Dongxuan Spiritual Realm

Chapter 41 Ignorant and pitiful

Wang Huyue didn't like dealing with these stupid people. He snorted coldly and just looked at Yang Qisheng.

Yang Qisheng said, "Tonight, a demon is coming out to eat people. You must move away quickly, or your lives will be in danger!"

"A demon is out to eat people?" The villagers looked at each other, and then someone asked, "You have three sword masters here, can't you just kill the demon?"

Yang Qisheng sighed, "That demon has immense magical powers. By nightfall, we might not be able to defeat him, so you need to leave quickly."

"You can't defeat the demons? Then why should we worship you... Why don't we worship the demons instead?" A young man dressed as a scholar said in a very low voice in the crowd.

The man tried to lower his voice, but it certainly didn't escape Yang Qisheng's ears: "Demons eat people! Do you dare to worship him? Aren't you afraid of being eaten alive by him?"

Scolded by the Sword Immortal, the man felt a little timid, but still said with a brave face: "The strange stories and legends I read say that the upright gods are all hypocrites, who love to belittle others and call them demons and monsters. In fact, they are all upright and honest, and they are true heroes who have been forced to resist by your hypocritical benevolence and hypocrisy! You came and beheaded our village's Willow God, and then you said he was a monster and slandered him as a cannibal. I don't know if that's true..."

He saw that Wang Huyue's face was getting worse and worse, and his voice was getting smaller and smaller, so he didn't dare to say anything more.

Yang Qisheng told him that what he was talking about was a real demon, a corpse demon with a human body and a horse head, who dismembered people and hung them up to make bacon, not a human with a different cultivation method...

Seeing that these people were still skeptical, he suddenly remembered a line of poetry from the Lingbao Sutra: People in the world are so foolish, ignorant and pitiful. They listen to lies and don't listen to advice, and thus run into the devil.

There were less than a hundred villagers in Wanliu Village, and they quickly split into several factions:
Some people valued their lives more, so they told everyone to go back quickly to pack up their bags and hide in a town outside the mountain for a few days to avoid the horse demon.

Several white-haired old men clung to the willow stump tightly, cursing and crying:

"As soon as they arrived, they chopped down our Willow God! The Willow God has been blessing us since we were little, and so many people acknowledged her as their godmother. She withered and died a few years ago, and just as she had returned to green in the past two years, she was chopped down by these plague-monsters! We didn't see any horse demons, but we saw them chopping down the Willow God! Who knows what they're up to!"

The scholar from earlier spoke again, "I say, who cares if it's an immortal or a demon? Anything that can protect us and bring us happiness and longevity is a true god! It's written in the scriptures that spirits and monsters that receive incense and worship are considered true gods. Since that horse demon is more powerful than the sword immortal, why don't we offer him cattle and sheep as sacrifices? That way, he won't have to capture us and commit the sin of killing us. Since the Willow God has died, why don't we build a temple and worship him as our protector?"

As soon as he finished speaking, someone immediately chimed in, "Brother Wang, you've got a good idea. Back in the day, a snake fairy was causing trouble in Kaoshan Village outside the mountain. Later, a necromancy expert was consulted, and a snake temple was built. Now, it's very popular, with people from all around going there to pray. The Zhao family who built the temple must have made a fortune."

The eyes of several bachelors in the corner lit up when they heard this: "If it were up to you, the Horse God would find us a wife, no matter if it's a horse or a donkey..."

These guys were talking at once, and as they talked, they started to have sweet dreams.

Hundreds of years ago, mortals and saints lived together in this world, and humans and demons mixed together. Many ancient books from previous dynasties recorded the deeds of gods and demons, and derived a large number of storytelling stories. There was a melon spirit that helped the emperor in the world to fight, a fox fairy who married a scholar to repay a favor, and a human and ghost who fell in love and gave birth to 500 children... The endings were all beautiful.

On the contrary, many sword immortals often use the name of upholding justice and slaying demons to try to break up other people's happy marriages, which is despised by everyone!

Therefore, people are not opposed to demons. Some people even daydream that one day they can catch a fox in the mountains. Instead of killing it and skinning it to sell for money, they will set it free. Soon, the fox will transform into a beautiful woman and come back to marry them.

In people's simple understanding of humans, immortals, demons and monsters, as long as they can protect a region from harm, it doesn't matter whether they are humans, demons or ghosts, they can all be worshipped as righteous gods!
Some want to leave, some want to stay, but more are wavering and can't make up their minds.

A few young men picked up stones from the ground and said to Wang Huyue and Yang Qisheng, "Since you are sword immortals, can you turn this stone into gold? If you can turn this stone in my hand into gold, I will believe you."

Wang Huyue snorted again, turned around and ignored him. If Yang Qisheng hadn't been there, he would have flown away on his sword long ago.

Yang Qisheng cannot turn stone into gold directly, but he can use the Five Talismans of Lingbao to make gold grow out of the earth.

But he didn't want to do that. He didn't intend to please and gain the trust of these villagers to make them listen to him.

He simply calmly repeated to the villagers the story of the horse demon that would come out at night to eat people: "Whether you stay or go is entirely up to you."

"We still believe in immortals, let's go quickly." Hunter Jing Lei stepped forward and called out.

As soon as they saw it was him, many villagers started cursing, "You raised a zombie kid yourself, he's the biggest demon! If you're truly a righteous sword immortal, just kill this little zombie, and we'll believe you!"

Jing Lei kept his son by his side and did not argue with them. He only discussed with those who were willing to believe him and prepared to leave together.

Yang Qisheng told them, "If you want to leave, you must hurry. The horse demon will come out after dark. He can fly and hide underground. You must stay away from here as much as possible."

Those who wanted to leave hurried home, packed up their belongings, and then gathered together. In total, there were more than forty of them. They helped the elderly and children and headed out of the mountain together. Half of the villagers left, and the remaining half refused to leave. Yang Qisheng no longer cared about them and flew to a small hill nearby with Master Wang Huyue and his apprentice.

Seeing them flying away in dazzling light, more than a dozen villagers were shocked. After discussing with their families, they also chose to leave.

Standing on a low hill, Yang Qisheng asked Wang Huyue, "Fellow Daoist Wang, what are your plans next?"

Wang Huyue stroked his graying beard and said thoughtfully, "Is Fellow Daoist Yang leaving?"

Yang Qisheng looked at Wanliu Village in the distance and said, "I plan to stay here to observe the horse demon's subsequent movements and wait for a reply from my master."

Wang Huyue had been obsessed with the Blood-Transforming Demonic Knife for a long time, and he wanted to take this opportunity to build a closer relationship with this Taiyi Palace disciple. "What a coincidence! I also want to see what happens to these fools!"

Yang Qisheng did not just wait, he planned to set up a Lingbao Five Elements Formation on this hill.

First, use the essence of Wu Earth in the north to make the soil fossilize, quickly forming a stone pit three meters and three feet long. Then take spring water from the highest point and fill it up. Then put in the Lingbao Xuanming Talisman to generate the Five Qi of the north.

Then, he dug three pits in the south, filled them with pine, cypress and peach wood, drained the moisture, piled them into three bonfires, and cast the Lingbao Fire Court Talisman into them to generate the Three Qi of the South.

The east belongs to wood, so he selected nine trees that were over a hundred years old, moved them over with magic, and then injected them with the essence of Jia wood to make them take root again and generate the Nine Qi of the East.

The west belongs to metal. He used the Lingbao sharp light talisman to refine the seven evil-refining-level flying swords again, and inserted them into the ground in the west to generate the seven qi of the west.

Finally, in the center, he used the Lingbao Huafeng Talisman to draw the earth's energy, and a five-layered platform grew out of thin air, and then connected the platform with the earth's energy of the entire hill.

He sat upright on the altar. As long as the Five Elements Formation was there, the horse demon could not hurt him at all!
If the operation is successful, it is possible to trap the horse demon here...

Wang Huyue was amazed as he watched him make the arrangements. The Five Elements Formation was a common method among all schools and had been studied by all sects. The underlying principles were the same, but the subtle details made the difference in level.

Yang Qisheng used the Qingyang Talisman to move a towering tree over thirty feet tall from a distance and placed it in a pit that had been dug in advance. The roots of the tree automatically penetrated deep into the soil like a giant snake or python.

He had never seen or heard of such a method before.

In the mountains, it gets dark early. As the sun starts to set, the shadows of the undulating mountains begin to cover the ravines and valleys.

Throughout the afternoon, Yang Qisheng was setting up the formation while chatting with Wang Huyue.

Although Wang Huyue is a member of a side sect, he has been practicing Taoism for more than 40 years and is very experienced.

Yang Qisheng has loved listening to stories about the martial arts world and the court since he was a child. Now he just wanted to ask Wang Huyue about the stories of the sword immortals.

Wang Huyue also liked to be close to this orthodox disciple of the Xuanmen sect. He twirled his beard and happily told him about his experiences in various places over the years.

"I have an older brother who used to be a teacher and was a very conservative person. When I was young, I was a knight-errant in the martial arts world. He looked down on me and said that the world was full of treacherous ministers and that local vassal states were showing signs of separatism. He said that I should join him in civil and military affairs and serve the country. That was the right way. Unfortunately, he was unlucky and even after taking the exams several times, he didn't even get a degree.

It was I, on the other hand, who had received the immortal Daoist lineage in Tiger Leaping Gorge and achieved the status of a sword immortal. When I returned to him, he asked me to go to the capital to see the emperor, to become the imperial preceptor, and to wield my flying sword to slay corrupt officials and traitors. I refused, believing the emperor in the capital to be no good. What business did I have with the chaos of the world? He accused me of being disloyal, unfilial, unkind, and unjust, so I gave him the Daoist text and let him cultivate on his own.

Yang Qisheng's heart skipped a beat. He thought that if this man became the Imperial Master, he would definitely trigger the heavenly punishment of the Universal Heavenly Grand Ceremony. "So, did he succeed in his cultivation?"

"After he succeeded, I took the name Hu Yue as my Taoist name, and he took the name Long Teng. He is a gifted man. He has learned everything quickly since he was a child, and he can remember everything he read. He quickly refined a flying sword, and then went to Beijing to find the emperor and serve the country." Wang Hu Yue's tone was very complicated when talking about his brother.

"He demonstrated his sword-flying skills before the emperor, earning his approval and being appointed Imperial Preceptor on the spot. But just as he was accepting the title and leaving the palace, a thunderbolt struck him from the sky, knocking him to the ground. Although he survived, his magical powers crumbled, and his sword turned to mortal iron. He was imprisoned and tortured so severely that even his legs were broken."

Yang Qisheng was a veteran in the world of politics, well-versed in the ways of the officialdom. After a moment's reflection, he guessed the reason: "It must be that he said he wanted to punish corrupt officials, and that made people hold a grudge against him. Now they're accusing him of misleading the public with his lies, using trickery to deceive the emperor, and committing the crime of deceiving the emperor, right?"

"Pretty much." A sad and helpless smile crossed Wang Huyue's face. "He was said to be a centipede demon from Yuquan Mountain. His name was 'Tenglong,' but he was actually an 'Earth Dragon.' He wanted to seduce the emperor, seize control of the court, and wreak havoc on the world. Because he committed so many evil deeds, he was punished by heaven! So they pierced his scapula with an iron chain and burned him with fire, hoping to refine him into his true form so they could make Five Poisons Realgar Wine. In the end, I had to rescue him."

(End of this chapter)