Chapter 155
After my tireless efforts, I finally explained the concept of raw donkey blood clearly to this little girl.
Then the little girl left, and as she walked she kept looking back at me every few steps, her gaze as if she were looking at a mental patient who had escaped from an asylum.
Afterwards, the little girl summoned the restaurant owner. Just as I thought I was out of luck and would have to explain again, the owner merely glanced at me and straightforwardly told someone to go buy donkey blood at the slaughterhouse.
Judging by the owner's appearance, he seemed to be a follower of both Daoism and Buddhism, wearing a sandalwood bead bracelet and exuding a natural, refined elegance.
Upon hearing that I wanted black donkey blood, he said nothing more and had the store manager go to the slaughterhouse to buy a donkey.
Later, after some casual chat, I learned that the owner was not only a Daoist Sect believer but also had an uncle who was an insider; he had spent time with that uncle and gained a rudimentary understanding of Daoist matters. Although he didn't know what I needed the black donkey blood for, he instinctively assumed I was buying it for a ritual.
I didn't bother to explain further, just gave a dry laugh and bought a bag of donkey blood.
To prevent the donkey blood from drying out, I immediately took a taxi back to the inn after buying it, poured the blood into a basin, took out the rope I had bought, and soaked it in there.
After that, I went to Pangzi's room, found QingSongShu's Huaguang Seal in his luggage, and after the rope had soaked, I took it out and hung it in the hallway to dry.
The next morning, after packing toys, rope, food, and some wilderness survival items, I took my luggage, hailed a taxi, and set off for Xiao Tan Shan.
This time I went up the mountain alone. Besides Pangzi and Yuan Qiu, I also left Little Fat in the hospital to guard QingSongShu's Dharma; Pangzi was seriously injured, Yuan Qiu had no magical power, but with Little Fat that weird fellow around, I would feel much more at ease.
The taxi slowly reached the foot of Xiao Tan Shan; with my pack on my back, I got out of the taxi.
Xiao Tan Shan is very ancient; it and Da Tan Shan were originally two small islets, later joined by river and sea sedimentation via a connecting sandbar, forming today's Aomen Island. Because it is famed in Aomen for the Bodhi Chan Monastery, Xiao Tan Shan is also called Mount Bodhi.
From afar, Xiao Tan Shan looks like a rare earthly paradise, beautiful beyond measure.
Without a doubt, Xiao Tan Shan is the 'excellent mountain' spoken of in feng shui; houses with their backs to it are fairly good.
Of course, don't think that feng shui's saying 'mountains govern population, water governs wealth' means any house backed by a mountain is automatically good and will prosper its inhabitants.
If buildings are constructed leaning against the mountain or have a supportive formation behind them, they originally conform to feng shui principles. But if the mountain relied upon is not bright and beautiful—if it is ugly, barren, or too steep and high—then it becomes reliance on a poor mountain, leading to stalled careers, indifferent superiors, disliked colleagues, forcing one to rely solely on oneself, starting from scratch with hard labor.
Therefore, a house backed by a mountain is not necessarily good; one must still see whether the mountain is poor, strange, or excellent. A strange mountain brings fortune; an excellent mountain makes its owner prominent and the population thriving. But if it is a poor mountain, it is a harmful calamity.
After standing for a moment at the mountain's base, I began walking up from the foot, just like many other visitors who come to Xiao Tan Shan for recreation.
Along the way, lush bodhi trees could be seen everywhere on the road. Of course, these are not true bodhi trees, merely similar trees.
Besides that, the mountainside and wilderness are filled with numerous wild medicinal plants: crabapple fruit, crane's‑bill grass
Crabapple fruit is the common hawthorn we see; although a fruit, it is also a Chinese medicine that aids digestion and appetite. Crane's‑bill grass belongs to the rose family, both sides covered in fine hairs with interspersed small leaflets; in the Bencao Gangmu it is also called dragon‑tooth grass, snake retreat. It is mainly used for iron‑impact injuries, tuberculosis‑related coughing of blood, and other heat‑type and external ailments.
The next two commonly seen are mugwort and snake‑tongue grass. Mugwort needs no further explanation; in folklore it has the function of warding off evil and purifying gloom. In Chinese medical theory, besides its many applications, there is also a story behind it.
Legend has it that in ancient times a man named Mo Lao saw an old elephant lying in a reed bed, groaning in pain. The elephant gestured to Mo Lao that its front leg had been pierced by a sharp bamboo splinter. Mo Lao hurried to the elephant's side and forcefully pulled out the splinter; fresh blood immediately gushed out. A nearby calf plucked a handful of mugwort and held it up to Mo Lao. Mo Lao stuffed the mugwort into the elephant's wound; soon the bleeding stopped and the elephant could stand and walk. Afterwards the old elephant often brought the calf to help Mo Lao plow the fields.
This is one of mugwort's effects: besides staunching bleeding, taking dried mugwort, washing it, chopping it, decocting it, and taking it internally can treat chronic bronchitis and pulmonary tuberculosis. Those treated usually have reduced coughing, markedly less phlegm, and diminished or vanished lung rattles.
If dried mugwort is chopped and simmered over low fire for two hours, then taken in a single dose two hours before the onset of alternate‑day malaria, continued for two days, most people's symptoms improve and some patients' blood malaria parasites can turn negative. Mugwort decoction also treats upper‑abdominal cold pain and acute bacillary dysentery.
Furthermore, mugwort used together with arborvitae leaves and dried ginger treats incessant vomiting of blood, sallow complexion, and weak, rapid pulse. Mugwort combined with donkey‑hide gelatin and cattail pollen treats metrorrhagia. After removing the dregs, adding it to eggs and boiling them into a soup, eating the egg and drinking the broth can treat female leucorrhea. Rubbing fresh mugwort on the affected area several times a day treats common warts with good effect. Crushing mugwort, igniting it for moxibustion on the skin allows heat to penetrate the muscles and bones, hence mugwort is the main material for making moxa sticks. Using moxa sticks to moxibustion the affected area treats hookworm dermatitis, with a very obvious anti‑itch effect. Moreover, moxibustion with mugwort kills or inhibits many pathogenic bacteria and fungi, and can also be used for indoor disinfection.
From the mountain base all the way up, mugwort grass can be seen thriving everywhere; besides that, many other clinical medicinal substances commonly used in Chinese medicine are also present.
This makes me marvel at the strange geology of Xiao Tan Shan: nowadays, land capable of growing wild medicinal herbs is extremely scarce, not due to feng shui but because the soil and water quality fundamentally cannot supply enough nutrients for wild herbs; even cultivating medicinal herbs is hard to find a suitable plot.
Nowadays, on the slopes of Xiao Tan Shan, aside from the common medicinal plants, some rare medicinal substances can also be faintly seen; although they are not mature, merely being able to spot them on Xiao Tan Shan is itself remarkable.
As I walked along, seeing more and more medicinal herbs, I really wanted to toss out the contents of my pack and stuff all these herbs in, then march off down the mountain and immediately make a small fortune.
Of course, that's just a thought. Leaving aside that the herbs aren't mature, there are also patrol officers on the mountain; if caught, one would surely spend a few days in detention.
Well… I admit, after all this fuss, I really do have nefarious intentions toward these herbs!
Gradually, as I advanced, the number of people I saw on the mountain dwindled. After all, those who come to climb and play
Just as I was about to stop to rest and drink some water, a hazy moisture drifted in the air, and not long after the summit was enveloped in a thick white mist.
Standing on the summit and looking down toward the mountainside, through this hazy white mist I could faintly see the bridge spanning the two islands below. The white mist shrouded the Aomen peninsula, and from my high perch overlooking everything I felt a certain sense of surveying all the mountains as small.
But… as the fog grew denser, I soon discovered a problem, a very important one.
Damn it, with such thick fog, how am I supposed to find the way? Forget gathering herbs—I can't even tell east from west; reaching out I see only a white blur, I don't know what's ahead, I can't find the road home, let alone pick any damn herbs.
Wanting to cry but having no tears, I could only sit cross‑legged on the summit. Since I happened to be standing on a cliff edge, I dared not move about carelessly; if I were inattentive, I would surely step on a stone and plunge straight off the cliff like a novel's protagonist. I don't have Pangzi's sort of dumb luck, nor do I think I'm like a novel hero who, after falling off a cliff, discovers a secret martial arts manual or is rescued by a white‑bearded elder who imparts supreme martial arts.
So I could only sit there, not daring to go anywhere, quietly waiting for the fog to clear.
I don't know how long I waited, but I ate nearly three loaves of bread, drank two bottles of mineral water, my legs grew sore, and only then did the fog slowly dissipate.
When the fog finally cleared, I realized it was already night, so I could only take out my flashlight and carefully walk on the mountain, looking for a sheltered cave where I could rest.
Murong Jiaojiao had said that the full moon would occur within these few days, though she couldn't pinpoint the exact time. Looking at tonight's half‑crescent moon hanging in the sky, it is clearly not the full moon.
So I could only look for a place to stay, settle in first, and then examine things more carefully tomorrow night.
I held my flashlight and walked along the mountain path overgrown with wild grass and rubble, searching nearby for a cave that could shield me from wind and rain.
After I crossed a small ditch, the flashlight seemed to illuminate a small house.
"How strange, how could there be a house on the mountain summit?"
Thinking that, I cautiously approached the building with my flashlight, and only upon getting close did I realize it was not a house at all, but a ruined temple,
I waved my flashlight inside the temple twice and found that its age exceeded my imagination—not only had weeds grown inside, but thick moss covered all the walls. The plaque above the door was broken, showing only the latter half of a seal‑script character; the former half had vanished.
"Although it's dilapidated, at least I have a place to stay." I consoled myself with those two sentences, then lifted my foot and prepared to go inside.
Suddenly—bang! —a sound like a heavy object hitting the ground, followed immediately by a rustling in the pitch‑black night. This sound was not leaves rustling; it is the kind of noise made only when a person rubs against the ground.
Although the sound was very faint and disappeared almost instantly, I definitely caught it; I am certain there is someone inside the ruined temple.
In the middle of the night, on this bald mountaintop, in a deserted ruined temple—how could there possibly be anyone!
I absolutely refuse to believe that such a ruined temple would be inhabited; after all, the present era is nothing like the past, and although Xiao Tan Shan is called a mountain, occasional patrols come by—if anyone were there, they would have been sent down long ago.
Since it's not a person, it is very likely… a ghost.
Thinking this, my heart tightened; I hastily pulled out the Huaguang Seal from my waist, using it to protect myself while I shouted into the temple with my flashlight.
"What thing, sneaking about—get out here!"
End of Chapter
