Chapter 10: Exorcism (Part 1)

Old man Jiang spent two whole hours in the bath, carefully scrubbing himself, shaving, combing his hair, and soaking in the hot water for an hour.

Finally, after finishing his preparations, Old Jiang put on a Taoist robe, and his whole demeanor had changed completely. People who didn’t know him would have thought he was a middle-aged Taoist priest, and he gave the impression of being a man of conviction, someone who had a lot of wisdom.

“Move the table to the courtyard. I want to burn incense and practice!” Standing in the courtyard, Old Master Jiang said loudly.

When the old man gave the order, how could my parents dare to neglect it? The two of them hurriedly carried the square table in the middle of the main room out of the house. Because they were in a hurry, they didn’t walk in step and almost fell over.

After the table was set up, the old man took the cloth bag he had brought with him and pulled out a yellow cloth, which he spread neatly on the table with a flick of his shoulders. My father couldn’t help but exclaim, “That’s some skill.”

The old man didn’t care at all, but turned to my father and said, “When I do the ritual, don’t shout. The ritual requires concentration. If you shout, I’ll break the concentration and you’ll have to do the ritual instead.”

My father didn’t know anything about performing rituals, so after being threatened by the old man in a joking manner, he quickly shut up.

After Jiang Laoren told my mother to bring the things she had been asked to prepare the day before, he took out a small, exquisite stove, a stack of jin zhi (gold paper), and incense from his bag and arranged them in a special way.

Then he took out some paper-cut objects, such as soldiers, horses, and armor, and arranged them in a specific position.

At this point, my mother brought a tray with a plate of steamed buns with a red dot in the center, a plate of fruit (only green mandarin oranges), and a cup of tea to the old man.

The old man placed everything in place, and finally took a bowl of water from my father, and the simple altar was complete.

In fact, my master himself was not a person who liked to make altars. He often preferred to keep things simple. This is the difference between a private inheritance and a famous school.

As for the armor of the soldiers and generals, although he had also practiced it, his specialty was not in this area, so he rarely used it.

The main purpose of setting up the altar is to show respect for the ancestors of Taoism. Before the ritual, it is necessary to worship sincerely. In addition, it is necessary to report before the hand-clasping ritual.

After setting up the altar, my master took out nine sticks of incense, lit them, bowed three times in a reverent manner, and then inserted the incense into the incense altar.

Then he paced slowly around the courtyard, finally choosing a spot and digging a small hole. After digging the hole, my master took out a handful of black and white pebbles from a cloth bag.

These stones were nothing special, but when you looked at them closely, they were very smooth and had a patina that could only be produced by constant rubbing.

Holding the stones in his hand, my master walked around, occasionally stopping to throw down a stone. He walked through the courtyard and the room, and finally stopped in front of the courtyard gate, where he threw down a few more stones.

After doing this, my master walked back to the small hole he had just dug, took out a copper coin, thought about it for a while, and put it back. Then he took out a piece of jade with rough carving and thought about it for a while.

Finally, my master sighed and put the jade in the hole.

My mother, seeing this magical scene, couldn’t help but ask my father in a very low voice, “What do you think Master Jiang is doing?”

My father happened to have seen an old Taoist do something similar when he was a child, and he also answered my mother very quietly: “When I was a child, I heard the village elders say that this was a formation.”

In fact, my father was not too sure. After all, when he was a child, he had seen that old Taoist do something like this. God knows if he really had the real skills, but this time he was right. My master was setting up a formation, a soul-binding formation.

Copper coins and jade are both magical tools that my master has carefully nurtured. He chose jade because it is relatively mild when used as the center of the formation. Copper coins are extremely harmful to ghosts and spirits because they have been passed around too many times and have become too heavy with positive energy!

Taoism generally advises against ghosts, expels ghosts, and suppresses ghosts, but it does not easily destroy ghosts. After all, the most miserable thing in the world is to be scattered to the four winds. If a person is directly and viciously scattered to the four winds, it is the greatest sin.

Heaven has the virtue of life, and my master did not want to go against heaven too much in the center of the formation, because the original intention of the formation was only to lock in the lonely spirits and wild ghosts in the courtyard and prevent them from escaping.

After setting up the magic circle, Old Master Jiang began to close his eyes and meditate. The whole person standing there felt a little vague, which was the result of gathering his energy and calming his mind, and the feeling he gave people was also like this.

After a short while, the old man opened his eyes, and at the moment he opened his eyes, the whole person’s momentum suddenly exploded, and then my parents were dazzled and couldn’t see clearly.

The hand seal was very complicated to my parents. In their words, they couldn’t see which finger was which, and the fingers were all tangled together, forming a strange shape.

At the moment the hand seal was formed, my parents noticed that the old man’s mouth began to mutter, and the speed of his speech was fast and irregular. At the same time, the old man’s eyes were very concentrated, and it was clear that he was fully immersed in what he was thinking.

Finally, the old man shouted, “Form a formation.”

Suddenly, my parents felt that something had fallen in the center of the formation where the old man was standing. It was a very unreal feeling, and then the whole room gave off a mysterious and mysterious feeling of a self-contained world.

The key to setting up the formation is to invite the formation master to lead the formation. The formation master must be able to perform Taoist exercises, chant mantras, and use secret techniques simultaneously. Whether or not the formation is successful depends on the skill of the person setting up the formation.

The so-called incantation is a unique Taoist incantation, which is divided into “blessing” and “curse.” “Blessing” is used to bless oneself, while “curse” is used when practicing. This unique incantation is not recorded in text, but is passed down from mouth to mouth, and is most mysterious when explained by the person who imparts it.

As for the finger seal, it is the hand seal that the old man just made. It is also a complicated skill. Ordinary people who have broken their fingers may not be able to make it. Even if they manage to do it, they only have the shape, not the unique charm of this hand seal.

In simple terms, “preserving thoughts” means concentrating one’s mental energy and focusing on what one is thinking. Just now, Old Master Jiang was inviting the commander of the formation. The commander of a different formation is not the same as the commander of a different formation. At the moment Old Master Jiang was inviting the commander of a unique formation, all the mental energy in his mind had to be focused on this commander. This is actually the application of ideas.

Unintentionally, the old man Jiang demonstrated the true Taoist secret arts, the secret arts of the metaphysical Shan character lineage, in front of my parents!

After the formation of the magic circle, the old man stopped and looked at him. His spirit was not the slightest bit tired, his eyes were full of vigor and his expression was calm, as if the soul-locking magic circle was just a piece of cake.

After asking my mother for a sip of tea and swallowing it slowly, the old man walked up to the altar, took out a talisman pen, a box of cinnabar, and a stack of yellow talismans from his bag, but he didn’t make any movements.

But at this time, I was crying and screaming in the room. The old man let out a soft sigh, turned around and walked in the direction of my crying and screaming, clenched a hand seal, lightly touched his brow, slowly closed his eyes, and only reopened them after a long time.

This time, the old man’s expression showed a little fatigue, and he just said, “There is actually such a fierce thing? I didn’t open my eyes yesterday and didn’t notice it. Seeing me in a formation, it still wants to counterattack frantically?”

The old man’s mumbling was his normal voice, and of course it was heard by my parents standing nearby. I was initially relaxed, but then I became nervous again.

But the old man was not nervous. He walked up to the altar, put the stack of yellow talismans back in his bag, and this time he took out a few blue talismans, which made him look a little more serious.

After recovering from the fatigue, Jiang Laoren asked my mother for a small plate and carefully mixed the cinnabar.

After the cinnabar was mixed, the old man put his hands behind his back, closed his eyes again, and muttered to himself.

This time he was just reciting some general calming and purifying mantras, nothing special. But before drawing the talisman, it is most important to have a calm and peaceful mind, and to do it in one go. Before that, you must absolutely adjust your state of mind to the most tranquil realm.

After all the preparations were complete, the old man picked up the brush that had been dipped in cinnabar, took a deep breath, and then decisively began to write. He held the breath until the talisman was finished, and then slowly let it out.

In order to avoid being distracted when writing talismans, it is common to recite a mantra, holding it in one’s mouth without breathing out. The emphasis is on the skill of doing it all in one go. During this process, the power of the mantra is transmitted from the brush to the paper. At the end of the writing, a special knot or mantra is used to give a talisman ‘life’, or to activate it.

Drawing talismans is an area in which Old Jiang excels. Although the talisman is blue, it is not too difficult to draw. After the talisman is drawn, Old Jiang puts down the brush, but does not touch the talisman. He just waits for it to dry on the table.