Warding Of Evil Spirit

Chapter 22 Taming Beasts, Refining Gu, and Fostering Greed

In Yan Jianming's eyes, Chu Weiyang was truly a clever man.

From beginning to end, even though his expression revealed undisguised surprise, Chu Weiyang never asked about the reasons behind these changes. Aside from expressing gratitude at the end because the Panwang Sect's cultivation technique was returned to its rightful owner, Chu Weiyang didn't even mention the Danxia Old Mother, as if he hadn't heard Yan Jianming's deliberate probing.

Too clever, but unfortunately, he's destined not to live long.

Thinking of this, for some reason, looking at Chu Weiyang again, at the young man's tired face, at his clearly somewhat clumsy attempts to force a smile and utter fragmented, extremely awkward pleasantries,

Yan Jianming felt a transcendent, elusive feeling.

This feeling came without any reason; one was a stray dog, the other a disciple of the Old Mother; one was seriously ill, the other a peak Qi Refining cultivator.

Compared to Chu Weiyang, who had won unscathed, Yan Jianming shouldn't have shown any joy.

But perhaps sensing the intelligence of the man before him, sensing something amazing about him that would vanish in a flash, like a fleeting moment, like a shooting star,

an inexplicable sense of elation almost made Yan Jianming intoxicated. It was as if, in that instant, he had suddenly understood the complexities of the mortal world, its trials and tribulations, the impermanence of life, and a sense of transcendence.

His thoughts lingered there, and faced with Chu Weiyang's still hesitant and polite greetings, Yan Jianming suddenly became impatient.

He waved his hand, interrupting Chu Weiyang.

"Fellow Daoist, please stop!"

"Such empty words, such pretty talk, are useless to us!"

"Do what your mother entrusted to you, otherwise I will suffer, and you, Fellow Daoist..."

At this point, Yan Jianming shook his head.

"You wouldn't want to know."

Interrupted so rudely, Yan Jianming's behavior was quite uncharacteristic. He even

resorted to such vile threats.

Chu Weiyang wasn't angry; he was merely surprised.

In a daze, he seemed to see someone just imprisoned in the Demon-Suppressing Cave, their soul and emotions manipulated by the malevolent energy, then, in extreme anger and sorrow, allowing the ghostly energy to devour their consciousness bit by bit, until they completely forgot themselves.

This thought flashed through his mind.

Chu Weiyang even looked at Yan Jianming with a touch of pity at that moment.

Then, he smiled and nodded.

"Alright, if you need anything, Fellow Daoist Yan, just come to Zhaifeng Tower to find me. I'm still getting used to living a peaceful life; I need to recuperate for a while. Of course, I won't forget my mother's instructions, so..."

Chu Weiyang hesitated.

Yan Jianming nodded, then raised his chin, but subconsciously felt that this seemed inappropriate. He hesitated for a moment, then simply flicked his sleeves and turned to leave.

Standing behind the chains of spiritual light that formed a barrier, Chu Weiyang stood quietly until Yan Jianming's figure completely disappeared into the lush forest. Only then did Chu Weiyang return to Zhaifeng Tower, somewhat surprised.

Pushing open the door, Manager Ma was already seated in a wooden chair, meeting Chu Weiyang's gaze.

Clearly, Manager Ma, who had already mastered the secret techniques of sword intent, had keenly sensed the conversation.

Before Chu Weiyang could say anything, Manager Ma nodded to himself.

"There's no mistake, I told you, from now on, your place of refuge, your very body, will be the Demon-Suppressing Cave that holds you captive! Now, the malevolent energy is surging, even someone at the peak of the Qi Refining stage will be affected by it standing before you."

"A madman will only have madmen around him." "

From now on… you probably won't have any friends."

Hearing this, Chu Weiyang simply nodded calmly; this was something he had already guessed.

But whether he was mad or not, whether he had friends or not, Chu Weiyang didn't care about such things.

After all, Manager Ma had only recently suffered a calamity; no matter how much he suffered, his thinking remained the same as before, always prone to thinking about random things.

At this moment, Chu Weiyang's mind was preoccupied with the unspoken meaning of Yan Jianming's words.

After a long period of contemplation, Chu Weiyang became increasingly worried.

"I originally thought that warding off disasters and calamities was just for the sake of a child from Tingchang Mountain, even though last time someone stormed the Sword Sect's gates and destroyed the Demon Suppression Cave because of him."

"But such things should at most be confined to the next two generations."

"Even if this matter was ordered by Old Mother Danxia, ​​there's no reason why Old Mother Danxia would be so concerned about something that Yan Jianming and I, who are barely taller than that person's ankles combined, discussed."

"There's absolutely no reason for that!"

"But it still happened." "

So this pretext of mine isn't actually a pretext for that Chunyu family child, or rather, we're both pretexts. Who cares most about this matter..."

The words were somewhat convoluted, but by the end, Chu Weiyang stared blankly at Steward Ma. Both of them understood the unspoken meaning, feeling as if the deep spring forest was wrapped in a thousand miles of frost, sending chills down their spines. Steward Ma

forced a smile.

"What kind of good fortune must you have to be able to act as a decoy for Old Mother Danxia!"

Chu Weiyang clicked his tongue, grinning with a half-smile, then weighed the wooden box in his hand.

"With my limited intelligence, I could barely fool Yan Jianming. If he returned to the sect and told the whole story, Old Mother Danxia would probably have seen through me even from thousands of miles away."

"She probably didn't anticipate that I could figure this out."

"So the price of the precious materials has increased several times over, all for the sake of selling one's life. She wants me to become strong, but not so strong that I become out of control."

"Then, no matter how eloquently and profoundly the details of this poison manual are explained, it probably won't satisfy me."

As he spoke, Chu Weiyang casually picked up the dark green jade slip from the wooden box and gently placed it between his eyebrows.

His divine sense circulated, and unfamiliar characters flowed through his mind.

After a long while, Chu Weiyang opened his eyes, head bowed, silently watching the jade slip in his hand gradually dissipate its spiritual light, finally turning into dust and drifting away with the wind through his fingers.

He gently twiped it, wiping away the last bit of ashes and dust from his palm. Chu Weiyang seemed to see the end and passing of a karmic story from five hundred years ago, a

story of cause and effect between Panwang Yuanzong, slowly fading into the annals of time amidst the silent sighs of later generations. Steward Ma, who was idly scratching his head, looked at Chu Weiyang's silence and then asked...

"Well? To be honest, you shouldn't have had such high hopes. I've never heard of the *Qingzhu Danjing*, but what about the legendary figures from five hundred years ago? It sounds like utter nonsense. Your Panwang Sect has only a handful of members, how many years have you been declining? In the last few hundred years, even the people in the mountains have almost disappeared. Such figures dare to talk about creating a scripture? Even a piece of my foot would be more aesthetically pleasing than those few words!"

Hearing this, Chu Weiyang glanced sideways at Steward Ma's now-defunct lower body.

"Steward, well said. Don't say that again."

...

Three more days.

In front of Zhaifeng Tower.

Chu Weiyang was shaping clay into a urn, a thick earthenware urn half a person's height and as thick as a water bucket, which he placed on the flat ground.

Steward Ma sat on a wooden chair beside him, propping himself up with his hand and peering into the urn.

Inside the large urn, Chu Weiyang had gathered several kinds of spiritual herbs and medicines commonly found in the forest of trees, carefully layering them with straw mats. Among these mats, snake eggs, resembling pieces of white jade, were scattered about in a pleasing, irregular pattern.

On the inner wall, several deliberately dug pits were inlaid with over ten spirit stones.

Normally, Chu Weiyang would never have used spirit stones so lavishly; after all, it was money given to him by others, and he used it without a second thought, displaying a rather extravagant and wasteful style.

These spirit stones, inlaid at varying heights on the inner wall, revealed a subtle mystery upon closer inspection, as if some kind of array had been set up, binding the energy within the entire urn to one place.

Like the sun and moon revolving, like stars lining the sky.

He reached out and placed the last layer of straw mat on top.

The snake eggs were all hidden among the spiritual herbs and medicines, even the spirit stones were concealed. Only then did Chu Weiyang straighten up.

He hesitated for a moment, then raised his palm and placed it directly above the large urn, before slicing his palm with the edge of his sword.

Instantly, crimson blood dripped into the urn.

Visibly, as Chu Weiyang's blood dripped into the urn, wisps of dark, rising mist emanated from the bloodstains. This was extremely pure malevolent energy, seeping in all directions, growing stronger and stronger, while being tightly restrained within the inner walls by the array formed by the spirit stones.

At the same time, a striking change occurred in Chu Weiyang's face, which gradually turned deathly pale.

Being ill, Chu Weiyang soon felt dizzy and quickly swallowed the Dragon-Tiger Rejuvenation Pill he had placed under his tongue.

A scorching heat flowed through his limbs and bones, and Chu Weiyang seemed to come back to life. Seeing that the wound on his palm was showing signs of healing, he didn't hesitate to make another s***h with his sword before tossing it aside. He then focused his mind, forming a sword-finger gesture with his hand and touching his wrist.

For a moment, Chu Weiyang murmured incantations, his indistinct tone accompanying the shifts in his spiritual sense, guiding the circulation of his internal magical power.

Soon, the originally bright red blood on his palm suddenly turned dark red, eventually becoming almost purplish-black, looking like some kind of poison at a glance.

At the same time, the straw mat, almost completely soaked in Chu Weiyang's blood, still seemed to be corroded by the spray of this dark red blood, hissing and emitting white smoke.

A pungent yet rich medicinal fragrance began to permeate the air, but it was also contained within the large urn by the array.

Finally, Chu Weiyang picked up a spirit stone and placed it on the wound on his palm.

Then, he manipulated his sword energy, turning the spirit stone stained with Chu Weiyang's blood into powder, and finally sprinkled the powder evenly into the urn.

After Chu Weiyang finished doing this, and then sealed the mouth of the urn with a talisman paper covered with dense seal script, Steward Ma curled his lips, like a spectator who had just finished watching the show and was full of disdain.

"It's called a demonic cultivation method, but it reeks of unorthodox practices. This hodgepodge actually thinks it's a dish!"

"This is using the methods of Gu refining to control beasts..."

"The evil energy has been transformed, but it's been transferred to the demon beast!" "

The poison energy has also been refined, and it's also been condensed into the demon beast!"

"In this way, you lose a portion of your evil energy, but the ferocious beast becomes even stronger!"

"But the ferocious demon beasts that cultivate the path of poison are all ungrateful beasts!"

"If you raise them to be weak, they're just a burden."

"If you raise them to be strong, you have to be wary of backlash. "

"You're right. When I passed on this method to you, the Old Mother Danxia never really wanted you to become powerful!"

Hearing this, Chu Weiyang gently touched his gradually healing wound, looked at the large urn filled with snake eggs beside him, and nodded, as if he quite agreed with Steward Ma's statement, or as if he was marveling at the strangeness of the cultivation method of the "Green Bamboo Elixir Scripture".

"The green snake's mouth is like a bamboo shoot, the wasp's stinger is like a scorpion's tail; neither is poisonous, but the most poisonous is a woman's heart."

Hearing Chu Weiyang's lament, Steward Ma was startled, as if recalling a story. Suddenly, he slammed his hand on the wooden chair armrest.

"Damn Heaven! Unreasonable damn Heaven!"

...

North of Jade Marrow River, Tingchang Mountain, the Danxia Old Mother's Daoist Temple.

In the dimly lit temple, the doors were tightly shut, only the incense and candles swirling on the walls, the rising mist growing ever thicker, resembling a divine realm.

On the lotus throne on the high platform to the north, Xie Jiang and Jin Guan sat cross-legged on either side. However, upon closer inspection, Xie Jiang's eyelids trembled, and Jin Guan's brows were furrowed; neither of them seemed to be focused on meditation and cultivation.

Several days had passed since they were imprisoned in Tingchang Mountain. Deprived of their freedom and confined to this Taoist temple, they knew nothing of what was happening outside, whether their elders from their sect had come knocking, or whether Master Qinghai had sworn an oath with Old Mother Danxia. The

passing days only intensified their anxiety and unease.

Just then, Jin Guan finally seemed to let out a sigh of relief, abandoning his pretense, and opened his eyes to look at Xie Jiang beside him. He suddenly spoke,

“Senior Sister, you said that spiritual object…”

Seeing that Jin Guan was about to continue, Xie Jiang suddenly opened her eyes. Two beams of light, radiating supreme sword intent, shone from her deep gaze, almost materializing from nothingness, directly piercing Jin Guan's mind!

"You scoundrel! In Tingchang Mountain, on their territory, you dare to say anything!"

Hearing Xie Jiang's low rebuke, Jin Guan, finally reaching his limit of annoyance, rolled his eyes and continued nonchalantly.

"So what if I said it! If that spiritual object is in Tingchang Mountain, it must be with that brat from the Chunyu family! But if it's really not in Tingchang Mountain, Senior Sister, do you think it could be with that escaped demon prisoner?"

"After all, to survive in the Demon Suppression Cave where the evil energy erupted, it seems the demon prisoner is more suspicious..."

Seeing Jin Guan about to continue, Xie Jiang suddenly slapped him on the chest.

"Are you planning to betray the sect one day? Going crazy here like this, ignoring everything! If we lose the spiritual object, our lineage's tribulation-repairing scriptures..."

At this point, Xie Jiang abruptly lowered her voice.

She seemed to know, yet also seemed not to know.

Just then, outside the Dao Hall, the sound of hurried footsteps approached.