Chapter 49

Chapter 49

I regretted the words, but could not retrieve them.

So be it!

I was not indecisive. Master taught me to follow my heart.

With nothing left to conceal, Zeng Jin explained.

“Brother Wu, on opening day, I returned for something and saw you burn paper covered in strange symbols into Brother Chun’s cup.”

“You radiated a strange authority, so I told no one. I thought you merely added ash to disgust him.”

“Then he farted uncontrollably and had diarrhea, while doctors found no cause. I realized you were unusual.”

“Last weekend, Uncle Duan hosted dinner. My father transports fruit for him. Among close friends, Uncle Duan discussed his daughter. Despite his grief, he praised you as a remarkable young hero.”

I understood!

Wang Dachun’s seemingly foolish follower was actually perceptive.

I smiled knowingly. “Is that why Wang Dachun has provoked me less lately? You’ve advised him?”

Despite his arrogance, Wang Dachun truly valued Zeng Jin. Knowing about me, Zeng Jin would naturally warn him.

“Brother Wu is too modest. Had we known you associated with Uncle Duan, no one would’ve dared offend you.”

He smiled ingratiatingly.

We reached Wang Dachun’s home in a government residential compound.

Zeng Jin unlocked the upstairs apartment.

The sight shocked me!

Wang Dachun sat on the sofa, mouth crooked and drooling, eyes bloodred. He stared while growling like a beast.

A large bucket before him was already half empty!

“Brother Chun, I told you to stop drinking!”

Zeng Jin moved forward, but I grabbed him.

“Don’t approach! Something may have taken Wang Dachun through spirit possession.”

An evil thing had clearly attached itself to him, and it seemed fierce.

I instinctively wanted Old Cao, but there was no time!

I had to act alone.

Wang Dachun and I had quarreled, but the Fart Talisman had punished him severely, and he had behaved since. I could not watch a classmate die!

After drinking perhaps a hundred jin, his abdomen finally swelled like a pregnant woman’s.

He reached for the bucket again.

“Stop! No more!”

He froze, slowly raised his head, and grinned with chilling white teeth.

“No water? Fine. Then I’ll drink blood–yours!”

He lunged.

Zeng Jin paled.

I drew an Evil-Suppressing Talisman!

This practical talisman was much harder than the Fart Talisman. After two days’ practice, Master said mine barely worked, so I carried several.

Now one was needed!

“Heaven and earth lend power; this talisman suppresses evil!”

I flicked it with fingers and wrist.

Whoosh!
The weightless paper flew like a stone, astonishing Zeng Jin.

This was one of the basic talisman arts within the esoteric arts: talisman casting, which merged finger and wrist strength with internal qi to launch a talisman.

Smack!

The Evil-Suppressing Talisman struck Wang Dachun’s chest, slowing him.

“Don’t stand there! Help!”

I slapped Zeng Jin and rushed forward.

He recovered his courage. Together we twisted Wang Dachun’s arms behind him and pinned him facedown on the sofa.

“Any rope?”

“I-I don’t know…”

The evil entity remained only partly suppressed by a novice’s talisman. Wang Dachun struggled and tried to bite.

I spotted flexible plastic tubing intended for renovations. Zeng Jin fetched it, and we bound Wang Dachun’s hands and feet.

“Heavens! Brother Chun nearly bit me.”

Zeng Jin collapsed, panting.

I lifted Wang Dachun’s shirt. “Look!”

His water-swollen belly seemed ready to burst.

Worse, a round object moved beneath the taut skin, bulging and receding like a fetus!

Zeng Jin fell again, trembling. “Brother Wu, what entered his belly? Is it making him drink?”

I nodded. “If I’m right, this entity is what we call a Dry Immortal.”

“A Dry Immortal?”

In our dialect, the name jokingly described someone who rarely drank water.

But many dialect words came from ancient stories or realities. A true entity called the Dry Immortal existed in our region.

Contrary to the joke, its dryness created an obsessive thirst. Despite “Immortal” in its name, it was evil.

Through spirit possession, it forced its host to drink until the belly burst.

Medicine naturally found no cause.

“What is it exactly?” Zeng Jin asked more calmly.

“A kind of minor ghost, though some classify it as a mountain spirit. It roams deep southwestern forests and possesses living creatures. Unless something special happens, it rarely enters populated towns.”

I studied the semiconscious Wang Dachun.

“Either he went somewhere forbidden or offended the wrong person. For most people, the first is likely. With his arrogant personality, either is possible.”

A malicious esoteric practitioner could use similar methods against him. I would not, but someone from a folk arcane lineage with almost no formal inheritance might.
My blunt words embarrassed Zeng Jin. Rubbing his hands together, he asked what we should do now.

“Let me think…”

I pinched my chin and sank into thought.

Everything I had diligently learned from Master and Old Cao over the past three months–all the methods, unusual arts, and arcane techniques of the esoteric world–flashed rapidly through my mind.

“I’ve got it!” Inspiration struck me. “A Paper-Effigy Substitution Art Old Cao taught me should work. We need to draw out the Dry Immortal first. Once it’s outside, the rest will be easier.”

I told Zeng Jin to hurry downstairs, find an empty place, pull up some dry grass, burn it into plant ash, and bring all the ash back.

He trusted me completely now. After nodding, he turned and ran downstairs.

This was 1999. Even an upscale residential compound like this one lacked the carefully planned landscaping found in expensive modern developments. Most flowerbeds were simply planted with a random assortment of flowers and grass.

Summer had not completely ended, and there was plenty of dry grass in the flowerbeds. Burn it, and we would have plant ash!

Once Zeng Jin left, only Wang Dachun and I remained in the apartment.

To be honest, I felt somewhat uncertain inside.

Everything I knew about an evil being like the Dry Immortal was theoretical. Heaven alone knew whether some unexpected complication might arise.

More importantly, this was my first confrontation with an evil being in which I had to resolve everything through my own strength!

As the saying went, you could feel uncertain inside, but your face had to remain firm. I could not show fear.

I sat beside Wang Dachun and patted his cheek. “Are you still conscious? Can you talk? What exactly happened?”

The Evil-Suppressing Talisman I had applied earlier should have temporarily suppressed the evil being inside him. He regained consciousness and looked at me with gratitude and terror mingled in his eyes. Struggling to speak, he stammered, “Wu… I, I…”

The moment he opened his mouth, he vomited a great quantity of clear water, soaking a large patch of the sofa.

I was speechless.

“Mother of mercy! Good thing I wasn’t standing any closer, or he would have covered me in it.”

It appeared I had to deal with the Dry Immortal inside him before I could ask what had happened.

While waiting for Zeng Jin to return with the plant ash, I took several other things I would need from my schoolbag.

Spirit money, a calligraphy brush, cinnabar, scissors… The apartment probably had ink and white liquor. As for bamboo… I strolled directly into Wang Dachun’s father’s study and found a fine calligraphy brush.

The handle of a calligraphy brush was naturally made from bamboo.

It looked expensive, but I refused to believe Wang Dachun’s father would begrudge us a fine brush if it saved his son.

I mixed ink and cinnabar on a plate, added a drop of my own blood, dipped my brush into the mixture, and carefully drew a simple human outline on a sheet of spirit money.

The figure had to be completed in one continuous motion. I could neither pause nor take another breath midway, so it was no easy task. Of course, it was still much easier than drawing a talisman.

Many methods in the esoteric arts shared the same underlying principles. Master one, and the others became easier to understand.

Once the paper figure was drawn, I used the scissors to cut along the dark red lines. Then I split the handle of Wang Dachun’s father’s brush with a knife, producing thin strips of bamboo.

I used the bamboo strips to build a skeleton of limbs behind the paper figure, making it look even more lifelike.

Then I opened a bottle of white liquor. The label seemed to say Moutai, though I knew little about alcohol.

In any case, I took a large mouthful and sprayed it all over the little bamboo-framed paper figure.

By the time I finished, I was tired–mainly mentally exhausted.

Now I only needed Zeng Jin’s plant ash!

I glanced at Wang Dachun on the sofa. His belly continued rising and falling, and the thing inside seemed to be growing more agitated. I began to worry. If Zeng Jin did not hurry back, what if the Dry Immortal burst through his belly?

With his intestines torn and abdomen ruptured, Wang Dachun would certainly die on the spot.

Fortunately, Zeng Jin returned less than a minute later.

He carried a battered porcelain basin filled with plant ash. Since he had only just burned it, the ash still smelled of smoke and fire.

“Brother Wu, I’m back!”

“Good. Put the plant ash in front of Wang Dachun. In a moment, do exactly as I tell you. Whether we can save him depends on the two of us.”

My expression turned solemn as I walked to the sofa.

Once again, I drew a distinctively shaped piece of spirit money from my pocket–Nine-Bend spirit money!