Jiang Taigong

Zhou Sheng rushed home, only to find his master wasn't there. A note was all that remained in the main hall.

"Someone has fallen gravely ill, and I've been asked to go treat them. You practice on your own today. If I'm not back by noon, go eat at the restaurant."

Three taels of silver were placed on top of the note.

Zhou Sheng wasn't surprised. Besides performing Ghost Opera, his master's medical skills were quite good, at least famous enough within Qinggu County.

Wealthy families often invited him.

He picked up his opera trunk and hurried towards Pear Blossom River. Along the way, he could already see faint figures. Worried someone might go to the riverbank, Zhou Sheng quickened his pace.

His figure was as graceful as a feather, his movements as swift as lightning, as if he were riding the wind. In moments, he could cover dozens of feet, lighter and more agile than a civet cat.

Besides the body-movement techniques and legwork he had practiced since childhood, the main reason was the body-lightening effect of the Immortal's Cloud Mica Pill.

Legend had it that after consuming the cloud mica, He Xiangu could walk on flat ground through towering mountains, almost as if flying.

This showed the excellent body-lightening effect of mica.

In less than a moment, Zhou Sheng arrived at Pear Blossom River again. The sky was still dim, with only a sliver of dawn showing at the edge of the clouds.

It was empty and silent.

Zhou Sheng frowned because the corpse was no longer in the river.

Staring at the dark green water, he didn't rashly jump in. Instead, he took something out of his opera trunk.

It was incense ash wrapped in yellow paper.

When traveling, his master always told him to bring some incense ash from Patriarch Huaguang's censer. This stuff was very useful; besides killing ghosts, it could also be used for tracking.

He sprinkled some of the ash into the water and saw no unusual reaction on the surface.

"Not in the water?"

Patriarch Huaguang abhorred evil and was worshipped by the world as the God of Fire. The incense ash from his censer also contained the demonic fire of subjugation, igniting instantly upon contact with anything sinister.

This was the irreconcilable nature of good and evil.

If something dirty were hiding in the water, the surface would boil and bubble as if scalding hot.

But now, nothing had happened. Everything was normal.

This meant...

The dirty thing... had come ashore!

Thinking of this, Zhou Sheng suddenly turned around. Seeing nothing unusual behind him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He picked up more incense ash and sprinkled it out again, but this time not into the water, but onto the ground.

"Zhou Sheng, disciple of the Ghost Opera lineage, requests the Patriarch to guide the way to catch the culprit!"

Whoosh~

The incense ash drifted down with the wind, hitting the ground and suddenly sparking. Then, a trail of black footprints appeared, leading in a certain direction.

This was called Immortal Guides the Way.

Without hesitation, Zhou Sheng, carrying his opera trunk, chased in that direction.

Firstly, the people of Qinggu County treated him like a nephew or son. They had taken care of him a lot since he was young, so he naturally couldn't stand by and do nothing.

Secondly, he also wanted to quickly help Luoshu accumulate energy so that he could deduce the true Immortal's Cloud Mica Pill formula.

Following the direction of the footprints, he stopped at each fork in the road to sprinkle more incense ash before continuing.

Using it sparingly like this, he finally arrived in front of a luxurious mansion just as the incense ash was about to run out.

The plaque above the gate was grand, made of ebony and painted vermillion, with stone lions standing guard on either side, making it look very imposing.

The words "Zhu Mansion" were written with sharp strokes, inlaid with gold.

The main gate was adorned with images of door gods, depicting the famous generals of the Tang Dynasty, Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong.

Zhou Sheng stopped and observed from a distance, as this was the residence of the Qinggu County magistrate, the Zhu Mansion.

The footprints had also disappeared here.

"Strange, why would the corpse come here? With its Yin energy, it shouldn't be able to enter this mansion."

The stone lions at the entrance already had the effect of warding off evil, and the images of the door gods on the gate were even more majestic, awe-inspiring, and imposing.

Zhou Sheng observed for a moment and sprinkled the last bit of incense ash.

As expected, the scattered black footprints at the entrance clearly indicated that the corpse had paused here to observe.

Wait...

Zhou Sheng's gaze suddenly sharpened because he noticed that, judging by the footprints, after realizing it couldn't enter through the main gate, the corpse immediately turned around, as if it had a very clear plan of action.

He tracked again, finally arriving at a corner of the Zhu Mansion's back wall.

There was a dog hole here, blocked with bricks and stones. On the surrounding walls, Zhou Sheng found damp mold spots and black corpse fluid.

The corpse had already entered the Zhu Mansion through here!

Judging by the route, the other party seemed very familiar with the place.

Zhou Sheng naturally wouldn't crawl through a dog hole. He carried his opera prop box and easily scaled the wall, landing lightly.

There was no longer any incense ash, but he had already discovered a pattern.

Wherever the corpse had been, there were traces of mold and dampness, along with black water droplets emitting a foul odor.

It wasn't difficult to find if one observed carefully.

He followed the traces, while carefully avoiding the mansion's servants, and soon arrived at a well.

A maid was drawing water, but the water she drew was foul-smelling and unusually murky.

She took a sip and almost vomited, retching continuously.

"Why is this water so undrinkable? Did some stray cat die in the well?"

She complained while wiping her mouth, completely unaware that a hand with rotting skin and mangled flesh was slowly emerging from the well, reaching out to grab her.

And at that critical moment, a whip cracked like a firecracker, faintly echoing with the sound of thunder.

Immediately after, a golden whip danced like a spirit snake, whistling through the air, and struck the arm fiercely.

With a scream, the arm actually exploded, splashing corpse fluid, its flesh charred black, and the corpse qi dissipated like snow melting in boiling water.

The maid turned her head and met a pair of hollow eyes, already completely consumed by maggots.

She fainted from fright.

However, before she lost consciousness, she vaguely saw another figure rushing towards her.

It was a strange person in a dark robe, holding a golden whip, seemingly a character from an opera.

The gold base spread across the face like the autumn moon, silver threads outlining patterns like prophetic texts.

Seven star moles beneath the lips, a Taiji diagram painted on the forehead.

Though unnamed on the Investiture of the Gods, the Twenty-One Section God-Beating Whip specifically strikes all manner of ghosts and gods.

"Jiang Taigong is here, all--taboo!"

A theatrical voice rang out, resonant and powerful, like the clang of metal, as if descending from the highest heavens, imbued with a magnificent divine power.

The corpse seemed to feel fear and immediately tried to retreat back into the well.

However, the golden whip swung again, coiling around its neck like a dark python, firmly entangling it.

This was the Water Sleeve Technique from opera, originally used mostly by Dan roles, but Zhou Sheng had adapted it to his whip techniques.

After more than ten years of arduous practice, his whip skills had reached a state of perfection, controllable as his own arm, striking precisely where he intended.

The knives, swords, golden whip, and snake lance in his opera box were all genuine and not mere props.

"Fiend--do not flee!!"

Zhou Sheng planted his stance firmly, channeling his spiritual power into his arms, and with a roar, the golden whip tightened with a hum, dragging the corpse out inch by inch.

Simultaneously, the Demon Subduing Corpse鎮 Spell and Daoist thunder patterns yin-engraved on the golden whip glowed brilliantly, causing the corpse to scream repeatedly as if being burned by fire.