Chapter 1: The Strongest Daoist Temple Beyond the Pass! |
"Dead at only twenty years old, what a pity."
Lu Yuan murmured softly, then added, "Let me offer some incense."
Scratch—
A match struck, and a ghostly blue flame flickered to life.
Lu Yuan lit three incense sticks and bowed three times toward the solitary grave mound before him.
"This is the premium incense from Earth's Mount Tai Jade Emperor Hall. Even the emperor used this back in the day, it's the good stuff."
"Consider yourself lucky."
With that, Lu Yuan firmly inserted the three incense sticks into the soil of the grave mound.
The incense was set.
A gust of cold yin wind drilled in along the back of his neck.
Lu Yuan twisted his neck, his joints cracking crisply.
This feeling was eerie and cold...
Before he could think further, urgent footsteps and panting sounds came from behind him.
"Brother Lu, we've finished offering incense at all the grave mounds on this side!"
Lu Yuan turned around.
Two young men, one fat and one thin, were running toward him, their faces bearing the characteristic simple honesty of half-grown boys.
The fat one was called Xu Erxiao, and the thin one was Wang Cheng'an.
The two were his junior brothers at this small, rundown Daoist temple beyond the pass.
Lu Yuan was the eldest senior brother.
"Good, find a place to rest."
Lu Yuan dusted off the hem of his Daoist robe, speaking concisely.
"When night falls, we'll catch it."
He strode toward a withered tree nearby.
Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an hurried to follow, pulling out hard-as-a-board dried rations from their robes while lowering their voices, their eyes full of curiosity.
"Brother Lu, did Old Master Xu... really turn into a jiangshi?"
Lu Yuan's steps paused. His gaze swept past the desolate graveyard and settled on an extraordinarily imposing stone stele in the distance.
On that stele, a line of bloody text invisible to ordinary people was slowly emerging.
[Name: Xu Chengxuan]
[Type: Jiangshi]
[Cultivation Years: 48 years]
[Weaknesses: Thunder, electricity, fire]
[Time until breaking out of coffin: 11:58:35]
[Danger Level: ★☆]
This was Lu Yuan's capital for making a living in the year since he'd transmigrated.
Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze and sat cross-legged under the tree, tearing open his own dried rations.
"Guaranteed."
Lu Yuan's tone was confident.
"Tonight at ten o'clock, he'll definitely sit up from the coffin."
Hearing this, Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an exchanged glances, immediately losing all doubt, and sat down as well.
Although they had just made a round and the compass in their hands showed no reaction whatsoever, nor had their noses detected even a hint of corpse qi but compared to the tools passed down by their founding master, they trusted Brother Lu more because Brother Lu had never been wrong.
"Brother Lu, if you got nowhere to go for New Year's, come play at my house!"
Xu Erxiao asked while gnawing on the ice-cold flatbread, his words muffled.
"My family's in Qixia Town, not far. The dumplings my Ma makes have thin skin and big filling, they're delicious to death!"
His words had barely fallen when Wang Cheng'an beside him got anxious and shoved him aside.
"Come to my house, come to my house! Brother Lu, my sister's really pretty! If you don't come soon, my brother-in-law will really become someone else!"
Lu Yuan ignored the two clowns' squabbling and simply gazed down the mountain.
Below the mountain was Ningyuan Town.
The town was teeming with people, the clamor seemingly able to rush up to the mountaintop, incredibly lively.
He tore off a large piece of smoked meat pancake, stuffed it in his mouth, and said indistinctly, "We'll see when the time comes. There's lots to do at the temple during New Year's, the old man might not let us go."
Today was the last big market day in Ningyuan Town before the mountain passes were sealed by heavy snow.
In a few more days, when the white-haired winds of the frontier began to blow, the snow could bury houses whole. No one would be able to leave their homes, only able to huddle on their heated kang beds and endure the entire winter.
So everyone was acting like they'd gone mad.
Those selling animal pelts, those selling mountain goods, those making sugar figurines, those performing martial arts, all brought out their best skills.
Even the brothel girls on the second floor of the town's pleasure house were working extra hard today.
Each one waved red silk scarves, their big fat bottoms twisting like wound-up spinning tops, wishing they could hook the very souls out of their customers.
Everyone wanted to earn enough grain to chew on for the whole winter today.
Lu Yuan watched this scene full of the vitality of common life, and in a trance, thought of his hometown from his past life.
They also had big market days like this, equally lively.
Speaking of which, it had been almost a year since he'd transmigrated to this world.
He hadn't soul-transmigrated into some prince or general like other novel protagonists, starting at the peak.
And himself?
An ordinary high school student who dropped here buck naked.
Fortunately, just a couple days after arriving, he was picked up by that disreputable old Daoist priest from True Dragon Temple, and even accidentally activated a system.
At least he wouldn't starve to death and had gained some small reputation.
Over the past year, relying on the system and the skills the old Daoist had taught him with everything he had, his reputation as the "White-Robed Young Daoist" had become quite well-known in the surrounding area.
It's just that this transmigration experience wasn't quite what he'd imagined.
Working hard to subdue demons and eliminate evil, earning that little bit of money, only to turn around and have to "filially offer" it to the old Daoist to buy wine.
Forget it, who told him it was that old fellow who dug him out of the snow back then.
Consider it repaying a debt.
"Holy mother! Brother Lu, look quick! That woman's ass is really fat!"
Wang Cheng'an pulled out a monocular telescope from who knows where, looking through it while excitedly scooting closer to Lu Yuan.
Hm?
Lu Yuan glanced at him.
Wang Cheng'an's face was glowing with excitement as he eagerly handed over the telescope.
Lu Yuan didn't take it, wearing a look of "you guys are really childish," and continued dealing with the smoked meat flatbread in his hand.
Xu Erxiao beside him couldn't wait any longer and snatched the telescope.
"Where? Where?"
Wang Cheng'an pointed out directions from the side, "At the market entrance! That group of people who just came out! See them?"
A few seconds later, Xu Erxiao's mouth fell slightly open, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he let out a sincere sigh of admiration.
"Dear mother... this is too alluring!"
"Her ass is wider than her shoulders, her breasts bigger than her head! Even more impressive than that foreign mare we saw at the border last time!"
Breasts bigger than her head?
What kind of ridiculous description was that?
Lu Yuan's heart skipped a beat and his movements stopped.
The next second, his expression unchanged, he reached out and took the telescope from Xu Erxiao's hand.
"Nonsense, let me critique this properly."
Telescope in hand, Lu Yuan skillfully aimed it at the market below the mountain.
Xu Erxiao was still smacking his lips beside him, looking unsatisfied, "Good heavens, if I could marry a woman like that in this lifetime, losing ten years of life would be worth it..."
Lu Yuan was too lazy to acknowledge him and quickly locked onto the target in the crowd.
With just one look, he couldn't look away.
This was a... woman so beautifully mature and seductive it seemed unreal.
She sat on a wide palanquin carried by six sturdy men, yet it still appeared somewhat unsteady.
This was because the woman's figure was truly too tall and voluptuous. Her height alone was estimated at about 1.9 meters, completely crushing the generally small and thin men and women of this era.
She reclined lazily on soft cushions, wearing a silk qipao tailored to fit her body perfectly, the smooth fabric tightly wrapping around her heart-stopping curves.
Over her shoulders, she casually draped a heavy black sable fur coat.
Her jet-black hair was styled into an exquisite updo, with a golden orchid hairpin glinting mysteriously in her hair.
From her earlobes to her slender swan neck, everything was adorned with plump, full pearls, both seductive and noble.
In her hand, she toyed with a long pipe with a jade mouthpiece.
One perfectly formed jade leg was crossed, the qipao's slit revealing a glimpse of spring scenery.
That leg, voluptuous and slender, blindingly white, was actually not wearing the fashionable stockings of the day.
Well, of course. With such supreme-quality beautiful legs, any embellishment would be superfluous.
Even more deadly was that raised jade foot.
The top of the foot was fair and white, while the toes and heel showed an intoxicating tender pink.
On the five delicate toes, bright red nail polish was applied.
Simply... simply like a strawberry-flavored Alpenliebe milk candy!
This thought inexplicably popped into Lu Yuan's mind.
"This woman is too damn impressive!" Wang Cheng'an savored the memory. "Even if she were a fox spirit with a thousand years of cultivation, she couldn't match this seductive charm!"
Xu Erxiao nodded vigorously, "Good mother, such grandeur, like the Queen Mother of the West from paintings..."
Lu Yuan didn't speak, just silently took another look.
Lu Yuan noticed that this woman's entourage was no simple matter.
Besides those carrying the palanquin, more than twenty black-clothed guards accompanied her. Each one had temples bulging high, sharp gazes, clearly all trained fighters and at the very front of the procession, there was actually a group of Daoist priests clearing the way!
Those Daoist priests wore snow-white robes of fine material, clearly not ordinary goods. Compared to the coarse cloth and hemp clothes the three of them wore, it was like comparing clouds to mud.
Lu Yuan aimed the telescope lens at the symbol on those Daoist priests' chests.
It was a complex pattern resembling auspicious clouds, embroidered with gold thread.
The instant he clearly saw the pattern, Lu Yuan's pupils suddenly contracted.
He abruptly lowered the telescope, the relaxed contentment on his face vanishing without a trace, replaced by shock and gravity.
Wuqing Temple?!
The number one major temple of the Daoist sects beyond the pass, the strongest Daoist temple!
Why would their people... appear in a poor, remote small town like Ningyuan?!
Tsk~
This was not a good omen...
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