Chapter 48: Nine-Turn Demon Infant and the Nine-Child Mother Ghost

The moment the Ying Ta was pushed over, a fierce yin wind rose, the cold air struck people, and the wailing of infants rose and fell, sounding like a group of frogs croaking in chaos.

Whether Liu Wenpo had been triggered by something, she unexpectedly broke Hu Jinhua's soul-bewitching and evil-manipulating spell on her own, screaming: "You have caused a disaster!"

Then, she ran outward as if mad, but one Infant Ghost after another clung to her legs, sprawled on her shoulders, and one even sat on her head, a pair of hands covering her eyes, making her spin in circles on the spot.

Some timid Infant Ghosts did not want to get entangled with her and transformed into a mass of Black Qi to escape, but they were blocked by the Mandala barrier woven from straw; the four spirits transformed into a wall of light, like "drawing a circle on the ground as a prison," restraining them there.

Seeing they could not get out, they wailed even more sharply one by one; the infants' crying carried a feeling that struck straight at the soul, making one unable to help but feel sorrow: whose parents were so heartless as to abandon such small children? This was precisely the Infant Ghosts' method.

Fortunately, this was "ghost wailing," not human wailing; unless someone was already asleep, it was very difficult to hear the wailing of these Infant Ghosts while awake, otherwise, people would have long since brought lanterns to search for them.

Niu Congcong shook his rattle-drum, reciting a nursery rhyme for putting children to sleep: "Five-nine, six-nine, the naked little dolls clap their hands. Seven-nine, the ducks; eight-nine, the geese; nine-nine, the plow-harrows scurry all over the ground."

A rattle-drum is also a drum, fitting the conditions for a Shamanism Magic Tool; relying on his inherent psychic constitution, Niu Congcong properly pacified these Infant Ghosts.

He slowly walked to the area around the blanket where various toys were placed.

The infant spirits were playful by nature, and being attracted like this, they soon got their hands on these little trinkets.

Small beads, wooden swords, cloth dolls, small bells...

One child playing attracted a second, then a third, but it was a pity that the prepared trinkets were not enough, which instead caused them to fight over them.

Hu Jinhua transformed into a kind old grandmother: "Don't fight, don't fight, Grandma will give you new clothes."

Those paper-pasted clothes were handed out set by set, burning without fire, giving these bare-bottomed Infant Ghosts bright, colorful garments to wear.

For a time, they stopped fighting over toys and instead looked at each other's clothes and pants, emitting "giggle" laughter.

Only a few, entirely made of Black Qi, were neither interested in the toys nor the clothes, only blowing yang-fire and stirring up yin-wind at Liu Wenpo.

Xu Jia performed some calculations and discovered that these few were the earliest infants in the Ying Ta, who had later burrowed into the bodies of couples seeking children.

As a result, because they did not go through "reincarnation," the yin energy was too heavy, affecting the fetus's development, and they often died in the womb at seven or eight months, turning into stillborns. They were unwilling to accept this, and after repeating this several times, the yin energy and Resentment Qi grew heavier; when they burrowed into human wombs again, they would automatically miscarry after two or three months...

"This is raising a fast-tracked Nine-Turn Demon Infant!" Xu Jia was horrified! A Nine-Turn Demon Infant is nine reincarnations, nine times being aborted, with resentment accumulating; each time they are delivered to the underworld and given hope, only for that hope to be shattered each time. By the ninth time, they become disillusioned with the hope of "life" and become creatures of the "Hungry Ghost Path."

A single Nine-Turn Demon Infant is already a growable ghost-demon; if nine are gathered and stuffed into the body of a woman with a compatible fate, and refined together using evil arts, it becomes the famous "Nine-Child Mother Ghost."

However, this does not follow reincarnation, but is an "illegal reincarnation," harming others without benefiting oneself; the soul that should have entered this family is squeezed out of its position, dies an unnatural death, and wastes its reincarnation count, and it itself cannot be born, creating even greater karmic sin.

This is completely different from Xu Jia's "Jieshi Huanhun."

The fast-tracked version of the Nine-Turn Demon Infant, although far less powerful than the official version of nine-life premature deaths, is even more evil and deeply demonic because it harmed lives while still in the mother's womb.

Although these few here have not reached nine turns, they are at least three turns or more, having accumulated three lifetimes of karmic sin.

As for the other Infant Ghosts, because they were bullied and oppressed by these few, they had no chance to commit evil and could directly burrow into the wombs of couples seeking children, and thus do not count as "evil ghosts."

Xu Jia did not think to help this Liu Wenpo expel the Infant Ghosts, but the more people the Infant Ghosts kill, the more resentment they accumulate; moreover, this Liu Wenpo is not some murderer. She is surrounded by good wishes and has successfully delivered many mothers, so she has Merit.

As for joining an Evil Sect, coveting petty gains, and trafficking infant corpses, it cannot be considered a great evil, after all, these were all abandoned by their parents... one can only say that a problem appeared at the moral level. But building the Ying Ta and suppressing the Infant Ghosts made her an accomplice in refining the "Nine-Turn Demon Infant," squeezing out the chances for normal souls to reincarnate, and causing the couples seeking children to miscarry, or even become unable to conceive children thereafter; the amount of grievances they suffered accumulated a lot of karmic debt within it.

This wore down her own good fortune; if Xu Jia had not appeared and pushed over the Ying Ta, it would have been too late once the Nine-Turn Demon Infant was refined.

Even Liu Wenpo herself, whom many people recognize as a "godmother," is the most superior "mother body" for refining the "Nine-Child Mother Ghost," because so many people call her "mother," it takes the meaning of "old mother," and it does not matter that she is old.

Xu Jia began to recite scriptures; this is the "Blood Lake Sutra," which is originally used for delivering the souls of deceased women, but is equally applicable to aborted infant spirits.

The sutra states: "Damaging the child and aborting... thus drowning them, grievances and vengeance are repaid, demons and ghosts attack each other. Or causing the child to die in the womb, the mother to die after childbirth, or both mother and child to die, even harming their lives."

Thus, this sutra can be used to deliver them.

Xu Jia recited: "How long is a human life? Easily born, easily extinguished, like sparks from flint, unable to last long; like floating foam, how can it be solid? Birth, old age, sickness, and death invade day and night, changing and vanishing inconstantly, scattering and breaking in an instant..."

His voice was like a "compassionate father," gently persuading: "If you have resentment, direct it toward me; treat me as the parents who abandoned you, and vent to your heart's content."

Having said this, Xu Jia stepped into the Mandala set up by the straw rope.

Xu Jia had traces of "Jieshi Huanhun" on him, so he exuded a soul-fragrance that made these Infant Ghosts drool profusely.

The few multi-turn Infant Ghosts that were pouncing on Liu Wenpo flew directly toward him, either to suck, to blow out his flames, or to manipulate the yin wind.

Xu Jia stood firm and immovable, visualizing in his heart the Heavenly Venerable riding on five-colored auspicious clouds and a nine-headed lion, emitting a hundred treasures of auspicious light.

He chanted "Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun" in his mouth.

After finishing this chant, he recited the Blood Lake Sutra.

In a daze, Xu Jia sensed a strange power; it turned out that the "Divine Transformation visualization" had succeeded, and he had become an "incarnation" of Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun, who "hears sounds and saves from suffering, responding to feelings and following wishes."

Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun borrowed Xu Jia's body to practice the expedient method and save immeasurable people.

To Hu Jinhua and the crowd of demons and ghosts, it appeared as if a blue-white light had unexpectedly risen on Xu Jia's body, like a halo.

Xu Jia is a small employee of the underworld, while this one is the big boss of the underworld.

Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun was also the great deity mainly worshipped at Xu Jia's previous life's Daochang, and he even surpassed the various gods of Lushan.

The light was gentle; the many Infant Ghosts with little resentment, upon receiving this light, had lotus flowers of light grow directly under their feet, lifting them up.

The few that were gnawing on Xu Jia's soul-Qi were also gradually "influenced," but as the lotus flowers tried to lift them up as well, they still had too much obsession, their karmic debt and evil force not yet dissipated, and they were unwilling to be lifted and delivered.

In total, exactly "nine" remained.

They were the main raw materials for refining the "Nine-Child Mother Demon"...

(End of chapter)