The Scum is A ***

3: The Scum Is Irresponsible

Bamboo Palace, Fan Wen's residence, Bamboo Pavilion.

The koi fishes are freely swimming in the clear stream of water in the pond. The birds on the trees are chirping as if singing them a song, celebrating with them as their sect's founder returned after a decade of seclusion.

Cheng Sheng looked at the hall inside the Bamboo Palace where the other 33 disciples are eating, turning it to a dining hall. He looked at the food on their table, his eyes longing but his mouth is watering. Fei Yin saw him and stuffed a chicken leg on his mouth. "If you are hungry, then eat." Fei Yin said as he handed Cheng Sheng water when Cheng Sheng chew the chicken leg.

"Many thanks, da shixiong." Cheng Sheng said after he gulped down the food with water.

Fan Wen, Xie Lan, Li Tian and Feng Mo watched Cheng Sheng being fed by Fei Yin. Why are they so blinding? They thought, feeling their eyes sore watching the two. Xie Lan secretly gazed at Fan Wen who chided Cheng Sheng for not eating properly, making Fei Yin serve him. Fei Yin, as usual, answered. "It is perfunctory." with his cold voice.

Li Tian and Feng Mo felt they can't watch any longer, realizing that they are the single dogs who are left. The wounded single dogs vented out their resentment by eating all the food, making Cheng Sheng complain that he is still hungry which Fei Yin gave him a steamed bun, and Fan Wen asking them filled with worry if they are really hungry. This made Li Tian and Feng Mo almost laugh and cry, being stuck in between.

Xie Lan decided to end this fiasco. He cleared his throat and spoke. "Last night, Xiao Yin and Xiao Sheng found a strange corpse." He said, his voice serious. Leading the talk like the head of the family (the father).

Fan Wen nodded. "Yes. Xiao Sheng found it first and noticed it is sucking the blood of a living being." He added, like the mother of the family.

Li Tian and Feng Mo looked at each other, then to Cheng Sheng and Fei Yin. Cheng Sheng nodded his head like a bobbling dog's head while Fei Yin just nodded at them once. "Cheng-shidi told us about it earlier after the class." Li Tian said. "But not the full details since he hadn't got the chance." He explained.

"Yes. He fell on the tree and..." Feng Mo said, then paused when he saw Cheng Sheng's gaze. Feng Mo glanced at Fan Wen and Xie Lan before made a zipping mouth gesture.

Fan Wen sighed, decided to let Cheng Sheng off since they had a pressing matter at hand. "This corpse feed on fresh blood. If the target isn't alive then they will rot." He said and looked at Cheng Sheng.

Cheng Sheng took out the qiankun pouch but didn't open it. He hovered his two fingers on the qiankun pouch, then raised his fingers in the air and made an incantation. The image of the rotting hand was projected like a hologram. "Usually, the walking corpses feed on the negative qi coming from the living beings." He said. "Last night, I noticed that the walking corpse attacked the thief." His face went serious. "It didn't bite him, since it had no teeth. It used its hand to stab the thief and suck the blood of the thief." He explained. "When I cut off its hand, the hand started to rot and disintegrate." He said and saw that before Fei Yin could burn the walking corpse's body, its cut off wrist is disintegrating like its hand that's on the thief's body. However, since the walking corpse's hand was taken into the qiankun pouch together with the thief's corpse, the disintegration was halted since time inside the qiankun pouch is unmoving, preserving the items taken inside it. His face went serious. "I think, if that walking corpse only has teeth, it would suck that thief's blood through its mouth." He said and looked at Fan Wen and Xie Lan. "The maggots from the walking corpse, too, I noticed they also became like the walking corpse and sucked the thief's blood." He added.

Fan Wen and Xie Lan looked at each other, their face grave. They looked at the 33 disciples happily eating in the dining hall. Fan Wen waved his sleeves and thin and wide fabric come out of it. The thin fabrics hang around the pavilion like drapes. Like in the Punishment Hall, the drapes were designed with moving figures sewn on it. But, unlike the Punishment Hall, the added drapes on the pavilion are transparent to the point they are invisible. They are acting as barriers preventing sounds from their pavilion coming out.