My Scales Can Make Equivalent Exchange
Chapter 87: Water Path Ceremony

Chapter 87: Chapter 87: Water Path Ceremony

Immediately, above Wang Zijia’s area, the four senior martial uncles who had been meditating with their eyes closed, each of whom was at least at the rank of a sacrificial wine realm, opened their eyes at the same time. The four of them looked at each other, then at the disciples below.

"Everyone’s here, then let’s begin our preparation!" One of the martial uncles, donned in a bright yellow Celestial Master’s Daoist robe, spoke first.

"Agreed!"

"Yes!"

"Good!"

The other three responded in unison.

The three remaining were a graceful woman cultivator, a middle-aged scholar, and a muscular hefty man like a steel tower.

The hefty man was the first to act, tossing out several strangely shaped utensils, which landed haphazardly in the coffin arrays below and became still in the coffins.

Not far from Wang Zijia, in one of the coffins, was an item that looked like a broken sword. It was quite damaged and it was unclear what it was used for. It was simply tossed onto the corpse in the coffin and was left as it was.

The hefty man stopped once he had finished.

The only female among the three martial uncles then waved her hand, and jade bottles began to appear all over the place. In the blink of an eye, they filled almost half the sky.

After a moment, the jade bottles stopped appearing and immediately after, a large number of them fell down.

One of them landed in front of Wang Zijia under his confused gaze. Instinctively, he reached out and caught the jade bottle.

"Top-grade Replenishing Qi Pills, three in a bottle. If you run out of mana, you can swallow them straight away." The female cultivator in the sky spoke as Wang Zijia caught the jade bottle.

"If anyone runs through all three Replenishing Qi Pills and still isn’t completely restored..." she gestured to the small group of jade bottles beside her and continued, "do not hesitate to help yourself to more."

While she spoke, she waved her hand again, and a giant alchemy furnace appeared before her. After that, she made no more movements, as if she was waiting to start alchemical processing.

The last of them, the middle-aged scholar, similarly waved his hand, causing an enormous commotion.

Countless runes flowed and many ephemeral books filled with stars floated above everyone’s heads. They slowly revolved around the array below but did not change further.

Wang Zijia looked up at the illusory book above his head. It seemed like the style of a Technique Manual, except there were no words in it. It appeared to be blank.

"Members of the Talisman Academy, those who have only minor accomplishments in talisman techniques, and those who have not yet fully mastered talisman paper’s form transformations, step forward!" The middle-aged scholar suddenly spoke, directing his words to the disciples around the coffin array below.

The crowd looked at each other. Astoundingly, not a single disciple from the entire array stepped forward.

The middle-aged scholar nodded approvingly and waved his hand, saying, "After the Dharma Assembly begins, you have nothing to worry about. Just make the talisman papers on-site and drop them onto the array. The talisman papers should be made in the shape of Secret Book pages."

"Yes!"

The crowd answered in unison.

Seeing this, the middle-aged scholar turned his gaze to the first one, the old Taoist wearing the bright yellow Heavenly Master robe.

The Old Taoist locked eyes with the other three, gave a slight nod, and addressed the disciples of the Funerary Preserving Vein, who were dressed up in a variety of costumes in the array, saying, "Begin the rituals!"

As he spoke, a surge of spiritual light exploded from his body, and a strange fluctuation of magical power, like a force field, enveloped all the personnel in the Eight Trigram area.

Surrounded by the force field, Wang Zijia felt a sense of tranquility and harmony rising in his heart. The sound of the Dao echoed in his ears, as if someone in the far distance was chanting and performing rites to guide the deceased to the afterlife.

Following this, all the disciples of the Funerary Preserving Vein, who had been waiting for a long time, each set up their altars simultaneously in the center of their designated coffin zones and began their rituals.

There were traditional Dharma Assemblies, witch-doctor-like trance dances, and kneeling prayer ceremonies. For a time, it was a wild chaos of actions, leaving Wang Zijia a bit baffled.

Although some knowledge had been gained, it was still at a very basic level, and he had no understanding of the work of a mortician.

Of course, Wang Zijia wasn’t the only one who was baffled, there were many disciples in the same boat.

In fact, Wang Zijia noticed that several disciples, observing the Encoffin Array Disciples performing their ritualistic movements, had reddened faces, as if they wanted to laugh but dared not.

"Rise!"

Without keeping everyone waiting for long, a hoarse voice suddenly echoed from the center of the Yin and Yang fish in the Square.

An invisible shock wave diffused, sweeping across the whole Eight Trigrams Plaza in an instant. Wang Zijia was stunned as the invisible shock wave hit him.

His mind was then flooded with a cool sensation, as if he had taken a drink of cold water on a hot summer day. The refreshing feeling swept through his whole body.

He felt somewhat more alert, and his thoughts seemed to become more active. He was in a better condition than after consuming the Wisdom Heart Pill.

At that moment, as the shock wave diffused, inside the square, those Encoffin Array Disciples performing their ritualistic movements began to emit fluctuations of magical power. It was like a force field enveloping their own areas, and they began to showcase their skills.

The initially bewildered Wang Zijia’s pupils suddenly contracted.

He saw inside the square, as the disciples performed their ritualistic movements, lights imperceptible to the naked eye began to emerge from some of the corpses inside the coffins, and floated and gathered three inches above the bodies.

Even though it was noon and the sunlight was bright, it could not hide their unique radiance.

Wang Zijia was all too familiar with this, because the two occasions he had witnessed the extraction of Spiritual Roots using the pollution method had also resulted in these light spots!

However, unlike the pollution method, the light spots extracted from these bodies didn’t form a specific shape above the corpses. Instead, they floated a few inches above the bodies, forming a vague cluster of luminosity, not making any other movements.

Light spots were extracted one after another, and each body had a cluster of luminescence, more or less.

"Talisman Academy Members, rise and perform the ritual!"

At this moment, the middle-aged scholar in the sky suddenly spoke, jolting the stupefied Wang Zijia back to consciousness.

Upon hearing this, Wang Zijia stopped concerning himself with other matters. He raised his hand and took out a piece of spiritual material from the prepared batch next to him and activated his mastered talisman paper making technique.

As the spiritual materials writhed and came together, a piece of Blank Talisman Paper, the size of a secret book page, formed. Wang Zijia looked around and, following the instructions given by the middle-aged scholar earlier, tossed the newly formed talisman paper into the coffin array.

In an instant, it began to rain paper in the sky above the square.

The talisman paper fluttered in the square, and as it fell, it dissolved without fire before it even hit the ground, leaving no trace of the paper behind.

The coffins, the altar, the practicing Celestial Masters, and the floating talisman paper in the sky, all really did create the atmosphere of a funeral ceremony.

Wang Zijia couldn’t help but frown, as he still couldn’t figure out why they were brought here!

Could it really be that they were just here to set the atmosphere for a funeral ceremony by scattering paper money?

While lost in thought, he wanted to cast the spell again to create another talisman paper.

But as soon as he started, he felt a halt in his breath.

Despite his mastery of the technique, he found it hard to cast the spell again.

Instinctively, he looked up and, mysteriously, he could spot the piece of talisman paper he had created amidst the floating pieces in the sky. It was still slowly fluttering, gradually disintegrating. Judging by its state, it would take at least about five minutes to completely fall to the ground or disintegrate.

The next time he wanted to cast the spell, he would have to wait until his previous talisman paper had completely disintegrated.

"Huh?"