ATEG Chapter 84.2

Liu Jiangcheng shook his head and sighed. “Building a temple costs quite a bit, and the county magistrate at the time had been offended by Wu Keji in life. He didn’t like being threatened and didn’t agree. As a result, that year an epidemic broke out. Many families knew about this matter and, out of fear, secretly worshipped Wu Keji at home. Those households that worshipped Wu Keji had no one fall ill, and even if they did get sick, they recovered quickly. The county magistrate had no choice and erected a shrine for him in the county.”

“Now almost everyone in the county town worshipped Wu Keji, but he still wasn’t satisfied. The county had limited space, and his shrine was small. He wanted a grand temple built on Huqiu Mountain. So he appeared in dreams to the great clans and wealthy households here, demanding they contribute money and provide temple attendants, otherwise he would bring down fires. After that, those great clan and wealthy households frequently had fires. They had no choice but to pool money together and build Wu Keji a grand temple on Huqiu Mountain.”

Li Chi laughed. “Quite an interesting deity indeed. Both the common people and the wealthy all suffered—would they still worship devoutly?”

“At first, naturally there was resentment, but they had no choice but to worship. But think about it—since they had to worship regardless, why not make wishes and try? After all, Marquis Wu had been very efficacious in bringing disasters before, so maybe making wishes would also be very efficacious. Then everyone discovered that Marquis Wu was truly efficacious, and naturally over time they became sincere.” After Liu Jiangcheng finished speaking, he picked a mushroom from the pot and put it in his mouth, squinting his eyes in satisfaction.

“Since he’s so efficacious, is it alright to talk about his past like this?” Li Chi asked.

“It’s fine,” another young man named Zhu Kangning said. “Marquis Wu is very proud of his past and likes people telling his story. These are the very things he had carved on stone tablets and placed in the temple. If you go to the Marquis Wu’s Temple, you won’t need us to tell you—you’ll see it directly.”

The hotpot was piping hot, and settling in the stomach it was warm. The heat rushed to people’s heads, making them warm up as well.

“Come, come, try these spare ribs!” Liu Jiangcheng directly used the serving chopsticks to pick up a piece for him enthusiastically. “Whether pickled vegetable hotpot can calm qi and dispel dryness we don’t know, but the stewed spare ribs are truly delicious! They’re cooked just right now!”

Li Chi noticed several young men’s glances inadvertently falling on his spicy pot and smiled. “I ordered a different flavor—would you like to try this too?”

The young men swallowed simultaneously, then shook their heads in unison like looking in a mirror. “No, no thanks.”

Li Chi raised an eyebrow looking at them.

Zhu Kangning explained somewhat embarrassedly in a small voice. “Eating spicy food makes our faces and ears turn red—not very elegant. We still have to return to the academy later.”

Li Chi couldn’t help but laugh and extended his chopsticks to pick up a piece of dried bamboo shoot from the spicy pot.

Mm… indeed quite good.

After finishing the meal, Li Chi quite normally let his complexion flush slightly red. The young men looked at him enviously. “Brother Li seems to handle spicy food well.”

They too loved spicy food, but every time they ate it, they would end up with tears and running noses, their eyes, noses, and mouths all red—looking quite unseemly. Unlike Brother Li here, who only had his complexion redden slightly, actually adding a few points of color.

Li Chi only smiled slightly and picked up his qin case again.

“Brother Li, how long do you plan to stay here? I wonder if we’ll have the chance to hear you play a piece.” Liu Jiangcheng asked curiously.

Li Chi made a sound of consideration. “I’m very interested in Marquis Wu. I’ll probably stay here for a few days.”

The young men felt quite reluctant. Over the course of this meal, though they had talked more and Brother Li had spoken less, he just naturally inspired goodwill.

Unfortunately, they still had classes in the afternoon.

The group left the tavern. The waiter at the door again pressed a handful of roasted chestnuts into each person’s hand, smiling as he added, “From Old Man Yu’s chestnut stand next door—come again when you have time!”

A small stall nearby was propped up with large characters reading “Old Man Yu’s Roasted Chestnuts,” as if afraid people wouldn’t see it. Li Chi naturally walked over and asked the white-haired old man to weigh several pounds.

Wanting so much, the old man was rather reluctant to sell that way. “That much will get cold, and it won’t taste as good as hot ones. I’m right here, you can come anytime—they’re always hot!”

“I’m bringing them back for others. Once I distribute them, they’ll be gone.” Li Chi smiled.

Only then was the old man satisfied. As he weighed the chestnuts, he proudly chattered, “My chestnuts are the best! Even Marquis Wu has eaten my roasted chestnuts!”

“How so?” Li Chi asked.

“Don’t disbelieve me! Marquis Wu himself said so! Just a few years ago, Marquis Wu took on the appearance of an ordinary person and came to buy sugar-roasted chestnuts from me. He personally said he had eaten sugar-roasted chestnuts made by my great-grandfather before. I thought he was joking with me, but right after buying the chestnuts, he turned around and disappeared, leaving behind copper coins with his seal imprinted on the edges!” The old man deftly finished weighing the chestnuts and pulled out a copper coin pendant from around his neck to show him. “If you go worship Marquis Wu, take my chestnuts as an offering—guaranteed to be perfect!”

Li Chi took the chestnuts. As soon as they reached his hands, they became more than half lighter—they had all been sent back to Li Manor, only appearing unchanged on the surface. As for whether Marquis Wu could eat the sugar-roasted chestnuts he bought, that would depend on karmic affinity.

Li Chi turned and hadn’t walked far when he stopped and waited. Not far away, the young men he had just parted ways with were running over.

“Brother Li! We just ran into a classmate who said Han, Liu, and Ding are preparing three sacrificial animals to go to Huqiu Mountain to apologize! Want to come watch together?” Liu Jiangcheng said breathlessly.

“Don’t you have classes this afternoon?”

“The master is ill, so the lessons are postponed. We’re all going—will you come?”

Might as well go together—it would be a good chance to see how Marquis Wu conducted affairs.

However, these three from the Han, Liu, and Ding families seemed to not be very popular? Along the way, they encountered quite a few students coming to watch the excitement.

Huqiu Mountain wasn’t very tall, but the Marquis Wu’s Temple was built on the mountaintop. Climbing up still required considerable effort, and the three sacrificial animals could only be transported up by ox.

The worship had already begun in the temple. Though many had come to watch the excitement, none disturbed it. This was a sacrifice to Marquis Wu, after all.

Upon reaching the mountaintop, Liu Jiangcheng quietly pointed out to Li Chi. “The one on the right is Han Sheng, the one in the middle is Liu Si, and the last one is Ding Wang. Don’t think we’re coldhearted for coming to watch the excitement. None of them are good people… except for Han Sheng, I suppose—he’s somewhat pitiful and hateful. If you don’t believe me, ask the others—they’re habitual bullies.”

Zhu Kangning nodded in confirmation, and the last young man who hadn’t spoken much stared intently at the three people in the scene, his gaze profound, nodding half a beat slower. This was a young man with a pale, somewhat greenish complexion named Zhuang Hai. He had been the first to mention in the tavern that Han Sheng was going to become Marquis Wu’s son-in-law.

Li Chi’s gaze swept over them without pausing, then fell back on the three people kneeling in the small plaza before the temple.

Their faces all looked terrible. Anyone being observed like this would be unhappy, let alone when they were worried about their lives? If not for this concern, they probably would have already fought with the spectators around them, yet they could only endure it.

The sacrifice passed the opening, and the three people each took incense sticks and lit them, inserting them into the incense burner. However, as soon as the three sticks of incense were inserted into the burner, a cold wind blew through, extinguishing the incense tips.

The three people’s faces turned ugly. They took incense again and lit it, but after trying several times in succession, the incense tips were extinguished as soon as they were inserted.

Inside the main hall, the statue of Marquis Wu, mounted on horseback and holding a raised sword, had eyes full of authority that seemed to fix themselves directly on those who bowed before it. On this cold autumn mountaintop, the three of them unexpectedly broke into a sweat, and when the wind blew, they all shivered.

Mortal eyes couldn’t see ghostly souls, but Li Chi could see clearly. On either side of the incense burner crouched two small ghosts, puffing out their cheeks and blowing at the incense tips. What they blew out was yin wind, which swept away and extinguished the flames on the incense tips. These two small ghosts carried the same incense scent as the Marquis Wu’s Temple—they were Marquis Wu’s subordinates.

Many of the surrounding people had put away their spectating expressions. Though many of them had conflicts and displeasures with these three, none amounted to true enmity. Though they disliked them, it wasn’t to the point of gloating over their deaths. In the current situation, Marquis Wu clearly wasn’t allowing them to back out. Those goddesses enshrined in the temple—to put it nicely, they were goddesses receiving incense offerings, but in reality, they were just deceased female ghosts. What normal person would want to marry a female ghost? Could the living even be together with female ghosts?

The three people kept kowtowing in worship, hoping their sincerity could make Marquis Wu change his mind.

“Let’s go, stop watching. There’s nothing good to see.” Zhu Kangning said. He had already furrowed his brow, his whole person restless and uneasy. He didn’t want to watch anymore, didn’t want to see that outcome.

Liu Jiangcheng likewise nodded. “We should return to the academy.”

“I plan to look around the Marquis Wu’s Temple, so I won’t go down the mountain with you.” Li Chi said.

Liu Jiangcheng nodded. Climbing the mountain once wasn’t easy. Besides the main hall and small plaza occupied by the Han, Liu, and Ding trio, the Marquis Wu’s Temple still had side halls and a rear courtyard to explore. Originally he would have been happy to tour around with Brother Li, but right now he really wasn’t in the mood.

“Zhuang Hai, let’s go together.” Liu Jiangcheng turned to Zhuang Hai and said.

But Zhuang Hai shook his head. “You go ahead first. I’ll keep Brother Li company for a look around.”

Liu Jiangcheng looked at him in surprise, but Zhu Kangning didn’t think much of it. After saying goodbye, he pulled him along down the mountain.

Fewer and fewer spectators remained. Li Chi lifted his foot intending to walk toward the rear hall, seeing Zhuang Hai’s hesitant expression, he said to him, “I can look around by myself—do as you please.”

Zhuang Hai staying on the mountain wasn’t really to keep him company—that was just an excuse. He was there to see the outcome of those three people.

On them, after all, hung a gray-black karmic thread.

Li Chi walked on his own. His steps looked leisurely, yet after a few steps his form disappeared, reappearing already at the rear hall.

Inside the rear hall, a person with proper features and a robust build was already waiting. He wore dark robes but had loosened the collar, holding a wine flask in one hand, looking casual—but the light in his eyes was sharp.

“My temple here is small—how were you, this deity, drawn here?”

“Marquis Wu.” Li Chi tilted his head to look at him, then suddenly smiled. He pulled over a chair from the doorway himself and walked directly past Marquis Wu’s side to sit down inside the hall. “Passing through, curious, so I came in for a look.”

Marquis Wu stood in the center of the rear hall, looking as if he were alone, but all around in the various divine statues of different sizes were packed tightly with ghost souls.

Now Li Chi had directly sat in the proper position at the rear of the hall’s central line, instead leaving Marquis Wu in the hall, making it look as if he were the master and Marquis Wu the visitor.

Marquis Wu slowly turned around, facing Li Chi. “Now that you’ve looked, you should leave.”

“But I haven’t finished looking.” Li Chi said.

“What else does Your Excellency wish to see?”

Marquis Wu looked casual, but his entire body was tense. This was his temple, his territory, yet this person before him had been in his temple for quite a while and he had been unable to detect anything amiss, only taking him for one of the other spectators.

It wasn’t until this person with no trace of mortal qi stepped into the rear hall in a few strides that he realized this was also a cultivator. But even knowing this, now facing this qin-bearing cultivator directly, he still only felt he was looking at an ordinary person.

“Originally I was just curious—during the great calamity, with spiritual essence in chaos, how did you manage to protect this place so well? As a ghost deity, how did you deal with those flying locusts carrying evil qi?” Li Chi slowly said.

“So I came to look.”

The more slowly and calmly Li Chi spoke, the more tense Marquis Wu became. He couldn’t discern any of Li Chi’s background, yet those eyes seemed able to see right through him. But he could still maintain composure, could still maintain that casual appearance—only his gaze growing sharper and sharper.

The atmosphere in the hall had already begun to undergo invisible changes, like the air before rain—the sky was still bright, but the surroundings had become oppressively stifling.

“Originally I thought you might have found a method to resolve the spiritual essence chaos. Having looked now, I discover that’s not the case.” Li Chi continued speaking as if unaware, then his topic suddenly shifted. “I once encountered a deity disguised as a boatman. He ferried all his boat passengers into water ghosts, refining their resentful evil into his own power.”

“You and he both seem to know this kind of method…”

Before his words finished, the great doors of the rear hall suddenly slammed shut.