Shanghai Special Office —
“Our people at the frontlines have sent back information. That old man who is suspected to be from the Ming Dynasty said that he has a way to solve this crisis. The Shinto priest also asked the Japanese government to provide the entire country’s wasabi as payment.”
The people gathered in this room hadn’t left ever since the beginning of the incident. This incident was simply too big, and they would only dare go to sleep once the incident is solved. They planned to stay here and conduct a discussion.
The leader casually talked about the information gathered by the intelligence agents in the frontline. Everyone in the room was either under the Ministry of State Security or an expert from various fields of studies regarding supernatural events.
“Wasabi?”
Gui Bin responded in a timely manner.
“That’s right, wasabi. After our government found out about this, it ordered the collection of a large amount of it. A special research team and laboratory have been prepared. Since these superhumans want wasabi, there is definitely some mysterious substance in the wasabi that we haven’t found. Moreover, if we see the old man, we can also give him some wasabi to extend our friendship.”
The leader’s words made everyone nod. Using wasabi to create a friendly relationship with the superhumans was a bargain. Before the research institutes found out the secrets of wasabi, they were useless to the government. Moreover, most Chinese people looked into the world of human affairs. If you send them something, it would be easier to establish a friendship.
“Wasabi? Isn’t there something recorded in the《Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor》and listed as the king of plants? Could there be any relationship between them?”
An expert in the field of Chinese medicine spoke at that time.
“The specifics will have to wait until we are able to obtain research results. The things written by the ancestors are quite questionable, but there is a possibility that it is hiding big secrets. Since wasabi is crowned by the 《Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor》, then it really might be hiding something profound.”
The leader also did not understand it and just casually said this.
“The people on the frontlines also said that the old man claims to be an alchemist and is going to use the method of sacrificing to the spirits and gods to deal with the crisis.”
“Sacrifice to the spirits and gods? Alchemist?”
Hearing these words, Gui Bin leaned forward and excitedly said, “Could he be starting a ritual to summon the three pure ones and the four heavenly ministers?”
“That’s Taoism’s Taoists.”
The team leader rolled his eyes and said, “Taoism arose at the end of the Han Dynasty created by the philosopher Lao Tzu. The so-called three pure ones were created afterward. Those spirits and gods believed by the ancient people of the Qin and pre-Qin Dynasties have nothing to do with the three pure ones. It is more appropriate to say it’s a sacrifice to Taiyi, Gong Gong, Fuxi, Nuwa, Xuan Wu, or Chiyou.”
“I suggest that you reread 《Records of the Grand Historian》, 《Lisao》, 《Nine Songs》, 《Book of Rites》, and other similar books to understand these spirits and gods. Don’t mix them up with the recent flood of popular chaotic genre novels. Mentioning the mythology written in those will make people laugh at you.”
Hearing these words, Gui Bin’s expression darkened. It couldn’t be helped. The recent flood of chaotic genre novels was really too popular. Many young people thought that those were the real Chinese mythology, but they were closer to pure fiction.
The chaotic genre novels were mostly re-creations of 《Investiture of the Gods》, 《Journey to the West》, and 《The Story of Swordsman from Shushan》. The so-called three purities appeared only after the Han Dynasty. The real mythology of China consisted of those written during the pre-Qin period. At the same time, many histories and myths had already been mixed up.
“If that old man is really from the Ming Dynasty, he lived in the same era as Zhang Chengen, I mean Wu Chengen, so the《Investiture of the Gods》 created by Xu Zhonglin hadn’t been made as he hadn’t been born yet. Moreover, he calls himself an alchemist. In terms, people think that Taoists are fortune tellers, but what does an alchemist do you might wonder. In actuality, it is the title of an official during the Zhou Dynasty. Our culture could be said to be derived from those rites during the Zhou Dynasty.”
“These alchemists were famous in modern times for fooling emperors into believing that they could refine the elixir of immortality. The most famous case was Xu-Fu who was said to have helped Qin Shi Huang refine the elixir of immortality.”
Saying so, the leader suddenly closed his mouth.
Then the entire conference room became quiet.
Everyone looked at each other with shocked faces. Someone could not help but mutter, “We used to think that the elixir of immortality was a lie because ancient records stated that people were fed mercury or other toxic elixirs, but if those mysterious powers are real, maybe there is a real formula to the elixir of immortality.”
“Be careful with your words.”
The head of the group interrupted.
Immortality was simply too amazing. If the country’s top brass or those bigwigs learn that it was possible, a big event might just occur.
Since they stopped their line of questioning, the team leader decided to change the subject, “Look, the mysterious old man who calls himself an alchemist is preparing the sacrifice to the spirits and gods. Everyone pay attention.”
China’s satellite had been constantly monitoring the situation in Tokyo. Everyone watched as the ritual began. They stretched their necks and tried their hardest to not blink.
Louie had changed into a rather pre-Qin outfit. Before this, he had pretended to take a bath with the fishes in a river.
There was a simple altar prepared. It was built with stone, branches, and so on. It was considered one of the simplest methods of sacrificing to the spirits and gods during the pre-Qin Dynasty. As for the complex one, Louie did not understand it. He was just trying to fool people and not really trying to copy what the ancient emperors had been doing.
This time Louie was using the ritual order: yin, jian, guan, xiang. In any case, his main focus was not even on the sacrifice ritual. It simply did not matter. The most important thing was the thing he set last – the legendary spell.
First, he used tinder instead of matches to light branches on fire. He let it burn until the smoke reached the heavens. This was the yin of the process. Then he sacrificed the hunted wild animals and freshly sown crops. This was the jian of the process. He followed it by sprinkling rice wine made by hand. This was the guan process. Finally, he offered wine and food to the spirits and the gods, which was the xiang process.
After doing these, Louie carefully pulled out a section of bamboo and a square cloth from his sleeves. Golden words were written on the cloth which was the prayer of sacrifice.
As for what those things written on it were, Louie wasn’t too clear about it as he just copied things randomly from Google and Baidu. The governments around the world could clearly see what was written, but Louie made sure that they could never analyze what was written on it.
If a linguist who was an expert in ancient text saw the original text written by Louie, he would probably vomit blood, because the words were a complete mismatch and did not have any pattern.
After a pretentious prayer, Louie threw everything into the fire in front of him.
Now that everything was burned, the government could not recover what he wrote.
After checking that everything was burnt to ashes, Louie began to act and began using spells.
[Create Wind]
[Mist]
[Illusion]
With these three spells, a dragon-like creature slowly appeared in the sky. It was just like the shadow of Cthulhu.
With the [Echo] spell, a strange sound unheard of by humans whistles throughout Tokyo.
Anyone who was familiar with 《The Classic of Mountains and Seas》would definitely recognize the creature that gradually appeared over Tokyo – it was a Torch Dragon.