Chapter 21: A Corpse
The ghostly man's expression shifted slightly, betraying the first hint of interest.
Han Yu pressed his advantage. "And to top it off, I bought the most exquisite, top-quality two-grain wine—" he swallowed back his pride at the lie, "—the most expensive wine!"
The ghostly man stared at him for a long moment before finally, silently, rolling up his sleeves.
Han Yu grinned. Victory.
"Alright, let's get to work, partner!"
The ghostly man said nothing but took out a knife from who-knows-where.
Han Yu, meanwhile, was already making grand plans in his head. Meat jerky business? Check. A mysterious and deadly assistant? Check. And, most importantly...
A well-fed ghostly man was a cooperative ghostly man.
It was shaping up to be a very profitable day.
The two worked to butcher three more beast carcasses when Han Yu realized something. He glanced at the rather good-looking knife in the ghostly man's hand.
"Where did you get that?" Han Yu was surprised. "I'm sure I only had one knife."
"In the forest," the ghostly man replied shortly.
"Where? Do they just grow in the forest or something?" Han Yu was baffled. From the looks of the knife, it was surprisingly good quality, its edge still sharp.
"Just on a corpse," the ghostly man replied, making Han Yu freeze.
"On a corpse?" Han Yu raised an eyebrow. "What corpse?"
"The man I killed," the ghostly man said nonchalantly.
"You... You killed a man!?" Han Yu stood up and took a few steps back.
"So?" The ghostly man gave him a deadpan look.
'Is this guy crazy? He just thinks this is normal?' Han Yu thought to himself, realizing just how different the man really was.
"He attacked me, so he gave up on his life," the ghostly man stated, as if reciting an unspoken law of nature.
"Attacked you?" Han Yu furrowed his brows. "Who would attack you?" As far as he knew, there weren't any bandits around, and normal hunters or cultivators wouldn't try something like that.
There was still the rule of law in the kingdom, after all.
"Why would I care?" The man replied dismissively.
"What did he look like?" Han Yu was not about to drop the topic so easily. 'Shit, who knows who he killed? If it was someone important and they came after him, I might get dragged into this!' The boy was now quite alarmed.
"If you want to know, go take a look yourself." The ghostly man didn't seem particularly interested in clearing up the mystery.
"Fine... Just finish up the work, I'll go take a look," Han Yu said. "At least clean up your mess," he added.
While the ghostly man might not be concerned, Han Yu knew how dangerous it could be if someone found the body and reported it. He didn't want this coming back to bite him, so he figured he should at least get rid of the "evidence."
"Where was it?" Han Yu asked.
"Go straight, then left from the oak tree," the man answered.
"What oak tree?" Han Yu asked, frustrated. 'There are like a million of them here!'
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"You'll know which one. It's got blood on it," the ghostly man said, as if doing Han Yu a great favor by sharing this information.
"Alright," Han Yu muttered, reckoning he could make do with this cryptic clue, and set off.
He walked through the forest for about five minutes before finally spotting the tree.
"He really wasn't lying... there's no way I'd miss this tree." Han Yu looked at the oak, which was basically painted with blood. "Sheesh, how did it get this much blood on it? Did someone explode here?" he wondered aloud.
Upon closer inspection, the blood was still relatively fresh, though some parts had begun to dry.
"Don't tell me this is from the guy he killed..." Han Yu grimaced. 'If he used the Bolt God Fist on a person, would it cause a mess like this?' the boy couldn't help but compare.
Turning left from the blood-soaked oak tree, he walked for about a minute before finding the corpse in question.
GULP.
Seeing the state of the body made Han Yu's stomach churn.
The dead man's torso had, in fact, exploded. Only the left flank was holding his upper and lower body together. His skull was crushed from the left side, his eye squished into the socket and burst apart.
Intestines were flung across the area, hanging from tree branches like someone had decided to dry some particularly grotesque sausages.
HUUU HUUU HUUU
Han Yu took deep breaths to calm himself—only to inhale the thick stench of blood, making him gag all over again.
"Fuck..." Han Yu cursed, dropping onto the ground to collect himself.
After a couple of minutes, his stomach finally settled, and he steeled his mind for another look.
"Just who is this guy?" Han Yu mumbled, staring at the corpse. With the face mostly destroyed, he had no way of identifying him, so he turned his attention to the clothing. "Just plain gray robes... not much to go on."
Normally, he'd check the pockets for some form of identification, but considering the state of the torso... yeah, no pockets left.
The robes had no markings to indicate any faction, but the quality of the fabric suggested he wasn't just a common peasant.
'It can't be a merchant; they don't travel alone. Warriors wear better protective clothing. He's not a soldier either...' Han Yu's mind raced.
Scanning the area, his eyes landed on something dangling from a branch, next to a hunk of... was that a liver?
"Ugh..." Han Yu swallowed his disgust and reached for what looked like a bag attached to a belt.
'This probably got launched all the way up there,' he thought grimly.
Han Yu carefully picked the bag, ensuring he didn't touch any of the blood and guts on it before opening it.
Inside, he found what looked like a handful of coins that made Han Yu's eyes shine, but along with it was a token.