Chen Shi didn't respond at first, but suddenly spoke up, "There's an evil spirit nearby. How can you still dare to come close?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the crowd around him quickly dispersed.
"Move further away."
The people retreated even more.
Chen Shi took out an incense stick, lit it, and placed it at the feet of the grey-clad rat spirit. He asked, "You're from out of town, right? Which mountain do you come from?"
The grey-clad rat spirit sniffed the incense, looking pleased, and said, "How do you know I'm not from Heavenly Yang Mountain?"
Chen Shi smiled, "I'm very familiar with Heavenly Yang Mountain. I've seen all kinds of evil spirits there, but I've never seen you. Are you a rat that turned into an evil spirit?"
The grey-clad rat spirit replied, "I am under the Black Mountain Granny's command, residing at Black Mountain. I was just passing by today and heard there was a demon disturbance here. Granny said if too many fellow spirits died, we might move here."
Chen Shi frowned slightly. Black Mountain is on the other side of Virtue River and is much smaller than Heavenly Yang Mountain.
The evil spirits of Black Mountain and Heavenly Yang Mountain usually don't interfere with each other. This grey-clad rat spirit must have thought many spirits died during the demon disturbance and came to take over.
"So, you're from Black Mountain Granny's group. I've heard of her reputation."
Chen Shi's expression softened, and he smiled, "Could you please pass a message to Black Mountain Granny for me? Just say..."
The grey-clad rat spirit was listening intently when Chen Shi suddenly stepped forward and punched it. The rat spirit couldn't dodge in time and, unable to fight back, raised its tail, the tip reaching Chen Shi's head!
A thunderous sound echoed in its ears, and before Chen Shi's fist even landed on its body, its spirit was shattered!
"Bang!"
Chen Shi's punch hit its chin, twisting the grey-clad rat spirit's neck like a pretzel. Its body spun and flew several meters away, twitching a few times before lying still.
But before Chen Shi's punch hit it, the thunderous sound had already killed it.
These low-level evil spirits are most afraid of thunderous sounds.
When there's a thunderstorm, they have to hide, or they'll be killed by the thunder.
Despite the pain of losing his grandfather, Chen Shi trained day and night. His strength in the Seven Northern Dipper Refinement, including bones, heart, blood, flesh, skin, qi, and spirit, grew stronger. The thunderous sound from his punches and kicks became louder, capable of shocking souls.
His thunderous punches and kicks weren't spells, but they were just as effective.
"Did you pay your respects before trying to settle on my Heavenly Yang Mountain?"
Chen Shi scolded, suddenly feeling sleepy. He closed his eyes with a smile and fell asleep standing.
Suddenly, he woke up, feeling a chill down his spine.
Even though he struck first, the grey-clad rat spirit's tail tip had touched his head, causing him to fall into a deep sleep!
This strange technique was something he had never encountered before!
"This evil spirit is unusual! It knows spells!"
Chen Shi stepped forward to the grey-clad rat spirit. Suddenly, there was a popping sound from its clothing, and a paper talisman burned up.
In the firelight, Chen Shi clearly saw that the paper talisman was an Invisibility Talisman.
Drawing an Invisibility Talisman is extremely complicated and must be done on clam shell paper.
Making clam shell paper is also troublesome.
Clams are known for their ability to hide, spitting out illusions to conceal their true form.
A clam that lives a thousand years becomes a mythical creature.
The shell is ground into powder, mixed with pulp, and dried into paper, becoming clam shell paper.
Then, using cinnabar and black dog blood, the script is written with orders from the Three Pure Ones, along with the names "Rain Cheng," "Rain Hu," and "Rain Qing," representing three immortals. Below are hidden scripts of the Big Dipper and three trigrams, along with a jade ring.
Not many talisman masters know how to draw Invisibility Talismans. Chen Shi and his grandfather had never encountered such a master while selling talismans around Heavenly Yang Mountain.
But this rat spirit, turned evil, carried an Invisibility Talisman, which was quite strange.
"What kind of figure is Black Mountain Granny? Why can her rat carry such a precious Invisibility Talisman? Why do evil spirits know spells?"
Chen Shi was puzzled.
At this moment, the man who had his arm bitten off woke up, holding his hand and crying in pain before fainting again.
Chen Shi quickly had him taken to a doctor to save his life.
As for the grey-clad rat spirit, it didn't dissolve into blood after death; its body remained, piquing Chen Shi's curiosity.
When he and Li Tianqing killed the Silk-Pulling Insect, it turned into foul-smelling blood, but the grey-clad rat spirit was different.
"How strange. Are there different kinds of evil spirits?"
Chen Shi took out paper and pen, drawing the grey-clad rat spirit's features, especially its tail, with great detail.
Next to the drawing, he noted the characteristics of this evil spirit and its weakness to thunderous sounds.
"A Thunder Talisman can destroy it."
Chen Shi put away his pen, blew on the wet ink to dry it, and stored it in his book. Then he took out a small knife, cut off the grey-clad rat spirit's tail, and examined it closely.
The tip of the rat's tail seemed tempered, or perhaps naturally, appearing like red jade, both crystal clear and soft.
Chen Shi used the tail tip on his own head, pressing a few times, and suddenly fell asleep, a strange smile on his face.
After a moment, he woke up, startled, looking at the rat's tail tip.
Nearby, Heiguo rolled his eyes, thinking his young master was being foolish, experimenting on himself.
Realizing he shouldn't use himself for experiments, Chen Shi used the rat's tail tip to massage Heiguo's head. Heiguo stuck out his tongue, limbs stiff, and fell asleep soundly.
"This thing is a treasure!"
Chen Shi was amazed, thinking, "I can sell this to city folks with insomnia. Someone will surely pay a high price! I wonder if there are more evil spirits like this on Black Mountain. I could get more."
Heiguo woke up and quickly moved away from him.
Chen Shi returned to the village to continue selling talismans. As evening approached, just as he was about to pack up, someone rushed over, saying, "Talisman Master Chen, Talisman Master Chen! We have an evil spirit problem too. Please come quickly!"
Chen Shi asked, "What's going on? Don't rush, tell me slowly."
The person caught his breath, drank some water offered by someone nearby, and said, "Cui'e from our village is pregnant, her belly big. She's due soon. Everything was fine, but her husband insisted on listening to her belly. He heard two people talking inside."
Chen Shi was startled. People talking inside a pregnant woman's belly?
"There were two adult voices, one older, around forty or fifty, and the other younger, a woman, but around thirty."
The person said, "How can there be voices in a pregnant woman's belly? It must be an evil spirit!"
Chen Shi immediately jumped onto a wooden cart, pulling the person up, saying, "Hold on tight. Heiguo, you too!"
Heiguo jumped onto the cart, and Chen Shi activated the Armored Horse Talisman on the wheels. The cart, which had been moving slowly, suddenly sped up, racing out of the village like a galloping horse.
"Which village?" Chen Shi shouted.
The person quickly replied, "Deer Tail Town!"
Chen Shi held a compass, steering the cart, which sped like the wind toward Deer Tail Town.
Deer Tail Town was far from Yellow Slope Village, more than seventy miles away, also near Heavenly Yang Mountain, built at the foot of a mountain branch that looked like a deer's tail, with the town at the tip.
Chen Shi had been selling talismans near Deer Tail Town during the Moon Festival, moving around without a fixed place, and was only about twenty miles from the town, reaching it before dark.
Since his grandfather went to the underworld, his courage had grown. Before, he wouldn't have dared to travel so far.
Chen Shi stopped the cart, looking toward the ancient bell tower of Deer Tail Town.
The bell tower, the town's guardian, was an old stone structure with steps leading up. The second level was a pavilion, sealed with doors and windows, with an ancient bell hanging inside, some parts copper-colored, others tinged with green rust.
The villagers worshiped the bell tower, and over time, it gained a spirit, forming a divine figure, a young Daoist sitting under the bell.
Chen Shi was looking at this young Daoist.
The young Daoist sat upright, hands and feet facing upward, five hearts toward the sky.
His power was strong, far surpassing the town's guardian spirit, covering an area over a mile wide.
"With such a powerful guardian, how could an evil spirit enter the town and possess a pregnant woman?" Chen Shi wondered.
They reached the pregnant woman's house, surrounded by people peeking in, afraid to enter.
Chen Shi entered Cui'e's house, his sharp ears catching two voices whispering inside.
"What do we do, Master? We can't go back!" a woman's voice said.
"Don't panic, don't panic, let me think!" a man's voice replied.
Chen Shi approached, seeing a pregnant woman with a large belly sitting in a chair, looking anxious, her husband standing by, uneasy.
Chen Shi gestured for them to stay quiet and sat down in front of Cui'e, listening to the voices from her belly.
"We've been out for two days. If we don't go back soon, I'm afraid my body won't hold up!" the woman's voice said.
"It's okay, it's okay. The body can last seven days without food or drink. Let me think of a way out... Damn, my teacher never taught me this! If there's no other way, we'll have to kill this woman, cut our way out, and return to our bodies!"
Chen Shi smiled and said to Cui'e's husband, "Five taels of silver."
Cui'e's husband looked troubled.
Chen Shi said, "Go gather money from the village elders. Tell them if your wife isn't cured, the whole town will have an evil spirit problem."
Cui'e's husband quickly left.
Chen Shi sighed. Exorcising evil spirits was much faster than selling talismans.
From Cui'e's belly came the woman's voice again, "Another fraud."
"Scare him away, don't disturb me," the man's voice said.
Chen Shi smiled and said, "Are you two perhaps Nascent Souls that got stuck in a pregnant woman's belly?"
His words brought silence from Cui'e's belly.
"How did you know we were Nascent Souls stuck?" the man's voice asked.
Chen Shi smiled slightly. His grandfather had told him similar stories.
Cultivators who form a Nascent Soul often can't resist letting it out to explore the world, gaining insights.
But letting the Nascent Soul out is risky. It must avoid wind and thunder, as well as pregnant women or pregnant animals.
Wind can scatter a Nascent Soul, and lightning can destroy it.
Pregnant women or animals are even more dangerous.
A pregnant belly is a natural cycle, a mysterious gateway.
If a Nascent Soul gets too close, it'll be sucked in with no chance to resist, finding itself in a womb as a baby or an animal.
Even more frightening, the placenta in the womb is like a natural cushion for the Nascent Soul, making it unable to rise.
Amniotic fluid is like natural Forgetfulness Soup. Once in the womb, the Nascent Soul can resist at first, but soaking in the fluid, it gradually loses memory, becoming a clueless baby.
His grandfather once told him about a young woman whose belly emitted an old lady's cries. When he asked, he learned the old lady had formed a Nascent Soul, let it out to visit friends, and accidentally entered a house where someone was giving birth. She paused to look, and when she awoke, she was in a womb.
The young woman was no longer a maiden, having secretly conceived with a neighbor's boy.
"Do you know how to save us?" the man's voice asked.
The woman was also anxious, saying, "If you can save us, we'll be forever grateful and repay you!"
"We'll repay you with our lives!" the man added.
Chen Shi said, "Don't worry, I have a way to get you out and back to your bodies. As for repayment, let's not worry about that."
Cui'e's husband returned with five taels of silver gathered from the village.
Chen Shi wrote a line on paper, instructing Cui'e's husband to prepare.
Cui'e's husband couldn't read, so he took it out, and someone who could read said, "The talisman master wants us to get a midwife and prepare for delivery. Also, tell the midwife not to speak."
After a while, the midwife arrived, telling Cui'e to lie down inside, not to catch a draft, and sent her husband to boil water.
Chen Shi ground cinnabar, telling the two in Cui'e's belly, "I'll draw two talismans, one for her belly button, one for her lower back. Then I'll perform a ritual to open a path back to your bodies. When you see a light, rush out quickly. If the light disappears, you'll never return."
The man and woman quickly agreed.
Chen Shi drew two talismans, one a Fetal Protection Talisman, the other a Labor-Inducing Talisman.
The Fetal Protection Talisman was placed on her belly button, the other on her lower back.
Cui'e was about to give birth, unable to make a sound. The midwife worked quietly.
Chen Shi left the room, waiting. Suddenly, the midwife's joyful voice came, "They're born! A boy and a girl, two chubby babies!"
End of Chapter.