Entomologist in Sichuan Tang Clan Chapter 346

346
When the sun had set and darkness had fallen over the harbor and the number of people had decreased, he approached the bow and spoke to Geumdo.

“Didn’t we talk about this earlier? Let’s leave the port first, Geumdo.”

-Bugurur.

Then, Geumdo listened to my request and left the port, heading towards the main stream of the Yangtze River.

It’s been a while since he moved, and Geumdo’s legs stretched out as he kicked the water, feeling good.

Seeing Geumdo stretching his legs in a cool manner made me think that it was a good idea to take advantage of the darkness.

It is possible to move when there are people, but then the sword and feet have to move slowly, so it is not possible to move this smoothly.

Although turtles are creatures that usually stay still in one place, they also like to stretch out while basking in the sun.

When I was little, I loved watching turtles stretch their legs and sunbathe, doing ballet.

As a smile came to my face at that thought, I saw Geumdo’s tail waving above the water behind me, perhaps feeling good after stretching for the first time in a long time.

“Geumdo-ya, go upstream a little bit and the waterway splits, it’s on the left. And the first village that appears. Oh, don’t go all the way to the village, just go close to it. I’ll tell you when I see the light.”

-Bughur.

The reason why the Geumdo was launched at night was to head to a place called Goae Village, which is located on a tributary of the Yangtze River a little distance from here.

Since they say that Taoists are active there, I decided to go there and investigate.

No, it’s not so much a base as it is a place where the Taoist priest is sitting and doing housework, so I was trying to get some additional information from around there.

The content written in the materials that Elder Punggae handed over was that, starting from the beginning of this year, demons began to appear in large numbers in the villages around Sungsan, where Shaolin Temple is located, and then a Taoist priest suddenly appeared and started going around the villages to eradicate the demons with talismans… no, he started doing business.

The additional request from Shaolin Temple written there was nothing else.

I don’t know about the Taoist sect, but even in this era, such talismans were considered a kind of trick or superstition in Buddhism. Since it was actually effective, I asked them to check if there was something strange going on.

Even if it was a trick or superstition, if it was due to the magic of a Taoist priest with true supernatural powers, it would be fine, but if it was not, and if it was something to deceive the world and the people, it was a request to let them know.

Since they can’t judge this matter accurately, they said they would leave the judgment to me, the expert, and decide the punishment themselves.

If something like that happened near the real Shaolin, wouldn’t it be unacceptable?

After hearing Hwa-eun’s story, the Shaolin Temple in Taishan Beidou is a place that feels like a hometown to the martial artists of the Central Plains, so how dare you commit fraud around such a place?

This is something that Shaolin Temple absolutely cannot tolerate, so they will thoroughly investigate it and step forward if there is a problem.

“Little Dragon, what does Little Dragon look like?”

As I was lost in thought, looking at the golden island moving forward from the bow, I heard a voice next to me.

When I turned my head, Hwa-eun came closer and leaned against me.

“What is it?”

“That, that Taoist. Is it really a supernatural power?”

Just as he was about to shake his head at Hwa-eun’s question, he heard Seol’s sister’s voice from the side.

“Ha-eun, what are you asking? That guy is clearly a scammer.”

“why?”

“You eat and sleep in a hut, right? There’s no way someone who eats and sleeps in a hut is normal.”

A strangely unfounded but persuasive statement.

I nodded my head too.

“Yes, he is definitely a scammer. Although his reasons are a bit different.”

“Right? Most of the people who eat and sleep in the huts are scammers.”

“No, the reason is a bit different···.”

“What more reason do you need to eat and sleep in a hut?”

“But how does someone who lived in Namman know such things?”

“No, well, I have a story to tell too.”

Regardless of whether the guy eats and sleeps in the hut or not, in my personal opinion this is 100% a scam.

Can you drive away the songworm with a talisman?

Because that is absolutely impossible.

If you want to chase away the songbirds, you’ll need to use substances they hate, or use pheromones.

In Joseon, they also put up talismans with a kind of wish, but they were not put up because they had real effects. In addition, songgi are animals that occupy the lowest position in the food pyramid, and recent research results have not revealed how they communicate.

However, it is thought that they communicate using pheromones and hormones when they are ready to breed.

But as a talisman?

It is something that cannot but be absolutely impossible.

There was, however, a one in ten thousand chance.

Since I can also summon a fox, it was a possible story if the other person had learned a similar martial art to me.

Don’t I also communicate with those who can’t communicate?

So, if you had learned martial arts similar to mine, it could have been possible.

However, even if his abilities are true, he cannot be freed from the suspicion of being a fraud.

“Anyway, regardless of his abilities, it seems certain that he uses the magic to extort money from people. Did you see the maps that Ji-ryong showed you earlier?”

“Yes, Little Dragon. That was definitely suspicious.”

Even if his abilities were not fraudulent, it was clear that he was committing fraud.

The village that suffered from the stench caused by the mass breeding of songbirds was first artificial.

Ji-ryong, who was the leader in organizing information, checked the map to see if the villages where the demons had appeared in large numbers had been marked, and they were moving clockwise around Sung-san.

They say that the demons are driven away with talismans, and then they are gathered and finally burned by the Taoist priest. To me, it feels like something has moved from this village to that village?

‘Just wait, that Joseon Dynasty Confucian scholar-saint.’

A man believed to be a Confucian scholar from Joseon Dynasty.

I decided to dig into it thoroughly.

The reason I assume he was a Confucian scholar is that, although the practice of using the Hyangranggaksicheonri Sokgeo talisman was first discovered in records from the late Joseon Dynasty, I know that it is believed to have been passed down for quite some time.

Also, expressions like “geupgeupyeoulryeong” (急急如律令) and “cheonrisokgeo” (a thousand miles away) are words that were used in the Central Plains, but the word “hyangranggaksi” (향랑각시) is a word that does not exist in the Central Plains.

So I thought he might be a student from the study abroad group.

When your will is burning, you can hear the sound of the golden sword crying.

-Bugurur.

“Oh, that’s right, Geumdo. Okay, let’s stop here.”

As I looked ahead at the sound of Geumdo’s cries, lights began to come into view one by one.

Since the village seemed close, we anchored the ship in the deep water.

***

Taeheodosa, who ate a lot of boiled white chicken and added a few characters to the talismans with the chicken’s blood.

He was about to go out to collect the talismans he had written with chicken blood to confirm that they were drying, when Taoist Master Taeheo suddenly laid down on a mat in the room.

“Oh my. You must have eaten well. Well, then shall we take a nap?”

“Huh? Oh, you’re not going out?”

Gu-gil was taken aback by the sight and asked, but Taoist Master Tae-heo answered with a look of concern.

“Hey, it’s getting dark, so you should go to bed. Don’t worry, I’ll be moving tomorrow morning. It’s hard to set up a talisman on a night like this, so there might be some birds. What if they happen again later?”

“Um… Okay, I understand.”

They say it’s to be more thorough, but what can I do?

So the night passed and morning came.

Gugil couldn’t sleep and as soon as the rooster started crowing at dawn, he went straight to the annex.

I said I was going out early in the morning, so it was to wake up the Taoist priest.

He had an inexplicable sense of uneasiness in his heart, and something was constantly stimulating his uneasiness, but he could not find the cause.

With a pounding heart, I scooped up some water for the examination, put it down in front of the annex, and shouted inside, then heard a voice.

“Master? Master Taeheo?”

“Oh, okay. I’m going out.”

Fortunately, the Taoist monk Taeheo came out after the door opened and he had finished preparing.

“Let’s just do the inspection and go right away.” “Understood!”

After a while.

At first he said there were three silver coins, then he said there were five, he acted like he was going to move right away, then he didn’t sleep, Taoist Taoist who had been making Gu-gil anxious in many ways finally left Gu-gil’s house at dawn when the sun was rising.

He was dressed neatly in his dobok and holding an amulet in his hand.

Only then did Gu-gil’s mind ease a little.

“Please lead me to the center of the village.”

“Yes, sir.”

-Ugh. Ugh.

The red rocks that creaked and were trampled on along the road to the village’s central well.

Fortunately, the dew had fallen and the smell was not too bad. However, when they arrived at the well, Taoist Master Taeheo looked around and finally started moving around on his own, putting up talismans here and there.

The fragrant maiden travels a thousand miles as fast as a law.

The letters on the amulets were like this, and as the Taoist went around the villages and placed the amulets, the day began to dawn and the sun began to rise.

A foul odor rises as the dew dries quickly in the warm light.

It was when the stench threatened to engulf the village again.

The Taoist priest, who had attached all the talismans, returned to the well and stomped on the ground, shouting.

“Hyangrangakshi! Thousand-mile speed! Urgent speed law!”

“Hyangrangakshi! Thousand-mile speed! Urgent speed law!”

“Hyangrangakshi! Thousand-mile speed! Urgent speed law!”

Did you shout like that three times?

Now most of the villagers had come out to watch the Taoist priest’s shouts, but just as the priest finished shouting three times, something strange started to happen.

The red dragons that had been scattered indiscriminately suddenly turned their heads in one direction.

“Look, look over there!”

“Oooh! The demons are turning their heads to one side!”

“Isn’t it like the military receiving orders?”

Yeah, that’s exactly what it was.

As if the army had received an order, the horsemen all turned their heads to one side and looked strangely at one side of the village.

“Why do you make people suffer! The fragrant lady of the palace travels a thousand miles in a hurry, like a law!”

And once again, when the Taoist shouted loudly, the demons began to move in one direction.

“Ohhhhh!”

“Ooh, it’s moving!”

A red body starts to move in one direction.

In an instant, a huge stream of animals crawled out from the roofs of houses, the cracks in the pillars of wells, and the cracks in the walls, moving toward one side of the village.

It was when people were blankly staring in that direction with surprised eyes.

The Taoist priest shouted at the village chief.

“Light some straw and wood and follow me!”

“Ah, I see! B, fire and straw. Who, who got the straw···.”

“Chief, I’ll take care of that!”

“Oh, right, Joe, I’ll ask you to do something about it.”

When the village chief, Gugil, is a little flustered by the Taoist priest’s sudden request, it is Joga who steps forward to help.

When Joga said that he would bring a bundle of straw and a burning branch, his wife and son immediately chased after the Taoist monk, carrying a bundle of straw and a burning branch.

The place they arrived at after chasing the Taoist priest and the Maruk who were moving around so slowly was a forest near the village, which was different from the surrounding area and had turned black.

In the middle of it was a pile of leaves the size of a small house, rotting away.

“Was there a place like this?”

“This is our first time seeing it too.”

Was there a place near the village where leaves piled up like this and were rotting?

While all the villagers were thinking that, the magic wands flowed in between the leaves.

The creeping maggots began to crawl between the rotten leaves and gradually disappeared.

“Straw!”

“Here you go, Master!”

Looking at the swarm of maru that was creeping through the mound of rotten leaves, the Taoist priest called out for straw, and Joga came out and pointed to the straw his son was holding in his arms, but the Taoist priest shook his head with a frown when he saw the straw Joga’s son was holding.

“We need more. That’s not enough. Now we have to burn these. Will that be enough?”

“Oh, I understand!”

At the Taoist priest’s words, all the villagers ran back to the village.

And after a while, the straw that had been carried by the villagers completely covered the pile of fallen leaves.

“Hyangrangaksi, a thousand-mile journey, urgent and swift laws!”

Then, when the Taoist priest threw a lit branch, the straw and rotten leaves burst into a huge flame.

-Wow.

It was the moment when the villagers who had been suffering from the stench for the past month were finally free from the nightmare.