Chapter Sixty: The Day to Offer Sacrifices to the Lady Ghost Has Arrived

“One of the most mysterious aspects of cultivation is the conferring of talismans! When a Taoist priest feels they’ve reached a bottleneck and are ready to ascend to a higher level, they draw a Sanqing Talisman to communicate with the heavens, seeking permission from the Three Pure Ones in the unseen realms: ‘May this disciple become a more powerful Taoist priest?’

When one becomes the strongest among the magicians, they may attempt to draw the Sanqing Talisman. If the ritual is successful, it means the conferring of a talisman has succeeded! At this moment, one feels as if a force from the void is communicating with them, and they are promoted from magician to ‘Perfected One.’ At this stage, they are called a Perfected of One Talisman. This process is called the conferring of talismans.

Simply put, the more times you receive a talisman, the more powerful you are as a Taoist. With one conferral, you are a Perfected of One Talisman; two conferrals make you a Perfected of Two Talismans, and so on. The rank of Perfected offers seven opportunities for conferral. Once you succeed the seventh time, you are a Celestial Master!

As far as I know, among all the Taoist sects, only the heads of the Three Great Schools—Dragon-Tiger Mountain, Mount Mao, and Mount Laoshan—are openly recognized as Celestial Masters.”

Utter shock—absolute astonishment!

After Fu Yang listened carefully to Ah Huang’s words, he again felt as if his entire worldview had been reshaped. The world of the supernatural was, as expected, unfathomably deep…

After a long pause, he stared at Ah Huang and asked, “That evil Taoist is a Perfected of Three Talismans? That sounds incredibly formidable. How many talismans have you received?”

Ah Huang stammered, clearly unwilling to discuss it.

Pressed hard, he finally exploded in irritation: “Talisman my ass! You keep asking and asking—what’s the point? I’m already the strongest among magicians, but I haven’t received a talisman yet.”

Fu Yang burst into laughter, but after a moment, he became serious. “But you seem pretty impressive to me. I mean it.”

Suddenly, Ah Huang’s face twisted in grief, tears streaming down.

“Of course. A year ago, I already felt the calling—I should have been able to attempt the conferral and advance to become a Perfected of One Talisman.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

Ah Huang nearly broke down. “That damned, dog-hearted old master of mine! Before he died, he forgot to teach me how to draw the Sanqing Talisman…”

Fu Yang: “Uh…”

It was like finishing high school only to discover your school forgot to issue you an entrance ticket for the college entrance exam, so you have to repeat your senior year all over again.

The days that followed were rather peaceful.

Ah Huang, having plenty of money, wasn’t in a hurry to return to Shenzhen. He and Fu Yang spent their days acting as the “personal bodyguards” of the goddess Qin Mei.

They also kept in close contact with Zhao Shanshan at the police bureau, always on the lookout for any new schemes from Liu Mengshu…

But, unexpectedly, everything remained calm!

Perhaps it was because Liu Mingming’s physical form had been so thoroughly destroyed by Fu Yang in the bone temple beneath Linxin Lake that recuperation was necessary before she could again attempt to merge body and soul to become a Corpse-Soul Demon. For now, she had gone quiet.

As for the Zhenhui Silk Factory, which Liu Mengshu had opened under a false identity, it had already been shut down by a joint operation between the police and the business administration. The factories in the valley had all been seized.

Strangely, the factory was completely deserted—there wasn’t a trace of the masses of rotting zombies. Not even a single rat was found by the police or inspectors!

Yet, despite the peaceful days, something of great importance loomed over Fu Yang!

The start of a new month was near, and on the first day, he would offer the Three Sacrifices to Lady Dong Weike, the ghost!

“Ah Huang, I’m making offerings of the Three Sacrifices to Her Majesty the Queen today. Do you want to supervise? You must be good at this sort of thing, right?”

“Good at what! I’ve only ever made offerings to the Three Pure Ones—since when do Taoists make offerings to vengeful ghosts?”

“If you don’t want to, fine! But if you want her to help us in the future, we can’t be sure…”

“Fine, fine, I’ll go! But I’ve never set foot in the Underworld. If a Ghost Queen like her goes berserk, won’t she eat me alive?”

“In broad daylight, what are you afraid of?”

“Damn it… Don’t you know that for ghosts above the Ghost Lord level, day or night hardly makes a difference? At most, their strength varies slightly.”

Bickering all the way, Fu Yang and Ah Huang went to the livestock market in River City to buy a live pig, sheep, and chicken. Then they used an app to call a car home.

Baaa… Cluck cluck… Oink oink…

The three animals, as if sensing their impending doom, cried out miserably all the way. The driver’s face turned green, shooting them contemptuous glances in the rearview mirror.

Frustrated, Fu Yang tried to cover the pig’s snout, only to get bitten. Enraged, he thumped the pig on the head, which only made the animals scream louder.

At long last, they managed to drag the “Three Sacrifices” back to their rented apartment, tying them up in front of the ghost’s spirit tablet.

“Damn… I’m exhausted. If I have to do this every month, I’m going to lose my mind,” Fu Yang gasped, tongue lolling like a tired hound.

Ah Huang, meanwhile, looked at his Daoist robe, now soiled with chicken droppings and pig and sheep spit, his expression dark as thunder.

Noon struck—twelve o’clock! The time for the offering had arrived. Fu Yang sharpened a knife, preparing to face the pig, sheep, and chicken…

“Ah Huang, you do the killing.”

“Why me?”

“I’m not good at it.”

“And I am?”

“Taoists always use rooster and black dog blood in rituals—aren’t you supposed to be the animal-killing expert?”

“She’s your wife, not mine!”

Fu Yang, panicked, hurried to clamp a hand over Ah Huang’s mouth, silently warning him not to spout nonsense. If that lady got angry, neither of them would get out unscathed.

Left with no choice, Fu Yang steeled himself and slaughtered all three animals with a single stroke each, then reverently arranged them before Dong Weike’s tablet.

Before the spirit tablet was a low table with incense. Three sticks of incense smoked gently, their threads of blue smoke curling upward…

In that instant—

It was as if a mystical ripple passed through the void. The incense smoke drifted toward the spirit tablet, swirling around it in circles.

Suddenly, a whirlwind arose in the room.

Whoo… whoo…

Curtains and bedsheets whipped through the air. Fu Yang and Ah Huang could barely keep their eyes open.

A wisp of blue smoke shot out from the tablet, landing before the offering table. In the blink of an eye, it became the vague silhouette of a slender woman; in the next, she appeared as a flesh-and-blood beauty—at least, to the naked eye, she was indistinguishable from an ordinary person!

After more than half a month’s absence, Dong Weike had finally returned!

Tight-fitting light-blue jeans accentuated her alluring curves. A white T-shirt paired with a denim jacket, her hair pulled back in a simple ponytail. The whole person—or rather, the whole ghost—radiated the vitality of a young maiden.

At this moment, the winds in the room died down. Fu Yang and Ah Huang opened their eyes to behold this astonishing scene.

Ah Huang seemed to forget his fear of the Ghost Queen, wiping away a bit of drool with the back of his hand… (Second update!)