Ghost Pot

Chapter 39

The leader quickly stripped off his clothes, revealing a strong, muscular physique, then jumped onto the bed and tightly embraced the naked, cold Ke'er...

"The corpse is your corpse, without a corpse or breath, what do you seek in the corpse, the ghost pot incantation..." Ke'er murmured softly.

"What did you say?" the commander asked in surprise, then quickly urged, "Ke'er, tell me quickly, where exactly is the 'Ghost Pot'?"

Ke'er smiled alluringly, her hazy almond-shaped eyes fixed on the leader, and slowly said, "My lord, aren't you different from those high-ranking officials and playboys, or those commoners and laborers? Then I'll tell you after we've finished our lovemaking, so the secret won't be leaked..."

The leader sneered inwardly, "What a cunning girl, Ke'er. Don't think that my lifespan is over after we've finished having sex. Humph, just wait and see."

"Of course, I was just curious whether the legend of the 'Ghost Pot' is true. Since you put it that way, I won't stand on ceremony." With that, the commander flipped over and straddled Ke'er...

On this ancient sandalwood bed where Heshen once stayed, the leader engaged in a fierce battle with Guo Ke'er, a female ghost from two hundred years ago. This passionate encounter lasted until the hour of Chou (1-3 AM), when the leader finally let out a loud shout, collapsed, and drifted off into a deep sleep.

"Commander..." someone whispered in his ear.

The commander slowly opened his eyes. Ke'er was lying on top of him, her bright eyes gazing at him affectionately...

“Ke’er…” The commander suddenly realized and quickly pleaded, “Tell me quickly.”

Ke'er giggled and said, "Commander, I'm Xiao Tang."

"Secretary Tang?" The leader felt a chill run down his spine and immediately came to his senses.

Secretary Tang was a female secretary in the leader's office. A year ago, she was assigned to this room in the Jialetang of Prince Gong's Mansion. Her days consisted of nothing but reading, her sole purpose being to lure the two-hundred-year-old female ghost into possessing her on the night of the full moon, so that the leader could extract the long-buried secret from her. For a year, every night at midnight (11 PM - 1 AM), the time when yin energy was at its peak, she hoped the female ghost would possess her. The leader waited twelve months, finally witnessing Guo Ke'er's appearance. Unfortunately, midnight had already passed before he finished with her, and the hour of Chou (1 AM - 3 AM) countered the water element of Zi (11 AM - 1 PM), the yang energy just beginning to rise, and Ke'er's biomagnetic field suddenly dissipated.

Sigh, another full moon night... The leader thought with annoyance, blaming himself for being too engrossed in the strange feeling of the female ghost and neglecting his business. However, he did enjoy a magical sensation that no other man in China could experience, and thinking of this, he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Sir, what's wrong..." Secretary Tang said in a sweet voice.

"What's wrong? Come on, let me compare the differences between humans and ghosts again." The leader leered and flipped over to straddle Secretary Tang...

After the leader finished his tirade and was lost in thought, a very faint sound of footsteps came from the courtyard, sounding like ants had come looking for him.

The doors of Jiale Hall opened, and the leader walked out.

"Commander, why did you leave so suddenly?" Lou Yi asked in surprise.

"Let's go." The commander didn't answer; his face was pale, and his steps were unsteady.

This time, Lou Yi drove at breakneck speed to Changping and returned overnight to the secret base located in the western hills of Beijing.

The guard woke the secretary from his sleep, and he hurriedly went to the inner office with the case files in his hand.

"Sir, we received a top-secret report from Song Diweng of the Archaeological Association tonight." The secretary glanced at the sir with a rather strange look.

"Go on," the commander ordered.

"According to Song Diweng's report, Master Yidu of Fengling Temple in Hedong has died, and the exact location of 'Feng Hou Mausoleum' remains a mystery. Among the descendants of the Guo family is a little girl named Guo Ni, who may possess the 'Hidden Wind Map,' but the little girl's whereabouts are unknown," the secretary reported.

"What's wrong with Song Diweng? People are either dead or missing. It's really disappointing," the leader muttered dissatisfaction.

The secretary cautiously continued the report: "At Fengling Temple, Chairman Song and his group encountered Master Jia..."

"Jia Shiming? This guy is still alive?" the commander asked in surprise.

“Yes, according to Chairman Song, this Jia Shiming has agreed to cooperate with him to find the ‘Hidden Wind Map’,” the secretary explained.

"Master Jia, Jia the Blind, that's a cunning old fox. Tell Old Man Song to be extra careful when cooperating with him," the leader instructed.

“Yes,” the secretary replied, then looked at the file and read aloud, “That corpse, your corpse, no corpse, no breath, what is there to seek in a corpse, ghost pot incantation…”

"What did you say!" The commander jumped up from his chair with a "whoosh".

Chapter 56 of the main text

The secretary paused for a moment, then quickly added, "This was said by Master Fei Ziyun, a disciple of Song Diweng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the abbot of the Daluo Palace in Jiexiu, Shanxi. He discovered a moonstone coffin in Fenglingdu Town, with these four lines of verse inscribed inside. Furthermore, the coffin lid is engraved with the symbol of the 64th hexagram of the I Ching, 'Gu,' and the two characters 'Feng Hou' in oracle bone script..."

"'Feng Hou's Tomb'?" the leader exclaimed excitedly. "That stone coffin must be Feng Hou's coffin!"

The secretary glanced at the leader and carefully explained, "It's an empty coffin, without any remains or burial objects. According to Master Fei's speculation, this tomb was robbed a thousand years ago."

"The Fenghou Mausoleum was robbed?" the leader asked in astonishment.

"Yes, and Master Fei already knows who the tomb raiders are?" the secretary continued to report.

"Who?" the commander asked urgently.

"Guo Pu was a great scholar of the I Ching during the Western Jin Dynasty and the founder of Chinese Feng Shui," the secretary said.

The leader remained silent for a long time before slowly saying, "So, more than a thousand years ago, Guo Pu of the Western Jin Dynasty had already found the 'Tomb of Feng Hou' and taken away Feng Hou's remains and all the burial objects, leaving only an empty coffin. I think Guo Pu must have hidden them away again, which is why there is no record of them in any official or unofficial history. Hmph, Guo Pu, I'm afraid only he would understand their value. What a clever 'golden cicada shedding its shell'!"

"In addition, they also discovered a tomb-raiding gang posing as an archaeological team from Yuncheng, Shanxi, operating in the area. They were spotted near Fengling Temple not long ago," the secretary said.

"Oh, tomb raiders usually operate in secret. Impersonating government officials is quite novel. Has tomb raiding always been rampant in that area?" the leader asked thoughtfully.

"It is said that there were very few cases of tomb raiding in the area in the past, probably due to the accumulation of historical and cultural heritage. Unlike the Zhongdu Luoyang area, where lavish burials have been a common practice since the Eastern Han Dynasty, with a wide variety of burial goods, people in Hedong would only raid ancient tombs if there were something hidden inside," the secretary replied.

The leader nodded and pondered, "That's right. The fake professional archaeological team that appeared at Fenglingdu must also be after the 'Feng Hou Mausoleum.' So, besides us being interested in that place, there are others secretly coveting it, and they've even acted faster than us..."

"That's possible," the secretary agreed.

The leader stood up and paced around the room, his brow furrowed in deep thought... The secretary dared not disturb him, so he waited quietly to the side.

"It seems I must personally make a trip to Hedong. It will be a secret trip, and only you will know about it, understand?" the commander said finally.

"Sir, assassins from Myanmar are on their way. Isn't it too dangerous for you to leave Beijing now?" the secretary reminded him.

"I am ready," the commander replied.

The next morning, the ant drove a very old-looking Beijing 212 jeep, carrying the leader straight to Hedong, Shanxi.

This was a secretly modified Jeep with extremely high horsepower. Lou Yi drove it all the way through Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Pingyao, Hongdong, Linfen, and Yuncheng, arriving at Fenglingdu Town in Ruicheng in the early hours of the next day without stopping.

"Commander, should we find a hotel to rest for a while?" Lou Yi asked, yawning.

"No, it's the first house at the east end of town, an old house with an old locust tree at the entrance," the leader said. In that secret report, Chairman Song had given a detailed description of the "Ghost Embracing Fragrance" old house of Guo Pu's descendants.

The jeep drove through the empty streets of the town and arrived at the east side of the town, where it found a large old locust tree. So it parked the car under the tree.

"Climb over the wall and go in, try not to disturb anyone, and call Song Diweng out to see me. He's a dwarf," the leader instructed.

"Yes," Lou Yi replied, then got out of the car and walked to the side wall of the old house gate. He listened carefully, then pushed off the ground with both feet, leaped over the wall, and landed in the courtyard.

Under the pale moonlight, the main house faced south to the north, flanked by east and west wing rooms. Everyone seemed to be fast asleep, and faint snores could be heard. Which room was Old Man Song sleeping in? The leader didn't want to disturb others, so Lou Yi stood in the courtyard, troubled. After a moment, he decided to start by checking each room from the east wing.

Lou Yi pressed his ear to the door of the east wing, using his "Minor Transporting" technique to regulate his breathing and listen quietly. The breathing inside was thin and short, and there were two people inside—the voices of children. He then turned to the main room and, holding his breath, heard two different snoring sounds coming from inside, one hoarse and the other sinister, lingering and intertwined, seemingly echoing each other, like lotus roots still connected. Occasionally, two crisp farts would burst out… This was a married couple, and they had made love that night, Lou Yi pondered.

There are two rooms in the west wing. In the one on the north side, the breathing sounds are deep and rhythmic, with a sense of cadence, implying the sounds of clashing swords and the rhythm of troops being mustered on the battlefield. Hmm, the person sleeping here must be a soldier.

Lou Yi arrived at the last room, which was originally Ni Zi's room. After she disappeared, Song Diweng and Master Fei stayed here temporarily.

There were two men inside, both snoring. Their breaths were long and smooth, flowing without any hesitation or obstruction. Moreover, their breathing patterns were quite similar, suggesting they might have come from the same school. One of them must be Song Diweng.

Wait, something's not right... Lou Yi suddenly became alert. The snoring inside the room, though varied in pitch and rhythm, seemed too perfect, almost as if it were deliberately staged...

Just then, Lou Yi suddenly felt a strong wind rise inside the house and realized something was wrong. He quickly arched his body backward and leaped out. As soon as his feet touched the ground, the door suddenly burst open, and a dark figure pounced through the air, wielding a gleaming steel acupoint peg aimed straight at his chest, the Tanzhong acupoint.

Lou Yi was taken aback. Acupressure point pegs—this ancient weapon was still in use today! The opponent's skill was profound, and his technique ruthless and experienced, yet his physique didn't resemble that of a dwarf. It seemed this person was not Song Diweng…

Lou Yi's inner energy had already circulated throughout his body, so he used the "Minor Transport" technique.

Nature gave birth to humankind, and the human body thus conforms to the rules of the universe. The Taoists of the Central Plains refer to the human body as a "microcosm," which is the meaning of the principle described in the I Ching: "Its size has no bounds, its smallness has no limits, and it reflects all things." According to Taoist practices, the lowest level of introductory skill is "Human Immortal Skill" or "Earth Immortal Skill," while Buddhism calls it "Arhat Skill." This is what the elderly people practicing breathing exercises in parks in the early morning do—it can greatly improve health and prolong life.

"Small Transport" is a mid-level Qigong, classified as "Immortal Qigong" in Taoism and "Bodhisattva Qigong" in Buddhism. The higher levels are "Celestial Immortal Qigong" in Taoism and "Buddha Qigong" in Buddhism. People who cultivate to this level are extremely rare. They not only have extremely long lifespans, but also experience spontaneous combustion of their internal energy when they are near death, a phenomenon known as "Rainbow Body Transformation".

Lou Yi stood motionless, but as his thoughts drifted, the acupoint peg that was almost at his chest suddenly veered to one side uncontrollably and completely missed its mark.

Master Fei Ziyun's expression changed drastically. His two eyes, one black and one white (damaged by Nizi's poisonous phlegm), stared intently at Lou Yi. He hesitated before saying, "Little transporter?"

Since they were all under the leader's command, Lou Yi decided to back down at the right time. He lowered his hands and smiled slightly, asking, "May I ask if Elder Song is here?"

"What a skillful 'little mover'! The old man is here." A dwarf old man, more than a meter tall, walked out of the door. He had an unusually large head, fair skin, short limbs, and wore a dark blue Zhongshan suit and black rocket-shaped leather shoes that were shiny and spotless.

The little dwarf sized up Lou Yi and said, "Who are you? Is that car outside yours?" It turned out that the two of them had noticed the jeep as soon as it arrived in front of the old house.

"I am Lou Yi. Mr. Song Diweng, may I come outside with you? I have something to say," Lou Yi said respectfully.

“Master, this person came here suddenly at dawn and spoke vaguely. I’m afraid it’s a trap,” Fei Ziyun hurriedly advised.

Song Diweng laughed heartily: "Ziyun, you're overthinking it. Mr. Lou has already shown great mercy." He then turned to Lou Yi and said, "Mr. Lou, please."

After opening the old house gate, Song Diweng followed Lou Yi to the old locust tree.

"Ah, Commander..." he said in surprise when he saw the person sitting upright in the car.

Chapter 56, Part 2

In the jeep, after listening to Song Diweng's report, the leader pondered for a while and said, "Your apprentice Fei Ziyun did a good job."

Song Diweng smiled awkwardly and said, "Yes, Ziyun is very knowledgeable and has superb martial arts skills..."

"Hmm, alright, bring him to see me." The commander frowned, his face turning somewhat ashen.

"Commander, you don't look well. Why don't you come inside and rest for a bit?" Song Diweng said with concern.

"No... alright, I'm probably a bit tired after a long journey of 24 hours." The commander nodded and got out of the jeep.

"Commander..." Lou Yi stepped forward to greet him.

The leader waved his hand and said, "Let's go inside and rest for a bit."

At this moment, the sky was already turning light in the east. In the courtyard stood Master Fei and Mayor Guo, who was wearing a robe. The two were whispering nervously and looking at the leader who walked in with surprise.

Song Diweng waved to Fei Daozhang and said, "Ziyun, this is the leader of the capital. He has come to visit us in person."

"Commander?" Fei Ziyun was stunned. His beautiful black eyes immediately welled up with tears. He quickly stepped forward and said, "Greetings, Commander."

The leader nodded and said, "Comrade Fei Ziyun, you've worked hard."

"You've worked hard, Chief." Master Fei straightened his body and stood in front of the courtyard.

Seeing this, Guo Youcai hurriedly echoed, "You've worked hard, Chief."

"And this is..." The leader's questioning gaze turned to Song Diweng.

"I am Guo Youcai, the mayor of Fenglingdu Town," Mayor Guo replied in a loud voice.

"Oh, hello, you comrades working at the grassroots level have worked hard." The leader extended his hand.

"It's not hard work, it's the leader who's been working hard," Guo Youcai quickly grasped the hands, feeling that they were icy cold, almost to the bone, and said, "Leader, please rest first, I'll go and make some brown sugar, egg and ginger water to warm you up."

Inside the west wing, the leader sat on the bed, with Song Diweng and Fei Daozhang standing in front of him, while Lou Yi stood guard outside the door.

“Tell me about that verse,” the leader said.