Lord You

"Put on opera for ghosts?" Li Huowang's heart immediately skipped a beat. Just from the name alone, he knew it was no good thing.

"It's actually nothing much. Just going to the ancestral hall and singing opera in front of those Ancestral Tablets."

"If it's nothing much, then why doesn't Master Lu Ban take this job himself?" Li Huowang immediately shot back. One look was enough to tell that this was not so simple.

"Ah, ah, ah, look, this is my first time too. I'm feeling a little uneasy, aren't I? So I wanted to invite an expert like you to stand guard nearby, so we can take this job with peace of mind."

"Master Lu Ban, I truly can't help you with this." Usually, he could not avoid such things fast enough. How could he have the leisure to rush headlong into provoking them now?

Though it was possible that nothing would happen, he did not want to gamble on it.

At most, he and Lu Zhuangyuan were merely traveling companions. It was hardly worth risking his life to help him.

If Lu Zhuangyuan truly refused to keep serving as his guide over this, then they could simply go their separate ways. He could just ask around in the village himself. With so many people in the village, was he supposed to fear that none of them knew the way?

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

At the mention of money, Lu Zhuangyuan began gesticulating wildly. "I didn't want to take it at first either, but this isn't small money! Lord Hu is incredibly generous! He gave us a full ten taels of patterned silver!"

"One tael of silver is one thousand copper coins. Ten taels of patterned silver is One Wan copper coins! My Little Daoist Master! Ten taels of silver! Even if you want to cultivate the Dao and become immortal, you still need to eat before you become immortal, don't you?"

Li Huowang stopped at once. Looking at the two bags of dried sweet potatoes beside him, he truly did need silver now.

And it was not just because of food. Once he reached Jianye Town, he could foresee that he would need to spend quite a bit of money there as well. In any world made up of people, without money, one could not take a single step.

"Little Daoist Master, consider this old man begging you, all right? If that won't do, how about six for you and four for me? It isn't easy to earn this much money these days!" Lu Zhuangyuan pleaded miserably as he continued circling Li Huowang and trying to persuade him.

If an expert did not come along, he truly would not dare accept this job. No matter how much money there was, it only mattered if one lived long enough to spend it.

Li Huowang suddenly turned to Lu Zhuangyuan. "Is there a Blacksmith Shop in this village?"

"What?"

Led by Lu Zhuangyuan, Li Huowang arrived at Wu Li Gang's only Blacksmith Shop.

"What do you want forged?" The bearded man, bare from the waist up, sized up Li Huowang's Daoist Robe and asked roughly.

"I'm not forging anything. I need something repaired. It can't be hammered or melted. Can you restore this?" Li Huowang took out the Copper Bell and asked.

If it could be repaired, and he could summon Lord You, then perhaps this money really could be taken. Otherwise, it would burn his hand just holding it.

"Can't be hammered or melted? What kind of rotten quirk is that?" The blacksmith took the Copper Bell, gave it a slight shake, then brought out two iron pincers. "Come, give me a hand."

The large pincers had long jaws that easily reached into the dented sides of the Copper Bell. The two of them gritted their teeth and pulled with all their might, yet the Copper Bell did not budge in the slightest. The result was unexpected, yet perfectly reasonable.

"Huh! Now that's strange. What kind of copper is this thing made from? Why is it so hard?" The curious blacksmith bent his knuckles, about to tap it, but Li Huowang stopped him.

Looking at the two pincers clamped onto the bell's walls, Li Huowang thought for a moment, then poured a pill from a palm-sized Gourd at his waist and stuffed it into his mouth.

This was a pill Danyangzi had rewarded him with. He had eaten one when he saved Yang Na at the Mental Hospital, one when he killed Danyangzi, and now another today. Only two remained.

"Buzz—" A surge of heat instantly exploded from his Dantian Acupoint and flooded through Li Huowang's entire body.

He drew a deep breath, grabbed one pincer in each hand, and pulled hard.

"Two people couldn't even open it, and you alone think you can—" The blacksmith had only spoken halfway when a creaking sound rang out. The shriveled Copper Bell actually began steadily spreading open.

By the time the blacksmith's mouth had fallen fully open, the Copper Bell had returned to its original shape.

"Heh, what's so remarkable about that? Let me tell you, Little Daoist Master's cultivation is profound." Lu Zhuangyuan proudly showed off to the blacksmith, as if Li Huowang could do anything and nothing he did would surprise him.

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 measure of anticipation.

As the ringing began, that sensation of the sky spinning and the earth turning, of dizziness and splitting headaches, immediately returned. This time, Li Huowang did not stop. Instead, he clenched his teeth and shook it harder.

He felt everything around him spinning. The outlines of the surrounding branches began twisting, pulling away from their original positions and gradually gathering into shape.

"This might work!" Li Huowang's heart pounded wildly.

Accompanied by the piercing bell, the long-unseen Lord You appeared before him once more. This time, however, there was only one.

Lord You looked like a mass of various twisted lines stitched together, something trembling at high frequency, his body completely without fixed form.

Li Huowang could not stare at him for too long. He felt that if he did, he would stare him apart.

Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly thought of something. He bent down, dug up a lump of wet mud, and stuffed it into his mouth.

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

"Nangtao zhirui mouye?" He had wanted to ask whether Lord You could understand him, but the sound that came out, twisted by the distorted surroundings, became an exceedingly strange melody.

No matter what Li Huowang said, Lord You actually responded. "Diehu zhi."

Li Huowang was overjoyed. With Lord You helping him, his strength would soar!

"Rui neng lan kui bi qi qi?" Li Huowang leaned forward and asked the most crucial question.

Lord You remained where he was, neither haughty nor impatient, responding slowly yet firmly. "Mianyi, qishou hu kuangbang, jue."

Li Huowang's brows gradually furrowed. "Lirang, nie."

"Mianyi, qishou hu kuangbang, jue."

When he saw Lord You repeat his previous words again, Li Huowang sighed inwardly. Sure enough, pies did not fall from the sky. Controlling Lord You came at a price.

And the price was not anything else, but a person's lifespan. Each use cost three months of life.

When Li Huowang asked again whether Danyangzi had made the same exchange back then, Lord You fell silent.

The ringing gradually died away. Li Huowang clutched his splitting head and rested where he stood for quite a while before returning to Wu Li Gang.

"Little Daoist Master, you..." Lu Zhuangyuan looked at his mud-filled mouth and stopped himself from speaking.

"I accept the job you mentioned earlier." Li Huowang said, gripping the Copper Bell in his hand.

"Ah! That's wonderful! I'll go give Lord Hu an answer right away!" Hearing this, Lu Zhuangyuan was immediately beside himself with joy.