The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 37 Ghostly Rampant or Paper Rampant?

"Thank you for your mercy, fellow Daoist!"

"Thank you for your kind instruction, fellow Daoist!"

The Gu master from the Ma family of Shanyang and the old man quickly stepped forward, cupped their hands in thanks, and expressed their gratitude.

The fact that the Ma family of Shanyang was able to rise from a local clan to its current state, with disciples entering the Daoist path at Tiannan Temple, Liuling Mountain, and the Poison Gu Division, over the past three hundred years is absolutely inseparable from the protection of this Third Master Ma.

The clan's shamans respectfully invited ancestral spirits and deities to bestow their blessings, enabling them to unleash power comparable to that of a Taoist disciple. Generation after generation of shamans have gathered considerable resources from this land of Tianshan, which has sustained such a large clan.

They couldn't imagine what would happen to the Ma family of Shanyang if their vengeful spirit, Master Ma, were to die...

"Have mercy?"

Li Qing narrowed her eyes slightly and chuckled softly. With a flick of her left hand, the two paper spirits lifted the Ma family ancestral spirit from the left and right.

His original appearance as a green-skinned ghost, with a fierce and imposing body, had long been shattered by Li Qing's palm strike. At this moment, Ma San Taiye was like a prisoner, held down by two paper demons.

He should have been ashamed and angry, but how could he dare feel the slightest shame or anger at this moment?
"You know perfectly well what you've done."

"The details of the ghostly disturbance in Shanyang have already been written and sent to the prefectural capital and Tiannan Temple. You can explain it to the next law enforcement Taoist priest yourself!"

Li Qing, however, had no interest in being a teacher.

They might not listen to any amount of reasoning, but if they did, a small incident involving skinning ghosts wouldn't have escalated into such a disaster.

When the Soul-Splitting Whip in the Tiannan Law Enforcement Hall strikes its soul, it will naturally understand what is right and wrong, and what is reason.

"The follow-up to this incident will be investigated by the Shanyang magistrate. If you dare to retaliate against him, Ma San, you know what will happen!"

After giving the old ghost another warning, Li Qing waved his finger, and two paper figures released the old ghost, letting it fall to the ground.

Then, from the darkness, the sound of bells rang out. Under the cover of night, a paper palanquin appeared, its embroidered decorations disappearing into the darkness. Two paper demons moved swiftly and lifted the palanquin. Li Qing slowly stepped onto the white paper palanquin, lifted the curtain, hung a paper lantern on the top of the palanquin, and then the palanquin departed.

From beginning to end, he didn't even glance at the old man or the Gu master.

The Taoist in green robes stood at a distance, only glancing sideways at the Ma family cultivators before slapping the armored horse talisman on his leg and immediately chasing after the paper sedan chair and the Danzhu dragon.

In an instant, only a few old shamans remained in the arena, crowding around to greet their ancestral spirits.

"Ancestor..."

"Third Ancestor..."

One by one, the shamans and local militiamen stepped forward and helped the old ghost in his official robes away.

Tonight's events have been full of twists and turns. First, a ghostly scourge attacked the village, and then the Southern Road bandits appeared out of nowhere, causing our ancestor to suffer a great loss and lose face.

"What ancestors? Get out of here, all of you get out!"

"I'm not dead yet, Ancestor!"

Grandpa Ma struggled to his feet, and as the wisps of Yin energy from the underworld departed with the young man's ghost sedan chair, he finally regained control over his own ghostly body.

The slightest movement was met with a barrage of blows and kicks, sending those wailing, filial sons and grandsons flying away.

Looking around, all that could be seen was devastation, with broken bricks and walls scattered everywhere, charred black by the sun's fiery energy, and even now, clusters of flames still burning.

Damn it, it really was that guy.

Besides this, who else in Tiannan Prefecture could have such a powerful ghostly force behind them?

"What are you bunch of damned good-for-nothings still doing here?"

"Clean up this mess properly, and spend more money to settle the families who have suffered. Provide monthly support to the villagers and waive all their IOUs, understand? My family, the Ma family, is short of money and provisions."

"If those Taoist disciples at the upper temple find out, they'll really think our patriarch is bullying the villagers!"

"You wretched creatures, I'm probably taking the blame for you bastards."

Grandpa Ma, supporting his neck, stared at these filial sons and grandsons, growing angrier the more he looked. He cursed and swore as he headed toward the ancestral hall, giving a final warning to the clan members to treat the villagers well before leaving.

That old devil, he's not stupid!

The laws and regulations in this southern region are ultimately different from those in the heart of the southern kingdom. This has secured the reputation of the villagers, making it less serious to hold anyone accountable…

The ghostly scourge in Shanyang was swiftly extinguished before it could spread.

Within ten days, villagers from various townships gradually returned to their homes.

Meanwhile, in Shanyang County at this moment.

In the western ward of the city, peach branches were in full bloom, with a few already peeking over the courtyard wall. A huge six-crowned dragon head, along with two peach blossoms, peeked out from behind the blue brick wall, gazing listlessly outside the ward. If this western ward were not long gone, this terrifying gaze from the courtyard wall would surely frighten several people to death.

Since returning from Dongxiang, Li Qing has ignored the candle as soon as she entered her room. The candle was utterly bored and tossed and turned in the courtyard, unable to bear the boredom...

In the dimly lit room, all the doors, windows, and curtains were drawn, blocking out the bright sunlight from outside. The only light in the room was the paper lamp hanging on the table, which emitted a faint, cold glow.

Li Qing sat cross-legged on the couch, took a wolf-hair brush, dipped it in yin blood, and with the blessing of true qi, the wolf-hair brush transformed into long needles. He then used the art of paper-making to pierce the pale and cold ghost skin one needle at a time, suppressing the skinning ghost's patterns.

In the dim light, three shadowy figures stood before the table, blocking the already dim candlelight.

"A complete pale ghost skin, skinned and made into a madman, its head removed and hung as a lamp, a gloomy ghost realm... it could produce a madman of excellent quality!" "It should belong to you."

Li Qing gazed at the tallest of the three figures, then flicked her finger, and the paper spirit of the lady floated up quietly.

This is a paper figure refined by a high-grade old Taoist disciple, and it was also one of the old Taoist disciple's main paper artifacts during his lifetime. The paper figure's magical restrictions have been refined to more than ten levels, and the deepest part of the paper spirit's magical restrictions contains taboos that even Li Qing cannot understand.

Only a paper spirit like this would not waste that top-quality ghost skin!

Li Qing stood up, unfolded the ghost skin covered with countless wolf-hair needles, raised it, and slowly covered the paper spirit's body with it.

The moment the ghost skin came into contact with it, it seemed to come alive.

The Skin-Peeling Demon's original law is that it peels off the skin upon touching it. As soon as it touches the paper spirit, a dark mist immediately spreads out, and the wicked art of skinning and transforming into a demon begins its attack. It wants to tear off the skin of this lady that is full of spiritual power.

Once a single Bloodskin is successfully obtained, the Skinner will be reborn!
However, the paper spirits are also a forbidden existence. A high-ranking Daoist disciple who had lived for two hundred years went to great lengths, seemingly sacrificing the blood of four disciples, to create these four paper spirits.

Not to mention how much essence was poured into the paper skin that made the paper figure during the constant refining process? It was spiritual paper that even wandering corpses could not tear.

"You're going to die!"

"Whee!"

The moment the two met, the curse of death upon skinning and the resentful words of the paper spirit clashed violently, and fresh blood flowed out from the wolf-hair needle on the ghost skin.

The skin-peeling demon cannot peel the skin off the paper spirit.

The paper was covered with fully refined paper figures and magical restrictions, as well as the "spirits" that had been submerged within them; the magical restrictions were extremely powerful.

The ghostly whispers clashed, and soon, the paper spirit of the lady, completely covered by ghost skin, began to make new movements.

A hand suddenly emerged from the flowing sleeves, its five fingers no different from those of an ordinary person—pale fingertips, blood-red nails—a striking contrast of red and white, conveying a strong sense of suffocation.

The paper spirit gently raised its right hand, facing Li Qing, displaying its near-perfect palm.

"This is?"

Li Qing raised an eyebrow, somewhat puzzled. He remembered that the bloodstain on the paper spirit appeared on that day after it was stained with black dog blood and struck by evil spirits.
The paper spirit raised its ghostly hand and suddenly grabbed its own face hard, tearing the ghostly skin covering its face with a "rip".

"..."

Has it failed?

Those two faceless paper demons, created using the method of creating demons, were of insufficient quality, possessing only the most basic paper doll spell. If this skinning ghost were to stick to them, they would likely turn into scattered pieces of paper in an instant.

But this paper spirit of a lady is of comparable quality to that ghost skin. This time, however, that ghost skin is not good enough!

It's a bit of a shame about the damaged ghost skin, but this is how the methods of creating evil spirits have always been—like guessing what's in a bag, no one knows the outcome until the very end…

Li Qing sighed softly, patted his Taoist robe, stood up, and was about to remove the ghost skin from the paper spirit.

At this moment, a sudden change occurs!
Suddenly, a cold hand reached out, as if to politely refuse, pressing down on Li Qing's wrist, preventing him from interfering in the changes.

The pale color on the paper spirit gradually faded, and layers of white paper began to appear on the paper lady, as if countless stacks of paper had been turned over, revealing seams between them.

The paper doll law has gained the upper hand; it's assimilating that ghostly skin!
The hideous wounds on his face began to slowly heal, and the paper-wielding features grew out of the wounds, gradually taking on a physical form.

She had delicate, fluffy eyebrows, eyes like pearls, a fine nose, and a small mouth. Her hair, which was originally tied in a paper bun, had fallen off and turned into thousands of black strands that hung down to her waist.

"It actually worked?"

Li Qing was surprised, but her hands kept moving. She made hand seals, gathering the yin blood in the jade cup on the table as qi, and then, along the dense wolf-hair qi needles, she inserted them one by one into the paper ghost's body, intending to open up three thousand acupoints for her.

Just as they were following the steps of the secret method for creating the paper spirit, the paper spirit began to act strangely again.

It suddenly stepped back and hid in the shadows. The blood-stained wolf hairs that pierced the paper figure were all destroyed by it with a wave of its hand.

The spirit papers that were originally piled up in the corner of the table were suddenly blown up by a cold wind. The sheets of white paper fluttered down and covered the paper spirit's body, merging into it and transforming into a flowing robe with wide sleeves...

"Yes, this is more like a paper smuggler!"

In the previous dynasty, a madman cut out three thousand paper soldiers. On a rainy night, when the city walls were being ravaged, a hundred soldiers pierced through the city walls but did not fall. After a night of massacre, they all turned into ashes and scattered after sunrise. Only one paper soldier gained a spirit and transformed into a madman, beheading the madman and drifting away.

If not extremely ferocious, why would it be called rampant?

This was originally a very ominous object used in primitive and ignorant times for blood sacrifices to barbarian spirits and to ward off evil spirits, in order to fight against demons and monsters!
With a light laugh, Li Qing flicked his finger, drawing in the seventy-two strands of the Earthly Fiends' thoughts to forcibly take over the paper spirit's body. Through two different masters, he created thirteen paper doll restrictions.

It had no choice but to resist!

As soon as Li Qing lit the life-extending lamp, the lights in the room shone brightly.

The lady standing under the lamp was completely different from the original.

The paper-made gown was no longer the image of a lady with flowing sleeves, but rather a style from the South, specifically the wide-sleeved gown popular among the gentry of the South. The paper spirit's face also transformed into the appearance of a delicate woman...

Sure enough, this was one of the disciples that Old Master Han had taken in when he was guarding Tiannan Prefecture, the third-ranked noblewoman of the prefecture.

It seems that Han Daotu was not a master of the paper doll technique; he only managed to create the paper spirit by sacrificing his disciple's soul.

That old Taoist disciple was really ruthless back then!

(End of this chapter)