Knife splashing

Chapter 84: The Cold Altar Master
The so-called charity cemetery originated from the customs of the Song Dynasty.

Among the clans in various places, some are rich and some are poor. The rich ones use their money to set up charity cemeteries, which not only have ancestral halls and public fields, but also have private school teachers to teach the poor children in the clan to read and write.

In any place, when wealthy people set up charity cemeteries, it is a good deed that is praised by everyone.

Of course, it costs a lot to maintain a charity cemetery of this size. As the family declines, many charity cemeteries end up with only one function left, which is to store corpses.

Especially in a big city like Xianyang, which is close to an ancient ferry, there are many merchants traveling back and forth from the south and the north, as well as people coming from other places to make a living, so it is inevitable that some people will die in a foreign land.

People in Shenzhou believe in returning to their roots, so after death, these people are often placed in charity cemeteries, waiting for their fellow villagers to show kindness or for their clansmen to come and transport them back to their hometowns.

Xianyang City Yizhuang is located to the west of the city.

This place was once a royal hunting ground in ancient times, so the terrain is wide, there are large hills and dense forests, and a Medicine King Temple.

The road leading to Yizhuang is surrounded by mountains and forests on both sides.

There are also many coffins parked in the mountains and forests. They are usually built with bricks and stones to create a platform three inches off the ground, and then a round cover is built, in which the coffin is placed.

Some are very old, with collapsed bricks and stones and covered with moss...

Some even didn’t have a stone platform, but just used a wooden frame to prop it up, which had already decayed and collapsed, and even the coffins had cracked and turned black…

Seeing Li Yan and the other two looking around, Wang Daoxuan explained, "This is called a floating house. According to funeral etiquette, the coffin cannot be placed on the ground before it is buried. Sometimes, when descendants do not have time to break the ground, or when the person dies in a foreign land, they must first be placed on a floating house."

Sharifei said with a sigh, "It seems that no one cares about these things. They are poor during their lifetime and cannot rest in peace after their death. Really..."

“It’s not just poverty.”

Wang Daoxuan shook his head and said, "Many wealthy families are like this too."

Li Yan frowned, "Why?"

Wang Daoxuan laughed dumbly, "I want to find a good feng shui site to bury my ancestors and bring blessings to my descendants, but it's hard to find a good site, so many coffins of wealthy families have been left unburied for more than ten years."

"What a sin!" Sharifei cursed, "These unfilial sons, for the sake of wealth and fame, let their elders be exposed to the wind and sun, unable to rest in peace, and they are not afraid of retribution!"

Wang Daoxuan was also somewhat helpless. “The court has repeatedly banned this matter, but it continues because the nobles in the court do this, and the rich and powerful follow suit, and even the common people follow suit.”

After hearing his story, the two asked questions one after another.

"Master, is Feng Shui really useful?"

"Of course it is useful. If you are buried in a spiritual vein treasure cave, the aura will cover you, and your descendants will also be blessed. However, the blood of each generation is thinner, so the effect will be worse. Even if it is a good treasure cave, it can only bring blessings to three generations."

"However, a hundred years is enough to make a family prosperous, so many Feng Shui masters travel all over the country. As long as they find a good cave, they can sell it for a good price."

"But these are just small forces after all!"

"Look at those royal families. Which one of them didn't spend a lot of manpower and money to find the best treasure caves? But in the world of mortals, everything is just a passing cloud."

"As for the Zhou family, after Zhou Houzi's mother died, they spent a lot of money to find a master from the Jiang Xiang Sect in Ganzhou to find an auspicious grave. At that time, they had a grand funeral. It was only two or three years ago."

"If one's virtue does not match one's position, no matter how good the feng shui is, it will be useless..."

The three of them chatted as they walked and soon approached the charity cemetery.

After all, it is the Xianyang Charity House, and it covers a large area. However, due to its age, it looks a bit dilapidated, and even some of the earth walls have collapsed halfway.

Li Yan also learned his lesson. Whenever he got close to these places, he would first pinch the Yang Jue and use his sense of smell to see if there was anything unusual.

All of a sudden, all kinds of smells flooded into my nose.

Li Yan's face looked ugly and he almost fell over due to choking.

The smell of rotting corpses from different eras was truly unbearable for him.

Wang Daoxuan smiled and said, "Xianyang Yizhuang is guarded all year round, and the City God Temple also sends people to perform rituals regularly to clean up the filthy and evil spirits, so there won't be any evil things causing trouble."

"But in some remote charity cemeteries, strange things often happen there, and the guards must be people from the Xuanmen sect to suppress them..."

As they were talking, several people had already entered the charity cemetery.

Because Li Yan specifically instructed and Sha Lifei gave enough money, Wu Laosi's coffin was well taken care of and stored separately without being exposed to wind and sun.

Wang Daoxuan bought some offerings on the way. After the three of them burned incense one by one, they agreed on the time to move the coffin with the old man who was guarding the charity cemetery before leaving.

As soon as he went out, Li Yan found something wrong.

He turned his head suddenly and saw a man covered in blood and pierced by chains in the deep forest on the left. He slowly raised his hand and pointed to an area.

It was exactly the same as what I saw in my dream that night!
He shuddered, reached out to grab the knife, and at the same time pinched the Yang Jue.

However, there was no unusual smell.

In the blink of an eye, the figure disappeared again.

"what happened?"

Seeing this, Sharifei asked quickly.

Li Yan's face looked grim, "I seem to have been stained with something unclean."

Then, he told about his dream last night and what he saw today.

"You must be dazzled!" Sharifei shook his head and said, "The Taoist priest and I didn't see anything, and you didn't smell anything either."

"wrong."

Wang Daoxuan frowned, "I've seen records of the situation you're talking about in ancient books." "It should be Master Lengtan Youshi!"

…………

"Here it is."

After returning to the Taoist Temple, Wang Daoxuan searched for a long time before he found a page in a torn ancient book and showed it to Li Yan.

I saw it was written: During the period of Daxing, the Golden Horde Wolf Kingdom invaded from the south. I saw my master in my dream and in the daytime, and I was terrified. Later, I was guided by a wandering Taoist priest and learned about the Lengtan wandering master. I entered Mount Zhongnan and found the Lengtan in the cave, where I worshipped Chen Tianjun and inherited the vein of Xixuan...

Wang Daoxuan patiently explained: "This is a record of my Xixuan lineage, but unfortunately it is incomplete. Later, I asked Senior Qingyangzi for advice, and then I learned about Master Lengtan Youshi's theory."

"You have also seen Lengtan rampant soldiers. Lengtan wandering masters are a bit similar. When some people with profound magic skills die, because there are no disciples to continue the incense of the magic lineage, they perform magic and turn into wandering gods, just to find someone to inherit the magic lineage."

"This thing is also called immortal fate. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the world was in chaos, demons prospered and Taoism declined. Many Dharma lineages were cut off, so the activities of Lengtan wandering masters were the most frequent. Some of them were introduced to the people, and then there were stories of immortals preaching in dreams..."

Li Yan frowned slightly, "Is there any danger?"

Wang Daoxuan said thoughtfully: "From what Senior Qingyangzi said, if you encounter this situation, you only need to follow the instructions and go to the cold altar. If you don't want to inherit, it means that the blessing of this lineage is completely cut off, and the other party will not bother you anymore."

"Besides, this thing often depends on fate. Have you encountered any strange things before?"

"It's more than just strange..."

Li Yan sighed, raised the seal on his palm, and recounted the situation in the cave and Luo Mingzi's warning.

"That's just right."

Wang Daoxuan said in a deep voice: "Didn't Luo Mingzi say that we should find out the reason first? Maybe we can find the source by following Master Lengtanyou!"

……

In the following days, the cold and wandering master appeared frequently again.

Li Yan was annoyed, but he also figured out the pattern.

The other party may occasionally appear in dreams, which can be avoided by paying attention, but if he appears in broad daylight, no matter where he is, he will always point to the south.

And that is where the Qinling Mountains are!
Fortunately, just as Wang Daoxuan said, the other party did not take any other actions except occasionally showing up to give directions. After Li Yan gradually got used to it, he was no longer worried.

Of course, there is one more item in the plan.

After sending Wu Laosi back home, they first entered the Qinling Mountains.

After all, it was an opportunity. If it was more suitable for him, then he would have a better choice when building the tower.

In this way, September 9th came unknowingly.

On the Double Ninth Festival, all things return to the true nature and a new year begins, which brings good luck.

Since ancient times, people have had the custom of climbing high places to pray for blessings, worshiping gods and ancestors, and feasting to pray for longevity on this day. In some places, harvest ceremonies are also held to worship the sky.

Today was the time they had agreed with Luo Mingzi to go to the mass grave to watch the ceremony of enthroning the mountain god, so they all got up early to prepare.

Before dawn, someone knocked on the door.

Li Yan opened the door and saw that it was his neighbor, Grandma Liu.

She was carrying a bamboo basket, which contained a dozen persimmons, ziba cakes, and a small bottle of wine. They were neatly arranged and looked very pretty.

"Brother Li, I'm afraid you haven't prepared anything for the Double Ninth Festival." Granny Liu smiled and handed over the basket, "I made it at home, try it."

"You are so polite, grandma."

Before Li Yan could say anything, Sharifei grabbed it, grabbed a piece of Ziba and stuffed it into his mouth, muttering, "It's delicious. Grandma, you are a good cook."

"Eat, eat you unlucky bastard!"

Granny Liu's expression changed immediately.

Sharifei chuckled and quickly brought out a roast chicken wrapped in lotus leaves from the house, "Grandma, calm down. I wish you good health."

Granny Liu took the roast chicken and her expression eased a little. She looked at them again and said, "You are dressed so neatly, are you going to climb a mountain?"

As he said this, he hurried back home, took three dogwood branches with emerald green leaves and fiery red beads, and handed them to Li Yan, saying, "We are all grown men, and we don't know anything. How can we climb high without dogwood branches? It's really not possible to have no women at home."

"That's that."

Sharifei responded with, "Grandma Liu, we are in a hurry, so we will leave first!"

After saying that, he hurriedly closed the door and left with Li Yan and Wang Daoxuan.

"Hey!"

Granny Liu couldn't stop him and stamped her feet in anger, "What a wicked bald guy!"

Li Yan and his two companions rode away from the gate of Xianyang City. Sharifei smiled and said, "The kind of gift you just gave is only given by your parents to your son-in-law. I'm afraid Granny Liu wants to recruit you as her son-in-law."

Li Yan was stunned. He looked at Wang Daoxuan who was smiling but not saying anything. He then thought of the appearance of Granny Liu's daughter. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, Uncle Sha, for saving me."

"It's good to know!"

Sharifei laughed, divided the dogwood branches that Granny Liu had given him, put them in their collars, and rode his horse towards the mass grave...

(End of this chapter)