I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 118 Tongue Depressor, Hunter
It rained yesterday and the morning mist has not yet dissipated.

Xu Qing walked on the wet cobblestone road of Jingxia Street.

Occasionally, drops of water could be seen dripping from the eaves in front of the coffin shop on the street.

Hu Baosong, who got up early, had not even had a few sips of hot porridge when he saw the young man turning into the shop.

I saw that the other person was wearing a brand new white robe with a green collar. He looked so arrogant that he looked like a peacock with its tail spread out. I thought he was some young man who came for an outing after the rain!
Yizhen, who was sitting at the table sipping rice porridge, looked up at Xu Qing, and then couldn't help but look at him again.

People rely on clothes, Buddha relies on gold.

The corpse driver who wore black and gray robes in the coroner's shop all day long suddenly transformed into a pale-faced scholar. Anyone would have been unable to resist taking a few more glances at him.

Hu Baosong turned his head to look at his eldest daughter who put down her bowl and chopsticks and stood up to serve porridge to Xu Qing. He felt very uncomfortable.

"Xu kid, what do you mean by deliberately coming here dressed like this?"

Xu Qing opened his arms and turned around in surprise. He had a straight collar, a tight waist, and wide, long sleeves that flowed freely, looking very stylish and neat.

"Old Hu, I am a scholar after all, and I can be considered a half-scholar. Why can't I wear this dress?"

Besides, the female ghost stepped on the loom, threaded the needle, and took great pains to make such a decent set of clothes. Shouldn’t he be able to wear it?

"Stop playing tricks on me. Why don't I see you wearing this kind of clothes before?" Hu Baosong felt inexplicably annoyed when he saw Xu Qing twisting around and showing off in her flamboyant manner.

While the father and son were bickering, Yizhen came out of the kitchen with a bowl of hot porridge.

"Junior brother, you haven't had breakfast yet, I just happened to make some fish sauce porridge."

After the rain, the coffin shop was filled with the smell of sandalwood mixed with damp and moldy coffins. At this moment, a bowl of fragrant hot porridge was served, and the stale smell was instantly washed away.

Unfortunately, Xu Qing has not yet broken through the zombie stage and has many taboos on food, so he cannot enjoy such delicacies.

Otherwise, if you swallow the front foot, you will have to vomit it out completely.

"Oh, it's still quite hot. I'll take it back and eat it."

Xu Qing was holding a white porcelain bowl, which contained pomfret pieces, wild mushrooms and other side dishes. He added some Gu Yue powder, fish sauce and some salt during the cooking process, and it became a bowl of delicious fish sauce porridge.

This thing is a specialty of the fish-rich areas along the river. Unfortunately, he has never had the chance to eat it since he came to Linhe.

Xu Qing looked at the porridge and sighed.

Now he had another reason to persist in practicing, which was to be able to eat a mouthful of hot fish sauce porridge as soon as possible.

Holding the porridge cooked by Senior Sister Yizhen, Xu Qing turned around and went back to the coroner's shop.

The porridge made from pomfret can be taken back to feed the cat.

When Xu Qing arrived at his shop, he heard a lot of clattering and flapping sounds inside before he even entered the door.

Xu Qing carried the hot porcelain bowl, stepped over the threshold and took a look.

But I saw a yellow fox with shiny fur being chased by a rooster with a red crown and golden claws. The yellow fox's bare tail looked like a fat earthworm swinging on the ground, which made the golden rooster's eyes glow green.

Xuanyu possessed Sun Erniang, who leaned against the counter with one hand supporting her cheek. In her other hand, she was holding two walnuts for ornamental purposes, and was watching with great interest the golden rooster pecking at the yellow walnuts, making them squeak and run around.

Seeing Xu Qing coming in, Xuan Yu reacted very quickly and immediately stood up and slammed the table. Her slightly angry look made her look like a female teacher who had just seen students arguing and fighting in class.

Xu Qing glanced past the few noisy little animals, and his eyes subconsciously fell on a thin-skinned coffin that had appeared in the shop.

There was still some fresh dirt on the coffin, as if it had just been dug out of the grave.

Xu Qing walked around the coffin calmly, then placed the fish sauce porridge on the counter. When Xuan Yu smelled the fragrance, his tense and serious expression instantly broke.

"It smells so good!"

Black evil energy surged out from Sun Erniang's body, and when the lingering black energy fell on the counter, Xuan Yu's true form appeared.

"It's fish sauce porridge. It's a rare delicacy. Xuanyu Immortal Family must try it while it's hot."

"It's a little hot." Xuan Yu took a sip and stuck out her pink tongue.

Upon hearing this, Xu Qing stretched out his cold palm and gently stroked the scalding meat porridge, cooling it to a temperature suitable for consumption.

"It's delicious. Has Xu Xian's family eaten it yet?"

Xu Qing smiled and nodded.

"Well, I was in such a hurry on my way that I haven't had any meal yet."

An inappropriate voice sounded, and Xu Qing turned to look at the greedy Huang Laoxu.

"Hmm? When did Fellow Daoist Huang come? Why didn't you let me know in advance?"

"."

Huang Laoxu simply assumed the other party was unhappy with his fight with Jin Luan, so he laughed dryly and said, "Fellow Daoist Xu, you are a forgetful person. I just came here a few days ago. Didn't you want the hunter's body? I have been thinking about it for a long time. I just rushed back to Xijing Mountain and dug up the grave at night and sent the hunter's body here."

Finally, Huang Laoxu specifically mentioned, "Is my wolf-hair brush still convenient to use, Fellow Daoist Xu?"

Xu Qing suddenly smiled and said, "I remember now!"

"Isn't it just that the old immortal asked me, Cat Immortal Hall, to take action? How could I possibly forget about this?"

Xu Qing came to the thin-skinned coffin parked in the shop and subconsciously turned on the Qi-gazing technique, but found nothing unusual.

When the coffin was opened, a strong smell of smoke and fire gushed out, even overwhelming the scent of sandalwood lit in the coroner's shop.

Xu Qing frowned slightly. The corpse in front of him was not wearing funeral clothes, but was still wearing the clothes he wore when he was alive.

Judging from the style of the clothes, they should be made of some kind of animal skin.

Xu Qing examined the body carefully, following the autopsy procedure. There were no external injuries, only traces of smoke around the eyes.

After prying open the corpse's mouth, Xu Qing discovered something unusual.

I saw a seed with roots in the hunter's mouth, which was taking root at the base of his tongue.

Xu Qing tried to take out the seed, but he didn't expect that the roots growing under the seed would grow like a ball of wool, the more he pulled, the more it would grow.

"Do you recognize this thing, fellow Daoist?"

Huang Laoxu came closer to take a look and was so frightened that he stepped back repeatedly.

"Take it away! Take it away! Don't let this unlucky thing touch me!"

Xu Qing glanced at Huang Laoxu, who was avoiding him like a snake or scorpion, and then looked at the ball of grass in his hand.

I thought, what’s so scary about this thing?

"It's tongue depressant. No wonder this hunter is still holding on."

"What is tongue depressant?"

Huang Laoxu said with some trepidation, "The tongue-pressing grass is a strange plant found in the mountains. It tastes sweet and can increase strength if eaten. However, if someone is greedy and accidentally swallows the seeds, they will take root at the base of the tongue and sprout, absorbing the swallower's blood to grow."

"Whoever swallows the seeds, whether it's a human or a wolf, won't be able to sense the foreign object in their mouth. By the time they realize it, they're already close to death. If they don't pull the weeds out, they can still live a few more days like a normal person. If they do pull the weeds out, they'll be gone."

Xu Qing looked at the large mass of roots he had already pulled out and subconsciously asked, "What will happen if I pull it out?"

"Pull it out and you'll die instantly!"

"."

Xu Qing sighed. This thing might be taboo to others, but it didn't threaten him.

He picked up a lamp at random, and as soon as the ball of grass in his hand touched the flame, he immediately twisted and struggled.

Fire overcomes wood, and the tongue-pressing herb is also afraid of fire.

At this time, a huge flame jumped up, and in a few breaths, the tongue depressant turned into a bunch of black ash.

After dealing with the strange and evil grass, Xu Qingfu looked at the hunter lying quietly.

With outsiders present, it was not easy for him to perform the ritual of salvation directly. After thinking for a moment, Xu Qing took out three incense sticks and inserted them in front of the hunter's head. Then he captured Jin Luan as a soldier and sang the military spell in a very formal manner.

Huang Laoxu was confused and felt it was impressive. After Xu Qing finished the ritual, he asked with a learning attitude, "Excuse me, what is this ritual, Fellow Daoist Xu?"

Xu Qing replied, "This is the method of traveling through the underworld. The golden rooster leads the way, and the incense guides the way. It can illuminate the path to the underworld for the deceased, lest he lose his way and become a wandering ghost in the world of the living."

Huang Laoxu was shocked when he saw Xu Qing's serious look, and thought to himself: The Cat Fairy Hall is indeed extraordinary. This Sect Leader Xu is also very knowledgeable and knows all kinds of methods.

After the complicated ceremony, Xu Qing reached out to touch the corpse, and the hunter's revolving lantern appeared.

The hunter is not an ordinary hunter, but a mountain herder in the Yanjing Mountains.

Mountain herders are often familiar with the geography of the mountains and forests. No matter whether it is deep ravines and cliffs, or white mountains and black waters, they can always find paths in the mountains and forests, collect gifts from the mountains, or catch wild game in the mountains.

This ability is called the art of driving mountains.

Hunters have a long history of learning, and have been learning bow hunting in the mountains since they were young.

There is plenty of wild game in Yanjing Mountain, and hunters have no shortage of meat. When they are eight or nine years old, they are as tall as adults, and when they are ten years old, they can hunt geese with bows by themselves.

However, not long after the hunter learned to hunt geese, his father disappeared in the deep mountains and forests and never returned.

Mountains and forests have countless blessings, but also countless dangers.

Getting lost in the wilderness and being buried in the mountains is something that every mountain hunter may experience. The hunter did not give up mountain hunting because of his father's disappearance.

With the help of villagers, hunters would often exchange rice, flour and other daily necessities with villagers when they caught prey or collected mountain treasures.

The days passed one by one, and the hunter grew from a child to a grown man. Later, he married a farmer's daughter and lived a life of hunting and weaving.

Until one day, disaster suddenly occurred in the village.

From the beginning to the end of the village, children from six families disappeared at night, and the adults who lost their children knew nothing about the matter.

Only some villagers who were light sleepers said that they faintly heard the bleating of sheep passing through the village in the middle of the night.

The men, women, young and old in the village asked around and found out that children had also gone missing in neighboring villages and several villages across the mountain, and that on the same night the incident occurred, villagers had also heard the bleating of sheep.

Most of the villages in these mountains have tablets for immortals, and the colors vary, such as white, yellow, beard, and willow.

Seeing that the matter was mysterious and there was no way to investigate even if they reported it to the police, everyone began to ask the guardian gods of each village to come out and help.

Others do not know the truth, only the hunters who are skilled in the art of hunting in the mountains know that most of these immortals are monsters with low levels of Taoism, and some are even empty halls with only a wooden plaque or a wooden carving enshrined in them.

The hunter had been keeping an eye on the situation. He had just released the news of a village that worshipped a true immortal, when a large dead snake appeared at the entrance of the village at night.

There were also villages that asked immortals to come out and the immortals moved out of the hall overnight and found another place to live.

Only the Huangxian Hall, which is worshipped in the hunter's village, has been silent.

One day, the hunter walked to the immortal shrine, stopped and looked at it for a long time. Finally, he shook his head and returned home.

At this time, the hunter's wife was already pregnant.

The hunter felt deeply empathetic when he thought of the villagers who were anxious all day long after losing their children.

After thinking about it all night, the hunter decided not to rely on the villagers or the immortals anymore. He picked up his hunting bow and plunged into the forest.

(End of this chapter)