The soul-eatinging carving knife is up for auction, and the spirit bidding on it says that he wants to remove the curse before it's put to use. He wants to make sure that the teacher doesn't touch it, otherwise he'll use it to kill him. The carving knife, he says, is made of "life gold" , which means that the curse is gone. He's not sure how to explain this to everyone else, but he trusts the elder yi.