It was already noon when Chen Shi casually found a restaurant to eat with Heiguo. After eating their fill, they went to the market and bought two iron hats. He put one on his head and the other on Heiguo's, so they wouldn't have to worry about being targeted by the Rat Demon's tail.
The hats sold in the county were the kind worn by military cultivators, very sturdy, with the Six Ding Six Jia symbols inside to protect against ordinary magical attacks.
Chen Shi found out the location of Black Mountain Granny's temple, which was just outside the county, about twenty miles away, with only the Virtue River in between—not too far.
"Black Mountain Granny's power is strong, far stronger than a little Daoist's, and even the little Daoist is stronger than me. I need to think of a way to break her power."
Instead of rushing to the Granny's temple, he bought some incense and two pounds of exotic beast meat, and returned to Heavenly Yang Mountain with Heiguo, heading to the Mountain Lord Temple.
Black Mountain Granny was also considered the godmother of the Black Mountain area, and her incense offerings were abundant, with local people offering incense and sacrifices.
During the New Year, she even demanded to eat young boys and girls.
Her power came from the extraordinary force of incense, making her extremely strong.
To break the power formed by such extraordinary force, the best method was to use a treasure with similar extraordinary force.
The place Chen Shi thought of was the Mountain Lord Temple.
The Mountain Lord Temple was the place with the strongest extraordinary force he had ever seen.
His first thought was the bronze incense burners.
The Mountain Lord Temple had two bronze incense burners: one was a rectangular large cauldron, one zhang long, five chi high, and three chi wide.
The other was a round cauldron-shaped burner, with a six-legged bronze base, topped by a bronze turtle, and a round cauldron-shaped incense burner on its back.
Above that was a three-layered bronze pavilion, more than a zhang tall.
These two bronze incense burners had accumulated a thick layer of incense ash over the years, suggesting that when the Mountain Lord Temple was bustling with visitors, many people came here to burn incense and worship.
The two bronze burners must have absorbed a lot of incense force, containing a large amount of extraordinary power.
Even now, extraordinary power was still seeping out from the incense burners.
Chen Shi thought for a moment, then decided not to take the bronze burners. Instead, he went to the front of the main hall.
In front of the main hall were four pillars, each entwined with stone dragons, polished smooth by countless hands over the years.
The extraordinary power within these four pillars was also astonishing, suggesting that the stone dragons here were just a step away from transforming into real dragons.
If he dismantled the pillars, he could also break Black Mountain Granny's power.
"But the incense burners and pillars probably aren't the strongest treasures of extraordinary power. The strongest should still be inside the hall!"
Chen Shi pushed open the hall doors and entered the main hall.
Inside the main hall, the extraordinary power was the densest, forming a glow that gathered in the Divine Altar, as if something was forming there.
Chen Shi looked around, his gaze falling on the empty Divine Altar.
At this moment, the place with the densest extraordinary power in the hall was the Divine Altar.
"But the place with the most accumulated extraordinary power isn't the Divine Altar."
Chen Shi shifted his gaze upward and murmured, "The incense force drifts upward, so the place absorbing the most extraordinary power should be..."
His gaze landed on the Eight Trigrams ceiling of the main hall.
This ceiling was likely the place with the densest extraordinary power.
"The Eight Trigrams ceiling isn't suitable for combat, and dismantling the main hall's roof would cause it to collapse."
Chen Shi turned to the front hall, where there was a large red gilded beam painted with dragons, more than two zhang long.
The incense offerings in the front hall were no less than those in the main hall, and the extraordinary power emanating from the large red gilded beam was nearly as dense as that of the Divine Altar.
"This is the one!"
Chen Shi returned to the main hall, took out the incense he had bought, lit them all, and placed them in front of the Divine Altar, silently saying, "Mountain Lord above, this young man, Chen Shi, wishes to borrow the front hall's beam to use. Once I have dealt with the evil spirit, I will return this treasure and not keep it for myself. May the Mountain Lord bear witness!"
He went to the front hall, leaped up onto the beam, and exerted all his strength to lift it.
With a loud crash, half of the front hall collapsed.
This temple had weathered many storms and had been buried underground for over six thousand years. Today, the front hall couldn't escape this fate.
Chen Shi took down the gilded dragon beam, which was actually a golden silk nanmu pillar, as thick as a water barrel, finely polished by craftsmen and painted red.
The Western New Bull Continent didn't have golden silk nanmu, so this wooden pillar was likely brought from the Divine Continent by the fleet of the Three Treasures Eunuch.
Clearly, building the Mountain Lord Temple was a laborious task.
Chen Shi took a cloth, wiped the dust off the pillar, called Heiguo over, and took some black dog blood, ground cinnabar, and mixed it with gold powder, so that when he wrote, it would be golden and shiny.
He moved his brush swiftly, drawing Thunder Talismans, Five Thunder Talismans, Great Five Thunder Talismans, Palm Thunder Talismans, Thunder God's Ten Generals Talismans, Five Suns Heavenly Thunder Talismans, Nine Suns Thunderbolt Talismans, Heavenly Thunder Summoning Talismans, and more—over dozens of types.
These talismans were infused into the wood with his True Qi, making them hard to wear away.
Once a bowl of cinnabar ink was used up, Chen Shi stopped writing, cleaned up, and carried the beam out of the temple.
Heiguo, having eaten two pounds of exotic beast meat, followed behind him.
One man and one dog headed straight for Black Mountain.
Outside the county, by the Virtue River, Black Mountain stood tall.
Halfway up the mountain, incense smoke rose and gathered into clouds in the sky.
In front of the Granny's temple.
Five white-whiskered old Rat Demons, wearing robes and holding incense, solemnly bowed to Black Mountain Granny, muttering prayers.
Behind them, a dense crowd of gray-clad Rat Demons stood upright like humans, some taller than adults, others only two or three feet high, all holding incense and bowing to Black Mountain Granny's temple in unison.
Some gray-clad Rat Demons even had Divine Altars floating behind their heads, with Divine Fetuses sitting inside, looking quite formal.
Their mouths recited what sounded like a very profound scripture.
Hundreds of Rat Demons spoke human words, their chanting forming a deafening torrent.
At the foot of the mountain were all the villagers from the nearby villages of Black Mountain.
Regardless of age, they gathered together, each holding three sticks of incense, kneeling on the ground, bowing their heads like pounding garlic.
There were over a dozen villages near Black Mountain, and every village's godmother had already submitted to Black Mountain Granny.
The people of these villages relied on Granny's favor to survive.
The offerings they made during festivals fed the Rat Demons on the mountain, creating a significant presence.
These Rat Demons served Black Mountain Granny, cultivated under the moonlight, and over time, influenced by the moonlight, they absorbed incense force, turning into evil spirits skilled in sorcery.
They killed those who disrespected them, extorted travelers, and even some cultivators fell to them.
They imitated humans, practicing cultivation techniques, and even developed Divine Altars and obtained Divine Fetuses.
Black Mountain was located in Baisheng County, not in New Township Province, but under the jurisdiction of Xianzhou Province.
Baisheng County was on the edge of Xianzhou, and Black Mountain was on the edge of Baisheng County. The emperor was far away, and in the countryside, evil spirits were rampant, and the government had no means to control them.
Fortunately, Black Mountain Granny was sensible, ensuring that the farmers of each village paid taxes on time, so the government turned a blind eye.
With the continuous chanting and bowing, the incense cloud above condensed more extraordinary power, flowing into the Granny's temple.
In the splendid main hall, the black idol absorbed the extraordinary power, forming a new divine image.
"What is the origin of this Chen Shi? He harbors such a powerful evil spirit within him that even I can't handle it. In the future, I won't provoke him anymore."
Around the black idol, rolling black energy churned endlessly, swirling around the idol.
This extraordinary power was truly immense.
Forming a divine image wasn't something that could be done overnight. Even with so many villagers and Rat Demons chanting her name to help, it would take several days to complete.
At the foot of the mountain, every few steps, a gray-clad Rat Demon patrolled among the crowd. One gray-clad Rat Demon shouted, "If anyone's incense is crooked or their heart isn't sincere, heads will roll."
At that moment, a young man carrying a large red pillar as thick as a water barrel strode toward them.
He walked through the kneeling crowd.
The young man wore a light blue jacket reaching his knees, white pants, a red silk belt at his waist with a sachet hanging from it, and a red ribbon tied around his head, covered by an iron hat, with the end exposed and fluttering in the wind behind him.
The large red pillar on his shoulder was painted with a gilded five-clawed dragon, its body long and slender, coiling from the front to the back of the pillar.
The pillar also had various golden patterns embedded in the wood.
The young man ignored everyone, walking straight ahead.
A gray-clad Rat Demon shouted, "Who goes there?"
"Heavenly Yang Mountain, Chen Shi!"
Chen Shi kept walking.
The gray-clad Rat Demon said, "This is Black Mountain Granny's domain, you can't just wander in. Wait a minute, what did you say your name was?"
Chen Shi, with the red pillar on his right shoulder, pressed his left thumb against his ring and little fingers, raising his index and middle fingers like holding a sword, smiling brightly.
The Three Lights True Qi Technique circulated in his body, and suddenly, light shone around him, star power gathered, transforming into seven different star talismans.
Behind his head, a Divine Altar appeared, forming sword qi within.
"I'm called Heavenly Yang Mountain, Chen Shi..."
He swung his left hand forward, making a cloud sword gesture, and an invisible sword qi roared out from the Divine Altar.
In an instant, the front blurred, as his sword qi spun and vibrated intensely, causing the air to tremble violently.
"Whoosh..."
The sword qi flew past, and the gray-clad Rat Demon's upper body suddenly flew up, letting out a shrill cry, "Enemy attack."
Only after shouting did it realize, "Why am I flying? Wait a minute, my lower half is still on the ground."
The so-called cloud sword was to stand still, holding a sword, using the legs as an axis, moving the sword in a circle from front to back, requiring a flexible waist, with the sword parallel to the ground.
In the Midnight Demon-Slaying Sword, this move left the hand, with the sword qi drawing a circle, spinning rapidly at high speed.
This sword slashed through the gray-clad Rat Demon's waist without losing any power, whistling along the mountainside, flashing over the heads of the kneeling crowd, causing a gust of wind that extinguished countless incense sticks.
In an instant, the sword qi passed through the crowd, cutting into the gray-clad Rat Demons kneeling in front.
Immediately, severed limbs flew, and blood splattered.
The spinning sword qi cut through countless bodies, pushing forward.
Ahead, the Rat Demon cultivators, having been alerted, rose, activating their Divine Altars and Divine Fetuses, sending out Midnight Demon-Slaying Sword qi to meet Chen Shi's sword qi.
Chen Shi's cloud sword qi, stained with the blood of over ten gray-clad Rat Demons, was visible to the naked eye, yet its speed remained astonishingly fast.
The sword qi of those gray-clad Rat Demon cultivators collided with the blood-colored sword qi, exploding into countless fragments, piercing many of their own.
They hurriedly avoided the sword qi, seeing it heading straight for the five elders.
The five white-whiskered Rat Demon elders rose, their faces filled with anger.
One elder turned and summoned a golden core, an invisible field pressing down, trying to hold the blood-colored sword qi.
However, the blood-colored sword qi cut into its golden core field, spinning forward, until it reached four feet in front of it, unable to withstand the pressure, shattering with a crash.
The five Rat Demon elders looked shocked, glancing down to see Chen Shi still at the foot of the mountain, making his way up.
The distance had already exceeded sixty zhang, and along this sixty zhang path, the sword qi left a bloody trail of corpses.
"The Midnight Demon-Slaying Sword can only reach twenty-four or twenty-five zhang, it can't reach sixty zhang."
A Rat Demon elder was puzzled.
Chen Shi, carrying the vermilion pillar, climbed the mountain with large strides, his voice calm: "Heiguo, you stay at the foot of the mountain."
The dog stopped, sitting down, looking ahead.
The gray-clad Rat Demons, still in shock, charged at Chen Shi, their Divine Altars lighting up, preparing their spells.
"Too slow, you're too slow!"
Chen Shi's left hand formed a sword gesture, shifting from the cloud sword style to the lifting sword style, sending out invisible sword qi that rose from beneath a charging gray-clad Rat Demon, splitting it in half with a burst of blood.
His left hand's sword gestures shifted through stab, slash, wipe, lift, cloud, and chop, constantly changing. The gray-clad Rat Demons charging at him couldn't even enter a two-zhang radius before suddenly losing their heads.
Their invisible sword qi was either shattered by Chen Shi's or easily dodged by him as he stepped on the Seven Stars.
Chen Shi walked up the mountain, blood flowing like a river beneath his feet.
Ahead, gray-clad Rat Demons tumbled and rolled, avoiding his attacks, finally closing within two zhang, their tails whipping toward him.
Chen Shi's right arm suddenly exerted force, swinging the vermilion pillar, the thousand-pound beam whistling through the air, thunder roaring, lightning flashing, booming and shaking.
The gray-clad Rat Demons hadn't even gotten close before their heads exploded.
"Black Mountain Granny, young master Chen Shi is here to attack the mountain and destroy the temple!"
End of Chapter.