Getting Down to Work

The compass pointed at a fresh grave and trembled.

Bai Yujun studied the layout of the new grave and shook her head. Perhaps it had been buried in a hurry and faced the wrong direction. The ghost within harbored too much resentment to be saved. It looked as though it had already taken lives. Such an evil ghost could not enter reincarnation and could simply be dealt with directly.

She took out her booklet, flipping through it until she found the proper method.

The booklet and scriptures had been issued when she descended the mountain. They contained methods for handling all manner of situations and taught novices quite a few spells. With disasters so urgent, they could only devise quick methods to help disciples learn faster. The booklet's solution was to dig up the grave and expose the evil ghost's corpse to sunlight. The intensely yang sunlight was most effective at burning evil ghosts to death; the sun was the natural bane of wicked things.

She raised her foot and stomped viciously onto the ground. The earth churned, revealing a coffin.

The advantage of doing this in daylight was that evil ghosts did not dare emerge and could only wait to be burned to death by sunlight. It was safe and convenient. As for fierce ghosts gathering a mass of dark clouds to block the sky, that was pure nonsense. Anyone capable of commanding the weather would need an exceedingly profound cultivation.

With a clang, she drew her heavy ruler, raised it high, and smashed it down with all her strength!

Crack~!

Wood shavings flew as the coffin lid shattered. The instant sunlight streamed into the coffin, Bai Yujun heard a piercing scream, followed by smoke rising from within. The scream grew weaker and swiftly vanished.

Having dealt with the evil ghost, she continued searching.

At the village entrance, the villagers had initially had no idea what the Young Daoist was doing in the graveyard. Only when she split open a coffin and smoke rose from it did they realize an evil ghost had actually been living in the grave. They all rejoiced that immortals were watching over them.

Bai Yujun continued working.

She destroyed two more fresh graves, then followed the compass to an old grave.

Was the compass broken? She shook it up and down, then checked the needle again. It still pointed at the old grave. There was nothing wrong with this grave's location, and it had been there for many years—how could there possibly be an evil ghost inside? She walked in circles around it with the compass, but the needle remained fixed on the old grave.

Whatever. Smash it first and ask questions later.

Thus, the villagers watched blankly as the young lady stomped once and jolted the coffin from their ancestral grave out of the ground. Their eyes went wide; in the blink of an eye, their ancestors were breathing fresh air once more...

The heavy ruler swept the coffin lid away!

Croak!

The moment the lid came off, Bai Yujun saw a huge mouth lunging toward her face. Startled, she hurriedly held the heavy ruler across in front of herself. Her hands jolted as the ruler blocked that gaping mouth. Once she saw clearly what it was, rage surged through her.

"What an enormous gray toad!"

The villagers were dumbfounded again. How had a washbasin-sized toad jumped out of their ancestors' coffin? Could it be that all these years, they had been kowtowing and offering incense to a toad? The more they thought about it, the more stifled they felt...

The instant the toad landed, the pitch-black heavy ruler came whistling down. Bai Yujun struck sideways—not because she did not want to kill it, but because she intended to flatten the toad into a meat patty with one blow. Its body was steeped in such dense Yin Energy and its eyes were blood-red. It was clearly a toad addicted to eating corpses. Though frogs were one item on a snake's menu, Bai Yujun had no intention of eating it. It was simply too disgusting.

Splat! The washbasin-sized toad's belly burst, and it was flattened into a patty.

She lifted the heavy ruler and inspected it. She would have been better off throwing a rock at it than striking it with her ruler. Suppressing her nausea, she gathered a pile of dry grass and set it alight, using the flames to disinfect and sterilize the heavy ruler.

The rest would have to be done at night. Tonight, she would recite incantations at the mass graveyard to save the wandering souls and wild ghosts, so they would not linger in the mortal world.

There was no choice but to wait until tonight. Those evil ghosts and fierce ghosts would not obediently accept salvation; she had to deal with them first before she could recite scriptures properly. When cultivators circulated a little spiritual power while chanting scriptures, the effect was powerful—far stronger than when ordinary people recited them.

There was still a long time before dark, so Bai Yujun decided to first address the feng shui problems at the mass graveyard.

Carrying her heavy ruler, she chopped down several centuries-old trees. Then she lifted a giant millstone-sized boulder and tossed it into a trench, changing the water flow. The villagers hid in the village and stared blankly as Bai Yujun busied herself there.

After finishing, she came beneath the old tree at the village entrance for shade. She set down her Book Box, planted the heavy ruler into the earth before her, and sat cross-legged beneath the tree to meditate and cultivate...

With her five hearts facing heaven and her mind free of stray thoughts, she sensed heaven and earth.

A small green snake slowly slithered up to Bai Yujun. Flicking its tongue, it lifted its head to look at her, then climbed onto her shoulder and looked around. It was a young snake. Bai Yujun had always liked young snakes. Opening her eyes with a smile, she reached out to stroke its little head, then gently held it in her hand. The little snake gazed at Bai Yujun with innocent confusion.

A smile graced her pretty face as she set the little snake down and let it slither away.

In her eyes, the little snake was her own kind—her true kind, not humans.

In the desolate village, beneath an ancient tree, Bai Yujun sat motionless in her Daoist robe. Time sped onward. Sunlight moved from the left side of the Big Tree to the right, until the sunset clouds blazed like fire. The white figure did not move a hair, as if in deep meditation. In the setting sun, the shadows of the old tree, the small figure, and the heavy ruler stretched ever longer.

The sun sank below the horizon, and the clouds overhead turned into burning sunset clouds. The villagers listlessly watched the young Daoist sitting beneath the tree at the village entrance.

The sky grew darker and darker.

When darkness completely fell, Bai Yujun opened her eyes.

Carrying her Book Box and weapon, she walked to the center of the mass graveyard. She took out a scripture book, found the salvation passages, and began reciting them in earnest...

Her clear, spiritual female voice echoed through the mass graveyard, filling it with peace and serenity. One shadow after another appeared around Bai Yujun.

"Pervading the realms of the ten directions, ever wielding divine might..."

"Rescuing all living beings, letting them escape the lost path..."

"I take refuge in the Supreme Venerable, who can dispel every sin..."

Sobs rose from the mass graveyard—miserable and desolate. Most who had died here were wandering souls and wild ghosts, with neither family nor kin, lingering in the world unable to enter reincarnation. As the saying went, do not fear ghosts crying; fear ghosts laughing. Crying ghosts merely remembered the misery of their deaths and wept from sorrow. They had been pitiable people while alive, nothing more.

Amid the ghosts, Bai Yujun was not the slightest bit afraid. How could a ferocious Wild Beast fear mere ghosts and specters? She recited the scriptures with full concentration.

Gradually, some ghosts began to disappear. Those without much resentment went to the underworld, while those burdened with deep resentment still needed slow guidance. Lost Souls approached one by one, then departed. Wandering souls and wild ghosts continuously came closer upon hearing the salvation scriptures, hoping for rebirth. Without realizing it, Bai Yujun had done a good deed and gained merit...

No one knew how many people had died nearby or how many wandering souls and wild ghosts there were. It was already midnight after she had been reciting the scriptures for so long, yet Lost Souls continued to approach and accept rebirth.

In the village, the villagers felt exceptionally peaceful tonight. Even though they were hungry, they no longer felt the same fear as before. They felt comfortable.

At the center of the mass graveyard, moonlight shone upon a petite white figure. The Book Box rested behind her, and the heavy ruler was planted in the soil before her. Tired of standing, she simply sat on the ground and recited, word by word and line by line, with exceptional seriousness.

It was still that old tree at the village entrance.

A figure stood atop the tree. Chu Zhe smiled as he watched Bai Yujun, who was still reciting, and simply stood there the entire time.

Bai Yujun always felt that someone nearby was watching her. She looked around several times but saw nothing. Still, a beast's instincts could not be wrong. After some thought, she decided it was the villagers secretly watching from afar and paid it no further mind.

Fish Belly White appeared on the horizon.

After reciting scriptures all night, her mouth was dry with exhaustion, though it had thoroughly corrected her stutter. She thought how nice it would be if she had a recorder. Suddenly, Bai Yujun sensed something and turned to look at the old tree at the village entrance, but saw nothing...