Chapter 96: The Art of Vanquishing Sorcery

“What, aren’t you displaying it for sale?” I asked.
This incense holder perfectly met the requirements Mo Qingyan and I had discussed.
Yin energy slowly flowed over it, and the carved patterns on the two doors, along with the mechanical lock above, acted like a seal, firmly locking the yin energy inside the holder.

“No, this is not an incense holder for enshrining parents.”
“You should look at the others,” the carpenter said with a wry smile.

“This is an incense holder for enshrining things like Guman Thong, child gods, and the like, is that right?” Ou Zhiqin asked.
This was a euphemistic way of putting it.
To be more direct, this incense holder was for raising ghosts.

The carpenter’s eyes narrowed, but he still nodded and said, “Since you know the trade, you should know that this kind of shrine cannot be used for parents and ancestors.”
“Why don’t you choose another one?”

“No, I want this one.”
“This is exactly what I need,” I said directly.

The carpenter’s gaze fixed on me again as he said, “Little lady, although I don’t know what you want to raise, this kind of thing is no joke.”
“It’s very dangerous.”
“Some young girls play with that kind of thing for love, beauty, grades, and the like, and their final outcomes are all very tragic.”

As soon as the carpenter said this, I understood.
He thought I wanted to raise a ghost child.
I had seen on TV before that some celebrity was exposed for raising a ghost child at home.
Now it seems they were all practicing black magic, possibly to curse their competitors.

As for the excuse of enshrining my parents, it was naturally understood by the carpenter as just an excuse.
After all, what proper girl would buy an incense holder for raising a ghost?
His attempt to dissuade me showed that he was a decent person.

“Boss, you don’t understand.”
“I’ve been entangled by a ghost, and I must find an incense holder to enshrine them, otherwise I’ll be in danger,” I said.

“Oh! So that’s how it is, you should have said so earlier.”
“I have an idea for you.”
“Buy a wooden tiger and place it at the entrance of your house or bedroom.”
“I guarantee that when the malicious ghost comes, it will either be scared away or eaten by it,” the carpenter said, pointing to a wooden tiger carving displayed in the shop.

It was a carving of a reclining tiger, which looked like it was made from a root.
It was carved lifelike, especially its fierce and ferocious face, which looked as if it would pounce and bite at any moment.

Beside the wooden tiger were other wooden carvings, all of ferocious beasts.
Besides wolves, tigers, and leopards, there were also legendary fierce birds and beasts like the Taotie, Pixiu, and Bifang.
Each one gave off a very fierce feeling.

“It can eat ghosts?”
“Could it be… the Art of Vanquishing Sorcery?!” Ou Zhiqin exclaimed, looking at the wood carvings in surprise.

“The Art of Vanquishing Sorcery?”
“Is that the witchcraft that uses magical objects to curse and suppress people or demons?” I asked.
I had heard this term before, and recently after joining the Supernatural Events Department, I had started reading the books in the clubroom.

The first thing I learned about was the basic knowledge of the supernatural, such as the classification of various demons and ghosts, and the types of various curse schools.
The Art of Vanquishing Sorcery was a very famous school of witchcraft.

The character “Yan”  is synonymous with “Ya” , which means to suppress.
In reality, it is the art of suppressing and winning, a form of witchcraft passed down from ancient shamans.
It is said that it was originally a spell used to pray for the suppression of demons and ghosts, to seek good fortune and peace for oneself.

But from ancient times to the present, with the selfish desires of generations, the Art of Vanquishing Sorcery, which was already a form of witchcraft, began to develop more and more in the direction of black magic, shifting from dealing with ghosts and monsters to dealing with humans, from praying for blessings and changing one’s luck to harming others for personal gain.

“Yes, that’s the one.”
“It’s said that in the lineage of Vanquishing Sorcery, the ones who have studied it the most deeply are craftsmen,” Xiao Qing said, then quickly added to the carpenter, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend.”
“But since you’re already displaying them for sale, you probably don’t mind if we speak plainly, do you?”

“Of course, don’t be so nervous.”
“I know what you’re wary of.”
“What you’re thinking is all true.”
“The Art of Vanquishing Sorcery does circulate among craftsmen, and there are indeed some unscrupulous people who use it for evil, but I am not one of those who lack professional ethics,” the carpenter said.

He then brought over normal chairs and invited us to sit down, slowly speaking about the development and transformation of the Art of Vanquishing Sorcery.
The school with the widest transmission of the Vanquishing Sorcery was not shamans but craftsmen, and there were deep historical reasons for this.

When the function of Vanquishing Sorcery was still to pray for blessings and ward off disasters, craftsmen had already begun to learn it.
Houses were an important barrier against demons and ghosts, so masons and carpenters who built houses had to learn some methods to resist them.

Things like peach wood talismans, peach wood figures, wooden beasts, and auspicious cloud carvings were the vanquishing objects invented at that time to suppress demons and ghosts.
At that time, the Art of Vanquishing Sorcery was undoubtedly used for the righteous path.

But in ancient times, craftsmen had a low status and were often bullied by their employers, especially the wealthy and powerful families.
They would hire craftsmen to build houses but would casually beat and scold them, find fault, and dock their wages.
The craftsmen could not fight against these nobles and could only hold in their anger.

Thus, craftsmen began to use the Art of Vanquishing Sorcery to fight against their employers.
For example, they would bury small knives and swords in the pillars to break the aura of the house, reverse the Feng Shui of the residence, and even directly use sword qi to harm untrustworthy employers.

Or they would hide small wooden puppets in the rafters.
If the employer was unjust, they would cast a spell to make the small wooden puppets make strange noises at night to frighten the family, giving them no peace.

The carpenters soon discovered that the Art of Vanquishing Sorcery was indeed an important weight to achieve a balance between themselves and their employers.
With this trump card, employers no longer dared to go too far and even became polite and courteous.

From that time on, these craftsmen would be respectfully called “masters.”
When employers hired masons and carpenters, they would first treat them to a good meal.
During the work, they would send them wine, and after the work was completed, they would give them red envelopes.

Some employers would even ask them to display their Vanquishing Sorcery, which could show that these craftsmen had real skills and that the houses they built could indeed exorcise evil and ward off demons.

Thus, the Art of Vanquishing Sorcery spread even more widely among craftsmen and became a must-learn skill.
By the Sui and Tang dynasties, famous masters of craftsman schools were all proficient in Vanquishing Sorcery, and it even branched out into dozens of different sub-sects.
Vanquishing Sorcery became directly tied to the craft of the artisan, and masters would even compete in witchcraft when comparing their skills.

The shamans who first invented Vanquishing Sorcery, on the other hand, learned less than the craftsmen.
After all, they had various Daoist arts they could learn, while craftsmen could only rely on Vanquishing Sorcery as the basis for their survival.
Vanquishing Sorcery instead flourished in the hands of the craftsmen.

This was also an important turning point for Vanquishing Sorcery, shifting from praying for blessings to dealing with people.
If it had only stayed at this level, it would have been fine.
The craftsmen gained protection and respect, and the employers also got the safety they wanted.

But later, more unscrupulous craftsmen were no longer satisfied with doing dirty and tiring work.
They discovered that using Vanquishing Sorcery to actively extort employers or accept money to help curse others was a faster way to make money.
Vanquishing Sorcery completely turned into a harmful black magic, and the reputation of the craftsmen was ruined.