I have to get lucky right away.

Chapter 75 What is the evil spirit?
Seeing Feng Xue's puzzled look, Mr. Wang was slightly surprised:
"If you weren't causing trouble last night, why would you buy the Five Elements Jade (Note ①)?"

"There is a magic in our sect that requires the five elements of yin and yang. The seed material I bought before happened to be suitable for yin and yang, so I thought I might as well collect the five elements with you to save me from running around when I need it later." Feng Xue had prepared the answer when he spoke. At this time, he put all the magic tools into the Hutian bag and only kept two or three life-saving ones on his body. He believed that the old man would not be able to see anything.

Although Mr. Wang was a little curious, he was a righteous cultivator after all. When he heard that it was related to other people's magic, he didn't ask too much. He just turned and went into the store, picked and chose, took out the five jade materials and walked out -

"They're all Kunlun jade (commonly known as Qinghai jade), considered the best five-element material in the country. I'll give you a discount and charge seventy strings of cash. As for the top-grade Hetian jade, topaz and ruby ​​are too rare to complete a set... The price-performance ratio isn't high either. It's better to wait until you enter the Dao and slowly cultivate them yourself."

Hearing what Old Man Wang said, Feng Xue didn't hesitate and said while taking out the money:

"From what you said, there are better ones abroad?"

Seeing Feng Xue grasp his point, Old Man Wang felt a sense of satisfaction. However, he maintained the demeanor of a senior master and nodded.

"Burmese pigeon blood rubies, Colombian emeralds, American obsidian, Danish golden amber, and Hetian white jade. This was assembled by a senior from the imperial palace's private treasury during the fall of the previous dynasty. It's the highest-quality combination of the five elements currently available. However, because the jade-nurturing method doesn't work on the other four, and its circulation is limited, no one specializes in research. Obtaining the natural, top-quality jade isn't much easier than obtaining Hetian five-color jade."

"Wow, this is all over the place..." Feng Xue muttered, but also found it a bit strange. For example, although obsidian is black, it is ejected from a volcano. Even if it is not in the element of fire, it should be earth. Amber may be a fossil, but it is also a fossilized resin. Why is it not in the element of wood or fire? But on closer inspection, the five-colored jade actually has nothing to do with the five elements. I can only treat it as a technical black box and wait until the conditions are right to study its principles in depth.

Keeping the information about the five-colored gemstone in mind, Feng Xue paid the full payment and put the five jade seals of uniform quality into the Hutian bag. Only then did he inquire about the previous question -

"Grandpa, you just said it was haunted? What's going on? What's haunting it?"

"You don't know?" Old Master Wang was a little puzzled, but considering that he had just heard about it from his disappointing apprentice this morning, he spoke with the attitude of chatting about gossip:
"It's not a big deal, just a routine problem every year. However, for some reason, the 'evil spirit' this year is much stronger than in previous years. It actually started its activities more than ten days earlier, and even the earth's atmosphere is a bit turbulent..."

"So what exactly is this evil?"

Feng Xue scratched his head, then slapped his head:
"Are you talking about the 'Sui' in the Nian beast?"

"Alas!" Hearing Feng Xue say this, Mr. Wang's face darkened and he sighed.
"Young man nowadays, if you were my apprentice I would definitely beat you up!"

"Huh?" Feng Xue was puzzled by what Old Man Wang said. Seeing this, Old Man Wang sighed and said, "That damn Nian beast was invented by a novelist a few years ago. As soon as the article became popular, it started to spread everywhere, as if they were illiterate! Only young people like you would be fooled! Twenty years ago, did anyone hear of the Nian beast? Did you hear of it when you were a child?
"The 'xi' in 'Chuxi' doesn't mean a monster, it means night. The 'nian' in 'Guonian' means time. You're a cultivator after all. Haven't you learned small seal characters? Haven't you learned bronze inscriptions? Do you know what 'from ren' and 'from he' mean? A character that represents a good harvest, and you call it a monster?"

"The word 'Sui' I mentioned is a homophone, corresponding to the evil 'Sui' (Suì), which is also the evil spirit we receive as lucky money. The Nian beast is actually a corruption of the 'Sui' legend, mixed with stories about using firecrackers to ward off evil spirits and scare off wild beasts! If you think about the image of the Nian beast, isn't it just Suan Ni? Who would have a Nian beast lying on their incense burner? And Suan Ni loves smoke, so how could it be afraid of the color red and firecrackers?"

Old Master Wang was talking with saliva flying all over the place, and it seemed that he was quite resentful about this matter. Feng Xue knew that he might have stepped on a landmine, and there was nothing urgent, so he just listened to the old man's complaints.

It seemed that Feng Xue's well-behaved appearance made the old man a little embarrassed. As he spoke, his voice became softer, and he coughed twice, and took the initiative to pull the topic back:

"In short, you can think of the evil spirit as a kind of natural virtual god. Hmm, let's put it this way. The higher the Qi, the clearer it is. The higher the wish, the purer it is. You know that, right?"

"I know." Feng Xue nodded. Mr. Wang now had someone to help him, and he continued comfortably:
"The power of vows is the product of human thoughts. The purest part is clear and light, slowly separating from the power of vows and rising into the sky, while the impure part is heavy and turbid, sinking to the ground and finally seeping into the earth.

"These wishes won't just disappear, but instead combine with the Earthly Evil Energy to transform into something like a fictitious god. The more it accumulates, the more trouble it causes. So after a major explosion that caused disastrous consequences, we've developed the practice of intentionally detonating it at regular intervals.

"It just so happens that the Chinese New Year, in the general perception, marks the end and beginning of a year, and is also accompanied by various sacrificial activities. Therefore, the ancestors deliberately guided the outbreak of evil spirits to coincide with the Chinese New Year, using the power of the many wishes during the New Year to reduce the risk of evil spirits breaking out.

"In previous years, these evil spirits would begin to appear on the 29th day of the lunar year. As long as we stayed through the 30th, we could use the great power of the 'farewell to the old and welcome the new' vow to purify them. But this year, for some reason, they started appearing on the 16th day. Coupled with the previous mutated corpse puppets, many people think that someone might be secretly causing trouble..."

"You mean, the county plans to organize people to conduct an inventory?" Feng Xue thought of the way those rich people looked at him before, and couldn't help but feel worried. He now has some fighting ability, but it's just a little. If he starts fighting, it will easily expose his lack of strength. If it's just evil spirits, it's fine, but people's hearts are hidden. Who knows if some Xuan cultivator will make a mistake and have evil intentions?

At that moment, Feng Xue even had the urge to "forget the boss's three-year guidance and just hope for good luck and leave." But then, Mr. Wang's words made him relax.

"What are you thinking? Didn't we check before and find nothing? You can't move at a time like this. Just wait quietly. As long as you hold on for ten days, when the Kitchen God is sent away and the Jade Emperor is received, all the evil cultivators and demons will be nothing! Why do you think the demons have to wait until the twenty-ninth day of the lunar year to come out? Isn't it because the gods are on holiday these two days?"

(End of this chapter)