Chapter 27
The temple we are looking for is the Northern Emperor Temple not far from here. The Northern Emperor refers to the Great Emperor Zhenwu, full name Northern Supreme Profound Heaven Zhenwu Subduing Demons Great Emperor. Our purpose in coming here is naturally to borrow yin soldiers.
Speaking of this, some may find it strange—aren't deities enshrined in the temple? You come here to borrow ghosts; what is your intention?
But I tell you, it's wrong for ordinary people to think temples have no ghosts. Temples not only have ghosts, they have many of them. I don't know if saying this makes you stare wide-eyed in disbelief.
Here, I want to tell you all about an incident that perhaps you have also encountered nearby.
Last year, I, QingSongShu, and Pangzi the three of us went to Shandong to handle business for a client, passing through a small town that had a renowned Thousand Buddha Temple; in that temple, such a strange incident once occurred.
At first, we were just wandering around the temple. Suddenly, a very noisy sound came from outside the temple.
When we went up to look, we saw this strange scene.
A youth about twenty years old was jumping about, waving his hands and feet, muttering incoherently, not knowing what he was chanting, and while chanting he picked up trash from the ground and swallowed it into his stomach.
After inquiring, the onlookers said the youth had offended the Buddha and been punished by him. I found it puzzling and asked those people what was going on.
People said the youth was a hooligan from the town who often came to the temple to cause trouble; just this morning, for some unknown reason, he grabbed trash, rushed into the temple and splashed it onto the Buddha's golden statue. After being driven out, he became like this—half mad, half foolish.
The onlookers all said the youth had offended the Buddha, and now the Buddha has punished him, making him suffer a bit.
I believe similar incidents are spread and occur in various places among the folk. For example, after cursing a deity, one returns home with a fever; after throwing feces and urine at a deity, one returns home dazed for a while. Speaking of this, many people don't understand: isn't the Buddha all-merciful and compassionate? How could he punish someone over such a trivial matter?
Yes, the Buddha and proper deities are broad-minded; they would not casually blame others for a small matter. In fact, those who are venerated are actually the ghosts wandering around the temple, that is, the temple's yin soldiers.
These yin soldiers are mostly wandering souls and wild ghosts in the Yang realm; whenever someone lights incense, they tend to come drawn by the scent. The Buddha and deities, being largely compassionate, allow these spirits to cultivate beside them as long as they do not harm people, giving them a large share of the incense offerings. Out of gratitude for the deities' compassion, these wandering ghosts naturally become the temple's yin soldiers guarding it. If someone dares to cause trouble in the temple or offend the deities, inside the temple you are fine, but once you step outside, these yin soldiers will punish you. However, these yin soldiers, who cultivate alongside the deities, have had most of their resentment resolved through redemption, so they will not take lives or harm the devout who come to worship; their targets are mostly those who desecrate the deities, splashing things onto the deities' golden statues, and they usually deal with such people by repaying them in kind—what you do to the deities, the yin soldiers do to you, letting you reap what you sow.
Among the many deity temples, perhaps only two have no yin soldiers around them. The first is Marshal Guan, that is, the Holy Emperor Guan, this deity attained godhood through self-sacrifice, has a fierce temper, and is acclaimed as the foremost in loyalty and filial piety throughout history. The second is the deity venerated by Pangzi's Huaguang Sect, the Five Manifestations Great Emperor Huaguang. Great Emperor Huaguang is a fire spirit, his eyes cannot tolerate even a speck of sand. Both of these lords have violent tempers, so no yin spirit dares to approach them.
Usually, disciples of our Yin Mountain Sect go to the City God Temple and the Land Temple to borrow troops. Because the City God is a yin deity dispatched by the netherworld to govern a locality, all the wild ghosts in that region come to pay respects to the City God of that area. And the Land Temple serves as a medium for ghosts to travel from the Yang realm to the netherworld. Therefore, these two temples are the best places to borrow troops.
But nowadays, City God Temples and Land Temples have gradually faded, existing only in rare places. Thus, our Yin Mountain Sect disciples often resort to borrowing troops from other proper deity temples.
Of course, I dare not directly borrow troops inside the temple, because there are deities present; performing rites would directly offend them. Moreover, there are too many people inside the temple, openly performing rites would only attract a crowd.
I and Pangzi inserted several incense sticks before the deity's incense burner, burned some paper money, and informed the Northern Emperor that our purpose in coming was to borrow troops to break the evil master's sorcery and rescue those harmed by it. At the same time, burning incense and paper money also aimed to draw the yin soldiers inside the temple forward.
After informing the Northern Emperor, I and Pangzi sneaked into the side alley of the Northern Emperor Temple, where we set up an altar and performed the rite.
In less than a moment, many yin spirits of various sizes indeed came to the temple upon hearing the news.
Seeing these soldiers manifest, I took out the Five Ghosts talisman and placed it on the ground; this is the rule of our Yin Mountain Sect for writing yin talismans and performing rites: any yin talisman must not be written before the altar, only written elsewhere and then brought to the altar. As previously stated, in Yin Mountain Sect rites, the divine altar is set on the ground, must receive earthly qi, and this kind of altar is called a lower altar, meaning it connects to the underground altar.
I calculated the time; it is now about six o'clock in the evening, which is the You hour, You belongs to western yin metal, so I should face north to summon the ghosts, and the incantation must be the You-hour troop‑dispatching spell; however, before dispatching troops, I must first appoint a commander‑in‑chief.
"Red Granny, come out," I called out to that piece of dark jade before the altar.
Not long after, Red Granny's shadowy figure appeared, and even Little Fat couldn't help poking his head out, sneaking a look at us.
Upon seeing Little Fat, Pangzi rubbed his hands, raised his eyebrows, and teased: "Yo, Little Fatty, want a drink? Uncle will buy a few bottles of aged liquor later to serve you well." Frightened, Little Fat shook his head vigorously and hurriedly hid back in the coffin, presumably because last time Pangzi's mulberry‑wine mixture left him with a bad taste, leaving him traumatized.
I am truly speechless at these two lively characters, and can only shake my head and leave them be; bringing Little Fat along on errands has become a habit, mainly to broaden his horizons, and I don't expect him to be of much use.
"Hai Sheng, why did you summon Red Granny?" After Red Granny emerged from the dark jade, she also watched the two fatties play around for a bit, then asked me.
I told Red Granny, "It's like this: I want to appoint you as commander‑in‑chief to lead the troops, so you can break apart those two people." "Breaking apart" naturally means separating those who have been forcibly united. This is a counter‑measure created in the Ghost King's art against union and forced union; of course, this technique has two uses: first, to break apart a marriage that is under forced union; second, to break apart forced union itself. The first is to create evil: take a good couple, make their fine marriage quarrel so that even the dogs are uneasy, then merge that ill‑fated evil bond in. The second is to do good: break apart the victims of forced union.
Upon hearing my words, Red Granny immediately thought of the first kind, assuming I wanted her to commit evil; she quickly shook her head and said, "No, no, I followed you to accumulate merit; you cannot let me do these evil deeds."
After I explained the matter to her, Red Granny then agreed, consenting to lead the troops to break apart Ou Yaofeng and Yao Yirong.
I inserted the command flag upside‑down into the soil of a nearby grave, just about to begin the incantation and steps, when Red Granny beside me added: "Ah, Hai Sheng, you want me to be a military commander… a general really needs a proper weapon."
After a moment of speechlessness, I told her: "Whatever you want, I'll burn it for you."
Red Granny didn't even think, replying at once: "Just give me a big saber, not the kind Guan Erge uses; I want the kind we used to chop devils with back when we fought."
I… a delicate woman wielding a big saber—apparently Red Granny used to be in the women's militia.
I handed the task to Pangzi, who accepted it gleefully. Paper folding is one of Pangzi's few specialties; to be precise, a girl once joked with him, saying if he could fold nine hundred ninety‑nine paper cranes, she would agree to date him. That offhand remark, Pangzi actually took seriously, staying up sleepless for three days to fold over a thousand cranes. Although he was later rejected, he wasn't angry at all; on the contrary, he happily declared he had found his hobby.
Pangzi's hobby naturally is paper folding, but he wasn't satisfied with only knowing how to fold cranes; he deliberately paid to learn various weapon figurines, mastering them all. At the school's paper‑folding contest, he took first place; among the top ten, nine were girls, and the other was our King Pangzi.
In less than two minutes, a fresh big saber emerged from the furnace. When I snatched this paper‑made big saber from Pangzi's hands, he was reluctant, his eyes full of resentment toward me, as if I had taken his wife.
"All right, Pangzi, stop being sentimental… I'm not stealing your wife." Without another word, I immediately wrested the saber from Pangzi's hands, charged it with a spell, and threw it into the brazier.
Red Granny received the saber, clanged it into an eighteen‑fold flip, and said very satisfied, "Not bad, not bad."
"Red Granny, all set now? You have the saber, any other requests?" Appointing a general and still nagging like a ghost, I feel I am truly the most useless disciple in the history of the Yin Mountain Sect.
Red Granny shook her head and said, "No."
"Wait a minute, why don't you bring Little Fat along too? Isn't he your soldier?" Red Granny asked again.
"He's timid, he doesn't dare to kill people."
"Oh… it's fine, you continue."
"Wait, when I go later, will I be slashing people like I slash devils?"
"That depends on the situation; if you can possess that girl's body, then cause a disturbance there to drive the man away; if you can't, just scare the man off."
"Oh, is that so? Okay."
After a moment, Red Granny turned and said: "In a moment, I still want to ask…"
I… damn it, are you done yet? Can we start?
End of Chapter
