Simply put, the emperor was not affected by any supernatural magic. However, he was manipulated by a thousand-year-old demon for thirty years. As a result, when faced with danger, his first instinct was to seek comfort from the imperial advisor.
The Imperial Advisor wasn't really in the mood to comfort him. It instinctively felt something was amiss, even suspecting Lu Xuan. But the Emperor was clinging to him like a lifeline, even sleeping there at night, clearly terrified.
Correspondingly, during the daytime court session, the Court of Judicial Review and the Ministry of Justice suffered greatly, receiving a severe scolding from the emperor. He also issued a strict order: solve the case within ten days, or face punishment for deceiving the emperor.
Now the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review are truly in the same boat. The heads of both departments have been replaced by the same corrupt official.
They knew perfectly well that cultivators were opposing them. However, their leader's traditional strategy was to maintain stability in the capital. They dared not use large-scale magic to investigate. If they found the real culprit, a major battle would ensue in the capital. This would likely expose them all. After all, judging from their auras, those dozen or so old ghosts resembling Zhu Weidong were not easy to deal with.
However, there is absolutely no hope of letting ordinary people investigate this matter.
The key point is that after committing several major crimes, those ghosts seemed to have vanished without a trace. Ten days passed quickly, during which the Ministry of Justice planned to find a few minor ghosts to appease them and get by with the matter for now.
An official from the Ministry of Justice secretly leaked the message. However, Lu Xuan ignored it.
"Don't stop them, let them get through this."
………………
It was time for another gathering at the Ghost Market, and Lu Xuan wandered off alone once again.
Since his first participation, Lu Xuan had missed two others. This time, it was just a spur-of-the-moment decision, and he planned to come and browse. If possible, he'd like to buy a few tool ghosts. If he didn't have tool ghosts, tool spirits or something similar would also be fine.
Deep within the ghost market, a little fox was already waiting. Before it lay a jumbled pile of herbs. But its mind wasn't on the stall; its little eyes darted around, clearly waiting for someone.
This was the third time she had waited here since meeting that person. Looking back, she was so busy running that she didn't even know her teacher's name.
That's right, the little fox already considered Lu Xuan her teacher. Because when Lu Xuan gently tapped her forehead, he had actually infused her with spiritual energy. After the little fox ran home, she discovered she couldn't remove that spiritual energy no matter what she did. Instead, the energy flowed slowly and naturally through her body.
She then noticed that the flow of spiritual energy contained a certain pattern. After some investigation, she discovered that if she circulated her spiritual power in accordance with this pattern, she could connect with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth outside, thereby increasing her cultivation level.
At this point, how could she not realize that this was a cultivation technique? That person was not a bad person at all; on the contrary, he was a very good person who taught her the cultivation technique she had always dreamed of, and she should call him her teacher.
As the little fox was lost in thought, a familiar figure caught its eye.
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Chapter 375 The Lineage of Taoism and Cause and Effect
"Teacher..." the little fox waved hastily, even ignoring its own stall. This action attracted the attention of many people around. However, Lu Xuan casually glanced around, and everyone quickly looked away. This person's cultivation was unfathomable; it was best not to offend him carelessly.
Do you know what it means to call me "teacher"?
“I know, I’ve been to school. I even asked my father. I know that a disciple should be respectful to his master. I brought all the herbs today to give to my teacher. My father said that I should follow my teacher from now on,” the little fox said in an adorable tone.
"If you come with me, how will you protect your family?" Lu Xuan asked with a smile, and the little fox was stunned. Yes, how could she protect her family if she wasn't home?
"Hehe. How about this, I'll take you as my disciple, but you don't need to follow me. Go home and cultivate. But you must know that you cannot teach anything I teach to anyone without my permission."
“I understand, disciple. When I returned that day, I wanted to pass on the techniques my master had taught me to my father, but my father told me that Taoist arts cannot be taught to others casually. It must be done with the master's permission.”
"Very good. Come with me."
The little fox quickly tidied up its stall and hopped after Lu Xuan.
"By the way, you're my disciple now. I still don't know your name."
"Ah, Master, my name is Xin Shisi Niang. I have thirteen older sisters and five younger sisters. However, my mother has passed away, and I only have my father as my elder."
“Xin Shisi Niang…” Lu Xuan glanced at the young fox with a touch of emotion. This was a famous character from Liaozhai, and one of Lu Xuan’s favorite characters.
Because she was the only fox spirit who didn't offer herself to a poor scholar and instead married him. Well, actually, she did marry him at first. But later, her family suffered a great tragedy, and her husband was imprisoned. She went to great lengths to rescue him. However, in the process, she grew weary of the human world.
At the same time, she felt dissatisfied with her own powerlessness. So she took the initiative to leave her useless husband and devoted herself to seeking the Dao. In the original work, she is one of the very few great demons who ultimately succeeded in attaining the Dao (in the original work, she eventually became an immortal).
Most of the fox spirits in *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio* are products of the fantasies of impoverished scholars. They specifically target good-for-nothings, offering themselves as concubines—pure fantasy. Only Xin Shisi Niang perfectly suits Lu Xuan's taste. He never imagined that the little fox he casually trained would become his favorite character from his past life.
Thinking of this, Lu Xuan felt even more affectionate towards the little fox.
"Fourteenth Sister, have you studied any other Taoist arts?"
“Yes, there are some. My father taught me some magic. But most of them are just supernatural powers to bewitch people. Our fox demon clan can also absorb the essence of the moon under the moon to improve our cultivation. But that would attract too much attention, so we dare not cultivate freely in the city. In the mountains and fields, those valleys full of spiritual energy have long been occupied by various powerful demons, and there is no place for us to live. So we can only hide in the human world and barely survive.”
"In this world, it's not just humans who have a hard time surviving; even demons have it tough. Come with me."
Lu Xuan reached out and placed his hand on the little fox's shoulder. Shisi Niang only felt a slight blur before her eyes, and she was already hundreds of meters away.
"Wow, that's amazing. This must be called Shrinking the Earth to an Inch. I've heard my father say that only a very few highly skilled cultivators can use this kind of magic."
"It's alright. This is a method I created myself. It's quite different from those of other practitioners."
In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the two had already appeared in a valley on the outskirts of the capital. Lu Xuan turned to face the little fox.
"The path of cultivation can be roughly divided into two types. One is the cultivation of all people in the world, and the other is the cultivation of one's own sect."
"Ah, Master, is our cultivation method different from others?"
"Yes, your master was originally a mortal. I spent countless years practicing various Taoist and Buddhist scriptures and secular techniques, and finally cultivated a breath of true qi from scratch."
Later, I had a fortuitous encounter in the mountains and learned a unique technique. This technique, the core of our sect's cultivation, is called the Ape Strike Technique. From then on, my cultivation greatly increased. Then, I secluded myself in the mountains to cultivate, combining years of practice and theory to create our sect's cultivation method. In recent years, I have ventured into the world, sparring with other cultivators, thus verifying and perfecting our sect's technique. Now, you are the first person to be taught the Ape Strike Technique.”
Lu Xuan never taught the Ape Strike Technique to anyone. Xiaoqian and Xiaolan, who were beside him, were ghosts and hadn't completely shed their ghostly aura yet. Xiahou was too old; his meridians were already fixed, making it difficult for him to master it. The Ape Strike Technique wasn't simply a method of cultivating qi.
There's a scene in the movie that describes how, after Zhou Xiyu mastered the Ape Strike Technique, he felt as if the world had transformed before his eyes. He could smell the fragrance of grass and trees in the air, hear the chirping of insects and birds in the mountains, and feel every breath of information carried by the wind. He felt as if he had been reborn.
This technique has a hidden effect: it tempers one's constitution, allowing the practitioner to reach a higher level of talent. However, of the three people closest to Lu Xuan, two possess ghostly bodies, and one has a fixed constitution. The only suitable techniques for them are the day and month training methods from the Ape Strike Technique.