Chapter 194
Chapter 194
“What?! But… in this day and age, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is so thin. Do monsters that powerful truly still exist in the world?”
Old Cao’s words astonished me.
Master had said that all sorts of ancient texts clearly recorded how the concentration and quality of spiritual energy between heaven and earth had rapidly declined since the pre-Qin era.
In the past several decades especially, the rate of decline had accelerated to an absurd degree!
The direct result was that cultivation had become more difficult for humans and all other living beings alike.
Seeing my shock, Old Cao explained with a helpless, wry smile,
“Generally speaking, even if a snake awakens its intelligence and begins cultivating, it will still need eight hundred years of good fortune before it reaches the level where it can attempt flood-dragon ascension.”
“If its talent is poorer or its luck less favorable, it will require at least a thousand years!”
“So even though the spiritual energy of heaven and earth has declined severely, any enormous python capable of flood-dragon ascension now would have awakened its intelligence and begun cultivating a thousand years ago. It has already accumulated enough power.”
Put that way, it truly made sense!
I asked worriedly,
“Old Cao, where do you think the enormous python monster preparing for flood-dragon ascension might be? Besides Lianghe Town itself, the jurisdiction includes dozens of townships and hundreds of villages in the surrounding area…”
Old Cao spread his hands.
“How would I know? You carry turbid qi, so your connection to the earth veins is far closer than ours. If anyone’s going to guess, it should be you.”
“Besides, this is only my wild personal speculation. Perhaps the frenzy in the earth-vein qi wasn’t caused by an enormous python attempting flood-dragon ascension at all, but by something else entirely.”
Earth-vein qi was the power of the earth itself, contained within every inch of soil.
It simply grew denser the deeper one traveled underground or into the heart of a mountain!
Never mind ordinary people. Even most cultivators could not detect changes in earth-vein qi without specialized methods.
Old Cao, for instance, could not sense the sudden surge and transformation in the earth-vein qi despite being both a coffin bearer and a funerary-paper artisan. He knew only because I told him.
Wang Hu, on the other hand, existed as a spirit body and was more sensitive than the living to changes in every surrounding magnetic field and form of energy.
He could therefore detect the change in the earth-vein qi as well, indirectly confirming my account.
The coffin shop fell briefly silent.
Outside, the torrential rain continued pouring down.
It showed no sign of weakening.
Water had already begun pooling on the bluestone street beyond the door!
At a glance, it was deep enough to cover the tops of one’s feet and reach the ankles.
The old street where the coffin shop stood had been built long ago, but it possessed a complete underground drainage system leading directly to the small river beyond River Street. The stone slabs also sloped slightly toward the gutters on either side.
That was why even torrential rain normally left no standing water on the street.
Tonight’s conditions proved this truly was a once-in-a-century storm.
Suddenly…
a dark silhouette appeared outside the coffin shop!
Old Cao, Wang Hu, and I all whipped our heads around.
Beside the figure was a shorter silhouette that suddenly opened its mouth and barked.
Woof, woof, woof!
“Heizi, stop barking. It’s late. Don’t disturb the neighbors.”
The figure spoke in a deep voice and took two steps forward.
It entered the pool of dim yellow light cast by the incandescent bulb above the doorway, revealing its appearance…
“Brother Li! Heizi! What brings you here?”
I shouted in delight.
Sure enough, our visitors were Li Miao, the corpse retriever, and the enormous black dog he had raised.
Old Cao stood with a smile and beckoned to them.
“Brother Li, the rain is heavy out there. Hurry inside.”
The man and dog stepped over the threshold, which stood more than a foot high, and entered the shop.
Li Miao removed his thick straw rain cape and hung it from a hook beside the door.
Heizi remained at the entrance, twisting its body vigorously to shake off the water.
Whuff-whuff-whuff…
Droplets sprayed everywhere and speckled the floor.
After only a few shakes, Heizi’s fur became fluffy and dry again. It gleamed with a glossy black sheen, smooth as silk.
“Rrr-woof! Rrr-woof!”
It lowered its voice and barked softly toward me, then ran over wagging its tail. It circled me, rubbed against me affectionately, and licked my hand.
I gave a helpless, wry smile.
“Heizi, you came to visit me this time. I didn’t visit you at the little cabin by the river, so I didn’t bring any meat. No matter how sweetly you act, there isn’t any meat for you.”
Heizi looked disappointed and let out an aggrieved rumble from its throat.
Then it suddenly raised its head and looked at Wang Hu floating in midair.
Wang Hu froze in terror!
He hurriedly flew higher until his back pressed against the ceiling.
Among all dogs, black dogs were the fiercest and carried the heaviest yang energy.
They naturally possessed the power to ward off evil!
Even an ordinary black guard dog raised in the countryside could easily destroy an average wandering ghost or walking corpse, much less a supernatural black dog deliberately raised by a corpse retriever.
Even a vicious evil ghost or corpse-fiend would suffer serious injury after two bites from Heizi!
Although Wang Hu had begun cultivating as a ghost and enjoyed Old Cao’s support, he remained terrified of Heizi. He feared the enormous black dog might suddenly go mad, mistake him for food, and devour him…
I admonished it earnestly,
“Heizi! This is an employee of the coffin shop and one of our companions. You should call him Uncle. Don’t get any bad ideas!”
“Woof, woof.”
Heizi barked softly twice and even nodded its enormous head.
I looked up at Wang Hu against the ceiling and said with a smile,
“Don’t worry, Uncle Hu. Come down. Heizi is very sensible. It won’t bite people at random… Wait, no. It won’t bite ghosts at random.”
Wang Hu forced a smile uglier than crying and said weakly,
“I was a little afraid of dogs while I was alive, especially enormous black ones like this. After becoming a ghost, I’m even more afraid. The black dog Master Li raised is both supernatural and powerful. Even knowing it means no harm, I still find it frightening. I’ll stay near the ceiling. It feels safer.”
His timid appearance made all of us burst out laughing.
After our laughter subsided, Old Cao asked,
“Brother Li, why did you brave this storm to come to our coffin shop? Is something urgent happening?”
Li Miao looked helpless.
“Can’t you guess, Brother Cao? With rain this heavy, the entire riverbank has become an ocean! My little wooden cabin stands on relatively high ground for that area, but even it has been swallowed by the river overflowing its banks.”
“I stopped to look on the way here. The river has already risen to the road pass north of town. If this rain continues, the flood will cover the pass within two hours at most. All of Lianghe Town, along with the riverbank plains and valleys both upstream and downstream, will be submerged!”
His words left all of us feeling heavyhearted.
I remembered what Yao Nan’s mother had said… It was already eleven forty-five. She would probably have to leave for the county-organized flood-control and disaster-relief meeting any minute.
There was no telling how much damage this sudden downpour would ultimately cause.
How many ordinary people would be driven from their homes?
Before the vast might of nature, cultivators, ghosts, corpse-fiends, monsters… all were as insignificant as ants!
I sighed inwardly.
At that moment, another figure suddenly appeared outside the door. A familiar voice called loudly,
“Hey! You’re all still at home? Didn’t you get the news? Hurry over to Longduo Mountain and take a look… People found signs of an enormous python monster. It may be planning to use this weather for flood-dragon ascension!”