The Hunwu County yamen was piled high with treasure chests, the gold, silver, and jewels dazzling to behold.
Qin Sang was arranging his men to take inventory.
"These land deeds belong to the common folk around Hunwu County—stolen by those bald thieves by hook or by crook, most likely. Chuanzong, take them to the magistrate of Hunwu County and return them to the people."
The ostensible treasury of Xuanji Temple had been virtually cleared out. Among the spoils was a small chest of land deeds; Qin Sang flipped through them and saw they were all for land surrounding Hunwu County.
Qin Sang handed the chest to Wu Chuanzong, but seeing the boy hesitate as if holding back words, he felt a flicker of curiosity.
"What is on your mind, Chuanzong? Speak freely."
The boy was clever and possessed sharp wits. Qin Sang found him convenient to employ, so he had kept him by his side to run errands.
Moreover, Wu Chuanzong had good comprehension and knew the value of hard work, never slacking in reading or martial arts practice. Though he had passed the optimal age to begin practicing martial arts, with proper guidance, he could still achieve something of note.
"In reply to Sir," Wu Chuanzong said—he, too, had always addressed Qin Sang as "Sir"—"I only fear the common folk might not be willing to take the deeds back."
Qin Sang asked in surprise, "Why?"
Could someone truly not want their land back?
"There was a temple in my hometown as well. I heard that many people willingly donated their land to it. During the drought the year before last, the local commoners could hardly survive, yet the temple's tenant farmers still had food to eat. It is said that temple lands are exempt from land taxes; the people need only donate some grain to the temple each year. During disaster years, if they cannot hand over the full quota of grain, the temple shows leniency and sometimes even provides relief. But what must be paid to the government cannot be short by even a single dou, not to mention extra fees like scale discrepancies and melting waste. My teacher once said that many people did not starve to death, but were driven to death by the government."
Qin Sang was even more astonished upon hearing this. He had finally made a rare show of benevolence, only to nearly bungle it?
He looked toward the others. "Is it like this everywhere?"
Zhang Wenkui gave a light cough and said, "Reporting to Hall Master, things are not entirely the same everywhere. There are indeed eminent monks of great virtue, but evil temple monks who seize land and oppress the common folk are hardly rare either. If a temple grows powerful enough, even the authorities can do nothing to them. As for whether Xuanji Temple was benevolent or wicked, that remains unknown."
"Then go investigate," Qin Sang said, tossing the deeds to Zhang Wenkui and Wu Chuanzong. "You have a deadline of one day. The two of you will investigate thoroughly and decide whether these deeds should be returned to the common folk or sent back to the temple."
Seeing Zhang Wenkui's mournful grimace, Qin Sang chuckled and scolded, "Who are you pulling that long face for? There will be plenty in this for you!"
Having deployed his men, Qin Sang had Zhou Mingguang and the Water Monkey keep an eye on the inventory, while he himself returned in haste to his residence and shut the courtyard gate firmly behind him.
The texture of this talisman was entirely different from the talisman paper used by Daoist Priest Jixin—snow-white and remarkably supple, superior even to the finest Xuan paper.
Drawn across the talisman paper were lines Qin Sang could not comprehend, far more intricate than the deceptive talismans of Daoist Priest Jixin. After studying it for a while, Qin Sang could make no sense of it.
According to Master Yuanjue, after that immortal cultivator released the water screen, the talisman paper shattered; it was likely a single-use item. Since this was the only one in his hands, Qin Sang could not bear to be reckless with it, fearing he might ruin it.
Taking up the purple bell and the jade slip in his hands, Qin Sang recalled the process of controlling the Yanluo Banner: he merely had to channel the qi inside his body into the Yanluo Banner, and the banner's incantation had appeared in his mind.
However, there was also an anomaly like the ebony sword—no matter how much qi he poured into it, it vanished like a stone dropped into the sea.
As to why there was such a difference, Qin Sang had no idea.
Qin Sang hesitated for a moment. Recalling how the purple bell had killed people, he guessed that, like the Yanluo Banner, it was probably nothing righteous. This jade slip, on the other hand, gave off a gentle luster, warm and pleasant to behold; he might as well test it first.
Putting down the bell, Qin Sang held the jade slip in his hand and channeled a strand of qi, tentatively sending it into the jade slip.
Unexpectedly, the jade slip broke free of Qin Sang's grasp and pressed itself firmly against his forehead.
Qin Sang felt as though his consciousness were being drawn into the jade slip. His heart jolted, but having the precedent of the Yanluo Banner, he did not panic overly and maintained his composure.
Could there be a whole world within the jade slip?
Just as Qin Sang was murmuring to himself, he discovered that inside the jade slip was a text, and his spirits instantly lifted.
Half an hour later, Qin Sang, who had remained sitting motionless by the table the entire time, raised a hand to remove the jade slip. He opened his eyes and gazed at the jade slip, an excited gleam dancing in his eyes.
He understood now: this jade slip was not a weapon, but a medium for recording text. The words within were an explanation of the bell's abilities and how to manipulate it.
The bell was named the Purple Soul Bell, a high-grade magic tool with the power to confuse the soul and bewilder the mind. If the cultivator was powerful enough, it could even directly obliterate the enemy's origin soul.
The method to use the Purple Soul Bell was simple, requiring no incantation. A cultivator needed only to stimulate the chime of the bell with spiritual power and then manipulate it with spiritual sense for it to take effect.
Regarding the process of operating the Purple Soul Bell, the jade slip described it in great detail.
When first starting out, a cultivator's control over the Purple Soul Bell would be clumsy; they had to focus their spiritual sense on controlling the chimes to deal with a single enemy with full concentration in order to bring out the bell's greatest power.
Once one could wield the Purple Soul Bell as effortlessly as an extension of one's own limbs, this magic tool could unleash its greatest might, easily confounding three or four people at once.
Qin Sang could not wait to pick up the Purple Soul Bell. Following the method described in the jade slip, he sent his spiritual sense into the magic tool and then channeled the qi in his body to activate it.
His movements were clumsy, and it took several attempts before he grew familiar with the process.
To his surprise, the Purple Soul Bell was like a bottomless pit; only by going all out and exhausting every drop of his spiritual power did he barely succeed.
*Ding-a-ling...*
With no wind blowing, the Purple Soul Bell moved on its own, its crisp chimes echoing through the room.
Qin Sang wiped the sweat from his forehead. The spiritual power within his body had been completely drained, leaving him incomparably weak, yet his face was radiant with excitement.
Gaining a marvelous magic tool was naturally cause for joy, but what thrilled Qin Sang most was the text itself.
The qi inside him was the spiritual power spoken of in the jade slip!
The *Nether Scripture* was indeed an immortal cultivation manual, and he truly had become an immortal cultivator!
This finally put to rest the anxiety that had been gnawing at Qin Sang's heart.
In addition, Qin Sang learned a great deal from the jade slip.
An immortal cultivator's soul seemed to differ from that of a mortal and was referred to as an origin soul.
Spiritual sense was also something the *Nether Scripture* had not mentioned; only now did Qin Sang learn of its existence. According to the jade slip, as long as one began cultivating, spiritual sense would be born from the origin soul. Spiritual sense could not only manipulate magic tools, but also had other marvelous applications, though Qin Sang would have to explore them on his own slowly.
At this thought, Qin Sang hastily retrieved the ebony sword and other items he had acquired before. Could it be that he had been unable to use them simply because he had not known how to use spiritual sense?
Qin Sang quickly picked up the ebony sword and probed into it with his spiritual sense. Regrettably, the ebony sword remained like a bottomless pit, welcoming both spiritual sense and spiritual power without refusal, yet showing not the slightest reaction.
Only when he sent his spiritual sense into the Yanluo Banner did Qin Sang reap a new reward.
Although the Yanwang possessed the instinct to seek fortune and avoid calamity, its intellect was not very high. Previously, when he used the Yanluo Banner, only those within his line of sight could be designated as targets for the Yanwang; otherwise, he could not restrain its movements at all.
Now, he could completely blanket the Yanwang with his spiritual sense and issue commands to it at any time.
Chapter 38