Xiangxi was part of the Qianzhong Circuit during the Tang Dynasty.
During the Tang and Yu Dynasties, it was known as the "barbarous lands" and fell under the jurisdiction of the "Sanmarvae".
Consequently, there are numerous Miao people who inherit ancient Shamanism in various sizes, including incantations, prophecy, expulsion of ghosts, spells and exorcism.
Among them, the most powerful is surely the ability to summon divine spirits. This type of shamanism harnesses the power of natural deities, enabling an ordinary person to instantly possess the power to move mountains and seas.
Xiangxi is mysterious and bizarre, and ordinary people would never dare to act freely here, otherwise they would anger the local shamans, whose consequences could be unimaginable.
And in this region filled with shamans, there is a Daoist sect branch that has taken root.
This Daoist sect branch is known as the Yin Mountain School.
Although the current Daoist school does not recognize the Yin Mountain School as part of the Xuanmen branch, the founder of Yin Mountain, Xie Wuyang, was born in Maoshan with his magic originating from there. Later, he absorbed various magical arts from folk shamans, Liyushan Sect, and Pu'an Sect, forming a unique lineage that utilizes human yin spirits to the utmost.
Therefore, the Yin Mountain School does not consider itself a "Law Sect" and publicly claims to be an outlying sect of Xuanmen.
The Yin Mountain lineage's magical arts are effective quickly, with a particularly fast rate of manifestation. In general, disciples of other schools at the same level really are not a match for the students of Yin Mountain.
There are many methods of suppressing spirits and deploying generals within the Daoist community. Many of these factions are often protected by their founding patriarchs and can summon heavenly armies and warriors. Many of these forces come from various heavens.
Yin Mountain School's methods of suppressing spirits and dispatching generals are different. It has an especially important ghost general in its cultivation, who possesses high power and commands troops that are mostly composed of various lonely ghosts and wild spirits. There are also some summoned from the underworld.
It is well known that the weak eat the strong in the spiritual realm, and as a ghost, its cultivation is not as strong as an evil spirit. Only by cultivating to a very deep level of ghosts can it be absolutely certain to maintain the spiritual altar.
Therefore, each disciple of the Yin Mountain School who has achieved some cultivation has a very powerful spirit general. It can be described as a ghost king without exaggeration.
Yin Mountain School
A group of disciples trembled and fell to the ground.
The Master of the sect sat solemnly on the large chair, dressed in a black Daoist robe and sporting a goatee beard.
The elder's face was contorted, and his entire body trembled continuously, "Dead! Withered without a life force!"
Standing by the elder's side was a beautiful young woman with a stunning appearance. She had a similarly stern expression, "Brother, is he truly dead?"
These two people were the old ancestor of Yin Mountain, Xie Wuyang, and his daughter, Xie Lingxiao.
Xie Wuyang wept tears of sorrow, "I knew that Wu Ming had a great calamity in his destiny, so I named him Wu Ming, hoping that the name would hold back the calamity. But I never thought it would still be struck by it."
Xie Lingxiao's eyes briefly flashed with a hint of joy, but on the surface, she appeared to be grinding her teeth, "Who? Who killed our brother? I will avenge him and take revenge!"
Yes, Xie Lingxiao's heart is not as angry as it appears on the surface.
On the contrary, she was secretly delighted.
Although her brother Xie Wuyang was a "waste" in cultivation, the core secret teachings have always been passed from men to men, and not from fathers to daughters.
If Xie Wuyang had not died, Xie Lingxiao would never have made a name for herself. In fact, in a few years, she might be married off by her father for personal gain to a disciple of a prominent Daoist sect.
As an ambitious woman, Xie Lingxiao did not want to become a mere "pawn."
She yearns for her father's great Daoist teachings and desires to eventually become the leader of Yin Mountain School.
Now that her brother Xie Wuyang has died.
Xie Lingxiao knows that her chance has come!
Just as the opportunity has come, Xie Lingxiao knows that her chance has arrived! However, now that Xie Wuyang's father is mourning the loss of his son, he is filled with grief and anger. She cannot reveal her glee, so she pretends to be equally angry.
"It's Chen Pu, a disciple of Zhengyangzi from the Transmission Temple of the Jinnanshan's Ningyang Cave!" Xie Wuyang suppressed his anger as much as possible and spoke in as calm a tone as he could: "None of you are to seek revenge on him. When the Sealing God War arrives, I will personally avenge Wu Ming's blood debt!"
Xie Lingxiao cried and sobbed, "Daddy, when will the Sealing God War come? Brother's death has left daughter to avenge for him!"
"No!" Xie Wuyang squinted his eyes, "I said that the blood debt of Wu Ming is to be avenged by me."
The grudge for the loss of a child, as a father, how could he not avenge it with his own hands?
As he spoke, he seemed to think of something, and his gaze shifted from his daughter to the group of disciples kneeling on the ground, finally resting on the middle-aged black-clad Daoist. "Wuji, as the Master's number two disciple and a close friend of Wu Ming, I warn you here that you must not take matters into your own hands to avenge Wu Ming's death. The son's revenge must be avenged by me!"
Yin Wuji's face remained calm as he bowed, "Disciple obeys the Master's will."
Oh.
Yes, there's the Senior Disciple.
Xie Lingxiao couldn't help but glance at Yin Wuji once again. This man was the Senior Disciple of Yin Mountain School, who had become a disciple of Xie Wuyang even before Xie Wuyang and Xie Lingxiao were born. He had a deep bond with Xie Wuyang, and describing their relationship as half-son half-father would not be an exaggeration.
Her eyes revealed a hint of malice. She knew that if she did not eliminate this Senior Disciple, it would still be difficult for her to ascend to a position of power.
Xie Wuyang did not say anything more and stood up listlessly, entering the inner hall.
All the disciples dare not speak recklessly and silently disperse.
As the senior disciple of the sect, Yin Wuji is responsible for handling the affairs of the school, and he is usually very busy.
At this moment, he is about to go and deal with some matters.
Suddenly, Xie Lingxiao passed by with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Since he was young, Yin Wuji has considered himself a part of the Xie family and treats Xie Lingxiao as his younger sister.
Now seeing "his little sister" cry, he feels heartbroken and consoles her, "Brother, don't be heartbroken. Our master will avenge Wu Ming's death."
"You are not my Xie family, and now that my brother has died, isn't this exactly what you wanted to inherit?" Xie Lingxiao showed her anger.
Yin Wuji felt a bit embarrassed at the rebuke, "Brother, why say such things?"
Xie Lingxiao shed tears while coldly laughing, "Do you really think I don't know your little thoughts? The Sealing God War may not happen for decades, or even a hundred or even thousands of years. By then, you will have inherited my father's mantle and successfully occupied the nest, would you still care about avenging my brother's death?"
"Brother, Wu Ming's death has also caused me great grief." Yin Wuji tried to explain, "But Master does not allow us to take action……"
Xie Lingxiao was so excited that she shouted at the top of her lungs, "You have just broken through to the realm of an upper-level Daoist master, your cultivation base has reached its peak. Do you have the ability to avenge my brother's death? Using the excuse that my father does not allow for revenge, you are obviously harboring evil intentions. You are eyeing the fact that there are no male descendants in my Xie family and want to take over my father's mantle smoothly! Your wolfish ambitions are truly despicable!"
After saying this, she swept her sleeve and left.
As she left, Xie Lingxiao secretly looked outside and found that many of her disciples had been attracted to outside by her loud rebuke of Yin Wuji. They stood there, watching.
She knew she had succeeded in half of her plan. If Yin Wuji remained inactive next, he would undoubtedly be seen by the disciples as someone who wanted to take the nest and could no longer command the sect in the future.
But if Yin Wuji really goes to avenge Xie Wuyang, it would be best if he were killed. Then no one would stand in the way of her, Xie Lingxiao, truly inheriting the Daoist tradition.
If he wasn't killed, but instead snatched her father's opportunity to avenge his son, she might not have an easy time in the future, and might even be expelled from the sect.
It can be said that Xie Lingxiao's move directly puts Yin Wuji in a tough spot, caught between a rock and a hard place.
Yin Wuji naturally noticed the pointing and whispering of his fellow disciples outside, and his face turned ugly in an instant.
He, however, did not have the same complicated thoughts as Xie Lingxiao, and did not care about whether he would be accepted or not.
Because he had always considered himself as a part of the Xie family.
Now, his "sister" Xie Lingxiao had said such poisonous words, which made him very uncomfortable in his heart.
For a moment, Yin Wuji seemed to have solidified an idea in his heart, and his gaze turned towards the north.
......
Time flies and years roll by.
In an instant, a month has passed.
Chen Yun followed Zhong Liquan to practice the art of slaying dragons and had already made some initial progress.
The Art of Slaying Dragons is not just an art of individual combat; it also contains the principles of deploying troops and arranging formations.
Therefore, today he entered the stage of training and couldn't continue practicing.
How can I practice without troops to cooperate?
Zhong Liquan furrowed his brow and said, "If that's really not possible, we'll skip the part about training the troops."
Chen Yun blinked and said, "Master Zhong, I happened to have a god general forged by Master Zhang the other day. How about I go out and capture some lonely ghosts and wild demons today to recruit them as divine troops?"
Zhong Liquan pondered for a moment, "Alright, that's a good idea. The formation deployment and collaborative strike technique is of great power. If you can gather these divine troops, you will have the strength to fight against evil spirits with high cultivation. Today's training is over, so if you want to gather lonely ghosts and wild demons as divine troops, go find them yourself. I still need to contemplate the way of heaven and man; there's no need for me to help with this small matter."
Chen Yun bowed and said, "Alright."
Zhong Liquan didn't say anything else and turned back to the upper room to ponder the way of heaven and man.
As soon as his master left, Chen Yun began to think silently over there.
During this month, I have been relying on the cultivation of refined liquid crystal energy soup and have made some progress in my cultivation, but I still have a long way to go before reaching the late stage of seventh-level Daoist master.
As for sensing the Dao energy generated by swallowing the immortal wine and fire dates, there is still no progress at this point.
It seems that making the Dao energy manifest is indeed a difficult thing to do.
Chen Yun set himself a goal to manifest the Dao body within a year, so he takes this matter very seriously.
Of course, he didn't get nothing out of this month.
At least he has made some progress in learning the Art of Slaying Dragons.
Chen Yun isn't completely proficient in both hand-to-hand combat skills and the application of various weapons, but he has at least made some achievements.
However, he hasn't made any progress on how to integrate Daoist skills, environment, astrology, etc. into the combat skills.
After all, those are the contents of cultivation after learning to deploy troops and arrange formations.
"If I can master the deployment and arrangement of troops, my combat strength will certainly increase greatly."
Chen Yun pondered silently, "However, I only have one god general, Qin Liang, and Bá this ferocious 'spirit' that cannot be used as a regular weapon, under my command. How can I recruit them as divine troops?"
There are many types of divine troops.
They can be roughly divided into lonely ghosts and wild demons, as well as those born from the gathering of spiritual energy in specific places.
Once these lonely ghosts and demons, as well as the spirits born from the spiritual energy, are recruited, they still need to be tempered through rituals. Then they must be worshiped day and night to completely transform into true divine troops, carrying not a trace of demonic or evil qi.
If it were somewhere else, finding lonely ghosts and spirits of mountains and rivers might be relatively easy.
However, around Qingcheng Mountain, Zhang Tianren has already "cleaned up" the area, and all kinds of demons and ghosts have been eliminated. It seems difficult to recruit troops here.
Chen Yun felt that he needed to find someone to ask about the situation in order to successfully recruit lonely ghosts or spirits of mountains and rivers and refine them into his divine troops.
His gaze naturally fell on the three bubbling springs in the San Tan Mist Spring where the Wuling Gorge is located.
Old Tiger, as a "local," has lived here for hundreds of years and should be familiar with the locations of lonely ghosts and spirits of mountains and rivers.
Chen Yun decided to go find Old Tiger and ask him about the locations of lonely ghosts and spirits of mountains and rivers. As long as he could learn where they are, and if he can successfully subdue them, his divine troops will not only be protected by the temple but also helped by divine generals and troops in future encounters, significantly increasing his strength. Even if Old Tiger doesn't know where they are, there is still no harm in asking.
(End of this chapter)
