Unsheathed

Prior to his departure, Chen Ping'an had sat down with Gu Can and outlined to him what had to be done over the coming years.

It would take at least two years for Gu Can to arrange the Heavenly Dao and the Liberation Rite of Water and Land, and that, in addition to the what Chen Ping'an had done earlier in the Stone Brush Nation and the Plum Glaze Nation, would only go halfway to repaying Gu Can's debts. From there, he would have to continue his travels and strive to create an island in Bamboo Scroll Lake that was fit for the cultivation of ghostly entities and yin spirits.

The trio slowly traveled toward Cyan Gorge Island by boat, and Gu Can was standing at the front of the boat with the bamboo bookcase on his back.

Over the past year, he had been constantly carrying the Hall of the Underworld on his back.

It seemed like a blessing to be able to transform into a yin entity following one's demise, but it was actually more so a curse.

All yin entities, regardless of whether they had once been mortals or cultivators, had to have held very deep seated fixations during their lifetimes and strong attachments to the world of the living. However, the cycle of life and death was part of the natural order, and they were punished by the laws of heaven and earth for defying this cycle.

The passage of time, the twenty-four solar terms, the rumbling of spring thunder, the yang energy of summer... All of these aspects of nature posed no harm to the average person, but were nothing short of torture for yin entities to endure.

There were also things like the morning gong strikes of monasteries and temples, the incense offerings in scholarly and martial sage temples, as well as city god pavilions, the door gods plastered to the entrances of households, the aura of war on battlefields... All of these things harmed yin entities to different extents.

That wasn't even to mention the official immortals who often went out slaying ghostly entities in order to accumulate merit for themselves, as well as ghostly cultivators who relished in capturing yin spirits before molding said yin spirits to their needs, often through extremely tortuous and painful means. With so many trials and tribulations constantly hanging over the heads of all yin entities, it was truly a fate worse than death.

Of course, Gu Can had been somewhat familiar with this prior to Chen Ping'an's arrival in Bamboo Scroll Lake, but he had never bothered to look into such matters.

However, things were different now.