Taboo Mage - Chapter 35 - Monk Jue Chi

Suddenly, a massive force yanked me backward.

I screamed a few times, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the peachwood sword I had thrown aside. Summoning an unknown strength, I ran over, picked it up, and looked behind me.

Ah!

A piercing, deep voice echoed from behind. Taking advantage of the moment, I continued running towards the door.

“Hurry up! Hurry up!”

Lin Huan stood at the doorway, waving at me urgently.

A sense of relief surged in me, and I reached out to grab Lin Huan’s hand. Closer… closer…

But at the last step, I froze in place.

“Qing Shu!” Lin Huan’s eyes widened in horror as he stared at me.

Slowly, I lowered my gaze to see a black hand piercing through my chest, its pale, ghastly nails making a circle inside me, blood gushing out.

As I closed my eyes, a cyanotically tinted face flashed before me. He curled his lips in a sneer, seemingly mocking my cowardice.

When I opened my eyes again, white walls surrounded me. I turned my head, startling the sleeping Lin Huan beside me.

“You’re finally awake. You scared me to death,” Lin Huan said excitedly, bustling around to fetch water and peel an apple.

I glanced down at my chest, not a single trace of injury. Closing my eyes to recall, I distinctly remembered a ghostly hand piercing my chest.

Was I dreaming?

There was a knock at the door, and Uncle Qin walked in with a fruit basket. Lin Huan hurried out to get some water. I asked Uncle Qin what had happened.

Uncle Qin explained that after the soul-capturing bottle shattered, everyone passed out, each experiencing different dreams. But in every dream, we were all chased by the Evil Spirit.

Later, it was me who swung the peachwood sword and shattered the nightmare, but I was gravely injured by the Evil Spirit and fell unconscious, so I was brought to the hospital.

“What about the Evil Spirit? What happened to him?” I asked anxiously, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Uncle Qin shook his head helplessly and said the Evil Spirit seemed to have taken a liking to Brother Kai’s body. After severely injuring me, it possessed Brother Kai again, driving him mad and making him act like a lunatic.

Finally, Uncle Qin patted my shoulder sympathetically, acknowledging that I had done my best. He said no one had intended for things to turn out this way.

After Uncle Qin left, I lay in bed, thinking about many things. The reason this happened was ultimately because of my lack of skill. When dealing with various spirits while making the life amulet, encountering evil spirits was inevitable. However, I had always focused more on making the life amulet rather than how to deal with these spirits.

My craftsmanship was inadequate, and when faced with the true Evil Spirit, I couldn’t protect myself or others.

After lying in the hospital for two days, I began to slowly regain my strength. During this time, I constantly asked Lin Huan to keep an eye on Brother Kai’s situation.

On the day I was discharged, Lin Huan told me that there was another incident with Brother Kai.

Brother Kai was no longer mad, but he had turned into a ruffian who liked to harass women. On the streets, he would try to lift the skirts of young brides and even fifty-year-old grandmothers.

The Brother Kai who used to love Wu Qian wholeheartedly had become a vulgar and perverted scoundrel.

Although I found it amusing, I also knew clearly that the Evil Spirit was gradually taking over Brother Kai’s body. Once the spirit fully merged with Brother Kai’s body, Brother Kai would never come back.

Realizing this, I suffered from insomnia for two consecutive nights.

On the last night, I lay in bed, unable to sleep. Suddenly, as I closed my eyes, a person’s image flashed in my mind. I sat up immediately.

This was the last solution I could think of.

Early the next morning, I went to the Hanging Temple again, remembering that a monk named Jue Chi resided there.

Following the memorized route, I climbed the back mountain and finally found Chan Guang Monastery at the edge of a cliff.

Chan Guang Monastery was a somewhat dilapidated temple that from the outside looked like it had only one main gate and two round windows, resembling the temple that Sun Wukong¹ would transform into in TV dramas.

I straightened my clothes and stepped forward to knock on the door. After a while, the temple door opened, and I walked in, heart pounding.

In the center of the temple stood a gilded statue of Shakyamuni, with three meditation cushions below it. The constant chanting of Sutras echoed around me.

“Master Jue Chi?” I respectfully knelt on one of the meditation cushions and bowed my head, then called out.

I heard the courtyard door creak open. Peeking from behind the prayer flags, I saw Jue Chi emerge, still in his Kasaya and holding Buddhist prayer beads.

“Have you made up your mind?”

Jue Chi didn’t seem surprised to see me; he even smiled gently, his words as soothing as a spring breeze.

My scalp tingled with anxiety, and I quickly waved my hands. “No, no! I have no intention of joining the monastic life.”

“If you’re not here to join the monastic life, then you must be here because you’re facing some trouble,” Jue Chi said, this time straightforwardly, as he began walking out.

I hurried to follow, recounting Brother Kai’s story from start to finish.

By the time I finished, we had almost reached the foot of the mountain. Seeing that Jue Chi had no intention of stopping, I quickly blocked his path and asked if he could help.

Jue Chi looked at me with a hint of amusement. “If I weren’t going to help, why would I be coming down the mountain?”

I felt annoyed; this monk wasn’t as endearing as I had hoped.

After leading Jue Chi down the mountain, the two of us immediately caught a cab to Wu Qian’s villa. The driver stared at Jue Chi for a long time, probably because he had never seen such a handsome monk.

On the way, I called Uncle Qin. When the taxi arrived at the entrance of the villa community, Uncle Qin was already there waiting.

“Uncle Qin, this is Master Jue Chi. I specifically brought him here to help with Brother Kai,” I said, holding Jue Chi’s sleeve and smiling as I introduced him.

Jue Chi chanted, “Amitabha,” and then gently pulled his sleeve from my grasp. Uncle Qin greeted him with palms pressed together, clearly showing a glimmer of renewed hope on his face.

On the way to the villa, Uncle Qin briefly recounted Brother Kai’s recent situation. As I listened, my heart pounded with fear, and I stole a glance at Monk Jue Chi.

The monk merely kept his head down, expressionless. At that moment, I began to regret my impulsive decision; the Evil Spirit was far more formidable than I had imagined. I wasn’t sure if Jue Chi could handle this.

Damn me, grasping at straws in my desperation.

The three of us arrived at the villa. Just before reaching the entrance, a yellow sports car roared past us, leaving a trail of pungent perfume in its wake.

Footnote:

Sun Wukong(孙悟空): Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, is a central character in the classic Chinese novel ‘Journey to the West.’  Written in the 16th century by Wu Cheng’en, this novel is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.