I once heard my grandfather talk about a very sinister medical technique called “Five Ghosts Pulse Connection.”
I never thought the first time I witnessed it firsthand, it would happen to me.
I was sealed in a clay jar for three days and three nights, and the process was absolutely like a nightmare!
But after the nightmare, the result was good.
My meridians, which Cao Xuerong had completely ruined, were miraculously and perfectly reconnected.
“You have a natural King of Hell’s fate; even if your injuries are healed, you won’t live much longer. What are you happy about?” Dumb Granny wrote on the ground.
My heart trembled. I didn’t expect this granny to have insight comparable to my grandfather’s. I forced a smile and said, “I’ll live as long as I can.”
“If you don’t want to die, it’s very simple: just master the King of Hell’s abilities,” Dumb Granny wrote.
My grandfather had also told me this.
I was about to say that it was impossible when I inadvertently saw Dumb Granny’s calm expression. My heart suddenly pounded, and I asked with a trembling voice, “Granny, do you know how… how to master the King of Hell’s abilities?”
Dumb Granny acted as if she hadn’t heard, completely unmoved.
Just as I was about to ask again, I saw her left index finger casually point towards the Goddess Statue in the temple.
Enlightenment struck me, and I immediately knelt before the Goddess Statue, kowtowing repeatedly.
After kowtowing hundreds of times, Dumb Granny patted my shoulder and wrote on the ground again, “The Goddess has agreed to take you as her disciple.”
I was stunned for a moment. I had thought Dumb Granny wanted to take me as her disciple, and having me kowtow to the Goddess Statue was a test of my sincerity. But who knew she would say, “The Goddess is taking me as her disciple.”
Dumb Granny handed me a cup of tea and asked me to offer it.
I took it in my hand and looked up, only to see the Goddess, enveloped in the smoke of incense, looking lifelike.
Suddenly, I remembered that when I first crawled into the temple, Dumb Granny had said, “It’s fate that you were able to crawl into the temple and connect with us.”
At the time, I thought Dumb Granny had misspoken. Now, it seems, could there be others in this temple besides Dumb Granny who simply don’t wish to show themselves?
“Master, please have some tea.”
I didn’t bother to think too much and respectfully knelt to offer the tea.
Dumb Granny had me place the teacup on the incense altar and then kowtowed three times to the Goddess Statue, completing the master-disciple ceremony.
“From now on, I am your Senior Sister,” Dumb Granny wrote on the ground.
I was bewildered again. If Dumb Granny was my Senior Sister, then how old must my Master be?
“Our lineage has always been sparsely populated since ancient times. Now, only the two of us are left. My talent is too poor to inherit our sect, so it’s all up to you from now on,” Dumb Granny added.
I was very curious, “Then what kind of lineage do we belong to?”
“Mist Mountain Ling Sect. We are Ling Sect inheritors.”
I was startled.
The so-called three religions and nine schools, the hundred paths of Xuanmen, countless ancient factions and lineages have appeared from ancient times to the present, gradually disappearing into the long river of time.
Especially in modern times, the old ways have declined, and many have already lost their inheritance.
Currently, the more active professions are Feng Shui Masters and fortune-tellers.
Under my grandfather's teachings, I started to learn about these things from a young age, but I had never heard of Mist Mountain Ling Sect.
However, over thousands of years, so many factions have emerged. Perhaps the Ling Sect is not very well-known, and it’s normal not to have heard of it.
“It’s not that we’re not famous; it’s that our Ling Sect has always been secretive and unknown to outsiders. You need to understand this distinction,” Dumb Granny said, as if knowing my thoughts.
“So that’s how it is.” I suddenly understood. “Then what kind of faction does our Ling Sect belong to?”
Monk is impossible. Taoist? A little possible, but not quite like it.
“Then tell me, what kind of faction should the King of Hell belong to?” Dumb Granny asked.
My heart trembled.
What kind of faction could the King of Hell belong to?
Thinking of the eerie “Five Ghosts Pulse Connection Technique,” I blurted out, “Does it… belong to the Ghost Sect?”
“All things in the world have spirits. What do you think our Ling Sect does?” Dumb Granny wrote. “Once you enter the Ling Sect, it’s like entering a deep sea. You are destined to deal with demons, monsters, and ghosts your whole life. The sea of suffering is boundless. Have you thought it through?”
“Senior Sister, I just offered tea. Can I still turn back?” I asked.
Dumb Granny glanced at me. “No.”
I had to change the subject. “Is Mist Mountain our Ling Sect’s ancestral land? Where is it?”
“Haven’t you noticed that it’s foggy here every other day?”
I looked outside the temple, and indeed, it was foggy.
From that day on, I lived in the Niangniang Temple.
Dumb Granny lived in a small house by the temple, where she cooked and slept.
My heart was always on my grandfather. Once my injuries were mostly healed, I wanted to go down the mountain to inquire about him. Dumb Granny didn’t say anything and even prepared some food for me.
Who knew that I had only gone halfway, not even down the mountain yet, when I fainted. In the end, Dumb Granny, who had quietly followed me, picked me up.
“In the temple, with the Goddess’s protection, your King of Hell’s fate can be temporarily suppressed. If you want to go out and seek death, that’s up to you.”
After waking up, I received a scolding from Dumb Granny.
After this incident, I settled down and stayed in the temple, studying diligently day and night with Dumb Granny.
Life in the mountains was very peaceful.
Only the heavenly thunder that arrived precisely on the fifteenth day of the seventh month each year was truly a headache, and the thunder grew more breathtaking each year.
Ten years passed in a blink of an eye.