The midsummer when I was sixteen, I ran into the most sinister ordeal of my life.
The General’s Tomb outside our town had always been a forbidden place that, according to the old folks, no one should even touch. They said it was the burial ground of a general who died in battle during the War of Resistance Against Japan. Weeds grew waist-high, and a sinister chill clung to the place. No one dared go near it late at night. But I was young and naive, and curiosity got the better of me. I wandered inside and ran straight into the vengeful spirit of a Japanese invader who had died in the war and remained trapped there.
The thing carried the fury and murderous malice of wartime. The moment it latched onto me, icy cold pierced my entire body. It felt as if countless freezing hands were dragging my soul underground. My vision darkened again and again, and my consciousness gradually faded. I could feel death closing in, as though the vengeful spirit might devour my living soul at any moment.
Just as I was about to give in and be swallowed completely by the yin energy, a clear Taoist invocation pierced the frigid mist.
A dignified Taoist priest in a simple robe approached at an unhurried pace. It was Zhao Qiming of Wudang. His Taoist aura radiated solemn power. With a simple raise of his hand, he used Taoist arts to suppress the Japanese spirit’s murderous malice, dispel the yin energy clinging to me, and drag me back from the gates of death.
The priest steadied my spirit and strengthened my vital essence, then drove the lingering baleful yin energy from my body. After that, he spoke to me gravely about fate and the secrets of heaven.
He said I was born with an unusual destiny, and that being born in this village meant I had a mission from birth. The vengeful spirits and baleful energy that had gathered in the General’s Tomb over decades, especially the lingering souls of the Japanese dead from the war, were wreaking havoc in the area and disturbing the peace. No one else could resolve the matter. I alone was destined to break the deadlock.
