Zhao Laohei and my dad stumbled up to us, their arms full of supplies. “By the ribbon!” Master Liu commanded. I stepped back and gave the adults plenty of space. I followed the vague circle indentation that went around the mouth of the cave. Master Liu, Zhao Laohei, and my father worked quickly in the center by the red string.

​

I lifted my gaze from the ground when I began to lose count of how many times I’d rounded the quartz rock that reflected the sun like a mirror. Getting my bearings, my eyes found Master Liu in a yellow frock. The peach wood sword was gripped tightly in his right hand.

​

An altar sat ready at the mouth of the cave. Candles and incense burned around a pot of clean water on a desk that might’ve come from my house.

​

“Everything is ready.” Master Liu said to the other two men. "Return home now. Your natural eyes shouldn’t be exposed to any more of this than they have to. It could burn long years from your life."

​

My dad’s expression hardened at that. He asked Master Liu worriedly, "And what of Xiao Yon-"

​

Master Liu interrupted him, "He will stay for an… opportunity. Don't worry. I can protect him."

​

My father’s expression didn’t change. He looked at me seriously for a long moment and then huffed a sigh. “I will respect your wishes, Master. Though I won’t go home.” He turned to me. “Xiao Yong, I will wait for your safe return on the northern slope.” With that he turned and followed Zhao Laohei back up the path they’d come.

​

I watched them climb the slope, only turning back to Master Liu when I heard him clear his throat. “Boy, do you still wear the jade stone? The one I gave you.” He was staring blazingly into the open cave.

​

I took the jade necklace from my shirt, holding it in my palm. Master Liu nodded and said, "Hold it closely. If the paper man moves near you, hold it out like a shield. If he dares to get close to you, remember the stone!"

​

I nodded seriously.

​

We waited. The afternoon sun crept down to meet the slope and soon half of it was hidden. “I’m hungry.” I told the ground by my feet.

​

“Eat the lunch your mother gave you.” Master Liu said, “Unless you want me to?” A smile had grown under his nose and his old eyes sparkled.  I sat down on the dirt by Master Liu and ate the rice, bamboo, and vegetables my mother had prepared. Master Liu offered me a small bowl of water after I was done.

Master Liu said, "Finish your water before I start the religious rites. After that, you can’t touch anything. Do you understand?"

​

I told him I did through gulps of water.

​

“When will it begin?” I asked.

​

“Soon.” He said quietly. So I took one last gulp of water and put my things outside of the circle.

​

When I turned back to join him by the outstretched ribbon Master Liu said, "Here we go."

​

I stepped back from him, standing just outside the circle.

​

He lit the incense first, and then followed with the candles. Once the table was illuminated and clouded with a sweet smelling fog he moved before the altar. The ritual altar stood in between him and the cave entrance like a protective barrier. Old hands moved with surprising speed and burned a yellow paper amulet, while a rich old man’s voice murmured in hushed tones. I strained my ears to catch what he was saying, but I couldn’t make it out. Suddenly, my eyes still focused and my ears working their hardest, I felt an overwhelming peace. Not something I’d ever associated with these rituals before.

The peace I felt was evident on Master Liu’s face. I’d later come to learn about meditative incantations performed before religious rites. These incantations are used to ensure that the monk or master is completely calmed in order to perform their duties efficiently.

​

After the incantation, Master Liu took a deep breath. He waved the peach wood sword and performed the familiar footwork before the altar. Moving his feet in a wide arc, the old man raised one leg and slammed his foot into the ground, shouting, "In the name of the Grand Supreme Lord, I command you! Appear!"

​

My eyes darted to the cave and stayed there. Nothing changed. Dust rose and settled around Master Liu’s foot, but nothing happened.

​

I looked to the master for answers, but his attention never faltered from the cave. He raised his foot again and trampled on the ground more slowly this time. I could feel his strength. He raised a foot and I watched the air tremble below it. Once more he slammed it against the ground and I could see an air of force tumbling pebbles and sand away from him in all directions. He raised his foot a third time. When it met the ground violently, I felt the tremor tickle into the shoes on my feet.

​

I wasn’t the only one.

​

The ribbon began to shiver slightly, still pulled taught towards the cave, but shaking now. After several seconds, the thunder paper amulets scattered near it began to move as well. I watched them dance, but couldn’t sense a pattern in it.

​

Master Liu’s eyes fixed on the red ribbon, saying, "You're a patient one."

​

He repeated his footwork and shook the earth with three more stomps.  The harder he trampled the greater the air would shiver through the earth. With the third, came a white light from the cave. A reverberating scream followed it. The sound met the outstretched ribbon like a wave and pushed it towards Master Liu.

​

An unnatural quiver shook the air in the circle. It was as if I was watching Master Liu through a rippling pond.

​

The white light shone as a beam against the ribbon. With a sickening thunderous crash a red light shot from the ribbon back into the cave. The lights merged and blended, warping into colors I’d never seen, until the quarry was filled with the bizarre light show. In another flurry of color, the red light seemed to dominate the beam. A cracking sound filled the air and then there was only a puddle of white light shimmering on the ground before the altar.

​

Master Liu spoke to it in a low voice, "Wu Liang Tian Zun. You must have known I would bring the proper tools." His eyes flickered to the scattered thunder amulets and the ribbon.

​

The white pool of light rose slowly and began to take shape. It twisted and writhed like an enormous snake until the image began to sharpen. I squinted my eyes as tightly closed as I could and peered through a slit in my hands. The light was becoming a man. He was garbed in green and red clothes that glowed amazingly as they solidified. Dark hair hung down to slightly stooped shoulders. The eyes, nose, and mouth appeared sharp, but then twisted and melted into a vague blur. I strained my eyes at the facial features that looked almost drawn on.  

​

It was the paper man. I swallowed the lump of fear raising in my throat after noticing how close my toes were to the circle around the ritual site. I shifted my eyes to Master Liu, not wanting to look at the horrible face again.

​

The paper man stood up slowly. His body had become somehow lifelike. The twisted angles and crumpled paper body was gone. Standing before us was a very human shape with hideously inhuman features. It raised its deformed face to Master Liu and screamed. The noise was impossible to stand, the same high reedy pitch that cut through us at Wang Qi’s house. I slapped hands to my ears to try and block it.

​

The screech dwindled slowly and the paper man replaced it with curses and insults. When Master Liu didn’t reply it fell silent for a moment. Then it spoke, poison rolling from its deformed mouth. “What do you want from me? I can’t be reincarnated any more, Master. Must you insist on destroying me?"

​

Master Liu shook his head sadly. "It is not I who wants to kill you. It is God.” He set his stance again and pointed a wizened finger. “You can’t stand against God. You’re something unnatural now and you are putting the whole world in jeopardy."

​

The paper man snorted and rushed at Master Liu. The old man only shook his head, wielding the peach wood sword. A deep purple flame spouted from the blade to meet the paper man. The flamed collided with his chest with a deep whump. The paper man screamed as the purple fire danced around his chest and deformed chin. With a cry he brought his hands forwards to block the flame. He darted to the side, covering his face with hands that now looked like singed bones.

​

The purple flames receded into the peach sword in Master Liu’s hands. His forehead was sweaty and he was breathing in heavy uneven gasps.

​

Master Liu straightened himself and called over the altar, "You don’t have to be destroyed. There are means of reincarnation. I know of a special jade stone that can retrieve earth and life souls alike. I can still save you!”

​

"Can you give me a heaven soul again?" The paper man asked. He was looking at Master Liu with genuine curiosity.

​

Master Liu nodded and continued, "The stone has its own souls, heaven, earth, and life. You’re only missing the one. You only need to reclaim your heaven soul!"

​

The paper man’s struggles slowed and halted. He looked through vague, blurred eyes at the old man before him. With a light shake of its head, the smile returned. The reedy voice rumbled lowly at first, “But…” He told us, “In this form I’ll never die!”  

​

Master Liu only shook his head. He closed his eyes and spoke slowly, as if addressing an ill behaved child, "You're wrong. This is not living. You're excluded from this world. You may linger here eternally, but as an outsider. A life without death makes no sense. You'll be in pain and exist in bitter resentment. Is that what you really want, a world without joy, friends, love?”

​

The quarry was silent. I watched the two of them from outside the circle with held breath.

​

Master Liu brought out a triangle shaped jade stone. “You can’t stay like this. Let me help you, or force me to kill you. The choice is yours."

​

The paper man kept silent. The air in the circle grew colder.

​

Master Liu felt it too. I saw his feet set in a stance behind the altar, where the paper man couldn’t see. He called to the paper creation, "You don't want to accept. Do you think you’re more powerful than I?"

He pointed the peach wood sword to the sky. The sky shone a deep red in the sunset. Above the pointed blade shone an eddy of cloud, stark white against the rapidly darkening sky. The eddy darkened to a deep black and spread far too rapidly to be natural. Something purple shone in the center, above Master Liu.  

​

"What's this?" The pitched reedy voice screamed. Fear turned the words into a long whine. A strong wind fell on us from the circle of clouds above. I felt my hair buffeted against my forehead like tiny stinging straws of hay. A chorus of purple lightning shot the sky bright. Master Liu’s eyes were frozen on the paper man as thunder echoed in the quarry.

​

Master Liu spoke in a whisper, but I knew his words as if he were right beside me. "It is time.”

​

Paper knees hit the dirt and began to shuffle towards the altar and man behind it. The paper man rose and fell in bows, while a series of pleas streamed out of a blurred mouth. "Master, save me! I beg you, please save me! Reincarnate me. Help me live on. Help me be good!"

​

With a deep breath, Master Liu lowered the sword. The wind, lightning, and thunder in the clouds above gradually disappeared, revealing a sunset pink.

​

The paper man knelt, head bowed in front of the altar. Master Liu’s voice was calm when he said, "No one can avoid pain, my poor man. I need to hear your acceptance. Do you fear exclusion from our world? Will you accept salvation?"

​

The paper head nodded, saying, "I do, I will! I have faced exclusion and I do not want it. I will follow your word, Master.” The last word came out in a deep rumble that didn’t match the flimsy body.

​

Master Liu nodded calmly at the being before him. "For your sake, I hope that you're honest.” He gestured with the blade to the red ribbon, which was now pointing straight into the sky. “I will seal the connection with your gate of vitality and connect it to the stone.” He brandished the triangular cut of jade in his hand. “I will lead the way for you, seizing your soul from the paper body. Don't struggle anymore. It will soon be over."

​

The paper man kowtowed to Master Liu.

​

Master Liu retrieved the ribbon from its quartz foundation and brought it to the kneeling paper man. He tied the long red line to its chest and wrapped it smoothly around the jade. His voice picked up the low murmur of Taoism as his hands moved in their ritualistic dance. I watched the paper body become old. The chest began to wither like wax paper over a flame. The arms jerked and knotted into small bundles of charred stick and collapsed. The whole itself crumbled and fell to the ground piece by piece.

​

I took in a cold sharp breath when the paper body fell away to reveal the headless ghost within it. The feeling of peace was emanating from the ribbon as the headless spirit walked along the red line that was wrapped around the jade.

​

Without a sound, Master Liu walked forward. His hands dancing in prayer, and then he placed his middle and index fingers upon the stone.

​

“What was that?” I asked him, my voice sounding far away from me.

“Mudra.” He said simply.

​

“Is it over? Are we going home now?”

​

The old man shook his head. As with the previous Taoist feats, he looked exhausted, almost empty.

​

"In time. We need to go to the Wang’s home first. Whoever started this trouble should be the one to end it. This stone needs to be protected, cared for. The spirit within will have his opportunity for a second chance."

​

“Second chance with the Wangs?” I thought skeptically, but didn’t dare speak.

​