Chapter 218: Breaking the Situation, Calamity

"The identity of this group of people is not simple."

Lu San said in a deep voice, "That foreign monk, whether in sorcery or martial arts, can be called an expert. He would be more than enough to be the leader of some organizations, yet he was guarding the door in the mine cave."

"And this new gunpowder formula, didn't Han Kun say that those who bought it secretly were all hidden and powerful forces? Moreover, they also mastered the secret techniques of Tang Dynasty alchemists."

"Even the Pai Sect had to help them guard the door. It's possible it's also related to this southwest chaos..."

Lu San didn't talk much on weekdays, which didn't mean he wasn't smart, and he was very cautious. Otherwise, how could he have dealt with Qiao Sanhu alone and held back until the night of the Lantern Festival to behead him?

He was bold, but the first thing he thought of when encountering things was risk.

Seeing Li Yan staring at the secret manual in silence, Sha Lifei was anxious. "Brother Yan, you must not do anything stupid. Although this thing is troublesome, if used well, it is our way to save our lives in the future!"

"Don't worry."

Li Yan nodded and said in a deep voice, "Things that have reached the mouth naturally cannot be easily spat out. I am thinking about how to deal with it."

Sha Lifei was stunned. "What do you mean?"

Li Yan picked up the "Pili Leihuo Jing" (Thunder Fire Scripture), his expression becoming serious. "This thing is wonderful, but after getting it, there are three points to deal with."

"On the surface, the imperial court's control over firearms is strict. Even if it has already leaked, they won't let it go easily. Hiding it is not a solution, so we must find a way to obtain the right to use it."

"Then there is the dark side. After taking this thing, the original owner of this thing becomes our enemy. Looking at their vicious means, I estimate it is also a situation of life and death."

"Finally, there is production. I took a look. Whether it is gunpowder or firearms, materials require magic artifacts or heavenly treasures, and we also need to find a trustworthy Mystic Sect craftsman..."

"Only by solving these three points can this thing become our help!"

Both Lu San and Sha Lifei nodded in agreement.

They knew Li Yan was right.

Thinking of the Chenwei technique mentioned by Wang Daoxuan, Li Yan said in a deep voice, "Take it slowly. The Great Xuan Dynasty has been established for a hundred years. Opening the sea, new gunpowder, the struggle between the two factions in the court, southwest chaos... all show that there is a big change in human affairs."

"We don't use this kind of thing, and we will be beaten by others. How can we let go? But that group of people also has to be guarded against..."

"Brother Lu, you should send the falcon to the mountain valley phosphorus mine to check, and pay attention to the movement at all times. Someone will definitely go to check."

"Find out their identity first, so we can deal with it."

"Hmm."

Lu San didn't talk nonsense either, waved his hand, and the falcon soared into the air, flying toward the distant mountain valley in the night.

Li Yan nodded and looked at Sha Lifei again. "Sha Laoshu Sha, before finding a Mystic Sect craftsman, it's up to you."

"How many of the firearms recorded above can we make?"

"I'm afraid not many."

Sha Lifei smiled awkwardly and touched his bald head. "You are right. Many secret languages above are inheritances of Mystic Sect craftsmen. Old Sha can't even understand them."

"Especially that new type of firearm, it's actually like making a magic artifact, and it needs to be forged in the spirit aperture of a blessed land!"

"Damn it... the forging technique is also very exquisite, ordinary craftsmen can't make it at all."

As he spoke, his eyes revealed a trace of pride again. "However, I have figured out the new gunpowder formula and the usage of 'coal essence'."

"It turns out that this 'coal essence' needs to be ground in water, then let it settle and dry, and then mixed into gunpowder to replace it, and the power will increase sharply."

"There is also a special 'red saltpeter', which is also a heavenly treasure. With these two materials, it is not difficult to make new gunpowder."

"Before finding a Mystic Sect craftsman, we can use fire caltrops and bamboo thunder arrows to temporarily replace them, and the power is also quite good."

"That's good."

Li Yan pondered for a moment. "While we solve the problem of Zhujia Fort, Sha Laoshu Sha should make some first. Maybe it will be used soon..."

After a discussion, they immediately went to the village to borrow a small stone mill, pounded the coal essence in a water basin, and then ground it again and again, getting a whole basin of black water, placing it in the tent, waiting for it to settle tomorrow.

After doing all this, it was already midnight.

Suddenly, the fire in the village was flourishing, and then the voices were boiling.

Li Yan and the others quickly walked out of the tent.

They saw a large group of villagers walking from the village entrance, led by Wang Daoxuan and Zhu village head, each holding a torch.

And in front of the crowd, there were three old people, both men and women, their expressions dazed, stumbling toward the river.

"Brother Yan, stop them!" Wang Daoxuan shouted loudly.

Li Yan didn't say a word and stepped forward. Seeing that these three had all lost their minds, he was too lazy to waste effort, directly slapped three palms on their chins, knocking them unconscious.

"Did you all see it?"

Wang Daoxuan pointed to the river surface and shouted loudly, "There are no evil spirits hooking souls at all, all the ghosts are in your hearts."

"Good and evil will be rewarded, injustice has a head and debt has a master. The perpetrators have been beheaded by the imperial court. Dreaming of ancestors blaming you is the work of someone playing tricks. As long as you act correctly in the future, you will naturally not be afraid of ghosts knocking on the door!"

"Brother Yan, did you find any evil objects?"

"There is nothing in the river!"

Li Yan pinched the yang formula, took a deep breath, and shouted back.

He knew that Wang Daoxuan was breaking the ghosts in their hearts.

People live a lifetime, most of them are ordinary, inseparable from the seven emotions and six desires, there is generosity and justice, and there is also insidious calculation.

After decades, there will always be some guilty things.

These may be small things, but like yin ghosts, they hide in the heart. They don't talk about it on weekdays, but once hooked by someone, it is guilt and anxiety.

People of the Divine Land believe in the Earth God, and also believe in ancestors.

Ancestors blaming, how can it not make people feel timid.

It's like some kind of psychological suggestion.

At this moment, Li Yan vaguely understood the Chenwei technique.

What is the world? It is not just ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains, cities and armies, but also the human heart. Even the Earth God and the God of Agriculture have to be behind.

Therefore, the people are noble, the society is second, and the monarch is light.

The Son of Heaven is without Dao, the world is chaotic, the people are living in misery, and there are complaints everywhere. If someone observes that a great disaster is coming, they can create Chenwei to push the change of human affairs.

Of course, the specific implementation is definitely more complicated.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be called internal study by Confucianism, and it wouldn't be listed as a forbidden technique, tabooed by the imperial court and Confucianism.

At least, it is so in this world.

Wang Daoxuan gave a roar, and the villagers looked at the river surface one after another.

Under the bright moon, the waves were sparkling, and occasionally small fish jumped out of the water, a harmonious and peaceful scene, where were there any evil objects.

At this point, those commoners completely believed it.

Someone immediately gritted their teeth. "That old Confucian scholar was truly vicious, with evil intentions. Poor my uncle, he lost his life so inexplicably!"

The person next to him cursed angrily, "It's not that you didn't discipline him strictly. Your nephew was doing evil, and you were proud, saying that there was someone powerful in the family, so you weren't afraid of being bullied."

"Now it's good, not only did he lose his life, but he also brought disaster!"

That person wanted to refute, but seeing the villagers around him glaring, he felt guilty and didn't dare to say more.

Zhu village head sighed after coming out. "Don't complain anymore, this matter is all my fault."

"As the village head, I only thought about my own family, harboring luck, not wanting to cause trouble, which led to these incidents."

"From now on, the village rules and regulations should be re-established. Every family has family rules, and the country has national laws. No one is allowed to violate them!"

Wang Daoxuan nodded slightly upon seeing this.

Breaking the ghost in the heart, at least there will be no more deaths.

Afterward, it was solving the ancestral grave matter...

…………

The next day, Mao time (5:00 to 7:00).

The sky was not yet bright, and the light was hazy.

Li Yan accompanied Wang Daoxuan up the mountain, followed by Zhu village head supported by two people, and villagers carrying various melon and fruit offerings, incense, candles, and paper money. The ancestral graves of Zhujia Fort were not far, just on the back mountain. After the group went up the mountain in a mighty way, Wang Daoxuan immediately took the compass and checked in all directions on the mountain top, foot of the mountain, and halfway up the mountain.

In this ancestral grave place, the compass was even more chaotic.

Tang needle, Dui needle, Chen needle, Zhuan needle... constantly changing.

Wang Daoxuan looked solemn, letting people burn paper money in fixed places, and the fire light and paper ash swirled up and down...

The scene before them stunned the villagers.

Wang Daoxuan pondered for a moment, then looked at Li Yan. "Brother Yan, Tang needle indicates that there are strange rocks and deep pools underground, and the spirits are difficult to rest. Some graves must have had problems. It's up to you."

Li Yan nodded, pinched the yang formula, and wandered among the graves.

With his current cultivation, he could smell strange smells ten meters underground. Ordinary commoner graves definitely wouldn't be that deep, and he soon found the problem.

"This one, this one, and this one!"

!.

Li Yan set the orientation, and Wang Daoxuan immediately took action.

First, he simply performed an soul-soothing Dharma ritual, then chanted spells in his mouth, scattered grains everywhere, and placed offerings and incense candles.

"Break the soil!"

At his order, many villagers immediately stepped forward.

They waved their hoes, mud splashed, and soon dug open the grave. Seeing the scene inside, they gasped.

They saw that the entire grave had been soaked in sewage, the color was white and gray, and the unbearable corpse odor instantly filled the air.

"Immeasurable Longevity Buddha!"

Wang Daoxuan saw this and his eyes were solemn.

Digging open the other graves, they were also covered in sewage.

At this point, everyone realized something was wrong.

Choosing a grave site has rules. Although their ancestral graves couldn't be considered good feng shui, they were located halfway up the mountain, hiding wind and collecting qi.

Even in a heavy rain, it was impossible to accumulate so much water.

Wang Daoxuan was more certain in his heart, turned his head and asked Zhu village head, "Has anything happened in this vicinity, with a large number of dead bodies filled in?"

Zhu village head was stunned for a moment and recalled, "According to the old people's rumors, there was indeed such a thing."

"That was the chaos at the end of the Tang Dynasty. The Jingnan Military Governor Guo Yu died in battle at Junshan, and Lei Yangong took the opportunity to invade, and a fierce battle broke out near Zhujia Fort, with tens of thousands of casualties."

"That Lei Yangong came from the Dongman, and there were many military sorcerers under his command. Legend has it that he recruited many demons and ghosts, and also killed people with witchcraft and plague. After death, the resentment of the soldiers did not disappear, turning into corpse soldiers causing trouble everywhere."

"Later, during the Song Dynasty, an expert from Long Hu Mountain came here to suppress them. There are still suppression steles on the nearby mountains, but the age is long, and the handwriting is already blurred."

"But this matter is too far away. Our Zhujia Fort is located in a remote place. Even during the north-south confrontation in the previous dynasty, it was safe and sound, and we never found a large number of skeletons."

"Only one stone stele remains."

"Quick, take me to see it!"

The group immediately set off and ran to a nearby mountain top.

Sure enough, there was a stone stele on the top of the mountain.

The age was long, the handwriting was already blurred, covered with cracks, seemingly ready to collapse at any time.

And under the stone stele, there were a large number of pitch-black bloodstains.

"Sure enough, someone tampered with it."

Wang Daoxuan looked at the compass, seeing the needle spinning wildly, feeling a bit of a headache, and then climbed high to look into the distance, looking in all directions.

At this time, the sky had cleared, blue sky and white clouds, the breeze blowing, and the trend of the surrounding mountains was clear at a glance.

He looked terrified. "What a powerful means, this is borrowing the trend of the killing dragon to form a predicament, pressing those evil things underground!"

"For such a long time, the corpse soldiers causing trouble must have all rotted, but the resentment did not dissipate, the corpse water poison gathered, and it has become an evil place."

"Get some people to dig ten feet away from the southeast, northwest, and see if the suppression objects inside have been destroyed!"

The villagers heard this and quickly took action.

Sure enough, in the ground ten feet away, they dug out stone statues of the Mount Qinglong, Vermilion Bird, Bai Hu, and Black Tortoise, each the size of a millstone, densely covered with talismans, and filled with cinnabar.

The others were still intact, only the Mount Qinglong statue was shattered.

And the direction the Mount Qinglong statue was facing,

It was exactly the ancestral graves of Zhujia Fort!

Wang Daoxuan saw this and couldn't help but sigh, "What a powerful means, what a vicious mind!"

"That old Confucian scholar destroyed the seal of this place, and left a gap, introducing the fierce baleful energy into the ancestral graves, and finally made a prophecy, borrowing the induction of heaven and man to kill."

"To be able to do this, he must be well-versed in history, feng shui, familiar with mountain and river geography, and understand the Chenwei technique. He is a person of the Confucian Mystic Sect."

"He clearly had the ability to kill, but he had to punish the heart first!"

"If I'm not mistaken, in a few days, you won't be able to stand it and move away, and the whole village will decline because of this."

"The villagers will scatter to all parts of the country, but they still won't be able to escape this evil curse, and will die out one after another in panic."

"By then, even the Taixuan Orthodox Sect will be hard to detect."

Zhu village head beside him felt his scalp go numb, his face pale, and he asked tremblingly, "Daoist, judging by what you mean, this matter is not over yet?"

Wang Daoxuan said in a deep voice, "That person is definitely vicious, but his mistake is being too arrogant, thinking his actions were seamless."

"But now that Hubei and Hunan are in chaos, the Taixuan Orthodox Sect is also too busy to take care of it. I'm afraid that if you report it, no one will pay attention, and it will startle the snake."

"I'll teach you a trick. Just check the deceased at that time, and you can find that Confucian sorcerer."

"Your grandson is studying at Yuelu Academy, let him report this matter. The Chenwei technique is tabooed by the orthodox Confucian school, and there will naturally be experts to investigate."

As he spoke, he looked at the villagers and said in a deep voice, "That person killed innocent people, I will naturally take action to save you. But in the final analysis, the disaster was still caused by your village."

"Where to go in the future depends on yourselves."

"Daoist, don't worry."

Zhu village head slammed his cane hard. "From now on, Zhujia Fort will strictly abide by the village rules and regulations. Whoever dares to let their children commit crimes again, I will personally tie them up and send them to the officials!"

With the matter clarified, everything became easy to handle.

Wang Daoxuan first ordered people to get cinnabar, mixed with the incense ash of the Earth God Temple, and dug trenches between the ancestral graves and this suppression place to fill and isolate them.

Afterward, he broke the Bai Hu position.

This suppression place had already been destroyed, and the corpse soldiers buried inside had long rotted, only giving birth to a fierce baleful energy.

Fortunately, this village was surrounded by river water. Just introducing the fierce baleful energy into the river would naturally be washed away.

Finally, he performed a soul-soothing Dharma ritual at the ancestral graves, and Li Yan and the others said goodbye and left, setting off on their journey again...

…………

The river water rolled, and the sails billowed.

Their wooden boat shuttled on the river, just seeing the soldiers of the Jingmen Garrison galloping past on the shore, heading toward Zhujia Fort.

"It seems my letter worked."

Li Yan shook his head slightly. "That group of people is also strange. Brother Lu sent the falcon to patrol day and night, but he never saw anyone go there, and I don't know which side they belong to."

As he spoke, he looked at Wang Daoxuan. "Daoist, I remember you said that hiding in an evil place, descendants often commit crimes. Zhujia Fort causing trouble, could it be because of this?"

Wang Daoxuan shook his head slightly. "Feng shui is only one of them. The key is that the human heart is scattered and the folk customs are not correct, which leads to this evil result."

"Sigh~ the Great Xuan Dynasty is like this now."

"Under the prosperous age, human desires are insatiable. All parties have accumulated massive wealth for a hundred years, but they are still not satisfied and have even greater ambitions."

"The calamity of Zhujia Fort is easy to solve, but the calamity of the Great Xuan Dynasty is the general trend of human affairs, and everyone is in the game."

"Is it the collapse of rites and music, the decline of national destiny, or rebirth from the ashes, glowing with new spring."

"Until the end, no one can see clearly..."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 21

(End of this chapter)