Volume 1 Chapter 040 Chenzhou Talisman
The basic principle is to use the method of stargazing to find the seven gates of the local earth veins, and then use the Five Emperors' Coins stained with boy's eyebrows to seal the seven gates, so that the vital energy is cut off and a place of absolute yin is formed.
This room was probably set up with a similar formation. The reason why Lin Wenjing was able to break through the maze easily was because she did not use her eyes, but instead found a way out by sensing the flow of vital energy.
If I could find the seven gates here, maybe I could find a way to break this formation, but unfortunately I don't know how. I am a living person, and I can't sense the flow of vitality here. I pondered for a while. Maybe it was a matter of life and death, and I was forced into a hurry. Suddenly, I had an idea and thought of something.
About two years ago, I went to a funeral with my uncle and stayed at the victim's house that night. The victim was doing business in another city. One day, when he was entertaining people outside, he suddenly had a heart attack and died. Although many people have been away from home for many years, most of them believe in returning to their roots, so the victim's body was transported back from a long distance by car.
I told my uncle that luckily even though we live in a small mountain village, we can still fit cars in. If people live in the mountains, they won’t be able to transport the bodies back.
Uncle San said unhappily, "Now that Butcher Zhang is dead, do we have to eat only hairy pigs? In ancient times, many people couldn't even afford a horse-drawn carriage, let alone a truck. Those who died in a foreign land eventually returned home."
I asked curiously, "How did they get it back? Especially in places where the mountains are high and the water is far away, where horses and vehicles can't go up at all, did they hire a lot of people to carry it back?"
Uncle San said, "There is nothing in the world that cannot be done, only things that cannot be imagined. Our ancestors have already found a solution."
I thought about it over and over, but couldn't figure out any way to send a dead person back home in the most labor-saving way, so I begged my third uncle to tell me quickly.
Uncle San just said two words: "Drive the corpses."
I was young at the time and didn't know that there was a branch of our industry in western Hunan. They did not perform feng shui rituals, but were responsible for sending the dead who died in a foreign land back to their hometown. People called them corpse drivers.
My uncle told me that the profession of corpse driver has existed since ancient times. To learn this profession, one must be brave and in good health. In the early days, if you stayed in a small inn in the mountain village in Xiangxi, you would most likely see dead bodies walking. These corpses were wrapped in black cloth, lined up in a row, and led by a man holding a gong. This man was the corpse driver.
Corpse drivers never carry lanterns. Instead, they beat small yin gongs and shake soul-catching bells to get night walkers to avoid them and notify people with dogs to lock them up. If there are more than two corpses, they are strung together with straw ropes, one every seven or eight feet, and carried across thousands of mountains and rivers to their hometowns for burial.
Since modern transportation has become more convenient, the branch of corpse-driving has gradually declined. However, my uncle thought that some of the methods of corpse-driving were still very useful, so he asked me to remember them carefully and recite them from time to time after returning. I was young and ignorant at the time, and I didn't believe in such strange things. Although I wrote them down at the time, I threw them out of my mind when I looked back.
I leaned against the wall, trying to recall the techniques that my uncle had taught me. Corpse-driving is also known as moving spirits, walking shadows, or walking corpses in our profession, with the Xiangxi school being the most famous. To become a corpse-driver, one must learn thirty-six techniques, but the most crucial point is how to make the corpse walk.
The reason why the Xiangxi School is the most famous is mainly because of two things produced locally, the local Chenzhou Talisman and Chenzhou Sand. To make the corpse walk on its own, this involves a secret technique of corpse-driving. First, cinnabar should be placed on the deceased's forehead, back, chest, left and right palms, and soles, and each place should be pressed with a magic talisman and then tied tightly with five-color cloth strips.
Because these seven places are where the seven orifices enter and exit, the cinnabar magic seal is to retain the seven souls of the deceased. After that, some cinnabar is stuffed into the ears, nose, and mouth of the deceased, and then sealed with the magic seal. According to the ancient teachings of our industry, the ears, nose, and mouth are where the three souls enter and exit, and this can keep them in the body of the deceased.
These two steps are the most critical steps to allow the corpse to walk on its own, and Chenzhou sand and Chenzhou talisman are the best cinnabar and magic talisman.
The reason I thought of driving corpses was because I saw six corpses lying in the house. Although I couldn't sense the flow of life energy, the corpses could. This haunted house was very weird. There was a lot of cinnabar mixed in the walls. These people died here, and their souls might not have left their bodies yet.
If I can use the corpse-driving technique to raise these corpses, I can use them to find out the direction of the vital energy. But now I don't even have the most common cinnabar and magic talisman, let alone Chenzhou sand and Chenzhou talisman. Although the walls of this room contain a lot of cinnabar, it can't be used at all.
I pondered for a while, took out the syringe hidden in my pocket, and pulled out a three-edged needle. The corpse-driving method of the Xiangxi School was no longer feasible, but my uncle explained its principle to me back then. It was mainly to seal the soul of the deceased in the body and stimulate it to rise with secret techniques.
I tried to use the fixed needle method to replace cinnabar and magic talismans. The so-called fixed needle method is about the word "fixed". Under the supervision of Uncle San, I practiced it for several years. This fixed needle method is mainly used in our industry to deal with those who pretend to be dead. The fixed needle is used to seal the body's acupoints, and the body will lie down obediently.
I had no choice but to use the fixed needle method to seal the seven orifices of the corpse to see if it would work.
I clamped seven three-edged needles in my hands, stripped off the clothes of one of the corpses, closed my eyes and took a deep breath, adjusted my breathing for a few beats, and dropped the needles like rain, sealing seven acupoints in one breath. My heart was pounding, and I silently recited the spell that my uncle taught me. I pointed at the corpse and shouted, "Get up!"
I saw the male corpse with half of his face rotten suddenly sit up from the ground. I folded my hands and made a gesture, and the corpse stood up. I was surprised and happy. This man was trapped in the haunted house and his soul really didn't dissipate.
I tried hard to remember the many methods that my uncle had taught me, and I tightened my palms, then opened them outward. The shoulders of the corpse in front of me suddenly collapsed, and it seemed that the whole person suddenly relaxed.
I stepped aside, held my breath, and stared at him. After a while, I saw the male corpse turn his head, lean to the left, pause, then turn half a body to the left, and began to stagger forward. He took two steps, stopped again, turned his head slightly, turned around, and walked three steps to the right.
I was concentrating on memorizing the route he had taken. This was a matter of life and death, so I didn't dare to slack off even for a moment. When the male corpse took two more steps, I immediately followed him, stepping on the spot where he had first stood. Then, according to his previous position, I turned half a body length to the left, took two steps one by one, and followed closely behind him.
After that, I went around and around for who knows how many times, as if I had taken a series of steps in a maze, and finally, the male corpse stopped in front of me. I took a deep breath, took a step, then jumped up, hugged the male corpse, and hung on him.
Although the stench and the rotting flesh on the body were disgusting, I was ecstatic! The moment I hung on the male corpse, I saw something in front of me, a wooden box! I observed it carefully for a while, then hung upside down with my legs around the male corpse's neck, grabbed the box with both hands, and with a force, I opened the lid of the box.
I only felt a flash of light passing by. It turned out that there was a bronze mirror hidden in the opened box. As the mirror light passed by, the scenery in the room suddenly changed, and the door without a door was finally revealed.
I let out a long sigh and jumped off the male corpse. My body was sticky and covered with rotten flesh. I didn't care about anything else. I saw that the box was square, about half a meter long and wide. In addition to the bronze mirror, there were some books and other items at the bottom of the box. They were scattered and I couldn't see them all at once.
I was extremely hungry and thirsty at the moment. The struggle just now had already used up all my remaining strength. My breath was gone and I fell to the ground, unable to get up again.
I yelled a few times, but I found that I couldn't make any sound due to severe dehydration. Could it be that the formation was broken, and I was dying of thirst and starvation here? I was just despairing when I heard a cold voice behind me: "What the hell are you yelling about?"
