The blue flame flickered.
Lu Liangsheng raised his head slightly and glanced above the prison. He roughly guessed what Ji Chenghuang meant, but he shook his head and his gaze fell back on the weak soul of the old man opposite him.
"It is still unclear whether the evil star came from there."
The City God is the emperor of the human world, or he is appointed by the imperial court, so he naturally stands on the side of the human world. However, Lu Liangsheng did not dare to rashly tell others about the Ten Thousand Spirits Array and the secret of the First Emperor. If he were discovered, it would cause changes.
After thinking for a while, the scholar changed the subject and spoke again.
"Besides this, has the City God made any other discoveries?"
The Netherworld Fire swayed slightly, and the soul-binding chains jingled in the darkness. The City God Ji Xin nodded and said, "Of course there is." Then he moved closer to the scholar beside him.
"When this person was brought back to the Yin Prison, there was still some residual aura of the demon star in his soul. I used my spiritual sense to observe it carefully. The remaining aura was gradually growing stronger like a living thing. But I knew before that the national master had taken the demon star aura out of his body."
Over there, Lu Liangsheng's gaze fixed as he looked at the old man's soul. He turned his head to look at the City God and frowned.
… This is not much different from what I knew before, except that the remaining demon star energy will grow again?!
Isn't it impossible to completely eliminate it
"City God Ji, is there anything else unusual?"
Hearing the scholar's question again, Ji Xin put his hands behind his back, recalled the details of his time of spiritual awareness, and fell into silence. After a long while, he slowly spoke.
"Yes, it seems that the energy of the demon star cannot be completely killed. The remaining energy was collected by Ji in the ghost seal made of lightning-struck wood, but it was found that it did not play any role and even had the intention of corroding."
Lu Liangsheng couldn't help but interrupt him when he heard this, and said in an uncertain tone: "What the City God means is that if it is placed in an ordinary pottery jar, over time, the pottery jar may be corroded and turned into a demon?"
“Remove the may and you’ll definitely.”
The City God's words were true and he was definitely not lying. Lu Liangsheng was silent for a moment, bowed to him, and said goodbye and left without asking for the evil star's aura. Ji Xin saw him out, and on the way the scholar also asked about the whereabouts of the soul of the late Emperor Yang Jian.
"Yang Jian is doing very well here. The chief clerk of the two departments of rewarding good and punishing evil is reviewing his past merits and demerits. It won't be long before he is sent to the underworld of Mount Tai. If his good deeds are not enough to offset his evil deeds, he will be sent to the ghost city of Fengdu."
"Thank you, City God, for telling me."
When he walked out of the underworld, the sky was just getting light. The early pilgrims had already lit the first incense stick at the City God Temple. The yawning temple keeper picked up the broom and started sweeping the courtyard. Hearing footsteps, he looked suspiciously at a scholar coming out from the back of the hall, with a dignified middle-aged man beside him.
'When did you come... Uh... The person next to you looks familiar, I've seen him somewhere before.'
He didn't realize at all that it was the statue of the deity enshrined in the main hall that just walked past him. After thinking for a moment, he couldn't figure out who was carrying the broom back to the temple.
Outside the City God Temple, Lu Liangsheng walked down the stone steps, turned around and bowed to Ji Xin who was standing in front of the temple gate to see him off. He brushed his sleeves behind his back, and walked straight into the city gate along the path, facing the first ray of morning light shining through the clouds.
On the streets, people looking for a living get up early and carry their food back and forth on the streets. Street vendors open their steamers, which emit steam and attract hungry pedestrians. Peddler carrying goods on their shoulders walk through the streets and shout loudly towards the open windows of the attics.
"Rouge... powder... southern rice~~"
The golden autumn morning pushes away the dark sky, and the crowded pier, with thousands of sails standing side by side, faces the sunshine, presenting a bustling vitality.
Lu Liangsheng walked past a street stall and bought a few sugar-filled biscuits, wrapped them in oilcloth paper, and carried them in his hands as he walked through the noisy long street back to Wanshou Temple.
The Taoist temple has been almost repaired. The damaged attic now stands brand new in the sun. Yellow leaves are flying in the woods on both sides of the mountain gate, revealing bare tree branches.
The scholar flicked a leaf off his shoulder, picked up the cake and went up the stone steps one step at a time. In front of him, which was rising little by little, he saw the Taoist practicing boxing in the square under the morning sun. His palms and legs punched and kicked, making whistling sounds. The stone bricks around his feet were shaking and swaying as his energy was pulled by him.
I do feel like my cultivation has improved.
Sun Yingxian finished his exercise and took a breath. His robe suddenly stopped moving and became still. After a moment, he exhaled and turned around. In his field of vision, he saw a sugar-filled biscuit thrown towards him. The Taoist reached out and caught it steadily, peeled off the outer layer of oilcloth paper, took a big bite, looked at the scholar who passed by, and chuckled twice.
"Old Lu, you didn't spend the night at the City God Temple last night, did you? Didn't you go somewhere else? For example, to the Min family?"
"This country's teacher really spent the night in the City God Temple. Don't slander him for no reason."
Lu Liangsheng also made a joke, and walked to the attic amid the Taoist's disdainful tone of "you don't understand romance", and happened to run into the master who was dragging out a recliner.
The Toad Taoist climbed over the high threshold, with his legs hanging outside. He swayed a few times but couldn't find a support point. A big hand reached out from behind to put a cushion under his feet. He then dragged the recliner from the door out, moved it under the eaves, jumped on it and lay down. He took a booklet in his hand and began to flip through it with relish, and waved to his disciple beside him.
"Liangsheng, you are blocking the sunlight for me."
However, no one responded. The Toad Taoist put down the booklet, turned his head and looked into the hall. He saw the scholar's back had already stepped over the threshold and walked up the stairs.
"You usually greet me, what happened today? I'd better go and see you, so that you won't say I don't care about you."
Toad looked back at the booklet in his hand, then put it down and threw it on the recliner. He stood up, climbed over the threshold, and climbed up the wooden stairs step by step.
On the winding staircase, Lu Liangsheng walked through the corridor, opened the door and returned to the room. He sat quietly at the desk. The sunlight was shining in through the window lattice, sprinkling on the paper covered with ink lines.
Then, he reached out and crumpled the paper into a ball, then held it in his palm and it started burning with a bang. As the flames died down, the ashes fell from between his fingers bit by bit and floated into the sunlight.
Lu Liangsheng looked at the flying light dust, his cheeks puffed up.
…The energy of the demon star cannot be destroyed, so it can only be sealed. However, as Ji Chenghuang said, the sealed magic weapon will also be corroded and slowly turn into a demon.
… How should I do about this matter… or what can I do.
I am cultivating the Way of Humanity. If I ignore this matter, it will damage my Dao heart and I will probably not be able to make any progress in the future. This will cause chaos in the world and affect the fortune of the dynasty, which is also not good for me...
Thinking of this, Lu Liangsheng turned around and raised his hand. The Qilin cloak floated out from the bookshelf and was put on his body. A red light came out from his Qiankun sleeves, illuminating the scholar's handsome face and pushing the sunlight out of the window.
The whole room was illuminated blood red.
'…Whether it is a magic weapon or an ordinary object, they are all unconscious things and are naturally easy to be corrupted into evil. Perhaps there is another way.'
Looking at the ball of red blood floating on the palm of his hand, it was swirling and moving left and right, with terrifying faces protruding from its surface, and its mouth wide open as if roaring silently.
Lu Liangsheng pursed his lips, looked at the blocked sunlight outside, took a deep breath, slowly closed his eyes, held the demon star in one hand, and sat there quietly and silently.
At a certain moment, he held the red light that was floating and spinning in his palm in front of him.
'… I hope the Confucian nobleness can clear my mind.'
The door of the red room creaked slightly, and a short figure came in with one short leg. He then poked his head in to look inside and called out softly.
"Liangsheng... the teacher is coming in."