Waiting for you online - - - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

“If you win the championship at the Jiaolong assembly, have you thought about what reward you want to ask for from the Emperor?”

“This son hasn’t thought about it.”

“No matter what the reward is, it will not be a sword quenched by the Shen Nong Ding.”

Song Zi Heng stared at his own reflection on the water’s surface, thinking about the conversation he had with his mother before he left, and couldn’t help but be baffled.

“Big brother, the sweet potatoes are baked. They smell so good.”

Song Zi Heng came back to his senses, “Coming.” He hurriedly washed his hands and collected his emotions.

These days away from the Wuji Palace, Song Zi Xiao has almost gone crazy playing around. This is his first time going out of the palace since he was born. Everything looks fresh to him. He got tired of staying in the inn and insisted on sleeping in the wilderness. It just so happened that there was an evil spirit uprising up on Mount Gutuo. Song Zi Heng planned to deal with them at night, so he settled down nearby.

“Your Highness, try some.” The roasted and tender sweet potatoes were handed to Song Zi Heng.

On this trip, Emperor Ninghua had assigned them two high-ranking cultivators as escorts. A pair of brothers named Huang Hong and Huang Wu.

Song Zi Heng said, “Bring us some wine.”

Huang Wu brought the wine jug over, and Song Zi Heng poured three cups of wine and handed the two men a glass: “It has been a long journey for you two.”

The two of them were flattered: “Your Highness, this is what we should do.”

“There is no need to be so formal with your manners outside of the palace.” Song Zi Heng laughed, “This Xiaoyaoniang is a good wine. It is light and sweet at first, but the aftertaste is endless, so it is like a god. It would be boring for me to drink alone, come on.”

The two of them took the cups of wine and drank together.

Song Zi XIao eyed the wine: “Brother, can I…”

“No.”

“Just give me a taste of it, I’ve never had wine before.”

“How old are you? Who would dare to give you wine.”

Huang Hong and Huang Wu laughed together.

“There is no need to be so formal in your manners outside of the palace, that’s what you just said.” Song Zi Xiao climbed on Song Zi Heng’s shoulder, “Big brother, let me try, is it really that good?”

Song Zi Heng looked skeptically at him and hooked his lips in a smile, “Okay, I’ll give you just a little taste.” He took his thumb and dipped it into the wine and wiped it onto Song Zi Xiao’s lips.

Song Zi Xiao curiously stretched out his tongue and licked it, his little face suddenly changed: “Yuck, yuck, so spicy.”

The three of them laughed out loud.

Song Zi Xiao said angrily, “That’s disgusting!”

“You’re the one who wanted to taste it, you can’t blame others.” Song Zi Heng smiled and put him on his lap, “Come, drink some water.”

Song Zi Xiao took a few gulps of water and finally became obedient.

After eating, the sky was getting dark and the two brothers leaned against each other to enjoy the sunset.

“Brother, where is the evil spirit and when will it come out.”

“You will have to ask it. For now we can only wait.” Song Zi Heng flicked his finger at the spirit-attracting talisman placed at the side, which would burn up whenever a ghost appeared within a mile radius.

“Why are there so many ghosts and spirits in the world? We can’t even eliminate them all.”

“As long as there are people, there will be ghosts.” Song Zi Heng said, “Are you not listening in class properly again? Why are you still asking such questions?”

“I’m just lamenting.”

“Come on, let me test you. What is the difference between a soul and a spirit? What’s the difference between getting rid of evil spirits among people and collecting spirits in the underworld?”

“Souls are divided into heaven soul, earth soul, and human soul. Spirits are divided into joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, evil and desire. This is the three souls and seven spirits.” Song Zi Xiao lightly hummed, “I remembered it.”

“Good, continue.”

“The heaven and earth souls are originally the essence of heaven and earth, after death, the heaven soul returns to heaven, and the earth soul returns to earth. Only the human soul carries karma and is harvested by the Yin servants and underworld general. The seven spirits will gradually dissipate on the seventh day.”

“If the human soul is not taken away, or the seven spirits have not dispersed, what happens?”

“Then it will become an evil spirit.” Song Zi Xiao answered, “The soul and the spirit turning into a ghost are different. The soul has no physical body, so it can only possess other bodies. A corpse will rise when the spirits cannot disperse due to deep obsession.”

“Right.” Song Zi Heng nodded, “If it is the soul that causes chaos, the people will generally worship the local city god, ask the Yin servants and underworld generals to come harvest it. If it is the spirit that causes chaos, we need to step in. However, any kind of situation can be encountered when performing an exorcism. Whether they are souls or spirits, never ever take them lightly.”

“Hmm.” Song Zi Xiao leaned into his big brother’s arms, feeling a little sleepy, “So what’s the city god like? In the underworld, are there really a lot of Yin servants and underworld generals? Big brother, have you ever been to the underworld?”

“City God ah, is not a person, it is an official position. Each place has a local city god. As for the underworld, big brother has in fact been there. Big brother has been to Mount Luofeng. The underworld is in Mount Luofeng, but there is a barrier separating the two worlds. As living beings, we cannot see it.”

“Then one day when we die, can’t we be reunited in the underworld?”

Song Zi Heng smiled helplessly: “Why mention death? It is so unlucky.”

“Because when a person dies, the living won’t be able to see him again. But I don’t want to be unable to see big brother. Whether on earth or in the underworld, I want to be with big brother forever.”

Song Zi Heng’s heart warmed, and he rubbed his face against Song Zi Xiao’s: “Big brother also wants to be with Xiao Jiu forever, but when people die, before they reincarnate, they have to drink Meng Po soup. After drinking the Meng Po soup, they won’t remember anything in the next life. So when people are alive, we have to cherish it, and after death, let’s follow the fate of heaven.”

“Then I won’t drink it, not even in death.” Song Zi Xiao felt that he’s going to die when he thought that he was going to drink it, and changed his words, “Dead or alive, I will not drink it, I don’t want to forget big brother. Big brother also don’t drink it, don’t forget me. After reincarnation, I will go find you, we can still be brothers.”

Song Zi Heng was amused by this childish talk.

“I’m telling the truth. You promise me big brother, neither of us will drink the Meng Po soup.” Song Zi Xiao was very seriously anxious about this matter and must get a promise.

Song Zi Heng said with infinite warmth, “Okay, I promise you. Both of us will not drink it, and you will come back to annoy me to death in the next life.”

“Hmph, maybe in the next life I will be your big brother, no, as your father.”

“You’re rebelling huh.” Song Zi Heng hugged Song Zi Xiao and giggled, eliciting a cry and a laugh for mercy.

—

At midnight, Song Zi Xiao had fallen asleep on top of his big brother when he was suddenly shaken awake.

“Xiao Jiu, look.” Song Zi Heng said in a quiet voice.

A glint of fire reflected into the bottom of Song Zi Xiao’s eyes. It was the spirit-attracting talisman! He jumped up violently, looking left and right nervous and excitedly, “Where is it, where is it?”

“Calm down.”

Song Zi Xiao took a deep breath and spread his spiritual power to probe for ghostly resentment in all directions. His cultivation was still shallow and he had never fought in real life, so he concentrated his senses for quite some time, but still couldn’t find it.

“Follow me.” Song Zi Heng drew his sword and flew towards the southwest.

Song Zi Xiao followed his big brother, while Huang Hong and Huang Wu escorted in the back.

The ghost at Mount Gutuo has been infesting the local area for a year. Specializing in digging out people’s bellies and intestines. There were at least 6-7 victims. But this place is located at the border of the Chunyang Sect and the Wuyun Sect. The two factions have been at odds with each other, and neither was willing to take care of matters here, which led to the ghost becoming more and more powerful.

Although the famous Song clan ruled over this territory, Jiuzhou was vast. Each place is always guarded by a local immortal family, the people pay taxes to seek protection from the immortal families. The immortal families then pay tribute to the Song clan. Those people from remote, poor, or caught between different forces, are often neglected because the tax paid is not enough, and they end up suffering from the scourge of demons and monsters.

Every time Song Zi Heng went on a trip, he would eliminate harm for the people, and there were few cultivators like him. The sky and land were vast, as if holding a sword all over the world, and living such a free life, was the life he longed for most.

They soon caught up with the evil spirit.

Song Zi Heng said, “Huang Hong, Huang Wu, you guys come set up the formation, don’t let him get away.” This time, besides collecting this thing, he also wanted to let Song Zi Xiao gain a bit of experience.

“Yes.”

The evil spirit was indeed a rising corpse, his abdomen was hollowed out with a large hole almost right through, extremely appalling. The corpse was already half rotten, emitting an unbearable stench in the middle of the summer night.

The walking corpse realized a threat was approaching, and lunged wildly at Song Zi Xiao.

This is the first time Song Zi Xiao faced a real ghost with a horrible appearance and the stench of decay. He was so scared that his face turned white. He gripped the sword, but for a moment he froze on the spot.

Song Zi Heng blocked in front of Song Zi Xiao and kicked the corpse away. He raised his sword and stabbed it. The corpse’s speed was faster than both of them imagined. It dodged backwards and then pounced on Song Zi Xiao, obviously knowing who the one with the weakest spiritual power was.

Song Zi Heng held his sword hilt in his hand, forcing the walking corpse to back away, but not in a hurry to subdue him.

Song Zi Xiao finally came back to his senses, thinking that he had just been scared silly. In a moment of shame and anger, he took out a talisman from his pocket, which was written in vermilion, and he turned to the back of the walking corpse and struck the talisman out.

The corpse felt the spiritual pressure from behind and quickly dodged. He let out a mournful howl. The rotten, pitch-black holes for eyes fiercely “looked” at Song Zi Xiao.

Song Zi Xiao gritted his teeth and swung his sword to strike.

The walking corpse stretched out its ten sharp fingers and grabbed Song Zi Xiao.

A white shadow flew by and picked up Song Zi Xiao to dodge the corpse’s attack: “Xiao Jiu, don’t be afraid, big brother is here, try again.”

Song Zi Heng was in the front fighting with the corpse. Song Zi Xiao pulled out another talisman, using the same trick to try to sneak attack the corpse’s back.

The corpse was also prepared, as soon as it sensed the spiritual pressure, it flew and dodged.

This time Song Zi Xiao did not retreat. His eyes were fierce and his small body shot up in place. Between the attack from Song Zi Heng in the front and the talisman in the back, the corpse was unable to easily dodge. Taking advantage of the flank attack, his sword viciously swung down.

A head flew up into the air.

Song Zi Heng was dumbfounded.

For the first exorcism, he did not want to give Song Zi Xiao a terrible impression, so he mainly subdued him, but he did not expect that Song Zi Xiao was born with a ruthless character, and seized the opportunity to chop off the head directly.

The head fell to the ground, and the corpse fell to the ground.

Song Zi Xiao stood with his sword, his small chest heaving violently, his face sweating like pulp, and his heart still fluttering with fear.

Song Zi Heng walked over: “Xiao Jiu, are you okay?”

Song Zi Xiao shook his head, “Big brother, I’m not afraid.”

Song Zi Heng patted his head, “It’s okay for you to be afraid, big brother was scared to death the first time facing an evil spirit.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Song Zi Xiao smiled: “But I’m really not afraid, at most a little nervous. With big brother around, I know nothing can hurt me.”

Song Zi Heng also smiled, “You did well to end this evil spirit with your own hands. Father will definitely be very happy when he finds out.”

“Your Highness.” Huang Wu was examining the corpse, “Something is odd.”

The two of them walked over.

Huang Wu frowned at the walking corpse, then looked at his brother and inquired, “What do you think, does it look alike?”

“It does.”

“What’s wrong?” Song Zi Heng was puzzled.

Huang Wu said, “Your Highness, this man’s wound, it looks like a cultivator who had his golden core dug out.”