Sword of Coming

Sword of Coming

A faint murderous aura flowed through the Golden Bell Monastery, yet this aura was extremely thin and could seemingly be dispersed by the wind. The slightly older girl had a puzzled expression as she commented, ”Something doesn’t seem right. I observed the temple from afar last night, and there should be much more murderous aura than this.”

The middle-aged man pondered for a moment before saying, ”This is a good thing. Perhaps these filthy ghosts are forced to hide underground when it’s daytime, so this will coincidentally give my disciple and me more time to put up the talismans, as well as spread the glutinous rice and dog blood. At the same time, you and your sister can set up the necessary formations. When evening arrives and there’s still some lingering light, we can use sudden and overwhelming force to force the ghosts out of the ground. At that time, we’ll be in a very strong position to achieve victory, seeing that the ghosts will no longer have any sort of advantage.”

The slightly older girl nodded in agreement before turning to her eager little sister and saying, ”Make sure to focus and don’t become careless. Ghosts and yin entities have all kinds of strange and unpredictable abilities, so if the Golden Bell Monastery is truly a trap that’s purposely luring us in, then we’ll definitely suffer immensely if we aren’t careful enough.”

”Don’t worry, Big Sis,” the young girl said with a glowing expression.

When they arrived at the entrance of the Golden Bell Monastery, the young girl with red cheeks nimbly jumped onto the temple wall, allowing her to see the many skeletons scattered on the ground in front of the main hall. These were most likely skeletons of the monks and worshippers who hadn’t been able to flee in time.

The young girl rapidly launched an expensive yellow paper talisman drawn with gold powder and had it stick onto the door lintel of the main hall. The talisman surprisingly didn’t show any signs of combustion, and after a short moment, the young girl turned around and said, ”There are temporarily no ghosts in the main hall, so Uncle Song can rest assured and place talismans on the temple doors. After entering the temple, Uncle Song can feel free to scatter glutinous rice along the walls.”

Afterward, the two sisters leaped up and entered the temple first, sticking ordinary yellow paper talismans onto the walls and corridor pillars. Meanwhile, the precious gold powder talismans were reserved for important locations such as the doors of the great hall and the plaques above the doors.

The middle-aged man and his disciple casually tossed away the tubes of incense outside the temple, after which they put down their bags and retrieved several cotton pouches that were heavy and filled with aged glutinous rice, as well as several leather water bladders filled with dog blood. They then started to deftly set up some so-called formations.

The four cultivators carried out their respective tasks in the large temple and eventually converged at the end, with all of them remaining safe and sound.

There was only a single side hall with a tightly shut door that the young girl said was brimming with a strong murderous aura, so the four of them worked together to stick dozens of yellow paper talismans on the doors, windows, roof ridge, and curved eaves. The young girl personally placed talismans on the rooftop, after which she started to lift up the roof tiles and allow sunshine to penetrate into the side hall. This caused anguished wails to erupt in the hall, and there was also the crackling sound of black mist being scorched by the sun and transformed into ashes.

In the end, the four cultivators gathered before the entrance of the side hall.

They exchanged a smile with each other.

The slightly older girl held a demon-binding chain which she had once spent her life savings of forty whopping snowflake coins to purchase.

Her younger sister acted even stranger, chanting a mantra before squatting down and retrieving an embroidered pouch. After untying the pouch rope, a collection of ancient and strange copper coins started to automatically roll into the surroundings by themselves.

As for the middle-aged man and his disciple, they remained empty-handed as they prepared to fight with their fists. However, the middle-aged man had a ring of throwing knives hanging around his waist, with each throwing knife engraved with talismanic symbols. It was clear that these weren’t ordinary weapons carried by martial artists from the cultivation world.

The slightly older girl and the middle-aged man exchanged a smile.

By the looks of it, the cultivation bases of the ghosts and spirits in the temple weren’t as high as they had initially anticipated. Moreover, these beings were extremely afraid of sunlight, so if things were as they expected, there definitely weren’t dozens of vicious ghosts gathered in the temple as the rumours said. Rather, the residents of Ritual Baton Prefecture were far too terrified of the situation, causing them to incorrectly spread the rumor and making it become increasingly inaccurate. It was thanks to this that the four of them now had an opportunity to earn a big reward.

They were truly enjoying great fortune!

It could be said that they were enjoying fortune beyond their wildest dreams!

When discussing the matters at the prefectural overseer’s office before, they had haggled with the stingy old official for a long time, tricking and frightening him before he finally promised to pay them five thousand taels of silver if they succeeded. However, this was a very small amount, and it definitely wouldn’t be enough for them to go to such great lengths to suppress the ghosts at the Golden Bell Monastery. It would become an even worse deal if they suffered any injuries or casualties during battle.

However, there were greater rewards in addition to those promised by the prefectural overseer’s office, with the prefectural overseer promising thirty thousand taels of silver, a sum that the wealthy worshippers in the prefectural city were willing to raise together. That being the case, it became very worthwhile to take the risk and suppress the ghosts at the Golden Bell Monastery.

And now, they were unexpectedly able to claim huge rewards with little effort.

The middle-aged man was delighted as he looked around with a confident and content expression, thinking that they could return to the prefectural city to claim their reward of thirty-five thousand taels of silver once they disposed of the ghosts in the side hall. At that time, they would split the rewards thirty-seventy as agreed on before, leaving more than ten thousand taels of silver for him and his disciple.

Sure enough, today was an auspicious day to vanquish demons and eliminate ghosts!

They started to take action, with the copper coins retrieved by the younger girl rolling around the side hall once before standing upright on the ground. The younger girl put her index finger and forefinger together, silently reciting a mantra and causing the copper coins to instantly burrow into the ground. Her face became slightly pale, and she looked toward her sister after completing this task.

The slightly older girl nodded and said to the middle-aged man in a quiet voice, ”My younger sister and I will go onto the rooftop in a moment to gauge the strength of the ghosts first. If they’re forced to run outside, then the two of you should immediately attack them and prevent them from fleeing outside the temple. If they continue to hide and refuse to leave the side hall, then we should directly dismantle the side hall while there’s still some sunlight remaining. The copper coins released by my younger sister can create a cage around the area, but it won’t be able to imprison the ghosts for too long. As such, the two of you need to act as quickly as possible if the ghosts run outside in a moment.”

The middle-aged man nodded in response and said, ”Rest assured.”

The two sisters jumped onto the rooftop of the side hall again, launching yellow paper talismans inside and occasionally launching a few precious gold powder talismans.

The young boy also retrieved a copper mirror, slanting it sideways and having it point toward the windows of the side hall.

A young scholar in white was actually sitting on a nearby rooftop with a bamboo case on his back. However, there was a Stele Carrying Talisman from the Ghost Axe Palace stuck on his body, resulting in the four cultivators not being able to see him due to their relatively low cultivation bases.

An intense and soul-stirring battle took place.

Black smoke soared into the sky, and even though countless talismans rushed into the side hall, with the slightly older girl using her demon-binding chain to whip the black smoke again and again, the young boy using his copper mirror to scorch the black smoke, and the middle-aged man using his throwing knives to pierce the black smoke, the black smoke was still wanton and unrestrained after if fled from the cage surrounding the side hall.

In order to save the young boy, the slightly older girl was even struck in the back by a burst of black smoke, causing her to cough up blood and collapse to the ground. However, she still fought to stand up, continuing to form hand seals and launch the yellow paper talismans that she had drawn. In the end, these talismans transformed into a talismanic fire dragon, and the slightly older girl went as far as to exhaust her spiritual energy to protect the four of them.

The scholar in white furrowed his brows and slapped his forehead, saying in an exasperated voice, ”You actually dared to come to the Golden Bell Monastery to vanquish the ghosts with such measly abilities? And this is after I already helped you kill eighty to ninety percent of the vicious ghosts.”

He smiled faintly and lightly snapped his fingers.

The black smoke that had escaped from some sort of restriction just then instantly condensed together and landed on the ground, transforming into a vicious ghost that measured three meters in height. Afterward, the four cultivators finally managed to kill the vicious ghost in a perilous battle.

The young girl was hunched over as she wiped away the blood from the corners of her mouth and her nose, and she asked with a dazzling smile, ”Big Sis, I didn’t hold everyone back this time, did I?”

The slightly older girl felt relieved to be alive, and the rims of her eyes were red as she briskly walked over to support her swaying little sister. She shot a glare and scolded, ”Why are you trying to play a hero? Stop talking and tend to your wounds.”

The young boy looked at the extremely damaged ancient copper mirror in his hand before glancing at his heavily panting master. The latter faltered for a moment, and after seeing the vicious look in the young boy’s eyes, he hesitated a little before lightly nodding in response.

The middle-aged man then looked around and laughed loudly, saying, ”Miss Xining, Little Quan, heaven and earth are bright and clear now, so it’s clear that all of the ghosts and spirits have been vanquished. Why don’t we rest at the temple tonight before returning to the prefectural city tomorrow?”

Xining, the slightly older girl, furrowed her brows and replied, ”The Golden Bell Monastery is indeed free of murderous aura now, but the vicious ghosts have already occupied this area for a very long time? What if we let slip one or two of them? My sister and I have already used up all of our talismans, and we no longer have the ability to fight against enemies. It’s best that we return to the prefectural city as soon as possible.”

The young boy shook his head and said, ”Big Sister Xining, the prefectural overseer will definitely get the wrong idea and think that it was far too easy for us to deal with the vicious ghosts if we return too early. If he’s truly shameless enough, then we can most likely still collect the five thousand taels of silver since the contract is written on paper. However, it’s difficult to say whether or not the prefectural overseer will shamelessly pocket the thirty thousand taels of silver himself.

”Not only should we not leave tonight, but we should even dismantle a few more walls of the temple before returning to collect our full reward. Moreover, we need to purposely tell the prefectural overseer that one or two of the vicious ghosts managed to escape. As such, he needs to offer us an additional five thousand taels of silver to hunt down the remaining ghosts and finish off the job.”

The young girl rolled her eyes upon hearing this. However, she hurriedly turned around and covered her mouth as she coughed up another mouthful of blood. This was slightly embarrassing.

The slightly older girl pondered for a moment before nodding and replying with a smile, ”Then we’ll follow this plan and return to the prefectural city tomorrow. We can stay in the temple for the night, and this will also give my younger sister some time to rest and recuperate.”

A flustered scholar in white suddenly ran over from a corridor beside the main hall at this moment, exclaiming in panic, ”Why are there so many skeletons in front of the main hall? Why isn’t there a single monk in the temple...? Perhaps there are truly demons causing trouble here...?”

The young girl was incredibly annoyed at him right now, but she also felt slightly at ease upon seeing that he was still alive and kicking.

Afterward, the middle-aged man and his disciple retrieved the remaining talismans and placed the leftover glutinous rice back inside their pouches, keeping them for future use.

The slightly older girl picked a quiet room in the temple that was usually reserved for wealthy visitors to stay and copy scriptures. Her younger sister sat cross-legged in the corridor outside and started to meditate and perform breathing techniques.

Meanwhile, her older sister continued to observe the surroundings, lest anything unexpected happen.

The cowardly scholar insisted on following the two sisters, and he sat down on the steps and acted like a door god after putting down his bamboo case.

It was still evening, and the slightly older girl returned to the room carrying a large bag of some seemingly valuable books and scriptures that she had collected from around the temple.

The young girl opened her eyes and smiled, saying to the scholar who was sitting with his back facing her, ”It’s almost nighttime, so it won’t be long before vicious ghosts start to appear here and cause commotion. Are you not going to run away?”

The scholar in white turned around and replied with a faint smile, ”The books say that humans are afraid of ghosts, but ghosts are even more afraid of the human heart. However, I feel like Young Miss is a good person, so staying close to you will be better.”

The young girl racked her brains for a response, and she waved a fist and said, ”Are you praising me or criticizing me? Be careful of my fist if you continue to act so bastardly!”

The scholar raised his hands in surrender and said, ”A noble person should settle disputes through reason and not violence.”

The young girl chuckled, feeling amused and playful as she replied, ”I’m not a noble person, and I’m also a girl as well. Come, let me reward you with a punch to make you a bit smarter. Perhaps you can even become a champion scholar after I knock some sense into you!”

The scholar in white had genuinely gone stupid from reading too much, and he surprisingly smiled and said, ”Young Miss appears like an upright and kind person who’s no inferior to a noble person.”

There was a look of displeasure on the slightly older girl’s face as she interjected, ”Since Young Master is a scholar who views himself as a noble person, then Young Master should be aware of the etiquette between men and women. That being the case, why is Young Master shamelessly remaining outside our residence? Is this appropriate?”

However, just when the young girl felt like the scholar had become slightly smarter, she heard him say, ”I’m not a noble person, and I’m only an impoverished scholar. If there are truly ghosts in the Golden Bell Monastery, then I obviously can’t run outside to seek death, so my best option is naturally to stay here.”

”Piss off!” the slightly older girl said with a stern expression.

The young girl was just about to say something, but she immediately shut up in fright after seeing her older sister’s angry glare.

The scholar had no option but to grab his bamboo case and tremble with fear as he walked out of the courtyard.

He was most likely walking over to the temple wall to repent?

”Why are you being so fierce, Big Sis? He’s just a dumb goose scholar,” the young girl said quietly.

The slightly older girl frowned and replied, ”You need to rest and recuperate now, so there’s no room for any mistake or error. It was already strange for this person to appear on the road to the temple before, and it was even stranger for him to enter the Golden Bell Monastery after us. If it weren’t for him appearing on the road in front of us, then I would have physically shooed him away, to say nothing of verbally shooing him away.”

Her voice became soft and gentle as she continued, ”Alright, you should continue to rest now.”

The young girl nodded in response, but she continued to glance at the courtyard door out of the corners of her eyes.

Her older sister chuckled in anger and said, ”There are no ghosts and spirits remaining here, and there are only five living and breathing people. He’ll simply feel afraid and apprehensive as he sleeps outside. However, are you not worried about your own sister? Are you not worried about the two people who fought alongside us? Why are you choosing to worry about an outsider instead? What’s this? Perhaps you feel attracted to him because he’s a scholar? Let me tell you this: scholars are the most unreliable people in the world...”

”Okay, okay, I’ll listen to you and cultivate here in earnest!” the young girl responded in a pleading voice.

It was already late at night.

The young girl sat in the corridor and quietly cultivated in earnest.

Meanwhile, her older sister sat on the steps and rested for a short moment, not daring to fall asleep.

They were still inside the Golden Bell Monastery, after all.

Several throwing knives suddenly sliced through the air and surged over from outside the courtyard door.

A familiar figure continued to stride over.

Even though the slightly older girl was stunned and frightened, she still swung her large sleeves and knocked away the incisive throwing knives.

A throwing knife directly flew toward her younger sister’s neck with force and vigor, with this weapon being unleashed by the young boy squatting on a temple wall.

The slightly older girl allowed a throwing knife to pierce into her shoulder as she lunged over to grab the throwing knife that was only two inches from ripping through her younger sister’s neck. However, the middle-aged martial artist had already arrived beside her with a single step, striking her temple with a punch and sending her flying through the wall and the window, eventually crashing into the wing room. The slightly older girl continued to cough up blood, struggling to stand up but failing to do so.

The young boy nimbly jumped down the temple wall and said with a sinister smile, ”Master, can we not kill Little Quan for the moment? It’s best that we keep Big Sister Xining alive as well. We simply need to cripple their immortal abilities.”

The middle-aged man raised a hand and launched a palm strike at the young girl whose cultivation they had forcefully interrupted, shaking his head and saying, ”This little girl is more difficult to deal with, so Master will help you keep her older sister alive instead.”

The young boy roared with laughter and exclaimed, ”Hahaha, we’ve obtained both money and beautiful women!”

The middle-aged man suddenly turned his head, wrapping his hand around the slightly older girl’s neck as he looked toward the courtyard door.

The young boy rapidly made his way over to the middle-aged man’s side.

Over at the courtyard door, someone stuck their head inside and said in a timid voice, ”It’s not very good to do these things inside a peaceful and tranquil Buddhist temple, is it?”

The young girl’s expression was livid, and she moved her lips as if wanting to warn the dumb goose scholar to hurry up and run away.

The scholar in white seemingly caught sight of the young girl’s expression as well, and he faltered for a moment before asking, ”Kind Young Girl, perhaps you want me to save you? Rest assured, I’m a chivalrous and upright person, and after reading so many sagely books, I dare say that I’m actually filled with a righteous aura that gives rise to blissful winds...”

The young girl tried her best to shake her head as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Her cheeks were bright red.

She appeared as adorable as could be.

The scholar’s eyes slowly narrowed, and he no longer appeared like a naive and foolish person. He boldly stepped to the entrance of the courtyard and raised a hand, snapping his fingers and commanding, ”You can come out now. Some people in the yang world deserve to be devoured by vicious ghosts from the yin world.”

The middle-aged man and the young boy saw a vicious ghost that measured three meters in height timidly walk out from behind the weakling scholar’s back, with its raging aura far stronger than that of the ghost they had defeated before.

The middle-aged man immediately let go of the slightly older girl’s neck and remarked, ”Young Master is actually the ghost king here, right? It was all a misunderstanding, and my disciple and I definitely have no intentions of sullying this precious area. It was all the fault of these two cultivators, what with them wanting to take all of the merit and reward money for themselves...”

The malicious ghost transformed into a cloud of rolling black smoke and instantly enveloped the middle-aged man, shortly after which the sound of tearing flesh and snapping bones could be heard amid the heart-wrenching screaming.

The young boy surprisingly didn’t freeze to the spot in terror, and he still had the strength to tap his foot and leap onto the wall, rapidly fleeing into the distance.

As if receiving a new command, the malicious ghost let go of the middle-aged man who was already dead and flew out of the courtyard to hunt the young boy. It wasn’t long before similarly pitiful shrieks and tearing sounds traveled over from the distance.

Afterward, a ray of sword light descended from the sky and elicited a deafening and anguished wail from the malicious ghost, one that even the residents of the prefectural city could presumably hear. This was a wail that would definitely frighten countless mortal residents. However, peace and quiet quickly returned to the world.

The young girl was dumbstruck, and she asked with a dazed expression, ”You’re the ghost king?”

The scholar smiled and sat down on the steps, asking in response, ”What do you think?”

”Don’t eat me first, okay? Let me check on my Big Sis,” the young girl suddenly replied.

”Alright,” the scholar replied with a nod.

The young girl wanted to glare at him, but upon realizing that he was most likely the ghost king at the Golden Bell Monastery, she hurriedly ran over to check on her older sister and help her out of the wing room.

The slightly older girl smiled bitterly and remained silent, standing there defenselessly as she waited for death to arrive.

She had clearly witnessed the commotion outside just then.

There was a complicated and despondent expression on the young girl’s face as she looked at the pile of mangled flesh and bones on the ground.

How had this happened?

She and her older sister hadn’t died at the hands of the ghosts, yet they had almost died at the hands of the middle-aged man and his disciple, both of whom they had traveled with for a long time across more than half of the Locust Flower Nation?

They had appeared like fairly good people.

When she and her older sister walked out of the wing room, the scholar in white had already stood up and walked toward the courtyard. He simply turned his head to look at the young girl, saying, ”After today’s events, your older sister will definitely tell you in a definitive manner that there are always so many bad people in the world. However, you don’t need to feel disappointed. The world and its people aren’t correct just because they’re always like this. No matter how many injustices you witness and come across, again and again, I hope you always remember that you’re still correct.”

The scholar in white retrieved a bamboo hat and put it on, continuing, ”See, good people enjoying good fortunes and bad people suffering miserable fortunes is true, at least for tonight.”

After walking out of the courtyard, he suddenly leaned back and said with a dazzling smile, ”You’re very beautiful, Young Miss, so you’ll definitely be able to find a good man in the future.”

The young girl didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry, and she wiped the tears from her cheeks as she chided softly, ”How annoying!”

However, she suddenly recalled the ray of golden light from just then, so she asked with a bright glimmer in her eyes, ”You’re actually a sword immortal, aren’t you?”

The scholar in white slowly straightened his back and replied with a faint smile, ”I’m a sword cultivator who’s become a dumb goose from studying too much.”

Afterward, he transformed into a ray of brilliant white light that launched up from the ground and flew toward the north.