Cultivation Retirement Plan (BL)

28. Nightwatch

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Although the two had decided to stake out the ancestral hall that night, there were still preparations to do beforehand. First was setting up a protective ward around Old Madame Su's quarters to alert them in case anything untoward approached the building. As the likes of ghosts and demons all carried traces of yin energy, it was enough to make a ward infused with bright yang energy to keep them back.

Next was the issue of weapons. Nan Wuyue did well enough with his training sword—it was all he could handle at his current third level Foundation Establishment rank—but Mo Yixuan was still missing his own sword. He had asked Ouyang Che about it, who informed him that higher level cultivators were simply capable of assimilating the blades into their own qi to summon and retract at will. That was all well and good in theory, but after a few failed attempts to call out his own weapon, Mo Yixuan had simply settled for borrowing one of the sturdier swords in the training hall. Although it couldn't take the full extent of his sword qi, it would be enough to deal with most enemies.

At any rate, if they ran into a foe that forced Mo Yixuan to use his full strength, he'd have more things to worry about than inferior sword alloys—like fleeing for his life.

Master and disciple reached the ancestral hall just in time to see Ting'er withdrawing with an empty tray.

"Good evening, Sir Daoists," she greeted them with a small bow.

Mo Yixuan looked beyond her to see an altar table filled with fresh incense and food offerings for the memorial tablets resting above. "Isn't it a little early to give offerings to the ancestors?"

"Daoist Mo may not know, but here in the south it's tradition to start honoring the Ghost Festival one day early," Ting'er replied earnestly. "They say it wards off bad luck ahead of time."

"If that's the case, why not do it nightly?" Mo Yixuan asked. After all, the entirety of July was known as Ghost Month, when the gates of the Netherworld opened to release the hungry ghosts into the human world.

Ting'er giggled softly. "Daoist Mo must be joking! If we held a feast for the ghosts everyday, they'd never leave our house alone!"

"I see," Mo Yixuan nodded to himself while the servant girl walked off. He then approached the hall and stopped by the entrance, offering his simple respects with both hands. Above them, a row of red lanterns glowed merrily in the dark, acting as beacons to guide the spirits to their meals.

"Shizun, do you believe in ghosts?" Nan Wuyue asked suddenly from his side.

Mo Yixuan only looked askance at him. "You live in a world where humans can cultivate as demons or demi-immortals, and you're asking me this?"

"So shizun does believe in them?"

"Don't you?" Mo Yixuan asked back.

Nan Wuyue hesitated before replying. "I'm not sure. The three realms are all places that exist in this plane, but I've only heard of the Netherworld in legends. If it isn't something we can see or touch, how can we be sure it's really there?"

The three realms Nan Wuyue referred to were the Lower, Middle, and Higher Realms. Of the trio, the Higher Realms had long been sealed thousands of years ago when the last of the gods and immortals ascended to their plane. The Middle Realm was a description of cultivation strength, not a physical location, and included both the celestial and demonic cultivation sects. The former resided in a series of floating peaks and continents in the sky while the latter preferred the pits and darker depths of Earth among the humans. Speaking of humans—they made up the majority of the Lower Realms and lived on the ground co-existing side-by-side with various Yao, or plant and animal spirits who had acquired enlightenment through cultivation.