Chapter 19 Entering the Dao Body: Because of this divination, it was originally scheduled to be placed in the Ghost Palace...

Just as Master Fang felt Hong Tao rushing down on him, a gust of wind suddenly swept up from behind him, as if someone had pulled him hard.

Immediately, Master Fang's vision blurred, and he experienced another dizzying sensation, vaguely hearing half a low incantation: "Wind travels everywhere..."

Then their bodies plummeted rapidly, and the five people were not swept away by the raging flood, but instead crashed heavily onto the solid ground.

Strangely enough, it was as if a hole had suddenly opened up at the bottom of the riverbed, letting them slip through.

Everyone was dazed and confused after the fall. Hei Zi and the yamen runner choked on water and coughed so hard they were bent over. Suddenly realizing they had escaped a disaster, they were still shaken but couldn't hide their excitement: "Ahhh, I wasn't swept away by the flood! I thought I was going to die!"

"Awoo, I'm still here too! I was so scared! How could there be a sudden flood?"

Master Fang was shocked to realize that his life had been saved. He lay on the ground, clutching his sore buttocks, and groaned for a moment.

Lu Bing bumped his head, leaving a bruise on his forehead. He rubbed his dizzy and throbbing head, feeling a bit dizzy and seeing stars: "Where...where am I?"

The group of people stood up unsteadily, clutching their arms and legs. Zhou Yaren blinked, and the world before him was no longer pitch black, but shrouded in a hazy white mist. He said with some difficulty, "I've entered the Dao."

Master Fang stared in astonishment, seeing that the surroundings were filled with thick fog, but above his head hung a perfectly clear full moon: "You mean, we have entered the Taiyin/Dao Body?"

Zhou Yaren turned her head and saw several dark figures shrouded in the white mist. They had no faces, only shadowy humanoid outlines. They were none other than Master Fang and Lu Bing and the other three.

Zhou Yaren stared blankly at the four dark figures, then suddenly realized that he could "see" them here: "Yes."

Because of their complete ignorance of the Taiyin/Dao Body, the constables were filled with fear: "What should we do? What exactly is this Taiyin/Dao Body? Is it dangerous?"

Master Fang said, "The Dao Body is the realm of Daoist Dharma, the illusory universe."

Lu Bing interrupted, rubbing his temples, "We're not Taoist practitioners, we don't understand that nonsense about Taoism and Dharma. Speak like a human being."

"It is a virtual realm in the Daoist arts, a world within the virtual realm."

"What exactly is this 'Virtual Realm'?" Hei Zi's biggest concern was, "We've somehow ended up here, how are we going to get out? We need to get out of here right now!"

The constable nodded vigorously: "Yes, we need to get out of here quickly."

As they spoke, the group started walking forward without prior arrangement. Lu Bing looked around, but his vision couldn't penetrate the white mist that resembled a curtain, making it impossible to see the terrain or whether there was a road ahead: "How do we leave?"

Upon hearing this question, everyone turned to look at Zhou Yaren.

Master Fang respectfully addressed him: "Just now, in the critical moment, thanks to your timely rescue, we were able to escape disaster and were not swept away by the flood. So we should all have been brought into this Taiyin/Dao Body by you, right? Since Fengxing is omnipresent, then Fengxing should also be omnipresent?"

Zhou Yaren actually found a hint of amusement in Master Fang's words: "The place we were just in belongs to the Kan position in the realm of Daoist magic..."

Master Fang was quick-witted and understood immediately: "So when you rode the wind just now, it was exactly the Xun entering Kan gate, the wind entering the Dao realm."

Zhou Yaren remained noncommittal: "Besides, I was in the right place at the right time..."

He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence, his feet rooted to the spot.

Seeing the other person's slightly solemn expression, Master Fang didn't dare to press further and waited for him to continue. However, Hei Zi, oblivious to worldly affairs, asked without hesitation, "What does 'divination by wind' mean?"

Lu Bing used to hang out with Zhou Yaren, so he knew a little about this: "It's the art of wind divination, observing the winds from the four directions and four corners to predict good or bad fortune."

Every year, when the palace held various sacrificial rites or went to war, Zhou Yaren would be ordered to listen to the wind and observe the weather to predict good or bad fortune in order to assist in the administration of the time.

Upon hearing this, Hei Zi looked intently at Zhou Yaren and asked, "So, was your divination just now auspicious or inauspicious?"

Only the yamen runner beside him noticed that the blind monk seemed to be staring at something, so he turned his head curiously and followed the monk's gaze to a certain spot in the mist. He was immediately horrified, his tongue lolling out: "Boss, boss, boss..."

Everyone turned to him, then followed his terrified gaze, and they all became unsettled. Even Hei Zi caught the lisp and stammered, "Th-th-th-th..."

And then, amidst the vast fog, a solemn and silent building vaguely appeared.

Perhaps because they were so close, or perhaps because the white fog had thinned considerably, they were now able to make out the general outline of the building.

It was precisely because they could roughly see it that everyone was terrified, because the facade was exactly the same as the ghostly government office.

Lu Bing almost couldn't finish a sentence: "Ghost, ghost, ghost government office."

"Is this Beiqu?" Hei Zi's voice trembled. "Are we actually in the city, boss?"

The constable tentatively asked, "So—can we just go back now?"

As they spoke, everyone looked around, as if trying to confirm something.

“That’s not right,” Hei Zi said, pointing to the side of the Ghost Office. “I remember there should be an abandoned old house there.”

The constable trembled: "No, there should be several old houses there."

Because the Ghostly Government Office is located here, the surrounding people dare not live here and have moved away one after another. As a result, there are several abandoned houses nearby, which are very dilapidated.

But now the Ghost Office is surrounded by nothing, completely isolated in the wilderness.

This is just too bizarre.

Lu Bingkui couldn't hold back any longer: "What on earth is going on?"

"Don't panic," Zhou Yaren reassured him, explaining simply, "You've just accidentally entered a Dao formation. What you see and hear may not necessarily have any substance."

Hei Zi hurriedly said, "So, what I saw might be an illusion?"

For ordinary people, the realm of Tao and its laws, the universe within its borders, is mostly incomprehensible and can be regarded as an illusion.

Zhou Yaren didn't respond, but in his view, the fact that there was a Taiyin/Dao body in the ancient well of the Ghost Government Office, and a Ghost Government Office within the Taiyin/Dao body, was both unexpected and expected.

Master Fang had obviously thought of this as well. Standing in front of the Ghost Bureau, a chill ran down his spine. He swallowed hard and asked, "You mentioned divination earlier, what was the result?"

Of the group, Zhou Yaren's voice sounded the most composed: "I can't figure it out."

"You remain so calm and composed even when you can't predict the outcome? What level of composure do you possess?" Master Fang asked anxiously. "Why?"

"They are all extremely yin energy."

Upon hearing this, Master Fang gasped.

Zhou Yaren changed the subject, "Master Fang, would you mind casting a divination?"

Master Fang's mind almost couldn't process what he was saying, he couldn't keep up with his pace at all: "Divination...divination..." What's the point of divining at a time like this? "Oh oh oh...okay, sure." Since he couldn't use the divination technique, he was asked to cast a divination to check the situation. Master Fang was about to take out some copper coins, looking a bit flustered. He couldn't understand why he was so flustered. Then Zhou Yaren handed him three copper coins.

"Please use these three."

Master Fang thought to himself, "Can't I use my own?" He took the coin and looked at it suspiciously, "Huh, Qin coins?"

The other three gathered around upon hearing this, and Lu Bing immediately recognized the three copper coins in Fang Daoist's hand: "Yaren, could these be the three Qin coins I dug out of the death row? You actually brought them out and even carried them on your person?!"

Master Fang was shocked: "This...you dug this out of the death row?"

“Yes,” Zhou Yaren turned to Lu Bing, “Do you still remember the orientation of these three copper coins, how many of them were facing up?”

"This..." Lu Bing pondered and shook his head, "I didn't pay any attention to whether it was up or down at the time, did you two notice?"

The two constables shook their heads simultaneously.

Zhou Yaren was not bothered by this: "Then please ask Master Fang to use it to cast a divination."

Master Fang suppressed his doubts and carefully and attentively cast a hexagram. After finishing, he suddenly raised his head: "Kan hexagram!"

As expected, Zhou Yaren said, "When I couldn't get a divination result earlier, I also used these three copper coins to draw the same divination result as you."

Lu Bing couldn't help but ask, "So, what's the divination result? Is it auspicious or inauspicious?"

Master Fang said, "Kan represents water and danger. This is Xi Kan. Two Kan overlapping each other is danger upon danger."

Zhou Yaren also said: "Xi Kan means entering a pit, which is ominous."

Master Fang lowered his head and murmured to himself, reciting a passage from the Book of Changes: "The pit is the deepest part of the pit. Rivers and streams are difficult to cross. The flow of all rivers in the earth is the proper way of water. When it causes disaster, it overflows the plains and enters the pit, which means that the water has lost its way."

This reminded him of the sudden flood that had just swept through the area, causing widespread damage and plunging them into danger.

“No,” Zhou Yaren said. “This divination is not about our situation.”

Master Fang didn't understand: "The divination I just performed, if it wasn't us, then who was it?"

Zhou Yaren said, "Because this divination was originally placed in the death row of the Ghost Bureau."

Daoist Fang was puzzled: "What do you mean by that, fellow Daoist?"

“This is a divination, and also a formation. These three Qin coins were originally a divination formation arranged in the Ghost Bureau.” As a result, Lu Bing unearthed it by accident, and Zhou Yaren concluded, “It is used for criminal punishment.”

"The use of punishment must be in accordance with reason, and punishment must be just." Master Fang's expression changed suddenly, because many of those buried in the death row were people who had died unjustly, and this divination array was placed on them. Wouldn't that mean: "When injustice is found, the innocent are wronged and the law loses its way."

Therefore, "entering the pit is ominous."

Further interpreting the hexagram, Zhou Yaren said: "Tethered with ropes, placed in a thicket of thorns, never to escape."

The "huimo" is a rope instrument used to bind criminals. "Congji" means prison, and it is called "Congji" because nine kinds of thorns grow outside the prison.

This means being imprisoned in a thorny jail, never to be released.

“Never to leave—” Master Fang’s heart choked in his throat. “Will it trap us, or…”

“These are all hexagrams, which form a hexagram array when placed here,” Zhou Yaren said, a gloomy look rising on his face. “If I’m not mistaken, this hexagram array is placed in the Ghost Bureau, where the bodies of the unjustly killed are buried, which is the punishment and imprisonment of the Taoist law.”

Master Fang was speechless for a moment.

Zhou Yaren asked in a deep voice, "Was this done by the Taihang Road?"

Master Fang shook his head, he didn't know either: "Perhaps...perhaps it was before, twelve years ago, when there was some evil spirit causing trouble, and my master was helpless, so he asked the Taihang Sect Leader to come down the mountain for help. If we don't do it this way, how can we suppress it?"

“No, that’s not right.” Zhou Yaren pondered. “It doesn’t make sense. This is the Taiyin/Dao Body, the Daoist laws and punishments. It wasn’t done twelve years ago, but formed a very, very long time ago.”

Master Fang grew increasingly nervous as he listened: "A long time ago—how long ago?"

Zhou Yaren clutched the three Qin Banliang coins, a somewhat uncertain guess forming in her mind: "Qin?"

Master Fang was shocked: "The Qin Dynasty." Then he instantly realized that the predecessor of this ghostly government office was "the Qin Dynasty's prison."

He even said that the injustices committed during the Qin Dynasty have lasted for at least a thousand years, so this is the safest approach.

However, he had no idea that there was a Taiyin/Dao Body underneath. He only thought that since the Qin Dynasty, through generations of accumulation, there would naturally be countless wronged souls in the prison, so it was not surprising that they would haunt the government office. Therefore, Taihang Dao set up an array to seal off the ghost government office.

However, Master Fang said, "To be honest, I hope you won't take offense, fellow Daoist. Before this, I didn't believe that this was what you called the Taiyin/Dao Body, because in this world, no one really has the ability to build a Daoist realm. Even the head of the Taihang Daoist Celestial Master doesn't have that much ability. But if we're talking about ancient times, or the Qin Dynasty a thousand years ago, there were many talented people, so it's really possible. But how did they manage to do that?"

“Take the stone-filled treasure mirror to make a shrine for the moon, use water as a mirror to reflect the moon’s image, place it in the Kan position, the accumulated cold air of Yin becomes water, and the essence of water becomes the moon.”

"So that's how it is," Master Fang held his breath. "Since this Taiyin/Dao Body is a Daoist prison, then this hexagram, no, this hexagram array, is bound with ropes and placed in a thicket of thorns, so that we can never escape, will it also trap us forever?"

The three bystanders, including Lu Bing, were completely dumbfounded.

Kuroko's eyes immediately reddened, and she struggled to hold back her tears. At this moment, she finally couldn't help but interject, "Does that mean we can't get out?"

Lu Bing's heart was pounding wildly. He looked nervously at his most trusted friend and asked in a very soft voice, "Ya Ren?"

Zhou Yaren pondered for a moment: "Let's go in and take a look. There's always a way out."

Master Fang nodded repeatedly: "That's right, there's always a way out. We fell in from the ancient well in the Ghost Bureau. If we go in and find that well again, we might be able to get back."

A note from the author:

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