Chapter 107: Copper Sword Slays the Demon Dragon 22 |
The bearded man scratched his head and said, "I think it''s more likely that Chen Shi contaminated the evil spirit. That kid stays up at night doing nonsense. Lately he hasn''t had an episode, so the old man in the underworld must be doing a good job. I''m off to sleep."
"Xiaoliang, don''t sleep, something big might happen."
Blue Goat stared at Chen Shi nervously, "I always feel this kid''s going to cause some huge trouble!"
"You say something''s going to happen every day, acting all jumpy. Ever since coming back from the underworld, I''ve gone several nights without sleep."
The bearded man snapped, "I''m not like you—I''m all alone, but I still have many concubines to look after. If I don''t get back, the household will be upside down!"
Granny Sha was tired too. After running around so much these days—always on guard against Chen Shi''s antics while helping build a temple for the Mountain Lord—her savings were drained and she had no time to rest.
After all, she was elderly; her energy wasn''t what it used to be. She smiled and said, "From what I''ve seen, Chen Shi''s done a lot of mischief these days, but he''s kept to himself and hasn''t caused a major disaster. Now that the Mountain Lord''s manifestation isn''t in his little shrine, things have calmed. The old man from the underworld is guarding the passage, so it''s foolproof. Everyone''s tired. I''ll leave one Ghost King to watch Chen Shi, and you all should go back. If anything happens, that Ghost King will report to me."
She left behind a Ghost King and instructed, "If Chen Shi causes trouble or is in danger, report to me immediately."
That Ghost King, the third among the Five Ghost Kings, clasped his hands and said, "Command received!"
The three of them went their separate ways.
That night, the Ghost Bride was tormented enough to last her a while, while the ghost foxes had no idea the grand red bridal sedan no longer contained the Ghost Bride but Chen Shi. They still dragged the carriage around, blaring and performing everywhere.
Also that night, many people saw Talisman Master Chen sitting in the sedan, dressed like a groom and very happy, frightening people all around.
News spread, and people said Talisman Master Chen had married the Ghost Bride and would soon drop dead.
Yet for a long while afterward, Chen Shi remained perfectly fine and in good spirits.
But the Ghost Bride was not seen again.
"Talisman Master Chen absorbed the Ghost Bride!"
At the market, Old Lady Wuzhu declared to Old Lady Wang from the neighboring village with great solemnity, "They were rolling around in the sedan. The Ghost Bride screamed for mercy, but she was drained dry!"
"Talisman Master Chen is that powerful?"
"Of course! He''s a xiucai, the literary star descended!"
Old Lady Wuzhu said earnestly, "It''s a five-lifetime karmic debt with the Ghost Bride. She descended this time specifically to be subdued. Talisman Master Chen will ascend soon!"
For a while, the countryside buzzed with rumors about Chen Shi and the Ghost Bride.
Chen Shi let the Ghost Bride go, and for many days she didn''t come out to feed.
Later, other evil spirits said the Ghost Bride had been harassed by another spirit one night and suffered badly, so she moved away, found a shabby temple, reformed herself, and became a godmother.
Chen Shi had favored the Ghost Bride, thinking that making her his divine embryo would speed his cultivation more than other spirits, but she moved away without leaving any word, cold as could be. He felt helpless.
For a period after that, evil spirits across Qianyang Mountain felt uneasy. They all heard of a spirit in the area that specialized in catching malevolent spirits, locking them into a strange house they could not leave. Once trapped, invisible ropes would bind them and they would be placed in an open little box.
Open as it was, they couldn''t move.
Then a bizarre heat would crawl through their bodies and force them into odd postures, making them attack other spirits.
The number of evil spirits near Qianyang Mountain dropped significantly. Some fled by night, some hid, and others attached themselves to mountain rocks and trees to avoid the new spirit. After all, eating people is always an option, but being caught by that spirit meant unbearable humiliation.
Some stubborn ones still went out to bask in the moonlight and then vanished.
When they reappeared some days later, they were silent and withdrawn, as if abused.
Even stranger, any spirit that Chen Shi caught and that received incense offerings in his little shrine lost much of its appetite for preying on humans and instead developed a keen interest in incense offerings.
Some spirits slipped into ancient trees, or into jagged stones, or possessed a broken old statue, and began to manifest, protecting travelers and seeking offerings.
Within just half a month, the number of evil spirits on Qianyang Mountain decreased by more than half, and instead several spiritually protective safe places emerged.
Refugees from other regions came to Qianyang Mountain, saw many unclaimed spirits, offered incense and worshipped them as godmothers, then built homes nearby, forming the seeds of new villages.
"Chen Shi seems to have done a great thing."
Granny Sha was very surprised to see more and more villages springing up around Qianyang Mountain.
"His little shrine is remarkable. A shrine that turns evil spirits into protective godmothers—that''s something I''ve never heard of in all my years. What exactly is Little Ten''s godmother? What sort of being can grant a shrine such power?"
She puzzled over it.
"I suspect only the Mountain Lord knows the origin of the stone-stele godmother, but the Mountain Lord has been petrified these days and won''t respond to my offerings."
She grew even more curious about Chen Shi''s godmother.
"Strange, the third Ghost King hasn''t reported Chen Shi''s movements for some days."
Busy with her affairs, she only briefly found it odd that the third Ghost King hadn''t reported, then set the thought aside and continued using the horn-shaped Underworld Lamp to search the nether.
Villagers around Qianyang Mountain felt a little astonished: these days, there seemed to be far fewer evil spirits. Even the usually active floating heads were rarely seen.
At night they could walk from one village to another without encountering a single spirit.
They could go into the fields without fearing spirit attacks and felt much more at ease.
As time passed, incidents with spirits dwindled. Occasional spirit encounters were usually caused by wandering spirits passing through.
Later, even passing spirits behaved themselves around Qianyang Mountain—only causing trouble once they left the mountain. Apparently they''d heard of a powerful spirit named Chen that captured offending spirits and locked them in odd rooms, so they kept their distance.
Chen Shi had done a tremendous favor, yet contrary to Old Lady Wuzhu''s hopes, he did not ascend and instead looked somewhat worried.
His Golden Core had already reached the second transformation, his dantian transforming into the Zhu Ling Palace.
As the saying goes: in the Zhu Ling Palace the Golden Core is refined, the innate furnace wheel turns.
Within his dantian, a sea of fire formed a wheel-shaped furnace, with the Golden Core at its center. Around it, qi and blood churned like flames, continually flowing into the Golden Core. The core was vermilion like cinnabar, brilliantly vivid.
He went from Golden Core first transformation to second in only a month—exceptionally fast.
That speed rivaled cultivators who possessed top-tier divine embryos.
But Grandpa had told him that as his cultivation deepened, his daily medicine intake would need to increase, and the medicinal herbs for his baths would have to double.
Naturally, expenses would multiply too.
Chen Shi sighed; with fewer evil spirits and more godmothers, his business had slumped.
He now often went to the county town to buy medicines—ten taels of silver a day, a hundred in ten days.
"In a year I''ll be as broke as Tianqing, unable to afford marrying Xiaojin."
These days his spending increased but income didn''t, and he worried. "Xiaojin''s poor too; if both of us are broke, how will we raise our child? What should our child be named? Should we ask Tianqing to be the godfather?"
He took out three incense sticks and lit them before him. At that moment a green ghostly hand reached from the little shrine behind his head, grabbed the three sticks, and pulled them back into the shrine.
Granny Sha''s third Ghost King was now sitting on the deity shelf inside the shrine, inserting the incense into the burner before the niche and delighting in the aroma.
It had originally been watching Chen Shi from afar, but for some reason Chen Shi''s black dog had found it. Chen Shi captured it at first sight and kept it in his little shrine to help his cultivation.
The third Ghost King struggled and resisted, but Chen Shi provided so much incense that it complied and aided his cultivation.
These days, as Chen Shi cultivated, the Ghost King benefited greatly and no longer mentioned leaving.
"Watching Chen Shi from a distance and watching him inside the shrine is no different," the third Ghost King thought as it accepted the incense. "And from inside the shrine I can see more clearly. When Granny finds out, she''ll praise my cleverness!"
Fu Leisheng''s private school in Qiaowan Town had opened some time ago. The tutor, cheerful, invited Chen Shi to visit and said, "I''ve cultivated to Nascent Soul and haven''t yet thanked you."
Chen Shi was happy for him and said, "Once you reach Nascent Soul out-of-body, avoid pregnant women and animals in labor."
Fu Leisheng asked in confusion, "Why is that?"
Chen Shi recounted how a Nascent Soul had mistakenly entered the body of a pregnant woman in his past experience and said, "If a Nascent Soul enters a mother''s body, the Nascent Soul will die under any circumstance. The placenta is the innate cushion, the umbilical cord the Naihe Bridge, and the amniotic fluid Meng Po''s brew. One misstep and you fall into the womb''s snare. If you enter the maternal body during childbirth you might keep your previous life''s memory, but if you cry out and lose innate true energy, that memory will vanish. You must not speak for five years to retain your past-life memories."
Fu Leisheng was stunned: "So it exists? Reaching Nascent Soul is dangerous every step of the way?"
"There''s also heavenly thunder. A Nascent Soul, not being purely yang, attracts thunder. Do not go out-of-body during thunderstorms. A Nascent Soul is unstable and can be scattered by wind, so standing long in the wind weakens it."
Chen Shi listed the taboos and asked, "You didn''t know any of this?"
Fu Leisheng laughed, "How would I know? For us whose title is xiucai, unless we encounter a miracle, we''ll remain xiucai all our lives, never reach juanren, and never touch top-tier methods. Reaching Golden Core is already incredible. Reaching Nascent Soul is usually a privilege of great clans. For common poor folk like us, without patronage, Nascent Soul is essentially impossible. If you hadn''t told me, I''d definitely die when my Nascent Soul went out."
He had spoken in refined terms, but after being in the countryside a month he had adopted local ways of speaking.
Still, what Fu Leisheng said reflected a common reality.
Ordinary-background cultivators often cannot pass the Great Medicine body tempering; they don''t know the Seven Returns, Eight Transformations, Nine Reversions. Even if they use external pills, they can''t afford one with their lifetime savings, and without high-level methods, Golden Core is the peak for the impoverished—no crossing over is possible.
Those who do cross often are like Master Zeng, entering powerful families as servants and being promoted by patrons, only then able to reach Nascent Soul.
Chen Shi sighed, "Cultivation seems fair at first glance, but it''s actually very unfair."
Fu Leisheng nodded in sympathy, "The Qianyang Mountain Hermit used the Heavenly Heart Righteousness Technique to lower the threshold so poor youths could cultivate up to Golden Core. But that method only supports up to Golden Core. For poor lads to go further is as hard as reaching the heavens. It''s a shame only one Qianyang Mountain Hermit ever appeared."
His expression darkened.
To poor youths, the Qianyang Mountain Hermit was an eternal monument.
If only someone knew his real name and face—the offerings would surely be immense!
This stirred something in Chen Shi''s mind. He felt he might be able to supplement the missing parts of the Heavenly Heart Righteousness Technique, raising it to Nascent Soul level.
"If I add the content of Seven Returns, Eight Transformations, and Nine Reversions, it could be upgraded to Nascent Soul! How to add it safely is the real difficulty..."
As he pondered how to patch the technique, a roar of river water reached him. Bell clangs rang urgently through Qiaowan Town. Someone shouted loudly, "Quick, burn incense! Worship the godmother!"
Chen Shi was surprised to see many townspeople pouring out and heading straight for the town center, each holding incense and bowing toward the town''s godmother.
The town''s godmother was a stone statue—dragon head on a human body—only half of it remained, like a dragon king from some ancient temple. Even as half a body it stood as tall as three or five people and possessed strong spiritual power.
Because Qiaowan Town often flooded on rainy days, the dragon king statue received abundant offerings and had many worshippers.
The waves roared louder. Chen Shi looked toward the Dejiang River and saw the floodwaters rising a couple of zhang above the banks, held back by an invisible wall and not flooding Qiaowan Town.
Yet many people were swept in the river, tumbling in the rapids; houses and trees were carried downstream.
It seemed an upstream village had been overwhelmed, with a hundred or two hundred people swept away.
These people were already drowned. Some were slammed against the invisible wall laid by the town''s godmother, pressed against it as if still alive, staring wide-eyed at the townsfolk before the flood carried them away again.
Chen Shi vaguely saw a massive creature swimming in the river, passing under the arch bridge; the bridge shook from the force.
"There''s something in the Dejiang!"
Before he could think further, Fu Leisheng said, "A river-crossing dragon is rampaging in the Dejiang. Taking advantage of heavy rains, it has caused floods and drowned people, collapsing six or seven villages on the banks."
"A river-crossing dragon?"
Chen Shi asked, puzzled, "Is there a dragon nearby?"
"It should be a jiao— a flood dragon—about to transform. It needs human souls to cultivate, enlarging its demonic core, becoming an evil spirit."
Fu Leisheng wasn''t certain either. "It passes the riverbank each noon. This time it destroyed the upstream village—probably grew stronger."
Chen Shi watched the flood—the torrent came fast and receded fast, and soon the river returned clear.
He went onto the stone arch bridge, surveyed the scene, and took out a tael of silver. "Would you mind going to the shop in town and exchanging this for copper coins?"
Fu Leisheng was puzzled but took the money and soon returned with copper coins.
Chen Shi brought the coins to the blacksmith. With ringing clinks he forged the copper coins into a copper sword, yellow and bright.
He called Black Pot, mixed black dog blood with cinnabar, and inscribed talismanic patterns across the copper sword. He painted them with cinnabar, heated and forged, repeating this process multiple times until the sword no longer resembled its original form.
Chen Shi took a boat to under the bridge, hung the copper sword in the bridge''s arch, and told Fu Leisheng, "My grandpa taught me dragon-slaying techniques. I don''t know if they''ll work. If they do, Qiaowan Town must give me ten taels of silver."
Fu Leisheng, stunned, went to inform the village elder.
The elder said, "If it succeeds, ten taels it is!"
The next noon the flood returned, waters surging over the banks, rising higher.
Suddenly a yellow light flashed at the bridgehead and a dragon''s roar sounded. The river instantly ran blood-red. People looked on and saw a giant dragon-like creature in the river. Its head was severed, body and head separated, drifting downstream with the flood.
The flood then subsided.
The following day at noon no flood returned. Chen Shi came to collect the payment. Fu Leisheng was astonished and asked, "Chen Shi, who exactly was your grandpa? Where did he learn to slay dragons?"
"Just an ordinary country old man," Chen Shi said. "No noteworthy background."
The dragon''s corpse had been washed ashore downstream and drew a crowd. Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng rushed over and saw many talismans carved into the dragon''s horn, which made them frown.
"This is a domesticated jiao, not a wild one!"
Fu Leisheng whispered, "It''s probably someone''s kept dragon that escaped. We might be in trouble!"
Chen Shi was puzzled, "A kept jiao caused so much death. Shouldn''t the owner be blamed?"
Fu Leisheng shook his head, pulling him away. "Only a big figure would keep a jiao. Right and wrong are not for common folk like us to decide. The powerful will say who''s to blame. Come on, let''s get out of here!"
