Chapter 8: Dao Ye Speaks of the Four Calamities

  After finishing, Zhang Daoye sat there and let me kowtow. I had kowtowed three times and was about to get up when Zhang Daoye said: "Little rabbit, this wine you offered me, did you get into some kind of trouble again?"

  I listened and quickly told him about yesterday's events, and finally asked Master Zhang to teach me a few more moves. Master Zhang stroked his beard, smiled slyly and said: "These are all passed down to my disciples, or you might as well do this, how about becoming my apprentice?"

  I shook my head like a rattle drum and said: "No way, no way, I still have to marry a wife and carry on the Yang family line."

  "Your eyes widened and said: 'You have become my apprentice, and you will marry a daughter-in-law. This is Huoju Dao, where you can get married and have children.'"

  I said: "Then why don't you have a daughter-in-law?"

  "Ah, that's because I don't want to take a wife," said Zhang Daoye. "You little scamp, you're actually bringing this up with me? Let me tell you, doing this job has its perks - food and drink are taken care of. Others who want to become my apprentice would break down my door, but I won't even accept them. You don't want to be an apprentice, fine."

  I hastily ran to Zhang Daoye's side and said: "Alright, I'll acknowledge you as my master."

  "Are you changing your mind again, young man?"

  I nodded, and Zhang Daoye said: "Then I'll take you as a secular disciple, but not bound by the Taoist rules. Mainly to teach you Zhu You Thirteen Sciences, this is what I did before entering the Taoism, my original profession."

  I was stunned when I heard that Zhu You Shisan Ke had thirteen strokes, at the time it was rumored to be incredibly powerful in rural areas. People who could master Zhu You Shisan Ke were truly revered as gods. There's a saying that goes: "Learning Zhu You Ke, no need for medicine", if you can learn this, then you'll have a secure livelihood in the countryside for the rest of your life.

  I hastily kowtowed to Zhang Dao, and Zhang Dao helped me up, his face turning serious as he said: "How bold of you! Since I've decided to take you on as a disciple, I'll tell you the truth - my surname isn't actually Zhang, but Ye."

  I was shocked at the time, our village people attach importance to a saying that "a good name is better than riches" and "a good reputation is better than wealth", but Zhang Daoye actually said his surname was Ye, which was quite unbelievable. Zhang Daoye continued: "Let me tell you about what happened in the past, and you will understand the whole story. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Hongwu defeated Zhang Shicheng and unified the country, establishing his capital in Nanjing. After Zhu Hongwu ascended to the throne, he built many palaces, but some of Wu Wang's old subordinates were not convinced. So, Wu Wang's military strategist bribed a Taoist priest named Sun Tianzu to go to Nanjing secretly and use various magic spells and geomancy to destroy Zhu Hongwu's Feng Shui. However, before they could completely eliminate it, they were discovered by Zhu Hongwu's military strategist Liu Bowen. Sun Tianzu hastily fled to Guangzhou overnight, but due to the unfamiliar environment and water in Guangzhou, he fell ill on the street. It was my ancestor who rescued him and took him home, where he stayed for more than five years. Seeing that my ancestor had a kind heart, Sun Tianzu passed down the methods of curing diseases with thirteen techniques and breaking evil spells to my ancestor. From then on, our family has been passing them down from generation to generation, never revealing them to outsiders.

  The curse of the thirteen schools was quite formidable, although it did not completely destroy the Feng Shui of Nanjing at that time, but still had serious consequences on the Feng Shui. As a result, Jianwen Emperor was overthrown, Zhu Di rebelled, and after Zhu Di ascended to the throne, he hastily moved the capital to Beijing. When Hong Xiuquan built his capital in Nanjing, it also did not last long.

  This is the story of how our ancestors learned the Zhu You Ke, which was divided into 13 sections outside of the original 13 sections. Because I was young and reckless back then, I only learned the Shu Jin Ke section from the Zhu You Ke's 13 sections. Don't underestimate this section, its main purpose is to pray for blessings, suppress evil spirits, subdue monsters, eliminate demons, and drive away ghosts.

  "After learning the forbidden arts, I felt invincible and spent my days fooling around with friends, straying from the right path. I stole and robbed graves, eventually stealing from the Four Absolutes' tomb. All my accomplices died inside the tomb, and I barely escaped with my life. My master saved me and told me to turn back to the righteous way. From then on, I changed my name to Zhang, built a thatched hut, and started making a living as a Taoist priest."

  I said: "Master, what is this Four Extremes Tomb?"

  The master said: "The Four Extremes Tomb is one of the most vicious burial methods in the world. Eight people are buried around the tomb, all of whom were killed using special methods. This Four Extremes Formation is extremely cruel and requires a mother-son, father-son, husband-wife, and grandfather-grandson relationship. Although this formation is morally corrupt, high-ranking officials in feudal society flocked to it, but these secrets would never be recorded in writing, so they were only secretly passed down among the people. The Four Extremes Formation uses boundless resentment. What method can make a person harbor boundless resentment? In fact, the cruelty of this is beyond our imagination. The first killing of the Four Extremes Formation is at the Kun position. In the Later Heaven Eight Trigrams, Kun represents the mother. This means that a pregnant woman was used to guard this position, which is located in the southwest.

  At midnight, when the yin energy is heaviest, the array is first set up from the Kun position. The method involves finding a full-term pregnant woman and tying her to a pillar, then cutting open her belly to take out the fetus. At this time, the woman has not yet died, but lies there with her eyes wide open, watching as the practitioner kills her child. The woman is still alive, but can only lie there with her eyes wide open, watching as her own child dies. Endless resentment, endless pain, until finally bleeding out the last drop of blood and dying. You can imagine how resentful this is, how heavy the post-mortem energy is - this is the first sha, also known as the most severe sha, called "Mother-Child Sha".

  The second curse is the father-son curse, which is located in the northwest of the Qian position. The Qian represents the father's position, and this curse is also extremely cruel. It uses a father and a one-month-old baby, then kills the baby in front of the father, who is tied to a pillar, watching his child being killed with his eyes wide open. The degree of heartbreak can be imagined. At this time, the practitioner does not rush to kill the father, but instead opens up the man's chest and takes out his heart when he is extremely sad and angry. This happens very quickly, and the man has not yet died, watching as his own heart is taken out. The degree of horror can be imagined. It is said that this curse is particularly dangerous for tomb robbers who break into graves. If you encounter this curse, a man will hug you, tear open your chest, take out a red heart, and put it in his own body.

  The third slaughter is in the position of Gen, Gen is mountain. This slaughter is a grandfather and grandson. The practitioner will cut off the hands and feet of the grandson in front of the grandfather's face. At this time, the grandson will not die immediately, but will struggle to wail there. However, the louder the wailing sound, the faster the blood flows throughout the body. Finally, when all the fresh blood is drained, he will die. Then cut off the hands and feet of the old man. At this time, the old man is dominated by great hatred, not a word, just staring at the practitioner with anger, and the fresh blood bursts out all over his body, bleeding to death. This is the third slaughter, the grandfather and grandson slaughter.

  The fourth torture is in the Xun position, Xun is wind in the southeast. This torture is the husband and wife torture. This torture is for newlyweds, they tie the wife to a pillar and bury the man underground, letting all his blood rush to his head, making it twice as big as before. The executioner uses an iron nail to pierce the man's brain, causing blood to spurt out of his head over 10 feet high. All this is done in front of the wife's eyes. After the man dies, they bury the woman alive underground. This torture is called husband and wife torture.

  The four evils of the Four Absolute Formation are all born from resentment, extremely ferocious. Those who mistakenly enter the tomb will die nine times and live once, with only a few survivors. Moreover, this formation method is extremely detrimental to the practitioner, with the lightest being crippled, blind, and disabled, and the heaviest being cut off from descendants, suffering a violent death. Furthermore, it belongs to the evil and heretical path, not recognized by the orthodox Taoist school, so it gradually disappeared.

  "This grave is very poisonous, you mustn't touch it. By the way, aren't there a vengeful spirit of a dead person in that well?"

  I nodded, and Zhang Daoye got up from the ground at that time and said to me: "Go, hurry up and think of a way to replace the wronged soul in the well."

  "I said: 'Master Dao, why did you want to replace that wrongly accused soul?'"

  "Those who drown or die accidentally will linger in the place where they died, becoming water ghosts. They then wait patiently in the water, luring or forcing people to fall in and die, to become their substitute ghosts. For thousands of years, water ghosts have relied on this method to reincarnate, only then can they escape the suffering of being soaked in cold water. The ghost you encountered last night was a drowned ghost, it was wandering between the mound and the well, but because you were sleeping on the tombstone at the time, your body was invaded by yin energy, and mistakenly urinated on its head, that's why it wanted to drown you as its substitute."