I am the Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysterious-Chapter 187 - 159: Uses of Trigrams

Yu Da possessed a wealth of knowledge, and Sang Que learned many practical skills from him, as well as methods for dealing with common evil spirits.

Like with the Blood Robe Evil, if it weren’t for Yu Da telling her that she could temporarily pin it down with a peach wood bow and thorn arrow, she might have had to expend a large amount of Evil Mist to trap the Blood Robe Evil.

Ever since Yu Da’s reminder, Sang Que also paid special attention to the changes in her body every time she used Evil Mist.

Frequent use of Evil Mist was not without its effects on her. Even though she had perfectly mastered the Yin Child and, through it, mastered the village resentment, the power of the evil spirits was still slowly eroding her body.

Now, she always looked pale, her body was colder than the average person’s, and the symptoms of anemia became more severe. At home, she was constantly taking Chinese medicine and supplementing her diet.

She also had a stench of corpse because the village resentment had devoured the cursed heart of the old monk, causing her blood to carry the fragrance of Jade Liquid with wine, thus masking the stench.

Every time she used the power of the Yin Child, her body would stiffen, but it didn’t show because she practiced martial arts every day, speeding up her blood circulation.

In the noodle shop, Yu Da ordered two bowls of braised pork noodles with added ingredients. After mixing them, the aroma was mouthwatering. He picked up a chopstick’s worth of soy sauce-colored noodles, blew on them twice, and hurriedly sucked them in.

"Waiter, bring some garlic."

Eating noodles without garlic makes them half as flavorful. The Deceit Dynasty already had garlic and chili peppers.

While mixing noodles, Sang Que asked, "Old Yu, last time you told me that the Taoist Sect also forges Yansheng coins and engraves spells on them. What are some commonly used spells? I want to collect each one, it seems interesting."

Yu Da took the garlic from the waiter and started peeling it.

"They’re just those spells invoking the power of the Daoist Lord, not much difference."

"Besides the Daoist Lord, are there no spells invoking other ghost gods?"

Sang Que’s Yansheng coin was engraved with ’Lord Lao Zi of the Great Monad’s urgent decree,’ but the Deceit Dynasty didn’t have Lord Lao Zi of the Great Monad.

Yu Da shook his head, "No, our Xuan Dynasty has only one Daoist Lord. If another Divine of the Taoist Sect were added, there likely wouldn’t be enough incense offerings to go around."

Sang Que thought deeply while eating noodles. She had always thought Yansheng coins were from the Deceit Dynasty, but now it seemed her Yansheng coin was a modern creation.

A modern Yansheng coin could open the gate to the Deceit Dynasty. Could it be that everything in the Deceit Dynasty was transmitted from the modern world?

Could it be that modern people opened this gate, allowing the Deceit Dynasty’s evil spirits to enter the modern world, thus leading to paranormal events?

As Sang Que speculated to herself, Yu Da, with a bite of garlic, slurped a noodle, and continued, "The Yansheng coins of the Taoist Sect often have Eight Diagrams carved on them. The Eight Diagrams can suppress ghosts, corresponding to the Eight Gates in Qimen Dunjia, each having its own ingenious use."

Sang Que’s eyes lit up slightly. She put down her chopsticks, peeled the garlic, and waited for Yu Da to continue speaking.

Her Yansheng coin could not only open the Gate of Two Realms, but each of the eight trigrams had its use. However, so far, she had only developed two of them.

One corresponded to the Geng Trigram related to the Life Gate, capable of healing, but the healing effect was weak. No matter how severe the injury, it could only pull her back from the brink of death, not accelerate the healing of the wound or restore strength.

It was just keeping her from dying, luckily, after the village resentment devoured the old monk’s heart, due to the curse, she could accelerate the healing of injuries by supplementing her energy and blood.

Regarding this, her mother and she always had a hunch that directly consuming human blood would heal injuries faster.

The other developed use was the fusion of the eight trigrams, which could imprint the ’Mountain Ghost Seal’ on evil spirits.

Evil spirits marked with the Mountain Ghost Seal could possess their own thoughts but could not disobey her commands.

When she wasn’t keeping an eye on them, the evil spirits still took opportunities to cause trouble. For example, last time when she was busy fighting the Fish Woman, the Yin Child sneaked away to retrieve the Ghost Eye from He Buning.

If she died, would the Mountain Ghost Seal disappear, freeing the Yin Child and village resentment? Or would they die with her?

Seeing the Yin Child’s apparent indifference, Sang Que guessed it was the first situation. Her death would mean the Yin Child’s freedom.

Currently, she only imprinted the Mountain Ghost Seal on the Yin Child and village resentment. The second time she sealed the village resentment, her body couldn’t withstand it, becoming severely rigid and covered in corpse spots, taking an entire night to slowly recover, so she didn’t dare try to harness another evil spirit.

In fact, her current use of the Yin Child and village resentment was quite incomplete. The village resentment was being used as the heart by the Yin Child, allowing her to use the village resentment’s power to maintain the opera house and utilize its recovery and rapid healing abilities.

The Yin Child’s abilities weren’t limited to Evil Mist. The Yin Child’s hands could dismember, although she had only used the Yin Child to dismember people before and never tried dismembering ghosts.

The next time she encountered a four-layered evil ghost that she could contend with, she could try and see if the Yin Child’s little hands could uncover yin objects.

The useful ones she could use, and the useless ones she could swap for Merit Points, then exchange Merit Points for useful ones.

The uses of the other trigrams on her Yansheng coin haven’t been developed yet, likely due to her insufficient understanding of the trigrams.

Her mother also tried to urgently supplement her knowledge in this area, but it was in vain because it seemed to require some sort of opportunity, like the life-and-death barrier breakthroughs in martial arts novels.

Yu Da’s voice brought Sang Que back to her senses.

"Qimen Dunjia is vast and profound. In truth, I also don’t know much about it."

"It’s just casual chat. Just tell me what you know," Sang Que replied casually.

Yu Da bit half a garlic clove, "I just know the Geng Trigram corresponds to the Life Gate, which is earth, meaning earth gives birth to all things and embodies a return of yang energy. The Death Gate corresponds to the Kun Trigram, also earth, opposite the Life Gate, meaning all things stagnate and life force dies. The Hurt Gate corresponds to the Thunder Trigram, which is wood, meaning wood thrives yet breaks. I don’t know what that means."

"There’s also the Open Gate, which is metal, corresponding to the Qian Trigram. As it’s the leader of the Eight Diagrams, it signifies great fortune through an open gate, and some Daoists can use Qian Gold Weapons to open the third eye in their foreheads, thereby discerning the laws of evil spirits and malicious ghosts, borrowing the power of the Open Gate."

Discerning laws? Sang Que vaguely felt some inspiration.

"I don’t remember the rest. You’d be better off consulting a Daoist, they’re more reliable than I am."

Thinking about consulting a Daoist, Sang Que immediately thought of Yao Zhen, though she wasn’t sure where he was at the moment.

"Oh, by the way, our Xuan Dynasty’s Shengjing City is the Eight Diagram City, built according to the correspondences of the Eight Diagrams and Eight Gates. It’s extremely mystical, and no evil ghost dares to enter Shengjing City. You should take a look if you get the chance."

After eating and drinking his fill, Yu Da rubbed his belly, paid the bill, and advised Sang Que to head back early to rest, treating it as a half-day off.

Tomorrow, she would continue to patrol the streets with Yu Da, handling miscellaneous matters related to evil spirits in the city. After fifteen more days, she’d complete her month-long training and could officially take on the duties of a Night Traveler.

Returning to her small courtyard, Sang Que saw Xia Chan practicing breaking logs with her hair. The soft black hair wrapped around the wooden pillar, Xia Chan frowned and stomped, causing the log, as thick as a person, to snap instantly.

"Sister, am I amazing?"

Xia Chan’s eyes were full of anticipation. Sang Que pursed her lips, nodded, and gave a thumbs up.

Heaven knew that those logs were specifically bought by her to build a plum blossom stake, and now they were all broken by Xia Chan. She had to buy new ones.

"Little Chan, why don’t you go to school tomorrow?"

"No! Little Chan doesn’t want to go to school! The teacher is bad!" Xia Chan protested loudly.

Sang Que sighed. Didn’t He Buning think Little Chan was his sister? Why didn’t he care or make arrangements?

In the afternoon, Sang Que had the rare opportunity to organize and record what she recently learned and guided Xia Chan in practicing martial arts. When Xuan Yu returned from a wander in the evening, Sang Que made sure to train her for an hour as well.

Xuan Yu was very cooperative, but also held grudges. At night, she would not let Sang Que touch her, choosing instead to stick close to Xia Chan.

Sang Que had a wonderful night’s sleep, and at long last, days of fatigue were alleviated.

The next morning, as usual, Sang Que got up before dawn to practice martial arts. As soon as she finished the starting move, there was a loud knocking on her front door.

When Sang Que opened the door, she saw a worried-looking Yu Da.

"There’s trouble over at Wei Wu’s place. We need to get there quickly."

Upon hearing this news, Sang Que wasn’t the slightest bit surprised.