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Human Sacrifice
Hearing what Five said, I felt a bit better inside, although my body was truly exhausted and unable to move.
After a while, Mr. Chang led Douding from the backyard. With a serious expression, Mr. Chang said, "Disciple, tell Yang Hao about the glorious times of Qingliang Temple."
Douding stood up straight and replied, "During the most glorious times of Qingliang Temple, the incense was abundant, with 119 disciples in the temple. The Ancestor Master had listened to the teachings of the Taoist Ancestor, Laozi. There were 70 disciples under the Grandmaster, with two who received true transmission, and 36 disciples under the old master."
"How many received my true transmission?" Mr. Chang asked.
Scratching his head, Douding replied, "Only the senior brother; I did not."
Mr. Chang nodded and looked at me. "For mortals learning the Dao, the foundation is crucial. In times of abundance, one must be clear-headed. Yang Hao, you have already passed the best period for learning the Dao; your meridians are closed, and your acupoints have formed. To enter the Dao now will require ten times the effort and hardship compared to others. Although I am not your master, I will treat you as a personal disciple and will push you rigorously. Are you willing to accept this?"
I bowed to Mr. Chang and said, "I am willing to serve Mr. Chang as a teacher and father; I dare not defy you in any way."
Mr. Chang nodded, his tone softening. "I do this not to take you as a disciple or to make things difficult for you; I merely follow the teachings passed down by the Ancestor Master. The first rule of our Daoist Sect is that those who betray their masters and ancestors shall be punished without mercy. This is known by everyone who seeks to enter the Dao."
"I will remember this," I replied respectfully.
Then Mr. Chang instructed Douding to help me into the backyard, where there was a large vat filled with water.
Mr. Chang pointed at the vat and told me to undress and get in. Feeling slightly embarrassed, I stripped off my clothes and stepped into the vat. The water was hot and emitted a strong herbal scent; I held back my discomfort as I squatted down in it.
That night, Mr. Chang and Douding stayed awake, occasionally adding medicinal broth to the vat. In the early hours of the morning, an unbearable itch suddenly spread all over my body. Mr. Chang instructed Douding to hold my hands down firmly so that I wouldn't scratch because the medicinal effects were starting to take hold in my limbs; scratching would disrupt the acupoints' absorption of the medicine.
By dawn, Mr. Chang brewed a bowl of ginseng soup for me to drink; nothing else could be consumed. This continued for three cycles, during which I often doubted whether I would die and felt like cursing out loud.
However, thinking of how Five had gone out of their way to help me access the Entrance to the Dao and activate my Meridians, I had no choice but to grit my teeth and persevere.
Moreover, during these three days, I sometimes dozed off in the water tank while Mr. Chang kept a vigilant watch beside me, even Douding stayed awake without rest.
Whenever I fell asleep, Douding would immediately wake me up, insisting that sleeping too long could be dangerous.
I had no choice but to engage in sporadic conversations with Douding. He shared amusing stories from his years on Qingliang Mountain, and I recounted various happenings from Futu Ridge.
After three days, when I finally emerged from the tank, my skin was wrinkled and looked as if I had drowned a long time ago.
Mr. Chang had inserted numerous Silver Needles into many Acupoints on my body, which startled Five into waking up several times to ask if Mr. Chang was reliable. What if all those Acupoints were misaligned? Would I end up paralyzed or something?
Once the Silver Needles were removed and I soaked in clean water, the water in the tank gradually became murky and emitted a foul odor. Both Douding and Five frowned at the sight, and it took changing the water seven or eight times before it was clean again.
Afterward, I finally got to rest and eat normally. Mr. Chang and Douding began to catch up on sleep. When Mr. Chang woke up, my closed Meridians and Acupoints had loosened, allowing me to feel the flow of Dao Qi. He held my hand and guided me to carefully experience it.
I focused on sensing my internal state and felt a faintly cool sensation flowing within me; however, the perception wasn't strong. After a while, Mr. Chang released my hand and instructed me to try sensing the Qi along the path he had just demonstrated inside me, placing a feather on my palm.
Wuhe and Douding's eyes widened in surprise, but I could only sense the Qi moving within me; I couldn't perceive its flow trajectory at all—the feather remained completely still.
Five shook his head as he left the room, saying, "Hmph, I thought it was something impressive."
Mr. Chang replied, "If sensing Qi at this stage were so easy, you wouldn't have taken three years just to start practicing."
"Who told you it took me three years? It was only three!" Wu said indignantly.
Mr. Chang remarked, "Forget it; with that physique of yours, you'd have flattened your car's chassis."
Mr. Chang started arguing with Wu, losing the seriousness that had characterized their previous interactions.
Although cultivating Qi was not that simple, from that moment on, I began a month of intense training.
During this month, aside from physical training, I often went fishing with Wu and Douding at the lotus pond near Qingliang Temple.
We also took strolls in the nearby village not far from Qingliang Temple.
This village was small, comparable in size to Bright Moon Village, and it was called Niujia Village. Niujia Village also had a Production Team.
Due to its location within Qingliang Mountain, which is one of the tourist attractions around Ancheng, the village had inns and barbecue shops. During my physical training phase, I didn't avoid meat; eating more helped me gain strength. So almost every day, Wu and I would take Douding to the barbecue shop in Niujia Village to eat. Over time, we got to know quite a few people from Niujia Village, especially Zhang Jianzi, who Douding often mentioned.
Niujia Village got its name because before the reform and opening up, the villagers made a living by raising cattle.
However, before the Cultural Revolution, Niujia Village was actually two separate villages divided by a lotus pond. It is said that due to issues with bridge construction, the two villages had conflicts, with each village's leader leading their villagers into fights that resulted in fatalities. Even when the local police came to mediate, it was ineffective; civil disputes couldn't lead to everyone being arrested for questioning.
Later, when the Cultural Revolution broke out, the two villages became even more hostile towards each other. They frequently threatened to kill each other's children over disputes about whose cattle were grazing on whose fields. Eventually, one family's child went missing.
The people from both villages nearly fought again over this incident; the child was nowhere to be found, and the police couldn't uncover any leads. Just as the case of the missing child remained unresolved, cattle began disappearing as well.
At that time, the Old Priest of Qingliang Temple had already been arrested and subjected to struggle sessions. He was beaten by the Red Guards from both villages. People from towns outside Qingliang Mountain had heard about Qingliang Temple and its supposed fortune-teller; they would come over just to provoke the Old Priest.
The Old Priest became somewhat fearful after being beaten; he dismissed all his disciples out of concern for their safety. Upon hearing about the situation between the two villages, he stepped forward claiming he knew where the cattle were.
When the villagers learned that the Old Priest knew where their cattle were located, they asked him to lead them there. The Old Priest agreed to help find the cattle under one condition: they would no longer trouble Qingliang Temple.
The elders from both villages recognized that the Old Priest truly had skills; they had no intention of bullying him. However, the Red Guards were unhappy; if the missing cattle did not belong to them, then it was no concern of theirs.
The Old Priest not only knew where the two missing cows were but also where a child who had gone missing previously was located. He pointed to the bridge between the two villages, claiming that both the people and the cows had sunk to the bottom of it.
The villagers were skeptical, and the Red Guards even suspected that the Old Priest was responsible for the disappearances. When they went to investigate, they indeed found the remains of a child and two cows that had already begun to rot.
According to the Old Priest, the girl had fallen into the water and got entangled in the aquatic plants beneath the lotus pond, which prevented her from surfacing. In her death, she had developed resentment and turned into a ghost. The cows could see her spirit, which led them into the water, and there was no telling what might happen at night.
Naturally, the Red Guards did not believe the Old Priest, thinking he was spouting nonsense and trying to incite fear. Their captain tied him to a tree for an entire night, fearing he might be behind these incidents. However, on the following day, another cow from their village went missing.
When the villagers checked under the bridge, they indeed found another cow that had drowned.
Panic began to spread among the people of both villages, leading them to negotiate with the Old Priest. He claimed he could stop the water ghost from causing further trouble as long as they ceased their attacks on him.
In the end, the Red Guards agreed not to persecute the Old Priest any longer, but only on the condition that he would take responsibility for managing the cattle in their villages, especially regarding any future losses.
The Old Priest took charge of all the cows from both villages and could accurately predict where any lost cow would be found.
At that time, he approached the town leaders and warned them that conflicts between the two villages would likely continue to result in deaths. To resolve this issue, he suggested that villagers draw lots to exchange residences and that both villages' Production Teams merge.
Ultimately, this led to what is now known as Niujia Village.
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