Chapter 8: Night talk and the dangers of the night

After leaving the village, the temperature dropped significantly. After all, it is close to the lake, and after all, it is a place where evil spirits gather.

The difference is that after the great formation was activated, the fog that had shrouded the area and the village for years dispersed, and the area has now become a normal gathering place for ghosts.

Although the fog has dispersed, visibility at night is not high. I don’t know when the thin clouds gradually covered the moon. Outside of the lake village, where there are no street lights, the road to the Lake of a Thousand Ghosts is almost completely dark.

I didn’t bring a flashlight, nor did Jiang Yi, but he walked steadily and quickly, as if he was walking in broad daylight.

On the contrary, I stumbled a bit.

“You are a Taoist priest, a cultivator. You don’t have to rely on your eyes to walk at night.” Jiang Yi, who had been silent, suddenly spoke.

I just tripped and almost fell. When I heard Jiangyi say that, I froze and said subconsciously, “I don’t rely on my eyes. What do I rely on? Do I rely on my nose?”

“Spiritual awareness. You can rely on your own spiritual awareness to take each step. The way to do this is not to subconsciously rely on your eyes to see. Sometimes ordinary people can occasionally achieve this level. This is a good way to hone spiritual awareness.” Jiang Yi said to me.

Is Jiang Yi guiding me in my spiritual practice? Although he said this kind of guidance in a way that still had to broadcast a news report, it took me a long time to react.

By the time I understood what he meant, he had already gone far away, and as I watched his somewhat blurred figure in the darkness, I felt even more that I could not see through this person.

The dangerous feeling in my heart had not yet dissipated, but I subconsciously used the method he had described. At first, I was very uncomfortable, but later, I found that I was getting better and better at it. Although I was not as fast as Jiang Yi, it was better than using my eyes to see, and I stumbled along the way too much.

When I reached the shore, Jiangyi was already waiting there. Because I had deliberately used my spiritual senses, when I arrived, this short distance actually made me feel a little mentally exhausted.

“Very good, you really have excellent spiritual awareness, and you’ve already adapted so quickly,” Jiang Yi commented, still without any expression on his face, which made me feel that he wasn’t really praising me.

I smiled sheepishly, not knowing how to respond. I always felt that there was a huge gap between him and me, and this kind of conversation atmosphere was not suitable for me and him.

Fortunately, Jiang Yi didn’t care what I wanted to say, but instead, he opened the sail of the boat that had already docked at the shore and jumped onto the boat. I scratched my scalp, which was tingling, and followed him.

I knew why my scalp was numb, because the feeling of danger was getting stronger and stronger, so much so that my entire scalp began to tingle.

“I don’t know how to row. What should I do?” I said on the boat. In fact, I could row if I was asked to. After all, I had watched when Ji Feng taught Huigen how to row, and I was subconsciously delaying.

Jiang Yi remained silent, took off his jacket, picked up the oar, and gently touched the shore. The boat floated out.

“I can do it.” He stepped onto the bow of the boat and looked very skilled at rowing.

“So the boss is so versatile,” I said casually, feeling that the atmosphere was awkward and dangerous, and that I needed to say something to relax.

“The longer you live, the more things you know. You show me the way, and take me directly to the place where you fought.” Jiang Yi answered me very simply.

“Boss, actually I want to ask, what are we going to do there?” In fact, I really wanted to ask why Jiangyi was so stubborn about taking me to the heart of the Lake of a Thousand Ghosts.

“Take a look,” Jiang Yi said in two words.

Damn, I couldn’t help but swear in my heart. I didn’t know why I started to feel inexplicably irritable. I had never been so irritable in the face of danger before.

The boat moved on the water, and Jiang Yi and I fell silent at the same time. Except for the occasional sound of me pointing the way, the entire lake was quiet except for the wind. The thin clouds that covered the moon had dispersed, and the moonlight shone faintly on the entire lake, moving with the waves.

The Lake of a Thousand Demons, which has always been synonymous with danger, finally showed me its tender and beautiful side after the battle. Unfortunately, it was Jiang Yi and I who were boating on the lake that night, not the woman of my dreams, Ru Xue.

Thinking of Ru Xue, I was a little crazy… Time passed quickly, and I suddenly couldn’t remember how long it had been since I had said goodbye to her. It was like when Huigen couldn’t answer when Huidai had been missing for a few years.

Some people, even after a long separation, still feel as familiar as they did yesterday. Others, even though they have always been by your side, still can’t get into your heart.

When will I be able to hear Ruoxue sing “Flowing Light and Dancing” in my ear again? My mouth is bitter, thinking and not being able to get it, thinking and not being able to do it. I have come to understand this phrase more deeply now.

I don’t know how long it took, but I was in a trance when I gave Jiang Yi a way to the lake. I didn’t even realize that I had arrived at the Wan Gui Zhi Hu natural formation. After the previous battle of raging waves, the natural formation was surprisingly calm and no different from the outside. Except that the yin energy was heavier, making people feel colder.

A few days later, when I came here again, it gave me a feeling of being in a different world, a world between heaven and earth.

“Where should I go to the boundary stone?” Jiang Yi asked again.

I came back to my senses and quickly gave Jiang Yi directions. At this time, inexplicably, my stomach began to cramp and I felt like vomiting. I endured the discomfort and maintained a calm appearance. This was the first time that this dangerous feeling had caused my body to react.

I knew it was fear. I was afraid to the point of wanting to vomit?

The boat silently moved across the water, and the moonlight reflected off the water. If a drop of water happened to float past my face, would it reflect my pale face and terrified eyes to the limit?

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down. At this point, panic was of no use. At least I should know where the danger came from.

Is there something in the Lake of Ghosts that threatens my existence? Is that why the closer I get to here, the more scared I get?

No, it’s impossible. The great formation laid down by the master would never have such a big loophole, and what kind of existence could hide under the master’s nose for so long?

Even if the Grandmaster was unaware of the danger, who was by my side? It was Jiang Yi, the head of the mysterious department and the one rumored to be closest to becoming a fairy. He had also said that there was no danger in being with him.

If so, then there is only one possibility. I looked at Jiang Yi’s back as he rowed the boat. The danger came from him.

Thinking of this, my hands trembled a little. I reluctantly took out a cigarette from my pocket, lit it up with some shakiness, and then took a deep breath. When the blue smoke entered my lungs with a numbing effect and circled around, my restless heart temporarily succumbed to the comfort brought by the smoke.

“As a cultivator, even if you occasionally drink alcohol, you shouldn’t smoke. What good does it do to your cultivation?” Jiang Yi didn’t turn around, but his voice clearly reached my ears.

“Ah?” I was in a state of thought, and my hand shook subconsciously, and the cigarette in my hand almost fell. For a moment, I didn’t react to what Jiang Yi was saying.

“Forget it, Lao Li’s school has never played by the rules, and he would never deliberately restrain himself. Just like your master, I have told him many times not to smoke that pipe, but he still insists. He says that practicing does not mean not understanding the various things in the world. If you don’t understand, it can’t be considered a real self-restraint. What kind of twisted logic is this? Do you have to try drinking, eating, gambling, and prostitution once to be considered a true self-restraint? I asked him this at the time, but guess what he said? He said that it was not impossible, as long as the moral bottom line in the heart was so low that he felt that he would be tempted by eating, drinking, gambling and prostitution, then it would be better to experience it once and fall once. If you can’t let go, you will sink. This is a natural and unconnected path to cultivation. If you don’t let go completely, a heart has been tempered. He is not tempted by this, so he doesn’t need to experience it. This is spontaneous restraint. Jiang Yi said that this time his voice was no longer like a news broadcast, but it had a little bit of emotion, but I couldn’t tell what that emotion was.

How could I tell? I was already dumbfounded. This was the first time I had seen Jiang Yi being so “verbose,” talking so much about personal matters in addition to business. What did that mean?

What’s more, I was just speculating that the danger came from Jiang Yi.

Just as I was in a daze, Jiang Yi suddenly said, “We’re here.”

The boat had already docked without me noticing, and Jiang Yi seemed to be just talking for the sake of talking, not caring at all what I would say in response. His reaction was as if he had never said those words.