Three Forbidden Incantations, Taoist Exterminates Demons

"So White Crane Boy was looking at you during the deity parade just now?"

Chen Lixing looked at Huang Bai, his expression clearly more solemn than before.

"Normally, even if we encountered someone with slightly heavier yin energy during a deity parade, or ran into an ordinary evil spirit, it wouldn't be enough to alarm White Crane Boy. Unless..."

As he spoke, his gaze fell on Duo Duo before returning to Huang Bai's face.

"Unless it was something on the level of ghosts and gods."

Only then did he fully understand.

It had not been his disciple A Gui making a mistake earlier. Rather, Huang Bai carried something that was enough to startle the divine procession.

Huang Bai nodded and did not beat around the bush.

"That is exactly why I came."

After saying that, he beckoned toward the door and called Duo Duo, who had been hiding in the corner, inside.

Duo Duo timidly walked to Huang Bai's side. Her little hand instinctively clutched the hem of his clothes, and she did not dare look at the people in the temple.

Chen Lixing's expression changed after just one glance at the child.

"This is a nightmare curse?"

Huang Bai's heart stirred slightly.

As expected of the old master of Ksitigarbha Temple—he truly had discerning eyes. Even A-Qing had only seen that Duo Duo carried a curse, yet Chen Lixing had identified it as a nightmare curse at a glance.

"You have sharp eyes, Master." Huang Bai did not deny it. "To be honest, what remains on her is more than an ordinary curse. Its source is an evil god called the Great Black Buddha Mother."

"The Great Black Buddha Mother..."

Chen Lixing repeated the name and paced back and forth twice.

"So it is an evil god."

That made things troublesome.

Curses, possession, and clashing baleful intent were ultimately still within the realm of techniques. But once gods became involved, it was a different matter altogether.

After pondering for a moment, Chen Lixing raised a hand and motioned for Huang Bai and Duo Duo to head inside first.

"Come in first. We'll talk there."

The group entered the inner hall. Chen Lixing personally lit a stick of incense and bowed to the deity statue before turning back to continue.

"A nightmare curse is not the hardest thing to deal with. We just need to find a way to break it. But destroying an evil god is not something mortals can easily meddle with."

"Orthodox Gods are bound by the Heavenly Dao and will not easily descend into the mortal world. Evil gods are different. They have already fallen into the lower realm, and they love nothing more than exploiting human hearts and blood offerings to stir up trouble."

"So, does Master have a solution?"

"We must first ask the gods." Chen Lixing said, "I can deal with the nightmare curse, but for the evil god, we must seek divine instruction."

Huang Bai understood. He directly handed over the red envelope he had prepared in advance.

"I'll have to trouble you with this, Master. It is only a small token, for incense offerings."

Chen Lixing did not refuse. He accepted it casually.

It was not greed—it was the rule.

There were so many people in the temple who needed to eat. Incense offerings were incense offerings, personal ties were personal ties, and gifts that ought to be accepted still had to be accepted.

Still, after taking the red envelope, he gave a warning.

"Let me make this clear first. I can find a way to help her avoid the nightmare curse, but since the evil god has set its sights on this child, even if we resolve it this time, it may come again later."

Chen Lixing thought for a moment, then suddenly spoke.

"How about this?"

"Let the child stay at my home for now, with my two granddaughters. At least near the temple entrance, she'll have incense offerings protecting her. Once we deal with the evil god, we can discuss what to do afterward."

After giving it some thought, Huang Bai agreed.

"Alright."

Chen Lixing did not seem like a bad person, and if Duo Duo could temporarily leave the orphanage and live with a normal family, that would be good for her too.

As for Li Ruonan, that woman was most likely never getting out in this lifetime.

If Duo Duo and the Chen family were both willing in the future, Huang Bai could even handle the adoption paperwork for Duo Duo.

At that thought, Huang Bai felt a little more at ease.

In this world, Duo Duo was probably the most innocent one. Huang Bai could not bring himself to use a child as bait for an evil god. This was no longer a matter of methods, but of principle.

Since ancient times, sages who cultivated both life and nature might not all have been saints, but at the very least, they would not use innocent children to pave their path.

Seeing Huang Bai agree, Chen Lixing wasted no more time and turned toward the altar.

With a sweep of his hand, he signaled for his disciples to stand in rows on either side. Then, as he murmured an Incantation under his breath and stepped through the celestial patterns of the Dipper, the atmosphere throughout the inner hall abruptly changed.

An unseen power descended once more.

Huang Bai focused his senses. This time, he saw it more clearly.

That power was not yin or evil. Instead, it carried the upright purity and majesty that could only come from incense offerings accumulated over a long time.

The next moment, Chen Lixing's expression stiffened slightly. His features shifted, and a dharma visage of white beneath black patterns faintly emerged across his face.

It was White Crane Boy.

The expressions of several disciples in the temple changed at once.

They could all tell that this was not ordinary borrowed power. A true god had lowered its gaze and manifested a layer of its dharma visage through Chen Lixing's body.

Such a thing was never seen under normal circumstances.

Even with Chen Lixing's deep seniority, inviting a god to descend to this extent required no small price.

Every disciple felt their hearts pound like drums.

What had happened that even White Crane Boy had personally descended?

Borrowing Chen Lixing's body, White Crane Boy slowly turned to look at Huang Bai.

This was the second time he had seen this man.

The first time had been amid the deity parade. Even through the crowd and incense smoke, he had already sensed that something was wrong. Now that they met at close range, that feeling became even clearer.

He could not see through this man's roots and foundation.

White Crane Boy fell silent for a moment before slowly speaking.

"Please come up, fellow Daoist, and let us speak."

With that, he raised a hand and pointed at the wisp of blue smoke before them.

"Fellow Daoist?"

The moment those two words came out, not only the disciples nearby but even Huang Bai himself froze for a moment.

Chen Lixing's disciples exchanged glances, their faces full of shock.

White Crane Boy was calling a temple visitor "fellow Daoist"?

Huang Bai was surprised as well, but he reacted quickly and immediately sent out his divine sense to probe that wisp of blue smoke.

In the next instant, the scene before him abruptly changed.

His divine sense left his body and arrived in a gray, hazy world.

Endless blue smoke surrounded him. Deep within the mist stood a solitary temple.

Before the temple sat a general in white armor, with the head of a crane and the body of a man. Incense smoke curled around him, carrying an indescribable purity and solemnity.

Huang Bai stepped forward and cupped his hands in salute.

"Huang Bai, inheritor of Mount Jinhua, greets the General."

White Crane Boy raised a hand slightly.

"Sit."

Huang Bai sat as instructed. He did not hide anything and directly voiced the question weighing most heavily on his mind.

"May I ask, General, what exactly did you mean by calling me 'fellow Daoist' just now?"

White Crane Boy glanced at him and asked in return.

"No one at Mount Jinhua told you?"

Huang Bai's expression remained unchanged as he replied.

"To be honest, I have had no master or elder to guide me. I merely happened to gain the recognition of Wong Tai Sin's lineage, and for all these years, I have been exploring cultivation alone in the deep mountains. There are many rules I do not understand."

"I see."

White Crane Boy nodded, understanding at last.

Then he explained the reason to Huang Bai.

Huang Bai followed the orthodox path of the ancient Fangshi and had cultivated the divine ability of the soul leaving the body.

To yin gods like White Crane Boy, such a person was completely different from ordinary believers.

In the future, Huang Bai would either continue cultivating and become a Daoist with profound magical power, or after death, naturally become a god and a colleague in the divine path.

No matter which outcome came to pass, he could no longer be regarded as an ordinary person.

After hearing this, Huang Bai felt somewhat moved.

It turned out he had underestimated the weight of this path.

In mythological tales, those Daoists who endured bitter cultivation for decades could often summon gods and rebuke ghosts.

If one cultivated in earnest, a few decades of attainment would make it no surprise to rival ghosts and gods with one or two centuries of cultivation.

White Crane Boy did not dwell on the subject and quickly returned to the main matter.

"Ordinary spirit mediums would be far too hard-pressed to deal with an evil god. Nor can I personally descend into the spirit realm to help you. In the end, you will have to act on your own."

After saying that, he pointed with a finger.

Three balls of light instantly entered Huang Bai's mind.

Huang Bai felt a slight tremor in his head, then immediately understood what they were.

Three talismans.

One for protecting the body, one for warding off evil, and one for confinement.

White Crane Boy continued, "You may also take the temple's shackles dharma artifact with you. With these things, it should be enough to suppress that evil god."

"As for whether you can kill it in the end, that will depend on your own ability."

By using Huang Bai's hand to eliminate the evil god, White Crane Boy would receive a share of the merit no matter how it was counted.

Huang Bai cupped his hands in thanks.

"Many thanks, General."

White Crane Boy said nothing more and merely waved his hand.

The next instant, the blue smoke dispersed.

Huang Bai's divine sense returned to reality as well.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself surrounded.

Several disciples had lit-up eyes as they bombarded him with questions.

"Sir, did you really go to the spirit realm just now?"

"Did you see White Crane Boy? What did he say?"

"Sir, are you the reincarnation of some holy being?"

Seeing his disciples becoming more and more chaotic, Chen Lixing darkened his face and waved them away.

"Go, go, go! What are you crowding around for? Causing trouble?"

"Get the hell out of here."

Only then did the disciples retreat sheepishly.

Chen Lixing looked at Huang Bai, his tone still carrying barely concealed excitement.

"I roughly understand what the god meant."

"Take the dharma artifact. If you need anything else, just say the word."

He had truly taken this matter to heart now.

A Daoist descending from the mountains, wielding a divine artifact to subdue demons and exterminate evil—he had only seen such things in myths before.

He had never expected that one day, he would personally take part in it.

Huang Bai thought for a moment and did not stand on ceremony.

"Then when the time comes, I'll have to ask Master to hold the formation for me."

"No problem." Chen Lixing agreed immediately. "Don't worry. I'll definitely be there."

Over the next few days, Huang Bai directly took ten days of leave and began preparing to deal with the Great Black Buddha Mother.

At dawn, he and Chen Lixing boarded a van and prepared to set off.

Inside the vehicle, Huang Bai held the dharma artifact wrapped in red cloth in his arms, his expression calm.

"The Great Black Buddha Mother is sealed in Chen Family Village. The seal has loosened somewhat in recent years. We'll go take a look directly."

With the three talismans given by White Crane Boy, plus a dharma artifact refined through a century of incense offerings, their odds of success were already considerable.

After hearing this, A Gui, the disciple seated in front, could not help turning around.

"We're going now? So early?"

Chen Lixing raised a hand and smacked him on the forehead.

"Damn it, do we have to pick midnight? Have you watched too many horror movies?"

A Gui clutched his head, his face full of grievance.

"That's not what I meant. I meant, don't we need to make any more preparations?"

Huang Bai had originally been resting with his eyes closed. Hearing this, he suddenly opened them.

"A Gui, turn around."

"We're going to the Triad Gang."

(Please vote with your monthly tickets.)

(Let me say this first: this novel does not have an overly strict power-ranking system. It leans more toward the classical style of strange mechanisms rather than the popular level-based system of today. If one day Huang Bai obtains some spell or dharma artifact and summons White Crane Boy down to do work, that would not be strange.)