Chapter 141: The Pig of the Hai Branch Surrenders

On the other side, in Lan Shi Huo, Hu Jinhua brought Kan Yinwu to see Lao Zhupo.

Lao Zhupo changed her posture and continued to lie there; with every breath, she swallowed the Miasma Qi emitted by the rotting persimmons into her belly.

A group of crossbred descendants of domestic and wild pigs were eating persimmons nearby.

The wild pigs would use their bodies to nudge the persimmons and roll in the mud; with a nudge, the persimmons would fall to the ground. The seasons in Lan Shi Huo were not very distinct, the flowering times varied, and the heat generated by the fermenting persimmons prevented them from freezing even in winter, so there were ripe ones all year round.

Hu Jinhua said loudly, "Hai Sanniang, I have come to find you again!"

Lao Zhupo was uninformed and did not know about the changes in the outside world: "Why have you come again?"

"I am still here to invite you to join the hall. Our Master Xu ordered me to come and invite you again. Do you know that even the Chang Immortal deep in Yushan has joined our hall?"

"What does that have to do with me? I don't fight or scramble, nor do I pay respects to any mountain lords. I just stay here, drinking the wind and eating the dew, and eating some rotten persimmons."

"How does it not concern you? Is this vast persimmon forest yours? How did it become your private property?"

"Your words sound like those of a bandit. No one has entered this Lan Shi Huo for many years. It used to be inhabited by a Xieshen, and after the Xieshen was gone, the commoners were superstitious and dared not come up the mountain. The falling persimmons turned into miasma, so even fewer people came up. I am just lying here, not seeing anyone, nor telling my descendants to go down the mountain to destroy the rice paddies. Although this place is not mine, it is not anyone else's either. You are not the government, so why are you coming to me to talk about this logic?"

Hu Jinhua was momentarily speechless, not knowing what to say.

At this moment, Kan Yinwu pulled him back: "You are no good, let me handle it."

Kan Yinwu sneered: "In this world, there is no such thing as this kind of logic. I am a rat, living underground, eating trash, and that is not wrong either, yet everyone still shouts to beat me. You, an old sow, occupy such a large forest; sooner or later, there will be disaster. We are here to persuade you now, not because we are soft-hearted, but to notify you. Whether you agree or not, this is already the second time. If there is a third time, it won't be us who come."

Lao Zhupo was silent; there was no refuting these words. She only said, "Even if I wanted to leave, I cannot move. My body is too fat, and I am too old to move. I fear I cannot be of service, and these descendants of mine are also of no consequence."

"Then that is none of your concern. You only need to be compliant. You must know that the strong are kings and the weak are bandits. Great Immortal Xu has even subdued King Chang Yu, who has over four hundred years of Daoist Practice and is about to undergo Transformation into a Flood Dragon. You, this Lao Zhupo, although your meat is old and your bones are hard, are nothing more than a single mouthful for King Chang Yu."

The rat spirit began to act with borrowed authority: "Who do you think you are, to be able to disobey Great Immortal Xu's orders? Without strength, you want to maintain some independence? In this world, who can truly do as they please?"

Lao Zhupo sighed: "It seems this Daoist Master Xu is indeed possessed of great Divine Ability, but what is his purpose in gathering us all together?"

Hu Jinhua said: "You don't know this, but our Master Xu teaches without discrimination. He pities us for the difficulty of achieving Enlightenment and for always walking the path of evil, so he opened his golden mouth, spoke jade words, and practiced the way of edification. This rat spirit spoke too poorly; we are here to accumulate Merit, not to threaten."

"However, hehe, back then I was the one who begged you to join the hall, and you could still have some status. Now that you join the hall again, in terms of seniority, you will be far behind me."

"If I am behind, then so be it. What I often tell my descendants is that people fear fame, pigs fear being fat, don't eat too much, don't leave the forest, and know how to hide. I didn't expect to be found anyway."

Kan Yinwu retorted: "You are the fattest and strongest of all. Besides, you tell these wild pigs not to eat too much and to exercise more. I have stayed in the human world for a long time; some wealthy families don't like eating domestic pigs, they love eating these mountain-running pigs. But if they are too fat, their stamina is poor, and it's easier to catch them if they can't run."

Hai Sanniang said: "I am too old. When I became a spirit, I was already a ten-year-old sow. My bones are old, my skin and flesh are loose, and I grew larger afterward. But when I broke through the Ershinian Dajie, my lifespan was already coming to an end. All this meat on me is old meat, a burden, loose and sagging."

"Don't worry, our Master Xu has the best ways to solve these cultivation problems." Hu Jinhua was compassionate at heart, and at the same time, he felt "hurt" himself; before meeting Xu Jia, he only had fifty years of Daoist Practice, and whether he could survive the Sannian Dajie was a question.

This is how it is for demon-kind cultivation: first, break through the limitations of one's own lifespan to obtain a "human lifespan." A human lifespan is "one hundred years," hence there is the "Sannian Dajie." After passing the Sannian Dajie, there are the "Ershinian Dajie," "Sannian Dajie," and the "Earth Immortal Dajie" in cultivation.

"I have long since seen through it. Death is just like a rotten persimmon, fertilizing the land. Because I die, these descendants of mine will scatter, whether they live or die, it has nothing to do with me. In the Six Paths of Reincarnation, the animal path is lower than the human path. I have heard that if you are a pig in this life, you can be a human in the next. Being a pig is the last reincarnation of the animal path."

"That is all nonsense," Kan Yinwu said. "Being a pig or a human is the same. Sometimes humans are not even as good as pigs."

"Having said so much, give me an answer: do you submit or not?"

"I submit," Lao Zhupo Hai Sanniang said. "I am willing to follow your orders and listen to True Person Xu."

"Good! Isn't that the end of it?" Kan Yinwu said. "You were still there blabbering away; not that many people care what you are thinking inside. If you don't comply, you can only wait for death."

Kan Yinwu had a sharp tongue and was vicious, but what he said was not without reason.

"Let's go, to the next place, the Xieshenmiao!" Kan Yinwu felt he had achieved a merit and had gained confidence, and his tone when speaking to Hu Jinhua gradually became firmer.

Hu Jinhua only gave him the look of a predator.

This little rat, so capable of handling things, yet also unscrupulous—if not properly edified, he might become a disaster!

Kan Yinwu instantly lost his confidence: "Immortal Hu, that Treasure Basin is something Master Xu wants to see."

"Watch your words and accumulate some virtue; do not ruin Master Xu's reputation. Outsiders won't care if you are good or bad; they will take a sentence out of context to stir up trouble, and the consequences will be endless. Although Lao Zhupo said she submitted, she is clearly not convinced in her heart. You used terror to threaten her; in the future, you might encounter someone who uses terror to threaten you."

"It's all carrots and sticks. We intimidated her first, and when she contacts Master Xu later, she will know Master Xu's goodness and his painstaking efforts. What does my little bit count for?" Kan Yinwu acted as if he were very good at dealing with people and understood worldly wisdom. "No wonder they say rats are the most in tune with human nature."

"If we weren't, we wouldn't survive. Those descendants of mine, as long as they live for a year, can understand human speech, cat language, and dog barking. When humans want to catch rats, they will tell people in advance. We hear it, so we won't be fooled. Cats are smart, quiet, and dogs are fiercer than cats, although they are stupid, they like to show off and claim credit."

"I really have no choice. You are all predators, while we just pick up trash to eat."

"Hehe, you speak pitifully, but besides picking up trash, isn't it more about stealing food?"

"Only small rats do that. We who have become spirits have a taboo against entering houses to steal."

The two demons chatted all the way until they found the ruins of the Xieshenmiao in Lan Shi Huo.

The Xieshenmiao had long been destroyed by lightning and had even ignited a mountain fire. The surrounding trees had all fallen, and various low plants occupied the place, especially thorns and weeds.

Hu Jinhua released his refined Fox Fire to burn away these thorns, revealing what was inside: a collapsed small temple, about two or three square meters in size, standing next to a bluestone platform, surrounded by jars of various sizes.

Looking closely, the jars were filled with bones—cats, dogs, and infants.

These were all Blood Food sacrificed by villagers to please the Xieshen and fulfill their wishes.

After the Xieshen was struck by lightning, no one dealt with these jars, and they remained here.

Some ownerless wandering ghosts, having nowhere to go, chose to make their homes inside the jars.

Seeing the two demons coming, they fled one after another.

Hu Jinhua separated a bit of his thought and Dharma Power, transforming it into food nectar, which attracted these wandering ghosts.

From a realistic perspective, these wandering ghosts were just flying insects.

Kan Yinwu ignored this, transformed into his original form, and burrowed into the Xieshenmiao, biting out a pitch-black porcelain basin. The basin was piled with mud and had already sprouted ferns.

There was also half a statue in the basin.

This statue was pitch black and looked like a cat.

Kan Yinwu threw the statue away, and Hu Jinhua burned it with fire. Last time, when Xu Jia burned the Yin Demon Primordial Spirit of the evil Daoist, he had learned it: when encountering bad things, just set them on fire.

This half of the Xieshen statue gave him a bad feeling, as if it were not completely dead and could rise from the ashes.

But this was just an illusion. Could it still be alive after being struck by lightning? Wouldn't that be questioning the lords of the Thunder Department?

This Xieshen only built a Xieshenmiao and used Incense Fire to cover up the bloody evil aura, without the support of any noble person. To have persisted for so long before being struck by lightning, it must have accumulated a great debt of heavenly wrath and human resentment, and it likely did not even have a single thought left.

A ball of Fox Fire burned the statue, producing thick smoke that was choking and uncomfortable.

After it burned out, they saw something else that had fallen out, though they didn't know what it was.

Kan Yinwu's eyes were sharp: "A good thing!"

Hu Jinhua asked curiously, "What is it?"

"It is a small seal, and an official seal at that. Judging by the shape and quality of this seal, its rank should not be high. In the human imperial court, losing an official seal is a major crime punishable by beheading, so they are very difficult to obtain. For this evil god to use an official seal as a consecration deposit, it is truly extravagant!"

Hu Jinhua recognized a few characters. She picked up the small seal, which was not much larger than a button, to look at it, and saw the three characters "Gentleman for Attendance".

Kan Yinwu also put down the Treasure Basin and came over to look, then muttered, "It's just a Ninth Rank civil Scattered Official, not even a position with real power."

"No matter how small, it is still an official title. Since it is useful, let's take it back together!"

"Wash this Treasure Basin too!"

The two dragged the basin to a stream. Hu Jinhua used her tail as a rag to wash away the filth on it, revealing the pair of fish inside, only their scales had already been dyed blood-red.

"These were golden carp before, how did they turn blood-red now! This is ominous!" Kan Yinwu fretted, "Does this still count as a contribution? Can I still save my little life?"

(End of this chapter)