Spirit Hunters of Maoshan Sect

The village head explained, “Sometimes the town municipal representatives come here for their work trips, and they stay here for the night . Otherwise, nobody stays here, but we clean it every day . ”

Ye Shaoyang nodded, “So be it . ”

The village head arranged for some men to tidy up the place and changed the bedsheets . Before he left, he told the only staff in the guest house, Miss Wu Mei, to make them feel welcome and ensure their pleasant and comfortable stay .

The trio got the best rooms in the guest house . Each room was equipped with a solar water heater . After Ye Shaoyang bathed and changed clothes, he went to the common area and found Xiao Ma and Zhou Jingru there too . Xiao Ma was reading the “Handbook of Maoshan Runes and Incantation” .

Ye Shaoyang was curious to see such a rare sight, “Why so serious?”

“After slaying that thousand-year-old demon, my heart is on fire now! I wanna learn sorcery so badly and become a heavenly master . Don’t mind me though, pretend I’m not here . Just go on with the courtship . ”

Zhou Jingru immediately blushed .

Ye Shaoyang laughed it off as he took out a few gold taels and placed them on the table, “Should I also pretend like you are not here to share this too?”

Xiao Ma’s eyes widened . He was surprised by what he saw . He almost screamed in excitement . He held them in both hands to weigh them and yelled, “These are real gold taels!”

“Of course, they are!” Ye Shaoyang then took out the rest of the gold taels and set them on the table . There were thirteen of them .

Xiao Ma weighed each of the gold tael in his hand .

“Each one weighs around two Liang, and each gram is worth around three hundred Yuan . Hmm, let me do the math… Each of this is worth twenty thousand Yuan! So, with all these, you could easily get more than two hundred thousand! Holy sh*t! Little Ye, you are a rich bastard now!”

[TL note: Liang is a unit of measurement for mass in China . One Liang is equivalent to 31 . 2 grams . ]

Zhou Jingru was not impressed by the gold . She frowned, “Brother Shaoyang, where did you get all these?”

Ye Shaoyang recounted the story of the river spirit he encountered, “The creature was a river spirit formed by the poisonous vapor of water in the underworld . It is quite capable in water and a pain in the ass . Luckily, I bound her with a formation, so she can’t get out of the water . Otherwise, she might go on a killing spree . ”

Ye Shaoyang then paused his story . He took out his phone and called Old Guo . He wanted Old Guo to come and meet the trio as soon as he could to discuss some matters . As Ye Shaoyang put down his phone, he noticed that Xiao Ma was collecting the gold taels into his bag . Ye Shaoyang immediately took the bag from Xiao Ma .

Caught redhanded, Xiao Ma’s face turned red as he tried to explain, “Oops! Finders keepers . We found these, so let’s share these equally among us . ”

“You wish! I need these for our next move . ” Ye Shaoyang explained, “I need Old Guo to build sorcerer’s weapons, and I need gold for that . I guess it will take eight or nine of these to create the weapons . Then, we will have to give one gold tael to him as payment . See, there won’t be many left after this . You’ll get one and Jingru…”

Ye Shaoyang shook his head and sheepishly smiled as he corrected himself, “Forget it, this gold is peanuts to Jingru . ”

Xiao Ma immediately grabbed one of the gold taels and bagged it . He frowned reluctantly, “What kind of sorcerer’s weapon is that? Why does it have to be made of gold?”

“Gold is one of the five elements . Gold gives rise to Water, thus it can create a barrier in the water . Since the creature is a river spirit, a golden ritual tool will be the best choice to capture her . ”

Zhou Jingru offered, “That’s easy . How much more gold do you need? Just tell me and consider it done . ”

Ye Shaoyang declined, “I already have gold here, don’t I? These are windfalls anyway . I’m happy enough to keep just a small part . The rest will be used to create the ritual tool . ”

Zhou Jingru unhappily complained, “You never let me help!”

Ye Shaoyang gave in, “Well then, maybe you can help me with manpower . I need a dozen of laborers . Also, get me a big boat, some lime powder and realgar in the ratio of three to one . Fill the boat with as much of those materials as you can . ”

Zhou Jingru nodded and smiled in satisfaction, “That’s more like it!”

Ye Shaoyang was speechless . It had to be some kind of rich person’s disease . How could she be happy when people spent her money?

Zhou Jingru quickly made a phone call to her purchasing department and arranged for the items to be sent to them . She then told Ye Shaoyang, “Some items take longer time to be delivered . It will all be ready by evening . ”

“Sure, we are not in a hurry . There are other things we need to prepare too . ”

Ye Shaoayang took a quick glance at his phone . It was almost noon, so Ye Shaoyang decided that they should have their lunch before they set out .

Upon stepping out of the room, the trio could smell food . They peeked into the kitchen . A few women were in the kitchen preparing lunch .

A young girl with a pretty smile held a knife in her hand . She slew a chicken for the meal . Judging by her movements, she was experienced at it .

Xiao Ma smiled as he looked at the girl, “Little Ye, look at the girl . Doesn’t she look a little like Xie Yuqing?”

The young girl heard Xiao Ma’s voice, so she looked up and waved at them with the knife in her hand .

“Are you guys hungry already? Lunch will be ready in a while . Have some fruit while waiting . ”

The trio stepped into the dining room as the girl served up a big plate of fruit to them . It was filled with all sorts of fruit, most of which the trio had never seen before .

“These are all wild fruits we picked fresh from the hill . They taste great . Try some!” The young girl generously offered with a big smile on her face . It was a sincere smile . Compared to the smiles of waitresses in the city, her smile was much more comforting .

“These fruits are not poisonous, are they?” Xiao Ma had never seen these fruit before, so he was a little worried .

The young girl assured, “Don’t worry; it’s safe . In fact, the wild boars in the hills only eat these fruit . If the pigs can eat these, I’m sure you can too . ”

Zhou Jingru burst into laughter upon hearing this .

Xiao Ma mumbled, “It’s weird that you put it that way . ”

However, upon tasting the fruits, Xiao Ma immediately fell in love . The fruits tasted amazing . They were juicy and succulent! Before long, the trio found out more about the young girl . Her name was Wu Mei and she was a local village girl . She was the only one taking care of the guesthouse . Her job was mainly to keep the place clean and prepare meals for guests .

“Usually, I’m the only one here, but today, the village head specifically arranged for some women to help me out . He wanted to make sure you guys were comfortable . I need to prepare lunch now . You guys go ahead and enjoy the fruit . ”

Once Wu Mei left, the trio tried the fruit laid in front of them . While some fruits tasted fine, others were extraordinarily good, and they soon agreed that it was a rare experience for all of them .

Half an hour passed and the lunch was finally ready . Most of the dishes were local dishes that the trio had never tried before .

Wu Mei opened a bottle of locally-brewed liquor and poured glasses for the trio .

Then, she introduced the dishes, “These are our wild-mushrooms; it complements our stewed chicken the best . This is our home-grown land fungus . It grows on the ground after rain . This is actually marinated, and it tastes even better . This is local badger’s meat . You must try it . ”

Ye Shaoyang tasted the meat . True enough, it tasted good . So he asked, “What did you say just now? What type of meat is this?”

Wu Mei patiently explained, ”Badger . It’s a kind of animal . It looks like a mixture of a dog and a pig . It is said that badger’s fat is a good medicine for all kind of wounds . We process it into ointment and apply it to wounds . However, badgers have become rare lately . We have only been able to catch one or two per year . My brother caught this badger last month . We smoked the meat so that we could keep it for guests . You guys are really lucky to be able to taste it . ”