Chapter 132

"Silver-Eating Ghost? The one from the Corpse Tiger King?"

Lin Jue was surprised and alert, staring at it closely.

The fox also jumped lightly onto the bookshelf, squatted on the edge of the top of the bookshelf, and looked down at the Silver-Eating Ghost with its head tilted. It seemed to have only clear curiosity in its eyes, but in fact, it could jump down and catch it at any time depending on the situation or Lin Jue's command. This seemed to be its instinct.

"Calm down, True Man. I have no ability to harm people. Even an ordinary strong man, I might not be able to beat, let alone the True Man and this... this one..."

The big-headed ghost looked up and happened to meet the eyes of the fox looking down from the bookshelf. It felt extremely nervous and immediately lowered its head:

"Besides, I am seriously injured..."

"Don't talk nonsense! Answer whatever I ask!"

In fact, Lin Jue also vaguely felt that this ghost probably didn't have much combat power, but he didn't let his guard down.

"Yes, yes, yes... Please ask, True Man..."

"How did you get here?"

"I was hiding in the True Man's sword..."

"I know that, of course! I'm asking, how did you end up hiding in my sword? When did you meet me, and why didn't I know?"

"Near Dangshan..."

"Dangshan?"

Lin Jue frowned. That was near Pear Village and Gong Village.

Did it not come from that Yaksha ghost?

"Weren't you with the Corpse Tiger King?"

"I was originally, but I was imprisoned by that tiger demon for a long time. That tiger demon fed me fishy silver every day. Even after it became a Demon King, although the spiritual pills I spat out were completely useless to it, it still wouldn't let me go, using the spiritual pills I spat out to cultivate demon soldiers and generals for it. I could no longer bear it. Therefore, taking advantage of the chaos when it was being cleared by the Divine Lord, I fought to escape."

"Then why did you choose my sword?"

"Naturally because the True Man is a great power!"

The big-headed ghost raised its head, but there was no flattery on its face, only great seriousness.

"Nonsense!" Lin Jue waved his hand, took back his sword, and stared at it, "How am I a True Man? And how am I a great power?"

"Why does the True Man have to deceive me? Outside Dangshan, I saw with my own eyes the Jun Niangniang manifesting her dharma body, descending five-colored spiritual light, and removing all the evil energy and evil objects in Dangshan! I searched for the Jun Niangniang in vain, but I saw a few wisps of spiritual energy left by the Jun Niangniang on the True Man, so naturally I knew that the Jun Niangniang must be related to the True Man!" the Silver-Eating Ghost said. "Being able to be related to the Jun Niangniang and being able to summon the Jun Niangniang to take action, why does the True Man have to deceive me?"

Is this also related to Jun Niangniang Yao Hua?

Lin Jue seemed to understand a little.

After thinking for a while, he continued to ask: "Then after you escaped from the Tiger King, what were you looking for the Jun Niangniang for?"

"Of course I have to find the Jun Niangniang! I have to find the Jun Niangniang! When I was imprisoned by that tiger demon, I recited the Jun Niangniang's title every day!"

"Why?"

"The True Man may not know, but I am a ghost created by alchemy, born to eat silver, and after eating, I have to spit out spiritual pills. When I was created, I was originally good and intended to be a helper for orthodox practitioners. But unexpectedly, six or seven out of ten were later obtained by evil demons. For a weak demon like me who is born with treasure, only by finding a great power like the Jun Niangniang, who has both cultivation and virtue, can I live a stable life. Otherwise, even if I escape from this tiger demon, there will be another tiger demon."

This is about the same as what Lin Jue thought.

"Then you have found the wrong person," Lin Jue temporarily put away his sword and didn't point it at it anymore, but still held it in his hand, "I am not any True Man, nor any great power, just an ordinary Daoist."

"How can you be an ordinary Daoist if you can let the Jun Niangniang, who hasn't appeared for many years, manifest her dharma body to help, and have the Jun Niangniang's descendant accompany you?" The Silver-Eating Ghost didn't believe it.

"No need to say more to you," Lin Jue said. "However, seeing that you are pitiful, I can point you to a path: this is the territory of Mount Yishan, and the Mountain God of Mount Yishan is also one with both cultivation and virtue. Moreover, he has long since stopped caring about worldly affairs. Even if you don't seek refuge with the Mountain God, you can live a stable life just by staying in Mount Yishan. There are countless spirits in this mountain who are protected by the Mountain God and live in peace."

"Don't hand me over, True Man!"

This Silver-Eating Ghost seemed to have had similar experiences before, and was suddenly stimulated and terrified:

"I only trust the Jun Niangniang!"

"..."

Lin Jue could understand it.

For spirits like it, as long as it is a person who has attained the Dao, the spiritual pills it spits out are useless to them, but that is only useless to the True Man himself. If one really doesn't care about it at all, it's either meeting a righteous practitioner with virtue, or an existence like Jun Niangniang Yao Hua.

And he could hear that the Jun Niangniang's status in its heart was very high.

"True Man, please understand! Although I was obtained by that Tiger King before, I am just a small alchemy ghost. Eating silver and spitting out pills is a natural thing. The Tiger King imprisoned me, and the evil things he did have nothing to do with me!"

The Silver-Eating Ghost seemed to see why he had that attitude, and shrank into the corner of the wall, begging him for mercy:

"Please keep me by your side, True Man! Whether the True Man is really an ordinary Daoist or is going through a tribulation and re-cultivating, after my wounds heal, I can eat silver and spit out spiritual pills, which can help with cultivation. If the True Man has any concerns, just let me leave after my wounds heal. I will be very grateful. Or if you see Jun Niangniang Yao Hua next time, you can offer me to the Jun Niangniang, and the Jun Niangniang will naturally be able to distinguish the good and evil in my heart."

Lin Jue finished listening and fell into thought.

The Silver-Eating Ghost shrank by the wall, shivering, as if waiting for judgment.

Because its head was big, it shook its head when it shivered.

The fox was still lying on the bookshelf above, tilting its head to look at it. It seemed to judge that it was no threat, so it also kept shaking its head on the bookshelf, imitating the way it shivered.

"It's not impossible, it just so happens that I want to find Jun Niangniang Yao Hua," Lin Jue said while examining its expression.

"That would be the best!"

"Heh, you don't seem to be faking it."

"Definitely not faking it!"

"Then why don't you want to defect to the immortals?"

"Spirits also have replacements. If they lock me up, one day I will come out and cause trouble again, so they will definitely kill me!"

"Hmm..."

Lin Jue thought about the truth in it.

"The True Man just needs to give me a place to hide, and I will naturally heal my wounds slowly," the Silver-Eating Ghost tried to persuade him, weakly saying, "If there could be a little, just a little bit of silver every month, that would be even better."

"That pill..." Lin Jue couldn't help but be curious, "Can it really increase cultivation?"

"Naturally."

"Is it really a Spiritual Origin Pill?"

"Probably."

"Probably?"

"True Man, please understand. If it is a pure Spiritual Origin Pill, it naturally has no side effects; you just need to control the dosage. I can spit out pure Spiritual Origin Pills, but the silver must be obtained properly. If the silver is stained with blood, it will be fishy and smelly. If it is stained with deceit, fraud, or robbery, it will smell like it's gone sour. If it is stained with other things, the taste will also be wrong. If I eat such silver, the Spiritual Origin Pill I spit out will also be stained with 'mixed energy.' And if you eat such a Spiritual Origin Pill, you will be affected by these mixed energies."

"There's such a strange thing?"

"Alchemy has always been like this," the Silver-Eating Ghost said to him, "In ancient times, there was a saying: to refine the supreme pill, eight taels of virtue, half a jin of good deeds, seven orifices of exquisiteness, nine colors of glaze, ten carts of true words, and a hundred years of bitter cultivation are all raw materials. This is an exaggeration, but it also makes sense."

"I've only heard of cloud mist dust and evening glow light."

"There are too many mysteries in alchemy."

"That Tiger King..."

"That Tiger King's heart has not been right since it attained the Dao. The silver it fed me came from all sorts of sources, and it didn't care about the dosage at all, eating it like a meal, so naturally it went further and further astray."

"Hmm..."

Lin Jue continued to think.

Listening to this, this Silver-Eating Ghost was created by an alchemy great power, and it really seems like a helper prepared for righteous practitioners.

The restrictions are as many as imagined.

Unfortunately, the human heart is complex, and evil people and evil demons don't care at all whether their cultivation path goes astray.

"True Man?"

"Actually, I heard of you a long time ago. I knew you would eat silver and spit out pills, and I knew that these pills could increase cultivation," Lin Jue said, pausing, "I cannot judge your good or evil, but I am not willing to push you into a fire pit. If one day I can really see Jun Niangniang Yao Hua, I will hand you over to her then."

"Many thanks, True Man! Many thanks, True Man! Please keep it a secret for me, True Man, and don't tell others easily! To prevent accidents!"

"But I must make it clear—"

"Please speak, True Man."

"It's fine if you heal your wounds here. If you are discovered, for example, if a spirit comes looking for you, I can at most let you escape, but I will never protect you. Of course, correspondingly, if you want to leave after your wounds heal, I will never imprison or raise you like the Tiger King; you can leave at any time. But if you want to stay by my side, I also want to see the Spiritual Origin Pill spat out from swallowing silver, let's just exchange."

"Hiss! That's natural!"

The big-headed ghost heard his words and actually looked serious, even sitting up straight.

"I have an object, which is also a good thing for containing evil ghosts. It might be more comfortable to stay in than this iron sword."

Lin Jue took out a statue from the bookshelf.

It was a wooden armored soldier, wearing a helmet and armor, but the armor was also made of wood.

This was the spiritual wood the third senior brother gave him for practice, and he had also completed the ritual refining. Originally, divine woods like Dan fruit wood are hard to come by, and thick trunks are even harder to find. At the same time, in peaceful times, tree demons with the cultivation of Pear Ancestor are not easy to see. Therefore, according to the process, Lin Jue's first bean soldier would likely be this one.

But unexpectedly, he later got Dan fruit wood, and now he has the wood core gifted by Pear Ancestor.

This one can mostly only be placed on the bookshelf as an ornament.

It still hurts a bit to think about it—

After all, it took effort and magic power.

Now it's just right to contain it.

"Many thanks, True Man!"

The Silver-Eating Ghost first thanked him, then looked up at him, and looked at the fox on the bookshelf, opening a pair of pitiful big eyes, like a child: "My wounds haven't healed yet, and I can't spit out pills before they heal..."

"I'm not an evil person."

Lin Jue waved his hand casually.

"Many thanks, True Man!"

The Silver-Eating Ghost turned around, turned into a wisp of black smoke, and immediately drilled into the wooden carving.

Lin Jue put it back on the bookshelf.

"Shu..."

The fox then jumped down.

But it was the first time it climbed the bookshelf, stood up, leaned close to look at the wooden carving, and curiously reached out its claws to touch it.

"Wait!"

oC〇

The fox tilted its head to look at him.

"Better put it in the drawer."

"Ying!"

Below the bookshelf was a drawer, which the sixth senior brother had made very exquisitely. The fox picked up the wooden carving, used its claws to pull the ring on the drawer, opened the drawer, put it inside, and pushed the drawer to close it.

It looked extremely obedient.

After closing it, it leaned close to look again, as if checking if it was closed, or as if curious about how this thing was made, being able to open and close.

So there was a bit more cleverness in its obedience.

Lin Jue sat back on the bed and thought.

Learning alchemy from the second senior brother, he naturally knew that the Spiritual Origin Pill is actually a relatively advanced pill, and generally only specialized alchemy inheritances would have such a pill formula—perhaps the Nine Dragons Temple has it, but at least the Fuqiu Temple does not, and the second senior brother cannot refine it either.

Actually, the Spiritual Origin Pill has side effects.

But for alchemy cultivators, it doesn't.

The trick lies in the method of "taking and eating."

Therefore, alchemy cultivators in ancient times could entrust everything to pills, even becoming immortals by taking pills, and even becoming great powers and true immortals.

As for whether the Silver-Eating Ghost's description of the Spiritual Origin Pill it spits out is correct, Lin Jue only needs to try it once, and he thinks the ancient book will give the answer immediately.

He didn't know when he fell asleep.

The next morning, they ate pickled vegetable and shredded meat noodles.

At the turn of autumn and winter, the colorful colors in the mountains are not inferior to the mountain flowers in spring. Some trees that look plain in summer have leaves that turn bright red at this time, growing on the cliffs in the mountains and hiding in the forest mist.

Xiao Shimei finished washing the bowls, her hands a bit red. Just as she was wiping her hands and walking out of the kitchen, she saw her senior brother carrying his thick firewood knife, with the fox, walking toward the mountain.

"Where are you going, senior brother?"

"My heart is a bit restless, I'm going to the mountain to chop firewood."

"Wait for me! I'm going too!"

Xiao Shimei said without hesitation.

There was also a firewood knife in the Daoist temple, and no one knew how many years it had been passed down.

Xiao Shimei, who had just finished washing the bowls, didn't need to rest at all. She picked up the firewood knife and the hemp rope and went up the mountain with him.

Behind one person followed a white fox.

Behind the other person followed a colored civet cat.

"Aren't you going to repair the road?"

"I was originally going to repair the road. My heart is a bit restless, I'm going to the mountain to repair the road," Xiao Shimei explained, not forgetting to learn his words, "But seeing you going to chop firewood, senior brother, I'll go chop firewood with you."

"You..."

Lin Jue didn't say anything.

Going down the mountain once, seeing a lot, knowing a lot, and gaining quite a bit, it's normal for the heart to be a bit restless.

Cultivating the Dao requires a calm heart.