The Legend of Tokyo Taoist

Chapter 44 On-the-job Training (3)

Inuyama Heita asked with some interest, "What kinds of ghosts are there? Do you mean the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons? Things like Nura, Shuten-doji, Tengu, etc.?"

"There is some relationship, but not entirely." Qian Xiaoyi said.

"Are there really such ghosts?" Inuyama Heitai was shocked! He just mentioned it on a whim, but he didn't expect Qian Xiaoyi to not completely deny it. And according to the classification, these are monsters instead of ghosts, right?

"Don't be in a hurry, pour yourself a cup of tea, and listen to me slowly while you eat." Qian Xiaoyi took out a box of high-quality yokan that he had picked up at the venue a few days ago from the drawer, opened it, picked up a piece and took a bite, then drank a sip of tea, making a comfortable sound. Inuyama Heita also naturally took a piece and poured himself a cup of tea. The two of them chatted as if they were having a tea party.

Inuyama Heita drank his tea and asked, "Brother Yi, do those monsters I just mentioned really exist?"

Qian Xiaoyi said calmly, "Before answering this question, I have to ask you another question and give you a few examples... Heitaro, assuming that these legendary ghosts really exist, then you travel to a small town in Europe, and all the people around you are foreigners with blond hair, blue eyes and big noses. The question is, if you see a ghost at this time, then should you see a Japanese tengu, a female demon, or a werewolf, a vampire, or some other messy thing over there?"

Inuyama Heita put down his teacup and replied with a strange expression, "It should be the ghosts in their legends. After all, it always feels weird to see Japanese ghosts in Europe."

"Oh? Then what is the reason for this result?" Qian Xiaoyi asked patiently: "Why did this happen?"

Inuyama Heita's mouth twitched: "Maybe they have their own territories? Just like the Yakuza, each has its own territories."

Qian Xiaoyi looked at Inuyama Heita as if he were an idiot, snatched the chestnut yokan from his hand before he had time to eat it, threw it into his mouth, and said incoherently: "Think about what I said before. Why do you want to eat high-quality yokan if you are so stupid?"

"What does being stupid have to do with eating yokan..." Inuyama Heita felt depressed when he saw his snack being snatched away, so for the sake of the snack, he began to ponder this question.

After a while, he knocked his left palm with his right fist and said excitedly, "Got it! Brother Yi, you said before that ghosts don't exist objectively, they only exist subjectively in the eyes of people like us... Then the answer is out, the key here is still in 'cognition'! Those Europeans don't have any knowledge of Japanese ghosts, but they have local legends, so this situation occurs."

"Bingo~ Here, I'll give you a snack." Qian Xiaoyi pushed the box of yokan over and said, "That's right. As long as we talk about ghosts, no matter what the issue is, we will return to one point, that is, 'cognition'. Just like the conclusion you just inferred, the types of ghosts are highly related to the cognition of people in each place. Let me give you another inappropriate example. For example, if an indigenous tribe with poor information originally had no concept of ghosts because they worshipped their ancestors, one day they regarded the Ultraman toy that fell from the plane as a ghost and were very afraid of it. They also kept using this image to scare their children. Then, after this concept spreads and after several generations, Ultraman has become the traditional ghost image of this tribe. Guess what the psychics of their tribe will see if they see a ghost?"

Inuyama Heita slapped himself in the face and uttered a few words with difficulty: "...Ultraman." "That's right. Remember, without human cognition and observation, there will be no ghosts." Qian Xiaoyi drank a sip of tea contentedly, feeling extremely happy about destroying a young man's worldview.

"Ha... it's really impressive." Inuyama Heita was quite shocked by Qian Xiaoyi's example. He hasn't recovered yet and feels extremely annoyed. He will never be able to look Ultraman in the face again. Sorry, Tiga.

"Let's continue with the second lesson." Qian Xiaoyi said, "As long as you understand this concept, then the following things will be much easier to understand. Let's continue to talk about the types of ghosts. In addition to these images, there are some that you often see, that is, residual souls. You should know what I mean, right?"

Inuyama Heita nodded: "It's those flickering figures. Sometimes you can't even see the upper body." Those things are so common that you can sometimes see one every few streets.

Qian Xiaoyi leaned back in his chair, resting his head on his hands, staring at the ceiling and saying, "Those are things that only dying people can leave behind, just like footprints left by people walking through mud. There are no memories, no thoughts, nothing, only emotions that cannot be released at the moment of death, usually regrets or impressions of the moment before death, so when you come into contact with them, you usually feel irritated or cold. If there are a lot of these things in a place, it means that this place is very depressing."

Inuyama Heita thought about it and nodded. Tokyo was indeed a depressing place to live in.

"Then the second type~ we have to mention the guy outside the window again." Qian Xiaoyi pointed outside, and Inuyama Heita knew that he was going to use the example of the otaku ghost Ajian again. According to Qian Xiaoyi: It was really the first time he saw such an obsessed ghost, it was fucking rare.

"One thing you need to know is that ghosts with their own thoughts are very rare." Qian Xiaoyi raised a finger: "The adjective 'one in a million' cannot describe their rarity. Only extremely deep obsession can allow them to transcend death and stay in the world. But frankly speaking, they are not the souls of the dead, but the obsession of the dead for a certain thing, so they can't remember most things and only respond to their own obsession. Because of the obsession, most of these ghosts exist in the form of so-called earthbound spirits. To form this kind of ghost, there must be a considerable degree of obsession. It is very rare, otherwise the earth would have been crowded with ghosts long ago."

Inuyama Heita suddenly thought of the ghost neighbor Xiaotian he met when he first met Qian Xiaoyi. If so, the other party's obsession should be his sister, and she met him not long after she died. Inuyama Heita asked: "Then if the obsession is not resolved, will they not disappear?"

Qian Xiaoyi smiled and said, "How could that be? Ghosts of this kind have certain thoughts, so they will also be anxious. Moreover, their obsessions also have different levels of depth. Some ghosts whose obsessions are not too deep will usually explode because their wishes cannot be fulfilled, and directly degenerate into residual souls, leaving only a shadow, and then gradually disappear over time. And some...if the obsession is too deep, it will not only not fade away with the passage of time, but will turn into resentment and become a so-called evil spirit. Then it leads to the third lesson - how ghosts affect people."

I was actually mentioned by Chi Ji. I feel flattered. Thank you Chi Ji and all the readers for your love.

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(End of this chapter)