Chapter Ten: The Master Has Vanished

  It was already dark at this time, more than 7 o'clock.

  I saw the master coming to the stage...

  The lamp on the altar was shining brightly... and on the altar was placed a paper boat, at this time the master came down in the afternoon.

  "The universe is vast and profound, the Tao is infinite."

  Not yet arrived at the Ghost Festival, Guimen Pass.

  Human path is vague and heavenly path is obscure.

  Jiumen Ge San sends off the ghost ship here.

  The ghost ship sailed to the Ghost Gate Pass!

  "Ghost Ship!"

  The master finished this and threw the paper boat into the air, and the paper boat automatically flew into the large water tank. I saw an illusion that the paper boat was slowly getting bigger, originally the size of a finger, slowly becoming the length and width of a palm.

  "Go ahead, this boat will take you to the Ghost Gate, and you can go directly to the Naihe Bridge without going through King Yanluo's judgment. I hope you can reincarnate well."

  "Thank you, let's change the outcome. Thank you." Mengmeng thanked my master and me a few words, then suddenly shrank into that paper boat, and in the moment of shrinking, I saw some golden powder falling from Mengmeng's body, and those powders all floated into my body!

  The master put his hand in the water tank and stirred up a whirlpool, and in an instant the boat was gone, sending off Mengmeng and her mother. When he turned around, that's what he saw!

  "Unbeaten powder!" The master shouted!

  I feel like my forehead is burning and radiating light.

  "What's 'Wuyin Fen'?" I heard the master say the three words "Wuyin Fen" with a puzzled tone.

  "Master, what is causeless powder?"

  "Zi Chuan, you are destined to be extraordinary. Wu Yin Fen is the only thing recognized by the Heavenly Way that can break the causal relationship! It can even break the five evils and three deficiencies!"

  "What are the five evils and three lacks?"

  "The five flaws refer to: widowhood, childlessness, solitary existence, disability, and being an orphan. The three shortcomings are lack of money, lack of life, and lack of power! These are mistakes that every uneducated person will make!"

  I heard that among the five evils there is loneliness! Not wanting to be lonely for a lifetime, what would Zhang Ting do? I suddenly became afraid.

  "Why didn't you mention it to me at the beginning!" I thought of Zhang Ting, and my tone was a bit resentful.

  "Zi Chuan, don't be impatient for now, listen to me. The reason I didn't mention it to you before is that our school is a bit different from others. If Taoist priests can be divided into literary and martial, then we are more inclined towards the martial side. Do you understand?"

  "I don't understand."

  "That's to say, just like the Mao Shan sect, they use the five arts of mountain, medicine, fate, divination and physiognomy as their name. Each of their lineages is an existence that goes against heaven, so they touched upon the heavenly way, therefore the heavenly way gave them incomplete life charts. To put it bluntly, it's like a hooligan learning martial arts without touching upon the five flaws and three lacks, now do you understand?"

  When I heard Master say this, it turned out that our Jiuzi Gate would not touch the Five Flaws and Three Deficiencies. My previous worries also disappeared into thin air.

  "But... but you..."

  "But what?"

  "No, you'll know later."

  This is no longer the first or second time Master has wanted to say something but didn't. What does he actually know?

  "Why did Wu Yin Fen come out of Meng Meng's body?"

  "I don't know either, this thing is just a legend, I only saw its records in the books left by my ancestors. It seems that it was produced on the resentful ghost, perhaps because of Meng Meng's resentment and karma, maybe only you can help her resolve this karma and then there will be no cause for this powder to appear."

  "Zi Chuan, this kind of thing will attract many people's attention and suspicion. I'm afraid that in the future, you'll have a lot of troubles because of this."

  "Sneak a peek if you must, but with Master around, what's there to fear?"

  "Haha, what if I'm not here?"

  What if Master is no longer here? I haven't thought about this question, but thinking back to my brief acquaintance with Master over the past few days, from meeting at a dessert shop to becoming his apprentice and understanding the cause and effect, I have silently regarded my Master as my own family. He taught me how to see another world...

  "It won't work, Master will always be there!"

  The master looked at me and smiled, with a hint of reluctance in his eyes.

  Taking advantage of the fact that it's not dark yet, Master taught me some boxing and kicking techniques. He said that in our Nine Character Gate, many skills consume a lot of mental and physical energy, so we must train our bodies!

  "Master, I'm leaving." I saw that the sky had already darkened, and tonight I promised to accompany Zhang Ting to go shopping.

  "Ah, let's go, Zikawa. Believe in yourself no matter what!" My master said something inexplicable and came up with this sentence, which made me a little confused.

  "Yes, I will, Master!"

  After I came down from the mountain, I went back to school and picked up Zhang Ting. She and I strolled around on the street.

  "What's wrong with your nose?" She touched my nose, which was a bit sore. I only then remembered that I had been punched in the nose by Qian Duo during our fight today.

  "You're not going to fight today, are you?" Zhang Ting asked me anxiously.

  "No, I was just thinking about something and accidentally bumped into a utility pole today!"

  "How stupid can you be!"

  "Uh, I'm silly only with you."

  I put Zhang Ting's hand in my arms, if she knew I was a ghost catcher what would happen? I don't want her to touch these things, I just want to quietly protect her.

  I caught sight of Li Su staring at me from a distance, and I walked over with Zhang Ting's hand in mine.

  Back in the dormitory, I remembered what Master said to me this afternoon. No matter what, I must believe in myself. What if Master is not around? I feel a sense of inexplicable panic, could it be... could it be that Master...

  The next morning I rushed to that bamboo forest.

  "Master!" The waiting was met with a solitary shout echoing in the room.

  I searched room by room, but didn't see Master's figure anywhere...

  In the master's room I found a letter:

  Zi River. By the time you see this letter, Master should have left already. Don't blame me for leaving without saying goodbye to you, but I have something to take care of... Since I arrived in this city, I knew that my apprentice, who is you, would appear, so I stayed here waiting all along until the day you appeared... As for me, I have fulfilled the responsibility of our sect.

  If everything goes smoothly, I'll come back to see you in a few months or maybe even a few years.

  I hope you can learn the skills of this door well, I don't want to see you still in your current state when I come back.

  Master stays.

  Master has left? Where did Master go?!

  He said there was something important to deal with, why didn't he mention it to me yesterday!

  Looking at this empty room... The scene of being with Master in the bamboo house slowly emerges before my eyes.

  He said he would come back to find me in a few months, I'm waiting for you, Master!

  I tidied up the bamboo house, closed the door and left there

  More than a month has passed.

  I have been waiting for Master to appear in front of me all along.....

  This month I also went to the bamboo house, but the dust inside has accumulated, and I sweep it every time I go.

  I've been with Zhang Ting for over a month now, and as I look at this little girl, I love her more and more.

  That's what feels right, more than anything else.

  "Zi Chuan, did you say we will get married in the future?"

  "Really! And we'll have two more kids in the future! I'm alone, huh." I've gotten into the habit of pinching her face.

  "Classmates, this weekend we will go to Liu Lake for a life drawing trip." As soon as the design teacher finished speaking on the podium, the classmates below cheered and jumped up.

  Liu Lake is in our neighboring city. It's called Liu Lake because the lake's two banks are planted with willows. However, I heard that the scenery over there is quite beautiful.

  "Zihe, you won't be staying in the dorm again this week! Haha." Seeing my roommate Zhang Ran say this to me, it's no wonder, I'm okay with Zhang Ting accompanying me, but for them without girlfriends, almost every weekend is spent sleeping in the dorm.

  "Zi Chuan! Our class is going out to have fun this weekend." Seeing Zhang Ting say that, what a coincidence, I was just about to tell her that I couldn't accompany her this weekend.

  "Hmm? Just in time, our class is going out for a life drawing session over the weekend."

  "Where are you going?"

  "Willow Lake, how about you?"

  "Ah! What a coincidence! We're also going to Liu Lake!" Zhang Ting heard that the two of us had different plans for the weekend, but both were going to Liu Lake, and she became happy. This is good too, I haven't seen Zhang Ting for a few days, it's been feeling weird in my heart.

  The weekend arrived, our class chartered a bus to Liu Lake, when getting on the bus, I asked Zhang Ting "Have you guys boarded?"

  "Alright, let's go!"

  "Uh-huh, us too, see you later."

  After asking Zhang Ting, I took a nap. When I woke up, we had already arrived at Liu Lake. I followed my classmates to get off the bus. The teacher first took us to the scenic hotel to arrange our accommodation. In the hotel lobby, I saw Zhang Ting. This girl directly ran towards me and pulled me to walk with her to their class.

  "This is my boyfriend! Li Zichuan." Some of the girls among her classmates I had seen before, it was when Lily jumped off the building and I went to the dormitory to look for her, there were many of her classmates over there watching.

  "Hmm, got it. Look at how beautiful you are." Her classmate looked at Zhang Ting with disdain.

  While Zhang Ting was smiling and looking at me over there...

  We had arranged our accommodation and then Zhang Ting and I left the hotel to stroll along the Liu Lake. As expected, both banks were planted with willows, and there was a gentle breeze blowing, watching the willow branches swaying in the wind, the lake surface rippling with waves, and in the center of the lake, there was a small island also planted with willows.

  Wandered around the scenic spot with Zhang Ting, when it got dark, she pulled me to a place.

  "Where are we going?"

  "Our class is having a barbecue over there, come with me."

  "Ah, you guys are having fun in class, I'll just go over there and mess around."

  "She's gone." Zhang Ting didn't care about my reaction and directly pulled me over.

  "Hello!" As I went over, I saw about twenty people gathered around the barbecue grill, divided into several groups. Zhang Ting took me to her place, where there were 4 girls and 3 boys.

  "Hey, Tingting, you've brought your boyfriend along!" said one of her female classmates. Zhang Ting told me that her name was Wang Dan. When Wang Dan said this, the others also laughed, making me feel quite embarrassed.

  But I saw that among those three men, one of them was staring at me with a somewhat hateful gaze.