HS Chapter 61

Du Zhi’s weapon was not something he easily revealed.

Most of the time, those demons and spirits had fatal weaknesses of their own. For example, jiangshi and drought demons feared fire. A simple fire could reduce a jiangshi from the grave to a pile of ash until it was unable to stir up any trouble again.

**Jiangshi are zombie/ walking corpses.

And the master of the Huxin Tower before him, whose true form was an osmanthus tree, was not particularly frightening either. Relying on his movement technique alone, Du Zhi subdued the enemy in just a few exchanges and bound the master with a demon-binding rope.

Those osmanthus flowers transformed into geji didn’t possess much offensive power to begin with. Their method of attack was to confuse their targets with the fragrance of osmanthus. The so-called dreams come true were nothing but illusory mirages. The answer sheets produced and the gold dug up behind the courtyard, once the time wore off, the brilliant writings would become meaningless scrawls, and the gold would be just a pile of stones. After the dreams shattered, they would be able to screen out the weak-willed, and once the true body activated its power, those with weak willpower would become melancholic and spiritless. Over time, once the mortals’ will was completely crushed, they would follow the guidance of the osmanthus scent and hang themselves on the osmanthus trees of Southeast Mountain.

The three souls and seven spirits of those who hanged themselves became the food of the osmanthus trees.

Huxin Tower carried out these actions very cautiously. To avoid attracting the attention of the authorities, not every guest who came would be subjected to such mental destruction. Or rather, the guests who arrived had already been pre-selected. They were often individuals long troubled by some issue and, upon hearing that their dreams could come true, would rush to Huxin Tower. In the dreamworld brewed by osmanthus scent, there would be a first round of selection, and only those among the guests with especially weak willpower would become the final food.

During the battle, Du Zhi consciously held his breath. Moreover, with the chanting of incantations in his mind, the osmanthus scent had no effect on him.

The demon-binding rope, which could freely shift forms, was flung into the air and in an instant turned into a net that covered the sky and earth, trapping all the geji. They struggled with all their might, trying to hold up the binding net, but it was useless.

All of them were sweating profusely, their faces pale as they begged for help, “Master, Master… we’re good demons, we haven’t committed any sins!”

Du Zhi remained expressionless, neither sorrowful nor joyful. Even as he listened to their empty excuses, there was no anger on his face either. His flat tone sank slightly, adding more pressure, “Su Jia hanged himself, are you saying it has nothing to do with you?”

Seeing the osmanthus girls rendered speechless, he questioned again, “Good demons?”

Du Zhi had been raised beneath the feet of a Buddha statue since childhood, offering incense morning and evening, hearing the morning bells and evening drums, the qing fish, and the Sanskrit chants. His master Liao Yi’s teachings had long soaked into his spirit with the curling sandalwood smoke.

The world was clearly divided into good and evil, black and white. The duty of Taichu Temple was to protect the peace of the mortal realm. Demons and spirits clearly stood on the black, evil side.

Since the age of eight, Du Zhi had followed the national monk Liao Yi in subduing demons and capturing monsters. He had seen too many demons and monsters that ate flesh and drank blood, trampled human lives, and defied natural order. In all he had seen and heard, not a single one had escaped the division of good and evil, black and white.

Except…

For that koi demon with snow-white scales.

Even now, Du Zhi still could not see through the other party’s thoughts.

In his world of black and white, Xin Hexue seemed like an anomaly. Not only did he not do evil, he had even been helping along the way. His actions made Du Zhi unable to see clearly.

Sometimes, when Du Zhi looked at him, he felt this person seemed transparent, not black, not white, but merely reflecting colors.

This was also the reason why Du Zhi had never wanted to trap him in the Yin-Yang Unified Qi Bottle. He even carried the koi demon on his back like a porter all the way north.

He didn’t want to kill him or hurt him. As a last resort, he should have sent Xin Hexue to the An Ning Tower.

Even though they had already reached the borders of Xuzhou, just two or three days’ walk from the capital, Du Zhi still hesitated.

He hadn’t known what the stirring in his chest meant, but the dream from the osmanthus fragrance had cleared away the clouds and let him see the moon.

Du Zhi decided to wait until he subdued the osthmanthus tree demon before talking things out with Xin Hexue.

Thinking of this, the emotion in his eyes softened considerably.

But when he looked again at osthmanthus tree demon and the osmanthus girls, his tone turned cold as he questioned, “Three people hanged themselves in Xuzhou in the past two years, and over thirty others went missing. Don’t tell me this has nothing to do with you?”

The osmanthus girls looked at each other in fear, realizing that this monk truly knew everything that was going on in the Huxin Tower and no amount of sophistry could shake his mind. Afraid their crimes would worsen, and ignoring the osthmanthus tree’s attempts to stop them, they panicked and said, “Master, those three who hanged themselves…yes, that was related to us. But the missing people… the missing people were not harmed by us!”

Du Zhi knew they had put great effort into running the Huxin Tower, and as tree-born demons, they wouldn’t have had such boldness. “Then who was it?”

As soon as he finished asking the question, he heard screams coming from upstairs and downstairs, as if people had seen something extremely terrifying. Du Zhi then heard a private room door being flung open, followed by a jumble of chaotic footsteps as people fled in fear.

He glanced back at osthmanthus tree demon and the osmanthus girls, who were trapped in the demon-binding net and unable to escape, then quickly strode into the corridor, grabbed the carved railing, and looked down from the top floor.

Huxin Tower had four floors, with a staircase spiraling up from the center of the first floor. So when looking down from the railing, one could take in the entire situation across all four floors.

He saw a giant snake slithering into the building. Its body was as thick as a hundred-year-old banyan tree and its scales shimmered with a cold, blue light. The snake’s pupils were sharp, its tongue blood-red and flicking in and out with a hissing, shadowy voice that sounded half-human, half-beast: “Xiang Gui, get down here right now. How much longer do you plan to delay this half-year’s offering?”

The giant snake spoke in human language. Someone screamed in terror, “Demon! A demon!”

The crowd panicked and scattered, pushing and shoving each other as they rushed down the stairs and toward the side exit.

Du Zhi frowned, his expression growing heavier.

When chaos erupted, accidents were sure to follow.

Sure enough, someone missed a step and tumbled down the spiral stairs all the way to the wooden floor of the first level. He opened his eyes in a daze just in time to see the giant snake opening its blood-red mouth. “Help!”

A suoluo staff came down from the air, whistling sharply through the wind.

The giant snake, which had just opened its mouth, suddenly jerked its head back. The tip of the staff smashed into the wooden floor and sank three inches deep.

The giant snake became alert. “Who?”

Du Zhi stepped forward and shielded the mortal. “Leave.”

The giant snake’s pupils narrowed. “Du Zhi?”

It had long heard of national monk Liao Yi’s famed disciple, but had never encountered him head-on. Now, it recognized the man through the staff made from suoluo wood.

Du Zhi said calmly, “Dan Sheng.”

This was the giant snake Dan Sheng, which had caused flooding disasters along the Great River during the Jiaji reign, devouring more than a dozen villages. The national monk Liao Yi had once suppressed it beneath Dongting Lake.

Now it has returned. From what it just said, the more than thirty missing people over the past two years were likely sacrifices offered by Huxin Tower’s master, Xiang Gui, to this giant snake.

Du Zhi said in a deep voice, “Dacheng will not allow you to act recklessly.”

Dan Sheng broke free from the depths of Dongting Lake. Although National Monk Liao Yi had destroyed most of his cultivation decades ago, he still wasn’t someone this monk before him could threaten so easily.

Dan Sheng sneered, “You’re not even as old as the tip of your snake grandpa’s tail, and you dare to scare me?”

Du Zhi’s eyes grew darker. If he were to engage Dan Sheng in battle, the Huxin Tower would be destroyed, and the entire lake would churn in turmoil. He had to warn Xin Hexue to get away from here.

He tried to locate the position of the tracking bangles, only to find that everything around him was silent. Without him noticing, the bangles had already shattered.

‘Xin Hexue?’

Du Zhi instantly felt as if his heart had been drenched in a basin of cold water, and a feeling of emptiness and panic rose within him.

A hoarse voice at the bottom of his heart gloated, “Oh puh, your sweetheart ran off.”

Du Zhi had always treated Hen Zhen’s words as wind passing by his ears, never paying attention. But under the current circumstances, and hearing what Hen Zhen said, his already unstable mind, just out from the dream, became even more turbulent.

Hen Zhen chuckled softly.

This bald donkey’s moment of power was over. Now it was his turn.

Through Du Zhi’s eyes, Hen Zhen’s gaze filled with malice and locked onto the giant snake.

Dan Sheng, who was cold-blooded by nature, suddenly felt a chilling sensation on his scales, as if someone wanted to skin him alive and draw out his tendons.

………

Under the broad daylight, a strange phenomena suddenly erupted on the water beside Hulu Dock. The water surged and roared like the sea, and a giant snake burst out from a towering wall of water, coiling and churning up layer after layer of waves. The towering Huxin Tower in the center of the lake collapsed in an instant.

The boatman rowed the boat full of people ashore before it capsized.

People gathered like they were watching a tidal bore, eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. “Snake demon? A snake demon?!”

Then a golden dragon emerged from the water wall, shining with Buddhist light and sharp claws like hooks. It shot out like an arrow, and became entangled in a fierce battle with the giant snake.

The crowd quickly recognized the monk on the golden dragon’s head.

“Master Du Zhi?”

“I heard Master Du Zhi’s suoluo staff could transform into a living dragon. Today I see it’s true!”

As the sun moved westward, the giant snake began to lose the fight. With a swift claw strike from the living dragon, its true form was revealed.

It was merely a water snake, slightly longer than a grown man.

Du Zhi stepped onto Hulu Dock. It was unknown whether it was snake blood on him or his own, but he was not only disheveled in appearance but his expression was also no longer calm. Instead, he looked uneasy and worried. He didn’t even notice a wisp of red light burst from between his brows and sink into the body of the snake at the bottom.

He took two steps into the lake. The icy water reached his knees and dragged down his kasaya with weight. “Xin Hexue? Xin Hexue? Xin Yao?”

——Where are you?

The snake that had sank to the bottom of the lake suddenly opened its eyes, its pupils filled with thick blood-red.

Hen Zhen quickly grew familiar with this new body. Though they were both aquatic creatures, and of completely different species, swimming still felt more or less the same.

As for retrieving his original body in the An Ning Tower, now wasn’t the time. That would require long-term planning.

One of Dan Sheng’s little underling demons somehow transmitted a message to him, “Grandpa Snake, bad news! You’d better hurry back to Buzhou Mountain! I heard Du Zhi has reached the borders of Xuzhou. If he finds his way to our stronghold, what’ll we do?”

Hen Zhen had been trapped in Du Zhi’s body for years, and was already starving.

His snake eyes gleamed like Yama himself, filled with bloodthirsty desire, and red spread across his entire eyeballs.

The little demon transmitting the message was still wailing.

“What are you panicking for?” Hen Zhen headed toward Buzhou Mountain and let out a cold, mocking laugh. “Your grandpa’s coming.”

“Prepare a feast first.”

…………

The sunlight was warm.

A snow-white fish belly quietly flipped over.

Where is this now O.o?

Repaying a favor O.o?

Repaying a favor to who O.o?

The butterfly koi blew two bubbles.

Xin Hexue took a moment.

He didn’t even know how many times he listened to K retelling the script before he finally understood the current time and space he was in.

He marked a location on the newly bought post map.

All the scholars from the south heading to the capital for the exams had to pass through the Buzhou Mountain post route where Xuzhou and the capital met.

He only needed to wait for the rabbit at the tree.

Wait for the rabbit at the tree.

He went in the direction of Buzhou Mountain. Although he didn’t know why, there was an ominous feeling in his heart.