Chapter 8 Chapter Eight — Cultivation Advances

As the air turned taut with tension, a hand reached over and lifted the wine before Li Daoxuan.

"Hah! Since this little Daoist cannot drink, allow me to drink for him."

The speaker was a hearty fellow of some thirty years, with a full beard. He drained Li Daoxuan's wine in one gulp, a look of rapture on his face. "Fine wine!"

Li Daoxuan watched the maggots writhing between the man's teeth and could not help but admire him inwardly — this brother was truly brave.

In truth, when he had first entered, Li Daoxuan had noticed this man. Unlike those stiff-faced villagers, he had ruddy skin, more like a living person.

The middle-aged man who had led Li Daoxuan in, seeing the wine drunk, said nothing more and turned to leave.

Now the hearty fellow leaned in, clapped Li Daoxuan on the shoulder, and said with easy familiarity, "Little Daoist, you were scared, weren't you?"

He said warmly, "I am Wang Chunsheng, a medicine merchant. I lost my way gathering herbs in the mountains last night and somehow wandered into this village."

"At first I thought the village very strange. But then I learned — the daughter of the local great household, Master Chen, is to be wed. But she has been sickly since childhood, and a Daoist told her father that the wedding must be kept low-key, lest it draw demons. That is why Master Chen chose deep night, and forbade the villagers to make a sound."

Li Daoxuan cupped his hands. "Thank you, Brother Wang, for coming to my aid a moment ago."

Wang Chunsheng waved it off. "A small thing. Besides, the wine here is excellent — I should thank you for letting me have another cup."

Li Daoxuan knew the man's wits had been ensnared; what was foul wine to him was rapture.

"Yet these villagers are rather odd, aren't they?"

Wang Chunsheng lowered his voice and glanced at the three villagers seated by the table — skin like wax, gazes vacant, as if half-asleep.

"I spoke to them, but none answered, not a movement. Quite frightening, really."

Li Daoxuan sighed inwardly — if they had answered, you'd be near to death.

These villagers were likely the lowliest of ghosts, muddled, without spirit, their wits gone. It was the middle-aged man earlier, and the old woman in burial clothes, who gave Li Daoxuan a sense of true danger.

After some time, Wang Chunsheng seemed to grow hungry. He called out, "Has the bride not arrived? When does the feast begin?"

The instant he spoke, all the villagers turned their heads as one and stared at him, their cold gazes raising the hairs on end.

"Little Daoist… they… why are they all looking at me?"

Li Daoxuan signaled him to quiet, and pointed at the door.

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"They're not looking at you. They're looking at the door. The bride and groom must be coming."

No sooner had he spoken than upon the red carpet walked a slender figure — a woman in phoenix coronet and bridal robe, her neck below the red veil white as jade, her long gown scarlet as blood.

The moment the bride appeared, a vast sense of crisis rose in Li Daoxuan. Whether illusion or not, he felt that beneath that red veil, a pair of icy eyes was gazing at him.

"Little Daoist, can't see the face, but from that figure alone — tsk, tsk — Master Chen's daughter is surely a great beauty!"

Wang Chunsheng sighed, his eyes sweeping the bride's lithe, graceful form, lingering at last on her slender jade hands — fingers delicate and elegant, like tender shoots after spring rain.

Li Daoxuan at once felt the bride's gaze shift from himself to Wang Chunsheng. He breathed easier, and admired again inwardly — Brother Wang, you are truly brave!

Wang Chunsheng, wholly unaware he stood at the edge of mortal peril, went on musing.

"Little Daoist, I wonder which man is so fortunate as to wed the Chen family's young lady. One can only envy him!"

He soon learned the answer.

A figure entered — but it was no groom. It was a servant, bearing a rooster. The rooster was bound in great red silk, and the other end of the silk was tied to the bride.

The one Master Chen's daughter was to wed was — a rooster!

This uncanny sight drew no one to stop it. Every villager, including the bride's father — the very middle-aged man who had led Li Daoxuan in — watched in silence.

"First bow to heaven and earth!"

The servant called out, and several men forced the bride to her knees, making her kowtow with the rooster.

"Second bow to the elders!"

The bride struggled harder.

"Husband and wife bow to each other!"

The bride was forced down by the servants, head bowed with the rooster. In her struggling, the red veil lifted at one corner, revealing a chin white and luminous.

Li Daoxuan frowned, deeply unsettled. The bride struggled throughout, yet from start to finish uttered not a sound.

Then a figure rushed forward — Wang Chunsheng.

He declared with stern righteousness, "What are you doing? Release her at once, or I shall report you to the authorities!"

And at the words "report to the authorities," the mood of the gathering changed fully.

Those villagers, once vacant-eyed, suddenly "came alive." Their eyes turned blood-red, thick with hatred; wisps of black qi rose from their bodies.

The villagers surged toward Wang Chunsheng; even the servants abandoned the bride, their eyes scarlet, black qi shrouding them, fingernails turned black as they clawed at Wang Chunsheng.

Most terrifying of all, the skin of their faces swiftly crawled with maggots, rotting and reeking.

Wang Chunsheng was plainly terrified stupid, frozen where he stood.

But just then, a clear voice rang out.

"Five thunders, five thunders, hasten to Huang Ning; mist and change, roar of lightning and thunder; at my call you come, swift send the yang sound — swiftly, swiftly, as the law commands!"

Boom!

A green bolt of lightning pierced the roof in an instant and struck down.

The Five-Thunder Talisman has two uses. One: press the talisman onto a demon or ghost, drawing the lightning with precision — impossible to dodge unless one moves faster than heaven's thunder. The other: call the lightning directly, letting the caster steer where it falls — but only roughly, prone to error, less precise.

Yet now the ghosts had shown themselves, a black, pressing mass; Li Daoxuan could scarce miss even with his eyes closed.

Crack!

The lightning burst, dazzling, and the most unyielding, most yang power of heaven and earth rampaged among the ghostly throng, like the vault of heaven in wrath.

In an instant, several servants shrieked once, then vanished like smoke.

Their souls scattered, wholly destroyed!

And at that same moment, the Heaven-Subduing Demon Scripture in Li Daoxuan's mind quivered, opened of its own accord, and new script appeared.

"Early Zhenguan, fifth month — at Li Family Village, Hongzhou, Great Tang, slew three earth-bound spirits. Reward gained: three months of cultivation!"

Streams of pure mana gathered within Li Daoxuan — the fruit of three months of hard cultivation — and his once-thin attainment advanced noticeably at once.

A sharp light flashed in Li Daoxuan's eyes. He felt his mana full, his spirit clear; and with his cultivation raised, he sensed his Shrinking the Earth, Divine Striding had grown swifter too.

In a single breath, these terrible, ghastly souls seemed to Li Daoxuan a good deal more agreeable.