Chapter 91: The Flying Dragon Bone-Eroding Lantern Festival Arrives

To clear away the remains of the rat demons, Lingxiang intended to set up a Bone-Eroding Array in the courtyard.

Anyone with some level of cultivation, if their remains were left unattended after death, would surely become a disaster; furthermore, since these demons were rats, if they were not disposed of properly, it might well turn into a plague.

At this moment, Long Qi was laboriously gathering the scattered rat demon corpses together; he glanced toward the inner room, unable to help but feel a sense of resentment in his heart.

They had both been injured, yet Lingxiang let Rendong rest well and even tended to him personally; why was it that he had to be the one doing the manual labor here?

Xin Yi saw this and laughed softly; Long Qi was, after all, still a green lad who couldn't make heads or tails of matters of the heart. He wasn't willing to pierce that layer of window paper himself, yet he would fly into a fit of jealousy at the slightest provocation—what was the point of it?

Yet he himself seemed unaware that there was also a layer of window paper between him and Maidong; perhaps this was the case of the bystander seeing clearly while the person involved remained confused.

The Demon Poison that Rendong had been struck with was not particularly overbearing, but the poison of these rat demons was somewhat troublesome. Lingxiang's previous detoxifying Pill had cleared away seven or eight tenths of the demon poison, but creatures like rats were mostly associated with ill omens; if she were not careful, there might be complications in the future.

However, she currently had no suitable pills on her, and the pills she had refined previously were not applicable to Rendong's injuries. The only course of action now was to use Needle Acupuncture to suppress it first, and make further plans after returning to Xianyun Abode.

Needle Acupuncture might look like simply inserting needles into acupoints, but it was actually extremely taxing. Moreover, with Rendong in this state, Lingxiang needed to channel her Spirit Power into the Silver Needles and send it into his body to protect his internal organs from being eroded by the ill omens.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, following a series of lifting, thrusting, twisting, and turning, Lingxiang was already drenched in sweat, thinking to herself that it had been so long since she had done such things that she had truly become rusty.

Estimating that the courtyard was mostly cleaned up, she rested for a moment before getting up and leaving the room.

The corpses in the courtyard had been gathered in one spot. Lingxiang looked up; the sun was still quite bright, and she feared it would be too late if she waited any longer. She hurriedly took a porcelain bottle from her Universe Bag, poured some medicinal powder into her hand, formed a hand seal, muttered an incantation, and then scattered the powder toward the sky.

Long Qi felt that Lingxiang's behavior was truly like those wandering Daoist priests in the streets. Just as he was about to laugh, he saw the powder scattered in the air actually shimmer with colorful light as it drifted down, floating around the pile of rat demon corpses. In an instant, a Dharma Array appeared on the ground.

This porcelain bottle was naturally no ordinary bottle; it appeared to be common celadon, but it was actually carved from Qilin Bone. The scattered medicinal powder was obtained by Lingxiang finely grinding Stone Milk collected from the Taishang Sect and mixing it with Dragon Bone Powder; it could ward off evil and avoid disaster, as well as heal illnesses and save lives.

At the end of the afternoon, with golden light spilling into the courtyard, the Bone-Eroding Array immediately emitted a blinding golden glow. The corpses within the array ignited with blue flames; within the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, the flesh and skin of those demons were scorched away, leaving only white bones, after which the flames suddenly turned purple and clung to the Demon Bone.

Xin Yi was very surprised to see this. He had heard of the Samadhi True Fire in his youth, which was formed from the Primordial Spirit, vital energy, and vital essence of a Daoist practitioner. Could this be that very thing?

Thinking this, he asked, and Lingxiang smiled softly upon hearing him:

"It is quite similar, but this is not the Samadhi True Fire; it is Dragon Fire. Since ancient times, most dragons have governed earth or water, and dragons that govern fire are extremely rare. However, the fire controlled by such dragons can burn even the spirit of divine bones. The substance mixed into this medicinal powder is the bone powder of such a dragon. Human Samadhi originates from the heart and kidneys, while this Dragon Fire is born from dissolving bones. Although it is not as powerful as the Samadhi True Fire, it is an excellent means for cleaning up such filthy things."

As she spoke, Lingxiang pointed at the Bone-Eroding Array. Xin Yi looked and saw that the purple flames were not merely burning the Demon Bone, but rather seemed to be gnawing at it; the Demon Bone was being worn away bit by bit by this Dragon Fire.

No wonder it was called a Bone-Eroding Array; so that was how it worked!

The purple flames in the array gnawed at the Demon Bone, and wherever they passed, they left behind trails of bone ash. Just as the last piece of Demon Bone was scorched to nothing, the flames in the array suddenly turned golden, rising up like the evening glow and like a flying dragon, before instantly dissipating. Looking again, both the Bone-Eroding Array and the bone ash of those demon corpses had vanished without a trace.

And just as the golden dragon fire dissipated, the red sun on the horizon also set.

This scene completely stunned Long Qi and Xin Yi. They had not expected that Daoist witchcraft could be so magnificent. The Ghost Realm also had some strange arts, but although they shared the same roots as the Dao, they were not as splendid as this.

Lingxiang looked at the two of them, feeling extremely proud. She pretended to brush the non-existent medicinal powder off her hands and turned around gracefully to walk into the room: it was time to remove the needles for Rendong.

……

The sky finally darkened, and the colorful lanterns in front of every house were lit.

The banks of the Guyang River were bustling with activity. The annual lantern festival was held here during this period. The officials set up lantern riddles here, attracting many people to gather. If one could guess one or two of them, the prize might be enough to buy a new set of clothes for one's family.

Of course, there was no shortage of talented scholars and beautiful women. Since ancient times, lantern festivals have been the setting for romantic tales, and most boudoir novels and storybooks describe these stories so vividly that they strike directly at the heart.

Phrases like "Who can sit idly when seeing the moon? Where can one hear of lanterns and not come to see?" or "The person on the path is like jade, a gentleman without peer," or "The east wind blows open a thousand flowers at night, jeweled horses and carved carriages fill the road"—which of these did not stir the hearts of young ladies in their chambers? Maidong was deeply poisoned by such storybooks, constantly spouting lines from them and spending all day daydreaming about scenarios like "red leaves carrying messages" coming true for her.

Although Lingxiang did not particularly care for such clichés and absurdities, she was definitely going to the lantern festival. Even though many of the lantern riddles were extremely vulgar, she did not mind winning a few more prizes.

Moreover, it was said that this year the City Lord had specially set up a grand prize for the final round of the lantern festival. People said it was a large sum of silver. Lingxiang thought that if she could win a hundred or eighty taels of silver for the grand prize, wouldn't that save her a great deal of effort in the future?

Even though she currently had no expenses to cover at Youran Abode, as her senior brothers in the sect took care of them for her, who would complain about having too much silver, right?

Once she had silver, she could purchase many ready-made rare treasures and herbs, saving her from the exhausting work of tending to them on Qingwei Peak as if she were caring for her ancestors.

Lingxiang had originally wanted to bring Rendong out; after all, he looked like a wealthy person who had read many books, and she thought dealing with these levels of lantern riddles would be a piece of cake for him. But due to the incident with the rat demons, she could only leave him at Youran Abode to recuperate.

She had to settle for second best and planned to bring Xin Yi out. After all, Xin Yi looked relatively more steady, and she figured he must have read quite a few books in his youth, so his wit should be quite sharp.

But things did not go as planned, and she ended up bringing Long Qi out instead. Looking at his silly grin, Lingxiang was filled with melancholy—it seemed that the grand prize was definitely out of reach...