Searching for a Yin Entity in Dragon Gate Village

"Cousin, what treasure did that Daoist Mu give you?"

After leaving the dilapidated Universal Cloud Daoist Temple, Rong Tianding was intensely curious about what Daoist Mu had given Zhang Xuezhou so mysteriously.

Judging by the pained look on Daoist Mu's face, it seemed he had handed over something extraordinary.

"I don't know either. He said it could only be used once we saw a yin entity, and it mustn't be opened otherwise, or it wouldn't work when the time came!"

Zhang Xuezhou held a small jar sealed with red cloth. He gave it a slight shake, but couldn't tell what was inside.

Zhang Xuezhou had seen Zou Bugui's Pill Furnace Law Treasure. Its ingenious construction had filled him with envy, and the way it combined water and fire to refine pills was even more astonishing.

It had made Zhang Xuezhou deeply curious about Law Treasures, no less eager to figure them out than Rong Tianding was at that moment.

But since Daoist Mu had said so, Zhang Xuezhou could hardly remove the red cloth now.

"It should work better than pig's blood," Zhang Xuezhou added.

"What was written in that old Daoist's animal-skin book?" Rong Tianding asked with considerable interest.

"Those were the insights into catching ghosts he's gathered over the years," Zhang Xuezhou said with a sigh. "It's just that he never mastered a single one."

"He never mastered any of them, but he still has insights?"

For a moment, Rong Tianding found such insights hard to understand.

Zhang Xuezhou, meanwhile, gestured from time to time, repeatedly changing the flow of Law Power inside him as he tried to use the Yin Entity Tracking Technique smoothly.

Since Zhang Xuezhou had felt comfortable giving Daoist Mu the Yin Entity Tracking Technique, it naturally couldn't have been very profound.

And Daoist Mu knew the hidden dangers of the Technique well, so he had never cultivated it.

With no relevant learning experience to exchange, Zhang Xuezhou could only try his luck and see whether he could master it before he needed it.

He was only clasping the Buddha's feet at the last minute, but after circulating the Yin Entity Tracking Technique several times, Zhang Xuezhou felt he had managed to hold on.

Inside his body, fine strands of Law Power wound continuously around thirteen acupoints and touched another thirty-two minor acupoints. When Zhang Xuezhou extended a finger, a black shadow immediately emerged from it.

Zhang Xuezhou could also faintly hear a hissing sound, like that of a snake.

As Law Power continued to circulate, the black shadow began twisting its body, constantly turning and adjusting as though searching for a direction.

"It seems to use Law Power to imitate the presence of a yin entity, then compare it against what it finds. Once it identifies a target, it points the way!"

Looking at the shadow winding around his finger, Zhang Xuezhou felt that its presence was somewhat similar to that of the resentful, white-clad female hanged ghost from the other day.

He also understood another reason why Daoist Mu had not cultivated the Yin Entity Tracking Technique.

For Daoist Mu, whose main focus was raising a hanged ghost, even if he mastered the Yin Entity Tracking Technique, it would always lock onto the hanged ghost at his side, leaving little chance of it pointing anywhere else.

It was no wonder Daoist Mu had gone to Dragon Gate Village at Ten-Li Slope and performed rites, yet still failed to identify the yin entity's hiding place.

If the hanged ghost the Daoist priest raised hadn't died, I'm afraid this Yin Entity Tracking Technique would lead me straight to the Universal Cloud Daoist Temple!

Zhang Xuezhou fell into thought.

He walked on with the others, carefully maintaining his Law Power and continuing to rely on the Yin Entity Tracking Technique to search for the yin entity.

Only when his vision began to darken did Zhang Xuezhou swiftly end the Technique and look up at the village drawing ever closer.

"We've finally reached Dragon Gate Village. This lousy place is so far away, and the road here is hard to travel too!"

Rong Tianding, who was making his first long journey, had lost his earlier liveliness. His head drooped as he voiced one complaint after another.

"It's only twenty li. Li Erlang has to make several round trips every day," Rong Li said with a frown.

"It's not an easy road. Buying pigs is much harder on him than slaughtering them is on us," Rong Tianding said with a sigh. "He works so hard. How about giving him a raise?"

"Young master..."

Li Erlang, who had put the pig's blood in place beforehand and come to welcome them, immediately teared up. He had always thought Rong Tianding was carefree and thoughtless, but this show of consideration warmed his heart. He felt that everyone would have a good life only if Rong Tianding abandoned that lousy painting stall and hurried back to inherit the family's pig-slaughtering trade.

"I'll take you to see those pig farmers in a little while!"

Rong Li did not agree directly, instead changing the subject to something else.

At that, Li Erlang, who had been thinking about a raise, quickly laughed it off and declared that he was used to the work and didn't find it hard.

Snakes had their paths, and rats had theirs. He might look miserable rushing back and forth every day, but there were plenty of tricks to buying pigs, with all sorts of room to fiddle the weights and drive down prices.

That was also the main reason he had kept working for Rong Li for more than ten years.

His wages weren't high, but the profits he skimmed from buying pigs were substantial, and he had extra income coming in almost every day.

When Li Erlang fiddled the weights and drove down prices, he never considered whether the pig farmers had it harder. He thought only of how every extra coin he squeezed out would go into his own pocket.

A jolt went through his head, and he felt the little grievances he had harbored in the past vanish completely.

Hearing that Rong Li wanted to take Rong Tianding to see the pigs, Li Erlang quickly pointed the way.

"Master Rong, you've come a long way. You should rest your feet first. I paid the village chief thirty coins for two large shared sleeping platforms. Why don't we look at where we'll be staying, then ask the villagers how to resolve the young master's problem?"

"All right."

Rong Li nodded.

Compared with letting Rong Tianding learn to recognize pigs in the countryside so he wouldn't be cheated by pig buyers in the future, sparing him a beating with the rod was clearly more important right now.

As she walked through Dragon Gate Village, Rong Li noticed curious looks directed at them and saw some children with paintings of immortals hanging from their waists.

Her heart grew heavy.

The Rong Household had fought others many times to dominate the East Market as its sole slaughtering business, but it had never cheated or deceived anyone or given short weight. The money it earned was clean.

And now, Rong Li felt Rong Tianding shouldn't be earning this kind of money.

She felt that studying and painting under Jia Zhiyuan had led Rong Tianding's heart astray, which only strengthened her conviction that he must slaughter pigs and inherit the family trade.

"Everyone in the village seemed to be talking about a ghost as we came through. Where is this ghost they're talking about?" Rong Li asked quietly.

"That Wang Fu'an ran into the water ghost over by the Dragon Gate River. The ghost should be over there!"

Li Erlang pointed in the direction, but his finger couldn't help trembling. He felt that pointing the way was all he could do; he didn't want to go over there and investigate at all.

He led them to the room with the large sleeping platforms provided by the village chief, but Rong Li had little interest in it.

After a cursory look at the place, she drew the pig-slaughtering knife at her waist and strode out the door.

"Mother! Wait for me!"

Rong Tianding rubbed his feet, then followed her.

"At least rest a while before looking for that ghost!"

Jia Zhiyuan was in even worse physical shape than Rong Tianding. After walking twenty li, he didn't even feel like talking.

He had barely warmed his seat when he saw Rong Li rushing off to investigate the place where the water ghost was. He felt he could hardly keep up with that woman's pace.

"Don't worry, Uncle. Ghosts and yin entities rarely appear during the day," Zhang Xuezhou said. "We should ask around among the villagers and see if anyone knows anything about this water ghost!"

"All right."

After a word of persuasion from Zhang Xuezhou, Jia Zhiyuan felt much more at ease.

Rong Li was impetuous and skilled at fighting and killing, while he was more attentive to detail. He could talk with the people of Dragon Gate Village and see whether he could obtain more comprehensive information than Li Erlang had given them.

The group divided the work, and each had somewhere to go.