Chapter 23
Chapter 23
The beautiful young woman laughed. Her bright eyes studied me.
“What? You’ve only just become my disciple, and already you refuse to recognize your Master?”
What?!
My mind went blank.
My head buzzed, and I even staggered several steps backward as I stared at the beautiful young woman in disbelief…
“Y-you-you… You’re Master?”
My tongue seemed tied. I could barely speak.
Impossible!
How could that be possible?
Absolutely impossible!
I screamed inwardly.
It was not that I doubted Master could be so beautiful. I had never seen her face, but when she was lucid, her voice sounded lovely and the eyes behind her dirty hair shone brightly. She could hardly have been ugly!
And that was certainly Master’s voice.
What I could not believe was how young she looked!
People said Master came to the village when I was four, nearly ten years earlier. If she was truly eighteen or nineteen now, she would have been only eight or nine then.
That was impossible! Her height and voice had been the same when she arrived.
Perhaps Master possessed a technique for preserving youth. She looked eighteen or nineteen, but her true age was far greater.
Yes. That made sense…
After reasoning it through, I calmed down somewhat.
I hurried to the table, arranged our rich dinner, and set out bowls and chopsticks. With a flattering smile, I said, “Master, you simply look so young and beautiful that your disciple failed to recognize you.”
“Smooth-tongued brat!” she scolded with a laugh. “Eat. Afterward, I’ll explain a few things, and then you’ll begin learning the fundamentals from me.”
“Yes, Master.”
I nodded repeatedly.
During the meal, I could not resist stealing glances at her. She really was beautiful.
At the same time, I became even more puzzled. Why had someone so beautiful made herself filthy and hidden her face behind disheveled hair?
Smack!
The end of a chopstick struck my head.
“Concentrate on eating. Confucius said not to speak while eating or sleeping. Eating itself contains a cultivation exercise for people like us.”
“What?” I asked in surprise. “Eating can train me to subdue demons and catch ghosts?”
Smack!
The chopstick struck my head again.
“You haven’t learned to crawl, yet you already want to run. Silence while eating seals your qi. Otherwise, turbid energy enters the body with the food. The character for meal combines the radicals for food and return, reminding you to chew repeatedly–thirty-six times for every bite. Reduce it to liquid, then swallow it with the fluids of your mouth. This is the most basic path of cultivation for health.”
“The foundations of many seemingly mysterious techniques are found in ordinary life. Common people know them too. What matters is persistence and understanding the proper direction. Eat. Follow the method I just described.”
Although Master looked young, her words carried tremendous authority, even more than the homeroom teacher I had feared most in elementary school.
I did not dare speak again. I ate obediently and imitated her, trying to maintain the same pace.
When Master finished, she set down her bowl and chopsticks.
“Copy me.”
She extended both hands, palms upward. Each thumb bent to touch the base of the ring finger, then the ring finger folded back to press lightly over the thumb.
Finally, she brought the tips of the remaining three fingers together before her chest, forming a strange hand seal.
“This is the Hand-Sealing Method. After meals, close your eyes and rest your mind while gathering the vital essence of your entire body. Hold it for fifteen minutes.”
I found it novel and fascinating and hurried to imitate her.
Before long, whether illusion or reality, I felt a faint warmth rise from my stomach and flow throughout my body. I did not dare open my eyes or speak, so I maintained the posture.
Only when Master said I could stop did I release it.
I truly felt refreshed!
“Master, when I used the Hand-Sealing Method just now, I felt a warm current flow from my stomach through my whole body. It was amazing.”
“Oh?”
Surprise crossed her young, beautiful face.
“Little Wu, you truly are talented. You developed a sense of qi on your first attempt. I didn’t feel anything until my seventh time practicing the Hand-Sealing Method.”
“Heh-heh…”
I scratched my head with a foolish grin, delighted by Master’s praise.
“All right. Today is your first day in the school. I should explain the situation regarding the teachings I pass down.”
“Yes, Master!”
I immediately sat straight, back rigid, hands resting properly on my thighs as though attending class.
“Little Wu, the first thing you must remember is that I am the one accepting you as my disciple–and I do so solely in my personal capacity.”
Her statement deeply puzzled me, but I did not dare ask.
Only several years later did I understand what it meant.
She continued.
“I am proficient in four arcane lineages: feng shui, talisman arts, household familiars, and the eclectic arts. Feng shui and talisman arts need little explanation. They are the best-known disciplines within the esoteric arts, and even ordinary people have probably heard of them. Nor are they mine alone.”
“My knowledge of household familiars and the eclectic arts, however, comes from several decades spent traveling across China and learning in different places.”
I muttered silently to myself.
Several decades?
Master must have misspoken and added the word “decades.” Even if she looked young for her age, she could not possibly be that old!
Of course, I was not stupid. Whether she had misspoken or not, interrupting would only earn me another smack on the head.
“I’ve already told you about household familiars: Hu, Bai, Huang, Liu, and Hui, the Five Immortals of the Northeast. Now that you’ve become my disciple, I have no reason to conceal anything. The translucent serpent you saw swallow the old ghost in the graveyard is my household familiar, a Snake Immortal among the Five Immortals of the Northeast. I call her Miss Chang. Come out and meet my disciple.”
Master smiled and waved. Thin white mist suddenly filled the room.
Within that haze, an enormous translucent serpent head emerged, its forked tongue flickering.
An ordinary person might have wet themselves!
Fortunately, I had seen her before. She was Master’s household familiar and had saved my life!
Master stroked the enormous serpent head affectionately, sorrow entering her voice. “Miss Chang lost her physical body in an accident. She can exist only as a soul now, and every intervention costs her dearly. If the situation hadn’t been urgent, I would never have asked her to devour that ghost to save you.”
Grateful, I cupped my hands toward the serpent.
“Thank you for saving my life, Sister Chang!”
She gently swayed her enormous head, her gaze warm and tender.
Ordinarily, I neither feared nor liked snakes.
But Miss Chang inspired immediate affection. Her presence made me feel extremely comfortable.
Pop!
She dissolved into mist and vanished. The room returned to normal.
“Miss Chang needs a great deal of rest. I rarely call her out unless the situation is critical. But today is your initiation, so naturally you had to meet.”
Master continued.
“The fourth discipline, aside from feng shui, talisman arts, and household familiars, is the eclectic arts. No such arcane lineage originally existed. I simply have broad interests and want to learn and understand everything. So I studied many miscellaneous subjects. In most, I possess only superficial knowledge rather than true mastery. I grouped them together under the name ‘eclectic arts.'”
“They include piloting boats, corpse retrieval, paper-effigy craft, receiving yin spirits, boxing, old-school conjuring, yin speech, and more… I don’t excel at them, but I can use them well enough. You may learn them too. How far you advance will depend on you.”
I nodded, only half understanding.
Master truly was incredible. She knew so many things, and every one sounded powerful!