One Qi Chaoyang

Chapter 27: There's a Ghost in the Fog River

Before the night got darker, You Qiuniang crossed two streets and came to her brother's house, where her brother was carving a ghost statue for someone else.

Most people in Wuze County raise little ghosts and keep them in the darkest place in their homes. They usually ask someone to carve wooden or stone statues, or burn pottery figurines and paint them.

She told her brother about Zhao Fuyun's plan to carve a statue of Chijun. Her brother only thought about it for a while and then agreed.

You Qiuniang was a little surprised. She said, "Master said that those of us who make ghost statues must wear amulets. Otherwise, we will be haunted by ghosts over time. And we can't raise ghosts to protect ourselves, because if the ghosts we raise find out that the ghost statues we carved have been given to others, they will get angry and rebel. So we can't raise them ourselves."

As for raising poisonous insects for protection, his master did not recommend it very much. Poisonous insects are ferocious and need to be raised with caution, so his master told him that he must obtain a protective amulet.

Moreover, in the past few days, he had been feeling a heaviness in his body, and he was already wondering if he was possessed by something. He was already planning to go to the You Family Ancestral Hall tomorrow to ask the elders of the clan to cast a spell to exorcise the evil spirit.

After he told this to his sister, his sister You Qiuniang asked him to go to the instructor tonight, so as to avoid being late tomorrow and being beaten to it by others.

So he went home, got a carving knife and put it on his waist, first sent his sister home, and then went to Zhao Fuyun himself.

Nowadays, there are very few people living in the county who don’t know where Zhao Fuyun lives.

It was already getting dark, and every household had lit their lights. He noticed that the light in the instructor's room was particularly bright. For some reason, he felt a sense of security when he saw the light in the instructor's room.

Unlike other people's houses, even though he grew up in Wu Ze County, he would still feel creepy when he saw the dark places in other people's homes where the lights couldn't reach.

Wuze County has very strict rules for door-to-door visits. People usually just shout outside the door, and rarely knock on the door proactively.

So he didn't knock on the door, but shouted "Teacher" directly at the door. He thought that there might be no response for a while, after all, he didn't shout very loudly, but a gentle voice immediately came from inside.

"Please come in!"

He felt a sense of freshness when he heard these two words, because few people said the word "please" in Wuze County.

He pushed the door open carefully, and what came into his sight was a small courtyard that was not spacious but very tidy. There was no blood all over the ground as he had imagined.

Then he saw clearly that there was a person sitting on a recliner in the middle of the yard.

This person was looking at the starry sky, and his gaze was not interrupted by my arrival.

What made him feel magical was that the light from the fire in the house was clearly only shining on the steps, but it seemed to be stretched by an invisible force and pulled to his side, forming a candle-like light that flowed around him.

It vaguely looked like a fire creature, helping him catch mosquitoes that wanted to attack its owner.

"I am You Dongshi, the humble servant, and I am here to pay my respects to the Master Instructor." You Dongshi was about to kneel down before he finished speaking. However, when he was halfway down, a bright light came into his eyes. He felt like he was kneeling on a ball of air. He lowered his head and saw a faint red light under his knees.

This strong force lifted him up, forcing him to stand up.

When I looked up again, I saw that the person lying on the chair had sat up.

For the first time he saw the Envoy in person.

These days, everyone has been secretly discussing the edict. Although many people have seen it, many more people have not.

At this moment, he finally realized that the sentence "The instructor doesn't look like a vicious person at all" was actually true.

Not only did he not look fierce, he felt that the teacher's face looked extremely gentle, as if he was harmless to humans and animals. He even felt that the teacher's face was somewhat feminine.

"How could such a person be a murderer?" Such a thought flashed through You Dongshi's mind.

"Your name is You Dongshi? Who are you related to You Lingpo and You Shipo?" Zhao Fuyun asked curiously. He just wanted to know whether people with the same surname in Wuze County were related.

"Lingpo and Shiva are both elders of the Yu clan, but Lingpo and Shiva have been arguing since they were young, so Shiva has been living in the reeds by the Wu River outside the city."

As soon as Zhao Fuyun asked a question, he explained the relationship between You Lingpo and You Shiva clearly.

"Can you carve stone?" Zhao Fuyun asked again.

"Yes, I have been learning the art of stone carving from my master since I was young, and I just graduated this year." You Dongshi said a little nervously. He didn't want to say this because he just graduated and was afraid that the other party would not want him.

"Well! It doesn't matter. Tomorrow morning, come to the Chijun Temple on the hillside by the river. Do you know him?" Zhao Fuyun asked.

"Yes, I know him! Well, I'll go there tomorrow..." You Dongshi turned around after saying this, but hesitated for a moment and asked, "Master Instructor, I heard that you will give me a Red Lord Amulet, right? I, I, that..."

He looked into Zhao Fuyun's eyes, stuttering when he spoke the latter part, but couldn't say what he wanted to say.

"Everyone will be given a Chijun talisman, but you are now surrounded by evil energy, so go in and pay homage to Chijun!" Zhao Fuyun said.

You Dongshi was stunned. It was the first time for him to worship a god other than Wu Ze, but he did not have any special resistance because his master had said that everyone in the Great Zhou Kingdom worshipped Chi Jun.

So he walked into the house and saw a red date wood statue placed in the middle of a cluster of lamps. The statue was much higher than the lamps, and the light from the lamps seemed to converge on the statue, making it look as if it was sitting in a flaming glow.

He felt a warmth, not sure if it was because there were too many lights in the room or something else, he took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, gathered all the distracting thoughts in his mind, then knelt on the ground sincerely and bowed three times. While bowing, he felt as if there was a flame burning at the back of his head.

After worshipping, I walked out. When the night wind blew, I didn’t feel cold at all. The heaviness in my body disappeared.

He then realized that the Master Instructor had seen through his unhappiness, so he bowed again and said, "Thank you, Master Instructor, for exorcising the evil spirit from me."

"It's because Chi Jun has a fiery nature and can't live in the same room with evil. If you enter the room and respect Chi Jun sincerely, Chi Jun will protect you. You don't need to thank me." Zhao Fuyun said.

But You Dongshi just felt that it must be the teacher who helped him, because in his understanding, those ghosts and gods were controlled by humans.

However, what Zhao Fuyun said was indeed correct. The place where Chijun was was hard to tolerate evil spirits. He worshipped the statue of Chijun sincerely in the house and emptied his mind. It was equivalent to visualizing Chijun shallowly, so the evil spirits in his body were dispelled by Chijun's divine power.

You Dongshi went back and found Zhao Fuyun lying there, with a mysterious red light flying around him like dark red butterflies.

He absorbed Yin Dew through Xuan Guang and harmonized Yin and Yang. When his Xuan Guang was no longer dark red, it meant that the balance of Yin and Yang had been restored. This process also brought him some realization and growth.

However, in the future, when the true evil of calamity fire is combined with the mysterious light and formed into talismans, it will form another way of practice.

You Dongshi got up early the next morning and after breakfast, he immediately went to the Chijun Temple outside the city. Then he found that his master Tong Anping was also there.

Surprised, he quickly stepped forward to greet him.

His master was not surprised to see him and said, "I thought you would come. If you don't come, then you didn't listen to me. You need a Red King amulet to protect yourself. Later, my master and I will help the teacher to carve the Red King into a majestic and awe-inspiring one so that the teacher can also see our craftsmanship."

Tong Anping's family inherited the skill of stone carving, but by his generation, his descendants had died out. There is a saying that he carved too many statues of ghosts, which prevented the ghosts from reincarnating, so he was hated by the ghosts, causing the Tong family to gradually become extinct.

In his generation, he actually had only one daughter, as all the other boys died young. When others advised him to raise the dead children as ghosts, he refused. When some people wanted to buy his children's bodies to raise ghosts, he scolded them.

When he came here this time, he had a thought deep in his heart. He saw from afar that night that there was fire coming out of the teacher's courtyard. The divine power burned his eyes at the time, but afterwards, he felt comfortable.

Deep down in his heart, he was actually wondering if he had been cursed and wanted to use Chi Jun's divine flame to cleanse himself.

After hearing what his master said, You Dongshi's originally uneasy heart was slightly relieved, and he could only nod yes repeatedly. After all, he didn't have much confidence in whether he could carve such a large stone statue. Now that his master was around, he naturally felt more at ease.

"Has the instructor arrived?" You Dongshi asked.

"There!" Tong Anping pointed in a direction with his mouth. He saw a cluster of bushes under the tree in front of the Chijun Temple, which was the edge of the hillside. There was a man standing next to it, looking at the foggy river.

Zhao Fuyun looked at the Wuhe River, which was still covered with thick fog even in the sunshine.

And in the fog, there was a boat floating there.

He also saw that many fishermen on the shore did not go into the water, but tied their boats to the shore.

Apparently, they also discovered the strange boat in the river.

And what Zhao Fuyun saw with his own eyes was that there was a woman sitting in the cabin of the boat, looking at the people on the shore.

The resentful souls in the water will turn into ghosts, also known as nightmare ghosts. Some nightmare ghosts will combine with aquatic creatures and transform into monsters.

The things on the boat seemed to be waiting for the people on the shore to get off the river, but the people on the shore fished on this river all year round and also raised little ghosts and poisons to protect themselves. They could also sense the evil intentions on the boat and dared not get off the boat.

Zhao Fuyun looked for a while, then stopped, turned around and came to the Chijun Temple, bringing the master and disciple pair to the statue.

He told the master and disciple his requirements, emphasizing that one of the hands on the Chijun statue needed to be folded between the waist and chest so as to be able to hold up a lamp.

After thinking for a while, Tong Anping said, "Master Instructor, if that's the case, this statue may not be easy to modify. The material of this stone statue is not suitable for carving delicate things, and it is not suitable for modification. I am willing to select stones for you and recarve it to ensure that it meets your needs."

Zhao Fuyun thought about it and agreed. Since the other party said it was not suitable, he would just make a new one.

So, the master and disciple measured the size and height in the temple, while he returned to his residence and began to practice.

First, you have to weave the mysterious light and condense the magic, like weaving a rope, time and time again, from loose to condensed and solid. Slowly, the woven magic power will have a feeling that it will no longer disperse, which means that you have achieved a small success. At this time, the invisible magic power will emit mysterious light in the darkness.

Among them, one of the signs of Xuan Guang Dacheng is that when it is swung, it makes a sound like a whip, crackling like thunder.

What Zhao Fuyun is practicing now is the Yin-Yang Eighteen Plates, which is composed of two thoughts, one positive and one negative, twisting his magic power against each other, just like twisting clothes, twisting from different angles. Only by practicing this more can he make his Xuan Guang clear and there will be no blind spots that his Xuan Guang cannot reach.

This is just like the martial arts routines you practice when you are training martial arts. Many of the routines you practice feel like they are completely useless, and you will wonder why others would want to hit you along a route that your routine can block.

However, the advantage of routines is that no matter how the opponent changes his striking route, there is always a routine that can hit the opponent, and it may make you more agile.

After mastering the Eighteen Yin-Yang Plateaus, you can then practice a skill - Daluo Waving Sleeves.

(End of this chapter)