New Times, New Hell

Chapter 46 - Family of Heavenly Masters

Zheng Yan’s family was a somewhat locally well known family of heavenly masters in Ledu. They had a legacy of cultivation; counting Zheng Yan’s father’s generation, it had already been hundreds of years. Their ancestors had passed down many spells and magical instruments, some that had truly been used to subdue demons and monsters. They were reinforced with the magic of the gods, and were famous even when considered in the entire Daoist community.

There were several collateral branches of the Zheng family. Among them, some had switched to different paths to make a living, while others wholeheartedly spent their time on cultivation and were honestly talented. There were also a few that used the name of Ledu’s Zheng clan to brag and scam others, earning money this way. But they didn’t have that close of a relationship, so Zheng Yan’s family couldn’t control them.

No matter what, though, Zheng Yan’s family remained the official successors of the Zheng Heavenly Masters. Regardless of if the collateral branches truthfully practiced Daoism or faked practicing it, they still needed to use the Zheng clan’s name to do business. Zheng Yan’s family had always been the ones in charge.

But unexpectedly, with Zheng Yan’s generation, it appeared that the succession of power for the Zheng Heavenly Masters would be switching owners.

The Zheng clan’s successor was always heavily scrutinized by all other family members. Thus, everyone knew quite early on that Zheng Yan hadn’t really made any advancements in the field of cultivation. Though his father Zheng Jing maintained that he was fated to be with ghosts and gods, only missing that moment of enlightenment, Zheng Yan had already graduated from university and was now working, but that moment still hadn’t arrived yet.

Before, the Zheng family had kept Zheng Yan at home for a year to learn cultivation, but Zheng Yan didn’t made any progress during that time and had even packed up and run away from home after.

Now, there were rumors that Zheng Yan had already completely fallen into the embrace of socialism and was now working at an Internet startup company.

With this news, the collateral branches of the family who had previously had their eyes on the prize now started plotting.

……

Zheng family mansion.

“Come, nephew of mine. Tell us, what are you doing now?” The middle-aged man who spoke was named Zheng Shu. He was one of those collateral branches who didn’t actually practice Daoism but only used the Zheng clan’s name to scam others. Because he knew how to curry favor, though, he was doing pretty well now. People in the Zheng clan listened to what he had to say.

Zheng Yan didn’t have that great of an impression of him, but it wouldn’t be polite to ignore his elders, so he cordially answered, “I’m working at an Internet company as their product manager.”

Zheng Shu very exaggeratedly widened his eyes. “Not bad ah, that’s a field that pays a lot. Your future looks bright.”

Zheng Yan’s father Zheng Jing sat at the head of the table and impatiently interrupted, “Zheng Shu, say what you want to directly. You don’t need to be wishy-washy.”

Zheng Shu had no shame. Upon hearing this, he didn’t feel embarrassed at all and even replied, “Big brother, since my nephew doesn’t want to be a Daoist, the magical instruments of our Zheng clan can’t stay with him, right? That would be a waste of good resources. In my opinion, it would be better to just take them out and split them between the brothers who are still interested in this path.”

Someone off to the side butted in, “Big brother, Zheng Shu is right. Zheng Yan won’t be a Daoist, and we can’t allow the reputation of the Zheng Heavenly Masters to fall into shambles. Why don’t you give the instruments to others. The most important thing is to continue and help the Zheng clan become bigger and better.”

Zheng Jing emotionessly said, “Just because Zheng Yan won’t inherit them doesn’t mean that no one in my family will inherit them. When Zheng Yan gets married and has a child, I can have my grandson inherit them.”

Upon hearing this, Zheng Shu’s expression changed into that of disagreement. “Not that I’m saying this to contradict you, big brother, but how long would we have to wait for your grandson to inherit them? The world changes so quickly now. In a few more years, there might not even be a place for us Zheng Heavenly Masters.”

Everyone immediately agreed.

At this time, an invigorated middle-aged Daoist said, “The items belong to big brother’s family. Big brother will naturally do with them as he sees fit. There’s no need for us to force him to do anything.”

As soon as he spoke, the originally rambunctious scene immediately quieted.

Zheng Yan glanced up at him too. The one who spoke was called Zheng Guang. Out of everyone here today, he was fourth in line and belonged to the most impressive collateral branch of the Zheng clan.

In Zheng Yan’s generation, another extremely talented heir appeared in their family. Zheng Guang’s son Zheng Dan had started learning Daoism since young. At age six, he opened his third eye; now, he was only a little over twenty but had already made quite a name for himself.

Today Zheng Dan was in attendance too. He wore a Daoist robe and stood beside his father, back straight as a board, eyes alight with passion, and with an impressive air. When compared to Zheng Yan, who wore a classic programmer’s collared plaid shirt and who appeared slightly out of it because of all the overtime he had done at work, they seemed like polar opposites.

Zheng Yan’s mood was quite conflicted upon seeing Zheng Dan. They were around the same age, but Zheng Yan was the official heir of the Zheng clan while Zheng Dan was the established prodigy of the clan. Since young, they had often been compared by their elders.

Unfortunately, the result of such comparisons revealed Zheng Yan to be the accompanying green leaves, the one used to prove how much of a prodigy Zheng Dan was.

Actually, in terms of intelligence, Zheng Yan wasn’t worse off than Zheng Dan. In the nine years of mandatory education they had taken, they had attended the same school. Zheng Yan’s grades were much better than Zheng Dan’s. After graduating from middle school, Zheng Dan dropped out of school to focus on cultivation while Zheng Yan continued on until he got into a good college.

It was a pity that to the Zheng Heavenly Masters, no matter how impressive your education was, it didn’t matter if you didn’t practice the ways of the Dao.

After Zheng Yan attended university and still refused to become a Daoist, in recent years, the collateral branches of the Zheng clan seemed to be subtly starting to kiss up to Zheng Guang’s branch.

Like when they just arrived. Quite a few of his other uncles had gone up to connect with Zheng Dan, praising him incessantly. As the official heir, Zheng Yan didn’t receive much attention.

This wasn’t hard to understand. If Zheng Yan’s family lost the official inheritance, even just for one generation, they would definitely suffer a great blow. And now, Zheng Dan was at his prime. It was very likely that he would become the head of the newer generation. If Zheng Guang rose to prominence, it wasn’t impossible that they would replace Zheng Yan’s family as the official main family of the Zheng clan.

Zheng Yan wasn’t an idiot. He knew that Zheng Guang was only saying this for appearances, but in reality was trying to make concessions in order to gain advantages. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have appeared here today in the first place.

As expected, before Zheng Guang could finish speaking, Zheng Shu added on after a few exclamations, “Number four, you may not mind, but today I must express how unfair things are for you. Actually, I’m not interested in the magical instruments of the Zheng clan at all. This is just because I feel pitiful about Zheng Dan’s condition right now.”

“Who here doesn’t know that cultivation requires talent. Zheng Dan is this——” Zheng Shu held up a thumb for everyone to see as he spoke. “Opening his third eye at age six. Forget all us collateral branches. Even big brother’s family hasn’t had such a prodigy in the fast few generations. Since the Zheng Heavenly Masters cannot break tradition, shouldn’t the most fitting successor for the new generation be Zheng Dan?”

As soon as Zheng Shu said this, everyone else present immediately agreed.

“Isn’t that so. These past few years, Zheng Dan has done a lot of good work out in the world. The fame of our Zheng clan has risen quite obviously.”

“You guys haven’t heard. Just in this past year, so many people have already asked me to help contact Zheng Dan. They want him to go cast spells for them.”

“Me too. They all named him specifically; they only want Zheng Dan. I bet that soon after, when outsiders mention the Zheng clan, they’ll be speaking of Zheng Dan.”

They all added on to each other, their words subtly roasting Zheng Yan’s family. It was a good thing that he and his father were already prepared. They managed to hold in their anger despite hearing this conversation.

Instead, Zheng Dan stepped out and told the others to stop. “Uncles, please don’t say that. These are all exaggerations is all.”

“Ey ey ey, nephew you’re being too humble,” Zheng Shu exaggeratedly gestured. “I heard that just last month, you subdued a mandrill on Maiqiu Mountain near the capital?”

As soon as Zheng Shu spoke, everyone’s expressions became surprised, regardless of if they had known about this before or not.

“Truly? He subdued a mandrill?”

“You’ll need to be more clear. Did he destroy it or subdue it to serve him?”

Zheng Dan very smoothly replied, “It was a mandrill. It was a menace to several of the villages nearby and the villagers couldn’t take it anymore, so called me to take care of it.”

He paused. “It wasn’t easy for the mandrill to achieve such skills, so I didn’t kill it. I simply subdued it to become under my control.”

Zheng Shu lamented, “Nephew of mine is oversimplifying it. I have friends over there and they all tell me that that wasn’t a normal mandrill. That mandrill has hidden in Maiqiu Mountain, cultivating, for who knows how many years. It achieved a great level of cultivation, so many of the religious masters they had found previously couldn’t do anything about it. But as soon as Zheng Dan arrived, not only did he defeat it, but he also made the mandrill obediently listen to him as his servant. This is skill, wouldn’t you all agree?”

As soon as Zheng Shu finished speaking, everyone responded with shock. In an instant, the praise and applause wouldn’t stop.

Even Zheng Jing couldn’t help but view him in a different light. He asked, “Zheng Dan, you really subdued a mandrill?”

Zheng Dan nodded. “Yes.”

Zheng Jing sighed, “You are truly talented.”

Actually, if this were in the past, it wouldn’t have been impressive at all for a Zheng Heavenly Master to subdue a mandrill. But ever since fifty years ago, for some reason, the energy between the Heavens and earth had sharply decreased. There was no magic in the mortal realm, so several Daoists’ abilities were much weaker than before.

In their generation, they had already become unable to sense the gods completely. Though they could still borrow the remaining energy to cast spells, the power produced was much less in comparison.

To subdue a mandrill today would require a lot of energy, not to mention that Zheng Dan was only just past the age of twenty.

Zheng Jing said, “If that is so, then I will gift you a magical instrument of the Zheng clan. Take it with you and practice diligently. Your future will undoubtedly be boundless.”

He asked, “Is there any tool you are best with right now?”

Only to hear Zheng Guang say, “Big brother, the tool Zheng Dan uses best right now is an eight trigrams mirror.”

Zheng Jing’s expression changed. He lowly said, “The Zheng clan only has one qiankun eight trigrams mirror, and that’s going to be passed on to my grandson. Zheng Dan, choose something else.”

Before Zheng Dan could speak, Zheng Shu jumped out to say, “Big brother, since you already agreed to give him an instrument, which specific one doesn’t matter. Since Zheng Dan is used to using an eight trigrams mirror, then when he starts using the qiankun eight trigrams mirror, he will definitely be able to use it to its full potential. Wouldn’t that be the best outcome?”

Zheng Yan who had stood to the side listening to them argue finally understood what was going on. After all this effort, it seemed that these people were here for the qiankun eight trigrams mirror.

No wonder they had caused such a big commotion and so many people had come.

The Zheng clan owned several magical instruments, but the most famous among them was undoubtedly that qiankun eight trigrams mirror, passed down from the first Zheng Heavenly Master. This trigrams mirror had truly been reinforced by the Three Pure Ones. It had subdued an abundance of demons, monsters, and ghosts, so was well-known in the Daoist community.

The Zheng Heavenly Masters had always portrayed this eight trigrams mirror as a source of pride. If it got passed down to Zheng Dan, wouldn’t that mean they were giving the official title of head of family to Zheng Guang’s branch?

Zheng Jing naturally wouldn’t agree, but Zheng Guang had obviously come prepared. He didn’t say much, but everyone else kept speaking, until Zheng Jing couldn’t even get a word in.

Though Zheng Yan didn’t practice Daoism, he had been surrounded by it since young. Thus, he knew how important this eight trigrams mirror was. Now that he was witnessing these people working together to bully his father, he immediately became furious. He stood up and said, “Uncles, you guys are being too much. The eight trigrams mirror belongs to our family. Whether or not we want to give it away is up to my father.”

Zheng Shu completely disregarded him. He scoffed in response and mocked, “Zheng Yan, you don’t even practice Daoism. Why are you butting into us Daoists’ business?”

Someone else added on, “Aren’t you working on your new high tech things now? Don’t tell me you’re thinking of still hogging the eight trigrams mirror?”

It had been fine before Zheng Yan had spoken, but now that he had, he immediately became the target of their criticisms. Everyone suddenly remembered him, so started using him as their topic of conversation. Their words were all quite vindictful, as if Zheng Yan’s refusal to give up the eight trigrams mirror was the equivalent of him hogging the toilet but not needing to shit. He would be the downfall of all the Zheng Heavenly Masters because of his selfishness.

Upon seeing their attitude, Zheng Jing’s heart dropped. He thought to himself oh no. In the beginning, he could still remain tight-lipped and refuse to agree, but now that Zheng Yan had spoken up, if he continued to be stubborn, these people would definitely blame Zheng Yan for anything bad that happened to the Zheng clan in the future. They were determined to paint Zheng Yan as the Zheng clan’s greatest sinner of the past thousand years.

Zheng Jing thought quickly and hurriedly shouted, “Zheng Yan, stop talking.”

Zheng Yan reluctantly stopped, but everybody else refused to back down so easily. They still wanted to argue, only to see Zheng Guang gesture with his hand, indicating for everyone to quiet down. Then, he finally looked at Zheng Jing. “Big brother, don’t be mistaken. Our intentions really aren’t to steal the qiankun eight trigrams mirror from you under these circumstances. It’s just that Zheng Dan truly is a prodigy, so we hope that he can become even better. This is all for the Zheng clan’s development too.”

He turned around to glance at Zheng Dan. “Dan’er, let your mandrill out so your uncle can see.”

Zheng Dan reached into his bag and pulled out a tiny calabash gourd. He removed the stopper at the mouth of the gourd and said, “Okay.”

At the same time, Zheng Jing shouted, “Wait, don’t let it out.”

But he was still too late. Zheng Dan’s calabash gourd was already open. From the mouth of the gourd, a ball of dark, black smoke emerged. Soon after, a strange “huhu” noise sounded out, followed by the appearance of a creature around the size of a three year old child with a bulging forehead and prognathic mouth.

Though the mandrill was also called a mountain ghost, it wasn’t actually a ghost, but a spirit-creature of the mountains. One could see it even without a third eye.

And the reason Zheng Jing had shouted was, he had suddenly remembered that his son Zheng Yan not only refused to become a Daoist, but also……was deathly terrified of ghosts and such creatures.

Only to see that the mandrill Zheng Dan had subdued was quite grotesquely shaped. Its arms were thin and long, and its lower body was comprised of a single, thick leg. The foot faced backwards and a row of sharp canines emerged from its mouth. Both eyes were blood red.

Zheng Jing only needed to take one glance to figure out that this mandrill was quite abnormal, but he didn’t have time to dwell on this matter. He hurriedly looked over at Zheng Yan, frightened that his son would pass out from terror in front of everyone.

He turned around to see that Zheng Yan’s expression was shocked, as expected. But upon further inspection, he realized that he didn’t seem extremely scared. Instead, he seemed a little……disdainful？

Zheng Jing: ?????

He couldn’t help but call out, “Zheng Yan?”

Zheng Yan turned around. “Something wrong?”

Zheng Jing paused for a bit. He sighed, “Nothing.”

Zheng Yan was bewildered. He turned back to observe the mandrill. Thanks to his practice with his coworkers normally, this mandrill could only be considered as having a rather normal appearance in his eyes now.

As soon as the mandrill appeared, it threw its head back and howled, causing the hearts of everyone present to tremble. After, it waved its thin, long, and sharp claws around. With a screech, it tried to pounce into the area with the most people.

Everyone’s expressions immediately changed. Zheng Dan instantly pulled out an eight trigrams mirror and made hand gestures with his other hand. He pointed the mirror at the mandrill and yelled, “How brave, you beast. You dare to be so reckless?”

As soon as the eight trigrams mirror landed on the mandrill, it immediately lost half of its imposing aura. It retracted its sharp claws and reluctantly returned to stand in front of Zheng Dan.

Zheng Dan apologetically told everyone, “I’ve disturbed you, uncles. This mandrill’s cultivation level is extremely high, and it also had a proud temperament. I still need to train it for a while before I can completely tame it.”

Zheng Shu patted his chest and responded with lingering fright, “Understandable, understandable. This mandrill isn’t your average mandrill. It has one leg, a backwards foot, and red eyes.”

Folklore legends regarding the mandrill were plentiful, but most were only describing regular monsters or extra ferocious animals. But the one Zheng Dan had subdued was a proven and true mandrill. Only real mandrills had one leg and a backwards foot. The red eyes were an indication of how high its cultivation was.

Zheng Dan modestly said, “I had to use a lot of energy to subdue it.”

Zheng Shu tsk’d and shook his head. “You can already subdue it now. When you get the qiankun eight trigrams mirror, wouldn’t it be a piece of cake to completely tame this mandrill?”

With this, he directly implied that Zheng Dan would definitely be able to receive the qiankun eight trigrams mirror.

Everyone else added on, telling Zheng Jing, “Big brother, Zheng Dan has managed to reach such high cultivation at such a young age. It won’t be a waste giving him the eight trigrams mirror.”

Zheng Jing’s expression wasn’t so great. Zheng Guang looked over and smiled slightly. “Big brother, I’m not trying to make things difficult for you on purpose. It’s just that recently, Zheng Dan has reached a block in his cultivation that’s hard to break through. If you’re willing to give him the eight trigrams mirror, I would be infinitely grateful……How about this. Just think that you are lending him the mirror. After Zheng Yan gets married and has his own child and your grandson inherits the official title of Zheng Heavenly Master, we can return the eight trigrams mirror to you?”

Zheng Guang announced his plan clearly. It sounded reasonable, but if one thought about it carefully, one would realize it was full of traps. As soon as the eight trigrams mirror got “lent” out, and Zheng Dan used it to become famous, it would be extremely difficult to get him to return it.

But Zheng Jing was already at a dead end. He could refuse, but if he did, Zheng Yan would be destined to bear the brunt of everyone’s accusations. If he took a step back and thought about it, even if Zheng Yan had a kid, it would still be hard for the child to surpass Zheng Dan’s talent. By then, the official branch would collapse and those magical instruments would still fall into the hands of the greedy collateral branches anyways.

But now, if he could use the eight trigrams mirror to better relations with Zheng Guang’s branch and ask them to protect Zheng Yan in the future, maybe there was hope.

Zheng Jing sighed in regret in his heart. He was truly reluctant.

Zheng Dan conveniently added, “This is mainly because Yan ge doesn’t practice Daoism. Otherwise, I wouldn’t dare to make this request.”

This made Zheng Jing finally make up his mind. He was just about to bite the bullet and speak, only to hear Zheng Yan beat him to the punch and say, “Who said I’m not practicing Daoism.”

Zheng Jing didn’t manage to make a noise. The words he was about to say got stuck in his throat as he stared at Zheng Yan.

Only to see his face was red with fury and his cheeks puffed out. It was obvious how pissed he was. Zheng Jing understood his feelings, so comforted, “Zheng Yan, I’ll deal with it……”

But Zheng Shu refused to let this opportunity escape. He roared with laughter. “Zheng Yan, didn’t you say you’re working with the Internet? How are you practicing Daoism? Practicing Daoism online?”

Zheng Yan decided to go all in. He used the mannerisms and techniques Yu Zhengdu often did when discussing business with clients; he puffed out his chest and said, “Yes. Traditional Daoism is too slow, so I’ve decided to enter into a high tech industry: scientific cultivation.”

Everyone: “……”

Zheng Jing: “……” Son, hurry and shut up!

Zheng Shu couldn’t stop laughing. He didn’t even care about his usual pretense of being a Daoist as he rocked with laughter.

“How rare that Zheng Yan is willing to practice cultivation. You should stop laughing at him,” Zheng Guang conveniently stopped Zheng Shu.

Zheng Shu innocently said, “Wait no, number four, you’re being serious?”

Zheng Guang turned to Zheng Yan. “Zheng Yan, since you say you’re practicing Daoism too, how about you perform something for us.”

As soon as he spoke, everyone at the scene looked like they were getting ready to watch a good drama.

Zheng Jing sighed. As expected, Zheng Guang was too sly and cunning. It looked like he was helping Zheng Yan, but in actuality, he was setting traps for him.

Naturally, Zheng Yan looked bewildered. He had only made that up, he didn’t really know anything. Thus, he could only dumbly ask, “How?”

Zheng Guang was determined to win today. He had long since figured out what was going on with Zheng Yan. Upon seeing his reaction, he was even more confident, so said, “As you saw, your cousin subdued a mandrill. You haven’t been practicing for that long, so we won’t be that strict. If you can subdue a little ghost, or control one, that will suffice.”

He slightly smiled, “If you can do any of the aforementioned to prove that you really have successfully started cultivation, we naturally won’t dare to bring up the eight trigrams mirror again.”

Zheng Jing: Ey.

His son was scared of ghosts himself. How could he subdue ghosts?

Only to hear Zheng Yan happily respond, “Summoning ghosts ah, I know how to do that.”

It was a good thing that the story of how Yu Zhengdu had emerged victorious in a nasty battle with the demon priest Jin Heguan was well known throughout their company. This allowed Zheng Yan to immediately remember that though he didn’t know how to cast spells, he had their company’s WeChat group chat.

As soon as he said this, everyone present went: “…………”

A bewildered expression appeared on Zheng Guang’s face momentarily, but he very quickly regained his composure. He maintained his fake smile and said, “Then show us right now.”

“Alright,” Zheng Yan said as he pulled out his phone. He started composing a message to send in the company group chat.

Zheng Guang was completely confused. He asked, “What are you doing?”

Zheng Yan sent the message and, imitating Yu Zhengdu’s aura, put his hands on his hips and confidently exclaimed, “We practice Daoism through scientific ways. I’m summoning ghosts with a high tech method!”

Zheng Guang: ????

Everyone: ?????

Zheng Shu roared with laughter. “Aiyo, nephew of mine, it seems to me that not only have you failed in cultivation, you’ve also gone crazy because of that stupid Internet job?”

Though no one else expressed their opinions openly, from their gazes, it was easy to tell that they were thinking the same thing.

Zheng Jing couldn’t help but facepalm: Ey——

He sighed to himself, but suddenly felt a chill go down his back. He couldn’t help but feel confused as he removed his hand from his face. It was only then that he realized the room had abruptly gone dark. Immediately after, a large bolt of heavenly lightning struck the ground outside the room. The wind howled furiously, blowing against each person’s face and causing pain.

Though they were a family of heavenly masters, they still had never witnessed such a fierce scene before.

Zheng Yan was also shocked by this imposing show of power. He hurriedly looked down at his WeChat.

Kang Jin:【What kind of people are those uncles of yours? Wait for me!】

Chen Yangli:【Oh no, your house is too far away. It’ll take half a day to drive there. Can you cast a spell to summon us?】

Yu Zhengdu:【He doesn’t know how to cast spells, right?】

Shang Que:【I’ll go.】

Groupchat:【……………………】

Kang Jin:【Boss, have mercy!!!!!】

Lu Lingxi:【These people…………Are in need of a round of pummeling from the Ghost King】

Zheng Yan was shocked. He hurriedly typed:【Boss, that’s not necessary. It’s really not necessary.】

Immediately after, he received a private message from Kang Jin:【Sh——】

Kang Jin:【For some reason, Boss has been in a really bad mood these past few days】

Kang Jin:【I don’t think he’s going for you. I think he simply wants to beat someone up.】

Zheng Yan:【…………………………】

The author has something to say:

So, why is the Ghost King in a bad mood?!