Chapter 1213: Meeting by Chance

Jiang Lishui accompanied He Lingchuan to the door and said to Granny Li: "This is Mr. He from our chamber of commerce, he also wants to worship the Heavenly Venerable."

Hearing this, Granny Li's expression relaxed, and she opened the door to lead the three into the back hall.

The back hall was messy, with all kinds of junk, only the corner facing north was cleaned up.

A shrine was placed here, with a statue more than a palm high.

The old statue carved from willow wood had faded in color after a long time, but one could still see it was human-shaped, but with only four fingers on each hand, a fierce expression, red face and fangs, stepping on a pile of skulls under its feet, and a skull necklace around its neck.

If someone saw such a statue in the middle of the night, anyone would be scared. Granny Li even lit a candle in front of the statue, illuminating the statue's face.

Only one candle was lit in the whole room, and her own room was still dim.

Now there were incense and three plates of fruit in front of the statue. Although the peanuts were a bit shriveled and the fruit was a bit shriveled, one could see that Granny Li had tried her best. In a small mountain village, there was really nothing good to offer.

He Lingchuan emptied his mind and quickly offered a stick of incense to the statue.

When offering incense, he didn't think about anything, and then asked Granny Li: "How do you know that the Jishi Village murder case twenty years ago was done by the Heavenly Venerable?"

Granny Li pursed her lips: "The villagers invited a Heavenly Master at that time, and the Heavenly Master said so. One year the Heavenly Venerable came out of the mountain to take people, and the human smoke within twenty miles of the Screaming Forest disappeared, he saw it with his own eyes."

Dong Rui wanted to point at the statue, but Granny Li slapped him, fortunately he dodged quickly. "How do you know what it should look like?"

"This statue has been around for years, it was invited from Liuyazhuang more than ten years ago."

The implication was that Granny Li didn

He Lingchuan stared at the statue without blinking.

As soon as he entered, he discovered that this thing was not right; wisps of black Qi were lingering all around it.

An evil spirit.

Because of the blessing of Panlong City, he found it easier to see evil spirits than others.

He paced back and forth in the back hall a few times and discovered that no matter where he walked, the statue's eyeballs were glaring at him.

"Where is Liuyazhuang?"

"Thirty miles northwest from here."

"Isn't that also close to the Screaming Forest?"

Only after He Lingchuan asked did he learn that the village head of Liuyazhuang had led all seven hundred villagers ten years ago to diligently serve the Heavenly Venerable. Statues of the Heavenly Venerable were worshipped everywhere in the village—big and small, with various expressions, but their faces were all nearly identical.

"Why go there to request a statue?"

"It's efficacious." Old Woman Li said as if it were a matter of course, "Everyone says that inviting a fierce god back to guard the house is very efficacious."

"Do you pray to it all day long?"

"After so many lives have been lost, of course I have to worship it."

He Lingchuan was just about to speak when someone rushed in from outside and said to Jiang Lishui, "The Heavenly Master has arrived."

Dong Rui interrupted and asked, "You invited a Heavenly Master too?"

Jiang Lishui immediately replied, "The patrol guards recommended him, saying this Master Fu is the most skilled at catching demons and ghosts. The villagers to the south also said that when they had a rat demon causing trouble in their home, this Master Fu arrived and caught it instantly; two years ago, when a giant python demon from outside was ambushing people by the water, it was also this Master Fu who solved it."

He also had guards by his side who knew some supernatural powers. But when it came to catching ghosts, one still had to find a professional.

"Fu?" Dong Rui chuckled, "Could it be Fu Liushan?"

Jiang Lishui gave an 'oh' sound: "You know him too?"

The two of them were both amused and exasperated; the Golden Plain was so vast, why did Fu Liushan have to come here? "Please, bring him in."

Before long, a familiar figure walked in outside Old Woman Li's stone courtyard.

It really was Fu Liushan.

So many days had passed, and he hadn't even changed his clothes, just added a cloak, and he was still as scruffy as before.

He was still clutching that bell in his hand, and as soon as he entered the courtyard, the bell rang incessantly.

"Oh my, truly fierce." He pressed down on the bell and looked up, only to see He Lingchuan and his companion, and he was stunned for a moment, "Eh? Why is it you two again?"

He Lingchuan smiled: "Where in life do we not meet?"

Dong Rui bared his teeth at him: "Fate brings people together from a thousand miles away."

Fu Liushan scratched his head: "Who is in charge here? With you two here, why call me?"

He had seen the abilities of these two with his own eyes. He Lingchuan could even suppress the Luo Sheng Armor left behind by the Golden Empire, so couldn't he handle the trouble in a small village? "You're the professional." He Lingchuan pointed his chin toward the back hall, "Rest assured, the money will be paid as promised; we just arrived ourselves."

Jiang Lishui nodded like a pounding pestle on the side: "Yes, yes, the money will be paid."

As soon as he said "the money will be paid," Fu Liushan felt at ease; it was worth the dozens of miles of mountain road he had traveled, even wearing down his horse's horseshoes by a layer.

However, he was a shrewd man; one look at Jiang Lishui's attitude told him that He Lingchuan's status was higher.

It seemed like a merchant association had invited him to exorcise demons, so was this fellow in front of him really from the merchant association? Since when did the martial prowess of merchants become so high? He walked to the back hall with these thoughts and took one look, then exclaimed: "Xuan Lu Heavenly Venerable?"

Someone recognized the goods, and Old Woman Li nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, this is the Xuan Lu Heavenly Venerable."

"And this is a 'ripe' statue of the Xuan Lu Heavenly Venerable." Fu Liushan was also examining the Heavenly Venerable statue without blinking, "Old woman, you are truly bold to worship this thing in your home."

Jiang Lishui asked what he didn't understand: "What is a 'ripe' statue?"

Fu Liushan signaled for everyone to exit the back hall, found an excuse to send Old Woman Li away, and set up a barrier before whispering: "A 'ripe' statue is a statue that has been consecrated. This statue inside has been personally projected into or descended upon by the Xuan Lu Heavenly Venerable; it is very likely to have become its eyes and ears. If we speak in front of it, we might be heard by it."

The two people on the side listened with great interest; Fu Liushan's tricks were quite intimidating.

Dong Rui had traveled far and wide, and although he knew some amateur tricks for catching ghosts and subduing demons, he couldn't be compared to a professional like Fu Liushan.

Jiang Lishui felt a chill in his heart: "You mean, the Xuan Lu Heavenly Venerable has been, has been staring at us the whole time?"

"Perhaps." Fu Liushan shrugged, "Worshipping an evil spirit in your home leads to illness and premature aging. This old woman doesn't know the danger; she probably hasn't had the statue for long."

He asked Jiang Lishui: "I heard this mining area has been abandoned for some time, and only recently did a sucker... did people move in?"

In a land of war and chaos, these merchant associations still dared to come and do business; they truly valued money over their lives.

"Correct, the villagers of Jishi Village had long since fled. We leased the mine tunnels of Rolling Stone Valley and recruited people from all around, spending a month or so reorganizing the mining area and restarting extraction."

(End of chapter)