87: Chapter 86 Yinling Patrol 87: Chapter 86 Yinling Patrol Hou Niao paid no attention to the astonished gazes fixated upon him, striking up casual conversations with people as he passed them by; sometimes he barely spoke a few words, and at other times, no one knew how he did it, but he managed to coax out a Wandering Soul!
Continuing in this manner, he discovered another two Soul Ghosts—a sickly elderly man lying on a stretcher and a pregnant woman—and with a single strike of his sword, he ended them both.
His speed was so fast that bystanders couldn’t even react.
When he returned, he chuckled and said, “These ghostly beings dare not approach those with robust yang energy, so they prey on the weak and infirm instead.
With that said, brother, do you really think they can get away with it?”
The gatekeeper looked on in amazement, “Hou, junior brother, have you specifically practiced a Cultivation Technique for dealing with Soul Ghosts?”
Hou Niao shook his head, “Where’d I get the time for that!
It’s just that I’ve always been sensitive to Soul Ghosts…
it’s been this way since I was a child…”
The gatekeeper suddenly understood; there are indeed people with special constitutions in the world, which in the circles of the Cultivation World are called Innate Taoist Bodies.
There are a myriad of Taoist Bodies, each with their own characteristics; for example, the Innate Unleaked Dao Body is known for extremely fast cultivation progress; then there’s the Yin Yang Dao Body, which is very well suited for Dual Cultivation and cauldron protection; or the Wind And Cloud Dao Body, which has its own mysteries when it comes to flying, and so forth.
There are also some Taoist Bodies considered rather insignificant, like the one known as Innate Knowledge of Beasts, called the Ancestral Return Dao Body; and then there’s the kind like Hou Niao’s, with Innate Yin Yang Eyes that can detect ghostly entities to some extent.
“Junior brother Hou has such a skill, I admire that.
With that, let’s sign off on the paperwork, and let them pass.
They’re all our people, no one intends to make things difficult for them,” the senior brother exclaimed.
Hou Niao, smiling, stamped his Sword Talisman, and the gatekeeper joked, “With such a talent, junior brother would be a perfect fit for a gatekeeper in Miao Gao Town.
If you’re interested, I could suggest it to the Town Government; it would be much more comfortable than spending your days in the Yinling Wilderness, exposed to the elements.”
Hou Niao shook his head vehemently, “How did I come to be here?
I’m afraid the authorities of the Town Government’s Mu Shuai Fortress wouldn’t agree.
Let’s not add unnecessary trouble for the Town Government…”
The gatekeeper was taken aback, suddenly realizing his simplistic thinking; wasn’t everyone who was sent to Yinling demoted for offending someone?
It’s not so easy to be transferred just by saying so.
He sighed internally, admitting to himself that most people sent to Yinling were quite skilled, but often their skills came with quirky temperaments and a lack of flattery.
These internal power struggles within the sect, truly…
Once Hou Niao completed the formalities, the grateful citizens surged through the stone portal, mounted their horses, and prepared to leave,
“Till we meet again then!”
The gatekeeper raised his hand, “Looking at junior brother’s swordsmanship, if I’m not mistaken, you follow the path of Extreme Sword, right?”
Hou Niao nodded slightly, turned, and passed through the stone gate, gradually disappearing into the bleak expanse of the Yinling Wilderness, leaving the gatekeeper feeling a sense of loss.
Those who cultivate Extreme Sword act in extreme ways; how many such swordsmanship zealots had gathered in Yinling in recent days?
…Hou Niao galloped across the wilderness on horseback, acutely aware of a familiar soul energy pulsation.
This force did not come from the void but was very much emanating from the ground beneath his feet!
He could find the Soul Ghosts, not because of some so-called Yin-Yang Dao Body—that was just a cover story; the true reason was his Purple Mansion Vortex!
All he needed was to utilize a bit of his Cultivation Technique, and once the vortex emerged, these rare and cunning Soul Ghosts had no place to hide.
In fact, opening the Purple Mansion Vortex wasn’t strictly necessary; through daily interactions and battles with the wandering souls over many months, he naturally became familiar with them.
A little sensing was all he needed to leave no place for them to hide!
From this perspective, Yinling was the perfect place for him.
Entering the boundaries of Yinling, the most profound sentiment was desolation—an endless expanse of fields, all of it black soil, fertile enough to stir envy.
It was precisely because of such soil that the local people could reap a harvest from planting just about anything.
This was the balance within the contradiction—rich black soil, rampant with demons and ghosts.
People needed only to work a few hours each day to garner a season’s worth of food, which they could then trade in neighboring towns for other daily necessities.
The yields were good, and there were no taxes to pay.
This was why, despite the dangers, many people were still willing to live on here.
His destination was the largest fortress in Yinling—Fang Family’s Fortress, which was also the main gathering and dispersal point for Quanzhen Sect disciples in Yinling.
Here he would receive his specific position and tasks, starting his dangerous cultivation in Yinling.
The horse ran swiftly because it felt unsettled.
Animals were often more sensitive to these mysterious forces than humans, and Hou Niao did not restrain it, allowing it to gallop to its heart’s content.
As the sun began to sink, the horse grew increasingly restless.
Hou Niao had to try his best to comfort it.
When dusk fell, and the night arrived, it was the time when those furtive beings were let loose.
To his surprise, the first creature he encountered was not a Soul Ghost, but a sneaky, peeking yellow weasel spirit!
This creature was crafty and did not approach him, but instead spied from a distance, as if appraising the strength of this bold and presumptuous human.
Hou Niao could no longer continue on.
The horse was struggling, and he had to tie it to a solitary old locust tree.
He then found some dry grass and heads of rice for the horse; the local farmers harvested their crops in quite a sloppy manner, not out of laziness, but because they had limited safe time to work.
If they could not manage to harvest the entire rice field, how could they have time to clean up the missed spots on the ground?
This situation resulted in one outcome—there were an exceptionally large number of gnawing creatures that lived in burrows, grouping together, each as plump as a pig, and among them, quite a few had awakened something.
But these creatures, pig-like as they appeared, were not actual pigs; what awakened first was their intelligence, endowing them with the will to assess threats rather than acting purely on instinct.
In this environment, Hou Niao casually lit a fire, cooked a meal, indifferent to the countless pairs of eyes in the darkness surrounding him.
The yellow weasel spirit that first appeared was lively.
Under its instigation, more and more monsters were drawn here, gathering a group of more than a dozen eventually.
Being able to muster such a crowd in a desolate place spoke to the density of demons and ghosts in the Yinling region.
Hou Niao shook his head in secret—by all rights, he belonged to the realm of demons too, so why did these creatures see him entirely as an adversary or food?
Finally, the Soul Ghosts appeared, arriving in a large group; they floated and drifted across the dark fields, hardly visible, with only faint glimmers of phosphorescence.
They caught the scent of a human.
The demons also became rowdy.
The two species were clearly not harmonious with each other, especially in front of the appealing food, threatening and intimidating each other, expressing their dissatisfaction with howls and shrieks.
Hou Niao found this amusing, standing quietly under the tree, waiting for his first battle upon entering Yinling.
An unexpected voice disrupted the balance among the three parties.
Hou Niao looked on in amazement as a young monk emerged from the darkness, approaching with large strides.
The monk was not big, but his voice was loud.
The unique power contained in the chanting of the Buddhist name stirred both the Soul Ghosts and the demons into activity, making the scene suddenly lively.
…who rang the bell to summon Asuras, on a night rife with ghosts.
Earthly fires tremble, Anouda moves, dragons scurry over troubled paths.
The magic from all ten directions is exhausted to vanquish demons, while the Eight Divisions still clamor in praise of Buddha’s hymns.
The jeweled radiance remains unscathed, enduring through worldly calamities untouched.