Liaozhai Great Sage

Chapter 122 The Book of Life and Death

After leaving the Town God's Temple, Li Xiuyuan looked at the sky. It was already late at night, and he estimated that it would be dawn in a few hours.

He walked across the street against the moonlight and headed towards the Li Mansion in the city.

Wherever it passes, there is a dark wind that follows, surrounds the left and right, lingers, and there is also a faint smell of paper dust.

If an experienced old man passed by here, he would know that this Yinfeng is actually a group of ghosts passing by.

These ghosts following around are naturally the nineteen guards including Tieshan brought back by Li Xiuyuan from the underworld.

Li Xiuyuan has already ordered before that he is not close to gods and ghosts, so Tieshan and the others should not get too close, so as not to be affected, especially when he takes off his jade belt to sleep, he must hide far away. Don't be mistaken for your breath.

So follow all the way, still separated by a certain distance.

"Bang! Bang!"

When he passed by a street near the mansion, he saw the door of a house was open, and a simple and honest middle-aged man was frowning, holding a gleaming waist knife and seriously sharpening it on the whetstone.

One click, one click very hard, the sound is crisp and loud, especially at night.

Li Xiuyuan took a look, but saw that the waist knife had been sharpened brightly, and there was no need to sharpen it any more.

eccentric?
He couldn't help asking curiously; "My friend, your knife has been sharpened enough, why are you still sharpening it?"

"Ah~!"

The simple and honest man was startled by Li Xiuyuan's voice, and the waist knife in his hand fell to the ground with a bang, as if he didn't expect that there were still pedestrians passing by his door at such a late hour.

"No, it's nothing, it's nothing to sharpen the knife, I'm afraid, I'm afraid it will rust."

His tone of voice was stammering, and his expression seemed very nervous.

"But this knife has been polished to a shiny finish, without a trace of rust." Li Xiuyuan said.

The simple and honest man hurriedly said again: "Only, it's just that I can't sleep at night, and I have nothing to grind."

"So that's the case, then I won't bother you sharpening your knife."

Li Xiuyuan shook his head, ignoring this person's strange behavior.

But when he almost passed by and looked back, he saw that the simple and honest man had already put away the whetstone and waist knife, got up in a hurry and went back to the house.

"Young master, this person sharpens his knife in the middle of the night, and he's sneaky and fearful." A whispering voice sounded in his ear, but it was the ghost of a dead guard who spoke.

"You are a ghost and you still say that others are sneaky, and he is just sharpening a knife. It's okay to be suspicious, and others don't necessarily want to do bad things."

Li Xiuyuan said: "Besides, even if this person is really going to sharpen his knife to kill, then the others haven't killed yet, so don't be so nervous."

"Yes, Eldest Young Master." A dark wind blew away nearby.

"Okay, go back, I have a gift for you."

After returning to the mansion, Li Xiuyuan took out some incense that he had prepared earlier.

These incenses were his gifts. Originally, he planned to give these incenses to the City God as a gift when he left the Temple of the City God. After all, he was asking the City God for help, so he had to express it.

But now it seems that there is no need for this.

This city god has his own little thoughts, so there is no need for Li Xiuyuan to be so kind and even give him a gift. He has a good temper if he didn't tear down his city god's temple in a fit of anger.

"You are all ghosts now, you have to enjoy the incense on weekdays, from ghosts to ghost messengers, and then to ghost soldiers, so that you will not be unable to deal with ghosts and ghosts in the future."

He took a fire pocket and lit all the incense, and then stuck them all on the ground.

The smoke rose slowly, carrying a strong smell of incense.

These incenses are different from other incenses, they are stained with Li Xiuyuan's blood, and the burning incense contains special effects, which can increase the power of ghosts.

Originally, this great gift was enjoyed by the City God, but the City God did not have this blessing.

Although Tieshan, Li Zhong and the others are fierce ghosts, they are naturally fiercer than other ghosts, but at most they are similar to ghosts, and there is still a big gap between them and those ghost soldiers.

Although ghosts of this level can deal with ordinary people, they can't deal with things with real morality.

Only when you become a Yin soldier or a ghost general, can you be regarded as having the Tao and practice, and you can go on the path of becoming a god with incense and fire.

In this world, there are city gods, land gods, and river gods, but there are also countless little hair gods.

Just like the bald Taoist before, if he accumulates incense and everything goes well, the Qingfeng Temple will become a temple in the future, and he will be able to become a god with incense, and become a small god of Qingfeng Temple.

Although the bald Taoist did not succeed, it shows that his path of practice is worth trying by many ghosts.

Among other things, let's just say that the thousand-year-old tree spirit in Lanruo Temple has absorbed the incense and attained the Tao.

A tree worshiped for a long time, worshiped for a long time, can become a spirit, let alone Tieshan and the others.

Li Xiuyuan believes that as long as he builds a temple for Tieshan and the others, the incense will continue to burn in the future, and the people in Guobei County will worship more, and they will become a ghost in the future, no worse than the city god of Guobei City.

As the incense spread, Tieshan and the nineteen ghosts involuntarily absorbed it.

Ghosts are born to enjoy incense.

One offering of incense can keep ghosts from starving for a year.

But if more incense is enshrined, ghosts can strengthen themselves by absorbing incense and step onto the path of cultivation.

"Young Master, these incenses are so powerful. I feel like I'm full of power from the small body." A guard was originally strong, but after absorbing the incense, his body quickly became larger, and he was like a little giant. All full of power.

And the body is much more solid than before, without that ethereal feeling.

"This is a normal phenomenon. After you get incense, you will gradually transform from ordinary ghosts." Li Xiuyuan said.

In just a moment he could smell the incense from the guards.

Not worse than those ghosts.

In other words, from now on, these nineteen fierce ghosts are ghost messengers. They have a certain level of morality, but they have not been canonized yet.

But the so-called canonization is just a title, which is irrelevant to them.

"Let's get used to the ghost body a bit more. After absorbing the incense, go back to the county, have a dream, and tell your family members, so that your family members can relieve some of the pain in their hearts." Li Xiuyuan said.

"Thank you, Eldest Young Master, for reminding me, I almost forgot about it." All the ghosts nodded.

Li Xiuyuan yawned and said: "I'm a little tired, I'm going back to sleep first, don't get too close to my room, so as not to be affected."

"I'll wait for people to understand, I'll let them pay attention." Tieshan nodded.

"That's good." Li Xiuyuan nodded and went back to the house to rest.

Just when he was going back to rest, he was in the Temple of the City God.

As a puff of smoke blew out from the underworld, Guo Beicheng's City God laughed and appeared in the temple immediately.

"This red-haired ghost king has been tricked by me after all. Now that I have returned to Guo Beicheng, he, the king of the underworld, would not dare to chase him here. This thing is safe."

Chenghuang looked at the things in his hands and couldn't help but feel elated.

It was a book, a black book, with three characters clearly visible on it: Book of Life and Death.

"This is a treasure that can really judge life and death, and the things on my Chenghuang's case are just a record of life and death. It looks the same, but it is very different. It cannot be compared with the book of life and death."

Chenghuang flipped through the book of life and death in his hands, although it looked like it was only a few thin pages, but no matter how hard he turned it, he couldn't finish it, it seemed endless.

But as his eyes flickered, various words appeared on the white paper above, which were the birthdays, times of death, and longevity of mortals and so on.

"There are nine Books of Life and Death in the Underworld. The people who manage the land of Kyushu live, grow old, get sick and die. This book corresponds to this place. With this Book of Life and Death, I, the City God, can be regarded as the real City God." Guo Beicheng City God laughed.

Then he flipped through it for a while, and he didn't put it away until all the names of the people in this state appeared.

"Sure enough, the name of Li Xiuyuan, a sage in the world, is not in this book of life and death. His life, old age, sickness and death can only be determined by God, and this book of life and death can't even be fixed." The city god shook his head, originally he wanted to see Li Xiuyuan's lifespan.

Although ghosts and gods cannot calculate his lifespan, if his name appears in the book of life and death, he can check it through the book of life and death.

"By the way, did Li Xiuyuan say anything after he came back just now?"

Suddenly, he remembered something, and asked the Yin soldiers stationed by the gate on the left and right.

"My lord, no." Yin Bing shook his head and said.

"I didn't say a word." Chenghuang asked again.

"Yes, my lord, Mr. Li didn't say a word."

Chenghuang nodded and said, but he understood in his heart that he was being used by him once, and he was very angry, but at least he had helped him a few times before, and now it was evened out.

"However, the anger of the saint in the world still needs to be appeased, lest he destroy my temple on the spur of the moment."

With this in mind, the City God said again: "Go, send the ten altars of wine from the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty that the City God has collected to Mr. Li."

"Yes, Lord City God."

A Yin soldier captain responded, and immediately led his subordinates to carry the wine.

"Don't steal it on the way, this is wine for Mr. Li, if you drink it secretly, the city god will kill you." The city god glared at him again, and said coldly.

He has been a city god for many years, so how could he not know the tricks of these shady soldiers and ghosts.

Those yin soldiers immediately nodded in fright, and didn't dare to say anything.

Cheng Huang nodded and waved them away, and sat down by himself to study the book of life and death in his hand.

He tried to change the lifespan of an unremarkable lonely old man in the city, reducing his life by one year, to see if the book of life and death was really so powerful.

this change,

In an old house in the city, a lonely old man who was sleeping on a couch was breathing evenly before, but suddenly his head tilted and he lost his breath.

"died."

As soon as the old man died, the City God sensed it immediately.

Immediately he became even more delighted, but then he frowned slightly, feeling that his Yin virtue had been compromised a bit.

"You can't change the book of life and death indiscriminately. It's just changing a person's yang life for one year, which will damage the yin virtue of this city god. If the number of people who change it is more and heavier, this city god may not be able to bear such a big cause and effect. .” The City God’s expression became a lot more dignified.

Although this treasure is good, it must be used very carefully, otherwise it will be a disaster rather than a blessing.

(End of this chapter)