My Master’s Daoist Heart is Unstable - Chapter 6

The two men descended the stairs. The inn, which had been deserted all day, now had a middle-aged shopkeeper standing by the counter in the evening light. As they turned to approach him, the shopkeeper suddenly pointed to his throat, shaking his head and waving his hands. When he opened his mouth, only a hoarse, raspy “ah, ah” came out.

He was a mute.

The two men abandoned their plans. Li Shangyuan nodded to the shopkeeper and turned to leave. Just then, a gut-wrenching cough erupted from the side chamber next to the counter. Hearing it, the shopkeeper rushed inside.

The two men froze.

Through the partially open door, they saw a middle-aged woman, wasting away from a terminal illness, lying on the bed. She looked like a withered husk. Neatly folded clothes were stacked on the bed and even on the table, garments of various sizes, their price tags still attached.

The shopkeeper helped the woman sit up, holding a cup of tea to her lips. As she drank, he gently patted her back to help her catch her breath. After she finished, the woman lifted her head with great effort, managed a weak smile for the shopkeeper, and then noticed the two men outside. She tapped the shopkeeper’s hand and pointed tremblingly toward the door. The shopkeeper nodded, tucked the blanket around her, and quickly stepped out.

The shopkeeper hadn’t expected them to still be there. He bowed repeatedly, his hands trembling, his head bowed low as if terrified of disturbing them.

Li Shangyuan waved him off, signaling that there was no need for such formality. “It’s alright,” he said gently. “Is the woman in the inner room your wife?”

Though the two men exuded the noble and righteous aura of a prestigious sect, the shopkeeper still cringed, nodding anxiously.

“I have a few pills here. They won’t save her life, but they’ll make her much more comfortable.” Li Shangyuan produced a white jade bottle and held it out.

The shopkeeper hesitated to take it, so Li Shangyuan had to press it into his hand.

“Just take it, will you? Stop being so tedious,” Dian Chao said, leaning against a pillar with a slow drawl. “This can only benefit mortals like you.”

The shopkeeper finally accepted the bottle, knowing that if the immortals truly wanted to harm them, they wouldn’t have gone to such trouble. He bowed deeply in gratitude. As the two men turned to leave, he hesitated for a moment before slipping the note from his sleeve into their hands and hurrying back into the room.

Li Shangyuan took the note, unfurled it, and frowned slightly. Dian Chao leaned in to read it, his expression turning to one of shock and suspicion.

“Please leave this town at once.”

Li Shangyuan pondered the message, then used a Fireball Spell to incinerate the paper.

“This town is stranger than it seems.”

The two missing demons, the peculiar mortals, the overly welcoming cultivators, and the wooden branches that defied the wind and rain.

A possibility suddenly struck Li Shangyuan. After a moment’s thought, he decided it was best to keep his suspicions to himself for now.

“Tsk, why make it so complicated? Why not just grab those cultivators and grill them until they tell us everything?” Dian Chao was too lazy to dwell on the town’s oddities, and guessing only gave him a headache. He just wanted to drag the truth out of them, then kill them.

Li Shangyuan looked at him with a helpless sigh. “What if we alert them? What if those two are colluding with the demons? And what if they’re actually good people?”

Dian Chao’s irritation grew with each of Li Shangyuan’s questions. Seeing this, Li Shangyuan spoke again, his voice patient. “Let’s just observe for now. For a start, let’s go check out the ancestral hall.”

Dian Chao looked displeased but didn’t argue.

The town was small, and it didn’t take them long to find the ancestral hall. It was a modest building, yet its supporting beams were thick and sturdy, each as wide as five or six burly men standing side by side.

They stepped inside. Their eyes immediately fell upon an empty altar in the center, devoid of any statues. Hanging from the ceiling above it were various flowers tied together with wooden branches, so lifelike they seemed almost real. It looked no different from the other houses in town.

Dian Chao wandered around, using his Fireball Spell to light the candles. Only then did he notice the murals carved into the walls, depicting a variety of animals, all rendered with vivid detail.

“Huh?”

Li Shangyuan, who had been examining the other side of the room, spoke in a low voice. “There’s a white-crested cockatoo and a yellow weasel on here.”

Dian Chao was bewildered. “Isn’t this just a mortal’s ancestral hall? Why would they carve animals on the walls?”

Li Shangyuan had a growing suspicion. His broad figure cast a flickering shadow against the wooden wall in the dim candlelight.

“Perhaps,” he said softly, his gaze fixed on the wall, “this was never a mortal’s ancestral hall to begin with.”

Dian Chao rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. “Listen, we should just offer those two cultivators some benefits, use that to lure them in, and if that doesn’t work, intimidate them. We’ll get the information one way or another.” His father always interrogated people like that, and it never failed to produce immediate results.

Before Li Shangyuan could respond, a rustling sound came from outside the door. They both turned to look and saw the same child from earlier that day.

The boy was painfully thin, showing signs of severe malnutrition, yet his clothes were clean and tidy. He stood at the doorway, his eyes wide as he watched them, but he didn’t say a word.

Dian Chao raised an eyebrow and stepped forward. “Are you following us?”

The child flinched, clearly frightened, but he still nodded. He then scurried over to Li Shangyuan, tugged at his sleeve, and pointed toward a direction outside.

Dian Chao felt a flicker of confusion. Am I really that scary?

Li Shangyuan knelt down to the child’s level and asked softly, “Do you want us to follow you?”

The boy’s eyes lit up when he realized Li Shangyuan understood. He nodded eagerly and grabbed Li Shangyuan’s hand, trying to pull him away.

As Li Shangyuan stood up and followed the child, he realized that the boy, much like the shopkeeper, seemed unable to speak.

The three of them navigated the winding alleys, turning left and right until they finally stopped before a locked small gate. The child pointed inside, let out a few “ah, ah” sounds, and then skillfully pushed aside the bushes along the wall, revealing a small, low dog hole. He pointed to himself, then to the hole.

“You mean you crawled in through here? And you want us to follow, right?” Li Shangyuan’s voice was gentle.

The child’s grin widened, and he nodded vigorously.

Dian Chao had already picked the lock without them even noticing. He shot them a look, urging them to hurry.

Inside, it was pitch black. With the child leading the way, the three of them crossed the small courtyard and ventured deeper into the compound.

As they turned a corner, they stumbled upon a vast patch of glowing spiritual herbs. Beside the plants lay dozens of men, scattered haphazardly, their faces numb and ashen. Hearing the footsteps, they didn’t dare look up, only scrambling to their feet and kneeling in haste.

Only then did Li Shangyuan notice a tube connected to each man’s arm. The other end of each tube was attached to the roots and stems of the spiritual herbs, and the substance flowing through them was fresh blood.

They were nourishing the spiritual herbs with blood!

Dian Chao and Li Shangyuan stared in disbelief, having never heard of such a thing.

The child tugged at Li Shangyuan’s hand, his face etched with a desperate plea for help.

The mortals seemed to realize the newcomers were not to be trusted, yet they dared not raise their heads. Only one man, half-lifting his head, waved frantically, gesturing for the child to run.

The child scrambled over, communicating with the man through signs. The man immediately straightened his back and looked at Li Shangyuan and Dian Chao with a glimmer of hope. His mouth opened as if to speak, but all that emerged was a hoarse, guttural croak.

Li Shangyuan strode forward. Seeing him, the man clasped his hands together and began kowtowing frantically. Li Shangyuan’s expression finally darkened. What a truly vicious method, he thought. In an instant, the chorus of sobs and the rhythmic thuds of heads hitting the ground crashed against his heart like a relentless tide of boulders.

Just as he and Dian Chao were about to rescue the captives, the people began waving their arms wildly, gesturing desperately as if trying to say something.

Li Shangyuan produced paper and brush. The man took them with trembling hands, his wrist so stiff from disuse that he struggled to write each stroke.

“Please,” the message read, “save our families first.”

The ancestral hall fell into absolute silence as Li Shangyuan and Dian Chao arrived before the Yin hour.

Dian Chao looked down at the formation already drawn on the floor and raised an eyebrow. “They’ve gone all out with this performance, haven’t they? But what kind of formation is this?”

Li Shangyuan studied the symbols. It looked like…

When Dian Chao didn’t get an answer, he turned and leaned against the wall, his expression unreadable. “We’re too early. The Yin hour is still a long way off.” Recalling what those two cultivators had done, Dian Chao felt a sudden urge to crush them both right then and there.

“They’re already here,” Li Shangyuan announced, his voice striking like a thunderclap.

The moment the words left his lips, a passage opened beneath the altar. Two figures emerged, their movements unhurried. “Fellow cultivators, your cultivation is truly impressive.”

Dian Chao turned to Li Shangyuan, bewildered. “How did you know?”

Li Shangyuan gave a slight nod. “I guessed.”

The two newcomers went silent.

Dian Chao went silent too.

“Fellow cultivators, aren’t you a bit early?” the Fat Cultivator asked, a smile on his face.

“It’s fine. We’re just punctual,” Li Shangyuan replied politely, then paused. “Might I ask if you two are also a bit early?”

“Of course,” the Tall and Thin Cultivator said, his dark eyes heavy. “We’re here to prepare the demon-trapping formation in advance.”

“What a coincidence,” Li Shangyuan said again, his voice polite. The low tone lingered in the enclosed ancestral hall. “We also arrived early specifically to observe your formation.”

“Such sharp words, Fellow Daoist. I truly couldn’t tell,” the Fat Cultivator said, his lips curling as his eyes narrowed into slits.

The Tall and Thin Cultivator decided to drop the act. His voice turned sinister. “Since you’re both here, let’s get started.”

The ancestral hall doors slammed shut with a boom.

Both sides immediately tensed, ready for a fight.

Dian Chao snorted. “Finally couldn’t hold back, have you? Tell us plainly, what do you plan to do with us now that you’ve tied us up?”

Li Shangyuan glanced at the formation beneath their feet, then at Dian Chao. His expression was as if he were looking at a particularly dim-witted heir to a wealthy estate. “Junior Brother, they’re going to seize our bodies.”

“How clever of you, Fellow Daoist,” the Fat Cultivator said, his face crinkling into a mass of flesh as he laughed. “If only you’d eaten that meal and tea yesterday, we wouldn’t have to waste all this breath and effort. What a pity, what a pity. You didn’t even get a single bite of your final meal.”

The Tall and Thin Cultivator played along. “You can enjoy it in the Underworld instead. Don’t you agree?”

The Fat Cultivator burst into laughter and continued, “But rest assured, once my junior brother and I have seized your bodies and absorbed your memories, we’ll diligently cultivate in your sect’s name and elevate your cultivation levels to new heights.” His face creased into layers of folds, like cracked mud on an old wall.

Dian Chao could only feel utterly bewildered. Seize our bodies? You want to possess the Personal Disciples of the Wushang Sect?

Have they lost their minds?

Li Shangyuan’s expression remained unchanged, but his tone held a hint of helpless reminder. “To be honest with you both, our sect has a restriction at its entrance specifically designed to counter those who attempt body seizure.”

The two cultivators’ expressions shifted instantly. They exchanged a quick glance, and only after the Tall and Thin Cultivator shook his head with certainty did the Fat Cultivator speak again. “You’re still making things up even at death’s door? We’ve never heard of such a restriction in all our years of cultivation.”

“Frogs in a well,” Dian Chao remarked sharply, quoting the old proverb.

Li Shangyuan looked down and pointed to the formation on the ground, adding, “You also drew this formation incorrectly. Activating it will only result in a backlash.”

Hearing this, Dian Chao couldn’t help but laugh out loud. An amateur trying to show off his skills?

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