Chapter Sixty-Two: Initiation

I responded with a nod, signaling Old Ma to proceed without restraint.

Old Ma fixed his gaze on me, his expression flickering for a brief moment before he looked away.

For some inexplicable reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something off about the old man, as though he was plotting something.

He dipped a willow branch into rooster’s blood and struck me with it. An intense pain exploded across my body! I couldn’t help but gasp, nearly crying out, but I managed to clench my teeth and swallow the scream that had reached my lips.

Yet Old Ma didn’t seem to be using much force—why did it hurt so much? It felt as if a whip had lashed me viciously!

He dipped the willow branch in blood again and struck me a second time. The vivid red blood burst across my skin, droplets scattering in the candlelight and splattering onto the red cloth beneath me. Another wave of searing pain shot through me.

I couldn’t help but exhale sharply. This was no ordinary pain! Was he certain he held a willow branch?

I looked at the spot where I’d been struck—a large patch of rooster’s blood, and where the branch had landed, a dark mark emerged. It wasn’t the usual swollen welt from a beating. I grimaced in pain, reaching out to examine the strange black mark.

“Don’t move!” Old Ma barked sharply.

I quickly drew back my hand, not daring to move.

He grabbed the willow branch, dipped it in blood once more, and struck me again. Bracing myself after the first two blows, I clenched my fists and bit down hard, doing my best to endure, but I still couldn’t help letting out a hiss of pain.

Blow after blow landed on me, as though I were being whipped, the agony so great I wished for death.

I had no idea how long it went on before Old Ma finally stopped. By then, my body was stained crimson with rooster’s blood, covered in dark marks left by the blows.

Panting, I looked at Old Ma and asked, “Is it over?”

“It’s not that simple. The gathered ghostly energy has been dispelled, but now comes the true lifting of the curse,” he replied.

He motioned for me to sit straight, picked up a bowl of white rice, placed his hand over it, rolled his eyes back, and began chanting in a strange, sing-song tone. After a while, he scooped up a handful of rice, held it to his lips, muttered something, then came to my side and called out, “Suppress evil, banish demons!”

With that, he slapped the handful of rice onto my body. Though the blow landed on my back, a sharp pain stabbed through my heart. The rice slid off me, scattering onto the red cloth.

He took another handful of rice, muttered again, and declared, “Subdue monsters, drive out ghosts!”

His hand struck another spot, and once again my heart convulsed with pain. I clenched my brows, my eyes and nose scrunched together from the agony.

Another handful of rice, another incantation. “Ward off calamity, dissolve misfortune!”

With each slap, my heart spasmed anew.

He struck me several more times, until the bowl was nearly empty, then stopped. He stood before me, bit his finger, and used his blood to draw something on the remaining rice.

When he finished, he picked up the bowl and slammed it down hard over my chest!

“Ah—!” My heart jolted with blinding pain! Even after enduring so long that my body had gone numb, I couldn’t help but cry out.

Old Ma did not let go. He pressed the bowl firmly against my chest, the pain refusing to subside. Tears sprang to my eyes, and in my blurred vision I saw a mass of black vapor shoot out from my body, while the candlelight around me turned a ghastly green.

I nearly collapsed backward, but Old Ma’s stern voice rang out, “Hold on!”

I managed to prop myself up. Wisps of shadowy vapor kept pouring from my body. After an indeterminate time, the candlelight finally returned to normal.

He lifted the bowl from my chest. The rice inside had all turned black.

“Is it done?” I asked weakly, both body and spirit spent.

Old Ma stared at my chest, frowning, saying nothing for a moment.

A wave of dread crashed over me. I had lived in fear and suspense for nearly a month, my nerves stretched to the breaking point; I was terrified of that look on his face.

“What is it? Is something wrong? Did it fail?” I asked anxiously, glancing at my own chest—there, a black mark had emerged, exactly like the one from years ago.

Old Ma averted his eyes, met my gaze, and let out a long sigh. That sigh confirmed my worst fears. My heart lurched, and my mind went blank.

“The curse has rooted too deeply in your body. I cannot remove it entirely,” he said with regret.

“What…what will happen to me?” I asked.

“At most, ten years…”

Ten years… So in the end, all he did was buy me a decade of life? All those bold assurances, and this is all he could manage after all. Still, ten years is better than dying in a few days. Perhaps this is simply my fate.

Weary, I got up to gather my things. Old Ma spoke again: “It could return in as little as a year. If that happens, there truly will be no hope.”

I jolted, staring at him wide-eyed. “Didn’t you say ten years? How can it be as soon as one?”

He looked at me, displeased. “At most ten years. As soon as a year. The timing isn’t up to me.”

Ten years would have been bearable! But this—this means I could die at any moment after a year! I’d waited all this time, suffered all this pain, only to end up here? No wonder the old man insisted on splitting the money with me beforehand. He must have known from the start he couldn’t save me!

I was furious. “Are you kidding me? Didn’t you say the divine seal would keep me alive? And now I’m still a dead man in a year!”

“Why are you so agitated? I said I can’t remove the curse, but I never said I couldn’t save you,” Old Ma retorted.

With death looming over me, how could I not be agitated? I no longer had any trust left for his kind of talk. I snapped, “Then how do I survive? Tell me!”

He shot me a glare. “What’s with that attitude? Fine, I admit my shortcomings, I won’t argue. Your curse is vicious, lodged right at your heart, meant to take your life. I can’t save you, but you can save yourself.”

“Save myself? How?”

“The curse kills by gathering ghostly energy, the evil force invading your body, and ultimately destroying your life. If you can prevent the ghostly energy from gathering, you’ll be safe.”

“Just tell me what to do!” I had no patience for convoluted theories—I just wanted to know how to live.

“It’s very simple. Enter my path of spirit arts, learn my craft, acknowledge me as your master, and become my disciple!”

“What?” Did I hear him right? He wanted me to take him as my master? To follow his path, become one of those mysterious, eccentric practitioners?

Old Ma turned his face away, looking as though he’d been forced into this. “You think I want this? I only offer you a way out because I pity you. The method is right before you—it’s up to you whether you take it.”

That unsettling feeling now surged stronger than ever. Was this old man not setting me up from the start? Why did it feel like he’d planned this all along?