The disciples of Qingxu Temple had all been troubled lately, and the source of their worries was the junior sister their sect leader had just brought home.
The little junior sister was called Lingsu. She looked no older than fifteen or sixteen, with delicate features, but she was rather slow-witted. The sect leader said she was an orphan from the village below the mountain and had a trace of spiritual talent, so he took her in as a disciple. But after six months, she still couldn’t draw talismans or exorcise evil spirits. She could barely manage even the most basic breathing exercises, often spacing out while standing and letting the peachwood sword in her hand slide to her feet three times in a row.
Shen Qingci, the senior disciple, was the most promising student in the temple. His talisman skills had inherited seven-tenths of the sect leader’s mastery, and he usually guided the junior disciples in their cultivation. Lingsu was the one who gave him the biggest headache.
“Junior sister, focus!” Shen Qingci tapped Lingsu on the forehead for the umpteenth time. “You’ve been drawing this ‘Purifying Heart Talisman’ for three days. You’re nearly out of cinnabar. If you can’t get it right this time, you’re skipping dinner tonight.”
Lingsu blinked and looked at the crooked lines on the yellow talisman. She muttered softly, “But... this isn’t the right way to draw it.”
“What’s wrong with it?” Shen Qingci frowned. “This is the method passed down by our founding master. It’s been done this way for thousands of years!”
Lingsu pressed her lips together and said no more. Her hand holding the talisman brush paused slightly.
Before the matter could be resolved, trouble broke out at the temple. People in the town below the mountain were possessed by evil spirits one after another. Several Taoist priests had been called in, but none could do anything. In the end, the townspeople had no choice but to turn to Qingxu Temple. With the sect leader in seclusion, Shen Qingci took his second junior brother and third junior sister down the mountain.
The evil spirit was a snake demon that had cultivated for three hundred years, its malevolent aura
