Scripture of Days Past

On the rear mountain behind the Wang Clan Village, a black shadow flashed past, sweeping up a flurry of bamboo leaves.

The black shadow raced into a clearing, where it was exposed under the moonlight, revealing that it was a half-human, half-rat fiend.

The creature was none other than Wang Cailiang. He stared at his own body with a look of disgust and despair in his eyes.

What’s happened to me? Is this demonification?

Right at this moment, a voice called out to him from behind. He spun around and saw a short figure beckoning to him from the darkness.

”Come here, Wang Cailiang.”

”Who’re you?”

The figure didn’t respond, but it continued beckoning to him. Wang Cailiang cautiously approached the shadowy figure, only to discover that it was a cat standing upright on its hind legs with an unsettling smile on its face. He was so terrified that he turned and raced deeper into the forest in a blind panic.

That was a cat fiend! Why was it calling out my name?

However, Wang Cailiang didn’t manage to get very far before he heard more voices calling out to him from the surrounding bamboo forest.

”Wang Cailiang...”

”Wang Cailiang...”

Wang Cailiang thought it was his family searching for him, yet when he turned to look, he discovered that all of the ”people” calling his name were actually fiends of different species. He was so horrified that it felt as if his soul were about to leave his body.

While hiding on top of a hill, Wang Cailiang heard several dogs passing by, and one of them asked, ”Have any of you seen Wang Cailiang?”

”I think he went up the mountain, Brother Big Head.”

Wang Cailiang was absolutely petrified.

Where did all these fiends come from? And why are they all looking for me?

As he stumbled down the mountain, he suddenly found himself covered by two massive shadows. He looked up and discovered a pair of enormous birds circling in the air above him, and he collapsed to the ground in horror.

At the same time, dozens of fiends converged around him from all directions, peering at him through the darkness with glowing eyes.

Right at this moment, a hand reached out to him. The owner of the hand was none other than...

”Chu... Chu Qiguang?!”

Wang Cailiang was bewildered.

”Come with me! The fiends are coming!” Chu Qiguang urged.

Wang Cailiang immediately grabbed onto Chu Qiguang’s hand and allowed him to guide him through the darkness. He was so relieved that he burst into tears, while Chu Qiguang hurriedly asked him what had happened.

Wang Cailiang let out a long sigh, then recounted the series of ordeals that he had suffered through, starting from bearing witness to Granny Sun’s demonification.

”I was still fine when I was released from the Daoist temple, but the symptoms have been getting worse and worse since then. I can’t get what Daoist Master Azure Spirit said out of my mind, and all kinds of medicinal recipes and incantations I had never seen before began appearing in my head as well. The symptoms kept worsening until I started growing fur, and then I became this... this rat creature...”

”Have the symptoms gotten better after you turned into this form?” Chu Qiguang asked.

Wang Cailiang faltered slightly at thr question, then replied, ”Now that you mention it, they have!”

Chu Qiguang immediately instructed Wang Cailiang to tell him the incantations and medicinal recipes swirling around in his mind, and Wang Cailiang did as he was told.

By the time he finished, he noticed that Chu Qiguang’s pupils had turned vertical.

Right at this moment, Wang Cailiang heard the sound of rushing wind overhead. He looked up to discover that the two massive bird fiends had returned.

The other fiends were also closing in from the surrounding darkness, like a never-ending nightmare that Wang Cailiang desperately wanted to wake up from.

”We have to run, Brother Chu!” Wang Cailiang yelled in a panic as he reached for Chu Qiguang’s hand, only to grab a handful of fur.

He turned and saw a huge feline face looking back at him. He fled in terror, but he quickly fell to the ground and lost consciousness. By the time he woke up, he found himself lying on his bed, having already completely reverted back to his human form.

Just as he was wondering if it had all been just a terrible dream, he emerged from his room and discovered all of the servants lying unconscious on the floor. He hurriedly barged into his father’s room, only to find two huge rats sleeping on the bed.

One of them opened their eyes and asked, ”When did you get back, Cailiang?”

Wang Cailiang screamed in horror as he turned to run out of the room, only for several more rats to rush inside while calling his name.

He collapsed to the ground, feeling as if he were on the verge of a mental breakdown. With a numb expression, he watched as Chu Qiguang entered the room with a bunch of cat and dog fiends, then knocked out the rats one by one.

”How’re you feeling, Brother Wang?” he asked.

”Wh... What are you?” Wang Cailiang asked through trembling lips.

***

The next day, every member of the Wang Clan woke up and claimed that they had all had the same dream, a dream in which all of them had turned into rats.

This was naturally very unsettling, and they hurried to the Azure Sun Daoist Temple for an exorcism, fearing that they had fallen prey to some kind of evil spirit.

Prior to this, Wang Cailiang had been a shell of his former self, constantly looking exhausted and on edge. Yet after the incident, he was back to his usual thriving self.

Everyone was quick to praise the Azure Sun Daoist Temple for ridding the Wang Clan of the influence of nefarious spirits.

***

In Chu Qiguang’s courtyard, White Rice, Big Head, and Lulu were all lying on their backs, wriggling from side to side with their bellies exposed to Chu Qiguang.

”Stand up! This is a serious matter! You’re not going to get out of this by acting cute!” Qiao Zhi scolded.

”By recklessly going after Wang Cailiang without my permission, you’ve exposed us all to the Wang Clan,” Chu Qiguang said with a serious expression. ”If Master Qiao and I hadn’t arrived on time, the consequences would’ve been catastrophic.”

Qiao Zhi tore a pawful of white fur from White Rice’s head, then reprimanded, ”If you pull a stunt like this again, all of you will be drowned in the river.”

The three fiends collectively shuddered and lowered their heads in submission.

”Don’t scare them like that, Master Qiao,” Chu Qiguang chuckled as he patted the three fiends on their heads. ”There’s no way I would ever drown you three in the river.”

White Rice, Lulu, and Big Head scurried away with their tails between their legs after being reprimanded. Following their departure, Chu Qiguang began to reflect on the incantations and medicinal recipes Wang Cailiang had revealed to him.

As a fourth-state Dao artist, he possessed an impeccable memory, so he was able to easily memorize everything after hearing it just once.

He thought about the incantations while simultaneously reflecting on the incident involving Granny Sun, Sun Xian, and Daoist Master Azure Spirit, and he quickly came to a realization.

These incantations are most likely from the Elixir of Undying, but it’s not the complete version. How did Wang Cailiang learn a part of the Elixir of Undying just from hearing some incantations? Could it be that the contents of the Elixir of Undying are capable of spreading on their own? If that’s the case, then is the Immortal Dao disseminating the Elixir of Undying, or is the Elixir of Undying using the followers of the Immortal Dao to disseminate itself?

”Are you sure you don’t want to hear what Wang Cailiang told me, Master Qiao?” Chu Qiguang asked.

Qiao Zhi shook his head. ”The things contained in the Elixir of Undying are too corruptive. You possess the makings of a heavenly immortal, so you don’t have to worry about anything, but that information would be too heavy a burden for just about anyone else.”

Chu Qiguang returned his thoughts to the matter at hand.

It may be incomplete, but are those medicinal recipes for the Elixir of Undying? And those incantations... They seem to be able to allow one to control living corpses and give them basic instructions.

With that in mind, he immediately thought of the thousands of living corpses on Plum Mountain.