I quickly took out a slightly old bronze compass from my shoulder bag and handed it over.
The master held the compass and looked at it as he walked. The look on his face became more and more solemn. Mr. Qi, who was following the master closely, asked cautiously: "Taoist Master Mo, have you encountered any trouble?"
Master glanced at Second Master Qi, then looked around, but did not answer his question. After a while, he handed the compass back to me, put his hand behind his back, and said, "Let's go take a look first."
Let’s talk about the corpse.”
Under the leadership of Mr. Qi, we came to a wooden house located on a hill. The construction pattern of the wooden house seemed a bit special. It was not like ordinary houses in this area. From a distance, it looked a bit like an old house.
The Taoist temple must have been a few years old, because its appearance looks very dilapidated.
Mr. Qi introduced: "This house is an old house in our village. It has a history of three hundred years. It was built in the early Qing Dynasty. At that time, there was a war. Seven brothers of our Bai family fled from Hubei and came here.
Qipan Valley felt that this place was surrounded by mountains and rivers and had good Feng Shui, so they decided to settle here. They chose seven hills and built seven such old houses in the valley. The seven old houses connected together formed a Big Dipper.
, it is said that it was a Feng Shui bureau that was set up under the guidance of an expert. As for what this Feng Shui bureau actually says, no one can tell clearly now!"
The master stared at the string of dried chili peppers hanging on the wall outside the old house and asked doubtfully: "Since it is an old house with a history of more than 300 years, are there still people living in it now?"
"Basically no one lives in the old house now, so Ma Laoqi lives here! Ever since he got leprosy when he was young, he moved to the old house alone, and he didn't have a family, so he
I have always lived here." Second Master Qi replied.
"What about the other six old houses?" Master seemed a little interested in the Feng Shui bureau mentioned by Second Master Qi. He turned around and looked around, but he didn't see any houses with a similar pattern to the old house in front of him.
Second Master Qi shook his head and said with a somewhat gloomy look: "In the past few years, when the Four Olds were eradicated, those six old houses were demolished as old Taoist temples, and only this old house was demolished because Ma Laoqi lived in it.
, was retained.”
When the master heard this, there was a hint of disappointment on his face. His mouth squirmed a few times, but he didn't say much. After a long time, he sighed and said, "Go inside and have a look!"
Ma Laoqi's mourning hall is located in the main hall of the old house. Standing outside the door and looking inside, an unpainted wooden coffin is placed on three long benches in the center of the main hall, in front of the wooden coffin.
There was an incense burner and an incomplete broken earthenware basin. The incense candles inserted in the incense burner had long been burned out, but no one had replaced them. The broken earthenware basin was used to burn money and paper, and there were some paper ashes and paper left in it.
Money paper that has not yet been completely burned.
The entire mourning hall was extremely poorly decorated. There was not even a memorial tablet, and there was no one keeping watch. It seemed unusually quiet. Seeing this, the master frowned and said, "The deceased had to be lively before the first seven days. How could it be so lifeless?"
Yes, I didn’t even light the incense candle!”
Master once told me that the first seven days refer to the seventh day after a person dies. There is a folk saying of "the soul returns on the first seven days". The general idea is that the soul of the deceased will return home on the "first seven days", and the family should return after the soul.
Before the visit, prepare a sumptuous meal for him, and then avoid it, because if the soul of the deceased sees his family, it will make him miss him and affect his reincarnation as a human being.
Before the first seven days, the soul of the deceased will be wandering around due to restlessness. Therefore, a mourning hall must be set up, and gongs and drums must be beaten every day, Buddhist chants, and incense candles must be kept burning so that the soul of the deceased can rest in peace. Otherwise, it may cause
The wandering soul cannot return to the body, thus accumulating resentment.
Second Master Qi glared at Bai Xiaowu and shouted: "How did you become a nephew? Why don't you hurry up and light the incense candles!"
Bai Xiaowu responded and walked cautiously into the mourning hall. He kept his eyes fixed on Ma Laoqi's coffin, and his legs were still shaking uncontrollably, as if he was worried that Ma Laoqi would sit up again.
Second Master Qi took a sip from his pipe, sighed, and said to his master: "Master Mo is so ridiculous. After what happened last night, no one dared to come. What's more, Ma Laoqi has no direct descendants.
, so the mourning hall is naturally deserted."
Hearing what Mr. Qi said, I couldn't help but feel cold in my heart, and said to myself: "It seems that there is no chance of eating the roast chicken. No one has even turned on the stove, so whether or not we can eat is still a question."
Thinking of this, my stomach growled involuntarily. Second Master Qi seemed to have heard it. He hurriedly said: "Hey! You guys haven't eaten all the way here. You must be starving. Let's go! Go to my place first.
Have a meal!"
I felt happy and nodded desperately. Unexpectedly, Master raised his head and squinted at the scorching sun in the sky, then waved his hand and said, "Don't be in a hurry to eat now. Noon is the time when Yang Qi is at its strongest. Let's take advantage of it first."
Let’s go in and take a look now.”
After saying that, he raised his legs and crossed the threshold, which was about half a foot high, and stepped into the main room. Second Master Qi and I quickly followed.
As soon as I walked in, I immediately felt a cool breeze blowing against my face. After driving all morning on this hot day, my whole body was already soaked with sweat. When I was blown by this cool breeze, I felt refreshed and felt refreshed.
Thinking about it, there are no windows in this room, but where does the cool breeze come from? And the master seemed to notice something unusual. He frowned slightly, but didn't say anything more.
Bai Xiaowu was squatting next to Ma Laoqi's coffin and lighting a match. Perhaps because of fear, he couldn't even strike a match several times. Upon seeing this, Mr. Qi stepped forward and raised his leg to place it on his calf.
He kicked him in the stomach and cursed: "You useless guy, the person lying in the coffin is your own uncle, and you are still afraid of being like this! Let me do it!"
After saying that, he snatched the match from Bai Xiaowu's hand, and with just a slight stroke, with a hissing sound, a bright red flame jumped up. Mr. Qi carefully lit the incense candle and inserted it into the incense burner.
Then he bowed towards the wooden coffin, and while bowing, he muttered in his mouth: "Old Qi, if you have any unfulfilled wishes, just give me a dream. You never close your eyes like this."
, I feel uncomfortable watching it!”
After Mr. Qi finished bowing, Master also led me forward and bowed three times. This is a necessary etiquette to show respect for the deceased.
After paying homage, Master walked straight to Ma Laoqi's coffin, bent down and inspected it carefully.
The lid of the wooden coffin had been closed. The master wanted to open the coffin and take a look, so he held the lid and lifted it up, but it didn't move. When he looked carefully, he saw that the lid had been nailed with several long iron nails.
died.
"What's going on?" Master turned around and asked.
Second Master Qi explained: "Although the coffin is usually sealed and buried after the first seven days, what happened last night made everyone scared, so the coffin was sealed early this morning."
"It is forbidden to let iron gas enter the longevity material, otherwise future generations may suffer a bloody disaster! Therefore, if you want to seal it up, you should use wooden nails instead of iron nails!" the master said with a frown.
Second Master Qi was startled: "Then...is it okay to change it now? How about I ask someone to cut some wooden nails?"
The master waved his hand: "Forget it, Ma Laoqi has no children anyway, so there is no need to worry about these...wait..." Just after saying this, the master seemed to have discovered something, and suddenly his eyes widened and his face darkened.
He suddenly raised his head and asked: "Who helped Ma Lao Qi make this longevity food!?"
"He did it himself! About half a year ago, he said that he had no descendants and was afraid that no one would bury him after his death, so he planned to build a life-saving material for himself. At that time, everyone thought he was joking, but who knew that after he suddenly left?
, I actually found this longevity material in his house, but I haven't had time to paint it yet." Second Master Qi replied.
After listening to Second Master Qi's words, Master remained silent, but his expression became more solemn.
"Taoist Master Mo, is there any problem?" Second Master Qi asked uneasily.
The master sighed and replied slowly: "This Ma Laoqi really has no taboos! His longevity material is actually made of locust wood!"
“What’s wrong with it being made of locust wood?”
"The materials used to make coffins are very particular. The best materials are catalpa, nanmu, etc. This kind of wood is corrosion-resistant and insect-proof. It can last for thousands of years when buried in the ground. Most of the coffins of ancient emperors were made of
The extremely precious golden nanmu is used. However, ordinary people mostly use fir, which is also the most common coffin material today. As for this locust wood..." Master hesitated.
"How about Sophora japonica?" Second Master Qi asked quickly.
The master looked at Second Master Qi meaningfully and replied: "Sophora wood is also called ghost wood. It gathers the most yin energy of the earth. Coffins made from it are called ghost wood coffins, which is a taboo!"
"Ah..." Second Master Qi was stunned for a long time, and then slowly said: "In other words, Lao Qi's fake corpse has something to do with this longevity material made of locust wood?"
The master nodded: "I'm afraid it's not irrelevant!" He bent down to inspect it for a while, and then said: "And the locust wood used to make this longevity material must have been hundreds of years old. Look at the coffin body, it's not pieced together at all.
The traces are completely made from a single piece of material. Such a large locust tree is probably going to become fine! Where did Ma Laoqi get such a large piece of locust wood?"
"I don't know where he got it from! However, six months ago, a wild century-old Sophora japonica tree in the back ravine was split in half by lightning during a drought. I guess Ba Cheng asked Lao Qi to pick it back and do this.
It’s time to live a long life.”
When the master heard this, his expression suddenly changed and he was shocked: "What! This...is this a locust tree struck by lightning!?"