Chapter 36: Fallen Genius, Northern Emperor Baleful Ghost

"Soul-aspect activation..."

"I can't activate it at all now!"

Zhang Fan felt inexplicably restless and subconsciously looked at Jiang Lai.

No wonder Bai Buran said that a practitioner's consciousness is restless, and there is always the risk of trials.

Since passing the emotional barrier and entering Zhenwu, Zhang Fan had begun to involve himself in the path of cultivation. He always felt that his ability to embrace unity and eliminate thoughts was already very deep. Who knew that once he encountered something he cared about, he still couldn't achieve a state of no thoughts and peace of mind.

"The mortal world is indeed purgatory, hooking people's thoughts at every moment, making the consciousness restless." Zhang Fan shook his head and sighed.

"Brother, you haven't taken a fancy to her, have you?"

Just then, a faint voice came from the side. Jiang Hu appeared from nowhere, like a maggot.

"No... no." Zhang Fan said calmly.

"I advise you to stay away from her... this woman is very powerful." Jiang Hu looked at Jiang Lai, his eyes showing a trace of lingering fear, and whispered a reminder.

"How so?" Zhang Fan couldn't help but ask.

"See that?"

As he spoke, Jiang Hu opened his mouth wide and pointed to his mouth.

"One slap, and she knocked out two of my wisdom teeth!"

After saying this, Jiang Hu looked at Jiang Lai's direction with some resentment: "This woman's hand is truly black."

"What did you do to her!?" Zhang Fan asked suspiciously.

"Just after joining, the boss asked me to take her out to see the world..."

An unpleasant memory surged in Jiang Hu's mind.

"That noon, we were eating at a restaurant. I saw a beauty eating at the next table, so I casually praised her..."

"She slapped me right across the face!"

As he spoke, Jiang Hu couldn't help but touch his face, as if the pain was still there.

"What did you praise?" Zhang Fan couldn't help but press.

"I just said..."

"A woman who licks her chopsticks clean after eating must get extra points!!!"

"..."

"You tell me, wasn't my praise correct?" Jiang Hu said with heartbreak.

"You tell me, aren't you asking for it?" Zhang Fan muttered softly.

"What?"

"Nothing... nothing..."

Zhang Fan laughed dryly, then slowly withdrew his gaze and looked at his computer screen.

"Brother, I heard from Sister Wen that you are a Daoist priest from Zhenwu Mountain? A famous orthodox school." Jiang Hu asked familiarly.

"Which school are you from?"

Zhang Fan's heart moved, and he couldn't help but feel curious.

Night-Never-Bright, not counting the boss, had a total of four people. Zhang Fan didn't need to say, and he wasn't clear about Jiang Lai and Old Yu.

Wen He practiced divine baleful arts, and as for Jiang Hu, he probably wasn't an ordinary person either, but he didn't know which Dharma lineage he inherited.

"Talisman!"

Jiang Hu leaned back in his chair, stretched, and casually spat out two words.

"Talisman sect!?"

Zhang Fan couldn't help but look at Jiang Hu more. In the long river of Daoist history, the Talisman sect and the Alchemy sect can be considered the earliest and most widely spread sects.

Today, among the Dharma lineages of various mountains and temples, there are methods of alchemy and talismans.

Among them, the more famous ones are the talisman methods of the Maoshan Shangqing sect and the talisman methods of the Long Hu Mountain Heavenly Master Dao.

"Then which mountain temple did you learn your craft at?" Zhang Fan pressed.

"Actually, I never liked studying the talisman path since I was a child. What I wanted to learn was fortune-telling..."

Jiang Hu changed the subject and didn't answer Zhang Fan's question, instead speaking on his own.

"I have been determined since I was a child to be the most powerful fortune-teller in the world..." Jiang Hu imagined his beautiful vision from childhood.

"When you climb the 96,300 stone steps to the mountain to ask me for a fortune, I will tell you, accommodation is 1800, includes hot water, does not include meals."

"..."

"It's a pity, I went astray and actually learned talismans." Jiang Hu sighed.

"So, where did you inherit from?"

"By the way, brother, have you started learning arts yet? I have a good thing..." Jiang Hu continued to divert the topic.

"Little Fanfan, don't ask, Hulu has no sect inheritance."

Just then, Wen He walked over and thoughtfully helped him out of the awkward situation.

"No sect inheritance? Self-taught?" Zhang Fan asked suspiciously. "Originally there was one, but later he was expelled from the sect, so it's gone." Wen He smiled slightly.

"..."

"Sister Wen, can you not mention this?" Jiang Hu curled his lips.

"This..." Zhang Fan stopped mid-sentence. He really wanted to ask why Jiang Hu was expelled from the sect.

"Hulu is a genius. At sixteen, he mastered three hundred and sixty talisman methods in the sect!"

Wen He seemed to see Zhang Fan's thoughts and smiled slightly.

"Three hundred and sixty talisman methods!?" Zhang Fan couldn't help but be moved.

He knew that although some mountain sects also had talisman inheritances, all of them added together didn't reach three hundred and sixty. To have such attainments at sixteen showed his extraordinary talent.

"At eighteen, Hulu only mastered one hundred and twenty."

"Hmm!?"

"At nineteen, only ninety were left."

"Why are there fewer and fewer?" Zhang Fan showed a look of doubt.

"Hulu, how many do you know now?" Wen He asked casually.

"Eight or nine, I guess." Jiang Hu rolled his eyes and said casually.

"A fallen genius!?" Zhang Fan's expression became more and more strange, and he couldn't help but say: "You couldn't have been expelled from the sect just because you learned less and less."

"Is this to prevent you from tarnishing the sect's reputation!?"

"That's not it." Wen He tried her best to prove Jiang Hu's innocence: "He was expelled from the sect because he set fire to the ancestral hall where the founder's tablet was enshrined."

"..."

"I said I was intentional... pfft... unintentional, do you believe me?" Jiang Hu looked at Zhang Fan with resentment.

"I... can believe it!" Zhang Fan laughed dryly.

"Sister Wen, go get busy, the boss seems to be calling you."

"Is that so?"

Jiang Hu glanced, sent Wen He away, leaned over to Zhang Fan, hooked his shoulder, and looked at the post on the computer screen.

"Brother, I heard from Sister Wen that you have already passed the 【Qi Worker】 rank and are ready to start practicing arts?"

"Still exploring." Zhang Fan nodded.

Art cultivation is not like moving spiritual energy, nor is it that one can just pick up any art and practice it. He still had no clue.

"I have a good method that I can give you for free..."

"Aren't you expelled from the sect?" Zhang Fan was stunned for a moment, then said with a strange expression.

Being expelled from the sect and passing on the sect's methods is a major taboo in the Daoist world. If discovered, both the one who passes it and the one who learns it would have to...

"What's good about learning talisman methods?" Jiang Hu shook his head: "Dogs don't even learn that stuff..."

"Back then, when I was expelled from the sect and went down the mountain, I once met a master... I followed him for half a year before he passed a method to me..."

"To learn this method, I put in a lot of effort."

"How much effort!?" Zhang Fan couldn't help but ask.

"I served him for half a year before he agreed to pass the Dharma. Passing it is one thing, but he also played riddles with me, patted the back of my head three times, and then left with his hands behind his back..." A look of recollection appeared in Jiang Hu's eyes.

"And then?"

"Later, I was patted into a concussion and stayed in the hospital for half a month."

"..."

"Why are you looking at me like that? Although I was hospitalized for half a month, I learned the method." Jiang Hu lowered his voice.

"You finally learned it, so you can teach me?" Zhang Fan was vigilant.

Although they were colleagues, this was his first time seeing Jiang Hu today. Passing the Dharma on the first meeting? How did it look like a scam!?

"I learned it, but I didn't succeed." Jiang Hu said awkwardly.

"The person who passed it to me said that this method has many taboos, and if there is a chance, it should be passed to others, otherwise..."

Speaking of this, Jiang Hu's expression became more and more unnatural: "You've seen those posts, right..."

"What posts?"

"If you don't forward it, your whole family will die!"

"..."

"I'm not learning it..." Zhang Fan politely refused.

"Listen to what the method is first!"

"What?" Zhang Fan asked subconsciously.

"This method is called..."

"Northern Emperor Baleful Ghost Method!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 37 =====