Chapter 3 Chapter Two

When we arrived at Shengxi County, it was almost night. The house of the Tian couple was silent, the door was ajar, and a few scattered leaves in the air greeted us.Pushing the door open, a wave of resentment rushed over. Two pitch-black coffins were placed in the hall gloomyly. In the house, only one yamen servant was burning paper to keep the spirit. The looming flames of paper money were flickering listlessly. Tian Gudao and I approached the coffin and took a look. The two corpses had already been coffined and changed into white spirit clothes.I saw Master Tian's angry expression was not gone, his brows were tightly furrowed, and there was still a faint trace of blood at the corner of his mouth; Li Nu was dying with resentment still in the corners of his eyes.

We explained the purpose of our visit, but the yamen servant didn't say much, and said that he could come to him again if there was something to do, and then left in a hurry. Mr. Tian was diligent and upright during his lifetime. He married Ms. Li when he was over 30 years old. He suffered such bad luck not long after the wedding, and he did not leave any children under his knees.Seeing that he was alive to uphold justice for others, but in the end he was wronged and poisoned by others, Tian Gudao sighed and lamented that life is impermanent. As the night grew darker, Tian Gudao and I opened the package, took out the small Yin gong, horn horn, token, soul-absorbing bell and other spiritual artifacts, and started the preparations before driving the corpse.

Tian Gudao changed into a green robe, but I did not.Because I was dressed as a scholar, I was already wearing a long gown, and I thought in my bones that scholars wearing a robe would insult Confucian saints. Master knew my thoughts and did not force me to make an exception to allow me not to wear a robe. There is also a saying that the inner layer of the robe is embroidered with Taiji patterns. Tian Gudao and I killed the rooster, took the blood and set up an altar, worshiped the gods and invited the spirits, recited the mantra silently, and carried Tian Shiye and his wife out of the coffin and placed them on the door panel.

The first thing to do is to change clothes for the body packing. We set up a large pot in the courtyard, filled water, put in peach bark, added firewood, and after a while, the water boiled.We are going to use peach bark water to wash the corpses of Mr. and Mrs. Tian. Boiling peach bark and washing the corpses can wash away the bad luck of the deceased and prevent wandering ghosts from harassing the corpses to be driven away. On the matter of scrubbing the corpse, Tian Gudao and I evaded each other.Master Tian's body is easy to talk about, and neither of them are willing to wash Ms. Li's body.Because although we are in the business of herding corpses, we are virgins after all, and we have never seen a woman's body, so we are still a little shy and worried.

Finally, the two discussed and decided to ask the yamen servant to ask Lianpo to help. In the countryside, there are Lianpo everywhere, that is, women who clean, wash, and change the clothes of the dead. Such women are generally tall and courageous, and most of them have no children.Because most people are taboo to deal with dead bodies, and feel that it is bad luck and inauspicious, so there is the occupation of Lian Po, which is actually a kind of humble earning.After the incident, the bereaved family will naturally give some money, and those who are brave will also take back the clothes that the deceased has changed and wear them.

Not long after, the Lianpo came in from the yamen servant, and saw that she skillfully undressed the two corpses, wiped them, washed them, and then changed into plain clothes, with a calm expression, as if she was bathing and changing her own children. The plain clothes of Mr. and Mrs. Tian were sewed by the family and entrusted to us to bring them. They wore five layers, two layers on the inside and three layers on the outside.Finally, Lianpo put on the straw sandals.As a rule, the shoes of the deceased are generally cloth shoes, which are made by relatives. The identity of the person who makes the shoes is also particular.However, the corpses that are about to be driven on the road cannot wear cloth shoes, but only straw sandals, which are made of spring bamboo shells, which are very wear-resistant and strong.The reason why dead bodies wear straw sandals is simple. When walking on the road, dead bodies will be disturbed by rain, frost, mud, dust, etc. If they wear cloth shoes, they will get wet easily, which will increase the yin energy of the dead body. It can be ventilated, and the skin of the bamboo shoots will not be stained with accumulated water, which can save a lot of unnecessary troubles.

After the body was washed and collected, we paid the money and sent Lianpo away.Tian Gudao told me that in the future we have to do the work of scrubbing the corpses ourselves, so that we can reduce expenses and earn more money. After chatting a few words, we began to ask God.Asking the gods, asking divination, and chanting mantras are the three things that must be done before driving the mortician on the road. We placed three animals on the desk, burned incense paper, and began to sacrifice, and then performed the "Tiangang Wulei Digua Formation" to firmly control the souls of Mr. and Mrs. Tian and let them go back with the corpse.Afterwards, he urged the Land Bodhisattva to let him go.The Land Bodhisattva specializes in the jurisdiction of the soul. If you do not pray, the Land Bodhisattva will not let go of the soul of the dead. If the soul does not follow the corpse, it will be very difficult to drive the corpse.

There are many procedures and incantations for expelling corpses, and none of them can be omitted. As long as one link is not in place, the corpse cannot be expelled. After praying to God, we put the corpses of Master Tian and Ms. Li in front of the coffin and began to seal them. Tian Gudao and I sealed the Tian couple's foreheads, backs, chests, left and right palms, and left and right feet with high-quality cinnabar. Each place was pressed with a talisman, and then tied tightly with five-color cloth strips. .These seven places are where the seven souls come and go, and are used to restrain the seven souls.Then stuff the cinnabar into the ears, nose, and mouth of the deceased, and use the talisman to stick it tightly.The ears, nose and mouth are the places where the three souls come and go, and the three souls are suppressed by magic symbols.Then the neck is covered with cinnabar, affixed with a talisman, and secured with five-color cloth strips.Finally, put on the blue and gray gown.

Everything is in place, it is late at night, and this is the best time to get up the corpse. If it is too early, it may scare passers-by in the bustling market of the county government, and it is easy to startle the corpse; too late is not conducive to gathering souls. Tian Gudao affixed Chenzhou Talismans on the foreheads of the two dead bodies, and put them on palm-leaf hats. I took off the seven-star hat from Tian Gudao's head and put it on, held the token in my hand, and chanted the corpse mantra: "The gong must be played loudly, the drum must be played clearly... I pray to all the masters, and work hard to protect the disciples... I pray for the protection of the Grand Master, when the corpse is being driven away, everyone in the filial family is clean, everyone is safe, the lucky star shines brightly, and the green horse supports..."

After reading the scriptures, I took the Dharma water in my mouth, sprayed it on the two corpses, slapped the token, kicked my foot, and shouted "get up", Tian Gudao took the opportunity to remove the mantra engraved with the mantra of the heavenly master from his back. Horn, signal for the road. It stands to reason that at this time the corpses would rise up and follow us on the road.But at this time, something unexpected happened:—— Among the two gods of joy, only Master Tian stood up, but Ms. Li remained motionless.Tian Gudao was a little pale, and complained, complaining that Master should not take this job.

According to the rules of driving corpses, there are three ways to drive away dead bodies and three times not to drive them away.Those who were executed by the government can be expelled, those who died in battle can be expelled, and those who died in foreign countries can be expelled.The reason is that they were all forced to die or were unwilling to die. They died unconvinced. They missed their hometown and loved ones. They could use magic to hook their souls and put them in their respective corpses with spells, and then use magic to drive them to climb the mountain. Over the mountains, even boarded a boat and crossed the water to return to their hometown. And there are three kinds that cannot be chased away: those who died of sudden illness of unknown reasons cannot be chased away, those who died voluntarily such as drowning in a river or hanging their necks, etc.The souls of those who died of illness have been hooked by Hades, and spells cannot call their souls back from the gate of hell; Those burned to death in a fire often have incomplete skin and flesh, so it is naturally difficult to catch them. Master Xiang Tianpu, relying on his superb magic skills, often picks up dead bodies that other morticians dare not pick up.He thinks that it is included in the three not to chase, mainly because it is difficult, and the average corpse chaser is not willing to chase. If the spell is high enough, there is actually no such emphasis. The deceased, Ms. Li, committed suicide because her spirit was so heavy that it was difficult to gather her soul.If you go on the road rashly, you may attract wild ghosts in the wilderness and cause a riot of corpses. At the least, it will take the life of the corpse driver, and at the worst, it will endanger the innocent people in the village.Besides, we are not as good as Master's spells, and it is still unknown whether we can subdue dead bodies by then. Night, dead silence.Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, the door opened with a creak, there was a noise from the roof, a piece of rubble fell to the ground and fell to our feet, and a cat meowed faintly in the distance.Tian Gudao was startled, and knocked over the ever-burning lamp on the altar. The house was plunged into a boundless and terrifying darkness. Tian Gudao and I, as well as the two corpses, remained motionless in the darkness, for fear of alarming each other. Shaoqing, Tian Gudao lit the lamp in the dark, he was a little flustered, he quietly clung to my ears, and said in a trembling voice: Brother, has Miss Li's soul gone away? At this time, I was also beating drums in my heart, but I tried to calm down and thought to myself, why am I so recited, the first time I drove the corpse independently, something went wrong!It's a trivial matter not being able to pick up the dead body, and now I am most worried about the cat in the distance! Because corpses are most afraid of dog bites and cat barking.The meow of the cat will startle the corpse, once startled the corpse, the corpse will not obey, and eventually become a lonely ghost wandering around. Although I was very brave, I was still in a cold sweat at this time. I forced myself to be calm and took the posture of a senior brother, and asked Tian Gudao to recite the foreign body spell together. Dead silence or dead silence.We reviewed the procedures and incantations taught by Master to recover the corpse, and felt that there should be no problem, so we felt a little at ease. I thought it must be Ms. Li's grievances that caused the trouble, so I asked Tian Gudao to perform the soul-resurrection technique, while I held the token in my left hand, raised the soul-inducing flag with my right, and shouted at Li's dead body: "Beast! Lang Lang In the universe, there is great righteousness, there are grievances and grievances, there are grievances and grievances, good will be rewarded with good, evil will be rewarded with evil, so far no retribution, the time has not yet come. This is not a place for you to live and die. It is really sad that you died in vain. The elders of the hometown Relatives and friends are eagerly looking forward to your return to your hometown. You should rise up and follow me back to your hometown. There is no need for your soul to hesitate. Be as urgent as a law! Get up!" After a yell, Li Nu's dead body jumped up from the door panel! Tian Gudao at the back blew the ox horn when he saw the opportunity... Then he took the small Yin gong from his waist and struck it several times, "哐...哐..." The sound of the gong tore through the dark night sky and swayed around , looked particularly gloomy and tragic. The two dead bodies, with their hands hanging slightly, their knees slightly bent, their movements rigid and inflexible, each step was quite stiff, and their steps were stiff, followed us one after the other, and embarked on the road back home.The house door behind him creaked, illusory and empty...