Hmm...
Lu Yuan was just about to crush the jade pendant, but suddenly stopped.
What if it wasn't like this?
What if he guessed wrong?
Would he be calling her back and forth like walking a dog twice in one night?
Even if she was very good to him, he mustn't forget that this was a genuine evil ghost!
A super evil spirit absolutely full of malevolent qi!
After weighing it three times, Lu Yuan still carefully put away the warm and smooth white jade bone token.
Forget it, he'd wait until this entire job was completely finished before dealing with this matter.
When the time came, he'd return to Ningyuan Town and ask her at her grave.
The key to this matter lay in solving it, not in confirming it.
Even if he asked clearly right now, how would he solve it?
If it really was like that, he'd need to open the coffin, then find a way to help her restore her tongue and replace her eyes.
Right now he was empty-handed, with neither external items nor heaven-reaching cultivation. Calling her here would only add to the awkwardness.
There was no need to rush.
...
When Lu Yuan opened his eyes again, it was already noon.
He had been frozen awake.
The cold qi within his body precisely reminded Lu Yuan that it was time to go bask in the sun.
He sat up from the bedding. Outside the temple, Wang Cheng'an and Xu Erxiao were gathered around a bonfire.
A small pot was suspended over the fire, cooking something unknown. A wild, meaty fragrance drifted inside.
"Brother Lu, come quick, we just finished making food!"
Wang Cheng'an was the first to see Lu Yuan getting up and hurriedly called out.
Xu Erxiao bent down beside the small pot, holding a small branch, stirring the dark stuff inside while looking at Lu Yuan excitedly, "Brother Lu, come quick, come quick!"
Lu Yuan walked to the temple entrance, stood in the noon sunlight, his whole body's pores relaxed, and he exhaled a long breath of cold air from within, feeling refreshed all over.
Moving to the pot, Lu Yuan glanced inside.
Tsk~
Forest frogs.
When he had just transmigrated, Lu Yuan had found this thing a bit hard to accept, but now he was quite used to it.
Mainly because these things were very easy to find in wilderness puddles and rivers.
Just scald them with boiling water, then wash off the slime from their bodies, and the processing was done.
Find a pot, add some bean paste, pour a circle of soy sauce, throw all the forest frogs in to stew and you were done.
You didn't even need to remove the organs, extremely convenient.
Stew for about ten minutes, open the lid to reduce the sauce, and when the broth became thick you could eat it.
This thing looked ugly, but it actually tasted quite good.
Especially now in winter, when forest frogs were at their fattest and most delicious, they were as tempting as a mature woman's plump rear.
One bite and the meat was tender and soft, with an aftertaste carrying a slight bitterness from the organs.
"Not bad, you caught quite a few."
Lu Yuan found a spot to sit down and sniffed the aroma. It really was quite good.
The three ate around the campfire.
Picking up a plump forest frog and stuffing it in his mouth while it was still scalding hot, grimacing from the heat yet unwilling to spit it out.
"The last job is at Qingniu Village, right?"
Lu Yuan asked casually while eating.
Xu Erxiao finished the meat in his mouth, freed his hands, and flipped open the small notebook he carried, glancing at it.
"Right, it's Qingniu Village again."
"This time they say the villagers have been having strange dreams continuously. After waking up, their stomachs swell like they're pregnant, and they vomit up undigested offerings."
Wang Cheng'an held his bowl, curiously interjecting, "This is fresh, first time hearing of it."
"Brother Lu, are they possessed by starving ghosts?"
Lu Yuan shook his head, his gaze falling on the dancing flames.
"Hard to say. We'll only know the specific situation after going to see for ourselves."
When Daoists worked jobs, it wasn't as simple as arriving at a place and directly starting to subdue demons and eliminate evil.
In reality, many jobs were strange within strange.
They had to rely on experience from traveling far and wide, magical implements, and techniques to first find the root cause.
If you couldn't pinpoint the root, even if you had the abilities of a Celestial Master, you'd have nowhere to apply them.
After eating, the three of Lu Yuan shouldered their wooden boxes and began traveling.
This trip to Qingniu Village was quite far, but there was no need to rush. Arriving by noon tomorrow would be fine.
...
The strange occurrence at Qingniu Village involved three households in succession. Every night at the zi hour, they were awakened by knocking sounds.
Opening the door revealed no one, only a chipped clay bowl placed neatly outside the threshold.
The bowl contained half-cooked millet rice with three burned incense sticks stuck upright in it.
That same night, someone in the household would inevitably dream of a short, withered old man in a short jacket.
Curled up beside their own stove, holding a bowl in both hands, continuously scraping at the empty bowl.
After waking from the dream, the person would have a belly swollen like a drum and rush to the courtyard to vomit.
What they vomited up was entirely undigested offerings.
Things like cake crumbs, chicken bones, and even paper money ashes.
The next day around eight in the morning, the three of Lu Yuan, carrying their wooden boxes, arrived at Qingniu Village's village monument.
Lu Yuan had been to Qingniu Village more than once or twice.
Exactly how many times, Lu Yuan would need to count on his fingers to remember.
Qingniu Village backed onto the Taiyin Mountain Range that stretched for thousands of miles.
The Taiyin Mountain Range was the great granary of the entire region beyond the pass, with countless mountain delicacies and abundant resources.
Roe deer and wild deer dwelt in the forests, pheasants and rare birds sang in the valleys.
The spirit meat that everyone wanted also mostly came from the Taiyin Mountain Range.
Of course, there were also countless demons and evil spirits inside.
Qingniu Village was located at the mountain exit of the Taiyin Mountain Range and was frequently harassed by small evil spirits bothering the villagers.
They were really quite unlucky.
Out of every three jobs Lu Yuan took, one would be at this Qingniu Village.
Coming here really felt like coming home. However, this time, when the three of Lu Yuan arrived at the village monument and walked toward the village, their hearts sank.
White cloth had been hung in the village...
The villagers moving about in the distance all had a circle of glaring black gauze wrapped around their arms.
They were in mourning...
They had arrived too late. Someone had died!
The three of Lu Yuan continued walking into the village with somewhat heavy expressions.
Did the three feel regret for arriving late?
Not really. After all, their speed had already been very fast. Even though Lu Yuan was injured, they hadn't delayed at all.
Today they had even arrived in the morning ahead of schedule. This speed was already extremely fast.
They had done their best, so naturally there was no regret but they still inevitably felt uneasy. After all, the people in this village were familiar neighbors to the three of them.
They didn't know who had been unlucky enough to pass away first...
And judging by this scene, more than one person had died...
Before the three of Lu Yuan even entered the village, some villagers spotted them from afar and immediately shouted out as if seeing their saviors.
Some people ran quickly toward the three of Lu Yuan, wanting to help carry the boxes.
Others turned and ran deeper into the village, obviously going to notify the village chief.
"Uncle Li, what exactly is the situation in the village?"
Lu Yuan looked at the man with graying hair leading the group and asked in a deep voice.
The man called Uncle Li, Li Changgui, let out a heavy sigh, his eyes full of bloodshot veins.
"Let's enter the village first before we talk. It's too complicated to explain in a short time."
Hearing Li Changgui's words, Lu Yuan nodded and said no more.
Scanning the grief-stricken and numb faces of the surrounding villagers, he knew this incident was bigger than any previous one.
Soon, a large group of people emerged from deep within the village.
Leading them was the village chief of Qingniu Village, Chen Fushun.
Lu Yuan was about to greet him when his gaze passed over Chen Fushun and narrowed slightly.
He saw that behind Chen Fushun was a group of Daoists.
Hiss... this really was a case of enemies meeting on a narrow road!
Wuqing Temple again?!