Chapter 14 "Revenge" Fails

It is said that Hu Ma, having suffered a setback in his "revenge" and been caught by a hidden attack, delivered some harsh words before hurrying out of town to find his donkey cart.

He was initially anxious to get on the road, but to his surprise, he found that the cart driver he had hired was nowhere to be seen. Only Little Hongtang sat on the cart, waiting listlessly.

"Where's the driver?"

Hu Ma was shocked. Hadn't he already told Little Hongtang to be careful?

He quickly checked the cart, lifting the straw covering it, and found that the silver was still there.

"He ran away!"

Little Hongtang said, "He was secretly trying to steal Brother Hu Ma's silver, so I showed myself and glanced at him. He immediately started kowtowing."

"After kowtowing, he ran away!"

"..."

"What the hell?"

Hu Ma was stunned. He had only wanted Little Hongtang to keep an eye on the silver to prevent it from being stolen, but he hadn't expected it to scare the driver away.

There was nothing he could do. He couldn't possibly return to Wutong Town to hire someone else. He would have to drive the donkey cart himself.

However, this was a headache. Driving a cart required skill: what speed to travel at, how to guide the animal around people, how to navigate rough and dangerous terrain, and how to care for the animal when resting, feeding it grass and fodder. All of this required professional knowledge.

Although he wasn't confident at first, he found it wasn't difficult once he started driving.

Mainly, the donkey was obedient. It walked when told to walk and stopped when told to stop.

Normally, donkeys have a bad temper. This one must have been subdued by the beating he gave it yesterday.

This unexpected smoothness surprised Hu Ma. After driving for a while and finding no problems, he simply let Little Hongtang ride on the donkey's back to keep an eye on the direction, while he sat on the cart and began to count the items on it.

How much he could earn from this job depended on the sincerity of Di Gua Shao.

But it had to be said that what Young Master Lu had given was already quite generous, at least a thousand taels of silver.

The items on the donkey cart were also prepared for his spellcasting. Each one had been painstakingly collected, and some were extremely rare.

Hu Ma's greatest interest now was to see how many of the items from the Xinghun (Soul Torture) school were suitable for his own Zhen Sui Shu (Town Years Book) techniques, so he could directly use them as his "Five Zhen Objects" in future spellcasting.

Earlier, in Niujiawan, Hu Ma had used the methods from the Zhen Sui Shu to summon an old turtle from the river to ask questions, and he had used the Five Zhen Objects.

These were a brazier, rice, incense candles, straw, and sacrifices.

The brazier was simply taken from a fisherman's house, the rice was bought from a nearby village, the incense candles were carried with him, the straw was pulled from a haystack, and the sacrifices...

...were simple. After all, the old turtle was easy to talk to; a bowl of fish, a bowl of meat, and a bowl of rice were enough.

At that time, Hu Ma didn't think too much about it, because the Zhen Sui Shu didn't have many requirements for these things, just a simple mention.

He only learned some of the intricacies after carefully inquiring about the ways of the zougui ren (ghost runner).

That is, these things are the Five Zhen Objects, the tools of spellcasting.

The same spell, using different Five Zhen Objects, would have a big difference in the effect and success rate of the spell.

The Zhen Sui Shu was overbearing and always wanted to get big results with little investment.

But he couldn't do that. The Five Zhen Objects still needed to be carefully collected. He had taken a fancy to the copper brazier on Young Master Lu's donkey cart. It was clearly a good item.

The copper brazier was used to light a fire during spellcasting. Once the fire was lit, the summoned evil spirit wouldn't be able to see his appearance behind the brazier, and wouldn't dare to act rashly, so it was a crucial item.

When he had summoned the old turtle, he had almost been seen through, but what if he used this brazier?

What if he also prepared some yin wood, or wood from Chinese scholartrees, pines, cypresses, or lychee trees, which were inherently yin, to burn in it?

The thought alone was exciting. Wouldn't even Hongdeng Niangniang (Red Lantern Goddess) be unable to see through him?

Of course, this was just a thought. Hu Ma didn't have the courage to summon someone of Hongdeng Niangniang's level.

But in any case, getting this brazier was a small win. With this in mind, Hu Ma opened up the items on the donkey cart to see if there was anything else suitable.

First, he had nothing to do on the road anyway, and second, it was best to check these things during the day. If he casually took them out at night, who knew what he might attract to snatch his treasures.

"Paper figures, yellow paper...torture instruments? How is there rice too?"

After checking everything, Hu Ma was a little curious. He had seen Young Master Lu use paper figures. They were his special treasure. Logically, he could also use paper figures to perform the spells in the Zhen Sui Shu, but these paper figures were too strange, and he didn't dare to use them directly.

He burned them directly in a fire, making them clean.

Looking further, he saw a box of yellow paper, which felt prickly to the touch and was extremely rough.

This was what they used when performing their specialty, the Huang Guan Zhi (Yellow Official Paper), and it wasn't very useful to him either.

If they were folded into ingots and burned during spellcasting, it would be easy to attract some yin ghosts who loved money in life, but there was no need.

Hu Ma had seen it; this was the most ordinary yellow paper, and there was plenty of it in paper shops.

However, the strangest thing was a box on the cart containing a stack of dirty, obviously water-soaked yellow paper. These papers seemed to have been pressed against someone's face, vaguely resembling a mask, which startled him slightly. He quickly put it away.

He had heard Young Master Lu proudly talk about the origin of his Huang Guan Zhi specialty, and he knew what the face shape was.

It was formed by sticking layers of yellow paper on a person's face, then pouring water on it, suffocating the person to death.

It was absolutely evil.

He not only couldn't use it, but had to destroy it as soon as possible.

The reason he wasn't throwing it away now was because he was afraid this evil thing would harm passersby.

As for the cloth-wrapped bundle of torture instruments, each one polished to a frightening shine, such as thin hooks, brain-piercing needles, and small bone-sawing knives,

as well as some curved knives that seemed to be used to cut certain long and chicken egg-shaped objects, he didn't know what they were used for...

...probably things used by the Xinghun school, since it had the word "torture" in its name, to torment their opponents.

...These could be temporarily kept, in case they were needed later.

After sorting through these items one by one, Hu Ma looked at the last half-sack of stuff, focusing his mind slightly.

This was the most difficult to classify; it was actually half a sack of rice.

Young Master Lu's family was in the rice business. Could he be so reverent that he carried rice with him to cook and eat when he went out?

But after a closer look, Hu Ma knew that this was definitely not the case. The rice in the sack was dull and lifeless, with shriveled grains. It was clearly not good rice. Someone of Young Master Lu's status wouldn't eat this kind of rice even if he wanted to.

More importantly, as soon as the sack was opened, Hu Ma could feel a chilling cold air rushing towards his face. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a black mist rising from the rice.

"This rice must have a history!"

Hu Ma immediately determined that this was rice used for spellcasting.

Rice in this world is naturally used for eating, but there are also some strange types that grow in yin lands, or are accidentally sprinkled around the side of a black tai sui, absorbing the flesh and blood of the tai sui to grow. These will have some strange and bizarre effects.

If living people eat it, it will not only be useless, but may even cause illness or madness.

But in the eyes of those in the world of the supernatural, this kind of thing is the best thing for performing spells.

Hu Ma had heard Wu Hemei talk about how some people would harvest black tai sui and bury it in the ground.

This kind of ground would become a yin land, and some special rice could be grown using some secret methods.

It was sold specifically to people in the world of the supernatural, either to harm people or to perform spells.

"Good stuff..."

Hu Ma looked closely and understood. This half-sack of rice was probably better than the brazier.

However, he had to ask Di Gua Shao clearly first, and then determine whether this rice was suitable for him to use as one of the Five Zhen Objects.

After counting everything clearly, he let out a long sigh and looked up.

He felt that the midday sunlight was a bit dazzling, and his head was slightly dizzy. His body was covered in a layer of sweat.

"Di Gua Shao's technique is working..."

He knew this in his heart, so he silently felt his cultivation. He couldn't help but be shocked.

His cultivation had always been maintained at around three incense sticks. Even if he consumed some through cultivation or fighting, he would quickly eat blood pills to replenish it.

But now, his three incense sticks had actually turned into two and a half. No, not just two and a half, but the third stick was almost gone, barely a sliver left. He was almost back to two sticks.

"Paper money buying life, her specialty is really vicious..."

He had proactively taken this move, so he was mentally prepared, but now that he felt it firsthand, he still found it frightening.

Hu Ma took this move for two reasons.

First, to make it reasonable later on.

Second, because he realized the horror of the Xinghun school, he wanted to experience it firsthand.

Experiencing it in Di Gua Shao's hands meant that they would have a sense of proportion and wouldn't hurt him fatally. This was much better than encountering an unknown opponent in the future, suddenly being hit by a move, and being helpless, unable to defend against it.

But even with so much mental preparation, he was still shocked.

He had only been hit on the head by paper money, and it had almost cost him a stick of cultivation.

If an ordinary person was hit by this, would they really die?

He had originally planned to go back and act out a good scene, but now it was almost overdone. He felt a warning in his heart and knew he couldn't delay any longer. He told Little Hongtang to slap the donkey hard, and the donkey broke into a trot, speeding up the journey.

Now, his private job was almost done. Now he had to think about how to receive this reward for his hard work.

But even with this reward for his hard work, he had to think about how to make it reasonable. He even had to hurry to a place where he could contact Ergou Tou and ask him about the precautions to take, to be more secure.

(End of Chapter)