In the eyes of the Wuqing Temple crowd...
Bragging!
Lu Yuan was purely bragging!
They had personally experienced just how strange this matter was over the past two days.
So strange that despite two consecutive days without sleep or rest, they had watched helplessly as that evil spirit killed two more lives right under their noses!
For Wuqing Temple Daoists, this was simply the greatest humiliation.
Of course, the biggest reason for this outcome was the villagers of Qingniu Village.
They truly wouldn't cooperate.
No matter what, they wouldn't cooperate.
Speaking of which, the villagers and village chief of Qingniu Village hadn't been like this initially.
When the Wuqing Temple group first arrived, everyone had been quite enthusiastic but afterward, these people acted as if they'd caught some illness.
Whatever the Wuqing Temple crowd wanted to do, they became unwilling to cooperate.
More than half the reason the Wuqing Temple group hadn't caught the evil spirit in two days was because of Qingniu Village's lack of cooperation. However, the strange and difficult nature of the evil spirit itself was also an undeniable fact.
And the result?
Some kid who popped out from who knows what corner arrived less than half an hour ago, squatted on the ground and felt around in some pot ash.
Then patted his butt, stood up, and said he could catch it?
Wasn't this pure nonsense!
The Wuqing Temple people didn't believe a single word Lu Yuan said but Village Chief Chen Fushun and the villagers were so excited they almost kowtowed to Lu Yuan on the spot.
Look!!
Look, look, look!!
This is what you call an immortal master!!
What Wuqing Temple!
Names so scary sounding, stayed here for two days, aside from glaring with their eyeballs, completely useless, and you can't even drive them away!
At this moment, Shen Shulan came to her senses, lightly furrowed her brows, looked at Lu Yuan and quickly said, "...Are you certain you've found the root?"
"You mustn't speak carelessly about this matter, otherwise, tonight will be another life..."
Before she finished speaking, Lu Yuan had already turned around. Completely ignoring her questioning, he said directly to Chen Fushun, "Go house to house and ask who has gone to visit graves in the past half month and have them come to the ancestral hall."
After Lu Yuan finished speaking, Chen Fushun nodded excitedly and repeatedly, then gave each of several young men beside him a slap, "What are you standing there for!"
"Hurry up and go ask!"
The Wuqing Temple disciples watching this scene couldn't help but darken their faces.
These past two days, when they asked this Chen Fushun to do something, the old guy was like a stone in a latrine pit, smelly and hard, making all kinds of excuses.
Now whatever Lu Yuan said, he was as obedient as a dog!
This matter was really fucking strange!
Even stranger than this evil spirit matter!!
After the village chief and the villagers turned and quickly left, Lu Yuan led Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an toward Qingniu Village's ancestral hall.
The Wuqing Temple group followed behind Lu Yuan's trio.
They wanted to see just what this kid was up to!
Chen Fushun's group worked efficiently. By the time Lu Yuan's group reached the ancestral hall, quite a few people had already gathered in the courtyard.
In the past half month, a total of three households in Qingniu Village had gone to visit graves.
The first two households seemed fine, but the last household had a problem.
"That day, my husband went to visit his father's grave, but he stumbled and hurt his foot on the way up the mountain. That old grave slope was too far, so my husband took the easy way out that day and directly arranged the offerings at the fork at the mountain base, burning paper money there..."
A village woman with a worried expression timidly spoke up.
After hearing this, Lu Yuan nodded repeatedly, his heart already clear.
Coming to his senses, Lu Yuan asked no more questions. He directly turned to look at Chen Fushun beside him and said in a deep voice, "Prepare half a catty each of millet, glutinous rice, white rice, and tung oil."
"Also prepare one black-feathered rooster, one green-backed grass carp, and one spotted suckling pig."
After Lu Yuan finished speaking, Chen Fushun nodded repeatedly and immediately shouted for people to handle it.
Lu Yuan slightly cupped his hands toward the village woman, "May I trouble auntie to lead the way and take me to see that fork in the road."
The village woman quickly nodded. Lu Yuan's trio immediately followed her toward the village exit.
At this moment, the Wuqing Temple group that had been following Lu Yuan all along looked at each other.
Instantly, everyone had the same thought.
Putting on an act!!
Then the Wuqing Temple crowd followed again, wanting to see what ability he had!!
The group left the village and walked for about half an hour before arriving at the fork the woman had mentioned.
Lu Yuan didn't rush into the mountains. Instead, he pulled out a bright yellow talisman from his chest. With a pinch of his fingertips and muttering an incantation, the talisman ignited without fire.
An Earth-Asking Talisman?
Shen Shulan's eyes narrowed as she recognized this talisman.
The talisman ash didn't fall but was swept up by a cold wind, drifting toward the back mountain.
Lu Yuan's group quickly followed, passing through forests and over ridges. Finally, when the talisman ash swirled without dispersing over a low-lying area overgrown with wild grass, they stopped.
Although there was no grave mound here, it naturally formed the inauspicious burial pattern of "Tiger Clamping Corpse."
The tiger's mouth was precisely that wild mulberry tree with leaf veins tinged dark red.
"Brother Lu, what kind of ghost is it exactly, so evil?"
Xu Erxiao had held it in the whole way but finally couldn't resist, asking while panting heavily.
Lu Yuan's gaze swept the surroundings. He took out an ancient copper ruler from his pack and calmly uttered three words.
"Grave Youth."
As he spoke, Lu Yuan had already squatted down, measuring along the mulberry tree's roots with the "Earth-Measuring Ruler."
Finally, he stopped at the seventh step, the ruler's tip pointing precisely toward the inauspicious "Ding-Wei" direction in feng shui.
Wang Cheng'an looked bewildered, "Grave Youth?"
"What thing is that?"
"I haven't seen it in the 'Hundred Ghosts Collection'..."
The "Hundred Ghosts Collection" was written by a Grand Celestial Master over a hundred years ago.
It recorded various evil spirits' manifestation methods and behaviors. However, the "Hundred Ghosts Collection" didn't record all types of evil spirits.
Lu Yuan knew this evil spirit was a "Grave Youth" because Lu Yuan had a "Super Hundred Ghosts Collection."
One of the top-tier rewards given by the system, encompassing many, many strange and unusual evil spirits.
Lu Yuan ignored Wang Cheng'an and lightly tapped his fingertip on the ruler's body.
Weng!
The "Earth-Measuring Ruler" emitted a clear humming sound.
The ground beneath the ruler actually manifested seven threads of black qi as thin as hair, crisscrossing like a spider web.
Finally, they all converged into the roots of that wild mulberry tree!
"It's an evil spirit that eats offerings, actually formed from the lingering obsession of those forgotten during sacrifices who starved to death."
"This 'Grave Youth' most likely starved to death during a famine year, wanting to borrow a living person's body to taste the offerings it never ate while alive."
Lu Yuan observed the spider web's pattern while explaining in a low voice to Wang Cheng'an.
After hearing this, Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an nodded slightly and were just about to ask more questions when a clear, cold voice suddenly rang out beside them, "Then how did Martial Uncle Lu confirm this?"
"What were you feeling around for in the stove just now?"
Lu Yuan turned his head and glanced at Shen Shulan. This "Martial Uncle" with every sentence...
Lu Yuan didn't hide anything and immediately said, "When visiting graves for worship, if animals eat the offerings first, they must be replaced immediately. Otherwise, a 'Grave Youth' will follow home and sit by the stove nightly begging for food. You only need to feel around once inside the victim's stove."
"If there's damp grave dirt with the smell of corpse wax in the dirt, it's definitely a Grave Youth."
Having said this, Lu Yuan pointed at the spider web-like pattern of black lines under the tree and continued, "This is a 'Starved Corpse Earth Vein.'"
"Only those who died in extreme hunger and whose corpses weren't properly buried will have their resentment combine with earth qi to form this phenomenon."
"It's not a simple Grave Youth."
Lu Yuan frowned, "It's already become an earth-bound spirit, grown together with the 'Famine Energy' of this mountain hollow."
After Lu Yuan finished speaking, the Wuqing Temple crowd carefully observed for a while.
They looked at each other...
"Tiger Clamping Corpse"
"Grave Youth"
"Starved Corpse Earth Vein"
"Famine Energy"
"Earth-Bound Spirit"
...
This kid... in less than the time it takes to burn an incense stick...
He had found out what type the evil spirit was, how it formed, and where it was currently hiding...
This... this kid...
What exactly is his background...
What exactly is this True Dragon Temple...