Chapter 7: Stealing the Spirit Herb Thief

At that moment, Wang Qingyun arrived with more than a dozen young men. Each of them carried a wooden bucket filled with black dog blood.

"Ninth Uncle, are you alright?" Wang Qingyun asked with concern.

Wang Changsheng shook his head. "I'm fine. The ghost has been destroyed. Who used to live in this house?"

"It belonged to a merchant named Yang," Wang Qingyun replied. "He kept a mistress here, but she died of illness over a decade ago. Since then, Mr. Yang never returned, and the house has been vacant ever since."

One of the young men raised an eyebrow, sniffed a few times, and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "It stinks! What could possibly smell this bad?"

Hearing this, Wang Changsheng also detected the foul odor, which was emanating from the well.

After lifting the stone covering the well, and with the aid of a torch, everyone saw a female corpse in the well water.

"Xiao Feng must have been murdered and then thrown into the well," Wang Changsheng instructed. "Qingyun, tomorrow morning, send people to retrieve the body and burn it. Also, demolish all the buildings in this courtyard. If the original owner returns, compensate him at the original price."

"Ninth Uncle, should we seal this well?"

"Seal it," Wang Changsheng replied. "First, burn it with lychee wood. Also, conduct a thorough check: no one is permitted to plant pagoda trees, poplars, willows, mulberries, or chinaberry trees in their homes. If any are found, cut them down immediately. Oh, and after demolishing the buildings, plant a few peach trees in the courtyard and have people water them regularly. By the time the peach trees bear fruit, the lingering yin energy should have largely dissipated."

Wang Qingyun nodded. "Yes, Ninth Uncle. Your nephew will take care of it tomorrow. It's getting late, Ninth Uncle. You should go back and rest. I can handle things here."

Wang Changsheng didn't object. After giving a few instructions, he departed.

The next morning, after breakfast, Wang Changsheng, led by Wang Qiuxian, inspected every household. Only after confirming there were no areas with strong yin energy did Wang Changsheng feel at ease.

At noon, Wang Qingyun, along with several clan elders, personally saw Wang Changsheng and Wang Qiusheng out of Wang Family Town.

"Qiusheng, you should return to Lotus Island first," Wang Changsheng instructed. "I still have some matters to attend to, so I'll be back later."

"Yes, Great-Uncle Ninth!" Wang Qiusheng replied obediently.

After Wang Qiusheng had gone far, Wang Changsheng's lips moved slightly. A white cloud spontaneously formed beneath his feet, lifting him into the air and carrying him away into the distance.

Less than half an hour later, Wang Changsheng appeared above a desolate mountain range.

He changed his incantation, and the white cloud slowly descended into a narrow valley.

Not far from the valley was a cave entrance, slightly taller than a man and wide enough for two, which appeared unremarkable.

After walking over a hundred zhang, the path suddenly opened up, revealing a cavern about a hundred zhang in size before Wang Changsheng.

The cavern was unremarkable, with not a blade of grass growing within it.

Wang Changsheng approached a somewhat smooth stone wall, placed his hands upon it, and began to chant. After a moment, his hands emitted a yellow glow.

An astonishing sight unfolded: large quantities of mud and sand began to fall from the stone wall.

Soon, an opening just wide enough for one person appeared before him.

Wang Changsheng proceeded through the narrow opening into a grotto about ten zhang in size.

When Wang Changsheng first arrived in Ping'an County, he found the sparse spiritual energy on Lotus Island unbearable and sought a place with relatively abundant spiritual energy. To that end, he traveled throughout the mountains of Ping'an County and fortuitously discovered this cave. Inside, there was a small section of a spiritual vein, barely two zhang in size, and its spiritual energy was somewhat faint, making it barely suitable for cultivation.

In fact, the Wang family had already thoroughly explored the three counties they controlled, but had found nothing of significance.

Wang Changsheng's discovery of this spiritual vein was purely accidental. The grotto where this segment of spiritual vein was located was separated from the main cave by a wall. While practicing spells inside the cave, Wang Changsheng inadvertently broke through the wall, thereby uncovering this spiritual vein.

Ever since discovering this section of spiritual vein in the cave, Wang Changsheng would use his magic tools to cleave open any other caves he encountered, but he never found anything similar.

The spiritual vein, being only two zhang in size, was too small, dark, and lacked light, making it unsuitable for cultivating spiritual grains.

Instead, Wang Changsheng planted over twenty stalks of Black Moon Grass. Black Moon Grass typically grows in damp, dark caves, and five-year-old Black Moon Grass is a material used for making blank talismans. The Wang family cultivated a significant amount of it.

The grotto's environment wasn't particularly damp, but Wang Changsheng had deliberately dug a pond about three or four zhang in size to create a humid atmosphere.

Every month, Wang Changsheng would come here to water the Black Moon Grass.

This time, as Wang Changsheng stepped into the grotto, the smile on his face froze.

The over twenty stalks of Black Moon Grass were gone, and the water in the pond had vanished too.

For three years, the water in the pond had never dried up. It was impossible for the pond to become dry after just one month of his absence.

Wang Changsheng quickly approached the pond and carefully noticed a watermelon-sized hole at its bottom.

Clearly, the water in the pond had drained away through this hole.

Seeing the hole, Wang Changsheng frowned deeply.

When he first built the pond, he had used a petrification spell to turn the soil into stone. Logically, a hole shouldn't have appeared. There was only one possibility: an animal had dug through the pond, the water had drained away, and then that animal had eaten the Black Moon Grass.

The thought made Wang Changsheng wince; three years of hard work had simply gone to waste.

After some thought, he decided to catch the animal that had stolen and eaten the Black Moon Grass and kill it to vent his frustration.

Wang Changsheng pulled a cloth pouch from his pocket, opened it, and placed two flatbreads on the ground.

He began to chant, and soon, a dazzling blue light enveloped his body. His form blurred, and he vanished.

Over half an hour later, a slightly plump yellow mouse emerged from the hole in the pond.

Unlike a common mouse, this one had a longer nose and a plump body.

It sniffed the air a few times with its nose, then quickly scurried out of the pond and pounced on the flatbreads.

Just as it was nibbling on the flatbreads, Wang Changsheng reappeared.

With a flick of his hand, a golden light shot forth.

As Wang Changsheng was positioned behind the yellow mouse, it did not notice him.

The golden light quickly circled the yellow mouse several times, binding it tightly.

The yellow mouse squeaked loudly, struggling to break free.

"I didn't expect it to be a first-rank low-grade demonic mouse," Wang Changsheng said, a look of delight on his face. "No wonder it could dig through stone."

The yellow mouse emitted faint spiritual energy fluctuations, which would have been imperceptible to anyone who wasn't a cultivator like Wang Changsheng.

But given the sparse spiritual energy here, how could a demonic mouse appear?

Could an ordinary mouse have become a demonic mouse by eating the Black Moon Grass? While over twenty stalks of Black Moon Grass isn't a small number, these were only three-year-old plants, containing limited spiritual energy. It seemed unlikely that an ordinary mouse consuming them would be enough to elevate it to a demonic mouse.

Could it be that there's a larger spiritual vein here, and this demonic mouse's lair happened to be within its vicinity, allowing it to gradually evolve into a demonic mouse over time?

Wang Changsheng pondered for a moment, then dismissed this possibility. If ordinary mice could so easily become demonic mice, his clan would have long since bred and sold a large number of spiritual mice.

Even though spiritual mice are the lowest-tier spiritual beasts, they are still spiritual beasts and could fetch at least dozens of spirit stones.

It seemed this spiritual beast must have encountered some unknown opportunity to have fortuitously ascended to a demonic mouse.

"Squeak, squeak!"

The yellow mouse let out a series of strange squeaks, seemingly protesting Wang Changsheng's act of binding it.

"You ate the spiritual herbs I cultivated, and now you expect me to release you?" Wang Changsheng said with a light chuckle. "From now on, you'll be my spiritual beast!"

Although it was only a first-rank low-grade demonic mouse, if sold at the market, it would still be worth at least dozens of spirit stones. However, compared to the value of the over twenty stalks of Black Moon Grass, Wang Changsheng was still at a loss.