Chapter 14: Guardian

  Shi Yi'an paced back and forth downstairs for a long time, his mind filled with those thirty or so pairs of expectant eyes.

  This Daoist is too ruthless, creating such a broken thing, trapping so many people here for so long, and now he's going to drag him down with him.

  As time ticked away second by second, Shī Yǐ ān had already wanted to pick up the talisman paper several times and stick it directly onto that vine, but still stopped herself at the last moment.

  He looked at the nearby school, which had just dismissed classes. Students were walking in groups of three or two, laughing and chatting as they headed home. This made him think of his own student days, which he felt was a long time ago. However, upon careful reflection, it was only a year ago that he was still a university graduate majoring in applied chemistry. He never thought that now he would become a heavenly master. The gap is really big.

  Shizhen suddenly burst out laughing, what's wrong with himself, he has only been studying Taoism on the mountain for a year and is already so infatuated with this feeling. At first, he learned Taoism to protect himself and not trouble others, but if this protection is built on sacrificing innocent people, it would be better to abandon his Taoism and seal his spiritual power. In the worst case, he can go back and find a job in an experimental lab again, and become an ordinary person once more.

  After Shi Yian figured it out, he didn't wait any longer and directly took out his phone to dial the number with the contact name "Save me~". The phone only rang once before someone picked up.

  "My dear nephew, why are you calling for help in the middle of the afternoon? The fierce ghost hasn't even woken up yet." His uncle teased as soon as he picked up the phone.

  Shi Yi An smiled and said: "I want to give up the test."

  "Hmm, what was that? Giving up?" The voice on the other end suddenly became serious and continued: "Do you know that if you give up, we will abolish your Taoist methods, seal your spiritual power, and all your efforts for this year will be in vain."

  "I know, let's not talk about this for now. You and Da Bo, San Shu come over, I promised them that I would give them a definite answer before tonight."

  "What was that? I didn't quite catch it," asked Xiao Shu.

  "You'll know when you get here, there's a strange soul-suppressing talisman on the outer wall, but I don't dare to destroy it easily, so I want you to come and take a look." Shi Yian thought that since he couldn't solve it anyway, he might as well give up early and let these souls who had been trapped for a long time return to the underworld as soon as possible.

  I didn't expect them to come so slowly, it's already dark and they still haven't arrived.

  Shi Yi sat alone on the steps at the door, lost in thought. After a while, he took out all the fire talismans from his bag and activated his spiritual power, letting them self-ignite. The flames danced on his face, jumping up and down.

  He heard a noise behind him, turned his head and saw the little girl in school uniform standing timidly at the glass door looking at him. Shi Yi'an smiled and beckoned her to come over.

  The little girl thought for a long time before moving her feet to walk to Shi Yian's side, and sat down with Shi Yian. This was the farthest place she could go from the apartment building. It turned out that she would occasionally appear and play with the children who lived here, but for some reason, the parents of those children hurriedly took their children away later. Later, using small tricks to scare off the tenants became her only pleasure in her long ghost life.

  "You must be looking forward to freedom, don't worry, the person who can help you will arrive soon." Shī Yì ān gently helped the girl tidy up her bangs with his hand and said in a low voice, his tone extremely gentle.

  Shi Yi An saw the girl not speaking, only raising her head to look at him and said: "After you leave here, reincarnate into a family, you can enjoy the sunshine, go to school, and play with other children."

  The girl didn't say anything and leaned on Shī Yǐ ān's arm, accompanying Shī Yǐ ān to sit here.

  Before long, a small minibus drove in and stopped at the entrance of the apartment. As soon as the door opened, Shi Yiqun jumped out of the car, followed by Master Shi's old man, big brother, third uncle, fourth uncle, Shi Yixing, Shi Yiming, and a beautifully dressed woman with exquisite makeup, as well as a young stranger. If Shi Yian wasn't mistaken, these two were his third aunt and his eldest brother whom he had never met before.

  Shi Yi An rubbed his forehead and sighed: "Even if you want to come see me in a sorry state, do you have to all come together like this?"

  The old man stood there, coughed twice, looked at his watch and said: "I declare as the 26th head of the Shifu family that Shi Yi'an has passed the test. From today on, Shi Yi'an will become a true Tian Shi."

  Shi Yi was stunned for a moment before hearing the warm applause coming from the hallway of the apartment building, it turned out that the ghosts in the apartment had already gathered in the hall without him knowing. The people next to Shi's family were all smiling, and Shi Yi made a face at him and gave him a thumbs up.

  "What's going on." Shi Yi was completely stunned, what with what, he just passed the test.

  "Our sect doesn't have any requirements for the descendants' cultivation in Taoist techniques, which means no matter how poorly you learn, the sect will still acknowledge you. However, our sect has very strict requirements for moral character. If today, in order to continue being a Heavenly Master, you choose to burn the Pueraria lobata, then your test is failed."

  "You... " Shi Yi An's words got stuck on the tip of his tongue, but he had no idea what to say next. You guys are so mischievous, is this really okay?

  Young uncle walked over, putting his arm around Shi Yian's shoulder and said: "I didn't think you'd be able to figure it out, that character on the outer wall. I had originally planned for Teacher Zheng to tell you about it, but then Teacher Zheng told me that you already knew about it, which gave me quite a shock. If you were some foolish kid who didn't know any better and just went ahead and burned this thing, we'd be in deep trouble."

  "It was actually an old man who said that the building was very interesting, and I only noticed it then." Shi Yi An felt more and more that there was something wrong with the old man, first asking him all sorts of questions, and then out of nowhere saying such a sentence, leading him to find this symbol.

  "So you've found a group of good ghosts, and that's even a test for me?" Shi Yi'an said helplessly.

  "You're still young, you don't understand, it's actually more difficult to deal with good ghosts than evil ones. Alright, stop thinking so much, this afternoon we drew a soul-gathering symbol on the other side of the wall, now you can burn those harmful ivy away." Little Uncle placed an incense stick in Shi Yian's hand.

  Shi Yi An grasped the fire-guiding talisman, looking at the ghosts standing in the hall, all of whom smiled and nodded. His younger uncle pushed him and said, "Hurry up, or they won't make it to the good time for reincarnation."

  Shi Yi'an infused the spiritual energy into the talisman paper, and stuck it to the roots of the ivy. The flames spread along the vines all the way up, burning the ivy. After being burned, the ivy no longer had the strength to cling to the wall, and a whole section fell down. Those vines burst open in mid-air, scattering into sparks that disappeared into the air.

  When Shi Yi'an returned to the entrance again, he saw that those ghosts were still standing there, and only then did he let out his last breath.

  The great uncle opened a small altar on the empty ground and summoned an ordinary little door. He shouted to those ghosts, "After passing through the door, there will be ghostly messengers to guide you, everyone must not get lost."

  Those ghosts would all bow deeply before entering and say "thank you".

  Until the last little girl came over and gently hugged Siyuan, saying "goodbye", then hopped away with the others.

  Shi Yi'an looked at the door that had not been closed yet, and felt a mix of emotions.

  Shi Yi walked over and bumped into him, teasingly saying: "You beast, the little girl is still so young, and after reincarnation, she's just a baby, you're definitely hopeless."

  Shi Yi'an turned his head and looked at Shi Yi with a glance, saying: "Can't your thoughts be less dirty?"

  "Please, I've been cooped up in the mountains all day, there's nothing to do for entertainment. If we can't think of something more interesting, it's really unbearable." Shi Yi said excitedly with his arm around Shi Yi An's: "Let's go, let's head back to the mountains, tomorrow morning we'll go find Guardian at the back mountain."

  Choosing a guardian at the Master's house is a big deal, after all, this is an important sign that a Master's house person can go out and venture on their own. Shi Yi'an was asked to wear the Heavenly Master's attire and arrived at the ancestral hall early in the morning.

  Everyone stood still at the door, the old man took three incense sticks and lit them up in the incense burner, then lifted the family rules hanging on the wall and walked in. The young uncle standing behind gave Shi Yian a push and said in a low voice, "What are you spacing out for? Hurry up and go inside."

  "Ah, oh." Shi Yi'an followed second, and the others slowly followed Shi Yi'an into the cave.

  Taking advantage of the light shining in from the entrance, Shī Yì ān saw several ferocious stone statues standing at the door. The statues were carved vividly and seemed as if they could walk down from their pedestals at any moment. The old man lit a match and ignited an oil lamp at the entrance of the cave, then he lit a talisman paper on fire. With one blow, the flames dispersed like fireflies in the air, lighting up all the other lamps inside the mountain cave.

  The hall extends upwards in a spiral shape, with various stone statues standing along the walls, each with a stone dish placed in front of it. The old man held a ceramic bowl, poured some wine into it, and then took a detoxified needle to take some blood from Shī Yǐ ān and put it in, pouring the blood-mixed wine one by one into the stone dishes.

  Like this, Shi Yian followed behind the old man, playing the role of a blood bag, her feet were sore from standing. Because there were too many stone statues, Shi Yian had already donated blood several times, and now she felt a dull pain in her hand whenever she saw that needle. Maybe the people behind her were also getting impatient, as they went from whispering to chatting loudly. The old man's eyebrows were also furrowed tighter and tighter.

  Shi Yi leisurely followed behind and asked the old man, "Grandfather, after we've finished offering wine to all these stone statues, can we start selecting the guardians? Or should I do it instead? You seem to be having a hard time."

  As soon as Shi Yian finished speaking, the whispers of others behind him stopped. The old man stood up straight, wiped the sweat on his forehead and looked at Shi Yian, rolling his throat before saying: "I'll take care of this matter."

  Later on, another layer was added, and the old man's age had also increased, and he couldn't hold on anymore. He turned his head to everyone and said: "Let's stop here for today, and continue the remaining three days later."

  Everyone quietly left without saying anything.

  "Alright, let's go." Shi Yi was the last to leave, and he grabbed hold of Shi Yi An, saying: "You've been here for over a year now, always busy studying, and you haven't even gone up the mountain to take a look around. There's a hot spring on the back mountain, let's invite Big Brother and Third Brother to go with us tomorrow."

  "Didn't you call for a bath attendant?" Shi Yi'an asked first, and then immediately realized that they were old men going to soak in the hot spring, what would they do with a young girl? He forced out a laugh and said: "Never mind I didn't ask, what should we bring?"

  "No need, let's gather at the entrance at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning."

  Shi Yi An lay in bed at night, preparing to sleep, thinking back to today's ceremony, and somehow felt that something was wrong. He pondered for half a day, suddenly slapped his forehead and sat up, he really was an idiot. Today's thing wasn't a wine offering, it was actually a summoning guardian ceremony. He had used so much blood, tried half the mountain cave's guardians, but not one of them was willing to follow him. No wonder everyone's expressions were so strange when they left.

  Shi Yi'an lay on the bed, feeling more and more uncomfortable. He turned over and got out of bed, took a flashlight from the emergency kit, and came to the temple alone. The temple didn't even close its doors, so Shi Yi'an easily entered the cave without much effort.

  He didn't have the old man's fancy skills to light up all the oil lamps, so he could only use the flashlight to find the wine jar in the dark, and then found a dagger on the shelf next to the wine jar. Rather than stabbing with needles one by one, it was better to get it over with once and for all.

  There was also disinfectant alcohol on the shelf, Shi Yi'an used tweezers to clamp a cotton swab dipped in alcohol and wiped the dagger clean of poison, then gestured with her left hand, chose a position, and applied it to her index finger.

  The dagger was swift, and just as it finished wiping, Shi Yinan almost didn't feel any pain. It wasn't until later that he saw blood slowly seeping out of the wound, dripping into the wine vat. In the quiet mountain cave, the sound of the blood drops falling into the vat was exceptionally clear and distinct. To prevent the wound from healing, Shi Yinan used his right hand to forcefully squeeze his left index finger, trying to push out more blood.

  He didn't know the proportion of blood and wine either, so he shone his flashlight into the wine jar, but it was too dark to see anything. Shi Yinan picked up the wine jar and started "offering a toast" to the stone statues behind him.

  Those stone statues were of various shapes, and occasionally when a flashlight was shone on one with a ferocious appearance, it would even scare Shi Yian himself. Like this, they had been messing around for an entire night, but the stone statues still sat there motionless, quietly staring at Shi Yian. Shi Yian sat on the wine jar, feeling disheartened, and a sense of powerlessness surged up.

  He thought of what Shi Yiren had said before, and he was a bit uncertain whether he could face everything as calmly as him. If it weren't for the Guardian to make a contract with him, his life would have basically entered countdown mode.

  The flashlight's beam was already very weak and struggled to flash a few more times before extinguishing in the darkness.