Northeast China: The Old Immortal Has Arrived

Among the White Mountains and Black Waters of the Northeast, a profession has been passed down through the generations: the spirit medium. The spirits rely on fate to find disciples with the right aptitude to serve as their mediums, treating illness, investigating matters, and accumulating merit. Most people know only part of the story. They usually believe that mediums worship the five great spirit families: Hu, Huang, Bai, Liu, and Hui. In reality, the Bai and Hui families belong only to the outer Five Elements. The true inner Five Elements consist of the four great families of fox, weasel, snake, and python spirits, joined by the ghost spirit Qingfeng to form five spirit armies. These are further divided into household guardian spirits and spirit-medium spirits. Disciples like Li Jun, who possess all four beams and eight pillars, are qualified to become spirit mediums. In other words, people say they have a whole spirit altar attached to them. They say spirit-medium disciples are destined to suffer three calamities and eight hardships, and to bear the five drawbacks and three deficiencies. Li Jun is no exception. His parents died when he was young, leaving him to depend on his grandmother. Just as she was nearing death, he encountered a faceless spirit, and from that moment, the gears of fate began to turn…