Chapter 55: The Old Monster and the Chinese Hawthorn

The bug was completely dead, but my master was also unable to get up. Only then did he realize that he had just experienced a life-and-death crisis. Master Hui sighed and said, “Lao Jiang, you saved me again. We have always saved each other throughout our lives, so this fate will never end.”

While he was talking, Master Hui had already walked up to Master and I had also run up to him, supporting him as he sat on the ground.

The blood that he had vomited had soaked a large area of his chest. Facing us, he was slightly out of breath, but unable to speak. The great formation had been closed by someone else, and the sky had returned to its quiet state, but it was drizzling.

At this time, the crowd was pushed aside, and it was Uncle Chen who squeezed in. He stuffed a pill into Master’s mouth without saying a word, and then said, “This is the only pill left from Master’s life-extending pills. You won’t have the chance to die in the future. When we get back, I’ll take good care of you.”

After holding the pill in his mouth for a long time, the master sighed and said, “Our generation is in decline. Back in the day, the master could summon a hundred thunderbolts and still talk and laugh as if nothing had happened. When will the next generation be able to reproduce the heroic figure of the master who could destroy demons with a flick of his hand?”

“Don’t be so stubborn. In the practice of Taoism, the four essentials are inseparable: wealth, companionship, the right place, and the right method. The environment back then was incomparable to the present. Master once said that the level of Taoist magic and the depth of one’s Taoist cultivation are trivial matters. The most important thing is the heart and the realization of the Tao. That will not change because of changes in the environment.” Uncle Chen said this to Master.

The master nodded and said no more on the subject, but grabbed Uncle Chen’s arm and said, “I’ll leave the rest to you!”

Uncle Chen whispered, “I am fully prepared and will do my best. Everyone thinks that the medical lineage is only about practicing medicine and saving lives. This time, let’s see what the medical lineage can do.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” the master replied.

Then, the two of them burst into laughter.

Then, the master looked at Master Hui and said, “What did you say just now? You want to fight me one-on-one?”

Master Hui stood up, turned around and left, saying, “This time I’ll let you off. I won’t bully you. Don’t argue with me. I’m going to rest over there.”

The master smiled slightly. We all knew that Master Hui was worried that the master was weak and didn’t want the master to talk too much, but if he let him give in, he would lose face, so he simply left.

Finally, the master looked at me. I was still crying because I was sad. The master glared at me and said, “I’m not dead yet, so why are you crying? You tell me, how did I end up with a disciple who cries so much?”

I was speechless. To be honest, I don’t cry easily, but when I’m moved, I don’t hold back my tears. It’s a bit embarrassing to be called a crybaby by my master.

Seeing my embarrassed expression, the master waved his hand and said, “Come on, come on, cry if you want to, laugh if you want to. You don’t need to pretend to be a tough guy. Tough guys are prone to internal injuries. Besides, whether a man is upright and upright is not a standard for this.”

I laughed. My master is like that. He always likes to tease me, but in front of others, he can’t help but praise his apprentice in various ways.

Is this also the true nature of my master?

After recovering for a while, my master, who was hanging on to the old monster with the big belly, asked me to help him up and go take a look at the situation. I had almost forgotten about the old monster with the big belly, but when my master said that, I quickly helped him up and walked to a higher position, where I asked someone to shine a searchlight over there so that my master could see the situation.

At this moment, the old monster with the big belly had stopped praying and was lying on the ground, hugging himself in a strange position, just like a baby in its mother’s womb.

Seeing an old monster in such a posture makes everyone who sees it feel goose bumps, because the image is really indescribably strange.

The master looked at the old monster for a few moments, then turned to my two uncles and asked, “How long do you think he’s been dead? I’m presiding over the great formation, so I don’t have time to be distracted by him.”

What kind of question is that? Uncle Wang had told me not long ago that the old monster was already dead, and now the master is asking the same thing.

Their views are so consistent, they are sent by God to destroy my three views!

But no matter what, the old monster is now holding himself in a strange position, motionless and looking fine, as if he were dead. Just now, he was praying and chanting, so no one could believe he was dead.

Facing Master’s question, this time it was Uncle Chen who answered. He said, “I’ve been observing him. The old demon in this village knows a lot about the mysterious…mysterious prayer. We have intelligence about that. I knew he was dead when he started to recite the new prayer.”

The master pondered for a long time, then asked, “So do you think it’s time to do it now?”

Uncle Chen said, “Not yet. It’s still in the incubation stage. With my magic, I can only be 100% sure when the body is broken.”

“Well, let’s go down and finish the final preparations,” said the master.

The valley was muddy at this moment. It had been washed away by the flood and then rained heavily in the middle of the night, so there was a lot of rainwater, up to the knee in the deepest places.

We were a few people at the moment, quietly waiting by the old monster’s side, watching him weirdly hugging there, motionless, and next to him was a very strange tree.

This tree is an old locust tree, which ordinary people don’t like very much because it has the effect of nourishing souls. Lonely souls and wild ghosts that wander in the world always like to possess themselves in this kind of tree, so this kind of tree always gives ordinary people a strange feeling.

In addition, yin and yang are a way of balancing, and when yin is strong, yang will naturally decline. The Chinese pagoda tree is more yin, so it nourishes the soul! If the house cannot suppress the Chinese pagoda tree, it is not good for feng shui.

However, feng shui is a complex subject, and the locust tree cannot be considered a feng shui-breaking object. It is just that there are too few yang houses in the world that can suppress it, so people who have locust trees in their yards are always a bit unlucky, and people don’t like it even more.

However, Taoists do not have any prejudice against the locust tree. Sometimes the soul vessels in the Taoist ritual are made from locust trees. In some places, the spirit summoning ritual must be aided by a mask made from a locust tree in order to be successful. The reason I say that the locust tree is strange is for another reason.

First, this is a dead locust tree, which should be withered and rotten, but its branches are angry and there is not a single leaf. It is clearly dead, but it is not rotten at all.

Second, when I stood in front of this tree, I always felt uncomfortable because it was so full of death.

This so-called death aura is different from the yin energy, it is a different kind of energy field. Generally, people who have died recently or are about to die will have a weak aura like this. Of course, it is not just humans, animals and plants will also have it, because death is a kind of natural law, and no living thing can be an exception. There will be death aura naturally.

But I have never seen a tree with such a strong aura of death. I don’t even know how it came to be in this valley, and I don’t understand why we had to lift the old monster’s body here with all our might.

Maybe it has something to do with Master Chen’s magic.

We waited anxiously, but the old monster still held himself in a strange position without moving. When we were moving him, I was a little surprised that his position did not change at all, even though we were moving him with such force. It was as if all of his joints had become as stiff as iron.

But his body temperature was still there, and so was his breathing. It was all so strange.

He didn’t move, so we could only keep watch. Time passed by minute by minute, and the water under our feet was gradually getting shallower as it slowly seeped in. On the horizon, a faint light of dawn was beginning to appear. I looked at the time and saw that it was already past six in the morning.

After a series of fierce battles, everyone was exhausted. The old monster had not moved, so should we just keep guarding it?

Finally, at dawn, around 7 o’clock, the old monster suddenly stretched out his limbs, then rolled over in a very strange way, and the whole body lay on its back in front of us. The strange thing was that when he rolled over, he kicked his legs and suddenly stopped breathing.

The horror was that I finally saw his expression, which was one of resentment and bitterness. Also, his face began to rapidly turn black, and his body began to turn black…