Chapter 48: The Orthodox Incantation of the Three Pure Ones

  "Tian Shu Zi, stay behind." Just as everyone was about to walk out of the hall door, a voice came from the northern side of the platform.

  Mo Wen stopped in his tracks and turned around at the sound, while others looked at him with confusion and stepped out of the hall.

  "Have you ever been to France?" the man in yellow asked.

  "Return to Zhenren's question, Fa Yin always carries it with him." Mo Xiang replied.

  "This corpse is filthy and cannot be drawn. If you draw a talisman with your hand, it will temporarily delay the decay of the corpse." The man in yellow clothes said.

  Mo Wen heard and secretly frowned, the man in yellow had not taught him a specific method of drawing talismans, and he could not write spells at this time.

  Before that, the people of Wuliang Mountain had already prepared the yellow paper and writing instruments needed for everyone to learn the talisman. The man in yellow saw Mo Wen's confusion, so he ground the ink, picked up his brush and drew a strange talisman, "You copy it down, add a seal with your handprint and that's it."

  Don't ask, step forward, pick up the brush and prepare to copy. Unexpectedly, the man in yellow shook his head and stopped him, "The objects that have come into contact with the corpse are not clean, use another one."

  Mo Wen heard the words and walked to the east side of the law platform, after grinding the ink, he copied the talisman drawn by the man in yellow robe. The strokes of the talisman drawn by the man in yellow robe were extremely smooth, while the strokes of the copied talisman were sometimes broken and the ink was not evenly applied.

  "I don't know if it's still usable, please let a real person take a look." Mo asked to hand over the copied paper for the man in yellow to review.

  The man in yellow robes took a glance at the talisman drawn by Mo Wu and smiled, "You're quite skilled. Let me add a seal to it."

  "Where shall I stamp it?" Fa Yin dipped his finger in the red ink but did not know where he should stamp it.

  "Seal foot." The man in yellow clothes said casually.

  A talisman consists of three parts: the head, body and foot. Without any one of these, it will not take effect. The head has three hooks, belonging to the Orthodox Oneness sect. The body is the content of the talisman, determining what kind of effect the talisman will have, while the foot indicates the end of the talisman. Do not ask about the method of adding a seal on top of the foot. Hold the paper talisman in both hands and present it to the man in yellow robes.

  "This is a talisman to calm the corpse, paste it on the forehead of the corpse, and remove it when you come back at night. After that, change it once every half month." The man in yellow clothes finished speaking and sat down cross-legged beside the stone coffin with his eyes closed.

  "Yes." Mo Wen carefully brought the talisman closer to the yellow-robed man's forehead, and just as he was worried about how it would stick, the talisman in his hand automatically left his grasp, quickly sticking to the yellow-robed man's forehead, right between his eyebrows.

  Seeing the magic spell take effect, he didn't ask again and rushed out of the hall. The yellow-robed man bowed his head in respect, then turned around and left the hall, closing the door behind him with a backward hand.

  "Don't ask, True Person, why are you staying behind?" Ah Jiu had been waiting from a distance.

  His possessed body is extremely prone to decay, and with my hand, I drew a talisman to calm the corpse. Don't ask if he's injured, standing for half the night made him feel slightly fatigued.

  Ajiu nodded and asked, "How much of what Zhenren said earlier did you remember?"

  "What he said about the mantra secret method is not obscure." Don't ask, just move forward.

  "I only remember less than 80%, others may not be as good as me." Ah Jiu said.

  "When you pay attention to remember, the real person may leave after half a month." Mo Xiang and others did not know the name of the yellow-robed man, and could only call him the real person.

  "A-Jiu was somewhat surprised by this, 'The Fu-Chou is a major method of the Taoist school, how can it be fully transmitted in just half a month? And how can we fully understand it?'"

  "A true transmission is just one sentence, a false transmission is ten thousand scrolls. These respected seniors have received the divine decree from our ancestors and come to transmit their skills, which directly involve the divine marrow, without hiding anything. If we can't understand it for the time being, it doesn't matter, we can first write it down and leave it for later slow practice." Mo asked stopped at the door and didn't go in.

  "You're injured, get some rest." Ah Jiu turned and left.

  It's already time for morning class, reciting scriptures is the duty of Taoist priests, every day without exception. Reciting scriptures can calm the mind and reveal one's true nature. This positive influence is subtle and imperceptible, requiring persistent practice to see results over time.

  After reciting the morning scripture, don't ask about practicing qigong again. The cultivation of spiritual energy is also a slow process. Currently, most people's spiritual energy cultivation is rare and ordinary. At present, there are no spiritual objects that can be sought to help grow spiritual energy, nor are there any spiritual elixirs that can be refined to help grow spiritual energy. It can only be practiced slowly, accumulating bit by bit.

  After breakfast, Mo didn't ask to return to the room and recall what the yellow-robed man had said last night. He only fell asleep at noon and went with everyone to the East Hall in the evening to listen to the yellow-robed man explain the wonderful methods of talismans. Unlike the previous few masters who passed on their skills, this person required everyone to stand up to show respect when teaching, and they couldn't interrupt to ask questions halfway through, or else they would be scolded by him. Everyone's goal was to learn the techniques of talismans, so naturally, they wouldn't dare to provoke him.

  The man in yellow spent three days separately teaching the methods of driving out evil, treating ghosts, and subduing monsters. The so-called "evil" refers to all kinds of intangible evil energies, while "ghosts" refer to the lingering spirits of deceased humans, and "monsters" refer to a type of supernatural creature that is born from the essence of certain animals, such as the nine-headed serpent and the thousand-year-old turtle. The methods for dealing with these three types of entities are different, and there are various talismans for subduing, driving out, sealing, and killing them. Because there are so many kinds of talismans, it is not feasible to write them all down beforehand. There are over a hundred main talismans and countless auxiliary ones; even if one had enough pockets to carry them all, the Taoist priest himself would not be able to remember which talisman was for what purpose. What if he were to pull out a talisman for driving out ghosts while trying to subdue monsters? It would be a joke. Therefore, one can only memorize the methods of using and writing the talismans, and carry around cinnabar sand, talisman paper, ritual seals, and talisman brushes to write them on the spot. These four objects must always be carried with one.

  The Shangqing Fu Zhou contains all things, its divine power is extraordinary. Not only can it be used to set up an altar and perform rituals to subdue evil spirits and demons, but the purple talisman can also command ghosts and gods, scatter beans to form soldiers, summon wind and rain, and pray for heavenly longevity. The golden talisman is even more overbearing, changing shape at will, flying sand and walking stones are just ordinary things, moving mountains and filling seas are not difficult tasks, and even the return of flesh and bones can be done with it.

  Although the talisman is mysterious, most of them need to be used in conjunction with spells, and they need to use spiritual energy as the foundation for casting. In addition, the method of talismans also conforms to the principles of yin and yang, Taoist practitioners act on behalf of heaven, are supervised by heaven, if they use talismans to do good deeds, they accumulate merit, if they use talismans to do bad things, they will bring disaster upon themselves, and their merits will be deducted to make up for their mistakes. If the merits cannot offset the guilt, then their pre-heavenly yang life span will be deducted, and once the yang life span is reduced, it can never be replenished again.

  Man is born in heaven and earth, no one can be unrestrained and act arbitrarily, even if there is no one to restrain him, there are still the three clear gods who clearly distinguish between merits and demerits.

  No one asked why Lao Wu hadn't been seen for several days, and it wasn't until the fourth day at noon that he finally came over. When asked, it turned out that it wasn't because of the heavy snow that delayed his return to the mountain, but because the price of rice had skyrocketed, making it almost impossible to buy.

  "Why has it risen so much? How can ordinary people make a living?" Mo asked, before this time the rice price had already risen several times, and this time the increase was even more severe.

  "I heard that the Northeast is at war and needs a lot of military rations. I don't know how the common people are going to get by, but I do know that our days are not going to be easy from now on. You might even have to eat two meals a day later." Old Five pointed to the package on the table, "Master, I bought some dry rations for you, you can use them to fill your belly when you're hungry."

  Mo Wen heard the words and frowned, not speaking. Previously, when the Emperor of Zhao came to Wu Liang Mountain to invite Dao Zhang out of the mountain, he had brought a lot of money. Wu Liang Mountain was not short of money, but the situation outside was so bad that even with gold and silver, they couldn't buy rice and grains.

  "Master, there's something else I need to tell you. The Western Chamber has been occupied again, and it's an old Taoist priest," said Lao Wu.

  "When did you arrive?" Mo asked in confusion, the yellow-robed man who was imparting the talisman had just arrived not long ago, and it would take at least ten more days to finish imparting the talismans. How could the respected elder who was imparting the magic technique have come so early?

  "It's been two hours, right?" said Lao Wu.

  "How did it become so urgent?" Mo asked herself.

  "That's what I heard. Some time ago, when Qing Song was serving tea, he overheard a conversation between that barbarian and Master Xuan Yang. The barbarian wanted everyone from Wu Liang Mountain to come out of the mountain to help them fight against the State of Yan in the northeast. Master Xuan Yang didn't agree with him, so the barbarian got very unhappy and left with a long face." Lao Wu added.

  Lao Wu's words were originally not answering the question, but Mo Xun unexpectedly discovered a clue, it is very likely that Xuanyangzi had a premonition that Wuliang Mountain was about to experience a disaster, so he invited those respected seniors who passed on their skills in advance, wanting to let them learn all the Shangqing methods before the disaster occurred and leave this place of trouble as soon as possible.

  "It's not just the civilians who suffered in the war, even the people of the Taoist sect can't escape the impact." Mo Wen furrowed his brow and shook his head.

  "Yes, under the same roof, there's no end to troubles." Old Five sighed.

  Don't ask, at this time there is no mood to explain the difference between eggs and eggs to Lao Wu. After a long sigh, he waved his hand to send him away, and then picked up the dry food left by Lao Wu to distribute it to everyone. These days, porridge and rice are scarce, and everyone is hungry.

  While sharing dry rations, Mo asked also shared outside news and his own speculations with the crowd. The crowd heard him out and agreed with his speculations. The State of Yan revered Shamanism, was skilled in witchcraft, and excelled at driving beasts to fight wars. Besides clashing armies, it's likely that there were also supernatural beings and cultivators involved; otherwise, the State of Yan wouldn't have come to provoke the State of Zhao. At this time, the war situation in the northeast had become increasingly intense. If the State of Yan continued to advance, the Wu people would inevitably be forced to participate in the battle at Mount Wuliang.

  As night fell, the crowd still went to the East Hall to listen to the yellow-robed man explain the talismans. Tonight's lecture was about the different timing for using various talismans. Since the talismans corresponded to the stars and celestial bodies, and these stars had different duties at different times, it was not possible to get a response from using the talismans at any time.

  Master, please come in. The success or failure of learning a skill depends mainly on whether the teacher is dedicated. Although the yellow-robed man was eccentric and arrogant, he was very dedicated to teaching the art of talismans. When lecturing, he often shared his own experiences with talismans, making everyone feel as if they were there in person, which reduced the emptiness of just talking about it on paper.

  Everyone also came to know some fragments of the yellow-robed man's life before his death. What people did not expect was that he died at the age of 27, and such a young death was because he had relied on the ancient sacred object Tianlang Brush to write the Golden Symbol in his lifetime, causing the rivers to change course and affecting millions of people, thus losing his lifespan.

  As for why he had to do this, the man in yellow clothes did not say much, but everyone knew that Tiānlángmò was a divine place. This object is an ancient divine instrument, and it was used by Yu to draw the heavenly and earthly sacrificial altar map when he determined the nine states. Holding the Tiānlángmò can not only paint high-level talismans beyond grade, but also the power of the talisman is twice that of ordinary bamboo pen-drawn talismans, making it the first sacred object for painting talismans.

  Seven days later, everyone began to draw talismans. The first principle of drawing talismans is that the handwriting must be clear and not sloppy. Talismans are equivalent to documents submitted to heaven, so if they are sloppy, it would be disrespectful. Therefore, these orthodox talismans can be recognized by outsiders, and even if they are recognized by outsiders, it doesn't matter, because without the seal of the Taoist ritual, the drawn talismans are just a waste of paper.

  When many people practice drawing talismans, they do not add the seal of the law, only because the heavenly power cannot be offended, even if one learns the method of talismanic incantations, it is not allowed to play with heaven and earth, or tease ghosts and spirits.

  Half a month later, the transmission of the Fu incantation was completed. The man in yellow robes waved his hand to disperse the crowd: "Tomorrow at noon, bring your law seal and come for the eighth trial. The winner will obtain the Heavenly Wolf Brush..."