Ghost Immortal

Upon hearing this, Li Feng raised an eyebrow.

The air was filled with the fragrance of flowers, and a bright red glow filled the sky. A woman dressed in red.

These characteristics combined make her sound nothing like an ordinary female ghost.

He pushed through the crowd and walked up to He Dashan, bowing respectfully: "He Village Head, I am Li Feng, a disciple of Master Si Mei of the Yizhuang. This is my senior brother Qiusheng. Today, I have been sent by our master to deliver a message to Aunt He and to collect the paper money for the dead."

He Dashan recognized the two, and the worry on his face eased slightly: "They are Master Si Mei's esteemed disciples! Perfect timing, perfect timing!"

"You are cultivators, please help us see what's going on here. What kind of evil spirit is causing this disturbance in the village?"

Qiu Sheng leaned closer and asked, "He Lizheng, where is that banana grove you're talking about? How big is it?"

He Dashan pointed to the hillside west of the village: "It's over there, just over that small ridge. That banana grove is quite old, at least thirty or fifty years old."

"It was planted by my grandfather's generation. Later, the village expanded, and that land was abandoned. But the banana trees grew more and more, and now there is a large, dense patch of them, with at least a hundred trees."

He said mysteriously, "This place is usually gloomy. The old folks in the village say that bananas attract evil spirits and don't let the children play there. But the bananas are so sweet when they ripen that every year a few greedy kids go to steal them."

"In previous years, nothing major had happened. Occasionally, someone would get lost in the woods, wander around for a few hours, and then come out. But these past few days have been different. First, a few young men who were stealing bananas came back and said they saw a beautiful woman in red in the woods. Then, one after another, people fainted, and all of them had the same symptoms."

Li Feng pondered for a moment and said, "Where are all the unconscious people? Can you take us to see them?"

He Dashan nodded and led the two of them toward the village.

The unconscious villagers were all housed in the village's ancestral hall.

The ancestral hall houses the ancestral tablets of the He family, while the side rooms contain seven or eight bamboo beds with several unconscious people lying on them.

As soon as Li Feng entered the room, a rich floral fragrance wafted towards him.

The scent is strange; it would make an average person feel dizzy.

But Li Feng's five senses were far beyond those of ordinary people, and he sensed a faint demonic aura in the fragrance.

He walked to the nearest bamboo bed, where a young man in his early twenties was lying.

The young man had a flushed face, chapped lips, and sweat beading on his forehead.

His eyes darted around under his eyelids, and he mumbled something incoherently.

Li Feng bent down to listen carefully and managed to make out a few sounds.

"Red...Red Lady...don't go..."

Li Feng reached out and placed his hand on the young man's wrist, sending a wisp of spiritual energy through his fingertips to probe into the other man's meridians.

As the spiritual energy circulated through the young man's body, he discovered that a pale red mist was lingering in the young man's dantian.

In the mist, one could vaguely see a thin red line, as fine as a hair, extending from the dantian all the way to the heart meridian, like a tentacle parasitizing the body.

These are threads of love formed from demonic energy!

Li Feng withdrew his hand, his expression slightly somber.

Qiu Sheng leaned closer and asked curiously, "Junior brother, did you figure something out?"

Li Feng said solemnly, "It was done by a banana spirit, and not just any banana spirit."

"An ordinary banana spirit is just a wisp of remnant soul attached to a banana tree, at most causing people to get lost or have a few erotic dreams. But this banana spirit can actively harm people, and can also plant love threads in the victim's body and absorb their life essence. This is already a demon that has become powerful."

Upon hearing the word "monster," He Dashan's face turned deathly pale.

"Master Li, is this...is this thing powerful? Can you help us get rid of it?"

Seeing the many women around, Qiu Sheng, eager to show off, immediately boasted, patting his chest and saying, "Don't worry, with two outstanding Maoshan disciples like us here, we can easily subdue any demons and monsters!"

Li Feng asked the village head, "Village head He, is there a particularly large banana tree in this banana grove? Ideally, it would be taller than the surrounding trees, with exceptionally green leaves, and possibly red markings on its trunk."

He Dashan thought about it carefully and then slapped his thigh.

"I've got it! There's an old banana tree in the woods, much thicker than the other trees, with dark green leaves and many red veins on its trunk, like it's oozing blood."

"The village elders say that this banana tree is the oldest planted in this grove, and it is probably fifty or sixty years old."

"That's it." Li Feng nodded, suddenly realizing.

"The true form of the banana spirit is that old banana tree. To get rid of it, we must find its true form and burn it with the ultimate yang fire."

He changed the subject and looked at Qiu Sheng: "However, the true form of the banana spirit will not be easily exposed. When it takes human form, its true form is hidden underground, and it needs to be lured out using special methods."

Qiu Sheng felt extremely uncomfortable under his gaze, and instinctively clutched his chest, saying, "Junior brother, why are you looking at me like that?"

Before Li Feng could speak, He Xiangu's voice came from the entrance of the ancestral hall: "Because we need a young and strong man as bait to lure out the banana spirit."

Everyone turned around and saw He Xiangu, dressed in a plain white Taoist robe and carrying a bamboo basket, walking in from outside the door.

Her gaze swept over Li Feng and Qiu Sheng, finally settling on Qiu Sheng with a playful look in her eyes.

Qiu Sheng felt a chill run down his spine under her gaze and instinctively took a half-step back: "Master, what do you mean by that? I'm still a virgin, you can't joke about your disciple like that!"

He Xiangu walked to the bamboo bed, looked down at the unconscious young man, and reached out to touch his forehead.

He then lifted his eyelids to examine his pupils before straightening up and saying with a serious expression, "The banana spirit is a yin creature that loves yang energy. It harms people, specifically targeting young and strong men."

"Because young people have the strongest yang energy and the most abundant essence, these young men who fell into a coma were all bewitched by the banana spirit in their dreams, and some of their essence was absorbed."

She took out a small porcelain bottle from the bamboo basket, poured out a few dark red pills, and handed them to He Dashan: "These are Qi-tonifying pills, made with angelica, astragalus, codonopsis, and cinnabar. Give one pill to each person who is unconscious."

"Give it some warm water and it will wake up tomorrow. But that's just a temporary fix. To cure the root cause, we must get rid of the banana spirit."

He Dashan took the pills and quickly thanked his family profusely, asking them to boil the medicine and feed it to him.

He Xiangu turned around, looked at Li Feng and Qiu Sheng, and continued, "The banana spirit's true form is hidden underground, but it comes out every once in a while to absorb yang energy. What it likes most is the yang energy from young men."

"So, to lure it out, you must find a young and strong man, dress him in a groom's clothes, put on a big red flower, and lie in the banana grove pretending to sleep. When the banana spirit comes out to seduce him, another person can take the opportunity to burn the banana spirit's true form."

Qiu Sheng's face turned green with fright: "Lying down in the banana grove pretending to sleep? Isn't that just using me as bait? What if the banana spirit takes advantage of me first?"

He Xiangu smiled and said, "So we need to find a handsome young man with plenty of yang energy and a strong body. Although the banana spirit is a demon, she is still a woman, and she has good taste in men."

Qiu Sheng immediately pointed at Li Feng, jumping up and down: "Then our junior brother should go! He's more handsome than me, younger than me, and has more yang energy."

"He's a Qi Refining stage cultivator, his Yang energy is more than ten times stronger than mine! Wouldn't the banana spirit be completely bewitched by him on the spot?"

Li Feng glanced at him expressionlessly: "Senior brother, didn't you just say that Aunt He likes you? Since you're so popular with women, the banana spirit must like you too."

Qiu Sheng was speechless for a moment.

He Xiangu waved her hand, her smile fading as she said seriously, "Don't push it away. This matter isn't as simple as you think. The person who lured the banana spirit must meet two conditions."

"First, the cultivator must be at the Spirit Root stage, and their cultivation level cannot be too high, otherwise the banana spirit will notice. After luring it out, the other person must be able to find the banana spirit's true form and burn it in the shortest possible time."

She looked at Qiu Sheng and said in a serious tone, "Li Feng's cultivation is higher than yours, he has more methods than you, and he is more confident in dealing with the banana spirit's true form."

"If you send him as bait while you wait outside, what if he gets bewitched by the banana spirit? Can you handle the banana spirit by yourself?"

Qiu Sheng opened his mouth, as if to say, "I can do that too."

But the words were on the tip of her tongue, and she had to swallow them back.

He really can't.

He was a support character when we fought the tiger demon in Black Wind Ridge last time.

If he were truly left to face a fully-fledged banana spirit alone...

Let alone burning the main body, it's questionable whether they can even escape unscathed.