BPIFC -Volume 1 – Chapter 1 The Little Taoist

Volume 1 Gao Liang’s Legacy

It was late at night in a rural village in Northeast China during early summer.

A commotion had broken out in one household. The courtyard was packed with people, all wearing anxious expressions as they crowded around the windows, peering into the house. No one noticed that, at some point, a chubby man in his forties or fifties had appeared behind them. Smiling cheerfully, he stood among the villagers, watching everything happening inside.

The family was truly poor. The house contained only the most basic furnishings. Aside from a light bulb, the most valuable appliance was an old transistor radio. Next to the window was a traditional heated brick bed. Sitting on it was a disheveled woman. On the ground opposite the bed stood five or six people. Besides three or four villagers, there were also two Taoist priests—one old and one young.

The elderly Taoist looked to be around sixty years old. He wore a tattered Taoist robe, and his greasy hair stuck out in every direction. His eyes darted about constantly, making him look anything but trustworthy.

The younger Taoist appeared to be only seven or eight years old. The childish innocence had not yet left his face, but his eyes were fixed fearfully on the woman sitting on the bed.

The woman was around thirty years old. Covered in grime and with her hair hanging loose, she sat cross-legged on the kang. Staring blankly at the woven mat beneath her, she muttered words that no one could understand.

A closer look revealed pale yellow fuzz growing over her face and hands. Her mouth protruded slightly forward, her ears stood upright, and a mass of black qi seemed to hover over her face. At first glance, anyone with poor eyesight might mistake her for a giant yellow weasel sitting on the bed.

“How long has she been like this?” the old Taoist asked while counting on his fingers with one hand.

Before anyone could answer, he turned to the woman’s husband and continued, “Has she spoken at all? And what she says doesn’t sound human, does it…?”

“Master, you’re truly a living immortal! You figured it out with just one look!”

The husband repeatedly bowed to the old Taoist. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he continued:

“On the thirteenth of last month, my wife and I had an argument. In a fit of anger, she said she was going back to her parents’ house. I was angry too and didn’t stop her. Then, on the fifteenth, my father-in-law sent my brother-in-law to look for her. That’s when we found out she had never gone home at all. I got scared and gathered people to search for her. In the end, we found her in a wild graveyard twenty li away.”

Even now, recalling the scene made the man shudder.

After hesitating for a moment, he leaned close to the old Taoist and whispered:

“It was even worse back then. She was leading a bunch of weasels, digging up graves and eating dead bodies…”

“You waited nearly a month and a half before coming to find this Taoist master?”

The old Taoist looked sickened when he heard about eating corpses. He forced himself not to vomit the meat and wine he had just consumed.

Then he grabbed the child hiding behind him and pushed him toward the woman.

“Son, go over there and handle it. Hurry up. Once we’re done and back home, I’ll make you pork stewed with glass noodles.”

The child was clearly frightened by the woman’s appearance. Instinctively, he tried to hide behind the old Taoist, but the old man held him firmly in place.

“What are you staring at? Just get up there and do it!”

As he spoke, the old Taoist shoved the child forward again. Meanwhile, he himself took a step backward and urged:

“Come on! It’s only a matter of a couple of slaps. Get on with it!”

Strangely enough, as the child was forced closer, the previously vacant and dazed woman suddenly seemed to have seen something terrifying.

She hurriedly shrank backward.

Her eyes fixed on the boy in terror, and a beast-like growl escaped from her throat…

The crowd watching the excitement outside the window included some people who knew the background of the old and young Taoists. One of them immediately began explaining to the others:

“See them? That’s Taoist Kong from the Zhanglang Temple in Hedongtun. The little one is his apprentice. Don’t let old Kong fool you—he acts like a clown most of the time, but he’s got real skills. Any ghosts, spirits, or strange happenings within a hundred li around here, as long as people find him, everything turns out fine…”

Another man nearby looked skeptical.

“Zhao Si, stop talking nonsense. If that old geezer were really that capable, would he still be living like this? I saw him arrive on a bicycle just now. If he were as amazing as you say, he’d at least be driving a Santana.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Brother Liu. Taoist Kong indulges in all five vices—eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling. His favorite game is Pai Gow. Heaven just didn’t give him any luck with money. Whatever he earns in the morning is gone by night. Last time he even lost more than eight hundred yuan to me. This time he’s really picked the wrong family—Old Li Third Brother is so poor he’s practically walking around naked. Taoist Kong might end up working for nothing…”

“Quit your nonsense! They’re fighting inside!”

Inside the house, while the people outside were gossiping, the child heard the woman’s roar.

The fear on his face instantly vanished.

Like a lone wolf that had been provoked, his hair seemed to stand on end. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from where he stood.

Before the woman could react, the boy had already appeared right in front of her again.

Not a single person peering through the windows could see how he had vanished or reappeared. But nobody cared about that now.

More than a dozen eyes watched as the boy grabbed the woman by the throat with one hand. Then he swung his other small hand and began slapping her across the face as if slaps were free.

As he hit her, he shouted:

“What are you staring at?!

You little bastard dared to curse me just now!

You’re the one with no parents!

You’re the mongrel raised by an old Taoist!

Your whole family’s a bunch of—!

I’ll beat you to death!”

The boy had not yet reached puberty, so even his insults sounded childish and adorable.

Ordinarily, it would have been funny.

Yet, aside from the constantly smiling fat man, nobody inside or outside the house dared laugh.

After only two or three slaps, the woman’s face was already covered in blood.

Even seeing it with their own eyes, nobody could understand how a small child could turn a fully grown, crazed woman into a bloody mess with a few slaps.

After several more strikes, the woman stopped growling.

Like a defeated stray dog, she no longer dared resist. She didn’t even dare dodge.

Instead, she curled up on the kang, allowing the boy to continue slapping her over and over.

Nobody knew how many slaps he had delivered when the woman suddenly let out a low growl.

Then her body jerked upright stiffly.

The boy was startled and instinctively took a step backward.

Seizing that opportunity, the woman opened her mouth and spat out a cloud of black smoke.

The smoke quickly took the shape of a weasel.

Then it turned and slammed toward the window.

Although it was only a mass of smoke, it smashed the window apart and fled outside.

Many of the onlookers were cut by flying shards of glass and scattered in panic.

Only the middle-aged fat man calmly stepped aside.

Still smiling, he made a hand gesture toward a tall man standing outside the door.

Then he turned to look at the little boy in the room and murmured to himself:

“What an unpolished gem…”

Back inside the house, after the black smoke escaped, the woman collapsed weakly onto the kang.

Her appearance gradually returned to normal.

After taking a nervous look at her, her husband turned to the old Taoist and said:

“You really are a living immortal! So that Weasel Spirit has run away, right? We can’t just let it escape. Otherwise it’ll hurt people again.”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

The old Taoist rolled his eyes.

“That’s called a Yellow Immortal. Among the Five Immortals—Fox, Weasel, Hedgehog, Snake, and Rat—they rank second. If you kill it, don’t expect peace for the rest of your family’s life. Chasing it away is enough. Why ask for anything more?”

The old Taoist glared at the man before continuing:

“Go check on your wife. After that, we’ll talk about the incense money for this job.”

Only after hearing that the woman was safe did her husband and the others rush over to examine her.

Meanwhile, the old Taoist took out paper and a brush, wrote down a prescription, and handed it to the man.

“Have your wife take this medicine for fifteen days straight. That should clear the demon poison from her body.

And one more thing—three days from now, slaughter ten chickens. After dark, throw them outside the village.

Remember, throw them all in the same direction.

Drop one every two hundred meters or so.

That’ll lure the Yellow Immortal away from your village, and that’ll be the end of it.”