El Qi es fácil de transmitir

Capítulo 76

Hundreds and thousands of "corpse phosphorus worms" closely followed behind Master Xufeng and Youliang, forming a moving green fluorescent ribbon. The Master Xufeng simply turned off his pen flashlight and could move forward by the fluorescent light.

After walking for a very long time, Master Xufeng also felt extremely tired. Just then, he saw a sky full of stars and a huge lake in the distance. In the middle of the pale green lake, he could see a small, serene island...

Nizi took off the brass thimble from her thumb and respectfully handed it to Guo Ruchang, saying, "Grandpa, thank you for teaching Nizi the 'Bluebird Burial Scripture.' Here, I'll return this brass thimble to you."

Guo Ruchang took the bronze thimble, gently stroking it with his palm. His eyes welled up with tears, and he murmured wistfully, "Our ancestor Guo Pu left the bronze thimble to his descendants, but the 'Zhu You Technique' was not passed down. It's truly a pity. So I'm afraid that no one will ever be able to open the secret chamber and glimpse the true face of the 'Ghost Pot'..."

"Grandpa, why do we still need 'Zhu You Shu' (a type of healing technique) to find the 'Ghost Pot' even though we have this copper thimble key?" Nizi asked, puzzled.

Guo Ruchang, his face pale, sighed and explained, “Our ancestor was a very cunning man. He not only tamed the wriggling barbarians, spirit cats, toads, and ghost bats inside the navel to guard this island, but he also secretly set up many mechanisms. The copper thimble can open the stone door, but it cannot enter the secret passage.”

Nizi thought for a moment and asked doubtfully, "Grandpa, you haven't even tried, how do you know you can't get in?"

"Our ancestors had a strict rule: only those who are the inheritors of the 'Zhu You Technique' and possess a copper thimble are allowed to open the stone door and enter the secret passage. Anyone else who attempts to peek will be killed without mercy," Guo Ruchang said with an unusually serious expression.

Nizi stuck out her tongue in fright and asked in confusion, "Grandpa, what exactly is 'Zhu You Shu'?"

"The earliest form of 'Zhuyou' was a kind of witchcraft in ancient times. The method of Zhuyou involves using incantations and spells, including traditional Chinese medicine, to treat diseases. 'Zhu' means incantation, and 'you' means the cause of the disease. In other words, it uses incantations to drive away the cause of the disease and make the patient recover. There are records in ancient books of a person whose leg was swollen. He sought treatment from a Zhuyou shaman. The shaman drew a leg on the wall, then chanted an incantation and cut the wall with a knife. Fresh blood flowed from the wall, and when the blood stopped flowing, the swelling in the patient's leg disappeared immediately. Therefore, it is said that 'its principle is unknown to the world and is called evil magic.'" Guo Ruchang slowly explained.

"Wow..." Nizi exclaimed in amazement.

"Our ancestor was the master of the Central Plains' Zhuyou witchcraft, but he did not practice medicine. Instead, he evolved it into a unique and astonishing martial art called 'The Eighteen Forms of Zhuyou,' which unfortunately has long been lost," Guo Ruchang said with regret.

"'Zhu You Eighteen Forms'? Is it more powerful than the Quanzhen School's 'Primordial Qi Gong'?" Nizi asked.

"Hehe, how can worldly martial arts compare to the unpredictable and miraculous Zhu You Divine Skill of our ancestors? Let me tell you, the 'Eighteen Forms of Zhu You' is the number one unparalleled skill in the world," Guo Ruchang said with no small amount of pride.

"If only I knew the 'Eighteen Forms of Incantation,' I could go find my mother..." Nizi murmured.

"What did you say?" Guo Ruchang asked, puzzled.

"She didn't say anything." Nizi quickly shook her head.

Inside the navel, there is no day or night, no warm sun or bright moon, only the green fluorite embedded on the high stone walls, like a sky full of stars, giving people endless imagination.

“Nizi, you should keep this copper thimble. After you get married and have children, it should be passed down from generation to generation until you meet someone who understands the ‘Zhu You Divine Skill’ and work together to open the underground palace.” Guo Ruchang said as he put the copper thimble back on Nizi’s thumb.

"Why is it necessary to open the secret passage in the underground palace? What exactly is the use of that 'ghost pot'?" Nizi asked, puzzled.

“How can we easily fathom the actions of our ancestors? Let’s just say it’s ‘heavenly secrets that cannot be revealed’,” Guo Ruchang shook his head and sighed.

Nizi felt her stomach growling again. For the past few days, Guo Ruchang had been catching fish and shrimp from the lake to fill her stomach, but there was no salt, and she felt like vomiting. But there was nothing else to eat.

"Are you hungry?" Guo Ruchang chuckled. "Girl, you wait here while I go off the island and get some good food."

"What do you want to eat?" Nizi asked happily, remembering that Youliang's family raised chickens, ducks, and rice.

"You'll find out when the time comes." With that, Guo Ruchang dropped to the ground and disappeared in a few leaps.

With nothing to do, Nizi strolled toward the white stalagmite to the west, where the large civet cat was dozing.

"Little Cui'er..." Nizi tiptoed closer, beckoning and calling out softly.

"Meow..." In response, "Little Cui'er" happily ran out from under the stalagmite and "whoosh" pounced into Nizi's arms, sticking out her tongue to lick her cheek. These past few days, Nizi had been so focused on studying the "Bluebird Burial Sutra" that she had completely neglected the big black cat.

"Let me see, is your wound healed?" Nizi parted the downy hair on "Little Cui'er's" abdomen and found that the wound had scabbed over, and was neither red nor swollen. It seemed that it would heal soon.

Nizi carried "Little Cui'er" to the black stalagmite to the north. The big tortoise was still climbing on the stalagmite. When it saw Nizi coming, it blinked its eyes in a friendly manner and made two "whoosh" sounds.

Nizi reached out and touched the knotted bumps on the golden-headed turtle's neck, patted its shell, and said, "Alas, it's a pity that neither you nor 'Little Cui' can talk, otherwise it would be so nice if you could chat and tell stories together..."

Nizi looked up and gazed south. The ghost bat on the red stalagmite pillar was still fast asleep, snoring louder than her grandfather's snores. It seemed that she had never seen it wake up since Nizi came to the island.

"Sigh..." Nizi sighed, feeling very lonely inside. If Liang were here, he could always find something to make her happy, such as catching crickets, catching grasshoppers to feed the chicks and ducklings, and so on.

Carrying "Little Cui'er," Nizi strolled to the milky-white stone platform in the center, thinking that this stone platform, guarded by the Azure Dragon Grandfather, the White Tiger Great Spirit Cat, the Vermilion Bird Ghost Bat, and the Black Tortoise Great Turtle for generations, must be the entrance to the secret passage. She circled the stone platform, examining it carefully, and found that although the surface of the platform, which was about the height of a person, was very rough and pitted, there was no hidden door. So she struggled to climb to the top of the stone platform.

The milky-white countertop was smooth, and carved on it was a fat woman who was not wearing clothes. The lines were monotonous, and the woman's belly was bare, with a small circle at her navel...

Nizi climbed onto the stone platform, bringing her head close to the woman's stomach to carefully observe her navel. She noticed that the circle was deeply carved into the stone, about the same size as the copper thimble in her hand. So, Nizi took the copper thimble off her thumb and placed it on the circle to measure it… With a crisp "snap," the woman's navel seemed to possess a suction force, drawing the copper thimble into the circle, where it fit perfectly…

Suddenly, the fat woman's navel silently opened, and with a "plop," before Nizi could react, she and "Little Cui'er" plunged into darkness...

A thick white fog rose silently, instantly enveloping the stone platform. When the fog dissipated, the woman's navel had already closed, everything was as before, and the copper thimble was gone...

Guo Ruchang waded across the stone ridge and leaped along the lake shore. Soon, he arrived at the foot of a high stone wall. The limestone wall was covered with numerous caves, each about a foot in diameter, dark and smelling of fishy odors.

He stood in front of the cave and listened for a moment, then shook his neck. After a series of crisp "crackling" sounds, his neck suddenly stretched more than two meters. He then slowly stuck his head inside, followed by a series of agonizing screams coming from inside the cave...

Guo Ruchang pulled his head back, his huge mouth holding a fat, brown rat. He tossed his head and threw the rat's carcass, which he had just killed, onto the ground. Then he stuck his head into another cave, and with a few more squeaks, a second rat was dragged out.

With a loud cracking sound, Guo Ruchang pulled his neck back, then happily carried the two dead rats to the lakeside. He quickly skinned them, gutted them, washed the meat, and ran back to the island in the middle of the lake with them in his mouth.

"Nizi, look what delicious food I brought back for you..." Guo Ruchang called out loudly with a big smile as he walked around the stone bamboo forest.

Nizi isn't there...

"Nizi, where are you?" Guo Ruchang put the rat meat on the stalagmite and then searched all over the island, but still couldn't find Nizi.

"Strange, where is he?" Guo Ruchang muttered to himself, puzzled.

At that moment, he seemed to sense something, so he bent down, pressed his ear to the stone ground, and listened intently.

He heard footsteps heading straight for the island in the middle of the lake... Something's not right, those are two voices, outsiders have broken in!

Guo Ruchang opened his mouth and hissed a warning. The big cat, which was dozing off, suddenly raised its head. The ghost bat, which was snoring loudly in the south, was also suddenly awakened. The toad turtle in the north opened its eyelids. All four mythical beasts became alert and took their positions to prepare for battle.

The footsteps of the uninvited guests had already crossed the underwater stone bridge and entered the island in the middle of the lake, something that had never happened in decades.

"Father..." As the voice spoke, a thin, withered old man and a strangely dressed old woman appeared in front of him. These two were Li Dihuo and Hakka Granny.

“Li Dihuo!” Guo Ruchang recognized the young man who had broken into the island in the heart of the Earth Navel Lake decades ago and planted the Wormhead Barbarian larvae in him. Time flies, and although his appearance was somewhat different from back then, the Wormhead Barbarian larvae in his body could not be hidden. Guo Ruchang sensed it immediately.

"Waaah, it's me, Father..." Li Dihuo knelt down with a thud, sobbing with tears streaming down his face, "Since the 'September 18 Incident,' when I returned to Guandong, I've bred 102 'Worm-Headed Barbarians' over the past few decades, but unfortunately, they were all destroyed by that old hag a few days ago... Waaah..."

"What!" Guo Ruchang was furious upon hearing this. His cold gaze suddenly fixed on the Hakka nanny, and he said hatefully, "Who are you? How dare you ruin my offspring?"

The Hakka woman thought to herself, "So there's an old barbarian hiding inside this navel. This Li Dihuo has led me into the barbarian's lair. It seems I'm in trouble."

"Old hag, Hakka nanny, who are you, you old rascal pretending to be a ghost?" the Hakka nanny replied without changing her expression.

Chapter 117 of the main text

"Haha..." Guo Ruchang laughed twice and said, "I am Guo Ruchang, a scholar from Hedong in the twenty-third year of Qianlong's reign. You little girl are not simple. You know about 'Worm-headed Barbarians'. If it weren't for your short and stocky build and dry skin, I would have really taken you under my wing. I have never raised a female Worm-headed Barbarian before... Tell me, what exactly are you planning to do here in the navel?"

The Hakka woman said calmly, "Who cares about this dark place where the sun never shines? Li Dihuo lured this old woman here." She turned to look at Li Dihuo, "Right, brother-in-law..."

"What did you say? Brother-in-law..." Guo Ruchang stared at Li Dihuo in confusion.

Li Dihuo swallowed hard and said, "She... used to be my sister-in-law, but my brother is dead, so I have nothing to do with her anymore."

Guo Ruchang nodded and said, "Hmm, a qualified Rutou Barbarian must be able to put righteousness before family and be ruthless towards relatives. You did very well. Di Huo, tell me, you brought her to the Earthly Navel, how do you want your father to deal with her?"

“Father, the hatred for killing your son is irreconcilable, but Di Huo is no match for her, so I lured her here. Please, sir, kill her.” Li Di Huo said through gritted teeth.

Guo Ruchang nodded and said to the Hakka woman, "Did you all hear that? As the saying goes, 'The stinger of a wasp is the most poisonous thing, and the heart of a woman is the most venomous.' You, woman, actually had the heart to kill 102 offspring of the Di Huo family. Although we are related, I have no choice but to take your life today."

The Hakka old woman sneered, "I respectfully address you as Master Guo, but my brother-in-law is the one who is truly ruthless. He set fire to those barbarians and burned them to death. I couldn't bear to watch any longer, so I stepped in to save two of them."

"Is this really true?" Guo Ruchang asked in surprise.

“Of course, the two barbarians that the old woman rescued, one named Dongfang Hong and the other Xiong Dahai, are both in Fengling Temple now. They can definitely testify to this,” the Hakka old woman replied.

Guo Ruchang looked at Li Dihu with suspicion.

"Father, don't listen to her clever words. She took my brother Li Dishui's ashes back to Huanglongfu in Guandong. Within two days, she led the county police to start digging up graves. It's pitiful that those children were arrested before they were even fully grown..." Li Dihuo said, his face flushed.

"Wait, who is this 'county public security bureau police officer' who is very good at martial arts?" Guo Ruchang asked, puzzled.

“No, the ‘county public security bureau’ is the government office of Huanglong Prefecture, and the ‘police officers’ are the former constables,” Li Dihuo explained.

"Oh...I see. Please continue." Guo Ruchang nodded.

"In order to prevent my undeveloped children from being exposed to the world, or even being exhibited and dissected as specimens, thus revealing the secrets of the Wriggling Barbarians, I had no choice but to kill them all. Even tigers don't eat their cubs, so I had no other choice..." Li Dihuo's eyes were filled with tears, and his face showed pain.

"Civilize the bodies and destroy the evidence? Hmm, well done. We Rutou barbarians must hide our identities to survive in this world and safely reproduce our offspring. Once our identities are exposed, we lose our reason for existence... What about the two children who didn't die from the fire?" Guo Ruchang asked.

“In Fengling Temple,” Li Dihuo replied.

"Is it developing well?" Guo Ruchang asked with concern.

“They’ve already matured, but they dared to betray me and side with my sister-in-law.” Li Dihuo pointed at the Hakka nanny and said indignantly.

Upon hearing this, Guo Ruchang angrily retorted, "What use is it to keep such disobedient descendants? Why don't you go and 'put righteousness before family ties'?"

"Yes, Father," Li Dihuo replied respectfully.

Before the stone platform, Guo Ruchang swayed his neck, and after a series of "crackling" sounds, he had stretched to more than two meters long. His white-haired head stretched out in front of the Hakka woman, staring with a pair of blood-red triangular eyes. He opened his huge mouth, and a stench of sourness wafted out: "Little girl, I am more than a hundred years older than you. I cannot bully the younger one. You shall make the first move."

The Hakka woman had fought with Li Dihuo before and knew that the old man could spit out large bubbles. She could defend against it using the first move of the Zhu You Divine Skill, "Ghost Wall". But apart from that, she didn't know what other strange skills this old man had.

"Hmph..." The Hakka woman knew that a fierce fight was inevitable, so she frowned and didn't answer. She slithered forward and swiftly slashed at Guo Ruchang's long neck.

Old Man's neck skin was as thin as paper, semi-transparent, and the bluish-black arteries could be clearly seen. Granny's long fingernails contained internal strength, and if she scratched them, she would surely sever his blood vessels.

Guo Ruchang's neck was incredibly flexible, like a snake. Seeing the hand approaching, he swiftly spun around to avoid it, then suddenly turned his head, opening his massive jaws like a python, and bit down with lightning speed at the old woman's head. Yellow incisors, pink gums, and a pink, crescent-shaped ovipositor, like a lip, quietly emerged from his throat, spraying out a foul-smelling, sticky liquid that enveloped the Hakka old woman…

The old woman quickly withdrew her palms and stood them in front of her chest, moving her hands horizontally while chanting the sorcery of "ghost wall" incantation, "Hehe na, ja jie ting tang po..."

Although Guo Ruchang had heard of his ancestors' "divine healing arts," he had never seen them. Therefore, he thought the Hakka grandmothers' "ghost wall" was just ordinary witchcraft and did not pay much attention to it.

At this moment, it was as if an invisible barrier was blocking the old woman's way. The sticky, smelly liquid was only inches away from her face, floating in the air but unable to fall. Her two rows of big teeth, which were clenching together, also encountered the resistance of the air wall and could not bite down.

Guo Ruchang was secretly surprised. No wonder Li Dihuo was no match for this old woman. She really had some skills. With a "poof", he spat out a large, transparent bubble containing many tadpole-like wriggling larvae, each staring at the Hakka nanny with its small triangular eyes, and then spiraling around the back of her head...

Oh no, the Hakka old woman thought to herself. Her "ghost wall" technique could only defend against enemies and couldn't protect those behind her. Therefore, she would need to defend with Xiao Caihua when they were in the demon's berth.

"Cockroaches..." The Hakka old woman's incantation changed, and she used the third move of the Zhuyou Divine Skill, "Walking Corpse." Her left ring finger aimed at Guo Ruchang's head, while her right ring finger pointed back at the large bubble on the back of his head.

"Walking Dead" can temporarily block the opponent's logical thinking, make them lose their ability to distinguish right from wrong, and make them act according to the caster's will. I have used it on Officer Qi and the corpse of Wang Laonian to force out the larvae of the Wriggling Barbarian. In Fengling Temple, Shen Caihua also used this technique to save the brothers, Daoist Fei and Mayor Guo.

The Hakka woman gently withdrew, her left ring finger slowly guiding Guo Ruchang's head toward the large bubble. Then, she clasped her hands together, and Guo Ruchang's enormous, blood-red mouth snapped into the bubble with a "crack." With a crisp "pop," the bubble burst, and tiny, wriggling larvae covered his face...

Guo Ruchang calmly extended his long, soft tongue and licked the larvae back into his stomach.

The "Vermilion Bird" ghost bat, perched atop a red stalagmite pillar, slowly raised its head. It was a cave flying fox, enormous in size with a wingspan of up to three meters. Despite its short nose, its pectoral muscles were extremely well-developed, and its body was covered in short, fiery red fur. Ancient texts record tales of cave fairy rats, legends of a type of cave ghost bat living in stalactite caves called "fairy rats." These bats were said to gain immortality by drinking the underground waters of the caves, and over thousands of years, their body color would change, slowly turning from dark black to red, and finally to pure white. Bats have a wide range of diets; some species prefer nectar and fruit, while others eat fish, frogs, and insects. Ghost bats, however, feed on animal blood and prey on other bats, making it rare to find other bats in the vast cavern.

This "Vermilion Bird" ghost bat is only a few hundred years old, hence its fiery red fur. Despite this, its power is extraordinary, and the ultrasonic beams it emits are extremely powerful.

At that moment, it decided to make its move, so it raised its snout and emitted a beam of targeted ultrasound towards the Hakka grandmother...

The Hakka matron was gradually controlling Guo Ruchang with her "walking corpse" technique when the bio-waves emitted by the witchcraft were suddenly interfered with by a strong external magnetic field...

Old Man Guo Ruchang blinked, his whole body jolted, and he instantly came to his senses. He nodded gratefully to the ghost bat, then turned to the Hakka nanny and chuckled, "Little girl, I almost fell for your trick. The ghost bat can break your spell. If that's all you've got, you might as well just surrender."

At this moment, Li Dihuo also stretched out his neck, watching from the side like a tiger, ready to find an opportunity to launch a sneak attack.