Evil spirit

After the queen left, she went straight to Li Zheng to complain.

To her surprise, not only did Li Zheng refuse to take her side, he unleashed a torrent of abuse on her, accusing her of mistreating the ninth princess.

Then Li Zheng personally ordered the cancellation of the ninth princess's lessons in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Only her morning exercises remained, and once those were finished, she could play however she liked.

The great stone weighing on Li Ling'er's heart fell away, and she enjoyed herself even more freely.

Every day, she clung to Xu Changshou, calling "Brother Changshou" at every turn, clearly treating him as the person closest to her.

Happy times always passed quickly.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

King Li Zheng paid a visit and told Xu Changshou that they would be honoring their ancestors the following day.

The next day.

Li Xiaoxian and Li Zheng took Li Ling'er straight to the imperial mausoleum, accompanied by a grand procession of attendants.

Before long, they arrived at the Eastern Suburbs Imperial Mausoleum.

At the entrance to the royal ancestral hall, Li Xiaoxian motioned for Li Zheng to take Li Ling'er inside.

According to royal rules, the women of the Li Household were not entitled to enter the ancestral hall. But Li Ling'er had awakened a spiritual root, and her status had changed enormously. Perhaps the Li Household would have to rely on her for the next several hundred years.

Under such circumstances, they naturally had to let Li Ling'er enter the ancestral hall so she would remember the bonds of kinship binding her to the Li Household.

After the two entered, Li Xiaoxian cupped his hands slightly toward Xu Changshou and said with a smile, "Junior Brother Xu, my apologies. No outsider has ever entered our Li Household's ancestral hall, so..."

Xu Changshou smiled. "I understand. I'll wait outside."

Beside the ancestral hall stood a side hall. Li Xiaoxian pointed at it and smiled. "Junior Brother Xu, it's noisy out here. Why don't you wait in that side hall? Once we've finished honoring our ancestors, we'll head back together."

"Very well!" Xu Changshou nodded slightly.

"Please follow me, Junior Brother Xu!"

Li Xiaoxian led Xu Changshou into the side hall, then went to the ancestral hall next door.

Xu Changshou was left alone in the side hall.

Xu Changshou looked around. A golden statue stood in the room, its features bearing a seventy- to eighty-percent resemblance to Li Zheng. Below the statue was a memorial tablet.

A line of small characters on the tablet read: Tomb of my late father, Li Xiaoming.

Upon reading the inscription, Xu Changshou immediately understood that Li Zheng had erected this tablet for his father. The statue must also depict Li Zheng's father.

Xu Changshou felt somewhat puzzled. Since the Li Household's ancestral hall was right next door, why hadn't Li Zheng's tablet been placed there? Why was it in this side hall instead?

Whatever. This is the Li Household's business. What's it got to do with me?

Xu Changshou shook his head slightly, sat cross-legged on a cushion, and closed his eyes to meditate.

But the moment he closed his eyes, something strange happened. Xu Changshou felt someone watching him.

The sensation left Xu Changshou feeling as though needles were pricking his back.

He hurriedly opened his eyes. Once he did, the feeling of being watched disappeared.

It was as though that scrutiny had merely been an illusion.

He looked around the side hall, inspecting everything in turn: the golden statue, the offering table, the memorial tablet, and the cushions.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Xu Changshou steadied himself, then closed his eyes and resumed meditating.

The instant he closed his eyes, the feeling of being watched returned.

Hiss-

Cold sweat suddenly broke out over Xu Changshou. He felt as though a venomous snake had fixed its gaze on him.

It was no illusion. With his cultivation at this level, he could not possibly be imagining things.

Even mortals had intuition, let alone cultivators. Xu Changshou was certain there was something in this room.

What was it?

Xu Changshou opened his eyes, his nerves instantly taut, and inspected everything in the room again.

Several cushions and an offering table, with offerings and a memorial tablet arranged on top.

None of these things seemed to have any problems.

Could it be... that golden statue?

Xu Changshou abruptly raised his head and met the golden statue's gaze. Suddenly, he saw a savage look flash through its pupils.

Xu Changshou shook his head and examined the golden statue carefully again, but found nothing unusual. That savage look was nowhere to be seen.

There must be something inside this golden statue.

Xu Changshou speculated inwardly, but did not dare probe the golden statue with his spiritual sense.

Leave!

Xu Changshou stood up. Of the thirty-six stratagems, retreat was the best.

Whatever was inside that golden statue, it had nothing to do with him.

"Heh heh heh. Fellow Daoist, since you're here, why be in such a hurry to leave?"

A sinister voice suddenly rang out in the room.

"Who's there?"

Xu Changshou gave a violent start. With a thought, a Soul-Seizing Talisman appeared in his hand.

The voice confirmed Xu Changshou's suspicions. There really was something here, most likely a spirit body.

A spirit body was a body formed of the soul.

As far as Xu Changshou knew, spirit bodies existed in three forms.

The first was when a Foundation Establishment cultivator was killed and his spirit body escaped.

Only a Foundation Establishment cultivator's spirit body could escape. If a Qi Refining cultivator's physical body died, his spirit body would immediately perish with it.

However, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator's spirit body could not exist for long. It had to find a physical body to possess as quickly as possible, or its soul would soon scatter of its own accord.

The second consisted of wandering ghosts, spirits that had not reincarnated.

However, the second kind was too weak to speak and did not dare appear during the day.

This spirit body probably was not the second kind.

There was another kind of spirit body called an evil spirit. These had originally been cultivators whose lifespans were exhausted, their oil nearly spent and their lamps about to go out.

To extend their lives, they would stop at nothing to practice evil arts, clinging to existence through methods that defied heaven.

After their physical bodies died, their spirit bodies would exist as evil spirits.

The price of remaining alive was horrifying. They had to devour living souls to nourish themselves and prolong their existence.

Such evil spirits also had a chance to cultivate anew, likewise through possession.

Possession?

Something seemed to occur to Xu Changshou.

From the moment Li Dao Path had asked him to escort the person with the variant spiritual root, he had suspected that Li Dao Path had an ulterior motive.

Given his cultivation and strength, he was not a good choice to escort someone with a variant spiritual root back to the sect. A stronger senior brother could easily have been chosen.

Only now did Xu Changshou understand why Li Dao Path had not sent those senior brothers.

Even Yang Bailao, the youngest of the senior brothers on Green Ink Peak, was already in his fifties. They were utterly unsuitable targets for possession.

It seemed Xu Changshou was the only suitable target on Green Ink Peak. He alone was in the prime of youth.

Of course, this was only Xu Changshou's suspicion. Perhaps Li Dao Path knew nothing about it.

However, the likelihood of Li Dao Path knowing nothing was very low. After all, if this golden statue depicted Li Zheng's father, then it also depicted Li Dao Path's own son.

Suddenly.

A mass of black mist blocked Xu Changshou's path. It writhed incessantly, the outline of a face visible within it, with boundless savagery where its pupils should have been.

"Young friend, let this old man devour you. Heh heh heh. Once I've eaten you, I can walk the path of immortal cultivation again."

Whoosh-

With those words, the black mist lunged straight at Xu Changshou.

It moved so fast that Xu Changshou had no time to react.

The next instant, the black mist burrowed straight into the space between Xu Changshou's eyebrows.

"Aah!"

Xu Changshou cried out in pain, his eyes alternating between lucidity and savagery.