Chapter 2: The Malevolent Spirit Boy

  My master told me he has a junior fellow apprentice.

  This Master L, also a well-known figure in the entertainment industry, has made many zombie and supernatural movies with his own skills. He always plays a powerful Taoist priest in them, and later audiences call him Master L Dao.

  Lin Shifu died in 1997 at the age of 45. It was said that he died from cancer.

  That year, Master took me to Hong Kong. I remember Master standing in front of Shifu's corpse for a long time, his face pale as iron, and I vaguely guessed that Shifu's death would not be so simple.

  But Master didn't say anything to me after he came back until I was eighteen years old.

  That year I had just received my ID card, and Master kept nodding at me, his old face full of relief. At the time, I felt a bit strange because Master's gaze was not quite right.

  Then Master asked me to go out and buy something. After I came back, Master was gone, and since then, I have never seen Master again.

  Couldn't find Master, I had no choice but to run to Uncle Liu's place. Uncle Liu sighed and handed me a bank card and a letter written by Master.

  The bank card contains the money that Master has earned over the years. There's a lot of money, and I won't be able to spend it all in my lifetime. But I don't want the money; I just want to find Master.

  I opened the letter from my master, and in it, he said that he was going to take care of a big matter. He hadn't gone before because I was young and needed someone to take care of me. Now that I'm grown up, my master is at ease, so he's going to go and complete that thing.

  The master said I've learned most of his skills, and with these skills, I won't go hungry in the future.

  I don't know what Master wants to do, but since he didn't even bring me along, that matter must be extremely dangerous. The letter didn't say where Master went, so I can only ask Uncle Liu, because apart from me, he is the person closest to Master.

  At first, Liu Bo was unwilling to tell me, but I kept asking him. In the end, Liu Bo sighed and told me the truth.

  Master left because of Master Lin's death. Old Man Liu said that Master Lin's death was suspicious, and there must be a problem here. Master must have sensed something, but where did he go? Old Man Liu couldn't say clearly either.

  Upon hearing this, I calmed down and asked Liu Bo: "What exactly does my master do?"

  Liu Bo fell silent for a moment, staring at me with his one remaining eye, before slowly opening his mouth to say: "Your master is a Taoist priest, but which specific sect I don't know. All I know is that he has a junior fellow disciple surnamed Lin. In the early days, you also had an older martial brother, but later on, your older martial brother vanished without a trace. I don't know where he went either."

  Hearing this, I couldn't sit still. I never thought that I actually had an older martial brother! This was something Master had never told me before!

  At this time, Liu Bo sighed again and said: "Now that you've grown up, there are some things that you should know. When your senior fellow apprentice learned the skills of your master and went out to make a name for himself, he was gone for three years without any news. I suspect that Lin Shifu's death is definitely related to your senior fellow apprentice's disappearance."

  Although I heard Liu Bo's words, I also feel that Lin Shifu's matter and the disappearance of my brother who has never seen me must have secrets that I don't know, but my master didn't tell me, even if I want to find him, I can't.

  Three months after Master left, another customer came to the door.

  This customer is also an actress, and it seems that she found out about the master through connections. She later became very famous, but at that time, although she had filmed many TV shows and movies, they were not very popular.

  This is a beautiful woman, I often see her on TV, her surname is F, she played a maid in a very popular TV series earlier, and in recent years, I occasionally saw her scandals on TV.

  If Master were here, with his temperament, he would definitely refuse this woman. But I just left the master's place and really wanted to try it myself. Besides, this woman was very eager to make a big show, and as soon as she took action, she gave 2 million.

  As for the money, I don't attach too much importance to it because my master left me a lot, enough for me to spend. What I want is to try out the skills I learned from my master, so I agreed with this woman.

  Although this woman is beautiful, I don't get excited like when I was a kid seeing actresses, but instead calmly took a look at her facial features first.

  This woman's face is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, with charming eyes like a fox spirit, which is a typical Yin fire type face. This kind of face has obvious edges and corners, which is unfavorable to interpersonal relationships. Therefore, since her debut, this woman's words and deeds have often been criticized by many people, making people both love and hate her.

  The first time she saw me, this woman was clearly somewhat disappointed because she had come for the master's reputation, but unexpectedly it was me. At that time, I was only eighteen years old, so there were full of doubts in her eyes towards me.

  Although I've seen many beautiful actresses, this woman is really too stunning. I glanced at her twice and didn't dare to look closely again, because she's so charming that my heart was racing like a deer.

  "I stared at the ground and said to the woman, 'Want... wanting to change one's fate, the best way is to raise a little ghost, let it help you.'"

  "Will you raise it?"

  The woman obviously suspected my ability and asked me with a somewhat disdainful tone.

  Young people are proud, as soon as I heard this woman doubting my skills, my face turned red. I said to the woman: "I'll make a small ghost for you, if your luck hasn't changed after a year, I'll refund your money."

  After hearing what I said, the woman was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing and said to me: "Alright, I believe you, little master. When will I come again?"

  I thought for a moment, at that time the master had used up all the little ghosts he had collected before, and I had to find another one. I told this woman to come again in a month.

  The woman didn't say a word, left a card and turned around to leave.

  To be honest, from this woman's facial features, I can tell that she is a very strong-willed woman, even the kind of person who will stop at nothing to succeed.

  This kind of person will eventually succeed, raising a little ghost can only make her more smooth, but in order to prove her own skills, this time I decided to help the woman raise a fierce ghost.

  The evil spirit is different from the corpse soul, the corpse soul uses a dead fetus that died in the womb. That kind of ghost has never seen the sun and moon, the yin energy on its body is innate, it cannot be eliminated at all, so it can counterattack its master.

  This vengeful spirit is a child who died an untimely death, usually no more than five years old. Since it's an untimely death, this child carries a malevolent aura, but it's not as troublesome as a vengeful ghost. It can be exorcised with magic, but it would consume a significant amount of my magical energy and require me to use my own blood to cleanse the spirit for seven consecutive days. That's why Master has never helped anyone with a vengeful spirit child before.

  The evil spirit that drives away evil spirits is much more powerful than ordinary ghosts, can quickly help the master reverse his fate, and does not harm the master like a corpse ghost.

  After that woman left, I found Liu Bo. As soon as he heard me say I wanted to be a fierce ghost, Liu Bo was startled and carefully asked me: "Are you sure?"

  I nodded at Liu Bo and said, "If there are any more kids like this in the next two days, let me know."

  On the third day, Liu Bo informed me that I would be going to the morgue at night. I knew that the body of the dead hooligan had been found.

  In the middle of the night, I brought a candle and a black sword left by my master, as well as several talismans. The black sword, according to my master, was made from thousand-year-old sunken wood that had been submerged in the river for a thousand years without rotting, making it an excellent tool for driving away ghosts and evil spirits, far surpassing the peach wood sword by over a hundred times.

  My master and I always bring our ritual tools whenever we go, because my master said that the kind of place where Tai Ping is located is full of dead people, some of whom have a lot of resentment and might turn into malevolent spirits. Bringing these things along can protect us in case we run into any malevolent spirits.

  Apart from these things, I also brought a small coffin. The coffin was carved out of rattan wood and inside it lay the little demon that I had also carved out of rattan wood. Once we arrived at the mortuary, I would use this coffin to receive the corpse oil, then guide the child's spirit into the coffin.

  This little brat's aura of death is too powerful, a glass bottle can't contain it at all. It has to be stored in this small coffin, and I've even carved a soul-calming symbol on the lid to prevent this little ghost from escaping.

  I took these things to the morgue, and Liu Bo opened the door for me. He pointed to a corpse cart and said, "This was just sent in this afternoon, and hasn't been autopsied yet. The child is only three and a half years old. I heard it was beaten to death by its own father after he got drunk."

  Although I was going to take the child's soul, but as soon as I heard that this kid was actually beaten to death by his own father, I couldn't help but burst into anger and cursed a bastard, carefully walking into the morgue.

  The mortuary was eerily cold, I used to come here with my master, now I'm left alone. As I walked, the only sound in the room was my own footsteps, this scene made my spine tingle uncontrollably.

  I took a look around, now that my yin eyes have been opened by Master, I looked over and didn't see anything unclean, I let out a breath of relief, came to the side of the little kid's hearse, lit three incense sticks, and kowtowed three times.

  Although he is a child, the dead are more important. Besides, I want to take out his soul, so these three heads are what he should receive.

  I kowtowed and stood up, lifting the white cloth off the child's body.

  The child was completely naked, with large purple bruises all over his body. It was clear that he had been beaten to death while still alive, and it was obvious that he had been hit countless times.

  I gritted my teeth and cursed that beast of a father again, slowly lifted the child up, pinched his joints a few times with my hand, and he sat down on the hearse.

  This technique was taught by the master. A dead person cannot sit up, but this technique can temporarily fix the joints of a corpse, making it convenient for the next step of extracting oil from the body.

  "I know you died unjustly, but injustice has its master and debt has its owner. It wasn't me who harmed you. Anyway, your soul can't enter the underworld now. I'm going to take your soul and make a ghost out of it. Please don't be offended."

  I bowed again to the child, I knew he must not understand what I said, it was just a comfort in my mind.

  I lit a candle and gently toasted it under the kid's chin.

  This candle is added with cinnabar, the yang energy of cinnabar is heavy, it can easily drive out a person's yin soul, and using this candle to burn the lower jaw will not damage the corpse.

  I held the candle and kept gently swaying it under the child's chin, after about five minutes, his chin started to sizzle, then a drop of corpse oil penetrated the skin and condensed on his chin.

  I hastily stretched out the small coffin carved from wicker wood and watched as the drop of corpse oil fell onto the carved image inside.

  As the candle continued to scorch, the corpse oil on the child's chin kept dripping down, and it had dripped seven drops before I moved the candle away.

  Master said that after a person dies, there are only seven drops of essence and blood left in the body. No matter how much it is roasted, nothing can be extracted from it. The next step is to extract the soul of this child.

  I pulled out a talisman paper and held it in my left hand, pressing it against the child's crown.

  This talisman is called a soul-calling charm, its function is to summon the yin spirit out of the body.

  I cover the child's fontanelle with a piece of paper, recite an incantation in my mouth, stretch out two fingers of my right hand and point to his brow, shouting loudly: "Out!"

  Right after that, I suddenly pulled my right hand outward, and a white shadow appeared on the child's forehead.

  This shadow is the soul of this child. Normally, as soon as the child's soul leaves its body, it will follow my fingers into that small coffin.

  But today, the little kid's soul came out and stood on the ground, motionless, with a pair of eyes full of resentment staring at me, the candlelight beside me inexplicably turned into a miserable green color, and the cold sweat on my body kept flowing down.