Spirit Hunters of Maoshan Sect

Ye Shaoyang went to take a nap . When he woke up, it was already the afternoon, and Cheng Yu had left . Meanwhile, Xiao Ma was still sleeping like a corpse on his bed . After a brief moment of thought, Ye Shaoyang decided that he wanted to find the outer core disciple that his master had mentioned . This could help him make some quick cash, as the 1000 dollars his master had given him was already running low .

“Get up!” Ye Shaoyang yelled, as he kicked Xiao Ma’s butt . Ye Shaoyang felt no need to be polite to Xiao Ma, as he had already saved this fellow’s life twice .

Xiao Ma turned his body slowly reluctantly after being kicked . He mumbled, “The thunder gods will not strike someone that is sleeping, so let me sleep for a bit more, okay?”

“Who says the thunder god will not strike people who are sleeping? Do you want me to summon the thunder god and give it a try?” Ye Shaoyang proceeded to pull out a Thunder Talisman Paper and acted like he was going to summon the heavenly thunder . Xiao Ma quickly got up . He had already witnessed what the heavenly thunder was capable of . With only a bang, the tree was struck and set ablaze . That experience had definitely left a very deep impression on him and maybe even some psychological trauma . Xiao Ma sat on his bed and rubbed his eyes . He said, “I went into a dream just now . ”

Ye Shaoyang was shocked and thought, How was that specter able to do so right under my nose? Even the Spirit Repelling Bell was unable to detect it . Ye Shaoyang asked attentively, “Tell me, what did you dream of?”

Then, Xiao Ma pointed his finger to a poster on the wall and said, “I had a dream of Teacher Chang . She was with me at the beach, and there were also several other beautiful ladies beside me, feeding me seafood … . ”

Ye Shaoyang almost fell to the floor; he looked at Xiao Ma angrily and said, “You didn’t go into a dream, you just had a wet dream!”

“Here, help me take a look at this and tell me where this is . Even the taxi drivers might not know this place,” Ye Shaoyang asked Xiao Ma, as he took out a piece of crumpled paper from his pocket .

After Xiao Ma looked at this paper and thought about the location for awhile, he said, “I think this is in the west part of Stone City, and it’s an old residential area . Narrow alleyways fill that place, and it’s hard to find things there . Why do you want to go to this place?”

“There is a fellow disciple there . I want to go find him . ”

“You don’t have his phone number?”

“I’ve not seen him for twenty years . Back then, he didn’t have a phone, so he only left an address . ”

Xiao Ma was reluctant, “Fine, you just pray that he hasn’t moved, and that place hasn’t been demolished . ”

Ye Shaoyang was not familiar with Stone City at all . He was scared that he would get lost, so he got Xiao Ma to be his guide . After an hour of public transport, the two of them arrived in the general area, which was really old . The place had many old buildings and narrow alleys . The two of them spent another half an hour asking around to find the exact location . Finally, they came to the dead end of one of the narrow alleys, and a wooden sign hanged above the gates ‘Undertaker Guo’ .

“It must be him . His surname is Guo, and this is an undertaker\'s house,” Ye Shaoyang said with great relief .

“Why would a disciple of Maoshan Sect become an undertaker? Isn’t that a waste of talent?”

“What do you know, this is his cover . ”

A coffin sat in the middle of the hallway . On one side of the hall laid Chinese wreaths . On the other side, there was a pile of Chinese paper effigies . A man was sitting on a small stool, as he painted the facial features of the paper effigies with cinnabar ink . He meticulously and slowly drew the features . He was completely unaware of the presences of Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma . Ye Shaoyang stood behind him and observed his actions for a while . Then, he said, “Your place has many coffins, so it is filled with Yin Qi . If you draw the paper effigies too lifelike, they will eventually form specters . ”

The man laughed coldly without turning his head and asked, “Are you guys looking for something?”

Xiao Ma proceeded to ask arrogantly, “Are you the shop owner of this place?”

The man replied, “Are you here to buy a coffin?”

“Pah! If I got a coffin, it would be a gift to you . We’re Daoists of the Maoshan Sect!” Xiao Ma said angrily .

The man turned and gave Xiao Ma a glance . He smiled slightly and continued with his work .

Then, Ye Shaoyang held Xiao Ma off . He cleared his throat and spoke loudly, “A deep ocean lies beyond the gates of Mt . Mao, If someone wants to survive, he will need help . ”—I just came down from Maoshan Mountain, and I wish to earn some living money .

The man turned his head to carefully look at Ye Shaoyang, “Surname?”

“Zhang . ”—I’m a disciple of Zhang Tian Shi, which means I am a Daoist .

“Where do you come from?”

“A mountain in the west . ”—A Daoist of the west faction . Maoshan Sect is one of them . If someone answers north, that would mean they were of the northern factions .

Then, the man continued, “What is on the mountain?”

Ye Shaoyang answered, “A mountain filled with Cogongrass . ”—Maoshan Mountain . (TL note: Cogongrass is Mao Cao, and Shan is mountain in Chinese) .

Then, the man asked happily, “Are you a flower inside the house or wild grass?”—Are you an inner or outer disciple?

Ye Shaoyang answered with a smile, “The only flower for 16 years . ”—The only inner disciple, and a person who has been a disciple for 16 years .

The man’s eyes lit up, “Junior brother?”

Ye Shaoyang cupped his hand together and paid his respects, “Senior brother Guo . ”

The man took a deep breath and said, “I’ve been out for 20 years . How is our Master?”

“The same, pervy . ”

The man laughed heartily after he heard this answer . He was totally convinced now . Only a true inner disciple of Qing Yunzhi would say that he was pervy .

“Come, come, let’s talk in the house,” the man pushed open the door to the house inside and brought Ye Shaoyang in . Xiao Ma stood there dumbfounded and mumbled, “The hell was that? Are you guys an underground gang with secret codes?”

Ye Shaoyang laughed and said, “We have to be careful, as there are many frauds . ”

They entered the house and arrived at a small living room . Then, Old Guo brought out a pot of tea, and the two chatted about their times on Maoshan Mountain .

“Back when I was 22, undead demons killed my whole family, and corpse poison also afflicted me . Thankfully, our Master was there to save me . Afterward, I became his disciple, but unfortunately, I wasn’t smart enough to become an inner disciple . So, I trained under him as an outer disciple to learn some skills . After that, I returned home and started this business . ”

At this moment, Old Guo let out a sigh, “All these years, I’ve missed Master, but you know the rules of Maoshan Sect . Once an outer disciple leaves the school, the disciple is not allowed to go back to the mountain . Little brother, you are a wonder indeed . You’re only in your twenties and you’ve become the only inner disciple of Master . ” Ye Shaoyang laughed in response, as he scratched his head, “Even so, I still need to make a living . I am currently studying in Stone City, and I will probably be here for a while . I don’t suppose you can give me a job or something?” Old Guo immediately understood his needs, “You’re really lucky junior brother, there’s a big job that I can’t do alone . Now that you’re here, we’ll be able to do this job . ”

Ye Shaoyang was shocked, even though old Guo was only an outer disciple of Maoshan Sect, he still had some skills . It must be something really hard if it required two for the job . Then, Ye Shaoyang asked, “What are we dealing with?”

“Undead lord!”

“Undead lord?” Ye Shaoyang was slightly surprised, “There are undead lords in this city?”

Xiao Ma interjected curiously, “What are undead lords?”

Old Guo gave Xiao Ma a glance and asked, “Who is this guy?”

“My classmate,” Ye Shaoyang said; then, he continued, “Senior brother Guo, tell me what is up with this undead?”

Old Guo lighted a cigarette and began to explain, “There is a place in Stone City, they call it Mt . Gu . Under the mountain is an air-raid shelter . The shelters are cool in the summer and warm in the winter; it also provided a good place to hide from the rain and sun . Due to this, many homeless people would stay there, but things started to happen last month . Many of the homeless people that stayed there died . All of their heads were cracked open and their brains were eaten up, while their spinal cords were sucked out . The police were not able to find the perpetrators, so they could only seal up the place to stop people from going in . ”

“Last week, one of the police that was guarding that place got killed . That policeman also died in the same fashion; his head opened up, brain and spinal cord removed . Fortunately, the other policeman made it out, and he was convinced that an undead did this deed . Then, they began to realize that it was no normal crime, so they sought my help . At the beginning, I didn’t take it seriously either, fortunately … no, unfortunately, I encountered the undead, and I saw that a layer of white needle-like hair that covered its body … . ”

Ye Shaoyang said with shock, “White fur means it’s an undead lord . You can’t beat it . ”

“That right, I knew I was unable to beat him, so I ran away . Luckily, I brought a lot of realgar and glutinous rice . Otherwise, It would’ve killed me . ”