Chapter 96: Burning

After the township head announced this matter, Old Man Jiang and Hui Jue went completely crazy with work. The house they temporarily rented in the township was almost completely surrounded, with no way to move in or out.

Of course, with their appearance, it was obvious at a glance they were not experts. They could only claim to outsiders that the real experts had gone elsewhere, and that the two of them, who had some basic medical knowledge, were helping to distribute medicine.

Fear is one of the easiest things to spread in a crowd. After the township head vividly described how terrifying the worms were, almost everyone in the entire market town came.

Of course, not everyone needed to take the pills. Old Man Jiang had said the medicine was too strong. Those who had not been infected by the worms would instead be harmed by taking it.

This indirectly increased the workload for Old Man Jiang and Hui Jue. People who were both symptomatic and asymptomatic came, and they had to examine each one individually.

More than thirty pills were clearly not enough. In short, those few days were chaos. Old Man Jiang and Hui Jue were overwhelmed, and I ended up delaying my studies as well, going to school and then coming back to help.

The large scale worm removal campaign could be considered a success. Old Man Jiang made a special request to everyone. No matter what, the corpses of the worms had to be collected and brought back to him.

This was naturally a disgusting task, but under yet another round of alarmist warnings from the township head, people still followed through.

Five days later, the worm removal campaign ended. Exhausted, Old Man Jiang and Hui Jue brought a bag of disgusting worm corpses back up the mountain, and my happy days also ended as I followed them back.

Living in the market town was not happiness? At the very least, after school I did not have to walk such a long distance anymore.

The blazing firelight reflected on my face and Old Man Jiang’s. The mountain air had originally been fresh, but at this moment there was a foul smell hanging in the air. Old Man Jiang had brought me to burn the worm corpses, mixing dried calamus into the firewood.

In this fire, three talismans had also been specially added. On the other side of the fire stood a large soul summoning banner, with a purple talisman pasted onto it. I remembered that when that talisman was completed, my master had even spat out a mouthful of blood.

At first, I did not understand why my master and Hui Jue had collected these worm corpses. But not long ago, Old Man Jiang explained it to me, and I finally learned how terrifying the larvae of these hungry ghosts were.

It turned out that those pills only cut off their vitality. They did not completely destroy the hungry ghost worms. Under the right conditions, they could possibly revive again. In truth, what was truly terrifying was not the worms themselves, but the souls of those hungry ghosts.

Hungry ghosts have the potential to become beings of great power and ability. From this, one could imagine how terrifying their potential was.

To completely destroy their physical forms, fire was required. The fire of the living world was the only weakness of their bodies. But fire alone was not enough. It had to be ignited using objects infused with exorcising and yang energy. Only then could the fire have some effect.

To go further, talismans drawn by someone with great cultivation were needed. These talismans increased the fire’s yang energy and righteous force. Simply put, they mobilized the fire aspect of the five elemental forces. That was why hungry ghosts were extremely dangerous.

“Master, since the larvae of hungry ghosts are already this terrifying, do humans even stand a chance against them?” I looked at the firelight, deeply worried.

“People rarely ever have the chance to face them. Whether in Daoist practice or Buddhist practice, when facing hungry ghosts, there is an unwritten rule that you must act. Daoists suppress them, Buddhists liberate them. In short, action must be taken.” Old Man Jiang looked at the firelight, lost in thought.

“Master, since hungry ghosts are so vile, why did you go to so much effort to draw a soul sealing talisman to collect them? Would it not be easier to just suppress them directly and make their souls scatter?” I did not understand his decision. The soul sealing talisman was extremely difficult to create, because it required two functions in one talisman. First to collect, then to suppress. Collecting souls was already extremely difficult, and suppressing them inside the talisman required balance. They could not be destroyed, only contained. The difficulty was immense.

The last time my master had drawn such a soul sealing talisman was when I was young, during the time I was surrounded by a hundred ghosts. Against ordinary vicious spirits, my master could easily destroy them. But to collect them, he had to use blue talismans. That alone showed how difficult such talismans were.

Talisman materials were diverse and not limited to paper, but they could roughly be divided into five levels: gold, silver, purple, blue, and yellow. Yellow talismans were the simplest. Each level above that was exponentially more difficult. This time, to seal forty eight hungry ghost souls, my master used a purple talisman. It consumed an enormous amount of mental and spiritual energy, which was why he spat out blood when it was completed.

“Destroy them? That would be a great sin. The places where hungry ghosts exist are barren and harsh. They suffer constant hunger, which is great suffering. Especially those born in the realm of hungry ghosts, they are born carrying such karmic burden. When facing hungry ghosts, they can only be guided, never killed. Ask Hui Jue if you want the Buddhist explanation, but in Daoism, the greater the karmic burden and suffering, the greater the possibility of transcendence. That is why among hungry ghosts, it is normal for some to become powerful beings. Their lifespans are long, their suffering even longer, and so their cultivation becomes profound. They must be guided, not killed.”

“Master, do you mean hungry ghosts are naturally pitiful beings, so we should pity them?” I asked.

“You are speaking from a human perspective. You think anything that harms humans is evil. But from a pig’s perspective, would humans also be evil? Humans eat meat and grains to survive. I hunt, you are food. It is simply the natural order of the world, a cycle of life. Hungry ghosts also have their own way of surviving. If they act within their natural order, that is fine. But if they go beyond it, harming and destroying humans, then they must be killed. Now tell me, do you think they should be killed or not?” Old Man Jiang looked at me and spoke with deep seriousness.

My mind suddenly brightened, and I felt I understood more deeply something my master had once told me. To hold reverence for all things. Within the Daoist way of nature, the birth, aging, illness, and death of all things are part of the Dao.

But I still could not accept it. “Master, why did you have to use pigs as the comparison?”

“Do I even need to explain that? If it is an analogy, you must choose the closest thing!”

“......”

The fire burned for a full two hours before slowly dying down. After it went out, my master stirred the ashes and nodded slightly in relief. Then he said, “San Wa Er, step aside. Do not block the path. I am about to guide the ghosts into the talisman.”

I quickly moved aside. I knew my master was about to perform the guiding hand seal. This time was different. Normally, the guiding seal was used to point wandering souls toward the Yellow Springs Road. It was a benevolent technique. But this time, it was being reversed to draw hungry ghosts into the talisman.

This was equivalent to creating an illusion for the ghosts. Hungry ghosts naturally hated returning to the hungry ghost path, because it was unbearable suffering for them. They preferred staying in the human world, where resources were abundant and could temporarily relieve their hunger.

The reversed guiding seal could create an illusion of a beautiful human world, making them mistakenly believe they had arrived in a paradise.

But reversing the hand seal consumed far more energy, and it was extremely complex. Even the slightest mistake was unacceptable, which was why Old Man Jiang told me to step aside.

This seemingly simple hand seal required four strict steps. It also required divine possession invocation, and I had to stay far away.

A strong wind rose. I instinctively recited the control mantra and opened my heavenly eye. I really wanted to see what a hungry ghost soul looked like.

Once the heavenly eye opened, everything around me changed form. This deliberate activation of the heavenly eye was different from accidental awakening. Under conscious control, everything appeared as forms within the heavenly vision.

They were pure energy bodies.

Instead of the blurred ordinary sight where only certain things could be vaguely seen.

The world around me turned dark. Within the darkness, I saw many multicolored streams of power. I saw the light representing my master’s vitality. I saw green light representing plant life. I saw a mass of yellow light descending from the sky, merging with my master’s light, but I could not make out its exact form at all.