69: A Night Visit Startles Evil Spirits, My First Encounter with Southeast Asian Visitors

After the official clarification announcement was released, life at Qingfeng Temple seemed to return to its usual pace.

Although spirit well water was not publicly available for large-scale collection, the villagers of Zhaojiaao Village had permission and could still go up the mountain daily to fetch water.

The clear and sweet well water flowed once again into the water vats of every household, moisturizing the dry autumn days. The popularity of the mountain trails also gradually warmed up; though not as bustling as before, there were always some devout old pilgrims who came not for the Spirit Well, but simply to sit quietly under the ancient cypress tree for a moment, listening to the Temple Master's peaceful chanting to find peace of mind.

The rumors had not completely dissipated, and there were still some sporadic voices online, but in the face of the official characterization and Li Muchen's seemingly indifferent attitude, they appeared to be losing momentum.

On Lotus Temple's side, there had been no further unusual movements since Master Huiming's visit; instead, several monks representing the temple brought over some high-quality vegetarian pastries and mountain mushrooms as a silent gesture of greeting and reconciliation.

The mountain autumn wind grew cooler by the day, rustling the leaves of the ancient cypress tree and washing away the last traces of summer heat.

Late that night, just after the Hour of the Rat.

Li Muchen sat cross-legged in meditation within the quiet room. The pale gold True Essence vortex within his Dantian rotated slowly, breathing in the pure Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi of Yuntai Mountain. After touching upon the opportunity for the Golden Core, his spiritual senses had become increasingly sharp. Under the coverage of his Divine Thought, the flow of Qi throughout the entire temple and even the surrounding mountain forests was as clear as the lines on his palm.

Just as his spirit was wandering through the Great Void, sensing the breathing rhythm of every plant and tree in the mountains, an extremely faint, almost imperceptible "unusual" aura suddenly pierced the edge of his spiritual perception like a fine needle.

That aura was cold and foul, carrying a treacherous evil intent that did not belong to the Central Plains, let alone Yuntai Mountain. It did not come from the mountain path or the sky, but... it was as if it seeped from underground, or perhaps it was attached to some object and quietly brought into the temple's range.

Li Muchen instantly withdrew his Divine Thought, his brow furrowing slightly.

This aura was too faint; had he not been in a state of deep meditation with his spiritual senses fully open, he would have been unable to detect it. Moreover, it was not the aura of a living being, but rather felt like some kind of refined "dead object" lingering with resentment and evil power.

He did not get up immediately but condensed his Divine Thought into a thread, quietly tracing the source of that vague evil Qi.

The source of the aura was actually... near the incense burner in the front courtyard.

Looking with his Divine Thought, he saw that by the base of the bluestone incense burner where pilgrims offered incense during the day, in the shadows near the foot of the wall, there was a spot of dark red that was out of place with the surrounding moss and stone.

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It was an irregularly shaped object about the size of a palm, half-hidden under a few fallen leaves, emitting an extremely faint, cold evil Qi, like an ominous ember about to be extinguished.

Someone had quietly placed it here while the pilgrims were coming and going during the day.

Li Muchen slowly opened his eyes, a cold glint flashing in them. Without disturbing anyone, his figure silently drifted out of the quiet room, gliding across the courtyard like a fallen leaf to arrive beside the incense burner.

Leaning down, he brushed away the leaves. The object revealed its true form—it wasn't the Talismanic Incantation or Demonic Weapon he had expected, but rather... a dark red wooden plaque.

The material of the wooden plaque was neither metal nor jade; it was ice-cold to the touch, feeling like both wood and bone. Its surface was painted with twisted and eerie talismanic patterns using black, dried pigment, and in the center, the blurred face and painful posture of a human figure were faintly outlined.

The edges of the wooden plaque were heavily worn, clearly having some years on it. The wisps of sinister evil Qi were emanating precisely from this plaque, as if something impure were imprisoned within.

"yin plaque..." Li Muchen whispered, recognizing the origin of this object.

This was one of the evil objects commonly used by black-robed South Asian Sorcerers and Achan Masters in the South Seas region, especially in places like Thailand and Malaysia. They were typically made from yin wood, corpse oil, grave soil, or even bone ash mixed with special Materials, and then the souls of those who died unnaturally or violently were imprisoned within using cruel evil methods and refined, making them full of resentment and evil power.

Wearing or worshiping such a plaque was said to "change one's luck," "attract wealth," or "induce infatuation," but the price was often the worshiper's essence, health, and even sanity, ultimately causing them to suffer the consequences.

Why would such a South Seas evil object appear in a temple on Yuntai Mountain?

A faint golden light shimmered at Li Muchen's fingertips as he gently brushed over the surface of the yin plaque. The previously dormant evil Qi within the plaque seemed startled, suddenly churning and letting out an extremely faint, pained hiss before falling silent again, as if its strength had been exhausted.

The evil spirit within this yin plaque was already very weak, with very little evil power remaining. Rather than a Magical Artifact meant to harm people, it seemed more like a "primer" or a "marker" deliberately placed here.

At the moment his fingertip's golden light touched the yin plaque, hundreds of miles away in a dark room of a remote hotel in Lianhua County, a thin, withered figure sitting cross-legged in meditation before a ritual altar suddenly shuddered and snapped his eyes open!

This was a man about fifty years old, with dark skin, high cheekbones, and deep-set eyes, wearing loose black cloth robes embroidered with strange silver symbols.

On the ritual altar before him were skulls, candles, various strange bottles and jars, and several small flags covered in Talismanic Incantations. At that moment, the runes on one of the black flags flickered eerily with a dark red light, and then, with a soft "poof," the flag ignited without fire, quickly turning into a small pile of ash.

The man—Achan Pu, a South Seas black-robed South Asian Sorcerer—stared intently at the pile of ash, a look of unbelievable shock and anger shooting from his deep-set eyes.

"How is it possible... the connection to the 'Ghost Child Plaque'... is broken?" His voice was raspy, with a heavy South Seas accent. "That Taoist... could actually detect and suppress the 'Ghost Child' so easily? This is definitely not something an ordinary Taoist could do!"

He stood up abruptly, pacing anxiously in the small room. Entrusted this time by that "Master Release Void" with a large sum of money to deal with the Taoist of Qingfeng Temple, he had thought it would be an easy task. The Dao of the Central Plains had long been in decline; those who could truly see through and break his headhunting arts were few and far between.

He had first secretly sneaked into Qingfeng Temple and hidden a "Ghost Child yin plaque," which he had refined for many years, under the incense burner while there were many people. The evil Qi of this plaque was restrained and extremely difficult to detect, yet it could continuously emit sinister evil Qi, disturbing the temple's energy field and affecting the minds of those staying there, causing them to be plagued by nightmares and suffer low fortune; over time, the temple would naturally decline.

According to the plan, it should have taken at least three to five days for someone in the temple to vaguely sense something unusual, by which time he would have long since fled. But it had only been one night! The opponent had actually found the yin plaque with such precision and, in a way he couldn't understand, instantly severed the mental connection between the yin plaque and himself!

"Could it be... this Taoist really has a great Divine Ability like the 'Heavenly Eye' or 'Telepathy'?" Achan Pu was filled with uncertainty. In his early years, he had traveled Southeast Asia with his Master and seen some true Esoteric high monks and old cultivators living in seclusion; those people possessed a kind of upright power that made him instinctively fearful.

But here in the inland of the Central Plains, on an obscure young Taoist, he couldn't sense that kind of majestic power at all.

"No, impossible." He shook his head, his eyes once again replaced by ruthlessness. "Perhaps there's something strange about the temple itself, or he just happens to have a Magical Artifact that restrains evil. It was just one test; consider yourself lucky."

He walked to the other side of the ritual altar and picked up a long, thin object tightly wrapped in black cloth. Unwrapping the black cloth, it revealed a wooden puppet about a foot long. The puppet was crudely carved, barely resembling a human figure, wearing small clothes sewn from coarse linen in the style of a Taoist robe. At the position of the heart, a small, rusted iron nail was driven in.

On the back of the puppet was a small piece of fabric; its color and texture were exactly the same as the lining of the sleeve of the Taoist robe Li Muchen had worn when attending the Seminar! This was precisely what Release Void had secretly cut from the edge of a teacup Li Muchen had used when no one was looking!