Ghost Pot - Chapter 9
“You’re doing this wrong. You should cut all the hair off the Taoist priest’s buttocks first…” Shen Caihua walked forward with faltering steps and said. He had witnessed how Han Sheng’s father handled pregnant women with difficult labors since he was a child at the Nanshan Village Hospital.
"No need to shave..." The Taoist priest waved his hand, enduring the pain.
Ignoring the Taoist priest's objections, one of the guardians held him down while the other, wielding scissors, snipped away all the pubic hair between his legs.
"That's fine," Shen Caihua nodded in satisfaction, then ordered, "Bring hot water to wash the new mother's bottom."
"Old monk! Quickly give me the things!" Master Jia shouted in exasperation.
Elder Anxi bent down, took the grayish-white bone bottle from his neck, and solemnly held it in his hand. The bone bottle was more than twice the size of Elder Peng's and its color was much cleaner. Similarly, a swastika symbol was also engraved on the bone bottle.
"Master Jia, I keep my word. I'm entrusting the Bon religion's 'Returning Soul Water' to you, but I hope you will use it for good deeds and never harm anyone," Elder Anxi instructed.
"Don't worry, old monk, I'm taking this to do a great good deed," Master Jia said, taking the bone bottle and holding it in his hand. He then said loudly, "You all go outside the main hall. I need to give birth on my own."
The two guardians put down the basin of hot water and the scissors, looked at each other, and then turned their gazes toward Elder Anxi.
“Alright, this old monk knows that Master Jia’s magical powers are profound. We will wait outside the hall and await the birth of the sacred fetus.” With that, Elder Anxi waved his hand and left the main hall with Elder Peng and the two protectors, arriving outside the temple gate.
At this moment, the sky was dark, thunder and lightning raged, and heavy rain poured down.
Master Jia glanced at Shen Caihua and Dudu, reached out and touched his bare crotch, gave a bitter smile, and said, "Alas, I never expected that giving birth to a spiritual fetus would be so painful, otherwise I would have already thought of another way... You two should go out too."
At this moment, Shen Caihua suddenly felt a surge of chivalrous spirit, a desire to help those in distress and save the world. He firmly shook his head and said without further ado, "Grandpa Daoist, you are a blind pregnant woman. It's inconvenient for you to give birth alone. Let me deliver the baby."
Master Jia thought to himself, "He's just an ignorant country kid anyway, so I might as well let him be." So he said, "Alright, you all step aside, I'm going to start gathering my qi."
Shen Caihua rolled up his sleeves, holding scissors in his hand. His gaze fell on the Taoist priest's dark buttocks, but for a moment he was confused. Where was the birth canal? Where was the Taoist priest's birth canal?
“There’s no birth canal…it’s probably just pooping,” Dudu analyzed, blinking her eyes.
Master Jia ignored their nonsense, first placing his palms on either side of his hips, palms facing up, then slowly raising them to his chest and crossing them, placing his right hand on top of his left, before taking a long, deep breath...
Chapter 12, Section 4
Master Jia Shiming's Quanzhen Xuanqi Gong includes a technique called "Nine Forms of Dantian." At this moment, his true qi is circulating in the Ren meridian, one of the eight extraordinary meridians. It originates at the perineum, ascends deep into the pubic area, runs along the abdomen past the Guanyuan acupoint to the throat and then to the chin, down the face and into the eyes. It is the "sea of yin meridians" in the human body, where all the yin meridians of the body converge. He first embraces the dantian, then rotates, shakes, manipulates, strikes, folds, rubs, and lifts the dantian. His body is filled with true qi, and even the dry grass leaves beside him are blown up by the yin wind and spun in mid-air.
Shen Caihua took two steps back, his eyes fixed on the Taoist priest's bulging abdomen. The small navel had gradually swelled, turning pink inside. A moment later, a small fleshy hole appeared in the center of the round navel, then the opening grew larger and larger, finally resembling the rim of a bowl. Inside, it was pitch black, and the internal organs were nowhere to be seen…
Shen Caihua and Dudu stared at each other, unable to utter a sound.
At that very moment, the Taoist priest unleashed the final move of the "Nine Forms of Dantian," called "Spraying from Dantian." With a shrill scream, he pushed his hands forward with both hands, and with a "pop," a tiny black shadow, no bigger than an inch, was squeezed out of the fleshy opening in his navel...
"Wah..." With the cry of a newborn, the spirit child was born.
The spirit fetus landed on the haystack, its body soaking wet. A flash of lightning streaked across the twilight sky, instantly illuminating the hall as if it were daytime. Chen Cai could clearly see that the spirit fetus was like a little person, with all its limbs intact, a rosy complexion, and a plump, adorable appearance.
He dropped the scissors, quickly picked up the spirit fetus, and touched the warm jade, but it was still sticky. So he carefully placed the baby in a basin of warm water and gently washed away the dirt on its body.
The crowd waiting outside the main hall heard the baby's first cry and rushed in. Elder Peng lit candles, and everyone gathered around the basin, gazing in amazement at the strange little person.
In the candlelight, the spirit fetus opened a pair of bright white eyes, as if covered by a white film. Upon closer inspection, the pupils appeared to be glass flowers, revealing that it was blind, congenitally blind.
"He's disabled!" Elder Peng glanced disappointedly at Master Jia, who was huddled on the haystack, wearing sunglasses and looking exhausted, and said, "It must be hereditary."
"Take a look at me quickly..." Master Jia pleaded weakly.
Shen Caihua carefully cupped the spirit fetus in his palms and handed it to Master Jia.
Master Jia reached out and removed his sunglasses, revealing a layer of white covering his eyes. But then his eyes darted around, revealing dark pupils with an incredibly sharp gaze.
Elder Anxi and the others were secretly astonished. It turned out that this Taoist priest Jia was not blind at all, but had been pretending to be blind...
Master Jia took the spirit fetus, and his sharp gaze softened instantly. A strong maternal love welled up within him, and he stretched out his lips and gently kissed the spirit fetus's forehead.
Dudu squeezed forward, tilted her head and glanced at Lingtai, noticing a small penis growing between his legs, and muttered to herself, "It's... a man."
Shen Caihua stroked the smooth little body of Lingtai with great affection and said, "Grandpa Daoist, can I ask it questions now?"
Master Jia nodded and replied, "Of course, the birth of a spiritual fetus can be predicted remotely."
Shen Cai was overjoyed. He quickly cleared his throat and asked nervously in a low voice, "Ling Tai, Ling Tai, do you know where Mo Mo is?"
The spirit fetus's white eyes rolled around, and suddenly it started to laugh hilariously with its mouth and eyes crooked, drool dripping from the corners of its mouth.
"Oh no! He's an idiot..." Elder Peng exclaimed.
Chapter Thirteen, Part 1
Elder Anxi was extremely shocked. He quickly pushed through the crowd, grabbed the spirit fetus, and examined it closely. Sure enough, the little creature had a silly appearance and was still grinning foolishly to itself.
"Alas, Heaven has not helped this old monk..." Elder Anxi sighed in grief and indignation as he looked up at the sky.
Elder Peng gazed at Master Jia's abdomen, where the fleshy hole in his navel was slowly shrinking back to its original shape. He suddenly realized, "This humble monk finally understands. Last night, Master Jia's devouring of Ling Ge was actually a smokescreen. You then went to the toilet and actually used your internal energy to stuff Ling Ge into your navel. No wonder this humble monk couldn't understand how a person's stomach and intestines, which are the digestive tract and connected to the anus, could nurture a spiritual fetus. Furthermore, unless one defecates, childbirth can only be done via cesarean section."
"Haha, Elder Peng is indeed shrewd. This is a unique secret technique of the Quanzhen Sect. In the world today, I am afraid only I know it." Seeing that his abdomen had returned to normal, Master Jia pulled up his pants and jumped up.
Shen Caihua stood there in a daze. Everything was over. He had thought that the spirit fetus could tell him where Momo was, but it turned out to be a silly fool who only knew how to laugh.
"What about Brother Ling and Sister Ling?" he asked the Taoist priest, clinging to his last glimmer of hope.
"The two ghosts, Maple and Willow? They have long been transformed into spiritual essence by my profound qi cultivation and nurtured into a spiritual embryo," Master Jia said, holding Elder Anxi's bone bottle in his hand. He bowed to the crowd and said, "Old monk, the deal we agreed on has been completed. I will take my leave."
Elder Anxi seemed not to hear, still staring blankly at the spiritual embryo in his hands, two lines of old tears slowly flowing down his face.
"Wait! Master Jia, the spirit fetus you gave birth to is useless and doesn't count. Give me back the magic bottle I taught you!" The two guardians angrily surrounded the master on both sides.
"Hmph, the agreement between this humble Taoist and the old monk is that the birth of a spiritual fetus will suffice, and I did not say that it would be invalid if the fetus is intellectually deficient. Do you intend to go back on your word now?" Master Jia said with a sneer, his eyes gleaming.
"Alright," Elder Anxi waved his hand and said to Daoist Jia, "Daoist Jia is right. Even if the spirit child born is a fool, it is the will of Heaven. I will not make things difficult for you. Daoist Jia may leave on his own. There is a small boat on the shore at the foot of the mountain. We will meet again."
"Farewell." Master Jia turned around, laughed heartily, and strode away into the rain.
Chen Caihua sighed and asked Dudu, "What should we do from now on?"
"Child, it's getting late, and there's a fierce storm. I'll escort you off the island tomorrow," Elder Peng said affectionately to Caihua.
The Dharma protector stepped forward and asked, "Master, what should we do with this premature, mentally challenged fetus?"
“It was originally the spirit of a thousand-year-old maple tree. Let it be released back into the forest on the island and let it live or die as it pleases.” Elder Anxi said with a sense of loss, then felt a wave of dizziness and sat down with the help of Elder Peng.
"Yes, Master." The Dharma Protector took the spirit embryo and prepared to leave the hall and throw it into the woods.
“No,” Shen Caihua cried, “Grandpa Elder, the spirit fetus is so pitiful. Please give it to me. I’m willing to adopt it.” Caihua was just a child, and he found the spirit fetus to be chubby and cute, and he had already taken a liking to it.
Elder Anxi smiled kindly and said, "Alright, since we're destined to meet, I'll give it to you. As a pet, this spirit embryo is still better than those cats and dogs."
Shen Caihua was overjoyed and hurriedly reached out to take the spirit fetus. He carefully wiped the saliva from its mouth with his sleeve and gently stroked its skin, its chubby little hands...
"We'll set off tomorrow, taking that old beggar with us, back to Burma," Elder Anxi instructed.
Elder Peng and the two protectors were overjoyed upon hearing this. They had been away from home for six years and could finally go home.
Chapter Thirteen, Part 2
That night, after having dinner with Elder Peng and the others, Shen Caihua slept in a corner of the main hall covered with dry grass. He carefully cradled the spirit fetus in his hands. Although he was blind and mentally challenged, he was still like a little person, able to cry and laugh, and was very endearing.
"Does it nurse?" Shen Caihua asked Dudu, lying on the haystack and looking at the spirit fetus in his hand.
Dudu thought for a moment and replied, "Since it is the child of the maple tree spirit, it should... it should only drink water and not eat anything."
"Then let's get it some water to drink." Shen Caihua jumped up and walked towards the outside of the hall, with Dudu quickly following behind.
After the storm, a crack appeared in the cloud-shrouded sky, and cool moonlight slanted down. The top of Xieshan Mountain was quiet, save for the chirping of insects in the grass, sometimes loud, sometimes soft. The surface of Poyang Lake shimmered, a gentle breeze carried a faint fragrance into the night air—the alluring scent of the small yellow flowers of the *Gelsemium elegans*.
Chen Cai strolled along the winding mountain path toward the lake, while Dudu soared overhead. The moonlight was like water, and a thin layer of mist floated on the lake surrounding Xieshan Mountain, making it look like a fairy island.
The lake water wasn't very cold; it felt a little warm, probably because it had just rained. Shen Cai grabbed the spirit fetus's body and submerged its head in the water. "Glug glug..." Sure enough, a few bubbles appeared.
"Alright, you...you'll choke, you'll choke it to death!" Dudu flapped its wings and called out reproachfully.
Shen Cai lifted the spirit fetus and carefully observed it by the moonlight. He found that the little person's belly had swelled up slightly. Hmm, it seemed to have drunk its fill.
The spirit fetus stared blankly at the night sky with its bright eyes, its expression desolate, giving people a sense of sorrow. Chen Cai sighed softly and said with a sense of loss, "Brother Ling and Sister Ling are dead, but their child is disabled. In this world, the parents didn't even get to see their child's face. It's really pitiful."
Dudu gently landed beside its little master, quietly watching him without disturbing him.
In Shen Caihua's memory, the image of her biological father, Zhu Biao, had long faded. Only the image of her mother, the Yin Corpse Shen Caihua, remained deeply imprinted in her mind. That unfortunate woman had never seen her son before she died. After her wrongful death, her Yin energy lingered and she transformed into a Yin Corpse to protect her child. Unfortunately, she was mistakenly killed by the corpse clothes on Han Sheng's body and turned into a skeleton.
Two tears drifted down from Caihua's eyes, causing small ripples on the still water.
He thought of the Sucker. Six years had passed since they parted. He wondered if its wounds had healed. If they met again, would it still recognize him? Although the Sucker couldn't understand human speech, it could understand his... spell. What spell was that?
“Chuu chuu he om hong…” These few notes suddenly popped out of Shen Caihua’s mouth, startling himself.
Little Caihua was unaware that the "Eighteen Forms of Zhuyou" had returned to his body. His true energy was merging with the relic in his skull, and his power was gradually recovering. However, the bloodthirsty savagery he had lost for many years, the ghost infant, had also returned...
Chapter Thirteen, Part 3
“I want to suck the blood…” Shen Caihua said quietly.
"Okay, let's go find it!" Dudu said happily. It had already gotten tired of playing around Nanshan Village.
Just then, a kind voice came from behind: "Child, what brings you here so late at night?"
Under the moonlight, Elder Anxi stood on the stone steps by the shore, smiling as he watched him and Dudu.
“I’m feeding the spirit fetus water,” Shen Caihua replied.
Elder Anxi nodded and said, "Child, I heard from Elder Peng that you are an orphan?"
Shen Caihua blushed slightly. Han Sheng and Lan'er treated him very well, like their own children. It was really unfair to call him an orphan.
Seeing that the child remained silent, Elder Anxi assumed it had stirred up his painful memories and quickly comforted him, "Child, don't be sad. Would you like to come back to Burma with me?"
"Talent...talent, you can find a sucker in Myanmar!" Dudu said excitedly.
Elder Anxi said in surprise, "Eh, child, isn't your name Xiaoxiao?"
"That...that's a nickname," Dudu quickly interjected to cover it up.
“Oh,” Elder Anxi said with relief, “Little one, I also took in a child decades ago. He was just as clever and bright, but he didn’t have the kind and compassionate heart you have. Now I am an old man and I like to be with children. Little one, would you like to come with me?”
“I…” Shen Caihua hesitated before saying, “I still need to find Mo Mo.”
“Little one, the world is so vast, how could a child like you possibly find it? When we return, I can have the disciples of the Bon religion help us search, how about that?” Elder Anxi looked at Shen Caihua with gentle eyes.
"Can I leave at any time?" Shen Caihua asked cautiously. The world of martial arts is dangerous, and one must always have a way out.
“Of course,” Elder Anxi chuckled, “You can leave at any time, whether you say goodbye or not is fine.”