Chapter 371

At noon, Fan Wuchang called us again, because setting up the formation must align with heavenly timing and earthly advantage, and we still need to wait a few days, so he let us relax and play in Aomen for a few days. In a few days Chen Zheng will hold a birthday dance party, and will also invite us to participate.

Regarding Chen Zheng's invitation, Pangzi and I naturally had no objections, and I think Yuan Qiu wouldn't either.

We couldn't set up the Nine Yin Formation, and the snake infant had nowhere to go for the moment. Yuan Qiu was taken away by Uncle Zhang. Pangzi and I then set our minds at ease and calmly played in Aomen for a few days.

In the afternoon, I took the jade pendants of the three ghosts—Murong Jiaja, Red Granny, and Little Fat—and Pangzi and I began a sightseeing tour in Aomen.

The purpose of our trip was naturally to visit Aomen's major casinos and see the various games they offer. This city has long been called a gambling city and gambling port, and together with Monte Carlo and Las Vegas is known as one of the world's three major gambling capitals.

Besides the big casino giants like Eternal Profit, Interstellar, Beautiful High Plum, Crown, Venetian, and the Portuguese Capital, there are also various medium-sized entertainment venues, offering games big and small, fan-tan, stud poker, slot machines, endless in variety.

Although everyone knows gambling is harmful, Aomen's gambling industry, after years of change, has permeated every layer of society, economy, and politics, with the gaming industry absorbing nearly half of Aomen's workforce. If all of Aomen's major casinos were to close overnight, no economist would be needed to predict that the prosperous Aomen would collapse overnight.

"Ah……Everyone knows gambling is harmful, but why do so many people willingly lose everything at the gambling table?" Gazing at the prosperous Aomen, Pangzi involuntarily stretched and sighed.

I bought a bottle of mineral water from a street stall and gulped it down. After hearing Pangzi's words, I couldn't deny it and shook my head.

"Everyone knows gambling is harmful, but if you don't gamble, no one can point a gun at you. Put bluntly, the pitiful must have something hateful about them. Even if someone holds a gun there, if you don't willingly go up to it, the gun barrel won't aim at you. All this boils down to human greed."

"In the mundane world, there is no absolute right or wrong; gambling is originally a tool for entertainment, but in human hands it becomes an instrument for extracting wealth. Everyone knows gambling is harmful, yet they willingly immerse themselves in it, even to the point of losing everything."

"You say… Is there any surefire way to make money in this world?" In the blink of an eye, Pangzi and I sat down on a bench, his hands behind his head, and the conversation stayed on the same topic.

"Not gambling is winning," I chuckled.

"That's right; winning or losing is just being the house's grandson," Pangzi sighed.

Pangzi's words jolted my mind, and a name slowly coalesced in my memory.

That's right, he is Huo Zhiting, the legendary figure from Guangzhou. After racking my brains for a long time, I finally recalled the name; he was also a generation's gambling king, and he even said something similar to what Pangzi said.

This name may be unfamiliar to ordinary people, but in the gambling world, or to people from Guangzhou, it is a legend known to all.

Huo Zhiting was the first domestic gambling king of China, born during the chaotic warlord era; he similarly started out in that era, his life full of legendary color. At age fourteen he went to Hong Kong, starting as an apprentice in a grocery store, and within just a few decades became the gambling king who commanded Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Aomen. His seniority surpasses that of any current Aomen gambling king, and his wealth then exceeded that of any Aomen family today.

Although Huo Zhiting was immensely wealthy and once held sway over half of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Aomen, he kept a low profile, never showing off. In the present day, aside from a few people in the gambling world and in Guangdong who have heard of him, outsiders hardly remember his name, or that this once-glorious gambling king ended in gloom.

It is worth mentioning that this gambling king, though he opened casinos and monopolized all ticket (lottery) channels at the time, gaining fame, is known by everyone to have never gambled, not even playing cards. Yes, a gambling king who never touched gambling implements.

He once said, "Gamblers may win or lose, but in the end they are just the house's sons and grandsons." Even on his deathbed, he warned his descendants: not gambling is winning; stay away from the gambling world. If you can avoid it, do so as much as possible.

Perhaps the gambling king had already attained enlightenment on his deathbed, his tone tinged with regret for his past, but these clearly faded with Huo Zhiting's passing, becoming mere clouds of the past.

…………

Time drifted by idly, we basked in the sun, enjoying this rare tranquility. Suddenly, Pangzi stretched and sighed for no apparent reason.

"Ah…… I don't know how long this life can last; I really don't want to go back to Shenzhen, I don't want to see Seventh Grandpa this old man—just thinking about it makes me fearful."

Pangzi gazed at the sky with deep eyes, his tone bleak, his gaze desolate.

"All right, Pangzi, it's just a few needle pricks—do you really need to be this scared? I somewhat despise his cowardice."

Pangzi placed his hand on my shoulder, pursed his lips, and sighed long: "How many times? It's dozens of times, and the needles pierce the acupoints—each inch in brings a few points of pain; once they're in, they're in, and you can't even cry out in pain; you damn well don't understand the desolation in my grandfather's heart."

"What needles? Are they really that painful?" Seeing Pangzi's expression wasn't feigned but genuine fear, I couldn't help but feel curious.

Pangzi looked left and right, saw no one around, then leaned close to my ear and whispered five words: "Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate."

"Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate—what is that?" Pangzi's words left me even more baffled; I've heard of golden and silver needles, long and short needles, but never the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate.

"You're kidding—you've never even heard of the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate? Are you still a Daoist Sect member?" Pangzi gaped, looking at me as if I were an alien.

I shook my head and said, "I truly don't know what the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate is." Unable to contain my curiosity, I urged him: "Quickly tell me, what is the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate, worth Seventh Grandpa going to such trouble to teach you?"

In my expectant gaze, Pangzi slowly explained the purpose of the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate.

Actually, the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate is the essence of medicine within the Five Arts of Mountain, Physiology, Medicine, Divination, and Destiny. Just as many think mountain arts only draw talismans to repel ghosts, unaware that one can summon yin spirits to borrow the five communications for divination, medicine is not only for curing illness and saving people, but can also be used to exorcise ghosts and resolve karmic debts. Especially for hysteria, the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate has undeniable miraculous efficacy.

Hysteria is usually called 'ghost collision.' As previously mentioned, pretending to be a ghost and possession are different concepts; if you attract unclean things due to your yearly luck, you might be killed by them without knowing how, and never see their form. This phenomenon can only be called ghost collision, not possession.

After a spirit possesses a person, the person may exhibit traits such as incoherent speech, a voice different from their own, or manic hysterical laughter. We in the trade call this possession, while in traditional Chinese medicine it is termed hysteria.

Whether male or female, singing or laughing, crying or chanting, talkative or silent, resentful morning and night, acting wildly day and night, eyes and mouth askew, disheveled and barefoot, naked and exposed, or seeing ghosts in the mulberry grove—such symptoms are the work of flying insect spirits, wild goblin ghosts, and the hundred evils. To cure this ailment, Master Sun created the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate.

The disease caused by the hundred evils' frenzy requires recognizing thirteen acupoints; in needling, one first targets the Ghost Palace, then the Ghost Trust, without exception.

Going point by point from the head, men start on the left, women on the right; the first needle stops at the Ghost Palace in the philtrum, with insertion on the left and exit on the right.

The second needle goes beneath the thumbnail of the thumb, named Ghost Trust, pierced three fen deep; the third needle goes beneath the big toe's nail, named Ghost Bulwark, entered two fen.

The fourth needle enters the Great Mound point on the palm's back, five fen in as the Ghost Heart; the fifth needle goes to the Shenmai point as the Ghost Path, with fire needle thrust three times, seven clicks.

The sixth needle seeks the Dazhui vertebra, entering one cun in as the Ghost Pillow; the seventh needle punctures five fen below the earlobe, named the Ghost Bed needle, to be warmed.

The eighth needle goes to the Chengjiang point, named Ghost Market, exiting left to right—must be remembered; the ninth needle goes to the Laogong point as the Ghost Cavern; the tenth needle goes to the Shangxing point as the Ghost Hall.

The eleventh needle: three strong yin downward seams; for females, the Jade Gate head is the Ghost Storehouse; the twelfth needle goes to the Quchi point as the Ghost Minister, with fire needle still requiring seven clicks.

The thirteenth needle: at the center of the tongue, this point must be named Ghost Seal; needles are inserted bilaterally on hands and feet, but if encountering a fox den, only a single passage.

This is the true marvelous secret of the ancestral master; frenzied evil ghosts have nowhere to flee.

Men begin needling on the left, women on the right. Odd days are yang, even days are yin. On yang days and yang times, rotate the needle right; on yin days and yin times, rotate left.

When all thirteen points have been needled, the physician should immediately ask the patient: what demon or ghost causes the harm? The patient states the cause, which is recorded in full; only when the madness is exhausted may the needles be withdrawn.

The Ghost Palace is precisely the human philtrum point; the Ghost Trust is the Lesser Shang point; the Ghost Bulwark is the Hidden White point on the body… The Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate refer to the thirteen acupoints on the human body. In the medicine of the Five Arts, it is believed that after possession, the ghost connects to these thirteen points; when the physician seals them, that is the day the possessing ghost is forced to death.

After hearing Pangzi's explanation, I felt as enlightened as a frog in a well seeing the sky. I once thought doctors only prescribe medicine to treat illness; even Daoist doctors could only use drugs to cure some stubborn ailments. I never imagined that medicine contained such a miraculous secret method, whose application and efficacy rival the talismanic arts of mountain cultivation.

"You don't know how many things there are?" Pangzi disparaged me harshly, proudly saying: "The Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate have always been passed down in the Thirteen Fields of Zhujiu. Do you know why Zhujiu is called the Thirteen Fields? It's because ordinary Chinese medicine only has twelve fields, while Zhujiu transcends those twelve, and besides treating stubborn ailments, it also includes the Three Evil Ghost Ways…"

Before Pangzi could finish speaking, his eyes stared fixedly at my back without moving.

When I turned around to follow his gaze, I saw such a bizarre scene.

I saw on the park lawn a young man in his early twenties, half-crouched, his hands waving wildly in the air—sometimes grabbing his ear and scratching his cheek, sometimes squinting and making faces, sometimes leaping out with punches. Though chaotic, one could faintly discern the form of his martial art, drawing a crowd of onlookers. Yet the young man grew wilder and faster, even shoving aside a nearby trash bin and mercilessly kicking over an elderly person beside it.

His face flushed red, a frenzied mania, his monkey fist showing no sign of stopping.

Instantly, four huge characters flashed in my mind: "Child Body…"

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