Taboo Mage - Chapter 121 - Possession by the Fox Spirit
As soon as Lin Huan saw Jue Chi approaching, he grabbed him and said, “Master Jue Chi, you’re just in time. Take a look and see if my father has been enchanted by something!”
Uncle Lin shouted upon hearing Jue Chi’s words, “Watch how you speak!”
“I’ll speak however I want to!”
Seeing the father and son about to argue again made my head spin. I pulled Jue Chi aside and explained the situation to him, also mentioning the statue of the fox deity placed at the entrance.
After listening, Jue Chi’s face remained expressionless as he walked straight up to the statue of the fox deity and pulled off the red cloth covering it.
“No!”
Xiao Meng shouted, rushing over and pushing Jue Chi away, then covering it back up with the red cloth.
Despite her quick actions, I clearly saw the statue beneath the red cloth. It was a jade statue of the fox deity, carved in the likeness of an ancient woman but with a fox head. Its paws held a ruyi1, and its tail was tightly against its body.
The moment I saw the statue, my head buzzed, and that inexplicable eerie fragrance filled my nostrils again. I shook my head, feeling increasingly dizzy.
“Qingshu!”
A familiar shout reached my ears, and I felt a strong pat on my back! I snapped back to reality, and someone had already placed a damp towel over my nose.
I looked at the towel-wielding Jue Chi, asking with my eyes, “Why are you giving me this?”
Jue Chi didn’t say a word; he just shook his head and gestured with his eyes for me to look ahead. Following his gaze, I saw that the red cloth on the statue of the fox deity was gone, revealing the jade statue.
Suddenly, I saw the fox deity’s tail sway a few times, and its head, previously tilted to one side, slowly turned toward me, its eyes staring unblinkingly.
“What the heck is that!”
I shouted instinctively, wide-eyed. Jue Chi slapped me on the forehead, causing me to close my eyes tightly. When I opened them again, there was nothing in front of me, as if everything I had just seen was an illusion.
“What did you see?” Jue Chi asked me from the side.
I turned to look at him, then glanced at Lin Huan and Uncle Lin standing behind me, and recounted what I had just witnessed.
Lin Huan looked at me with a peculiar expression. After I finished, he pointed to his own forehead. I frowned, reached up to touch my forehead, and pulled down a piece of talisman paper.
It was the talisman paper that Jue Chi had slapped onto my forehead when I was caught in the illusion.
Holding the talisman paper in my hand, I scanned the room for Xiao Meng but realized that at some point, the frail and shaky Xiao Meng had disappeared.
“Lin Huan, where’s your stepmother?” I asked with a frown.
“Wasn’t she just there…? Damn! Where’s that fox spirit?”
Everyone turned to look at the sofa, only to find that the person who was sitting there had vanished without a trace. Uncle Lin rushed to the sofa and flung the cushions away.
But that living, breathing person… had just disappeared into thin air.
“Master Jue Chi? That fox spirit… what exactly is it?”
Lin Huan also realized something was amiss and turned to ask Jue Chi. With his hands pressed together, Jue Chi solemnly said, “If I’m not mistaken, that woman was possessed by a fox spirit.”
“You’re talking nonsense!” Uncle Lin shouted, his eyes bloodshot.
Seeing Uncle Lin’s expression, I hesitated to tell him the truth, but the fact remained that his young wife was definitely not normal. Besides, Jue Chi’s Taoist cultivation is far beyond that of an ordinary monk.
If he’s saying this, then he is undoubtedly certain.
The room fell into silence. After a while, Uncle Lin sat on the sofa, hands covering his face, and asked in a muffled voice, “What was that woman really about?”
I was a bit slow to respond, so Lin Huan spoke up, “Dad, you’ve been beguiled by that fox spirit. As for what the girl did before she was possessed, none of us know, and it doesn’t matter anyway. If it weren’t for the fox spirit, she wouldn’t have even noticed you.”
I shot Lin Huan a glare. After all, Uncle Lin is his father, and the old man was on the verge of fainting from grief. Couldn’t he be a bit more tactful instead of being so blunt with the truth?
After a tumultuous night, I gave Lin Huan a few days off so he could take the old man out to unwind. I drove Jue Chi back overnight.
On the way, the image of the statue of the fox deity kept flashing in my mind, and it all felt incredibly strange. I asked Jue Chi what the statue was for, why it caused hallucinations, and about that eerie fragrance.
Jue Chi explained that the fox spirit was initially a concept in Chinese folklore, and in the world, every being, whether bird or beast, flower, bird, fish, or insect, possesses life.
And anything with life, given certain favorable conditions and its own cultivation, can become a specific kind of spirit, which is what the Gu Family’s life amulet technique refers to as a spirit.
However, spirits are ultimately ethereal, and the likelihood of them manifesting into a physical form is extremely rare. Among this minuscule chance, the fox is the most likely to take on a physical form.
For this reason, fox spirits have been exaggerated in people’s imaginations, even to the extent of being revered alongside immortals, but in reality, a fox spirit is just another ordinary spirit.
The difference is that fox spirits do possess a unique ability to enchant and bewitch people.
Throughout the drive, I pondered Jue Chi’s words. If the fox spirit specifically seeks to enchant people, wouldn’t it make more sense to charm a wealthy heir who could buy it clothes and jewelry? Why persistently cling to someone like Uncle Lin, who is penniless?
Thinking about this, I pulled over to the side of the road and called Lin Huan, warning him to be cautious of the fox spirit. Since it latched onto Uncle Lin, it must have had its reasons.
Although the fox spirit had temporarily fled, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t return.
Lin Huan agreed over the phone. To be safe, as soon as I got home, I found several yellow talismans used for warding off evil and life amulets, and sent them to Lin Huan via express mail for protection.
For two days straight, there was no movement from Lin Huan’s end. To prevent any surprises, I read some books about fox spirits and carefully reviewed ancient books, searching for methods to deal with fox spirits.
But the ancient books contained only methods for handling Resentful Spirits and ordinary ghosts. There wasn’t a single mention of how to deal with the once-in-a-century occurrence of a fox spirit.
Footnote:
- Ruyi(如意): A “ruyi” is a traditional Chinese ornamental object that often symbolizes good luck and prosperity.
