"How did it go?"
Lu Yuan pushed open the hall door, the door hinge emitting a soft creak.
Inside the hall, the old man sat cross-legged on a prayer mat in front of the coffin, a wine gourd in his arms, dozing off to the rhythm of his breathing.
Hearing the sound, he cracked open his eyelids a sliver, glanced sideways at Lu Yuan, then let them droop again, his voice slurred.
"It's done."
Lu Yuan's heart relaxed. He quickly walked to the coffin, channeling strength into his shoulders as he steadily lifted the heavy coffin lid.
Inside the coffin, Gu Qingwan's physical body lay quietly.
The blood-written curse above her head, the very first character "eternal”, the "dot" on top of it had disappeared.
This speed was neither fast nor slow.
In one day's time, one dot had already been erased but if he wanted to erase the entire line of blood writing, it wouldn't happen in less than two or three months.
Moreover, this was only for the curse on her eyes. There were still her mouth and tongue, the major acupoints throughout her body, and her legs.
If everything was to be completed, it would definitely take years.
Lu Yuan couldn't bear for Gu Qingwan to suffer for such a long time.
Even though before he met Gu Qingwan, she had already endured this for over a hundred years.
"It's a bit slow."
Lu Yuan turned back to look at the drowsy old man and said.
At this moment, the old man didn't even open his eyes, mumbling, "This is still slow?"
"A hundred-year curse, able to be removed in a few years' time, how much faster do you want?"
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow, his gaze burning.
"Can it be even faster?"
The old man squinted through his eye slits, finally willing to open them. He shook his head, with a few traces of post-drinking confusion.
"Sure."
"Sure, if you get True Dragon Temple to have ten thousand pilgrims a day, it'll be done in a few months."
Lu Yuan's eyes instantly brightened.
That wasn't impossible!
He immediately had a plan in mind.
From now on, he'd work harder! One job after another, with no breaks in between.
Especially after the heavy snow sealed the mountain, ordinary Daoist temples would close their doors and not come out unless wealthy families were willing to pay several hundred yuan for big jobs then he would do the opposite!
He'd do it like when he first transmigrated, following the old man traveling far and wide, visiting all the villages around Fengtian City!
Build up a winter's worth of good reputation, and why worry about sparse incense offerings when spring came?
The more Lu Yuan thought about it, the more excited he became, while the old man on the prayer mat looked at his expression with nothing but disdain in his turbid old eyes.
"Bewitched by a ghost!"
Lu Yuan chuckled and didn't argue, only saying, "I'm going back to sleep first. Tomorrow I have to go to Fengtian City. Help me find two disciples who are willing to go to Fengtian City with me. Also, after the heavy snow seals the mountain this year, they'll follow me to go door-to-door through the villages. They won't go home for New Year's.I won't shortchange them. All the money earned from jobs, I'll split with them."
After speaking, Lu Yuan grinned broadly, full of heroic spirit.
"By then, we'll build up a winter's worth of good reputation. Come next spring, forget ten thousand pilgrims a day, we'll get eighty thousand a day!"
"We'll get Gu Qingwan fixed up in one month!"
Of course, Lu Yuan was joking. Even Wuqing Temple didn't have eighty thousand people a day.
The old man was too lazy to deal with his craziness and waved his hand dismissively.
Lu Yuan turned and walked toward the hall exit. Before leaving, he didn't forget to turn back and remind him.
"Remember to find people for me. We're leaving first thing tomorrow morning. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can come back."
He walked outside the hall and was about to close the hall door when the corner of his eye caught a glimpse of blood red.
Gu Qingwan's figure silently rose from within the coffin, suspended in mid-air.
Those crimson eyes stared straight at him.
Lu Yuan waved at her and softened his voice.
"Lie back down quickly."
"While I'm gone, listen to my master in all things. He won't harm you."
"I'll run a few more jobs. When spring comes next year and more people come to our True Dragon Temple, we can break your curse faster."
"Stay calm and don't run around."
Gu Qingwan's crimson eyes gazed at Lu Yuan, and the surrounding air seemed to become viscous.
For a long while, a weak, ethereal sound, as if transmitted from another world, rang out.
"..."
"...Mm..."
Then, that blood-colored figure slowly descended and sank into the coffin.
...
The next day, early morning.
A horse carriage stopped at the side door of True Dragon Temple.
"Don't try to be brave in everything. If you can't handle the other side, send word back."
"Understand the book I gave you to read before you reach Zhao Qiao'er's home."
The old man had dark circles under his eyes, leaning against the door frame, his body swaying unsteadily. Clearly he hadn't been able to sleep soundly last night.
Dispelling the curse for a super-fierce entity of twenty stars and above was indeed difficult for him.
Before, when the old man was sleepy, he would just fall asleep immediately.
Lu Yuan nodded repeatedly.
"I know, I know. Where are the people you found for me?"
As soon as he finished speaking, two familiar voices came from not far away.
"Brother Lu!"
Lu Yuan turned his head and saw Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an, each carrying a large wooden box on their backs and shouldering two large bundles of luggage, running over out of breath.
"Hey?!"
"Why haven't you two left yet!"
Lu Yuan looked at these two somewhat bewildered.
Xu Erxiao grinned and said,"Yesterday we heard Brother Lu, you advanced to Celestial Master, so we wanted to stay one more day to see a Celestial Master's bearing with our own eyes before leaving."
"Then today we heard you were looking for people, so we came!"
Wang Cheng'an nodded vigorously beside him, "We also gotta return the things Auntie Qiao'er gave us!"
At this point, Xu Erxiao said with an indignant face, "Brother Lu!"
"Why didn't you just call us directly!"
"You're disgusted by us, right!"
Looking at his appearance, Lu Yuan rolled his eyes and said, "I was afraid you'd get me killed again."
Xu Erxiao's face instantly flushed red. Thinking of that night at the Mountain God Temple, even his neck turned red.
His lips moved, but in the end he didn't make any vows. He just gritted his teeth and used all his strength to say in a muffled voice.
"I...I absolutely won't do that again!"
"If I do that kind of thing again, I'll bash my own head to death in the Three Pure Ones Hall!"
Looking at Xu Erxiao's fierce appearance, Lu Yuan waved his hands repeatedly, "Yikes!!"
"I'm just teasing you, look at you!"
"Alright, alright, I won't mention it again. Hurry up and get in the carriage!"
The three bid farewell to the old man. The carriage started up and slowly descended the mountain.
Inside the carriage, Lu Yuan pulled out a yellowed handwritten book from his chest and, borrowing the natural light from outside the window, carefully read through it.
...
At the same time, in Fengtian City, the Zhao family residence.
In a magnificently luxurious inner chamber, the bleakness and cold outside the door were completely shut out.
Inside the room, a heated kang, heated walls, and a stove were all available.
In the fire basin at the very center, there wasn't ordinary charcoal burning.
Instead, fist-sized objects like red jelly were burning, translucent throughout, occasionally wriggling by themselves.
That was crushed spirit meat.
Such an extravagant heating method made the entire room as warm as spring or summer.
Deep in the room stood a huge silk screen with a beautiful woman painted on it.
The screen was thin and translucent, vaguely revealing behind it on the bed a voluptuously sexy woman with an extremely alluring figure.
Through the screen, the woman's face and clothing couldn't be seen clearly.
One could only vaguely see she wore a nightgown, her chest and thighs showing patches of snow white, her long hair casually draped down, as if she had just bathed.
Several maidservants quietly walked behind the screen.
Some squatted in front of the bed massaging her legs, some rubbed her shoulders, while others dipped their fingertips in fragrant balm, gently applying it to this top-tier mature beauty's tender, fair skin.
"Click."
A maidservant struck a match.
For this extremely sexy, top-tier mature woman who seemed like a ripe peach, she lit an exquisite jade-mouthed opium pipe.
A wisp of eerie blood-red smoke curled upward.
That smoke carried a strange sweet fragrance. Smelling it made one's bones go soft, as if one's soul would be seduced away.
This wasn't tobacco, but tobacco made from crushed, more refined spirit meat.
"Cough...cough cough..."
A bout of violent coughing shattered the room's enchanting atmosphere.
The maidservants hurriedly took the jade-mouthed pipe from the woman's hand, their faces full of worry.
"Madam, please let the Daoist Master from White Cloud Temple come have a look..."
"Your illness has been burning for so many days, and the coughing is severe. We've consulted all the doctors in Fengtian City to no avail."
"The Daoist Master from White Cloud Temple said you've been struck by evil qi. They're waiting in the front courtyard. Let them come in and examine you?"
After the bout of coughing, this extremely sexy mature beauty eased up considerably then she took the jade-mouthed pipe back from the maidservant's hand.
A lazy, sexy, slightly hoarse mature woman's voice drifted out from behind the beauty screen, "So much fuss."
"Except for my dear nephew, I trust no one!"
[NEXT CHAPTER]