Chapter Five

  I covered my ears with my hands, looked at him pitifully and said: "Grandpa, on the way home from school today, I met a very powerful monster in that pagoda tree forest."

  "How vicious can you be?" Grandpa's face was filled with disdain as he looked at me, holding his cane and knocking on my head a few times. He opened his mouth again to complain, "You should study the demon-subduing technique seriously, but you don't take it seriously. As soon as you encounter some minor demons, you come to me crying and shouting. Are you losing face or not?!"

  He picked up the crutch in his hand and hit me on the head a few more times.

  "You insignificant thing, I originally thought you were special, and that you and your dead old man shouldn't be the same kind of lowly person. Didn't expect that you're even worse than him."

  After finishing speaking, she raised her head and started wailing loudly without stopping.

  "No, it's not like that, Grandfather." I explained: "It's just that the demon we encountered today was too formidable, so I had to say it to you like this."

  "Awesome, awesome."

  Grandpa was so angry that his beard was shaking violently. Seeing me standing there motionless and unresponsive, he suddenly got furious again.

  I got hit on the head a few more times with his cane, it was very painful, but I still didn't dare make a sound.

  "Let's go, you're not allowed to eat dinner tonight, follow me up the mountain." Grandpa said, turning around with a huff.

  As I watched him walk further away, I dared to stretch out my hand and touch the numb top of my head, unable to help but feel curious, and asked: "Grandfather, today is not the 15th yet, why do you have to go up the mountain so early for the sacrifice?"

  "It's not a sacrifice, but using the town's spiritual power to seal the demon-suppressing talisman inside the temple."

  I reached out and stroked the long cord tied around my neck, below which hung the entire family's protective talisman that we guarded with our lives.

  "Grandpa, will it be safe if we put it in the ancestral hall? You know, there's no one to take care of it in the ancestral hall."

  There were still a few ancestors who hadn't had time to reincarnate, wandering around there every day, dealing with some powerful evil spirits. How could a few souls possibly cope?

  "So!" He turned around, looking at me with a serious face.

  It makes me feel numb from head to toe, "So what?"

  Grandfather smiled faintly and said: "As the thirteenth generation successor of the Xia family's demon-suppressing master, Qinghe has both the obligation and ability to help Grandfather with a big matter."

  "What's going on?" I asked hastily.

  Every time I hear him say "the 13th successor of Xia family's royal demon master" after my name, I feel uncomfortable.

  I was frightened and stuttered: "If I agree to do it, will I get hurt? Will I die?"

  Grandpa's eyes widened, his face arrogant, and he said loudly: "How could it be possible to get hurt? I'm not willing to let my own granddaughter suffer a bit of injury, let alone die. Don't worry, with your grandfather there watching you, which monster dares to come forward and touch you, watch your grandfather slap them away to see the King of Hell."

  "Are you going or not?" The wrinkles on his old face were tightly gathered together, with a gloomy smile.

  "Go, Qinghe go."

  The atmosphere was so oppressive that I couldn't breathe, and all I could do was nod in agreement.

  After seeing Grandpa turn around and walk behind the kitchen, I finally slightly put down my heart and patted my chest with my hand.

  A few footsteps sounded and he came over again, "Take these buns with you, when you get to the mountain, eat them when your stomach is hungry, and remember to leave one for Laozi too."

  "Oh." I picked one up with one hand, ready to eat it, but was snatched away by Grandpa.

  I made a bitter face and gazed at him with pleading eyes, "Grandfather, Qinghe's stomach is very hungry, can you spare me one?"

  "No way, let's go up the mountain first and then eat." His attitude was unusually firm and I could only hold back.