Chapter 168

The five ghost emperors who govern Jiuyou’s ghost citizens all had ghost kings under their command, and Jiang Qu Lian was once a powerful subordinate of the central ghost emperor, Ji Kang*. Jiang Qu Lian was a highly gifted man who, according to legend, ate his own ghost mother as soon as he was born. He devoured thousands of ghosts and his cultivation was so profound that he was elected by Ji Kang to be in charge of the punishment in hell. But after he gained power, he gradually paid lip service to Ji Kang. Although Ji Kang was unhappy, he already couldn’t do anything to him.

Jiang Qu Lian is known for his ruthlessness and cruelty as a prison warden. Anyone who enters hell will suffer a lot of pain and suffering. Whether it's Jiuyou’s ghost citizens or the ghosts serving sentences in hell, will tremble when they hear his name.

Xie Bi An looked at the Red Palace from afar and had mixed feelings in his heart. When he was a child, Jiang Qu Lian loved to tease and scare him, but had never really hurt him. When he grew up, although he was also an underworld general, he had always been afraid of Jiang Qu Lian. To think that this ghost king in red had known from the very beginning that he was the reincarnation of Zong Zi Heng, and had actually been coveting his golden core for the past twenty years, it simply creeped him out.

Fan Wu She looked at the Yin servant patrolling the doorway, took out two talismans from his pocket, wrote down a string of talismans with his spiritual power and affixed them to each of the two men.

These were blindfold talismans. After they were affixed, ordinary people or humans and ghosts with low cultivation would treat them as objects. So long as they walk slowly, they wouldn't notice them, but this talisman had a flaw; what it blocks is the eyes, not the ears, and they couldn't make any sound.

"Last time I came to the Red Palace to bring him wine. The Red Palace had no boundaries. This should be enough." Fan Wu She said.

Xie Bi An let out a "hmm", "Wu She, even though Jiang Qu Lian is not here now, but in case, in case we are found out, is there any excuse we could give?" This was the first time he had ever done such a thing, so he was inevitably feeling guilty.

Fan Wu She smiled and pinched Xie Bi An's face, his tone was very doting: "Why is senior brother so stupid? No excuse will work if we are found out, but we won't be caught by him."

Xie Bi An smiled back, "Let's go."

The two of them moved slowly and quietly towards the Red Palace, stopping momentarily if any of the Yin servants looked this way, and they swaggered into the Red Palace. They dodged the Yin servants and attendants along the way, eventually catching Jiang Qu Lian's chief housekeeper, and put a puppet charm on him and told him to take them to the treasure trove.

Meng Po had investigated that the treasure trove of the Red Palace was in the underground palace. When she bribed the guards in the Red Palace, she found that there was probably a passage in Jiang Qu Lian's bedchamber that’s connected to the underground palace. The door to the real underground palace probably looked like a signboard. A few years ago, a Yin servant with bad intentions tried to sneak into the treasure trove and was bound by the mechanism and met a terrible end.

The two of them arrived at the main entrance of the treasure trove. As soon as they reached out, they sensed a boundary. Xie Bi An tentatively injected a surge of spiritual energy, and the spell on the boundary immediately flashed out.

Fan Wu She pulled Xie Bi An away: "This boundary is not easy to break, and someone may come to the underground palace at any time to inspect it, so let's go to his bedchamber and take a look. Besides, people don't usually put good treasures in places where they are easily taken."

"Master keeps it in the cupboard in his bedchamber." Xie Bi An said helplessly, "Forget it, Master is not an ordinary person."

"Master also set up a boundary."

The housekeeper led them into Jiang Qu Lian's bedchamber again and chased away the few maids who were cleaning it.

After they had sent the housekeeper away as well, they put the entire bedchamber into a boundary so that whatever was happening inside could not be seen or heard from the outside.

Fan Wu She looked around the room, "This place is so clean it doesn't look like anyone has lived here." There was not even a trace of wear and tear on the large red sandalwood bed, and the bedding was as neat as if it had been carved.

Xie Bi An laughed, "Because ghosts don't need to sleep. This place, it's just for show, I guess."

The two of them searched for the entrance to the treasure trove inside the room, but accidentally found some human realm’s clothes in Jiang Qu Lian’s wardrobe. Unlike the red he usually wore in Jiuyou, these clothes, from the color to the style, were the casual clothes commonly worn by the disciples in the current cultivation world.

"He really does go to the earth often." Xie Bi An grabbed a sleeve, "This Wusuoluo is a material that just became trendy during last year’s winter. It's extremely expensive. It costs three silver taels for one lot. I wasn’t even willing to buy it for master. He always trashes good things ..." When he thought of Zhong Kui, his heart felt extremely bad. "Nevermind that, let's keep looking."

Fan Wu She took a deep look at Jiang Qu Lian's clothes: "There are old and new ones in these clothes. He probably started going to earth a long time ago."

"Yeah, he would often disappear for a while. Sometimes saying he was in seclusion, maybe he went to earth."

"Why would he go to earth so often and also repeatedly ask for master's puppet magical treasure? At his level of cultivation, there is no need to eat people anymore."

"Yes, it’s meaningless for him to eat ordinary people, but he wouldn't dare to touch the high-ranking cultivators so easily. The Great Emperor Beiyin and Master turned a blind eye to his unauthorized visits to earth because he hadn't done any evil and it isn't easy to deal with him, but if they found out he was eating people, they certainly wouldn't sit idly by." Xie Bi An got down on the floor and tried to look under the bed, "Maybe he just likes the earth. Who doesn't like a lively and colorful earth?"

Fan Wu She felt around the room once and finally, he stood in front of a potted plant stand, "This potted plant isn't quite right."

"Oh? What did you find?"

"The house is so clean, which means the maids clean it daily, but the water stains dripping from this potted plant had its surrounding area wiped clean, yet you can see that the bottom of the potted plant is still dirty."

"Yes, when Bo Zhu and I cleaned on a regular basis, we would always move the pot up and wipe it clean. "

Fan Wu She cupped the potted plant with both hands and tried to lift it up, but was surprised to find that it was incredibly heavy and had obviously been under a spell. He smiled coldly, "This is it." With a breath of air, he hugged the plant and pulled it upwards with strength.

But the potted plant only trembled for a moment and did not leave the shelf. Xie Bi An also came up to lift it with him.

After injecting spiritual energy, they finally lifted the heavy flower pot, while at the same time, the bookcase slowly moved aside, revealing a hidden door.

The two of them cautiously walked over and used their scabbards to lift the door panel. A chaotic red mist appeared in the tunnel, floating in a coiled mass like a beast with its bloody mouth open. This is the boundary that belongs exclusively to Jiang Qu Lian.

Xie Bi An drew out Pei Xue and struck a sword Qi, which was swallowed up in an instant like a clay ox entering into the sea*. He frowned and said, "It'll not be easy to deal with."

"We can only forcefully break through."

"Leaving these traces, when Jiang Qu Lian comes back ..."

"No need to care that much." Fan Wu She formed a seal with both hands and struck a spiritual talisman at the red mist, with Xie Bi An following close behind.

The red fog received the attack and shrank violently. After that, the blood-red talisman kept appearing, and the two green-colored spirit talismans began to "fight" with the red fog. The two of them kept injecting their spiritual energy, and soon their foreheads were covered in veins and sweat.

They gritted their teeth and desperately inclined their spiritual energy for a full 5 minutes before the red mist was completely dispersed and the boundary was broken!

A long flight of steps appeared in front of them. When going downwards, dim oil lamps were hanging on either side of the stone wall, with the end hidden in darkness. The steps were narrow, and Xie Bi An tried to walk ahead, but Fan Wu She got in ahead of him.

"Wu She." Xie Bi An made a disapproving sound.

Fan Wu She extended his hand backwards, "Come."

Xie Bi An couldn’t help but feel a sweetness in his heart. There were times when he felt that Fan Wu She was arrogant and reckless, like a child who had not grown up, but there were also times when he felt that Fan Wu She had a maturity beyond his years. No matter what kind of danger he encountered, he could always put his mind at ease.

Xie Bi An put his hand in Fan Wu She’s hand. The two of them held each other with one hand, and a sword in the other. In this unknown and dangerous secret world, they gave each other a sense of total security.

They were on tenterhooks all the way, but nothing happened as they imagined the hidden arrows and mechanisms. When they reached the end of the steps, a stone room appeared in front of them, with all kinds of treasures covering three walls.

"Fire Dragon's Tongue, Golden Artemisia, Tianshan Snow Lingzhi ..." Xie Bi An looked at them once, "Although they are good things, they are not very rare."

"Go inside and take a look."

They walked through this stone room, only to find that this underground palace was really large. Just looking from here, they could see several stone rooms. It seemed that Jiang Qu Lian had really fattened up his pockets during his years as a hell prison warden.

When they reached the third stone room, there were only ten stone pillars, each with a magical treasure or weapon on it, and the only treasure chest that had its lid opened was empty inside.

The two of them skimmed the room with a glance and still didn't find the snake pearl, but when they passed the treasure chest, Xie Bi An suddenly let out a "huh".

"What's wrong?"

Xie Bi An took down the torch on the wall and looked closely at a pale blue stain in the treasure chest, finally rubbing his hand over that stain and putting it to the tip of his nose. He enhanced his sense of smell and turned pale when he caught a faint, almost vanishing aroma.

"Senior brother, what's wrong?"

Xie Bi An's face was grave-looking: "Look at what the shape of the stain looks like."

Fan Wu She looked at it, "It looks like a ... silk brocade bag."

"Master is a carefree person. He doesn't tidy up when he gets good things, either throwing them in his qiankun bag or putting them in the cupboard. Sometimes, I help him tidy up." Xie Bi An stroked that stain, "The year before last, I dyed a piece of cloth with purple martin from the Orchid Garden, and used it to make cloth bags, incense pouches, etc. A few of them contained Master's magical treasures. That was the first time I dyed cloth. The fading was not done well, and the color would bleed when it was wet, which is exactly the same as this color and scent."

Fan Wu She narrowed his eyes slightly, "Could this be the silk brocade bag you made?"

"I guess so. And at that time, there was only one magical treasure that could fit into this palm-sized silk brocade bag."

"What magical treasure?"

"The Southern Miao Jade Puppet." Xie Bi An gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, "The puppet that Jiang Qu Lian has always been trying to get from master."

"..."

People in the underworld do not have a physical body, only a soul body. And when they go to earth, if they want a body, they have to possess a human or animal body, while those with advanced cultivation will make their own puppet, which is called a spirit host. However, a spirit host made of plants will rot in a few days, and it will be difficult to bring out its full spiritual power. But this Southern Miao Jade Puppet was made hundreds of years ago by a great witch of the Nan Miao tribe, who was known for her expertise in witchcraft, and is probably the best puppet in the world.

But how did Jiang Qu Lian get it?!

"Master never said that this magical treasure was lost." Fan Wu She said.

"I guess Master simply doesn't know when exactly Jiang Qu Lian infiltrated the Heaven Master Palace and has stolen the puppet yet!"

 

 ----

Ji Kang* [嵇康]---kindly note that it’s not this Ji Kang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji_Kang

a clay ox entering into the sea*[泥牛入海]---- to disappear with no hope of returning

 

Edited on 9 May 21 (Emzie)

 

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