Ch.4. Miss Daoyu
I couldn’t help but frown.
If this kind of thing happened to other people, I wouldn’t have had the thought of getting myself involved, but I just couldn’t stand by and do nothing when it came to Xiaohui.
However, I remembered when that chilling wind appeared in the afternoon, there was a warm current that flowed from my waist. It reminded me of the sword hilt in my waist that I had brought along before I went to class. It seemed that this toy really had some strong effects in regards of dealing with evil spirits!
****
It was night when school ended, I proposed to Xiaohui to walk her home, and fortunately she accepted my offer. I pushed my “basket 1258” bicycle and walked together with her to her house, all the way from school. Xiaohui then told me about the past years and her experiences.
When she was in the third grade, she moved because her parents worked in the city. After transferring schools, she remained in the third grade, which put us in the same grade. Now her family lives in the Ming Hu sub-district and has rented a house there.
In a short while we arrived near the house and it was in that remote location that I said: “Xiaohui, stop here!”
While I told her to stop, I took the “basket 1258” bicycle to the roadside, and moved my hands to my crotch. Xiaohoui almost screamed out in alarm: “You…. You…. What do you want?”
I took out the sword hilt and calmly explained: “Don’t misunderstand Xiaohui, but please do me a favor. Keep this thing for the night will you, and give it back to me tomorrow, can you do this?”
Xiaohui took the hilt with a confused face. She quickly spoke to me in a slightly surprised tone: “Ah, this thing gives off a warm feeling”
“Maybe it’s because I’ve been carrying it around so it’s become warm”, I smiled lightly.
When I delivered Xiaohui downstairs, I told her: “Xiaohui, don’t forget to give it back to me tomorrow, you must not lose it”.
“I know, and thanks for sending me home, anyways, you should go back home and be safe on the way back”. Xiaohui waved, opened the door and went inside. I stood for a moment in front of her house and heard the sound of the door being locked before I rode my bicycle to leave. However my bicycle tire went flat and I had to push it all the way to my house. It took more than an hour to walk back to my house, which made me so tired.
Dad was sitting on the sofa, and asked me in a cold tone: “Why do you come home late?”
“Flat tire.” I was so tired that even my voice was faint and vague, “Lao Li, I have been starved to death, if you want to have a word with me, could you wait after I finished eating my meal?”
Dad replied with cursing words: “Little bastard.”
I corrected him and smiled: “Our teacher said, you must not scold your son and call him little brat or son of a bitch.” and strode quickly to kitchen, to find out what delicious meal Mom had been preparing.They actually had been waiting for me to eat together.
Dad was quite successful now, his annual salary was 180,000 RMB. In addition, every year we received many gifts from many people. Therefore it could be said that my family’s living standard was good enough. We could afford to have 3 meals with 3 different dishes of meat and vegetables every day.
Mom had just finished cooking the last stir-fried vegetables dish and immediately served it for dinner. My old man asked whether I was studying hard recently, and I replied rhetorically: “I’m your son Dad, how wouldn’t you know?”
Dad choked a bit hearing my reply, then slowly ate a few mouthfuls of rice, and said: “When you graduate from high school, just enter the army. I have been preparing some money for you to have a placement card to enter the army. And you can have a regularly paid job after you return from your service. These days it doesn’t matter if you’re highly educated or not. As long as you are rich, even becoming a teacher for an elementary school is easy. But if you don’t have money, even if you were an undergraduate from a university, it’s not necessarily easy to find a job that’s suitable for you.”
I immediately replied: “Lao Li, what you said is too far and too much”.
Dad said: “This is how our society works young bastard, you haven’t understood it yet“.
I couldn’t argue any more with my stubborn Dad. I shoved several mouthfuls of food down quickly and returned to my own room. I locked the door and prepared to continue my precious study of “Golden Lotus”.
The Ximen high-ranking noble once said: ‘The more you are reading the more you make yourself richer.’ I opened the black cloth wrap and put my hand in to take out the “Golden Lotus” inside when suddenly a chilling wind blew toward me. That ghost!
I abruptly stopped my action and discovered a person beside… err…. I should have said that person was ghost, because it was that female ghost!
I pulled out the ‘Daoist Incantation compilation book’ from the black backpack and put on a false front that I was trying to study it. After turning several pages, I pretended that I had just found out about her presence. I lightly smiled at her and talked in a low voice: “Lady, you have come.”
The female ghost quickly asked: “Where is the Shadowbane Sword?”
“You mean that hilt?”
“The Shadowbane sword’s blade is invisible, although you can only see its hilt, its blade is actually intact. You can only see it under the shadow by sunlight. That Shadowbane Sword is one of the 10 most famous swords since ancient times, it’s priceless! And it’s a peerless sword that can deter ghosts and exorcise evil spirits! Where did you put that sword? I can sense that the sword isn’t in this room!”
“Wait, wait lady! Did you say that the Shadowbane Sword is priceless? If I sold that sword then wouldn’t it be enough to pay that 1,450,000 RMB debt?”, I laughed roguishly and played the fool.
“Shut up, you’re really a piece of good-for-nothing! Well, since you are not willing to accept your legacy. I won’t make things difficult for you. Just return that sword hilt to me and I will not come to look for you again, you don’t even have to pay that debt anymore”
I was so tempted to comply at once, but that hilt was now in Xiaohui’s hands since Xiaohui was also in trouble. Moreover I knew that the so-called ghosts did really exist in this world and one of them was now troubling Xiaohui. It’s perhaps better to learn the way of exorcising evil spirits. Therefore I quickly replied in a deep tone: “Hold it lady, please don’t be mad, I’m now ready to learn the Daoist arts, come and teach me some Daoist techniques!”
“Really?”, asked the female ghost.
“Yes, I just realized that originally master had lots of similarities with me, besides he had chosen me, which means that we have been predestined by fate. I will try hard to learn the Daoist arts! And I’ll give my full effort to pay that debt as soon as possible, but it’s a certain that I will need your help lady!”
“That is natural”, said the female ghost. “But first, I will introduce myself, my name is Murong Daiyu.”
“Murong Daiyu? It’s a beautiful name! Later I will call her Miss Daiyu!”, I thought to myself.
Murong Daiyu continued explaining: “I come from the era of the Song Dynasty, and because I had strong grievances and resentments when I died, I became an evil spirit on the devil’s side. But 30 years ago I met master and he helped me and influenced me to change. Although I cannot enter the reincarnation cycle, great master said that if I wish to get reincarnated, I must find a certain treasure to help me leave for the Netherworld and enter the reincarnation cycle. Therefore I followed master and travelling all over the world, helping him to exorcise evils, meanwhile seeking for that treasure”
I asked curiously: “What kind of treasure?”
Miss Daiyu only replied in short words, it meant that I didn’t have the qualifications to know now.
After knowing that Miss Daiyu wouldn’t harm me, most of my fear was gone and with my boosted courage I asked her: “Miss Daiyu, I would like to ask, if there were any ghosts or evil spirits approaching or close to a living person, would that person felt cold and gloomy?”.
Miss Daiyu patiently explained: “It could be said so, however high-leveled ghosts can conceal their Evil Qi and if they were approaching and close with a human, that certain human would not necessarily feel cold and shiver. Before in our first meeting I was seriously injured and couldn’t conceal my Yin Qi, therefore you feel cold and shivered!”
I nodded and said, “Miss Daiyu, if I were to comprehend your words, it seems that you cannot go into action for a short amount of time. So I want to ask another question, how can see those ghosts?”
Miss Daiyu replied: “Your eyes now are still mortal eyes, you cannot see any ghosts. The reason you see me now is because I deliberately let you can see me intentionally. When your cultivation reaches a certain level and when you have successfully practiced the “god-eye” technique then will you be able to see all spirit beings at will. You can even instantly exorcise a ghost who possesses living human beings. As for your present’s state, you can coat your eyes with the cattle tears and it will enable your eyes to see ghosts and evil spirits, but the cattle tears effectiveness only lasts for an hour”.
“Why can we see ghosts by coating our eyes with cattle tears?” I asked her in doubt.
“I have asked the same question to master once”, continued Miss Daiyu: “Cattles have latent psychic potential, before they are killed, they know that death is coming for them, so it will shed tears, therefore the tears will have spiritual effects.”
I really didn’t expect that Miss Daiyu actually knew so much about spiritual knowledge. I lightly smiled and said: “And now for the second problem, I have seen a person in the street today, he had black dot and gloom between his eyebrows and there was a cold aura coming from him. It gave off a cold and chilling sensation, what’s that all about?” I didn’t say that the person was Xiaohui.
“The location between the eyebrows is called the Glabella Cave, which is also the upper part of the Dantian for Daoists. In the other field of study this is also an acupuncture point and the most important part for fortune reading in physiognomy. I don’t know much about this part, however if there was a black dot of qi around it. Then there are 2 possibilities, the first is that the person is practicing an Evil Cultivation Technique which made his Evil Qi concentrate in the upper Dantian which is the glabella, second is that the person has been snarled by a ghost and has been entangled for a long time. The ghost doesn’t want to kill the person. However if the ghost and living person are together for a long time, that certain person will become weak and prone to sickness. It could be seen from The Evil Qi or Yin Qi that will concentrate in his glabella and will form a black gloom.If this situation continues then it will put that person in danger”
Miss Daiyu really knew many things, she also understood about fortune reading unexpectedly! If I were not being pressed for time, I would have had her tell my fortunes. But after listening to her explanations, Xiaohui’s present situation was dangerous, so I continued to ask to make sure: “Miss I’m now the Niu School head, if I were to encounter a situation like this, what should I do?”
“You are to of course act at once, because that ghost has threatened a person’s life”.
I continued asking Miss Daiyu: “Miss, you are also a ghost, but why do you help humans?”
Miss Daiyu’s answer was very simple: “Because I used to be a human.”
“And now, if I meet the ghost, how should I get rid of it?”, I asked again.
She said: “At your present state, you couldn’t even handle the weakest resentful baby ghost, not to mention the more powerful ghosts. Your main task now is to practice the Daoist techniques. And it all starts from physical strength exercises. Firstly, starting tomorrow you must get up at 4:00 AM, walk downstairs, then you are going to run to build up your physical endurance and strength. I’ll get two sandbags for you to use.”
“Why do I have to run? What if I don’t get up and practice?” I asked with a long face.
“Relax, I will call you tomorrow morning, if I were you, I would absolutely get out of bed immediately”, Miss Daiyu quickly replied and her silhouette form started to disappear as she vanished from sight in a flash.
A threat!… This was absolutely a blatant threat! Ughh…. This dreadful demoness would come to wake me up. What the… I would be frightened and scared to death! Who would dare to reluctantly get out of bed now? However she unexpectedly told me that I couldn’t even subdue the weakest of ghosts now. But I didn’t believe that I couldn’t help Xiaohui! I must help her!
While thinking about it, I took the ‘Daoist Incantation compilation book’ and started to study it hard. However my eyes denied me as 3 minutes later, my mind blurred. This thing’s effect was much better than a sleeping pill.
~~~~~~~~~~end of ch. 4~~~~~~~~~~