Swords emerge from the human world

Chapter 30: Nothing Strange About It, the God-King Eats Ghosts
Normally, the Earth God Temple does not have a lamp that burns continuously.

Rural temples are nothing compared to grand temples and shrines; lamp oil and candles are expensive, and they can't afford to use them.
However, the renovations were recently completed, and a mountain god was invited in. Since they wanted to do some superficial work, they lit the lamps.

The lights are on, which is perfect, and the view is unobstructed.

Chen Jin stepped across the log bridge over the stream, holding a sharp blade, and charged straight in.

call!
Suddenly, a gust of evil wind rose from the ground and swept across, instantly extinguishing the lights in the temple and plunging it into darkness.

Chen Jin felt a sense of familiarity with this wind, but remained calm, keeping his eyes wide open to track its movements.

With a bang, something shot out quickly, passing right through the gap on his right side.

Chen Jin suddenly turned around and saw the red-haired, green-faced mountain god's head, resembling a large watermelon, hopping and leaping away as it fled.

Under the pale moonlight, the scene appeared both eerie and comical.

"Still want to escape?"

Chen Jin strode forward, keeping up with the lead.

The mountain god's head, in a panic, fled into a nearby pine forest.

At this moment, Chen Jin disregarded the taboo of "never entering a forest" in the martial arts world. He knew that if this fiend escaped again, who knew what kind of trouble he would cause.

The woods weren't dense, just sparse, and the moonlight shone in, casting dappled shadows.

"Coo coo!"
A strange cry rang out, and with a flap of its wings, a large bird darted out, nearly crashing into Chen Jin.

He looked closely and recognized it as a night owl.

Startled by something, the owl flew out, first landing on a tree to the side, then flapping its wings and soaring away into the distance.

Chen Jin had an idea and quickly began searching.

Sure enough, a while later they found a rather large hole in an old pine tree, which looked dark.

The tree hole is about the height of a person; if you stand up, you can see it at eye level.

"Got you……"

Chen Jin held his breath and approached step by step.

Swish!
Two points of green light suddenly appeared inside the black hole, glowing eerily and strangely, like will-o'-the-wisps or the eyes of some kind of beast.

Staring at him with those eerie eyes, Chen Jin felt a chill run down his spine, causing his blood to stagnate and his hands and feet to turn icy cold.

At the same time, a feeling of palpitation, panic, and fear spread through him, and he thought of turning around and running away.

But he was no longer the ignorant fool he once was; he had opened his gates and reached the Niwan point, and his spirit was firm and tenacious.

He only realized it for a moment, then quickly came to his senses and uttered a soft utterance: "If you don't find the strange strange, it will defeat itself!"

He raised his hand and plunged the knife in hard.

The blade was sharp, like rotten cotton.

"what!"

Chen Jin seemed to hear a shrill and venomous scream, but he remained unmoved, drew his knife, and stabbed again.

Chi Chi Chi!
He stabbed seven or eight times in one go, until the inside was completely ripped apart, and then he stopped.

His expression was resolute, with only a few beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of an unusual, eerie light emanating from the tree hollow.

"Ok?"

He immediately used the tip of his knife to pick it out and examined it closely. He discovered that it was a palm-sized, irregular piece of dry bone.

This bone is quite peculiar; its surface gleams with a different kind of luster than normal precious light, making it appear extraordinary.

Chen Jin couldn't discern anything amiss. After a moment's thought, he took out a wooden box, opened it, and removed the Kui Xing Kicks the Dipper Lamp, placing it in front of the skeleton.

The next moment, the Kui Xing statue, which had been motionless with its eyes slightly closed, suddenly changed: it opened its eyes, opened its mouth, and took a deep breath. Hiss!

"what!"

Amidst the wailing, Chen Jin seemed to be hallucinating, as if he saw a mutilated ghost with red hair and a green face being swallowed whole by a deity...

Looking closer, one sees only broken bones, turning into dust in the blink of an eye, dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

Looking again at the Kui Xing kicking the Dipper lamp, the statue has returned to its original state, its eyes slightly closed, exuding an imposing aura without anger. The previously cracked patterns have even self-repaired, with most of them mended.

"I see……"

Chen Jin suddenly realized.

In mythology, the god Kui Xing descended to earth and was granted the title of deity. His image was painted and spread throughout the world, to be posted on doors on New Year's Eve "to ward off evil spirits and calm the demonic atmosphere."

Therefore, Kui Xing, the God of Gods, inherently possesses the divine power to exorcise evil spirits and devour ghosts.

For Him, suppressing demons and devouring ghosts is a great tonic.

In this way, a way was found to improve the grade and strength of the Kui Xing Kicking the Dipper Lamp.

The ghost has been destroyed, and the clay head it inhabited has turned to dust; there's no need to worry about it anymore.

So he left the woods and quietly made his way home.

I slept well, and when I got up to wash up the next day, Chen Zhi was already urging me to hurry up.

Today, July 14th, is the day of the local deity's festival. With the mountain god also attending, the event will be very grand.

Those who go to participate in the worship must bathe and change into new clothes, and prepare offerings of three kinds of sacrificial animals, incense, and paper money. If there are any oversights or negligence, they may be blamed by the local gods and mountain gods.

After worshipping the local deity, tomorrow is the Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open, and people will come to pay respects to their ancestors.

The various tedious preparatory tasks were mostly handled by Aunt Chen Yangshi and Chen Zhi and his wife, without Chen Jin having to do anything.

It's not that Chen Jin has a superior status and doesn't have to work, but rather that almost every penny of the family's expenses comes from Chen Jin.

You can't expect someone to pay for both money and effort.

Therefore, Chen Yuan instructed his wife, son, and daughter-in-law to be more diligent and try not to trouble Chen Jin, so that he could spend more time reading and writing.

Although it seems that Chen Jin didn't study very hard.

But what scholars need most is a quiet and peaceful environment. Noisy and bustling around is just a bad thing.

Chen Yangshi and the others had no complaints about this.

The resentment that had been building up over Chen Jin's repeated failures in the imperial examinations has now completely dissipated.

If Chen Jin hadn't gone to study, how could he have gotten to know Wang Fu?
Without the Wang family's connections, how could they possibly get an explanation from Chief Clerk Zhao?
The cause-and-effect relationship is clearly defined.

Therefore, as I said before, the greatest hope and way out is for the whole family to work together to support Chen Jin's studies and attempt to obtain official titles.

Today, two public gods are to be worshipped. Although Chen Yuan is unable to move around easily, he cannot be absent. Therefore, he asked Chen Zhi to get a stretcher so that he could be carried to burn incense and worship the gods.

I got up early and cleaned myself up. During this period of bed rest and recovery, I actually gained several pounds, all because I was willing to spend money and eat much better than before, drinking bone broth every day.

Chen Jin had almost finished getting ready and came out to Chen Min, saying, "Min, today is a big day. I bet a lot of merchants on the hillside will come to do business. I can buy you a sugar figurine."

Upon hearing this, Chen Min clapped her hands happily: "Thank you, Uncle Lang."

Chen Jin patted her head: "No need to thank me. After all, I promised you. As a scholar, I cannot break my promise."

Just then, Chen Zhi came running back, panting heavily, shouting, "Oh no, oh no, something terrible has happened!"

　The storyline involving the mountain god was foreshadowed in the first three chapters; it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment idea to deliberately have the protagonist running around.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)