The lady of the house, Xia Weiyin, immediately attempted to contain the news, but how could she when there were other major clans’ spies within the Li family?
Soon enough, she was contacted by the Thousand-Mile Communication Talisman. It was from the Xia family, her brother Xia Chuming, with whom she had a good relationship during their childhood. Xia Chuming beat around the bush, asking whether the news of her son-in-law’s petrification was true and if the Xia family’s help was needed.
Xia Weiyin knew many were watching every move of the Li family in Xin Xiang Province—it just never occurred to her that her own maiden family was keeping tabs as well.
She handled the inquiries smoothly, but it wasn’t long before others contacted her via the Thousand-Mile Communication Talisman, this time her sisters from the Western Capital, from the Zhang family.
Xia Weiyin was overwhelmed with handling the situation, yet she knew the news could not be kept under wraps any longer.
She launched the Thousand-Mile Communication Talisman, reaching out to the Li family in Gongzhou.
"The fact that Li Xiaozheng has been petrified by the Great Ming Treasure Ship—feared the Li family in Gongzhou would be the last of the great clans to learn of it," she thought to herself, somewhat helplessly.
In Gongzhou, Fei County, Xinglong Town.
Chen Shi didn’t take the wooden cart, but walked alongside the Green-robed Scholar, inquiring about the origins of the Evil Spirit.
It was the first time Dingding had encountered an exorcism, and he was thrilled, listening intently and incessantly asking for details.
The Compass that controlled the direction of the wooden cart was in the hands of a dog, while Black Pot controlled the cart’s direction, striding to keep up with them.
The Green-robed Scholar felt something was amiss, glancing around, but seeing nothing out of place, he continued, "This Evil Spirit is a ’dry mother’ turned malevolent—one that was the village’s Divine Tree, but for some unknown reason became evil and started causing trouble. Initially, the ’dry mother’ visited us in dreams, saying she wanted to watch a play. So, we invited a troupe to perform, but on the night of the play, she said it wasn’t to her liking and plucked off the heads of the troupe."
Chen Shi and Dingding were startled.
"Plucked their heads off?"
Dingding stuttered, asking further, "How were they plucked?"
"Just a turn of vines around the neck, a gentle lift, and off they came."
The Green-robed Scholar, seemingly having read for several years but never having passed the scholarly examination, had that certain literary flair as he spoke, "My cultivation is shallow; I couldn’t tell what spell she used. I just saw the troupe dead, but their heads remained alive, faces painted vividly and still in the theatrical makeup of Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, and Chou, hanging from the tree and shouting for a play. Beneath the stage, the villagers were terrified, scrambling to flee, and then some more heads were plucked."
Chen Shi and Dingding exchanged a look, both seeing the shock in the other’s eyes.
This silver wasn’t easy money.
Occurrences of the ’dry mother’ turning into an Evil Spirit were rare, but they did happen.
Back when his grandfather was alive, Chen Shi used to follow him around selling charms and exorcising evils; he had experienced similar incidents where the ’dry mother’ of a village became an Evil Spirit and wiped out the entire village.
At that time, Chen Shi sat inside the wooden cart, peering out over its edge as his grandfather approached the ’dry mother.’
To this day, Chen Shi vividly remembered that scene.
The old lady was clad in black, hunched over, surrounded by a black aura resembling thick smoke billowing into the sky, the ground around her split open, trees withered, and in the silent village only white bone skeletons worshipped the black-clad old lady.
Back then, Chen Shi knew nothing and saw his grandfather approach and vanquish the black-clad old lady with just one charm, thinking she was nothing more than a nominal Evil Spirit.
But reflecting on it now, he realized that the old lady’s power must have been extraordinary. She made people turn into white bone skeletons even after death, deluded into believing they were still alive, worshipping the black-clad lady and gathering Incense Fire Qi.
Such power had transcended the realm of common Evil Spirits and was nearing that of a Demon—not quite like the ghost bride.
Of course, the old lady’s domain was only the size of a village, far from the Demon’s hundred miles of territory.
Since the people in that village had all died out, his grandfather performed the exorcism without charge, later lamenting to him the waste of a charm with no payment received.
The grandfather also mentioned that the old lady was probably a spectral being that had transformed from wood or snakes, absorbing moon energy for years. In the past, due to worship, the Incense Fire Qi held formidable, divine powers, containing the mystical forces of the moonlight. Now, with fewer worshippers, the containment broke, resulting in the transformation into an Evil Spirit.
If it had been ancient statues, buildings, or treasures, which do not actively absorb moonlight, such transformations would be extremely rare.
"Has your village’s population decreased recently?" Chen Shi inquired.
The Green-robed Scholar shook his head, "Our village, called Sanhe Village, is a merger of three villages, and not only has the population not diminished, but it has actually grown quite substantially. Nowadays, it’s almost the size of a town."
The situation of Sanhe Village usually implied a sharp decrease in population, causing a deficiency in Incense Fire Qi and consequently rendering the ’dry mother’ incapable of suppressing the mystical forces of the moonlight. Yet Sanhe Village, formed from three merged villages, clearly did not match the profile of dwindling Incense Fire Qi.
Upon reaching the outskirts of Sanhe Village, Black Pot, still clutching the Compass, came to the side of the wooden cart, its forelegs touching the ground as it sat obediently next to the cart.
The Green-robed Scholar absentmindedly glanced at Black Pot, then looked away, chiding himself internally, "I’m not accustomed to such sights."
Chen Shi surveyed Sanhe Village, noting its developed roads, a postal route running straight through the village, suggesting that it likely grew from a postal station.
In the West Bull New Continent, postal stations were also established under the protection of the ’dry mother,’ affording safe night quarters to the government officers and their families traveling through. Without the ’dry mother’s’ blessing, they would be vulnerable to Evil Spirits.
This village had the scale of a small town, housing hundreds of families; a dense cluster of rooftops hinted at a population in the thousands.