Niú guǐ

"I never thought that ghosts could also be divided into yin and yang. In my understanding, ghosts are usually associated with yin. But the old blind man's explanation completely overturned my perception, and I couldn't help but feel puzzled.

"I'll ask you, what is a god?" Seeing my confusion, the old blind man asked me a question.

"What is a god?" That's a difficult question to answer. According to traditional concepts, gods are actually totemic symbols created by human worship, and they don't really exist.

But the old blind man chuckled and said to me, "Gods are also ghosts. They don't have physical bodies and are formed through the cultivation of souls. But gods are divided into yin and yang, just like ghosts. In fact, everything in the world that exists within the three realms is divided into yin and yang. You didn't know this before because you were misled. Now that I'm telling you, you should understand this concept, right?"

I didn't really understand, but I had to pretend to nod my head, because I didn't want to appear too stupid.

Seeing me nod, the old blind man explained the secret technique of Lingtai to me again, and then instructed me to practice according to the formula. He didn't relax until I could concentrate and breathe properly. He nodded in satisfaction and advised me to practice diligently whenever I had time. This way, my skills would naturally increase day by day, and I would become a master without peer.

"Is this the only technique I'll be learning?" I asked the old blind man with some confusion. I felt that since he was my master, he should teach me more things. But what he had taught me so far seemed rather shallow and monotonous.

"This is just the basics. Once you can control the two external energies within your body, you can learn more things. Don't be impatient. This process may be quick or it may be slow, depending on your talent and aptitude. So you need to practice diligently and with focus at all times. Otherwise, you'll probably just be stuck here, do you understand?" said the old blind man.

So that's how it is. Learning this technique is just the foundation. In that case, I really need to work hard.

However, what I am concerned about now is not these things, but how to help Xiaohu Tu seek justice and vent his grievances for him.

"This matter cannot be rushed. You can rest assured that since Master has promised you, he will definitely not let you down. It's getting late today, so go back with your parents, rest well, and study the technique carefully. Practice it well. I will come up with a solution soon, and we will definitely not let that little kid die in vain." The blind man comforted me, knowing that I was worried about Xiaohu Tu.

Hearing him say this, I also put my mind at ease and came out to prepare to go home with my parents.

As it turned out, at this time, although I had just begun to practice the Ling Tai Secret Art, my whole body felt completely different from before. At this point, my high fever had completely subsided, and my whole person was refreshed and invigorated. Facing the morning sun, I felt extremely comfortable, and my confidence instantly increased.

As I was leaving, I happened to see Baixinghua. She was carrying a load of water and walking towards the courtyard. Because the water was heavy and she was relatively weak, her body was slightly tilted and her breathing was a bit heavy. But when she saw me, she still showed a happy expression and couldn't help but put down the water bucket and look at me, asking, "Are you better now?"

"Yeah," I nodded happily and said, "Master is really amazing, but thank you too, sister-in-law. It was you who saved me."

"You're welcome, don't be polite with me," Baixinghua smiled slightly, blushing, and then waved to call my parents in.

After my parents came in, they spoke a lot of good words to Baixinghua before happily taking me home.

As I arrived home, my parents were happily preparing gifts to thank Bai Xinghua and Lao Xiazi. I went to my room and sat down to practice the Ling Tai Esoteric Technique. I focused my mind and tried to gather the two external energies into my Purple Palace.

However, the external energies were too strong for me to control, and at most, I could only slightly suppress them to avoid causing chaos in my body. Suddenly, one of the dark energies split into two, and one of them drifted away from my body, seemingly leaving my body.

This was strange to me because Lao Xiazi had not mentioned anything about the external energies scattering. I stopped practicing and went outside to help my parents, but they refused to let me work because they thought I was weak.

As I wandered outside, I saw a group of young calves from the village grazing on our haystack. I picked up a stick and tried to shoo them away. At first, they scattered away from me, but one of the black calves suddenly turned around and charged at me with its sharp horns.

I was surprised and angry, thinking that the calf was picking a fight with me, so I swung the stick at its head without hesitation.

"Bang!" With a muffled sound, the stick in my hand hit the bull's head squarely. Due to the excessive force, the stick broke off from the impact. Under normal circumstances, the bull should have been frightened and ran away, but today, it seemed to have gone mad. Instead of retreating, it became even more aggressive and charged towards me with its head down. It rammed into my thigh with great force and sent me flying into the air. I fell three or four meters away and felt as if my thigh had been broken. It was sore and painful, and I couldn't even stand up.

At this moment, the bull lowered its head and stared at me coldly. Then, it charged at me again. I didn't dare to confront it head-on this time, so I quickly rolled to the side to avoid its fatal blow. I then found a large tree and hugged it tightly while dodging the bull's attacks. The bull was not very agile and failed to hit me several times. Instead, it smashed its head and started bleeding. This made it pant and angry. It then backed off while snorting loudly, and stood there silently. Suddenly, it opened its mouth and let out a scream that shocked me to my core. I realized that it wasn't the sound of a bull but the scream of a girl.

"Meh-ya-ya-ya--" The little black cow stood on all fours, with mud and bark on its two sharp horns and blood streaming from its head. It let out a mournful cry towards me, and as soon as I heard it, my whole body was covered in goosebumps and I felt weak. Then I gathered up my courage and looked into the cow's eyes, and vaguely saw a dirty face covered in mud - it was clearly Xiao Huttu's. In that moment, a word popped into my head: "ghost cow." Yes, this was a ghost cow, with Xiao Huttu's restless spirit possessing its body. But she couldn't distract me from my mission, so she resorted to indirect methods. What did she want? Why did she keep bothering me? Did she really hate me so much that she wanted me dead?