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墨書 Inktalez
The ashtray spared Senior Zhang from taking a third punch. The Skinny Man staggered, and Master Xiao arrived just in time. I held back, but he didn’t; with his fist clenched, he swung it toward the Skinny Man's head. There was a dull thud as the Skinny Man fell to the side. Without pausing, Master Xiao lunged forward, stepping on the Skinny Man's chest. He then kicked him over and pinned his hands behind his back, gripping them tightly with his own hands. His right knee crashed down onto the Skinny Man's waist, executing the move fluidly, just like in the shows on television. If I hadn’t known that the Skinny Man was momentarily dazed from the punch and unable to resist, I might have thought Master Xiao was a martial artist himself.
Seeing Master Xiao pinning the Skinny Man down, Senior Zhang got up from the ground, his cheekbone already reddened from the blows. He said, "I'll go get some rope; you two hold him down."
The Skinny Man was surprisingly strong; even with Master Xiao’s size holding his hands down, he still seemed to be trying to break free. I grabbed a chair and pressed it down on his legs before sitting on it. The horizontal bar under the chair was just high enough to pin both of his legs to the ground. With that, he had no chance of resisting.
"What do you want? First you destroy my Nourishing the Soul, and now you want to tie me up? Do you think people from Ghost Path are easy to bully?" This was the first time he spoke after being hit.
Master Xiao and I were taken aback. What was he talking about? Were we not justified in what we were doing? Did he really think his actions were right? For a moment, we were at a loss for words. It seemed impossible to explain this situation. I remained silent while Master Xiao, unable to hold back, shouted, "We are ridding society of evil and upholding justice! You ask what we want? If you weren’t doing these heinous acts that harm Yin De, would we even care? The main point is that you wanted to deal with us! So tell me, who is dealing with whom?"
After Master Xiao finished speaking, Senior Zhang returned with some rope. Together we managed to tie up the Skinny Man. We had no real skills in binding someone; it looked so easy on TV, but once we tried it ourselves, we realized it was quite a technical task. After struggling for several minutes, we finally secured his hands and feet tightly. Master Xiao then picked him up and tossed him onto a wide bench. He turned to me and said, "What now? There are eight Spirit Gods; we need to get him out of here."
I glanced at Senior Zhang and said, "Senior, there's something I don’t understand; could you please clarify?" Senior Zhang casually brushed off some dust from his clothes and replied, "Are you wondering why all the Spirit Gods here are women around thirty?"
"Yes," I confirmed.
Senior Zhang looked at the Skinny Man on the bench; he still wore an expression of resentment as he glared at Senior Zhang and spat out, "Zhang! You betray your master and ancestors; you'll die a terrible death! People from Ghost Path rely on this method for cultivation while you learn about benevolence and righteousness—crossing ghosts over to the other side! Do you really think you're some kind of worldly Bodhisattva? And you two little Taoists who don’t know your own strength—one day you'll regret what you've done today..."
Master Xiao felt somewhat irritated by this and quickly found a piece of cloth to stuff into the Skinny Man's mouth while saying, "Don’t take your Ghost Path people too seriously! Look at your senior brother; he isn’t helping you! Do you think you can stir up trouble? Don’t think I don’t know—this is a time of peace; there aren’t that many Ghost Path people around anymore! You dare threaten me? I grew up tough; shut your mouth!"
Master Xiao’s actions went unopposed by Senior Zhang; he merely said, "Let’s deal with the ghosts in this room first; we can discuss other matters later." I nodded in agreement as Master Xiao added, "But I wonder if those Spirit Gods are still in this house or if they’ve escaped."
"They won’t escape. Our method of drawing Nourishing the Soul ensures that these ghosts can’t leave this place. We just need to find them one by one and send them away; they’re all pitiful souls without much malice or resentment. Only those two ghosts summoned by the Soul Banner will take a bit more effort," Senior Zhang said calmly.
I said, "Alright, these Spirit Gods are all forced into this situation. Who wouldn't want to reincarnate sooner? We'll handle the Send Soul process ourselves, but my method can only find them one by one. Once we locate them, we can send them off, which might take some time." What I mentioned was merely the traditional approach. We could send off the Spirit Gods together and perform a ritual simultaneously, but that would be a bit crude and could lead to unequal distribution among the Spirit Gods, causing some resentment in their hearts. It wouldn't be very reassuring for them on the path of Reincarnation.
Master Xiao said, "Then let's divide the work. I'll go catch those Spirit Gods, and you can send them off here. I'll bring one over for you to send away. As for Senior Zhang, you should rest well; you have injuries on your face." After Master Xiao finished speaking, he prepared to open his eyes and catch the Spirit Gods.
Senior Zhang raised a hand to stop him and said, "There's no need for you to catch them one by one; I'll gather those souls together, and you two can send them off at once. In our Ghost Path, we may not excel in other areas, but when it comes to gathering ghosts and souls, no other sect can compare. You two prepare the Send Soul Ritual here. I'll go get some items from my room." With that, he turned and walked toward his room.
Master Xiao and I exchanged glances and nodded at each other. We each found a suitable spot and began setting up the altar for the ritual. Senior Zhang returned quickly. He said, "The Soul Banner is no longer usable. I'll set up a circle here to gather those six souls that haven't been summoned by the Soul Banner yet. Then you can start sending them off; once you're done, go catch the other two." As he spoke, he spread a red powder on the ground to form a circle, leaving an opening, then waved his hand to release six small Paper Men into the circle. The six Paper Men stood still as if nailed to the ground. Later I learned that the red liquid was cinnabar mixed with Turtle Blood. Indeed, there are wonders in this world.
Senior Zhang drew Hand Spells on each of the five small Paper Men while chanting some incomprehensible incantations. After a moment, he uttered "Collect" and stepped back through the opening in the circle. He then took out a piece of paper depicting Taiji Bagua; however, instead of black and white Yin Yang Fish, they were multicolored. The paper unfolded to about half a meter in size. Master Zhang placed some small offerings on top of the Yin Yang Fish and then took out six small cups, each filled with half a cup of liquor. He then pulled out six small Paper Men of different colors from his bag and laid them flat in front of the offerings before closing his eyes to chant spells and perform rituals. His ritual was different from ours; we typically needed incense and red candles, but he didn't require those items. Later he explained to me that Paper Men are sensitive to fire, so those things couldn't be used.
After Master Xiao and I finished setting up our Soul Sending Altar, we watched Senior Zhang's actions. He had just finished reciting an incantation when he raised a bottle filled with liquor to his mouth and took a sip. The aroma of the liquor was unique; besides the usual alcoholic scent, there was another fragrance reminiscent of tree mushrooms mixed with star anise and cinnamon—an overall peculiar smell. After holding a mouthful of liquor without pausing, he sprayed it all over the six multicolored Paper Men; the fine mist created by the liquor was evenly distributed without any large droplets. I couldn't help but admire silently; achieving such mastery in spraying liquor wasn't something that could be accomplished overnight.
What happened next opened my eyes alongside Master Xiao's. After spraying out the mist of liquor, he recited four lines of four-character incantations and then shouted "Rise!" To our astonishment, the six small Paper Men truly responded and rose up slowly; although their movements were sluggish, it was still remarkable. It took more than ten seconds for them all to stand up and begin turning in circles as if searching for something.
I glanced at Master Xiao; he looked back at me and whispered two words: "Impressive." After about a minute of spinning around, they gradually began to stop one by one. Senior Zhang shouted out several more incantations; although I couldn't hear them clearly, I understood they were similar to confirming positions—essentially telling each one to retrieve what they needed to bring back.
This is where I will end for now; there will be another update shortly. Thank you all for your votes! On this first day alone, we've received over seventy golden votes—currently ranking eighth! You all are amazing! Thank you also to Lumber Team for their diamond support!
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