Chapter 1 The Yang Jian Jie Ming Ren

I jammed the carriage from the outside, quickly covered the horse's eyes with a white cloth, and jumped onto the carriage. As soon as I cracked the whip, I heard Zhao Yuezhu scream, "Li Po, do you want to die! Why did you put a set of funeral clothes in here?"

Zhuang Lao Yi Fu, as Northeasterners call it, means funeral clothes.

I looked inside through the crack in the carriage and saw a black cloth suit and a black top hat lying inside. "Not bad, it's a trendy style. They didn't even prepare a hot seller. Really."

"You're still making sarcastic remarks!" Zhao Yuezhu was about to cry. "Can this thing be worn? Won't all my skills be useless after I put it on?"

The biggest characteristic of a Ye Xiansheng (wild shaman) is that they never use secret arts. Everything they use is readily available, and their methods are ever-changing.

The biggest drawback is that the things they use to ward off evil are too easily rendered useless. Once they are stained with filth or suppressed by Yin energy, the Ye Xiansheng’s skills will not work.

A proper Shaman wouldn't have trouble wearing funeral clothes, but for a Ye Xiansheng, wearing funeral clothes is like delivering food to ghosts.

I knocked on the carriage and said, "You chose the role yourself, so you have to finish acting it even if you're crying. Can you drive the carriage? By the time you drive the carriage to the mountain yourself, the day lilies will be cold. Hurry up and change your clothes."

"Li Po! You bastard. Turns out there isn't a single good Shaman." Only then did Zhao Yuezhu realize that she had been tricked.

Humming a tune, I whipped the horse towards the mountain. The mountain road ahead became narrower and narrower. The last section of the mountain road was barely wide enough for the carriage to pass through. On both sides of the mountain road were bottomless abysses. A slight carelessness would result in a fall to death.

This kind of mountain road naturally formed between two mountain peaks is called "Lian Tian Qiao" (Bridge to the Sky) or "Bai Xian Qiao" (Worship the Immortals Bridge) in our region. It means that an immortal lives on the other side of the mountain, and the immortal left a path for people, which is why there is a Bridge to the Sky.

If you can pass, it's your opportunity. If you can't pass, it's your destiny.

No one who travels the mountains in Northeastern China would dare to walk on the "Bridge to the Sky." Only those who travel the mountains year-round know that it’s never an immortal living on the other side of the Bridge to the Sky.

Zhao Yuezhu's voice was out of tune with fear: "Li Po, you covered the horse's eyes, how can it see the road? Be careful!"

I casually replied, "If I didn't cover its eyes, it would be looking at ghosts. If a ghost calls to it, aren't you afraid it'll run straight into the ditch?"

Animals' eyes are more sensitive than humans. They can see things that people can't see.

Che Zou Yin Di, Meng Ma Yan. Jiao Ta Gui Men, Yi Tiao Bian. (When a cart travels through a ghostly place, cover the horse's eyes. When your feet step into the gates of hell, wield a single whip.) This is the skill of the old coachmen. Once a coachman encounters a ghost blocking the way at night, he must quickly cover the horse's eyes to ensure that the horse is not startled.

The next step is to use the whip in his hand to beat the ghost. The sound of the whip must be loud, as loud as thunder, to scare away the ghosts. He must strike quickly and accurately, knocking the ghost away before it touches the horse, but the whip must not graze the horse.

When mules and horses hear the sound of the whip, they may not run forward desperately, but if the whip strikes their body, the horse is likely to run wild. What the coachman wants is to quickly pass through the ghostly place, not to have the horse lead him into the ditch.

If he isn't an experienced coachman, he wouldn't dare to venture into a ghostly place with a single whip.

Now that the streets are full of motor vehicles, the skill of whipping ghosts is no longer useful.

It is said that those who truly inherit the coachman's skills still have ways to prevent ghosts from getting on the carriage, but only the descendants of those coachmen know what those methods are.

I whipped the horse to drive the carriage up the mountain. The road surface, damaged by the wheels, was rolling down the mountain with a crackling sound. The sound of rocks and dirt rolling down the mountain echoed in the mountains, making people feel uneasy.

Zhao Yuezhu trembled and said, "Li Po, can you go faster?"

"If I go any faster, the road will collapse. Don't worry, listen to me sing a little tune, and we'll be there soon." I said casually, but the hilt of the Zi Ye (midnight) knife had already slid to my waist. If anything happened, I could draw the knife at the fastest speed.

Zhao Yuezhu finally calmed down a little: "Your little tune is quite nice. What are you humming?"

"Song of Sending Souls!" I laughed, "If you really die, I'll sing this little tune to send you off."

"Li Po—you bastard—" Zhao Yuezhu was about to be driven crazy by me, but amidst her screams, I drove the horse across the Bridge to the Sky. An old courtyard common in Northeastern China appeared in our sight.

Zhao Yuezhu, who was lying in the carriage, was sweating with fear: "Is that a place where people live?"

The gate of the courtyard was still there, but the door panels were full of holes. Looking inside from the gate, the courtyard was full of weeds, which grew more than a person tall.

The house behind the weeds wasn't small, but it looked like it hadn't been lived in for years. Grass had even grown on the eaves.

I jumped out of the carriage and shouted, "Wait here!" Then I rushed to tie the reins to the hitching post.

Zhao Yuezhu was immediately dumbfounded: "Wait a minute… come back quickly…"

Seeing that she couldn't stop me from shouting, Zhao Yuezhu shouted, "Li Po, shouldn't it be that whoever receives the bride should go into the house and bring the bride out? What are you doing in the house?"