Python Immortal
The girl lay on the bed with her hands hanging by her sides, her messy hair spread across the sheets, her closed eyes still wet with tears, and her breathing was unusually calm for the past few months. Her torso and legs, which had been kicking, thrashing, or twitching earlier, had all quieted down.
Wen Dai lowered her chin and stared at the girl in front of her for a while, then turned to the others and said, "The spirit behind me has temporarily stabilized this little sister's soul. The evil spirit following her hasn't gone away yet, but she's just resting now." She leaned forward and pulled the blanket over Li Qingyu.
The group sat down on the sofa in the bedroom. Chen Sizhe slowly sank into the sofa as he sat down, and Wen Dai vaguely smelled a faint, indescribable fragrance when he sat down.
“Her soul is unstable… because that car accident was a death sentence for her.” The languid voice was drawn out, and Chen Sizhe’s eyelashes fluttered a few times, his drooping eyelids seeming as if they were about to close at any moment.
The moment the words "death calamity" were uttered, the surroundings seemed to be swallowed up silently. Liu Nan's tears welled up again, and she turned her face away, covering her mouth to stifle her sobs.
Li Chengjian placed his palm above his forehead, brushed his gray hair, which was mixed with white, back, and then straightened his hunched neck. The bloodshot eyes made him look even more haggard under the yellow nightlight in the room, and his voice was full of exhaustion: "So... has my granddaughter survived her death calamity, or is she currently going through it?"
“He has survived the ordeal, but he may still be affected. Being too affected by evil spirits can lead to madness and insanity. The reason is mostly that the spirit has possessed him, or in layman’s terms, he is possessed by a ghost.” Wen Dai was the one who answered. She stared intently at Li Chengjian and patted Chen Sizhe’s arm twice to signal him to rest.
Chen Sizhe, who had straightened up to explain, lay back down, his eyes, half-hidden under his wispy hair, completely closed.
However, after Wen Dai finished explaining, he still spoke up: "The intersection where Li Qingyu had the accident was the intersection of Yanyang Road and Fudong Road, right? Accident-prone sections are scientifically speaking because the intersection design is flawed, but there are intersections everywhere, so why is it that only this one is most prone to accidents? Excluding traffic flow characteristics, design flaws, and the complexity of traffic participants, we have to look at it from a feng shui perspective."
"I've heard about that intersection; everyone in Lizhou should know about it. Accidents are frequent, sometimes as often as once a week, sometimes three times every two weeks, with varying degrees of severity. The Road Traffic Safety Law defines an accident-prone section as one where there are three or more fatal accidents or ten or more injury accidents within a year. Lizhou is a top-tier city in China, so there shouldn't be any flaws in its traffic design. That intersection didn't used to have such frequent accidents; it must have started about two years ago, right? Back then... I remember a case of a chain-reaction rear-end collision that led to an explosion."
The atmosphere froze in silence once more. After a moment, Li Chengjian, who had his hands crossed on his knees, raised his head and looked at Chen Sizhe, who was resting with his eyes closed. He swallowed hard and then spoke: "You mean, that intersection has a feng shui problem because of the rear-end collision?"
The hand hanging on his lap stopped stroking his fingers, and the man with his eyes closed let out a muffled "hmm" from his nose.
Li Chengjian let out a deep breath, lowered his chin, and rubbed his thumbs together on his crossed hands.
“The problem you mentioned is indeed possible. We have checked everything at that intersection, from the timing of the traffic lights and the clarity of the lane markings to the percentage of speeding and drunk driving. We have also done everything we could, including road slope testing, dynamic friction coefficient testing, and electromagnetic interference testing. The types of vehicles involved in the accidents are not concentrated in one area. I am the head of the department, and I have been troubled by the accident problem at that intersection for a long time, but I never expected that the accident would happen to my family.”
The man sitting next to Li Chengjian gently patted Li Chengjian's back. He looked up and said, "My father has always taken the safety of the people very seriously. He never shirks his responsibilities. Because of what happened at that intersection, my father's hair has turned quite a bit white. If you can provide a solution, money is not a problem; and there's my daughter... she is my wife's and my only child."
The man shook his head, lowered his neck and whispered, "I can't imagine my daughter leaving me, and I can't accept that she has lost her self-awareness because of being possessed by a ghost. I don't want to see her suffer anymore."
Sobbing, Liu Nan composed herself, reaching out to the man's lap and clasping his hand. Her dark pupils met his through her tear-filled, red eyes. "Li Lang... I can't accept not having Xiao Yu, I can't." She shook her head, her tightly pressed lips trembling slightly.
Wen Dai found it strange. She glanced curiously at the person beside her who couldn't even open his eyes, while the latter raised his hand to massage his temples. After closing his eyes for a while, he slowly opened them, his fox-like eyes, which were veiled in mist, glanced at her first, then brushed them off from the Li family members, and his deep, hoarse voice came out:
"You all need to manage your emotions. Our main purpose in coming here is to help Li Qingyu resolve her troubles. The reason we mentioned the frequent accidents at the intersection earlier was simply to let you know that there is a lot of resentment and malevolent energy there. The vengeful spirits there have attached themselves to Li Qingyu and intend to possess her."
The overly blunt words made Wen Dai's eyelids twitch. She clenched her fist and slapped Chen Sizhe's thigh. She interrupted, saying, "That's right. Just now, she seemed to be having an emotional breakdown in bed. Plus, you said she hides in the closet during the day. All of these factors combined make it easy to diagnose her with a mental illness."
"But the truth is, she was just being attacked by a bunch of evil spirits. She hid in the closet during the day, probably because some evil spirits were threatening her. Did anyone in your family worship spirits before? Like fox spirits, weasels, snake spirits, or python spirits; what I saw was a python with green stripes."
The Li family members, sitting together, exchanged glances and whispered among themselves for a while. Then Li Chengjian turned to them and nodded, saying, "My mother did make offerings to the snake before she died. I'm not sure if it was a snake or a python. My wife used to be frequently ordered by my mother to buy offerings, and she often took us to release animals. That snake was one that my father found in the mountains. My memories of it from my childhood are a bit vague, but after it died, my mother did take it and worship it with the Buddha."
"Then that's it. The little girl was able to survive this ordeal because of the Python Immortal. He saved her life. Without the Python Immortal, it wouldn't have been just a simple case of fractures and soft tissue contusions. Now that you've encountered a ghost, you haven't helped because you haven't made offerings to Him. If He wanted to help again, it would consume his own energy. Besides, helping in a calamity is already somewhat against the rules of fate."
The curtains hanging on the balcony fluttered inexplicably, making the tightly closed balcony door seem to disappear.
Seeing their horrified expressions, Wen Dai glanced at them, then turned back to face them, reassuringly saying, "Don't worry, it's not a ghost, it's just that the Python Immortal is here. After all, you haven't worshipped Him for two generations, and now it's the third generation, Li Qingyu. This little girl is quite intelligent, and the Python Immortal's help to her is actually a way for him to further his own plans. Now that you've finally learned of His existence, you'll definitely want to prove yourself."
Still somewhat afraid of the fluttering curtains, Liu Nan averted her eyes, not daring to look directly at them. "So, does this mean we should start worshipping this python spirit again? If we worship it again, will it protect my daughter? Will my daughter get better?"
Looking at Liu Nan's profile as she turned towards her, Wen Dai didn't try to comfort her or tell her not to be afraid. Instead, she simply said, "It would be best to re-enshrine the temple. It will protect your whole family and help your daughter get better. It's my job and my partner's job."
She propped herself up from the sofa and walked to the sleeping Li Qingyu. As she helped Li Qingyu up, she said, "I'll help her close the acupoints that were opened, and I'll also perform a ritual to send away the evil spirits attached to her. This little girl's yang energy is quite damaged. I'll leave you a talisman. If needed, you can consider getting her a refined protective magic weapon. Silver or jade is best for her; don't wear gold, it's bad for her."
After lounging on the sofa for a while, Chen Sizhe followed slowly. Just as Wen Dai helped Li Qingyu sit up, Chen Sizhe made a hand gesture and chanted a mantra. He then struck Li Qingyu's back with a dull thud, which startled the people sitting on the sofa.
Wen Dai glanced at the four people who had gathered around her, noticing the worry on their faces. She explained, "It's alright, she won't feel any pain. This is mainly to expel the evil spirits from her body. After all, we need to drive away those evil spirits that are clinging to her."
As Wen Dai said, even though Chen Sizhe's strength seemed considerable, Li Qingyu, who was helped to sit up by Wen Dai, still kept her head down and eyes closed, breathing evenly and calmly.
The black mist that had been condensed in Li Qingyu's body gradually spread out and took shape. Souls with missing flesh and exposed bones were considered normal among this group of Yin spirits. Some even had only half a head attached to the neck, the upper half of which was held in its hand like the remaining half of a watermelon. Souls missing legs floated in mid-air, holding a leg in its hand and shoving it at the missing part.
Just as Wen Dai was asking the immortals to bring these evil spirits over, a charred human face suddenly appeared in front of her. The skin and flesh of the face were charred black, half of the eyeballs bulged out, and where the nose was gone, there was only a dark, empty hole. The lips were missing, leaving only the area connected to the gums, and the white teeth were the brightest thing on the withered black face.
Her breath caught in her throat for a moment. Wen Dai steadied her pounding heart and turned to Liu Nan beside her, saying, "Here, help me up."
After handing Li Qingyu over to Liu Nan, she bent one knee and stood up on the ground, muttering in the upper language. She then personally rolled Li Qingyu into a ball, compressed it, and threw it to the immortal.
The whimpering and shrill cries only bothered Wen Dai and Chen Sizhe's ears, so neither of them relaxed their brows. Wen Dai, who was frightened, even looked rather sour.
After clearing away the evil spirit from Li Qingyu, Wen Dai took out a piece of red cloth from her bag and picked out a coin. She quickly drew a few lines above the coin with her hand in a sword-finger gesture, then wrapped the coin in the red cloth and folded it into a triangle. She then put the triangle talisman in a sealed bag and placed it under Li Qingyu's pillow.
She pressed the pillow back down, turned her head to look at Liu Nan, who was still supporting Li Qingyu, and said, "You can let her sleep now. I used a talisman to replenish Yang energy. This will take some time, at least a year and at most three years. Let's see how it goes."
As Wen Dai straightened up from her bent-over position, she was about to zip up her handbag when Li Chengjian suddenly said, "Do you have any of the silver or jade protective amulets you mentioned earlier? If you do, I'd like to buy them directly from you." He paused several times, his eyes fixed earnestly on Wen Dai.
At this moment, a patient opened his eyes and glanced at her. Wen Dai glanced at Chen Sizhe across the bed, then looked back at Li Chengjian, her tone troubled: "I do have some here... those pure silver bracelets, but actually, it's best for this little girl to wear jade. Jade is better for her. Use high-quality Hetian jade or jadeite. I don't have any here. My budget is limited, and I'm not sure about the size."
Silver bracelets can be sold in adjustable styles, so they can be sold either way. But if she doesn't find a suitable buyer for a jade bracelet, then her money is basically wasted.
Li Qingyu, who was fast asleep in bed, probably because the influence of the evil spirits had disappeared, rolled over under the covers, stretched out her slender arm towards the headboard, and grabbed a corner of the teddy bear with her small hand.
Looking at Li Qingyu's peaceful sleeping face, the woman, who rarely spoke, softened her gaze. She stroked the old mine jade bracelet on her wrist and looked up at Wen Dai, saying, "Then I'll find someone to make a bracelet for Qingyu. Can you do that kind of ritual for the bracelet that's made?"
“Sure, you can ask me, not just me.” Wen Dai raised her chin and pointed to Chen Sizhe, who was standing there. She turned her eyes to the Li family, revealing her dimples, and said with a smile, “You can ask him too, he can do it too.”
Chen Sizhe, his eyelids drooping again, refused without hesitation: "I don't have time, you do it. Don't forget what my job is."
Wen Dai had originally intended to generously give Chen Sizhe some work, but after he reminded her, she suddenly realized—
This guy is a lawyer, and he charges by the hour for consultations, at 8,000 per hour.
The Li family accompanied them downstairs. Liu Nan, whose eyes were no longer brimming with tears, was probably just too worried to think straight. She raised her hand and beckoned, "Hey, why don't you stay for dinner before you leave?"
The woman was the one who woke her up with two slaps. She glanced at her with displeasure and said in a low voice, "What are you saying? We're the only ones who haven't had dinner yet. Look at the time."
Realizing her mistake, Liu Nan smiled apologetically. She glanced at Wen Dai and Chen Sizhe, her lips parted, and she spoke sincerely: "When I opened the door, I saw that you two were both so young, and I was actually a little distrustful, especially since this gentleman seemed very sleepy... It seems I can't judge a book by its cover anymore."
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