The Shuo Family mansion looked grand with four large entrances. Every entrance door was covered in glittering paint. One could not even see the end of its hall past these entrances.
Inside the mansion, the corridors were long, filled with artificial landscapes of hills and flowing waters. The walls even had poem scriptures painted on them, which were all scribbled by Mister Shuo, not very artistic. But it was a person’s natural instinct to chase after wealth and fame. Everyone would think that their own artworks were precious and worth passing on for generations. Previously, Shen Lian knew of a king who left behind hundred thousands of poems, which of course almost none of them were remembered by people.
Proverbs writing was like high-level talisman drawing, it required countless practices. If one wanted to excel in this, it was almost harder than touching the sky.
The artificial landscapes of hills and flowing water, poem scriptures and old paintings may look elegant to a normal person, but in the eyes of Shen Lian they looked like a child’s graffiti not worth to even joke about.
However, there was one thing that would give Shen Lian a laugh.
When Mister Shuo heard of the Daoist master who came with the wall notice, he came out of the inner porch to the front hall. He was very well fed, fair and chubby, looked as though he was only in his forties while he was already past fifty.
Shen Lian saw this man and immediately recognized him as the ex-governor of Qing state. He was giggling inside, the fact that he would encounter this man at this place. He still remembered when he utilized some information from the Shen family to help the governor overcome his finance deficits, then only he could be transferred in peace.
Of course, Shen Lian used this favor as a trading condition, whereby he utilized the authority of Governor Shuo to help himself into the prison of Qing state, met with the man in green robe and mastered the Qi Technique.
Both were each other’s cause and effect, none was owing anything to another.
Even if Mister Shuo had a good memory, but with the passing of more than ten years and the indulging in alcohol and lust, his memory had deteriorated that he could not remember Shen Lian’s face, although this face did look quite familiar.
After the brief moment of humiliation at the entrance, Daoist Sanguang slightly tidied up his attire and dusted off his face and beard on his way in. He did not look too bad, plus after hanging in the gambling den for days, he could effortlessly pretend to be a high-level Daoist master.
Mister Shuo looked at the young Shen Lian, he thought this young man was Daoist Sanguang disciple.
With his own status, he would not be bothered with gambling addicts like Daoist Sanguang. Even his servants would not mention of knowing him, as this would never bring them anything good.
This bunch of people actually wanted to see Daoist Sanguang embarrass himself. Moreover, Daoist Sanguang was quite knowledgeable to begin with. It was even rumored that there were gods amongst his family’s ancestors. If the old master asked them about him, they could still give a vague reply.
Mister Shuo saw this duo of old and young Daoist master, who looked not too shabby. He enthusiastically spoke of the demon issue with them.
Shen Lian did not speak a word. Sanguang did not know the origins of Shen Lian, and he was only concerned that if Shen Lian acted upon this demon and defeated it, he would cut short his own path to fortune.
He had his own plans as well. This demon would not be too fierce and powerful, or else Mister Shuo would not have continued staying here. He cultivated some inner energy himself, plus the fact that the reward was so handsome, all that he could think about now was getting rid of this demon, and carrying the thousand silver sterling reward from Mister Shuo and reenter the gambling den.
As Sanguang thought of this, he could not control his own smiling as if the deal was already done.
Whereas Mister Shuo misunderstood that the elder Daoist was smiling with confidence, hence he became slightly relieved as well.
Then he said, “Alright, Daoist master, let us get rid of this monster now!”
Sanguang was still in a daze and did not hear what Mister Shuo was saying, but he would not dare to refuse.
However, Shen Lian did get a good listen to the tale. Five days ago, the Shuo family woke up to find a tree standing in the western hall. This tree was black all over as if it was toasted by lightning.
When the servants approached the tree, they immediately suffered hallucination.
Although the tree appeared motionless in the western hall, it must be a tree demon which appeared out of nowhere. This totally freaked Mister Shuo out who hired monks and Daoist masters to get rid of it. But all of them were possessed upon entrance and left without success.
As Shen Lian was listening, he could already deduce that this was a tree demon which could cast illusions, which was quite interesting.
They followed Mister Shuo to the western hall, he then pointed towards the front. There it was a tree, pitch black thoroughly, just like a piece of coal.
As Shen Lian tried his spiritual sensory on the tree, he could only sense a mild sign of life and an almost diminishing spirit within.
As Sanguang looked on, he did not notice anything unusual. He never even heard what Mister Shuo said earlier. He stepped in front, and nothing happened.
He advanced another three feet. Suddenly, Sanguang dropped to the floor, kept rolling and shaking his head, as if being hit by someone, and shouted, “Daddy, please stop hitting me! I’ll stop gambling! Mummy, please get daddy to stop!”
He was rolling on the ground non-stop, then got up and ran out, no one could stop him.
Mister Shuo was stunned by this sight. He never thought that this Daoist would be equally useless. Fortunately, he had seen similar incidents before, so he was not too mad.
Shen Lian did not run out to chase after Sanguang. This surprised him a little.
Mister Shuo asked, “Hey little Daoist master, shouldn’t you be running to look after your master?”
Shen Lian laughed silently. If this Sanguang was really a descendant of the Daoist Sanwen, a calculation based on seniority would consider himself as his ancestor.
He casually replied, “I am not his disciple. Let me handle this tree demon.”
Then only Mister Shuo knew that there was a misunderstanding. Right before he could ask anything else, Shen Lian slowly moves towards the tree, and strangely nothing happened. Mister Shuo could not help but feel surprised, maybe this person really had something in him.
As Shen Lian reached in front of the tree, a face appeared in the middle of the tree trunk, and then a voice appeared in his mind, “Why have you come here, Young Master?”
Shen Lian felt quite amazed. This tree demon had some spiritual presence, and could have experienced the lightning trial, but why did it call him Young Master. So he asked, “Why did you call me Young Master?”
“Since you have learned the Being and Non-Being of Sword Aura from the Elder Master, according to human terms, you are his descendant. So, I shall naturally call you Young Master”, replied the tree demon.
Shen Lian thought a while, and said, “You are that loquat tree from Mister Su’s house”. He would remember anything that he saw. As he remembered back of the loquat tree from last time, there was certain resemblance with this loquat tree. Plus, since the Being and Non-Being of Sword Aura was mentioned, then only he would make such guess.
“Yes, I am the loquat tree from Elder Master’s house. Earlier while I was facing the attacks from the Lightning Trial of Transformation, I was attacked by the Green-faced Ghost King and lost my inner elixir. I had no choice but to escape to here”. Loquat tree was slightly shaken, many toasted charcoal ashes could be seen falling from its body.
“I see. And so happened there was a Diyin-void here, which explained why you would escape here. However, your own core of vitality has damaged, you are merely surviving on the Yin energy from the Diyin-void, which is only delaying your spirit from dissipating away,” Shen Lian sighed.