Chapter 25

Chapter 25

My parents, standing in a far corner of the courtyard, grew nervous too. Without Master’s permission, however, they did not dare come closer.

Master did not hide anything from me.

“Given your bazi and destiny, and with me personally performing the summoning, quite a few awakened creatures within a hundred li should be willing to follow you. Some might already be hiding nearby, simply waiting for your minds to connect.”

“But incense burning without smoke means we haven’t received a response from any of them. That’s strange.”

What?

I was disappointed too.

From what Master said, not one benevolent mountain spirit or strange creature wanted to become my household familiar.

How pathetic was that?

But then Master muttered to herself, “Could it be… that the offerings aren’t enough?”

She instructed my parents to fetch a pig or a sheep!

Even with my limited knowledge, I knew that was an extraordinarily lavish offering. If we still received no response, the summoning would probably be a lost cause.

We raised pigs at home, so my father went straight to the pen and dragged out the fattest one.

Ignoring the poor creature’s squealing, he raised his cleaver and brought it down, killing it at once. Once the carcass was cleaned and dressed, he placed it before the shrine.

By then, the sun had completely set and the moon had risen!

Master lit the incense and candles again.

This time, the instant the incense caught fire, dense white smoke poured from it.

Almost solid, it refused to disperse, rising in seven slender white columns.

“Close your eyes and think of the kind of household familiar you want.”

At Master’s instruction, I hurriedly shut my eyes and silently repeated my wish over and over.

“A Snake Immortal. I want a Snake Immortal! Please send me a Snake Immortal.”

I had no idea how much time passed before Master told me I could open my eyes.

The seven sticks of incense before the shrine had burned away, and all the spirit money in the brazier had finished burning. The courtyard was thick with the smell of incense, candles, and burned paper.

To my astonishment, the fruit, chicken, duck, and pig on the shrine had all dried and shriveled to varying degrees! The pig’s four legs in particular were almost nothing but skin and bone.

There was no way they could have shriveled so much in such a short time, not even in summer.

Master immediately saw the question on my face. “That means your household familiar has consumed the offerings. The parts that have shriveled most are the ones it likes best.”

“Oh!”

I nodded eagerly. “Then what is my household familiar, Master? Why can’t I see it?”

“It won’t reveal itself to you directly until your own strength reaches a certain level. As for whether it is a Snake Immortal, you’ll find out tonight.”

Master gave me a gentle look.

I grinned and scratched my head, knowing I could not hide my preference from her.

With the summoning complete, Master prepared to go home.

Before leaving, she told my parents not to throw away the offerings. They were to cook the portions that had not dried up and were still edible, then feed them to me.

That would count as my first shared meal with my household familiar and create a spiritual connection between us.

So for a late-night snack, I ate half a roast chicken.

Perhaps my new household familiar had already drained away its essence, because the chicken was rather dry and lean. It nearly stuck in my throat.

…

That night, I had a strange dream.

In the dream, I wandered alone through the depths of the mountains, walking endlessly onward.

Wild grass taller than a man surrounded me, and dense trees blotted out the sky. All kinds of eerie sounds came from the shadows, making my skin crawl.

Pairs of green eyes appeared and vanished among the weeds.

Just as my nerves stretched taut, a sudden flapping of wings came from overhead!

I looked up and saw the shadow of something fly in from nowhere and land on a branch ahead of me.

When I peered at it more closely…

Uh… it was an enormous, fat chicken!

It was round, plump, and fluffy, with feathers of pure white.

In its beak hung a snake as thick as my forearm!

The snake was bigger than the bird’s entire body, yet it dangled lightly from its beak, clearly destined to become its meal.

For some reason, the moment I saw that fat bird, a powerful sense of affection welled up inside me.

I understood at once.

“A-are you my household familiar?”

I asked cautiously.

“Coo, coo, coo!”

The large white bird made a sound somewhere between a pigeon and a chicken, cocking its head as it looked at me. Its tiny eyes shone brightly.

I had no idea how it managed to call with a snake clamped in its beak.
I was delighted!

At the same time, though, I found it very strange.

Master had said that the art she used to summon a household familiar could only call one of the Hu, Bai, Huang, Liu, and Hui families.

In other words, fox, hedgehog, weasel, snake, or rat–one of five choices.

Chicken was not on the list!

No, this round, plump creature could not possibly be a chicken. It had to be some unusual kind of large bird.

I had grown up in the mountains. Back when hunting regulations were loose, there had been bird hunters in the village, and I sometimes went to see what they brought home.

Yet I had never seen a strange white bird as large and fat as this one!

I was still a little disappointed that I had not summoned a Snake Immortal.

“Oh well. I’m lucky to have a household familiar at all! This big bird isn’t bad either.”

My spirits soon rose again.

“Hello. My name is Wu Zhong. Let’s get along from now on.”

“Coo, coo, coo.”

The large, fat white bird called again, set the huge snake down on the branch, and began eating without another glance at me. My vision blurred, and a wave of dizziness washed over me…

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself lying in bed.

Sunlight streamed through the window. Morning had arrived.

“No wonder Master said I’d find out tonight. So the household familiar I summoned first met me in a dream. But what kind of creature is that large white bird? I’ll ask Master later.”

Rubbing my eyes, I got out of bed, picked up The Classic of Dwellings from my bedside, and headed into the courtyard to read.

I had gotten up a little later than the day before, so my mother had already finished feeding the chickens and pigs.

She smiled at me. “You little lazybones. You managed to get up early and study for exactly one day.”

“Hmph! That’s not it. Summoning the household familiar wore me out yesterday.”

I puffed out my cheeks.

My father laughed nearby, then asked if I knew what kind of household familiar I had summoned.

I told him I had dreamed of a large white bird, but I did not know what it was. I would ask Master when I brought her breakfast later.

Ever since I became her disciple, I took food to Master’s house and ate with her unless something unusual came up.

My parents were reluctant to lose that time with me, but they did not object.

Breakfast consisted of steamed meat buns, vegetable buns, some cured pork and sausage, and rice porridge. It was a lavish spread.

Our meals had never been so extravagant when it was only the three of us.

But now that Master would be eating too, my parents always prepared something much better.

Carrying the food box, I walked to the end of the village.

“Master, breakfast is ready!”

“Mm. Come in.”

I went into the main room and laid out breakfast on the dining table.

“Master, last night I dreamed–”

“You remember the proper way to eat, don’t you? No talking at the table.”

Master sat down and picked up her chopsticks.

I immediately fell silent and began eating obediently. I chewed each mouthful thirty-six times until it became a semiliquid paste mixed with saliva, then swallowed it.

After we finished eating, I formed the Infant Seal with both hands and practiced the Hand-Sealing Method just as she had taught me the day before, closing my eyes and resting my mind.

Once again, I felt a faint warm current flow from my abdomen throughout my body. It was wonderfully soothing.

When the entire process was complete, Master and I opened our eyes together. Only then did she smile and ask, “Well? You saw your household familiar last night, didn’t you? What did you dream of?”

I answered honestly that it had been a huge, fat white bird.

“Hm?”

Master’s slender brows drew together, and a puzzled expression appeared on her face.

“A white bird? It wasn’t one of the Fox, Weasel, Hedgehog, Snake, or Rat families?”

“No.”

I shook my head and described the dream in detail. Master listened with an ever-deepening frown.

By the time I finished, her face had become extremely grave. I cautiously asked, “What’s wrong, Master? Did… did something go wrong?”

“Both the method I used to summon a household familiar and the natural likelihood of animals attaining spiritual awareness dictate that familiars are overwhelmingly drawn from those five families. Historical records do mention exceedingly rare exceptions, but never anything like yours. As far as I know, you are the only case of its kind.”

The longer she spoke, the tighter her brows knitted.

I immediately grew nervous.

“What do you mean, only me?”

Even someone as powerful as Master looked this worried. Had something gone terribly wrong?

She stared at me and enunciated each word. “If my guess is correct, the snake in that large white bird’s beak was probably the creature that originally accepted your offerings and intended to become your household familiar. You were asking for a Snake Immortal, weren’t you?”

“Yes!”

I nodded vigorously.
“Then that fat white bird may have intercepted the Snake Immortal you summoned and eaten it as prey. I even suspect it was the reason we received no response during the first summoning. It prevented every other spirit creature from coming, while demanding a higher price for itself–the offering of a large animal.”

She laid out her theory.

I drew a sharp breath.

From the sound of it, that fat white bird had to be extraordinarily powerful!

It had frightened away every spirit creature within a hundred li that might have answered my call. Not only that, it had captured and devoured the very Snake Immortal I had ultimately asked for.

“Isn’t that basically forcing me into a deal?”

I hardly knew whether to laugh or groan.

The large fat white bird had looked quite adorable. Who would have thought it could be so fierce and domineering? It ate the Snake Immortal I wanted, then forced itself on me in the snake’s place.

Apparently, judging by appearances was no safer with birds than with people…

“What do we do now, Master? Even you don’t know what my household familiar is. How am I supposed to cultivate the household-familiar branch of your arcane lineage?”

I looked utterly miserable.

Why had my cultivation path been fraught with obstacles from the very beginning?

“Don’t worry. Tonight, I’ll enter your dream as well and see exactly where this strange white bird came from.”

“What?”

My anxiety immediately turned to delight. “You can enter other people’s dreams, Master? That’s amazing! Will you teach me?”

I grabbed her hand and swung it back and forth as I spoke.

Smack!

She slapped the top of my head. “You’re a boy. Stop acting so spoiled all the time.”

“Oh…”

I clutched my head, looking aggrieved.

Master continued, “Besides, the Dream-Entry Art is extremely dangerous. The dreamer must trust the person entering the dream completely, or both minds will suffer severe trauma. That makes it a taboo art, and many arcane lineages refuse to pass it down. I don’t care about that, of course. When your cultivation reaches the necessary level, I’ll teach it to you.”

“Enough. Concentrate on drawing talismans. I’ve prepared everything for you. Today, you’ll start by learning the most basic brushwork and breathing techniques.”

She pointed to a wooden table nearby. It held brushes, ink, an inkstone, cinnabar, xuan paper, and all the other tools I needed to practice.

Why not actual talisman paper?

As Master explained it, genuine talisman paper contained special power of its own. Since I did not know the first thing about drawing talismans yet, using it would be a criminal waste!

Naturally, I had to learn on ordinary xuan paper first.

Drawing talismans sounded simple, but doing it was genuinely difficult!

First, the brushwork had to be coordinated with my breathing.

The prescribed rhythm was five short breaths and seven long ones–five quick breaths followed by seven deep breaths, repeated in a steady cycle.

My brush hand, however, had to move at an entirely different pace, speeding up and slowing down with the different strokes.

In other words, the most fundamental requirement of talisman arts was dividing my attention in two, separating my breathing from the movements of my hand!

It sounded simple, but was incredibly hard in practice.

At first, I could not do it at all.

My brush kept moving in time with my breath, turning everything into a chaotic mess.

When I finally managed to separate my breathing from my hand speed, I got the pauses between the strokes wrong. Even the most basic practice pattern was complicated, with more than a hundred strokes!

Every stroke was connected to the next. There had to be a pause between them, yet not long enough to break the line.

In short, I spent the entire day practicing the fundamental talismanic pattern and still made a complete mess of it.

I was terribly discouraged, but Master said calmly, “You developed a sense of qi the first time you practiced the Hand-Sealing Method. If you could also copy a complete talismanic pattern on your very first attempt, what would that make you?”

“All right…”

I muttered, “I thought I was some kind of supergenius.”

Smack!

Another blow landed on my head.

“Always reaching beyond your grasp! If I’d known you were this conceited, I never would have accepted you as my disciple.”

“I’m sorry, Master! I promise I’ll keep my feet on the ground from now on.”

Terrified, I hurriedly apologized and did not dare act glib again.

The day soon passed.

Apart from breaks for lunch and dinner, I spent the entire time standing at the desk and practicing my talisman drawing. By the end, my wrist ached so badly that I could barely lift it…

After nightfall, Master prepared to stay at my house.

According to her, the closer two people were to each other, the easier it was to use the Dream-Entry Art.

She intended to enter my dream and find out exactly what that fat white bird was!