Notes on Longevity

Chapter 110 Shouren's terrifying escape from the ghost, and Ping'an's first encounter with her senior brother.
"Ghosts?" Ping An's brows remained furrowed. Standing in the dark bamboo forest, he looked at Yang Shouren's somewhat frightened expression by the moonlight and asked, "What do you mean by that, Young Master Yang? Is this place haunted?"

"It's not here. When I was in Huangzhou, I often heard people say that some places are haunted," Yang Shouren said, swallowing hard and sounding a little nervous.

He had only heard about it before, but had never seen it. He had planned to bring Ping An to see it today since neither of them could sleep.
Ping An scratched his head and said, "There are fellow disciples in the temple who are responsible for catching demons and exorcising ghosts. I did feel a little uneasy when I approached this place just now. I think there probably are."

Upon hearing Ping An's words, Yang Shouren, who was already somewhat frightened, immediately pulled Ping An back, fearing that they might really encounter something. "Daoist Master, let's go back first and come back tomorrow when it's light."

Seeing Yang Shouren's attitude, Ping An agreed. Just as the two were about to turn around and leave, they heard a sharp, piercing hiss behind them.

Yang Shouren felt his hair stand on end when he heard the voice, and thought to himself, "Could I really be that unlucky?"
After the hissing sound subsided, a mocking, gloomy male voice rang out: "Where do you think you're going?"

In the dead of night, amidst the bamboo grove, moonlight, and a graveyard, Yang Shouren's mind raced upon hearing the sound. Terrified, he disregarded his own safety and ran out immediately.

Aside from that hissing sound, the voices that were just speaking clearly belonged to a living person. How could Young Master Yang run so fast? Ping An couldn't help but chuckle as he watched Yang Shouren's figure running swiftly through the bamboo forest in the darkness.

Ping An turned around, thinking to herself that since the person who was speaking had arrived, she couldn't just turn back now, especially since the person speaking was a living person.

He stepped out of the bamboo grove and frowned slightly as he looked at the mounds of graves of varying sizes and intertwined before him in the moonlight. After all, this was the first time in his life he had seen so many, and his master was among them.

He raised his right hand, extending his index and middle fingers while bending the rest of his fingers in his palm. Looking at his raised sword fingers, he chanted an incantation, and soon sparks flew from the tips of his two fingers.

He looked at the sparks and smiled slightly. Then he concentrated and recited it several more times. The sparks from his fingertips transformed into a burning flame that stood there.

He withdrew his finger, but the ball of fire remained still. He glanced back at the bamboo forest, smiled slightly, then turned back and guided the ball of fire through the graveyard with his mind, searching for his master's tombstone as they headed towards the direction from which the sound had come.

Ping An, leading Huo Tuan, looked at the inscriptions on the wooden plaques, but found no mention of his master. He should have told Yang Shouren beforehand that he also knew magic. Exorcising a little ghost shouldn't have been a problem.

Ping An felt a little sad thinking about it. The first time he used magic after coming down the mountain was to find his master in the graveyard.

Ping An raised his head and looked towards the place where the sound had come from, only to find no one there, just an empty space with the grave.

He glanced at the ball of fire in his hand but didn't think much of it, deciding to continue looking for his master first.

"A Taoist priest?" Just as Ping An was about to continue searching for his master, a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder. Although he was a Taoist priest and knew magic, anyone would be startled in such a place.

Ping An, holding Huo Tuan's hand, turned around in alarm and saw a handsome man staring at him with ill intent.

"You can even use magic?" The handsome man looked at the small ball of fire that Ping An seemed to have made up his mind. He said to Ping An, "Little Taoist priest, can you do me a favor?"

Upon seeing the man, Ping An instinctively took a few steps back, keeping a distance, and asked curiously, "Young master, please tell me, and I will help if I can."

Ping An was somewhat wary of the man in front of her; after all, what normal person would come to a cemetery in the middle of the night?

"Do you cultivate alchemy or something?" The handsome man stared at Ping An with a lewd grin, his face full of ill intent. Ping An's expression changed drastically upon hearing this, wondering if this person was a demon. Although he could exorcise minor ghosts, he was no match for a demon.

Seeing Ping An's frightened expression, the handsome man slowly walked towards him, saying repeatedly, "If you cultivate the Dao of Alchemy, I wonder if you've formed your Golden Core yet? Could I borrow it for a bit?"

"Use your second uncle!"

As the man approached, Ping An was at a loss and wanted to explain when another man, dressed in the same Taoist robe as Ping An, stepped out from behind him. He was carrying a burlap sack and, without saying a word, put the man inside it.

Then he shoved him to the ground and began to beat him mercilessly, yelling, "You old fox! You tricked me again! You even used me as a thug!"

"Stop, stop, stop! I was wrong, I was wrong. Please stop hitting me, or my inner core will shatter!" The man trapped in the sack wailed, begging the Taoist to stop, but the Taoist clearly showed no sign of stopping.

Instead, she said to him, "Now you know you were wrong? Too late! I told you to run, I told you to run! If you run again, I'll break your legs."

The man continued to howl, and Ping An looked at the man in the sack with concern. He spoke to the Taoist priest and said, "Brother, please stop hitting him. If you keep hitting him, someone might die. You will break the precepts."

According to Taoist precepts, hitting someone is a violation. However, seeing the Taoist's angry expression, Ping An couldn't say much and could only offer this advice.

"Breaking the precepts?" Upon hearing this, the Taoist stopped what he was doing. He panted as he looked Ping An, who was dressed in a Taoist robe, up and down. He then frowned as he glanced at the fireball next to Ping An, before focusing his gaze on Ping An's robe and face.

When it saw the color of Ping An's Taoist robe and his strikingly melancholy face, it smiled at him, then began to swing its fist at the man again, "It's alright, Junior Brother! I've already asked the Ancestor for permission. Even if I really kill him, no one will blame me!"

"I want you to borrow my inner core! I'll let you use it! You old fox, you've got your eyes on my junior brother. Believe me or not, if I go back and tell the patriarch, he might really skin you alive and pull out your tendons."

"Junior brother?" The man in the sack was startled upon hearing this.

"You said he's your junior brother? You mean that Ping An guy?" The man in the sack sounded terrified, as if he had heard something terrible.

"What, Ping An?" The Taoist's anger intensified upon hearing this, and he swung the sack harder, yelling, "Can't you speak properly? What do you mean by 'that thing'? Didn't it hurt?"

"No! No! It's not...it hurts! My lord, please stop hitting me, or my inner core will really shatter!" the man pleaded with the Taoist priest, but the priest still wouldn't listen.

When Ping An heard the Taoist call him "junior brother," he initially thought it was just a term of address between fellow disciples. However, when he heard the man call him by his name and the Taoist mention "ancestor," he immediately realized that the Taoist in front of him was also a disciple of Zouma Temple.

He stepped forward and addressed the Taoist priest who was throwing punches, saying, "Disciple of Zouma Temple, Ping An greets Senior Brother. Please be lenient, Senior Brother."

"Alright, if Junior Brother says he's not going to fight anymore, then we won't fight anymore." Upon hearing this, the Taoist immediately stopped what he was doing, then got up and walked over to Ping An with a smile. He put his hand on Ping An's shoulder, and then said to the man lying on the ground covered with a sack, "Old fox, don't play dead. If you don't get up, I'm going to slap you to death."

(End of this chapter)