The Unremarkable Little Taoist Master - Chapter 179 - Transformation

The old daoist priest seemed very pleased and nodded repeatedly, but he wouldn’t do something so foolish. I gave him a puzzled glance, and he just winked at me.

Since that was the case, I didn’t ask any more questions.

“By the way, I’ve caught the corpse thief you’ve been looking for,” Blacksmith Hu suddenly said. “I’ve already turned him over to the local police station, so you don’t need to search anymore.”

“We’ve been searching for so long without any leads, yet Blacksmith Hu found him in just a few days. How did you figure out he was the corpse thief?”

“Oh, he confessed to me himself. Since he’s from the same village, I didn’t want to pursue it further. Let the police punish him,” Blacksmith Hu hurriedly replied, as if afraid of something. He said a quick goodbye, shouldered the silver-armored Jiangshi, and left.

The old daoist priest looked at Blacksmith Hu, seemingly deep in thought. “This Blacksmith Hu is quite something.”

“I suspect he is the corpse thief, but what could his motive be for trading corpses for the silver-armored Jiangshi?”

I couldn’t bring myself to believe that someone who bore such a deep grudge could do something like that.

“To find out his purpose, why don’t we follow him tonight and see?”

No wonder the old daoist priest agreed to Blacksmith Hu’s deal; he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

“Old man, I’ve noticed you’ve been quite sneaky lately.”

The old daoist priest ignored my teasing and pointed in terror behind me.

Was there another problem?

There was no one behind me, just some feebly moving ordinary Jiangshi.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“The Iron-armored Jiangshi… is gone.”

I looked around, and indeed, the Iron-armored Jiangshi had vanished.

The old daoist priest and I searched the forest but couldn’t find the Iron-armored Jiangshi. As darkness approached, we had no choice but to set that matter aside and follow the night to trace Blacksmith Hu’s whereabouts.

We arrived at Blacksmith Hu’s place just in time to see him pushing a flatbed cart out the door. It seemed to hold quite a few items, covered by a cloth, making it hard to see clearly.

The old daoist priest suspected that his Iron-armored Jiangshi might be in Blacksmith Hu’s home, so we decided to split up. He would search Blacksmith Hu’s place for any clues, while I would follow Blacksmith Hu.

To be safe, I picked up some pebbles and left marks along the way, so the old daoist priest could track us down.

Blacksmith Hu was cautious, glancing to the left and right, and turning back numerous times, as if afraid of being seen. After a long walk, we finally reached a desolate area. Not wanting to be discovered, I found a large tree and hid behind it.

Blacksmith Hu came to a stop and lifted the cloth covering the cart. What was inside looked rather mundane, just some tools used by the corpse herder.

The only oddity was a round jar.

The jar was quite ordinary, with simple patterns and an unremarkable shape. It didn’t even have a single piece of red paper stuck on it. On a regular day, many would just pass it by without a second glance, but it was moving.

There must have been something inside the jar; otherwise, Blacksmith Hu wouldn’t have traveled all this way. I had a nagging feeling that he stole the corpses for the sake of that jar, and his strange behavior before was also linked to whatever was inside it.

Blacksmith Hu didn’t open the jar right away. Instead, he arranged the items on the cart and pretended to prepare for a ritual, placing the jar in the center.

He mumbled a few incantations toward the jar and spat a mouthful of blood onto it, causing it to become still.

That was blood condensed from a person’s vital energy, and losing even a little bit could shorten a person’s life. What could be inside the jar to warrant such a display from Blacksmith Hu?

I patiently observed, and then Blacksmith Hu picked up a soul-calling bell, chanting, “Spirits return, spirits return, blood and evil from the underworld, do not desire, do not possess!”

He performed the ritual for a while longer, yet the jar remained motionless. After some time, he took out a talisman from his bag, took a deep breath, and opened the lid of the jar.

Gray gas began to seep out of the jar.

Blacksmith Hu grabbed a damp-looking substance and placed it into a bowl he had prepared in advance. He filled the bowl with scented oil and then lit a talisman, allowing it to blend with the substance in the oil.

Immediately, Blacksmith Hu’s face began to change. Scales emerged on his skin, glistening in golden hues. Strangely, they were identical to the scales on the silver-armored Jiangshi!

He seemed to be in tremendous pain, first letting out a muffled grunt as he dropped to his knees, then howling in agony as he collapsed on the ground.

He gasped for air like a fish out of water, his bluish skin slowly becoming covered by the golden scales, even his eyes were not spared.

His clothes tore apart as his entire body became enveloped in golden scales!

Under the moonlight, Blacksmith Hu let out a long howl, a sound unmistakably like that of a Jiangshi!

Blacksmith Hu had transformed into a Jiangshi!

The moonlight seemed to gather around him, accumulating at a visible speed, and Blacksmith Hu appeared to be in bliss, stretching out his limbs.

I was utterly baffled by what was happening and was about to return to consult the old daoist priest when I noticed a group of figures approaching from that direction.

As they drew closer, I realized they weren’t humans at all! They were all Jiangshi!

At the front were two silver-armored Jiangshi, followed by a group of Iron-armored Jiangshi, and at the back was a large swarm of ordinary Jiangshi! They moved quickly, and in no time, they arrived in front of Blacksmith Hu.

Like some sort of ritual, all the Jiangshi bowed toward Blacksmith Hu. He uttered something in Jiangshi language, pointing to the sky and then to the ground. Finally, he stomped his foot, and the Jiangshi seemed frightened, with some of the ordinary Jiangshi even retreating in fear.

Blacksmith Hu stomped his foot again and turned to walk ahead, while the Jiangshi looked left and right, following him in step.

I felt anxious, wondering how the old daoist priest was doing and where this group of Jiangshi was following Blacksmith Hu. After some deliberation, I decided to follow them.

Just a few steps later, one of the Jiangshi in the front suddenly turned around to look, and although I knew Jiangshi couldn’t see, I quickly hid behind a tree.

I thought they would continue moving forward, but when I peeked out, I found all the Jiangshi were staring straight at me, countless pairs of eyes fixated on my position.

Both sides were frozen. No, to be precise, only I was frozen.

The Jiangshi simply watched me without making another move, as if they were waiting for someone to give them instructions.

“Why are you here?” The voice behind me was sudden, dark, and cold.

I turned around to find it was Blacksmith Hu.