Liu Xiu: I'll Keep Everyone Guarded in Front of Me!

An hour later. The Yizhuang. Shi Jian had not cultivated with the neutral and live wires. Shi Shaojian, though, started clamoring the moment he woke, insisting on using the transformer to cultivate the Shangqing Jade Pivot Palm-Thunder Secret Instruction. Unfortunately, he did not succeed. It was not that Liu Xiu would not lend him the transformer, nor that the transformer was broken. A job had come calling at the Yizhuang! In the courtyard. "Brother Xiu, let me tell you, this fellow surnamed Tan is a famous fat cat in our town. When the time comes, put in a word with your master. Gouge him hard. Don't be polite!" Huo Laosi, newly promoted to middleman, glanced at Master Tan, who was speaking with Shi Jian, and said it to Liu Xiu on the sly. Only, his voice was a bit loud. Loud enough that Master Tan's mouth twitched. Master Tan paid it no mind, though, and said urgently instead: "I beg Daoist Shi to step in and save my son. If Daoist Shi succeeds in saving him, I guarantee that once the matter is done... no, no, no. Whether it succeeds or not, I'll present a hundred silver dollars!" "Let me see your son first!" Shi Jian's brow creased slightly, and he did not take up the offer. It was not that he thought the money too little. Quite the opposite. The money was a bit too much. On an ordinary job, even when things went well, he only got ten silver dollars, and that was when the other party was one of the local gentry. Now Master Tan was saying outright that, success or failure, he would gift a hundred silver dollars. On top of that, when Shi Jian had asked about the matter just now, the man had looked aside and talked around it. There was clearly a problem. Or rather, something was being kept back. At that thought, Shi Jian turned to look at Shi Shaojian and Liu Xiu, only to find Shi Shaojian's gaze still fixed on the transformer in Liu Xiu's bedroom. The sight made his brow crease and his face go cold. But when he looked at Liu Xiu, his mood improved considerably. There was Liu Xiu, saying: "Master, I'll go prepare the gear!" Having said it, and seeing Shi Jian nod, Liu Xiu walked into the ritual room and began preparing the gear. His narration cheat spoke as well. [Master Tan speaks evasively, claiming only that his son provoked a female ghost in a chance encounter. You feel there must be something juicy in it. You secretly make up your mind: this time you will prepare every talisman and ritual implement in full, and when night comes and you drive out evil and match spells, you will wait for the right moment and see whether this female ghost is pretty. If she is, you will quietly seize and subdue her in secret, and later refine her into a furnace cauldron to help you dominate the cultivation world!] "......" Shut up, you! Liu Xiu was speechless inwardly, but his guard went up all the same. For no other reason than that his narration cheat was not wrong. Master Tan really was speaking evasively, and the money was far too much. When something is this far out of the ordinary, there has to be a catch. Something was definitely hidden! [Keh keh keh. A breeze brushes your face, carrying a faint, foul reek of blood. Think again of Huo Laosi's nature—he never gets up early unless there's profit in it—and with a little thought it all becomes clear. Master Tan is willing to come in person and pay heavily to have someone drive out a ghost. How could it only be that he aches for a son who ran into evil and into danger? There must be a bloodstained secret behind it! You get it!] "???" What wind? What smell of blood? The little man in Liu Xiu's heart frowned and thought it over. And he really did get it. He roughly understood that the Tan household had had a death, and went on preparing the ritual implements. Before long, Shi Jian and the other two followed Master Tan's party out of the Yizhuang. But Liu Xiu did not get on the carriage, and in the same stroke he did not let Huo Laosi get on either. It was not that the carriage could not fit six people. Mainly, Liu Xiu had suddenly cast a hexagram for Huo Laosi, and he felt the man might, perhaps, probably meet with a bloody calamity. Huo Laosi felt a chill up his back under Liu Xiu's smiling look. Guiltily, he looked up at the sky and said, "Brother Xiu, the weather's nice today. Bright and sunny..." "It is. Speaking of which, what a coincidence. I just cast a hexagram for you. The hexagram says that if you don't have a son before you're thirty..." Liu Xiu stopped there. Seeing that he still was not speaking, Huo Laosi grew anxious and hurriedly asked, "What will happen?" Liu Xiu said nothing. He only looked at Huo Laosi. Huo Laosi froze under that look, then put on an embarrassed, awkward smile. "I nearly forgot. Master Tan already asked Daoist Sun in town to take a look before. It's just..." Huo Laosi stopped, then mumbled out four words in a low voice: one dead, two injured. "Oh..." Liu Xiu let out an oh, thinking that it was no wonder Master Tan was offering so much money. So someone really had already died. As for this Daoist Sun, he knew him too, and had even met him a few times. He was a Daoist from another branch hall in Wuyue Town. As for how this Daoist Sun dared open a branch hall on Shi Jian's turf, the reason was simple. The man knew the rules. Setting aside that Daoist Sun had paid Shi Jian a visit before opening his hall, whenever Shi Jian was in town, Daoist Sun shut his doors and went into seclusion. Whatever Daoist Shi touched, Daoist Sun never touched, and he did not allow his own two disciples to touch it either. For example, since Shi Jian ran the Yizhuang, Daoist Sun did not. He did not even look at feng shui. He only ran a joss-paper shop, selling a bit of paper money and paper figures. "Brother Xiu, I really forgot. I wasn't hiding it from you on purpose..." Seeing Liu Xiu silent, Huo Laosi smiled awkwardly, a little frantic. "Mm. It's fine!" "Heh heh, Brother Xiu, that hexagram you just mentioned!" "Forgot it!" "Ah?" Huo Laosi looked at the sly... looked at Liu Xiu, whose memory was pretty short, and with a pang pulled two silver dollars from his bosom and offered them up. "This is what Master Tan gave me..." "What do you mean by this?" "Four silver dollars, Brother Xiu. I really don't have any more. Master Tan only gave me this much. He's the one who told me not to tell you!" Face twisted with the pain of it, Huo Laosi pulled out another two silver dollars. "He tells you not to say it, so you don't?" "Ten silver dollars. Really nothing left!" "The hexagram says that if you still don't have a son before thirty, you'll just have to wait until thirty-one. But if you do as I said before and do more good deeds, there's still a chance by the end of this year!" "...Oh!" Suddenly feeling that whether he had a son or not was not all that important, Huo Laosi looked at his empty palm, then, secretly pleased, touched a silver note in his pocket and thought: "Heh. Still ten silver dollars left..." "Right. I just cast another hexagram..." ... Nearly an hour later. Wuyue Town. North of town. The Tan household. "What are you smiling so happily for?" Shi Shaojian, down from the carriage, looked at Liu Xiu in puzzlement. Liu Xiu, who had made twenty silver dollars off two hexagrams, said with a grin: "A friend of mine is having a baby. I'm happy!" "???" × 1 + 2 Setting aside that Shi Shaojian could not figure out the connection, Shi Jian and Master Tan were both a little dazed as well. But this was not the time to worry about that. Master Tan quickly came back to himself and said: "Daoist Shi, quick, come see my son!" "Mm." Shi Jian gave a slight nod and led Shi Shaojian and Liu Xiu after Master Tan through the gates of the Tan household. The Tan mansion was imposing overall—imposing enough to turn "not worth a mention" into "not worth a hundred million mentions." Liu Xiu thought of his own little house, set it against this Tan mansion, and began to understand why Huo Laosi had said to gouge him hard. By the time Master Tan had led Shi Jian and the other two winding this way and that to the courtyard where Eldest Young Master Tan was staying, the three of them had settled on one thing: this Tan family really was a fat ca— Haunted! "The yin qi is a bit heavy. Looks like this female ghost's cultivation attainment isn't shallow!" With pretty maidservants seemingly nearby, Shi Shaojian—who was not even asking Liu Xiu about the transformer—lifted his chin, puffed out his chest, and spoke coolly. Only, his hair, on account of the shock, was still half standing up, which looked rather ridiculous and comical. Shi Shaojian did his best to put on an air of grace, but very quickly he discovered a problem. Why weren't these maids looking at him, but behind him? "What are you looking at behind me for?" Shi Shaojian turned his head in puzzlement. Shi Jian, also puzzled, turned as well. The moment the two of them turned, what met their eyes was a smiling Liu Xiu—his body... Liu Xiu, standing behind them! "Heh heh..." "......" × 2 Setting aside that Shi Shaojian was beginning to feel that his pleasant-spoken junior brother's looks were making him a little unhappy, Shi Jian's mouth twitched as he looked at Liu Xiu, whose right hand gripped the Heavenly Thunder Sword tight. To be fair, this new disciple of his seemed a bit timid! "Better safe than sorry!" Liu Xiu said it under his breath, and went on keeping the two of them guarded in front of him. There was no helping it. The ghost of the Qin household and the ghost of the Tan household were not the same. The former had never killed anyone. The latter had already left one dead and two injured!!