Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 96 The Consequences of Casting a Curse! [Bonus Chapter for Little Yellow Chicken]

Sanlizhuang, Xiuchuan County, is located in the southwest corner of the county seat. In the past, this place was three li away from the county seat, hence the name Sanlizhuang (meaning "three li village").

With the development of the times, Sanlizhuang has long been incorporated into the county town area and has become a village in the city, a place where all sorts of people from all walks of life gather.

Shi Xiangu's house is located in an alley in Sanlizhuang.

It is said that her family started out selling tofu, but the business was so-so. One day, while selling tofu, she passed by a local temple and a piece of tofu fell off. The stone fairy had a brilliant idea and made a fuss that even the local earth god was craving her tofu. That's how her business started to improve.

But after experiencing the benefits of metaphysics, Shi Xiangu looked down on the tofu-selling business and devoted herself to becoming a sorceress.

She had no background knowledge or proper mentor, but based on folk customs and her own understanding, plus her shamelessness, she actually managed to make a living in this field.

For twenty years, Shi Xiangu has relied on swindling and deception to not only build the most magnificent five-story building in Sanlizhuang, but also to take on several apprentices and control the management rights of several temples in the county.

Last year, through the introduction of several people in the industry, Shi Xiangu became a disciple of Xie Yukun, who was the same age as her. She successfully expanded her network and joined the Yiyang City Fengshui Folk Association, serving as a prospective director of the association.

Today, I received a call from Xie Yukun, who said he wanted to curse a Taoist priest. If he succeeded, he would nominate her as a formal director. Shi Xiangu was overjoyed and immediately started preparing at home after hanging up the phone.

Xie Yukun sent Zhou Yi's photo, birthday, and other personal information... all of which were found with the help of a friend from the Xiuchuan County Religious Affairs Bureau.

Name, birthday, and photo are necessary for casting a curse. It would be even better if there were body tissues such as hair, nails, and blood, but that is too difficult. For now, we can only start with photos and other information.

In Yunwu Town, Zhou Yi and Wu Meiniang ate some spicy hot pot and each bought a cup of Mixue Ice Cream.

When passing by a children's clothing store, Wu Meiniang went in and bought Li Mingda a few sets of clothes, and then bought two tubes of badminton shuttlecocks from the sporting goods store next door.

The two strolled around until it was almost dark before riding their motorcycle up the mountain.

After walking along the mountain path for a while, Zhou Yi suddenly felt a bit dizzy. At first, he thought the milk tea he drank was unclean, but then he felt that this dizziness was on a mental level and had nothing to do with his body.

To be on the safe side, he stopped the car, sat cross-legged by the roadside, and silently began to recite the "Precious Proclamation of the Spirit Official".

Although we don't know what's going on, we must not panic. First, we should ask Wang Lingguan for protection, and then carefully ponder the source of this feeling.

Wu Meiniang was startled and wanted to ask what was wrong, but worried that she might disturb Zhou Yi, so she simply sat down cross-legged as well and began to recite the Tao Te Ching earnestly to pray for Zhou Yi's well-being.

After reciting the "Lingguan Baogao" three times in a row, Zhou Yi felt his mind clear up and the tense and dazed feeling disappeared.

He rubbed his temples, stood up, and pondered the root of his dazed state.

Wu Zetian recited the Tao Te Ching once, and then rose to her feet:
"What's wrong, Immortal Master?"

The Book of Changes says:

"I felt a little dizzy just now, I don't know why, but I'm fine now. Let's go back first, and then go to the Sanqing Hall to have a divination done to see what the divination says."

Wu Zetian reminded her:

"Please drive slowly, safety comes first."

Zhou Yi nodded, got on his motorcycle, and waited for Wu Meiniang to be seated before slowly driving up the mountain.

At the same time, in Sanlizhuang, Xiuchuan County.

Shi Xiangu, dressed in a bright red factory jacket, was chanting incantations in front of the altar when she suddenly felt a tingling sensation all over her body and an itchy throat. As soon as she opened her mouth, she vomited a large pool of black blood.

She was startled and stopped casting the curse. She planned to call her son upstairs to come down and take her to the hospital.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, he spat out a mouthful of black blood.

The blood on the ground triggered Shi Xiangu's fear of death, and she turned to walk out, intending to leave the room first.

She had only taken a couple of steps when she stumbled and kicked a power strip on the ground. The power strip's cord got tangled in the legs of the offering table, and the kick caused the table to shake. The candles on the table instantly tipped over, igniting the yellow silk tablecloth.

When Shi Xiangu reached out to steady the candle, she lost her balance and instead knocked over a bowl of strong liquor on the offering table.

The strong liquor soaked the tablecloth, causing the fire to spread tenfold in an instant, igniting the yellow paper, ghost money, incense, and candles prepared nearby, and the room quickly filled with thick smoke.

Shi Xiangu didn't care about putting out the fire; she ran outside for her life, but she stepped on her own vomited blood and slipped to the ground.

Her survival instinct drove her to crawl out, but a sudden gust of wind slammed the open door shut.

The lack of air circulation indoors made the smoke even thicker.

Shi Xiangu crawled to the door and groped to open it, but as soon as she touched the doorknob, she suffocated from inhaling too much smoke and her head slammed heavily against the door.

The fire spread, completely engulfing her, and then began to burn up the second floor through the window.

By the time the neighbors discovered it, the entire building was already engulfed in flames. The fire brigade arrived promptly, but because Shi Xiangu had occupied a lot of public land when she built the land temple at the entrance of the alley, the road had become narrower, and the fire trucks could not get in. They had to connect water pipes on the spot outside.

However, due to this delay, Shi Xiangu's small building was already mostly burned down, and the fire brigade could only prevent the fire from spreading to the neighbor's house next door, but could not directly extinguish the fire.

On Cloud Mist Mountain, Zhou Yi returned to Hunyuan Palace. Just as he was about to go to the Sanqing Hall to cast a divination for himself, he suddenly remembered the black notebook. He went back to his room, opened it, and discovered that his merit had actually increased by two coins: [Resisted the murderous sorceress, promoted social justice, merit +2]

Counterattack?

Could it be that my recent dazed state was related to some kind of fortune teller?
The only sorceress he knew was Shi Xiangu from Sanlizhuang, but Shi Xiangu had no direct conflict with him, so how could she turn the tables?

Zhou Yi read the notes again and noticed the phrase "promote social justice" at the end. He found it a bit strange. Even if he killed Shi Xiangu, it should only be death. How could it be promoting social justice?

Completely baffled, he simply took out his phone, opened a short video app, selected Xiuchuan County as his location, and searched for the three characters "Shi Xiangu" to see if there were any posts related to that name.

The search yielded hundreds of videos related to Shi Xiangu, most of which were uploaded within the last half hour.

Zhou Yi swiped the screen, clicked on the most liked video, and watched it with Wu Zetian.

The video shows a luxurious five-story building engulfed in flames, with the sound of fire truck sirens blaring in the background.

The video was very short, only a few seconds long, much like those self-media outlets that rush to publish something to grab headlines when they see trending news.

Since the video didn't reveal any useful information, Zhou Yi simply opened the comments section, and the scene immediately became lively:
"Last year, he lied to my aunt, saying he could cure cancer, and swindled her out of more than 8,000 yuan. He deserves to die!"

"Children, this is called retribution!"

"This whole family is swindling and cheating. They even dared to steal the life-saving money of cancer patients. They deserve it!"

"I am an expert in leopard research, and I am quite certain that this is a new species of leopard—the modern-day leopard (report)."

"God took Beethoven away because he wanted to listen to music; God took Kobe away because he wanted to play basketball; God took Shi Xiangu away because he probably wanted to eat authentic Sanlizhuang tofu."

"Don't make a fuss upstairs. God might think the land is bad, so he asked the Stone Fairy to help check the feng shui."

"May the rescue workers suffer no casualties. [Hands clasped in prayer] ..."

"I was there, waiting for the Stone Fairy to be reborn, but unfortunately there are no miracles in this world."

"Miracles do happen, but they will never happen to a sorceress like Shi Xiangu. Everyone, please disperse. Remember to come back in a week to celebrate Shi Xiangu's seventh day memorial."

"..."

The comments were densely packed, and when Zhou Yi checked, the number was still skyrocketing.

It was obvious that everyone felt the fire at Shi Xiangu's house was retribution and a deserved punishment.

After turning off his phone, Zhou Yi said to Wu Meiniang:
"That momentary daze might be related to this Stone Fairy. The 'Lingguan Precious Proclamation' is truly an essential incantation for both home and travel. You should learn it more, and if you encounter any danger, quickly recite it to summon the King Lingguan for protection."

Upon hearing this, Wu Meiniang's pretty face immediately turned frosty:
"Such despicable people deserve to die!"

The Book of Changes says:

"Whether it's related to her or not, I need to go to the Sanqing Temple to have my fortune told and see what the divination says... I've been having my fortune told so much these past few days, the ancestral master is going to laugh at me."

On the other side, in the Kaiyuan world of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Bai followed his family out of Jianmen Pass and officially embarked on the Shu Road. His sneakers were covered in mud, and he didn't have the strength to carry the precious sword given to him by his master, so he tied it to his horse.

"The roads to Shu are really too difficult to travel!"

The little guy complained to himself as he walked, wishing he could write a poem on the spot to vent his frustrations.

But considering that he was a disciple of a deity, he couldn't complain or blame others, so he had to put his mind at ease and keep moving forward.

Li Ke walked beside his son, carefully explaining the precautions:

"Chang'an is full of princes and nobles. You can be flamboyant, but don't embarrass people. Don't talk about politics. This is not only related to the safety of our Li family, but also to the reputation of the immortal. Immortals like to live in seclusion and do not want to get involved in worldly affairs. If you talk too much, the immortal will lose his mystery, which is not good for you or that Miss Gongsun."

Li Bai hoped to make a name for himself in Chang'an, yet he didn't want to leave his parents:

"Father, how about you and Mother move to Chang'an as well?"

Li Ke smiled and shook his head:

"We prefer Sichuan. If you have time in the future, you can go home to visit, or visit some famous mountains and rivers. Don't always stay in Chang'an, lest you be blinded by the beauty and prosperity of Chang'an."

As the father and son were chatting, a young Taoist priest walked by. Upon seeing Li Bai, the young priest took the initiative to speak:
"What are you going to do? The road ahead is long, how about we travel together?"

Li Bai bowed with his hands clasped in greeting.
"Very well, I am Li Bai. May I ask your esteemed name?"

The young Taoist priest returned the greeting earnestly.
"I am... Yuan Danqiu!"

------------

Thanks again to [Little Yellow Chicken] for the generous donation! It's the first day of release, so please vote with your monthly tickets, brothers! Today's five-chapter update is finished, please give me your support!
(End of this chapter)