The Invincible Female Ghost Is A Bit Of A Hopeless Romantic Chapter 257: I Pass This Road Today, I Will Not Tread on Nam

"Earlier?" Zhou Heng blinked in surprise.

Lu Yuan did not turn back, he only said coolly,

"Last night we tore down the outer altar."

"But on this mountain trail, soone had already tampered with the offerings long ago."

"These few blades of grass, this bit of incense ash — this is not a newly set trap, it's an old formation resurfacing."

Lin Zhaoxuan's expression also grew serious:

"An old formation resurfacing ans the traces of feeding inside aren't just in one place?"

"Right."

Lu Yuan lifted his eyes and looked deeper down the mountain path toward the light:

"This place isn't a makeshift evil altar."

"It was cultivated slowly."

"Soone left guides on the road, soone set up altars in the valley, soone deeper in consus the offerings."

"What we broke last night was only the outermost threshold."

At those words, everyone felt as if sothing had gently pressed down on their chests.

Lu Yuan, however, did not elaborate. He simply reached into his chest and took out three Yellow Talismans, handing them to Lin Zhaoxuan, Zhou Heng, and Song Qinghe.

"Take one each."

"I'll teach you a road-stomping formula."

"When you et these guiding grasses, returning winds, or shadowed forks, don't try to brute-force your way through. First, suppress your heart and qi."

After he spoke, he stood by the pines, placing his feet squarely, left hand forming a seal, right hand with three fingers together, pressing lightly in the air as he began to chant:

"Heaven clear, Earth calm, on lone mountain road spirits halt."

"Grass draws, mist forms, do not mistake the real from the false at either mouth."

"Left not skewed, right not startled, heart like stone, feet like nails."

"Urgently, urgently, as by the law's command, protect the body."

The formula was short, but ticulous.

The first three lines suppress the heart, the next two stabilize the feet, and only afterward does it quell the illusory scene before one's eyes so the road suppression doesn't drag one away.

Beyond the Great Wall in the Republican era, people who traveled mountain night roads often heard old Taoist priests pass down such short formulas,

not to exorcise demons, but simply to preserve one's life.

When you truly encounter mountain mists, forked roads, or spinning winds, you must first steady the person before anything else can be done.

When Lu Yuan finished reciting, he had the three of them mimic his stance once more,

"Left palm facing inward, right hand three fingers together."

"Pull qi up from the feet, don't hold it in."

"Don't stare at those few blades of grass, look to the road's end, listen to the wind."

Zhou Heng learned the slowest, but he was the most obedient. He practiced for a long ti and couldn't help muttering,

"Does this thing actually work?"

Lu Yuan said in a flat voice,

"Whether it works or not, you must first believe it."

"Road suppression preys on those who hesitate."

"The mont you hesitate, it gains half a step."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the mountain wind suddenly twirled through the pine grove.

The little whirl wasn't large, but it happened to pass over those guiding blades of grass. The stalks trembled and bent together to the left.

At the sa ti, the fog in the woods seed to be pulled by an invisible thread, slowly flowing toward the hollow on the right.

If Lu Yuan had not warned them first, ordinary people would, nine tis out of ten, have been misled by that sight.

Zhou Heng sucked in a cold breath and couldn't help cursing:

"That really damn well draws people in!"

Lu Yuan said nothing. He flicked a small copper coin from his sleeve, pinched it between his fingers, and snapped it.

The coin made a clear "ting" as it landed just in front of the grass stalks.

That faint sound seed to shatter sothing unseen.

The mountain wind stalled at once, and the skewed pull that had been moving along the grass suddenly dispersed halfway.

The faint scent of incense ash by the pines also eased.

Song Qinghe watched closely and whispered,

"You broke it?"

Lu Yuan retracted his hand:

"Just made it reveal itself."

"Small formations like this don't need to be forcibly torn apart."

"They rely on old qi to maintain. When the wind shifts, the road leans, the heart panics, they take shape."

"When the heart steadies, half of them dissipate."

He squatted down, picked up the copper coin from the ground.

On the side of the coin that had been facing the earth, a faint dusting of extrely fine black flecks clung to it, as if shaken out from beneath the soil.

Lu Yuan's aura tightened minutely as he looked at the black specks.

The flecks were fine, like ash, and like bone dust.

He did not reveal this imdiately; he flipped the coin over and tucked it into his sleeve.

Seeing this, Zhou Heng couldn't help asking:

"What is that?"

Lu Yuan stood and said lightly,

"Not a good thing."

"But not sothing to chase tonight."

"Rember it for now."

When he said that, everyone realized this was no trivial matter, but also understood this was not the ti to dig deeper.

This mountain road already connected to a shrine feeding the Malevolent Deity; the grass, incense ash, and the tiny black flecks that looked like bone dust were seemingly a minor puzzle,

but in truth they were likely a trailing thread of the evil supply's essence leaking from deeper within.

If they pursued it now, they might not find the root, and could instead alert whatever was hidden.

Lu Yuan put aside the matter of the black flecks and looked around at the terrain.

"There are other things on this road."

"Not just one spot of guiding grass."

Lin Zhaoxuan frowned:

"You an there are similar formations ahead?"

Lu Yuan nodded,

"Yes."

"And the thods used are old, not so newly learned offshoot."

"It looks like soone mixed old mountain rules, road rules, and funeral rules together, weaving them into a dark line."

"Those who walk this road, if they don't understand mountain thods, are easily led to see things they shouldn't."

Song Qinghe followed his gaze to the distance, her brows knitting tighter:

"Doesn't that an the deeper we go, the closer we get to the actual feeding site's road-eye?"

Lu Yuan nodded slightly:

"Eighty to ninety percent likely."

"These few stalks don't block people, they tell later travelers which path leads to offerings and which shows the malice."

"The true feeding spot fears outsiders wandering in, so it first leaves these harmless-appearing illusions on the road."

"They seem small, but they filter people."

Hearing this, Zhou Heng clicked his tongue:

"Then we'll really have to step forward carefully, one life at a ti."

Lu Yuan did not deny it.

He only looked up at the sky.

The morning mist had mostly scattered; the ridges of distant mountains showed cold, hard outlines in the pale light, like layers of pressed black iron.

The wind from beyond the Great Wall blew down along the ridgeline. It no longer carried the slimy chill of last night. It was dry, hard, and sharp, like the spine of a blade scraping stone.

Lu Yuan suddenly said,

"Rember this place."

"These few grasses, this bit of incense ash, and that smattering of black flecks."

"They're not aid at us, they're aid at those behind us."

"If we can truly pull the thing out from inside and then return here, perhaps we can follow this line deeper to reach the root."

He said no more, committing the positions of the guiding grasses to mory, then led the three deeper into the mountain.

Once the path entered the pines, the light seed to be layered over with old cotton, as if soone had plastered the daylight. Though it was dayti, the scene felt dingy and grey.

The trees on either side grew tall and their branches interlaced, casting the trail in a patchwork of shadow. Moss underfoot was slick with morning dew; one misstep could send a person sprawling.

Zhou Heng walked at the rear, cautious with every step, and couldn't help whispering,

"Daoist Lu, where are we heading?"

"Why does it feel like we're getting into the belly of the mountain?"

Lu Yuan did not look back, he replied,

"Not the belly of the mountain."

"We're burrowing toward the mountain-eye."

At that, the back of Zhou Heng's neck broke out in gooseflesh.

What elders ant by "mountain-eye" varied: so said it was an air mouth of the mountain, so a choke point on earth veins,

others said it was a place where yin and yang inverted.

In any case, when you encountered such terrain you had to be three tis more careful when walking than usual.

A small misstep and you could be diverted by wind, fog, road, or shadow and lose your spirit and focus.

Lu Yuan walked ahead at an unhurried pace, but every step was planted with absolute steadiness.

He stopped from ti to ti, squatted to examine the soil color, ran his fingers over the stone grain, pinched a drop of dew from a leaf; his actions were slow, but his mind was extrely calm.

After watching for so ti, Lin Zhaoxuan could no longer restrain himself and asked,

"What are you looking for?"

"Can you really read the road?"

Lu Yuan rose, flicked the bit of soil from his fingertip, and said quietly,

"Reading the road's qi."

"Mountain roads aren't dead."

"Where people walk often, they leave human vitality."

"Where many die, they attach malevolent energy."

"If there are offerings, altars, and incense feeding them, a layer of yin skin grows under the road."

"To the eye it's an earthen path, but underfoot you may be stepping on another layer of road."

Song Qinghe listened with a tight expression and hugged the sealing plate closer.

Lu Yuan, as if sensing her thought, added calmly,

"Don't be afraid."

"This road hasn't completely flipped yet."

"Soone has only tamped the old qi down under it."

With that, he signaled for them to stop.

A short distance ahead there was a small hollow in the mountain.

It wasn't deep — three sides ringed by rock with only a narrow mouth to enter.

From afar it looked like a little clearing naturally squeezed out of the forest,

but as you approached you noticed it was unnaturally quiet, even insect sounds were noticeably fewer.

Lu Yuan paused at the spot, his gaze darkening.

"We're here."

Zhou Heng was stunned:

"This is it?"

"The feeding site is here?"

Lu Yuan shook his head:

"Not the main point."

"This is just an entrance-field."

Lin Zhaoxuan frowned:

"Entrance-field?"

"What do you an?"

Lu Yuan looked ahead and said,

"It ans it first lures people to this spot."

"This place doesn't feed the deity, doesn't offer to the malice, doesn't light the main incense."

"It only does one thing — it collects feet."

As he spoke he tapped the ground lightly with his foot.

The tap wasn't heavy, yet the ground answered with a dull thud, as if there were a cavity beneath.

Everyone's faces changed.

Lu Yuan pointed forward:

"Look at the stone crevice."

They followed his finger. In the joint on the left side of the hollow's entrance lay a short, broken incense stub pressed into the seam.

The incense stub had burned black and was coated with a fine, dark ash. If one wasn't looking carefully it was hard to spot.

At the right root of a rock a half-yellowed corner of paper was slantwise inserted, and on the edge could be seen a faded red stripe, like a talisman or a banner edge.

Song Qinghe's face drained:

"This is... burned from nights ago?"

Lu Yuan squatted and stared at the broken incense two tis over:

"Not last night."

"It's been years."

"The burn mouth is dead cold, yet old oil still remains in the incense core."

"This is a 'foot-pressing incense'."

Zhou Heng was baffled:

"What's a foot-pressing incense?"

Lu Yuan held his hand above the broken incense, as if avoiding sothing and at the sa ti testing the qi, and said softly,

"An old mountain thod."

"So places, to preserve offerings and prevent passersby from stumbling in by mistake, will stuff incense, press paper, bury ash, and snap off wicks at the entrance."

"The incense stubs aren't lit openly, the paper is incomplete. The aning is to tell passersby: this place is unclean, don't step inside."

"But the real thod isn't here."

He paused, glancing deeper into the mountain hollow.

"The real thod is this qi."

"When the entrance-field opens, the qi itself walks inward."

"If a person doesn't see it, they will feel the place cold, quiet, and hollow underfoot, and then instinctively want to avoid it."

"But if you avoid it, you step right into its path."

Lin Zhaoxuan stared at the clearing, suddenly understanding:

"This doesn't block people from entering, it blocks them from leaving?"

Lu Yuan nodded.

"This is the most insidious part of such formations."

"When you enter it, it doesn't rush to consu you, it simply makes you uncomfortable."

"When you think of turning back, the road underfoot begins to change."

Zhou Heng drew a sharp breath:

"It even damn well changes the road?"

Lu Yuan said calmly,

"Mountain roads do change."

"Not that the road changes, but when people's hearts change, the road they see changes."

He pulled a piece of Red Cord from his army-green satchel and tied it casually to a low branch nearby.

The red cord was tied neither tight nor loose; its tail dangled, pointing directly at the hollow's entrance.

Then Lu Yuan took the copper coin he had found earlier from his sleeve and held it in his palm.

The fine black flecks at its edge were still present, like bone dust lodged in dead ash.

His eyes darkened slightly. He rubbed the back of the coin with his fingertip and then murmured a very short road-suppressing incantation:

"The road has road-gods, the mountain has mountain bans."

"Incense will not blind the eye, mist will not seal the heart."

"Do not rashly enter ahead, do not rashly retreat behind."

"Urgently, urgently, as by the law's command, steady."

His voice was not loud, but it landed in the empty mountain like a nail.

As the sound fell, that vague feeling of hollow emptiness eased a bit.

Zhou Heng couldn't help but gape:

"That's enough?"

Lu Yuan stood:

"Only enough to press down its illusory head."

"To truly break it, we must go further inside."

No sooner had he said this than a thin wisp of smoke floated up from the depths of the hollow!

It wasn't wood smoke, nor cooking smoke, nor the harsh nasal sting of burnt paper.

It was an extrely thin, straight white line, as if slowly pushing out from the earth.

It didn't disperse; instead, it tapered as it rose and at mid-air bent slightly.

It was as if an invisible hand had beckoned sothing deeper into the hollow.

Song Qinghe's face imdiately changed:

"What is that?"

Lu Yuan's expression grew serious.

"Incense-thread smoke."

"Soone is tending a fire inside."

Hearing that, Zhou Heng tensed:

"There's still soone in there?"

Lu Yuan said,

"Not necessarily a person."

"Could be so thing."

He paused, then added,

"The guiding grass just now only showed us the illusion outside the road."

"Now this wisp of smoke has leaked the true altar's qi to us."

"It seems we've found the right place."

Lin Zhaoxuan slipped his hand into his sleeve and gripped the damaged Thunderclap Token, asking quietly,

"Should we lay out a formation first?"

Lu Yuan shook his head,

"This place doesn't suit a large formation."

"The mountain is narrow, wind mouths chaotic, earth qi weak. If we plant a formation, it could easily be borrowed by the thing."

"Probe first, then break."

With that he stepped the three of them back half a pace and walked alone to the hollow's mouth.

He first placed an extrely light step: left toe touched, right heel pressed lightly, his body seeming to float above the ground.

Then he brought his hands together at chest level, fingers slightly spread, thumbs facing, palms near but not touching, forming a very standard Daoist opening posture.

At that movent, his qi settled completely.

Even an outsider like Zhou Heng could see this was no casual gesture;

Lu Yuan had gathered his force, intent, and spirit into a very small range.

He began to speak, his voice low and steady, pushed out from deep in his throat:

"Heavenly Banquet, Heavenly Strategy, Winged Sage, Black Tortoise, four saints lend their sight."

"Under the Three Pure Ones, the Nine Heavens respond and transform, guard my form."

"Seal the seven orifices above, descend to the two passes below."

"Left repel the yin wind, right block the evil smoke."

"One qi returns to the origin, a hundred impurities cannot advance."

"I now pass this road, I will not tread on naless malice."

"I now question the altar, I will not startle the hidden souls."

"Urgently, urgently, as by the law's command, open."