Mai begged the priest to not destroy the evil spirit.
"The spirit's intentions are by no means benign," answered the Taoist priest. "If you continue to let it roam freely, it will most definitely cause more harm to the family."
"I don't believe you," retorted Mai. "Hung was such a kind and generous person before his death, he could not even bear to kill an ant. I do not believe that he would intentionally attempt to cause harm to anyone, let alone my family."
"It seems like you do not have a very deep understanding of ghosts, mademoiselle," replied the priest. "No matter how kind the person was before his death, if his spirit was unable to rest in peace for whatever reason, it will start to become demonized and subsequently lose all its humane characteristics which used to belong to the living person, until its hatred has been dissolved. Spirits are not the same as people. They only have one purpose - and that is to achieve what they want to achieve. It would not care how they achieve it or whom they harm in the process. They would lose all the good memories, and all that remains would be their hatred."
"Then, what shall I do?" questioned Mai, as she began to cry piteously. "I have already killed Hung once, I don't want to kill him again."
"Very well, there is one method," responded the priest, who took pity on the poor girl. "I will try to seal the spirit in this cremation urn instead of destroying it forever. However, you must promise me this: whatever you do, never ever try to let it out. Once released from this seal, the spirit will mutate to become much more powerful than it had been before, and it would be most certainly cause a catastrophe. Not just to you, but to everyone around you. Will you give me your promise?"
"Yes, I promise," said Mai unhesitatingly. "It is enough to know that he is with me all the time."
Upon receiving Mai's promise, the priest immediately began his preparations for the ceremony. He asked the entire family to leave the apartment for 49 hours and to promise that they would not enter the apartment no matter what they have heard or seen until the appointed hour. After the family had left, the priest sat in the middle of a Bagua array which he drew on the floor of the apartment, and started chanting ceaselessly a Taoist spell. The whole apartment began to swirl around him and the priest began to hear some sinister voices and perceive frightening images. Nonetheless, experienced as he was, the priest focused on chanting his spell and took absolutely no heed of what he heard or saw.
At the appointed hour, Mai and her family returned to their apartment and noticed the priest sitting in the middle of the living room, with the cremation urn in front of him. Firmly stuck on the lid of the urn was a magic charm.
"Remember: do not ever remove this charm from the urn. This will release the evil spirit," warned the priest breathlessly.
Twenty-seven years later in 2003, after the death of both her parents, Mai and her pregnant daughter arrived at the airport to return to Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City. Amongst their luggage was a white urn with a charm stuck on top.
~To be Continued~
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