Chapter 36: Unmoving Like a Mountain
“Could it be a drowned ghost?” Li Yanchu muttered to himself, then quickly shook his head and dismissed the thought.
Ordinary souls of those who drown were bound to the place where they perished. Water, being extremely yin and highly baleful, prevented such spirits from reincarnating or leaving their place of death, unless they managed to find a substitute to die in their place.
Still, Li Yanchu didn’t dwell on it too much. The Ghost Dao was far more complex than the human one. There were countless types of yin spirits, even seeing one with your own eyes didn’t guarantee you’d be able to identify it.
Li Yanchu hadn’t brought the Jiaoslayer with him. That saber was a suppressing artifact, so if he had brought it along, most ordinary evil spirits wouldn’t dare to show themselves at all. Ordinary spirits wouldn’t even dare get close to him. But that wasn’t Li Yanchu’s intention. He had taken this job to earn money and dispel evil in return.
As a professional Daoist, he had come this time specifically to eliminate malevolent spirits. As for the possibility that the yin spirit might be too powerful and his life might be at risk, Li Yanchu had never considered it.
If a cultivator couldn’t even overcome that basic fear, always hesitant and cautious, allowing evil spirits to harm and kill the innocent, then they might as well give up on any hope of true accomplishment in this life. They would be unworthy of being called a practitioner of the Dao. Li Yanchu trained in martial arts and cultivation to gain strength, not to become a coward.
The courtyard where Mrs. Liu’s room was located had been completely abandoned. The maids of the Feng household had been scared out of their wits by the midnight weeping of a woman.
Li Yanchu pushed open the door and walked in. The room was neat, and the bed was properly made, but it was obvious no one had lived in it for several days. There was a cold, lifeless air in the room, lacking all human warmth.
Homes that were lived in naturally carried human qi, and old houses left empty for years often became places where strange things happened. Mrs. Liu had been a tidy person, not fond of dressing up, so the room didn’t carry the strong scent of makeup or powder.
Li Yanchu remained calm and composed. He didn’t practice martial arts or begin his meditation. Instead, he casually took out a volume of folk tales of the strange and began to read.
He didn’t have the slightest hint of nervousness. If not for his Daoist robes, he would’ve looked more like a clean-cut, scholarly young man.