Corpse Demon Taisui and the Mysteries of Daoist Arts

Chapter 8: The Profundity of Daoist Arts, Corpse Demon Taisui

"Woof, woof woof!"

A young man in a brocade short-sleeve could be seen leading a half-man-high large yellow dog, making quite a spectacle on the dock jetty not far away.

The youth was around twenty years old, and his walking posture was extremely arrogant, eager to look down at people through his nostrils.

"All of you fucking make way, are you blind?"

The porters and vendors around saw this person like mice seeing a cat, shrinking their necks and dodging to both sides, afraid of being too late to avoid him.

"It's Huang Shendu of the Yellow Dog Gang..."

"Shh, keep it down. This is the only seedling of Second Master Huang, and that dog is said to have eaten human flesh. It's fierce."

Huang Shendu seemed to thoroughly enjoy this feeling of being feared, whistling proudly as he led the drooling vicious dog, swaggering toward Li Xiang's direction like a male lion patrolling its territory.

"Yo, isn't this little Li who sews skin for corpses? How did you change professions to become a quack?"

Huang Shendu walked up to the stall and looked down at Li Xiang from on high, the large yellow dog baring its teeth and barking furiously.

Lin Xuanguang, standing to the side, could no longer take it.

As a disciple of an orthodox school, he possessed a heavy youthful temperament and most despised bullies who used power to oppress others, especially since this beast dared to bare its teeth at him.

"Daring to bare teeth, you're asking for a beating!"

Lin Xuanguang kept his left hand behind his back, quickly forming an incantation gesture as his lips moved slightly, and a faint light imperceptible to ordinary people flashed across his fingertips and vanished.

"Swift!"

Following a low shout, his finger pointed stealthily into the void toward Huang Shendu's knee.

Huang Shendu, who was extremely proud and preparing to let the dog out to scare people, suddenly felt his knee bend as if pierced fiercely by a needle, and immediately his legs went soft, losing all sensation.

"Aiyo, fuck!"

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, this young master of the Yellow Dog Gang bowed deeply as if performing a grand courtesy, hitting the ground with both knees with a thump, and then face-planting squarely, taking a solid tumble of eating dog shit.

And that was not the end of it.

The large yellow dog was startled by its master's sudden tumble, and in its panic, it actually bit down hard on Huang Shendu's backside.

"Ah... dog brother, dog ge, dead dog, let go, aiyo... my backside."

Pig-slaughtering screams resounded through the dock.

The surrounding commoners held back their laughter, some turning around with trembling shoulders, clearly enduring it with great difficulty.

Li Xiang's eyes lit up instantly.

This was a Daoist art?

This was the ability of the [Daoist] profession?

Without any physical contact, just a hand seal and an incantation, he could make a sturdy bully make a fool of himself in public.

Book of a Hundred Trades, I want to practice this one.

However.

The Book of a Hundred Trades can let me master a hundred trades, but mysterious techniques like this—if I don't enter a sect, I'm afraid I'll never come into contact with them in this lifetime. Li Xiang secretly noted this in his heart, feeling a bit more yearning for that mysterious Daoist art.

It was a pity that Daoist arts emphasized affinity and inheritance, which were hard to come by and could not be forced. Learning martial arts was much simpler instead; as the martial arts center of the North, Tianjin had martial arts halls teaching martial arts in every slightly larger county town.

"Xuanguang!"

Lin Xuanshu also could not stomach this bully, but those who practiced the Dao should not stir up anger blindly; casually attacking ordinary people would damage one's karmic virtue.

"Senior brother, I just can't stand that look on his face. If I didn't strike, this breath in my chest wouldn't go smooth, and if it's not smooth, my Dao Heart becomes unstable. So this strike today was to validate the Dao."

Lin Xuanguang stuck out his tongue and withdrew his incantation gesture.

Lin Xuanshu looked at Li Xiang. "Forgive us for letting the fellow Daoist see a joke."

He continued, "My junior brother and I will not disturb you any longer. This peace talisman is presented to the fellow Daoist as forging a good affinity."

As he spoke, he fished out a yellow talisman folded into a triangle from his bosom and placed it on Li Xiang's table.

"Farewell."

The two carried Peachwood Swords on their backs, their figures ethereal as they walked quickly toward the Blackwater Pool in the north.

Li Xiang watched their departing backs, then looked at the yellow talisman on the table that was faintly radiating warmth.

"Blackwater Pool... a sign of great ominousness..."

He shook his head and packed up the yellow talisman and his stall.

"Screw whatever Zombie King or no Zombie King, when the sky falls there are tall people to prop it up. I'd better hurry home, lock the door, and sleep, getting ready to head to Linjiang County tomorrow."

That night.

The northern outskirts of the Blackwater Ancient Town.

There were no chirping insects here, no sound of wind, terrifyingly dead and silent. A strong stench of corruption pervaded the air, and even the moonlight turned pale white upon shining down here.

That legendary Blackwater Pool looked like a boiling cauldron at that moment.

"Glub... Glub..."

The ink-thick pool water churned endlessly, and fist-sized bubbles ruptured one after another, releasing sickening black smoke.

"Junior Brother, run!"

A cry of shock and anger shattered the dead silence.

Only to see a figure fly backward out of the pool water like a kite with a broken string, crashing into a withered old locust tree.

"Pfft!"

Lin Xuanshu opened his mouth and spewed a large mouthful of fresh blood, staining the Daoist robe at his chest red and fulfilling Li Xiang's omen that a fatal calamity had arrived.

"This thing... this thing is not a Jiangshi!"

The Peachwood Sword in his hand had already snapped into two pieces, and his originally lean and handsome face was now as pale as paper, the ball of black Qi at his glabella growing even more intense to the extreme.

Meanwhile, not far away from him, Lin Xuanguang was holding a compass, bearing injuries, and bitterly holding up a golden light barrier.

"Roar—!"

In the Blackwater Pool, a massive dark shadow slowly rose.

That was not a human shape, but a monster forcibly kneaded together from countless rotting limbs, shattered coffins, and pitch-black silt, its body entangled with rust-stained chains, the end of every single chain locking a painfully wailing grievance-filled spirit.

This was a monster mutated due to "profession backlash"—the Corpse Demon Taisui.

It was not a Jiangshi, but a collection of resentment.

"Maoshan little brats don't know the rules, even daring to barge into Old Ancestor's territory. Truly courting death."

The monster's belly split open into a huge mouth, emitting a piercing roar, and countless black tentacles blasted out like long spears, instantly shattering Lin Xuanguang's protective golden light.

"It's over!"

Lin Xuanguang closed his eyes in despair.

Right at this critical juncture.

"Vile creature, how dare you harm my disciple!"

A thunderous roar descended from the sky.

Immediately following, a dazzling golden light cut through the night sky, resembling a falling meteor, carrying mighty pure Yang Qi and slamming into the monster's body.

"Boom—!"

The overbearing Corpse Demon Taisui emitted a shrill, miserable scream, its massive torso directly blasted into pieces by this single strike, countless black mud and residual limbs scattering in all directions.

It glanced at the sky, not daring to entangle in battle at all, and with a splash drilled back into the depths of the pool water, never daring to poke its head out again.

The dust and smoke dispersed.

A middle-aged Daoist wearing a bright yellow Taiji Daoist robe and an Eight Trigrams headscarf stood with his hands behind his back atop a huge boulder by the pool, Dao rhythm flowing all over his body, resembling an immortal being.

"Master!"

Lin Xuanguang and Lin Xuanshu, having survived the disaster, saw clearly who had arrived and were overjoyed, paying no heed to their injuries as they hurriedly knelt down on the ground.

"Disciples pay respects to Master!"

The newcomer was precisely their master, Lin Shouzhen, ranking sixth among the Shou generation of Maoshan, whom the juniors all called Sixth Uncle.

However, the anticipated care did not arrive.

Lin Shouzhen turned around, his sharp and spirited eyes now full of anger, and he walked quickly in front of the two disciples, giving each of them a rap on the head.

"Ow!"

"You two rebellious disciples, and you still have the face to call me Master?!"

Lin Shouzhen was so angry his beard and hair fluttered, pointing at their noses and cursing, "Master told you to go down the mountain for experiential training, and by the way hand that newly baleful-intent-rising Female Jiangshi over to the Tianjin warlords.

Look at you two, the business was indeed done, but take a look at what you sold?!"

Lin Xuanshu and Lin Xuanguang clutched their heads with bewildered expressions.

"Master... wasn't it you who said to hand the coffin in the back mountain over to the northern warlords, and isn't that Female Jiangshi the one packed inside it?" Lin Xuanguang said with a wronged expression.

"Bulls**t!" Lin Shouzhen trembled with anger, "What you dug up was our Maoshan Patriarch, while that Female Jiangshi's coffin was on the neighboring... neighboring mountain. You went to the wrong place and dug up the wrong grave."

"What?!"

Lin Xuanguang was struck as if by lightning, his face losing all color in an instant.

"It's over... That was the Patriarch?"

Lin Xuanshu's voice trembled as he remembered that he had actually sold the Patriarch with his own hands, feeling his vision go dark and almost fainting once more.

Lin Shouzhen flicked his sleeve, full of frustration at their failure to meet expectations. "Speak, where is the Patriarch right now?!"

Lin Xuanshu and Lin Xuanguang looked ashen, pointing toward the direction of Tianjin.

"Master, we thought she was an ordinary female jiang, and according to... according to your instructions, we handed her over to that military officer named Wang Shuo."

"That Wang Shuo said he wanted to transport the coffin to Tianjin to present it to the Great Marshal, and give it to the foreign devils for slicing and research."

"Right now, right now they're probably already at Linjiang County, getting ready to ship him off to Tianjin."

Dead silence.

A dead silence hung over the Blackwater Pool.

Lin Shouzhen's expression froze, and that hand raised mid-air remained suspended for a long, long time without coming down.

"Rebellious disciple... What a rebellious disciple!" Lin Shouzhen roared up at the sky, his voice filled with a grief and fury that knew no bounds.

"If the Patriarch gets sliced up and studied by those foreign devils, I'll refine both of you into living corpses and burn you at the stake!"