Chapter 247: Soul-Entwining Dream-Inducing Art

The Daoist whom Lu Liangsheng had thought of was at this moment speeding toward this place with all his strength. As the morning sun rose, along the mountains beside the official road where pedestrians and merchants came and went, a black shadow shot through the forest and wilderness like a sharp arrow released from a bowstring. The fallen leaves it stirred up fluttered in the air, and once the figure had passed, the leaves in midair slowly drifted back down one after another.

Rustle, rustle, rustle.

With two Divine Movement yellow papers affixed to his knees, his legs moved so quickly that afterimages were left behind. In a moment, he leaped over a large blue-green boulder, raised his fingers across his chest and made a hand seal, and his body disappeared into the earth, leaving only a Daoist hat on the ground.

In an instant, an arm reached out again, grabbed the hat, and withdrew underground. Only then did the small mound of earth that had been raised rapidly spread forward.

Seeing the small town called Ningxia below the mountain, the Daoist emerged from the ground, bits of grass and dirt hanging from him. He casually took out two white-flour steamed cakes and, as he walked, vigorously tore into them and stuffed them into his mouth.

“This Daoist is about to reach Great Perfection of the Golden Core, yet I had to give it up. They didn’t even say they would wait along the way. Fortunately, I know where Lanruo Temple is.”

After muttering on for a while, Sun Yingxian pushed aside the drooping branches blocking the road ahead, only to see an old donkey happily running at full speed. A taut rope dragged a woman in a black dress right past him.

Hehehehahahaha.

The woman actually laughed out loud.

“What is going on here?”

The stone stele bearing the words ‘Lanruo’, and the figure in a straw raincoat and bamboo hat sitting cross-legged upon it, looked strangely familiar to him. The Daoist walked over and lowered his head to glance at the bamboo hat.

Zuo Zhengyang opened his eyes. “What are you looking at? Lu Liangsheng is inside.”

“Can’t I take a look? But, Old Zuo, why are you here too?”

Seeing that the other man did not answer after saying that one sentence, the Daoist curled his lips and walked straight toward the temple. Not far away was a burly, bristled-bearded man skinning a wild rabbit. He could not help but take another look at the wooden chest on the man’s back.

Walking to the temple gate, he saw the Toad Daoist sprawled brazenly beneath the eaves, and a smile immediately appeared on his face as he quickened his steps.

“Old Toad, sunbathing again?”

The Toad Daoist shifted to the side, half-opening his toad eyes and waving a webbed foot at him. “If I don’t sunbathe now, should I wait until noon? Waiting for you to eat my toad venom?! Go away, go away, don’t block the sun.”

Inside the temple, the sound of Yuwen Tuo and the others reading aloud could be heard. As soon as Sun Yingxian entered, Li Sui’an put down his book and moved his lips, gesturing toward the loft above, before burying his face behind the book again.

The Daoist grinned, then went thump-thump-thump up the wooden steps, and saw Lu Liangsheng straightening a stone Buddha statue. He leaned against the wooden railing and took a bite of the half-eaten steamed cake in his hand.

“Calling this Daoist all the way here, what for?! That demon is the one you brought along last time, right? Looking foolish as ever, being dragged around and played with by the old donkey outside.”

With a muffled thump, Lu Liangsheng set the heavy Buddha statue on the altar. He glanced to see whether it was properly aligned before turning back with a smile. “Don’t lean against the wooden railing. Be careful not to fall.”

He patted the dust from his hands, walked over to the Daoist’s side, broke off a small piece from his hand, and tossed it into his mouth.

“There wasn’t really anything going on. Last night, I suddenly remembered something. I don’t know whether you know it.”

He looked at the steamed cake with the piece broken off from it, hurriedly stuffed it into his mouth, and replied while chewing:

“What is it? It isn’t another matter involving separating souls or something, is it?”

“No.”

After pausing for a moment, Lu Liangsheng turned around and looked toward the temple gate. Hearing the sounds of a woman laughing as she was dragged along, he pondered for a while. “That tree demon, you know that she was once captured by people from the Fire Prayer Cult. I want to learn from her memories where the other strongholds of the Fire Prayer Cult are.”

“Oh, the Soul-Entwining Dream-Inducing Art.”

“You know it?”

“No, I’ve only heard of it, but it isn’t difficult.”

At this point, Sun Yingxian looked somewhat troubled. This sort of art could be considered simple, but it also depended on who the target of the technique was. From what the scholar’s words meant, he wanted to search the tree demon’s memories for clues concerning the Fire Prayer Cult.

But damn it all, that tree demon was a thousand-year-old great demon. Even if her mind was unclear, he still could not get past the barrier of her cultivation. If the technique backfired, it would be no different from seeking death.

The hesitation on the sharp-jawed, monkey-cheeked face made Lu Liangsheng roughly guess the Daoist’s concern from his expression.

“I’ll do it.”

“Hey, that’s what you said.”

Lu Liangsheng nodded. “I said it.”

Not long after, having eaten lunch, Lu Liangsheng let his three disciples go outside for a stroll, then took the Daoist down the mountain to buy incense, candles, and a yellow-feathered chicken. Taking advantage of the midday sunlight at its strongest, the two of them set up a ritual formation in the loft of the temple, and also had Yan Chixia assist from the side.

The dazed tree demon sat in the center of the formation. The Daoist slit the chicken’s throat and used its blood to make marks on the talisman paper and Demon-Subduing Mirror, then tied red threads around the tree demon’s neck and fingers at two points.

At the other end, they were connected to the bronze mirror.

Lu Liangsheng lit a stick of sandalwood and inserted it into the incense burner before the Buddha statue, then sat cross-legged facing the bronze mirror.

“Remember, enter the bronze mirror with your spiritual awareness. If anything goes wrong, leave immediately!”

Although the Daoist had been somewhat evasive with his words earlier, now that it had come down to it, he still used this bronze mirror left to him by his master as the medium. Once it touched upon the tree demon’s own demonic soul and cultivation, at least there would be something to withstand it.

Hearing the Daoist’s warning, Lu Liangsheng slowly closed his eyes. Relying on his experience of having his Primordial Spirit leave his body, his consciousness followed the thread drawn out by his magical power, extending through the air toward the bronze mirror opposite him.

The originally bright yellow surface of the mirror suddenly rippled in a circle, turning black and sinking into profound darkness. The tree demon, who had originally been dazed and curious, now seemed to have been hypnotized, closing her eyes and becoming quiet.

Hoo, hoo.

Soft breathing sounds arose.

‘Enter the dream.’

The instant this thought surfaced, within Lu Liangsheng’s pitch-black field of vision, a faint light seemed to bloom at the far end. Then, dazzling white light shot out, pushing away the darkness and spreading from the end of the sky, instantly enveloping everything around him.

After the flash of light passed, his vision became clear. The place where he stood was atop a high slope. The land in all directions was lush, and the green forests stretching along the mountain ridges rose and fell in the gentle breeze.

“This is the tree demon’s memory?”

Lu Liangsheng seemed to feel the mountain wind brushing against his cheek. He stretched out his hand, and a flower petal fell into his palm. The next moment, a tremendous sound suddenly boomed from a nearby mountain peak, shaking even the slope beneath his feet.

The flower petal in his palm drifted away. At the instant he turned his head to look, a woman’s voice let out a shrill scream.

“Big Sister, go—”

A graceful woman dressed in a flower-patterned pink dress, her entire body engulfed in flames, traced a trail of fire across Lu Liangsheng’s field of vision and, with a boom, crashed into a nearby cliff face. Countless peach blossom petals scattered from the impact.

A peach blossom demon?

Lu Liangsheng shifted over, but before he could get close, a black-robed figure descended from the sky. She was as graceful and willowy as an ordinary woman , passing directly by him and trying to use her spiritual power to extinguish the flames burning over the woman’s body.

“Big Sister, go! They’re trying to capture you!”

The flames on the peach blossom demon were no ordinary fire. Amid her shrill screams, they simply could not be extinguished. All the spiritual power in her body evaporated within the raging flames, and she gradually revealed her true tree form, which was burned black in the blink of an eye.

The black-robed tree demon raised her face and looked back. Lu Liangsheng followed her gaze, and several figures descended from the sky over that mountain peak. At their head was a man with a neat topknot and a dignified face, wearing a gold-trimmed, red-bottomed robe embroidered all over with flame patterns, yet his gaze was cold and sinister.

“Reveal your true form and come with this old man!”

Below the cliff, the black-robed woman spread both arms, roots emerging from her hands and burrowing into the ground. She looked toward that man with an equally cold gaze.

“I will kill you and drain all the cultivation from your body!”

“Then I will raze the Fire Prayer Cult to the ground!”