Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: Ace
Chapter:
Chapter Title: The Gray-Clothed Rat and the Trapped Nascent Souls
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Chen Shi didn't reply at first. He suddenly spoke up.
"The evil is right nearby. How dare you all draw close?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the crowd around him scattered.
"Get even farther away."
The crowd retreated even more.
Chen Shi took out a stick of incense, lit it, and stuck it by the foot of the gray-clothed rat.
"Your Excellency hails from out of town, doesn't he? Might I ask which mountain your esteemed home is on?"
The gray-clothed rat sniffed at the fragrance, a look of intoxication crossing its face.
"How did you know I'm not from Qianyang Mountain?"
Chen Shi smiled faintly.
"I'm most familiar with Qianyang Mountain. I've seen every kind of evil there is, but never you. Did you cultivate into an evil from a rat?"
The gray-clothed rat said,
"I'm from Granny Black Mountain's sect, dwelling on Black Mountain. Today I passed through your treasured land for a bit of autumn scavenging. I heard you've got a demon outbreak going on here. Granny said if too many fellow daoists end up dead, we could just move right in."
Chen Shi frowned slightly. Black Mountain lay on the far side of the De River, much smaller in scale than Qianyang Mountain.
The evils of Black Mountain and Qianyang Mountain had always kept to themselves without intrusion. This gray-clothed rat coming to Qianyang Mountain to devour people likely meant it figured the outbreak had wiped out plenty of locals, leaving the territory ripe for the taking.
"So you're one of Granny Black Mountain's subordinates. I've long heard tales of her renown."
Chen Shi's expression eased. He smiled.
"Trouble Your Excellency to carry a message back to Granny Black Mountain for me. Tell her..."
The gray-clothed rat listened closely. Chen Shi stepped right up to it in one stride and unleashed a punch.
The rat couldn't dodge in time. It ignored any counterattack and whipped up its tail instead, bringing the tip straight down toward the top of Chen Shi's head!
A thunderous roar exploded in its ears. Chen Shi's fist hadn't even landed yet, but the rat's soul had already shattered!
"Bang!"
Chen Shi's fist smashed into its chin. The gray-clothed rat's neck twisted into a hemp braid. Its body spun through the air and crashed several zhang away. It twitched a few times and went still.
Even so, the thunderous sound from that punch had killed it before the fist could connect.
Low-level evils like this feared thunderous sounds above all else.
They had to hole up during thunderstorms, lest the roar alone shake them to death.
Chen Shi had endured the grief of losing his grandfather, but once he pulled himself together, he'd cultivated diligently day and night. His Big Dipper Seven Refinements—bone, heart, blood, flesh, skin, qi, and spirit—grew ever stronger. The thunder from his fists and feet boomed louder than ever, shattering souls and wounding spirits with ease.
The thunder produced by his strikes might not be a true spell, but it was better than any spell.
"To take root on my Qianyang Mountain, have you paid your respects to the local powers yet?"
Chen Shi barked.
Sudden drowsiness washed over him. He couldn't help but close his eyes, a smile on his face. He fell asleep standing right there.
He snapped awake in an instant, chills running down his spine.
He'd struck first, yet the gray-clothed rat's tail tip had still touched the top of his head. A casual couple of strokes, and he'd plunged into slumber!
He'd never encountered a technique like this before!
"This evil's got something off about it! It knows spells!"
Chen Shi strode up to the gray-clothed rat. Suddenly, a bang came from the hem of its robe. A paper talisman hidden beneath the cloth burst into flame.
In the firelight, Chen Shi saw it clearly: an Invisibility Talisman.
Drawing an Invisibility Talisman was an incredibly fiddly process. It had to be done on clamshell paper.
Making clamshell paper was its own hassle.
Clams were mirages—beasts adept at concealment, capable of exhaling illusory mirages to hide their true forms.
A mirage that lived a thousand years became a clam.
One harvested the shell, ground it to powder, mixed it into paper pulp, and dried it into sheets: clamshell paper.
Then came grinding ink from cinnabar and black dog blood. At the top, one inscribed an edict. Below that, scriptures of the Three Pure Ones. Further down, the characters "Rain Clarify," "Rain Lake," and "Rain Pure," referring to the immortals Han Zhongli, Lü Dongbin, and Han Xiangzi. Beneath those, the hidden script of the Big Dipper, along with three kinds of hexagram hidden scripts and a jade ring seal.
Few talisman masters knew how to draw Invisibility Talismans. Chen Shi and his grandfather had sold talismans all around Qianyang Mountain without ever running into one.
Yet this rat-turned-evil carried a precious Invisibility Talisman while out preying on people. That was odd.
"Just what is Granny Black Mountain's deal? How does she equip her rat underlings with something this rare? Why would an evil even know spells?"
Chen Shi was deeply puzzled.
At that moment, the man who'd lost his forearm stirred awake. He clutched at the stump and wailed in agony before passing out again.
Chen Shi had people hurry him off to a physician. His life could still be saved.
As for the gray-clothed rat, its corpse didn't melt into foul blood and vanish after death. The body remained intact, which piqued Chen Shi's curiosity no end.
Wire-Pulling Worms dissolved into stinking blood after he and Li Tianqing killed them, but this gray-clothed rat was clearly something else.
"Too bizarre. Do evils come in different types, then?"
Chen Shi pulled out paper and brush. He sketched the gray-clothed rat's distinguishing features, lavishing special detail on its tail.
Beside the illustration of the rat, he noted its traits and its vulnerability to thunderous sounds.
"It can be slain with a Thunder Talisman."
Chen Shi set down his brush, blew on the still-wet ink, folded the paper into his book, then drew a small knife. He stepped forward and sliced off the tip of the gray-clothed rat's tail for a closer look.
The tip appeared tempered, or perhaps it was just born that way—like red jade, both translucent and supple.
Chen Shi pressed the tail tip against his own head a few times. He toppled over at once and slept deeply, an eerie smile on his face.
A moment later, he woke with a start and stared in horror at the tail tip.
Blackie Pot rolled its eyes nearby. The little master was being foolish again, testing it on himself.
Chen Shi realized he shouldn't experiment on himself. He rubbed the tail tip on the dog's head twice instead. Blackie Pot lolled out its tongue, went rigid in all four limbs, toppled over stiffly, and slept soundly.
"This thing's a treasure!"
Chen Shi was utterly amazed. He pocketed the tail tip and thought to himself,
"I can sell it to insomniacs in the city. Plenty would pay top dollar! Wonder if Black Mountain has more evils like this. I could collect a bunch."
Blackie Pot woke and promptly put some distance between them.
Chen Shi returned to the village to keep selling talismans. As evening fell and he prepared to close up shop, someone came rushing over in a panic.
"Talisman Master Chen! Talisman Master Chen! We've got an evil in our village too. Please come at once!"
Chen Shi asked,
"What's going on? Don't panic. Tell me slowly."
The man caught his breath. Someone handed him water. He took two gulps and said,
"Our village's Cui'e is pregnant, belly all swollen up. By the dates, she's due any day now. We were all thrilled at first, but her husband insisted on pressing his ear to her belly to listen. And he heard two people talking inside Cui'e's stomach."
Chen Shi jumped in alarm. People talking inside a pregnant woman's belly?
"Two grown adults' voices. One sounded older, like forty or fifty. The other was younger, a woman, but still sounded twenty or thirty."
The man said,
"How could a pregnant belly make noises like that? She's clearly been hit by an evil!"
Chen Shi hopped right onto his wooden cart and hauled the man aboard.
"Sit tight. Blackie Pot, up you get!"
Blackie Pot jumped on. Chen Shi activated the Galloping Horse Talisman on the wheels. The cart had always jolted along unsteadily before, but now the wheels spun like mad. It whistled out of the village, fast as a galloping steed.
"Which village?"
Chen Shi called out.
"Deer Tail Town!" the man yelled back.
Chen Shi gripped his compass to steer. The little cart hurtled along, flying straight for Deer Tail Town.
Deer Tail Town lay over seventy li from Huangpo Village. It counted as one of the villages and towns near Qianyang Mountain, built at the foot of a branch ridge. From afar, that ridge resembled a deer's rear end, with Deer Tail Town perched right on the tail.
During this Moon Sacrifice Festival outing to sell talismans, Chen Shi hadn't fixed on a spot ahead of time. He'd ended up in villages near Deer Tail Town, only twenty-odd li away. He reached the town before nightfall.
Ever since his grandfather had passed to the underworld, his courage had grown by leaps and bounds. In the past, he'd never have dared travel this far.
Chen Shi halted the cart and gazed toward Deer Tail Town's Godmother.
Deer Tail Town's Godmother was an ancient bell tower. The ground floor was stone-built, with stone steps leading upstairs. The second story was a pavilion, its four sides sealed with doors and windows. An old, massive bell hung inside—coppery in spots, with patches of verdigris elsewhere.
Over time, the villagers' worship had given the bell tower a spirit. It gathered extraordinary power, condensing it into a divine image: a bright-eyed, handsome little Daoist boy seated beneath the bell.
That was what Chen Shi was looking at.
The little Daoist sat ramrod straight, palms of hands, soles of feet, and crown of head all facing upward—five centers toward heaven.
His cultivation was mighty, far surpassing any village Godmother. His power blanketed a full li or more across.
"With a Godmother this formidable guarding the place, how did an evil slip into town and possess a pregnant woman?"
Chen Shi couldn't figure it.
They reached the pregnant woman's home. A crowd thronged outside, craning their necks to peer into the courtyard. None dared go in.
Chen Shi stepped inside Cui'e's house. His senses were keen; from a distance, he picked up two voices murmuring secretly within.
"What do we do, Master? We can't get back!"
A woman's voice.
"Don't panic, don't panic. Your master will think of something!"
A man's voice.
Chen Shi drew near. There sat the pregnant woman on a reclining chair, belly protruding, looking terrified. Her husband stood awkwardly at her side.
Chen Shi motioned for them to stay silent. He sat down in front of Cui'e and heard a voice from her belly.
"We've been out two days now. If Master doesn't get us back soon, I'm afraid my body won't hold out!"
"No worries, no worries. The body can last seven days without food or water—no dying from that. Give me time to figure out how to get out... Damn it, my teacher never taught me this stuff! If there's no other way, we'll just kill the woman, rip out through her belly, and return to our bodies!"
Chen Shi smiled at Cui'e's husband.
"Five taels of silver."
The man looked troubled.
Chen Shi said,
"Go collect it from the clan elders. Tell them if I don't cure your wife, everyone else in town will end up possessed too."
Cui'e's husband hurried off.
Chen Shi let out a breath of relief. Exorcisms paid way better than peddling talismans.
A woman's voice came from Cui'e's belly again.
"Another charlatan's shown up."
"Scare him off then. Don't bother me."
Chen Shi chuckled.
"You two Dao brothers wouldn't happen to be Nascent Souls who left your bodies, only to get stuck in a pregnant woman's belly, would you?"
At those words, silence fell over Cui'e's belly.
"How did you know we're trapped Nascent Souls?"
The man's voice asked.
Chen Shi smiled faintly. His grandfather had told him stories like this.
Cultivators who refined a Nascent Soul couldn't resist sending it out to roam the beautiful rivers and mountains, frolic in the human world, and gain insights.
But a Nascent Soul leaving the body was incredibly perilous. It had to avoid winds and thunder—and pregnant women or livestock most of all.
A gust of wind would gradually disperse it. A thunderbolt would scatter its soul to the winds.
Pregnant women and beasts were even deadlier.
The bellies of those in labor formed a natural wheel of reincarnation, a Mysterious Womb Gate.
Any Nascent Soul that drew near would get sucked right in, with no chance to fight back. It would open its eyes to find itself a fetus in the womb—or worse, livestock like a cat, dog, cow, or sheep.
Worse still, the Purple River Cart in the womb served as an infant's innate cushion. Once seated upon it, there was no getting up.
The amniotic fluid was a natural draught of Meng Po's soup. At first, a Nascent Soul could resist after entering the womb. But prolonged soaking would erode its memories, reducing it to a blank-slate infant.
His grandfather had once recounted such a case: the belly of an innocent young maiden echoed with an old woman's sobs. Upon inquiring, he learned the old lady had refined a Nascent Soul. It left her body to visit a friend but wandered into a home mid-delivery. She paused for a single glance—and awoke inside the womb.
The maiden in question was no longer innocent. She'd been carrying on with the boy next door and had secretly conceived.
"Young brother, do you know a way to save us?"
The man asked.
The woman sounded desperate too.
"If you can save our master and disciple, we'll never forget your great kindness and virtue. We'd repay it a thousandfold!"
"With our lives, if need be!"
The man added.
Chen Shi said,
"Calm yourselves. I do have a method to get you out and back to your bodies. As for repayment, we'll discuss that separately."
Cui'e's husband returned, bringing five taels scraped together by the village.
Chen Shi took up his brush and wrote a line on paper, handing it to the man to prepare.
Cui'e's husband was illiterate. He rushed it out to the crowd. A literate villager read it aloud.
"The Talisman Master says to fetch the midwife and prepare for the birth. Oh, and tell the midwife not to speak."
Moments later, the midwife arrived. She had Cui'e head back to her room and lie down—no exposure to drafts. She sent Cui'e's husband off to boil water.
Chen Shi ground cinnabar while addressing the master and disciple in Cui'e's belly.
"I'll draw two talismans. One goes on the woman's navel, the other on her lower back. Then I'll perform the rite and open a path back to your fleshly bodies. When you see light shining through, rush outward. Don't hesitate. If the light fades, you won't get another chance."
The man and woman agreed at once.
Chen Shi drew the talismans. One was a Fetus-Securing Talisman. The other, a Labor-Inducing Talisman.
He pasted the Fetus-Securing Talisman over her navel and the Labor-Inducing Talisman on her lower back.
Cui'e went into labor but didn't dare make a sound. The midwife fussed about busily, silent as a mouse.
Chen Shi stepped out of the room and waited. Moments later, the midwife's delighted voice rang out from within.
"She's given birth! She's given birth! A boy and a girl—two fat babies!"