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The Yin Qi Blood Coffin Record
墨書 Inktalez
The sound of copper bells pierced the silence of midnight as Chen Siye measured a section of Golden Silk Nanmu with a Peach Wood Ruler. The ache in his old legs reminded him of twenty years ago when he crafted a coffin for a famous actor, whose body had been soaked in poison and exuded Yin Qi just like this one.
Three short knocks followed by two long ones echoed at the door—an ominous signal for inquiries about the dead. As he reached for the latch, the Bagua Mirror hanging at the eaves suddenly cracked, allowing moonlight to seep through the fissure and illuminate the threshold in a ghostly white.
Outside stood a short, stout man clad in a Crimson Purple Robe, his Melon Cap pulled low to obscure his brow and eyes. In his left hand, he clutched a blood-stained cloth, while his right hand held a Ram-Horn Lantern, its flame an eerie green. "I hear Master Chen can draw Soul-Suppressing Talisman," he said, his voice sharp and raspy as if sandpaper had scraped his throat. "I need a Yin Coffin that can seal away a hundred-year-old Li Gui."
Chen Siye felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as he noticed the man's coat was smeared with dark, muddy stains, as if he had just crawled out of a grave. Even stranger was that this man cast no shadow; the moonlight passed straight through his bulky figure, leaving only a swirling mist on the ground.
"Here’s the deposit." The customer produced a Silver Ingot from his sleeve.
As Chen Siye reached out to take it, he nearly dropped it; the Silver Ingot was as heavy as a weight, its surface riddled with honeycomb-like holes. Peering closely under the oil lamp's light, he discovered that some of the holes contained fragments of blackened fingernails.
Suddenly, the oil lamp flared up, sending flames shooting three feet high. It was then that Chen Siye could clearly see the words on the Contract Document: nails made from Hundred-Year Thunderstruck Wood, Corpse Oil mixed with Rooster's Blood for writing talismans, and engraved with Bagua Town Corpse Pattern at the bottom.
At the signature line was an impression of a bloody handprint, with several strands of grayish-white hair tangled within the palm lines. "May I ask for the client's birth date?" Chen Siye's carving knife slipped on the Nanmu wood.
The guest was pouring a thick, viscous liquid into the Vermilion Jar, the stench so overpowering that it shrouded the Guanyin Statue on the Offering Table in a layer of black mist.
"On the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the Wu Xu Year, at a quarter past Zi," the guest grinned, his mouth splitting wide to reveal a mouthful of jagged teeth. "Please have the master leave a vent at the head of the coffin, about the size of a copper coin."
After the fourth watch, Chen Siye noticed that the ink line would not straighten. The surface of the Golden Silk Nanmu oozed tiny droplets of blood, which congealed into a distorted human face under the moonlight. He took a hemp rope soaked in Black Dog Blood to bind the Coffin Lid but heard scratching sounds deep within the wood.
"This wood of yours..." Chen Siye turned to ask, but his throat felt as if it were filled with ice water. The guest was crouched in the shadows, gnawing on something, the crunching sound mingling with the dripping liquid.
The three incense sticks on the Offering Table snapped cleanly in half, their ash gathering on the ground to form the character "injustice". Just before dawn's rooster crow, the guest suddenly snatched up a carving knife.
Chen Siye saw that his fingernails were stuffed with decaying flesh as he added a crooked spell to the Bagua diagram at the bottom of the coffin. "This is the Soul Locking Spell," he said, his eyes bulging from their sockets. "To prevent him from crawling out and seeking revenge on the wrong enemy."
When it was time to send off the guest, Chen Siye kept his wits about him. He pretended to bend down to tie his shoelaces and caught a glimpse of half a Court Robe peeking out from beneath the guest's long garment; an Egret embroidered in gold thread was missing an eye.
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