Chapter 56: Spiritual Healing

This old monster began to rapidly… I don’t know what adjective to use. His final fate was the same as the old monster I first saw in the wormhole and the other old monsters who had just fed themselves to the worms. Yes, I finally found the exact adjective, which was that the body was rapidly carbonizing, as if all the useful things related to vitality had been drained. I believe that in less than a minute, this old monster would become a pile of ashes like the other old monsters. The old monster’s body was stiff, but there was one place that was unusually active, and that was his stomach, which kept writhing as if something was about to burst out. I used so many adjectives to describe the old monster, but honestly, they were just fleeting thoughts in my mind.

At this time, the master already shouted, “Quick, now, before it has left, but has completed its gestation, and lacks protection.”

While the master was talking, Uncle Chen had already taken action. His behavior was very strange. First, he bowed to the dead, lifeless locust tree, then took out a box and opened it. Inside was a complete set of golden needles. Uncle Chen solemnly picked up a golden needle, took a deep breath, paused for a moment, and then without hesitation, he stuck the needle into the old monster’s constantly writhing stomach.

As the first golden needle was inserted, the stomach’s movements became noticeably weaker, as if Chen Shishu’s golden needle had struck a vital spot in the stomach.

“Chengyi, now that your master’s health is failing, I’m going to trouble you to tie the knot. Can you do it?” After Chen Shishu had finished the first golden needle, he suddenly said to me.

“What kind of knot?” I’m not familiar with all kinds of knots, so I’m not too sure.

“The knot that locks in vitality – the lock knot.” Chen Shishu said word by word.

This is the knot? It is arguably the most difficult of all knots! It is not a killing knot, but if a person is tied up with it, they will slowly enter a state of suspended animation within a few hours, with their breathing and heartbeat becoming very weak. If the knot is not untied for a long time, the person will actually die. It sounds fantastic, but modern medicine can also make people fall into a state of suspended animation for a short period of time. They just don’t understand why Taoists can do it with a red string. But the truth is not surprising, because it involves the various acupoints and veins of the human body, which are completely intangible in anatomy.

The lock knot originally involves many acupoints and meridians, not to mention the higher level of using the lock knot, because it needs to pass through the stomach of the old monster to directly affect the creatures inside. The mental energy required to tie the red rope is not a little bit, and using mental energy to directly affect objects is much more difficult than ordinary knots.

I was sweating profusely, knowing that I could not afford to be careless. I said to my master, “I’m not very confident about the lock-and-live knot.”

My master looked at me with some hesitation, and my master had already taken out a pipe and was chewing on it. The tobacco leaves were a bit damp, so he was roasting them. Facing my master’s inquiring gaze, my master said, “Sanwa has a strong spiritual sense. He can do this kind of delicate work well.”

Then, my master turned to me and said, “Take out the red string. I will guide you while you tie it.”

I nodded, took out the specially treated red string, and then took a deep breath and began to challenge the difficult lock knot, which could only be successful and not failed.

On one side, Uncle Chen was tying the golden needle, and on the other side, I was tying the lock knot carefully, as if I were walking on thin ice. I dared not be distracted by observing Uncle Chen’s technique, but from the occasional exclamations from the crowd, I could tell that Uncle Chen’s needle-tying technique had reached a state of perfection.

Occasionally, I would catch a glimpse of Uncle Chen, and I could see that his hands were like a stream of light, and he was fast and accurate in placing the needles. This could not be done without decades of practice.

After half an hour, I had tied the lock knot with a sweaty head. On the other side, Uncle Chen had also finished the last golden needle. Maybe it wasn’t the last one, because Uncle Chen still had a golden needle in his hand and was reluctant to do it.

I wiped the sweat off my brow and stood up. At this point, the corpse of this old monster, which had been processed by me and Uncle Chen, looked like a hedgehog with a red belt. It looked even more strange. What was even stranger was that he had stopped carbonizing. Half of his body was normal, and the other half was already black from carbonization.

Uncle Chen sighed, put away the last golden needle, put it in his box, and then said to Brother Chengxin, “Chengxin, prepare the offerings. Burning incense is the highest form of etiquette. We will first worship the tree.”

Cheng Xin Ge responded, quickly taking out many offerings from his backpack, as well as incense and candles. I was confused by this scene and couldn’t help but ask my master, “Is this tree very important?” I could only think of this explanation. The master faced my question, bit on his pipe, and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke before saying, “This is an ordinary locust tree. What is not ordinary is that it was turned into a living tree by your uncle Chen’s special method of medical pulse diagnosis, and then deliberately collected a lot of dead energy. It can be said that for this operation, this locust tree suffered an unjustified disaster.”

“Then, is it necessary to worship and console it?” Is this the reason? According to the highest etiquette, isn’t it a bit too solemn? Just as a person only has half a catty of rice, it’s not necessarily a good thing for you to enthusiastically force him to swallow a catty of rice.

“Not exactly. Because next, your Uncle Chen will use spiritual healing to perform a great magic trick, and this tree will bear the karma of others, the suffering of others. This kind of worship is completely adequate.” Uncle Chen explained.

Even if a tree is used to bear the disaster, it is still a great cause and effect. I suddenly understood, but my master said, “If it weren’t for the righteousness, using such spiritual healing techniques recklessly would actually harm others and oneself. You will be punished by heaven for performing the technique, and the person who was treated will not escape the first day, nor will they escape the fifteenth. The disaster that should be borne will still come in another form, or it will come back in the same form. If it weren’t for the righteousness, I would never have let Uncle Chen perform such a technique. He is my second elder brother…”

Master’s words made me feel a little curious, in addition to being shocked. What kind of medical skills are so rebellious?

Over there, Uncle Chen had already begun to pray to the heavens with a prayer. Sometimes the prayer is to explain the reason for a matter to the heavens, and sometimes it is to ask the heavens to sympathize with the human heart and grant a request. Uncle Chen’s prayer is to explain to the heavens that this is It is for the sake of righteousness, and I have no choice but to do it. This prayer is somewhat obscure and difficult to understand. I asked myself if my level of classical Chinese was not bad, and I could read and write, but I could not understand the details of Uncle Chen’s prayer. It was too obscure.

I only heard something about Kunlun, but I didn’t know what Kunlun was talking about. I once looked at the master with a questioning look, but this time, the master began to smoke a pipe with a carefree look, as if he hadn’t heard. I shrugged my shoulders and turned back. In fact, I already vaguely sensed that the master’s biggest secret was related to Kunlun!

I remembered the conversation I had with Brother Chengxin downstairs in Uncle Li’s house. Do you really think that our next generation is stupid? But where exactly is Kunlun? I was a little confused. Uncle Chen had finished his prayer and the memorial service was over. He stood up and didn’t rush to deal with the old monster’s corpse. Instead, he said, “Those who were bitten in the battle with the bug people just now, step forward. I said I would treat them.”

As soon as he finished speaking, several people who had been bitten by the bug man stood up. Uncle Chen pulled one of them over and looked up at the sky and said, “They are heroes. This spiritual healing technique is suitable for them.”

Seeing Uncle Chen’s serious expression, I didn’t know who he was talking to. I leaned against the tree trunk and just waited. I didn’t know when Brother Chengxin stood next to me with his hands in his pockets, looking at me with a longing expression and saying, “The highest level of spiritual healing is the skill of our Taoist sect, but some people think it’s witchcraft. I really want to learn it, but my master said that I don’t have enough power to control it, and that it’s too rebellious.

Isn’t that nonsense? I think my master has a lot of skills that he hasn’t passed on to me, like the Seven Slashes of the Demon Queller, but he will pass them on someday.

Over there, Uncle Chen had already taken the man’s hand, holding it with one hand and placing the other on the dead locust tree. He began to mutter, and I watched him intently, wondering what he was doing with this spirit healing technique.

But then, in a flash, Uncle Chen suddenly let go of the man’s hand and said, “Okay, next.”

That’s it? I looked at him in surprise. If it weren’t for the fact that Uncle Chen was my uncle, I would have definitely thought he was a swindler, a so-called qigong uncle who uses his mind to heal people and charge them money.