Chapter 36 Your name is the shortest curse...
The black water, which clung to the girl's skin like maggots, suddenly stopped when it reached the corner of her eye.
Wow, it actually works?
The temperature inside the temple suddenly dropped a bit.
Ping Yu shuddered, suddenly feeling the water's surging intensify. Like a branding iron plunged into water, the black water began to boil, rising and falling. In an instant, several black, humanoid water columns suddenly rose up.
The part symbolizing the "mouth" begins to move:
"Who filed a complaint with the underworld?!"
A loud thud, as if hitting a pillar.
Inside the temple, a long, metallic clang resounded.
Mu Zha exclaimed in surprise, "Ox-Head and Horse-Face?!"
They actually summoned a high-ranking ghost messenger.
The two ghost messengers looked at the little girl in front of them and asked, "Is this the report you want to give?"
Even the Yama King's palace trembled from her shouts. Ox-Head and Horse-Face found it hard to believe that the earth-shattering sound just now came from the throat of a little girl. Ping Yu shook off the black water that had been forced to stop on her body, scooped up a handful from the ground, and said to the two, "This is exactly what I want to report."
The ghost messenger touched the water in the girl's palm with his finger, brought it to his nose and sniffed: "Water from the underworld, how could it be here?"
“This is not the black water of the underworld,” Pingyu said. “It is the yin water formed by the dead.”
The yin energy is insufficient, but the demonic energy is abundant.
The ghost messengers looked at each other; indeed, the goods were not as described.
With a powerful backer, Ping Yu became arrogant and domineering. She put one hand on her hip and pointed the other menacingly at the Yin God: "My lords, look over there!"
The bull-headed man asked, "What is the price?"
Ping Yu replied, "One gold brick per person."
Horse-faced demon slammed its fist into the water, shouting, "That's outrageous!"
Even those of them who are permanent employees don't have this much extra money to make!
The girl continued, "I know that from the Emperor of Fengdu to the lonely souls of Youdu, they are all kind-hearted people. How could they use public office for private gain, even engaging in business in front of the boat on the River of Helplessness? More importantly, I discovered that they actually use ghosts for labor!"
"What!"
The bull roared in alarm.
These days, everyone's cultivating immortality and practicing Taoism, and even the underworld is short-handed. In such a dire situation, there are still people secretly harboring ghosts!
Is it a formal employment contract? Is there a monthly salary? Are there labor laws in place?
The girl was covered in strange black oil, so tightly bound that veins bulged on her skin. As she finished speaking, the magic ribbon around her waist suddenly tightened, pulling the frozen Pingyu closer to her. The boy's warmth made her feel better. It was at this moment that Ox-Head and Horse-Face noticed Nezha's presence.
Those who work in the underworld are also very familiar with the officials in heaven.
For both public and private reasons, we have no choice but to get involved in this mess.
Ox-Head and Horse-Face were serious.
Two ghosts, one wielding a steel fork, the other a long spear.
The two weapons clashed and collided.
The sound of the attack rang out again, and the black water receded by another three points.
"You audacious monster!" The ghost messenger pointed directly at the underworld deity, his tone stern: "You dare to imitate the underworld and keep the dead for your own use! Do you know that you have committed three grave sins?"
The spirit of the underworld uttered its first words of the day: "What crime have I committed?"
"I take in the souls who lived aimlessly in life, so that they may have something to use after death. I also grant the wishes of the living, and allow the poor to enjoy vast wealth." The spirit repeated, "What crime have I committed?"
It was indeed a god; Pingyu couldn't bear to hear its voice, and blood began to seep from his skin.
Are you alright?
Nezha covered her up even more, and Pingyu shook her head: "It's nothing."
She watched the ghost messengers perform their duties and listened to their conversation:
"presumptuous!"
Ox-Head and Horse-Face belong to the Ten Directions of Yama, holding multiple positions including soul-capturing and judgment. The two demons clashed their weapons again, the bronze instruments clanging incessantly. The sounds of smashing weapons were frequent and forceful, like a court hearing. Pingyu felt the wind intensify, the sunlight outside the window suddenly dimmed, and dark clouds rapidly gathered on the horizon.
The wind pressure grew stronger, so heavy that it was hard to breathe. The girl looked at the strange sky and asked, "What's going on?"
"..." Nezha was also seeing it for the first time, and he and Muzha instinctively kept their distance from the Yin God.
Seeing that things were not going well, the toad demon lashed out with its long tongue at the ghost messenger.
But Ox-Head and Horse-Face remained calm and unhurried, and the two ghosts took out the tokens from their waists and pointed them at the Yin God.
With steel forks and spears crossed and pointed skyward, they raised their voices:
"Summon heavenly thunder!"
The wind howled, and dark clouds loomed overhead.
Flashes of lightning and deafening thunder. The incessant thunder converged on the temple roof, making hearts tremble and throats tighten. Pingyu looked up at the sky, only to have his eyes covered by the boy in the next moment.
Nezha's voice carried a sense of awe, the sound emanating from his mouth drifting into the girl's ears:
"No."
Divine punishment is not to be looked at directly.
Thunder God shakes with thunder, Lightning Goddess hammers with lightning.
The gods and Buddhas of the nine heavens all looked down from the clouds.
The punishment ceased, and the dark clouds dispersed.
Daylight returned to the heavens, and the toad, slain by the heavenly thunder, perished, turning into a mountain-high mass of ashes. The black water began to recede rapidly, revealing the temple's original appearance.
Ping Yu finally exhaled after holding his breath for so long.
Nezha carried her back to the ground, and Ox-Head and Horse-Face said, "Little child, you have rendered meritorious service in reporting the crime, so you will be credited with a merit. Lingzhuzi and the young man next to you, you two have also rendered meritorious service in eliminating the demon for the people."
Muzha pointed to himself: I have one too?
Nezha nodded, and Pingyu bowed, saying, "Thank you, sir."
"If there's nothing else, we'll take our leave now." After saying this, Horse-Face and Ox-Head began to dissolve. Just as their bodies turned to water, leaving only their animal heads, the two seemed to remember something and said to Pingyu, "But you little brat, you can't be lazy."
Ping Yu: "Me?"
“Yes,” said Ox-Head. “If you don’t cultivate, the Yin energy in your body will become uncontrollable. In that case, it may harm your destiny.”
After giving their advice, the two ghost messengers dispersed completely into the water and returned to the underworld.
"Everyone!"
May there be the sound of fish in the year.
All three were startled, and Nezha's expression turned strange: "You're not dead?"
Hey, what kind of talk is that! Pingyu nudged him.
Nian Youyu touched his round head. "No, not just now, but..." The boy's figure began to blur. He showed his hands, which were gradually becoming transparent, and laughed, "Now I'm going to die!"
The Ferry of Remnant Lamp and the Compassionate Dock began to merge, and the separated three souls and seven spirits should also be reunited. Those who died years ago should also be returned to the Heavenly Dao and reincarnated in the Underworld. Although they hadn't known each other for long, Nian Youyu and the others had gone through thick and thin together. Pingyu wasn't very good at dealing with farewells, so she tried to find the right words to say goodbye: "I wish you... a good reincarnation?"
Nezha and Muzha couldn't help but laugh, and the girl turned around and glared at them.
Nian Youyu felt that this blessing was very touching, and with a wave of his arm, he said his last words: "Then let's hope we never meet again!"
The boy knew that some of them were destined for greatness, but he only wanted humans to walk the human path, and ghosts to follow their own. It was better to go down different paths.
Please, please don't die.
The boy's soul dissipated into starlight, vanishing into the sky. With one thing finished, the girl immediately relaxed. A wave of exhaustion washed over her, and she hunched herself over like a curled-up piece of paper.
“We’ll go back… wait a minute.” She suddenly sat up straight, realizing something was wrong: “Don’t we still not have enough money to stay at an inn?”
He only went into the wolf's den to earn some travel expenses, but he never expected that after defeating the final boss, he would return victorious only to find his pockets empty.
The girl looked around and asked again, "Where is Yan Erlang?"
Mu Zha rummaged through the pile of wood a couple of times, then asked uncertainly, "Did they escape?"
Come to think of it, I didn't see him at the beginning. As soon as he finished speaking, there was a clatter of debris around him, and the Hun Tian Ling (a magical ribbon) pulled a person out from under the wooden planks.
Nezha glanced at it, crossed his arms, and said, "He's passed out and hasn't woken up yet."
The boy was fast asleep, his lips pursed, seemingly dreaming of some delicacies. Pingyu looked at him, sleeping like a log, and hesitated: "We can't just leave him here alone."
“Simple,” Nezha said succinctly. In an instant, the Hun Tian Ling (a magical ribbon) struck Yan Erlang's cheeks repeatedly, left and right. Only when Yan Erlang's face was bruised and battered from resembling a pig's head did Nezha stop.
After enduring excruciating pain, the boy finally awoke slowly.
"Gentlemen, is everything settled?"
"Yes," Nezha replied without looking away.
He touched his face; it hurt so much! It must have been that monster's doing!
Pingyu couldn't bear to look directly at him and quietly looked away.
After a while, Yan Erlang said, "I want to go home and see my elder brother. Where are the little immortals?"
"The sky is my mat, and the earth is my blanket."
The boy's eyelids twitched. Having heard Nezha put it this way, he had no choice but to say, "If there's nowhere else to go... perhaps it's my turn..."
"good."
Before he could finish speaking, Nezha interrupted, "Since you have sincerely invited us, we cannot refuse."
Actually, I wasn't sincere at all, and I didn't want to invite them.
Having already spoken, Yan Erlang had no choice but to take the three "powerful figures" home.
He was quite wealthy for a time, but his savings were depleted by Yan Dalang's illness. Therefore, although his house was dilapidated, he had enough rooms.
After a busy dinner, night fell.
The heavens of the mortal realm are different from those of the Ferry of the Remnant Lamp. Even at night, the full moon hanging high in the sky seems more vibrant. When Nezha came out of Muzha's room, he saw the girl sitting on the corridor. Her legs were dangling in mid-air, and she was looking up at the sky with a blank expression, her chubby cheeks propped up on her hands.
Before long, Pingyu heard the rustling of clothes beside him.
A strange fragrance brushed past her nose, and she knew it was Nezha.
"What are you looking at?"
"Just spacing out." After she finished speaking, she turned her head and asked, "Why do you still look like you've grown up?"
"Isn't it pretty?" Nezha retorted.
“It looks good, but it’s so strange.” Pingyu gestured, trying to make the other person understand: “We should be the same, but you suddenly grew up… It makes me feel like you’re running a little faster than me.”
“That’s not good,” she said. “We should all grow up slowly.”
"So much trouble," Nezha muttered, transforming back into the handsome little boy.
Looking at the other person's face, she suddenly realized that Nezha would die later. If he were to be incarnated as a lotus, how could he have the chance to grow up? As for Pingyu herself, she also had a life-threatening ordeal to overcome at the age of twelve.
The ghost messenger's words left her in a daze, and Nian Youyu's departure seemed like some kind of omen. She always felt that the word "death" was like a powdered incense ball; if you smelled a little bit every day, you would unknowingly be filled with it.
Why does your face always seem to shift between sunshine and rain?
“I was thinking…” Pingyu couldn’t very well reveal the impending doom, so he randomly picked one of his many worries: “What did you see when you were poisoned?”
Why are you asking this?
"I just want to know!"
"You go first," Nezha said forcefully, pinching Pingyu's nose. "You finish speaking, then I'll speak."
"You cheater!" She slapped the other person's hand away, covered her face, and said, "Then I told you, you can't be angry."
The boy became more serious, his curiosity piqued. He wanted to know what kind of scene would prompt the other person to explain it in advance.
She stared into Nezha's eyes and said, "I saw you! You said it was all my fault for being greedy at the casino, which is why we were being chased. Then you even grabbed my neck and tried to kill me!"
"You believe me?"
Nezha decided that if the girl dared to nod even once, he would pinch her mouth into a duck's mouth.
"Would you?" Pingyu blinked, somewhat hesitant. "Then, have you ever blamed me for causing trouble for us?"
The girl hadn't said it, but she was genuinely worried that Nezha was blaming her. All the events that had happened at Cihangwu stemmed from her being blinded by victory and acting without restraint. Nezha noticed the glistening tears in the girl's eyes.
After a moment of silence from the boy, she asked, "Can you do it?"
"What?"
“I saw you die.” Nezha confessed: “Because I went to find Nian Youyu and you weren’t by my side, the Universe Ring was exposed because I didn’t use it… and then, you died.”
"But I didn't die."
The girl stood up and used her shadow to cover Nezha: "And I've made a decision! I'll start learning to write talismans from tomorrow, so I can protect myself even without you by my side."
"Then I'll teach you how to write your first talisman."
Nezha extended his hand to Pingyu, who was leaning closer. With his palm facing up, he earnestly said under Pingyu's curious gaze, "Write down your name."
Healed.
"Then what?"
She asked.
“It’s incomplete; it’s missing a talisman.” The boy used his other hand to pull Pingyu’s fingertips back to him: “You need to write the surname on it.”
"Why is the surname 'Fu'?"
"Is this kid playing a prank?" Faced with Ping Yu's suspicious gaze, Nezha remained calm: "Words have power, and names are short spells. The surname is the head of the talisman, and the given name is the core and foot of the talisman; if one is missing, it won't work."
"Oh well……"
The Taoist priest told her that her surname should not be spoken aloud, otherwise Heaven would discover it and come to take her away. But writing it... should be fine! She wrote on the boy's palm again, her fingertips gliding over the lines, bringing a slight itch that made the budding desire in his heart begin to tremble.
Two trees fall on "Ping" and "Yu", forming a forest.
The girl lowered her finger and smiled shyly, "This is my name."
Lin Pingyu.
"Then, the talisman is complete."
Pingyu instructed, "Don't tell anyone, okay? The fewer people the Taoist told me, the better!"
Don't worry.
Nezha slowly clenched his fist, holding the name in his palm.
He silently recited in his heart:
I won't tell anyone.
Author's Note: That's how I tricked Qingmei into revealing her full name in such a bizarre and ingenious way.
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