The Obsessed Demon of All Beings

Take a bowl, fill it with soil, count one, two, three, four, five. Plant a toad, it turns into a train; plant an edamame bean, it turns into a tiger. Grow yourself a set of fine crafts, and enjoy a lifetime of fortune without hardship. Three hundred and sixty trades among myriad lives—on every grand path, who holds sway? That carpenter possesses great skill: a flick of his chalk line sunders yin and yang, his interlocking mortise and tenon suppress the eight wildernesses. This blacksmith commands formidable methods: a furnace of molten fire resonates through heaven and earth, a thousand hammer strikes cleave dawn and dusk. Then there is an ambitious tailor: an inch of thread riding the wind tailors the world's phenomena, a prick of the needle binds the four quarters. And there is a ruthless cook: an iron stove stokes hellfire to stew the mortal coil, blades summon wind and thunder, using bone as firewood. Wansheng Province: a thousand people, a thousand faces; myriad beings, myriad changes. Standing amidst the crowd, Zhang Laifu grins with smug delight: "Come on, follow me and let's go live the good life!"