Chapter 1 I’m Curious

“I’m really curious, who is the one pacifying the souls of the dead here?” As I spoke, I walked towards the back of the desolate village, hearing the sounds of chisels carving stone coming from a tin-roofed shack in the distance.

The stone shrine in the desolate village must have come from that shack.

I walked to the door of the shack, cupped my fist in salute and said, “Shushi Li Po seeks an audience with the master of this place.”

A faint voice came from inside the shack, “The door isn’t locked, come in.”

I stepped into the shack, and the first thing I saw was a slovenly old man holding a chisel, carving a stone shrine.

These stone shrines must be completed in one go. Once started, you can’t stop halfway. Whether you stop the chisel, or break the stone, it means all your previous efforts are wasted.

The man knew I had entered, but didn’t even raise his head, “You’re here for Sun Yu, right? He lives in the shack outside. Debts have debtors, grievances have perpetrators, you can settle it yourselves.”

Xiao Zhao wanted to rush out and kill him, but Lin Zhao grabbed him by the neck and dragged him back, sticking a spirit talisman on his forehead against the wall.

The man’s hands paused slightly, “Experts! Are you two really just here to find Sun Yu?”

I said faintly, “Two years ago, Old Sun received a corpse named Fan Fang. That person’s body disappeared in the end. I think, it should be in your hands, right?”

The man’s grip on the iron awl tightened, “Who are you people?”

“Yang Jian Jie Ming Ren.” I said in a deep voice, “I’m here to take Fan Fang away. Friend, how about making things easy?”

According to Xiao Zhao, Old Sun couldn’t be considered an expert in the art of术道(Shu Dao). He was able to escape death, it must be because someone was helping him from behind.

If I’m not mistaken, that person is the one I’m looking for.

The man started chiseling the stone again, but with much gentler force. He was already wary of me.

As I stared at him, Lin Zhao walked in carrying an old man, “The person is here, is Fan Fang’s corpse nearby as well?”

My voice sank slightly, “Friend, have you considered it?”

The man gripped the chisel tightly, “You come to me for someone, you have to tell me why, right?”

I said in a deep voice, “I want to take a Di Hun (earthly soul) away. Fan Fang has some connection with that Di Hun. So…”

Before I could finish, the chisel in the man’s hand suddenly moved, and the unfinished bluestone flew towards me like a cannonball.

I raised my hand and punched the stone block, blasting the water basin-sized bluestone into powder on the spot. Amidst the flying dust, the man used the dust as cover to rush towards the back door of the room.

Lin Zhao, who was prepared, grabbed the man’s arm with a claw in mid-air, pinching his elbow with hook-like fingers and dragging him back, stopping him in his tracks.

What Lin Zhao didn’t expect was that the man actually turned around and slashed at his own arm. By the time Lin Zhao wanted to catch the knife, the man had already rushed out of the house with half a severed arm.

Lin Zhao brought the severed hand to me and said, “Jianghu trickery?”

It was indeed a highly realistic prosthetic hand. It was difficult to tell it was a fake without careful examination.

The art of puppetry is unique among Jianghu (martial world) secret arts, but few people practice it. More often, it’s used by performers. The man just now used Jianghu trickery. They can only make prosthetics similar to human limbs, but they can’t create real puppets.

Those who perform "arm regeneration" in the Jianghu (martial world) use this kind of thing.

I said coldly, “Don’t worry, he won’t get far.”

As I stepped out of the back door, I suddenly felt a gust of yin wind with a bloody smell blowing behind me. When I turned around, I was facing a stone shrine pressing down on the eaves.

In the next moment, a blood-smeared figure sat up from the roof, pressing his hands on the eaves, leaning forward and bringing his bloody face close to my eyes.

With a flash of blood in his eyes, the figure reached for my throat with both hands at the same time.

Before those icy ghost claws could reach my neck, I grabbed the figure’s neck with a backhand claw, dragging it down from the eaves, “Friend, your little tricks might work on low-level Shushi (Taoist priests), but they don’t work on me. If you don’t want me to slaughter this village again, you better come out quickly.”

I carried the struggling ghost into the courtyard. All the ghosts in the stone shrines revealed their forms, hundreds of ghosts surrounded Lin Zhao and me, countless pupils filled with blood, staring at our faces.

When fierce ghosts look at people, they can cause palpitations. People with weaker bodies are likely to fall to the ground due to an accelerated heartbeat, or even die on the spot.

However, their little tricks have no effect on Lin Zhao and me.

If a Shushi (Taoist priest) who has reached the Tuifan (Mortal Shedding) realm can still be scared to death by ordinary fierce ghosts, wouldn’t that be a big joke?

I grabbed the ghost and said, “Friend, if you don’t come out, I’m really going to make a move. Once this ghost dies, all the ghosts in the village will go crazy. At that time, I might even solve some problems for you. At least, you won’t have to carve stone shrines anymore.”

I was betting that the person wouldn’t stand by and watch me slaughter the ghosts in the village.