Nine Netherworld Demon Subduing Record

When Fu Qing returned to the library, he continued his work.

He certainly understood that what Chen Xing'an had said earlier was false, and that there was probably no need for a government official like him to be involved in cases like the people of Nanling buying soul-suppressing medicine. However, since he was not in a position of authority, it was inconvenient for him to get involved.

However, he had never seen the woman's strange methods before. Perhaps she was a Taoist master practicing a new method?

The day passed quickly, but because of the strange things that had happened to Fu Qing over the past two days, he returned to his small room early and locked the door from the inside.

He didn't even go to the steward's office; early in the morning, he told Qi Feng not to wait for him to learn to read.

He picked up a book he had found in the library, lit a candle, and began to read it slowly.

If it weren't for these things, Fu Qing would have been reading in the library, where it was cooler, more spacious, and he could borrow any book he needed.

Right now, Fu Qing is holding a storybook in his hand, reading it carefully.

It wasn't that Fu Qing couldn't understand the other books, but rather that they were written in a style similar to classical Chinese. Fu Qing had never liked reading classical Chinese since childhood; it had many unfamiliar characters and the sentences were concise, making it very difficult to read. Even when Fu Qing was organizing the books, he had to consult the definitions and dictionaries as he read.

On the other hand, there were folk novels and illustrated books, which were mostly written for literate commoners, scholars, and storytellers, so they were not so difficult to read.

However, these kinds of picture books were usually written by scholars in their spare time, so the main characters were mostly scholars. When Fu Qingchu read them, he immediately thought of the strange tale "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" and the chapter "A Chinese Ghost Story".

However, unlike his homeland, the picture books here do not contain any kind of love story between humans and ghosts. Fu Qing thought that it was probably because the people in this world had seen many evil things and it was difficult for them to have any other fantasies. They were probably only afraid.

Fu Qing couldn't help but think that if Mr. Pu had traveled through time, the story of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio would probably have been much longer.

However, because he had seen it before, some of the plots seemed even more bizarre, which is why Fu Qing found it so interesting to read.

He didn't read for very long, as his eyes soon became blurry from reading by candlelight. He also had a hard time falling asleep, because tomorrow was the day he was to go to the "Ten Mile Pharmacy" to learn Taoist magic from Master Xing Luochen, and he was naturally quite excited.

But although Fu Qing didn't think the teacher was a bad person, he knew there was no such thing as a free lunch. So what could that girl possibly gain from him? Or what benefits could he bring her?

He knew that the Daoist arts of this world possessed many strange characteristics, but he didn't know what kind of Daoist arts his teacher would teach him.

He even wondered if he could still use the magic he had learned if he returned to Earth, and if so, he could use it to reach the pinnacle of his life.

After a night of fantasies, Fu Qing finally closed his eyes.

-

"hey-hey……"

A thick fog rose before Fu Qing's eyes.

He couldn't see his surroundings clearly. This fog was different from the fog in the Nine Netherworlds, and it was a strange black and white color, as if some kind of sound was traveling through the fog.

"Hehehe..."

"Who is it?"

Fu Qing turned his head in the direction of the sound, but did not see anything there.

He turned his head and found a figure shrouded in black smoke in front of him.

The figure grinned and smiled at Fu Qing, revealing its fangs.

-

The next day, in front of the Shili Pharmacy.

Fu Qing didn't sleep well all night, and kept having the same strange dream in which a hazy figure seemed to be smiling beside him.

He assumed he was just frightened by the dark figure and wondered if he should find something that could exorcise ghosts.

Yawning, Fu Qing carried two bags into the pharmacy and immediately saw Senior Brother Gu, with a dragon's head and a human body, preparing some medicinal herbs.

"Good morning, Senior Brother Gu!"

Gu Shili watched him come in, then quickly went to greet him, taking the items from Fu Qing's hands and saying, "Junior Brother, you've come all this way, why did you bring anything with you?"

"Senior brother, you are unaware of this. In our area, when one visits a master to formally become a disciple, one must prepare a gift of tuition. Unfortunately, my family is not well-off, and this is just a small token of my respect. I hope you will not find it offensive."

This gift of dried meat and celery is said to be a custom passed down from the time of Confucius.

Fu Qing naturally couldn't afford the dried meat. In this world, ten skewers of dried meat cost two jade coins. Fu Qing went to the accounting office early in the morning to collect four jade coins. Looking at the terrifying price of meat, Fu Qing shook his head and only picked out some food that he thought was acceptable. He asked the shopkeeper to wrap it in red cloth and took it himself.

I just didn't know what my senior brother and teacher liked, so I just picked one according to my own thoughts.

"Junior brother, you're too kind. Please come with me."

Gu Shili put down the object in his hand and led Fu Qing back into the room, but this time Fu Qing noticed that there seemed to be fewer floating bubbles.

"Master, your junior brother requests an audience."

He knocked on the door, and soon it opened on its own. This time, even the dragon and phoenix heads remained unmoved.

"Go in." Gu Shili stroked his beard.

As soon as Fu Qing entered, he felt that this place was very different. Last time he came in, there was a corridor in front of him and thousands of mountains behind him. But this time, there was a deep pool of water behind him with no end in sight.

The girl squatted in front of the deep water, her back to Fu Qing.

"Teacher." Fu Qing bowed respectfully, noticing that the girl was wearing a white dress today, which made her look even more ethereal than last time.

"Come sit here," the girl said, gesturing to the futon beside her.

Fu Qing sat down as instructed, and glancing to the side, he saw that Xing Luochen's eyes were closed.

"What can you see?" she asked.

"What do you see?" Fu Qing looked around, but quickly realized that the question was asking him what he saw in the water.

He squinted, and saw that the pool was deep and dark, with rays of sunlight shining down from the surface.

Fu Qing felt as if something might burst out from the dark depths of the water at any moment.

"There was only water; I didn't see anything else," Fu Qing shook his head.

Xing Luochen opened his eyes, got up and walked to the pool. He pointed at the pool with his finger, and ripples appeared on the water. Soon, the scene in front of Fu Qing began to change.

It was a small sapling, entirely black, with fine golden veins on its bark, and its leaves were also black, with veins that had a faint dark gold hue.

Moreover, Fu Qing seemed to be seeing things. He saw that the leaves seemed to have a large shadow and a small shadow superimposed on each other, with only the shadow in the middle being very solid.

Rubbing his eyes, and seeing that it wasn't a matter of not sleeping well, Fu Qing said, "Teacher, this tree..."

"Can you see the tree's silhouette?"

"able."

Xing Luochen nodded, and with a wave of her hand, a crack appeared in the middle of the pool. The crack gradually widened until it opened up to a width that could accommodate two people.

Before Fu Qing could even gasp in surprise, Xing Luochen spoke.

"Go inside and begin the ritual."