In the twelfth year of Jiajing, a dark omen appeared and caused chaos within the Forbidden City. The first child of the Jiajing Emperor, barely a month old, died during a continuous rain in October due to this dark omen. He was posthumously enfeoffed as Crown Prince Aichong.
This "dark omen" was not a divine spirit or a cultivator, but an inauspicious aura. Therefore, neither the might of the state nor the starlight of Doumu could affect this entity that did not even qualify as a ghost.
"Sheng qi," meaning the aura of disaster and demonic influence.
When sheng qi appears, it inevitably breeds malevolent spirits. It takes the form of a hazy mist, transforming based on the five elements, possessing no fixed attributes. The most common manifestation is "dark sheng."
Dark sheng has appeared many times throughout history, from the Han Dynasty in the north, through the Tang and Song dynasties in the middle, down to the Yuan and Ming dynasties in the south. It has been like a shadowy presence floating behind the entirety of history, incredibly eerie.
In the Ming Dynasty, the most famous incident in recent times was the "Ten Days of Blood Rain" in the tenth year of Zhengde. This event took a dramatic turn when a swindler, disguised as a dark sheng and exploiting the strange phenomenon of the ten days of blood rain, attempted to defraud people of money. He encountered a genuine dark sheng that had taken human form, and the swindler was naturally killed by it. The common people believed the dark sheng to be a righteous being that eliminated demons. However, when the dark sheng left that town, the entire settlement turned into an inferno that night, with not a single soul surviving.
Following this, the dark sheng seemed to have taken root within the Forbidden City, roaming constantly. The celestial courts and underworld officials were unable to apprehend it. It was impervious to swords and blades, and unaffected by water and fire, causing widespread panic within the palace. The Jiajing Emperor's second son, Crown Prince Zhuangjing, later fell gravely ill.
At that time, Shao Yuanjie, a high-ranking Taoist master from Longhu Mountain, was old and found it difficult to suppress and expel the strange occurrences in the palace. When Shao Yuanjie's treatments proved ineffective, he recommended Tao Zhongwen to the Emperor.
Tao Zhongwen, in the current Ming court, was known as the foremost great demonic Taoist. At that time, he claimed to be a successor of the Shenxiao sect of Taoism.
Tao Zhongwen sprayed sword with talisman water, dispelling the dark sheng aura from the palace, and the Crown Prince Zhuangjing, who had been suffering from a smallpox-like illness, recovered.
However, this incident marked the beginning of the Jiajing Emperor's awareness of the curse.
Tao Zhongwen learned that the Jiajing Emperor's eldest son, Crown Prince Aichong, had died just a few months after birth in the twelfth year of Jiajing. Combining this with the recent incident involving Crown Prince Zhuangjing, Tao Zhongwen observed Crown Prince Zhuangjing and informed the Jiajing Emperor that they had fallen under a curse brought about by the dark sheng.
The two dragons must not meet; if they do, someone will surely die.
As long as the Jiajing Emperor lived, the Crown Prince would die. Although Crown Prince Zhuangjing appeared to have recovered, the root of the curse had not been severed.
As fate would have it, Tao Zhongwen's pursuit of the source of the demonic aura within the palace proved fruitless. In the eighteenth year of Jiajing, after discussions with the Jiajing Emperor, Tao Zhongwen concluded that Crown Prince Zhuangjing was doomed to die and beyond saving. He then instructed the eunuchs to send the Crown Prince's册宝 (celestial decree and seal) to the palace of the future Longqing Emperor, who was not yet the Crown Prince at that time.
Later, as expected, on the very day Crown Prince Zhuangjing was to leave his chambers for his studies, he fell ill and died. The position of Crown Prince then passed to the future Longqing Emperor.
To prevent the then-Longqing Emperor from meeting a similar sudden death, Tao Zhongwen employed a sinister art. It could not be said to break the curse, but rather to deal with an extreme curse through extreme measures!
The Longqing Emperor's younger brother, who later sought to contend for the position of Crown Prince, also died suddenly.
This was the method Tao Zhongwen used to deal with the curse.
"The Art of Extending Offspring."
Except for the Longqing Emperor, all his brothers died. Only he, as the true dragon, survived. Tao Zhongwen transferred the lives of others onto the Longqing Emperor, causing yin to be born from extreme yang, and then reversing yin and yang. This way, when the curse struck again, it would target the imperial women, replacing yang destinies with yin destinies.
However, this curse could not be lifted. Later, when the Longqing Emperor engaged in intimate activities with his consorts, the surging yin energy caused him discomfort, and he eventually passed away.
As a result of the reversal of yin and yang, the Wanli Emperor, who succeeded the Longqing Emperor, found that most of his daughters died shortly after birth, with only two surviving. This was the consequence of the yin-yang reversal: the yang ones lived while the yin ones took their place. Of course, since the daughters were not true dragons, there were isolated cases of survival.
However, Tao Zhongwen informed the Jiajing Emperor that although the lives of his descendants were borrowed, when they were being transcended, their names were found to be missing from the three registers of the underworld. They were neither struck off nor did they seem to have ever existed.
Needless to say, this strange phenomenon was also a problem of the curse.
This curse, which absorbed the "Emperor's Mandate" from the mortal world, did not target the Emperor himself. The Jiajing Emperor also had this doubt, and Tao Zhongwen replied that the reigning Emperor would not be harmed because a true dragon represented extreme yang, while the curse was extreme yin. Extreme yin and extreme yang were in balance. To break the balance, one could only target "weak yang" such as "hidden dragons."
The Jiajing Emperor asked Tao Zhongwen how much skill it would take to collect the souls of the imperial family and even remove them from the underworld's records.
Tao Zhongwen merely said that he himself was far from possessing such abilities. He neither knew the opponent's objective nor how to counterattack. Later, while tracing clues, Tao Zhongwen calculated that the source of the dark sheng was actually the Dongyue Temple.
There was something beneath the temple. However, this temple was built during the Yuan Dynasty by Zhang Liusun, a grand master of Xuanism. The Jiajing Emperor's first reaction was to demolish it, but Tao Zhongwen stated frankly that the temple could neither be moved nor should it be demolished.
Furthermore, Tao Zhongwen found it peculiar that the temple was situated there. He discovered that the Dongyue Temple was originally intended as a "stronghold" to guide something. However, a second layer of arrangement was added to the original layout. This second layer was a sealing technique that rendered the first formation ineffective.
Thus, the Dongyue Temple became an ordinary temple for worship.
Both formations originated from a grand master of Xuanism, indicating that he first set up the guiding formation and then the sealing one.
But now, the formation below had become active, while the formation above remained undamaged. Tao Zhongwen explained this bizarre phenomenon by stating that the object being guided had found this formation and was attempting to establish a connection from a distant place, thus activating the formation in reverse.
Ordinary excavation techniques would naturally yield nothing, and demolition risked unforeseen consequences. Tao Zhongwen admitted that his abilities were naturally inferior to those of a grand master of Xuanism. Therefore, Tao Zhongwen devised a plan: he asked the Jiajing Emperor to move the statue of the white-faced Zhenwu from Mount Zhenwu and suppress the problem here with the "Art of Hongwu Welcoming Spirits."
However, the white-faced Zhenwu was no simple matter. Tao Zhongwen frankly stated at the time that using this white-faced Zhenwu to block the Dongyue Temple was like robbing Peter to pay Paul. This object seemed to have a greater purpose and was not originally within Mount Zhenwu.
But since it was brought here, it was brought here. If Mount Zhenwu could take it, why couldn't the Emperor of Great Ming?
Could a Taoist do it, but an Emperor could not?
The Emperor was also a Taoist.
Tao Zhongwen and the Jiajing Emperor also jointly constructed the "Great Gaoxuan Hall," which housed the Nine Heavens Myriad Laws Thunder Altar, the nexus of Shenxiao magic. The Forbidden City represented extreme yang, while the Dongyue Temple represented extreme yin. The collision of yin and yang generated thunder, which in turn suppressed evil spirits. Therefore, rituals and prayers were constantly performed to activate the thunder nexus and protect the Forbidden City.
But this was still not enough.