Confucian and Taoist scholar

Chapter 36: Taoist Temple Killing Ghosts
Lu Zheng held his breath and observed the situation in the main hall.

But after a while, the three guests who were possessed by ghosts in their dreams began to change, and strands of yang energy emanated from their bodies.

The Yang energy floated towards a thumb-sized gray bead on the beam and was completely absorbed by the bead.

Lu Zheng looked up and saw the bead, his expression slightly stiffened.

When the female ghost Cinnabar bewitched the original owner's mind, she used beads like these to absorb the original owner's yang energy.

After a while, three ghosts crawled out of the body of the guest staying overnight, possessed the remaining three guests, and continued to steal their yang energy.

Huang Shu whispered, "Sir, if you want to take action, you have to act quickly. They will leave after stealing the Yang Qi."

Lu Zheng thought for a moment and said, "Can you catch them?"

Huang Shu said: "That's no problem! They are much weaker than me. Now I sneak over and they are in the state of possession. They have no time to escape. I can catch all three of them."

Lu Zheng ordered, "Then go ahead. Just catch one, don't kill it. Leave the rest alone. I'll see how they react."

Lu Zheng discovered that the three ghosts were just ordinary first-level Yin ghosts and had no strength at all.

He was worried that he would not be able to judge the situation well and would kill these ghosts, so he simply let Huang Shu take action, which was also a test for Huang Shu.

"I understand." Huang Shu nodded heavily.

With Lu Zheng's permission, Huang Shu only used a little effort to untie the rope that bound him.

It stretched its muscles, then squeezed its body into a slightly larger hole in the wall and arrived at the main hall.

Huang Shu quietly came to a man who was possessed by a ghost, stretched out his claws and grabbed the man's chest, and directly took out a ghost.

When the ghost was caught by Huang Shu, it immediately revealed a ferocious face and bared its fangs and claws towards Huang Shu.

Huang Shu looked at him with disdain. This ghost couldn't cause any harm to him at all.

The other two ghosts were affected and immediately broke free from the possessed state, flying out of the main hall as if escaping, with no intention of rescuing their companions at all.

Lu Zheng quickly chased after them, and then followed them into a dilapidated house, where he saw the two ghosts disappear into the ground.

He came to the ground where the ghost disappeared and knocked the ground with his scabbard. There was a slight echo.

Lu Zheng didn't hesitate, he raised his right foot and stepped forward suddenly.

The bricks and stones broke and collapsed, revealing a small hole.

At the bottom of the pit, there are three old urns.

The two ghosts that had originally returned to the jar noticed the movement and flew out of the jar again, rushing towards Lu Zheng.

Lu Zheng reacted quickly and grabbed one with one hand.

The two ghosts kept struggling in Lu Zheng's hands, making creepy screams.

"Can you understand what people say?" Lu Zheng asked.

The two ghosts did not respond at all and behaved like wild beasts.

Lu Zheng discovered that these two ghosts had no intelligence at all and attacked him out of instinctive reaction to the intruder.

The fact that they can use incense to make people dizzy and enter their dreams to steal their yang energy must be that they are under some kind of control, just like puppets, acting according to programmed behaviors, not out of their own consciousness.

Seeing that the two ghosts did not respond at all, Lu Zheng released the righteous energy in his hands and instantly turned the two ghosts into green smoke.

[You killed two first-level ghost slaves, Wen Qi +2.] Lu Zheng killed the ghosts and went down to the pit to check it out.

There was nothing special about it except three urns that had been buried for who knows how many years.

Lu Zheng couldn't find any clues, so he went straight back to the main hall.

In the hall, Huang Shu saw Lu Zheng coming back and asked hurriedly, "Sir, have you caught them?"

"Already killed." Lu Zheng said lightly.

He looked at the ghost in Huang Shu's hand. It was no different from the previous two ghosts, so he took action to get rid of it.

[You killed a first-level ghost slave, Wen Qi +1.]

They are all ghost slaves. It seems that there is indeed another mastermind behind this matter... Lu Zheng thought.

Huang Shu saw that Lu Zheng was expressionless while killing the ghost, without even raising his eyelids, and thought to himself, are all scholars so cruel?

Lu Zheng looked at the guests who were still sleeping on the ground. These people just lost some yang energy and it was nothing serious. They probably wouldn't know anything when they woke up tomorrow, so there was no need to worry.

Lu Zheng came to the beam, took a step, jumped high, and reached out to take the beads on the beam.

The gray beads are warm to the touch and contain quite a bit of Yang energy, so they must have been placed here for some time.

Human yang energy is a good cultivation resource for demons, ghosts, and even human practitioners.

The person behind the scenes obviously regarded this Taoist temple as a place to obtain long-term yang energy, so he acted so cautiously that the passers-by who stayed overnight did not notice anything unusual here.

Lu Zheng looked at Huang Shu beside him and asked, "Have you seen this thing anywhere else?"

Huang Shu shook his head and said, "No, but I know this bead is a good treasure. It can gather people's yang energy. It must have been placed here by some powerful ghost."

Huang Shu had discovered this bead when he came to this Taoist temple before, but he did not want to get into trouble, so he did not take the bead away.

Lu Zheng held the beads and thought of cinnabar again. The other party had never directly absorbed the original owner's yang energy, but stored the yang energy in such beads. It was very likely that he wanted to leave the yang energy to someone.

This Taoist temple is not very close to Yang County.

Such beads are obviously not ordinary spiritual objects.

At least Lu Zheng had heard various ghost stories before, but he had never heard of any ghost using such beads to absorb people's yang energy.

Before, Lu Zheng just thought that Zhu Sha’s methods were special and didn’t think much about it.

But now it seems that there may be a hidden secret.

Lu Zheng's mind raced. Could it be that there were even more powerful ghosts in Kaiyang County? Was it secretly sending little ghosts to collect Yang Qi for cultivation?
Of course, it is not ruled out that the other party is not a ghost, and may even be a human... Lu Zheng thought of more possibilities, which was terrifying when he thought about it carefully.

Just as Lu Zheng was thinking, Huang Shu found a white flower from a hidden place in the hall. The shape of the flower was a bit like a morning glory and it emitted a faint fragrance. It was exactly the thing that fascinated the guests staying there.

Lu Zheng took the flower and examined it. He didn't know much about the exotic flowers, herbs and magical medicines in this world, so he didn't recognize what it was.

Lu Zheng asked, "What kind of flower is this? Is it common?"

Huang Shu replied, "I don't know the name of this flower, but I know it's a spiritual flower. It's poisonous and can be used as a drug, so don't eat it. It's not very common, but it's not uncommon either. If you walk around the mountains, you'll still come across it. But this is probably a specially cultivated variety. Wild flowers don't have such a strong drug-like effect."

Lu Zheng nodded, "You know a lot."

Huang Shu grinned, "You are too kind, sir. I am just a little demon from the mountains, so I naturally know a little about these mountain things. But compared to you, sir, I am still far behind."

(End of this chapter)