Chapter 29: Impeaching the Spirit's True Name

Within the Dharma Realm, although the Chicken Juezi Mountain Deity had successively acquired personality from Niu Congcong and beastly nature from Hu Jinhua.

Yet, it could not ascend to acquire divine nature, or in other words, a divine status.

However, Xu Jia had already begun to perform a ritual to "bestow a name" upon it.

Whether it be Taoism, Buddhism, or even Shamanism, or even the "Demon Sect" of America and the "Shinto" of the Foot-basin Chicken, all follow the rules derived from ancient times: that "demons, monsters, ghosts, and spirits" or "deities" all have their true names. A true name is "one of the sources" of a spirit's power; mastering the true name allows one to "impeach spirits and command ghosts."

This mountain spirit could not possibly be called "Chicken Juezi Mountain Deity" forever, could it?

And as for native Taoism, all gods have secret divine appellations.

Xu Jia then "combined the symbols for 'rain', 'mountain', 'ghost', and a chicken claw into a secret appellation."

This was its true name.

The rain radical is the upper part of the character for "thunder," representing "issuing orders," meaning "I represent Heaven in bestowing this name upon you," taking its initial sound; the mountain character is the lower part of the character for "peak," representing the divine office of a "terrestrial deity or mountain god," taking its secondary sound.

The ghost character represents its form and substance, read with its original sound, while the chicken claw symbol takes the combined sound of "Chicken Jue," also read as "Jue."

From then on, this secret divine appellation, though a single character, had two syllables, read as "Lue Jue."

This was a character specifically created, and a reading specifically created, solely to represent the spirit's name.

After Xu Jia created this character, he quickly drew a new "Summoning Mountain God Talisman," changing the "local boundary master Chicken Juezi Mountain Deity" to "local boundary master Lue Jue (secret appellation)," and then shouted loudly: "I, by the Imperial Decree of the Lushan Dharma Master, bestow upon you your true name! Draw the talisman to manifest your might; respond and you shall live, fail to respond and you shall dissipate! Jijiru Luling!"

As the Talisman burned away, the Chicken Juezi Mountain Deity within the Dharma Realm let out a cry of "Lue Jue!", which was clearly a "response."

No sooner had it responded than its faceless countenance began to condense facial features.

It looked somewhat similar to Xu Jia, with a human body and chicken claws, wearing black clothes, its expression stiff as if it had not yet adapted, holding a chicken claw as a weapon, while Xu Jia felt his soul grow faint and his head dizzy.

It seemed the naming was successful, forcibly draining his mana bar; at least it wasn't draining his health bar.

Enduring the discomfort, Xu Jia took the lineage scroll down from the wall, wrote the character in cinnabar on yellow paper on the back of the black-inked "Position of the Chicken Juezi Mountain Deity," and pasted it in the corresponding spot; this was "installing the hidden treasure" for the deity.

This was the method for installing hidden treasures in portraits; although this didn't even reach the level of a portrait, just a hall lineage list with a single character position, it was still applicable.

Xu Jia had created and mastered its secret appellation and true name, and could command it as he pleased.

The next moment, it was summoned out and appeared in the outside world.

This Lue Jue already had some appearance of a "Guardian Divine General," and having obtained its true name, it possessed "spiritual nature," that is, a "true self" and "true spirit," moving beyond the scope of a natural spirit and advancing toward a "personality god."

All the ghosts were wary of it; although it might not necessarily possess divine nature, the status of a natural spirit god was simply higher than that of these wandering souls.

But it was only wariness; there was more greed.

A dog-ghost barked incessantly, unable to resist being the first to pounce and bite, and then the group of ghosts all swarmed over.

This perfectly matched the hexagram of "Group Yin Stripping Yang."

Xu Jia was not at all worried that this divine general would be defeated; he first restored the two yang fires on the shoulders of Xiaopangdun, who had been frozen by the Yin Sha carried by the mountain spirit due to their communication, using the method of "Worshiping the Dipper to Cultivate Life."

That Lue Jue also lived up to expectations; with a wave of its chicken claw, it split the dog-ghost into several pieces, turning it into a mass of Yin Qi, while other evil spirits biting onto it felt as if they were biting into hard stone, and with a single slap from it, they were flattened into mud.

Xu Jia ordered it to capture the "Yin Earth Sha ghost" refined from the original body's soul. It strode away, though it still maintained its original habit of hopping along.

Any evil spirits that dared to block its path were directly trampled to death. There was simply no one who could fight it.

The original body refined into a Tushi ghost had no intention of fighting at all and immediately used the Earth Escape Technique to flee, but this was the Mountain God boundary master! The next moment, it was caught in the hands of the divine general, and then this Guardian Divine General returned to the courtyard to report to Xu Jia.

This evil ghost remained restless after being captured, staring fixedly at Xu Jia and letting out a venomous hiss. But it clearly had no consciousness.

Xu Jia sighed, then took out the Pressing Money, pressed it against the Tushi ghost's brow, and the earth ghost was immediately sucked into the copper coin, suppressed and contained.

Xu Jia had originally intended to leave his soul first to trick it into the main body. But that was before he knew this fellow had been refined into a Tushi ghost.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly in presiding over this ritual. But why hadn't that evil Daoist appeared yet? Was he hiding in the dark? Or was he not here? This was not the time for careful thought; Xu Jia wrapped the copper coin in a Soul-Pacifying Talisman.

He immediately slumped into his chair; the previous actions could be considered high-intensity ritual work, involving both "summoning spirits" and "impeaching spirits."

Having mobilized his soul and divine intent, Xu Jia's physical body was somewhat lacking in "nutrition." This matched the symptom of "cultivating nature without cultivating life, the first illness of cultivation."

He put the prepared ginseng slices into his mouth, practiced the Turtle Breath Hibernation Method for a while to calm his spirit, and after half an hour, he felt a bit better.

At this time, in the courtyard, Niu Congcong was already curiously testing his own "magic."

Xu Jia had already used the mountain god's spiritual nature to pull up the seedlings to help them grow, directly initiating him.

He could not only borrow a few spells from Hu Jinhua, but could also perform the talent bestowed upon him by the "Mountain God's Blessing."

The divine abilities bestowed upon him by Lue Jue were two: one was Communication with the Nether and Manifestation, which meant opening his Yin-Yang Eyes and adding damage to spiritual bodies.

The other was: Observing Mountains and Gazing at Qi, naturally knowing the flow of Earth Qi, also applicable to gazing at human Qi, demon Qi, ghost Qi, and the Qi of wealth and treasures.

These two talents were very practical, much more convenient than the five minor spells that could be borrowed from Hu Jinhua.

"How does it feel?" Xu Jia saw him playing happily and asked: "Now that there are these invisible things in your eyes, will it affect you?"

"It is a bit of an influence, but it's okay." Niu Congcong said excitedly: "I have finally succeeded in my cultivation this time!"

Xu Jia nodded and said: "You have succeeded. Go back and try more; you can actively lower your spiritual perception, otherwise the consumption of your physical Essence Qi will still be very large. Also, since you can see these things, if they discover that you can see and hear them, it will also be a lot of trouble."

"There are many Shamanism Magic Tools; you can try to make them yourself based on your own feelings. If you borrow Hu Jinhua's Dharma Power or the mountain god's Dharma Power to refine them, they will possess wonderful uses."

Xu Jia spoke of common Magic Tools, which were basically a combination of "Witch Nuo" and "Chuma," all of which were very suitable Magic Tools.

"For example, when you go back, you can carve a Mountain God Wooden Mask and a Fox Immortal Wooden Mask yourself, paint them, and they can replace 'possession.' They can attach themselves to the masks and still possess power, while your thoughts will also be relatively freer."

"The Spirit Drum can deter spiritual bodies and wild beasts; you can also prepare one."

At this moment, Hu Jinhua's soul emerged from the spirit lineage and returned to her physical body.

A Chang ghost with a green face and fangs, a face like a wild beast, and holding a large saber, followed behind her, fierce and wanton, staring at the crowd.

"Master, by borrowing the Sha Qi of this mountain, I have already refined my life-bound Chang General!"

(End of chapter)