One divination a day, a trainee celestial master

The morning mist was slightly cool.

Jiang Shou put his hands behind his back, raised his chin slightly, and said the opening line that he had rehearsed countless times in his mind in a profound and unfathomable tone.

"...This humble Taoist has come specifically to establish a connection."

After saying this, Jiang Shou stood quietly in place, a sage-like smile playing on his lips.

The morning light shone on Jiang Shou's flowing blue Taoist robe, and combined with his compassionate "eyes," the whole scene could be described as ethereal and imposing.

According to the script Jiang Shou had rehearsed in his mind last night, the following plot should have unfolded as follows: The male host was so shocked by Jiang Shou's words that he revealed the secret that he immediately bowed down and wept as he welcomed this "living god" into the gate and treated him as an honored guest.

However, two seconds passed.

Zhou Guodong gritted his teeth, stared at the excessively young Taoist priest in front of him, and squeezed out three words through gritted teeth: "No need."

"Bang!" Zhou Guodong slammed the heavy iron gate shut, and the resulting gust of wind messed up Jiang Shou's hair.

"..." Jiang Shou's smug smile froze instantly.

He stood frozen like a petrified statue on the uneven cobblestone path in front of the door.

"Holy crap?" Jiang Shou stared in disbelief at the tightly closed iron gate in front of him, his head buzzing.

This script is all wrong! Wasn't my line sophisticated enough? Wasn't this outfit ethereal enough? Wasn't there a child crying at night in this house? I pointed out the symptoms directly, so why am I being turned away?!

"Oh no, I messed up this time." Jiang Shou rubbed his nose, his previous air of otherworldly grace vanished instantly, replaced by utter embarrassment.

He patted the Cold Season Token in his pocket, inwardly lamenting with a sense of despair, "My ancestor, I can't do this job anymore. I can't even get through this gate. Can't I apply for a different task? I might as well go dig for antiques in the back mountains!"

Little did he know that Zhou Guodong, already exhausted and on the verge of collapse due to his son's illness, was thinking about how his mother had spent two thousand yuan a few days ago at that dilapidated Taoist temple in the east. She'd gotten a worthless talisman and stuck it on for three days—it had no effect whatsoever and was just a waste of time. Yesterday, she'd secretly gone to Qingzhi Temple, where the monks' chanting had caused his son to scream in agony.

This young man dressed as a Taoist priest came to my house early in the morning to swindle and cheat me.

The anger in his heart suddenly surged up, and it was only because Jiang Shou's dazzling appearance in the morning light had somewhat stunned him that he didn't scold him.

Jiang Shou sighed, thinking that since he had come all this way, he couldn't just go back empty-handed.

"Forget it, I'll go to the breakfast stall at the alley entrance to get a steamed bun first, and while I'm at it, I'll ask around among the neighbors to see what's going on with this family, and why they're so hostile."

Jiang Shou turned around, shook the sleeves of his Taoist robe, and was just about to slink away.

"Creak..." The large iron gate that had just been closed behind them was suddenly pulled open from the inside.

Immediately afterwards, an anxious old woman with a full head of white hair squeezed out from the crack in the door.

She spotted Jiang Shou, who was about to leave, and his blue Taoist robe at a glance.

The old woman's eyes lit up instantly, as if she had seen a lifeline, and she stumbled forward.

"Little Celestial Master! Little Celestial Master, please wait!"

The old woman clasped her hands together and bowed repeatedly to Jiang Shou, tears streaming down her face. "Please...please save my Zhouzhou!"

"Mom! What are you doing!" Zhou Guodong chased after his mother from inside the house, his face dark with anger. He reached out to grab her arm. "He's so young, he's practically a liar! Wasn't the two thousand yuan you were swindled out of by that old Taoist priest in the east of the city the day before yesterday enough? There's no such thing as a destined connection in this world; they're all after our money!"

"Get out of my way!" The old woman snapped, slapping her son's hand away forcefully. "What do you know! That young Taoist priest hasn't even stepped foot in our house, yet he can tell right away that Zhouzhou's spirit is frightened and he's been crying all night! How could he be a fraud?!"

The old woman turned to Jiang Shou, tears streaming down her face, and cried, "Little Celestial Master, my Zhouzhou hasn't had a full night's sleep in half a month... The hospital tests said there's nothing wrong, the talismans at the Taoist temple aren't working, and the monks at the Buddhist temple are only making things worse... I really don't know what to do! Since you can foresee my family's predicament, you must be sent by the Ancestral Master to save us from our suffering, right?"

Zhou Guodong's lips moved, as if he wanted to say something more, such as casually inquiring about his child's situation, or making a strong statement about being in cahoots with the Taoist temple, but his wife Lin Juan, who had followed him out, tightly grabbed his sleeve.

Lin Juan, her eyes red, looked at Zhou Guodong and shook her head. Her eyes clearly said: The hospital can't do anything, so let Mom try one last time.

Jiang Shou, standing outside the door, witnessed everything. His heart was in turmoil; the fragile heart of the immortal master, which had almost shattered just moments before, was instantly mended by the old woman's words.

"So he was scammed by his competitors before, no wonder he's so wary." Jiang Shou had a hunch.

He turned around to face the weeping old woman, and once again put his hands behind his back. His chin was slightly raised, and a look of compassion for humanity appeared in his eyes.

"Grandma, please don't worry." Jiang Shou nodded slightly, his tone gentle: "Since I have come, it is by fate. The Ancestral Master could not bear to see the children suffer, so naturally I will not stand idly by."

Upon hearing this, the old woman was so moved that she almost knelt down before Jiang Shou. She quickly grabbed Jiang Shou's wide robe sleeve and ushered him into the courtyard.

In the corner of the yard, ten-year-old Zhouzhou was wrapped in a thin blanket on a rocking chair.

"Hiss~~" The moment Jiang Shou saw the boy's face, he couldn't help but gasp.

This was the first time he had ever seen a victim who was truly "possessed by evil spirits." The child's face was an extremely unnatural grayish-blue, his forehead was dark, his eyes were wide open, but his pupils were unfocused.

He was like a soulless rag doll; even with so many people surrounding him, he didn't move an inch, not even lifting his eyelids.

Jiang Shou suppressed his shock and forced himself to adopt the demeanor of a professional.

At this point, you have to put on a professional act to boost the confidence of the patient's family.

He walked to the rocking chair, bent down, and gently flipped Zhouzhou's eyelids with two fingers.

Then, he pretended to reach out and hover his hand above Zhouzhou's forehead for a moment, his brows furrowing into a deep frown, as if he were sensing something with some extremely profound "qi-gazing technique".

In reality, he was just recalling the obscure vocabulary about the soul from the book "Introduction to the Three Arts" he had read last night.

A full half minute passed before Jiang Shou finally straightened up and let out a long sigh.

"His spirit is not at peace, his vital energy is not returning to its source. Two of his three souls and seven spirits have already departed." Jiang Shou put his hands behind his back, looked at the old woman and Zhou Guodong, and threw out a string of extremely frightening Taoist terms, "This child must have offended something extremely yin in the mountains. The evil spirit entered his body, frightened and disturbed his spirit, causing his main soul to leave his body, and he cannot have peace every night."

Although they couldn't understand it, the old woman and Lin Juan turned pale instantly upon hearing "the main soul leaving the body".

"Then...what should we do? Little Celestial Master, is there any way to save him?" Lin Juan asked in a trembling voice.

"Yes." Jiang Shou didn't hesitate at all. He reached into his robes and, with extremely solemn movements, pulled out the [Soul-Soothing Talisman] that he had drawn in one go yesterday in a state of "flow".

The yellow paper looked extremely ancient in the morning light, and the intricate and flowing cinnabar runes on it faintly exuded a strange aura that calmed the mind.

"This talisman is the [Soul-Soothing and Spirit-Fixing Talisman], a secret technique passed down in my Shouyi Temple." Jiang Shou held the talisman between two fingers and gently waved it in mid-air.

Seeing Jiang Shou take out the talisman, Zhou Guodong, who had been holding back his anger, finally couldn't hold back any longer.

He recalled the two thousand yuan his mother had spent on waste paper in the east of the city the day before yesterday, and couldn't help but let out a hostile sneer, his tone full of sarcasm:

"Secret teachings? Little master, we're all just trying to make a living, so stop beating around the bush. Just tell me directly, how much 'offering money' are you asking for from our family on this piece of paper with the red circle? Two thousand? Or five thousand?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shou paused slightly in the hand holding the talisman. He looked up at Zhou Guodong, whose face was full of wariness and sarcasm.

Jiang Shou couldn't help but curse inwardly, "Damn it! I haven't even had a meat bun this morning, and I've traveled halfway across the county to deliver the antidote to your son, and you still give me this attitude! If it weren't for completing the task of the Frost Order, given your attitude, I, this immortal master, wouldn't care about your damn affairs and would just turn around and leave, believe it or not?!"

Although he was cursing inwardly, Jiang Shou's face remained calm and composed.

He simply looked at Zhou Guodong quietly, his eyes clear, even carrying a hint of pity.

Slowly, Jiang Shoujiang gently placed the precious [Soul-Soothing Talisman] in his hand onto the stone table beside him.

"Sir, you've misunderstood." Jiang Shou's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an air of aloofness untouched by worldly affairs: "As I said, the divination last night led me here, which is the will of the Ancestral Master and the destiny between me and this child."

"I will not take a single penny from this talisman." Jiang Shou looked directly into Zhou Guodong's momentarily surprised eyes and said, word by word, "My Shouyi Temple operates solely on cause and effect, and I do not seek material gain."