Chapter 2: Opening the Eyes and Strengthening the Courage

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The Yin Yang Master chanted, "Heavenly spirits alert, earthly spirits awaken, souls without masters, reveal your true form, Taishang Laojun heed my command—Appear."

I couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air, my body instinctively moving backward. If it weren't for being surrounded by my family, I might have turned tail and run.

Following the incantation by the Yin Yang Master, a female ghost dressed in red appeared before us. Her disheveled hair covered half of her face, her complexion faintly bluish, with fresh blood streaming down, her tongue sticking out about a foot long, one of her eyeballs dangling carelessly outside of its socket, as if it might fall out at any moment. Coupled with her smile that was not quite a smile, she looked incredibly eerie.

The Yin Yang Master told us not to be afraid, reassuring us that she wouldn't harm anyone at this moment. Despite his words, I couldn't stop my body from shivering.

The Yin Yang Master took out a piece of yellow paper, a brush, and a box of cinnabar from his backpack.

He picked up the middle bowl and splashed its water over the female ghost, explaining it as a ritual to purify her body and wash away the murkiness. Then he instructed us to drop our blood into the bowl for her to recognize us, so she could ensure our safety in the future.

We cut our middle fingers and let the fresh blood drip into the bowl, quietly waiting.

The Yin Yang Master poured some cinnabar into the bowl and stirred it with the brush, then he wrote the words "Immortal Position" using the brush.

Heavenly spirits alert, earthly spirits awaken, show your true devotion in protecting our home, accumulate thousands of merits in silent cultivation, bear the offerings lightly upon your back. Taishang Laojun heed my command. The Yin Yang Master lifted the paper and recited the incantation, a flash of yellow light, and the red-clad female ghost changed her garments, her red clothes turned into blue ones, her disheveled hair now neatly pinned up, the blood on her face gone, the eyeball returned to its proper place, and her faintly bluish complexion became rosy.

The Yin Yang Master gestured for the female ghost to enter the "Immortal Position" to cultivate well and keep our home safe.

The female ghost bowed three times to the Yin Yang Master and nodded at us, then soared into the "Immortal Position."

The incident with the female ghost came to a close, and I still felt cold sweats dripping, my body still shaking. Grandma pulled me into her arms and patted me, saying it was all over, there was no need to be scared.

The Yin Yang Master told us we needed to offer incense on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month without fail, and after a hundred years, we would be eternally safe.

Our family thanked the Yin Yang Master a thousand times over, presenting him with a large red envelope as a token of our gratitude.

The Yin Yang Master did not accept it, only asking me with a smile whether I was now willing to take him as my master. I immediately nodded in agreement; my previous disdain was due to not believing in ghosts and deities, but now, having seen with my own eyes, I couldn't help but believe. I knelt down and kowtowed three times, and the Yin Yang Master gave me an Ancient Copper Coin, which signified the completion of the initiation as his disciple.

The next day, bright and early, I left with my master.

My master's surname was Li, named Li Lianying, and of course, this Lian Ying was not the same as that great eunuch by Empress Dowager Cixi's side.

Master was the sixty-seventh generation of the Maoshan Sect, fifty-one years old this year, still unmarried, and proficient in drawing talismans and exorcising ghosts.

More than ten years ago, while wandering, Master casually subdued a few blue-faced wicked spirits, which directly led to the breaking of a certain conglomerate's Five Ghosts Fortune Turn technique. They found my master, broke his legs, and threatened to kill him if they encountered him again. With no choice, Master secluded himself here, giving divinations and advising on fortunes and misfortunes for the people within a ten-mile radius.

I followed Master to his residence, an old and decrepit Taoist Temple, which housed divine statues of the Three Pure Ones. Although dilapidated, it was kept neat and tidy.

The first thing upon entering the temple was the initiation ceremony. Though called a ceremony, it was actually quite simple. Master lit three incense sticks before the divine statues of the Three Pure Ones and declared that the sixty-seventh generation disciple, Li Lianying, in order to continue the legacy of our sect, had taken me, Liang Yueming, as the sixty-eighth generation disciple, praying for the ancestral masters' divine protection. I then kowtowed three times and the ceremony was deemed complete.

Master smiled and said that now I truly belonged to the family.

Having been admitted into the sect, the first things to be done were to open my Yin-Yang Eyes and to strengthen my courage.

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The Master ordered me to strip naked and stand in front of the Divine Statue of the Three Pure Ones, He took out a cinnabar pen and spent more than an hour drawing talismans all over my body.

As he drew, he recited something, I vaguely remember it sounded like, "Heaven is clear, earth is bright, your disciple asks for orders before the altar, draw talismans to expel demons and summon gods to listen, draw them so your body is as invincible as Vajra, drive away evil spirits for clear hearing, draw on your left ear to hear the Mortal Realm, draw on your right ear to hear the nether whispers, draw on your mouth to spread divine metaphors, draw on your eyes to see clearly, Taishang Laojun, your order is urgent like a decree!

Afterwards, the Master took off a red bellyband from his body and let me wear it, saying it was a protective garment, passed down from his Master, and could ward off hundreds of evil spirits. In the middle of the bellyband was a big Eight Trigrams Diagram, and below that was an imperial decree character, I still don't know what the characters around that decree actually mean.

Once I was dressed, the Master produced a bottle from nowhere. It seemed to contain some animal's eyes, the size of a fish's, bloody and nauseating.

The Master said he had foreseen that he would take on a disciple soon, so he had prepared these items in advance to assist with opening the Yin-Yang Eyes.

I later learned that the eyeballs inside were bat eyes, which must be taken from live bats to be effective. Rubbing my eyes with bat eyes seven times a day, after forty-nine days, the process of opening the eyes could be completed, but only if the full-body talismans had been drawn.

I finished my first eye-rub amidst vomiting, and even thinking about it now makes me queasy.

The Master told me that Maoshan Technique involves stomping the ground as a signal and reciting spells to invite the gods to achieve the effect of seeking good fortune and avoiding disaster. At the time, I was naive enough to stomp around for a long while before innocently asking the Master why it didn't work. He said it was because I had just started and my cultivation was not yet refined, I couldn't even summon ghosts, let alone gods.

As darkness gradually fell, it was time for me to undertake the first task assigned by the Master, which was also a courage-building task.

The task was simple, to go to the chaotic graveyard three miles away and bury the bones scattered around.

After darkness completely enveloped everything, I went to the chaotic graveyard alone with a lantern and a hoe. I don't know why, but there wasn't a single blade of grass here, it was barren.

Through the dim light of the lantern, I could see that the place was covered with small mounds of earth, some with tombstones, some without. Looking around, clusters of flickering phosphorescent green flames moved unpredictably, now east, now west.

The sounds of some animals fighting and tearing at each other, the hooting of owls, all made my hair stand on end.

A breeze blew by, and the coolness inside my neck felt as if someone was blowing on the back of it, but when I turned around, there was nothing.

Gathering my courage, I carried the lantern and started looking for the scattered bones.

Crack!

The sound of a clay pot breaking came from not too far behind me, making the hair on my body stand up. I slowly turned my head around...

Two eyes, glowing green, stared right at me. Upon closer inspection, I breathed a sigh of relief—it was just a black cat. I chuckled to myself, thinking this must be the black tomcat that, according to adults, specializes in eating children.

I walked toward the black cat, and it backed away a few steps before turning to run. Looking at where the cat had been, I saw a clay pot with bones in it had shattered—this black cat was only causing trouble.

I dug a hole nearby and buried the broken pot and the bones.

"Thank you for letting me rest in peace!"

After I replied with a 'you're welcome,' I realized— who was speaking to me? Startled, I dropped the lantern and hoe and scrambled back...