Yin Entity Tracking Technique

"The human body has 354 acupoints and another 1,062 subsidiary points. Every technique uses a different set of acupoints and subsidiary points. When you cultivate a technique of the Corpse Jiao Sect, the acupoints through which it guides Law Power will surely differ from the direction of your previous Realm Entry, but it doesn't hurt to have a few extra tricks up your sleeve!"

When danger struck and one lacked a suitable technique, even someone with profound cultivation would be left in a sorry state.

It was no different from sending a carpenter to compete in a poetry contest. An outstanding carpenter would most likely fare worse than an ordinary scholar.

Every trade had its specialty.

Even if Zhang Xuezhou's cultivation were stronger still, without a suitable technique, he would be willing but powerless when dealing with Yin entities.

Daoist Mu could not help feeling a little sorrowful as he made his recommendation. He had lacked a few tricks up his sleeve himself, leaving him helpless when he was trapped in Zhang Xuezhou's body. By the time he thought to try making the hanged ghost hang himself again, Rong Li and the others had begun pounding on the door.

He had been forced to use the ghostly wall trick against Rong Li and the others, but after a standoff lasting half the night, Zhang Xuezhou had woken up.

What happened afterward was too painful to look back on, and he had no wish to revisit that pain of body and mind.

"Is there a way to make ghosts come out during the day?"

Zhang Xuezhou looked at the Ashes-to-Ashes Annihilation Technique in the Corpse Jiao Canon and felt that it would make short work of ghosts, but he could not go looking for ghosts to kill at night.

Like a newborn calf unafraid of tigers, he figured a professional would be better at killing ghosts than a butcher like Rong Li. He was not particularly afraid of Yin entities; instead, he was thinking of catching a ghost for a look, to see just how ghosts differed from people.

Compared with techniques that destroyed Yin entities, Zhang Xuezhou felt he would be more interested in techniques for finding, controlling, and imprisoning them.

Zhang Xuezhou also preferred things a little simpler. Although the Ashes-to-Ashes Annihilation Technique was incomplete, it was an advanced Technique Method of the Corpse Jiao Sect, with too much content he could not make sense of.

As a beginner who had been lucky enough to enter cultivation, Zhang Xuezhou lacked too much systematic knowledge, leaving him with a very limited range of choices.

He could only choose a technique that guided Realm Entry in a direction similar to the Yin-Yang Nine Heavens Great Compassion Incantation, or one whose Law Power circulation pattern resembled that of the Supreme Purity True Technique.

Only if a technique was close to one of those two could he avoid making mistakes when cultivating it.

Daoist Mu had never cultivated these techniques himself, so Zhang Xuezhou could not possibly ask him for guidance.

That left Zhang Xuezhou leafing through the Corpse Jiao Canon again and again.

"If you need a technique for finding Yin entities, you could look at this Yin Entity Tracking Technique," Daoist Mu recommended. "But this tracking technique has one enormous flaw. You must be extremely careful when you use it!"

"A flaw?" Zhang Xuezhou asked in surprise.

"Every technique has flaws," Daoist Mu replied helplessly. "It's just that the flaw in this Yin Entity Tracking Technique is a little bigger. It can indeed find Yin entities, but what you find might not match what you're looking for!"

"Not match?"

"For example, you might want to find a minor ghost, only to follow the technique's directions straight into a fierce ghost's lair!"

"Oh... I see!"

Zhang Xuezhou nodded.

"Several of my senior brothers died just like that, without knowing what hit them," Daoist Mu said with a sigh.

"That's enough to break a listener's heart and bring tears to a hearer's eyes!"

Zhang Xuezhou tossed out the remark, but he did read the technique, which had a relatively low threshold, several times.

Only after committing the Yin Entity Tracking Technique to memory did Zhang Xuezhou turn to another page.

But after flipping back and forth several times, Zhang Xuezhou felt he had found no suitable technique for dealing with enemies.

Many of the techniques were either difficult to cultivate because he could not make sense of the relevant material, or had serious flaws and were all head and no tail. Some could not even be cultivated from the beginning.

Daoist Mu's copy of the Corpse Jiao Canon seemed to record more than thirty techniques, but very few could actually be cultivated in earnest. Only techniques like Yin Entity Tracking, which might send one to one's death, were relatively complete.

Zhang Xuezhou could not help remarking to himself how well Daoist Mu's senior brothers and sisters had looked after their junior. If he cultivated carelessly, he would not even know how he had been tricked to death.

"We have a way to find ghosts, but no way to catch them!"

Zhang Xuezhou and Daoist Mu had been muttering together for more than ten minutes. Even Zhang Xuezhou could not understand the techniques in the Corpse Jiao Canon, much less Rong Tianding and the others, who had gathered to watch the excitement.

To them all, it sounded as though Daoist Mu were explaining a heavenly book.

Even Jia Zhiyuan found that, though he recognized most of the characters, he could not understand them once they were strung together.

None of them had encountered cultivation or crossed its threshold, so this was undoubtedly difficult for them to understand.

Once Zhang Xuezhou spoke, everyone began asking questions at once.

"Daoist, you're teaching us to find ghosts but not how to deal with them. If ghosts kill us, Lord Bao will definitely have you seized and beaten with the rod," the quick-tongued Rong Tianding said. "That rod is thick! Ten strokes would beat the piss and shit out of me. With your build, you'd be beaten straight to death!"

"Lord Bao?" Daoist Mu asked in surprise. "If ghosts harm you, will I be held responsible too?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Rong Tianding nodded repeatedly. "That's how we got dragged into this. Lord Bao was going to give me ten strokes. If any of us are injured or killed, we can go to the yamen and cry injustice. Following that precedent, you won't escape ten strokes either!"

"..."

For a moment, Daoist Mu was speechless.

He had known all along that Rong Tianding's sale of the painting would cause trouble, but he had not expected it so soon. And while teaching Rong Tianding a lesson, he had ended up in trouble himself first.

No one had benefited from this business of selling a fake painting.

If they kept tangling with one another, Daoist Mu felt this bunch would be the death of him.

"Is Lord Bao also certain there's a Yin entity in Dragon Gate Village?" Daoist Mu asked.

"He told us to catch the ghost, so he must be sure, right?" Zhang Xuezhou said, tilting his head.

"Normally, when the county yamen confirms that a place is troubled by Yin entities, it will certainly invite an appropriate practitioner to clear away the baleful presence," Daoist Mu said. "If it were just a minor ghost causing a little mischief, Lord Bao would usually send this humble Daoist to take care of it. Now that I think about it, I'm afraid the Yin entity in Dragon Gate Village is beyond what I can handle!"

Daoist Mu had received no word from the county yamen at Universal Cloud Daoist Temple. His thoughts began to wander, and he repeatedly urged Zhang Xuezhou and the others to take care and not fall victim to the Yin entity.

"Don't worry. As long as every last one of us dies there, you definitely won't be dragged into it," Zhang Xuezhou assured him.

"What do you mean?"

Daoist Mu was bewildered for several seconds before he immediately came to his senses.

He had never seen people so eager to court death.

But with an order from the county yamen, this bunch would probably have to go whether they wanted to or not.

Before reaching a dead end, no one believed in evil, especially a butcher like Rong Li the pig-slaughtering woman, who feared neither ghosts nor evil spirits.

Rong Li had found a whetstone and was now grinding away haphazardly a short distance off, seemingly preparing to slaughter the Yin entity like a pig.

The chance for ordinary iron to kill a Yin entity lasted only an instant. With Rong Li's abilities, killing a ghost would be rather difficult.

Looking at Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding playing a double act before him, Daoist Mu felt he had been struck by terrible luck lately. He was already caught in a snowstorm and had no desire for another layer of frost.

"Actually, I do have another treasure here!"

He wrestled with the painful thought for several seconds, hoping only that this bunch could take the treasure and return safely with the county yamen's cooperation, sparing him from being caught up in the disaster.