Chapter 72: Pfft! Pfft!

The underwater world was dark and bone-chilling.

The moment Lu Yuan entered the water, a piercing cold sank through his body. As far as his eyes could see, there was only endless ink-blackness.

He showed no panic. From his bosom he took out a willow leaf.

This willow leaf had been soaked in rooster-comb blood for three full days and nights, and now it emitted a faint yang aura.

He pressed the leaf three cun above his brow, formed the "sword hand-seal" with his left, and steadied the leaf’s root.

With his right hand he traced an imaginary square in front of his eyes, like framing a character for sight.

In his mind he chanted the incantation:

"Willow as eye, blood as lamp."

"Borrow your sliver of yang, illuminate the underworld's light."

The instant the final syllable dropped, the willow leaf at his brow shot out an extremely fine ray of golden light that pierced his vision.

Lu Yuan opened his eyes again, and the previously pitch-black river water had become a completely different scene.

Within three zhang underwater, all the yin qi, malevolent qi, and death qi revealed themselves in varying shades of ghostly glow.

This stretch of river was about two zhang deep, and the riverbed was not silt but covered in a thick layer of pallid bone fragments.

Bones from cattle and sheep were mixed in, but more numerous were human phalanges, ribs, even shattered skulls.

These fragments were not randomly scattered, but carefully arranged into multiple counterclockwise whirlpool patterns that exuded an ominous aura.

Following the compass’s directions, Lu Yuan dove toward the deepest part of the river’s center.

At last he saw the hair-raising sight.

Seven corpses were nailed to the riverbed according to the Big Dipper’s positions.

Each corpse’s neck was clamped by jet-black iron chains as thick as an infant’s arm.

The other end of each chain was driven deep into massive pig-iron stakes beneath the riverbed.

Although these bodies had soaked in water for thirty years, the dense malevolent qi had preserved them from decay.

Their skin was swollen and white, looking like giant over-steamed buns.

All their eyes were wide open, with no pupils—only dead, ghastly whiteness.

Even stranger, the left wrists of the seven corpses were linked together by a thinner iron chain, forming a closed ring.

At the very center of that ring sat a weathered blue stone stele carved with backward, blood-red sigils.

Eight large characters on the stele emitted a thick aura of hatred and poison through Lu Yuan’s spiritual sight.

"Eternally seal this place, feed off the vengeful souls."

Lu Yuan swam to the first corpse corresponding to the Heavenly Pivot star position.

It was a middle-aged man whose chain had dug deeply into flesh and skin.

Where the lock met flesh, there had grown dark red rusted flesh nodules,

as if the metal had fused with his flesh and become part of his body.

Lu Yuan drew the bone blade made from a rooster’s throat bone from his back.

The blade gave off a faint pale-golden halo underwater—an image of a yang blade suppressing yin evils.

Left hand forming the "Vajra Needle Seal," his index finger jutted straight out, symbolizing the demon-vanquishing pin that breaks all things.

His right hand gripped the bone blade tightly and aimed at the joint between chain and stake, silently reciting:

"Metal and iron are heartless by nature, why become underworldly?"

"With the yang blade unsheathed, the wronged spirits shall awaken!"

The instant the blade bit into the chain, the entire riverbed violently trembled!

Those rusty flesh nodules on the chain violently contracted, and from the fracture spewed a dense ink-green liquid.

The liquid did not disperse in the water; instead it twisted and deformed, forming dozens of thin black snakes that opened silent mouths and lunged straight at Lu Yuan’s face!

Lu Yuan was prepared. The Water-Avoidance Talisman on his chest suddenly boiled hot, and an invisible air shield snapped into being.

The black snakes struck the shield with sizzling sounds and dissolved into black water.

Lu Yuan seized the opening, darted forward, and pressed the first Six Jia Evil-Dispelling Talisman precisely onto the corpse’s forehead.

The yellow talisman paper did not wet from the water; instead it inhaled the corpse’s malevolent qi like a sponge, its surface rapidly shifting from yellow to gray-black.

The first chain snapped!

At that moment, the abnormality escalated.

The other six corpses’ eyes simultaneously rotated, their ghostly white eyeballs staring fixedly at Lu Yuan.

Seven mouths opened at once, but not a sound came out.

Instead, Lu Yuan’s mind was blasted by an ear-splitting, soul-tearing wail!

"Return my life... the Wang family ruined me... Locked me thirty years... You will stay too!"

In an instant, the surrounding water pressure surged, as if the entire river had come alive and sought to crush him into pulp.

The bone fragments from the riverbed floated up and spun rapidly around Lu Yuan, forming a vast whirl of bone shards.

...

On the riverbank, the Tianlong Temple crowd had already gathered.

The violent turmoil from beneath the water changed everyone’s faces.

Celestial Master He Xun, holding a ritual tool, could no longer wait and was about to enter the water to assist.

Suddenly, with a loud splash!

Lu Yuan finally broke the surface. He half-kneeling in the shallow water, he breathed violently, all color drained from his face.

Entering the water at this hour had indeed been too perilous.

The Water-Avoidance Talisman on his chest had burnt down to a charred black ash, and the rooster-throat bone blade on his back was covered in spiderweb-like cracks.

Just now he had faced three lethal attacks underwater.

First, the bone-shard whirl tore at him as if to shred him alive, then waterweeds coiled like countless ghostly hands to drag his ankles down.

Most dangerous of all, the seven corpses could remotely control water to form a contracting water-pressure cage!

Fortunately he'd advanced to the Celestial Master Realm and had withstood it using a mouthful of pure magical power.

Each time he cut a chain, he affixed a corpse-sealing talisman.

When all seven talismans were placed, the leaking malevolent qi from the corpses formed a subtle mutual balance, and the underwater killing field finally collapsed.

Lu Yuan lifted his head, slightly dazed as he saw the big dark mass of people on the bank staring at him.

Especially Celestial Master He Xun, who, in this dead of winter, stood shirtless, muscles tensed as if ready to plunge in.

But Lu Yuan couldn’t bother with any of that right now.

"Hurry! Burn the corpses!"

Lu Yuan clambered ashore, breathless, and handed the seven red cords he’d been clutching to the rushing Xu Erxiao.

Xu Erxiao grabbed the seven cords, exerting all his strength, wildly dragging the seven corpses one by one onto shore.

Wang Cheng'an had already brought the prepared peach-wood stretcher, and the three of them carried the seven corpses to the pre-laid reed mat by the riverbank.

Once the bodies were out of water, their earlier swelling quickly subsided; their skin visibly blackened and hardened.

An eerie smell of rotten fish mixed with sandalwood emanated.

This was the sign that the malevolent qi had fully leaked out.

Lu Yuan commanded them to pile the corpses into a pyramid shape.

The bottom layer was paved with three-year-old mugwort to drive evil away.

The middle layer was piled thick with cypress branches to purify.

The outermost layer was heaped with sun-dried peach-wood logs to suppress the malevolence.

At the four corners of the pyre they placed bronze oil lamps; the lamp oil was a mix of tung oil and Realgar Powder.

The wicks were made by twisting seven strands of cotton thread, symbolizing "the Seven Stars guiding the way."

Before lighting, they had to burn the sending-off money.

Lu Yuan took out a stack of specially made yellow paper bills.

On each sheet, lines from the Scripture of the Great Cavernous Mysterious Spiritual Treasure for Delivering the Suffering and Removing Sins were written with silver cinnabar ink.

"Return to the Dao, Yuan, Heng, Li, Zhen. Free from birth and death, joyous and unbound."

By custom, burning the sending-off money required four people to stand at the four corners and light simultaneously.

Counting himself, Lu Yuan only had three people. He had not intended to trouble the Tianlong Temple and was about to craft a paper effigy to fill the fourth spot.

Celestial Master He Xun, who had been silently putting on his Dao robe, spoke coldly:

"Don't fuss."

He gave a look to one of his disciples.

The disciple immediately understood and stepped forward to reverently take some of the yellow paper from Lu Yuan’s hands.

Lu Yuan, seeing this, was spared the bother.

He Xun finished dressing and turned his head, looking at a figure on the opposite bank with a face of speechless disbelief.

He Xun, with a face full of black lines of exasperation, could not help but curse:

"Go get that stinky brat over here."

"Everyone's about to burn it, and he's still bustling around over there doing what?!"

The people from Tianlong Temple were embarrassed.

This...

Good thing there were no outsiders present.

Otherwise this would have been mortifying!!

Lu Yuan had already finished and was wrapping things up; only then did Song Yan over on his side finally get into position...

The key was that Song Yan still seemed completely oblivious.

Nobody knew what he was fussing about!

By now Lu Yuan and the others stood at the four corners of the pyre and simultaneously lit the sending-off bills.

Whoosh!

The flames rose, not in common orange but in pure azure; spirals of smoke shot straight up and spread into lotus-shaped blossoms high above.

At that moment Lu Yuan hurled the torch he’d been holding into the pyre.

Boom—!

The blaze shot up, not ordinary red-orange but dazzling white threaded with gold—an omen of intense yang energy.

White-gold tongues of flame licked at the blackened corpses with a series of crackling pops.

From each corpse’s mouth a thick black smoke escaped.

The smoke twisted and struggled in midair, as if you could see faces of torment and wailing.

But in the end, they were completely consumed by the supreme yang flame and vanished into nothingness.

While waiting for the burning to finish, He Xun, having redressed and tidied himself, cast a sidelong glance at Lu Yuan.

"Boy, you sure can throw yourself into things!"

He had seen Lu Yuan’s earlier posture, bracing to go into the water to save them.

If previously He Xun had been aloof toward Lu Yuan, that was understandable—after all, Lu Yuan followed his own master, with whom He Xun wasn’t on the best terms.

But to remain indifferent and disrespectful now would be a problem of character.

Coming back to himself, Lu Yuan turned and bowed very respectfully:

"These days the whole of Fengtian City is in an uproar because of the Life-Severing Wang family. The people fear the Wang family’s Nurturing Malevolence Sites."

"If anyone can destroy extra Nurturing Malevolence Sites, they could earn one more jade bean from the people at the Celestial Master Grand Ceremony."

"I dare not not fight for it."

Lu Yuan’s words left not only He Xun but everyone from Tianlong Temple stunned.

The Celestial Master Grand Ceremony??

For a moment, everyone looked at one another with odd, bewildered expressions.

He Xun was completely dumbfounded.

He had assumed Lu Yuan was doing this to raise incense offerings for Zhenlong Temple.

Indeed that was part of it.

But Lu Yuan’s ultimate aim turned out... to get a Celestial Master title for his self-righteous foolish junior brother?

Huh????

Putting aside whether Lu Yuan was overestimating himself,

the fact that he wanted to help his master earn a Celestial Master title left He Xun speechless.

He Xun stared at the solemn-faced Lu Yuan.

Then, mechanically, he turned to look at his own disciple Song Yan—who had just taken down his ritual platform and was now hanging his head, shuffling over this way...

Thud!

He Xun felt as if someone had stabbed his heart.

No...

Who is even managing who?!

Where do people find such disciples?!

Ah?!!!

How do you even get a disciple like that?!

"Hmph."

"You, a mere child, want to help your master earn a Celestial Master?"

"You're taking the title too lightly!"

He Xun was inwardly almost overflowing with approval for Lu Yuan, yet outwardly he could not let go of his elder's lecturing posture.

Lu Yuan did not know what He Xun was thinking; he merely bowed slightly and said respectfully:

"Human endeavor wins over destiny. This is what my master taught me."

"My master also said his own master taught him the same."

Thud!

He Xun felt another stabbing blow to his heart—far worse than the first.

In an instant an image flashed through He Xun’s mind: an old face gone long ago, stern yet kind.

He found himself remembering being apprenticed at seven, receiving the precepts at ten, being given a Taoist name...

Memories like wind—one by one—flew past, vivid as if they happened yesterday.

"With such a lineage, your master surely once taught a Celestial Master himself."

Lu Yuan bowed again.

Thud!

He Xun looked at the earnest Lu Yuan before him, his throat feeling dry as he said:

"Naturally..."

But then he stiffened and his voice turned icy again.

"However, you can’t expect to make He Yin into a Celestial Master by simply clearing a couple of Nurturing Malevolence Sites. That’s naive!"

"Of course, do what you will."

"As your senior uncle, I must warn you."

Lu Yuan immediately replied with a solemn face:

"Please speak, Celestial Master."

He Xun no longer looked at him but fixed his gaze on the dark, freezing river behind Lu Yuan.

"I don't care where you got the coordinates for those sites."

"But do not act recklessly!"

"The Life-Severing Wang family has operated beyond the Great Wall for a century, entangled everywhere. No one can guess what fierce things lie beneath those malevolent sites!"

"If you three run into a hard nut, He Yin may well be left a white-haired mourner!"

"You’d better stop while you can!"

This was old talk.

It applied to many, but not to Lu Yuan...

Lu Yuan had Vanquish Demons and Exorcise Evil!

So this kind of catastrophe simply would not happen.

Otherwise he wouldn’t have come with only Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an!

Lu Yuan didn’t argue further with He Xun; he bowed:

"I will take greater care."

"Thank you for your concern, Celestial Master!"

Seeing Lu Yuan unmoved, He Xun snorted through his nose.

Fine, if you won't listen, then I won't force you!

After speaking, He Xun turned away, staring at the towering pyre. Out of sight, out of mind.

"Master, shall we go?"

Song Yan, who had been lingering, finally could not help but whisper. Now he neither acted arrogant nor shouted.

Did he envy Lu Yuan? He had before, but the enormous gap in ability had washed that away.

It’s like seeing someone drive a luxury car far beyond your reach—you might admire, but not truly resent.

But if a neighbor of similar status suddenly got a luxury car, then yes, you'd be jealous.

The gap was so hopeless that Song Yan felt nothing.

Of course, ego remained. He had been itching to compete with Lu Yuan earlier, but now he felt embarrassed.

You might think Song Yan was foolish for pretending busy while Lu Yuan hauled seven corpses back.

He had seen Lu Yuan come up—he just hadn’t had the nerve to approach.

So he pretended to be occupied.

He Xun then turned and glared at Song Yan:

"What are you doing?"

"The ceremony isn't finished yet!!"

Song Yan lowered his head in grievance:

"N-nothing. I'm just hungry..."

"I thought... since this is all done..."

Thud!!

If not for Lu Yuan being present, He Xun would’ve smacked Song Yan twice.

People really make others look bad!!!

Look at that boy—trying to help his master earn a Celestial Master title!

Then look at my own...

He’s hungry before the job’s done?!!

Lu Yuan glanced at the pitiful Song Yan.

Uh...

He looked silly right now.

But Lu Yuan knew the kid was embarrassed and was playing to his master—trying to give himself a way down from the stage.

Those people were clever!

"Starving!!"

He Xun glared again, then turned back to watch the pyre.

"Oh."

Song Yan responded and obediently shut up.

Several senior brothers nearby slapped his shoulder and offered silent comfort.

This was not Song Yan’s fault.

If any of them were his age, none would match Lu Yuan.

That Zhenlong Temple junior was absurdly talented!

After a while, He Xun, seeing his disciple’s pitiful face, couldn't help softening.

Fine, fine—someone else’s disciple might be better, but he’s still someone else’s.

My own, though unreliable, is still my disciple.

"Go get some dry rations for that stinky brat!"

He Xun ordered without pleasure.

Song Yan, the little prankster, immediately brightened and darted forward.

"Thank you, Master!"

"You are truly the best master in the world!"

He Xun was both angered and amused, shaking his head, too lazy to look at him.

When he turned, his gaze happened to fall to the side.

Lu Yuan was expressionless, his posture upright, solemnly watching the pyre—the steady and reliable look of an immortal disciple...

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

Lu Yuan: "??"

Huh?

What’s that banging sound??

The burning continued for a whole hour.

Under the firelight, the abandoned He Bo Temple across the way groaned with tile cracking and beam-splintering sounds.

From deep inside the temple, something massive seemed to be wildly battering, producing dull, brutal roars.

The surface of the green-glowing treasure vase on the eaves was rapidly crawling with jagged cracks.

Lu Yuan did not even lift an eyelid at the noise.

He was calm.

According to the Nurturing Malevolence Map’s records, one final fierce object remained hidden in that ruined He Bo Temple—the "Soul-Collecting Urn."

No rush; wait until the corpses finished burning first.

Lu Yuan was unhurried, and those from Tianlong Temple behind him were even less anxious.

When the last corpse turned to ash in the white-gold flame, Lu Yuan’s eyes snapped sharp. He grabbed Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an and charged straight for the He Bo Temple.

Three zhang behind the temple, the ground showed an unnatural slight bulge.

Wang Cheng'an swung a copper shovel and dug down.

After less than three feet, the shovel struck with a dull clang against something hard.

It was the Soul-Collecting Urn overturned and buried.

The urn was black pottery, its surface painted in human blood with seven twisted dancing human-shaped sigils, corresponding precisely to the seven dead.

The mouth of the urn was sealed tight by a bone shard carved with incantations.

Lu Yuan carefully pried up the bone piece.

One look inside made his stomach turn.

Half the urn was a dark red-black viscous blood-mud, giving off the stench of long-rotted flesh.

Soaked within were seven tatters of fabric; on each scrap, the deceased’s hair was densely sewn into a birthdate and time—one for each.

This was the poisonous formation core: "blood-mud cultivation, eight-character soul lock."

If the urn was not destroyed, the seven souls would be trapped in the blood-mud for eternity, unable to be reborn.

The malevolent qi here would, in three years’ time, return and become a deadly site again.

Lu Yuan immediately took out a packet of cinnabar, mixed it into the freshly prepared ground glutinous rice slurry without hesitation, and poured it all into the urn.

Glug—glug—!

The blood-mud met the supreme-yang cinnabar rice and roiled as if frying oil hit boiling water, churning violently and vomiting up thick, fishy-black bubbles.

Then Lu Yuan picked up the entire black pottery urn, turned, and carried it back to the riverbank, tossing it straight into the still-roaring funeral pyre.

Boom!

The pottery urn burst apart under the fierce flames!

The blood-mud within split into seven thin black rainbows, shrieking and attempting to flee skyward.

Yet the lingering sending-off smoke from the paper money rose and suddenly formed an invisible azure net that fell over them.

The black rainbows and the blue smoke met, wildly entangled and dissolved into one another, ending together in mutual annihilation after a silent contortion.

Lu Yuan used the remaining cinnabar rice slurry to fill the dug pit completely.

Finally, he took a Taishan stone sealing rubbing taken from Zhenlong Temple’s hundred-year-old stele and pressed it heavily over the pit.

The rubbing carried the stone’s long-standing spirit rhyme for pacifying a place.

When the eastern horizon blushed with the first pale light, the cold shadow that had cloaked the Old River Bend for thirty years was finally swept away.

The river still flowed, but its water had returned to the clear chill it should have had.

Ashes from the pyre were lifted by the morning breeze, spiraling away as if released souls were drifting with the wind.

"Done."

Lu Yuan watched that newborn dawn, and the knot of oppressive qi in his chest vanished.

The first Nurturing Malevolence Site had been broken.

Now all he wanted was to find a place to have a long, solid sleep.

Then he would study the Nurturing Malevolence Map again, and plan what to prepare for the next location.

This kind of job, he reflected, was like cooking.

The prep work always took longer than the actual frying.

A quick stir-fry might be finished in half a minute once ingredients hit the wok, but preparing the ingredients—cleaning, trimming, slicing—could easily take ten minutes.

Lu Yuan flipped through the map. The second Nurturing Malevolence Site was right in Fengtian City’s old district.

Perfect!

He could swing by Aunt Qiao'er or Aunt Qin’s place and freeload on a big soft mattress for a couple of days.

Eat the good food, drink the spicy stuff.

Let Aunt Qiao'er have people do the shopping and chores.

It sounded delightful!

Lu Yuan was about to call Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an to pack up when He Xun’s cold voice cut in:

"Off to the next Nurturing Malevolence Site?"

Lu Yuan was taken aback and quickly turned, bowing respectfully:

"Master, I plan to first go to Fengtian City to purchase some supplies."

There was nothing to hide, but if He Xun pressed for the exact location of the next site, Lu Yuan would not tell.

He Xun didn’t ask; instead he folded his hands behind his back as he walked up the river embankment and said:

"Come along, we can give you a ride. We’re going to Fengtian as well."

He signaled his Tianlong Temple disciples:

"Help them tidy up their things."

The disciples immediately nodded and came over to help.

Lu Yuan blinked in surprise.

Well then!

That was great!

Although the three of them had ridden quick horses borrowed from Aunt Qiao'er and been jolted and ridden for five or six hours and stayed up all night, making their bones ache,

the chance to ride comfortably in a carriage to Fengtian was a blessing.

Lu Yuan loudly thanked them and hurried along.

He Xun strolled up the embankment, glancing at Song Yan beside him, who was hungrily chewing his rations.

He snorted and shook his head.

He Xun’s temper flared fast but went just as fast.

Earlier he had been displeased with his own disciple; now that the anger faded he judged Song Yan not so bad after all.

Especially if not compared to Lu Yuan, Song Yan was decent.

He Xun reflected further.

When it came to raising disciples, his supposedly self-righteous rival might not be any better than him!

That fool had simply gotten incredibly lucky and found a one-in-a-million genius!

Did that fool know how to properly raise a disciple?

Not likely!

Letting a disciple run out on his own to break dangerous malevolent sites?

How could he allow that!

What if Lu Yuan ran into trouble and came back dead? Where would he cry?!

He could never allow Song Yan to lead two young boys into such dangers.

Thinking this, He Xun’s mood inexplicably improved.

Hmph!

My disciple may be worse than yours, but so what?

You don’t know how to raise disciples like I do!

Look at Song Yan—plump, lively, and well-raised!

He Yin!

This round is mine again!

...

Dawn.

In the side hall of Zhenlong Temple.

The old man had stayed up the whole night, his eyes bloodshot, the prayer paper stacked high on the table before him.

When the last stroke was finished, a "cyan petition talisman" faintly glimmering with gold light was finally complete.

He let out a long breath and leaned wearily against the chair.

But his relaxation lasted only a moment before he sprang up and looked at the blood-colored figure standing behind him.

"Fifteen 'cyan petition talismans' are here. One per day, no interruptions."

"And these spirit talismans and their usages—you've watched me perform them these days, so you must be familiar."

"For the next fifteen days, you’ll do them yourself. I won’t have time to manage it."

He paused, his gaze drifting to the window, worry woven into his voice.

"The Nurturing Malevolence Map that boy gave me makes me uneasy. I must go survey the sites myself to test their truth. I won’t let him actually get into trouble."

With that he turned and strode out.

When the door opened, a cutting wind blew snowflakes at him.

The old man froze and looked up at the sky.

Wow!

What heavy snow!