The Calamity of Heaven

"...Zhang San, born blind in one eye, unable to speak, and soon afterward suffered the removal of his nose. Place of origin: Tu Prefecture, Great Li Dynasty... Lifespan: fifteen years, eight months, and four days. Drowned at the start of the Mao hour."

"...Li Si, missing an eye and a tongue, with a limp. Place of origin: Tu Prefecture, Great Li Dynasty... Lifespan: seven years and six days. Died young at the middle of the Chen hour."

"...Wang Wu, deprived of all five senses, with a lame foot. Place of origin: Tu Prefecture, Great Li Dynasty... Lifespan: eighteen years, one month, and two days. Drowned at the third quarter of the Shen hour."

"..."

Line after line of text began appearing on the Life and Death Book. As Zheng Que read, he suddenly noticed that the lifespan listed after his name had changed.

The original "sixteen years, seven months, and three days" had become "sixteen years, seven months, and ten days."

His lifespan had increased by seven days!

Zheng Que was stunned for a moment, then quickly understood. The lifespan he had seen beside his name in the Life and Death Book at first wasn't his actual lifespan—it was his Dao Entry Tribulation!

If he hadn't passed the Dao Entry Tribulation just now, tonight at the Hai hour would have marked the end of his life!

But now, he had slain the Call-Sound Ghost and passed the Dao Entry Tribulation. As a result, the lifespan he had left had changed.

However, he was now in perfect health, full of vigor. Under normal circumstances, he couldn't possibly have only seven days to live. That meant another tribulation awaited him seven days from now...

At this thought, Zheng Que furrowed his brow. Just then, the text that had been appearing on the Life and Death Book finally stopped.

The newly appeared text corresponded to thirty-five names, all from Tu Prefecture in the Great Li Dynasty. None had a lifespan of more than twenty years.

Moreover, all thirty-five people were disabled. Their intact facial features, added together, didn't even amount to thirty-five.

Perhaps it was only his imagination, but after the records of those thirty-five people appeared, Zheng Que felt that something about the Life and Death Book had changed. Yet when he examined it closely, he couldn't spot any difference.

Just as he was about to investigate further, the scene around him rippled like water. In the blink of an eye, the Wide Hall faded away, and he was back in the house in the small town.

Looking at the familiar room before him, Zheng Que immediately noticed that the wounds on his chest and arms had completely healed. The flesh had drawn together, leaving behind streaks of scar tissue. His clothes, however, were tattered and ragged as a fishing net, hanging off him and making him look utterly bedraggled.

He touched the wound on his face as well. It was smaller, and had already scabbed over.

Besides that, he felt full of energy, and his senses had become much sharper. It seemed he had received a comprehensive improvement.

Since it was still night, and he was worried something else might happen, Zheng Que immediately sat down on the bed and continued cultivating.

As his mind sank into the circulation of the cultivation method, everything around him faded. A cold current of air, wrapped in a hazy gloom, swept toward him.

Zheng Que sat cross-legged at the head of the bed, eyes half-closed and utterly still.

The cold moon shone quietly outside the window. The whole town lay in dead silence, without the slightest sound of people or dogs.

Time flowed slowly. The Jade Rabbit sank in the west, the Golden Crow rose, and daylight returned to the earth.

When the sky had fully brightened, Zheng Que stopped cultivating and looked around. Only after sensing nothing amiss did he rise from the bed, put on his shoes, eat a little dry food, and change into a set of intact clothes. Then he immediately left, heading for the ruined temple.

There were few people along the way, and every one of them looked gaunt and haggard.

As he walked, Zheng Que suddenly frowned. The few people he had seen on the road just now seemed to have had no shadows...

Lost in thought, he arrived at the entrance to the ruined temple. After confirming the distance between the Female Hanging Ghost, the tree's shadow, and the threshold, he cautiously entered, keeping close to one wall.

Weeds filled the courtyard. The coffins from yesterday had all been carried away, and the flattened grass had sprung upright again.

The temple doors stood open, and daylight spilled inside, revealing Daoist Qu seated cross-legged beneath the shrine. His eyes were half-closed, and he did not move.

Zheng Que stepped forward and bowed respectfully. "This disciple pays his respects to Master!"

At that, Daoist Qu finally opened his eyes. He glanced at Zheng Que's injuries and gave a slight nod. "Not bad."

"Passing the Dao Entry Tribulation means you have enough good fortune."

"Today, I will teach you a spell."

Hearing this, Zheng Que was delighted. He hurriedly bowed again. "Thank you, Master! This disciple will cultivate diligently and will never let you down!"

Daoist Qu's expression remained indifferent, unaffected by his pledge. He continued, "Before I pass on the spell, there are some basic things you must understand."

"Last night, when you fought the Call-Sound Ghost, did you notice anything unusual?"

Unusual?

Zheng Que considered the question, then promptly replied, "Reporting to Master, the Call-Sound Ghost seemed to have no physical body."

"Ordinary punches and kicks couldn't touch it, much less hurt it."

"Only after getting a cultivator's blood on it could I attack it directly."

Daoist Qu nodded slightly. "Before the Calamity of Heaven, yin and yang were distinct, and humans and ghosts belonged to separate realms. The human world was free of so many calamities."

"But in this world now, Tricky Specters run rampant, Evil Omens are as numerous as cattle, Wicked Sins emerge one after another, Anomalies are seen everywhere, and there are countless varieties of Lonely Ghosts and Wild Spirits..."

"The Call-Sound Ghost you encountered in your Dao Entry Tribulation is a kind of Tricky Specter."

"Generally speaking, a Tricky Specter forms when the twisted resentment of anywhere from a few dozen people to tens of millions of people, after their deaths, fuses together and refuses to disperse, eventually condensing into a 'ghost.'"

"In the past, after entering the Dao, cultivators brimmed with masculine energy, like blazing bonfires burning in the dark. They could directly harm Tricky Specters. But in this world today, cultivators absorb more yin energy than spiritual energy as they cultivate."

"That imbalance between excessive yin and deficient yang was the problem you encountered last night."

"Still, a cultivator remains a cultivator, no matter how much yin energy he absorbs."

"The spiritual blood within his body still contains yang energy..."

Zheng Que listened intently, and soon thought of something.

Was the Call-Sound Ghost made up of the resentment of many dead people?

After he dealt with the Call-Sound Ghost last night, thirty-five names had appeared in the Life and Death Book.

Were those thirty-five people the ones whose resentment had formed the Call-Sound Ghost?

And there was something else. He had indeed absorbed a great deal of yin energy while cultivating, but in the end, the Life and Death Book had absorbed it all.

By rights, his constitution shouldn't be much different from that of cultivators before the Calamity of Heaven.

Then why had he still needed spiritual blood to hurt the Call-Sound Ghost?

As Zheng Que puzzled over this, he heard Daoist Qu continue, "The spell I'm teaching you today is called the Ghost Controlling Technique."

"This technique can command ordinary Lonely Ghosts and Wild Spirits and put them to use."

"Cultivators with profound cultivation can even use this technique to enslave Tricky Specters."

"I'll demonstrate it just once."

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