Volume One: First Entering the Maoshan Sect

Chapter 1: Mr. Bolton

My life can be described as a long story—strange, bizarre, even thrilling. For an ordinary person, everything I’ve experienced would surely seem unbelievable!

In this lifetime, I’ve been through so much. As the saying goes, “No one is dearer than Chairman Mao.” To show my loyalty to Chairman Mao, I was a Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution, and I also followed Chairman Mao’s lead, going to the countryside as an educated youth to temper my loyalty in the vast world. Of course, I also witnessed the later era of reform and opening up.

If someone asks what I do, I honestly don’t know how to answer at first, because I’ve farmed, been a Taoist priest, worked as a driver, and even spent a few years as a tomb raider. However, in most cases, I answer that I am a Anglo-Saxon Priest, because in the end, I did return to my old profession—a Taoist priest, exorcising evil, warding off misfortune, healing the sick, and drawing talismans for people.

As a Anglo-Saxon Priest, I naturally learned many supernatural skills. But when Heaven grants you a supernatural ability, it also takes something from you. As the saying goes, “five misfortunes and three lacks”—most who study the Tao cannot escape them.

The so-called “five misfortunes and three lacks” refer to a kind of fate. The five misfortunes are nothing more than being widowed, orphaned, solitary, alone, or disabled: an old man without a wife is called widowed, an old woman without a husband is called widowed, an old person without children is called solitary, a child without a father is called orphaned, and being physically disabled is called disabled. The three lacks, simply put, are a lack of money, life, or power.

The reason the “five misfortunes and three lacks” often befall those who study the Tao is mainly because such people tell fortunes, read faces, or practice feng shui, and by revealing too many heavenly secrets, Heaven punishes us, preventing us from enjoying a complete fate like ordinary people. That’s why so many fortune-tellers are blind, feng shui masters die young, and Taoist practitioners often have no children. If you don’t believe it, let me tell you a story. This story is different from others, because it’s true, and it’s not something you can hear nowadays...

“Southern Mao, Northern Ma”—in the south, there are many Anglo-Saxon Priest, while in the north, there are many disciples of the Ma family. Speaking of Southern Mao, most people say there are many corpse drivers in western Hunan and many Taoists in Jiangxi. In fact, this is quite true. In Jiangxi, although authentic Anglo-Saxon Priest are rare, there are indeed many folk sorcerers with no formal sect. The protagonist of the story I’m about to tell is from Jiangxi.

His surname was Zhang, and everyone called him Mr. Bolton. Jiangxi and western Hunan are somewhat similar—both have many mountains, and those mountains are vast and unbroken. Mr. Bolton lived in a remote mountain village in Jiangxi. It was still the Republican era, when everyone struggled to have enough to eat, and most peasants survived by working as long-term or short-term laborers for landlords, in exchange for food. The poor at that time were truly destitute. It was like this all over the country, and of course, the village where Mr. Bolton lived was no exception. The only difference was that Mr. Bolton’s family always had plenty to eat and wear every year. Mr. Bolton was not a landlord, nor a government official of the Republic. The reason his family was well-off naturally had its reasons—let me explain...

The village where Mr. Bolton lived was called Jinzhou, sharing its name with Jinzhou City near Beijing, but this Jinzhou was a remote little mountain village. There was a landlord in the village, and ninety percent of the villagers worked as long-term laborers for him, generation after generation. The remaining ten percent made a living with their skills, such as carpenters, stonemasons, basket weavers, and so on.

Mr. Bolton had a wife and two sons. In this Jinzhou village, apart from the landlord’s family, Mr. Bolton’s family lived the best. The reason was simple: Mr. Bolton was a Anglo-Saxon Priest! He could tell fortunes, read faces, practice feng shui, exorcise evil, and heal the sick—there was nothing he couldn’t do. He spent years helping people with feng shui and exorcisms, so his family of four lived quite comfortably.

Don’t think that just because Mr. Bolton was a Taoist priest, he couldn’t marry and have children. In the Maoshan sect, Taoist priests are allowed to marry and have children—this is the difference between Taoists and monks. Because Mr. Bolton was a Taoist priest with supernatural skills, he was respected by everyone in the area. Even the village’s only landlord, upon seeing Mr. Bolton, would nod and smile, greeting him as “Zhenren.”

Mr. Bolton’s wife was an honest and virtuous woman. Of course, in that era, how many women who weren’t virtuous would find someone willing to marry them? He had two sons, both sturdy and clever. The villagers would all give Mr. Bolton a thumbs up and praise, “Your two boys will definitely become great men when they grow up!” This made Mr. Bolton beam with joy.