Four people were eating when two Volkswagens drove over.
Yu Daochen glanced at the two approaching Volkswagens: the patrons had arrived.
Su Lai picked up another piece of braised pork and put it in his mouth, looking towards the direction outside the shop.
The cars stopped slowly, and Zhu Futing got out of one car. A man around forty years old got out of the other car, seemingly Zhu Futing's employee.
Zhu Futing walked into the shop, glanced at the burly Su Lai beside him, and then looked at Yu Daochen, "Master Yu, I'm here."
Yu Daochen put down his chopsticks and introduced, "This is the corpse retriever I told you about, Su Lai."
Zhu Futing, with a smile all over his face, walked forward and extended his hand, "Greetings, Master. My name is Zhu Futing. You can call me Boss Zhu."
Su Lai stood up and shook Zhu Futing's hand, "Greetings, Boss Zhu. I am Su Lai."
Zhu Futing touched the calluses on the very bottom joint of Su Lai's fingers, his brow furrowing slightly. He had dealt with fish since he was a child, and his own joints didn't have calluses as thick as Su Lai's. It seemed he was indeed an expert.
"Since the Master is eating, we'll come back later," Zhu Futing said, preparing to walk out of the shop.
"No, no, we're almost done eating. Let's head out now." Yu Daochen looked at Su Lai and Zhou Fu beside him.
Su Lai and Zhou Fu nodded and began to pack their things, ready to depart.
After everyone had packed, Zhu Futing looked at Su Lai, "Master Su, how do you calculate the price?"
Seeing Zhu Futing bring up the price, Yu Daochen instructed Zhou Fu beside him, "Let's wait outside."
Zhou Fu nodded and was about to follow Yu Daochen outside when he heard Su Lai speak, "Twenty thousand yuan per corpse, and I guarantee to retrieve it."
Zhu Futing agreed without bargaining, "Alright, twenty thousand yuan per corpse. I'll transfer the money to you now."
Su Lai was somewhat surprised. Normally, it would be ten thousand yuan per corpse. He hadn't expected Boss Zhu to agree to twenty thousand yuan. He was indeed a major patron.
However, for Zhu Futing, this amount of money was nothing. After all, as such a significant fish boss, he didn't care about such a small sum.
Just as Zhu Futing was about to take out his phone to transfer the money, Su Lai stopped him, "Boss Zhu, don't be in a hurry to pay. It's not too late to pay after the body is retrieved."
Su Lai's words surprised Zhu Futing. The people he had hired before always paid first and then did the work.
Yu Daochen instructed Xu Yaya beside him, "I won't be going far these few days. If you need anything, you can go back to Old Xu's place first."
Xu Yaya nodded obediently, "Brother Yu, be safe."
Yu Daochen nodded and got into the car with Zhu Futing.
Yu Daochen and Su Lai sat in the back, Zhou Fu in the passenger seat, and Zhu Futing drove in front.
"Master Yu, what happened to your eye?" Zhu Futing noticed that Yu Daochen's left eye was blind the moment he saw him.
Yu Daochen sighed and shook his head, "Don't mention it. It's hard to explain in a short time."
Seeing that Yu Daochen didn't want to talk about it, Su Lai didn't press further. Instead, he asked other questions, "The Zhou Fu, the young Daoist in front, is he the disciple representing the Yan Huo Sect in the Fengtian Assembly?"
Yu Daochen nodded and asked Su Lai in return, "Brother Su, can you help me assess him? What do you think?"
Su Lai looked somewhat helpless, "Master Yu, aren't you deliberately making things difficult for me?"
If he said yes and the Fengtian Assembly failed, it would be his fault. If he said no, then he would be seen as a bad person.
Yu Daochen shook his head, his smile fading from his face, "Brother Su, I'm not joking. Tell me what you think."
Su Lai didn't answer immediately. After pondering for a while, he finally spoke, "The Fengtian Assembly this year will have the Holy Lord of Wanfo Temple, Wang Fubao of the Northeast Spirit Mediums, and Fen Yue of the Fu Sect. These are all prodigies among the younger generation. It will indeed be difficult to achieve a good ranking."
Zhou Fu in the passenger seat heard this and felt a bit dejected. He had hoped to use the Fengtian Assembly to let everyone know the true strength of the Yan Huo Sect.
"Some things cannot be forced. Just do your best," Yu Daochen said, looking at Zhou Fu in the passenger seat.
The gap between Zhou Fu and them couldn't be closed by effort alone. Becoming a true disciple of a major sect wasn't just about effort and luck.
Zhou Fu also understood this principle.
"Disciple understands," Zhou Fu replied, his tone laced with unwillingness.
After a long while, Yu Daochen slowly said, "However, if your talent and luck are not as good as others, then you can only rely on effort to compensate, to turn the impossible into the possible. That is how miracles are born."
"Perhaps it's unlikely, but precisely because it's impossible, life is full of challenges. Perhaps one day you will truly surpass them."
"Right." Su Lai beside him seemed to have thought of something and asked, "Master Yu, Midnight can also send disciples to participate in the Fengtian Assembly. Didn't you ask anyone to participate?"
Yu Daochen rolled his eyes, "I'm the only one in this shop, not even a helper. Do you expect me to participate?"
"Forget it. If you participated, would there be any fun left?" Su Lai said with disdain.
Yu Daochen was widely recognized as the strongest among the younger generation, earning the nickname "Peerless Genius."
If Yu Daochen participated, how could others play? Would they compete for second or third place? It would be like a group of elementary school students participating in a composition contest, and then a high school student also joined. How could they compete?
Yu Daochen said somewhat irritably, "Why can't I participate? I'm also of this generation."
Although Yu Daochen said this, in his heart, he really didn't want to participate in the Fengtian Assembly. If he really participated and won the championship, he would be laughed at by people in the martial arts world, who would say he was shameless.
The car traveled for about three hours before stopping at the entrance of a village. The sun had already set.
Yu Daochen and Su Lai got out of the car. Su Lai looked at the dirt road and stomped on it with his foot, "There's a large pond here."
As soon as Su Lai said this, Yu Daochen became somewhat curious. It was rumored that corpse retrievers could smell water from a hundred meters away. Although there was some exaggeration in this, it couldn't be denied that corpse retrievers indeed had their own unique skills.
Zhu Futing led everyone towards a narrow path. After about ten minutes, they indeed saw a pond, and it was quite large.
Walking around to the innermost fishpond, they saw a middle-aged woman looking at the fishpond, her eyes red from crying. A man and a woman stood beside her, trying to comfort her. Behind the three, an old man in a yellow Daoist robe sat cross-legged.
Zhou Fu looked towards the center of the fishpond. In the middle of the pond stood a two-year-old boy and three young people. Behind them was a short figure with rotten skin all over his body, his face obscured by hair, revealing only a pair of eyes magnified several times and a mouth stretched to his ears.
Seeing Yu Daochen and the others arrive, the mouth curved upwards in an unbelievably sinister manner, making their hair stand on end.
Zhou Fu was about to point when Yu Daochen stopped him. Zhou Fu turned to look at Yu Daochen, "Sect Leader, that ghost."
Before Zhou Fu could finish speaking, Yu Daochen shook his head, signaling him not to alert the enemy.
Yu Daochen looked at Su Lai beside him. Su Lai's expression also turned serious, "This ghost is quite arrogant. It knows we're here to eliminate it and still dares to be so bold. It seems to be prepared."
Zhu Futing, seeing the serious expressions on Yu Daochen and the others' faces, was somewhat confused but didn't ask any further questions. Seeing the middle-aged woman in front about to attempt suicide again, he rushed to stop her.
"Master Yu, have you prepared what I asked you to prepare?" Su Lai asked from behind.
Yu Daochen nodded, "Everything is ready."
"Good, today I'll give it a big gift," Su Lai grinned.