The entire sect is obsessed with love, but I'm the only one who's truly insane.

The moon hangs over the green mountains, a person stands before a lonely grave.

This time, Lin Du spent money to buy fifteen coffins and properly reburied the person. Even the simple wooden planks were replaced with stone, but they were plain and without any patterns or decorations. The words on them were carved by Mo Lin with his sword energy.

"So... how do you draw a talisman for purifying karma and liberating beings?"

Lin Du held the talisman pen that Feng Yi had given her, her hand trembling slightly.

Ju Yuan was shocked. "Didn't your martial uncle teach you that?"

Feng Yi, however, knew exactly what was going on. "What do you expect Yan Ye to teach her? He doesn't even bury the people he kills."

"Bad bamboo produces good shoots," as the saying goes in Lindu.

Ju Yuan stroked his chin. "That's true."

Lin Du was also shocked, "My master doesn't even bury people after killing them?"

"Oh, he did intend to bury the Demon Lord," Ju Yuan replied. "Unfortunately, halfway through burying him, he discovered the Demon Lord wasn't dead, so that guy simply used earth magic."

Lin Du was silent for a moment, so the Demon Lord's infiltration of their Supreme Sect under an assumed name was all the fault of Yan Ye, right?

She finally understood why it's necessary to reason with people and resolve karmic debts before committing murder.

"Come, I'll teach you. To draw a talisman, you must complete it in one stroke, concentrating your divine sense and infusing it with spiritual power." Feng Yi grasped Lin Du's right hand, but Lin Du broke free.

"Wait a minute, senior sister, let me use my left hand. My left hand is more stable than my right."

As Lin Du spoke, he switched to his left hand and carefully followed Feng Yi's stroke, condensing his divine sense and spiritual power into the talisman brush.

The vermilion ink strokes fell on the yellow talisman paper; it was no easy task to draw the entire talisman in one go without making a mistake.

After all, Lin Du couldn't understand this symbol.

I can't understand it. I've only seen it once. Even Feng Yi didn't expect Lin Du to draw it well the first time.

After the distorted, ghost-like talisman was finished, Feng Yi comforted him, "It's alright, let's try again."

Just then, the talisman, which Lin Du had just infused with spiritual power to destroy, slowly started to glow with fire, and then burned away along the boy's slender fingers.

Lin Du's pupils trembled slightly. "Even the talisman couldn't bear being defiled by me, so it set itself on fire?"

Feng Yi: ...No, that's not it.

She was a talisman cultivator, so she couldn't understand what that meant more.

"The talisman you just drew... is complete, and has been sent to the underworld."

Lin Du's hands were truly trembling this time. "If the King of Hell sees the grotesque talisman I drew, will he still be able to let Tao Xian be reborn in a better place? Why don't you, Senior Sister, rewrite it and apologize?"

"It's too late," Feng Yi paused, "but you can practice some more."

Lin Du honestly continued to draw one, and this time it was a little better. Although the brushstrokes were strange, with strength but no gentleness, it looked more like a centipede than a snake.

Feng Yi pondered his words for a moment, "Even ordinary disciples rarely manage to draw one perfectly. They usually practice hundreds of times on ordinary paper beforehand to familiarize themselves with the strokes before applying the talisman paper. Furthermore, it is rare for someone to be able to evenly infuse spiritual power into a single stroke and draw it perfectly. Even if they practice well, not every drawing can be completed successfully."

Lin Du put down his pen. "I understand, I understand everything. What Senior Sister means is that I'm a real little genius."

"So when you get back today, draw it a hundred times on paper and then hand it to me for review." Feng Yi's gaze was kind.

Lin Du suddenly felt that his life after returning to the sect was somewhat hopeless, having to practice twenty large characters a day plus so many other characters.

"Seventh Senior Sister, are you coming back to the sect with us too?"

"Yes, Senior Sister sent a message." Feng Yi thought of Feng Chao's tone in the message talisman and suddenly felt a headache coming on. "She said that spring has arrived... and there aren't enough bamboo shoots to dig up in the back mountain, so she asked me to go back and help educate you new bamboo shoots."

Lin Du: That makes sense, very much so.

The mountain breeze swept past the altar, swirling the scattered ashes of paper money and blowing them to the grave mound.

Mo Lin took out a pot of wine from his storage ring and poured it on the grave mound, doing so meticulously fifteen times, and that was the end of the ritual.

"Brother Tao Xian, I salute you."

"When did he buy the wine?" Ju Yuan stroked his chin. "Didn't he go to the coffin shop and buy yellow paper and coffin boards?"

"You forgot? That's our sect's Immortal Path Guide." Feng Yi recognized it.

"...You spendthrift!" Ju Yuan almost jumped up. "That's top-quality spirit wine."

Everyone in Dingjiucheng loves wine, and they drink by the pound. All kinds of fine wines are a specialty of Dingjiucheng.

Lin Du stood before Tao Xian's tomb, pausing for a long time. "You were not a coward, nor a mediocre person, nor an ordinary person."

Never.

Humans are instinctively inclined to seek advantage and avoid harm. They will stop at nothing to survive. How can someone who dares to go against the tide and face death be an ordinary person?

She stood there for a long time, lost in thought.

Lin Du only came to his senses when a familiar image appeared in his consciousness.

[Current progress of the Mo Lin quest: 100%, reward: Heavenly Heart Lotus x1. It has the effects of calming the mind and spirit, regulating the heart and lungs, stopping bleeding and dispelling heat. It is extremely cold in nature; anyone who directly refines it, except for the host with a Heavenly Grade Ice Spirit Root, will be frozen by its cold aura. It is of great benefit to the host's heart ailment.]

Lin Du exclaimed, "An extremely cold substance? It seems that even if I used my heart, it wouldn't fully heal me."

【Absolutely not, darling. After all, a broken heart can't be mended with just any needle.】

Lin Du finally had a chance to catch up with this "system," saying, "Hey, who's this? They can even reply?"

System: ...Speak properly, stop being sarcastic.

[Yan Ye is right next to your divine abode. Your spiritual fluctuations are too great; you might have disturbed him, which isn't good.]

"Are we having an affair? And we can't let my master find out?"

What I mean is, it's not good to disturb an elderly person's retreat.

"That's true." Lin Du crossed his arms, looking down at the stone tablet. "You knew all along that things weren't that simple, right?"

"How could that be? I'm just an ordinary AI system."

"Okay, Xiaodu Xiaodu."

【……I am here.】

"Do you know that solving cases takes far more effort than persuading someone who's obsessed with love? Can you see my gray hair?"

[Cannot be seen.]

"What I mean is, we need to pay more."

[Unable to add.]

"Then I quit." Lin Du calmly checked the extra jade box in his storage ring.

[For your heart to be completely healed, you will need three rare and precious materials, each unique in the world. In the Realm of Insight, you will not find another like them besides those in my possession.]

Lin Du sneered, "Threatening me?"

"...No, not really, but since you're progressing so quickly, I do have a small reward for you."

"Hmm?" Lin Du remained unmoved.

[Side Quest: Ghost Hunting. Eliminate the evil spirits from the outside world that have intruded into the Dongming Realm. For each ghost eliminated, you will be rewarded with a random bottle of spirit liquid.]

"Are you playing a cultivation world version of Werewolf with me? A transmigration novel where I catch ghosts in the cultivation world?"

Those medicinal liquids will be very beneficial to your body tempering and spell cultivation~ Didn't you once boast that you could win first place in the Central Plains Grand Competition without practicing swordsmanship?

Lin Du suddenly felt a little reluctant to continue. "The Central Plains Grand Competition is in eight years. I'll be stuck on the mountain for the next nine years. Why don't you find someone else? I think Mo Lin is pretty good. Let's arrange a rebirth and revenge scenario for him."

[I understand. It doesn't matter if you're not good enough. You need to know that the Central Plains Grand Competition is for teenagers, and there's also a "god-level" version. Your master won against the "god-level" version of the Central Plains Grand Competition back then.]

"Who are you calling no good?" Lin Du ground his back teeth. "I'll get first place in both of them, just you wait."

As soon as she finished speaking, the system, as if afraid she would change her mind, quickly stuffed two bottles of spiritual liquid into her storage ring.

[Side Quest Progress: +2, Reward: Haritaki Elixir x1, which will strengthen the body and increase strength after consumption.]

Lin Du stared at the bottle of medicine thoughtfully. "This isn't... a Buddhist medicinal liquid? Your business scope is quite broad?"

She was battling wits with the system in her mind, while the people behind her, seeing Lin Du's numb expression, couldn't help but want to offer some advice.

"Junior Uncle, don't be too sad."

Having just swindled the system and gained its benefits, Lin Du regained his composure, turned to them, and smiled, "It's nothing."

"I'm just wondering if Tao Xian has caught up with his junior brother on the road to the underworld."

Tao Xian naturally caught up with them. Not only did he catch up, but he also hesitated for a long time before finally revealing the truth to his fourteen bewildered junior brothers.

The truth is too cruel; it's better if he left without knowing why.

"Senior Brother... what's wrong with you?"

Tao Xian looked at his junior brother, scratched his head, and no longer had the spirit he had shown when questioning their master in the Golden Hall. "I've come to see you off."

"That doesn't warrant sending them to the underworld!"

They have to wait forty-nine days to be reincarnated, and the defects in their spirits are clearly visible.

The ghosts waiting to be reincarnated nearby, seeing the long line of souls, couldn't help but click their tongues and say, "Where did this bunch of unlucky idiots come from?"

Of the three souls and seven spirits, the Shuangling governs thought, feeling, and memory. The fact that the Shuangling of all fifteen people is damaged is a rare and extraordinary sight.

If the soul is damaged, reincarnation will be difficult.

To everyone's surprise, the ghost messenger approached with a complicated expression. "Who is Tao Xian?"

Tao Xian looked up blankly, and all fourteen ghostly spirits pointed at him.

"You're Tao Xian, right? This way, the second path, the human path, let's go."

Tao Xian glanced back at his fourteen junior brothers, "I still have junior brothers..."

"Your brotherhood has come to an end."

He had no choice but to wave goodbye to his fourteen junior brothers and follow the ghost messenger.

"My lord, if I may be so bold as to ask..."

"If you know it's presumptuous, then don't ask."

"but……"

The ghost messenger stopped and looked at Tao Xian. "Someone burned a talisman for you to exorcise karma and deliver you to the King of Hell.

This was the first time Tao Xian had ever felt like he had someone above him. "Could it be Master Lin? But she said she couldn't draw talismans. There are still more good people than bad in the Supreme Sect."

The ghost messenger shook his head. "In any case, the person who performed the ritual to help you pass on must have performed great deeds, or... well, I can't guess what's going on above. Let's go."

Tao Xian was delighted; it couldn't possibly be Lin Du then. He followed the person, suddenly feeling a little reluctant to leave.

He seemed to remember... in the last moments of his consciousness, Master Lin promised him that she would pay for his wedding in his next life.

I just hope he'll be smarter in his next life... That little Taoist elder was just joking for no reason. What if he's too scared to accept it after losing his memory?