Fourth Master and Lanqin exchanged a glance, then walked out of the house. A large crowd had already gathered outside. Ling Feng and Gesang, Si Hua and Shui Ling were also standing at the door, peering in that direction.
Fourth Master and Lanqin were also standing at the door when they saw Zhou Tianhao and Xiuzhu come out and say to the wailing woman, "Auntie, please get up and take the child inside first. Let me take a look."
The woman continued to cry, saying, "Taoist priest, please, you must save my child. He's my only child. If he's gone, I won't be able to live either."
The woman was crying very sadly; it seemed her child had a very serious illness.
"Auntie, get up quickly! Let my master take a look. If this continues, this little boy might really not survive," Xiuzhu said, seeing the woman only able to hold the child and cry.
The people around her echoed her sentiments, urging the woman to quickly take the child inside.
"Taoist priest, my child isn't sick, but... but possessed by an evil spirit, and has lost his soul!" the woman said.
Upon hearing this, those who had just been casting sympathetic glances around her immediately retreated, as if afraid of getting involved with something.
Lanqin's heart tightened. Although she was a person who had transmigrated from the future and was a materialist who did not believe in ghosts and gods, the fact that she could transmigrate in spirit made Lanqin have to believe that there might really be another kind of power in this world.
"Tell me in detail what happened," Master Zhou said.
"Ten days ago, I took my son back to my parents' home. We were passing through Dumenpo when, I don't know what happened, my son, Gouwa, suddenly disappeared. I went to great lengths to find him. But after finding him, he gradually became like he'd lost his soul. Lately, he's been sleeping for long periods and won't wake up no matter how I call him. But when I touch his nose, he's still breathing," the woman said, weeping.
"Oh dear, she's probably been bewitched by some evil spirit!" someone said. The crowd surrounding the woman began to murmur amongst themselves. They even started talking about some strange things that had happened in that area.
Lan Qin glanced at Zhou Tianhao, the man who had tricked Fourth Master so badly. He was about the same age as Fourth Master, yet he had a disciple who was thirteen or fourteen years old. Judging from their master-disciple relationship, they seemed very close. It would be difficult to cultivate someone like that without five or six years of close interaction. It seemed that this man must be a Taoist priest with great cultivation, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to take on a disciple at such a young age.
“Auntie, don’t cry. If I can save him, I will. Let’s take him inside first. It’s getting late, the sun has already set, so those of you who have finished your appointments can leave now, don’t crowd around here.” Zhou Tianhao said to everyone.
His words had a great effect; those people respected him greatly and immediately stopped crowding around.
After the woman carried the child inside, Fourth Master and the others followed. They were all intrigued by the woman's words. Could there really be some evil spirit here?
As Zhou Tianhao began taking the child's pulse, Su Peisheng secretly gave Xiuzhu a wink. Because Su Peisheng had taught him to cook, Xiuzhu now held Su Peisheng in some respect.
“Xiuzhu, what kind of place is the Dumenpo that woman mentioned? It sounds rather eerie,” Su Peisheng asked.
“The locals say that place is haunted by wronged spirits. They say several people died there, and their spirits lingered, forming a forbidden zone. Very few people go there on ordinary days; even the locals dare not venture there. Actually, that place is just a broken canyon. It's perpetually dark inside, which makes it look rather eerie,” Xiuzhu said.
Upon hearing this, both Fourth Master and Lanqin became curious about this secluded slope. What kind of power made it so that no one dared to approach this place on ordinary days? Was there some vengeful spirit haunting it?
Zhou Tianhao took the child's pulse for a while, then opened his eyelids to look at him, and then used silver needles to prick his acupoints.
"Taoist priest, how is my dog?" the woman asked anxiously.
“I don’t know why he’s like this yet. Let me test him for poison first,” Zhou Tianhao said.
"Taoist priest, is he poisoned?" the woman asked.
"I don't know, let's try everything first. Judging from the child's pulse, he's just a little weak, but there's no danger to his life," said Master Zhou.
While Zhou Tianhao was testing the poison with the boy named Gouwa, Su Peisheng had already learned everything about the surrounding area from Xiuzhu. Fourth Master, Lanqin, and Sihua Shuiling stood quietly to the side, listening, and thus also learned about the local customs and traditions of the area around Wudang Mountain.
"He's probably poisoned, not lost his soul," Zhou Tianhao said after applying pressure to several acupoints on the dog.
"Taoist Master, how could Gouwa be poisoned? Where did the poison come from? What kind of poison did he get?" the woman asked in disbelief.
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