Divine Tang Era

"That shouldn't be! A spiritual child wouldn't appear out of nowhere. Did you do something?" Wang Shouyi asked after hearing Xu Dan's words.

Xu Dan thought for a moment and then recounted his encounter with the ghost mother.

"I recently heard that the Demon Mother is wreaking havoc in the wilderness, and many children from various tribes have mysteriously disappeared. Fengzhen Temple has sent people to investigate, but you just happened to run into her. You're really unlucky." Wang Shouyi looked at him with sympathy.

"I feel the same way. Do you think I should ask your master to perform a ritual to get rid of the bad luck?"

"You don't need to ask him for this kind of thing, I can handle it myself," Wang Shouyi said arrogantly.

"Are you sure you can do it?" Xu Dan looked at his big belly and tall stature. Even if he had cultivated since birth, he didn't have much magical power, yet he still dared to accept the ritual of exorcising disasters and warding off evil.

"It will definitely work."

Wang Shouyi patted his chest vigorously and said in a low voice, "I charge less money; it's much more cost-effective than you hiring my master."

Ha, she's already learned to steal her master's business at such a young age.

Xu Dan glanced at him, but ultimately didn't dare to agree. Wang Shouyi was extremely discouraged. What was the use of learning so many things? He didn't know when he could put them to use, and he couldn't even find anyone to test them on.

test!

Upon thinking of those two words, Wang Shouyi's eyes involuntarily drifted towards Xu Dan.

"By the way, what is this Fengzhen Temple you mentioned earlier? I've never heard of it."

Wang Shouyi gave him an ignorant look and said, "Fengzhen Temple is a place within the Bureau of Astronomy that is responsible for managing matters concerning gods, earth spirits, demons, and monsters. The Bureau originally had two departments, one civil and one military. The civil department was in charge of astronomy and geography and provided intelligence to the military department; the military department was Fengzhen Temple, which was responsible for sealing off and killing. Later, the two were separated and became independent, directly under His Majesty's jurisdiction, but the departments within them were still the same as those in the Bureau of Astronomy, one civil and one military."

The Ministry of Civil Affairs provides intelligence on astronomy, geography, and other subjects; the Ministry of Military Affairs handles matters such as bestowing rewards, suppressing, capturing, and killing, and is subordinate to five departments:

The first is the Demon-Slaying Division, which is in charge of dealing with the chaos caused by evil spirits; the second is the Demon-Catching Division, which is in charge of dealing with all kinds of demons.

The third is the Exorcising Ghosts Division, which is in charge of all matters related to ghostly disturbances; the fourth is the Calming Monsters Division, which is in charge of all matters related to mountain spirits and water monsters causing trouble and strange occurrences. In addition, there are matters related to bestowing titles and managing deities and local spirits, which are handled by the General Manager of the Fengzhen Temple.

Fengzhen Temple also has the Beiji Hall, where the seven stars of the Big Dipper—Greedy Wolf, Giant Gate, Prosperity, Literary Star, Integrity Star, Martial Star, and Broken Army—are in charge.

Below it are twenty-eight star deities, including Kang Jinlong, Nu Tu Fu, Fang Ri Tu, Xin Yue Hu, Wei Huo Hu, Ji Shui Bao, Dou Mu Xie, Niu Jin Niu, Di Tu He, Xu Ri Shu, Wei Yue Yan, Shi Huo Zhu, Bi Shui Xi, Kui Mu Lang, Lou Jin Gou, Wei Tu Zhi, Mao Ri Ji, Bi Yue Wu, Zi Huo Hou, Shen Shui Yuan, Jing Mu Han, Gui Jin Yang, Liu Tu Zhang, Xing Ri Ma, Zhang Yue Lu, Yi Huo She, and Zhen Shui Yin.

These star lords are all powerful figures carefully selected from all over the land by our Divine Tang Dynasty. They are masters among masters. If you encounter them, you must stay away, or they could drench you with their urine.

Wang Shouyi glanced at Xu Dan with disdain, it was unclear whether he was annoyed at being woken up earlier or unhappy that he hadn't been asked to perform the ritual.

"What is Fengzhen Temple investigating about the Ghost Mother for?" Xu Dan asked.

"Those tribes will definitely cause trouble if they lose their children. If not handled properly, it will surely lead to major conflicts. At that point, it won't be something Fengzhen Temple can handle; the imperial court will have to send troops to suppress it. These are not things for you or me to worry about. Let's think about the reincarnation!"

"Then what do you think should be done with the prodigy?" Xu Dan asked.

"The child was saved by you after his death, and then you converted and buried him. His aura was connected to yours from the beginning, so he has already recognized you as his master. That's why he was able to find you by his aura and couldn't let go of you. Now that the child has developed consciousness, it's difficult to forcibly separate him from you, but you can trap him or kill him."

Sensing Wang Shouyi's malice, the child spirit clenched his hands into tiger claws and waved them around, glaring at him with wide eyes while muttering curses.

Wang Shouyi seemed not to see it, and suddenly turned around, took out a talisman from his pocket and stamped it on the spirit child's mouth.

A flash of light, and the child's mouth shut instantly. But this was clearly not his own intention. He anxiously tried to speak, but couldn't. In his haste, he ran to Xu Dan's side and gestured with his hands and feet, hoping for his help.

Her subconscious action clearly showed that she regarded Xu Dan as her closest relative.

Xu Dan said helplessly, "Why did you gag him? Just pretend you didn't see it and untie him quickly."

"Don't worry, it's just a lesson to teach him a lesson, to show him what I'm capable of, so he won't keep babbling in front of me," Wang Shouyi said arrogantly.

Within seconds, the child spirit returned to normal. But he dared not run off to scare Wang Shouyi again, nor did he dare to chatter in his ear. Instead, he stood next to Xu Dan, glaring at him fiercely, clearly intending to launch a visual attack.

Wang Shouyi took out a talisman and pretended to throw it, which startled the spirit boy, who quickly hid behind Xu Dan. After a moment, he peeked out again.

"Why did you scare him?" Xu Dan was speechless.

"Hehe, now he'll know how powerful I, Wang Shouyi, am." Wang Shouyi proudly put away the talisman.

"He's still just a little kid," Xu Dan shook his head and asked, "Besides those methods, what else can we do? We can't just let him follow us around like this all the time, can we?"

"It's easy to stop him from following us. Just buy some lightning-struck wood or spirit jade and let him reside in it."

If you want convenience, you can have it engraved into a tag to carry with you. Spirits, strictly speaking, are not considered yin ghosts, but rather yang spirits, similar to deities. Therefore, they are not afraid of blazing fire or sunlight, and cannot be dealt with using methods of killing or exorcising ghosts. They cannot be nurtured using methods for raising yin ghosts; instead, their spirituality can only be gradually strengthened using yang-attribute objects.

Xu Dan only understood why the exorcising powder was useless against the spirit child after hearing Wang Shouyi's words.

"Then how do we communicate? We can't just keep listening to his babbling and guessing with gestures."

"If you want to communicate with spirits, you need to cultivate techniques. Cultivating techniques requires magical power. Do you have magical power?" Wang Shouyi said disdainfully.

"How would you know if you have it if you haven't practiced it? Do you have any cultivation techniques? Send me one to take a look."

"Give it away?" Wang Shouyi doubted his ears. "How can we just give away the wonderful techniques of our Taoist sect? That would be too cheap!" Hearing the last part, Xu Dan knew that this money-grubber wanted to make a quick buck, so he said, "Then I'll buy it with spirit stones."

"How many spirit stones do you have?" Wang Shouyi asked excitedly.

Xu Dan held up two fingers.

"Two spirit stones are a bit too little. Although it's a basic cultivation technique, two spirit stones definitely won't be enough. Can you add some more?" Wang Shouyi bargained. Little did he know that Xu Dan was comparing twenty spirit stones. Seeing him say this, he politely withdrew his offer of eighteen, "Then I'll add one more, three spirit stones."

"Alright then." Wang Shouyi felt the price was right and was about to get the cultivation manual.

Xu Dan quickly stopped him, "Wait a minute, do you have any better cultivation techniques? I'll buy them with extra spirit stones."

"How much do you want to add?" Wang Shou's eyes gleamed with excitement.

"Probably a few dozen yuan."

"That's a big deal; we need to find a good cultivation technique." Although Wang Shouyi was greedy, he was honest and trustworthy. He would only do what he was paid for, unlike some people who would take your money and not do anything. What's worst is when some people not only don't do anything but also cause trouble, dig traps, and try to rob or kill you.