Chapter 38: Legends and Facts Often Deviate

After offering tribute to the mountain god, Qi Wu quickly gathered with everyone.

Soaked from head to toe, the cold wind made everyone shiver.

"We'll get sick if this continues."

The old hunter went to a corner, brought out a bundle of firewood, and grinned, revealing his large front teeth. "Sometimes we hunters take shelter from the rain here, so we left firewood in advance, waiting to use it today."

Qi Wu was overjoyed. "Many thanks, then."

The old hunter didn't mind. "It's nothing. Life in the mountains means we help each other out. Once the rain stops tomorrow, we'll just gather some more firewood to put back."

Everyone swiftly piled the firewood onto the fire pit. Qi Wu took out a fire talisman, lit a wooden branch, extended it into the dry wood, and gently blew and fanned it. The dry wood slowly caught fire.

Watching the flames rise and feeling their warmth, someone let out a long sigh of relief.

"Finally, I feel alive again."

"Brother Qi, do you want a yellow millet cake or a white rice cake?"

"How about one of each?"

One person distributed the dry rations. After receiving them, everyone placed their rations by the fire to toast.

Once fragrant, Ah Yue took out a jar of pickled vegetables, which everyone spread on their cakes. A bite delivered a mouthful of savory delight.

"Ah Yue's pickled vegetable making skills are really good. If you ask me, Ah Yue, why don't you open a pickled vegetable shop instead of following us merchants?"

Ah Yue smiled and said nothing.

Remembering the previous scene, Qi Wu asked, "Old Sun, why did you ask Ah Yue if he had been pushed down earlier?"

Qi Wu and his group were entering the mountains for the first time. They wanted to cross the mountain range to sell their goods in Qinghuai County on the other side. They had searched for a long time and finally found a local old hunter to guide them.

The old hunter's expression was grim. "Have you ever heard of a *chang* ghost?"

Qi Wu and the others looked serious. Having traveled widely, they naturally knew about some ghostly matters. One of them even spoke loudly, "Are you talking about a *chang* ghost, one who serves as an accomplice to a tiger?"

The old hunter nodded and said in a low voice, "This mountain is called Songshan. About ten years ago, a hunter went into the mountains to hunt and then disappeared, leaving only one shoe behind. At that time, some said that a tiger demon had come to the mountain and eaten the hunter."

"Initially, people were reluctant to believe it, thinking, 'How could a tiger demon appear when our families have lived here for generations?'"

"But as time passed, someone said that while hunting, their hounds barked frantically in one direction. When he looked in that direction, he froze in terror."

"It was a magnificent striped tiger, over four meters long. With a single leap, the fierce tiger pounced on the hounds. Seeing this, he turned and ran. Luckily, the tiger didn't chase him!"

"People also noticed that individuals disappeared from time to time, so they reported the situation to Qinghuai County. After learning about it, the officials there told me to go to Yanjiang County, saying that Songshan is closer to Yanjiang County, and we only sell our game there, so it should be under their jurisdiction."

"When I arrived in Yanjiang County, the officials there said that Songshan belongs to Qinghuai County and should be under Qinghuai County's jurisdiction."

"After a few back-and-forth arguments, both sides dispatched two cultivators to search for traces of the tiger demon in Songshan. They searched for ten consecutive days without finding even a single tiger hair. The two cultivators felt we had tricked them and wasted so much time. We explained that the tiger demon might be intentionally hiding from them, afraid to come out, but the two cultivators wouldn't listen to our explanation and left in a huff."

"We went to the local government again, but they no longer paid us any attention."

"We had no choice. Most people left Songshan to find a new livelihood, leaving only a few old folks like us who know nothing but hunting and stayed here."

"Later, we discovered that while hunting, we would encounter those missing travelers. These travelers were elusive, suddenly disappearing from your sight and then appearing again, pushing you."

"Sometimes when I brought people into the mountains, those travelers would pretend to meet us by chance and ask if they could join us since we were going the same way. How could I dare agree? I quickly took my group and left!"

"The older generation used to say that there's something in the world called a *chang* ghost. When a tiger demon kills someone, that person turns into a *chang* ghost, searching for prey for the tiger demon, luring people to a certain place, and turning the prey into new *chang* ghosts."

"However, dealing with *chang* ghosts is simple: as long as you refuse their requests, they won't do anything to you."

Qi Wu suddenly understood. Before, he had wondered why such a large forest would have so few hunters, and why the few they found lived together.

It turned out they were forced by the tiger demon.

Seeing Ah Yue's hesitation, Qi Wu asked, "Ah Yue, if you have any questions, just ask."

Ah Yue had initially felt too embarrassed to ask his question, but since his boss had said so, he no longer held back.

"I only have one question: are there female *chang* ghosts? Are they beautiful? Do they seduce men? Do they drain men's vital energy? Is it possible for me to have a forbidden romance with one, escaping the tiger demon's pursuit and wandering the martial world together?"

With each question Ah Yue asked, a question mark seemed to appear above everyone's heads, including the old hunter's.

Seeing their reactions, Ah Yue scratched his head sheepishly. "I've seen it written like that in novels, like 'A Chinese Ghost Story' and other human-ghost romance stories."

Qi Wu was silent for a moment, then patted Ah Yue's shoulder. "Read fewer books."

Then Qi Wu asked again, "Why didn't you, Old Sun, report this matter to the Five Great Immortal Sects? The Five Great Immortal Sects uphold righteousness and surely wouldn't stand idly by."

"The Five Great Immortal Sects?" The old hunter looked bewildered; he hadn't heard that name.

"They are five renowned orthodox sects like the Dao of Inquiry Sect and Hanging Temple, also the five most powerful sects on the entire continent."

"I think I've heard that name before," the old hunter said uncertainly, unsure where he might have heard it – perhaps in a teahouse down the mountain, or from travelers entering the mountains, or perhaps in his youth, or perhaps when he was older.

He couldn't quite recall.

In reality, common folk knew very little about cultivators, treating such stories as mere interesting gossip.

Moreover, orally transmitted stories are very prone to distortion; by the time they reach the ears of common people, they often differ greatly from the true events and cannot be trusted.

For example, Qi Wu had once heard that the Dao of Inquiry Sect was named so because it referred to the vastness of the immortal path and the idea of "inquiring of the heavens." It was also believed that cultivating immortality meant cultivating one's heart, constantly questioning what path one sought, whether it was the righteous path or the demonic path, and not losing one's original intention.

One time, Qi Wu met a disciple of the Dao of Inquiry Sect, whose name was apparently Dai Bufan. He asked him why the Dao of Inquiry Sect was named that, and Dai Bufan's answer remained clear in his memory to this day.

"Oh, you're asking about that? Well, I have to tell you about our sect's founding patriarch, the Xiantian Daoist. To find a geomantically auspicious location, our patriarch spent a fortune hiring people from the Heavenly Stratagem Sect to locate and calculate, finally finding an immortal land where the geomantic energies from all directions converged. They also said that for the sect to prosper long-term, it had to be established at a specific time and location."

"However, our patriarch was terrible with directions. Even though he had marked everything, he still got lost. He had no choice but to ask an old farmer by the roadside for directions, which is how he found the sect's location and didn't miss the auspicious timing."

"To thank the old farmer, our patriarch named the sect the Dao of Inquiry Sect."