“A snake!?” exclaimed the father. “But how can a snake bite all of us unnoticed?”
“Yes, you were all poisoned with snake poison,” explained Yuelong. “And it wasn’t an ordinary snake…”
“Oh?” the family said in unison.
“It was a snake spirit.”
“A snake spirit!?” cried the mother. “Oh dear! What have we done to deserve this?”
The father patted her back. “Gong-zi, did you deal with the snake spirit?”
“No.”
“Oh, goodness!” the mother swooned. The maid grabbed the madam’s arm in support before she could fall backwards.
“It was gone before I got here,” said Yuelong.
“Then, how were we poisoned?” asked Xiao-Ling.
“Judging from the state of you and your family, it was not a serious poisoning—”
The whole family looked at him with horror.
“—and from the traces it left, it was only passing by. Your family was just unfortunate to be in its way.”
“What a monster! Poisoning people just because of that!” the mother cried. “Gong-zi, you must help us get rid of this spirit!”
Yuelong stared into the distance. What kind of snake would bite people just from passing by? he thought to himself.
The father suddenly moved to kneel down, and catching sight of this, Yuelong immediately shot out his arms to support the man and stop him.
“Get up,” said Yuelong. “There’s no need for this. I will definitely go and investigate this spirit.”
“On behalf of Xian Nu Village, I thank you, gong-zi!” the father said, shaking Yuelong’s hands.
For the first time in his life, Yuelong saw the fragility of ordinary human life. As a practitioner of the Dao, he was accompanied by magical powers and a much stronger physical body than the ordinary human. But since he had lived on Qianyang Summit all his life, he had only ever been surrounded by cultivators; thus, he had never seen the weak side of human beings. Until now.
Exiting the courtyard house, Yuelong once again focused energy into his forehead, opening his third eye. The familiar blinding light once again appeared in his mind. Opening his eyes, he saw the faintest trail of the evil aura drifting in the air.
It’s too faint to see which way the spirit went. He looked both ways down the street, contemplating which direction to follow. Seeing the majority of the street vendors walking leftwards, Yuelong decided to go against the flow of the crowd and went right.
Yuelong never liked crowds. He enjoyed the quietness and solitude of being alone. Walking down the street, he looked up at the skies one more time, searching for the faint trail of that evil aura.
There in the distance, he saw similar dark qi drifting atop a different household.
Another poisoning?
Picking up his speed, he zoomed and cut through the morning crowd, attracting much attention from street vendors and onlookers. Occupied with the dark aura, he took no notice of the weird looks the people gave him.
Arriving at the source of the dark aura that floated above, Yuelong found himself in front of a crowded, small pharmacy. People surrounded the entrance, pointing and whispering to each other. Seeing that the shop door was open, Yuelong ignored the crowd and walked straight in. Upon stepping in, Yuelong immediately covered his nose with his sleeve. A pungent, rotting, and musky stench punched him in the nose, instantly rendering his sense of smell useless. And that wasn’t the worst part.
Steadying his inner qi, he suppressed the impulse to retch. Never once had he seen a sight or smelled an odour this revolting. There on the desk with a swarm of flies buzzing above was the rotten corpse of the shopkeeper. His face was green like dying grass, and his flesh was sagging down onto the desk. The accounting book—or what was left of it—was soaked with his blood.
Judging from the dead person’s appearance, Yuelong guessed that the shopkeeper must have been an elderly man. But Yuelong wasn’t fully convinced; the poison might have had other side effects…
A fly flew down onto the dead man’s face, hoping to grab a bite from the rotting corpse. After a moment, the fly suddenly dropped dead and slid down into a pile of other dead flies on the ground. Yuelong’s eyes widened in shock. What a powerful poison!
“Ahhh!!!”
A scream came from the crowd behind him. Yuelong turned and saw a beautiful middle-aged lady. Her face paled with shock, her eyes went wide with tears, and her mouth opened in disbelief. She immediately ran up to the corpse.
“Don’t!”
She instantly pulled her hands back, but it was too late. Upon touching the corpse, the tips of her fingers turned dark; the veins on her hands enlarged and turned green. She screamed in horror. The woman tried to fall back into the crowd, but the bystanders instantly jumped three steps away from her, gasping and whispering.
“Holy shit!”
“Isn’t she…”
“Poor dear!”
“Get away from me!”
With a wave of his hand, Yuelong set up a barrier, containing the dead corpse within. He went up to the middle-aged woman and encased her inside another barrier before anyone else could be infected.
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The crowd gasped at the sight of the transparent blue box that appeared in broad daylight.
“Lord Immortal!”
“Oh, my heavens!”
“Holy mother of—”
Ignoring the crowd’s remarks, Yuelong chanted a spell and pointed two fingers at the woman. A yellow light glowed on her hand, and the dark veins and aura dissipated at the touch of the yellow glow.
The woman looked at her hands with wide eyes. Then she looked at Yuelong, and then back at her hands.
Just as the last bit of dark aura was dissipating into the air, a long, thin silhouette condensed from it and flew up towards the sky.
The crowd watched as the snake tried to escape. Out of nowhere, a blue sword sliced through the black snake and its form disintegrated into the air. The sword, after slicing the creature, flew back towards its owner. It slipped silently back into Yuelong’s sleeves and disappeared from sight.
The crowd of previously a dozen people was now tripled in size. They had all gathered just in time to witness the slaying of the evil spirit. They cheered and clapped.
Once again ignoring the crowd, Yuelong took down the boundary containing the woman.
“Thank you so much!” the woman said to Yuelong. “I don’t know what would’ve happened to me if it hadn’t been for gong-zi.” She knelt down on the ground and began sobbing.
“Please, madam, stand up and talk. There’s no need for this,” Yuelong replied, helping the woman to her feet. Yuelong brought her over to a small tea shop to sit on one of the benches.
“Thank you gong-zi, you are too kind,” the woman said. She looked up at Yuelong with watery eyes.
“Are you the pharmacist's wife?” asked Yuelong.
“How did you know?”
“Your eyes, when you ran towards the body,” he explained.
The woman sighed. “We’ve been married for nearly 18 years. He was my first love and my only love…” She started to cry. “And then…and then…”
Yuelong stood there and watched her cry. In the Qianyang Sect’s teachings, suffering was an inevitable part of life, but suffering was also the result of one’s karmic debt. And because karmic debt was what was involved, they the disciples were taught never to interfere with the tribulations of others.
The young waiter came over and brought the woman a cup of hot tea. “Don’t worry, it’s on the house.” The waiter bowed and before leaving, he gave Yuelong a questioning look. “So uncaring…”
Yuelong ignored the waiter’s comment and stood silently beside the woman.
“He…he usually comes home when the sun sets. But las-last night, he didn’t,” the woman sobbed. “And that’s when I had a bad feeling.”
Yuelong thought in silence. If the man had—at latest—died when the sun set, it must mean that the snake had already been passing through at that time. And, by the time Xiao Ling came out from her house, the skies were already dark… So that means the snake spirit went in the other direction.
“Madam, this is very important: make sure no one goes into the pharmacy today,” Yuelong said. “Wait until I destroy the evil spirit. After that, I will come back to help you bury your husband.”
“The spirit isn’t dead? I thought you killed it.”
“No, that was only a small part of its powers.”
“Only a part of it!?” The woman looked at Yuelong in horror.
“Yes. Now, some parts of the pharmacy have been contaminated with poison. Don’t go in unless you want to die.”
The fear of death struck in the woman’s mind. “Yes, gong-zi, I will remain here. I won’t let anyone suffer the same fate as my…”
Not wanting her to agonize any further, Yuelong bowed. “Thank you for your cooperation, madam. You have my condolences.” He turned around and walked back in the direction he came from. Even though he’d created a border isolating the dead corpse of the pharmacist, he wasn’t convinced that the people would be smart enough to avoid it, and that was why he gave the widow those instructions. Also, having a family member of the deceased nearby would lessen the chance that the ghost of the recently departed would become malevolent; the sight of a family member brings peace to the heart of the deceased.
Following the general direction of where the snake might have gone, Yuelong kept his third eye active. He glanced briefly at every single person he could lay his eyes on.
Some gave off a dirty brown aura, which hinted at a person’s attachment to money and wealth. Some, a dark purple, which hinted at depression and emotional suffering. Some even gave off an aura of light pink, hinting at a person’s lustful thoughts.
Yuelong sighed. Not one person was pure and free of worldly attachments. He ceased the flow of energy to his third eye, and the auras around the people slowly faded away from his vision. The third eye took a lot of energy to maintain.
“Isn’t he that Daoist who killed a spirit down at the pharmacy?”
“Yeah, I think so. He must’ve learned some amazing stuff from Lady Jiutian1.”
Lady Jiutian?
Yuelong walked up to the man. “May I ask—who is this Lady Jiutian?”
The two commoners glanced at each other with confusion. “I thought you were a Daoist from Shengyu2 Temple.”
“No, I am not from around here.”
“Oh, I see. You must be here to worship Lady Jiutian, then?”
“… Yeah,” answered Yuelong. “Where is this Shengyu Temple?”
The man pointed down the street. “Make a left at the end of the street and follow the crowd. There’ll be a lot of people worshipping Lady Jiutian at this time of the day.”
“Thank you very much.” Yuelong bowed.
Yuelong continued down the street. “Lady Jiutian… Jiutian…”
Usually, if a village worshiped a deity, the deity would take charge of the people’s needs. Those who lived close to the sea tended to worship aquatic gods like the Dragon Kings, while people on land usually worshipped the deities above like the Red Pine Immortal. And when a demon or evil spirit came to wreak havoc among the people, it would also be the duty of the people’s deities, or the duty of the cultivators nearby, to take care of the people.
Did this Lady Jiutian do anything against this snake spirit? A snake spirit this powerful would definitely have been noticed, so Lady Jiutian must have done something. But the snake injured many people just last night, and yet I didn’t see any signs of assistance from this Lady Jiutian.
Turning left on the street, Yuelong noticed a large crowd outside a walled building. People of old and young, men and women, all lined up at the entrance. Each person held either a basket of offerings or a purse full of coins.
This must be Shengyu Temple. Following the crowd, he also joined in the line.
A small voice behind him suddenly asked, “Young man, where is your offering?”
Yuelong turned and found himself facing a small old lady. A carved wooden hairpin stood out from her snow-white hair. A faint rosy colour hid beneath her saggy cheeks.
“I am a cultivator of the Dao; I do not have any offerings.”
“Oh! You’re the one who cured that poor lady’s hands and killed the snake spirit!” the old woman exclaimed.
A couple of people peeked in his direction.
“Lady Jiutian must have trained you well!” the old woman continued. “Study well, young man! Our town needs more people like you!”
Without saying a word, Yuelong nodded in response. So, this Lady Jiutian must be very powerful to have such influence on the people.
Finally, when the sun had moved to shine straight down onto the top of his head, and when the heat of midday had become its strongest, it came his turn to go into the temple. Passing under the shade of the tree that stood outside the temple, he felt a cool breeze coming from within.
He stepped into the temple. The offering tables were stacked high with fruits and cakes. The donation boxes overflowed with coins and precious jewellery. A busy temple indeed! Dozens of people knelt and kowtowed before a golden statue at the back of the temple. Their prayers echoed into Yuelong’s ears.
“Please Lady Xuannu3, bless me with a child!”
“Lady Xuannu, what has become of my son? He has—”
“Lady Xuannu, my wife is fuc— excuse me. My wife is cheating on me, please help me get revenge!”
“Please Lady Xuannu, make this man fall in love with me!”
What kind of goddess has this much power to grant this many wishes?
Yuelong looked up at the golden statue of Lady Jiutian.