Chapter 102: Your Home Has an Evil Spirit 23 |
The wealthy merchant by the river did business with the Li family. Fearing Chen Shi’s wrath, he hurriedly ordered his people to take care of things.
Just now, Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng had slaughtered so brutally—dozens of corpses—that it chilled people to the bone. If they angered the Li family, they might well be ruined themselves.
“To offend the Li family so viciously—these two are truly fiends. Do they even know how many ways there are to write the character for death?”
The merchant’s household shook their heads in private, then gave orders. “Collect Master Zeng’s body and send it to the provincial capital. Make sure you send someone glib and silver-tongued.”
They wrapped Master Zeng up and placed him in a coffin, then yoked a bullock cart to carry the coffin to the provincial city.
Xinxiang County was quite far from the provincial capital, and the ox cart moved slowly, so by the time they arrived it was already the next day.
Li Xiaozheng was the newly appointed governor. Xinxiang Province had many things to repair, and many official posts were still vacant. Lately the Li household’s threshold had been trampled by people coming to curry favor, most trying to secure marriages or connections; somehow they always found a way to present themselves as relatives of the Li family.
Or else there were powerful patrons behind them whom one dared not offend, so the Li house had to receive them.
Even the Li family’s younger members benefited, being stuffed with cash and jewels from suitors and petitioners.
Fortunately the person who’d brought the cart was indeed silver-tongued and quick-witted; in a short time he explained who the person in the coffin was and the full sequence of events, which prevented the enraged Li scions from beating him to death in the street.
“How dare that Chen Shi be so brazen—he actually killed Master Zeng and dragged the corpse here to shame the Li family!”
The Li scions seethed with rage. Many vaulted onto horses and prepared to ride to Xinxiang County to kill the wretch.
But before they could leave the city they were stopped. The governor had sent orders forbidding them from acting on their own.
The Li youths were suffocated with grievance and furious beyond measure.
Killing Master Zeng might be forgiven if there were room to maneuver, but to kill him and then transport him in a coffin outright to the provincial capital was a deliberate slap in the face to this ancient aristocratic clan. They could not fathom how the governor could still hold back!
Inside the Li estate’s inner courtyard, the gates were shut. No visitors or household servants were to be seen.
Li Xiaozheng sat in the inner pavilion. Madam Xia Weiyin waved a hand, dismissing the maid who was preparing tea, then personally poured tea for Li Xiaozheng and said, “Master, is this Chen Shi truly the same Chen Shi who supposedly died ten years ago? The dead do not come back to life, especially not after ten years.”
“He is indeed alive.”
Li Xiaozheng thumbed through documents as he spoke. “Others cannot resurrect the dead, but the Qianyang Mountain Hermit certainly has ways.”
At the mention of those four words, Xia Weiyin’s body trembled slightly.
Those four words held almost magical power.
The Qianyang Mountain Hermit was already a legend in his own right.
She could hardly reconcile the idea of the Qianyang Mountain Hermit with the butcher from the Western Capital.
Li Xiaozheng said softly, “Ten years ago Chen Shi shocked everyone at the county examination—first in both the literary and martial tests, top across fifty prefectures. The record for the Ziwu Evil-Slaying Sword stood unbroken for ten years. He received the True God’s Descent and was granted an Innate Dao Embryo, a supreme Divine Embryo. Ten years later he rose from the dead.”
He lifted his teacup and drained it, then stood and gazed at a nearby artificial rockery. His tone was low and distant. “The record for the Ziwu Evil-Slaying Sword remained unbroken for ten years. Ten years later it was broken, and the one who broke it was the same man. Moreover, he increased the sword energy’s flight distance to over eighty zhang. That record will likely stand for a hundred, five hundred, even a thousand years. A person like that, whether or not they have an Innate Dao Embryo, cannot be underestimated.”
Xia Weiyin poured him more tea and asked, “The True God already conferred an embryonic spirit once—would the True God grant a second one? And during the Confucian Temple’s divine-descent grand sacrifice this time, he did not participate, so he did not receive an embryonic spirit.”
Li Xiaozheng pondered. “That’s the odd part. From what you described of how he fought, he must have used a Golden Core to accomplish it, meaning he’s already refined a Golden Core. Without an embryonic spirit, how did he refine a Golden Core?”
Xia Weiyin filled her own cup and lifted it to inhale the tea’s fragrance. “Can a Golden Core be transplanted?”
Li Xiaozheng shook his head.
Xia Weiyin said, “Then it is puzzling. He’s so powerful—able to kill skilled Golden Core practitioners with his flying bamboo strikes—he even killed Master Zeng, who was no weakling.”
Li Xiaozheng turned and said, “Master Zeng practiced the Mysterious Five Elements Technique and had refined a Nascent Soul to the point of out-of-body Nascent Soul. His cultivation was considerable. For someone at Golden Core to kill him…”
He shook his head, his expression odd. “When Chen Shi struck, there were tiger roars and inexplicable tiger claws that smote Master Zeng. That’s even stranger. Another oddity: the report says that what’s behind Chen Shi’s head is not a shrine but a small temple.”
He spread the documents. One showed an illustration of the little temple behind Chen Shi’s head.
Xia Weiyin examined it closely. The temple’s structure was extremely simple and ordinary—something you’d see scattered across the countryside.
Yet why had a miniature shrine become a small temple?
“A temple is where a god lives.”
Li Xiaozheng said, “What god resides in his temple?”
His gaze flickered, and he involuntarily recalled a scene he’d seen a few days earlier when he left Xinxiang County to assume his new post.
It had been a tiger’s head, immense as a mountain, suspended over Qianyang Mountain, roaring so that the whole range trembled. Its momentum was overwhelming and terrifying.
“Could the owner of the tiger paw be that very tiger?”
His face betrayed his odd thoughts. He didn’t voice the idea—the tiger was so overwhelmingly powerful it made him uneasy. Such an unparalleled demon could not possibly reside in Chen Shi’s tiny temple.
He set the thought aside and opened several other dossiers. “How long Chen Shi was dead is not as important as whether Chen Yindu actually died.”
Those files were compiled by various scouts about Chen Yindu.
Though the Li family had limited visible power in Xinxiang, they had long gathered intelligence, compiling it into volumes.
The Li family’s goal was the True King’s Tomb, so they naturally paid special attention to someone like Chen Yindu.
“Chen Yindu’s death is mysterious; there is still no firm conclusion. When they buried him, they placed his garments and coffin, but the coffin contained no corpse. That kind of phenomenon is unsettling.”
Xia Weiyin listened quietly.
Her staying power in the Li household over the years was not because she wielded heavy-handed tactics, but because she was calm and a good listener.
Li Xiaozheng said, “When they struck the coffin at burial, some of the people were even our Li scouts. Ten years ago Chen Yindu wreaked havoc in the Western Capital. The Five Armies, the Divine Mechanism, the Divine Pivot—the three camps defending the Western Capital—were crippled. Countless nobles of the Western Capital were killed or injured. I heard that at the time the Grand Chancellor was severely wounded, and the overseer of the Eastern Depot was maimed and confined to a wheelchair. Chen Yindu himself was gravely injured, then retreated to Qianyang Mountain. It was said they had a gentleman’s agreement: Chen Yindu would not meddle in past matters, and the Western Capital would leave Chen’s family alone. For ten years they lived in uneasy peace.”
Xia Weiyin said, “If Chen Yindu truly died, then the uneasy peace would end.”
Li Xiaozheng nodded slightly. “The strange thing is that Chen Yindu’s coffin contains no Chen Yindu. Many in the Western Capital probably cannot sleep. If he really died, those big figures could rest easy; if he did not die, then that is troublesome.”
He paused. “Those big figures want to use me as a test to see whether Chen Yindu is truly dead. Many eyes are probably fixed on us now; it’s possible that even inside the Li family many watch me, hoping I’ll probe.”
Xia Weiyin said, “But the master will not probe on his own.”
“No.”
Li Xiaozheng smiled faintly. “Such humiliation is nothing. When I first couldn’t find my footing in the Li family, my elder half-brother scolded me and spat a mouthful of phlegm in my face; I did not stir. The spit dried in the wind and I did not wipe it away. Now it is only a corpse. If I remain steady, the one who loses his temper won’t be me but the nobles of the Western Capital.”
Xia Weiyin sighed. “Master you have great talent and restraint, but the youths we’ve brought here may not have your temperament.”
Li Xiaozheng said with a smile, “That is why Madam must restrain them.”
Xia Weiyin said, “I will do my best. But if Chen Yindu truly is dead—”
Li Xiaozheng smiled. “Then Chen Shi, an orphan who dares to shake a great tree like an ant, will surely deserve death.”
Xinxiang County.
Chen Shi held an umbrella as Fu Leisheng rose, unbelievingly staring at the little temple behind his head.
This small temple surpassed his comprehension; it overturned everything he knew!
It was even more mind-shattering than the treatise Chen Shi had written.
The treatise only twisted the Master’s words; this temple overturned a shrine—heretical!
Blasphemy!
The first thought that sprang up in Fu Leisheng’s head was exactly that; then another thought followed: “Should I slay this demon and die a righteous death?”
He considered it and realized he wasn’t ready to die for righteousness, so he contentedly followed Chen Shi away.
Black Pot hid under the eaves, dry and unsoaked, and when he saw them leaving he hurried after them.
Rain began to fall from the sky. At first it was light and drizzling, but it thickened and turned heavy.
The river rushed and roared. Many stone dragon heads lined the banks and spat water into the Qingqu River.
The pleasure boat business had ceased for the day. Nearby the dock, a boatman and his daughter were mooring their craft, wearing rain hats and straw cloaks as they worked hard.
“Father, look! Look!”
The boat girl tugged at her father and pointed at the two men and a dog on shore. The boatman glanced over and was stunned, exclaiming, “Must be seeing ghosts! Seeking revenge on the Li family and still alive? Truly a living ghost!”
The father and daughter watched the two men and the dog walk away. The boat girl suddenly cried, “Father, the boat—the boat!”
Their moored pleasure boat was not secured properly and nearly drifted away with the current. Father and daughter hustled, finally securing it.
Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng were too exhausted to notice, but Black Pot paused, looked across the river, then fell in step behind Chen Shi.
Across from the father and daughter, under a row of eaves, stood a blue goat propped against a shopfront to shelter from the rain. The Blue Goat was standing like a person; its hooves were not hooves but sharp claws. It clumsily held a brush in one hand and a book of blank sheets in the other, doodling. It was drawing the scene of Chen Shi invoking the Yellow Tiger and smiting Master Zeng.
The Blue Goat could not draw it well, and when it peered over at the Bearded Man, it saw that the Bearded Man’s depiction was vivid and lifelike.
“Little Ten was right—he really can invoke the Mountain Lord.”
The Bearded Man set down his brush, worry written all over his face. “Invoking the Mountain Lord’s mount to kill—ha! What arrogance. Does he not fear heavenly retribution?”
The Blue Goat nodded again and again, also gloomy. “If today he could invoke the Mountain Lord’s mount, tomorrow he’d dare to invoke the Mountain Lord himself!”
What sort of being was the Mountain Lord?
The guardian of Qianyang Mountain, the sovereign of all Qianyang Mountain’s creatures—invoking the Mountain Lord to slay enemies was a hundred times more sacrilegious than invoking the great serpent Xuan Shan or even Chen Yindu to kill!
“The crux is, what is the origin of that little temple?”
The Bearded Man said, “How can this shabby little temple command the Mountain Lord of Qianyang Mountain?”
The Blue Goat considered. “That little shabby temple was given to Little Ten by his stone wet-nurse. What background does that stone wet-nurse have?”
The two great evil spirits looked at one another. “Chen Yindu found Little Ten a wet-nurse—what on earth is she?”
They puzzled and puzzled, then rolled up their sketch scrolls, grabbed umbrellas from the wall corner, and left one after the other.
“Let’s go find Granny Sha! Also, did you notice Little Ten’s black dog watching us all along?”
“I noticed. We’re watching Little Ten and it’s watching us! It’s less and less like a dog!”
Xinxiang County’s Myriad Soul Banner had long sensed the aura of these two great evil spirits, but the banner’s eight thousand and more tempered grudges were suppressed by the presence of the two spirits and couldn’t stir.
Only after they left the county walls did the banner’s power recover.
Chen Shi passed the Confucian Temple; the rain grew heavier. The temple’s rites had already concluded and the divine descent completed; the xiucai had long since returned home.
He looked at the Confucian Temple and thought of his obsession with obtaining an embryonic spirit, feeling a momentary twinge of disappointment.
Then he cast it from his mind.
“Is an Innate Dao Embryo comparable to a great tiger?” he thought to himself.
Though sheets of rain battered down, Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng boarded a wooden cart and, under the cover of night and rain, traveled to the countryside.
The Li family was large and powerful, but since they couldn’t touch Chen Shi, what could they do to Fu Leisheng?
So Fu Leisheng decided to hide out in the countryside for a while.
Because it was late, he first stayed at Chen Shi’s home.
Chen Shi went into town to borrow vegetables, meat, and eggs. Black Pot tied on an apron and fried four dishes for them.
Fu Leisheng stared blankly at the busy black dog, which also boiled a soup and planned to brew some medicinal decoction for Chen Shi. He only came to his senses after a long time.
“Chen Shi, haven’t you noticed something odd about your dog?” he couldn’t help whispering.
The dog tending the stove pricked its ears, slowly turned, and shot him a mournful glance.
Chen Shi sighed, “Sir, eat your meal. That’s how dogs from poor families behave.”
Fu Leisheng suspected internally, “There’s a person under that dog’s skin, isn’t there? That dog is definitely wrong!”
But the next morning he saw Black Pot cooking breakfast and found the dog’s actions perfectly normal.
“Oh no! This dog’s warped my mind!”
Fu Leisheng was chilled. “There’s an evil spirit in Chen Shi’s home—this dog! It’s staring at me again… I’m overthinking. The dog is obviously completely normal.”
