The Three Pure Ones' Secret: Expressing Spirit

Fan Biao and I chatted all the way to the Qiu family's house. As the moonlight slowly set, Fan and I went into the room. He looked at his phone; it was almost four o'clock.

We stopped worrying about Old Qiu's body and fell fast asleep on the bed in the bedroom. I slept until after 10 a.m. before groggily opening my eyes. Rubbing the sleep from the corners of my eyes, I noticed that Old Fan had gotten up sometime earlier. He was lying next to me, watching "Boonie Bears" on his phone and chuckling to himself. I felt like he was a bit of a mentally challenged child.

I was a little confused; this old man was such a grown man, yet he was still interested in these cartoons. After I woke up, he told me what we were going to do today. It turned out that yesterday afternoon, this old man had actually written a funeral couplet. I noticed his calligraphy was particularly good, and he gave me instructions to put it up by the door.

After Master Fan gave the instructions, I dared not disobey, so I hurriedly went to put up the mourning couplets.

The body has been returned by the three monsters. Fortunately, it wasn't missing any limbs, otherwise we wouldn't be able to explain ourselves when the boy comes back tomorrow.

Fan Biao and I took a stroll around the village. At the fork in the road at the village entrance, Bai He was sitting at his door, playing with a dog—which turned out to be a Samoyed. Fan Biao and I went over to greet him and chat. He took out cigarettes from his pocket and offered them to Fan Biao and me. Fan Biao took the cigarettes, but I indicated that I didn't want any.

A few of us chatted idly for a while. I looked at his dog, which was very well cared for, lying elegantly beside him, its eyes fixed on Bai He. Bai He, worried the dog might frighten us, said to it, "Sally, go back inside."

Bai He spoke gently, and Gouzi listened to him obediently, turning back to look as he went into the house. Afterwards, Bai He said to us, "So, did those three demons return the bodies to you?"

Fan Biao nodded, glanced at the white dog that had run into the house, then smiled and said to Bai He, "Brother Bai, since you're from the Hundred Immortals Sect, why do you always stay in the countryside? Why don't you go to the city and open a funeral supplies shop with your Hundred Immortals Sect status? Wouldn't it be better to handle some paranormal cases than stay in the countryside?"

Bai He shook his head: "You're joking, brother. People from the Hundred Immortals Sect can only patrol the mountains to protect animals and search for intelligent disciples and grand-disciples. They cannot participate in the lives of ordinary people."

As the group chatted about everyday things, Fan Biao noticed that he seemed quite at ease, so he asked, "Didn't your wife and child stay with you?"

Perhaps out of ignorance, Fan Biao's question seemed to touch a nerve with Bai He. He took a drag of his cigarette and sighed, "My wife passed away, and so did the elders in my family. We hadn't even had a chance to have children after we got married when this accident happened. The only thing my wife left behind was Sally."

His background seemed quite tragic, but he looked only in his early thirties. I asked him curiously, "Hey, Brother Bai, why don't you find someone else?"

Bai He smiled at me, but I could see a hint of helplessness in his smile: "I'm over thirty, and I have nothing. Where would I get the courage to ruin someone else's future? Besides, my wife is wonderful. I can stay quietly in the village now and visit her every few days. If I were to find someone else to go out and develop my career, she would be so lonely staying in the village alone. The job the village chief arranged for me is pretty good, and I like it quite a bit. Going out every day to supervise how others use fire is quite enjoyable!"

Fan Biao was a little embarrassed, but quickly joked to defuse the situation: "Hey, it's okay, I'm a grown man, I can just use my hands."

I was speechless. Bai He looked at Fan Biao and smiled awkwardly. The three of them seemed to have a connection, so they exchanged contact information.

Bai He is a sentimental person. From his words, I could tell he was very reluctant to part with his wife. As he once casually remarked to us, "It's not that I'm afraid she'll be gone, or that I'm afraid she'll leave. It's that I'm still alive, and I still remember her in my heart. I'm afraid that one day I won't remember what she looks like, and I'll have completely forgotten her!"

The three of them got along quite well, and for some reason, I, who am usually not good at expressing myself, actually had so much to say. While they were chatting, Fan Biao suddenly remembered something strange: "Hey, Brother Bai, are there more than just those three raccoon monsters on the mountain in your village? And why doesn't anyone in your village raise livestock like chickens or ducks? Only you keep a dog."

Bai He thought for a moment, then said to us, "Actually, this is related to another monster, but he died a few months ago. He was a monkey."

It turned out there were monkeys in their mountains. These monkeys were short-tempered and liked to sneak into the village to steal the chickens, ducks, and geese that the elderly women raised while they were out working in the fields. After a while, the elderly women couldn't handle the agile monkeys and eventually stopped raising them. Plus, the monkeys were intelligent and were the local tyrants of the mountains. If it were a human, it would be the kind of person who kicks a cripple, curses a mute, digs up graves of the childless, and kicks down a widow's door. Fortunately, heaven punishes every arrogant creature. One monkey sneaked into an old woman's house in their village to steal food, but accidentally ate rat poison and died. Even in death, it didn't want to leave. Bai He couldn't do anything to it while it was alive, but now that it was dead, Bai He could still deal with it. Bai He used a secret technique from the Hundred Immortals Sect to summon a powerful immortal from the sect to capture it.

That monkey demon was far more powerful than the three fox spirits. It frequented the village, lurking in the mountains year-round, which is why the village was filled with demonic energy. Even now, though the monkey demon has been dead for some time, the demonic energy around it has not completely dissipated.

The three of us chatted for a while. Fan Biao was worried that something might happen to the unattended body of the old man from the Qiu family, so Fan Biao and I said goodbye to Bai He.

Everything was peaceful until noon when an older man arrived at the door on a motorcycle: "Are you Master Fan?"

Fan Biao, sitting by the door, glanced at the middle-aged man at the entrance of the courtyard, then went over to get the food he had prepared for us. After we finished eating and drinking, we gradually felt sleepy because of the hot weather.

Although there were many mosquitoes in the old wooden buildings in the bamboo forest and the cicadas outside were chirping annoyingly, it still couldn't stop me from getting sleepy. I leaned against the wall by the door and fell asleep.

After a long time, I was awakened by Fan Biao's voice answering the phone. I heard him say into the phone, "Hello, are you almost there? Yes, yes, it's in the bamboo forest. I'll be right out, wait for me."

Then Fan Biao said to me, "The person has arrived. Let's go over and see if there's anything we can help you carry."

Then, braving the scorching sun, I followed Lao Fan into the bamboo forest. We had just arrived at where Lao Fan had parked when two vans sped up, and several people got out. The leader was an old man, somewhat bald, who tried to cover his bald spot with his hair on the sides. He wore sunglasses and had a thick beard under his nose.

I think this old man is quite fashionable, with a very distinctive beard. He's wearing a short-sleeved shirt and has a briefcase tucked under his arm. He's very thin, and I'm afraid he'll faint from the heat. This man must be Fan Biao's boss.

At first glance, the old man seemed unremarkable, but upon closer inspection, he appeared vaguely familiar, though I couldn't recall where I'd seen him before. The old man then walked towards Fan Biao and me, took off his sunglasses, looked at me with a surprising expression, and said, "Xiao Yuan, don't you recognize me?"

I looked at his smiling face. Although I recognized his features, I couldn't quite place him for a moment. Luckily, I remembered that Fan Biao, that simpleton, had mentioned that his boss's surname was Wu. I was so surprised I could hardly close my mouth, and finally, somewhat excitedly, I blurted out, "Uncle Wu... Uncle Wu!"

I was wondering why the old man looked so familiar. I knew him more than just well; I knew him like the back of my hand. This old bastard Cui Hongzhi was his apprentice, my second uncle's junior brother. He was always following my second uncle around when I was little. Besides my grandparents and second uncle, this old guy was the kindest person to me when I was a child. Although he wasn't family, he was more than family to me. From as far back as I can remember until I started middle school, he was always there for me, just like my second uncle. Every few days, he would take me out for a walk and secretly buy me snacks. I remember once he ate too many snacks because of me and got a stomachache, and my mom scolded him for a long time!

But I haven't seen him since I started junior high. Every time I asked my second uncle, he would impatiently tell me he was dead, and then I never heard from him again. I asked him, somewhat agitated, "Uncle Wu, is it really you? Didn't my second uncle say you were dead?"

I got a little agitated and realized I'd said the wrong thing. Then Grandpa Wu said to me, "What do you mean 'die'? Your second uncle is just kidding you. I'm perfectly fine, in great health!"

He then said it was hot outside and gestured for me to bring the things inside so he could talk to me slowly.

We entered the main room, where Grandpa Wu instructed his men to get to work, and told Fan Biao to take them to look around and find a suitable location for a burial plot. A group of about ten people put their belongings down and then left with hoes and saws.

Grandpa Wu then sat down at the square table in the lobby and lit a cigarette. Although I hadn’t seen him for many years, we were very familiar with each other when we were children, and he gave me a very close feeling.

Grandpa Wu lit a cigarette and then told me why he had suddenly left.

I had just finished elementary school by then. He was still on the mountain, having learned everything he could. Cui Hongzhi only had my second uncle and himself as disciples. My second uncle was quite traditional and believed that once one entered the Taoist path, one should focus on quiet cultivation. But Uncle Wu didn't think that way. He wanted to go down the mountain and interact more with people. So, he and my second uncle had a fight because of their differing opinions. My second uncle said that his Taoist heart was unstable and that he was greedy for money, but he didn't care and insisted on going down the mountain.

Later, I happened to be in junior high school. Many times when he came back, I was at school. And every time I asked my second uncle, that old guy would sulk and say that he was dead. I was introverted and always behaved myself, so I thought that Uncle Wu was really dead.

But life is just so unpredictable. Actually, Grandpa Wu had always come back, but he always missed me. As I went to high school, I went home less and less, and I gradually forgot about him. I remember when I was little, I thought he was dead and was sad for a long time.

But Grandpa Wu never forgot me. He even predicted by chance that I would face a great calamity, and that it was his arrangement that I would meet Lao Fan, a guy as black as a lump of coal.

Although the two did not learn all of Cui Hongzhi's skills, they were able to complement and help each other. Although they had conflicts and their relationship was not as good as before, they would still help each other after a few arguments.

The two old brothers were not people who could break through tribulations and be reborn, so they could not learn the Three Pure Ones Technique as easily as I could. Fortunately, Cui Hongzhi had taught them some things by hand.

The reason they could foresee my impending calamity was because of the snake demon Chang Qingqing. The light that chased us at school was because she wanted to recognize me, which is why she kept following me, Wang Xiaoshuai, and Zhou Xing. But the reason I fell seriously ill was because I encountered the White Impermanence statue on the ground. Because my fate was weak, the house that appeared was actually a ghost temple. A "ghost temple" isn't a temple built by people in the mortal world, but a place of worship built by ghosts in the underworld. We were a few brave souls who accidentally wandered in. Luckily, the ghost temple enshrined the Immortal of Peace and Joy; if it had enshrined a Yaksha or a judge, Wang Xiaoshuai, Zhou Xing, and I would probably be dead by now. And all of this coincided with the great calamity they had predicted, so Grandpa Wu sent Lao Fan to find me.

After listening to what Grandpa Wu said, I understood some things and had some thoughts in my mind. What shocked and surprised me was that he and my second uncle were not demigods. They actually knew some things, and Chang Qingqing actually knew them.

I was wondering why, when I was messing around with that magic spell at home, a female demon suddenly appeared. She said she was in charge of our area. Apparently, everyone knew each other. It turns out that humans and demons can actually interact normally.

I thought back and realized that ever since Lao Fan brought me back from the underworld, this world seems to be completely different from the world I used to know.

After telling me all this, Grandpa Wu seemed to have thought of something important, so he added, "You should be able to understand 'The Legend of the Three Pure Ones' now, right?"

I thought back to the book my second uncle had given me, then nodded blankly at him: "I can understand it, but I've never misused anything in it. What's the use of that 'Transcendental Technique'?"

Grandpa Wu didn't seem to know much either: "I don't know the specifics. I only know that the Divine Transmission Book can summon ghosts and monsters, but summoning ghosts and monsters is the most basic use. As for what other uses it has, I don't know either, because my master only taught my senior brother and me that much. If you want to understand it, you have to study it yourself."

Thinking back to when Chang Qingqing was introduced to this book, it seems that this book is similar to the shamanistic rituals in Northeast China, except that the "spiritual transmission technique" is more powerful and does not require a medium to possess the body.