Chapter 134 Part 2: Exorcism

At first she thought that after hearing this, Emperor Hong Xiao would immediately be overjoyed in finding a new way. But after a long time, there was no reply from Emperor Hong Xiao. For some reason, Hongzhu felt a little uneasy, and cold sweat gradually oozed from her forehead. As she was hesitating whether to kowtow a few more times, Emperor Hong Xiao’s voice came from above her. He said: “Taoist priest Chong Xu wanders everywhere, and it’s not known where he is at this time……”

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Taoist priest Chong Xu entered the palace an hour later.

This Taoist master was in his fifties, thin, looked steadfast, with an immortal air and an upright manner. He still carried a peach wood sword on his back, a horsetail whisk on his hand, and wearing a Taoist robe and cloth shoes. When he entered the palace, he saluted Emperor Hong Xiao neither humbly nor arrogantly.

“The poor Taoist is lucky to get His Majesty’s concern.” Taoist priest Chong Xu said, “Heard His Majesty summoned the poor Taoist because something happened to Concubine Li?”

“Precisely.” Emperor Hong Xiao said, “The imperial physicians are all stumped, they could not find the cause. Concubine Li’s maidservant earnestly requested to try looking for you. Coincidentally, “We” heard that you are recently in Yanjing, so thought of calling you into the palace to look at Concubine Li.”

It would not sound good for Emperor Hong Xiao to say this too clearly. Since ancient times, all the faint kings believed in supernatural beings, and asked God for directions. Naturally, Emperor Hong Xiao didn’t want to be an incapable ruler and give others a pretext for gossip. But now that Concubine Li was like this, there was really no way. Moreover, Taoist priest Chong Xu was not brash at all, concealed his identity, and mostly traveled around to cultivate. Just like that year when someone in the current palace used the suppressing technique to deal with Concubine Li, no outsiders knew about this matter afterwards.

It’s visible from this that he was trustworthy.

Then Taoist priest Chong Xu cupped his hands in obeisance towards Emperor Hong Xiao and said, “If so, this poor Taoist will first look at Concubine Li.”

Hong Zhu and Lu Wu at once invited Taoist priest Chong Xu to enter.

Concubine Li was helped to sit on the soft couch, her face pale, speaking just a sentence seemed to require a lot of strength from her. She looked at Taoist priest Chong Xu and said, “Trouble Taoist priest Chong Xu to come for a visit…..”

Taoist priest Chong Xu waved his hand, “Concubine Li is too serious. Able to share His Majesty’s worries is this poor Taoist’s good fortune.” After saying this, he frowned, attentively looking at Concubine Li’s surroundings. As if something was caught in his sight, he locked his gaze and slowly took out a little bell from his bundle.

A closer look would find that this item was a snare drum the size of a palm surrounded by densely packed red bells. He held the drum, shook it slowly at the beginning before shaking it more and more quickly. The little bells’ noise also turned from gentle to bursts of urgency, sharp and ear-piercing.

Concubine Li suddenly bent over, and coughed violently, as if what was blocking her in the chest was cleared away in one breath. She took the handkerchief handed over by Hong Zhu and wiped the corner of her mouth, looking like she had just spat out an invisible thing.

This situation scared the womenfolk present. Liu-taifei patted her chest and said, “Oh my, scared to death, what is it?”

Taoist priest Chong Xu did not speak, but turned around and walked in quick steps to a table in the palace hall. He once again took out a yellow talisman paper from his bundle, grabbed a handful of cinnabar and poured it on the table. He also took out a gourd shaped bottle, firmly drank from it then sprayed it all over the cinnabar on the table. The smell of wine immediately floated in the palace hall. The gourd bottle should contain an unknown alcoholic liquid.

The alcohol mixed with the cinnabar and gradually blended, turning the color to dark red. Taoist priest Chong Xu fished out a wood brush, dipped it on the cinnabar, then wrote an incorrigible rune on the yellow talisman paper.

After that, he let the paper spread to dry before folding the paper into a triangle shape. Then he handed it to Concubine Li and said, “Concubine must ask someone to put a red string on this talisman and keep it carefully. A month later, everything will be fine.”

His set of actions was swift and decisive, firm and clear, making people who saw it could not help but believe that he was someone with ability and was not a swindler. The Empress Dowager asked, “‘I’ don’t understand, how did Concubine Li become this way? What Taoist priest Chong Xu did just now, is there someone in the palace who used an evil technique on Concubine Li?”

Taoist priest Chong Xu turned his head and said, “Replying to the Empress Dowager, Concubine Li’s danger is not because someone in the palace used an evil technique on her. This matter was not done by other people, rather, an evil air has invaded Concubine Li. This evil air is hard to control, nearly sucking away Concubine Li’s vitality. This poor Taoist has performed exorcism for Concubine Li just now and suppressed it with the talisman. There will not be any more problems later.”

“Invaded by evil air?” Liu-taifei took a step back and said with agitation, “What do you mean? There is an evil air in the palace? Taoist priest, you must not speak nonsense.”

The Empress Dowager interrupted her, “Don’t be unreasonable to the Taoist priest.” She looked at Taoist priest Chong Xu and spoke much more politely compared to Concubine Liu, “Taoist priest, what’s actually going on?”

“Empress Dowager, please rest assured, this evil air really did not come from the palace. His Majesty is the supreme ruler with a real dragon protection, no evil air dares to approach. If there really was an evil spirit, it would only dissipate in the palace and would not grow.”

Concubine Liu breathed a sigh of relief after hearing him say this. Shortly after, she thought of something and asked, “Then where did the evil air that invaded Concubine Li came from? She did not leave the palace.”

“May I know…..” Taoist priest Chong Xu asked, “Did Concubine Li meet people from outside the palace these past few days?”

There weren’t any evil spirits in the palace, so the evil spirits came from outside. Li-pin could not go out of the palace, and the people beside her also did not go out. The only possibility was that she had met someone.