Chapter Twelve: Ghosts and Demons

  Gan Ping got up early in the morning, looked at Huo who was still sleeping, and moved him to a more comfortable place before walking out the door. As usual, he strolled around the village. In recent days, the villagers had accepted this little beggar who came to Majiacun. There were not many people in the village in the early morning, mostly women like Mrs. Ma who got up early to do chores and cook. Gan Ping greeted them one by one as he slowly walked to the western square.

  The sky was still early, the square was empty, and Gan Ping quickly walked to the side of the giant stone in the middle of the field. He circled around the stone twice, rolled up his sleeves, used both arms to exert force, straightened his waist, and lifted it up. His guess wasn't wrong, something unexpected must have happened last night, causing the Lianhuo Yuanyuan Jue to deepen a lot, and the strength of this body also increased greatly. Now he could lift this thousand-jin giant stone as if it were a small stone.

  He carefully put the boulder back in its original place, and he couldn't help but stand there thinking. Because the Zhēng Huǒ Róng Yuán Jué was only a physical training technique, it didn't produce any true yuan energy, so Gan Ping also didn't know how much progress he had made. He only knew that his physical strength had increased greatly, but he didn't understand why this was so. Last night, thanks to Huǒér using the Mì Huǒ Yuán's innate control over fire divine ability, he had absorbed the endless fire attribute spiritual energy into his body; otherwise, Gan Ping would have been seriously injured or even killed.

  After thinking for half a day, I still couldn't figure it out, so I might as well not think about it. Seeing that the sky was getting late, Gan Ping turned around and headed back. Along the way, he thought to himself that he should find a method to cultivate his fire attribute true yuan, so that he could make rapid progress in both internal and external cultivation. But this method wasn't something that could be easily obtained, such techniques were rarely seen in the mundane world, even the imperial family of Gaotang could only send their children to the distant west to search for the traces of immortals in the mountains, and only then would they be favored by the immortal and accepted as a disciple. Ordinary people couldn't even think about it.

  Only to regret that Xuan Mingzi had cultivated a body of evil magic, otherwise any other Yuan Shen master would have remembered several fire-based techniques. Thinking of Xuan Mingzi, Gan Ping suddenly remembered the ring hanging on his chest, which was Xuan Mingzi's storage ring, containing the divine ability to store the world in a mustard seed. Xuan Mingzi's lifelong continuation was all within it, with thousands of years of accumulation, not trivial at all. Alas, he had only cultivated the Body Tempering Technique, and the true yuan energy within his body was weak, that one strand of true yuan wanting to open this ring was far from enough.

  Gan Ping, who was deep in thought, suddenly remembered something and couldn't help but smile. He recalled that if he used his spiritual soul to imprint a mark on the ring, he wouldn't need much true yuan energy to use the storage ring at will. In Xuan Mingzi's memory, there happened to be a secret manual of the Da Cui Ze Wàng Jiàn Shān's Mì Diǎn Míng Hún Huà Sī technique, which was a secret that had never been passed down in the Wàng Jiàn Shān lineage.

  The evil method of the heretical sect, mostly evil and strange, often has the danger of backlash. However, this Soul Silk Technique is a secret method passed down for thousands of years in the Wangxia Mountain lineage. After cultivation, the power of the soul far surpasses that of same-level cultivators, enough to suppress evil spirits and backlash. Because after mastering this secret method, it is often used to suppress those evil and strange treasure talismans, and only a small part of the enemy's soul power can be extracted, so when Wangxia Mountain disciples go down the mountain, few people discover the abnormality of this technique.

  Thinking of the Soul Silk Technique, Gan Ping's heart grew hot with eagerness. This was one of the few techniques in the Wangyue Mountain lineage that didn't require killing or arson to cultivate. Once he had made some progress in his cultivation, he could use his soul power to imprint a spiritual mark on the ring, allowing him to open it with just a thread of true yuan energy. Thinking of this, he wished he could grow wings and fly back home to cultivate the Soul Silk Technique.

  Just as he was lost in thought, Gan Ping heard a woman's crying and wailing, and couldn't help but furrow his brow. Having lived in Majiacun for over two months, Gan Ping had gained some understanding of this small village, where the villagers were simple and kind, treating each other like family, even when there were disputes between households, they would discuss them calmly and peacefully, and even couples rarely quarreled loudly. The village was so small that if someone shouted loudly at the back of the village, people in the front could hear it clearly, and if a couple had a loud argument, half the village would know about it, and when couples had disputes, they would close their doors and discuss them secretly indoors. Now, this woman's crying and wailing was something Gan Ping had never heard before.

  Following the sound, I found that the house where the woman's crying and quarreling came from was already surrounded by three layers of people inside and out. Gan Ping is a small person, although he has great strength, but he didn't dare to squeeze hard, so he could only wander around outside the door. Listening to the woman's heart-wrenching wails inside, mixed with curses, I couldn't help but feel surprised. This family, as far as Gan Ping knew, was the home of Village Chief Ma Lao Tou's younger brother, whose name was Ma Xiu Yuan. The old man in this house was named Ma Xiu Ming. Just two days ago, they had a wedding at home, and his youngest son married a girl from another village, but how did the family start making trouble just a few days later?

  Gan Ping was wandering around outside, unable to break through the crowd and enter. Just then, a voice came from behind him: "Gan Ping, what are you doing here?" Gan Ping quickly composed himself and saw Mr. Zhang standing with Old Ma. He hastily said: "I got up early this morning and heard crying sounds coming from over here, so I came to see if there was anything I could help with."

  Next to the old horse head, he saw Gan Ping standing there like a little adult, speaking with a sense of propriety, and couldn't help but find it interesting. He said, "What can you, a young child, do to help? But your heart is good." Mr. Zhang looked at Little Gan Ping with piercing eyes, knowing that his disciple was extremely intelligent and had a strong sense of justice, although he was young, he shouldn't be underestimated.

  At this time, Old Horse raised his toes and looked inside, patted a tall young man in front of him, and asked loudly: "What's going on? So noisy." The young man was looking inside with his height, feeling someone patting him, turned around, bowed hastily, and said: "Good morning, Second Uncle, ah, Mr. Zhang is also here, good morning." Mr. Zhang had been teaching in the village for nearly ten years, and many young people had lived under the mighty ruler of Mr. Zhang since childhood, so it was certain that this young man had also suffered a lot back then.

  Mr. Zhang looked at him and asked, "Ma Yangzong, I came to ask you, what's going on inside? Why is it so noisy?" This inquiry made Ma Yangzong shrink his neck and hastily lower his head to reply, "Reporting to the master, the disciple isn't very clear either, but he saw that the new daughter-in-law of the fifth uncle's family seemed to have gone mad, crying and scolding inside... Ah, the disciple felt it was like..." As he spoke, he looked up at Old Ma beside him. Old Ma saw this and slapped him on the head, scolding, "The master is asking you a question, what are you looking at me for?" The young man, having been hit without reason, said with some resentment, "The disciple felt it was like being possessed by an evil spirit."

  Ma Yangzong was just looking inside, but saw the new daughter-in-law of this family sitting on the ground crying and making a fuss, her clothes were also torn and tattered, revealing large pieces of white skin. He was only 18 or 19 years old and had not married yet, so he had never seen such a scene before. He stared at the exposed white flesh in a daze, but was caught by his second uncle and Mr. Ma, who started talking to him in a stuttering manner. Moreover, he knew that Mr. Ma did not believe in these supernatural things, so after glancing at Old Ma, he received an unprovoked slap in the face.

  Old Horse Head hurriedly glared at him, Ma Yangzong touched his nose, feeling particularly wronged. "It's not that I don't want to say it, you insist on me saying it, how can you blame me?" Just then, Old Horse Head said: "Mr. Zhang, it seems like it's not a big deal, I'll handle it myself, you go back, the children still have class." But this was also forced, Gan Ping and the others only had classes in the afternoons, the mornings were for practicing martial arts, and the sun was still early, what classes could they be having?

  Mr. Zhang also understood his intention, and smiled slightly: "It doesn't matter, it's still early, I'll go with you to see what's going on later." Old Horse Head hastily stopped him, saying: "Hey, Mr. Zhang, this thing is not clean, we mud-legged people are not afraid of it, but you, a teacher, should not go over there." Old Horse Head knew that running into evil spirits was not a good thing, and the village only had one teacher; if something happened, what would all the children do?

  Upon hearing this, Mr. Zhang's expression changed and he said: "How can we believe in ghostly affairs? Even if there are ghosts, Ganning, how have I taught you to be a person?" Ganning heard this and immediately puffed out his chest, responding loudly: "We scholars have an air of integrity within us, being upright and just, what fear do we have for petty ghosts and demons." These were the very words Mr. Zhang had spoken a few days prior.

  Mr. Zhang looked at the village chief and said, "Village Chief Ma, let's take a look at the situation first." The old Village Chief Ma saw that he couldn't persuade this stubborn scholar, so he stomped his foot, dispersed the crowd, and led Mr. Zhang inside. Gan Ping took advantage of the opportunity to follow them from behind and also went in.

  When the village head arrived, everyone hastily made way. At this time, Gan Ping saw the situation in the house. A whole family surrounded a woman wearing red clothes, who sat on the ground, crying and scolding at the same time. She looked like the new daughter-in-law from two days ago. The woman was not very old, with disheveled hair covering her face, making it impossible to see her features clearly. Her red dress was torn and tattered, revealing white undergarments and patches of pale skin underneath, causing the men around her to swallow their saliva.

  Mr. Zhang regretted coming in and looked around nervously, muttering words like "don't look at what you shouldn't". Old Horse Face immediately put on his village chief's dignity, turned to the people watching from behind and shouted: "What are you looking at? Don't you have anything better to do? Disperse! Go back to your own business. Quick! You, close the window. You, close the door. Yes, I'm talking to you. It's freezing outside, why are the doors and windows open? Get out! Ma Yangzong, come here."

  The old horse head drove away the onlookers, and then saw that horse Yang ran over with a series of nods and bows. "Second uncle, what's up?" He said, still peeking at the little daughter-in-law crying on the ground. The old horse head saw him like this, stretched out his hand and slapped another palm on his head, "Go, get Li Erniang for me, you damn fool, look at the ball."

  Ma Yangzong shrunk his neck and ran away. Only after finishing all this did Old Horse Head turn around to look at the people in the house. Just as Village Chief Old Horse Head was doing these things, Gan Ping had already clearly seen the situation of the woman in front of him. Although the Tri-Fire Fusion Technique is a specialized physical training technique, he had still stored a thread of true yuan spiritual energy inside his body for such a long time, and with clear eyes and mind, he could see more clearly than these ordinary people.

  The woman in front of him bowed her head and wailed, but in Gan Ping's eyes, it was a different scene. A layer of gray misty air was shrouding the woman, he slightly furrowed his brow, running that thread of spiritual energy to his eyes, and couldn't help but be shocked.