Prologue
In the seventh month of the lunar calendar, as night falls, the streets are deserted. Only the occasional whirlwind carrying the ashes of unburned paper money adds a touch of mystery and coolness to the Ghost Festival.
A girl was walking leisurely alone. Her pace was completely different from the hurried pace of the people around her, which seemed particularly out of place.
The girl was wearing a striking yellow robe with a mysterious Bagua pattern embroidered on the back. A simple wooden sword hung at her waist. She held a delicate compass in her hand and walked towards a place with a clear goal.
If you don’t know, you might think it’s an NPC who just got off work after escaping from a secret room.
When the girl arrived at the alley where they had agreed to meet, she saw her old acquaintance's pale face, which looked a little nervous.
"Yo!" the girl greeted.
Arriving at the alley she had agreed to meet, she found a slightly nervous old man waiting for her. Uncle Ping, upon seeing her, eagerly expressed his concern: "Xiao Hun, why are you the only one here? This is a serious matter. I was hoping your grandfather would come personally."
"Uncle Ping, as an intermediary, you should know very well that every time you ask me to help with any supernatural incident, big or small, I have always been the one to handle it! Do you still doubt my ability? Are you too nervous?" The girl smiled.
I don’t know if it was because the girl’s smile was too confident or her words were too firm, but Uncle Ping couldn’t refute her.
Indeed, the girl in front of me is named You Xiaohun. She lost her parents in a car accident when she was a child and grew up in an orphanage. Eight years ago, she was adopted by my childhood friend Yao Qianbo, who is now her grandfather. Yao Qianbo was born into a family of Taoism and magic. He always hoped that someone could inherit his mantle. However, in this Dharma-Ending Age, it is an era when magic and spiritual energy are withering, and it is destined to be lost.
Until he met the 10-year-old You Xiaohun. You Xiaohun not only had the ability to see yin and yang, and could see many things that others could not see, but he also discovered that the girl's birth characters were very peculiar. Her birth characters were yin, her fate was also yin, and she had such a name, which could be described as yin on top of yin.
Qianbo often said that I have nothing more to teach her. Xiaohun's talent in law is far better than mine. I also passed on the master's heirloom notes to her. If she had not been born in this Dharma-Ending Age, with her understanding, she might have been able to return to the peak era of her ancestors. It's such a pity!
Uncle Ping came back to his senses and said, "Okay, here's what happened. The client said their village had always been peaceful. Ever since a villager hanged himself from a large banyan tree on the village road, rumors of ghosts have been circulating. They can't find peace, so they came to me."
"Also, I found out that this big banyan tree is hundreds of years old. It must be a spirit! You must be careful," he said nervously.
You Xiaohun perked up when he heard this: "If it really becomes a spirit, it will be much harder to deal with than an ordinary ghost. Ghosts are easy to deal with because they are invisible and formless. Spirits can already gather energy and take shape, which is a bit tricky, but that's what makes it fun."
Uncle Ping was no longer surprised. You Xiaohun was always particularly excited whenever she encountered a challenging event. He just hoped that she would not be too reckless and fall into trouble.
You Xiaohun and Uncle Ping talked as they walked and in the blink of an eye they arrived at the village entrance.
Uncle Ping said quickly, "I'll leave this place to you. I'm going to slip away first. This village is really spooky."
"You run really fast." You Xiaohun smiled helplessly.
You Xiaohun walked around the village. The village was neither big nor small. It was almost midnight, when the yin energy was the heaviest.
You Xiaohun came to the big banyan tree that Uncle Ping mentioned. There were some offerings scattered at its feet, probably left to commemorate the dead souls.
"Open the Heavenly Eye!" You Xiaohun made a finger gesture and opened the Yin-Yang Eye.
In the past, You Xiaohun's Yin-Yang eyes were always open. She was troubled by the fact that she could see ghosts from other worlds regardless of time or place, so her grandfather helped her seal her Yin-Yang eyes, which could only be opened under specific spells.
A hanged ghost slowly emerged, still retaining its appearance before death, its face was purple-black, its eyes bulged out, as if staring at her intently, as if it had thousands of words to express its unwillingness.
You Xiaohun lit three sticks of incense with his bare hands (a secret method passed down from our ancestors, don't ask me how I light the fire, it's a secret secret) and walked over to stick them into the ground: "Wake up! Get up, you're already dead!"
The hanged man roared, "What nonsense are you talking about? I don't believe it. I don't believe I'm dead!"
However, when it looked at its body passing through the branches.
It looked at You Xiaohun in despair: "What on earth happened?"
"Didn't you commit suicide by hanging?" You Xiaohun came to his senses and asked it
It slowly floated in front of You Xiaohun. The soul was trembling unconsciously, and its eyes were erratic as it said, "I didn't commit suicide. I was a villager in this village. Because the village was planning to build a new road, I was responsible for cutting it down. Then, just as I was about to start the construction, I suddenly lost consciousness. When I woke up, I saw you."
After hearing this, You Xiaohun felt a flash of uneasiness in her heart, but it disappeared before she could catch it. Maybe she was overthinking it, You Xiaohun thought.
You Xiaohun looked around and found that the tree was indeed hundreds of years old as Uncle Ping had said.
Through the opened third eye, I saw that the green light surrounding the banyan tree was slowly turning into red light. This was a phenomenon of being contaminated with the aura of killing, indicating that this tree spirit had killed people, and the human blood was absorbed by it, which could improve its cultivation.
"Then I can't keep you here!"
You Xiaohun's face was solemn. He gathered a spell in his palm and slammed it towards the tree trunk.
Then a sharp scream came from the banyan tree: "Ahhhhh~"
The dryad fell out of the tree trunk and onto the ground.
It is petite, shaped like a three-year-old child, with two small green leaves on its head.
Before it could react, with a shrill scream, the tree spirit was forced out of its true form and fell to the ground in a mess. You Xiaohun took the opportunity to throw a net woven with red ropes, firmly binding it.
"Who are you? Why are you catching me?" The tree spirit struggled desperately.
You Xiaohun said sternly, "You killed someone and committed a crime. I am only following the will of Heaven and enforcing justice! I cannot allow you to continue to bring disaster to the world."
No matter how the tree spirit struggled, the red net remained motionless. You Xiaohun took out a small coffin, muttered something, pinched his fingers to put the tree spirit in, then wrapped it with red rope a few times and put on sealing talisman paper. You Xiaohun clapped his hands and it was done!
However, at this moment, a voice that seemed to come from the back mountain of the village was churning in my mind.
"Who is it? Who dares to touch my disciples?"
A mysterious force from the back mountain suddenly hit her and pulled her into a completely new space.
Before my eyes, there stood an extremely huge ancient tree, and in front of it stood an old man in white clothes, emitting a heart-pounding sense of oppression.
You Xiaohun was really shocked. Was he transferred?
You Xiaohun panicked, realizing she might have fallen into the clutches of an ancient and powerful being. The old man appeared gentle, yet in reality, he was unfathomable, his cultivation far surpassing any spirit or ghost she had ever encountered. She gripped her peach wood sword tightly and vigilantly scanned her surroundings, searching for a chance to escape.
This old man has been practicing Taoism for thousands of years, no, it should be said that he has been practicing Taoism for thousands of years. He can even perform such an incredible spell as teleportation. There is no record of this spell in the ancestor's notes.
Even if she could still fight against goblins and ghosts that were hundreds of years old, You Xiaohun had no confidence in defeating this thousand-year-old tree demon. China was only a few thousand years old. Oh my! How long had it lived? She gripped the peach wood sword tightly, thinking about the possibility of escape.
The old man seemed to see through her thoughts. His eyes fell on the peach wood sword in her hand, and his expression changed slightly: "This sword... Are you the descendant of that person?" His words revealed a bit of nostalgia and emotion.
"Do you know my master?" You Xiaohun couldn't help but nodded.
"It's been so many years, my friend. You are no longer with us. In this Dharma Ending Age, we old folks have been almost forgotten by people." The old man in white said to himself
You Xiaohun asked cautiously, "Senior, the tree spirit at the foot of the mountain killed someone, and I captured it to enforce justice. What is your intention in capturing me?"
The old man in white laughed out loud: "Haha, you have been fooled by a ghost. It is lying. It was greedy when it was alive. It found out that the banyan tree at the foot of the mountain was actually an agarwood tree that looked like a banyan tree, so it wanted to cut it down and sell it for money. Then it was killed by my disciple Zirong. It didn't deserve to die!"
You Xiaohun finally reacted: "Damn it! So the tree spirit at the foot of the mountain is your disciple Zirong? But its murderous sins have already been committed. Even if you want to protect it, you will be punished by heaven."
The old man in white looked at You Xiaohun with a kind gaze, until she felt a little creepy.
Then he said, "I have long predicted that my apprentice and your arrival today is also a calamity destined to happen to it. After seeing you, I changed my mind. This is the end of the Dharma era. The spiritual energy is thin. Your Taoism will not make any progress. It is up to you to return to the peak realm of your master's magic!"
You Xiaohun felt doubtful and a little uneasy. But the old man didn't give her time to think. He slapped her with his palm, and she felt dizzy and then lost consciousness.
Damn it! This old guy! Don’t let me meet you again~~~ This was You Xiaohun’s last thought before he lost consciousness.
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