“May I ask your age, fellow cultivator?
“Tell me, have you been taking rejuvenation elixirs so that you look so young? You look quite handsome too!”
Shabby Taoist Master mumbled as he circled Tang Hao.
Tang Hao rolled his eyes and said, “I’m eighteen this year! I haven’t taken any elixirs.”
“I don’t believe it! You must be lying!” Shabby Taoist Master was so angry that the ends of his handlebar mustache curled upward.
Taoist Master Chang Qing saw that and came over. “Senior Brother, Fellow Cultivator Tang is really eighteen years old. He had a fortuitous encounter.”
Shabby Taoist Master turned around and glared at Taoist Master Chang Qing.
He understood what he was saying, but his ego stood in the way.
“Let’s focus on serious business, Senior Brother. We should get going! Otherwise, the sky will turn dark soon, and things will be a lot trickier at night,” Taoist Master Chang Qing said.
“Alright, alright! Let’s go. With this kid around, we might just be able to wreck the nest those old wretched things,” Shabby Taoist Master grumbled and went into the car.
“Let’s go, Fellow Cultivator Tang!” Taoist Master Chang Qing said to Tang Hao. Then, he sat in the driver’s seat.
The car drove off after Tang Hao got into the car, heading toward Bronze Sparrow Ridge.
“Not bad, kid! You’re a pretty advanced cultivator. I haven’t seen a kid as outstanding as you are for a long time.” Shabby Taoist Master spoke like a veteran as he looked at Tang Hao.
“Right, which sect are you from? What is your tenet? Who is your master? I might have heard of them before! The cultivation world of Huaxia isn’t too big or too small, and I know many of the old masters.”
“I don’t have a master. I’m also not sure which sect or tenet I follow,” Tang Hao said.
Shabby Taoist Master nearly did a spit take.
“You… don’t have a master?” His eyes were bulging.
“Yeah,” Tang Hao said calmly.
“Ahem!” The elderly Taoist master coughed to regain his composure. “Haha! I was overreacting earlier. It’s no big deal that a practitioner doesn’t have a master, isn’t that right?”
His face bore an awkward expression even though he said so.
“Are you renowned in the cultivation circles, Taoist Master Xuan Ling?” Tang Hao asked.
“Haha, isn’t that so! I’m the spokesperson of Mao Mountain! Who doesn’t know about me?” The elderly Taoist master said gleefully while slapping his chest.
“So… what is the cultivation world like?” Tang Hao asked curiously.
“Well! The cultivation world in Huaxia is quite complicated. There are official sects and there are also hidden ones. It’s hard to explain everything in brief.”
“That many?” Tang Hao was a little shocked.
“Isn’t that so? You ought to know the size of Huaxia. Even if there are many sects and tenets, it’s nothing compared to the cultivation world in ancient times.
“You ought to know the past glories of the Huaxia cultivation world. Now, even the animist shamans from Nanyang dare to bully us, and let’s not even mention those Westerners.” (TN: ‘Nanyang’, or literally ‘southern seas’, generally refers to the regions to the south of mainland China bordering the South China Sea, and Southeast Asia.)
“Westerners?” Tang Hao was surprised.
“Of course, there are Western cultivators! Of course, their methods of cultivation are different from ours.”
“I see! That makes sense!” Tang Hao mumbled.
“Alright, we can elaborate on that next time. We’ll have to wipe out that bunch of dumplings now.”
“Dumplings?” Tang Hao was clueless.
“Zombies! Haven’t you heard that term before? It’s all over the Internet.”
Tang Hao was speechless.
He had heard of the term before. However, the elderly Taoist master in front of him did not look like someone who would use the Internet, much less use Internet slang.
“Fellow Cultivator Tang, my senior brother is a lot more trendy than me! He frequents social media websites and is a famous blogger!” Taoist Master Chang Qing said.
Tang Hao was the one to be taken aback this time.
“Bet you didn’t expect that, kid!” Shabby Taoist Master smiled. He looked awfully proud of himself.
“Ahem! Alright, let me briefly explain the situation at Corpse Cave.
“In our preliminary investigations, Corpse Cave should originate from the Ming dynasty. It’s at a place where negative qi gathers, and there are negativity seal formations around the cave. It is a place of great blight.
“We only managed to scout a short distance into the cave before we were attacked by dumplings and had to escape. We don’t know the layout of the cave’s interior, and we don’t know how many dumplings are waiting for us within.
“The ones that attacked us were white zombies and green zombies. There were roughly a dozen green zombies and we barely made it out of the cave.”
As he spoke, Shabby Taoist Master’s expression became grim.
“Green zombies are still within our capabilities. I’m just afraid that in this big Corpse Cave, there will be a hairy zombie. That’s why I looked for help.
“With you in the party, I believe that the three of us should be able to handle a hairy zombie.”
Tang Hao nodded when he heard that.
Hairy zombies are a powerful type of zombie. A typical hairy zombie’s power was equivalent to a cultivator in the late period of the State of Qi Channeling. Certain unique hairy zombies were even as powerful as masters of the State of Foundation Establishment.
With only two Taoist masters, their odds of winning against a hairy zombie were slim.
“Right, I’ve heard from Junior Brother Chang Qing that you know how to craft jade talismans?” Shabby Taoist Master said, sounding rather surprised.
“I know a little!” Tang Hao said.
“That’s incredible. With the decline of the cultivation world, there aren’t many people alive that know how to craft potions or talismans. Quick, let me see how many talismans you brought.”
Tang Hao opened his backpack and retrieved a huge bag of jade talismans.
Upon seeing the bag of jade talismans, Shabby Taoist Master trembled with excitement. His eyes were sparkling.
“Oh my god! That’s a lot of jade talismans! No…. Wait, what are those talismans? I’ve never seen them before. The runes on the talismans are all weird too,” Shabby Taoist Master picked up a talisman and furrowed his brows when he took a closer look.
“That’s the Talisman of Righteous Lightning!” Tang Hao explained.
Shabby Taoist Master gave it a close examination and said, “Kid, looks like your chance encounter was indeed fortuitous!”
He thought of something, then continued, “Kid, do you want to sell these goodies? You can sell more of them to me! How about that?
“Five thousand yuan per talisman, no, no… How about ten thousand yuan? Hm, that seems too cheap. Thirty thousand yuan then. Thirty thousand yuan per talisman sounds good, right?”
“Alright! Next time then! You can take these for now,” Tang Hao passed the two people the jade talismans as he spoke.
“Oh my! These are rare items!”
The two Taoist masters looked incredibly excited as they clutched the ten or so jade talismans in their hands as though they were treasure.
About ten or twenty minutes later, the car stopped at some level ground on the mountain range.
Then, the three people got out of the car and went into the mountains on foot.
The surroundings were deathly silent. An aura of negativity permeated the area.
Tang Hao channeled qi into his eyes and opened his third eye. He could see negative qi permeating the mountains like thick black smoke.
They reached the cave after half an hour of walking.
The cave was flat against the mountain wall and was pitch-black. The intensity of negative qi pouring out from the cave was shocking.
“That’s it!” Shabby Taoist Master pointed at the cave.
Then, holding his peach wood sword in one hand and a stack of yellow paper talismans in the other, he led the way in. (TN: Swords made out of peach wood are the Taoist master’s weapon of choice for performing exorcisms.)
The temperature abruptly dropped once they stepped into the cave.
The three of them walked along the narrow cave. Suddenly, they heard something in front of them.
Then, in the darkness, they saw blood-red lights. Those were the glowing eyes of the zombies.
“They’re here!” Shabby Taoist Master roared, then jumped into battle with the white zombies.
Tang Hao scanned the area and estimated that there were thirty to forty white zombies. They all emanated a terrible corpse stench.
He walked ahead and flicked his wrist. A jade talisman flew out from his hand.
Boom!
The jade talisman exploded, burning a white zombie into ashes.
White zombies were the weakest type of zombie. They were afraid of light and fire and were very easy to defeat.
Talismans flew from the cultivators’ hands and they soon eradicated the horde of white zombies. The three cultivators joined forces and, with some effort, cleared the cave of green zombies as well.