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墨書 Inktalez
As we were unfamiliar with the cave, we decided to wait until dawn to take further action. I pulled out my phone, but there was no signal here. It was only eleven o'clock, so dawn was still a while away. I turned to Lu Jianguo with some questions.
"Uncle Lu, why do I feel like you know so much?"
"Hehe! No, I only know a little bit, just enough to answer your questions!" Lu Jianguo said with a simple smile, scratching his head in embarrassment. Honestly, Lu Jianguo was definitely not as simple as he appeared. On the surface, he seemed like just a laborer, but who knew what kind of background he had?
I asked him some questions about soul summoning since the text in "Mausoleum Secrets" was quite archaic, and there were many concepts that I couldn't grasp as a self-taught learner. He answered each of my questions one by one. I began to understand what soul summoning was all about!
When a person is born, they possess Three Souls and Seven Spirits. By the age of twelve, their souls stabilize. If one does not use Demonic Sorcery or Gu techniques, it is impossible to capture their soul. Once a person dies, their Three Souls and Seven Spirits combine into a ghost after seven days. If the soul is lost, the spirit controls the body, turning the person into a calamity, estranged from their kin. If the spirit is lost, the soul controls the body, turning the person into a spirit with some semblance of intelligence remaining. Losing both can lead to varying degrees of madness or even death. Some quack doctors dismiss spirits entirely, causing patients to miss critical opportunities and ultimately leading to Soul Shattering.
Through Gu techniques or being possessed by an Evil Spirit, possession occurs when a person's body is taken over while their soul is imprisoned. Such souls are often trapped and controlled in their actions. A master or Taoist would need to use magical tools to guide these souls back to their rightful places.
If someone gets frightened in the wild and their soul flees, this fleeing soul is referred to as "lost soul." The method for summoning a lost soul generally involves finding that person's closest relatives or standing on a rooftop or at the village entrance. With one hand draped in the person's clothing and the other hand gesturing in the air for summoning, they would call out loudly, "So-and-so! Return to your soul!"
Summoning these two types of souls is generally not too difficult. However, if dealing with Monsters or Water Monsters that have deep Daoist practices and trying to retrieve souls from them usually requires negotiation. For those easily satisfied, offerings of incense, flowers, fruits, or Three Livestock and Six Domestic Animals would suffice. But for those with larger appetites, human lives may need to be exchanged!
As we chatted casually and knowing that Furball was protecting us made us feel more relaxed. Before we knew it, we had fallen asleep. When I woke up again, it was already bright outside; sunlight streamed through the cracks.
With the help of sunlight, we could finally see inside the cave clearly. It wasn't very large—about the size of a basketball court—with rock walls and some vegetation hanging from above at most five or six meters high. At the top was an opening where many tree roots and vines hung down. There was also another dark passage connected within the cave. We didn't have much time and didn't plan on taking any risks. After sizing up our surroundings with Lu Jianguo, it seemed that getting out of this cave wouldn't be too difficult.
"Xia, you go up first and pull that girl up using a vine!"
I nodded and looked at the cave's height of five or six meters. Grabbing onto a vine, I climbed up with ease. The vine hung from a tree trunk; I jumped to the cave entrance and swung it down towards Lu Jianguo. He lifted the girl and secured her with the vine. He supported her from below while I pulled from above; panting heavily, we finally managed to get her to the cave entrance. Lu Jianguo climbed up swiftly like a monkey.
"Uncle Lu! Are we going to summon this girl’s soul?"
"Yes! But it looks like it won't be easy! Looking at it in the sunlight—wow! Her soul has been gone for at least seven days; ordinary soul summoning techniques won’t work!"
"What should we do then?"
"Cheat! Ghost!" Lu Jianguo said, each word pronounced slowly.
I was taken aback at first, then suddenly enlightened. This method has been around since ancient times. When it comes to prolonging life, it's called Exorcism. When it involves walking in the shadows and concealing Yang Qi, it's known as Obscuration. Similarly, when it comes to deceiving ghosts and summoning souls, it's referred to as Soul Summoning!
To put it simply, the woman's soul had clearly been captured by a ghost or spirit for quite some time. As the saying goes, new ghosts are heavy while old ghosts are light. The longer a soul is separated from its body, the fainter it becomes, making it increasingly difficult to summon back! The so-called deception of ghosts involves using Taoist formations to create the illusion of a transaction, utilizing Paper Man to fabricate a Spirit Offering to deceive the capturing ghost and exchange it for the detained soul! Once the soul returns to its rightful place, we can use spells to conceal this person's aura for three days, effectively tricking the ghost.
We first hid the woman and administered Red Toad Powder, which is a medicinal powder used in Corpse Raising Ground to obscure Yang Qi. This temporarily suppressed her Yang Qi so that she wouldn’t be targeted by Mountain Spirits and Wild Monsters, leaving Furball behind to protect her. After everything was prepared, Lu Jianguo and I made our way down the mountain according to memory and arrived at the Village. We inquired about Gao Lao and Agen's whereabouts; Gao Lao led us to Agen. Agen was still fast asleep when we called him up, still groggy.
"Agen! How did you deceive us with the fox spirit last night?"
"What? I didn’t go out at all!" Agen's parents testified with their hands on their chests, speaking in local dialect, "This kid came back from plowing and went straight to sleep!"
"Then what about your Aunt?"
"My Aunt died over ten years ago! Where would an Aunt come from?" Gao Lao also came out to testify that he had personally buried her. At this point, I realized that everything was a trick orchestrated by the fox spirit.
"Gao Lao, I need to speak with Agen privately. Could you please step aside?" I said to Gao Lao. He looked uneasy but reluctantly left.
I pulled Agen aside to a secluded spot and quietly asked, "Do you know about the Fallen Cave Woman?"
Upon hearing this, Agen's face changed dramatically. After a long pause, his eyes filled with sorrow. "Sister Lian is a person of misfortune!" I immediately guessed that Agen and Sister Lian were lovers. "Agen, Sister Lian can still be saved. Are you willing to help me find her?" Upon hearing this, Agen's eyes lit up as he quickly looked around and whispered, "If we can save Sister Lian, I'd trade my life for it!"
"I don't want your life; can you prepare a rooster, some talisman paper, and a handful of grains?" Agen nodded eagerly but looked puzzled. "After dinner, follow me into the mountains so we can save Sister Lian!" Agen nodded vigorously.
Time passed like breath through nostrils; before we knew it, dusk had arrived. Agen gathered us quietly in the forest. Upon seeing Sister Lian, he knelt down and tightly embraced her while sobbing uncontrollably!
"Agen, this isn't the time to cry! Tie red strings around the rooster's beak and feet tightly!" Agen wiped his tears and did as instructed!
I circled around Sister Lian's body with grains scattered in a circle. Finding a flat area, I lit incense and candles. Taking yellow paper, I cut out two human figures with scissors. I instructed Agen to cut his middle finger and squeeze blood onto the Paper Man's forehead. I asked him, "Do you know Sister Lian's birth date and time?" He nodded quickly and wrote her details on the Paper Man.
I then picked up a Yellow Talisman and began drawing symbols while chanting incantations. The talisman read: "By order of Ancestor Master, summon back the soul of (name) born on (birth date) to return home!"
After preparing for a while, darkness gradually fell; the sun sank in the west while cold winds began to blow ominously.
I was about to follow the instructions in "Mausoleum Secrets," where Lu Jianguo taught me a technique to open my eyes. Although I previously possessed the Yin-Yang Eye, it was too terrifying, so I had Big Mouth Lee seal it for me. That guy didn’t even know how to open his eyes.
This time, I was in charge of the summoning, and under Lu Jianguo's guidance, I reluctantly followed the ritual to call back the soul.
In front of Sister Lian, I placed eighty-one yellow paper talismans, arranging them in the four directions according to the Azure Dragon formation. The Azure Dragon represents wood, allowing me to absorb the energy of the mountains and forests to quickly conceal the Yang person's body, evading the gaze of the soul-capturing spirits. Afterward, I bit my fingertip and let a drop of blood fall onto the heart area of the Paper Man. At that moment, I stepped onto Yubu and recited the incantation. Grabbing a makeshift wooden sword carved from a peach tree branch, I formed a gesture with my fingers and thrust the sword through the paper talisman, shouting “Rise!”
The two Paper Men soared into the air like arrows, darting deep into the forest. Lu Jianguo watched in astonishment, unable to contain his exclamation, “What a talent!” Not long after, one of the Paper Men returned with a gust of cold wind, a white mist swirling behind it. Two figures appeared—one black and one white—floating through the trees like semi-transparent Ming Ren. Later, I learned that only Lu Jianguo and I could see Sister Lian's spirit.
The air became thick with tension; a chilling aura enveloped us, sending shivers down my spine. Agen's pants were soaked through.
When the Paper Man returned to me, I jabbed it hard with a bamboo nail. With a whoosh, that black soul shot back into Sister Lian’s body like lightning. I aimed at the other Paper Man with my bamboo nail but couldn’t pierce it no matter how hard I tried. The White Soul seemed to be held back by something invisible and couldn't break free.
“Release the rooster!”
Chickens are considered extremely yang creatures; roosters are practically fighting machines of pure yang. As the saying goes: when a rooster crows, ghosts wail; when chickens flap their wings, spirits tumble; when roosters crow in succession, ghosts flee!
The Evil Spirit was tugging at Sister Lian’s soul, trying to swallow it whole—things were getting dangerous. Although Agen couldn’t see Sister Lian’s spirit, he could see the Evil Spirit! He looked somewhat stunned. I shouted at him again.
“Son of a bitch, give me back my Brother Huzi! Agen, what are you waiting for? Release the rooster now!”
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