Chapter 227: Chicken Blood and Talisman Ash
The cultivators of Fenglu Sect no longer lingered in the mountains. They descended the mountain and spent the night resting in a village at its foot. The next day, they hurried off toward the county seat.
The reason was that their Third-Generation Patriarch, Lu Luo, had told them that he was extremely busy these days. Even if a ghost deity traveled along the Yin Road, it would still take two shichen to reach Fenglu Sect. At present, the time he had available was equivalent to the lifespan of countless departed souls, so he simply had no time to return and deliver the message himself. It would be enough for his descendants to take the news back.
Lu Luo’s exact words had been:
“Tell the current sect leader to set up a shrine to me in the sect. If any cultivators in the sect die young and are capable of working, send them over to report for duty.”
Although his words sounded rather unpleasant, after helping their patriarch for two whole days, Ming Moyu and the others understood why he had put it that way.
Besides, since there was a place to go after death, and their patriarch himself was already dead, there was naturally nothing wrong with him saying such things.
However, the patriarch had also specifically warned them not to assume that, now that they had a connection to the Ghost Realm, they could afford to neglect their own lives when exorcising evil spirits in the future.
“Although I am your patriarch, I am now also a Merits and Transgressions judge in Youdu. I will not bend the law or show favoritism by virtue of you being descendants of my Fenglu Sect and send you back to the world of the living. If you die, then come here obediently and serve as junior clerks under me. Help me handle the official paperwork.”
That last sentence had frightened the three cultivators who heard it so badly that they had practically wanted to grease their feet and run.
Just look at that mountain of paperwork piled all the way up to the ceiling…
Who would dare die?!
Even if it was solely to avoid coming to Youdu and handling official paperwork, they would cherish their lives from now on.
Naturally, although they very much did not want to work alongside their patriarch, when it came to a request from the Third-Generation Patriarch, they would still carry it out respectfully and as quickly as possible.
Upon reaching the county seat, the thirteen of them didn’t even have time to rest before hurrying to find the local escort agency to place an order. They wanted to have a letter delivered back to Fenglu Mountain.
However, the head of the escort agency could only sigh.
“It’s too far. We can’t accept this job.”
Ming Moyu was puzzled. “Even if we offer a high price, your esteemed agency still won’t take it?”
Generally speaking, when a county’s escort agency couldn’t deliver a letter to a certain destination, as long as the price was right, they would arrange to send it to a larger place, such as the prefectural city, and then entrust a major local escort agency there with the delivery.
The cultivators had spent years traveling outside their sect and were quite familiar with these practices. It was just that they were in a hurry to send the letter back. The escort agency had horses and carriages, making it much faster, so they had decided to place the order at the county agency first.
The head of the agency also looked troubled. He was a man in his thirties, but looked closer to forty. He let out a deep sigh and cupped his hands toward the thirteen of them.
“Since all of you are Daoist masters from Fenglu Sect, I’ll speak frankly. It’s not just the escort agencies in our county that can’t accept long-distance delivery jobs. Even the ones in the prefectural city can’t take them.”
“The past few months have seen one disaster after another, with demons and monsters appearing everywhere. In the old days, an escort team might set out with a dozen or twenty people. If the journey went smoothly, naturally, everyone would make it back. If things went badly, at most we’d lose a few men. But now? More than twenty people go out, and fewer than three or five return.”
As the head of the escort agency spoke, his eyes couldn’t help turning red.
“These days, escort agencies everywhere have either gone bankrupt, forcing everyone to scatter and return home, or can only take on some nearby jobs involving carrying and hauling goods. No one dares venture far anymore.”
The dozen or so cultivators fell silent.
Ming Moyu frowned. “How could things have come to this? Don’t escort agencies transport goods along the official roads after being paid? With the imperial court’s authority to keep things in check, how dare demons and monsters behave so brazenly?”
The head of the escort agency gave a bitter laugh. He glanced around. Seeing that these young cultivators were genuine members of a Daoist sect, he thought that, given the chaos prevailing throughout the land these days, it would be good to build a friendly relationship with them. Who knew? Perhaps he might need their help someday.
He beckoned for them to come closer.
Only then did he lower his voice and say, “You’d better not tell anyone I said this. From what I’ve seen, people used to say that the officials of the imperial court possessed official aura, which could suppress evil and drive away demons. But nowadays… I’m afraid that official aura no longer works.”
The dozen or so Fenglu Mountain cultivators were horrified.
“How could that be?!”
Although this world had gods and Daoist sects, in truth, the ones who could do the most to help the common people were still the imperial court.
After all, the gods only concerned themselves with their own little territories, while Daoist sects were hardly numerous enough to make a difference.
Take Fenglu Mountain, for example. The sect had over a thousand people in total, but among their current generation, only thirteen had the qualifications and ability to descend the mountain and exorcise evil spirits.
Even though the various Daoist sects were influenced by righteous energy and rarely had anything go wrong, their disciples had always been filled with hatred for evil and stood firmly against demons and unorthodox practitioners. But with so few of them, how many demons could they possibly deal with?
Ultimately, the common people of this world still had to rely on the official aura of the local government officials for protection. It was true that in some places, the weakening of official aura led to frequent disturbances and the appearance of demons and monsters. But in places where official aura was strong, even if demons managed to sneak in, their fortune and power would be suppressed.
Therefore, this was no trivial matter. If official aura really had stopped working, then in the blink of an eye, the entire world would likely become a paradise for demons and monsters.
Although the head of the escort agency wasn’t a member of a Daoist sect, his line of work had taken him far and wide over the years, so he understood a thing or two. Seeing the cultivators’ expressions change dramatically, he actually felt somewhat reassured.
It was the sort of reassurance that came from thinking: There’s nothing I can do about this, but surely the Daoist masters are more capable than I am. Now that you’ve heard about it, perhaps you’ll be able to think of a solution.
The cultivators of Fenglu Sect clearly hadn’t realized that the burden had already shifted onto their shoulders.
Had this happened before, they would certainly have panicked upon hearing such news.
But now…
Perhaps because they had just made a trip to Youdu, even after their initial shock, the cultivators managed to remain relatively calm.
As the saying went, when the sky fell, someone tall would hold it up.
And as it happened, these cultivators had just learned that they had someone tall standing behind them: their Third-Generation Patriarch.
Their patriarch would surely have a solution, wouldn’t he?
The dozen or so cultivators exchanged glances, and before long, their expressions had all settled down.
Seeing this, the head of the escort agency felt even more strongly that these people truly were members of a Daoist sect. His respect for them grew, and he offered a suggestion:
“Our prefectural city probably won’t be accepting any delivery jobs either. If you Daoist masters still wish to send your letter, you could try Qing Tong Prefecture next door. It’s always been a prosperous place. Perhaps some of the larger escort agencies there are still operating.”
The dozen or so cultivators thanked him and set off once more, this time heading toward Qing Tong Prefecture.
Along the way, they encountered a cat demon demanding lives in one village, a dead well harboring a vengeful spirit in another, and, in one county, even discovered that the county magistrate had fallen under the influence of demonic energy.
When Daoist cultivators traveling abroad encountered evil spirits running rampant, they naturally had to intervene. Besides, these thirteen were the best of the best among the current generation of Fenglu Mountain cultivators.
As a result, what should have been a three-day journey to Qing Tong Prefecture was dragged out to more than ten days. Four or five of the thirteen had also sustained injuries.
No wonder the escort agencies could no longer stay in business. These cultivators had studied Daoist arts since childhood and were skilled in martial arts, yet even they had encountered one difficulty after another along the way. What chance did ordinary escort agencies stand against such things?
Under normal circumstances, even if the thirteen could temporarily overcome the demons and evil spirits they encountered along the way, they would inevitably feel uneasy.
But now, they weren’t particularly worried. They simply kept their heads down and pressed onward, thinking that if the escort agencies in Qing Tong Prefecture refused to accept their job, they would have no choice but to burn a stick of incense and inform their patriarch. They could then let him find some free time to visit Fenglu Sect and deliver the message to their sect leader in a dream.
Alternatively, they could return to Fenglu Sect themselves and report the news directly to the sect leader and the various elders.
After all, the reason Fenglu Sect’s cultivators descended the mountain in the first place was to travel around, seek out evil spirits causing trouble, and eliminate them to restore peace to the world.
Since evil spirits were everywhere along this route, what difference did it make where they exterminated them?
Having settled on this plan, the thirteen became even more at ease. When they were thirsty along the way, they drank from their water flasks. When they were hungry, they ate flatbreads. And whenever they felt like having something hot, they would set up a cooking fire wherever they happened to be and make themselves some hot soup.
They were especially fond of traveling at night. This was because nighttime was the domain of Youdu’s ghost officials, and the thirteen had been treated to a feast by Lord Qian Heng, the Ghost King. As a parting gift, they had each received a Youdu token.
With these tokens, whenever they captured a wandering ghost or an evil spirit, they could perform a ritual to summon the nearby ghost officials and hand the souls over to them. If they encountered an evil spirit too powerful for them to defeat, they could also ask the ghost officials for assistance.
Wasn’t this practically the same as having an expert available to help them wherever they went?
Moreover, perhaps because demons and monsters were running rampant and demonic energy had spread throughout the world, there were also more bandits along the roads. The cultivators were perfectly capable of dealing with evil spirits, but when fighting other people, they sometimes found themselves caught off guard by a sneak attack.
However, no matter what kind of bandits they were, once night fell, they wouldn’t step outside their homes, even if the most earth-shattering commotion was happening right outside.
For this reason, the thirteen became increasingly fond of traveling at night.
That evening, they once again set out under the cover of darkness. Walking along the official road beneath the moonlight, they were happily calculating that they would reach Qing Tong Prefecture by dawn the following morning when they suddenly heard the sound of approaching hoofbeats from behind.
The thirteen quickly moved aside. They also held up their homemade torches, afraid that the horses or carriages coming from behind might fail to see them in the darkness and crash straight into them.
Taking a closer look, they saw several people riding horses at a full gallop toward them.
Fenglu Sect’s cultivators had all trained their eyesight from a young age. Even at night, with the help of the moonlight, they could make out that these people looked utterly disheveled. They had wounds on their bodies, and several others were lying facedown across the horses, apparently unconscious.
When the riders spotted the firelight in the distance, they were startled as well and immediately grew wary.
Why were there still people on the official road at this hour of the night?
The faces of the thirteen were obscured by the light behind their torches. Unable to see clearly or determine whether they were ordinary travelers, the riders immediately tensed up, drew the swords at their sides, and shouted sternly:
“Who’s there?!”
The Ninth Senior Sister twitched her ears, stepped forward, and called out, “Second Brother Xiu, is that you?”
The rider who had spoken was startled. He gestured to the people behind him, signaling them to stay alert, then rode forward alone.
The Ninth Senior Sister approached him.
“It’s me! Zhirong!”
The moment she stepped forward, she was splattered with chicken blood all over one arm. The Ninth Senior Sister was helpless. She casually wiped the blood off her face and said:
“It’s really me. I’m not an illusion created by some evil spirit.”
Only then did Second Brother Xiu feel reassured. He stopped his horse and dismounted.
“I’m terribly sorry. We were just fighting a vicious evil spirit. And to run into you in such circumstances, in the middle of the night, after so many years without seeing each other… I really couldn’t help but worry…”
“I understand.”
The Ninth Senior Sister expressed her understanding, then introduced him with her face still covered in blood.
“First Senior Sister, this is Second Brother Xiu. He’s a senior brother from Yuantian Sect. Back when I was young, my parents sent me to cultivate at Tianyuan Sect for a few months, and Second Brother Xiu took very good care of me.”
Ming Moyu nodded and stepped forward, cupping her hands in greeting.
“Ming Moyu of Fenglu Sect. Greetings, Second Brother Xiu.”
Second Brother Xiu hurriedly returned the salute.
“Xiu Er greets all of you… Achoo!”
Just as he raised his head after returning the greeting, he was sprayed in the face with incense ash from talismans. Second Brother Xiu remained remarkably calm. With his face covered in black soot, he said:
“I’m not an evil spirit in disguise either.”
After he called the remaining members of his group forward, the two parties proceeded to douse each other with chicken blood and scatter talisman ash all over one another. Only after confirming that everyone was alive and that none of them had been possessed or replaced by demons or evil spirits did they finally take their hands off the swords at their waists.
Naturally, after all that commotion, everyone on both sides was in a thoroughly miserable state. In fact, they looked more like evil spirits than the actual evil spirits themselves.
But what could they do? In the current state of the world, who could tell whether someone they encountered at night was really human? Even if some of them were human, who could guarantee that the rest were too?
Both groups belonged to Daoist sects, so they were all quite practiced at this sort of thing. Having just finished verifying that the other party consisted of living people, they were about to settle down and have a proper conversation when they heard another sound coming from the official road behind them.
This time, it was a carriage rushing along at full speed. Judging by its frantic pace, it had evidently encountered some kind of danger as well.
The coachman was already terrified out of his wits. Suddenly, he spotted a group of people standing by the roadside beneath the firelight.
Some were so covered in black soot that their faces were barely visible. Others were drenched in blood. And every single one of them was staring straight at him.
The coachman was horrified, his face instantly turning deathly pale.
“GH-GHOSTS!!!”
The horses were startled, and with the reins pulled too tightly, one of them suddenly veered sharply to the side.
The cultivators of Yuantian Sect, who were covered head to toe in black soot, hurriedly splashed chicken blood all over the coachman.
“Oh, heavens! The carriage has overturned!”
Meanwhile, the cultivators of Fenglu Sect, who were drenched in chicken blood, began scattering talisman ash toward the carriage.
“Hurry! Hurry! Someone help rescue the people inside!”
