Dazhuang dragged over a heavy woven basket.

Sweeping his gaze over the contents, Chen Changsheng immediately weighed their true value.

The basket held nothing but common weeds and withered roots. Even at a premium, the entire lot was worth no more than three Low Grade Spirit Stones.

“Excellent. These are precisely the High Grade herbs I require. I offer one hundred Spirit Stones for the batch.”

He took the basket, withdrawing a heavy leather pouch and pressing it into Dazhuang’s calloused hands.

“The toll for my burial rites is one hundred Spirit Stones. As a gesture of goodwill, I shall include a coffin of prime hardwood.”

Dazhuang bowed deeply, his forehead striking the floor. “Thank you, sir. I will carve this debt of gratitude into my bones.”

The pouch of one hundred Spirit Stones ceremoniously changed hands, returning to Chen Changsheng as he approached the wooden plank.

He drew back the white cloth, revealing the ruined, mangled remains of the younger brother.

The oppressive scent of iron and viscera hit the air. The surrounding onlookers gagged, their stomachs heaving.

“What struck him?” Chen Changsheng asked, his voice calm.

“We stumbled upon a centennial spirit herb a few days ago, but a fierce beast stood guard.”

“Sensing the creature’s dense Blood-Qi, I knew we were outmatched. I refused to harvest it.”

“But Erzhuang snuck back into the valley… By the time I found him, the beast had already torn him apart.”

“This is my fault. He only wanted the herb to buy cultivation resources for my sake!”

Dazhuang beat his chest, his heavy sobs echoing through the street.

Chen Changsheng shook his head slowly. Reaching into his robes, he unrolled a cloth of heavy mortuary tools.

The wet, heavy sound of shifting meat and grinding bone echoed. Those with weaker stomachs fled to the alleyways to empty their guts.

Chen Changsheng worked with ancient, detached precision, his voice a low, rhythmic chant.

“First, smooth the severed sinew; second, knit the shattered bone. Anchor the limbs, secure the trunk, and lay the organs in their rightful rest…”

Beneath his steady hands, the grotesque mound of flesh slowly regained the dignity of human form.

An incense stick of time passed, then another. Finally, the patchwork restoration was complete.

Where flesh had been completely devoured, Chen Changsheng packed the hollows with fragrant wood and binding clay.

With solemn reverence, he summoned a heavy coffin of dark wood and laid the boy to rest within.

Exhaling deeply, he stepped back.

He wiped a thin layer of sweat from his brow.

“The rites are concluded. Say your final farewells to your brother, and commit him to the earth so his soul may find peace.”

His duty as a Funeral Man fulfilled, Chen Changsheng stepped away. He returned to a nearby wooden table, instantly resuming his work as a physician, treating the crushed bones and torn muscles of the townsfolk.

Watching him effortlessly shift roles, a scarred man nursing a fractured wrist barked a laugh.

“Sir, you carry far too many trades on your shoulders.”

“It is one thing to monopolize the funeral rites, but you also boil medicinal baths and knit bones. The other day, I swear I saw you carving a protective Formation into a tombstone.”

“Are you plotting to steal the blacksmith’s livelihood next?”

Chen Changsheng shot the man a dry, sideways glance.

“Did you barbarians not force this upon me?”

“I came here solely to sell coffins. Then, some fool dragged a half-dead wretch to my doorstep, demanding a casket.”

“Sensing his life force hadn’t faded, could I just stand by and watch him expire?”

“And how did they repay my mercy? They ran through the streets, screaming that I was a miracle doctor.”

“The bleeding and broken began piling up at my door. I had no choice but to open a clinic!”

“Setting bones was fine, but then you brutes demanded elixirs to fuel your brawls.”

“You lot harassed me for an entire month until I finally fired up a cauldron to refine pills.”

Mid-rant, Chen Changsheng clamped down on the man’s wrist and violently twisted. The man unleashed a pig-slaughtering shriek.

Crack!

The instant the bone snapped perfectly into place, Chen Changsheng slapped a dense, foul-smelling herbal poultice over the joint.

“There. Rest it for a month, and the tendons will hold.”

“And try picking fights within your weight class. You are only at the third layer of Body Refinement. Your opponent’s muscle density suggests the fifth layer.”

“If he hadn’t pulled his final strike, he would have ground your arm into paste.”

Sweating through the pain, the man offered a savage grin.

“I was just careless, sir. Next time, I’ll smash his skull.”

“My Three Yang Body Forging Art is an Earth-rank scripture. He only cultivates a high-level Yellow-rank technique.”

“He only won because his Blood-Qi furnace burns a little hotter.”

“Once I break through to the fourth layer, I will shatter his ribs across the realm gap!”

Chen Changsheng clicked his tongue, deciding against wasting any further breath.

The people of the Xuanwu Kingdom had violence and heavy bones carved into their very marrow.

Convincing them to walk away from a fight was far harder than convincing them to stop breathing.