Looking at the name, it seemed to be a travelogue documenting Zhang Heavenly Master's demon-subduing experiences, hardly different from some of the storybooks he had seen before, most of which were fantastical tales woven by later generations.
Shen Luo didn't pay much attention, shook off the dust that had settled on it, and tucked it into his sleeve pocket.
Afterward, he looked through the remaining few tables and chairs, but finding no other gains, he had no choice but to give up and leave the storeroom, returning to Qingchipo.
The quiet rooms at Qingchipo were a two-story row building, with about twenty small rooms on each floor. Some of the disciples from the monastery lived together here.
Shen Luo's quiet room was on the bottom floor, most to the right and neighboing the mountain cliff.
The rooms of the disciples were all small, furnished with nothing more than a bed and a table with chairs; Shen Luo's was no exception.
When he opened the door, the rich scent of pine resin assaulted his senses, causing him to wrinkle his nose involuntarily.
The monastery had no shortage of aromatic items like sandalwood and pine resin and never forbade disciples from using them, because usually when meditating and cultivating, these substances that calm the mind and steady the breath can help one enter meditation more easily.
However, other people would light just one incense stick, enjoying only a faint fragrance, whereas he had made it so intense it was almost choking.
But there was no helping it.
Shen Luo's room, blocked from most of the sunlight by a bent Welcoming Pine at the edge of the cliff, was already somewhat cool and damp. On the desk in the room, there were dozens of ancient books he had collected from around the monastery, most of which were moldy, and the smell could easily be imagined.
If he didn't suppress it with the smell of pine, the room would simply be uninhabitable.
Shen Luo was accustomed to this, he sat down at the desk against the wall, and pulled out the newly brought back "Zhang Heavenly Master's Demon-Subduing Chronicle" from his sleeve pocket and placed it on the table.
The book looked fine on the outside, except for some mold spots on the cover that were a bit off-putting; the rest was fairly intact, much better than most of the books in Shen Luo's collection.
He first picked up the teapot on the table and gulped down half of it, then rested for the time it took to burn half an incense stick before he regained some strength.
As he opened the cover of the ancient book, the yellowed title page revealed an image of a short and chubby Taoist priest wearing a lotus crown and a seven-star robe, with one hand forming a mystic gesture and the other holding a sword, his face fierce like a wrathful Vajra.
It appeared to be a portrayal of Zhang Heavenly Master, but the lines were bold and rough, suggesting a more expressive style. After all, if he really looked like that, he would be more terrifying than any ghost or monster.
Shen Luo smiled, turned the title page, and began reading the following contents.
Once he started, Shen Luo's interest was immediately captured. The content recorded in the book was indeed a fantastical tale, narrating many anecdotes of Zhang Heavenly Master subduing demons and calming ghosts in the Lingnan area.
The book did not record any dates, so it was impossible to verify the time frame, but the place names were clearly written and were currently identifiable locations, suggesting the events were not too distant in the past.
Zhang Heavenly Master was a true Daoist who possessed secret techniques of alchemy and authentic talismanic traditions. He could refine Golden Cores and create talismans, and the book depicted him vanquishing over a dozen ghostly specters and various monsters such as rat spirits and seductive foxes.
Ordinarily, Shen Luo had read plenty of such fantastical stories and found nothing particularly novel about the content. Even the monsters' sorceries were not as varied and exciting as those in other tales, featuring nothing but cliché plotlines of evil spirits haunting and ghostly specters beguiling hearts.
However, what Shen Luo couldn't put down was the book's descriptions of various mystic arts used to combat evil ghosts, with the processes for deploying them outlined clearly. It included a story where a wealthy gentry, troubled and vexed by a Mei, was given a whisk by Zhang Heavenly Master. He was instructed to hang it above his door, which put an end to the fox's mischief.
Additionally, the book mentioned various peculiar methods, such as drawing talismans with Black Dog Blood, suppressing ghosts with a butcher's knife, and pressing down with ancient coins to triumph.
Even at the end of several stories, they attached the drawings of the talismans used in the stories, which appeared to have been written with dynamic strokes, seemingly completed in one breath, genuinely possessing a unique aura.
However, after careful examination, Shen Luo noticed something was amiss.
He had seen some of these talismans posted on some doorframes in the monastery, and he had also come across them in other books. Although the names and designs were similar to those depicted here, there were obvious differences in the nuances of the brushwork.
After glancing over them a few times, Shen Luo immediately rummaged through the piles of old books on the desk and swiftly pulled out an even more tattered old book, whose cover had completely fallen off.
This old book had only a thin ten pages or so that were readable at the front; the majority of the pages in the back had rotted and stuck together, and any force applied to them would cause them to disintegrate into scraps.
This book was titled "Secret Techniques of Talismans Authentic Manual," a special record of talismans passed down from ancient times, mentioning many rules and taboos regarding the making and using of talismans.
In this book, according to the purpose of the talismans, they were broadly classified into "Transformation, Suppression, and Attack" three categories.
For instance, Calming People Talisman and Hundred Solutions Disaster Relief Talisman were both part of the Transformation category, while Peace Talisman and House-Protection Talisman belonged to the Suppression category. As for the Attack category, it was not detailed, and very little was written, but it still mentioned the names of Burning Gas Talisman and Small Thunder Talisman among others.
Among all the types of talismans, what Shen Luo cared about most were the attack talismans. The scene from that year when Master Luo activated a Yellow Talisman to subdue the Yin Qi had made a deep impression on him, and it was still fresh in his memory.
However, the related books he could access had very little content on this type of talismans, shrouding them in a veil of mystery.
If he encountered ominous and negative Qi in the future, having protective charms like the Peace Talisman might ensure safety, but if faced with actual ghostly specters, of course, it would be more secure to have attack talismans by his side.
Unfortunately, in the parts of the book that could be flipped through, everything resembled a general overview, and the real descriptions of the functions and methods of drawing talismans were all in the latter half, which was almost entirely unreadable.
After perusing the content at the beginning, Shen Luo found that the Peace Talisman was still preserved. Coincidentally, Zhang Heavenly Master's Demon-Subduing Chronicle also mentioned this talisman, so he immediately took it to make a comparison.
"Huh, they're really the same," he said to himself as he took a deep breath.
"Boom..."
At that moment, the sound of the Evening Drum echoed, awakening Shen Luo from his thoughts.
He lifted his head and glanced out the window at the sky, only to realize that without being aware of it, it had already become evening.
Since coming to the mountain, he had taken quite an interest in these supernatural and ghostly matters. Besides practicing the Small Transformation Yang Skill, he temporarily couldn't train in forceful techniques like the Qingyang Hand, so he spent most of his time reading these books.
He had not expected that he would spend almost half a day reading today.
Shaking his head and smiling to himself, he organized the books on the table, stood up, and walked out of the room.
Behind San Qing Temple, nearly a hundred feet to the right, there was a flat mountain cliff with several independent small courtyards built upon it. The Inner Sect Disciples lived here, each with a small private courtyard, not mixing with the rest of the disciples.
By this time, the sky had already turned quite dark. Outside one of the courtyards, three Daoist figures were gathering.