Chapter 453: Mysterious Ancestral Hall! Vanished Buddhist and Daoist Experts! Ward Off Calamities! Consuming the Blood-Qi Pill!

Zuo Qian held Li Yanchu’s abilities in high regard, believing that although this young Daoist looked handsome but unreliable, unlike the older, middle-aged Daoists, his skill in exorcising demons was truly top-notch. Zuo Qian still vividly remembered how Li Yanchu had swept through the Duanlong Cave.

“Promoted?” Li Yanchu glanced at the official robes Zuo Qian was wearing.

Zuo Qian nodded. “Thanks to you, after capturing villagers who were raising spider demons and clearing out the Duanlong Cave, as well as rescuing abducted missing women, I was commended by the court and my rank was elevated.”

He was now a fifth-rank martial officer, which for someone his age meant a very bright future.

Li Yanchu said, “Zuo, congratulations on your promotion. But I myself haven’t received any recognition from the court.”

He was not merely a practitioner among the common people; technically, he held a foot in the official rank of the Court of Judicial Review.

At first, there had been a monetary reward from the authorities for exorcising demons. Later, it stopped entirely. He didn’t mind much, but he was curious.

Zuo Qian was taken aback. “Daoist Master Li, you still don't know?”

Li Yanchu frowned. “Know what?”

“The court’s commendation for you was long approved, but a senior official in the Court of Judicial Review blocked it, leaving it unused each time. Recently, the matter came to light. The minister of the Court was furious, punished the responsible junior official, and reported it to the court. Your reward should arrive in a few days.”

Zuo Qian, as a martial officer of the Prefectural Tribunal, came from a well-connected family.

The Prefectural Tribunal and the Court of Judicial Review worked closely, so he had learned the full story through other channels.

This had also caused quite a stir within the circles.

“Someone was targeting me, and now they’ve been dealt with?” Li Yanchu was slightly surprised.

Then it dawned on him. It was probably the effect of his Calamity Purge and the Dao Dust Bead. Thus, certain minor calamities had resolved themselves.

As for the Court of Judicial Review’s reward, he hadn’t paid it much attention. A Daoist of his vision and worth would not be impressed by many things.

What could the Court of Judicial Review possibly offer?

he thought.

Still, he was pleased that someone hostile to him had been taken care of.

Serves them right!

He agreed to help Zuo Qian deal with the decrepit ancestral hall.

“Tomorrow another assistant will arrive. He is an expert dispatched by the court after my report; you can go with him.”

The Kingdom of Qian’s court still had considerable influence over these civilian practitioners. The expert they sent would naturally be quite formidable.

Zuo Qian, hoping for a little luck, came to Wei City to arrange some backup in case that expert got into trouble,

Daoist Li, with his supernatural techniques, would be the perfect companion.

***

At the Liu family ancestral hall...

This was a place where the family’s ancestral tablets were kept, and in ancient times, ancestral halls were sacred. Major festivals or family events were conducted there.

Even when a family member committed a serious offense, many times it wasn’t handled by the authorities; the clan elders would directly carry out punishment in the hall.

The Liu ancestral hall was meant for ancestral worship. However, as members of the Liu family died or left over time, the once-grand hall fell into ruin.

During the day, almost no one passed by, but at night, people often heard faint singing, and the lively sounds of bustling crowds. Thus, it had long been regarded as an ominous place by the local villagers, haunted.

This time, several children in the village went missing, and witnesses reported seeing them last playing inside the ancestral hall.

The locals were wary of the Liu ancestral hall, but the desperate parents of the missing children bravely entered to search, only for those parents themselves to mysteriously vanish.

The village chief, terrified, immediately reported the matter to the authorities. The county office, aware of the supernatural aspect, specially summoned several high monks and Daoist priests to perform exorcisms and capture the spirits.

That very night, all of those monks and priests disappeared without a trace.

The mysterious disappearances caused a major stir. The case was reported to the prefectural city, where officials from the Prefectural Tribunal took over. After ruling out human interference, they confirmed the work of ghostly entities.

The case was then reported to the Court of Judicial Review, which dispatched experts from both the Buddhist and Daoist sects. This was standard procedure, as sometimes disturbances were not caused by spirits but by human hands.

Masters skilled in exorcism and spirit-catching could also struggle when facing wandering martial experts or cunning rogues. Especially with such strange cases, there might be hidden traps or martial artists faking supernatural phenomena.

Even high monks and Daoist masters were passive in these situations, so the Prefectural Tribunal would conduct thorough investigations first and send martial experts to assist. This procedure was cumbersome but necessary under the circumstances, as the world was growing ever more chaotic.

A palace-dressed beauty arrived at the Liu ancestral hall. Looking at the ruined building, a contemplative expression appeared in her eyes.

She slowly stepped inside. At first, her footsteps were light and audible, but soon there was no sound at all, as if she had vanished into thin air.

The entire hall still appeared desolate and dilapidated, as well as completely empty.

***

Meanwhile, Li Yanchu and Zuo Qian waited for the court-dispatched expert before setting out together.

Zuo Qian was temporarily staying at the

yamen’s

inn. This well-connected young man lacked the air of a typical wealthy dilettante. At least in terms of material comforts, he maintained the simplicity of a wandering martialist.

Li Yanchu, meanwhile, stayed at the temple, drinking tea and practicing his fists, as well as copying Daoist scriptures.

He noticed that copying scriptures seemed to benefit his primordial spirit cultivation. He wasn’t sure if it was a unique trait of his or if ordinary Daoist texts had the same effect. He leaned toward the former, after all, he was someone whose skill aptitude points were maxed out.

After a while of copying, he would sit in the courtyard and pet the cats. Cuihua had grown to enjoy this life more and more. Mainly because Li Yanchu’s way of petting was so soothing, the cat that had once been slightly resistant now simply found it delightful.

Moreover, Cuihua noticed that spending extended time in the temple seemed to improve her own cultivation. She didn’t know what strange properties the place might have.

Having realized this, Cuihua turned her attention to Blackie. After a few tests, she concluded he was indeed an ordinary donkey, just a little more spiritually aware, with a smile that was wicked and unrestrained.

“Let’s go to the mountains, I’m going to take some pills,” Li Yanchu called out.

Cuihua was momentarily stunned, not understanding what “taking pills” meant, but she quickly caught on.

“Looks like there’s quite a harvest this time,” she said calmly.

“Not much, just an ordinary Body-Tempering Pill,” Li Yanchu replied.

And so, the two of them ventured into the mountains near Wei City, seeking a secluded spot. Then, Li Yanchu prepared to consume the Blood-Qi Pill.

He was concerned that using such a powerful pill might cause some cosmic anomaly or stir up too much attention. Cuihua was simply brought along to keep watch, to make sure no careless onlookers came to interfere.