One divination a day, a trainee celestial master

Jiang Shou stood on the steps outside the main hall, looking at Shen Xu who was hiding behind him and didn't even dare to raise her head, and shook his head helplessly.

He looked up and waved at the orange ball of flesh perched on the eaves of the main hall, a fawning smile plastered on his face: "Senior Fat Tiger, you're back. Thank you so much for protecting me tonight."

As he spoke, Jiang Shou moved half a step to the side, making way for Shen Xu behind him: "This is Shen Xu. She's a spirit bound to the earth in that house in Jinshui Bay. Actually, she's just a poor girl who didn't finish watching the TV series and is still holding onto her resentment, so she hasn't reincarnated. I figured this was a good deed, so I've taken her in to stay at our Taoist temple for now. Please be understanding, senior."

On the eaves, Fat Tiger's cold, amber cat eyes stared silently at the little ghost girl in a white dress who was peeking out timidly at him.

I stared at it for a full three seconds.

Fat Tiger seemed to think that the faint yin energy emanating from this female ghost was barely enough to fill its teeth and posed no threat whatsoever. It let out a long, bored yawn.

Then, it put its head back on its front paws, closed its eyes, and continued to doze off comfortably, not even bothering to utter a "meow".

"call……"

Seeing the fat cat that seemed to find it too much trouble to even glance at her, Shen Xu's extremely tense spirit body finally relaxed with a sigh of relief.

"Don't be afraid." Jiang Shou turned to look at Shen Xu, who was patting her chest, and comforted her. "Although Senior Fat Tiger looks majestic and doesn't usually like to talk to people, it's actually very easy to get along with. It's just a little arrogant. As long as you don't try to take its food bowl, it definitely won't do anything to you."

Shen Xu nodded as if she understood, and obediently followed Jiang Shou into the main hall.

Inside the main hall, Jiang Shou walked to the offering table, relit six sticks of sandalwood incense, and placed them in the incense burners of the Three Pure Ones Patriarch and the Grandfather in the side hall.

"Grandmaster, Grandfather," Jiang Shou clasped his hands together and bowed respectfully three times, murmuring softly, "Today, while descending the mountain, I picked up a homeless female ghost. This girl hadn't done anything wrong in her life, and even in death, she remained an honest and dutiful homebody. I thought that saving a human life is better than building a seven-story pagoda, so saving a ghost's life would surely require at least a three- or four-story pagoda, and I could also accumulate some merit. Please, Grandmaster, allow her to stay in the temple for a while, and when I find a way to deliver her soul, I will send her to be reincarnated. I hope that Grandmaster and Grandfather will not blame me and will bestow their grace, using the pure energy of this temple to protect her soul from dissipation."

The smoke from the incense burner rose straight up without any abnormality, so Jiang Shou took it as the ancestral master's approval.

Jiang Shou turned around and led Shen Xu around the main hall to a secluded room at the far end of the backyard.

"Squeak~~" Pushing open the dusty wooden door, a musty smell hits you.

"You can stay in this room." Jiang Shou turned on the old-fashioned pull-cord switch on the wall, and the dim light bulb lit up. "This room is in a remote location, with the main hall blocking the sunlight from entering, so it won't get direct sunlight during the day, minimizing the damage to your spirit."

Shen Xu drifted into the room and looked around. Apart from a bare, hard bed and an old wardrobe, there was nothing else in the room.

"The conditions are a bit basic; there are no mattresses or blankets. But since you're a spirit now, you can't feel hot or cold, so you probably don't need those things," Jiang Shou said, leaning against the doorframe. "You should stay in this room most of the time and try not to wander around. Especially during the day, if there are worshippers coming to burn incense, don't go out and scare them, understand?"

Shen Xu hovered in mid-air, nodding repeatedly to indicate that she would absolutely obey.

"Alright, it's gotten too late today, I need to go back and meditate. I won't chat any longer. We can talk about it tomorrow."

Jiang Shou yawned and prepared to turn around and leave. He had just taken half a step when he suddenly felt a resentful gaze on his back, clinging to him.

Jiang Shou stopped and turned around in confusion.

Shen Xu was hovering above the wooden bed, nervously twisting the hem of her skirt with both hands, her big eyes sparkling with pitiful expectation, staring at Jiang Shou's... pocket as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.

"..."

Jiang Shou felt a chill run down his spine from her gaze and suddenly realized what this reclusive ghost was craving.

Jiang Shou sighed helplessly, reached into his pocket, and pulled out his... cell phone.

He quickly tapped a few times on the screen to cancel the lock screen password, then went back to his room to get a charging cable, and placed it on Shen Xu's bed along with the phone when he returned.

"Take this and make do for now," Jiang Shou said, looking at her. "When I go down the mountain to run some errands another day, I'll stop by the electronics market and buy you a big-screen iPad, just for you to use at home to watch dramas, okay?"

Upon hearing this...

Shen Xu's pale face instantly radiated a bright glow!

"Thank you, Abbot! You are such a kind person!"

Shen Xu was so excited that she did two somersaults in mid-air. In that instant, the way she looked at Jiang Shou was as if she were looking at a living bodhisattva radiating holy light. She wished she could rush up and hug Jiang Shou's face and give him a couple of kisses.

"Take it easy, don't blow the roof off."

Jiang Shou smiled and shook his head, then left, closing the door behind him.

……

Silent all night.

As dawn broke, the chirping of birds in the mountains and forests broke the tranquility of Cuiwei Mountain.

Jiang Shou slowly exhaled a breath of stale air in his room, ending the final cycle of his internal energy circulation.

Feeling that the true energy in his dantian had become even more solid, he got out of bed with satisfaction. After washing up, he went to the main hall as usual to offer incense to his ancestral master and grandfather.

He reached into his robe and pulled out the "Winter Solstice Token".

The wooden plaque was still ice-cold to the touch, with no reaction on the back, showing no sign of the task reward being settled.

"Sigh, has this cheat program crashed?"

Jiang Shou scratched his head in frustration. "I've already taken the vengeful ghost back to the Taoist temple and provided her with food and lodging. Doesn't that count as doing a good deed? Do I really have to wait until I help her find the gates of the underworld and send her in to be reincarnated before the case is completely closed?"

That would be a long-term project with no end in sight.

"What exactly is the standard for judging this hexagram that signifies both fortune and misfortune?" Jiang Shou stroked his chin, somewhat troubled, and stuffed the wooden plaque back into his pocket.

He walked through the corridor and came to the innermost room in the backyard.

"Knock knock knock".

Jiang Shou knocked on the door and waited a few seconds, but there was no response from inside.

"I'm coming in."

Jiang Shou pushed open the door. The room was quiet. The phone that he had left on the bedside table last night was now lying face up on the bare bed, the screen still lit, showing a melodramatic scene from a short drama about a domineering CEO.

However, Shen Xu's semi-transparent white dress figure was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did they go in broad daylight?" Jiang Shouzhen asked in confusion.

"Brother Daoist..."

A muffled, slightly weak sound suddenly came from under the bed beside Jiang Shou's feet.

Jiang Shou looked down. He saw Shen Xu hugging her knees tightly in the darkest, narrowest corner under the bed, curled up into a tiny ball like a frightened quail.

"Why did you crawl under the bed?" Jiang Shou frowned.

"The sunlight outside is too dazzling..." Shen Xu's voice trembled slightly. Even when hiding under the bed, the edges of her translucent spirit body were still pulsating slightly. "The yang energy during the day is too strong. This wooden house can't block it at all. I have to keep circulating my resentment to barely keep myself from dissipating. Hiding under the bed... it's the darkest place here, which makes me feel a little more comfortable."

She looked up and forced a smile at Jiang Shou: "Don't worry about me, I'm fine. When I was at home, I always hid in the basement storage room like this during the day, I'm used to it."

Hearing these words and seeing her weak appearance, Jiang Shou felt somewhat uneasy.

It's really unfair to forcibly bring someone out of their spacious villa and then force them to crawl under the bed looking so wronged.

A sudden thought flashed through Jiang Shou's mind; he suddenly remembered the tattered ancient book he had bought for five hundred silver dollars in the antique market. Wasn't the [Soul-Transferring Talisman] described in it specifically designed to solve this kind of problem?

"You'll have to make do under the bed for a while." Jiang Shou stood up and looked at Shen Xu under the bed. "I'll get you a nice place, I guarantee you can stay there comfortably during the day."

After calming Shen Xu down, Jiang Shou walked out of the room and picked up his phone from the bed.

He walked out of the main hall, stood in the courtyard, found the phone number that Boss Lin had left yesterday, and dialed it.

The phone was answered after only one ring.

"Feed? Master Jiang?" came the suppressed excitement from Boss Lin's voice through the receiver.

"It's me, Boss Lin." Jiang Shou looked at the old locust tree swaying in the morning breeze in the courtyard and said calmly, "I've cleaned up all the filth in the villa. That ominous aura has completely dissipated. You can move back anytime and move in with peace of mind."

"Hmm... Ah!!? Oh! That's wonderful! Thank you so much, Master Jiang!"

Mr. Lin was overjoyed on the other end of the phone, his voice rising eight octaves: "You're a real savior! You worked so hard last night! Please get some rest today. My wife and I will definitely bring generous gifts and personally visit Shouyi Temple tomorrow morning to express our gratitude!"

"You're welcome. See you tomorrow."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Shou pursed his lips.

While Mr. Lin said he would "come to express his gratitude tomorrow," Jiang Shoumen knew exactly what he was thinking. He clearly intended to stay at his villa tonight to personally "check out the goods" and confirm that it was truly not haunted before he would feel at ease bringing the incense money up the mountain to settle the account tomorrow.

Businessmen don't act until they see a clear benefit, which is perfectly understandable. Jiang Shou didn't point it out; in the face of absolute power, the donations were inevitable sooner or later.

Putting his phone in his pocket, Jiang Shou turned and quickly walked back to his room.

He opened the drawer and pulled out the tattered ancient book from under a pile of yellowed old talismans.

Turn to the page with the corner folded in the middle.

【Soul-Sending Talisman】.

Jiang Shou lowered his gaze and carefully read the detailed requirements marked in tiny characters below.

[The locust wood soothes the soul, and the talisman calms the spirit.]

[To create this talisman, one must use true energy to guide and stabilize the energy within the talisman brush and its core. After the talisman is completed, a section of old locust wood, over a hundred years old, must be carved hollow and shaped into a house or memorial tablet. The talisman is then affixed to this hollowed-out piece and activated with true energy to take its final form.]

[The spirit dwells within, as if in an extremely yin place to nurture a corpse. Externally, it is sheltered from the scorching sun and fierce winds of daytime; internally, it nourishes the soul, preventing the spirit from dissipating.]

"An old locust tree that's over a hundred years old?"

Jiang Shou, holding the ancient book, subconsciously raised his head, his gaze passing over the window and looking towards the center of the courtyard.

There, a towering old locust tree with mottled bark and a canopy that blocks out the sun, at least two or three hundred years old, is rustling softly in the morning breeze.