Chapter 386: Constable Zuo Qian! The Dream Returns! Summoning Souls and Luring Ghosts! The Northern Emperor’s Command Talisman!

“Daoist Master Yanchu, what... what is going on here?” The village chief of Guanyu Village asked in a trembling voice.

Why was there a woman’s corpse at the bottom of the river!?

Li Yanchu said calmly, “It’s murder. Someone dumped her body in the river. This must be reported to the magistrate’s office.”

A human death was no small matter, it had to be handled through official channels.

The villagers looked horrified, whispering among themselves. The body looked lifelike, and to think she had been lying under the swift waters of the Wei River, the very thought made their skin crawl. It was too strange and sinister.

Li Yanchu took a yellow talisman from his robes and pressed it onto the woman’s forehead. It was an Exorcising Talisman, written in cinnabar mixed with rooster’s blood, capable of driving away malevolent spirits and suppressing wicked energy.

It was the same kind of talisman he’d once given to Head Constable Wang, and its effects were excellent. So effective, in fact, that Yang Feng of the Bare Body Sect couldn’t even get close to him for a while.

Before long, a squad of constables from the

yamen

arrived. Their leader wasn’t Head Constable Wang this time, but a young constable with sharp eyes, dark skin, and a long dao saber hanging at his waist.

“Daoist Master Yanchu!” The young man cupped his hands respectfully. “Greetings.”

“You are?” Li Yanchu asked.

He knew nearly all of the constables serving in Wei City’s

yamen

, but this young man was unfamiliar.

“I’m Zuo Qian, newly assigned to the Wei City magistrate’s office,” the constable replied.

Zuo Qian!?

Li Yanchu had nodded absently at first, thinking nothing of it, but upon hearing the name, his expression shifted slightly.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“Good name,” Li Yanchu said with a small smile.

Zuo Qian blinked, then smiled back, a bit sheepishly.

Li Yanchu couldn’t help but cast his Qi Sight on him. To his surprise, this constable’s luck was outstanding, and his fate carried the glimmer of official fortune. It had a golden aura of authority, distinct from the faint gray energy of ordinary clerks or guards.

Disgraced scions of noble families often had a dim, fading official aura, which was a sign of decline. But Zuo Qian’s fate was bright and vigorous, rising steadily. Clearly, he was not from an ordinary background.

Li Yanchu studied him closely. The young man moved with natural grace, his temples were slightly raised, and his skin, though dark, was smooth and healthy. A man of martial cultivation, no doubt, and one who had enjoyed ample resources.

Poor commoners who trained without access to supplements often suffered depleted qi and blood, their bodies riddled with hidden injuries. But Zuo Qian’s eyes were sharp, his vitality robust, the kind of strength that came from wealth and status.

Could he be from a noble family?

Li Yanchu wondered silently.

After all, it wasn’t uncommon for young heroes or aristocratic sons to play at being constables or roam the

jianghu

for the thrill of it.

He shook his head slightly, choosing not to dwell on the matter.

Zuo Qian was a capable young man, efficient and sharp. He took charge of the on-site investigation, confirming the identity of the deceased and organizing the evidence.

Li Yanchu examined the villagers of Guanyu Village and found no trace of blood fiend aura or karmic resentment, the telltale marks left on those who had taken a life. That more or less ruled out the villagers as suspects.

***

The next morning, Zuo Qian came looking for Li Yanchu, his face pale and drawn.

“Daoist Master, please save me! Last night, after I placed the woman’s body in the charity gravehouse... I had the same dream as the villagers of Guanyu Village!” His voice trembled. “That soaking-wet woman stood at my bedside, and she grabbed at my clothes!”

Li Yanchu raised an eyebrow. Why was his dream different from everyone else’s?

“She only grabbed your clothes?” Zuo Qian nodded, fear still lingering in his eyes.

Li Yanchu frowned. Normally, when a spirit entered a dream, it was a sign of lingering obsession, a soul unable to move on.

But even after her corpse was recovered from the river, her obsession remained unbroken?

“Could it be,” he mused silently, “that her obsession is vengeance... and she’s targeting those who handled her body, the constables?”

It seemed this female ghost had to be summoned and questioned directly. What he had thought was a simple haunting now looked like something far more complicated.

“I’ll go with you to take a look,” Li Yanchu said solemnly.

The two quickly arrived at the charity gravehouse where the corpse had been placed.

Li Yanchu restrained his spiritual aura and used Sun Veil to mask the presence of his treasures. Otherwise, just the power emanating from his nine-times enhanced Jiaoslayer would have been enough to send any wandering ghost fleeing in terror.

Inside the charity gravehouse, rows of coffins stood on wooden benches, raised off the ground to prevent contact with the earth. The female corpse lay quietly in one of them, a yellow talisman still pressed to her forehead.

That talisman radiated a potent energy, not only suppressing the corpse, but calming the deathly yin aura throughout the entire building.

Anything crafted by Qingyun Temple is top-tier.

“Have you identified the corpse?” Li Yanchu asked.

Zuo Qian shook his head. “Not yet... it’s possible she wasn’t from Wei City at all.”

They hadn’t even been able to estimate her time of death. That was one of the drawbacks of a world filled with demons and spirits, as dense yin qi preserved bodies in an almost lifelike state, making it impossible to judge how long they’d been dead by decay alone. It was a serious inconvenience for any investigation.

This wandering spirit hadn’t harmed anyone, she merely lingered because of unfulfilled obsession. Li Yanchu decided to seek her out, to see if she still had any unresolved wish.

Whether it was finding the one who murdered her, or something else that bound her to this world, he felt she at least deserved to be heard, not simply cut down without thought.

Even in the worst case, if this spirit had cultivated herself into a ferocious ghost, and after decades or even centuries of cultivation, reached the second or even third realm, she would

still

be no match for him.

Those terrifying ghost kings in Fengdu, whose yin aura could blot out the sky, they had all perished beneath his hand.

At present, it was broad daylight. A soul of this sort wouldn’t show itself now, nor did it have the strength to.

So, Li Yanchu decided to wait until nightfall to search for its presence.

It’s a pity The Yellow Court Classic doesn’t record any spell for summoning or guiding souls,

he thought to himself.

Otherwise, I could set up an altar and try calling her spirit.

That thought sparked an idea.

His master, Daoist Xuancheng, had once taught him the fundamentals of talisman crafting, alchemy, and formation arts, which were basic Daoist techniques, but quite effective for banishing spirits and warding off evil.

He returned to the temple, rummaging through old boxes and scrolls, until he unearthed a yellowed booklet from a pile of illustrated manuals.

Those other illustrated books were his master’s

private collection

, filled with “dual cultivation methods,” “essence absorption techniques,” and “bedchamber arts.”

Of course, with Li Yanchu’s current knowledge, he could tell that all of that “dual cultivation nonsense” had been complete drivel. His master must’ve kept them purely for recreational study.

The only impressive thing was that whoever drew those illustrations had exquisite skill, as the details were vivid enough to seem alive.

He put those aside and picked up the book he actually needed. Its title read,

The Secret Treasury of Daoist Talismans.

The name sounded grand, but in truth, it mostly contained foundational talismans. Flipping through the pages, he finally found one particular entry, the Northern Emperor’s Command Talisman.

“Found it!” Li Yanchu’s eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help but smile.

Though this talisman wasn’t among the most powerful in the Daoist canon, the deity it invoked was a figure of immense stature.

In Daoist talismancraft, each symbol had a presiding deity, a celestial authority who empowered it.

For instance, the Five-Lightning Talisman was governed by the legitimate gods of the Thunder Division, under the command of the Nine Heavens Primordial Thunder Sovereign, Lord of Universal Transformation, with twenty heavenly generals serving beneath him.

The exact deity who responded would differ for each cultivator depending on their path and attunement.

It was worth noting that the Divine Heavens Sect specialized precisely in such lightning arts.

But Daoist Spiritual Master Moyun, having fallen into demonic cultivation and filled his body with baleful yin, had long since destroyed his lightning foundation.

For a ghostly cultivator like him to attempt the righteous Five-Lightning Spell would only draw Heaven’s wrath, inviting divine lightning to strike him dead on the spot.