Chapter 9: The Devil's Robe of All-Encompassing Darkness

  I suddenly realized that I had brought this disaster upon myself. I said, "Master Dao, it's my fault, I know I was wrong. What should I do now?"

  "Isn't this exactly what I'm giving you to go and rescue that wrongly accused soul? If we don't rescue the wrongly accused soul from the well, sooner or later someone else will drown in it."

  I said: "Master Dao, how can this substitute soul be substituted?"

  Mr. Zhang said: "This is easy to handle, just throw a big rooster into the water and it will be able to bring out the soul."

  My heart skipped a beat, and I stared at Zhang Daoye, saying: "Master Dao, this big rooster won't be used by our family, will it? If I take it from home, I'll sleep on the stone slab, and my dad will surely kill me for losing a big rooster!"

  "Listen up, you little scamp! When you're causing trouble, you've got the guts of a madman, but when it comes to real business, you get cold feet. I'm telling you this so you won't be afraid: I'll spend my own money to buy a rooster. From now on, if you want to be my apprentice, you'll have to help me with my work and carry the Hundred-Fold Demon-Subduing Cloak and the Seven-Star Demon-Subduing Sword for me. Today, I'll use the Thirteen Chapters of Zhu You's Book of Spells to exorcise a ghost for your benefit."

  He took out a tattered garment and a peach wood sword from a wooden box, and handed them to me. I took the clothes and sword, and almost dropped my jaw. The Hundred-Na-Fu-Mo garment in my hand was far inferior to Zhang Daoye's brown Taoist robe. The entire garment was full of holes cut out, like a fishing net. The front of the garment had red cloth patches covering the holes, with the words "Tian Gang" (Heavenly Hinder) written on them. On the back, the words "Di Xiao" (Earthly Evil) were written in yellow cloth. The collar of the garment was cut off, and there were red stains on it that looked like blood.

  As for the peach wood sword, it was even more bizarre. There were seven strange nails nailed onto the sword, which resembled coffin nails.

  I stared at these two strange objects, unable to guess what they were. At this time, Zhang Daoye took out a pair of shoes from the box, which was also strangely shaped with copper coin-sized holes cut out on top. On each hole was written something in fabric, and upon closer inspection, it seemed to be some sort of "???" (heaven and earth) characters. On each piece of red cloth was tied a knot of hemp rope. I couldn't understand what Zhang Daoye was doing - was he going to replace the soul or sing flower fortunes (in ancient times, beggars would wear patched clothes and walk around reciting verses).

  I stared blankly at Zhang Daoye and said: "Master Dao, are you going to beg for food? I know it, you must be going to bring back a rooster, right?"

  "Little boy, you don't recognize the value of this treasure," Zhang Daoye said to me. "This outfit is precious, take a look at my shoes - they're made of eight layers of hemp, with red cloth on top and the characters Qian, Kun, Zhen, Li, Kan, Gen, Dui, and Xun written in cinnabar. Starting from the left foot, each character follows the direction of the trigrams, and each piece of red cloth is tied with a single strand of hemp rope, three inches long, into five-star knots. This is called the Day, Moon, Stars, and Dipper - a method to fix the Qian and Kun."

  The clothes in your hand are the Ba Na Fu Mo clothes, which were taken off from a dead person's body. There are 108 holes cut on it, with 36 Tian Gang in front and 72 Di Sha at the back. The front has red cloth with Tian Gang written on it, while the back has Di Sha written on it. After being held for 49 days, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, once worn, all ghosts will retreat, its power is unmatched.

  "The seven-star sword in your hand is made of a seven-inch-seven-part peach wood, carved on the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year, with seven holes drilled on it and seven coffin nails nailed on it. The seven characters on it are 'Seven Stars Haohai Guandou Xuan'. This sword is also a sharp tool for beheading demons and exorcising evil spirits."

  I only heard that these were the clothes of dead people, and at that time, I was shocked in my heart. I threw the clothes and treasure sword to the ground. Zhang Daoye hurriedly picked up the treasure sword and clothes, saying: "Little rabbit, you almost threw away my life! Do you know that these are all my treasures from when I wasn't a Taoist priest, traveling the world, beheading demons and getting rid of evil?"

  He said, not really angry, but just put on that Ba Na Fu Mo clothes, suddenly it was a flower singer, only missing the bowl and chopsticks in hand. After Master Zhang put it on, he led me out of his solitary palace, walking towards the village, just as we arrived at the entrance of the village, someone asked what Master Zhang was doing, Master Zhang said to go to the well to replace the soul. The person who heard this ran quickly into the village, shouting loudly, and the whole village suddenly became lively. In fact, this was also one of the fastest ways to spread news at that time, communication relied on shouting, going out relied on walking, injury relied on twisting, and guarding the house relied on dogs. That year, this was the most worth watching excitement outside of singing a big show.

  At this time, we walked to the front of an old cow. The old yellow cow was eating grass there, leisurely swinging its tail back and forth behind it. When it saw us coming, it let out a loud moo, as if greeting us. Zhang Daoye walked up to the yellow cow and stroked its cheek with his hand, saying: "Now you know that repaying debts is a matter of course? You still haven't cleared your debt, but once you've paid off your debt, you can be reincarnated."

  The old yellow cow seemed to understand, looked at Zhang Daoye and mooed, wanting to get closer to him, but the cow's nose ring was pulled back several steps. This cow is a huge creature, it's not easy to make them obey, so when they grow up to a certain size, they have to wear a nose ring. The cow's nose is the thinnest and most painful place, so on the day of wearing the nose ring, people first find an iron nail or something similar, sharpen one end, then heat it in the fire until it's red-hot, let someone hold the calf's head, then use the hot iron nail to pierce from one side of the nose to the other. The skin and flesh are scorched at that moment, so the cow's nose won't get infected, but for the cow, it's an extremely painful thing. After the wound heals, an iron ring is inserted, and from then on, the cow is considered to be under control. No matter how big the cow is or how bad its temper is, as long as you pull hard on the nose ring, the cow will have to obey.

  As I watched Old Yellow Bull, Zhang Daoyi said something that I couldn't understand. Out of curiosity, I asked Zhang Daoyi what was going on. He said: "Are you brave enough to believe in the law of cause and effect?"

  At that time, the cause and effect of karma was a very important moral standard in our village people's hearts. No one dared to say anything about it. I listened to Zhang Daoye and nodded hastily. Zhang Daoye said: "This old yellow cow is actually the old cow head from the front village. The old cow head borrowed money before, because he didn't repay it, he vowed that in his next life he would repay the debt by becoming a cow. After death, he was reborn as a cow and became what we see today. However, after one more year of repayment, he will be able to reincarnate again."

  I looked at Zhang Daoye and said: "Is it true or false?"

  "Look at the cow's tears and you'll know."

  I looked at the old yellow cow, and indeed its eyes were full of tears, constantly dripping down, as if it had really cried. At this time, Zhang Daoye hurriedly used his hand to catch the tears and said: "Don't waste them, I have to use my hands to catch them."

  I was curious about Zhang Daoye using his hand to wipe away tears, and then he wiped some of them away and said to me: "Come here, you bold one, I'll show you something strange."

  I heard something strange and quickly walked to the front of Zhang Daoye. Zhang Daoye asked me to look at the cow's tears in his hand, so I stared with my eyes wide open. At this time, Zhang Daoye took out a small bottle from his pocket. The small bottle was very delicate. Zhang Daoye used his teeth to open the red cloth plug on top, and then carefully poured a little powder onto his hand. The powder was made of unknown materials, emitting a fragrance that filled the air, and a cool breeze rushed straight to my forehead, seemingly having an effect of refreshing my mind and opening up my senses.

  Only after the white medicinal foam reached the cow's tears did it start to churn slowly, like a pot boiling over. At this time, a faint, ethereal mist rose from Zhang Daoye's hand, and that mist seemed to envelop his hand slowly. I saw that Zhang Daoye didn't show any signs of pain, and my admiration for him grew even more. My mouth agape, eyes wide with wonder, I stared at Zhang Daoye's hand as it flew towards my eyes. Although he was an old man, his movements were incredibly swift; I didn't even have time to blink before his hand reached my face. Suddenly, my eyes felt like they were on fire, as if a handful of chili peppers had been thrown into them, burning me so badly that I leapt up from where I stood. After the flames died down, my eyes began to feel icy cold. I could distinctly feel the cool air slithering into my brain like two snakes, and when I opened my eyes again, everything was pitch black.