William Clark suddenly remembered a zombie movie he had watched in town last year. Feeling playful, he puffed out his little chest with effort and continued, “You’ll need to prepare a square table, four animal offerings, and then bring nine white wooden rods…”

“小 master, the offerings are easy to get, but… what are these white wooden rods for?” Although William Clark spoke with confidence, Mr. Miller still didn’t quite believe him, his eyes constantly darting toward the main house with the door closed.

Though young, William Clark was quite shrewd. He could tell Mr. Miller didn’t really trust him, so he said, “Raising white rods as banners naturally wards off evil and seals away bad energy, dispelling filth and purifying the air. Or, if you’d rather, wait until my master is rested and let him do it?”

“No, no, little master, I’ll listen to you. I’ll go find the things right away…”

After hearing William Clark’s words, Mr. Miller stomped his foot. Anyway, tomorrow they’d be going to repair the temple for them. If the priests ran off, the temple would still be there. If things didn’t work out, Mr. Thompson would still have to step in, so there was no need to offend this clever little fellow.

The offerings were ready-made, and in the countryside, white wooden rods were easy to find. Before long, Mr. Miller had placed everything William Clark needed at the spot where the mourning hall had already been dismantled.

However, the gate to his own courtyard was tightly shut by Mr. Miller. In these times, promoting feudal superstitions could easily get you hauled off to the police station.

Besides, if the neighbors found out he’d invited a kid barely in his teens to perform a ritual, wouldn’t he be laughed to death?

William Clark was naturally a lively sort, and now, given free rein, he was having a blast. He set up the nine white wooden rods at the spot of the evil energy, then sat solemnly at the table, feeling a bit regretful—if only he had a peach wood sword, it would be even more fun.

As for whether the “Duren Sutra” would have any effect, William Clark didn’t care at all. With the mourning hall gone, the evil energy in this place would naturally dissipate in three to five days.

“To those who study deeply, recite it ten times, and demons will lose their sight, ghosts and monsters will perish, the dying will be saved, and life will be restored…”

Once everything was set up, William Clark began to recite the “Duren Sutra” in a manner both serious and convincing, looking every bit the part of a little master. Watching from the side, Mr. Miller actually started to feel a bit more confident in William Clark.

“If people in the world recite it, their lives will be prolonged, and in the end, they will achieve the way of corpse liberation. The soul will temporarily vanish, bypassing hell, and return to form… Hm? It’s appearing again.”

Just as William Clark was halfway through reciting, he suddenly felt a slight dizziness in his head. That palm-sized little tortoise shell suddenly appeared again.

William Clark was startled at first, then took a deep breath, continuing to chant, but his attention was now focused on the tortoise shell. “It really is a compass, but… it’s a bit different from my master’s.”

Focusing his mind, this time William Clark finally saw clearly: the mysterious patterns on the tortoise shell were actually bird-worm seal script, but at the very center, where the magnetic needle should be, there was a Taiji yin-yang symbol.

Chapter 007: Hidden Arts

“How… how did this thing get into my head?”

Watching the baby palm-sized tortoise shell spinning rapidly in his mind, William Clark was at a loss. He couldn’t control this compass at all, nor did he know what it was for.

And the script engraved on the shell, though shaped like seal script, was so tiny that even with his eyes wide open, William Clark couldn’t make out a single character.

Though shocked, William Clark kept reciting the “Duren Sutra” under his breath. Just then, he suddenly felt a chill all over and quickly shifted his attention away from the tortoise shell.

“How… how can this be?”

When William Clark looked at the spot where the evil energy was concentrated, he was shocked to see that the mass of evil energy in front of the offering table was drifting toward him, like wisps of smoke seeping into his body.

“Damn it, that old priest! I’m reciting this… this Duren Sutra, but I didn’t mean to transcend myself!”

William Clark was truly terrified—he never expected that reciting the “Duren Sutra” would actually draw the evil energy into himself.

You have to know, evil energy forms due to special environments; it’s just an intangible magnetic field. Normally, it can only affect people by changing the strength of the field, but it can’t actually enter a person’s body.

But now, the evil energy was pouring into William Clark’s body, which made him panic. There may be no ghosts or gods in this world, but that doesn’t mean the theory of yin and yang is false. With so much yin energy entering his body, his internal balance would definitely be thrown off.

Even though the sun was blazing outside, William Clark felt as if he were naked in the snow, lashed by a cold wind—the chill went straight to his bones.

“That old priest is trying to kill me!”

William Clark was on the verge of tears. He wanted to get up and run, but his little body was almost frozen stiff. He could only watch helplessly as the mass of evil energy surged into him.

Just as William Clark thought his life was over, the tortoise shell in his mind suddenly began to spin rapidly, like a bottomless pit, sucking in all the evil energy that had entered his body.

“Huh? The writing… seems a bit clearer now?”