"Master, you cried?" the Daoist boy blurted out instinctively.
"Master is happy! Master is happy! The Patriarch is still here—our Fu Luan Temple's spirit-invocation lineage can flourish!"
The old Daoist priest wept tears of joy. Under Xuan Yun the Daoist Boy's astonished gaze, he took three sticks of incense, performed three bows and nine kowtows, then prostrated himself and knocked his head against the ground.
Mo Chuan, startled into revealing himself, had long since retreated into his original body. Using incense offerings as a mirror, he quietly watched the old and young pair at Fu Luan Temple.
When the old Daoist priest performed the three bows and nine kowtows, the incense that had been swirling around his nose and mouth, yet could neither be inhaled nor exhaled, suddenly drilled into his body.
In an instant, a force of incense offerings far exceeding that from the Chen family's sacrifices spread through his limbs and bones.
His body trembled, and an ineffable, mysterious sensation welled up from his heart.
"This must be... shedding my Nie body and becoming a Ghost Body!"
Having listened to the old Daoist priest expound the scriptures for two days, Mo Chuan was suddenly struck by understanding.
The next day, when the Chen family again burned incense and offered sacrifices, he immediately followed the incense channel into the Chen family ancestral hall. Looking down, he saw:
Sure enough!
His hazy, almost nonexistent body had distinctly taken on physical form today.
It looked exactly like his original body, clothes and all.
"How strange. My original body can actually sense the transformation from Nie into a ghost. Could it be... that the world where my original body exists truly is the Netherworld Underworld?"
Even as Mo Chuan marveled inwardly, a strange feeling rose within him.
For now, he had no way to investigate this matter. He could only set it aside and wait until later.
Returning to his original body, Mo Chuan received a delivery after lunch.
Upon opening it, he found yellow paper, writing brushes, cinnabar... everything he needed.
It had to be said, this era of online shopping was downright uncanny!
If you could think of it, you could buy it.
Yesterday, he had merely searched on a whim, originally planning to gather the materials for drawing talismans one by one.
Who would have thought that merchants had already thoughtfully prepared complete talisman-drawing kits, even including a whole compendium of talismans?
It truly left one both startled and amazed.
After arranging the materials, Mo Chuan dipped his brush in cinnabar. With a brief recollection, his brush soon raced like a dragon and serpent.
The Ghost Subduing Talisman was used in the Netherworld rites of fasting and offering.
It was not something that could be made merely by writing the Nie character in seal script.
Its core lay in the "taboo name," also known as the talismanic heart.
That was to say, the Nie character with a cloud crown—rain—added above it, signifying the borrowing of a deity's power!
As Mo Chuan wielded his brush, he chanted under his breath:
"A green cloud canopy above the head, three dots of gold upon the left; the cart moves, the dragon body turns, the axe-blade cleaves demons; thunder crashes upon the ear, ten thousand frights flee without pause—divine soldiers, swiftly obey the law!"
As the chant ended, the talisman was complete.
On the otherwise ordinary yellow paper, the cloud-crowned Nie character flashed with faint light before returning to stillness.
With a thought, it entered his body like painted skin.
"It actually worked!"
Mo Chuan's face was filled with astonishment.
"According to the old Daoist priest, the Ghost Subduing Talisman borrows the power of Nie. I've already shed my Nie body and become a Ghost Body, so how can I still create talismans? Could it be that once one has been a Nie, Nie power remains forever?"
"Or did I only just transform into a ghost, so my Nie power has not yet completely dissipated?"
"I hope it's the former! But the latter is possible too. I should take this chance to write a few more."
Having made up his mind, Mo Chuan again wielded the wolf-hair brush, writing dozens of talismans in one breath. Only when he felt dizzy and lightheaded did he finally set down his brush.
When he looked up at the sky, it was already dark.
How strange—he had spent an entire afternoon writing just a few dozen characters!
Mo Chuan scratched his head and went out for dinner.
Time flowed like water, babbling onward.
For several days afterward, Mo Chuan used incense offerings as a mirror and quietly listened to the old Daoist priest of Fu Luan Temple expound the scriptures.
During that time, the old Daoist priest set up altars and drew talismans several times. Besides Ghost Subduing Talismans, he also drew House-Guarding Talismans and Soul-Ascending Talismans.
House-Guarding Talismans resembled Ghost Subduing Talismans, keeping ghosts and evil spirits away from the home.
Soul-Ascending Talismans were talismans of deliverance, burned when raising sacrifices for the departed.
Mo Chuan feared that the old Daoist priest possessed some unknown ability, so naturally he did not dare reveal himself.
Yet unexpectedly, ever since he had possessed the old Daoist priest and drawn a talisman with him that one time, some profound and mysterious connection seemed to exist between them.
The old Daoist priest succeeded every time he drew a talisman.
On the fourth day, he even had Xuan Yun the Daoist Boy take up the brush and draw talismans.
Unexpectedly, though Xuan Yun the Daoist Boy followed the procedure without the slightest error, and though his brushwork lacked only somewhat of a coiling dragon's force—yet still surpassed Mo Chuan's by far—he failed every single time.
This scene made Mo Chuan vaguely realize something.
The old Daoist priest seemed to sense it as well.
On the fifth day, he had Xuan Yun the Daoist Boy draw talismans alone.
After thinking it over, Mo Chuan possessed him and took hold of the brush. The talisman was immediately completed!
"Ancestors above, this little woman should not have made an offering without proper rites, but I have truly been driven to desperation!"
"My husband, Li Guanqi, will soon be beheaded at the marketplace. This little woman has exhausted the family fortune, yet still cannot save my husband. I wished to follow my husband into death, but there is a child in my womb. I truly cannot bear to see the Li family incense line cut off!"
"This little woman has exhausted every method. I ask only that my ancestors bless us—save my husband, save the Li family's incense line!"
A mournful, tender prayer drifted amid the curling incense smoke.
Using incense offerings as a mirror, Mo Chuan saw a gaunt woman, so haggard she was nearly skeletal, prostrating herself on the floor of a crude, shabby dwelling and murmuring her prayers.
On the table, a pottery bowl served as an incense burner, with blue smoke curling around it.
—This was the third ownerless strand of incense offerings he had sensed.
Who would have thought that its obsession was actually to save someone?!
"Wuwu... Ancestors above, I know saving someone is too difficult. If it cannot be done, then after my husband dies, let him at least send me a dream!"
The woman likely knew that breaking someone out of an execution ground was absurd. In her grief, she voiced her final plea.
Then she collapsed limply to the floor in sorrow, nearly fainting.
After an unknown length of time, she remembered the child in her womb. Struggling to her feet, she lay down on the bed, heartbroken beyond words, and fell into a deep sleep.
Not long after she fell asleep, faint light suddenly rippled beside the pottery-bowl incense burner, whose incense had long since burned out.
When the faint glow faded, a man in strange clothing with a crew cut quietly appeared.
—That man was none other than Mo Chuan.
He glanced at the woman on the bed, then at the straw hut with walls bare on all four sides. His gaze could not help returning to the woman.
In his eyes, her face was haggard, while faint red glimmers intertwined around her body.
Having listened to Fu Luan's old Daoist priest expound the scriptures, he already knew that this was yang energy!
However, the woman's yang energy was exceedingly weak.
For an ordinary person, yang energy should be scarlet red;
A martial artist brimming with vitality and blood could even emit white radiance like sunlight, causing ghosts to flee at the sight of it.
As the saying went: "Humans fear ghosts three parts; ghosts fear humans seven parts."
That said, if this was so, how did some vicious ghosts harm people?
The answer was neither simple nor difficult.
When a person lost their shell and became a ghost, they gathered into form and dispersed into qi.
Passing through a person's seven apertures, they could enter the human body.
Commonly called "possession";
It was also known as "taking the body."
Yet humans had yang energy to protect their bodies, like a blazing firepit.
If a ghost possessed someone, it was like passing through a firepit. At best, its vital energy would be severely damaged; at worst, its body and soul would be destroyed.
Unless it was an ancient great demon whose spirit had solidified, unafraid of sunlight and therefore naturally unafraid of yang energy.
Thus, even when ordinary ghosts and monsters possessed someone to take their body, they usually chose children or sickly bodies.
The woman before him happened to have yang energy as weak as dying embers, making her the perfect target for possession.
Seizing her essence and qi could aid cultivation.
"I have the Sacrificial Dao Furnace, so I'd best not even think about possession. It damages Yin virtue too much! But if I can fulfill her obsession and gain her incense offerings, letting the stream flow thin but endlessly, wouldn't that be far more comfortable?"
"Still, I have no relation to her, and I don't know why her husband is being beheaded. I should investigate first. If something is amiss, I should withdraw early. I'm not lacking this one strand of incense offerings."
Mo Chuan mused inwardly.
Having decided, he walked to the window and looked outside.
Beyond the house, green mountains blazed bright while starlight lay remote and dim.
Under the silent night, a small mountain village was scattered among terraced fields like stars across the sky, beautiful as an ink painting splashed across paper.
"The Chen family has a great demon, and Fu Luan has an old Daoist priest. I've been stifled to death! Tonight is the perfect chance to go out and take a stroll!"
Delighted by the sight, Mo Chuan dispersed into qi and slipped out through a crack in the window.
Unexpectedly, the moment he left the house, a burst of barking sounded.
"Woof woof woof—"
Mo Chuan looked over and saw an old black dog crouched in the courtyard, barking furiously at him.
"Heh! Doggie, can you see how strong my luck is?"
"Woof woof woof..." "Woof woof woof... woof woof woof..."
One dog's barking immediately set off the entire village. Woof woof woof rang out everywhere in a single uproar!
It even drew the villagers' shouts of rebuke, making the place sound remarkably lively.
"I'd long heard old folk say that some animals can see souls. I never expected it to be true."
Mo Chuan chuckled, dispersing his body into qi once more as he headed beyond the village.
The village terrain was complicated, with narrow paths twisting and crossing everywhere.
A stranger entering it could easily lose their way.
Fortunately, Mo Chuan had lost his physical form, and all obstacles ceased to exist for him. He rose high for a glance to determine his direction, then fled straight down the mountain.
Yet just as he left the village, he suddenly stopped.
Beside the packed gravel road, before a waist-high Land God Temple, an old man leaning on a dragon-headed cane smiled amiably at Mo Chuan.
"Sir, you look unfamiliar. You don't seem to be from these ten li and eight villages, do you?"
Before you continue