Looking at that line of glaring blood-red text, Lu Yuan's scalp tingled.
Wait...
This?
What does this mean?!!
He'd already thanked her as he should, burned the incense he should.
What did following him mean??!
"Brother Lu..."
"What's wrong? What happened??"
Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an looked around while trembling with some fear.
At this moment, Lu Yuan came back to his senses, suppressed his inner shock, and said as calmly as possible, "It's nothing..."
"Just spaced out for a moment, thought I'd taken the wrong road."
"Let's hurry up. If we go too late, the shop will be closed."
Although Lu Yuan felt thoroughly uncomfortable being followed by this Ghost Bride, he strangely wasn't that afraid.
After all, at the end of the day, Lu Yuan was alive now thanks to this Ghost Bride. She was his lifesaver.
Also, although she was following, she hadn't made any other moves.
If she truly wanted to harm him, she would have done so already.
This was just a bit eerie, making Lu Yuan feel uneasy.
After finishing this round of jobs, he'd hurry back to the temple and ask the old man what he thought...
Then Lu Yuan's group of three quickened their pace. What should have taken over half an hour to reach Lin Family Village, they arrived in just over ten minutes.
During this stretch of road, Lu Yuan frequently looked back.
Now Lu Yuan could confirm that this Ghost Bride was definitely following him because the [Subdue Demons and Eliminate Evil] system's evil spirit identification function had a distance limit.
If this thing had no distance limit, then every time Lu Yuan opened his eyes, everything would be filled with blood-red text.
The [Subdue Demons and Eliminate Evil] system's evil spirit identification function had a distance limit of five hundred meters.
As long as an evil spirit exceeded five hundred meters, no matter what level of danger, it wouldn't display before Lu Yuan.
During these ten-plus minutes, that line of blood-red text flickered in and out of his vision, neither far nor near, perfectly stuck at the eerie boundary of five hundred meters.
Sometimes when he looked back, the text disappeared but when he looked back again, that heart-palpitating blood text would jump out again.
She was tracking him but why exactly?
Could it be... because he'd promised to help her reincarnate?
But he'd made it very clear that his current cultivation wasn't enough. This matter had to be postponed.
Could it be... something else??
Lu Yuan pondered while hurrying along. The three soon arrived at Lin Family Village's pastry shop.
At this time, the pastry shop was about to close.
The village wasn't like Fengtian City. Village people rested early and rose early, getting on the kang by seven or eight.
There weren't many pastries left, but when the shopkeeper heard that Lu Yuan's group were Daoists from True Dragon Temple.
He immediately gave Lu Yuan's group of three the pastries originally saved for his own family to eat.
Daoists in this world were like this, very respected.
Speaking of which, this was also why Lu Yuan insisted on being a Daoist rather than going to live off Auntie Meiqin or Auntie Qiao'er.
Of course, the [Subdue Demons and Eliminate Evil] system played a part but more so, after helping employers solve their troubles, when they thanked him profusely with grateful faces, it truly gave him a great sense of accomplishment.
When going out normally to do some work, when others heard you were a Daoist, they would immediately make things convenient.
This was also a kind of mutual understanding in a certain sense. Lu Yuan really liked this feeling.
"Daoist Master, it's cold. Come inside for some hot water."
The shopkeeper skillfully wrapped the pastries in newspaper and warmly invited them.
Lu Yuan handed over a yuan, smiling and waving his hand.
"No trouble. We still need to hurry to the next employer for an emergency."
Hearing it was to save lives, the shopkeeper didn't insist further. Before leaving, he forcibly stuffed each of the three with two hot boiled eggs, absolutely refusing to take money.
The three held the scalding hot pastries, swallowing large bites while hurrying along. Lu Yuan still occasionally looked back, glancing at the flickering blood text in that darkness behind them.
This was truly bizarre!
If this Ghost Bride had other business with him... then speak up!!
Could she not keep following behind him!!
How scary!
Lu Yuan had suddenly pondered something earlier.
This was a twenty-star super-dangerous entity!!
What level of cultivation was this?!
She'd long since gained spiritual intelligence and could speak!!
Evil spirits were the same as people.
Ordinary small evil spirits were like ignorant children, acting on their obsessions from life.
Those with higher cultivation, like yesterday's hanged ghost, chang ghost, and even the Two-Legged Sheep that used schemes, had intelligence no different from teenagers, they just couldn't speak human words but reaching the Ghost Bride's level of twenty stars...
Lu Yuan felt that forget speaking, she could probably deliver a whole rapid-fire recitation of "Listing the Dishes" with ease!
Yikes!
Really now!
If you have something to say, speak up!
Keeping him hanging like this was too torturous!
Lost in wild thoughts, around eight in the evening, the three finally entered Donglin Village's territory.
At the village entrance, a few old men squatted by the millstone smoking dry tobacco. Seeing them, their eyes dodged, they muttered vaguely "The Daoist has arrived," then lowered their heads again, fiercely puffing on their pipes, seemingly unwilling to look more.
Soon, Donglin Village's chief Wang Youde brought his whole family out in a flurry.
Following Wang Youde into the village, Lu Yuan also roughly understood the situation.
Wang Youde's only grandson, Tiedan, had been running a high fever and talking nonsense for three days.
A physician had come to see him, saying it was convulsions, and prescribed sedative powder.
After forcing down a bowl of medicine, the child convulsed even more violently, his eyes rolled back, strange "keh keh" sounds came from his throat, and his fingers curled up like chicken claws.
Only then did everyone realize he'd been struck by evil.
They'd tried every folk remedy in the village. The child was barely breathing out with no breath in.
Only then did Wang Youde stamp his foot, pocket some money, and rush overnight to True Dragon Temple.
After hearing Wang Youde's account, the group also arrived at his house entrance.
Lu Yuan had scanned all along the way. No blood-red text had appeared in Wang Youde's home.
This meant that what had possessed Wang Youde's little grandson was a small evil spirit, at least posing no danger to Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan stopped outside the Wang family threshold, his nose twitching slightly as he asked, "During this time, you didn't find other Daoists to look?"
Being struck by evil was a common occurrence here. While not as frequent as catching a cold or fever, it was quite common and this world also had quite a few wandering Daoists.
After all, not all Daoists had temples. Temples also looked at character and talent when accepting people.
There were always wandering Daoists not accepted by temples who carried banners through the streets and alleys, specializing in solving such troubles.
Small matters like being struck by evil were handled by wandering Daoists.
Also, wandering Daoists were much cheaper than those from temples like Lu Yuan.
As mentioned before, having three people like Lu Yuan come to your door would cost at least dozens of yuan but finding a wandering Daoist, seven or eight yuan would settle it.
So for this matter, didn't they find a wandering Daoist to look?
Or did the wandering Daoist they found not handle this evil possession?
But how was that possible?
A wandering Daoist not being able to handle evil possession was like saying a chef couldn't stir-fry potato strips, or a doctor didn't know how to treat a cold.
This was the most basic thing Daoists needed to know. Otherwise what were they doing out here, fortune telling?
That would be pure fraud!
So this meant... there was more to the story?
Hearing Lu Yuan's question, Wang Youde's eyes clearly dodged for a moment, then he quickly put on a smiling face, "No, no. This is our only precious grandson. How would we dare find those of unknown origins? If something went wrong, wouldn't that delay things!"
"As soon as something happened, I went straight to True Dragon Temple! After all, True Dragon Temple's reputation here is absolutely resounding!"
Hearing the village chief's words, Lu Yuan didn't speak.
He just sighed that indeed, whether on Earth or here, village chiefs were wealthy people.
For a small matter of evil possession, they could spend dozens of yuan.
Lu Yuan didn't pursue further questions but stood at the courtyard entrance and took a deep breath.
Besides the scent of firewood and livestock in the air, there was indeed a trace of extremely faint, musky and fishy unusual odor.
Not the rotting stench of dead things, but the fishy musk of living things carrying resentment and anger.
This scent... the scent of a yellow weasel.