Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor- Koneko, Proofreader- Spring Flower
‘Ah Song’ in Bei Quan’s eyes was, in a sense, his senior.
Ah Song was also an orphan.
It should be said that all the orphans who can be adopted by the master have special ‘backgrounds’ or ‘talents’.
However, when Bei Quan knew him, he was already a mature man in his forties.
At that time, Ah Song was already a steward in the Zhuling Secret Realm, serving in the library, and responsible for the sorting and copying of some classics.
Bei Quan had little contact with this senior brother and they only met a few times each year.
In Bei Quan’s memory, Ah Song was a gentle and quiet person. When they met, they would politely nod and greet each other, rarely having any other interaction.
Although Bei Quan grew up in the Zhuling Secret Realm from infancy, his soul was that of an adult who had been dead for hundreds of years, naturally knowing better than a child to not pry into other people’s secrets or affairs.
It was not until Ah Song betrayed the sect and fled to the human world with the Lost God Banner, that Bei Quan learned more about his background from his master.
Ah Song was a member of the Wu Clan. In fact, not only Ah Song, but also the people who stayed in the Zhuling Secret Realm, this included Bei Quan’s physical body who had more or less the blood of the Wu Clan.
Legend has it that in ancient times, the Wu Clan was once prosperous and shared the divine land with both the human and the demon clans.
The innate talent of the Wu Clan’s bloodline was extremely powerful. They had a strong inspiration and were better at learning and using spells than the human clan.
This gave them a far stronger individual combat capability than the warriors of the human clan, a brilliant culture unique to the Wu Clan.
Unfortunately, as with many civilizations that followed, the powerful Wu Clan was crushed by the tide of history. In order to maintain the purity of their bloodline, the Wu clan often practiced endogamy and even incest.
Back then, the Wu Clan allowed their sisters to marry their brothers. A common scenario being after a mother passed on, they would allow their daughter to become a partner directly with their biological father because they believed that this would give birth to the purest offspring.
If any Clan member dared to have an affair with either the Human or Demon Clan, they would be regarded as a traitor and executed.
The mixed-race born children would also be abandoned in the mountains, left to be eaten by wild beasts.
After not knowing how many hundreds of years had passed, the talent of the Wu Clan bloodline became stronger and stronger, but they had begun to decline in numbers.
Unsure exactly of when these occurrences started, but the birth rate of newborns in the Wu Clan had seemingly dropped to a terrifying level, with the number of deformed babies being born on the rise.
At that time, the Wu ancestors believed that this was a curse.
Some Wu people began to try creating spells that could break the curse with their knowledge, while a small group of people tried to solve the problem in other ways.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
However, before the crisis of inheriting the bloodline could be resolved, the various clans began to fight for control of the Central Plains.
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The remaining bloodline of the Wu Clan had been passed down for thousands of years, becoming so diluted that it was almost negligible. However, even with such a diluted bloodline, there were occasionally one or two “freaks” who had talents and gifts that were difficult for ordinary people to understand.
In fact, with modern Taoism, Fang Shu, the exorcising ritual and even the popular head taming techniques in Southeast Asia were both intricately related to the heritage of the Wu clan.
The Zhuling Secret Realm was once a secret place where the Wu Clan lived in hiding to escape pursuit, with more than a hundred evil spirits also born there.
Yes, the Hui Gui was another method that the Wu Clan used to try and solve the curse of their bloodline.
They gave up their ageing, illness, and death-prone physical bodies before transforming themselves into another life form.
Unfortunately, although this particular group of Wu people became evil spirits, the original issue was not solved because the evil spirits needed to attach themselves to humans and feed on their negative energy.
Because of this, they could only leave the Zhuling Secret Realm and enter the human world by moving from one host to another, constantly absorbing Qi.
As the number of tragedies caused by the evil spirits increased, righteous Taoist practitioners began to take notice.
It took three dynasties and more than 230 years to seal the first evil spirit into the Lost God Banner and recover the last known evil spirit.
Later, the “master” of Bei Quan officially took over the Zhuling Secret Realm, and the Lost God Banner, along with other dangerous items, was heavily sealed in this place.
…… ……
……
[…until Ah Song stole the Lost God Banner and escaped to the human world.]
[Ah Song had lived in the Zhu Ling Secret Realm for nearly 180 years.]
The puppet said, [I had never seen such ambition in him before.]
Ah Song was very low-key when he was in the Zhuling Secret Realm – besides reading, he seemed to have no other hobbies.
Even Bei Quan’s master, the current lord of the Zhuling Secret Realm, did not know how powerful his apprentice had become or when he had learned the secret of the evil spirits. He too had the idea of dealing with the evil spirits.
Ah Song seemed to be trying to ‘create’ a new evil spirit.
Bei Quan briefly told the puppet what he had seen and heard when he investigated Zhu Hongtao.
”But what does it mean to him? It can’t just be a love for scientific research, can it?”
The puppet scolded, [Nonsense!]
He wanted to hit Bei Quan, but was constrained by his sitting position and his arms weren’t long enough.
[Where’s your brain?! Use your head and think about it!]
Bei Quan said jokingly, but he had also thought about the question seriously.
“I’m thinking, maybe Ah Song also wants to become an evil spirit?”
The puppet nodded exaggeratedly.
[That’s right.]
Bei Quan’s master had told him that Ah Song’s real age was almost 200 years old. As a cultivator who had lived in the Zhuling Secret Realm for a long time, Ah Song’s lifespan was much longer than that of an ordinary person, and he had always maintained the appearance of being in his forties while looking young.
However, 200 years was close to the limit for a human.
Bei Quan’s master had calculated that Ah Song only had five years left to live.
Unfortunately, Ah Song felt that he hadn’t lived enough.
In the last stage of his life, he decided to take a risk and fled to the human world with the Lost God Banner.
“I see.” Bei Quan nodded.
“No wonder Ah Song used the technique of snatching bodies.”
Although ‘snatching bodies’ was a forbidden technique, if someone was to learn it, it could be easily found inside a detailed ancient book in the library of the Zhuling Secret Realm.
As the keeper of the library, Ah Song didn’t need to report to anyone or have to worry about arousing suspicion. He could learn whenever he wanted.
However, the technique of snatching bodies had a fatal flaw: the body that is taken over cannot be compatible with the soul. It would quickly age, become weak, and at most, could only be used for three to five years before it could not be used again, meaning a new body must be found.
Moreover, repeated snatching of bodies would make the energy of the practitioner’s three souls and seven spirits weaker and weaker.
It was uncertain if the transfer would result in the loss of one of their souls or spirits.
The consequences of an incomplete soul or spirit were something that no practitioner wanted to experience. Therefore, ‘snatching bodies’ was only a stop-gap measure for Ah Song.
He was buying time for himself. He wanted to live forever and turn himself into a being like an evil spirit, one that does not need to rely on a physical body.
Bei Quan died in the gathering Yin place, so his body did not rot and his soul did not disperse.
He existed as a ghost for several hundred years until he entered this particular body.
Although being a ghost was not his choice, Bei Quan felt that he should have some say regarding this matter.
Comparing his past and present lives, if he had a choice, he would choose to be a person.
Although becoming a human meant that he would experience life, aging, illness, and death, just like an ordinary person. This ultimately meant reaching the end of his life, just like millions of other deceased people; walking the Huangquan Road, entering the reincarnation hall, crossing the Naihe Bridge and then abandoning his past life, surrendering to the next life alone.
But, at least he had this life.
He had experienced the joys and sorrows, separations and reunions, and both love and hate of being human.
He also had Wei Fuyuan.
Bei Quan could guess Ah Song’s thoughts, but he didn’t want to understand him completely.
Now, Bei Quan just wanted to quickly deal with Ah Song’s tricky troubles, then catch all of the wandering ghosts that were wandering in the world, thus completing the task assigned by his master.
——Then what?
Bei Quan smiled.
——Do you still need to ask?
——Of course, from now onwards, he and his little boyfriend would be inseparable – preferring to be mandarin ducks than immortals.
It seemed that in order to prevent more innocent people from being possessed, the urgent task was to catch Ah Song’s original spirit.
Bei Quan sat up straight and said to his master, “But I’m not sure which kind of ‘possession’ Ah Song is using.”
Although called “possession”, this phrase was just a general term for a category of spells.
Just like the ‘Taoist exorcism spell’ and the ‘Tantric exorcism spell’ which were both completely different things, depending on the source and genre of magic, each “possession” also had its own characteristics.
Unfortunately, the book collection in the library of the Zhuling Secret Realm contained many classics of various sects. There were at least five or six kinds of possession spells that could be found. Bei Quan could not confirm which one Ah Song was using, so he could not deduce who was possessed by him.
Bei Quan remembered that there was a specific type of possession spell in the West Regions that was similar to the Western ‘devil possession’.
The way of choosing a target was very random – attaching one’s soul to a certain ornament. As long as the victim wore it, they would be possessed by the soul.
If Ah Song was using this trick, then Bei Quan would have to find him in the vast sea of people, which was like finding a needle in a haystack.
[Ha, what can we do about it?]
The puppet emitted a dry mechanical sound, giving off a cold laugh:
[It’s okay, I have a plan.]
After speaking, it raised its hand and pointed to a bookshelf on the left.
[Take that box down.]
The puppet’s hand was carved into a fist and could only gesture in a rough direction, so it added:
[I mean the one with the red silk and peony pattern on its lid.]
Thanks for the chapter!