The Three Pure Ones' Secret: Expressing Spirit

Finally, I couldn't help but ask Wang Xiaoshuai, "Fatty, what... what kind of gods are these?"

Wang Xiaoshuai looked up at the statues on both sides. The reason he was asked was because this guy had no other hobbies but liked to study these ancient Chinese deities. As he looked, he said, "These are the Six Officials, and there's a Judge behind them!"

Zhou Xing and I were confused. Zhou Xing paused for a moment, then asked, "What's this 'Six Cases and Officials'?"

Wang Xiaoshuai scoffed at him, "You don't understand, bro, you're a god!"

Zhou Xing and I were speechless. How could this fatso talk so much nonsense all day long? Didn't we know that these were all gods?

But Wang Xiaoshuai continued, "These are gods, but not gods from heaven, but gods from the underworld."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xing and I felt our bladders tighten, but Wang Xiaoshuai told us, "These are all legitimate deities. You should know Journey to the West and other mythological stories, right? These two rows of deities are in charge of the underworld, and above them is Yama, the King of Hell."

We looked at them, and I just couldn't understand how he could tell they were gods from the underworld and not gods from heaven: "How can you be so sure they're from the underworld?"

Wang Xiaoshuai pointed at us and said, "Look, what's the mount of this statue!"

We see a burly man with a thick beard and wide-open eyes, looking fierce and menacing. The statue is sitting on a tiger, and judging from the paint, it is a large white tiger!

Which ancient deity rides a white tiger? Could it be from the Investiture of the Gods? But Wang Xiaoshuai reminded us, do you know Zhong Kui?

We nodded and then leaned closer to take a closer look. But I was so focused on the Zhong Kui statue that I didn't pay attention to my footing and tripped over something hard, causing me to stumble and fall. I immediately felt a sharp pain in my calf and slumped to the ground, rubbing it.

Before they could react, I tripped and fell. They quickly asked if I was alright. I rubbed my calf and, grimacing in pain, said, "I'm fine, just bumped into something. What attacked me?"

The two immediately took a closer look with the candles and saw a small sculpture, about waist-high, standing to the left front of the Zhong Kui statue. The sculpture was painted white all over, holding a long stick that looked like a feather duster, and had a strange, insincere smile on its face. On its head was a tall, pointed hat, similar to the hat worn during the time of playing cards, with the words "Get Rich at First Sight" written on it.

I was completely baffled by this, and it looked somewhat familiar. I felt like I'd seen it on TV before. After thinking for a moment, it dawned on me: who was this? It was Xie Bi'an, that scoundrel! But then I looked at the statue of Zhong Kui and it all made sense. Zhong Kui is the judge of ghosts in the underworld, and Xie Bi'an, being of a lower rank, is a messenger sent to capture ghosts.

Seeing Xie Bi'an, I knew without a doubt that Fan Wujiu was also nearby, as these two brothers were inseparable. Under the light, I spotted Fan Wujiu, the Black Impermanence, carrying a large black chain. The two ghosts were complete opposites: Xie Bi'an was dressed in white, while Fan Wujiu was dressed in black; Xie Bi'an had a grinning face, while Fan Wujiu looked like someone owed him money, his eyes fierce and menacing.

I looked at the two guys, one black and one white. Actually, they were quite famous in the underworld—no, famous ghosts. Many legendary stories about these two brothers circulated in the world, the most detailed of which started with a version I learned later.

Long ago, there were two men who were as close as brothers. One was a learned scholar, and the other was a young master who had practiced martial arts since childhood.

The two men, one a scholar and the other a warrior, got into an argument on the street. The martial arts master was about to fight the well-read scholar, but the scholar had a particularly sharp tongue and managed to talk the martial arts master into submission. In the end, the two not only didn't fight, but also became friends after their argument.

One admired the other's eloquence, the other admired the other's martial arts skills. They spent many years drinking and having fun together, and eventually became close friends.

One day, Xie Bi'an, a man of letters, invited Fan Wujiu to meet him at the pavilion under the Anding Bridge. However, a heavy rain fell. Xie Bi'an was unwilling to break his promise and foolishly waited in the pavilion under the bridge. But the rain got heavier and heavier, and he missed the best opportunity to escape. In the end, he drowned under the Anding Bridge.

Finally, Fan Wujiu arrived at the appointed time. Looking at the heavy rain and the rushing river, he searched everywhere and finally saw his good brother Xie Bi'an drowning under the bridge. Feeling guilty and sad, the stubborn Fan Wujiu felt more and more sorry for his good brother who was a bit dim-witted. Then, he also foolishly hanged himself under the bridge beam of Anding Bridge.

After the two dim-witted guys died, they went to the underworld. King Yama saw that these two guys were a bit abnormal, but their affection was commendable. Coincidentally, the underworld was short of messengers to collect souls in the mortal world, so he appointed them as the Ten Great Underworld Marshals. Although there were ten of these Ten Great Underworld Marshals, only the two dim-witted ghosts, Black and White Impermanence, were the most famous.

However, these were all folk tales and legends, and the true identities and origins of the two people were unknown. We didn't dwell on it any further and continued walking, looking around as we went. Apart from Wang Xiaoshuai recognizing the gods in these myths, Zhou Xing and I didn't recognize most of them.

After walking for a while, we arrived at the end of the room. The deity at the very back of the room was not what we expected. It was not Yama, the King of Hell, but a female sculpture, which was larger than the other sculptures. The sculpture was a woman sitting cross-legged, but to be precise, it should be a woman. This woman was wearing a white robe, with her hands placed between her legs, holding a pink lotus lantern in her palms.

I looked at him curiously and asked Wang Xiaoshuai, who then stared blankly, looking completely bewildered. He exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? What kind of deity is this? I've never seen anything like it before!"

We were all drawn to the female deity statue. I looked at the lotus lantern in her hand and asked Zhou Xing, "Hey, do you think that lantern can still be lit?"

Zhou Xing shook his head: "I don't know either. Why don't you try clicking it?"

The thought of going out and turning on the light crossed my mind, but in reality, I was incredibly cowardly, so I shook my head: "Never mind, it's better not to touch it."

Zhou Xing handed me the candle: "What are you afraid of? It's so dark in this room. Light it up and you can take a closer look."

I was speechless, so I took the candle he handed me and walked to the lotus lamp in front of the female sculpture. I looked through the candlelight and saw that there was lamp oil in the lotus lamp, but I didn't know what kind of oil it was or whether it could be lit.

I held the candle flame to the wick of the lotus lantern. As soon as the flame touched the wick, our eyes lit up and the lantern actually lit up.

We didn't take it too seriously and continued to look at the various deities in the house. The deity sculptures in the house didn't look like they were placed there in just a few months. A thick layer of dust had accumulated on the deity sculptures. Every ten or eight years, there wouldn't be such traces of time. But we had never seen this house before. Except for the time it was built during holidays, it couldn't have grown out of the ground, could it?

We looked at each one one by one, and Wang Xiaoshuai explained them to us. As he spoke, we listened and slowly walked towards the door. But when we got to the spot where I had fallen, I looked closely at the White Impermanence sculpture, and the more I looked, the more I felt something was off. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, so I asked the two guys next to me, "Hey, do you guys feel like something's not right?"

They looked at me and shook their heads. I looked at Xie Bi'an's statue; he still looked the same as when he tripped me up, but I still felt something was off.

So I turned around and looked around, and what I saw almost made me jump up on the spot. I couldn't help but exclaim, "Holy crap! Look, that light is following us!"

Upon hearing what I said, I clearly felt the two people next to me shudder. Then they looked in the direction of the female deity statue, but just as they saw the lotus lanterns floating in the air, the normally colored light turned into white wicks.

The three of them were so frightened that they stood there in place. Finally, Wang Xiaoshuai couldn't help but yell "Wow!" Before Zhou Xing and I could react, he took off running.

Dude, I didn't dare hesitate for long. Seeing Wang Xiaoshuai run, I immediately followed. Then, without looking back, the three of us ran straight out! Although we were all terrified, fortunately, Wang Xiaoshuai wasn't running around blindly. He ran towards the main entrance of the auditorium for a while and arrived at the main entrance. We then walked to the iron gate outside the main entrance.

The three men reached out to push the door, but it was locked with a large iron padlock. Wang Xiaoshuai then prepared to climb over the iron gate, but Zhou Xing looked behind him and urgently said to us, "Holy crap, they've followed us out! Run!"

Then, without paying any attention to me and Wang Xiaoshuai, he ran towards the toilet. I immediately understood what Zhou Xing meant. Looking at this big iron gate, we couldn't climb over it anytime soon. Before the three of us could climb out, that strange light would definitely be right in front of us. What if it was a ghost light or something? Those three guys would be doomed!

So I yelled to Wang Xiaoshuai, "Stop climbing! They're catching up! Run!"

Then I ignored Wang Xiaoshuai and ran with Zhou Xing back the way we came. Soon we reached the stone stairs behind the toilet. Wang Xiaoshuai chased after us, panting heavily and yelling that Zhou Xing and I were disloyal.

Zhou Xing and I cursed in unison, "Loyalty my ass!"

Then Zhou Xing added, "Damn it, you didn't talk about loyalty to me and Pu Qingyuan when you ran away, you beast!"

Wang Xiaoshuai felt somewhat guilty, but after glancing behind him, he shouted, "Run! That bastard is coming towards us!"

The lamp couldn't run as fast as we could; it floated slowly in the air, but all three of us could tell that its target was us. So we didn't dare stop, stepping on our heels and taking three steps at a time, we scrambled up the stone stairs.

We soon arrived at the incense burner, but unfortunately, the candle in my hand went out because the wind didn't shield it. Luckily, the moon was still quite bright.

We ran straight back to the old classroom we came from in the dark, and quickly passed the passage with two rooms we had passed on the way here. But after passing through the passage, Zhou Xing stopped and didn't move. When Wang Xiaoshuai and I saw that he had stopped running, I anxiously asked him, "Brother, why are you stopping here? Run!"

Just then, Wang Xiaoshuai said from behind, "Oh no, we're possessed by a ghost!"

No sooner had Wang Xiaoshuai finished speaking than Zhou Xing cursed at him, "I've possessed your great-uncle! I've forgotten the classroom we came from. Where do we run now?"

The three of us looked at each other in a panic, but it was so dark we could only make out their general outlines. Just as we were struggling with this, we heard a thud coming from the overgrown bushes in the middle of the classroom.

The three men paused, then, through the moonlight, they could vaguely make out some kind of building standing among the bushes. Curious, they looked on. Zhou Xing, puzzled, said, "Hey, there seems to be something in there. Quick, let's see if we can hide there!"

He then walked along the old classroom, peering into the bushes. We vaguely saw a path paved with gravel, but it was already completely blocked by bushes. With no other option, the three of us had to grit our teeth and squeeze in. And it would have been better if we hadn't squeezed in; as soon as we did, all three of us were pricked and winced.

Fortunately, winter was approaching, and our coats all had hoods, so we put on our hoods and, ignoring the scratches from the thorns, squatted down in the bushes.

It was very dark in the middle of the bushes, but you could vaguely see the scene outside. Since you could still see outside, if you really attracted any ghosts or spirits, you would definitely be discovered.

But the gurgling sound is coming from inside. What is inside?

The three of them were so frightened they were almost incoherent. Wang Xiaoshuai asked us, "Where can we hide here? We're doomed!"

Just as we were filled with fear, the thumping sound came again, and this time it was very clear. The three of us crouched in the bushes next to the overgrown building, and through the dim moonlight, we could vaguely make out that it was a pavilion. But why would they build such a structure in the very middle of the place? And what was that thumping sound coming from the middle of the pavilion?

The three of them were at their wits' end, as it was too dark. Zhou Xing lit a lighter and relit the candle. With the light, we saw a large stone slab on the ground beneath us, carved with a Tai Chi symbol. As we curiously looked at the Tai Chi, a gurgling sound came from it again. This time, we were stunned. This Tai Chi stone slab was probably a lid. Could it be a well?

But thinking about it, that doesn't make sense. Our school building is built on a hillside, and the old classroom is also on a hillside. Even if people in the past lacked common sense, they wouldn't be so foolish as to dig a well on a mountain, would they?

But Wang Xiaoshuai seemed to have acted without thinking, blurting out, "Holy crap, is this a well?"

Zhou Xing and I stared blankly at Wang Xiaoshuai. Seeing our expressions as if we were idiots, he couldn't help but ask us, "Why are you looking at me like that? Are you amazed by my intelligence and reaction?"

Zhou Xing and I ignored his narcissism. Zhou Xing then sarcastically remarked, "You're so smart, hurry up and move aside!"