Chapter 36: Unmoving Like a Mountain
“Could it be a drowned ghost?” Li Yanchu muttered to himself, then quickly shook his head and dismissed the thought.
Ordinary souls of those who drown were bound to the place where they perished. Water, being extremely yin and highly baleful, prevented such spirits from reincarnating or leaving their place of death, unless they managed to find a substitute to die in their place.
Still, Li Yanchu didn’t dwell on it too much. The Ghost Dao was far more complex than the human one. There were countless types of yin spirits, even seeing one with your own eyes didn’t guarantee you’d be able to identify it.
Li Yanchu hadn’t brought the Jiaoslayer with him. That saber was a suppressing artifact, so if he had brought it along, most ordinary evil spirits wouldn’t dare to show themselves at all. Ordinary spirits wouldn’t even dare get close to him. But that wasn’t Li Yanchu’s intention. He had taken this job to earn money and dispel evil in return.
As a professional Daoist, he had come this time specifically to eliminate malevolent spirits. As for the possibility that the yin spirit might be too powerful and his life might be at risk, Li Yanchu had never considered it.
If a cultivator couldn’t even overcome that basic fear, always hesitant and cautious, allowing evil spirits to harm and kill the innocent, then they might as well give up on any hope of true accomplishment in this life. They would be unworthy of being called a practitioner of the Dao. Li Yanchu trained in martial arts and cultivation to gain strength, not to become a coward.
The courtyard where Mrs. Liu’s room was located had been completely abandoned. The maids of the Feng household had been scared out of their wits by the midnight weeping of a woman.
Li Yanchu pushed open the door and walked in. The room was neat, and the bed was properly made, but it was obvious no one had lived in it for several days. There was a cold, lifeless air in the room, lacking all human warmth.
Homes that were lived in naturally carried human qi, and old houses left empty for years often became places where strange things happened. Mrs. Liu had been a tidy person, not fond of dressing up, so the room didn’t carry the strong scent of makeup or powder.
Li Yanchu remained calm and composed. He didn’t practice martial arts or begin his meditation. Instead, he casually took out a volume of folk tales of the strange and began to read.
He didn’t have the slightest hint of nervousness. If not for his Daoist robes, he would’ve looked more like a clean-cut, scholarly young man.
He was fair-skinned and refined, who would’ve guessed that he was actually a Daoist with a legitimate lineage? You might think he was just a Daoist, but he was also a blood-qi-rich martial artist of the jianghu.
Li Yanchu read with great interest. He had to admit that when it came to imagination, ancient or modern didn’t make much of a difference. This particular book, for instance, was written quite well.
He read of a Daoist spell that could summon wind and rain, stir up sand and stones with a wave of the hand, even turn stone into gold.
“This guy actually knows quite a bit about Daoist spells,” Li Yanchu chuckled softly.
As night fell, Li Yanchu took the initiative to go fetch his dinner from the Feng household kitchen.
“Daoist Master Yanchu, we were supposed to send someone to bring it to you. How could we trouble you to come all this way yourself?” the steward said apologetically.
Li Yanchu waved his hand and replied, “That room’s haunted, and now it’s dark. Anyone you send would be scared. Better I just come get it myself.”
The steward couldn’t help but be moved, and the nearby maids and servants were also quietly touched.
“Daoist Master Yanchu is really a good person,” someone murmured.
Their view of Li Yanchu shifted yet again. They hadn’t expected that the famed Daoist master of Wei City would be so approachable. After all, this was a man who had taken down more than a few wanted criminals. They had imagined someone tall, imposing, and radiating murderous qi, but he turned out to be a calm and handsome young man.
If the Feng family’s master hadn’t been away on business, and Madam Feng hadn’t recently fallen ill, she would’ve personally hosted him.
The major merchants of Wei City had all benefited from Li Yanchu in the past and treated him as an honored guest, and even the magistrate held him in high regard. For someone like him to have no airs at all was truly rare.
Just then, Li Yanchu carried the food box back into Mrs. Liu’s room. He planned to stay in this room tonight to personally oversee the situation and also to help calm the minds of the Feng household.
When people were consumed by fear, it became easier for evil spirits to take advantage of them. When one’s spirit, energy, and vitality were weak, and when the three yang fires of the body were dim, it was much easier to encounter unclean things.
Mrs. Liu’s room faced directly toward the entrance of the courtyard. The window was half open, and the lighting in the room was dim.
As Li Yanchu ate, he could clearly see the dark, quiet courtyard outside, and the stillness beyond the main gate. Ordinary people would naturally feel frightened by the view, their imaginations running wild with dread. But Li Yanchu, being both skilled and courageous, wasn’t the least bit concerned.
He enjoyed the Feng household’s refined dinner with great satisfaction. The dishes were exquisite and on par with the best restaurants in Wei City. Eating fine food and sipping good wine, Li Yanchu felt utterly at ease.
As night deepened, Li Yanchu, now full and content, sat cross-legged on the bed and closed his eyes to rest his spirit.
About an hour passed.
Creak. The sound of the door moving echoed softly.
Li Yanchu opened his eyes, his gaze cold and sharp. At that moment, the door creaked open a thin, narrow gap. Seeing this, Li Yanchu stepped down from the bed.
“I clearly remember closing that door,” he muttered to himself as a cold smile curled at the corner of his lips.
As he sat back down on the bed’s edge, the candlelight in the room began to flicker; it was bright one moment, then dim the next. The entire room seemed caught in a strange flux of light and shadow. A cold breeze drifted in, and the temperature dropped several degrees.
“Petty tricks,” Li Yanchu said, not even bothering to open his eyes this time.
He remained motionless as all kinds of eerie phenomena unfolded within the room. Had it been an ordinary person, they would’ve already gone pale with fear, but Li Yanchu remained calm and composed, completely unfazed. He was waiting for that strange, weeping woman’s voice.
Time ticked by, minute after minute. To his surprise, a wave of drowsiness suddenly crept over him, and his eyelids began to grow heavy.
His heart tensed. Since he had started cultivating the Yellow Court Classic and entered the early stage of Qi Cultivation Realm, his mind had become far stronger than that of an ordinary person. One direct result of that was: unless he chose to rest, he normally wouldn’t feel the slightest trace of sleepiness, especially not while fully alert and on guard.
Li Yanchu immediately circulated his inner spirit qi, and the vitality within his five internal organs surged to life, then that strange drowsiness vanished without a trace.
The eerie occurrences within the room lingered for a while, then disappeared completely, leaving behind only silence. It was as if nothing had happened just moments ago. Li Yanchu remained as still as a meditating monk, and unmoving like a mountain.
Finally, Li Yanchu faintly heard that eerie, weeping voice of a woman. It sounded as if it came from far away, yet also whispered right beside his ear. It was the kind of sound that sent a chill straight down one’s spine, and the spiritual atmosphere around him became disturbed. Even with his Qi Sight, Li Yanchu couldn’t discern where the crying was coming from.
And then, a hair-raising scene unfolded in the room: a woman suddenly appeared right in front of Li Yanchu. That ghastly pale face stared straight at him, completely expressionless and motionless. She was terrifyingly close.
When Li Yanchu opened his eyes, that ghostly pale face came directly into view. Blood streamed from all seven orifices of the face, and it was indescribably horrifying.
But Li Yanchu had been prepared. Even seeing her appear so abruptly in front of him, he didn’t panic. Instead, a cold smile played at his lips, like a villain in a ghost story who welcomes the horror.
“Got you.”
To the female ghost’s surprise, Li Yanchu wasn’t afraid in the slightest. Instead, his eyes flashed with power.
Suddenly, he threw a punch straight at her, and scorching blood and qi surged from his fist.
He radiated like a blazing sun, his very presence awe-inspiring. His blood and qi surged, bright and forceful as a rainbow.
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