Lord You

"Singing opera for ghosts?" Li Huowang's heart sank. Just hearing the name, he knew it wasn't anything good.

"Actually, it's nothing much, just going to the Ancestral Hall to sing opera for the Ancestral Tablets."

"If it's nothing, then why doesn't Lu Ban Master do this business himself?" Li Huowang immediately retorted, seeing through the simple explanation.

"Oh, oh, you see, this is my first time, and I'm a little nervous, so I wanted to invite you, an expert, to watch over me so we can do this business with peace of mind."

"Lu Ban Master, I really can't help you with this." He usually avoided such things, so why would he go out of his way to provoke them now?

Although it was possible that nothing would happen, he didn't want to gamble.

He and Lu Zhuangyuan were just companions on the road, and it wasn't worth risking his life to help him.

If he really didn't want to continue being a guide because of this, they could just part ways. He could just ask around in the village. With so many people in the village, surely someone would know the way?

"Hey, hey, Little Daoist Priest, don't be in such a hurry. I haven't finished yet. How about we split the money from this opera performance fifty-fifty?"

As soon as money was mentioned, Lu Zhuangyuan gesticulated excitedly. "I didn't want to take it at first, but this is a lot of money! That Lord Hu is very generous! He gave a full ten taels of silver!"

"One tael of silver is one thousand copper coins, and ten taels of silver is ten thousand copper coins! My Little Daoist Priest! Ten taels of silver! Even if you want to cultivate to become an immortal, you still have to eat before you become one, right?"

Li Huowang stopped. He looked at the two bags of dried sweet potatoes next to him. He really needed silver right now.

And not just for food. He could expect to spend a lot of money when he got to Jianye Town. In any world made up of people, it was impossible to move an inch without money.

"Little Daoist Priest, please, consider this old man begging you, okay? If it really doesn't work, how about you take six and I take four? It's not easy to earn this much money these days!" Lu Zhuangyuan said with a mournful face, continuing to persuade Li Huowang.

If an expert didn't come, he really wouldn't dare to take this job. After all, no matter how much money there was, he had to be alive to spend it.

Li Huowang suddenly turned to look at Lu Zhuangyuan. "Is there a blacksmith in this village?"

"Huh?"

Under Lu Zhuangyuan's lead, Li Huowang was brought to the only Blacksmith Shop in Wu Li Gang.

"What do you want to forge?" A bare-chested, burly man sized up the Daoist robe on Li Huowang and asked rudely.

"Not forging ironware, repairing something. It can't be hammered or melted. Can you restore this?" Li Huowang took out the copper bell and asked.

If he could fix it, he could summon Lord You, and then he might really be able to take the money. Otherwise, the money would be too hot to handle.

"Can't be hammered or melted? What kind of weird request is that?" The blacksmith reached out and took the copper bell, shaking it a few times. Then, he took out two pairs of iron tongs. "Come on, give me a hand."

The large tongs were very long and easily reached into the two dented sides of the copper bell. The two of them gritted their teeth and tried to force it open, but the copper bell didn't budge. This result was both expected and reasonable.

"Huh~! That's strange. What kind of copper is this made of? How is it so hard?" Curious, the blacksmith bent his finger joint and was about to knock on it, but Li Huowang stopped him.

Looking at the two pairs of tongs clamping the bell wall of the copper bell, Li Huowang thought for a moment and poured a Pill from a palm-sized gourd at his waist into his mouth.

This was a Pill that Danyangzi had given him as a reward. He had eaten one to save Yang Na in the mental hospital, one when he killed Danyangzi, and now he was eating another one. Only two were left.

Buzz A burst of heat instantly exploded from his Dantian Acupoint, surging throughout Li Huowang's body.

He took a deep breath, grabbed one side of the tongs with each hand, and pulled hard.

"Two people couldn't open it, and you think you can do it alone—" The blacksmith's words were only halfway out when he heard a creaking sound. The shriveled copper bell had actually been steadily pried open.

As the blacksmith's mouth opened to its widest, the copper bell returned to its original shape.

"Hey, what's so strange about that? Let me tell you, our little Taoist priest is incredibly skilled." Lu Zhuangyuan boasted to the blacksmith, as if in his heart Li Huowang was omnipotent, and nothing he did would be surprising.

Li Huowang left the village and returned alone to the forest outside.

Looking at the copper bell in his hand, he shook it with a hint of anticipation.

As the bell rang, that feeling of darkness and dizziness immediately appeared. This time, Li Huowang didn't stop; instead, he gritted his teeth and shook it vigorously.

He felt everything around him spinning. The lines of the surrounding branches began to twist, breaking away from their original positions and gradually beginning to coalesce.

"It's working!" Li Huowang's heart was beating fast at this moment.

Accompanied by the piercing bell, Lord You, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, reappeared before him, but this time there was only one.

Lord You looked like a mass of high-frequency trembling things pieced together from various distorted lines, its body completely unformed.

Li Huowang couldn't stare at it for too long; he felt that if he stared for too long, he would stare it apart.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to speak, he suddenly thought of something, bent down, dug up a piece of wet mud from the ground, and stuffed it into his mouth.

The taste of the mud was unpleasant, but he still forced himself to speak.

"Nang tao zhi rui mou xie?" He wanted to ask if this Lord You could understand him, but the sound he uttered, after being processed by this distorted environment, became a very strange melody.

Regardless of what Li Huowang said, Lord You actually responded. "Die hu zhi."

This made Li Huowang ecstatic. With Lord You's help, his strength would greatly increase!

"Rui neng yi yin bi qi qi chi?" Li Huowang leaned forward, asking the most crucial question.

Lord You remained in place, neither arrogant nor impatient, responding slowly but firmly: "Mian ji, qi shou hu da bang, jue."

Li Huowang's brow gradually furrowed. "Li nang, nie."

"Mian ji, qi shou hu da bang, jue."

When he saw Lord You continuing to repeat the previous sentence, Li Huowang sighed lightly in his heart. As expected, pie wouldn't fall from the sky; there was a price to pay for driving Lord You.

And this price wasn't anything else, but a person's lifespan—three months of life for each use.

When Li Huowang asked him again whether Danyangzi had also made such an exchange in the past, Lord You remained silent.

The bell gradually stopped ringing. Li Huowang covered his head, which was splitting with pain, and after a long while, he returned to Wu Li Gang.

"Little Taoist priest, you are..." Lu Zhuangyuan looked at his mouth full of mud, hesitating to speak.

"I agree to the deal you told me about earlier." Li Huowang said, gripping the copper bell in his hand.

"Oh! That's great! I'll go report back to Lord Hu right away!" Lu Zhuangyuan was overjoyed upon hearing this.