Chapter 116 Checking the condition
Li Daoxuan followed Zhao Laosan into the house and saw strange furnishings in the house.

Entering the room is the hall, with long-necked orchid porcelain vases on each side. Willow branches are inserted in the vases. Although they have just sprouted, they look like they were picked not long ago.

Further ahead were a few mats, in front of which stood a three-legged bronze incense burner. A few sticks of incense were burning in the burner, and the smoke was rising straight up.

As for the table in front of the hall, there was a statue of a woman. The statue was surrounded by thousands of hands, with kind eyes and benevolent features, and looked like the Thousand-armed Guanyin.

But she is wearing red clothes and gold ornaments, which does not look like the Guanyin Bodhisattva we usually see.

Li Daoxuan looked at this thing and felt that he had seen it somewhere before, but he couldn't remember where it was for a while, so he simply stopped worrying about it.

Zhao Laosan walked into the hall and took three incense sticks from the maid. After lighting them, he bowed to the statue on the table, clasped his hands together devoutly, and bowed to pray. He was mumbling something in a low voice, but others could not hear clearly.

Li Daoxuan was also clear about burning incense and worshiping gods. Usually the number is odd, and the ones in temples, Taoist temples and homes have different meanings.

If you go to a Taoist temple, burning three incense sticks is usually for worshipping the Three Pure Ones, namely the Jade Pure Yuanshi Tianzun, the Upper Pure Lingbao Tianzun and the Great Pure Daode Tianzun. It also means worshipping heaven, earth and man. If you are in front of the Three Officials Emperors, you worship the Heaven Official, the Earth Official and the Water Official. In the Taiyuan Hall of the Shangqing School, you worship the three founders of the school: Mao Ying, Mao Gu and Mao Zhong.

If you go to a Buddhist temple, the meaning is very different. The three incense sticks represent the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha or awakening, righteousness, and purity. If you are in the main hall, you are worshiping Sakyamuni Buddha who is in charge of the Saha world, Medicine Buddha who is in charge of the Eastern Pure Land, and Amitabha Buddha who is in charge of the Western Paradise.

If you go to the temple of the God of Land, you will usually burn five incense sticks, which represent the five directions of the land. When a witch doctor predicts good or bad luck for a person or summons the gods, he will also burn five incense sticks, which are the five elements of heaven and earth. There are generally two ways to place this kind of incense. One is to place it in a square, with the leader in the middle, the Azure Dragon on the left, the White Tiger on the right, the Vermillion Bird in the front, and the Black Tortoise in the back. The other is to place it in a horizontal row, with the Azure Dragon on the left, followed by the White Tiger, the Pass, the Guardian, and the Horse Report.

In some cases, only one stick of incense is lit, such as in some folk rites when worshipping ghosts or Yin gods. In the immortal sect, a disciple who has attained the Tao will light a stick of incense to represent that all things have returned to one, that he has attained the Tao, and that other immortals can come here to learn from each other. Therefore, if the disciple's practice is not enough, it is better not to light a stick of incense, otherwise he will be hurt.

Some lay Buddhists who practice at home also burn four incense sticks. The fourth stick is the guardian incense, while others burn the incense to represent their ancestors.

As for some large and authentic temples or palaces, it would be okay even if they burned a handful of incense, because the temples are big and there are many gods.

In ordinary families, when offering sacrifices to gods and worshiping Buddha, one stick of incense represents peace incense, praying for the safety and good fortune of the family and everything going smoothly. But if you only want to burn one stick of incense, you have to burn one in the morning and one in the evening. Rich families usually burn five to nine sticks during festivals. There will be three incense burners in the shrine of the house. The one in the middle is called the main incense burner, which is mainly used to worship ancestors. The one on the left is for worshiping the five gods of wealth, and the one on the right is for worshiping the six gods in the house, namely the door god, household god, well god, kitchen god, land god and toilet god.

So if you worship five incense sticks, three are in the middle and one on each side. If you worship nine incense sticks, three incense sticks are placed in each of the three incense burners, which means the whole building is filled with incense.

However, this kind of worship was mostly practiced by wealthy families at that time. Small families could not afford it and usually just burned three incense sticks to worship their ancestors.

But in the Zhao family, it seemed that one had to burn three incense sticks before entering the door. Li Daoxuan didn't know which god it was.

It looks strange, and the arrangement of the shrine is also quite scary.

As he was muttering in his heart, he saw Zhao Laosan give him an apologetic smile after worshipping the gods: "This is to ask the Holy Mother of No Birth to pray for my father, so I have to burn three incense sticks every time I enter the door."

"The Immortal Mother?" When Li Daoxuan heard this title, he felt very familiar with it, just like the statue he had just seen when he entered the door, but he couldn't remember which sect this statue belonged to. In the end, he was afraid that it was some wild god among the people, so he didn't pay much attention to it. After all, at that time, there were many wild gods worshipped by the people.

Respecting other people's choices is also a major characteristic of Taoism.

"It seems that the young Taoist priest doesn't know the Mother of No Birth?" Zhao Laosan was a little surprised when he heard it, as if he was surprised that Li Daoxuan did not know the Mother of No Birth, so he talked to him about the Mother of No Birth.

"This is the expert my uncle invited before. He said that my father's soul was taken away by evil spirits. In addition to having us perform big dramas at both ends of the town, he also asked us to worship the Holy Mother of No Birth at home. The expert said that the Holy Mother of No Birth is the Holy Mother who gave birth to all things in the world and created all living things. As long as you believe in the Holy Mother, you will be able to rest sooner or later. So he told us that no matter who enters this room, they must burn three incense sticks. Only in this way can my father calm his mind and soul and get better soon. But it has never worked."

"That master again?" Li Daoxuan frowned in confusion. "Where is that master now?"

"This..." Zhao Laosan hesitated for a moment, then told the whereabouts of the master. "The master said that he was in a trance a few days ago, and he stayed at home for a few days."

"So that's the case. Take me to see Master Zhao." Li Daoxuan did not pursue the whereabouts of the master any further.

Although he felt that the master mentioned by Zhao Laosan was very strange, he had no grudges against him, so he did not ask any more questions.

"My father is in the bedroom." Zhao Laosan pointed to the bedroom.

The two of them lifted the beaded curtain, and Li Daoxuan followed him in. As soon as they stepped into the bedroom, a strong smell of Chinese herbal medicine came. Li Daoxuan fanned his nose and his eyes fell on the person lying on the bed.

Looking closely at the master of the Zhao family, he couldn't help but widen his eyes.

Looking at that appearance, Li Daoxuan found that he really had some connection with this master of the Zhao family.

Mr. Zhao was seen lying on the bed, his face so thin that only a layer of skin and bones remained. But even so, Li Daoxuan recognized him at a glance. This Mr. Zhao was one of the two landlords and wealthy businessmen he rescued from Longling.

It is true that things in the world are unpredictable and fate is wonderful. He even met an acquaintance when he went down the mountain.

However, Mr. Zhao no longer had the wealthy look he had before. It seemed that he had been ill for too long and was malnourished. Even if he took medicine every day, it was difficult to maintain his body's needs.

"Please, young Taoist priest, take a look at my father." Zhao Laosan begged.

"Your father and I have some fate." Li Daoxuan sighed, then walked up to Master Zhao and stretched out his hands to turn over Master Zhao's eyes and mouth.

Zhao Laosan, who was standing by, was confused when he heard what he said.

"The Taoist priest said that he had met my father?"

"Yes, I have also been a guest at the Wang family, so I have some connection with your father." Li Daoxuan said with a smile.

"That's great! This must be the fate destined by God. Let the little Taoist priest come to save my father!" Zhao Laosan showed a happy look on his face and rubbed his hands while waiting.

After looking at Mr. Zhao's face, Li Daoxuan pinched his skinny arm to check his pulse.

After doing all this, he had some idea in his mind.

As the saying goes, the five arts of Taoism, namely mountain fortune-telling, medicine, fortune-telling, physiognomy and divination, are also known as the "five arts of Xuanmen". Taoism and medicine complement each other. A famous Taoist may not necessarily be a doctor, but among famous doctors there must be a Taoist.

Although he had only studied the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine for a short time, he had gained some experience of his own.

When I looked at Mr. Zhao's face just now, I found that there were abnormalities in the Dicang and Yingxiang acupoints. His eyes were cloudy, and his teeth were dry and yellow and smelled bad. Although it was covered up with herbs, it could still be smelled clearly.

Although the veins in the hands are moving, the beats are uneven and the pulse pattern is strange.

These phenomena all indicate that Mr. Zhao was invaded by external evil, causing him to become weak and unable to wake up from a long sleep.

"Little Taoist priest, how is my father?" Zhao Laosan saw Li Daoxuan finished these things, so he hurried over to ask. His eyes were full of expectation, hoping to get good news.

Li Daoxuan shook his head and sighed to Zhao Laosan, "Just now I saw your father's body was affected by external evil. If we don't find the source, I'm afraid it will be difficult for him to recover."

"What should we do?"

"When external evil enters the body, the person must have gone to a gloomy place. You said before that your father went to the old house to worship. Can you tell me about this in detail?" Li Daoxuan said to Zhao Laosan while observing Mr. Zhao's fortune.

I saw a mixture of black and white air rising above his head, and there was a faint sense of strange objects churning in it.

Upon closer inspection, it actually looks like a human face.

Li Daoxuan rarely sees such a strange sign of luck.

I'm afraid that after escaping from Longling that day, Mr. Zhao encountered something unclean.

(End of this chapter)