Even a Shaman Needs Evening Self Study

神棍也要晚自习

even-a-shaman-needs-evening-self-study

Nested Formation Part 1

What does it mean to have seen Tan Xiao's photo?


 If they said they had seen him in person, that would be normal, since Tan Xiao had followed Tan Chunying to perform many rituals. Maybe they had summoned him before but just didn't realize it.


 But having seen his photo carries a different meaning. Is the Heavenly Realm connected to the internet now?


 No, there's another possibility.


 Tan Xiao asked awkwardly: "Do they also visit relatives and attend banquets up there during the New Year? Does he know my clan's ancestral god?"


 Master Lü sensed for a moment and said, "Yes, but not well."


 Tan Xiao: "..."


 Kong Xuan! If you're not close, why are you showing people...!


 Master Lü seemed to suddenly remember that he was still in the middle of a ritual. He hurriedly stopped chatting with Tan Xiao and stepped back into the formation.


 Mu Fei turned to look at Tan Xiao. In this kind of ritual, usually whatever happens is in the mind of the Taoist priest, to borrow power. It's very rare for them to manifest as easily and frequently as the Peacock did.


 But what Master Lü said clearly had a basis. It couldn't have been possession, so there must have been spiritual communication, which is also quite rare... A rare piece of gossip.


 "...The Peacock God brought your photo up there?"


 What was he doing, bringing Tan Xiao's photo back for the New Year?


 "He has a cell phone." Tan Xiao remembered how proud he was at school. "He must have been showing it to everyone, and there's a class photo with me in it."


 Was he showing off his cell phone or the shaman he inherited... Tan Xiao could almost imagine Kong Xuan's proud look. Realizing that even the Thunder Marshal who wasn't close to him recognized him, he felt helpless and embarrassed, his ears turning red. And Kong Xuan, if he had time to visit, why didn't he come down.


 "No wonder the Thunder Marshal said that, the Peacock must have set it on his phone screen." Mu Fei made a cold joke.


 Tan Xiao: "..."


 Master Lü initiated the command, ordering the troops to surround and search for where the evil souls were hiding. He made the "Heaven Net Earth Web Seal" with his hands, opening and closing them, symbolizing the action of netting the demons.


 "Seize it!" Master Lü pointed his fingers together, but felt the coolness between his brows suddenly dissipate, leaving him feeling at a loss. Naturally, the Huodou was not captured.


 He dejectedly lowered his hands, saying with regret and confusion, "I clearly felt there were some traces lingering, but how... how come..."


 He held his breath and tried to write a talisman again, but saw a small black dot appear on it.


 Master Lü stared at the small black dot. At first he didn't react to what it was, until the dot gradually expanded and a flame shot up, nearly hitting his face, then slowly fell back, burning the entire talisman to ashes. In his panic, Master Lü knocked over the incense burner on the altar, spilling the ashes and extinguishing the three incense sticks, like an ominous omen.


 "What!" Master Lü wiped his face and adjusted his glasses, exclaiming in shock, "Remote fire casting? This Huodou... this Huodou... has become a demon!"


 He also stated the obvious.


 But this Huodou's fire control ability was clearly more skillful and precise than the one Kong Xuan had dealt with at school. It had even learned anti-detection techniques. It could be searched for but not caught.


 "Did it attend some military academy in the mortal world?"


 "It's possible. The previous Beagle appeared at our school before. Maybe it sat in on high school classes. People are quite tolerant of dogs. This one might have even attended university lectures." Tan Xiao stepped forward to help Master Lü set the incense burner upright, saying heavily.


 His vigilance was also heightened. It seemed this one wouldn't be easy to deal with.


 Everyone looked at each other, exchanging glances and reaching a consensus.


 "Sister Mu, should we take action today then? I might still need time to prepare," Tan Xiao asked.


 "No rush. Since it's like this, let's prepare as well." Mu Fei said calmly, then turned to her newest assistant Aperture and said kindly, "Do you know what steps our operation is divided into?"


 Although Aperture was a modern demon, he was completely clueless about the procedures of the Bureau 404. "Uh... prepare incense, ritual tools..."


 "No, no, no. I'll take you through the whole process from the beginning now." Mu Fei opened her computer and created a new document. "This is an operation that requires coordination with responsible units to catch the dog together. So first, we make a work plan. Come, title, standard formatting, simplified text..."


 Tan Xiao: "..."


 He further realized why Sister Mu was so enthusiastic about Aperture. "Sister Mu, I won't disturb your teaching then."


 Master Lü made conversation, "Tan Xiao, since this Huodou was caused by the Tiangou star, it should also fall under the Chu shaman's scope of handling. The Chu shaman 'drums and shoots it'. Your family should have a peach wood bow, right?"


 Previously, when Tan Xiao was invited by Mu Fei to the Chu emperor's tomb, among the shaman clay figurines inside, one pair was posed as drumming and the other as shooting arrows, representing the two standard practices of Chu shamans.


 In the Qin bamboo slips unearthed at Yunmeng, the "Day Book" recorded how the shamans of that time punished evil spirits: "Using peach as bow, thorns as arrows, feathered with chicken feathers, shoot it on sight." As a major country of shamanism, Chu would present peach wood bows and thorn arrows to the Son of Heaven, showing their significance to Chu shamans.


 A colleague on the side who didn't quite understand heard this and asked strangely, "Won't carrying a bow risk being misunderstood by the police station? It would be troublesome to explain."


 "I already said this time it's to deal with the Huodou caused by the Tiangou star. Do you know what 'rescuing the moon with arrows and bow' means?" Master Lü shook his head, sighing at his colleague's ignorance.


 According to the "Rites of Zhou", during solar and lunar eclipses, in addition to drumming, "rescue the sun with crooked arrows, rescue the moon with straight arrows", meaning to shoot them with bows and arrows to drive away the beasts devouring the sun and moon. If encountering monsters other than birds and beasts, one could also "shoot them with the bow of Taiyin and crooked arrows."


 In other words, the shamans' bows and drums could drive away ghosts below and rescue the sun and moon above. Or rather, they were originally used to rescue the sun and moon, and then expanded to shoot and kill various demons. The sound of drums and arrows worked together to expel evil and shoot it dead.


 "My family indeed has a Taiyin bow, which along with the drum and ritual attire, are all ancestral heirlooms." The Chu shamans called the peach wood bow the Taiyin bow*, naturally because it was first used to rescue the sun and moon.


 *T/N: Tai (太) is the first character for sun, Yin (阴) is another reference for the moon


 Tan Xiao said helplessly, "But my mom donated the original to the folk museum long ago. We only have a later replica of the suspended drum at home. The bow seems to have no replica made out of concern it might accidentally injure tourists."


 Even the replicas his family used for so long could still drive away ghosts when he used them. It was just that for the bow, there wasn't time to make a new one now.


 "I'll go back and prepare the ingredients and think of a solution." Tan Xiao bid temporary farewell and ran back. Seeing Tan Chunying at home, he went over and asked, "Mom, do you think it's possible to borrow our Taiyin bow back from the folk museum for a couple of days?"


 "Impossible." Tan Chunying answered without even thinking, and after a while, turned her head and asked, "What do you want the Taiyin Bow for, are you taking on private jobs?"


 "Uh, yeah." Tan Xiao could only admit it.


 Tan Chunying snorted, "You should go play with something else, you don't have time to practice archery, unlike your mother who was a divine archer back in the day... and you, not even taking a break during the New Year, did I close the place for nothing?"


 She remembered that in order to create a good exam preparation environment for Tan Xiao, she had even declined tourist visits, but Tan Xiao was quite into taking orders.


 "I'm just playing during the holidays!" Tan Xiao quickly ran off.


 ......


 As soon as Tan Xiao appeared with his gear and ingredients, it attracted frequent glances from the Taoist priests at the Laomei Temple.


 The bag contained beef liver and pig heart. Because it was for luring dogs, Tan Xiao chose offal with a stronger odor.


 On the 404 side, several Taoist priests and celestial masters had also gathered, including Elder Baoping who brought his orange cat. This cat-loving elder couldn't even leave his cat behind when going on missions.


 The orange cat circled Tan Xiao's legs, sniffing the ingredients in his bag, and the fishy smell seemed strong. Tan Xiao lifted the bag a little higher, and the cat couldn't help but paw at his swaying clothes.


 "What a strong smell." Mu Fei said upon seeing it, "Never lured a dog before, is this smell enough?"


 "I'm not sure either, we can add more if it's not enough." Tan Xiao said, and noticed that everyone present had flickering eyes, "What's wrong?"


 "Before you arrived, Fang Zhu volunteered to step forward and act as bait." Liu Qingquan floated over and said, "We were all discussing whether this is a good idea or not."


 "...Ah." Tan Xiao really hadn't thought of this. Right, he had lured Fang Zhu with swallow porridge before, and Fang Zhu had also been hunted by an unidentified Yorkshire Terrier demon - come to think of it, with the current situation of Aperture also being targeted, the identity of that canine demon was also questionable.


 Does that mean the deliciousness of clams is also very attractive to dogs?


 Using Fang Zhu as bait?


 It sounded feasible, but as Liu Qingquan said, is it a good idea? After all, Fang Zhu is a pregnant man, and this is his most vulnerable time. Normally he would have the ability to protect himself.


 "I have my own selfish motives too. I know I'm still a guilty person," Fang Zhu said, rubbing his belly, "Maybe after I give birth, you will judge me. If I can make meritorious deeds while being guilty, I hope I can get a lighter sentence..."


 Fang Zhu had previously kidnapped Mu Fei because of the demon-slaying trap, and was only let off temporarily because of his pregnancy. With his personality, he had always been uneasy about this, and immediately wanted to redeem himself a little when he saw the opportunity.


 "This..." Although Tan Xiao was the executor of the plan, the baby had Mu Fei's share, so he looked at Sister Mu.


 Mu Fei frowned.


 Elder Baoping's orange cat rubbed against Mu Fei's leg, and the elder also walked over to pick up the cat, pointing to himself. He cultivated the Silence Dharma, that is, a vow of silence. Although he couldn't speak, it was enough to express simple meanings.


 Mu Fei lowered her head, "If Fang Zhu acts as bait, is the elder willing to protect him nearby?"


 Elder Baoping nodded.


 Mu Fei felt relieved at this, "Thank you elder, then let's decide based on the situation. If the offal can't lure it, we'll switch to Fang Zhu."


 Having said that, Mu Fei looked pensive and said to everyone, "Just now, weren't you all asking about this plan, what code name should we give it?"


 According to the usual practice, everyone pulled up an action group. The group name would have been fine with just "Huodou", but now with two Huodous existing at the same time, it was better to use a different name for distinction.


 As Mu Fei asked, everyone started thinking. The previous one was transformed from a Beagle, so everyone called it "Bidou", but this one didn't seem to specify what breed it was.


 While everyone was still thinking, Mu Fei had already revealed her hidden dagger, "I think we should call it 'Yu Le'."


 Everyone: "............"


 What kind of hellish joke is this!


 Fang Zhu hadn't read many books since coming ashore and was a bit confused about the reference, but still supported it, "Okay!"


 The scene fell silent for several seconds, sinking into confusion. Tan Xiao simply opened his phone to search for the original text to show Fang Zhu...


 "Hey, Spirit Master, you didn't get the Taiyin Bow?" Master Lü came over and asked Tan Xiao.


 "No, it can't be borrowed out casually. But I brought the drum and this. The drum is placed outside." Tan Xiao took out a wooden slingshot from his bag.


 Master Lü: "?"


 Tan Xiao said, "This was made for me by my grandpa when I was little. I remembered it's also made of peach wood. Then I considered it and thought that using talismans to wrap the pellets could replace the arrows, it should also count as a simplified version of the Taiyin Bow."


 Everyone: "......"


 Mu Fei wanted to say something but hesitated. Thinking of the techniques Tan Xiao had modified, she felt it was better to keep her mouth shut.


 At this time, Fang Zhu had finished reading the text and cried out, "Yu Le opened oysters, I'm a clam! Practically an oyster!"


 Tan Xiao comforted him, "They all have shells. It's good that enoki mushrooms and vermicelli aren't put on your body."


 Fang Zhu sobbed, "............"

Even a Shaman Needs Evening Self Study

Even a Shaman Needs Evening Self Study

Chapter 65 - Nested Formation Part 1

Echo