Chapter 19: The Evil Art of Soul Extraction

  As soon as I got home, I told my parents that my aunt's illness had improved and she even invited me to play at their house. My dad and mom were immediately excited for no reason and took a bus to the provincial city to visit my aunt. As for me, I continued to study the two books given by Master, many of which were traditional characters and ancient seal script. Fortunately, Master gave me a dictionary of traditional characters, and I opened my old dad's laptop computer, finally translating the general meaning of the two books.

  I've basically read through the stuff on "Mao Shan Secret Skills in 16 Characters" last night, and then I started studying "Taoist Qi Cultivation Techniques". I tried practicing the Qi Cultivation Method from Long Spring Gong for a few hours, but didn't feel anything. Isn't it supposed to work within a few hours? Suddenly I'm having some doubts about this book.

  As I continued to read, it turned out that the practice of Qigong must be done in places with strong yang energy, such as on mountains, at noon or early morning, and also pay attention to opportunities, in order to enter the door. I suddenly felt that the technique was not so easy to learn after all. I continued reading and found another section called Wuqinxi, which is a set of simple physical movements imitating animals like eagles, monkeys, carp, roosters, and mantises, combined with a breathing method called the Turtle Breathing Great Method.

  It is said that by combining this method, internal injuries can be treated, no matter how severe the injury, as long as it's not fatal, it can be restored to its original state through this method. This is a great thing, and I immediately started studying seriously. Before I knew it, the sky had darkened, and looking at the last page of Dragon Tiger Fist again, I decided to learn it later.

  The next day at school, I found Wang Meili in a bad mood, seemingly dazed, and she stared at my eyes throughout the entire class.

  I felt a bit embarrassed by her gaze and muttered angrily: "Idiot!"

  As a result, this little girl suddenly fell into my arms, and the teacher was anxious. We rushed to send her to the clinic.

  Arriving at the clinic, Uncle Wanghua took my temperature, 40 degrees, and it had been several hours of continuous high fever. I suddenly felt a bit off, and hastily flipped open Master's "16-character Miao Shan Secret Technique" to take a look, "Soul-transferring Great Method, extracting soul essence, refining the evil spirit of the little ghost!"

  Right after that, I saw Wang Meili curl up her whole body, closing her eyes and trembling all over with unbearable pain. Teacher Wang Hua had tried every possible method but to no avail, and told us to rush to the big hospital in the provincial city as soon as possible.

  At this time, Wang Meili's parents and grandfather also arrived. I ignored the obstruction of the crowd, pulled open Wang Meili's sleeve with one hand, and cut it open with a small knife I had brought with me. With a "ripping" sound, red fabric and fluffy cotton balls were exposed inside. Wang Meili's body was wrapped in cotton balls like a doll, and on top of the cotton balls was a thin layer of red cloth. Suddenly, I understood everything, and the crowd looked at me with puzzled eyes.

  "Don't look at me like that, I'm a Taoist successor. Wang Meili was used by someone with evil magic to extract her soul, and her body is full of cotton balls, which means someone has already obtained her birth date and personal items, and used the puppet spell on her. Within 24 hours, Wang Meili will become a puppet person, and her soul will be refined into a small ghost, at the mercy of others." I said, my eyes filled with anger, after all, Wang Meili is my classmate and girlfriend, and I hate this scoundrel who harmed Wang Meili.

  "What...what's going on? Hurry up and find your master or something, save Beautiful!" Wang Meili's mom pulled my hand, pleading.

  "It's okay, I can handle it." I said firmly, not wanting to bother Master with every little thing. He had given me two books, after all, and expected me to solve my current difficulties on my own without relying on him for everything.

  Everyone in the room looked at me with strange eyes, and Wang Meili's father had an incredulous face, pointing at me with one hand: "What era is this? You still believe in these ghostly things. I think it's better to send her to the hospital, don't listen to this little rabbit's nonsense."

  I suddenly became anxious: "You will kill Wang Meili like this." I said, holding Wang Meili in my arms, preparing to calm her soul first and then think of a way to break the evil spell.

  "Put down my daughter!" Wang Meili's father suddenly got angry too, blocking me and trying to snatch Wang Meili away.

  At this time, Wang Meili's grandfather walked over and slapped her father in the face with a loud "slap".

  "Scoundrel! Do you remember the corpse transformation eighteen years ago?" Wang Meili's grandfather, wearing a Sun Yat-sen suit, was once in charge of the national Ministry of Education and is now retired, serving as the principal of our small school.

  "At that time, so many people died, it was because of you science-believers who opposed superstition. Later on, if the National Security Department hadn't sent Master Chen, our whole village would have been unable to survive." Wang Meili's grandfather was visibly moved, looking at everyone in the hospital room and stroking Wang Meili's little face.

  "Kid, I know your master must be a very powerful person. But in order to make everyone believe it, can you first put out the beautiful fire?" Wang Mei's grandfather looked at me and said kindly, as if he firmly believed that I had such ability.

  I nodded, put Wang Meili on the hospital bed, took out the cinnabar and brush I had bought in advance, and drew a simple soul-calming talisman on the yellow talisman paper. The main function of this talisman is to calm the three souls and seven spirits of a person, preventing them from leaving their body, and temporarily stopping that person from continuing to cast evil spells. However, it's still necessary to find that person as soon as possible, as this talisman can only last for about ten hours or so. If the opponent has high magical powers, they can break through this soul-calming talisman in just one incense stick's worth of time.

  For safety's sake, I found some more leaves, splashed with black dog blood, and arranged them according to the Eight Trigrams of the I Ching around me, placing them next to Wang Meili. This way, those evil guys can't get close for a while. The practitioner who wants to break the Town Soul Symbol must summon an evil spirit or malevolent ghost; he himself cannot appear in person. Generally, ordinary sorcerers or cultists are just mortals with some superficial skills in magic. If they really become powerful, they wouldn't need to use the Soul Transference Technique; a simple flick of their fingers would be enough to make someone's soul scatter, so why bother cultivating a minor demon to enhance their own powers?

  I put down the things, and as I touched Wang Meili's head, her fever had gone down, but she was still unconscious. The white dress set off her lovely face, and I suddenly remembered the kiss she gave me that night. In an instant, I felt like I owed her something.

  Uncle Wang Hua took my temperature again, and it finally returned to normal. Everyone began to believe me, and Grandpa Wang Meili hastily asked if there was anything he could help with. Wang Meili's father, on the other hand, hung his head in shame.

  Suddenly, Wei Ge rushed in and said hastily: "Fei Fei, I saw a shabbily dressed man pulling out several strands of Wang Mei Li's hair yesterday afternoon, then he started acting abnormally."

  "Did you see what that person looked like?" I asked hastily, this was the key to saving her life. If we didn't find the cloth doll used by the sorcerer as soon as possible, Wang Meili's soul would be extracted sooner or later.

  "I was quite far away, and when I saw that person sneaking around, I shouted at him, and then he ran away." Wei Ge scratched his head, "But from what I saw of his appearance, it seemed to resemble our village's Wang Er Ma Zi."

  "Are you sure?" A man's life is at stake, I don't dare be careless.

  "Ten has it." Wei Ge nodded heavily, and I turned my head to say to Wang Meili's grandfather, "Grandfather, hurry up and organize people to control Wang Er Ma Zi. We need to find the bad guy quickly. If this matter is really related to him, he must know where the bad guy is."

  Wang Meili's grandfather nodded, angrily glared at Wang Meili's father, and Wang Meili's father hastily found a few young men to go with him to Wang Ermazi's house. He also reported the police and asked the police station to help investigate Wang Ermazi's recent movements.

  "I'm going with you!" I turned around and hastily followed in the footsteps of Wang Meili's father.