I exclaimed that it was amazing, but I still had some questions in my heart. So I asked Master, but when I looked at the previous books, when Luban was mentioned, it was attributed to the Mohist school. Why is it now said that Luban's method is Taoism? Master smiled and said, the relationship here is a bit complicated. The hundreds of schools of thought in the Spring and Autumn Period were actually just different schools of thought, but their roots were similar.
Master gave an example of the two major schools that shaped our Chinese later generations: one is Taoism, which is Laozi, and the other is Confucianism, which is Confucius. In fact, Confucian thought was deeply influenced by Taoist thought. Mohism and Confucianism have different positions, but the ultimate goal is the same. One represents the common people, and the other represents the bureaucracy. Strictly speaking, Mohist thought is based on Confucianism and is deeply influenced by it. Between Mozi and Confucius, there was a key figure in Taoism called Zhuangzi, so the Mohist school of thought was actually formed by combining Taoism and Confucianism, plus its own stance.
I nodded and said, I see, so the Mohist spells are actually a type of Taoism at their root. The master said that this was not entirely the case. There were many types of spells, and even some schools that did not even have names would have their own powerful spells. However, Lu Ban’s influence was too great. Later generations were studying the second half of Lu Ban’s book. , it is naturally connected with Taoism, and there is almost no orthodox Luban Fa inheritance, because that is to be extinct. Therefore, the current Luban method, no matter which school it belongs to, has been improved after thousands of years, and the improvements in it are all kinds of strange. Our talisman-making technique is just an improvement of our own Taoism. Maybe if the same fragment of a scroll is in the hands of people from other schools, other techniques will be improved.
I sighed in my heart at the profoundness of metaphysics and the whimsical ideas of the ancients. But then he fell into deep melancholy. It's like I am an extremely hungry person and there is a plate of food in front of me, but the food is poisonous. If I eat it, I will not die, but my life will be shortened. For someone like me who is studying art, Master’s words today are obviously very tempting.
The master said, I gave you both the book and the ruler today, but it is useless for you to take them now. The introduction to this set of spells must be passed down orally from master to disciple. When you have thought about it in the future and understand the choice, you can ask me again.
For the next two or three days, I kept thinking about it. Just like an opium addict, as soon as his mind is free, he will immediately think of it. And I didn't mention it to anyone, especially Meng Dongxue. I couldn't let her know that I was hesitant between her and a book.
The night before Master left, I mentioned again that I wanted to go with him. After some hard talk, the master agreed. In view of the previous time in the shelter, Master's frustration caused him to spend more than half a year traveling around the mountains and rivers. I haven't done anything with Master for a long time. Every time I do things independently, although I am confident, I always feel uneasy. I hope there is someone nearby who can give me advice. Since I am bored in the mountain village, I also took the opportunity to go to the city for a walk. The leader of the military region that I helped earlier also promised to make it convenient, so I should return to the city now. No big deal.
Early the next morning, I went out with Master. Before leaving, I told Meng Dongxue that I would be back in a few days at most. There was no shuttle bus this time, so the journey was much slower. It was already afternoon when we arrived in the city. Master called the hospital from the supply and marketing cooperative and made an appointment for us, master and apprentice, to go there at 9 p.m.
So when we were having dinner, I asked Master what the commotion was in the hospital this time. Master said he didn’t know, but it seemed that the incident had spread throughout the hospital and was being talked about everywhere. It was said that it had scared people. many people. Master is not very clear about other situations.
So while I was waiting, I took out the book that Master passed on to me and read it. This book requires Master to lead me through the door before I can study it. Without this procedure, I would not be able to understand it no matter how long I read it, and naturally I would not be able to understand myself. Harmful. I asked Master, you said you only studied the first ten pages, why didn’t you continue studying the rest?
Master said that this book passed down by our sect is divided into eight parts in total, each part is profound and derived from one of Lu Ban's tools. The talisman mentioned before is derived from "chi". In addition, there are eight kinds in total: umbrella, bucket, plow, kite, shovel, chisel and saw. However, the tools invented by Lu Ban are far more than these. It is just that when these few were passed down from generation to generation, they found it easier to combine and improve them with more techniques, so some of the current schools of magic were formed.
The master said that for example, in the eastern Sichuan area, there is a kind of magic called "craftsman's method" that can be used to catch monsters, exorcise evil spirits, and catch ghosts. In addition to spells and tokens, their tools are mostly ink fountains. . This is the Chinese character for "fight" in this book. Most of the inheritance of the Craftsman Method is concentrated among the people, not in temples, so they are classified as folk teachings. Even many masters who understand the Craftsman Method do not know that the inheritance is from Luban Method. Master emphasized that precisely because the roots of the Luban Method are closely related to the tools we use in daily life, it even has the potential to continue to be improved and optimized. Those who can do this are generally Taoist masters. Most of the Taoist masters who have learned the Luban method are alone, so one can imagine how difficult it is to pass it on.
The master stretched out his finger and tapped the page I opened a few times and said, if one day, someone learns all the contents in this book, then everyone around him will definitely die.
When the master said this, his expression was cold. This may be the reason why metaphysics has been developing silently and secretly for thousands of years. Everything is just like the yin and yang in our hands, it has a clear opposite. Only Only when a balance is achieved can development be achieved. Once the balance is out of balance, the consequences are often unbearable.
At about 8:30 pm, Master took me towards the hospital. I have never been sick a few times since I was a child, and when I get sick, I usually go to the doctor. Although I know that hospitals are places to save people and save lives, this is the first time I have walked through the door of a hospital in more than 20 years. I don't know if it's my imagination, but I always feel that the white exterior wall is very depressing at night, and it makes people feel even colder at night when the temperature is still relatively cold.
Soon Master took me to find the friend who asked him to come. This is a doctor from the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, who is about the same age as my master. It is said that he studied medicine in Japan in his early years and served as a military doctor with the army during the war. After liberation, he became an expert in this hospital because of his superb medical skills. In those days, hospitals were institutions directly under the jurisdiction of local governments designated by the state. In other words, their salaries were paid directly from the national treasury. All in all, they are much more advanced than us ordinary people. This doctor's surname is Huang. In addition to being an expert doctor at the hospital, he is also the second-in-command in charge.
With such a high-level executive giving us the green light, I think things should be able to be solved easily. After Dr. Huang brought Master and me into the office, he closed the door. He told us with a smile that he had not stayed in the hospital so late for a long time. Today, he knew that we were coming, so he specially asked the doctor on duty to go home and stay on his own.
In the following time, Dr. Huang told us what happened.
About a month ago, a new group of nurses came to the hospital. Most of these nurses were newly trained and very young. The hospital was a lifeless place. After these nurses came, they made the atmosphere here lively. Quite a few. But when young people get together, there will always be some strange rumors. The most ominous rumor among them is that Ward 209 of our hospital is haunted.
It is no joke that hospitals are haunted. Places like hospitals are originally areas with a relatively high death rate. However, most people who die in hospitals do not die because of the hospital. If they are not crazy or stupid, , in fact, there is no reason to stay in the hospital and make trouble, thereby delaying the time of his death.
Doctor Huang said that we are on the third floor now, and this building has a total of four floors. If calculated according to the room number, my current office should be room 310, and the ward directly opposite the door is 309. In other words, the rumored haunted Ward 209 is right across from us downstairs. Dr. Huang told us that there are a total of two entrances and exits to this building, which are located on both sides of the building. 310 is one side, and 301 on the other side is now used as a nurse station and medicine room. This means that if you want to go to the wards on each floor, you must go from the direction of the nurse station or the doctor's office. No matter which way you go, people on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors must take the stairs. Go up and down the stairs.
Master and I both nodded, because that was how we walked up to the third floor just now. It was a closed staircase. At the corner of each staircase, there was a dark green medical trash can. Every time you went up to one floor, you had to turn back twice. There is a light on the top of the corridor, but it was already night when we arrived, but the light was not very bright, just enough to allow you to see the road without tripping. Starting from the second floor, there is a wooden door at the entrance of each floor. The upper part of the wooden door is made of frosted glass. In other words, unless the door is pushed open, you cannot see what is behind the door.
Doctor Huang went on to say that in addition to room 209 being haunted, some nurses and patients also claimed that some people had seen ghosts on the stairs near 209. Master asked, could it be that the patient died in Room 209 and then failed to leave for some reason, so he appeared in these places repeatedly? I also nodded, because I thought this should be the greatest possibility. If that's the case, it's probably just a lost ghost and can be easily solved.
But I didn't expect that the ghost I encountered this time was actually one of the top three most violent ghosts I had encountered in the first half of my life.
