Chapter 165 Man and Demon

"Well, I can feel the aura of a fox on that woman, but I don't find her any different from ordinary people." Gong Youwei said thoughtfully.

"You mean, even though she has the scent of a fox, she is not a fox in disguise?"

"That's not wrong, but I always feel like she's weird." Gong Youwei licked her lips and said, "I always have a feeling that she's a demon but not a demon."

"Yes and no? What's the reason?" Li Daoxuan was puzzled.

"I'm not too sure, but one thing is certain, she is indeed not a normal person, maybe not even a human being." Gong Youwei said.

"So, is it some evil spirit? Are all the strange things in the village related to her?" Li Daoxuan pondered. "I see that Aunt Jiang looks very haggard, and her haggardness is a little abnormal, not just fatigued. It should be related to Li Xiucai's wife."

"What should we do then?" Gong Youwei asked.

"Since we know that there is something wrong with the scholar's wife, we can't let it do this. But if we tell Aunt Jiang about this directly, she will definitely not believe us. After all, they have lived under the same roof for so long, and this family seems to have no idea. There must be a reason, such as being confused." Li Daoxuan said seriously. "Besides, it is pregnant with Aunt Jiang's son's flesh and blood, how can it change its mind just because of a few words from us."

"Let's go back first. I need to prepare some things." Li Daoxuan said as he walked towards home, involuntarily quickening his pace.

After returning to the Li family's old house, Li Daoxuan did not even bother to rest. He immediately called Aunt Sun and asked, "Do you know who in the village has a black dog?"

"Black dog? There is a family in the east of the village that has a black dog. What does the young master want the black dog for?"

"Take some silver and ask for some black dog blood. Don't kill any animals. Just take a small half bowl. Don't ask too many questions. Go quickly and come back soon." Li Daoxuan didn't explain the reason, but just gave the order.

Seeing that her young master ignored her doubts, Aunt Sun stopped asking questions and said that as a servant, she should just do whatever her master told her to do.

Thinking of this, Aunt Sun was about to turn around and leave when Li Daoxuan called her back: "Before you leave, have someone bring me a piece of yellow cloth, an incense burner, a basin of water, three cups of tea and an empty porcelain bowl."

Seeing that Li Daoxuan looked serious, Aunt Sun did not dare to be negligent. She ordered the maid to help the young master prepare the necessary items, and she took two servants and ran to the east end of the village.

After a while, two maids brought the items that Li Daoxuan needed. Li Daoxuan looked at them one by one, then picked up the porcelain bowl and walked to the yard, filling the bowl with soil from the flower bed.

Holding a bowl of soil, Li Daoxuan picked up his package and asked the maids to carry the remaining things and go upstairs with him.

Arriving at the small building, he rearranged the table to face the door and window, covered it with yellow cloth, and placed an incense burner, a bowl of soil, and three cups of tea on it. He then asked the maid to leave and said, "Wait at the door. If Aunt Sun comes back, bring her to find me."

After closing the door, Li Daoxuan sat cross-legged and waited quietly.

After about an incense stick of time, the maid who had been waiting at the door saw Aunt Sun hurried back with a bowl of black dog blood, and immediately took her to the second floor of the small building.

Li Daoxuan had already heard the noise of someone coming upstairs. He jumped up and opened the door. He took the porcelain bowl filled with black dog blood from Aunt Sun's hand and said, "You all go down." Then he closed the door again, leaving Aunt Sun and the little maid with a confused look on their faces.

After sending the servants away, Li Daoxuan walked to the window, lowered the window shutters, and blocked out the sunlight as much as possible.

This type of window is also called "bracket window" and was very common during this period, but it had different forms in residential buildings in the north and south.

In the north, the middle column of a window is often divided into two halves, with windows installed separately, the upper and lower windows being the same size. In the south, the upper window is longer than the lower window, usually in a ratio of three to one.

In the gardens and houses in the Suzhou and Hangzhou areas, the windows are mostly made into three sections: upper, middle and lower. They are very decorative. The upper and lower window sashes of this type of window are fixed, and the middle window sash can be propped up outwards.

Pan Jinlian in "Water Margin" was able to look Ximen Qing in the eye; Wang Po's role might not be as important as that closed window.

Alone upstairs, Li Daoxuan arranged everything, then washed his hands and face, and bowed three times towards the altar.

He chanted, "I pay homage to the Three Mao Patriarchs, the Great Mao Lord, the Middle Mao Lord, and the Small Mao Lord. May the Three Mao Lords show their might and bless us."

After reciting, take three incense sticks and light them. Then hold the incense in your left hand, face the altar, and insert them into the incense burner in the order of the center, right, and left, based on your left side. There should be about an inch between each incense stick, and each stick should stand upright with the incense heads level.

Then take some soil and place it in front of your eyes, then light three incense sticks and insert the incense into the soil. Then pinch the Dao finger with your right hand, put your left hand on the back of your right hand, hook your index fingers together, hook your right little finger around your left ring finger, pinch the Five Camps General Finger, and chant a mantra.

"The sky is clear and the earth is spiritual. The soldiers will follow my orders. The soldiers will follow the seal and the generals will act according to my orders. I am following the orders of the upper and lower Maoshan Dharma Masters to urgently dispatch the divine soldiers to this place and search this world with me. Please take the order and set off immediately. The divine soldiers are as urgent as the law!"

After finishing the incantation, he picked up the teacup on his right hand and poured the tea into the teacup in the middle. Although both cups of tea were full, there was no overflow when pouring.

Li Daoxuan didn't pay much attention to this strange sight. He picked up the teacup in his left hand and poured the same amount of water into the tea.

After pouring the two cups of tea, he looked at the teacup in the middle. The tea had already overflowed, but it was still hanging high on the edge of the cup without spilling or dripping.

Seeing this, Li Daoxuan was overjoyed, and he bowed towards the altar again and said, "Thank you for the help from all the divine soldiers!"

After finishing these things, Li Daoxuan finished his work, but saw Gong Youwei curled up beside him, seeming to be trembling a little.

"What's wrong with you?" Li Daoxuan took two steps closer, bent down, and gently stroked the little rabbit's back with his palm. The little rabbit calmed down a little and said tremblingly: "Just now I felt a strong pressure that made me breathless. What were you doing just now?"

"I was just asking for soldiers to help." Li Daoxuan smiled when he heard this. "This method is called the magic of sending soldiers, and it is a magical method of self-defense in the Xuanmen. We need soldiers to protect us if we want to explore the Yinshui Well, so I offer the soil here as a sacrifice and ask the soldiers of Maoshan to protect the soil. Even if there are evil spirits causing trouble, it will be fine for the time being." "So that's how it is." Gong Youwei looked at the situation on the altar and widened her eyes.

It was the first time for her to see a Taoist priest performing a ritual. This kind of thing was very interesting to her, but it also made her feel afraid.

"Then can I do this?" Gong Youwei asked curiously.

"You usually practice by absorbing moonlight. I'm afraid it won't work if you haven't practiced Taoist skills." Li Daoxuan was stunned by Gong Youwei's words. After all, letting a rabbit spirit perform rituals was weird no matter how you looked at it. How could a demon perform Taoist rituals?

But think about it, there don't seem to be many monsters in this world, and even fewer monsters that can understand human nature. The rituals are originally initiated from the heart and the talismans, maybe practicing the Taoist techniques can also achieve it? In the end, what is the difference between humans and monsters?
Thinking of these things, Li Daoxuan was curious whether Gong Youwei could practice the Xuanmen skills.

"Do you really want to be like me?" Li Daoxuan asked.

"Yeah!" Gong Youwei nodded.

"Okay, then I'll teach you a method of practicing martial arts. You practice diligently every day and see what the effect is." Li Daoxuan smiled and thought about passing the method of swallowing air and absorbing elixir taught by Uncle Jiu to Gong Youwei to try first. Anyway, it was still early now and the subsequent rituals would have to wait until nearly the evening hour.

This method does not involve any secrets, nor does it require the permission of elders. It is the method of absorbing qi that was passed down by Uncle Jiu.

After Li Daoxuan was taught the Qingwei Dan Jue by the old Taoist priest, he no longer used this method of absorbing Qi.

In terms of mystery alone, the Qingwei Dan Jue is obviously better.

Gong Youwei listened carefully to Li Daoxuan's teachings, but she didn't understand anything about meridians or the Zhoutian.

Li Daoxuan could only teach her by words and deeds and let her transform into a human form.

Gong Youwei sat cross-legged on the bed, looking at Li Daoxuan with pure eyes. She looked a little excited, as if she was extremely curious about the practice.

Although she is a fairy, she has no established method of cultivation. It is a surprise that she can be exposed to the Taoist practice.

"Hurry up, teach me." Gong Youwei urged.

"Sit still and don't be distracted." Li Daoxuan said seriously. "The path of Qi training requires a calm mind. If you are distracted, it will be difficult to feel the existence of Qi."

"I understand." Gong Youwei nodded and stopped shaking left and right.

She listened to Li Daoxuan's instructions and began to feel the existence of Qi.

"Meditate quietly, don't have any distracting thoughts. Close your eyes first and feel everything around you. What can you see?" Li Daoxuan asked softly.

"I can see a lot of colorful spots of light." Gong Youwei said with a relaxed look. She saw countless bright spots emerging in the chaotic darkness, like fireflies, flying everywhere.

"Very good. As a fairy, you can naturally feel the energy between heaven and earth. The colorful light spots you saw just now are all the energy transformed from the five elements in the world. Try to mix these light spots with your spirit, and then absorb them into your lower dantian."

"Lower Dantian? Where is it?"

"It's right on your abdomen, about four fingers below your belly button." Li Daoxuan said.

"I don't understand." Gong Youwei shook her head.

"." Li Daoxuan sat opposite Gong Youwei and was silent for a moment.

Looking at the quiet girl, he suddenly regretted saying he would pass on the Dharma to her.

"Looking for trouble when there is none. I really know how to cause trouble." Sighing in his heart, Li Daoxuan stretched out his hand and touched Gong Youwei's head, then went down along her eyebrows, nose tip, philtrum, across her chest and directly to her abdomen, and injected a wisp of Dan Qi into her body, allowing Gong Youwei to feel the feeling of Qi circulating through her body.

"Hey! I seem to feel it!" Gong Youwei said in surprise. "What a strange feeling."

Li Daoxuan withdrew his fingers reluctantly, his cheeks feeling a little hot.

What he did just now seemed like taking advantage, but he could swear that he had absolutely no bad intentions.

After all, the teaching requires words and deeds, so he needs to find out whether this rabbit spirit has the Ren and Du meridians.

The result surprised him. He didn't expect that the fairy transformed into human form was actually no different from humans. They all had the Ren and Du meridians, and even the Dantian was located in the abdomen.

"So when a monster transforms into a human, it really transforms into a human?" Li Daoxuan suddenly understood why in some stories, humans and monsters can have children together. It turns out that it is because when a monster transforms into a human, it looks exactly like a human.

“This is really an unexpected bonus.”

(End of this chapter)