Le Banquet des Cent Fantômes

Chapitre 8

“Alright, we will head south secretly immediately, and we must not let the news leak out.” Elder Anxi decided to leave without saying goodbye to avoid any further complications.

To conceal their movements, the Dharma Protector secretly stole a minibus, stuffed the old beggar inside, and then the group slipped out of the capital, heading straight for Jiangxi without stopping...

Inside the stone hall, the candlelight flickered faintly. Elder Anxi, having finished his narration, gave Chen Caihua a bitter smile and sighed wryly, "This old monk has some knowledge of medicine. I've tried both Chinese herbal medicine from the mainland and precious Tibetan medicines from the snowy plateau, but the beggar's condition hasn't improved in the slightest. Now, this old monk is old and frail; if this mystery remains unsolved, I will die with regrets."

After listening to the elder's account, Shen Caihua asked sympathetically, "If we knew where the Tantric 'exorcism spell' came from, would we be able to find the right remedy?"

Elder Anxi nodded and pointed to the purple fleshy bumps around the old beggar's neck, saying, "Look, this is not an ordinary carbuncle. Inside is a string of prayer beads belonging to the Second Karmapa. Someone used these prayer beads, which contained the 'Exorcising Demon Mantra,' to suppress a certain power within this person's body."

"What power?" Shen Caihua asked, puzzled.

“I don’t know… but I know for sure that this is a mysterious and evil power from the Central Plains,” Elder Anxi said with concern.

“If the demon-subduing prayer beads of the Second Karmapa can be used to suppress demons, then the evil power within this beggar must be astonishing,” Elder Anxi said.

Chapter 11 of the main text

The old beggar sitting on the stone bed was none other than Huang Jianguo, the Yin Man.

Six years ago, he was buried in an ancient tomb, little did anyone know that the decaying corpse within was Guo Pu, a renowned master of Yi studies from the Western Jin Dynasty. He possessed two unparalleled extraordinary skills in the Central Plains: the Eighteen Forms of Zhu You Divine Skill and the Intermediate-Level Corpse Absorption Technique. In the late spring of 324 AD, Guo Pu foresaw his impending death. He poured all the power of the Eighteen Forms of Zhu You Divine Skill into a Yin-Yang Ruler and placed a "curse lock" on the Intermediate-Level Corpse Absorption Technique. Along with Hua Tuo's *Qing Nang Jing*, he took it to his grave after his death. Before his death, he believed that he was buried deep at the foot of Nanshan Mountain in Wuyuan, unknown to the world. Even if someone discovered his corpse, they would never kiss it. Therefore, the "curse lock" on the Intermediate-Level Corpse Absorption Technique would ensure that this extraordinary skill would disappear permanently from the martial arts world, preventing its leakage and endangering all living beings, both human and ghost.

Things in this world often happen by chance. How could he have foreseen that 1400 years later, someone would actually fall into the ancient tomb, accidentally kissing someone and breaking the thousand-year-old "curse"?

Once the "curse lock" was broken, all the vital energy Huang Jianguo originally possessed, including the eight-style incantation technique of the bald old woman, the internal essence of the Yin people in the Ghost Tomb, and the various auras and magnetic fields of numerous corpses, were absorbed by Guo Pu's rotting corpse. This energy was then fed back into Huang Jianguo's twelve regular meridians and eight extraordinary meridians through the "Intermediate Yin Corpse Absorption Technique," and finally, the original impurities were expelled. The entire process took forty-nine days, precisely the lifespan of an intermediate Yin body. If he were to complete the forty-nine days, Huang Jianguo would become an unparalleled Yin master, able to absorb Yin and Yang energies remotely. Aside from Guo Pu's eighteen incantation techniques, he would likely be unmatched in the martial arts world. Unfortunately, the leader of the Liangzi Fire-Burning Corpse-Slaying Cult, Heize, detonated the fire-thunder bombs in the tomb, blasting Huang Jianguo out before his forty-nine-day intermediate Yin period was over. This prevented the "Intermediate Yin Corpse Absorption Technique" from being fully completed, and he also lost all his original impurities. Nevertheless, he already possessed seventy to eighty percent of the power of the "Intermediate Yin Corpse Absorption Technique," and the number one evil technique in the Central Plains had finally reappeared in the world.

Huang Jianguo successively absorbed the inner essence of "Undying Bone" Mao Yishi, the inner strength of Ye Lao and Wu Chushanren, and finally absorbed the "Eighteen Styles of Zhuyou" from the ghost infant Shen Caihua's body. At this critical moment, Han Sheng, in his haste, forcibly stuffed the string of garnet beads left by Danba Lama into Huang Jianguo's mouth. The "Exorcism Mantra" of the Second Karmapa Karmapa, attached to the beads, locked the neck meridians of the ghost and suppressed the "Intermediate Bardo Corpse Absorption Technique".

Guo Pu was a grandmaster of Yi studies in the Central Plains. His "Intermediate Yin Corpse Absorption Technique," created with his life's work, incorporated the essence of Taoist Yin-Yang and Five Elements theory and was known as the "Number One Evil Art in the Central Plains." If Huang Jianguo had been able to complete the forty-nine days of practice, even the "Exorcism Curse" of the Tantric High Priest would have been difficult to completely suppress. However, he only obtained seventy percent of the power, barely managing to hold his own against the "Exorcism Curse," resulting in his hair turning white, teeth falling out, facial distortion, blindness, and a confused state of mind.

Elder Anxi sensed the presence of esoteric Buddhist deities and chanting within the old beggar's body, so he brought him to a hidden cave at the bottom of Poyang Lake and hid there for six years, hoping to unravel its mysteries. Unfortunately, he was always unsuccessful, which was a great pity.

Back then, Huang Jianguo was young, handsome, and dashing, while Shen Caihua was just a one-year-old infant. Naturally, he couldn't recognize this incredibly ugly old beggar. During the years he lived in Nanshan Village, he witnessed Hansheng tirelessly saving lives for the poor who couldn't afford medical treatment. Gradually, a compassionate heart for helping others developed in his young mind, making him seem like a completely different person from the bloodthirsty child he was as a ghost infant.

Shen Cai slowly took out the "Heartbreak Poison Mother" black egg from his pocket...

Chapter 11, Part 2

Elder Anxi stared in surprise at the black egg in the child's hand: "What is this?"

"A poisonous mother who breaks one's heart," Shen Caihua said.

Elder Anxi shook his head; he had never heard of such a thing.

"The most potent poison in the world is the Gelsemium elegans, and this 'Gelsemium elegans mother' is the mother plant of the Gelsemium elegans, with a medicinal effect a hundred times greater than that of the Gelsemium elegans. The Gelsemium elegans is extremely poisonous when taken internally, but it is extremely effective in treating carbuncles and boils when used externally." Shen Caihua recounted the knowledge that Han Sheng's father had taught him.

Elder Anxi nodded. "Often, using poison to fight poison can be surprisingly effective for incurable diseases. What this child said is true."

Seeing the old monk nod in approval, Shen Caihua felt a little smug and unbuckled his belt.

"Child, what are you doing?" Elder Anxi asked, puzzled.

Shen Caihua chuckled and said, "Add a little medicinal ingredient." Whenever Han Sheng's father used certain folk remedies, he would always ask Shen Caihua for some of his son's urine as a medicinal ingredient, so Shen Caihua knew that his urine was a good thing.

After taking out his penis, he said to Elder Anxi, "I want a bowl."

Elder Anxi turned his head and looked around, only to find that he only had his own rice bowl beside him. Helpless, he took it out and handed it to Shen Caihua.

"Shh..." Xiao Caihua made some sounds, guiding his urine out. In a short while, he had filled a small rice bowl and placed it on the stone table. The urine was very clear, odorless and tasteless.

“Grandpa Elder, the ‘Heartbreak Poison Mother’ is extremely poisonous. Just soak it in urine for a while, and then apply the venom to Grandpa Beggar’s neck,” Shen Caihua explained.

Dudu quietly pressed the large bird's beak to Xiao Caihua's ear and whispered warily, "No...no, what if that old beggar's evil power is released? That would be...that would be troublesome."

Shen Caihua said to Dudu seriously, "Treating the sick and saving lives is the most important thing; we can't worry about other things now."

Seeing that he couldn't persuade his little master, Dudu quietly stretched out his paw and pretended to accidentally knock over the food bowl, causing urine to spill all over the table.

"I'm...I'm sorry, it was my fault," Dudu said apologetically.

"It's alright, Dudu, I'll just pee a little more," Chen Caihua comforted Dudu.

"Shh..." Shen Caihua had just emptied his bladder and shrugged for a while, but only managed to squeeze out two drops of urine.

"Haha, I am also a novice. Let me have my turn." Elder Anxi chuckled as he untied his monk's robe, pulled out his manhood, and urinated into his rice bowl.

When Chen Cai peeked inside, he saw that the old monk's urine was cloudy and foamy, and smelled foul. After the foam broke, a layer of white urine scale settled at the bottom of the bowl.

"Grandpa Elder, are you a disciple?" Shen Caihua asked doubtfully.

Elder Anxi blushed and said, "It should be, but let me think about it some more..."

After recalling for a moment, Elder Anxi finally answered decisively, "That's right, I am indeed a novice."

"Alright, let's start preparing the medicine now." Shen Caihua said, carefully placing the "Heartbreak Poison Mother" black egg into the urine.

Inside the rice bowl, the cloudy, yellowish-brown urine boiled, wisps of white steam rising from it. After a short while, the urine settled, turning a dark green color and becoming very viscous.

"That should be enough," Shen Caihua estimated, glancing around before grabbing the old monk's face towel, rolling it into a tube, wetting it in the bowl, and then walking over to the old beggar and starting to haphazardly rub it on his neck.

Chapter 10, Part 4

Elder Anxi watched with considerable admiration as Shen Caihua applied medicine to the old beggar. This child was intelligent, kind, and knowledgeable in medicine; his family must be practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. Elder Anxi himself, a Bon elder, was well-versed in Tibetan medicine and also had some knowledge of Central Plains medicine. Li Shizhen, in his *Compendium of Materia Medica*, wrote: "Urine, composed of 'corpse' and 'water,' is a semantic compound. Medical practitioners call it 'reincarnation wine' and 'rejuvenation soup,' which are euphemisms. It implies that children are of pure Yang constitution, their bodies filled with the vital energy of newborn Yang. Children's urine is the true vital energy generated by the warming of kidney Yang. The middle section is used in medicine, removing the head and tail." In some Central Plains cities, public toilets have many urine buckets in the outhouses to collect urine, supposedly used by Western medicine to extract thrombolytic drugs (urokinase). Of course, it's a mixed bag and extremely filthy. As for using virgin urine as a medicinal ingredient, it has been used in folk medicine since ancient times. Each doctor has his own unique way of using it. As an old virgin with more than eighty years of experience, his medicine must be more potent. Thinking of this, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

However, the purple bumps on Huang Jianguo's neck were not carbuncles or boils, but rather the "curse lock" of the Second Karmapa. Although the most poisonous poison in the world, "Heartbreak Poison Mother," was used to fight poison with poison, it was completely counterproductive and the treatment was not effective.

At this moment, the medicinal power of the "Heart-Severing Poison Mother" had penetrated into the flesh of Huang Jianguo's neck, while the urine of Elder Anxi, the old boy, contained extremely strong male hormones. The combined force of the two strongly stimulated the Buddhist beads, which had turned into a fleshy lump that sealed his throat, and the "Exorcism Incantation" suddenly rang out...

The elder Anxi heard intermittent, mysterious chanting in his ears: "Lama Shasimuqi, Qiong La Shasimuqi, Xiong Zhe La Shasimuqi, Xia Wa Geng Deng Shasimuqi..."

At this moment, Huang Jianguo's neck felt incredibly hot, as if it were on fire.

With a "crack," the rice bowl in Shen Caihua's hand fell to the ground, splashing medicine everywhere. A sudden, intense tingling sensation shot through his brain, followed by involuntary spasms throughout his body... The Zhuyou relic in the child's brain sensed the Zhuyou true energy within Huang Jianguo's body. That energy originally belonged to him, but had been forcibly taken by Huang Jianguo six years ago using the "Intermediate Yin Corpse Absorption Technique," and now it was within his grasp...

Shen Caihua raised his head, grinned, and let out a long, mournful howl that sent chills down everyone's spine. He lunged at Huang Jianguo's bare chest and abdomen, biting down on his navel. The wildness that had been lurking deep within the child was reawakened…

Chapter 12 of the main text

The navel is the largest acupoint visible to the naked eye on the human body. It is called "Shenque" or "Qihe" or "Mingdi". The area around the navel is called "Dantian" by Taoist practitioners.

Shenque is the abode of the gods, like a gate. It is the sea of innate Yin meridians, where the true energy of the "Eighteen Forms of Zhuyou" stolen from Caihua since childhood is lurking.

Six years ago, although Huang Jianguo absorbed the true energy of Zhuyou, he was immediately locked in the throat and neck by the "exorcism mantra" in the prayer beads of the Second Karmapa, which severed his meridians. As a result, Zhuyou relics could not grow in his skull. Otherwise, the relics would have merged with the true energy and would have been difficult to retrieve.

The Zhuyou relic within Shen Caihua's body emitted a powerful magnetic field, resonating with the "Eighteen Forms of Zhuyou" within Huang Jianguo's Yin Meridian Qi Sea. Zhuyou true energy continuously escaped from the Yin person's navel and entered Xiao Caihua's body...

Elder Anxi was stunned. The unexpected turn of events left him speechless. He watched as the child, with the old beggar's belly in his mouth, slowly floated up, his small body still writhing.

Dudu watched coldly from the side, then reached out a paw and quietly grabbed the "Heartbreak Poison Mother" Black Egg from the ground. It liked the way its little master was tearing at the old beggar, thinking it looked very cool.

"Stop!" Elder Anxi finally realized that something must have gone wrong, so he rushed over, grabbed the child's legs, and prepared to pull him down.

Unexpectedly, Shen Caihua's mouth was clenched so tightly that it couldn't be pulled off. "Big Bird, what exactly is going on?" Elder Anxi hurriedly asked Dudu.

“He’s probably hungry…hungry,” Dudu replied.

With a "plop," Shen Caihua tumbled off the stone bed and landed hard on the ground.

Elder Anxi quickly bent down and picked up Caihua. He found that the child's jaw was clenched, his eyes were closed, and his face was turning red, white, and blue. He quickly took his pulse, which was strong and powerful, like surging waves, one after another.

Looking back at the old beggar, he was already lying limply on the stone bed, and the mysterious chanting gradually faded away.

Elder Anxi lay flat on the stone table, scratching his bald head, extremely puzzled... He thought and thought, but could not figure it out.

Just then, hurried footsteps came from the dark passageway on the side of the stone hall.

"Master, the Taoist priest..." The person who entered was bald and dressed in black, it was Elder Peng. He glanced at Shen Caihua on the stone table and the "divine bird" Dudu standing to the side, and said in surprise, "Eh, how come this child is here?"

"Oh, you mean what happened to the Taoist priest?" Elder Anxi asked directly before offering an explanation.

"The Taoist priest... is having a difficult childbirth," Elder Peng said dejectedly.

Chapter 12, Part 2

Upon hearing this, Master Anxi became anxious. "Let's go, let's go see." He got up and was about to leave with Elder Peng when he looked back at Shen Caihua, who was still unconscious on the stone table. He couldn't bear to leave him alone, so he picked up the child with both hands and strode into the depths of the passageway.

Dudu quickly flapped its wings and flew up, landing on Chen Caihua. It quietly stuffed the black egg into his pocket and checked it; the python's fang was still there.

After passing through countless dark passageways and stone caves, we finally emerged from the underground palace of the seven-story brick pagoda on Xieshan Mountain and arrived at the main hall of Putuo Temple. It was already dusk outside the hall, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and the water of Poyang Lake was dark and gloomy, as if a mountain rain was about to come.

The Taoist priest lay on the haystack, his legs bent, his trousers pulled down to his knees, groaning in pain.

"What's going on?" Elder Anxi's stern gaze swept over the two protectors and Elder Peng. "Wasn't it said that the descent of the spiritual embryo would take several days?"

"Master, it's probably a premature birth," the guardian muffled in his voice speculated.

Elder Peng looked down at the Taoist priest, whose forehead was covered in cold sweat, and analyzed, "Master, Ling-ge and Ling-jie had just consummated their union last night. They should have given birth in two or three days. However, Taoist Jia's Xuanqi Qigong is extremely powerful, and the fetus is developing very rapidly. In just one day, we have already felt the fetal movement."

Just then, a blinding white light suddenly appeared, a bolt of lightning tore through the sky, followed by a loud "crack" of thunder, and a series of rumbling sounds echoed across Poyang Lake.

"Ouch..." As the thunder rumbled, Master Jia's stomach suddenly swelled up, and he immediately began to groan incessantly.

“Yes, I understand now. Tan Qiao of the Southern Tang Dynasty in the Five Dynasties period explained in his book ‘Hua Shu’ that ‘Maple and willow trees, over time, will develop galls, which will transform into winged beings, also known as Maple and Willow Ghosts. When two ghosts unite, a spiritual embryo is born, which grows when it hears thunder and lightning, and shrinks back to its original size when it encounters people.’ Master Jia was supposed to give birth in a few days, but due to the thunder and lightning, he went into premature labor.” Elder Anxi suddenly realized.

"Old monk, I am a man with no eyebrows, and now I have suffered such a great torment. You must not forget our previous agreement. Otherwise, I would rather the baby die in the womb than give birth to it!" Master Jia said painfully.

Elder Anxi nodded and reassured him, "Please rest assured, Daoist Master, this old monk will never break his promise."

Dudu tilted her head curiously and looked at the Taoist priest's anus, muttering softly, "Where does it come from? Does it poop out?"

“Daoist Master, we have prepared hot water and scissors,” Elder Peng said, puzzled. “But the big bird is right, where does the spirit embryo come from?”

"I...I have my own way," Master Jia said breathlessly.

"Boom..." A series of muffled thunderclaps ripped across the sky.

"Oh dear... this is bad, I'm about to give birth..." Master Jia groaned, but then gritted his teeth, his face turning red, and said, word by word, "No, old monk, give me the things first, or I'd rather die than give birth."

“Alas, why do you do this, Daoist Master? Am I not a man of my word? Very well, I will give it to you now…” Elder Anxi said with a sigh.

Master Jia stared intently at Elder Anxi, while two guardians gently wiped the sweat from his forehead, abdomen, and around his anus with damp towels.

Just then, Shen Cai slowly woke up and opened his eyes.

Chapter 12, Part 3

Shen Caihua stared blankly into the sky, his eyes unusually deep. The "Eighteen Forms of Zhuyou" true energy that had been stolen from him six years ago had returned to his body, gradually merging with the Zhuyou relic within his skull. He was unaware of this, but he felt refreshed and full of energy. In addition, deep within his body, the wildness of the ghost infant from back then was also unknowingly returning... He stuck out his little tongue, licked his lips, and then got up.