Strange Stories from the Liao Studio - Magical Arts (continued)

Yu was startled, and the demon discharged an arrow. Yü warded off the arrow with his sword, and it dropped.

Yü was going to strike the demon, who discharged another arrow.

Yü quickly jumped aside to avoid it, and the arrow struck the wall where it stuck quivering.

The demon became furious, pulled out his sword and whirled it like the wind intending to give him a tremendous blow.

Yü ducked, and the sword struck the stone ledge cutting it in two.

Yü sprang between the demon's legs and began hacking at his ankles. There was the sound of ringing blows.

The demon, still more furious, roared like thunder and turned round to chop again at Yü.

Yü again crouched and passed between the demon's legs. The blade fell and cut off a piece of Yü's skirt.

Yü reached its side and hacked fiercely with the same ringing sound.

The demon fell down and became rigid. Yü hit at it wildly, and it sounded hard like a watchman's rattle.

Turning the light on (he found) it was a wooden idol as tall as a man, with a bow and arrows attached to the waist, and carved and painted in a hideous fashion.

Wherever the sword had struck, there was blood.

Yü held the candle in his hand till dawn, and then he realized that the demons were all sent by the diviner, intending to bring about his death and so manifest his own magic art.

The next day Yü told the story to all his friends and went with them to the diviner's house.

The latter saw him coming from a distance and made himself invisible.

Some one said this was a trick of rendering oneself invisible, and the charm could be dispelled with dog's blood.

Yü accordingly procured some dog's blood and went back (to the diviner's house).

Again the diviner disappeared as before, but Yü scattered the blood on the place where he had been standing.

The diviner's head and face appeared blurred with blood, his eyes glaring like a demon's.

Thereupon they seized him and turned him over to the civil authorities who put him to death.