Harvest Town in Iowa was a major farming town, always filled with the joy of harvest-the corn in the fields had ripened, its golden ears swaying in the wind like a golden sea. Every household in town was busy preparing for the Harvest Festival. Strings of corn, jack-o'-lanterns, and scarecrows with exaggerated smiles hung outside every home.
Recently, however, an eerie atmosphere had shrouded that joy-for three consecutive weeks, a couple had disappeared each week after the Harvest Festival. In the end, only their clothes were found in the fields, along with a scarecrow holding their belongings.
"Harvest Festival, missing couples, scarecrows..." Dean sat in the GMC's passenger seat, holding John's notes. "Dad's notes say this is a 'nature spirit possessing a scarecrow'-nature spirits originally guarded the fields and brought good harvests, but if humans 'force sacrifices on them,' they turn into evil spirits and sustain their power by devouring human lives."
Sam opened his laptop. On the screen were photographs of the Harvest Festival: townspeople danced around a scarecrow, holding fruit and bread, seemingly performing some kind of ritual. "According to local legend, a couple has to be 'sacrificed' to the scarecrow during the Harvest Festival to ensure a good harvest the following year. It's a custom passed down from a hundred years ago. Originally, it was only symbolic, but over the past three years, it seems to have turned into actual sacrifice."
Once again, Bai Haorui pulled out the Expelling Evil notebook and flipped to the page on spirits. "Grandpa wrote that nature spirits are good by nature. They guard the fields and help humans bring in good harvests. As long as humans don't hurt them, they won't hurt humans. If sacrifices are forced on them and they turn into evil spirits, there's still no need to kill them-use the 'five grains' to lay out a 'Spirit-Calming Formation' and recite the 'Spirit-Calming Spell' to awaken their goodwill and restore their original nature." There was also a story written here: "The ancient pagoda tree outside Green Poplar Village was a legend for a hundred li around. Its five-hundred-year-old trunk took three burly men holding hands to encircle, and its branches spread like a canopy, shading half a mu of land. Hidden in its heartwood was a wood spirit, a spirit passed down from the ancestors. When the pagoda blossoms bloomed in spring, the wind carried their sweet fragrance throughout the village, and they looked lovely when they fell into the girls' hair. In the dense summer shade, elders set out bamboo stools to play chess while children chased patches of sunlight. The wood spirit released wisps of spiritual energy through the leaf veins, quietly nourishing the crops in the fields and the children, so that Green Poplar Village's wheat harvest was always twenty percent higher than expected, and its children always grew strong and healthy.
The villagers respected the wood spirit then. Every Qingming Festival, each household brought freshly steamed rice cakes, honey-soaked fruit, and homemade rice wine, placing them on the bluestone slab beneath the tree. Little girls with pigtails tucked wild roses into the cracks in the bark and said in their childish voices, 'Big Sister Tree Immortal, this is pretty. Let me put it on you. Hee-hee-hee.' The old village chief wiped the dust from the trunk with a cloth, murmuring, 'Thanks to your blessings again this year, the children are healthy and the harvest is good.' Hidden within the tree's growth rings, the wood spirit watched these warm scenes with a heart full of tenderness, and sent more spiritual energy into the soil, making life in Green Poplar Village grow fuller by the day, like ears of rice in the fields.
Times changed. Life grew sweet, but people's hearts began to rust.
The new village chief, Li Laosan, was impatient for quick gains. Seeing the neighboring village put up brick-and-tile houses while his own home was still made of mud bricks left him burning with impatience. He stared at the ancient pagoda tree, his eyes frighteningly bright. 'This Tree Immortal can keep us healthy and increase our harvest. If we asked for more and prepared better offerings, couldn't we build tiled houses and buy plow oxen?'
First, he had people replace the rice cakes with a whole roast pig during the ritual, then stood with his hands on his hips and shouted, 'Tree Immortal, we're giving you good food, so next year the wheat had better pile up like mountains!' Then someone thought the fruit was too meager and actually slaughtered his family's ewe. Its blood seeped into the soil along the roots as he said, 'We're offering you more blood and meat, so you have to make our cotton fetch a good price!' For the first time, the wood spirit's Spiritual Sense trembled-the stench of blood stung it painfully. But seeing the villagers' expectant eyes, it endured and continued sending spiritual energy into the fields.
But greed was a bottomless pit. During that autumn's harvest, Li Laosan saw that the wheat yield had increased by only thirty percent and slapped his thigh, cursing, 'This Tree Immortal is taking us for fools! We gave it so much, and this is all we get? Pah!' A traveling peddler passed through and made up a claim that 'strange gods favor blood sacrifices; the more precious the offering, the greater the reward.' Li Laosan actually believed him.
He gathered the villagers and erected a stone platform beneath the ancient pagoda tree. Red cloth wrapped its edges, looking as though it had been soaked in blood. 'If we want to get rich, we have to give the Tree Immortal a "living sacrifice"!' Li Laosan's voice carried a ruthless edge. 'Find someone with no one to depend on and sacrifice them. From then on, our crops will double, and our silver will pile up to the roof!'
At first, the villagers were afraid, but at the thought of brick-and-tile houses and gleaming silver, their eyes gradually changed. They seized the passing peddler-the very one who had made up that nonsense-and bound him to the stone platform. His screams tore through the silence of the village streets. Red-eyed, Li Laosan raised a knife and slashed the peddler's throat. Blood flowed down the platform into the roots, seeping into the ancient pagoda tree's growth rings.
At that moment, the wood spirit's Spiritual Sense felt as though it had been seared by a red-hot iron. It wanted to resist, but the intense blood aura, wrapped in the villagers' greed, burrowed into its Spiritual Sense like black mist-'more crops,' 'more silver,' 'build tiled houses.' These thoughts buzzed around, slowly squeezing out its original tenderness. Its spirit body began to twist. The green light surrounding it turned a deep, murky green, and the leaves on its branches shuddered, actually dripping dark red sap.
That night, something strange happened in Green Poplar Village. Screams came from Li Laosan's house. When the villagers broke down his door, they found him sprawled on the floor with a pitch-black hole in his chest, while the wheat in his backyard had put out ears overnight, so golden it dazzled the eyes.
No one dared mention the peddler, and no one dared mention Li Laosan's death. But in the days that followed, villagers began dying one after another-the Zhang family's daughter-in-law went to wash clothes by the river and never returned, and her family's cotton blossomed snowy white overnight. The old man of the Li family went to inspect his crops and was already dead when they found him; his family's corn grew taller than a person. Whenever someone from a household died, that household's crops grew exceptionally well, their ears so heavy they bent the stalks, their kernels so plump they seemed ready to yield oil.
The villagers grew frightened. They dared not go out at night, and every household locked its doors, listening to the sobbing outside-that was the wood spirit's spirit body wandering among the tree shadows, its dark green spiritual energy wrapped in killing intent. Greed had clouded its Spiritual Sense, turning it into an evil spirit that knew only 'sacrifices in exchange for gifts.' The ancient pagoda tree's trunk gradually blackened, sticky sap like blood seeping from its cracks. Though the leaves on its branches were still green, they carried an eerie air of death. When the wind blew, they rustled as though laughing.
Just when only half the village remained, a wandering Taoist in a blue cloth robe arrived. He carried a peachwood sword on his back and clutched a compass. The moment he entered Green Poplar Village, its needle spun wildly. Looking at the rampant crops in the fields, then at the blackened ancient pagoda tree by the village entrance, the Taoist knotted his brows-the crops were wrapped in death energy, and the tree's spiritual channels were full of baleful energy. These were signs that greed had twisted a spirit into an evil spirit.
'You forced the wood spirit with living sacrifices, and now greed has clouded its Spiritual Sense. Every time it kills someone, it uses death energy to ripen the crops. This is drinking poison to quench your thirst!' The Taoist's voice was heavy as iron. 'If this continues, everyone in the village will die, and this ancient pagoda tree will become a demon completely.'
The surviving villagers knelt before him, weeping and kowtowing. 'Taoist master, please save us! We know we were wrong. We'll never dare be greedy again!'
The Taoist sighed and had them prepare aged stores of the five grains-wheat, rice, foxtail millet, beans, and broomcorn millet. Every grain was plump and lustrous, carrying the scent of sunshine. 'The five grains are gifts from the earth, and they are also the original bond between you and the wood spirit. I'll use them to lay out a Spirit-Calming Formation and guide it to remember the warmth of the past. Whether we can awaken it will depend on your sincerity.'
The villagers hurried to find five pieces of bluestone and arranged them in a circle around the ancient pagoda tree. Treading Gang Steps, the Taoist scattered the five grains beside the stones, one grain at a time, reciting a line of the spell with each one: 'Mystic source of heaven and earth, root of all qi; let the five grains guide the spirit to remember past tenderness; evil, disperse; let Spiritual Sense return to truth...'
With the chanting, the five grains on the ground gradually began to glow. Wisps of pale golden spiritual energy drifted from them and coiled around the tree's trunk. The golden spiritual energy was like warm sunlight. When it touched the blackened bark, it gave off a soft sizzling sound, and the black stains slowly faded, revealing the original brown beneath.
The ancient pagoda tree's branches trembled, and a dark green spirit body floated out of its shadow. Baleful energy still surrounded it, but when the golden spiritual energy drifted over, carrying memories, it stopped moving-
It saw a little girl decades ago tucking a wild rose into a crack in the tree and saying, 'Big Sister Tree Immortal, this is pretty.' It saw the old village chief wiping its trunk with a cloth, murmuring, 'Thanks to your blessings, the children have enough to eat.' It saw villagers bringing freshly harvested rice at harvest time, smiling as they said, 'This year's rice smells wonderful. We saved you a bowl.' It saw villagers in winter, afraid it would be cold, piling dry grass beside its roots and saying, 'Tree Immortal, don't get cold.'
These scenes flowed through the wood spirit's Spiritual Sense like a warm current. The dark green baleful energy gradually faded, and its spirit body began to tremble. Clear droplets actually drifted from the corners of its eyes-tears of a spirit body. It remembered its original intention: it had not been for offerings, but for these people's smiling faces. It remembered the tenderness it had felt watching the children grow up and the villagers build mud-brick houses. It remembered how painful it had been when the smell of the living sacrifice's blood pierced its Spiritual Sense, but the black mist of greed had been too thick, making it forget all of this.
'Wood spirit, you were a spirit that protected this village. How could you let greed cloud your heart?' The Taoist's voice softened a little. 'They were wrong, but if you keep killing, you truly will become a demon, and there will be no coming back.'
The wood spirit's spirit body looked at the kneeling villagers, then at the ancient pagoda tree gradually regaining its vitality. The dark green surrounding it faded completely, returning to its original pale green. It nodded gently, and pale green spiritual energy drifted from its body and scattered over the crops-the crops wrapped in death energy gradually returned to normal. They no longer grew wildly, but showed a healthy green. The sobbing in the village disappeared. When the wind blew, the ancient pagoda tree's leaves rustled, as gentle as they had been in the past.
The villagers wept with joy and kowtowed repeatedly to the wood spirit's spirit body. 'Tree Immortal, we were wrong! We'll never be greedy again. Every Qingming Festival, we'll bring you rice cakes and fruit again, and keep you company!'
The wood spirit's spirit body glanced at them and slowly slipped into the ancient pagoda tree's trunk. Fresh buds emerged on its branches, tender green, like hope.
The Taoist packed his belongings and, before leaving, reminded them, 'The wood spirit has given you a chance. Remember from now on-the gifts of heaven and earth have never been unlimited. Knowing contentment is the way to make them last.'
From then on, the villagers of Green Poplar Village never dared be greedy again. Every Qingming Festival, they brought freshly steamed rice cakes, honey-soaked fruit, and homemade rice wine, placing them on the bluestone slab beneath the tree. Children tucked wild roses into the bark, and elders wiped the dust from the trunk with cloths. They never again spoke of 'increasing the harvest by a few tenths' or 'earning more silver,' saying only, 'Thank you for protecting us.'
The ancient pagoda tree's branches and leaves grew more luxuriant each year, and peace gradually returned to Green Poplar Village. Though their crops yielded only ten percent more than those of the neighboring village, they brimmed with healthy vitality. The villagers lived in mud-brick houses, but their smiles were content. They understood that true abundance never came from greed, but from cherishing the warmth before them." At the end of the story was another line: "When the heart is free of greed, misfortune will not cling; cherish what you have, and blessings will endure."
"The five grains?" Dean frowned. "You mean things like rice, millet, and beans? Can that stuff really awaken a nature spirit's goodwill?"
"Definitely." Bai Haorui took a cloth bundle from his backpack. Inside were five kinds of grain-rice, millet, beans, wheat, and sesame. "These are the five grains. They symbolize 'harvest' and 'vitality,' and nature spirits are closest to these things. Lay out a formation around the scarecrow with the five grains, then recite the Spirit-Calming Spell, and we can dissolve its resentment and awaken its goodwill."
The three arrived at the town's fields. The sun was already sinking in the west, its golden afterglow spilling over the cornfield as though coating the ears of corn in gold dust. In the center of the field stood a huge scarecrow, over two meters tall, dressed in human clothes and holding a girl's hair clip-an item belonging to the couple who had disappeared the previous week.
As soon as Bai Haorui approached the scarecrow, the Five Emperor Coins in his pocket began to grow cold, though not as intensely as with the evil spirits he had encountered before-this showed that the nature spirit's resentment was not too deep, and there was still room to turn things around.
"It's right here." Bai Haorui took out the five grains and began laying out a formation around the scarecrow. Following the diagram in the notebook, he scattered them in a circle, with equal distances between each grain, forming a Spirit-Calming Formation.
Just then, the scarecrow suddenly moved. Its arm slowly rose and pointed at Bai Haorui, while a low moaning came from its mouth, sounding like both weeping and anger.
"Watch out!" Dean drew his silver knife and was about to rush over, but Bai Haorui stopped him.
"Don't act rashly! It's only expressing anger. It means no harm." Bai Haorui continued laying out the formation. The instant he finished scattering the five grains, a faint green light rose within it-the power of the nature spirit. "Sam, go tell the townspeople to stop making sacrifices. The nature spirit turned into an evil spirit because they forced sacrifices on it. As long as they promise not to do it again, its resentment will dissolve."
Sam immediately ran toward town, while Dean stood beside Bai Haorui, watching the scarecrow warily. "If it attacks you, I'll slash it with the silver knife right away."
Bai Haorui smiled and took out his peachwood sword, but instead of attacking the scarecrow, he placed it in the center of the formation. "Nature spirit, I know you're angry. Humans forced sacrifices on you and turned you into an evil spirit, but you're good by nature. You only wanted to protect these fields, right?"
The scarecrow stopped moving. Its arm slowly lowered, and its moans became quiet sobs. Bai Haorui knew it had listened.
"The townspeople already know they were wrong. They won't force sacrifices on you again." Bai Haorui began reciting the Spirit-Calming Spell, his voice calm and sincere. "Heaven and earth in their natural order, let foul qi disperse; within the cavern, mysterious emptiness, illuminate the great primordial. Mighty gods of the eight directions, grant me natural harmony..."
The instant he finished the Spirit-Calming Spell, the green light within the Five Grains Formation grew brighter and brighter. The black aura around the scarecrow gradually dispersed, revealing its original appearance-an ordinary scarecrow, no longer eerie as before, but instead giving off a sense of friendliness.
Just then, Sam arrived with the townspeople. The mayor held a basket filled with fruit and bread. "Nature spirit, we're sorry. We shouldn't have forced sacrifices on you. From now on, we'll offer you fruit and bread, and never harm humans again."
The scarecrow suddenly moved. It raised its arm, pointed toward the cornfield, then slowly lowered it. Bai Haorui knew it had forgiven the townspeople and was willing to continue guarding these fields.
"It agreed!" Bai Haorui said with a smile. "It will keep protecting these fields and bringing good harvests, provided you no longer force sacrifices on it."
The townspeople all sighed in relief and bowed to the scarecrow in apology. Standing in the center of the field in the sunset's afterglow, the scarecrow looked like a true guardian.
By the time the three left the fields, night had fallen, and the moon hung in the sky like a silver disc. Dean patted Bai Haorui on the shoulder. "That Five Grains Formation of yours really works. Much better than killing it with a silver knife-we solved the problem without hurting the nature spirit, and saved ourselves some effort too."
Bai Haorui smiled and put the five grains into his backpack. A system notification sounded in his mind:
[Detected that the host has successfully awakened a nature spirit's goodwill. Active skill "Spirit Communication" unlocked (allows communication with low-level nature spirits).] [Notice: The "Spirit Communication" skill can be used in the future to communicate with low-level nature spirits such as "forest spirits" and "river spirits" to obtain information or seek assistance.]
Sam walked over, looking at the scarecrow in the fields with a smile. "This is the first time we've solved a problem without killing a supernatural creature. Haorui, this feels really good."
"What are you thanking me for? It's all part of your uncle's job." Bai Haorui pointed at Dean. "Besides, hasn't someone been skeptical about these methods of mine all along? I had to prove to someone that the methods passed down in my homeland for thousands of years work much better than your traditions that aren't even three hundred years old."
Dean rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, your methods work best. Happy now?"