Chapter 20: Chapter Five: It Turns Out to Be an Evil God

That relative told us, it turns out all this started with the Guanyin statue that Mei Gu's (that is, Meng Xue's aunt's) family worshipped.

Not long after they enshrined Guanyin, every few days Guanyin would appear in Mei Gu's family's dreams, demanding they eat the three sacrifices and five meats, and also telling them to burn more gold, silver, and jewelry.

At first, Mei Gu's family was also startled, but not because Guanyin was asking for worldly things; rather, because Guanyin had sent a dream, proving their deity was efficacious. So the whole family eagerly prepared the three sacrifices and five meats, gold, silver, and jewelry to offer to Guanyin.

But later, Guanyin seemed unsatisfied, sending a dream every few days to have Mei Gu's family buy things as offerings. At first it was just pork, but later Guanyin grew ever more dissatisfied, demanding suckling pig instead of pork, and the amount of offerings kept increasing.

At this point, Mei Gu's family felt strange, saying Guanyin is compassionate and vegetarian, so why does she keep asking them for meat?

So Mei Gu's family prepared to send Guanyin away, no longer intending to worship her. But then Guanyin sent a dream to Mei Gu, saying she had taken a liking to her daughter. She told Mei Gu to pick an auspicious day and push her daughter into the river, thereafter making her a servant boy to attend her.

Faced with such an unreasonable demand, Mei Gu's family naturally refused. After all, the child is their own flesh and blood; even believers in gods and Buddhas could not bear to harm their own child. Finally, last night Guanyin sent Mei Gu a dream, issuing an ultimatum: if Mei Gu does not offer her daughter as a sacrifice today, Guanyin will come take someone herself, and Mei Gu's family will have no peace from now on.

At noon today, Mei Gu's daughter Xiao Yu was happily jumping rope with the neighbor's child at the doorway when she suddenly frothed at the mouth and collapsed. Thus the scene we witnessed earlier occurred.

"Damn it, what a lousy Guanyin, I'm going to smash it right now," shouted Pangzi, the most excited, rolling up his sleeves and preparing to rush in to smash the Guanyin statue.

I quickly grabbed Pangzi and said, "Don't rush, their offering isn't really Guanyin; the statue has been possessed by a monster, so what they're worshiping isn't a proper deity."

Yes, what Mei Gu's family enshrines is not a proper Guanyin deity. It only has Guanyin's appearance, but the statue is inhabited by an evil spirit. Especially since I just asked that relative whether Mei Gu's statue had been consecrated, and they said no, which further confirms my guess.

The custom of enshrining spirits has existed since ancient times, whether for wealthy merchants or ordinary folk. Most households enshrine a spirit. Some hope the spirit will protect and aid their endeavors; some seek to dispel calamity and secure peace, and after consulting a specialist they decide which spirit to enshrine.

However, enshrining a spirit is particular: it's not enough to just buy a statue and set it up; one must have a specialist consecrate it and invite it on an auspicious day. Without consecration, the deity cannot descend, its dharma body is lacking, and the statue is merely a clay figurine, only superficially impressive.

At this point, some "headless ghosts" (souls that die without anyone to worship them, wandering the Yang realm) or evil spirits and monsters take advantage of the vacancy to enter.

Generally, these evil spirits and monsters have varied motives. At first they come drawn by the incense, seeking a peaceful abode. Once they are dissatisfied with the incense offerings, they impersonate deities, send dreams, and demand what they want from people. If not given, they make your sleep and appetite uneasy and your household unsettled.

I related all this to Pangzi, who after listening curled his lip and said, "Never mind whether it's a headless ghost or an evil spirit; in any case, it's utterly depraved to want a little girl's life. It does evil, so I have the duty to capture it."

After saying that, Pangzi clenched his fists and prepared to rush into the house.

I grabbed Pangzi and said, "If you rush in like that, you might scare the wild immortal away—where would we catch it then?"

What I said is factual—ghosts have the five penetrations, let alone a cultivated monster. With Pangzi's rash charge, he probably wouldn't even reach the doorway before the wild immortal sensed it and slipped away. Whether it's hard to deal with aside, if it escapes, we wouldn't know where to catch it in the vast world.

What's worse, I fear it would wait for us to leave and then return to settle scores with Mei Gu's family. By then we'd become the culprits, our good intentions backfiring and harming them instead.

Pangzi scratched his head and asked me, "So what do you suggest we do?"

I pondered for a moment, considering strategies. I felt the best approach was to secretly set up a formation that would trap the evil spirit without gods or ghosts noticing. Even if the spirit eventually noticed and tried to flee, it would remain within the formation and could not escape my sight.

So I pulled Pangzi and Meng Xue aside to a distant spot and quietly said a few words,

After hearing it, Pangzi waved his hand and said, "Good, we'll split up now—you set up the formation, I'll draw the talismans. Then we'll regroup at Meng Xue's aunt's house."

After Pangzi left, Meng Xue timidly asked me, "Hai Sheng brother, what should I do now?"

I gave a mysterious smile: "Just follow your aunt inside to worship the deity; later you just get ready to watch the show."

Meng Xue entered the house, Pangzi went to prepare talismans, and I naturally went to set up the formation.

I first walked around Mei Gu's house to survey the terrain, then I formed the Seal Finger seal, recited the invocation to my teacher, held my breath, and began pacing the Nine Luminaries Pace around the house.

The formation I intend to lay is called the Nine Luminaries Yin-Yang; its purpose is to tread the Nine Luminaries Pace to summon the Nine Luminaries Sovereigns' power, thereby creating a heavenly-earthly prison.

The Nine Luminaries Sovereigns are not just a single deity; they include the Sun, Moon, Metal Virtue, Water Virtue, Fire Virtue, Earth Virtue, Ji Du, and Luo Hou—nine sovereigns in total. The Nine Luminaries Yin-Yang Formation also contains Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, the power of heavenly-earthly balance. Once the formation is set, any ghost or monster inside cannot escape.

But setting up a perfect Nine Luminaries Formation is terribly troublesome: it requires items symbolizing the Five Elements (metal, wood, water, fire, earth) for support, the central anchor needs a Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram as its eye, and also items like a Watch Heaven Flag. I didn't know where to find all that at once, but fearing delay would bring change, I could only tread the Nine Luminaries Pace, using myself as a medium, to lay out a rudimentary form of the Nine Luminaries Formation.

Even just that rudimentary form of the Nine Luminaries Formation was enough to tax me. Throughout the stepping process I couldn't breathe, and I had to watch my steps so they didn't go awry.

Any cultivator knows that after invoking the teacher, we must hold a breath of vital energy in our mouths; whether we pace Yu's steps to lay a formation or draw talismans to command troops, we must complete it in one uninterrupted flow, without leaking breath—once we do, the talisman formation loses its efficacy.

Moreover, the Nine Luminaries contain the power of nine sovereigns, each with a different Yu's Pace, so this process is not merely tedious; we must constantly change our steps, yet also link those paces together to form a formation, with no breaks and no breathing—if we accidentally exhale or misstep, all our prior effort is utterly wasted.

My face flushed red from blood rushing to my brain, I could barely hold my breath. Fortunately, at that moment I managed to finish the final step of the Nine Luminaries Formation.

After completing the rudimentary Nine Luminaries Formation, I buried a few Five Emperor Coins I carried on me onto the anchor representing the Metal Virtue Sovereign, not daring to linger even a moment, and I ran straight into the house at full speed.

Just then Pangzi arrived as well; we exchanged an OK sign and entered the house together.

Inside the house stood a Guanyin statue made of porcelain; the sculptor who carved it must have been skilled, depicting Guanyin with kind eyes and a lifelike appearance.

But this statue had never been consecrated, and was blatantly defiled by a monster. Now this kind-eyed Guanyin image leaks a trace of evil aura that cannot be concealed.

Mei Gu was holding the child, kneeling before the statue on the table and weeping as she muttered prayers begging Guanyin for forgiveness.

I looked at the offerings on the altar: there was suckling pig, peanuts and oil, plus some other meat. I roughly figured out what kind of gluttonous evil deity this was.

If I'm not mistaken, this should be a rat that has cultivated into a spirit.

Sure enough, when I furtively observed the statue with my spiritual eye, I saw a rat-like creature sitting on the altar, greedily gnawing on a pig's trotter.

I and Pangzi exchanged a glance and nodded. We both stepped forward simultaneously, feigning lowered heads in devout kowtow before the Guanyin statue.

When bending over, Pangzi suddenly lifted his head, pinched the White Crane Finger, shouted an "Chi", and with a big wave of his hand, five talismans flew out from his sleeves, centering on Guanyin, steadily and securely surrounding the entire statue.