Chapter 47: Xiaochuan Village

At this moment, borrowing the torchlight to examine the giant rock in front of him, Lin Jue felt it was somewhat eerie, yet it just blocked the way and didn't move. For a moment, he couldn't grasp its purpose.

He had heard of kind-hearted spirits or monsters that felt people might encounter danger and used various methods to block them from moving forward, and he had also heard of monsters using transformation arts to toy with people, exhausting them and wearing down their spirit so that they would gradually lose their courage before harming them.

He didn't know which one this was.

The Third Shixiong was looking around.

The little fox was staring ahead.

The others were all staring at Lin Jue.

Lin Jue pondered for a moment and walked forward: "We are traveling the night path to Xiaochuan Village; why are you blocking the road?"

His tone was not fearful, but neither was it angry.

When his voice fell, the surroundings were silent.

There was still only the sound of the torches burning.

"Xiaochuan Village ahead is plagued by yin ghosts, and we are on our way to exorcise them. If you are blocking us here because you fear we will encounter danger if we continue forward, then please leave, because we are specifically looking for ghosts." Lin Jue thought for a moment before saying, then paused, "We accept this good intention, and when we pass by here again in the daytime tomorrow, there will certainly be incense and candles offered."

There was no reaction from the front; the giant rock remained.

A gust of wind even blew by.

"Whoosh..."

The flames of the torches tilted to the side.

"True One, why don't we, why don't we bypass it from the side?" a villager asked timidly.

Where would they bypass it to?

If it refused to yield and they took another path, wouldn't it just follow them?

Wouldn't they be even more passive then!

Lin Jue didn't explain, nor did he pay attention. He thought for a moment, and instead took the lead by stepping forward, his face gradually showing a hint of anger:

"If you do not leave, I will treat you as someone intentionally blocking the road, wanting to harm people.

"Then you have truly met your match!

"To tell you the truth, we come from Fuqiu Peak on Mount Yishan. There are seven types of spells on the mountain, and what my little Junior Sister is learning is precisely the 'Stone-Grinding' method. I don't know if you have heard of it; it is precisely for grinding stones into powder!"

Beside him, the little Shimei was stunned, but fortunately, the shock was only in her mind, and no expression showed on her face.

"As for that large tree just now..."

Lin Jue said, pausing again, and raised his right hand.

In his hand was something that reflected a bright, shining light under the torchlight. It was not some Daoist dharma implement for exorcising demons, nor any other treasure, but a sharp firewood knife.

"My Shixiong likes to be a carpenter. I happen to be missing a bookshelf and a long couch in my room. I think this is a good piece of material!"

His voice remained solemn, echoing in the night.

For a moment, there was a certain momentum, so much so that the words sounded both like a threat and a statement of fact.

Everyone couldn't help but look at him, and then at the giant rock ahead.

Just then—

"Poof..."

The giant rock exploded into a cloud of black smoke, instantly merging into the night. Only by borrowing the torchlight could one see it slowly dissipating.

"Wind, come—"

When the voice fell, a clear breeze arose.

The black smoke was instantly blown away.

"Let's go."

Lin Jue said in a low voice and walked forward, even taking the torch from the villager who had been in the lead, walking at the very front.

Everyone couldn't help but look at him and follow behind, unable to stop themselves from secretly glancing at the darkness all around.

They walked for several more miles, and the monster did not appear again.

Until they were very close to the village.

"Shidi has great courage. I was still pondering how to make them retreat, but I didn't expect Shidi to be able to shout them away with a confrontation," the Third Shixiong said.

"This is the way ordinary people deal with demons and ghosts. My spell cultivation hasn't reached that level, so I had to use these methods," Lin Jue replied truthfully.

"This is by no means weaker than spells. Little Junior Sister, you must learn this move from your Eighth Senior Brother well. In the future, when the Master passes away and you leave Fuqiu Peak for other places, whether confronting people or dealing with demons and ghosts, you cannot rely solely on spell ability. Especially in situations where you cannot distinguish the other party's good or evil and it is not a fight to the death. Moreover, in the way of spell fighting, no matter how many spells you learn, the changes are ultimately limited. Any spell has its strengths and weaknesses. Unless you are proficient in everything, the best way not to lose in a spell fight is not to fight, and the second best is to use your brain." the Third Senior Brother said.

"Understood!"

The little Shimei said seriously.

She couldn't help but glance at Lin Jue in front.

She knew how many skills this little Shixiong had; it was nothing more than Fire-Aversion, Wind-Calling, Wood-Escaping, and breath-spitting, none of which were profound. In fact, she had also been pondering just now how to deal with this suddenly appearing monster.

Especially in a situation where they knew nothing about this monster, and couldn't even tell if it was one monster or two, she didn't know if these spells would be useful.

Who could have imagined that Shixiong didn't use a single spell, but relied only on momentum and the fictional "Stone-Grinding" that she hadn't even started learning yet to shout the opponent away.

The little Shimei thought seriously and secretly took note.

"You must know that Dao-attainment is Dao-attainment, cultivation is cultivation, and ability is ability. Dao-attainment is the magical power you cultivate, cultivation is the virtue you accumulate and the state of mind you nurture, and the spells and supernatural powers you practice hard are your abilities. There is no reason in this world that a higher Dao-attainment earns more respect, nor is there any saying that a higher Dao-attainment wins a spell fight. Those seniors who cultivate Golden Cores in the deep mountains are mostly not good at spell fighting.

"Spells also mutually generate and restrain each other; it is hard to have a general who always wins. Like the Stone-Grinding you are learning, after you master it, if you encounter a monster made of stone, relying on its natural solidity, few Daoists can do anything to it. But even if its Dao-attainment is several times higher than yours, it will be hard for it to withstand a few slaps from you.

"Conversely, if you learn spells like Wind-Calling or Paper-Men, even if your Dao-attainment is higher, it is hard to do anything to an ordinary stubborn stone.

"..."

The Third Shixiong said as he walked.

It really seemed like he had come to teach them.

It was just that as he walked and spoke, he took out his wine gourd to take a sip. Fortunately, the wine was very weak, so he treated it as drinking for fun.

They soon approached Xiaochuan Village.

"We are almost there."

A villager holding a torch identified the bamboo forest nearby, then said with a trembling voice:

"After passing this bamboo forest, it is the grave mound at the head of the village. If you want to go during the day, you can bypass it from the pond. In the past, when it first started, we all walked this way at dusk. Now, we don't even dare to walk by the pond at dusk; we don't dare to leave the house at all. Fortunately, it is better than here."

Lin Jue stretched his neck to look ahead.

This was a winding small path, and the bamboo forest was not large, just blocking the front. Nothing could be seen in the dark night.

"How far is it?"

"It's about two or three hundred steps."

"Then let's pass through the bamboo forest and see."

Lin Jue knew his Dao-attainment was shallow and his spells were just beginning to be learned. If he could clear these yin spirits and residual souls on the road, that would naturally be good, but he was also somewhat vigilant.

So he held the torch and walked forward slowly.

It wasn't exactly taking the lead; at least his little fox was walking a little bit in front of him.

"Ying-wu?"

The little fox barked again, stopped, and turned to look at him.

At the same time, Lin Jue also heard some movement.

Carefully moving forward a few more steps, he suddenly saw a dozen points of fire ahead, four or five of which were orange-yellow torches, and some pale green phosphorus fire, intertwining to illuminate the night sky. Although it was a summer night, there was still fog, and the traces of the fog flowing between the woods were clearly visible, and some unreal shadows could be vaguely seen flickering in the fog.

The shouting and cursing of people could be vaguely heard.

"As the saying goes, ghosts don't easily break into occupied houses, but you things are getting bolder and bolder, actually daring to run into my house! And you are all former fellow villagers, I spit on you!

"Eat an arrow from me!"

A tiny spark flashed in the night and disappeared.

Then several more followed, crisscrossing in the forest.

Those shadows drifting in the fog scattered instantly, and even the fog seemed to have thinned out a lot.

"If you dare to come into my house again and scare my old mother, I will first invite my good friends to dig you three feet deep, then bring firewood, and burn this whole forest to the ground!"

There was a hint of anger in the words, and a hint of heroism.

Lin Jue only thought of that Luo Seng for a moment.

Seeing this situation, there was nothing left to observe, so he hurriedly walked forward with the torch.

Seven or eight people stood in the forest, all young and strong men. Three or four were wearing black clothes, carrying swords and bows, and the others looked like people from the village, holding hoes and firewood knives.

Seeing Lin Jue's group, they were vigilant.

"Who is it?"

Even bows and arrows were aimed at them.

"It's me! Zhang Da! We are back!" a villager hurriedly shouted, "We have invited three True Ones from Fuqiu Temple."

"Oh..."

The bows and arrows were then lowered.

The groups of torches gathered together.

The leader in the forest was a man in his twenties, also wearing black clothes and holding a bow and arrow. Originally furious, seeing the group, he was very polite.

"Why did Third Uncle come back by the night path? Oh my! You really invited the True Ones from Fuqiu Temple!"

"The three True Ones all have real skills. On the way back, we encountered monsters blocking the road, and the True Ones scared them away with just a few words!"

"Is that true? Then please, True Ones, take a look quickly! This place is one of the grave mounds where ghosts are causing trouble in our village. How do we exorcise the ghosts? These ghosts are getting more and more rampant, actually daring to run into people's homes!"

The many torches lowered, illuminating the ground ahead.

Lin Jue couldn't help but lower his head to look.

This was a poplar forest.

The sparse forest had straight trunks, with many simple grave mounds in between, and traces of fire. It was clearly visible that the ground had sunk in a section; in some places, one could see the wooden boards in the ground, in some places, the exposed roots of the poplar trees, or pitch-black deep holes.

"Zhang Da, didn't we say to wait for us to invite the True Ones from Mount Yishan and Mount Qiyun? Why did you invite people to fight the ghosts here again?"

"What other choice was there? Didn't I say? Last night, a ghost actually ran into my house and stood in front of my old mother's window, scaring her almost to death! I was still on the mountain, and Second Brother Wang from the village ran over early in the morning; I almost thought I was coming back for a funeral! It was lucky my mother wasn't scared to death, but she still hasn't recovered. If this happened to you, could you endure it?"

As he spoke, he even walked forward, kicking stones on the ground into the pit that had sunk in front.

That villager didn't speak.

He certainly could endure it; he didn't have Zhang Da's ability, nor did he have these friends who were equally strong and had practiced martial arts for several years, who would come to help as soon as he shouted.

But to rush in a fit of anger, to rush the grave mound at night for his old mother, and to curse at the yin ghosts, could be considered to have some spirit.

No one could say anything to question him.

"But why did the ground sink?"

"This afternoon, I brought firewood and set a fire here, wanting to burn them clean. As I burned, the ground collapsed. Unexpectedly, it didn't manage to deal with them, and they came out just the same at night. If they come out, so be it; this time I changed the arrowheads to fire-tipped ones..."

Before he finished speaking, black shadows suddenly arose all around.

As if provoked by his words, those black shadows that had just been scattered by their fire arrows suddenly gathered again, drifting around, and even rushed toward them fiercely.

"Coming again?

"Good!"

Zhang Da was not afraid at all, waving his fists and rushing up.

Ghosts are inherently void; logically speaking, ordinary people and knives and swords cannot hit them. But people have blood energy and yang energy, and some people even have malevolent energy. If the blood energy is vigorous and the malevolent energy is heavy, they can indeed impact and harm ghosts.

But before he touched the ghost, he heard a flame explode.

"Poof..."

Flames exploded in the forest, rushing toward the surroundings.

Within a large semicircle in front, the ghost shadows were almost completely scorched away.

Lin Jue looked back.

There were also three or four ghost shadows behind, two or three of which were scattered by the little Shimei exhaling yang energy, and the remaining one was actually rushed by that little fox cub, which seemed to be able to touch the ghost shadow, clumsily tearing and fighting with it, emitting small, fierce whimpers from its mouth.

It was dealing with it quite easily.

But at this moment, a black shadow suddenly flashed underground.

The black shadow was really hard to detect; it could only be seen in the torchlight, emerging from the ground like a ghost, rushing toward Zhang Da in front.

"Dog thing!"

Zhang Da had practiced martial arts and reacted very quickly. Even though he was facing those ghost shadows, he noticed this suddenly attacking black shadow and immediately wanted to dodge and block, even wanting to find an opportunity to counterattack.

Unfortunately, this black shadow was too fast, and he was holding a bow and arrow, not a knife. Although he pushed the bow and arrow forward, there was a gap.

The black shadow just happened to drill through.

"Ah!"

A scream, and the black shadow fled far away, disappearing into the night.

Looking at Zhang Da again, there were already several scratch marks on his chest. ===== CHAPTER 48 =====