novelapdf Chapter 6 The Old Monster is Here for Work
Chapter 6 The Old Monster is Here for Work
He walked to the gray donkey. The gray donkey was already kneeling on the ground, its cloudy eyes filled with tears. Looking at Xu Changqing, it even bent its front legs, as if a person were bowing.
Xu Changqing watched this scene without much emotion. Although he had inherited some of the original owner's memories and methods, this "Beast Creation Technique" was quite unorthodox and the original owner had not mastered it. Unraveling this technique now would indeed be difficult.
He bent down and gently patted the gray donkey's drooping neck, touching its rough, messy hair and slightly trembling flesh.
"Since you are human, you should know that I cannot immediately restore your original appearance." Xu Changqing's voice was calm, revealing neither joy nor anger. "That donkey-toothed fellow has been executed, so you can rest assured. Just stay here for now."
Upon hearing this, the gray donkey's eyes welled up with even more tears, but it no longer struggled in fear. Instead, it lowered its head even further and rubbed against the hem of Xu Changqing's robe, as if to express its obedience and gratitude.
Xu Changqing straightened up and walked towards the two burlap sacks on the donkey's back.
The bag was tightly tied with rough straw rope. He pointed his fingers like a knife and made a light, sweeping motion, breaking the straw rope at the base, which fell silently to the ground.
Inside the bag were two girls of similar age, about thirteen or fourteen, their hands bound behind their backs with cowhide and their mouths stuffed with rags. The two girls looked about seven or eight parts alike, but their temperaments were completely different.
The older sister was pale but her brows were defiant, her eyes filled with anger. The younger sister's face was streaked with tears, her whole body trembling, her eyes filled with fear.
Seeing Xu Changqing open the bag, the older sister not only did not dodge, but struggled even more violently. Her bound body twisted in the bag, and she made low growls from her throat, full of hostility.
The younger sister huddled in a ball, tears streaming down her face. Her gaze towards Xu Changqing was filled with pure, animalistic fear, her body trembling like leaves in the autumn wind.
Xu Changqing remained expressionless, reached out and removed the rags from their mouths, and then untied the cowhide rope.
"Taoist Master... please spare my life!" The younger sister immediately kowtowed and begged.
The older sister pulled her younger sister behind her, straightened her back, and, despite her trembling voice, forced herself to say, "You demon! You...you're in cahoots with that donkey-faced monster! If you want to kill or torture someone, come at me! Let my sister go!"
Xu Changqing looked at the two sisters quietly, his face still showing that gentle and refined demeanor, but his eyes were devoid of emotion.
He had no intention of playing the savior, nor was he bothered to explain to the two sisters the difference between himself and Donkey Tooth. But this place was some distance from their hometown, and the Great Yu Dynasty was in chaos, with demons running rampant. If the two unarmed girls left Qingyang Mountain, they would probably be devoured by monsters and demons without leaving a trace before they could walk even half a mile.
He shifted his thoughts slightly, and decided to follow their fears. His voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable chill: "If you behave and behave yourselves, you will live. If you try to escape, you will die."
The two sisters were both stunned. The younger sister's crying stopped abruptly, and she looked up with tearful eyes, her gaze filled with a mixture of disbelief and hope.
The older sister's angry expression froze for a moment, her eyes becoming even more wary, clearly disbelieving that such a good thing could exist.
"I'm all alone in the temple, and I have many trivial matters to attend to. So I'll leave the two of you here to do some odd jobs," Xu Changqing continued, his tone as if he were giving an order for something utterly mundane. "Chop wood, boil water, sweep the courtyard. Can you manage that?"
"Taoist...Taoist Master...you won't kill us?" the younger sister asked timidly, her voice barely audible.
"What good would killing you do me?" Xu Changqing retorted. He paused, his gaze sweeping over their thin bodies and terrified faces, and said calmly, "You two are as skinny as firewood; you probably don't taste very good either."
These words were spoken seriously, neither a joke nor a threat. The two sisters couldn't immediately tell if he was talking about cannibalism or something else, and a chill ran through them once more.
Xu Changqing had already turned and walked towards the alchemy room. The hem of his blue Taoist robe brushed against the ground, and the sound drifted faintly on the wind.
"There are spare guest rooms available after the tour; you may stay there. There is still some millet in the rice jar in the kitchen; please help yourselves. We will begin work at dawn tomorrow."
Having said that, he carried his spoils to the door of the alchemy room, pushed it open, and went inside without looking back.
The two sisters were left staring at each other in the courtyard, along with a gray donkey standing quietly, clad in an old Taoist robe. The evening breeze swept through the courtyard, rustling the black lotus flowers in the pond, adding to the eerie and desolate atmosphere.
The older sister held her younger sister's hand tightly, her gaze shifting uncertainly between the closed alchemy room door, the eerie lotus pond, and the docile gray donkey.
All of this changed too quickly, too unreal, like a dream.
The younger sister gently tugged at her older sister's sleeve and whispered, "Sister... he... he seems to be really gone. Do we... we don't have to die?"
The older sister bit her lower lip and didn't answer. She pulled her younger sister along, carefully and cautiously moving step by step toward the back of the house, each step taken with extreme care, her ears perked up, alert to any slight movement.
In the alchemy room.
Xu Changqing closed the door, having a clear view of everything outside, but paid no attention to it, turning his attention to the spoils in front of him.
The lotus person had completely lost their life force. Their skin, as black as stone, was covered with lotus patterns. The dark lotus bud on their head was tightly closed, with a black mist slowly flowing inside, emanating an aura of resentment and fear that was several times purer and more concentrated than that of the lotus in the pond.
This is undoubtedly a top-quality "material," and its value is considerable, whether used to upgrade the grade of the "Mysterious Lotus Incense" or for other purposes.
Xu Changqing deftly unbuttoned the greasy gray cloth robe of the donkey-toothed man, and found nothing of value except some silver coins.
Reaching into his inner garment, he pulled out a thin booklet made of some kind of tanned animal hide, and a small package carefully wrapped in oilcloth.
Xu Changqing first unfolded the oilcloth bag, which contained quite a few items.
The oilcloth bundle was unfolded, revealing a considerable contents. Several neatly folded blood-red donkey hides, their patterns clearly visible, still exuding a lingering aura of yin. Several herbs imbued with spiritual energy, bound in small bundles with fine hemp rope, though somewhat dried, still retained their medicinal properties. There were also several manuals for cultivating health and tempering the body, their covers worn and tattered, clearly having passed through many hands.
These odds and ends are mostly auxiliary materials and mediums used by Donkey Tooth when performing animal creation spells or other evil arts. They are not of much use to Xu Changqing at the moment, but they may be used as materials or items for exchange in the future.
His gaze finally settled on the animal-skin booklet. The booklet was only a dozen pages long, written in crooked and messy handwriting, interspersed with many simplified illustrations. It began with a mantra, accompanied by a list of required materials and refining methods, which was the cultivation method of the "Donkey Transformation Evil Technique".
Xu Changqing's heart stirred slightly. With this booklet, he could study it and break the evil spell on the gray donkey outside the door.
However, he is more concerned about something else right now.
His mind sank slightly, and his consciousness once again entered that pure black void of the sea of consciousness. The enormous, pitch-black altar still hovered in the center, its surface shrouded in strange patterns that slowly flowed, exuding an ancient, mysterious, and slightly oppressive aura.
"Old Ghost," Xu Changqing transmitted his thoughts to the Ghostly Altar, "come and see. Take a look at these things, what's their value?"