Immortal Dao Fruits, Cards to Help Me

Chapter 132 Opening the Altar

The sky was darkening, and pedestrians were already heading home.

Qingming Festival is a day to commemorate the souls of ancestors. People in Liaodong are accustomed to resting early in the afternoon on this day and not wandering around, so as not to bump into the souls that come to enjoy the offerings.

Even in Shenyang, the streets were much quieter. Many businesses had already boarded up their doors and closed up shop early.

That's correct.

In the ordinary world, you could call this feudal superstition.

But this is a world with gods and ghosts, and these special days and festivals are not without reason.

Each of them is related to the movement of the ecliptic, astronomy, geography, and the inner workings of the world.

On the day of Qingming Festival, the barrier between the spirit world and the human world is at its weakest, and passages will appear in certain specific locations.

There are definitely reasons why people set this day as a day to worship their ancestors.

Because our ancestors truly enjoyed the sacrificial rites!

Similarly, the wronged souls and vengeful ghosts who died unjustly, the lonely ghosts who have no one to offer sacrifices to, these ghosts who suffer various kinds of pain but cannot be reincarnated, and who gradually grow resentful and fierce in their long suffering, will take advantage of this day to come to the human world...

In the past, people in Liaodong would have many rituals on this day, such as lighting firecrackers, worshipping door gods and kitchen gods, and hanging peach wood charms and mugwort at the door to drive away evil spirits.

It's much safer now, because there's a City God in Liaodong now.

Although the City God of Shencheng cannot protect all the human settlements in Liaodong, he can protect the surrounding dozens of miles.

In Chen Xiuxian's spiritual vision, above Shencheng, eighty miles away, in addition to the usual azure imperial aura and red military aura, there was now a yellow incense-like spiritual power.

The enormous cloud formed by the yellow incense's spiritual power spread outwards, covering an area of ​​thirty to fifty miles.

Squads of fierce, dark-faced cavalrymen, clad in black iron armor, wielding various weapons, and with menacing, iron-blue faces, also set out, silently galloping across the Liaodong plain where the snow had not yet melted.

The wandering ghosts were so frightened that they ran around in all directions, driven away from the villages of the human race.

In some villages, there are still some "spirits" floating in the sky; these are the guardian spirits worshipped in the village. They are usually junior members of the Five Immortals family.

By the time the moon rose, a few tattered, ashen-faced, lifeless souls with vacant, dull eyes were already wandering the vast, desolate snowfield.

For ordinary people, the truly important thing in their sacrifices is not the incense, candles, or yellow paper that are burned.

It is not the incense and prayer power attached to it.

When this mental power falls into the intermediate state, the realm of illusion, and the underworld, it can "transform" into various things.

Without the support of this spiritual power, these wretched wandering souls, their "clothes" tattered, are extremely hungry, cold, and lonely...

And this miserable situation may not last long.

It could take anywhere from three to five years to thirty to fifty years.

The wandering ghosts wait for a chance to be reincarnated that is far away and whose fate is unknown. They either go "mad" in the long torment or dissipate in the long torment, their souls scattered.

This is why Buddhism and Taoism are so important in this world.

Because they possess various methods of deliverance, which can eliminate the "sins" on the souls of the deceased, enabling them to be reincarnated sooner.

Even if one cannot be reincarnated for a while, there are ways to perform rituals and offerings to prevent them from suffering the torment of evil spirits.

……

Just as the moon rose, Chen Xiuxian saw the ghost soldiers of the City God Temple below begin to move.

Bucket after bucket of pig's blood was poured onto a huge pile of firewood that was more than two people tall.

The firewood was almost entirely made of logs as thick as a thigh, and it also contained a wide variety of spices, dried plants, and animal parts... After dozens of materials were completely covered in pig's blood, the ghost official looked up and shouted to Chen Xiuxian, "Lord Chen, we're about to begin!"

Chen Xiuxian waved his hand: "Okay, let's begin."

He pulled out a palm-sized bronze token from his sleeve, which had a tiger biting the token on it.

With a gentle sway, the gambling addict Ma Si'er and the silver-clad ghost with a noose wrapped around his arm appeared, floating to the left and right of the green leaf wind boat.

Meanwhile, on the hillside below, Toad Gold and his fairy squad were ready—ready to paddle at any moment.

Dou Zhongde held Mimi and watched from a few steps away.

Dou Zhongde was still calculating and manipulating things.

However, given his skill level, he couldn't possibly calculate the information of these hundreds of thousands of wandering ghosts on such a day.

Chen Xiuxian didn't send Lao Niu, firstly because his abilities weren't very effective against ghosts, and secondly because he was in a hurry to go to Black Mountain Village to protect the little cow.

Chen Xiuxian: Bah! You scoundrel who forgets loyalty for lust!

Old Niu also has something to say: If this were your problem, I would be duty-bound to take responsibility! I'd gladly face any danger, but this isn't a matter for the City God Temple, so why are you taking it so seriously, buddy?
While Chen Xiuxian was still lost in thought, the scholar-official below had already had the ghost set the huge pile of firewood ablaze.

The eerie blue torch was thrown onto the pile of firewood splattered with pig's blood, and the eerie blue flames began to burn fiercely.

A huge blue torch, four or five meters tall, appeared in the wildness of the ancient battlefield.

However, the huge blue fire didn't generate any heat, and the surrounding snow didn't melt.

However, a huge amount of blue smoke billowed out from the flames.

Chen Xiuxian saw the blue smoke rising and spreading out in all directions as if it had a consciousness of its own.

Each wisp of smoke that drifted out was like a sentient tentacle, wandering into the distance, reaching out to more and more wandering ghosts...

Then, those wandering, aimless ghosts, as if they had smelled some delicacies, suddenly perked up and excitedly headed towards the source of the blue smoke.

After inhaling the green smoke, the ghosts seemed to have replenished some incredible energy. Previously slow and listless, they were now radiant and swift in their movements!
The golden light in Chen Xiuxian's eyes never stopped. From a height of several tens of meters, he looked around and could see the scenery for miles around.

The approaching ghosts naturally saw it too, and in just a few minutes, two or three hundred wandering ghosts had already gotten close.

He even saw two large, muscular, and ferocious demons, noticeably bigger, charging towards him recklessly.

One of them slapped away every wandering ghost that stood in his way.

The other one was even more ferocious; it grabbed a wild ghost, stuffed it directly into its enormous mouth, and began to chew it.

The other ghosts all ran hundreds of meters away in an instant, not daring to approach any further.

These two burly ghosts, each over two meters tall, inhaled even more of the blue smoke. They gulped it down!
Chen Xiuxian lowered his head and asked, "That scholar, if these evil spirits consume too much of this, won't there be enough green smoke?"

The scholar-official nodded and exclaimed, "Yes, they will. If we don't do anything about it, they'll consume too much and it will affect our ability to attract all the ghosts."

Chen Xiuxian nodded: I understand now that you put it that way.

With a wave of his hand, a streak of dark light flew out from his sleeve, almost invisible in the darkness.

The distance of more than two miles was covered in almost two breaths, and the dark light returned.

The giant demon that ate ghosts had lost its head, and its entire body began to disintegrate.

Chen Xiuxian gave the other big ghost who slapped him a chance, but only cut off one of his arms.

Chen Xiuxian steered the Azure Leaf Wind Boat to the large ghost clutching its arm and trying to escape, took out the tiger-head plaque and asked, "I ask you, are you willing to surrender?"

(End of this chapter)