The Three Pure Ones' Secret: Expressing Spirit

He asked me if I felt anything. I shook my head. Apart from the burning pain in my throat when the female ghost pinched me, I didn't feel anything. I carefully examined my body and didn't find anything unusual.

Seeing that I was alright, Fan Biao said to me, "Brother, we may have to say goodbye soon. Take good care of yourself when you get back, and don't forget the address and phone number I gave you."

I looked at him. Although his appearance was somewhat surreal, he was the one who brought me back. As for what happened next, I would only know for sure once I got back, because I was still too confused to judge where I was right now.

I nodded to him: "Don't worry, Lao Fan, I'll come to see you when I have my vacation. After all, you saved my life."

He seemed to have something on his mind, and sighed, saying, "Ah, brother! Perhaps you don't yet understand what our meeting means, but once you go back, you'll soon become like me."

I noticed that he, who had been so good-natured and always joking, suddenly became somewhat sentimental. I looked at him seriously, and his dark face showed a hint of emotion, before he quickly returned to his usual jovial self: "It's okay. Anyway, we'll probably be in the same line of work from now on. I've been alone for so many years, but with you around, I won't be so bored!"

I felt a little embarrassed. Did this mean I could become the kind of fortune teller he was talking about? Would someone like me have the same skills as him?

He didn't dwell on the topic, only telling us that we were about to leave the Path of Return. I don't know what he used to determine that, but not long after we started walking, a light appeared ahead, and the path became clearer as we continued forward. Finally, we arrived at a lake emitting a golden light, and Fan Biao said to me, "We've arrived. This is Shengyang Lake, the path to Fengdu Ghost City. Jumping into the lake will take us back to the surface."

I hesitated, staring at the slightly rippling lake water, its surface shimmering and sparkling with dazzling light. "Should I jump in?" I wondered.

Seeing my skepticism, Fan Biao said to me, "What else? Brother! Jump now!"

He probably sensed my fear, because he pointed to the middle of the lake and shouted, "Look, there's a girl swimming there!"

Although I knew he was lying to me, and although I knew he would push me, I didn't have time to react and plunged into the lake. Just when I thought I was going to drown, Lao Fan jumped into the water with a splash. Soon, I felt a blinding light around me, and everything became a white blur, so I couldn't see anything.

As my eyes gradually adjusted, I began to see my surroundings more clearly; we were actually in a small park. Fan Biao, standing next to me, stretched and said, "Ah~ finally out of the woods! It feels so good to be back in the human world!"

I looked around, and there was a well nearby. Somewhat uncertainly, I asked him, "Did we come out of this well?"

Fan Biao turned his head and glanced at it: "Hmm, it should be!"

I watched the young couples and elderly people walking back and forth in the park. They seemed to be completely unable to see us. Some people even passed right through us!

People walking past us exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, it's so cool by this well!"

Fan Biao was speechless. He gave the middle finger to the person who walked past and then said to me, "Brother, I can probably only accompany you this far. I have some very important things to do. You'll have to walk back by yourself. But don't worry, you're in a good state right now and you can run back very fast."

I was taken aback: "Huh? This is Yubei City, more than 160 kilometers from home. Wouldn't it take me ten days to half a month to walk back?"

Fan Biao didn't seem to care, but instead instructed me: "If you can't get back to your body before dark, you must find a house that worships a deity and hide behind the statue. Come out and head towards your body when it gets light. But in your current state, as long as you don't wander around, you should be able to reach Chuannan City soon."

After saying that, Fan Biao didn't hesitate much and hurriedly said goodbye to me, preparing to leave. I looked at the stick in my hand and quickly called out to him, "Hey, Lao Fan, your stick!"

After looking at it, Fan Biao smiled blankly and said, "It's yours. You can't lose it. This isn't an ordinary thing. You don't need it now, so find a safe place to put it. It will be very useful to you in the future."

After saying that, Fan Biao walked out of the park. I looked around and soon Fan Biao disappeared into the crowd.

I looked at the stick in my hand. What use is this thing to me? Should I sell it as a treasure when I'm broke? Oh well, I'll just consider it a souvenir!

I glanced at the park's signs and then, dumbfounded, ran into the crowd to ask for directions, but thankfully I immediately remembered my current state.

I left the park and came to the main road outside. Looking at the signs, I tried to figure out which way to get home. Soon I found the sign for southern Sichuan. I tried running, and to my surprise, I was astonished by my own physical abilities. I could easily leap five or six meters in one stride. If I had participated in a hurdles competition, wouldn't I have been even better than Liu Xiang?

As I was running, I ended up on the highway. A car that was coming from the opposite direction was about to hit me. I was afraid it would hit me and send me flying, but it just passed right through my body.

Nothing could stop me; I sped off down the highway, and even the cars rushing past me couldn't keep up with my speed.

I don't know why, but I heard a thumping heartbeat echoing through the air, and as I got closer to my city, the heartbeat became clearer. Perhaps this is what Lao Fan meant when he said my body was calling me.

I didn't waste a minute and quickly ran back to the city where I've lived for years. I listened to the increasingly close and clear heartbeat coming from a hospital, so without hesitation, I rushed into the hospital and soon arrived at a ward. I saw several familiar figures in the ward: my grandparents were sitting on hospital chairs watching the LCD TV on the wall, and my mother, looking haggard, was sitting by the bed, dozing off.

I looked at the person lying on the hospital bed. He was thin, with an IV drip in his hand, and looked extremely weak. But at least I'm back. I put the stick on the bedside table and silently thanked him, thinking, "Thank God, thank Fan Biao, thank you for sparing my life. I'm back!"

Everything was fine until I jumped towards my own body, and then it felt like I'd been struck by lightning. Every part of my body felt painful, my head felt like it was going to explode, and every breath I took felt like it was on fire. I wanted to scream, but instead of screaming, it felt like my throat was being stabbed with a razor blade.

Perhaps hearing the movement on the hospital bed, the mother hurriedly opened her eyes and exclaimed excitedly, "Hey, he's awake! He's finally awake!"

I turned helplessly to look at my mother, and saw tears welling up in her eyes. She forced a smile and said to me, "You brat, you almost scared our whole family to death this time!"

I made a duck-like sound, but I couldn't speak. My grandparents told me to rest. When my mother saw that I was awake, she went outside to find a doctor. She probably called my father, because the old man rushed to the hospital. He was the loudest person in the crowd, making a racket in the ward. Finally, a nurse came up and told him to be quiet.

After being scolded, the old man secretly went to the windowsill to smoke, but he was as wary as a thief looking at the door while smoking, afraid that the nurse would scold him again. Fortunately, ever since I was born, he has had a thicker skin than a city wall in my mind.

After resting in the hospital for a few days, my second uncle heard that I was getting better and came down from the mountain to visit me. He said some strange things to me, saying, "It's good that you're awake, it's good that you're awake. This ordeal is your good fortune, and it's also your destiny, my dear grandson."

I didn't understand what the old man was saying, but who cares? He's always been like this, talking nonsense. After all, his miraculous experiences in his youth made him very lonely all his life. It's normal for a lonely old man to talk nonsense sometimes. After all, he didn't have a woman to take care of him or discipline him, so he just says whatever comes to mind.

My health improved day by day. The school called several times to inquire about my condition because the college entrance examination was approaching, and I would have to return to school if I didn't want to repeat a year. Actually, I was almost fully recovered after only a few days of waking up, but I didn't like studying and didn't want to go to class. However, one must learn throughout one's life, and even if one doesn't study in school, society is still a bigger school once one leaves the school gates.

After being discharged from the hospital, I went back to school, and life returned to normal. I hid the stick Lao Fan had given me in the closet at home. I called him, but they were both very busy, and I didn't have time to go see him because of the upcoming college entrance exam.

A month and a half later, the college entrance exam ended, and I got a very poor score, failing the exam. Actually, I wasn't too bothered, because I couldn't concentrate on studying anyway, and I figured it was better to enter the workforce sooner rather than waste my family's money. But my family was absolutely against it. When my mother heard that I didn't want to go to school, she gave me a severe dressing-down.

I couldn't argue with them, and in the end, my dad somehow managed to get me into some random junior college, which was kind of half-related to my major. Since my friend likes taking photos, he got me into a modern film academy, but I have no interest in being a photographer or director, and it doesn't suit my personality at all. I'm always so timid and hesitant; how could I possibly teach someone how to pose?

The Lunar New Year is fast approaching. Originally, there wasn't much to record, as it wasn't really related to the story's development. But perhaps fate always pulls us forward. I thought that after being discharged from the hospital, I would never encounter anything strange again. My own curiosity completely changed my destiny. Looking back, I wonder how much better it would have been if I had simply believed that what happened before I woke up in the hospital was just a dream. It was a long, strange dream. But one's unpredictability often brings many unforeseen events.

The story begins on the afternoon of Lunar New Year's Eve. It was drizzling that day, and I rode my beat-up electric scooter up the mountain to visit my second uncle. As mentioned at the beginning of the story, he was a Taoist priest. The title of Taoist priest was real, but so was the fact that he was a conman. As for whether he actually understood anything, I didn't really know, because he had never done anything remarkable. He spent all his time on the mountain, using his eloquence, which I couldn't even bear to listen to, to swindle people who came to the mountain for pilgrimage.

It's actually quite strange sometimes. You might say he can't do it, but he can still make money by talking, and people actually believe him.

I parked my beat-up electric scooter in an open space in the parking lot. I walked towards the square in front of the Sanqing Hall, the main hall of the Taoist Three Pure Ones. After crossing the square, I took a small path to the right of the Sanqing Hall and walked towards a small temple behind it.

I arrived at the small temple behind the Sanqing Hall. There's a mountain in my town; it's not high, but the forest coverage is quite large, and the locals have turned it into a scenic area. When I was a child, there was a custom of elderly people worshipping at the mountain on the third day of the third lunar month. However, as times have changed, many of those elderly people who went up the mountain to worship are no longer alive, and the younger generation doesn't really believe in these things, let alone our generation of young people.

The mountain behind our house is called Lingyun Mountain, but that's a name changed later. It used to have a similar name, just with one character different. It used to be called Lingyun Mountain, and the reason people called it that before is because there's a little story behind it.

Back then, people couldn't predict the weather, unlike today where we can check weather forecasts. Whenever it rained, a magical natural phenomenon would occur on the mountain: as long as the mountaintop was covered by clouds, it would rain in the town below; but conversely, no matter how many dark clouds were over the town, if the mountaintop wasn't covered by clouds and the sun could be seen, it definitely wouldn't rain.

Actually, there wasn't originally a plaza or the Sanqing Hall on Lingyun Mountain; those were built later. Before that, there was only the Laozi Temple, where my second uncle now lives. This mountain also has a bit of unofficial history, though I've forgotten who told me it. It's said that Yuan Tiangang once passed away on Lingyun Mountain, which is why it later became a tourist attraction. But there are no historical records; it's all just hearsay.

I climbed the steep stone steps and arrived at the entrance of Lao Jun Temple. As I entered, a man dressed as a Taoist priest greeted me. He was a man in his thirties, and according to seniority, he was my second grandfather's disciple. His name was Jin Qiming. He greeted me politely, "Brother Xiao Yuan, are you here to see your second grandfather again?"

I scratched the back of my head a little shyly: "It's Chinese New Year, I'm going to pick up my second uncle and take him home for New Year's Eve dinner."

Jin Qiming is someone I've known since childhood, for a full seventeen years. He came to the mountain through my second uncle's introduction. This guy has a rather tragic past, but fortunately he has a good attitude, probably related to his Taoist knowledge. When he heard that I was looking for my second uncle, he cleaned the dust off the ground and said to me, "My master is busy right now, talking to someone. You'd better not disturb him."