Starting from the folklore forum, making up town objects

Chapter 491 The Tree of Yin Virtue

Chen Xin followed the group of 'people' and walked on. As he walked, he realized that these ghosts were not heading towards the interior of Qingshan Town, but towards the green mountain outside Qingshan Town!
This surprised Chen Xin.

"Are these guys going into the mountains?"

Chen Xin thought for a moment and decided to quicken his pace to see what was ahead. As long as he knew the general direction, he could always find his way back if he went astray.

Thinking this, the rustling sound of the paper rubbing against Chen Xin's body increased.

Chen Xin headed towards the direction of Qingshan, and gradually, he saw the group of 'people' walking at the very front.

That group of 'people' had created a distance of thirty or forty meters between themselves and the main force behind them.

Upon closer inspection, Chen Xin discovered something that surprised him.

That first group consisted of twenty or thirty 'people,' all of whom were humanoid and ghostly, but not entirely human.

Each ghost's general shape is very similar to a human, but there are always some features that highlight their true nature.

For example, there is a seemingly normal old man with a white beard who is using a cane, but in fact, the cane is part of his body.

For example, a person whose upper body is like that of an ordinary person, but whose lower body has three legs.

For example, there's that one with an extra mouth opening on its neck...

All of this broadened Chen Xin's horizons.

Chen Xin's overall impression of them was that they wanted to disguise themselves as humans, but their skills and techniques were not up to par, so they failed to do it well!

With this concept in mind, Chen Xin observed some patterns in the main force.

Those walking at the front and in the middle of the main group all had some that resembled 'humans'.

Those walking on the sides behind were all sorts of random, disorganized things.

It seems that 'humanoid' is a standard for class division.

Chen Xin's illusory body, the 'paper doll,' is also 'human-shaped.' Apart from lacking skin and flesh, the illusory body's human form is more standard than most ghostly forms.

This might be why he walked from the back to the front without encountering any problems.

Chen Xin also saw some random people trying to squeeze into the front row, but they were all turned away.

With that in mind, Chen Xin wanted to give it a try and see if he could make it into the top tier!

Immediately, he broke away from the main force and stepped alone onto the open space between the first echelon and the main force.

As he took larger strides and gradually distanced himself from the main force, some sneaky individuals in the front ranks of the main force turned their attention to him.

But no one stepped forward to stop it.

Seeing this, Chen Xin was about to hurry forward.

But when he was halfway there, his pace involuntarily slowed down.

Because there was some movement ahead.

As Chen Xin drew closer, some of the people in front turned their heads slightly to look at Chen Xin's position behind them.

Chen Xin hesitated for a moment and did not continue forward.

After all, we're here to check the situation; there's no need to attract the attention of those 'people'.

He immediately slowed down and eventually rejoined the main force.

Only then did the first group of people turn around.

After walking with the main group for about half an hour, and after going around the first mountain, Chen Xin finally arrived at their destination.

A huge valley, in the center of which grows a dead tree that is thirty or forty meters tall.

After the first group of 'people' arrived at the location of the tree, they did not approach it, but instead dispersed and surrounded the tree.

After entering the valley, the main force also began to disperse, forming another, larger encirclement.

If we consider the first echelon as the inner circle and the main force as the outer circle.

Chen Xin was on the innermost side of the outer circle, thirty meters away from the first group and fifty meters away from the big tree.

At this moment, he didn't know what would happen next, nor did he know what he should do, so he kept observing the ghostly figures around him.

But those ghosts acted as if they were at home, sitting, standing, lying down, or nestling around.

Aside from never leaving their current location, they do all sorts of things.

Seeing this, Chen Xin also sat down cross-legged, blending perfectly with the other ghosts.

Time in the Ghost Realm is exactly the opposite of the time Chen Xin perceives in the outside world.

Basically, when the sun rises outside, night falls in the underworld.

Apart from that, time passes at the same rate.

Chen Xin kept track of time outside. Around 2 a.m. in the Ghost Realm, when the moon in the Ghost Realm was directly above the withered tree, the situation changed.

The moonlight, transformed into a tangible mist, poured from the moon onto the enormous, withered tree. As the moonlight touched the branches and trunk, tender buds began to sprout from the withered tree.

In just over ten breaths, the bare, withered tree had grown another ten meters taller.

By this time, the tree was no longer what it used to be.

As Chen Xin watched in amazement, observing the suspicious surroundings, the leaves on the tree began to turn yellow.

It looks like it's about to wither!
However, Chen Xin soon realized he was wrong.

That's not turning yellow or withering, but rather the leaves turning towards golden leaves!
In the blink of an eye, the once lush and green trees have turned into a golden shimmering display!

Just as Chen Xin was surprised, the first group of 'people' finally made a move.

They all spread their hands out and stretched them upwards, as if welcoming something.

As Chen Xin wondered, he saw the branches of the big tree above swaying, scattering hundreds or even thousands of golden leaves.

The leaves fell haphazardly, yet landed precisely in the palms of different 'people'.

Some people have more leaves in their palms, while others have slightly fewer.

No one objected to this.

Just as Chen Xin was waiting to see what would happen next, he saw the big tree start to shake violently. Then, countless leaves floated up from the tree and flew in all directions.

Around them, the ghosts with hands raised their hands, those without hands raised their feet, and those with neither hands nor feet simply opened their mouths.

As they moved, the golden leaves drifted down towards them little by little.

Chen Xin looked closely and saw that almost every ghost had caught a leaf, but some ghosts caught two, and three were very rare, not to mention the first group where each person caught more than ten leaves.

Seeing this, Chen Xin also stretched out his palm.

Suddenly, five golden leaves fell from the sky!

Chen Xin looked at the leaf in his hand in surprise, wondering what was going on.

He glanced at the ghosts beside him, all of whom were holding their own leaves, seemingly waiting for something.

Chen Xin followed suit.

Just as all the leaves in the sky fell, Chen Xin saw the first group of 'people' move.

They opened their mouths and swallowed the leaves!
At the same time, the ghosts around Chen Xin did the same thing, all eagerly swallowing the leaves in their hands. Then, Chen Xin noticed some surprising changes.

The closest monster with ox hooves, an ox tail, and an ox head, after swallowing two leaves, saw its tail shrink by about a hand's width.

If they hadn't been so close, Chen Xin probably wouldn't have noticed.

Turning his head, Chen Xin continued to observe the other ghostly figures.

But only those sneaky creatures that ate a lot of leaves could be detected by Chen Xin; those who only ate one leaf showed no change.

Suddenly, Chen Xin paused, turning to look at the few suspicious figures beside him.

At this moment, all their eyes were fixed on his hands!

Or rather, fixate on those five leaves!
Perhaps it was because Chen Xin's human form was relatively complete, or perhaps it was because of the existence of that tree that had turned back into a dead tree, or perhaps it was because of some rules that Chen Xin was unaware of.

These ghosts merely watched, without taking anything.

Seeing this, Chen Xin looked down at the leaf in his hand.

Apart from the color, the leaves are no different from ordinary leaves.

But why can it transform ghosts into human form?

Chen Xin was puzzled, so he made the phantom swallow the leaf in his hand.

At that moment, Chen Xin could even hear the sighs and swallowing sounds coming from the ghosts around him.

But Chen Xin paid no attention to these ghosts at this moment, because after he swallowed the leaves, they disappeared in his throat just like when he ate candied hawthorns!

Immediately, Chen Xin opened the "Complete Guide to Suppressing Objects"!
In the book, in the section on "Hidden Virtue," there is an extra number in parentheses.

50!

Chen Xin was stunned.

Can leaves really be transformed into special acts of good karma?
One leaf is equivalent to 10 points of special merit, so what about that tree...?

Chen Xin recalled the leaves on that tree earlier; there must have been tens of thousands of them. If Chen Xin ate them all, that would amount to hundreds of thousands of special merits!
Chen Xin neither knew nor cared how much his vital energy could soar from hundreds of thousands of special merits.

What he was concerned about was why these leaves could transform into special merits.

What rules govern the number of these leaves?
In the realm of ghosts, what else can be transformed into special acts of good deeds, and why would it be transformed into special acts of good deeds?

Also, what's the deal with this tree? Why does it grow leaves with special yin virtue?

This tree exists in Qingshan Town, but not in other places.
A series of questions popped into Chen Xin's mind, but before he could resolve them, a new situation arose.

Suddenly, Chen Xin heard some sounds, the sounds of human voices.

Although these sounds were faint, they penetrated Chen Xin's mind as if they were branded onto it. Even if Chen Xin did not deliberately try to remember them, he could recall the content of those words.

During the process, Chen Xin also saw other ghostly situations, and without exception, they all seemed to be listening to something.

The sound lasted for a full hour, finally stopping around 3 a.m.

After it was over, Chen Xin sorted through the things etched in his mind and was somewhat surprised.

The words etched in my mind included how to make tofu, how to feed donkeys, simple cooking methods, precautions for working in the fields, knowledge about buying and selling, and knowledge about interpersonal communication, among others.

Chen Xin immediately thought of the old man who had once appeared in the stone mill courtyard.

If he wasn't mistaken, the old man's knowledge of making and selling tofu must have come from this.

But why?

Why teach these ghostly things?
And who is teaching?
Chen Xin suddenly felt a sense of loss of control, as if he were facing an unknown situation beyond his control.

This feeling of being out of control made him somewhat flustered.

Just then, the ghosts around them stirred.

The first group of dozens of people made their move first.

They left through the path cleared by all the ghosts, and then the other ghosts followed one by one from the inside out, heading towards Green Mountain Town.

Chen Xin mingled among them, his mind heavy with worry.

By the time we got back to town, it was already past four in the morning.

Upon arriving in town, all the ghosts seemed to have been freed from their restraints, scattering in all directions, some even fighting amongst themselves.

Chen Xin headed straight for his home and returned to his own yard.

Sitting on the bench in the yard, Chen Xin was still thinking about what had just happened.

But even as dawn broke and he thought about how the paper figure's body had transformed back into flesh, he still couldn't figure it out.

Hearing the growing noise outside, Chen Xin put his doubts aside.

In the end, he had only just arrived here, and his gains had already surpassed the information the Xia family had given him.

After what happened at night, Chen Xin felt that the ghost realm during the day seemed to be just a performance.

The performance teaches how to be a person, how to interact with others, and how to survive in human society.

But why learn these things?
Chen Xin did not believe that these ghosts could leave the ghost realm and go to the mortal world.

The barriers of each level of the Netherworld tightly bound them; even the turbid ghosts of the sixth level could not escape, let alone those turbid ghosts in the deeper levels.

Based on the information obtained from Xia Wuyou and Chen Xin's own experiments, the deeper into the Netherworld, the stronger the barrier.

It was as if an invisible hand was throwing ghosts of different strengths into different levels of the netherworld.

In this way, the turbid ghosts cannot break through the netherworld and enter the mortal world.

But if they don't go to the mortal world, what are these ghosts supposed to do with all this knowledge?
Suddenly, Chen Xin thought of a possibility.

"Could it be that unknown entity wants to educate these ghosts and then establish a world like the mortal realm in the underworld?"

That makes sense.

Chen Xin didn't believe that he could have as many golden leaves as he wanted, so that unknown entity must have a purpose.

And this purpose...

Chen Xin thought of the first team from last night.

Perhaps, we'll know once those 'people' in the first tier have truly removed all their non-human parts.

"Let's go check again tonight. I'm afraid it won't be long before some real people appear in the first tier."

Chen Xin got up and walked towards the room.

He's going to make tofu!
As for why, one reason is to follow the rules here, and the other is Chen Xin's guess.

Speculation about the distribution of those leaves.

If Chen Xin's guess is correct, the number of leaves given to different ghosts is related to the wealth of the corresponding ghost.

This wealth is money!
This was the only place where Chen Xin could surpass the sneaky behavior of those indigenous people. Apart from that, Chen Xin didn't know of any other place where he could obtain five gold leaves.

As for whether it is true or not, Chen Xin only needs to go there again that night to find out.

Because he took out ten taels of silver from the Pot Heaven space!
……

P.S.: I was too busy yesterday to update, sorry~
(End of this chapter)