STOTTD |Strange Tales of the Tang Dynasty/Strange Tales of the Tang Dynasty Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Upon hearing this, Shen Jibai’s eyes flickered slightly, and his expression once again became inscrutable.

He waved his hand, signaling for the yamen runners to return to the Dali Temple to report. Seeing this, the runner leading the way asked, “Then, Shaoqing?”

“I will go to Taiqing Temple.”

The runner took off the demon-binding bag and handed it to Shen Jibai. Together with the Jinwu Guards, as well as the yamen runners stationed around the area, they all left.

A Zhou: “…”

This person really had no trust in her at all.

Shen Jibai walked a few steps ahead along the street, then looked back and said coldly, “Aren’t you leaving yet?”

With this person’s suspicious nature, if she did not leave now, she would probably suspect again that she was plotting something strange.

Zhou Xin immediately hurried after him.

Along the way, quite a few people had personally witnessed the process of the hamster demon being subdued, and the looks they gave them were somewhat hard to describe.

Zhou Xin walked with a clear conscience and an upright posture, so naturally she did not care about other people’s gazes. Unexpectedly, after walking a few steps, when passing an open-air tea stall, she heard people sitting at the stall discussing this matter in low voices:

“Won’t it be? They really kissed?”

“Absolutely true! I saw it with my own eyes!”

“Oh my, this is really a grand sight. These two have always been at odds. Now that such a scene has happened, wouldn’t they have to throw up in their dreams, finding even themselves disgusting?”

“Lingyun Jun is a woman, so even if Shen Shaoqing is unwilling, she has to take responsibility, right?”

“Nonsense! Lingyun Jun once swore that in this life he would not form a dao partner!”

“Oh! That matter caused a huge uproar back then. It’s hard to say it wasn’t just making things up on the spot to reject Tang Sanlang! Besides, even the Saint did not take it seriously…”

The person walking in front paused, then suddenly quickened his pace.

Zhou Xin was the same. When she finally walked out of this street and turned onto the spacious road of the Twelve Fang of Tianjie, she could not help but catch up to his pace. “Shen Shaoqing”

“Shut up.”

He glanced sideways, his cold gaze sweeping over her face. The disgust at the bottom of his eyes was about to overflow, and his voice was slightly heavy. “Stay away from me.”

A Zhou: “…”

If it were not because she did not want to let the rumors spread recklessly, who would want to bother with you.

She rolled her eyes, stepped back two paces to widen the distance, and no longer showed any intention of speaking.

＊

Taiqing Temple.

Linghe Zhenren was teaching scriptures and expounding the Dao in Yingxian Pavilion, so the two of them went to the quiet room to sit and wait. After a while, a young daoist boy brought over a pot of brewed tea.

This person, like Chang Sheng, was also an orphan. When he was first picked up, he was frail and weak. Linghe Zhenren worried that he would not live long, so he named him Chang Sheng, and he was the youngest junior disciple.

Chang Sheng filled two bowls of tea and placed them in front of the two of them, then stood up and retreated to the doorway, keeping watch outside.

Zhou Xin picked up the white porcelain bowl and sniffed it. In the faint fragrance of tea, there was a barely perceptible spicy smell.

It smelled a little strange, and she did not really want to drink it.

“What kind of tea is this?”

“purple bamboo shoot tea,” Chang Sheng said. “Isn’t Senior Sister the one who likes drinking this the most?”

So it was purple bamboo shoot tea, one of the tribute teas of the Tang dynasty, greatly favored by princes and nobles.

Unable to resist her curiosity, Zhou Xin hesitated for a moment, then still lifted it and took a sip. She did not expect that just one sip would make her cough.

After calculating everything, she had never expected that pepper and salt would actually be added to this tea, and the taste was both salty and spicy!

She put the tea bowl back on the small table, frowned, and swallowed, but the strange taste still lingered between her teeth and lips.

Seeing this, Shen Jibai, who had been slowly sipping his tea by the side, stopped moving and turned his head to look at her. Her phoenix eyes narrowed slightly, and her gaze gradually became sharp.

Zhou Xin gave him a silly grin and made up nonsense on the spot. “It’s too hot, hehe.”

Probably not wanting to bother with her, Shen Jibai said nothing and lowered his head to continue drinking tea.

In order to maintain her character setting, even though the taste of this tea was hard to describe in a few words, she still held it in her hands and occasionally took small sips.

After a long while, the person beside her had already drunk half a bowl of tea, but Zhou Xin’s bowl had not decreased at all. At the beginning there was how much tea water, and now there was still how much tea water left.

Shen Jibai glanced over again, but his eyes first landed on the tea bowl, and only then moved up to fix on her face.

Could it be that I revealed some flaw?

Zhou Xin touched her nose guiltily, thinking that she had to find something to divert his attention.

With that thought, she looked around and her gaze fell on Chang Sheng, who was standing guard at the doorway.

The young daoist boy was standing properly at the door, but he would occasionally sneak a look back, swallowing as he stared at the teapot.

Judging by how plain the quiet room was, with almost no decorative furnishings at all, Linghe Zhenren, who lived here, should be very frugal.

This tea was probably brought out specially to entertain Shen Jibai, and was not normally drunk, which was why Chang Sheng was so greedy for it.

Zhou Xin filled a bowl of hot tea and called out, “Chang Sheng, why are you standing outside? Come in and keep Shen Shaoqing company while drinking tea.”

The young daoist boy showed hesitation, and in his innocent eyes there was some surprise, as if Chang Sheng usually made him stand at the door waiting for instructions and would never do something like this.

“Come in!” Zhou Xin urged.

Chang Sheng walked in timidly.

She placed the tea bowl across from him and motioned for him to drink. Chang Sheng immediately curved his brows, quickly walked to the tea table, sat up straight, and picked it up to take a sip.

Zhou Xin asked, “Is it good?”

He nodded forcefully, the smile in his brows and eyes deepening, his gaze bright and sparkling.

Zhou Xin also smiled along with him, not noticing that Shen Jibai beside her was looking at her thoughtfully, the scrutiny in his eyes completely exposed.

“Shen Shaoqing’s visit, was there some important matter?” Linghe Zhenren held a horsetail whisk in hand and stepped into the room.

Chang Sheng immediately put down the tea bowl and went out, thoughtfully closing the door behind him.

Shen Jibai withdrew his gaze, got up, and gave Linghe Zhenren a bow, saying, “It is Lingyun Jun who has business here.”

Linghe Zhenren lifted his robe and sat in the main seat in the center, glancing over with a faint expression. Zhou Xin immediately handed over the demon-binding bag and roughly explained the entire sequence of events.

After hearing this, he opened the demon-binding bag and released the hamster demon inside.

The tiny mouse demon had its eyelids half-open, lying on the grass mat in the center of the three people. It looked extremely weak, as if it only had one breath left.

Linghe Zhenren brought two fingers together and drew a few strokes in the air. A golden talisman flashed past in the air.

Then, an extremely shrill voice sounded in the room:

“Demon that harms people is to be executed on the spot, demon that does not harm people is to be locked into the Demon-Sealing Tower. I did not harm anyone! Why are you catching me?”

Zhou Xin did not answer, only asked in return, “Do you remember what happened before you transformed?”

“…I remember a little.”

It turned out that this hamster demon had been cultivating underground in Luoyang for more than two hundred years already.

Hamster demons were gluttonous, and over the course of a hundred years they dug out countless secret tunnels to steal grain from house to house. They understood Luoyang better than native locals did.

For example, whose soup cakes were the best, whose fruit wine was the most delicious, and whose rapeseed oil was the freshest, it was all extremely familiar with!

But although it had eaten through the entire city of Luoyang, it had never eaten the Da Ge Da Jie, which gathered fifty-eight supreme delicacies of the world, and so it developed an obsession.

Relying on that obsession, it cultivated for a hundred years, only wanting that one day it could enter the palace and taste the human delicacies on the Shaowei Banquet.

But it was too gluttonous, and only now, after cultivating to this point, had it transformed into human form. Hearing that the cherry wine at Changfeng Tavern was absolutely unmatched under heaven, and had once been a delicacy on the Shaowei Banquet, it ran there at once to drink.

Just as it was drinking happily, a cool breeze blew over, and a fallen leaf was blown onto its face.

Only after taking it off did it discover that it was not a fallen leaf, but a paper cutout figure!

A cinnabar talisman was drawn on the paper figure’s body. It seemed to have life, and when it was caught in its hands, it still desperately struggled to get free.

It wanted to tear the paper figure to pieces, but unexpectedly, the paper figure made a gesture with both hands and it lost consciousness. When it woke up, it was already inside the demon-binding bag.

Shen Jibai said, “You have no memory of that time, so how do you know you did not hurt anyone? These are all just your one-sided words.”

The mouse demon extended its one remaining front claw. “…You can tell at a glance.”

Shen Jibai looked at Linghe Zhenren, his eyes full of confusion.

“It wants to transmit its spirit to you.”

“Transmit spirit?”

Shen Jibai and A Zhou said in unison. After speaking, the two of them looked at each other at the same time, then immediately shifted their gazes away.

Linghe Zhenren recited a few incantations. “You touch its claw pad with your finger, close your eyes, and silently recite these words in your heart. You will naturally see the things it has experienced.”

Shen Jibai did as told.

Zhou Xin also wanted to try it out, and stretched out her finger to touch the mouse demon’s front paw. She closed her eyes and waited for a moment, but saw nothing at all.

No matter whether she touched the mouse head, tail, or body, there was no image before her eyes.

So she turned her attention to Shen Jibai. With her fingertip pressed on his finger, she still could see nothing, only saw him frown a little unwillingly.

Zhou Xin then touched the back of his hand and his palm, and seeing that there was no effect at all, she simply held the finger of his that was touching the mouse demon’s front paw.

Almost at the same time, Shen Jibai forcefully slapped her hand away, suddenly stood up, and because the movement was too large, he knocked over the small table beside him.

He frowned deeply, trying his best to lower his voice, but he could not suppress the anger about to burst out.

“What are you doing!”

Zhou Xin looked up at him, looking blank. “…Transmitting spirit!”

Linghe Zhenren said, “Transmitting spirit requires willingness from both sides. Shen Shaoqing does not believe the mouse demon’s words, so it wants him to see for himself. Naturally, only he can see it.”

“…Why didn’t the zhenren say so earlier.”

Zhou Xin slumped back into her seat.

Shen Jibai closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, all emotion in his eyes had already disappeared.

He picked up the overturned small table and straightened it back to its original state, then cupped his hands and bowed to Linghe Zhenren. With utmost courtesy, he said, “This junior was rude, I hope the zhenren will not blame me.”

“It is my disciple who is being mischievous. I ask Shen Shaoqing for much understanding.”

Zhou Xin echoed, “Yes, yes, yes, it was A Zhou who was rude. Shen Shaoqing is broad-minded, please do not take it to heart.”

At the sound of this, Shen Jibai looked over with a trace of surprise in his eyes, but it quickly disappeared.

He moved the cushion much farther away from Zhou Xin and sat down.

This change caused the transmission of spirit to end early, but the mouse demon had no intention of continuing. It only stared straight at Shen Jibai, its voice suddenly becoming weak and powerless.

“…Now do you believe me?”

Shen Jibai was silent for a moment before saying, “But you still nearly hurt someone.”

“That was not its intention.”

Zhou Xin took out a talisman paper and placed it on the grass mat between the three of them. “This is the demon-binding bag, it can dispel the yin and evil aura of the dead, and is useless against demons and evil beings. At first, this disciple did not understand the meaning of the talisman the zhenren gave, until this disciple investigated and found that the person attacked by the hamster demon had a trace of barely noticeable evil aura on them.”

“If this disciple did not guess wrong, it should have been a paper figure that cast a spell on it, drawing the evil aura into its body and causing it to lose control and run wild. The zhenren sensed a fleeting evil aura nearby, and just as the Dali Temple sent people over, he guessed the general situation.”

“That is exactly so.” Linghe Zhenren nodded.

Shen Jibai said, “What spell did the paper figure use?”

Linghe Zhenren paused slightly, his expression becoming somewhat subtle. “The Evil-Transferring Sorcerous Spirit Curse, one of the forbidden arts of the Xuanmen.”

Zhou Xin asked, “Then what spell controlled the paper figure?”

He picked up the scissors on the desk, cut out a paper figure, and used a cinnabar brush to draw a talisman on its body. “Is it this talisman?”

The mouse demon said, “…Yes.”

“This is a substitute talisman.”

Linghe Zhenren explained, “This talisman must use one’s own blood and qi as a guide, and one’s cultivation as the support, before it can be controlled at will. Once the paper figure dies, the caster will inevitably suffer a backlash. Not only will they lose the cultivation transferred to the paper figure, they will also injure their spiritual platform. Very few people use it.”

A Zhou immediately caught the key point: “So someone was willing to damage their own cultivation just to cast a spell and let evil aura invade and consume the mouse demon?”

What kind of grudge was this, so wicked?

The mouse demon slowly closed its eyes, its gaze gradually becoming unfocused, as if in the next moment it would ride the crane westward.

“…Cultivation is too hard, I endured for hundreds of years just to exchange for one day of becoming human.”

Its breath was faint, its voice getting smaller and smaller, as if it was talking to itself.

“…No more cultivating.”

“…In the next life, I won’t cultivate anymore.”

“…Being a mouse is pretty good.”

These words struck A Zhou’s heart one by one. Her chest felt blocked by something, making it stuffy and unbearably tight.

“…Still haven’t tasted the delicacies on the Shaowei Banquet…”

Its eyes gradually closed, yet there was always still a crack left open. “…So unwilling!”

“…Why… is it me?”

The hamster demon stopped breathing, but it was unwilling in its heart and died with regret.

Yes. Why was it specifically this one?

Zhou Xin lowered her eyes to look at the hamster demon’s corpse, quietly clenching her sleeve.

“It has been able to hold on until now with just a thread of spiritual energy, and to prove itself it even transmitted spirit to Shen Shaoqing. Its spiritual power has already been exhausted…”

Linghe Zhenren let out a low sigh and said nothing more.

There are good and evil among people, and right and wrong among demons. Whether person or demon, whenever injustice is encountered, it must be investigated clearly. This was the belief Shen Jibai had always adhered to, but he did not speak the thoughts in his heart.

“The hamster demon lost its mind and harmed people. If the Jinwu Guards had not arrived in time, it might already have caused a death. This matter is no small matter, Shen will definitely investigate thoroughly and arrest the person behind this, bringing them to justice.”

A Zhou said, “It only transformed into human form today, so it had no chance to make enemies with anyone. I’m afraid it suffered an undeserved disaster.”

Shen Jibai also thought of this layer.

Last night, the king of ten thousand foxes escaped from the Demon-Sealing Tower. Today, the hamster demon was invaded by evil aura. All signs showed that a daoist cultivator with sinister motives had come to Luoyang.

“Being able to use a paper figure’s hand to cast spells and form seals, this person’s cultivation is not beneath my disciple’s.” Linghe Zhenren inadvertently provided an investigative direction.

There were not many daoist cultivators who could be mentioned on the same level as Lingyun Jun.

Shen Jibai’s eyes lit up, and he immediately had an idea in mind. “We should carefully investigate the daoist cultivators who have entered and left the Eastern Capital recently, there may be clues.”

“That is fine.” Linghe Zhenren gave A Zhou a look. “Send Shen Shaoqing off for your master.”

＊

Shen Jibai walked alone in front, keeping a distance from her that was neither too close nor too far. His face was even more stern than when he came.

“Is Shen Shaoqing still angry?”

The person walking in front seemed not to hear her at all, showing no intention of responding.

Yet Zhou Xin was not angry, and even had a bit of understanding.

Anyone would be furious after being kissed and touched by someone they hated from the bottom of their heart, not to mention that he had experienced it twice in a single day.

“If Shen Shaoqing really cannot get over it, then curse me a few times. A Zhou guarantees not to talk back.” She muttered softly, “Or else, A Zhou can suffer a little and let Shen Shaoqing touch me back!”