Chapter 35: The Gift of Qixi

Li Lin went to the market to buy some supplies, then visited a powder shop to purchase several red forehead ornaments he thought looked nice.

The so-called forehead ornaments are, in fact, forehead decorations.

It is merely a difference in name.

Do not underestimate this item; it sells for much more than rouge.

After buying three different styles of forehead ornaments, Li Lin paid with several silver notes, equivalent to half a tael of gold gone.

But he did not feel the loss, as he had considerable income recently, and most importantly, the Tree Immortal Lady had helped him many times; this token of gratitude was, in fact, quite meager.

Returning to the village just before dusk, when some villagers were still moving about, rushing to finish their last work, he went straight to the altar.

"Tree Immortal Lady!"

Li Lin called out, but there was no movement at the altar; yet he could feel that the Tree Immortal Lady was staying within the altar, simply not coming out.

"Do ghosts sleep too?"

Li Lin found it somewhat strange but did not think much of it, so he went home first.

After dinner, he could not wait to take out the handwritten copy of the Fallen Thunder Incantation and read it carefully.

【Fallen Thunder Incantation +1】【Thunder Art +1】【Cultivation +1】

Hmm?

Li Lin was stunned; he had guessed that the Fallen Thunder Technique could increase the proficiency of 【Thunder Art】, but what is 【Cultivation】?

Immortal cultivation?

If this guess holds true, the waters of this world are very deep.

However, it is not strange; if there are ghosts, then having immortals is naturally reasonable.

It is just that he has been in this world for over half a year and has never heard of the deeds of immortals.

He continued to study the book; by the time he finished reading this Thunder Art, it was nearly the Hour of the Rat.

He had a feeling that he already understood how to cast the Fallen Thunder Incantation; now only practical application remained.

He was quite excited in his heart and wanted to go out immediately to summon a heavenly thunderbolt down to see what would happen.

But thinking that it was already late at night and the villagers were all asleep, summoning a thunderclap down would not disturb their peace.

So he gave up, deciding to leave the matter for tomorrow morning.

Just as he was about to go to bed, he saw a green snake tail slowly swaying at the window.

Li Lin knew the Tree Immortal Lady had arrived.

He immediately took a silk-wrapped small packet from his bag and walked out the door.

In the courtyard, the Tree Immortal Lady floated three feet off the ground, her back to him.

"Tree Immortal Lady, the forehead ornaments have been bought back."

Li Lin opened the silk handkerchief; inside were three different styles of forehead decorations, all red.

The Tree Immortal Lady turned around, floated down to the ground, inspected them for a while, then took both the silk and the handkerchief.

She seemed quite satisfied.

Then she moved closer to Li Lin and crouched slightly... actually, the Tree Immortal Lady's body was quite slender; her lower half was a snake tail, and even when she touched the ground, her height was already a head taller than Li Lin.

At this moment, their lines of sight were level.

Li Lin looked at the other party with some confusion: "Today is not the day to offer essence and qi."

The two had had contact before; after all, when offering essence and qi, the Tree Immortal Lady would hold his hand.

And then... the Tree Immortal Lady removed her mask.

A pale and beautiful face, with sharp, slender eyes and unusually thick eyelashes, possessing a strange, eerie beauty.

Li Lin had guessed the Tree Immortal Lady would be beautiful, but he did not expect her to be this beautiful.

A red forehead ornament appeared in the Tree Immortal Lady's right hand, the three-petaled lotus leaf style.

Then she pointed to her own forehead.

Li Lin understood; he picked up the forehead decoration and carefully pressed it onto the other's forehead.

The Lady's face was very cold and very smooth.

After pressing it on, the Tree Immortal Lady floated up about half a zhang; in the moonlight, she looked down at Li Lin.

Her eyes held a questioning look.

Li Lin exclaimed: "Very beautiful."

The Tree Immortal Lady's eyes showed a satisfied expression, then she handed the mask held in her left hand to Li Lin.

"Giving it to me?"

The Tree Immortal Lady nodded, then slowly floated toward the location of the altar.

The mask felt cold; the material was strange, neither leather nor jade.

It also emitted a faint yin qi.

It must be a special magical artifact or something similar; otherwise, the Tree Immortal Lady would not have worn it on her face all this time.

Thinking this, he also put on the mask.

It seemed a faint yin qi flowed into his eye sockets, but looking around, there seemed to be no change.

Then Li Lin could not help but look toward the distance, at the mountainside behind the village.

Upon looking, his eyes widened greatly.

The entire mountain was covered with dense ghosts!

All were small ghosts... each one in the shape of a doll; occasionally larger ones appeared, looking like three-foot-tall children.

These ghosts had eerie expressions, their eyes flashing with red light, walking aimlessly.

And within a few breaths after Li Lin saw them, they seemed to sense something; one by one, they turned their glowing red eyes to look over.

In an instant, the countless bizarre entities all over the mountain saw Li Lin.

The scene of densely packed dots of light nearly gave Li Lin a bout of trypophobia.

He hurriedly pulled off the mask on his face, and the "illusion" before his eyes vanished.

Li Lin had long heard that those with the Heavenly Eye ability disliked using this divine power at night — so this was why.

Truly disgusting.

Li Lin wiped the cold sweat from his forehead — he had no idea when it had broken out — and went back to his room to sleep.

That night's sleep was not great; one moment it was the Tree Immortal Lady's beautiful yet bewitching face, the next it was dolls and bizarre creatures blanketing the hills.

The two scenes kept switching back and forth, very annoying.

When he woke the next day, he washed his face and pushed open the door to go out.

It was an overcast day, and Zhao Xiaohu was already waiting outside the courtyard.

Seeing Li Lin, he excitedly waved: "Lin Ge. Today you're going to teach me spear arts, right?"

"Wait a moment."

Li Lin looked at the overcast sky and gave a slight nod.

The Fallen Thunder Art is best cast on rainy days, with overcast days being second best.

And clear days are naturally the hardest; if one can summon thunder on a clear day, it means that person's mastery of thunder arts has reached an extremely proficient level.

Li Lin looked at a stone in the courtyard — it had originally been intended to be made into a stone stool, but there had been no time to polish it later, so it was left there.

Using this bluestone as a target, Li Lin's hands began slowly forming seals, guiding the yin energy within his body up into both hands.

As one Dao seal after another appeared correctly, Li Lin felt his yin energy being guided into the air, resonating with something.

Once the seals were complete, a large chunk of yin energy within his body had vanished into thin air.

Then a streak of blue-red Lei Guang came slanting down crookedly from the sky.

The bluestone was struck and instantly became dust, scattering in all directions.

Only then did the sound of a bolt from the blue crash across the entire village.

Zhao Xiaohu instinctively covered his buzzing ears, his bell-like eyes wide as he stared in disbelief at the shattered stone.

"My heavens... Lin Ge knows how to use magic arts now."

And Li Lin's heart was also full of joy — this Fallen Thunder Incantation seemed easier to learn than he had imagined.

With this, he could finally be said to possess a true long-range attack method.

"Lin Ge, I want to learn this!"

Zhao Xiaohu excitedly rushed into the courtyard.

(End of chapter)