Chapter 174: 《Secret Text for Governing Demons》

Cai Yu's Earth Soul was drawn out from within his body.

Its shape and appearance did not resemble a human form, but rather carried the meaning of a "Dharma Image."

This Dharma Image corresponded to the Earthly Evil and also responded to the heavenly stars; it was the image of "Stomach Earth."

The Stomach Mansion is like a granary in the heavens. It also corresponds to the official in charge of storage.

What corresponds here is that Daoist Caiyu practiced the ingestion of Qi, perhaps responding to the Dao of "Stomach Earth."

The image of this Earth Soul was a giant pheasant, but not a male; it was an old hen.

Xu Jia muttered to himself, "To think I've tangled with a pheasant again."

This pheasant was no ordinary pheasant; it gestated treasures in its stomach and could spit out heavenly grain.

Once summoned by Xu Jia, plump and beautiful, it further incited the covetous hearts of demons, monsters, and ghosts.

Among these demons, monsters, and ghosts, there was one monster named "Liu Yuanheng."

This ghost-monster looked like an infant and was originally transformed from a mud figurine that had existed for many years.

Back when True Person Caiyu was governing Shanju Guan, it had once caused harm through evil worship; women would offer sacrifices to invite the mud figurine home to pray for pregnancy, but it would always result in a stillbirth—having a body but no soul—as it deceived the infant's innate primordial Qi from the womb to use for its own cultivation.

Because this monster was molded from a mud figurine, it could change endlessly, shift as it pleased, and escape into the earth to hide its tracks.

Later, True Person Caiyu governed it, smashed its temple, pointed at the earth to turn it into jade so it could not escape, and with a pair of Dharma eyes, he could see through its transformations; finally, he captured it and calcined it with fierce fire, turning the mud into porcelain, making it a porcelain doll. He had intended to subdue it and reform it into a child deity, but it was smashed by someone, lost its place of residence, and turned into a scattered-spirit wandering phantom, causing mischief in the Dharma Realm, often teasing children and frightening fetuses.

This thing had just escaped into Xu Jia's Altar Field Barrier and was about to suck the innate true yang of Cai Yu when it was deterred and driven away by Xu Mu, who held a mantra and used the "Om" character mantra combined with the Fearless Seal.

Now, seeing Cai Yu's Earth Soul, it could no longer care about these deterrents and drove itself into Xiao Hong's belly.

Xiao Hong watched as her belly suddenly grew large, and a mud fetus controlled her to begin acting, heading toward the Dharma Altar.

Xu Jia shouted, "Where are the Dharma Altar Shen!"

Immediately, the Spirit General Luejue Shen, riding a large rooster, held a pair of chicken-foot claws in his hands; these chicken-foot claws were extremely flexible, the tendons on them were alive, and they could open and lock, grabbing directly into Xiao Hong's belly.

One chicken foot grabbed an arm of the Liuziheng mud doll monster and tried to pull it out; the mud doll shrieked and split into two, one being pulled out while the other remained in Xiao Hong's belly.

Xiao Hong's consciousness was not firm, and she was still being controlled to charge the altar.

Xu Jia, however, had already activated the Soul-Shifting Talisman, intending to place it into the Ancestor Portrait.

At the same time, he chanted the Southern Dipper True Scripture.

"Praise! The Heavenly Mansion Life-Ordering Upper Minister True Lord of State Protection, the Heavenly Image Record-Managing Upper Minister True Lord of Mountain Suppression, the Heavenly Beam Life-Extending Life-Protecting True Lord, the Heavenly Harmony Calculation-Increasing Life-Protecting True Lord, the Heavenly Pivot Disaster-Passing Wenchang Soul-Refining True Lord, the Heavenly Machine Upper-Life Registrar Grand Justice True Lord!"

"Divine Nature is rapid; one can request with a devoted heart, and no wish will go unfulfilled. The Divine Truth touches the human heart, protecting and solidifying form and life; form protects the teaching method, and the teaching method is a treasure. The sound sincerely touches and reaches, following the heart and following the form, initiating calls and moving steps, the spiritual response is subtle."

"Wash the soul and refine the spirit; the soul is now refined. According to my scripture and method, thank and remove past transgressions, and further supplement the blessings of the future. Wash away all disasters, and bow to welcome a hundred blessings!"

Seeing the worship of the Nandou Liuxingjun, starlight fell, transforming into water and fire to refine the Earth Soul, eliminating the Cause and Effect of the past and accumulating the blessings of previous lives.

This is precisely the mystery of "changing the Eight Characters" and hiding the soul to avoid calamity.

"Three, two, one!"

Xu Jia counted silently in his heart.

Sure enough, suddenly the wind and clouds changed color, and a bolt of thunderous lightning fell in response, striking directly toward Xu Jia.

Fortunately, Xu Jia had an umbrella above his head, on which the Four Symbols were painted, and below it was connected to the Wish-Fulfilling Follow-Heart Rod, which connected all the way to the earth.

For a moment, the lightning fell on the surface of the umbrella, part of it scattered to the surroundings, and part of it was channeled into the Wish-Fulfilling Follow-Heart Rod, leading to the underground.

Only a small portion of the lightning energy made Xu Jia feel numb and itchy.

And Xiao Hong, who was about to charge over, was directly scared silly by this bolt of lightning, and the mud doll spirit Liuziheng inside her belly was even more paralyzed by the Thunder Sha.

Aside from Xu Jia being mentally prepared, even Xu Mu and the Yin Spirit like the Spirit General Luejue Shen were all quite frightened by the thunder.

Fortunately, there was only one bolt of this thunder, and Xu Jia took advantage of the moment the thunder fell to complete the soul-hiding ritual.

The Earth Soul had already been completely hidden in the Ancestor Portrait, and only the Human Soul remained in Cai Yu's physical body, resembling an ordinary infant, not a body refined and shrunk back to childhood by an Earth Immortal True Person.

The fragrance on his body also became internalized and no longer radiated out. But this non-radiation had other radiations; for example, Xu Mu's Zhandan Gongde Xiang was one of the eighty complete marks.

However, Xu Jia was already able to recover his senses; he took the copper coin sword and slapped Xiao Hong's belly, slapping the mud doll spirit out.

The mud doll monster shrieked, its form scattered, and it tried to run away, but Xu Jia stepped on it, and with a *splat*, it stuck to the sole of his shoe.

Xu Jia recognized this kind of demon; the method to subdue it was hidden in the Three Sovereigns Secret Text that Xu Jia was about to pass on to Xiaopangdun.

He heard him speak: "The Kui Wind Eight-Kill Heavenly God submits, the Nine Profound Four-Eyed Old Man returns. The Great Primordial Feathered Ascension Great Handle, the land's evil spirits see the power of capture, the Southern Seven Stars, the Earth Gate Six Dings, the Six Jia Jade Maidens, obey my seal and act, quickly, quickly, like the law, command and capture! Liu Yuanheng! Where are you going?"

The mud doll still wanted to escape, but having its true name called and being summoned by the Three Sovereigns Secret Mantra, it immediately lost all its divine strangeness, landed and took shape, turning into a mud-molded doll, ugly as could be, like something a child would make by mixing urine with mud, using tree branches as hands and feet, stones as eyes, leaves as ears, and two strips of mud as a mouth.

At the same time, the many demons, monsters, and ghosts outside the house saw that Xu Jia could command and summon by true name, and they all ran away directly, fearing being called out, fixed in place, revealing their original forms, and being unable to run.

Xu Mu picked up the wailing Cai Yu and coaxed him, looking at this ugly mud doll, and wondered, "It seems like there is just such a mud doll beside the Earth Deity of Qingtian Dam."

Xu Jia used cinnabar ink to draw a Talisman and added a layer of seal to this thing.

"That's probably children molding mud figurines, then learning from adults to kneel and worship, even stuffing them into the Earth Temple... this guy used it to house its spirit and hide its divinity. Last time, Dad said the Earth Temple had a doll that sent a jar of silver; it must have been this thing."

"I'm afraid the Earth Deity was also deceived by it, thinking it was a child creating a god, and also obtained the child's innocent heart, yet it was of evil origin."

"Destroying the mud sculpture would only cause it to be severely injured and return to the Dharma Realm to recuperate. If you want to truly govern it, you need to open an altar, and you need the Wuyue Talisman to overcome it. You brat, you fell into my hands. Haha, I just obtained the management of all demon affairs in the Jiangnan West Circuit from the Wuyue Office, bestowed by Taishan Niangniang, and you delivered yourself to my door. One of the seventy-two evil spirits, you are quite famous and recorded."

"You have the ability to kill me!" The mud figurine said, "I am also a heaven-born earthly deity, not some evil spirit!"

"Killing you, I won't do, but extracting your spirit and sealing it into a talisman chart is still possible. In the future, my disciples and grandchildren will follow the chart to find you and enslave you as a servant for generations."

The mud doll finally became afraid: "Don't, I won't dare again, I didn't mean it, it's all his fault. More than two hundred years ago, he burned me into porcelain and said he would promise me a child deity position, but I was directly smashed, fell into the deepest part of the Dharma Realm, and stayed with all kinds of broken statues, clay idols, and evil gods for I don't know how many years, until these few children molded a mud doll and moved it into the Earth Temple, only then was I summoned out. He broke his word, shouldn't he suffer a calamity?"

"He is my disciple now. My disciple, I will discipline; I won't tolerate an evil spirit like you lecturing on reason."

Xu Jia put his hands together, took a cinnabar brush, and tapped the top of the mud doll's forehead. Immediately, the true name and true form of Liuziheng were injected into the cinnabar ink in the brush.

Xu Jia found a blank book in his father's study; he didn't know if it was a notebook or something similar.

Immediately on the first page, he drew the talisman chart.

As soon as he finished drawing here, the mud doll outside shrieked, its spirit essence was sucked from afar and captured into it.

The previous mud doll body directly collapsed on its own, turning into a lump of dry mud, stones, and withered leaves.

Xu Jia wrote descriptive text on the side with black ink: "Liu Yuanheng, shaped like an infant, changes by chasing objects, often wears a mud-child body, caused a calamity when True Person Xu was hiding the soul of his disciple Cai Yu, subdued by the Earth Sovereign Mantra, drew this talisman chart."

Furthermore, categorized by "Heaven, Earth, and Water," and subdivided by "Demon, Ghost, Evil, and Strange," they were classified into the Upper, Middle, and Lower Third Rank, designated as "Earth-Evil Lower Rank."

Demons are demon spirits, the likes of animals and plants that have become spirits and transformed into demons.

Ghosts are the likes of Soul obsessions, or baleful spirits.

Evils are evil gods and evil specters, the likes of Licentious Sacrifice and evil offerings.

Stranges are object anomalies.

Only then did he write the title "Secret Text of Demon Governance" on the cover of this booklet.

He nodded slightly: "In the future, benevolent demons shall be admitted into the hall, while evil spirits and their kind shall be admitted into this volume, passed down to disciples for use as driven servants; it would not be a waste."

As for the Immortal families already admitted to the hall, if they commit unforgivable crimes in the future, their physical bodies shall be beaten to death; as for their Soul, if they are ordinary, they shall only be used as rampant ghosts, but if they have some ability and can cause trouble in the Dharma Realm, they shall also be admitted into this Secret Text and sealed as Talisman diagrams.

When all is said and done, by setting up the Immortal Register and establishing the hall, they are working for Xu Jia as a Works Official, collecting Incense Fire and managing all matters of Ghost Gods, evils, and stranges; but if they are captured into the "Secret Text of Demon Governance," they are slaves and servants for life after life.

If it goes well, they might get some Incense Fire as a reward; if not, they are sent to die in your place—anyway, once the essence and Soul are captured into the Secret Text, as long as the Secret Text is not destroyed, it is equivalent to immortality.

It can also be considered a kind of "Longevity," as they can be resurrected multiple times; if their vital energy is depleted, they can rest for a period of time and come back out to work again.

Xu Jia rolled up the Ancestor Portrait and placed it back on the altar; he must worship the Southern Dipper for six days and the Northern Dipper for seven days before it can be taken to perform Life-Foundation Planting.

However, during this period, there is no fear of any more accidents occurring.

As for Xiao Hong, Xu Jia took a Talisman and gave it to her: "You really are a magnet for ghosts; last time you attracted a Condolence Guest baleful spirit, and this time you were possessed by a clay-statue evil specter."

Xiao Hong could not help but retch; just now, while possessed by the clay statue, her belly had grown large, but all she vomited up was yesterday's meal, and tears even came out: "This thing is just too disgusting!"

(End of this chapter)