Consort Li suddenly bent over and coughed violently, as if easing some pent-up breath in her chest. After taking a handkerchief from Hong Zhu to wipe her mouth, it looked as though she had expelled something invisible.
This spectacle made the women present somewhat scared. Empress Dowager Liu patted her chest and said, "Ah, that scared me to death. What on earth is that?"
The Chongxu Daoist Master didn't speak but quickly turned and walked to a table inside the hall. He took out some yellow talisman paper from his bag. He grabbed a handful of cinnabar and poured it on the table, then pulled out a gourd-like object and took a big swig before spitting it all out onto the cinnabar, immediately filling the hall with the smell of alcohol. The liquor inside the gourd must have been some nameless strong spirit.
