Chapter 3 Maoshan Taoism
Qianhe has not yet become an apprentice. Although he would occasionally follow his senior brother to perform some rituals to expel some small ghosts and deter some evil spirits, this is the first time he has encountered such a big scene. So when he heard the noise, he shouted out subconsciously.

When he shouted, the sharp five senses of a warrior also allowed Huo Yuanjia to discover the two brothers Ding Hai at the moment Qianhe spoke in a low voice.

In the dangerous and treacherous environment, Huo Yuanjia didn't care about anything else and wanted to join forces with Ding Hai to survive.

"Friends in front, I am Huo Yuanjia, the head of Tianjin Huo Family Fist. Behind me is Nong Jinsun, the owner of Tianjin Huaiqing Line. I wonder if you know what happened on this ship and why there are strange monsters biting people."

"Master Huo, I am a disciple of Qingyun Temple in the south of the capital, and my Taoist name is Feiyu. I don't know why this speedboat has become like this, and I am just about to find the captain to find out. If you don't mind, let's go together." When Ding Hai was helping people catch ghosts and exorcise evil spirits in Tianjin, he often watched Huo Yuanjia and other martial artists in Tianjin fighting in Caishikou.

So after Huo Yuanjia introduced himself, he immediately recognized this Tianjin No. 1 who has become very famous in Tianjin in recent years.

"You are Taoist Master Fei Yuzi, the Thunder Hand who led the heroes of Tianjin to destroy the corpse-raising ground in Haihe River in the early spring of this year." After hearing Ding Hai's introduction, Huo Yuanjia's eyes suddenly lit up.

Both of them were well-known figures in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area. Although he had never met them, Huo Yuanjia had heard of Ding Hai's deeds.

According to rumors in the martial arts world, although the Taoist priest in front of him is young, his skills are quite strong.

The river god, the chief leader of the nine rivers in Tianjin, once praised this man for his superb thunder magic and called him a godly figure in front of many local gentry and elders.

The witch who had always been at odds with the river god praised this gentleman as a man of virtue to everyone he met. He spared no effort and risked his life to destroy the corpse-raising ground in the Haihe River, and in one fell swoop eradicated the disaster of corpses that had plagued the people of Tianjin for several years.

When talking about this person, Mr. Qin from the Tiedao Sect, who also had a great reputation in Tianjin like him, gave him a thumbs up and praised him highly, saying that he had a chivalrous demeanor.

According to the rumors, this Taoist priest was criticized for being greedy for money and not being chivalrous enough, but everything else about him was simply a copy of the positive characters in the Three Heroes and Five Gallants.

Walking with such people who support each other, I feel indescribably at ease.

Huo Yuanjia felt much more at ease, but when Ding Hai heard the nickname "Thunder Hand", he immediately felt upset.

This river god Zhongdeng has done a lot of harm to people.

When he went down to the corpse cave, he ignored Zhongdeng's request and threw stacks of Five Thunder Evil-Slaying Talismans at the corpses in the corpse cave, smashing through the Haihe Corpse Breeding Ground, reducing the effectiveness of this corpse breeding ground by more than half.

As for shouting about his amazing thunder magic and giving him the nickname "Thunder Hand", is it secretly ruining his reputation?

Ding Hai subconsciously forgot that he later offered the victim's canal merchant association twenty dragon dollars for each Five Thunders Slaying Evil Talisman, and took away four thousand dragon dollars in one go amid the gnashing of teeth by the president of the canal merchant association.

At this time, the Longyang currency had just been issued not long ago, and its purchasing power far exceeded that of the later-issued Longyang. Twenty Longyang dollars were enough to buy only brown rice, which was enough for a family of three in Tianjin to have two thick meals a day for most of half a year.

But he still doesn't think that he made a wrong offer. As for the corpse-raising land in Haihe River, although he gained fame and promoted the reputation of Qingyun Temple, the remaining benefits from that corpse-raising land were swallowed up by the local snake, the river god and the witch. The two of them and the Canal Transport Chamber of Commerce are in cahoots with each other, so who else can he ask for compensation from if not the Canal Transport Chamber of Commerce?

Although Mr. Qin of the Iron Knife Sect did not enjoy the benefits of the Haihe Corpse Farm, he was able to join the Canal Merchants Association because of this incident, and he was able to gain a foothold in Tianjin and open a martial arts school.

Otherwise, how could he, a native of Shaanxi, who neither came from a major martial arts school nor had any famous master to endorse him, drink and eat meat so lavishly in Tianjin, a place with so much fat and water.

Although he was upset, Ding Hai did not forget the important matter: "It is me."

After confirming Ding Hai's identity, both Huo Yuanjia, who was leading the group, and Nong Jinsun, who was protected by two guards behind him, breathed a sigh of relief.

Huo Yuanjia is indeed an extraordinary martial artist. He is now invincible in Tianjin and is almost the best in the city. Together with Wang Wu, the big knife, he is known as the Twin Tigers of the Capital.

But when faced with a monster without a physical body, there is actually very little he can do except to stimulate his qi and blood to scare away the wandering ghosts.

"Master Feiyu, we are all amateurs in dealing with strange monsters. From now on, the four of us will obey your orders, but if we disobey, we will die miserably."

Faced with the crisis of death, Huo Yuanjia briefly put aside his pride as the best in Tianjin, and with the three people behind him, he quickly came to fellow apprentice Ding Xie and asked for shelter.

There was nothing he could do, because the ones wreaking havoc on the ship were incorporeal monsters. If the enemies were replaced with tangible monsters like humans or zombies, Huo Yuanjia would definitely use his family-inherited Yanqing Fist to tell them how he became the number one in Tianjin.

"Mr. Huo, you are too modest. It's destiny that we met and we just want to help each other." Although he didn't think Huo Yuanjia and his companions could be of much help, since they were so humble, Ding Hai didn't mind giving them a hand.

"In the evening, the captain came to the cabin where my two brothers were staying and told us that the winds and waves in the next section of the canal would be strong and dangerous. If we stayed still in the cabin, we would avoid being dragged into the water by the water ghosts.

Now that the ship has become like this, I think he should know something." After briefly explaining what he knew and what he would do next, Ding Hai did not hesitate and turned around and walked along the corridor towards the deck.

Qianhe, who was following behind Ding Hai, took the initiative to tell Huo Yuanjia and his group about their current situation.

Upon hearing that they and others were rapidly falling into the underworld along with this broken ship, a trace of panic flashed across Huo Yuanjia and his companions' faces.

It’s not that their character is not up to standard, but the current situation has exceeded their imagination.

The underworld, a realm that is said to be only accessible to the dead, is not a place for living people like them to stay.

The Clippers are not big and cannot create myths.

It doesn't take long for a speedboat with a total length of about 40 meters to travel from beginning to end.

As for those wandering ghosts who didn't know how to live or die and ran out to block the road, Ding Hai was able to use stacks of Five Thunders to Slay Evil Talismans to smash through the Haihe Corpse Farm, so now he can naturally use the talismans to send these wandering ghosts back to the underworld.

In less than ten breaths, Ding Hai and his companions arrived on the deck. They looked up and found that the rushing canal had disappeared. All they could see was pale yellow fog. The smell of rotten paper ash surged into their mouths and noses, making them feel like vomiting.

Faced with this sudden stench, only Ding Hai and Huo Yuanjia remained calm.

Ding Hai had smelled all kinds of stench while exorcising evil spirits in the past few years and had long been accustomed to it, while Huo Yuanjia relied on his strong self-control to endure the discomfort of his body. "Brother, there is no one on the deck. The captain must have run away a long time ago." Looking at the empty deck, Qianhe suspected that the captain had already gritted his teeth and sacrificed his wealth to save his life.

Ding Hai shook his head with a serious face to deny Qianhe's guess. After sniffing with his nose slightly, a Five Thunders Demon-Slaying Talisman flew out of his palm quickly and rushed towards the mast at the bow.

The sky is round and the earth is square, the law is nine chapters

The Thunder Department responded to the call, and all the ghosts hid

Five Thunders - destroy evil - punish evil spirits - kill
After a deafening thunder, a black shadow with its head lowered and tongue sticking out suddenly appeared on the top of the mast.

Everyone's heart sank as they watched the black shadow floating in the wind. Now that the captain was dead, who else could they turn to to understand the situation and break this deadlock?

Unlike the people behind him, Ding Hai's expression turned from gloomy to bright at this moment.

The figure and clothes of the dark figure on the mast did look very much like the captain, but Ding Hai, who had excellent eyesight, could see the shadow's face clearly through the hair covering his face. The man who hanged himself on the mast was definitely not the captain who reminded them in the evening.

"Master Huo, you are the most skilled among us. Please help me remove a palm-sized piece of cloth from the hanging corpse.

Whether we can find the real captain depends on this." After confirming that the shadow hanging from the southeast branch was not the captain, Ding Hai did not return to the cabin to look for him like a normal person.

That would be too inefficient and it would be easy to run into Li Gui who was already well fed and drunk in the cabin.

In this strange home ground between Yin and Yang, Ding Hai did not dare to confront the large number of fierce monsters.

After receiving Ding Hai's instructions, Huo Yuanjia did not break his promise. He nodded slightly to his good friend Nong Jinsun to signal him to pay more attention to safety. Then he leaped into the sky. After using the mast for leverage several times, he used his tiger claws to tear off a piece of cloth the size of a washbasin from the black shadow.

After succeeding, Huo Yuanjia was frightened by the strange way the black shadow died and did not dare to stay on the top of the mast. But before he could turn over and return to the ground, the black shadow with its neck around the sail rope suddenly opened its pale eyes with pupils as small as needles and stared at Huo Yuanjia who was so close.

"Oh no, Master Huo's yang energy is too strong, and the corpse on the mast is filled with too much resentment. The corpse has resurrected after the impact of the two." Qianhe, who had been paying attention to Huo Yuanjia, immediately reached for the Seven-Star Evil-Slaying Sword behind him after seeing this scene, wanting to activate the sword to protect Huo Yuanjia.

However, before he could touch the hilt of the sword, Ding Kai snapped his fingers, and a coffin nail covered with layers of dirty blood instantly shot out from Ding Kai's hand and pierced the black shadow's forehead, nailing it firmly to the mast.

Ding Hai and the other man both reacted. How could Huo Yuanjia, nicknamed the Yellow-Faced Tiger, who was known for his nimble, swift, and ferocious boxing, not take any action?

The moment the black shadow opened his eyes and stared at him, he twisted his waist and flipped into the air like a kite, kicking the black shadow's neck with a whip-like kick like an iron whip, trying to break the black shadow's spine.

The full-strength attack from a young and upright martial artist who was still at the peak of his powers distorted the air around the black shadow by three points. Ding Hai believed that the power of the attack was even better than the unique skill of the Kuixing School in the north, the Kuixing Kick, and it was definitely powerful enough to break gold and jade.

But his movements were so wide and wide that his attack was slower than Ding Hai's.

Seeing that Ding Hai had already nailed the black shadow to death, Huo Yuanjia, fearing that his kick would cause trouble, stopped his attack abruptly, and turned around and landed lightly in front of Ding Hai.

The crowd, who were already amazed by the previous kick, couldn't help cheering in their hearts after seeing the kung fu displayed in this flip.

Just based on this ability to make light of heavy tasks, the name of the Twin Tigers of Gyeonggi is not exaggerated.

Ding Hai and his companions thought that the flipping skill just now was amazing, but Huo Yuanjia, the person involved, didn't think it was anything special. After twenty years of kung fu, isn't it normal to have such performance? "Master Feiyu, I have taken the cloth. What should we do next?"

"There is a paper crane sound transmission technique in Maoshan. I have done some research on it. Although the body on the mast is not the captain's, the clothes are the ones he wore in the evening, and they are stained with his scent.

Next, I will use the cloth as paper and perform the paper crane transmission technique. As long as he is still on this ship, the paper crane will lead us to find him. "While explaining, Ding Hai's hands were not idle.

After reaching out to take the piece of cloth, he folded his hands quickly like a butterfly flying through flowers. After a moment, a lifelike cloth paper crane stood steadily in Ding Kai's palm.

The law of heaven is pure, the law of earth is spiritual

Yin and Yang combine, the crane appears

I obey the command of the Three Mao True Lords

Thousands of miles of sound transmission, huh, hurry, go
Driven by magic power, the wings of the paper crane standing in Ding Hai's palm began to flap gradually. After a few breaths, it spread its wings and flew away, rushing away following the breath it carried, but the direction it flew was extremely strange.

Looking at the paper crane circling on the top of the mast, the other five people on the deck turned their heads and looked elsewhere, trying to minimize Ding Hai's embarrassment.

But like Huo Yuanjia before, Ding Hai didn't think anything of it, because he had already got the answer he wanted: "Captain, you can hide for a while, but not forever. This ship will fall into the underworld in at most a cup of tea, and you will die then.

If we work together now, I can't guarantee you more, but I can swear to God that if I live, you will live too.

But if you don’t know what’s good for you and still hide in the mast and pretend to be dead, don’t blame me for cutting down the mast and throwing you and the mast into the gap between the living and the dead outside, so that you can neither enter the world of the living nor the world of the dead after death.”

While staring at the mast with sharp eyes, Ding Hai reached out and grasped the Seven-Star Evil-Slaying Sword behind Qianhe.

This underworld is different from other places. Even though he has a small top-grade magic weapon to protect himself, Ding Hai does not dare to rush in. If all the rumors about this section of the canal are true, I am afraid that even if the current Maoshan invades the nest, it will not be able to pacify this underworld, let alone him, a young Taoist priest who has not yet completed his apprenticeship.

Therefore, Ding Hai really wanted to kill at this moment.

On the top of the mast, the captain, curled up inside the copper-clad auspicious top bead, ignored Ding Kai's threats. He had finally faked his death and escaped, so he would not be stupid enough to expose himself in public.

As for Ding Hai's threat just now, he just ignored it. The main mast was as thick as a man could hug, and it was made of old elm wood. It was soaked in a lot of tung oil and painted with many layers of raw lacquer before being installed on the ship. It would take an ordinary person a long time to saw it with a saw, and it was not something that could be done in a short time.

(End of this chapter)