The Meishan Cave Guest

In the old Meishan lands, mountains rise upon mountains and rivers upon rivers, and the Zijiang surges among a thousand peaks. Since ancient times Meishan has been divided into three caves: the Upper Cave hunts the mountains, the Middle Cave farms them, the Lower Cave crosses the waters. The mountain folk live in kinship with the hills and streams, and with ancient legends as well. Most people have heard that Meishan spirit-masters can drive out evil and capture malevolent spirits, but few know that the true Meishan dharma was never meant for killing. The so-called shadow-hauntings are not inborn vicious spirits; they are merely unfinished obsessions that, meeting dark, damp, and turbid places, congeal into lingering shadows and disturb people's souls. The frail of body easily see illusions; the unsettled of heart easily fall prey to them. The way to resolve them lies first in healing the body, then in setting the landscape's patterns to rights, then in settling old regrets, and finally in using nuo rites to send the lonely souls onward in peace, so that obsession disperses and turbid qi flows freely. Chen Wang carries on his master's dying teachings, bearing a buffalo horn, a ritual knife, and a medicine satchel as he walks the villages and wilds. He does not slay hauntings, only settles souls; he does not bewilder people, only restores what is true. His road takes him through the cave villages of central Hunan, west into the Miao lands of western Hunan, south to the Yao mountains of the Nanling, and east to the coasts of Jiangxi and Fujian, passing between the smoke of daily life and the realm of legend. The mountains have no end, the waters never rest, and countless unsettled souls remain in this world, waiting for someone to go to them and comfort them. Such is the road of the Meishan Cave Guest. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: The Meishan Cave Guest — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠