Punching the Creator God, trampling the Bell Ringers, riding the Evil God of the Ten-Directions Purgatory.
As soon as Luo Hou finished speaking, a few young men grabbed brooms and mops from the corner and charged outside.
Tao Tao: “…”
Tao Tao had seen the Grand Imperial City nightclub next door that Luo Hou mentioned. The row of security guards at the entrance were burly and imposing, standing guard at the door as if on duty. If these guys really went looking for trouble with brooms in hand, they’d be beaten to a pulp and come fleeing back within five minutes.
“Not you,” Tao Tao stopped them, turning to Luo Hou.
Luo Hou lazily scanned the room: “Oh? Then take a seat.”
Tao Tao wasn’t in a hurry to sit. She pretended to casually glance at her classmates’ textbooks and noticed that almost everyone had turned to the chapter on the spirit-hiding body. She asked Zhuang Xiaomeng, “What’s today’s lesson?”
“The spirit-hiding body.”
Tao Tao turned and walked away.
“Stop,” Luo Hou called out to her.
The classmates didn’t know what was happening. They looked at her, then at Luo Hou, bewildered.
The atmosphere grew strange. After a few seconds of silence, Luo Hou spoke: “If you don’t want to sit with me, just say so. No one’s forcing you.”
With that, he stood up on his own, picked up his stool, and moved to sit in the corner by the wall.
“That’s not what I meant,” Tao Tao wanted to bang her head against the wall.
On her very first day, she had already left the impression of an arrogant, domineering, and malicious young mistress in everyone’s minds. This was definitely not what she wanted.
“Then sit. We’re all family here, where are you going?”
The gazes of the “family” in the classroom were too intense. Steeling herself, Tao Tao walked over. Luo Hou had taken his stool away, leaving only an empty seat next to Lin Quan. Tao Tao sat down.
She didn’t have a textbook, so Lin Quan spread his book between them. That photo once again appeared in Tao Tao’s line of sight.
Tao Tao pretended not to see it, but Lin Quan’s voice sounded beside her ear: “Tao Tao, as lovely as a flower.”
Tao Tao immediately broke out in goosebumps. She glared at Lin Quan, her gaze fierce. The man smiled: “Alright, I won’t say anymore.”
Zhuang Xiaomeng began the lesson. She was a considerate woman and, sensing Tao Tao’s discomfort, skipped the chapter on the spirit-hiding body and moved on to the next one.
The ten o’clock sun was warm. Tao Tao sat by the window, basking in the sunlight, and nearly dozed off.
…
Zhuang Xiaomeng poured mineral water on the ground: “If this Water weren’t confined by the bottle, sunlight would evaporate it, animals would lap it up, and it would disappear before long. But if you put the cap back on, the Water remains safely inside the bottle. The function of spiritual veins is similar to the bottle, except what they store and protect isn’t Water, but our Spiritual Power. Only by quickly cultivating spiritual veins can you restrain and control your own Spiritual Power, becoming a formal Spirit Master capable of using Spiritual Artifacts.”
“For powerful Spirit Masters, one spiritual vein isn’t enough to fully store their Spiritual Power. They need to condense multiple spiritual veins. Therefore, we often use the number of spiritual veins to measure a Spirit Master’s strength. However, most Spirit Masters’ talents only allow them to condense one or two spiritual veins in their lifetime.”
A student asked: “Then isn’t Teacher Luo, with his Three-Branch Spirit Veins before the age of thirty, incredibly powerful?”
“Now that you know Teacher Luo is powerful, don’t slack off. Train hard under him. You can’t hide in a place like this forever.”
“Sister Zhuang, are there Spirit Masters even stronger than Teacher Luo?”
“Of course, as far as I know, the current head of the Southwest District is a Spirit Master with four spiritual veins. In the past, Taoist Li from Qingfengguan on Mount Qu had five spiritual veins. Legend has it that the first Bell Ringer of the Chaotic Tomb was an exceptionally powerful Spirit Master who once condensed nine spiritual veins. It seems there has never been a Spirit Master in history more powerful than him.”
“What about Li Hegu? He’s the current Bell Ringer of the Chaotic Tomb, so he must be very powerful too, right?”
Zhuang Xiaomeng put on a stern face: “You talk too much. Is this something you kids should be asking about? Your top priority right now is to train diligently and condense your first spiritual vein as soon as possible. Once you have spiritual veins, you won’t be trapped here anymore. There’s a broader, more exciting world waiting for you outside. Keep it up.”
Luo Hou’s careless voice came from the corner: “It’s not that your Sister Zhuang doesn’t want to tell you, but she doesn’t know either. How could someone like her, a small fry, know about the affairs of the Bell Ringer?”
The students burst into laughter. Zhuang Xiaomeng glared at him awkwardly: “You’re the one who talks too much.”
Qiangzi suddenly turned to look at Tao Tao: “Sister Zhuang, you said that powerful Spirit Masters need many spiritual veins to fully store Spiritual Power. Since a spirit-hiding body is the rarest and most unique constitution in the Spiritualist Realm, filled with Spiritual Power from head to toe, doesn’t that mean they can have as many spiritual veins as they want?”
Tingting also caught on: “That’s right. When we cultivate spiritual veins, we slowly absorb free spiritual energy from the world and make it our own. Wealthy Spirit Masters can acquire rare Spirit Objects to absorb spiritual energy from them. Although it’s a shortcut, they’re only a little faster than us. This book says that a spirit-hiding body is like a spring, with an endless supply of Spiritual Power within. So, wouldn’t Sister Tao Tao be incredibly powerful without even needing to cultivate? Could she be even more powerful than the Bell Ringer?”
She asked naively: “Sister Tao Tao, how many spiritual veins do you have?”
Everyone’s gaze turned to her.
“Despite being filled with Spiritual Power, you cannot condense spiritual veins to protect yourself or use Spiritual Artifacts. Unless they deliberately conceal themselves, you can see most of the evil spirits in this world and even touch their bodies, even if they are intangible ghosts.”
“Evil spirits want to devour you, and humans are afraid of getting involved and dare not approach you. I’ve always thought that the spirit-hiding body constitution is a whim of the Creator’s mischief.” Lin Quan asked softly, “Tao Tao, in the years before the Evil God cast the Eternal Coexistence Curse on you, how did you survive?”
Tao Tao didn’t speak, her expression cold.
Luo Hou stood up from the corner at just the right moment and clapped his hands: “This isn’t the topic for today’s class. Everyone, take a break. We’ll continue in this classroom after lunch.”
Hearing that class was over, the students no longer dwelled on how many spiritual veins Tao Tao had. They cheered and ran out to eat.
Tao Tao didn’t pack her things. Instead, she stared at the spot of sunlight from the midday sun falling on the table. After spacing out for a while, she whispered, “Lin Quan, don’t try to get close to me, and don’t try to understand me. No matter what your intentions are, I won’t appreciate it.”
“Why?”
“For humans, I am an anomaly who can see malevolent ghosts; for evil spirits, I am a tonic to enhance cultivation; for Spirit Masters, I am a troublemaker who attracts evil spirits. I have also encountered Spirit Masters who took the initiative to show goodwill, and I once thought I could be accepted by this group. But the truth is, they would stop at nothing just to obtain the Spiritual Power within me.”
“The only person I trusted in this world is gone. I would rather drift alone until death than be stabbed in the back by someone who approaches me with an agenda.”
Lin Quan: “How cowardly.”
Tao Tao packed her things and walked toward the door: “Say whatever you want.”
“It’s not that you don’t want to; you’re just afraid,” Lin Quan said. “You clearly crave companionship but fear that trusting others will lead to bitter fruit, so you simply refuse to trust. You don’t believe anyone could love you, nor that someone would disregard life and death, defy fate, and stake countless cycles of reincarnation just to stay by your side in this world. That’s why you won’t love anyone else either.”
Tao Tao: “Should I believe?”
“Even the solitary star of a lonely fate will one day be graced by moonlight. Tao Tao, the mist has already begun to spread across the world, but no matter how thick or deep the fog, some things cannot be hidden.” Lin Quan curved his lips. “Just wait.”
Would the solitary star of a lonely fate ever be graced by moonlight?
Tao Tao stopped and looked back at the man.
The blazing sun outside the window shone in, and Lin Quan, stung by the light, narrowed his beautiful peach blossom eyes.
The place to eat was downstairs, with lunch and dinner outsourced.
When Tao Tao came down, she happened to run into the person delivering the food, who passed by her carrying a metal basin filled with dishes.
Tao Tao found the person familiar, and it wasn’t until the proprietress called out to her that she remembered where she had seen her before.
“Ying Tao Tao, you’re here too?”
Tao Tao sized her up: “What exactly do you do?”
The bathhouse proprietress said: “Oh, life forced me to become a jack-of-all-trades. Running the bathhouse is my side job; my main occupation is running a restaurant.”
Luo Hou had changed into a red headscarf and stood at the front with a metal ladle, serving food. Everyone brought their own bowls and chopsticks, lining up in an orderly manner to get their meal.
Tao Tao stood to the side watching: stir-fried potato slices, cabbage stewed with vermicelli, cold mixed onions, and a basin of vegetable soup—not a trace of meat in sight.
The proprietress explained: “With so many people crammed in here, it’s a wonder we even have food to eat. Our foot-washing city doesn’t offer special services, so we don’t have much competitiveness on this street. Our income isn’t enough to get by, and everyone here relies on the occasional rewards from Master Luo and Master Zhuang when they go out to exorcise evil spirits. The organization’s rules forbid revealing too much to ordinary people, so these kids’ families don’t know what they’re doing outside. Master Luo still has to pay them a base salary of fifteen hundred yuan each month so they can give an explanation to their families.”
“Why not apply for funds from higher up?”
“I applied, but Master Luo has strong self-esteem and couldn’t bring himself to keep asking for money. During the last headquarters meeting, he even got into a fight with the person in charge of the Northeast region. That guy said he was too useless to even hold down a venue, and Master Zhuang retorted, saying, ‘Do you think everyone can run bathhouses as easily as you do in the Northeast? If people in the Jiangnan region loved soaking in bathhouses, we could make money too.’ The Northeastern fellow had a bad temper and argued with Master Zhuang, calling her a worthless piece of wood who was kicked out of her family and had no right to speak. Then the hot-tempered Master Luo picked up a chair and knocked him flat…”
“Whoa, don’t let Master Luo’s thin frame fool you—he fights fiercely. At the time, Master Luo pulled out his Floating Life Water Bell, and the Northeastern fellow raised his Demon-Subduing Vajra Pestle. They fought until the heavens darkened and the sun and moon lost their light. Later, Master Luo got injured, and Master Zhuang got furious. She used her Bewitching Butterfly Dream Induction and accidentally discovered that the Northeastern fellow was cheating on his wife behind her back. So, as they fought, his wife joined the battle, and it turned into three against one. It was absolutely spectacular…”
Tao Tao asked, “Were you there?”
“No, I only have one spiritual vein. I can’t attend such high-level meetings.”
“Then how do you know all this so clearly?”
The shop owner said, “Hey, I heard it from other Spirit Masters. Everyone loves gossiping, and eventually, the gossip reached my ears.”
Tao Tao: “…”
“Speaking of which, Master Luo’s luck is pretty rotten too. Other regions produce several official Spirit Masters every year, but among this batch of kids, there aren’t many promising ones. If they can’t condense spiritual veins, we can’t just kick them out. More and more mouths need to be fed, but there aren’t many people actually making money. I heard Master Luo is a graduate student. With his education, if he weren’t stuck here, he could have lived a pretty good life…”
Tao Tao didn’t want to listen to her gossip anymore. After getting her food, she found a table and sat down.
Lin Quan also came down to eat. He didn’t have a big appetite and preferred light meals, so he only ordered a bowl of vegetable soup and sat down beside Tao Tao.
Looking at Tao Tao’s plate, even though she only had vegetarian dishes, she still paired them with two bowls of rice. Seeing Lin Quan sit down, she said, “Actually, I didn’t really understand what was said earlier.”
Lin Quan smiled. “It’s okay. You’ll understand in time.”
He stirred the soup in his bowl with a spoon. “Tao Tao, all the misfortune you’ve experienced over the years ultimately stems from your spirit-hiding body. Because you can’t condense spiritual veins, you’re constrained everywhere. What if I told you I could plant spiritual veins for you?”
Tao Tao’s hand, holding the rice spoon, paused.
“I know you really want to have a spiritual vein.”
“Don’t act like you know me so well.”
“If you didn’t want it, why did you take half of Xue Rong’s spirit at the medical school? When a Spirit Master can’t use their own power, they can temporarily manipulate Spiritual Techniques by borrowing external spirits, right?”
Tao Tao fell silent for a moment, then said, “I could punch Mount Tai into pieces, swallow the sun in one gulp, and after that, drink the entire West Lake dry without even catching my breath. And that’s not all—you have no idea how powerful I am. If I wanted to, I could even punch the Creator God, trample the Bell Ringer underfoot, and ride the Evil God from the Ten-Directions Purgatory between my legs.”
Lin Quan: “…”
“In broad daylight, how did you start spouting such nonsense?”
“You know it’s nonsense too?”
Tao Tao almost wanted to roll her eyes, but ever since that year when a photo of her was taken and put into a textbook, she hasn’t dared to roll her eyes casually in crowded places.
“Yes, I admit, I really want to cultivate spiritual veins, but even a deity wouldn’t dare to speak such arrogant words. You, a mere Spirit Master with just one spiritual vein, have you had too much to drink?” Tao Tao swallowed a mouthful of rice. “And you want to plant spiritual veins for me? Who do you think you are? A god?”