Qian Chen followed the path forward. After walking for roughly the time it would take an ordinary person a two-hour period to cover, he discovered a village. By now, the night was deep. The village had long been abandoned, with broken walls and ruined masonry everywhere. Qian Chen even spotted many unburied human bones scattered among the debris.
"It seems the Lord of Reincarnation did not drop us here at random. There must be clues nearby."
Qian Chen gazed for a moment at the eerie skulls in the ruins, then shifted his gaze toward a larger courtyard residence. Bloodstains could still be seen on what remained of its white walls.
If those skulls crushed to splinters could be blamed on mountain wild dogs gnawing on the villagers' remains after the massacre, the blood spattered across an entire wall painted a vivid picture in Qian Chen's mind: under an immense biting force, a villager's upper torso had violently exploded against the wall.
"Was this... a demon?"
Judging by the crumbling ruins, the disaster had struck over a decade ago. Any demonic qi or devilish malice had long since dissipated.
Yet the traces left behind in the wreckage revealed far more.
"Since the Lord of Reincarnation instructed us to proceed to Heavenly Baleful Peak, he wouldn't place us too far from it. And with signs of demons running amok here, it indicates that the disturbances at Heavenly Baleful Peak mentioned in the mission background are tied to demons. If I were an ordinary Reincarnator, I would start investigating from this destroyed village. Tracking down that pack of demons would surely yield clues about the unrest at Heavenly Baleful Peak.
"However, completing the Reincarnation mission is secondary right now. My priority is to guard against Miaokong's impending ambush and prepare a trap to deliver a fatal strike.
"If my guess is correct, the difficulty of Main Quest One doesn't lie in how to reach Heavenly Baleful Peak..." Qian Chen looked up at the dark, looming mountain in the distance. Rising like a pillar supporting the heavens, it stood massive and imposing, its stone as dark as iron, solemn and towering.
"Instead, it lies in uncovering clues about the disturbances and choosing a faction in the process.
"In that case, the other Reincarnators won't be far away either; they must be somewhere around Heavenly Baleful Peak... Which means I don't have much time."
Taking a calculated risk, Qian Chen drove the black mist dozens of zhang into the air and scanned the surroundings. In the distance, he spotted another set of ruins.
Skimming close to the ground, he sped toward it. When he landed, he found a battered, ruined temple. Its halls and pagodas had all collapsed; aside from a few half-collapsed rooms and a pagoda at the back stripped down to its foundation, there remained only weathered statues of lions, garudas, Skanda, and Wisdom Kings, alongside mugwort weeds taller than a man.
Yet the slender bamboo in the southeastern corner and the wild lotus roots in the Merit Pool grew remarkably lush.
Qian Chen surveyed the temple, wholly unfit for human habitation, yet nodded in satisfaction. Traces of mental devotion still lingered over this Buddhist monastery; faint as they were, they were just enough to conceal subtle fluctuations in magical power. Drawing freshly folded paper figurines from his sleeve, he pointed a finger, and they transformed into ten strongmen with yellow scarves tied around their necks.
Cheering, the Gold and Silver Boys leaped down from the gourd at his waist, directing the Yellow Turban Strongmen to repair the temple.
The Yellow Turban Strongmen possessed immense strength. Qian Chen also scattered pill scraps to summon wandering ghosts nearby, employing spiritual transport methods to carry materials, even retrieving bricks and tiles from the abandoned village dozens of li away. He buried spirit talismans one by one into the Buddhist bricks engraved with sutras in the temple's main hall. Had an eminent Buddhist master seen him hiding Daoist spirit talismans inside scripture bricks carved with images of the Buddha, they would have long been unable to resist smashing his skull with a monk's staff.
Qian Chen concealed the Spirit Light Mirror atop the roof of the newly repaired main hall and summoned the Clear Swan Sword. Beneath the moonlight, the Clear Swan Sword gleamed with crystalline white radiance, measuring merely two inches long and as slender as a leek leaf.
Qian Chen selected the lotus in the Merit Pool that contained the richest spiritual qi and placed the Clear Swan Sword in its center.
With another gesture of his finger, the blossoming lotus drew its petals inward, reverting to the form of a tight bud.
The Guanghan Ice Soul Dan surfaced from his Mysterious Gate aperture. Translucent as an icy pearl, the external dan reflected the luminous moonbeams. Standing inside the hall, it seemed as if two bright moons had risen—one indoors and one out. The Guanghan Ice Soul Dan radiated clear, frosty luminescence. Qian Chen pinched it between his fingers and held it up toward the moon... The icy sphere aligned with the moon, its light filtering through the frozen core into his eyes, tranquil and gentle.
When Qian Chen pulled his hand away, the ice bead had vanished without a trace...
Yet over this half-restored lanruo, the moonlight shone even more brilliantly. Across the Merit Lotus Pool and the courtyard, the moonbeams shimmered, tender as water.
Lanruo... meant an abandoned monastery.
Qian Chen casually scattered ten thousand specks of golden sand, which rained down into the towering weeds of the courtyard. The Floating Cloud Flying Sleeves morphed into the dark sleeves of a Daoist robe; now, the only magical implements on his person were those left behind by Miaokong. He tied the White Bone Relic around his neck, slipped the Dragon Sparrow Ring over his wrist, held the Seven Baleful Banner in his left hand, secured the Soul-Binding Rope at his waist, strapped the Heavenly Net Umbrella—restored to its original appearance—across his back, and concealed the Black Gold Baleful Hook within his sleeve.
He had to make Miaokong feel completely at ease, thoroughly assured...
Other implements like the Two Realms Bronze Tablets had too few layers of restrictions to be useful in a duel, so Qian Chen did not waste time laying them out.
By the time these ambushes were set, the temple was largely restored.
The main hall was quite spacious, with the doors to the east and west monastic quarters left half-ajar. Qian Chen casually concealed all signs of recent repairs, leaving it looking like nothing more than a ruined temple on a desolate mountain. Spiders were even spinning webs across the doors, completing the appearance of age and neglect.
Stepping into the main hall, Qian Chen planted the black banner behind him, sparked a campfire, and said to those around him, "Be on your way!"
The Gold and Silver Boys returned to the gourd at his waist, the ghosts dispersed of their own accord, and the Yellow Turban Strongmen turned back into paper talismans that fell into the fire and burned to ash in an instant. Qian Chen sat cross-legged before the campfire facing the hall's entrance, closing his eyes to conserve his energy and prepare for the coming battle.
He had gone to such great lengths because he was unfamiliar with Miaokong's style of operation. Judging by the massacre of Louguan Dao, Miaokong was decisive and ruthless. If Qian Chen simply ambushed him with overt magical implements, a single blast of Miaokong's Nine Nether Demonic Fire might wipe out the whole trap. But if he constructed a location tied to mission clues, a Reincarnator's innate concern for the quest would instinctively keep Miaokong from destroying it outright.
What Qian Chen had not anticipated was that Miaokong did not arrive immediately. Instead, someone else discovered this ruined temple—the only trace of human presence within several hundred li...
Qian Chen's spiritual sense constantly blanketed the entire monastery. The moment sword qi streaked across the sky, he guessed the passerby would come down to investigate—especially since the sword qi was remarkably pure, even surpassing Qian Chen's own. Only when the figure reached the entrance did Qian Chen pretend to have just noticed the newcomer, looking up warily toward the door.
A few breaths later, a middle-aged scholar pushed open the hall doors. Seeing Qian Chen dressed in black with a gloomy demeanor and carrying the scent of blood, the scholar frowned slightly, yet clasped his hands in greeting. "Pardon my intrusion in the dead of night, fellow Daoist. This is the only shelter anywhere nearby; might I trouble you to share it?"
Qian Chen replied with feigned indifference, "This place belongs to no one. I too am merely taking temporary shelter."
The scholar bowed with clasped hands once more before stepping inside. Gathering some dry wood, he built a separate fire and set a soft pouch from his waist beside the flames.
Beyond those few words, neither spoke further, nor did they probe to see if the other was a Reincarnator.
They stayed like that until midnight, when voices suddenly drifted from outside. "Hey! There's a temple here... How strange. Why didn't I spot it earlier? There's firelight inside, too... Since we've lost the trail of those demons and the hour is late, we might as well go in and spend the night! We can also warn whoever is inside to be on guard against demons."
The speaker reached the entrance of the main hall, then abruptly sniffed the air. "Not good—there's the smell of blood inside!"
With that, someone shoved the doors open and barged in. It was a young Daoist wearing a lotus-leaf cap that flared upward and backward like folded lotus fronds. He wore a simple coarse cloth Daoist robe, coarse cloth shoes, and divine-travel charms tied around his shins. Specks of mud and blood marked his clothes. The instant he entered, he scanned the room, locked eyes on Qian Chen, and raised the ritual sword in his right hand.
Behind him entered a man around thirty years of age, dressed as a swordsman.
Upon seeing the two inside, the swordsman first cast a wary glance at the scholar in white, then spotted Qian Chen's heterodox appearance. A cold glint flashed in his eyes. "This man carries himself like an evil sorcerer and reeks of blood—he's definitely up to no good!" With that, he moved forward with drawn sword, only for the young Daoist to stop him: "Brother Liang, don't be rash!"
Turning to Qian Chen, the Daoist clasped his hands. "Fellow Daoist, are you human?"
Qian Chen nodded slightly, keeping up his taciturn persona. "Of course I am."
"As long as you're human, there's no need to ask too many questions when away from home." The young Daoist sheathed his ritual sword and bowed to both Qian Chen and the scholar. "I am Zhiqiu, a Daoist of Kunlun. Greetings to you both. I lost my way while pursuing demons and happened upon this place. I hope you two fellow Daoists won't mind sharing a spot for me to rest."
"We are all guests here," the scholar in white said with a nod. "Make yourself at home!"
Chapter 80