When Daoists worked jobs, the most, most, most taboo thing was making a mistake and running away, abandoning the employer.
You could make mistakes. You could die.
You could even die together with the employer because of your mistake but you absolutely could not, after making a mistake, turn your ass around and run, leaving the employer behind without care.
The seriousness of this matter was the number one taboo explicitly forbidden by all major Daoist temples!
Wuqing Temple, as the foremost temple beyond the pass, regarded this as heavenly law but they never expected such a thing could still happen.
Now no one questioned whether Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an were lying.
First, these two young kids clearly didn't look like they were lying just now.
Second, this kind of matter would be known with one inquiry after the group returned to Wuqing Temple.
The Wuqing Temple Daoists looked at each other, their lips trembling, but couldn't utter a single word.
Before, they had looked down on this kid from a small, insignificant temple from the bottom of their hearts.
They prided themselves on being from a famous orthodox sect, born from Wuqing Temple, naturally superior to others.
The result... it was precisely this kid they looked down upon who had saved Wuqing Temple's century-old reputation.
If that employer had truly died, no matter how much money Wuqing Temple threw at it, they couldn't stop the gossiping masses or eliminate this heaven-reaching disaster.
A burning sensation spread from each Wuqing Temple disciple's face to their ears.
After a long while, Lu Yuan was helped by Xu Erxiao and the others to sit down. The cold qi invading his body made him shiver uncontrollably.
Xu Erxiao was just about to raise his head and curse a few more times at that Daoist who had spoken sourly behind their backs but unexpectedly, this Wuqing Temple Daoist had already walked up.
Before Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an could react, this person came before Lu Yuan and bowed solemnly, "Wuqing Temple, Qing generation disciple, Liang Juemin greets Martial Uncle Lu."
Following this person's approach, the Wuqing Temple crowd exchanged glances, then all came before Lu Yuan.
Bowing extremely solemnly, they said, "Wuqing Temple, Qing generation disciple, Zhou Shu'an greets Martial Uncle Lu."
"Wuqing Temple, Qing generation disciple, Yue Zhendong greets Martial Uncle Lu."
"Wuqing Temple, Han generation disciple, Wan Shichang greets Martial Uncle Lu."
"Wuqing Temple, Qing generation disciple..."
"..."
Each "Martial Uncle Lu," neat and uniform, echoed through the quiet courtyard.
Lu Yuan was frozen to the point where his teeth were chattering. Before he could recover, he saw these seven or eight people making such a grand display before him.
For a moment, Lu Yuan felt somewhat embarrassed.
Just as he was about to say something, a hand as white as jade, holding an exquisite incense box, was presented before him.
It was Shen Shulan.
"Master Uncle, this is our Wuqing Temple's Yang-Gathering Pill. Taking it can relieve your cold qi invasion for two hours."
Lu Yuan's body was filled with frost, extremely sensitive to yang qi.
As soon as the incense box entered his hand, a warm and pure yang qi emanated through the box, instantly revitalizing his spirit.
Only... two hours...
Not enough!
Shen Shulan's face was full of chagrin and apology.
"Yang-Gathering Pills aren't commonly used, so... I only have this one on me..."
Hearing this, Lu Yuan said no more and directly pocketed the Yang-Gathering Pill, "Then I won't be polite. I'll use this pill tonight when catching that evil spirit."
He turned and looked at the Wuqing Temple disciples still bowing before him, forcing himself to stand up.
"Then tonight, I'll have to trouble everyone to assist me."
Hearing this, the Wuqing Temple crowd bowed even lower, responding in unison, "At Master Uncle's command!"
...
Early morning, the zi hour.
Lu Yuan, nearly frozen into an icicle, swallowed that Yang-Gathering Pill.
The next moment, a scorching torrent exploded through his limbs and bones. Wherever it passed, the cold qi completely melted away.
Lu Yuan recovered completely.
"Up the mountain!"
...
Under the cold moonlight pouring down like mercury, everyone once again arrived beneath that lone wild mulberry tree.
The Three Powers Upside-Down Rice had already been set up.
Lu Yuan stood before the altar, holding between two fingers the yellow talisman with one ruined stroke, placing it at his brow, muttering an incantation.
"One lamp illuminates a thousand years of darkness, seven stars guide souls from the nine depths."
"The starved corpse unwillingly became earth-bound, drink your fill and be reborn soon."
"Lamps, rise!"
The instant the words fell, that yellow talisman ignited without fire, turning into a wisp of blue smoke.
At the same time, the seven clay dishes surrounding the altar "whooshed" and simultaneously burst into ghostly green flames!
Ordinary soul-summoning incantations were ineffective against such earth-bound spirits.
Lu Yuan's expression remained unchanged as he took out a bundle of items.
"Bridge Crossing Rice Noodles."
This wasn't food, but seven white cotton threads soaked in rootless water, each thread tied with a Northern Song Daguan Tongbao coin.
Lu Yuan pulled the threads from the wild mulberry tree to the altar, forming a "Money Bridge."
Then he took out a "Name-Asking Bronze Mirror."
The mirror surface faced the darkness at the mulberry tree's roots. His fingertip lightly touched cinnabar and quickly wrote an elegant "Ask" character on the smooth mirror back.
The incantation rose again, his voice becoming ethereal and distant.
"Without stele or tomb, still there is a name. Deep in the earth veins hides true form. Though mirror flowers and water moons are illusion, one point of spiritual light reveals your title!"
The mirror surface rippled like water, gradually revealing two blurred characters:
"He... San..."
With the name obtained, formal summoning could begin.
Lu Yuan's feet stepped the "Yu Step, Starving Ghost Crossing," his hand shaking the "Soul-Capturing Alligator Drum."
Dong... dong... dong...
The drum beats were heavy and oppressive, like thunder rumbling from the belly of someone who hadn't eaten for three days and nights.
While beating the drum, he chanted in a strange tone.
"He Sanlang, He Sanlang, born in the year of Gengzi, starved and broken-hearted.
Wild mulberry as stele, soil as bed, seventy years of cold, offerings turned cold.
Now there is millet rice, also glutinous rice fragrance, three bowls of upside-down rice, specially set for you.
If you don't come now, what time will you wait for?!"
This strange scene of singing and chanting made Shen Shulan and the Wuqing Temple crowd's eyes nearly fall out.
If the Lu Yuan from daytime gave them the feeling of professionalism, then the current Lu Yuan was a grandmaster!
An uncontrollable thought simultaneously arose in everyone's hearts.
Just how high was Lu Yuan's cultivation?
Could he... almost be at the Celestial Master realm?
But as soon as this thought appeared, everyone immediately shook their heads, dismissing this absurd idea.
Impossible...
This Lu Yuan looked to be only seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen.
How could someone seventeen or eighteen possibly touch the threshold of Celestial Master?
You must know that Shen Shulan, the publicly recognized first female Celestial Master beyond the pass, a top-tier genius, only became a Celestial Master at twenty-five.
If Lu Yuan had reached the threshold of Celestial Master at seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen, then what would Shen Shulan and all these Wuqing Temple geniuses count as?
A joke?
While the Wuqing Temple crowd pondered.
Woo—
A cold wind suddenly rose!
The ghostly green flames of the Seven Star Soul-Guiding Lamps were instantly stretched, wildly swaying.
A hunched, phantom shadow less than four feet tall was climbing step by step along those seven "Money Bridge" threads toward the altar.
Its appearance was exactly as the villagers described—tattered clothes, sunken cheeks.
Its eyes were two pools of murky dark green hungry fire, fixated on those three bowls of upside-down rice.
It climbed onto the altar, impatiently grabbed a bowl of rice, and squatted on the altar, burying its face in the bowl.
Making sounds of wolfing down food.
Just at this moment, a peachwood sword glowing with an orange-red aura silently pressed against the "Grave Youth's" neck.
The Grave Youth's movements froze. It slowly turned its head, those hungry fire pupils staring directly at Lu Yuan. Its Adam's apple rolled as it made a hoarse sound.
"Hungry..."
Lu Yuan held the wooden sword, expressionless, his eyes ice-cold.
"Before, it was hunger."
"Now, it's greed."
"What you crave is the vitality of the living, the freshness of life."
"This ends here."
The next second, Lu Yuan circulated his spiritual power. Gripping the orange-red wooden sword, he slashed fiercely.
An orange-red sword light, extremely fast and extremely bright, swept across!
The "Grave Youth's" head was cleanly severed, turning into a wisp of black smoke that dissipated in the air.
The instant Lu Yuan struck, Shen Shulan's group behind him had their pupils contract sharply.
The vast spiritual power belonging to a half-step Celestial Master within Lu Yuan surged out without reservation.
A visible, pure "Dao resonance" flashed with the sword's edge!
That wasn't mere power!
That was the symbol of having integrated one's own Dao into spiritual power, touching a trace of "law principle"!
Iron proof of a half-step Celestial Master!
Wait... wait?!
How could this be possible!!!
Lu Yuan had truly reached the threshold of Celestial Master!!
A seventeen or eighteen-year-old... half-step Celestial Master?!!