The ultimate master in the city

The group of people looked distressed and pleaded with the middle-aged woman, "Third Aunt, please think of something else! The child is dying, where can we find a miracle worker in the middle of the night?"

The middle-aged woman sighed and said in a low voice, "My skills are not what they seem. I can ask ghosts, but I can't summon or exorcise them."

While the people in the courtyard were talking, Zhou Fengchen whispered to Monk Yuanzhi, "What does 'asking about rice' mean?"

Monk Yuanzhi chuckled, "This is hilarious! This 'asking the rice' is a folk folk art, similar to spirit writing. It's one of the Taoist methods of summoning spirits. It means that the 'asking the rice' woman uses a bowl of coarse rice, bleeds it to dye it, and asks the spirit of the deceased relative of the person who asked the rice to possess her body so that she can talk to her family and ask them some questions."

Zhou Fengchen chuckled upon hearing this, saying, "Isn't that ridiculous? We're not on the same wavelength. How could the evil spirits possessing a girl possibly listen to her?"

"So," said Monk Yuanzhi, "that nun must be quite frustrated; it's our turn to step in."

Suddenly, a commotion broke out in the courtyard. The woman who had asked the question, Auntie San, cursed loudly, "Are you crazy?! I told you I can't do it, and you still bother me."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Fengchen and Monk Yuanzhi exchanged bewildered glances, realizing that this old woman had quite a temper.

"Third Aunt!" a middle-aged woman cried out in the courtyard, tears streaming down her face. "We don't know anything about this! Can you think of a way to save the child's life?"

"It can't be saved, it can't be saved!" Granny Wenmi shook her head and turned to leave.

"Go!" Monk Yuanzhi called out, flicked his robe, stood before the gate, clasped his hands together, and said, "Amitabha!"

Zhou Fengchen straightened his Taoist robe and stood solemnly next to Monk Yuanzhi, saying, "Amitabha!"

The people in the courtyard turned to look, and were immediately taken aback when they saw that it was a monk and a Taoist priest.

"This humble monk, Yuanzhi, is a wandering monk. My friend, the Taoist priest Yuancong from Maoshan, and I were passing through this place when we saw dark clouds hanging over the house. We feared that there were evil spirits causing trouble, so we came to help!" Monk Yuanzhi looked like a compassionate and enlightened high monk, which was quite intimidating.

Zhou Fengchen's expression softened as he said, "Amitabha! This humble Taoist is Yuan Cong from Maoshan!"

The people in the courtyard swarmed around, hurriedly opening the gate. They were overjoyed, clamoring, "Master, venerable monk, please come in! Please come in!"

"Quickly, quickly, pour the tea!"

"Where are the cigarettes? Go get some?"

"It's alright, it's alright." Zhou Fengchen and Monk Yuanzhi, with smug smiles on their faces, strolled leisurely into the courtyard.

The old woman's expression changed drastically for some reason. She lowered her head and said, "Greetings, Master, Taoist Priest."

He glanced at the room as he spoke, then hurriedly left the courtyard and ran away.

"Paying respects?" Zhou Fengchen watched the departing figure of Granny Wenmi and couldn't help but feel strange. This old woman's words were so strange. Why did she run away?

Monk Yuanzhi was already being ushered into the house by a group of people. A woman was bowing and scraping as she waited for him and quickly followed him inside.

The villa's lobby was brightly lit, and a group of people were cautiously smiling, some pouring tea and others offering cigarettes.

Neither Zhou Fengchen nor Monk Yuanzhi smoked; they simply sat on the sofa and sipped their tea.

Among the group, a middle-aged man who appeared to be the head of the household asked with a wry smile, "Do the Taoist priest and the master know what has happened to my family?"

Does this mean you're not entirely at ease? Zhou Fengchen looked around but didn't see the two girls from that morning. He also faintly heard crying coming from a room on the second floor. He had a hunch and said bluntly, "Your daughter must be in a lot of pain right now, right? If I'm not mistaken, she's possessed by a ghost."

"Yes! That's exactly it!" The group exclaimed excitedly. The middle-aged man pleaded pitifully, "What should we do?"

Monk Yuanzhi, speaking in a sharp tone, said, "Let us take a look first."

"Good, good, good!" The middle-aged man led the way, and the group of people rushed up to the second floor.

As soon as the door opened, the girl's painful screams came out. Zhou Fengchen and Monk Yuanzhi looked inside and saw that the two girls they had met that morning were there. The short-haired girl was lying on the bed, her face was pale, she was foaming at the mouth, and she was trembling incessantly, as if she had epilepsy. The long-haired girl and several women were holding her down, tears streaming down their faces.

The middle-aged man next to him, whose tears had just dried, suddenly had tears welling up in his eyes again. "Masters, what should we do? She's my only daughter."

Monk Yuanzhi and Zhou Fengchen exchanged a glance, said "Wait a minute," and walked to the side.

Monk Yuanzhi lowered his voice and said, "This is a bit tricky. If it were a normal possessing ghost asking for things or complaining, I could kill it. But you're absolutely right. This vengeful ghost is trying to substitute one thing for another, and their souls are all entangled together."

Zhou Fengchen nodded, "That's right! If things go wrong, the ghost will be destroyed, the girl will die, and neither of us will get a single penny."

Monk Yuanzhi frowned and said, "I don't have any ritual implements here, so I can't do anything about it for the time being. What about you?"

Zhou Fengchen thought for a moment, then laughed, "No problem, I'll take care of it."

"Okay!"

After discussing it, the two returned to the middle-aged man who was watching eagerly. Zhou Fengchen pointed to the long-haired girl in the house and said, "Call her out, we'll talk downstairs."

"Okay, okay, okay." The middle-aged man nodded in agreement.

Not long after they came downstairs, the long-haired girl came down with tears streaming down her face. When she saw Zhou Fengchen and Monk Yuanzhi, she was stunned. "What are you two doing here?"

The middle-aged man looked around. "What? You two know each other?"

Before the long-haired girl could speak, Monk Yuanzhi said with a serious expression, "Hmph! We discovered this beast this morning, but it was inconvenient to act in broad daylight, so we've come here specifically to get rid of it!"

"So you're masters!" The long-haired girl's eyes lit up, and she cried out urgently, "Please save my cousin!"

"Don't rush, don't rush," Monk Yuanzhi comforted him, then said to the middle-aged man with a serious expression, "Go and prepare a bottle of Moutai, a pot of braised chicken, a pot of braised pork, a pot of tomato and egg soup, and a large pot of rice. We'll need them later."

Zhou Fengchen's stomach rumbled loudly, and he almost laughed out loud. He quickly coughed and said seriously, "Also prepare fifty sheets of yellow paper, one bristle brush, three incense sticks, a box of ten-year-old cinnabar clay, one square mirror, a pile of locust tree branches, a pile of women's cosmetics, and a pile of chicken droppings."

The middle-aged man hurriedly jotted down everything on his phone, then angrily yelled at the young men beside him, "What the hell are you all standing there for? Didn't you hear what the two masters said? Get to work!"

"Uh-huh!" The young men hurriedly ran out the door.

Monk Yuanzhi added, "Make the braised chicken and braised pork extra spicy!"

Zhou Fengchen lowered his head, struggling to suppress his emotions. Then he sighed and asked the long-haired girl beside him, who was looking on expectantly, "Where did you encounter this thing? Tell me about it first."

The long-haired girl's face turned deathly pale, and she stammered, "I... I still feel scared when I think about it now, it was so strange..."

I like the novel "The Strongest Master in the City".