Chapter 1007 The Returnee's Notes 81
"You said you wanted to take that ghost away from the back mountain of the school, so borrow my umbrella for now. I'll take you to get an umbrella made next time." She usually uses ordinary umbrellas to capture ghosts, which are quite different from special soul umbrellas.
However, her soul umbrella was already damaged beyond repair, and since everyone can only obtain one soul umbrella in their lifetime, even if she wanted it, that person would not make it for her.
"Thank you, Grandma."
"You have some free time today, let me see how far you've come in your studies."
The old lady taught Xie Ning a variety of things, including exorcism magic, physiognomy, and divination. Xie Ning can now interpret simple hexagrams, but she still struggles with the more complex ones.
Speaking of this, Xie Ning thought of Xiang Youyi's elder brother, who studied Plum Blossom Divination and could cast hexagrams anytime, anywhere. He had a variety of methods for obtaining hexagrams, and every hexagram was accurate, never failing.
Xie Ning understood some of the principles involved, but she didn't study them in depth at the time.
The old lady taught her some tools for performing rituals, including red rope, talismans, a peach wood sword, and copper coins. The copper coins were all ancient coins, and only nine were used for the ritual.
The Tao Te Ching says, "The Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, and Three gives birth to all things."
Throughout history, the numbers one through nine have been given special meanings and symbols. The number nine has always been highly revered, as it represents the extreme of yang numbers and is also characterized by change.
For example, when a certain line in a hexagram is nine, it means that the line will change from yang to yin, which indicates a change and development in the situation, and people should make decisions based on the changes.
Xie Ning has only scratched the surface of the Taoist arts of using copper coins, but he is quite good at making red ropes and peach wood swords. He can also refine red ropes and draw some simple talismans, but their power is still not as good as the ones made by the old lady herself.
Another technique is to use hand seals and incantations to ignite fire. She often uses this method to burn talismans, so she is quite proficient at it. However, she has never succeeded in using the technique of summoning lightning.
The old lady could tell at a glance that Xie Ning's hand seals were incorrect, or that he had misjudged the timing of his incantation.
Of course, the most important thing is to mobilize the "Qi" within the body. Xie Ning is not yet very familiar with this, which is why he failed.
The old lady only finished teaching when Wang Ze and Huang Lili arrived.
Huang Lili rubbed her hands excitedly, "I've always heard my dad say that Fairy Xie has a Soul Umbrella, did you borrow it? Let me take a look!"
Xie Ning glanced at the black umbrella in her arms. "This?"
"Wait, no, no, my dad said the Soul Umbrella is an oiled paper umbrella, and everyone's umbrella is a different color and pattern. Isn't yours just an ordinary black umbrella?"
The kind you can buy for thirty yuan!
"This is the kind of umbrella my grandma gave me." This was the same one she used last time to collect souls, and she had never seen a real soul umbrella before, so Xie Ning herself didn't know what a soul umbrella looked like.
Huang Lili puffed out her cheeks and then let out a big sigh, "As expected, it's because we're the juniors that the seniors won't let us use the powerful magical artifacts."
After all, powerful magical artifacts are rare, and that's how her father treated her.
Wang Ze knew that Xie Li's soul umbrella was broken, but he didn't say anything. He glanced at the bright green on Huang Lili's head and finally couldn't help but speak.
"Xiao Li, we're going to pay respects, why don't you dye your hair a proper black color? It would look more solemn that way."
"I don't!"
Huang Lili glanced at Wang Ze, "Brother Ze, you're so old-fashioned. What does hair color have to do with being proper or not? It's my freedom to dye my hair green! Nobody can tell me what to do. Maybe Ms. Qiao will even be happy to see me like this!"
Next time she'll dye her hair red, but unfortunately the hairdresser's dyeing skills are limited, otherwise she'd like to dye it multicolored, that would look so beautiful!
"Oh, right."
Huang Lili tugged at Xie Ning's arm, "I saw your classmate Xiao Liu this morning."
The little girl was selling green peppers with her mother. She stood there listening for a while. They were only three cents a pound. It made her feel like a big grudge, since she had bought peppers for several dollars a pound at the supermarket.
If her home weren't so far away, she would have bought two sacks of green peppers and taken them home. Except for her dad, she and her family absolutely love green peppers! Especially stuffed green peppers! And also tiger-skin green peppers, pounded green peppers with preserved eggs, stir-fried green peppers with eggs, green peppers with enoki mushrooms...
Reluctantly shaking off the image of the delicious food in her mind, Huang Lili continued, "Her energy is too weak. If you hadn't put a red string on her and tied a copper coin to ward off evil spirits, she would have easily attracted some ghosts and monsters."
"She was close to a ghost when she was young, which is why she is more frail than the average person."
As they talked, the group had already circled around to the back of the school. It was the weekend, and the school was very quiet. As the sun set, it became even cooler.
The three of them first repaired the female ghost's grave. Xie Ning even had a small tombstone made by a coffin shop erected on it so that the female ghost would no longer remain nameless.
The one who performed the soul-collecting ritual was Xie Ning. She only followed the old lady's method, but she didn't perform any shamanistic rituals, because those were for fooling ordinary people, and there was no need to do them in front of those who knew the ropes.
It was getting late, so the three of them decided to drive to the city where Qiao Jinmei lived, book a hotel for the night, and visit her the next morning.
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