Chapter 2: The Lightning-struck Wood Knuckle Duster and the Butcher's Knife
“Third Young Lady?” Li Yanchu called out tentatively.
Chen Luoxin looked at him and giggled, seemingly in a daze. She even licked her lips, exuding an indescribable allure and seductiveness.
Li Yanchu shook his head and tried again, “Third Young Lady?”
Miss Chen’s clothes had slipped off her shoulders, revealing skin as smooth as polished jade. She was the very picture of a bright and radiant beauty. But her eyes brimmed with disgust, and what came out of her mouth was a deep, masculine voice. “Get the hell out.”
The room’s temperature plummeted, and a chilling eeriness spread through the air.
She’s possessed... Li Yanchu frowned, fixing his gaze on the third young lady in front of him, whose eyes were filled with an icy chill, and said, “Hold on a second… I’m a little rusty at this.”
As he spoke, he pulled out a small bottle from his robe. With a soft pop, he uncorked the wooden stopper and tilted his head back to drop two clear drops of liquid into his eyes.
The Chen family’s third young lady seemed intrigued by this young Daoist. She watched him leisurely without making a move, as if to see what he was up to.
Li Yanchu blinked a few times and looked again. This time, the scene before his eyes had changed.
Moments ago, the boudoir had been empty save for Miss Chen and himself. But now, he could clearly see a tall and handsome young man standing beside her.
In contrast with his handsome appearance, this young man was dressed in gaudy, ostentatious clothes. His face was also dusted with powder, giving off an aura of bizarre eeriness. His eyes brimmed with lechery, while his lips were even redder than a woman's.
“Hey, you there. Hear me out for a second. Could you kindly leave?” Li Yanchu asked politely.
“Oh, so you have some skills, young Daoist. You can actually see me now,” the extravagantly dressed young man chuckled.
But then his face darkened. The third young lady with her silky smooth shoulder still exposed and the eerie young man in brocade robes spoke in unison, their voices chillingly identical. “Get out!”
For a split second, Li Yanchu thought he saw the room being filled with sinister wind and thick, rolling black mist.
So we’re not gonna talk this out, huh... He reached into his robe and pulled out a talisman, holding it between his fingers.
Then he hesitated and swiftly tucked it back in. Instead, in a calm and composed manner, he slipped on a wooden knuckle duster, smiling faintly at the lustful ghost.
The ghost let out a soft laugh. “Young Daoist, that kind of thing won’t do a thing to me.”
He wasn’t lying—only Daoist spells could truly deal with ghosts. Ordinary attacks, especially physical ones, were completely useless against them.
“Oh yeah?” Li Yanchu smiled faintly. “How will we know if we don’t try it?”
Hearing this, the ghost sneered at the young Daoist with eyes full of disdain. Just another fraudster.
With a flash, he vanished and reappeared right in front of Li Yanchu as swiftly as the wind, ready to give him a mighty slap.
But then—
“Agh!”
Li Yanchu’s punch slammed into the ghost’s jaw, a faint crackle of electricity dancing along his knuckles.
The ghost let out a shrill scream, a cry of unbearable pain. After all, lightning techniques embodied the purest and most powerful yang qi under heaven, making them incredibly effective at suppressing ghosts and spirits[1].
The ghostly qi flowing through him was thrown into chaos by that punch, and he faltered for an instant.
Without missing a beat, Li Yanchu landed another blow right into the ghost’s eye socket. His strikes were clean and precise, and each blow brimmed with power.
Crack!
A spark of lightning lit up, and the ghost howled in agony before crumpling to the ground in pain.
His ability to phase through things like the wind, something common to ghosts, was completely neutralized under the suppressive might of pure yang lightning techniques.
“Agh! Agh! Agh!”
The ghost was pinned to the floor and relentlessly pummeled by Li Yanchu. His shrieks grew weaker and weaker.
What the hell is going on?!
The ghost wailed in terror, “What is that thing?!”
Li Yanchu stayed calm. Instead of showing off, he replied flatly, “That would be a knuckle duster. It’s made from lightning-struck wood[2].”
Lightning-struck wood was an essential material in crafting Daoist tools as it carried pure yang, the most rigid of forces. Once struck by lightning, it also retained a trace of lightning’s might.
Lightning-struck wood… The ghost’s eyes filled with horror. This bastard… is vicious.
He knew how dangerous lightning-struck wood was. But who would’ve thought it could be made into such a terrifying shape?
“No, wait—ah—it’s not just lightning-struck wood!” The ghost no longer had any strength to resist, and the ghostly qi surrounding him was steadily being stripped away.
“You’re right. I soaked it in black dog’s blood too.” Li Yanchu grinned, then sent another punch smashing down.
Once the ghost had been beaten to the brink of dissolution and barely clinging to existence, Li Yanchu stood up and drew the two-chi-long [3] butcher's knife from his waist.
The butcher's knife, also known as the blade of karmic retribution, carried malevolent qi potent enough to suppress evil forces. Thus, people often kept one at home to ward off evil.
Li Yanchu raised the knife, then brought it down. Under the ghost’s disbelieving gaze, he chopped down.
And with that single stroke, a lustful ghost of respectable cultivation was gone. It turned hazy, then dissipated into the air.
And then….
A majestic and awe-inspiring voice of the Great Dao suddenly echoed in Li Yanchu’s mind, “A Decree of Bestowal! Three hundred merit points!”
Then, the grand voice of the Great Dao quickly faded into silence like a receding tide.
Li Yanchu froze for a moment.
Merit?
The Yellow Court Classic[4] mentioned the concept of merit, but it was described as something mysterious and intangible. All living beings in the world had the chance to acquire merit. However, the will of heaven operated in mysterious ways, and mortals were not meant to glimpse its secrets.
And now, in the midst of his utterly ordinary life, he had finally stumbled upon something that felt like a cheat code.
He focused inwardly, trying to see if something had changed within him, but he didn’t sense anything.
But right now, he had other priorities; what mattered most was finishing the exorcism properly.
After Li Yanchu slew the lustful ghost that had possessed the Chen family’s third young lady, clarity returned to her eyes. But her body, drained of strength, went limp, and she collapsed softly onto the bed.
Li Yanchu slid the butcher's knife back into his belt, removed the knuckle duster and tucked it into his robes, then straightened out his Daoist robe to restore his appearance as a proper, upright Daoist.
Only then did he step forward to check on the third young lady, lightly feeling her pulse before he gently lifted her eyelids to examine her eyes.
When someone was possessed by evil, a faint black haze would appear over the whites of their eyes, which would be visible upon closer inspection. Of course, signs of possession could also include hard nodules forming under the armpits or in the center of the chest.
In Miss Chen’s case, the black haze in her eyes had already faded significantly, which was clear evidence that the evil spirit had been driven out. From here on, she would only need proper rest and recuperation and she’d be just fine.
Most ordinary people who’d encountered evil spirits would usually feel weak for a few days or experience a streak of bad luck. But in more severe cases, their lives could be at risk. It was no exaggeration to say that if Li Yanchu hadn’t intervened, and that lustful ghost had been left to its own devices, the Chen family’s third young lady might not have survived.
The yin qi of ghosts and the yang qi of the living were utterly incompatible, like water and fire. Once possessed, the ghost’s yin qi would suppress the body’s internal yang fire. Over time, the body naturally would begin to deteriorate.
Just then, Li Yanchu helped the third young lady lie back down on the bed to rest before he headed downstairs and informed everyone that the exorcism had been a success.
Madam Chen was overjoyed and she sent for a physician right away to prescribe restorative and nourishing medicine for her daughter. She then gave Li Yanchu a generous reward.
No one had expected that this seemingly young Daoist would have such extraordinary skills.
1. In principle, ghosts and other such are yin-aligned, so when fighting against ghosts, yang-aligned things such as fire and lightning are effective. ☜
2. Lightning-struck wood, also known as lightning-struck wood or thunderwood, as the name suggests, is the wood of a tree that was struck by lightning, and due to its purported yang qi, it is used for Daoist artifacts. Typically, peach wood or jujube wood is used, with jujube being considered the superior choice. It is regarded as a supreme divine material for Daoist ritual tools. ☜
3. 尺 chi is a Chinese unit of length equal to ⅓ meter. ☜
4. The Yellow Court Classic (黄庭经) is a Chinese Daoist meditation text received from an unknown source by Wei Huacun, one of the founders of the Shangqing school of Daoism. ☜
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