That day Shi Wuduan arranged the Jiu Xing Ceng Di, drawing the fury of the thunder gods on the nine layers of heavens, Cangyun valley got struck with a huge gaping hole stretching from the middle of the valley to where the spirits build their hiding space. While the main culprit can just shake it off and just leave with his luggage, the smaller spirits all over Cangyun valley all got frightened to death, living every day in anxiety.
No one noticed, in that gap that was struck open by thunder, every day at from eleven at night to one in the morning there would be some faint dark smoke arising from it.
Shi Wuduan, having just descended from the mountain, sees everything as new, everything as intriguing. He stands in the middle of a market, having long thrown away 'Jianghua' ' Hehua' Sangren to the back of the mind, and feels he has never been able to see so many people crowding together, male, female, young, and old, they come in all shapes and sizes, even the stones that laid their path, everything seems so magical.
When he was young shifu always talked about 'the big wide world' 'the common mass' whatever, he used to just understand the sound of these phrases but not the meaning. Now, he is able to soak them in.
Shi Wuduan shoulders his luggage and lets the jade sparrow rest on his shoulder, his round eyes flicker in all directions like they are not enough for him to see all. His cheeks are puffed up, holding a still smoking bun between his teeth – even though this bun was only bought from a small shop near the side street, it is still proof of the warmth of the world, he feels like it smells so many times nicer than the bland, white porridge from the old geezer's place.
Shi Wuduan only takes two to three bites to finish one bun, yet he still feels it is not enough. He pats his stomach, still thinking silently: how good would it be if Xiao Li Zi follows me.
Then his attention is immediately drawn to something else. He feels like finding Jianghua Sanren is not that urgent a matter, so he throws away everything and indulges himself to the maximum.
Shi Wuduan does not know that the Jianghua Sanren he wants to find is currently on Jiulu mountain. No one knows when he climbed the mountain, how he climbed the mountain, it was like he truly came with the blowing wind under the bright moonlight that even layers upon layers under Jiulu mountain cannot detect.
The Taoist master is sitting cross-legged beside the giant constellation tablet in the courtyard. He was not calculating anything, merely hovering a hand over the constellation tablet, letting the star threads hang on his fingers playfully. Next to him is a small stove, on it is a pot of wine.
When Jianghua Sanren appears behind him, the Taoist master does not lift up his head, just points to a place beside him and says: "You came. Sit down.:
Jianghua is no stickler for formalities, he pushes away his clothes' helms before sitting down on the ground by his side. He picks up a cup, takes the jar of wine on the stove to pour himself one full cup, swallows half of it with just one sip and asks: "Where's your little monkey, sent him on some errand out?"
The Taoist master lowers his eyes, twirling the star threads on his fingers. He has cultivated for a century but does not look over middle-aged. Yet in these few days, his features have considerably become more worn out, if you look carefully at his side profile, at the tip of the eyebrows near his hairline there is already some grey.
The Taoist master says: "That child Wuduan, I entrust to you for a few years."
Jianghua Sanren looks like he wants to say something, but in the end only sighs, finishing the other half of his wine cup. The two of them stay silent for a while before he asks: "I came from the valley behind the mountain and saw a heaven-made hole from afar, what is that?"
The Taoist master laughs sadly but does not say anything.
Jianghua shakes his head and says: "Three years old is large enough, seven years old is old enough, your little disciple, as a seven-year-old he already dared use magical fire to burn down the ancestor hall, right now as a barely ten-year-old he can already cause lightning to strike, how will his future be? With this temperament, when he finally matures, will he even puncture a hole in our sky?"
The Taoist master can only offer a forced laugh: "The future, I will have to depend on you, fellow cultivator, to discipline him more."
Jianghua says: "You've spent ten years nurturing him into this current state, what talents do I have that can care for him holistically? To ensure he has a roof over his head and grows to be decent are already not bad, let's not even speak of discipline."
He stretched his shoulder and smiled: "If you give a child for me to discipline, wouldn't the more I discipline the worse they get?"
The Taoist master does not say anything. He suddenly stands up, a few star threads quickly wrapped around his outstretched hand. The constellation tablet brightens up immediately, a tiny cyclone seemingly forming between the slow-moving little stars, billowing the green sleeve of the Taoist master.
Jianghua follows his line of sight is stunned. He cannot help but blurt out: "This is ..."
The Taoist master's entire body is engulfed in the starry light from the constellation tablet. He turns his head upon hearing, his face against the light showing neither happiness nor sadness, yet his eyes are incredibly deep.
Jianghua widens his eyes, his laziness from earlier lost. He cannot resist standing up as well, staring down at the chaotic constellation tablet from above, and cannot resist glancing at the Taoist master again. He hesitates a long while before asking carefully: "If I didn't read wrongly, this is ... Taixing is about to collapse, am I right?"
(*) Taixing: a mountain often referred to in fantasy text, located near Henan in reality. In-text, the collapse of Taixing is taken as a sign of disasters.
"The stars growing disordered, Taixing collapsing, demons roaming rampant ..." The Taoist master suddenly closes his eyes, lowering his raised arm. The star threads originally wrapping around his hand suddenly all wither, falling down one by one. The sea of stars on the constellation tablet reverts to its state of stillness, its lights dimming, countless stars resembling true pebbles. A little chill slowly engulfs the small cottage at the top of Jiulu mountain like a sheen of water in the night: "My cultivation friend, I did not predict that we are fortunate enough to witness chaos large enough to break open our entire world in this lifetime."
Jianghua Sanren is stunned for a long while, his gaze on the withering constellation tablet suddenly shifts onto the Taoist master: "You ..."
The Taoist master lifts his hand to stop the latter half of that sentence, his fingers, which are seemingly even thinner than earlier, wriggling slightly. He stays silent for a long time before saying: "There is no need for so many words, this is fate."
He turns to Jianghua Sanren, staring at him for a long time before saying: "Cultivation friend, you are already removed from these worldly matters, it is only right for you to look at all this with cool eyes and an unmoving heart. But us, we cannot control our fates."
Jianghua forces a smile, asks: "What? You want to gift me your precious student? This time you are willing to let go?"
The Taoist master says: "To follow you and be detached from this world is not necessarily a bad thing. I just feel that that child, if we are speaking about his wiliness, within the past centuries on Jiulu mountain no one could compete with him. Yet he does not possess enough insights, he is not a big intellect, I am merely afraid of his little clever tricks. Haizz, if it really could not be changed ... in the future if you can still give me some face, you can care for him a bit more."
Jianghua is startled.
The Taoist master continues: "Everyone has their own fate, if he was born to bear this heavenly calamity (*), no one could have pulled out of it."
(*) (original: jie) heavenly calamity or retribution: it was believed natural disasters were caused by heaven to punish for something
Going back to Shi Wuduan, he has descended from the mountain for more than half a month. He has seen enough, played around enough, and has finally remembered he still has to find Jianghua, but he has already used up all this travel allowance. He thinks everything he has seen is interesting, and being that this is the first time that he can purchase things for himself he spent all his money without calculation. He did not even see the benefits of having money just like a spoiled rich brat, and quickly became so broke he had no money for room.
It is fortunate then, that he does not care about such details, and sneaks into the ancestor hall (*) of the village for shelter at midnight.
(*) some villages in ancient China (and a few in present China as well) were often made of relatives sharing the same last name, so they could share a common ancestor hall as well.
The ancestor hall near the entrance gate of the village is often closed. Normally, if there are no important matters to discuss, no one would enter the hall, but this ancestor hall does not even have a guard, so at midnight Shi Wuduan climbs the walls to enter like a petty thief. Taking a survey around the ancestor hall, he finds the wild grass here is even higher than his waist, the entire hall has a foreboding atmosphere, but he does not know any fear. He glances at the large scripts "忠孝节烈"(*) covered in incalculable amount of ashes and spider webs and shakes his head, then casually shifts the table with incense away, blows off the dirt on the table, then lies down on it.
(*) to be filial and maintain your purity, the latter referring to women who does not engage with other men after their husband dies
He does not forget to pat the jade sparrow on the head, whispering: "Shh, don't make any noise, be careful they'd take you back and eat you."
The large sparrow who has grown back some feathers looks at him hatefully before curling up to become a meatball by his feet.
The one-man one-bird pair just outrageously sleep like that. During the night, Shi Wuduan shifts on his back. He is in his growing age, sometimes his bones would hurt at night and he would unconsciously roll around in his sleep, his sleeping pose all kinds of ugly. The jade sparrow that was peacefully sleeping ends up getting kicked off the table by him.
The large bird is startled, immediately flapping his wings so finally it did not end up with its bird face flattened against the stone floor. It angrily flies up on the table, sounding off at Shi Wuduan, but unexpectedly this little brat sleeps like a dead pig with no intention of waking up.
The jade sparrow runs out of options, so it has to shift position to near Shi Wuduan's head, once more laying down near his shoulder. It was about to tuck its head in its wing and continue sleeping when it suddenly heard the door of the ancestor hall make a screeching sound, clearly moving on its own without any wind.
The jade sparrow lifts up its head in shock, before the screeching sound continues to echo, its newly grown feathers standing on its ends. It pecks Shi Wuduan with its life, then keeps flapping its wings on his head, finally managing to wake him up.
Shi Wuduan dazedly rubs his eyes, confusedly staring at the bird that suddenly went mad in the middle of the night. The jade sparrow zooms to the air, making a sharp sound. He frowns, squinting in the direction of the door and sees a few pale fingers gripping at the frame, an old lady in white moving in like she was flying.
This old lady does not look at him but heads towards the table with the incense burner, restores the incense burner Shi Wuduan has shifted away back to its original position. Shi Wuduan immediately shifts backwards to give her space, where she lovingly cleans the incense burner and lights up an incense stick to pray.
Shi Wuduan rubs his nose, feeling like he is the one the old lady is bowing to. Feeling sorry, he immediately jumps off the table and waits for her to finish bowing.
Only then does the old lady turns towards him, her not very bright eyes resting on his body. These eyes are incredibly cold, Shi Wuduan shivers, feeling like cold water was splashed on his face. So he nonchalantly ruffles his hair, smiles and says: "About that ... grandma, this little one didn't intentionally crash here, it's just I'm in a bit of a bind right now ... Hahahaha."
The old lady strangely stares at him for a long while, before gesturing with her hand for him to come over, her voice raspy: "Come here."
Shi Wuduan obediently follows, and the jade sparrow grows so impatient it feels like it could reach the roof. It bites onto his sleeve and tries to pull him back with all its might, even using his claws to claw at Shi Wuduan's hair. Shi Wuduan holds onto his head and shrinks his neck, then waves his hand around and grabs onto the jade sparrow's neck. Mimicking Bai Li, he tucks it inside his clothes and says: "Don't mess around."
Fog starts to develop around the room, the jade sparrow feels like waves and waves of yin energy are condensing into a huge gaping mouth, while the old lady standing in the middle of the thick ghostly energy is leading them towards that mouth.
Shi Wuduan happily advances two steps, still asking: "Grandma, where do you want to lead me to?"
The old lady briskly walks towards the pit black mouth, gesturing him forwards: "Come here."
Shi Wuduan follows all the way until there, then stops, looking up the little old lady barely taller than him. He tilts his head and thinks for a while before saying: "Ghost grandma, I read that books write this is the Ghostly Gate, I am a living soul, I can't cross it."
Upon hearing that, the old lady's face immediately changes, her face covered in a scary green-grey sheen. Shi Wuduan still feels no fear, excitedly looking at her like a dancing circus monkey doing tricks. Seeing that she has shifted her face, he embraces the jade sparrow that is so scared its eyes are rolling backwards, and seriously asks: "Grandma, you want to trick living souls into entering the Ghostly Gate, do you want to steal bodies?"
The body of the ghostly old lady suddenly expands a few meters in height, her visage incredible scary and something that can be described as yellow face and green fangs. She quickly pounces on Shi Wuduan, who while still holding onto the jade sparrow, agilely jumps backwards and avoids her, his mouth still running: "Grandma, listen to me explain first. I am a virgin boy, not to mention a cultivator, my yang energy is too strong, even if you steal my body it would not last long."
It seems this ghostly grandma has never seen such an unafraid child like this as well so she cannot help but pause, looking strangely at Shi Wuduan. Shi Wuduan then yawns and says: "Let's put this like this. I already slept in your ancestor hall, uhm ... it can come across as a little disrespectful, so embarrassed. You have turned into a violent ghost, so you must have kept grudges from the previous life. If you have any unfinished business you can just tell me, I can help you finish them."
"What unfinished wishes do you have?"
The ghost grandma is stunned in a long while, her body hanging in midair, a creaking sound escaping from her mouth. It takes a while for Shi Wuduan to hear clearly that it was "kill", so he miserably scratches his head and says: "Kill? Kill who? Oh right, you have already turned into a violent ghost, so you definitely cannot remember. Oh, from what I see of you, you must have stuck around in the living world more than a century right, even though you had enemies they are already dead seven or eight lifetimes ago, not even you can remember it clearly so why must you hold on to this grudge? You should just go for incarnation soon ..."
The ghost old lady bares her fangs and leaps forward.
Shi Wuduan quickly takes out the constellation tablet from his luggage nearby and says: "Fine fine fine, I'll help you calculate your karma, just calculate a bit and it'll be alright."
The jade sparrow hears that he even wants to calculate karma for the female ghost, immediately rolls back its eyes and falls to the ground unconscious.
Shi Wuduan mutters and pulls out the star threads, a soft light shooting out from the constellation tablet. The ghost old lady cannot resist but take a step forward, like she was entranced by something, reaching out her hand to touch the white light. At the moment her fingertips touch the white light, Shi Wuduan who is originally sitting there raises his head and makes an ugly face.
The ghost old lady has been a violent ghost for so many years, it has always been her wearing a demonic face and scaring others, but never someone else making an ugly face at her, so she cannot help but be stunned still for a moment. Right at that moment, the constellation tablet shoots out a ray of intense light, the sharp light piercing through her body. The old lady ghost makes a haunting sound, and in no time she has been turned in light smoke by the constellation tablet and being sucked into the stars.
The bright light only dissipates a long time after, Shi Wuduan slaps the constellation tablet lightly, he sees that the constellation tablet, dimmed after being struck by lightning, has once again recovered some of its life, shaking his head: "All her enemies have long died of old age, what kind of bullshit grudge is there anymore, wanting to harm others must be her real intention ... Oh, the first time meeting a violent ghost, what a surprise they are that easy to trick."
The jade sparrow originally has regained consciousness, but upon hearing this it almost faints again. Shi Wuduan picks it up and places it on his shoulder, his other hand holds on to the constellation tablet. He slowly climbs onto the table again, yawns and then lays down.
The next day the sun has already risen so high before he wakes up. He lifts up his head and at once sees a person sitting neatly on a seating mat in the ancestor hall with his back to Shi Wuduan. Since when, his constellation tablet and luggage are already in that person's hands.
Shi Wuduan rubs his eyes, and leaps down from the wooden table and gives and celebratory yell: "Jianghua senior!"
Jianghua Sanren rubs his beard, turns back and smiles in a godly manner, only to see Shi Wuduan yelling and running over, his excitement showing through his voice, and leaping into his embrace.
Jianghua feels his heart growing sour, thinking that afterwards, this child would have to follow him and suffer all the hardships and feeling a little unwilling. That makes him want to put on a kind front and raise his hand to brush the teenage boy's soft hair, but he does not expect Shi Wuduan to lift up his head, his expression touched and says: "I finally found you. I don't have anything left, if I still have to go and find you I'll have to eat air!"+
Jianghua Sanren's hand halts, hanging midair, only to see Shi Wuduan rubs his tiny belly, smiling brightly like the sun and revealing two rows of white teeth, his voice crisp: "Senior, quickly buy me some roasted donkey meat!"
That day Shi Wuduan arranged the Jiu Xing Ceng Di, drawing the fury of the thunder gods on the nine layers of heavens, Cangyun valley got struck with a huge gaping hole stretching from the middle of the valley to where the spirits build their hiding space. While the main culprit can just shake it off and just leave with his luggage, the smaller spirits all over Cangyun valley all got frightened to death, living every day in anxiety.
No one noticed, in that gap that was struck open by thunder, every day at from eleven at night to one in the morning there would be some faint dark smoke arising from it.
Shi Wuduan, having just descended from the mountain, sees everything as new, everything as intriguing. He stands in the middle of a market, having long thrown away 'Jianghua' ' Hehua' Sangren to the back of the mind, and feels he has never been able to see so many people crowding together, male, female, young, and old, they come in all shapes and sizes, even the stones that laid their path, everything seems so magical.
When he was young shifu always talked about 'the big wide world' 'the common mass' whatever, he used to just understand the sound of these phrases but not the meaning. Now, he is able to soak them in.
Shi Wuduan shoulders his luggage and lets the jade sparrow rest on his shoulder, his round eyes flicker in all directions like they are not enough for him to see all. His cheeks are puffed up, holding a still smoking bun between his teeth – even though this bun was only bought from a small shop near the side street, it is still proof of the warmth of the world, he feels like it smells so many times nicer than the bland, white porridge from the old geezer's place.
Shi Wuduan only takes two to three bites to finish one bun, yet he still feels it is not enough. He pats his stomach, still thinking silently: how good would it be if Xiao Li Zi follows me.
Then his attention is immediately drawn to something else. He feels like finding Jianghua Sanren is not that urgent a matter, so he throws away everything and indulges himself to the maximum.
Shi Wuduan does not know that the Jianghua Sanren he wants to find is currently on Jiulu mountain. No one knows when he climbed the mountain, how he climbed the mountain, it was like he truly came with the blowing wind under the bright moonlight that even layers upon layers under Jiulu mountain cannot detect.
The Taoist master is sitting cross-legged beside the giant constellation tablet in the courtyard. He was not calculating anything, merely hovering a hand over the constellation tablet, letting the star threads hang on his fingers playfully. Next to him is a small stove, on it is a pot of wine.
When Jianghua Sanren appears behind him, the Taoist master does not lift up his head, just points to a place beside him and says: "You came. Sit down.:
Jianghua is no stickler for formalities, he pushes away his clothes' helms before sitting down on the ground by his side. He picks up a cup, takes the jar of wine on the stove to pour himself one full cup, swallows half of it with just one sip and asks: "Where's your little monkey, sent him on some errand out?"
The Taoist master lowers his eyes, twirling the star threads on his fingers. He has cultivated for a century but does not look over middle-aged. Yet in these few days, his features have considerably become more worn out, if you look carefully at his side profile, at the tip of the eyebrows near his hairline there is already some grey.
The Taoist master says: "That child Wuduan, I entrust to you for a few years."
Jianghua Sanren looks like he wants to say something, but in the end only sighs, finishing the other half of his wine cup. The two of them stay silent for a while before he asks: "I came from the valley behind the mountain and saw a heaven-made hole from afar, what is that?"
The Taoist master laughs sadly but does not say anything.
Jianghua shakes his head and says: "Three years old is large enough, seven years old is old enough, your little disciple, as a seven-year-old he already dared use magical fire to burn down the ancestor hall, right now as a barely ten-year-old he can already cause lightning to strike, how will his future be? With this temperament, when he finally matures, will he even puncture a hole in our sky?"
The Taoist master can only offer a forced laugh: "The future, I will have to depend on you, fellow cultivator, to discipline him more."
Jianghua says: "You've spent ten years nurturing him into this current state, what talents do I have that can care for him holistically? To ensure he has a roof over his head and grows to be decent are already not bad, let's not even speak of discipline."
He stretched his shoulder and smiled: "If you give a child for me to discipline, wouldn't the more I discipline the worse they get?"
The Taoist master does not say anything. He suddenly stands up, a few star threads quickly wrapped around his outstretched hand. The constellation tablet brightens up immediately, a tiny cyclone seemingly forming between the slow-moving little stars, billowing the green sleeve of the Taoist master.
Jianghua follows his line of sight is stunned. He cannot help but blurt out: "This is ..."
The Taoist master's entire body is engulfed in the starry light from the constellation tablet. He turns his head upon hearing, his face against the light showing neither happiness nor sadness, yet his eyes are incredibly deep.
Jianghua widens his eyes, his laziness from earlier lost. He cannot resist standing up as well, staring down at the chaotic constellation tablet from above, and cannot resist glancing at the Taoist master again. He hesitates a long while before asking carefully: "If I didn't read wrongly, this is ... Taixing is about to collapse, am I right?"
(*) Taixing: a mountain often referred to in fantasy text, located near Henan in reality. In-text, the collapse of Taixing is taken as a sign of disasters.
"The stars growing disordered, Taixing collapsing, demons roaming rampant ..." The Taoist master suddenly closes his eyes, lowering his raised arm. The star threads originally wrapping around his hand suddenly all wither, falling down one by one. The sea of stars on the constellation tablet reverts to its state of stillness, its lights dimming, countless stars resembling true pebbles. A little chill slowly engulfs the small cottage at the top of Jiulu mountain like a sheen of water in the night: "My cultivation friend, I did not predict that we are fortunate enough to witness chaos large enough to break open our entire world in this lifetime."
Jianghua Sanren is stunned for a long while, his gaze on the withering constellation tablet suddenly shifts onto the Taoist master: "You ..."
The Taoist master lifts his hand to stop the latter half of that sentence, his fingers, which are seemingly even thinner than earlier, wriggling slightly. He stays silent for a long time before saying: "There is no need for so many words, this is fate."
He turns to Jianghua Sanren, staring at him for a long time before saying: "Cultivation friend, you are already removed from these worldly matters, it is only right for you to look at all this with cool eyes and an unmoving heart. But us, we cannot control our fates."
Jianghua forces a smile, asks: "What? You want to gift me your precious student? This time you are willing to let go?"
The Taoist master says: "To follow you and be detached from this world is not necessarily a bad thing. I just feel that that child, if we are speaking about his wiliness, within the past centuries on Jiulu mountain no one could compete with him. Yet he does not possess enough insights, he is not a big intellect, I am merely afraid of his little clever tricks. Haizz, if it really could not be changed ... in the future if you can still give me some face, you can care for him a bit more."
Jianghua is startled.
The Taoist master continues: "Everyone has their own fate, if he was born to bear this heavenly calamity (*), no one could have pulled out of it."
(*) (original: jie) heavenly calamity or retribution: it was believed natural disasters were caused by heaven to punish for something
Going back to Shi Wuduan, he has descended from the mountain for more than half a month. He has seen enough, played around enough, and has finally remembered he still has to find Jianghua, but he has already used up all this travel allowance. He thinks everything he has seen is interesting, and being that this is the first time that he can purchase things for himself he spent all his money without calculation. He did not even see the benefits of having money just like a spoiled rich brat, and quickly became so broke he had no money for room.
It is fortunate then, that he does not care about such details, and sneaks into the ancestor hall (*) of the village for shelter at midnight.
(*) some villages in ancient China (and a few in present China as well) were often made of relatives sharing the same last name, so they could share a common ancestor hall as well.
The ancestor hall near the entrance gate of the village is often closed. Normally, if there are no important matters to discuss, no one would enter the hall, but this ancestor hall does not even have a guard, so at midnight Shi Wuduan climbs the walls to enter like a petty thief. Taking a survey around the ancestor hall, he finds the wild grass here is even higher than his waist, the entire hall has a foreboding atmosphere, but he does not know any fear. He glances at the large scripts "忠孝节烈"(*) covered in incalculable amount of ashes and spider webs and shakes his head, then casually shifts the table with incense away, blows off the dirt on the table, then lies down on it.
(*) to be filial and maintain your purity, the latter referring to women who does not engage with other men after their husband dies
He does not forget to pat the jade sparrow on the head, whispering: "Shh, don't make any noise, be careful they'd take you back and eat you."
The large sparrow who has grown back some feathers looks at him hatefully before curling up to become a meatball by his feet.
The one-man one-bird pair just outrageously sleep like that. During the night, Shi Wuduan shifts on his back. He is in his growing age, sometimes his bones would hurt at night and he would unconsciously roll around in his sleep, his sleeping pose all kinds of ugly. The jade sparrow that was peacefully sleeping ends up getting kicked off the table by him.
The large bird is startled, immediately flapping his wings so finally it did not end up with its bird face flattened against the stone floor. It angrily flies up on the table, sounding off at Shi Wuduan, but unexpectedly this little brat sleeps like a dead pig with no intention of waking up.
The jade sparrow runs out of options, so it has to shift position to near Shi Wuduan's head, once more laying down near his shoulder. It was about to tuck its head in its wing and continue sleeping when it suddenly heard the door of the ancestor hall make a screeching sound, clearly moving on its own without any wind.
The jade sparrow lifts up its head in shock, before the screeching sound continues to echo, its newly grown feathers standing on its ends. It pecks Shi Wuduan with its life, then keeps flapping its wings on his head, finally managing to wake him up.
Shi Wuduan dazedly rubs his eyes, confusedly staring at the bird that suddenly went mad in the middle of the night. The jade sparrow zooms to the air, making a sharp sound. He frowns, squinting in the direction of the door and sees a few pale fingers gripping at the frame, an old lady in white moving in like she was flying.
This old lady does not look at him but heads towards the table with the incense burner, restores the incense burner Shi Wuduan has shifted away back to its original position. Shi Wuduan immediately shifts backwards to give her space, where she lovingly cleans the incense burner and lights up an incense stick to pray.
Shi Wuduan rubs his nose, feeling like he is the one the old lady is bowing to. Feeling sorry, he immediately jumps off the table and waits for her to finish bowing.
Only then does the old lady turns towards him, her not very bright eyes resting on his body. These eyes are incredibly cold, Shi Wuduan shivers, feeling like cold water was splashed on his face. So he nonchalantly ruffles his hair, smiles and says: "About that ... grandma, this little one didn't intentionally crash here, it's just I'm in a bit of a bind right now ... Hahahaha."
The old lady strangely stares at him for a long while, before gesturing with her hand for him to come over, her voice raspy: "Come here."
Shi Wuduan obediently follows, and the jade sparrow grows so impatient it feels like it could reach the roof. It bites onto his sleeve and tries to pull him back with all its might, even using his claws to claw at Shi Wuduan's hair. Shi Wuduan holds onto his head and shrinks his neck, then waves his hand around and grabs onto the jade sparrow's neck. Mimicking Bai Li, he tucks it inside his clothes and says: "Don't mess around."
Fog starts to develop around the room, the jade sparrow feels like waves and waves of yin energy are condensing into a huge gaping mouth, while the old lady standing in the middle of the thick ghostly energy is leading them towards that mouth.
Shi Wuduan happily advances two steps, still asking: "Grandma, where do you want to lead me to?"
The old lady briskly walks towards the pit black mouth, gesturing him forwards: "Come here."
Shi Wuduan follows all the way until there, then stops, looking up the little old lady barely taller than him. He tilts his head and thinks for a while before saying: "Ghost grandma, I read that books write this is the Ghostly Gate, I am a living soul, I can't cross it."
Upon hearing that, the old lady's face immediately changes, her face covered in a scary green-grey sheen. Shi Wuduan still feels no fear, excitedly looking at her like a dancing circus monkey doing tricks. Seeing that she has shifted her face, he embraces the jade sparrow that is so scared its eyes are rolling backwards, and seriously asks: "Grandma, you want to trick living souls into entering the Ghostly Gate, do you want to steal bodies?"
The body of the ghostly old lady suddenly expands a few meters in height, her visage incredible scary and something that can be described as yellow face and green fangs. She quickly pounces on Shi Wuduan, who while still holding onto the jade sparrow, agilely jumps backwards and avoids her, his mouth still running: "Grandma, listen to me explain first. I am a virgin boy, not to mention a cultivator, my yang energy is too strong, even if you steal my body it would not last long."
It seems this ghostly grandma has never seen such an unafraid child like this as well so she cannot help but pause, looking strangely at Shi Wuduan. Shi Wuduan then yawns and says: "Let's put this like this. I already slept in your ancestor hall, uhm ... it can come across as a little disrespectful, so embarrassed. You have turned into a violent ghost, so you must have kept grudges from the previous life. If you have any unfinished business you can just tell me, I can help you finish them."
"What unfinished wishes do you have?"
The ghost grandma is stunned in a long while, her body hanging in midair, a creaking sound escaping from her mouth. It takes a while for Shi Wuduan to hear clearly that it was "kill", so he miserably scratches his head and says: "Kill? Kill who? Oh right, you have already turned into a violent ghost, so you definitely cannot remember. Oh, from what I see of you, you must have stuck around in the living world more than a century right, even though you had enemies they are already dead seven or eight lifetimes ago, not even you can remember it clearly so why must you hold on to this grudge? You should just go for incarnation soon ..."
The ghost old lady bares her fangs and leaps forward.
Shi Wuduan quickly takes out the constellation tablet from his luggage nearby and says: "Fine fine fine, I'll help you calculate your karma, just calculate a bit and it'll be alright."
The jade sparrow hears that he even wants to calculate karma for the female ghost, immediately rolls back its eyes and falls to the ground unconscious.
Shi Wuduan mutters and pulls out the star threads, a soft light shooting out from the constellation tablet. The ghost old lady cannot resist but take a step forward, like she was entranced by something, reaching out her hand to touch the white light. At the moment her fingertips touch the white light, Shi Wuduan who is originally sitting there raises his head and makes an ugly face.
The ghost old lady has been a violent ghost for so many years, it has always been her wearing a demonic face and scaring others, but never someone else making an ugly face at her, so she cannot help but be stunned still for a moment. Right at that moment, the constellation tablet shoots out a ray of intense light, the sharp light piercing through her body. The old lady ghost makes a haunting sound, and in no time she has been turned in light smoke by the constellation tablet and being sucked into the stars.
The bright light only dissipates a long time after, Shi Wuduan slaps the constellation tablet lightly, he sees that the constellation tablet, dimmed after being struck by lightning, has once again recovered some of its life, shaking his head: "All her enemies have long died of old age, what kind of bullshit grudge is there anymore, wanting to harm others must be her real intention ... Oh, the first time meeting a violent ghost, what a surprise they are that easy to trick."
The jade sparrow originally has regained consciousness, but upon hearing this it almost faints again. Shi Wuduan picks it up and places it on his shoulder, his other hand holds on to the constellation tablet. He slowly climbs onto the table again, yawns and then lays down.
The next day the sun has already risen so high before he wakes up. He lifts up his head and at once sees a person sitting neatly on a seating mat in the ancestor hall with his back to Shi Wuduan. Since when, his constellation tablet and luggage are already in that person's hands.
Shi Wuduan rubs his eyes, and leaps down from the wooden table and gives and celebratory yell: "Jianghua senior!"
Jianghua Sanren rubs his beard, turns back and smiles in a godly manner, only to see Shi Wuduan yelling and running over, his excitement showing through his voice, and leaping into his embrace.
Jianghua feels his heart growing sour, thinking that afterwards, this child would have to follow him and suffer all the hardships and feeling a little unwilling. That makes him want to put on a kind front and raise his hand to brush the teenage boy's soft hair, but he does not expect Shi Wuduan to lift up his head, his expression touched and says: "I finally found you. I don't have anything left, if I still have to go and find you I'll have to eat air!"+
Jianghua Sanren's hand halts, hanging midair, only to see Shi Wuduan rubs his tiny belly, smiling brightly like the sun and revealing two rows of white teeth, his voice crisp: "Senior, quickly buy me some roasted donkey meat!"
