I became an immortal in the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 63 Fishing for Ghosts on the Mountain Peak
After bidding farewell to the people on the boat, Jiang She looked towards the mountains and forests.

The forest was dense, and there were bears and wolves on the mountains, making travel both difficult and dangerous. The cat sniffed the various scents in the air, tilting its head back and looking around; everything was new and exciting to it.

There is a stone house on the mountain.

An old man in rough clothes was fishing on the mountaintop, holding a crude fishing rod in his hand. The clouds and mist swirled around him, obscuring everything. There was no way there could be any fish on the cliffs, yet he remained leisurely and content.

He hummed a song of praise to the mountains and fields.

"Work at sunrise, rest at sunset—"

"Dig wells for water, till the fields for food—"

"What use is imperial power to me!"

Jiang She sat down cross-legged beside him.

"The scenery here is beautiful."

The old man was startled, not knowing when someone had sat down beside him, appearing and disappearing without a trace, and holding an animal in their arms, all without his noticing.

Ask cautiously, "Who is the guest?"

"A hermit from the mountains of Sichuan," Jiang She said casually.

The old man tried to calm himself down, not knowing where this person came from or what he did for a living.

He thought for a while and asked:
"Since you're from Shu Prefecture, why have you come to such a far place?"

"We came here for sightseeing."

Seeing the old man's expression relax, Jiang She continued slowly.

"It's also to find out why cultivators would nurture spirits and bestow them upon mortals."

The old man suddenly stood up.

"Don't dare say that!"

Jiang She sat atop the mountain amidst the clouds and mist, gazing at the cliffs below, his tone leisurely.

"You can also explain to me why there are so many ghosts here. How many mortals and beasts have died and are being kept on the cliffs?"

"No rush, I have plenty of time, we can talk slowly."

In his line of sight, he could see more than a dozen ghostly figures that looked like wandering dreams.

There were elderly people, young women, teenagers, gaunt men, women, and clearly a family of husbands, wives, and children.

There are also wild dogs, rabbits, foxes, and jackals.

Their forms were ethereal, their eyes empty, devoid of consciousness; they were all ghosts.

The area below the cliff was littered with corpses.

The old man turned to flee, but felt as if his body was frozen, unable to lift even a finger.

This means you've met a master!
Why would you concern yourself with such a trivial matter?

His body went limp.

"Immortal, Immortal..."

"I didn't mean to do this. There are many bad people here. That scoundrel used to be a petty peddler, and that old bastard is disrespectful to his elders..."

As they were talking, Jiang She turned his head to the side.

"Someone's here."

Down the mountain.

A middle-aged Taoist priest was walking with two teenagers. Their clothes were flowing, unlike those of ordinary people. They walked very fast, reaching the mountainside from the foot of the mountain in just a quarter of an hour.

Among them, the footsteps seem to have the momentum of climbing clouds, and with a leap, one can glide and fly several feet away.

Some of them seem to be disciples of orthodox Taoist sects.

Jiang She asked, "Is that your junior?"

The old man was taken aback for a moment, then hurriedly replied, "Yes, yes."

"It just so happens that they came to visit you," Jiang She said, his voice flat as he looked down at the people below the mountain. The old man beside him seemed oblivious to the struggle of trying to escape.

After a while, the three of them reached the mountain peak. Unable to find the old man in the stone house, they searched all the way here.

The two young disciples, a boy and a girl, were still shouting:
"Master Uncle—"

"We've come to see you—"

"We've got some new stories from Luoyang, and we've brought them all this time so Uncle-Master won't get bored on the mountain. Sanshui, hurry and find them! Hey, why did you steal half a bag of the fried fish I bought for Uncle-Master—"

They started arguing again as they were talking.

Turning around from the stone house, I walked to the cliff and saw two people.

The two young disciples were suddenly taken aback.

He bowed respectfully, his eyes filled with undisguised curiosity: "And who are you?" Jiang She replied, "I am also a cultivator."

The middle-aged man standing to the side, unaware of the man's background, greeted him respectfully.

After bowing, the middle-aged man turned to look at the old man, frowning as if something was amiss.

"Senior brother?"

Jiang She asked, "Have you come to visit him?"

The middle-aged person said so.

Suspicion arose in his heart, and after thinking for a moment, he asked again, "What happened...?"

Jiang She reached out, retrieved the whistleblower from the gambling den, and handed it over: "Do you know what this is?"

The boy next to him glanced at it and blurted out, "It's a puppet!"

He muttered, "Why does it smell fishy..."

The middle-aged man was more knowledgeable. He saw a wooden puppet with its eyes open, its body bound with five-colored ropes, its brows furrowed, looking Jiang She up and down.

"Ears repay God."

"Where did you get such a thing?"

This is an evil thing, and as the middle-aged man spoke, he felt a chill.

"I'm afraid you'll have to ask your senior brother."

Jiang loosened his grip and released the restraints on the old man.

The old man immediately tried to flee. He took just one step and fell heavily to the ground.

The middle-aged man asked in surprise, "Senior brother?"

Seeing that he couldn't escape, the old man lifted his clothes, knelt on the ground, his body low and his back trembling.

He explained, "This isn't a human soul, just a fox, a beast, nothing more. Even if I hadn't caught it, it would have been caught and skinned by the hunters down the mountain sooner or later..."

"Please forgive me, Immortal."

The middle-aged man picked up the puppet, weighed it in his hand, and looked at the old man lying on the ground in astonishment.

"...Senior brother?"

After a few moments of pause, the middle-aged man had already made his decision.

He faced the river, his expression solemn, and bowed deeply.

The middle-aged man said in a deep voice, "My esteemed scholar, my senior brother has indeed done such sinister things. But he is not a human soul and has never gone astray."

"Please forgive his mistake, Your Excellency. Yunmeng Mountain will punish him severely and ensure he never repeats it!"

Jiang She shook his head.

He sighed and waved his hand to clear away the clouds and mist below the cliff.

He pointed and said, "Please look again."

Below the cliff, ghostly figures loomed, and a dozen or so vengeful spirits floated in the air, oblivious to everything, trying to climb upwards.

Their eyes were empty, all looking like they were about to die. Some had blood flowing from their mouths and noses, some were swollen and enormous, and some had blue faces and fangs. There were many ways they died.

The middle-aged man was momentarily distracted.

Jiang She said, "This should only be a part of it."

The middle-aged man stared at the ghost below, his lips pressed tightly together.

The old man kept kowtowing, prostrating himself on the ground, his voice trembling: "Many of these spirits are evil people. They have made mistakes in the past, and I only brought them here."

“The immortal is a virtuous person, and should understand the evils of the human world. Just like this scoundrel, he oppressed the good and treated them as lowly people in his life. Countless children died at his hands. Even according to the Tang law today, such an evil person should be hanged.”

"That strong man, who loved money more than life itself, willingly offered the souls of his wife and children to me in exchange for ten years of wealth and honor..."

"I merely sent them to their deaths prematurely!"

"This 'whispering spirit' only takes people's life essence; it does nothing else. On the contrary, it can bring wealth to the poor. I gave this to that porter, and he was very happy..."

Beside him, the middle-aged man remained silent.

Two young disciples gasped for breath as they looked down at the ghosts on the cliff below. They had visited this place a few times before, watching their master fish, but they never understood what he was fishing for, only considering it a pastime.

It was a fishing ghost...

They touched each other's arms, neither daring to speak. They watched their usually carefree senior brother kneel on the ground, pleading for his life, and felt a sense of helplessness and fear.

Jiang She looked at the three of them and asked.

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(End of this chapter)