Chapter 99

At noon, Fan Wuchang called us again, because setting up the formation must align with heaven's timing and earth's 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 attend.

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 temporarily disappeared. Yuan Qiu was taken away by Uncle Zhang. Pangzi and I then set our minds at ease and calmly spent a few days playing in Aomen.

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 cities.

Besides the big casino giants Wynn, StarWorld, MGM Grand, Crown, Venetian, and the Ponte 16, there are also various mid-sized entertainment venues offering games big and small, fan-tan, stud poker, slot machines, and more, 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, and the gaming sector employs 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 tables?" 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 barrel won't aim at you. All this boils down to human greed."

In the tumult of the secular world, there is no absolute right or wrong; gambling is originally a tool of entertainment, but in human hands it becomes an instrument for extracting wealth. Everyone knows gambling is harmful, yet people willingly become addicted to 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, Pangzi clasped his hands behind his head, and the conversation remained on the same topic.

"Not gambling is winning," I chuckled.

"That's right; winning or losing, we're just the house's grandchildren," 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 while, I finally recalled the name; he too was a generation's gambling king, and he had even said something similar to what Pangzi said.

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

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

Although Huo Zhiting was immensely wealthy and once held sway over half of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Aomen area, he kept a low profile and never flaunted himself. In the present day, aside from a few in the gambling world and in Guangdong who have vaguely heard of him, almost no one outside remembers his name, or recalls this once-glorious gambling king who ended in obscurity.

It is worth mentioning that this gambling king, though he opened casinos and monopolized all ticket (lottery) channels of the time, gaining fame for a while, everyone knows he 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 this 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 as we chatted aimlessly; we basked in the sun, enjoying this rare tranquility. Suddenly, Pangzi stretched and sighed for no apparent reason.

"Ah… I don't even know how long this kind of life can last; I really don't want to go back to Shenzhen or see Old Man Seven, just thinking about it frightens me."

Pangzi gazed at the sky with a deep look, his tone bleak, his eyes 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: 'How many times? It's dozens of times, and each time the needle goes into an acupoint, every inch brings a few points of pain. Once it's in, it's in—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, which 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 bewildered; I've heard of golden and silver needles, long and short needles, but never of 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: 'Hurry up and tell me—what is the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate, worth Old Man Seven putting in all that effort to teach you?'

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

In fact, the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate is the essence of medicine within the Five Arts of Mountain, Physiology, Medicine, Divination, and Physiognomy. Just as many think mountain arts only draw talismans to exorcise ghosts, unaware that one can summon yin spirits to borrow the fivefold communication for divination, medicine is not only for curing illness and saving people—it 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 mentioned before, pretending to be a ghost and spirit possession are different concepts. If you attract unclean things due to your yearly luck, you might be killed by them without even knowing how, and you'd never have seen their appearance. This phenomenon can only be called 'ghost collision,' not 'spirit 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. In our line we call this possession, while in traditional Chinese medicine it is termed hysteria.

Whether male or female, singing or laughing, weeping or chanting, talkative or silent, resentful morning and night, acting wildly day and night, eyes and mouth askew, disheveled and barefoot, naked and exposing the body, or seeing gods and ghosts in the mulberry trees—such symptoms are the work of flying insect spirits, monstrous frenzied ghosts, and a hundred evil harms. To cure this ailment, Sun Zhenren thus created the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate.

For the illness caused by a hundred evil harms in frenzy, one must know the thirteen points to needle; in every needling, one first targets the Ghost Palace, then the Ghost Letter, without exception.

Proceeding point by point from the head, men start on the left, women on the right; the first needle stops at the human-center Ghost Palace, then a needle goes in on the left and out on the right,

The second needle goes under the thumb's nail, named Ghost Letter, pierced three fen deep; the third needle goes under the big toe's nail, named Ghost Bastion, entered two fen.

The fourth needle goes into the posterior palm's Daling point, entering five fen as the Ghost Heart; the fifth needle goes into the Shenmai meridian as the Ghost Path; the fire needle is applied three times, seven qiang qiang.

The sixth needle is found on the Dazhui vertebra, entering one cun as the Ghost Pillow; the seventh needle pierces five fen below the earlobe, named the Ghost Bed needle, which should be warmed.

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

The eleventh needle involves three strong yin downward seams; the female Yumen point becomes the Ghost Concealment; the twelfth needle goes into the Quchi point as the Ghost Minister; the fire needle still requires seven qiang qiang.

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

This is the true marvelous secret of the ancestral master; frenzied evil ghosts will 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, the needle turns right; on yin days and yin times, it turns left.

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

The Ghost Palace is precisely the human-body's Renzhong point; the Ghost Letter is the Shangqing point; the Ghost Bastion is the Yinbai point on the body… The Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate refer to the thirteen points on the human body. In the medicine of the Five Arts, it is believed that after possession, the ghost connects with these thirteen points; when the physician seals off these thirteen points, that is also the day the possessing ghost is forced to die.

After hearing Pangzi's explanation, I felt as enlightened as a frog in a well seeing the sky. I once thought doctors merely prescribe medicine to treat illness; even a Daoist doctor could only use drugs to cure some stubborn ailments. I had never realized that medicine contains such a miraculous secret method, whose application and efficacy are not inferior to the talisman arts of mountain arts.

"You don't know how much more there is?" 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, whereas Zhujiu transcends those twelve, and besides treating stubborn ailments and biased diseases, it also includes the Three Evil Ghost Ways…"

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

When I turned around to follow his gaze, I saw such a strange 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 squeezing his eyebrows and making faces, sometimes leaping out with punches. Though chaotic, one could faintly discern the form of his boxing. This drew a crowd of onlookers, yet the young man grew ever larger and faster, even shoving aside a nearby trash bin and mercilessly kicking over an old man beside it.

His face flushed red, a manic frenzy; practicing monkey fists, he simply could not stop.

In an instant, four huge characters flashed in my mind: 'Child Body…'.