The Three Pure Ones' Secret: Expressing Spirit

Bai He, seeing that I hadn't responded to his calls for a while, patted me on the shoulder. I jumped, then came to my senses. Bai He smiled and asked, "What are you thinking about, bro? I've been calling you for ages and you haven't answered."

I looked at Bai He in surprise, feeling a sense of mystery about him. Then, I composed myself and said to him, "Oh, I was just staring at your dog so intently."

As Bai He spoke to me, the dog sat beside him. But I saw a wisp of energy swirling around it, and the energy materialized into a beautiful foreign girl. This energy was emanating from the dog beside him, who was sitting on the ground, panting with its tongue lolling out.

A little flustered, I blurted out, "I think your dog is really beautiful, and it's very obedient."

Bai He simply smiled and said, "Sally is already twenty years old!"

I was a little surprised; I hadn't expected this dog to be three years older than me! Seeing my bewildered expression, Bai He said to me, "You go ahead with your work, I need to go inside and write up a gift list. We'll talk again when you're free!"

He then went inside with the dog. I felt that Bai He seemed to have some secret, but he had already told Lao Fan and me about his identity as a member of the Hundred Immortals Sect. What else could he not say? Could it be something private? Is he a woman? What am I thinking! But it seems that Bai He is not simple. He couldn't possibly not know that the dog beside him was a monster. But why didn't Lao Fan realize that it was a foreign monster at the time? That surprised me quite a bit.

I was setting off firecrackers at the door when I noticed there weren't many people around. Just then, Grandpa Wu replaced Fan Biao, so I took a moment to walk over to Old Fan. When he saw me, he quietly asked me in the noisy crowd, "Did you notice?"

I nodded to him, leaned closer, and whispered, "Here, take this. Something's wrong with the dog next to Bai He. You'll see when you go over later; that dog is also a demon that has cultivated itself into a spirit!"

Fan Biao stared at me in astonishment, his eyes wide. I sensed he didn't quite believe me, so I said to him seriously, "It's true! Go see for yourself!"

He was still somewhat skeptical, but he took the bag and walked through the crowd towards Bai He. He chatted and laughed with Bai He as if it were a normal conversation, and after a while, he came back with a cigarette in his mouth. But his smiling face immediately turned serious, and Bai He, who was chatting with the crowd behind him, winked at me, signaling me to go inside.

I naturally understood Fan Biao's meaning, so I went with him to the bedroom. He hurriedly said to me, "This matter is definitely not as simple as we think. Since this dog is a demon, it must have stolen Old Qiu's ghost. But why would it steal the old man's ghost?"

I couldn't understand either, so I asked him what his plans were next. Was he going to catch the dog while Bai He wasn't looking? Or would he just use the Three Steps to knock it out? But this dog was a monster; it probably wouldn't be so easy to fool!

I frowned, thinking about last night's dream. If the dog demon I dreamt of last night was the same one as the one I was seeing today, then its ambiguous words from last night must have had another meaning! So I told Fan Biao what I was thinking. Old Fan also frowned, thoughtfully saying to me, "It seems this dog demon doesn't mean any harm. That means Bai He must have some secret. I think you should use the teleportation token to summon it tonight, and I'll capture it directly. I'll force a confession; I don't believe it won't tell the truth!"

I thought about it, and it seemed like it might work. But I hadn't even figured out how to accurately cast the incantation to summon ghosts and monsters. I told Fan Biao about my current rudimentary understanding of the incantation. Old Fan thought for a moment, then said to me, "This is no small matter. How about this afternoon when we're not busy, I'll take you back to get the book, and you can take another look?"

I shook my head to indicate that it wasn't necessary, because I remembered that the incantation I knew was to summon the nearest ghost, demon, or spirit. There was actually another way to directly summon that dog spirit. This required knowing the dog's name and things like the fur on its body.

Fan Biao seemed to know a lot about this kind of thing, and exclaimed, "Oh~ isn't this just the ghost summoning in talismans? I didn't expect the Three Pure Ones techniques to be so similar."

Seeing how easily he made it sound so easy, I asked him, "So how do we get that dog demon's fur and stuff?"

Old Fan smiled confidently: "That's easy. We'll just go over and chat with Bai He later, find an excuse to pet the dog's head and pluck a few hairs, right?"

Seeing that this old guy actually had some skills, I let him go. Although Old Fan spoke casually, once he made up his mind, he left the room and proceeded with the plan. Although he was very confident and quite capable, he was still prone to making mistakes sometimes. Everything seemed normal to him; he was laughing and joking around Bai He's side. But just as he was petting the dog's head, whether he had been too rough while pulling the dog's fur or something else, the old guy got bitten by Bai He's dog.

Fan Biao, with his thick skin, didn't seem to mind the bite, but his bloodied hand startled everyone around him, including myself.

Everyone around Fan Biao urged him to go see a doctor, but the old man didn't care at all, saying he'd think about it after he finished his work. He walked up to me, his hands covered in blood and hair mixed with his own blood, and said with a carefree laugh, "Hey brother! Is this enough? Just make do with it!"

I looked at Fan Biao, whose hand was covered in blood, but he didn't seem to care at all. His face was expressionless, and he was even smiling blankly.

Seeing that we had obtained the dog demon's fur, but Fan Biao was also injured, I said to myself in self-reproach, "Brother, why did you do this! You even got bitten for a few dog hairs!"

Fan Biao chuckled nonchalantly, "It doesn't matter. The most important thing is to figure these things out! Let's wait until tonight and see what kind of shady business is behind this."

As planned in the afternoon, we stayed up until evening. I sat to one side waiting for the Qiu family to pay their respects to Old Man Qiu's remains. To be honest, the old man died a rather unjust death, tormented by a monster, and even his ghost could not find peace after death.

Old Fan and I weren't particularly concerned about what would happen to the old man's ghost; we were just worried that the monsters in the village might disrupt the peace of the area. Actually, I wasn't particularly interested in figuring out what was going on behind the scenes, but Fan Biao was a legitimate successor of the Three Pure Ones Technique, and he seemed quite interested in these matters.

After a busy night, people gradually dispersed, leaving only the night watchmen behind; the rest went about their business. We waited until Grandpa Wu fell asleep before heading out to the area behind the toilet where we had heard the figure of the Taoist priest from Zhantai the previous night.

Without any hesitation, Fan Biao and I found a stone slab to sit on. Holding a candle in one hand and making hand gestures with the other, I began to chant: "All things in heaven and earth return to yin and yang, the two energies of yin and yang roam the four directions. If an immortal obtains the yin and yang energies, he will surely attain a long immortal position. The yin and yang energies return to heaven and earth, one pure and one turbid, transforming into yin and yang. The left hand is yang, supporting the lamp's flame; the right hand is yin, pointing to the four directions. Above, it points to the heavenly palace of immortals; below, it points to the earth where ghosts and demons hide. This junior needs your assistance in transmitting the divine message; the transmission of the command requires your return!"

I combined the Three Pure Ones Mantra with hand seals until green specks of light began to appear on the candle. I hurriedly took out the dog hair that Lao Fan had plucked from the dog demon and lit it on the candle. I held the dog hair between my index and middle fingers, making somewhat stiff hand seals, and flicked it into the air just as the dog hair was about to burn out!

Then, the candle in my left hand instantly burst into flames, its green flames flickering and leaping! As the flames rose, we heard rapid, hurried footsteps coming from the nearby concrete road—the sound of animals running wildly!

A moment later, we saw a large, white, long-haired dog appear in the darkness not far away. As it drew closer to the candlelight in my hand, it stood up with astonishing speed. Then, its head transformed into a beautiful human face, and its limbs became smooth, white hands and feet. A hazy, swirling mist coiled around its thighs and neck, and at a visible speed, the mist transformed into a white skirt and white short-sleeved shirt. It became a curvaceous girl, exactly like the girl I had dreamed of last night, with long, slightly wavy hair that reached her waist, and large eyes looking at Lao Fan and me as she strolled towards us.

Although Fan Biao and I knew it was a monster, we were still dumbfounded because we had just seen something we shouldn't have. We were both speechless. To cover up that we weren't lecherous, Fan Biao coughed and whispered to me, "Ahem, stop looking, just ask!"

I was speechless for a moment, and whispered back, "I didn't see it, how can I ask?"

"Ask her what happened, why she told us not to hurt Bai He!" Old Fan hurriedly winked at me.

I understood what he meant, so I composed myself and pretended to be very serious, though I wasn't sure if I was convincing: "Your name is Sally, right? What did you mean by what you said last night? Why did you tell us not to hurt Brother Bai?"

Sally's eyes were filled with sadness. Fan Biao and I were puzzled. What exactly did this monster named Sally want to express?

She then spoke to me and Fan Biao, saying, "I know you are capable people. Don't blame my master; it's all because of me. You must forgive him; he did nothing wrong!"

Fan Biao and I were completely baffled; we had no idea what she was talking about or what it meant! We were incredibly curious, but we didn't dare ask anyone and give ourselves away. So I looked at Fan Biao beside me and said, "Why don't you ask her, Lao Fan?"

Thankfully, Lao Fan wasn't like me. The black guy went straight to the point and asked, "Tell me, now that you've cultivated a true form, why are you still staying by his side? Don't you know that humans and ghosts are different, and humans and demons are enemies?"

Sally shook her head, looking aggrieved. "No, it's not what you think!"

Fan Biao stared wide-eyed: "What does that look like?!"

"It's because I'm his last resort. I don't want to leave him, and he doesn't want me to leave either, which is why I'm like this now. He shouldn't have trusted the Qiu family, and he shouldn't have helped the three badger brothers!"

Old Fan and I became increasingly intrigued as we listened. It seemed there was more to this than met the eye. So, Fan Biao pretended to be very serious and said, "Don't you know that this will disrupt the balance between humans and demons? You're a demon and he's human by his side. Even if he's a disciple of the Hundred Immortals Sect, if you stay by his side, he'll eventually be corrupted by your malevolent energy! Do you want to shorten his lifespan?"

Sally hurriedly said, "No, no, I love my master very much, how could I hurt him? It was him! He didn't want to..."

Before Sally could finish her sorrowful words, a man's voice came from the darkness, and it was none other than Bai He's voice!

Fan Biao and I looked at Bai He, who had appeared in the darkness, with some surprise. He slowly walked out of the darkness to Sally's side, patted her head, and smiled at us. I saw that his smile was particularly helpless and sorrowful: "Sally, stop talking. It's my fault! Brothers, if you have a problem, come at me! Don't hurt her. I know I did something wrong. Please punish me, okay?"

Fan Biao and I were completely baffled. What was wrong with Lao Bai? What did he mean by those words?

We watched Bai He with a mixture of anticipation and wariness. Bai He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and tossed the pack to Lao Fan, saying, "I'm sorry, brothers, it's all my fault for being selfish!"

Bai He lit a cigarette and, while smoking, told us how the incident started!

Many years ago, he married his wife. While traveling in Heilongjiang, they bought a white dog, who is now known as Sally. However, life is unpredictable. In an accident, he was saved by a powerful demon on the verge of enlightenment. This demon was incredibly strong, and saving Baihe was its final tribulation in its cultivation. The demon was a python spirit; after saving Baihe, it died. Having endured all the tribulations, the demon attained enlightenment and abandoned its physical body. To repay Baihe for helping it achieve enlightenment, it accepted Baihe as a human disciple of the Hundred Immortals Sect.

Everything was peaceful until Bai He went out to deal with a conflict with the demon clan, when an accident happened to his family. The Qiu family of Xing Village was rich and powerful in the village. Because they were used to being ruthless and domineering, they forcibly occupied Bai He's land in order to make it easier for them to go home.

Bai He was away from home at the time, and his parents were honest and law-abiding rural people. They sought help from the village officials, but the Qiu family was wealthy, and the village chief couldn't do anything about it.

The honest villagers weren't very aware of the dangers, so the elderly couple tried to stop the excavator that was clearing the road. However, the excavator lost control of its direction while pushing the tree, and the tree fell on the parents.

The elderly couple were rushed to the hospital but ultimately died. The deceased's family went to confront the Qiu family, and during the ensuing scuffle, an accident occurred, resulting in a fall that injured their lumbar spine and caused paralysis of their lower body.

Bai He originally wanted revenge, but his master told him that this was his destiny, because from the day he was saved and became a disciple of the Hundred Immortals Sect, he had been burdened with a mission that ordinary people could not bear.

After much persuasion, Bai He reluctantly accepted the Qiu family's company and never left the village again. Several years passed in a flash, but Bai He's wife's condition worsened, and she passed away from illness a few years later. His wife left nothing behind except an empty house and Sally, which she had brought back from the far north when they got married.

Sally was raised by Bai He from a young age, and Bai He herself was...