Chapter Ninety: Building a House, Such a Dilapidated House

The little girl emerged at once.

Chen Yushu had, of course, already told her about the journey.

Her position with him was also rather special. She was Miss Qiaoer’s messenger spirit and was only staying with him for the time being.

Now that he was about to enter the mountains, it would hardly do to leave her behind.

And she, for her part, did not wish to remain alone at home.

Fortunately, after her reminder, he learned that a wandering spirit could inhabit a dark jade charm or an old artifact, and thus be spared the influence of the outside world.

Coincidentally, Chen Yushu happened to have such an object on him: a gift previously given by Liu Qingyan, a ancient phoenix jade pendant. It was not only dark jade, but also an old relic, capable of settling the breath and warding off evil, and could naturally serve as a hiding place for the little spirit.

Still, within an old relic, one was never as free as one was outside.

So once she felt that the surrounding aura could no longer affect her, the little girl sprang out at once.

Chen Yushu paid close attention, and saw that no one around had noticed her presence. Only the geomancer in front, Lu Yizhi, suddenly turned his head for a glance, but said nothing.

Clearly, he could also see the little girl, but guessed she was his spirit attendant and so paid her no mind.

Chen Yushu offered no explanation either, and silently continued on with her.

On Heavenly Source Mountain, the vegetation was lush and the paths rugged, but as a sacred place for the herb gatherers of Qian Family Village, some roads had in fact been opened by human hands.

Thus, the party traveled briskly.

Now and then, Chen Yushu could also glimpse life hidden among the dense forest and grass.

After all, his eyesight had become far too keen.

At a glance, so long as something was not completely obscured, he could see through the light to the living things concealed in the shadows.

Wild pheasants, rabbits, venomous insects and snakes... and all manner of other creatures of the mountains.

Of course, there were also medicinal herbs.

Chen Yushu recognized quite a few of them.

He had read all the medical texts in the side room of the Liu family apothecary, and they recorded many herbs along with the conditions required for their growth.

A few were quite precious medicinal materials; one plant dug up could fetch more than a hundred cash.

Of course, there were no miracle herbs.

Those were exceedingly valuable. One plant would sell for no less than thirty taels of silver.

Though Heavenly Source Mountain was famed in the area for yielding miracle herbs, such things were still not common. Let alone here, on this sunlit slope, trodden year after year by untold herb gatherers. It was difficult for anything to escape notice.

"It's already noon. Why is there still fog over there?"

Beside Chen Yushu was the master porter, Qian Qian, who suddenly pointed toward a small patch of forest in the distance.

"Don't go there. That's the mountain miasma. If you aren't careful, you'll end up lost in it and fall asleep. Once night comes, it'll be dangerous," the herb gatherer at the front, Qian Yungen, hurriedly warned.

"Let's keep a little farther to the side," Qian Hu also said, doing his best to avoid that stretch of forest.

Chen Yushu also looked toward the miasmic ground and faintly made out a little old man standing within the haze, constantly blowing out breaths.

One stream after another drifted outward; if anyone passed by and inhaled the miasma, they would easily be lured in.

"Hmph!"

Just then, Lu Yizhi happened to pass by there. The little old man hiding within was still blowing out breath after breath, and those wisps of miasma happened to float before Lu Yizhi.

This immediately displeased him. He let out a cold snort, then with a slight exertion of force stamped his foot against the ground.

In Chen Yushu's eyes, a mass of black qi was instantly stirred up, shooting forward like a swift blade toward the old man in the forest.

"Aah..."

A faint scream rang out.

And the miasmic wisps slowly dispersed as well.

"So this is the means of a geomancer?

One stomp on the ground, and he can directly stir the earth's qi, using it to blow that wandering spirit apart?"

Chen Yushu was also startled. At that moment, he felt a chill on his hand. It was the little girl, who had been skipping happily just now. Frightened by what she had seen, she shrank back at once, rushed to his side, and took his big hand in hers.

Then a voice came: "Brother Yushu, that man is so fierce."

Only after Chen Yushu had come to know the little girl did he discover this rule: when a ghost had physical contact with him, he could hear it speak even without entering the wandering-soul state.

"Don't worry. He won't hurt you," Chen Yushu comforted her.

The little girl nodded, though she no longer dared to run about as before. She kept hold of Chen Yushu's hand and followed him up Heavenly Source Mountain.

At this moment, however, Qian Qian widened his eyes and looked at Chen Yushu. "What did you just say?"

"Hm?" Chen Yushu turned back in confusion.

"Who were you talking to?" Qian Qian asked again. For some reason, he suddenly felt a little uneasy, his body turning faintly cold.

"I wasn't talking," Chen Yushu replied.

"You weren't talking?" Qian Qian echoed. He thought perhaps he was making too much of it, and could only nod in puzzled uncertainty.

"Brother Yushu, look over there. That old granny is so pitiful, pinned under a rock and unable to move at all," the little girl suddenly said again.

Following the direction she pointed out, Chen Yushu saw that beneath a rock not far away, there did indeed seem to be an old woman struggling helplessly.

"I'll go help her," the little girl said, quickly letting go of Chen Yushu's hand and hopping that way.

"Don't go over there!" Chen Yushu hurriedly called, reaching out to stop her, but he was too late.

The little girl hopped beneath the stone and tried to help push it as well, but the rock did not budge in the slightest. In fact, when she braced herself with hands and feet, her arms simply passed straight into the stone, unable to move it even a fraction.

After a few attempts, she gave up and ran back with a look of dejection.

"What are you saying now?" Qian Qian asked warily, eyeing Chen Yushu.

"I wasn't saying anything," Chen Yushu replied expressionlessly.

"I clearly heard you," Qian Qian insisted.

"You heard wrong. This is an old mountain forest; the yin energy is heavy, and it's easy for those things to hide here. Master Qian, perhaps you ran into something?" Chen Yushu quickly changed the subject.

"No... surely not?" Qian Qian began to doubt himself too.

Though martial artists possessed plenty of courage, when it came to ghosts, anyone would instinctively feel fear.

He truly did not want to be tangled up with such a thing.

Chen Yushu said nothing more and continued onward with the hunters and herb gatherers ahead.

As for the little girl, she seemed to have forgotten the fear she had felt when Lu Yizhi dispelled the ghost earlier, and once again began skipping and weaving through the woods.

Now and then, they would encounter wandering spirits and ghosts.

Some had drifted here from elsewhere; others had died nearby and become earthbound, unable to move at all.

Just like that old woman from before. After being crushed to death by the rock, her soul remained pinned beneath it, unable to stir in the slightest.

Time passed without notice.

Chen Yushu and the others walked and stopped, and two or three hours went by.

The sky also gradually darkened.

"It's getting dark. We can't keep going," the herb gatherer at the front, Qian Yungen, hurriedly said.

"Stop! Rest here and make a fire for supper."

Liu Qingyan did not object. With a call, everyone stopped, found a relatively level spot, and began to set up camp.

At that moment, Lu Yizhi busied himself as well.

In his hands were small flags, and from time to time he would look around before planting one at a designated spot.

"What is Master Lu doing?" someone in the crowd could not help asking.

Chen Yushu glanced over. The speaker was Liu Yong, the physician who had previously helped with consultations at the apothecary.

"Building a house," Liu Qingyan answered.

"Building a house?" Liu Yong blinked.

The others also paused upon hearing this, some even stopping what they were doing.

"When people settle in one place, the first thing they do is build a house, to show that this place is now theirs and no one else may enter.

But out in the wilderness, who knows whose land this is?

If you don't build a house, others can simply barge in. Then if they think you've offended them by occupying their place, there will be trouble enough for you.

So in the wild, you must plant flags around where you are staying, or if you don't have flags, use branches instead, and circle off the whole resting place.

Then set up an entrance and an exit, with a threshold to block it.

When those things come, they will see that someone has already claimed the place. If they are reasonable, they won't come in to disturb you," Liu Qingyan explained.

At first, she did not know these things either. It was only after spending a long time in contact with Lu Yizhi that she learned he always did this whenever he camped in the wild.

Once she asked, she understood that it was a rule of the trade.

Martial artists had deep vitality and blood, so perhaps they seldom encountered such things.

After all, ghosts were insubstantial beings; when they met someone with abundant blood and qi, it was like being roasted beside a furnace, and with one careless moment they could be burned away themselves.

But once they did encounter them, it became extremely troublesome, and it was all too easy to be harmed to death.

Such tales were not unheard of in the martial world.

There were even rumors that experts above the level of primordial force had suffered covert murder because of such things.

"Huh? Then what about those who aren't reasonable?" asked one of the crowd. Most of them were martial artists, and this was the first time they had heard of such a thing.

At that, someone asked back.

"If you meet one that won't reason, then there is no need to be polite.

At that point, a fight is inevitable.

The wronged spirits nearby will see it, and they won't help, because it was already in the wrong to begin with. Even if it is beaten to death, the others won't interfere," Lu Yizhi said, having brought over a wooden beam and placing it horizontally at the entrance of one of the flag-marked openings.

Chen Yushu listened carefully from the side, truly feeling that he had learned something new.

After thinking for a moment, he walked to the little girl, took her hand, and asked, "Little girl, what do you sense around us?"

"A house.

We're inside a house.

This house is very big, but also very broken. It's the first time I've seen such a broken house," the little girl said at first in surprise, then with utmost seriousness.

...

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