My name is Yang Tianming. The night I was born was evil and many strange things happened.
The sound of ghosts and wolves rang out around the village. All the snakes, insects and beasts crawled out and howled at the moon, it was very frightening. An old man was scared to death.
The reservoir behind the village burst its banks without warning, washing a century-old temple in our village to the ground, and bright red blood flowed out of the eyes of several cast brass Buddha statues.
Overnight, a whirlwind of white hair blew through the village, clattering as if someone were dragging chains.
There were many palm prints on my wall and many black footprints on my doorway. Strangely, the footprints were only paws, but no heels; they were all half-parts.
The black cat lies on my wall, green eyes staring at my house, crying like a child.
The midwife stood in front of my mom's bed all night, but my mom just couldn't give birth. Finally my grandfather wrote a fold on yellow paper and burned it in front of the bed. I was born.
After birth, my body was very weak, I had colds and fevers and nosebleeds, and not a single day was normal.
On the day of the full moon, Grandpa brought me back to his house, saying he would raise me, and forced my parents to leave the village, saying they would not come back to see me until I was ten years old.
Mom was heartbroken and reluctant.
Grandpa said that if they wanted me to die, they didn't have to listen to him.
In the end, my parents left me in tears.
My grandfather was a Feng Shui master and I was raised by him.
Strangely enough, when I followed my grandfather, my health slowly got better, I didn't even catch a cold.
I understood things earlier than ordinary children. When I was four years old, I studied Feng Shui taboos, medicine, divination and astrology, Taoism, Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, and martial arts with my grandfather.
Grandpa didn't let me go to school even when I was old enough to go to school, and let me follow him every day to learn those things.
In the blink of an eye, I reached the age of eighteen, and my grandfather taught me what he had been capable of all my life.
Even though I learned so much from my grandfather, he never let me use it, always saying that the time had not yet come.
For years, there have been people who drove limousines to the village to ask Grandpa to do things, flattening the stone roads in the village.
But Grandpa froze and drove all those people away, no matter how many rewards he gave he didn't take them.
I asked Grandpa why he drove them away. Grandpa said that when he returned to this village, he had already announced his retirement from the jungle and washed his hands in the gold pot.
Grandpa returned to the village from the outside the year I was born. Although Grandpa didn't say so, I also know that he quit the jungle for me.
Yesterday, while eating lunch, a thunderbolt suddenly struck out of nowhere, which split a hole in the roof of my house and also the idol enshrined on the incense burner.
My grandfather, who was eating at the table, suddenly screamed and fell to the ground with blood spurting out of his seven orifices.
I was so scared that I cried and took Grandpa to the hospital.
Grandpa laughed and shook his head, saying he didn't need to go to the hospital and just urged me to call my parents back.
We knelt in front of Grandpa's bed, howling and crying.
Grandpa smiled and comforted us, "Don't cry, I'm 99 years old, I've lived enough in this life, this is a happy event not a white event."
Dad asked Grandpa why this suddenly happened, the thunder did not strike Grandpa.
Grandpa sighed and said, "I didn't know any better when I first started walking the streets. I made a lot of mistakes when I was young, and now I'm being eaten. This is my punishment and retribution."
Grandpa kicked my parents out and left me behind.
Grandpa reached out and touched my head, and said with a doting look on his face, "Tian Ming, I'm most relieved that you're the one I'm most relieved about, I'm leaving soon, so you'll have to rely on yourself from now on."
I cried and shook my head vigorously.
"Silly child, birth, old age, sickness and death are the most common things. Dry your tears, I'm just going to another world. There's nothing to be sad about."
"Do you still remember the rules Grandpa made for you?" Grandpa asked, his expression becoming stern.
I nodded my head as I cried.
Grandpa bellowed angrily, "Remember?"
"Remember. First, we can't use what we've learned to do crooked things or fight bravely with others. Second, when you meet a woman with the surname Bai, stay away and don't get involved in any way. Third, if you meet someone who claims to be Cripple Yao's disciple, you will be killed. Fourth, you must not pass on the Yang family's techniques to outsiders." I cried.
Grandpa smiled and touched my head, "Tian Ming, you must remember what I told you, don't break the rules or you will end up like Grandpa."
Grandpa touched a yellow book from under his pillow. "This is the Heavenly Jade Scripture, the foundation of my Yang family's arts. Only when you learn the Heavenly Jade Scripture can you truly display those jutsuI taught you."
"After I leave, you'll start going to Hongcheng right away, there's a house there that I left behind, so you'll start your life there, and you'll only be able to help out when you've passed your twentieth birthday."
After explaining all this, I went back to call my parents and Grandpa explained the aftermath to them.
After explaining everything, Grandpa laughed three times and then closed his eyes forever.
The world of sadness hurt.
When they learned that Grandpa was gone, everyone in the nearby nine villages and eighty-one manor houses cried, and every house lit long lamps in front of their doors.
Grandpa buried the day, nine villages and eighty-one manor people came, wearing mourning, funeral procession continuous thirteen miles, there are ten thousand people.
Along the way, the five immortals all out (Hu HuangbaiLiu ash), climbed to the ground, kowtow to the grandfather's coffin tears.
Grandpa's casket was sealed, ten thousand people worshipped the grave, crying to the heavens.
That night, the livestock in the village howled all night, and when the sun rose in the east they all died, having dedicated themselves to their grandfather.
As soon as my grandfather's funeral was over, my father rushed me to Hongcheng.
"Tian Ming, this is your grandfather's arrangement, you're leaving tonight." My dad stroked my head with a reluctant face.
"Your grandfather told me that unless you become a mage, you won't be able to return to the village once you leave. You can't come back to see us, let alone contact us, until you've reached mage status, or we'll be in for a big disaster." My father said seriously.
"Tian Ming, this is your travel expenses to Hongcheng. Your grandfather only asked me to give you this much, you can only rely on yourself for the rest." My mother gave me 1,000 yuan and choked. "Hongcheng is thousands of miles away. We can't be around to take care of you in the future. You should learn to take care of yourself and be self-reliant."
I cried and nodded my head, knocking three times for my parents.
As the sun set, my dad drove me away fiercely, and I took three steps back and forth, finally leaving the village I had lived in for 18 years.