Chapter 77: Ghost Path, also a Demonic Cultivation
People who practice Taoism have sharp ears and eyes. Ruan Xing lay on the bed, listening to the sounds of his fellow disciples passing by from the direction of the nearby road from time to time, and felt very at ease.
Thinking about it carefully, she has changed her residence several times since she came to the world of immortal cultivation. Every time she paid the rent and lived there for not long, she had to move again. This time it was fortunate that the inner residence was free, so maybe she could stay longer.
Ruan Xing practiced the shapeshifting technique for a few days. Although the maintenance time did not increase much, if he could see the progress bar, Ruan Xing could be sure that the distance to the second level must have increased a little.
It was not until he received the message from Lu Jin that Ruan Xing came out of the room to bask in the sun.
"Most of the sect's trivial matters are handled by the outer sect's sect affairs hall, but there are some that the outer sect disciples cannot handle, so they are taken over by the inner sect's outer affairs hall." Lu Jin said, "You should have known about it a few days ago when you were in the outer sect. The Hanshan Secret Realm collapsed. It is said that there are demon cultivators who have infiltrated. Many disciples in the outer affairs hall have been sent out to search for the traces of the demon cultivators, so they are short of manpower. I talked to my senior brother over there, and after obtaining the consent of the elders, I came to find you!"
"Thank you, Senior Sister Lu." Ruan Xing said sincerely. She took out a bottle of Qi-absorbing pills and said, "Sorry for bothering you, Senior Sister. This bottle of pills is for you. Please don't despise it."
"Hey!" Lu Jin waved his hands quickly, "I have long given up hope of forming a pill, so you should keep this for yourself. I just had nothing to do, so I helped you out since you are young."
Ruan Xing praised happily: "Senior Sister is such a good person."
Lu Jin's eyes flickered, and he turned around and smiled, "Who made me naturally kind-hearted? It's nothing."
Ruan Xing caught a glimpse of something strange in her expression, but she didn't feel that Lu Jin had any ill will towards her.
Maybe this was the consequence of her unwillingness to resist the Heart-Searching Stone... Lu Jin didn't know which elder or sect leader's arrangement he accepted to get close to her.
She had expected this, but she was not a demon cultivator, and Lu Jin could not find anything unusual even if he tried to investigate, so there was no need to be afraid.
Ruan Xing then asked, "Senior Sister, is the demon cultivator very powerful? Do you have to send so many inner disciples to deal with him?"
"That's not necessarily true..." Lu Jin thought for a moment and said, "I don't know if he is very powerful or not, because we haven't found any definite evidence that there is such a demon cultivator. However, Junior Sister, you don't go out much, so you may not know the reason."
Lu Jin said to Ruan Xing seriously, "All the demon cultivators are cultivators who practice evil methods, have no humanity, and do whatever it takes. Many years ago, they were rejected by many orthodox cultivators. After several great wars between demons and demons, under the joint suppression of several major sects, all the demon cultivators were driven to the northern border of Beizhou, where there is only a small piece of land. Although our Nanzhou is poorer and lacks resources than other states, it is the safest place. It is separated by Beizhou and Zhongzhou. There have been no demon cultivators in Nanzhou for nearly 30 years. If we really find any traces of demon cultivators this time, it will be a big deal."
"In this way..." Ruan Xing lowered his eyes. Once Xie Huai was exposed, he would become the target of public criticism. All the monks from the sects in Nanzhou would hunt him down. "What about the demon cultivator from thirty years ago?"
Lu Jin scratched his head. "At that time, I had just started practicing Qi, so I didn't participate. But later I heard from other fellow disciples that a small group of demon cultivators suddenly appeared in the territory of Nanzhou. I don't know how they got here, and they were not exposed at all in Zhongzhou. As for what they came to do, I don't know. I only remember that those people were all killed by the elders of each sect."
"Is it a teleportation array?"
Lu Jin burst out laughing, "The Northern Territory is tens of thousands of miles away from the Southern Province. A teleportation array that can teleport a few hundred miles is already a top-grade high-level array. Even an immortal array wouldn't dare to say that for tens of thousands of miles."
"Then why can some secret realms build teleportation arrays? I heard that secret realms are born in the turbulence of space, so there shouldn't be any difference in distance."
Lu Jin was also confused, but she didn't think too much. "This... I don't practice formations, so I don't really understand it. It seems that some nodes need to be consistent, but in the end it still depends on where the space turbulence appears when the secret realm is generated. Otherwise, how could there be our Nanzhou Xuanbing Sect? The gates of the two secret realms should be built with teleportation arrays and opened in Zhongzhou."
Yes, the Nanzhou Xuanbing Sect was established and continued mainly because of two secret realms and a spiritual mine.
She was just thinking, the Hanshan Secret Realm opens once every thirty years, and the last batch of demon cultivators appeared thirty years ago, how could it be such a coincidence?
Moreover, Xie Huai has a magical weapon related to Mo Sui in his hand, which allows him to enter the secret realm without any restrictions on cultivation.
Hiss... That's not right. Xie Huai is not even thirty years old yet. He couldn't have come here thirty years ago.
I guess she was overthinking it, it might just be a coincidence.
Ruan Xing collected his scattered thoughts and said, "Forget it, let's not talk about this. Senior sister, what position are you introducing to me? Tell me in advance, I'm afraid it's too difficult and I can't do it well."
"Oh, yes. Don't worry. You are still young. We won't assign you a particularly difficult position. It will be a very leisurely one, but the pay will be relatively low, 50 contribution points a month."
Fifty... okay, she would give it a try first. If she really had some free time, she could also find time to draw talismans to earn some extra money. But she didn't know where she could sell the talismans without leaving the sect.
The two went to the External Affairs Hall, which was at the foot of the main peak. After Lu Jin brought the people to the back and said a few words to the senior brothers inside, he returned to the Treasure Pavilion.
Compared with the Zongwu Hall, which is a township service hall in style, the Waiwu Hall is smaller and looks deserted, with few people inside.
"I didn't expect there really is such a young junior sister." The senior brother who picked her up said with a smile and led her into the house. The table and walls inside were hung with bamboo pieces and jade slips.
He half-jokingly eased the atmosphere, "I was really worried that you might not be able to recognize all the characters."
For mortal children, six years old is the age when they are just beginning to learn. It is normal for them to be naughty, playful and not interested in studying. They may not even be able to understand the Thousand Character Classic.
But this is not necessarily the case for monks. Because they have spiritual awareness, the information they receive every day is much larger than that of ordinary people. Their learning and memory abilities are also stronger than ordinary people. Therefore, children of monks are usually more mature than ordinary children. However, most monks will not let their younger generations enter the Tao too early.
Ruan Xing smiled shyly, "I've been educated, I know them all, what are we going to do, brother?"
"These are all kinds of news about demon cultivators inside and outside the sect, but most of them are just hearsay, and very few are true, such as this one." The senior brother picked up a bamboo slip, "A petty official in a town always wakes up in the middle of the night to hear a woman crying in the backyard, but he lives alone. He suspected that it was a ghost cultivator driving a ghost to cause trouble. Later, he sent people to investigate and found that it was just a small cat demon in the Qi training stage."
"What we have to do is to deal with these messages. If we need to send people to verify, we will just post the tasks in the Sect Affairs Hall. There weren't so many originally, at most three or four a month. The number has suddenly increased this month." The senior brother sighed dejectedly.
"Is the ghost path also a magic practice?" Ruan Xing asked in confusion.
The senior brother said indignantly: "Of course, ghost cultivators are even more hateful than demon cultivators. Everyone will kill them on sight. You see, after a cultivator dies, his body will turn into decay and nourish all things, while his soul returns to heaven and earth and dissipates with the wind. This is the law of nature, but ghost cultivators take over the bodies and souls of others, making people unable to rest in peace after death. Do you think it's scary or not?" Tsk, it turns out that the heroine is making an enemy of the world.
It's hard to say. After all, when she was 23 years old, Nanzhou was dominated by magic cultivators. Wouldn't the original heroine have become a witch and lived like a fish in water?
Thinking of this, Ruan Xing nodded in agreement, clenched his fists, and said in a clear and passionate childish voice: "It's terrible, so we must put an end to all the demons in Nanzhou and restore peace and tranquility to Nanzhou!"
"Ahem... that's not necessary... we don't have that many people, we just need to protect the nearby towns that pay tribute to the sect all year round." The senior brother covered his lips and coughed a few times, pointing to a small pile of seven or eight jade slips on the table, "Hey, I heard from Junior Sister Lu that you don't like to go out, take a look at these, these are all news from within the sect, after processing, just put a mark and a time stamp on it and hang it on the wall, there is a magic circle on the wall, it will automatically store and arrange them."
Ruan Xing replied "OK" and sat down at the table to start processing the jade slips. He picked up one with both hands and probed it with his spiritual sense. After reading it carefully, he found it ridiculous. It said that an outer sect disciple reported that another disciple had watered the flowers outside his door while he was away. The disciple was suspected to be a demon cultivator who came to destroy the unity within the sect.
Ruan Xing was a little speechless. After asking his senior brother, he learned that this matter did not need to be dealt with. If the two of them made trouble in the outer sect, the Sect Affairs Hall would handle it. Their External Affairs Hall would not care about such trivial matters. If the word "demon cultivator" had not been added, it would not have been reported to them.
She started to look at the next one, but the first line of words shocked her.
Seven outer disciples, including Qin Yi and Zhao Fengchun, failed to return after accepting a sect mission. After investigation, they were found to have encountered a group of mad snow ferrets. Five of them died, Qin Yi was seriously injured, and Zhao Fengchun was unharmed. After examining the snow ferret corpse, it was found that it had accidentally eaten a spiritual herb with a passion-inducing effect. Conclusion: No abnormality. (crossed out)
After receiving an anonymous report from a disciple, it was revealed that Zhao Fengchun had participated in the maintenance mission of the Hanshan Secret Realm magic array and was suspected of colluding with a demon cultivator. After being discovered by other fellow disciples, they deliberately killed him during the mission. After investigation, it was found that there was a feather letter used by a demon cultivator in Zhao Fengchun's room, but the content had been damaged by magic and could not be recognized. The conclusion was that there was an abnormality, and Zhao Fengchun was temporarily detained in the prison for interrogation.
Ruan Xing silently pinched the jade slip with force, and his spiritual sense scanned it several times.
Why...didn't Xie Huai promise not to frame them?
"What's wrong?" Seeing that she was looking at a jade slip for a long time, the senior brother asked enthusiastically, "If you don't know how to deal with it, ask me."
Ruan Xing pursed his lips and said, "This should be considered as definite evidence of the existence of demonic cultivators."
"Hmm?" Hearing this, Senior Brother's face changed. He took the jade slip from Ruan Xing's hand and read it with his spiritual sense. He said solemnly, "Indeed, we cannot handle this matter privately. We need to report it to the elders. Delete, I will go find the elders. Please wait for me."
The senior brother ran out of the door with the jade slip. Ruan Xing stayed there quietly in thought, and then started the real-life simulation.
She sent a message to Xie Huai using the sect’s jade token.
【where? 】
Xie Huai seemed to have been waiting for a long time, and replied immediately.
【Zongwu Hall.】
Ruan Xing flew straight to the clan hall on her sword. Before she entered the gate, she saw Xie Huai, who was wearing a spotless moon-white robe and waving at her with a gentle smile in the corner by the wall.
She took a deep breath, walked over, and whispered, "Why, didn't you promise?"
"I'm sorry, I did agree, but there was a little chess piece that was disobedient." Xie Huai's tone was somewhat cheerful. The chess piece was out of control, and as a chess player it was difficult to determine whether he did it on purpose or by accident.
Xie Huai leaned over and put his arm around Ruan Xing's head, then took her to the back of the clan hall. Ruan Xing did not resist and followed his force.
The entrance to the Zongwu Hall is crowded with people coming and going, so it is definitely not a good place to talk.
But she didn't know that there was a back door to the Zongwu Hall.
"This is the door to the Zongwu Hall prison." Xie Huai explained, and said with a smile: "In fact, you don't know that Zhao Fengchun came back two days ago. It's just that I was responsible for this matter, and I suppressed it for two days. I didn't rest for a moment during these two days, but Zhao Fengchun was very tight-lipped and didn't say anything. I thought that a stupid woman like her who wanted to cultivate immortality was a waste of resources, but I didn't expect that she had such a little merit."
The passage went straight down, with faint candlelight hanging on the wall. Ruan Xing followed behind him, her voice calm and unrequited, "She has nothing to do with me in the first place, so there's no point in you interrogating her."
"Haha, is that so?" Xie Huai's clear laughter echoed in the passage. He stopped, turned around, pinched a familiar talisman with two fingers, and shook it in front of Ruan Xing, "Then tell me, didn't you give this talisman to her?"
Ruan Xing's heart sank, that was the [疾] character spell she left for Zhao Fengchun to escape.
Demon cultivators have been suppressed for many years and are rare. Ghost cultivators only exist in legends. All cultivators in Nanzhou may not recognize this talisman, but Xie Huai will know it. He is a demon cultivator, a ghost cultivator... and also a demon cultivator.
"Although Zhao Fengchun did not admit that this was something you gave her, I could still guess it. Don't worry, I'm the only one who knows about this. I kept it a secret for two days except for the interrogation."
Xie Huai's face was full of smiles, and his voice was as gentle as jade, "Now, we have to renegotiate the agreement between us."
The dungeon of the Zongwu Hall was dark and damp, and one's nose was filled with a musty smell mixed with dust, as if it had not been used for many years.
It was very quiet here, with nothing but the sound of footsteps and voices.
Disciples who make mistakes will be punished by the Sect Affairs Hall, and the prison will only hold traitors and evil practitioners, so now, Zhao Fengchun is the only one left.
Ruan Xing passed by Xie Huai and bumped into him hard, but Xie Huai turned aside without paying any attention.
A little further ahead was a prison surrounded by iron chains. Through the gaps, Ruan Xing saw Zhao Fengchun's pale face, his tattered and bloodstained disciple uniform, and his entire body was dishevelled and dirty, lying there lifeless.
I don't know whether he was asleep or in a coma.
Ruan Xing stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly asked, "How do you want to talk?"
Thanks to Data Knight for the monthly ticket~
(End of this chapter)
