Chapter 59: Chuma Disciple

Chapter 59 The Shaman Disciple

Before Li Huowang could answer, the slurping of noodles echoed once more.

"Even if you wanted to become a shaman's disciple, you couldn't just choose to. The immortals select their own disciples; entering this trade requires a stroke of fate," Li Zhi began to explain.

"Oh? If it's not too much trouble, please elaborate." After dallying with this fellow for so long, the whole point was to glean a deeper understanding of these matters.

In this unfamiliar world, the more detailed the knowledge, the safer one's footing.

Li Zhi waved his chopsticks in the air a few times. "To become a shaman's disciple, you have to fall gravely ill, preferably the kind that brings you to death's door. If fortune smiles upon you, the immortal will visit you in a dream. It cures you, and in return, you serve as its disciple."

"What do these immortals look like?"

Li Zhi fell into thought, seemingly sifting through his memories. "Hmm... how should I put it? They certainly don't look human."

Having said that, he dipped his chopsticks into his bowl only to find it empty, and eagerly trotted back toward the cooking pot.

"Not human..." Li Huowang mused. If they could communicate and bargain, these immortals were likely of the same ilk as Lord You.

It seemed the people here were constantly engaging in transactions and contact with such entities, whether willingly or otherwise.

Li Huowang's mind instantly flashed back to the writhing, fleshy Great Buddha at Zhengde Temple.

From men and women to beasts, and finally to the Great Buddha, the monks' cultivation followed a gradual, progressive path.

Coupled with the abilities of the seven Buddhas he had seen before, which could bestow flesh upon Lord You and sprout a thousand fleshy arms of their own.

It was not hard to deduce that the monks of Zhengde Temple acquired their flesh-related powers through that very method of cultivation.

"Trading and interacting with different entities grants different supernatural abilities; perhaps this is the origin of their various sects?"

Li Huowang was beginning to form a preliminary understanding of this world.

Just then, Li Zhi returned with his noodles, piled high in the bowl without a single drop of broth.

As soon as he squatted down, he began to eat and complain volubly. "Let me tell you, being a shaman's disciple is no good gig. Avoid it if you can. It's a mess of trivial troubles, comes with three disasters and three tribulations, and pays next to nothing..."

After listening to his endless litany of grievances, Li Huowang couldn't help but interject, "Then what exactly can you shamans summon the immortals to do?"

Li Zhi glanced at Li Huowang and replied, "Everything. Exorcising evil, curing illnesses, turning luck and summoning wealth, weddings and funerals, reading characters and telling fortunes, feng shui for graves."

"That impressive? They can do it all?"

"Well, each immortal has different abilities. If you run into trouble and your own immortal can't handle it, you can always invite another."

Hearing this, Li Huowang's expression grew solemn. "What if someone is haunted by certain things? Can they resolve that too?"

"Haunted by things? That's just being struck by evil, so of course they can."

"Are you sure? These aren't ordinary things." Li Huowang thought of Danyangzi as he looked at the man before him.

No matter how he looked at it, this fellow seemed somewhat unreliable.

"Hey, if you're not sure, just give it a try. It's only fifty copper coins either way. You don't think I'd run off with the money, do you?"

"Fifty copper coins, that's your fee?" The price to pay was far lower than Li Huowang had anticipated.

"My fee is mine, and the immortal's fee is the immortal's. They must be calculated separately." Li Zhi chewed, swallowed his noodles, and let out a satisfied burp.

"My tea money is fifty copper coins. No haggling. It's an old rule of over three hundred years, never changed. And of course, it must be new coins, no clipped or debased rubbish. As for the immortal's fee..."

"Do I negotiate the immortal's fee myself?"

"No, you can't negotiate. You let the immortal pick whatever it wants, and it takes it. In the vast majority of cases, the immortal won't want something as worldly as money."

"It takes whatever it picks? And it doesn't want money?" A vague unease stirred in Li Huowang's heart. If he truly traded with them, what would these immortals take?

"In the past, what have the immortals taken from others?"

"Hey, you're asking me? Who should I ask?" Li Zhi held his bowl with both hands and began to lick it clean, meticulously and thoroughly.

"Anyone who has had something taken by an immortal must never speak of it. It's a taboo. Talk about it, and bad luck will follow."

"Aren't you a shaman? Even you don't know?"

"To put it bluntly, I'm just a hired hand for the immortals. I only bring them here; I don't meddle in anything else. For this pittance of pay, I couldn't be bothered with such messy affairs."

Compared to the monks of Zhengde Temple and Danyangzi, Li Zhi possessed a sort of detached, carefree air.

"So, you want to give it a try? Who's been struck by evil?" Sated and content, Li Zhi picked his teeth with a chopstick while glancing at the others in the distance.

The very person in question was right in front of him, yet Li Huowang was in no rush, continuing to ask patiently, "Brother Li Zhi, you've traveled far and wide and must have handled quite a few cases. The evil you speak of, do you know where it comes from?"

Li Zhi shook his head with a hint of impatience. "I can't be bothered to remember those things. A trip for fifty copper coins barely keeps me fed, so why risk my life? If they let me raise the price to five hundred coins a trip, I'd remember every detail perfectly."

"They won't let me raise prices, nor will they let me change trades. It's truly suffocating. By the way, Daoist, your sect must make good money performing rituals. How much do you earn per ritual?"

Li Huowang glanced once more at the motionless woman in the red veil behind him and stood up. "We've rested enough. Let's keep moving."

"Alright! Say, what time are we having supper?"

Li Huowang's group continued forward. The overly exuberant Li Zhi kept trying to strike up a conversation, but they did not respond with much enthusiasm.

The man spoke and conversed quite normally, and harbored no apparent malice.

But goodness isn't written on one's face, and Li Huowang's vigilance remained unabated.

Li Huowang tilted his head slightly, looking at the two figures on the other side of the road. His attention was entirely focused on the silent, fasting, veiled assistant beside Li Zhi, and the more he looked, the more unsettled he felt.

Compared to Li Zhi, this woman was distinctly more eerie.

Every time she lifted her foot to walk, the distance was exact to the millimeter, looking not at all like a living person, but more like a corpse manipulated by unseen strings.

Even more bizarre was the fact that Li Zhi actually called this thing his wife.

"Senior Brother Li, perhaps we should part ways with them?" Bai Lingmiao walked up and spoke softly.

"No rush. Let's wait and see." Li Huowang needed to observe carefully.

If this man wasn't lying, then ridding himself of Danyangzi might truly depend on the immortals he spoke of.

(End of Chapter)