Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Chapter 24 The talisman arises from the heart, and the breeze arises by itself
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Chen Shi took in this scene, envy swelling in his chest.
“If I could do that too, next time I lie down in a coffin, it’d be so damn flashy and cool.”
Grandpa activated the compass, and the wooden cart rolled outward.
“Grandpa, does this Young Master Xiao need to nourish his body in a corpse-nurturing ground too?” Chen Shi asked, craning his neck upward.
Grandpa kept his eyes fixed on the compass. “Once we reach the manor, don’t pry into others’ business.”
Hearing this, Chen Shi stopped asking questions. He simply turned back for one last look at the mysterious mountain estate, his heart brimming with curiosity.
This manor had been built jointly by Grandpa and a group of people with enigmatic backgrounds. No one here asked about origins or pasts; everyone tacitly followed some strange set of rules.
“It’s just like the ways of a criminal gang.”
Chen Shi blinked, thinking to himself, “Grandpa must’ve done plenty of bad things back in the day—maybe even heinous ones. But no matter how much bad he’s done, he’s still my grandpa.”
The grandfather and grandson pair returned to Huangpo Village. Before long, a shrill wail echoed from Chen Shi’s room. “Where’s my candied hawthorns? My rice cakes? And my little sugar figurine! Who stole them? Which damn thief took my treasures?!”
Grandpa was in the middle of drawing talismans when he saw Chen Shi storm out of his room, seething with rage.
“It has to be the other kids in the village—they snuck in while I was gone and stole my candied hawthorns, rice cakes, and sugar figurine! I was saving those, too precious to eat, and they gobbled them up! I’ll grab every last one of them!”
Chen Shi stomped outward in a fury, his face dark as storm clouds. “Torture them all!”
Grandpa called him back. “No one stole them. I tossed them out. You slept for seven days—they’d gone bad long ago.”
Chen Shi’s face fell into a miserable pout at once. But he quickly rallied his spirits and pleaded, “Grandpa, those treats you bought last time—I didn’t dare eat them all at once. Just a tiny bite a day, to make them last. Buy me some more...”
“No money.”
The old man set down his brush and glanced up at him. “Didn’t you earn four taels of silver exorcising evil in Huangyang Village? Hand over the silver to Grandpa. I’ll save it for you to buy a wife... er, get married, and buy you more treats too.”
Chen Shi grew wary. “I didn’t take any money for exorcising evil in Huangyang Village.”
Grandpa lowered his head and resumed drawing talismans. “When I was washing your clothes, I found four taels in your sleeve pocket. If it’s not yours, then it must be mine.”
“Thud.”
Chen Shi went pale, his knees buckling as he dropped to the ground in despair, his face practically screaming “no will to live.”
After a moment, Grandpa seemed to relent. He set down his cinnabar brush and tossed him a small piece of silver. “Here’s one tael. Get up already.”
Chen Shi clutched the recovered fragment of silver, tears of joy streaming down his face as he scrambled to his feet. “Thank you, Grandpa! Thank you!”
Blackie Pot was dozing in the corner and rolled his eyes, thinking, “The little master doesn’t even stop to think—who risked their life to earn that silver? It was all four taels yours to begin with, and now he gives you one, and you’re groveling in thanks. Played by the old man again.”
“Cheep cheep, cheep cheep!”
Chen Shi hid one hand behind his back while holding a chunk of exotic beast meat in the other, calling the dog over. Blackie Pot rose lazily and ambled to his side.
Chen Shi revealed his hand, whipping out the small knife hidden behind his back with a sinister grin as he grabbed Blackie Pot.
Blackie Pot munched on the meat, looking resigned to his fate.
Chen Shi drew a bit of black dog blood, then ducked into his room to tinker with something.
Blackie Pot couldn’t have cared less—until Chen Shi emerged with a thick stack of talismans, which he tied to all four of its legs with grass rope.
Blackie Pot jolted in fright and was about to bite them off when he saw Chen Shi tie two talismans to his own legs.
The talismans bore wind script, swirling like gusts in the breeze, with the characters for “Cloud-Riding” woven into the wind. In the center were the Big Dipper stars, beneath which lay the Six Ding and Six Jia, and at the bottom, a fusion of wind and Big Dipper script.
This was precisely the structure of the Galloping Horse Talisman.
When Chen Shi had crossed paths with Old Man Iron Brush, he’d outsped and slain him—but he’d coveted the Galloping Horse Talismans that Old Man Iron Brush and Zhao Ming had used for travel. So once his body had healed, he resolved to experiment with them.
Chen Shi channeled a fading wisp of true qi to activate the Galloping Horse Talismans on Blackie Pot’s four legs, while igniting the ones on his own.
“Blackie Pot, good things are for sharing.”
Chen Shi took a step forward with a laugh. “These were refined with your blood, after all—couldn’t leave you out!”
That single step unleashed a cool breeze beneath his feet, making it feel like he was gliding forward effortlessly. He covered a full six or seven feet with ease!
Even more wondrously, before his foot could land, another gust rose from below, lifting his body and propelling him onward after hovering three or four inches off the ground—requiring almost no effort!
Chen Shi was thrilled and astonished. He took a second step on the momentum.
This one went even farther—nearly ten feet!
His feet skimmed over the wind as if skating on ice, gliding forward without resistance. And crucially, this “ice” felt soft and yielding.
Combined with his normal stride, one step here equaled six or seven of his usual ones!
Blackie Pot was usually the steady type, but seeing Chen Shi gliding on breezes, darting about with uncanny speed, its playful side emerged. Without a word, it bounded forward on all fours.
“Whoosh—”
A black streak shot ahead, whipping up a gale that rattled the windows and shutters of houses lining Huangpo Village’s streets, flapping them wildly.
A distant “thud” rang out. Chen Shi watched as Blackie Pot rocketed like a cannonball into a dirt wall across the street, over a hundred paces away.
Chen Shi jumped in alarm and rushed over, only to see the black dog struggling to yank its head free from the wall—the dog’s head had punched a hole exactly its size right through.
The wall belonged to Old Zhou’s family.
Old Zhou spotted that it was the Chen family’s dog that had smashed his wall and fumed silently, not daring to speak up.
Blackie Pot pulled its head out and shook it like a rattle-drum.
Chen Shi was fretting over possible injuries when the dog suddenly perked up, its four paws churning wind as it howled off into the distance.
“Woof woof woof!”
Dog barks echoed from afar, rapidly fading.
Chen Shi hurried after it, only to see the dog romping through the wind like it was playing, swift as lightning or gale-force winds. With four legs, it was even faster than him!
“Whoosh!”
A sharp whoosh sliced past Chen Shi—it was Blackie Pot streaking by. Before he could even glimpse it clearly, another whoosh, and Blackie Pot was looping around Huangpo Village in manic laps, sending chickens scattering and dogs barking in panic.
The next instant, the dog burst out of Huangpo Village and into the mountains. Soon, birds exploded from the trees in all directions, while gusts shook the woods, trees swaying precariously.
Worried it might run into danger, Chen Shi chased after—but no matter what, he couldn’t catch up to Blackie Pot.
“Four legs really do outrun two!”
Chen Shi had just had the thought when a ferocious wind slammed into him. As it died down, Blackie Pot was right there in front of him, panting with its tongue lolling, eyes alight with excitement, tail wagging furiously.
Chen Shi hadn’t yet puzzled out its intent when—whoosh—Blackie Pot vanished again. Abruptly, a gale hit, and it reappeared before him, the little knife used for drawing blood clenched in its jaws. Then another whoosh, gone once more. When it returned, it carried the inkstone in its mouth.
In mere moments, with a few back-and-forths, Blackie Pot had fetched every single item Chen Shi used for drawing talismans.
Chen Shi got the idea and hesitated. “Blackie Pot, you just got bled, and Grandpa took some this morning for his talismans too. Too much blood in one day, and your body won’t hold up...”
“Woof woof!”
Blackie Pot barked excitedly, bouncing around him, urging Chen Shi to draw more Galloping Horse Talismans. The power on the ones tied to its legs had already waned by half, their effects diminished.
Chen Shi relented to its wishes, drew more black dog blood, ground cinnabar, and crafted a fresh batch of Galloping Horse Talismans.
Blackie Pot went berserk with another run, vanishing from sight in no time. A while later, a wailing wind approached from afar at breakneck speed. A gale blasted through, and the romping black dog rocketed past.
It rampaged like this for who-knows-how-long before finally tiring out. Exhausted as it was, its spirits remained sky-high.
Chen Shi pocketed the remaining Galloping Horse Talismans, then suddenly had an idea.
Not long after, he arrived in Huangyang Village to visit his only living friend, Liu Fugui.
Liu Fugui had recovered quite a bit, but for some reason this time, he treated Chen Shi with utmost deference—even fear. Gone was any trace of their old easy camaraderie.
Chen Shi felt disappointed and left in low spirits.
“Fugui’s scared of me now. He’s not my friend anymore. He even tried to kneel and kowtow, eyes full of terror. Just like all the other kids.”
Gangzi Village.
Granny Sha was a renowned shaman in the area, known far and wide across ten villages and more. While Godmother could protect and bless the villagers, Granny Sha could summon the departed souls.
If someone missed a loved one, they’d seek her out to call that soul back from the underworld.
If an elder died suddenly without revealing where the family silver was hidden, relatives would come begging Granny Sha to summon the soul and ask.
And those nursing grudges, unsatisfied even after killing their foe, would implore Granny Sha to summon the enemy’s soul for whipping, drowning, burning—to vent their hatred.
That day, Granny Sha was summoning a soul for a widow whose husband had passed. With his ghost called forth, the woman quizzed him on remarrying: selling off the family goods, taking the kids to marry into another village, even changing the children’s surname. She was just consulting him, of course—the dead man could object all he liked, powerless to stop her.
Suddenly, a sliver of light pierced the dark chamber, startling the husband’s ghost into a panicked yell.
Granny Sha looked over to see a small head peeking through the door crack—it was Chen Shi.
Chen Shi spotted Granny Sha and grinned wide, flashing a mouth full of white teeth.
Granny Sha’s heart skipped. She hurriedly dismissed the scheming widow. “Little Ten, what brings you here? Where’s your grandpa?”
She felt uneasy, alone with Chen Shi. She was actually a little afraid.
Chen Shi held a basket with green duck eggs inside, fruits and plums nestled beneath. He smiled. “Grandpa’s at home. I came to bring Granny some local specialties from our village.”
Granny Sha was stunned and took the basket. “Your grandpa tends to all this? Quite the effort on his part.”
“Not grown or raised by Grandpa—kind neighbors gifted them.”
Chen Shi’s tongue was honey-sweet. He polished a plum on his clothes and offered it. “Granny, try one—nice and sweet-tart!”
Granny Sha’s fear eased a bit as she laughed. “Chen Yindu’s a blunt old hammer who never knew a sweet word in his life. How’d he end up with a grandson as smooth-talking and capable as you? So sweet!”
She took a bite; there wasn’t a hint of sourness on her tongue. The plum was still a touch tart, of course—but her heart felt sweetened.
Still, she remained wary of Chen Shi and shooed him to head home before dark.
Chen Shi laughed. “No worries, Granny. I’ve got Galloping Horse Talismans tied to my legs—super fast. I’ll be home in a flash. Oh, your water jar’s empty. Let me fetch some for you.” With that, he grabbed the bucket and headed to the village well.
In no time, he’d filled Granny Sha’s water jar to the brim. He swept the floor, scrubbed pots, washed dishes and clothes, hung them to dry—ever so diligent.
Granny Sha stopped him. “No favors without a catch—either crook or thief. Out with it. What do you really want from Granny?”
Chen Shi wiped the water from his hands on his backside, beaming with fawning cheer. “Grandpa says you love and dote on me most. You held me as a baby. When I was hurt, you even tried every trick to summon my soul. And this time, you saved me again. It’s only right I show some diligence.”
Granny Sha sneered. “Chen Yindu paid up front, that’s why I saved you. Fair trade, no need for your flattery. I don’t do favors or feelings—only business. Spit it out. What’s the real reason?”
Chen Shi had no choice but to come clean. “Granny, any abandoned old temples in the wild hills around Qianyang Mountain? Ones that pop up out of nowhere, long forgotten, no one burning incense there. The older, the better!”
Granny Sha’s heart stirred faintly. “What do you want a place like that for?”