Ghost Immortal

Qiu Sheng's heart skipped a beat. He had a guess in mind, but still asked curiously, "What are your conditions, Aunt?"

He Xiangu put down the template, a sly smile appearing on her face.

"You have to help me get your master to agree to this good thing with me."

Upon hearing this, Qiu Sheng and Qiu Lan both shook their heads and smiled bitterly.

Sure enough, the nun had a bad idea in mind!

Li Feng didn't react much, as long as they didn't lust after his body.

He Xiangu leaned back in her chair and said leisurely, "I know your master's temper. He's a stubborn person. He says that a cultivator should not be troubled by personal feelings. I've been pursuing him for twenty years and tried everything, both soft and hard, but nothing worked."

She said seriously, "You have to find a way to get him to come to Hejia Village to see me. No matter what excuse you use, you have to get him to come in person."

"After he arrives, you must put in a good word for me and not let him run away again."

"If he still refuses to budge, you'll have to create opportunities for me. You can figure out the specifics yourselves; I just want results."

Qiu Sheng said with a bitter face, "Master, this is too difficult. You know Master's temper. If he is determined not to see you, there's no use in talking until our lips are worn out."

He Xiangu ignored this and said with her arms crossed, "There's nothing I can do about it. These are the conditions. If you have any other way to get ten billion underworld coins, feel free to try."

She stood up, patted the vermilion stains off her apron, and walked towards the east wing.

"Take your time thinking, I'm not in a hurry. I'll go prepare the things I need for the divination. Tonight is the Ghost Festival, the time when the yin energy is at its strongest. It's a good time to try the divination and help you locate a few of the ghosts that have run away."

As she reached the door, she suddenly stopped and turned to look at Li Feng.

"Hey newbie, what's your name again?"

"Master, my name is Li Feng."

She nodded thoughtfully.

"You're much more composed than your two senior brothers and sisters. While they're still worrying, you're already thinking about how to persuade your master, right?"

Li Feng's lips twitched. He clearly didn't care about the Four-Eyebrowed Taoist's private life.

"Our aunt's conditions are reasonable. We need ghost money, spirit mediums, and ghost-catching bags. Since we have no other choice, we can only try to meet our aunt's conditions."

He Xiangu smiled and said, "You're quite sensible. Your master's wife will dote on you from now on."

After she finished speaking, she lifted the curtain of the east wing and went inside.

When the curtain fell, it brought out a strong sense of yin energy, causing the temperature in the courtyard to drop a few degrees.

Qiu Sheng breathed a sigh of relief after the curtain was completely drawn, and then collapsed onto the prayer mat.

"We're doomed! If Master finds out we sold him, he'll definitely expel us from the sect."

Qiulan also looked distressed and muttered softly, "Master clearly has feelings for Aunt He, but he just won't admit it. Every time he mentioned Aunt He before, his expression clearly showed that he was thinking about her, but he said that a cultivator should not be troubled by love."

Li Feng asked thoughtfully, "Senior Sister, why has Master been avoiding Aunt He? Is it just because of cultivation?"

Qiu Lan shook her head and lowered her voice, saying, "Not entirely. I heard from the old folks at the mortuary that twenty years ago, Master and Aunt He were about to get married, but something happened and they broke up."

Li Feng was too lazy to gossip about these things and didn't ask any more questions.

That evening was the actual day of the Ghost Festival.

The moon rose high in the sky, round and bright.

The moon on the fifteenth of July was brighter than usual.

Today is the day when the gates of hell are wide open, and the ghosts of the underworld return to the mortal world to visit their relatives. The moonlight is the light that guides them.

He Xiangu set up an altar for her divination arts in the courtyard.

It was made of square tables, with a white cloth covering the tables.

A ceramic bowl, filled with snow-white rice, is placed on a white cloth.

The rice grains were piled up into a small, pointed hill, with three incense sticks stuck on top of it.

The smoke from the cigarette rose gently, lingering in the air.

Three straight plumes of smoke formed, just like the incense burned by the Taoist priest with four eyebrows last night.

Next to the earthenware bowl was an oil lamp, the oil of which was mixed with cinnabar.

He Xiangu changed into a formal Taoist robe.

This Taoist robe is bright yellow, embroidered with the Bagua diagram and the ancestral seal of the Maoshan School in gold thread.

The silk sash around his waist was also gold, shimmering in the moonlight. His expression was serious, a stark contrast to his lazy and casual demeanor during the day.

Qiu Sheng whispered to Li Feng, "Aunt He only wears this outfit when she's performing rituals. She said this Taoist robe was altered from her wedding dress from twenty years ago."

Li Feng couldn't help but take another look at He Xiangu.

The wedding dress was changed into a Taoist robe.

This woman's obsession with her master was far deeper than he had imagined.

He Xiangu stood before the altar, her left hand forming a sword gesture, and her right hand holding a talisman.

She was chanting a very complex incantation.

The talisman burned at her fingertips, turning into a wisp of green smoke that merged into the smoke column of three incense sticks.

The plume of smoke suddenly thickened, and its color changed from grayish-white to black, causing the rice grains on the surface of the rice pile to tremble.

A few grains of rice bounced, then dozens, then hundreds, until the whole bowl of rice was shaking.

The rice grains tumbled and rolled in the earthenware bowl, making a rustling sound.

The smoke from the three incense sticks curved and pointed directly at the earthenware bowl, as they were pulled into the pile of rice.

He Xiangu held a wooden spoon in her right hand and gently pushed aside the rice grains at the top of the pile.

Her movements were extremely gentle.

"The art of asking about rice uses rice as a medium, for rice is the essence of the five grains and can connect yin and yang."

She said, scattering rice.

"If ghosts in the underworld have something to say, they will manifest themselves through grains of rice, interpreting the information through the arrangement of the grains."

The wooden spoon stopped in the depression of the rice pile, and her expression froze.

The rice grains in the dent arranged themselves into a line of characters.

"Under the old locust tree south of the city, there are three ghosts, all of whom escaped last night."

Qiulan exclaimed with delight, "This is the judge of the underworld, telling us where the escaped ghosts are hiding!"

He Xiangu did not answer, but continued to stir the rice grains with a wooden spoon.

Several lines of writing reappeared on the surface of the rice pile.

"There is a female ghost in the dry well in the west of the city, with deep resentment. Do not go there alone."

"There are two male ghosts in the abandoned blacksmith shop in the east of the city. They have been injured by the Gu Master's Gu and their souls are weak. They need to be retrieved as soon as possible."

"There are seven wandering souls in the mass grave north of the city. They are all lonely ghosts and did not escape last night. However, if they are not taken in in time, they may be used by the Gu Master."

After each line of writing appears, it stays for a few breaths before dispersing and turning back into ordinary grains of rice.

He Xiangu carefully recorded this information, totaling more than a dozen entries.

Most of the thirty-odd ghosts that escaped last night are still within the Qingyan City area, while a few have drifted into the mountains and forests outside the city.

The two furthest away have already drifted to the Black Wind Ridge area.

That's Black Wind Bandits' territory, it's not going to be easy to deal with.

The Black Wind Bandits don't care what you are; anything that falls into their territory belongs to them, and it might require the government to intervene.

The ritual of asking the spirits lasted for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

The pile of rice in the earthenware bowl gradually calmed down, and the smoke from the three incense sticks returned to its straight position.

He Xiangu put down the wooden spoon, beads of sweat appearing on her forehead.

The art of spirit communication does not consume spiritual energy, but rather mental energy.

Communicating with the underworld is extremely taxing on the caster's mental energy.

She handed the pages of the book she had written down to Qiulan and accepted the hot tea that Li Feng offered her.

I took a sip to moisten my throat.

"Of the thirty-four ghosts that escaped, the locations of twenty-eight can be confirmed so far. The remaining six have drifted too far to be sensed by the spirit medium and may have already left the area of ​​Qingyan City."

She put down her teacup and looked at her three apprentices with a serious expression.

"We must retrieve these ghosts as soon as possible. The Soul-Devouring Gu in Gu Master's hands specializes in devouring the soul cores of ghosts; a single ghost could be consumed by him."

"Once the devoured ghosts become ghost puppets, there is no hope of saving them. Even if we find them, we can't bring them back to the underworld; we can only scatter them on the spot."

Qiu Sheng asked, "What happens after we break it up?"

He Xiangu shook her head and said regretfully, "The soul is scattered and never reincarnated. That's why the underworld investigates the matter of escaped ghosts so strictly. If the escaped ghosts are devoured by evil cultivators, it's as if they are completely wiped out. At least 30% of the ghosts that escape the underworld every year are devoured by evil cultivators, and they don't even have a chance to reincarnate."