Lang-Li-Guhh-Baw#

With swollen belly, strange skills arise, A frog's croaks can summon thunder's cries, No loong needed to call the breeze, In shallow waters, frogs' songs please.

Here we must speak once more of that wandering Daoist. He passed through the Kingdom of Hhami, and ever since his encounter with the frog guai, he had made it his mission to hunt such guais. Far and wide, he sought their traces.

On a day he came unto a valley where croaks echoed, crackling with eerie flashes. Joy rose in his heart, and he hastened to the riverbank. There, he set up a makeshift altar to subdue the yaoguai in the river. Incense and candles were lit for the offerings; then, with his cap removed and hair unloosed, the Daoist traced the three seals of power with vermeil cinnabar and drew the banishing sword. He mumbled and muttered the spells he knew.

Then his roar shook the air: "Thus be Lord Lao's decree!" With a flash of his sword, he snatched up a seal and flung it skyward. A plume of flame flared and vanished. The frog guai in the valley, startled by this commotion, sprang from the water - a great yellow frog clad in hues between green and blue, different from the last.

The Daoist, seeing the yaoguai spring forth, swiftly lifted a second seal. It flared up in a trice, and a raging wind followed. As the third seal caught light, pealing thunder cracked from the lowering clouds. Both the Daoist and the yaoguai were startled, hands flying to their heads. As silence fell, they looked up to see trees blasted and split, while the storm above broke and scattered.

The Daoist froze, then scrambled to ready his brush for three more seals. The frog guai, unhurried, drummed its belly. The sky stood unchanged, but with each stroke, a dozen shafts of golden light lanced down, each striking close around the Daoist.

Tumbling and rolling, the Daoist could scarcely evade the beams of light. Then the frog guai gaped its maw and spat out a swarm of electrifying tadpoles. No matter how the Daoist dodged, they pursued him relentlessly until he fled in utter rout.

Alas, in matters of renown, it is common to judge power by the intricacy and grandeur of one's methods. There might be some wisdom in that.