Teacher Xun had learned the Rice Offering Specter-Detection Technique from a Yin-Yang Practitioner in Susu Prefecture while “researching” the culture of the Western Regions.
Susu Prefecture lay at the boundary between the cultures of the Central Plains and the Plateau.
The Yin-Yang Practitioners there studied a varied assortment of arts.
Their methods bore traces of the esoteric Buddhism of the Western Regions, the Taoism of the Central Plains, and the ancient culture of Shamanic Ghosts.
They had mastered none of them completely, but dabbled in a little of everything.
After the Song Dynasty.
Even Buddhist monks and Taoist priests without ordination certificates, and even some practitioners of folk traditions, could be called ritual masters.
Yin-Yang Practitioners exorcised evil, summoned souls, and assessed feng shui. Naturally, they could also be called ritual masters.
The Rice Offering Specter-Detection Technique was a method Teacher Xun encountered in the countryside of Susu Prefecture, used by Yin-Yang Practitioners to identify Uncanny entities while traveling in the wilderness.
Not only could it identify Uncanny entities from the Underworld, wild gods, and wandering ghosts, it could also persuade beings with little resentment to turn around and leave after eating the offered rice.
It was a lifesaving measure for Yin-Yang Practitioners who encountered the Uncanny.
The main reason the Yin-Yang Practitioner had been willing to teach Teacher Xun this technique was that he considered Teacher Xun a man of learning.
A university professor.
Even if Teacher Xun learned it, he would never compete with him for a living.
More importantly, Teacher Xun had eventually helped his child, a high school senior, apply to a good university and a good major.
The Yin-Yang Practitioner could not thank him enough. When he heard that Teacher Xun wanted to learn the Rice Offering Specter-Detection Technique, he eagerly taught him.
Teacher Xun