When Master and I saw Uncle Yu take out the ingredients, we did not disturb him.
Master even said to me:
"Xiao Jiang, keep an eye on the surroundings. If those bastards get too close, symbolically scatter some rice farther away and stall for time.
There are too many restrictions in the water, and we need them alive, so it's not easy for me to act.
In the end, we'll use the Yin Dish to catch them all in one net..."
Master was not good at fighting in water. I had experienced that back at South Heaven Lake.
I immediately nodded. "Don't worry, Master. There's still about half a jin of rice left. Holding these ghostly things off for a while won't be a problem."
Master nodded and lit another cigarette.
Holding the rice, I watched the wandering souls around the little boat. They kept swimming about, occasionally even kicking up sprays of water.
To the naked eye, it looked as though large fish were swimming back and forth beneath us...
If we really went into the water, we would become drowned ghosts taking someone else's place.
Uncle Yu was on the boat, chanting a Fire-Invoking Spell as he lit a candle.
Using a small frying pan, he began pan-frying fish gills.
As he fried them, he drew out his chant: "The netherworld is dim and deep, departed souls drift and roam. Fish gills are offered up, may all resentment come to rest..."
As he chanted, Uncle Yu tossed the pan.
He continuously added those dark culinary sauces from his bamboo tube...
Before long, an incomparably fishy, rancid stench surged straight into our noses and mouths.
One whiff was enough to make you want to vomit. It was overwhelmingly pungent.
Yet after the smell spread out,
the black shadows around