Ghost Disasters

"Old Lu should break through in about three to five days, so you just need to wait." "Recently, quite a few ghost disasters have appeared in Hanshui City. If you have nothing to do over the next few days, you can go capture ghosts around the city. When you return, you can exchange them for contribution points. I'll write you a letter of certification," Elder Gai said with a warm smile, showing great consideration for the three juniors. "Ghost disasters?" Lu Yang wondered aloud. Hanshui City had a provincial governor stationed there and the Corpse Driving Sect lending its support. What kind of ghost would dare rear its head? Elder Gai sighed. "Wasn't the previous provincial governor reported and arrested, along with a whole batch of officials? There’s been a personnel reshuffle across Huangzhou's officialdom. "Right at this time, numerous ghost disasters suddenly erupted in Hanshui City. Even using the power of rules, it's hard to completely suppress them. Someone in the Body Integration stage must be resisting from the shadows. "The newly appointed provincial governor hadn't even found his footing before running into this mess. His handling of the situation hasn't been very proper, and the ghost disasters haven't been effectively contained. "The Nine Nether Cult is most adept at exorcising and commanding ghosts, so the governor suspects they are making trouble in secret. He is currently conducting a strict investigation, but hasn't turned up any results. "As a renowned great sect in Huangzhou, our Corpse Driving Sect naturally shoulders this responsibility, encouraging disciples to resolve these ghost disasters. Their threat level isn't high, perfectly manageable for you. "Of course, you can also choose to study corpse-driving arts here in our sect. It all depends on your preference." Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou exchanged a glance, seeing the shared bewilderment in each other's eyes. How could the Nine Nether Cult possibly be behind this? They were having the time of their lives opening barbecue shops—where would they find the time for ghost mischief? Did they think their barbecue shops weren't raking in enough money? Regardless of who was behind the ghost disasters, as disciples of the Dao Seeking Sect, they had to step in and deal with it. After taking their leave of Elder Gai, the Immortal Fairy's voice echoed in Lu Yang's mind. "That old guy just now wasn't a living person. He was a living corpse. Pretty clever refining technique, too." "Who?" Lu Yang thought he had misheard. "That old guy from before." Lu Yang's mind raced, instantly imagining the most terrifying scenario as cold sweat broke out across his back: Elder Gai had died without anyone knowing, and someone had refined his corpse into a living corpse to maintain the illusion that he was still alive! "Brother Zhao, Elder Gai seemed a bit... unusual to me," Lu Yang asked tentatively. Zhao Po gave him a thumbs-up. "Brother Lu, sharp eyes! You could even tell that? The one sitting there wasn't my master in the flesh, but a living corpse he refined." "What's the story behind that?" Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu leaned in, their interest piqued. Zhao Po smiled and explained without the slightest hesitation, "We corpse drivers are exposed to corpse qi and death qi year-round. Our bodies suffer an imbalance of yin and yang, with yin waxing and yang waning, resulting in frail physical bodies. Leaving aside body cultivators like Brother Meng, even an ordinary cultivator's physical body is stronger than ours. "A corpse driver's entire cultivation is embodied in the living corpses they refine. For the sake of safety, corpse drivers who reach the Soul Formation stage no longer show their true faces to the world. Instead, they let their refined living corpses represent them. "Not only my master, but all the elders in our sect walk outside using living corpses as proxies. Nobody knows where their true bodies actually are. "Besides, most corpse drivers dislike interacting with strangers. They're shy and taciturn, so having a living corpse take their place works out wonderfully—why wouldn't they do it?" Corpse drivers dealt with corpses day in and day out and were generally quite introverted; someone as outgoing as Zhao Po was an exception. "So that's how it is." Lu Yang had a sudden realization. He had overthought things. "Shall we head to our lecture hall to study next, or should I go accept some missions so we can resolve the ghost disasters together?" Lu Yang's lips curled into a smile, and he declared with righteous solemnity, "Naturally, we must go resolve the ghost disasters! Old Meng here possesses the Bachelor Spiritual Root and formed two Bachelor Golden Cores! With his Pure Yang Body, any ghost that catches sight of him will flee in sheer terror! "With Old Meng taking the field, resolving these ghost disasters will be a breeze!" Even though it was a rare compliment from Lu Yang and every word was the honest truth, Meng Jingzhou could not bring himself to feel happy in the slightest. *You're the Bachelor Spiritual Root! Your whole family has Bachelor Spiritual Roots!* At times, Meng Jingzhou truly wanted to pummel Lu Yang with a full set of Bachelor Curse Fists, but he didn't dare. His intuition told him that if he struck Lu Yang with the Bachelor Curse Fist, the resulting karmic backlash would be far worse than what he was currently suffering—he would truly be beyond saving. *Hmph, Lu Yang is nothing. Once I become an immortal, I'll unleash a whole set of punches on him!* "In that case, can we accept Golden Core stage missions at will?" Zhao Po pondered. With four Golden Core cultivators taking the field together, they could sweep through any Golden Core ghost mission. Lu Yang waved his hand dismissively. "Think bigger. We can take Nascent Soul stage missions too." Zhao Po was taken aback, but quickly understood. With the four of them joining forces, dealing with a Nascent Soul ghost shouldn't pose any real problem. "Alright, then I'll go look for Nascent Soul missions. Please wait here for a moment, you three." While Zhao Po was off accepting missions, Lu Yang had nothing to do. He retrieved his Nine Nether Token, contacted Vice Cult Master Shi, and sent a message: *"A Heavenly King from our Heavenly Court Cult is currently in Hanshui City, Huangzhou, and discovered ghost disasters occurring here. The provincial governor suspects you did it. Was it your doing?"* After waiting for a while, the Nine Nether Token showed no response. Lu Yang assumed Vice Cult Master Shi was busy and hadn't checked the token. Just as he was about to put it away, the token grew hot, and a lengthy wall of text surfaced across it. Lu Yang was speechless. "Turns out Vice Cult Master Shi didn't miss it; he was just furiously scribbling away." Vice Cult Master Shi's reply read: *"This is pure, unadulterated slander! Those bastards in the imperial court have dumped another chamber pot of filth onto our heads! Our Cult Master felt that the 'Shop Discourse' proposed by Young Cult Master Lu was brilliant. Right now, our Nine Nether Cult has too few powerhouses and needs to devote ourselves to cultivating in seclusion to increase our numbers of Body Integration and even Tribulation Transcendence experts. Our cult's other activities are in a semi-halted state, and everyone from top to bottom is busy opening chain stores to earn money! This was a decision handed down by the Cult Master himself!"* ... At the Nine Nether Cult branch, Vice Cult Master Shi seethed with righteous indignation upon seeing Lu Yang's question. "We don't even have enough time to make money, so where would we find the time to stir up some ghost disaster? What would we even gain from it? This isn't the first or second time the court has slandered us! Whenever something baffling happens, they claim our demonic cult did it! How could our demonic cult have the leisure for such nonsense?!" He cursed profusely while sending his reply to Lu Yang. If this caused a misunderstanding with the Heavenly Court Cult, leading them to think the Nine Nether Cult disregarded the big picture and acted recklessly, pursuing deeper cooperation in the future would become exceedingly difficult. After sending his response, he felt the need to explain a few more details to Lu Yang, only to discover that the Nine Nether Token could no longer be used. "A five-day cooldown... what a nuisance." Leaning back in his chair and staring up at the ceiling, Vice Cult Master Shi suddenly slapped his own forehead. "Wait, why am I stressing over this? Isn't the Cult Master in Huangzhou right now?" He took out another Nine Nether Token and relayed what Lu Yang had reported to the Cult Master to see how he wished to handle it. The Cult Master replied swiftly with just a single sentence: *"I am in Hanshui City."*