Chapter 5

Li Feng said I was originally one destined to be a child ghost, and my innate fate bears the flawed character of the five flaws three deficiencies, so he advised me to go to a Daoist temple to take a master, become a Daoist, and borrow the Daoist Sect's qi to protect myself. Of course, Li Feng is also a member of the Daoist Sect, but he belongs to the Yin Mountain Sect, which, although part of the Daoist Sect, does not belong to Daoist religion; it is a folk magical tradition transmitted among the people.

Magical tradition, it is a religion that formed its own lineage due to folk regional culture; they have no fixed Daoist temples, no fixed places of cultivation, mostly wandering the four directions, relying on master-disciple transmission, hidden and not obvious. Even if they leave behind an incredible legend in some corner of the folk world, you may not know which sect they belong to.

Quanzhen, Zhengyi, Shenxiao, Qingming, Jingming, Lingbao, Wudang — these are all Daoist Sect's Daoist religion, having fixed Daoist temples and fixed locations to propagate the Dao.

Lushan Sect, Mei Mountain Ancestor Master Sect, Huaguang Sect, Yin Mountain Sect, Liu Ren Sect, Great Sage Sect, Lu Ban Ancestor Master Sect, Maoshan Nine Dragon Sect, Yaoshan Sect, and so on — these are all folk Daoist sects, the Daoist Sect's magical tradition, hidden in the folk magical lineage.

Magical tradition and Daoist religion both have their own cultivation systems, and each sect has its own precepts; the only difference is that Daoist religion emphasizes the Dao, internal cultivation, and rituals, with the sole goal of ascending to immortality. Magical tradition, however, emphasizes the law and supernatural powers. In magical tradition, sorcery for punishing evil people is commonly seen. Of course, there are also spells for exorcising evil, suppressing malevolence, and liberating souls. Unlike Daoist religion's pursuit of the immortal ideal, magical tradition places greater importance on applying magic to reality; its magical powers all seek practical effects, such as seeking wealth and promotion, eliminating disasters and curing illness, and so on.

Because magical tradition and Daoist religion share the same wondrous effect despite different methods, their sects also transmit the Five Arts — mountain, appearance, medicine, fate, and divination — but they fall short of Daoist religion in rituals and internal cultivation. Moreover, since they belong to the Daoist Sect, people usually refer to magical tradition as a certain branch of the Daoist Sect. For example, Daoist Sect's Yin Mountain Sect, Daoist Sect's Huaguang Sect, Daoist Sect's Lushan Sect, and so on, rather than calling it magical tradition. Of course, this is also true, because magical tradition inherently belongs to the Daoist Sect; its disciples are also Daoists cultivating the Dao, and the aim of their Dao cultivation is likewise to eliminate disasters and bestow blessings upon people, to exorcise evil and suppress malevolence.

The Yin Mountain magic that Li Feng studied is indeed a branch of folk magical tradition, and moreover, it is an innate absolute sect.

So-called absolute sect means that upon entering the door, one must commit one of the five flaws three deficiencies. The five flaws are nothing more than 'widower, widow, orphan, solitary, disabled.' And the three deficiencies, put plainly, are 'money, life, authority.'

Of course, these five flaws three deficiencies are not exclusive to the absolute sect; any Dao cultivator could possibly commit them, whether pursuing the Daoist religion's goal of ascending to immortality or focusing on magic in folk magical tradition.

But the five flaws three deficiencies also have the notions of acquired and innate; whether one commits them or not lies in a single thought of the Dao cultivator.

For example, Old Man Chen, who sold clothes in the neighboring village's town, was a practitioner of Maoshan. Because the shop owner across the street used a scheme to steal all his business, Old Man Chen, without hesitation, secretly obtained that person's hair and fingernails, took their eight characters, and, while they were unprepared, seized the rival's soul.

After seizing the soul, he then wrapped it in red cloth and threw it into a place overgrown with thorny grass, extremely damp and yin.

From then on, the shop owner whose soul had been seized indeed saw his business plummet; moreover, he grew increasingly unlucky, and later even suffered a car accident, lying in bed with breath as thin as a silk thread, almost needing to see King Yama.

Seeing that the shop owner had received this retribution, Old Man Chen shouted in delight. At that moment, something unexpected happened to Old Man Chen: his two sons — one was struck by a basketball and suffered a concussion; the other fell from a bunk bed and broke a bone.

Old Man Chen then recalled his master's teaching when he studied the magic: 'Study magic without doing evil; practice magic toward goodness; every action bears its consequences; the five flaws three deficiencies follow like a shadow.'

Thus, he hurriedly went to lift the ban on that shop owner. However, Old Man Chen's skill was not yet refined; he could only impose bans, not lift them. Later, he invited his master, who then undid the ban he had placed.

After the master arrived, he flew into a rage. Although he lifted the ban on the shop owner and released the soul, he also abolished Old Man Chen's cultivation. Later, seeing that Old Man Chen seemed repentant, the master re-established a soul-hiding tablet and once again brought Old Man Chen into the door.

But what good is that? One child became disabled, another became a fool; even if his cultivation could recover, Old Man Chen could only spend the rest of his life in regret.

This is the five flaws three deficiencies. Its terror lies in the fact that retribution does not fall directly on you, but first strikes your family: it first cuts off the qi of your six relatives, then takes their lives; then you live with remorse and guilt toward your kin, spending a long lifetime in solitary solitude.

When your heart turns wicked, you want to earn ill-gotten wealth and agree to harm others for them — you can! You use your relatives' qi and life as payment; when their qi is exhausted, you draw from your own.

When you cannot resist temptation and use improper means to alter someone's fate against heaven — you can! Then you repay with your life or a part of your body: either you choose blindness, or you choose to lose hands and feet. In short, to reap any gain, you must make an equivalent sacrifice.

Thus, within the trade, this saying is always passed down, a warning from masters to disciples.

"If you wish to keep the five flaws three deficiencies far from your body, know that studying magic and cultivating must be devoted to goodness." Like Quanzhen, Tianshi Dao, Maoshan, and other Daoist sects. Including many folk magical tradition masters who take disciples; they absolutely will not, upon entering the door, require you to choose the five flaws three deficiencies. On the contrary, masters will also warn you, urging you never to provoke that thing.

While the Yin Mountain Sect differs from them, it is one of the rare Innate Absolute Teachings in folk law; the Yin Mountain method mainly commands yin soldiers and yin generals, its law being extremely yin. He, the Lu Ban Sect, and the Plowshare Witch Sect are together called the Three Great Absolute Teachings. To enter, one must first choose one of the five flaws and three deficiencies as a price to cultivate. This is equivalent to exchanging a price for magical power; although cultivation is faster than most Daoist Sect disciples and the use of magic is more flexible, the premise is that one must first pay the price of the five flaws and three deficiencies.

Before, some of his sect's disciples once learned the Yin Mountain method and formed their own lineage, also inheriting the Yin Mountain Sect's way of taking disciples, which once led people to mistakenly believe that cultivating the Dao required a great price and that cultivators often bore the five flaws and three deficiencies.

Perhaps because the Yin Mountain Sect is an Innate Absolute Teaching, or perhaps Li Feng had no intention of taking disciples; therefore he preferred that I join some Daoist temple, even if I spent my whole life merely chanting sutras and performing rituals, without any magical abilities.

However, what he never expected was that because of me, he became entangled in a karmic bond, leaving him no choice but to take me as his disciple.

This karmic bond, however, arose because of my older sister. Li Feng did not elaborate on the reason; perhaps it is related to the Daoist robe she wore. From his hesitant words I could infer that the robe was not something he placed on my sister; rather, my sister herself absorbed it. But the hidden details, Li Feng did not want to reveal too much.

Although Li Feng had the intention to take me as a disciple, he said the affinity had not yet arrived, so he could not take me. Afterwards, he stayed at my home for two days, set up a spirit altar for my family, prepared things, and helped me return the substitute.

On the spirit altar, what was enshrined was not any deity, but a clay figurine; this figurine was my older sister wrapped in a Daoist robe.

Li Feng said that although my older sister had been retrieved, any aborted infant spirit whose resentment remains untransformed finds reincarnation difficult; moreover, this is a sin my mother herself committed, and she must herself repent to seek the infant spirit's forgiveness.

To help my older sister be reborn sooner and to settle this karmic bond quickly, Li Feng set up a spirit altar at my home, enshrining my older sister; almost every morning and evening my mother would regularly offer incense and recite sutras at the altar to transmigrate my older sister.

On the second night, Li Feng took me to the mountain to return my child's fate.

According to Li Feng, I should have returned to the Yellow Springs at the hundred‑day mark after birth, but I lingered on because I became entangled in my mother's and sister's karma; now that the karma is cleared, heaven will come to take back this ghost child of mine.

Therefore he must repay my child's fate on my behalf, so that I may survive and he can fulfill his promise.

………………

Late at night, as the night curtain quietly fell, Li Feng set out with me.

Behind us followed a group of paper‑crafted figurines, indeed paper‑crafted figurines, neatly arranged in two rows behind us: a line of blue‑clad figures on the left, a line of white‑clad figures on the right.

The feet of these paper figures never touched the ground; they floated lightly behind us with our steps. If you do not look closely, you would not notice that each figure is attached to a thin red thread, the other end of which is clenched in Li Feng's hand.

This trick, like a magic act, seemed miraculous to me; even with the red threads pulling them, I could not imagine how a single thread could make these paper figures move as vividly as living people.

The night grew ever darker and more yin.

On the village's small path there was not a single person, all was quiet. Even the usual insect sounds that could be heard upon seeing them vanished; the normally tranquil village became even more serene, this serenity carrying an uncanny quality that made one uneasy.

Even the moon hid deep within the clouds, whether from shyness or fear. Everything fell silent, except for the dogs of a few households at the village edge, which for some reason barked especially wildly and hysterically tonight.

Suddenly, leaves on the flat ground fluttered lightly; a chill rose from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head. Li Feng had told me this was the rhythm heralding the appearance of those things: a yang wind brushing the face, a yin wind rising from the feet.

I clenched tightly the talisman Li Feng had given me, hidden in my bosom. Before sending the substitute, Li Feng had told me that once my mother's and sister's karma was resolved, many things would come seeking me—perhaps homeless wandering souls, perhaps emissaries from the netherworld—all of them coming to take my life.

Therefore sending the substitute was extraordinarily perilous; on the way, countless Qin Qiong‑like figures might appear. Yet Li Feng did not care, for the Yin Mountain Sect specializes in commanding ghost soldiers; in ghost‑control, no other Daoist sect can match it—if even ghosts feared him, Li Feng would have no need to wander.

Moreover, the paper figures behind us are not mere decorations; they are the troops Li Feng has dispatched—the left row are the Eastern Yin Soldiers summoned by the order of the Eastern Blue‑Faced Ghost, the right row the Western Yin Soldiers summoned by the order of the Western White‑Faced Ghost. They too are ghosts, but they all obey Li Feng's commands.

"Hoo… hoo…" some hazy silhouettes appeared on the path ahead, standing not far off.

At this moment Li Feng's steps halted, and he sneered into the void: "I give you one minute; if after one minute you headless ghosts have not vanished, don't blame me for beating your souls to scattered."

Li Feng's words were thick with threat, yet they seemed useless—the grayish haze ahead did not diminish; on the contrary, it grew ever more numerous.

"No tears till the coffin appears!" Li Feng gave a cold snort, made an obscure hand sign, issued a command, and a few of the paper figures behind him began to burn slowly in the wind; I felt something drifting off from those paper figures.

When the paper figures had burned out completely, the path once again fell silent.

"Let's go," Li Feng waved his hand and called to me.

Thus the remaining paper figures followed us slowly, the journey smooth and untroubled, until we reached the uninhabited hill behind the village.

Li Feng found a small corner, took out a straw man from his bundle, attached red paper to it, and dressed it in five‑colored garments.

On the straw man's red paper were written my eight characters and my residence; this straw man is my substitute.

Li Feng had me kneel and perform the three‑kneel, nine‑kowtow rite before the straw man; meanwhile he slowly burned paper money, then rose, first paying homage to the four directions southeast, southwest, northwest, northeast, then turning to the center to present a memorial, murmuring unintelligible incantations.

Until I had kowtowed until I did not wish to continue, Li Feng then told me to rise. He took a cinnabar brush and dotted the figure's forehead, solemnly intoning: "One transformation opens the heavenly path, two transformations open the netherworld way; my master, the Yin Mountain Grand Dharma Master, can reach the nine heavens and descend to the netherworld…"

The final command rang out like a roar; as it fell, a tightness rose in my chest, as if I wanted to vomit.

At that moment Li Feng stood with his hands behind his back and shouted into the air: "The debt is repaid; it is time to collect what is owed—henceforth all worldly karmic debts are cleared, do not disturb us again."

After shouting for a good while, Li Feng finally picked me up and slowly walked down the mountain.

I lay in Li Feng's embrace, my ears seemed to hear the sound of chains clacking; I wriggled out of his embrace and looked behind. At that moment, I saw a scene I could never forget: the paper effigies we had brought, like deflating balloons, quickly sank down. And at the spot where we had just burned the substitute, there was a black figure covered in chains, tearing at the straw man, frightening me so I hurriedly shrank back into Li Feng's embrace.