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Chapter 359: Who the Hell is Grandmaster!
The man in white noticed Ye Wenxin’s group. Although two of them dressed plainly, Hei Haowen stood out in his distinctive Southern Dipper Temple monk robes. “I have an idea. Those people seem to be cultivators. Since they can fly on swords, maybe I can ask them for a ride.”
Due to the uniqueness of the Southern Dipper Temple, many people can immediately recognize a bald head as belonging to a monk or nun from the temple. Ye Wenxin saw no problem with this, but the man in black sighed. “I forgot to mention earlier. Feishi1 have appeared this time, and many cultivators have fallen victim to them.”
The man in black’s words plunged the man in white back into despair. Ye Wenxin listened with a slight frown and noticed Hei Haowen chanting Amitabha.
Ye Wenxin was puzzled. “Did you not encounter this on your way here, Senior Brother Hei?”
Hei Haowen revealed a wry smile. “At that time, this monk was flying on a sword, and was wondering why something suddenly flew up from the ground. So it was a jiangshi.”
The corner of Ye Wenxin’s mouth twitched slightly, thinking that Hei Haowen had a rather carefree attitude. This could mean that the city had been sealed off for quite some time, and the ban on aerial travel might be a recent thing.
Celestial Master Zhong’s memories started to surface, showing that in recent years, he had indeed dealt with a Jiangshi King2. Due to the severity of the local situation, Celestial Master Zhong focused on saving people, and by the time he searched for the Jiangshi King again, it had already vanished without a trace.
Unlike in Earth’s movies, the jiangshi in this world didn’t hop around but walked normally like humans. They lacked intelligence, survived by drinking blood, and spread corpse poison through bite. Those who were bitten must be treated before turning. Otherwise, they would become jiangshi and be beyond recovery.
Hearing this, Ye Wenxin felt that the current situation was the consequence of Celestial Master Zhong’s unresolved issues from the past. But if it were indeed a Jiangshi King, would it really be so cowardly as to only feed on demonic beasts? Or perhaps there were other jiangshi wandering among the populace, leading to all these incidents converging, and causing the current tragedy.
Ye Wenxin sighed and finally decided to check out the situation with Hei Haowen before drawing a conclusion. If it didn’t work out, they would have to take the sea route. However, the sea was also fraught with dangers like sea monsters. No matter which path they chose, the journey to the Southern Dipper Temple would be arduous.
After about half a day of travel, they arrived at Yangzhou City. Dark clouds covered the sun, creating an ominous atmosphere, and the air was filled with a gloomy aura. The two Yin-Yang ghosts were extremely excited and would have flown into the city to cause trouble if Ye Wenxin hadn’t held them back.
“You two behave yourselves. Do you see those Daoist priests over there? If you don’t behave, they’ll capture you and refine you into copper3,” Ye Wenxin threatened. The two ghosts looked puzzled but, seeing Ye Wenxin’s fierce expression, obediently returned to the umbrella.
The umbrella sword completely concealed the ghosts’ aura, allowing the group to approach the city gate. A man, roughly in his forties or fifties, had already come forward to greet them, his expression excited as he looked at Hei Haowen.
“Master, you’ve finally arrived!”
He seemed to have mistaken Hei Haowen for someone else, and urgently pulled him to stand by the gate. Hei Haowen was bewildered, but seeing the man’s serious expression, he didn’t refuse and obediently followed. When they looked at the gate, they noticed the cracked sealing talisman on it.
It was commonly known that talismans were infused with power. A cracked talisman meant that its effectiveness was diminishing. The talisman before them was being eroded by some force, and it wouldn’t be long before the jiangshi horde would break through, quickly spreading to other areas and expanding their ranks.
“Master, what should we do now!?” The man, face pale, seemed to be a guard assigned to watch over the area. He probably never imagined encountering such a situation during his duty.
Hei Haowen didn’t understand talismans, but knew the severity of the situation. He made a respectful gesture and then continued, “I will consult with my senior brothers.” With that, he released a string of prayer beads, which transformed into a golden white dove and soared into the sky.
This was likely the Southern Dipper Temple’s secret messaging method. Ye Wenxin found it quite fascinating and asked Hei Haowen about its effectiveness : “How long will it take for the message to reach someone?”
“I don’t know. It will stop when it encounters the nearest person.”
Hei Haowen awkwardly rubbed his head. Ye Wenxin frowned slightly, thought for a moment, and then instructed the man beside her.
“Get me some glutinous rice, and the blood of a black dog4.” The man, who had been looking mournful, quickly ran off upon hearing Ye Wenxin’s instructions. In no time, he returned with the requested items. Ye Wenxin didn’t hesitate and had the man sprinkle the glutinous rice on the ground. In an instant, the originally white grains turned black.
The guard’s face turned ashen, but he suppressed his fear and continued sprinkling the glutinous rice. As more grains turned black, the cracks on the talisman decreased slightly. Then, Ye Wenxin took out a blank talisman from her bag of holding and, using the golden pen dipped in dog blood, wrote a sealing talisman according to Celestial Master Zhong’s memories.
“Alright, paste this on, and everything will be fine.” After completing all these tasks, Ye Wenxin took a deep breath, feeling that her career path was becoming increasingly erratic.
From an alchemist to a physician, and now she had become an exorcist. It seemed she was quickly experiencing a variety of professions in this world. Seeing Ye Wenxin speak with such confidence, the man hurriedly complied, carefully using paste to attach the talisman.
The next moment, the door shook violently, emitting a faint golden light. Hei Haowen and Gu Xiangsi stared in amazement. Although they both had witnessed Ye Wenxin’s medical skills, this was their first time seeing her talisman arts in action.
Ye Wenxin felt extremely awkward. She wanted to keep a low profile, but her abilities seemed to prevent her from doing so. She had no choice but to continue: “This is just to scare off the jiangshi. Don’t look at me like that.”
Her words were filled with unease.
“But, Sis, you drew it so skillfully.”
“Hehehe, I practice often…” Ye Wenxin continued to lie. The two could sense that Ye Wenxin was hiding something, but seeing that she had no intention of revealing it, they didn’t press her.
However, Ye Wenxin still had no intention of leaving. Given the severity of the situation and its proximity to the Azure Wings Sect, it was impossible for them to remain uninvolved. Ye Wenxin also sent a message via a carrier pigeon to Jin Xiaoqin, intending to have the sect send reinforcements to prevent the jiangshi from escaping the city and harming the populace.
At this moment, the real master arrived, accompanied by several disciples dressed as Daoist priests. With a head of white hair and a scholarly appearance, he looked at the pasted talisman with wide eyes and urgently asked, “Who wrote this script?”
Ye Wenxin nervously looked away, worried that this Daoist priest might accuse her of stealing his job. The guard, unaware of these subtleties, saw the elderly priest’s sagely appearance and quickly pointed to Ye Wenxin, saying, “It was this Daoist nun who wrote the talisman.”
Hearing this, Ye Wenxin was ready to kick the old man and run. But to her surprise, the old priest looked at Ye Wenxin with tearful eyes. He suddenly knelt down with a thud and exclaimed loudly, “Disciple Maoyi pays respects to Grandmaster5!”
Ye Wenxin was momentarily dumbstruck. She scrambled through her memories, trying to determine if Celestial Master Zhong had left her with more messes to clean up. In her search, she discovered that in the past century, Celestial Master Zhong had imparted his teachings to a scholar, who then founded a sect named One Short Sect (一缺门 yiquemen).
Author: Inherited memories are like computer files. You have to search for the relevant memory, rather than it coming to you right away~~~
Footnotes:
D[Translator]
Been doing this for over a year now. I don't do simple translation but aim to retell a story as engagingly, smoothly, and true to the author's intent as I can, which means lots of editing and googling as well. Click on my ko-fi button if you want to support my work.