Chapter Sixty: The Demon's Possession

  "Old master, without even seeing her, how did you know that Miss Gao's illness couldn't be cured?" asked Lao Wu in puzzlement.

  Mo didn't ask and looked at Lao Wu with raised eyebrows, but didn't answer his question. Instead, he turned around and walked back.

  "Director Dao, aren't you going to see the patient?" The apprentice rushed over and grabbed Mo Wen.

  "Don't ask, I've heard that the young lady of the Gao estate has an aura of evil spirits, and it's clear that she's possessed by a demon or some sort of mad illness. You've lived here for so long, you must know all about it, why did you deceive me?"

  That fellow was frightened as soon as he heard it, and pulled Mo Wu to walk back, "Master Dao is wise, I really didn't know that there were monsters in the Gao Mansion, let's hurry back."

  "Old master, I don't think he's intentionally deceiving us. Everyone knows that family scandals shouldn't be made public, perhaps Old Master Gao is worried that his daughter won't be able to get married in the future, so he's hiding the truth from outsiders." Lao Wu followed up with another comment, "Old master, didn't you learn how to catch demons? Now that we've finally encountered one, why don't you catch it?"

  Don't ask about the most hateful thing, deceiving others with lies. At this time, I knew that my partner had not deceived me and my mood was calm, so I replied truthfully, "A person is precious for self-awareness. The evil spirits in that mansion are too powerful, I'm afraid we can't defeat them."

  "Let's go then." Lao Wu heard this and feared that if they didn't catch the demon, they would suffer instead. So he stopped inciting Mo Xun to go forward.

  "What kind of demon is possessing Miss Gao?" The innkeeper asked, his words chasing after Mo Wen. Unlike the other Taoist priests he had met before, Mo Wen could sense that there was a demon in the Gao residence from three miles away. Moreover, ordinary Taoist priests would boast about their divine powers, but Mo Wen frankly admitted his own limitations, which unexpectedly made him look up to Mo Wen even more.

  "I don't know the details." Mo asked, furrowing his brow and shaking his head. The so-called "demonic energy filling the sky" wasn't something he could see with his naked eye, but rather a keen intuition developed from practicing many Shangqing techniques. He could rely on this intuition to sense the presence of demons and evil spirits, and roughly gauge their abilities. The demon in the Gao residence couldn't be an evil spirit, as evil spirits were formed from condensed yin energy, lacking yang energy. If it attached itself to a person's body, it would cause the person's internal balance of yin and yang to suddenly collapse. Even if it was just ten days, let alone three months, Miss Gao would have already lost her life. Therefore, he determined that there was a demon in the Gao residence, but couldn't yet determine what kind it was.

  Compared to ghosts, monsters are more difficult to subdue. To deal with ghosts, one only needs to use yang-based talismans to expel and scatter the yin spirits. However, dealing with monsters is much more complicated because they all have a physical body in existence, with both yin and yang present. The part that attaches itself to humans is merely its external spirit consciousness. The monster's spirit consciousness occupies the human's spiritual palace, and no one dares to recklessly drive it out. If one fails, they will harm the possessed person's seven apertures of the spiritual palace, resulting in either a lifetime of confusion or instant death.

  "Old master, want to give it a try?" Lao Wu asked, seeing Mo Xun stop in his tracks and hesitate.

  Mo Wen heard the words but did not speak, deliberating for a long time before nodding heavily, "Retreating without a fight would be a loss of our dignity and prestige. We must try our best to avoid leaving any regrets."

  "That's right, let's go back first and come again tomorrow when it gets light." Old Five nodded and said.

  "Yao creatures are different from ghosts, and there's no great distinction between day and night when dealing with them," Mo asked said as he turned his head to look at the cowering inn servant beside him, "Would you trouble yourself to go inform the others?"

  The innkeeper had previously only thought of recommending Mo Wen to treat Miss Gao's illness, and if he was lucky enough to cure her, he would definitely get some reward. Now that he heard there was a monster hidden in the Gao mansion, how dare he go forward? Upon hearing this, he shook his head repeatedly and stopped in his tracks.

  "Trouble the good fellow to bring me here, you can go back now. I'll personally go up and knock on the door." Without asking, he made up his mind and didn't hesitate anymore. After saying that to the inn servant, he stepped forward towards the high mansion in the north.

  Lao Wu followed behind with his bundle on his back, and after a moment's hesitation the inn servant also went along.

  After a while, Mo asked to arrive at the gate of Gao's mansion. The Gao's mansion might be the richest in this area, and its residential courtyard was more magnificent than that of General Zhao's mansion. On either side of the gate, there were stone-carved fierce tigers squatting. As it was the time of the New Year, on both sides of the lintel above the main gate, a large red lantern was hung. The lanterns were originally festive objects, but at this moment, the dim and dark light of the lanterns made the bronze gate of Gao's mansion seem like the ghostly gate of hell, eerie and ominous.

  "Master Dao, I won't go in after all. Take care of yourself." The inn's servant plucked up the courage to come here, but ultimately didn't dare enter the door, and ran away after exchanging greetings with Mo Xiang.

  "Old master, shall we draw a few more symbols for backup?" Lao Wu looked at the running inn worker and felt anxious in his heart as well.

  "It won't work." Mo Wen heard this and slowly shook his head. At this time, he didn't even know what kind of creature the other party was, let alone what kind of spell would be effective.

  Standing outside the Gao family gate, Mo didn't immediately knock on the door. He hesitated not because he was afraid of the demon, but because after knocking on the door, how would he speak with the Gao family members? The 300 taels of gold they offered were unusually high, and at the current exchange rate, one tael of gold could be exchanged for ten taels of silver. So 300 taels of gold was equivalent to 3,000 taels of silver. Such a high reward indicated that Old Man Gao already knew his daughter was possessed by a demon, but he didn't dare say it out loud due to concerns about their reputation. In reality, the 300 taels of gold he offered was a reward for exorcising the demon, not just a consultation fee.

  "Old man, this is too dangerous, let's just forget it and choose something easier." Lao Wu saw that Mo Xun hadn't knocked on the door yet and mistakenly thought he was hesitant.

  "Who gets rich rewards must bear heavy responsibilities. If there's no danger, how would the high authorities offer such a high reward?" Mo Wen shook his head and said, then raised his hand to knock on the door.

  A moment later, a servant wearing a cloth hat on his head opened the door and, after shining a lantern over him, discovered that Mo Xiang was a young Taoist priest, and immediately showed a look of disgust.

  "Go and inform your master, I can use my skills to cure the illness of your young mistress, but I demand a high fee for diagnosis. If successful, I will ask for 500 taels of gold afterwards. Go and ask him if he is willing to pay the diagnostic fee." Mo didn't even bother to nod at the impolite servant.

  The person under the cloth hat was stunned for a moment after hearing the words, then said "Please wait a minute" and closed the door to report.

  "Old man, why are you asking for so much money?" Lao Wu didn't understand and asked him why he was raising the price out of nowhere.

  "If I don't say so, the doorman will inevitably put us on an equal footing with those quacks, and maybe he won't even bother to report it." Mo didn't ask for an explanation, most people judge by appearance, he was too young, if he was humble and polite, no one would believe him, he could only use arrogant words to intimidate the other party.

  "Can they take out so much money?" Old Five shook his head and curled his lip.

  "A person who can take out 300 taels will naturally be able to take out 500 taels. Be quiet, someone is coming into the house." Mo asked no questions but heard the sound of hurried footsteps in the courtyard, and judging from the sound, there was more than one person coming.

  After a while, the gate was reopened. Standing inside the gate were not only the servant but also an old man wearing red clothes and black pants. His hair was white, his face was worried, and he looked about fifty years old. He must be Old Master Gao without a doubt.

  "Long Xiaodao, can you save my young daughter?" The newcomer bowed and introduced himself, his manners were quite proper.

  "The Venerable Master of the Infinite Heavens, since I, a humble Daoist, have come to know what kind of evil spirit is at work here, I shall certainly exert my utmost effort to deal with it." Mo asked no questions and bowed his head in respect.

  "The path is long and quick, please come in." Old Master Gao heard this and became even more certain that Mo Xiang was not that deceitful and hypocritical Taoist, and hastily stepped aside to invite him in.

  Mo didn't ask and nodded as he stepped forward and entered, with Lao Wu following behind him.

  The Gao family was indeed a wealthy one, with a spacious front courtyard paved with flat bricks. In the east and west of the yard stood two tall and large Chinese parasol trees, but due to the severe cold weather, their leaves had all fallen off.

  "There is a paulownia tree in the house, which attracts phoenixes. It seems that not only is the family wealthy, but they are also well-read and knowledgeable about poetry. Without asking, the two daughters of the Gao family looked at each other and spoke up, saying that their father had planted two paulownia trees in the courtyard, symbolizing purity and nobility, with a clear intention."

  "Alas, alas, listening to Xiaodao Chang's accent doesn't seem like a local." Old Master Gao led the two of them to the front hall.

  "My ancestral home is in Xiyang, Huai Prefecture." Mo Wen nodded and said.

  "It's really not close from here, how did you get here?" Old Gao asked.

  "Where is Lian Ai now?" Mo Wen heard the words but did not answer his question, Old Master Gao's inquiry was meant to probe and investigate.

  "In the backyard Xiang Ge, a long way to come, first please go to the front hall for tea, and then go to see the doctor later." Old Master Gao said.

  Don't just nod in agreement, before heading to the backyard, you must first understand some of Miss Gao's situation, at least determine what kind of demon is possessing her.

  After a brief moment, the three men entered the front hall. The Guo family was indeed wealthy and had a lot of assets. The tables and chairs in the front hall were all made of precious wood and painted with tung oil, and the cups and saucers were all exquisite silverware, shining brightly in the light. After the three men sat down as host and guest, a servant brought up tea, and Old Man Guo waved his hand to dismiss the servant, then raised his cup to invite them to have some tea.

  "Don't ask me to put down my tea cup and get straight to the point. I'm not good at clever words and social niceties, so I'll just say it as it is. My master and I were passing through this place and stayed at a guest house in the south of the city. While chatting with the staff, we heard that your daughter was ill. Coincidentally, I have some knowledge of Taoist magic, so I thought I'd come to do some good for others and for myself. But when I arrived here, I was shocked to see the evil energy emanating from your mansion. That's when I realized that your daughter wasn't just ill, but had been possessed by an evil spirit. From what I observed of the energy, it's not a ordinary evil creature. To subdue it, we need to understand its origins and consequences; otherwise, we can't determine its true form or how to counter it. Please, kind sir, tell me everything that happened before, don't hide anything, or it will ruin our plan to subdue the evil spirit."

  Mo didn't ask, but he had been observing Master Gao's expression all the time. After finishing speaking, Master Gao showed no signs of anger, but instead sighed repeatedly.

  Although what Mo Xun said was reasonable, it wasn't a good idea to reveal family secrets to an outsider with unknown origins. So the old master remained silent for a long time, occasionally raising his head to size up Mo Xun and Lao Wu. After half a cup of tea, he finally made up his mind: "Little Daoist priest, your eyes are like torches, what you say is all correct, my daughter is not an ordinary patient, but has been possessed by a demon."

  "Do you know what kind of monster it is?" Mo didn't ask, guessing from his tone that Old Man Gao wasn't completely in the dark.

  The old man heard this and did not respond, but put down his teacup, got up from his seat, and said, "Let's go with Xiaodao Chang to take a look...it will be clear..."