Chapter 19: Burning
After the head of the village announced the news, Jiang and Huijue were busy as hell. The house they were temporarily renting in the village was almost completely surrounded by people.
Of course, the image of Jiang Laoren and Hui Jue was not that of an expert, so they had to declare that the experts had gone elsewhere. These two people were only familiar with medical skills, so they helped to distribute medicine.
Fear is the easiest thing to spread among people. After the head of the village spoke at length about the horror of the worms, almost everyone in the village went.
Of course, not everyone needs to take the pills. Old Jiang said that the pills were too strong and could harm people who were not affected by the worms.
This has virtually increased the workload of the old man Jiang and Huijue. After all, people from the village who have no symptoms have come, and they still have to see them one by one.
Thirty pills were obviously not enough. In short, those few days were crazy for Old Master Jiang and Huijue, and I was also delayed in my studies for a few days.
The vigorous anti-worm campaign was a success. Old Master Jiang had a special request for those people: no matter what, the bodies of the worms had to be packed and brought to him.
I think this is a rather disgusting thing to do, but after the village head’s dire warnings, the people still did it.
Five days later, the worm-killing campaign ended. The tired old man and Huijue returned to the mountain with a bag of disgusting worm carcasses. I also ended my happy days and followed them back to the mountain.
Can you not be happy living in the village? At least I don’t have to walk so far after school.
The firelight reflected on the faces of the old man and me. The air on the mountain was originally fresh, but now there was a particularly unpleasant smell. The old man took me with him and added dried calamus to the firewood to burn the bodies of the worms.
Three special talismans were added to the fire, and on the other side of the fire, a large spirit-summoning banner was erected, with a purple talisman attached to it. I remember that when the talisman was completed, my master spat out a mouthful of blood.
At first, I didn’t understand why my master and Huijue had to collect the bodies of these insects, but not long ago, Old Master Jiang explained to me, and I learned how terrifying the young bodies of these hungry ghosts are.
It turns out that the pills only cut off its vitality, not completely eliminating the hungry ghost bugs. As long as the conditions are right, they may be able to come back to life again. In fact, it is not the bugs that are scary, but the hungry ghost spirits!
Hungry ghosts have the ability to become powerful magicians, and powerful magicians, so you can imagine how terrifying their potential is.
To completely destroy their physical bodies, you can only use fire. The fire of the world of the living is the only weakness of their physical bodies. However, fire alone is not enough. It must be accompanied by objects that repel evil spirits and bring in positive energy in order for the fire to have any effect.
To be more thorough, you need to use a talisman drawn by a powerful person, a talisman that increases the yang and positive energy of fire. In short, it mobilizes the power of fire in the five elements. Therefore, hungry ghosts are extremely terrifying.
“Master, the young bodies of these hungry ghosts are so terrifying. Is there any way for people to survive when faced with them?” I looked at the firelight and was very worried.
“People rarely have the opportunity to face them. Whether in Taoism or Buddhism, there are unwritten rules for facing hungry ghosts. You must act. Taoism suppresses them, and Buddhism pacifies them. In short, you must act.” Old Jiang looked at the fire and didn’t know what he was thinking.
“Master, the hungry ghosts are so hateful, why do you still spend so much effort to draw a soul-collecting talisman to collect them? Wouldn’t it be better to directly suppress them and make them scatter to pieces?” I don’t understand my master’s approach. The difficulty of this kind of soul-collecting talisman is extremely high, because a talisman contains two changes: one is to collect, and the other is to suppress. Collecting souls is already extremely difficult, and in addition, the soul in the talisman must be suppressed. This suppression must also be measured, and it cannot be used to destroy them, but only to suppress them. It can be imagined how difficult it is.
The last time Master drew a soul-collecting talisman was when I was a child, when I was plagued by a hundred ghosts. Master could easily destroy ordinary evil spirits, but to collect them, he used a blue talisman, so you can imagine how difficult it was.
There are many different types of talismans, not necessarily limited to paper, and they are very diverse. However, if we roughly divide them, we can roughly divide them into five types: gold, silver, purple, blue, and yellow. The yellow talisman is the simplest one. , it is extremely difficult. This time, the master used purple talismans to draw a soul-collecting talisman to collect the souls of 48 hungry ghosts. It was extremely mentally and physically exhausting, so when the talisman was completed, a mouthful of blood spurted out.
“Destroy them? That would be extremely evil. The places where hungry ghosts live are poor and bad, and the environment is extremely bad. They suffer from the torment of hunger, which is a great suffering. Especially those born in the land of hungry ghosts, they are born to bear this karma. When faced with hungry ghosts, you can only save them! The Buddhist saying is that you can ask Huijue, but in Taoism, the more you bear great karma and suffering, the more you can transcend and seek metaphysics! Therefore, it is normal for powerful beings to appear among the hungry ghosts. They have a long lifespan, which means they can endure suffering for a longer time. Their cultivation is also amazing. When faced with hungry ghosts, you can only liberate them, not kill them!
“Master, so you mean that hungry ghosts are born to be pitiful, so we should have mercy on them?” I asked.
“You stand on the human side and think that it is extremely bad to harm people, but if you stand on the side of the pig, don’t you think that people are extremely bad? However, people eat meat and eat grain in order to survive. I hunt, you eat, it is just the natural way of heaven, it is a manifestation of endless life. Hungry ghosts also have their own way of survival. How they live is their natural way of survival. If they go beyond the Tao, they are killing and exterminating people, so they should be killed. From another perspective, do you think they should be killed? Master looked at me and said something very profound.
A flash of inspiration came to my mind, and I suddenly felt that I had a deeper understanding of a sentence that Master had once said to me. I had a sense of awe for all things. It turned out that in the Taoist natural way, the birth, aging, illness and death of every object is the Tao!
But I was still dissatisfied: “Master, why do you want me to stand in the pig’s shoes?”
“Do you really need to ask? Since it is an analogy, you have to find the closest thing!”
“…”
The fire burned for two whole hours before slowly going out. After it went out, the master turned the fire a little, nodded with relief, and then shouted, “Sanwa, stand back, don’t block the way. I’m going to lure the ghost into the talisman.”
I quickly stepped aside. I knew that my master was going to use the guiding hand sign. This time it was different. The guiding hand sign was originally used to show wandering spirits the way to the underworld. It was a kind hand sign, but this time it was used to lure hungry ghosts into the talisman.
This is tantamount to creating an illusion for the hungry ghosts, because as hungry ghosts, they are most unwilling to return to the hungry ghost realm, where it is unbearably miserable for them. They are most willing to stay in the human world, because the human world is rich in resources and can slightly alleviate their hunger.
The guiding spell originally refers to guiding the road to the underworld. Using the guiding spell in reverse can create a beautiful scene on earth, making them mistakenly believe that they have arrived at the most beautiful place on earth.
But once the hand gesture is reversed, it is even more mentally exhausting and extremely complicated. There can be no mistakes, so the old man asked me to stand back.
This originally simple hand technique must be completed strictly in four steps, and requires the spirit to possess the body. I must stay far away from it.
A gust of wind blew, and I subconsciously recited the mantra of control, opening my heavenly eye. I really wanted to see what the hungry ghost looked like.
Once the heavenly eye is opened, everything around changes. There is a difference between opening the heavenly eye on purpose and opening it unintentionally. When the heavenly eye is opened on purpose, everything will change into the image in the heavenly eye.
That is the purest energy body!
It is not the case that when the heavenly eye is opened, the surrounding scenery is only blurred, and you can only see some clues when you look at specific things.
My surroundings became dark, but in the darkness there was a lot of colorful power. I saw the light that represented the vitality of the Master, I saw the green light that represented the vitality of the plants, and I saw a yellow light that shot up into the sky and merged with the Master’s light.
At this time, gusts of wind blew up one after another. I could feel its ferocity even with my eyes closed. The ashes of the fire that had been burning slowly were suddenly blown up into the sky. Hungry ghosts!