Chapter 3492: Martial Aunt (9)

People said that in ancient times, literary young men all had two dreams. When they were poor and down-and-out, they dreamed of fox spirits. They hoped for a seductive, devoted vixen who could turn stone into gold to come to their rescue.

Once they achieved fame and fortune, they started dreaming of rescuing a damsel in distress. They felt that saving a beautiful but unfortunate woman who had been forced into a life of prostitution was their inevitable task.

The two things men love doing most were advising a courtesan to go straight and luring a virtuous woman into the depths.

Ning Shu looked expressionlessly at the young boy kneeling not far away. He was asking if she was a fox spirit, if she could turn stone into gold, and if she could give him some gold.

Ning Shu really did not know what to say. “What do you want gold for?”

Ning Shu had gold, and she had spirit stones too. Traveling through the mortal world definitely required money. For cultivators, gold and silver were at most just metals used for forging tools. What was truly precious were spirit stones that contained spiritual energy.

“My sister is sick. I want money to hire a physician. If you can save my sister, I am willing to let you cut out my heart and eat it.”

Ning Shu swallowed hard. Eating a raw heart sounded so disgusting!

“What is wrong with your sister?” Ning Shu asked. “Actually, I am not a fox spirit, but as it happens, I know a bit of medicine. Do you want me to take a look?”

No way was she going to just hand over gold.

The boy was skeptical. He looked Ning Shu over carefully, then he gritted his teeth and stood up. “Follow me. We will take the back paths to my house. I cannot let the other villagers see me bringing you into the village.”

Ning Shu hummed in agreement. She walked behind the boy, winding through several narrow paths filled with thorns until they reached the end of the village. They came to a thatched hut that was incredibly dilapidated. Even the door was made of bundled grass.

How could anyone be this poor?

“Little sister, I am back.” The boy pushed the grass door open carefully, fearing that if he used too much force, the door would fall apart.

Ning Shu followed him inside and found that the room was actually quite tidy. There were even a few books.

As soon as she entered, she smelled a foul odor. A young girl was lying inside, her face dark as if she had been poisoned.

“I do not care if you are a fox spirit or not. Please save my sister. She has been bedridden ever since she came back from the mountains,” the boy said anxiously to Ning Shu.

Ning Shu pulled back the quilt. A stench of rotting flesh being eaten by maggots hit her nose.

Ning Shu blocked her sense of smell so she would not have to breathe it in.

The girl was young, maybe eight years old at most, though she was so thin and frail that she looked like she was only five or six.

Ning Shu released her spiritual consciousness to check the girl’s internal organs. They were failing, and instead of being a healthy red, they were dark and dull.

This looked like miasma poisoning. In deep forests, the rotting remains of plants and animals form a toxic miasma. Furthermore, the girl’s body had begun to rot, which could be contagious.

“It is a plague. It might be contagious.” Ning Shu reached out to feel the child’s pulse. However, as she did, she felt an extremely sinister, evil energy within the child’s body that tried to transfer into her own through her hand.

In other words, the girl was possessed, or she had run into something unclean.

In this cultivation world, there were mountain spirits, monsters, and those who cultivated to become immortals, gods, or Buddhas. There were also those who cultivated as demons or ghosts. All sorts of bizarre creatures existed.

“A plague? What should I do? The villagers will definitely burn my sister to death if they find out.” The boy was so frantic he was about to cry.

Ning Shu shook her hand to throw off the cold, evil energy.

“You spend every day and night with your sister and have not been infected, so it is not necessarily contagious,” Ning Shu said.

“No, it is not like that. It is because… it is because I have a protective object. It was left to my sister and me by our mother. My sister is always running into the mountains, and she lost hers.”

The boy pulled out a sachet. The needlework on it was very exquisite. Ning Shu took it and brought it to her nose.

It was likely a Buddhist talisman. It had a lingering scent of sandalwood that had not faded, suggesting it had been blessed by a monk with a significant level of spiritual cultivation.

Ning Shu tried to bring the sachet closer to the girl’s body, but the boy immediately grabbed her wrist. Ning Shu looked at him, and he let go right away. “Do not bring it close. It makes my sister suffer.

“I wanted gold because I wanted to hire an immortal to exorcise the evil. My sister will not let me get close to her either, or she will be in agony. I could only say I was looking for a doctor because if the villagers knew she had something unclean on her, they would surely burn her.”

Now the boy was finally telling the truth.

“The immortals are all busy pursuing the Great Dao. Why would they have time for you?” Ning Shu said.

To cultivators, the affairs of the mortal world were meaningless.

“You really do know about immortals. Are you truly a fox spirit? Please save my sister.” The boy knelt on the floor and kowtowed. His head hit the ground with a loud thud over and over. When he finally looked up, his forehead was already bruised.

Ning Shu curled her lip. “Do you have rooster blood, cinnabar, or yellow paper?”

“No, I have nothing. The house is completely destitute. Ever since our parents passed away, our livelihood was cut off…”

Ning Shu: …

Without any tools, what was she supposed to do?

Ning Shu thought for a moment and then performed a series of hand seals to set up a yang gathering Formation. Yang energy could counter the sinister energy in the girl’s body. She guessed that some wandering ghost had latched onto the child.

Once the yang gathering formation was in place, the girl clearly began to feel uncomfortable. She frowned deeply and whimpered. In Ning Shu’s eyes, black gas was billowing off her body.

Seeing his sister twitching and in pain, the boy’s eyes turned red with worry.

Ning Shu stuffed a corner of the quilt into the girl’s mouth to keep her from biting her tongue.

“Give me some of your blood.” The boy was likely still a virgin, and as a young man full of vitality, his blood was perfect for writing incantations.

The boy did not hesitate. He took a needle and pricked his own finger. Ning Shu dipped her finger in the fresh blood and drew a seal on the girl’s forehead.

It seemed the ghost inside the body sensed danger, as a series of cold winds began to blow. Ning Shu finished the seal and slapped it hard into the girl’s forehead, but before long, the talisman floated back out.

This wandering ghost was unwilling to leave the girl’s body. Ning Shu dipped her finger in blood again, pulled open the girl’s clothes, and drew a massive seal on her chest that ran from her heart down to her abdomen.

The girl’s body shook even more violently. The entire bed felt like it was going to fall apart. She let out pained roars and whimpered for her brother.

Ning Shu frowned. From the looks of it, this ghost was not weak.

It was clinging to this body.

The boy saw his sister in such pain and wanted to tell Ning Shu to stop the treatment, but he knew that finding someone capable of casting spells and drawing talismans was a rare opportunity that could not be wasted.

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