White Bone Demon Trail

Chapter 57 Death by Burning
The steaming buns in the steamer not far away emitted rising steam, and the fragrance of wheat and grains wafted into Chen Qiaozhuang's nose.

The cacophony of carts, horses, cattle, and mules filled the air as wheels rolled over the slightly loose bluestone pavement, and the bustling market was alive with shouts and calls of vendors.

A stove with flames was stirring vegetables and noodles on the street, sweet-colored sugar figurines were being made by the roadside, a few customers were eating a bowl of fragrant wonton noodles at a small table, and women walking together were chatting about how noisy their children had been the night before...

All aspects of everyday life were brought into Bai Wuxiang's mind.

He couldn't help but sigh, the joys and sorrows of life, the mundane details of daily life, all these flavors, should be so beautiful.

However, due to human greed, there is a difference between good and evil, and the lives of wild animals in the mountains are not as good as those of humans.

Chen Qiaozhuang's roar still echoed in Bai Wuxiang's heart. He strolled through the city and came to a secluded area, which turned out to be a street where funeral supplies were sold.

This provided him with a place to stay. Bai Wuxiang sat cross-legged under a wall, quietly waiting for night to fall.

Even with his yin energy present during the day, this body doesn't have the ability to commit crimes in broad daylight; it's best to wait until night to act.

The shadows on the wall gradually shortened, the sun rose higher, and the noise of the marketplace grew louder.

As the sun began to set and dusk approached, Bai Wuxiang slowly stood up from the corner of the wall, preparing to take action.

Just then, three men passed by and saw the down-and-out Chen Qiaozhuang by the wall. One of them, a burly man with a fierce face, kicked Chen Qiaozhuang over and sneered, "Kid, this street is my territory. Even beggars have to pay a few coppers."

How many coins have you given me? Hmm? Say something?

Chen Qiaozhuang, who had been kicked to the ground, was stunned for a moment. To be precise, Bai Wuxiang was stunned for a moment. He didn't get angry, but just looked up at him quietly. His pupils turned pure white, and he smiled strangely at the man, saying as if he were a fool, "How many coins?"

This scene startled the three thugs, who cried out "Ghost!" and ran away immediately.

Seeing that the group had run away, Bai Wuxiang stood up from the ground, brushed his disheveled hair from his forehead, and watched the last rays of sunlight disappear from the rooftops of distant buildings. He smiled and said, "This will settle your score."

.........

Late at night, at the Xu residence.

After having dinner with his three concubines, Master Xu took his second concubine into the backyard to rest.

Today he was in high spirits and cuddled his soft concubine in the room twice before he had to stop because his lower back was a little sore.

Still feeling unsatisfied, Master Xu embraced his concubine and drifted off to sleep.

Until the dead of night, a particularly jarring sound of a wooden axle turning came from the quiet room.

"crunch~"

The noise woke Master Xu, who was lying in bed. He frowned sleepily, pulled back the bed curtains, and glanced outside.

But then he saw the shadow of a face cast by the moonlight on the window screen outside. Although the face was dark, the slight trembling of its cheeks suggested that the face was smiling at him through the window screen.

This scene in the middle of the night startled Master Xu, who shouted, "Who goes there! Playing tricks!"

He hurriedly pulled away from the concubine he was holding in his left arm, but to his surprise, the face of the person next to him turned to face him with a face as white as a dead man.

Master Xu was so frightened that he fell off the bed, shouting in panic, "Help! Help!"

However, his shouts did not disturb anyone else, but instead alerted the faces outside the window.

The person smiled exaggeratedly, stretched out their hands, and the shadows cast by their ten slender fingers under the moonlight were extremely long on the window screen, like the ten sharp claws of a demon slowly reaching for the window.

Master Xu was so frightened that he couldn't help but tremble. Having lived for over forty years, he had experienced many storms. He mustered his courage, picked up the long sword in the room, and slowly approached the window.

Then he raised his sword, silently gathering his strength to stab it out the window.

But just as he raised the longsword in his hand, the moonlight outside the window reflected off the sword, revealing the scene behind it.

A red and white ghostly face slowly slid out from beside his ear, silently reflecting off the sword and meeting his eyes.

"what!"

Upon seeing this, Master Xu was so frightened that he dared not turn around. He thrust his sword behind him while simultaneously looking back.

But he found that there was nothing behind him.

He breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. However, the sensation on his fingers felt strange. He raised his hand to look at it and found that it was bright red blood!
Master Xu was terrified. He looked up at the roof beam and saw a ghostly face with only red and white colors smiling at him.

"Ah! A ghost! A ghost! A ghost!"

Master Xu lost his courage and, terrified, closed his eyes and wildly swung his sword. He stumbled and instinctively hid in a corner against the wall, cowering in fear and trembling with fear.

"Whoo~"

The face on the window screen blew a breath, and a gust of cold wind blew into the room, extinguishing the three flames on Master Xu's shoulders and forehead.

"what!"

The moment the three lumps of life on his shoulder went out, a mournful, ghostly laugh immediately came from the house—the scream of a woman in agony.

Master Xu was so frightened that he also screamed. He wished he could faint from fright so that he wouldn't have to suffer such a terrible shock.

But he felt his mind becoming clearer and his senses becoming more acute; he could even sense something in front of him with his eyes closed.

He was so frightened that he felt a heat in his groin and something flowed out.

Master Xu opened his eyes tremblingly and peeked at what was in front of him, only to see a woman with a hideous face burned off and covered in flames rushing towards him.

"Help! Help!"

Master Xu, incoherent and rambling, wildly slashed with his sword, smashing over tables and candlesticks in the room as if possessed.

"Whoo~"

The ghost face on the window screen blew another breath, and a small, eerie blue flame ignited from the lamp oil that had fallen to the ground, then quickly spread and engulfed Master Xu's body.

Master Xu struggled in terror, trying to extinguish the flames on his body.

His actions finally woke the people in the courtyard. His concubine woke up from her dream and watched in horror as her husband wailed and screamed in agony, rolling on the ground.

The servants who rushed from the villa, along with the old man, opened the doors and windows upon hearing the noise, and the shadow of the face on the window screen disappeared.

The pawnshop owner, who was also a servant of the Xu family, arrived and saw his master, whose face was burned beyond recognition. He suddenly remembered the woman who had been burned to death by his master not long ago.

When the servants from the other courtyard brought water to extinguish the flames on their master's body, he was already dead. His entire body was charred black.

A foul smell of cooked meat wafted through the house, and the servants of the Xu family all wore expressions of fear as they watched this scene.

Their master's face was burned beyond recognition, and his features were no longer discernible.

The next day, the news spread throughout the streets and alleys of Zhangyang that Master Xu had died in his own home in the middle of the night, burned to death by a fire that appeared out of nowhere.

For a time, many people who had been cheated and swindled by Xu's pawnshop applauded.

When the news reached Magistrate Qiao Yunsheng, he frowned and asked the messenger, "Was it arson that killed someone?" The servant shook his head and said, "According to the servants of the Xu family, the fire was very strange. It emitted a blue light and only burned Master Xu's body. Nothing in the house was burned, and even Master Xu's personal clothes were intact."

"Strange, how could such a bizarre thing happen!" Qiao Yunsheng couldn't help but think of the money that Master Xu had sent to suppress the fire on the long street not long ago, and a strange feeling arose in his heart.

……

Outside the city, at a mass grave.

Chen Qiaozhuang stumbled back here, then his body slumped down and he collapsed.

A black raven landed on his shoulder, inhaled a wisp of pure black energy, then let out a strange cry, spread its wings, and flew away from the mass grave.

As the sun set, Chen Qiaozhuang opened his eyes blankly. He sat up, recalling the scene he had witnessed the previous night, and felt a sense of exhilaration.

Her long hair, which was grayish-white, fell down from her shoulders.

He raised his hand and found that his fingers were withered and wrinkled, like the hands of a seventy or eighty-year-old.

But Chen Qiaozhuang didn't care at all. He just looked at the small statue that had been placed on the ground the night before and kowtowed again, saying, "Thank you, God of No Form, for avenging my mother's death!"

After saying this, he stood up shakily, picked up the statue of the formless god carved from his mother's bones, put it in his bosom, and then staggered out of the mass grave.

……

Inside the cave of bones, the sound of flapping wings rang out. A black raven flew into the deep cave and landed on the shoulder of a skeleton on the stone platform. A wisp of black resentment flowed from the raven's beak and was absorbed into the skeleton's body by its open mouth.

The black crows used their breath to guide the skeletons, creating an indescribably eerie and sinister scene.

The black substance passed through the white bones and entered the Vengeful Spirit Pearl. Bai Wuxiang's mind sank into the Vengeful Spirit Pearl, entering the world within the pearl for the first time.

The bead is divided into two worlds, the upper and lower. The upper world is a pure white world with layers of white clouds floating around.

Below was a completely black world, with wisps of black energy moving within it.

The world above is filled with the power of incense and divine offerings, while the world below is filled with black, resentful energy.

A portion of the pure white clouds, represented by the divine power of incense, was descending at an extremely slow speed. Bai Wuxiang noticed that these clouds could also fall into the pure black world below.

In other words, the power of incense offerings can also be transformed into resentment.

Could it be that some divine power received from mortals, over time, will turn into resentment?

Bai Wuxiang gazed at the world within the bead, lost in thought. His current cultivation was too shallow to fully comprehend it. However, the bead maintained a relative balance, and he could draw upon its power.

Based on the demonic power cultivated within its body, the resentment power within the pearl is comparable to the late stage of the Spirit Building Realm, which is roughly equivalent to the Great Transformation Realm for human cultivators.

While the amount of incense and divine power is greater, it is not as great as resentment power. The beads do not contain powerful divine spells and can only be used to cast minor spells, thus limiting their ability to enhance one's strength.

The name "Wraith Pearl" is truly fitting; clearly, resentment is more effective against it and can exert a greater influence.

The power of incense offerings seems to be only a supplementary function, and this power can even be transformed into resentment.

He estimated that even if he used all his divine power and resentment, he would still be somewhat inferior to the Yuanzhen realm, but he should be able to protect himself and retreat without any problem.

Of course, Bai Wuxiang's reference point was the female demon sword cultivator of Sanqing Mountain and the high monk who exorcised the dragon.

At least in his opinion, the old Taoist priest on Qianyuan Mountain was much stronger than the eminent monk he had met that day.

This trip to the human world allowed Bai Wuxiang to experience the five senses and six consciousnesses in human form, and he gained some insights.

He put on human skin, got up and went to the temple, looking at the eight children who were still practicing their music.

These blind children have now composed several pieces of music, but Bai Wuxiang has never been satisfied with them, always feeling that something is missing.

He has now come up with some ideas, but since the Formless Ritual is only performed by listening and feeling, its appeal is naturally much weaker.

In addition, there is the reason why these children's understanding of the world and their level of intelligence are not very high.

Inside the temple, Ah Liu, who was dozing off while reading a book, suddenly lowered his head in a daze. Then, he regained his senses and squinted to see a white figure not far away.

He suddenly woke up and stared wide-eyed at the white-clad figure standing in the courtyard. This was the first time he had ever seen Lord Wuxiang appear in person during the day.

Ah Liu hurriedly stood up, ran to his side, and respectfully bowed, saying, "This humble servant is here to welcome Lord Wuxiang."

Bai Wuxiang stared at the eight children without looking away and instructed, "Give each of these eight children a name, using the characters from the Eight Trigrams of Qian and Kun as their names."

Then, you will impart knowledge to them orally, enlightening and nurturing their wisdom. Go and have the village chief go down the mountain and invite a tutor to teach them.”

"what?"

Ah Liu was taken aback, but still nodded hurriedly and replied, "Yes! Yes! I will keep it in mind!"

Bai Wuxiang then glanced at him and said, "Study hard and learn to read, otherwise a high priest without much wisdom is useless."

Ah Liu's heart skipped a beat. These days, the pleasure brought by power had made him quite complacent. Bai Wuxiang's words suddenly woke him up, and he hurriedly replied respectfully, "Yes! This humble servant will definitely study hard and become well-versed in all books."

He looked down for a long time before realizing that there was no one in front of him.

Having received Bai Wuxiang's advice, A-Liu hurriedly went to the village to find You Junzi and told him about the things the deity had instructed him to do.

Although You Junzi was surprised, she still did as instructed.

Heishizhai is located on the southern slope of Yunze Mountain, near Meixian County, which is close to Jiangzhou.

South of Yunze Mountain is considered the southern region, which is rich in rivers, lakes and wetlands. Merchants there are more prosperous than in Shenzhou in the north due to the convenience of water transportation.

Heishizhai would often go to Meixian, at the foot of the mountain, to buy some goods every now and then.

When you have money, you buy it with money; when you don't have money, well, that depends on whether the caravan is lucky or not.

Otherwise, the supplies in the mountains alone would not be enough to support the hundreds of people in Heishizhai.

Less than half a month later, Heishizhai sent someone down the mountain to "invite" an old gentleman to the temple.

As for why it was an old man with a white beard, it was naturally to prevent the kidnapped man from running away.

The young can run, but the old can't escape these endless mountains.

However, this old scholar was a poor, pedantic scholar who made a meager living down the mountain by writing and copying books.

Now that he's up in the mountains and doesn't have to worry about food or clothing, the old scholar is actually enjoying himself.

Thus, there is such a strange temple in Yunze Mountain.

An old scholar and eight blind children lived in the temple, teaching in the mountains, with Ah Liu, an auditor, also there.

　I'll probably update one or two more chapters during the day, which will be long chapters of about 4,000 words.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)