Chapter 3 Honesty

Chapter 3 Honesty

Chapter 3 Honesty
On the old willow tree, the scholar ghost was silent and sullen.

Zhu Youcai is his name.

He was hanged here, his tongue sticking out about a foot long, and his face was as purple as pig liver. It would be strange if he looked good.

"Xiao Shi is not honest at all. He used my name to say that this woman is ugly."

He thought to himself, "But then again, although this woman doesn't look bad, she has a bad heart. I wonder if Xiao Shi can handle her?"

He was in a spirit state, and these people could neither see him nor hear his voice.

He was hanged here, and although he turned into a ghost, he could not leave the old tree and could not notify Chen Shi's grandfather.

"The porcelain dolls that Big Sister mentioned should be a group of tiny creatures that only appear in the evening, coming out of the bushes and whispering to each other."

Chen Shi listed them all, and said, "They talk fast and loudly, and it's hard to hear what they say. If people get close, they will hide in the bushes and you can't find them. After people leave, they will come out again. At dawn, they will disappear. Big sister is looking for them, right?"

He had indeed seen these porcelain dolls and often mingled with these little guys, so he was very familiar with them.

Upon hearing this, the purple-clothed woman and the men in flying fish uniforms nodded excitedly.

"My Lord, this little thing... My little brother described it so clearly, it must be nearby!"

The man in Feiyu uniform named Fang He laughed and said, "The rumors are indeed true. There is indeed a tomb of a true king here! Those porcelain dolls are the burial objects in the tomb that have become spirits! If we can get these treasures..."

The purple-clothed woman was angry, her almond-shaped eyes widened, and she glared at him fiercely.

Fang He was startled and quickly shut up.

The woman in purple glanced at Chen Shi and found that Chen Shi was confused. It was obvious that the country boy didn't know what a big tomb was or what a spirit was. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.

"Little brother, can you take us to the place where those porcelain dolls disappeared?" The purple-clothed woman said gently.

Chen Shi looked embarrassed: "My grandfather is still waiting for me to go back home for dinner..."

The purple-clothed woman chuckled and said, "Sister, I have some delicious food here. It's made from spirit beasts and exotic herbs. Isn't it better than the food at your home?"

She clapped her hands, and soon someone offered her some jerky.

Chen Shi ate a piece of meat jerky and found it delicious, so he agreed.

Everyone followed Chen Shi, and the purple-robed woman said, "Little brother, I don't know your name yet?"

Chen Shi said honestly: "My name is Chengshi. The teacher who taught me said that honesty means sincerity and truth. People in the village call me Little Chengshi. I never tell lies!"

When everyone heard this, they all laughed secretly: "How can there be a surname of Cheng? This country teacher is also ignorant and incompetent."

Fang He looked solemn. He came to the purple-clothed woman and whispered, "My lord, there is something wrong with this child..."

The purple-clothed woman's eyes had already fallen on Chen Shi's back. She squinted her eyes and nodded slightly: "I noticed it too."

With a strange look on her face, she said softly, "I can't believe that he is still a monk at such a young age."

Chen Shi in front was still eating meat jerky. The aura of this young man was rippling slightly, and there was actually a flow of true energy, which was quite strong.

I saw a faint and hazy light behind Chen Shi's head, and a shrine made of light was looming!
The meat jerky is made from various spiritual beasts and exotic herbs, and contains strong spiritual energy. When Chen Shi ate the meat jerky, the spiritual energy was refined, and his cultivation level was revealed involuntarily.

"Qi Refining Stage, Divine Embryo Stage!"

The purple-clothed woman said softly, "He has already become a shrine. I think he has been blessed by the true god and has given birth to a divine fetus! If he is placed in the provincial capital, he can already participate in the provincial examination! A juren in his teens..."

She couldn't help but be shocked.

The practice of cultivators is divided into five stages: refining Qi, transforming spirit, refining spirit, returning to emptiness and merging with the Dao.

Among them, Qi Refining is divided into four realms: Qi Refining, Foundation Building, Shrine, and Divine Embryo. Practicing to the Divine Embryo realm is already very remarkable. One can take part in the provincial examination, become a juren, and gain fame.

Nowadays, the world is promoting both reading and practicing.

Scholars are monks who can practice Taoism, pass imperial examinations and become officials in the court.

Chen Shi was only in his teens, but he had already achieved divine fetus. This was rare even in the whole world!

If he passes the imperial examination, it will surely shock the world!
The purple-clothed woman and others came from a prominent family in the provincial capital of Xinxiang. They did not expect to stumble upon such a genius in the countryside. One can imagine how shocked they were.

"wrong!"

The purple-clothed woman saw that the shrine behind Chen Shi's head suddenly became shaky, like smoke in the wind that could be blown away at any time. She hurriedly walked to Chen Shi and looked at the shrine behind his head.

I saw that the shrine behind Chen Shi's head was empty, and there was no divine fetus!

The woman in purple looked puzzled.

At this time, the shrine behind Chen Shi's head dissipated, and his true energy also dissipated, and he became an ordinary person again.

The other men in Feiyu suits also saw this scene and showed strange expressions.

"With his attainments in the shrine, he should have become a god! Why is his shrine empty? How come his cultivation suddenly disappeared?" the purple-clothed woman murmured.

Chen Shi's shrine was extremely stable, even some masters who had reached the state of transformation were not as good as him, and he must have already entered the state of divine fetus. However, there was no divine fetus in his shrine, and the shrine could collapse at any time, which was really a strange thing.

Fang He had understood it all, and smiled quietly, "Your Excellency comes from a famous family, and you don't know how dangerous the world is. The appearance of a cultivation genius in this countryside is not necessarily a good thing, but rather a source of disaster. If the children of powerful families are not talented and cannot cultivate into a divine fetus and pass the examination to become a scholar or a juren, they will ask the family masters to find a genius with excellent talent but no background, deprive him of his divine fetus, and transplant it into themselves. This kid called Honest must have been discovered by a powerful person because of his extraordinary talent, and his divine fetus was harvested and transplanted into their own children."

The purple-clothed woman looked at Chen Shi's back in surprise and asked, "How can you survive after being deprived of the divine fetus?"

Fang He was also somewhat puzzled, and said: "In theory, only by prying open the skull can the divine fetus be seized, and the cultivator whose divine fetus is seized will surely die. But why is this guy alive after his divine fetus was dug out?" Every year, many people died because their divine fetuses were seized, which was very common in the Ming Dynasty. It was a strange thing that Chen Shi survived after his divine fetus was seized.

Fang He walked quickly forward, came behind Chen Shi, and probed the back of his head. Sure enough, he felt a scar on the back of Chen Shi's head that had already healed.

The scar is three or four inches long, and there is a bulge in the bone under the scar.

"Honestly, don't move."

Fang He said this and pushed aside Chen Shi's hair. The scar was flesh-red, like a big red centipede as thick as a thumb lying on the back of Chen Shi's head.

Chen Shi was eating jerky and didn't care about it.

The woman in purple was also shocked when she saw the scar. This boy’s head had been opened by someone!
"It's truly a miracle that I managed to survive this injury!" she let out a breath.

Without the divine fetus, any true qi is like a tree without roots and water without a source, and it will vanish at any time. Chen Shi's divine fetus was taken away by someone and he became a useless person. Therefore, after taking the spirit preserved meat, the medicinal power contained in the spirit preserved meat turned into true qi, allowing his shrine to reappear. But because there is no divine fetus, the shrine and his cultivation are also illusions.

Fang He took a few steps back and lowered his voice, "Sir, last year Li Xiaoding, the son of Li County Magistrate of Shuiniu County, made a stunning debut in the provincial examination and won the title of Jieyuan. But I heard that this Mr. Li is uneducated and unskilled, his cultivation is not very good, and he is even very stupid, so he did not receive the favor of the true god. Some people say that Mr. Li must have taken the divine fetus of a poor boy..."

The purple-clothed woman coughed and said meaningfully, "Although the Li County Magistrate is not a high-ranking official, the Li family is a powerful family. What means Mr. Li used to become a juren has nothing to do with us. This child is really pitiful."

Her eyes fell on Chen Shi, and she whispered, "Give him a quick death later, don't torture him."

She turned around and looked at Huangpo Village. Her face was gentle and she said softly, "We should also eliminate this village and bury the little guy with him, so as to avoid leaking the news and making people say that our Zhao family did not do things properly and did not tell them when we found the True King's Tomb, which would only cause trouble. After we find the True King's Tomb, you will arrange to silence them, and do it cleanly."

Fang He bowed and said yes.

Chen Shi looked normal, but his ears moved.

Although he no longer had the divine fetus, he still had amazing hearing, and although the conversation between the two was quiet, it did not escape his ears.

"These people have bad intentions towards me and the village. It seems that they are the instigators. According to Master's words, we must cut off the roots and make sure they have no descendants."

Chen Shi thought to himself, "I'm sure I can't beat them. The Master said, 'A Master doesn't talk about strange powers or gods.' My current strength is not enough to be called strange powers, and I can't make ghosts and gods surrender, so I'd better kill them with a borrowed knife. The Master's words are really full of philosophy of life!"

He felt a spontaneous admiration for the Master.

Chen Shi quietly slowed down his pace and motioned for everyone to follow.

The purple-clothed woman and others followed him forward, but saw more than ten little people about a foot tall playing by the stream at the edge of the forest in front of them.

These little people have clear facial features, complete hands and feet, green clothes, white skin, just like living people.

They touched each other, making a sound like clinking porcelain, indicating that they were not human.

The porcelain dolls were playing by the mountain stream, splashing water and catching fish, having a lot of fun.

The words they spoke were also very strange, not human words, but babbling, with no clear meaning. However, the porcelain dolls could understand them and communicate with each other, laughing from time to time, looking very cheerful.

The purple-clothed woman and others came behind Chen Shi. Seeing this, they were inexplicably excited and whispered, "This must be the porcelain buried with the True King in his tomb that has become a spirit. We just need to follow them and we can find the True King's tomb!"

Chen Shi took a step forward and broke a dead branch on the ground. One of the porcelain dolls noticed it, raised its head and looked around. When it saw Chen Shi, it shouted, its voice as sharp as the call of an oriole.

When the other porcelain dolls saw Chen Shi, they all turned into faces full of hatred and resentment. They rolled up their sleeves and rushed towards him aggressively, with no idea what hatred or grudge they had.

At this time, the porcelain dolls saw the purple-clothed woman and other strangers. They couldn't help but scream and hide in the grass by the stream.

There were chirping sounds coming from the bushes. It should be the porcelain dolls scolding Chen Shi for not being able to beat them and even calling for help.

Fang He and others hurried forward, pushed aside the grass and quickly followed the trail, but they saw green mountains and tall trees. The mountains and forests were gloomy and vast, and they could not tell the direction.

Those porcelain dolls moved very fast, shuttling through the woods and grass, causing great suffering to the people who were tracking them, and they soon lost their trace.

The purple-clothed woman's eyes suddenly lit up, and she whispered, "Follow Honesty!"

Only then did everyone notice that Chen Shi was actually walking very quickly in the forest, chasing those porcelain dolls with ease.

It was difficult for everyone to catch up with those porcelain dolls, but Chen Shi’s target was bigger and easier to track, so they followed Chen Shi and gradually went deeper into the mountains and forests.

But the trees became increasingly dense, with only a few patches of sunlight shining through the ground.

After they chased for an unknown distance, Chen Shi in front of them suddenly disappeared without a trace.

When they caught up, they saw that the trees around them were growing rapidly, becoming taller and taller, like giant trees, lush and green, holding up the blue sky!

Even the weeds became as thick as trees, the rocks looked like hills, and the streams turned into the Yangtze River, majestic and magnificent!
They were just wondering when they heard someone shout, "It's not the plants that are getting bigger, it's us that are getting smaller!"

The purple-clothed woman and others were horrified and looked at each other, only to find that in just a short moment, they had shrunk from the size of an adult to less than one foot!

The woman in purple looked at her skin and couldn't help but tremble.

After a moment, she mustered up the courage and tapped her arms lightly, making a crisp sound of porcelain colliding.

She nearly fainted.

She turned into a porcelain doll!
She looked at the others, and found that the Jinyiwei following her had also turned into porcelain dolls!
"A place of ghosts and gods! We have entered a place of ghosts and gods! That's right! Be honest!"

The purple-clothed woman grasped at a life-saving straw, "Honestly has been here before, he must know what's going on... Wait a minute!"

Her face turned pale. "If Little Honesty had been here and knew that he would turn into a porcelain doll if he entered this place, why did he bring us here? Honesty... is he really as honest as he seems?"

————There will be another chapter updated tonight, around 3000 o'clock. Chapter word count, 4000- words.

(End of this chapter)