Ghost Pot - Chapter 84
"Indeed, this is the 'Double-Leaf Yin-Yang Gate,' forged from fine steel with an ingenious structure. After more than 1,700 years, it has not rusted at all," Master Xufeng exclaimed in amazement.
The Hakka nanny glanced at Chen Caihua but said nothing more. This child was simply a genius of his time, and compared to him, the nanny felt somewhat ashamed.
At this moment, Shen Caihua continued to press his index finger on the steel-forged iron door. No matter how much he activated his Zhuyou True Qi, the door remained unmoved.
"No, the iron gate won't open." Shen Caihua said breathlessly, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
"Caihua, the Zhuyou Divine Skill has eighteen forms, possessing the power to reach heaven and earth. Do you know any others? You can try them all." The Hakka nanny reached out to wipe the sweat from Shen Caihua's forehead and reminded him.
Shen Caihua looked at the nanny in confusion. His "lard kung fu" was all done subconsciously, without any logic. If he tried to think about it, his mind would go blank.
"Is there any style specifically for unusual or erotic techniques, or those from the lowest of schools of thought?" the Hakka grandmother prompted.
"What are 'strange and ingenious skills' and 'the arts of the nine schools'?" Shen Caihua asked, puzzled.
Master Xufeng continued, explaining, "'The Nine Schools of Arts' are divided into upper, middle, and lower schools. The upper nine schools are emperors, sages, hermits, officials, wealthy men, child immortals, scholars, warriors, and merchants; the middle nine schools are scholars, doctors, fortune tellers, painters, students, musicians, chess players, monks, Taoists, and nuns; and the lower nine schools are secretaries, yamen runners, weighers, matchmakers, servants, witches, thieves, burglars, and prostitutes. As for 'extraordinary and erotic skills,' these refer to craftsmen in ancient times, such as carpenters, blacksmiths, and tailors."
Shen Caihua was still completely confused.
"Oh dear, Cai, Caihua, has the 'Zhu You Divine Skill' unlocked...lock-picking skill?" Dudu asked anxiously from the side. Chen Caihua stared at the round keyhole on the iron gate, deep in thought. A peculiar dance slowly appeared in his mind... So he began to rub his stomach with one hand, seemingly trying to push the qi in his abdomen upward. Finally, the qi surged upward and tangled in his throat, while he silently chanted: "Diao tang tang tang tang...tang tang tang tang tang tang..."
He kept muttering to himself, while his other hand reached under his armpit and rubbed it back and forth. Because he hadn't showered in a long time, a layer of grime had accumulated on his body. He easily rubbed out a small ball of grime, smeared it inside the keyhole, and then put his mouth to it and burped, spraying it onto the grime...
Shen Caihua himself was unaware that this was the eleventh move of the Zhuyou Divine Skill, "Stealing the Beams and Replacing the Pillars," a truly unpredictable and unfathomable illusion technique that could be used to exchange objects for different targets at will, though it could not be sustained. When Guo Pu created this move, he was traveling on a post road, drenched in sweat during the hottest days of summer, his body itchy and covered in grime. So he rolled himself into a ball of dirt and secretly exchanged it with a roadside vendor for a copper coin to buy a cup of wine.
With a "crack," the lock on the iron gate opened instantly, and the two Yin-Yang doors flipped downwards. Shen Caihua and You Liang, who were lying on top of the iron gate, were caught off guard and fell into the dark stone cave. Immediately afterward, a cool, white mist surged out...
The Hakka woman was shocked and hurriedly reached out to grab it, but she missed.
"Little master..." Xiong Dahai called out anxiously, clinging to the edge of the hole.
Master Xufeng quickly shone his flashlight downwards, but due to the fog, he couldn't see anything inside the cave.
“Little…Little talent…” Dudu shouted and leaped into the cave.
Just as everyone was in a panic, with a "bang," the iron gate bounced back and locked tightly again.
In her haste, the Hakka woman mustered all her strength and slammed her palm down. With a muffled thud, the iron gate remained unmoved.
"Perhaps this is fate..." The Hakka old woman sighed, slowly turned around, and stared intently at Guo Ruchang, saying, "Master Guo, I've heard you say that anyone who is a successor of 'Zhu You Divine Skill' can enter the underground palace without any danger, is that right?"
Guo Ruchang nodded and replied, "The ancestral teachings are absolutely correct."
“But this cave is bottomless. Even if you don’t fall to your death, you still can’t get out…” Master Xufeng said in surprise.
Guo Ruchang smiled slightly and said, "The successor of Zhuyou does not need to come up."
"What do you mean by that?" the Hakka old woman asked in surprise.
“Our ancestors left us a secret passage within the underground palace that leads back to the surface. Our ancestor, Guo Pu, set up the mechanism and exited through there,” Guo Ruchang explained.
"Alas, our ancestor was so cunning and calculating, truly worthy of being called the greatest master of Yi studies throughout history... This young talent is naturally gifted, a true successor of the Zhuyou school. It is the will of Heaven that has finally fulfilled our ancestor's wish after 1,700 years. Well then, let's go back." The Hakka old woman sighed sadly.
“My benefactor, Dahai is willing to stay here for the rest of his life until the young master returns,” Xiong Dahai said, looking at the old woman with a resolute gaze.
"No need," the Hakka old woman shook her head and said, "Our ancestor arranged it long ago. How could we possibly have foreseen it?" "Master Guo, where does the exit inside the underground palace lead to the surface?"
"It is said to be located in Yongqing Temple in Puzhou, Yongji," Guo Ruchang replied.
"You mean Xiyongqing Temple in Puzhou? It was renamed Pujiu Temple during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian in the Tang Dynasty. It's the place where Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying met in The Romance of the Western Chamber," Master Xufeng said in surprise.
“Exactly,” Guo Ruchang nodded.
“Alright, then we’ll go to Puji Temple and wait for them,” the Hakka woman said.
"Old Master Guo, don't you want to go back to the surface?" Master Xufeng asked Guo Ruchang.
"You may leave," Guo Ruchang said quietly. "I am nearing the end of my life and have grown accustomed to the company of the giant civet, the ghost bat, and the toad-headed turtle. Besides, I have not seen the sunlight for over two hundred years, and I will surely go blind if I go out."
The Hakka woman then took her leave, leading Xiong Dahai and Daoist Xufeng back to Fengling Temple via the same route, and headed straight for Yongji Puji Temple. Shen Caihua and Youliang plummeted like freefalls, along with the suction tube, all landing on the sturdy spider web. After bouncing a few times, they stabilized, and the two gradually regained their senses in the darkness.
"What is this?" Yoro asked, touching the thick, matchstick-like netting beneath him.
"It's a spider web. Be careful, a big spider might attack us," Shen Caihua warned quietly.
"Little...Little Talent..." Just then, a "dudu" sound came from above, and then "thud," the big parrot also crashed into the spider web.
"Dudu?" Shen Caihua asked in surprise.
"Oh no, oh no, it's a spider... a spider web!" Dudu screamed in terror, remembering how she was almost eaten by the giant wolf spider.
"Don't be afraid, Dudu." Chen Caihua comforted it while holding its hands up, ready to use "Ghost Wall" to deal with the giant spider in the dark.
After observing for a while and finding no large spiders, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
“There’s a green fluorescent light over there,” Shen Caihua said.
"I, I'll go take a look..." Dudu flapped its wings, flew down from the spider web, and flew back a moment later, saying hurriedly, "There... there's a door over there."
"Youliang, can you jump?" Shen Caihua asked.
Youliang looked down and, using the fluorescent light, saw the dark green pool below. He shook his head.
With a thought, Shen Caihua let out a small fart in his crotch, used his "lard lightness skill," grabbed Youliang by the collar, and leaped off the spider web with a "whoosh," landing diagonally on the stone bank by the pool.
A fluorite door emitting a faint green glow leads to a stone passageway. The stone walls on both sides are inlaid with pieces of fluorite at irregular intervals, like wall lamps, casting a soft green light on the passageway.
"This is the underground palace!" Youliang ran into the depths of the passageway, shouting, "Nizi... Nizi, where are you?"
Shen Caihua and Dudu quickly followed, turning around the side of the stone wall, and a spacious stone hall appeared in front of them. A body of water more than ten feet long lay before them, and hot steam was rising from the dark water. This was an underground hot spring.
"Splash, splash..." As a series of splashes rose, eight monkey-like monsters leaped out of the hot spring. They were less than three feet tall, with disheveled hair, naked bodies, covered in yellowish-brown fur, round eyes, and noses that protruded like dogs, covered with dense, fleshy red bumps. The top of their huge heads was sunken and filled with water.
"A ghost..." Youliang cried out in alarm.
"No, it's not a ghost, it's...it's a primate...animal," Dudu blinked and said confidently.
"Who are you?" the old kappa asked warily in his mind.
"Who's speaking?" Shen Caihua turned his head and glanced around, but didn't see anyone.
“I am right in front of you,” the old kappa said.
Shen Caihua stared at the "monkeys" in surprise, pointed at the old kappa, and said, "Is it you? You can talk inside my head?"
The old kappa nodded: "We are kappa, we can communicate with each other using our thoughts."
"How old are they?" asked the sixth kappa to his brothers.
"He must be in his forties or fifties," the second kappa replied.
"Look, isn't that a big rooster?" Old Liu saw Dudu and was quite surprised.
"No, that's a magpie," the kappa leader corrected.
"Nonsense! I...I am a Brazilian blue-and-white macaw...a giant parrot from South America," Dudu said angrily.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" the old kappa shouted in a stern voice.
"Have you seen a really pretty girl?" Youliang asked first.
The two kappa leaders looked at each other and exchanged a glance.
"What do you want with her?" the eldest brother asked warily.
“She is my daughter…” Youliang blurted out.
"Woman! She's your woman?" The second brother stared at Youliang in surprise, then glanced at the eldest kappa brother; the two brothers understood each other perfectly.
With a "whoosh," the two kappa brothers attacked simultaneously, each grabbing one of Yura's arms, lifting him up with a "whoosh," and throwing him into the spring...
Shen Caihua was taken aback. He threw the suction tube into the black spring water, then quickly put two little fingers into his nostrils and chanted, "Beast, otter, macaque, badger, monkey, slug, slug..." He used the thirteenth move of the "Lard Divine Skill," "Human Face, Beast Heart."
The kappa shuddered, and the manes on their necks stood on end.
Especially the old kappa couple, who had been trapped for over 1,700 years, heard the incantation that had once bound them again, and tears streamed down their faces.
"Master, please give your orders..." the old kappa said, weeping with joy.
The suction cup stretched out its belly in the water, lifting Youliang from below. By this time, Youliang had already swallowed some water and was vomiting repeatedly while lying on the suction cup.
"Has a girl ever been here?" Shen Caihua asked telepathically.
"Yes, Master, she has entered the secret chamber of the underground palace and is searching for a secret passage to return to the surface," the old kappa replied respectfully.
"Where is the secret room? Take me there quickly!" Shen Caihua's heart was filled with excitement.
“It’s over there,” the old kappa said, pointing to the opposite bank.
Shen Caihua leaped onto the sucker's back and carried it to the other side, whereupon the kappa swam over to follow.
The stone gate of the underground palace was tightly closed, and four lines of verse were engraved on it: "That corpse, your corpse, no corpse, no breath, what do you seek in the appearance of the corpse, the ghost pot incantation."
Even Shen Caihua didn't fully recognize all the characters, so he asked telepathically, "What do these characters mean?"
The old kappa read it to him, and Xiao Cai shook his head, not understanding the meaning of the verse. But at this moment, he could smell Mo Mo's scent and knew that she was inside the underground palace. His heart pounded with excitement.
"Open the door," he said to the old kappa in a trembling voice.
The old kappa obeyed, stomping his foot on the stone slab in front of the door, and with a "crack," the gate to the underground palace opened.
"Master, after seventeen hundred years, you have finally arrived. Our mission is complete. Can you lift the restrictions on us now?" the old kappa asked in a low, fearful voice.
"A restriction? How can I remove it?" Shen Caihua asked, puzzled.
"Master just needs to recite the incantation backwards once," the old kappa said, looking at Shen Caihua with teary eyes.
Oh, so it's that easy to break the spell's restriction... Shen Caihua didn't think much of it and recited the "human-faced beast-hearted" spell in reverse order.
After the recitation, the kappa burst into cheers, finally freed from their long-standing restrictions and regaining their freedom.
"Please enter the underground palace, Master. There is a secret passage inside that can lead back to the surface. We must also be leaving now," the old kappa said.
"Where are you going?" Shen Caihua asked in surprise.
"We haven't seen mountains, forests, rivers, sun, and moon for a very, very long time. Children should go back to the place where our ancestors lived," the old kappa murmured, tears welling in his eyes.
Shen Caihua smiled calmly, carrying a suction cup in his hand and a large parrot perched on his shoulder. He resolutely stepped into the underground palace, with You Liang following closely behind. "Crack..." The stone door of the underground palace closed.
Shen Caicai entered the underground palace and found it completely empty. Upon closer inspection, he noticed faint red bloodstains on the ground and was immediately surprised.
“Something must have happened here,” Shen Caihua muttered to himself.
"Nizi... Nizi..." Youliang seemed to be bewitched, spinning around in place.
"Crackling..." The gate to the underground palace opened again, and the old kappa couple led their six brothers in, heads bowed and tiptoeing in.
"We also want to follow our master through the secret passage back to our hometown..." the old kappa stammered out in his mind.