Chapter 297: Farewell

(This chapter is not a long one, only seven thousand words, because there will be another chapter tonight.)

Lu Tai pointed towards the courtyard gate at the time, saying that with the pagoda demon-suppressing talisman pasted there, outside the gate was the pugilistic world, and inside was already a mountain retreat.

This made Chen Ping'an feel like having a drink.

After that, Flying Eagle Stronghold became lively, and with the liveliness came vitality. Compared to the previous almost deathly quiet tranquility, the current Flying Eagle Stronghold was noticeably more reassuring.

Because Flying Eagle Stronghold had received two distinguished outsiders, not the wandering heroes or famous grandmasters that Flying Eagle Stronghold was familiar with, but mystical figures, even stranger than the already eccentric Old Master He, making them seem even more novel.

The middle-aged man, invited with great enthusiasm by the stronghold lord, walked through the streets and alleys of Flying Eagle Stronghold, leading a white horse. Two large bundles of pine and cypress branches were hung on either side of the saddle. Every time the man and horse stopped, the man, holding a horsetail whisk, would burn a branch. He didn't seem to use flint, just rubbed his fingers together, and the pine and cypress branch would ignite, emitting a fragrant aroma that drifted upwards.

Some of the Flying Eagle Stronghold people who gathered in the distance to watch, including some white-haired elders with a little knowledge of the old almanac, began to show off their knowledge, saying that this was called "court illumination," a formidable immortal technique that could drive away evil and dispel filth. Because pine was the king of all trees, revered as the "Eighteen Dukes," equivalent to a Duke of the Realm in the imperial court, and cypress was second only to pine, a Marquis. Especially the pine and cypress trees on some famous mountains and great peaks, they were exceedingly noble, so burning pine and cypress, coupled with immortal incantations, could communicate with the divine.

Compared to the tall man's horsetail whisk and white horse, the other disheveled old man seemed much more ordinary. His presentation couldn't compare with his peer, and his methods also reeked of rusticity. Therefore, not many Flying Eagle Stronghold residents went to join the fun and broaden their horizons. The old man's identity was said to be the master of the young Daoist Huang Shang, a hermit Daoist who lived in the mountains. He was an old friend of the old stronghold lord from their days in the pugilistic world. This time, the old man made a calculation on the mountain and divined that Flying Eagle Stronghold was in trouble, so he came down the mountain to help pray for blessings and eliminate disasters.

The disheveled old man neither wore a Daoist robe, nor could he draw talismans or perform the steps of the Big Dipper. He just had people catch seven or eight roosters and hang them separately at the Flying Eagle Stronghold gate, the ancestral hall entrance, the well, the martial arts training ground, and other places. Then he watched those roosters all day long, carrying a small bag of millet around his waist, filled with glutinous rice, and a pot of clear water, attending to the roosters. The water in the pot was not the well water that Flying Eagle Stronghold usually drank, but mountain spring water that his disciple Huang Shang had fetched from a distant deep mountain.

Chen Ping'an and Lu Tai went their separate ways. Lu Tai liked to watch the so-called Immortal Master of Taiping Mountain play tricks, while Chen Ping'an went to observe the old man's methods. Outsiders watched the excitement, while experts watched for the nuances. Chen Ping'an was somewhere in between. Although he didn't know the origins of the old Daoist's actions, he could be certain that after each rooster was hung, the Yin wind and baleful aura would diminish slightly, like two armies facing each other, one side avoiding the other's sharp edge. However, this kind of retreat was without casualties, just lurking in the shadows and building momentum.

When the old man fed the roosters with glutinous rice and clear water, it could be seen from his worried face that the old Daoist had also seen the clues and was not feeling relaxed.

As for the horsetail whisk man who paraded through the streets, he had a smug expression, as if he could make all evil spirits vanish into thin air with a snap of his fingers.

Huan Chang and Huan Shu, the siblings, were responsible for clearing the way for this person.

Tao Xiyang, with a pale face, coughed frequently, only following behind the old Daoist with Huang Shang.

Lu Tai didn't explicitly say who had the higher Daoist cultivation, only saying that the man was definitely not a Qi cultivator from Taiping Mountain in Tongye Continent, while the disheveled old man was a true mountain-dwelling Daoist, emphasizing a quiet pursuit of learning the Dao, finding peace in benevolence and wisdom, and living as neighbors with mountains and rivers.

Taiping Mountain was a leading grand sect in the central part of Tongye Continent, stronger than the Fuchi Sect, but it had retreated into seclusion to the point of almost abhorring the world. Very few cultivators came down the mountain, as they were masters of both inner and outer alchemy. Lu Tai had heard of it in the Central Earth Divine Continent, but its fame in the world was far less than that of the Tongye and Yugui Sects.

Another two days of quiet and peaceful life passed.

Even the residents of Flying Eagle Stronghold, living in the streets and alleys, noticed the anomaly in the sky.

At dawn, when the sun should have been rising, the sky above Flying Eagle Stronghold was filled with churning black clouds, layered upon layered, like living creatures baring their fangs and claws at Flying Eagle Stronghold, weighing heavily on everyone's hearts. The old steward, He Yai, who served as a schoolteacher, announced that there would be no classes at the school today, and told them to hurry home and stay there, which made the young students overjoyed. On their way back, they went in groups, pointing at the black clouds, saying that it looked like a centipede, and that it looked like a water buffalo. Finally, they saw a black cloud that looked like a woman's ferocious face, which frightened the children so much that they scattered like birds and beasts, hurrying home.

Chen Ping'an was practicing his fist stances in the courtyard and had noticed the strangeness of the sky early on. Lu Tai sat at the stone table, silently performing calculations with his fingers, his expression calm.

At dawn, when the sun should have been shining brightly, it was as dark as midnight, and not a single ray of sunlight could penetrate Flying Eagle Stronghold.

Chen Ping'an heard the eerie laughter from outside the alley again, drifting back and forth.

Chen Ping'an stopped his fist stance and ran to open the door. He turned around and looked up at the demon-suppressing talisman made of ordinary materials. With the passage of time, the spiritual energy contained in the talisman's core had been continuously depleted, and it had become dim and lusterless. The originally brand-new yellow talisman paper looked like a Spring Festival couplet that had been pasted for more than half a year, with severe fading, heavy wrinkles, and several places where black ink had seeped through. No wonder those Yin creatures and ghosts dared to show themselves and provoke them.

Lu Tai walked out of the courtyard gate with his hands in his sleeves, standing shoulder to shoulder with Chen Ping'an, looking up at the decaying calligraphy masterpiece, and muttered to himself, "In an extremely distant era, a person with the cultivation of a Seventh Realm martial artist could only grasp a little bit of the basics when drawing talismans. Only those with Ninth Realm strength could be considered to have entered the hall of talismans. So the power of the talismans back then was unimaginable. Among them, the obscure and mysterious 'Three Mountains Nine Marquis Gentleman' was regarded as the 'Orthodox Sect of Talismans,' but unfortunately, we descendants don't even know if this is a person or just a title."

Chen Ping'an stood on tiptoe, took off the talisman, and put it into his sleeve.

A commotion immediately sounded around them. Fog rose from the muddy road in the alley and quickly spread out. The fog was first ankle-high, then knee-high, and soon reached their waists.

For Chen Ping'an, it was like opening a pot lid, immediately filled with steaming fog. However, the fog from the stove was the hot and fragrant aroma of rice and vegetables, while the fog in the alley was a viscous, humid Yin mist, with a faint fishy smell.Chen Ping'an turned his head to look. Fortunately, the fog didn't rush into the courtyards of the common folk. However, the various door gods pasted on the gates of each household, be it Martial Saint or Wealth Gods, emitted a subtle sizzling sound. The already scattered and shallow spiritual energy dissipated like smoke, no longer able to protect the homeowners.

In Chen Ping'an's vision, at the end of the alley, the pair of figures dressed in plain white appeared again. The child was still staring at Chen Ping'an, its crimson eyes constantly oozing blood, which flowed down its snow-white face. However, the blood wouldn't leave its face, instead crawling around like earthworms, entering and exiting its eyes, as if treating the child's eye sockets as nests.

The adult holding the child's hand had no facial features, as if covered with a thick layer of white cloth, obscuring ears, nose, eyebrows, eyes, and mouth.

Many other eerie and unclean spirits were also walking towards the courtyard at the end of the alley. There was an old crone with lifeless fish eyes, crawling nimbly on the courtyard wall, repeating in a mumble that she wanted to eat flesh.

There were also many children squatting against the base of the walls, hugging their knees, heads resting on them, emitting whimpering sounds that seeped from between their teeth, intermittent and swaying with the wind, as if trying to tell a sad tale, but too young to articulate it clearly.

Although Chen Ping'an had revered ghosts and spirits since childhood, he couldn't be said to be truly afraid.

Imagine, a young child of four or five, braving wind and rain, dared to venture alone into the Cemetery of Immortals. And after practicing his fist techniques, coupled with these three journeys, especially the one to the Tongye Continent, he had witnessed countless strange mountains and rivers. How could he be intimidated by such a scene?

So even though the large and small figures had swayed to the alley directly facing the courtyard gate, Chen Ping'an remained unmoved. Instead, he took a step forward, standing on the edge of the steps, as if waiting for them to make their move.

The child with a face covered in blood like a spiderweb kept staring at Chen Ping'an. As it turned its head to meet Chen Ping'an's gaze, it spoke, "Your flesh smells very fragrant. Can I have a few bites? I only need half of your heart and liver. Is that alright?"

The child spoke very slowly, and its forward steps didn't stop. By the time the words "heart and liver" were spoken, it had already turned its back to Chen Ping'an, but its head was twisted around, still "staring" at Chen Ping'an. It even stuck out a black tongue, licking the blood from the corner of its mouth.

The old crone walking along the wall launched the first attack, leaping towards Chen Ping'an.

Without even looking, Chen Ping'an stepped forward, descending the steps. Before his boots touched the ground of the alley, he casually threw a punch, striking the old crone's head. The ghostly old woman was sent crashing back into the opposite wall, shattering into pieces. She didn't even have time to wail.

Seeing this scene, the ghostly creatures in the alley exploded with ferocity. Black smoke surged as the vengeful spirits, condensed from resentment after death, frantically lunged at Chen Ping'an.

Chen Ping'an placed one hand behind his back, tucked into his sleeve, only using his right hand to fight.

His fist intent remained restrained, flowing only through his right arm. Stellar Qi condensed but didn't leak out. Yet, with each punch, he smashed a charging ghostly creature.

This bit of fist intent, for the current Chen Ping'an, was like drawing only a bucket of water from a deep well.

On the other hand, in the eyes of the ghostly creatures, the white-robed youth's arm was like a small sliver of "sunlight" cutting through the night sky, scorching and blinding.

In the blink of an eye, seven or eight out of ten of the vast horde of ghostly creatures in the alley had been destroyed.

Lu Tai had somehow already sat down on the threshold, watching with folded arms and a smiling face.

The child who had threatened to eat half of Chen Ping'an's heart and liver broke free from the adult's hand and vanished in a flash, arriving behind Chen Ping'an. Using its hand as a knife, it stabbed towards Chen Ping'an's back, trying to slice out his heart from behind with a single strike.

The hand-knife was swift, but just as the child mistakenly thought it would succeed, it cried out in pain. When its five fingers touched the white robe, it felt like crashing into a furnace. Like snow melting, it didn't even have time to retract its hand. Most of its arm was gone.

Chen Ping'an's left hand, behind his back, remained still. His peripheral vision was fixed on the faceless ghostly creature, but he leaned back, bumping into the child ghostly creature. The golden lustral energy of his robe touched the latter, and the child melted like wax in an instant, turning into a wisp of extremely pure black smoke, about to flee into the distance. However, Chen Ping'an turned around, twisting his wrist, and threw a curved punch, smashing the black smoke, leaving it without head or tail.

Lu Tai joked, "That's a bit like bullying."

Chen Ping'an pursed his lips. "It's not even human."

Chen Ping'an suddenly turned his head, looking towards the end of the alley.

From the well near the adjacent street, gloomy well water, clinging to the inner wall of the well, used the fog on the street to conceal its yin energy, quickly flowing out of the wellhead, pouring towards Chen Ping'an's alley. After entering the alleyway, it "saw" the scene of Chen Ping'an suppressing the child ghostly creature. After a moment of hesitation, the well water actually retreated.

Chen Ping'an took his right hand out of his sleeve. Between his fingertips was a brand new, suppressing talisman. In his heart, he silently recited "Fifteen." A ghostly green and exquisite flying sword shot out from the gourd, swept past Chen Ping'an's back, and Fifteen's sword tip nailed the yellow paper talisman, vanishing in an instant, dragging a golden trail of light emitted from the talisman in the air.

This talisman was originally intended to be used against the ghostly creature holding the child's hand. After a brief exchange, Chen Ping'an was confident that his fist was enough.

Since the strange thing in the well had actively emerged, Chen Ping'an had Fifteen take the suppressing talisman to suppress the well, cutting off the well water's retreat.

The well water receded extremely quickly, but how could it be faster than the flying speed of the sword Fifteen?

Fifteen arrived at the well, where it sounded as if a wronged woman was sobbing, and poked the sword tip at the wellhead, nailing the golden pagoda talisman onto the edge of the wellhead.

It then slowly ascended, flying in circles around the wellhead.

The well water that had crawled out of the bottom of the well covered the surrounding area, rippling in waves, revealing distorted faces of women, full of resentment and hatred. Unwillingly, a small tributary separated out and rushed towards the wellhead, but quickly turned into smoke. After several attempts, the talisman stuck to the wellhead remained unshaken, its spiritual light full and bright. The constantly surging well water then gave up. They constantly gathered together, eventually turning into a vaguely visible human-shaped ghostly creature, ten feet tall, its body constantly rolling with well water, making it impossible to recognize its face.The flying sword Fifteen naturally regarded it as a provocation, piercing the forehead of the well-water fiend, instantly hovering, then sweeping back from its back and chest, repeating this process with tireless zeal.

Perhaps it hadn't anticipated that this flying sword possessed such potent sword intent. The well water, barely formed into human shape, scattered with a *hua la la* sound, reverting to a layer of water spreading in all directions, beginning to surge and flee.

Fifteen disregarded these tricks, the sword tip merely puncturing the water again and again.

On the other side of the alley, the male fiend who had hoped the well water would "possess" him, revealed a hint of cowardice. Instead of engaging Chen Ping An, he fled towards the wall at the end of the alley.

Chen Ping An, with a stamp of his foot, arrived before the wall of the dead-end alleyway, slamming a palm against it.

Another talisman for suppressing demons.

The wall immediately revealed its true form, a macabre collection of bones, interspersed with the skeletons of many young children, even some that appeared to have been infants torn from the womb, a truly horrifying sight.

As the wall appeared, the children's shades crouching at its base began to sob and wail.

This scene filled Chen Ping An with righteous fury.

The male fiend was about to take flight and leave the alley when Chen Ping An, enraged, turned and reached out, grabbing the featureless face. His fingers were like hooks, the sleeves of his gold-threaded Daoist robe billowing, emitting a radiance reminiscent of a shrine that had enjoyed millennia of incense offerings. The fiend emitted a plea from the depths of its soul, a desperate cry. Chen Ping An, with his right hand clutching the fiend, punched through its heart with his left. His entire arm surged with golden light, imbued with both his own fist energy and the spiritual energy of the gold thread.

Chen Ping An stirred his right arm, forcibly creating a large hole in the fiend's chest.

Not yet satisfied, Chen Ping An attempted to tear apart the fiend's soul, deliberately controlling his strength, shredding it thread by thread, like a punishment of peeling skin and extracting tendons, pulling the soul into the sleeve of the gold-threaded robe, subjecting the fiend to the torment of a thousand cuts and ten thousand slices, a living hell.

Lu Tai stood up and softly reminded, "Chen Ping An, that's enough."

Chen Ping An took a deep breath, released his left hand, and withdrew his right hand from the fiend's chest. He shattered the fiend with a punch, sweeping all of it into his robe sleeve. Finally, he shook his sleeve, and fine, fragmented ash fell down in a *簌簌* rain.

Chen Ping An looked ahead at the children's shades crouching at the base of the wall. They had not fled, but merely trembled violently. They still clung to their knees, awaiting their fate, whimpering and crying, as if enduring immense pain and torment.

Chen Ping An glanced at the talisman affixed to the wall of corpses, quickly going to tear it down.

After storing the demon-suppressing talisman, Chen Ping An took a step of seven or eight *zhang*, squatted down, and came to a child's shade huddled in place, its body no more than two or three years old. Chen Ping An extended a palm, even though he had tried to restrain his fist energy and the spiritual energy of the gold thread, attempting to make his robe appear like ordinary clothing. However, the child still trembled even more violently.

Chen Ping An quickly rolled up both sleeves, almost to his shoulders, and gently patted the child's head.

Chen Ping An was speechless.

Of all the sufferings in the world, even those due to inescapable karmic retribution from past lives, surely they should wait until a child is a little older, a little more aware?

Chen Ping An felt that this was wrong, that this was not good.

Because he could empathize most deeply.

Chen Ping An withdrew his hand, raised the back of it, and wiped his eyes. He turned to look at Lu Tai and asked, "Is there a way?"

Lu Tai slowly approached, without his previous casual air, and nodded. "Don't you know the Yang Energy Illuminating Lamp Talisman? As long as you reverse the drawing of that talisman, it becomes the Yin Energy Guiding Talisman. Then I'll draw a Netherworld Ferrying Talisman, and we can transcend these little ones. Your talisman is to persuade these unenlightened shades, to have them rely on instinct to rise and walk. Mine is to open a door for them, so their path forward is not cut off."

Chen Ping An silently called out to flying sword Fifteen.

It swiftly swept back from the alley entrance.

Chen Ping An took out a yellow talisman paper and the Snow Cone stylus from his storage artifact. He sat cross-legged, holding the stylus in one hand and supporting the talisman paper with the other. Under Lu Tai's guidance, he began his first attempt to reverse-draw the Yang Energy Illuminating Lamp Talisman. Because his state of mind was unstable, he ultimately failed. Lu Tai said nothing. Chen Ping An took a deep breath and took out another talisman paper. He still fell short of success. This was extremely rare for Chen Ping An, who had honed his mind through fist practice.

Chen Ping An himself was somewhat at a loss.

Lu Tai sighed.

Because a fragment of Chen Ping An's mind, his mind-mirror, was shaking.

Lu Tai simply took out his bamboo fan and gently fanned it, not looking at Chen Ping An, and smiling slightly. "Don't try to put yourself in everyone's shoes, learn to distance yourself."

"Don't rush to draw the talisman. You've endured so much hardship over the years. Those little ones shouldn't mind waiting a little longer."

Lu Tai fanned a gentle breeze, helping this alley, where yin winds and clouds had dispersed, to once again conceal the invisible yang energy seeping down from the dark clouds overhead. He slowly said, "Once things are resolved here, I will go directly to the bamboo building to find the fortress lord's wife. Chen Ping An, you don't need to come with me, because I need you to help me disperse those dark clouds and any hidden fiends lurking in the shadows. Their cultivation might not be low. Don't worry about me."

Chen Ping An nodded.

Lu Tai looked up at the sky. "I can roughly confirm the truth. The Yin flourishing and Yang waning of Flying Eagle Fortress over the past decades was deliberately orchestrated by someone. It was to allow that fortress lord's wife, who was born with an extremely Yin constitution, to gestate a ghost infant, one that's rare in a hundred years, born from the woman's heart orifice. It takes several years, feeding on the woman's blood and vital energy, rather than the usual ten months of gestation in a woman's womb. The common saying 'carrying a ghost in one's heart' refers to this situation. That fortress lord's wife is not a cultivator, so her vital energy is not enough. That's why there are so many strange occurrences in Flying Eagle Fortress, all to maintain her life, waiting for the ghost infant to break out of her heart. That will be when the woman dies. And because of the deep sin, the woman's soul after death will likely not be able to hope for peace. When she's alive, it's a living hell. When she's dead, it's worse than being alive. Truly tragic."

Chen Ping An frowned.Lu Tai slowly said, "According to several Daoist texts in my family's library, these filthy creatures possess a Sixth Realm cultivation base from birth, making them quite troublesome. They gather and disperse unpredictably, making them difficult to eradicate unless with a single, decisive strike. They are fond of devouring the internal organs of the living. Without someone to restrain them, it wouldn't take a century, just the devastation of a few cities and the consumption of tens of thousands of people, for them to smoothly ascend to the Nascent Soul Realm. Ghost infants are inherently difficult to capture and kill, let alone a terrestrial immortal ghost infant. I fear that without the joint pursuit of three terrestrial immortals, there's no hope of eliminating it. A Nascent Soul cultivator venturing alone is practically offering himself as bait."

Lu Tai coldly laughed, "Such a maneuver is nothing in the Divine Continent of the Central Plains, but in this Tongye Continent, it's quite significant."

Then, Lu Tai said no more, waving his bamboo fan, a gentle breeze caressing his face.

Chen Ping'an remained silent for a moment, then softly said, "I can continue drawing talismans now."

Lu Tai glanced at Chen Ping'an beside him and smiled.

This time, it was finally a success! Chen Ping'an wiped the sweat from his brow, about to put away the Yin energy guiding talisman. Lu Tai looked puzzled, "What are you doing?"

Chen Ping'an replied, "The talisman paper isn't of high quality, it's just for practice..."

Lu Tai snatched the talisman, annoyed, "Are you daft? A bunch of little ones, this talisman is more than sufficient. Anything better might attract their greed, causing them to remain wandering between the realms of Yin and Yang, as solitary wandering spirits. That would be detrimental."

Chen Ping'an nodded, first handing the small snow awl to Lu Tai before taking out another piece of talisman paper. He asked, "Your Netherworld Ferry Talisman needs to break through the Yin-Yang boundary, which is very different from my simple guiding talisman. So, does a better material make it more effective?"

Lu Tai hesitated, not speaking.

Chen Ping'an already knew the answer and directly took out a piece of golden material talisman paper.

Lu Tai didn't take it, asking, "Is it worth it?"

Chen Ping'an nodded.

Lu Tai shook his head, "I don't think it's worth it."

Chen Ping'an turned to look at the two rows of children along the wall and smiled firmly at Lu Tai, his eyes resolute. "Just use this talisman paper. But be careful not to make any mistakes."

Lu Tai sighed, first closing her eyes for a moment, solemnly concentrating her breath, then opened her eyes, gripping the small snow awl, and began drawing the ferry talisman on the golden talisman paper. This was the unique talisman of the Lu clan, Yin-Yang masters of the Central Plains, depicting a solitary boat with an old man punting, and a string of ancient seal characters on either side.

Chen Ping'an trusted Lu Tai's talisman drawing, turning to look at the children.

Someone once heard the words "not worth it" in the Yang family's shop.

Chen Ping'an looked at the children as if looking at dozens of versions of himself, waiting for an answer.

After a moment, Lu Tai smiled, "Success!"

Lu Tai returned the small snow awl. Then, the two stood up. Chen Ping'an pinched the Yin energy guiding talisman, pouring a wisp of pure true qi into it. The talisman radiated spiritual light, gentle and soft, a completely different scene from the Yang energy attracting talisman. As expected, as the guiding talisman manifested, the children along the wall raised their heads, gazing blankly at the talisman in Chen Ping'an's hand, filled with longing and joy.

Lu Tai threw the golden Netherworld Ferry Talisman towards the wall of corpses at the end of the alley. The talisman stuck to the wall, golden lines appearing around the edges of the talisman. The center of the talisman paper began to dissipate, the golden lines expanding outwards, eventually forming a golden doorframe.

Lu Tai instructed Chen Ping'an, holding the guiding talisman, to walk towards the door, taking slow steps.

The child spirits stood up one after another, following Chen Ping'an, who was guiding the way, towards the end of the alley.

Lu Tai sat on the steps at the entrance to the courtyard, propping her chin with one hand, watching Chen Ping'an's back.

Chen Ping'an, following Lu Tai's instructions, gently placed the Yin energy guiding talisman inside the door, as if just above the threshold, the talisman hovering in place.

Dozens of child spirits entered one after another, some skipping and jumping, some staggering, and some of the larger children leading the smaller ones.

After they entered the door one after another, suddenly all their heads crowded behind the threshold, smiling at the white-robed youth standing outside the door.

Although they were spirits, their smiles at that moment were so innocent and radiant.

Lu Tai couldn't see Chen Ping'an's expression.

She, dressed in a man's blue robe, was actually named "Lu Tai," the "Tai" meaning "to raise high," as if in defiance of her ancestor "Lu Chen" (to sink).

She only saw Chen Ping'an waving goodbye to the children.