ã€ŠCopper Coinsã€‹


 CH Extra

    Extra chapter: Loquats

    This year''s hot midsummer came early, and abundant with thunderstorms ¨C¨C the rain fell relentlessly from the skies, and drizzles could occur up to three times a day, with no end in sight.

    The stone-paved streets of the towns would get wet from the rain, but would dry in no time, too, so it was no bother. But in the mountains, it was unbearable: the wet mud reached up to one''s shins, and the paths were riddled in deceptively shallow-looking puddles that could splash one''s face full of dirt if one wasn''t careful. On days like these, no one ever went into the mountains ¨C¨C those that did were psychopaths.

    For instance, those on Mt. Jiangsong.

    "This is the last time," Tongdeng warned as he stood with his hands clasped behind his back, watching Xuanmin use a talisman to help Xue Xian clean his robe. "Don''t come tomorrow. Give me a day of peace, please."

    Xue Xian twisted around to peer at the back of his robe and stuck out a leg to let Xuanmin slap a talisman onto it, saying to Tongdeng, "I''m not here to see you. I''m here to take care of my baby loquats. It''s been so hot these days that I''m worried you''ll get greedy and steal them from me."

    Tongdeng had always been a highly restrained person, and in all his years floating around as a spirit, he had never ''gotten greedy''. The insult made him almost laugh with anger; he turned to Xuanmin and snapped, "What are you going to do about this?"

    Xuanmin said nothing.

    If I could do something about it, do you think we''d be here right now?

    Xuanmin had long gotten used to scenarios like these. With a neutral expression on his face, he stood between the two and seemed completely unperturbed by their quarrelling. He continued to clean Xue Xian''s robe for him.

    Whenever the dragon visited Daze Temple, he always had to make a scene of it, and never looked where he was going. By the time he strode in to the temple, his robes were covered in so many dots of mud that he looked like a peacock, so Xuanmin had forced him to stay at the doorway while he cleaned him up.

    "Hey, it''s fine now," Xue Xian grumbled as he looked himself over once more. "This robe is super thin. If you keep patting away at it, you''ll rip it. Why do both you and your shifu have this obsession with hygiene..."

    "Stop moving," Xuanmin said.

    Tongdeng turned around and walked back into the temple.

    Xue Xian felt that he had been so thoroughly cleaned that there was no longer a speck of dust on him. He clicked his tongue and began to stride inside, making sure to lift up the bottom of his robe as he stepped over the threshold so as not to waste Xuanmin''s efforts and get himself dirty again.

    Xuanmin stood behind him and, seeing that he was standing frozen over the threshold, patted him, indicating for him to hurry up.

    Xue Xian looked at him. "Did you just slap my ass?"

    "Are the two of you going to have a go right there?" Tongdeng asked as he sat cross-legged onto a prayer mat in front of a desk and picked up a brush.

    Xue Xian walked idly over to him and watched with his head tilted as Tongdeng began to write something on a sheet of paper. "You''re doing more writing for the dark-skinned kid?"

    Tongdeng sighed and stopped his brush. Glaring at Xue Xian, he said, "You call my disciple ''bald donkey'', and now you call Yunzhou ''dark-skinned kid''. Can''t you have manners for once?"

    "No," Xue Xian said.

    Tongdeng sighed again.

    The ''dark-skinned kid'' that the dragon was referring to was none other than Mt. Jiangsong''s mountain guardian. When he''d first arrived on the mountain, he''d been a youth of fourteen or fifteen, without even a proper name. Now, he was about twenty, and the name Yunzhou had been given to him by Tongdeng.

    Ever since he and Tongdeng became friends, he would come to Daze Temple every day after his patrols, sometimes having Tongdeng teach him how to read and write, other times simply making a pot of tea for Tongdeng and chatting the hours away. Tongdeng couldn''t drink the tea, but he liked to smell it.

    And after having run into Xue Xian and Xuanmin several times, he became close to them, too.

    Xue Xian dug around in his sleeve pocket until he found a high-quality inkstick and slammed it onto the desk. "I noticed that you''re almost done with your current inkstick," he said, "so I carved you another."

    Tongdeng picked up the inkstick and examined it, then nodded. "It''s good ink. Go visit your loquats."

    Xue Xian pulled at Xuanmin''s hand and led him past the Buddha statue and out the hall''s back door.

    Back in the day, the back courtyard of the temple had been a beautiful garden that bloomed with scent and color every summer, and had been the perfect place to shelter from the heat ¨C¨C but the fire had turned it into a patch of dead soil, with broken branches sticking out of the earth, a desolate place.

    The previous year, something had gotten into Xue Xian and he''d suddenly begun craving loquats. The poisonous fog around their bamboo building was too strong and killed their loquat tree both times they tried to plant one, so instead he persuaded Xuanmin to let him plant one at Daze Temple ¨C¨C in any case, Daze Temple was beginning to feel like their summer home.

    Xuanmin always indulged Xue Xian''s wishes. He''d immediately gone to buy a loquat sapling and had planted it in the temple garden.

    At the time, Tongdeng had glanced at it and said nothing apart from, "It''s nice." The sapling had been so small and frail, and would take enormous amounts of effort to grow into a fruit-bearing tree. He''d figured they could try if they wanted.

    But Yunzhou had caught wind of the plan and somehow become excited by it. Within a few days'' time, he''d gone somewhere deep into the mountain forest and come back with three full-grown loquat trees, already blooming with gorgeous green leaves. He''d planted those in the back garden, too.

    Wild loquats were resilient plants ¨C¨C they''d barely needed to pay attention to the trees for the loquats to begin growing as soon as the season was right. First they were green, and then they turned a brilliant yellow, becoming sweeter and sweeter as the days matured.

    Ever since they''d planted that first loquat sapling, Xue Xian had made Xuanmin come to the temple with him every single day, just to make sure the loquats were growing well.

    In all his years of life, Tongdeng had never met such a glutton. A divine dragon, one that nobody could mess with, who had somehow ended up with his own disciple. What a trainwreck.

    Tongdeng picked up his brush once more, intending to finish copying this text, but soon the doors to the temple creaked open again.

    He sighed; he would definitely not be finishing his task today.

    He did not need to look up to know who had come in. And yet he looked up anyway.

    He watched as Yunzhou carefully closed the doors to the front courtyard and began walking toward the hall. He''d grown rapidly in the past few years; he was now tall and strong, and the sleeves to his tunic were rolled up to reveal the sinewy muscles on his forearms.

    And he wasn''t as dark as Xue Xian said; his skin was more like the color of wheat.

    "The sky''s overcast. It''s going to rain soon," Yunzhou complained as he entered the hall, as natural and casual as though he were returning to his own home after a long day.

    Tongdeng hummed in agreement and made to pick up his brush again, then suddenly stopped again. He peered over at Yunzhou and asked, "What''s that you''ve got with you?"

    "Tea," Yunzhou said, lifting up the bundle to show him. Then he smiled. "And wine."

    It was just what his old friend used to do, all of those long years ago. The resemblance knocked Tongdeng into a daze, and he automatically replied, "You want to trick me into drinking wine again?"

    As Yunzhou bent down to place the teapot on the desk, he laughed and said, "Trick? This isn''t even Qiulubai."

    Then he froze. He looked up at Tongdeng, and found the monk staring at him, frozen as well.

    Tongdeng stammered, "You..."

    A cloud of confusion crossed Yunzhou''s face as he said, "I... also don''t know why I just said that."

    "Oh," Tongdeng said, then smiled. "Never mind. Put the tea here, but take the wine as far away from me as you can. Don''t distract me from writing your texts."

    Yunzhou nodded. He propped his face up by the desk and watched Tongdeng write his calligraphy, then couldn''t help but ask, "Is my writing... getting better?"

    Tongdeng glanced at him and said, "Sure. Your progress has gone from crawling like a snake on your belly, to crawling on all fours."

    Yunzhou rolled his eyes.

    Tongdeng did not look at him, yet his lips were curved in a smile.

    Yunzhou sighed and picked up the pot of wine, standing up and peering toward the back door.

    Xue Xian stood leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, admiring the loquats in the garden while chatting about something in a low voice with Xuanmin. Seeing that Yunzhou was here, Xue Xian jutted out his chin and said, "We were talking about you just now. What''s that you''ve got with you? Wine?"

    Yunzhou raised the pot to show him. "I plucked a loquat this morning. They''re ripe. If you want some, you can have it with some wine."

    Xue Xian blinked. "That''s the first I''ve heard of drinking wine with loquats."

    But Yunzhou had already disappeared behind the Buddha''s statue again ¨C¨C he had gone back to study writing with Tongdeng.

    Xue Xian''s sense of smell was excellent. Although Yunzhou had taken the wine away, he could still smell its scent. He leaned into the hall and gave the air another sniff before Xuanmin grabbed his chin and brought him back. "Have as many loquats as you want, but no wine."

    Xue Xian squinted at him, then stuck his neck back into the hall and shouted, "Monk! Your insolent disciple is forbidding me from having any wine!"

    Tongdeng was in the middle of practicing writing with Yunzhou. Without stopping, he simply replied, "What does that have to do with me?"

    Xue Xian was just messing around, and hadn''t really expected Tongdeng to do anything. He turned back and reached out a hand to pat Xuanmin''s face. "Why can''t I drink?"

    Xuanmin grabbed his wrist and peeled his claw away from his face, then calmly said, "Last time, you drank a flask of Luofuchun and took me to the snowy peaks of Taihang Mountain. Before that, you drank a flask and a half of Zhuyeqing, and we fell into the East Sea. Before¨C¨C"

    "Oh, stop it with the befores!" Xue Xian complained as he sealed Xuanmin''s lips with a kiss, then, with an evil grin, licked Xuanmin''s lips. He immediately went back to leaning against the doorframe as though nothing had happened.

    Xuanmin sighed.

    Xue Xian pushed his face away. "Don''t look at me. Look over there. It''s raining."

    Xuanmin sighed again.

    It was indeed raining outside.

    The summer rain came without thunder, but was instead comprised of a dense drizzle that came down into the courtyard with a susurrus. As it fell, it was as though it had the power to render the whole world quiet and utterly still.

    In town, the market sellers hurriedly cleared away their stalls and brought their wares back into their shops. Passersby in the streets raised their hands to cover their heads, and housewives quickly brought in the laundry hanging on the washing lines.

    The rain made the noises of the chickens and dogs in the nearby village seem a world apart, too, as well as the sound of horses'' hooves galloping along the county roads.

    At the front of the hall, Xue Xian could hear the murmurs of Tongdeng and Yunzhou, blurred and indistinct as they talked about the mundane things in life.

    Xuanmin looked out at the fruits in the garden: after half a month of daily doting from Xue Xian, the sheet of rain was now making them glisten and shine like so many suns, clinging enthusiastically to the branches.

    He shifted his gaze, and looked back at Xue Xian, who was beaming.

    Xuanmin watched him for a while, then bent down and kissed him.

    If every day were like this, that would be nice.

    Loquats and light rain, and peace on earth.

 CH 1

    Chapter? ?1? ?Paper? ?man? ?(1)? ?

    ?

    In? ?the? ?summer? ?of? ?the? ?23rd? ?year? ?of? ?Tianxi,? ?a? ?dragon? ?fell? ?in? ?Huameng? ?County,? ?Guangdong? ?

    Province.? ?It? ?was? ?very? ?tall,? ?its? ?length? ?tens? ?of? ?feet.? ??It? ?was? ?trapped? ?in? ?a? ?net,? ?with? ?split? ?skin,? ?torn? ?

    flesh? ?and? ?missing? ?its? ?spine.?? ??When? ?officials? ?and? ?the? ?people? ?went? ?to? ?look,? ?a? ?coincidental? ?rain? ?

    poured,? ?causing? ?the? ?waves? ?to? ?crash? ?and? ?the? ?tide? ?to? ?surge.? ?The? ?dragon? ?was? ?then? ?swept? ?into? ?

    the? ?sea,? ?never? ?to? ?be? ?seen? ?again.? ?¡ªRecords? ?of? ?Huameng? ?County? ?[1]? ?

    ?

    Winter? ?of? ?the? ?same? ?year,? ?Ningyang? ?County,? ?Huizhou? ?Prefecture.? ?

    ?

    Wugeng?1''s? ?gong? ?had? ?just? ?been? ?sounded.? ?It? ?was? ?still? ?dark,? ?yet? ?faint? ?voices? ?could? ?already? ?be? ?

    heard? ?from? ?Xingtang? ?street.? ?The? ?waiter? ?of? ?Nine? ?Taste? ?restaurant? ?carried? ?some? ?freshly? ?made? ?

    steamed? ?buns? ?and? ?went? ?to? ?set? ?up? ?a? ?breakfast? ?stand? ?in? ?front? ?of? ?the? ?building.? ?

    ?

    The? ?watchman? ?came,? ?rubbing? ?his? ?hands? ?and? ?bought? ?three? ?buns.? ?He? ?swallowed? ?one? ?in? ?two? ?

    bites,? ?swallowing? ?it? ?with? ?difficulty? ?and? ?while? ?frowning? ?at? ?the? ?Nine? ?Taste? ?restaurant''s? ?waiter? ?

    said,? ?"Well?? ?Is? ?the? ?thing? ?prepared?"? ?

    ?

    "It¡¯s? ?prepared.? ?Here."? ?The? ?waiter? ?patted? ?the? ?lunch? ?box? ?kept? ?beside? ?the? ?drawer? ?with? ?a? ?

    distressed? ?face.? ?

    ?

    Astonished,? ?the? ?watchman? ?said,? ?"You¡¯ve? ?really? ?gone? ?and? ?prepared? ?it?? ?What? ?if? ?he...? ?the? ?thing? ?

    doesn¡¯t? ?come? ?today?"? ?

    ?

    The? ?waiter? ?shivered? ?in? ?silence? ?and? ?said? ?dryly,? ?"I? ?pray? ?to? ?my? ?ancestors,? ?please? ?don''t? ?come."? ?

    ?

    This? ?Nine? ?Taste? ?restaurant? ?was? ?a? ?relatively? ?famous? ?restaurant? ?in? ?Ningyang? ?County.? ?The? ?

    chef''s? ?nickname? ?was? ?"Liu? ?Sanyang".? ?It? ?was? ?said? ?that? ?he? ?could? ?walk? ?the? ?world? ?with? ?three? ?

    famous? ?dishes,? ?namely,? ?roasted? ?meat? ?with? ?peach,? ?clay? ?pot? ?roast? ?chicken? ?and? ?crisp? ?pear? ?with? ?

    masked? ?palm? ?civet.? ?The? ?meat? ?was? ?pork? ?belly? ?without? ?skin,? ?the? ?chicken? ?was? ?a? ?pheasant? ?

    caught? ?just? ?off? ?the? ?mountain,? ?and? ?the? ?civet? ?had? ?to? ?be? ?raised? ?in? ?the? ?snow.? ?

    ?

    The? ?Nine? ?Taste? ?restaurant? ?relied? ?on? ?these? ?three? ?dishes? ?and? ?was? ?full? ?of? ?customers? ?every? ?day.? ?

    But? ?Liu? ?Sanyang? ?was? ?a? ?man? ?who? ?put? ?on? ?airs? ?when? ?it? ?came? ?to? ?his? ?dishes.? ?He? ?only? ?provided? ?

    ten? ?servings? ?a? ?day,? ?not? ?a? ?single? ?extra? ?serving.? ?So? ?if? ?you? ?wanted? ?to? ?eat,? ?you''d? ?have? ?to? ?come? ?

    early.? ? ?

    ?

    However,? ?for? ?ordering? ?solid? ?food? ?as? ?early? ?as? ?five? ?o''clock,? ?one? ?would? ?most? ?probably? ?have? ?to? ?be? ?

    a? ?little? ?sick? ?in? ?the? ?head.? ?

    ?

    This? ?dear? ?guy? ?who? ?had? ?been? ?sick? ?in? ?the? ?head? ?had? ?been? ?here? ?for? ?two? ?days? ?straight.? ?

    ?

    On? ?the? ?first? ?day,? ?he? ?ordered? ?three? ?dishes? ?from? ?the? ?waiter? ?and? ?never? ?spoke? ?again.? ?It? ?was? ?really? ?

    boring.? ?In? ?the? ?cold? ?winter,? ?when? ?a? ?normal? ?person? ?breathes? ?out? ?and? ?opens? ?their? ?mouth,? ?a? ?

    1 ??Wugeng?? ?Îå?¸ü? ?is? ?the? ?time? ?period? ?between? ?3? ?to? ?5? ?am? ?in? ?the? ?morning.? ?

    white? ?mist? ?would? ?form,? ?but? ?his? ?face? ?was? ?clear? ?and? ?transparent,? ?not? ?the? ?slightest? ?hint? ?of? ?mist.? ?

    On? ?the? ?next? ?day,? ?he? ?asked? ?for? ?more? ?-? ?not? ?to? ?put? ?the? ?clay? ?pot? ?chicken? ?in? ?the? ?clay? ?pot,? ?not? ?to? ?put? ?

    star? ?anise,? ?fennel,? ?crisp? ?pear,? ?oxtail,? ?not? ?to? ?put? ?pear...? ?

    ?

    This? ?requirement? ?wasn¡¯t? ?like? ?requesting? ?a? ?proper? ?meal? ?for? ?breakfast? ?at? ?all,? ?but? ?more? ?like? ?

    smashing? ?its? ?reputation.? ?However,? ?the? ?waiter? ?not? ?only? ?didn''t? ?shoo? ?away? ?the? ?suspect? ?guest,? ?

    but? ?also? ?served? ?him,? ?all? ?the? ?while? ?trembling,? ?for? ?two? ?days.? ?Today,? ?he? ?even? ?prepared? ?all? ?the? ?

    lunch? ?boxes? ?in? ?advance.? ?

    ?

    He? ?looked? ?at? ?the? ?sky.? ?Legs? ?trembling,? ?he? ?stretched? ?his? ?neck? ?like? ?a? ?chicken? ?and? ?asked? ?the? ?

    watchman,? ?"It''s? ?almost? ?time.? ?How-how-how? ?are? ?you? ?not? ?trembling?"? ?

    ?

    ¡°I? ?walk? ?through? ?the? ?night? ?as? ?my? ?job,? ?why? ?would? ?I? ?tremble?"? ?The? ?watchman? ?lowered? ?his? ?voice? ?

    and? ?said:? ?"Besides,? ?it? ?hasn¡¯t? ?been? ?peaceful? ?this? ?year.? ?It? ?wouldn¡¯t? ?be? ?unusual? ?to? ?see? ?any? ?

    demons.? ?Have? ?you? ?heard? ?about? ?the? ?true? ?dragon? ?that? ?was? ?spotted? ?in? ?Guangdong? ?in? ?June?? ?It? ?

    was? ?lying? ?on? ?the? ?beach.? ?I? ?heard? ?that? ?someone? ?removed? ?its? ?spine? ?and? ?bones!? ?Dragon? ?bones!? ?

    What? ?omen? ?is? ?this?? ?In? ?the? ?last? ?two? ?months,? ?it? ?was? ?rumoured? ?that? ?the? ?National? ?Advisor? ?almost? ?

    died¡ª¡±? ?

    ?

    Before? ?the? ?watchman? ?finished? ?speaking,? ?the? ?waiter? ?looked? ?terrified? ?and? ?looked? ?as? ?if? ?he? ?

    wanted? ?to? ?slide? ?beneath? ?the? ?stall.? ?"Here? ?he? ?is,? ?he-he-he¡¯s? ?here? ?again..."? ?

    ?

    As? ?soon? ?as? ?the? ?voices? ?stopped,? ?there? ?was? ?a? ?man? ?who? ?looked? ?like? ?a? ?scholar? ?standing? ?in? ?front? ?

    of? ?the? ?stall.? ?

    ?

    He? ?looked? ?ordinary,? ?with? ?a? ?weary? ?face? ?and? ?his? ?cheeks? ?showed? ?an? ?abnormal? ?red? ?color,? ?like? ?a? ?

    long? ?dry? ?fire.? ?This? ?man? ?was? ?wearing? ?a? ?long? ?grey-green? ?robe? ?that? ?was? ?as? ?thin? ?as? ?the? ?man? ?

    himself,? ?like? ?someone? ?had? ?draped? ?a? ?piece? ?of? ?cloth? ?on? ?a? ?stick.? ?It? ?seemed? ?as? ?if? ?the? ?wind? ?would? ?

    blow? ?him? ?up? ?to? ?heaven? ?with? ?it.? ?

    ?

    Under? ?the? ?light? ?of? ?the? ?white? ?lantern,? ?the? ?watchman? ?stared? ?at? ?the? ?scholar''s? ?face? ?for? ?a? ?long? ?

    time.? ?Even? ?when? ?the? ?steamed? ?bun? ?in? ?his? ?mouth? ?went? ?cold,? ?he? ?did? ?not? ?swallow? ?it.? ? ?

    ?

    The? ?scholar? ?murmured? ?to? ?himself,? ?"Here? ?we? ?are",? ?and? ?slowly? ?raised? ?his? ?head,? ?looking? ?at? ?the? ?

    waiter? ?with? ?flat? ?black? ?eyes.? ?It? ?was? ?terrifying.? ? ?

    ?

    The? ?waiter? ?immediately? ?clamped? ?his? ?legs? ?together? ?and? ?felt? ?like? ?peeing.? ?

    ?

    "Excuse? ?me,? ?roasted? ?meat? ?with? ?peach? ?please¡ª",? ?this? ?scholar? ?had? ?a? ?nice? ?voice? ?when? ?he? ?was? ?

    speaking? ?properly.? ?It? ?was? ?unlike? ?the? ?tone? ?he? ?was? ?using? ?earlier,? ?but? ?it? ?didn¡¯t? ?fit? ?his? ?expression? ?

    nor? ?did? ?it? ?match? ?the? ?shape? ?of? ?his? ?mouth.? ?It? ?looked? ?even? ?more? ?terrifying.? ?

    ?

    The? ?waiter? ?averted? ?his? ?eyes,? ?picked? ?up? ?the? ?lunch? ?box? ?and? ?handed? ?it? ?to? ?him? ?cautiously:? ?"All,? ?all? ?

    of? ?them? ?are? ?ready.? ?Inside? ?porcelain? ?jars,? ?without? ?pear? ?or? ?star? ?anise.? ?They¡¯re? ?just? ?out? ?of? ?the? ?pot? ?

    and? ?still? ?hot."? ?

    ?

    The? ?scholar? ?seemed? ?to? ?choke? ?for? ?a? ?while.? ?He? ?stared? ?at? ?the? ?food? ?box? ?for? ?a? ?moment? ?and? ?then? ?

    gave? ?a? ?reaction? ?slowly,? ?"Thank? ?you."? ?

    ?

    His? ?voice? ?was? ?hoarse? ?and? ?differed? ?slightly? ?from? ?the? ?one? ?before.? ? ?

    ?

    The? ?food? ?box? ?seemed? ?to? ?be? ?a? ?little? ?heavy? ?for? ?the? ?scholar,? ?as? ?if? ?a? ?kilogram? ?of? ?pendants? ?were? ?

    hung? ?onto? ?a? ?tree? ?branch.? ?He? ?walked? ?a? ?lot? ?slower? ?than? ?when? ?he? ?had? ?come? ?and? ?took? ?a? ?long? ?

    time? ?to? ?get? ?far.? ?

    ?

    The? ?watchman? ?shivered? ?and? ?returned? ?to? ?his? ?senses.? ?

    ?

    The? ?waiter? ?said? ?with? ?a? ?pale? ?face,? ?"Have? ?you? ?seen? ?it? ?this? ?time?? ?That? ?face...? ?Eh?? ?What? ?are? ?you? ?

    doing? ?in? ?such? ?a? ?hurry?"? ?

    ?

    Watchman:? ?"I? ?want? ?to? ?pee!"? ?

    ?

    Waiter:? ?"..."? ?

    ?

    However,? ?as? ?soon? ?as? ?the? ?watchman? ?left,? ?he? ?came? ?back? ?again? ?with? ?his? ?gongs? ?and? ?stick.? ?

    ?

    Before? ?the? ?waiter? ?spoke,? ?the? ?watchman? ?patted? ?him? ?on? ?the? ?shoulder? ?and? ?made? ?funny? ?faces? ?at? ?

    something? ?far? ?away:? ?"Look? ?over? ?there!"? ?

    ?

    Just? ?across? ?the? ?street,? ?a? ?white? ?shadow? ?appeared? ?silently? ?from? ?the? ?dark.? ?

    ?

    The? ?waiter? ?who? ?had? ?just? ?been? ?startled? ?immediately? ?felt? ?his? ?knees? ?go? ?weak,? ?thinking? ?that? ?he? ?

    had? ?seen? ?something? ?dirty? ?again.? ?Fortunately,? ?he? ?took? ?another? ?look? ?and? ?found? ?that? ?it? ?was? ?a? ?

    monk.? ?He? ?was? ?wearing? ?thin,? ?plain? ?white? ?monk''s? ?clothing? ?with? ?wide? ?sleeves.? ?No? ?other? ?color? ?

    could? ?be? ?seen? ?from? ?head? ?to? ?toe,? ?as? ?if? ?he? ?was? ?in? ?mourning.? ?It? ?was? ?very? ?unlucky? ?to? ?see? ?

    something? ?like? ?this? ?early? ?in? ?the? ?morning.? ?

    ?

    The? ?waiter? ?didn''t? ?understand:? ?"I? ?see? ?it,? ?but? ?isn¡¯t? ?it? ?just? ?a? ?monk?"? ?

    ?

    The? ?watchman? ?said? ?in? ?a? ?low? ?voice:? ?¡°I? ?glanced? ?at? ?him? ?when? ?I? ?passed? ?by? ?just? ?now? ?and? ?saw? ?that? ?

    he? ?has? ?five? ?emperor¡¯s? ?coins? ?hung? ?on? ?his? ?waist!¡±? ?

    ?

    The? ?five? ?emperor¡¯s? ?coins? ?were? ?used? ?to? ?drive? ?away? ?evil? ?spirits? ?and? ?for? ?gate-keeping.? ?It? ?was? ?

    rumoured? ?that? ?the? ?National? ?Advisor? ?favoured? ?them? ?and? ?always? ?hung? ?a? ?string? ?on? ?his? ?waist.? ?

    From? ?then? ?onwards,? ?the? ?five? ?emperor¡¯s? ?coins? ?had? ?been? ?the? ?item? ?most? ?commonly? ?used? ?by? ?the? ?

    people? ?who? ?exorcised? ?ghosts? ?for? ?a? ?living.? ?Although? ?there? ?were? ?some? ?charlatans? ?among? ?them,? ?

    most? ?of? ?them? ?had? ?a? ?few? ?tricks? ?up? ?their? ?sleeves.? ?

    ?

    From? ?a? ?distance,? ?the? ?waiter? ?looked? ?at? ?the? ?monk? ?from? ?top? ?to? ?bottom? ?and? ?thought? ?that? ?he? ?had? ?

    an? ?indescribable? ?aura.? ?In? ?short,? ?he? ?didn¡¯t? ?look? ?like? ?a? ?charlatan.? ?He? ?couldn¡¯t? ?care? ?less? ?anyway.? ?

    Three? ?days? ?was? ?already? ?the? ?limit.? ?And? ?if? ?the? ?scholar? ?visited? ?again? ?tomorrow? ?morning,? ?he? ?

    might¡¯ve? ?lost? ?control? ?and? ?peed? ?on? ?the? ?spot.? ? ?

    ?

    The? ?monk? ?walked? ?slowly,? ?but? ?came? ?near? ?soon? ?enough.? ?Seeing? ?as? ?he? ?was? ?about? ?to? ?pass? ?the? ?

    stall,? ?the? ?waiter? ?quickly? ?called? ?out? ?to? ?him:? ?¡°Master,? ?please? ?stay!¡±? ?

    ?

    The? ?monk¡¯s? ?steps? ?halted.? ?The? ?hem? ?of? ?his? ?white? ?robe? ?swayed? ?gently,? ?yet? ?it? ?was? ?unstained? ?by? ?

    dust.? ?He? ?cast? ?a? ?glance? ?towards? ?the? ?waiter.? ?The? ?gaze? ?was? ?calm? ?yet? ?without? ?warmth,? ?somehow? ?

    even? ?colder? ?than? ?the? ?wind? ?blowing? ?on? ?his? ?face.? ?It? ?wasn¡¯t? ?until? ?he? ?came? ?close? ?that? ?the? ?waiter? ?

    noticed? ?that? ?he? ?was? ?quite? ?tall,? ?so? ?much? ?that? ?his? ?gaze? ?was? ?directed? ?at? ?him? ?from? ?above.? ?This? ?

    made? ?the? ?waiter? ?shrink? ?back? ?a? ?step? ?inexplicably.? ?He? ?bumped? ?into? ?the? ?watchman? ?who? ?had? ?

    also? ?shrunk? ?back? ?a? ?step.? ?

    ?

    This? ?bump? ?knocked? ?the? ?courage? ?right? ?back? ?into? ?the? ?waiter¡¯s? ?stomach.? ?He? ?opened? ?his? ?mouth? ?

    again:? ?¡°I? ?noticed? ?that? ?there? ?are? ?five? ?emperor¡¯s? ?coins? ?hanging? ?on? ?the? ?master¡¯s? ?waist.? ?Are? ?you? ?

    familiar? ?with? ?the? ?skills? ?to? ?exorcise? ?evil? ?spirits?¡±? ?

    ?

    The? ?monk? ?glanced? ?at? ?the? ?copper? ?coins? ?on? ?his? ?waist? ?without? ?much? ?of? ?an? ?expression.? ?He? ?did? ?

    not? ?say? ?yes,? ?nor? ?did? ?he? ?say? ?no.? ? ?

    ?

    The? ?waiter? ?glanced? ?at? ?the? ?watchman? ?awkwardly? ?and? ?thought? ?that? ?this? ?monk? ?was? ?colder? ?than? ?

    the? ?evil? ?winds? ?of? ?this? ?winter? ?month.? ?He? ?froze,? ?mind? ?blanking? ?out? ?from? ?the? ?chill.? ?He? ?did? ?not? ?

    know? ?how? ?to? ?continue.? ? ?

    ?

    Thankfully,? ?the? ?watchman? ?was? ?more? ?resistant? ?to? ?the? ?chill? ?and? ?spoke? ?for? ?him.? ?In? ?a? ?few? ?words,? ?

    he? ?described? ?the? ?appearance? ?of? ?the? ?scholar-like? ?visitor? ?and? ?said? ?to? ?the? ?monk:? ?¡°We? ?weren¡¯t? ?

    familiar? ?with? ?the? ?face,? ?but? ?we? ?could? ?never? ?mistake? ?it.? ?That? ?was? ?the? ?son? ?of? ?the? ?Jiangs¡¯? ?who? ?ran? ?

    the? ?medicine? ?hall.? ?But...But? ?the? ?Jiang¡¯s? ?medicine? ?hall? ?burned? ?down? ?three? ?years? ?ago.? ?With? ?the? ?

    exception? ?of? ?the? ?daughter? ?who? ?has? ?been? ?married? ?off? ?to? ?Anqing,? ?no? ?one? ?survived,? ?all? ?of? ?them? ?

    died? ?in? ?the? ?fire!? ?As? ?the? ?saying? ?goes,? ?¡®?wugeng?? ?time? ?is? ?when? ?the? ?ghosts? ?roam¡¯.? ?A? ?dead? ?person? ?

    appearing? ?for? ?three? ?days? ?straight? ?and? ?it? ?so? ?happened? ?to? ?be? ?at? ??wugeng?? ?time.? ?How? ?could? ?it? ?not? ?

    be? ?terrifying?!¡±? ?

    ?

    The? ?monk? ?glanced? ?briefly? ?at? ?the? ?sky? ?and? ?finally? ?opened? ?his? ?mouth.? ?He? ?spoke? ?three? ?words? ?

    coldly:? ?¡°Where? ?is? ?he?¡±? ?

    ?

    On? ?hearing? ?this,? ?the? ?waiter? ?suddenly? ?became? ?excited.? ?He? ?pointed? ?at? ?a? ?bend? ?some? ?distance? ?

    away? ?and? ?hurriedly? ?said:? ?¡°He? ?just? ?left!? ?I¡¯m? ?sure? ?he? ?hasn¡¯t? ?reach? ?the? ?door? ?yet!? ?I? ?recognise? ?the? ?

    Jiang¡¯s? ?medicine? ?hall.? ?Master,? ?shall? ?I,? ?shall? ?I? ?lead? ?the? ?way?¡±? ?

    ?

    Soon,? ?however,? ?the? ?waiter? ?regretted? ?saying? ?this? ?and? ?wanted? ?to? ?slap? ?himself:? ?Who? ?told? ?you? ?to? ?

    run? ?your? ?mouth!? ?

    ?

    How? ?much? ?did? ?he? ?hate? ?life? ?that? ?he¡¯d? ?agree? ?to? ?walk? ?in? ?this? ?cold? ?winter? ?beside? ?a? ?human? ?icicle.? ?

    The? ?waiter? ?was? ?sure? ?he? ?had? ?lost? ?half? ?of? ?his? ?life? ?just? ?walking? ?these? ?few? ?alleys.? ?He? ?glanced? ?at? ?

    the? ?young? ?monk? ?from? ?time? ?to? ?time,? ?repeatedly.? ?Still,? ?he? ?didn¡¯t? ?dare? ?ask? ?what? ?he? ?wanted? ?to? ?and? ?

    instead? ?memorised? ?the? ?small? ?mole? ?on? ?the? ?side? ?of? ?the? ?monk¡¯s? ?neck.? ?

    ?

    Before? ?the? ?waiter? ?would? ?freeze? ?to? ?death,? ?they? ?finally? ?arrived? ?at? ?the? ?corner? ?of? ?the? ?back? ?lane? ?

    leading? ?to? ?the? ?Jiang¡¯s? ?medicine? ?hall.? ? ?

    ?

    Just? ?as? ?the? ?waiter? ?had? ?predicted,? ?the? ?scholar? ?who? ?looked? ?like? ?he? ?couldn¡¯t? ?stand? ?the? ?wind? ?

    hadn¡¯t? ?made? ?it? ?through? ?the? ?door? ?and? ?was? ?inching? ?step? ?by? ?step? ?in? ?the? ?alley? ?with? ?the? ?lunch? ?box? ?

    in? ?hand.? ? ?

    ?

    Strangely? ?enough,? ?he? ?was? ?murmuring? ?to? ?himself? ?in? ?two? ?different? ?voices.? ?Sometimes? ?it? ?was? ?

    clear? ?and? ?pleasant,? ?sometimes? ?low? ?and? ?hoarse.? ? ?

    ?

    ¡°Did? ?you? ?go? ?up? ?a? ?mountain? ?by? ?yourself? ?and? ?catch? ?a? ?chicken? ?for? ?me?? ?With? ?this? ?speed? ?you¡¯re? ?

    going? ?at,? ?can? ?we? ?even? ?reach? ?by? ?the? ?end? ?of? ?this? ?month?¡±? ?This? ?was? ?the? ?clearer? ?one.? ? ?

    ?

    ¡°Still? ?beats? ?not? ?being? ?able? ?to? ?walk.¡±? ?This? ?was? ?the? ?lower? ?one.? ? ?

    ?

    ¡°I? ?think? ?you¡¯re? ?sick? ?of? ?being? ?alive.¡±? ?

    ?

    ¡°Nope,? ?I? ?just? ?died? ?three? ?years? ?ago.¡±? ?

    ?

    ¡°¡­¡­¡±? ?

    ?

    The? ?scholar? ?played? ?two? ?characters? ?by? ?himself? ?and? ?acted? ?out? ?a? ?play? ?of? ?¡°what? ?do? ?you? ?mean? ?

    you¡¯re? ?so? ?sick¡±? ?in? ?two? ?voices.? ?After? ?that,? ?he? ?turned? ?into? ?a? ?paper? ?man? ?and? ?slipped? ?through? ?a? ?

    crack? ?in? ?the? ?wall? ?of? ?the? ?Jiang¡¯s? ?medicine? ?hall.? ? ?

    ?

    After? ?witnessing? ?the? ?entire? ?ordeal? ?by? ?accident,? ?the? ?waiter? ?was? ?terrified? ?to? ?the? ?bone? ?and? ?

    wanted? ?to? ?escape.? ?He? ?had? ?his? ?feet? ?in? ?the? ?air? ?before? ?remembering? ?that? ?the? ?icicle? ?monk? ?was? ?

    still? ?beside? ?him? ?and? ?hurriedly? ?took? ?out? ?a? ?money? ?pouch,? ?shoving? ?it? ?into? ?the? ?master¡¯s? ?arms.? ?

    While? ?he? ?was? ?still? ?muttering? ?¡°For? ?your? ?compensation,¡±? ?he? ?was? ?already? ?two? ??li?2 ??away.? ? ?

    ?

    The? ?monk? ?creased? ?his? ?brows? ?and? ?lowered? ?his? ?eyes,? ?sweeping? ?them? ?over? ?the? ?money? ?bag.? ? ?

    ?

    Who? ?knew? ?when? ?was? ?the? ?last? ?time? ?this? ?thing? ?was? ?washed.? ?The? ?color? ?had? ?long? ?since? ?been? ?

    unrecognizable? ?and? ?it? ?reeked? ?of? ?oil? ?from? ?a? ?long? ?time? ?ago.? ? ?

    ?

    He? ?wanted? ?to? ?throw? ?the? ?dirty? ?thing? ?as? ?soon? ?as? ?he? ?touched? ?it,? ?yet? ?he? ?hooked? ?it? ?back? ?before? ?the? ?

    string? ?had? ?a? ?chance? ?to? ?leave? ?his? ?finger.? ?With? ?an? ?almost? ?indifferent? ?face? ?showing? ?slight? ?

    disgust,? ?he? ?carried? ?the? ?money? ?bag? ?and? ?walked? ?quietly? ?to? ?the? ?front? ?of? ?the? ?Jiang¡¯s? ?medicine? ?

    hall.? ? ?

    ?

    The? ?waiter? ?who? ?had? ?escaped? ?back? ?to? ?the? ?Nine? ?Taste? ?restaurant? ?caught? ?his? ?breath? ?while? ?

    supporting? ?himself? ?against? ?a? ?wall? ?and? ?with? ?no? ?less? ?hand? ?gestures,? ?finally? ?managed? ?to? ?

    describe? ?what? ?happened? ?to? ?the? ?watchman? ?who? ?helped? ?him? ?guard? ?the? ?stall? ?while? ?he? ?was? ?

    gone.? ?He? ?hesitated? ?for? ?a? ?moment? ?and? ?said,? ?¡°Hiss--? ?The? ?master? ?earlier? ?looked? ?familiar.¡±? ?

    2 ??One?? ?li?? ?is? ?around? ?500? ?meters,? ?so? ?two? ??li?? ?is? ?1? ?k.m.? ?

    ?

    ¡°You? ?watch? ?the? ?stall? ?all? ?day.? ?So? ?many? ?people? ?pass? ?by,? ?of? ?course? ?you¡¯d? ?say? ?everyone? ?looks? ?

    familiar.¡±? ?The? ?watchman? ?said? ?gruffly.? ?

    ?

    ¡°¡­¡­¡±? ?The? ?waiter? ?gasped? ?for? ?air? ?and? ?straightened? ?up.? ?His? ?gaze? ?swept? ?past? ?and? ?caught? ?on? ?the? ?

    wall? ?that? ?he? ?was? ?leaning? ?on? ?support? ?for.? ?

    ?

    A? ?¡°wanted¡±? ?poster? ?from? ?half? ?a? ?month? ?ago? ?was? ?hung? ?up? ?on? ?the? ?wall.? ?Unfortunately,? ?it? ?had? ?

    snowed? ?heavily? ?right? ?after? ?it? ?was? ?posted.? ?After? ?it? ?was? ?frozen? ?and? ?drenched,? ?the? ?picture? ?could? ?

    not? ?be? ?seen? ?clearly? ?anymore? ?the? ?next? ?day.? ?He? ?had? ?only? ?taken? ?a? ?quick? ?look? ?at? ?the? ?time? ?and? ?it? ?

    left? ?a? ?blurry? ?imprint? ?in? ?his? ?mind.? ? ?

    ?

    Now,? ?more? ?than? ?half? ?the? ?poster? ?had? ?been? ?peeled? ?off,? ?leaving? ?only? ?the? ?neck? ?area.? ?However,? ?a? ?

    mole? ?could? ?still? ?be? ?seen,? ?in? ?the? ?exact? ?same? ?place? ?as? ?the? ?one? ?on? ?the? ?master¡¯s? ?neck.? ? ?

    ?

    The? ?waiter? ?felt? ?excitement? ?surge? ?through? ?him:? ?This? ?was? ?a? ?wanted? ?criminal? ?that? ?had? ?a? ?bounty? ?

    on? ?his? ?head!? ?

    ?

    -----? ?

    The? ?author? ?has? ?something? ?to? ?say? ?

    I''m? ?here? ?again~? ?

    ?

    This? ?novel? ?may? ?contain? ?a? ?lot? ?of? ?dog? ?blood?3.? ?Xuan? ?Min? ?is? ?gong,? ?Xue? ?Xian? ?is? ?shou,? ?don''t? ?board? ?

    the? ?wrong? ?ship? ?~? ?still? ?1vs1,? ?HE,? ?kisses? ?~? ?

    ?

    Note? ?[1]:? ?The? ?first? ?paragraph? ?is? ?the? ?original? ?source? ?of? ?inspiration,? ?which? ?is? ?translated? ?from? ?the? ?

    seven? ?repair? ?manuscripts? ?written? ?by? ?Lang? ?Ying.? ?The? ?original? ?text:? ?My? ?friend,? ?the? ?father? ?of? ?Jin? ?

    Mao,? ?visited? ?Xinhui? ?County? ?of? ?Guangdong? ?Province? ?at? ?the? ?end? ?of? ?Chenghua.? ?One? ?day,? ?just? ?

    after? ?the? ?morning? ?tide,? ?a? ?dragon? ?fell? ?onto? ?the? ?sandy? ?ground? ?from? ?the? ?air.? ?The? ?fishermen,? ?each? ?

    with? ?their? ?own? ?wood? ?planks,? ?beat? ?it? ?to? ?death.? ?The? ?officials? ?and? ?the? ?people? ?looked? ?at? ?it.? ?It? ?was? ?

    very? ?tall? ?and? ?could? ?be? ?as? ?tall? ?as? ?a? ?person.? ?It? ?was? ?tens? ?of? ?feet? ?long,? ?with? ?scales? ?on? ?its? ?head? ?and? ?

    feet,? ?just? ?like? ?a? ?painting,? ?but? ?its? ?belly? ?was? ?only? ?red.? ?This? ?could? ?be? ?described? ?very? ?clearly? ?by? ?

    anyone? ?who? ?had? ?seen? ?it.? ?

    ?

    ******? ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    Translation:? ?nucleatedrbc? ?and? ?Lunaa?

 CH 2

    Chapter? ?2? ?Paper? ?man? ?(2)? ?

    ?

    ?

    The? ?Jiang¡¯s? ?medicine? ?hall? ?was? ?located? ?in? ?YanChao? ?alley.? ?Most? ?of? ?the? ?wooden? ?structures? ?had? ?

    been? ?destroyed? ?in? ?the? ?fire? ?three? ?years? ?ago? ?and? ?only? ?half? ?a? ?room? ?towards? ?the? ?west? ?end? ?had? ?

    survived.? ?It? ?could? ?still? ?provide? ?shelter? ?against? ?rain? ?and? ?strong? ?winds,? ?but? ?nothing? ?more? ?than? ?

    that.? ?Unsuitable? ?for? ?humans? ?to? ?live,? ?but? ?a? ?great? ?place? ?to? ?hide? ?ghosts.? ?

    ?

    Jiang? ?Shining,? ?son? ?of? ?the? ?Jiang? ?family? ?who? ?hadn¡¯t? ?even? ?turned? ?twenty? ?yet,? ?had? ?become? ?a? ?

    stray? ?ghost? ?in? ?his? ?own? ?backyard.? ?

    ?

    He? ?slipped? ?into? ?the? ?house? ?through? ?a? ?crack? ?and? ?hesitated,? ?but? ?his? ?mouth? ?was? ?not? ?idle-? ?

    ?

    ¡°Is? ?the? ?front? ?door? ?and? ?the? ?wing? ?room? ?separated? ?by? ?the? ?East? ?China? ?Sea?¡±,? ?the? ?clear? ?voice? ?

    couldn¡¯t? ?hold? ?back? ?anymore.? ?

    ?

    Jiang? ?Shining? ?finished? ?speaking? ?with? ?his? ?own? ?mouth? ?and? ?rolled? ?his? ?eyes? ?with? ?a? ?weary? ?face.? ?

    After? ?a? ?moment? ?of? ?silence,? ?he? ?said? ?in? ?a? ?lower? ?voice:? ?¡°I¡¯m? ?in,? ?but? ?the? ?lunch? ?box? ?is? ?stuck? ?

    outside.¡±? ?

    ?

    He? ?scoffed,? ?talking? ?to? ?himself:? ?¡°Awesome? ?job.¡±? ?

    ?

    A? ?moment? ?later? ?he? ?changed? ?his? ?voice? ?again? ?and? ?said:? ?¡°I¡¯m? ?flattered.¡±? ?

    ?

    Jiang? ?Shining:? ?"..."? ?

    ?

    Judging? ?from? ?the? ?slightly? ?green? ?face? ?that? ?shone? ?in? ?the? ?moonlight,? ?he? ?didn¡¯t? ?want? ?to? ?open? ?his? ?

    mouth? ?anymore.? ?

    ?

    The? ?three? ?crumbling? ?walls? ?of? ?the? ?room? ?had? ?turned? ?black? ?from? ?the? ?smoke? ?and? ?the? ?north-facing? ?

    window? ?was? ?now? ?a? ?gaping? ?hole.? ?There? ?was? ?no? ?morning? ?light? ?during? ??wugeng?4 ?time? ?in? ?winter,? ?

    save? ?for? ?a? ?shadow? ?of? ?a? ?crescent? ?moon? ?that? ?shone? ?a? ?pale? ?light? ?in? ?a? ?corner? ?of? ?the? ?room.? ?The? ?

    person? ?who? ?sat? ?on? ?the? ?side? ?of? ?the? ?window? ?hole? ?was? ?half? ?drenched? ?in? ?solemn? ?moonlight,? ?half? ?

    hidden? ?in? ?darkness.? ?

    ?

    He? ?was? ?dressed? ?in? ?a? ?robe? ?that? ?blended? ?in? ?with? ?the? ?night? ?and? ?had? ?two? ?curves? ?under? ?his? ?

    well-structured? ?eyebrow? ?bone.? ?His? ?deep? ?black? ?eyes? ?reflected? ?just? ?a? ?bit? ?of? ?light? ?and? ?it? ?was? ?

    easy? ?to? ?tell? ?just? ?from? ?his? ?silhouette? ?that? ?this? ?person? ?was? ?good-looking¡­? ?But? ?half? ?his? ?face? ?that? ?

    was? ?visible? ?in? ?the? ?moonlight? ?was? ?too? ?pale,? ?the? ?wrist? ?bone? ?that? ?supported? ?his? ?chin? ?was? ?also? ?

    very? ?prominent,? ?showing? ?a? ?state? ?of? ?serious? ?illness.? ?

    ?

    In? ?fact,? ?he? ?was? ?sick-? ?He? ?couldn¡¯t? ?stand? ?up,? ?nor? ?could? ?he? ?walk.? ?

    ?

    4 ??Wugeng?? ?Îå?¸ü? ?is? ?the? ?time? ?period? ?between? ?3? ?to? ?5? ?am? ?in? ?the? ?morning.? ?

    As? ?for? ?the? ?cause? ?of? ?the? ?illness?? ?Nobody? ?knew,? ?not? ?even? ?ghosts? ?knew.? ?He? ?stayed? ?at? ?the? ?Jiang? ?

    house? ?for? ?four? ?days? ?and? ?except? ?the? ?fact? ?that? ?his? ?surname? ?was? ?Xue? ?and? ?his? ?given? ?name? ?was? ?

    Xian,? ?Jiang? ?Shining? ?knew? ?nothing? ?about? ?him.? ?

    ?

    ¡°I¡¯m? ?begging? ?you,? ?please? ?change? ?your? ?posture.? ?You? ?can¡¯t? ?even? ?sit? ?properly.? ?Your? ?upper? ?body? ?

    will? ?also? ?be? ?paralyzed? ?if? ?you? ?sit? ?crooked? ?like? ?that? ?all? ?day.¡±? ?Once? ?Jiang? ?Shining? ?entered? ?the? ?

    room,? ?he? ?stuffed? ?the? ?lunch? ?boxes? ?into? ?Xue? ?Xian¡¯s? ?arms.? ?Before? ?he? ?died,? ?he? ?had? ?at? ?least? ?read? ?

    ten? ?years''? ?worth? ?of? ?sage? ?books? ?and? ?his? ?eyes? ?hurt? ?whenever? ?he? ?looked? ?at? ?Xue? ?Xian¡¯s? ?lazy? ?

    posture.? ?

    ?

    ¡°Paralysed? ?after? ?only? ?sitting? ?incorrectly,? ?did? ?you? ?take? ?me? ?as? ?you?¡±,? ?Jiang? ?Shining? ?had? ?just? ?

    turned? ?away? ?and? ?he? ?opened? ?his? ?mouth? ?to? ?chide? ?himself? ?in? ?that? ?clear? ?voice.? ? ?

    ?

    ¡°......¡±? ?Jiang? ?the? ?scholar? ?was? ?thoroughly? ?unwilling? ?this? ?time? ?and? ?crumpled? ?his? ?face? ?towards? ?

    Xue? ?Xian,? ?saying:? ?¡°I¡¯ve? ?stepped? ?inside? ?already.? ?Ancestor,? ?can¡¯t? ?you? ?use? ?your? ?own? ?mouth? ?to? ?

    speak?¡±? ?

    ?

    Xue? ?Xian? ?opened? ?the? ?lunch? ?box? ?cover? ?and? ?squinted? ?his? ?eyes,? ?smelling? ?the? ?still? ?warm? ?food.? ?He? ?

    finally? ?opened? ?his? ?mouth? ?lazily:? ?¡°All? ?right,? ?I¡¯ll? ?tire? ?myself? ?for? ?the? ?sake? ?of? ?the? ?meat.? ?You? ?want? ?

    some?¡±? ?

    ?

    Jiang? ?Shining? ?said,? ?¡°Are? ?you? ?going? ?to? ?burn? ?them? ?to? ?ashes? ?for? ?me?¡±? ?

    ?

    Xue? ?Xian:? ?¡°Keep? ?dreaming.¡±? ?

    ?

    ¡°Just? ?eat? ?your? ?food!¡±,? ?said? ?Jiang? ?Shining? ?and? ?did? ?not? ?pay? ?any? ?more? ?attention? ?to? ?him.? ?Instead,? ?

    he? ?walked? ?towards? ?the? ?edge? ?of? ?the? ?wall? ?and? ?crumpled? ?into? ?a? ?thin? ?paper? ?man,? ?sliding? ?onto? ?the? ?

    floor-? ?He? ?could? ?walk? ?only? ?for? ?a? ?limited? ?number? ?of? ?hours? ?every? ?day? ?and? ?had? ?to? ?rest? ?once? ?his? ?

    time? ?was? ?up.? ?

    ?

    This? ?paper? ?man? ?must? ?have? ?been? ?cut? ?out? ?by? ?some? ?genius;? ?the? ?edges? ?looked? ?like? ?they? ?had? ?

    been? ?bitten? ?by? ?dogs,? ?but? ?with? ?just? ?a? ?few? ?strokes? ?it? ?depicted? ?Jiang? ?Shining¡¯s? ?features? ?clear? ?

    enough.? ?However,? ?there? ?were? ?two? ?rouge? ?blushes? ?on? ?his? ?cheeks,? ?making? ?it? ?seem? ?silly? ?

    amongst? ?the? ?creepiness.? ?

    ?

    After? ?a? ?moment? ?of? ?lying? ?dead? ?on? ?the? ?floor,? ?he? ?got? ?sick? ?of? ?Xue? ?Xian¡¯s? ?poor? ?mannerism? ?and? ?

    came? ?back? ?to? ?life,? ?frowning? ?at? ?him:? ?¡°I¡¯ve? ?wanted? ?to? ?ask? ?this? ?since? ?two? ?days? ?ago,? ?why? ?can¡¯t? ?you? ?

    use? ?such? ?a? ?simple? ?thing? ?as? ?chopsticks?¡±? ? ?

    ?

    Xue? ?Xian? ?raised? ?his? ?eyebrows? ?and? ?glanced? ?at? ?him? ?blandly:? ?¡°Thanks? ?for? ?asking.? ?My? ?upper? ?

    body? ?has? ?also? ?been? ?paralyzed? ?for? ?quite? ?some? ?time.? ?Only? ?recently? ?have? ?I? ?been? ?able? ?to? ?sit? ?up,? ?

    so? ?I? ?still? ?can¡¯t? ?handle? ?chopsticks? ?yet.¡±? ?

    ?

    He? ?then? ?lifted? ?his? ?hand? ?and? ?threw? ?an? ?assassination? ?weapon? ?right? ?at? ?Jiang? ?Shining¡¯s? ?forehead,? ?

    knocking? ?the? ?paper? ?man? ?back? ?onto? ?the? ?ground.? ?He? ?seemed? ?very? ?impatient.? ? ?

    ?

    With? ?some? ?difficulty,? ?Jiang? ?Shining? ?turned? ?his? ?head? ?to? ?look? ?at? ?the? ?assassination? ?weapon:? ?

    Bleh,? ?chicken? ?bones!? ?

    ?

    The? ?paper? ?man? ?stopped? ?for? ?a? ?moment? ?and? ?then? ?as? ?if? ?he? ?had? ?just? ?remembered? ?something,? ?

    struggled? ?upright:? ?¡°Let¡¯s? ?talk? ?this? ?out,? ?can? ?you? ?not? ?add? ?two? ?red? ?splotches? ?on? ?my? ?face? ?next? ?

    time?¡±? ?

    ?

    Xue? ?Xian? ?was? ?even? ?lazier? ?this? ?time,? ?answering? ?with? ?one? ?single? ?word:? ?¡°No.¡±? ?

    ?

    Jiang? ?Shining:? ?"..."? ?

    ?

    As? ?the? ?saying? ?goes,? ?after? ?dinner? ?comes? ?the? ?reckoning.? ?If? ?not? ?for? ?Xue? ?Xian? ?helping? ?him? ?make? ?

    this? ?paper? ?body,? ?he? ?might? ?have? ?still? ?been? ?floating? ?around? ?mindlessly? ?for? ?who? ?knew? ?how? ?long.? ? ?

    ?

    But? ?concerning? ?this? ?matter,? ?Jiang? ?Shining? ?was? ?a? ?little? ?confused-? ?

    ?

    Huizhou? ?was? ?a? ?vast? ?place? ?and? ?wasn¡¯t? ?lacking? ?in? ?abandoned? ?houses.? ?He? ?could? ?have? ?taken? ?

    shelter? ?in? ?any? ?one? ?of? ?them,? ?but? ?he? ?just? ?had? ?to? ?choose? ?an? ?empty? ?house? ?such? ?as? ?the? ?Jiang¡¯s? ?

    medicine? ?hall.? ?Who? ?knew? ?what? ?he? ?had? ?been? ?possessed? ?by?? ?Besides,? ?Xue? ?Xian? ?mentioned? ?

    during? ?the? ?first? ?day? ?he? ?came? ?that? ?he? ?was? ?here? ?for? ?an? ?important? ?task.? ?But? ?even? ?after? ?four? ?days,? ?

    except? ?for? ?eating,? ?all? ?he? ?did? ?was? ?help? ?Jiang? ?Shining? ?by? ?making? ?a? ?paper? ?body? ?for? ?him.? ?

    ?

    It? ?couldn¡¯t? ?be? ?that? ?his? ?important? ?task? ?was? ?to? ?make? ?a? ?paper? ?man,? ?could? ?it?? ?

    ?

    Jiang? ?Shining? ?lay? ?on? ?the? ?cold? ?ground? ?for? ?a? ?while? ?and? ?once? ?again? ?came? ?back? ?to? ?life? ?as? ?if? ?he? ?

    had? ?remembered? ?something.? ?

    ?

    Xue? ?Xian? ?had? ?a? ?bad? ?temper? ?and? ?was? ?already? ?impatient? ?by? ?the? ?second? ?time.? ?He? ?stopped? ?him? ?

    directly? ?the? ?third? ?time:? ?¡°I¡¯ll? ?cut? ?off? ?your? ?mouth? ?if? ?you? ?talk? ?anymore.? ?If? ?you? ?have? ?something? ?to? ?

    say,? ?say? ?it? ?tomorrow? ?morning.¡±? ?

    ?

    Jiang? ?Shining? ?said? ?hurriedly:? ?¡°One? ?last? ?thing.¡±? ?

    ?

    Xue? ?Xian? ?side-eyed? ?him:? ?¡°I? ?get? ?a? ?headache? ?every? ?time? ?you? ?talk.? ?I¡¯ll? ?get? ?paralysed? ?if? ?you? ?talk? ?

    anymore.? ?Now? ?shut? ?it.¡±? ?

    ?

    ¡°I? ?felt? ?someone? ?following? ?us? ?when? ?I? ?was? ?entering? ?the? ?door,? ?so? ?I? ?took? ?a? ?glance? ?when? ?I? ?entered? ?

    the? ?yard.? ?He? ?looked? ?like? ?a? ?monk.? ?He? ?had? ?a? ?string? ?of? ?copper? ?coins? ?hanging? ?by? ?his? ?waist.? ?He? ?

    should? ?be? ?at? ?the? ?door? ?by? ?now.¡±? ?Jiang? ?Shining? ?flopped? ?back? ?onto? ?the? ?floor? ?after? ?saying? ?this? ?and? ?

    there? ?was? ?no? ?more? ?movement? ?by? ?the? ?paper? ?man.? ?

    ?

    So? ?far,? ?he? ?had? ?used? ?up? ?all? ?his? ?hours? ?today? ?and? ?until? ?dark,? ?he? ?could? ?neither? ?move? ?nor? ?talk? ?and? ?

    could? ?only? ?be? ?a? ?spectator? ?at? ?best.? ? ?

    ?

    Xue? ?Xian:? ?"..."? ?

    ?

    A? ?monk? ?following? ?a? ?ghost,? ?what? ?can? ?he? ?do?? ?

    ?

    A? ?monk? ?with? ?a? ?string? ?of? ?copper? ?coins? ?hanging? ?by? ?his? ?waist? ?following? ?a? ?ghost,? ?what? ?else? ?can? ?

    he? ?do?? ?

    ?

    Such? ?an? ?important? ?matter,? ?you? ?nerd,? ?why? ?didn¡¯t? ?you? ?say? ?it? ?earlier?!? ? ?

    ?

    With? ?Xue? ?Xian¡¯s? ?violent? ?temper,? ?back? ?then? ?when? ?he? ?was? ?able? ?to? ?move,? ?he? ?would? ?have? ?sent? ?

    Jiang? ?Shining? ?as? ?well? ?as? ?the? ?entire? ?house? ?up? ?to? ?the? ?heavens.? ?But? ?now,? ?he? ?could? ?only? ?stare? ?

    impassively? ?through? ?the? ?hole? ?as? ?the? ?door? ?creaked? ?open? ?from? ?the? ?outside.? ?

    ?

    These? ?days,? ?charlatans? ?that? ?relied? ?on? ?only? ?talking? ?for? ?a? ?living? ?were? ?everywhere.? ?Xue? ?Xian? ?had? ?

    had? ?his? ?fill? ?of? ?them? ?and? ?knew? ?that? ?those? ?who? ?did? ?have? ?some? ?skills? ?relied? ?on? ?experience? ?to? ?

    succeed.? ?So? ?the? ?older? ?they? ?looked,? ?the? ?harder? ?they? ?were? ?to? ?fool.? ?

    ?

    Therefore,? ?when? ?the? ?monk? ?who? ?was? ?outside? ?the? ?door? ?stepped? ?in,? ?Xue? ?Xian? ?heaved? ?a? ?sigh? ?of? ?

    relief-? ?The? ?visitor? ?was? ?unexpectedly? ?young? ?and? ?Xue? ?Xian? ?could? ?tell? ?that? ?he? ?wasn¡¯t? ?a? ?

    charlatan,? ?but? ?he? ?wasn¡¯t? ?that? ?far? ?away? ?from? ?one? ?either.? ?When? ?he? ?swept? ?over? ?the? ?monk,? ?who? ?

    was? ?still? ?far? ?away,? ?and? ?the? ?copper? ?coins? ?hanging? ?by? ?his? ?waist,? ?with? ?his? ?extraordinary? ?eyesight,? ?

    he? ?was? ?completely? ?relieved.? ?

    ?

    The? ?more? ?capable? ?they? ?were,? ?the? ?more? ?evil? ?spirits? ?they? ?would? ?have? ?exorcised.? ?From? ?a? ?

    distance,? ?they? ?looked? ?quite? ?different? ?from? ?the? ?common? ?copper? ?coins.? ?The? ?copper? ?coins? ?would? ?

    have? ?a? ?lustrous? ?surface? ?like? ?they? ?were? ?coated? ?evenly? ?with? ?oil.? ?Although? ?some? ?people? ?could? ?

    imitate? ?this? ?layer? ?of? ?yellow? ?shine? ?by? ?using? ?unscrupulous? ?methods,? ?they? ?could? ?only? ?fool? ?the? ?

    eyes? ?of? ?the? ?ordinary? ?people? ?at? ?most,? ?but? ?not? ?Xue? ?Xian.? ?

    ?

    The? ?young? ?monk? ?in? ?front? ?of? ?the? ?door? ?didn¡¯t? ?even? ?bother? ?to? ?imitate.? ?Let? ?alone? ?the? ?bright? ?shiny? ?

    surface,? ?even? ?the? ?surface? ?of? ?the? ?copper? ?coins? ?had? ?almost? ?worn? ?away.? ?Who? ?knew? ?where? ?he? ?

    might? ?have? ?found? ?them? ?from.? ?Maybe? ?they? ?hadn¡¯t? ?been? ?properly? ?used? ?even? ?once.? ?

    ?

    You? ?want? ?to? ?earn? ?a? ?living? ?with? ?that?? ?With? ?what?? ?With? ?your? ?face?? ?

    ?

    Xue? ?Xian? ?sneered? ?silently? ?and? ?put? ?down? ?the? ?lunch? ?box.? ?He? ?cast? ?a? ?layer? ?of? ?camouflage? ?and? ?

    turned? ?it? ?into? ?a? ?wooden? ?pillar? ?with? ?scorched? ?marks.? ? ?

    ?

    He? ?quietly? ?leaned? ?back? ?in? ?his? ?seat? ?and? ?his? ?tall? ?and? ?thin? ?body? ?crumpled.? ?Within? ?a? ?blink? ?of? ?an? ?

    eye,? ?he? ?had? ?also? ?turned? ?into? ?a? ?thin? ?paper? ?man,? ?but? ?the? ?edges? ?of? ?this? ?paper? ?man? ?were? ?much? ?

    smoother? ?than? ?Jiang? ?Shining''s? ?and? ?the? ?paintwork? ?was? ?quite? ?fine? ?as? ?well.? ?Plus,? ?there? ?weren¡¯t? ?

    any? ?red? ?splotches? ?on? ?his? ?face.? ?

    ?

    Jiang? ?Shining,? ?who? ?couldn¡¯t? ?move? ?on? ?the? ?ground:? ?"..."? ?

    ?

    This? ?showed? ?that? ?someone? ?was? ?probably? ?an? ?*sshole,? ?a? ?pure? ?bastard.? ?

    ?

    The? ?thin? ?paper? ?man? ?possessed? ?Xue? ?Xian? ?slid? ?down? ?the? ?chair? ?and? ?laid? ?next? ?to? ?Jiang? ?Shining''s? ?

    paper? ?man.? ?In? ?the? ?blink? ?of? ?an? ?eye,? ?the? ?two? ?pieces? ?of? ?paper? ?on? ?the? ?ground? ?transformed? ?into? ?a? ?

    layer? ?of? ?dark? ?moss? ?lying? ?on? ?the? ?ground,? ?integrating? ?completely? ?with? ?the? ?dilapidated? ?house? ?

    perfectly.? ?

    ?

    If? ?it? ?had? ?been? ?more? ?than? ?half? ?a? ?year? ?ago,? ?Xue? ?Xian? ?would? ?not? ?have? ?done? ?such? ?a? ?troublesome? ?

    thing.? ?Whoever? ?ate? ?a? ?belly? ?full? ?of? ?courage? ?and? ?came? ?knocking? ?at? ?his? ?door,? ?he? ?would? ?have? ?

    blown? ?up? ?a? ?new? ?grave? ?for? ?them? ?on? ?the? ?spot.? ?Now,? ?however,? ?he? ?had? ?no? ?other? ?option? ?but? ?to? ?

    bend? ?and? ?put? ?up? ?camouflage? ?spells? ?layer? ?by? ?layer¡ª? ?

    ?

    He? ?had? ?just? ?recovered? ?from? ?full? ?paralysis? ?to? ?partial? ?paralysis? ?and? ?it? ?was? ?extremely? ?difficult? ?for? ?

    him? ?to? ?move? ?from? ?one? ?place? ?to? ?another? ?by? ?himself.? ?There? ?was? ?only? ?a? ?limited? ?amount? ?of? ?

    energy? ?that? ?this? ?paper? ?body? ?could? ?withstand? ?and? ?it? ?was? ?fortunate? ?enough? ?not? ?to? ?dig? ?his? ?own? ?

    grave.? ? ?

    ?

    Fortunately,? ?the? ?monk? ?who? ?came? ?here? ?this? ?time? ?was? ?an? ?embroidered? ?pillow?5.? ?Only? ?his? ?face? ?

    had? ?any? ?worth.? ?

    ?

    He? ?guessed? ?that? ?the? ?monk? ?would? ?take? ?a? ?look? ?around,? ?find? ?nobody? ?in? ?sight? ?and? ?would? ?leave,? ?

    go? ?back? ?to? ?where? ?he? ?came? ?from.? ? ?

    ?

    The? ?young? ?monk? ?in? ?white? ?stopped? ?in? ?the? ?courtyard,? ?looking? ?around? ?coldly.? ? ?

    ?

    The? ?Jiang¡¯s? ?medicine? ?hall? ?originally? ?had? ?three? ?main? ?rooms,? ?three? ?wing? ?rooms? ?and? ?a? ?medicine? ?

    garden? ?with? ?a? ?large? ?front? ?door.? ?It? ?was? ?not? ?a? ?small? ?house.? ?However,? ?after? ?the? ?big? ?fire? ?and? ?three? ?

    years? ?of? ?abandonment,? ?everything? ?could? ?be? ?taken? ?in? ?in? ?just? ?a? ?few? ?glances...? ?

    ?

    The? ?monk? ?retracted? ?his? ?gaze,? ?raised? ?his? ?feet? ?around? ?the? ?debris? ?on? ?the? ?ground? ?and? ?walked? ?

    straight? ?to? ?the? ?remnant? ?west? ?wing? ?room.? ?

    ?

    He? ?stepped? ?inside? ?through? ?the? ?door? ?of? ?the? ?chamber? ?and? ?the? ?fingers? ?hidden? ?inside? ?his? ?sleeves? ?

    twitched? ?imperceptibly.? ?Subconsciously,? ?he? ?rubbed? ?the? ?copper? ?coins? ?on? ?his? ?waist? ?with? ?the? ?pad? ?

    of? ?his? ?thumb? ?and? ?then? ?let? ?go? ?with? ?a? ?slight? ?frown.? ?

    ?

    Jiang? ?Shining,? ?who? ?had? ?turned? ?into? ?moss? ?and? ?was? ?stuck? ?to? ?the? ?ground,? ?stared? ?fixedly? ?at? ?the? ?

    monk''s? ?footwear,? ?deathly? ?afraid? ?that? ?he? ?would? ?step? ?on? ?him? ?when? ?he? ?came? ?in? ?for? ?a? ?round.? ?Xue? ?

    Xian,? ?on? ?the? ?other? ?hand,? ?rested? ?leisurely? ?and? ?did? ?not? ?pay? ?attention? ?to? ?the? ?monk? ?at? ?all.? ?

    ? ?

    Sure? ?enough,? ?the? ?wing? ?room? ?was? ?so? ?small? ?that? ?it? ?could? ?be? ?swept? ?through? ?at? ?a? ?glance.? ?The? ?

    monk? ?didn''t? ?even? ?enter,? ?just? ?stood? ?at? ?the? ?door? ?for? ?a? ?while,? ?then? ?turned? ?around? ?and? ?left.? ?

    ?

    Xue? ?Xian? ?scoffed? ?again,? ?silently.? ?

    ?

    But? ?in? ?a? ?moment,? ?he? ?couldn''t? ?scoff? ?anymore¡­? ?Because? ?the? ?monk? ?was? ?back!? ?

    5 ??As? ?in? ?the? ?person? ?only? ?has? ?the? ?looks? ?but? ?not? ?real? ?skills,? ?because? ?an? ?embroidered? ?pillow? ?looks? ?beautiful? ?from? ?the? ?

    outside,? ?but? ?its? ?insides? ?are? ?stuffed? ?of? ?straw.? ?

    ?

    He? ?had? ?a? ?piece? ?of? ?white? ?linen? ?in? ?his? ?hand? ?when? ?he? ?returned.? ?Judging? ?by? ?the? ?material? ?and? ?

    size,? ?it? ?had? ?been? ?torn? ?carelessly? ?from? ?the? ?hem? ?of? ?his? ?clothes.? ?With? ?a? ?piece? ?of? ?copper,? ?that? ?

    nobody? ?knew? ?where? ?it? ?came? ?from,? ?wrapped? ?in? ?the? ?piece? ?of? ?clean? ?cloth,? ?he? ?walked? ?over? ?to? ?

    Xue? ?Xian? ?calmly,? ?bent? ?down? ?and? ?shoveled? ?¡°moss¡±? ?Xue? ?up? ?from? ?the? ?ground.? ? ?

    ?

    Xue? ?Xian:? ?"..."? ?

    ?

    When? ?he? ?shoveled? ?it? ?up,? ?his? ?eyebrows? ?were? ?clearly? ?wrinkled.? ?If? ?one? ?wasn¡¯t? ?mistaken,? ?it? ?

    seemed? ?to? ?be? ?an? ?expression? ?of? ?slight? ?disgust.? ?

    ?

    Xue? ?Xian:? ?"..."? ? ?

    ?

    How? ?dare? ?this? ?baldy? ?think? ?that? ?he? ?was? ?dirty!? ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    ?

    Translation:? ?nucleatedrbc? ?and? ?Lunaa?

 CH 3

    In his past life, Xue Xian had been known to pierce the heavens above and shake the earth below. But now, he had been defeated by some worthless monk, using nothing but a random piece of copper sheet¡­

    The moss spell had immediately dissipated upon being touched by the monk, and Xue Xian and Jiang Shining reverted to their original paper man appearances. The monk cast a bored look at the two paper faces, then folded them up, and placed them into a pouch on his hip.

    Before Xue Xian could unleash the full power of his divine fury onto the bald donkey, he was unceremoniously shoved into the monk''s pouch. The pouch was sealed tightly, with no room for escape.

    If pure frustration could kill a man, Xue Xian would have died 200 times inside that pouch. He had always been a proud creature: he was allowed to piss off others, but others could not under any circumstance piss him off. It was unfair, of course, but why be fair when a zuzong like him could have his way? Now, though, he¡¯d been too arrogant, and had encountered the single iron nail that could sink his entire ship.

    Xue Xian didn¡¯t care why the monk had shown up here. From now on, he and the bald donkey were arch-nemeses.

    Xue Xian was never the type to bow down to others. If only he had a knife ¨C¨C he would not hesitate to stab this monk in the hip. Too bad he¡¯d never formed the habit of carrying a weapon around with him.

    This monk seemed to be a pillar of ice, the kind who didn''t like to show emotion on his face, let alone speak ¨C¨C but his body sure was warm. The warmth seeped through the monk''s thin robes and into Xue Xian''s paper body.

    Xue Paperman, who felt suffocated after only a few moments: ¡°...¡±

    Annoying!

    Indeed it was annoying. To people with ill health, too much warmth in a harsh winter can be thoroughly demoralising, and this was especially the case for Xue Xian, who had been paralysed for half a year. His pathways weren¡¯t clear, so neither his qi nor his blood was circulating properly, and his weak body was unable to retain any heat. The whole winter had been unbearable. Just from being held for an instant by this man of ice, Xue Xian¡¯s body disobeyed his mind and began to feel much too comfortable and content to bother moving at all.

    Xue Xian had been folded over twice. After a while, he finally got his lazy body to obey him, and he began to feel around for the other objects inside the monk''s pouch.

    As for this young monk, Xue Xian still didn¡¯t understand him.

    If he was the real deal... Then ripping a piece of cloth and using a piece of copper to pick up some moss meant nothing. Even a baby could do it! Besides, if a really talented person wanted to pick something up from the floor, it was simply a matter of crooking one¡¯s finger. And forget moss ¨C¨C he could even have lifted the whole house! Why would he need to bend down and pick them up himself?

    But if he wasn''t the real deal... Then how did he immediately see through the layers of spells?

    At first, Xue Xian was careful not to alert the monk. As he rifled through the monk''s pouch with his thin paper hand, he made his movements as small and precise as possible, so that nothing would seem amiss.

    But after a while, he decided that he didn''t need to be careful at all ¨C¨C because he realised that the monk might become far too busy to notice him. Xue Xian thought he could hear noises in the courtyard through the layers of white hemp cloth, as though a crowd had gathered, although he didn''t know why.

    "Hey... why are you slapping my face?" From behind gritted teeth, Jiang Shining''s muffled voice rose from somewhere in the pouch. He seemed to have reached the end of his patience with Xue Xian.

    In his haste, Xue Xian had accidentally patted the wrong thing. He was in no mood to explain anything to the bookworm, so he simply hushed him, warning the idiot not to make any noise.

    For the past half-year, Xue Xian¡¯s movements had been severely limited. Any time he''d wanted to do something or go somewhere, he''d had to wait for the east wind to blow him there ¨C¨C or to grab onto a person, or a thing. It was a good thing he¡¯d run into this bald donkey. Even if the monk was a good-for-nothing grifter, he had to have some kind of interesting fake magical instrument on him. Xue Xian wanted to take advantage of the situation to steal something useful, and then get out of there.

    As Xue Xian busied away, the young monk who had captured him reached the main doors of the Jiang compound again.

    The dilapidated front doors had long been broken into pieces, and even the copper hinges had become misshapen, so that there was no way of closing the doors properly ¨C¨C no matter how one fiddled with the doors, there was always a large gap. Now, the monk stopped in front of the set of doors, and raised his eyes.

    The gap between the doors was as wide as a toothless grin. Beyond that gap, the monk could clearly see that a crowd had gathered outside. The Jiang compound had been ruined for so many years that, naturally, there were no lanterns outside, as there had never been anything to see. But now, those waiting outside each held their own paper lantern, whose white lights gave the group a menacing, threatening aura. Clearly, they had no good intentions.

    They didn''t seem to be here to catch a ghost, but rather to arrest a person.

    There¡¯s a folk saying that goes, ''If you do nothing wrong, you have no demons to fear''; but faced with such a tense scene, no one would be blamed for feeling afraid. The young monk, however, gave a cursory glance to the crowd. He pushed open the doors and made to leave, as though the crowd of people holding lanterns did not even exist.

    Of course, those standing by the Jiang compound were not random passersby. There were about ten of them, all wearing the blueish-gray formal robes of the County Office. Each carried a two-foot long sword on his hip. Seeing that the monk wanted to leave, they gripped the hilts of the swords attached to their hips, and tightened the circle to block his path.

    The monk stopped. With a slight frown, he scanned the group in front of him. He seemed not to understand what business these people had with him.

    A mature voice suddenly said, "This is the man you were telling me about?"

    The monk followed the voice to its source ¨C¨C it was a stout middle-aged man wearing a shiye¡¯s [a] hat and sporting a goatee, on the thinner side but with a bulging stomach. Any Ningyang local would immediately recognise him as Ningyang County yamen¡¯s [b] head officer, Liu Xu.

    The monk was not a local, but based on his personality, even if he were a local, it would never occur to him to remember what Liu-shiye looked like, let alone treat him with deference.

    But the man that Liu-shiye was speaking to, the monk did seem to recognise ¨C¨C it was the short man who owned Jiuwei Hall.

    It seemed that the restaurant owner had contemplated the poster by his stall for a bit, and ultimately decided to go to the yamen. After all, the reward was generous, and this was a slippery criminal we were talking about ¨C¨C who knew how many people he might¡¯ve killed?

    Thus, the restaurant owner had decided to tell on the young monk. Hearing about this, the yamen¡¯s officials had immediately decided to come and make the arrest.

    As the monk looked over at the restaurant owner, the latter seemed possessed by guilt. He shrank his neck back, shrugged his shoulders, and stammered, "D-dashi, I..."

    But before the restaurant owner could finish speaking, the monk had already looked away. With a flick of his finger, a black, lumpy thing soared across the air and landed in the restaurant owner''s hands. Terrified that he was being attacked, the restaurant owner squeezed his eyes shut. But soon he heard the light, metallic sound of copper pieces knocking against each other, and carefully, meekly opened his eyes.

    The money pouch!

    The object that the monk had thrown into his hands had been the money pouch that he had previously tried to give the monk.

    The monk seemed satisfied with this, so made to take another step. By now, he appeared a little impatient with the delay, so he coldly said to the yamen clerks, "Get out of the way."

    "Daren, [c] this..." The yamen clerks continued to block the monk, but looked back hesitantly at their shiye.

    "Hold on a minute." The shiye took out a thin slip of paper from his robe and shook it out against the lantern light. "Young shifu, where are you from? What temple do you belong to? Do you have a Dharma name?"

    The young monk stared back at him with a frown, as though he could not be bothered to speak; or perhaps he was preoccupied by something.

    Suspicious, the Officer repeated himself, more aggressively this time. "Young shifu, someone reported you to us, saying that you look a great deal like the criminal that the imperial government is currently seeking all across the land. If you won''t speak, I''ll have to take you back and thoroughly interrogate you!"

    The young monk glared at him, then, after a moment, calmly replied, "My Dharma name is Xuanmin. I am a rogue monk. I have no home, nor a temple."

    Ordinary monks would never try to hide where they were from: they had no reason to. Eighty or ninety percent of the monks that claimed to have no temple nor sect used this fact to swindle their way into their next meal. In other words, most were scammers.

    The shiye studied the monk with a cynical eye. Then, with a serious air, he shook the wanted poster once more, and ordered a clerk to bring a lantern closer to illuminate Xuanmin''s face.

    Inside the pouch, Xue Xian listened to the scene with glee. You stuck your nose into my business, and look ¨C¨C now someone''s here to mess with yours! That''s what you get!

    Despite all his rummaging, Xue Xian hadn''t found anything useful in the pouch. There was only a peach tree twig and two flints, and another, smaller pouch, inside which seemed to be a bundle of needles. All in all, nothing that he particularly wanted. Xue Xian was done delaying now ¨C¨C he wanted to take advantage of the distraction and sneak away.

    He was quite confident about his escape. With his skill, if he decided he didn¡¯t want to be noticed by people, then most people would certainly not be able to detect his movements. As the shiye orated, Xue Xian stretched himself out into a thin sheet of paper and took a mighty leap toward the gap at the top of the pouch.

    But as soon as he poked his head out, he found himself plunged into darkness¨C¨C

    That damn bald donkey had the audacity to use the tip of his finger to shove Xue Xian¡¯s paper head back into the pouch!

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    This untameable, prideful zuzong was enraged. He scrambled around inside the dark pouch and plucked one of the needles from the smaller pouch, then, with all the strength he could muster, he stuck it into the bald donkey''s side.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Just as Xue Xian thought he was going to explode with frustration, the shiye finished comparing the monk to the poster. Frowning, he shook his head. "It''s not right..."

    "It''s not?" The clerks behind him stretched their necks, trying to peek at the poster.

    "The age isn''t right, there''s way too much of a gap," the shiye said. "He doesn''t look that similar to the picture either... From afar there could be a resemblance, but once you bring the lantern over, he''s just too young. The one we''re looking for is a powerful high priest, [d] and this shifu..."

    The shiye looked down pointedly at Xuanmin¡¯s hip, noting the dull grey color of the copper coin pendant. Although he said nothing, his expression was clear ¨C¨C with a pendant as unimpressive as that, this monk was certainly as green as could be. A high priest? As if!

    What an obvious scammer! Anyone could see right through him.

    Having studied the pendant, the shiye¡¯s expression now took on a sense of condescension. He waved a hand at Xuanmin and said, "Alright, young shifu, you may go now."

    Xuanmin walked away without a word, brushing away the sequence of events as easily as one might remove a fallen leaf from one''s sleeve. He was unperturbed.

    But after only a couple of steps, he stopped and looked back nonchalantly at the shiye. Calmly, he said, "You don''t have long to live."

    Inside the pouch, Xue Xian began trembling with excitement, almost ripping himself apart with joy. ¡°...¡± How great! He didn''t even have to raise a finger ¨C¨C this bald donkey had just signed his own death warrant!

    But as he tumbled, he accidentally hit something on the side of Xuanmin''s hip bone, and there was a weng¨C¨C¨C¨C sound in his mind, as though someone had rung an enormous bell inside his skull.

    ---

    [a] Shiye: see glossary.

    [b] Yamen: see glossary.

    [c] Daren: see glossary.

    [d] Musuli used ¸ßÉ® (gao1 seng1) here, which literally means ¡®high priest/monk¡¯.

 CH 4

    Struck dumb by the man of ice¡¯s vicious attack, Xue Xian toppled back into the pouch. The strange strike to his head had made him lose all sense of where he was.

    After a moment of rest, he began to clamber around Xuanmin¡¯s pouch again, and finally found his way back to where he had been when he''d been hit. Bracing himself against the coarse hemp cloth, he tried to knock his head against that thing again, but there was no reaction this time.

    "Was it something to do with the needle I stuck into him?" Xue Xian mumbled to himself, then went to retrieve the needle and try again.

    "Ah ¨C¨C what are you stabbing me with?" came Jiang Shining¡¯s muffled voice. "What are you getting up to now?"

    Something occurred to Xue Xian. He asked, "How is it that you can speak?"

    Jiang Shining hadn''t thought about it. Now he was shocked, too.

    That''s right: he''d already used up all his time for today. He shouldn''t have been able to move or speak. Why was he suddenly talking again?

    Was it to do with the strange bell knocking sound from just now? No ¨C¨C even before that, Jiang Shining had already spoken, but the two of them had just not realised anything was amiss.

    Or... this bald donkey really had some interesting magical item on him? As Xue Xian thought of this, he became curious. Without another word, he stuck the needle into Xuanmin''s side again.

    Xuanmin, who had been about to leave: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian was probably the first person in history to behave so insolently to the man holding him captive. He was something to be reckoned with.

    Xuanmin frowned and took out the mischievous paper man from his pouch. Although Xue Xian had been tumbling all over the place, his shape remained folded up, and, to anyone else, he looked like an ordinary piece of paper ¨C¨C around the size of a letter ¨C¨C with nothing amiss.

    Xuanmin pinched the paper man''s head, trying to peel the silver needle away from him.

    But the needle was stuck solid to the paper, and wouldn''t budge.

    Xuanmin directed his gaze down at the paper man and said, "Let go."

    The clerks: ¡°...¡±

    What was wrong with this scammer monk? What kind of show was he putting on now?

    Liu-shiye, still reeling from that You don''t have long to live pronouncement, finally came back to his senses. Furious, he pointed at Xuanmin and yelled, "You good-for-nothing rogue monk! You look suspicious as hell and your origins are unknown too. Even if you''re not the criminal in the poster, I can still arrest you and torture you until you tell me every last detail about where you came from and what you''re doing! [a] It would all be legal! [b] I was kind enough not to bother you any further, and I didn''t mind you not even being grateful to me, but for you to curse me?! Someone arrest him¨C¨C"

    Before he could finish, Xuanmin interrupted him. "The space between your eyebrows lacks light," he explained calmly. "The inside is black and the outline is green. This means that you have depleted all the years in your fate. Also, you have a blood stain on your left ear."

    "What blood stain?" Liu-shiye pawed at his ear, but found no trace of blood.

    "You cannot see it." Xuanmin finally succeeded in removing the needle from the paper man''s embrace, and put the weapon back into his pouch. He held onto the paper man and flicked it with his finger.

    Nobody in his long and illustrious life had ever dared to flick Xue Xian before! This bald donkey¡¯s arrogance was unbelievable! [c] Xue Xian was about to retaliate, but then remembered what Xuanmin had said about the blood stain, and stopped. With some effort, he managed to twist himself around in Xuanmin''s grip so that he could take a good look at Liu-shiye.

    This Liu person had ears that stuck out prominently from the side of his head. Near the temple at the tip of one ear, there was indeed a red mark, as though something had spilled its blood onto him.

    Seeing the blood stain, Xue Xian''s feeble paper body began to tremble as he fought to suppress the waves of rage and hatred spilling out from him like the roiling waves of the sea.

    In a flash, he felt himself to be back at that damp beach underneath the swathes of pitch-black clouds that suffocated the sky above. The salty, fishy smell of the sea was assaulting him once more, along with the incessant thunder and pouring rain that beat down on his body like so many arrows. He was lying there, unable to move, only half-conscious, feeling only a long slice of agony along his spine, a row of numb pain like a million ants gnawing away at him...

    They had taken out his spine and left him for dead, and he hadn''t even been able to catch sight of their faces...

    Xue Xian shook himself back into the present, where Liu-shiye was still touching his own ear with an upset expression on his face. "What do you mean, I can''t see it?" he barked at Xuanmin. "Stop trying to swindle me with this fake nonsense, monk! Black, blood-like light between my eyebrows ¨C¨C anyone could make that up! What the hell do you mean by blood stain?"

    What could a blood stain mean?

    Xue Xian looked up, and stared daggers at Liu-shiye.

    A blood stain hurled on the ear is a mark created by a victim who seeks revenge. That way, no matter how much time has passed, they will always be able to recognise those responsible for their misfortune. Earlier, Xue Xian had been inside the pouch, messing about with Xuanmin, and it hadn¡¯t occurred to him to pay attention ¨C¨C but now that he was focused, he could smell that smell on Liu-shiye¡¯s body, too.

    The blood stain was emanating a particular smell, one reminiscent of rusted iron, yet slightly different; one intensely familiar to Xue Xian ¨C¨C it was the stench of his own blood.

    Since the day he awoke, he had been looking for those who had maimed him. But he didn''t know what they looked like, nor anything about their backgrounds, so he¡¯d had no leads. The only clue he had was his own blood: those stained by it would definitely have been on the beach that day.

    There were around a hundred such people, and, in the past six months, he had already tracked down a few. Based on what they''d told him, Xue Xian was beginning to piece things together. But it was far from enough ¨C¨C and trying to find everyone based on such a small clue was like looking for a needle in the ocean.

    In half a year, Xue Xian had made his way from Huameng all the way to here, just waiting for another clue to emerge, and now it had been unearthed by his new nemesis...

    As the paper man in his hand had suddenly stopped struggling, Xuanmin assumed that he had finally calmed down and given up. He placed Xue Xian back into his pouch and looked back at Liu-shiye. "You were supposed to die today,¡± Xuanmin said, ¡°but someone took the curse for you."

    He broke eye contact again, then said, "Believe me or do not. It is up to you." He decided to stop wasting his breath, and went on his way.

    But he had humiliated the man in front of his inferiors. Did he really think he could just leave?

    Liu-shiye was incensed by all this talk of death, and didn''t know what to believe. Part of him wanted to dismiss this rogue monk as a liar, but another part of him couldn''t help but feel anxious at what was in store for his future.

    Most jianghu scammers liked to use this play: first they told you that a great disaster was coming, just to make you feel afraid. They''d refuse to discuss the matter further and pretend to leave. That way, you were hooked, and you''d be willing to pay any price for peace of mind.

    Liu-shiye was no fool. He ordered his clerks to take out their swords and arrest the man.

    Was the monk crazy? Trying to scam the yamen itself!

    Just as the county clerks advanced toward Xuanmin, poised to grab him, a breathless voice rose from nearby: "Laoye! [d] Laoye, something''s wrong!"

    Everyone turned back to look: a small, wispy servant boy was shoving his way through the crowd, finally coming to a sudden stop in front of Liu-shiye. With a panic-stricken face, he said, "Laoye! Shaoye¡­ [e] Shaoye has fallen into the well!"

    "What?" Liu-shiye felt his knees buckle, and his whole head became numb with shock.

    His eyes fell upon Xuanmin, still surrounded on all sides by the yamen¡¯s clerks, and his heart skipped a beat. In that moment, he didn''t know whether to run home first, or arrest Xuanmin first.

    "Laoye!" the servant shouted again.

    Shuddering, Liu-shiye hesitantly hurried away with the servant, but as he ran, he felt strange, as though his head were far heavier than the rest of his body, and as though his legs weren''t his own. After a few steps, he came tearing back ¨C¨C

    "Let go everyone, let go!" Liu-shiye breathed as he went to grab Xuanmin''s sleeve. "You... You.... No! You must come with me!"

    Xuanmin frowned and pried away the man''s hands with a look of disgust. He was about to speak when he felt a movement inside his pouch. The paper man that he''d just shoved back inside jumped back out and grabbed onto Liu-shiye''s sleeve. In one swift move, he had hopped onto Liu-shiye, and then used the momentum to grab hold of the servant¡¯s robe collar, and was now running away with them!

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    I¡¯ve only just managed to get all the behind the scenes stuff out of the way, and I still haven¡¯t gone to check the people who gave money Orz¡­ I¡¯ll say thanks first, and write out the list of names tomorrow =3=

    This is my first time trying out historical danmei. I hope it won¡¯t be too unpleasant to read. I¡¯ll try my best~ Don¡¯t get the CP wrong: Xuanmin tops, Xue Xian bottoms~

    ---

    [a] Here, Musuli uses the following phrase: ¡°until you tell me about all eight previous generations of your ancestors.¡± This was too clunky to translate into English, so I went for a more literal phrasing.

    [b] Indeed it would in fact be legal. The police and prisons do not protect us, anywhere in the world. Find out more about police and prison abolition, and alternative forms of justice, here. (This is a joke, since obviously Song dynasty bureaucrats cannot really be approximated to the fundamentally white supremacist and colonial institutions that are modern justice systems across the globe. However, abolition is an important concept, and includes approaches to justice that are not punitive; which everyone should check out and have a think about!)

    [c] Musuli uses the expression, ¡°This bald donkey drank all of the waters in the Yangtze, and now he was so full that he believed he could fly to the sky!¡±

    [d] Laoye: see glossary.

    [e] Shaoye: see glossary.

 CH 5

    The little servant''s legs were short, but he sure ran like the wind. Perhaps because of how young the servant was, the crazed way he ducked and weaved through the crowd made Xue Xian feel as though he were on a ship in the middle of a storm. Every once in a while, though, he had to stop and wait for Liu-shiye, his eyes darting back and forth across the increasingly busy streets in search of his master. At no point did he notice the strange item stuck to the back of his neck.

    Xue Xian¡¯s mobility was limited. Although he¡¯d been able to fashion himself a paper body, it didn¡¯t mean that he could suddenly walk with it: he was still half-paralysed. Using just his two flimsy hands, he held on as tightly as he could to his new ''chair''.

    The paper material of his body was so thin that Xue Xian bounced up and down on his chair like a wild dog. If he flapped in the wind any longer, he might vomit all over the poor servant''s neck. Luckily, they soon arrived at Liu-shiye''s compound. Ningyang County was quite a wealthy place, and Liu Xu lived a comfortable life as its shiye. His home was far better than the run-down ruins of the Jiang family compound.

    Although its fa?ade was relatively humble, the set-up inside was quite something.

    "Quite something..." Xue Xian stuck out his head gingerly from behind the servant''s neck and discreetly took a look around him. He sneered to himself, "Quite something, if you want to curse yourself to death!"

    The servant: ¡°???¡±

    The little servant froze right as he was about to step across the threshold. He suddenly had the feeling that someone was standing behind him, whispering into his ear... Someone stuck so close to him that they seemed to be breathing onto his neck. Sweating profusely, his scalp tingling with fright, he asked, "Wh-wh-wh-who''s speaking?"

    Xue Xian casually replied, "Guess."

    The servant: ¡°...¡±

    Riding the servant''s nape like a horse had been bad enough, but now he had made the kid cry.

    The servant was only about twelve or thirteen years old, with no more courage in him than could be held on the tip of a needle. These whispered words from Xue Xian terrified him so much that he began to run as fast as he could. He was no longer waiting for those behind him to catch up ¨C¨C he burst into tears and ran straight toward the guest hall before accidentally tripping on the threshold and falling flat on his face.

    The fall was so abrupt that Xue Xian failed to hold on tightly and was jolted off of the servant¡¯s nape. He floated lightly onto the floor. Just as he was meaning to grab onto the servant''s robe again, the little rascal scrambled back to his feet and scurried away, leaving Xue Xian there, alone and unable to move.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    He had gotten what he deserved. [a]

    There was now a random piece of folded paper on the ground, but nobody took notice of it. The guest hall was currently a complete mess: all sorts of people in various states of panic were gathered around one young man, crying and wailing.

    This young man was soaking wet, with a tangle of wet hair stuck to his face that someone had swept to the side, revealing a tragic, pale face and tightly shut eyes. He appeared to have taken his last breath.

    Liu-shiye pushed his way into the hall. Taking in the scene before him, he was so shocked that his legs buckled beneath him.

    ¡°Jin-er, ah...!"

    Xue Xian suddenly turned around at this sound ¨C¨C just in time to see a huge foot looming above him and about to come down.

    Xue Xian: ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡±

    His eyes flashed. Forget Liu-shiye, he had to get out of here! He saw that one of the stones paving the ground had a dry grass stem on it and reached out to use it as leverage to move himself away. But just as he began to move, his body was picked up between someone¡¯s fingers.

    "What bastard [b] dares to pinch me? Let go!" Xue Xian couldn''t help but yell out. He swivelled to see who it was, then thought he might faint.

    That stupid monk!

    The reason Xue Xian had come to the Liu compound was so that he could keep an eye on Liu-shiye and find a good time to interrogate him further. But why in the world had the bald donkey followed? He had no business here, and had clearly not been planning to help Liu-shiye ¨C¨C surely he hadn¡¯t come all the way here just to catch Xue Xian again?

    Out of all the niezhang [c] to fight in the world, why was the bald donkey so obsessed with him? In his heart, Xue Xian cursed the monk: he was sick of him!

    He held onto the dry grass stem as tightly as he could. In the end, the monk had to pick the grass, too.

    As Xuanmin held the ''fugitive'' up for inspection, its painted eyes moved ever so slightly. Xuanmin looked back at the Xue Paperman with a sense of disdain.

    Xue Xian rolled his eyes. ¡°...¡± And who the hell are you?

    At the same time that this exchange was happening, Xuanmin had found a small, round pebble on the ground. He used the tip of his foot to lightly kick it. It rolled softly around, and came to a stop right in front of Liu-shiye''s feet. As Liu-shiye stumbled into the room, he tripped over the pebble, wobbled precariously, and fell to the ground with a thud.

    And what a coincidence ¨C¨C of all the ways to fall, he had to fall right on top of that silent, lifeless youth''s chest.

    "Cough ¨C¨C cough, cough!"

    Liu-shiye rushed to clamber back up. Just as he was about to curse whatever good-for-nothing had dared to trip him, that seemingly dead young man suddenly began to cough up water. He coughed so violently that it seemed he might explode, yet he made no sound. After some time, his face turned crimson, and he finally took a breath, and calmed down once more.

    The crowd in the guest hall erupted with surprise and joy.

    Liu-shiye stood there in shock for a while, then came back to his senses. He quickly ordered his men to take the shaoye away to rest, and then to call the doctor.

    He briefly took time to console his weeping wife, then turned to stare at the pebble on the floor with an indecipherable expression. Next, he glanced at Xuanmin.

    All the chaos and commotion earlier had exhausted Liu Xu. Above him, the sky was finally beginning to lighten as soft dawn light shone onto the courtyard, illuminating their surroundings. Liu Xu looked Xuanmin up and down once more¡­

    He still thought this monk was far too young to be any kind of high priest. There was just no way he¡¯d had the time to garner any meaningful experience. To become a high priest at twenty-something was simply unfathomable. And the copper coin pendant on this monk''s hip wasn''t impressive at all. Anyone apart from the most clueless peasant would immediately assume someone like that was a jianghu scammer.

    But the sequence of events that had just occurred told another story...

    As soon as Xuanmin had said, "Someone took the curse for you," his son Liu Jin had fallen into the well. And, just now, Liu-shiye had been running normally, but suddenly encountered a pebble, which had caused him to trip, which had caused his son to wake up again.

    One of these events by itself might be called a coincidence, but all things considered, Liu Xu found it impossible to pronounce it all a coincidence.

    Could this monk really be a high priest?

    Liu-shiye wrung his hands and put an awkward smile on his face. He put his hands together and hastily saluted Xuanmin. "Good eye, good eye..." he said.

    Xuanmin ignored him. Instead, he cast a disinterested glance at the courtyard.

    Liu-shiye noticed this, and exclaimed with joy. "Dashi, just now I was neglectful. Please forgive this servant for that. Don''t read too much into this humble one¡¯s reckless behavior. There is an explanation for my impoliteness back there. Look around you... I specifically hired a master to come and design the layout for me. With such feng shui protecting me, how could my days be numbered?"

    Xue Xian scoffed. "Superficial."

    Actually, at first glance, Liu-shiye''s courtyard really did look impressive, with nothing out of place. The house faced south and had its back to the north, and its form followed the natural shape of the nearby hill. Its central courtyard was designed according to a Huizhou Prefecture tradition known as ¡®Return of the Four Rivers¡¯ [d], which was excellent for drawing in good fortune and good qi. At the front hall, they had even passed by a fish pond in the shape of a zigzag: this was ¡®Winding Waters Enter the Hall¡¯, used for success in one''s profession and blessings for swift promotions.

    Of course, Xue Xian only knew one or two things about geomancy ¨C¨C he wasn''t even human, so such things were hardly his concern.

    When it came to evaluating the auspiciousness of the compound, he went with pure instinct. When the servant had first brought him in through the front doors, he''d found that being in the compound made him extremely uncomfortable, so he''d instinctively said that Liu-shiye must¡¯ve been trying to curse himself to death.

    When it came to diagnosing the actual problem, and curing it ¨C¨C that was a job for the bald donkey [e], not him.

    He had just fought an extended battle with Xuanmin''s fingers, and the struggle to and fro had exhausted him. He had no choice but to settle down and let Xuanmin figure things out. He wasn''t sure how much more this thin paper body could take ¨C¨C but for the sake of self-preservation, the formerly arrogant Xue Xian now had no choice but to humble himself.

    Xuanmin had shoved him back into the pouch, and he was now leaning out of the edge, observing the Liu compound with a bored gaze. Suddenly, someone next to him made a noise.

    "What are you doing? Where are we?" Jiang Shining had finally gathered the courage to climb up as well and to stick his head out of the pouch. He appeared genuinely afraid of Xuanmin, and only dared to speak in the lowest voice possible, so that no one else beyond the pouch could hear.

    "That shiye guy''s place," Xue Xian replied. "Can''t you tell? Are you half-deaf? People have been making so much noise here..."

    Jiang Shining''s voice hardened. "...Shiye? Ningyang County¡¯s shiye?"

    "Who else?" Xue Xian shot back.

    Jiang Shining did not reply.

    Confused, Xue Xian couldn¡¯t help but steal a glance at Jiang Shining. "Are you mute again?"

    Jiang Shining slithered back into the pouch, and finally mumbled, "Just remembered something from the past."

    "The past?" Xue Xian asked.

    "There are hard feelings between the Jiang family and Liu-shiye," Jiang Shining said quietly.

    "What kind of hard feelings?"

    A pause, and then: "People died."

    Xue Xian did not know what to say. It was a matter of life and death, and all Jiang Shining could use to describe it was ¡®hard feelings¡¯?

    Xue Xian wanted to ask for more, but Xuanmin suddenly turned around and gestured toward a side door. "Who is behind the wall?"

    ----

    The author has something to say:

    The behind-the-scenes stuff is challenging my wits and my courage¡­

    [Acknowledgments to people who gave money on JJWXC]

    Thank you, kiss kiss~

    ----

    [a] Here, Musuli uses the expression ¡°Failed to steal a chicken, and wasted a handful of rice in the process¡±, which is used to indicate when someone has tried to take advantage or profit, but ended up being punished for their bad intentions.

    [b] Here, Xue Xian uses Ëï×Ó (sun1 zi), which literally means ¡°grandson¡±. Using it implies that he is the person¡¯s ¡°grandfather¡±, i.e. their superior, who demands respect and deference. A more literal translation of the insult might be, ¡°What lowly one dares to pinch me?¡±

 CH 6

    The wall was actually a narrow door off to the side of the courtyard, behind which was an even narrower path that was not much more than a gap between two fire-sealing walls. Its location was awkward and hidden away; ordinarily, nobody paid any attention to it.

    Just as Xuanmin spoke, however, there came a gudu sound from beyond the narrow door, as though someone had tripped over an uneven stone tile.

    Liu-shiye''s face twitched. Laughing nervously, he said, "That''s just a spare room in my wing. No matter, no matter. Dashi, why don¡¯t we ¨C¨C Hey, what are you doing here?"

    He¡¯d been trying to lead Xuanmin''s gaze back toward the main wing, but had been interrupted by a silhouette emerging hesitantly from the narrow doorway.

    It was a young man wearing a bluish-gray overcoat. He looked to be a little over twenty, around the same age as Xuanmin. But his demeanor was extremely odd for his age: he had his hands pressed against the wall sheepishly, and seemed full of curiosity, like an eavesdropping toddler.

    Scolded by Liu-shiye, he seemed unsure what to do with himself, and retreated instinctively back into the narrow door, but did not disappear completely. Half of his face still peeked back out at them.

    There were no lanterns in that part of the wing, so it was hard to see what the youth looked like.

    Despite not being able to see his face, Xue Xian guessed that this young man''s relationship to Liu-shiye was bound to be a peculiar one. He whispered over to Jiang Shining, "Who''s this? Do you know him?"

    Sullen, Jiang Shining did not even bother to look in that man''s general direction. "I''ve never been here before. How would I know?"

    Seeing that Liu-shiye was acting strange, Xuanmin frowned and began walking toward the narrow door.

    ¡°Hey, hey, Dashi¨C¨C" Liu-shiye had probably never met such an impolite monk. "He¡¯s of no import, really. He''s just my disappointment of an eldest son, Liu Chong. He''s family, nothing suspicious about him."

    He was probably worried that this odd [a] son of his would lose face in front of strangers, but, seeing that he could do nothing to stop Xuanmin, he began instead to gesticulate wildly at Liu Chong, both placating and stern: "Be good, Chong-er, go back to your room. Dad [b] is having a serious talk with Dashi."

    This earned him another glare from Xuanmin.

    Xuanmin''s voice was cool and collected as he said, "You hired someone to design a ''Winding Waters Enter the Hall'' for your front hall. This design harnesses wind in the east-west direction, and gathers qi in the North-South direction, balancing out yin and yang along two axes. You have the wind departing from the west side."

    Not only that, but the southwest side had a particularly cramped and gloomy air ¨C¨C it was full of yin energy. Clearly, the design was not balanced on two axes as originally intended.

    Xue Xian looked over at the dark narrow path and thought: Either the geomancer that Liu-shiye hired was an idiot, or, more probably... Liu-shiye had added this path himself, later on.

    Xue Xian was right. Liu-shiye seemed greatly affected by Xuanmin''s words. Hesitantly, he said, "I won''t lie. That narrow path is a later addition."

    As he spoke, Xuanmin walked through the doorway and entered the path behind the narrow door.

    Seeing that this guest was coming toward him, Liu Xu''s eldest son Liu Chong began to back away, still hugging the wall. Then, shyly, he smiled.

    Xue Xian saw that the youth¡¯s legs did not move as adeptly as they should. He wasn''t handicapped, but seemed not to be in full control of his movements, either. And he was not ugly: he clearly had the good fortune of looking more like his mother than his father, with pale skin and big round eyes ¨C¨C anyone else with this face would surely have a highly charismatic smile. But his gaze held a certain na?vet¨¦ to them, so that when he did smile, he looked a little foolish.

    It was obvious: this Liu Chong was disabled. [c]

    Earlier, Xuanmin had rudely ignored all of Liu-shiye''s attempts to cajole him away from the narrow door. Now that he was face-to-face with the smiling dim-witted youth, [d] Xuanmin seemed to finally remember the meaning of ¡®etiquette¡¯: he greeted Liu Chong with a nod. Although he still had no expression on his face, at least he''d acknowledged the person in front of him.

    Seeing this, Liu-shiye turned green. Clearly, in Xuanmin''s eyes, this county yamen official did not even match up to a village idiot. [c]

    They were beyond the narrow door now, and what lay behind the door was more than merely a narrow path.

    Xue Xian looked out at his surroundings from his vantage point on the edge of the pouch. He saw that the path wasn''t a dead end: instead, it led to an ugly shack. The shack had been built in the cheapest way possible, using scrap wood. But Xue Xian watched as Liu Chong continued to back away from Xuanmin ¨C¨C straight toward the shack.

    Ignorant, na?ve people, when forced to confront strangers for the first time, tend to immediately seek a safe place for comfort and reassurance. Some seek out their parents, others seek out their homes. After half a year in the human realm, this was an important thing that Xue Xian had observed about humans.

    Liu Chong clearly belonged to the second group.

    Xue Xian decided that Liu-shiye was surely a rare specimen. What kind of father would let his own son live in such a creepy place, where the sun¡¯s rays barely landed during the daytime? Was this his son or a field mouse?

    Besides, there was something off about this shack. It sagged from the weight of yin energy. If Xue Xian didn''t know for a fact that a living person dwelled here, he would have assumed this was a mausoleum.

    It had been clear from the conversation earlier that Liu-shiye was hiding something. He had probably been afraid that Xuanmin would see this shack. But now Xuanmin had seen it, and all Liu-shiye could do was thicken his face and own up to it. "My son''s personality is a bit odd," he explained. "He doesn''t like crowds, and always talks about wanting to live somewhere quiet."

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± As if! Why don''t you take him to live at the cemetery hill outside of town? It''s quietest over there, yet the yin energy there isn¡¯t anywhere near as bad as it is here.

    Even Liu-shiye looked uncomfortable with himself after having uttered such a lie. He coughed, then said, "Dashi, you talked about the wind departing from the west side. Did you mean this narrow path?"

    Xuanmin said, "And this shack."

    "If I get the south-facing windows of the shack blocked up, then this west wind won''t be able to escape anymore, right?" Liu-shiye asked.

    "Block?" Xuanmin repeated in a cold voice. Frowning, he pointed at Liu Chong. "Does he not need to breathe?"

    "Ah... I hadn''t thought of that, I hadn¡¯t thought of that,¡± Liu-shiye said.

    In just two sentences, Liu-shiye had managed to make Xue Xian''s regard for him go even lower. There was nothing wrong with the eldest son ¨C¨C he was just born a little dull. [e] But his own father did not even seem to care if he lived or died.

    What was even more ridiculous was that Liu-shiye, having been rebutted by Xuanmin, now had an air of simple resignation about him ¨C¨C as though it had not occurred to him that he could simply move Liu Chong out of the shack, and then block the windows.

    As the sky above them brightened, the other parts of the compound seemed washed clean by water, and shone brilliantly in the morning light. All except for this shack, whose ancient door was still submerged in a murky darkness.

    Like Xue Xian, Xuanmin seemed to be detecting extraordinary amounts of yin energy.

    Southwest corners of family compounds always naturally attracted some extra yin energy, but it was never anywhere near this bad ¨C¨C something was amiss.

    Without so much as a look at Liu-shiye, Xuanmin began to walk toward the shack.

    Liu Chong scratched his head, confused as to why the guest would want to enter his room of all places. He stood there for a while, unsure what to do. Suddenly, he seemed excited, as though he had gained a new playmate.  Still hugging the wall, he hurried over to join Xuanmin.

    He was a young man over twenty, but he did not seem to have a steady train of thought. His walking steps were also irregular ¨C¨C it was as though he wasn¡¯t used to walking side by side with Xuanmin, so he would run ahead, and then fall behind after Xuanmin caught up. Liu Chong appeared very focused, too: throughout this, he was constantly staring at Xuanmin''s waist, as though he had discovered some treasure from which he was unable to tear his eyes.

    The fool had fixated on Xuanmin¡¯s pouch.

    Xue Xian, perched on the pouch¡¯s edge, felt so uncomfortable beneath Liu Chong¡¯s gaze that he thought he might explode. He hadn''t had the chance to hide, and now he couldn''t go back inside the pouch without looking suspicious. Obviously he couldn¡¯t start moving now that the fool was staring at him! Making the kid cry was the least of his worries: what if, in a fit of excitement, Liu Chong did something reckless? Then Xue Xian might really be in trouble.

    Xuanmin''s long legs and sweeping steps soon took them to the doors of the shack.

    From Xue Xian''s point of view, he happened to be able to peek through the half-open door into the interior ¨C¨C and what he saw shocked him. By the door, there was a mountainous pile of yellow objects, which at first seemed to be gold ingots. But upon closer inspection, it became clear that these items weren''t made of real gold, but folded using paper.

    It was the yellow joss paper used to make paper money ¨C¨C to burn for the dead!

    Xue Xian had the time to gasp with surprise when Liu Chong finally caught up to Xuanmin and suddenly spoke: "Um... Can I play with this?"

    He was pointing at Xuanmin''s hip.

    Xuanmin followed Liu Chong¡¯s finger to his own hip, at first completely unsure what Liu Chong meant.

    "Yellow paper." Liu Chong pointed again.

    Now Xuanmin understood: Liu Chong was pointing at the little paper man whose upper body was currently sticking out of the edge of the pouch.

    Xue Xian: ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡± What in the world was going on?! The audacity of this fool! [c] Xue Xian was a real live dragon, and he wanted to play? Did he have a death wish?

    What could a fool know? If you let him handle something as fragile as a piece of paper, he would no doubt rip it in half, or in quarters, or in eighths!

    As Xue Xian imagined his imminent fate, he could almost feel an unspeakable kind of pain in an unspeakable area of his body. He had to protect himself. One of his hands slipped back into the pouch, and he pinched the donkey hard through the white hemp cloth. If you dare to give me to the kid, he thought, I''ll never forgive you!

    Xuanmin: ¡°¡­¡± Was there no end to this niezhang¡¯s antics?

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Thank you for the nutrition, everyone =3=

    [Acknowledgments to those who gave money on JJWXC]

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses the phrase, ¡°eldest son who looks to have some issues/problems¡±.

    [b] Musuli uses µù (die1), a more casual, intimate address for one¡¯s father.

    [c] Musuli uses Éµ×Ó (sha3 zi), which means ¡°idiot¡±.

    [d] Musuli uses ³Õ¶ù (chi1 er2), where ³Õ means ¡°foolish¡± or ¡°crazy¡±, and ¶ù is a diminutive that, in this case, helps indicate that it is a foolish/crazy child.

    [e] Musuli uses ³ÕÉµ (chi1 sha3), which combines ¡°foolish¡±/¡±crazy¡± and ¡°idiot¡±.

 CH 7

    Xue Xian suddenly wondered whether this bald donkey was a stupid donkey, too. Even after such a mighty pinch, Xuanmin still didn''t seem to understand what Xue Xian had meant. Xue Xian took advantage of the next time Liu Chong¡¯s gaze wandered away from the pouch, and silently turned around so that the painted side of his face now faced up at Xuanmin. He used his ink-dotted eyes to stare daggers at the bald donkey.

    But art could never be as effective as real flesh. Besides, to call Xue Xian''s painting skills ¡®adequate¡¯ would already be an overstatement ¨C¨C he was very, very far from being a master. There was just something insufficient about the painted eyes in comparison to the real thing ¨C¨C Xue Xian couldn''t use them to express exactly what he wanted.

    Xuanmin had felt the pinch; it had been rather painful. He directed his cold gaze downwards, intending to scold the mischievous niezhang; but he happened to come across the pair of eyes staring out at him from the opening of his own pouch. This truly took Xuanmin by surprise.

    The paper man lay on its back, facing him. Paired with hollow, haunted eyes that betrayed no emotion, he really was ¡®a sight for sore eyes¡¯! [a]

    Xuanmin: ¡°¡­¡±

    Xuanmin had caught his fair share of ghosts, demons, and niezhang on his way here ¨C¨C not many, as he did not often seek them out, but not a small amount, either. In most cases, they had been highly rebellious before he''d caught them, but, upon defeat, had calmed down and become respectful and dignified, waiting quietly to transcend. [b] Xue Xian was certainly the first to behave so aggressively after being captured. He had no sense of meekness at all, [c] and never seemed to tire of making trouble.

    Xuanmin got the feeling that this niezhang was a drama queen [d] from head to toe. He could play all the roles in a theatre troupe by himself.

    Xuanmin retracted his gaze from the paper man and reached out with two fingers to pinch it out of his pouch.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± I''ll never forgive you!

    Xuanmin''s hands really didn''t look like the hands of someone who travelled far and wandered the land. His fingers were as straight as ink brushes, long and slender. They were so clean: they looked as though they''d never seen any kind of dirt. Xuanmin certainly didn''t look like he''d grown up doing hard labor in a mountain monastery, but of course, he didn''t look like a rogue monk at all. He was much more like a spoilt prince or aristocrat.

    But in that moment, Xue Xian was far too busy to take notice of Xuanmin''s hands.

    Xuanmin held the paper man between his fingers and began to bring it toward Liu Chong.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± When I get my body back and start summoning storms again, I¡¯m going to make sure the lightning always lands on you! I¡¯ll greet you with lightning every single minute of every single day!

    "This thing?" Xuanmin asked Liu Chong in a calm voice.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± If I don¡¯t burn this bald donkey to a crisp one day, then you can stop calling me ¡®dragon¡¯ and start calling me ¡®long bug with four legs¡¯!

    "Mn." Liu Chong nodded eagerly, and flashed that foolish-looking [e] smile again.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± Don¡¯t you fucking smile!

    But when Liu Chong [f] reached out to receive the paper man, Xuanmin shook his head, maintaining the same placid expression as always. "No," he said.

    Alright, I guess you have some sense.

    Xue Xian finally let go of the breath he''d been holding. His paper body, which had been stiff with fear, suddenly let loose and became soft as he collapsed into the crook of Xuanmin''s finger, exhausted. He looked like a puppet who¡¯d had its strings cut. [g]

    Liu Chong was still staring intently at Xue Xian. He nodded again, although his expression was one of disappointment. He didn¡¯t have enough worldliness to understand concepts like tact or connivance ¨C¨C he was purely, simply disappointed, and he showed it.

    People with slow minds [h] also tend to move slower than other people [i], and lack a certain finesse in their movement. Yet they make up for it with more strength. They stare at people intently, over-enunciate in their speech, or nod or shake their heads vigorously.

    It¡¯s only clumsiness, but it can cause anxiety among others.

    As Xue Xian lay draped across Xuanmin''s palm like a badly-pulled noodle, he took a single look at Liu Chong, and then decided not to bother looking again. He felt as though the fool might carry some kind of poison that could infect others into being as foolish. He was worried that if he looked at Liu Chong for too long, he would experience a moment of insanity and leap into Liu Chong¡¯s hands himself. [j]

    Then he¡¯d really be in trouble!

    But the weirdest part was, the bald donkey seemed to have even less courtesy [k] than this fool¡­ [f] Not only did he not notice the disappointment on Liu Chong¡¯s face, but he then was so rude as to try barging into the latter¡¯s home. [f]

    Thankfully, right before Xuanmin entered, the bald donkey seemed to remember that there were such things as ¡®rules of etiquette¡¯. He nodded toward Liu Chong, [f] as if to ask permission.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± Would it kill you to say an extra word? If this fool [f] can really understand what you meant with just a nod, then I''ll change my surname to yours.

    He had barely finished thinking this mocking thought when Liu Chong walked into the shack himself, then turned back to Xuanmin and waved happily, saying, "Come in!" He was as lively and enthusiastic as a child with a new playmate.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    He pursed his lips in frustration and thought, I¡¯ll just shut up and hang out here.

    The niezhang in Xuanmin''s palm twitched several times, then, thankfully, it finally calmed down.

    The half open shack doors were pushed open by Liu Chong, revealing the sight inside for all to see ¨C¨C that pile of joss paper ingots was much larger than Xue Xian had originally spied from outside. Not only were they stacked in piles by the door, but the whole room was so full of it that there was nowhere to step.

    Behind them, Liu-shiye seemed extremely worried. As soon as he saw the inside of his eldest son''s room, he turned away unhappily. He seemed to have no intention of entering the shack, and stood alone around one zhang away from the door with his hands clasped behind his back.

    This was likely torture for him. On the one hand, he wanted Xuanmin to fix the feng shui in his compound, but on the other hand, he wanted to drive this socially inept, rude monk out of his home.

    Anyone with any ability to read people¡¯s faces would know that this was the time to retreat, so as to avoid causing trouble for the host.

    Unfortunately, this monk did not understand.

    Worse, he did not even deign to look at the shiye once!

    Liu-shiye was close to dying of fury.

    Liu-shiye could stand wherever he wanted; it didn¡¯t matter to Xuanmin at all. Even if he took a bamboo pole and swung himself ten zhang away, it would still not prevent Xuanmin from entering the shack. [l]

    The interior of Liu Chong¡¯s room was as crude and bare as the exterior. It was not fit for a child servant, let alone the eldest gongzi [m] of the shiye¡¯s household. There was nothing other than a four-person table, two wooden chairs, and a bed that, compared to Liu Chong''s frame, was far too narrow and small.

    This was a tiny space, as cramped as the inside of a snail''s shell. Yet someone had insisted on putting a divider in the middle, turning the bed part and the table part into two different sections, which only made it all seem even smaller.

    Who knew how old the furniture was? These were some of the grayest, darkest, most worn objects anyone had ever seen. In fact, the only dash of color resided in the yellow paper ingots strewn all across the room.

    Xuanmin picked one up and studied it.

    Xue Xian was still draped between the fingers of Xuanmin''s other hand. Thanks to his small size and low point of view, as well as the fact that he happened to be facing upward, Xue Xian was able to clearly see the bottom of the ingot.

    Three letters were written there: P A P.

    Xue Xian: ¡°¡­¡± What the hell is this?

    Then, he realised that this was actually supposed to read: dad. Liu Chong¡¯s calligraphy was poor, and he had written it wrong. [n]

    But now that he''d seen an ingot, Xue Xian suddenly understood why the boy''s father was so unhappy at his son. To write a living person''s name onto paper money ¨C¨C that was essentially cursing them. But Liu Chong was so ignorant [o] that it was most likely he¡¯d written the text for fun.

    Soon, however, Xue Xian had to swallow his words again.

    Because Xuanmin began picking up more ingots, and each and every one had writing on the bottom. The calligraphy for all of the text was sloppy and difficult to decipher.

    With nothing better to do, Xue Xian decided to read and decode them all: out of seven ingots, two said P A P, three said W O W, and two were blank.

    ¡­

    What kind of hobby would you call this?

    Although, based on the ingots that Xuanmin had picked up, Xue Xian was surprised to realise that Liu Chong may be dim-witted, [f] but he did know how to sort things into categories. The pile by the door probably all said P A P, so they for his dad, Liu-shiye. The ones by the table were all for his mom. [p] The random ingots strewn on the floor did not yet have inscriptions on them.

    So... who were the bedside ingots for?

    Clearly, Xue Xian wasn''t the only one to notice all this. After having briefly examined the piles in this outer room, Xuanmin went into the inner room where the bed was.

    As soon as they entered the inner room, Xue Xian felt himself choked by an immense gust of yin energy, and sneezed.

    Liu Chong: ¡°¡­¡± ???

    He stared at Xuanmin¡¯s completely expressionless face for a long time. Then, confused, he looked down at Xuanmin¡¯s hand, confused as to how the sneezing noise could have come from between Xuanmin¡¯s fingers.

    But neither Xuanmin nor Xue Xian could be bothered to pay attention to Liu Chong. The strong presence of yin energy had been a nasty surprise, and both of them now looked directly at the pile of paper ingots next to Liu Chong¡¯s bed.

    Frowning, Xuanmin walked over and picked up one of the ingots.

    This time, what was written underneath was neither ¡®dad¡¯ nor ¡®mom¡¯. Instead, there was a huge, confusing ink scribble. It seemed to say something far more complex than ¡®dad¡¯ or ¡®mom¡¯, something much harder to write.

    Xuanmin picked up two more ingots: the same.

    But one of the ingots¡¯ inscriptions was slightly less messy. With some effort, Xuanmin could make out part of the inscription: Liu.

    Xuanmin did not know much about Liu-shiye¡¯s family. Seeing this, all he could think of was Liu-shiye and his two sons. But based on the scribble, it didn''t seem to say ¡®Liu Xu¡¯, nor ¡®Liu Chong¡¯, nor ¡®Liu Jin¡¯.

    Just as Xuanmin bent over to pick up another ingot, something tumbled out of the pouch on his hip.

    That thing let out an "Aiyo!" sound as it fell directly onto the pile of paper ingots. When it landed on the ground, it began to inflate like a leather balloon, and suddenly swelled up, transforming into a fully living human being.

    ******

    This person''s face was deathly pale, with small dark circles under his eyes that made him look like an overworked scholar. It was none other than Jiang Shining.

    He had likely never expected to suddenly go from being a paper man to a flesh-and-blood human being. Confused, he asked, "Why did I fall off?"

    Seeing that Liu Chong didn¡¯t seen alarmed by this sudden apparition, Xue Xian stopped pretending, too. He replied, "There''s too much yin energy."

    Ghosts like yin energy. This was why Jiang Shining was normally powerless in the daytime ¨C¨C there was too much yang energy during the day. The yin energy in Liu Chong''s shack was more overpowering than the yin energy you might encounter if you stumbled upon an ancient mass grave. Naturally, being here had drawn Jiang Shining out.

    Despite all this yin energy, Liu Chong was still alive and well. This was strange.

    "So why haven''t you fallen off?" Jiang Shining asked, mystified.

    Xue Xian snapped, "I¡¯m not dead. I¡¯m not in the same category as you.¡± [q]

    "If you''re not dead, why are you clinging to a piece of paper?" Jiang Shining thought this Xue guy must be insane.

    If he wasn''t a ghost, that meant he had a body. If he still had a body, why would he go to such lengths to take out his soul and put it inside a piece of paper? If he wasn¡¯t crazy, then what was he?

    Xue Xian, still perched on Xuanmin''s hand, idly replied, "Why do you care? Shut up and get up from the floor."

    Now that the bookworm had turned into a human, despite the fact that he still looked as thin as a pile of reeds, he was much heavier. The pile of paper ingots couldn''t support his weight and, as he attempted to get up, half of the pile was utterly flattened: the golden mountain became flat land.

    Jiang Shining looked around him, and as soon as he realised where he was sitting, he immediately put his hands together in an apologetic salute toward Liu Chong. "I''m so sorry."

    As Jiang Shining attempted to get himself up, Liu Chong, who had been standing there speechless, finally seemed to process what was happening. He noticed the flattened pile of ingots and let out a scream. He pushed Jiang Shining aside brusquely and knelt on the floor, carefully folding each ingot back together again.

    Fools have more physical strength. Paired with Jiang Shining¡¯s weak body, this meant that he fell easily and rolled across the floor until he collided with the chest of drawers at the end of the room.

    The chest of drawers knocked against the wall with a guangdang sound.

    Despite being hurt by the fall, Jiang Shining, embarrassed, palmed the ground, trying to help Liu Chong fix his ingots. But he moved too abruptly, and suddenly emitted a hiss of pain and withdrew his hand from whatever he had touched.

    In his outstretched palm, there was now a hole. Jiang Shining grimaced with agony, but no blood flowed from the wound.

    That was the thing about paper bodies: they could help ghosts to walk normally on the ground and interact with the material world, almost like an actual living person, but the bodies were also prone to injury.

    "Why are there nails hammered into the floorboards underneath this chest of drawers?" Jiang Shining demanded, miserable. Turning back to Xue Xian, he said in a small voice, "Next time... If there is a next time, can you use leather, not paper?"

    "How about human skin?" Xue Xian said.

    Jiang Shining: ¡°¡­¡±

    Although Xuanmin¡¯s face betrayed no emotion, he used his finger to block Xue Xian¡¯s mouth. Every time this niezhang opened his mouth, it was to spew gibberish. [r]

    Xue Xian: ¡°¡­¡±

    "Eh? Strange. This nail has a piece of paper attached to it." As Jiang Shining crawled up, he caught a glimpse of the floor beneath the chest of drawers, and seemed to discover something interesting.

    Xuanmin heard this and frowned. He gathered his robes and crouched down.

    The chest of drawers had been pushed askew by the collision, and indeed a nail could be seen sticking out of the floorboards. With a flick of his hand, Xuanmin ripped off another piece of cloth from the bottom of his robe, and, with his fingers wrapped inside the white hemp cloth, reached out to touch the nail. As he cleared the dirt from the surface of the nail, it began to have a clearer appearance¨C¨C

    From the oily, brown color, it was clear that this was a copper nail, with three vertical ridges carved onto it.

    With that much mud caked on it, that nail had probably been there for a good two or three years, if not more. But it hadn''t rusted at all: it remained shiny and bright. It was clearly not an ordinary object.

    Most importantly, its job seemed to consist of nailing down a strange-looking piece of paper.

    Frowning, Xuanmin peered closer and used the cloth to brush away the thick layer of dust from the paper¨C¨C

    Just as he''d thought, the sheet of paper was yellow in color. On it, in red ink, was a complex diagram.

    Although the diagram was unreadable, it was clear what this was. After a brief moment of confusion, Jiang Shining went and pushed the chest of drawers aside, revealing more of the floorboards.

    Hidden by the chest of drawers were three nails in total, each with a yellow piece of paper. They pointed southwest, northeast, and northwest.

    "What... kind of talisman is this? Long life and good health?" Jiang Shining asked as he studied the talismans. For some reason, his body began to feel hot.

    This was very odd. Ever since he''d become a ghost, he had not felt warm even once. These past few years had been defined by a harsh feeling of coldness, as though he were permanently residing in a foggy snowscape, and he''d long become used to it. With the sudden heat, he felt deeply unsettled.

    Frightened, he backed away a couple steps.

    Xue Xian, who had grown to love making fun of Jiang Shining, had his mouth blocked and could not speak.

    So the question that Jiang Shining had asked remained hanging in the air with no response for quite a while. It was rather awkward.

    Finally, Xuanmin finished examining the contents of the three talismans and calmly said, "Feng shui array." [s]

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± No shit.

    All the commotion in the room had made Liu-shiye impatient. He glanced a few times at the door, and then reluctantly walked to the doorway and said, "Dashi, did you bump into something just now? What has my fool [f] of a son done now?"

    He seemed really to hate this shack, and looked like he¡¯d rather die than take a step inside. As he stood by the doorway, he glared at the piles of ingots inside with extreme disgust.

    Hearing the shiye''s voice, Xuanmin crossed the threshold and emerged back into the shack¡¯s main room. He asked Liu-shiye, "Who lives in the northwest of the compound?"

    Confused, Liu-shiye looked in that direction. "I do."

    Xuanmin looked at him, then asked, "Northeast."

    "Ah, northeast? That''s where my son Liu Jin lives ¨C¨C the younger one, the one who fell into the well earlier today. Dashi, why do you ask? Is there a problem with these two rooms?"

    Xuanmin did not respond immediately. Only after a pause did he say, "Have you heard of the design, ''Direct the River into the Sea''?"

    It was impossible to tell what Xuanmin was feeling ¨C¨C he still maintained that cold, expressionless face, as though he were asking a question as simple as Have you eaten? ¡ª but Liu-shiye''s face suddenly turned white.

    He remained standing stiffly by the door, his entire body rigid, for a very long time. Then his eyes twitched and he peered into the room. As soon as he saw that the chest of drawers had been moved aside, his expression turned even paler. "I-I-I''m not going to lie, Dashi, sir, [t] these past two years I... I''ve had some health issues, so... so..."

    As Liu-shiye stumbled and stammered from the doorway where he stood, Jiang Shining was moving around inside. When Liu-shiye peered in, he backed away so as not to appear in Liu-shiye¡¯s eyeline. One of the reasons was that he was a ghost about to be confronted with someone he''d known in life, which usually ended badly; but another reason was... every time he saw Liu-shiye, his heart was filled with such hatred that he wanted to attack the man.

    He remembered the ways in which his parents had suffered in the days before their death and gritted his teeth.

    While Jiang Shining stood by the wall, stewing in anger, Liu Chong, who had been busy fixing his ingots, took notice of the talismans on the floor.

    His [f] attention span was particularly easily distracted. He stared at those yellow talismans for a while, then dropped the ingots he was holding and ran to crouch in front of the chest of drawers, studying the talismans.

    Whenever toddlers take notice of some new object, whether it is filthy or clean, whether it is dangerous or safe, the first thing they like to do is touch it. Liu Chong, whose mindset was comparable to an ignorant child¡¯s, stared at the three copper nails for some time, then couldn¡¯t help but reach out to touch the tip of a nail.

    The shiny copper nail had an extremely sharp tip. If one were to blow a single hair in the direction of the nail, it would certainly cut the hair in half. Liu Chong¡¯s thin skin stood no chance.

    Thus, Liu Chong¡¯s reward for touching the nail was a handful of blood.

    "Hey ¨C¨C don''t touch!" But by the time Jiang Shining realised what was going on, it was too late.

    A drop of blood slid from the tip of the nail down the copper shaft and seeped into the talisman.

    Surprised by the scolding, Liu Chong froze and looked up.

    For a moment, Jiang Shining suddenly wondered why the room was so disconcertingly quiet ¨C¨C the incessant winter wind that had been howling against the shack''s walls seemed to have suddenly gone away.

    Ghosts ¡ª especially lonely, rogue ghosts ¡ª are usually more sensitive than actual humans. Jiang Shining felt as though there was suddenly no air around him at all. The calm was suspicious.

    Xuanmin, who had been standing by the door with Liu-shiye, abruptly frowned and looked up at the sky.

    The wind was still and the clouds were heavy. There was no noise anywhere.

    The entire Liu compound had, in an instant, fallen into complete silence¡­

    That strange peacefulness did not last long. In the blink of an eye, the sound of the wind returned, but its oooooh sounds were completely different from before. For some reason, the wind now sounded a little resentful.

    Soon, the oooooh sound of the wind became louder and louder, so that it seemed to resemble a chorus of rogue ghosts whose weeping noises came in from all sides. It was enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

    Amidst the bestial, haunting cries of the wind, there was suddenly something that emitted a weng¨C¨C¨C sound.

    It sounded like the end tone of two metallic objects striking each other, but also somehow different.

    Xue Xian, still drooping from where he was held between Xuanmin¡¯s fingers, suddenly sat up, his entire body tense. Others may have found the sound difficult to parse, but he could hear it loud and clear.

    Because it sounded exactly like the thing that he was searching for.

    In the northeast!

    Xue Xian struggled to raise his head and look in that direction.

    The bald donkey had just asked about it. Whose wing was in the northeast again?

    As Xue Xian tried to remember, that strange sound merged with the weeping noises of the wind, becoming piercingly loud. In that moment, everyone felt as though someone had struck them violently on the back of the head. Their ears screeched and their vision went black, then they all promptly lost consciousness.

    ----

    The author has something to say:

    Cold medicine is almost like sleeping pills. I took them and spent two days feeling like I was sleepwalking, but I was finally able to complete the second half of this chapter~ So sorry for the two-day break. I will keep working on what¡¯s next, and there will be some more to make up for it tomorrow =3=

    ----

    [a] Musuli used ËÀ²»î¨Ä¿ (si3 bu4 ming2 mu4), literally ¡°to have died yet still unable to shut one¡¯s eyes¡±. This chengyu comes from Records of the Three Kingdoms and is used to mean that someone has died with regrets; that they cannot rest peacefully. Musuli plays with the literal meaning of the phrase to describe the frightful sight that is Xue Xian¡¯s paper man eyes. I went with an idiom in English that also uses ¡°eyes¡±; in this case, the English idiom is read sarcastically to describe Xue Xian.

    [b] The word here is ¶È»¯ (du4 hua4), where ¶È, in a Buddhist or Daoist context, means ¡°to preach, convert, proselytise,¡± according to Pleco; and »¯ means ¡°to transform, to (make) happen¡±. The Exiled Rebels MDZS translation translates ¶È»¯ as ¡°liberating¡± a spirit, but I have chosen ¡°transcend¡±: a spirit transcends; an exorcist helps a spirit transcend through a transcending ritual.

    Overall, it¡¯s worth noting that the basis of magic in Copper Coins is geomancy/feng shui, a practice that is not explicitly tied to a religion; and in Copper Coins, geomancy and exorcist magic is also heavily implied to be apart from religion to a large extent (both Buddhists and Daoists are seen using the same system of magic). This is different to, for instance, MDZS, where the characters derive their powers from Daoist cultivation. In Copper Coins, there¡¯s also the added fact that Xue Xian is an immortal dragon, and so his magic actually comes from an entirely different source than humans¡¯ magic. My translation is attentive to this fact, so I seek to balance continuity with other historical fantasy danmei translations and also to pay attention to the highly specific context of this novel. I hope these musings on translation are as interesting to you as they are to me!

    [c] Musuli uses the phrase ¡°he did not consider himself an outsider/a stranger¡± to describe Xue Xian¡¯s bold behavior.

    [d] Musuli uses the chengyu Å¨Ä«ÖØ²Ê (nong2 mo4 zhong4 cai3), literally ¡°thick ink and heavy colors¡±. It is an adverb, for when someone describes something in vivid detail and colorful language. However, in this context, Musuli plays with the fact that Xue Xian is a painted paper man, and uses the phrase to highlight his dramatic, larger-than-life gestures and speech. I opted for ¡°drama queen¡±, which works out really well considering her stage metaphor in the next line.

    [e] Musuli uses ³ÕÉµ (chi1 sha3), which combines ¡°foolish¡±/¡±crazy¡± and ¡°idiot¡±.

    [f] Musuli uses Éµ×Ó (sha3 zi), which means ¡°idiot¡±. Sometimes when I use this footnote, she is using Éµ by itself, which is an adjective rather than a noun, meaning ¡°idiotic¡±.

    [g] Musuli¡¯s actual wording here is ¡°He had gone from being half-paralysed to being fully paralysed¡±.

    [h] Musuli uses ³ÕÓÞ (chi1 yu2), which combines ¡°foolish¡±/¡±crazy¡± with another, slightly more formal word for ¡°fool/ish¡±.

    [i] Musuli uses ³£ÈË (chang2 ren2), ¡°ordinary/common people¡±.

    [j] This is just so mean :¡¯( Musuli uses Éµ×Ó and Éµ (see footnote f) for Liu Chong. For the ¡°moment of insanity¡± she uses ñ² (dian1), which means ¡°crazy¡± or ¡°insane¡±. For ¡°poison¡±, she uses ¶¾ (du2), which means ¡°poison¡±.

    [k] Musuli writes that Xuanmin was ¡°more Ö±°×¡± (zhi2 bai2). It means to be blunt or straightforward, but since she is comparing Xuanmin to Liu Chong here, the comparison is more about their common lack of adherence to social norms, rather than a presence of bluntness.

    [l] I¡¯ve translated this phrase exactly the way it appears in the text and consulted my dad, but he agrees with me that this part of the phrase doesn¡¯t really make sense. Surely the phrasing should be something like, ¡®even if Liu-shiye stood directly behind Xuanmin and watched his every move, it would still not prevent Xuanmin from entering the shack¡¯; rather than standing farther? Oh well.

    [m] Gongzi: see glossary.

    [n] In Chinese, Xue Xian at first misreads the writing as ¸¸Ï¦Ï¦. Then he realises that it says µù (die1), a more casual word for one¡¯s father; ¡°Dad¡±.

    [o] Musuli uses È±ÐÄÉÙ·Î (que1 xin1 shao3 fei4), a chengyu that literally says ¡°missing heart and lacking lung¡±, and means ¡°stupid¡±.

    [p] In Chinese, Xue Xian at first misreads the writing as Å®Á¼ (two separate characters). Then he realises that it says Äï (niang2), a more casual word for one¡¯s mother; ¡°Mom¡±. ¡°Die¡± and ¡°Niang¡± are a matching set of terms.

    [q] Xue Xian says ÄãÀÏÈË¼Ò (ni3 lao3 ren2 jia1) to Jiang Shining here, where Äã means ¡°you¡± and ÀÏÈË¼Ò is a way of saying ¡°old person¡±. This phrase, usually directed at elderly people, is a sign of respect because it acknowledges that they are your elder. However, the respect can also be utilised sarcastically, which is how Xue Xian is using it here.

    [r] Musuli writes here that Xue Xian ¡°doesn¡¯t/can¡¯t speak human language¡±, which is a pejorative expression that means nothing he says makes sense; that he speaks inappropriately.

    [s] Array: here the character used is ¾Ö (ju2), which is a versatile character whose meanings can include ¡°situation¡±, ¡°place/location¡±, ¡°setup¡±, or ¡°trap¡±. In my original translation, I often used ¡°spell¡± for when it is used in the context of the novel¡¯s system of magic, but ¡°spell¡± is still very broad. I¡¯ve seen other historical fantasy danmei novel translations use the term ¡°array¡± to describe when someone might create/write a spell on the ground, i.e. a location-specific magic spell ¨C¨C as opposed to a technique that can be used anywhere, whose effect is not derived from its site of use but rather from its user, the tool, etc. In the interest of continuity with other danmei translations, I¡¯ve decided to use ¡°array¡± as much as I can in this revised translation.

    [t] Here Liu-shiye addresses Xuanmin with the formal ¡°you¡±, Äú (nin2). I used the interjection ¡°Sir¡± to emphasise this, since there is no English equivalent.

 CH 8

    The noise finally receded, and with it went the tight-woven blackness that had cast itself across Xue Xian''s vision. But something was wrong ¨C¨C

    The ground beneath him was now covered with stone tiles from which patches of dark green moss grew. It seemed that he had been dropped onto the ground, and the bald donkey who had been holding on to him previously was now nowhere to be seen.

    It wasn''t just the bald donkey. Xue Xian''s head swivelled as he took in his surroundings. Liu-shiye was gone, too. The shack was still there ¨C¨C it was behind him ¨C¨C but it was now a building with a proper facade. Above the doors, there was even a set of intricate wooden carvings. This was definitely not Liu Chong''s [a] home, and Xue Xian highly doubted he would find Jiang Shining and the others inside.

    In fact, this place was dead silent. Xue Xian couldn''t make out even the vaguest hint of a human voice. It was as though he had been transported to some vast, empty mansion ¨C¨C lavish and luxurious, yet completely deserted.

    "Where the fuck is this?" Xue Xian muttered to himself.

    His situation was rather frustrating. Anyone else, when finding themselves dropped in some strange and quiet place, would be able to get up and walk around, see if they could figure something out. But Xue Xian couldn¡¯t; he couldn¡¯t walk.

    The paper man form certainly wasn¡¯t helping Xue-daye. [b] He decided to spread himself out and give the folded creases of his body an opportunity to relax. He propped himself up on his hands, leaned back lazily, and looked around, admiring the scenery ¨C¨C

    Apart from the building behind him, there was now an ivy-covered wall to his left, as well as a tree casting shade onto the courtyard. Part of the tree¡¯s branches extended beyond the wall. To his left was a corridor and the courtyard wall. Through a narrow door, he could see part of a small garden.

    Just from a cursory glance, it was clear that this was a tastefully designed compound. But there was absolutely nobody around to admire the compound¡¯s beauty, which was quite unnerving.

    Thankfully, Xue Xian was a dragon lord [c] who had once pierced the heavens. No matter how unnerving a situation was, it couldn¡¯t ever faze him. But he did, of course, know to be careful.

    "South is in front of me, north is behind me..." Xue Xian wasn''t just admiring the scenery. Based on the way that the moss and ivy grew along the cracks of stone, Xue Xian could deduce the directions that the compound was facing.

    If he''d gotten it right, he was currently in the northeast section of the compound.

    Northeast...

    Xue Xian gasped. "That sounds familiar..."

    If this was still Liu-shiye''s compound, then the northeast section was the home of Liu-shiye''s younger son Liu Jin, the one who had almost drowned in the well.

    That weng sound from before had also seemed to come from here.

    What he was looking for¡­ Could it really be here?!

    Suddenly alert, Xue Xian sat up. Holding his breath and keeping absolutely still, he listened carefully, but found that he could detect no sound at all, let alone that special weng noise.

    He pursed his lips with irritation. Brushing away some of the moss in front of him, he lowered himself face-down onto the ground. This time, he could finally hear the tiniest bit of movement. Strangely, the noise was sometimes close, sometimes far ¨C¨C he couldn''t pinpoint its position.

    The noise darted in and out of his ear, too subtle to be followed for long. Every time he thought he could hear it again, it disappeared. After some time struggling to follow the annoying noise, Xue Xian was angry. He wished he could simply cut through the stone and barge down there to confront the noise.

    Unfortunately, with his paper body, he did not have the strength to even lift a single tile.

    Just as Xue Xian was beginning to lose it, a breeze flitted in from one of the decorative windows in the wall. Even the slightest winter wind has some gusto to it ¨C¨C Xue Xian was not going to let this opportunity go. He braced his paper body and let the wind pick him up.

    In the blink of an eye, he was flying.

    As he passed by the wall, he grabbed onto a thin stalk of ivy, which he used as leverage to swing himself up onto that shade-casting tree.

    This tree trunk stood straight and tall, and had been pruned so that not a branch stood out of place ¨C¨C except for the branch that extended beyond the wall. Because of this, Xue Xian couldn¡¯t go any further: this was his destination.

    Not only was his paper body in danger from being blown off the branch, but the point of view from the tree wasn''t great, either.

    So Xue Xian decided to revert to his original form, too. As the wind rustled lightly through the leaves, a flesh-and-blood human suddenly appeared in the tree. With one arm hugging the tree trunk and another gripping a nearby branch, Xue Xian settled down comfortably on the ledge of the wall.

    In daylight, his face looked bright and pleasant. Those two pools of shadow beneath his eyes resembled winter ponds: beneath a thin layer of ice lay a sharp and driven spirit.

    The first thing he did once he was settled was look out to the other side of the wall.

    Having taken a look, he turned around to peer at the inside of the compound for a moment, and then back outside again.

    As he swivelled back and forth, his neutral expression seemed to crack under pressure, like a porcelain vase right before it shattered into pieces.

    ¡°...¡±

    Both sides of the wall looked exactly the fucking same!

    Now this was interesting.

    If Xue Xian was correct, he had ended up in some kind of ''Ghost Pounding on the Wall'' situation. [d]

    A ghost who dared to pound on his wall ¨C¨C now this was a first.

    Of course, this kind of thing never just happened: there was always a root cause. Xue Xian rifled through his memory, but all he could come up with was that ¡®Direct the River into the Sea¡¯ array that the bald donkey Xuanmin had mentioned.

    It seemed that someone had interfered with this feng shui array. Some crisis had been triggered, which had dragged them all in here?

    So the silence in the compound... Was this the effect of ¡®Ghost Pounding on the Wall¡¯, or was it because Xue Xian was the only person left?

    The view from the wall was slightly better than the view from the ground, but still not that much better. Much of Xue Xian''s view was blocked by rows of uneven fire-protecting inner walls. All Xue Xian could really see were white walls, black roofs, and stone tiles ¨C¨C as well as several narrow doors, which he wasn''t sure if he would even be able to get through.

    He studied the narrow doors that led in all directions: north, south, east, west. Then he looked at the uneven walls. Things began to come together a little.

    To happen upon ¡®Ghost Pounding on the Wall¡¯ in such a tranquil, ordinary compound... If you wanted to break out of the array, you had to abide by the cosmological rules of the Eight Doors. [e]

    Open door, rest door, life door, harm door, delusion door, scenery door, fear door, and death door. Each door was different. If you went through the wrong door... Best case scenario, you wouldn''t be able to get out of the array. Worst case scenario was grave injury, if not death.

    This compound had a tricky relationship with the four cardinal directions, so its Eight Doors were likely to be complicated, too. Solving this array was going to take a lot of effort.

    Not being an ordinary human, Xue Xian wasn''t used to having to think about the random problems of mortals. When he''d been a dragon, [f] none of this stuff was useful to him, and he had certainly never expected that he might one day come across ¡®Ghost Pounding on the Wall¡¯ himself one day.

    So to ask him to sit here and calculate which door was the life door and which door was the death door was akin to giving him two knives to stab himself with.

    "Am I supposed to drag myself around [g] the compound trying to find a sign of life?" Xue Xian scoffed indignantly. I don¡¯t hate myself that much!

    He was far too proud for that. Unless he had no other choice, he would rather die than create hassle for himself. And if he really had no other choice... Well, he''d still rather just die.

    This stupid compound didn''t even have proper air circulation. There was no wind Xue Xian could use to transport himself. Even if he figured out which way to go, how was he supposed to get there? Crawl, or slither?

    Just the thought of it made Xue Xian''s teeth hurt.

    In your dreams! He was not going to crawl!

    As he leant against the tree branch on the wall, Xue Xian gnawed the tip of his tongue in frustration. He patted the pocket of his robe and took out a piece of yellow paper.

    The yellow paper had been twisted up and folded in all kinds of manners. It had clearly lived a life of misery and neglect ever since it had entered Xue Xian¡¯s possession. With a sense of disdain, Xue Xian pinched the upper corner of the paper with two fingers, and shook it loose ¨C¨C revealing that the inside of it was entirely covered in indecipherable scribbles written down in appalling calligraphy.

    But Xue Xian could read it.

    He had stolen this from a Daoist fortune-teller when he''d passed through Raozhou Prefecture.

    The Daoist had had a mustache composed of two long, straggly whiskers and had been wearing a battered cloth hat. By his eye had been a dark scar ¨C¨C it could have been a birthmark, or perhaps an injury. His domain was the side of a bridge, where he sat all day long, running low-level fortune-telling tricks and selling yellow talismans that he''d made himself. And this guy was certainly odd: since he was selling talismans, he should have made sure that his calligraphy looked the part. Instead, the old Daoist¡¯s products looked as though they¡¯d been inscribed by a dog ¨C¨C and he hadn¡¯t seemed embarrassed about it at all! Wasn¡¯t he afraid that no one would want to buy them?

    Xue Xian had loitered beneath the Daoist¡¯s stall for a few days and had peeked at his talismans. They were mostly weak ones that could only really be used as decoration, but one or two were well-inscribed and did have some use.

    Just some use, though.

    For instance, the talismans that were supposed to ward against evil only actually worked to repel tiny creepy crawlies; and the talismans that were supposed to extend one''s life could only soothe the most minor health issues.

    The talisman that Xue Xian had fished out of his robe was one he¡¯d watched the Daoist make.

    "For the southern dragon lord [h] who resides amongst the thunderous clouds." Xue Xian squinted as he idly read the text on the talisman. These words had been distorted countless times, and tunnelled their way across the paper like a series of earthworms. They were so messy that it was a miracle Xue Xian could remember what they said.

    Just by the text, it was easy to guess that this talisman''s function was to pray for lightning. [i] It was unclear what had compelled the Daoist to make it.

    If you truly wanted lightning, a simple talisman like this would not be enough for the southern dragon lord to hear your prayers. The most it could do was bring you a couple of grey clouds that might blot out a bit of the sun. But the same talisman could have a vastly different effect in Xue Xian¡¯s hands.

    Because the southern dragon lord that the talisman was praying to? Why, that was none other than Xue Xian himself.

    Although he wasn¡¯t able to do much [j] in person while he resided in this paper body, he could try using the talisman as an intermediary.

    He reached into his robe again and took out a tiny ceramic bottle. He lifted the stopper and a strange, subtle fishy smell escaped into the air.

    Xue Xian frowned as he sniffed it and ascertained that it was his own blood. It wasn''t the best smell, he had to admit.

    He smoothed out the talisman against his palm and let a small drop of crimson blood drip out of the bottle. The drop seeped into the yellow paper.

    Xue Xian put the bottle away and, with a flick of his wrist, sent the talisman flying.

    As the talisman left his hand, a bright flame ignited right where the blood stain had been. The talisman was instantly swallowed by the fire.

    Immediately, a savage wind appeared, and tempestuous clouds began to roll in from the horizon.

    The sky turned black, as though a bucket of ink had been spilled across it. Spiderwebs of snow-white lightning flashed down from the heavens, accompanied by a chilling roar of thunder that clapped against Xue Xian''s ears.

    Xue Xian wasn''t sure whether he had merely hit the boundary of the haunted compound, or if he had managed to strike at the compound''s heart.

    There came another earth-splitting noise, and a zigzagging flash of lightning fell down from the sky.

    Still perched against the tree at the top of the compound wall, Xue Xian watched, bored, as the lightning crashed into the ground at his feet, shattering a piece of the stone tiling and sending rubble flying. He did not even blink.

    The entire compound rumbled and shook precariously. Only after a long time did things slowly calm down.

    Xue Xian lifted his eyes and looked up at the sky with a disappointed expression. Even with the talisman''s aid, he had only been able to conjure a single strike.

    But there had been some use to all that thundering commotion. It seemed to have created a hairline crack in the array. That previous uncanny silence was now being broken by a small draft: it brought with it faint noises from an unknown origin, noises that quickly blanketed the entire courtyard.

    Clearly, Xue Xian was not the only person in the compound.

    There was someone else stuck inside the array. It was just that, when they had been brought into the array, they had been flung in different directions, and weren¡¯t aware of each other¡¯s presence.

    Xue Xian tugged a curly stem from the ivy creeping on the wall. Leaning back on the branch, he idly wound the stem against his fingers. He shut his eyes and concentrated on the noise that was drifting toward him from the hairline crack. Among the confusing layers of sound in the compound, he seemed to make out something that stood out from everything else.

    After some more time, he thought he knew what it might be...

    A bell?

    "No..." Xue Xian clicked his teeth and frowned.

    The noise wove itself among the whimpering of the wind, as though it had come from far away ¨C¨C or it had been elongated, somehow, by the hairline crack.

    It sounded a bit like the four-sided copper bells that farmers attached to ox carts, and yet part of the sound was also different.

    A copper bell...

    A copper coin?

    Suddenly, the profile of the sound became clear. Indeed, it was definitely the sound of a copper coin pendant, its coins clinking against each other softly.

    ¡°...¡± Xue Xian''s eyes flew open. In his hands, the ivy stem he had been torturing snapped in half.

    In that brief instant, the sound of copper coins knocking against each other seemed to have gotten much closer.

    From what Xue Xian could hear, the sound now seemed to be coming from right beyond the compound wall.

    The narrow door at the end of the corridor suddenly creaked. Still playing with the destroyed ivy stem in his hand, Xue Xian looked up.

    The young monk, draped in that set of white hemp religious robes, was walking silently toward him.

    Xue Xian felt cold just from seeing the monk wearing such a thin robe in the middle of the freezing winter ¨C¨C and on top of that, the robes seemed themselves to be wrapped in a layer of frost. It wasn''t until Xuanmin had walked all the way to the wall and strapped his copper coin pendant back onto his hip that Xue Xian realised: this bald donkey never made any sound when he walked.

    So... that copper coin noise from just now. Had he been making it on purpose?

    Xuanmin stood in front of the wall and scanned Xue Xian up and down with a disinterested gaze.

    The person perched on the wall was highly attractive, like a sword shafted cleanly into its scabbard. But he was on the skinnier side, and his black robes made him seem uncannily pale, giving him the air of someone who was deathly ill. This was in sharp contrast with the vivid sharpness of his demeanor. All together, his aura was one of contradiction and mystery.

    When Xue Xian''s expression was neutral, it made him seem deceptively calm.

    Maintaining that neutrality, Xue Xian stared back at Xuanmin for a moment. Finally, he couldn¡¯t help but roll his eyes. "Why is it you..." he said.

    He scrunched up the broken ivy stem into a ball in his hand and crushed it angrily.

    This one was the kind of person to go around touching things he ought to keep his hands off of. He had managed to clamber all the way to the top of the wall, but still seemed restless, and, after glaring at Xuanmin for some time, he insisted on throwing the crushed ivy stem at Xuanmin.

    Xuanmin shook his head. He caught the ''weapon'' in mid-air and studied it. "What was the thunder about just now?"

    Xue Xian made a face. "Aren''t you going to ask who I am?"

    When the bald donkey had captured him, he had first been a patch of moss on the ground, and had then become a paper man. The monk had never seen him in his human form before.

    Xuanmin opened his slender palm, where he still held the damning evidence of Xue Xian¡¯s actions ¨C¨C that balled-up ivy stem.

    Xuanmin was naturally inexpressive and hated to speak, and always wore an icy, impenetrable expression. But that one gesture had a clear meaning: such mischief could only come from one person. Even if Xue Xian had been burnt to ashes, Xuanmin would still recognise him.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    Xuanmin threw away the ivy stem. He asked Xue Xian again: "You have not explained the thunder."

    "Oh," Xue Xian said. "Nothing much. I was just letting everyone know where I was, so you could come find me."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    That bout of thunder had been powerful enough to bring the heavens crashing down onto earth. It had been deafeningly loud, and mighty enough to strike fear into any observer¡¯s heart ¨C¨C as though whoever had summoned it had wanted to utterly demolish the Liu compound.

    But it turned out that all that was just to make a simple noise and alert others to his presence.

    As the bald donkey heard this, his rigid, frosty expression seemed, for the first time, to show a sign of breaking.

    This was hilarious to Xue Xian. He relaxed his expression and teased, "Eh? So you followed that lightning all the way to me? Then it wasn''t a waste of time at all. It''s a good thing you came so quickly. I was wondering if I should summon another one."

    Xuanmin stared at him silently for a moment, then coldly said, "Then there would be no need to find our way out of these Eight Doors. We would even be able to save money on our coffins."

    "How could a religious man [k] speak of earthly things like money? You bald...." Xue Xian grimaced and stopped himself from saying ¡®donkey¡¯. With a serious face, he said, "Isn''t that offensive to the Buddha?"

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    This niezhang had sent thunder across the heavens, yet had the audacity to say something like this.

    "Just now, you were talking about finding the Eight Doors. Have you found them?" Xue Xian was asking now. "If you have, then great. Take me with you. If you haven''t, then forget your fear of getting struck by lightning. Let me try summoning another bout of thunder. Hopefully I can force this array apart."

    As he was saying this, he was really thinking: Oh, bald donkey, please tell me you''ve found it. I only had that one lightning talisman, and it''s gone now.

    Thankfully, Xuanmin didn''t disappoint. He nodded and said, "You can come down from the wall now."

    He turned and walked away.

    His white monk''s robes fluttered behind like a wisp of cloud. In only a few steps, he was already quite far from the wall.

    After some time, Xuanmin stopped and turned to look at Xue Xian, who had not yet moved.

    Xue Xian slapped his legs nonchalantly. "I can¡¯t walk," he announced. [l]

    Xuanmin lifted an eyebrow, thinking that Xue Xian was acting out again. Without changing his expression, he coldly said, "You were quick to run earlier, niezhang..."

    Back when he''d grabbed onto the young servant''s collar, he''d been as swift and nimble as could be.

    ¡°...¡± Xue Xian scoffed. "Are you blind, bald donkey? Back then I wasn''t running with my own legs, was I? I was using someone else''s."

    The merciless monk and the ill-behaved niezhang stared at each other for a long time. Finally, the former gave in, and walked back toward the wall.

    The contour of Xue Xian''s legs and knees could be seen through his black robes. Most bedridden, handicapped people had knobby, thin legs as a result, but not Xue Xian. His legs looked quite ordinary ¨C¨C not at all like they were paralysed.

    Xuanmin took a look, then reached out to grab Xue Xian''s ankle.

    Xue Xian jumped in surprise at that. If only he had control of his legs, or even just one of them: he would''ve kicked this bald donkey in the face and sent him flying.

    What kind of person just goes up to a dragon and starts grabbing at his claws?! Huh?! Do you have a death wish?!

    Xuanmin took note of Xue Xian''s reaction. If Xue Xian had only been pretending to be paralysed, there was no way he would''ve only moved his upper body ¨C- the lower body would definitely have reacted, too.

    So it seemed that this niezhang was telling the truth. He really was paralysed from the waist down. [l]

    Xuanmin raised his eyes and made a Buddhist greeting with his hand. The other hand, he extended toward Xue Xian with his slender palm spread. "Come down,¡± he said.

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses Éµ×Ó (sha3 zi), which means ¡°idiot¡±. Sometimes when I use this footnote, she is using Éµ by itself, which is an adjective rather than a noun, meaning ¡°idiotic¡±.

    [b] Daye: see glossary. Here, the narrator is using ¡°daye¡± sarcastically to suggest that Xue Xian is arrogant, or high-maintenance: he behaves as though he were everyone¡¯s elder/patriarch. (He really is older than everyone, though!)

    [c] Musuli uses Ö÷ (zhu3), meaning ¡°master¡± or ¡°lord¡±. It¡¯s rare for one-character nouns to be used in Chinese because two-character or four-character phrases are seen as more pleasing; here, the straightforward use of Ö÷ is an unapologetic, brash, and slightly arrogant assertion of Xue Xian¡¯s power and status. Ö÷ in this case isn¡¯t necessarily saying that Xue Xian is master/lord of something or someone, but more to emphasise his general dominance as a mythical creature; because of this, I used ¡°dragon lord¡± in English to steer the significance away from ¡®lordship¡¯.

    [d] Ghost Pounding on the Wall: ¹í´òÇ½ (gui3 da3 qiang2), literally ¡°ghost builds wall¡± (where ´ò, ¡°to build¡±, more commonly means ¡°to pound on/hit¡±), is a figure of speech that refers to when someone is lost in a strange place and unable to find their way out ¨C¨C as though invisible ghosts have built walls around them. This is a psychological fallacy. It is also used to describe someone being stuck in their ways of thinking, figuratively rather than literally.

    Contemporary artist Xu Bing, trained as a printmaker, began a project in 1990-1991 entitled Ghost Pounding the Wall / Gui Da Qiang, where he created large-scale rubbings from the Great Wall. Rubbings were historically used in China to record, copy, and distribute carved inscriptions on stone; but Xu Bing¡¯s rubbings here do not contain any legible information. Instead, he records the ¡®writing¡¯ of the stone itself, the ridges and textures of this ancient monument at that specific point in time; the only reason the rubbing is important or of value is that it purports to come from the Great Wall, which has become a hugely important symbol of national belonging. (The second thing that lends the rubbing value is Xu Bing himself: by then, he was already a famous enough ¡®Chinese¡¯ artist to exhibit in the United States, thanks in great part to Gao Minglu¡¯s promotion of the ¡°¡®85 New Wave¡±, a generation of ¡°avant-gardists¡± that Gao had invented.) A lot of Chinese artists have engaged with the complex significance behind the Great Wall; I really like He Chengyao¡¯s extremely nuanced 2001 performance, Opening the Great Wall.

    Anyway, my choice to translate ¹í´òÇ½ here as ¡°pounding¡± rather than ¡°Ghost Building a Wall¡± is a wink at all that. In Copper Coins, ¹í´òÇ½ is a magic spell or array that someone has intentionally created, or that was unintentionally engendered as a consequence of ignorant people messing around with magic. It causes people to be literally trapped in an infinite, labyrinthine space.

    [e] Musuli uses °ËÃÅ¶Ý¼× (ba1 men2 dun4 jia3), literally ¡°eight doors divination¡±. It is a less-used synonym for ÆæÃÅ¶Ý¼× (qi2 men2 dun4 jia3), a traditional Chinese school of divination that combines various Chinese metaphysical concepts including yin and yang, the five elements (which are relevant to wudiqian, the copper coin pendants), the eight trigrams, and more (Wikipedia).

    The Eight Doors are also specific components within Qimen Dunjia and can be mapped onto the Eight Trigrams and the cardinal directions. Qimen Dunjia is concerned with the heavens, the earth, and humans; according to Baidu, the Eight Doors are specifically concerned with humans affairs.

    The doors are labelled: ¿ª (kai1) open; ÐÝ (xiu1) rest; Éú (sheng1) life; ÉË (shang1) harm; ¶Å (du4) delusion/stop; ¾° (jing3) scenery/view; ¾ª (jing1) fear; ËÀ (si3) death. Open, rest, and life are positive; harm, fear, and death are negative; delusion and scenery are neutral.

    [f] Musuli uses the phrase ¡°In the first/previous half of his life¡±. This sounds awkward in English, so I went for a more literal phrasing; but it¡¯s an interesting way to word it, because it means the second half of his life ¡®begins¡¯ now.

    [g] Musuli uses the phrase ¡°drag my two lame legs around¡±, where ·Ï (fei4), literally ¡°waste/wasted¡± is used to characterise Xue Xian¡¯s disability.

    [h] The phrase here is ÄÏ·½Áú¾ý (nan2 fang1 long2 jun1), ¡°dragon jun of the south¡±.

    [i] The character used here is À× (lei2), ¡°thunder¡±. However, throughout Copper Coins, Xue Xian is seen summoning À× down on people or generally wielding À× as a tangible, precise attack, and it would be more appropriate in those instances to translate À× as ¡°lightning¡±.

    [j] Musuli uses ×÷Ñý (zuo4 yao1) here, literally ¡°commit yao¡±, i.e. to do evil things, or to make mischief. It¡¯s hard to do this in English without making Xue Xian summoning thunder/lightning sound like an actually evil or merely mischievous thing ¨C¨C it¡¯s in his nature as a dragon.

    [k] The Chinese phrase is ³ö¼ÒÈË (chu1 jia1 ren2), literally ¡°person who has left home¡±. This specifically means a monk or a nun.

    [l] Here, Musuli refers to Xue Xian¡¯s legs again as ·Ï (fei4), literally ¡°waste/wasted¡±.

 CH 9

    Xue Xian glanced at Xuanmin¡¯s open palm, then assessed the bald donkey again. Xuanmin¡¯s monk''s robes were wide and large, which made the monk himself look extremely slender and tall. From the form of his shoulders, Xue Xian could tell that his thinness was not one of starvation, but that he had a certain muscular leanness. Still, he looked far from strong.

    Skeptical, Xue Xian jutted out his chin. "You''re going to carry me with one arm? Don''t lie."

    Xuanmin¡¯s expression did not change. He continued to stand there with his hand outstretched.

    "Fine. If I fall, it''s your fault," Xue Xian said unhappily. With a push from his hands, he jumped down from the wall.

    But as he fell, there was a puff, and he transformed from a human being back into a paper man. Probably so that he could fit in Xuanmin''s hand, he especially made himself smaller than before. He was now no larger than the size of a palm, and, as relaxed as an autumn leaf, he slowly laid himself down across Xuanmin¡¯s palm¡­

    He spread out his arms and legs, like a snow angel. [a]

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    He had gotten used to this niezhang¡¯s human form, and now he had to look at this painted ¡®sight for sore eyes¡¯. Although the form was now smaller, it was still unpleasant to see.

    Xuanmin looked away, not wanting to sully his vision. Just as before, he tucked the niezhang back into the pouch on his hip. But this time he seemed to have a bit more compassion: instead of shoving the niezhang into the bottom, he allowed his head to peek out. If Xue Xian wanted, he could use his arms to perch on the edge, and take a breath of fresh air every once in a while.

    But the niezhang was not satisfied.

    "Could you please put me somewhere else?" Xue Xian had said ¡®please¡¯, [b] but his tone was not polite at all.

    Xuanmin would never have expected that a brief conversation would make this niezhang suddenly forget who was the captor and who was the captive. Did he want to turn the tables? [c]

    Have you heard of criminals in maximum security prisons requesting a nicer bunk?

    Xuanmin looked down. "Where do you wish to go?"

    Since Xue Xian didn¡¯t have a skeleton in this paper body, he was easily able to turn his entire head around without moving the rest of his body. He rolled his eyes and said, ¡°I want to go on the shoulders!¡±

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    The paper man named Xue had the audacity to complain: "I can''t see anything from this stupid [d] place. It¡¯s too low. I want to go on your shoulders!"

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Was he going to ask to be lifted to the heavens next?

    "You are no longer afraid to fall?" Xuanmin asked.

    Xue Xian snapped back, "Do you have uneven shoulders? Do you bounce them as you walk? As long as you walk steady, I won''t fall."

    Xuanmin knew he could not win an argument with this mouthy niezhang. He shook his head and said in a resigned voice, "Come up."

    Then he stopped paying attention to Xue Xian, and began to walk away.

    Still leaning out of the pouch, Xue Xian waited a while, yet Xuanmin did not extend a hand to help him climb. Soon, irritated, Xue Xian said, "Give me a hand.¡± [e]

    Xuanmin replied coldly, "Do it yourself."

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    For a daye like Xue Xian to scurry around all over the ground was highly humiliating ¨C¨C he would rather die than do that. But to climb up someone''s arm like a monkey on a tree... That was tolerable. He looked up and assessed the height of the bald donkey''s head, then deigned to reach out with his two dragon claws and grab onto the bald donkey¡¯s robes.

    The material of Xuanmin''s religious robes was quite peculiar. What kind of hemp was it cut from? Its texture was thick, yet also rather soft, and as white as snow with no trace of dirt. All in all, it just didn''t look like robes an ordinary monk could afford.

    And there was... an indescribable smell.

    Like a pine forest deep in the mountains, covered in fresh snow.

    Thanks to the feather-light weight of his paper body, Xue Xian was able to make a beeline from Xuanmin¡¯s hip to his collar.

    Once he''d arrived at the collar, it would have been easy work to swing himself up to the monk''s shoulders. But Xue Xian refused to do that. He pressed himself against Xuanmin¡¯s collar and looked around for a bit, then lifted his head.

    From this unique position, he could see Xuanmin''s slender, pointed chin. If he went further up, he¡¯d lose sight of it.

    Xue Xian coiled his body, then pounced. He grabbed onto Xuanmin''s chin, then, faster than someone escaping a fire, he clambered up to the bridge of Xuanmin¡¯s nose. Next he went across Xuanmin''s brows, and used that as leverage to jump down sideways onto Xuanmin¡¯s shoulder. In that moment, Xue Xian was able to perfectly demonstrate the idiom, ¡®Kicking one¡¯s nose and stepping on their face¡¯. [f]

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian did not seem afraid of anything at all: there was no way this was an ordinary little yao. Yet his body¡¯s spiritual power [g] was weak, so Xuanmin found it impossible to ascertain what this niezhang¡¯s origins were.

    And speaking of his body...

    Xuanmin glanced at the paper man on his shoulder and said, "Back there, you told the ghost scholar that you had not yet passed."

    Xue Xian adjusted his position until he found a comfortable position. Leaning back leisurely and forcing himself to sound casual, he said, "Yep. So you can''t capture me. It''s malpractice."

    Instead of following his line of thought, Xuanmin asked another question: "Where is your real body?"

    Some bastards [h] really know how to speak. They always manage to pick the most vulnerable, inappropriate questions to ask.

    That little reed Jiang Shining was one such type. This bald donkey, too.

    Where was his real body?

    Unfortunately, even Xue Xian wasn''t sure.

    His memories of that day in Huameng County, by the sea, when they''d taken out his spine, were overwhelmed by the tempest sending violent waves crashing onto the beach. The waves had swallowed him whole and brought him into the sea. Consumed by agony, he had lost consciousness after that, and by the time he¡¯d been in possession of his faculties again, he had found that his soul had already left his body.

    Without a soul to provide support, that maimed, dishevelled body had been unable to maintain its original appearance. In an act of self-defense, it had shrunk itself into a small golden marble. [i]

    He had hoped to pocket the marble and wait until his soul had healed enough to be able to recover his original form. But the heavens played a cruel prank. Before he had had the opportunity to regain his senses, a great wave had washed that golden marble onto shore. Xue Xian had been forced to remain in the water and watch through the waves as men in fishermen¡¯s garb had taken the marble away.

    By the time he¡¯d become fully awake and had wanted to go after them, the men had disappeared without a trace.

    Whenever Xue Xian remembered this, it made him furious. He snapped, "I''m still looking for it!"

    Xuanmin glanced at him again. How could he have managed to lose his own body? This niezhang seemed capable of anything.

    It wasn''t that Xue Xian didn''t take it seriously. But compared to his need to obtain revenge for the maiming, finding his body was a lot easier. It was just that now, his spiritual energy [j] had been so diminished that he could no longer feel a bond with his real body anymore. Once he healed some more, he would become sensitive to his own body again, and be able to track it down with no effort at all.

    At the same time, there was a difference between not actively looking for something, and that thing showing up at his front door.

    Xue Xian recalled that weng sound he''d heard earlier and couldn¡¯t help muttering to himself, "This compound''s configuration is str¨C¨C"

    As Xue Xian had been speaking, Xuanmin had been taking him on a stroll around the compound, snooping into halls and rooms. They had gone through two narrow doors and a corridor, and Xuanmin had been about to open another narrow door.

    Thus, Xue Xian was in the middle of saying ¡®strange¡¯ when he cut himself off and hurriedly said, "Hold on! This place looks familiar."

    More than familiar...

    Those stone floor tiles, that building with the wooden carvings over the doors, even that wizened tree whose branches stretched out beyond the compound and the ivy that clung to the wall... Wasn''t this the exact place where Xue Xian had woken up?!

    He had let the bald donkey lead the way, and they''d ended up in exactly the same place?!

    Xuanmin shook his head. "Before, it was false. This is real."

    Xue Xian glared at the monk. Alright. Since this bald donkey knows his way around the cosmological practices of the Eight Doors, his calculations shouldn''t be wrong. If he says this place is real, then it¡¯s real¡­

    "So now that we''ve found the real version, what do we do?" Xue Xian watched as the bald donkey crossed the threshold of the narrow door and made his way toward that deserted building.

    Xuanmin said, "This is the life door. Crossing it will break the array.¡±

    Just as Xue Xian opened his mouth to speak, he heard low voices from inside the building that was, by all measures, supposed to be empty.

    Xuanmin immediately halted his steps, turned on his heels, and silently hid himself and the paper man on his shoulder behind a pillar farther down the corridor.

    How could there be people around?

    Still clinging to Xuanmin''s shoulder, Xue Xian gingerly stuck his head around the pillar to see ¨C¨C luckily, his paper body was subtle, and nobody would be able to notice him.

    The voices from inside the shack became clearer. That intonation sounded quite familiar. It was only when the building¡¯s doors opened with a creak and someone awkwardly stuck a leg over the threshold, stepping out, that Xue Xian abruptly realised ¨C¨C this was the voice of the fool, Liu Chong. [k]

    Could it really be this easy to find the others trapped in the array? Who was Liu Chong speaking to ¨C¨C Jiang Shining?

    But Xue Xian wasn''t one to act on impulse. [l] It took only one look for him to notice something odd.

    The thick overcoat that Liu Chong was wearing looked different from before. Previously, it had been bluish-gray. Now, it was a dusty red, with a crimson design lining the sleeves ¨C¨C the robes had a celebratory look to them, as though made to be worn for a special event.

    As they watched, Liu Chong stopped right by the doorway, then turned around to help another person out of the building.

    He was so clumsy that even helping someone else walk looked like it took great effort. Yet he seemed extremely focused.

    The person leaning against his arm and limping out the door was an old lady. Her thinning white hair was in a small, drab bun that hung limply from the back of her head. Her look was haggard, her eyelids drooped, and deep wrinkles criss-crossed her face. Her lips were tinged with a purple shade. It was obvious that she was gravely ill.

    Her hand gripped Liu Chong''s forearm like an age-old tree entangled in muddy soil. Her other hand held a worn wooden cane. Even with all the help, she struggled to cross the threshold.

    The old woman¡¯s legs were weak, and, to her, that threshold was simply too high.

    The old lady finally made her way across and leaned against her cane to rest. She smiled back at Liu Chong, and opened her shrunken lips to croon, "Good [m] Chong-er, go inside and get me a stool."

    Liu Chong nodded. As he went in, the old lady added, "Oh, and the lanterns and ingots."

    Liu Chong [k] probably struggled to keep track of more than one thing at a time. The old lady had given him three requests in a row, which was likely too complicated for him. [k] With one foot in the door and one foot out, Liu Chong stared cluelessly at the old woman and forcefully repeated, "Stool... ingots?"

    The old lady breathed an inaudible sigh, then smiled again. "Yes, Chong-er is so smart."

    Liu Chong flashed back a dumb-looking [k] smile, then hurried into the shack. After a moment, he returned with the stool in one hand and a large cloth bundle in another. With his hands full, Liu Chong [k] seemed to forget how to walk. He paused in front of the threshold, hesitating, then finally managed to take a step back out. He stumbled toward the old woman and handed her the stool and the bundle.

    He had probably wanted to put the stool down and then open the bundle, but with his clumsiness, the stool almost fell sideways and the bundle ended up tied into an impossible knot. Although he had come to help, he was in fact making things more difficult.

    But the old lady did not display any hint of impatience, nor did her warm smile waver. She said to Liu Chong, "Now go in and get me two lanterns."

    Liu Chong felt praised by her words. "Ai!" he said energetically, going back into the room and soon re-emerging with two red lanterns.

    "It''s Xiao Nian. [n] Time to swap out these white lanterns." The old woman directed Liu Chong to replace the lanterns by the doorway with the joyful red ones, then sat down onto her stool, squinting as she studied the knot on the bundle.

    After some time, she managed to untie it.

    As the bundle fell open, the pile of paper ingots inside spilled out onto the floor.

    Carefully, the old woman felt inside the bundle and procured a single match. Using the flames of the white lanterns that she had just taken down, she lit the match, then threw it onto the pile of ingots.

    A warm yellow fire leapt into the air, and the ingots immediately shrivelled up, as though the soul had been sucked out of them. One ingot by the side of the pile did not catch fire, but was blown by the wind toward the pillar. Discreetly, Xuanmin shot out a hand, and the ingot floated into his palm.

    Xuanmin turned the ingot upside-down, and just as he''d thought, there was text written at the bottom in the same nonsense handwriting ¨C¨C more of Liu Chong''s [k] work.

    Xue Xian tilted his head to read the text, and realised that this was a name ¨C¨C Liu Xian.

    He thought back to that pile of indecipherable ingots by Liu Chong''s bed and wondered, Did those say Liu Xian too?

    But it couldn''t have been. Liu Chong clearly knew how to write the characters for Liu Xian properly ¨C¨C how could it have become a scribble later on? Based on the ink strokes, there were more than two characters on those ingots.

    Xuanmin took a look at the text on the ingot, then let go. The paper ingot was picked up by the wind again and flew back into the now dying fire, where the fire licked up and swallowed it without a trace.

    As the old woman fanned the remaining flames, she rambled, "This year my health isn''t great. I can''t bend my waist anymore. There are fewer ingots this year than previously, but I hope it''s enough for you."

    Liu Chong sat on the threshold, listening with quiet focus. Suddenly, he ran back into the room and came out with a stack of yellow sheets of paper in his arms. He knelt down and began to make folds in the papers, saying, "I know... I know how. Let me."

    The old woman turned to watch him. Beneath the warm glow of the fire, her expression of love was mixed with concern.

    Liu Chong was usually very clumsy, but as he set his mind to folding the ingots, he seemed much more adept ¨C¨C he was clearly used to helping out with them. He finished folding one and held it in his palm, then flashed the old woman a dopey smile, [o] eagerly waiting for her to praise him.

    The old woman chuckled. "My Chong-er¡¯s ingots are better than mine."

    "Here¨C¨C" Liu Chong handed the ingot to the old woman, gesturing for her to throw it into the fire.

    The old lady waved her hand. "No rush. We''ll burn these next time. These don''t have names, so we can''t burn them, or else the ghosts won''t know who they''re for, and your grandfather won''t know to receive them."

    Liu Chong nodded thoughtfully, then bowed his head to fold more ingots.

    The old lady used her cane to tap on the ground, extinguishing some of the sparks there. Then, she spread the ashes and made sure that more of the paper money was being picked up by the flame. As she did this, she muttered to herself, "Get the ingots, eat well, play well. May you peacefully climb mountains of gold and mountains of silver." [p]

    Liu Chong continued to fold his ingots, and mumbled along with the old lady: "Eat well, play well. May you peacefully climb¡­ mountains of gold and mountains of silver."

    Soon, the bundle of paper ingots was burned to ash. The old lady knocked her cane on the ground and took Liu Chong back into the building. Immediately after they entered, there was a crash: probably Liu Chong had bumped into something. This sound was followed by the sound of something shattering, as though some ceramic item had been smashed.

    "Do not worry, it''s fine, ah, it''s fine," the old lady¡¯s gentle voice said. It seemed that Liu Chong had been frightened by the noise, and she was now consoling him.

    Soon, the old lady and Liu Chong came out of the building again.

    Wrapped inside the front part of the old woman''s robe were some broken pieces of ceramic, and Liu Chong was holding...

    Xue Xian peered at it from beyond the pillar. It looked like a tiny copper mirror.

    What was the copper mirror for?

    Xue Xian was confused.

    He watched as the old lady directed Liu Chong into digging a hole in the soil by the old tree¡¯s roots. She put the ceramic flakes into the earth, then the copper mirror. As they buried the mirror, the old woman muttered, "Bury a mirror, turn evil omens into good omens. May the broken pieces rest in peace." [q]

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    After burying the ceramic flakes and the copper mirror, the two figures went back into the building.

    Liu Chong may be dim-witted, [k] but he knew to respect his elders. [r] He made sure to help the old lady into the room before crossing the threshold himself.

    Xue Xian turned to Xuanmin and asked quietly, "This life door is behaving strangely. Do we have to watch these scenes from the past before it¡¯ll let us out?¡±

    Xuanmin frowned and put his fingers to his lips, warning Xue Xian to be quiet.

    Too late. They watched as Liu Chong froze in the middle of stepping into the building ¨C¨C he seemed to have heard something. Puzzled, he stuck his head out and looked around. By some stroke of luck, he looked in the direction of the pillar and made direct eye contact with Xue Xian.

    Normally, it would be hard to distinguish the specific facial features of such a small paper man even from three cun [s] away. With their current distance of seven or eight steps, Xue Xian should have been practically invisible.

    Yet Liu Chong was able to see Xue Xian.

    Xue Xian wasn''t sure if he was hallucinating, but he felt that Liu Chong''s usually dim-witted gaze [t] gained a sense of sharpness in that moment. Those pitch-black pupils stared, unmoving, at him from across the hall ¨C¨C it was uncanny somehow.

    In that instant, the wind that had been blowing across the courtyard began to howl again, and seemed to completely change direction. The sudden shift was terrifying. As Liu Chong took a step out of the door, there also came the sound of uneven steps from within the building: shuffling close together, yet heavy and lumbering. It didn''t sound at all like the old lady.

    Xuanmin stepped away from the pillar. Just as Liu Chong began walking toward the, Xuanmin slipped through the narrow door and hid behind the doorway.

    The ominous shuffling noise did not stop ¨C¨C in fact, it seemed to get ever closer.

    Xuanmin paused to look around, then chose the corridor to his right. He crossed the courtyard diagonally, ignoring all the main doors but making a beeline to the narrow door in the other corner.

    "What just happened? Why did things suddenly change?" Xue Xian was gripping onto the monk''s collar as tightly as he could. He couldn¡¯t help but steal a quick glance behind him, and saw that the old woman and the youth had followed them through the narrow door. Their jerking movements and strange expressions took on a hollow, deadly tinge.

    "I do not know how, but the life door has changed to the death door," Xuanmin replied as he pushed open the new narrow door.

    Xue Xian said, "¡­So the eight doors are different from your calculations?"

    "Mn."

    "What happens if we accidentally go into the death door?" Xue Xian asked.

    Xuanmin calmly said, "It sends a ripple across the whole array. [u] All the doors will begin to behave strangely. We must not let ourselves be seen by those people. Once they notice us, they will chase us."

    ¡°...¡± Xue Xian thought of the change in the old woman and young boy''s behavior. He asked, "Chase us? Until when?"

    "Only death will stop them."

    ¡°...¡±

    In the time it took for them to speak, Xuanmin had crossed the threshold and walked through the narrow door. This time, it led them to a large hall, where for some reason a few servants were gathered around a table. One of the girls [v] said, "The lao-taitai [w] isn''t getting any better. Her complexion has actually gotten worse. Could the Jiangs¡¯ medicine be faulty? The quack is going to get her killed!"

    Another, round-faced girl said, "We don''t know anything about medicine. All we can do is make sure lao-taitai is comfortable. Last night was so frightening, lao-taitai couldn''t breathe at all. Thankfully I gathered the courage to pound her back. Is it the two of you watching over her tonight? You must be careful!"

    She was interrupted by another servant girl running into the room, breathlessly saying, "Quick! Come quickly! I fear lao-taitai is¨C¨C"

    Before she could finish speaking, Xuanmin left their hiding place and hurried back out of the narrow door. Xue Xian couldn''t help but look back. He slapped Xuanmin hard in the face and said, "They''ve seen us! They saw us again! Let''s go!"

    With that, the footsteps inside the room changed rhythm, and the servants began a heavy shuffle toward the door.

    They''d only opened two doors, and had already pissed off seven or eight strange spirits [x] who were now chasing them everywhere they went. Things were getting out of hand!

    The bald donkey returned to the courtyard and didn¡¯t hesitate to pick a third narrow door, rushing toward it.

    Xue Xian ¡°...¡± Oh, zuzong, think carefully before you open that door!

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Thank you so much to those below~ I only started writing this recently, but I¡¯ve already received so much money, I feel rather apologetic. I am already really happy that everyone is enjoying their reading and leaving comments~ You can hold back on the money, kiss kiss!~

    [Acknowledgments]

    ---

    [a] In Chinese, Xue Xian is described as ¡°taking on the shape of the ´ó character¡±.

    [b] In Chinese, he uses ÀÍ¼Ý (lao2 jia4), a polite way of saying ¡°please¡±.

    [c] Musuli uses the phrase ¡°flip/disturb the heavens¡± here.

    [d] Musuli uses the phrase ÀÍÊ²×Ó (lao2 shi2 zi), a colloquial noun meaning ¡°nuisance¡±.

    [e] Xue Xian literally says, ¡°Hand?¡± or ¡°Where¡¯s the hand?¡± here in a demanding manner, but I like the pun in ¡°Give me a hand¡± better.

    [f] This idiom refers to when person A kindly and politely overlooks person B¡¯s shortcomings in order to save face for person B; but instead of being meek and grateful, person B then behaves arrogantly and shows no contrition. The idiom could be compared to ¡°biting the hand that feeds you¡± in English, but is also slightly different.

    [g] Musuli uses Ô­ÉíÆøÏ¢ (yuan2 shen1 qi4 xi1), literally ¡°original body smell/flavor¡±, where the word for smell/flavor contains the character for ¡°qi¡±: Æø. This phrase is webnovel shorthand for some kind of magical or spiritual power on someone¡¯s body or within an object, where the power is not strictly tied to qi or to a specific magical system. Such a phrase is useful, for instance, when a character doesn¡¯t actually know how the person/object in question sources and uses magic. Basically, it means ¡°magic vibes¡±.

    [h] Musuli uses °ôé³ (bang4 chui2). It means a wooden bat used to beat clothes in washing, but is used to mean ¡°ignorant person¡± or ¡°fool¡±.

    [i] The Chinese character here is Öé (zhu1), which means ¡°pearl¡± but is also a word generally used for any kind of bead or small-ish, ball-shaped thing. Because of the fact that it¡¯s golden and the way it¡¯s depicted in the story, I chose ¡°marble¡± in English.

    [j] Musuli uses ÔªÆø (yuan2 qi4) here, where Æø is qi, and Ôª is a complicated character whose meanings include ¡°first¡±, ¡°original¡±, ¡°fundamental¡±, or ¡°part/constituent¡±. Put together, ÔªÆø means ¡°vitality¡±, ¡°vigor¡±, or ¡°vital energy¡±. I¡¯ve translated it as ¡°spiritual energy¡±, because in this context Xue Xian is not only injured flesh-wise, but also power/strength-wise.

    [k] Musuli uses Éµ×Ó (sha3 zi), which means ¡°idiot¡±. Sometimes when I use this footnote, she is using Éµ by itself, which is an adjective rather than a noun, meaning ¡°idiotic¡±.

    [l] Musuli says here that Xue Xian was ¡°not a Ã§·ò¡±, where Ã§·ò (mang3 fu1), literally ¡°large/brash man¡±, means ¡°boor¡±.

    [m] The specific praise used toward Liu Chong here is ¡°capable¡±, but it sounds stilted in English.

    [n] Ð¡Äê (xiao3 nian2) Xiao Nian, also known as Little New Year, takes place on the 23rd or 24th day of the twelfth month in the lunar calendar, right before the Lunar New Year. It is also known as the Kitchen God¡¯s festival, as a paper effigy for the Kitchen God is burned, so that he may report on the family to the Jade Emperor for reward or punishment.

    [o] Musuli uses º©Éµ (han1 sha3) to describe Liu Chong¡¯s expression here. It comes the word for ¡°silly/foolish/na?ve¡± with Éµ (see footnote k).

    [p] This saying (which Musuli made up for the old lady character) has an original rhythm of 4-4-4-4: four 4-character phrases.

    [q] This saying (which Musuli made up for the old lady character) has an original rhythm of 4-5-4: 4 characters, 5 characters, 4 characters.

    [r] In Chinese, the word here is Ð¢Ë³ (xiao4 shun4), which means filial duty.

    [s] 3 cun: about 10 cm.

    [t] Musuli uses ³ÕÓÞ (chi1 yu2), which combines ¡°foolish¡±/¡±crazy¡± with another, slightly more formal word for ¡°fool/ish¡±.

    [u] Musuli uses Ð×¾³ (xiong1 jing4) here. Ð× means ¡°evil¡± and ¾³ means ¡°place¡±.

    [v] Musuli uses Ñ¾Í· (ya1 tou), which means ¡°servant girl¡±.

    [w] Lao-taitai: see glossary.

    [x] Musuli uses the phrase ¡°things, and it was unknown whether they were human or ghosts¡±.

 CH 10

    The Liu compound may have been a dizzying labyrinth of courtyards, wings, rooms, and dead ends, but it was ultimately still an ordinary rectangular compound with ordinary dimensions. The more one was interested in feng shui design, the less likely one¡¯s compound was to have an irregular or unpredictable setup. Though there were countless walls and doors, it was impossible to lose track of the following eight directions: north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest.

    And these eight directions happened to correspond with: harm door, fear door, scenery door, rest door, delusion door, death door, life door.

    Normally, out of the Eight Doors, the three auspicious doors were the open door, the rest door, and the life door. The death door, the fear door, and the harm door were the three inauspicious doors. The scenery doors and delusion doors were neutral, and maintained balance between good and evil.

    But auspicious, inauspicious, and neutral weren''t immutable categories. There was a folk saying that went: ¡®When an auspicious door is subdued, it cannot do good; when an inauspicious door is subdued, it cannot do evil.¡¯ So if the life door was used for a yang home or a living person, then it would be auspicious, but if used for a yin home or a dead person, then it would be inauspicious. Similarly, if used on a dead person or a yin home, a death door could also be highly auspicious.

    So what did this entail? For living beings like Xue Xian and Xuanmin, all they had to do was find the life door, and they''d be able to escape the array safe and healthy.

    Under peaceful circumstances, it was easy to calculate which of the Eight Doors was which. But if, for some strange reason, the doors began to shift, that made things complicated.

    Xue Xian and Xuanmin now found themselves in such a situation. Somehow, the life door had become a death door. Not only had they been unable to escape from the array, but now all sorts of evil spirits [a] were after them.

    Despite all that, there was not even a hint of hesitation in Xuanmin¡¯s hand as he pushed open door after door. Xue Xian didn¡¯t even have time to ask him to reconsider!

    If this had happened to an able-bodied Xue Xian, with his ¡®pierce the heavens and shake the earth¡¯ temper, he would''ve said, Fuck these eight or nine doors of death and life! Kick them down one by one and we¡¯ll be bound to find the exit! If that fails, I''ll call down some thunder and make this place explode!

    He was certain that if he were still in possession of his powers, he would never have been vanquished by this low-level trick.

    But reality was different: Xuanmin was the boss, and Xue Xian was nothing but a small paper man hiding on someone else¡¯s shoulder.

    He and Xuanmin had barely known each other for a shichen ¨C¨C a few cups of tea¡¯s time. From only these brief interactions, Xue Xian couldn¡¯t begin to imagine how powerful the bald donkey might actually be. He had the arrogance of a high priest for sure, and sometimes seemed to be able to bluff his way through things, but Xue Xian had not yet seen him do anything real yet.

    For instance: could he summon thunder and bring rain? Could he save a lost, rogue ghost like Jiang Shining and help the poor man transcend? If it came down to a fight, could he beat up a resentful dead grandma? [b]

    The most important question was whether he could beat up a resentful dead grandma.

    And Xue Xian really didn¡¯t think Xuanmin could.

    The bald donkey captured yao using random pieces of copper sheet.

    Xue Xian asked himself, Have you ever seen a master [c] who captured yao by shovelling them?

    Xue Xian replied: Never!

    Xuanmin frowned and glanced at his shoulder, where the niezhang was muttering to himself. Xuanmin¡¯s slender, beautiful finger was still poised against the door in front of them. When he''d opened the other doors, he''d been careful not to make a sound. Now, they''d been exposed, so there was no need to sneak around. He slammed the door open gracelessly.

    The narrow crimson door suddenly burst forth and smashed into the wall beside it with a clang.

    Just as Xuanmin was going to step inside, he saw that the palm-sized paper man on his shoulder seemed to become restless again: without a word of explanation, the paper man was now clambering down Xuanmin¡¯s robes. The paper man went from the high place that he had just claimed was ¡®a better view¡¯ down to Xuanmin¡¯s hip. He faced Xuanmin and hung his head in silence for a moment, and then followed the stitching of Xuanmin¡¯s robes to slide back into the pouch. He even obediently sealed the pouch shut after himself.

    From the top of Xue Xian¡¯s head to the soles of his feet, the message was crystal clear: You can go die. I''m getting out of here.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Behind this narrow door was a regular-looking rectangular courtyard, with a front hall to the south and a main hall to the north, and corridors on both sides. The strange thing was, despite Xuanmin''s utterly conspicuous manner of opening the door, he hadn''t seemed to have alerted anyone here. Inside the pouch, Xue Xian waited with a clenched jaw, but did not hear any lumbering, shuffling footsteps either. He couldn''t help but stick his head out of the pouch again.

    There was not a single soul in the courtyard ¨C¨C it was almost peaceful. However, they could hear the dim sound of laughter coming from the front hall: it sounded like Liu-shiye.

    Xue Xian had long decided that he thoroughly disliked Liu-shiye. But he was quite curious as to what was going on in the front hall.

    Just as Xue Xian was thinking this, Xuanmin crossed the threshold into the courtyard and began to silently walk down the corridor toward the back door of the front hall.

    Since they were approaching from the back door, they could not see what was happening inside ¨C- their point of view was blocked by a large screen in front of the door, around which anyone wanting to walk into the hall needed to detour. Xue Xian watched, panicking, as this bald donkey had the audacity to step right over the threshold and walk directly to the screen. Xuanmin positioned himself behind the screen, and now they could hear each and every word coming from inside.

    Xue Xian wasn''t sure how many people were gathered in the front hall, but he could only hear two voices. One of them was Liu-shiye, and the other belonged to some guest of his. From the intonation and speed of his speech, this guest seemed to be an old man.

    The old man said, "By the way, a rumor has been making its way across town. I''m not sure if it''s true."

    Liu-shiye asked, "What rumor?"

    "The fire at the Jiang compound. Have you heard about this, old friend?"

    ¡°Of course, of course." For some reason, the shiye¡¯s tone was unnaturally dry. He repeated himself again, then raised his teacup and took a sip. He coughed a couple of times, then finally said, "The yamen organised the funeral, actually. The Jiangs were burnt to a crisp. If not for the coroner, we might never have been able to identify the victims."

    "To think that, in my many visits to this town, I''d once had the opportunity to meet Jiang-furen¡­ Who could¡¯ve thought ¨C¨C Ah!" The old man sighed, then added, "The rumor is, though, that you sought treatment for your esteemed mother [d] at Doctor Jiang''s, but the medicine was wrongly used, and that that''s what caused your esteemed mother''s death. This..."

    Liu-shiye took another sip of tea. Even the sound of him swallowing could be heard clearly by Xue Xian.

    Liu-shiye seemed to be trying to suppress some kind of emotion, but he also seemed to be in a thoughtful mood, as though he were up to something. After two consecutive sips of tea, he slammed the teacup loudly on the table, suddenly shouting, "Don¡¯t bring this up again! The Jiang family got what they deserved. I don''t harbor a grudge against them anymore! But my poor old mother. She''d worked hard for half of her life and had finally retired, and been able to enjoy a few years of joy, only to... Ah..."

    Hearing how upset Liu-shiye was, the old man consoled him. "Yes, let''s not talk about it. Quack doctors do such harm to people..."

    Hearing this, Xue Xian frowned.

    He suddenly remembered the night that he''d first arrived at the ruined Jiang compound. All that was left of the large mansion had been a pile of ruins and dead grass. The atmosphere had been gloomy and miserable. Although the compound never lacked sunshine during the day, there was an overwhelming air of grief about the place. As Xue Xian rode the winter wind into the courtyard, he had come face to face with Jiang Shining, who had been sitting in a corner.

    That''s when Xue Xian had realised that the inconsolable grief had been emanating from this rogue ghost.

    But Jiang Shining had been extremely confused. He could only remember a few things from his lifetime, and nothing from after he''d died.

    Xue Xian had asked, "What are you doing here all alone? When you die, you''re supposed to go get reborn. If you wait too long in the yang realm and miss your opportunity, then you''ll be in real trouble."

    Jiang Shining had stared at him cluelessly for a bit, then said, "Oh, I''m waiting for my parents so that we can go together. They''re getting old: they need me to take care of them."

    Xue Xian had wondered if this rogue ghost had read too many books while alive ¨C¨C had the books rotted his brain? It all sounded like fantastical nonsense.

    "So where are your parents?" Xue Xian had asked, pained.

    Jiang Shining had sighed. "They must''ve taken a wrong turn. Unfortunately, I don''t have a proper body, so I''m not even able to leave this courtyard. If only I could go looking for them."

    Xue Xian had stared at him for a moment, then had said, "Alright, I''ll help you. But I have a condition."

    "Tell me," Jiang Shining said.

    "Let me stay here for a few days."

    ¡­

    After Xue Xian gave Jiang Shining his new paper body, Jiang Shining had spent every night walking the town in search of his parents'' ghosts. In three days, he had walked through the whole town twice, but found nothing.

    Xue Xian¡¯s guess was that the Jiang parents had probably already moved on. Now, though, as he listened to Liu-shiye speak, he suddenly began to develop a vague new theory.

    Just as Xue Xian wanted to climb back up to the bald donkey''s shoulder and tell him his new idea, there was a movement in the front hall.

    Liu-shiye said, "Right. Last time I told you that I obtained a new collector''s item. [e] I wanted to show it to you, old friend, see what you thought. I''d almost forgotten. Come, come, let¡¯s go to the back."

    As he heard this, Xue Xian poked Xuanmin as hard as he could.

    But being made of paper, he had no strength at all. Though he''d wanted to poke Xuanmin, it was more of a light scratch.

    Xuanmin felt the niezhang scratching at his hip and frowned. He turned to leave the hall, but as he did, he discovered that there was someone standing behind him.

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses the chengyu Å£¹íÉßÉñ (niu2 gui3 she2 shen2), literally ¡°cow ghosts, snake gods¡± to describe the unknown, miscellaneous evil spirits that are chasing Xue Xian and Xuanmin.

    [b] Musuli phrases this as, ¡°the old lady with the small feet who was most likely a resentful ghost¡±. I opted for a shorter, punchier English phrasing because this part is supposed to be humorous. My beta Rogue inspired this phrasing!

    [c] Musuli uses ¸ßÈË (gao1 ren2) here, literally ¡°great/mighty/noble person¡±. Since this is not a title (not used to directly address someone) but a descriptor, I have chosen to translate rather than transcribe it.

    [d] In Chinese, the word is Áî´È (ling4 ci2), which is an honorific meaning ¡°your esteemed mother¡±.

    [e] Musuli uses ÑÅÎï (ya3 wu4), literally ¡°elegant object¡±.

 CH 11

    This person had uncannily black eyes that betrayed not the tiniest glint of light, giving him a highly haunted look. Beneath his eyes were two shadowy circles, the darkness of which set off his deathly pale skin. The chilling appearance was enough to paralyse someone with fear. An ordinary person, faced with such a thing right behind them, would have jumped so high with fright that they might have shot through the roof.

    Of course, Xuanmin and Xue Xian were not ordinary people.

    Of the two of them, one¡¯s courage came from his arrogance, and the other was a creature mightier than the eight winds [a] who, in all his life, had probably never even bothered to learn the characters for the word ¡®afraid¡¯.

    Thus, the ice pillar bald donkey and the niezhang tucked into the pouch by his hip both wore completely unfazed expressions as they stared back at this newcomer.

    The newcomer looked behind him, panicked, then brought a hand to his heart. "Why did you turn around so suddenly? Scared me to death."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± Yep, this bookworm has definitely been turned stupid by all his books.

    The man standing behind them was none other than Jiang Shining.

    When Xue Xian had spotted him, his first thought had been one of worry: If this bookworm heard what Liu-shiye said, he would surely roll up his sleeves and go into the hall to start a brawl. Though I don''t know if this reed would actually be able to win against those two old guys.

    But, from Jiang Shining¡¯s tone, it was clear that Jiang Shining had not overheard what Liu-shiye had been saying about his late parents.

    Xue Xian was rather glad: At least I don''t have to worry about the bookworm knocking on death''s door. Leaning out of Xuanmin''s pouch, Xue Xian waved at Jiang Shining with disdain. "Time to leave. Let''s go, let''s go."

    "Why are we in such a hurry?" Although Jiang Shining often bickered with Xue Xian, he was actually of weak spirit ¨C¨C or else he would never have allowed Xue Xian to order him about these past few days. Not only had he suffered through Xue Xian''s company, he¡¯d had to buy Xue Xian food, too.

    So although his mouth was saying ¡®Why?¡¯, his body was already obeying Xue Xian''s words. He swiftly turned around and stepped out of the hall¡¯s back door. Despite having no idea what was going on, he did not waste any time.

    Seeing this, Xuanmin, who had just lifted his hand, now dropped it. Xue Xian asked, "Bald donkey, why did you lift your hand? Did you finally get enough of the bookworm¡¯s stupidity and decide to beat him up?"

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡± Based on that logic, Xue Xian was the one who deserved to get beat up first.

    ¡°...¡± Jiang Shining asked, "What did I do? Why do you want to hit me?"

    "Shut up and walk," Xue Xian said.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    This restless one had the gall to complain about other people speaking too much!

    Xue Xian wasn¡¯t wrong. Jiang Shining was a rogue ghost, and Xue Xian had helped anchor his soul to a physical object ¨C¨C in this case, paper ¨C¨C in order to take on a human form. But such a form was maintained entirely through pockets of yin energy. At the crook of his neck, around three cun down from the back of his head, he had a mingmen pressure point. [b] Were Xuanmin to strike the mingmen using the side of his hand like a knife, that strike would force out all the yin energy gathered in that spot, and Jiang Shining would revert to his original paper form.

    Xuanmin had feared that Jiang Shining would accidentally destroy their escape plan, so had intended to turn him back into a paper man and make him easier to handle. Xuanmin already had a half-paralysed rascal [c] to worry about; having to deal with an able-bodied one as well would be even more chaotic.

    It turned out that this one was actually obedient. Xuanmin found him tolerable. So he dropped his hand again. Now, Xuanmin briskly followed Jiang Shining out of the door.

    Xuanmin reached out and grabbed Jiang Shining by the collar, then turned on his heels and concealed them both behind the wall that separated the front hall and the corridor. When Xuanmin didn''t want to make any noise, he really could be totally silent: not a single step of his could be heard. His religious robes were light and airy. As he walked, the white cloth swept past the branches of a nearby tree, then settled again once he arrived at the foot of the wall ¨C¨C yet the robes did not pick up a single fleck of dirt, nor did it graze the branches of that tree.

    Xue Xian looked at those undisturbed branches, and looked at the copper coin pendant that hung by Xuanmin¡¯s hip. This is one mysterious bald donkey, he thought.

    Xuanmin had picked the right moment to hide. Just as the corner of his white robe settled, Liu-shiye and his old friend came out of the hall¡¯s back door. Perhaps because their age meant that their ears were no longer as sensitive, these two men seemed really not to have noticed anything amiss.

    From behind the wall, Jiang Shining saw Liu-shiye''s silhouette. Although he was unhappy to see the man, he was also confused ¨C¨C Why did Xuanmin hide when he saw the shiye? He seemed not to want to deal with the issue at all.

    Thankfully, Jiang Shining had a mortal fear of creating hassle for others: he never spoke out of turn, nor did he act rashly, nor did he ever do anything that might be inconvenient for anyone else. Thus, he pushed all his questions down into his stomach and obediently cowered behind the wall, watching as Liu-shiye and the stranger traversed the courtyard, ambling toward the main hall.

    Just as Liu-shiye made to cross into the main hall, a whimpering voice suddenly shouted, "Dad?"

    Xue Xian deadpanned, "Great. Now the real fool [d] is here. He''s picked the right time for sure."

    Indeed, it was unclear how Liu Chong had made his way here, but there he stood, beneath the eaves of the corridor, calling Liu-shiye: "Dad."

    The first thing Xue Xian did was take a look at his overcoat. The ¡®Liu Chong¡¯ they''d run into at the death door earlier had been wearing a dusty red robe, but the one in the corridor now was wearing a bluish-gray overcoat ¨C¨C the same outfit he¡¯d been wearing before they¡¯d gotten trapped in this array.

    Xuanmin stepped out from behind the wall. Moving so quickly that Liu-shiye could barely take notice, Xuanmin strided over to Liu Chong in big, sweeping steps, and grabbed him. Before Liu Chong could yelp in surprise, Xuanmin began to drag Liu Chong away with him to the narrow door. Thankfully, this middle courtyard was quite small, so all this happened in the blink of an eye.

    Liu-shoye, who had been standing shocked by the main hall, came back to his senses. His face went slack, and he began to march toward them.

    It was a good thing that Xuanmin had reacted so quickly. He was already through the door.

    Guang¨C¨C

    The narrow door was slammed shut by the monk, and Jiang Shining instinctively bolted the door behind them.

    But then Jiang Shining raised his head to take a look at the confused Liu Chong, [d] and he suddenly exclaimed, "Huh?¡±

    Xuanmin had let go of Liu Chong as soon as they¡¯d gone through the door. Xue Xian looked up at him and thought, This bald donkey looks skinny, but his grip is so fucking strong. Liu Chong isn''t made of paper like Jiang Shining, and his reflexes are slow, so it¡¯s hard to get him to cooperate properly. But Xuanmin had still managed to tow him all the way here. How strong is he?

    Xuanmin didn''t need to look down: even from his peripheral vision, he could see the niezhang looking up and staring at him. What was that one thinking about now?

    In any case, he was definitely up to no good.

    Without betraying a hint of emotion on his face, Xuanmin moved his hand to his hip and covered up that ugly ¡®sight for sore eyes¡¯, but then Xue Xian used both of his little hands to fight him off.

    What the fuck? thought Xue Xian. Who allowed you to touch a dragon''s head? How dare you?

    "H-his mole has switched places!" Jiang Shining shouted, pointing at Liu Chong. But then he suddenly felt rude about pointing directly at others. Embarrassed, he put his hand away and looked over awkwardly at Xuanmin.

    Xuanmin¡¯s hand that had been fighting with Xue Xian now froze.

    In a small voice, Jiang Shining asked, "Wasn''t it on the left side before? Why is it on the right side now?"

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Writing this made me feel a little creeped out, so¡­ so I¡¯ll end it here. Goodnight! There won¡¯t be this stuff tomorrow! (Doge face)

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses the phrase ¡°doesn¡¯t move even when being blown by eight winds¡± or ¡°cannot be knocked down by the force of eight winds¡±. This was hard to express succinctly in English, so I went for a more literal phrasing about Xue Xian¡¯s dragonhood, while keeping the ¡®eight winds¡¯ imagery.

    [b] Mingmen ÃüÃÅ (ming4 men2), literally ¡°life/destiny door/gate¡±, is a pressure point in the human body. It is located around the small of someone¡¯s back/waist.

    [c] Musuli uses the chengyu ÎÞ·¨ÎÞÌì (wu2 fa3 wu2 tian1), literally ¡°no laws, no heaven¡±, to describe Xue Xian¡¯s undisciplined, uncontrollable nature.

    [d] Musuli uses Éµ×Ó (sha3 zi), which means ¡°idiot¡±. Sometimes when I use this footnote, she is using Éµ by itself, which is an adjective rather than a noun, meaning ¡°idiotic¡±.

 CH 12

    Even as he spoke, Jiang Shining couldn''t help but shudder at the unthinkable implications of what he¡¯d said. Xue Xian happened to stick his head out of the pouch at that moment, and saw Jiang Shining shudder.

    Xue Xian had to admire the bookworm for this: A ghost scared of ghosts!

    And although Jiang Shining had spoken in a low and hurried voice, Xuanmin had heard what he¡¯d said. Xuanmin¡¯s brows knitted together, then relaxed again. Calmly, he said, "I see."

    "What the fuck do you see?" snapped Xue Xian.

    He had always had a bad temper, and Jiang Shining''s slow nature frustrated him. Now he had to deal with Xuanmin, who would stay calm even if the sky were falling down on his bald head! All this waiting around was killing Xue Xian. Without waiting for Xuanmin¡¯s reaction, Xue Xian silently tumbled out of the pouch and deftly grabbed onto Liu Chong¡¯s trousers, disappearing into the folds of his blue-grey overcoat.

    Xuanmin''s words seemed to jolt Liu Chong back to his senses. [a]

    Jiang Shining raised his head and locked eyes with Liu Chong.

    The pupils in those eyes were blurred, and looked as though no consciousness peeked out from behind them. It was terrifying. Just from looking into them, Jiang Shining thought he might piss his pants.

    Jiang Shining turned to run. Alas, encountering a ghost is like encountering a wild dog: when you first meet its eyes, it seems hesitant and confused, but as soon as you make a move, it will immediately pounce on you. Liu Chong emitted a low, dull roar from the back of his throat and, forgetting all about Xuanmin, charged at the fleeing Jiang Shining.

    The bookworm''s white face turned green. He wanted to scream, but forced himself to swallow it down. Even in such a critical moment, he was unable to let go of his junzi¡¯s decorum. He wanted to run, but he was afraid of looking bad when running, so one foot seemed to leap away while the other foot stood rooted in its spot. In his fright, he almost twisted himself into a knot.

    Guangdang¨C¨C

    Jiang Shining teetered left and right, then finally gave up worrying about humiliation and simply fell to the ground, his arms and legs splayed in all directions.

    This array¡¯s fake ¡®Liu Chong¡¯ gave a similar air of foolishness [b] as the real Liu Chong. Each of his movements was clumsy [c] and over-emphasised, and when he charged forward, he did so like a juggernaut ¨C¨C as though it were completely impossible to stop him.

    Jiang Shining watched as Liu Chong came running towards him like a tiger attacking its prey. He breathed a deep sigh and tried to tuck his neck into his shoulders, then shut his eyes.

    In that moment, there was a loud dong¨C¨C sound. Jiang Shining felt a sleeve sweep a gust of wind across his face, followed by a violent quake of the stone floor tiles beneath him. The ice-fold fingers that Jiang Shining had expected to feel against his neck never arrived.

    Grimacing, Jiang Shining carefully opened an eye ¨C¨C only to see Liu Chong splayed [d] on the ground in front of him. It seemed that, somehow, he had fallen flat on his face.

    The fool [b] had not expected to trip: due to his slow reflexes, he hadn''t even been able to stick out his arms to break the fall. Instead, he really had fallen face-first onto the ground.

    Stunned, Liu Chong scrambled upright and dusted the dirt off of his clothes. He was still staring down at the ground, mystified.

    It was then that Xue Xian slid out of Liu Chong''s bluish-gray overcoat, holding a long piece of string in his hands. It looked like...

    A belt?

    Jiang Shining looked back at Liu Chong and realised that the reason Liu Chong [b] had fallen over was because, just as he''d wanted to pounce, his pants had dropped to his ankles and gotten tangled up with his feet. With Liu Chong¡¯s naturally clumsy disposition [e] and less-than-nimble legs, the trousers had tripped him and caused a terrible fall. In fact, he had knocked his forehead against the ground, so although he stayed half-sitting on the ground, shaking his head, he could not shake the confusion away.

    As Xue Xian glided out with the belt, he casually threw the belt at Jiang Shining¡¯s face. "Don¡¯t just stand there, tie his [b] hands and feet together!"

    Then he glared at Xuanmin. "Pick me up, quickly. I almost tore my arm off trying to get that belt."

    Pick me up...

    Jiang Shining was speechless. How can a half-paralysed one still manage to jump up and down and run around like that?

    As he reflected on what had just occurred, Jiang Shining felt guilty: once again, he had been the weakest link and had created a hassle for everyone else. He decided to ignore whether the removal of someone¡¯s belt was against the junzi¡¯s code of conduct, and obediently began to use the long string to tie together Liu Chong¡¯s left hand and right leg. As he did so, he muttered, "Sorry."

    Xue Xian wrinkled his nose at Jiang Shining¡¯s ridiculous behavior.

    The lengths Xue Xian had gone to to help those two bastards ¨C¨C he, the handicapped one, [f] had actually lowered himself to the point of stealing someone¡¯s trouser belt! That bald donkey should''ve immediately knelt to the ground to show his eternal gratitude, and then raised Xue Xian up reverently with both hands and placed him back where he belonged. But the bald donkey didn''t look like he was even considering thanking Xue Xian ¨C¨C what a piece of shit! [g]

    Xue Xian glowered at Xuanmin, his painted face emitting a foul expression of hatred. Only then did he notice that Xuanmin¡¯s left hand was holding his copper coin pendant, as though planning something with them.

    Wait¡­ Was this bald donkey finally going to show some moves?

    Xuanmin had not expected belt-stealing to be a technique for subduing a ghost, nor had he ever expected events to develop in this manner. He had been stunned for a moment, then came back to his senses.

    But then, Xue Xian watched, aghast, as the monk calmly took his fingers away from the copper coin pendant.

    As he was picked up from the ground by Xuanmin, Xue Xian suddenly felt rather regretful: If I''d known, I never would''ve gone to take Liu Chong¡¯s [b] belt. I wanted to see what the bald donkey was made of!

    He had missed a golden opportunity, and felt deflated. His whole paper body fell limp and his head lolled to the side, so that he dangled from Xuanmin''s pouch like a hanged man.

    Xuanmin glanced at Xue Xian with a frown, puzzled as to what he was up to now. He reached over to rub the paper man''s head with the tip of his finger. As he did so, all the paper man did was raise his head weakly, and, as Xuanmin brought his finger away, the man fell limp again, as though all the bones in his body had melted away.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xuanmin was now certain that the niezhang was up to no good again. [h] He shook his head, then, still expressionless, said to Jiang Shining, "Let''s go."

    In that moment, the narrow door rattled in its frame as Liu-shiye began ramming into it. After just two assaults, even the wooden bolt seemed to quake.

    Guang¨C¨C guang¨C¨C guang¨C¨C

    Jiang Shining shuddered at the noise, and hurried to follow after Xuanmin.

    They crossed door after door in this labyrinthine compound and, at one point, ran into another crowd of people. The crowd had initially seemed ordinary, putting on a show of talking amongst themselves, but as soon as they¡¯d caught sight of Xuanmin and Jiang Shining, a ghostly aura had immediately possessed the crowd and they had begun acting aggressive. Running away from these oft-slow, oft-quick spirits was like flying a kite: no matter how close or how far the spirits were, they were relentless in their chase.

    As Jiang Shining ran through another doorway, his heart pounding in his chest, he took a head count: those running after them included not only the mass of the Liu family servants, but also three Liu-shiyes, two Liu Chongs, two old ladies clutching wooden canes...

    Among the crowd were two particularly weak-looking servant girls, but as they chased after Jiang Shining, they were able to shove an entire old tree out of the way. Sure, the tree looked like it had been on the brink of death anyway, but the girls had practically ripped the trunk in half. Did they have knives for hands?

    Jiang Shining was terrified. Before this, he had only just woken up in an empty room. He¡¯d only gone through two doors before running into Xue Xian and Xuanmin ¨C¨C what dog-shit luck!

    However, if he still hadn¡¯t figured out the logic behind the pathways and doorways of this compound by this point, then all the books he¡¯d read in life would have been for nothing.

    Thankfully, Xuanmin looked extremely sure of himself. Although he took sweeping, hasty steps, he did not seem perturbed at all. He seemed to have it all planned out ¨C¨C he ducked in and out of the narrow doors without a smidge of hesitation. Jiang Shining certainly wasn''t the type to get lost, [i] but he was nevertheless confused by all the twists and turns they''d been taking. Xuanmin, though, seemed perfectly in control.

    "Bald donkey, where are we going?" Xue Xian had finally awoken from hanging corpse-like by the pouch.

    Xuanmin replied, "That was the death door. We must go to the life door."

    Skeptically, Xue Xian said, "Unless I¡¯m blind, I¡¯m pretty sure we''ve been to this same courtyard three times already."

    "This is the delusion door,¡± Xuanmin said calmly.

    "So?"

    "If you look behind you, you shall see."

    Slowly, Xue Xian lifted his heavy head and haughtily twisted it around. All he could see was white hemp cloth. "¡­Are you messing with me? When I turn around, all I see are your stupid robes."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Jiang Shining, though, heard Xuanmin and took a look back. It was only after a few more steps that he suddenly realised: "What happened to the crowd? They''ve all disappeared. Just now I could still hear their hungry groaning."

    Xue Xian finally understood. Looking back at Xuanmin, he asked, "You managed to lose them?"

    Xuanmin simply replied, ¡°Mn.¡±

    Among the Eight Doors, the two neutral doors, neither auspicious or inauspicious ¨C¨C the delusion door and the scenery door ¨C¨C weren''t completely useless doors. The delusion door was usually well-hidden, so was an excellent place to shield oneself from danger.

    By coming in and out of the delusion door three times, Xuanmin was finally able to lose the kite behind them.

    Now, he turned around again and exited the courtyard via a narrow door in the southwest. He began taking large, quick steps down a long corridor.

    "Isn''t this the death door that we accidentally went through earlier?"

    Xue Xian had just asked this when Xuanmin pushed open a narrow door in the corner of the corridor and shoved Jiang Shining through it. "The death door is the path for yin souls,¡± he said to Jiang Shining. ¡°To you, it is highly auspicious."

    Jiang Shining was taken by surprise and stumbled, but successfully crossed the threshold into the courtyard.

    The versions of Liu-lao-taitai and Liu Chong who had been inside had long been drawn out by Xuanmin and Xue Xian. Now, the wing was utterly empty. Apart from Jiang Shining, there was not a soul in there.

    As soon as both of Jiang Shining¡¯s feet stepped into the courtyard, he swiftly disappeared, like a bubble popped.

    "Did that bookworm leave the array?" Xue Xian asked.

    Xuanmin nodded. He began walking through the compound again, headed straight for the life door.

    The life door was even more familiar to Xue Xian.

    "Isn''t this Liu Chong''s dilapidated shack?" Xue Xian could see that dark little building at the end of the stone tiled path. No matter how Xue Xian thought about it, he just couldn¡¯t imagine a place laden with yin energy to have anything to do with a ¡®life door¡¯. "If you had said this was the death door, I¡¯d be far more inclined to believe you.¡±

    ¡°It once was," replied Xuanmin coolly. "But we saw the Liu compound get flipped upside-down. Now, the death door has become the life door."

    "What do you mean?" Xue Xian frowned. He suddenly remembered what Jiang Shining had said about Liu Chong''s mole shifting from the left side of the face to the right side. A thought flashed across his mind. "The mirror?"

    Xuanmin looked down at the paper man and felt that this niezhang may have been troublesome, but he was not stupid. [j] "The Liu compound''s original Eight Doors had the death door in the southwest, the open door in the northwest, and the life door in the northeast."

    Xue Xian cast his mind back to when Xuanmin had been standing at Liu Chong¡¯s shack doorway, asking Liu-shiye about the locations of each family member''s room¨C¨C

    The northwest room was Liu-shiye¡¯s own. The northeast room belonged to Liu-shiye''s younger son, Liu Jin.

    Of the Eight Doors, the open door was the main door, an excellent location for doing good business. Liu-shiye wanted to be promoted quickly to a high-up position, so naturally had given the open door to himself. The life door was about securing a healthy line of descendants, so he¡¯d naturally given it to his younger son, hoping Liu Jin would one day bear him many grandchildren and maintain the Liu family.

    Now, Xue Xian understood what Liu-shiye had been trying to do with that ¡®Direct the River into the Sea¡¯ design.

    Oh, but poor, dim-witted [b] Liu Chong. With his disposition, it was difficult to divine or influence the yin and yang of his destiny. He''d lived twenty-odd years, but the thing he was best at was folding those gold paper ingots, smaller than half the size of his own palm. With that one skill, he''d built a mountain inside his room to honor his ancestors. [k] In order to be as fair as possible, he had even divided the ingots into equal piles, writing his family members¡¯ names on each.

    May you peacefully climb mountains of gold and mountains of silver...

    In Liu-shiye¡¯s childhood, had Liu-lao-taitai also burned paper ingots with him and taught him the same sayings? Although, even if she had, he had probably long forgotten it all. Or else why would he treat his eldest son no better than he might treat an old shoe?

    Direct the River into the Sea.

    Liu Chong was the river.

    The Liu family was the sea.

    But what Liu-shiye had overlooked was the fact that feng shui arrays were extremely precise. Any minor change would cause the entire cosmos [l] to flip itself upside-down. The inauspicious would become auspicious, and the auspicious would in turn become inauspicious. When Liu-lao-taitai and Liu Chong had buried that copper mirror beneath the tree and said, Bury a mirror, turn evil omens into good omens. May the broken pieces rest in peace, they had inadvertently changed the array.

    Thus, the Eight Doors had flipped upside-down, and the death door had become the life door.

    ¡­A few steps away from the shack that sagged with yin energy, the narrow door linking the path to the main courtyard creaked open again.

    Xue Xian had become almost numb to the chilling sound. Don''t tell me it''s another Liu Chong!

    He stuck his neck out from Xuanmin''s hip to take a look...

    It really was Liu Chong!

    "This is never going to end, is it?" Xue Xian said, his temper rising again. He made to push himself out of the pouch, but just as half of his body had already left the pouch, he stopped. He glanced sideways at the bald donkey''s copper coin pendant and thought, Now''s the time!

    With the utmost concentration, paper man Xue reached over with his claws and grabbed onto the copper coins like a fishing hook to its prey. He shoved it into the bald donkey''s hand, then said, "What are you waiting for?"

    Xuanmin pressed him back down with a finger. "Calm down. This one has a mole on his left cheek."

    ¡°...¡± Xue Xian was so enraged that he couldn''t speak. He collapsed back onto the side of Xuanmin¡¯s pouch.

    ---

    [a] Musuli phrases this as, ¡°The Éµ×Ó who is always eight beats behind everyone¡±, where ¡®beats¡¯ refers to music performance or reading sheet music. For Éµ×Ó, see footnote b.

    [b] Musuli uses Éµ×Ó (sha3 zi), which means ¡°idiot¡±. Sometimes when I use this footnote, she is using Éµ by itself, which is an adjective rather than a noun, meaning ¡°idiotic¡±.

    [c] Musuli uses ³ÕÓÞ (chi1 yu2), which combines ¡°foolish¡±/¡±crazy¡± with another, slightly more formal word for ¡°fool/ish¡±.

    [d] Musuli uses the chengyu ÎåÌåÍ¶µØ (wu3 ti3 tou2 di4), literally ¡°five parts of the body facing the ground¡±, to describe Liu Chong being on all fours with his head bowed.

    [e] Musuli uses ±¿×¾ (ben4 zhuo2), meaning ¡°clumsy¡± or ¡°ungraceful¡±.

    [f] Musuli uses the phrasing ¡°dragging two wasted legs with him.¡±

    [g] Musuli uses the Chinese insult ¡°²»ÊÇ¸ö¶«Î÷¡± (bu2 shi4 ge dong1 xi), literally ¡°to not be a thing¡±.

    [h] Musuli uses the phrasing ¡°the niezhang¡¯s insanity/mental illness was probably acting up again¡±, which is a colloquial Chinese way of describing ridiculous behavior.

    [i] The Chinese word here is Â·Ã¤ (lu4 mang2), literally ¡°road/route blind¡±: someone who is terrible with directions.

    [j] Musuli uses ´À (chun3), which means ¡°stupid¡±.

    [k] Musuli¡¯s phrasing is, ¡°he had filled his room with filial intent¡±, but this is awkward and far less impactful in English as it is in Chinese.

    [l] The Chinese word here is Ç¬À¤ (qian2 kun1), which can mean ¡°cosmos/universe¡±, ¡°heaven and earth¡±, or ¡°sun and moon¡±. Ç¬ and À¤ are the first two hexagrams of the Zhou Yi / Yi Jing (I Ching).

 CH 13

    It was just as Xuanmin had said: this version of Liu Chong indeed had his mole on the left cheek, and wore the bluish-gray overcoat as earlier this morning. There didn''t seem to be anything off about him.

    Clearly, this was the real Liu Chong.

    As Liu Chong stepped in through the narrow door, his expression was partly one of confusion, mostly one of frustration. He crossed the threshold hesitantly, looking behind him every once in a while. Only after he took a couple more frightened steps did he take notice of Xuanmin.

    First Liu Chong was stunned, then his face seemed to collapse into itself, his eyebrows drooping. [a] "Just now I saw... I saw grandmother..." [b]

    He [c] pointed beyond the narrow door: "Over there."

    Grandmother?

    That would be Liu-lao-taitai, right?

    They had just managed to lose the crowd chasing after them ¨C¨C surely Liu Chong [c] hadn''t brought them back again?!

    Xue Xian, hanging lifelessly out of Xuanmin¡¯s pouch, heard Liu Chong¡¯s words and stiffened. He looked at Liu Chong and asked, "Where are they?"

    "I chased after her, but grandmother disappeared." Though his face looked sad, Liu Chong''s [c] tone was anxious ¨C¨C he didn''t even seem to notice that the voice had not come from Xuanmin himself. "She didn''t see me. Now, I can''t find her anywhere, no matter how hard I search."

    As Liu Chong sucked his own thumb, he looked pitiful. Tilting his head, he looked back longingly at the narrow door, as if trying to see through it. Then, sorrowfully, he mumbled, "I want grandmother to come speak to me..."

    Xue Xian pondered what he''d overheard Liu-shiye say to his friend earlier. Liu-lao-taitai seemed to be dead already. Based on the rumor about town, her death had been the fault of Jiang Shining''s doctor parents. After she''d passed, the entire Jiang compound had caught fire, and they¡¯d all perished.

    Jiang Shining had been dead for three years, so Liu-lao-taitai had probably died around three years ago, too.

    Liu Chong [c] had a one-track mind. If he said he missed grandmother, then this meant that he thought about her every minute of every day. These past three years had probably felt extremely lonely for him.

    "Let''s go." Xuanmin gestured at Liu Chong, then began to walk towards the old shack without further delay.

    Maybe it was his alluring high priest aura, or maybe it was the way that he turned on his heels to walk away before anyone could even react... but Liu Chong [c] hurried after him unquestioningly. He stumbled over until he was walking side by side with Xuanmin, then mumbled, "I... I want to find grandmother."

    "What''s the rush? Let''s go inside first," Xue Xian said, playing along.

    Liu Chong tried to obey, but couldn''t. He said, "I... really need to see her right now."

    Xue Xian snapped, "Hold it in!"

    Liu Chong stared at Xuanmin''s icy profile, as though afraid. After a pause, he courageously blurted out, "How come you can speak without moving your mouth?"

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian went with it: "I''m a ventriloquist. Ah... I can speak using my stomach."

    Liu Chong''s eyes seemed to bulge out of his head. They swivelled around and finally landed on Xuanmin''s belly.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    In the time it took for them to speak, they had already reached the shack''s front door. All they had to do now was cross the threshold, and they would be able to escape from the array.

    Xuanmin didn''t hesitate. He lifted a foot and gestured to Liu Chong to do the same. Clumsily, Liu Chong placed a foot into the threshold too.

    Just as Liu Chong made to step into the shack, there came a duuuu noise from somewhere, like something was knocking against the stone flooring of the compound.

    "Mn?" Liu Chong had probably never reacted as quickly as he did now.

    His foot had frozen in mid-air. "Grandmother!" he yelled. He took his foot back and ran back out.

    "Hey! Hold up!" Xue Xian hollered.

    He saw Xuanmin raise his hand as if he wanted to pull Liu Chong [c] back. But before Xuanmin could act, there was a weng¨C¨C¨C noise in Xue Xian¡¯s mind. His vision went dark, and the world turned upside-down.

    In the blink of an eye, the whole scenery around Xue Xian transformed. They were now standing inside Liu Chong''s dilapidated shack, with Jiang Shining''s pale face right across from Xue Xian. Liu Chong himself was nowhere to be seen.

    Clearly, Xue Xian and Xuanmin had managed to escape the array. But at the last minute, Liu Chong had refused to take the step, and had been left behind.

    "You''re finally here..." Seeing that they were safe and well, Jiang Shining breathed a sigh of relief. But he hadn''t finished sighing when he suddenly gasped. "Where are Liu-da-gongzi [d] and Liu-shiye? Are they still trapped inside?"

    Xuanmin nodded. Without another word, he headed into the shack¡¯s inner room.

    Since Xuanmin had said nothing, Jiang Shining didn''t dare speak, either. Reluctantly, he followed Xuanmin and stood by the threshold of the doorway that separated the shack¡¯s two rooms. He watched as Xuanmin knelt down in front of the nails and talismans by the chest of drawers.

    Jiang Shining knew nothing about this kind of stuff, but Xue Xian, on the other hand, knew a thing or two.

    If you wanted to break an array, [e] there were two ways: from in to out; or from out to in.

    If you were imprisoned inside, you naturally had to seek the door that would take you out of the prison. If you were approaching an array from the outside, hoping to release those trapped within, then the easiest way to break the spell was to destroy it.

    Of course, there were official techniques for destroying arrays, or so Xue Xian assumed. After all, there was a whole profession that required practitioners to know their way around ghosts and gods, [f] and they made a living out of activating and resolving arrays. [g] If it was so easy that anyone could do it, then such people would never be able to make ends meet!

    So Xue Xian perked up as soon as he realised Xuanmin was kneeling down in front of the yellow talismans. Xue Xian needed to pay close attention and see how this bald donkey was going to resolve the array. What moves did the bald donkey have up his sleeve?

    Look¨C¨C he''s reaching! He''s reaching!

    Excited, Xue Xian looked on as Xuanmin reached out a hand and pinched one of the copper nails.

    Does he intend to draw blood from his hand?

    So he¡¯s going to be doing something with his finger?

    Xue Xian held his breath as he tried to guess what Xuanmin would do next.

    And then... Xuanmin¡¯s fingers twitched and he¡­ pulled the nail out of the floorboard and tore off the talisman attached to it.

    Next...

    He pulled out the second nail, and tore away the second talisman...

    Followed by the third one...

    And then... Well, that was that.

    Xue Xian: ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡±

    The nails and the yellow talismans were what anchored the array, and in order to ruin the array, they needed to be destroyed. But Xue Xian had been made to watch as Xuanmin chose the most basic destruction approach ever. Now, Xuanmin was calmly, slowly cleaning his hands, his expression grim as death, as though he¡¯d just tasted the waters of hell. Xue Xian wasn''t sure what other scammers would make of the scene. Surely seeing Xuanmin''s lack of melodrama would drive them to suicide? Even Xue Xian was contemplating death after such a disappointment.

    Xuanmin stood up and returned to the outer room. He took a sweep of the table there and found a tiny matchstick among the mess, which he swiped against the wall, kindling a small flame. Then, Xuanmin matter-of-factly lit the three talismans on fire, until they vanished completely.

    But Xue Xian, who had utterly given up on life, did not bother to watch.

    Based on the bald donkey¡¯s demeanor, it seemed that the array had now been broken. They would soon be able to hear Liu Chong''s [c] whining again.

    ******

    Wait... it didn''t work? Or was the bald donkey keeping something from them?

    It seemed clear from everything they¡¯d observed earlier that the reason why this shack had been full of yin energy earlier this morning was twofold: because of the ¡®Direct the River into the Sea¡¯ design pouring the entire household¡¯s yin energy here, and because it had taken on the death door in the ¡®Ghost Pounding the Wall¡¯ array.

    But then they had watched as the death door had been transformed into the life door. And the ¡®Direct the River into the Sea¡¯ design had been destroyed by the bald donkey in that very simple, unsophisticated manner. Yet the yin energy in this room still wasn¡¯t dissipating, and didn¡¯t seem like it intended to go away either.

    The morning light shone brightly outside the shack now, coming into the Liu compound from the east. Because of the fire-protection walls within the compound, the light fell unevenly onto the shack. Half of the ridges of its roof were bathed in light and the other half was still immersed in darkness ¨C¨C like the dialogue between yin and yang.

    "Ah..."

    Xue Xian looked up at Jiang Shining. "What are you sighing for? You''re not the one trapped inside the array."

    Jiang Shining stared back innocently. "I didn''t sigh. Wasn''t that you?"

    "Of course not!" Xue Xian spat. "I never sigh. It''s too depressing."

    Jiang Shining: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    The two of them stopped speaking, and exchanged another uncertain look. Then, slowly, they both looked over at Xuanmin.

    "Ah..."

    That faint sighing sound again! But Xuanmin hadn''t opened his mouth at all. And even if his mouth had been open, Xue Xian and Jiang Shining would not have misheard the sigh as his: this time, the sigh was long and drawn-out, with a faint shudder at the end. With that tinge of fatigue, it sounded like an old person, so clearly could not have been emitted by Xuanmin.

    "That sounds like an old lady,¡± Xue Xian guessed.

    "Don''t you think this doesn''t sound like a sigh?" Jiang Shining said. "It sounds so tired... When you see elderly people after they¡¯ve just travelled very far or if they¡¯re carrying something heavy on their back, they''re so exhausted that they can barely breathe, so they start emitting this kind of noise... It''s like a sigh, but different." He pondered this for a bit, then added, "This person''s breathing is hollow and spent. They''re ill."

    ¡°You can figure all that out from a sigh?" Xue Xian asked skeptically.

    Jiang Shining shrugged. "If mother and father were here, they''d be able to deduce even more."

    "Oh," Xue Xian said. He was deep in thought.

    An old lady? Breathing laboriously? And ill?

    Now that Jiang Shining had said it, it really did seem to be the case.

    Suddenly, Xue Xian thought of someone. He began to slap Xuanmin with all his might, his paper claws going pili pala. Worried that his strength wasn¡¯t enough, he yelled, "Bald donkey! Look at me!"

    Xuanmin looked down.

    Xue Xian, looking up at him: ¡°...¡±

    After a moment, Xue Xian couldn¡¯t hold it in anymore. He shooed Xuanmin away. "Never mind. Stop looking at me. Put those eyeballs away."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡± This was the first time he¡¯d heard anyone insinuate that eyeballs could be put away. What an unreasonable niezhang.

    What Xuanmin didn''t know was that, when Xue Xian had been a dragon, he had gotten used to being arrogant. He had been able to fly to the skies whenever he¡¯d wanted, and had spent all his life looking down upon others, never the other way round. All the previous times that Xuanmin had looked at him, those had been mere brief glances, so Xue Xian hadn¡¯t minded. But being looked at directly from so far up? Xue Xian couldn¡¯t handle that feeling. [h]

    Dragons need face!

    Xue Xian didn''t have many demands. The one thing he always needed, especially at a time like this, was face.

    Of course, Xuanmin did not obey Xue Xian''s order to cease looking down at him. It was as though Xuanmin were being contrarian on purpose: he continued to gaze calmly at Xue Xian.

    What a bastard¡­ [i] thought Xue Xian angrily.

    He turned that unpleasant ¡®sight for sore eyes¡¯ face of his to Xuanmin and flashed a sarcastic smile, then rolled his eyes. Next, he turned back around so that Xuanmin could only see the back of his head and said, "What I wanted to say was: Liu-lao-taitai... Have you heard of this very unusual technique for protecting a home? I heard about it when I began wandering the human realm. They say that if an elderly member of the family passes away, you can bury them beneath your home, and it''ll bring their descendants good luck."

    What kind of lowlife [j] could come up with something like this?

    ¡°...¡± Jiang Shining felt that all morality and ethics that he''d spent more than ten years of his life studying had now been shattered.

    ¡°I have," Xuanmin replied. "This is known as the Building a Yin Foundation. The soul trapped beneath the home becomes the guardian spirit of the household. Paired with good feng shui designs, the effects are remarkable."

    Just then, another low, trembling sigh was heard.

    If the first two sighs had sounded far-off and vague, this sound was now much clearer ¨C¨C so clear that they were now able to trace its origin.

    Xuanmin looked over at the right-hand wall, then walked over.

    The smattering of paper ingots covered almost the entire floor. It had never occurred to them that there might be some trap door beneath the ingots. Xuanmin crouched down near the corner of the room. From here, he could see into the inner room: that chest of drawers, and the spot on the floor where the three talismans had been nailed down.

    Brushing some of the ingots away, Xuanmin extended his index finger and used his knuckle to knock on the stone floor.

    Du¨C¨C du¨C¨C

    The sound rang hollow: there was something underneath.

    "It''s empty!" Xue Xian and Jiang Shining exclaimed at the same time.

    Xuanmin looked around and found a small crack along the side of the wall. He followed the crack all the way to a stone block on the floor around the size of four palms, surrounded all over by cracks.

    "This gap..." Jiang Shining reached out and tried it. "I can''t even fit my finger in."

    The gap was indeed extremely tight. Without being able to fit a finger inside, there was no way to pry it open. And if they couldn''t pry it open, then they''d never discover what lay beneath.

    Xue Xian stared at Jiang Shining''s pale, greenish ghost claw, then at Xuanmin''s slender, white donkey claw. Finally, with much difficulty, he said, "Alright, I''ll go in. I will deign [k] to slide in and bump it up for you."

    I''ll deign...

    Jiang Shining scoffed at the way this one spoke so highly of himself. Was he not embarrassed?

    Xue Xian made a big show of puffing out his chest and flexing his neck, then leapt out of Xuanmin''s pouch.

    There was nothing Xuanmin could do about this niezhang. He could only let Xue Xian tumble out of the pouch and glide toward the gap in the flooring. As Xue Xian left the pouch, Xuanmin reached into the pouch and took out that smaller pouch, unwrapping it a little. It contained a neat row of needles of varying lengths. The longest was as long as the length between one''s wrist and knuckle; the shortest was as short as two finger joints.

    There seemed to be a carving on the tip of each silver needle, but it was too intricate to make out. Jiang Shining could only make out the approximate form from afar, and didn''t dare to peer closer.

    Xuanmin selected a rather thick needle from the pouch and returned the bundle to his pocket.

    Xue Xian was busy approaching the stone. Just as he finally made his way to the gap and got ready to slide in, a large hand appeared in the sky and grabbed him by the head, moving him away.

    He didn''t even have to look back to know exactly which bastard¡¯s [l] hand this was!

    "¡­Bald donkey, you are committing a great sin!¡± [m] Xue Xian said. ¡°You''ll be punished for sure!"

    Xuanmin deadpanned, "This one respectfully awaits his punishment, sir." [n]

    As he spoke, Xuanmin put the frustrated Xue Xian, whose efforts had been useless after all, back into the pouch. Xuanmin inserted his needle into the crack, then lunged forward suddenly, prying it open.

    There was the sound of a hollow stone plank grinding against more stone. That frail-looking needle had actually managed to shift the stone. Xuanmin stuck his hand into the raised stone flooring and lifted it aside.

    In that instant, a relentless chorus of grieving, mournful wails poured out of the stone like a tsunami wave.

    Xue Xian felt as though a ten thousand jun weight [o] had just crashed into his chest, knocking him to the floor so suddenly that he felt dizzy. Thankfully, he was only a paper man, or else his internal organs would have exploded out of his body.

    Both Jiang Shining¡¯s frankly pathetic scream and Xuanmin''s quiet murmuring voice wormed their way into Xue Xian''s ear. By the time he was able to sit up, he saw that Jiang Shining had rolled to the wall, where with a light puff, he reverted to his original paper form and lay thinly on the ground as though half-dead.

    Even Xuanmin had a hand pressed against his chest as he coughed several times before recovering.

    "What the hell is this?" Xue Xian had lost all of his strength. All he could do was hang limply outside of Xuanmin''s pouch.

    Weakly, he lifted his head and looked back at that rectangular gap in the flooring. He saw that the gap was half-filled with yellow dirt, and there seemed to be a heavy metal chain buried among it. A yellow talisman was entangled with the chain. The strange thing was that the chain was moving: it was snaking its way through the dirt.

    Frowning, Xuanmin scanned the slightly damp earth, then looked up around the room, as though searching for something.

    Confused, Xue Xian watched as the monk stood up and went to the table, rifling around the items until he finally came across a half-ruined brush. He brought it back to the gap in the flooring and carefully used the brush to clear away the yellow dirt.

    ¡°...¡± That bald donkey never failed to impress Xue Xian. "What the hell?¡± Xue Xian said under his breath. ¡°Would a bit of dirt make your hand rot off your arm?"

    The layer of yellow dust was quickly brushed off, revealing what was hidden below.

    "This is... a millstone?" Xue Xian asked.

    This circular stone block had a puncture hole in the middle. It stood on a platform and had a handle sticking out of it... It did seem to be a millstone. But it was incredibly small, not even as large as a palm. There was also some strange, talismanic text carved on the surface of the millstone. The chain was attached to the millstone on one end, and to the millstone¡¯s handle on the other.

    Without the yellow dirt acting as a buffer, the chain made direct contact with the millstone. As it slowly moved, friction caused a Hua¨C¨C hua¨C¨C¨C rubbing noise. Each time the millstone moved, the handle would move a bit too, as if an invisible person was chained to it, pushing it around day in and day out.

    Instinctively, Xue Xian said, "Liu-lao-taitai?"

    "Ah..."

    That fatigue-ridden sigh arose again¡­

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Done with the rest~ Thank you for everyone¡¯s concern, I¡¯m much better after having taken the medicine~ Kiss kiss! Goodnight, tomorrow I¡¯ll write out the names of people who gave money on JJWXC, thanks everyone =3=

    ---

    [a] Musuli described his eyebrows as stitching themselves into the shape of the °Ë character.

    [b] In Chinese, Liu Chong calls his grandmother ×æÄ¸ (zu3 mu3), a more formal address for one¡¯s grandmother.

    [c] Musuli uses Éµ×Ó (sha3 zi), which means ¡°idiot¡±. Sometimes when I use this footnote, she is using Éµ by itself, which is an adjective rather than a noun, meaning ¡°idiotic¡±.

    [d] Da-gongzi: Eldest gongzi.

    [e] Here Musuli uses Õó¾Ö (zhen4 ju2). Whereas ¾Ö, meaning ¡°situation¡±, is more of a neutral descriptor for a feng shui design that combines magical (talismanic, etc) and non-magical (architectural) elements ¨C¨C i.e. the original good-luck design that Liu-shiye had put into his home ¨C¨C Õó describes a battle formation, and here is used to indicate when the design becomes aggressive and traps people inside. Thus, ''Direct the River into the Sea'' is a ¾Ö, but ¡®Ghost Pounding on the Wall¡¯ is a Õó or Õó¾Ö. Both can be translated to ¡°array¡± (see my note in Chapter 7) but only a ¾Ö can be a ¡°design¡±.

    [f] Musuli uses the phrasing ¡°eating ¹í and Éñ food¡±, i.e. ¡°getting food money from dealing with ¹í and Éñ.¡± While Éñ¡¯s (shen2) primary meaning is ¡°god¡±, it can also be used more broadly to vaguely describe anything mystical. Similarly, while ¹í¡¯s (gui3) primary meaning is ¡°ghost¡±, it can also be used more broadly to vaguely describe anything evil.

    [g] A summary of the different verbs when it comes to arrays/feng shui designs and how I¡¯m translating them:

    To break: ÆÆ (po4) meaning break/smash. Musuli uses this to refer to individuals escaping (breaking out of) the effects of an array.

    To activate: ²¼ (bu4) meaning lay out/spread out/arrange. I¡¯ve chosen ¡°activate¡± because geomancers in Copper Coins must not only design the physical feng shui elements, but also add their own magical approach to make it work.

    To resolve: ½â (jie3) meaning solve/undo. Musuli uses this to refer to the ¡®solving of a case¡¯, in a way: geomancers must figure out, from beginning to end, what the array does, how it has been activated, and how it can be undone.

    To destroy: »Ù (hui3) meaning destroy/ruin. Musuli uses this to refer to the specific act of destroying an array, usually by taking apart the elements of the feng shui design that make it effective.

    To take apart: ²ð (chai1) meaning take down/take apart.

    [h] The Chinese phrase here is ¡°he couldn¡¯t digest it.¡±

    [i] Musuli uses the Chinese insult ¡°²»ÊÇ¸ö¶«Î÷¡± (bu2 shi4 ge dong1 xi), literally ¡°to not be a thing¡±.

    [j] Musuli uses the insult Ëï×Ó (sun1 zi), which literally means ¡°grandson¡±. Using it implies that he is the person¡¯s ¡°grandfather¡±, i.e. their superior, who demands respect and deference. But here, it¡¯s also wordplay because whoever came up with the technique was likely some elderly person¡¯s grandchild, using their grandparent for their own ends.

    [k] The Chinese phrase here is Çü×ð (qu1 zun1), a polite expression that means something like ¡°to trouble oneself¡±.

    [l] Musuli uses the Chinese insult Íõ°Ëµ° (wang4 ba1 dan4, literally ¡°turtle¡¯s egg¡±: a very common insult that has a close meaning to ¡®asshole¡¯ or ¡®piece of shit¡¯ in English.

    [m] Here, the Chinese phrasing is ×÷Äõ (zuo4 nie4), meaning to do evil ¨C¨C but ¡®evil¡¯ is the ¡®nie¡¯ in ¡®niezhang¡¯.

    [n] The Chinese phrase here is ¹§ºò´ó¼Ý (gong1 hou4 da4 jia4), which comes from the longer phrase ¹§ºò´ó¼Ý¹âÁÙ (... guang1 ling2) meaning ¡°I respectfully await your honorable presence in my home¡± or other place ¨C¨C i.e. a form of invitation toward a person of high status. ¹§ºò means ¡°to respectfully await¡±; ´ó¼Ý indicates someone of very high standing (because traditionally the most important person takes the biggest carriage/palanquin); and ¹âÁÙ is a very respectful way of saying ¡°visit¡±, ¡°arrival¡±, or ¡°presence¡±. When Xuanmin says ¹§ºò´ó¼Ý, he refashions it for his context: he is sarcastically agreeing with Xue Xian that his behavior toward Xue Xian was unacceptable, and equally sarcastically accepts to be punished in the future ¨C¨C i.e. he is awaiting/inviting Xue Xian, the person of high standing.

    [o] 1 jun = 30 jin = 15kg

 CH 14

    The sighing noise was giving Xue Xian goosebumps.

    Of course, a paper man couldn''t actually get goosebumps. And it wasn¡¯t because he was afraid: he was aghast that anyone would trap their own mother underneath their home, just to earn themselves a bit of extra luck. Some people really took ¡®disgusting¡¯ to new levels.

    What a son Liu-shiye turned out to be! Liu-lao-taitai might as well have raised a millstone!

    With a wave of his hand, Xuanmin levitated the tiny millstone from its niche in the flooring, setting it beside him. He peeled the talisman away from the chain and lit another small flame to destroy it.

    As the talisman burned, Xue Xian, from his position on Xuanmin''s hip, thought he heard a faint quake, as though someone were lugging a heavy hammer that knocked against the ground as they walked. It was an uncomfortable noise.

    This millstone had been buried beneath the flooring for about three years, during which time it had absorbed great amounts of the resentful yin energy that blew in from south to north. As the talisman burned, the resentful yin energy bound to it also finally escaped, so it was normal for those nearby to feel abnormal when this occurred. But for Xue Xian, a piece of paper hanging out of a pouch that could barely count as a living being, to feel this uncomfortable, then the bald donkey had to feel even worse. He¡¯d been the one to actually burn the talisman, after all.

    Xue Xian looked over Xuanmin, but found that the monk wore the same immovable [a] expression as always ¨C¨C as though he were not in the middle of meddling with enormous amounts of yin energy!

    It suddenly occurred to Xue Xian that this bald donkey seemed different from all the other monks he had met. But just in what way he differed, Xue Xian wasn''t sure.

    He was probably... even more deserving of getting beat up!

    While Xue Xian grumbled to himself, Xuanmin finished burning the talisman. As the ash fluttered to the ground, the chain on the millstone snapped with a kacha sound, its pieces clattering to the ground.

    Gradually, a silhouette holding onto the millstone handle solidified in front of Xue Xian and Xuanmin¡¯s eyes. What looked at first to be a dead grass stalk curled up on the floor grew larger and materialised into a hunchbacked old woman.

    The old woman''s thinning white hair was tied into a tiny bun. Her face was crisscrossed with deep wrinkles, and her eyes seemed to brim with tears.

    It was possible to guess that this was Liu-lao-taitai based on the appearance, but compared to the cane-holding apparition they¡¯d seen inside the array, this ghost version of Liu-lao-taitai seemed even more worn and old, as though she might succumb and fall to the ground at any moment.

    Without her cane, her hunched form appeared painfully deformed. The left side of her body was far more twisted than her right side, and it was all due to the direction in which she had been pushing the millstone. She was only able to stay upright by leaning against the millstone.

    "What kind of sin..." [b] Xue Xian muttered.

    Xue Xian had no father nor mother: he had been born of the heavens and raised by the earth, so he had never had first-hand experience of a blood bond. But after having spent half a year among humans, he had learned a bit about what family meant.

    This Liu-shiye now opened his eyes further. How much do you have to hate your mother to do something like this?

    Hearing Xue Xian, Xuanmin glanced at him and saw that Xue Xian appeared to be in emotional turmoil. Xue Xian jutted out his chin and glowered back at Xuanmin, but no matter how hard he tried, he simply did not look threatening.

    This zuzong¡¯s eyes began darting around. He seemed to have come up with another idea-¨C

    Let¡¯s! Climb! Onto! The! Head!

    Xue Xian was the kind who acted on all his impulses. [c] Gleefully, he used his claws to grab onto Xuanmin''s robes. Because he''d made the journey before, this time he climbed much more nimbly. Within the blink of an eye, he had arrived at Xuanmin¡¯s chest.

    Just as he reached out with a claw to climb up another level, Xue Xian was interrupted by a sudden tragic cry coming from the shack¡¯s doorway.

    "Aaaaaahh¨C¨C¨C Don''t touch me! Someone help me! Help me!"

    The sound was chilling, as though someone had seen a ghost.

    The noise was piercingly loud, and deeply unpleasant. Shocked, Xue Xian stumbled and fell gently from Xuanmin''s chest, landing onto the ground in a very inelegant position ¨C¨C face down.

    Ashamed, Xue Xian didn¡¯t want to show his face to anyone anymore. His four limbs became stiff and he refused to move, acting as though he had died.

    Xuanmin turned a deaf ear to the wailing noise that came from outside the shack. He knelt down to face the paper man pretending to be dead, and asked, "Not getting up?"

    Xue Xian continued pretending to be dead.

    Xuanmin reached out with a finger and scratched the back of the paper man''s head. "Alright, then I shall burn you."

    He lit a match and brought the wispy flame over. Xue Xian could feel the heat of the fire against his frail paper body.

    ¡°...¡± Finally, Xue Xian mumbled, ¡°What happened to the kindness and mercy that the Buddha supposedly gifted you ¨C¨C did you throw that to the dogs?"

    Hearing this, Xuanmin¡¯s hand hesitated, as though he¡¯d suddenly recalled something. Then he gathered up his expression and shook his head. He shook the match until the flame died and picked up the paper man by one of his little legs and asked, "Are you still thinking of climbing?"

    Still humiliated, Xue Xian covered his face even as he dangled upside down. Despite this, he didn¡¯t forget to shoot back, "Fuck you!" [d]

    As soon as the niezhang was placed back into the pouch, a clumsy shuffling noise was heard as someone stepped out from the inner room.

    Xue Xian took his hands away from his face and got a good look: it was Liu Chong. [e] Liu Chong wore a clueless expression as he stood in the doorway, looking into the outer room. He had just escaped from the array, and whatever it was he¡¯d experienced in there, it hadn¡¯t been pretty: his bluish-grey overcoat was ripped all over, and some of the cotton stuffing was spilling out.

    Liu Chong was stricken face and his eyes were swollen red. He turned to Xuanmin and opened his mouth as though wanting to speak, but before he did, his gaze suddenly fell upon the tiny old woman by the millstone and his whole body froze.

    "G-grandmother?" Liu Chong whimpered in disbelief. Something must have happened back in the array with the ghost version of the old woman ¨C¨C there was a hint of suspicion to the way Liu Chong shrank back, afraid to come closer.

    The old woman lifted her lifeless eyes to look at Liu Chong and tears immediately fell from her eyes. She sighed a distant sigh and waved at Liu Chong from her millstone. "Chong-er, why are your clothes in such a sorry state?"

    As soon as Liu Chong heard her voice, he forgot everything he¡¯d seen in the array and rushed over. Tearfully, he knelt on the floor and tried to grasp the old woman''s hands. "Grandmother, how did you become so short... Wh-why can''t I touch you?"

    The old woman had been utterly consumed by the work at the millstone. She had shrunk to half the size of ordinary old women, and looked extremely pitiful.

    But she said nothing of it to Liu Chong. Instead, she smiled and said, "Grandmother is old now, and has shrunk. If you can''t touch me, then don''t try..."

    "Grandmother, why don''t you... why don''t you ever come and see me? Look at how many gold ingots I folded. Didn''t you tell me that if I wrote your name on the ingots and burned them, you would come collect them? I... I folded them every day, and burned them every day, but nobody came to see me. Why didn''t you come even a s-single time? I just want you to come speak to me. And I want to speak to you. But I never got to see you, and now I''ve forgotten what it was I wanted to say..."

    Liu Chong still had the heart of a child. As soon as he came face to face with his beloved grandmother, and forced out the words he''d wanted to say, he began to sob. Unlike adults, he did not feel the need to hide his sorrow ¨C¨C he wailed as though he were letting out all the things he¡¯d wanted to say but had forgotten.

    "Grandmother is listening. Chong-er doesn''t need to say it all out loud. Grandmother knows." The old lady wiped her tears. "I... Every day and every night, I''m watching over you..."

    As grandmother and grandson wept, someone erupted into the shack from outside, screaming, "Help me! Help me! Don''t ¨C¨C Get away!"

    The newcomer had messy hair and ragged clothing. He looked like he¡¯d been rolling around in dirt, and was covered in filth; he looked like a madman.

    Xue Xian stared. "Isn''t that Liu-shiye?"

    Liu Chong seemed to have been the lucky one. It seemed that Liu-shiye had gone through a traumatic experience in the array. Although he had previously refused to take a single step into this shack, he had now willingly burst in.

    Xuanmin frowned at the sight of the dirt all over the man¡¯s robes and backed away. With nobody to catch him, Liu-shiye crashed into the ground and sat there on his ass, stupefied.

    With that, he came face to face with Liu-lao-taitai.

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    [Acknowledgments to those who gave money on JJWXC]

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses the phrase ¡°doesn¡¯t move even when being blown by eight winds¡± or ¡°cannot be knocked down by the force of eight winds¡± ¨C¨C which she used in Chapter 11 to describe Xue Xian.

    [b] Here, the Chinese phrasing is ×÷Äõ (zuo4 nie4), meaning to do evil ¨C¨C but ¡®evil¡¯ is the ¡®nie¡¯ in ¡®niezhang¡¯.

    [c] Musuli uses the idiom ¡°say wind at first, but end up bringing rain¡± which is used to describe when something is taken to a whole other level.

    [d] The literal translation of what Xue Xian says here is ¡°Climb? Your great-grandfather!¡± where ¡°your great-grandfather¡± is an insult. This sounds very natural and snappy in Chinese but not in English.

    [e] Musuli uses Éµ×Ó (sha3 zi), which means ¡°idiot¡±. Sometimes when I use this footnote, she is using Éµ by itself, which is an adjective rather than a noun, meaning ¡°idiotic¡±.

 CH 15

    Liu-shiye was stopped in his tracks by the arresting glare of the old woman. His body stiffened and his eyes widened ¨C¨C he was so frightened that he forgot to breathe.

    He who commits unforgivable sins [a] will have a day when he does not dare to face his mother. Liu-shiye looked miserable, but in comparison to Liu Chong next to him, wiping his tears, there was a tinge of irony to Liu-shiye¡¯s expression.

    Liu-lao-taitai wiped her tears and, her gaze on Liu-shiye, she gradually ceased to sob. Though she still held tears within her eyes, her calm demeanor gave her a sense of deep sorrow.

    "Why are you trembling?" Liu-lao-taitai asked mournfully. "Are you afraid that your old mother is here to kill you?"

    Liu-shiye immediately shook his head. Pale-faced and with a trembling lip, he stammered, "This son is just... just..."

    After only saying a few words, he began to choke and could not go on. He hung his head and sighed heavily. He hurriedly shifted his position so that he was now kneeling, and began to kowtow to Liu-lao-taitai. "This son was tricked by the geomancer¡¯s [b] lies. In a moment of confusion, I committed a great sin. [a] This son is not filial."

    Having said his part, with tears and snot continuing to flow down his face, Liu-shiye pressed his blood-stained forehead against the floor and continued to mumble incoherent gibberish.

    ¡°You''re only apologising now?" Xue Xian squinted contemptuously at Liu-shiye¡¯s contorted shape and was disgusted. Xue Xian had always had a straightforward personality, and he hated to watch people run around in circles making excuses. Being unfilial was being unfilial; being selfish and evil was being selfish and evil; to blame it all on the geomancer was just downright shameful. Such blatant lies were probably only enough to fool one¡¯s mother and no one else.

    Liu-lao-taitai looked silently back at Liu-shiye, pondering his words. Any mother would hate to see her son in such a pathetic state. She was quiet for a long time, then sighed, "A single palm cannot clap on its own.¡±

    If it hadn¡¯t been on his mind in the first place, he would never have fallen for anything the geomancer might¡¯ve said.

    Liu-shiye, still kneeling on the ground, froze when he heard Liu-lao-taitai. Carefully, he raised his head and looked at his mother, searching for some clue in her eyes. But she didn''t look like a vengeful ghost or resentful soul.

    Liu-lao-taitai sighed again, then gestured at her son. "Come here."

    The old lady must''ve always had a patient nature. Though her tone was gentle, there was a sense of disappointment in her voice.

    The sense of disappointment was not necessarily a grudge: it wasn¡¯t necessarily wrapped up in resentful energy. Without hesitation, Liu-shiye shuffled closer to the old woman with a sense of expectation on his face. Indeed, a vengeful ghost would never speak so mildly. There was still the possibility that things could turn out well.

    "Take a look at your mom," [c] Liu-lao-taitai said softly.

    "I haven''t taken a good look at Mom¡¯s face in so long,¡± Liu-shiye added. If you gave Liu-shiye a cun, he would take a chi. [d]

    Liu-lao-taitai glared at him, then slapped him across the face!

    Pa!

    Nobody in the room had expected her to do that. All stood around in shock.

    Liu-shiye held his face, which was frozen with astonishment.

    "Mom, you¨C¨C¨C" He seemed no longer able to even speak.

    "Ah..." Xue Xian said under his breath. "My hand itches too."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Liu-shiye was in such a state of shock that he hadn¡¯t even heard what Xue Xian had said. Still gripping his own face, Liu-shiye came back to his senses and said, "I... I had no choice. I really had no choice. I had hired the geomancer for you!"

    Suddenly, he seemed to figure out what excuse to go with: "I had initially hired the geomancer to help you! Your health was getting worse by the day, and half of your body was deformed. That quack doctor Jiang told me that you had too many different illnesses and that it was impossible to cure, so that''s why I decided to find a geomancer. Mom, I''m not sure if you understand... That room in the northeast had an excellent position. The geomancer said that if I installed you there, then nothing bad could ever happen to you. I just wanted you to get better. But... Ah..."

    "Doesn''t the northeast room belong to your second son Liu Jin?" Xue Xian asked.

    Although Liu-shiye had been mid-sigh, he had heard Xue Xian this time. Automatically, he explained: "Jin-er only moved in afterwards!"

    "I know," the old lady said in a melancholy voice, finally breaking her own silence. Though she was looking at Liu-shiye, she seemed to be immersed in some memory: "Not only did you put me in the best room, but you visited every day to check on me and look after me. At the end, when I couldn''t move at all, you would spend all your free time by my bed... Mom remembers it all."

    Now this made things a bit more ambiguous. You couldn''t say he''d been unfilial, for he had clearly taken great care of his mother. You also couldn''t say he had been filial, because he''d followed some geomancer''s recommendations and trapped his own mom¡¯s soul underneath his home, making sure to extract everything he could from the old woman and to not waste a single drop.

    "However..." Liu-lao-taitai said, "It was only after you trapped me here that I discovered how you had come to give me the best room in the compound. You wanted to swap Chong-er''s life for mine."

    "That slap was for Chong-er!" As Liu-lao-taitai said this, she raised her hand again.

    Pa!

    The second slap landed on Liu-shiye''s other cheek.

    "That slap was for the daifus [e] of the Jiang family!" Liu-lao-taitai said. "My medicine from those last days... You switched it out, didn''t you? I may have been dying, but I could certainly tell when my medicine had been changed. You''re my son. I know you too well..."

    She shook her head and sighed. "You saw that your mom wasn''t getting any better, that there was no point in being so filial to someone who was already half-dead. As long as your reputation was already out there, that was enough, so you listened to the advice of that scammer geomancer and helped your mom along the way, didn''t you?"

    Liu-shiye knelt there. He had nothing to say.

    "Having done all that, you then went and blamed it all on the Jiang family. Although I had already become so ill that I couldn''t speak, I could still hear everything the servant girls were saying. You destroyed the Jiang daifus¡¯ reputation and their livelihoods. Don''t you feel terrible?"

    The old woman shut her eyes. Her newly-released body probably wasn¡¯t able to maintain itself for much longer: her silhouette was fading, and even her face was losing detail. "I''m your mom and Chong-er is your son. When it comes to debts within your family and outside your family, these get resolved differently. This mom pushed your millstone for three years, so let''s say I repaid you for everything you did for me as my son. Chong-er has lived in this shack for so long, so let''s say he repaid you for keeping him alive these past twenty years. But you still owe the Jiang family. You must repay that debt."

    "Mom... Mom, what do you mean?" Liu-shiye lifted his head from the ground, confused.

    ¡°You owe what you owe. You can''t erase that. All debts must be repaid." Liu-lao-taitai took one last look at her son, then turned to Xuanmin. "Dashi, is it time for me to be on my way?" she asked softly.

    She seemed to have taken Xuanmin for one of those Buddhist priests that could perform transcendence rituals.

    Xuanmin looked down at her, then pointed at the millstone.

    There was no need for him to speak. The old woman nodded with comprehension. Next, she turned to Liu Chong, who [f] was still sobbing. He raised his head. Though he could not have understood what his grandmother had been saying, he suddenly seemed aware that she was departing. "Grandmother... A-Are you tired?"

    "Yes," the old woman replied tenderly. "Grandmother is so tired. I need to sleep for a while."

    "When I burn paper money for you from now on, will I be able to see you?"

    "Grandmother hears everything you say. Even though you can''t see Grandmother, Grandmother is always... always watching over you." Liu-lao-taitai turned and disappeared into the millstone.

    Xuanmin bent down to pick up the millstone, as well as Jiang Shining, who had not moved from the ground ever since he¡¯d turned back into his paper form. Xuanmin turned and made to leave.

    "Dashi! Dashi! My face¨C¨C" After a moment of shock, Liu-shiye stumbled after Xuanmin. As he pawed at his cheek, he asked, "Why is my face swollen?"

    Xuanmin glanced at him.

    Indeed, both of Liu-shiye''s cheeks had suddenly swelled to extreme proportions. There were two clear handprints on each side: they were crimson, and the top layer of skin had peeled away from them. The capillaries beneath the surface were now visible ¨C¨C they reached across his skin like large spider webs. It was a shocking sight.

    "Resentful ghosts cannot touch humans," Xuanmin said.

    In the blink of an eye, Liu-shiye''s face had already swollen to the point where he could barely speak. "But why do I..."

    "Resentful ghosts with a grudge [g] have a single opportunity to obtain justice," Xuanmin said. "They can leave a mark on the one they resent."

    Liu-shiye gasped. "And then? Can she come and kill me?"

    Xuanmin said, "The mark she left was not for herself. It was on behalf of Liu Chong and the Jiangs. These two parties¡¯ suffering were all caused by you."

    Liu-lao-taitai had given him a taste of his own medicine.

    "Don''t go, don''t go! Help me! Dashi, help me, ah¨C¨C" Liu-shiye threw himself toward Xuanmin and knelt down again, shuffling closer on his knees. Desperately, he grabbed onto the hem of Xuanmin''s robes.

    Xue Xian, perched on Xuanmin''s shoulder, suddenly said, "Hey, Liu! Let me ask you something! High summer this year, did you go to Huameng County, Guangdong Province?"

    In his panic, Liu-shiye thought the question had come from Xuanmin. He shook his head vigorously, all the while saying, "No, no, I''ve never been that far in my life."

    Then he mumbled, "Help me, help me..."

    "How could that be?" Xue Xian sneered.

    "It''s the truth, I swear! Not a single word is false. How could I dare to lie to you?" Liu-shiye looked so pathetic with his head so close to the ground that he really did seem to be telling the truth.

    But how could it be?! If Liu-shiye had never been to Huameng, then how did he come to have a blood stain? Xue Xian studied the mark by the man''s ear that Xuanmin had pointed out earlier that day, feeling both irritated and confused.

    "If I find out that anything you say is false in any way¨C¨C"

    "Never! How could I dare¨C¨C Right!" Liu-shiye was grasping at straws. He became enthusiastic, as though he would cut open his skull to show them what was inside if he could. "Right! Speaking of Huameng, I did meet someone from there once. He was a fisherman. But I had nothing to do with him! All I did was buy a fake gold marble¨C¨C"

    "Marble?! What did it look like?" Xue Xian interrupted. He suddenly remembered that familiar weng noise between the gusts of wind earlier. He had to ask: "Where is it now?"

    Liu-shiye shrank away. He began to mumble, "It''s..."

    "What are you muttering for? Spit it out!" Xue Xian couldn¡¯t believe that Liu-shiye was hedging at such an important moment. He wished he could fling Liu-shiye into the south sea.

    "The geomancer said that the marble was full of spiritual energy, so he melted it into the millstone..." Liu-shiye seemed to recede into his collar.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± How could you put a real dragon''s body into a fucking millstone? Why don''t you fucking shove yourself into it?

    He was so incensed that he fainted on the spot, his hands falling limply to his sides.

    Xuanmin saw that Xue Xian seemed to have no intention of asking more questions, so made to leave again.

    "You can''t go! You can''t go, help me, help me, ah..." Liu-shiye grabbed the corners of Xuanmin¡¯s robes and refused to let go.

    Xuanmin looked down at him for a bit, then crouched down. In a low voice, he muttered some words that Liu-shiye couldn''t make out, like some archaic sutra.

    Then, he knocked Liu-shiye on the forehead with the back of his hand. The shiye felt his entire head quake, as though ten thousand bells were ringing inside his brain.

    Delighted, he asked, "D-Did you heal the mark?"

    Calmly, Xuanmin replied, "It is merely insurance ¨C¨C the debt must be paid."

    Liu-shiye froze.

    Xuanmin tore his robe out of the shiye''s hands, then stood up to walk away.

    Liu-shiye suddenly returned to his senses, and began screaming, "Buddhists... Buddhists must be merciful¨C¨C"

    Without so much as a look back, Xuanmin coolly replied, "This monk has no mercy."

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Yesterday I wrote half, and then fell asleep and didn¡¯t update. Today I lost my wallet. Really¡­ I got what I deserved (x

    ---

    [a] Here, the Chinese phrasing is ×÷Äõ (zuo4 nie4), meaning to do evil ¨C¨C but ¡®evil¡¯ is the ¡®nie¡¯ in ¡®niezhang¡¯.

    [b] Musuli uses the word ÊõÊ¿ (shu4 shi4), literally ¡°technique professional¡±, where Êõ means magic/mysticism. In my original translation, I translated this as ¡°wizard¡± because it really is what ÊõÊ¿ means; but I¡¯ve since become aware that ¡°wizard¡± is a sensitive term in danmei fandom since it is associated with Westerners¡¯ reductive and Orientalist readings of danmei fantasy. I am thus retiring the term ¡°wizard¡± and choosing the much more novel-specific term ¡°geomancer¡± for ÊõÊ¿.

    [c] The Chinese word here is Äï (niang2), a more informal/intimate term for ¡°mother.¡± (See Chapter 7 footnotes.)

    [d] This really is a chengyu in Chinese: µÃ´ç½ø³ß (de2 cun4 jin4 chi3), literally ¡°receive cun, want chi¡±.

    [e] Daifu: see glossary.

    [f] Musuli uses Éµ×Ó (sha3 zi), which means ¡°idiot¡±. Sometimes when I use this footnote, she is using Éµ by itself, which is an adjective rather than a noun, meaning ¡°idiotic¡±.

    [g] The Chinese word here is Ô© (yuan1), meaning ¡°injustice¡± or ¡°grievance¡±.

 CH 16

    As Xue Xian slumbered in his rage-induced stupor, he thought he heard that strange knocking sound again from the bald donkey''s hip. It seemed to come from within the bald donkey¡¯s flesh. Dang¨C¨C The noise felt sometimes close, sometimes far, and reverberated throughout Xue Xian¡¯s chest, making it impossible for him to breathe. Thus, the niezhang continued to be unconscious for a long time¡­

    When he finally awoke and slowly stuck his head out of the pouch, he found that he was no longer at the Liu family compound.

    Xue Xian looked around. He seemed to be in a bedroom. The mattress was neat and tidy, and a nearby lantern cast a soft glow. The faint smell of moringa leaves [a] hung in the room, alongside an even fainter, almost imperceptible medicinal stench. Xuanmin was standing by a circular carved table, on top of which he had placed the untroublesome paper man Jiang Shining, as well as the empty millstone from the Liu compound, a thin cloth bundle, a copper bowl full of fresh water, and a light green porcelain tea set on which was painted a name ¨C¨C Guiyun Hall. [b]

    From that, it was obvious they were in an inn, and that this was one of the best rooms there.

    Guiyun Hall¡­ Dwelling in the clouds¡­

    Having been immersed in the human realm these past few months, Xue Xian knew of scholars who liked to stay at Zhuangyuan Pagoda, [c] merchants who liked to stay at Guangyuan Pagoda, [d] as well as stereotypical inn names like Yuelai, Fushun, [e] and other auspicious phrases. Guiyun Hall sounded like an inn for people who wanted to get to heaven as soon as possible. Who in their right mind would want to stay there?

    Clearly, the bald donkey was one of these people. Perhaps he¡¯d had his brains pecked out by a chicken in the past.

    Xue Xian watched as Xuanmin carefully washed his hands in the copper bowl. He had to admit that the bald donkey had a lovely set of fingers: slender and pale, with joints as straight as ink brushes. The bald donkey seemed not to know the meaning of ¡®rush¡¯ ¨C¨C all of his actions were neither hasty nor slow, but completely self-assured. He made even hand-washing seem like a solemn action as contemplative as prayer.

    Xue Xian had to give it to him: it was admirable. "You''re washing your hands like you''re about to deliver a funeral."

    Xuanmin looked down at him and said, "I am delivering a funeral."

    "Whose?"

    Xuanmin replied, "Lady Xu." [f]

    "Lady Xu?" Xue Xian echoed.

    A melancholy sigh came from the millstone: "Thank you very much, Dashi."

    It was Liu-lao-taitai, of course.

    Xue Xian stared up at Xuanmin, expressionless. "How¨C¨C Ugh, how long was I asleep? You managed to learn the old lady''s surname?"

    He had wanted to ask How long did I faint for?, but it was certainly not very dignified of him to have fainted from sheer anger. He needed to save his dragon face, so he¡¯d changed it last minute to ¡®sleep¡¯.

    Xuanmin shook the droplets of water from his hands, then dried himself with a white cloth. He said, "You fainted for five shichen. [g] It is nighttime."

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± You bastard. If you were a piece of wood you¡¯d be a coffin plank that insisted on making people¡¯s feet hurt when they walked on you! Why don''t you just throw me into the river while you''re at it?

    Enraged, Xue Xian shut his mouth and decided not to engage the bald donkey anymore. What a rude bore! [h]

    Xuanmin paid no attention to Xue Xian. He put down the cloth towel and unwrapped the bundle on the table, taking out a folded yellow piece of paper and a brush.

    There was a well of quality ink by the copper bowl. Xuanmin spread out the yellow paper, dipped his brush into the ink, and wrote some calligraphy onto the paper¨C¨C

    Lady Xu of House Liu

    The twenty-third day of the seventh month, Bing Yin year. [i]

    Next, Xuanmin took a stick of incense out of the bundle. He folded the sheet of paper with Liu-lao-taitai¡¯s name in it three times, then held it over the candle flame until it caught fire. He placed that onto the millstone. Though the paper was thinly made, it burned extremely slowly. The millstone''s facade quickly darkened, as though covered in a layer of ash.

    Steadily, Xuanmin held the incense over the burning yellow paper and let it burn.

    "This is transcendence?" Xue Xian had watched all this carefully, and now couldn¡¯t fight back the urge to speak.

    He had only ever seen ordinary transcendence rites, commonly known as the Seven Buddhas ¨C¨C a bunch of bald donkeys sitting in a circle, their heads so shiny that it lit up the whole room. They would split into two shifts and pray by the coffin non-stop for seven days and seven nights. Xue Xian had once ridden on the coattails of the wrong person, and had ended up amidst a mourning family. He''d had no choice but to listen to that group of bald donkeys nattering away for seven days. It had been so irritating that he''d wished he could hang himself from the coffin edge.

    Ever since then, he got a headache whenever he saw a monk.

    He wondered whether Xuanmin also planned to drone on for seven days and seven nights. If so, then Xue Xian might as well jump out of the window right now and off himself.

    Xuanmin was still holding the stick of incense. From it rose an emerald swell of smoke that coiled its way around the millstone, breathing out the scent of sandalwood. "Libation, inscription, incineration, invocation. These are all a dead soul needs," he said.

    He really did intend to pray!

    Xue Xian leapt out of the pouch.

    Xuanmin glanced at him. "What are you doing now?"

    "I don''t want to live anymore. I''m going to jump."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    However, Xue Xian did not have the ability to jump out of the window. He tumbled away from Xuanmin''s hip and landed onto the carved table. Just as he had rolled his way to the edge and planned to dive, Xuanmin pinched him and brought him back to the table.

    This bald donkey was highly eccentric ¨C¨C he didn''t seem at all to be a normal monk. This was obvious in every detail about him, from the way he moved to the luxurious room he''d rented at the inn.

    Now, for some reason, Xuanmin had suddenly taken notice of the fold marks on Xue Xian''s paper body, and seemed not to like them. Without even asking, he used a fingertip to press the paper man down and then picked up a heavy-looking stone paperweight and dropped it onto Xue Xian.

    The paperweight was about half the size of a fist, a long and narrow rectangular block. All that could be seen of Xue Xian now were his head, his legs, and a sliver of each of his claws.

    Xue Xian struggled with all his might, but was only able to twitch his hands ever so slightly. The rest of his body refused to budge.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± Fuck you!

    Xuanmin stopped paying attention to Xue Xian and continued with his incense.

    When the incense burned away, Xuanmin recited a word of prayer in a low voice, then fell silent. This, it seemed, was what he had meant by ¡®invocation¡¯, and not anything like what Xue Xian had feared.

    The flames on the yellow paper and the incense smoke died down together. As the last scarlet embers disappeared, Xuanmin reached out a finger and tapped the millstone that had imprisoned Liu-lao-taitai for three years.

    There were two or three kacha noises, and suddenly the mass of stone that had seemed so solid before shattered into tiny pieces.

    The old woman''s melancholy voice returned: "This is a relief for this old body of mine. I''ll be on my way now. Thank you."

    As she spoke, Xue Xian saw a soft shadow pass across the millstone. Together with the layer of ash, it vanished.

    In that same moment as the millstone¡¯s breaking and Liu-lao-taitai''s passing, there suddenly came another strange noise ¨C¨C dingding dangdang ¨C¨C like a horse-drawn carriage ¡ª or some other thing with a bell attached to it ¡ª passing by on the street below, the sound faint and far away.

    Then, something fell out of the broken pieces of the millstone and rolled onto the table.

    Dingling ¨C¨C danglang¨C¨C

    Xue Xian could feel that something was rolling across the table, but before he could lift his head to see, it rolled across his forehead. "What the hell is this? Stupid thing. Destroy it!"

    Xuanmin stretched out a hand and let the object roll off the edge of the table and into his palm.

    He pinched it between his fingers. "A golden marble the size of a sheep''s eyeball."

    Xue Xian was stunned. "Golden marble? Sheep''s eye?"

    Yes! It was just as Xue Xian had said ¨C¨C the golden marble form of a real live dragon... how could any old geomancer just melt that into a millstone? It seemed that all the conman had done was shove the thing into the stone intact.

    Xue Xian was delighted, but Xuanmin said, "Mn. A stupid thing. Let''s destroy it."

    "No, wait!" Were it not for the paperweight, Xue Xian would have ascended to the heavens right then and there. "If you destroy that, I''ll destroy you!"

    Xuanmin calmly said, "Not stupid anymore?"

    "Not stupid," Xue Xian replied through gritted teeth.

    "We won''t destroy it?"

    "We won''t destroy it. It''s mine! See if you dare."

    "Yours?" Xuanmin asked. "How can you prove it?"

    "Okay," Xue Xian wheedled. "Take the paperweight off me and I''ll show you."

    Xuanmin looked at him, then said curtly, "Speak."

    ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian wanted to hurl his intestines all over Xuanmin¡¯s face.

    But this golden marble was far too important. The bald monkey held it in his hands, so no matter how murderous Xue Xian felt, he had to be obedient.

    Forcing himself to sound casual, he said, "Look at the marble through the candle flame. You''ll see¨C¨C"

    Inside the marble nested the form of a dragon, whose claws and crown were hidden by his curled body. Perhaps it was too difficult to see.

    Instead of saying this, Xue Xian gritted his teeth and said, "You''ll see a squiggle. Normal marbles don''t have squiggles!"

    Xuanmin brought the marble to the flame.

    Indeed, the ordinary-looking golden marble turned slightly transparent, revealing a twisted form inside.

    "A snake," said Xuanmin.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± A fucking snake?!

    Xue Xian forced this rage down, though his face had turned ashy. "You believe me now, right? Can you take this damn paperweight off me now? Give me my marble back!"

    Xuanmin still seemed to have some decency in him. Seeing that the niezhang was telling the truth, he lifted the paperweight.

    Xue Xian sat up and rubbed his throbbing head, which felt as though it had been crushed by a mountain. He shook himself awake, then stretched out his hands to Xuanmin, shouting, "Where''s my marble! Give it back!"

    Xuanmin pointed at the center of the table. "First¨C¨C"

    "Shut up and give it to me," Xue Xian interrupted.

    Xuanmin stopped and gazed at him. Finally, he put that small golden marble into the paper man''s claws.

    Guangdang!

    The marble was not light at all. The paper man certainly couldn''t carry it.

    All Xue Xian felt was a sudden weight in his paper claws and then a flash of darkness in his vision ¨C¨C the damn marble had dragged him off the table and all the way down onto the floor.

    ¡°...¡±

    How was he supposed to live like this?

    As Xuanmin leant down to pick up the niezhang, it was still gripping that marble tightly against its chest, like a grumpy miser.

    ¡°I was only going to ask you to move away from the edge of the table." Xuanmin placed the paper man onto the table and gazed at him. "Will you interrupt me again?"

    Fuck you! Mind your own business! Xue Xian thought. But the fall had really scrambled him up, [j] and he worried that if he pissed off the bald donkey he¡¯d get the marble confiscated. He bit his words and said, "Fine. I won''t interrupt you next time."

    Hugging the marble, Xue Xian settled down onto the table, but seemed to bump into something. As he heard that ding¨C¨C sound again, he suddenly remembered that more than one item seemed to have fallen out of the millstone.

    Leaning on the marble, Xue Xian looked at what he had run into: a small silver disk the size of an apricot, with a gap along its edge. It seemed to be able to emit a noise when struck.

    "What is that?" Xue Xian asked, tumbling away from the object.

    From a distance, it still wasn''t recognisable.

    "That''s a medical bell," Jiang Shining said quietly.

    Still gripping the marble tightly in his paper-thin arms, Xue Xian looked like a roly-poly toy. [k] He rolled the marble, and himself with it, all the way to Jiang Shining. "You''re awake!"

    "I''ve been awake this whole time, but just couldn''t speak," Jiang Shining said. "It seems that night has fallen, so I can speak again."

    His voice was filled with warmth. He sounded different from before, less deathly, as though¡­ as though he had suddenly resolved something that had been heavy in his heart and now felt more relaxed.

    Having spoken, Jiang Shining floated from the table onto the chair, then onto the ground, and transformed back into his scholar¡¯s form.

    He reached out to pick up the medical bell and rubbed it. "This is my family''s medical bell."

    Xue Xian gaped at him. "Your family''s?"

    "Mn." Jiang Shining nodded and showed Xue Xian the other side of the bell, where a name was caerved ¨C¨C Jiang Yong.

    "That''s my ancestor," he said. "My ancestor was a travelling doctor. He used to walk the streets and treat the people he came across. In order to alert the citizens that he was close by, he would have a bell strung onto his medical case that rang when he walked. They would come out of their homes to meet him. This was the exact bell my ancestor used, but these days travelling doctors have mostly gone extinct ¨C¨C replaced by proper clinics and pharmacies. This bell has been passed down by the doctors in the family so as not to forget our roots. All the way down to my parents."

    "Your parents?" Xuanmin frowned. He beckoned for Jiang Shining to hand the bell back to him and inspected it, striking it again. "Do you have any living relatives?"

    "Yes,¡± Jiang Shining replied. ¡°My sister married into a faraway family in Anqing, so she wasn''t at home on the night of the tragedy."

    "Your parents'' souls are trapped inside this bell. But it is different from Lady Xu in the millstone. We cannot help them transcend right now ¨C¨C we require three drops of laogong blood from a living relative,¡± Xuanmin said.

    "Laogong blood?" Jiang Shining said. Being from a medical family, he immediately understood what Xuanmin meant. "You mean, blood from the laogong acupuncture point?" [l]

    Xuanmin nodded.

    Xuanmin handed the bell back to Jiang Shining, then seemed to glance over at the cloth bundle on the table.

    Xue Xian followed his eyeline. He noticed that there was another stick of incense inside the bundle.

    Pointing at the incense, Xue Xian said, "Hey, bald donkey. You only used one stick of incense for old lady Liu''s transcendence rites. What are you going to do with this one?"

    Xuanmin said, "Rites for this scholar."

    Before Jiang Shining could even react, Xue Xian swivelled around. "What?! You¨C¨C"

    He was interrupted by Xuanmin suddenly grabbing the edge of the table. Xuanmin¡¯s face twisted and his eyes fluttered shut. He seemed to suddenly feel unwell.

    Xue Xian was shocked. Softly, he said, "Bald donkey?"

    He called out twice more, but Xuanmin did not respond. Xuanmin collapsed onto the chair with his eyes tightly shut, as though meditating. That small mole on the side of his neck had changed: some thin red blood vessels crept out of it, like a spider poised against his skin.

    But Xue Xian did not notice such a detail. He studied Xuanmin for a moment, and once he realised Xuanmin¡¯s life wasn''t in danger, he quietly waved Jiang Shining over.

    A short while later, [m] anyone in Ningyang Xian Cheng [n] looking out onto the street on which stood Guiyun Hall would be able to see a grim, starved-looking scholar hurrying away from the inn. On his shoulder sat a little paper man who held a golden marble in his lap.

    Jiang Shining and Xue Xian had made their escape.

    ----

    The author has something to say:

    Finally off the train and have arrived at school Orz Tomorrow the updates will go back to normal =3=

    ----

    [a] Musuli writes here that the smell is that of Ä¾Ò¶ (mu4 ye4), literally ¡°wood leaf¡±. I looked this up and I think she¡¯s most likely referring to À±Ä¾Ò¶ (la4 mu4 ye4), ¡°moringa leaves¡±. The drumstick tree (molinga olefeira, aka horseradish tree) is native to the Indian subcontinent and its parts can be used for medicinal purposes, so it wouldn¡¯t be wrong to associate it with Xuanmin, a Buddhist ascetic. Apparently, moringa smells nutty/earthy.

    [b] ¹éÔÆ (gui1 yun2): ¹é means ¡°to belong¡± or ¡°to return to¡± and ÔÆ means ¡°cloud¡±. In my original translation I translated the name of this inn as ¡°Cloud Dwelling¡±.

    [c] Zhuangyuan is the title given to the person ranked first in the Imperial Examination. (Wikipedia)

    [d] ¹ãÔ´ (guang3 yuan2): ¹ã means ¡°vast¡± and Ô´ means ¡°source¡±. The name of this inn points to a prosperous, fertile font or river source, from which good things flow, such as luck, good business, and money. In my original translation I translated the name of this inn as ¡°Prosperous Pagoda¡±.

    [e] ÔÃÀ´ (yue4 lai2), literally ¡°joy comes¡±. ¸£Ë³ (fu2 shun4), literally ¡°prosperity follows¡±.

    [f] In Chinese, the phrasing is ÐíÊÏ (xu3 shi4), meaning ¡°the person surnamed Xu¡± or ¡°Xu name/family¡±. Although historical Chinese women retained their maiden names upon marriage, their titles would change to reflect their new status as a member of their husband¡¯s family, thus why Liu-lao-taitai is referred to by everyone around her as such, instead of as Xu-lao-taitai. Sometimes, a maiden might not have a formal given name at all, whether this is because she was only called by nicknames growing up, or because it is felt that she no longer needs one after she is married (e.g. if she is a concubine with lower status than an ordinary wife). This is why a woman might sometimes simply be called ¡°__ shi¡±, meaning ¡°person with the surname __¡± or ¡°person from the __ family¡±. It is less polite because it is not a formal address, but it might be more accurate, as it is in this case with Liu-lao-taitai.

    [g] 5 shichen = 10 hours.

    [h] Musuli phrased this as, ¡°a thing that does not know how to chat/make conversation¡±.

    [i] The year name comes from the ganzhi cycle of sixty year terms, based on the ten heavenly stems (gan) and the twelve earthly branches (zhi).

    [j] Here, Musuli uses the chengyu Æß»ç°ËËØ (qi1 hun1 ba1 su4), literally ¡°seven »ç, eight vegetables¡±, where »ç describes the category of foods forbidden to strict Buddhists, including meat, fish, and pungent vegetables. The chengyu indicates a big mix of foods, and means ¡°confused¡± or ¡°distracted¡±.

    [k] The Chinese name for a roly-poly toy is ²»µ¹ÎÌ (bu4 dao3 weng1), literally ¡°guy who can¡¯t fall¡±. Translations of TGCF have translated ²»µ¹ÎÌ as ¡°Daruma doll¡±, and while it¡¯s most likely that the ²»µ¹ÎÌ invoked in historical fantasy danmei bear the most resemblance to Japanese Daruma dolls, I have chosen not to use romanised Japanese in the text.

    [l] The laogong pressure point is in the center of the palm.

    [m] Musuli likes to use the expression ¡°in the time it takes to drink X cups of tea¡± to mark the passage of time, but it¡¯s always rather difficult to convey this succinctly in English. For instance, I know that ¡°in the time it takes to light a stick of incense¡± is an expression that has appeared in this genre before that can be shortened to simply ¡°an incense time¡±, but ¡°a teacup time¡± just doesn¡¯t work. So very often I have to take it out since it just doesn¡¯t flow as well for us.

    [n] Xian Cheng: see glossary.

 CH 17

    "I¨C¨C" Jiang Shining hesitantly began to speak as he hurried away from the inn under Xue Xian¡¯s orders. "¨C¨CI just don''t feel that this is right."

    "What isn''t right?" demanded Xue Xian, stroking his marble.

    "Slipping away like this... Leaving dashi behind all alone," Jiang Shining replied.

    Xue Xian glared at him. "Bookworm, are you sleepwalking? He hunts demons. [a] We¡¯re the ones being hunted! Have you ever heard of felons escaping prison and taking the warden along with them?"

    "No," Jiang Shining admitted. Although Xue Xian seemed to be making sense, Jiang Shining was still puzzled. "But¨C¨C"

    "There is no but."

    "Yet¨C¨C"

    "There is no yet."

    Defeated, Jiang Shining hung his head.

    Xue Xian patted his marble, self-satisfied. "That''s how I roll." [b]

    Jiang Shining: ¡°...¡±

    Curfew had already begun in Ningyang Xian Cheng, and roadblocks and barriers had been set up at all the major thoroughfares. Patrolling yamen officers stood idly by, warming themselves with pouches of hot wine. [c] The four gates of the city walls were tightly shut ¨C¨C if a common citizen wanted to go in or out at this time, they¡¯d have to sprout wings.

    But these two were not human, so it was easy work.

    The advantage of Jiang Shining''s paper body was clear. All he had to do was make himself paper-thin and slip through the gaps.

    "Go east."

    "Go into the alley at the end of this lane."

    "Go straight, then west."

    Xue Xian had vision sharper than a dog¡¯s. Even from afar, he could immediately spot the yamen¡¯s patrols before they emerged from the shadows. When he gave Jiang Shining directions he did so in a straightforward and authoritative manner, without any hint of uncertainty. [d] Jiang Shining had a mild personality and was used to being ordered around by Xue Xian already. Whenever Xue Xian spoke, Jiang Shining would obey without asking questions.

    This was how Jiang Shining allowed himself to be fooled. [e] But after some time, he finally stopped in his tracks and anxiously said, "Zuzong, haven''t you had enough? Please stop talking."

    Xue Xian glared at him. "Why? We''re doing a great job of avoiding the patrols."

    "Yes, we''ve avoided them, but I swear we''ve already passed this textile workshop three times,¡± Jiang Shining said indignantly. ¡°If I keep following your nonsense directions, we''ll be stuck here all night."

    Xue Xian hugged his marble tightly and hissed. "It''s too dark. We need to find somewhere to rest."

    Jiang Shining: ¡°...¡± The balls on this one! [f]

    Without Xue Xian''s misleading [g] nattering, Jiang Shining was able to navigate the streets much faster. Soon, they left the area with the textile workshop and found their way back to the correct route.

    "This building looks familiar." Xue Xian looked around, and felt that the whole street looked familiar.

    ¡°Mn,¡± Jiang Shining said. ¡°You really are awful with directions. We were just here this morning. How could you already forget?"

    Now that Jian Shining had said it, Xue Xian remembered. Just a little farther ahead and to the east was Liu-shiye¡¯s compound. Right now, the night was deathly still ¨C¨C any small noise could be heard loud and clear. As they scuttled past Liu-shiye¡¯s street, they stole a glance at that familiar set of front doors and thought they could hear fragments of voices ¨C¨C perhaps a quarrel, perhaps something else, but definitely some kind of conflict.

    Jiang Shining''s footsteps came to a halt.

    Xue Xian looked back at the Liu compound. "What is it? Do you want to see if he got what he deserved?"

    "That''s Liu-shiye¡¯s business, not mine." Jiang Shining shook his head and, without delaying further, began walking toward the city gate.

    Maybe it was because he came from a medical family, but Jiang Shining simply couldn''t bear to watch others suffer. Indeed, that was the difference between him and someone like Liu-shiye.

    Ningyang Xian Cheng was surrounded by thick forest, but the scenery was gentle and beautiful, without much real danger.

    Because the current Guoshi was a Buddhist monk, there was a time when all sorts of temples had popped up on hilltops and mountainsides across the land, spreading the strong smell of incense everywhere. However, in recent years, for some strange reason, winter began to arrive increasingly early. Even the south came to be blanketed by snow for months on end. Folk usually say that blizzards are good omens for the new year, but at the same time, the rainfall had not been good recently, and the people were feeling the effects of several years of bad harvests. They had their own things to worry about, and no money to light incense in temples.

    Thus, over a short period of time, the rural temples became completely deserted, visited only by travellers for temporary shelter.

    Jiang Shining and Xue Xian found an abandoned temple atop Mount Jiguan and slipped inside. Outside, the snow had already begun to fall.

    As soon as they entered the temple, Xue Xian spotted the perfect resting place. That niezhang had the audacity to pick up a pile of hay from the ground, bring it to where the Buddha''s statue was seated, and shamelessly lean against the statue! Since they were no longer in a rush, he naturally shook himself out of his paper man form and reverted to his normal appearance.

    Xue Xian flopped back as though he had no skeleton beneath those black robes. He rested his elbow on the Buddha''s lotus leaf seat and casually propped his chin up on his hand. His other hand still held his precious golden marble.

    Jiang Shining scowled. Just looking at this zuzong made his head hurt. "This may be an abandoned temple, but you should still maintain some propriety. You can''t just sit on the Buddha!"

    Xue Xian reached out and slapped the Buddha''s thigh. "Hey, let me sit here. If you don¡¯t want me to, say something now."

    He pretended to wait, then jutted his chin out defiantly at Jiang Shining. "See? Nothing."

    "¡­Do what you want. I don''t care."

    Jiang Shining went to the altar and blew away some of the ash and dust on its surface. Xue Xian handed him a match and, with some effort, Jiang Shining was able to light the damp candle on the altar, cringing away from the flame all the while.

    "Where did you find this match?" asked Jiang Shining as he idly shook it until the flame died.

    "Shimmied it out of the bald donkey''s pouch," Xue Xian replied with a straight face.

    "I''ve never heard of a felon escaping prison and stealing from it at the same time," Jiang Shining said, exasperated.

    "He won''t miss it."

    On the topic of Xuanmin, Jiang Shining started to feel guilty again. He couldn''t help but ask Xue Xian, "Why do you hate that dashi so much? Because he captured us?"

    Xue Xian shook his head.

    "Then why were you so eager to lose him? If I may..." Jiang Shining pointed at himself, then at Xue Xian. "There''s not much we can do by ourselves. We can barely even carry anything. If we get into trouble, we''re helpless. All I have on me is a medical bell, which isn''t worth very much, but if someone got their eye on your golden marble..."

    Xue Xian idly rolled the marble back and forth between his fingers, then held it up to the light.

    Of course he had a reason for escaping in the night. The reason was the marble, which contained his dragon body: because he hadn''t healed enough yet, he felt no spiritual connection to the marble. Even holding it in his bare hands elicited no reaction at all. It was as though he were holding any old marble off the street.

    But there was something about Xuanmin. There had been something embedded in the flesh of his hip. One strike could be mistaken for a coincidence, but twice? Xue Xian couldn''t ignore it.

    Although Xue Xian hadn''t observed much of Xuanmin''s real skill, he was certain that Xuanmin was hiding something.

    Xue Xian knew that he couldn¡¯t do anything with the marble at the moment, but Xuanmin might be able to affect it in the same way he¡¯d affected Xue Xian¡¯s paper body. If Xue Xian stayed by Xuanmin''s side too long with his marble, Xuanmin might have some adverse impact on the marble, and then Xue Xian might not be able to return to his original dragon form anymore.

    Besides...

    Xue Xian said to Jiang Shining, "We don''t know where he comes from, nor what he wants. He doesn''t look like a professional geomancer you¡¯d see on the jianghu, nor does he come across as one of those charitable monks who goes around saving vulnerable people. He only touched me a couple times, but I got the feeling that he carries a coldness to him."

    Confused, Jiang Shining asked, "What coldness? That makes no sense."

    Xue Xian scoffed with disdain. "Basically, he''s just different from other monks. Before, I wasn''t sure what made him different. But now that I think of it, I think it has to do with his complete lack of warmth ¨C¨C it¡¯s weird. Don''t you think that, if it came down to it, he would be willing to commit murder?"

    ¡°...¡± Jiang Shining pondered this, but he wasn''t convinced. He shook his head. "I don''t think so. But ¨C¨C and this is embarrassing ¨C¨C I''m scared of him."

    "There you go," Xue Xian snapped. "Same meaning."

    Recalling that Xue Xian had said We don¡¯t know where he comes from, Jiang Shining had a sudden thought. "By the way, did you smell medicine back at the inn?"

    "Yeah,¡± Xue Xian said. ¡°I was confused. The bald donkey takes medication?"

    "I grew up around the smell of medicine, so I''m quite sensitive to it." Jiang Shining thought for a bit, then added, "That smell was quite familiar. It reminded me of a neighbor that my parents treated long-term."

    "What kind of illness was that?" Xue Xian asked.

    Jiang Shining hesitated. Finally, he said, "Loss of soul."

    People who had lost their souls were usually insomniacs, and were easily frightened. In some cases, they constantly woke up having forgotten what had occurred to them previously, struggled with amnesia, and were constantly confused. It was as though their souls had left their bodies ¨C¨C thus they were labelled as suffering from ¡®loss of soul disease¡¯.

    "Loss of soul? That bald donkey?" Xue Xian scoffed, and gestured dismissively. "He doesn''t look at all like those confused, anxious wrecks. Not possible!"

    ******

    "Indeed he doesn''t seem like someone missing chunks of their memories, but ¨C¨C" Jiang Shining thought for a while, then said, "From what I''ve seen, some people who have lost their souls are really obvious about it because of their amnesia and disorientation. When you speak to them, they seem distracted and generally behave strangely, with no energy about them. But others are different, perhaps because they''re well-prepared for it: they''ll behave strangely normally, speak as little as possible so as not to reveal their illness, and try to cure themselves in secret. They''ll only speak of what they know, and conceal what they don¡¯t know. If you¡¯re not close to them, it''s impossible to tell there''s anything wrong with them."

    Hearing this, Xue Xian shrugged. "Even in the latter case where they''re well-prepared, they would hardly go running around. If they didn''t want to raise suspicion, they would stay in their comfort zone and avoid running into people who might detect anything. What kind of amnesiac would set off travelling on their own, bothering people and getting into trouble with demons? [a] That''s not memory loss: that''s loss of sanity!"

    Jiang Shining nodded. "True."

    "But you¡¯re right: even if it''s not loss of soul, there''s definitely something up with that bald donkey." Xue Xian thought back to when Xuanmin had suddenly gripped the table and frozen, and added, "What are his origins? What are his motives? Surely he isn¡¯t walking around aimlessly. He definitely came to Ningyang County for a reason.But today, he did two things that were absolutely none of his business ¨C¨C he captured us, and took down the array at the Liu compound."

    Jiang Shining couldn''t help but add, "He also did the rites for Liu-lao-tai-tai, and saved my family''s medical bell, and helped you extract your golden marble, and ¨C¨C"

    Suddenly, he stopped. All together, Xuanmin''s actions made even less sense. It wasn¡¯t as though he¡¯d done small favors on the side: the incident at the Liu compound had taken all morning, and had been time-consuming and difficult. Why had he helped? What was in it for him?

    "Based on what he''d been saying, it sounded like he wanted to finish the job and take you and the medical bell to your sister," Xue Xian said, still fiddling with the marble. "I''ve actually been to Anqing. It''s not impossibly far from Ningyang, but you still have to cross the river. If it was really out of the goodness of his heart, that would be way too friendly. That bald donkey has the coldest, most chilling face I''ve ever seen. Do you think anyone thinks ¡®friendly¡¯ when they see that face?"

    Xue Xian couldn¡¯t help but try to imagine how that bald donkey might look when he was being friendly.

    Soon, a chill passed from the top of the niezhang¡¯s head all the way down to his toes. He said, "Help me. I¡¯m scared to death."

    Jiang Shining: ¡°...¡±

    Although this zuzong didn¡¯t look trustworthy or reliable at all, the things he was saying did make some sense. But on the topic of helping people for no apparent reason... Jiang Shining looked at Xue Xian. "When you first arrived at Ningyang County, you also did nothing except make me a paper body..."

    "That''s not the same," Xue Xian shot back.

    "To be honest, I still don''t understand. There are so many houses in Ningyang County. Why did you come to my ruined place?" Jiang Shining shook his head. "It''s so cold and dark. You have really interesting tastes ¨C¨C why would you go to such an unwelcoming place?"

    *I wanted to. You can¡¯t stop me!" Xue Xian snapped.

    Not only was this zuzong rude and unreasonable, but when he argued with Jiang Shining, he didn¡¯t even bother looking at him. He was still gazing admiringly at his precious marble.

    The warm glow of the candlelight seemed to give some life to Xue Xian''s pallor. Although he was annoying as hell and seemed to be begging to get beat up every time he opened his mouth, he did have quite a good complexion. The flame cast a shadow beneath his half-open eyelids, and the dark pools of his eyes seemed to reflect the shine of that marble and the white haze of the blizzard outside.

    Out of all the places to seek shelter from the harsh weather in Ningyang County, why had Xue Xian chosen the Jiang compound, and why had he bothered to spend all of that first day making a paper body for the scholar?

    Even Xue Xian couldn''t remember the real reason ¨C¨C he had lived so long that if he could remember every little detail of his past, then his head would have exploded long ago.

    He only knew that, one winter, he had travelled north for some reason, and on his way home he had passed through Ningyang County.

    It had probably been the evening. There had been a snowstorm as violent as the one today. The streets had been empty, and even the restaurants and food stalls had long been packed away, so that the place had been blanketed with a deathly stillness.

    At the time, Xue Xian had not yet been maimed, and could use his legs. Naturally, as a mighty dragon, he hadn¡¯t been afraid of the cold: to him, wind and snow were nothing but the ornaments of winter. Thus, that day, he¡¯d worn a thin black robe as he¡¯d ambled through the blizzard. Just as he¡¯d passed the mouth of an alley, someone had tugged at his arm.

    Xue Xian was an independent spirit. He hated interacting with others, and definitely did not ever appreciate being touched by a stranger.

    Scowling, he¡¯d swivelled around to see a middle-aged man wearing a grey overcoat. The man had been holding a wax-paper umbrella and carrying a cloth-covered rectangular case. Based on the footprints, it seemed that he had just come out of the alley.

    Xue Xian could no longer remember what the middle-aged man looked like: only that he¡¯d had a mustache, and had seemed genial and kind.

    Tugging at Xue Xian¡¯s sleeve, the man had gestured at the back of Xue Xian''s hand. "You''re gravely injured. If you don''t treat it now, the cold is going to destroy your flesh. In this weather, if you get frostbite even for just two days, you''ll feel it every winter for the rest of your life ¨C¨C and then you''ll be sorry."

    That middle-aged man had been talkative, and had not been at all shy about accosting some younger person on the street to lecture him. Xue Xian had stared at him, confused, then looked down at his own hand.

    The hand that the middle-aged man had been pointing at had indeed been injured: from a thunder-related accident some days ago. To Xue Xian, such an injury had been akin to scratching his skin against a passing tree branch. He had forgotten about it as soon as he''d gotten it, knowing that it would soon disappear. But to ordinary people, the injury had indeed looked horrifying ¨C¨C the whole back of his hand had been deeply slashed, and fresh blood had coagulated by the wound. The muscles had split away and even some bone was visible.

    Without another word, the middle-aged man had led the stunned Xue Xian back down the alley until they¡¯d come upon a set of red doors.

    It had been clear that this was the man¡¯s home. He¡¯d pushed open the doors and called out a name, then added, "Bring me the portable heater that''s on the counter."

    Then, he¡¯d lifted the lid on his box and had begun to apply medication to Xue Xian''s wound without delay.

    Someone had soon rushed out of the house and had stood by the doorway, holding a small copper heater.

    Xue Xian had glanced over: it had been a middle-aged woman who¡¯d seemed as gentle as the man. Behind her had been a shy little boy who¡¯d looked about seven or eight years old. When he¡¯d caught Xue Xian''s eye, he¡¯d smiled sweetly. Eagerly, he¡¯d pointed at Xue Xian''s hand and announced, "Don''t wash it for two days ¨C¨C especially not cold water."

    "Go, go study!" the woman had gently scolded the child. Then, she¡¯d turned to Xue Xian: "Indeed, you shouldn''t let water touch it. You need to be careful with injuries in this weather, or else you''ll plant the roots of pain and it''ll come back year after year."

    Just as the man had said.

    "Are you in a hurry? Do you want to come inside and warm yourself up a bit?" the middle-aged man had asked as he¡¯d wrapped Xue Xian''s hand with a cotton rag and carefully tied a knot.

    "No need. I have things to do," Xue Xian had replied. Then, awkwardly, he¡¯d added, "Thank you very much."

    "Then take this heater with you. You need it to take care of this wound." The middle-aged man had pushed the small heater into Xue Xian''s hands.

    Although Xue Xian was never afraid of the cold, he also wasn''t completely indifferent to it. That day, as he¡¯d pressed the pleasantly warm heater to himself, he¡¯d raised his head to look at the compound doors, above which had been a sign that said ¨C¨C Jiang Medical Clinic.

    Some years later, Xue Xian happened to pass through Ningyang again. He¡¯d waited until no one was around and had marched into the Jiang compound, placing the copper heater and a small pouch of golden pearls onto a stone table in the courtyard before leisurely walking back out.

    And when he¡¯d arrived in Ningyang County this time around, he had planned to go check in on the family. But he¡¯d found the house in ruins. That red-painted set of doors and the medicinal herb garden set up in the courtyard had all vanished ¨C¨C all he¡¯d found had been the lonely ghost Jiang Shining.

    So he¡¯d helped Jiang Shining. It hadn¡¯t been hard.

    After all, not everyone in the world was as evil as Liu-shiye. Some people only know how to hold grudges. Others acknowledge kindness and pay it back.

    Xue Xian leaned back against the Buddha statue and stared at the blizzard raging outside the temple.

    Suddenly, Jiang Shining asked, "Before we left, when you asked me to wait by the door, what did you put on dashi¡¯s table?"

    Xue Xian idly said, "Nothing much. Just thanks for his help with my marble."

    What he had left for Xuanmin was none other than a dragon¡¯s scale. Having come from a real dragon¡¯s body, the item wasn¡¯t necessarily an immortality pill, but it was definitely more effective and more precious than any medicinal herb. That bald donkey was ill. It wasn''t clear what he was ill with, but if he made medicine using the scale, it would definitely help.

    Ordinary people did not have the eye to recognise a dragon¡¯s scale. It resembled a thin, circular flake, and was about the size of a coin, with a dim blue-black shimmer. But it had a subtly humid smell to it, like rain on stone, as well as something... fishy... reminiscent of a freshly-peeled shrimp.

    Xue Xian''s eyes fluttered open. His face showed no emotion. "I''m hungry," he said.

    In the room at Guiyun Hall, Xuanmin was still sitting unmoving by the table, maintaining the posture he''d held when Xue Xian had made his escape.

    On the table was a yellow sheet of paper, on top of which was the dragon¡¯s scale that Xue Xian had left behind. That peculiar smell rose from the scale and slowly wormed its way into Xuanmin''s nostrils.

    Xuanmin''s expression wrinkled, and he suddenly opened his eyes. The spider-shaped mole on his neck receded back to its original, innocuous appearance.

    He looked down at the table and saw that the yellow paper was covered in someone''s heinous, scrawling handwriting: "Miracle medicine. It can cure anything. Believe it or not."

    Xuanmin picked up the strange black flake and peered at it. Then, as though suddenly remembering something, he patted his chest pocket and took out a folded piece of paper.

    He spread the paper out on the table. On it, someone had written: Find this person.

    Beside those words was a drawing of a black circular flake, which looked exactly like the one on the table.

    Find this person...

    Xuanmin frowned as he compared the diagram with what was on the table. Then he folded the paper back up. Still holding that flake in one hand, he sat in the candlelight, deep in thought.

    Outside, the howling wind brought light eddies of snow tapping against the walls of the inn.

    From the dirt paths in the mountains to the city streets, an inky blackness unfurled and submerged the world.

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    I had class this morning, so last night I didn¡¯t want to sleep too late. This chapter is now all done~ This act is complete =3=

    Don¡¯t worry, in the next act Xue Xian will see Xuanmin again. Just lighting a candle for what¡¯s ahead (x

    Oh, and, the paper form will not last the whole novel. In the next act we¡¯re going back to human form~

    ---

    [a] Musuli used ¹í (gui3) here, which generally means ¡°ghost¡±. But it can also be taken to broadly mean any kind of potentially malicious magical being, as Xue Xian is employing it here.

    [b] The literal translation of what he says here is ¡°I am indeed a very reasonable person¡±, but I couldn¡¯t resist how well ¡°That¡¯s how I roll¡± works in English. Get it, because of the marble¡­

    [c] Musuli uses ¾Æ (jiu3), meaning broadly ¡°alcohol¡±, throughout Copper Coins. I had originally translated this pretty consistently as ¡°alcohol¡±, but in English it¡¯s a lot less common simply to refer to alcohol as that, rather than being more specific about what kind of alcohol. Thus, in this version I will mostly be using the word ¡°wine¡±, although of course this would not be referring to grape wine but rather to rice- and other grain-based wines traditional to China.

    [d] Musuli uses the chengyu Õ¶¶¤½ØÌú (zhan3 ding1 jie2 tie3), literally ¡°cut the nail, slice iron¡±, which means ¡°decisive¡± or ¡°without hesitation¡±.

    [e] Musuli phrases this as ¡°Jiang Shining believed Xue Xian¡¯s Ð°¡±, where Ð° (xie2) means ¡°evil¡± or ¡°heretical¡±.

    [f] The literal translation here is ¡°this hooligan who would die rather than lose face!¡± but, again, you know¡­ balls¡­ marble¡­

    [g] The Chinese word here is Â·Ã¤ (lu4 mang2), literally ¡°road/route blind¡±: someone who is terrible with directions.

 CH 18

    The blizzard spluttered on and off for another day and another night. From the perspective of Xue Xian and Jiang Shining, this was both good and bad.

    The good part was that the mule who did all the work, Jiang Shining, was a rogue ghost who feared yang energy. During the snowstorm, black clouds covered the entire sky, suppressing yang and nourishing yin. This was convenient for Jiang Shining, as he no longer needed to hide anytime the sun came out.

    The bad part was...

    "Protect my face! Quick! The wind is gonna blow my head off!" Xue Xian roared at Jiang Shining.

    With such a fierce wind, he naturally couldn''t sit on Jiang Shining''s shoulder. Jiang Shining had no other choice but to tuck Xue Xian into the front of his robe, but with Xue Xian¡¯s head sticking out so that this restless one could enjoy the scenery. But the freak wind refused to obey the laws of nature: it blew about in all directions, screeching all the while.

    Grimacing, Jiang Shining raised his hand to cover Xue Xian''s paper head and continued struggling against the wind. "You could also just put your precious head inside my robe."

    "No," Xue Xian said firmly. "You''ll get lost without me."

    Jiang Shining: ¡°...¡± Does he have no shame?

    Xue Xian laughed coldly. "When we get to the town, you''ll be begging me to give you directions."

    Jiang Shining: ¡°...¡±

    They were heading to a place two towns over from Ningyang County known as Wolong County. Its county seat, Wolong Xian Cheng, was one of the towns along the river. There was an old and weathered ferry service there.

    The river port was very small and did not serve many customers each day. It certainly wasn''t the only way to get to Anqing Prefecture. The reason why they had chosen this route for their river crossing was because Xue Xian wanted to pay a visit to someone in Wolong County.

    "There¡¯s a family that lives to the east of the river port," Xue Xian had explained. "Technically, they¡¯re two brothers, but they don¡¯t look that family-like. The last few times I visited, they wouldn''t stop bickering. The older one has some talent [a] ¨C¨C I need him to take a look at my golden marble. He might be able to tell me where the fisherman is: the one who sold it to Liu-shiye."

    Jiang Shining had thought: If he''s visited more than once, then this must be a powerful master. He thus obediently headed toward Wolong County.

    In order to avoid having to cross checkpoints in the two towns between Ningyang Xian Cheng and Wolong Xian Cheng, they elected to use mountain paths. Between the two of them, there was a dragon and a ghost, and they were used to moving around at night, so there should have been nothing to worry about.

    But rumor had it that these mountains were crawling with savage bandits. There wasn¡¯t an overwhelming amount, but they were still a nuisance to any horses or carriages that tried to cross. Because Xue Xian was carrying that golden marble, Jiang Shining fretted the whole way, terrified that they would come across a gang who would not hesitate to rip them to shreds.

    At one of the abandoned temples where they''d taken shelter, Jiang Shining noticed slashes on the building''s pillars. It looked like the traces of a battle between swordsmen. In the corner, he saw dried splatters of blood, which did not help his acute anxiety.

    But somehow ¨C¨C perhaps because of the route they''d taken, or some other coincidence ¨C¨C they did not catch even a glimpse of a mountain bandit. They did come across one or two horse-drawn carriages, and when they did so, they happily turned back into paper form to hitch a ride.

    All in all, the journey had been strangely uneventful.

    On the fourth day, they arrived at their destination city''s gates unscathed. Jiang Shining was incredulous. "Are we that lucky?"

    "Most people are terrified of having their treasures stolen or of coming face to face with a bandit. But here you are, wishing you''d run into one. What''s wrong with you?" Xue Xian said, looking up at the city gate.

    "Wolong County¨C¨C" Jiang Shining read the sign out loud. "They say that any place with Long, dragon, in its name has actually been visited by a dragon. Wolong means ''hidden dragon'' ¨C¨C has a dragon slumbered here?"

    Xue Xian pulled a face. "This puny town isn''t even big enough to take a step in. Why the fuck would anyone slumber here? Not me!"

    Confused, Jiang Shining stared at him. "I wasn''t talking about you."

    They had arrived at just the right time. The morning bell rang wu geng from somewhere in the center, the sound moving across the city in ripples. After the fifth ring, the city gates slowly opened.

    As the guards pushed open the gate, Jiang Shining ducked into a shadow in the corner, where he planned to turn paper-thin and slip inconspicuously into the city. That way, he could avoid having to speak to the patrol and answer nosy questions. But as he was stepping away, he felt his heel come into contact with something on the ground.

    "What is it?" Xue Xian asked.

    Jiang Shining bent over and brushed away the patch of snow beside his footprint. It was a misshapen flake of metal.

    He held it against the light cast by the lanterns on the city wall and inspected it. The flake was around the size of his thumb. On one side was a rough carving in the shape of a wolf''s head, and on the other, a name. But the name had been repeatedly slashed off, so that it was utterly illegible.

    "Another one," muttered Jiang Shining as he rummaged in his robes and procured a second, identical flake.

    He had picked up that flake earlier, while they''d been resting in an abandoned temple. That one was still covered in blood, and the name on it had also been scribbled out so that not a single character could be read.

    Xue Xian said, "Keep it for now."

    Jiang Shining slipped both flakes back into his robe. He made sure that the guards weren''t watching and, without delay, slid into the city.

    Inside, he froze in shock.

    Wolong Xian Cheng did not look like Ningyang at all. He couldn''t see a single straight street, only all sorts of twisting and turning lanes that seemed to lead nowhere. It was the most chaotic kind of labyrinth.

    Reluctantly, Jiang Shining looked down at Xue Xian. "How... Where do I go?"

    Gleefully, Xue Xian gave his marble a hug and tilted his head. "Go to that street and cut east through the lane behind Zhang''s Crispy Cakes."

    "See that stall selling sesame sweets? Turn west at that corner."

    "Find the alley that smells like seafood wontons. Yes, that one. Go down that alley."

    ¡­

    As they navigated the city, Jiang Shining began to feel terribly hungry. And he was a ghost! Who knew when the last time was that he¡¯d actually felt hunger.

    ¡°Is food the only way you know your way around?" Jiang Shining asked. He looked miserable.

    Xue Xian looked up from his marble and nodded. "Yes. Now shut up and keep walking. The sun''s coming up soon. Once we pass the pork shop and a restaurant called Baishun, we''ll be there!"

    Jiang Shining rolled his eyes.

    Although this zuzong was irritating to no end, he had indeed picked the quickest route. They passed Baishun Restaurant and Jiang Shining saw a river port floating in the fog ahead of them. A flag flapped violently in the wind, and some small boats were bobbing up and down by the shore.

    Jiang Shining raised his hand and again used it to cover the paper man''s head. Shrinking into his robes, he walked against the harsh wind toward the neighborhood to the east of the ferry.

    "Zuzong, can you please sit still? If you get blown away by the wind, I won''t come save you," mumbled Jiang Shining unhappily.

    But Xue Xian was angling his head to look behind them. "Why do I feel like there''s someone behind us?" he said with a tsk.

    Jiang Shining stopped and turned in a circle, trying to see what Xue Xian had thought he''d seen. "I don''t see anyone suspicious here. Were you confused by the snowflakes?"

    "Perhaps," Xue Xian muttered. Feeling safer, his head darted back into the robe.

    He thought: If someone really was following us, their steps would make a crunching sound in the snow, but I don''t hear anything. Perhaps I¡¯m overthinking it...

    Following Xue Xian''s orders, Jiang Shining quickly arrived at a discreet set of doors deep into the neighborhood. In fact, ¡®set of doors¡¯ was an overstatement. From the outside, this courtyard looked to be smaller than a chicken hut. The front door only consisted of one door instead of two, and that door was streaked with age. The humidity had caused some mold to grow on it, and no one seemed bothered to clean it off.

    It seemed that this household did not know how to take care of itself.

    "Knock," said Xue Xian.

    Even the way Jiang Shining knocked on a door was full of refinement and elegance. Those three dududu sounds he made were light and dull. Xue Xian scowled impatiently. "That was about as loud as a mosquito''s buzz. There''s no way the brothers inside heard it. One of them has an injured ear. Go ahead and knock as loud as you can."

    Jiang Shining knocked again, louder and harsher this time, all the while saying, "Sorry, sorry," under his breath.

    After a long time, there finally came the low crunch of someone shuffling through the snow.

    Perhaps it was the hindrance of the snow, but the footsteps made the person sound to be... limping?

    "How old are the brothers?" Jiang Shining couldn¡¯t help but ask.

    "Oh," Xue Xian responded, "the little one is eight or nine. The older one is maybe sixteen or seventeen."

    Jiang Shining gaped. "What? You''re asking a kid to tell your fortune?"

    In that moment, the single rotten door was violently pulled open.

    ¡°Thief! Get out!!" roared a childish-sounding voice.

    Then there was a splash. Out of nowhere, a tub of water hurtled towards them and soaked the unsuspecting Jiang Shining from head to foot!

    After all, Jiang Shining''s body was made of paper! After being doused with water, his whole body turned soft and he crumpled weakly to the floor. Nor could Xue Xian, hiding in his robe, escape the same fate: he flung himself away and landed on the wet floor with a slap, the golden marble tumbling away from his arms and rolling toward the door.

    The person inside threw their wooden tub aside with a clang, then, after a pause, shot out a hand and grabbed the marble before hurriedly shutting the door again.

    Just as Xue Xian, stuck to the ground, began to curse at the culprit, a warm hand landed from the heavens and peeled him away from the floor.

    That hand brought with it a familiar, bitter stench of medicine, which was so sharp that it made Xue Xian sneeze. He limply hung his head, unable to lift it at all. He yelled, "Bald donkey! What did I ever do to you? Did I kill your family or raid your tomb? Why won''t you leave me alone? Aren''t you fucking tired from following me for eight hundred li? [b] Huh?!"

    A cold, calm voice replied, "Thank you for your concern. I am not tired."

    ¡°...¡± Xue Xian so furious he wanted to vomit blood. If only I could throw him into the river!

    The newcomer who had appeared at the chicken-hut courtyard was none other than Xuanmin.

    He held Xue Xian¡¯s damp paper body in one hand and picked up Jiang Shining, who had also reverted to his small paper form. With those two pinched between his fingers, he rudely pushed open the wooden door.

    With sweeping steps, he walked into the courtyard and grabbed the ¡®little thief¡¯ before the latter could escape. He looked down at the child and said, "Stealing is forbidden. Return the marble."

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses the phrase ±¾ÊÂ (ben3 shi4), which means skill or ability. Here, it is a vague way of saying that the person in question has skill in the magical or mystical arts.

    [b] 800 li = 400 km.

 CH 19

    Xuanmin was so tall that the little thief only reached his hip. The child was as skinny as a monkey and looked about nine years old at most. As Xuanmin gripped his collar, he struggled with all his might, kicking and screaming, but could not get any of his punches to land on Xuanmin. "Help me!" he cried. "I''m being mugged! Ahhhh¨C¨C Let go of me!"

    Xue Xian was begrudgingly impressed with the kid who yelled Thief while being a thief himself. Xue Xian had never seen that before.

    Unfortunately for the child, unlike ordinary monks, the bald donkey had no sympathy or compassion for anyone, and certainly didn¡¯t treat women, children, and elderly people with any special care. With that unperturbed expression on his face and still clutching the child''s neck, Xuanmin took out a talisman with his other hand and slapped it onto the little thief''s forehead. "Silence," he said.

    The little thief: ¡°...¡±

    With nowhere to channel his bellowing cries, the little thief''s face turned bright red with effort.

    Xue Xian''s damp claws flew to his mouth as he winced with sympathy for the child. But because he had been soaked through, his hand accidentally became stuck to his mouth. He knew that if he tried to rip it away, he ran the risk of tearing his arm or ripping his mouth off. There was nothing he could do.

    In the corner of his eye, all Xuanmin could see was that the niezhang had frozen in that funny-looking [a] pose.

    Xue Xian closed his eyes: ¡°...¡± His dignity had been destroyed. An entire lifetime of heroism, gone in an instant. Someone bring me a rope. If I hang this bald donkey, nobody will have seen me in this pathetic state.

    Xuanmin turned to the little thief and calmly said, "Hands."

    The talisman on the little thief''s forehead quivered. Like a marionette, his hands shot out in front of him as he watched, helpless.

    As Xuanmin extracted the golden marble from the little thief¡¯s hands, the child''s entire face turned an even brighter red, the color spreading across his neck and even to the contours of his eyes. He glared at the monk stubbornly, as though saying, What are you gonna do, beat me to death? He really did look like he deserved a beating.

    Having gotten what he''d wanted, Xuanmin no longer needed to silence him. He removed the talisman from the little thief¡¯s forehead and folded it neatly, then put it back into his robe.

    Xue Xian stared at the marble in Xuanmin''s hands, waiting for the bald donkey to return it to him.

    He had never expected the bald donkey to help him, but now he managed to find a rare crumb of kindness in his heart. He thought, Alright, once I get my marble back, I promise to be good for the next few days and save the bald donkey some trouble. Maybe I''ll even give him another of my dragon scales ¨C¨C I still have a few.

    Instead, Xuanmin studied the marble carefully, then suddenly frowned.

    In that moment, a strange, inexplicable expression flashed across Xuanmin¡¯s face ¨C¨C it seemed to be a cross between thoughtfulness and cluelessness.

    After some time, he used his thumb to rub the marble. Then, frowning still, he brought it to his nose and sniffed it.

    Xue Xian: ¡°¡­¡­¡±

    Xue Xian rolled his eyes. Something didn''t feel right.

    Thankfully, his body had not healed to the point where he could feel that spiritual and bodily connection to the marble. Otherwise... With all that touching and smelling, Xue Xian would have long kicked the monk in the face.

    Eight hundred curses welled up within him and he wanted to hurl them all at the bald donkey, but his hand was stuck to his mouth and refused to budge. He had no choice but to swallow it all back down. It was a miracle he didn''t choke.

    The bald donkey sniffed the marble again, then lifted his head, wearing that blank expression as always.

    Contemplatively, he asked Xue Xian, "I will keep this marble for the time being. Do you mind?"

    Of course I mind! No! In your dreams!

    Xue Xian was screaming as loudly as he could, but no sound came out.

    "Good." Xuanmin had mistaken the silence for agreement. He put the marble back into the pouch on his hip. When he moved around, the shape of the marble could be seen through the fabric, but thankfully it was in a safe enough place and would not fall out.

    Xue Xian''s spirit shrivelled up. He hung his head. He feel like doing anything anymore. It wasn''t that he was worried Xuanmin would steal his marble, but he had been searching for his body for half a year and had finally found it, only for it to be ripped away from him again.

    As Xue Xian fell slightly limp, Xuanmin realised that something about the paper man¡¯s pose was off. He looked strange with that hand in front of his mouth ¨C¨C didn''t he at least want to switch hands? Xuanmin suddenly realised why the niezhang was being so well-behaved. He was speechless for a moment, then asked the little thief, "Do you have a hearth?"

    Although the thief had had the audacity to steal Xue Xian''s golden marble, he was still just a child. After Xuanmin had scolded him so thoroughly, he now displayed remorse.

    He did not dare to ignore Xuanmin''s request. Reluctantly, the little thief took one last look at the paper man, then slinked into the only bedroom in the courtyard. There was a crashing noise as he rifled through his belongings, then he returned with a battered-looking copper tub and slammed it onto the ground in front of Xuanmin.

    "Thank you," Xuanmin replied neutrally.

    In a corner of the courtyard, the only spot in the home that seemed shielded from the snow, there sat two piles of firewood. Any ordinary household would have thrown out these sparse bundles of skinny, bent twigs ¨C¨C they could barely be called firewood. Xuanmin took a couple of twigs, lit them, and tossed them into the copper tub.

    It took some time for the dry twigs to catch flame, but eventually a healthy fire began to rage in the tub, bringing some relieving sense of warmth to the chicken-hut courtyard.

    At first, the little thief stood there cowering from Xuanmin, but soon, drawn by the warmth, he shuffled closer to the tub and discreetly rubbed his hands.

    Xuanmin had hung Jiang Shining and Xue Xian on the branch of a magnolia tree, [b] right above fire. They were close enough to feel the warmth, but not so close that they would be swallowed by the flame.

    It was certainly enough to treat a pair of damp paper men. Xue Xian could feel himself slowly becoming dry.

    From his position on the tree branch, Xue Xian could spy Xuanmin taking out a folded sheet of paper from his pouch. All he could see was that the paper was covered in writing: some of the calligraphy was close-knit, some of it more separate. There was also... a drawing?

    Xuanmin seemed to spot something on the paper, then, satisfied, tucked it back into the pouch.

    He asked the eight- or nine-year-old little thief, "Your surname is Lu?"

    Xue Xian and the little thief were both stunned.

    Cautiously, the little thief asked, "What do you want?"

    "It appears that I am right." Seeing the child''s reaction, Xuanmin immediately understood. He asked, "Do you have a blind older brother?"

    The little thief Lu''s eyes reddened as he burst out, "Who are you?! What do you want with Lu¨C¨C with him?"

    Perplexed, Xue Xian looked back at Xuanmin. So this bald donkey hadn''t come to capture him after all. He had come looking for someone too? How could this be?

    Suddenly, with a soft popping noise, Xue Xian¡¯s now-dry paw fell away from his mouth. He could finally speak again.

    "Where''s Lu Shijiu?" [c] Xue Xian asked the little thief. "I need him to help me find someone from an object."

    Xue Xian had only been here a couple of times, and though he didn''t know the two brothers very well, he was still familiar with the facts. For instance, he knew that the boys'' parents were dead, though he didn''t know how. He only knew that the older boy had grown blind due to his innate affinity for yin and yang, [d] and that the other boy was hard of hearing after having been injured somehow. The boys had only had each other to depend on all these years, and their relationship wasn''t great. They had no one to look after them, nor a family business to take care of ¨C¨C they didn¡¯t even have real names, only a nickname each based on their date of birth. The older brother was called Lu Shijiu, and this eight- or nine-year-old younger brother was called Lu Nianqi. [e]

    Lu Nianqi was young, but he wasn''t na?ve. As he heard Xue Xian speak, he said, "I know you. I''ve heard your voice before. You''ve been to visit Shijiu before."

    Having been his brother''s companion, the child had also been witness to all sorts of mystical [f] things. The fact that he had not been scared speechless by the paper man suddenly being able to talk showed that he had some spine.

    "I''ve been twice. But this is the first time I''ve been treated in such a manner," Xue Xian replied. He thought back to that tub of cold water, and chuckled. "Alright, let''s get straight to the point. Where''s Lu Shijiu? Where did he go and when will he be back? Also, why did you randomly steal my stuff?"

    But as soon as he spoke, Lu Nianqi began to cry fat, pea-sized tears. "I''m looking for him too. I''ve been searching for him for half a month. He... he''s in the river."

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    Wait¡­ What do you mean, in the river?

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Goodnight! Had some alcohol at dinner tonight and now I can¡¯t stop feeling super tired. Tomorrow I¡¯ll put up the names of people who gave money on JJWXC, saying thanks first =3=

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses Éµ (sha3), meaning ¡°idiotic¡±.

    [b] Musuli uses Ó­´º (ying2 chun1), literally ¡°welcoming spring¡±. This is a lesser-used name for Îäµ±Ä¾À¼ (wu3 dang1 mu4 lan2), also known as Yulania sprengeri (pamp.) or Magnolia sprengeri.

    [c] Â½Ê®¾Å (lu4 shi2 jiu3) literally means ¡°Lu 19¡±. In my original TL I translated this name because, as is discussed later in the novel, many cultures used to avoid giving small children "nice" names in case it''s a bad omen that curses them to die early. ¡°Shijiu¡± is not considered a real or proper name. A child would normally be given a real name later on in life, but the Lus were orphaned before this could occur.

    [d] Musuli phrases this as ÒõÑôÊõ (yin1 yang2 shu4), literally ¡°yin yang skill¡±. It is here used to vaguely refer to magical or mystical arts. Lu Shijiu¡¯s soothsaying would be part of the geomancy magic system of Copper Coins, but marginal, as he was born with magical abilities that he honed through local or folk knowledge, rather than being adept at the rules of geomancy itself.

    [e] Â½Ø¥Æß (lu4 nian4 qi1) literally means ¡°Lu 27¡±. In my original TL, I translated the name instead of transcribing.

    [f] Musuli uses the phrase ¹ÖÁ¦ÂÒÉñ (guai4 li4 luan4 shen2), literally ¡°strange forces, chaotic Éñ¡± where Éñ usually means ¡°god¡± but can also be used more broadly to vaguely describe anything mystical.

 CH 20

    As Lu Nianqi wiped away his tears, his expression became stubborn again. He clenched a corner of his shirt and began to fiddle with it, avoiding eye contact with Xue Xian and Xuanmin. He looked over at the tiny lick of flame in the hearth and said in a melancholy voice, "Around half a month ago, Lu Shijiu said to me that he was taking a trip to Gravestone Island [a] on the river..."

    The section of the river that ran through Wolong County was largely shallow and narrow, with a weak current and a smattering of islets here and there. The islets were so minuscule that, had Lu brothers built their chicken-hut compound on one of them, even they would have felt cramped. The islets nurtured long, fine fields of cogongrass, and mainly served as resting spots for nautical birds.

    All except one, which was far larger ¨C¨C large enough to be considered an island.

    That island hosted a wild patch of forest whose tree branches tangled together to create the sense, from afar, of a large green mantou, or a gravestone. The locals called it ¡®Mantou Island¡¯ or ¡®Gravestone Island¡¯.

    Most people did not like going near Gravestone Island. Indeed, there was nothing there except for wild grass and trees ¨C¨C it was barren and dark, and not inviting at all. The only ones who set foot on Gravestone Island were pharmacists and their errand boys. Apparently, the wild soil on the island was incredibly fertile and moist, an excellent spot for medicinal herbs to spontaneously sprout.

    Lu Shijiu had thus been two or three times.

    On a bright morning around half a month ago, Lu Nianqi had awoken to find a note on the side of the bed. Lu Shijiu did not know how to use a brush, and when he wrote, he always simply dipped his finger directly into the inkwell, so his handwriting was thick and easy to read. There had been only one line of crooked writing on the note: Taking a trip to Gravestone Island.

    Just as external observers had noticed, the Lu brothers didn''t have a good relationship. Lu Nianqi was a prickly child with a bad temper who was difficult to handle, and Lu Shijiu was an eccentric, aloof mystic who spoke as little as possible. It was not at all strange for him to disappear and leave only a note.

    Thus, Lu Nianqi had not given it another thought. He had gotten up to cook his meal and collect firewood, doing all his usual chores while waiting for Lu Shijiu to return.

    Then, night had fallen, bringing with it a sprinkle of rain. There had still been no sign of Shijiu.

    "I finally went to the river port, but the boatmen there said the rain was too heavy, so they refused to get in the water. They said they saw Shijiu get onto Liu-laotou''s [b] awning boat, and that Liu-laotou hadn''t come back, either, that they were probably staying there to shelter from the rain." Though Lu Nianqi was young, he spoke clearly and intelligently. "I thought I could see some dim lantern light on the island, and that they really were waiting for the rain to stop. So I came back home. But then¨C¨C"

    But then the storm had gone on for three days, flooding the river. Every day, Lu Nianqi would go to the river port to check that the lantern light was still on and wait impatiently for the rain to stop. With some loose change, he had even gone to hire a boatman to take him to Gravestone Island, but they had seen no sign of Lu Shijiu, nor of Liu-laotou.

    "I searched the whole island, but I couldn''t find him. I did hear him once," Lu Nianqi said. "But when I called back to him, he didn''t respond."

    Over time, Lu Nianqi had searched the island six or seven times, but had never been able to find Lu Shijiu. A few days ago, a dark whirlpool had appeared in the waters near Gravestone Island, and two boats in a row had capsized there. Now, the boatmen refused to go, no matter how much Nianqi asked.

    Even stranger, Lu Nianqi had begun to hear sounds of someone scratching the door every morning and at midnight. At first, he''d thought that Shijiu had come back, and had hurried to open the door, only to find nobody on the other side. He¡¯d walked around the neighborhood but found nothing, and by the time he¡¯d returned, someone had searched through the chest of things in his room.

    "Inside had been all of our savings: four chains of coins. It was all gone! Not a single penny left! How was I supposed to hire boatmen now?" As Nianqi recalled the incident, his hairs stood on end like a terrified stray dog.

    Xue Xian clicked his tongue. "So that''s why you poured water all over us when we tried to knock. What kind of motherfucker [c] robs an eight-year-old? But just because someone stole four chains of coins from you doesn''t mean you can just go ahead and take my golden marble. What logic is that? You should be grateful I''m physically indisposed at the moment, or else I would''ve strung you up and dunked you in the water."

    "Who''s the eight-year-old?" Lu Nianqi retorted, his face crimson.

    ¡°You!" Xue Xian snapped. "Who else?"

    "I''m fifteen!" Lu Nianqi shouted, furious. "I was ill as a child and it stunted my growth. It''s rude to try to guess someone''s age based on their appearance."

    Xue Xian was baffled. Ultimately, though, he didn''t care how old or how tall the short-tempered kid was. He wanted to know whether Lu Shijiu was still alive.

    Clearly, he was not the only one with that question.

    Xuanmin raised his arm. With a swat of his sleeve, the weak flame in the hearth died, leaving a pile of green ash and smoke. Then, he reached over and took Xue Xian and Jiang Shining down from the magnolia branch. The two thin paper men had been baked dry, and were safe and well.

    The only issue? Their ink had run.

    Jiang Shining transformed back into his flesh-and-blood human form. The two dark circles under his eyes had become far more prominent and now covered half of his face. He looked terminally ill, perhaps only a day away from death. Poor Xue Xian couldn''t even become human ¨C¨C there was no point, as he still could not walk. The runny ink was even more obvious on his tiny face, where it dribbled out of the corners of his eyes like snot.

    Before, he had only been ¡®a sight for sore eyes¡¯. Now, he looked like he was bleeding from every orifice.

    It was¡­ horrifying.

    Xuanmin took one look at Xue Xian and immediately shoved him back into the pouch. There was a numb, resigned look to his face, as though he wished he were able to wash out his eyeballs.

    Lu Nianqi saw that the icy monk was getting ready to leave. He couldn''t help but demand, "Where are you going?"

    "River," Xuanmin said.

    Lu Nianqi leapt up and rushed over anxiously. "Are you going to look for Lu Shijiu? Can you take me with you? I''m coming too!"

    "Do what you want," Xuanmin replied without so much as a look at the child. Taking sweeping steps again, he began to walk toward the river port.

    It had been a few days since Xue Xian had last resided in Xuanmin''s pouch. Upon his return, Xue Xian discovered that there were now new things inside. Aside from his precious marble and the small pouch of needles, there were also all sorts of miscellaneous items. Xue Xian felt around in the dark and picked one up, then took a bite...

    Silver pieces; money ¨C¨C and quite a lot of it. Where had the money come from?

    The river port was suffocated by snow and fog. A few boats bobbed up and down by the shore. The boatmen were probably all huddled inside the awning boats, away from the uncanny chill.

    Xuanmin rattled the copper coin pendant on his hip. Some boatmen stuck their heads out of their awnings and one of them said in a bored tone, "Too much fog. We can''t cross the river. Come back later."

    "We are not crossing." Xuanmin pointed at the center of the river. "We are going to Gravestone Island."

    The boatmen shook their heads and retreated into their awnings. Only one sympathetic-looking boatman remained, and explained, "A whirlpool has appeared near the island recently and it''s wrecked a couple of boats. You''re not a local, are you, young shifu? Whatever it is you want to do, take my advice and find some other place to do it. No boatman here will take you."

    Xuanmin listened calmly as he spoke, then said, "How much would it cost to hire just the boat?"

    The boatman stared at him, stunned.

    Customers often wanted to rent the beautiful sight-seeing cruisers, but rarely did anyone ask for a shabby awning boat. Besides, such boats were narrow and difficult to manoeuvre. Without a boatman on board, ordinary people found it impossible to control the boat.

    "I¨C¨C" The boatman stammered, confused.

    The audacious Xue Xian felt around the pouch for two silver pieces and nudged them out of the pouch opening.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xuanmin extended his hand and allowed the niezhang to push the money into his palm, then shoved the niezhang¡¯s claws back inside the pouch. Without delay, Xuanmin handed the boatman the silver.

    Back inside the pouch, Xue Xian did not rest. He began to slap Xuanmin''s hip and said, feigning seriousness, "It''s inconvenient for me to reach for my own wallet at the moment. Don''t worry, bald donkey, I won''t take advantage of you. I''ll pay you back double!"

    Xuanmin pretended that he did not exist.

    The boatman did not even need to look at the silver ¨C¨C just from the weight, he knew that it was a large amount. Awkwardly, he said, "I don''t need all that."

    But Xuanmin''s face was too intimidating. It was even colder than the snowflakes that blew erratically across all of their faces. The boatman saw that Xuanmin did not plan on changing his mind, so he gracelessly exited the boat and helped Xuanmin and his companions on. Still skeptical, he asked, "Do you really know how to work the boat?"

    Lu Nianqi had the same unease as the boatman, but he was afraid that if he pursued that line of questioning, Xuanmin would suddenly decide not to go anymore. So, although Lu Nianqi¡¯s expression was one of confusion, and he gazed anxiously and suspiciously at Xuanmin and Jiang Shining, he obediently boarded the boat anyway.

    Before Xuanmin boarded, he absent-mindedly tore a reed from the bank.

    Lu Nianqi watched, puzzled, as Xuanmin then took a folded-up yellow piece of paper from his robes and stuck it onto the side of the boat. Xuanmin said, "Move the boat," then let one end of the reed fall into the water. Immediately, the little awning boat purred and began to splash the water. As Xuanmin gently shook the reed, the boat obediently changed direction and shot toward Gravestone Island.

    Nianqi gaped at that familiar yellow paper for a bit. He realised that this had been the same paper that Xuanmin had taped to his face earlier. Do you only have one trick?

    Despite the talisman driving the boat and the reed controlling the direction, Xue Xian still didn''t fully trust Xuanmin. He hung out of the pouch and stared intently at the reed in the monk''s hand, refusing to tear his eyes away.

    After a while, he couldn''t help but ask, "Why are you looking for Lu Shijiu? Do you also want him to inspect an object and use it to track someone down?"

    Before Xuanmin had the chance to respond, there came a sudden scream from Lu Nianqi.

    ---

    [a] The Chinese is ·ØÍ·µº (fen2 tou2 dao3), ¡°grave stone island¡±. I have decided to keep the translated name for this location because it¡¯s an informal river islet whose ¡®name¡¯ is really a description of its gravestone-like shape, and it feels more confusing to call it Fentou Island: the meaning of the name is highly significant to its nature. See ¡°Burial Mounds¡± vs. ¡°Luanzang Gang¡± in MDZS.

    [b] Laotou: see glossary.

    [c] The Chinese insult here is ×æ·Ø (zu3 fen2), literally ¡°ancestor¡¯s grave¡±.

 CH 21

    What was going on?

    Xue Xian followed the noise and looked over. Lu Nianqi, who had just been standing on the side of the boat, seemed to have seen something and darted back, landing flat on his backside. His hand slapped the ship deck beside him and he immediately shouted "Ow!" and took it away. But it was too late: there was a massive gash on his right hand, which began to sprout blood.

    "What is it?" Jiang Shining took hold of the boy''s wrist and applied pressure on the wound with one hand. "How did this happen?"

    "A chunk of metal, I think." Lu Nianqi was jolted by the coldness of Jiang Shining''s touch, and tried to pull his hand away.

    Beside where Lu Nianqi had fallen, there was a metallic object that happened to be jutting out invisibly from between the boat''s wooden planks. It was covered in fresh blood ¨C¨C clearly, the culprit.

    Jiang Shining looked around. He found a flask of wine that the boatman had placed in the boat.

    "This is going to sting. Bear with it." He unscrewed the cap and poured a generous stream of wine onto Lu Nianqi''s hand.

    "Are you trying to kill me?" It was a nasty surprise for Nianqi, who unleashed an ear-splitting scream. "It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It stings! Haaa¨C¨C"

    "Stop screaming. Deal with it." Having grown up in a clinic hearing countless patients crying for their mothers, Jiang Shining was perfectly calm.

    The weather was freezing, and the snowstorm had not ceased. No sooner did the wine soak Lu Nianqi''s hand than it became ice cold, congealing the wound. The blood stopped spewing. Lu Nianqi continued to wheeze as he stared at his limp hand with an agonised expression.

    Jiang Shining scooped some water out of the river and used it to thoroughly clean the boy''s wound. Finally, he shook the droplets of water off his hands and went away to sit down.

    With the bloodstains gone, the lines across Lu Nianqi''s palms were now clean and clear. Xuanmin glanced at them and frowned. He walked over and clutched the boy''s wrists, bringing them closer so that he could inspect his palms more carefully.

    Lu Nianqi snorted derisively. "Another palm-reader."

    "What do you mean, another? Who else likes to read palms?"

    Xue Xian''s question had been casual. He hadn''t been paying attention and had assumed that Xuanmin had been checking the boy''s wound. Now, he peeked out more from the edge of the pouch to take a closer look at Nianqi''s palm ¨C¨C the sight of which sent chills down his spine.

    "Well, Lu Shijiu," Nianqi replied. Apart from earlier when he''d said Shijiu while sobbing, the boy had the habit of calling his elder brother by his full name.

    "Palm... reading?" Jiang Shining couldn''t help but look up as well. According to Xue Xian, Lu Shijiu was blind. How could he read palms? Speaking of which, Jiang Shining had been perplexed for some time ¨C¨C how could a blind boy go to a desert island by himself? What had he been planning to do on the island ¨C¨C feel his way around?

    Lu Nianqi had heard the emphasis on ¡®reading¡¯. He pouted. "Of course, he''s technically blind. But he can walk ¨C¨C he''s just slow. Because he can ''see'' things that normal people can''t. He says he sees qi and forms. It sounds like gibberish... in any case, I don''t get it."

    Then he asked Xuanmin: "What''s wrong with my palm? Every once in a while Shijiu will grab my hand and spend ages ''reading'' it while touching it all over and muttering to himself. It''s unbearable. When I ask him, he says it''s no big deal ¨C¨C that I''ll live a long life but that I''ll have a difficult youth. He says he wants to divine exactly just how hard my life will be, so he can mock me."

    Jiang Shining: ¡°...¡± What a brother!

    But... a long life?

    As Xue Xian studied the boy¡¯s palm, he felt he no longer knew what ¡®long life¡¯ meant!

    Lu Nianqi''s palm clearly told the story of a tragically short life, one cut short in childhood. Out of the three lines on his palm, the life line was unsettlingly short ¨C¨C it ended before it even reached the center of the boy''s hand. Long life? The boy would be lucky to live past fifteen! Xue Xian looked at Nianqi¡¯s face.

    Xue Xian hadn''t been paying attention before, but now he noticed that Lu Nianqi had a widow''s peak, and his eyes, which were set slightly far apart, darted about restlessly. The upper section of his face, right at the minggong pressure point, [a] was dotted with small freckles. All in all, he had the face of someone destined to die young.

    So how could Lu Shijiu have read it as a long life?

    Although, with this kind of destiny, it was best not to tell the boy to his face.

    Silently, Xue Xian turned to look at Xuanmin. This bald donkey had a bad record so far ¨C¨C he liked to say terribly inappropriate things. Was he going to say You do not have long to live again, and scare the child out of his own skin?

    But it seemed that the bald donkey had had an epiphany, and suddenly became tactful. First, he asked, "You turn fifteen this year?"

    "Yes," Lu Nianqi replied.

    Xuanmin nodded. "This is a year of calamity for you. Be careful."

    Did the sun rise in the west today? Xue Xian wondered. What''s happened to this bald donkey? [b]

    Lu Nianqi jerked his hand back. "I know, I know. Lu Shijiu tells me that too."

    "Oh, right!" Xue Xian said. "What were you yelling about just now?"

    Lu Nianqi''s hand injury had sent them all off on a tangent, and they''d forgotten about the real issue.

    "I wasn¡¯t..." the child replied, embarrassed. "Just now, when I stood on the side of the boat, I saw a black mass float by, and I thought it was hair. But it was probably just algae. If it really was hair, then the corpse would be floating, not half-submerged in the shallows."

    "How do you know?¡± Xue Xian asked. ¡°You''ve seen drowned corpses?"

    "I have," Lu Nianqi replied. "How could I not? I grew up by the river. There are even professional corpse-divers here. There were more bodies than usual this year ¨C¨C just this autumn and winter, I saw five."

    In the corner, Jiang Shining grimaced. He was beginning to feel seasick.

    The snowstorm was even heavier on the river. The sheet of white fog stretched out onto the horizon, so that nothing could be seen.

    Slowly, that mantou-shaped Gravestone Island began to rise up from the thick fog, growing ever larger.

    Xuanmin stood at the head of the boat, directing it with his reed. Xue Xian leaned out with his chin in his hands, looking out idly at the misty river water. There was something he couldn''t put his finger on.

    Maybe he was just being paranoid, but Xue Xian couldn''t shake the feeling that, once the golden marble had been placed into the bald donkey''s pouch, it had become more active. Yet, although he still couldn''t feel a connection between himself and the marble, the strange feeling of something being there persisted.

    Like when someone wants to tap you on the shoulder... As their hand hovers an inch away from you, some tiny, undetectable sixth sense lets you know it''s there.

    In what way was Xuanmin''s presence affecting the marble? Xue Xian wasn''t ruling anything out just yet.

    If this bald donkey was really somehow able to restore Xue Xian¡¯s connection to his original body, he would genuinely be eternally grateful to the bald donkey and all of his ancestors.

    But how to speed up that process?

    Xue Xian was frustrated. Before, he had had no clue how to proceed, but now that he had even a smidge of hope, he felt a desperate impatience swell up within him. Indeed, this paper body made him vulnerable ¨C¨C anyone could just come up to him and rip him in half. It was not at all appropriate for someone of his divine status.

    The niezhang thought long and hard, and then suddenly dived back into the pouch. Inside, he knocked about restlessly until he was able to drag himself to the marble at the bottom of the pouch. Next, he unfolded his body and used it to grab onto the marble.

    This white hemp robe really was thin. Down at the bottom of the pouch, Xue Xian was extremely close to Xuanmin''s skin. Naturally, Xuanmin could feel all of the niezhang¡¯s erratic movements inside his pouch.

    Xuanmin prodded the water with his reed, then frowned and asked, "Niezhang, you need to learn to calm down. What are you up to now?"

    In a low voice muffled by the cloth, Xue Xian said, "Row your boat. Why do you care? I''m brooding on my egg. Leave me alone, asshole."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Thankfully for Xue Xian ¨C¨C probably even Xue Xian was embarrassed by his own words ¨C¨C he had spoken in such a low tone that only Xuanmin had heard. Or else Jiang Shining would''ve had a few things to say to that.

    Distracted by the talk of ¡®brooding¡¯, Xuanmin had momentarily taken his eyes off the surface of the river.

    In that short moment, another black shape floated past the bottom of the boat... Or to be more precise, the boat floated past the black shape.

    Lu Nianqi, perched on the edge of the boat, had indeed seen it, but because it had passed by so quickly, he did not understand what it meant. It looked at first to be a mass of black hair, but it was not accompanied by a pale face, nor a rigid body. So Lu Nianqi rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and forced himself to calm down.

    Soon, there was a ka-dunk as the boat hit the mudbank and slid to a stop.

    "We''re here." The boat had barely stopped before Lu Nianqi leapt onto shore. He pointed at a shadow in the water not far from them and said, "Look. That''s Liu-laotou''s boat. He''s the one who brought Lu Shijiu here."

    Gravestone Island''s thick forest was suffocated by the snow, and a never-ending row of pitch-black branches receded into the distance. For strange things to happen in this kind of creepy [c] place was not surprising at all.

    As Xuanmin stepped onto the island, a shudder of wind passed through the forest, as though the trees knew they¡¯d arrived.

    Dingding dangdang¨C¨C

    The copper coin pendant on Xuanmin¡¯s hip suddenly spasmed, sending a clear metallic sound into the air.

    "What is it?" Xue Xian asked as he came up for air. "What were you saying just now? It was all muffled, I couldn''t hear."

    "I said nothing. What did you hear?" Xuanmin frowned at Xue Xian. This niezhang seemed uniquely attuned, and often seemed to detect strange things a little bit before everyone else.

    "Just now, when you came onto shore," Xue Xian replied, perplexed. "I was brooding, and I suddenly heard you say something unintelligible, as though you were reciting a prayer. Are you sure you didn''t speak? Then what did I hear? It sounded like you ¨C¨C"

    He suddenly paused, hesitant, then added, "But it sounded so far away..."

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    These days my period has made it hard for me to think. This chapter is a bit short, but tomorrow I¡¯ll try my hardest to write a longer one!

    ---

    [a] The minggong pressure point is right between the brows. Ãü (ming4) means life/fate/destiny.

    [b] Musuli phrased this as ¡°Did the bald donkey take the wrong medicine?¡± which is a common Chinese way of describing unusual behavior.

    [c] Musuli uses the character ¹í (gui3) here. While its primary meaning is ¡°ghost¡±, it can also be used more broadly to vaguely describe anything evil.

 CH 22

    Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi had been standing contemplatively on the shore. Now, they swivelled to glare at Xue Xian.

    Every time this niezhang opened his mouth, it sounded like he was telling a ghost story!

    "The pharmacists in your county are really brave," Jiang Shining said to Lu Nianqi with a dry chuckle.

    Lu Nianqi replied, "It''s not usually like this. It''s just these days ¨C¨C for some reason, it''s always foggy."

    Jiang Shining laughed another hollow laugh: Even without the fog, this place wouldn¡¯t be that much better.

    "I can see why the little rascal [a] looked behind him, but why did you look back too, bookworm?" demanded Xue Xian irritably. "A ghost scared of ghosts?"

    Now, Lu Nianqi swivelled to stare at Jiang Shining.

    "Please think about it," Jiang Shining replied dully. "Humans are scared of criminals. Why can''t I be scared of evil spirits?"

    Lu Nianqi looked down at the cleaned wound on his hand, then back at Jiang Shining''s wispy silhouette. He decided that Jiang Shining must be quite a weak ghost, and therefore was not a threat.

    "There! I hear another sentence! Do you hear it?" Xue Xian said seriously. "It''s so quiet..."

    To check that it really wasn''t Xuanmin speaking, he looked up at the monk and regarded him with that ghoulish runny-ink face that made it look like he was bleeding from every orifice. The two painted eyes stared rigidly ahead.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xuanmin met the ghastly gaze, but it was too much. In one firm motion, he blocked out the niezhang''s face with a finger. "You are the creepiest thing here."

    Xue Xian scoffed. "How dare you touch my head? I''ll bite off your finger!"

    Jiang Shining tried to play arbiter. "To be fair, if you tried to fight dashi¡¯s finger with your head, you''d definitely lose. He could just rip off your paper head."

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± At this crucial moment, how could you take the enemy¡¯s side and not mine? [b]

    Xue Xian couldn''t be bothered to pry Xuanmin''s finger away. His face still buried in Xuanmin''s fingertip, he strained his ears listening for another whisper in the darkness, but he could no longer hear that prayer sound that had sounded so similar to Xuanmin''s droning voice. Suddenly, he felt self-conscious: Did I really hear wrong?

    "Fine. I won''t die on this hill." Xue Xian slapped Xuanmin''s hand with his claws and finally managed to get the annoying bald donkey away from his face. "Let''s keep going. The priority is to find Lu Shijiu. If I hear anything else, I''ll let you know."

    And him? Well, he''d go back to brooding. It was far more meaningful than getting into a fight with the bald donkey.

    He tumbled back into the pouch and wrapped his body around the golden marble again, rocking back and forth with the gentle motion of the bald donkey''s footsteps.

    Xuanmin walked even more quietly than a ghost ¨C¨C his steps were steady and balanced. Cradled inside the pouch, Xue Xian followed the peaceful, almost imperceptible movement and began to feel sleepy. The golden marble, having been in the pouch for a bit, had already begun to radiate warmth. And pressed against Xuanmin¡¯s body heat, the paper man, who had for the past few days been tortured by each passage of winter wind through his thin body, also began to feel soothed. He felt that this was a rather nice place to live.

    Xuanmin knelt down to inspect the mud, which was soaked through and covered in damp fallen leaves.

    Lu Nianqi imitated him and knelt down too. The boy was young, but he was clearly an independent spirit ¨C¨C probably because he''d experienced so much tragedy as a small child. He preferred to do things himself rather than depend on others. If something was unfamiliar to him, all he had to do was observe and learn, and he would feel safer.

    "What are you looking at?" Jiang Shining couldn¡¯t help but ask the boy. [a]

    Lu Nianqi did not even look up. All he said was, "I don''t know." No matter how hard he tried, he could not find a single clue in the mud.

    Xuanmin''s hand shot out and hovered above the layer of dead leaves. Seeing as he¡¯d previously needed to tear off a strip of his own robes just to pick up a bit of moss, it was highly unlikely that he was now going to touch the dirt with his bare hands. In the meantime, Lu Nianqi reached out to feel the mud too, but apart from, well, mud, he didn''t find anything of note. Suddenly skeptical, he glowered at Xuanmin, then wiped his hands on his shirt and got back up.

    To Lu Nianqi, Xuanmin''s actions had seemed theatrical: they looked mysterious, but netted no results. Being both naturally cautious and slightly treacherous himself, Lu Nianqi was not one to lightly put his trust in others. He knew that there were not that many trustworthy people in the world; most were either selfish bastards or blithering idiots who must¡¯ve had water in their skulls instead of brains.

    He was a selfish bastard. His father had been a blithering idiot.

    Yes, Lu Nianqi admitted that he had neither heart nor soul. Back at the compound he''d been screaming and begging for Xuanmin to take him along ¨C¨C now, he suspected that Xuanmin might be a scammer. [c] He even glanced back at the boat by the beach, wondering if he should go back and hide until the fog had dissipated a bit more.

    As he retreated his gaze, he accidentally met eyes with Jiang Shining.

    For a brief moment, Lu Nianqi thought he felt a surge of self-consciousness. He was a child, after all. But he forced it down and glared at Jiang Shining. However, the scholar had already averted his gaze and was now looking over at Xuanmin, waiting for the latter to speak.

    Finally, Xuanmin stood up and dusted his pristine robes. He reached into his chest pocket and procured a folded up talisman.

    ¡°...¡± Not again!

    Lu Nianqi rolled his eyes. Does this monk really only have one trick up his sleeve?

    But Xuanmin hadn''t taken out the talisman to make it do his dirty work again. Folded up inside the talisman paper this time was a matchstick, which Xuanmin managed to light despite the howling wind around him.

    Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi huddled to either side of him, watching wide-eyed as he brought the flame to the talisman and lit it on fire.

    These two could not tell the difference between talisman paper and the joss paper used to burn money for the dead ¨C¨C all they knew was that both types of paper were easy to burn. In any case, they watched as the paper curled up into a shrivelled black mass.

    Xuanmin twitched his finger, and the paper disappeared into ash in the wind, which eddied ahead of them into the forest.

    Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi watched, mouths hanging open like a pair of quails, as the ash disappeared into the forest. As the ash fluttered past, footprints gradually appeared on the ground where there had previously been none.

    These were not ordinary footprints created from planting one''s foot into the mud: these footprints had been outlined by patches of ash and rested lightly upon the surface of the ground, as though the person who had made them had only gently grazed the earth.

    "These can''t be human footsteps. That looks like someone was hanging above ground," Jiang Shining blurted out.

    Lu Nianqi: ¡°...¡± He regretted bringing this group to the island -¨C each of them was utterly deranged.

    "What do you mean, hanging?" Xue Xian demanded from inside the pouch. He was conflicted: on the one hand, he was deadly curious about what Xuanmin and the others were doing; but on the other, he could not bear to be separated from his marble. He couldn''t help but feel that, in the brief time he''d spent inside the pouch, the marble had warmed up even further ¨C¨C had begun, perhaps, to feel even hotter than Xuanmin''s hip.

    But it was too subtle, so he couldn¡¯t be sure.

    Xue Xian hugged his marble tighter. "Bald donkey," he said.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Seeing that there was no response, Xue Xian said again, "Bald donkey. Bald donkey."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian made a face to himself. "Xuanmin! I need to talk to you."

    Finally, Xuanmin said, "Speak."

    "You like to tear off bits from the bottom of your robe, right? Listen here: don''t tear from there anymore. Why don''t you start tearing from your pouch?" Xue Xian cajoled. "If you do, it''ll make this pouch much shallower. Then I can stick my head out without having to let go of the marble."

    To be fair, Xue Xian hadn¡¯t really expected Xuanmin to agree.

    Finally, Xuanmin said coolly, "You overestimate yourself. That paper neck is weak. If you keep sticking your head out, it will rip. I do not perform funeral rites for paper men."

    In other words: Go away, asshole.

    Xuanmin stopped engaging with Xue Xian''s nonsense. Following the ashen footsteps, he began to stride confidently into the forest, with Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi scurrying after him.

    Inside the pouch, Xue Xian spent a brief moment sulking, then suddenly came to life again. Who knew how long this niezhang had been alive, but he seemed never to have learned the meanings of words like ¡®restraint¡¯ and ¡®discipline¡¯ ¨C¨C a wild spirit. Hugging the marble tightly, he rolled around some more, then finally managed to stick his thin neck out of the pouch. He refused to let go of the marble, so the neck hung lifelessly and painfully against the pouch lining. The paper man was pulling himself in two opposite directions; it looked painful.

    No fear: his grip was impressively strong. Almost as soon as Xue Xian got a good look at their surroundings, he suddenly exclaimed, "There''s something under the tree!"

    Xuanmin stopped. He couldn''t help but feel that the feng shui on Gravestone Island was deeply off. He couldn''t say how, but it felt like someone had sabotaged it... though he had not yet been able to detect the traces of another person¡¯s handiwork. As they''d walked into the forest, Xuanmin¡¯s full attention had been on the ashen footsteps and the layout of the island ¨C¨C not on what was around them.

    So when Xue Xian spoke up, he asked, "Which tree?"

    "Over there on the left. The one with the split tree trunk."

    This was a wizened tree about three zhang away from them. It seemed to have been struck by lightning at some point; it had split down the middle. Such trees were rather common in the wilderness, however, so they were not fazed by the sight of this one. Xuanmin walked over and inspected the ground around the tree, finally finding ¡ª in an obscure, inconspicuous corner ¡ª a brown string which blended near-perfectly into the mud. Someone had cut or torn the string, and part of it was frayed.

    "Huh?" Lu Nianqi said curiously. He wasn''t afraid of the filth: he picked up the string and studied it, frowning. "This is the string my family uses to make coin chains."

    "Are you sure?" Jiang Shuning asked, shocked. "How can you tell?"

    "I twisted this rope. I do it differently from everyone else." Lu Nianqi tugged the string over and showed them. "Look."

    Xuanmin saw how muddy the string was and backed away.

    As Lu Nianqi showed them the string, he suddenly realised what was wrong about it. "Wait, all of my money was stolen! How could the string end up here?"

    Just as Lu Nianqi said this, something seemed to strike his knee.

    There was a dong¨C¨C sound, and, before Lu Nianqi could react, his knee crumpled and he fell to the floor.

    His clumsy stumbling must have caused him to kneel and trigger some kind of booby trap. Suddenly, weng¨C¨C noises arose from somewhere and a void appeared beneath everyone''s feet.

    As the ground was snatched out from underneath them, there came the unpleasant, aggressive grinding sound of stone rubbing against stone. The sound was highly grating and caused everyone to become confused and disoriented.

    Falling into that void, Xue Xian felt respect toward Xuanmin for the first time. Somehow, the goddamn bald donkey managed to maintain perfect balance in mid-air, and was able to slow down the speed of their fall ¨C¨C when they landed, he was somehow able to do so steadily and gracefully, rather than rolling across the floor.

    But when Xue Xian landed, all he could feel, with his head hanging out of the pouch, was a powerful jolt.

    Oh no oh no oh no. Damn that bald donkey and his big mouth. My neck really is going to fucking break!

    Xuanmin stood up in the pitch black. He had the strange feeling that something was floating nearby, finally settling lightly on the ground beside him.

    "Aiyou..."

    "I almost broke my hand."

    "Where the hell are we? I''m so dizzy."

    "Dashi? Xuanmin-dashi, are you there?"

    Upon hearing Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi''s nearby complaints, Xuanmin answered with an "Mn." He lit another talisman on fire.

    With the light from the flame, he was able to take a look around. He happened to make eye contact with a paper head as it fluttered by.

    It was just a paper head.

    Xuanmin: ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡±

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    On Wednesday the chapters will become VIP. My period of lowered brain activity has still not ended, and I¡¯m typing quite slowly. I¡¯d like to request Tuesday to be a day for drafting, and on Wednesday morning at 10 am I¡¯ll upload 10,000 characters. I hope that¡¯s alright!

    ---

    [a] In Chinese, Xue Xian says Ð¡áÌ×Ó (xiao3 zai3 zi), which means ¡°little bastard¡±. áÌ×Ó means the whelp of an animal.

    [b] Here, Xue Xian calls Jiang Shining ¶þ°ÙÎå (er4 bai3 wu3), literally ¡°250¡±, a colloquial modern term that means ¡°stupid¡±.

    [c] Musuli uses the term ¿Õ¼Ü×Ó (kong1 jia4 zi), literally ¡°empty structure¡±, meaning that Xuanmin was much less than he purported to be.

 CH 23

    "Dashi, what''s wrong?" asked Jiang Shining. Being a ghost, Jiang Shining had a natural advantage compared to Lu Nianqi. Aside from a slight headache and some dull pain, he was not actually hurt, and was the first between the two to recover. He sat up in confusion and saw Xuanmin with the flame in one hand, gaping at something on the ground, frozen in shock.

    In their limited interactions thus far, Xuanmin had maintained the disposition of a deathly calm pond ¨C¨C it had seemed that nothing could scare him or anger him in any way. Jiang Shining had never seen him so taken aback.

    What the hell had made Xuanmin react in such a way?!

    Something inside Jiang Shining''s heart went ba-dunk, and a sense of unease welled up inside him.

    When he saw that Xuanmin seemed not to have heard him at all, he became even more distressed. He scrambled up to go to him, but as soon as he took a step, he tripped.

    "Ow¨C¨C Look where you''re going!" Lu Nianqi yelped, his foot darting away.

    "My sincere apologies. I was not paying attention," Jiang Shining said. He turned and saw that the poor child was hugging his head and trying to protect his wounded hand at the same time. "I stepped on your foot ¨C¨C why are you hugging your head?"

    ¡°...¡± There was a pause. Reluctantly, Lu Nianqi responded in a muffled tone, "Somehow I landed on my face. I hurt my forehead."

    That won Jiang Shining over. All of a sudden, his medical instinct kicked in. "Can you stand? Where else are you hurt?"

    "I hurt my hand again. It must be bleeding." Lu Nianqi wiggled his hand. Leaning on Jiang Shining''s side, he stood up. "Apart from that, I''m fine. Monk... Uh, what''s he discovered? Why isn''t he saying anything?"

    The child had lost both his parents at a young age, so he did not know how to speak to his elders properly. If Xuanmin hadn''t revealed some of his powers earlier, he wouldn''t even have bothered correcting himself ¨C¨C he would''ve just addressed him as ¡®Monk¡¯.

    The two of them limped and staggered over to Xuanmin''s side. Because Xuanmin had such a cold demeanor, they didn''t dare get too close, but instead hovered half a step away from him and stretched their necks out like meerkats to peer at the patch of ground he was staring at.

    The talisman Xuanmin was holding probably had a special spell [a] to it ¨C¨C in all this time, it hadn''t burned away yet. The small flame that persisted didn''t emit a whole lot of light, but it did allow them to see the face that had fallen to the ground.

    Jiang Shining: ¡°¡­¡­¡±

    Lu Nianqi: ¡°¡­¡­¡±

    If you were in a dark flame lit only by a tottering, almost dead flame, at the bottom of a creepy island, and suddenly came across your companion''s severed head, you would be so afraid that you might cry, or even go crazy. Plus, Xue Xian had landed face-up, and his streaked, bloodied face was already a fright in itself ¨C¨C a ghoulish face in a place like that would send anyone halfway to heaven.

    And yet...

    The first emotion that came to Jiang Shining''s mind was pure exasperation.

    Next, he thought: What''s he playing at now...

    And finally, a bell in his brain rang, and he began to tremble. "Oh no. His head''s fallen off. Is he dead?"

    He finally understood why Xuanmin had been in such a stupor earlier. Although everyone had heard of decapitation, it was still shocking to actually witness it.

    Just a second ago, the paper man had been happily tumbling around ¨C¨C who knew that he''d actually go and get his head snapped off?

    "Wh-where''s his body?" Jiang Shining stammered.

    Lu Nianqi still hadn''t shaken the look of utter trauma off his face. Only his eyeballs moved over to look at Xuanmin.

    Xuanmin made no noise, nor did he show any emotion ¨C¨C all he did was reach into his pouch and procure that headless paper body. That body, which had been so energetic earlier, now lay lifeless in his palm without so much as a twitch, as though turned back into an ordinary piece of paper, silent and unmoving.

    Jiang Shining opened his mouth again yet found no words. Finally, Lu Nianqi said, "Is... Is he a human or a ghost? The state he''s in... Will he survive?"

    "He should..." Jiang Shining began, but trailed off, unsure how to finish the sentence. Then, it occurred to him to bend down and pick up the fragile sheet that was Xue Xian''s head. Hesitantly, he said, "Xue¡­ Xue-xiong? [b] Are you awake? If you are, say something."

    ¡°...¡±

    Jiang Shining held his breath and waited, but there was no response. Quivering, he quickly placed the head into Xuanmin''s palm.

    "Could we paste him back together?" Lu Nianqi ventured.

    What use is that? Have you ever heard of a human gluing his head back on? Why don''t you try doing that to yourself?

    The words surged in Jiang Shining''s stomach, but, seeing as Lu Nianqi was but a child, he forced them down. He gazed down at Xue Xian¡¯s decapitated body with eyes full of worry and frustration.

    All of a sudden, Xuanmin, still staring down at his palm, said, "There is no hope. Let''s burn it."

    In unison, Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi shouted, "What?"

    Xuanmin was still wearing that neutral expression ¨C¨C he looked utterly serious. Appalled, Jiang Shining''s whole body began to tremble. "Dashi, are you for real?"

    "I do not perform funeral rites for paper men." As he said this, Xuanmin moved the burning talisman closer to Xue Xian''s corpse.

    Just as the flame stretched its tongue out toward the paper, a sad voice boomed into Xuanmin''s ear. "Halt! How dare you?"

    The sound had clearly not come from the paper man, but rather from the empty space near Xuanmin''s ear.

    Jiang Shining had still been in disbelief about Xue Xian''s death. Now, his head shot up and he stared at Xuanmin. Circling the monk, he looked around but was afraid to say a word, for he could not see Xue Xian anywhere.

    In fact, when the paper body had ripped in half, Xue Xian had known that he would experience yet another maiming. Instead of facing his agonising fate, Xue Xian had torn his soul out of the paper body. Without a physical anchor, his soul was as fickle as wind or air, unable to be seen by anyone. Incidentally, this was exactly what Xue Xian wanted ¨C¨C all his previous agitation had ended up getting his own head ripped off. It was humiliating. He wanted to be invisible.

    So he had quietly gathered himself behind Xuanmin, like one of those goblins that perched on people''s shoulders, [c] watching them.

    Xue Xian had wanted to freak out the bald donkey by swimming up toward Xuanmin and muttering ominous things into his ear.

    But Xuanmin didn''t even turn around. Calmly, as though nothing was wrong, he asked, "Not faking dead anymore?"

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    It was as they say: no matter how strong you think you are, there is always something that can defeat you. Xue Xian couldn''t believe that, out of everyone in the world, he had to run into this bald donkey.

    "How did you know I wasn''t dead?" Xue Xian finally said through gritted teeth.

    Xuanmin put the two pieces of the paper body, which he had threatened to burn, back into his pouch, then said, "Good people often die early. It is always the villains who tend to live long, fulfilling lives." [d]

    Xue Xian could strangle the bald donkey. [e]

    But then...

    At the thought of something, Xue Xian pushed his fury down. With all the will in him, he managed to soften his voice and say, "Fine. Someone of my status has no need to engage with a bald donkey like you. Say whatever you want."

    Hearing this, Xuanmin tilted his head and stole a glance at the air around his ear. What was wrong with the niezhang? He had actually managed to suppress his anger and behave properly for once.

    Xue Xian cleared his throat ¨C¨C he knew that, to say what he wanted to say next, he needed to have some humility. Seeing Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi in the corner of his eye, he lowered his voice.

    Bare souls have no bodies, so of course they are neither big nor small, neither fat nor thin ¨C¨C they are but gusts of wind. Xue Xian gathered himself into as tight a bundle as he could and crept toward Xuanmin''s ear canal, so that no other person could hear what he was about to say. ¡°Bald donkey. Let¡¯s make a deal.¡±

    Though Xuanmin did not speak, he seemed to settle in, waiting for Xue Xian to begin.

    "Let me borrow your body," Xue Xian said.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian played back what he''d just said and realised that the phrasing had been wrong. He added, "I''m not saying I''ll kick you out. I mean, let me find a place to stay. Ideally, near your hip."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±  Why is it so hard to express yourself?

    He didn''t know what to do. Bare souls couldn''t stay in the air for long without anything to latch onto ¨C¨C they needed to find something physical, or else they would slowly dissolve. The longer a bare soul wandered, the more it harmed its own integrity. Xue Xian had spent so long building up enough energy to heal the upper half of his body ¨C¨C he didn''t want to start all over again at full paralysis.

    The little paper man was broken. He couldn''t do that all over again.

    And the reason why Xue Xian wanted to be near the hip...

    Ever since the golden marble had entered Xuanmin''s pouch, Xue Xian had had the feeling that there was something special about Xuanmin''s body. Xue Xian had recalled that bell-like noise he''d heard a couple of times previously. Both times, the noise had come from somewhere in Xuanmin''s hip and had knocked Xue Xian back, leaving him seeing stars.

    The changes that the marble was experiencing had to have something to do with Xuanmin''s hip.

    Xue Xian had begun to come up with all sorts of theories ¨C¨C if both he and the golden marble stuck themselves tightly to Xuanmin''s hip, would he soon somehow be able to regain his original body?

    Although his spine had been extracted from his dragon body, there was a possibility that he could slowly grow out new ones ¨C¨C as long as he took care of himself.

    He needed to get back into his original body and grow it all back. The only other option was his current situation: movements severely restricted, and needing to make all sorts of bargains and compromises just to get anywhere at all.

    "Never mind. All I meant was that I need somewhere to live. It doesn¡¯t matter where. Forget the hip. Why don''t I go inside your pouch?" Xue Xian said. Xuanmin had still not responded, but Xue Xian had already updated his request several times ¨C¨C he knew to make an active retreat when things weren''t going well.

    Xuanmin glanced at that empty pocket of air near his ear. "Before, you were more upset about being in the pouch than someone might be about the death of his parents. Now, you want to go back in?"

    Xue Xian forced himself to be nice. "Yes, yes. Just tell me if you agree."

    "Why?" Xuanmin replied.

    Xue Xian deadpanned, "You have a beautiful skeleton."

    Xuanmin shook his head. He had nothing to say to that. But he mulled it over, then took the golden marble out of the pouch.

    Xuanmin¡¯s index finger twitched and soon a gash appeared on it, from which welled a single drop of crimson blood. With that drop of blood as ink, he used his finger to write talismanic text across the marble. Xue Xian recognised that talisman: it was the same one he himself had previously used on the paper silhouettes.

    As Xuanmin finished his last stroke, the golden marble shone brighter, then died down again.

    Xuanmin moved his hand toward the space where Xue Xian seemed to be hovering, and suddenly closed his fist. Then, he slammed his hand toward the marble ¨C¨C Xue Xian was thus sent into the marble.

    This did not mean that Xue Xian had managed to wholly return to his original body. Instead, the golden marble that contained his body¡¯s essence was currently acting as any other ordinary object: a simple receptacle; a temporary anchor for his soul.

    Despite the caveat, Xue Xian was overjoyed.

    He had to admit, when the bald donkey wasn''t actively provoking him, he wasn''t actually all that bad. This action had thoroughly touched Xue Xian''s heart.

    As Xuanmin moved to place Xue Xian back into his pouch, he glanced down at the golden marble and asked, "Will you still climb around?"

    I''m as smooth as a baby''s ass and as round as the moon. [f] I don''t have arms or legs, how the fuck am I supposed to climb anywhere? Xue Xian thought. But he had just benefited from a great kindness on Xuanmin''s part and knew he should not be so insolent, so he swallowed his pride and obediently replied, "No more climbing."

    "Are you still planning to jump all over the place?" [g]

    ¡°...¡± Xue Xian pouted and finally said, "I''ll behave."

    Only when Xuanmin saw that Xue Xian had truly gone tame did he tuck the golden marble into the pouch.

    Once inside, the niezhang settled in and caused no trouble.

    Firstly, Xue Xian had promised Xuanmin he''d be good ¨C¨C he couldn''t immediately go back on his word. He had to at least pretend to care. Secondly, the marble had been an ingenious idea on Xuanmin''s part. Confined to this marble as round as the moon, he couldn''t tumble about even if he wanted to. All he could do was roll about softly inside the pouch to the back-and-forth rhythm of Xuanmin''s footsteps, and not much else.

    Although Jiang Shining hadn''t overheard Xue Xian''s bargaining process, he had observed Xuanmin''s hand movements and gotten a good idea of what had happened. He pointed at Xuanmin''s pouch and asked, "Is he hurt?"

    Xuanmin shook his head.

    The bookworm breathed a sigh of relief.

    Having finally dealt with the troublesome marble Xue Xian, Xuanmin at last took a look around the cave.

    Lifting the flame talisman higher, Xuanmin studied their surroundings ¨C¨C someone had constructed this basement chamber, for which the floor tilted quite strongly in one specific direction.

    Xuanmin brought the flame to that direction.

    At the sight of two massive shadows in the corner of the chamber, Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi both jumped.

    "What is that?" Jiang Shining shrieked, backing away.

    "Tomb guardians," Xuanmin said. [h]

    The slope only went on for three or four zhang, and ended at a half-open set of stone doors. At each side of the door stood an enormous stone carving of a mighty beast. Each beast was around one zhang tall, and though they were immobile, they cast a powerful, violent aura. Their eyes tilted down, so that they seemed to be quietly surveilling the chamber from a great height.

    Beasts of such appearance were only usually seen in the most extravagant princes'' mausoleums.

    "Tomb?!" Jiang Shining did not doubt Xuanmin. A chill ran down his neck and he rubbed his hands anxiously, saying, "So this Gravestone Island really is a big gravestone?"

    Lu Nianqi had turned green. "But... I''ve never heard of that! We call it Gravestone Island only because it looks like a gravestone. If it really was a tomb, how would pharmacists dare to visit?"

    Xuanmin moved the talisman closer to the beasts. "They are new."

    "How new?" asked Jiang Shining.

    "Three to five years."

    Sculpted three to five years ago... which meant this tomb was only erected three to five years ago, too? But... for whom?

    Xuanmin brought the flame back to where they stood, and then looked up at the endless ceiling. He shook his head.

    There was no way out where they''d come in. All they could do was follow the path and see where it led.

    With a sweep of the flame, Xuanmin began to walk.

    Though Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi trembled all over in fear, they dared not let Xuanmin go too far without them. After a brief moment of hesitation, they scurried after him.

    "I''m not scared, I''m not scared," Jiang Shining muttered dully to himself. "I''m a ghost too." He seemed to really feel a bit better once he¡¯d spoken.

    Xuanmin strode past the tomb guardians and pushed the half-open stone doors.

    No matter how old a wooden door is, when opened, it will always faithfully make a creaking noise. But stone doors are different: when opened, the stone of the door grinds against the stone of the floor with a huohuo sound. It was an eerily hushed noise; as it echoed across the walls of the chamber, it raised the hairs on Jiang Shining''s neck.

    Lu Nianqi crossed his legs. He thought he might piss. But he would rather die than admit weakness, so no matter how much he wanted to retreat, he had no choice but to take two confident steps ahead.

    In these kinds of places, you never know whether it¡¯s safest at the front of the group or at the back.

    When the door was open almost all the way, it suddenly struck something and made a loud protesting noise, then refused to budge. It seemed to be stuck.

    ¡°There''s something behind the door!" Lu Nianqi shrieked. He sounded terrified, though he was trying to suppress the tremor in his voice.

    Xuanmin was in no hurry to check behind the door. First, he used the talisman to light up the surroundings¨C¨C

    "Oh mama..." Lu Nianqi blurted out.

    Actually, the area looked to be a simple hallway into the tomb: its design was the same as the chamber they''d just left, only narrower. What had scared Lu Nianqi out of his skin were the walls of the hallway, which were covered in paintings of grotesque beasts even more awe-inspiring than the tomb guardians. The murals were outlined not in ink nor full color, but in crimson.

    "A-a-are these drawings made of blood?" Lu Nianqi said. Ultimately, he really was still a child: he was the one most affected by what they were seeing.

    These murals were huge. How much blood would you need to paint them?

    The cowardly Jiang Shining began to quiver too, then stopped and said, "It shouldn''t be. Smell it: if it was painted with blood, this whole place would stink of metal and flesh."

    "True." Lu Nianqi quickly calmed down, sniffed, and said, "No blood."

    Once calm, they began to notice more of the details.

    For instance, the color of the drawings were far too bright. If it really was blood, it would have long dried into a dark brown.

    "Cinnabar." Xuanmin said as he scanned the murals.

    It wasn''t out of the norm to see blood nor beasts in a tomb, but the cinnabar was strange. Cinnabar had the side effect of warding evil and suppressing ghosts, so if it was being used for these murals, it meant that those who had buried this person did not want them to rest in peace nor to be reborn into a good life... but instead to never, ever come back.

    This was an extremely evil practice.

    Although Jiang Shining had never seen a mausoleum, let alone gone for a walk inside one, and so was not intimately familiar with the rules of such places, he did know about cinnabar. Having grown up in a clinic and absorbed the expertise of his parents, his knowledge was not one of rote memorisation: rather, most herbs and their uses came instinctively to him. Still, when he''d had some spare time, he''d liked to idly flip through the pages of the medical textbooks, and had learned a great deal about cinnabar.

    "Painting beasts with cinnabar..." Jiang Shining mumbled. "How much do you have to hate the person in the tomb to do this to them?"

    Xuanmin waved his hand dismissively. "Perhaps there are evil spirits in the tomb."

    If the person buried in the tomb could not rest peacefully, then those building the tombs had no choice but to paint cinnabar murals and try to secure peace.

    It was too risky to make careless remarks in such a place, so Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi stopped speculating.

    They saw that Xuanmin had abandoned the murals and was now making his way to the back of the door, so they hurried along.

    At this sight, Lu Nianqi''s face really drained.

    There was something stuck beneath the door, which had stopped it from moving further. But the doorstop was not some object: it was people.

    Two people: one old, one young.

    The old one lay curled up on the ground with one hand pressed to his shoulder. His robes were ragged and covered in mud, and there was a nasty patch of blue across the back of his hand ¨C¨C he was injured.

    The young one leant against the wall with his eyes shut tight and his lips drawn in a firm, pale line. He looked frail, perhaps even weaker than Jiang Shining ¨C¨C extremely thin with cheekbones jutting out abnormally. In his hand, he clutched a bundle of three twigs tied together with a piece of red string.

    If Xue Xian had stuck his head out in that moment, he would find that he recognised that string, and that he also recognised that youth¨C¨C

    It was none other than Lu Shijiu.

    "Shijiu?!" Lu Nianqi stood in shock for a while, then rushed over. At first, he was afraid to touch Lu Shijiu, but once he saw that his brother did not seem wounded, he began to shake Shijiu''s shoulders.

    ¡°Shijiu? Lu Shijiu?! Wake up!" Lu Nianqi shrieked. Seeing that there was no reaction, he began to push the old man. "Liu-laotou! Liu-laotou, wake up!"

    Jiang Shining took a step toward them. "Let me see."

    But just as he bent down for a closer look, the pale-faced Lu Shijiu, who had been thoroughly shaken by his brother, weakly opened his eyes.

    At the same time, Liu-laotou stirred. He began to spasm, as though dreaming of falling, and then his eyelids fluttered open too. His gaze looked on emptily for a moment, and then he began to sit up.

    Hurriedly, Jiang Shining held out a hand and helped him up.

    Liu-laotou and Lu Shijiu stared at each other for a long time, then turned their confused gazes at the others. They seemed still to be in shock.

    As Jiang Shining and Xuanmin observed Lu Shijiu, they found that it was just as Lu Nianqi had said: although there was some strangeness to him, it was impossible to tell that he was blind from the way that he moved.

    Lu Nianqi slapped Shijiu''s shoulder and screamed, "Are you stupid? Can''t you see qi? It''s me, don¡¯t you recognise me?"

    That slap seemed to restore Shijiu''s senses. Hoarsely, he whispered, "Nianqi?" Then, he slowly turned to gaze at his brother. His eyes really did not seem to be handicapped at all. As he stared at Lu Nianqi, there seemed even to be some light behind his gaze ¨C¨C they were only slightly darker than ordinary eyes.

    But soon, Jiang Shining noticed that Lu Shijiu did show habits unique to blind people¨C¨C

    It was taking far too long for Lu Shijiu to recognise his brother. His eyeballs darted up and down Nianqi uncertainly, then his hand shot out to feel the boy''s face.

    Lu Nianqi hissed. "Don''t touch me there. I just fell on my forehead. You can''t feel my freckles anymore."

    Hearing this, Xuanmin glanced over.

    Indeed, that smatter of freckles on Lu Nianqi''s forehead had been scratched away, leaving a patchy scab that changed the look of his face.

    Now Shijiu was tugging at Nianqi''s hand, which he pulled close to his face, as though getting ready to read his palm.

    Scowling, Nianqi yanked his hand back. "And don''t look at my hand. I slashed it earlier and it had finally begun to heal when I fell down here and hurt it again. If you keep touching it, you''ll get it infected."

    Silently, Lu Shijiu tucked his own hands away and nodded. He seemed to have confirmed that the person sitting across from him was indeed his brother. Slowly, he said, "Lu Nianqi."

    This time, there was no skepticism.

    Back at the Lu courtyard, Lu Nianqi had been so upset that he''d cried. But now that he''d come face to face with his brother again, Jiang Shining saw that the child took up that stubborn attitude once more, as though he''d never even wanted to come looking for Lu Shijiu. Seeing this made Jiang Shining feel exasperated.

    But then Jiang Shining saw that Lu Shijiu wasn''t much better, either. After Lu Nianqi helped him up, he immediately pushed the boy''s hands away from his arm ¨C¨C he seemed to hate needing assistance. Not only was there no warmth in Lu Shijiu''s gesture, but there was even a hint of... ice.

    What was wrong with these two?

    As Jiang Shining observed the brothers, he finally understood what Xue Xian had meant by the boys'' relationship not being ¡®very family-like¡¯.

    Jiang Shining wasn''t blind. He considered himself good at judging the intentions of others. The panic that Lu Nianqi had exhibited back at the compound and the deep, grateful sigh of relief that Lu Shijiu had just emitted demonstrated the brothers'' care for each other. How could they suddenly act so dismissively toward each other?

    Lu Shijiu was muttering to Liu-laotou. Once he''d made sure the man was okay, he gripped his bundle of sticks and turned away, now silent.

    Xuanmin looked at Lu Shijiu, then back at Liu-laotou. He frowned.

    Jiang Shining saw the expression on Xuanmin''s face. Though he didn''t know what Xuanmin was thinking, he thought to remind them all of why they were here: "Dashi, weren''t you and Xue-xiong looking for this boy Shijiu?" [i]

    Xuanmin nodded and reached into his pouch for the golden marble.

    Inside the pouch, Xue Xian had been rocked dizzy by the movement of Xuanmin''s hips. Back when he''d been a paper man, he had already been suspicious about the marble''s slightly odd behavior when inside Xuanmin¡¯s pouch, but now that he was the marble, he''d found that there was nothing slight about it!

    At first, he''d felt as though he''d entered a pool of hot water, at the bottom of which was a hot spring pumping relaxing thermal water into his bath.

    But as the temperature of the water grew increasingly hot, to the point where it was hot enough to peel off someone''s skin, Xue Xian had thought: This isn''t a bath. This is a fucking dragon meat soup!

    But it was too late ¨C¨C there had been no way out. Because he¡¯d discovered that the heat had a kind of stickiness that had melted all the defenses in his body. After that, he stopped being able to move at all.

    As such, Xue Xian had stopped paying attention to what was going on outside the pouch, which is why he had not spoken in a long time. He had no idea what the others had done, nor who they had met ¨C¨C he floated about in a daze.

    Just as he thought he might melt into the soup, Xuanmin rescued him.

    What a strange bald donkey. His hand was of a completely normal temperature ¨C¨C it was even a bit cold compared to ordinary people ¨C¨C so how come his hip area, where the pouch was located, was such an unbearable furnace?

    As Xuanmin held Xue Xian, the latter breathed a sigh of relief ¨C¨C he was finally cooling down.

    As Xue Xian¡¯s soul¡¯s temperature fell, he gradually began to come back to his senses.

    He rolled about in Xuanmin''s palm to speed up the cooling down process, then sat still and began to look around him, his gaze filtered through the golden surface of the marble.

    "Lu Shijiu?" Xue Xian asked. "We found him?"

    "Mn," Xuanmin said.

    Still with a brain full of hot soup, Xue Xian''s reaction was slow. After some time, he idly said, "Oh, perfect. And you''re got your sticks with you, too. I need you to find some people for me."

    He did another tumble, then said, "Bald donkey. Give him money."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian watched as Xuanmin reached into the pouch for his silver pieces. Squinting, the marble idly said, "I''ll pay you back in gold."

    Lu Shijiu took a ¡®look¡¯ at the two, then said to Lu Nianqi, "Take the money. Don''t overcharge."

    Lu Shijiu was young ¨C¨C only seventeen or eighteen ¨C¨C but he had a strange habit. Since he had a family to feed, naturally he charged for his soothsayer services, but, instead of having a set price, he had a set number. Customers could pay in gold, silver, or copper ¨C¨C it didn''t matter to him ¨C¨C but if they wanted to pay in copper, it had to be three copper pieces, and if they wanted to pay in silver, it had to be three silver pieces; or, if they were insane and wanted to pay in gold, three gold pieces.

    Xue Xian was of the insane category. Each of the last two times he''d visited, he''d paid three golden pearls.

    Obediently, Lu Nianqi accepted three silver pieces from Xuanmin. As he moved to put the money into Shijiu''s pocket, his brother stopped him, saying, "My shirt''s been ripped. You keep it for now. Don''t steal it."

    "Why would I steal it?" Nianqi shot back, scowling.

    Lu Shijiu ignored him and said to Xuanmin, "What do you need me to divine?"

    Xuanmin stretched out his palm with the golden marble.

    Xue Xian said from the marble, "Please help me inspect this marble. What other hands has it passed through? Where are these people now?"

    Lu Shijiu did not take the marble. Instead, he squatted down and brought his face close to Xuanmin''s palm as he passed the bundle of sticks thoughtfully over the ground.

    If Jiang Shining, who stood to the side, had decided to take a look at that moment, he would have noticed that it wasn''t Lu Shijiu making the traces on the ground: it was the sticks themselves, and Lu Shijiu was only lightly touching them. As Lu Shijiu studied the marble, the sticks traced an intersecting matrix of straight lines on the ground, as well as the occasional circle.

    Suddenly, the sticks made a pata sound and fell to the ground. Frowning, Lu Shijiu picked them back up.

    Half-closing his eyes, he touched the markings on the ground as his lips moved soundlessly, muttering to himself.

    At last, he looked back up at the marble in Xuanmin''s hands and told Xue Xian, "Strange. I could only find four people. There''s a fifth that I can''t find anywhere. It''s as though they don''t exist."

    Xue Xian mulled this over. "Five? Okay. Tell me the four you found."

    "Mn." Shijiu nodded and said, "First is a fisherman. Second is the one I can''t see. Third is a geomancer. Fourth, I think you''ve met... it''s a man who works in the yamen, named Liu. The fifth is this dashi here."

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±  Well, I knew about those four already.

    "Where are they all now?" Xue Xian asked.

    Lu Shijiu returned to the markings on the floor and said, "The fisherman is in Anqing Prefecture, across the river. The geomancer is in the Shu region, [j] cultivating [k] in a small dragon cave on Mount Panlong. And that shiye named Liu..."

    As his fingers moved across the diagram, the frown on his face disappeared and he relaxed back into a neutral expression. "Last night, Liu-shiye was in a fire. He won''t live past today. And as for dashi, I don''t need to tell you."

    He had finished. He put his hands back in his lap and looked calmly at Xue Xian.

    "Liu-shiye won''t live past today?" Jiang Shining repeated, stunned.

    Back at the Liu compound, he had heard Liu-lao-taitai talk about the repaying of debts. But he hadn''t realised something would really happen to the man, nor that it would happen so soon.

    Lu Shijiu reached back into the diagram and nodded. "Yes. He definitely won''t see tomorrow. Right now, he''s laying on a bed in a shack."

    The Jiang family had all perished in a fire, and Jiang Shining''s parents had then become trapped inside the millstone ¨C¨C they had experienced injustice after injustice. The fool [l] Liu Chong had had to live for years in that shack filled with yin energy, absorbing so much of the Liu family''s bad luck that he''d almost died from it.

    Now, Liu-shiye had been in a fire, and was bed-bound in a shack... Indeed, he was getting what he deserved.

    Lu Shijiu looked at Xue Xian and asked, "Is there anything else you need?"

    As Xue Xian shook his head, the whole marble rocked lightly. "I''ve asked all the questions I have."

    Lu Shijiu then looked at the others. "Anyone else?"

    Xuanmin tucked Xue Xian back into his pouch. As the marble tumbled out of Xuanmin''s cool hands, Xue Xian thought, If only I had arms. Then I could hold on for a little longer.

    But he did not have arms. The marble rolled back into the pouch, and Xue Xian resumed his slow transformation into dragon meat soup.

    Now, Xuanmin was extracting a folded-up sheet of paper from his chest pocket.

    It was the paper that he had been inspecting back at Guiyun Hall. It was covered in scrawling, messy text as well as some rough diagrams, as though the notes had been taken in great haste, though other parts of the text were arranged in neat and tidy rows.

    As Xuanmin handed the paper to Lu Shijiu, it was still folded up, and a single phrase could be read in the corner of the page: Find this person.

    In a low voice, Xuanmin said, "I want to know who gave me this paper. Thank you."

    Lu Nianqi solemnly accepted three more silver pieces from the monk. Again, Shijiu studied the paper closely as the bundle of sticks in his hand darted back and forth across the ground.

    Inside the pouch, Xue Xian was terribly curious, too. Knowing he didn''t have long before his brain became too hot to think again, he perked up his ears and listened carefully to the goings-on outside.

    After some time, just before Xue Xian thought he might lose consciousness again, he heard Shijiu''s muffled voice: "It''s you."

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    What the hell? Did Xuanmin just give a soothsayer his own notes and ask whose they were? Xue Xian suddenly recalled what Jiang Shining had been saying before ¨C¨C that the medicine Xuanmin was taking smelled just like medicine used to treat loss of soul.

    Was this bald donkey really an amnesiac?! He was way too fucking good at pretending to be normal!

    Xue Xian wasn''t the only one stunned. Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi both gaped at Xuanmin.

    But Jiang Shining quickly felt that he was being impolite and averted his gaze, retreating into himself. [m]

    In any case, Xuanmin did not notice that he was being gawked at. It was as though he didn''t even care about the others'' reactions. His face still blank, he calmly asked Lu Shijiu, "Are you sure no one else has touched it?"

    Lu Shijiu ran his hands across the ground again, then nodded and said, "No."

    Xuanmin nodded too. "Thank you very much."

    Now that Lu Shijiu had finished, Lu Nianqi piped up. "So the reason you didn''t come home for half a month was because you were stuck in this creepy place?"

    Ignoring him, Lu Shijiu gestured at the doors behind him. "We can''t go back the way we came. We need to go that way."

    Nianqi glowered at him, then huffed away to sulk.

    Lu Shijiu paid no attention to the boy. He began to walk down the hallway, toward another set of doors in the distance. Silently, Liu-laotou followed. The two took a few steps, then stopped and looked back at Xuanmin and the others. "We''ve already explored the place, and were close to finding the exit. I think this time, we can make it out."

    Lu Shijiu tilted his head, gesturing for them to follow.

    Xuanmin only looked at them for a bit, saying nothing. Then, he began to walk too. As he strode, he said to Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi, "Walk behind me."

    The two obeyed, scurrying closely behind him like a tail. Although they were terrified, they also feared getting too close to Xuanmin and stepping on his pristine, cloud-like robes.

    Seeing that Nianqi still looked upset, Jiang Shining said in a low voice, "Your brother must be tired to death. He''s probably been searching for a way out all this time. Look at his overcoat ¨C¨C it''s damp, like he fell into the water. Although it''s partly dry, it must still be very heavy. It''s taking him so much effort just to walk that of course he''ll only speak when necessary."

    Lu Nianqi glanced at the wet patches on his brother''s coat and seemed to grunt in agreement. His face relaxed a little.

    At the second set of doors, Lu Shijiu stopped and felt the stone with his hands. Staring at the doors, he blinked slowly and said, "There''s danger ahead. Stick close to me."

    As his brother blinked, Lu Nianqi couldn¡¯t help but blink in quick succession too. Then he slapped the side of his head.

    "What is it?" Xuanmin asked, glancing at him.

    "My vision feels blurry." Nianqi blinked again, then mumbled, "I think it''s fine again. Forget it. Let''s get out of here."

    Xuanmin scanned the boy''s face, then looked at Lu Shijiu.

    Following Xuanmin''s gaze, Jiang Shining studied the brothers too. He couldn''t help but feel that something was wrong. But just as the answer surged toward him, Lu Shijiu suddenly pushed the doors open.

    The grinding noise of the door echoed across the hallway. The talismanic flame in Xuanmin''s hand jumped up, and then died.

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Thanks for the support =3=

    [Acknowledgments]

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses the word Ðþ»ú (xuan2 ji1) here. Literally ¡°dark/profound/mysterious machine/mechanism¡±, the word means ¡°arcane truth¡± in a religious context. Here, however, it¡¯s used to vaguely describe the fact that there is some kind of magic added to the fire talisman, so I have translated it as ¡°spell¡±.

    [b] Xiong: see glossary.

    [c] Musuli uses ±³ºóÁé (bei4 hou4 ling2) here, literally ¡°Áé behind the back¡±. Áé means soul/spirit or fairy/elf, i.e. in this case, any kind of conscious creature. It¡¯s vague and doesn¡¯t come with a good/evil evaluation, so I chose the English word ¡°goblin¡±.

    [d] This comes from an idiom in Chinese: ¡°Good people have short lives; people who do harm are gifted a thousand years.¡± Xuanmin only used the second half of this idiom, but its comprehension depends on the reader¡¯s knowledge of the full idiom.

    [e] Musuli phrased this as, ¡°Xue Xian wanted to send him to the skies (to heaven).¡±

    [f] Musuli¡¯s phrasing here is ¹âÁïÁïÔ²¹ö¹ö (guang1 liu1 liu1 yuan2 gun3 gun3). ¹â means ¡°smooth¡± and Ô² means ¡°round¡±. The repeated syllables behind each adjective are for emphasis, a common stylistic technique in Chinese. In the way that Xue Xian uses it here, he is not only emphasising the fact that he is smooth and round, but doing so in a sarcastically whimsical and lyrical manner. I¡¯ve chosen to use similes in order to convey his tone.

    [g] Musuli uses the phrase ·­ÌìÈëº£ (fan1 tian1 ru4 hai3), literally ¡°flip the skies and enter the sea¡±, to describe Xue Xian¡¯s troublemaking behavior.

    [h] The Chinese phrase here is ÕòÄ¹ÊÞ (zhen4 mu4 shou4), literally ¡°beasts who hold down a tomb¡±.

    [i] Jiang Shining uses Ð¡ÐÖµÜ (xiao3 xiong1 di4) here, meaning ¡°small brother¡±, a polite way of referring to a teenager or a youth.

    [j] The Shu area is roughly correspondent to modern Sichuan. Between the Tang and Song dynasties, there was a major kingdom called Great Shu or, now, Former Shu. (Wikipedia).

    [k] Musuli uses ÇåÐÞ (qing1 xiu1) here, where ÐÞ means ¡°to hone a skill¡±, and in this case, means cultivation. Çå describes the cultivation as peaceful and calm.

    [l] Musuli uses Éµ×Ó (sha3 zi), which means ¡°idiot¡±.

    [m] The phrase Musuli uses here is ÑÛ¹Û±Ç±Ç¹Û¿Ú¿Ú¹ÛÐÄ (yan3 guan1 bi2, bi2 guan1 kou3, kou3 guan1 xin1), literally ¡°eye observes nose, nose observes mouth, mouth observes heart¡±. There are two layers of meaning to this. The first, literal one, comes from the Chinese idiom ÑÛ¹Û±Ç£¬±Ç¹ÛÐÄ (which excludes the middle part about the mouth), in which the act of having one¡¯s eyes turned down to one¡¯s nose and one¡¯s nose turned down to one¡¯s heart demonstrates physically retreating into oneself in a meek, deferential manner. This is what Jiang Shining is actually doing, out of politeness. The second layer of meaning is that the full phrase Musuli uses is also current in Buddhist practice as a technique for meditation, and sometimes includes a final line about having one¡¯s heart observing one¡¯s dantian. While Jiang Shining is not religious, this is a pertinent phrasing that refers to Xuanmin¡¯s status as a Buddhist monk.

 CH 24

    As the hallway turned black, their footsteps halted.

    Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi gasped, felt the air block itself in their throats as they forced themselves not to make a sound.

    A gust of chilling winter wind blew its way across the open doors, bringing with it the strange smell of humidity and rot mixed together. The cold seeped into their bodies.

    Even Xue Xian, dazed and boiling in the pouch, felt the change, though to him, this cool breeze was nothing to complain about. But such a relief was as useless as scooping water out of a boiling pot just to pour it back in ¨C¨C it did not make Xue Xian feel any better. After the yin wind passed, Xue Xian felt just as hot again.

    Ordinary people would long since have gone insane in such heat. Xue Xian wasn''t immune: rocking back and forth inside the pouch as though in a dream, he idly wondered how he might be able to extract himself from the pouch, even if just for a moment of fresh air. At this point, he no longer cared about face ¨C¨C irrationally, all he wanted was for Xuanmin to reach his cool hand into the pouch and give him some relief.

    Because his mind was slipping, this zuzong could no longer stay quiet ¨C¨C he muttered to himself incessantly. He was probably expressing all the thoughts that were running through his mind, but, because of his confused state of mind, everything his speech was slurred, like that of a senile grandmother. The words came out as a long string of repetitive gibberish.

    With the yin wind blowing out the light, Jiang Shining and the others had turned rigid as coffins and fallen deathly quiet.

    Naturally, Xue Xian''s nonsensical mutterings emerged from the pouch and crept mysteriously into their ears.

    "What''s that noise?" Lu Nianqi stammered, trembling. "Where is it coming from?"

    ¡°Dashi, can we light another flame?" Jiang Shining asked anxiously.

    The sudden blackness had swallowed any and all signs of the others'' presence. Jiang Shining felt utterly alone.

    Folk say that, in the quiet of the night, one''s own senses begin to play tricks on us ¨C¨C sounds from far away are mistaken for being close by, and it is impossible to actually tell where things are.

    When Xuanmin had first heard the strange voice, his hand had automatically shot to another talisman, but he had stopped when he¡¯d realised that the eerie sound was coming from his own pouch.

    What was the niezhang up to now?

    Frowning, Xuanmin tilted his head to listen. He found that the demon [a] was in fact repeating the same phrase over and over again ¨C¨C ¡°bald donkey.¡± The words came out in such quick staccato that he sounded like a furiously buzzing hornet.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡± What did I do?

    Exasperated, Xuanmin decided to ignore Xue Xian and took out another talisman to light.

    As soon as the small flame rose, there was immediately another hooo noise as it vanished.

    "Stop wasting your time. It won''t light," Lu Shijiu said dully. With a grunt, he pushed the doors to the tomb fully open.

    In contrast to the all-consuming blackness of the hallway, the tomb chamber now seemed to shimmer with a weak glow.

    The light was as dim as a gentle layer of frost on coal ¨C¨C but enough to allow them to estimate the silhouettes of others.

    Without so much as a word of warning, Lu Shijiu strode into the chamber. Xuanmin patted the still-muttering little lord [b] in his pouch and said to Jiang Shining, "Stay close." Then he, too, walked inside.

    Afraid of being left behind, Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi followed suit.

    As they stepped through the door, Lu Nianqi felt something beneath his foot, as though he had stepped on a small pebble. He stumbled slightly, and then there was an ear-splitting noise behind him as the heavy stone doors slammed shut. The sound was so startling that Lu Nianqi felt it in his bladder, and wished he could drop everything and run.

    Despite the faint glow inside the tomb, it was still too dark to see anything ¨C¨C not even how large the tomb chamber was, nor what was strewn beneath their feet, nor what resided in the ceiling¨C¨C

    "Hold on. Are those holes in the ceiling?" Jiang Shining suddenly said, pointing upwards.

    Holes in the ceiling

    the ceiling

    ...ling...

    ...

    As his words echoed across the walls of the chamber, Jiang Shining froze. His finger still stiffly pointing upward, he was too afraid to even move his neck..

    Lu Shijiu quietly hushed him, then said in a low voice, "Be quiet."

    With his voice suppressed to a bare whisper, the echoes died down too.

    Xuanmin looked up and saw that the ceiling was indeed pierced with seven tiny holes.

    He reached into the void to feel the air, then said, "Not holes." If these were holes, the yin wind would not have blown in such a direction.

    "Night pearls." Xuanmin studied them some more, then added, "There are seven, corresponding with the Big Dipper." [c]

    A flash of understanding crossed Jiang Shining''s face. Those seven circles were indeed not holes, but rather night pearls arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper.

    The cold, white glow of the night pearls was far dimmer and creepier than natural daylight, and cast itself down faintly from above.

    "Someone hung seven night pearls, but the tomb is still so dark. That means the ceiling is extremely high..." Jiang Shining muttered.

    "That¡¯s obvious from the bounce of the echo," Lu Shijiu said. "The path ahead is quite difficult. Be careful. Don''t step on the wrong stone, and definitely don''t fall off."

    Lu Nianqi had just extended his foot to take a step, and now he quickly yanked it back. "Wait. What do you mean, don''t step on the wrong stone? What do you mean, don''t fall off?"

    "Especially you,¡± Lu Shijiu said, then added, "Don''t look down."

    Lu Nianqi: ¡°...¡±

    What kind of instructions are those? If I can¡¯t look down while walking through this pitch dark cavern where you can barely see your own hands in front of you, how am I supposed to make my way through? I can¡¯t take a single step!

    In the time it took for them to have this conversation, everyone¡¯s eyes had slowly begun to adjust to the darkness, and some parts of the tomb began to emerge into their line of sight.

    They were standing on a stone platform suspended in the air. It was wide enough to fit two rows of people, but narrow enough that if Lu Shijiu and Xuanmin, who stood to the front of the group, took one more step ahead, they would fall into the void.

    You''re a ghost. You can''t die twice, Jiang Shining told himself over and over. Finally, he gathered the courage to take a single step forward and fall in line behind Xuanmin, over whose shoulder he could see some of what lay ahead, which was... a massive crater, over which swam faint ripples of light. The light meant that the crater was filled with water, though Jiang Shining could not tell how deep the pool was, nor where the water was coming from. If he fell in, he had no idea whether he''d be able to come back up.

    The strangest part was that circular objects floated intermittently across the water, like heavy melons... Jiang Shining could only see their outline, and could not tell if they were made of stone or some other material. As he cast his gaze across the pool, he counted more than a hundred of them, as though they were here to establish an array. [d]

    And, in the black water in front of Lu Shijiu, there was a series of separate, narrow stone steps, each of which seemed to lead further into the chamber. The steps rose and fell in an uneven manner as they reached into the darkness, like meihuazhuang pillars. [e]

    This was their only path forward.

    Jiang Shining peered further, and found that he could not see where the steps ended.

    How long is this path?!

    His knees buckled as he turned to stare anxiously at Xuanmin.

    As Xuanmin observed their surroundings, there was a slight furrow to his brows. It was unclear what was going through his mind ¨C¨C apart from the slight knitting-together of his brows, there was little else Jiang Shining could see on Xuanmin¡¯s face.

    Lu Shijiu spoke again. "My eyes can only see qi, so the tomb doesn''t bother me. You must follow closely behind me. You cannot walk too slowly."

    Calmly, he took the first step.

    Liu-laotou followed. He had spent his whole life rowing boats, so his back was deeply bent, and his silhouette had a depressing oldness to it. Seeing that such an old man was not making a single noise ¨C¨C he seemed not to be even breathing ¨C¨C Jiang Shining felt that he, too, had nothing to fear.

    Xuanmin waited for Lu Shijiu and Liu-laotou to cross the first three steps, then went.

    All Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi could do was follow.

    It was already terrifying just to look down from the edge, let alone to actually step onto the path. Jiang Shining couldn''t help but peek down, and saw that the path was high-up and incredibly narrow ¨C¨C he could fall at any time, right into that murky, uncertain water that lapped at the pillars around one zhang beneath his feet.

    At the sight of this, there was a weng¨C¨C knock in Jiang Shining''s mind. He felt light-headed.

    There was some kind of hidden logic to the mess of steps. Lu Shijiu seemed to know exactly which steps to take, and which to avoid. The rest of them simply had to copy him.

    But Jiang Shining still didn''t feel safe. Lu Shijiu and Liu-laotou were about two zhang ahead of Xuanmin ¨C¨C could the monk really see which steps the boy was taking?

    They tottered forward by seven or eight more steps, then something unnerving occurred to Jiang Shining¨C¨C

    "Why do I feel as though the water level is rising?" Jiang Shining rasped.

    "Water?!" Lu Nianqi, who had been walking ahead of Jiang Shining, suddenly froze. "There''s water?"

    "Don''t look down!" Lu Shijiu hollered.

    Oh no...

    Jiang Shining recalled the boy''s warning from earlier, but it was far too late.

    He watched as Lu Nianqi suddenly squatted down and laid across the steps on his stomach, clinging to the stone. "I... I can''t go ahead. I want to go back. I want to go back!"

    Slowly, Lu Nianqi shuffled his body so that he now faced the other direction. He tried to crawl back, but the step he needed to take was occupied by Jiang Shining. In a flash of panic, he landed on the step next to Jiang Shining''s foot.

    "Don''t!" Jiang Shining tried to grab him, but it was too late, and the movement made him lose balance so that he almost fell off his own step.

    The stone step that Lu Nianqi had touched shattered and its broken pieces rolled past them, tumbling into the black water.

    There was a splash, and a small amount of water sprayed up at them.

    Inside the pouch, Xue Xian suddenly felt something deep inside his body jolt up with a peng¨C¨C as though a new heart had suddenly appeared inside his chest.

    Of course, he was still just a soul in its purest form anchored to a marble, and did not have a physical heart.

    In his state of confusion, he muttered something, then fell back into an even deeper daze.

    The sound of the stone falling into the water startled Lu Nianqi and seemed to trigger something within him. He began to tremble, and, in a panicked voice, stammered, "I-¨C"

    He was interrupted by the water beneath him, which suddenly began to swell up. Like a corpse coming to life, enormous waves began to rumble forward and surge toward them.

    Hua¨C¨C

    With a loud splash, the water drenched them all.

    "Peng¨C¨C"

    Another heartbeat! Xue Xian felt as though he had suddenly grown blood vessels, which were now bringing hot, throbbing blood up his spine and into his body.

    And then, just as quickly, the feeling disappeared into the hazy, soupy heat.

    "Hurry!" Lu Shijiu''s voice emerged amidst the sound of roiling waves.

    Jiang Shining was holding on tightly to the edge of his stone step. Before he could even react, he felt someone violently thump the back of his neck and, with a puff, turned back into a sopping wet paper man.

    He saw that Xuanmin was pinching his paper body in his hand, and, with his other hand, Xuanmin picked up the screaming Lu Nianqi before striding into the darkness.

    There was no sign of the waves stopping ¨C¨C the water continued to rise at a terrifying pace.

    Even as the waves lapped across the steps, Xuanmin did not falter. He continued to walk, as steady as he was fast.

    "No, we have to speed up!" Lu Shijiu shouted from ahead. "The water is rising faster. It happened much earlier than last time. I don''t know if we can make it to the end. Hurry!"

    Before he could finish, another great wave crashed into them.

    Lu Nianqi had swallowed bucketfuls of water, and his whole body was soaked. His nose was stuffed full of that strange, half-wet half-rot smell. The waves assaulted the group relentlessly ¨C¨C within the blink of an eye, the water had risen up to their ankles and was lapping at their thighs.

    Just as Lu Nianqi wiped a fistful of water away from his face, another wave crashed into him with a vengeance. There was no end to the surging of the water, and he could not fight back no matter how hard he tried. He knew that the water did not care: it would keep rushing into him until it infiltrated every pore of his body and drowned him.

    This desperate feeling was all too familiar, and he felt as though it were seven or eight years ago, and he was again that child in the river...

    Xuanmin frowned as he glanced at the spasming youth in his arms. The violence of the waves seemed to have set off some traumatic memory ¨C¨C the burdensome boy began to scream like a madman.

    Without hesitation, Xuanmin lifted a hand to strike the back of Lu Nianqi''s head.

    "Peng¨C¨C"

    Another one! Xue Xian was briefly jolted from his daze again. He felt an indescribable feeling well up inside his soul, like something deeply familiar was being drawn out from somewhere far away and rushing into him. It seeped into his nonexistent veins and coursed through his nonexistent body, emanating heat and a sense of swelling.

    Fuck...

    Xue Xian grumbled. Am I a soaked mantou?

    The swelling feeling was unbearable. He felt as though he was pushing at the boundaries of the marble.

    "Peng¨C¨C"

    "Peng¨C¨C"

    ¡°Peng¨C¨C"

    As the noise returned, it was so clear now that Xue Xian was no longer the only person to feel it. The others, hurrying down the dark path, heard it too.

    "Wh-what is that?" Although Lu Shijiu was familiar with the path, it seemed that this development was new. "Something''s knocking against the stone steps!"

    Xuanmin faltered, then began walking even faster. "Hurry."

    Lu Shijiu was right: something really was knocking against the steps, as though something slumbering within the black water had suddenly been awakened and was hurtling violently into the steps'' submerged pillars. With each knock, the whole mess of steps vibrated, and the already fragile path became ever more unsteady. It began to teeter back and forth, threatening to collapse.

    "Peng¨C¨C"

    The knocking was becoming louder, and, with it, the entire structure of the steps wobbled. Then, there was a series of crunching noises and, in that instant, not only the steps beneath their feet but also the ones in front of them and behind them, all of them, disintegrated. Before the group could even think to struggle, they were swallowed whole by the water.

    As the waves rose over their heads, Xuanmin thought he heard something in his pouch emit a faint sizzling noise, like a spoonful of water sprinkled onto a hot metal plate.

    The black water felt like needles pricking their bodies all over ¨C¨C  to even open their eyes was agony.

    Beneath the water, Xuanmin blinked and forced himself to keep his eyes open. In the corner of his eye, he saw a strange, smooth thing slither out of his pouch and sink rapidly into the depths, as though headed for the uncertain bottom.

    Xuanmin was stunned. Having no arms and legs hasn¡¯t made this one any more well-behaved, has it?

    He raised his hand and reached out to rescue Xue Xian.

    But just as Xuanmin¡¯s palm came into contact with the marble, he felt a mammoth weight come down onto him, as though he were not holding a marble but an entire mountain range.

    Before he could extricate himself, the marble was already dragging him rapidly to the depths.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    I only did the update after I came home from class, so this one was a bit late. Tomorrow I will put it in the draft box earlier. Sorry =3=

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses ÑýÄõ (yao1 nie4) here, which combines ¡°yao¡± with ¡°nie¡± meaning sin/evil (the first character of ¡°niezhang¡±).

    [b] Musuli uses Ö÷ (zhu3), meaning ¡°master¡± or ¡°lord¡±. It¡¯s rare for one-character nouns to be used in Chinese because two-character or four-character phrases are seen as more pleasing; here, the straightforward use of Ö÷ is an assertion of Xue Xian¡¯s power and status, done so in a sarcastic or ironic manner. Ö÷ in this case isn¡¯t necessarily saying that Xue Xian is master/lord of something or someone, but more to emphasise his general dominance as a mythical creature ¨C¨C and his demanding behavior befitting someone of his status; because of this, I used ¡°little lord¡± in English to steer the significance away from ¡®lordship¡¯.

    [c] The Big Dipper is called ±±¶· (bei3 dou3) in Chinese.

    [d] Musuli phrases this as ÁÐÕó (lie4 zhen4), a noun that literally means ¡°rows/array¡± in a neutral sense. However, ÁÐ can also be taken as a verb meaning ¡°to arrange¡±, making this phrase ¡°arranging a feng shui design/array¡± in context.

    [e] Ã·»¨×® (mei2 hua1 zhuang1), literally ¡°plum blossom pillars¡±, is a martial arts technique also known as Ã·»¨È­ (mei2 hua1 quan2), ¡°plum blossom fists¡±. The technique is famous for having its practitioners walk on wooden pillars high in the air. Wikipedia and Baidu.

 CH 25

    The water was deeper and colder than anything anyone could ever have imagined. In no time, a dense chill had seeped into the very cores of their bodies.

    As Xue Xian felt the cold wash over him, his thoughts suddenly became crystal clear.

    The niezhang had been boiling in his soup of confusion for so long that he barely knew what was going on, but had the audacity to ask Xuanmin, who still held him in his hand, "Bald donkey, how come I''m in the water?"

    Who the fuck knew?

    Xuanmin did not reply.

    Perplexed, the niezhang asked, "Why are you here too?"

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    No one fucking knew.

    Being a marble, Xue Xian''s faculties were not affected by the water, so he could naturally speak whenever he felt like speaking. But if Xuanmin tried to open his mouth, he would immediately swallow gallons of water ¨C¨C and the issue wasn''t just how cold the water was, but the fact that the origins of the water were unknown, nor did anyone have any idea how long it had been in the cavern. It was definitely disgusting. Make Xuanmin drink that? You might as well drown him right then and there.

    As Xue Xian spoke, the two of them had reached the very depths of the water. With a massive thump, the golden marble landed at the bottom of the pool.

    Although the thick layer of sediment and dirt at the bottom of the pool acted as a buffer, Xuanmin''s hand was crushed to a pulp. Anyone else''s bones would have been immediately ground to dust.

    In his half-conscious state, Xue Xian got the feeling that, somehow, something had cushioned his fall. And although he wanted to say a word of thanks, the unbearable crescendo of heat continued to scorch his mind and the relentless dizzying sensation made him want to vomit. He rolled about chaotically in the sediment like a decapitated fly, as though driven by some innate, primitive urge ¨C¨C he seemed to be looking for something.

    As soon as the sediment bed had been perturbed, specks of dirt erupted into the water and covered everything in Xue Xian¡¯s vision. Never mind finding something lost ¨C¨C it''d be a miracle if he could keep track of himself.

    "I''m sick of this muddy water!" Xue Xian spat in a flustered tone. He seemed even more irritable than usual, if that was even possible.

    Where is it, where is it, where is it...

    He wasn''t even sure what it was he was looking for, yet that one phrase spun about in his head, repeating itself endlessly.

    Peng¨C¨C

    That tremor-like knocking sound rang out once again, sending Xue Xian into further panic. The vibration had disturbed the sediment flooring even more, and the water became ever more opaque. Xuanmin, nursing his mangled hand, quickly lost sight of the golden marble.

    No person in their right mind would be able to bear to stay long in this endlessly deep pool, and Xuanmin was no exception.

    Lu Nianqi was the first to succumb. Earlier, while in the throes of a seizure, he had narrowly avoided being struck on the back of the head by Xuanmin, but he was unable to escape the harrowing feeling of breathlessness when underwater. He thrashed around, causing himself to swallow several more gallons of water, and then went still.

    Next was Jiang Shining, who had been knocked back into his small paper form. As a ghost himself, he did not need to breathe, but amidst the vicious and unforgiving flow of the water, his paper body was close to being dissolved by the water.

    Finally, it was Xuanmin¡¯s turn...

    Xuanmin frowned. Just as his vision began to blur and fade into darkness, an earth-shattering roar erupted from the sediment bed.

    That sound pierced through the body of water and rang back and forth in the dark tomb.

    For a brief instant, Xuanmin, who was losing consciousness, was stunned. For some reason, this wailing, faraway noise felt familiar ¨C¨C as though he''d heard it somewhere before. As the thought lingered, the black water swelled up again and began to twist and churn at great speed. In no time, a large whirlpool had formed, as though someone had drilled a hole at the bottom of the pool. The entire pool of water began to recede into that hole, the current quick and powerful.

    Xuanmin, along with everything else in the water, was sucked away.

    The whirlpool¡¯s force was overwhelming. Nothing could resist it.

    As he was sucked into the spiral, Jiang Shining grimly thought, Turns out that dying from having one¡¯s paper body dissolve in the water isn''t so bad. The worst way to die is being torn to shreds! [a]

    Never mind the paper man ¨C¨C even living humans like Lu Nianqi and Xuanmin were barely holding on. They felt as though every joint in their bodies was being stretched out ¨C¨C if the whirlpool got any bigger, their flesh would undoubtedly slide off their bones.

    The strange but clear-sounding roaring noise accompanied the churning of the whirlpool. Altogether, the effect was awe-inspiring. There was something strange about it all ¨C¨C as though such a monumental event was never supposed to occur in a cramped, dark space like the tomb, but instead belonged only to the expansive, magnificent horizons of the sea.

    Dragon Swallows the Sea¡­ [b]

    Although Jiang Shining could not make out anything in the spinning waters of the whirlpool, the phrase surged out of him seemingly from nowhere. The strangest part was that he''d only ever encountered such a saying in the books he''d studied ¨C¨C he had never been witness to such a phenomenon in real life.

    Just as these fragmented thoughts appeared in his mind, he was sucked toward the eye of the whirlpool.

    Pa¨C¨C

    With that, Jiang Shining''s vision turned black and he lost consciousness.

    The echoes of the great wave went on and on, hurtling tirelessly back and forth across the hollow tomb.

    Only after a long time did it slowly begin to recede. Gradually, it disappeared, and the tomb returned to that previous, uncanny quiet.

    Those seven night pearls strung in the shape of the Big Dipper on the stone ceiling continued to cast their weak glow onto the crater below. But, of the black water that had previously filled the chamber, there remained not a single drop ¨C¨C it had been entirely sucked clean by the whirlpool, which had even smashed the structure of stone steps into pieces so that it now lay in a pile of rubble across the ground.

    And the loose sediment that had covered the bottom of the pool now lay in a pile in the corner, as though impatiently swept away by some invisible hand.

    With the soft layer of mud and sand gone, the original stone flooring was now exposed. One part of it seemed to have been punctured and the shattered stone tiles pushed to the side, revealing black soil beneath it.

    And in that soil was planted a single, glimmering, trembling golden marble. Strewn around the marble were several unconscious bodies, each of them deathly pale.

    These were Xuanmin and the others.

    Soon, there was a gudu sound as the trembling marble threw up a mouthful of water, breaking that mortifying silence.

    Next came the heavy sigh of an ill person.

    "Ah¨C¨C" From inside the marble, Xue Xian let out a pained sigh of relief. He felt as though he were full to bursting.

    During the chaos earlier, Xue Xian had still been in a daze, had been only dimly aware of breaking open the stone flooring and breaking something that had been laying buried inside the soil, absorbing it into his marble. In that moment, he had felt a strange, indescribable feeling of satisfaction, as though finally able to eat a food item that he had been eyeing for ages.

    Even that unbearable heat had been defeated for a brief moment.

    But one thing hadn''t been ideal ¨C¨C as the golden marble had hungrily taken in that thing in the soil, in a fit of overexcitement, he''d also gone and swallowed all the water in the pool, too.

    And now... he was too full.

    Xue Xian began to panic. The water hadn''t actually entered his stomach since he didn''t have one ¨C¨C it had only been absorbed by the marble ¨C¨C but how come the marble got to stay intact while he had to have a stomachache? It made no sense!

    As the zuzong rolled about in a huff, Xuanmin''s finger seemed to twitch, and his eyelids suddenly fluttered open.

    For some reason, as Xuanmin opened his eyes, a sense of emptiness flashed across his gaze, as though he had momentarily forgotten where he was, who he was with, and what he''d been doing. He stared up at the Big Dipper for a time, then abruptly sat up.

    Hearing the movement, Xue Xian leapt out of the patch of soil and rolled noisily across the stone flooring to where Xuanmin sat. "Bald donkey, could I please bother you for some kind of digestion talisman? [c] Or if you have pills." [d]

    He looked up at Xuanmin, waiting for the bald donkey to respond.

    But Xuanmin only stared at him. Then, in a deep voice, he said, "What kind of niezhang are you? Why are you hiding inside a marble?"

    Xue Xian: ¡°¡­¡±

    Xue Xian: ¡°¡­¡­¡±

    Xue Xian: ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡±

    What the fuck was going on?!

    He stopped rolling ¨C¨C he only sat there, stiff as a stone egg, gaping at Xuanmin. "What are you playing at?"

    Xue Xian no longer felt turgid. He was so bowled over by Xuanmin''s strange reaction that he felt as though all of the water inside him had suddenly evaporated. After another shocked pause, Xue Xian ran two more circles around Xuanmin¡¯s body, inspecting him and thinking, Did he swallow too much water and get possessed by a water ghost?

    Quickly, Xue Xian rolled up close to Xuanmin¡¯s side and peered at Xuanmin¡¯s neck. Although the darkness of the cavern meant that ordinary people might easily miss small details, Xue Xian was capable of seeing everything clearly.

    "What''s that thing on your neck?" Xue Xian asked.

    A strange mark had grown on the side of Xuanmin''s neck. It looked like a poised spider. From what Xue Xian could remember, Xuanmin had only had a small mole in that location ¨C¨C nothing at all like this.

    Frowning, Xuanmin reached up and touched his neck.

    As his fingers grazed the mole, the spider seemed to react minutely to the finger''s warmth and immediately retracted its legs, transforming back into a normal mole.

    With that, Xue Xian realised that what he had thought was a spider had in fact been a network of outstretched blood vessels, thin and gnarled like the legs of a spider.

    As the blood vessels retreated, Xuanmin grimaced and shut his eyes, rubbing his temples ¨C¨C he seemed to be feeling dizzy again. And just like that, he stopped moving.

    This reminded Xue Xian of what had happened back at Guiyun Hall: at the time, he had also seen Xuanmin sway dizzily, then settle into the chair with his eyes closed, immobile for a long time.

    Xue Xian spun about again and inspected Xuanmin from every angle, but could not find anything else amiss.

    "What... the hell is this?" Xue Xian had never seen anyone else behave in this way, and pondered it, confused.

    Finally, after another long moment, Xuanmin moved again: his fingers began to massage his taiyang pressure point [e] and, frowning, he slowly opened his eyes.

    Xue Xian watched Xuanmin¡¯s every move with trepidation. Eventually, the bald donkey looked down at him with a neutral face and said, "Look at how much trouble you can cause even without arms or legs. Niezhang, you deserve to be exorcised." [f]

    Xue Xian said nothing. Actually, bald donkey, you can go back to being stupid.

    As Xuanmin spoke, he massaged the hand that hung limply by his side, slowly tugging at each knuckle. With each crack of the knuckle, he would steal a glance at Xue Xian.

    With that, Xue Xian finally understood what it was that had cushioned his fall earlier. He decided to forgive what Xuanmin had just said to him and instead rolled closer, planning to ask about the spider-shaped mole, when he suddenly spied a horizontal shadow in the corner.

    It was a stone sculpture as tall as a man, with a spherical, melon-like head on which sinister-looking features had been roughly carved.

    This wasn''t the issue ¨C¨C it was common for mausoleums to be populated by statues ¨C¨C but this statue had fallen to the bottom of the crater during the commotion earlier and split in half, revealing its core. And unless Xue Xian had turned blind in the last few minutes...

    Encased inside the stone sculpture was a human. A real human who had been dead for a long, long time.

    Xuanmin seemed also to have noticed this. He swivelled his head around and saw that there were hundreds of such statues littered across the bottom of the pool.

    Xue Xian couldn''t guess how long the sculptures had been soaking in the water, but he realised that he had swallowed every last drop of the corpse water. A wave of nausea welled up within him.

    Still nursing his hand, Xuanmin stood up and moved to inspect the statues when, suddenly, a gurgling sound arose from beneath his feet.

    Mystified, he looked down and saw that the golden marble was spouting great amounts of water onto the ground... Xue Xian was so disgusted that he was vomiting.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    The real body will return soon! It¡¯s just that right now he needs to digest for a bit (x

    I will try to update regularly at 10am from now on. But I keep ending up unable to keep to my plans, so I can¡¯t make guarantees. I¡¯ll try my best~

    ---

    [a] Here, Musuli uses the chengyu ÎåÂí·ÖÊ¬ (wu3 ma3 fen1 shi1), literally ¡°five horses separate corpse¡±. This describes the execution technique whereby a body is tied to five horses and each horse is made to run in different directions, causing the person to be literally torn apart by the force.

    [b] ÁúÎüË® (long2 xi1 shui3), literally ¡°dragon sucks/swallows water¡±, is a colloquial term for the meteorological phenomenon of a twister or hurricane happening over a body of water. (Article in Chinese).

    [c] In Chinese, he uses ÀÍ¼Ý (lao2 jia4), a polite way of saying ¡°please¡±.

    [d] The Chinese word here is µ¤ (dan1), which refers to a pellet of traditional Chinese medicine that can be chewed and swallowed. A popular trope in the historical fantasy/jianghu genre is pills (dan) that have magical properties. The Chinese term for ¡°golden core¡±, ½ðµ¤ (jin1 dan1), also uses this character.

    [e] The taiyang pressure point is at one¡¯s temples.

    [f] The verb Musuli uses here is ÊÕ (shou1), meaning to retrieve/recuperate/put away.

 CH 26

    As the little marble silently regurgitated what he''d swallowed, the puddle of ejected water began to spread, edging ever closer to Xuanmin''s feet. Xuanmin glared at the marble and, though his cold face betrayed no emotion, his tone was strained. "Are you going to throw it all back up?" he asked.

    Xue Xian ignored him. He continued to spout water while radiating hatred.

    "And after this, do you plan to bathe in the same water?" Xuanmin said, scowling.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    The marble stopped.

    After a while, Xue Xian grumbled, "Damn grifter. You really know how to gross someone out..."

    "You are too kind. However, that is not actually one of my skills," Xuanmin replied, looking away. He walked over to the statues.

    Xue Xian hesitated, then decided to follow along, rolling hot on Xuanmin¡¯s heels. "Can you pick me up? I''m light-headed from being so full."

    Xuanmin glanced at the streaks of water on the marble''s surface. "I will once the corpse water on your body has dried."

    ¡°...¡± Xue Xian rolled to a stop. "If you keep grossing me out like this, I''ll make sure to projectile vomit all over you!" he shouted. "Believe it or not!"

    "I believe it." Xuanmin stopped too, and looked back at the marble with irritation. Finally, he bent down to pick Xue Xian up, gingerly tossing the marble into his pouch, as though he was disgusted even to touch him.

    "How dare you handle me with such revulsion!" Xue Xian''s muffled voice hollered from inside the pouch. "You''re just as drenched with water as I am!"

    Hearing this, Xuanmin stopped again. He drew a gash on his fingertip and casually squeezed out a drop of blood, which he used to draw what looked like a simple talismanic scrawl onto his own palm. In an instant, all of the water on his body evaporated, leaving no trace at all. As the white hemp robe dried, it became as light as a cloud ¨C¨C even Xue Xian, inside the pouch, became fully dry.

    Having gotten what he''d wanted, Xue Xian was content.

    Even better, Xue Xian discovered that that strange spot on Xuanmin''s hip even had the ability to help him digest ¨C¨C he could clearly feel that the thing he''d absorbed from that patch of black soil was happily integrating itself into his golden marble.

    Before, when Xue Xian had still been in a daze, he had sucked up the item from the soil without even knowing what it was, but now that he''d come back to his senses, he understood ¨C¨C buried beneath the soil had been a part of his true body: either some of his blood, or one of his vertebrae, or a strip of his muscle.

    It was only a fragment. But as it slowly melted into the marble, Xue Xian felt indescribable contentment. Finally, after having been painfully empty for half a year, his spine began to have some feeling again.

    Whether you are growing your spirit or your qi, your flesh or your bones, you need to have some kind of starting point or source ¨C¨C just like how flowers or trees require a seed.

    Xue Xian had spent half a year building up a form for himself through his qi, and had cobbled together a prosthetic spine from a string of qi in order to at least give the top half of his body some mobility. But qi could not compare to real bone ¨C¨C qi was hollow, not a dense physical material. Now, though, Xue Xian finally felt as though he really had planted a seed for growing his spine back.

    Though Xuanmin had no idea what Xue Xian was thinking about inside the pouch, he was glad that there was no more trouble.

    There were too many fallen statues around the pool for Xuanmin to inspect each and every one. He focused on the ones that had split open.

    After looking at around a dozen, Xuanmin realised that there did seem to be a pattern to these statues. All in all, they could be grouped into three different categories: those with angry faces, those with crying faces, and those with grinning faces. And each of these categories seemed to hold a different type of body.

    The angry statues'' corpses lacked heads; the sad statues'' corpses lacked both legs; and the happy statues'' corpses lacked both hands.

    "What have you discovered?" Xue Xian asked. "What are these statues for? They look extremely evil."

    Frowning, Xuanmin replied, "I think I know."

    Xue Xian was shocked. "How do you know everything?"

    "Perhaps I read about it in a book,¡± Xuanmin replied calmly. ¡°It must have made an impression."

    These hundreds of statues were clearly not ordinary burial gifts, made to accompany the dead person into the afterlife. The statues clearly had a logic to them ¨C¨C which meant they also had a purpose. In places like these, things related to the number three always held some kind of deeper meaning. Although Xuanmin could no longer remember where he had read about it, he did remember such a passage¨C¨C

    There was a feng shui design that could be used to reverse one''s fortune, called ¡®Hundred Soldiers Push the Flow.¡¯ If done properly, it could help one avoid natural disasters and ensure a hundred years of prosperity ¨C¨C the results were excellent. The main problem was that it was an evil design that harnessed yin energy, which most people were not willing to undertake.

    Because to construct it, one had to sacrifice three hundred lives.

    A hundred warriors, a hundred suffering commoners, and a hundred villains.

    These three different stone faces seemed to correspond to those categories: the angry ones were warriors, the sad ones were the suffering commoners, and the laughing ones were the villains.

    "Three hundred..." Xue Xian was stupefied. "What the hell? When mortals get up to no good, they can do as much damage as I can. Where do you even find three hundred people? That''s no small number. Even if you went after them one by one, surely someone would notice? You''d have to be blind not to notice hundreds of people going missing."

    As he spoke, Xuanmin saw something fall out of a statue with a dingdang sound. It sounded close ¡ª like some kind of copper sheet or other metal object.

    Xuanmin frowned. He tore another strip of cloth from the bottom of his robe. After all, the item had belonged to a dead man and had clearly been in contact with all sorts of decomposing substances.

    Hearing the tearing noise, Xue Xian said, "If you keep going, your robes are going to be shorter by a huge chunk."

    Of course, he had been using hyperbole. Xuanmin¡¯s robes were long enough to cover his feet, but fell just short of dragging against the dirt, so that, even when he walked, they did not touch the ground. Even after all the pieces he''d torn, the robe was only missing around half a palm''s length ¨C¨C he could keep going another seventeen or eighteen times, and a change would still not show.

    But Xue Xian couldn''t shut up. He constantly felt the need to annoy Xuanmin.

    His hand wrapped in the hemp cloth, Xuanmin pinched the item that had fallen to the floor and inspected it beneath the dim glow of the night pearls.

    It was a small metal flake, with a carving of a beast on one side, and what seemed to be a name on the other ¡ª though the name had been furiously scratched out, leaving only illegible scribbles.

    Seeing that Xuanmin had not responded, Xue Xian stuck his head out of the pouch while Xuanmin remained crouching. "Hey ¨C¨C that looks familiar."

    "You have seen it before?" Xuanmin had wanted to shove him back inside, but upon hearing Xue Xian''s words, he instead brought the object closer to Xue Xian.

    "I remember now," Xue Xian said. "On our way to Wolong County, we passed through several abandoned temples in the mountains. We found one of these in a temple. The temple was covered in old bloodstains. I assume a battle had taken place. Then, in front of Wolong Xian Cheng¡¯s city gates, me and the bookworm came across another one."

    These almost identical-looking objects must have been mass manufactured, or at least have come from the same workshop. Most likely, they were associated with the military.

    All soldiers constantly walked that fine line between life and death, and any man who had been to battle could not escape with his sword unstained ¨C¨C they neatly fell into the definition of ¡®warrior¡¯. But armies were very strict with their members. How could a hundred soldiers disappear without anyone raising an alarm?

    Xue Xian had spent the past six months among humans, and knew little about the military. But Xuanmin knew a little more.

    Every military man had a metal flake like this. Firstly, it was useful for army administration, and secondly, it could be used as a form of ID. Thirdly... if they died in battle and their corpses could not be recovered, then the tag could act as an index for the body, and be brought back to their ancestral home and interred in their body¡¯s place.

    If the soldier did not die in battle and left the army due to retirement or injury, the tag would not be taken back, but instead the name would be scratched out.

    "Where did you hear about all this?" Xue Xian asked, looking up at Xuanmin.

    Xuanmin paused, then said, "I don''t remember. Perhaps I overheard some townspeople gossiping."

    Xue Xian found the bald donkey extraordinary ¨C¨C based on the spider-shaped mole, he clearly did have some kind of illness, and a grave one at that, considering he seemed to often wake up to find himself unable to recognise anyone around him. But for an aloof, arrogant monk who considered himself some kind of saintly high priest, who had amnesia and was also far away from home getting into all kinds of trouble... for such a man to overhear so much information from town gossip... that was hard to believe.

    Xue Xian asked himself, Does he look like the kind of person to make small talk with locals?

    Xue Xian responded, No.

    Xuanmin reached out with his finger and prodded that smooth head... or maybe it was Xue Xian¡¯s body, who cares. In any case, he pushed the marble back into the pouch.

    "The warriors are soldiers who aged out of the army or could no longer fight due to injury. So who are the suffering commoners and the villains?" Xue Xian mumbled from inside the pouch.

    "Beggars and mountain bandits."

    The response came not from Xuanmin, but from another voice ¨C¨C a warm and peaceful one.

    Xuanmin turned to see that Lu Shijiu and Liu-laotou had woken up and were walking toward him.

    Liu-laotou was frail with age, and Lu Shijiu was even more twig-like than Jiang Shining ¨C¨C how could those two have been the first to come back to consciousness? Plus, both the force of the whirlpool and the impact of the fall onto the pool floor had been painful, violent experiences, but neither of the two seemed to have any new injuries.

    They looked exactly how they had when the group had first met them at the stone doors ¨C¨C down to the streaks of damp and the patterns of silt on their clothes. Nothing had changed at all.

    Xuanmin took all this in, but said nothing. Instead, he turned his gaze to the hundreds of statues. "How do you know?"

    Lu Shijiu raised the bundle of sticks that he held in his hand and twitched his finger. "I can see, and I can deduce. Just now, I touched a few of the statues.¡±

    He continued: ¡°These soldiers were abducted on their way home. It''s actually extremely easy to kidnap these types of soldiers ¨C¨C you can just tell their families they''d died in battle and their corpses couldn''t be recovered, and you''d immediately be able to avoid all suspicion."

    As for the drifting homeless... Most people never took notice of them to know if there were more of them or less of them on the street on any given day. It was even easier with the mountain bandits: to most people, exterminating bandits was great news, and if, after they were ousted from the mountains, someone wanted to come and cut off their heads and take them away somewhere, people hardly cared.

    With those three types of sacrifices obtained, the feng shui array could be constructed.

    Lu Shijiu''s blind eyes were highly useful in a situation like this. He looked around, then pointed at two different places and said, "Something''s here."

    Xuanmin strode to each place and picked up two pieces of stone embossed with talismanic text. He could feel what was carved onto them just by feeling the surface with his fingertips. Xuanmin studied them, then said, "Looks familiar."

    "What part?" Xue Xian asked.

    "The talismanic text. I have seen it before."

    But it was far too dark inside the tomb. No matter how hard Xuanmin looked, he could only see the outlines.

    Lu Shijiu turned to look at Lu Nianqi, who laid unconscious not far from where they stood, then asked Xuanmin, "Nianqi, he..."

    Xuanmin could hear the questioning tone in the boy''s voice. Without turning around, he said, "He seems unusually afraid of water."

    From inside the pouch, Xue Xian piped up. "Yeah. When I was in my daze, I couldn''t hear anything that was going on outside. But that kid''s constant screaming, I did hear."

    Lu Shijiu hung his head. "That''s my fault."

    ---

 CH 27

    Thirteen years ago, a widower named Lu Yuan moved from Lujiatang to the neighborhood east of the river. His wife had died long ago, and he had two small sons. He rented a small boat on the river and worked as a fisherman. Though he had the aggressive face of a boor, his personality was in fact a gentle, caring one: when he smiled, all traces of boorishness disappeared from his face.

    The neighbors always said that Lu Yuan''s two sons did not seem to be real Lus.

    Lu Yuan was tall, with a wide frame. Having spent many years carrying heavy nets out of the water, he had muscular arms that gave him the sense of extraordinary strength. But his sons did not take after him.

    When they first arrived in the neighborhood, the elder boy was four years old, and the younger was two, and they were both dramatically thin. Although the younger boy was skinny, there was still a hint of his father Lu Yuan in his brow, which also looked permanently furious. But the elder son really did not look like Lu Yuan at all.

    Whenever the three were seen together, it was always the elder boy, whose nickname was Shijiu, who drew the most attention, because he was abnormally pale, and seemed permanently ill.

    Not only did Lu Shijiu not look like a Lu, but his personality didn''t match, either. Lu Yuan was kind, and the younger boy, Lu Nianqi, was a mischievous little troublemaker who loved to run around as a toddler and never obeyed orders ¨C¨C his father often beat him. But the elder son, Lu Shijiu, went around barely speaking a word to anyone. He did not behave at all like a normal child.

    Often, Lu Shijiu would demonstrate that he was highly mature and knowledgeable. But sometimes, he would do strange things, which, when added onto his weak and pale face, gave him a ghostly aura. Most people were not fond of him.

    So the neighbors liked to tease Lu Nianqi, but very rarely teased Shijiu.

    What the neighbors didn''t know was that Lu Shijiu really wasn''t Lu Yuan''s biological son.

    Lu Yuan did not have much family: his parents had died when he''d been young. After his wife passed away from illness, Lu Yuan had spent a year in dejection, and his family¡¯s finances had suffered. For that whole year, his son Nianqi had never had a full stomach, and had become pitifully skinny. So Lu Yuan had decided to lock up the family home and move with his son to Wolong County, planning to make a living off the fresher fish in this part of the river.

    Before entering the city gates, he had taken his son to an old rural temple for a rest. There, they¡¯d encountered Shijiu.

    The child had looked to be three or four years old, yet he¡¯d been sleeping alone in that temple ¨C¨C Lu Yuan had immediately known that something was amiss.

    He¡¯d asked Shijiu some simple questions, and been able to guess what had happened.

    Shijiu was originally from Ge County, a hundred li away. He¡¯d had too many siblings at home, and, when there had been a drought, his parents had been unable to feed all of their children and been forced to abandon some. They had probably planned to sell the child, but this Shijiu looked strangely ill and was unlikely to live long. Besides, he had vision issues: though he was only four at the time, his vision had already begun to turn blurry. Nobody had wanted to buy him.

    Since they had not been able to sell him off, his parents had had to abandon him. If they¡¯d dropped him somewhere too close, he might actually have found his way home, so they¡¯d brought him somewhere a hundred li away. Every once in a while, travellers visited rural temples for a rest, so there was hope that perhaps a kind-hearted person would come across the child and take him away.

    But that was a highly optimistic thought. The mountain forests had far more bandits and wolves than kind-hearted people. Before being adopted by some kind-hearted person, the child was far more likely to be captured by criminals or eaten by animals.

    But this Shijiu had been lucky. He''d met Lu Yuan.

    Lu Yuan had seen it this way: he¡¯d already had a son to raise, and a second one would hardly have been that much more work. It meant Nianqi would have a playmate. So he¡¯d taken Shijiu with him.

    Later, Lu Yuan would discover that Shijiu was not a good playmate. He preferred to sit quietly than to run about having adventures. But Shijiu made a good, sensible son. Although he could not see well, he would spend every day helping Lu Yuan to prepare the fish and shrimp that he''d caught, or else be standing on a little stool over the stove, making a stew.

    So although Lu Yuan had to beat Nianqi every once in a while, he had never had to lay a finger on Shijiu. Indeed, he seemed abnormally generous to the child.

    Little children love to chase after someone slightly older than them, and Nianqi was no exception. Despite Shijiu''s silent disposition, Nianqi followed him wherever he went. To Nianqi, he was helping out, but Shijiu saw him only as a burden.

    For instance, Shijiu had once had a tub of boiling water sitting in the corner that he¡¯d planned to use to wash the fish smell out of their father''s clothes and shoes. But Nianqi had run over in his bottomless trousers, insisting on giving him a hand. Nianqi had tripped and fallen bottom-first into the tub of water, and then had cried his head off.

    In another instance, the tree in the courtyard had once been covered in bug shells, which from afar looked like fruits. Shijiu had brought over a broom, planning to knock down the bug shells. Again Nianqi had tottered over to help. As Nianqi helped sweep the bug shells to the side, he had become intrigued by the shells and had put one in his mouth, using it as a whistle. Nianqi had been delighted by the clear, beautiful sound of the whistle, but that night his lips had swollen up as thick as sausages, and he¡¯d cried his head off again.

    In the first few years, Shijiu would feel a migraine come on every time he even so much as looked at Nianqi. Then, as he became blind, he gradually stopped being able to see the child very well, and became used to him.

    Shijiu had known that blind people could not see anything. But he found that he had begun to see strange things, and hear strange noises. Sometimes, he couldn''t help but follow the noises outside and search for their origin all over town. After some time, he would finally give up and return to his chores.

    The year that Shijiu turned nine years old, Nianqi was seven. One day at noon, Shijiu heard another peculiar noise and left the kitchen to search for it, staggering slowly toward the river. By then, Nianqi had become a bit more sensitive than he''d been as a baby, and, probably because his older brother was blind, he''d learned to be more caring. Seeing that Shijiu was leaving the compound, he followed him, and pestered him the whole way to come home.

    But it was as though Shijiu had been put under a spell: [a] he seemed not even to be able to hear his brother.

    That was the day that, amidst the thick fog on the river, Shijiu was standing by the river when he suddenly saw the shadow of a dragon. Startled, he accidentally fell into the water.

    Nianqi leapt in to bring his blind brother to shore, but found that it was just like all of those times when they''d been young ¨C¨C he''d thought he''d been helping, but he only ended up causing more trouble. On that day, he almost threw away his own life.

    The two had fallen into a particularly remote part of the river, one rarely frequented by fishermen or leisure boats. If a couple returning from the market had not coincidentally passed by in that instant, they would have perished right then and there, with no one any the wiser.

    The old man returning from the market did not know how to swim. But he did recognise Nianqi.

    "By the time Dad got here, Nianqi had stopped moving," Lu Shijiu said slowly. "The water that day was violent. It was too dangerous to rescue both children at once. Dad pushed me up so that I could breathe, and brought Nianqi to shore first. As I waited for him to return, something happened in the water ¨C¨C suddenly, the wind picked up and tall waves appeared. I could feel the appearance of a small whirlpool beneath our feet, which trapped his ankle, and he began to swallow water."

    Lu Shijiu took a deep breath. Frowning, he forced himself to finish the story. "He pushed me onto shore, and then he was sucked away by the whirlpool. He went under, and never came back up."

    "Ever since the day that Dad died, Nianqi became scared of water. And he stopped following me around,¡± Shijiu said.

    Lu Shijiu did not look like he was about to cry, nor did he display any particularly strong emotion. As he spoke, he was as calm as though he were telling someone else''s story. His eyes didn''t even redden. As the others listened, they felt strangely uncomfortable, as though they were being sad on his behalf.

    Xuanmin put away the two pieces of stone with the talismanic writing on them. Suddenly, he said, "I took a look at Lu Nianqi''s palm. At the age of six, there is a break, and the rest was forcibly drawn out."

    Shijiu looked over at Nianqi. He did not meet Xuanmin¡¯s eyes, nor did he speak.

    Finally, only when he could determine that Nianqi was not waking up anytime soon did Shijiu say, in a low voice, "Back then, I didn''t really understand. I just wanted to draw out the line. Even if... even if he stopped growing, he would at least be alive. Good or bad, any kind of life is worth living. I just wanted him to be alive. But..."

    But he hadn''t known that, in lengthening Nianqi''s life, he''d cut off Lu Yuan''s.

    An equal exchange.

    Having admitted this, Lu Shijiu finally looked over at Xuanmin. "We''re almost at the end of the tomb. There''s not much danger anymore. The exit is up ahead. Could you help me? Take Nianqi out of here."

    Xuanmin glanced at Shijiu. "Your final request?"

    Shijiu paused, stunned, then said, "Mn." He sighed. "Otherwise, I''ll have come all this way for nothing."

    Xuanmin opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Xue Xian piped up from inside the pouch. "The crater we¡¯re in is about ten zhang deep. How do we get all the way back up there?"

    Then, before anyone had the chance to reply, Xue Xian sneakily added, "How about... I spit out all the water again and let you swim up? Great idea! Saves effort and time."

    Shijiu: ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Do not trouble yourself," Xuanmin said. "Since you have already swallowed it all, sit tight and live with it."

    Xue Xian was furious.

    As they spoke, Liu-laotou silently tapped Shijiu on the shoulder, then pointed somewhere with his finger.

    Following the direction in which he''d been pointing, Xuanmin and the others saw that, along the pool wall, there was a shadow about as large as a man.

    They shuffled closer and saw that it was a door made of metal.

    It had been submerged in the water for who knew how long: the hinges and the locks had long rusted in place. Xuanmin''s talismans had been proven not to work inside the cavern, so the group used nearby rubble to smash the lock off.

    The squeaking noise of the metal door opening was torture to the ears. Nianqi, sprawled on the ground nearby, finally opened his eyes.

    "You''re awake?" Shijiu turned to him. "Can you get up? If you can, then stop lying there. If you want to get out of here, you have to walk yourself. Nobody is going to carry you."

    As soon as his brother awoke, Shijiu reverted to that cold, aloof manner. He seemed to have no intention of improving their relationship.

    "I know." Nianqi had swallowed too much polluted water, and the water grated at his throat, making his voice weak. If the conversation had happened earlier, Nianqi would have become upset at Shijiu''s dismissive tone and butted back. Strangely, this time, Nianqi said nothing, instead silently clambering up. He bent over in a coughing fit and spat water out of his lungs.

    Near where Lu Nianqi stood, the paper man Jiang Shining had been drying himself. He had finally managed to wring some of the water out of himself, but was still so fragile that any touch would tear him.

    Xuanmin walked over and put Jiang Shining into his pouch to hang out with the turgid golden marble. Then, Xuanmin followed the group through the metal door.

    Behind the metal door was a steep set of stairs leading all the way up ¨C¨C it had probably been created by the engineers of the tomb, so that they could leave after having finished their work. Another set of stairs led to another tomb hallway, one that looked similar to the hallway they''d previously traversed.

    Just as Shijiu had predicted, there was no danger in the stairwell. There was not even a disturbing mural; it was surprisingly safe.

    When they''d almost reached the top, Xuanmin''s talisman suddenly burst back into flame.

    But as the flame rose, it seemed to drag with it a strange smell, which spread across the stairwell.

    Suddenly, Jiang Shining yelled from inside the pouch, "Wait! Don''t move! Something''s not right about this smell."

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses the phrase ÖÐÐ° (zhong4 xie2) here, meaning ¡°to be hit by evil/hereticism¡±.

 CH 28

    "What smell?" Terrified at Jiang Shining¡¯s words, Lu Nianqi stopped breathing. He''d opened his mouth to speak, then quickly remembered and covered his mouth again, fearing that some strange substance might worm its way into his body.

    Now that Jiang Shining had pointed it out, Xue Xian, whose five senses were naturally more acute than humans'' ¨C¨C including Xuanmin¡¯s ¨C¨C began to detect a smell of...

    "Vegetation," Xue Xian said.

    The smell... It was as though someone had taken a plant and ground it up so that it released the unique smell of sap. It smelled neither pleasant nor unpleasant, but it was indeed highly strange to come across it in a dark, sealed tomb.

    Having grown up in a clinic, Jiang Shining had spent his childhood smelling all kinds of herbs. Though his pharmaceutical expertise was far from that of his parents, he still had some basic knowledge. He was highly sensitive to the smells of medicine, and knew how to identify different types. So for him to notice such a thing was rather important.

    "There''s no need to block your nose or your mouth." Emboldened by Xue Xian''s words, Jiang Shining had courageously stuck his head out of Xuanmin''s pouch and caught sight of the frightened Lu Nianqi. Waving his paper arms dismissively, Jiang Shining said, "You probably aren''t familiar with this smell, and, to be honest, I haven''t smelled it that many times either. I''ve seen people who have died from this a couple of times, so it made a huge impression on me. I don''t know if you''ve heard of a poison called ''Up seven, down eight, dead nine''. It means that once you''ve been poisoned by it, you can at most take seven steps if you''re going uphill or eight steps if you''re going downhill ¨C¨C either way, you''ll be dead before you take your ninth step."

    "Isn''t that See Blood Seal Throat?" Xue Xian said. "I have heard of it."

    "Oh," Jiang Shining said. "That''s true. You''re from the south. That tree usually grows in warmer climates, and when brought here it doesn''t grow for very long. If you want to use it to make normal medicine, you have to wait for the summer or the autumn and buy it off a southern pharmacist, and save it up."

    Whenever Jiang Shining spoke, he always ended up talking about medicine again.

    "Can you please get to the point before the new year?" Xue Xian said coldly.

    ¡°...¡± Embarrassed, Jiang Shining stopped himself from going on. He said, "Don''t touch anything here. I suspect that all the walls here, and the floor and ceiling, are all covered in the poisonous tree sap. All of us are wounded: if anyone gets it on them, they''ll become paralysed within a few steps."

    As Jiang Shining spoke, his voice receded and his confident demeanor faded ¨C¨C because as he went on, he saw that Lu Shijiu had turned around to regard him with those blind eyes, and then Liu-laotou had slowly turned too, fixing his old eyes on him without moving his gaze¡­ until even Xuanmin was staring down at him.

    "You guys¨C¨C" Jiang Shining mumbled, then cleared his throat. Awkwardly, he shrank back into the pouch. "Stop looking at me," he said. "I''m going back into the pouch. Be careful, everyone."

    Xuanmin looked over at Shijiu and Liu-laotou, then glanced at Nianqi.

    It seemed that, ever since they''d gone through the metal door, the sequence in which they walked had flipped. Before, Lu Shijiu and Liu-laotou had led the way, followed by a calm Xuanmin, with Jiang Shining and Nianqi slinking behind him. It had given Xue Xian, right in the middle of the group, a sense of protection.

    But now it was different: although Lu Shijiu and Liu-laotou continued to walk at the front, the one directly behind them was Lu Nianqi, and Xuanmin no longer served as a protective ¡®barrier¡¯ between the two brothers ¨C¨C instead, he had retreated to the back of the group, in case anything should try to sneak up on them.

    Lu Nianqi had long taken his hand away from his nose. Halfway through Jiang Shining''s explanation, he had suddenly swivelled around so that he now had his back to Xuanmin and faced Shijiu, with his gaze firmly set on his blind older brother.

    But Shijiu had not noticed this.

    Having wrapped up his lecture, Jiang Shining calmly retreated into the pouch.

    The flame in Xuanmin''s hand danced lightly, casting its orange glow ahead, with the edge of its beam landing by Shijiu''s feet. In front of Shijiu was a patch of darkness, and behind him was that warm yellow light ¨C¨C with every step he took, he seemed to be treading on the boundary between light and dark.

    The material on the back part of Shijiu¡¯s collar had been ripped quite badly and his messy hair fell over his pale neck, casting a large shadow across his skin. In the dim light in the tomb, most people would not notice anything wrong.

    And Nianqi, who was abnormally short and always stood a few steps beneath his brother, had no way of peeking past Shijiu¡¯s shoulders to notice the skin of his neck.

    It was just as Jiang Shining had deduced: all the stone surfaces of the tomb''s staircase were slathered with the sap of the See Blood Seal Throat tree. The closer they got to the outside, the stronger and more obvious the smell became.

    "We''re here." Shijiu stood at the top of the staircase, his back to the group. "Across from this corridor is the last part of the route. I''ve never gone all the way to the end, but I assume that once you push the stone doors open, you can leave."

    I''ve never gone all the way to the end...

    At first, there didn''t seem to be anything wrong with that sentence, but upon reflection, it was indeed strange ¨C¨C if he''d come all this way, and the stone door had been right there, why had he not simply walked out?

    Liu-laotou stood next to Shijiu on the top step. From Xuanmin''s point of view, it was possible to see the man''s profile as he gazed off into some faraway point in the distance, as though Liu-laotou¡¯s soul had left his body, or as though he were in a trance.

    Lu Shijiu did not take another step. Instead, he looked back at Nianqi, who stood behind him.

    "What are you staring at me for? You can''t even see my face, only my qi." Lu Nianqi said as he stumbled to a stop. He was losing his voice, so that his words only came out as a half-squeak, half-whisper. For some reason, there was also a slight... tremor in his voice, as though he were fighting an overwhelming sense of panic and terror. "Stop looking at me. Move! What are you standing there for? If you have anything to say, wait until we''re out. I can''t be bothered to listen to you ramble now."

    Calmly, Shijiu said, "I can see you. Just not very well."

    He had completely ignored the second half of Nianqi''s complaint. He reached into his shirt pocket and took out that bundle of sticks he liked to use, which was tied in the middle by that faded red string. The string had been in use for who knew how long, yet it did not show any sign of wear and tear ¨C¨C it seemed to be a quality item.

    "This fuji instrument... [a] Take it," Shijiu said, handing the sticks to Nianqi.

    Frowning, Nianqi stepped away and looked down at his feet. Annoyed, he snapped, "I don''t want it. Hold it yourself! Why do I need to carry all your stuff for you... Stop talking. You''re in the way. Walk! What are you waiting for?"

    The corners of Shijiu¡¯s mouth lifted as he smiled. "I''m not going."

    This was probably one of the handful of times that Lu Shijiu had ever smiled in the long years they''d spent together since their father''s death. But Lu Nianqi didn''t see it. Still looking down, still with his brows furrowed, he avoided looking at Shijiu and spat, "What do you mean you''re not going? Don''t be absurd..."

    When Nianqi lifted his head, his eyes were red and swollen. He reached out and pushed Shijiu as hard as he could. "Why won''t you ¨C¨C go!"

    The flame in Xuanmin''s hand illuminated Lu Shijiu''s face. Something about that extreme pallor was shifting ¨C¨C there was now a small cluster of scars on his forehead, as though he were about to grow new freckles. The scars had appeared at the minggong pressure point ¨C¨C the exact same spot where Nianqi had previously had freckles, too.

    "But I can touch you. You''re right here. Why won''t you go?" Stiff-necked, red-eyed, Lu Nianqi looked up at his brother, his voice choked with sobs. He repeated himself again, as though trying to convince himself: "Look, I can hold your hand, there''s no difference between you and normal people. Don''t they say... don''t they say you can''t touch ghosts..."

    Ever stubborn, he continued to gaze at Lu Shijiu, yet found that a blur had entered his vision, so that he could not even see his brother properly anymore. He sniffed and went to wipe his eyes, brushing away all his tears. But when he looked again, he still could not see.

    "Stop rubbing." Lu Shijiu sighed a small sigh and shoved the bundle of sticks into Nianqi''s hands. Then, grabbing Nianqi''s hands, he began to forcibly pull the boy up the steps.

    The more Shijiu told Nianqi not to rub, the harder the boy rubbed, until he covered his eyes entirely with the backs of his hands and refused to go further.

    Slowly, Liu-laotou took a few steps forward and bent down at the foot of a wall. Soon, he returned to the staircase and he, too, shoved something into Nianqi''s hands.

    "This is Liu-bo¡¯s [b] wallet. Inside is the boat money that he''s most recently earned, and also some herbs from the island. Bring it back to Liu-daniang. [c] The herbs will soothe her headaches," Lu Shijiu said, on behalf of Liu-laotou. After a pause, he added, "I don''t have much for you..."

    He reached up and stroked Nianqi''s head. "I''m going to find Dad. Don''t forget to burn paper money for us for Qingming and Zhongyuan. That''s how you make sure you''ll live a long and happy life, with an abundance of sons and descendants."

    He lightly patted his brother''s head, then let his arm fall back to his side.

    All Lu Nianqi could feel was a cold weight on his head, and when it disappeared, his heart sank. He furiously rubbed his eyes again and looked around for it, but found that his vision was still a complete blur.

    As Lu Nianqi pawed at the space in front of him, trying to distinguish something, anything, from the thick fog, he found that Lu Shijiu and Liu-laotou, who had just now been standing across from him, were now gone. He rubbed his eyes again, and finally saw a patch of shadow around two zhang away.

    Xuanmin went over with the flame and saw two bodies lying against the wall of the hallway.

    The smell of the sap smeared on the walls pierced their noses now, becoming sharper the closer they crept to the exit. Xuanmin noticed streaks of blood running down the walls and understood ¨C¨C Lu Shijiu and Liu-laotou had been wounded on their backs, necks, or some other part. Those wounds had then come into contact with the wall and become infected with poison.

    When Lu Shijiu had collapsed, he¡¯d had the time to use his blood to draw a circle on the floor, within which he had scrawled complex talisman text ¨C¨C a strange and confusing sight.

    Nianqi still couldn''t see much. He wanted to help Lu Shijiu up, but inadvertently took a step into the circle. [d]

    Xuanmin watched as the brown, dried blood markings suddenly came to life, turning bright red again. At the same time, Nianqi¡¯s minggong pressure point and the gash on his palm also flashed with red light, before quickly dying down again.

    An almost imperceptible wisp of fog escaped from Lu Shijiu''s cold, long-rigid corpse and circled Nianqi three times, as though finally having completed a long-awaited ritual. Then, it bowed deeply in Xuanmin''s direction. The last request had been fulfilled.

    If it hadn''t been for the Lus'' father, Shijiu would have died in that temple thirteen years ago. Today, he swapped a life for a life. To him, it was worth it; it was fair; it was what he desired.

    It was just that, from now on, he had to burden Nianqi with an extra lantern to place on the river for the Zhongyuan Festival. Shijiu didn''t know if the boy would cry...

    As the life exchange spell came to an end and the trail of fog disappeared, the hallway suddenly fell into darkness.

    Perhaps, having swapped a life for a life, they had perturbed the balance in yin and yang and disturbed the three hundred souls in the tomb. Suddenly, from behind the group surged the piercing whistle of a gust of wind. It snaked rapidly toward them, accompanied by the sound of stone knocking against stone and shattering into pieces.

    Xuanmin slapped Nianqi''s shoulder and was about to say Let''s go when he felt something pounce on him from behind. The new gust of wind carried a strange, suffocating rotting smell.

    Although the three hundred souls may not have been particularly mobile in life, being trapped in the tomb for all these years had turned them nimble and aggressively fast. In the blink of an eye, a mass of people appeared at the bottom of the staircase and came bounding up ¨C¨C not one, not two, but dozens or even hundreds of yin corpses [e] came hurtling toward them, putting Xuanmin in a difficult situation.

    Never mind two hands, even eight hands couldn¡¯t stand a chance against this horde!

    The hallway seemed to suddenly shrink into the size of a coffin: there was nowhere to go and nowhere to hide.

    Xuanmin took up the copper coin pendant at his hip, but there was something in his frown that revealed a sense of reluctance ¨C¨C perhaps he did not want to use it, or found it inconvenient to use it, or... did not know how.

    The mass of yin corpses became denser, filling the hallway with a wall of indistinguishable bodies that quickly rushed in to surround the group.

    There was a brief moment of calm as the horde gathered itself together and the yin corpses bowed their bodies, as though building up momentum. Then, with a twitch of their limbs, they leapt toward Xuanmin like a dark wave.

    "Bald donkey?!" Xue Xian had been knocked dizzy by the rocking of Xuanmin''s pouch, and all he could detect was the stench of blood that had exploded around them. Within the metallic smell was hidden a faint, medicinal element. At the same time, something seemed to trigger that part of Xuanmin''s hip and, in an instant, it began to burn feverishly again, becoming even hotter than it had before.

    And maybe it was the boiling feeling, or maybe it was something else, but there was a ka-dunk in Xue Xian¡¯s chest as a void suddenly appeared, and his heart dropped.

    And then the smell of blood became stronger.

    No, no, no, how are we ever going to make it out alive?

    Although Xue Xian was panicking, in reality he was only a golden marble and was not able to die. Or even if he did die, as a dragon, his destiny [f] was almost endlessly long ¨C¨C he would eventually be able to find a way out.

    So the phrase How are we ever going to make it out alive? made no sense when uttered by Xue Xian, nor had it been uttered out of concern for the long-dead Jiang Shining.

    Out of everyone here, only two needed to worry about staying alive.

    Lu Nianqi... and the bald donkey.

    The former had nothing to do with Xue Xian. The latter... Xue Xian¡¯s relationship with the latter was more like a handful of random coincidences strung together ¨C¨C an entanglement ¨C¨C so Xue Xian did not understand why a sense of panic had come crashing down upon him.

    But yes, Xue Xian really was quite stressed. He got Jiang Shining to give him a push so that he could jump out of Xuanmin''s pouch. As he leapt into the air, his marble body still carrying that strange sense of warmth from Xuanmin''s hip, Xue Xian felt something completely indescribable, perhaps because he had finally managed to finish digesting the thing that he''d absorbed from the black soil previously¨C¨C

    Dang¨C¨C! The golden marble clattered onto the ground, with Xue Xian face up.

    Xue Xian saw that Xuanmin''s snow-white robe was half-drenched in blood and that the talismanic flame was still in Xuanmin¡¯s hand, but that the flame was darting around violently, like a fierce beast struggling against its chains. The horde of yin corpses were pushing and pulling from every angle, perhaps biting, perhaps tearing, but Xuanmin maintained that ever-cold expression, as though he had no care in the world: not for others'' lives, and definitely not for his own.

    Somehow, when Xue Xian had fallen to the ground, Xuanmin had not noticed ¨C¨C but the flame in his hand now twitched.

    The golden marble rolled across the floor manically, like a headless fly ¨C¨C or like someone with a plan. He darted through the yin corpses'' legs and suddenly knocked into the stone wall of the hallway.

    Hong¨C¨C

    The structure of the tomb trembled as though assaulted by a monumental weight.

    ¡°...¡± Xue Xian was stunned. That was me?!

    Indeed, it was normally possible for the golden marble to have that much power. But the impressive part was that, after zig-zagging all across the ground, by the time Xue Xian had actually managed to hit the wall, it had been a weak hit. He had planned to knock into the wall several times in succession and slowly build up his power. If he¡¯d unleashed his full power all in one go, then never mind this tomb, he would have destroyed ten tombs in a row.

    But if that wasn''t him, then who was it?

    Xue Xian stopped thinking about it and knocked into the wall twice more.

    Hong¨C¨C

    Another great tremor. Fine pebbles began to spray down from the ceiling, covering Xue Xian''s face in dust.

    Although he did not have a physical mouth, he still instinctively went "Pei!" in an attempt to spit out the dust. Then he rolled in a circle and turned to look at Xuanmin ¨C¨C if the knocking hadn''t been Xue Xian, then the only other force that could affect the walls of the tomb so powerfully was the bald donkey.

    Indeed, from this point of view Xue Xian could see past the tangle of yin corpses'' claws. He could see that Xuanmin held up a bleeding finger, which he had used to draw something on the copper coin pendant, covering the five coins in a fresh layer of blood.

    And Xue Xian wasn''t sure if it was a trick of the light, but he thought he saw Xuanmin''s five dull, dirty copper coins emit an oily glow, as though awakened by the drops of blood.

    Next, Xue Xian watched as Xuanmin pressed his bleeding finger into one of the coins. A jet of blood sprayed out, drenching the pendant again.

    Hong¨C¨C

    This time, the whole hallway shook as though caught in an earthquake. The stone floor trembled and rocked Xue Xian back and forth. Unable to stop his own rolling, he felt that he may begin to vomit again.

    Xuanmin had one hand on the pendant and the other holding the talismanic flame close to his chest, as though performing a Buddhist salute amidst the torrent of blood. His eyelids fluttered shut and his lips began to move without a sound.

    All of a sudden, another huge noise erupted within the hallway, sending broken pieces of stone into the air, and the ground vanished from beneath their feet.

    Next, ice-cold river water began to pour in from the stone cracks and quickly submerged them all.

    Though the water was dark and freezing, it was different from the water that had tried to drown them before ¨C¨C it brought a fresh, chilled air with it, like the first north wind in the winter.

    This was actual water from the river!

    As Xue Xian fell into the water once more, he thought, This bald donkey stole my idea! He really did blow up the whole place...

    Before he''d even finished his complaint, Xue Xian realised that Xuanmin had not only blown up the tomb, but that the entirety of Gravestone Island was coming down too...

    Boulders were cascading down onto them, dragging with them soil and broken trees. Combined with that groaning horde of yin corpses, the noise was overwhelming.

    Just when Xue Xian was beginning to feel a little exasperated, he felt the river water beneath him begin to churn.

    The collapse of the mausoleum and the destruction of the ¡®Hundred Soldiers Push the Flow¡¯ array had disturbed the river itself and created another massive whirlpool. Smaller spirals seemed also to be coming at them from all sides.

    Along with the debris from the island and the hundreds of yin corpses, the group was dragged around and around by the relentless spiral of water until they all became too dizzy to know left from right.

    As he floated in and out of consciousness, Xue Xian began to feel furious. And as he did, the final part of that thing he''d absorbed in the soil locked into the marble, and the digestion was complete. With that, the swell of heat that had been leaking out of Xuanmin''s hip and boiling Xue Xian suddenly wanted to leave the marble. An agonising force began to push at the very skin of the marble, as though wanting to disembowel him entirely.

    In that instant, black clouds gathered rapidly in the sky above the river. A divine white light flashed, and the thunder that followed was louder than the gallop of ten thousand horses leaping out of the heavens and crashing into the river.

    Thick drops of rain began to pour down and the mist as they splashed against the river surface turned the entire scene into a smear of white, so that not even human figures could be seen anymore.

    Next, a bright whistling sound came from beneath the water, and a colossal shadow slithered out, emerging into the dense mist above.

    As it arched its long body, the whirlpool obediently sank to the bottom of the river, taking with it the countless corpses and all the debris, all of it sinking rapidly away in a spiral form.

    The burial of one body required six chi of yellow earth; who knew if the sixty zhang of mud at the bottom of the river was enough to bury those three hundred hellish souls. [g]

    Somewhere on the riverbank, a child sat in a courtyard, playing with a plum tree branch, refusing to shelter from the storm. Stunned, he suddenly pointed at the sky above the river and said to his parents, "Dragon¨C¨C"

    The couple idly looked to where their child was pointing and saw that long shadow snake its way across the dense mist, climbing the clouds like a spiral staircase before turning and diving back into the churning, hungry river waters. "Heavens, it really is a dragon..."

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    I wrote more than 3000 characters and couldn¡¯t stop, so I just went all the way up to the appearance of the dragon. I¡¯m going to eat and go to class now. I¡¯m starving, I feel like I can eat a whole dragon (x

    The comments section yesterday¡­ You guys are having so much fun by yourselves, ah (doge face)

    ---

    [a] ·öØÀ (fu2 ji1), also known as ¡°planchette writing¡± or ¡°spirit writing¡±, is the traditional Chinese method of fortune telling that Lu Shijiu uses, where a stick is guided to write over dust, sand, or ashes. This technique, which is present in both vernacular practices and Daoist tradition, became popular around the Song dynasty, when Copper Coins is set. However, pre-Ming dynasty, it was actually called ·ö»þ (fu2 ji1) rather than ·öØÀ due to a difference in the instruments used. (Wikipedia).

    [b] Bo: see glossary.

    [c] ´óÄï (da4 niang2), literally ¡°great/big mom¡±, is here used as a polite, but colloquial, form of address toward an older woman. In my original TL I translated this as ¡°Auntie¡±.

    [d] Technically this is an ¡°array¡±, but Musuli literally uses the word ¡°circle¡± here to describe the look of the array, so I kept that.

    [e] Musuli uses the phrase ÒõÊ¬ (yin1 shi1) here, literally ¡°yin corpses¡±.

    [f] Musuli uses the phrase ÊÙÃü (shou4 ming4), which combines ÊÙ meaning lifespan/age and Ãü meaning destiny/fate. Together, this refers to life expectancy or destined lifespan, meaning, in Xue Xian¡¯s case, that his almost-immortal lifespan had been decided when he¡¯d first been created, and so even if he were to experience great suffering (such as when he was maimed), he can¡¯t die before his time.

    [g] Musuli uses »ÆÈª (huang2 quan2) here. It literally means ¡°yellow springs¡± and is a term for the underworld or hell in Chinese folklore.

 CH 29

    The dragon quickly disappeared into the clouds, and it was a shame that the storm was so heavy and that the river water was so agitated, for only a handful of people had actually been able to see the beast''s silhouette. It was likely that, like the name of Wolong County itself, the incident would become only another myth.

    In reality, the mythical Xue Xian had not actually been as at ease as the family, looking from afar, had thought. He had indeed climbed into the clouds ¨C¨C it was what dragons did, after all, and besides, he had been so overjoyed by the return of his real body that he had not been able to restrain himself ¨C¨C but, once in the clouds, that tiny issue of his half-paralysis had become apparent again. He could still only move the top half of his body, while the bottom half hung limply behind him. He attempted to turn in mid-air but did not succeed. And then...

    Pathetically, he came falling down.

    Xue Xian had been separated from his real body for over half a year. In that period, he had perched in the hands of hundreds of strangers, had been trapped with Liu-shiye in his damn compound, and had had to eat dirt and other lost souls when he''d been starving. So much had happened that, now that Xue Xian had been returned to his original body, he felt as though he were wearing a new skin ¨C¨C he needed to spend a few days breaking it in again.

    So as the niezhang vaulted into the air, tipped back his head, and tumbled back toward the river, he found that he was deeply lacking in a certain explosive force. Xue Xian''s soul had not fully regained control of his body.

    He tried to curl up to avoid injury, but failed at that too. All he could do was try to keep a straight face as he crashed directly into the water.

    As the whirlpool died down, Xuanmin had been starting to feel himself float upward, and thought he could see the light of day through the ripples of the water. But then the heavy niezhang fell on top of him...

    Rammed into the riverbed by Xue Xian''s enormous tail, Xuanmin, who until then had managed to remain awake, felt only a thump against his chest, and subsequently passed out.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian sputtered, and bubbles escaped from his mouth. ¡°...¡± Some things really can''t be helped. Why don¡¯t you get amnesia again and forget that?

    Thankfully, only Xuanmin had been crushed by the falling dragon. Lu Nianqi, along with the lifeless bodies of Shijiu and Liu-laotou that had been dragged out by the current, peacefully bobbed up to the surface.

    The savage storm around them had been summoned by Xue Xian''s return to his dragon form ¨C¨C now, it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. As the rain thinned, someone on shore noticed the strange objects floating on the river and had a nasty fright. The local corpse-diver responsible for this patch of the river soon rowed a rickety boat into the water.

    This man had spent most of his life as a corpse-diver, but had never experienced anything like this before. There was an unprecedented number of bodies bobbing up and down in the mist. Some of them had been in the water for who knew how long, and their clothes had all begun to dissolve. Others were fresh, as though recently drowned.

    The corpse-diver counted them with his finger: there were nine.

    Three of the fresh ones were in a cluster, so perhaps they had been a group. The six others floated more or less separately ¨C¨C and, strangely, perhaps only a trick of the light ¨C¨C as he looked out at the six bodies, one of them seemed to point its head toward one of the river islets.

    The tiny islets were usually scattered around Gravestone Island and were far smaller than the latter, only big enough for the occasional bird to rest its feet. The corpse-diver did not usually take much notice of them, but now, for some reason, they looked unfamiliar to him ¨C¨C it was uncanny.

    As the corpse-diver hooked the bodies with his pole, he pondered this.

    Then, he suddenly realised: "Gravestone Island has disappeared!"

    The corpse-diver was a veteran professional. In the blink of an eye, he had collected the two fresh-looking bodies nearest to him and brought them onto his boat. As he flipped them over, he jumped with surprise: he was friends with the boatman Liu-laotou, and as for Lu Shijiu, he had watched the boy grow up. The corpse-diver breathed a sad sigh, and, reaching the hook of his pole back into the water, dragged out the third body.

    "What kind of sin..." When he saw that the third body was the skinny little Lu Nianqi, the corpse-diver sighed again. "Lao-Lu''s family has died out." [a]

    But as he heaved Nianqi onto his boat, the corpse-diver hissed with confusion and mumbled, "This little Nianqi looks... different, somehow. I had just run into him the other day."

    Lu Nianqi had always been out and about often ¨C¨C after all, at home, it was his job to gather firewood and to cook meals ¨C¨C so the corpse-diver had often seen the boy in the street. All of those who were familiar with the Lu family in the neighborhood were aware of Lu Nianqi''s true age. They knew that, after Nianqi had almost drowned and lost his father, he had had a raging fever for several days. Though the fever did eventually retreat, the boy stopped growing after it: strangers often took him to be a child of five or six who happened to have a precocious vocabulary.

    The corpse-diver was not a tall man himself, and, as far as he could remember, Lu Nianqi could only ever reach his chest.

    But now, he looked at the body on the boat and used his hands to estimate the boy''s height. The boy seemed... a bit taller than before.

    "How the hell did he grow that much in just a few days..." the corpse-diver muttered, bewildered. But he immediately thought of an explanation ¨C¨C Lu Nianqi¡¯s dead body had probably simply taken in too much river water, and merely looked larger.

    Just as the corpse-diver turned away to find the other bodies, Lu Nianqi nonchalantly came back to life and sat up again.

    ¡°Cough, cough, cough¨C¨C¡±

    Lu Nianqi coughed, and then, with a shout, regurgitated all the water in his lungs. Finally, red-faced all the way to the tips of his ears, he looked up.

    The first thing he saw was the terrified corpse-diver falling backwards into the water with a plop.

    Nianqi: ¡°...¡±

    At the bottom of the river, Xue Xian could hear the rowing sounds of a boat, and felt unsettled.

    After some time submerged, he could finally begin to feel his own body again, and gradually felt himself taking back control.

    First, he tried to move his head. As his neck swivelled, he noticed a sunken stone lock lying a few zhang away. The lock was enormous, perhaps half the size of a coffin, with a square bottom that looked extremely heavy. Its top was pointed, with a hole, and through the hole was a thin metal chain, which itself seemed to be tied to something else located above it.

    As Xue Xian followed the chain up, he saw that it was attached to some kind of ragged cotton wad, and at the top of the cotton wad was a bunch of black algae...

    Wait, no, it wasn''t a cotton wad, nor was it algae!

    Xue Xian suddenly remembered that, on their way to Gravestone Island, Lu Nianqi had been frightened by something in the water. The boy had said that he''d seen a black mass float by, and had thought it was hair. But, he¡¯d said, it had to have been algae, because if it was the hair of a dead body, then the corpse would be floating at the surface of the water, not half-sunken in that way.

    Xue Xian studied the stone lock and the chain, and understood why the body had not been floating normally. Its ankle was tied down, so that the entire corpse stood stiffly vertical at the bottom of the water.

    He swung his head, and the river water moved accordingly. With the current, a snapped chain unsnagged itself from somewhere and came floating by.

    Xue Xian had probably broken the chain while frolicking in the tempest earlier.

    He inspected the item, then contemplated the facts for a very long time. When the top half of his body finally regained enough mobility, he twitched a front claw and reached for the chain, to wind it around his arm.

    And... found only water.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    Exasperated, Xue Xian glared down at his claw. He had become used to his human-shaped body being able to reach for whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted to ¨C¨C and had forgotten that, in comparison, his dragon claw was a lot shorter.

    Basically, the zuzong had failed in his task, because... he couldn''t reach the chain.

    Something inside Xue Xian rejoiced. Thank the heavens his companions were either unconscious or nowhere to be found at the moment ¨C¨C if they''d seen what had just occurred, he could go ahead and just die of humiliation! Especially if that annoying bald donkey had seen it!

    The zuzong reared his dragon head and began to move the dirt around the riverbed. It was like this that the paralysed bottom half of his body was able to slither its way off of Xuanmin''s chest.

    Xuanmin''s finger twitched ¨C¨C he seemed to be coming back.

    As Xue Xian''s sharp claw finally grabbed onto the chain, it was akin to a knife meeting a block of tofu. The sturdy-looking chain was slashed clean by Xue Xian''s claw. The bottom part of the chain sank to the bottom of the river to join the stone lock, and the top part, trailing after the corpse to which it was attached, began to ascend.

    "Huh ¨C¨C I need to figure out my strength again," Xue Xian mumbled to himself. He still wasn''t used to his dragon body. Even moving his upper body to reach for the chain had taken significant effort. He felt as though he had just climbed up a tall pagoda while carrying a thousand-jin weight. His very hands were soft.

    He spiralled back to the bottom of the river, where his heavy dragon head thumped into the riverbed ¨C¨C it was the least effortful way of getting right where he wanted to be. Slumped there, Xue Xian stared intently at the large stone lock.

    After having inspected it from all sides, he now forced himself to swallow down his pride and raised his stubby claw to swipe at it, flipping the lock over.

    The bottom side of the lock revealed itself.

    Someone had carved a circular design in the corner of the smooth stone surface.

    From his time wandering around the human realm, Xue Xian had learned that many stonemasons liked to stamp a unique design onto their products. If possible, they would leave a large print that would be useful advertisement; if there was not enough space, they would make a small mark somewhere inconspicuous. It was a tactful move ¨C¨C most people would not be able to recognise it as a signature.

    Xue Xian knew that nobody would do all this to a bunch of corpses just for fun ¨C¨C there had to be some kind of purpose to this. Thinking back to the ¡®Hundred Soldiers Push the Flow¡¯ design back at the tomb, he was certain that these standing corpses had to be related to that.

    The bald donkey had blasted everything in the tomb to smithereens, so there were probably no clues to be found there anymore.

    Xue Xian tapped the riverbed with his claw, deep in thought. He decided to become one of those people that couldn¡¯t mind their own business. [b] So, with a sway of his long body, he towed the current and used it to push the lock toward shore.

    The current surged powerfully. Curling himself around the still unconscious Xuanmin, Xue Xian followed the current¡¯s momentum and let it drag him to shore.

    The width of the river was only really enough for him to swish his head or his tail, so he reached the bank in the blink of an eye, clutching Xuanmin and the lock.

    He jiggled his body, and soon a large wave pushed Xuanmin and the lock onto dry land. Then, still floating in the waves, Xue Xian twitched his head and transformed into a human, and then ¨C¨C

    Immediately turned back into a dragon again.

    Xue Xian: ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡±

    Fuck! No clothes!

    When Xue Xian had made himself that paper body, he had naturally painted clothes for himself that he could wear even in his human form. But now that he was back in his real body... This was awkward.

    He dunked his head back into the water, furious and humiliated. He allowed himself to sink back to the bottom of the river. He wanted to die.

    A moment later, a tiny black worm of only a few cun long emerged from the water... Wait, no, it was a dragon. It peeked his head out of the water and swam across the waves and parked itself on the riverbank. It looked up to the sky, breathing out a long, heavy sigh. Then, silently, it wiggled to Xuanmin''s side and crawled up his sleeve. Like a string bracelet, it curled itself around Xuanmin''s wrist.

    As the cold, slippery thing touched his skin, Xuanmin opened his eyes.

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    For those who didn¡¯t see ~ I¡¯ll say it here again. The update time will now be 8pm every evening. The morning schedule was way too easily messed up by class and other stuff [emoji]

    ---

    [a] Lao: see glossary.

    [b] The Chinese phrase here is ¡°someone who has eaten too much and is feeling full¡±, often colloquially used to describe people who have nothing better to do / who are bored and who thus seek things out.

 CH 30

    A dragon''s body is covered in scales, and the ones on its back are extremely hard, forming a kind of exoskeleton. The scales are largest nearest to its head, and gradually become smaller as they inch toward its tail. Just to chip off a single scale from the back requires a strong knife. But the scales near the dragon''s belly are softer than the ones on its spine. On that day at Guiyun Hall, for instance, Xue Xian had left Xuanmin a scale from his belly.

    This niezhang was highly arrogant, and always insisted on assuming that the people around him were stupid ¨C¨C indeed, he was so pig-headed that he generally did not trust anyone else to make the right decision. Xue Xian had worried that if he''d given Xuanmin a scale from his back, that bald donkey would not have known to first grind the scale into powder, and would have simply swallowed it whole. Then the scale would have slashed Xuanmin''s throat from the inside and the innkeeper would have found a dead body in the room. That would not have been good.

    The point was: this niezhang¡¯s belly was relatively soft.

    The annoying part was that, once he became small, the scales along his body followed suit and became tiny, supple things. Even the hardest scales on his spine lost their edge and became pliable and even slightly stretchy ¨C¨C so of course the belly was even worse.

    Looking down, Xue Xian poked himself with his claw and found that a single poke caused his belly to turn fucking concave. There was no difference between his belly and human skin! Worse, his belly seemed even softer, and, as it bounced, it didn''t even hurt!

    His mighty dragon claw, which could cleave through iron as though it were loose sand, could not cause any pain when scratching his belly! It seemed that his claws, too, had become soft.

    Another fatal strike to his dignity.

    As his soft and supple scaled body curled around the bald donkey''s wrist, Xue Xian just couldn¡¯t get comfortable ¨C¨C

    From an outsider''s perspective, the bald donkey had quite a lovely wrist: slender, with a mellow curve to the bone. But as Xue Xian wound himself pitifully around the monk''s wrist, he found that this spot was not amenable at all. The bone of Xuanmin¡¯s wrist protruded against his soft belly scales ¨C¨C it felt as though Xue Xian were lying stomach-down on top of a round ladle; it didn''t hurt, but it was bumpy and hard.

    Annoying!

    Xue Xian clawed angrily at the bony wrist, but was unable to draw any blood ¨C¨C all he had probably achieved was to slightly tickle the bald donkey. Xue Xian gave up and turned away to sulk.

    The niezhang was full of drama and had a bad temper ¨C¨C to be able to piss himself off so much and so often probably counted as a talent.

    But as he moved this way and that, he quickly drew Xuanmin''s attention.

    When Xuanmin first opened his eyes, he simply blankly stared at the sky, his black eyes deep as pools, with a slight hint of emptiness.

    Then, he furrowed his brows, because, mixed into the moisture of the river, he could smell the stench of blood. When he''d fallen into the water, he had been in the middle of muttering a spell with his eyes shut tightly, so he had not ended up swallowing too much water. But the pressure of the current at the bottom of the river meant that he now had a sharp pain in his chest.

    He coughed softly and sat up. Glancing quickly at his surroundings, Xuanmin found that he was sitting in a pile of soft mud on the riverbank, and that next to him was a heavy stone lock, which sank into the damp earth. No one else was around, so there was no immediate danger. Through the mist on the river, he could see that a cluster of boats had gathered on the water ¨C¨C he wasn''t sure what they were doing, but they did not seem to have noticed his presence on the shore.

    Reassured, he moved his gaze away.

    Xuanmin hated any and all kinds of dirt. As he observed his own state, a mild expression of disgust appeared on his face.

    When he moved to clean off the blood and mud from his robes, he felt a movement on his wrist.

    Frowning, he tore up his sleeve and came face to face with the thing that had attached itself to his arm.

    Xue Xian wasn''t feeling very well, so when he made eye contact with Xuanmin, he really could not be bothered to deal with the monk. He noticed that Xuanmin was acting strangely and rolled his eyes. There he goes again!

    So he scoffed and said lazily, "Don''t talk. Don''t ask me who I am, and definitely don''t ask me who you are. Listen to me. Raise your hand and touch the left side of your neck."

    Xuanmin was a suspicious man by nature. If anyone else had said this to him, he would not have heeded their words ¨C¨C he would have beat the person and tied them up first, and then dealt with himself. But the thing curled up on his wrist spoke with such straightforward confidence. It did not seem to be lying.

    Besides... this niezhang looked so weak. Any tug could snap it and any pinch could kill it. It didn''t seem to be a threat at all.

    So Xuanmin stared at Xue Xian coldly for a while, then finally did as he said and touched his neck.

    Xue Xian reached out a claw and took on the air of an expert [a] as he directed Xuanmin. "Is your arm physically too short to reach it or something? Go further. Yes, right there. Now press down on it. When you wake up, don''t try to talk to me. I''m not in the mood to chat with you."

    Having had his moment of humiliation trying to claw the chain in the river, Xue Xian was in a bad mood. He took it out on Xuanmin at first opportunity. Xue Xian was an unreasonable one indeed.

    Xue Xian watched as Xuanmin''s fingers found that spider-shaped mole. Just like before, the thin red blood vessels around the mole swiftly retreated. The process seemed painful: Xuanmin frowned and snapped his eyes shut. After sitting there silently for a while, he opened his eyes again. The confusion in his eyes had disappeared and was now completely replaced by that familiar blank face and condescending glare.

    Seeing this, Xue Xian knew that Xuanmin had recovered.

    Xue Xian leaned back and idly said, "Where did you pick up this amnesia disease? Do you have to go through this process each time? It sounds awfully inconvenient."

    Xuanmin said nothing. He only stared down at Xue Xian.

    Before, Xuanmin had been too confused to pay any attention, but now that he looked at the niezhang, he found that the marble had grown a head, a tail, and four limbs. The head looked like a dragon''s head. But Xuanmin had never seen such a... puny dragon. Though it was indeed covered in scales, the bottom section of its body hung limply. Unlike the top part of its body, which was coiled expertly around Xuanmin''s wrist, the tail simply dangled, like dead weight.

    Xuanmin stared at him blankly, then pinched that limp tail, which was slim and pointy, with a strange texture.

    Xue Xian glowered at him and scoffed, "Let go. What are you doing? Do you have no sense of civility at all? Which book taught you to just go ahead and touch people''s tails?"

    In fact, Xue Xian could not feel the bottom half of his body at all, and would probably not even notice if it was cut off in the night. But pain was one thing ¨C¨C this, dignity, was another. A glorious dragon getting his tail pinched in such a way... What would people say?

    If it wasn''t for the fact that he needed to rely on the bald donkey for the moment, he would slam this stupid mortal directly into the sea.

    Of course, Xuanmin wasn''t teasing ¨C¨C he didn''t tease. He was simply surprised by the fact that the niezhang had somehow completely transformed in the short moment that he''d been unconscious.

    "Where did you get this shell from?" he asked.

    "What do you mean, get?" Xue Xian glared at him. "You think I''d use someone else''s sloppy seconds?"

    Xuanmin checked his pouch ¨C¨C the marble was gone.

    "This is your real body?" Although Xuamin¡¯s tone was a questioning one, he seemed to be stating it as fact.

    Xue Xian grunted in agreement.

    "If you have obtained your real body again, why are you coiled on my wrist?" Xuanmin asked, glaring at him.

    Xuanmin didn''t actually want Xue Xian to leave. Indeed, that mysterious piece of paper in his pocket had Find this person written on it in clear terms, and it seemed that something about Xue Xian had a clear connection to the diagram drawn on the paper. Naturally, Xuanmin was not going to simply let the niezhang slink away.

    But that was Xuanmin¡¯s perspective. Xue Xian''s behavior, on the other hand, wasn''t making any sense. The niezhang had previously made several attempts to escape, and based on his mischievous attitude, he should have taken advantage of Xuanmin blacking out to run away. For Xue Xian to dutifully coil himself on Xuanmin''s wrist and wait for him to wake up was incredibly strange.

    Xuanmin poked the little dragon''s head. Had the niezhang gotten them into more trouble? Or eaten something poisonous? Why else would he be acting so well-behaved?

    Xue Xian scratched at Xuanmin with his claws and pushed the annoying hand away. "First you capture me, and now you want to kick me out! It¡¯s very rude and unreasonable to expect me to come and go as you ask. I''ve decided not to leave. Deal with it. Stop touching me, asshole!"

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    This niezhang was the one who had decided to coil himself around someone else¡¯s hand. Now he was trying to call others unreasonable and rude. How shameless.

    Of course Xue Xian had not eaten anything poisonous.

    Indeed, Xuanmin was not wrong to be so suspicious. Xue Xian had thought about sneaking away, and the issue of being naked in his human form was no big deal as he could easily steal some passerby''s clothes. And if it came down to it, he could also have peeled the robes off the bald donkey and passed himself off as being on his way to a funeral.

    The reason why he was so obediently staying by Xuanmin''s side was that he''d discovered something nice back when he''d been a marble. This bald donkey had a unique physicality ¨C¨C there was something special [b] about his body ¨C¨C which had somehow managed to hasten Xue Xian''s return to his original body. It was likely that Xuanmin could also help Xue Xian to track down his missing bones quicker.

    Xue Xian could freely admit that he was not an empathetic person. When he saw that there was a benefit to him, he stayed, and when he could derive no use out of someone, he left. It was that straightforward.

    He felt no need to look further into his intentions. Basically, he didn''t feel like heading off on his own at the moment. He decided to stay with the bald donkey a bit longer ¨C¨C he could always leave him another gift as a word of thanks afterwards.

    Besides, with the bald donkey there, it made things easier to investigate. Xuanmin was far more useful than the bookworm Jiang Shining.

    As he avoided Xuanmin''s hand again, Xue Xian bared his claws and ruffled his scales to warn that bald donkey not to touch him. But his gaze landed on the stone lock beside the monk, and he began to ponder...

    The body part he''d absorbed from the soil had been to Xue Xian like a seed to a tree. Although he now lazed around serenely, he could clearly feel something roiling and churning inside him.

    But there was still something he hadn''t figured out...

    If it really had been one of his body parts, why had it appeared in the river by Wolong County of all places?

    Could it be the case that the person who had maimed him was the same person behind the feng shui design in the tomb? And even if it wasn''t the same exact person, there had to be some kind of connection.

    If Xue Xian could get the bald donkey to help him decode the mark on the stone lock and figure out its origins, then they might happen to find the person who had maimed him.

    Xuanmin cleaned out the blood and dirt from his robe and walked onto the paved river path, with Xue Xian telling him to hurry up all the while. Suddenly, like a water ghost, Lu Nianqi stumbled out of nowhere, feeling his way toward them. Xuanmin realised that the cluster of boats on the river had probably gathered because they''d found Lu Nianqi and the others... but it still didn''t explain why so many people had shown up.

    Lu Nianqi blindly tottered over and squinted at them. Finally, he said, "It is you."

    The boy¡¯s voice sounded extremely fatigued ¨C¨C he was probably still mourning Lu Shijiu and had not yet been able to process the shock. He sighed, then added, "Could I... ask you for a favor? My... There''s something wrong with my eyes, and I don''t feel very well. Shijiu is standing right here, but somehow... somehow I can''t see him. I can see the outlines of everyone else, but not him."

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    [Acknowledgments to those who gave money on JJWXC]

    Thank you so much! Tomorrow I¡¯ll add more names, but I¡¯ll say thank you already. Kiss

    ---

    [a] Here, Musuli uses ´óÒ¯ (da1 ye2) which means the patriarch of a household or some other highly respected older figure with the right to order others around.

    [b] Musuli uses the word Ðþ»ú (xuan2 ji1) here. Literally ¡°dark/profound/mysterious machine/mechanism¡±, the word means ¡°arcane truth¡± in a religious context. Here, however, it¡¯s used to vaguely describe the fact that there is some kind of magic to Xuanmin¡¯s hip, so I have kept it vague.

 CH 31

    With a flick of his finger, Xuanmin''s robe suddenly became dry. He let the now-dry Jiang Shining out of his pouch and then strode after Lu Nianqi, who was walking back to the river port where several boats had gathered.

    Xue Xian remained coiled on Xuanmin''s wrist, with his flimsy tail hanging flaccidly out of the edge of Xuanmin¡¯s sleeve. Now, he rearranged himself so that his tiny head peeked out. He looked over at Lu Nianqi.

    Previously, the kid had been extremely skinny and short, though slightly more lively-looking than Shijiu, probably because Nianqi liked to run around more and had a stubborn personality ¨C¨C in general, he came off as an energetic, blunt little rascal.

    But now, each step he took seemed to take a great deal of effort. He walked in a light and drifting manner, as though each time his foot touched the floor he had to immediately lift it up again because any amount of pressure was agony. The boy seemed to be in unbearable pain.

    Lu Nianqi had only taken a dozen steps, but his face had already gone as white as paper, and his forehead, which had just been blown dry of river water by the breeze, was now covered in a layer of sweat again.

    "Just now you said you weren''t feeling well. What do you mean?" Seeing the boy''s pallor, Xue Xian decided that this could not simply be an effect of grief, so he could not help but ask about it.

    The blood had drained from Nianqi''s lips, too ¨C¨C he looked terminally ill and feverish. The whiter his face turned, the blacker his eyes looked, and the less light seemed to bounce off his pupils: he did not even look alive anymore. The boy''s eyelashes fluttered and he stuck out a tongue to lick his chapped lips. Shaking his head, he said, "It''s nothing. I don''t know either. It''s just that... my bones feel sore and swollen, and every time my foot touches the floor, it sends that painful sour feeling all over my body. I don''t want to move around too much."

    Then, before Xue Xian could respond, Lu Nianqi lowered his voice and mumbled, "I''ll bear with it... It''s still not as painful as dying."

    Jiang Shining glanced at him. "Not necessarily."

    Suddenly, as though he had remembered something, Lu Nianqi stopped and turned to Jiang Shining. Although the boy was older than he looked, he was still a child in Jiang Shining''s eyes, so the latter usually let him get away with speaking rather brusquely and tactlessly. Lu Nianqi stared at Jiang Shining coldly and asked, "You''re not alive anymore, right?"

    In that moment, even Xue Xian, tucked inside Xuanmin''s sleeve, thought he could see a flash of light across Lu Nianqi''s eyes, as though the boy had been falling off a cliff but had suddenly been able to grab onto an edge. [a]

    Jiang Shining was a gentle soul. Though he sometimes liked to bicker with Xue Xian, he was not about to treat a child in such a way. He paused for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. I''ve been dead for three years, but my last request has not yet been fulfilled, so I''m living in a paper body temporarily."

    Hearing this, Lu Nianqi briefly forgot to take care in the way that he walked. As he took another step, he accidentally put too much pressure and shrieked with pain. Another bucketful of sweat poured down his forehead. But he ignored it, and said to Jiang Shining, "Really? So even if you die, it doesn''t mean you''ll disappear without a trace?"

    Jiang Shining stole a glance at Xuanmin, then ambiguously muttered, "Souls will at least stick around for an hour, and in special situations, they might stay a bit longer. Right, dashi?"

    Xuanmin glared at Jiang Shining. He did not speak nor did he acknowledge the question. Instead, he pointed ahead ¨C¨C they''d arrived. A number of fishermen were gathered at the river port, and it was not appropriate to discuss such things in a crowd.

    Lu Nianqi took that as a ¡®yes¡¯. His face seemed to flush with a little bit of warmth.

    Seven or eight boats jostled for space by the riverbank. The boats'' passengers had all gotten off and were milling about in a group ¨C¨C they seemed to be working together to drag something onto shore.

    "Heavens, ah... When did these people drown?" someone said. "Why are they all rotten?"

    "In all the years that I''ve collected corpses here, I''ve never come across anything like this." That was the voice of the corpse-diver.

    After Lu Nianqi had come back to life on the corpse-diver''s boat, the old man had decided to leave the other bodies in the water for the moment and row back with the three that he''d already collected. Only after placing Lu Shijiu and Liu-laotou on the embankment, and giving Lu Nianqi some hot wine to warm him up, had the corpse-diver returned to the river.

    Hearing the corpse-diver describe the scene, the resting fishermen by the shore had decided to give him a hand.

    But their boats were not fit for carrying the dead ¨C¨C being fishing boats and pleasure cruisers, it would have been a bad omen. Instead, they¡¯d decided to help the corpse-diver to bring the bodies that looked like rotten cotton wads from his boat. Soon there was an eerie row of bodies arranged on the shore.

    Xuanmin saw the row of waterlogged bodies and frowned.

    "Gave me a nasty fright," the corpse-diver was saying as he and his colleagues brought the last of the bodies to the riverbank. "At first there were only six bodies ¨C¨C I counted! They were floating by the islets. But as I returned to collect the last two, I don''t know what happened. Another one floated up. It came right up to the side of my boat. That feeling¡­ Horrible!"

    Xue Xian subtly scratched Xuanmin''s wrist and said, "Bald donkey, look at those bodies. The corpse that the corpse-diver mentioned was probably the one I released. There''s no way this isn''t related to that ''Hundred Soldiers Push the Flow'' design. I''ll explain more later, but pay attention for now ¨C¨C check if there''s anything amiss with these corpses."

    His voice came out muffled so that nobody else could hear, but Xuanmin received the message quite clearly ¨C¨C as though the sound had followed the shape of his sleeve and crept up to his ear.

    Xuanmin''s brow furrowed again, then he glanced down and said, "Mn." His finger then thumped Xue Xian''s little tail again, as a warning for the niezhang not to move around too much and stay hidden.

    But the niezhang¡¯s response was to bite down on his hand, hard.

    Dully, Xuanmin said, "Let go."

    Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi gaped at him. "What do you mean, let go?"

    Xuanmin''s expression did not stage ¨C¨C he continued to stare blankly at the bodies that had been dragged out of the water. His gaze scanned them from their rotten, skeletal feet to the mess of black hair on their heads. Compared to the wrinkled, dry faces of the fishermen as they dry heaved with disgust, these corpses actually had an ethereal [b] feeling to them.

    The atmosphere on the riverbank was chilling. When Jiang Shining received no response from Xuanmin, he was too afraid to press, so he decided that he had merely misheard. Silently, he looked away.

    Xue Xian was still gnawing at Xuanmin''s thumb, unable to forgive the bald donkey for tugging at his tail. Finally, exhausted, he let go.

    Xue Xian''s instinct had been correct ¨C¨C although the seven corpses did not look particularly remarkable, they all had something tied to their waists. While the fishermen were busy dry heaving, Xuanmin, with his hand wrapped in another torn piece of cloth, removed each of the items from the bodies'' waists.

    All seven were military dog tags, with the names scratched out.

    Clearly, this group of bodies had been sourced similarly to the ones trapped in the tomb.

    As Xuanmin wrapped the items in the cloth and put the bundle away, Xue Xian said, "Right, we also have the tags that we got from the bottom of the river. Let''s take a closer look later."

    Xuanmin walked over to Lu Shijiu''s body.

    Nianqi was kneeling by his brother, his hand hovering above Shijiu¡¯s body, trembling. He wanted to touch Shijiu, but was afraid to do so ¨C¨C as if, with that touch, Shijiu would really, truly be dead.

    "Look¨C¨C" Nianqi said, raising his head. As his gaze fell upon Xuanmin, his eyes seemed strangely emptier than they had been earlier, as though he were increasingly turning... blind.

    "I can feel that he''s here, and I can touch him, but I can''t see him," Nianqi continued. "I can see you. I can see the men on the shore. I can''t see you clearly ¨C¨C I can''t distinguish the faces ¨C¨C but I can see. It''s just Shijiu that I can''t see."

    Xuanmin glanced at Shijiu¡¯s body on the ground and then looked back into Nianqi''s dark eyes. "The way you ''look'' is not with your eyeballs,¡± Xuanmin said. ¡°Your eyes have gone blind ¨C¨C you just did not notice."

    "What do you mean?" Nianqi''s throat tightened.

    Covertly, Xue Xian peeked his head out of the sleeve. He, too, inspected Nianqi''s eyes. "Of course! I was wondering why your eyes had stopped reflecting light. It shouldn''t''ve had anything to do with the water."

    Xue Xian thought for a while, then added, "Lu Shijiu exchanged his life for yours. It seems that he transferred his fuji skill to you as well. The changes in your body seem related to that, too, but it''s still in the middle of happening, which is why you feel so much pain."

    Stunned, Nianqi stammered, "You mean... you mean my eyes will become like Shijiu''s?"

    "Not will. It seems to already be occurring," Xue Xian replied. "What you''re seeing now probably isn''t normal silhouettes, but qi. Everything in your vision is probably what Lu Shijiu used to see every day."

    "So the reason I can''t see Shijiu is because..." Nianqi''s nostrils flared as his breathing quickened ¨C¨C he seemed to be choking. He frowned and his eyes brimmed red. "Why?"

    Xuanmin raised his thumb and pressed down on Nianqi''s forehead, where the minggong pressure point was. "You have grown a red mole here. Your brother had the exact same one. It is a mark of a successful life exchange. If his soul had stayed in this world without leaving, there would be no such mark."

    Life exchange spells were forbidden arts, because even if the procedure did succeed, the survivor would suffer side effects. They would start to take after the person who had given them their life: either their appearance would change to look more like that person, or their personality and sanity would become muddy. The longer the dead person''s soul stayed in the realm of the living, the more adverse the impact would be on the survivor.

    In other words: in order to minimise the side effects on Lu Nianqi, Lu Shijiu had departed as soon as possible. The neutral, unemotional words he''d said to Nianqi back at the tomb had been his parting words.

    And with that farewell, they would probably never see each other again.

    "Don''t cry." Jiang Shining didn''t have a handkerchief, so he used his hands to dab Lu Nianqi¡¯s silent tears. "Perhaps..."

    But before he could finish, all the blood vanished from Lu Nianqi¡¯s face, and the boy fainted.

    Perhaps the pain in his body had gotten to him, or perhaps it was the grief. He did not wake up for a very long time.

    No matter how aloof Xuanmin was, or how much of an asshole Xue Xian was, they were not about to leave a dead youth and an unconscious boy behind and simply swagger off ¨C¨C that would be despicable. So they decided to temporarily settle down in that tiny courtyard that Lu Shijiu and Lu Nianqi had grown up in.

    The courtyard was a dispiriting wreck composed only of one minuscule kitchen and one equally small, drab living room. Inside the living room was a four-person table, and two bedrooms branched off to each side, each with a narrow bed and wooden closet ¨C¨C one for each brother.

    We say ¡®settle down¡¯, but the only person actually to settle was the unconscious Lu Nianqi. As soon as Xuanmin and the others had laid the boy to rest in his room, they went to the local funerary stall to order a coffin. They placed Lu Shijiu into the coffin and put the coffin in the other room for the time being.

    Just as Xuanmin had sat down by the table in the living room, planning to begin thinking about the mystery behind the stone lock and the dog tags, Xue Xian stuck his head out from Xuanmin¡¯s sleeve. "Don''t sit down yet. Go to a clothing shop, or a textile shop."

    Xuanmin stared down at him, waiting for an explanation.

    Xue Xian scratched his dragon head with his claw. With a tight, embarrassed voice, he said, "I''m not wearing any clothes."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xuanmin digested Xue Xian''s words as he blankly scanned the dragon''s thin, curled body. Finally, he said, "What book taught you that it was okay to just go ahead and wrap yourself naked around someone''s hand?"

    Xue Xian bit him.

    That niezhang''s teeth were rather sharp. Each bite left a half-moon mark.

    Xuanmin pulled up his sleeve, revealing his slender hand. He curved his index and middle fingers and presented them to Xue Xian.

    On the two fingers were a total of six different bite marks ¨C¨C all that niezhang¡¯s good work.

    Xue Xian looked away and shrugged, denying responsibility. "Stop showing off your hand. It''s not that much prettier than a chicken foot, plus it''s uncomfortable as hell. It may look nice, but it''s not practical at all, and unpleasant for me to wrap around. Now, if you please, get moving and go find me some clothes."

    Jiang Shining was about to enter the room when he heard the niezhang ranting. Not wanting to bother, he quickly returned to the darkness of the kitchen, where he stood in a corner.

    Xuanmin shook his head, but got up to leave.

    The trip they were about to take started out as a shopping trip for the dragon, but it serendipitously netted other rewards, too.

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Tomorrow afternoon I don¡¯t have class~ Will try to update with a long and fat chapter =3=

    ---

    [a] The exact phrasing Musuli uses here is ¡°caught a life-saving stalk of grass¡± (i.e. when falling off a cliff), but it was too long in English.

    [b] The phrase Musuli uses here is Æ®È»³ö³¾ (piao1 ran2 chu1 chen2). Æ®È» means ¡°gloating/gliding¡±. ³ö³¾ literally means ¡°exiting into the dust¡±, and is used to describe when someone who has lived their life away from human society/concerns (especially a religious person such as a Daoist cultivator or a Buddhist monk) decides to enter the common realm / enter society. ºì³¾ (hong2 chen2), literally ¡°red dust¡±, means ¡°human society¡±, where worldly affairs occur.

 CH 32

    Luomei Street was the busiest street in Wolong Xian Cheng. Both sides of the street were lined with red plum trees. Every winter, especially on snowy days, the crimson plum blossom leaves would drift onto the white ground and dot the whole street like stars in the sky. The scene was famed across Wolong County for its beauty, and thus the street had been named Luomei: Falling Plum Blossoms.

    The street held inns, pawn shops, restaurants, and wine halls ¨C¨C as well as all sorts of other businesses, including a handful of textile merchants, who were squeezed among shops selling accessories and makeup.

    Xue Xian was a piece of work. He stayed coiled on Xuanmin''s wrist and did not want others to see him, yet also refused to let the monk cover him with his sleeve, instead insisting that Xuanmin fold his sleeve just so ¨C¨C allowing him to stick out his head. Soon, though, Xue Xian¡¯s fidgeting had caused the sleeve to become undone, forcing Xuanmin to fix it again.

    What kind of madman walked down a busy thoroughfare while constantly picking at his own sleeve?

    At first, Xuanmin had actually heeded Xue Xian''s words, but it only encouraged his bad behavior. Finally, Xuanmin glared at him, shook his sleeve loose, and covered Xue Xian entirely. No matter how much Xue Xian squirmed beneath the cloth, Xuanmin did not let him out.

    Furious, Xue Xian sulked motionless in the dark, then wordlessly bit each of the monk''s fingers from the thumb to the pinky, the last of which he bit down on and refused to let go.

    Xuanmin twitched his finger a couple of times, but Xue Xian did not budge. He gave up and continued walking, as though he were not the one being bitten.

    When we say that Xue Xian had a short temper, it isn''t completely accurate. Indeed he was quick to anger, and when he did become angry he would explode without restraint ¨C¨C and he was generally a straightforward, unscrupulous person. But that didn''t mean that any little thing could trigger his rage.

    All of that mischief was purely to annoy Xuanmin.

    At first, it was because Xuanmin had captured Xue Xian, which had been a severe blow to Xue Xian¡¯s pride, so of course he¡¯d needed to get back at Xuanmin in whatever way he could. But annoying Xuanmin quickly became a habit, so that if Xue Xian went some time without doing anything, he would feel weird about it. After all the peril they''d endured together, he no longer felt such animosity toward Xuanmin, and yet he could not fight the urge to harass him from time to time.

    It was probably because Xuanmin was just too calm ¨C¨C Xue Xian had never met anyone like him. He had to constantly wheedle Xuanmin, to see if he could find out what the bald donkey looked like when he lost his peaceful, cool composure.

    He was simply bored, and liked to trouble the bald donkey to pass the time ¨C¨C that was how Xue Xian saw it.

    In reality, even this small, perfunctory amount of introspection was unprecedented on Xue Xian¡¯s part. This zuzong had never tried to figure out his own motivations before, since, normally, it was one of two things: boredom or hunger. [a]

    Perhaps Xue Xian really was just hungry. Lazily, he hung his head and let it swing lightly to the rhythm of Xuanmin''s steps. He said, "Bald donkey, you still owe me a meal."

    Xuanmin was not about to start talking to himself in the middle of the street, so he ignored Xue Xian.

    But this niezhang actually stopped biting Xuanmin''s finger and began to climb up Xuanmin¡¯s sleeve with his claws, finally stopping near the shoulder. "Can you hear me? If not, I''ll come to your ear."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian''s claws had indeed softened considerably, just like the scales on his back. As he hooked his way up Xuanmin''s arm, it did not hurt at all ¨C- though it did tickle a bit. When Xue Xian stayed put, it was fine, but when he began to scamper... Well, it was annoying.

    Xuanmin frowned. The fingers hidden beneath his sleeve twitched, and he grabbed onto the end of the niezhang¡¯s disobedient tail, yanking him back.

    As Xue Xian was dragged away, he made sure to sink his claws into the monk''s arm so that he left a long, dull scratch.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xuanmin frowned harder. He gave in and asked Xue Xian, "Why do I owe you?"

    A group of townspeople happened to pass by and gave Xuanmin a strange look, probably wondering what was wrong with this muttering monk. But Xuanmin shot them a cold glare, and they hurried along.

    As Xue Xian spoke, there was a tinge of resentment in his voice. "When you burst into the Jiang compound, you cost me a meal. That bookworm got up at wu geng to buy it for me from the restaurant, and it took all his effort to lug it back. They were all highly famous specialties from the restaurant. You can''t get them anywhere else. We spent all that money, but before I could take a single bite, you showed up."

    Lazily, Xue Xian added in a melodious tone, [b] "Don''t you think it''s a shame? Shouldn''t you pay me back?"

    It was a perfectly reasonable argument.

    Was it possible to say No to this zuzong? It would send him into yet another fit of rage.

    Ahead of them was a tailor shop. At that moment, a group of people streamed past Xuanmin, so he did not dare to speak, instead only ¡°Mn¡±-ing in agreement before ducking into the shop.

    The owners of the shop were a middle-aged couple. The husband stood at the counter, calculating things on an abacus, while the wife held a small portable heater in her lap as she sat in the corner, crafting some kind of complicated decorative knot.

    Xuanmin''s steps were silent, and his cloudy-white monk''s robes, though pristine, made him look as though he were in mourning.

    The tailoress [c] glanced at the door and saw that a pure white shadow had entered. Her hands jolted.

    "Aiyou, you scared me to death!" She patted her chest and looked up again, seeing that it was a young monk. But she was still surprised, and a strange look came upon her face.

    It was the middle of winter, so naturally customers frequented the shop less, and today was a particularly murky day ¨C¨C she even had heard that, earlier that day, there had been a curiously violent tempest near the river, sending white, foamy waves crashing against the banks; and now black clouds were returning again to cast the town in darkness, blown here by a freezing gust of north wind... A snowstorm seemed imminent, so the pedestrians in town were all in a hurry to get home.

    The tailor shop had not made a sale all day. A customer had finally come in, and it was a monk.

    A monk wasn¡¯t a customer!

    The tailoress glanced at the monk''s hand.

    He was not holding an alms bowl, so was not here to beg for alms.

    But the tailoress still did not feel right. These years, monks had a rather special status, which had to do with the current Guoshi¨C¨C

    As everyone knew, the Guoshi was a monk himself; an extremely powerful one. He was said to be highly cunning and had the ability to modify the impact of feng shui arrays. He had also been alive for a very long time, and no one knew his true age. All in all, he had served five emperors in a row, and had already occupied the position of Guoshi for around a hundred years.

    Commoners got to see the Guoshi only around once a year, during the annual winter solstice heavenly ritual. A great parade would flow from the capital to the foot of Taishan [d], during which the citizens of towns that the procession passed were able to take a tactful peek.

    But the Guoshi always wore a silver mask in the form of a beast''s face. His scarlet monk''s robes were wide and loose, and hid his hands and feet. They could never see his face, nor by any means divine his age.

    Someone had once solemnly claimed that the Guoshi was a yao, or some similar demon. Though one could not see his face, hands, or feet, his neck could be seen and it was not the neck of an old man. Elderly people could not avoid wrinkles on their neck, but although the Guoshi was more than a hundred years old, his body had not aged accordingly. Was that not terrifying?

    But others said that they had been witness to the Taishan ritual parade, and that the Guoshi had had wrinkles on his neck. However, these were not the wrinkles of a wizened old man ¨C¨C instead, he seemed to be middle-aged.

    And yet more people said that the Guoshi had long handed his title down to others, but that in order to conceal this, they all wore that same mask.

    Ultimately, it was impossible to tell which of the rumors were true or false. Common people did not know anything about the mystical [e] and the unknown, so always regarded such things with awe and reverence. But appearance and age weren''t the only mysterious things about the Guoshi ¨C¨C his behavior was strange, too, to the point where one could not be sure if he was good or evil. There were many rumors about this in the capital ¨C¨C

    Some of the rumors said that the Guoshi was under a Chan [f] oath of silence: he never spoke a word, and was as cold as the snowy peak of a mountain. His servants were constantly afraid of him, and never knew whether he approved of their actions. Other rumors claimed that the Guoshi practiced the dark arts: [g] every few years, he would take in as apprentices two children who had demonstrated innate Buddhist wisdom, [h] but they would soon disappear without a trace. In terms of what would happen to the children, some said that the Guoshi would melt them into medicine or some other evil act, and they claimed that the place where the Guoshi lived would intermittently smell like fresh blood. These rumors sent chills down people''s spines. Such evil was unimaginable.

    No one knew where these rumors had come from. Of course, no sane person was willing to come forward and make a formal complaint about the Guoshi, as those who had tried to oppose him in the past had never ended up well.

    Which only made people believe the rumors even more.

    In addition, although the Guoshi had indeed helped the nation suppress natural disasters, each time he did so, strange things would occur afterwards. The commoners'' reverence for him came with a healthy dose of fear ¨C¨C they said he was the greatest yao-monk [i] of his time. If one day he were truly possessed by evil, [j] no one would be able to stop him.

    At this winter solstice''s ritual parade, the Guoshi had not made an appearance. Already before the festival, there had been rumors that he had encountered calamity and had been forced to seal himself away to train. [k] No one knew what had occurred ¨C¨C it could range from a small obstacle to his life being in danger. After all, he had to be on the brink of death to shut himself away and miss the ritual parade!

    To this, the commoners secretly rejoiced.

    Some decades ago, before all the rumors about the Guoshi had exploded, the incense smoke at all the mountain temples across the land had been thick and abundant. Along with the emergence of those temples, Buddhist monks had also begun to flood the streets. But once the rumors began to spread, the monks came out onto the streets much less.

    When people needed religious or exorcist services performed, they still had to hold their noses and go into temples to ask a monk for help. But when things were peaceful, people did their best to avoid monks, and wanted nothing to do with them.

    But now a monk had showed up inside the shop, and the tailoress couldn''t very well chase him away. Besides, Xuanmin was blessed with a rather pleasant appearance, so as the tailoress''s gaze scanned him, her face seemed to soften. She put down the decorative knot and stood up to greet him. "Is this shifu here to... purchase clothing?"

    Inside, the tailoress thought, I didn''t know monks bought their robes at tailor shops.

    "Yes." Xuanmin did not elaborate. He looked around at the clothes hanging in the shop. [l]

    The tailoress pressed her portable heater closer. What a cold monk! I¡¯m trying to greet him with warmth, but he¡¯s lowering the temperature of the whole shop.

    Her husband was of the slow kind. He rubbed his eyes, lifted his head from the abacus, and said, "What kind of clothes would the young shifu like? Our humble shop has never made monk''s robes before, but if you need some, I am sure that we can make them overnight. All we need to do is take the shifu¡¯s measurements."

    "No need," said Xuanmin.

    The tailoress: ¡°...¡± How was she supposed to do business with someone who would barely say a word to her?

    Xuanmin had clearly never stepped foot inside such a shop before. As he stood there in his stiff white robes, he looked entirely out of place. He reached for the closest rack, full of winter overcoats, checked the items'' sizes, and tried to remember what the niezhang had looked like in his human form. He planned to simply pick out a suitably sized coat and pay for it.

    But the zuzong curled on his wrist was not happy.

    "These coats are thick enough to block a hole in a city wall! If I put it on, I might as well roll around everywhere." Xue Xian said, disgusted. "I don''t want it. If you buy this, you can wear it yourself!"

    He knew that they did not dare to make a commotion inside the shop, so his low voice had snaked through Xuanmin''s sleeve into the monk''s ear.

    Still clutching her portable heater, the tailoress observed Xuanmin for a while, then looked at the rack of coats that he was browsing. Suddenly, she understood. "Shifu is purchasing on someone''s behalf?"

    ¡°Mn," Xuanmin said without taking his eyes away from the coats.

    "Are there any special requirements or preferences?" The tailoress thought for a while, then added, "If I may ask, what kind of person is shifu buying the clothes for? Perhaps I can help to select some pieces."

    Xuanmin''s gaze now turned to a robe with an... eye-assaulting color, then recalled Xue Xian''s excitable personality. He decided to go for a quick sketch of the dragon''s character: "A pheasant who likes to chase after people in order to peck them."

    The tailoress: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    The slow tailor gazed upon Xuanmin with a pair of smiling eyes. He pointed at the garish robe. "The robes right there might be appropriate. They are of a bright color, and make one look fresh."

    The robe seemed to have a little bit of every color, as though it had been ripped from a mountain chicken. Indeed it seemed to match Xue Xian.

    Xue Xian ominously said, "If you have a death wish..."

    In the end, under the bullying bites of the zuzong, Xuanmin purchased three sets of clothing. They were all black, and about as thin as Xuanmin''s own white robes. When Xuanmin placed them on the shop counter, they created a startling contrast with his own outfit.

    As the tailoress wrapped up the purchase for her customer, she could not help but feel a sense of cold emanating from him. She hugged the portable heater closer.

    Xuanmin placed some silver on the counter, and the tailoress¡¯ mouth dropped. Clearly, this monk had not been out of the temple much, and had no idea what things cost at market. A home in this county only cost about twenty liang of silver ¨C¨C who in the world would pay the same amount for three sets of robes?

    The tailor silently came over and weighed the silver on his scales, then told his wife how much change in copper to return to the monk.

    As Xuanmin rested his hand on the counter, Xue Xian happened to see the decorative knot that the woman had been working on.

    He studied the half-finished design for a while, then clawed at Xuanmin. While the couple were distracted, he scampered up to Xuanmin''s shoulder and said, "Pleasant surprise. Look at the knot ¨C¨C don''t you think it looks just like the design on that stone lock?"

    The stone lock was extremely heavy and could not be carried around. Xuanmin had therefore borrowed some of the crude instruments in the Lu house to make a quick rubbing of the carving. Now, Xue Xian, who had spent so long inside Xuanmin¡¯s pouch that he¡¯d begun to call it home, invited himself into the pouch again and grabbed the folded-up rubbing, as well as the pile of dog tags that they''d found in the river.

    Thankfully, all of these items were very small, or else, stuffed into the pouch, they would have weighed Xuanmin''s robes down so much that his clothes would have torn.

    Xuanmin took the rubbing from the pouch and compared it with the knot ¨C¨C

    The design on the piece of paper resembled a totem: [m] it was round, with an insect-like beast perched on the top ¨C¨C a bat or something ¨C¨C and then a cloud design at the bottom.

    And the half-finished knot had some major differences to that carved totem, so that at first glance they were certainly not identical. But upon closer inspection, there were many similarities ¨C¨C although the carved beast had been outlined primitively and had a violent aura, whereas the tailoress'' version was far softer and gentler-looking.

    Xue Xian and Xuanmin had never seen such a design before and had been prepared to undertake a highly difficult investigation ¨C¨C they had not expected to come across a clue so quickly.

    "What is this decorative knot for?" Xuanmin said as he folded up the paper and tapped the counter.

    The tailoress had just been counting up the change. "Oh," she replied. "It''s a good-fortune knot for peaceful and prosperous life."

    She raised her head and saw Xuanmin''s questioning look, and added, "It''s unusual, right? I learned this pattern a few years ago. I had never seen it before, either, but it really is effective. My child wears this knot and has already avoided several disasters. But the string constantly wears down."

    "Where did you learn it from?" Xuanmin asked.

    "Stone Zhang''s wife." Then the tailoress remembered that Xuanmin was not a local and explained, "Stone Zhang [n] is a famous stonemason in our county. His carvings are excellent, and he is often commissioned by laoyes from the capital. His wife is a talented craftswoman too, and likes to make all kinds of beautiful ornaments. I learned it from her."

    Stone Zhang?

    Xue Xian recalled the stone lock at the bottom of the river. Stone there, stone here... that couldn''t be a coincidence.

    Naturally, Xuanmin did not miss this either. He took up the wrapped clothing and his change, and asked, "Where does Stone Zhang live?"

    "If you follow this street east and turn into Hugua Alley, it''s the set of doors with the pile of stone outside it."

    Stone Zhang was famous across all of Huizhou Prefecture, and many came from far and wide to order carvings from such a skilled shifu. So the tailoress was not suspicious about Xuanmin''s question, and happily gave him the directions.

    Unlike Xue Xian, Xuanmin was not hopeless with directions. He left the shop, took a handful of turns, and soon reached Hugua Alley.

    It was just as the tailoress had said: standing at the mouth of the alley, it was easy to spot the home with a small mountain of stone piled in front of it.

    Xuanmin walked to the doors and knocked.

    But there was no movement behind the doors...

    "Is this young shifu here for Stone Zhang?" a passing middle-aged man asked. "He''s not home. I live in the courtyard next to his. His home has been empty for half a month. No lanterns have been on, and there''s been no noise. Perhaps he''s been commissioned by a laoye who lives far away again."

    Then the middle-aged man mumbled, "But his wife isn''t around either. Maybe she went to visit relatives? I don''t know, but in any case it''s useless to knock on the door. Lots of people have showed up in the past two weeks and have all had to go home. Why don''t you come back some other time?"

    He looked up at the overcast sky and hurried away, soon disappearing into a set of doors down the street.

    Xuanmin turned back to the doors and stood there, his hands hanging limply by his side.

    Xue Xian twitched his claws, feeling unwell. Seeing that no one was around, he stuck his head out of the sleeve and took a deep breath.

    Xuanmin prodded Xue Xian¡¯s pointy tail and frowned. "Why are you so hot all of a sudden?"

    "I''m not just hot. I feel so swollen as well." Xue Xian''s long tongue swung out of his half-open mouth. He looked as though he were about to pass out.

    This feeling was not unfamiliar to Xue Xian. The last time he had felt so hot had been in the tomb at Gravestone Island. The result had been his return to his physical body. Now that this feeling had come back, how could he ignore it?

    Panting heavily, Xue Xian said, "Please, could you knock down the door? Or go over the wall. Stone Zhang is hiding something in here."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian thought about it, then added, "Once you''re inside, could you find an empty room to put me in? Give me the clothes too."

    Xuanmin''s palm was already pressed against Stone Zhang''s door, ready to push. As he heard Xue Xian''s request, he stopped and asked, "Why?"

    Xue Xian laughed drily. "I feel so swollen and uncomfortable that I don''t think I''m able to maintain this form for much longer. If I don''t turn into a human, then I''ll have to turn into my original form and crush half of Wolong County to pieces. And you, young monk, will become a pancake."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Sorry sorry~ It¡¯s ready. Tomorrow evening at 8pm, as normal, I will continue with a long one~

    ---

    [a] Again, here, for ¡®boredom¡¯, Musuli uses the Chinese phrase ¡°someone who has eaten too much and is feeling full¡±, so the overall sentence plays on the contrast between this metaphor and the feeling of hunger.

    [b] The more accurate translation here might be ¡°in a sing-song voice¡±, but it didn¡¯t feel like it fit with the rest of the prose¡¯s tone.

    [c] Musuli refers to the woman as ÀÏ°åÄï (lao3 ban3 niang2), literally ¡°boss woman¡±. This is used to refer to a female business owner. However, there isn¡¯t an accurate translation of this phrase, so I went with a specific label for her profession.

    [d] I have translated ¡°shan¡± into Mount/Mountain for the rest of this novel¡¯s locations, but Taishan sounded better in full pinyin, in part because it is a famous mountain (see glossary).

    [e] Musuli uses ÉñÃØ (shen2 mi4) here, which means ¡°mysterious¡± but which contains Éñ, meaning god or things that are generally magical/divine.

    [f] Chan Buddhism, which was most dominant in China during the Tang and Song dynasties, is more commonly known in English via its Japanese name, Zen.

    [g] Musuli uses Ð°Êõ (xie2 shu4) here, literally ¡°evil/heretic arts/techniques¡±.

    [h] Musuli uses ·ðÐÔ (fo2 xing4) here, literally ¡°Buddha/Buddhist type/personality/nature¡± -- i.e. some kind of innate affinity towards Buddhism, closeness to Buddhist ideals, or supernatural/magical connections to the Buddha.

    [i] Yao-monks or other yao-immortals are a historical fantasy trope: many magical practitioners who are religious (eg Daoist cultivators and Buddhist monks) seek immortality. The wisest may achieve immortality through cultivation, but it is also possible to become an evil immortal by practicing dark arts or following qi deviation. This is described as ¡°turning/becoming/nearing yao¡±. For instance, the Russian figure Rasputin is popularly known in Chinese as a ¡°yao-monk¡± ÑýÉ® (yao1 seng1).

    A quick note about qi deviation that I¡¯ll mention again when it becomes relevant is that, in Chinese, this is known as ×ß»ðÈëÄ§ (zou3 huo3 ru4 mo2) literally ¡°walk fire, enter demon¡± or ¡°be consumed by fire, be possessed by demons¡±. It is used to generally describe that something has gone wrong during spiritual, martial arts, or mystical training. It is known as ¡°qi deviation¡± in qigong, which is a set of folk Chinese practices that relate more closely to Daoism than to Buddhism. This is why ×ß»ðÈëÄ§ is translated as ¡°qi deviation¡± in MXTX¡¯s works, where the magic system is rooted in Daoist cultivation, as opposed to Copper Coins, which, as discussed, mixes Daoist and Buddhist references into a more generally secular geomancy-based magic system.

    All in all, ×ß»ðÈëÄ§ can happen for many reasons, including practicing techniques without proper guidance from a teacher or using the wrong texts (i.e. not usually a mood-provoked issue), and can result in hallucinations and physical pain as well as, eventually, death. I will only occasionally be using ¡°qi deviation¡±, especially because, for characters like Xue Xian, whose magical powers come from his nature as a mythical creature and not from intentional practice/cultivation, the term is fundamentally inaccurate.

    [j] Musuli uses the phrase Ð°²¡·¢×÷ (xie2 bing4 fa1 zuo4), ¡°activation of evil/heretic illness¡±. Following from the previous footnote, this could be a way of describing ×ß»ðÈëÄ§, wherein the Guoshi is punished for flirting with evil by becoming possessed by it.

    [k] Musuli uses Ç±ÐÞ (qian2 xiu1) here, meaning ¡°hidden cultivating/training¡±.

    [l] Absolutely howling at the idea of modern ready-to-wear clothing stores dedicated to ordinary rural townspeople in the 11th century...

    [m] The Chinese word Í¼ÌÚ (tu2 teng2) is a transcription of the word ¡°totem¡±, originating from Yan Fu¡¯s translation of Edward Jenks¡¯ A History of Politics (1903), according to Baidu.

    [n] Stone Zhang¡¯s Chinese name is Ê¯Í·ÕÅ (shi2 tou zhang1), literally ¡°Stone Zhang¡±. This is a nickname that comes specifically from his profession as a stonemason, and I thought it would be slightly confusing if I went with the transcription ¡°Shitou Zhang¡±, so I have kept it like this.

 CH 33

    Xue Xian never got to find out whether he could turn Xuanmin into a pancake, for he was quickly picked up by his tail and dangled from Xuanmin¡¯s hand as they walked into the Zhang compound.

    "If it weren¡¯t for the fact that I''m unwell right now, I would strike you down with lightning," Xue Xian growled.

    Xue Xian really did want to brandish his claws and teeth and show Xuanmin some of his full power, but he was too exhausted by the heat. Even his threatening words came out passive and whiny, and his claws only convulsed weakly. The desired aggressive impact was not achieved.

    Back at the river, Xuanmin had been unconscious and had not seen the majestic way that Xue Xian had flown up into the clouds. With only the tiny dragon as a reference, Xuanmin could not detect anything intimidating about it.

    Xuanmin had planned to step into the courtyard and find a random room to put the dragon down in, but, as he strode in, he changed his mind.

    Xue Xian was so hot that he could not even say what day of the week it was anymore. His brain felt like hot glue. He was dimly aware that Xuanmin had entered the courtyard and had stopped ¨C¨C who knew what he had seen, but he did not seem to want to move again, as though calmly waiting for something to happen. He felt Xuanmin''s pinch on his tail loosen as he was positioned back on Xuanmin¡¯s wrist as before.

    But Xue Xian''s claws were all slippery and feeble ¨C¨C he couldn''t even lift his head, let alone curl tightly against Xuanmin''s wrist. As soon as Xuanmin placed him around his wrist, he began to slide down Xuanmin¡¯s hand, without even the energy to find a foothold.

    At least the temperature of Xuanmin''s skin was cool. To Xue Xian, who felt as though he were about to start breathing fire, this was a small measure of comfort.

    Xue Xian slipped twice in a row before he felt himself be maneuvered into a different position ¨C¨C now Xuanmin seemed to be holding him in his palm, so that he wouldn''t fall.

    Humans'' palms were connected to heart fire, [a] and were thus warmer than the rest of their bodies. As Xue Xian tossed and turned, he felt that this new location was not as cooling as Xuanmin''s wrist had been. Dazed, he began to miss Xuanmin¡¯s wrist. Summoning all of his energy, he went off in search of another cool place, and finally managed to scramble up Xuanmin''s knuckle and wrap himself around Xuanmin¡¯s finger.

    Xue Xian¡¯s tail swung back and forth from the little finger and his head rested against the thumb ¨C¨C five fingers, four gaps, Xue Xian had woven himself across them all, refusing to let any patch of colder skin escape unscathed.

    As the dragon''s supple, scaled back slithered across Xuanmin''s fingers, Xuanmin frowned and looked down. Seeing that the zuzong was acting like he was about to die ¨C¨C again ¨C¨C he simply looked away and let it be.

    Stone Zhang really was a stonemason: there were even more piles of stone inside the courtyard than outside. The irregular piles made a small circle around the inside of the courtyard, with only a small gap by the set of doors to allow one person to pass through at a time. And the reason why Xuanmin had stopped as soon as he''d walked into the compound was because this stone was not ordinary stone.

    Apart from a minority of incomplete carvings or scrap material, all of the blocks of stone that surrounded them were statues of beasts. And the beasts were not ordinary animals: as Xuanmin quickly scanned the carvings, he saw a deer-like or horse-like tianlu with a single horn on its head; a stout, lion-like bixie, and a taoba with a thick mane and no antlers... all of the carvings were of beasts who traditionally warded evil and repelled ghosts.

    This Stone Zhang really was talented. His carving was exquisite and unnervingly lifelike. Some of the beasts were taller than humans, and others only reached one''s waist; some looked across and others looked down; some had wide open eyes and others'' eyes were half-shut ¨C¨C but they all faced the front doors. Through gaps in the beasts'' paws or beyond their backs, Xuanmin could see more sculptures in the form of other beasts such as tortoises and tiangou. Overall, the statues were piled densely and in abundance, creating a suffocating feeling.

    An ordinary person, coming across such a scene, would piss their pants.

    Whether or not the structure really could ward off evil, it could definitely ward off humans.

    How strange...

    A stonemason relied on his craft to earn a living, so for him to pile his courtyard full of products that showed off his skill was peculiar, but forgivable. But why had he chosen such terrifying statues? Xuanmin studied the stone flooring beneath his feet, then reached out to touch the carved beast closest to him ¨C¨C

    From the looks of the moss on the ground, these statues did not seem to have been in the courtyard for long ¨C¨C they had probably only been placed here in the last month or so. And some of them were relatively new creations: although they had been skillfully carved, a sense of hurry could be detected in the details.

    If Stone Zhang wanted to attract customers, he would definitely not put such things in such full view.

    "Why are you just standing there?" Xue Xian grumbled. "I''m going to die..."

    Xuanmin did not look at him. Instead, he prodded Xue Xian''s head and said, "The courtyard contains an array. If I just walk right in, I fear that I will not be able to find you a room at all."

    "Talk if you want, but don''t touch my head," Xue Xian complained in his daze. "I''m already feeling so dizzy, stop making it worse..."

    Only now did Xuanmin look down. The zuzong had not been exaggerating ¨C¨C in fact, Xue Xian''s skin was so hot that it was starting to scorch Xuanmin''s hand. It was good that this was Xuanmin ¨C¨C if it had been Jiang Shining or Lu Nianqi, Xue Xian would long have been dropped onto the ground with a startled shout.

    It was so hot that Xuanmin felt as though someone had poured boiling tea onto his hand, directly onto the thinnest, most vulnerable skin in his interdigital folds.

    Xuanmin thought the niezhang was handling the heat rather well, considering the intensity. He saw that Xue Xian kept crawling to cooler parts of his skin, and was probably not feeling well at all, so he moved his other hand over and pressed it against Xue Xian''s scales too.

    In his daze, Xue Xian let out a comfortable sigh. He nudged himself closer to Xuanmin''s hand and placed his head against it.

    Now Xue Xian wasn''t complaining about his head being touched.

    Xuanmin decided to circle the courtyard and take a look at the statues.

    Before he''d gone in, he hadn''t noticed, but now that he''d edged closer, Xuanmin could see that, between all of these intimidating beast statues, someone had placed small pieces of stone the size of thumbs.

    From afar, they could be mistaken for random pebbles, but they were actually minuscule stone tiles. Indeed, the stonemasons in this region were famous not only for their exceedingly beautiful carvings, but also because of what was known as a ¡®will carve anything¡¯ attitude. They could even make detailed sculptures out of stone pieces as small as a fly''s head.

    These thumb-sized stone tiles had exquisite carvings of energetic-looking beasts'' faces, with no attention lost to the details of the beasts'' earlobes and nostrils. Their eyeballs even had dots in them representing light. And in the space beneath these beasts'' faces were carved a phrase as small as a fly''s head ¨C¨C Shi Gan Dang. [b]

    Shi Gan Dang were a type of mystical [c] stone items that could be used to ward evil. They could frequently be found in bad-luck corners in homes, or at the crossroads of city streets, so as to repel misfortune. In some places, they were also called Stone Generals. [d]

    Any ordinary household had these tiles placed in areas such as death doors, or rooms that had overwhelming amounts of yin energy. But Stone Zhang''s formation, with tiles littered in every nook and cranny possible, was definitely uncommon.

    All in all, there were more than twenty Shi Gan Dang squeezed into Stone Zhang''s courtyard. Of the eight cardinal directions, seven had been sealed by the Shi Gan Dang, with only one opening: the entrance via the front doors. The reason for this went without saying. It meant:

    Wherever it is you came from, please go back there.

    So although the courtyard was piled full of terrifying beasts, these statues were only to superficially scare ordinary people. Only the almost imperceptible Shi Gan Dang had any real effect.

    "Your breathing is so loud..." Xue Xian whined. Despite his state of confusion, he continued to be unable to mind his own business.

    ¡°...¡± Xuanmin paused, then said, "As far as I can tell, that breathing sound is yours."

    This zuzong had a real talent for shifting blame. Xuanmin did not plan to bicker with him further ¨C¨C after all, based on that horribly laborious breathing noise, this zuzong seemed to have enough to deal with already.

    Xue Xian hung his head and tried to stay quiet for a bit. Finally, he realised that that annoying, heavy breathing sound really did come from him. The reason why he was feeling so perturbed by a simple breathing noise was because the atmosphere in the courtyard was extremely uncanny. It felt as though they were trapped inside the compound...

    Or, someone had amplified all the courtyard¡¯s sounds on purpose, so that they would not be able to hear what went on inside the rooms.

    As Xuanmin absent-mindedly brought his cool fingers to rub Xue Xian''s head again, Xuanmin decided not to pay attention to the distracting beast statues anymore. Instead, he studied those tiny Shi Gan Dang.

    "Indeed..." Xuanmin said.

    "Indeed what..." Xue Xian truly was a strong will in a disabled body: even in his confusion, he insisted on listening to everything around him.

    "Do not worry about it. Focus on being dizzy." Xuanmin went ahead and used his finger to block the dragon''s ear, if that was, in fact, his ear.

    The more the zuzong fidgeted, the hotter his body burned. Xuanmin felt as though he, too, would burst into flames any second.

    It felt as though he might really explode soon¡­

    Dimly, Xue Xian tried to claw at Xuanmin, but couldn''t reach his hand. He no longer had the energy to make trouble.

    When Xuanmin had said indeed, it was because he¡¯d found a logic to the Shi Gan Dang. The beasts carved onto the tiles all had different eyes: some had their eyes wide open; others'' were half-closed; and still others'' were shut tightly.

    They were arranged in a sequence ¨C¨C from shut eyes to open eyes.

    Xuanmin''s hand shot to his copper coin pendant. The small gash that he''d cut into his thumb previously began to bleed as soon as it came into contact with the coins.

    It was only a tiny sliver of blood... but it caused the pendant to emit a light weng¨C¨C sound.

    Xuanmin had not used this pendant for a long time. Each time he touched the coins now, an inexplicable feeling of loathing would well up within him ¨C¨C not loathing toward the pendant, that was for sure, but he also did not know who or what the loathing was directed to. He just had the feeling that he absolutely did not want to use the pendant unless he really had no other choice...

    It had only been in the tomb beneath Gravestone Island, when he''d used his blood to awaken the pendant, that the strange feeling had finally gone away.

    As the saying goes, ¡®Strangers upon first meeting, friends by the second¡¯: then as now, Xuanmin found that he knew exactly how to use the pendant, as though the knowledge had been etched into his body and made impossible to forget.

    Who knew how many times he had used it, for this to become so instinctive.

    One by one, Xuanmin confirmed the locations of each Shi Gan Dang.

    Northeast¨C¨C

    West¨C¨C

    North¨C¨C

    Southwest¨C¨C

    ...

    Each time Xuanmin strode in a new direction, his finger would lightly tap the copper coin pendant.

    Dang¨C¨C

    The sound emitted by the pendant was not a drum-like sound ¨C¨C it was closer to the sound of a bell, simple and heavy.

    With each ring of the pendant, the Shi Gan Dang corresponding to that cardinal direction would shatter.

    One of the shattered pieces of stone accidentally rolled into the wrong spot: it clattered into the paw of a stone bixie the size of a man.

    The bixie''s half-shut eyes slowly opened. It tilted its head, and its robust chest suddenly seemed to inflate, as though it had come to life.

    And just as it raised a paw, curved its spine, and got ready to pounce¨C¨C

    Xuanmin walked to the next position and tapped the coins with his finger. His face remained expressionless.

    Dang¨C¨C

    The slow, brusque bixie suddenly stopped moving. Frozen in that position, it seemed to turn back into stone.

    After eight rings of the copper coin pendant, the Shi Gan Dang had all been destroyed.

    Suddenly, wispy sounds rumbled forth ¨C¨C the whole compound seemed to come alive.

    The stone beasts moved automatically to create short, narrow tunnels, which led to the side room and the main hall.

    As the path cleared, a wailing sound began to emerge from the main hall.

    Frowning, Xuanmin strode into the main hall.

    Inside was a large stone screen covered in detailed carvings, and behind it cowered a short man with a fat belly, who trembled as he stared back at Xuanmin.

    Though his face was contorted in fear, the man seemed to be prepared ¨C¨C he clutched a stout, unusual-looking sword that looked to be made neither from bronze nor from iron, but instead glowed ivory-white, like...

    Like it was carved from a bone.

    Suddenly, Xuanmin felt a blistering heat on his hand, followed by a sudden release in pressure as the thing coiled around his fingers fell away.

    A magnificent, whistle-like cry emerged from somewhere close to Xuanmin¡¯s ear. Terrified, the short man fell to the floor, the sword in his hand rattling and shaking.

    Hong¨C¨C

    A massive black shadow appeared by Xuanmin''s side in a burst of golden light, accompanied by a rumble of thunder.

    Next, four flashes of lightning struck down from the skies above.

    Guang, guang, guang, guang, four strikes, all aimed directly at the short man ¨C¨C they zipped past him from all four sides of his body and landed by his feet, causing the man to burst into tears and for a wet patch to appear on his crotch..

    Amidst the roar of the thunder, the majestic head of a dragon sailed past Xuanmin, bringing with it a mighty gust of wind. The dragon tilted its head at the short man. A booming voice asked, "How dare you make a sword out of a dragon''s bone?! Mn?"

    Petrified, the man''s eyes bulged out like a chicken¡¯s, and he swiftly fainted.

    Seeing that he had finally successfully scared someone unconscious, Xue Xian turned his head to Xuanmin and said, "It''s so cramped in here..."

    Xuanmin: ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡±

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    I posted this using the app while on the train, I hope the formatting has no issues [emoji]

    ---

    [a] ÐÄ»ð (xin1 huo3), literally ¡°heart fire¡±, is a concept in Chinese folk medicine or traditional Chinese medicine that relates to the inner heat of a person¡¯s body.

    [b] Ê¯¸Òµ± (shi2 gan3 dang1) are stone tablets carved with writings, used to ward off evil; the carvings usually include the phrase Ê¯¸Òµ± or Ì©É½Ê¯¸Òµ± (tai4 shan1 ¡­) on them. They are usually placed outside the home or on street corners. The practice can be traced back to the Tang dynasty, and is also associated with a folk legend taking place on Taishan featuring a woodcutter named Shi Gandang. The double meaning of the word plays on the fact that Shi Gandang¡¯s surname, Ê¯, means ¡°stone¡±. Baidu / Wikipedia / Wikipedia. Here, I have chosen to write Ê¯¸Òµ± out as three separate words, rather than 1 word or 2 words, in order to allow for both the name and the object term to compete for significance.

    [c] Musuli uses the word Áé (ling2) here, which literally means ¡°soul¡± but can be used to describe anything magical, spiritual, or mysterious.

    [d] Ê¯½«¾ü (shi2 jiang1 jun), literally ¡°stone general¡±.

 CH 34

    Xuanmin had spent all day with a tiny dragon coiled around his wrist, the creature so small that he had been able to pinch its tail with two of his fingers. In one instant, that dragon had turned into this. Anyone would need some time to process.

    As Xuanmin took in the enormous dragon''s head, which alone was half as tall as him, then peered behind the head at the body that filled the entire courtyard outside, his already blank face turned fully slack.

    Xue Xian''s head did not move. He stared at Xuanmin and saw that Xuanmin¡¯s usually composed face was now displaying a complex, unreadable expression.

    Xue Xian squinted at him, then sneered. "You¡¯re only pretending to be calm, aren¡¯t you?"

    Xuanmin glared back. This zuzong may have changed form, but he still spoke in that same voice.

    "Are your knees buckling from fear?" Xue Xian lifted a sharp claw and jabbed Xuanmin in the back.

    As though jabbing him would persuade Xuanmin¡¯s knees to genuinely buckle.

    "You do not seem to have fully awoken from your slumber," Xuanmin replied mildly.

    Of course there had been that brief moment of astonishment, and there had been a sense of unfamiliarity as well, but to say that Xuanmin had been stupefied, or dumbfounded, or flabbergasted would be nonsense. In all the years Xuanmin had been alive, he had still never experienced such a thing as stupefaction.

    As Xue Xian studied Xuanmin, he realised that he really could not find any trace of surprise on Xuanmin¡¯s face. Soon, Xue Xian''s huge head fell upon his claw with a dong¨C¨C sound, and, spiritless, he complained, "Bald donkey, you''re so boring. I''ve never met anyone like you."

    Having failed in scaring the person he had wanted to scare, he still hadn¡¯t discovered what Xuanmin looked like when taken aback; the zuzong suddenly felt dejected. Even the joy and rage from finding another of his bones had been significantly dulled.

    Idly, Xue Xian moved his claw to tap the unconscious short man. The white sword in the man''s hands seemed to feel Xue Xian approach, and fell out of the man''s hand. Xue Xian nudged it back to him.

    When he discovered what had been carved onto the sword, he felt his anger return.

    What the hell is this? Who would dare?! [a]

    Xue Xian was too furious to even look at the sword anymore. His claw flashed with heat and the bone sword looked as though it had suddenly been melted by fire. It slid upwards into the palm of Xue Xian¡¯s claw and disappeared into the flesh, leaving only a cloud of steam that billowed slowly into the room.

    But once he''d absorbed the sword, Xue Xian felt a tinge of regret¨C¨C

    That heat followed his veins and slithered all the way back to his spine. The feeling was extremely uncomfortable, and, with it, the unbearable bloatedness that had temporarily abated returned with a vengeance.

    But this time, Xue Xian¡¯s head was far too large. He could neither toss nor turn, nor could he edge closer to Xuanmin''s hand to cool himself down.

    He tried to fight it, then gave up wordlessly and began to squirm his upper body.

    In the blink of an eye, Xuanmin suddenly felt that every conceivable part of his body was being compressed against this zuzong''s ¨C¨C Xue Xian was folding himself around Xuanmin, bringing Xuanmin into the fold.

    "Why are you rubbing against me?" Xuanmin asked.

    Condescendingly, Xue Xian glanced at Xuanmin, then turned his face away again. "Help me cool down. If I burn up, I''ll be taking you with me too."

    It had been tolerable when Xue Xian had only been a small creature, since the scorching pain had only affected Xuanmin''s hand, but now that the zuzong was as big as a house and twisted tightly around his whole body, Xuanmin felt as though he were wearing seven or eight layers of overcoats, and surrounded by fireplaces, and with a mattress pressing down on top of it all...

    Basically, the feeling was unbearable.

    Xuanmin''s gaze fell upon the wrapped clothes that he still clutched in his hand, and Xue Xian happened to notice them too.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    Being naked is great!

    Xue Xian rested his sprawling head and thought about it happily. Before, he had been too confused to pay much attention ¨C¨C all he''d wanted had been to feel something cold against his skin, and the respite had felt like grasping just the right straw. [b] He hadn''t had the energy to worry about whether or not he''d been wearing clothes ¨C¨C in any case, he hadn¡¯t been in human form. But now...

    Who gives a fuck? It''s hot, and I''m not human, Xue Xian thought to himself. No longer bothered, he nuzzled up against Xuanmin again.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Just because Xue Xian had spent six months hanging out among humankind did not mean that he had learned how to be human. Dragons may be divine, but they are ultimately still beasts. Xue Xian thus had an innate, very straightforward sense of self-indulgence ¨C¨C if he was hot, then he needed to get cool. Everything else came after.

    Xue Xian felt highly self-satisfied. But then he caught a glimpse of Xuanmin again.

    There it was again! If Xue Xian was not hallucinating, there was another flash of that unnatural expression across Xuanmin''s face, so fast that Xue Xian would have missed it if he''d blinked. Next, Xuanmin frowned...

    Frown...

    The bald donkey didn''t have a very wide range of expressions. If he touched something dirty, he frowned; and if he encountered an annoying person or an inconvenient situation, he also liked to frown...

    Basically, anything short of absolute abhorrence was met with a frown.

    Suddenly, Xue Xian felt woozy again. The feeling was akin to a string of tiny spiders scuttling out of his chest in a neat queue, sinking their prickly legs into him.

    And with it, that raging, boiling heat seemed to quickly die down ¨C¨C it was no longer as unbearable as it had been just a second ago. Xue Xian loosened his grip on Xuanmin, giving Xuanmin some space to breathe again.

    Xue Xian¡¯s unexpected act of magnanimity and self-consciousness was intriguing to Xuanmin, who wasn¡¯t used to it, but then he discovered that the zuzong had begun to take notice of the unconscious short man on the floor.

    Perhaps it was because this body¡¯s immense size bestowed a natural sense of oppressiveness, or perhaps it was because dragons'' faces could not show emotions as well, but now that Xue Xian presented himself seriously, instead of coiling himself around people¡¯s ands, he emanated an alienating aura, one that repelled others.

    He did now look far more like a dragon.

    ¡°Not hot anymore?" Xuanmin asked mildly. Then, as he hated to speak, he immediately brought the topic back to the matter at hand: "There is no other movement in the room. I think he is the only one here. But he fainted, so we cannot speak to him."

    ¡°Mn,¡± Xue Xian said. Without another word, he summoned another rumble of intense thunder, which he sent to land on the patch of floor between the man''s legs. The entire ground shook, then split open, sending cracks running all across the floor.

    With that, the man spasmed, then woke up screaming. "Mercy, mercy! ¨C¨C I''m only a common stonemason, I already did everything you asked me to do, I won''t tell anyone, but please don''t kill me, I¨C¨C"

    The short man was none other than Stone Zhang.

    He hadn¡¯t even opened his eyes before he¡¯d begun to beg, his words erupting out of him like firecrackers ¨C¨C it seemed that he had prepared the speech a long time ago.

    But when he came back to his senses and saw that a real live black dragon was staring down at him, he suddenly trailed off and forced himself to come to a stop. His face turned green from the effort of swallowing down his words.

    "Don''t stop. Keep talking." Xue Xian''s tone was as cold as a winter river. [c]

    As he spoke, yet another bolt of thunder came down from the heavens. The white lightning stopped in its tracks halfway down, hovering directly above Stone Zhang''s head.

    Terror-stricken, the short man knew not to delay anymore. "I, I, I was speaking nonsense, none of that was directed at you! I was simply being chased by moneylenders to repay debts for several months I had no choice but to lock myself in my house and I learned how to activate a simple array from a Daoist I only wanted to avoid a terrible disaster and buy myself some more time I only hope that this daxian [d] will show some mercy and let me go!"

    ¡°Do you take me for a fool?" Xue Xian sneered. "Who uses an array to avoid moneylenders?"

    Stone Zhang quivered all over, afraid to respond.

    "Let me ask you this. The dragon bone that you had been using as a sword. Where did it come from?" Xuanmin suddenly asked, reminding Xue Xian of the topic at hand.

    "Dragon bone?" Stone Zhang appeared genuinely shocked. He repeated, "Dragon bone?"

    He met Xue Xian''s eyes, and seemed to want to piss again.

    To think that I had somehow, in all ignorance, managed to take a real piece of dragon bone home, and had even worked on it, had shaved it down into the shape of a sword and carved designs on it...

    Oh ancestors... I¡¯m going to die for this!

    As Stone Zhang''s eyes rolled to the back of his head and he felt himself become faint again, he heard a cold word of warning: "If you close your eyes now, don''t assume you''ll ever open them again."

    Stone Zhang: ¡°...¡±

    His face contorted tragically as he whimpered, "I didn''t know that was... I ¨C¨C I''ve always been a bit different from the norm, sometimes I can see things others can''t. That day I saw a glint of light in the mud, so ¨C¨C so I couldn''t help but dig, and dug up that bone. I thought it looked special and was probably some kind of magical item, so I took it home. They say that good weapons can ward evil, so I... so I turned it into a sword to buy myself some peace..."

    As Xue Xian glared at him, Stone Zhang trembled harder and his voice trailed off to nothing again.

    "Where did you find it?"

    Stone Zhang said, "A ¨C¨C a mountain by the river."

    "Do we have to squeeze it out of you sentence by sentence?" Xue Xian was about to lose his temper. "Do you want me to help trigger your memory?"

    "No, no, no, thank you for the offer..." Stone Zhang stammered, close to tears. "I was led there by some people, and was blindfolded all the way. They only took it off when we arrived. The mountain didn''t have a sign, so I really don''t know where it is. I only remember that I could see the river from it. The stream was narrow and coarse, and the sound of the current was scarily loud."

    Furious, Xue Xian tilted his head, and the bolt of lightning hanging above Stone Zhang''s head came cascading down, striking the ground beneath his feet.

    Shaken, Stone Zhang stood as stiff as a board as tears began to stream down his face.

    "What were you brought there to do?" Xuanmin asked.

    The blood drained from Stone Zhang''s face. "They made me carve seven stone locks and two tomb guardians."

    Xuanmin nodded understandingly. From his pouch, he extracted a thin sheet of paper and shook it out in front of the man. "You carved this design?"

    "Yes yes! That''s what they made me carve. As I was carving, I felt that this design seemed to have some magic [e] to it. I asked about it and they said it was a good-fortune design, and that it was extraordinarily effective. But, dashi, where did you get it from?"

    "Your stone lock," Xuanmin said. "At the bottom of the river. Do you know who the corpses attached were?"

    "Corpses?" Stone Zhang seemed to have no idea what the stone locks he''d made had to do with corpses. Panicked, he shook his head. "I ¨C¨C I don''t know. I only carved some stuff. When that man came to see me, he only said that my carvings are the most effective conduits for spells. [e] I thought some laoye from outside the prefecture wanted me to make him something decorative. I had no idea..."

    Stone Zhang paused, then added, "Overall, my life has not been peaceful recently. I think someone is trying to kill me. I''ve never done anything to harm anyone in my life, but I recalled that one strange commission. So... so that''s why I''m hiding."

    Xue Xian stared at Stone Zhang until he began shivering again, then coldly said, "Did the person who took you to the mountain leave you with anything?"

    "Thing? What thing?"

    "Any object. As long as that person touched it," Xue Xian said.

    Stone Zhang was about to shake his head when he suddenly slapped his thigh. "Oh, right! Yes!"

    ¡°What?"

    ¡°The black cloth they used to blindfold me. I still have it! I didn''t dare to throw it out.." Stone Zhang said.

    Xue Xian scoffed. "Good."

    Stone Zhang stumbled into the inner room and returned with a piece of black cloth that had been put away for who knew how long, and never washed.

    Xuanmin scowled with disgust. He planned to find something to wrap his hand with so that he could take the cloth.

    Seeing him frown, Xue Xian reached out matter-of-factly with his claw and grabbed the cloth himself.

    Stunned, Xuanmin stared back at him.

    Xue Xian did not return his gaze. Instead, he simply said, "Let''s go."

    ¡°...¡± Xuanmin paused. "Where?"

    "Heaven," Xue Xian snapped. Then he turned to Stone Zhang. "Stop shaking. Come with me for a bit."

    Xuanmin said, "If I''m guessing correctly, you plan to return to the Lu compound? Is this how you will go?"

    His gaze scanned Xue Xian''s enormous dragon body.

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    He had been so furious that he really had been about to go out like this.

    But he was unable to turn back into a small dragon again ¨C¨C his muscles and bones were still too bloated, and he could not maintain the shrunken form for long. His only other option was his human form.

    Xuanmin lifted his hand, showing Xue Xian the package of robes he¡¯d bought.

    Xue Xian yanked the package over. But then his face dropped ¨C¨C now this was the problem: his massive body wouldn''t fit into a private room, so how the fuck was he supposed to get changed?

    The heavens must be jealous of how handsome he was, or else why would they constantly do this to him¡­

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    My fingers are so cold that they¡¯re chicken claws now. This season is so unfriendly to those who aren¡¯t cuffed.

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses the phrase ¡°ate a bear¡¯s heart, got a leopard¡¯s/panther¡¯s courage¡±.

    [b] The exact phrasing Musuli uses here is ¡°caught a life-saving stalk of grass¡± (i.e. when falling off a cliff), but it was too long in English. Here, I played on the idiom ¡°grasping at straws¡±, which works because the ¡®grass¡¯ in the Chinese phrasing is actually µ¾²Ý (dao4 cao3), straw grass.

    [c] Musuli phrases this as ¡°a river during Èý¾ÅÌì¡± (san1 jiu3 tian1). Literally ¡°three nine days¡±, this refers to a system of time measurement based on Dongzhi (the winter solstice). The first nine days after Dongzhi are ¡°one nine¡±, the nine days after that are ¡°two nine¡±, and so on. After ¡°nine nine¡± days (81 days), spring begins. Usually ¡°three nine¡± and ¡°four nine¡± are seen as the coldest 18 days of the winter.

    [d] Daxian: see glossary. Here, Stone Zhang is using the extremely deferential term of address to flatter Xue Xian.

    [e] Musuli uses ÁéÆø (ling2 qi4) here, literally ¡°magical/mystical qi¡±, another way of saying ¡°magic vibes¡±.

 CH 35

    Having had a unique lifestyle and divine status for most of his life, Xue Xian was an extremely dignified dragon ¨C¨C or so he thought.

    The term ¡®dignified¡¯ had a fluid meaning to him ¨C¨C sometimes, he allowed himself to give up his dignity: for instance, when he sat on Xuanmin''s hand, or when he ordered Jiang Shining around, or when he spent Xuanmin''s money. But in other situations, he would rather die than put aside his pride, such as when it concerned the beauty and majesty of his outer appearance.

    If Xue Xian had the full use of his limbs and his body was restored to its glory from head to tail, then others could look as long as they wanted. It was no big deal; he thought he cut a nice figure. Besides, he wasn''t human, so he did not feel embarrassed about petty things like changing his clothes.

    But, right now, Xue Xian was half-paralysed, and not nimble at all. If he had to be naked, that was fine, but he could not under any circumstances allow the bald donkey to see him. It would be far too painful.

    Basically, even imagining the scene made Xue Xian cringe. Make him get naked in this state? You might as well hang him right then and there.

    With a blank expression on his face, Xue Xian glared at Stone Zhang and said, "Please, if you don''t mind, could you temporarily kick the bucket?"

    Stone Zhang: ¡°...¡± If I kick the bucket, I''ll be dead. What do you mean, temporarily?

    But the zuzong did not care. Without another word, he summoned a storm cloud from the heavens and, before anyone could react, sent down two shafts of lightning. Terrified, Stone Zhang''s legs shot out from under him and his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fainted.

    This Stone Zhang had the courage of a sparrow ¨C¨C so quick to cry or to faint. But Xuanmin was not the same...

    Xue Xian glared darkly at him. "Tell me. How can I get you to faint? Shall I try a bit of everything?"

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡± This niezhang was being unreasonable again.

    The easiest way to make a human pass out was to thump them on the back of the head. Raising his claw, Xue Xian studied Xuanmin¡¯s head and tried to estimate where he needed to strike, without a care for any consequences he might incur.

    Xuanmin glanced at that short, stubby claw and pushed it away. Calmly, he said, "Junzi must conceal their swords and obscure their weapons."

    Translated into words that made sense, it meant: Stop swinging that damn claw around.

    Xue Xian scoffed. Mind your own business!

    But he did abandon that idea. Indeed, with Xue Xian¡¯s current large size, it was hard to precisely calculate the strength required to perform tasks. If he lost control of his claw, then this day next year he would have to come visit the bald donkey''s grave.

    Although Xue Xian was in a bad mood and became irritated every time he saw the bald donkey, that didn''t mean he wanted to kill him.

    Without a way to make the bald donkey pass out, Xue Xian was deeply irked. He gave up trying to engage Xuanmin and turned around. He summoned a mass of clouds and, soon, humid white fog quickly clustered around Xuanmin, wrapping him up tightly and obscuring everything in his line of sight.

    With a swipe of his claw, Xue Xian tore the packaging off the bundle of clothing. Next, his immense body was encased in a flash of white light. The light was normally eye-piercing, but from Xuanmin''s point of view inside his cloud cocoon, he saw only a warm glow.

    Within the white light, Xue Xian¡¯s silhouette transformed into that of a human. As a dragon, he was an extremely powerful being ¨C¨C although he had not yet fully recovered his physical body, he could still perform magic. [a] So despite being half-paralysed, putting on clothes was not a problem. When the white light slowly began to wane, he was already almost done getting dressed.

    Initially, Xuanmin had planned to see if the niezhang needed any help with his clothes, but having seen Xue Xian''s manner, he¡¯d then assumed not. Standing inside the rather frosty and cold mist, watching that dying white light, Xuanmin stayed calm. He was not in a rush: he stood there quietly and waited.

    But fog doesn''t stay substantial for long. At first, it had formed a tight, opaque shell around Xuanmin, but by now it had become a thin and translucent sheet, and was slowly dissolving away.

    When the fog had dissipated enough for Xuanmin to see his surroundings again, Xue Xian happened to be wrapping that loose, cloud-like new robe around his body. In one swift motion, his lean waist, slim belly, and ¨C¨C appearing for an instant with the stretching movement of his arms ¨C¨C the shapely bone of his flexed shoulder were all absorbed into the darkness of the robe.

    The design of the robe was extremely basic: it looked plain, with not a hint of extra color or decoration. It stood in high contrast to Xue Xian''s daily troublesome behavior.

    But it was exactly the kind of thing he liked to wear.

    His ink-black collar set off a slip of white neck ¨C¨C his skin was so pale that he looked almost to be ill. [b] When Xue Xian¡¯s face was calm ¨C¨C such as now ¨C¨C unperturbed by a smile or a scowl, those black eyes were always lazily half-closed, condensing with his eyelashes into two straight lines like brushstrokes: graceful, but somehow intimidating.

    Perhaps it was the unnerving pallor of Xue Xian''s bare skin, or perhaps it was the coldness of his expressionless face caught in profile, but he was so different from the grinning man that Xuanmin had seen sitting atop the wall in Liu-shiye''s compound... Seeing Xue Xian¡¯s form, Xuanmin faltered.

    But soon, the niezhang began to act up again.

    Those black eyes swivelled around and saw that the fog had dissipated. With a casual sweep of his hand, Xue Xian buttoned his robe and haphazardly tied it. Then he nonchalantly procured a black ribbon from somewhere and, holding it with his teeth, he quickly combed his hair and tied it with the ribbon.

    As Xue Xian''s hands fell, he summoned another gust of wind to lift himself up. He flipped back, letting those black robes billow and then settle. Soon, he had used the wind to bring a wooden chair over and had settled in with a sigh.

    What was the point of this pretense? Did he really think others would forget that he was half-paralysed?

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian idly tapped the arms of the chair. "Can we go now?"

    "Mn." Xuanmin glanced at him and took a step forward, seemingly about to reach out his hand and offer help.

    Startled, Xue Xian slapped the chair again and backed away. There was an ear-splitting grinding noise as the wood of the chair grated against the stone flooring. Staring at Xuanmin, he said, "What are you doing?"

    Xuanmin''s hands fell to his side. "How else do you plan to go back? Can you walk? Can you fly?"

    I can fly, actually, thank you very much! Xue Xian grumbled in his thoughts.

    But he did not say it, because, indeed, he could not summon winds for himself to glide around on in broad daylight ¨C¨C it would scare, well, the living daylights out of the townspeople.

    As Xue Xian sulked, the bald donkey insisted on pouring oil into the fire and insulted him further: "Or perhaps... you plan to do as you just did: stay inside the chair and hop back, step by step?"

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡± Why did I stop myself earlier? I should have just killed him, and then the bald donkey wouldn''t be here provoking me with every word. And he acts so haughty and serious... Fuck off!

    Finally, his face set, Xue Xian said, "Fine. If I may trouble you for a favor... Could you turn around and squat down, so you can carry¨C¨C"

    Xue Xian had wanted to say Carry me on your back, but Xuanmin was already striding smoothly toward him, putting one hand behind Xue Xian¡¯s neck and the other beneath his knees, and delicately picking Xue Xian up in his arms. All this Xuanmin did as nonchalantly as if he''d simply found a fallen leaf on the street, and was not carrying a full-grown man.

    As Xuanmin straightened his back, he said calmly, "This monk does not squat or kneel. When I walk, I do not bend my back."

    Xue Xian wanted to spit his intestines out at him. "What the hell? You were perfectly happy to squat down when you shovelled me with a piece of scrap metal at the Jiang family compound!"

    But now that his whole body was captive in the bald donkey''s arms, Xue Xian could not move around at all without risking falling face-first on the ground ¨C¨C and then he really would die of humiliation. As Xue Xian suppressed his temper, it was a miracle he didn''t choke to death. He looked down at himself and cringed at how weak and frail he looked ¨C¨C not majestic at all.

    The niezhang¡¯s eyeballs swivelled as he concocted a plan.

    He picked up the bundle of clothes, took out another black robe, and used it to cover himself from head to toe.

    When you have no choice but to humiliate yourself, remember one thing ¨C¨C hide your face.

    With his already all-black outfit and now entirely covered with another layer of black, the niezhang sat stiff as a board in Xuanmin''s arms, as though he had just eked out his last breath.

    ¡°...¡± Xuanmin had to admire him for that.

    The zuzong lay there for a while, pretending to be dead, then suddenly remembered Stone Zhang. A ghastly pale hand shot out from beneath the black drapes and beckoned. Subsequently, a bolt of thunder loud enough to wake everyone in a ten li radius boomed by Stone Zhang''s ear and yanked the man awake.

    Grimacing tragically, Stone Zhang clambered up and slithered obediently to Xuanmin''s side, but was so terrified upon seeing the body in Xuanmin''s arms that he began to tremble again.

    Xue Xian''s muffled voice came out from beneath the drape: "We''re all set. Let''s go."

    Xuanmin shook his head, but strode out into the courtyard.

    One had to admit, the zuzong¡¯s idea was indeed effective. As they walked back to the Lu compound, not a single passerby dared to look in Xuanmin''s general direction. As soon as they glimpsed some dead person in the monk''s arms, they would turn their heads away and hurry as far away as they could, looking deeply unhappy.

    By the time the two men and one corpse stepped back into the Lu compound, the sky had darkened above them. Jiang Shining happened to be walking out of the kitchen and jumped when he saw the body that Xuanmin was carrying. He had known Xue Xian for a bit longer than Xuanmin had, and the bookworm was generally a rather attentive person, so he quickly recognised Xue Xian''s claw hanging out of the drape.

    The lantern Jiang Shining held in his hand trembled ¨C¨C he almost threw the object to the side to come running over. Thankfully, Xuanmin quickly explained, "He''s alive and well. Only pretending to be dead."

    ¡°... What drama is he having now?" Jiang Shining said.

    Xuanmin did not reply. Instead, he walked into the living room and put the zuzong down on a chair by the table.

    It was only then that Xue Xian removed the cloth from his face and took a deep breath. "So stuffy," he complained.

    Jiang Shining slammed the lantern onto the table in a huff. "You did that to yourself. You deserve it."

    Then Jiang Shining¡¯s eyeballs swivelled and looked anxiously at Stone Zhang. "And this is..."

    Startled by those lifeless eyes, Stone Zhang stammered, "I''m just a stonemason. You can call me Lao-Zhang or Stone Zhang."

    Xue Xian pointed at the stone lock that they had leant against the wall. "You made this, right?"

    Stone Zhang recognised it immediately. He nodded. "Yes, yes, yes. Indeed that came from my hand. I can tell with one look."

    "So... it''s like this." Xue Xian gestured at Jiang Shining as he explained, "He''s met the person responsible for the tomb at Gravestone Island, and he even has an item that that person touched, or at least someone who works for that person. When that Lu Nianqi kid wakes up, we''ll ask him to take a look, see if any clues come up."

    "Lu Nianqi?" Jiang Shining paused, then realised what Xue Xian meant. "Are you sure he has that ability too?"

    Xue Xian nodded. "Most likely."

    Sitting back in his chair, Xue Xian idly teased the lantern flame with his hand. Suddenly, he slapped the table. "Right! I almost forgot."

    Both Jiang Shining and Stone Zhang jumped at the sound, then turned to Xue Xian, waiting for him to explain. But all the zuzong did was glare at Xuanmin and say, "Where''s the food you owe me?"

    Jiang Shining: ¡°...¡± What the hell?

    Stone Zhang: ¡°...¡± Oh mama, scared me to death.

    Xuanmin stared back at Xue Xian, [c] then walked out of the room.

    A short while later, [d] he stepped back inside carrying a box of food ¨C¨C as he walked, he glided as light as a cloud, as though what he held was not food but the Buddha''s own lotus.

    Jiang Shining took a look at Xuanmin, then glanced back at Xue Xian, who was languishing in his chair. Jiang Shining silently turned his face away.

    There were four levels to the box, filled with six different dishes and a stack of crispy cakes.

    Xue Xian took a look. The china plates were still flush with warmth, and the dishes gleamed colorfully. Laid out on the table, the meal looked beautiful and emitted a delicious smell ¨C¨C indeed extremely appetising. And yet...

    And... yet...

    Not a single chunk of meat could be found on the whole table. It was all vegetarian!

    It! was! all! vegetarian!

    When have you ever heard of a dragon munching grass?!

    Xue Xian rolled his eyes and knocked his head against the table in anger. Then he looked up at Xuanmin hatefully, suddenly remembering all the things the bald donkey had ever done to wrong him.

    Although Xuanmin did not have all of his memories, his habits were still the same as before his amnesia. It seemed that in the past, he did not eat meat ¨C¨C or perhaps he did not eat anything at all, which would explain why he seemed so healthy and well despite not having been seen eating anything for days now. The point was, if you asked him to buy the food, you would not be getting meat. In the end, Jiang Shining had to go out again and bring back a few more dishes in order to satisfy Xue Xian''s idea of a meal.

    ¡­

    Apart from that day eight years ago, Lu Nianqi had never been through such a traumatic experience.

    He slept for seven days straight as his fever attacked and retreated over and over. Sometimes, in his confusion, he would let out fragments of words in the middle of the night, saying "Dad," or "Shijiu," as if in refusing to open his eyes, he could make all the tragic events disappear ¨C¨C and those that had left him would stay quietly by his bed, waiting for him to wake up...

    On the seventh night, as the nightwatchman¡¯s gong rang outside, Lu Nianqi''s finger twitched and he awoke.

    His eyes were still bloodshot with fever, and under the light of the lantern, there was a glowing layer of moisture across his eyes, as though they were brimming with tears.

    "You''re awake?" Jiang Shining happened to be replacing the oil in the room¡¯s lantern, and saw that the boy had woken up. "Are you thirsty?"

    He called out to the living room, then came to the bed and removed the hot, medicine-soaked towel from Nianqi''s forehead.

    The ghost''s body was unnervingly cold, and as his hand touched Nianqi''s face, Jiang Shining saw that the boy trembled, shaking loose those puddles of moisture in his eyes, which ran down his face and onto the pillow. "Is today... touqi [e]..." Lu Nianqi mumbled.

    Jiang Shining faltered, then nodded. "Yes. The final night."

    Mute, Lu Nianqi rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. Then he pushed his blanket aside and sat up. "Is he still here? I want to be with him for the last night."

    Jiang Shining wasn''t sure if it was just him, but he felt as though, after this seven-day slumber, even Lu Nianqi¡¯s manner of speaking was closer to that of Lu Shijiu. And as the boy climbed out of bed, Jiang Shining saw that his premonition had been correct: Lu Nianqi''s slight frame had grown by multiple cun in the past week, so that instead of looking to be about seven or eight years old, he now looked twelve.

    Lu Nianqi staggered out of his bedroom and weakly nodded in greeting at the group gathered in the living room. Jiang Shining guided him to the second bedroom, and, once inside, he shut the door, refusing to come out for the rest of the night.

    That night, not a single sound came out from the room: not the sound of weeping, nor that of talking.

    When Lu Nianqi had said Be with him, he really had meant being with him. Silently, he kept Lu Shijiu company: neither overly kind nor excessively clingy, just as he had been when Lu Shijiu was alive.

    The next morning, a pale-faced Lu Nianqi walked out of the room, holding the bundle of sticks that Shijiu had left him. His black eyes fell upon Stone Zhang and he gazed at the man for a long time, then slowly said, "Please, sir, could I ask you to make me two wooden tiles?"

    Although Stone Zhang was a stonemason by profession, he also knew his way around wood, but was nowhere near as talented with it.

    Stone Zhang paused, surprised, then nodded.

    "Don''t just nod," Xue Xian piped up. "He can''t see."

    Shocked, Stone Zhang studied the boy''s eyes. Afraid to say anything else, he replied, "Of course."

    In all the years Stone Zhang had spent in Wolong County, he had met the Lu family a few times. They had never been close, but Stone Zhang could say he knew them. When he heard Lu Nianqi''s words, he immediately knew what the boy was requesting. Stone Zhang was an expert craftsman, and wood was easier to carve than stone. In no time, he was able to whittle two grave tiles and decorate them with motifs on both sides.

    "What should I write?" Stone Zhang asked.

    "On one of them, write, Here lies my late father, Lu Yuan."

    Stone Zhang did so. He first outlined the text, then carefully carved them in. When he finished, he blew the sawdust away from the tile and said, "And the other?"

    Lu Nianqi fell silent.

    What to write on the other tile? The full name? Shijiu had been too young, and had not had the chance to receive a proper full name. There was nothing to carve. And Shijiu was only a casual nickname: there were tens of thousands of Shijius in the world. If they all just reported that name in the afterlife, Yama, the King of Hell, would likely not be able to tell them apart. Besides, Lu Nianqi did not want to write Shijiu''s name down ¨C¨C he felt as though, with the stroke of that brush, his aloof and distant brother, his brother who had given his life in exchange for Lu Nianqi¡¯s, would truly be gone.

    "Never mind. Leave the other one blank. Don''t write anything," Lu Nianqi said suddenly. He took the tiles from Stone Zhang and found a piece of cloth from the closet. Refusing any help, he collected some clothing and wrapped them up in the cloth, together with the tiles, tying a tight knot.

    Next, clutching the bundle, he sat down by the table. He gestured at Xue Xian while holding the bundle of sticks. "I know what you''re planning,¡± he said. ¡°I''ve known since I opened my eyes. I''ll tell your fortune on Shijiu''s behalf, but I fear I may not be as skilled as he was. I only have one request for you. Please bury Shijiu."

    Although Lu Nianqi hated to depend on others, a burial was not something a half-blind boy could do by himself.

    "Consider it done," Xue Xian replied. [g]

    The black cloth that Stone Zhang had coughed up had been kept in Xuanmin''s pouch the whole time. Now, it was taken out and laid out across the table for Lu Nianqi to divine.

    With his glazed-over eyes, Lu Nianqi inspected the cloth. He sprayed a fine layer of dust onto the surface of the table and began to sweep his sticks across it. From his movements down to his very manner, he was exactly like Lu Shijiu had been, as though both souls resided in that same single body.

    When the sticks stopped moving, Lu Nianqi hovered a hand over the dust and frowned in concentration. Then he said, "I''m not as good at this as Shijiu. I can see that this person is currently by the river. I can sort of see what it looks like, but I don''t know where it is. But I think I''d recognise the place if I went there."

    He cleared the dust and tried again, but the result was the same.

    Lu Nianqi did not seem surprised by this result. He patted his cloth bundle and said, "If you don''t mind being burdened with me, I''d like to come with you."

    Indeed, there was no longer any living person left for him in Wolong County. Without family, his roots were gone, and there was nothing keeping him there anymore.

    Naturally, the group was happy to have such a useful soothsayer accompany them. They had already stayed in Wolong County for a very long time and had no reason to linger, so as the sun rose in the sky, they went to bury Shijiu next to his father Lu Yuan.

    Lu Nianqi knelt down and kowtowed three times in front of each grave. Then, he calmly dusted himself off and, with the grave tiles in his bundle, departed with Xuanmin and the others.

    By the time the group got onto a ferry to cross the river, the sky had darkened again and it had begun to snow.

    As the blur of soft, light snow fell, half of it fell on that fresh, nameless grave on the mountain and half of it fell on the awning of their boat; half in the yellow springs of the afterlife and half in the red dust of the living realm. It was as though the snowfall were bidding a quiet farewell to that nameless ghost and the travellers both.

    How do you tell someone you miss them, that you can''t let them go? Perhaps the most tender way is to say, You''re gone, but it''s okay, I will become you, I will take you with me.

    Time was no longer a concern. Regardless of the season or the year, they would remain together, to walk every path, to cross every river¡­

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    End of Act II ~

    Sorry, something happened on the way so this was delayed. Probably I forgot to check the calendar when going out today and it turned out to be a bad-luck day Orz

    ---

    [a] Musuli uses ÐþÊõ (xuan2 shu4) here, literally ¡°mysterious/esoteric arts/techniques¡±.

    [b] In my original TL I was binge-reading/binge-translating this and had a note here about how every character has extremely pale, almost sickly-looking skin, and wondered what was in the Song Dynasty water lol. I stand by it tbh.

    [c] Another footnote from my original TL: ¡°Also thinking about the Portrait of a lady on fire levels of eye contact and Looking in this book.... the gaze... the Gays... coincidence??? i think not.¡± <- I stand by this too.

    [d] Here, Musuli uses the phrasing she likes but that is difficult to render into English: ¡°In the time it took to drink a cup of tea.¡±

    [e] Í·Æß (tou2 qi1), literally "first seven", indicate the first seven days after someone''s death.

    [f] In Chinese, Yama is known as ÑÖÍõÒ¯ (yan2 wang2 ye2), literally ¡°King Yan¡±. This figure comes originally from Hinduism and also features in Buddhism, but has also become a more local folk figure in Buddhist-practicing countries like China.

    [g] Musuli uses the chengyu ¾ÙÊÖÖ®ÀÍ (ju3 shou3 zhi1 lao2), literally ¡°work that is done by raising one¡¯s hand¡±, which means a task/request very easily and willingly performed.

 CH 36

    Anqing Prefecture and Wolong County were only a river apart: on a clear and bright day, someone in Wolong County standing on the banks of the river would be able to see the layered mountain range across the water. On a quiet, calm day, the two regions were only a few hours apart by boat.

    But as the snowstorm worsened, the river quickly became a blanket of white, and it felt as though the only thing left in that lonely and melancholy world was their one small boat. It became impossible to tell where they were going, and so the boat slowed.

    The old boatman was a veteran professional. When Xue Xian and the others had needed to go to Gravestone Island, it had been his boat that they''d rented. He had a kindly disposition, and seemed to feel bad about having taken all that money from Xuanmin the other day. This time, seeing that they again wanted to cross the water, he had only hesitated for a moment before agreeing to bring the boat out into the blizzard.

    "I have two flasks of hot wine in my bundle. If you want, you may drink some and warm yourselves up!" the boatman said as he rowed.

    "Many thanks."

    Although everyone rushed to thank the boatman, only Xue Xian actually made a move.

    Xuanmin did not drink, nor did he fear the cold. Jiang Shining was a ghost and could not ingest anything. Lu Nianqi had zoned out as soon as they''d gotten onto the boat, and did not seem to be in the mood. Stone Zhang was trembling all over from the cold, and seemed desperate to drink the wine, but his mung-bean-like eyes only darted back and forth, and he did not dare to reach out.

    Stone Zhang had not expected the group to take him along. He¡¯d assumed that, after interrogating him and making him carve the wooden tiles, they would simply kick him onto the curb. To his surprise, they actually wanted him to cross the river with them ¨C¨C they probably wanted him to lead them to exactly where he had been taken by the mysterious patron.

    This was not necessarily a bad thing for Stone Zhang, as, if he''d stayed in Wolong, he would have just gone back to cowering in fear inside his compound. Who knew how long he''d been hiding there, clutching his bone sword, before Xue Xian and Xuanmin had barged in. Now, Stone Zhang took a surreptitious glance at Xue Xian and thought: Though this fearsome zuzong sent thunder rumbling down on me, he does not seem intent on killing me. So although Stone Zhang remained in a permanent state of terrified stupor when in Xue Xian¡¯s company, there was no other real downside to coming along with the group.

    Xue Xian cradled the wine flask in his lap, but did not make a move to drink it. In reality, he was feeling hot again, and did not need to warm himself up from the winter chill at all. He was not holding the flask for warmth: instead, he was using it to dispel some of the heat from inside him. Although the flask had been well-wrapped inside the boatman''s cloth bundle, by the time he took it out, they had already rowed halfway to Anqing and the wine was mostly cold.

    But after some time in Xue Xian''s hands, the wine began to emit a slight gurgling noise.

    Apart from the ever-silent Lu Nianqi, everyone on the boat turned to stare at the flask in Xue Xian''s lap.

    That wasn''t warm wine anymore ¨C¨C it was boiled wine!

    Stone Zhang gazed longingly at the flask as his hands trembled and his neck quivered; he looked as though he wanted to crawl inside the flask and let himself be boiled in the wine.

    As the wine heated up, its fragrant smell also rose into the air, and Stone Zhang''s eyes seemed about to pop out of his head. He rubbed his palms together like a fly rubbing its legs and said, "Ah... That wine does smell lovely. When I''m carving stone, I like to take a sip every once in a while. With a warmth in my stomach and the rush of tipsiness, my inspiration surges forward too."

    This was as good as hugging Xue Xian''s legs and crying, Give me some!

    Jiang Shining couldn''t bear to watch anymore. He nudged Xue Xian and said, "Stop teasing him, zuzong. He''s about to shake himself off the boat."

    Xue Xian shrugged and handed Stone Zhang the now furiously boiling flask of wine. He then immediately took up the second flask and began cradling that one instead.

    Stone Zhang greedily wrapped his sleeves around the flask and pressed it to his stomach. He seemed to finally come back to life. He sputtered, "I''m finally feeling warmer. These winter chills are no joke, especially on the river."

    Xue Xian peeled the second flask away from his overheated body and handed it to Stone Zhang.

    ¡°Both for me?" Stone Zhang was shocked by the kindness.

    "Are you dreaming?" Xue Xian snapped.

    Before Stone Zhang could speak again, Xuanmin, who sat by the awning, took the flask and handed it to the boatman.

    Xue Xian glanced at Xuanmin and said nothing.

    To Xue Xian, that glance was to show that he agreed with what Xuanmin had done. But...

    Silently, Jiang Shining looked over at Xue Xian, then at Xuanmin. Maybe it was just him, but in the past couple of days, Jiang Shining felt that he¡¯d begun detecting something strange between the two. [a] Or, more specifically, Xue Xian was acting strange toward Xuanmin, constantly targeting him, as though angry at him for something ¨C¨C at the same time, he seemed to be giving Xuanmin the cold shoulder.

    Of course, this zuzong was always looking for ways to annoy Xuanmin, and sometimes did conspicuously ignore him. And yet...

    Jiang Shining stared at the two for a while, then averted his gaze again and retreated into himself. These two were both powerful, and technically both were his zuzong ¨C¨C he could not afford to anger either of them, so he decided to mind his own business.

    With that, he silently shuffled away from them, closer to the edge of the boat.

    Dong¨C¨C

    As the boat suddenly shook, Stone Zhang, who had been mid-sip, lost his balance and rammed his elbow into the awning.

    "Look at how thin these bamboo strips are, and how heavy you are. You''re rocking the whole boat," Xue Xian said, glaring at Jiang Shining.

    "That wasn''t the young laoye," [b] the boatman said. He had taken a small break to drink some of the hot wine, and now seemed much more energetic. "This patch of river is just like that ¨C¨C bumpy. Each winter and summer, there are quite a few boats that capsize here. It''s not the current, but the wind that can blow the boats apart. These past couple of years, it''s gotten better. I haven''t encountered the freak wind on my trips recently, and the boat is much easier to row. But today is weird ¨C¨C it''s that damn wind again."

    Hearing the boatman''s words, Stone Zhang jolted. This cowardly one leant closer to the boatman and said, "But... but this boat won''t flip, will it?"

    Annoyed, the boatman glared at him. "The boat is running fine. How could you say such an inauspicious thing? Of course it won''t flip. I was just saying that this is a dangerous part of the river, not that a wave was going to come up right this minute."

    But then the boatman sighed and added, "Laoyes, I don''t mean to complain, but I have to be honest. The next part of the river is particularly tricky, and you might want to keep this boatman''s advice in mind. No one likes to go out on the river in this weather ¨C¨C you don''t live around here, so you don''t know how temperamental the river can be. Whereas we spend all day out here, and practically live on our boats. We can tell how dangerous the water is just by the ripples. And it''s like I said, every couple of days, the river fusses. Besides¨C¨C"

    The boatman slowed his speech and, squinting at them, he jostled the flask in his hand. "Why would you choose to go to Anqing Prefecture now? It''s not very peaceful over there."

    "Not peaceful? What do you mean?" Jiang Shining asked. His married sister lived in Anqing, so he frowned anxiously.

    "I heard another boatman talk about it the other day. He usually works on the other side of the river." The boatman lowered his voice. "He said that, a few days ago, there was an earthquake in Anqing, and the entire prefecture shook. Worst part is, the earthquake triggered a landslide in the mountain, and someone said that, as their home shook, they heard a dragon coo underground."

    A dragon coo...

    What an unscary description. The boatman made it sound like the squeaks of a rat in someone''s walls.

    "It''s called a dragon''s roar!" Xue Xian angrily corrected. He sat up stiffly. "But hold up. A dragon? That person told you they heard a dragon''s roar in Anqing?"

    "Yeah!" The boatman nodded vigorously, as though it had been him, personally, who had heard the roar. "Apparently, it was terrifying. They knelt down right then and there and started kowtowing. But strangely enough, after a few kowtows, the house stopped shaking and the landslide ended. A few people still died. But here''s the weirdest part... the weirdest part is that after the tremors, cracks appeared across town, and something crawled out. I don''t know if it was insects or something. I didn''t really get that part. Basically, it''s crazy over there."

    Hearing this, the blood drained from Jiang Shining''s face. Although, to be fair, he was a ghost, and had never looked that lively in the first place.

    After that, everyone on the boat fell into silent thought.

    Another half hour later, the boatman finally docked his boat at the river port of a tiny, palm-sized town in an unknown part of Anqing Prefecture named Wangjiang County.

    The place where they''d landed was called Guanyin Port. Scattered by the riverbank were some old-looking inns, teahouses, and wine halls. With the fierce snowstorm, they couldn''t continue deeper into Anqing ¨C¨C and the group also had Xue Xian with them, who could not walk.

    Jiang Shining got off the boat first and hurried to the nearest teahouse. "Is there somewhere here where we can hire a carriage?" he asked.

    "Not these days," replied a man who sat holding a cup of tea and sheltering from the snow. "With that landslide a few days ago, the homes mostly held together, but the barns collapsed and killed a number of horses and mules. Without them, there are of course no carriages. Besides, no one in these parts is even hiring out their mules. Don''t bother."

    The man had three long, frightening scars on his face, perhaps from being attacked by some animal. He squinted as he took a sip of hot tea, then looked back at Jiang Shining and said, "Where are you headed?"

    "Qingping County, to the north," Jiang Shining said.

    The scarred man studied him, then asked, "Scholar? Are you here to visit relatives?"

    Jiang Shining nodded.

    The man put his tea down on the table and jutted his chin out. "And those others are with you?"

    Jiang Shining turned and saw that Xuanmin was walking over, carrying the handicapped zuzong in his arms. Back at Wolong County, Xue Xian had struggled and fidgeted the whole time, trying to find a position where he didn''t look so weak, but had been unable to find one. Now, he seemed to have totally given up...

    And beside them walked Stone Zhang ¡ª cringing into his coat ¡ª and Lu Nianqi, who was still in a daze.

    The group had an old guy, a little guy, and a yaoguai, and they all looked exhausted, like refugees stealing away in the night. Poor dashi, Jiang Shining thought. Then he turned and clasped his hands together in thanks to the scarred man. Jiang Shining needed to talk to Xuanmin: he wanted to suggest that they stay at an inn for the time being, and wait out the snowstorm.

    "Don''t hold out hope for the snow to stop," the scarred man said, as though reading Jiang Shining¡¯s mind. He wiped his mouth and picked up a long cloth bundle that he''d been resting against the table, and said, "Come with us. We''re passing through Qingping County too."

    We?

    Jiang Shining was stunned. Then, as the scarred man stood up, Jiang Shining watched several other customers in the teahouse stand up too ¨C¨C there were eight of nine of them, men and women, old and young.

    Xuanmin had been about to cross the teahouse threshold when he overheard the scarred man''s words and asked Jiang Shining, "What is it?"

    "This kind da-ge [c] says he can give us a ride," Jiang Shining explained.

    The scarred man had been walking to the doorway when he noticed the black bundle in Xuanmin''s arms. He stopped and pointed. "What''s underneath this cloth?"

    Xuanmin said, "A person."

    "Dead?" The scarred man studied that draped head and frowned. "That''s an issue. We have elderly people and children. If they see this¨C¨C"

    But before he could finish, Xue Xian, suddenly regretting his death act, lifted the black cloth and said in a singsong voice, "I''m not dead. I''m alive and well."

    The scarred man: ¡°...¡±

    Silently, Jiang Shining turned his face away. He''s going to think we''re insane, and then he won''t let us onboard either.

    But that scarred man seemed actually to have a high tolerance for nonsense. He met Xue Xian''s eyes, then scanned Xue Xian¡¯s pale skin and looked at Xuanmin''s expressionless face. Probably thinking that such a duo was unlikely to make any trouble, he nodded and said, "Alright, let''s stop hanging around. The snow is going to get worse soon, and then we really won''t be able to go."

    The scarred man''s group had three horse-drawn carriages and one mule-drawn carriage.

    The horse-drawn carriages were tiny, and could only fit four people at once. The mule-drawn carriage was for their belongings.

    Jiang Shining observed the carriage train. He wanted to ask the scarred man what his group did for a living, but before he could speak, he felt a slightly warm hand land on his shoulder.

    Startled, he turned to see Xuanmin standing beside him. Xue Xian was the one gripping Jiang Shining¡¯s shoulder.

    Jiang Shining watched as the zuzong lifted the black cloth from his head to reveal a single eye staring back. Xue Xian lifted a finger to his lips and hushed Jiang Shining. In a low voice, he said, "Don''t ask, and don''t alert them. Get onto the carriage, but don''t get too close to them."

    Perhaps it was how hoarse Xue Xian''s tone was ¨C¨C close to a whisper ¨C¨C but Jiang Shining somehow felt himself begin to sweat.

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Oh right, I keep forgetting to mention: the place names in the novel are mostly real places because it makes it easier to get an impression of the distances and such. But the names of towns and cities are all made up.

    Tomorrow the update will come at the normal time~ I¡¯m so cold that I feel like a dog. Goodnight~

    ---

    [a] They''re in LOVEEEEEEE

    [b] The boatman literally calls Jiang Shining ¡°young laoye¡± or ¡°little laoye¡± here, as a form of extreme politeness.

    [c] Da-ge: see glossary.

 CH 37

    The scarred man had a frightening face that looked very intimidating, but he was actually very kind. In fact, all of the people in his ragtag group were jovial, empathetic people. After a brief conversation with the scarred man, they did not seem to mind this addition to their group at all, and actually decided to offer Xue Xian and the others a whole carriage for themselves.

    With the blizzard, it was difficult to navigate the winding mountain paths. In order to avoid anyone getting separated, the horses were all tied together by a long rope one after the other, with the mule at the very back.

    The scarred man bundled up his face from the cold and, carrying a flask of hot wine, settled into his seat at the front of the first carriage. He directed the rest of his group to take the wooden stoppers away from the carriage wheels.

    "We''re off! Sit tight," he called out, then set the horses going.

    Xue Xian and the others sat in the third carriage. It was not so difficult to fit the five of them into a four-person carriage, especially because Jiang Shining was extremely thin and Lu Nianqi was still the size of a child, and therefore technically only half a person. There was a decent amount of room.

    Xuanmin did not like to chat, and, apart from Xue Xian, no one dared to disturb him. Inside the carriage, Xuanmin was given a wide berth. As for Xue Xian...

    Stone Zhang feared Xue Xian as a rat feared a cat. Each time Xue Xian looked at him, he felt his whole scalp turn numb, as if a terrifying roll of lightning could strike down upon him from the heavens at any point.

    So when they settled into the carriage, Stone Zhang, Lu Nianqi, and Jiang Shining all sat on one side, and left the other side for the two frightening zuzong.

    Xue Xian took the black robe off of his face and sat down. He looked across from him, then looked back at where he sat. What he saw made him grin, and he said to them, "Thanks, guys."

    Stone Zhang''s face scrunched up in pain and he looked away. ¡°...¡± There are three of us here. Why did he have to look straight at me?

    The scarred man and his companions were definitely well-travelled, and the animals appeared used to life on the road, too ¨C¨C the horses and mule only needed the scarred man at the head of the train to point them in the right direction, and each followed steadily. It was effortless.

    The carriages were also well-decorated: the windows had thick, heavy curtains nailed over them, to block the wind.

    In the middle of the carriage was a rectangular wooden table that was just the right height: tall enough for them to stretch out their legs with room to spare for them to place their belongings. A small shelf had been wedged into the corner of the carriage and held a lantern that they could light at any time, as well as folded stacks of blankets ¨C¨C the kind that elderly people used to drape over their legs in the winter.

    "They have everything here," Stone Zhang observed. "It seems that they travel a lot. They basically live on the road."

    Before they''d gotten on, one of the kindly old ladies had even given them a small portable heater to help warm up the carriage, as well as another small bundle, saying, "There is some food in here, and the carriage has wine. If you''re cold, have some ¨C¨C it''ll help. We''re taking two mountain roads and the snow has made them slippery, so there''s no guarantee we''ll get to the next town before nightfall. Don''t get too hungry."

    Stone Zhang had said No, no, keep it, keep it, but had all the while taken the heater tightly into his arms, with no intention of letting it go again.

    Although the carriage was better than being outside, it was still freezing cold.

    As Stone Zhang warmed his stiff fingers with the heater, his eyes kept darting to the stack of blankets in the corner. But Jiang Shining and Lu Nianqi sat between him and the blankets, so he could not simply reach over and take them. He did not want to do anything that might cause the two zuzongs, Xue Xian and Xuanmin, to remember that he existed.

    Stone Zhang''s eyes swivelled around. He turned to Lu Nianqi and said, "Take one of those blankets. We can share it and put the heater between us, warm up our knees. What do you think?"

    Lu Nianqi glanced back at him. Although disdain did not explicitly cross his face, it might as well have. "No. I''m not cold. Just use it yourself."

    Stone Zhang still didn¡¯t want to let go of the heater, so he pointed at Lu Nianqi''s hands with his chin. "Look at how cold those hands are," he said. "Have you ever had an ulcer? In this kind of humid, cold weather, if you don''t at least stick your hands into your sleeves, you''ll get an ulcer ¨C¨C and then you''ll be sorry. They''re swollen and itchy, and susceptible to frostbite as well. The worst is if you get one on a joint. Each time you move your finger, you crack the ulcer and the flesh squeezes out of it. You ¨C¨C"

    Lu Nianqi''s scowled. He grabbed a thin blanket from the pile and dropped it over both their knees. "Sir, please stop talking." [a]

    That tone was half Lu Nianqi and half Lu Shijiu ¨C¨C as though his stubborn core were wrapped up in a skin of restraint.

    But Stone Zhang didn''t pay attention to that. Delighted, he made sure the blanket was well-arranged on their legs, then slipped the heater inside. In an instant, the heater had filled the blanket with a pleasant warmth. The heat seeped into their flesh and bones and climbed up their frozen knees ¨C¨C so comfortable!

    Even the angry-looking Lu Nianqi''s pale face started to flush a little after a while. His finger twitched, then he gave in and reached his hands into the blanket too.

    "Ai ¨C¨C there you go," Stone Zhang said. "You''re much too young to be behaving this way. There''s nothing embarrassing about protecting yourself from the cold."

    Lu Nianqi turned his face away and pretended that Stone Zhang¡¯s voice was merely wind by his ears.

    "At my age, if I don''t protect my knees, when I''m old, I''ll be unable to walk at all." Stone Zhang continued. He loved the sound of his own voice. Ever since they''d gotten into the carriage, he had chattered away non-stop ¨C¨C now that was a talent, too.

    But as soon as he said that, he felt that something was off. He lifted his head and instantly met eyes with Xue ¡®unable to walk at all¡¯ Xian.

    Stone Zhang''s mouth dropped. He shrank his neck and tried to make himself as small as he could, then stammered, "I''ll... I''ll shut up. I¡¯ll shut up."

    Once Stone Zhang fell silent, Jiang Shining, who had not said a word, massaged his temple and began to speak. "Earlier, before we got onto the carriage, you held me back and told me not to ask anything. What did that mean? They..."

    Jiang Shining instinctively looked beyond the gap in the thick curtains at the other carriages outside. He lowered his voice and said, "Is there something wrong with them? If so, why did we get on?"

    Stone Zhang piped up again. "They aren''t bandits, are they? But they gave us the heater and food. Could they really be evil?"

    Then he slapped his own mouth. "That''s my last sentence. I''ll really shut up now."

    Lu Nianqi rolled his eyes. He was sick to death of the man, but he had acquired some of Lu Shijiu¡¯s calmness, and had learned to bite his tongue.

    Xue Xian began to rifle through the carriage, looking for the wine that the old woman had mentioned. As he did so, he said, "There''s a taboo here, [b] so I can''t really talk about it. But I took a look earlier. The two bundles they brought into the mule carriage weren''t wrapped that tightly, and some clothing fell out."

    "Oh, I saw it too," Jiang Shining said. "All patterned and colorful. Have you been to the theatre before? They looked like theatre costumes to me."

    Xue Xian found the wine flask and began to cradle it again, heating it quickly to a boil.

    "This wine really does smell good," Xue Xian mumbled. Then he replied to Jiang Shining, "Why would I watch theatre? Is theatre more interesting than me?"

    Jiang Shining: ¡°...¡± True. You have more drama than any troupe.

    "Can I say something?" Stone Zhang asked.

    "No one blocked your mouth and pulled out your tongue," Xue Xian snapped. "Cut the crap and say what you have to say."

    "When they were moving things into the carriage, I actually went and looked inside the mule carriage," Stone Zhang said. "This young xiansheng [c] guessed right. They had all sorts of props inside the carriage, and instruments like drums and gongs. They are performers, the travelling kind of troupe made up of all sorts of people, who travel everywhere and don¡¯t have a fixed home. That man with the three scars on his face is probably the troupe leader. And I counted the rest of them. The young and old ones are the huadan, laodan, xiaosheng, and zhengsheng. And the others probably play the clown roles and the jing roles. [d] Put together, they can do quite a big performance."

    There was no small number of theatre troupes in Anqing Prefecture. Some were performers at wine halls and were able to avoid trawling through rain and snow ¨C¨C they did quite well for themselves. The famous ones among them even had celebrity actors. But other troupes had no fixed venue, and travelled far and wide setting up shows in small towns. Sometimes they''d be invited by local wine halls for a guest performance, or else they simply set up a stage on the street to busk.

    "That da-ge told me that they were also going to Qingping County," Jiang Shining said. "But if there''s a taboo, then let''s not talk about it. Since you didn''t stop us from getting on, then surely there''s no issue in travelling together for a while. Right?"

    "As long as we don''t go on roads we''re not meant to go on, then it''s fine," Xue Xian said.

    He put the rumbling flask onto the wooden table.

    Surreptitiously, Stone Zhang reached for the wine. But Xuanmin, who sat directly across from him, suddenly twitched his finger, and Stone Zhang felt as though there was something invisible pressing his hands down. It struck a pressure point, and his wrists went limp.

    "This wine cannot be drunk," Xuanmin said coldly, without so much as a look at Stone Zhang.

    "Ah?" Stunned, Stone Zhang''s mind began to fill with questions as he awkwardly took his hands back. He thought for a while, then glanced at the bundle of food that the old woman had given them. "So the food --"

    "Eat it. Then there''ll only be four people in this carriage, and we''ll all have more room," Xue Xian said.

    Stone Zhang: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian flexed his wrists. He felt uncomfortable.

    The hot feeling inside his body was still relentlessly churning within him. It wasn''t as bad as when he''d been in his small dragon form, but it was still a bother. All he could do was direct all the heat into his hand, and then find some cold object to cool his hands off. Now that he had nowhere to transfer the heat anymore, he began to feel irritable.

    Silently staring at the ceiling, he slipped his hand beneath the wooden table and pretended to casually rest it there. In reality, he was holding the table leg.

    Soon, [e] the carriage train happened to cross a bumpy patch, jolting one side of the carriage. Jiang Shining and the others rocked forward and unconsciously shot out their hands to steady themselves against the table.

    "Ow!" Jiang Shining hissed, tugging his hands back and blowing at them.

    Stone Zhang cried out too.

    Lu Nianqi only brusquely yanked his hand away and glared at Xue Xian. "If you keep touching the table, you''re going to set it on fire."

    The troublemaker Xue Xian pretended not to hear and averted his gaze to stare intently at the heavy curtain on the window. Then, he slowly removed his hand from the table and gripped the edge of his bench instead.

    A short time later, [e] Xuanmin shook his head and pinched Xue Xian¡¯s wrist, prying it away from their seat. "Enough. Find somewhere else."

    If Xue Xian kept going, would this carriage even be fit for sitting anymore?

    Xue Xian thought for a while, then put his hands on the carriage door.

    Now the whole carriage warmed up, but the temperature was rising too quickly. The air became hotter and hotter.

    Wordlessly, Lu Nianqi stiffened his neck and pushed the blanket off his knees, then shoved the heater back into Stone Zhang''s lap.

    As for Jiang Shining, he pushed open the curtain and discreetly let in a sliver of fresh air. To a rogue ghost used to the freezing cold, this temperature was absurd. He felt as though they were baozi in a bamboo steamer ¨C¨C their skins were already cooked, and, in a short while, their filling would be ready too.

    As the carriage became increasingly stuffy, finally, it was Xuanmin who spoke up. "If it gets any hotter, there will be three extra spaces in this carriage."

    Those three baozi, almost ready to be picked out of the pot, all glared at Xue Xian.

    This zuzong raised his eyelids. Then, in an exaggerated magnanimous gesture, he peeled his hands away from the carriage door. He was about to reach for the lantern in the corner when Xuanmin intercepted his wrist.

    If he overheated that frail ceramic lantern, it would no doubt explode.

    Now Xue Xian made for the metal hinges on the carriage door, but Xuanmin swatted his wrist away again.

    He definitely couldn''t touch the metal hinges. He''d melt them, and then they wouldn''t be able to get out.

    Xue Xian had been blocked over and over again, and each time by that nefarious bald donkey. Xue Xian''s temper exploded. He glowered at Xuanmin from the corner of his eye, then suddenly took out his pair of claws and stuffed them into the neck part of Xuanmin¡¯s collar. "If you block me again, I''ll fucking boil you!¡±

    Xuanmin: ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡±

    The three sitting across from them watched, stunned. None of them dared to speak ¨C¨C they feared that if they made a sound, it would be their own necks at stake. Quickly, they all dropped their gazes and looked away.

    How were they supposed to live like this?

    Suddenly, there came the sound of the horses ahead whinnying loudly. The scarred man made a long hu¨C¨C¨C noise, then began to console the horses. "Shh... Shh... Don''t be afraid," he said, coaxing.

    As the train came to an emergency stop, the horses bumped into the carriages and all began to whine.

    "Why did we stop?" Jiang Shining asked, anxious. "Are we in trouble?"

    He looked at Xue Xian and said, "What was it you were saying before? We''d be fine as long as we didn''t do... something... Do you really think we''d be that unlucky?"

    Ever since Xue Xian had mysteriously warned him, Jiang Shining had been consumed by panic, terrified that something might happen. But it was as folk always said... whatever it is you''re scared of, it will happen for sure.

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Suddenly noticed that I gained loads more donations in one day, is this the tax at the end of the month? Hahahahaha, thank you~

    [Acknowledgments]

    ---

    [a] Here the former you, Äú (nin2) is used. Since that does not in English, I added ¡°sir¡±.

    [b] ¼É»ä (ji4 hui) literally means ¡°taboo¡±, a word that cannot be said aloud. In this context, there is a tangible connotation to it: if something forbidden is said aloud, it might awaken something or engender other magical/mystical/ghostly consequences.

    [c] Xiansheng: see glossary.

    [d] See this informative site on different Peking opera roles: https://www.chinaeducationaltours.com/guide/culture-peking-opera-performers-and-roles.htm

    [e] Here, Musuli uses the phrasing she likes but that is difficult to render into English: ¡°In the time it took to drink a cup of tea.¡±

 CH 38

    A small mountain range lay between Guanyin Port and the nearest town, to the north. Because of the slippery snow, those mountain paths were extremely difficult to maneuver. Some routes had even been completely blocked out by the snowfall, and required travellers to make detours.

    Such was the situation that the scarred man had encountered today¨C¨C

    The first carriage had stopped in an extremely dangerous position. Only one zhang ahead of them was a drastic cliff. Normally, there were two bridges on the cliff that could bring them to the two mountain paths ahead ¨C¨C one east and one west ¨C¨C which allowed them to avoid the massive, unscalable peak in the middle.

    "What''s wrong?" Having cooled himself down temporarily on Xuanmin''s neck, Xue Xian was in a better mood. Pretending that nothing was wrong inside the carriage, he pushed open the door and stuck his head out, calling to the troupe. "Do you need a hand?"

    From afar, the scarred man called back, "It''s fine. The bridge that we''d planned to cross has snapped. We have to take the other path..."

    The horse at the front of the train continued to whinny and seemed extremely agitated. If it hadn''t been for the scarred man stopping them at just the right time, that horse would long have tumbled down the side of the cliff.

    "How could a bridge just snap?" An old man said as he descended from one of the carriages ahead. "Did we take the right turn? What did I say? We still need these old horses of mine to show us the way."

    "Lao-Li, stop wheedling me. I do know the way," the scarred man said. "Get back into the carriage. Don''t get out for no reason, or you''ll freeze your throat and lose your singing voice."

    Xue Xian saw that the old man surnamed Li did not obey the scarred man and return to the carriage. Instead, he walked through the snow toward that first horse. He took a look at the cliff, then cried out, "What the hell? How could it snap so cleanly?... Huh. So now we have to take the eastern path?"

    But unlike the scarred man, this Lao-Li seemed extremely reluctant to take the detour, as though to take that other path would curse his family with eight hundred years of bad luck.

    Xue Xian''s hearing was far sharper than humans'', so he could hear every word of the men''s exchange. He asked, "Is the eastern route bad?"

    He had not tried to project his voice, but nonetheless, his words ¨C¨C along with the snowflakes around him ¨C¨C were carried by the eddies of wind into the ears of the men at the front.

    The two men were stunned. Then they turned to Xue Xian and shouted, "It''s fine, don''t worry. It''s just that the eastern route is longer, and rocks fall onto it often. But if we''re careful, we can still get through."

    "Is it really fine?" Jiang Shining asked from inside the carriage, his face gaunt.

    Xue Xian strained his eyes past the thick snow to study the men''s expressions. Squinting, he shook his head and said, "They don''t seem too bothered, but... Oh, I don''t know how to say it. Let''s just go."

    The always silent Xuanmin stirred next to him and pushed the curtain aside. "No worries. Let me see."

    His serene tone helped everyone in the carriage relax. Even Xue Xian, who had constantly been bothering Xuanmin in the past few days, had to admit that ¨C¨C never mind anything else ¨C¨C this bald donkey was handy for solving problems.

    Then, just as the thought flashed through this daye¡¯s mind, he stopped himself again. ...Why would I randomly describe the bald donkey as ''handy''...

    It just seemed like the way you''d describe something dear to you, something you kept near you at all times ¨C¨C for something to be ''handy'', you had to have it in your hand...

    Still leaning out of the door, Xue Xian pondered this for a moment. Then he chastised himself. He decided that he must have ingested rat poison, to suddenly have had such a weird thought.

    But the bald donkey was a simple mortal. Once Xue Xian returned to his ordinary form, he''d be a divine dragon, and would easily be able to pick up Xuanmin with his claw. So...

    Never mind holding Xuanmin in his hand: even dangling Xuanmin from his teeth was as simple as opening his mouth. So there!

    This made the shameless zuzong feel better about himself again. He felt majestic.

    As he concocted an elaborate fantasy of a battle between man and dragon, Xue Xian couldn''t help but sneak a peek at Xuanmin inside the carriage.

    Xuanmin noticed this. As he had no idea what was going through Xue Xian¡¯s mind, he felt intrigued.

    With his detached disposition, Xuanmin never usually thought too much about whether or not others were staring at him. Thus, he decided that this zuzong was simply overheating and in a bad mood, and did not want to add oil to the fire, so Xuanmin only glanced at Xue Xian, then went back to peering out the window.

    But in a way, that brief look of curiosity had, in fact, been oil to the fire.

    When Xue Xian saw the frosty way in which Xuanmin had dismissed him, he felt an itch in his hand ¨C¨C a strong urge to go ahead and fight Xuanmin then and there. Although Xue Xian knew that this made no sense ¨C¨C this was not his first day with Xuanmin, and he had long gotten used to the neither cold nor warm way in which Xuanmin treated those around him ¨C¨C Xue Xian just... didn''t feel good.

    It was as though the qi that had been happily swimming around his body had suddenly gotten blocked somewhere ¨C¨C it wasn''t a big deal, nor was it painful, but it was just uncomfortable.

    Another mass of hot air swelled inside Xue Xian''s body, lapping up at him like incessant waves. He could not keep it at bay for long at all, and it seemed that it would never go away.

    Annoying.

    At the front of the train, the scarred man was gripping the rope binding the horses to the carriages, trying to move the animals toward the eastern bridge. But the leading horse was even fussier than Xue Xian. It snorted and whinnied, pounding its hooves on the ground, and refused to budge.

    "We''ve tried the whip, we''ve tried the carrot, and we''ve tried calming it. Why won''t it take a single step forward? It never used to be like this. How strange," Lao-Li mumbled angrily.

    "It just won''t cooperate with us today. They all say that horses are innately attuned to spiritual things. [a] Perhaps it was startled earlier and now senses danger ahead, and doesn''t want to go," the scarred man said. But he began to pat the horse''s neck. He alternated with harder and softer pats, and, finally, the horse grunted and reluctantly took a few steps forward.

    Slowly, the wheels of the carriages began to turn again. Lao-Li hurried back into his carriage, but his expression seemed still to be one of panic and worry. Before he disappeared into the carriage, he happened to meet eyes with Xue Xian and forced himself to replace his anxious look with a placating one. "It''s fine. The horse didn''t want to go, so we had a delay. But we''re moving again now."

    The small incident on the road seemed to have been solved. It was troublesome, but it was far from what Jiang Shining had feared.

    Xue Xian nodded at Lao-Li as a word of thanks and shut their own carriage door, but remained sitting at the doorway with his arms wrapped around himself. He seemed no longer intent on using Xuanmin to cool himself off, and did not speak, either. He seemed unusually idle.

    The bridge that the scarred man was now taking was slightly wider than the other one. The horses and mule carried them gently across the ravine, and there was even extra room on the sides of the train. Nothing seemed to be wrong.

    Then they got onto the path on the other side, and the horse''s behavior changed again ¨C¨C it kept starting and stopping.

    Each time, they could hear the men ahead trying to persuade the horse to go on, at times coaxing, at times scolding. The sound of the wheels crunching against the snow and the horse''s irritated whinnies were pierced, every so often, by the cracks of a whip. As they headed deeper into the mountain range, the feeling became increasingly unsettling.

    "Has it really been resolved? Why do I feel so nervous?" Jiang Shining asked, his face full of worry. He sat as rigidly as a pin on a pincushion, and seemed a completely different person compared to his normally sluggish self.

    After another bout of fretting, Jiang Shining seemed also to realise how unusual his behavior was. Finally, he said, "Why have I been so anxious ever since we entered the mountain range?"

    Xue Xian''s voice didn''t betray any hint of emotion when he said, "Lots of yin energy."

    Normally, there was always a specific and lively tone to his voice. Sometimes he sneered and other times he mocked, but he always displayed a wide range of complicated, interlocking emotions, and was obviously the kind of person who could never stay still.

    So the dull and mild tone he employed now was too different from his normal demeanor, making Jiang Shining wonder if something was wrong.

    But Jiang Shining decided that it was best not to say anything, in case he provoked the zuzong. Still, he couldn''t ignore the rising sense of panic derived from the four words Xue Xian had uttered.

    What did ''lots of yin energy'' mean?

    Xue Xian didn¡¯t elaborate. It was Lu Nianqi who clutched his bundle of sticks and said, "If I remember correctly, that boatman said there had been a landslide in Anqing Prefecture."

    "Mn?" Jiang Shining turned to the boy.

    Blank-faced, Lu Nianqi stared back at him and said in a dull voice, "Do you think there are dead people from the landslide on this mountain?"

    Jiang Shining: ¡°...¡±

    Was this kid doing it on purpose? Why did he sound like he was telling a ghost story?

    Stone Zhang looked like he was about to cry again. "How old are you, child? Stop trying to scare people for no reason!"

    Lu Nianqi rolled his eyes and tapped at his sticks.

    Xue Xian felt that his palms were burning up again, but sat unmoving in the corner with those passive, half-closed eyes. He seemed not to be planning any further mischief, yet his unusual demeanor only made the others in the carriage feel an even stronger sense of foreboding.

    As the carriage fell into silence, Jiang Shining couldn''t tell if it was just his paranoia, but he had the feeling that the peaceful silence was a pot of soup, in which they were all stewing...

    They were taking forever to traverse this mountain path, and the leading horse was still acting off. It would run for a couple of steps, then slow down to a walk, and then slow down more to a shuffle...

    An hour passed before they''d even made it halfway across.

    Xuanmin was still using a hand to hold the curtain open, staring out of the window in contemplation. Because he said nothing, Jiang Shining took this as a reassuring sign.

    By this point, Xue Xian''s palms were becoming extremely uncomfortable ¨C¨C he could not even accurately describe them as ¡®burning¡¯ anymore. He languished and gave up trying to find something with which to direct the heat away.

    Now that he had lost interest in making mischief, he found that nothing seemed fun at all anymore.

    The heat isn''t completely unbearable yet. Let it burn, he muttered inside.

    Just as that scorching heat began to clamber up his wrist and spread across the rest of his body, a slender hand suddenly appeared before Xue Xian''s eyes.

    Stunned, Xue Xian rubbed his eyes and looked around. He saw that Xuanmin was still sitting by the window with one hand against the curtain, staring out peacefully ¨C¨C but his left hand was now hovering in front of Xue Xian''s face, palm up.

    For some reason, Xue Xian''s heartbeat quickened. [b] But he quickly came back to his senses and said in an instinctively cold tone, "Why are you suddenly showing off your hand to me?"

    Finally, Xuanmin temporarily tore his gaze away from the window and glanced at Xue Xian, whose hands were still clinging tightly to his own shoulders. "Do you not need something to cool you down?" he asked.

    Then, he went back to looking outside. His hand continued to hover in front of Xue Xian. He had not taken it away.

    All the anger Xue Xian had been keeping inside of him suddenly evaporated.

    But Xue Xian still had a shred of that untouchable pride in him. As he gazed down at Xuanmin''s hand, he bit down on the tip of his tongue and frowned, thinking. Finally, he wiggled his chin and said in a demurring voice, "Fine. For once, since you''re making sense... Don''t mind if I do."

    Eagerly now, he reached out with those two claws and wrapped one tightly around the cool hand that Xuanmin had given him. The other of Xue Xian''s hands crept slowly in the direction of Xuanmin''s face, trying to lock itself there.

    Xuanmin pushed that hand away.

    As Xue Xian felt the heat settle a bit, he relaxed and sighed a happy sigh. But then Xuanmin suddenly frowned.

    "What is it?" Seeing Xuanmin''s expression, Xue Xian followed the monk''s gaze and peered out of the gap in the curtain too.

    As the path curved around the side of the mountain, they could see some of the route far ahead. Part of it was completely covered in a massive pile of fallen rocks. The rocks blocked a large part of the road, and were in complete disarray, but Xue Xian could see something crushed beneath them.

    "Is that... a horse-drawn carriage crushed beneath the boulders? Are there still people inside?!" Jiang Shining exclaimed as he also stuck his head out. He could not see much from his perspective, so he strained his neck to get a good view.

    "It is a carriage..." Xue Xian said. Then, gloomily, he added, "Keep looking. Don''t you think that carriage looks awfully familiar?"

    Jiang Shining froze in shock. He suddenly understood why Xue Xian had told him not to get too close to the scarred man and his troupe...

    "You mean... they.... they''re all..."

    "Shhh," Xue Xian interrupted. "When you encounter such people, a certain word is taboo. If you say it out loud, they''ll wake up."

    He paused. Then he added, "We can''t let them see..."

    He paused again, and gestured outside with his chin. "Or else, the peace will be broken."

    But the horses were trotting that way, and there was only one narrow path on the mountain. There was no way to turn back.

    "How in the world can we avoid it?" Jiang Shining asked, a cold feeling settling into his chest.

    ----

    The author has something to say:

    Four high-speed trains in seven days: achievement unlocked! (Nothing left to live for.jpg)

    I typed all this up while on the journey. I hope there aren¡¯t too many typos orz.

    ----

    [a] Musuli uses ÁéÐÔ (ling2 xing4) here, ¡°magical/mystical characteristics/personality¡±.

    [b] Note from my original TL that I stand by: ¡°I''m not gonna lie... I see why slow burns are so appealing now. Every single action is filled with so much YEARNING. i YEARN!!!!!!!!!!!! it''s so painful and yet so good!!!!¡±

 CH 39

    The weather was humid and dark in these parts, so the snow didn''t build up as fast as it might elsewhere. There was only a thin layer of white along the mountain path, and, as groups of people traversed it over the course of the day, some parts had turned to sleet and then hardened into ice. The path was therefore dangerously slippery. The horse at the front of the train was still snorting and whinnying endlessly, and only moved when struck by the whip, hurtling between starting and stopping.

    But no matter how slowly they were going, they would only have to go a little bit further to come upon that pile of fallen boulders.

    "They really have... no idea at all?" Jiang Shining asked, his neck stiff and his face contorting with fear as he waited for Xuanmin or Xue Xian to respond.

    Xue Xian said, "I wouldn''t say they have no idea at all. If you look at them¨C¨C" He jutted his chin in the general direction of the other carriages¨C¨C "That horse has been terrified this whole time. And earlier, when we were at the bridge, both the scarred man and Lao-Li seemed really reluctant to come here, too. There''s something in them that''s telling them to avoid this route."

    When humans got the sense that something bad was coming up, of course they wanted to avoid it.

    Despite not having use of his legs, this zuzong was not one to sit quietly. Unable to stand up and bend over to look out the window, he had instead managed to get his entire body to lean horizontally on the bench and hang his chin on the windowsill. Xuanmin had no choice but to scoot to the very edge of the bench in order to give Xue Xian the space he needed. Earlier, allowing this zuzong to use Xuanmin¡¯s hand to cool down seemed to have helped him achieve balance again, and he now had the strength to move his upper body this way and that.

    Initially, all Xuanmin had done was come across a couple of yao and scoop them up with some scrap metal. But here they all were. How had they ended up like this?

    As Jiang Shining sat on his side of the carriage, the shaking hand that fidgeted with his robe betrayed his anxiety.

    Lu Nianqi happened to accidentally graze him with his knee, and could feel Jiang Shining¡¯s nervousness. Lu Nianqi couldn''t help but glance at Jiang Shining with his half-blind eyes and say, "I''ve never seen a ghost scared of ghosts."

    ¡°...¡± Jiang Shining shot back, "Remember when you were screaming and crying for your parents back in the tomb?"

    Hurt by Jiang Shining''s comment, Lu Nianqi clicked his tongue and turned away, no longer in the mood to mock him.

    Lu Nianqi was young and not all that courageous ¨C¨C just extremely stubborn and deathly attached to his pride. He tried to pretend to be brave as much as he could, but what had happened at Gravestone Island had been beyond his limits, so his true feelings had been exposed.

    In contrast, Lu Shijiu had begun seeing things that normal people could not see from a very young age, and, being used to encountering all sorts of strange and ghostly [a] things, he naturally had never been afraid of them.

    It was only now that Lu Nianqi had absorbed some of Shijiu¡¯s personality that he could truly feel a bit calmer.

    Lu Nianqi quieted down, and Jiang Shining had been chastised by his comment ¨C¨C but now it was Stone Zhang¡¯s turn to begin acting up.

    Learning for the first time that Jiang Shining was a ghost, Stone Zhang began to feel very unwell. His mung-bean eyes swivelled around the carriage, taking in his companions. Out of the five ¡®people¡¯ here, apart from him, all the others were deeply abnormal... and in the carriage in front of him, and the carriage in front of that, and even the animals drawing the carriages... none of them were alive...

    Dear mama, what in the world is going on?!

    Stone Zhang wanted to cry. He clutched the heater closer and pressed back into the carriage wall, as though he could use sheer will to turn his potbellied frame flat. He was trying to make sure no one else noticed him.

    "A bit more¨C¨C" Xue Xian said, staring out the window. "Wait for the horse to take a couple more steps."

    The train had advanced by a huge chunk. The path wound down the steep mountain, and the pile of rocks was further ahead. While they previously had had to crane their necks to see the rocks in the distance, that pile was now downhill, almost beneath their feet. As the carriage eked closer to the pile, all the theatre troupe members had to do was look directly down the side of the mountain at the next curve of the road, and see the crushed carriage below.

    And the closer they got to the pile, the more the horses were agitated. This was obvious just from the sounds of the scarred man trying every trick in the book to get the horses to obey him. And maybe it was because the atmosphere in the group was so high-strung, but the scarred man''s voice sounded increasingly panicked, and voices had begun to emerge from the carriages in the front as the troupe members murmured amongst each other.

    It was a highly stressful environment.

    "¡­Do you think they''ll look out of the window and see it?" Jiang Shining couldn''t help but ask.

    "No," Xuanmin said matter-of-factly.

    Xuanmin hated to speak, and even when he had to explain something, he made sure he only said what was important. This categorical and straightforward approach was highly reassuring, because it left no room for anyone to suspect that he had left something out.

    Jiang Shining felt better. But Stone Zhang asked, "How are you so sure?"

    "Because they''re scared too! Stop asking so many questions," Xue Xian snapped. He was still facing out of the window and did not bother to look at Stone Zhang before adding, "Your tongue seems to be the only lean meat across your entire body. I should cut it off and use it to make wine."

    Make wine...

    ¡°...¡± Xuanmin frowned.

    The niezhang being argumentative was one thing, but did he really have to conjure up such disgusting images?

    Xuanmin scanned the outside, then lifted his other hand and patted Xue Xian on the shoulder. "I''m going out."

    Stunned, Xue Xian turned to him. "You?"

    "Mn." It was either that, or sit around here listening to certain people say all kinds of creepy nonsense. Xuanmin feared that if he listened to too much of it, he¡¯d lose my appetite for the next ten days.

    "Can you do it?" Xue Xian squinted. "The carriage is going to get there really soon. Can you make it in time?"

    Xuanmin nudged Xue Xian¡¯s shoulder, silently asking him to get away from the window and sit back properly on his seat. Then, Xuanmin unhooked the copper coin pendant from his hip and stepped over Xue Xian''s head.

    He was too tall for the tiny carriage, and had to half-bend. One of his hands was still being gripped by Xue Xian, so Xuanmin used that leverage to help push himself out of the carriage door. His white monk''s robe was like the wind and snow blowing past them all ¨C¨C in one flurry, he was gone.

    Seeing this, Stone Zhang was dumbfounded. He rushed to the window and saw that that snow-white shadow had already flipped down to the next stretch of road below. Xuanmin made no noise ¨C¨C not a single pebble had been disturbed by his descent.

    The group inside the carriage seemed struck by the elegant manner in which Xuanmin had departed ¨C¨C all except Xue Xian...

    He snorted. It was so-so, he thought. Still not as good as me.

    Despite this, Xue Xian still nudged himself across the bench so that he now sat where Xuanmin had been. With one hand pressed on the heavy curtain, he stared out and watched as Xuanmin made his way across the mountain road.

    Xuanmin stood steadily atop the pile of fallen rocks. Although his feet rested on tiny rocks the size of fists, he did not allow himself to teeter even slightly. Raising his head, Xuanmin looked at the side of the mountain ¨C¨C between the uphill part of the path, where the carriage train currently was, and the downhill part, where he was now, there was an enormous chunk of rock missing. Because of this, even the uphill section looked fragile, as though any further weight would send everything sliding down again.

    That missing chunk was the part of the mountain that had fallen, turning into the pile on which Xuanmin now stood. The biggest of these rocks were boulders around half his height ¨C¨C with a landslide that violent, never mind wooden carriages, even metal carriages were sure to have been flattened.

    Apart from the corner of a carriage that they had spied from afar and a blue cloth curtain, everything else remained buried tightly underneath the pile of rocks. The corpses probably did not even look human anymore. Even if they were unearthed one day, they would probably have been torn to pieces, limbs strewn all across the path.

    Xuanmin thought for a while, then had an idea.

    Xue Xian was not the only one monitoring all of Xuanmin''s movements ¨C¨C Stone Zhang and Jiang Shining were also jostling for space at the window, and even Lu Nianqi could not help but peer out.

    "What are you craning your neck for?" Xue Xian snapped at the kid. "You took a few days¡¯ nap, and now your eyes can see normally again?"

    Neutrally, Lu Nianqi replied, "Thank you for your concern. Unfortunately, my vision is actually even blurrier."

    The blurrier his vision, the blinder he was becoming, and the more qi he could see. Naturally, qi silhouettes were not crystal clear.

    Actually, Xue Xian was quite curious. As a divine creature, his vision was of course far sharper than that of humans, and he could hardly imagine what Lu Shijiu¡¯s... and now Lu Nianqi''s... world looked like.

    "Just looking at you from this distance, I can''t tell if you''re human or beast," Lu Nianqi said, describing his perspective.

    But...

    That did not sound right at all ¨C¨C it sounded much more like the boy was mocking him.

    "That means you''re getting better at seeing qi," Xue Xian said. Then, miffed, he went back to looking at Xuanmin outside.

    From his angle, Xue Xian could see everything that Xuanmin was doing.

    They say that swords, especially those yao-swords in legends, need to be awakened with fresh blood ¨C¨C only blood could unlock their true potential, and then they were able to slice through wind and chop through water. And although Xuanmin''s copper coin pendant had neither cutting edge nor sharp point, for some reason, they seemed to require being awakened by blood, too.

    Xue Xian watched as Xuanmin cut another gash across his fingertip and rubbed his blood onto the surface of the coins.

    With a weng¨C¨C sound, the coins seemed to come to life. They began to lightly quiver, emitting a lugubrious ringing sound that echoed out faintly and hollowly into the howling snowstorm. As Xue Xian heard this noise, something in his ear felt uncomfortable, and he frowned.

    Xuanmin arranged the five coins of the pendant into five positions on his palm ¨C¨C north, south, east, west, and center. He took out some talismanic paper from his chest pocket, but the talismans were empty, with nothing inscribed on them at all.

    Xuanmin folded the yellow sheets of paper and bent down to arrange them in the four cardinal directions by his feet, each paper weighed down by rocks. Next, the fingers of his right hand hovered over the copper coins in his left hand, and his pale lips parted, as though reciting a prayer.

    But it didn''t seem like a full prayer ¨C¨C more like a short, fragmented phrase.

    And with that, the copper coins that had previously been resting on Xuanmin''s palm now raised themselves into the air and began to slowly spin.

    As Xuanmin uttered his Buddhist chant-like phrase and brushed the east-facing coin, the east-facing talisman, quivering beneath its rock, suddenly began to show a thin stream of blood, as though an invisible hand had dipped a brush in crimson ink and was steadily inscribing talismanic text onto it.

    When the complicated text had been written, Xuanmin spun the hovering ring of coins in his hand for another half-circle, then put away that invisible brush.

    Next was south;

    Then north;

    And finally west...

    In the instant that the four talismans were completed, an enormous gust of wind appeared.  It sounded like the roar of a tiger or the howl of a wolf. This wind was so powerful that even the heavy curtain of the group¡¯s own carriage flapped violently, slapping against Stone Zhang''s head with a pili pala sound.

    ¡°...¡± Stone Zhang felt that he was the unluckiest man in the world. He pawed at his stinging face, then reached out and tore the entire curtain away from the window. The carriage was now completely vulnerable to the wind, and a chilling winter air blasted inside, carrying a thin stream of snow.

    The snow was cold and bristling, and blew so hard against their faces that Stone Zhang and Jiang Shining could barely keep their eyes open.

    They blinked hard, and lifted a hand to shield their foreheads ¨C¨C only then could they open their eyes and look out at the scene on the mountain again.

    "Huh¨C¨C" Stone Zhang gasped.

    The wind that Xuanmin had summoned came hurtling towards the pile of rocks and slithered beneath them. In that instant, the boulders, as well as the carriages crushed below, began to float in the air, entirely lifted by that savage wind, and slowly glided away from the path.

    As the mass of earth and debris hung in the air, Xuanmin, still standing on two small blocks of stone, lifted his left foot and nonchalantly kicked it.

    And as though dragged by a thousand-jin weight, everything beneath Xuanmin''s feet instantly ejected themselves into the gap of the valley below.

    Soon, a faint, muffled long¨C¨C long¨C¨C sound emerged from the valley.

    "Is he going to blow up the mountain?" Stone Zhang asked idiotically.

    "Then he should throw you into the explosion too," Xue Xian spat, then he explained: "He probably buried it."

    Just as Xue Xian had guessed, the falling rocks'' impact could not be underestimated. Even before they had fully fallen to the valley floor, the wet, soft mud of the valley had caved into a deep crater, into which the carcasses of the troupe''s members and horses, as well as the debris from their carriages, fell. Everything was swiftly buried beneath the pile of stone, which gently arranged itself into a burial mound.

    The falling snow began to stick to those shattered boulders and lingered, so that, by the time the dust settled and the roaring wind vanished, there was only a thin layer of white peeking out from the valley, as though the burial mound had been covered with a smatter of joss paper money.

    This was how Xuanmin had performed a simple set of funeral rites...

    Xuanmin rubbed the blood away from his copper coin pendant and hooked it back onto his hip. Then he turned to the grave and made a Buddhist greeting with his hand.

    His cloudlike monk''s robe billowed in the wind, and with a light sweep of the hemp cloth, he disappeared into the thick forest of the valley.

    To Xuanmin, leaping back up the steep side of the mountain was just as easy as leaping down from it. Within a few light steps, he had already bounded up to the part of the mountain path where the pile of rocks had originally been. Above him, the theatre troupe''s carriages finally turned that last corner of the winding mountain path and were now coming directly his way. He could hear the shouts of the scarred man, and soon that stubborn horse''s muzzle would come into view, too.

    In order to avoid being seen by the scarred man, Xuanmin tapped the ground with his foot and used the momentum to leap higher up onto the mountain. He planned to wait for the carriage train to pass below him and to rejoin from the back without being seen. Just as Xuanmin intended to return to Xue Xian and the others, he suddenly noticed that, in an area slightly removed from the path proper, there remained a small pile of rocks ¨C¨C and that beneath those rocks were two anonymous corpses.

    That pile had just happened to have been concealed by the jagged surface of the mountain, and, from the point at which Xuanmin had first landed onto the path, he had not been able to see it.

    It seemed that, when the landslide had crushed the main train, two people had been able to extricate themselves and escape, only to be killed by a second stream of falling rocks.

    The carriage train was going to appear any instant now, but Xuanmin did not have the time to sweep down and lay his talismans again.

    But just before the imminent disaster, the long silhouette of a black dragon emerged from behind the mountain.

    Xue Xian!

    This zuzong insisted on doing everything with excessive flair. Xuanmin watched as two bolts of lightning struck down onto the boulders that had crushed the two theatre troupe members. Following this, the boulders dutifully erupted into uncountable tiny pieces. The black dragon wordlessly approached, wrapped in a torrent of wind, and, with a nod of the dragon¡¯s head, the wind swept up the two bodies and the rock dust, sending them tumbling down the side of the mountain. Everything disappeared into that thick forest in the valley.

    Hu¨C¨C¨C

    The wind settled again, and the trees stopped shaking too.

    Those two bodies fell to the valley floor and were swiftly covered by the dense mass of dust. Not a patch of skin peeped out.

    "Hu¨C¨C!" Alarmed by the wind, the scarred man had pulled at his reins and the carriage train had scuttled to a stop. Now that the wind seemed to have gone away, the man cracked his whip again.

    The terrified horses saw the fateful patch of mountain road ahead of them and, seeing that the area was empty, suddenly calmed down. Now, the clipping trots of the horses advanced, gliding smoothly past the spot, and came toward the jagged part of the mountain.

    Xue Xian could not move the bottom half of his body, nor could he feel it. He used only his upper body to fly up the side of the mountain and managed to haul himself onto the uphill part of the mountain path, narrowly avoiding the scarred man''s line of sight.

    But his tail missed its landing. In the precise moment that the scarred man was turning the corner with the carriages, that unfortunate tail fell with a xiu¨C¨C and swung limply down the side of the mountain ¨C¨C right in front of the scarred man.

    The scarred man: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    Xuanmin, who stood hiding on the same uphill part of the path as Xue Xian, was speechless with exasperation. Silently, he crept down to the zuzong¡¯s tail, grabbed it, and yanked it away from the path¡­

    ---

    [a] Here Musuli uses ÉñÉñ¹í¹í (shen2 shen2 gui3 gui3), literally ¡°gods and demons¡±. But as mentioned in previous footnotes, Éñ can loosely mean anything divine/mystical, and ¹í can loosely mean anything demonic/evil.

 CH 40

    On one end of the snowy mountain path lay the exhausted black dragon. On the other end was the scarred man sitting petrified at the front of a horse-drawn carriage train, wondering whether he was sleepwalking through life. And then there was the young monk, staring downhill, holding the tip of a certain dragon¡¯s tail in his arms. Together, the figures made up the harmonious three points of a triangle, and, all frozen in place, they could be taken for a scenic, peaceful painting.

    They stayed that way for a long time, no one making a move.

    After about a hundred years, the scarred man was the first to move¨C¨C

    His eyeballs swivelled around. Then, he raised his face and stared up the jagged face of the mountain, confused ¨C¨C but all he saw was the swell of white snow and a patch of dark sky. There was no creature flying above him. He recalled what he had just seen: something long and thin, with scales all across its body. But there was something else, too...

    He could barely even remember anymore. Basically, something had been flying about in front of him, coming so close that it almost took his head off.

    But how could such a massive thing suddenly vanish?

    "Troupemaster, why have we stopped? Is the horse giving you trouble again?" someone asked from beyond a carriage curtain.

    It was only then that the scarred man came back to his senses. He shook his head vigorously, trying to shake away what he had just thought he''d seen. He thought: I must be too tired from travelling. It''s confusing me.

    He took up the flask of wine from beside him. This wine did not seem to have been manufactured in the Jiangnan area [b] ¨C¨C it seemed to have come from north of the Great Wall. [c] Strong and stiff, the alcohol was the kind that went straight to the heart. The scarred man took a sip to shock himself back to life, and found that his hands began to feel much warmer too. He decided to continue on his way.

    "Qu¨C¨C" he said. The scarred man took one last mystified look at his surroundings, then cracked the whip. The carriage train rattled on.

    As the rhythmic sound of hooves began to recede from this part of the path and the train turned another corner downhill, the black dragon hiding uphill rolled his eyes, and finally sighed.

    Dragons naturally do not breathe as humans do, casually opening and closing our nostrils ¨C¨C for dragons, there is always quite a large risk of summoning another mighty gust of killer wind every time they eject breath. In order to stay silent and make sure that the scarred man would move along as quickly as possible, Xue Xian had had to stop breathing altogether, and the effort of holding his breath had almost caused him to pass out.

    Now that the danger had passed, the zuzong became lively again, as though he were not stuck half-paralysed in the middle of a mountain.

    Xue Xian arched his body and glared down at Xuanmin, who was still holding his tail. "Would you look at that," he sneered. "I still had to come and clean up the crime scene for you. If not for my quick reflexes, that scarred man would have come face to face with his own dead body."

    The audacity!

    ¡°...¡± Xuanmin had been in the middle of bending to gingerly put down the dragon''s tail, but now he stiffened, and straightened his back again.

    He said nothing, only continued to clutch the tip of Xue Xian''s tail and glared back at him coldly, which meant: Try saying that one more time.

    Xue Xian glanced at his own tail hatefully. He wished he could cut the stupid thing off. When he''d been small, Xuanmin had pinched it to control him, and now that he was big, he could still not escape that bald donkey¡¯s evil clutches. What was the point? Mn?!

    So he stared at Xuanmin, and Xuanmin stared back at him with his tail in his hand, neither haughty nor humble, clearly waiting for Xue Xian to take back what he''d said.

    It would not do to have his tail in Xuanmin''s hands like that. Not only was the tail a vulnerable part of Xue Xian''s body, but it was also evidence of the humiliating moment he''d just experienced, which was yet another insult to his dignity.

    So after a long time spent battling Xuanmin''s gaze, Xue Xian reluctantly scoffed and decided to compromise. "Alright, alright, you''re the best!" he grumbled.

    Calmly, Xuanmin asked, "Who cleaned up the crime scene?"

    ¡°...¡± Xue Xian rolled his eyes. In an ironic singsong voice, he replied, "You did ¨C¨C you cleaned up the crime scene, happy now? Okay, can you let go now?"

    Hearing this, Xuanmin slowly bent and loosened his hands, putting that unruly niezhang¡¯s tail onto the ground.

    Xue Xian felt that if he spent any more time with this bald donkey, he would start to lose years off his life.

    The two had wasted precious time quarrelling over this nonsense. By the time Xue Xian had slithered behind a curve of the mountain face to transform back into a human and put his clothes on, and then accompanied Xuanmin back to their carriage, the troupe''s train had already cleared the treacherous mountain path and were beginning to approach the city ahead.

    The sky became even darker ¨C¨C evening had fallen.

    "It''s almost nighttime. When are we going to reach the city?" Stone Zhang had hooked the curtain back onto the window and was peering out from its parting. Despite all the commotion on the journey, nothing bad had actually ended up happening ¨C¨C but Stone Zhang did not want to spend another moment in this ¡®ghost train¡¯. The sooner they could get into the city, the sooner they could part ways with the troupe.

    "We¡¯re almost there," Jiang Shining said. He pointed at the blanket of snow outside. "Ever since we got onto this road, you can see a lot more wheel tracks. It seems we aren''t far from the city gates."

    Stone Zhang''s gaze fell on the bundle of food and his mouth began to water. As his stomach rumbled loudly, he complained, "Can we take a break once we get into town? Let''s get something to eat. I''m starving."

    Immediately, Lu Nianqi''s stomach growled as well.

    "Are you hungry too?" Jiang Shining asked.

    Many aspects of Lu Nianqi''s personality were still childish: he seemed to think that being hungry was a source of embarrassment. "No," he refuted. "That wasn''t me." As always, his tone was stubborn and cold, but the tips of his ears turned bright red.

    Xue Xian stretched his cramped shoulders and lazily said, "This snowstorm is still far from over. Just look at the sky for yourself. It could get worse before it gets better. Besides, the horses are slow as well. It doesn''t really matter when we get there as long as we do."

    The fussiest, hardest to please member of the group had spoken up ¨C¨C it seemed that he was in agreement about the food.

    And as for the other one...

    Jiang Shining glanced at Xuanmin and saw that Xuanmin had no intention of saying anything ¨C¨C which basically meant that he agreed too.

    After about half a shichen, the train began to slow down, and the sound of voices drifted toward them.

    "We''re here!" Stone Zhang excitedly rubbed his hands together, like a big-bellied, round-headed grey fly.

    The town in which they were stopping was the xian cheng [d] for Huazhi County. Although it was only a minor town in Anqing Prefecture, its proximity to the river ¨C¨C it was the closest town to Guanyin Port ¨C¨C made it a lively, busy place. But the city itself was unusually tiny: to walk every street within its walls would only take about one shichen at the most. Despite its size, Huazhi Xian Cheng still had strict rules for those entering and leaving.

    Xue Xian had passed through this town before. If he remembered correctly, the city guards were highly strict when it came to searching and questioning visitors. They made everyone get off their horses and open the doors to their carriages. All those entering, whether they were passing through or spending a few nights ¡ª even those who had come from disparate regions ¡ª all had to give the guards their names.

    Indeed, after answering some preliminary questions, the scarred man brought the carriage train to a halt outside the city gates. A guard came over, holding a book of names in his hand, and began to count the number of passengers in each carriage.

    When the guard opened the door of the final carriage and looked inside to check, the expressions on the group¡¯s face all went slack with fascination¨C¨C

    Half of the guard''s face was painted with a huge patch of dark medicinal paste, as was the back of his hand. The paste emitted an unusual, indescribable smell.

    The guard, too, seemed self-conscious about the stench of medicine on him, so he performed his check hurriedly ¨C¨C though he did look at Xuanmin twice ¨C¨C then slammed the carriage door and motioned for the train to carry on.

    "Why was he looking at dashi?" Jiang Shining asked.

    "Who knows. Maybe he just doesn''t look like a good person," Xue Xian said. He seemed utterly absorbed by the scenery outside the carriage, and refused to tear his gaze away from the window.

    Everyone: ¡°...¡± The most reliable-looking member of the group was Xuanmin. This zuzong was shameless.

    The scarred man and his troupe were inordinately kind. They brought Xue Xian and the others all the way to the doors of an inn, and only then did they bid farewell.

    The theatre troupe seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere, and dared not delay. They themselves had no plan to remain in Huazhi Xian Cheng.

    "If you want to hire a carriage, simply speak to the innkeeper. Huazhi County is tiny: if a roof fell and crushed five people, three of them would be related. The innkeeper will easily be able to find you a carriage. Just give him a tip." This was the scarred man''s parting advice.

    Naturally, Xue Xian and the others had never intended to ride the troupe''s carriage for free, either.

    But the troupe''s performers all refused to accept Xuanmin''s silver, claiming that they never took money for their theatre performances at the end of each year ¨C¨C so they definitely could not accept money for this ride. Jiang Shining, the only member of the group who actually knew how to interact with others, bargained with them for an extended time, yet was unable to get them to take the silver. His face began to betray a sense of desperation.

    Finally, Lu Nianqi was the one to speak. "It''s okay. There''ll be a way to pay them back some other time."

    As he said this, his fingers gloomily tapped the bundle of sticks in his hand ¨C¨C his mind seemed far away.

    "Have... you divined something?"

    Lu Nianqi said nothing except, "We won''t owe them."

    Not even Xue Xian would doubt the little soothsayer''s words, so Jiang Shining let it be. The theatre troupe bid one last farewell and rattled away toward the city gate again, quickly disappearing into the night.

    Later that evening, when they sat down at a table in the inn and got ready to order a meal, Xue Xian''s attention remained completely focused on the street.

    "What have you been looking at this whole time?" Jiang Shining asked.

    "A lot of things. I''ve been here before. The streets aren''t as busy as they used to be. There''s far fewer people than normal. And... there are posters stuck all over the walls, did you see them?" Xue Xian replied.

    ¡°What posters? Let me see," Stone Zhang said. He hated being idle, so he crept out of the inn ¨C¨C but soon returned, fidgeting awkwardly with his shirt. The group was sitting in a corner of the inn, behind a large red pillar, so that the rest of the customers could not easily see them.

    "I don''t know if you''re allowed to take these down," Stone Zhang said. "I found this one on the ground." He took it out of his shirt and smoothed it out on the table. "Look¨C¨C"

    The street had not been well-lit, so Stone Zhang had not actually looked at what the posters had said. Now that it was laid out in front of them, everyone at the table froze, then stared in astonishment at Xuanmin.

    ¡°Dashi, this..." Stone Zhang stammered. "How did you end up on a wanted poster? What did you do?"

    Frowning, Xuanmin continued to study the drawing.

    "Back in Ningyang County, didn''t Liu-shiye mistake dashi for the man on the wanted poster?" Jiang Shining remarked. "But then he said it wasn''t him."

    Xue Xian reached out and tapped the poster. "I saw the Ningyang poster. Apart from the fact that the monk on that one also had a mole on his neck, he looked nothing like the bald donkey. He was much older."

    But this poster...

    "Didn''t they say that the Ningyang posters had been up for almost a month?" Xue Xian added as he picked up the poster and shook it lightly. "This one feels like... it''s only recently been put up."

    And the image on this poster had been significantly updated. The man on it looked younger, and all of his features were drawn differently, so that now... it looked uncannily like Xuanmin.

    ---

    [a] The Chinese word used for ¡®waiter¡¯ here is Ð¡¶þ (xiao3 er4), literally ¡°little two¡±. Historically, it was used to describe those who performed errands or legwork at inns and restaurants.

    [b] ½­ÄÏ (jiang1 nan2), literally ''south of river'', denotes the large region of China that is located south of the Yangtze.

    [c] The Chinese term here is Èû±± (sai4 bei3), where Èû means fortress/fortification, and ±± means north. This term means ¡°north of the border¡± and, because the northern border has shifted historically, it has meant different things at different times; of course, the Great Wall was also never one unified wall, but rather a series of fortifications that came up at different times and in different places. The Northern Song¡¯s northern neighbors in the year 1040 were the Xi Xia and Liao nations; see this map.

    [d] Xian cheng: see glossary. It is in lowercase when it is used as a description, but capitalised when part of a town¡¯s name, just like ¡°a city¡± vs. ¡°New York City¡±.

 CH 41

    But the poster was highly peculiar. Apart from a likeness of the suspect and a brief description of his age and appearance, there was no other information -- not even what his crimes were, and why the imperial government was searching for him so widely. There was only a vague note about him being dangerous, and not to approach him if one saw him but to immediately alert the local authorities.

    Jiang Shining was still dumbstruck by the drawing''s similarities to Xuanmin. He stared off into the distance pondering this for a long time, then went back to studying the picture¨C¨C

    "The eyes are smaller than dashi¡¯s," Stone Zhang finally said, without lifting his eyes from the poster. Then, with a gasp, as though he''d suddenly discovered land while at sea, he pointed at the drawn brow and said, "If you look closely, there''s a small mole here, which dashi doesn''t have. And the bridge of the nose is also flatter than dashi¡¯s."

    Xue Xian looked at the mole in the picture. To be honest, that might well have been a splash of ink from the artist, and not actually part of the sketch.

    Now Jiang Shining pointed at the text below the picture. "Don''t just look at the likeness. Read the text. It emphasises here that the monk has high cheekbones and an aquiline nose."

    As he spoke, four pairs of eyes turned to inspect Xuanmin''s cheeks and nose.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    He was not used to being stared at in this way. With a slight frown and that blank, cold expression, he emanated an aura of intimidation toward the others.

    Awkwardly, Jiang Shining and the others averted their gaze again. But Xue Xian, the only one unafraid of Xuanmin, went ahead and pushed the monk''s face to the side so as to observe his profile. "There''s no hook to the nose," he commented.

    Xuanmin knocked Xue Xian¡¯s lawless claw away and continued to frown at the picture.

    "Ignore everything else for a second and just look at dashi¡¯s expression. He clearly isn''t the man in the poster. If he really was a criminal, would he look this clueless right now? No one is that good at acting!" Stone Zhang crowed. His status was definitely the lowest in the group hierarchy, so he wanted to kiss ass at any chance he got. "Besides, although the monk in this picture does look a bit like dashi, the sketch¡¯s face is far scarier. Look at the evil look in this man''s eyes, he¡¯s obviously not as righteous as dashi¨C¨C"

    Stone Zhang cleared his throat. Of course, he did not dare to actually touch Xuanmin''s face, so instead he lightly nodded in Xuanmin¡¯s direction, then added, "Look at dashi¡¯s face. It isn''t the face of an evil person at all."

    As Stone Zhang spluttered, Xue Xian snickered to himself. That bald donkey doesn''t need to act clueless. With his amnesia, even if he was a criminal, he''s probably forgotten all about it. Of course he wouldn''t know why they''re after him. And yet...

    The nose and cheekbones detail really did not match up. The likeness only showed the face from the front, so it was impossible to compare.

    As Xue Xian fell deep in thought, the voice of the customers at a nearby table wormed its way into his ear. Xue Xian surreptitiously glanced over.

    "Is that monk the one in the wanted poster?" one of them said in a low voice to his companion.

    Xue Xian''s ears were sharper than humans'', which was why he could hear.

    "I''ve had our eye on him since they came in just now, but it''s not him," came the reply. "Our county is the closest to the river port, and with all the people coming in and out, you know as well as I do how many random monks have already been locked up by the authorities. The one from the day before yesterday looked exactly like the picture, but the clerks said it wasn''t him, and that the one they were looking for had even higher cheekbones¨C¨C"

    The customer gestured subtly at Xuanmin, and continued. "This one''s cheekbones aren''t even as strong as that guy, so don''t even think about it. Besides, that one suspicious monk was captured by the guards outside the city walls, so how could this one have gotten all the way inside? And my brother-in-law clerks for the yamen. Yesterday, he told me that they added more details to the description of the monk. The poster will have to be updated again in a couple of days."

    "Again? They''ve changed it at least three times in the past two weeks. How could they still not have gotten it right? What kind of person''s appearance suddenly changes?"

    "Who knows!" The customer shook his head. "At the beginning, everyone in the county would do a double take as soon as they came across a monk. Now that they keep messing with the poster, no one wants to bother anymore."

    Having seen the poster, and then overheard that conversation, Xue Xian finally understood why the guard at the gate had seemed briefly suspicious of Xuanmin, but had then let them go.

    Those who didn''t know Xuanmin would quickly eliminate him from suspicion, simply based on the differences he had with the description as well as the reasons that the two customers had just outlined. Plus, Xuanmin¡¯s mannerism was that of a monk who had only recently left the temple and come into human society. Most people were immediately taken aback by that temperament upon first meeting him, and would only note the specifics of his appearance on a secondary level. Overall, monks with such a temperament were not generally taken to be evildoers.

    But unlike ordinary townspeople, Xue Xian knew the other side of Xuanmin ¨C¨C he was extremely powerful, and he had amnesia.

    If you came across someone who looked similar to the likeness in a wanted poster, but with some significant differences, then it was normal to eventually conclude that these were not the same person.

    But if that person looked similar to the likeness, and his origins and backstory were highly unclear, and he had a mysterious health issue that made him forget all the things that had happened to him previously... if all of those things came together within one person, could the wanted poster really be explained away?

    Seriously ¨C¨C could it?

    Xue Xian squinted at Xuanmin while he sipped his tea. And Xuanmin still stared intently at the poster, without noticing Xue Xian¡¯s gaze.

    "Sir, [a] your dishes are here ¨C¨C" came a voice. All the waiters in the inn were well-trained. They carried a large wooden platter in just one hand, and were able to keep it steady even when it was stacked with four different dishes, without a single drop of sauce spilling out.

    But the waiter who was bringing them their dishes now was different from the waiter who had poured their tea. Most restaurants had an unwritten rule where the waiter who greeted a group of customers got to stay with that group throughout their meal. Waiters rarely traded tables mid-meal, in case they happened to be serving a generous patron who approved of their nimble service and sympathetic conversation and who would leave a big fat tip.

    "Mn? Where''s the waiter from before?" Stone Zhang could not shut up, and always had to be asking questions. When he said this to the waiter, he said it as a casual question, with nothing behind it.

    The waiter smiled and said, "Oh. When Qijin [b] was taking the dishes from the kitchen just now, he burned his hand on the ceramic plates. He was worried he wouldn¡¯t be able to provide you good service, so he asked me to replace him. These steamed pork beignets have just come out of the pot. They''re a bit hot, so please be careful, sirs." [a]

    Then he quickly added, "Have a good meal," [c] before bowing and retreating, still smiling politely all the while.

    The group at the table didn''t think more of it. They hadn''t eaten anything all day. When they''d still been waiting for their meal, they hadn''t necessarily felt their hunger, but now that the dishes were laid out on the table, the warm steam bringing savoury fragrance up to their nostrils, they were hooked. They readied their chopsticks and tucked in, and had no room in their minds for anything else anymore.

    Because he''d fallen victim to Xuanmin''s vegetarian trickery last time, Xue Xian had insisted on ordering all the dishes himself this time.

    The steamed pork beignets were sticky and soft, the clay-pot chicken soup was dense and rich, the wild mushroom and tofu pudding was still gurgling and steaming, and the stir-fried taro jelly was stacked in an orderly, transparent tower ¨C¨C and there were also beef bao with golden bottoms that gushed with hot sauce upon the first bite...

    Stone Zhang thought he might faint from ecstasy, and even Lu Nianqi couldn''t help but lick his lips.

    "How do you know all the specialties at each restaurant?" Jiang Shining asked gloomily. As a ghost, he had to sit in the darkest patch of shadow, and could not take a single bite of food. Faced with such a delicious feast, all he could do was direct his resentment at Xue Xian.

    "Don''t look so miserable," Xue Xian said, wagging his chin. "Just... take in the smell."

    Back when he''d been able-bodied, although he hadn''t liked to spend too long among humanity, Xue Xian had become rather familiar with the concept of restaurants and wine halls. Whenever he left the sea to run an errand, it would be easy to simply flip through the clouds and arrive immediately at his destination. But Xue Xian would never be in a hurry: on his way back, he would always pick some towns on the way and duck in to discover some obscure local delicacies.

    Even in the six months since he''d been half-paralysed, Xue Xian hadn''t deprived himself of the pleasure, and had found ways to order others to bring him good food each day. But then... ever since he''d met Xuanmin, he was now going two or three days without so much as a grain of rice. Ridiculous!

    At the thought of this, Xue Xian became annoyed again and gripped his chopsticks tighter, as though about to eat back all of the meals he''d missed.

    Xuanmin had still been focusing on the poster, but the zuzong beside him was moving too much ¨C¨C Xue Xian¡¯s chopsticks jumped around at lightning speed as he inhaled his food, and it was far too distracting. Xuanmin had no choice but to fold up the poster.

    This restaurant was unusually generous with its portions. Each dish was piled high with food, especially the steamed pork beignets, which filled an entire deep bowl. The container for the wild mushroom and tofu pudding was so large that it seemed they''d just brought out the entire cooking pot altogether.

    As Xuanmin scanned the meal, he thought it was far too much food for this table. Surely at least a few of their group would pass out before being able to finish these dishes.

    Xuanmin himself never ate very much, so he only scooped himself a small bowl of tofu pudding and began slowly to raise spoonfuls to his mouth ¨C¨C a composure that was in stark contrast to Xue Xian beside him.

    When Xuanmin finished the bowl of pudding, he put his spoon down.

    "Are you eating cat food? How are you already full?" Xue Xian asked.

    Xuanmin glanced over at Xue Xian¡¯s side of the table, at the mountain of pork and chicken bones. And this zuzong was sly ¨C¨C he, too, seemed to think that he had spat out too many bones, so had used his chopsticks to cut the pile in half and nudge part of it toward Xuanmin, making it seem as though the bones had come from them both.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Who had ever heard of a monk spitting out pork and chicken bones?

    Stone Zhang, Jiang Shining, and Lu Nianqi sat gawking as Xue Xian sucked on a lingering piece of meat on a drumstick, then turned and looked over at Xuanmin, their gazes drifting down to the piles of bones nearest to him.

    Seeing this, Xuanmin looked down at his pile ¨C¨C it was twice as large as the pile Xue Xian had attributed to himself.

    What kind of idiot would believe that...

    Jiang Shining saluted Xue Xian. "I admire you."

    Xue Xian ignored him.

    No matter how hungry someone is, their appetite is still limited to that of a human being. When Xuanmin had scanned the meal, he''d calculated that the group would only be able to eat half of the food before keeling over. And yet Xue Xian had not rested his chopsticks even once since the start of the meal.

    Xue Xian was not a messy eater: his manner did not betray his hunger, instead remaining steady and calm, and, paired with his face, it was almost a beautiful scene. But...

    The zuzong really could eat!

    Xue Xian cleaned out all the plates on the table, and then flagged the waiter down to order a second clay-pot whole chicken, which he gradually picked clean too.

    Xuanmin watched, frowning, as Xue Xian swallowed his final bite, then couldn''t help but say, "Can you even stand now?" In other words... Aren''t you eating too much?

    "It''s not like I actually need to walk. You should worry about whether you have enough strength in your arms," Xue Xian said. He¡¯d had to be carried on and off the boat and the carriage, and had completely given up on trying to resist it. "Besides, I''m just savoring all the different flavors. When I really get to it, you could tie up ten men as tall as you and throw them all in a cage, and I''d still be able to eat them all. I''m exercising restraint here, understand?"

    As Xue Xian said this, he spread his arms to outline the size of the cage, those greasy fingers drifting toward Xuanmin''s face.

    ¡°...¡± With a blank expression, Xuanmin picked up a hot towel from the table, wrapped the dragon''s claw with it, and slammed it back onto the table. "Clean your hands before you move them around," he said.

    "You''re so fussy..." Xue Xian whined.

    The snowstorm did not seem like it would abate before morning, and the horse-drawn carriage they hired from the innkeeper would also only be able to depart the next day. The group checked into a few rooms at the inn, planning to stay the night and head to Qingping County first thing tomorrow: first they''d find Jiang Shining''s sister and do the funeral rites for the Jiang parents, and then they''d follow Lu Nianqi''s vision and track down the person who''d commissioned Stone Zhang.

    As they bundled up the stairs, Xue Xian happened to be looking idly around the inn and saw a man standing in the corner, near the entrance to the kitchen.

    Xue Xian noticed that the man''s hand was bandaged, and recalled the waiter who had first greeted them and poured their tea. What was his name again...

    Oh, right, Qijin. He''d probably been nicknamed for his weight at birth ¨C¨C appropriate for a weak baby who might not live past childhood. [d]

    As Qijin met Xue Xian''s eyes, he first froze, then quickly nodded at Xue Xian and disappeared into the kitchen.

    Xue Xian didn''t think much of it. His mind was on something else: since he couldn''t walk, he needed help in case he had to move around at night, so he and Xuanmin were sharing a room. This was excellent, because he was planning to ask Xuanmin some questions about his amnesia, to try and see if the criminal the authorities were after really was the bald donkey.

    As the group settled into their rooms, Qijin stood in the corner of the kitchen and rubbed his wounded hand while chatting with the dark-skinned [e] waiter who''d replaced him.

    "Are you sure?" the dark-skinned waiter said in a low voice.

    "I only saw him one time..." Qijin paused, then added, "Besides, you know that the Guoshi wears a silver mask every day, so that no one can see any part of his face except for his eyes. At the time, I was standing at the front, and someone bumped into me from behind. I almost ran right into the ritual parade. The Guoshi... he glared at me. I was so scared I couldn''t move. How do I say this¨C¨C"

    With a dire look on his face, Qijin said, "If you look into those eyes once, you can''t forget it for the rest of your life. That day, I was sweating all over. And when that customer glanced at me, I got the same feeling. My knees buckled."

    The dark-skinned waiter was still skeptical. "But--"

    "Plus, although I''ve never seen the Guoshi¡¯s face, I did get to see the way he looked from the back. The way he moved, that mannerism, I''ll never forget it. And that customer looked exactly the same from the back!"

    "But it doesn''t make sense. Why would the Guoshi come to a place like this? Don''t they say he''s sealed himself off?"

    "You know, those wanted posters all over town these days... They''re looking for a monk. The likeness looks a bit like that customer. Do you think..."

    The dark-skinned waiter frowned in thought. Then he said, "Alright. How about when our shift ends, we go to the yamen?"

    ---

    [a] The Chinese form of address here is ¿Í¹Ù (ke4 guan1), a polite way to address a customer.

    [b] The name Æß½ï (qi1 jin1) literally means ¡°seven jin¡±, and is a nickname based on this person¡¯s weight when he was born. Just like ¡°Nianqi¡± (27) and ¡°Shijiu¡± (19), ¡°Qijin¡± is an informal childhood nickname. It is unclear whether Qijin has a real name here that he is simply not using, or whether he never received a proper name. The latter is possible in cases where one is an orphan (like the Lus) or of a lower social class where it is felt that people do not ¡®need¡¯ proper names.

    [c] The Chinese phrase here is ÂýÓÃ (man4 yong4), meaning ¡°use [eat] slowly¡±. This is a polite phrase to say to someone about to begin eating a meal.

    [d] Musuli phrases this as ºÃÑø»î (hao3 yang3 huo2), literally ¡°good to keep alive¡±, which is a common turn of phrase that showcases the reason why non-rich children were historically given unpleasant or meaningless nicknames.

    [e] Musuli uses ºÚÆ¤ (hei1 pi2) here, which literally means ¡°black skin¡±. ¡°Black¡± is the word most commonly used to describe darker skin tones in Chinese, sometimes with an implicit pejorative connotation. However, Musuli herself does not use it pejoratively in Copper Coins; only descriptively.

 CH 42

    Xuanmin was extremely picky, and he couldn''t stand anything dirty or messy, so all of the rooms he''d rented were of the highest quality. Although he clearly had a lot of silver pieces, he couldn''t keep spending like this. Xue Xian wondered how long the rest of Xuanmin¡¯s money would last. And if they really did spend it all, how did Xuanmin plan to get more? Although the bald donkey was highly skilled, he didn''t seem to be the type to start charging for his services.

    The best room in this inn wasn¡¯t anywhere near as luxurious as the one at Guiyun Hall, but it was adequately clean and tiny. The inn boy [a] who''d brought them upstairs had quickly rearranged some furniture and then returned with fresh tea and a bowl of water for the guests to clean their hands.

    "This humble one is always upstairs, so if you need anything, please let me know," the boy said before retreating.

    Although they''d checked into the inn to rest, really only Lu Nianqi and Stone Zhang needed it. Jiang Shining was a ghost, and Xue Xian didn''t really need sleep. And as for Xuanmin...

    Xue Xian had already stopped considering Xuanmin as a human. He didn''t eat and he didn''t sleep -- how could he be?

    The half-paralysed black dragon had spent all day being bumped up and down in the carriage, and because he had no feeling in his legs, he had been resting all his weight on his stiff hips. At the end of the day, he had begun to feel sore. To help the zuzong rest his muscles and regain some energy, Xuanmin put Xue Xian down on the bed as soon as they entered the room.

    Forget the mediocre quality of the rest of the rooms at this inn: the bed was definitely worth the money. The mattress was thick, fluffy, and comfortable, a welcome respite after all day spent on the wooden bench in the carriage. Satisfied, Xue Xian stretched his back and flexed his shoulders, then made himself a nest using the blanket. Leaning back in the bed, he breathed a happy sigh.

    Xuanmin sat down by the carved wooden table. He did not seem intent on resting at all.

    Xuanmin fiddled with the lantern on the table, and when the flame was stable, he took the poster back out of his chest pocket and smoothed it out again, falling back into deep thought. The warm yellow flame cast dark shadows onto his face, making his eye sockets look deeper, the bridge of his nose look taller, and the lines by his mouth look more severe.

    Xue Xian rested his head on one hand and squinted at Xuanmin. Then he suddenly broke the silence. "Bald donkey?"

    Xuanmin hadn''t seemed to immediately register that Xue Xian was speaking. Finally, without taking his eyes off the poster, he said, "Mn?"

    Xue Xian raised an eyebrow, but did not look at Xuanmin. "Is that you on the poster or not?"

    ¡°...¡±

    That was quite a blunt way of putting it, but it wasn''t inconsistent with Xue Xian¡¯s straightforward, honest personality.

    Xue Xian watched as Xuanmin put the poster back down onto a table, keeping a corner lightly pinched between his fingers. Xuanmin turned to him, as though calculating how to respond without revealing too much.

    From when the bald donkey had first shovelled Xue Xian up from the Jiang compound floor to now, not that much time had actually passed. Maybe it was because they''d already experienced so much together that it had stretched out time, but sometimes Xue Xian would suddenly feel as though they had known each other for a long time, or even that they were deeply familiar with one another.

    Xue Xian could tell that Xuanmin was a cautious person ¨C¨C in all this time, he''d divulged nothing at all about himself. It could''ve simply been his natural reticence, but part of it might also have been the amnesia. Xue Xian wasn''t completely heartless; he understood.

    To be honest, [b] if Xue Xian one day lost his memories too, he would not trust anyone or talk to anyone either. He¡¯d immediately kick up a fuss and focus on getting his memories back before doing anything else. If anyone tried to stop him, he¡¯d surely make them regret it.

    But right now their situation was rather unique. They were travelling together, and thus stuck together, like two locusts tied on a string. If Xuanmin wasn''t the man on the poster, that was one thing, and if Xuanmin was the man on the poster, that was another thing. They had to be prepared for any event. They couldn''t very well sit around and wait for someone to come knocking on the door before having figured out a plan.

    "Bald donkey, how about this," Xue Xian said soberly. "Let''s make a deal. Are you okay with that?"

    Xuanmin was not. This niezhang clearly did not know how to play fair.

    Xuanmin continued to stare at the poster and did not say anything to decline Xue Xian¡¯s proposal. After all, if Xue Xian had his mind set on something, you agreeing to it was only a formality. It didn''t actually affect the outcome.

    Xue Xian saw from Xuanmin''s manner that he''d wordlessly said: Go ahead and I''ll try to tolerate whatever it is you''re up to now. So Xue Xian said, "The two of us don''t know each other well enough. If we get into trouble, it''ll be hard to handle¨C¨C"

    Xuanmin finally glanced at him, as though surprised that Xue Xian was being serious for once.

    Xue Xian continued: "Let''s ask each other some important questions. If I ask you a question and you can give me an answer, then I''ll let you ask me a question. But if you can''t answer or don''t want to answer, then you have to give me a silver piece. What do you think?" Xue Xian''s eyes glinted as if to say, Look how nice I''m being!

    Xuanmin was speechless.

    You really know how to make a deal with an amnesiac. ''If you can''t answer you have to pay me''? You''re clearly just after the money.

    ¡°¡­Why don''t you just take it," Xuanmin said. He reached into his pouch and took out all of the silver pieces, then lightly, carefully tossed them toward the bed.

    Xue Xian gritted his teeth, but caught the silver pieces and weighed them in his palm anyway. Finally, he said, "I''m not keeping this. Let''s try it a different way."

    Xuanmin really was a high priest, with no concern for earthly things like money. Having given away all of his silver, Xuanmin was immediately drawn back to the poster again, and refused to engage Xue Xian any further.

    Xue Xian tapped the headboard and snapped, "Look at me. I''m being serious."

    Xuanmin seemed to find Xue Xian¡¯s lazy, reclining position to be an eyesore ¨C¨C more so than usual. Without lifting his eyes, he finally said, "Speak."

    "How about this, I''ll be the generous one. I ask you questions, and if you can answer, I''ll give you a golden pearl. If you can''t answer, then we''ll just leave it be until you do remember. Of course, if there''s a question you don''t want to answer, you can just say you don''t remember."

    As he spoke, Xue Xian moved the silver pieces around on the mattress, as though placing a big bet. "See?" he said. "What''s yours is yours. I won''t take anything. You don''t stand to make a loss, and you could even win some. What do you think?"

    In truth, Xuanmin had been the one paying for everything so far, and it was beginning to add up. Xue Xian hated owing others, whether this was in terms of kindness or coin, and he always tried to pay back more than he owed. But his issue was that he hated to do so directly and insisted on devising all sorts of strange ways of repaying his debt. It was a little eccentric.

    Hearing Xue Xian''s proposition, Xuanmin finally lifted his head, intrigued that the zuzong would willingly do something to his own detriment. Had the sun risen in the west today?

    "If you don''t say no, I''ll take that as a yes," Xue Xian said, his mind already drifting away. Where should I start...

    Of course, Xue Xian knew that Xuanmin didn''t care for money: naturally, Xuanmin would never say anything he didn''t want to say just to gain a bit of gold. Before Xue Xian had even begun to ask, he suspected that the bald donkey wouldn''t answer most of them.

    But... any answers were still answers.

    "How come you''ll sometimes wake up and not recognise anyone? Where does that come from?" Xue Xian asked.

    Xuanmin only frowned and stared at the flame in the lantern, saying nothing.

    ¡°...¡± Great, Xue Xian thought. Immediate failure.

    Just as Xue Xian was about to give up on the first question, Xuanmin suddenly said in a deep tone, "I do not remember. It has been like this for a number of months. It suddenly happens, and then it takes me one or two days to recover. These days I seem to be recovering faster."

    Xue Xian was stunned. Huh? He really answered?

    As Xuanmin spoke, his hand moved to his neck. He frowned and asked, "Last time, you told me to touch my neck. Why?"

    "You haven''t seen it?" Xue Xian asked, but then remembered that, whenever Xuanmin woke up from his daze, the mole would have already gone back to normal. He really would never have seen that strange spider shape. "Whenever you''re in that state, thin blood vessels will creep out of that mole on your neck. It looks like a spider. But as soon as you touch it, the spider legs go away, and you stop being stupid."

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    From the look on Xuanmin''s face, Xue Xian guessed that Xuanmin really didn''t know anything about the mole. So he said, "Okay, so that was one answer."

    Xue Xian reached a hand into his sleeve and rummaged around in there for what seemed to be an absurd amount of time. Finally, he took out a handful of small golden pearls the size of peanuts and threw one into Xuanmin''s pile of silver.

    "¡­Where do you keep all those pearls?" Xuanmin asked.

    Xue Xian cocked an eyebrow. "I''m a divine being, you know. There are plenty of places for me to hide things. It''s just inconvenient to take it out in public, so I''ve been spending yours."

    Then Xue Xian asked, "You said this has been happening for a few months. What do you mean?"

    This time Xuanmin didn''t think for too long. He candidly said, "It means what you think it means. When I woke up, I was alone at a funeral station [c] in a mountain in Langzhou."

    "Funeral station?" Xue Xian was stunned.

    Funeral stations were a local feature of the regions in the western Xiang. [d] They were places for people transporting dead bodies [e] to rest and shelter from rain. Because of the aura of death, living people avoided such places at all costs.

    "Why were you there?" Xue Xian asked.

    Xuanmin shook his head and said, "I do not remember anything anymore. When I opened my eyes, all I had on me were the copper coin pendant, a book on geomancy and spells, a random sheet of paper covered in notes, and some yellow talismanic papers."

    "So you don''t remember who you were, where you came from, where you were going, what you were going there for?" Xue Xian suddenly felt a wave of sympathy for the bald donkey. Anyone waking to find themselves alone at a funeral station in the middle of nowhere, with no memories about what they were doing, was likely to go insane.

    Xuanmin shook his head again. "At the time, I remembered nothing. In the time since, I will sometimes remember some fragments, but forget them by the next day."

    "So what did you do?" Xue Xian couldn''t help but ask.

    "I decided to start noting down the things I could remember on the piece of paper. I keep it on me, and whenever I feel confused, I look at it again," Xuanmin replied.

    "Oh," Xue Xian said. "And that''s the piece of paper you asked Lu Shijiu to check at Gravestone Island? You can''t recognise your own handwriting?"

    "When I woke up, there was already text on the paper. The handwriting could have been forged,¡± Xuanmin replied.

    Xue Xian understood. "You thought someone might forge your own handwriting and use that to mislead you."

    "Mn."

    "So what do you remember?" Xue Xian asked, dropping two more golden pearls into Xuanmin''s money pile.

    "Too messy to make sense of," Xuanmin replied. "Something about the copper coin pendant, some place names, and... one thing."

    "What thing?"

    "Find this person," Xuanmin said. "I remember that I am looking for someone. I owe them something. I cannot rest until I have repaid my debt."

    Xuanmin¡¯s low, soft voice gently filled the room, and although there was still that certain coldness to his tone, somehow it all felt... very melancholy, so that even a stranger would be able to detect a sense of tragedy in his speech.

    This was the first time Xue Xian had seen Xuanmin in such a state. It suddenly made Xuanmin seem more human.

    And suddenly, for some reason, Xue Xian felt as though something had lodged itself inside his heart, refusing to budge no matter how he tried to make it move. It felt so weird!

    Xue Xian stared at Xuanmin for a while, then kept his tone neutral as he said, "Okay, I have no more questions. You can take the money."

    He returned the remaining golden pearls into his sleeve, to wherever it was that he kept them. Who knew what kind of mechanism he used for it.

    In truth, Xue Xian hadn''t learned all that much. He still didn''t know if Xuanmin was the criminal on the poster. But he wasn''t in the mood to ask more questions, and couldn''t be bothered to. He saw Xuanmin falter, as though he, too, found Xue Xian¡¯s sudden coldness inexplicable.

    Just as Xuanmin stood up to make his way to the bed, Xue Xian suddenly thought he could hear the faintest noise behind the wall, light and subtle. Something that sounded a bit like the clinking together of weapons.

    The city was under curfew already, so the only people allowed to carry weapons were¡­ those who worked in the yamen?

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    About to enter into the month of exams QAQ

    ---

    [a] Ð¡¶þ (xiao3 er4) is also used here. (See Chapter 40 footnote.)

    [b] Musuli uses the chengyu ÞÑÐÄ×ÔÎÊ (men2 xin1 zi4 wen4), literally ¡°touch heart, ask self¡±, which means to examine one¡¯s conscience or to search deep within oneself for answers to a question.

    [c] The Chinese term here is Ê¬µê (shi1 dian4), literally ¡°corpse shop¡±. In my original TL, I translated this as ¡°funeral stop¡±, but I feel that ¡°station¡± fits better.

    [d] Ïæ (xiang1) denotes modern-day Hunan Province (of which Langzhou was historically part); this region name comes from the Xiang River. Specifically, ÏæÎ÷ (xiang1 xi1), literally ¡°western Xiang¡±, is also the name of a modern-day prefecture within Hunan that has an ethnically diverse population; its official name is Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.

    [e] Musuli uses ¸ÏÊ¬ÈË (gan3 shi1 ren2) here, literally ¡°people who shutter/ferry/transport corpses¡±.

 CH 43

    The two waiters led the yamen clerks around the inn building and pointed up at a shut window on the second floor. In low voices, they said, "Daren, it''s that one."

    These two worked in customer service all day long, so obviously knew just the right things to say¨C¨C

    As ordinary townspeople, they did not know nor care about the wider context of that wanted poster, but they knew to be extremely careful when they reported the monk. They couldn''t just barge in and say, "There''s a monk in our shop who looks exactly like the Guoshi," as, if they turned out to have been mistaken, they would have offended all parties and gotten their eyeballs poked out for a good wash. They also couldn''t say, "The monk looks exactly like that wanted poster all over town," because what if, somehow, the monk really was the Guoshi or connected to the Guoshi? The Guoshi would definitely not be happy that they had accused him of being a criminal, and they''d be in real trouble.

    The two waiters had pondered this for a while, then had decided to tell the yamen, "There''s a monk in our inn who seems very strange." If the yamen clerks wanted to know what precisely made the monk ¡®strange¡¯, that was not the waiters'' problem.

    Even so, as the waiters led the clerks back to the inn, they began to feel conflicted again. They didn''t know why, but somehow they felt anxious about it all.

    Although the men outside the inn had made their voices as low as they could, Xue Xian, curled up on the bed, heard every word.

    They were surrounded again.

    They were... surrounded... by the yamen... again!

    That bald donkey must have been born under the wrong stars. Out of the three cities they''d visited, they''d gotten onto the radar of two yamen, and each time the clerks had come directly to break down the door!

    The weird feeling that had settled into Xue Xian earlier had still not dissipated. Xue Xian turned over in the bed so that his back was to Xuanmin now. He re-entered that cycle known as ¡®three days annoyed at Xuanmin, five days pissed off at Xuanmin¡¯.

    As always, Xuanmin''s steps were completely silent, but Xue Xian could still feel their presence by their weight on the floorboards.

    He could feel that Xuanmin had walked up to the bed and was standing there, looking at him.

    Xue Xian assumed, based on Xuanmin''s stuck-up and detached personality, that Xuanmin had come over to do one thing ¨C¨C pick up the money that Xue Xian had snapped at him to take.

    But Xuanmin did not move at all, not toward the mattress nor toward the pile of gold and silver. He simply stood there by the bed, saying not a word.

    ¡°...¡±

    Why is he just standing there stiff as a pole, not saying anything?!

    Still staring at the wall, Xue Xian frowned. He really didn''t enjoy being stared at like this. With strangers, it was tolerable, since he saw them as mere dust on the ground anyway; he could ignore them, or reach out a claw and swat them away. But it was different with the bald donkey. When others stared at Xue Xian, it merely made him irritated, but under Xuanmin''s gaze, his entire head from the top of his skull to the base of his neck felt completely frozen.

    His whole dragon skin was going to peel off...

    When will this end? If you have something to say, damn monk, just say it...

    Xue Xian was so tense from self-consciousness that he was practically turning into a stick of dragon jerky right there on the bed. In his mind he muttered angrily to himself, but in reality he said nothing.

    The silence in the room was unnerving.

    For a brief moment, everything seemed to vanish from Xue Xian''s sharp hearing ¨C¨C from the noises next door to the movements outside the window and the hush of the street under curfew ¨C¨C all of it was gone, hanging in the air, suffocated by that silence. Even Xue Xian didn''t realise that it was because he was still waiting for Xuanmin to speak.

    Since Xuanmin had been standing there for so long unmoving, the thing he wanted to say had to be... unusual. There was no reason to hold back otherwise. Was he about to give more detail on who it was that he was looking for? Or something else?

    The yamen clerks Xue Xian had heard beneath the window were probably already entering the inn and creeping up the stairs by now. Still, Xuanmin said nothing.

    ¡°...¡± Xue Xian had already died multiple times in his mind. Why don''t you just choke on your words and die already?

    Gradually, the yamen clerks'' voices wormed their way back into Xue Xian''s ear: "Be careful where you step. We don''t want to alert them. We''ll go to the door, and you guys watch the window."

    Xue Xian laughed coldly. If you keep holding it back, you can go hold it in the yamen jail.

    ¡°You ¨C¨C" Xuanmin finally said, something indescribable in his tone making Xue Xian feel even tenser.

    Xue Xian was a divine dragon, and he was getting all worked up over a single word from a mere mortal? What the hell?

    Xue Xian wasn''t even breathing anymore. He waited and waited for Xuanmin to finish his sentence. But having just said the word You, the fucking bald donkey had fallen silent again.

    Xuanmin should be glad this zuzong wasn''t in his dragon form at that moment. Xue Xian was feeling so nervous that he would''ve brought the whole inn down!

    The yamen clerks had made their way into the inn from the back door, but had seemed to have attracted some attention from others in the building, causing a small commotion.

    Xue Xian heard Xuanmin''s robes suddenly move a little ¨C¨C Xuanmin seemed to have noticed the noise below, and turned to look at the doorway. With that, the indescribable feeling in the atmosphere disappeared, leaving no trace at all.

    When Xuanmin turned his head back, he saw that the zuzong was throwing some kind of tantrum again. Xue Xian had burrowed his head deep into the nest of blankets, as though he''d given up on life and was ready to suffocate right then and there.

    Actually, Xue Xian was angrily thinking, Fine, it¡¯s your life you¡¯re throwing away. Get caught if you want. I can get away anytime.

    With that thought, his body began to glow dimly with a white light.

    Deng deng deng¨C¨C

    Now that they were this close, the clerks had given up trying to be quiet. Their footsteps were alarmingly loud as they boomed rapidly up the stairs.

    And beneath the window, where more guards stood, there was a slicing sound, like swords being slipped out of scabbards.

    So the door and the window were both blocked.

    The yamen clerks turned the corner and marched toward the door to Xuanmin and Xue Xian¡¯s room, pushing away the inn boy stationed in the corridor.

    And in that instant, the human form on the bed vanished and a long black shadow emerged from the blankets, growing larger and larger as it slithered out.

    Hong¨C¨C

    The wall against which the bed had been leaning fell away, revealing a shocked Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi sitting next door.

    Xuanmin was briefly stunned, too ¨C¨C he hadn''t expected the zuzong to turn into a dragon so casually. When Xuanmin came back to his senses, he saw that he was holding a black robe, thrown to him by Xue Xian, who seemed to have relegated him to some kind of clothes-holding sidekick role.

    Even more typical, as the zuzong tossed Xuanmin the robe, he didn''t forget to take back the golden pearls he¡¯d tucked inside his sleeve earlier. With a flick of his claw, Xue Xian sent the pearls spinning, and they swiftly disappeared into him, somehow slipping into his scales.

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian had broken down the wall ¨C¨C the yamen clerks had to know that something was happening inside.

    There came a loud shout from beyond the door: "Don''t bother! We have you surrounded on all sides, you have no way of escaping!"

    As the clerk yelled, his companions began to ram against the door.

    In the moment that the door was forced open, the leading clerk even sneered, "There''s nothing you can do. Unless you broke down the roof and flew out¨C¨C"

    He stopped.

    The crowd of clerks standing by the door wondered if they were all dreaming...

    No, they were definitely dreaming.

    The leading clerk''s mouth was still hanging open mid-speech as he gaped at the black dragon curled up inside the room.

    The dragon was inconceivably large ¨C¨C just its tail part filled the entire room. The bed had been crushed, and the wall beside it had been reduced to rubble as easily as one might slice through tofu, leaving behind only a thin frame on all four sides.

    But... what kind of knife could slice a wall like tofu?!

    Then, the leading clerk noticed that the enormous black dragon had already broken down much of the roof, and that the top half of its body reached outside, sprawled across the sloping roof of the inn. The whole building seemed to be sagging in one direction under its weight.

    The clerks'' faces were still frozen in bewilderment and terror when the dragon lowered its heavy head and looked at them through the gap in the roof. Then, it reached out a claw and seized the equally stunned middle-aged man and skinny boy from the neighboring room. At the same time, it nudged its head and lifted a young monk wearing a white robe onto its back.

    The black dragon glared at the clerks once more, then let out a bright roar as its head stretched out.

    Instantly, the wind and clouds above responded, and lightning flashed in the distance, intermittently lighting up the dark night sky. Thunder rippled toward the inn from its epicenter somewhere far away, booming increasingly louder.

    Then, an enormous, deafening gust of wind blasted into the room.

    The black dragon mounted the wind and ascended to the clouds above. As it departed, its long black shadow flitted in and out of the clouds, pirouetting in the air before vanishing into the darkness.

    Whether they''d been standing by the door or waiting beneath the window, all of the yamen clerks ¨C¨C as well as those two waiters, and the handful of nearby townspeople who''d happened to look up in that moment ¨C¨C had seen that dragon fly away into the sky, and could not believe their eyes.

    The leading clerk had not even managed to see what Xuanmin looked like -- he only remembered that cloud-like robe.

    Shortly after the dragon disappeared, the dark clouds he''d summoned began to pour with torrential rain.

    The storm was overwhelming, and as the raindrops slapped onto the clerks'' faces, they felt so cold that there were chills down their spines.

    Finally, the clerks came back to their senses. One of them murmured, "They... they really did break down the roof... and fly out..."

    The man''s voice seemed squeezed out of the very bottom of his throat, and sounded strained, perhaps from the shock, or from the cold.

    Hearing this, the leading clerk''s lips began to tremble, and he turned pale. "We... we were here to arrest the monk, right?"

    "Ah," his colleagues stuttered. "Right..."

    "Just now in the sky... that was a dragon, right?" the leading clerk asked, still in a daze.

    "Right..."

    "That monk, did you see it ¨C¨C" The leading clerk turned his face to the skies again. "That monk flew away with the dragon..."

    "Right..."

    The clerks stretched their necks out as far as they''d go and gawked into the night together like a group of meerkats. Apart from Right... they seemed to have forgotten how to speak. Only when their uniforms had become completely drenched in freezing rain did they suddenly truly realise what had just happened¨C¨C

    A monk! Riding a dragon!

    Was it every day that you saw a mythical, divine creature like a dragon?

    But that monk actually rode the dragon into the sky; was it every day that you saw a monk like that?

    The same thought seemed to flash simultaneously across the clerks'' minds. They slowly looked at each other as their faces shifted from terror to confusion to revelation. "Could it be... that he''s... that person?"

    In all the nation, they could only think of one monk who was powerful enough to tame a dragon¨C¨C

    That mysterious masked Guoshi, whose face no one had ever seen.

    The speed at which rumors can sometimes spread across a town is terrifying. Within the night, all of Huazhi County began to speak of one thing ¨C¨C the Guoshi was back!

    The previously unremarkable inn immediately exploded with customers as crowds came to gawp at its roof and at the two waiters who had been witness to it all. After being interrogated by the authorities, the neighbors all swarmed in too, eager to hear the waiters¡¯ tale.

    As Huazhi Xian Cheng whipped itself into a frenzy, the black dragon and white-clad monk in question were swimming in a lake not far from Qingping County.

    Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi were still in shock from the flight and floated corpse-like on the surface of the water. Even as the group reached the shore and Xuanmin dragged them each out, they continued to gaze off into space in stunned silence.

    Jiang Shining had long reverted to his paper man form. As he shivered on a patch of dry grass by the water, he glanced at the mess of pagodas and towers in the distance and asked Xue Xian, "Zuzong, could you not land in such a traumatic way next time?"

    Irritated, Xue Xian pointed at those faraway city gates. "A landing is a landing," he snapped. "We didn''t even have to spend money on a carriage. Look at the city gates. Can you read? Read it with me: Qing ¨C¨C Ping ¨C¨C County. I brought you to your sister''s front door, and you''re still complaining about this and that. You should be ashamed of yourself!"

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Don¡¯t worry ~ I don¡¯t write shitty Gongs =3=

    ---

 CH 44

    His Honorable Lord Xue [a] was a drama queen at heart. Even when he was running away, he had to run in an extravagant, awe-striking, tempest-whipping manner, as if it was an insult to his dignity to tone down his performance even by a little bit. But, due to his half-paralysis, his tail had a hard time cooperating.

    "It was all thanks to the wind I summoned that we were able to control our direction," Xue Xian said lazily, patting his knee. He was reclining against a tree by the lake, his entire body dripping with water. "It''s like walking. Obviously there''s going to be a bit of turbulence. It goes without saying."

    In reality, it had not been ''a bit'' of turbulence: it had been excessive turbulence, enough to shake the brains out of his passengers.

    The entire way, Stone Zhang had fervently asked the beast to hook his claws tighter ¨C¨C If only I had eight limbs, Stone Zhang had thought, so that I could wrap myself around this one¡¯s claws like a cuttlefish! Each time Xue Xian had flipped as he flew, or whenever Xue Xian had flown higher, Stone Zhang would feel both ecstatic that he was genuinely flying, and so terrified he could not stop his wails and cries. The experience had probably scared his soul right out of him.

    As they¡¯d glided through the sky, Jiang Shining had felt extremely fortunate and clairvoyant to have had the sense, back at the inn, to fold himself back into a paper man and slide into Lu Nianqi''s chest pocket. Jiang Shining was light, and the pocket was a safe place, so he had not feared falling off, and thankfully had not screamed away all of his dignity like Stone Zhang had.

    But even Jiang Shining had only enjoyed a brief moment of celebration. Xue Xian had flown too fast, and had not been able to control the wind to soften his landing, especially with that paralysed tail. Unable to come up with a suitable solution, Xue Xian had looked around and found a lake that seemed to be wide and deep enough for them to drop into.

    Of course, an enormous beast smashing head-first into a lake at full speed would no doubt cause half the lake to splash out and rumble the foundations of the city wall nearby.

    The zuzong must have thought himself extremely clever. As he saw that braking was impossible, he¡¯d transformed back into a human midway. He¡¯d even had the time to take his robe back from Xuanmin''s hands.

    Then there had been four little plunks as the group had fallen one by one into the water.

    As soon as Xue Xian had hit the water, he had been scooped up by the waist by Xuanmin.

    We could say that the two had then swum toward shore, but all Xue Xian could do in his state was superficially wiggle his arms ¨C¨C naturally, Xuanmin had carried him to shore.

    Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi had only been harshly slapped by the water, but Jiang Shining was almost soaked through ¨C¨C after all, his skin was made of paper, not metal. He had already been at risk of dissolving into pieces several times.

    Now, Xuanmin had laid Jiang Shining out to dry on top of some dry grass, and he looked like a real survivor. He still didn''t dare to move, fearing that any small thing might result in dismemberment.

    There was still some lingering panic in Jiang Shining''s heart. "Zuzong, what were you thinking?¡± How could you throw us all down from such a great height?

    Xue Xian stacked his elbow against a nearby rock and said, "I had a flash of inspiration."

    ¡°...¡± All Jiang Shining could do was silently curse him. [b]

    Leaning lethargically against a tree ¡ª with his black robe in complete disarray, hanging loose and misshapen off his frame ¡ª the zuzong looked to be the pinnacle of relaxation.

    Xuanmin hated the feeling of being wet, so he drew a talisman on his palm and instantly dried out his robe, turning the white hemp pristine again. He took a few steps across the damp grass and, with his still gashed finger, drew quick lines of blood across Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi''s foreheads. He even dotted Jiang Shining''s trembling, mushy paper body.

    The blood marks quickly disappeared.

    "I feel... as though a fire is cooking me," Jiang Shining said carefully.

    "Clothes-cleaning spell," [c] Xuanmin explained. The reason why he''d only written a half-complete talismanic text on them was because the spell came with a flash of heat, and he hadn''t wanted them to be distressed.

    Jiang Shining''s paper-thin body quickly turned dry, and he finally felt a bit less anxious, settling into the patch of grass with gusto.

    Xue Xian tugged at his collar. His soaked robes were clinging to his body, heavy and uncomfortable.

    Just as he''d decided to direct that latent, simmering heat within him to the surface of his skin and warm the clothes from the inside, Xue Xian saw that Xuanmin was now striding his way.

    Although Xuanmin¡¯s outfit of white looked far too inauspicious in the eyes of ordinary people, Xue Xian had to admit that it was indeed beautiful, resembling a smudge of white fog in the dark night. The hem of Xuanmin''s robe brushed lightly against the stalks of dry grass, yet picked up not a speck of dirt.

    Xuanmin stopped in front of Xue Xian and looked down at him. Xue Xian sat there, lifting his face to stare back at Xuanmin neutrally.

    Back at the inn, when he''d been waiting for Xuanmin to say what he''d wanted to say, Xue Xian had thought he would die of stress. If he had to wait for Xuanmin to speak again all while holding within him that utterly indescribable feeling, he feared that his brain would melt into fish food.

    "Don''t block my view," Xue Xian said.

    Xuanmin was standing and he was sitting ¨C¨C if Xue Xian looked straight ahead instead of angling his neck upwards, all he could see was Xuanmin¡¯s hand.

    Just as Xue Xian''s glance began to move away, that hand dangling by his face suddenly moved.

    Xuanmin stood rigidly, looking down at him as he gently lifted Xue Xian''s chin with the crook of his finger. He brought Xue Xian''s face upward and moved that still bleeding fingertip toward his forehead.

    That touch to the chin had stunned Xue Xian. His eyes shot to Xuanmin''s approaching finger ¨C¨C maybe it was just him, but Xue Xian felt as though Xuanmin¡¯s bleeding finger stalled for a moment in front of his face.

    In that one short moment, Xue Xian had expected Xuanmin''s finger to come into contact with his face, yet it stopped and lingered ¨C¨C imperceptibly, for just a heartbeat ¨C¨C before finally moving up and pressing down onto the center of Xue Xian¡¯s forehead. The touch was neither heavy nor light, but dragged the blood gently, drawing a line. Xue Xian''s eyes flitted up. He saw that reliably cold-as-ice, too-cold-to-melt-snow face of Xuanmin''s, as Xuanmin rested his own calm gaze on Xue Xian''s forehead. It was as though Xuanmin were doing something he wouldn''t normally do, something he wasn''t used to.

    Xue Xian didn''t know what the streak of blood on his forehead looked like, but he could feel that the sticky, oppressive robes around his body had already begun to dry at an alarming rate.

    He tugged at his robes and complained, "Will you die if you bend just a little?"

    Xuanmin''s hands dropped as he finally looked into Xue Xian''s eyes. "Not turning your back to me anymore?"

    Xue Xian: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian wanted to smash the rock he was leaning against directly into the bald donkey''s face. "I do what I want. Just try and stop me. Get lost!"

    Xuanmin''s temperament was always mild, and he had never acquired the habit of trying to guess what those around him were feeling. On the other hand, Xue Xian could flip through emotions quicker than the pages of a book, oscillating between clinging to someone and banishing them. It was as if someone who had never walked in his life were suddenly able to walk on water: the difference was just far too marked.

    As Xue Xian barked at Xuanmin to leave, he saw that the bald donkey remained standing there looking at him for some time before faithfully getting lost. Xue Xian felt disdain rise within him like blood that he could spit right onto the bald donkey''s face.

    Now fully dry, Jiang Shining got up from the grass and puffed back into his humanlike form. As soon as he turned his head, he caught sight of Xue Xian''s bleak face.

    "What''s wrong?" Jiang Shining asked. He thought for a while, then said, "Are you hungry again after the journey?"

    "Mn," Xue Xian replied darkly. "My teeth are itchy. I want to eat human meat."

    ¡°...¡± Speechless, Jiang Shining glanced anxiously in Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi''s direction.

    In fact, Xuanmin hadn''t gone far. He had simply walked over to Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi and begun to set up a rudimentary stack of branches between them. Xuanmin magically dried the wood, struck a match from his pocket, and lit a small bonfire, so that the two weaker ones wouldn''t freeze to death while waiting for their clothes to dry.

    Having lit the fire, Xuanmin came back and stood in front of Xue Xian again.

    Xue Xian glared at him. "What now?"

    Xuanmin unhooked the copper coin pendant from his hip and rubbed it with his thumb. Then he said to Xue Xian, "Your hand."

    Suspicious, Xue Xian extended his hand. Xuanmin placed the pendant into his palm and said, "Some spiritual tools [d] deplete their spiritual power after a certain amount of time, but can be used for their other effects."

    As he said this, Xuanmin glanced at Xue Xian''s paralysed legs.

    Of course, Xue Xian had heard of this idea before, but ¡®spiritual tools¡¯ were instruments used by mortals and of no use to him, so he had never thought about it. He knew, for instance, that the fact that copper coin pendants became covered in a layer of oil after some time was precisely because their spiritual power was being slowly depleted through use. These sensitive spiritual tools were excellent accessories: their functions ranged from calculating feng shui to controlling the five natural elements. As long as you had the skill, you could do anything.

    You could do anything, which implied... it could even help someone grow his body back.

    Having seen Xuanmin scan his legs, Xue Xian understood what Xuanmin meant. Only...

    To most practitioners, such spiritual tools were as precious as life. Even for another person to touch the object would be a great offense, so it was completely unheard of to willingly put it in someone else''s hands.

    Xue Xian stared at the pendant in his own palm and could not think of anything to say, nor even how to feel.

    Finally, he couldn''t help but say, "Did you eat rat poison?"

    Xuanmin: ¡°...¡±

    This zuzong seemed incredulous. Xue Xian dangled the pendant in front of Xuanmin and swung it, then swung it again... giving Xuanmin the opportunity to take it back.

    But as Xue Xian swung it for the third time, Xuanmin pushed Xue Xian''s claw back and said, "There is a seal on the coins that has not yet been undone. But it should still be useful. I don''t need it at the moment, so you can have it."

    "Seal?" Xue Xian repeated, surprised, but quickly seemed to understand ¨C¨C so that''s why the coins looked so drab and grey, as if they were ordinary coins with no magic in them at all. But... "Who sealed them? You?"

    Xuanmin shook his head. "I do not remember. Each coin has its own seal. Recently, two of them seem to have started to come loose. Perhaps they will be undone soon."

    Xue Xian bit the tip of his tongue and pondered this. In the end, he accepted the pendant ¨C¨C before, when he''d been a paper man and then a marble, he had been able to take advantage of his small size to reside in Xuanmin¡¯s pouch and let whatever was in Xuanmin¡¯s pelvic bones quicken his healing. But now that he''d returned to his original body, whether he was in human form or dragon form, Xue Xian could no longer go ahead and stick to Xuanmin''s hip.

    Imagine that... Even thinking about it made Xue Xian¡¯s eyes hurt, let alone actually making it a reality. It was because of this change that, in recent days, Xue Xian''s healing process had slowed down significantly. He could still feel the process happening inside him, but compared to before it was far slower. He didn''t want to constantly drag his two paralysed legs around, waiting for others to carry him places.

    It was downright humiliating.

    Xue Xian mulled this all over. Then he clutched the pendant tighter and closed his eyes to focus on healing his spine.

    A half-complete talisman not being as effective as a full talisman, it took some time for Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi''s clothes, and their shocked faces, to return to some semblance of normal.

    Once Lu Nianqi recovered, he immediately felt guilty for burdening the rest of the group. He asked Jiang Shining, "Aren''t you in a hurry?"

    Jiang Shining, sitting on a rock not far from him, looked back at the dim lantern glow of the distant city. "We have to wait for wu geng. We''re right at the door anyway, so there''s no rush."

    There was a curfew within the city at night, and its gates were shut tight, with no one allowed to leave or enter unless it was an emergency. Even if they did get in, it wasn''t as if they could go knocking on someone''s door in the middle of the night. But it seemed that much of the night had already gone by, and the wu geng bells would be ringing soon.

    "The last time I saw my sister was three years ago. She came back to Ningyang after she got the news," Jiang Shining muttered. "I can''t remember much of what happened after I died ¨C¨C it only got better after I became a paper man ¨C¨C but I do remember how much she cried. I can even hear it now..."

    Once the wu geng bells rang and the city gates opened, the townspeople would slowly begin to rouse too. Jiang Shining would be able to see his sister again, make sure she was doing well, and finally help the trapped souls of their parents transcend.

    Throughout his short life, Jiang Shining had never really spent much time away from home and family. He was not familiar with that strange, nervous feeling that appeared when one was close to returning to one¡¯s home.

    But now, by the shores of that unknown lake, gazing at the gates of a city he was supposed to consider as a second home, Jiang Shining realised that he only needed to wait a little bit longer before all of his problems would disappear, leaving him free and at ease forever. With that, he suddenly felt a sense of hesitation...

    Dang¨C¨C

    After a long wait, that wu geng bell finally rippled forth from the city center.

    The group quickly tidied up and made their way to the city wall. With a creak, the ancient gates were pushed open by the guards and the view of the town within was revealed to them, along with a mysterious smell.

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    Exams month, plus a presentation and some other class stuff~ The updates might come a bit later in the day, but I¡¯ll try to make it before midnight.

    ---

    [a] Musuli phrases this as ÕâÐÕÑ¦µÄ (zhe4 xing4 xue1 de), ¡°this one surnamed Xue¡±. The ironic effect of such phrasing is difficult to convey literally in English, so I went for a different approach with a similar effect.

    [b] Musuli phrases this as ¡°Jiang Shining silently spat out a mouthful of blood¡±. Spitting out blood is a common trope in historical fantasies, and in this case (as well as elsewhere in Copper Coins) is used purely metaphorically, to show frustration or injury to one¡¯s dignity. I decided not to translate it this way since, in English, it could easily be read as literal.

    [c] Musuli uses the word Öä (zhou4) here, meaning incantation or curse. However, because it does not have an adverse effect in this context, it is more appropriate to translate it into English as ¡°spell¡±.

    [d] Musuli uses ·¨Æ÷ (fa3 qi4) here, where ·¨ is used to indicate anything Buddhist-related but in this instance has its meaning broadened to anything magical/mystical associated with Xuanmin¡¯s practices; and Æ÷ means tool/machine/mechanism.

 CH 45

    "Ugh!" Stone Zhang broke down into a coughing fit as the stench flooded his throat. Grimacing, he pinched his nose with one hand and fanned himself with the other, complaining, "What is that smell? It smells like medicine, but mixed in with something else... like mould."

    "This is what it smells like when you mix fresh medicinal paste with the mouldy residue of old medicine," Jiang Shining said. He didn''t need to hold his nose ¨C¨C he was used to such smells.

    In a room at the back of the Jiang compound had been a row of little stoves, which had gurgled every day with the sound of churning medicine, filling the whole compound with the thick stench of herbs. Every year, amid the fourth-month showers, the medicine residue that they stashed by the door in the mornings would, by evening, begin to emit a stark rotten smell. So the mixture of these two scents was not unfamiliar to Jiang Shining.

    But how big was the Jiang compound, and how big was Qingping County? For such a strong stench to pour out as soon as the city gates opened, there had to be at least a dozen households nearby making fresh medicine and throwing out old residue.

    How could that many people be ill at the same time?

    The group suddenly felt a sense of foreboding...

    Jiang Shining''s face hardened as he moved to step into the city. But in a series of slashes, the city guards all brandished their swords and gathered into formation in front of the gate, blocking the group''s way.

    "This xian cheng is not currently open for passage. Please return," a guard said harshly.

    "If I may ask, officers, why is it not open for passage?" Jiang Shining asked nervously.

    Still strict, the guard barked, "That is not for you to know. Please return!"

    But as he said this, the guard¡¯s eyes couldn''t help but dart in Xuanmin''s direction. The guard beside him, who had a square face, pointed his sword at the bundle in Xuanmin''s arms and shouted, "Why are you bringing a dead person into the city? Are you trying to bring bad luck to us all?"

    He reached out to push Xuanmin away, trying to herd the group farther from the gates.

    ¡°Pa¨C¨C¡±

    Just as the square-faced guard''s hand was about to come into contact with Xuanmin, the black cloth on Xue Xian''s face shifted and a white hand shot out to grip the man''s wrist. Xue Xian turned to him darkly and said, "We''re just talking here. Why are you trying to push us?"

    "Ah¨C¨C!" Stunned, the guard tried to yank his hand back, but found that he could not.

    It really had not occurred to this guard that the person draped beneath that black cloth might still be alive, so Xue Xian''s appearance had come as a nasty shock. His neck flushing red with embarrassment, the guard shouted, "How dare you! What are your intentions behind such trickery?"

    He looked down at Xue Xian''s thin white fingers and thought that they did not seem to be particularly strong. Roughly, he tried to yank his arm away again, but those fingers were like iron, and refused to let go.

    "Let go!" the guard ordered, glaring at Xue Xian.

    "Sure," Xue Xian said idly. "First tell us why the city is shut, and whether there might be room for a bending of the rules."

    The zuzong¡¯s tone was a casual and polite one, but with his tight grip on the guard''s wrist, it made him seem all the more threatening.

    Seeing the situation, the other guards began to shuffle forward, as though planning to surround the group. Still holding Xue Xian in his arms, Xuanmin lightly shut his eyes and muttered something inaudible, then tapped his right foot against the ground.

    The guards felt a tremor in the ground that sent them all stumbling ¨C¨C right back to where they''d been standing before.

    Bewildered, the guards said, "Earthquake?"

    It appeared that the previous earthquake in Anqing Prefecture had made a mark on them. That slight tremor had scared all the guards stiff ¨C¨C they looked at each other with trepidation, afraid to make another move, as though waiting for the earth to shake again.

    "Let go!" The square-faced guard was becoming desperate. He bent his knees and tried to pull his hand away once more, yelling, "It''s not that we don''t want to tell you. You can see for yourself that there have been troubles in Qingping County lately. Our homes keep shaking and the plague is spreading. When we ask you to leave, it''s for your own good!"

    "Plague?" Xue Xian asked. "There''s plague in Qingping County?"

    Seeing that the group wasn''t going to go away anytime soon, the square-faced guard sighed and shook his head. "After the earthquake a few days ago, several cracks appeared along the ground and strange black bugs crawled out. The townspeople who were bitten by the bugs have all grown rashes, but they can''t scratch the rashes no matter how much it hurts or itches, because if the rash bursts, it will soon start to rot with gangrene. It''s a horrifying sight."

    "What about the doctors?" Jiang Shining couldn''t help but ask. "Could they not treat the illness in time?"

    "At first, we had no idea that so many people had the illness. Some went to the doctor, but others saw it as a minor issue and tried to deal with it themselves. But then we discovered that it was contagious..." The guard lowered his voice, so that his tone now sounded ominous. "The spread has been unusually fast. Can''t you smell the medicine all over town?"

    "Stop wasting your breath on them!" The other guards had realised that another earthquake was not imminent, and were standing straight again, getting ready to chase the group away.

    If you keep blocking me like this, then don''t blame me for pulling out all the stops, Xue Xian thought.

    This zuzong had always done what he wanted, acting without restraint. Although the guards weren''t being illogical, Xue Xian really did need to get into the city, and would do so no matter what ¨C¨C even if he had to turn back into a dragon and fly them in.

    As the guards marched closer, seemingly ready to use force, a dark-skinned guard standing at the back of the group suddenly cried out and pointed at the square-faced guard''s neck. "Li-ge, [a] your... the back of your neck!"

    "What is it?" Hearing his friend''s tone of voice, the square-faced guard became anxious. His hand shot to his neck. That morning, as he''d put on his uniform, he''d felt something off in that part of his body, but had chalked it up to the friction of his collar ¨C¨C he''d been in a hurry to get to his shift, and had not thought of it further.

    "You have a rash!" Another guard brought a lantern over to see, then backed away. "The size of two thumbs!"

    The others had been inching forward to take a look for themselves, but as they heard this, they all scattered away like the breaking of a wave.

    "Oh..." Xue Xian said. "So that''s what those rashes look like. You have one between your thumb and forefinger too." He calmly pinched the guard''s wrist, showing it to him. "Look, there it is."

    The square-faced guard was stupefied.

    As Xue Xian took another glance at the rash, he suddenly had an idea.

    The zuzong¡¯s idea was... highly unusual. He hissed with surprise and fixed his gaze on his own hand, which still gripped the guard''s wrist. "It really is contagious. Look, I have it now."

    The square-faced guard followed his gaze down to their hands, where he saw that an angry red rash was spreading across Xue Xian''s hand at an incredible speed, from the tip of his thumb all the way to the back of his hand. In an instant, the whole of Xue Xian¡¯s hand became red and swollen, a balloon held up by a skinny white wrist.

    The surrounding guards were speechless with shock, and the square-faced guard had stopped breathing, his face a frozen picture of terror. Xue Xian asked, "What else did you say the rashes did?"

    One of the guards muttered, "Pain... painful and itchy, skin flipping inside out..."

    "Oh, right," Xue Xian replied.

    Then the guards watched, horrified, as the skin and flesh on Xue Xian¡¯s hand loosened. He twitched his finger, and a piece of flesh fell away.

    The guards: ¡°...¡±

    "How rotten does it get again?" Xue Xian asked.

    None of the guards were able to speak.

    Seeing that he''d received no response, Xue Xian decided he might as well go big ¨C¨C

    Now, more and more bloody pieces of meat were falling from his hand, and the square-faced guard screamed. He tried to jerk his wrist away from Xue Xian''s tight claw again with all his might. But the guard should have stayed still, because...

    There was a pata noise as the entirety of Xue Xian''s hand snapped off of his arm and slapped onto the floor.

    The guards: ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡±

    "Look, I have the plague too," Xue Xian said. "My hand''s already rotten off. And I''m half-paralysed, so I can''t walk and I''ve been slowing down my whole group. If you make us go back now, by the time we can get to the next xian cheng and have a doctor treat me, I would probably have already sprayed my rot all over this one¡¯s body." Xue Xian¡¯s bone was visible from his broken wrist, and he used it to point at Xuanmin, almost smearing his blood all over Xuanmin¡¯s face.

    ¡°...¡±

    Xuanmin closed his eyes before he had to see more of that wrist.

    He feared that if he forced his eyeballs to look at that mess for even a second longer, he would throw the wearisome niezhang to the ground.

    Xue Xian flashed a dazzling smile at the guards. "Shouldn''t you let me in now so I can see a doctor?" he asked sweetly, then put on a faux serious voice. "Answer me. Stop standing there. If you keep standing there, then you''ll start to rot too."

    The square-faced guard trembled and moved out of their way.

    "Many thanks," Xuanmin said mildly. He began to stride in big steps toward the city, and as he did, the guards in front of him automatically split themselves into two rows to make room for him. As he passed, they scurried to press themselves against the city wall, as though if they approached him even a little, they would end up just like Xue Xian''s hand.

    The guards watched the group walk away and continued to stand there, stunned. Finally, one of the guards happened to be glancing down when he suddenly shouted, "Look!"

    As the others turned, they saw that the guard was pointing at the spot on the floor where Xue Xian''s hand had fallen. "The hand from just now... the hand disappeared..." the guard said.

    Indeed, there was no longer any sign of the hand, and in its place lay a forsaken twig from a white plum tree.

    Shocked, the guards turned on their heels to chase after the group, but found that they, too, had disappeared without a trace.

    They thought of reporting the incident to their superior, but noticed that the square-faced guard was still standing there. They called out to him, "Li-ge! Li-ge! Get moving! Go find a doctor! And if the clinic is busy, then go to Fang''s Pharmacy to get some medicine. There have been so many people ordering medicine from Fang that he must know the recipe by heart now! We''ll cover your shift. You hurry, okay?"

    "Mn," the square-faced guard finally managed to say. He leant his sword against the city wall and trudged into the city, headed for the clinic in the west.

    On the other side of town, in an alley to the east, Xuanmin and the others were on their way to Jiang Shining''s sister''s. Stone Zhang kept turning his head to look back behind them, afraid that the guards would catch up to them soon.

    "Stop tiring your neck. No one''s coming," Xue Xian said. He would be able to hear if anyone was approaching. "Why are you so paranoid?"

    How could you say that? the rest of the group thought.

    Every time they visited a new city, the zuzong had to do something crazy in public, as though if he didn''t, they would''ve shown up for nothing.

    Jiang Shining had been to Anqing before ¨C¨C only a few times, but enough to familiarise himself with the route. Very soon, they arrived before a set of doors.

    The doors were very small, and did not seem to be the front doors of the compound, but rather the back doors that opened into a narrow side alley. This door had two round stone sculptures on either side of it, and a set of stone steps leading up to it.

    "The front doors are to the pharmacy. Because they''re so busy, the members of the household usually use the back door, which leads into the living quarters and the back courtyard," Jiang Shining explained.

    "Bald donkey, put me down." Seeing that Jiang Shining had knocked on the door, Xue Xian had Xuanmin place him on top of one of the statues.

    Xue Xian held up his gangrenous wrist and began to grow his hand back. "Please," he said to Xuanmin, "could you do a spell to clean my clothes? I got some gore on my sleeve earlier."

    ¡°...¡± Jiang Shining, Stone Zhang, and even Lu Nianqi ¨C¨C who had been ignoring everything up to that point ¨C¨C averted their eyes in disgust.

    Xuanmin glanced at Xue Xian''s wrist then quickly looked away again ¨C¨C that was probably the extreme limit that he could bear, with his aversion to anything unclean. He seemed overwhelmed by horror at this niezhang¡¯s behavior, and did not move to draw a cleaning talisman for Xue Xian, probably doubting that even the talisman would be able to clean up all that blood and dead flesh. Instead, still with that ice-cold expression, Xuanmin raised his finger and drew it across Xue Xian''s sleeve, then gave it a tug.

    As though it had been sliced by a knife, that part of the sleeve dropped away.

    Then, holding that gore-covered piece of cloth, Xuanmin lit a match and burned it all away.

    ¡°...¡± Xue Xian had never expected that anyone would dare to tear his clothes, nor that the first person to do so would be the bald donkey. He stared in shock at his forearm, where there was now only half a sleeve. Then, he looked down again and snatched up the bottom of Xuanmin''s robe, rubbing his new-grown hand furiously against it. Then he held the part of Xuanmin''s robe back up at him and said, "Burn this too. If I have to have bare arms, then you have to have bare legs. That''s the only thing that will appease the rage inside me right now."

    Jiang Shining glanced with pity at Xuanmin. He was about to say something when the narrow door was finally pulled open from the inside and a girl of around ten years old asked, "Who is it?" while sticking out her head.

    A familiar face!

    Seeing that he knew the girl, Jiang Shining smiled and saluted her. "Oh, it''s Xing¨C¨C"

    Before he could go on, the girl screamed and slammed the door shut again.

    ---

    The author has something to say:

    [Acknowledgments to those who gave money on JJWXC]

    ---

    [a] Ge: see glossary.

 CH 46

    Jiang Shining stared in shock at the slammed door for a while, then suddenly realised what had happened.

    In the moment that it occurred to him, his facial expression became complex: there was some disappointment, but there was a bit more exasperation [b] as well.

    Xue Xian glanced at Jiang Shining and noticed his ambivalence, then pointed at Stone Zhang and said, "Old man, [c] weren''t you afraid of ghosts before? Now that you''ve seen such an idiotic ghost, are you still afraid? Don''t you think all the trembling you did was quite embarrassing?"

    Old man...

    Stone Zhang touched his face and gloomily thought, I may not be young anymore, but I''m not old either. I can walk, I can run, I can carry things. Isn''t ''old man'' a bit much?

    But he didn''t dare protest, lest he piss off the zuzong.

    Jiang Shining had just been feeling a bit better, but this zuzong¡¯s mockery turned his face dark again. He rolled his eyes and snapped, "Even if I am dumb, it''s because I''ve just been spending too much time with you." [d]

    Then Jiang Shining picked up his robe and stood aside, sweeping an inviting arm toward the door: "I shouldn¡¯t haunt this place in the middle of the day. One of you should come knock.¡±

    Everyone looked at Stone Zhang.

    "Me... me?" Confused, Stone Zhang pointed at himself. He¡¯d spent the whole journey so far being jostled along with nothing to do, since he was weak and not of much use ¨C¨C this was the first time anyone had called on him to do something.

    Xue Xian pointed at Lu Nianqi and said, "Fortune-teller."

    Then he pointed at himself: "Cripple." [e]

    Then he pointed at Xuanmin: "Alms beggar."

    He spread his hands and shrugged. "Which one of us is normal?"

    Tragically, there was only one normal person in the whole group.

    Stone Zhang had no choice but to shuffle to the door and knock again.

    There was another scream ¨C¨C the girl from before was becoming even more frightened.

    Stone Zhang looked back at the group helplessly. "Those who are bitten by a snake spend the next ten years terrified of ropes," he said. "Not my fault."

    Then he injected a casual tone into his voice and said, "Little girl, open the door! I''m not a ghost. I''m a good person, ah!"

    Everyone: ¡°...¡±

    Xue Xian glared at Stone Zhang, then finally reached out and yanked him back. "Stop being so creepy. If you keep going like this, Zhong Kui [f] is going to come and chase you away."*

    "Xingzi, what are you yelling for?" came the voice of an old woman. "Don''t frighten the patients out front."

    The little girl''s trembling voice rose in response ¨C¨C she seemed about to cry. "Chen-sao, [g] there''s a ghost!"

    "Nonsense, how could there be a ghost?" Chen-sao laughed. "In our compound we only save people. We''ve never harmed anyone. Why would a ghost want to haunt us?"

    "It''s true. I just saw Jiang-shaoye, right there behind the door," Xingzi said.

    "Jiang¡­ shaoye?" Chen-sao said, shocked. "You don''t mean..."

    "Yes!¡± Xingzi replied. ¡°Just now... just now I heard a knock on the door, and when I opened it, he was there. He smiled at me and called me by my name! Who else could it be?"

    The girl was sobbing now, scared to her wit''s end.

    "Knocking on the door?" Chen-sao asked.

    "Yes, and there was another knock just now. I was too scared to listen..."

    At this point, Xue Xian decided to knock again.

    Du du du...

    Now both the old woman and the young girl screamed and began to cry.

    Speechless, Xuanmin pried the dragon''s claw away from the door.

    Jiang Shining: ¡°...¡±

    Finally, after what felt like hours, the door opened again. The person behind it was a grey-haired, kindly-looking old man.

    Peeking out from behind the old man were two others: one was Xingzi, and the other, a short old woman, would be Chen-sao.

    In order not to scare them again, Jiang Shining had turned back into a small paper man and tucked himself into Xue Xian''s pocket. But he couldn''t help but stick his head out again to observe what was happening ¨C¨C after all, he''d gotten them into this mess.

    Seeing the grey-haired old man, he muttered, "Chen-shu..." [h]

    Jiang Shining knew everyone at Fang''s Pharmacy, and could even say he knew some of them quite well. The Fang and Jiang families had always been very close: one side were doctors, and the other were pharmacists, so after having coincidentally met once, they''d developed a good relationship.

    Ever since he was small, Jiang Shining would often be brought along to call upon the Fang family; and later, his sister had ended up marrying into the Fangs.

    When he¡¯d been young, Chen-shu and Chen-sao had even made him sweet buns.

    Now, old friends were reunited, but they were as distant as yin and yang. Even greeting each other face to face and calling each other by old names was difficult.

    Chen-shu''s ears weren''t as good as they used to be, so he didn''t hear Jiang Shining call him.

    He squinted his slightly cloudy eyes and took in the ragtag ¡®demons, ghosts, and monsters of all shades¡¯ [i] gathered by the door. He said, "Do you... need anything?"

    Behind him, Chen-sao glared at Xingzi. "Didn''t you say you saw Jiang-xiao-shaoye? [j] Where? These people are alive and well," she said in a loud whisper.

    Confused, Xingzi shook her head. She didn''t know what was going on either.

    Again, it was Stone Zhang that the group shoved forward to explain things.

    "Thank you for having us," Stone Zhang said. Indeed, he was used to speaking to wealthy patrons, so, although he was always paralysed by terror when with Xue Xian and the others, he did in fact know how to be polite in the right situations.

    He put his hands together in greeting and added, "We come from Ningyang, Huizhou. We are here to look for¨C¨C"

    Suddenly, Stone Zhang stopped and frowned back at Xue Xian. "Who are we looking for?"

    Before Xue Xian could reply, Chen-sao instinctively said, "Looking for... Shao-furen?" [k]

    "Yes," Jiang Shining said in a low voice.

    "Yes!" Stone Zhang repeated, nodding.

    "Indeed!" Xingzi said. "I knew it couldn''t be a coincidence. I just saw Jiang-shaoye, and now people from Ningyang have arrived! So did I really see what I saw? And¡­ and... Jiang-shaoye..."

    Chen-shu shushed her, then turned back to Stone Zhang and returned the salute. "Sir, if I may ask, do you have some kind of token?"

    Panicked, Stone Zhang looked back at the group again and mouthed, To ¨C¨C ken?

    Xue Xian was about to say they didn''t, but suddenly remembered and slapped his knee. "Of course!"

    Then, without any sense of hesitation nor shame, he reached into Xuanmin''s pouch and began to dig.

    ¡°...¡± Xuanmin grasped Xue Xian¡¯s wrist. "What are you ¨C¨C"

    "Found it!" Xue Xian wiggled his arm. "Let go."

    Xuanmin did so, and Xue Xian triumphantly took out his claw, which clutched that silver medical bell.

    When Jiang Shining hadn''t been able to carry it, Xue Xian had tossed it into the pouch for him ¨C¨C and now he was taking it back out, as though it was his own pocket.

    "Can this medical bell count as a token?" Xue Xian asked, showing Chen-shu the bell.

    He was still sitting on the statue by the door, half-hidden by Stone Zhang, so it was only upon hearing his voice that Chen-shu and the others looked over at him.

    Xingzi looked Xue XIan up and down, then suddenly flushed red and shyly hid behind Chen-shu again.

    Chen-shu took the bell into his hands. He only needed to glance at it before he said, "I''ve seen this. Jiang-daifu always had one on him."

    He flipped the bell over and saw that it had Jiang etched onto the side, then handed it back to Xue Xian.

    But Jiang-daifu had not died of old age ¨C¨C his family had been victims of arson, and now there was a complete stranger showing up with a family heirloom. Anyone would be suspicious.

    "And you are the Jiang family''s..." Chen-shu muttered nervously.

    "Close neighbors," Stone Zhang offered. He couldn''t say ¡®distant family¡¯, so he had to go for the next best option. "The xiao-gongzi [l] of the Jiang family, Jiang Shining, requested us to bring the medical bell that has been in his family for generations to his sister. There are also unresolved things concerning his parents that he needs us to discuss with her."

    "So that''s why..." Xingzi said. "But shao-furen isn''t in at the moment. Would you like to come in for tea?"

    Her attitude was so completely different from her earlier fright that Chen-sao and Chen-shu stared at her, surprised.

    Wasn''t she supposed to be even more terrified now?

    But Xingzi didn''t notice the strange looks. Her gaze still rested on Xue Xian.

    "Thank you," Stone Zhang said, without even trying to decline out of politeness. After all, in the past few days he''d both flown in the air and dived into the water. All he wanted was to sit down for a while and have some hot tea. He was overjoyed.

    Seeing as Xingzi had already invited them, and Stone Zhang had accepted, Chen-shu had to ignore the doubts he still held and let the group in.

    Chen-shu and Chen-sao went ahead to show them the way, and Xingzi silently held the door open ¨C¨C

    Stone Zhang entered first, then Lu Nianqi, who was able to step over the threshold but who did so slowly and while feeling around the doorframe. Chen-shu noticed this.

    "This xiao-shaoye..." Chen-shu asked.

    "Half-blind," Lu Nianqi replied coldly.

    Chen-shu: ¡°...¡±

    Xingzi waited for Lu Nianqi to enter, then stepped out, planning to guide Xue Xian, who continued to sit on the stone statue.

    But she raised her head and watched as Xuanmin picked Xue Xian up in his arms.

    Xingzi: ¡°...¡±

    Chen-shu saw this surreal scene, too, and couldn''t help but ask, "And this gongzi..."

    "Half-paralysed," Xue Xian replied, equally coldly.

    Chen-shu: ¡°...¡± What kind of people are these...

    One half-blind person, one half-paralysed person, one short and fat middle-aged man, one aloof monk...

    Although, to be fair, none of them seemed capable of any violence.

    So Chen-shu put his suspicions away and decided to greet the group with genuine kindness.

    "What time will your shao-furen be back?" Xue Xian asked Xingzi. He had seen the little girl blush, and found her funny, so had decided to casually ask her a question.

    When the niezhang wasn''t actively looking to make trouble, he actually knew how to use his charisma on people and speak with politeness. Yet his tone retained that sense of laziness, which made him appear absent-minded and nonchalant.

    Struck that Xue Xian had spoken to her, Xingzi blushed even redder. Warmly, she said, "Shao-furen went to feel Zhao-laoye''s wife''s pulse, and shaoye went along. They left before the wu geng, and will probably be back in a shichen or so."

    "Feel her pulse?"

    "Our shao-furen is extremely skilled!" Xingzi said. "All the wives in the county who don''t feel well ask shao-furen to check on them. Her pulse study is always accurate, and the medication she recommends always successfully treats the illness. But it''s hard work..."

    Jiang Shining''s sister really is worthy of her upbringing in a medical family, the group thought. But they also began to feel worried ¨C¨C the plague seemed to be wreaking havoc across Qingping County, and it was too easy for doctors to become infected...

    The group settled into a back courtyard and sipped tea. They had expected to wait a very long time, but before they''d even finished their first cups, a boy around the age of ten burst in, panicked, and shouted, "Help! Help! Help! Something''s happened to shaoye and shao-furen!"

    --

    The author has something to say:

    Sorry~ I still owe the chapter that I took the day off from yesterday, I¡¯ll put it up on Tuesday after my exam.

    --

    [a] ´ó (da4) means ¡°great¡±; ÉÆÈË (shan4 ren2) literally means ¡°kind person¡± and can be translated as someone who does good, someone who is charitable, or ¡°philanthropist¡±, although this latter English word in its modern applications usually denotes people who are not actually all that generous at all. TYK/SHL translations have translated ´óÉÆÈË as ¡°philanthropist¡±, but as I understand it, this is done in a highly ironic manner. In Copper Coins, the description/nickname ´óÉÆÈË is given to a character in an entirely sincere manner, and, because this is difficult to convey in English, I have chosen to transcribe it.

    [b] Musuli uses the chengyu ¿ÞÐ¦²»µÃ (ku1 xiao4 bu4 de2) here, literally ¡°not sure whether to laugh or cry¡± but used to describe when someone finds themself in a strange situation and is unsure how best to react, or feels ambivalent, or feels a mixture of reactions. I believe that this chengyu is translated literally in some versions of TGCF, but have decided to go for the meaning behind the idiom here.

    [c] Musuli uses ÀÏÍ· (lao3 tou2) here (see glossary), but because this is meant to have an insulting tone rather than a neutral form of address, I translated rather than transcribed it.

    [d] Musuli uses the chengyu ½üÄ«ÕßºÚ (jin4 mo4 zhe3 hei1) here, meaning ¡°the one who approaches ink turns black¡±. The phrase has a first half, ½üÖìÕß³à (jin4 zhu1 zhe3 chi4), meaning ¡°the one who approaches cinnabar turns red¡±.

    [e] Musuli uses ²Ð·ÏµÄ (can2 fei4 de) here, meaning ¡°one who is disabled/handicapped/crippled¡±. Within the adjective ²Ð·Ï, ²Ð means injured or deficient, ·Ï means wasted or lame. Normally, I would not use a word as strong as ¡°cripple¡±, but in this context Xue Xian is pointing out all the ways in which strangers might be prejudiced against him and the other members of the group ¨C¨C so it feels appropriate to use a more dismissive term.

    [f] Zhong Kui - a deity who can chase off ghosts, whose image is often pasted onto doors as a guardian for the home. (Wikipedia).

    [g] Sao: see glossary.

    [h] Shu: see glossary.

    [i] Musuli uses ÑýÄ§¹í¹Ö (yao1 mo2 gui3 guai4) here. In contexts where exorcists and other mystics are discussing spirits and monsters, I would transcribe this as ¡°yao, mo, gui, guai¡± because English-language readers seem to know what all of these terms entail. However, here, the chengyu is being employed in a satirical/comical manner, so I have translated it.

    [j] Xiao-shaoye: young shaoye.

    [k] Shao-furen: see glossary.

    [l] Xiao-gongzi: young gongzi.

 CH 47

    Chapter 47: Kindness (II)

    Uncle Chen and Auntie Chen, who had been emerging from indoors with tea trays, jumped with shock. The tea tray clattered onto the ground, sending shattered ceramic pieces flying, some of the broken pieces even hitting Stone Zhang and Xuanmin''s legs ¨C- but the couple was too distracted even to apologise.

    "Something''s happened?" A chorus of voices rose ¨C¨C Uncle Chen, Auntie Chen, Xingzi... and the hidden Jiang Shining.

    But with all the commotion, no one noticed him.

    "What''s happened?" Auntie Chen gripped the messenger by his sleeve. "Speak, child! Why are you the only one that''s returned?"

    "Young Master..." the boy wheezed. He seemed to have run all the way home and barely stopped to breathe, so now he spoke in a spluttered, broken manner. He finally took some deep breaths and slowed down. "We were on our way back and turned down Jifu Street. Suddenly, seven or eight beggars appeared and took Young Master and Young Mistress away. The whole thing happened so quickly, it''s as though they were waiting there for us!"

    "What?" everyone exclaimed. "Taken away? Where to?"

    "I... I don''t know¨C¨C" the boy seemed about to cry, and spoke with a voice full of shame and guilt. "Young Master and Young Mistress pushed me aside, and I fell to the ground. When I got up, they''d disappeared without a trace. I couldn''t go after them. I couldn''t even find them. I''m so useless..."

    He began to sob.

    "Did you at least see the direction in which they went?" Xuanmin suddenly asked.

    The boy seemed not to have noticed that there were strangers in the courtyard. He faltered, then said between sniffs, "South. But there are too many streets that way, and I immediately lost track of them."

    "Find an object that your Young Master and Young Mistress have touched," Xuanmin said again, as his gaze fell upon Twenty-Seven.

    "Oh right, we have a human compass," Xue Xian said, petting Twenty-Seven''s head maternally. But the boy pushed his hand away.

    Uncle Chen and Auntie Chen didn''t understand. "Something they''ve touched recently?" they asked.

    But Xingzi clapped and shouted, "A handkerchief! Does that work?"

    "Sure," Xue Xian said. "Could you please bring that handkerchief over?"

    Still red-faced, Xingzi scurried into a nearby room, then ran out again. "Here ¨C¨C the handkerchief. But what do you need it for?"

    "Where going to find out where your Young Master and Young Mistress went."

    Still utterly lost, Uncle Chen and Auntie Chen paced around restlessly, like ants on a hot stove.

    Twenty-Seven took out his bundle of sticks and, lightly holding the embroidered handkerchief, began to make marks on the floor.

    He looked like some kind of shaman. Uncle Chen, Auntie Chen, and even Xingzi looked on with concern. "This is..."

    Then, in a highly serious manner, Twenty-Seven put away his sticks and felt the markings they''d created. Putting on his best oracle voice, he said, "Is there such a mountain path nearby? There are hills built from stacked broken stones on both sides, and on the hills is a forest. In the forest..."

    He touched the markings again, and said, "Inside the forest is a grave, and by the grave is a small pond, and by the pond is a black rock, which looks like a crawling turtle..."

    When he''d begun his description, Uncle Chen and Auntie Chen''s faces had still been furrowed in confusion, but when he got to the turtle-shaped rock, they suddenly lit up: "There really is!"

    "Where?"

    "Xiaonanshan!"*

    Before long, a horse-drawn carriage suddenly appeared at the foot of a hill in Qingping County known as Xiaonanshan. Xue Xian and the others sat inside the carriage, while Uncle Chen drove it.

    At first, Xue Xian had only wanted to bring one ordinary person with them who could both drive the carriage and who knew the way ¨C¨C it was convenient and efficient, and Uncle Chen had a mild personality and seemed able to tolerate a great deal of strange happenings.

    And yet...

    The group were now looking at Auntie Chen and Xingzi, who sat in the carriage with them.

    "So the reason why the two of you came along is..." Xue Xian finally asked.

    Indeed, they''d even left Stone Zhang back at the Fang compound.

    Auntie Chen had an excitable nature. She slapped her thigh and shouted, "Last year, when Old Mistress passed away, she''d asked me and Old Chen to take care of Young Master and Young Mistress. Now, it''s only been a year and I''ve already lost them. How am I supposed to explain this to her? Oh, Old Mistress¨C¨C"

    Seeing that she might begin to wail, Xue Xian shot out a finger and waved it in front of her. "Shh... okay, okay, I understand."

    Auntie Chen''s eyes bulged out as she suddenly felt her mouth be sealed shut by some invisible forced ¨C¨C she was unable to make any more noise.

    "So, little girl, how about you¨C¨C" Xue Xian asked. There were no seats with armrests inside the carriage, so he leant back against the carriage wall. As he spoke, finding nowhere to put his arms, he went ahead and used Xuanmin''s legs as his armrests. Of course he did: it was only to be expected.

    In the corner of his eye, Xue Xian saw Xuanmin glare at his arm on his knee. The monk raised his hand, as though about to pry the impossible beast''s claws away.

    Xue Xian turned, ready to protest and annoy him further ¨C¨C but Xuanmin''s gaze quickly passed by his arm, as though the monk had seen something or remembered something. Then, Xuanmin put his hand back down and let Xue Xian do what he wanted.

    Huh?

    Xue Xian was taken aback, but before he could process it, Xingzi, sitting across from him, blurted out, "I''ve been with Young Mistress for over five years. If something happens to her, how can I go on? I''m so stressed that I can''t just sit around at home. Please don''t make me get off the carriage. I promise not to get in the way."

    "You won''t get in the way, and I don''t mind there being more people. It''s just that..." Now Xue Xian slowed down his speech and said casually, "You need to be prepared."

    Auntie Chen and Xingzi stared at him quizzically, unsure what he meant.

    Before they could say anything, Twenty-Seven suddenly said, "Alright, the location''s pretty much fixed. They''re not moving anymore. They''ve stopped somewhere. This is... an abandoned village? Why are all the houses broken down?"

    "Abandoned village? Do you mean Wen Village? My heavens ¨C¨C how could they end up there? No one lives there anymore... and not only that, but it''s haunted! If they go, they''ll die!"

    "A ghost village?"

    "Old Chen! Old Chen! It''s a matter of life and death! Go faster¨C¨C" Auntie Chen yelled, knocking at the carriage wall.

    The reason why the carriage was thrumming along this path on Xiaonanshan was precisely because the beginner soothsayer Twenty-Seven''s sticks only worked some of the time ¨C¨C and those they were tracking were constantly on the move. If they wanted to be able to confirm Jiang Shining''s sister''s final location, they needed to get as close as possible.

    Now that those they were tracking really had stopped, Xue Xian''s group naturally didn''t want to wait around anymore. They got ready to charge.

    "Hold on tight," Xue Xian said to Auntie Chen and Xingzi.

    Just as Auntie Chen turned back from knocking on the wall, the entire carriage began to shake back and forth,

    "Aiyou!" Auntie Chen cried, thinking the horses had gone over a bumpy stretch of road. She shot out her hand to stabilise herself against the wall.

    But then, out of nowhere, came a savage wind that began to rattle the carriage from the outside.

    Terrified, the horses at the front began to whinny.

    "What is going on what is going on¨C¨C" Auntie Chen''s hand scrabbled against the wall as she choked back tears. Xingzi held on tightly to her hand and screamed too.

    "Little girl, please be quieter." Xue Xian lifted his hand, and the carriage doors slammed tightly shut. "The doors are shut. You can''t fall out."

    Auntie Chen and Xingzi stared at him incredulously, as though they''d seen a ghost¨C¨C

    "Did you touch the door just now..." Xingzi asked. "How come the door..."

    She was still in a shocked daze when the carriage, which had tipped over diagonally, suddenly became light again. Xingzi''s heart settled.

    This sudden light feeling... it was as though someone ¨C¨C or something¨C¨C had picked up the carriage in its entirety.

    Trembling, the two women pulled open the curtain on the window...

    "Ahhh!" they both screamed.

    "We''re... we''re... we''re flying!"

    Xue Xian scratched inside his ear. He had begun to regret what he''d done.

    He poked Xuanmin in the waist and said, "Bald donkey, could you bring in the one at the front¨C¨C"

    "Ahhh!"

    Before he could even finish his sentence, a scream rose from the front of the carriage too.

    Xue Xian rolled his eyes. What happened to ''mild personality''?

    Xuanmin swept his snow-white sleeve out of the window and, with a ping, Old Chen''s head came hurtling in through the window, screaming all along.

    As he''d been panicking outside with his eyes tightly shut, Xuanmin had gone ahead and dragged him inside.

    The screaming only stopped when he was sitting inside the carriage.

    Now that everyone was in the carriage, Xue Xian reached a hand out of the window and did a wave.

    Xingzi looked on, confused...

    The carriage lurched to the side again ¨C¨C this time, Auntie Chen hadn''t managed to get a grip, so she fell with gravity and tumbled into Xingzi, who fell, too, onto Twenty-Seven.

    The poor Twenty-Seven, still clutching his sticks, was slammed into the carriage wall.

    Carried by the wind that Xue Xian had summoned, the carriage flew up into the skies, headed straight for the clouds.

    But as soon as it penetrated the clouds, it immediately fell down toward the earth again.

    As the carriage lurched again, Auntie Chen and Xingzi tumbled along too, knocking into Twenty-Seven again. The boy gritted his teeth.

    Auntie Chen and Xingzi took another breath ¨C¨C and when they exhaled, the carriage had already landed again.

    "We''re here," Xue Xian said. He hooked his finger and the doors of the carriage burst open, revealing the scene outside ¨C¨C

    Just as Auntie Chen had described, they were indeed in an abandoned village. The homes had long collapsed, allowing the forest''s trees and weeds to take over. There was no sign of life at all. Although the sky was brightening, a patch of white light creeping in from the east during this freshest part of the morning, the village seemed to repel visitors rather than invite them.

    "Caw ¨C¨C caw¨C¨C" A crow flew out from somewhere in the thicket, frightening the Fang family servants, who began to tremble and tried to shrink further into the carriage.

    In the oppressive silence, of course any noise was going to seem so much louder. Just as Xuanmin took a step out of the carriage door, a woman''s piercing scream rose out in the distance.

    "Young Mistress!" Xingzi shouted. "That''s Young Mistress'' voice! She really is in there!"

    Xuanmin turned to Xue Xian and said, "Wait here."

    He planned to follow the voice into the abandoned village.

    There was nothing to worry about when it came to Xuanmin, so Xue Xian leant back further into the carriage and crossed his arms lethargically. He nodded and said, "Okay, that''ll save me some effort. Be back soon."

    Frowning, Xuanmin surveyed the feng shui design of the abandoned village. There really was a problem with the village: it was a shell, with a strong exterior but a totally hollow heart, and it lacked something critical ¨C¨C the perfect position had been emptied out and was now barren and dead.

    As to what the village lacked...

    Pondering this, Xuanmin began to stride forward in those sweeping steps. His hand absent-mindedly shot to the copper coin pendant by his hip, but there was nothing there.

    Xuanmin paused.

    Xue Xian, who had shuffled forward to the carriage door and had been watching Xuanmin walked away suddenly squinted¨C¨C

    Xuanmin was coming back again.

    Xue Xian lifted his face and watched as the monk came to the door and lightly knocked against the carriage wall with his knuckle, then stretched out that slender, beautiful hand in front of Xue Xian.

    "What are you doing?" Xue Xian asked, confused.

    Xuanmin said, "Copper coins."

    Inside the carriage, Xingzi looked at Xuanmin''s face and thought, How handsome...

    Then she looked at Xue Xian, and found him handsome too.

    And yet...

    Most of Xingzi''s thoughts were something like, If the Master wanted money, why was he asking for it from Xue Xian?

    And now, Xuanmin, with his pendant in hand, was walking back into the abandoned village again.

    As he walked, the copper coins lightly struck against each other, making light ringing noises that were brought back to them by the eddies of the village''s strange wind.

    Xue Xian absent-mindedly drummed his fingers against his knee to the rhythm of the coins'' echoes, waiting for Xuanmin to return.

    But, after some time had passed, his fingers froze as he realised ¨C¨C

    Hold on. It had been so long, and Xuanmin''s silhouette had completely disappeared into the village. How could the sound of the coins still ring so close?

    But at that moment, that clear, rhythmic echo suddenly stopped. A low thrumming noise seemed to rise from within the earth ¨C¨C it was so familiar...

    As that weng¨C¨C noise appeared, Xue Xian felt his mind be wiped clean, and a scene that he had long forgotten surged forth.

    ---

    * Literally ''small mountain in the south''. I would normally prefer to simply translate it as that phrase, but I''m not sure if this is going to keep coming back and don''t want such a big mouthful all the time.

 CH 48

    Chapter 48: Kindness (III)

    It was the first month of summer, in Huameng County, and his muscles and bones were being extracted from his body ¨C¨C countless golden threads appeared out of nowhere in the air and fell upon him, some wrapping themselves around his body and tying him down to the ground, others worming their way between his scales and tightening their grip, trapping him like a giant cage.

    The golden threads were as thin as hair, so that even if they did pierce his skin, he would not immediately begin to bleed, as the wounds were too small. But no blood did not mean no pain ¨C¨C those golden threads sent scorching agony all across his body, the outside ones scorching his skin, the ones that had dug into him scorching his flesh and sending pain into his very muscles and bones. Every little move sent more pain rippling across him, and it was as painful as being devoured by millions of ants.

    But what was Xue Xian like? When he wanted to move, he would move, even if ten thousand arrows had pinned him to the ground ¨C¨C he would simply pluck the arrows out one by one no matter the pain, and then decapitate whoever had done that to him.

    Indeed, physical pain had never been able to stop him.

    The reason why he hadn''t forced his way out of the cage that day was because it happened to be his catastrophe period, which only occurred once every century.

    There were great catastrophes and small catastrophes, but they were really all just storms.

    To Xue Xian, tempests were the least fear-inspiring catastrophes. When was a dragon emerging from the sea not accompanied by some rain and thunder? He had long gotten used to thunder, especially the noise, so that no matter how mightily a roll of lightning shook across him, he could simply sit there and watch, his eyes unblinking.

    Ordinary thunder could not even hit him, especially as much of it had been summoned by him ¨C¨C and even if he was struck, it did not hurt nor even itch. But thunder during the catastrophe period was different: not only was it able to strike him, it in fact aimed itself directly at him, sending bolts of lightning onto his body one after the other until he began to bleed. His skin peeling away was a small matter ¨C¨C there were far worse things, such as harm to his soul. If he did not practice his Buddhist meditation skills well enough to combat the pain, his soul could be entirely shattered by the thunder, and his empty body would melt into dust and mud.

    In order to save their own lives, most people, if experiencing a catastrophe, would come up with all sorts of ideas to protect themselves ¨C¨C like the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each person might come up with a different idea. But Xue Xian could do no such thing: each and every move affected the rivers, lakes, and seas upon which humanity depended. If he tussled, it would turn all nearby bodies of water into churning, dangerous things. Every once in a while he would cause a flood somewhere, and during a critical moment such as this, he had to be extremely careful not to send out a great wave to flatten whole cities.

    When Xue Xian was experiencing catastrophe, he would always transform back into his dragon form: his colossal dragon body could bear the agonising lightning strikes to the flesh. Whereas if he stayed human, only a few strikes of lightning would peel all of his flesh away ¨C¨C and then what would he look like?

    When catastrophes were small, Xue Xian could not be bothered to move around too much ¨C¨C he would find a random deserted island and draped himself across it to let the thunder pummel him. When it was over, he would simply go to sleep right there and let his wounds heal. Then, when he was no longer bleeding from every pore, he would slither into the bottom of the sea and mend his soul, before going back out again to make trouble.

    But when catastrophes were great, he could not be so slapdash. Indeed, most land could not bear the brunt of the colossal thunder of great catastrophes ¨C¨C if it fell upon a desert island, only a few bolts would break the island into pieces and send it sinking into the water. If there happened to be people there, then it would become a real disaster.

    In order to avoid the thunder of great catastrophes striking the earth because of him, Xue Xian would fly into the sky and burrow into the thick black storm clouds. Shafts of lightning came down from the heavens and made their way into the clouds to strike him, and only him. For humans, the noise was frightening, but there was no real danger at all.

    And that year, in the first month of summer, Xue Xian encountered a great catastrophe.

    And that catastrophe seemed even greater than previous great catastrophes, so that, after he had born the strikes of thunder, he found that his soul had been seriously harmed and he swiftly fell from the clouds onto the beach below.

    When one''s soul was harmed, one would become only semi-conscious and disoriented, with no spiritual energy. Because of this, when those countless gold threads had appeared to tie him tightly to the ground, Xue Xian could barely even open his eyes, let alone see who his enemy was or try to break his fetters. Even for a long time after that, he could not remember the memory at all, only bits and pieces, like the fragments of a dream.

    But now, at the abandoned village, Xue Xian felt something ripple through his mind. Perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps something else, but a frame from that memory suddenly flashed into his mind, and Xue Xian was seized with paralysing terror. Beyond those dense whirls of golden thread had been the silhouette of a person ¨C¨C perhaps the person was dressed in white, but because there were too many obstacles, it was hard to see details, only a contour.

    Just by the contour, Xue Xian could now see that the person was thin and tall, and, amid the billowing of their robes in the wind, he could also see wispy flying shadows against the person''s face ¨C¨C long hair that had come loose.

    And yet...

    There was something indescribably strange.

    The weng¨C¨C noise began to die down in his mind, and Xue Xian finally freed himself from the memory.

    "What''s wrong? Hey, wake up¨C¨C"

    As Xue Xian regained his five senses, he began to hear a female voice shouting in his ear with worry and panic.

    "Little Xingzi, please stop shaking me, if you keep going, my head is going to roll off..." Xue Xian muttered, his eyes still closed.

    "You''re awake?" Xingzi exclaimed in delight ¨C¨C she was so overwhelmed that she stumbled and grabbed onto Xue Xian''s shoulder to steady herself. She yanked her hand back as though she''d touched fire, then awkwardly shuffled to the side and explained, "Just now you suddenly lost consciousness. You''d even stopped breathing. We were all terrified, and I just... I..."

    Frowning, Xue Xian finally lazily opened his eyes. Squinting, he patted his chest and said, "So you decided to pinch me?"

    Xingzi leant against the carriage wall and sighed with resignation and a sense of immense, heavy guilt. "Yes, I pinched you in the chest."

    "Thank you very much. I''m grateful," Xue Xian said with a smile. Then, his face fell, and he looked out into the village again.

    "Ai?" Not expecting a word of thanks, Xingzi blushed again. She wrung her hands and spluttered, "No worries, no worries, I''m just glad you''re awake now."

    Of course, Xue Xian didn''t hear her at all. He was gazing intently into the abandoned village, wondering why Xuanmin hadn''t returned yet.

    "That bald donkey..." He stopped, realising that it might not be appropriate to call Xuanmin that in front of others. He cleared his throat then injected some more seriousness in his voice. "How long was I out just now? Has anything happened since the monk entered the village?"

    "Something happening?" Xingzi shook her head, worried. "It''s been some time, and I haven''t heard anything. Should... should we go inside and look for him?"

    Perhaps it was because the carriage taking flight earlier had destroyed the three mortals'' spirits, but when it came to the group''s plans, the three happily deferred to Xue Xian. Even if they did feel apprehensive about something, they did not dare speak up. But it had been a while, and who knew what kind of danger lay inside the village?

    Hearing Xingzi''s suggestion, Xue Xian frowned. Then he reached out and patted his waist. "Bookworm, why are you so quiet?"

    Now that these mortals had been in the sky, how could they possibly be afraid of ghosts? Xue Xian had no problem bringing Jiang Shining out anymore.

    But it was indeed strange... his own sister and brother-in-law had been kidnapped and brought into a haunted forest, and Jiang Shining hadn''t even stuck his head out of Xue Xian''s pocket. That wasn''t like him at all.

    "Bookworm?"

    Silence.

    "Jiang Shining?"

    Silence...

    As Xue Xian uttered that name, Uncle Chen, Auntie Chen, and Xingzi all stared at him.

    "Young Master Jiang... did you call Young Master Jiang just now?" Auntie Chen stammered.

    "Yes," Xue Xian said as he looked into his pocket, confused.

    Great. It was empty.

    Jiang Shining had long disappeared.

    With a blank face, Xue Xian looked back onto the village again ¨C¨C Jiang Shining had probably been unable to contain himself and gone off with Xuanmin.

    The sun was quite high in the sky now, and the fresh morning was laden with dew and humidity. A thick patch of white fog settled into the village, so that only the outlines of some broken buildings could be seen, dark and shadowy.

    "Where''s Lu Twenty-Seven?" Xue Xian asked, still staring out.

    Twenty-Seven said, "I''m here. What is it?"

    His tone was one of deep irritation. He was squeezed between two huge quails ¨C¨C Uncle Chen trembling on the left, and Auntie Chen quivering on the right. The couple seemed to consider him some kind of saint, and, too afraid to approach Xue Xian, had clustered around him for safety.

    "Could you try and find out what the bald... what Xuanmin is doing now?" Xue Xian said, gazing into the fog.

    "I can try," Twenty-Seven said. "But I need something that the monk has touched."

    Before Xue Xian could reply, Twenty-Seven added, "The carriage is too big. It won''t work."

    Xue Xian fell into a thoughtful silence, then turned and shoved his claw into Twenty-Seven''s face. "How about my hand?"

    Twenty-Seven and Xingzi both raised their eyebrows.

    There was something weird... or maybe everything was weird.

    "I can''t use living beings, only objects." Twenty-Seven had never been afraid of Xue Xian, nor did he fear being beaten, so he shrugged and casually said, "Why don''t you martyr yourself right now, and I can try."

    Xue Xian laughed coldly and turned away.

    Meanwhile, from a collapsed compound inside that long abandoned Wen Village came the noise of a quarrel.

    The compound was composed of two two-story buildings connected by a corridor. around which were the four walls of a courtyard. Inside the courtyard had once been some gardens, which had now become a wide patch of weeds as tall as half a person, plus a wizened, almost dead tree. The windows of each room were rotten, the paper windowpanes long tattered, letting a mighty draft into the rooms whose sound resembled a melancholy, mourning wail.

    The quarrelling noise came from the eastern room of the ground floor of the front building ¨C¨C the only room without a draft.

    "Didn''t you say we''d never go wrong if we listened to you? Now we can''t get out at all!" a hoarse male voice complained.

    "What else can we do? If we keep going ahead, will Uncle Liu, Jianzi, and Little Stone survive?" another voice retorted. "At least there''s a roof here to shelter us from the rain. Why didn''t you whine when you were picking mushrooms in the morning?"

    Several beggars were gathered in the eastern room, all with dishevelled hair and dirty faces. Their clothes appeared never to have been washed before, and emitted a sour, rotten smell. But that wasn''t the only smell in the room ¨C¨C mixed in with the mildew was the piercing, heavy stench of fresh blood.

    The hoarse-voiced man''s had no hands ¨C¨C his wrists tapered off into two smooth stumps. It seemed that he had lost his hands many years, or even many decades, ago.

    In front of the no-handed man was a bonfire, on top of which was a broken pot, gurgling with some kind of liquid. The no-handed man used his stumps to pick up some wild leaves from a pile on the side and tossed them into a pot, muttering, "So what if we have food? We don''t even know if we''ll still be alive after eating it..."

    "We definitely won''t be alive if we don''t eat it, so hurry up and cook!" the same man replied. That beggar''s face was covered in ugly scars, and he only had one eyeball ¨C¨C the other eyelid was sealed tightly shut, with no sign of protrusion, implying that the eye socket was empty.

    A group of beggars sat around the arguing men. Those that weren''t missing arms or legs were gesticulating wildly, and were clearly either mute or deaf.

    Behind them was a small wooden bed, on which were lying three people: one old and two young, seemingly the "Uncle Liu, Jianzi, and Little Stone" that the one-eyed man had referenced. A blanket full of holes had been draped across them, moldy and damp, but at least it was some kind of cover.

    The three people on the bed breathed laboriously, as though feverish, and their grey faces burned with an angry redness. They had blisters on their lips, some of which had burst, and across their necks were also splotches of wounded, gangrenous skin.

    That heavy smell of fresh blood came from them.

    And in the corner of that room sat one man and one woman, both young and healthy-looking, who seemed familiar with one another. Although they wore humble, basic coats, these were not ragged nor rotten; and although their hair was a bit messy, they looked utterly out of place among the beggars.

    The woman was Jiang Shining''s sister, Jiang Shijing, and the man was his brother-in-law, Fang Cheng.

    Fang Cheng leaned over to his wife and muttered, "Ah Ying... Are you hurt?"

    Having known each other since childhood, Fang Cheng had always called his wife by her nickname.

    Jiang Shijing shook her head. "You?"

    "I''m fine. Don''t worry, I don''t think they intend to kill us, nor hold us for ransom," Fang Cheng said in a low voice. "It actually seems like..."

    They both looked over at the wooden bed, where the three sick people were sleeping.

    After the beggars had brought them to Wen Village, they had untied all of the couple''s rope bindings except for those on their wrists, and had barked, "We had no choice."

    Just as the beggars had been about to explain the matter further, a... highly unusual noise had appeared in the room.

    It had sounded like someone slowly walking down the stairs with heavy, trudging steps ¨C¨C perhaps someone physically unwell, or an old person.

    The beggars had all frozen in place and looked over at each other. One of them had even lifted a finger to count the number of people in the room: "Five, six, seven... and with Uncle Liu and the other two, that makes ten. We''re all here."

    As he said this, the beggars'' faces all contorted with fear ¨C¨C if everyone was in the room, then who was coming down the stairs?

    One of the braver beggars had scoffed and muttered, "You guys are scaring yourselves." He''d gone out of the room to see who it was, but then had disappeared without a trace. Even when the sound of footsteps had ceased, he had not returned.

    Then, two other beggars had paired up to go look for him. They claimed to have gone up and down the building multiple times without seeing sign of their vanished friend ¨C¨C but that the village had suddenly become covered in thick fog, so that they could no longer see into the other rooms nor feel their walls.

    This bizarre development had made all the beggars remember the tales of Wen Village being haunted. Terrified, they''d knit themselves into a tight circle around the bonfire, too afraid to leave the room again.

    Now the one-eyed man said to Fang Cheng and Jiang Shijing, "Doctors, would you like to drink some wild leaf and mushroom soup? Consider it a token of apology from us. If you could find it in your heart to forgive us humble beggars, we would like you to check the pulses of Uncle Liu and the others. They have rashes all over their bodies. If they keep going like this, they''re all going to die. We had no choice but to come up with this devious plan."

    "Although we barely lead a livable life, we also don''t wish to die," added the no-handed man. "But we had no money to pay a doctor, nor could we afford medicine, so we had to commit a crime..."

    It was just as the couple had guessed.

    Fang Cheng shook his head. "We''ve had many disasters in the past two years. With starvation spreading across the county, life has gotten harder for us all. If you can''t pay, hen don''t ¨C¨C would we turn a dying person away at the door? And even if I was a miser who refused to give you any medicine, my wife here would never allow it. It''s just that..."

    He looked pointedly at the one-eyed man and said, "How could you go so far as to blindfold someone on the street and kidnap them? If you can do this, then what else are you capable of?"

    "We also wish to make a normal living, but no one is willing to take us on," the no-handed man said, lifting his wrists helplessly. "For people like us, even if we did get jobs, we would be too clumsy to perform them well. All we are is a charity case. But in these difficult years, people can barely make ends meet for themselves, so why would they do charity?"

    "No one wants you?" Fang Cheng replied unhappily. "Did you ask us whether we wanted to be kidnapped? If you had just said, ''We cannot pay, can we work off the bill,'' do you think we would''ve denied you?"

    The no-handed man opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly that slow trudging noise outside appeared again.

    Everyone in the room froze in terror.

    "Gouzi, you guys are closest to the door, hurry up and shut it!" the one-eyed man whispered.

    A youth with a missing arm bounded up and scurried to close the door, then quickly rushed back to the bonfire, where he sat and anxiously observed the door for movement.

    "I heard... and I only heard¨C¨C" A beggar with a missing leg sitting beside Gouzi said, shuffling closer on his hands. He lowered his voice and added, "Ghosts haunt Wen Village every year, always around the end of the winter months. The sound of theatre performances will suddenly appear in the village, and you can hear the sound of drums and music from afar, and the high-pitched sounds of singing... Aiyou, it''s terrifying!"

    "Yes, yes! And, they say that if you accidentally stumble into the village, a white fog will cloud your vision and prevent you from escaping."

    "You can even hear coughing, clapping, and laughing..."

    As the beggars spoke among each other, they became more and more afraid. They clustered even closer together, trembling, but suddenly the one-eyed man gestured at them to be quiet, and they all fell silent again.

    The slow steps seemed to come out of a room upstairs and begin to walk down the stairs. It lingered in the sitting room, as though it had sat down on a chair to rest. Then, it seemed to stand up once more and begin walking around the room.

    Bit by bit, the steps approached the eastern room and became ever clearer, finally stopping right in front of their door.

    As they stared at the door, each person in the room thought their heads were going to explode from sheer dread. That door was old and fragile, so although it had been locked, it would likely collapse under the slightest amount of pressure, and was thus completely useless.

    Just as the blood had drained from the beggars'' faces, the sound of coughing emerged from behind the door. The coughing noise betrayed a sense of weakness, as though it came from someone who was extremely ill, and was followed by a sound of wheezing. Then it trudged away, toward the door across the hall.

    Hu¨C¨C

    Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

    But the door to the room across the hall creaked shut again and the steps edged closer to the eastern room once more.

    While the beggars were sweating with fear, the group waiting inside the carriage outside Wen Village all let go of breaths they''d been holding ¨C¨C they saw a silhouette finally emerge from that thick fog. The monk''s white robes appeared to be made of the fog surrounding him, and they billowed lightly in the breeze.

    "Master! Master is back!" Xingzi shouted.

    Uncle Chen and Auntie Chen finally let go of their iron grips on Twenty-Seven''s arms and crawled to the carriage doorway to look out. "And Young Master and Young Mistress? Are they back too?"

    They squinted hard at Xuanmin''s silhouette but their hopes were dashed when they realised there was no other person walking alongside him.

    But when Xue Xian saw that Xuanmin was alone, he frowned.

    Xuanmin quickly materialised from the fog and walked over to the carriage.

    "Master, did you not find Young Master and Young Mistress?" Auntie Chen asked anxiously.

    Xuanmin said, "I have found their location, but cannot approach."

    "Cannot approach?"

    "Yes," Xuanmin said. "However¨C¨C"

    Before he could finish, Auntie Chen and Uncle Chen collapsed back into the carriage, their eyes red and brimming with tears.

    But Xue Xian silently looked Xuanmin up and down and asked, out of nowhere, "When did you shave your head and become a monk?"

    Confused by his question, Xuanmin turned to Xue Xian. "When I was a child. Why?"

    "Are you sure?" Xue Xian''s tone remained neutral, betraying no emotion. "Didn''t you forget your past?"

    Why would he suddenly ask such a thing?

    It was just that, just then, when Xuanmin had emerged from the white fog, his silhouette had looked so much like that of the person with the golden threads... both wore light white robes, both were slender and tall, and both were unusually powerful...

    The only difference was that the person with the golden threads had had a head full of hair.

 CH 49

    Chapter 49: Kindness (IV)

    Although Xuanmin did not understand why Xue Xian was suddenly interrogating him, he did give a response. "I retain some fragmented memories of the past," he said. "Some of them are from childhood."

    Perhaps it was how overly serious Xue Xian was acting, but something about his questions felt amiss. After Xuanmin replied, he looked down, his black, peaceful eyes locking with Xue Xian''s. He added, "I''m sure of it."

    Ever since their conversation at the inn, Xue Xian felt that he understood Xuanmin''s personality a bit more, or at least he felt more sure about him ¨C¨C

    Even if you ignored everything else about the bald donkey, there was one positive aspect to him, which was that he never lied. If he did not remember something, he would not make something up to perfunctorily placate Xue Xian, but would plainly say that he had forgotten. And if he could remember, but did not want to talk about it, he would also plainly say that he did not wish to inform Xue Xian, instead of forcing himself to accommodate his interrogator.

    So if Xuanmin calmly said, "I''m sure of it," then he really was sure ¨C¨C it meant that he really did have some bits and pieces of childhood memories, and that in those scenes, he had already become a monk.

    Hearing Xuanmin''s response, Xue Xian neither nodded nor shook his head. For some time, he said nothing at all, only gazing intently at Xuanmin.

    Seeing this, Xuanmin asked, "You don''t believe me?"

    "It''s not that," Xue Xian said. Suddenly, he reached out his hand and hooked his finger, gesturing for Xuanmin to come closer. "Come here."

    "Hm?" Xuanmin still did not understand, but bent down anyway. He assumed Xue Xian had something to tell him that he didn''t want Uncle Chen and the others to hear, so he waited sincerely for Xue Xian to speak.

    But no words came ¨C¨C only the beast''s claw.

    Squinting, Xue Xian touched Xuanmin''s head and clicked his tongue. "Poor baby, you were so young when you shaved your head!"

    There was a saying about children who were particularly adept at making trouble for their parents: if you don''t beat the child for three days, it''ll get so bored that it''ll climb up your house and start taking the roof apart. This was the saying that came to Xuanmin''s mind in that moment. This beast is staging a mutiny, he thought.

    The others in the carriage observed the scene, dismayed ¨C¨C especially Xingzi, who had even stopped crying and instead begun to think, The relationship between these two is... maybe too good?

    Unblinking, she directed her big eyes at Xue Xian, but accidentally exchanged a glance with Xuanmin.

    That Master really was quite attractive, she thought. Especially those serene, resolute eyes, which always gave one a reassuring feeling, as if to say that if Xuanmin wasn''t stressed, then no one else needed to be stressed, either, because he could always come up with an idea.

    But, for some reason, when Xingzi met with those eyes, she felt an unexplainable sense of guilt.

    But before she could break eye contact, Xuanmin was already looking away.

    His face set with irritation, he grabbed Xue Xian''s skinny wrist and pried his claw away from his head. Probably to stop Xue Xian from immediately putting his hand back, Xuanmin refused to let go.

    Xue Xian scoffed. "How precious is that head of yours? Why can''t I touch it?"

    Xuanmin ignored him.

    Actually, Xuanmin''s grip was not that tight: a quick tug would do to get out of it. But Xue Xian did not struggle ¨C¨C he rested his wrist there, letting Xuanmin hold it.

    The coolness in Xuanmin''s fingers seeped into Xue Xian''s skin, so that his wrist became the same temperature.

    Xue Xian''s gaze idly fell onto Xuanmin''s hand, and he compared the monk to that person holding the golden threads once more ¨C¨C indeed, they were alike in every way, except for that shadow of hair.

    But Xuanmin had already shorn his head and become a monk as a child, and Xue Xian had only been maimed six months ago. That meant Xuanmin couldn''t possibly have done the deed.

    To Xue Xian, as long as Xuanmin wasn''t that person, then it was perfect.

    Otherwise...

    Xue Xian stopped his train of thought in its tracks before he could think of otherwise. He changed the subject and asked Xuanmin, "Just now, you said that you found their position, but could not approach? Then you said ''However'' ¨C¨C however what? Can''t you see that you''ve made them all cry with that dramatic pause?"

    Hearing him say this, Uncle Chen and Auntie Chen''s ears perked up and they looked eagerly at Xuanmin.

    Xuanmin straightened up. Casting an eye back into the thick fog in that abandoned village, he raised his other hand.

    He uncurled his fist, and, with a light clang, the copper coin pendant fell out and dangled gently from his finger.

    "Indeed, I cannot approach. However¨C¨C" Now Xuanmin finally let go of Xue Xian''s wrist, so that he could use his index finger to nudge the coins into some kind of sequence. Calmly, he said, "Since we cannot go there, then let them come here."

    He took away his other hand and the coins in his palm emitted a humming noise, the red string that tied them together suddenly tightening.

    Then, a deafening noise came from within the abandoned village, as though something had been lifted from the ground.

    Startled, the group inside the carriage looked at each other anxiously. In that moment, a black scar appeared in the fog and loomed over them.

    "Oh god, look! What''s that?" Xingzi shouted, tugging at Auntie Chen''s sleeve and pointing at the sky.

    The black shadow was coming toward them at high speed, and as it approached, its silhouette became clearer¨C¨C

    That was the entirety of an old, dilapidated compound, which, along with the patch of ground on which it stood, was being levitated over to them by Xuanmin.

    Hong¨C¨C

    With an immense thud, the compound landed on the ground in front of them, that patch of weeds surrounding the buildings sinking its roots into the new earth immediately.

    This was what Xuanmin had meant by, Since we cannot go there, then let them come here.

    Auntie Chen, Uncle Chen, and Xingzi were shocked speechless. They had never imagined such an extravagant way of moving house ¨C¨C they forgot even to close their mouths.

    As the compound fell to the ground, they could also hear the sound of screaming coming from within the building. And...

    "Bookworm," Xue Xian suddenly said, peering at the skinny silhouette clinging tightly onto the knocker of the front doors. He sneered, "Are you trying to become this household''s door god?"

    That skinny silhouette was none other than the escapee from Xue Xian''s pocket ¨C¨C Jiang Shining.

    Of course he would never have been able to sit tight on the carriage and wait for news about his sister. Xue Xian had guessed right ¨C¨C Jiang Shining had indeed tumbled away from his hiding place with Xue Xian and followed Xuanmin into the village, and had been there when Xuanmin had discovered where his sister and brother-in-law were being kept. But one key difference between him and the monk was that Xuanmin was a human and could therefore not enter the compound, whereas Jiang Shining was a ghost, and effortlessly strode to the compound''s front doors. But before he could go inside, the entire place had been brusquely yanked away...

    He hadn''t had the time to turn back into a paper man, so now he came face to face with Auntie Chen, Uncle Chen, and Xingzi.

    "Oh heavens... Young... Young Master Jiang?" Uncle Chen stammered. "You... you didn''t... are you still..."

    He wanted to say you didn''t die, but the word die was too inauspicious, and he could not get himself to utter it. Then he wanted to say, are you still alive, but that phrase sounded far too awkward, so he had not been able to say that, either, ultimately coming across as a stuttering mess.

    Xingzi''s eyes brimmed with tears again as she tugged furiously at Auntie Chen''s sleeve. "I knew it! I knew I''d really seen him! I really did see Young Master Jiang knock on the door... but... but Young Master, you..."

    Jiang Shining met all of their eyes calmly and saluted them. "Knocking on the door had been a reckless action. I scared you, little Xingzi, and I apologise."

    "And now you''re..."

    "I''m a rogue ghost." Jiang Shining laughed bitterly, then added, "Uncle Chen, Auntie Chen, it''s been a while. Thank you for having missed me all this time."

    Hearing the word ghost, the mortals in the carriage all fell silent, unsure what to say to that ¨C¨C besides, the current circumstances weren''t the best time to talk about the past together.

    "Xu Compound..." Xue Xian muttered as he read the signage on the compound''s front doors.

    "Xu?" Uncle Chen repeated. "Could this be the home of Kind Man Xu?"

    "Kind Man Xu?" Xue Xian asked. "Who''s that?"

    Uncle Chen explained. "Most people who lived in Wen Village were surnamed Wen, and only about ten households had moved in later. One of them was a merchant surnamed Xu. They say that he had started out his career as a textile merchant and had even owned his own textile mill, and that he had earned a great deal of money over the decades. But at some point, a tragedy occurred, and he sold the textile business and moved his family to Wen Village, which was his wife''s hometown. He lived there for fifteen or sixteen years. He was an immensely kind man, and didn''t lack money, and everyone in the village received his generous help. That''s why they called him Kind Man Xu."

    Xue Xian had been about to knock on the door, but, hearing Uncle Chen''s words, he stopped. Instead, he waved his sleeve and summoned a tiny gust of wind that filtered through the minuscule gap between the set of rusted doors and gently pushed them open.

    As the ancient doors creaked open, there came several more screams of terror from the eastern room ¨C¨C there were people in there, and they were deathly afraid.

    In the same moment that Xue Xian was opening the front doors of the compound, the man had shuffled over to the shut door of the eastern room and had been about to push it open suddenly stalled. He raised his hand to protect his eyes, seemingly unable to tolerate the thin stream of daylight that was seeping out of the room onto his face.

    The patch of light could not illuminate what he looked like, only a vague contour ¨C¨C his back was hunched over with age, showing that he was at least fifty years old. Although he had originally been of medium height, his legs did not stand steady, and his knees sagged so that he appeared bowlegged.

    It took the man a long time to get used to the light. Finally, he put down his hand and calmly spoke into the darkness: "My dear guests, why are you standing by the door? Today your humble servant Xu celebrates his birthday and everyone is invited. I would be honored if you would come in to feast and drink some wine."

    The group was stunned. It really was Kind Man Xu.

    Before they could react, Kind Man Xu spoke again. "I am lucky to have old friends looking out for me, who have travelled a great distance to celebrate with me. They are one of the most famous theatre troupes in Anqing, and their performances are melodious and entertaining. You may come inside and wait for a while, treat your ears. Every time the troupe comes, the entire Wen Village rejoices. Everyone loves to listen to them."

    Theatre troupe?

    Xue Xian and Xuanmin exchanged glances, both recalling the group that they had previously encountered. But their thoughts were interrupted by a transformation of the scene in front of them¨C¨C

    Kind Man Xu''s words seemed to have opened some kind of hidden portal. The dilapidated Xu compound was suddenly lit up by rows of brilliant red lanterns, and a crowd began to walk the streets of Wen Village ¨C¨C hundreds of people milled about from beyond the fog, walking this way, forming a dense crowd whose end could not be seen.

    And at the same time, the sound of trotting horses emerged from the other end of the mountain path, making its way toward the village.

 CH 50

    Chapter 50: "Ride the Air" Design (I)

    The group turned to see the silhouette of a carriage train rumbling out of the fog and toward Wen Village. Three horses led the way, and a mule drew the final carriage at the end, and only a driver for the first carriage. The man driving the train was tall and strong, with three long scars down his face, which made him appear violent, and not at all kind.

    But Jiang Shining and the others knew that this man only looked unkind ¨C¨C in fact, he was deeply amiable... if he was still alive, he could be called a good person.

    The troupe was none other than the kind-hearted people who had picked up Xue Xian''s group on that snowy day in Guanyin Port.

    "They''re still here?" Jiang Shining mumbled.

    As a proper and earnest rogue ghost himself, Jiang Shining knew exactly how much ghosts feared coming into contact with living people and yang energy. Not many ghosts and spirits would choose to go around in broad daylight ¨C¨C the exception were those who had been anchored to something tangible, like Jiang Shining and his paper body, and also had someone looking out for them. Even then, ghosts only dared to become active on overcast days or in the early mornings. But this long-dead troupe travelled with no nervousness at all.

    It was because they did not know that they were dead ¨C¨C they had no sense of danger nor of self-consciousness. But how many crowded streets full of living people had the troupe already traversed? Any other ghost would long have been dissolved by the strong yang energy all around them, yet this troupe had somehow made it all the way here with no issue.

    "You think they belong to the same category as you?" Xue Xian asked, glancing at the scholar. "I only said that they''re already ......, but I never said they were the same kind as you."

    Confused, Jiang Shining said, "Are they not?"

    "If I told you eight hundred times that you''re dead, will you vanish?" Xue Xian snapped.

    Jiang Shining paused, then replied, "You haven''t said it eight hundred times yet. More like eighty."

    "So? Aren''t you still bouncing around happily now?"

    Jiang Shining still didn''t understand. "If they''re not ghosts, then what are they?"

    "Duty spirits," Xuanmin said.

    "What are ¨C¨C duty spirits?" Jiang Shining had never heard of such a thing.

    Duty spirits were neither ghosts nor vengeful spirits. They were created because they had made a promise in life that they were unable to forget. The strength and sincerity of their commitment to that duty engulfed all other concerns at the moment of their death, to the point where they were not even aware that they had died ¨C¨C all they knew was that they had a promise that they had not yet fulfilled, and which drove them to keep going.

    "It''s like if you have debt up your ass, but died before you could pay it off," Xue Xian explained lazily. "And all you can think of while you die is, ''How could you die? And why did it have to be now? At least wait until the debt is repaid, and then I can die.'' So you find some other way to stay. Understand?"

    "What happens when you fulfil your duty?"

    "Then you can depart."

    But whether the troupe were duty spirits or ghosts, they were now in a highly awkward situation ¨C¨C stuck between a rock and a hard place.

    "Both ways are blocked. What will we do about my sister?" Jiang Shining asked anxiously. "How do we get out of here?"

    Xue Xian glared at him. "Who said we were getting out of here?"

    "We''re not?!" Uncle Chen and Auntie Chen blurted out. The crowd of villagers was getting closer to the Xu compound, and in turn, they were trembling even harder.

    If we don''t leave, are we staying to be food for the spirits?!

    "Some invitations cannot be rejected," Xue Xian said, wagging his finger. "There are limitations to all of the spirits wandering around in this village. As long as they remain inside a loop, then everything is normal. But if they leave the loop, then things become uncertain. Think about it. If a nice person insists on you coming over to his place for a drink, and you say no, what would happen?"

    You would probably go back and forth a little, each insisting the opposite to the other. Of course, when living people tussle over such a minor thing, ultimately one of them will give in, and it will be fine. But it was different when it came to those who had already died. What if you angered the spirit? Or what if you tore them out of their loop?

    It was far too dangerous...

    But the reason why Xue Xian hadn''t decided to leave immediately was not because he minded the danger ¨C¨C if he was really reluctant to delay their journey, then even the king of heaven wouldn''t be able to stall him. The reason why he didn''t mind staying a bit longer was because he''d detected something strange about the place, and suspected he might be able to find some more pieces of his dragon bones nearby.

    While the group stood by the door talking, the scarred man had already pulled at his reins and stopped the carriages. He jumped off from his seat and paused with shock when he saw Xue Xian and the others, but quickly saluted and walked over. Frowning, he said, "Why have you come here?"

    When normal people ran into people they knew while on a journey, they would find it a happy coincidence. Their dismayed comments would be accompanied by a smile, and they would not be upset by the encounter ¨C¨C they would even try to stay and make some small talk. But this scarred man had never been an ordinary person, and faced with Xue Xian''s group, his gaze betrayed a sense of... reproach?

    He offered no polite greeting, and seemed downright unhappy ¨C¨C it was the direct opposite of the warmth with which he''d helped them previously.

    Now, a group of men and women of all ages were streaming out of the three carriages. Some went to the mule-drawn carriage to unpack, and others made their way to join the scarred man.

    One of the old women looked at Xu compound and said to Xue Xian''s group, "What are you all doing here on a freezing cold winter day as this? You should return to town."

    The old woman was familiar to them ¨C¨C the portable heater that Stone Zhang loved to clutch had been a gift from her. She had also been a kind-hearted and warm soul, so why was she now as rude as the scarred man, so eager to chase them away?

    This was the first time Jiang Shining had been asked to leave in such a veiled way. He stood rooted in his spot, embarrassed and unsure what to do.

    "Ai ¨C¨C Renliang, they are all my guests for the day. Come, come, tie your horses in the barn and drink some hot wine to warm up your throat!" Kind Man Xu intervened. He waved at the troupe by the carriages and called out, "Come in, everyone."

    Then he reached out a hand to pull Xue Xian in.

    "Ah, I''ve been sitting for so long that my back hurts¨C¨C" Xue Xian said, grasping Xuanmin who stood right next to him and leaning on the monk so as to stretch his back, thus smoothly avoiding being touched by Kind Man Xu.

    Xue Xian''s gesture appeared completely natural and harmless, with no trace of deceit. So Kind Man Xu wasn''t bothered ¨C¨C instead, he switched targets and tugged at the next person, which was Jiang Shining.

    Jiang Shining was stunned. This was also his first time getting his wrist seized by a ghost. Just like Jiang Shining himself, Kind Man Xu''s fingers were freezing cold from the yin energy that coursed through them ¨C¨C if he''d been holding onto a living person, that person''s wrist might''ve become numb from the cold, but to Jiang Shining, it made no difference.

    "Little brother, what is your name? I should have prepared some heaters. My hands are much too cold ¨C¨C are they a bother?" Kind Man Xu said courteously.

    Jiang Shining laughed drily. "We''re in the same boat."

    He was probably even colder.

    Helpless, Jiang Shining allowed himself to be dragged into the main hall. As he entered, he looked around and said, "Master Xu, please do not hesitate to go take care of your other guests. I can help myself." As he spoke, he inspected the eastern room from the corner of his eye.

    "I''m afraid I have been a poor host," Kind Man Xu replied politely. "I have too many guests. If I''ve missed something, I hope little brother can forgive me. Your humble servant Xu is going to go greet my hometown friends. Little brother, you may walk around as you please."

    As he spoke, Xuanmin and the others entered the main hall too. Kind Man Xu saw Xue Xian and paused. He asked, "This little brother is... incapacitated?"

    Xue Xian patted his legs. "My legs are paralysed. I can''t walk."

    Kind Man Xu smacked himself on the forehead and said, "You''ve come to the right place. Your humble servant Xu happens to have a two-wheeled carriage. My late mother''s legs were wasted and she could not walk, so I hired a carpenter to make her one. These days, it''s been gathering dust in a corner, and I have no use for it. Little brother, why don''t you take it? It seems awfully tiring for your friends to carry you all the time."

    Chuckling politely, Xue Xian said, "It''s not tiring at all, don''t worry."

    Xuanmin glared at him.

    Kind Man Xu was a man of action ¨C¨C he wasn''t only friendly in conversation. He immediately ordered servants to push the two-wheeled carriage that he kept in a side room out to the main hall. This was when Xue Xian noticed that none of the rooms in the Xu compound had thresholds ¨C¨C it seemed that when he''d first had the compound constructed, he had done away with thresholds in order to allow his mother to move around.

    Just from this tiny detail, Xue Xian felt that Kind Man Xu''s nickname was accurate: he really was a saint.

    The two-wheeled carriage was called a "carriage", but it was really just a chair with two wooden wheels attached to either side. Behind the chair were two small wooden handles, which allowed the family servants to push the chair. Kind Man Xu ordered his servants to wipe the chair clean, and then asked them to find a cushion to install onto the chair.

    Xue Xian thanked the man profusely and said, "Please don''t worry about that. I''m not very fussy."

    "It''s no issue at all. We have many cushions put aside just for this purpose. The chair is far too hard, and becomes uncomfortable after a while. Besides, the weather is so cold, and it would not do to catch a cold." Kind Man Xu was about to go on, but Xue Xian had already settled into the chair and was asking Xuanmin to push him.

    "Alright, alright. Little brother, you are eccentric," Kind Man Xu compromised with a smile.

    He saluted the guests, then went away to find his hometown friends.

    Xue Xian watched as he left, making sure that he turned a corner before he brusquely pushed open the door to the eastern room.

    Inside, that group of beggars had grouped together into a tight cluster around the almost-evaporated soup. Earlier, when they''d heard the sound of laughing and conversation outside, they''d feared that it came from some kind of demon bonfire party, and had been so terrified that they''d barely dared to breathe. So when Xue Xian suddenly slammed the door open, the beggars thought they would piss themselves.

    The most cowardly of them all gulped and fainted.

    Xue Xian was not offended at all ¨C¨C instead, he laughed and remarked, "Well, that''s far too polite a greeting."

    Perhaps fearing that the beast would make more mortals faint with his unfunny jokes, as soon as Xuanmin had pushed Xue Xian into the door, he immediately pushed him all the way into the corner of the room, then drew a circle around the wheelchair. Xuanmin took out a talisman and pasted it lightly to Xue Xian''s forehead.

    Xue Xian was aghast. What was he, a brain-devouring zombie?

    "Bald donkey, why do you have to be like this? Haggling over every cent! All I did was touch your head! I wasn''t mocking you. What the hell?" Xue Xian shouted at the wall, where he was facing. The talisman had frozen all of his movements, and there was nothing he could do. He rolled his eyes and was about to launch into another tirade when he suddenly felt something cold in his hand.

    He looked down and saw that Xuanmin was putting the copper coin pendant back into his hand and closing his fist around it. Xuanmin said, "This is the part of the village with the strongest magic. Take advantage of it to heal your body."

    Xuanmin patted the back of Xue Xian''s head, then walked away.

    Xue Xian paused to gaze at the pendant in his hand, then asked, "Where are you going?"

    He wanted to turn to see what Xuanmin was up to, but with the talisman stuck to his forehead, he could not even move his neck.

    The group of beggars watched all of this with utter bewilderment. Even Jiang Shijing and Fang Cheng gawked, confused. But then, interrupting their daze, Uncle Chen and Auntie Chen burst into the eastern room with Xingzi hot on their heels. Seeing Jiang Shijing, they all ran over to her. "Young Mistress!"

    "Young Master, Young Mistress, you scared this old man to death!" Uncle Chen said. But seeing that the couple were largely unharmed, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Then he noticed the group of beggars and rushed to put himself between the beggars and the couple. "Yu''e and Xingzi have cried multiple times already," he said to the couple.

    As Jiang Shijing gently consoled Uncle Chen, Xingzi hurried over to untie the couple. And indeed the beggars really had not wanted to harm the doctors, for even now they were so terrified that they looked like a row of geese. Naturally, none of the beggars made a move to stop the doctors from being freed.

    Xingzi threw the rope away and said, "It''s good that you''re okay! Auntie Chen and I, and even Young Master Jiang, were all crying just now. We were sick with worry!"

    "Young... Young Master Jiang?" Jiang Shijing froze and grasped Xingzi''s sleeve. "Who are you talking about? Young Master Jiang? Which Young Master Jiang?"

    Before Xingzi could respond, a warm, nasal voice said, "Sis, it''s me..."

 CH 51

    Chapter 51: "Ride the Air" Design (II)

    Jiang Shijing fell silent.

    The hand that clutched Xingzi''s sleeve trembled. Just that word Sis had sent a thick layer of tears brimming in her eyes and clouding her vision. Her mind was so confused that, for a second, she couldn''t understand why her vision had suddenly gone blurry, instead only trying to open her eyes wider and slowly looking around the room, searching for the source of that voice.

    "Ah Ning? Is that you, Ah Ning?" As Jiang Shijing''s eyes swivelled, two round tears came tumbling down her face. "S-stop hiding, Sis can''t see you..."

    Now more tears were springing forth, and she still could not see.

    "I was afraid that if I appeared directly before you, I would scare you," Jiang Shining said. After having quietly entered the room behind the others, he had hidden himself away in a dark corner by the bed.

    "How..." Jiang Shijing''s tears were flowing freely now, and that single word broke into a sob. She took a deep breath. "How could you scare me? No matter what you look like now, you could never scare me. I''m not afraid. Please come out, stop hiding..."

    Before she could finish speaking, as her vision clouded with endless tears, she suddenly felt herself be brought into a hug.

    The person hugging her was thin and wiry, and the chest against which her face was now buried was weak and frail ¨C¨C but it was a familiar feeling, one she knew from childhood. Ever since she was young, whenever she was upset, that little brother who was three years younger than her would come and console her by telling her funny things he''d read in books and embarrassing things he''d done in the past, until she couldn''t help but burst into laughter. He did this every time, from when he was a toddler who could only wrap his arms around her arm, to when he had grown a head taller than her and could fold her into a loving hug.

    But before, Jiang Shining''s hugs had been full of warmth. Now, there was no warmth at all ¨C¨C only a coldness that seeped right into her heart.

    Jiang Shining held on to his sister tightly, but it was only when he felt that she had begun to tremble that he realised that he no longer had the body temperature of a living person. Of course his hugs would be freezing cold to others. So he awkwardly let go and stepped away, in case his cold aura affected his sister, too.

    "Why are you so cold?" Jiang Shijing sobbed as she grabbed onto his hand, forbidding him from moving away. As she gripped his hands in hers, she breathed hot air onto his fingers so as to warm them. But seeing that this did nothing, she began to cry even harder.

    Jiang Shining raised his head to the ceiling and blinked, hard, trying to get himself together. Then he looked down at his sister again and said, "Sis, you can stop now. I don''t feel cold."

    Jiang Shijing''s tears seemed to have no end. They were now dripping all over Jiang Shining''s hands, and she grasped his fingers tightly, moving to wipe her tears away. But before she could do so, they were already seeping right into his skin.

    When one is experiencing turbulent emotions, naturally it becomes difficult to control the strength in one''s hands.

    Having been soaked wet by his sister''s tears, Jiang Shining''s paper hands were already vulnerable. Now, she began to furiously scrub them to dry away her tears, and his fingers began to show clear signs of ripping in half. But Jiang Shining didn''t want to take his hands away. He wanted to let his sister cry out all the sadness that she''d been keeping inside her all these years, even if he had to give up parts of his fingers.

    But if his fingers really fell off, he worried he would shock his sister. So he reluctantly gazed at his sister and waited for the moisture in his own eyes to clear, then looked up at Fang Cheng. "Brother-in-law, Sis has cried enough to wash my robes for me. Can you help me?"

    When he had first seen Jiang Shining, Fang Cheng had had a nasty fright, and then had settled into a turmoil of emotions. Although he had not watched Jiang Shining grow up day by day like his wife had, he had spent some time with him during their childhoods. When they''d been young, they would go together to the mountains to collect medicinal herbs, and, when Fang Cheng had gotten married, it was Jiang Shining who had carried Ah Ying into the palanquin...

    Fang Cheng had never thought their next meeting would have been on the border of the countries of life and death.

    Of course Fang Cheng understood how his wife felt, so he had stood there silently, not wanting to disturb. It was only when Jiang Shining spoke to him that, red-eyed, he nodded and came to hug his wife. "If you keep crying all over him, he won''t even be able to speak," he said softly.

    "That''s right. Sis, the reason I''m here today is all thanks to the generous help of distinguished people," Jiang Shining said. He was afraid that Jiang Shijing would ruin her eyes from crying, so he shot Fang Cheng a look and changed the subject.

    It was exactly how the two had learned to partner up to console Jiang Shijing when she was upset, all those years ago now.

    "Distinguished people?" Fang Cheng asked as he lightly rocked his sobbing wife back and forth. "Where are the distinguished people you mean, Ah Ning? Your sister and I need offer our deepest thanks."

    From the corner, Xue Xian laughed drily and said, "No need to thank me, but it would be great if you could take this damn paper off my forehead."

    Jiang Shining fell silent. He had forgotten that the ''distinguished person'' was being made to face the wall.

    Fang Cheng and Jiang Shijing looked at Xue Xian sitting in the corner, then looked back, perplexed, at Jiang Shining, unable to make head nor tail of the situation.

    "What have you done to piss off Master now..." Jiang Shining said as he walked over to Xue Xian. "Will I be punished too if I take the talisman off?"

    Xue Xian laughed drily again. "I can''t say I know what the bald donkey will do if you take it off. But I promise you, if you just stand there and watch me suffer without helping me, I will make you kneel down by my feet and beg me for forgiveness for the next eight generations of your family."

    Jiang Shijing and Fang Cheng gasped. They had never seen a ''distinguished person'' act like that before...

    "Okay," Jiang Shining said neutrally. "If you put it that way, then I really don''t dare to remove the talisman. If I do, then you''ll be able to move."

    Xue Xian growled, "Bookworm, are you rebelling?"

    Of course, ultimately all that was just talk. Jiang Shining was a soft man, and would never actually look on while someone else was in trouble. He walked slowly around the wheelchair and admired how obedient and quiet the beast looked sitting there, then finally reached out to pinch the talisman on Xue Xian''s forehead.

    But he had accidentally used the hand that his sister had drenched in tears. And Xuanmin''s talisman wasn''t like normal paper ¨C¨C it was hard to pull out.

    So, as Jiang Shining tugged hard at the talisman¨C¨C

    That damp hand... ripped in half.

    Neither of them said anything.

    "Ah Ning, why are you just standing there immobile?" Jiang Shijing asked.

    Panicked, Jiang Shining forced his agonised expression down and turned back around to face his sister, quickly hiding his torn hand behind his back. His face green with pain, he smiled at Jiang Shijing and said, "Nothing, I''m just¨C¨C"

    He was interrupted by an aggressive guangdang noise as the door was slammed open.

    The room fell silent and everyone, except for Xue Xian who could only face the wall, looked up at the large group now streaming in. The first man was tall and broad, with three scars on his face, and looked far more like a bandit than that group of beggars.

    The newcomers were none other than the theatre troupe.

    The last person to enter was Xuanmin. As he stepped inside, he closed the door behind him, so that Kind Man Xu and the other guests could not get in.

    As the din of laughter and conversation from the main hall streamed into the room, they all felt strangely far away, as though separated by layers of thick fog, or as though the noise came from several streets away ¨C¨C it was highly unnatural and unsettling.

    Clearly, Xuanmin had gathered everyone in this one room because he had questions he wanted to ask. But before Xuanmin could speak, the scarred man boomed angrily, "Don''t you know what kind of place this is? Are you stupid? Why are you still here?"

    His gaze fell upon the beggars'' pot of soup and he frowned and said, "There are countless other places to shelter from the weather. These days, the mountains are full of abandoned temples. You could have gone to any of them, but you chose to come here. Do you want to die?"

    "Ai..." one of the beggars sighed. "We have old people and children, and they''re all gravely ill. We can barely walk at all, let alone climb a mountain."

    "Are you not locals? Have you never heard of Wen Village?" the scarred man replied, though he had now lowered his voice. "Don''t you know that this village has been abandoned for many years now? Not a single living soul lives here, and you all have the gall to rest your feet here! Besides, you had to come at exactly this moment! Don''t you know? No one sitting in that room out there is human!"

    Jiang Shining and Twenty-Seven both thought, How funny ¨C¨C one ghost telling you to beware of the other ghost.

    But only a few of them knew the truth about the troupe. No one else did, so they went along with what the scarred man was saying.

    "Of course we know. We''ve heard many rumors about how there''s always noise around the end of the winter months, with people coughing and talking, and even theatre¨C¨C" The beggar trailed off as he noticed that the scarred man was holding costumes in his arms, as well as a long prosthetic beard. "Performers..." the beggar finished, suddenly pale.

    Seeing the beggar''s face, the scarred man shook his head and said, "We do perform here, but it''s different..."

    He glanced at the door, as if seeing the guests gathered in the hall beyond it. Sighing, he said, "Our troupe are all from this village. We grew up eating the rice here and drinking the water here, and we owe everything to Kind Man Xu. If it weren''t for him, the members of our troupe would probably have already been reborn into another life and died there.

    "We want to find ways to repay him, but he doesn''t lack anything ¨C¨C he just loves to listen to theatre. Our troupe spends all year travelling far and wide, but each winter, we will make our way back here and perform for Kind Man Xu on his birthday. To make him happy is the least we can do. It''s been about ten years..."

    "Ten years?" an older beggar asked. "Of course you can sing when the Kind Man was still alive, but he''s dead now. Why do you still come back here year after year?"

    "We promised," an old woman from the troupe said gently, smiling. "We promised him, all those years ago, that as long as he was there to listen, we would sing for him. Year after year, he''s still here, so how could we not come?"

    "We''re used to it. After all, we do this every year and fully know the risks. But you''re all different. The people here don''t know you, and we can''t predict what''ll happen if you stay too long. We''re talking about the border between yin and yang energy here. Some of you could die," the scarred man said, frowning at the group. "I''m going to go talk to Kind Man Xu and convince him that you all came in by accident and have matters to tend to elsewhere, and for him to let you go willingly."

    As the scarred man was speaking, Xuanmin had walked over to the window and looked out onto the village from the broken window paper. Now, Xuanmin frowned and said, "This Wen Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides and leaves one side to gather wind and welcome the sun. This is a feng shui design, so how could there be souls tied to this land..."

    And the whole village''s souls were tied to the land. Normally, when so many souls were involved, the village would only be able to sustain them all for two or three years. But neither Kind Man Xu nor his neighbors seemed about to disappear ¨C¨C instead, they looked like they had only recently died. There was only one explanation... something, someone, had changed the feng shui design.

    Xuanmin saw Xue Xian in his wheelchair from the corner of his eye, then turned to the scarred man. "You were born here. Have you ever seen anything strange around the village?"

    Xuanmin thought for a while, and decided that it was best to let Xue Xian explain, so walked to the corner, intending to temporarily remove the talisman from the dragon''s forehead.

    But as he looked down and came face to face with Xue Xian''s blank, numb expression ¨C¨C

    Now the beast had not only a talisman on his forehead, but a severed hand as well.

    Xuanmin sighed. Even making Xue Xian face the wall hadn''t prevented him from getting into trouble.

 CH 52

    Chapter 52: "Ride the Air" Design (III)

    After having been torn off, the hand had returned to its original paper form. It hung from the talisman and billowed gently with Xue Xian''s breath, making the dragon look ridiculous. The author of the masterpiece was obvious.

    Xuanmin looked over at Jiang Shining, and the latter cleared his throat. Still trying to hide his torn hand from his sister, he smiled at Xuanmin and said, "I was extremely fascinated by Master''s spell, so I couldn''t resist reaching out to touch it..."

    Who would believe that? Jiang Shining had always been a stickler for the rules. Even if he had been overcome by curiosity, he would rather have let it choke him to death than touch Xuanmin''s talisman without the monk''s express permission. Besides, he had seen Xuanmin use talismans several times now, so why would he suddenly be fascinated?

    Even an idiot would know that it was Xue Xian who had forced Jiang Shining to do it.

    Calmly, Xuanmin retracted his gaze, and said nothing. He gently peeled that paper hand away from the talisman and said to Jiang Shining, "Give me your wrist."

    "Huh?" Jiang Shining asked, momentarily confused.

    He subtly adjusted his position so that he blocked his sister and brother-in-law''s view, then brought out his mangled wrist. Still nervous that his sister might see something, he kept trying to glance back at them from the corner of his eye, so did not pay attention at all to what Xuanmin was doing. All he felt was that someone was applying pressure all around his wrist, and, when he looked back, the hand had been put back with no sign of fracture or wound ¨C¨C only a tiny, almost imperceptible scar.

    Not only had Jiang Shining not been punished, but his hand had been returned to him. High priests really were on another level.

    Jiang Shining pinched his wrist and moved it around a little. "Thank you so much, thank you. Next time..."

    As Xuanmin''s gaze lightly fell upon him, Jiang Shining froze and immediately began to shake his head, saying, "There won''t be a next time."

    "Yes," Xuanmin said nonchalantly, before swiftly turning back to face the unfortunate Xue Xian.

    "Stop staring at me. I''ve accumulated a whole mouthful of blood out of sheer rage. If you keep staring at me like that, I''ll spit it out all over your face." Xue Xian had been stewing there, feeling oppressed, and Jiang Shining''s meek There won''t be a next time had only made him even angrier. He wanted to reach out and twist Xuanmin''s head off.

    Xuanmin had been in the middle of reaching out to remove the talisman, but hearing this, he paused, looked at Xuanmin, and retracted his hand. He turned and made to walk out of the door.

    As he turned, his white robe lightly billowed and Xue Xian, who was still allowed to lightly twitch his finger, quickly managed to grab onto Xuanmin''s sleeve and tug at it. He fluttered his eyelashes and condescendingly said, "Come back, don''t go. I''ll generously agree not to spit on you, alright..."

    Xuanmin looked back and saw that Xue Xian was suddenly being seized by a winter shiver ¨C¨C he sneezed.

    Right as he sneezed, Xue Xian met eyes with Xuanmin.

    Awkwardly, he said, "That was the blood."

    Xuanmin said nothing.

    "I spat it out. And not on your face."

    Xuanmin still said nothing.

    Xue Xian was still fuming with anger, but seeing that smooth, pleasant face of Xuanmin''s, he reluctantly decided to put his fury aside. Instead, he rolled his eyes and thought, Fine. Let me reason with you.

    So he twitched his finger again and tugged Xuanmin''s sleeve toward him.

    He''d intended to pull Xuanmin closer to speak to him in a low voice, so that no one else in the room would overhear his humiliating capitulation. And as for the bald donkey... well, Xuanmin had already seen Xue Xian lose all of his dignity several times, so there was no need for embarrassment anymore.

    But as he tugged Xuanmin''s sleeve, before he even had the chance to open his mouth to speak, the bald donkey, as though possessed, suddenly changed his demeanor and removed the talisman from Xue Xian''s forehead.

    "This village might have something you''re looking for. It''s best if you explain..." Xuanmin said, grasping the wheelchair''s handles and turning Xue Xian around to face the scarred man and the others.

    Xue Xian had no choice but to repress his bewilderment at Xuanmin''s accommodating behavior, and said to the scarred man, "If there really is something here that I''m looking for, it could only have been placed here about half a year ago. Have you visited or passed through his area in the past six months? If so, did you notice some kind of change ¨C- for instance, in the fields and forests, or in the surrounding mountains and rivers?"

    The scarred man shook his head. "Not really. After all, this village has been abandoned for some time. We are usually elsewhere, and rarely come to this area. It''s actually quite sad. Whenever Qingming Festival or the ancestors'' festival come up, we simply buy paper money from whatever town we''re stationed in and burn the money there. The last time we were in Wen Village, it was last winter, and¨C¨C"

    "I remember!" the old woman standing behind the scarred man interrupted. "There really is something! Leader, do you remember that each time we turn the last corner of the mountain path into Wen Village, we pass by a small hill and the crown of that old tree?"

    The scarred man paused to recall the scene, then clapped and said, "Oh, right! Thumb Mountain and that old gingko tree! So that''s why it felt weird when we were coming into the village just now ¨C¨C the stream that runs down Thumb Mountain has disappeared, and the gingko tree is slumped over in a strange way. Also, Thumb Mountain''s shape looked a bit strange. I didn''t look too closely so I don''t know how it had changed. But-¨C"

    He frowned again and said to Xue Xian, "Wasn''t there an earthquake a few days ago? In these mountainous parts, some slight shifts are bound to happen during earthquakes. Would that count as what you''re looking for?"

    Hearing this, Xue Xian cocked an eyebrow. "Of course it counts."

    Anyway, even that earthquake might''ve had to do with his dragon bones.

    "Which is the mountain that you called Thumb Mountain?" Xuanmin asked.

    The scarred man walked over to the window and peered out from the torn paper, pointing a finger to the south. "There ¨C¨C do you see it? That one. It''s called Thumb Mountain because it looks like a thumb."

    Xuanmin nodded, then exchanged glances with Xue Xian.

    "My own bones are for me to dig," Xue Xian said.

    This sent jitters across the room ¨C¨C what did the man mean, my own bones? Who would need to dig their own bones out of the earth?

    "You should be quiet," Xuanmin said. He picked up the twig he''d previously used to draw a circle around Xue Xian''s wheelchair and walked across the room, drawing three lines on the floor: one for Jiang Shining and his family, one for the beggars whom they''d all ignored up to that point, and one for the theatre troupe.

    Then, he said to the scarred man, "As long as you stay inside this circle, you have nothing to worry about. If you''d like to leave, you may simply walk out." He nodded a farewell and pushed Xue Xian out of the room.

    Kind Man Xu was far too generous a host. As soon as he saw the two walk out of the eastern room, seemingly about to leave the Xu compound, he came over to persuade them to stay.

    Unlike Jiang Shining, Xue Xian was not soft at all. If he decided to become cold, he really could come across as cruel and immovable. Most of the time, though, he didn''t really care either way, and would arbitrarily decide whether to be reasonable or not.

    Now, Kind Man Xu seemed to bring out the best in him, or perhaps he was simply in a good mood. He put on an apologetic face and said, "We aren''t leaving the village. We are simply taking advantage of the fact that we have a wheelchair to look around and admire the scenery ¨C¨C we''ll be back. After all, we need to return your wheelchair."

    Reassured, Kind Man Xu smiled as broadly as the Laughing Buddha* and said, "There''s no need to return the wheelchair. All it does is collect dust. If it can be useful to you, little brother, then your humble servant Xu is overjoyed. However, you must return! Once you''ve feasted, the theatre troupe will take the stage, and you must see the show!"

    Xue Xian''s serious manner in front of Kind Man Xu was rather believable and polite, except for a slight hesitation to his tone of voice. But as soon as he and Xuanmin exited the compound, he threw all that away¨C¨C

    He had a carriage!

    He didn''t need to have people carry him around anymore. He could go wherever he wanted!

    Xue Xian tried to restrain his excitement and turned to Xuanmin behind him. "Before, it was because we were in front of strangers, so I had you push me around. But you can let go now. It''s just a two-wheeled carriage. I can manage it by myself."

    Xuanmin shot him a skeptical look, but let go anyway. He knew that if he tried to get in Xue Xian''s way now, the beast really would explode.

    When someone who had the power to twist your head off became angry, they could do anything.

    But as soon as Xuanmin took his hands off the wheelchair, he regretted his decision ¨C¨C he immediately experienced how it felt to let go of something and have it immediately vanish before your eyes ¨C¨C

    In the instant that he loosened his fingers, Xuanmin suddenly felt a gust of violent wind rise, the howl of the wind sounding uncannily similar to the roar of a dragon. A thick white fog rushed to cloud his vision, and by the time he was able to swat it away, he found that both the wheelchair and the person sitting inside it had disappeared without a trace, having gone elsewhere to frolick.

    Xuanmin had both expected this, and not expected this.

    He knew that the beast would not have just sat there dutifully, but he didn''t know he was going to be that dramatic.

    Xue Xian borrowed the wind as his legs and dove into the sky, half pushing the wheelchair, half letting the wind blow him forward. But he was used to using the wind to carry his dragon body, not a human body in a wheelchair, so initially used far too much force, so that the rickety old wheelchair became as swift as the wind and as quick as lightning.

    Before he could adjust, he had already zoomed through half of Wen Village, and was only a few steps away from Thumb Mountain.

    He slapped the armrests of the chair and the wooden wheels suddenly came to a halt and sank slightly into the mud.

    "Did I lose the bald donkey?" the beast had the audacity to mutter to himself. He wondered how he could get Xuanmin to find him again. In fact, he still held Xuanmin''s pendant in his hand and could simply ring it loudly to notify the monk of his location, but in that moment, such a thing did not occur to him.

    Instead, Xue Xian scanned the thick fog around him, then saw the peak of the mountain jutting out from above the fog, and inspiration struck.

    Xue Xian''s idea of ''inspiration striking'' was different from that of normal people. The last time inspiration had struck him, he had suddenly transformed from a dragon into a human in the middle of the sky and dropped all of his companions straight into the lake to become a pot of human meat dumplings.

    And this time...

    Xuanmin had closely looked around in the fog for Xue Xian''s traces in the mud and had begun to follow them. But he had only taken a few steps when he suddenly heard an ear-splitting dragon''s roar.

    Xuanmin looked up to see that an immense black dragon''s head was now sticking out in the distance amidst the fog and was calling out, "Here!" And then with a puff, it disappeared into the fog again ¨C¨C probably because its lower body did not have the energy to sustain its massive head.

    Xuanmin sighed.

    But Xue Xian''s semi-transformation back into his dragon body had called out to something hidden within the mountain. As he squirrelled back into the fog, the entirety of the land on which Wen Village stood began to tremble.

    ---

 CH 53

    Chapter 53: "Ride the Air" Design (IV)

    These motherfuckers really had buried his dragon bones into the fucking mud!

    Of course, Xue Xian was delighted to have found another part of his body, but as well as joy, he also felt an immeasurable rage. To have to go around the entire land digging in the earth to find bits and pieces of his own body... probably no one else in the world understood the complexities of that feeling.

    He''d had that feeling at Gravestone Island, and then again at Stone Zhang''s compound... now, he was starting to get used to it, and it gnawed at him. He didn''t plan on waiting for Xuanmin ¨C¨C he had already investigated the surroundings and was headed toward Thumb Mountain, sure that he would not lose his way.

    Thus, he summoned another gust of wind to push his wheelchair and zoomed away. In an instant, he was sitting by the old gingko tree at the foot of Thumb Mountain.

    Normal trees'' crowns always faced the sun ¨C¨C this was the case no matter what, even if the tree''s trunk was twisted this way and that. But this gingko faced the earth, its forehead skimming its ankles so that it was entirely bent over ¨C¨C a strange sight.

    Although Xue Xian had never seen Thumb Mountain before, he could see that there used to be a stream coming down it ¨C¨C not because there was any trace of the water on the mountain, for there was none, but because the gingko''s orientation demonstrated that it had found far more nutrition in the earth below than in the sunshine that filtered in from above yet was dimmed by the village''s fog.

    If Xue Xian wanted to find his dragon bone, all he had to do was look beneath the tree.

    Xue Xian slowly pushed his wheelchair so that he could see the patch of earth beneath the gingko tree. The patch of earth was about one zhang in width, and was of a slightly darker color than the soil around it ¨C¨C it was damper and contained more moisture, and seemed less packed, as if someone had recently dug it.

    Although the person who had disturbed the earth had attempted to cover their tracks, a close look could show the difference. Besides, just Xue Xian''s presence made the patch of mud begin to tremble. The person who had buried the bone had only assumed that no ordinary townsperson would visit a haunted, abandoned village in the middle of nowhere, but had not considered that the dragon himself might come knocking at the door.

    Xue Xian laughed coldly. He curled his fingers into a claw and swiped at the ground. In response, something deep within the earth jolted, like a heartbeat, sending a large ripple through the entire mountain, which scared a flock of birds away.

    As the piercing caws of the birds dissipated, Xue Xian clawed again.

    Another heartbeat-¨C

    With this jolt, something seemed to thrust into that patch of damp mud, making the earth look recently ploughed.

    Another heartbeat¨C¨C

    And after that third jolt, Xue Xian lost his patience and clawed as hard as he could.

    Suddenly, the entire patch of mud sank deep into the ground, as though sucked away by something, and the earth around it began to quiver, soften, and slide. A pitch-black hole appeared and grew ever wider as more and more earth fell in, so that it quickly became a kind of sinkhole, hungrily devouring everything around it.

    In the blink of an eye, that bent over gingko tree was also sucked into the sinkhole, which made no sign of stopping as it began to loosen the very foundations of rock beneath Thumb Mountain. Xue Xian hurriedly pushed his wheelchair back, trying to resist the pull of the sinkhole.

    Clearly, all of this had was being caused by Xue Xian trying get at his bones. It seemed that the dragon bones had been clamped down tightly by some kind of spell, so that any slight shift would harm the entirety of Wen Village.

    The things he had to go through to take back what rightfully belonged to him... Xue Xian laughed with rage.

    He relaxed slightly, and the shaking earth beneath the village and the mountain seemed to calm down a bit too, along with the sinkhole itself, which was now swallowing everything around it in a slower, less terrifying manner. Even Xue Xian''s wheelchair was no longer straining as hard against the sinkhole''s pull...

    And when Xue Xian put more force into his hand to summon the dragon bone, the earth around him began to rumble once more and the sinkhole resumed its eager current.

    Xue Xian''s brows furrowed, and his expression took on a bitter coldness.

    With that aloof expression set against his pale face, he appeared uncannily apathetic, and utterly alienated. The difference between his demeanor now and his unserious, carefree day-to-day attitude was as clear as night and day, and extremely unnerving.

    You extracted my muscles and bones from my body while I was still alive, and now you want me not to take back what''s mine out of concern for others'' lives? What the hell are you playing at?

    But it was precisely because of this absurdity that Xue Xian was unable to proceed.

    As Xue Xian stared into the sink hole with a face full of hatred, another figure appeared beside him, and, although the figure did not approach him, he could feel their body heat, which, amidst the freezing chill of the fog, felt like such a breath of fresh air that Xue Xian''s heart suddenly skipped a beat ¨C¨C and then slowly resumed again. With the advent of that warm body, his anger and irritation suddenly seemed to dissolve by half ¨C¨C replaced by a profoundly reassuring sense of peace and relief.

    "Let me," Xuanmin''s deep voice rang out from behind him.

    Then, that light white robe drifted past Xue Xian''s vision as a slender arm reached over his shoulder and retrieved the copper coin pendant that he''d still been holding tightly in his hand.

    Xue Xian listened, stunned, as that familiar chime of the copper coins rang out from behind him and an immense force pressed down upon the plants and rocks around them. It pushed against the fierce current of the sinkhole, which slowed down and finally came to a complete halt, the mud and boulders no longer tumbling into the abyss, the mountain now standing rigidly again.

    Xue Xian looked up and saw that Xuanmin was, in turn, looking down at him. Xuanmin said, "I''ll hold it back for you. You go ahead and retrieve your bones."

    Two simple, short sentences, but they seemed to wipe away all of the fear, confusion, and resentment in Xue Xian''s heart. Xue Xian looked back into the seemingly infinite sinkhole in front of them, feeling the thrumming call of his dragon bones buried deep within, and suddenly snorted with laughter -¨C a laughter that was so different from his daily mockery and sneering; a laughter that contained no irony and was a genuine, sincere laugh.

    "That''s nice of you," Xue Xian said. Then, without adding a word of thanks, he simply nodded and said, "Are you holding it steady? I''m going for it now¨C¨C"

    Then, he reached out those fingers and clawed again.

    This time, he did not restrain himself in any way. Although Xuanmin was using all of his power to hold down the shifting earth beneath the mountain, there was still a slight tremor as Xue Xian pulled. As the force buried in the soil shuddered in response, the skin between Xuanmin''s thumb and forefinger split from the pressure and began to bleed. But his face did not change ¨C¨C he continued to hold down the mountain with his copper coin pendant, steady and safe.

    As Xue Xian strained harder, the pendant''s ringing grew louder, and the fog seemed to be drawn toward them so that it wrapped itself around them and began to swirl violently.

    Just as Xuanmin''s hand fully split open, a distant dragon''s roar rose from within the dark abyss. Next, a thick piece of white bone leapt out from the ground and flew into Xue Xian''s hand ¨C¨C in the instant that it came into contact with his skin, it seemed to suddenly melt from some great heat and slowly sank into his flesh, integrating itself fully into his body.

    It felt as though someone had light Xue Xian''s palm on fire, and that the flame had crept into his body and crawled all the way to his heart, and then made its way up to his head and scorched his brain.

    For a brief moment, all Xue Xian could feel was that endless flame extending all across his body, accompanied by burning pain ¨C¨C apart from the agony, he was aware of nothing else, not even where he was and what was happening, but he could remember, somewhere in the ocean of his blurred mind, that the reliable Xuanmin was standing right beside him, waiting for him to get better.

    After a long period of pain, Xue Xian finally found something that could help appease the scorching flame inside him.

    He nuzzled eagerly against that thing and allowed it to cool him down, as his half-conscious mind gradually began to emerge from its agonised daze. When he was finally able to open his eyes and look at his surroundings, he saw that he had long transformed back into his dragon body ¨C¨C and from the looks of the flipped-over wheelchair and the tattered grass around him, it seemed that he had done so rather suddenly...

    And that ''something that could help appease the flame'' happened to be Xuanmin ¨C¨C

    Xue Xian''s dragon body had somehow managed to coil itself around Xuanmin. And not only was he wrapped around him, but his scales kept rippling against Xuanmin''s body, as though needing to extract every bit of relief from the monk''s ice-cold body to soothe his own...

    Xue Xian did not know what to say.

    What now? This was rather embarrassing...

    A divine dragon, lord of the seas, had somehow become someone''s large, unwieldy pet. With the way he was slithering all over Xuanmin''s body, those who knew the context would chalk it up to a panicked attempt to cast off some of his heat, but those who did not... would think that he was one extremely clingy lizard.

    The main problem was that, apart from himself, no one else was able to actually know about his "about to die of heat" context, including Xuanmin.

    Now, Xue Xian finally forced himself to peek over at Xuanmin''s face.

    Although he was crushed on all sides by immense dragon scales, Xuanmin was simply standing there calmly and silently, with his eyes closed ¨C¨C one hand was folded in a priestly greeting, and the other was still gently rubbing the copper coin pendant. Somehow, perhaps due to Xue Xian''s newfound dragon bones or some other enigma, the coins seemed just slightly different from before.

    Xue Xian had been using the coins to heal his body, so he seemed to have established some kind of minor connection with the pendant, as though tying a thin thread between him and the coins.

    As Xuanmin traced the contours of each coin with his thumb, Xue Xian could feel, ever so slightly, that something within the coins was slowly loosening ¨C¨C and on the surface of the coins was a dim, oily glow, as though they had finally begun to activate with some of that magical copper skin...

    He suddenly recalled that Xuanmin had mentioned a seal on the coins, but that two of the seals had begun to loosen, and that soon, some kind of turning point would cause the seals to shatter.

    Seeing the way Xuanmin was now, it seemed that the turning point had arrived.

    Realising that Xuanmin was not paying the slightest attention to the thing slithering around his body, the embarrassment evaporated from Xue Xian''s mind. Compared to his own body temperature, Xuanmin''s coolness was extremely comfortable, and, now that he had nothing to worry about, Xue Xian abandoned the last shreds of his dignity and enthusiastically resumed running his long body all over Xuanmin''s, hoping to cool himself down as quickly as possible.

    The copper coins in Xuanmin''s hand trembled one by one, and each tremor sent a strange prickly feeling rippling across Xue Xian''s body, as though each of his scales were lifting up to let the hot air escape through his pores. This kind of intimate connection with the pendant was a new feeling to Xue Xian, but it was so beneficial that he readily accepted it.

    Kada¨C¨C

    As a sound reminiscent of reeds knocking against each other rang out within Xue Xian''s mind, he lazily opened his eyes and shifted his long dragon body. He raised his head and rested it on Xuanmin''s shoulder to look over at the monk''s hand ¨C¨C the copper coins had entirely changed their appearance. Two of the coins had shed their drab grey shells and now shone brilliantly with a layer of oil, so that their raw magical power could now be felt from afar.

    But then Xue Xian noticed the wound on Xuanmin''s hand: fresh blood welled up from a horizontal gash between his thumb and forefinger and streamed down his hand, dripping onto the floor, which was already smattered with several large bloodstains.

    It was obvious where the wound had come from, and within Xue Xian''s cold, cruel heart, he suddenly discovered the emotion of guilt. It occurred to him that, as a divine dragon, every part of his body was precious and magical, whether these were dragon scales or dragon spit... basically, he could easily help stop the bleeding.

    Thus, a certain dragon, whose mind was still in the throes of disorientation and confusion, bent down his head and licked the wound. As the metallic taste of the blood hit his tongue, Xue Xian''s mind suddenly cleared. And the finger of Xuanmin''s that had been clicking away at the coins suddenly stopped, too. The monk opened his eyes.

    Xue Xian froze.

    If I explain my "context" how, could I get my dignity back?

 CH 54

    Chapter 54: Ancient Drumbeat (I)

    With all his scales standing on end, the dragon''s entire body seized up in embarrassment and he froze. When he saw that the wound on the monk''s hand was quickly beginning to heal, he finally came back to his senses and said, "Look, you''re not bleeding anymore. Shouldn''t you thank me now?"

    As he said this, he debated his words to himself and concluded that his actions had been entirely logical and reasonable. Reassured that he had not completely, irreversibly humiliated himself, his spirits lifted again.

    But then realised that, ever since Xuanmin had opened his eyes, he had continued to stand there unmoving, without even putting down his hand, which was still held up in a Buddhist greeting ¨C¨C nor did he put away the coins, some of whose seals he''d now successfully broken, and he definitely didn''t even glance at the wound that Xue Xian had licked...

    Now this was weird.

    Xue Xian''s head rested at too awkward an angle to be able to see Xuanmin properly. It seemed that, when he''d transformed back into a dragon, in order to avoid burying Xuanmin alive, he''d adjusted his size ¨C¨C but this was still his original form, and, despite the adjustment, he was still massive. He pondered this, then tilted his head ever so slightly and lowered his neck so that he could observe Xuanmin while half-propped against the floor.

    Now that he''d changed his point of view, the monk''s strange behavior became clearer. His brows were slightly furrowed and his lips were pursed, and, although his eyes were open, his gaze was shrouded in a black mist that let through not a hint of light. He seemed not to be staring at anything at all, but instead submerged in some kind of dream state.

    The most startling part was that the mole on the side of Xuanmin''s neck was unusually prominent ¨C¨C it now looked like a blueish spider''s web that crept from his neck all the way into his collar, looking particularly ominous against the monk''s pale, smooth skin and pristine white robe.

    Even Xue Xian, who barely considered his own flesh dripping off his body as a serious wound, was stunned by the sight of the spider''s web. He reached out a claw and shifted part of the monk''s robe aside so as to see the mole better.

    He hissed with surprise. The blood vessels had spread across his entire shoulder, and even some of the muscles across his back seemed to brim with the hints of more zigzagging veins.

    "What the hell is this?" Xue Xian murmured as he pushed Xuanmin''s collar back to its place. At this rate of infection, half of Xuanmin''s body would soon be completely covered in such markings, turning him from a high priest into a demon monk.

    No matter which way you looked at it, there was something deeply wrong with Xuanmin now. But if Xue Xian suddenly woke him up now, would that harm him?

    Contemplating this, Xue Xian waved a claw in front of Xuanmin''s face. The monk had no reaction ¨C¨C he did not even blink, and that thick blackness continued to cloud his eyes ominously.

    How had he gotten the bald donkey to open his eyes again?

    Right, he had licked his wound.

    But had it been because he''d disturbed the wound itself, or had it been the dragon spit...

    Xue Xian thought for a while, then used the tip of his tongue to lick Xuanmin''s half-healed wound again ¨C¨C and in response, the monk''s fingers twitched.

    Xue Xian was aghast. Do I have to fucking lick him back to life? What is this?

    What kind of nonsense was this? If Xue Xian didn''t know Xuanmin well enough to know that the monk had absolutely no sense of humor, he would think that he was being played. And it was good that it was Xuanmin, for if it was anyone else....

    Xue Xian tried to imagine himself licking someone and thought he might vomit with disgust.

    He gathered himself together and squinted at Xuanmin. If you don''t wake up now, I''m going to give you a shower...

    Just as Xue Xian opened his jaw and tried to estimate the best angle from which to approach the wound again, the web of blood vessels across Xuanmin''s shoulders suddenly receded. Like the sea pulling back a great tide, the web quickly vanished back into that small mole on the side of the monk''s neck.

    And in that precise moment, the murkiness in Xuanmin''s eyes disappeared too, and, as though suddenly wiped clean, his black eyes regained pools of light.

    Then, he frowned, and the hand holding the copper coin pendant dropped. He was awake.

    As he came to, he saw something move against his head in the corner of his eye and glanced over, coming face to face with the dragon, who had been about to head in for another lick.

    For a long time, neither of them said anything. Finally, Xuanmin asked, "What are you doing?"

    Xue Xian stared back at him silently.

    He wasn''t going to tell Xuanmin that he had been calculating the best angle to lick him from!

    Could he say, I was using your shiny head as a mirror to admire my own teeth?

    No, he couldn''t be such an asshole. Although Xue Xian didn''t mind mocking people and in fact relished it, when it came to Xuanmin, he did have to think before he acted, as after all... technically, the bald donkey had been born to vanquish the likes of him.

    The beast quickly ran through all of his options in his panicked mind, then awkwardly said, "Are my yawns your business too?"

    If it was before, Xuanmin would glare at him coolly with a face that said Do whatever nonsense you like. But now, there was something profound in his expression, as though he had not fully returned from whatever vision he''d just experienced.

    "Why the tragic face?" Xue Xian asked. "What happened just now? You weren''t responding to anything."

    Xuanmin''s gaze fell upon the pendant in his hand, and he absent-mindedly rubbed those two shiny coins with his thumb. After some contemplation, he hooked the pendant back onto his hip and said mildly, "I remembered some things."

    "What things?" Xue Xian asked automatically, then casually added, "Of course, it''s the usual rules. If you don''t want to tell me something, you can just say that it''s not part of what you remembered."

    In reality, even such a perfunctory question was highly unusual coming from Xue Xian. He was normally far to self-absorbed to pay attention to other people''s issues, especially their private issues ¨C¨C good, bad, sad, happy, he could never get himself to care. If people wanted to tell him about it, he would listen, and, depending on his mood that day, he might actually become interested and let them speak, or become irritated by their rambling. And if people didn''t want to talk about it, he would never consider asking.

    But Xuanmin was different ¨C¨C when it came to the monk''s past, Xue Xian constantly harbored a desire to investigate. The conversation they''d had back at the inn had been instigated deliberately, since at the time, Xuanmin''s past had a direct connection to their situation with the poster. But this time...

    This time, there had been no real reason to ask Xuanmin anything ¨C¨C Xue Xian had only asked because he genuinely wanted to know about the things that Xuanmin had remembered from his previous life. It was only when he''d already asked the question that he realised, based on Xuanmin''s personality, the monk probably did not want to talk about it at all, and so had added on that second part, to honorably provide a way out of the conversation for Xuanmin.

    But Xuanmin did not take the way out: he seemed not to want to maintain that aloof, intimidating, and cautious aura around Xue Xian. Xuanmin gazed into the distant fog for a while, gathering his thoughts. After some time, he calmly said, "Not much. And it''s all fragmented. Much of it was of copying sutras at a desk as a youth. But..."

    "But what?" Xue Xian asked. Xuanmin had paused and begun to frown, as though remembering something unhappy.

    A faint sense of loathing crossed Xuanmin''s face. "Two images flashed by, in which I was holding something in my hand."

    "What were you holding?"

    Xuanmin paused again, then said, "It looked like human skin."

    "... What?"

    Xuanmin glanced at him and repeated, "Human skin ¨C¨C pieces of it. Smaller than my palm, but bigger than an elm seed. Two of the pieces were thicker, and the others were all paper-thin."

    Xue Xian tried to think of the things Xuanmin would possible hold in his hand ¨C¨C such as a mokugyo, a talisman, a book, an inkwell, or maybe even an alms bowl ¨C¨C but human skin? Now that was unbelievable.

    "Human skin?" Xue Xian asked. "You''re sure of it?"

    Xuanmin nodded.

    "And... do you remember why, or what you did with it? Maybe you found it somewhere," Xue Xian suggested.

    But that was really unlikely. Could you just come across several pieces of human skin on the street somewhere?! What a sight that would be! But to think of Xuanmin somehow obtaining human skin... there was no way he''d gotten it in an innocent manner.

    Although Xuanmin''s attitude was indeed different from that of ordinary monks, it was also hard to believe that he would ever do something so evil to a person...

    But no... Xue Xian recalled what Xuanmin looked like with his shoulder covered in those blood markings, and then recalled that, a very long time ago, before he''d become so close with the monk, he himself had told Jiang Shining: There''s something indescribable about Xuanmin. He''s like a sharp cutting edge of a sword wrapped up inside a white hemp robe. Beneath the cool demeanor is something incisive, as though, if it came down to it, he''d be capable of murder...

    But that was also different from being inherently evil.

    Xue Xian had zoned out pondering all this, and when he came back, he found that Xuanmin was staring at him, with something strange in his gaze, as though the monk were waiting for him to say something. Xue Xian faltered, then changed the tone in his voice and asked, "When is the memory from? Also your youth?"

    "Yes."

    Now Xue Xian was really confused. "Are you sure? If you don''t know what had happened before and after you were holding the skin, how could you know you''d been young?"

    Xue Xian spread his hands. "Young hands look different. Besides, I was sitting in front of a desk, which had sutras that I''d been copying."

    Xue Xian thought, Clutching human skin while copying sutras? Do you want blasphemise your Grandpa Buddha to death?

    In all seriousness, now that Xuanmin had asserted that the memory was from his youth, Xue Xian found it completely impossible to relate the memory back to some demon slaying-related incident.

    But there had to be some way to explain it, right?

    Finally, in a melodious tone, Xue Xian said, "Well, there''s no point randomly guessing. We''ll have to wait until you remember some more of it. You''ve managed to remember something just from breaking the seal on two coins, so maybe when you break the next one, you''ll remember more. Perhaps when you break the seals on all five coins, you''ll be able to get all your memories back."

    That sounded rather reasonable. Both of them were straightforward people who naturally didn''t want to waste too much time trying to make sense of something that could not make sense just yet.

    Xuanmin reached out his hand and patted Xue Xian''s divine dragon chin, then said, "Let''s go."

    Xue Xian was stunned for a second, then suddenly remembered that he was still coiled around Xuanmin''s body. If he didn''t transform back into a human, then Xuanmin couldn''t move either. He cleared his throat and summoned a gust of wind to put his wheelchair upright, and then a white light surged forth and covered him as he put his clothes back on and sat back into the chair.

    As he arranged his robe, Xue Xian saw Xuanmin walk over to where the dragon bone had been buried and extract a handful of copper nails and talismans. He tore off another piece of white cloth and wrapped the items inside, then put them away. It was only then that he came over to the wheelchair.

    Having learned his lesson, Xuanmin knew not to let Xue Xian go off on his own again, so gripped the wheelchair''s handles tightly as he got ready to push the dragon back to the Xu compound. But as his gaze passed across the wound on his hand, he paused.

    The skin between his forefinger and thumb, which had been angrily torn apart earlier, was almost healed and was already beginning to form into a scab. It seemed that, within half a day, it would go back to normal, with no hint of having been damaged at all.

    Xuanmin only needed to think back a bit to realise how Xue Xian had managed to treat his wound.

    But... dragon saliva... that was not a substance to be used so casually...

 CH 55

    Chapter 55: Ancient Drumbeat (II)

    Xue Xian finished arranging his robe but saw that Xuanmin was making no move to leave. He turned around and complained, "Why are you just standing there?"

    Xuanmin lifted up his wounded hand and asked, "Do you know what humans use dragon spit for?"

    Although he seemed quite calm, something in his tone was amiss, as though a series of complicated emotions were running through him. Xue Xian grimaced. This bald donkey really has to find the exact thing I don''t want to talk about, and then bring it up! Now that I''m human again, I can''t help but feel... so weird about what I did.

    Ha. Ha.

    Xue Xian rearranged his face and forced himself to come up with something to save his dignity. "It''s my own spit. Why would I want to know what humans use it for?" he scoffed. "I know that dragon magic can heal people ¨C¨C those are the basics. It''s not like I''m going to start grinding down all my body parts to sell medicine. Am I crazy?" He glared at Xuanmin spitefully then turned back around and knocked his fist impatiently against the armrest, adding, "I healed your wound, and I don''t mind that you haven''t even thanked me yet, but please stop it with the questions. Let''s go!"

    He''d wanted to throw a little tantrum ¨C¨C it didn''t matter what he said, as long as his tone was aggressive enough to make Xuanmin forget about the whole ''licking wound'' thing.

    It was as he''d thought. Xue Xian subtly peeked back at Xuanmin over his shoulder and saw the monk shake his hand and put down his hand again. Exasperated, Xuanmin said, "Let''s go." Clearly, he had no plans to keep the conversation going.

    Xue Xian was very happy.

    The two returned to Kind Man Xu''s compound in no time, but avoided the front doors, instead surreptitiously slipping into the courtyard from a side entrance.

    The front hall where Kind Man Xu had greeted his arriving guests was now completely empty, and instead the noise of a crowd rose from some other hall near the back, which, due to the thick fog, they could not clearly see.

    When Xue Xian and Xuanmin returned to the eastern room, Jiang Shining breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "You''re finally back..."

    Indeed, once the two of them had left, there had been not very many reliable, trustworthy people left in the room. If Kind Man Xu and the other spirits had suddenly gone insane, then there would have been nothing they could have done.

    "Why do you look so terrified?" Xue Xian sneered. "If you don''t go out looking for trouble, then Kind Man Xu won''t come in either. Unless you''re really unlucky, and he has to come in here to retrieve something."

    Hearing this, the group in the room were curious. Jiang Shining asked, "If we don''t go out, they won''t come in? True.... come to think of it, earlier I heard him giving instructions to some servants outside, telling them to prepare tea and wine. Then the sound moved away. It seems they really have forgotten that we''re in here."

    Xue Xian waved his hand dismissively. "Of course they won''t remember..."

    Souls bound to the land were not alive ¨C¨C they were only aware of the faces and events that they were used to, and were slow to react to outsiders barging in on them. When Kind Man Xu could see Xue Xian and his group, then he would chat with them amiably as though he knew exactly what was going on, but if he could not see them, then he would not even think about them, and would soon completely forget that they existed.

    So when they had spent all that time in the room previously, Kind Man Xu had not come to bother them ¨C¨C but as soon as Xuanmin had wheeled Xue Xian out, Kind Man Xu had immediately come to greet them again.

    "I see," the scarred man said, nodding understandingly.

    He was about to continue, but Xue Xian suddenly pointed at his troupe and said, "Don''t. This has nothing to do with you. We''re the outsiders here. You''ve been coming over year after year, ever since Kind Man Xu was alive, so to those gathered in the hall, you''re a part of them. They''ve forgotten about you momentarily, but they''re going to come looking for you at some point."

    As he said this, they suddenly heard some footsteps emerge from the back hall, which seemed to be getting closer...

    "Where''re Renliang and the others? Look at my terrible memory, I''ve somehow forgotten to greet my old friends. How terrible of me..." Kind Man Xu was saying to someone as he came right upon the door.

    Du du du ¨C¨C

    Everyone in the room jumped in fright.

    "Renliang, are you in there?" Kind Man Xu asked, knocking on the door. "The feast has been laid out and we''re waiting for you to join us¨C¨C"

    Then came a creak¨C¨C

    Even the slightest touch to that ancient wooden door made it emit an ear-rattling noise.

    "We''re here, we''re here!" the scarred man said as his entire troupe gathered into a dense mass, blocking the rest of the room from Kind Man Xu''s view. "We just sat down here to rest. We''ll be there soon."

    The others gathered in the room could only see the troupe''s backs. They heard Kind Man Xu''s cheerful voice say, "Come, come, you must be dead hungry after having travelled all this way. Come with me¨C¨C"

    The scarred man bellowed with laughter and agreed. Then, one by one, the members of the troupe streamed out of the door and followed Kind Man Xu into the back hall.

    The scarred man held the door open for them and was the last one to leave. Before he did so, he tilted his head toward the room and said, "Leave now, while you still can. Once we start performing, we can''t help you, and it''ll become harder for you to escape."

    That was exactly what Xue Xian was thinking of too. Now that the scarred man and his troupe had led Kind Man Xu away, it was the perfect time.

    Everyone in the room got up and dusted themselves off ¨C¨C only the no-handed beggar seemed to hesitate.

    "You need the two of us to save your friends, right?" Jiang Shijing said, gesturing at the old man and two children on the bed. "Take them back to the pharmacy with us. Be careful ¨C¨C use your clothes to protect yourself from their rashes."

    The beggars exchanged glances and eagerly agreed. Without any more hesitation now, they hurriedly wrapped the three ill people in blankets and carried them in their arms, ready to leave.

    As Xuanmin began to push Xue Xian''s wheelchair out of the door, the scarred man quickly returned and said, "I can tell that the two of you are highly powerful wizards. Just now, I felt something change within Wen Village..."

    The scarred man glanced back at the back hall and seemed to travel back in time, remembering the laughter and joy of his long-dead old friends. He paused in contemplation, then said to Xuanmin, "If I may ask... are they about to depart?"

    "Yes," Xuanmin replied. "The spell that was interfering with the feng shui design has been broken. The souls bound to this land are able to leave now."

    "They can probably last the rest of the day," Xue Xian added, looking at the sky outside. "But by nightfall, they''ll be gone."

    To Jiang Shining and the other outsiders, those souls were terrifying things that they wanted to stay well away from, and, although they appeared cordial when interacting with the souls, they were unable to truly feel warmth ¨C¨C all they could do was say a perfunctory word of thanks or of apology. But to the scarred man and his troupe, these were neighbors and extended family members that they had known since childhood, and each and every face, mannerism, and smile brought back vivid memories from the past...

    With a complex expression on his face, the scarred man nodded and said in a low voice, "It''s for the best."

    On the way back from Wen Village, Xue Xian was unusually calm, and did not attempt to summon a tempest, nor did he turn into a dragon, nor did he seem even to consider sending the carriage into the sky again. The only thing he did was magically expand the room within the carriage, and then bring a light breeze behind the horse to speed up their journey.

    Jiang Shining was suspicious of how quiet Xue Xian was being, and his eyes kept darting at him throughout the journey. Finally, Jiang Shining said, "What are you thinking about, all serious like that?"

    Xue Xian glanced at him, then glanced at him a second time. Suddenly, he said, "Oh right. You basically count as half a doctor..."

    Jiang Shining rolled his eyes and turned away, irritated.

    Seeing that Jiang Shining was edging away from him, Xue Xian nudged himself closer instead and said conspiratorially, "Let me ask you something. What does dragon spit do?"

    Jiang Shining gave him an odd look, as though he were a madman.

    "Hey ¨C¨C what''s that look for? I''m asking you a question," Xue Xian said impatiently.

    "I just think it''s funny that a dragon genuinely needs to ask what dragon spit does," Jiang Shining replied. "It''s... hard to explain. Do you really not know?"

    It was Xue Xian''s turn to roll his eyes now. "Would you randomly explore whether your own eyes can be made into medicine, and if so, what effect it can have? I''ve never been that interested."

    "True," Jiang Shining mumbled, nodding.

    "Besides, I can usually just test stuff out on people. But how am I supposed to test out dragon spit?"

    Jiang Shining looked at him and said uneasily, "It''s best if you don''t..."

    "Why not?"

    "Although I''ve never been witness to it personally, I have heard some rumors. You see, dragon spit..." Initially, at the start of the conversation, Jiang Shining had been careful to keep his voice down, but he had soon forgotten and his voice had inadvertently gone back to normal. So as soon as he began to explain, a hand suddenly shot out to stop him.

    Confused, Jiang Shining watched as Xuanmin slammed his copper coin pendant into Xue Xian''s hand, then stuck a talisman on his forehead and turned his wheelchair around so that he now had his back to Jiang Shining. Then, Xuanmin glared silently at Jiang Shining.

    I don''t know what I said wrong, but that look from Master tells me that I was definitely wrong somehow, Jiang Shining thought. He laughed awkwardly at Xuanmin, agreeing to shut up, then turned to gaze out of the window.

    Xue Xian grumbled, "Bald donkey, just you wait. When I get this talisman off I''m going to beat you to death." Don''t you know how torturous it is to only hear half of someone''s sentence?

    But the talisman was not going to come off anytime soon.

    Even as they finally arrived at the Fang compound and settled into the living room, Xue Xian still could not move.

    Xuanmin wheeled him into a corner of the room where he claimed the feng shui was uniquely suited for healing, but thankfully the bald donkey was kind enough not to make him face the wall again...

    But facing the doorway was equally embarrassing!

    Xue Xian felt faint from sheer anger.

    When Xue Xian and Xuanmin had gone off to find the dragon bone, Jiang Shining had already explained the details of their journey so far to his sister, so that Jiang Shijing now knew that they required drops of her blood to perform the final funeral rites for their parents. But daytime was not an appropriate time to summon spirits, so they needed to wait until sundown.

    But no matter what, when it came to her parents, Jiang Shijing took things very seriously. So as soon as the sun disappeared behind the mountains, she and Jiang Shining went to find Xuanmin.

    As the sky darkened and the night crept toward them, the servants had already lit the lantern inside Xuanmin''s room.

    Xue Xian sat in a corner with his eyes shut, lightly tapping the copper coin pendant and focusing on his healing. The lantern cast a warm glow onto him, giving his normally pale face a slightly flushed, healthy radiance.

    As soon as Jiang Shining and his sister stepped inside, they immediately relaxed ¨C¨C Xuanmin was a straightforward person who did not like to waste words, and had already placed the silver medical bell onto the table.

    He reached into his pouch and took out that smaller pouch, from which he selected just the right length of silver needle. Giving it to Jiang Shijing, he said, "Three drops of blood from the Laogong pressure point."

    Jiang Shijing held the needle over the flame to clean it, and then prodded herself in the middle of her palm, then returned the needle to Xuanmin.

    "Drip the blood here," Xuanmin said, pointing out three locations on the bell. "From west to east."

    Breathing deeply, Jiang Shijing calmly brought her hand over and dripped her blood onto the bell.

    As soon as the drops of blood fell onto the bell, they began to move by themselves. Each time they rolled over a certain part of the bell, it would suddenly begin to tremble, as though struck by something invisible. Each gentle tremor made Jiang Shining and his sister''s faces contort with sadness.

    When the three drops of blood had each travelled a full circle around the bell, they finally rolled off the bell and onto the table.

    With washed hands, Xuanmin retracted a brush and wrote the Jiang parents'' names onto a sheet of yellow paper, which he folded into three and placed on top of the bell, then lit on fire.

    Then he brought out a stick of incense that he lit using the flame from the burning paper, and a delicate, fragrant wisp of blue smoke emerged into the room. Those watching felt themselves suddenly relax and feel profoundly peaceful.*

    As the incense burned, no one in the room said a word, allowing Xuanmin to mumble his brief prayer.

    Ding¨C¨C

    The bell suddenly rang out, and the tail end of sound lingered tenderly, stunning the Jiang siblings.

    Ding¨C¨C

    And another...

    "Is... is that mother and father?" Jiang Shijing asked as her tears began to flow onto the table.

    Xuanmin calmly replied, "They have been trapped in the bell for too long. They are no longer able to show themselves to you, but they can use the sound of the bell to bid you farewell."

    Libation, inscription, incineration, invocation. These are all a dead soul needs.

    In a trance, the Jiang siblings stared at the bell. Although they could not see their parents'' faces, they nonetheless dared not even to blink...

    In the corner, Xue Xian silently opened his eyes and gazed at the table. Because he could not nod, he instead closed his eyes gently, and, remembering the kindness with which they had treated him over ten years ago, he, too, bade farewell and thank you to the couple ¨C¨C

    The medicine you gave me worked very well, and the heater was very warm. Thank you. May your journey be peaceful.

    In the Xu family compound at Wen Village, the high-pitched song of a huadan role rang out among the accompanying beat of a copper gong and leather drum. "Do not let the bright moon fall behind the mountain curve / from now on..."**

    That same play was performed year after year, from the beginning all those winters ago to the end, today ¨C¨C and yet, no one tired of it. The guests gathered in the Xu compound never stopped loving hearing those words, and watching those characters.

    Old friends, old home, old stage... it was as though these ten or so years had never passed, and they had never become separated by life and death.

    Kind Man Xu sat by a table and sipped his tea, watching the tragic drama on the stage. His finger drummed lightly against the table as he hummed along to the tunes. Before the show could come to an end, he suddenly said, "Renliang, that was amazing..."

    As the troupe leader, the scarred man himself did not perform ¨C¨C he sat next to Kind Man Xu by the table. Hearing Kind Man Xu''s words, he was stunned, and watched as the old man smiled warmly at him. There was something behind the smile, as though... he had long known that the village had ceased to be, and that his old friends were all also gone.

    The scarred man collected his thoughts, then raised his untouched cup of tea and saluted Kind Man Xu, then took a sip. "Next year, perhaps... we won''t be able to come."

    His expression was as forlorn as Kind Man Xu''s. They looked at each other tenderly.

    As they each finished their cups of tea, the two smiled at each other, as though they had finally met against all odds and were now forced to part again.

    You need to go, and so do I...

    As the sky darkened, the thick fog that surrounded the village dissipated too, and along with it, the melancholy sound of singing faded away as well, becoming ever dimmer and receding into the distance.

    Do not let the bright moon fall behind the mountain curve / from now on the moon will never set / and we won''t turn old / we''ll live every day of the next hundred years just as we''d lived this night...

    As long as you''re here to listen, we''ll be here to sing for you. Our promise holds true, whether we are living or dead.

    ----

    * Here, the author uses the adjective ''ningjing'' Äþ¾² which means peaceful/calm but is also literally made up of the given names of the Jiang siblings - Ning and Jing.

    ** Apparently this is a poem from the Korean folk novel Chunhyangjeon - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunhyangjeon

 CH 56

    Chapter 56: Bone Thread (I)

    The Fang family of today was composed of twelve members ¨C¨C

    The Master and Mistress had recently died, so now the heads of the household were Fang Cheng and his wife Jiang Shijing.

    Uncle Chen was the steward, and Auntie Chen was both the housekeeper and the cook. The two had twin sons who stood behind the pharmacy counter and were responsible for serving customers and doing the accounts, although every night it was Fang Cheng''s job to look through the accounts again.

    Xingzi was an orphan who had been taken in by the late Master. Ever since Jiang Shijing married into the family, Xingzi had been her personal maid ¨C¨C although Xingzi had learned much about medicine from her mistress and could be considered more of an assistant.

    The rest of the servants helped with miscellaneous tasks, as well as cultivating and cooking medicine. There were also some youths, who were apprentices from local families.

    But the servant boys weren''t always there ¨C¨C they sometimes had to travel for several days in order to find certain herbs ¨C¨C and the apprentices didn''t come every day either, as their families were usually poor and they spent much of their time helping their parents.

    This meant that, although the Fang compound had rather busy days in the shop, the home itself was usually quiet.

    This evening was probably the rowdiest night the Fang compound had seen in many years ¨C¨C the beggars that Fang Cheng and Jiang Shijing had brought home happily washed and cleaned themselves, changing into fresh clothes that Uncle Chen and Auntie Chen had found for them. Although these clothes were not brand-new, they were clean, and most importantly, had no holes.

    There was a good reason why the Fang and Jiang families had been so close in life ¨C¨C it was not just because they had coincidentally entered the same profession, but also because members of both families loved to fuss.

    Seeing the beggars'' frostbitten knuckles, Auntie Chen clucked and retrieved a series of portable heaters, which she lit and put one by one into the beggars'' hands, saying, "Here, hold this ¨C¨C look at how cold you are... Hey! Don''t scratch! That''s how it is when you freeze: when you start to warm up, it gets itchy, but you mustn''t scratch. Stay warm here and I''ll get you some medicine."

    The beggars had not become homeless out of laziness*, but rather because starvation had struck their families and, being disabled, had had no choice but to sleep on the streets. Even so, kidnapping was going too far. If they were ordinary people, it would have been enough simply not to press charges, but who knew that, not only did the Fang family not press charges, they even welcomed the group as guests and agreed to do what they''d been kidnapped to do ¨C¨C the Fangs were truly generous.

    Now that Auntie Chen was fretting over them, the beggars felt remorseful and uneasy. The terror they''d felt in the mountains dissipated and they truly became a row of stupid quails who stammered, "Don''t ¨C¨C don''t worry. W-we''re used to the cold, so let it be."

    And now that Auntie Chen was back home where she was comfortable, she became far braver. She glared at them and scolded, "Are you the ones hurt or am I the one hurt? Are you pharmacists or am I a pharmacist? Hold the heaters and don''t let go. I''ll be right back."

    The brothers who happened to pass by heard their mother''s irritated tone and suddenly recalled the way they''d been scolded when they''d been younger. They shrunk their necks and tried to sneak past, but could not escape their mother''s eagle eye. "Where are you going?" she shouted at them. "Are you being chased by a ghost? Come here."

    Xiuping and Xiu''an awkwardly turned around and said in unison, "Ma, what is it? We''ve just closed the store and were on our way to bring the accounts booklets to Young Master Fang."

    "How big are the accounts booklets? Do you need two people to bring them over?" Irritated, Auntie Chen pointed at one of them and said, "Bring me a cask of wine, the strong kind, and also some clean rags."

    "Strong wine? What do you need strong wine for? Has Dad pissed you off?" asked the brother she''d pointed to ¨C¨C the younger twin, Xiu''an. His honorable older brother had already run away with the accounts booklets.

    "Would your father dare?" Auntie Chen replied. She pointed at the group of beggars. "Everyone in here has frostbite. We need to warm them up."

    As soon as he heard the word frostbite, Xiu''an''s face turned green.

    He had been extremely naughty as a child and was constantly wrestling with his brother Xiuping. On one particularly snowy day, the brothers had gone out to play in the snow, but had soon begun to fight again, getting snow all over their faces and in their clothes. Then, in a burst of brute strength, he''d fearlessly decided to bury his brother in the snow up to his neck. When they came home, his fingers had been frozen red, and his mother had spanked him so that his behind swelled enormously ¨C¨C which had made Xiuping mock him for a month straight.

    But a month later, the brothers no longer had anything to laugh about ¨C¨C the brothers had spent all day playing in the snow, then had come back and plunged their frozen fingers into hot water. The sudden change from cold to hot had caused frostbite to creep up their fingers and feet, which had subsequently swollen as fat as carrots. It had been itchy and painful, and they''d suffered enough for a lifetime.

    Auntie Chen had chopped up ginger into tiny pieces and boiled it into a spicy liquid, which she''d mixed in with strong alcohol to soothe their wounds. Xiuping had been alright ¨C¨C he''d only gotten swollen ¨C¨C but Xiu''an''s wounds had split. The pain from the spice had made Xiu''an cry so hard that his brother mocked him for another month after that.

    That experience had been harrowing, and Xiu''an would never forget it ¨C¨C just the mention of the alcohol treatment made him grimace with sympathy.

    While Auntie Chen''s back was turned, Xiu''an waved at the beggars and mouthed, Pray for salvation.

    The beggars looked at each other, nervous.

    Qingping winters were extremely cold, and it was not uncommon for people to get frostbite. Some would figure it out by themselves at home, but others would come to the pharmacy. After many years helping customers, Auntie Chen was adept at treating frostbite. She swiftly chopped up a bowl of ginger and ground it with a pestle and mortar until it began to leak juice. Next, she poured the wine that Xiu''an brought her into the bowl and soaked the rags in the liquid, then used the rags to wipe down the beggars'' wounds.

    "This is good. It''s split open, so although it hurts now, it''ll heal quicker later," Auntie Chen consoled as the beggars began to cry from the sting.

    So the group of rough-looking beggars were swiftly made pliable and agreeable by Auntie Chen. As they each held up their ginger-soaked hands, their eyes spilling over with tears, they meekly asked Auntie Chen if there was anything she needed help with ¨C¨C they really could not simply sit there.

    In the meantime, Fang Cheng and Jiang Shijing did not rest either ¨C¨C in fact, only one room in the entire compound remained calm, with not a single sound coming out of it.

    That was the room occupied by Xuanmin and Xue Xian.

    Although the Fang compound was not small, it was still quite limited: the beggars had been given two rooms, and those ill with plague had been quarantined in another room. Of the remaining rooms, one had been given to Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven, as well as Jiang Shining, who did not need to sleep; so the two wizards had to share the final room.

    It wasn''t as if they hadn''t had to make do before, and neither of the two really needed to sleep, so they did not mind.

    Of course... Xue Xian, still under the talisman''s spell, had originally wanted to complain, but then something inside him had told him not to.

    Perhaps all the times Xuanmin had restricted him really had had some impact, and he''d become used to it ¨C¨C as if if he now went a day without being bossed around by someone, he would feel weird...

    After having saved the souls of Jiang Shining''s parents in the evening, Xuanmin had shut the doors to the room and sat down by the bed.

    Ever since Xue Xian had known him, Xuanmin had never actually laid down to sleep ¨C¨C at night, if he wasn''t meditating, he would be sitting with his legs crossed, constantly keeping up that utterly indomitable manner, giving off an intimidating and unapproachable aura.

    But Xue Xian himself was in the middle of healing using the power of the copper coin pendant, and could not be bothered to provoke the monk either. So the entire room settled into a profound silence, and no one in the Fang family dared disturb them.

    When it had been dinnertime, Jiang Shijing and Fang Cheng had come to invite them, and when no one had answered their knock, they''d worried that something bad had happened to the two. But Jiang Shining had transformed into a paper man and stuck his head through a crack in the door to look around, then had come back to his sister and said, "Let''s not knock for now. If they''re hungry, they''ll let us know."

    He had not understood precisely what Xue Xian and Xuanmin were getting up to, but it looked meaningful and he did not think they wanted to be interrupted. Besides, the two were inherently different from normal people, and did not mind missing a meal here and there.

    The Fang family did not know Xue Xian and Xuanmin well ¨C¨C they only knew that the two were wizards of some kind, and that wizards always came with certain eccentricities, so in order not to offend, they had simply agreed to what Jiang Shining had suggested.

    Normally, the Fang family went to sleep before 7pm, but today, with all the visitors, they only settled down around 9pm. One by one, the lanterns in each room were blown out, and the whispers slowly faded away to silence, so that a sense of peace finally fell upon the compound.

    When Xue Xian finally opened his eyes again, the midnight bell had already struck, and those in the compound were fast asleep, snoring lightly. The oil in the lantern was half gone, and the core of the flame had not been refreshed for a while, so that the light was slowly waning like a sunset.

    But the reason that Xue Xian opened his eyes was not because of the snoring nor the lantern ¨C¨C but because the talisman stuck to his forehead had begun to feel hot.

    Because he was digesting a dragon bone, Xue Xian was already feeling quite flushed, but now the talisman on his head was getting even hotter than he was ¨C¨C to the point where it really had begun to bother him. He hissed with pain and frowned over at Xuanmin, gently saying, "Bald donkey?"

    Xuanmin did not respond.

    "Bald donkey? Can you take off the talisman now? I''m not going to do anything in the middle of the night," Xue Xian said.

    Still no response.

    "Bald donkey?" Now Xue Xian felt that something must be amiss. He called out again, then switched it up and said, "Xuanmin! Stop pretending to be dead. I know you''re not actually sleeping."

    In the dim glow of the lantern, h stared intently at the man sitting by the bed and waited ¨C¨C but Xuanmin still did not move.

    "Are you o¨C¨C" Before Xue Xian could finish, he suddenly felt the burning hot talisman on his forehead loosen, and then gently float off his face and onto the floor.

    Now that the talisman had fallen off, Xue Xian could move again. He immediately rolled his wheelchair to the bed and hesitantly prodded the hand that Xuanmin had rested on his knee.

    But as soon as he touched Xuanmin, he was startled by a feeling of extreme heat.

    Right ¨C¨C that talisman was Xuanmin''s, so if it suddenly began behaving strangely, it had to be connected to Xuanmin himself.

    "Hey, bald donkey?" Xue Xian reached out to feel Xuanmin''s pulse and found that the pulse was rapid and strong, giving him a sense of anxiety.

    Was there another issue with the mole?

    Although Xue Xian had only seen a few of Xuanmin''s seizures, he automatically went to check the monk''s neck. But because of the dimness of the light, it was hard to see anything at all. Xue Xian had no choice but to shuffle closer.

    There didn''t seem to be any blood vessels coming out of the mole this time, but Xue Xian was feeling even more anxious¨C¨C

    The monk''s body temperature was so high that, as Xue Xian got closer, the steaming heat from the crook of Xuanmin''s neck poured itself onto Xue Xian, bringing with it the slight moisture of sweat, making the already overheating Xue Xian feel even hotter. The heat went straight to his head and he suddenly felt dazed.

    Somehow, as he struggled to focus his vision, his gaze moved from the mole on Xuanmin''s neck to the side of Xuanmin''s face.

    Maybe it was the disorienting heat that made him feel lethargic, but Xue Xian''s vision was still blurry, so that he wasn''t sure if he was looking at Xuanmin''s brow, or the bridge of his nose, or...

    Indeed high priests were on another level ¨C¨C despite the sweltering heat emanating from Xuanmin, his face betrayed no hint of discomfort.

    Xuanmin looked exactly the same as he''d looked earlier in the evening when he''d first shut his eyes. If Xue Xian hadn''t felt his quickened pulse and couldn''t feel the scorching heat coming out of his body, he might really have been fooled by the monk''s serene manner.

    And now, perhaps because he''d been affected by Xue Xian''s own surging heat, or perhaps it was something else, but Xuanmin''s pulse was becoming increasingly rapid, and the warmth in the crook of his neck was becoming increasingly hot. Xue Xian idly watched Xuanmin and felt his eyelids begin to droop ¨C¨C for some reason, he no longer wanted to move.

    Just as Xue Xian''s brain was about to be entirely clouded over by the unbearable heat, the hand that he had placed on Xuanmin''s wrist to feel his pulse accidentally twitched.

    Xuanmin''s disturbingly violent pulse suddenly jolted, and as his eyelids fluttered open, he met eyes with Xue Xian.

    In that moment, they leant so close to each other that their inhales and exhales seemed to intersect, making them feel incredibly intimate...

    ---

    * Obviously not???? lmao

 CH 57

    Chapter 57: Bone Threads (II)

    Xuanmin''s half-open eyes seemed to merge with the dim light of the lantern, so that it was impossible to tell exactly where his gaze fell ¨C¨C if it was Xue Xian''s own panicked eyes, or the tip of his nose beaded with sweat, or lower...

    A massive, invisible screen seemed to come down between them, making all other noises in the world appear faint and faraway, leaving only the entwined sounds of their breathing; inhale, exhale... their breathing filled the room, so that suddenly everything around them seemed to become narrow and cramped, too small for them to make any movement at all.

    Suddenly, Xuanmin twitched the wrist that Xue Xian had been pressing ¨C¨C it grabbed Xue Xian''s fingers in return and bluntly twisted them around, so that Xuanmin''s hand was now clamped tightly over Xue Xian''s. Perhaps it was because the strange heat in his body had caused him not to be able to control his strength, but his grip on Xue Xian''s hand was incredibly strong.

    Just then, Xue Xian''s mind finally cleared a little and he realised that Xuanmin''s sweat was not only coming from the crook of his neck, but was all over his body ¨C¨C his hands were damp with sweat too, and in the instant that he grabbed onto Xue Xian''s hand, his fingers slipped between Xue Xian''s; and when he tightened his grip, the skin between their fingers could not help but rub up against each other... now the feeling was more than intimate ¨C¨C it could be called affectionate, or even devoted.

    As Xuanmin sleepily closed his eyes then opened them again, a bead of sweat appeared out of somewhere on his face and rolled off his chin, falling onto the tip of Xue Xian''s chin below, then streamed down his neck and disappeared into his collar.

    Suddenly, Xue Xian''s breathing grew heavier, and his mind quickly became alert again.

    In the streets outside the compound, a cat yowled, its cry echoing across the night and sounding unusually close, as though it were right there beside the bed.

    The cat''s yowl was enough to thoroughly awaken Xuanmin. He brusquely took his hand away and shut his eyes.

    Xue Xian''s eyelid twitched as he, too, automatically retraced his hand and sat up straight as a board. As Xue Xian wheeled his chair to the side, he saw that Xuanmin was sitting in his original position again, his eyes still closed, his face still set, and the hand that had grasped Xue Xian''s so tightly now relaxed and resting, again, on his knee.

    After some time, Xuanmin opened his eyes again. He looked calmly at Xue Xian and said, "Sit farther away."

    His tone was as neutral as ever, but something in his voice was slightly lower than usual, with a slight hoarseness.

    Xue Xian had already moved away a little earlier, and now the overwhelming heartbeat that he''d previously successfully repressed seemed to suddenly burst out again. His heart began to thump hysterically as though about to die, the pulse as loud and clear in his ear as the beat of a drum. The ba-dump, ba-dump of his crazy manic heart filled his ear, and he had not at all heard what Xuanmin had just said in that low voice of his.

    "Huh?" he asked.

    He had not yet recovered from that strange feeling of intimacy ¨C¨C his response came in a slight nasal tone, so that he sounded both tender and lazy.

    Xuanmin fell silent for a while, then mildly said, "Nothing."

    Finally, Xue Xian''s pulse slowed to normal, and he breathed a sigh of relief ¨C¨C but his right hand, which had been gripped so hard that it now ringed with numbness, was a reminder of all that had just occurred. As he flexed the fingers of that hand, he silently wheeled his chair to the table and turned his back to Xuanmin, using his refreshing the lantern as cover to settle that strange, overwhelming feeling inside him.

    As he fiddled with the core of the lantern, the tiny flame bloomed and the room suddenly became far brighter. Xue Xian turned his chair back around and used the new light to steal a glimpse of Xuanmin ¨C¨C

    The thin white robe on his body was soaked through with sweat, the cloth sketching a contour of the muscles across his shoulders and arms... after the strangeness from earlier, even though Xue Xian felt that he had calmed down now, this new view of Xuanmin did not make him feel much better.

    Seeing him drenched in sweat, and recalling the extreme heat emanating from his body before, Xue Xian summoned a dredge of sympathy for once and said, "Shall I go get you some water, to help you freshen up?"

    Knowing that Xuanmin hated to have even a speck of dirt on him, Xue Xian figured the monk must be deeply uncomfortable with all that sweat. That was the only thing that Xue Xian had considered, and he''d forgotten other details ¨C¨C such as the fact that, to wash, one needed to take off one''s clothes, and Xuanmin wasn''t the only person in the room...

    As soon as he uttered his question, it all suddenly occurred to Xue Xian, and he wished he could take it back.

    Xuanmin continued to sit there, and contemplated Xue Xian''s question. He opened his eyes, glanced at Xue Xian, then shut them again and said, "No. I only need you to sit a bit farther away."

    "What have I done to you now?" Xue Xian retorted. "If I go even farther, I''ll be out of the room."

    Xuanmin kept his eyes shut. It was only when Xue Xian wheeled back into that ''special healing corner'' that he slowly said, "No."

    Just No. Who knew what the hell he meant by that.

    The place where Xue Xian now sat was to the side of the bed. From his point of view, he could only see Xuanmin''s profile, and most of his vision was blocked by the bed itself. But this actually helped to dissipate some of the awkwardness from before, so that Xue Xian finally felt himself relax a little.

    And the reason why it was awkward was because... just then, in that moment, Xue Xian had felt his body react in a totally unfamiliar way. Of course, at the time, he''d chalked it up to restlessness, but...

    He wondered whether Xuanmin had felt the same thing.

    Xue Xian settled comfortably into his chair, leaning his arm against the armrest and placing his head upon it. His other hand fiddled absent-mindedly with the copper coin pendant, his thumbs unconsciously drawing contours around one of the coins, his idle gaze sometimes landing on the quivering flame in the lantern, sometimes on Xuanmin.

    Based on all that sweat on Xuanmin''s body at the moment, if Xuanmin had had some kind of reaction too, then surely it would be visible? But Xuanmin was so reserved and detached that it was impossible to think of him having anything to do with the common realm and all the vulgar, bodily things there. Besides, he was still sitting cross-legged, with his monk''s robes draped across his knees, so there was nothing to see.

    What in the world was going on? How had it come to this?

    The night was uncannily peaceful, and time seemed to creep by abnormally slowly. With nothing else to do, Xue Xian sat deep in thought for a while, then suddenly remembered the wound on Xuanmin''s hand that he''d licked, and what Jiang Shining had tried to tell him before Xuanmin had stopped him.

    Xue Xian felt that he finally understood why Jiang Shining had told him not to mess with dragon spit. But the warning had come too late.

    He laughed bitterly to himself and straightened up again, so that he looked more serious, and less an instigator. He stopped staring at Xuanmin, too, instead guiltily closing his eyes and focusing on healing once more.

    This night of healing was definitely different from all the other times he''d healed before ¨C¨C perhaps it was the extra bone that Xue Xian had absorbed, or perhaps it was because two of the seals on the coin pendant had now been broken.

    Before, he could only feel a sense of swelling heat in the places where his muscles were mending themselves, or the turgidity of his growing bones, as though they were trying to push themselves out of his body. But now, he could clearly feel the location of the swelling, as well as exactly where the bone he''d absorbed was growing ¨C¨C everything was gathered in the parts of him that had been broken and extended outwards as though a ghost of his past skeleton, thin filaments spreading across his body.

    The threads seemed almost alive: as Xue Xian''s magical power strengthened and deepened, the threads seemed to slowly grow longer too ¨C¨C but the process took a lot of effort. Even after healing all night, Xue Xian was only able to grow half of the threads in his body, and now he was as exhausted as if he''d been working at it for a month.

    As the sky lightened and the members of the Fang household began to step out of their rooms, Xue Xian had already roused the constantly awake Jiang Shining and was planning to go find something to eat.

    "Ah Ning, Xue... Young Master Xue, what are you two doing?" Jiang Shijing asked. She had already washed her face and was about to bring some medicine to the three plague-ridden beggars when she came across the pair headed for the back door and waved them down.

    "We''re going to Huicui Hall." Jiang Shining was familiar with the famous restaurants around Qingping and could at least show Xue Xian the way.

    "Huicui Hall?" Jiang Shining repeated, confused. "Why would you go there in the morning? Auntie Chen has already prepared breakfast."

    Jiang Shining wrung his hands. "Sir is very picky. He doesn''t distinguish between meals. He only eats meat, and there has to be a lot of it."

    "Even if you go to Huicui Hall now and order meat dishes, you still have to wait a while for them to prepare it." If it wasn''t for Xue Xian and Xuanmin, Jiang Shijing and her husband would probably still be sitting around in Wen Village, or even dead by now. So the entire Fang family held a sense of reverence and gratitude toward the two ¨C¨C even calling Xue Xian by the basic honorific Young Master felt awfully impolite, let alone letting him go hungry.

    As Jiang Shijing spoke, Auntie Chen happened to come out of the kitchen and the two exchanged glances. Auntie Chen clapped and said, "Auntie Chen knows how to make all the specialty dishes at Huicui Hall. Young Master Xue, tell me which dishes you''d like to try, and I should be able to lay out a whole table for you in no time."

    Jiang Shining began to nod too. "We can get Xingzi to help Auntie Chen. You missed dinner last night, so you must be ravenous now."

    As a guest in someone''s home, naturally Xue Xian was not about to order an entire banquet as he''d done before. He let himself be persuaded. "Well then, thank you very much. It doesn''t matter what you make, just do whatever you''d like. I don''t mind as long as there''s meat." I''m not going to eat grass.

    But...

    Xue Xian looked around, then said to Jiang Shijing and Auntie Chen, "Could I bother you for some hot water? The bald... Xuanmin was feverish last night and sweated through his clothes. He needs to wash."

    "Feverish?" As soon as Jiang Shijing and Auntie Chen heard this, their doctor modes kicked in. In unison, they demanded, "Are there other symptoms? Headache? Nausea?"

    Other symptoms...

    Drily, Xue Xian replied, "No, based on his physicality I don''t think he''s the type to catch cold. He probably messed up while meditating and is now being turned evil by demonic hallucinations."

    The Jiang siblings gasped. Demonic hallucinations sound far more serious than a cold, sir!

    But remembering that wizards were always eccentric, and not feeling comfortable asking for more information, the Jiang siblings simply nodded and went off to fetch hot water.

    Whenever Xue Xian thought about last night, he felt awkward. He was trying to spend as little time as possible inside the room. So he followed Jiang Shining around aimlessly, then followed Auntie Chen around until she finally asked him politely to leave the kitchen, at which point he sullenly wheeled himself back to the living room to wait for breakfast.

    Jiang Shining had gotten excited as soon as he''d seen those familiar rows of medicinal herbs, so had gone off to help his sister prepare medication. The only ones left in the room were Fang Cheng, checking over the accounts, and Xue Xian himself.

    Xue Xian thought for a while, then decided to speak. "May I ask you a question?" he said to Fang Cheng.

    Fang Cheng''s hand stopped writing and he said, "Of course, of course. Ask away, and I''ll tell you everything I might possibly know."

    "Have you heard of dragon spit?" Unlike Jiang Shining, Fang Cheng did not know that Xue Xian was a dragon, so Xue Xian did not feel as embarrassed to ask him. "What effects does it have? Could it harm a human?"

    "Um..." Fang Cheng gave him a confused look. "I have indeed heard of it, but I''ve never seen it. So in terms of effects... I only know the rumors."

    "What do the rumors say?"

    "Just that... if a girl comes across dragon spit... then she will become pregnant." Fang Cheng was clearly not a natural storyteller ¨C¨C with that awkward line, he seemed to have finished his explanation.

    Xue Xian frowned. What?

    Fang Cheng spoke again. "These days the rumors say that in whatever place, whoever was fortunate enough to obtain some, and they either sold it for an insane price or gave it to someone to take. They say that apart from being able to heal wounds and illnesses very quickly, and to serve as an antidote for hundreds of poisons, dragon spit has other uses as well. They say that it can increase yin and strengthen yang... well, it''s an aphrodisiac. And they say that its effect is quite long-term. But that''s all just rumor, of course. If you could encounter a medicine that could heal everything and repel all poison just once in a lifetime, then you could die happy."

    Fang Cheng had spent all his life as a pharmacist, so when it came to talking about medicine, he did so very seriously and did not come across as inappropriate at all. But...

    Although Xue Xian had roughly guessed the meaning of dragon spit last night, it was vastly different from hearing someone say it out loud.

    To the point where he immediately went into the courtyard to find Jiang Shining and said, "Can we talk? Can we switch rooms tonight?"

    Jiang Shining gasped. "No. Just one night in the same room as Master will send me straight to the afterlife. Didn''t you agree to let me stay a few more days and spend my sister''s birthday with her?"

    Xue Xian said, "Alright, then we won''t switch. But let me into your room. I won''t take up space on the bed."

    Jiang Shining laughed drily. "Stone Zhang will be so afraid that he''ll wet the bed. And do you think Twenty-Seven''ll stay sane?"

    Xue Xian fell silent.

    "Did you piss off Master again?" Jiang Shining got the feeling that he had become everyone''s mother, and wasn''t even getting paid for it ¨C¨C all this fretting was taking years off his life. Oh wait, he no longer had any years in his life.

    With a blank expression, Xue Xian pinched his fingers together, leaving a small space between them. "Just a little bit," he said.

    Jiang Shining thought, He must''ve gotten into huge trouble. It''s definitely not ''a little bit.''

    As the two spoke, the back door to the compound was pushed open and two youths dressed in pharmacist uniforms carried baskets of herbs into the courtyard. Seeing Jiang Shining, they froze, then greeted Auntie Chen as she emerged from the kitchen with a steaming plate. "Good morning, Auntie Chen. What you''re making smells delicious, you''re making us both hungry. Where''re Young Master and Young Mistress?"

    "They''re both busy. Put the baskets away and wash your hands, we''ll be eating soon," Auntie Chen replied.

    "Ai, we were supposed to be able to get back last evening, but we came across a carriage train on the way, and they made us clear the road. That''s why we were delayed by a night," the youths ¨C¨C servants to the Fang family ¨C¨C said to Auntie Chen as they arranged the herbs they''d collected.

    "Carriage train? What carriage train?"

    "The authorities." Now that the youths had begun to talk about it in more detail, their tones became mysterious. "You know how we reported the plague in the county? The imperial court sent a team to exorcise the plague. They must be in the city by now. Guess who they sent?"

    "Exorcists?" Auntie Chen repeated. "Then it must be..."

    The servant waved his hand. "They say that the officials the emperor sent report directly to the Great Priest. There are so many types of officials that I can''t remember what they''re all called, but these are the ones that follow the Great Priest around every day ¨C¨C they definitely know what he looks like."

 CH 58

    Chapter 58: Bone Threads (III)

    A long train of horse-drawn carriages trotted along the main road of Qingping County. The men manning the carriage were dressed in an unusual manner. Their robes were wide with large sleeves, and a fierce beast''s head was embroidered on the front and back of each robe, which was normal. But their robes were entirely white, and billowed gently with the movement of the horses, so that they looked like they were wearing clouds, creating a beautiful mixture between aggression and elegance.

    If looking purely at the clothes, it was impossible to tell the ages of those on the horses. They seemed to have gone through many years of physical training, so that their mannerisms were restrained and stiff. As for their faces... each of them wore an odd mask in the shape of a beast''s face, and it was impossible to see what they looked like.

    There were dozens of them in the carriage, perhaps a hundred. They formed two rows of horses, with a row of three carriages inbetween whose windows were sealed shut. Each carriage bore two flags on its side ¨C¨C a total of six ¨C¨C which depicted a complex design against an ink-black field. At first, the design was impossible to make out, and it was only under sunlight that contours could begin to emerge. On top of that black field were two large characters calligraphed to resemble a contorted dragon and a twisted snake ¨C¨C Taichang, the Ministry of Ceremonies.

    In previous dynasties, the Taichang had controlled all the ghosts and gods in heaven and on earth; maintained balance between yin and yang; within the Taichang, the Minister and Deputy Ministers of Ceremonies were responsible for all. Ever since the Great Priest had gained power over the Taichang, the Deputies'' roles had become greatly limited, and even the Minister had become the Great Priest''s lieutenant. And since the Great Priest was extremely old, he had already been served by a number of lieutenants.

    Now, especially in the last two generations, the entirety of the Taichang, from the Minister and Deputy Ministers, to the Taizhu and Taipu and right down to the Changzi and more* ¨C¨C they were all intimately close to the Great Priest and their origins were unknown. It was suspected that they were all his disciples.

    As the carriage train reached a fork in the road, they split into two groups, with two dozen men diverting into the Qingping county seat along with one of the carriages ¨C¨C they were the team that had been ordered to exorcise the plague. The rest of the group, around a hundred and twenty people, took a winding mountain road. The two riders at the front of this group wore gleaming copper coin pendants on their hips, and also carried tasselled jade tiles.

    The carvings on the jade tiles were different for each rider: the one on the left had a tortoise, on which stood a bird with long plumes, and both animals were circumscribed within two curling characters ¨C¨C Taipu. And the tile on the left had the long face of a beast, above whose head hung a small eight-sided bell, and both carvings were also circumscribed by two characters¨C¨C Taizhu.

    The Taipu and Taizhu both worked within the Ministry of Ceremonies. The Taipu was responsible for telling fortunes and navigating yin and yang, whereas the Taizhu performed sacrifices and exorcisms.

    As the train exited the mountain path, the leader carrying the Taipu tile made a gesture with his hand, and the entire train obediently came to a stop.

    The Taizhu turned to face him, his eyes full of puzzlement gleaming from behind his mask, and asked, "What is it?"

    The tone was profound and serious, but the voice was rather young, like a young man only a little over twenty years of age.

    "Let me confirm the direction again," the Taipu said ¨C¨C the voice was that of a woman, equally young, and contained some nimbleness within that outer layer of warmth and brightness.

    As she spoke, she took off the beast mask that she wore, revealing a pleasant face. Just from her face, she seemed even younger than her voice suggested, perhaps only seventeen or eighteen. Thankfully, she had elegant brows and a pair of eyes as deep as lakes, which helped to ground her aura and make her seem calm and stable.

    The position of Taipu was a unique one: whether one was practicing divination or decoding dreams, it all had to do with innate talent, and so to become a Taipu one only had to be a highly skilled and fortunate person ¨C¨C it did not matter whether one was male or female. Because women happened to be more sensitive to such areas, the latest generations of Taipu had included a number of women.

    The Taizhu nodded in agreement and said, "True. After all, this is about great disasters. If we get it wrong, we''ll surely be punished when we return to the capital." As he spoke, he anxiously pointed his finger upwards and added, "That person won''t be happy."

    The Taipu glanced at him, then peered up at the layers of clouds in the sky. "The Great Priest has always been just and fair. His punishments are insightful and never depend on his mood. Besides, we won''t be able to see him at all when we return. You''re overthinking it..."

    "Hey, lady, I was just saying. Can you stop being so serious?" the Taizhu snapped.

    "No."

    The Taipu threw out her response nonchalantly, as she reached into her pocket and extracted a grass knot, a tortoise shell, and a bamboo-scented sheet of paper. She carefully unfolded the paper, on which the first few rows of writing were dry and faint ¨C¨C they had clearly been written some time ago. There were very few words, and the content was straightforward and direct. In the place on the paper where the sender was supposed to identify themselves, there was a red stamp with two simple characters: Tongdeng.

    She confirmed the location written on the paper, then carefully folded it back up again. She arranged the grass knot and the tortoise shell in her palm and said, "Be discreet in word and deed, and especially do not speak ill of the Great Priest in my presence. Or else I may become angry."

    The Taizhu shook his head, exasperated. "There you go accusing me of all kinds of nonsense again. I would never dare to speak ill."

    Although it was commonly known that the officials within the Taichang were of mysterious origins, there were still some distinctions.

    For instance the two riders at the front ¨C¨C ten years ago, they had both been recruited by the Great Priest and had both been educated at the Taichang. They had slowly grown up and climbed the ranks from Changzi to Changshi to their positions today. Although they''d had almost the same experiences and were of the same age, the Taizhu feared the Great Priest more than he respected him ¨C¨C and the Taipu respected the Great Priest more than she feared him... far more.

    The Taipu focused on her divination and ignored the Taizhu.

    After some time, the Taipu glanced at the grass knot in her hand then looked at the horizon. "Yi," he muttered.

    "Yi what? Are we lost?" the Taizhu demanded.

    The Taipu gently furrowed her elegant brows and fell deep in thought. Finally, she muttered, "I divined... but it shouldn''t be."

    "You''re always speaking in bits and pieces. Say it properly. What did you divine?" The Taizhu followed her gaze and looked at the horizon too, but apart from dark clouds, he saw nothing. Then he stared at the grass knot in her hand, and apart from the fact that the knot looked rather worn, he saw nothing peculiar either.

    "Nothing. I just divined that someone is in Qingping County who really shouldn''t be. But it''s impossible..." the Taipu explained, then she shook her head. "Never mind. In any case, it was only an approximation. I must be mistaken. But we have serious matters to deal with. I''ve confirmed the location: we keep going down this path toward the southwest."

    "Where do we rest tonight?"

    The Taipu glanced at the Taizhu again and said, "See that mountain that looks like a dustpan? That''s where we''re headed."

    The Taizhu raised his fist to send a signal to the rest of the train and kicked his stirrups. "Let''s go."

    Meanwhile, in the Fang family compound, the group was discussing something different...

    Their discussion was provoked by Jiang Shining going in to treat the three plague-ridden beggars. As he saw that their fevers were receding, he also noticed that one of the child beggars who looked like a skinny monkey was actually a little girl.

    "Now this is unfortunate..." Jiang Shining raised his hand to gesture at the left side of his face and said, "The other two''s rashes all stop by their necks, but that little girl has a huge patch on her face. The rashes don''t just bleed ¨C¨C they''re going to get gangrenous. We have to clean away the already rotten flesh, and when she recovers, that girl''s face..."

    The group already knew about the disgusting rashes, and had seen how frail the little girl looked. Naturally, they could imagine the immense scar that would ravage the girl''s face after she healed ¨C¨C half her face would be ruined. The child was still so young. If her face was ruined now, what would she do later?

    Fussing really ran in the Jiang family. Although the beggar was a complete stranger, Jiang Shijing became extremely worried for this little girl.

    Xue Xian had been rolling his wheelchair past them, but, upon hearing Jiang Shining''s words, he stopped.

    The only thing that determined whether Xue Xian was interested or uninterested in doing something was his mood. Auntie Chen was a real talent, and the feast that she''d laid out for him that morning had been excellent. And once he ate his fill, he was in a good mood, and he could even forget a bit of what was burdening him, to the point that when Xuanmin walked out of the door and came towards him, he barely noticed.

    Xue Xian hated to eat and drink for free, but to give them gold beads would be to treat the Fang home as an inn. As he''d been pondering how to repay his debt to the Fangs, he''d heard Jiang Shijing fret and had had an idea.

    "I have a solution for the little girl''s face," Xue Xian said.

    Stunned, the group turned to him. "What solution?"

    If he could make a paper body for Jiang Shining, then of course he could help make a new prosthetic for the little girl''s face. However...

    "I can''t just magic flesh out of nowhere for her. There needs to be some form of exchange with another material object," Xue Xian explaiend.

    Jiang Shijing was not stupid, and Jiang Shining had experienced it all before so could offer advice. The group quickly debated the issue: "Some form of exchange... to go on someone''s face... Hey! How about a mask?"

    Stone Zhang, who was still eating his breakfast, eagerly raised his hand. "I can help! I can carve her a beautiful, extravagant mask!"

    Oh, fuck off!

    Xue Xian glared at Stone Zhang. "Not even eating will shut you up, it seems. Have you ever seen someone with a face carved full of designs?"

    Silently, Stone Zhang went back to eating.

    "I mean yirong masks," Jiang Shining explained, chuckling. "The kind that you can use to entirely replace your face. But a mask is still just a mask, and we still need you..."

    He glanced at Xue Xian.

    Xue Xian nodded. "That''s also what I mean."

    "But..." Jiang Shining asked awkwardly. "Who could make one?"

    Stone Zhang hurriedly put his bowl back down again. "I can."

    "Really? But aren''t you a stonemason?" Xue Xian asked skeptically.

    "Many such skills are transferrable," Stone Zhang said, pointing at himself. "I''ve seen others make them before. Plus, I''m extremely nimble-fingered. I''m sure I can make an adequate one."

    It was hilarious to see a stout, balding little man speak of his own nimble fingers so proudly.** But indeed, no one else at the table was as nimble as he, and none had observed the making of an yirong mask. So the task fell to him.

    Stone Zhang did not delay: he immediately listed the materials that he needed, and then went to thoroughly wash his hands.

    In the meantime, the others did not sit by idly either. Since he''d woken up in the morning, Twenty-Seven had tucked himself away in a corner of the courtyard, holding the black cloth that had been used to blindfold Stone Zhang in one hand and using the bundle of sticks in his other hand to trace markings across the floor. After he finished his spell, he would study the markings and then reset everything...

    Stone Zhang had not asked for a lot of materials, and fortunately Fang Cheng''s compound was full of raw materials, especially those relating to medicine. But the most unique ingredient seemed to have been prepared long in advance.

    "What else do we need?" Jiang Shining asked.

    Stone Zhang cleared his throat and mumbled, "X glue."

    "What glue?" Xue Xian suddenly turned around.

    With a face full of resignation, Stone Zhang sighed and repeated, "Dragon glue."

    "What in the world is dragon glue?"

    "It''s glue made out of dragon skin." Stone Zhang felt that he had signed his death seal with those words. He wished he could slap his own mouth off. You volunteered for a task, and look at you now. You''re getting yourself killed.

    Xue Xian''s expression turned dark. "What the fuck? Who is making glue out of dragon skin? Drag him out there and show him to me!"

    "It''s not... that''s... that''s just what it''s called," Stone Zhang quickly explained. "You know how whenever there''s some strange new item, people come up with mysterious, powerful names for it. They like to name things after dragons but it usually has nothing to do with them. That glue comes from western merchants. It is made of animal skin..."

    But Xue Xian was still furious. He slapped the table and shouted, "Why do you need some mysterious glue? Go get some pig skin!"

    "Alrighty," Stone Zhang said. He did what he was told.

    Just as Xue Xian finished roaring with rage, he turned to see Xuanmin behind him. Their eyes met, and then Xue Xian swiftly wheeled his chair away, making his escape.

    Xuanmin watched him go.

    Actually, pig glue was perfectly adequate ¨C¨C they just needed to be careful about taking it out of the pot, as doing so too early or too late would ruin it.

    Stone Zhang, standing guard by the pot, decided that it had been enough time. Just as he made to turn off the heat, a hand shot out to stop him.

    He only needed to see that snow-white sleeve to know who it was. He filled his voice with respect and deferentially said, "Master."

    Xuanmin did not waste his words. He glanced at the pot and said, "Let it boil a bit longer."

    Stone Zhang was stunned. "Master, you know how to make these masks too?"

    ---

    * Yeah i''m not gonna lie, I have no idea what those last 3 things are, but they''re obviously like certain positions within the ministry so like????? there ya go.

    ** Why ?? He''s the best stonemason in the area... so mean!!!

 CH 59

    Chapter 59: Bone Threads (IV)

    But as soon as the words came out of his mouth, Stone Zhang regretted them. He felt Xuanmin falter, and the monk''s brows furrowed slightly.

    Stone Zhang did not know what to say. It was just a casual question. You don''t need to think that hard, Master... He slowly turned his head and exchanged glances with Jiang Shining, who stood by the stove as well, and mouthed, What do I do? I''m so scared.

    Jiang Shining gave him a look. You brought this upon yourself.

    When Stone Zhang turned back to the pot, Xuanmin had put his hand back and was frowning contemplatively at the pot of glue. His pristine white robes with not a speck of dust on them contrasted dramatically with the steam and grease of the kitchen stove, so that as he stood, even the flame seemed to retreat with shyness.

    Stone Zhang couldn''t begin to understand what Xuanmin was pondering, but from the look on the monk''s face, it did not seem to be something happy. So he did not dare to disturb the monk by gently asking him to leave the kitchen. All he and Jiang Shining could do was stare and wait.

    Fortunately, although Xuanmin was socially inept, he was still miles above people like Xue Xian, who loved to make trouble. As the glue in the pot began to gurgle, Xuanmin seemed to come back to his senses. He took one last look at the pot and said, "The heat is too weak."

    Then he strode out of the kitchen, without even glancing back at Stone Zhang and Jiang Shining inside.

    The snow-white robe swept past the doorframe, then vanished without a trace.

    Stone Zhang let go of his breath. "Oh, thank god. I''m too old for frights like these. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest..."

    Jiang Shining sighed too, and wordlessly began to add dry hay into the belly of the stove.

    "But Master really is powerful. How does he know everything?" Stone Zhang added, mystified. "Like this thing¨C¨C" He pursed his lips in the direction of the pot. "Like this mask. No one in our area works on these. One time, a patron brought me to Liangzhou, and that''s how I got to know about the process. That city is close to a strategic mountain pass, and is a dangerous place to live. In order to protect themselves, some people learn to do such things. With this kind of thing, you need to have a wealth of experience under your belt. And if I may... Master is awfully young. Even though he''s powerful, at this age, there''s still only a limited amount of things he could have seen and places he could have been. How much experience could he possibly have?"

    In reality, even Jiang Shining sometimes had his doubts ¨C¨C he always got the feeling that the knowledge and stability that Xuanmin demonstrated far exceeded the wisdom of his years...

    As a middle-aged man, Stone Zhang had few hobbies, but gossiping and speculating about people was one of them ¨C¨C and he was very good at it too. He peered out into the courtyard and lowered his voice. "And look at Sir Xue... When he''s with Master, sometimes it seems like he''s the secondary one. Today, I got the feeling that he was following Master around. Think about it. A twenty-something guy, taming a dragon? That''s a real live dragon ¨C¨C he must be a million years old!"

    That mouth really would not stop talking ¨C¨C Stone Zhang was like a plucked sparrow with eight extra mouths attached to it. He couldn''t help but add, "Right... How old is Sir Xue?"

    Jiang Shining patted his poor, worn ears and snapped, "How should I know?"

    Although Stone Zhang did not know why Xuanmin would know how to make yirong masks, he nonetheless did exactly as the monk had instructed and made the flame hotter, then waited a bit longer.

    Finally, he took the glue off the heat and carried a steaming hot bowl of it into the courtyard, slamming it down onto the table with a clang. Pinching his ear, he hopped up and down and said, "Okay, where are the other materials?"

    Fang Cheng gathered the ingredients they''d collected and placed them onto the table. He''d already chopped what needed to be chopped, and juiced what needed to be juiced ¨C¨C the little plates of materials were arranged immaculately across the table, like a meal.

    Stone Zhang did not delay ¨C¨C he began making the mask.

    The others were extremely curious, but, knowing that it was a fine process and not wanting to disturb Stone Zhang, they all stood as far as possible and dared not ask any questions ¨C¨C only stood there and watched.

    Xue Xian found this all quite interesting too. He had heard of the so-called human skin masks, but had never seen one being made. But because of certain things on his mind that he did not wish to express, he could not sit still¨C¨C

    Every time he caught sight of Xuanmin, he would turn his wheelchair in the other direction and escape. Sometimes it would be to speak to the twins in the front shop, and sometimes it would be to bother the beggars. As he hid, terrified, from Xuanmin, he grumbled to himself, I just want to sit back and watch Stone Zhang make the mask! Is that so much to ask?

    Because of all this, he naturally did not get to see the full process behind the mask. By the time he''d circled the compound and finally come back, Stone Zhang was already half finished ¨C¨C all he needed now was the cast. The little beggar was still lying in bed, her face ravaged by the rash, and it was not the right time to try and touch her.

    It was now that Stone Zhang could really show off his skill. He walked into the room and studied the good half of the girl''s face for some time, memorising every detail. Then, he moved onto the ravaged half and studied that too, comparing the two sides.

    When he came out, he seemed to know exactly what to do ¨C¨C he immediately picked up the cast material and began to carve...

    This was the most effortful and time-consuming part of the process.

    It was only after many hours that Stone Zhang finally presented the onlookers with his product. But the product was different from what Xue Xian had expected ¨C¨C he thought the mask would be a full face, but it was in fact two separate pieces, one slightly thicker and concave, and the other was as thin as a cicada''s wing.

    "Why is it two pieces?" Xue Xian couldn''t help but ask as his wheelchair skittered to a halt.

    Stone Zhang explained, "When it comes to making such masks, the approach is to add on, not to take away. For instance, you might make thinner parts fatter, and raise the bridge of someone''s nose... The little girl is missing chunks of flesh on her face, and the two parts are not balanced ¨C¨C they need to be balanced out. This thick one is to fill in the gaps caused by the rash, and the thin one is to bind the thick part to the rest of her face. The latter part is like a second skin on top of the mask."

    As Xue Xian listened to him speak, he stared at the two masks in his hand. The colors had all been added on accurately by Stone Zhang so that, from afar, the masks looked exactly like real human skin...

    Hold on¨C¨C

    Real human skin...

    Xue Xian turned his head and immediately rolled himself to Xuanmin''s side. He tugged at Xuanmin''s sleeve, bringing the monk down to his chair level, and said, "Bald donkey, look at what Stone Zhang''s holding. Does it resemble your memories from Wen Village? You said that in your memories from your youth, there were two images where you were holding human skin. Could this be it?"

    Although he was asking a question, he felt almost certain that he was right. Indeed, how could a teenager, especially a teenager with a personality like Xuanmin''s, end up holding someone''s flayed skin in his hands? He hated touching even a drop of blood ¨C¨C would he touch human leather?

    But he might touch human-skin masks...

    As he thought this to himself, Xue Xian suddenly realised that Xuanmin had still not answered him. When he looked up, he saw that Xuanmin was looking down on him too, and could not decipher whether the monk''s face was a happy or unhappy one ¨C¨C he seemed as cool and detached as normal, yet somehow different.

    But how different, Xue Xian couldn''t say. He just knew that, after being stared at like that for a while, he began to feel guilty, and wished he could roll his wheelchair away again.

    "You''re not running away anymore?" Xuanmin finally said. His tone was a bit... salty.

    Now he was making Xue Xian sound like a coward. Xue Xian was irritated, but when he replied, it was to move the subject back: "So you really were holding human-skin masks? At that age, would you be making yirong masks instead of dutifully copying your sutras?"

    "I don''t remember," Xuanmin replied.

    The fact that he did not deny the first part meant that he acknowledged Xue Xian''s guess ¨C¨C he, too, now thought that the objects he''d been holding in the memory were parts of, or entire, masks. But what would a thirteen or fourteen year-old be doing with that?

    Xue Xian squinted and began to ponder, and as he did so, he felt the sleeve he''d been grasping between his fingers slip out of his grasp, followed by a hand arriving to pinch his chin, moving it back toward Stone Zhang before letting go again.

    Beside him, Xuanmin''s voice said, "First, do what you agreed to do."

    Startled, Xue Xian absent-mindedly touched his chin where Xuanmin had pinched him. When he turned back, the monk was striding back into his room, with no intention of staying in the courtyard. And Xue Xian wasn''t sure if it was just him, but...

    The bald donkey seemed... unhappy?

    Now that he had a similar-looking exchange item, Xue Xian effortlessly placed a spell on the two halves of the mask. Jiang Shijing obeyed Xue Xian''s instructions and tested the mask on the back of her hand ¨C¨C as soon as the mask came into contact with her skin, it looked exactly like a face growing out of her hand. The colors and wrinkles were all perfectly accurate ¨C¨C even the small blemishes on the girl''s face had been faithfully reproduced.

    "Simply give this to the little girl when she wakes up. You should wait until her scars have healed, or if she doesn''t mind the pain, then it doesn''t matter. Stick it on her face and it will work just fine. As long as I''m alive, the object will work its magic," he said.

    At that moment, Xingzi, who had longed for his attention the whole day, brightened, and her large eyes kept darting back to gaze upon him. Even Auntie Chen couldn''t help but glance at him every once in a while and half-joke, "Young Master Xue, do you think you could give me a facelift? How about making me twenty years younger?"

    Uncle Chen averted his gaze and led Auntie Chen away so as not to embarrass herself further.

    Although the Fang family were a lively bunch, they all seemed to tacitly agree to close their mouths. They had witnessed Xue Xian perform powerful magic, but not a single one of them tried to ask him about it ¨C¨C it was polite, and quite caring, of them to be so restraiend.

    As the group tidied away the little plates on the table, Twenty-Seven, who had been curled up in the corner all day, suddenly waved manically at Xue Xian.

    "What is it? Have you made progress?" Xue Xian asked.

    Twenty-Seven nodded and said, "I''m not as good as Nineteen. I can''t divine it accurately, but I can say that, at least during the period from last night to this morning, the person who touched this black blindfold was still at the location that I divined. Whether or not he''ll still be here tonight, I can''t be sure."

    "No worries. Let''s go take a look first. If we can seize him, that would be ideal, but if not, we''ll know that he can''t be far, and will have surely left some kind of clue." Xue Xian wagged his chin at him and asked, "Tell us ¨C¨C where is it?"

    Twenty-Seven said, "A mountain that looks like a dustpan."

    "Looks like a dustpan?" Xue Xian was not familiar with the area.

    "Oh, Dustpan Mountain!" Xingzi, who had been silently observing them, suddenly said. "I know, I know! Look ¨C¨C if you walk straight in that direction, and take the southwest road once you leave town, it''s right behind the forest."

    Seeing that noon was about to come upon them, Xue Xian did not want to delay. He slapped his armrest, signalling that he wanted to get going. From what Xingzi had said, it did not seem like it would take long for them to get there.

    "We must be almost there. It''s right behind the forest." In the meantime, at the end of the southwest mountain road, the leader of the train from the Ministry of Ceremonies, Taizhu, lifted his head and looked at the mountain in front of him, and said.

 CH 60

    Chapter 60: Bone Threads (V)

    Dustpan Mountain was faithful to its name. The mountain was hidden behind a smattering of wild forest, close to a village that stood near the border of Qingping County. The side of the mountain that faced the sun was covered in rice paddies and looked pure and fresh in the daylight, half-hidden by a thin cloud of water vapor.

    But the reason why it was called Dustpan Mountain was because the side that did not face the sun contained a large patch of concave earth. The concave part was always shrouded in fog so thick that someone standing at the foot of the mountain looking up would not be able to trace the contours of the sunken section. Every once in a while, someone slipped and fell in, or a curious person went to explore, but no one ever returned.

    Thus, there were many local rumors about Dustpan Mountain. Some said that so many people had died in the sunken part that the area was a wild cemetery filled with white bones; others said that people lived there, that they could sometimes hear their voices, including the chilling cry of an infant ¨C¨C they did not know if these were ghosts or humans.

    There were all sorts of rumors that ranged from the mundane to the ridiculous, but not a single one of them could be proved.

    In the first ten years after the concave part had been created, there were those with a death wish, but they seemed to have died out by now. Even the rumors begun to fade, and few people talked about it now, so that young people knew only that Dustpan Mountain existed and that they should not go there ¨C¨C though they were never told why.

    The officials from the Ministry of Ceremonies trotted forward, avoiding the sun-bathed little village and paddies and heading straight for the dark side. Before long, they could see that patch of fog on Dustpan Mountain.

    The Taizhu lifted his hand again, halting the riders behind him, then turned and said, "Lady, which of these two paths do we take?"

    Ahead of them, one of the paths went around the sunken part and was headed for the side of the mountain, whereas the other was entirely hidden by the fog.

    The fog was humid, cold, and emitted a strong yin energy. It also had some faint, lingering wooden smell ¨C¨C or maybe it was the smell of medicine. Ultimately, the smell seemed definitively to be one of poison.

    The Taipu had already checked her records multiple times during the journey, but now she frowned at the tortoise shell again and finally pointed into the fog: "Yes. This one."

    The Taizhu sighed, then said to the train behind him, "Let''s make sure we all cover our faces... and eyeballs."

    Indeed, they were all human, with frail human bodies ¨C¨C no one would be too reckless in an unclear situation.

    hearing the Taizhu''s order, each of the riders in the train took out a small cotton pouch from their chest pockets and shook out a small antidote pellet, which they ingested. Then they took out a similar-looking, primitive perfume pouch and inserted these into their masks, beneath their nostrils.

    The Taipu reached into the bags carried by her horse and retrieved a crescent-shaped bell, which was carved on the side with the image of a tiny eight-sided bell.

    Then she took out a stack of folded talismanic papers and extracted one of them. She cast it into the fog and rung the bell three times, then kicked her stirrups. The horse obediently began to trot again, following the ringing of the bell into the thick, dense fog.

    As the Taipu went first and the Taizhu followed, the entire carriage train fell in line from two rows into just the one as they inched into the fog.

    The fog was a sickly white glaze through which they could see nothing ¨C¨C even the horses beneath them became headless ghosts ¨C¨C the sudden blindness was unnerving.

    But the Taipu maintained a calm expression. With her brows slightly furrowed, she focused on maintaining the same rhythm ¨C¨C five steps to a ring ¨C¨C and led the long, thin train into the depths of the mountain. Halfway in, there was a young rider near the back of the train who had never experienced such a thing and began to panic in the fog.

    When one panics, one loses control of one''s breathing. As the young official entered the fog, he inadvertently gasped with fear, drawing a great breath of fog right into his nose.

    Before he''d even taken three more steps, there was a plopping noise as the official slid off his horse and onto the ground, where he grasped wildly at his throat, gasping for breath. Those behind him were impatient: once they''d managed to control their own breathing, they repressed their anxiety and pulled the young official back onto his horse.

    "Keep your steps steady and your breath steadier¨C¨C" came the gloomy, distant voice of the Taipu, as wispy as smoke ¨C¨C as though she were speaking from a whole other world.

    Despite her warnings, seven or eight officials in the train fell victim to the fog. They began to convulse and spit out mouthfuls of blood, then quickly died.

    The crescent-shaped bell rang five times in quick succession. This meant that the Taipu had arrived at their destination.

    It seemed that she was right in front of the mountain hollow. Strangely, the hollow looked different from the way it did at the foot of the mountain ¨C¨C the fog was thin here, as thin as a layer of water vapor rising from the ground after a day of rain, and not at all like the terrifying, opaque thing that had pestered them all the way in. And within that weak layer of fog was a small, solitary building made of bamboo. It had around three stories, and was exquisitely crafted.

    Perhaps because it had been submerged in the fog for too long, but every single thin plank of bamboo was clean and shone with a brightness ¨C¨C if it wasn''t for the fact it was located within that poisonous fog, it would look like a luxury inn.

    At the head of the train, the Taipu and Taizhu studied the building for a while, waiting for those behind them to file in and surround the building. If it weren''t for their masks, the officials'' faces would probably reveal a sense of unhappiness¨C¨C

    Their mission had only been to track a location, but they''d already lost several lives. Anyone else would be upset, too.

    "Don''t lose caution. The thin fog is poisonous too," the Taipu reminded the Changzi officials around them. Then she met eyes with the Taizhu. The two swiftly descended their horses and proceeded, with practiced hands, to lay down a series of talismans around the building.

    As the spell took effect, the thin fog around the building suddenly floated away, sucked into the thicker fog around them, creating a circle of clean air.

    The officials all removed their perfume pouches and got off their horses, gathering near the two leaders to inspect the building.

    They knew that they were here to find a person ¨C¨C but who it was, the lowly Changzi were not told. They had only seen a likeness, but could not say what the person did, why they were looking for them. Only the Taipu and Taizhu knew.

    "Are you sure it''s here?" the Taizhu asked the Taipu as he scanned the building again.

    Even the Taipu herself felt that if you wanted to hide a person here... it was both easy and difficult: if the fog could block visitors out, then it was a perfect hiding place, but if visitors managed to penetrate the fog as they had, then there was nowhere to run.

    "Oh well. Let''s search it," the Taizhu said as he turned to give instructions to the Changzi.

    Soon, the two led five Changzi into the bamboo building with the aim of inspecting every room. The hundred-odd other officials remained outside, holding down the fort.

    The three-story building really was small ¨C¨C in no time, they''d finished searching it.

    "So?" The Taizhu hurried down from the top floor. He held a scroll in his hand and flipped through it, looking for clues, then shook his head and tossed it onto a nearby table.

    The Taipu stood on the first floor, staring into a pristine living room. She said, "Nothing at all."

    The Taizhu crossed his arms and looked around again, then finally said, "Lady, I''m not saying your divinations were wrong... but maybe we missed a clue somewhere, and it affected the results?"

    With the situation as it was, the Taipu was not offended by the question. She sat down by the table and slammed the grass knot and tortoise shell onto its surface, studying them carefully.

    "Do you want to... try another shell?" the Taizhu asked.

    The Taipu shook her head. "No. I cannot burn a shell for the same matter twice in a day. Let me look harder."

    But soon, she let out an exclamatory "Yi!"

    "What is it?" the Taizhu asked.

    "Nothing. It''s the person I mentioned earlier," the Taipu replied. "When I was divining, they happened to be in the nearby town, and now they''ve been brought into the shell markings."

    "The one you said could not possibly be there? Who is it?" the Taizhu asked, confused.

    The Taipu lifted her head and looked back at him, her black eyes behind the mask revealing a sense of unease. "It must be some other person with a similar birthdate or life horoscope. It can''t be who I think it is. Indeed..."

    "Stop beating around the bush. Who? Tell me." The Taizhu was about to explode.

    The Taipu shook out the folded notes from her pocket and tapped at that the red stamp on the letter that read, Tongdeng. She said, "The Great Priest."

    "Who?!" The Taizhu couldn''t believe his ears, and wanted to scratch them, but his hands only came into contact with the mask, so he had no choice but to put his hands away again.

    The Taipu looked at him and repeated, "The Great Priest."

    "Impossible. Impossible. How could it be ¨C¨C" the Taizhu blubbered, shaking his head. "The Great Priest is on the top floor of the Ministry of Ceremonies. We saw him before we left. The old man is still sealed away. How could he suddenly appear in Qingping County? You know the rules of his isolation as well as I do. If he leaves in the middle, then he''s ruined the whole thing."

    "Of course I know," the Taipu said. "That''s why I said it must be someone similar, and not actually him. However..."

    The Taizhu waved his hand dismissively. "There''s no however. Let''s focus on the matter at hand."

    Although he said this, he couldn''t help but feel a rising sense of fear.

    Just as the Taipu got ready to read her tortoise shell again, a small, gentle sound was emitted amid the fog outside, as though something had accidentally stepped on a bamboo leaf.

    At the same time, as though blown by a breeze, the grass knot on the table shifted to a different position.

    Immediately, the Taipu gathered her things and began to hurry down the stairs. "There''s been a change," she said. "We must leave this hollow immediately. If we delay, we''re going to lose the person!"

    Soon after this, another group of people arrived at that fork in the road where the officials had stopped before entering the mountain.

    "Where do we go now? The creepy road full of fog that looks like it''s going to kill us, or the clean and safe-looking road?" asked a stout middle-aged man anxiously.

    This group were none other than Xue Xian and his companions.

    It was to be Jiang Shijing''s birthday in two days ¨C¨C Xue Xian hadn''t made Jiang Shining come along with them, so that he could spend time with his sister at home. Instead he''d brought Lu Twenty-Seven, Stone Zhang, and Xuanmin.

    Twenty-Seven was a human compass. Although he wasn''t always very accurate, but he was still highly useful for someone so bad with directions as Xue Xian. Stone Zhang could remember the man who had blindfolded him, so if they found him, they needed the stonemason to identify him, so he, too, was useful. And as for Xuanmin...

    Whether or not he was useful, he had to be brought along.

    Where such a logic came from, Xue Xian wasn''t sure. He was probably used to travelling with the monk, and feared he would get bored without him.

    Although some unknown urge had compelled him to take Xuanmin along, now that they were here, Xue Xian began to regret it. The events of last night still stood between them, and this morning, Xuanmin had been in a weird mood. Plus... what had Fang Cheng said?

    Oh, right: the effects of dragon spit could not go away within as short a time as one or two days.

    Ha. Ha.

    As Xue Xian admitted to himself that he must''ve been crazy to bring Xuanmin to Dustpan Mountain, Twenty-Seven suddenly pointed into the fog and said to Stone Zhang, "Do you really need to ask? Of course we have to take the road that looks like it''s going to kill us."

    "That fog.... i-i-is it poisonous?" stammered Stone Zhang.

    "It''s going to kill us. Of course it''s poisonous," Twenty-Seven replied.

    "So how do we go in..."

    Twenty-Seven said, "We charge."

    Oh, fuck off.

    Stone Zhang wished he could simply run away. The worst part was, apart from a faint smell of wood, he also thought he could detect the stench of blood in the fog... fresh blood.

    His legs began to tremble, and he wondered whether he should begin to cry again ¨C¨C see if Xue Xian would take pity on him.

    Thankfully, before he''d begun to squeeze out tears, the magnanimous Xuanmin said, "No need to panic¨C¨C"

    As he took out a talisman, just his mild mannerism was enough to reassure Stone Zhang. Xuanmin was always reliable; he always had an idea; so he must know how to get them through that poison fog.

    Stone Zhang could tell from the talismanic paper that Xuanmin was going to use that for a spell. He moved out of the way to make room for the monk, and even tugged Twenty-Seven aside too.

    But just as Xuanmin had selected the right talismanic paper, a certain person, who had been deep in thought, came back to his senses.

    Suddenly, Xue Xian pushed Xuanmin''s hand away and smirked. "There''s no need to pull out all the stops for something as small as this. Let me."

    He slapped the armrest on his wheelchair. With a kacha sound, an enormous gust of wind rose and began to rumble forward with the might of a thousand soldiers.

    Hu¨C¨C¨C

    The fog that had blanketed the road for who knows how many years was blown to nothing by Xue Xian''s fierce wind, revealing a dense thicket of old trees made gnarled by the poisonous air of the mountain hollow ¨C¨C as well as a clear road into the mountain.

    Xue Xian turned to Xuanmin and wagged his chin. Although his face displayed that usual air of lazy foolishness, there was something to his expression that seemed to say, Isn''t this the part where you tell me how great I am?

    Xuanmin only glanced back at him and said, "You''ve broken the armrest." His tone still had that... saltiness.

    Xue Xian grumbled to himself, People who can''t read faces and insist on being so rude all the time should be thrown directly into the sea.

 CH 61

    Chapter 61: Spider of the Same Age (I)

    With the dense fog gone, all the things that had gone unnoticed beneath it were now revealed.

    Xuanmin scanned the inconsistent patches of grass and said, "Someone came, then left."

    Xue Xian scoffed.

    Obviously! Anyone could figure that out.

    But... someone came?

    "What ordinary person would dare come here? Do they have a death wish?" Stone Zhang said, perplexed. But as he said this, he realised what the important part of Xuanmin''s sentence had been. "Wait... came then left? They left, alive?"

    To come in here was definitely not a matter of accident; and to survive the poisonous fog and make it back out alive meant that this was no ordinary person.

    "Could there be another group of people looking for him?" Stone Zhang said, clicking his tongue. "This is a really difficult place to get to. How many people did this guy piss off? But if these people went in then came back out, that means they did what they came here to do. They either killed him, or took him away, or he was never here in the first place..."

    He wasn''t stupid ¨C¨C he just liked to ramble. In that moment, his mouth had been enough for the four of them, and he''d said what they were all thinking.

    So Xue Xian glanced at Twenty-Seven.

    Assuming that he wanted to ask whether his divinations or correct, or that he wanted him to do another divination, Twenty-Seven began to speak, but saw that Xue Xian quickly looked away again.

    The dragon summoned another gust of wind, leant back into his chair, and began to roll at high speed onto the path. Within the blink of an eye, he was already four or five zhang away.

    His distant singsong voice made its way back to them: "Let''s check out this place first. If he''s not here, then we''ll go track down the group of people that just left. Humans only have two legs, and if they''re on a horse, that''s only two more legs. How fast could they be going? I could catch up on them even if I took a nap first."

    The group sighed. There were always those who could fly, yet loved to bully those who could only walk.

    Xue Xian zoomed ahead. Apart from overgrown weeds, there were no obstacles on the road ¨C¨C the poisonous fog had probably been the man''s main defense against visitors. Thus, Xue Xian soon arrived in front of that three-story building inside the hollow.

    Xue Xian hated depending on others, and generally he didn''t owe kindness to a great deal of people. Xuanmin was a special case ¨C¨C no one had ever done that much for him ¨C¨C but he was also a mortal, and Xue Xian was holding his precious pendant, so he did not mind going ahead without him.

    He''d originally intended to get a general impression of the hollow, and inspect everything that could be inspected ¨C¨C that way if there were any traps ahead, he could quickly get rid of them; equally, if the man really wasn''t here, then he''d save the mortals'' the effort of walking all the way in and back out again.

    So as he rolled his wheelchair, thought he looked very threatening, and fearsome. However...

    Why did this damn building have to have three whole stories? Each staircase spiralled this way and that, and the bamboo steps were thin and frail, and connected in a way that meant one really had to use one''s whole body to climb up them...

    The reason why we list so many of the building''s shortcomings is because... well, a certain dragon in a wheelchair had used the wind to push himself all the way here, and now he had to use the wind to lift him up all those stairs.

    Just as Xue Xian wheeled himself to the front door, planning to search the premises, he discovered that the damn door was very narrow, and his wheelchair was rather wide. If he tried to force his way in, he''d destroy the door, and if he destroyed the door, the entire building would likely collapse. There was nothing he could do...

    Apparently, this damn door had been constructed just to piss him off. What kind of bullying was this?*

    So when Stone Zhang, Twenty-Seven, and Xuanmin finally arrived at the building, what they saw was Xue Xian sitting in front of the door with a blank expression on his face.

    "What''s wrong? Is he really not here?" Stone Zhang asked, sensing that Xue Xian was unhappy.

    Xue Xian glared at him coldly. Startled, Stone Zhang wondered what he had done wrong, and covered his mouth so as not to speak.

    "I don''t think he''s searched it yet..." Twenty-Seven said. The kid was fearless.

    "Why not?" Stone Zhang asked idiotically.

    Before Twenty-Seven could respond, Xuanmin gave the dragon a mild look and then began to walk up the stairs.

    The two said nothing more, and scurried after him.

    Xuanmin had not asked Xue Xian why he was sitting still. The monk went straight into the building and peered into every room, then walked up those small, crooked stairs. Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven didn''t want to stand around, nor did they want to hang out with Xue Xian outside, so they simply followed Xuanmin up and down, and had quickly searched every corner of the bamboo building.

    And yet, they found nothing.

    Never mind a shadow of the man ¨C¨C without Jiang Shining in their group, there was not even sign of a ghost anywhere in the building.

    Xue Xian watched angrily as the group walked up and down the building.

    "There really is nothing," Stone Zhang mumbled.

    But Twenty-Seven said decisively, "He''s here."

    As he said this, a sudden sound of something knocking against the leaves rushed in from the forest outside, making them all pause.

    "Perhaps he was hiding in the woods, and now he''s gone?" Stone Zhang ventured, looking out into the thicket.

    Without the fog to block their vision, it was easy to get a panoramic view of the forest, and also easy to track the origins of the noise. The group looked in that direction, but only saw a crow fly out from the crown of a tree.

    Twenty-Seven said, "Perhaps the earlier group of people thought the same thing as you."

    Stone Zhang was stunned. "You mean they searched the building and found nothing, and then heard a sound in the forest, and... Perhaps."

    But then he added, "You make it sound like that crow is magical, and is leading people away on purpose." Stone Zhang was a coward, but it meant that he was highly sensitive, so that whenever he heard about something, he would thoroughly investigate all its possibilities, rooting it all out. "Hmm... Maybe it really is like that. Think about it. The fact that the bird could survive in the fog suggests the fog isn''t actually poisonous. But is that possible? No. So that means there''s something special about the bird."

    Twenty-Seven wasn''t one to chat, so he didn''t respond to Stone Zhang. Instead, he calmly repeated what he had previously said: "The person we are looking for is definitely still here."

    "How do you know?" Stone Zhang looked around the building. "Did you do another divination? How come I didn''t see you?"

    Twenty-Seven was sick of listening to the man''s voice. He rubbed his ear. "I didn''t. It''s my instinct."

    If anyone else started talking about instinct, Xue Xian would immediately boot them out. But it was different with Twenty-Seven ¨C¨C he had a physicality uniquely attuned to magic, so his instinct was also bound to be special.

    Xue Xian glanced at the boy and said, "So can you instinct a little more, and tell us what room he''s in?"

    Twenty-Seven rolled his eyes. Could he just summon instinct whenever he wanted? There are always people who, knowing that others don''t dare to beat them up, insist on being unreasonable.

    Finally, Twenty-Seven did lift his finger and point. "Here."

    The room he was pointing at was the one closest to Xue Xian.

    Great. He still couldn''t get in.

    "All there is in that room is a table and two chairs," Stone Zhang said, frustrated. "And a wooden closet. I looked in every single drawer. There''s no one there!"

    "The room inside," Twenty-Seven said.

    The design of the building was very unique ¨C¨C clearly, the person who had constructed it was very cultured. Only half of the building had rooms, whereas the other half had been made into a series of large balconies ¨C¨C platforms held up by bamboo scaffolding. It was this platform that they were now standing on.

    But the rooms did not have doors leading from the platform. To get into the interior room, one had to go through that first room by Xue Xian, and then take another staircase.

    That was the room that Twenty-Seven meant.

    Still frustrated, Stone Zhang said, "But we searched that room too. It''s also just got a bookcase and some books. Should I go back and flip through every single page of the books to check if he''s hiding in there?"

    Xue Xian tapped impatiently at the armrest. "Let''s do that."

    Stone Zhang sighed. These young''uns loved to make all sorts of stupid jokes, and you couldn''t even scold them for it.

    As he grumbled to himself, he followed Twenty-Seven into the room, but couldn''t help but take a look back.

    If Stone Zhang didn''t know about Xue Xian''s true form, he would call him "Little Brother Xue" ¨C¨C but Xue Xian was a dragon, and you couldn''t just go ahead and call a dragon your brother. Calling him Great-Grandfather made more sense than that, but to actually call him Great-Grandfather was a bit weird. Jiang Shining called him Sir, as though he were his ancestor, but that came with all sorts of connotations ¨C¨C and if you weren''t familiar with Xue Xian and tried to call him Sir, he''d probably kill you. So as Stone Zhang turned around to call out to Xue Xian, he had to stop, for he did not know how to address the dragon.

    He''d wanted to ask why Xue Xian wasn''t coming in. In the end, he turned to Xuanmin and said, "Master, why aren''t you coming in?"

    It was a bit nerve-wracking for only he and Twenty-Seven to head in. After all, Twenty-Seven insisted that the man they were looking for was in there.

    Xuanmin calmly said, "I''m coming."

    He was standing by Xue Xian. As he spoke, he took a look at Xue Xian and then wordlessly bent down to pick him up in his arms.

    "What are you doing?" Xue Xian shouted.

    He had gotten so used to the joy of being able to zoom about on his own, and now he had to be carried again. Xue Xian wanted to vomit in anger.

    "Don''t move," Xuanmin said mildly as he walked into the room.

    Stone Zhang''s eyes bulged out. "What..."

    Although Xuanmin did not reply, it was Twenty-Seven who said, "I think the chair is too wide to fit into the door."

    Xue Xian laughed coldly and wanted to say something to scare off the two gawkers, but before he could open his mouth, he realised that something was off ¨C¨C Xuanmin''s body temperature was extremely high, perhaps even hotter than it had been last night, but his palms were cool and comfortable. Plus, although he was emanating heat, there was not a bead of sweat on him.

    For his body heat to be so abnormal had to have been caused by Xue Xian''s dragon spit. So Xue Xian began to feel guilty, and decided to be quiet. But even if this was because of the dragon spit, how could Xuanmin be behaving so differently from last night? If it wasn''t for the fact that Xue Xian was in his arms, he would never even have noticed that Xuanmin was burning up.

    As he pondered this, Xue Xian realised that there was only one explanation: Xuanmin had found a way to repress it, so that others could not detect that anything was amiss.

    No wonder he was acting so weird all morning. Never mind a bit of saltiness in his tone, Xue Xian thought. If I was feeling so damn uncomfortable, I''d bury everyone around me in salt.

    Now Xue Xian really decided to settle down and let Xuanmin carry him into the interior room.

    Just as Stone Zhang had said, the room was extremely basic: all it had were a bookshelf attached to a table and some books, with not even a chair in sight.

    As they entered, Xuanmin set Xue Xian down onto the table, rearranged his sleeve, and walked away.

    The lantern on the table was lit ¨C¨C Stone Zhang had lit it when he''d first come in. The light illuminated the entire small room, and it was impossible to guess where the man might be hiding.

    Of course, Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven did not actually flip through the books one by one. They had avoided the bookcase entirely and were feeling along the gaps in the bamboo on the walls, looking for some kind of secret mechanism.

    It was Xuanmin who, looking back at the bookcase, took out one of the books and began to flip it. But as soon as he opened the page, his finger froze.

    Because the book he''d opened was covered in someone''s notes. The content didn''t matter ¨C¨C what was important was the calligraphy.

    The characters were thin but stable, and the curves in some of them were highly unique. It was a difficult handwriting to forge. But as soon as Xuanmin set eyes upon the calligraphy, he knew exactly how to replicate those twists in the lettering.

    Because the handwriting was his.

    ---

    * Some very poignant observations on the lack of accessibility for disabled people in our society.

 CH 62

    Chapter 62: Spider of the Same Age (II)

    Anyone would be completely shocked to see their own handwriting in some random place. Cowardly people might even feel a frisson of fear. But no one would be happy at all.

    If it was in a normal place, then perhaps it wouldn''t be that bad. But this was mysterious bamboo building, and clearly not somewhere nice ¨C¨C you had to have something deeply wrong with you to willingly imprison yourself within a thicket of poisonous fog in the middle of nowhere.

    So it was highly unnerving to find your own handwriting here.

    Thankfully, the book itself wasn''t evil-looking: it was an ordinary booklet filled with notes about some anonymous person''s travels. And the annotated text itself was rather basic too: in a straightforward manner, it described how the author had accidentally gone into a funeral stop in Langzhou to shelter from the rain, and had run into a funeral party.

    And the annotations were even simpler. They consisted of only three words: Xia Mountain, Langzhou.

    It could barely be defined as an annotation ¨C¨C more like a marker.

    Frowning, Xuanmin stared intently at the calligraphy, only coming back to his senses when Xue Xian called out at him.

    "Bald donkey? Why are you just standing there? What''s in the book?" Although most of Xue Xian''s attention was on Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven, he had noticed Xuanmin take out a book and then stand here unmoving for a long time, and had become curious.

    From Xue Xian''s angle, he could only see Xuanmin''s profile. The lantern wasn''t very bright, so Xuanmin''s brow cast a dark shadow onto his eyes, outlining the handsome silhouette of his nose, yet also made him seem highly solemn, as though he''d seen a ghost.

    It was rare to see Xuanmin so taken aback, so Xue Xian wanted to take advantage and see what his face looked like. That was why he had called out to him.

    Xuanmin continued to stare at the book and did not move his head, only saying, "Nothing."

    This was an automatic reaction on his part. Right after he said it, he looked up, and the hand that was reaching out to grab another book from the shelf stopped. He shut the book and began to walk over.

    In all honesty, there was a really unique aspect to Xuanmin''s aura, which became the clearest when he was doing certain things alone and silently. It was as though nothing that was happening around him had anything to do with him, so that he appeared utterly alienated and desolate. And the desolation wasn''t the melancholy kind, but one that made him seem far away and detached.

    A monk like seemed like he should standing alone in a snow-covered empty temple, with a pagoda made of bronze and ebony behind him, and a heavy set of doors in front of him.

    Outside the door was the chaotic red dust of the world; and inside the door was the high priest, a lone, snow-white cloud.

    So when Xuanmin had said, Nothing, Xue Xian had gotten that impression of the monk again, accompanied by a lingering discomfort. And when Xuanmin had changed his mind and begun to walk over, it was as though he had suddenly pushed open the heavy temple doors.

    For some reason, this simple walk over to where he sat made Xue Xian happy.

    But soon, his good mood was shattered again¨C¨C

    Xuanmin gave him the book and opened it to the page he''d been reading before, pointing down at the lettering.

    Naturally, Xue Xian saw the marking in the margin, but as he read it over and over, he did not see anything particularly interesting. Finally, he said, "There''s something wrong with the annotations?"

    Xuanmin said, "Yes."

    "What is it?" Xue Xian asked, confused.

    "It looks like I wrote it."

    Xue Xian looked at him.

    First, Xue Xian''s heart skipped a beat, then a rush of complicated emotions came into him. On the one hand, he was pleased that Xuanmin was telling him this with no intention of keeping it a secret. But on the other hand... why was there an object here connected to Xuanmin?!

    The person they were looking for was responsible somehow for the maiming of his dragon body. In all the places in the world that he could possibly hide, he had chosen this foggy, unknown place, and in this mysterious room, traces of Xuanmin''s past had turned up...

    For a brief moment, as Xue Xian stared at the calligraphy on the page, his mind became blank and his heart felt as though it had been suddenly plunged into an icy river and was now convulsing ceaselessly with shocked, hypothermic shivers.

    But after some time sitting there, frozen, Xue Xian recalled that figure who had stood beyond the cage of golden threads, with the wind whipping their long hair across their face. He knew that Xuanmin had shaved his head as a child. So the person who had maimed him was not Xuanmin.

    So that was that.

    Finally, Xue Xian let go of the breath he''d been holding, and the blurred words on the page became legible again.

    "So what if you wrote it? Are you trying to get me to praise your handwriting?" Xue Xian sneered as he flipped through more of the pages. He wanted to use that to repress the sudden sense of doubt that had nagged him just then. Although he had immediately nipped that doubt in the bud, it was still hurtful to imply that you did not trust someone. It was best not to discuss such things at the moment ¨C¨C he did not want to perturb Xuanmin, lest he begin to crack.

    He tossed the book back to Xuanmin and spread his arms wide in measurement. "Compared to my handwriting, you still have all this to improve."

    By the wall, Stone Zhang overheard this and thought, I can''t believe there are such shameless people in the world. I''m truly honored to be a witness to it.

    The shameless aspect was that the two powerful wizards were just idly standing there, waiting for a middle-aged man and a half-blind boy to figure out what lay within the room. What the fuck was that about?

    Since Xuanmin had willingly given the book for Xue Xian to inspect, he had prepared himself well in advance for any kind of reaction. But he really had not expected Xue Xian to say that.

    No sense of alarm crossed his eyes, however ¨C¨C he simply stared silently at Xue Xian.

    Xue Xian glanced at him and added, "It''s just a book. What can you get out of it? Why don''t you try to call out to the room and see if the room answers."

    Xuanmin said nothing.

    Seeing that Xue Xian was becoming more unreasonable by the minute, Xuanmin retracted his gaze and decided not to engage him anymore. He turned to take out another book from the shelf. But just then, although the room did not answer, something else did.

    Suddenly, a strange batting noise rose from outside the building and was rapidly coming toward them.

    Startled, everyone in the room jumped, and Xue Xian almost summoned a gust of wind to blow the thing away. But as he calmed down, he saw that the thing was a pitch-black bird.

    This room had a very high ceiling and was spacious, so as the bird flapped in, it flew around aimlessly and did not hit anyone.

    "Is this the bird from the forest earlier?" Stone Zhang asked, recalling the crow that had almost led them away.

    With his sharper-than-human eyes, Xue Xian studied the frenzied bird as it flapped about in the lantern light and said, "You''re right, it is. How did it get in here?"

    As he spoke, the black bird did something else to startle them.

    As it flew up to the high ceiling and spun around in circles, it seemed to be searching for a specific person. It soon found its target and flew rapidly down, flapping its wings manically until it landed on Xuanmin''s shoulder. Then it lifted a long plumed wing and nuzzled against Xuanmin''s cheek and chirped.

    Stone Zhang''s mouth dropped to the floor.

    Twenty-Seven only coolly said, "I don''t think that''s the noise crows normally make..."

    Xue Xian said nothing. He was probably the most taken aback of them all.

    Now the heavens really had called his bluff. Just as he''d said See if the room answers, this damn bird had come in and answered. Not only that, but it had come all the way into the room ¨C¨C and not only that, but it had to go up to Xuanmin and sit on his shoulder, and as it flew by, it had sprayed feathers onto Xue Xian''s face. This ...

    What was this?!

    Even Xuanmin had been shocked by the appearance of the bird. As it had flown into the room, the foot that had stepped out in the direction of the bookcase froze.

    He didn''t need to look at more of the books to understand ¨C¨C beasts and birds were particularly sensitive, and no ordinary bird would just tumble into a room and settle onto a stranger''s shoulder, and then rub that stranger''s face.

    "What... what is going on?" Stone Zhang finally said, completely lost.

    Blankly, Xue Xian glared at the bird and scoffed, "What do you think? Obviously, this bird knows the bald donkey."

    "So..." Stone Zhang mumbled.

    "So this building might belong to the monk," Twenty-Seven said.

    Twenty-Seven and Stone Zhang had not seen the calligraphy ¨C¨C if they had, they would not have said might.

    "This is your home," Xue Xian said, staring at Xuanmin.

    Xuanmin glanced at the bird on his shoulder. He had to admit that, normally, he hated being to close to other people or things, but when this crow had come to nuzzle him, he had felt a sense of familiarity rather than that automatic disgust. So he, too, concluded that this room really must be his.

    As Xue Xian stared hard at Xuanmin''s eyes, Xuanmin looked up and met his gaze. "Yes," he said in a straightforward manner. But after he responded, he did not tear his gaze away ¨C¨C he continued to look calmly back at Xue Xian.

    Maybe it was a mistake ¨C¨C maybe the dim light of the lantern in the room had made things seem not like what they were ¨C¨C but Xue Xian got the feeling that Xuanmin was worried about his reaction...

    Xue Xian looked away and said, "That bird is stupid."

    The crow ruffled its feathers and cried out again, then came flying at him to peck at his face.

    "It can understand human language. It really is some kind of magical bird," Xue Xian said unhappily. "Why are you so nice to the bald donkey but so rude to me? Huh? Looks like you don''t want to keep that beautiful smooth plumage of yours!"

    This dragon had been alive for at least hundreds of years, yet here he was, fighting with a bird... what a wonder. As he spoke, he really did lift his hand to try and pluck at the crow''s tail.

    Unable to defeat Xue Xian, the black bird chirped again harshly and flew back to Xuanmin''s shoulder. With that, the screen that had settled between the two suddenly disappeared.

    Xue Xian chuckled, then looked at Xuanmin again. "So the room is yours. But you''re not the one who maimed me ¨C¨C I''m sure of that. But it does seem that you have some kind of connection to that person. I hope that you were opposed to each other, and not... conspirators."

    Xue Xian spoke with no expression on his face, and Xuanmin was detached, too. Stone Zhang, standing by the wall, was afraid even to breathe, and even Twenty-Seven, who never normally paid attention to what was going on around him, detected something strange about the atmosphere.

    Xue Xian was staring into Xuanmin''s eyes and did not miss a single flash of even the most subtle emotion in that calm gaze. If Xue Xian''s saw correctly, when he''d said that last word, there had been a minuscule change in Xuanmin''s eyes.

    The change was tiny, almost imperceptible, and Xue Xian wasn''t sure what it meant. But at least... the monk wasn''t completely unfazed.

    They had been travelling together for so long ¨C¨C if, when faced with the possibility that they may be enemies, Xuanmin had continued to show that absolute sense of stillness and peace, then they might as well part ways right then and there.

    Xue Xian felt a strange feeling ¨C¨C there was nothing wrong, but somehow, things didn''t seem right either.

    But it wasn''t the right time to dive deep. He rearranged his face back into that carefree pose and jutted out his chin. "But you go around looking upon everyone with a filthy sense of disdain. You could probably never become conspirators with anyone even if you wanted to ¨C¨C you''d annoy the other person to death. Alright, now stop thinking about it and go help look at the walls. Since this room is yours, your instinct will be better than anyone else''s. Show us! Show us the arcane truth of Buddhism!"

    As he spoke, he extravagantly slapped the table like a police interrogator.

    Most people could not catch up with the absurd way in which Xue Xian flitted between extreme emotions, and even Xuanmin felt exasperated.

    He continued to stand there, and just as he wanted to speak, that magical bird began to nuzzle his face again. The crow chirped harshly at Xue Xian again, then flew up to a corner of the high ceiling and began flapping its wings at a piece of bamboo at the end of the wall.

    With a hum, some kind of mechanism in the bamboo unlatched and the ground beneath their feet began to tremble ¨C¨C then sank down.

    The earth underneath the room was empty?!

    As they sank all the way to the bottom and the mechanism stopped, Xue Xian''s sensitive ears heard that in some distant corner, there was the weak sound of someone breathing.

 CH 63

    Chapter 63: Spider of the Same Age (III)

    But the breathing noise was strange... it was so faint that it sounded like the person was about to die, yet the rhythm was extremely steady.

    After three soft inhales and exhales, the sound stopped, and did not emerge again.

    "That might be the man we''re looking for. He stopped breathing... he couldn''t''ve just died, could he?" Xue Xian muttered, frowning.

    His damn wheelchair was still outside, and he could not move by himself, so all he could do was sit on the desk and watch. But Xuanmin, standing beside him, did not hesitate and began swiftly to walk to where Xue Xian was pointing.

    For some reason, ever since they''d plunged into this basement area, the lantern on the table had become much dimmer. The flame was only a small, bean-sized thing, extremely vulnerable-looking, as though it might go out any second, and naturally the room had darkened too.

    From what they could see, this was a square room with stone walls, about the same width as the room they''d just been sent down from ¨C¨C but they could not see where the walls ended, so they were not sure just how large and long the room was.

    Xuanmin''s silhouette quickly disappeared from the glow of the lamp, and, because his steps were always so utterly silent, in that moment, it seemed as though he had been entirely swallowed by the darkness, never to return.

    Something made Xue Xian''s heart squeeze ¨C¨C it wasn''t fear, as in all the years he''d lived he''d never known the feeling of fear and wasn''t about to begin now. It was more like he''d sensed something amiss...

    In that instant, the mechanism above their heads suddenly began to hum again.

    As Xue Xian looked up, he saw a massive black shadow come down upon them and, with a clang, it locked itself into the wall and became the flooring of the room that they had just left, and this stone room''s new ceiling... trapping them inside.

    If it wasn''t for the fact that Xuanmin had amnesia, Xue Xian would demand, Did you build this place just to mess with people? We haven''t even gotten out yet, and you''ve sealed the exit. What are you playing at?

    And if it wasn''t for the fact that this was Xuanmin''s home, he would blast that new ceiling to pieces!

    But Xue Xian was used to all kinds of mysterious and scary happenings ¨C¨C a roof sliding shut was ultimately a mere annoyance, and nothing too major. Let it be ¨C¨C once they found the man they''re looking for, then they''d have all the time they needed figure out how to break out of that ceiling.

    So he looked away from the ceiling and gazed back into the darkness.

    But in that moment of distraction, he felt as though something had changed. Something was missing...

    Right, it was far too quiet. Even Stone Zhang had shut his huge mouth¨C¨C hold on!

    Where was Stone Zhang?!

    Frowning, Xue Xian looked around him. In the dim lantern light, there was nothing to see at all. Where had Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven gone?

    "Bald donkey!" Xue Xian shouted blindly into the dark. "Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven have disappeared."

    For a moment, he feared that even Xuanmin had vanished, too.

    Thankfully, Xuanmin''s calm voice came floating in from some pitch-black part of the room. But what he said was not reassuring at all: "The person hiding here has also disappeared."

    "You didn''t find him?" Xue Xian''s brows furrowed further.

    Xuanmin''s white robes emerged from the shadows. He walked over to the table, picked up the lantern, and then walked back to the place where Xue Xian had heard the breathing.

    The lantern was on its last legs. It strained to emit just a tiny bit more of lingering light, casting a weak glow ahead of Xuanmin''s steady steps. The light did not reach very far ¨C¨C it could only create a circle around Xuanmin''s feet, which made it seem as though it were his white robes that were casting the light.

    And the place where Xue Xian sat grew ever dimmer as he was plunged into darkness.

    From the blind spot where he now was, Xue Xian watched as Xuanmin stopped walking and held the frail lantern flame up, shining it on that part of the room ¨C¨C it was the long end of the stone room and, under the light Xuanmin cast, the corner could now be clearly seen.

    Indeed, there was no one.

    Xue Xian''s hearing had never been wrong before. He was sure that the breathing noise he''d heard earlier had come from that area. Besides, the breathing he''d heard was on its last legs too, sounding just like the lantern that Xuanmin held in its hands, as though it might go out any second.

    How could such a frail, dying person drag itself away from under their noses?

    Xue Xian hadn''t been paying attention earlier: with the sudden drop in the flooring and that breathing noise, he had completely forgotten that Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven even existed. Now, he wondered whether they hadn''t come down with them at all, and were stuck in the room above.

    And now, tallied among the disappearances, was this hidden man...

    If he still couldn''t figure it out now, then the head stuck at the top of his neck would have absolutely no use apart from making him look taller.

    "Someone trying to hide, and so is playing us," Xue Xian said, jutting his chin out at Xuanmin. "Have you checked the whole area? Is there any flaw?"

    It really was inconvenient not to have the wheelchair anymore ¨C¨C he now needed to bother others for every little thing. Although he did not doubt Xuanmin''s intellect, it was just disheartening to have to sit on that table in the darkness waiting for others to report back to him. Xue Xian couldn''t sit still. He gripped the table beneath him and, with a push, lifted up the table in its entirety.

    Soon, there was another loud clash as the table, with Xue Xian on top of it, clattered heavily next to Xuanmin.

    Despite the commotion, Xue Xian still sat peacefully on the table. As the gust of wind he''d summoned rolled toward the wall, it lightly billowed Xuanmin''s white sleeve; when Xue Xian halted the wind, the stone room fell silent again.

    Xuanmin held the lantern and watched him with what looked like resignation, though he said nothing. He shone the light on every inch of the corner again, not letting a single cobweb escape their attention.

    "There''s a drop of blood here," Xue Xian said, pointing at a tiny nook near a crack.

    Xuanmin inspected it, then, as though having suddenly remembered something, he turned and shone the light on the opposite corner of the room, saying, "Here too."

    He gestured at Xue Xian to wait, then strode confidently over to that other corner and studied the bloodstain there. Then he looked back at Xue Xian in the darkness and said, "He placed a spell."

    Xue Xian understood. "Indeed. He couldn''t escape, so now he''s trying to trick us. What spell?"

    He naturally did not know as much about magic spells as Xuanmin, since he rarely needed to use them, and would obviously not be able to guess what kind of spell someone had created just by a few drops of blood on the floor. When it came to that, he had to rely on the bald donkey.

    "It''s not a violent spell. It''s more to buy time," Xuanmin said as he came back over with the lantern.

    "With a stone room like this, it''s hard to set a violent trap. So in what way does the spell buy time?" Xue Xian asked, frowning.

    "This spell is called Nine Rings," Xuanmin calmly said as he placed the lantern back onto the table. "It''s unbreakable."

    "Why ever not? Does it mean that once we''re inside, we can''t get out?"

    "Most spell designs have eight doors, and, although they''re difficult to get ahold of, once you find the right door, you can leave," Xuanmin said slowly. "But Nine Rings has no door at all. No matter how powerful the person being trapped is, they can''t get out, so it''s often used by people making an escape. After two hours, the spell breaks itself."

    Xue Xian laughed with fury. "If we have to wait two hours to get out of here, even a boiled duck will have flown away."

    He had no patience to sit around here for that long. As he spoke, he raised a hand.

    "Wait!" Xuanmin said, frowning.

    But it was too late. The small stone room was suddenly illuminated by purple and white bolts of lightning that knocked into the four walls around them with terrifying power ¨C¨C as the lightning hit the walls, they exploded with a deafening roar.

    Clearly, the dragon had become enraged. Seeing as there were no walls to a Nine Rings spell, he had decided to use brute force ¨C¨C he would not stop until they broke out.

    But the spell was far too cunning. Not only was the thunder that Xue Xian summoned unable to cause even a fissure in the walls, it had instead made the situation worse: with each strike, a red-hot fire burst out and rushed across the stone so that, in the blink of an eye, they had become surrounded by walls of raging flame.

    The flames quickly billowed, and began to lick hungrily at Xue Xian and Xuanmin''s sleeves.

    But that wasn''t even the worst part ¨C¨C the worst part was that, with the fire, the temperature in the room shot up and hot air filled the entire room. If the fire kept raging, they would all become steamed buns.

    In that moment, Xue Xian felt as though he were that small golden marble again, rolling around dazed in Xuanmin''s pouch, electrified by the heat from his pendant.

    As a dragon who had roamed the tempestuous skies and swum the deepest oceans for centuries, the thing that Xue Xian hated the most was sweltering heat.

    As the fire roasted them alive, Xue Xian suddenly felt the table beneath him shake. He looked over and saw that Xuanmin was frowning, with his eyes shut tight and one hand gripping the side of the table.

    Oh no. The effect of the dragon spit had not yet dissipated, so Xuanmin had already been feeling incredibly hot but had been suppressing it all within him, and now, with the flames around them, he was losing control ¨C¨C perhaps he really would begin hallucinating.

    Immediately, Xue Xian closed his hand into a fist.

    The roaring thunder suddenly disappeared, and, with it, the flames spreading across the walls gradually died down. The walls did not even retain black streaks from the burning, returning to their previous state ¨C¨C it was as though Xue Xian had never summoned any thunder at all, and it was uncanny.

    And even though the fire was gone, the hot air was still fucking there, steaming them both alive.

    Worse, the tiny, flickering flame that had been on its last legs finally keeled over and died ¨C¨C with a huff, it was gone.

    Plunging the entire room into absolute darkness.

    In that darkness and silence, every sound began to resound with piercing echoes. Xue Xian''s five senses had already been far stronger than humans'', and now the sensory overload was starting to drive him crazy: every heavy breath of Xuanmin''s in the darkness came out unusually clear and close, and reverberated across the four walls to worm their way into Xue Xian''s ear, so that he felt buried alive by the sound.

    The heat had gone straight to Xue Xian''s head, and his reaction time slowed too, so that, for a moment, he did not understand where that heavy sound of breathing or the ripples of heat were coming from.

    "What is going on..." he muttered. He could feel his robes becoming sticky against his skin as a layer of sweat seeping out of every pore in his body, and it distracted him to the point where his speech was becoming slurred.

    "The Nine Rings spell is named that because..." came the low sound of Xuanmin''s voice, which seemed to creep up to the very side of Xue Xian''s ear. "Every time you try to break out by brute force, everything felt by the people inside doubles. All in all, the doubling can go up ninefold ¨C¨C nine levels."

    Xue Xian said nothing. So this was the first level: it was already unbearable. By the ninth level, he and Xuanmin would have been thoroughly cooked. Xue Xian tried to think amidst his disoriented state.

    He bit down on the tip of his tongue and wondered why it had to be fire, and not water. At the same time, he worried about Xuanmin''s state ¨C¨C from the sound of his voice just now, he did not seem well.

    He needed an idea...

    Never mind everything else ¨C¨C first, he needed to find a way to help Xuanmin recover a bit.

    He forced himself to think. They couldn''t get out of the spell, that was for sure, and in the meantime, he didn''t have any kind of medicine on him ¨C¨C

    Wait.

    In his daze, he remembered one thing: he was a dragon, so obviously everything on his body was precious, and anything he cast off could be treasure to humans. He could not get hold of his scales nor his horns in his state, and could not transform into a dragon as he would fill up the entire room... and then Xuanmin would be crushed to death.

    Besides, even if he did manage to obtain a scale or a horn, he couldn''t just stuff it into the monk''s mouth ¨C¨C that stuff needed to be ground into powder, and it took forever. Apart from dragon scales and dragon horns, other substances that could heal humans included dragon spit and dragon blood...

    Right ¨C¨C blood.

    But having learned his lesson from the dragon spit, Xue Xian no longer dared to act so recklessly. He raised a hand damp with sweat and felt around in the dark until he found Xuanmin, then patted him and said, "Dragon blood... Does blood have any annoying side-effects?"

    Xuanmin was silent for a time, then said, "No."

    "Good, then I''ll give you some." Xue Xian breathed out a damp, exhausted sigh as he wondered where he should make the puncture.

    In the darkness, amid Xuanmin''s heavy breathing, he heard the monk mutter, "Really?"

    For a moment, Xue Xian froze.

    Before his confused mind could even react, he had his chin be pinched by someone''s hand.

    He automatically moved his head toward the direction of the hand, and suddenly felt something sticky against the side of his neck.

    Xue Xian''s breath caught in his throat, and he twitched his fingers, wanting to raise his arm, yet they would not move ¨C¨C instead they only gripped the side of the table tighter.

    Something was ready to step out toward him ¨C¨C all he needed was to call. And at the same time, another strange, unusual feeling tumbled through the thick soup of his dazed mind, yet ultimately found no way out.

    That feeling of being touched so tenderly on his neck was so overwhelming that it seemed to block out everything else in the world, as though something was resting lightly on his skin, and only required a little bit more pressure and a little bit of time to pierce through his flesh...

    "No." In that moment, Xue Xian finally realised what the strange feeling was ¨C¨C with Xuanmin''s aloof, distant personality, if he was in such a situation, the monk would only ask him to get further away from him. Xuanmin would never, ever agree so easily to drink his blood, and would definitely never drink it from his neck.

    Suddenly, Xue Xian''s overheated mind became clear. His face turned hard and he pushed the person away.

    He was used to using force, and, when he was under pressure, he would often lose control over the strength in his hands. With that push, any ordinary person would crash into the opposite wall and shatter the stone to pieces ¨C¨C but as this person''s body slammed into the wall, it made no noise.

    Instead was the noise of something small, like a marble, scattering to the floor and rolling to a stop.

    And with it, everything around Xue Xian suddenly dissipated as though a cloud of smoke ¨C¨C from the uncomfortable heat to the complete darkness, they all faded to nothing. With a neutral expression, Xue Xian looked around him¨C¨C

    He was still sitting on the desk, and the ceiling above him was very high ¨C¨C that second ceiling had not come in to seal them. The lantern on the table had not died yet, either, and Xuanmin stood there next to him with his eyes closed. Even Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven were back, lying on the floor unconscious.

    Xue Xian knew what this was: each of them was plunged into their own versions of a spell, and had not awoken yet.

    Xue Xian laughed coldly, then raised his claw and swiped at that dark corner where he''d heard the breathing.

    There was something heavy there, and he dragged it out so that it stood before him. It was a man sitting on the floor, covered in dust and dirt, looking worn and bedraggled, and emitting the pungent smell of fresh blood.

    "You can start by telling me what spell you''ve cast," said Xue Xian as he hooked two fingers in the air and seized the man by his throat, dragging him up. "Next, tell me whether you''ve ever touched a dragon bone. Then you can bargain: let me know which way you''d prefer to die."

    The man was bleeding profusely from his mouth, but he still pulled his haggard face into a grin and hoarsely said, "What a shame. If it had only taken you a little bit longer... then it would have succeeded. But no worries. There are still three."

    Xue Xian''s face turned cold and he made to move the hand that controlled the man''s neck.

    The man spoke again. "You can''t... You cant help them. When it comes to Heart Demons, they can only break out of it themselves. As long as one of them takes a bit longer..." the man paused, then began to laugh. As he laughed, he choked on more blood in his mouth and began to cough so hard that his entire body convulsed.

 CH 64

    Chapter 64: Spider of the Same Age (IV)

    Heart Demons...

    Xue Xian frowned. He had heard of people using Heart Demons to trap others ¨C¨C such spells were often used by those who found themselves in the most dire situations, such as if faced with a far more powerful opponent, or if surrounded on all sides. The spell would be able to delay the opponent and give the spellcaster a lifeline to escape.

    This was a good tactic for a weaker person to defeat a stronger person, or for a small group of people to defeat a larger group of people. Indeed, everyone had demons in their heart, whether these were regrets or conflicts, that they would think about from time to time, no matter how big or small, near or far the regrets and conflicts were.

    It was a hidden spell that snuck up on you, so that, without even realising it, you would already be trapped, and the spell would make its way into your heart.

    Thus, even Xue Xian frowned when he heard the words Heart Demons... astonishingly, his Heart Demons hadn''t had anything to do with being maimed in Huameng County, nor with obtaining revenge against those who had maimed him...

    The vision that he''d just had had not made mention of any of those things, and it hadn''t been his desire to get out of the stone room that had enabled the spell to trap him in the vision. So since all that hadn''t been the bait to lure him into the trap... then someone had been.

    And there had only been one other person in the vision: Xuanmin.

    That explained why, earlier, Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven had suddenly disappeared, leaving him with Xuanmin ¨C¨C that had been how the spell had drawn out the demons in his heart.

    The only reason he''d gotten out was because his demons had never been lodged that deeply ¨C¨C or because the flaws had been too obvious.

    A series of expressions crossed Xue Xian''s face as he realised all this, then he settled into that neutral, cool manner again. He threw the dying man to the ground, and slowly wiped away the blood splatters on his hands.

    Although the man was certainly fading away, he still held some dredges of hope within him, so hidden amidst his murky eyes was a manic glint.

    Xue Xian recalled what the man had been blabbering about earlier and said coolly, "What are you doing here? If you''re frank with me now, I might let you live another hour. It will only take me a while to figure it out on my own, but if you''re stubborn enough to make me do it, then you won''t even have that hour."

    The man curled on the floor launched into another coughing fit, wheezing and hacking so hard that Xue Xian thought he might die right there ¨C¨C and wondered whether the man had even heard what he''d said.

    As he''d suspected, the man did not seem to have any intention of replying to him, or perhaps he was simply too out of breath.

    Xue Xian was not surprised by this ¨C¨C he was spinning silk out of the thoughts in his mind, trying to understand what this dying man was so desperately hiding, and what that sliver of hope was that was keeping him alive...

    What do dying men still hope for? For someone to come save them, or to escape death some other way.

    The former was unlikely to happen in this situation ¨C¨C even if someone did come, they still had to go through Xue Xian to get to the man, and with all that delay, the man was likely to die before he was even saved.

    And the latter was an utter fairytale. He might not even survive being saved by another, let alone saving himself. If he kept lying there, he would die any second now, and there was no hope. Unless...

    Unless he found some magical way to extend his own life.

    Xue Xian''s face hardened: It really seemed that the man intended to extend his life.

    Each person has their own life: if one is already about to step into the afterlife, it was not possible to just tack on a bit more for free. Life extension magic consisted of two categories: life exchange, and life binding. In the former, one used magic to switch out another person''s life with one''s own, and ultimately someone still had to die for it to succeed. And in the former, one bound one''s life to that of another, so that they lived bound, and died bound.

    Initially, the former sounds more evil and the latter sounds harmless. In reality, it was the opposite: the former bought years with years, and the latter bought years with fortune; in the former, one gave one''s years to another, but in the latter, one not only gave the other one''s fortune, but also one''s misfortune ¨C¨C life binding had far more potential to go wrong.

    Six of one and half a dozen of the other ¨C¨C they were the same, really.

    If the man wanted to extend his life, then there had to be someone with whom he could exchange his life with, or bind his life to.

    And this matched up with the nonsense he''d been spluttering earlier: he''d lost one, but still had three.

    As he realised this, dark clouds passed over Xue Xian''s mind.

    He hated to owe anything to anyone, most of all acts of kindness. This trait was both good and bad: the good part was that he led a clean and clear life of no debt at all, in which he was not forcibly connected or entangled with anyone else; but the bad part was he never actually became close to anyone.

    Of course, this was only bad to normal people; to him, it was exactly how he liked it.

    But whether or not they really were close, Xue Xian had brought Twenty-Seven and Stone Zhang here, and thus they were "his people". And then there was Xuanmin.

    For anyone to wish harm on those close to Xue Xian... they must have a death wish.

    Xue Xian''s eyes swivelled as he recalled the sound that he''d heard when he''d escaped the Heart Demons spell ¨C¨C it sounded like a light marble rolling onto the floor, much lighter than a marble made of silver, gold, or amber, but not as brittle...

    That thing was most likely the key to the life extension spell.

    Time was of the essence. Xue Xian didn''t have the patience to wait for the piece of shit on the floor to suddenly decide to tell him everything.

    He remembered what Stone Zhang had said back when they''d first met: the man had taken him to a mountain, and had made him carve seven stone locks and two tomb guardians...

    "Let me ask you this," Xue Xian said now as he gripped the man''s neck and held him up again. "Do you know about Gravestone Island, on the river at Wolong County? There is a tomb beneath that island, and inside that tomb there are three hundred lost souls. Do you think that if the souls trapped in that tomb met you, they would recognise you?"

    The wheezing man suddenly convulsed, as though, as he stood in front of death''s door, even his own sins filled him with dread.

    The man breathed a heavy sigh, seemingly remembering something, and then weakly said, "I..."

    "Now you want to tell me? Sorry, I don''t want to hear it anymore," Xue Xian interrupted. Tilting his head, he said, "I''m just confirming. I''m thinking about how to make you pay."

    He flipped his other hand over, and those scratched-out dog tags appeared in his palm. He said, "Trapped innocent souls have much vengeful energy. Although they have now been buried, they will not begin to fade until at least another eight or ten years. Especially... when they see those that harmed them."

    He lowered his voice, then twitched his index finger again. A crimson scratch wound appeared on the dying man''s forehead. The man suddenly jolted awake, as though he were coming back to life.

    "Pain is better felt when lucid," Xue Xian said. He tossed the dog tags onto the man''s body.

    The dog tags were only thumb-sized flakes of metal, and the ones that Xue Xian had found at the bottom of the river only added up to about twenty or thirty. As he threw them, they fell lightly onto the man. But the man reacted as though he had been pinned down by the weight of five mountains. His entire body became rigid and he lay sprawled on the ground, struggling against the weight yet ultimately unable to budge.

    Next, he seemed to see something ¨C¨C his eyes bulged out, and he began to scream.

    "Ahhh ¨C¨C¨C ! Go away! Get away from me!" He appeared overwhelmed with terror and began to convulse again, crying and wailing for mercy, seeming, in one instant, to go insane. "Please! Please, please, please ¨C¨C Ask me anything ¨C¨C ah ¨C¨C go away ¨C¨C make them go away ¨C¨C"

    Perhaps the man''s cries were particularly grating and harrowing ¨C¨C Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven, who had been lying unconscious on the floor, suddenly spasmed, as though dreaming about falling, and, as they kicked, they violently awoke.

    Pata¨C¨C

    Something else clattered onto the ground, making two successive noises.

    Stone Zhang breathed laboriously, as though having come to from a bad dream. His eyes bulging, he stared into space, dazed for a long time before coming back to his senses. "What is it?" he breathed. "What just happened? How could I fall asleep here?"

    He looked over at Twenty-Seven, the stubborn, detached boy who was nonetheless reliable when things became difficult. Twenty-Seven was just waking up too, and Stone Zhang became even more confused. "Hey, Little Seven, did you dream too? What did you dream about?"

    Twenty-Seven looked ghastly pale and seemed still to be in the throes of his vision. After a long pause, he finally said in a low voice, "I saw Nineteen. But he looked different¨C¨C"

    "Ahhhh! I''m begging you, I''m begging you, please¨C¨C"

    Before Twenty-Seven could finish, he had been interrupted by the wailing man again. The melancholy feeling he''d brought out with him from the vision seemed to dissipate a little, and he brusquely asked Xue Xian, "What is wrong with this person?"

    Xue Xian frowned as he regarded the still unconscious Xuanmin. Then he looked at the man on the floor and hooked his finger. "I''ll let you take a break. I''m asking you again: what did you do?"

    As the prickling pain of a hundred ants gnawing at his heart disappeared, the sobbing man curled up on the floor, took a few deep breaths, then said, "I can''t die... I can''t die... I used a spider of the same age... I put it in the spell..."

    He was talking absolute gibberish, but Xue Xian understood.

    A spider of the same age?

    "How do you break the spell?" Xue Xian yelled.

    "The spell breaks the spider... the spider dies... the spell doesn''t break..." The man blinked open his lost eyes and looked over weakly at Xuanmin. "I only need one second... pierce the skin... dr-draw blood..."

    As he spoke, Xue Xian had already begun searching Xuanmin''s body, frowning.

    "All you need is a drop of blood..."

    Found it!

    Xue Xian thought he could see a hidden dot of red on the side of Xuanmin''s neck. There was no time to spare ¨C¨C he pulled away the monk''s collar and automatically moved closer to that wound spewing dark blood...

    "You can''t draw it out. Once it''s gone into his body, it can never come out." Perhaps it was because he was still energised by that flick to his forehead earlier, but as the man recovered from the dog tags'' haunting, he seemed slightly less frail than he''d been before. Now, he could even speak in full sentences.

    The man''s eyes gleamed as he stared at Xuanmin''s neck, and Xue Xian with his face pressed hard against it. There was a unique manic element to the man''s darting eyes. He mumbled, "It''s over... It''s useless. I''ve succeeded. Once spider legs creep out of the wound, I can live again."

    He sighed with pleasure as he looked down at his own hands, which seemed to come alive.

    Frowning, Xue Xian lifted his head and spat out the taste of blood from his mouth. Although the patch of Xuanmin''s skin was growing dark red from his attempt to suck the blood out, the wound itself was completely intact. In fact, it even looked as though it were getting larger ¨C¨C was this what the man was saying about the spider''s legs?

    But as thin blood vessels really did begin to creep out of the wound, Xue Xian froze.

    This was familiar...

    With one hand behind Xuanmin''s neck to support it, Xue Xian looked up at the red mole located between the monk''s neck and lower jaw. Every time Xuanmin had a bout of amnesia, that mole would also extend out into a network of blood vessels¨C¨C exactly like the "spider of the same age"!

    In that moment, the new spider mole that had attached itself to Xuanmin''s neck grew out two long legs, then stopped. Suddenly, its legs retracted, and, in the blink of an eye, the entire wound was gone.

    Before Xue Xian could register what had just happened, he felt Xuanmin''s body beneath his move.

    "You''re awake?" Xue Xian asked as Xuanmin''s eyes blinked open.

    For a moment, Xuanmin seemed to raise his hand.

    "We walked right into a trap. Heart Demons," Xue Xian said. He remembered his vision, and a complicated expression crossed his face. He didn''t even notice that Xuanmin''s hand, which he had gently raised, fell back to his side.

    Xuanmin closed his eyes for some time, then suddenly opened them again ¨C¨C now he was fully awake.

    Next, he looked slowly over at Xue Xian.

    Xue Xian was confused by the look, but then remembered that his positioning was a little ambiguous, and that, in addition, that red patch of sucked skin on Xuanmin''s neck was a clear indication of what he had done.

    So they looked at each other. No, I can explain.

 CH 65

    Chapter 65: Spider of the same age (V)

    But the wound made by the fucking "spider of the same age" had left no trace at all, so how the hell was he supposed to explain?

    Whether he said something or not, based on Xuanmin''s personality, the monk would likely not show a reaction. Perhaps, keeping in mind Xue Xian''s poor dignity, he might simply turn away and pretend that nothing had happened. As for what the bald donkey was really thinking, Xue Xian had no idea.

    When you looked at it this way, there was very little difference between explaining and not explaining.

    Besides... the bald donkey had been through his own hallucinations, so what was there to explain? So Xue Xian sucked his neck, and left a mark. It wasn''t like he could take it back!

    A series of complex emotions crossed Xue Xian''s face, and he ultimately decided to throw away the last shreds of his dignity and pretend that nothing had happened at all. He sat up and glared suspiciously at Xuanmin. "What are you looking at?" he asked.

    Xuanmin''s body was still hot with fever, which made that cold, damp part of his neck especially obvious. Although he had not been awake to see the process, as his hand shot to his neck, he immediately found the mark. Before he could see the monk''s face, Xue Xian turned away with guilt and forced himself to arrange his face. Then he looked at the man still curled up on the floor and sneered, "Didn''t you say you''d succeeded? How does it feel? How is it that no matter how hard I look, you don''t seem to have come back to life at all?"

    The man muttered manically, "I''m alive, I really can live... I can live now... Look, I can even curl up my fingers..."

    As he said this, he made a fist with his hand. He really did seem stronger than before.

    But Xue Xian beat him down in one sentence.

    "Stop showing off those bird claws of yours. Where do you think that strength comes from? The spider of the same age?" He laughed coldly, then said, "It''s just that I had some more questions for you, so I''m keeping you lucid in order to torture you better. Look¨C¨C"

    He tugged lightly at Xuanmin''s collar and said, "That blood stain of yours is gone. Spider''s legs? In your dreams. If you''d really succeeded, the person convulsing on the floor would not be you."

    When he''d begun to speak, the man had seemed not to believe him, but with that final line, the man had no choice but to accept the fact.

    Indeed, if he''d really succeeded, would there be such a large difference between him and Xuanmin right now?

    The man stared at the floor rigidly, stunned. He had truly fallen apart.

    "Looks like your spider isn''t even as effective as one of my fingers," Xue Xian said coldly.

    Hearing this, the man suddenly stopped sobbing and seemed to see things clearly again. He hurriedly crawled over to the table and clutched Xue Xian''s swinging ankles, saying, "Save me, I''m begging you. Save me... I can''t die. I shouldn''t die! I... I''m virtuous. I deserve to live. How can I die?"

    Xue Xian was revolted at the thought of being touched by such a lowlife, but he had no feeling in his legs, and could not even kick the man away.

    "Bald donkey, could you¨C¨C" Xue Xian stopped to say Xuanmin instead, but, while he paused, he realised that he was still supposed to be feeling embarrassed, so decided to simply shut up.

    But as he grimaced and decided to tolerate the man, Xuanmin made a move.

    He raised his hand and waved it slightly at the man, and suddenly a powerful force swatted the man away from Xue Xian''s legs. The man skittered about a zhang away, and then another invisible force grabbed hold of Xue Xian''s swinging legs and brought them onto the table.

    Xue Xian stared at his own legs, stunned, then realised: I can do that too. Why did I forget that at the key moment? Am I dumb?

    He decided that his momentary stupidity had been caused by the overheated confusion of the man''s spell, which had harmed his brain.

    But that wasn''t the time to think about such things -¨C there were urgent matters at hand. He gestured at the man on the floor with his chin and asked, "What did you say just now? You''re virtuous? Why don''t you ask those dog tags if they agree? You trapped three hundred innocent souls at the bottom of a tomb, and because of you, they can never transcend. How dare you speak of virtue?"

    "You... Your Excellency, you don''t know the whole story¨C¨C" In order to live, the man who had just tried to murder them all was now addressing Xue Xian as Your Excellency. It gave Xue Xian a headache. "You don''t know the whole story. The part of the river that belongs to Wolong County had not been peaceful for recent years. Great waves and whirlpools would not stop appearing, which made it difficult for boats to manoeuvre. We feared that one day a flood would come and submerge both sides of the river, killing hundreds of people. I found out that a terrible catastrophe would soon visit Wolong, so I cast a ''Hundred Soldiers Push the Flow'' design in order to avert the disaster."

    Then the man raised his head to look into Xue Xian''s eyes and patted his chest. "I saved a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand people. That is a huge act of kindness. Does that not make me virtuous? I shouldn''t die. I should live. If I live, I can save even more lives. How can I die? How can I die when so many worthless people out there survive?"

    As the group listened to the man ramble, they fell into silence. Xuanmin''s eyes moved slightly, as though he had suddenly remembered something, but he quickly settled his face and gazed back at the remorseless man on the ground.

    Xue Xian fell deep in thought too, then finally snorted out a cold, nasal laugh. "Why should you die?" he repeated. "Let me ask you this. Did the great flood ever occur?"

    "It''s coming, in spring or summer of next year," the man said. "The fortune-teller who told me this was a highly powerful wizard. He has never been wrong."

    He had thought that Xue Xian had been asking whether the prediction was accurate, so had begun to refute this. But Xue Xian interrupted him and snapped, "I don''t care if it was accurate. I''m asking you: did the flood occur? Did thousands of people die?"

    "Not yet," the man said, shaking his head. "But¨C¨C"

    "But people have already died." Xue Xian held up three fingers. "Three hundred people. The flood never came, but three hundred souls died under your hand. Not only did you not let them live a peaceful, long life, but even after death, you wouldn''t leave them alone. Did you ever ask them what they wanted? Did they ever agree to be part of your ''Hundred Soldiers Push the Flow''?"

    "There''s always a price to pay when you change fate. Three hundred lives for the lives of tens of thousands¨C¨C"

    "And that makes the bargain fair?" Xue Xian said. "Are humans like melons and dates to you? You can measure them by the jin and the liang?"

    "I-I understand." The man seemed even to think that he had been kind. "I deliberated for a long time. In the end, I chose people like beggars and retired soldiers. All beggars do is sit by the street and beg for food. With the extreme weather in winter and summer, they frequently die after just one night. To mosr people, they''re just eyesores. And as for the soldiers, they only had half a life anyway. They''d already wasted away their lives on the battlefield, and had only retired because they were now missing arms or legs. Even if they had returned home, they would only have become burdens."

    Xue Xian laughed with loathing. "I think you''re the burden. Look at you now ¨C¨C a piece of dead meat that can''t even move. You''re on the verge of death. If I wanted to cast a feng shui spell and didn''t need to sacrifice too many lives ¨C¨C only the one ¨C¨C and wanted to use yours, what would you say to that? Perhaps eighty years later you''d be able to help save hundreds of thousands of people."

    The man said nothing.

    Xue Xian did not have the extra heart to save such a man as this, so all this talk was because... to die without admitting any of your mistakes was basically another way of getting away with it all. He wanted the man to die with regret and the knowledge that he could never make up for his sins.

    But before the man died, he still had questions.

    "Let me ask you this: the dragon bones you buried beneath the tomb. Where did you get them from?" Xue Xian said.

    "A holy person gifted them to me. He said the dragon bones could multiply the magical effect of the spell," the man said uneasily.

    Xue Xian was getting impatient. "I hate people who can''t get to the point! Why don''t I send you to meet Yama in hell right now?"

    "No, no, no! I''ll tell you... The holy person is a wizard... I was his follower for many years. I was born with magic in my body. The blood that flows out of me is more effective for spells than normal humans'' blood. He taught me a lot... I followed him from the age of eight or nine and studied with him for more than ten years. He was my shifu, but he wouldn''t let me call him that. But he gave me an ornament made of peach wood to hang on my hip, which signified that I''d been his disciple. Although I am no longer with him, we are still in touch. He was the one who told me about the great disaster coming to the Wolong river, and he hired men to help me cast the ''Hundred Soldiers Push the Flow'' design."

    Another wizard?

    Xue Xian couldn''t help but recall the wizard that Officer Liu had mentioned. Now it seemed that these may be the same man, since he provided parts of his dragon body to them both. So it was likely that this wizard was the man Xue Xian was looking for!

    Xue Xian said, "You wanted to cast a spell, so you killed three hundred people. You wanted to carve tomb guardians, so you kidnapped a stonemason. You wanted the design to be more effective, so you buried a dragon bone... It seems that you and your shifu are the same. Despicable." He laughed coldly. "What is your shifu''s name?"

    "I-if you can let me live a few more years¨C¨C" the man stammered. He had realised that Xue Xian''s true target was his shifu, and thought that he could use this to bargain for his life.

    But before he could finish his sentence, Xue Xian swept his arm and a strong wind knocked the man back into the wall. "So don''t tell me. I can find him even without knowing his name!"

    The man screamed, "Songyun! His Daoist priest name is Songyun!"

    Now Xue Xian had finished asking the questions he''d needed to ask. He made to kill the man, but Xuanmin pushed his hand away.

    "What is it?" Xue Xian asked.

    "I have questions," Xuanmin replied.

    Xuanmin looked down at the man and asked, "Have you seen me before?"

    Hearing this, Stone Zhang, Twenty-Seven, and even Xue Xian held their breaths.

    The man had had the wind knocked out of him by Xue Xian''s strike, and was shaking with terror on the floor. He stared up at Xuanmin for a long time before he could clearly see the monk''s face, then finally shook his head and said, "N-no."

    Xuanmin frowned. "Then why would you come here to hide?"

    "My shifu divined that I would soon die. He said that if I went in this direction to hide, I would be able to find a way to reverse my fortune. As I stood outside the fog, I heard a crow''s cry inside the forest, so I took an antidote pill and came inside. A black bird saw that I was covered in blood, and brought me here.

    Xue Xian thought, This bald donkey''s bird opened the doors to a thief...

    But, having heard the man''s explanation, Xue Xian could finally relax: he and Xuanmin were not acquaintances.

    And as he relaxed, another thought occurred to him. He glanced at the side of Xuanmin''s neck and said, "Your spider of the same age. Where did you get it from? Also your wizard shifu?"

    The man could not predict Xue Xian''s mood, so stopped trying to bargain. Obediently, he replied, "Indeed... He said he got it from Langzhou."

    "Langzhou..." Xue Xian repeated. Suddenly, he picked up the book that Xuanmin had put on the table and began to flip through it until he found the annotation that Xuanmin had pointed out ¨C¨C Xia Mountain, Langzhou. Besides, this book wasn''t the first place he''d encountered that place name. When they''d had their conversation in the inn, Xuanmin had told him that when he''d woken up, he''d been in a mountain in Langzhou.

    Could it be that, before he''d lost his memory, Xuanmin had discovered the spider mole as well as some way of breaking the spell, and the clues had led him to Langzhou?

    Xue Xian was glad to know that they hadn''t come all this way to Dustpan Mountain for nothing. Before, everything had been in bits and pieces, but now they were coming together. Every single clue pointed to a single person ¨C¨C the wizard. And everything to do with Xuanmin pointed to one place ¨C¨C Langzhou.

    Now that he knew this, Xue Xian didn''t see a reason to delay. He raised his hand and curled his fingers into a fist in the direction of the man. The hungry souls bound to the dog tags began to surround the man again.

    "Ahhh¨C¨C¨C" the man screamed.

    Xue Xian watched him, expressionless, then hooked one finger. A wisp of white smoke escaped from the man''s forehead as the lucidity that Xue Xian had granted him earlier dissipated. The man sobbed as he felt the energy leave his body and himself be heaved closer to death.

    At the end, when, amidst the haunting of the dead soldiers, the man felt the last of his life fade away, he continued to wail, half regretful, half resentful. He opened his mouth and used the last of his breath to croak, "If it were you, you would... you would..."

    His words had no head nor tail, and were barely louder than a whisper, but Xue Xian heard him ¨C¨C and he understood exactly what he meant.

    If it were you, knowing that a great disaster would come, what would you do? After all, if you wanted to change fate, you had to pay a price...

    Xue Xian glared at him. He''d intended to respond, but a man such as this walked a fundamentally different path to Xue Xian. Even if he did tell him, the man wouldn''t understand. It was a waste of breath.

    So up until the man finally died, Xue Xian said nothing. All he did was summon the dog tags from the cold body back into his hands and tuck them into his sleeve. Then he turned to Xuanmin and extended his arms. "Can you ask your bird to flap again, and lift us up from here?"

    That gesture of his had only one meaning ¨C¨C carry me. Yet his tone and attitude was that of someone demanding the repayment of a debt.

    Xuanmin looked at him silently and seemed, for some reason, to falter. Then he walked over and took Xue Xian into his arms, lifting him from the table.

    At first, Xue Xian was puzzled. Up until now, the bald donkey had carried him as if he''d been carrying a sack of food, to the point where even Xue Xian had become used to it. Why had he suddenly hesitated now? Had something happened in the monk''s Heart Demons vision, and now he didn''t like him anymore?

    But when he was in Xuanmin''s arms again, he instantly realised what was wrong¨C¨C

    Xuanmin''s body temperature was even hotter than before, and the sweltering heat made Xue Xian uncomfortable. Even Xuanmin''s palms, which he had previously been able to keep cold, were now burning up.

    And why was this? Because when Xue Xian had sucked on Xuanmin''s neck, he had given him yet another dose of dragon spit.

    As Xue Xian realised this, he wanted to slap himself. How are we supposed to go on like this?

 CH 66

    Chapter 66: Dog Tags (I)

    One dose of dragon spit would be highly powerful on ordinary people, but to Xuanmin it had merely been an annoyance that he could easily repress. But two doses of dragon spit had double the power: ordinary people would be driven crazy by it, and even Xuanmin had sweated bucketfuls last night.

    Now it was three doses...

    Although Xue Xian could not imagine what it felt like, he figured that ordinary people would not be able to handle three doses at all ¨C¨C they might even die from it. And Xuanmin was now using all his energy to repress the effects within his body, but it didn''t seem sustainable, and might end up making it worse.

    Just the monk''s body temperature was enough to burn someone to death.

    Now things had gotten too complicated, but Xue Xian still had to figure something out. After all, the dragon spit had come from him. Xue Xian found a shred of kindness in his heart to begin to contemplate solutions. Although he did not know what to do, he knew that no matter what he did, it could not be in a public place with people milling about ¨C¨C it needed to be somewhere with no distractions or obstacles, as, after all, the situation was highly awkward and needed to stay confidential.

    After pondering this, he said to Xuanmin, "Since this building is connected to your past, don''t you want to search it more thoroughly and see if you can find any clues?"

    Of course Xuanmin intended to do that. So he said, "Yes."

    Now Xue Xian turned to Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven. "So as not to make Jiang Shining worry, the two of you should head back now. The bald donkey and I will go through the building with a fine comb."

    Since Twenty-Seven could barely see, he had no objections, but Stone Zhang hesitated for a bit. He wanted to stay and help: although it was technically a "small building", there were still many rooms to go through. But then he decided that anything Xue Xian and Xuanmin said was probably correct and deeply wise, so he did not ultimately protest. He nodded and said, "Alright. The two of us will go back to the Fang compound."

    Without the fog, the road out of the forest was clear and straightforward, and they were not too far from the Fangs''. But, based on Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven''s pace, if they left now, it would still be nightfall by the time they reached the Fang compound.

    Fearing that they might miss the cutoff time for the city gates, the two delayed no further, and departed.

    By the time they left, Xuanmin had already put Xue Xian back into the wheelchair outside the building. Xue Xian watched their silhouettes disappear into the forest, and suddenly heard Xuanmin''s voice behind him say, "Speak."

    He turned around. "Huh?"

    "You made them leave on purpose," Xuanmin said, gesturing toward the road.

    Was it that obvious? Xue Xian scratched his face and avoided Xuanmin''s gaze, looking out onto the road too. Finally, he said vaguely, "It''s my fault."

    For a second, Xuanmin did not understand, and looked at him with puzzlement.

    Xue Xian crossed his arms and scratched his elbows. Then he jutted his chin out at Xuanmin''s neck and said, "Dragon spit."

    Xuanmin was momentarily stunned by Xue Xian willingly owning up to his mistake. Then, with a face of exasperation, he looked him up and down before sweeping his robe and turning away. Walking back into the room, he said, "It''s nothing."

    "As if!" Xue Xian snapped. "Your skin is hotter than a stove, and you have the audacity to tell me it''s nothing?"

    The effects of dragon spit multiplied threefold ¨C¨C even Xuanmin could not bear it. How could it really be nothing? The monk was simply used to repressing himself in every way, and was treating it like ordinary pain.

    Xue Xian wanted to say more, but, inside the room, Xuanmin summoned the crow again. The bird went hurtling toward the corner of the ceiling, and the floor beneath Xuanmin trembled, bringing him back down into the stone room below.

    After some time, he re-emerged with the now-dead man. He raised his hand and took something from the man''s hip, then took him outside. Because Xuanmin hated touching others, he was using talismanic power to lightly levitate the man''s body beside him. He went into the vast forest beyond and found a place to bury the man.

    When he returned to the building, Xuanmin drew another talisman and magically cleaned the entire room as well as his own clothing.

    Xue Xian rolled his eyes. Your robe didn''t even touch the guy!

    The whole time, Xuanmin performed every action with that neutral, unperturbed face. Xue Xian sat there, watching him walk back and forth. It was only when the entire building was completely cleansed of any pollution from the man that Xuanmin finally came back over to stand in front of Xue Xian.

    "Let''s go in," he said mildly, lifting Xue Xian back into his arms and walking into the room. He placed Xue Xian back onto the table, though the table was now spotless.

    Xue Xian sighed when he saw this. This monk is obsessed! he thought.

    They intended to hunt for clues, so naturally could not only do a superficial search. Xuanmin walked to the bookcase and extracted a book. He didn''t try to ignore Xue Xian: he stacked two books onto the table beside the dragon, and began himself to look through some more books.

    The meaning was clear: he was giving permission for Xue Xian to help him read the books for clues.

    Xue Xian was pleased that Xuanmin was able to so absent-mindedly fold him into his interior world, without any hint of caution or guardedness. He picked up a book and began to flip through it, but as he flipped the pages, his heart wasn''t in it.

    Because he was still thinking about the dragon spit.

    Xuanmin seemed to have decided to simply contain everything that was inconvenient inside his body, without letting any trace of it peek out. As the monk flipped the pages of his book, his fingers were steady and slow, looking through each and every page with precision, revealing no hint of his discomfort at all.

    Xue Xian tried to focus on the book in his hands, but his gaze soon fell on Xuanmin again. Contemplatively, he reached out to quickly feel the temperature of Xuanmin''s hands before moving his own hand away again.

    Xuanmin''s fingers were scorching hot.

    Finally, Xue Xian unexpectedly said, "Let me help you."

    Xuanmin''s full attention was still on the pages, so he merely agreed to Xue Xian''s words. His gaze did not lift at all from the book, nor did the hands that were flipping the pages stop moving. He had clearly not understood what Xue Xian had been vaguely hinting at, and had probably assumed that the dragon had simply meant he''d help him look through the books.

    But Xue Xian had already begun to speak, and there was no real way of going back now. So he added, "I mean the dragon spit."

    The hands that flipped the pages froze.

    Ever since he''d been given two doses of dragon spit from the beast, Xuanmin had tried his best to avoid being too close to Xue Xian. Apart form the fact that the beast could not walk, and therefore Xuanmin had no choice but to help him, he tried to stay as far away from Xue Xian as possible.

    For example, right now, he had given Xue Xian some books and then gone a bit farther away to the bookcase to flip his own books, rather than standing right next to Xue Xian.

    If anyone else did this, the meaning behind it would be far too obvious, but, coming from Xuanmin, there was little to read into, as he''d always been the kind of person who hated to be close to others. But Xue Xian had detected it, and it was partly why he was in such a hurry to cure Xuanmin from the effects of dragon spit ¨C¨C so that Xuanmin could stop avoiding him as though avoiding a ghost.

    Xue Xian absent-mindedly flipped a single page back and forth as he repeated, "Let me help you."

    Xuanmin was silent for a while, then turned to him and asked, "How do you break the spell?"

    His demeanor was still cool and collected, with no hint of doubt at all ¨C¨C he''d taken Xue Xian to mean that there was a normal cure, just as all poisons had an antidote.

    Xue Xian winced and bit down on his tongue, wondering how to say it. Finally, he cleared his throat and said, "Do you know what people say when they encounter an imminent flood? It is better to let it run than to try and block it. How did you become a monk? In those images from your youth, do you remember if you had some kind of supervisor... a master? Was the monastic discipline strict? Don''t they say something like, Alcohol and meat will pass through and leave your body, but the Buddha will always remember that you ingested it. If you didn''t have a master..."

    It took a rare patience for him to cushion the fall with all that preamble ¨C¨C and he wasn''t sure whether he were trying to convince himself or convince Xuanmin. But the atmosphere in the room remained unchanged, so that, as he spoke, he became less and less sure of himself, and eventually trailed off.*

    Xuanmin said nothing.

    So Xue Xian said nothing either.

    They looked at each other. Although their faces were both blank and calm, very un-peaceful words brimmed beneath their forcibly neutral exteriors.

    Xue Xian was getting annoyed again. He slammed the book he''d been holding onto the table, where it landed and flipped shut with a loud splat. "It''s up to you," he said. "Do you want me to help? Huh?"

    Xuanmin broke eye contact and looked down, resuming his page-flipping as though he''d not even heard what Xue Xian had said. Next, he seemed to suddenly remember something, and dug around in his pouch, then swished his sleeve.

    And stuck a talisman onto Xue Xian''s forehead.

    "I¨C¨C" Xue Xian forced himself to swallow down the curses. With the talisman freezing his movements, there was nothing he could do, and it took all of his effort to repress the anger and frustration that had swelled inside him. If it wasn''t for the fact that he''d been the cause of all this trouble, he would long have fainted from rage. "Alright, alright, I give up. But I wouldn''t freeze me if I were you ¨C¨C I have to go dig your grave later."

    The grave part wasn''t a threat. The effects of dragon-spit were long-term and took some time to fully emerge in someone''s body. If he remembered correctly, last time, it had taken Xuanmin until nighttime to begin burning up. The effects of the third dose hadn''t seemed to have appeared yet, but the bald donkey was already behaving this way. Once the dose fully entered his body, if he kept trying to force it down like this, something was bound to go wrong, and he''d likely die.

    It was only now that he had restrained Xue Xian that Xuanmin spoke. "No need," he said.

    Fuck your ''no need''.

    Furious, Xue Xian ignored him. But Xuanmin added, "If you have nothing else to do right now, you may borrow my pendant to do some healing."

    Fuck your ''healing''.

    Every time Xuanmin spoke, Xue Xian felt more anger rise within him and wanted most of all to retort. But this bald donkey was untouchable, and nothing he said would have any effect on him at all ¨C¨C all Xue Xian would probably achieve would be to make himself even madder. So Xue Xian grumbled to himself, Fine, then die. But he nonetheless closed his eyes and began to focus on mending more of his body, shutting himself off from the world.

    Xuanmin''s pendant really was very useful. Apart from the fact that, if he used it too long, it would start to create some kind of spiritual connection between him and Xuanmin, it did not seem to have any other side-effects. Xue Xian was happy to use it to speed up his healing ¨C¨C it was reliable. So he soon fell into a meditative state, and heard nothing of the outside world.

    Last time, it had taken him the whole night to get those golden threads inside him to grow by half. This time, for some reason, the golden threads mended themselves far faster.

    And the pendant was extremely intuitive to use, as if it had already begun to recognise him as some kind of second master. Perhaps it was because Xuanmin had absorbed dragon spit, so that the two of them had begun, to some extent, to influence each other''s qi.

    Xue Xian thought he could even feel the pull of the golden threads toward the next bit of broken bone. Every step of the process was exhausting, but with each step completed, he would feel a sense of relief and comfort.

    But at the same time, he could feel some other sensation creeping into him, as though mixed into the magic power of the copper coins themselves. The strange feeling followed the growth of the threads and slowly extended its way across his body.

    A hot, numb, and slightly sour feeling, which made him feel anxious and restless, as though ants were running all along his skin and sinking their teeth into him ¨C¨C and yet it did not hurt.

    Xue Xian forced himself to ignore the discomfort and tried to focus all of his attention on mending the threads.

    A little bit more...

    No, it''s too hot...

    But there''s only about an inch left...

    Oh fuck, it''s so hot...

    Xue Xian lurched back and forth between confusion and focus amid the sweltering heat, and just as the brimming sense of anxiety was about to reach a breaking point, he tugged those threads across his body and hooked them onto that broken piece of bone. In that moment, the path to the entire section of his spine from his waist to his legs suddenly cleared, and the heat followed the veins in his hips as well as the golden threads that replaced those missing parts of his pelvis, rushing into his legs...

    He''d succeeded...

    The tension in his heart suddenly relaxed, and he felt as though half of all of his worries were instantaneously lifted from his mind. But it would have been best if he''d not relaxed: as soon as he did, he felt that ant-like anxiety suddenly pour into him with a vengeance, flooding him with a new, strange sense of unease.

    He heard himself breathe a heavy sigh, and as his senses of hearing and touch returned to him, he found that he was soaked in his own sweat. His sense of touch seemed to have become uncannily sharp, sharp to the point that... even the slightest movement that caused the folds in his robe to rub gently against his skin gave him an acute sense of shock, and made him sweat even more.

    Confused, he faltered, and before he was even able to process the gratitude and joy he felt from getting his legs back, another thought exploded through his mind, paralysing him¨C¨C

    The effects of the dragon spit seemed to have... because of the connection established by the pendant... come right back into his own body...

    In that moment, Xue Xian had only four thoughts:

    Picking up a stone to crush your own foot.

    Karma.

    When you hurt others, ultimately it will come back to hurt you.

    Who in the world can bear this horrible feeling?!

    ---

    * I genuinely have like no idea what is going on here sorry (or in denial???) but I promise i''m translating as literally as I can.

 CH 67

    I had an extremely stressful experience translating this. Chinese has always been a kitchen language to me so this is the first time I have ever encountered anything sexual in the Chinese language and tbh that''s not the most difficult part for me -- the translation itself was so difficult, especially because Musuli doesn''t address it in a straightforward manner and instead describes around it, like just say penis pls!!!!!!!! I''m so stressed!!!!!

    Chapter 67: Dog Tags (II)

    Outside, the sky had long turned to a deep blue without their paying attention. For once, the night was not windy, and the entire, vast forest within the mountain hollow stood absolutely still, without even the soft noise of leaves rustling against each other, so that there was an eerie calmness.

    The black bird, which really did seem to belong to Xuanmin, had flown out of the room as soon as the sun had set and was now perched somewhere inside the dark forest, every one in a while crying out in an idle, slow manner.

    But the bird''s cry did not sound like a normal caw ¨C¨C instead it was far closer to a human sigh. Its echoing sighs made the night seem gloomy, as though haunted, which explained why all those rumors about Dustpan Mountain had proliferated.

    The bird''s sighs resonated within the mountain hollow, sounding much louder and nearer than they really were.

    The poisonous fog that Xue Xian had blown away that day reappeared with the night, gliding deceptively slowly across the hollow. Soon, it had become a dense blanket around the forest again.

    This fog was far heavier than normal fog, and white and soupy like a block of congealed fat. In no time, it had swallowed everything, so that anyone trying to walk through it would not even be able to see their own five fingers in front of them. And if someone was standing close to them, they would only be able to hear them, and not see them.

    Thankfully Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven left early, for if they''d encountered such a fog on their journey, they would be lucky to survive.

    But unlike them, Xue Xian and Xuanmin did not fear the fog, and even when they''d dissipated it earlier it had been more out of consideration for the other two. Xue Xian and Xuanmin had their own ways of avoiding the effects of poisons, so their bodies did not, in reality, feel the effects of the fog at all.

    As the fog crept in again, it felt far denser than it had been before Xue Xian had repelled it. Now, even the bamboo building could not escape it: the fog slithered in through the gaps in the windows and filled the entire ground floor with blinding whiteness, as well as a chilling cold air.

    Yet, amid the freezing chill, Xue Xian was so hot that he was sweating all over.

    He frowned and tugged at his robes. The sleeves that he''d folded up earlier came loose and swayed off his thin frame.

    Because he was wearing all black, it was impossible to tell, but he was in fact completely drenched in sweat. The thin cloth, laden with moisture, stuck uncomfortably to his back and arms, but hung off him from the front, so that his collar revealed a long slice of his neck and torso.

    Having been half-paralysed for six months, Xue Xian had lost a lot of weight, and shed much of the muscle on his body so that only a thin, lean layer remained. Now, the clammy sweat made his skin glow dimly under the lantern light, giving him a renewed air of sturdiness.

    He was still sitting on the table, his two hands gripping its side, his head leaning forward so that the sweat on his forehead was drooling into his eyelids. His eyes were half-closed, and the moisture blurred everything in his vision.

    He didn''t know how much worse the third dose of dragon spit was compared to Xuanmin''s feverish state the previous night. He only knew that, right now, he felt unbearably hot, and that the sweat was washing across his body in ceaseless waves. He was also much more sensitive than usual, and could not move a single inch of his skin or even a single hair on his body. Even the sensation of the sweat seeping out of his pores was enough to startle him and make his entire body tremble.

    He needed to find a way to direct the heat and the accompanying anxiety out of his body, but he had no idea how. Besides, he was so deeply submerged in the heat that his whole skeleton felt as though it were swimming in hot sweat, giving him an indescribable bloated sensation. Even to raise his hand from the table had become an almost impossible task.

    In his daze, the sigh of the crow outside became an uncanny whisper in his ear that made his ear itch, which in turn sent more shivers down his body.

    He had hoped Xuanmin would come up with an idea. After all, their senses were experiencing the same thing. But Xuanmin was still repressing it, whereas Xue Xian saw no end nor limit to the scorching heat inside him. If it kept on like this, he really would...

    Xue Xian squinted. He shook his head, forcing himself to stay awake.

    But as he moved, beads of sweat ran down his neck, triggering the tingling nerves in his skin. Gently, like a dragonfly skidding across the water, the sweat streamed down to his chest.

    Xue Xian tightened his grip on the side of the table and took a deep breath ¨C¨C another shock.

    He couldn''t remember if he had spoken to Xuanmin. Perhaps he had called out for him once or twice, or perhaps his voice had become stuck in the bottom of his throat, and had never actually come out.

    He did not know how much time had passed. As his eyelids began to flutter shut again, the thick fog inside the room ¨C¨C whether provoked by him or controlled by someone else ¨C¨C suddenly grew even denser. It clouded over even the lantern by his side and the bottom half of his own robes.

    The white fog before his eyes made him even more disoriented. He frowned and took some more deep, slow breaths, scanning his half-shut eyes aimlessly across the floor of the room. His eyelids, drenched in fine beads of sweat, slowly... slowly... dragged themselves open and shut, yet never fully closing.

    In his ever-deeper daze, he thought he could hear Xuanmin speak to him ¨C¨C the monk''s voice felt both close by and far away at the same time. He was saying, "Give me your hand."

    Xue Xian did not know if he had heard Xuanmin correctly, but he automatically loosed the grip of one of his hands and lethargically pointed outward. Immediately, his hand was being held by another. That hand gripping his was hot to the touch, but strong, and as it held him tightly, he felt as though it were the only thing propping him up.

    Slowly, gradually, Xue Xian began to lean into that hand until his entire weight was pressing against it.

    He tightened his own grip and opened his mouth to say something, but in the next instant, no words came out. Instead, the breath moving in and out of his nose suddenly became heavier. Because another hand had reached out from the white fog and touched the skin on the curve of his waist.

    Xue Xian''s eyelids stopped blinking as a shudder passed through them and his breath quickened.

    All of that overwhelming heat and anxiety inside him suddenly found an out. He frowned and loosened his other hand''s grip on the table, violently grabbing the hand that rested on his waist and pulling it closer toward him. As he grasped that second hand, he unconsciously dragged it beneath his loosely folded robe.

    "Don''t move," said the person whose hand he''d seized. The fog was too dense, and Xue Xian saw nothing before him except a white oblivion, and could not see Xuanmin''s face ¨C¨C but in his low voice, he could hear a sense of peace, as well as, perhaps because of the fever, a slight huskiness.

    But they were already at this stage. Xue Xian had no intention of obeying. He guided that hand beneath his robes, searching, and as the hand rushed hungrily across his body, the thin cloth of his robe shifted too, the hand touched him almost manically now, it couldn''t stop...

    The anxiety within him was consuming all parts of his body, and Xue Xian''s mind was still utterly blank. He was dimly aware, at some point, and somehow, the silent person helping him pulled him closer, so close that he had to pry his knees part slightly in order to let him stand steady. So close that, in his daze, as that hand tugged up and down, he thought he could feel the other person react, too.

    Yet he still not could see his face ¨C¨C he could only hear his breathing, so close that their breaths seemed to be intertwined, entangled.

    And, somehow, Xue Xian''s other hand, the one leaning into Xuanmin''s hand, had become clasped against the table. As the other hand moved, his hand against the table clenched into a fist and let go, over and over. And his forehead was burrowed in the other person''s shoulder, his half-closed eyes still shrouded by the mist.

    Xuanmin seemed to be telling him again not to move, and then, for some reason, tried to step away, but he held on tightly and would not let him leave.

    The discomfort caused by the dragon spit was far worse than normal such states, so that it was a long time before that anxiety within Xue Xian began to near its peak. He thought he might make a noise ¨C¨C he was so close to relief.

    In that moment, he himself couldn''t figure out whether it was to ease his discomfort, or to hold on tighter to Xuanmin''s hand, but his fingers began to tremble desperately, and his entire spine was rigid with tension.

    Then, he suddenly burrowed his head into the crook of Xuanmin''s neck and squeezed his eyes shut as the sense of anxiety finally left his body.

    He remained there, silent and tense, for a while, and then slowly began to relax, finally beginning to breathe again. Another wave of sweat poured down his body, the moisture seeping through his robe.

    Yet dragon spit was too powerful, and not so easily defeated. Soon, that anxiety surged within him once again...

    Everything in the night around him had been split into fragmented images by that fog, so that, looking back at when Xuanmin had helped him, Xue Xian did not know how long they had tussled, nor if he had bitten his neck...

    But no longer how long it had been, that fog had lingered, and Xue Xian had not at all been able to see Xuanmin''s face. It was a strange, indescribable feeling, tinged with a slight, unnerving awkwardness, so that even Xue Xian, who had up til now been open to everything, had felt flustered.

    After a long time, Xue Xian finally felt himself become fully calm. The anxiety within him seemed to have gone away, leaving a faint impression, which waxed and waned at the bottom of his heart, and, with the dissipating sense of hotness, was slowly seeping away.

    He leant against the table and wound down. Soon, his restless hands were fiddling with the lantern again, and as the weak flame inside the lantern grew brighter, that dense fog suddenly disappeared too, as though it knew.

    Xuanmin had summoned the fog on purpose...

    Xue Xian thought this, but was too exhausted to say it out loud. When the poisonous fog had finally lifted, he casually scanned the room again, and saw that the bottom half of his robe, which he had lifted away to release heat, had now been gently drawn back in its place, and everything on that once pristine table had become a scattered mess. Under the glow of the lamp, he could even see streaks of sweat left behind by their hands pressed against the table, humid yet too vague to make out.

    Not far from him, Xuanmin was kneeling on a praying mat with his eyes closed, silently meditating. By his hands were some of the books he''d extracted from the bookshelf, stacked up neatly. As though he had never even left the mat.

    Where Xuanmin sat, everything was clean and tidy, in great contrast to the clutter and disarray around Xue Xian ¨C¨C so that for a brief moment, Xue Xian had a doubt, and wondered whether all that had been another vision.

    He looked down at his own hands: thankfully, his wrists were mottled with the marks of another person''s tight grasp ¨C¨C or else he would really have begun to believe that he''d experienced more Heart Demons.

    Xue Xian gazed at those bruises for some time, then raised his head to say to Xuanmin, "Courtesy demands reciprocity. Come over here and let me give you a hand. If you want, you can bring back some more mist. No one will be able to see anything. You can pretend it''s all a dream."

    Xuanmin did not even open his eyes. He paused, then quietly said, "No need. It''s been resolved."

    Xue Xian was still dazed by the sense of relief that had flooded into him, so his reaction was almost idiotically slow. "Resolved? How is that possible? If meditation could cure it then why did I¨C¨C"

    Suddenly, he stopped himself and shut his mouth, swallowing the second half of his sentence.

    Xuanmin was silent again. Finally, he said, "When you were resolved, I stopped feeling the sense of discomfort."

    Xue Xian slowly digested the meaning behind those words, then sat there numbly. He wished he could spit on that bald donkey''s disrespectful face...

    Great. It was as though he had let loose a volley of arrows at his enemy, but the damn things turned in the middle of their journey and come right back into his own eye...

    "Lend me your belt," Xue Xian said with a blank expression on his face.

    Xuanmin did not understand what he meant. Although he still did not open his eyes, he frowned and said, "What for?"

    "I don''t really want to live anymore," Xue Xian deadpanned. "Let me hang myself off your doorframe."

    Xuanmin looked up at him, but did not reply.

    "Will you lend it to me or not?" Xue Xian asked.

    Xuanmin retracted his gaze. "No."

    Xue Xian let out an annoyed scoff and went back to fiddling with the lantern flame, deciding no longer to speak.

    It hadn''t been that bad when they''d been talking. Now that the room fell into silence, a faint sense of awkwardness and intimacy rushed to fill the space. Xue Xian looked down for a bit in contemplation, then said, "What time is it? If you''ve finished here, shall we go back to the Fangs?"

    Just as he spoke, before Xuanmin even had the time to respond, Xue Xian felt something in his pocket suddenly move.

 CH 68

    Chapter 68: Dog Tags (III)

    That movement was light and short. Within a blink of an eye, it had stopped.

    Had it even happened?

    Xue Xian''s reaction was still quite slow. He looked down dully at his own lap, unsure if he should check his pocket, as though waiting for the movement to occur again.

    Danglang.

    The gentle sound of metal clinking against metal rose, and, in the absolute stillness of the room, was loud and clear.

    "It''s moved," Xue Xian suddenly said, pointing at his own robe and looking up at Xuanmin.

    Xuanmin was already looking over with those dark eyes ¨C¨C it was unclear if he, too, had heard the clinking, or if he had already been staring at Xue Xian.

    The lantern light was so weak that, by the time it reached Xuanmin, it was extremely dim. Xue Xian could not see what expression laid behind those eyes ¨C¨C but even if he had been able to see, with the disorientation caused by the whole day''s events, he would likely still be unable to guess what Xuanmin was thinking.

    Those eyes were probably completely calm and collected as usual...

    Xue Xian repeated, "Something''s moved."

    So basically, some things really needed to be restrained. If you were too lax with it, some people would not only become sluggish and unwilling to move, but also become stupid. At least Xue Xian''s current idiotic state was highly different to normal ¨C¨C before, the things he''d said after what had occurred had not been enough to reveal that something was amiss. But now that unexpected events were occurring again, it was obvious that he had become entirely ignorant.*

    Xuanmin sat there, half-illuminated, half in the shadows, staring back at Xue Xian. Finally, he said, "Yes."

    In the silence of the night, his voice was as deep as a lake, and, in the orange glow of the lantern, seemed even to lose its usual edge and coldness, and instead revealed a sense of warmth and fondness, which tugged at Xue Xian''s heart in an inexplicable way.

    Thus Xue Xian faltered for some time, until the thing in his pocket moved again, which brought him back to his senses.

    After three times, Xue Xian was finally dragged out of that deep sense of exhaustion. He looked down and reached into his pocket.

    The pocket was still damp from all that sweat, with a slight humidity. So as he took out those thin dog tags, they were covered in a slight layer of moisture.

    Danglang.

    As he retrieved the dog tags, that metal clinking noise arose again.

    Now Xue Xian could be sure that the movement came from one of the dog tags among the pile. He spread those twenty or thirty flakes of metal across the table under the dim lantern glow, reaching out to toggle them one by one.

    Danglang.

    "I found it," said Xue Xian, pointing at one of them and picking it out.

    "Perhaps the vengeful energy has not yet dissipated," Xuanmin said.

    "Yes," Xue Xian said idly. He brought the dog tag closer to the light and squinted at it again, then looked closer at the scratched-out name on the back. After a long time, he snorted and said, "I can''t read it."

    Those scratches were far too messy. It was impossible even to see the original markings, let alone read the name.

    Xue Xian sat up and held the dog tag out to Xuanmin.

    "What is it?" Xuanmin asked.

    "Here. You can do the rites," Xue Xian said casually. Then he looked back at the rest of the dog tags on the table and counted them. "Twenty-eight. Do you need incense? You''ll have to prepare twenty-eight sticks of incense."

    As he spoke, perhaps because it had heard him and understood, the dog tag in his hand suddenly trembled again, as though wanting to escape his grasp.

    "Don''t move," Xue Xian told the dog tag.

    Don''t move...

    Earlier, when, desperate to relieve himself of that gnawing anxiety, Xue Xian had taken hold of that hand and brought it into his robe, Xuanmin had seemed to have said that to him, more than once.

    As he inadvertently repeated that phrase, Xue Xian''s still fatigued mind couldn''t help but go back to the sound of Xuanmin''s heavy breath interwoven with his own ¨C¨C he went mute, and by the time he''d managed to drag himself back out of the memory, he found that his face and the tips of his ears were hot.

    His body tense all over, he held that dog tag and stole a glance at Xuanmin.

    For a moment, Xuanmin''s gaze seemed to fall slightly, but then he looked back up at Xue Xian''s face again. Eventually, his gaze settled on the dog tag in Xue Xian''s hand. Not once did he look directly into Xue Xian''s eyes ¨C¨C either because he happened to skip them, or because he was avoiding them.

    Before, when the fog had first dissipated, Xue Xian had especially chosen to use a casual tone when making his proposition to Xuanmin, wanting to use that nonchalant manner that he normally had in order to squash the awkwardness from that palpably ambiguous intimacy.

    Indeed, although he had been alive for many, many years, he had never encountered a situation like this before, and didn''t know how he was supposed to approach it. So all he could do was grit his teeth and treat it as "an extremely normal matter", a simple helping hand given between friends, which had no bearing on anything else at all.

    After many years, when the already confusing memory would have faded to almost nothing, perhaps it really would become an easily forgettable, extremely normal matter. And as for him and Xuanmin, they would continue to interact the way they''d always interacted, and did not need to expend time or energy changing anything about their relationship.

    That was also perhaps why Xuanmin had summoned that poisonous fog, during: with the dense white fog between them, unable to see each other''s faces, and unable, therefore, to catch anything in the other''s gaze or expression, it would resemble a strange and blurry dream, and would not engender any unnecessary impact.

    But now, as a single phrase triggered Xue Xian''s memory so that he couldn''t help but think of that moment, and certain emotions took advantage of the memory to come pouring back into him, Xue Xian realised that some things could not be pushed aside by something as simple as infusing some casual tone to one''s voice...

    He was still staring at the dog tags, and, as he stole another glance at Xuanmin, he suddenly came back to his senses again.

    Xue Xian tugged the corners of his mouth, wanting to say something offhand to push away that suddenly awkward atmosphere again, but instead found that he had put on a forced smile, and looked extremely insincere. So he decided that he might as well not even try anymore, and instead said, "I don''t think it''s vengeful energy on this dog tag. There seems to be something else."

    It was unclear whether Xuanmin had zoned out or if he was pondering something, but it was only after some time that he blinked and said, "He has spent too long trapped in that tomb under the river. His soul must be half gone by now. Without much of himself left, it''s unlikely that vengeful energy can become so tangible."

    He paused, then got up from the praying mat and walked over to Xue Xian with his hand out, saying, "Give it to me."

    Before, when he''d been sitting over there, he''d looked at Xue Xian, but now as he came over, he was no longer looking at Xue Xian. His gaze was focused entirely on the dog tag as he picked it up, wrapped it in a talismanic paper, and murmured a prayer while giving the wrapped tag a flick with his finger.

    The dog tag emitted a weng¨C¨C sound and spasmed between his fingers. Next, the blurred silhouette of a man slowly squeezed itself out of the dog tag and hovered before Xuanmin.

    Xue Xian peered over at the man, but his face was as though shrouded in mist...

    Mist...

    Xue Xian forced his face to become blank as he rolled his eyes and shoved the beginnings of that memory back into the depths of his brain. He continued to peer over¨C¨C

    The man''s face was quite hard to make out, but Xue Xian could roughly see that everything that was supposed to be on a face was there. The man did not wear a soldier''s uniform, but instead a basic and slightly ragged overcoat ¨C¨C the openings of its sleeves, however, were empty, and hung limply against his side.

    Clearly, someone so gravely injured was unable to return to the battlefield ¨C¨C he could no longer even hold a weapon ¨C¨C so he must have retired. Xue Xian realised that such soldiers, forced to return home, would probably have had rather complicated emotions...

    As Xue Xian looked over at him, the man seemed stunned, and looked down at his own body too, as though surprised that he now had a silhouette. Then, he got down on one knee in front of Xuanmin and Xue Xian and bowed his head in an incomplete but highly respectful greeting.

    And because he had no arms, as he got back up, his movements were strained and pathetic.

    "Th-thank you, great master, for your help," he said ¨C¨C so he could speak, although his voice was abnormally low, and as hazy as his form.

    Even so, he jumped in fright.

    "I can speak again..." he muttered. "Can you hear me?"

    Xuanmin looked him up and down, then nodded.

    "Was it you moving around just now?" Xue Xian asked.

    The man nodded and said, "It was."

    "A final request not completed? Or not wanting to transcend because you don''t feel you got your vengeance?"

    The man nodded, then shook his head. "I wouldn''t dare. It''s just..."

    After all, the man was not a normal spirit, but a fragmented manifestation of vengeful energy. He spoke slowly and with great effort, and needed to stop every few words, as though, in the middle of his sentence, he had forgotten how he''d intended to finish. He thought for a while, then added, "I heard that you were about to leave this place..."

    Heard?

    Xue Xian froze as he tried to recall it: earlier, with nothing to say but had still wanted to say something, he had indeed said something like, If there''s nothing else, then let''s tidy up and go back to the Fangs. But... heard?

    "You heard? What else did you hear?" Xue Xian asked as his face turned green, then pale. His gaze unconsciously turned to Xuanmin.

    Xuanmin seemed to sense that he was being observed, so glanced back at Xue Xian, then retraced his gaze and looked at the man, as though waiting for the man to answer that highly awkward question.

    If this dog tag had been conscious the whole fucking time, and could hear everything in the outside world, then...

    Xue Xian was positive that he had never in his life felt his face grow so hot.

    If it had been just him and Xuanmin, then any anomalous behavior from two people in the throes of dragon spit fever was completely understandable to a certain extent. If only the heavens knew, the earth knew, you knew, and I knew, and no one else outside of that knew, then it wasn''t entirely impossible to just bury the matter.

    But if some random third person knew, then that changed everything. That palpable awkwardness rippled back up into the room, still mixed in with that strange, indescribable intimacy, utterly destroying any pretense that anything had been "understandable".

    Xue Xian couldn''t avoid thinking back to the details of what had happened ¨C¨C this time, he willingly recalled them. But as he scanned the memory again, those dazed, vague moments did not become any clearer. He still could not remember if, amidst that unbearable anxiety, he had cried out, nor if he had muttered anything else.

    He probably hadn''t, but who knew...

    Well, one person did know, but...

    Xue Xian glanced at Xuanmin again, then looked down and frowned. Maybe I should commit suicide right now, he thought. Or please just hurry up and do the rites for that damn spirit so he can transcend and go away.

    When he looked up again, he discovered that, for some reason, Xuanmin had moved slightly closer to him. And he didn''t know if this meant anything at all, but Xuanmin now happened to be standing between Xue Xian and the soldier, which gave him the feeling that he had just been protectively pushed behind someone''s back.

    Now that his vision was blocked, Xue Xian could no longer see the soldier, only Xuanmin''s back -¨C and, naturally, the soldier could not see him either. As he realised this, that intense blush and awkwardness from before settled down a bit.

    Thankfully, that soldier said, "My mind was never very clear. As soon as I became conscious, I heard the two of you say that you were going to leave, but... but before you leave, could you help me with something?"

    ---

    * OK i also don''t understand, like I genuinely dont get it. Last time i said i didnt understand i was simply in denial but this time i really dont, it''s just so vague. I swear I''ve translated exactly what it says and like... what??

 CH 69

    Chapter 69: Dog Tag (IV)

    "Speak." Xuanmin still stood with his back to Xue Xian, and his words were as simple and direct as always.

    The soldier seemed not to have expected them to agree so readily, or perhaps he was simply confused. He paused for a while, then said, "Could I... could I please trouble the two of you to bring me to my home?"

    Stunned, Xue Xian peered out from behind Xuanmin and asked, "Your home?"

    "Yes." The soldier nodded and slowly explained, "Earlier, I heard you mention Dustpan Mountain. My home happens to be on the sunny side of Dustpan Mountain ¨C¨C a small village at its foot."

    That really wasn''t very far at all: all they had to do was leave the hollow and go around the mountain.

    But...

    Didn''t you just say that, as soon as you became conscious, you heard us say we wanted to leave?! But now it''s changed! When did you hear us say Dustpan Mountain? When did you become conscious? Xue Xian screamed in his head. He''d wanted to scream it out loud, but had decided that it was best to keep as straight an expression as possible. He straightened his back and no longer wanted to peek out at the spirit anymore.

    "My parents and wife are still there. I thought... if you could bring my dog tag to them, they can at least have some closure," the man was saying. Thankfully, he was in a melancholy mood and did not notice Xue Xian''s reaction to his previous words. He concentrated on speaking to Xuanmin, telling the story of how and when he''d come to join the military, and how many years it had been since he''d been home. He rambled, but it was not the irritating kind of rambling.

    Xue Xian pressed his hands against the table, listening, initially, to everything the spirit was saying, but soon, with his eyes fixed on Xuanmin''s back, he began to zone out again.

    Then he suddenly realised that this was the first time he was studying Xuanmin''s back in this way.

    Before, he had still been a paper man and was always hanging off the side of Xuanmin''s hip. All Xuanmin could see of him was the top of his head, and when he looked up, he mainly saw the bottom of Xuanmin''s chin. Then, he''d become a golden marble and had had far less opportunities even to peek his head out of the pouch. Then he''d gotten his original body back, but he had been either a tiny creature coiled around Xuanmin''s wrist or an enormous, mountain-sized beast coiled in turn around Xuanmin. And even when he was human, he was usually carried in Xuanmin''s arms, and had often covered his face with a black cloth. And after he''d gotten a wheelchair and become able to go around by himself, he''d always insisted on being at the front of the group...

    All in all, as he looked back now, he always regarded Xuanmin from all sorts of odd angles, and never so normally as now. Indeed, it was instead his back that Xuanmin often saw.

    He had to admit, this was an excellent angle: no matter how uncontrolled the expression in one''s eyes was, the other person would never be able to see, which meant one did not have to worry about awkwardness.

    Xuanmin''s shoulders were very wide, and, beneath that thin white robe, they appeared sturdy and muscular. He was even taller than Xue Xian had assumed: he was able to completely block someone behind him and inhibit their entire line of sight.

    A back like this gave Xue Xian the strange urge to get closer.

    Xue Xian''s hands on the table twitched, but before he could raise them, he heard the soldier finish his story and say to Xuanmin, "I beg you to allow me this final request. When I return to the earth, I will become your servant¨C¨C"

    "No need," Xuanmin said coolly, interrupting the man. "You have not yet entered the resurrection cycle, and mustn''t speak nonsense."

    The soldier thought that Xuanmin had denied him. He became panic-stricken and began to blubber.

    Xuanmin said, "We will tidy up here, and then bring you back."

    The soldier thanked him profusely.

    Xue Xian placed his hands back onto the table. Because there was nothing awkward between them when he was only staring at Xuanmin''s back, some of that unease from before had also diluted. He asked, "You''re just taking that one book?"

    "No need. I''ve memorised the contents." Xuanmin glanced at him, then suddenly turned around and walked over. "It''s almost 3am. By the time we take this soldier back to his home, it will be sunrise."

    Now that they were face to face, that stupidity that had riddled Xue Xian earlier began to return.

    Xuanmin avoided meeting his eyes. As he reached out to take Xue Xian into his arms again, Xue Xian even automatically complied, although his entire body had become tense and as stiff as a board.

    But as soon as he came into contact with Xuanmin''s robe, he suddenly realised: "My legs have healed."

    As he said this, he''d abruptly raised his head, and now there was a thud as he bumped into Xuanmin''s chin.

    Xue Xian hissed unhappily, and before he could do anything else, a hand came down onto the part of his head that had been bumped, and its thumb even gently rubbed that spot.

    "A dragon''s head isn''t so easily cracked. I was hissing for you." After the nonsense that had occurred before, now was the aftermath: every slight touch from Xuanmin was now impossible to ignore. Xue Xian did not move his tense neck, and he allowed Xuanmin to pat his head a little longer before he stiffly said, "Did you bite your tongue?"

    "It''s fine," Xuanmin replied. He lifted his hand and stepped away, his gaze falling on Xue Xian''s legs swinging down from the edge of the table. "Did you say your legs had healed?"

    Xue Xian nodded. "Earlier, you gave me your copper coin pendant for me to heal with. At some point in the evening, when I came to, I had actually successfully healed them, but I didn''t... get the chance to say..."

    Damn his reckless mouth. Before he''d realised what he was saying, he''d already given most of it away, so had had no choice but to finish his sentence.

    Didn''t get the chance to say...

    And why hadn''t he had the chance to say? Because the night had taken an indecent turn.

    You really know exactly the right thing to say, don''t you? thought Xue Xian.

    He looked away and casually said, "So basically, first of all, my legs are fine now, and second of all, I''m going to shut up now. So there." He pursed his lips tightly, as though he wished he could simply rip off his entire mouth.

    Xuanmin hummed in agreement, signalling that he had heard him.

    Before that weird atmosphere could rise back up again, Xuanmin was already walking back toward the praying mat and putting the books he''d flipped back onto the bookcase.

    Xue Xian stole a glance at him, then quickly looked away. He gritted his teeth and pressed his hands against the table, then tried to move his legs.

    He could move them!

    Of course he could move... he''d already moved earlier, when he had pulled Xuanmin''s body between his knees.

    As Xue Xian cursed himself, he brought his feet down to the ground and pushed himself up from the table.

    Obviously, a pair of legs that had spent half a year completely paralysed and that could now move a little could not necessarily hold up the entire weight of a person.

    Xue Xian''s knees immediately buckled and he almost crumpled to the ground in a most humiliating manner. But as he fell, one hand instantly shot out to grip his wrist. The hand''s palm faced up so that it steadily supported his weight. The grip was strong and firm, and held him so tightly that the knuckles on the back of the hand protruded in smooth curves.

    "Weren''t you tidying the books?" Xue Xian said, shocked. "Do you have eyes on the back of your head now?"

    Xuanmin did not answer that question at all. Instead, he frowned and said, "How could you fall?"

    "I could fly into the sky fine. Why are there so many obstacles to walking on the ground?" Xue Xian muttered unhappily.

    As he leaned against Xuanmin, he tried to direct more energy into his legs. Those legs, which had not felt anything for six months, now slowly began to feel a tingling numbness, like countless fine needles had been stuck into each and every one of his pores.

    It was a highly uncomfortable feeling, but Xue Xian was overjoyed. Because as the prickling feeling gradually disappeared, those legs that had slumbered for so long were now truly awake.

    "I can walk again," Xue Xian said to Xuanmin, looking both amazed and at a loss.

    He used Xuanmin''s hand as a support to lift each of his legs and twist his ankles, removing the last of the numbness. Then, he tried to take a step.

    "I really can walk again." As Xue Xian spoke, he sounded as though he were in a dream ¨C¨C part of him could barely believe it, as though he had been gifted something extraordinary.

    A divine dragon who was naturally arrogant and stubborn, who was used to flying high into the sky to frolic among storm clouds, was now utterly taken aback by something so small and simple ¨C¨C it really was rather unbelievable.

    As he raised his head to look back at Xuanmin, he saw that, for some reason, Xuanmin''s gaze had long shifted look into his face.

    "What''s wrong with my face?" Xue Xian demanded. As he dragged himself out of that state of wonder, he touched his face. "Do I look stupid right now? If someone had broken your legs and made them paralysed for half a year, your reaction would probably be even worse than mine..." he said, half in self-deprecation, half in mocking.

    As Xuanmin realised that Xue Xian had noticed, he slowly moved his gaze away again. "Take a few more steps," he said. "I''ll support you."

    Xue Xian was so invested in the joy of getting his legs back that he did not notice that rare layer of warmth in Xuanmin''s tone.

    It was clear now that the dragon''s physicality was indeed different from humans''. Those legs that hadn''t moved for half a year needed only a few more steps to regain some more strength, and soon began to move as though they had never been paralysed at all. Only Xue Xian himself knew that, inside his body, there were still bones missing, and that this had all been thanks to the golden threads drawn out by Xuanmin''s pendant.

    But those threads were ultimately still prosthetics, and would not last very long. If he wanted to fully heal, he still needed to find those missing vertebrae...

    So what? At least now he could walk, and he could run. Just this small fact made Xue Xian happy. This feeling, as though he had finally been relieved of an impossibly heavy load, was enough to bury all other emotions.

    He had even forgotten all about the awkwardness. Steadily, he walked up the stairs and returned outside, where he pointed at the wheelchair and jutted his chin out at Xuanmin, saying, "I''ll gift this to you. Perhaps in fifty years you''ll need it."

    Xuanmin sighed. If he continued to let the beast roam all about the room with nowhere to expend his newfound energy, Xue Xian was bound to start saying even more absurd things. Xuanmin did not delay: he brought the dazed soldier''s spirit with him and walked out of the mountain hollow with Xue Xian.

    The two were not afraid of the poisonous fog, and the soldier was not even human, so naturally was not afraid either.

    So they were out of Dustpan Mountain in no time. They followed the foot of the mountain and headed toward the village on the south side.

    Although the mountain hollow was covered in fog, the other side was in fact clean and clear. On that rare night without any rain nor snow, a curved sliver of silver moon hung above the mountain peak and cast a white glow all across the land.

    When Xue Xian walked, his steps were subtle and steady, neither hurried nor too slow, and made no noise at all. It was highly different from his usual troublesome personality, and in fact far more similar to Xuanmin''s.

    As they walked along the mountain road, that thin white robe of his rippled lightly in the breeze and sometime glided over the long grass growing in the soil. Half of his lanky silhouette was outlined by the white light of the moon, and the other half was, like his robe, submerged in the inky darkness of the night.

    As he walked alongside Xuanmin, they were one white, one black, and both looked ghostly. The soldier felt a sense of unease at the sight.

    By the time they arrived at the village gate, half of the villagers had already stirred awake and the soft din of a crowd could be heard beyond.

    They had a hungry ghost with them, and, although he was a frail, wispy thing of a ghost, they were still bound to scare the villagers. So before they entered the village, in order to avoid unnecessary hassle and delay them further, Xue Xian cast a spell on the three of them so that no person or animal could see nor hear them. They were hidden.

    "Where''s your house?" Xue Xian asked.

    The soldier pointed a finger ahead. "If we follow this street, there is a pond over there, and we can follow it around. My house is behind it."

    "Let''s go, then," Xue Xian said ¨C¨C but suddenly he heard a gloomy sighing noise somewhere close by.

    That sudden sigh was highly startling, especially in contrast to the peaceful streets of the village.

    Next, someone in the village screamed, bringing more shouts and murmurs along with it as people rushed over. Amid the chaos, someone''s dog also began to bark furiously, and was quickly joined by a chorus of other dogs.

    Yet, that melancholy sigh was not at all unfamiliar to Xue Xian.

    He looked up and scoffed. "You really know how to pick a time."

 CH 70

    Chapter 70: Passerby (I)

    The village was still in chaos, the clamor of voices resembling the relentless buzzing of a hornet''s nest. Some higher-pitched voices rose up from the mass¨C¨C

    "Ghost bird! The ghost bird''s here¨C¨C"

    "How could the ghost bird be here? Who brought this bad omen onto us?"

    "Oh no, oh no, someone''s going to die¨C¨C"

    "Perhaps there won''t be a death, but something bad is surely about to happen!"

    The so-called ghost bird was not some new apparition, but none other than Xuanmin''s black crow. Perhaps because it had long lived in the foggy forest, and its cry was rather unique, the commoners living on the mountain had mythologised it.

    As though the black bird was a comet that brought ill luck, and that if it hovered for too long above the village, it would bring misfortune to everyone below.

    "Ai¨C¨C" that gloomy sigh rose up again, making Xue Xian grimace. Although the noise may have been terrifying to the locals, it had a different effect on Xue Xian ¨C¨C after all, when Xuanmin had been touching him earlier, that sigh had pierced through the fog and accompanied each and every inhale and exhale.

    So it was highly awkward now.

    As soon as he heard the noise, Xue Xian felt a pain in his head, an ache in his elbows, an itch in his hands. He wanted to hit the bird. He wanted to murder someone.

    That black bird really was somehow magical. It circled the village a few times, then actually came flying straight toward Xuanmin.

    Thankfully the three had not yet entered the village, or else they would have caused complete chaos.

    The bird really didn''t know how to be subtle. It circled round and round them, then settled gently on Xuanmin''s shoulder and gave a gentle caw, almost coquettish.

    Great. Some villagers had seen them and were looking over in terror. They began to scream¨C¨C

    "Ghost bird! Look, it''s the ghost bird, and it''s hovering in midair!"

    "Yes, yes, as though it''s perching on something. But there''s nothing there. How could it be perched there?"

    They had originally used the invisibility spell to avoid attention, but now the stupid bird was here and they had become some kind of parade. Everyone in the village was staring at them and were all on high alert ¨C¨C if not for their fear of the "ghost bird" rumors, they would long have charged toward them with rakes.

    And the stupid bird wasn''t even stopping. It seemed not to be afraid of humans at all. It tilted its head and looked back bemused at the villagers, and just as they had begin to tremble from fear, it decided to let out another sigh: "Ai¨C¨C"

    A long, drawn-out sigh with a slight tremor to it... now it really was doing it on purpose.

    Xue Xian was far too sensitive to that sound. He turned and urged the bird''s owner to give it a silencing talisman.

    The bird glared back at him.

    It seemed to fundamentally hate Xue Xian in particular. As it stared at the dragon with its round, beady eyes, all of its feathers stood on end and it reached its neck over to peck him with its beak.

    Xue Xian was happy to engage. He pinched out two fingers and grabbed hold of the bird''s beak and yanked it close to his face. Glaring into its eyes, he growled, "Whenever I''m bored, the thing that brings me the most joy is to find a bird somewhere and roast it on a pit. Here, in the middle of nowhere, I''m not that picky. I don''t mind if the meat is raw or cooked. All I have to do is pluck the feathers, and then I''m ready to have my meal."

    The bird said nothing.

    Under the threat of death, the bird was now frozen stiff. Then, slowly, carefully, it slid its beak out of Xue Xian''s grasp and looked back, eyes brimming with tears, at Xuanmin.

    Seeing that the damn bird even knew how to be a snitch, Xue Xian glared at Xuanmin too.

    Xuanmin said nothing.

    A real live dragon, so petty as to bicker with a bird ¨C¨C now that was a talent too. Clearly, Xue Xian''s forename, which meant idle, had not been given wrong.

    Xuanmin had probably never expected to one day find himself in such a situation. He seemed out of ideas.

    Of course, Xue Xian wasn''t actually locked in a mortal battle with the bird. He wanted to use this opportunity to cast away the slightly strange atmosphere between him and Xuanmin and try to lead them back to normal. Especially as, the whole way here from the mountain hollow, Xuanmin had not said a word ¨C¨C he''d been even quieter than usual, somehow.

    But as he glared at Xuanmin, the monk glanced back at him and then raised a hand to cover his eyes.

    Xuanmin''s hand was not soft ¨C¨C his thin knuckles pressed against Xue Xian''s brow and nose. And it was unclear just how good he was at that cleaning talisman spell, for all of that sweat that had poured out of him back at the building due to the dragon spit had disappeared, and his hand was pristine ¨C¨C it even smelled a little like the wilderness around them, pleasant and mild.

    Xue Xian found that he had gone ahead and erected his own tombstone. He''d wanted to set their relationship back to normal, but now that Xuanmin had covered his eyes for some reason, it had become even weirder...

    In fact, as a paper man, he had often had his face or eyes be blocked by Xuanmin ¨C¨C the monk''s intent had been "out of sight, out of mind". But now that he was in human form, the implication became different.

    And, in that moment, Xue Xian didn''t know what Xuanmin did to the bird ¨C¨C he neither cajoled it nor scolded it, and in fact did not speak at all ¨C¨C but he heard the crow flap its wings and then calm down.

    He faithfully stood there in the darkness cast by Xuanmin''s hand, not moving except to blink the once, his eyelashes gently batting against Xuanmin''s palm and fingers.

    Xuanmin''s fingers twitched, and he lifted his hand away.

    He did not look at Xue Xian, as though he really were "out of sight, out of mind." Lightly, Xuanmin said, "Alright, let''s go."

    That black bird really had become obedient again. It stood perched silently on Xuanmin''s shoulder, every once in a while stealing an embarrassed glance at Xue Xian and then furtively looking away again, as though it was suddenly aware of their situation. And Xuanmin seemed to have done something else to the bird, for as they walked with it into the village, the terrified gazes of the villagers did not follow.

    "Where''s the ghost bird? How could it have disappeared?"

    "Yes, it was just here..."

    As they left the villagers'' murmurs behind, Xue Xian realised that the commotion caused by the stupid bird had had a good side to it: now, the village itself was much quieter, with not a single person on the street.

    They followed the route pointed out to them by the soldier. They reached the pond and strode onto a simple narrow bridge across it.

    But only a few steps in, they heard someone''s voice beneath the bridge.

    Without stopping, Xue Xian glanced down and saw two early-rising women squatting on a stone platform at the edge of the pond, laundering clothes and chattering away amidst the light splashing of the water.

    "Ai¨C¨C what a shame. Last night, Old Uncle Li who lives on the west side of the village passed away," sighed the woman in the date-colored coat. "They say that he hid a rope and hung himself by the bed. As he died, his hand clutched a red, embroidered robe."

    "Old Li? Didn''t he lose his marbles five or six years ago? How did he even know how to hang himself?"

    The woman in the date-colored coat shook her head. "You know how Auntie Li passed from illness a few years ago? Li Two and the others had feared that their father would not be able to get over her death, so had taken advantage of the fact that he''d gone senile and told him that Auntie Li had only gone into the city to see a doctor. Remember?"

    "I remember hearing about it. They said that, each day, Old Li would forget everything from the previous day, so would constantly ask Li Two, ''Where''s your mother?''"

    "Yes, but apparently he recently became lucid again and realised that his sons were lying to him, and that Auntie had long died," the woman in the date-colored coat sighed. "Before, when Old Li had been dumb, he could still survive on a day-to-day basis. But after he woke up, he lost the will to live. As soon as Li Two took his eyes off his father, Old Li had found a quick way out."

    "Ai... some things are better left unknown..."

    By the time the two women had finished speaking, Xue Xian and Xuanmin had already finished crossing the bridge. The soldier, however, seemed to falter, staring into space while hovering right there on the bridge, before scurrying after Xue Xian again.

    "We''re here..." The soldier''s tone seemed hesitant. He pointed at a small mud hut by the road: from the outside, the house seemed to have three rooms, with two side by side and a third squeezed behind them ¨C¨C two bedrooms and a kitchen.

    As the soldier spoke, the house happened to stir and one of the bedroom doors was pushed open. A woman with her hair in a bun walked out. She held a colorful decorative knot in her hands, and on the knot was tied a dried-out tortoise shell.

    She fiddled with the knot, then hung it onto a nail by the door. As she caressed the tortoise shell, she looked out behind her.

    In that moment, Xue Xian thought that she had seen them. But her gaze only skidded across them as lightly as a dragonfly across water, and landed behind them at the village gate. Then she looked away, arranged her bun, and returned inside.

    "Let''s go," Xue Xian said.

    But, not having heard a response, he turned around and saw that the soldier''s face was wet ¨C¨C he had begun to cry.

    As though in a dream, he followed Xue Xian to the door, but did not enter, instead staring numbly at that decorative knot. He seemed to want to touch the tortoise shell, but with no arms, all he could do was look. He gazed at the knot for some time, then turned and looked into the window at the woman inside.

    "What tradition is that knot about?" Xue Xian asked.

    The soldier paused as he swallowed down his sobs and said, "We use the shells of tortoises, gui, to signify ''return'', gui. In this area, we have a tradition where if someone has departed and not yet returned, that knot is supposed to help bring them back."

    A new knot each month ¨C¨C from spring and summer to autumn and winter.

    "I..." The man looked back longingly at the woman, who stood in the kitchen surrounded by smoke from the stove. He fell silent again, then said, "I''ve changed my mind... Don''t let her see the dog tag."

    He seemed not to have seen her for many years ¨C¨C he could not tear his eyes away. It was only after a long time that he forced himself to look back at Xue Xian and Xuanmin. "Could I please ask you to bury the dog tag in front of the home?"

    Xue Xian looked at his desolate face and nodded. "Okay," he said. "As long as you''re sure. Once we bury it, we''ll leave, and we won''t be back. If you change your mind again... no one will be able to help you."

    "Yes... I''ll stay here and watch over her, and my parents," the soldier said. "As long as they don''t see the dog tag, they''ll maintain some hope..."

    He had fought countless battles, had wielded weapon after weapon, had expended blood and sweat, but had probably not cried very much. As he sobbed, he appeared to be aggressively pushing his sadness back down so as not to make too much noise.

    The man stood there for some time, then suddenly said to Xuanmin, "I-I heard that there was a pill you could take where you could decide where to go in your next life. If I found one now and took it, would it still work?"

    Xuanmin paused. Before he could open his mouth, Xue Xian scoffed and shook his head. "Why do you all have this need to put your next life, and even the life after that, on this one? I''ve met many people like you. The last man who asked me that question was also a soldier. He prayed over and over all night long, asking me whether I had this time of medicine. But everything that has to do with life and death is evil magic. The price is too high for humans to pay ¨C¨C as if anything that good would be so cheap."

    But the soldier replied seriously, "Not necessarily. When I was young in the village, I heard Uncle Qu say that there was a magic pill from his hometown where if you take it, you can decide where to go for your next life, and you can even take on the burden of someone else''s fated misfortune..."

    Seeing that Xue Xian looked annoyed, he quickly added, "Uncle Qu comes from Langzhou... they have all sorts of miraculous things there. Perhaps it really¨C¨C"

    "Stop thinking about it. It''s of no use to you," Xue Xian said. He hated beating around the bush, so he said it directly to the man.

    The soldier immediately sighed, looking as though the last of his energy had left him. He hung his head. "I understand. I was just... thinking about it."

    But... wait.

    Xue Xian suddenly frowned and clicked his tongue. "Something in what you just said sounded familiar. Where did you say the old man was from?"

    The soldier''s voice was still hazy and weak, so that some of the words he uttered were hard to make out. It had taken time for Xue Xian to register what he''d said, and he needed to confirm it again.

    "Uncle Qu?" the soldier said, stunned, then repeated, "Langzhou. More specifically, I think he comes from the Xia Mountain area or some other such mountain."

    Xia Mountain, Langzhou.

    A pill that allows you to take on the burden of someone else''s misfortune...

    For these two things to appear together could not be a coincidence. Xue Xian glanced over at Xuanmin and met eyes with him again. He quickly looked away and said, "Shall we go find that man?"

    If they could pin down a more specific location, or find out more about this so-called "magic pill", perhaps they might be able to find a cure to Xuanmin''s spider mole sooner.

    The two did not delay further. They did as the soldier had requested and silently buried the dog tag in the earth in front of the mud hut. Then, following the direction in which the soldier had pointed, they went in search for that "Uncle Qu".

    As the two, accompanied by Xuanmin''s black bird, headed toward Uncle Qu''s house, on a mountain road not far from the village, a long carriage train was taking a break from its journey to look out at the view.

    These were none other than the group from the Taichang, who had been into Dustpan Mountain and then come back out.

    The leaders of the train were still a young man and a young woman: the Taizhu and Taipu.

    The Taizhu lightly scratched off his mask and looked over at the young woman doing another divination. Irritated, he said, "What is it? Has he used another hiding spell? Or has he changed location overnight?"

    They could only divine something once per day, so their knowledge of the location of the person they were looking for was still knowledge from the previous day.

    They had gone all the way to another mountain before they''d realised that something was amiss, and had taken several turns to come back to Dustpan Mountain.

    This time, the Taipu said nothing for so long that the Taizhu worried something dramatic had happened again.

    "That person is indeed at Dustpan Mountain. There''s no way it could be wrong this time. There is nothing to pollute the divination. But..." The Taipu paused, then said, "But he''s dead."

    "Dead?" the Taizhu repeated, astonished.

    "But the most confusing part isn''t that."

    "There''s something else?"

    "Remember how I said I thought I saw the Great Priest?" the Taipu asked.

    "Of course. But that was just a coincidence," the Taizhu replied.

    "I don''t think so. In this divination, he also came to Dustpan Mountain... and only left recently."

    One coincidence was a coincidence, but two? That was very difficult to explain away.

    A sudden thought crossed the Taizhu''s mind. "Could it... really be the Great Priest? Where is that person now?"

    The Taipu raised a finger and pointed into the village at the south side of the mountain, lazing quietly under the morning sun. "That village right there."

    The two turned to each other, their piercing gazes meeting through their masks. Then, the Taipu took out a brush from her horse''s bags, dipped it in ink, and began to hurriedly compose a letter.

    Meanwhile, clearly following a silent procedure, the Taizhu whistled into his fingers and summoned a dove.

    The letter was addressed to the Great Priest, and was signed by the Taipu. She gave it to the dove to send back to the Ministry.

    "Now that the letter''s been sent, we should head into the village and check it out. After all... this concerns the Great Priest. We must not be reckless," said the Taizhu.

    The Taipu nodded. "Yes."

 CH 71

    Chapter 71: Passerby (II)

    Although the letter had been composed in a great hurry, its contents were not to be taken lightly. The Taipu had considered her words carefully: not once in the letter did she mention the "person highly similar to the Great Priest", as, to a certain extent, it was rather disrespectful to do so.

    No one in the entire Ministry dared to be so informal toward the Great Priest. To their knowledge, the Great Priest had always been highly reserved, and whenever he appeared, he carried an intimidating and unapproachable aura.

    Although the Great Priest had brought the Taipu and Taizhu into the Ministry as children, even after all these years, he remained a distant and holy figure who could not be touched nor disobeyed.

    "Your letter..." the Taizhu said carefully as they got ready to leave.

    The Taipu did not need to hear his full sentence to know what he wanted to say. "I''m not that stupid," she said. "I only said that the man we were looking for has died. If all goes well with the dove, it should arrive at the Ministry by tomorrow evening. Even if the weather turns bad, it will definitely be there by the day after tomorrow. Once the Great Priest reads the letter, he will know what to do, and we will simply obey. Until then, let us take care of the matter at hand."

    Their powers were limited, and they''d had to use a dove to send their letter. But the Great Priest was different ¨C¨C if he had a message to send, he would simply burn it with a flame and they would immediately receive it on the other end, with no delay at all.

    So if they wanted to check if the Great Priest was still located at the Ministry, the longest they had to wait was two days.

    "To be fair, once we enter the village and meet that person, something is bound to happen," the Taizhu said in a low voice. "After all, not anyone can pretend to be the Great Priest."

    Although they were not the Great Priest''s official disciples, by this point, they were in all but name. They lived in the Ministry ¨C¨C ate all their meals there and had received all their education there ¨C¨C but the Great Priest did not like being around others, and was often shut away in the secret courtyard. Yet they were still the people who saw the Great Priest the most: from childhood and youth to now, in all those years, they had long learned the intricacies of the Great Priest''s habits and idiosyncrasies.

    If they could say so themselves, even if the Great Priest put on his mask and stood in a crowd of a million people dressed in the same manner, they would still be able to pick him out.

    Writing that letter was really just a formality ¨C¨C a way to ease their minds.

    The two looked at each other again and decided not to delay further. They kicked their stirrups and the long train trotted toward that small village on the south side of Dustpan Mountain...

    *****

    Deep inside the village, a small one-bedroom hut stood beneath the shade of an old loquat tree. On either side of the hut''s door were two strings of dried garlic and dried peppers, woven into a design around the rope that bound them.

    There was some kind of design to the strings ¨C¨C they did not appear to have been casually strung up to dry the goods. As Xue Xian and Xuanmin approached the hut, they could smell a smoky stench on the strings.

    This was the home of the Uncle Qu that the soldier had mentioned.

    Xue Xian walked to the door. He did not immediately knock on the door ¨C¨C instead he scrunched up his nose and sniffed at the strings, frowning. Then he covered his nose with his sleeve and said, "Blood. From many years ago."

    Xuanmin had always been repulsed by such things, so he reached out and yanked Xue Xian back, as though, if Xue Xian stood by the strings any longer, that smell would seep into him too.

    The two were still invisible, and ordinary people could not see them nor hear them. In the instant that Xuanmin pulled Xue Xian away from the door, a man wearing a thick winter coat holding the hand of a small child walked by Uncle Qu''s door.

    That child had tried to take a look at the hut, but the man had forcibly dragged it away, as though the hut were covered in some pestilent disease.

    "How many times have I told you? Don''t get too close," the man scolded the child.

    The child said, "Oh," and obediently turned his neck back around and followed the man away, though his eyes continued to dart back at the hut.

    At the same moment, another pair ¨C¨C a woman and her son ¨C¨C happened to be walking back into the village after having been to see the commotion at the village gate. As the woman passed the man and his child, she nodded in greeting and, similarly, dragged her son farther away from the hut...

    "People in this village seem not to really like this Qu guy," Xue Xian muttered.

    He had intended to wait for the people to pass before going up to knock on the door, but in that instant, the rickety old door creaked open by itself.

    A man with a shrunken mouth stuck his head out from the door and looked around vacantly. His eyes fell on the spot where Xue Xian and Xuanmin stood. Although his eyes were murky and his pupils appeared rather unfocused, Xue Xian still got the feeling that the man was looking directly at them, or could at least sense their presence.

    "Who is it? Why are you standing by the door? If you don''t come in, I''m going to close the door," the man lisped.

    He seemed to be slightly deaf himself, so his words rung out loudly, enough for the other villagers to hear.

    "Let''s go, let''s go. Old Qu is about to have another hallucination," the man said in a low voice as he herded his child away ¨C¨C quickly followed by the mother and her son.

    In the blink of an eye, the street in front of the hut became empty.

    "Tsk¨C¨C" Old Qu was clearly a rather grumpy man. He held the door open, but seeing that no one was coming in, he muttered angrily and made to close the door.

    But just before the door slammed shut, Xue Xian reached out his hand and blocked it.

    "Would it be possible to take temporary shelter in your home, please?" he asked.

    Old Qu was shocked. "Are you a human or a ghost?"

    But before Xue Xian could respond, he suddenly yelled, "Of course you''re not a ghost. My spirit-repelling strings are right there. Ghosts wouldn''t dare come near me... Who are you? What are you doing here?"

    "We have some questions," Xue Xian replied.

    Still gripping the door, Old Qu did not let them in. "What about?"

    "We heard that you come from Xia Mountain, Langzhou." Xue Xian didn''t really care whether the old man was going to let them in or not. Actually, the hut was rather small, and to enter, he and Xuanmin would have to bend their heads anyway. If they could get all the information they needed standing outside, then it would save them the trouble and back pain.

    Old Qu nodded and said, "Yes, and?"

    "Earlier, as we were accompanying a brother to his home, he mentioned something. As a child, he''d heard you say that the Xia Mountain, Langzhou area produced magic medicine?"

    Puzzled, Old Qu listened to Xue Xian speak, then stroked his chin. Finally, he stepped away from the door. "Let''s talk inside," he said. "I have bad legs and get tired from standing up too long."

    Old Qu seemed to have lived alone in the hut for many years. The room had not been tidied for who knew how long, nor had the windows ever been opened to let in fresh air, so that it was filled with a sour smell. Just the sour smell would have been fine, but the hut also reeked of garlic.

    As Old Qu pushed the door open, the stench attached Xue Xian''s nose.

    Xue Xian thought, Actually, could we just stay standing out here...

    He grimaced and held his breath as he bent slightly to enter the doorway. He grasped the reluctant Xuanmin and pulled him into the hut too.

    Taking advantage of a brief moment during which Old Qu had his back turned to them, Xue Xian yanked Xuanmin''s pristine robe, bringing it to his nose and taking a deep breath from it. Now he felt a little better.

    Xuanmin glared at him.

    Old Qu was not a good host. He did not invite the two to sit down, and in fact there was no other place to sit in the hut.

    "What magic pill are you after?" he said as he settled into a chair and squinted suspiciously at them. "There are many rare herbs in the Langzhou area, and some magic pills aren''t even considered that miraculous."

    "A pill that can extend one''s life, or exchange the fortunes of two lives?" Xue Xian asked tentatively.

    Old Qu eyed them for a long time, then finally said, "Such pills are rumored to exist. But there is more than just one type. They say that there are two types, which are extremely similar, but with vastly different effects. One extends life, and the other is harmful. They even say there is a type of pill that can link together three lives... I don''t know what that is, and I''ve never seen it. All I''ve heard are stories," he rambled.

    "Do you know where that pill comes from?" Xue Xian asked.

    Old Qu did not disappoint ¨C¨C he actually did roughly give them a location. "The Cave of a Hundred Insects!"

    Xue Xian nodded. "Good. Do locals know where the Cave of a Hundred Insects is located? If so, we will wait until we''ve arrived in Langzhou to ask."

    "Oh no!" Old Qu exclaimed, waving his hands. "If you do ask, I don''t think anyone will be able to tell you."

    Xue Xian frowned. "Why not?"

    "You have no idea how poisonous those insects are. Just hearing that name, Cave of a Hundred Insects, will make you lose half your lifespan. Besides, who would give so much thought to a bunch of unsubstantiated rumors?" Old Qu said. "The only reason I know about it is because my ancestor was a witch doctor, and loved to mess about with such things. To be honest, the two of you have come to just the right person. Only I can tell you where to go."

    He began to outline something on his palm with his index finger. "Once you get to Xia Mountain, you go here and go to the southwest side of the mountain. There are three peaks there, and one of them has a curved cliff. The Cave of a Hundred Insects is near there, but I''m not sure how to get there. Perhaps you have to jump off the cliff. If you have some life left in your destiny, perhaps you should try."

    Life... that''s the one thing they didn''t lack.

    Xue Xian scoffed. That''s not hard, he thought. If it comes down to it, we''ll search every corner of that cliff. It''s no big deal to me and Xuanmin.

    Indeed, when they''d been talking about magic pills, Xue Xian had still been skeptical. But now, they were talking about a "Cave of a Hundred Insects", which seemed to be the right track: the thing on Xuanmin''s neck was called a "Spider of the Same Age", after all, which was definitely related to insects.

    Obviously, it was ridiculous to think that a simple insect could help to extend or exchange one''s life. But if an insect secreted some kind of venom, and that venom was combined with a talisman or some other more evil magic, perhaps it really could have some effect. But this spell probably only benefited one of the parties, and the other one would probably greatly suffer.

    Having gotten the information they needed, the two did not linger. Before he left the hut, Xue Xian scanned that rotting mess of a room and surreptitiously dropped a few golden beads in a pouch that hung near the door ¨C¨C consider it payment for the information.

    Old Qu was eccentric, but not inherently unlikeable nor troublesome. He did not try to ask Xue Xian what they were going to do now, nor did he even get up to walk them to the door. But as Xue Xian pulled the wooden door open and made to step outside, that old man murmured something as though in a dream: "But I have to say... even if you do find that thing, it''s best not to use it. One of my ancestors was a romantic. They say that he wanted to extend his life, or perhaps bring someone back from the dead, I don''t remember, but in the end the results were devastating. He might as well have died. I don''t know what he was trying to do..."

    Then he chuckled self-deprecatingly and added, "But I say that to everyone, and no one believes me. They all say I''m crazy. Now that you''ve heard me say it, you may leave. Go... I''m going to take a nap."

    "I''m not that bored as to do something like that. Besides, extend my life even further? That would be a bit much," Xue Xian muttered absent-mindedly in response to the man. He saluted Old Qu, then herded Xuanmin out the door.

    There was no need to stay any longer in the village, so they immediately began to take a route that led them back out to the village gate. As they came upon that pond again, Xue Xian couldn''t help but glance at that mud hut, and saw the soldier''s spirit dutifully standing guard by the door, seemingly planning to stay there forevermore.

    In truth, Xue Xian could not really relate to such strong, passionate emotions, whether those of Old Qu''s "romantic" ancestor, or that weeping soldier ¨C¨C he found himself unable to empathise with the feelings that their actions so clearly demonstrated.

    He had met one other military man before, perhaps six or seven years ago now.

    It was a great desert in the far north of the land. By order of the natural structure of the universe, he had gone there to bring about a bit of rain. When he arrived, he saw that beneath the strong winds that sent spirals of sand into the air were countless skeletons. Destroyed military carriages and ragged war flags, as well as tattered, empty uniforms, were strewn across the desert.

    That soldier had been sitting by one of the ruined carriages, with one of his legs bent and propped up against the carriage wheel. His head tilted, he had been gazing at one of the torn flags.

    Xue Xian had only needed a glimpse to know that this was a lost soul who had already been there for at least half a year. The others had departed long ago, leaving only him ¨C¨C clearly something was had been keeping him here. Xue Xian was lazy, and did not have enough sympathy for others to consider even approaching the man. He had planned to simply send down a storm and then leave, but the lost soul had actually called out to him.

    Perhaps because he''d been there for too long, the soul''s mind was rather dazed. He seemed not to realise who Xue Xian was, and merely tugged at his sleeve while rambling on and on. Like that soldier whose soul had lingered on the dog tag, he''d spoken in bits and pieces, and had been difficult to understand.

    Xue Xian always did things depending entirely on his mood, and on that day, the sight of all those corpses had made him a bit sad ¨C¨C so he tolerated the soul''s mutterings and listened to the man speak for a long time. Overall, the man had really said two things: If only we''d won this battle... and, I don''t dare to depart.

    "You''re not even afraid of death. Why would you be afraid to depart?" Xue Xian had asked.

    That lost soul had gone on for a bit longer in explanation, and it had taken a while for Xue Xian to understand: The man had been afraid that, if he departed, he would have to move on to his next life, but his wife would remain stuck in this life. He''d been afraid that he''d never see her again.

    "You can''t see her if you remain here either," Xue Xian had replied. "You''re bound to this land. You can''t go home."

    The lost soul had given him a tragic look, and then explained some more: If only he could remember her in his next life, then he''d be able to go find her, and that would make things better. If he was lucky, then perhaps they could meet as children, and he could watch her slowly grow up from a little girl to a young woman, and then he could marry her. They didn''t have to experience all that drama like couples did in plays ¨C¨C he only wanted to live a long and ordinary life with her. Ideally... there would be no war...

    As Xue Xian listened to the man''s pathetic rambling and looked out at that field corpses, he was surprised to find that he was not annoyed.

    Before he left, he gave the lost soul a long piece of rope.

    "Why have you given me a rope? I''m already dead. I can''t hang myself," the soul had asked idiotically.

    Xue Xian had snapped, "Tie that around your wrist and make a mark. Don''t you want to find someone in your next life? Although there''s no way for you to remember all of these random details, but at least a clear mark can act as a reminder. Perhaps if you try hard enough, you really will be able to find her."

    The soul had lingered for so long purely for this reason, so now that his problem had been solved, he had not delayed. After Xue Xian had left, he, too, had departed.

    And today, when Xue Xian caught sight of that soldier, he thought back to the man in the desert. Although six or seven years had passed, he still could not understand how someone could feel an emotion so deeply that they could refuse to move on even after death.

    But, as his mind drifted through these casual thoughts, he unconsciously glanced back at Xuanmin.

    "What is it?" Noticing Xue Xian''s gaze, Xuanmin, walking slightly ahead, paused in his steps.

    As Xue Xian''s mind returned to the present, he discovered that he had been staring at Xuanmin''s back. "Oh," he muttered as he looked away. "Nothing. I thought of a passerby."

    "Passerby?" Xuanmin''s eyes flitted toward the pond, then back onto Xue Xian.

    But Xue Xian was already staring at the road ahead. "Let''s get out of ¨C¨C Someone''s there!"

    Having just left the village, they had removed their invisibility spell, and would soon leave the mountain path entirely. But in the middle of Xue Xian''s sentence, he had noticed a long, white carriage train on the path ahead.

    "What kind of family has such a long funeral train?" Xue Xian muttered. But then he saw the flags attached to the carriages, and the two characters on the flags: Taichang.

    As he and Xuanmin stopped in their tracks, before they could even see the faces of the newcomers, Xue Xian heard the clear and bright voice of a woman say, "Descend from your horses."

    Next, around a hundred people shuffled over to them and bowed in a deeply polite greeting.

    Xue Xian gaped. What the hell is going on?

 CH 72

    Chapter 72: Passerby (III)

    The Ministry of Ceremonies had a strict rule: they only knelt to the heavens. So when officials encountered the Great Priest, their greeting was not a knelt greeting but rather a deep bow.

    But as the hundreds of riders jumped off their horses and rushed over, dressed all in white and wearing silver beast masks, silently arranging themselves into neat rows and all simultaneously bowing deeply, the sight was a spectacular one ¨C¨C but, while spectacular, it was also done in a highly solemn and reverent manner. If the group had been holding sticks of incense, they would look like they were performing a ritual to the heavens.

    To most people in the world, this would be an intimidating and flattering scene, but Xue Xian, as a dragon, was used to it. So the reason why he stood there frozen was because it was so unexpected.

    He had never paid much attention to humans'' imperial matters, nor had he ever bothered to learn about the ever-changing rota of ministers that served the emperor, since none of it had anything to do with him. So when he''d first seen those two characters, Taichang, he had had no impression at all. Instead, he got more information from the group''s unique getup ¨C¨C they seemed to be the emperors'' religious servants and fortune-tellers.

    In all his years, he had often been witness to such scenes. He almost blurted out, The rain priests have managed to find me here?

    But before he could speak, Xuanmin frowned and stepped forward, so that he now happened to be half-hiding Xue Xian behind him. With that ever-cold expression on his face, Xuanmin scanned the large crowd of newcomers and calmly asked, "What, pray tell, do you need?"

    What, pray tell, do you need?

    What, pray tell, do you need???

    The Taipu and Taizhu, who had been at the front of the group and had been about to speak, were shocked still.

    But they had nonetheless grown up in an imperial court, so would never forget to maintain politeness no matter what unexpected events occurred. The two continued to bow deeply, but glanced at each other in shock and confusion.

    Had they had the wrong man? Impossible!

    That silhouette, that demeanor, even the way he walked ¨C¨C everything pointed clearly to the Great Priest. They didn''t even need to get close to recognise him!

    So what did he mean when he said What, pray tell, do you need?

    Had he done it on purpose? Was there really some kind of danger, and he needed to disguise his identity?

    The Taizhu and Taipu had entered the Ministry together as children, and would under ordinary circumstances have been rumored to be childhood sweethearts ¨C¨C meaning that, by now, they understood each other intuitively. The two only needed to meet eyes to come to the same conclusion.

    But just as they came to that conclusion, something by their hands suddenly began to gently hiss.

    Stunned, they saw that the hissing thing was a small flame that had somehow appeared by the Taipu''s finger. That flame soon disappeared, revealing, at its core, a small wrapped up piece of paper.

    They were very familiar with this: this was how the Great Priest communicated with them.

    But the dove that the Taipu had sent had only just flown out. There was no way it could already have reached the Ministry. The only possibility was that the Great Priest happened to want to give them new orders, but the timing was far too much of a coincidence...

    The Taipu caught the slip of paper in her hands and inconspicuously glanced at the white shadow standing before her. Before she could even open the letter, there came the batting sound of a bird''s wings behind her.

    "A letter." The Taizhu turned to look, and retrieved a letter attached to a dove''s leg.

    The two looked at each other again, then hurried to read the letter.

    "The letter is from a Deputy Minister. He reports a rumor from Huazhi County that some people saw a dragon. The Great Priest gave orders, and now the entire Ministry, including the guards who stand outside the Great Priest''s secret courtyard, are all on their way. We''re being told to wait here." The Taizhu made his voice as low as he could, but when he said the word dragon, he was so surprised that his voice couldn''t help but raise a little. Panicked, he hushed himself again and squeezed out the final sentence: "Also, the Deputy Minister says that the Great Priest has left isolation. He has to take care of something first, but in three days he will be joining us."

    And as for the Great Priest''s personal message, it was as concise as always.

    The Taipu shoved the unfolded slip of paper under the Taizhu''s eyes. There were only five words: Act as you see fit. And at the bottom, that red stamp that read Tongdeng.

    The two letters had arrived one after the other, and neither was very long, but the contents were difficult to parse. Someone in Huazhi County had seen a dragon, but why did that mean every official at the Ministry had to come out immediately? They had never done this before, and this behavior was highly unusual, which made them suspicious.

    But the part that bothered the Taipu and Taizhu the most was not that: it was the fact that the Great Priest had finally left isolation, but had other matters to tend to...

    The two of them couldn''t help but make a connection to the situation in which they were currently finding themselves. They felt that their previous conclusion had been correct: the Great Priest was pretending not to know who they were because he already had other plans about which they did not need to know.

    Seeing as this was so, they of course had to cooperate as best as they could. To break the Great Priest''s cover ¨C¨C did they have a death wish?

    "Act as you see fit..." the Taizhu murmured. So they had to act as they saw fit, right then and there! The two quickly rearranged their faces and raised their heads. They nodded respectfully at Xue Xian and Xuanmin and said, "It was a misunderstanding. I''m afraid we thought you were someone else."

    "Someone else?" Xue Xian chuckled as he dusted some nonexistent dust off of his robe. "Do you think we''d believe that?"

    Although the two parties stood quite far apart, Xue Xian had still heard them say the word dragon. If the newcomers had honestly and directly explained their true intentions, he would not have minded, but now they were saying that it was all a "misunderstanding". Now that was interesting.

    What kind of people had to lie?

    Those with ulterior motives.

    Normally, Xue Xian could never be bothered to try and guess mortals'' complex thoughts ¨C¨C but he had recently been entrapped. Now, whenever he came across people with something to hide, he couldn''t help but remember the man who had maimed him. As he chuckled, his face turned cold.

    "It is all our fault. With the curves of the mountain road, we did not look too closely at you, but instead went entirely by the colors of your clothes. How funny," the Taizhu said, not daring even to glance at Xuanmin anymore. Instead, he only saluted Xue Xian. "Please forgive us. Since the two of you are clearly on your way somewhere, we shall not delay you further. Please¨C¨C"

    He made a gesture at the officials behind him.

    In a great wave, the hundreds of people behind him rose from their bows and parted in half, creating a broad and orderly passageway for Xue Xian and Xuanmin.

    Xue Xian scoffed, though he said nothing and began to walk on.

    He and Xuanmin really did walk into that passageway. Neither of them were afraid of anything, so they did not even feel uneasy as they crossed those dozens of beast masks on either side of them. They maintained calm expressions and steady, confident steps.

    Before Xuanmin could get too close, the Taipu and Taizhu lowered their gazes, just as they were used to doing when encountering the Great Priest at the Ministry ¨C¨C they did not dare to let their vision linger. Besides, they seemed to have thrown a wrench into the Great Priest''s vast plan and almost ruined everything ¨C¨C the situation was now rather awkward, and they definitely did not dare to look up at his face.

    But in the instant that Xuanmin walked past him, the Taipu''s gaze moved slightly, and she caught sight of Xuanmin''s right hand. Then, she quickly looked away again.

    Apart from at the beginning, when they''d briefly faltered upon first meeting Xuanmin, the Taipu and Taizhu''s behavior for the rest of the encounter had been perfectly appropriate and subtle ¨C¨C they''d been polite, yet not overly deferential. But they could not help but keep an eye on Xue Xian, as though fearing that this intimidating-looking figure might discover some weakness within them.

    But that had been their mistake: normally, furtive glances at someone might not alert them, but Xue Xian''s eyesight was far more sensitive than that of a human. He immediately noticed the two peering at him, and felt that they had basically written, We have ulterior motives! on a board to parade down the street.

    In that moment, as he began to feel that something was amiss, but before any real idea could fully materialise in his mind, the black bird on Xuanmin''s shoulder broke off his train of thought.

    That bird really was fearless ¨C¨C it seemed not to be perturbed by this massive group of "mourning" people at all. Instead, when Xue Xian happened to brush past it, it actually shook out a wing and slapped Xue Xian''s shoulder.

    Vermin!

    As Xue Xian stared daggers at the bird, he saw Xuanmin silently stick a talisman onto it.

    It seemed to be a talisman to freeze movement ¨C¨C as soon as it attached itself to the bird, the animal became stiff as a board and no longer moved at all from its position on Xuanmin''s shoulder, though its two beady eyes glared resentfully at Xue Xian.

    For a moment, Xue Xian felt good about himself. He no longer felt like figuring out the "ulterior motives" of those strange people.

    Meanwhile, the Taipu and Taizhu watched as the two men and one bird walked out of the passageway and headed toward the fork in the road ahead.

    "Hu¨C¨C" The Taizhu let go of the breath he''d been holding. He had a new idea: In order not to sabotage the Great Priest, after bidding farewell to the two, they now had to continue ahead and then somehow find a way to turn back later on. They could then surreptitiously follow the Great Priest from a safe distance, so that they could help in in case of an emergency.

    But before he''d even fully let go of that breath, he noticed that tall and skinny man dressed in black who had been at the Great Priest''s side suddenly turn back and flash them a smile.

    It was an extremely handsome smile ¨C¨C and an extremely evil smile, with a chilling coldness to the crook of the mouth that startled the Taipu and Taizhu.

    Next, sky directly above the group suddenly changed: that dim morning light was instantly blocked out by an oncoming rumble of black storm clouds, and then dozens of glazed white lightning struck down from the clouds and crashed into the ground beneath their feet with an earth-shattering noise.

    Each bolt of lightning seemed to have a specific target ¨C¨C they struck down in a circle around the group, trapping them in a circular cage made of lightning.

    In all the years that the Taizhu and Taipu had been alive, they had never before been in such a situation of utter and complete defeat as the entire group of men and horses were thrown into chaos. The lightning appeared uncannily crafty: it was careful not to actually hit them, yet struck close by enough to make them jump and to make the men run in all directions to avoid it.

    The thunder seemed to have no end in sight, and their powers were limited, so it would take them a very long time to break out of this cage.

    Thus, amidst the commotion, when the Taizhu tried to peer past the lightning to try and see where the two men had gone, he saw that they had long vanished without a trace ¨C¨C and, because of all the distractions, he had not even been able to see which of the two roads they''d taken.

    As the panic rose within him, the Taipu gripped his sleeve and calmly said, "It''s fine. We''ll find them."

 CH 73

    Chapter 73: Passerby (V)

    By the time Xue Xian and Xuanmin returned to the Qingping county seat, the sun had fully risen above them. Unlike the chaotic and violent lightning that was currently still striking down upon a specific spot at the foot of Dustpan Mountain, the weather was in fact quite pleasant here, even managing to cast a faint sense of warmth onto the mid-winter chill.

    The city seemed to be more alive than it had been a couple of days ago, with far more people milling about on the streets ¨C¨C it seemed to be slowly emerging from the shadow of the plague and breathing a deep sigh of relief.

    As the two stood before the Fang compound, they saw that the whole family was already awake and were extremely busy.

    The servants had laid out medicine outside the shop, hoping to take advantage of the rare sunshine to dry some herbs. The beggars were following them around and helping out in a clumsy but focused manner. Uncle Chen was helping Fang Cheng to catalogue the shop: as one read out the names of herbs, the other noted down the numbers onto a sheet of paper.

    To the side, Jiang Shijing was reading to a group of children who looked to be seven or eight years old: these were the apprentices from other families, who, despite their young age, were already well-versed in all kinds of medicines and their uses.

    Auntie Chen had a cleaver and was busy chopping vegetables in the kitchen, with Xingzi as her assistant who often had to run out to perform small tasks.

    The twin brothers were so busy behind the shop counter that they could barely stop for breath. Jiang Shining, who could not stay too long in the sunlight, was inside a room, helping his sister with a medical manuscript that she''d composed.

    Stone Zhang had picked a corner and had found some stone. He was hunched over, carving something new. By his feet were already a row of thumb-sized stone bunnies and stone monkeys ¨C¨C he really seemed to have nothing better to do than that.

    Although the Fang courtyard was relatively large, with people of all ages and professions running about inside, it had become rather cramped.

    If it had been before, Xue Xian would have turned on his heels and left as soon as he saw the chaos ¨C¨C it was already annoying enough to have a Stone Zhang buzzing about your ear, let alone all of these different people at the same time.

    Although he was not as particular as Xuanmin and had a rather open personality, he was not one to enjoy commotion. He could make a commotion, but others could not ¨C¨C that was simply how unreasonable he always was.

    But now, as he leant against the doorway, idly scanning the courtyard, he suddenly got the feeling that this was a pretty good life. To ordinary people, this was probably the best life one could wish for.

    "Ah¨C¨C" As Xingzi stepped out of the kitchen, she noticed Xue Xian and Xuanmin standing silently by the door and happily announced to the whole compound, "Young Master Xue is back!"

    "Little girl, your crush is far too obvious," said Stone Zhang from his spot behind her. "Master is back too. Did you not even see him?"

    Blushing, Xingzi waved her hand and said, "Of course not. I was about to say it."

    Stone Zhang appeared to be fully immersed in the joy and satisfaction of his little carvings. Without a thought, he turned to ask Xue Xian, "Did you spend all night tidying up? Are you done now? If we''d known that it would take that long, Twenty-Seven and I would have stayed to help!"

    Stone Zhang was almost impressively simple-minded. As he said this, Xue Xian''s entire face turned green.

    For a moment, Xue Xian thought he could feel Xuanmin glance at him, but when he turned to see, Xuanmin had already averted his gaze and begun to stride into the courtyard.

    Xue Xian shot a glare at Stone Zhang. But the feeling that had poked right at his heart heart two or three times already was quite uncomfortable, and in fact was starting to feel like an extra piece of rib cartilage. And, to be honest, he had been relatively promiscuous in all the years he''d been alive, but nothing had ever made him feel this way before.

    He''d had enough of it!

    Xue Xian finally forced his face to turn back to its original color and told himself, Yes, okay, so he jerked me off. It''s done. It happened.

    Under his withering stare, Stone Zhang''s legs had turned to jelly ¨C¨C he was glad that he''d already been sitting down, for if he''d been standing up, he was afraid he would''ve tried to run away. He slapped himself on the mouth and thought, What a big mouth I have. Look at the way he''s staring at you now.

    But he just could not figure out how he had managed to piss the dragon off with just one line.

    As the Fang family hurried across the compound to greet Xue Xian and Xuanmin, Xingzi, who had been staring at Xue Xian for some time, suddenly cried out and pointed at Xue Xian''s legs, exclaiming, "You-¨C"

    "Hey, your legs have healed?" the ever-oblivious Stone Zhang commented. "What magic pill did you take? How did your legs heal in just one night?"

    Xue Xian squinted at him and said blankly, "It''s safer for you if you just didn''t speak."

    Stone Zhang obediently shut his mouth, but thought, What did I do this time?

    Yet Stone Zhang was not the only one wondering how Xue Xian''s legs had healed overnight. Soon, the entire Fang household was admiring his newly healed legs and chittering in surprise at how quickly it had all happened.

    One night this and one night that. As they muttered away, Xue Xian got the feeling that all those mouths around him were provoking him on purpose...

    Thankfully, before it could get too overwhelming, Xue Xian felt someone grab hold of his wrist.

    "His legs have only just recovered. He needs to continue to heal so that they can strengthen," Xuanmin suddenly said.

    The group paused, then immediately nodded and said, "Master is right. He needs to rest."

    Without another word, Xuanmin led Xue Xian by the wrist, pushed open the door to the bedroom they''d occupied the previous night, guided him inside, then shut the door again.

    As the door closed, it sealed the voices of the others outside ¨C¨C what a remarkable door: despite its thinness, once it sealed shut, the outside world seemed to become a whole other world. As Xue Xian looked into the room, his eyes fell on the hand that grasped his wrist.

    The door had already been shut, yet that hand lingered for some time before finally letting go.

    Xue Xian looked up and watched as Xuanmin walked to the table and pulled out a chair. Xuanmin said, "On the way back, your steps were not steady. Your pulse is sluggish, too. Perhaps you were too hasty in repairing your legs. You should heal some more."

    So he reason why he hadn''t wanted to let go of Xue Xian''s wrist was because he''d been feeling his pulse...

    Xue Xian raised his eyebrows, then looked away from Xuanmin. He brought out the copper coin pendant that he''d been holding onto the whole night and swerved to avoid Xuanmin as he made his way to the bed and sat down.

    What Xuanmin had said hadn''t been wrong ¨C¨C Xue Xian himself was well aware that his real vertebrae had not yet all been found, and all of his current mobility was thanks to those threads pushed out by the copper coin pendant.

    But a prosthesis was still a prosthesis, and could not last long. If he was already faltering now, then he needed to continue pouring magic into his injuries, or else the threads would soon wear out and he would become paralysed again.

    So he did not delay ¨C¨C holding Xuanmin''s pendant, he began to meditate.

    At first, that new magical energy from the pendant poured into his veins yet again and flooded into the threads that connected his bones, seeming immediately to begin urging the bones themselves to grow by another inch.

    But soon, the pendant sent another, different warm rush of magic came into his body, which seemed to intermix with the previous gust of magic and even meld into one, slowly soothing those threads and his injured bones.

    Xue Xian half-opened his eyes and glanced around. He saw that, at some point, Xuanmin had closed his eyes too, and had his hand in a silent prayer. He seemed also to be meditating.

    Now he understood where that second rush of magic had come from. Xue Xian shut his eyes again, and as he worked at healing his body, he did not forget to bring the combined folds of his and Xuanmin''s magic energy over the copper coins as well.

    A very long time later, the pendant in Xue Xian''s hand suddenly trembled. Although it did not actually make a noise, the sound of metal traversed through his arm and jolted him directly in his mind ¨C¨C it sounded like something suddenly unlocking with a click.

    At first he was stunned, but then he realised what had happened ¨C¨C it seemed that, out of the five coins on Xuanmin''s pendant, another had had its seal broken.

    In that moment, Xue Xian could suddenly feel that, as the seal broke, the connection between the pendant and his body seemed to become slightly stronger. And as the coin shuddered, so too did his mind, so that, uncontrollably, he felt himself slide into a dream.

    It was not really a dream ¨C¨C it was more a series of images that flickered by so vaguely that he could barely make out any silhouettes, as brief and difficult to catch as a fish peeking its head out of a pond ¨C¨C

    In some of the visions, he could see someone walking towards him, but his point of view was strange, and he could not even see up to the person''s waist, only their long robe sweeping by him as softly as a cloud. He opened his mouth and seemed to say something, two characters ¨C¨C perhaps a name...

    Other times, he was sitting somewhere, seemingly in front of a desk, but he could not see what was laid out on the desk. A black shadow fell by his hand and his fingers seemed to twitch, reaching out toward the shadow...

    And other times, he was holding something in his hand, which appeared at first glance to be the face of a demon, red and black patches all over it, so that he could not see its eyes...

    As Xue Xian struggled to understand where these undreamlike dreams were coming from, he saw one last image. In that image, there was a child standing across from him whose face was too blurry to make out. He bent down and reached out toward the child.

    He was astonished to discover that the child wore white ¨C¨C a pristine, spotless white robe.

    "Who are you?" the child asked innocently, looking up at him.

    Just as he wanted to reply, he suddenly noticed his own hand stretched out toward the child: on the side of the knuckle of his ring finger was a tiny mole. Although everything in the dream was blurred and shifting, that one mole on that slender and pale finger was crystal clear.

    The shock of that moment was enough to jolt him awake, and he quickly slid back out of the strange dreamscape.

    Xue Xian suddenly opened his eyes and looked over at the table.

    The room was pitch black. Somehow, it was nightfall already. Light seeped in through the windows from lanterns hung outside and lightly outlined Xuanmin''s silhouette as he sat at the table.

    Xue Xian frowned and said, "Bald donkey."

    Xuanmin hummed in response, though there was a faint air of fatigue in his voice, as though he had just come out of an exhausting hallucination. From where Xue Xian was sitting, he could see Xuanmin raise his hand and touch the side of his neck.

    Although the room was completely dark and he was unable to see the details on Xuanmin''s fingers, Xue Xian could remember that, on the knuckle of his ring finger, he also had a small mole ¨C¨C exactly the same as the hand in the vision.

    Xue Xian had wanted to tell Xuanmin about his dream, but, seeing the monk touch his neck, he changed his mind.

    Because another thought suddenly came into Xue Xian''s mind: if that had been a random dream, then there was no harm in talking about it, but... what if it hadn''t been a dream?

    He currently had some mysterious spiritual connection to Xuanmin''s pendant. The pendant had transferred some of the dragon spit''s effects from Xuanmin onto Xue Xian, so could it also transfer other things? Such as... memories?

    If he wasn''t mistaken, every time one of the seals was broken on the coins, Xuanmin would regain some of his memories. And, earlier, when Xue Xian had been healing, he had broken a third seal, so the things he had seen... were those the memories that had flashed through Xuanmin''s mind at the same time?

    And because the connection had been limited, Xue Xian had seen those visions as though from across the bank of a river ¨C¨C blurry and indistinct.

    If these had been memories, then he could not just ask Xuanmin about it directly. There was a difference between Xuanmin willingly telling him, and him seeing things himself without Xuanmin''s knowledge.

    He decided to wait until Xuanmin had recovered, and then sit him down for a talk. But in the meantime, he also needed to stop using that copper coin pendant, so that the connection wouldn''t deepen.

    After he had called out for Xuanmin, the monk had remained silent. Now, he turned and asked, "What is it?"

    This time he sounded much better than before ¨C¨C he seemed to be recovering.

    "Let me return the pendant to you. I can''t use it at the moment." Xue Xian stood up and stretched, then casually put the pendant back in Xuanmin''s hand.

    He was used to hooking the pendant''s cord around his finger, and, when he dropped it into Xuanmin''s hand, he didn''t immediately unhook the finger.

    Xuanmin held the coins, he held the cord, and in the darkness, it was as though they were bound together by a piece of string.

    For a moment, as though a demon had shut down his capacity for clear thought, Xue Xian did not let go, and Xuanmin didn''t either.

    After a very long time, Xue Xian twitched that finger entangled in the cord, not to let go, but to bring it toward him. He looked down at Xuanmin sitting in front of him and, in a low voice, said, "You..."

    Du du du¨C¨C

    Someone was knocking on the door. A thin, wispy shadow appeared in the window and Lu Twenty-Seven''s voice drifted through: "Wake up. Our host is celebrating a birthday. How could you still be asleep?"

    Xue Xian''s finger loosened and he dropped the pendant. "I almost forgot what day it was," he said. "Today Jiang Shining''s sister is laying out a banquet for us. Let''s go."

    He and Xuanmin were distinguished guests at the Fang household. Twenty-Seven was only the first messenger: as soon as Xue Xian opened the door, the entire Fang family from the old servants to the small children all gathered around and bundled he and Xuanmin to the dining hall.

    Seeing the dining table jammed full of delicacies from wine halls and restaurants, Xue Xian finally understood what Auntie Chen had been working on all morning with her cleaver.

    It was indeed Jiang Shijing''s birthday, but it a hugely significant year ¨C¨C she and Fang Cheng had only used this as an excuse to get people together for an enormous family feast.

    With no strangers or outsiders to impress, the banquet quickly became a chaotic, disordered affair, with family members knocking wine glasses about and piling empty dishes high. At the beginning, they had tried to maintain some form of etiquette, but the Chen twins soon went crazy, and it all went downhill from there.

    Led by the Chen brothers, a whole group of people shamelessly went to persuade Fang Cheng and Jiang Shijing to drink wine with them, then went to harass Uncle Chen and Auntie Chen.

    "Are you not ashamed? Go eat your dinner. If you don''t stop now, you''ll be having pig food for breakfast!" Auntie Chen snapped as she herded the roaming brothers back to their seats, lightly slapping them in the face.

    Fang Cheng did accept to drink a small cup of wine. Fighting back the young members of the family, who were rowdily egging him on, he held back his long sleeve with one hand and raised the glass in Jiang Shijing''s direction, smiling.

    Jiang Shijing raised her index finger and insisted, "Just one cup." Then she, too, smiled and raised a small blue cup.

    "That works," Fang Cheng said in a serious manner. "If we drink one cup a year, we can still have eighty more cups."

    "Then you''d be a goblin!" Jiang Shining giggled.

    The bookworm Jiang Shining sat there, unable to ingest human food, yet grinning from ear to ear.

    Xue Xian fidgeted with his wine cup and had been idly watching the scene unfold, but as his gaze glided past Fang Cheng and Jiang Shining''s bare wrists, he suddenly froze¨C¨C

    He noticed that Fang Cheng had a faint circular mark all around his wrist, as though a mark made by a tight rope ¨C¨C it looked awfully familiar. And Jiang Shijing''s wrist had a similar mark...

    "What are you looking at?" At some point, Jiang Shining had turned back and happened to notice Xue Xian''s intense gaze, so had shuffled over to ask.

    Xue Xian pointed with his chin.

    "Oh," Jiang Shining replied. "My brother-in-law has a birthmark on his wrist ¨C¨C he''s had it since he was born. And my sister got hers accidentally. Actually, she got that scar as a child, the day that she first met my brother-in-law, and the mark never truly went away. It makes them look like they were fated to be together."

    "Yes," Xue Xian said, cocking an eyebrow as he took another sip of wine. Then he added, "Perhaps it means they spent their previous life together too...."

    The lost soul who had lingered alone among that corpse-ridden wasteland had ultimately gotten his wish. He''d found who he''d wanted to find and was leading an ordinary life, full to burst.

    "Eighty isn''t actually that many. Perhaps we can keep on going in the next life," Fang Cheng was saying now. With a sincere look, he gently brought his cup to Jiang Shijing''s and knocked them together. "So that''s a promise. No take-backs for a hundred years."

    Then, he tipped back his head and drained the cup.

    In this world, some connections between people are difficult to explain ¨C¨C where do they come from, and why, and is there an end to them? Yet such feelings are strong, and as deep as tenderhooks; they seep into your skin and go right into your marrow ¨C¨C from burgeoning romance at youth to growing old and tired together, such connections don''t shatter even after a hundred years, and live on in the next life and the next.

    Xue Xian swallowed a mouthful of wine and smiled. He couldn''t help but steal a glance at Xuanmin, and saw that Xuanmin just happened to be moving his gaze away from him and was lifting his teacup to his lips...

 CH 74

    Chapter 74: Finger, Knuckle, Mole (I)

    Southwest of the Qingping county seat, farther along from Dustpan Mountain, was an old river that fed all the way into the Yangtze. Its nickname was Wild Duck Pond.

    There had always been folk rumors around Qingping that this river had a river god. The river god was said to protect that stretch of land, bringing auspicious winds and rains to the fields, making the fish and water creatures beautiful and delicious, and even that whenever disrespectful people had tried to fill the river and build human homes above it, everything that they had tried to build had crumbled.

    Eventually, a temple to the river god had been erected on its banks, allowing people from all over the land to come and pray for good fortune and peace of mind.

    But Wild Duck Pond was ultimately a rural, wild river. Although people occasionally visited the river god''s temple, at night, there were no visitors nor lights ¨C¨C an ideal place for a haunting.

    That night, for the first time, the temple was drenched in dim light: two lantern flames wavered gently at the foot of the river god''s statue, casting a golden glow into the hall. Two people knelt on the praying mats inside the temple: one was a short, stout middle-aged man, and the other was a skinny young boy.

    A young monk dressed in a white cloud-like robe stood by the light and laid out a yellow slip of paper on the altar so that it was illuminated by the lanterns. Holding back his sleeve and dipping his brush in ink, he inscribed text onto the yellow paper:

    Jiang Shining

    The seventh day of the eighth month, Bing Yin year.

    Just outside the temple door, a man dressed in black leant sat atop the wizened branches of an old tree, leaning lazily against its trunk, with one leg propped up and the other swinging lightly down. Under the lantern flame that seeped out from inside the temple, his pale face shone with warmth, and the contour of his handsome brows seemed softer and more tender.

    He was none other than Xue Xian.

    That evening had been a rare late night for the Fang compound. Drunk on wine, everyone in the household had fallen fast asleep upon lights out. And to Xue Xian and his group, that had been the time for them to slip out.

    "Aren''t you worried that, from now on, your sister will burn you less paper money?" Xue Xian asked. He leaned one arm against his bent knee, and the other swung idly by his side, fiddling with the leaves on the tree.

    Jiang Shining was standing at the foot of the tree, looking up at him. He shook his head and said, "My sister is too kind. She doesn''t have the heart."

    "But you have the heart to leave without bidding farewell," Xue Xian said as he absent-mindedly ripped off a couple of leaves and tore at them.

    "If I don''t leave at night, I really won''t be able to leave during the day. All she has to do is cry at me, and that''ll be that." Jiang Shining laughed. "Smaller pain is better than greater pain. I have to go. I left her a letter."

    Xue Xian nodded. "Alright. She''s your sister, not mine."

    He tilted his head and studied that skinny bookworm, looking him up and down. Finally, he added, "Are you sure? There''ll be no turning back."

    "Yes." Jiang Shining nodded. "My parents have departed, and my sister is doing very well. I have no regrets, so I must go. Why would a soul linger in the yang realm and not move onto the afterlife?"

    Indeed ¨C¨C if he waited too long, then it would become harder to re-enter the circle of life, which was not a good thing.

    "All good things must come to an end, and all friends must part," Jiang Shining said as he looked down at his own body, then studied his companions inside the temple, and finally looked back up at Xue Xian.

    Those three years that he''d floated listlessly around the charred Jiang compound had been mere shadows and reflections, gone in the blink of an eye, and he could barely even remember anything from that time now. His only clear memory was standing in the corner of the west wing, looking out at the dry patches of weeds across the courtyard, and seeing a young man dressed in black, with sickly pale skin, but with an arrogant beauty to the crook of his brow.

    From then on, he had had a paper body, he had found the trapped souls of his parents, and he had travelled this far, had crossed the long, winding river, had written a long, meandering letter, bidding his sister goodbye...

    "I just realised¨C¨C" Jiang Shining suddenly said to Xue Xian. "I never thanked you."

    Xue Xian scoffed. "Thanked me for what?"

    Too many things ¨C¨C too many to say in a few sentences. Jiang Shining smiled.

    From inside the temple, Xuanmin looked out at them and nodded at Jiang Shining. He lit the folded paper in his hand on fire, and as the yellow flame rose, he brought a stick of incense to it, which began to burn with a serene wisp of smoke.

    Slowly, the paper turned to ash, and the incense, spent, dropped to the altar.

    Jiang Shining''s body became fainter and fainter...

    Shrouded by the thin, gloomy smoke of the burning paper, Jiang Shining clasped his hands and bowed deeply to Xuanmin, then turned and did the same to Xue Xian.

    "Look at you being all corny now. Do you think that if you kiss some ass at the last minute, I''ll remember to burn you paper money each year?" Xue Xian said. He squinted at Jiang Shining''s ever-fading silhouette as though in a trance.

    "No need for the paper money. I won''t be able to repay all that." All Jiang Shining could do, then and there in that river god''s temple, was wish them peace.

    After all, with that farewell, they would never meet again.

    The last stack of ash dropped away from Xuanmin''s incense, and with it, Jiang Shining was gone.

    Xue Xian continued to stare at the spot where he''d been standing. As he hopped down from the tree, his black robes floated up into the night then fell, and, with the rhythm of his footsteps, swept lightly across the grass.

    He stood by the temple door, yet did not go in. He watched Xuanmin stand by the altar and refresh the core of the lantern flames, and his heart began to stir as, out of nowhere, a sense of regret swelled within him.

    Under the glow of the lanterns, Xuanmin glanced over at him, then looked away.

    He looked down at the altar and slowly folded up the sheet of paper on which the ash had collected and folded it a few times. Then, with a sweep of his sleeve, that flickering flame travelled into the heart of the folded paper ¨C¨C a rudimentary river lantern.

    As Xuanmin held the lantern in one hand, he came striding over to Xue Xian.

    The river god''s temple stood on a low platform above the ground. Xuanmin stopped by the threshold and handed the river lantern to Xue Xian, that serene gaze of his landing on Xue Xian and then receding as lightly as a dragonfly across a pond. "This river''s true name is Peace," he said.

    Peace for living souls, and passage for dead souls.

    Xue Xian held the lantern as his gaze lingered on Xuanmin ¨C¨C suddenly, the monk raised his hand and brought it to Xue Xian''s cheek.

    As those warm fingers touched his skin, Xue Xian''s eyes flickered.

    But just as quickly, that warmth disappeared.

    "A dead leaf," Xuanmin said softly. With a twist of his fingers, he crumbled the dry leaf that he had plucked from the side of Xue Xian''s face and let its tiny fragments fall onto the ground by their feet.

    Xue Xian looked away. "Uh-huh," he said. He turned and walked to the riverbank and placed that simple lantern full of the ashes that had saved Jiang Shining''s soul onto the surface of the water. As the glowing light floated slowly away from them, it felt as though they were sending an old friend to the gates of the afterlife.

    It suddenly occurred to Xue Xian what that strange sense of regret had been ¨C¨C

    In the instant that Jiang Shining had faded to nothing, he had felt a rare twinge of heartbreak that came with the sudden feeling of something having gone missing. Jiang Shining had been an annoying, bumbling fool, but as he vanished, Xue Xian felt an emptiness around him.

    All good things must come to an end, and all friends must part. Besides, Xue Xian''s destiny was an almost infinite life. Everyone around him would ultimately turn old and grey, and then disappear never to be seen again, including Xuanmin...

    Xue Xian frowned ¨C¨C the thought made him feel exceptionally sorrowful; it was more than mere regret.

    In the meantime, on a low mountain peak to the south of the river god''s temple, a large group of men and horses were silently resting. Beneath the smudge of moonlight, one could see that their white robes were riddled with holes and tears, and that they looked haggard ¨C¨C as though they had recently emerged from a harrowing and violent experience.

    They were the group from the Ministry of Ceremonies that Xue Xian had trapped within a cage made of thunder and lightning.

    Borrowing from the power of the moon and the latent magic inherent in the forests of the mountain, they healed themselves, yet remained shrouded in darkness with not even a single candle, as though purposely shrouding themselves in the night.

    "Are you sure that''s them there?" The Taizhu had taken off his mask and was rearranging his long hair while pointing with his chin at a hovering light in the distance.

    "Without a shadow of doubt," the Taipu replied, nodding.

    From where they stood, they could see some of the lights in the temple, but could not see any of the visitors. All of their information came from the Taipu''s divinations.

    Although she had been thwarted the previous night, overall the Taipu''s divinations were highly accurate and she rarely made any mistakes. The fact that she was so sure made the Taizhu sure, too.

    "It''s just that¨C¨C" the Taizhu suddenly said as he finished tying his hair and began to fiddle with his mask. "Actually, I still have some doubts..."

    Shocked, the Taipu looked over at him. "What do you mean?"

    "Before, things had happened so quickly that we did not take note of something important. When we saw the Great Priest come toward us at Dustpan Mountain, we bowed, and were about to speak, but then we received his letter." He frowned and added, "At the time, did you see the Great Priest actually send the letter?"

    They had previously twice been witness to the Great Priest sending a letter: apparently, in the instant that the Great Priest burned the letter, it would appear with the recipient as an exact facsimile. There was no fear of delay.

    At the time, the Taizhu had not even dared to raise his head from the bow, let alone watch the Great Priest burn a letter.

    "Perhaps he had just burned it before turning the corner on the mountain road, and the moment that he took the turn and met us was the moment we received the letter," the Taipu theorised. Then she added, in a confident voice, "But don''t worry. That was undoubtedly the Great Priest. As he walked away, I caught a glimpse of his finger."

    The Taizhu was stunned. "His finger?"

    Although the officials within the Ministry of Ceremonies did get to see the Great Priest relatively more often, and despite the fact that they had grown up with the Ministry, the Taizhu and Taipu had had very little opportunity to get physically close to the Great Priest, since the latter hated to be around others.

    Thus, they did not have much knowledge of the details of the Great Priest''s appearance, such as whether he had freckles or scars, and if so, where they were.

    But theTaipu did know about one of them...

    It was from the first time she''d ever met the Great Priest. She''d been seven years old, jaundiced and rake-thin, like a soy bean with a large head and a frail body. At the time, she''d lived in abject poverty, with her father long dead and her mother severely ill and on her deathbed.

    She''d been kneeling by the single bed in her shack of a home, weeping so hard that she could barely breathe, when a monk had knocked on the door.

    That was when she''d first seen him: he''d worn a snow-white robe and had been immensely tall, so that, from her child''s point of view, she had only been able to see the bottom of his chin.

    He had bent over and reached out a hand to her, and that hand had been handsome and structured, and as clean as if it had never touched a speck of dirt. Although he''d been wearing that silver beast mask, she had gotten the feeling that he was more beautiful than anyone else she had seen in her short life.

    She had forgotten even to continue to cry and had stared dully at the monk. "Who are you?"

    That monk''s voice had been as calm and still as water, so that as he spoke, she had immediately felt reassured. "My Buddhist name is Tongdeng. I am here to take you to the Ministry of Ceremonies."

    She had stared at that slender hand and vigorously nodded, even though she had barely heard what he''d said.

    And ever since that day, her life had gone a different way.

    Even with all the things that had happened in the subsequent dozen-odd years, as her impression and understanding of the Great Priest drifted from that shock and confusion of their first meeting, and when they were face to face, she now revered him even more than she had all those years ago... despite all that, she remembered every single detail from that first meeting, and would never forget it as long as she lived.

    Seeing that the Taipu was zoning out, the Taizhu repeated, "What''s with the Great Priest''s finger?"

    "The Great Priest has a tiny mole on the side of the knuckle of his ring finger," the Taipu said as she came back to the present. "The first time I ever met him, I saw it, and I have never forgotten it. At Dustpan Mountain, I caught a glimpse of his hand and confirmed, without any doubt, that he was the Great Priest."

    But her explanation did not repel the Taizhu''s doubt. Instead, he frowned and said, "Hmm, I don''t think that''s right. Remember how a few years back I went into the secret courtyard? I went in to make a report, and the Great Priest was playing chess in the pagoda. As I stood by him, for some reason that I can''t remember, I studied his hand intently. Oh right, it was because that day the two of us had been talking about hands, so I sneakily looked at the Great Priest''s hand. I''m completely sure that he does not have a mole."

 CH 75

    Chapter 75: Finger, Knuckle, Mole (II)

    The Taipu frowned. "Perhaps you didn''t catch sight of his ring finger? The mole is rather small, and most people would not notice."

    "No way," the Taizhu said, shaking his head. "I remember inspecting each and every finger. There was nothing on any of them. I had to see his whole hand in order to practice divination from hand shape. And I remember being terrified. After I looked at his hand, my heart was beating out of my chest. There''s no way I could misremember. And you? Are you sure? After all, your first meeting was many years ago now. Perhaps the memory is blurred."

    "I''m also completely sure." The Taipu looked down at the mask in her hand and added, "Besides, even if I''m wrong, how come the exact same mole showed up on the Great Priest''s hand at Dustpan Mountain?"

    Indeed, such a coincidence was impossible.

    The two exchanged glances, both with brows deeply furrowed and profound expressions on their faces. If the moonlight had been a bit brighter, bright enough to illuminate their eyes, they would both detect a complete sense of bewilderment in each other''s gazes.

    They seemed to have stumbled upon an earth-shattering secret: both Great Priests, both observed with their own eyes, yet with an irreconcilable difference. And both were sure of what they had seen. Then there was only one explanation¨C¨C

    The Great Priest was not one man, but two.

    In that moment, the two forgot even to breathe, and could not find their voices anywhere.

    After some time, as though strangled, the Taizhu finally croaked, "Could it be... could there be the tiny possibility that someone is pretending to be the Great Priest?" As he spoke, he gulped, and his voice became as thin as gossamer.

    Because even the thought of it was unspeakable.

    "Do you think so? But it''s the Great Priest..." In the Taipu''s eyes, the Great Priest was as holy and untouchable as a tall mountain peak. Her immediate instinct was to reject the Taizhu''s idea. "How could it be? Would the Great Priest allow anyone to become his imposter? Who in the world would dare to pretend to be the Great Priest of all people?"

    The Taizhu held his breath as he pondered this, then breathed a deep sigh. "Indeed. The Great Priest... would never have an imposter. After all, whether it''s the Ministry or the secret courtyard, it''s not like anyone can just walk in. But if it''s someone on the inside..."

    "That would definitely be impossible. You have quite a high position within the Ministry, but would you dare to pretend to be the Great Priest?" the Taipu asked.

    The Taizhu quickly waved his hands, as though someone had their sword to his neck. "No, no, no, not in a million years."

    "So obviously not." The Taipu frowned. "So it''s basically impossible for anyone to become his imposter."

    The Taizhu thought for some time, then suddenly looked up with a ghastly face of shock. "Could it be that the Great Priest has allowed it? Or..."

    Or he was the one behind it.

    But why would the Great Priest do that?

    Naturally, they had no idea.

    The Great Priest never explained why or even how he did things. In reality, he spoke extremely little. Looking back, in the more than ten years that the Taipu and Taizhu had spent at the Ministry, they could count the amount of times they heard the Great Priest speak on the fingers of their hands.

    Apart from once in a blue moon when he came into the Ministry, and the annual ritual parade to Taishan, most of the time, the Great Priest did not even leave the secret courtyard. He was like an eccentric hermit, except that he resided in the imperial court.

    If he had any orders, he usually transmitted them via intermediaries.

    And the Ministry belonged entirely to him. If anything occurred across the land or at court, and the Ministry''s help was required, it was the Great Priest who gave out orders and arranged everything. But the Taipu and Taizhu knew that, actually, the Great Priest''s reach was far beyond that of the Ministry''s walls.

    Sometimes, when they reported to the Great Priest, they would see him burn a letter ¨C¨C but then no one in the Ministry would actually receive anything. It was clear that, aside from his officials, he also had others working for him in the shadows.

    But all this was none of the Taipu and Taizhu''s business. After all, aside from the priests and magicians within the Ministry, there were many holy people who refused to step foot at the imperial court ¨C¨C and some of them even refused to enter human society ¨C¨C so, to the Taipu and Taizhu, the Great Priest''s actions made sense, and they had never considered asking him about it.

    Everyone in the Ministry, and everyone across the imperial court, including the one who sat on the dragon throne, all knew that the Great Priest was highly eccentric, whose mood was always difficult to estimate and ordinary people never could understand him. But holy people are always a bit strange, and besides, the Great Priest had served several generations of emperors already and was technically senior even to the man on the dragon throne. And power-wise, there was no one who dared to challenge his magic.

    Plus, although the Great Priest was moody, he was not a tyrant, and did not meddle in others'' affairs. Sometimes, if his orders were ambiguous, the others in the imperial court would lend a hand and would also not ask unnecessary questions.

    "Hey," the Taizhu suddenly said, recalling something. "Do you remember that time the Great Priest ordered all county offices to disseminate those arrest documents?"

    "Yes. The likeness on the poster seemed to resemble the Great Priest himself ¨C¨C it was also a monk. When I read the documents, I was quite surprised, and asked about it," the Taipu said. "The Deputy Minister said he didn''t know what the Great Priest intended either. But he had heard, a few years ago, before he''d become a Deputy Minister, there had also been a flurry of similar arrest documents, and at the time there were rumors that the Great Priest..."

    Aware of the scandalous nature of what she was about to say, the Taipu paused. She lowered her voice and said, "That he was about to pass into nirvana. As people across the land saw the posters being disseminated, they came up with all sorts of theories, including guessing that he might be dying. In truth, at the time, the Great Priest really wasn''t doing well. He wasn''t even in the secret courtyard. They say that he did not appear for a month, but when he finally did, he had recovered. So... at the time, I thought perhaps these new documents were also because he was ill. After all, he was sealed away. At the time, the Deputy Minister told me not to inquire further. And then the Great Priest ordered everyone in the Ministry not to get involved. So I did not think further."

    The Taizhu contemplated this for a moment, then whispered, "What if... there was the tiny possibility that, out of the two Great Priests we each saw, one of them left the court? And that was not according to the other''s wishes. So..."

    "So the one who remained at court used the arrest posters to try and locate the one who left?" the Taipu said, going along with his thought. "But¨C¨C"

    The Taizhu felt that they were getting on the right track. Interrupting the Taipu, he said, "Or else, if he just wanted to confuse the common people''s rumors or fabricate some other simple distraction, why would the Great Priest avoid the Ministry? Seeing that the posters were going out across the land, why did he order us not to interfere? Of course no one has ever dared to disobey him, and after all this time we''ve learned to obey him intuitively, without another thought. But think about it... these were merely posters. Although they were not under our jurisdiction, they still came directly from the Great Priest and we could have lent a hand. Unless... he did not want us to encounter something via the posters, or someone..."

    "You mean..."

    "If the man he''s looking for is indeed the other Great Priest, all of the people involved in the search would never have met the Great Priest, so even if they came face to face with that monk, they would only think of him as the man from the poster. They would just report it to their superiors as with any ordinary criminal. But if we met the monk..."

    All they needed to do was recall what had occurred on Dustpan Mountain. That was what would happen if Ministry officials met the monk from the poster.

    The two suddenly felt silent and looked back out at that faint, flickering light in the river god''s temple.

    If everything they''d guessed turned out even to be roughly correct... then the Great Priest they were currently following was the one who had left the court. And the Great Priest who remained inside the court had bypassed the Ministry and sent out orders to find him.

    "Yuebai, what do we do..." the Taizhu suddenly said.

    The Taipu was stunned by his calling of her name.

    When they had both first entered the Ministry as children of seven or eight ¨C¨C some of the other children had been even younger ¨C¨C most of them had all come from poor families. Folk tradition was to give children ugly names because they believed it would ensure that the children survived into adulthood, since demons would be less likely to find them. Whether these names were Cat and Dog, or Liuliang and Qijin*, or the date of their birth, they were all nonsense and not proper names at all, with frequent overlaps.

    Thus, when the children had arrived at the Ministry, in order to tell them apart, they had all been given more elegant names that came from the colors used in painting. The Taipu had been given the name Yuebai, which meant "white of moon", and the Taizhu had been named Yuanqing, "pure black".

    But they''d grown up, and these names hadn''t been used for many years now. When the Taizhu, out of nowhere, called the Taipu Yuebai, she knew that he felt truly, utterly lost.

    The Taipu thought back to when they''d first come across that Great Priest at the foot of the mountain ¨C¨C that pointed chin, that deep and gentle voice. She said, "Let''s keep following and investigate further. After all, we can''t spend the rest of our lives only moving when given an order. I want to figure out whether the one I''m following is the one I want to be following..."

    After some thought, the Taizhu nodded. He sighed deeply and looked back at the young Chengzi milling about behind them. Then he dusted himself off and said, "Then let''s follow. We''re not totally weak. It''s not like we''ll completely lose¨C¨C"

    Before he could finish his sentence and say them, he froze.

    A mighty roar had risen out from the river god''s temple, fresh and clear as a spring breeze. It went straight into their souls, as though a sound from the heavens. Before they could register what they had heard, a long shadow flew up from the temple and into the skies.

    Next, a great wind suddenly appeared. Though the crescent moon remained, it was now surrounded by black storm clouds, into which that long shadow flew. It pirouetted and zigzagged through the clouds, and then disappeared.

    It was¨C¨C

    "A real live dragon..." The Taipu and Taizhu, as well as all the minor officials around them, suddenly stood up in shock and looked up from their spot on the mountain peak, like a nest of dumbfounded quails.

    Anyone would be shocked speechless when seeing a real dragon soar past them and into the heavens.

    The Ministry group''s minds were blank, and they stood there dumbly for some time before peering back down at the river god''s temple and saw that the light that had once floated there had vanished ¨C¨C there was no one there anymore.

    The group stared with their mouths open for a long time, then suddenly realised what had happened.

    As though in a trance, the Taizhu muttered, "D-did the Great Priest ride the dragon into the sky..."

    The Taipu was completely stupefied too. In a similarly faraway voice, she said, "I think so..."

    The Taizhu thought, How the fuck are we supposed to follow them now?

    Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven, clinging onto the dragon''s claws for dear life, felt just as overwhelmed as the Ministry officials.

    When he''d been at the Fangs, Stone Zhang had not spent all of his time carving little animals ¨C¨C he''d also done some real work. He''d figured that the Fang pharmacy servants who travelled far and wide to pick herbs would be familiar with the landscape around Qingping, so, while Xue Xian and Xuanmin had still been out, he had gone to speak with the servants.

    He could remember what the mountain he''d been taken to while blindfolded had looked like, so he described it in detail to the servants, and they had actually been able to match it to some real places.

    They''d said: There are two places in the mountains where you can have a view of the river such as the one he''d had. One was Mt. Yunxi, and the other was Mt. Lianjiang.

    The two mountains sat between Anqing Prefecture and Wuchang Prefecture, and not that far from Qingping County... of course, "not that far" according to Xue Xian.

    The dragon figured that, if Stone Zhang had been able to dig up a dragon bone there, it was likely that more bones remained buried in that spot. In any case, it was on the way to Langzhou, so they might as well head in that direction and search the mountains.

    Xue Xian prioritised actions over words. As soon as he''d made his decision, before Twenty-Seven and Stone Zhang had been able to mentally prepare themselves, he''d taken one up in each claw and gone directly into the skies. Only the likes of Xuanmin could tolerate such a dramatic turn; anyone else would have half their lifespan shaved off by the fright.

    The group landed at Mt. Yunxi first.

    As soon as Stone Zhang''s two feet touched the ground, he began to spin around dizzily. Collapsing onto the ground and patting down his own robe, he blubbered, "Thank god, thank god I didn''t piss myself."

    Annoyed, Xue Xian glared at him, then looked around at their mountainous surroundings.

    After some time lying on the ground, Stone Zhang finally got back up. As he struggled to remain upright, he looked over jealously at the perfectly steady Xuanmin and said to Xue Xian, "Sir, can we make a deal? Next time, can I also go on your back, and not in your claws? The turbulence is too much. I want to throw up..."

    Xue Xian glared at him again. "Do you think a dragon lets just anyone onto his back?"

    Xuanmin had been holding a twig and a talismanic paper, hoping to find a particular spot in the mountain where there might be a strong cluster of magical energy. But when he heard Xue Xian, his hands stopped moving.

    As soon as Xue Xian had spoken, he''d realised that something he''d said had sounded a bit odd, and then had seen Xuanmin look over at him. He immediately turned on his heels so that his back was to Xuanmin and snapped at Stone Zhang, "Go away."

    Stone Zhang said nothing.

    Since the deal did not go through, all Stone Zhang could do was obey. He walked over to various spots around the mountain and stood atop some boulders, looking all around him, and finally shook his head. "Not this one," he said. "We need to go¨C¨C"

    Before he could say somewhere else, he and Twenty-Seven were in Xue Xian''s enormous clutches once again.

    Stone Zhang did not even have the time to pull a tragic expression. The wind was already whipping his face as they rose to the skies: Holy mother of god ¨C¨C help me¨C¨C

    When they landed once more, it was in an even more extravagant manner.

    Because as soon as Xue Xian''s claws touched the ground of Mt. Lianjiang, the entire mountain began to trembled, and that extremely familiar feeling began to call out to him again.

    ---

    * Liuliang (6 liang) and Qijin (7 jin) would be names given on the basis of the baby''s weight at birth.

 CH 76

    Chapter 76: Finger, Knuckle, Mole (III)

    "This is the spot!" Xue Xian did not need Stone Zhang to guide them anymore ¨C¨C he was the first to speak.

    The more he was healing, the stronger the call of those dragon bones were. The tremor that he felt this time was far more intense than all the tremors from before, to the point where Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven, who had already been seeing stars, immediately collapsed onto the ground. Poor Stone Zhang''s foot slipped and he tumbled down a hill.

    Thankfully, Xuanmin reached out and grabbed hold of him.

    "Sit down," he said matter-of-factly to the two.

    With that shake, it was a miracle that the mountain hadn''t entirely crumbled and that they hadn''t died. Of course they couldn''t stand upright.

    Guiding the half-blind Twenty-Seven, Stone Zhang sat down by an old tree and tightly hugged its trunk, so that, even sitting, there was no way he could roll down the hill once more.

    Xue Xian tried to close his hand into a fist, but found that there was something wrong with the dragon bone here ¨C¨C it seemed that some spell was clamping it underground, making it impossible to dig up. It was the same feeling as when he reached out to pick up something that was supposed to be light, but found it impossible and inconvenient, as though some force were purposely keeping it away from him.

    If the force trapping the dragon bone at Wen Village had weighed a thousand jin, then this time, the force was the weight of two enormous mountains.

    As Xue Xian began to frown, he felt someone come to stand by him.

    He turned around, and just as he''d thought, it was Xuanmin.

    Perhaps this was an inauspicious year for him ¨C¨C ever since he''d been maimed, nothing he did seemed to go smoothly. There were very few mortals in the world who could be of any help to him, and he had long learned to rely on himself for most things. He was a man of action, not words, and usually did things efficiently and brusquely, without wasting kindness ¨C¨C in any case, he feared nothing.

    But after meeting Xuanmin, he discovered that to have someone help him when he was in need saved him a great deal of extra effort. He had always assumed that, as someone who hated owing anything to anyone else and who hated others interfering in his affairs, he would naturally refuse all help from others ¨C¨C but in reality, the frequent times that Xuanmin came to his aid, he did not feel annoyed.

    Perhaps it was because Xuanmin always came at the right time; or perhaps, after having been half-paralysed for six months, Xue Xian''s had become a slightly more agreeable person... Today, he suddenly realised that he had become used to Xuanmin''s presence, to the point where he even willingly left Xuanmin some space to be by his side.

    And now, as Xuanmin held his copper coin pendant, subduing all the possible obstacles for him, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, it was as though he were stepping into the space Xue Xian had left for him.

    This was the first time that Xue Xian, while retrieving his dragon bones, did not have his full attention on the retrieval itself¨C¨C

    The violently shaking mountain was like a colossal beast struggling against a trap, but held back forcibly by Xuanmin, who remained cool and collected as ever. Yet the dragon bone still moved sluggishly through the layers of earth.

    "Don''t let go," Xuanmin''s calm voice said. Instantly, Xue Xian felt another hand clasp itself over his, those warm fingers sending a surge of magical energy through his skin and into his palm.

    Suddenly, the dragon bone began to shift at rapid speed.

    Xue Xian twitched his fingers beneath Xuanmin''s grasp, and, as though coming back to life, began to pull even harder.

    There was a deafening howl of wind, and just as the trembling earth began to shake so violently that the old tree threatened to collapse, numerous small pieces of white bone leapt out of three different spots in the mud and flew toward Xue Xian. One by one, as they approached the center of his palm, they were shattered into fine powder by an invisible flame. Lodging themselves into his skin, they then sank into his body and vanished.

    But before he could even begin to absorb the bones, Mt. Lianjiang transformed in a very small, very abnormal way.

    Four thin lines resembling spider silk shot out of the ground and began to fly out in four different directions: three to their east, and one to the west all by itself.

    But in the blink of an eye, those strange lines evaporated into the night like water vapor ¨C¨C and then all was quiet.

    Frowning, Xue Xian looked around, unable to figure out what that "spider silk"-like flash had been.

    "Did you get it out? Is the earthquake over? Can I let go?" Stone Zhang shouted ecstatically from the tree, which he was still hugging. "Why are you still standing there looking all vigilant?"

    It was this that made Xue Xian suddenly realise that, yes, he had finished retrieving the bones, yet his hand was still clasped within Xuanmin''s, that they had, at some point, dropped their hands to their sides, and that, at some point, their fingers had become intertwined.

    Xue Xian gulped. How did we get into this position? Why don''t I remember anything...

    But maybe he was being possessed by a demon who was preventing him from thinking clearly, or some other wicked magic ¨C¨C the feeling of the back of his hand and the palm of Xuanmin''s hand pressed together tightly like this was indescribably intimate, and Xue Xian realised that this intimacy was lingering between them both, and that he actually did not want it to go away.

    So it was only after he stared idly at their hands for some time that he finally let go.

    Until then, Xuanmin had not moved, perhaps because he hadn''t realised what had happened. But as Xue Xian moved his hand away, Xuanmin turned to him.

    When Xuanmin looked at someone, his gaze was always quick and casual ¨C¨C he either looked away or simply looked past, and it was very rare that he would actually rest his gaze on someone. That pair of eyes always seemed calm and cold, but in that moment, for the briefest of instants, there was something else behind those black and deep, endlessly deep eyes.

    The atmosphere between the two became strange and impossible to parse. Off to the side, the oblivious Stone Zhang, who seemed finally to have calmed down, stumbled upright clumsily, as though still not used to a not-trembling mountain.

    He stared off into space for a while, then sighed and began to dust off the mud from his clothes with a pitter-patter noise. As he patted himself, he nudged Twenty-Seven who sat cross-legged on the ground and said, "What is it? Is there another problem?"

    Twenty-Seven rolled his eyes and said, "How should I know? I''m blind."

    Stone Zhang frowned. He thought the boy was behaving in a bizarre manner. Xue Xian, who was stepping away from Xuanmin, also detected something off in Twenty-Seven''s tone, but as he glanced at him, that teenage boy had the audacity to look pointedly at Xue Xian''s fingers, and then pretend to be blind and look away into the distance.

    Xue Xian cleared his throat. "What was that thing just now?" he asked as he turned back to the topic at hand. He walked over to the edge of the mountain and looked around. Then he pointed out three different directions and said, "That''s where the thing went, right? One went into the river and disappeared. One went beyond the river. And¨C¨C"

    Suddenly, something seemed to occur to him. He frowned.

    "Huizhou Prefecture, the river, Anqing Prefecture," Xuanmin said. He seemed to have read Xue Xian''s mind, or else had simply happened to come to the same conclusion at the same time. As he listed the locations, he too pointed out in three directions.

    Those three names together did not mean much to Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven who had joined the group halfway through, but to Xue Xian and Xuanmin, the connection was clear.

    "The Liu compound, Gravestone Island, Wen Village," Xue Xian said, narrowing down the locations that Xuanmin had listed. Then, the two met eyes.

    At Officer Liu''s compound in Ningyang County, Huizhou Prefecture, Xue Xian had found the golden marble containing his physical body; in the tomb beneath Gravestone Island on the river, he had found the first piece of his stolen dragon bone; and the second time he''d found a bone, it had been in Wen Village, Anqing Prefecture; and today, on Mt. Lianjiang, was the third time.

    Although they had encountered Stone Zhang in the meantime and he''d had a dragon bone sword, he had found the bone here on Mt. Lianjiang, so it counted as part of that last batch.

    Those spider silk-like lines had come out of Mt. Lianjiang, and the three eastern places seemed to have flown to places where Xue Xian had found parts of his body. So the western line... must have gone to the final location.

    Twenty-Seven said, "Those thin threads. I saw it too. Clear as day."

    That sentence changed things.

    Twenty-Seven''s eyes, influenced by Nineteen''s life exchange spell, were dulled to ordinary things, making him half-blind ¨C¨C but when it came to spiritual, qi, and magic-related things, his vision was extremely sensitive. If he had seen those spider silk lines as clear as day, then that meant that those lines had belonged to one of the three categories.

    Xuanmin fell silent as he pondered this. Then he guessed, "A great spell."

    Xue Xian was stunned. "Spell?"

    But before Xuanmin had to explain, Xue Xian understood. Originally, the golden marble and the dragon bones had all been placed at the center of different feng shui designs: the "Direct the River into the Sea" design at the Liu compound, the "Hundred Soldiers Push the Flow" design on Gravestone Island... They had focused entirely on those individual designs at each location ¨C¨C had even been distracted by these spells ¨C¨C which suggested another possibility ¨C¨C

    What if those previous spells had only been the surface? What if the locations of the golden marble and the bones came together to constitute a bigger, broader spell?

    Xuanmin did not have full access to his memories, so could not immediately guess what this great spell might be. But he thought for a while, then said, "Some excessively large designs need the spells to be awoken."

    "Awoken?" Xue Xian asked, frowning.

    "First, you find the right locations and place the magical items there. Once you have all four, they come together to create a bigger spell," Xue Xian explained. "Once the real spell has been laid down, the individual items no longer matter."

    Like how a gardener might prop up some scaffolding when planting ivy beneath a courtyard wall, so as to help the ivy climb up. But once the ivy has grown enough and is steady, then the gardener can take the scaffolding away without affecting the health of the plant.

    As Xue Xian listened, he cast his mind back, and indeed found many unresolved questions ¨C¨C

    The wizard who had helped Officer Liu build his "Direct the River into the Sea" design had clearly known what he was doing, but if he really was an expert, why would he put a real dragon''s golden marble into some tiny, insignificant family spell, and for a lowlife like Officer Liu?

    And at Wen Village, he had also been confused as to why the spell there had been laid so haphazardly ¨C¨C it could hold back some jianghu wizards for sure, but to Xue Xian, extracting the bone had been a piece so easy that it had been as though the spell had been inviting him to break it.

    As was the one on Mt. Lianjiang: even Stone Zhang had managed to take a bone away.

    If it was as Xuanmin had said, then these strange inconsistencies would make sense. It also explained why the tremors caused by retrieving his body parts were becoming increasingly strong ¨C¨C at the beginning, the effect on their surroundings had been almost nonexistent.

    As there were less and less bones in the spell, it was like taking away the last of the scaffolding from the ivy: they couldn''t help but react.

    "So that means¨C¨C" Xue Xian finally said, his face set. "The great spell has successfully been cast."

    That was why it had been so easy to retrieve the magical items used to awaken the spell.

    And based on where that last spider silk-like line had flown, they needed to head west. But they couldn''t know if that was a location used for awakening the spell, or an actual part of the great spell.

    Xue Xian was a very straightforward person. Since the line had already told him where to go, of course he had to go and check it out.

    But just as he planned to fly into the sky again, someone interrupted him.

    Xuanmin put the copper coin pendant back into Xue Xian''s hand and said, "It would be best if you absorbed the new dragon bones right now, so that unexpected things don''t crop up later."

    In other words, it was to prevent Xue Xian from succumbing to the sweltering heat mid-journey, which would result in unpredictable complications.

    Xue Xian agreed with Xuanmin''s logic, but as he accepted the pendant, he felt complicated emotions appear ¨C¨C after a few uses, he and the copper coin pendant... more accurately, he had inserted himself into the connection that had already existed between the pendant and Xuanmin, and his presence was becoming ever stronger. If he continued like this, he couldn''t imagine what the connection would evolve into.

    Suddenly, he remembered something and looked at Xuanmin. "This pendant... and also, earlier, when you added your magic to my palm. There is no way a mortal can have that much raw power. Did you take some kind of pill that can strengthen someone''s magic ability?"

 CH 77

    Chapter 77: Funeral Stop (I)

    It wasn''t like Xuanmin hadn''t helped him before ¨C¨C but, whether it was because the copper coins were still sealed, or because Xuanmin hadn''t had as many of his memories, the power that he had unleashed had never been enough to cast doubt in Xue Xian''s mind. Xue Xian had only thought that the monk was an exceptionally skilled mortal.

    Last time, at Wen Village, Xuanmin had also helped Xue Xian to repress the earth while he extracted his dragon bone, Xuanmin''s magical power had already been much stronger than before ¨C¨C but his hand had split open, and Xue Xian''s entire attention had been on the wound, so that it had not occurred to him to question how Xuanmin had become so powerful.

    But this time was different. The bones buried in Mt. Lianjiang were much more difficult to extract than at Wen Village, and the tremors caused by Xue Xian putting all of his strength into summoning the bones had also been far more violent, yet, as Xuanmin maintained pressure on the earth to hold it all together, he had additionally been able to hold onto Xue Xian''s hand and inject even more magic there.

    Based on what had happened back at Wen Village, let alone a wound, Xuanmin''s entire hand should have fallen right off. But Xuanmin seemed totally unhurt, and even appeared not to be that tired.

    Which was very weird.

    In this world, there were very few mortals that could actually be of any help to Xue Xian, and even fewer who could have accompanied him all this way. Besides, if it was really related to the seals on the copper coins, then it was even more shocking, because there were five coins, and only three of the seals had been broken so far, and Xuanmin was already this powerful. What would he be like once all five seals were broken?

    But Xue Xian wasn''t worried about any of this ¨C¨C rather, he was simply curious, so had asked Xuanmin in a casual manner.

    Xuanmin frowned when he heard Xue Xian''s question. "In fact, I also have some questions about this. But the memories that I have regained so far are not enough to explain it."

    As he spoke, he met eyes with Xue Xian, and seemed really to look deep into Xue Xian''s eyes. He added, "If I remember, I promise to tell you in all honesty."

    This response was both expected and utterly unexpected.

    From their previous conversations about the topic, Xue Xian knew that Xuanmin was not the type of person to omit or hide anything ¨C¨C he wasn''t sure how Xuanmin was like with others, but he knew for sure that, with Xue Xian, the monk spoke frankly.

    So when Xue Xian had asked, he''d expected Xuanmin to say something like that. But he was taken aback by Xuanmin''s gaze and tone: compared to before, his words now sounded profoundly earnest and sincere.

    Xue Xian was slightly overwhelmed by the way that Xuanmin was looking at him. For some reason, in that moment, he got the feeling that, with his normally carefree personality, he was unable to handle the solemnity of Xuanmin''s gaze. In his daze, he even forgot how to speak.

    So it was only after some time that Xue Xian abruptly broke eye contact and waved his hands dismissively. "No worries," he said. "Don''t be so serious. I was just asking."

    Then, before he could start overthinking it, he closed his fist on the pendant and leaped onto the branches of the tree, where he leant against the trunk and swiftly began to focus on absorbing those new pieces of bone.

    The process took all night.

    Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven were ordinary mortals, and naturally did not have the abnormal physicality of Xue Xian and Xuanmin. After running around all night, being flown, shaken, and swung about, they were exhausted, so, while Xue Xian was healing, they went to sleep.

    Xue Xian had absorbed three bones in one go this time. Inside his body, he could feel the fragmented bones building up his spine once more, and the prosthetic threads receding to accommodate the new growth. As the threads became shorter, they folded into thicker and more rigorous threads, and seemed to be able to last a bit longer than before.

    When he awoke from his meditation, the first thing he heard was the cry of a bird circling above him somewhere far away. The bird''s cry was melodious and crisp, which made him feel refreshed. But before that bird''s echoes had faded, another familiar sighing noise rose.

    Xue Xian suddenly opened his eyes and saw that Xuanmin''s black bird was hovering in the branches across from him, with a large cloth bundle clutched in its beak.

    Xue Xian had no idea where this bird had originally come from, but it had a savage, untameable personality. When they''d made their way from Dustpan Mountain''s hollow to the village on its sunny side, he''d thought the bird would begin to follow Xuanmin everywhere, but as soon as they''d approached the Fang compound, the bird had flapped its wings and flown away ¨C¨C it seemed not to enjoy being trapped in such a small and crowded place.

    As the group had left the compound, Xue Xian had even scanned the courtyard for the bird, but had not found a trace. He''d thought the bird had gotten lost, but here it was now, somehow having caught up to them.

    "You actually know where to go," Xue Xian muttered. His hand shot out to grip the bird''s body and he tugged the bundle from its beak. As he fiddled with the bundle''s knot, he glanced down at the foot of the tree, where Xuanmin, sitting cross-legged. Xuanmin had heard noise in the tree above, so was looking back up at him.

    In the pale morning sun, Xue Xian smiled down at Xuanmin. Wagging his chin, he said, "Morning. Your goblin bird committed a crime. It stole some crispy cakes for you. Here¨C¨C"

    He tied the bundle back up again and dropped it lightly from his hand. Beneath the tree, Xuanmin tilted his head and caught it.

    "Get down," Xuanmin said as he worked the knot.

    Automatically, Xue Xian made to bound down from the tree, but saw that the black bird flew down first and stood obediently in front of Xuanmin, looking extremely docile.

    Xue Xian realised that Xuanmin had been talking to the bird.

    So he drew back the foot that had been about to land on the ground and, rolling his eyes, leant against the tree trunk once more. He bent one knee and let the other leg swing idly from the branch.

    Beyond the small peak to the east, he could see the horizon and the new sun above it.

    Then he looked down at Xuanmin sitting on the ground below, and that faithful black bird by his side. Suddenly, Xue Xian thought, If every day was like this, that would be nice. Not too lively, and not too lonely, all that empty space comfortably filled.

    If he could wake up each morning and see what he saw at the foot of that tree, he would never tire of it, not in a hundred years.

    Perhaps it was because that crisp morning air in the mountains was very pleasant to take in. Xue Xian found that he felt content.

    "It was not stolen," Xuanmin said mildly. "The Fang family must have seen the letter. They sent us these provisions."

    As he spoke, he stood up, and that white monk''s robe remained ever spotless.

    He was holding the note that the Fang family had slipped into the bundle between his fingers, and waved it at Xue Xian. Then he raised the crispy cakes and asked, "Hungry?"

    Xue Xian swung his legs and lazily said, "It''s best if you don''t provoke my appetite. Or else I''ll swallow you whole alongside the cakes and still not feel full."

    Xuanmin glared at his swinging legs as though disapproving of his posture. He turned and placed the bundle of food next to Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven, who were just rousing. "The Fangs were very kind to send us these," he said. "We mustn''t let them go to waste."

    Then Xuanmin walked back to the foot of the tree and patted Xue Xian on his shin. Softly, he asked, "What do you want to eat? We can go to the next town later and buy some."

    Xue Xian looked down at him from the branch. Xuanmin''s black eyes were dimly illuminated by the morning light, which made them seem pleasantly luminous, with a sense of warmth seeping through, like melting frost.

    That lazy, content feeling surged brighter within Xue Xian''s heart and he suddenly had the urge to half-joke, Once you get your memories back, if you don''t have anything urgent to tend to, what do you say we partner up?

    But just as he opened his mouth to blurt it out, before he could speak, he was interrupted by a faint noise coming from somewhere.

    Kacha¨C¨C

    It sounded like a twig snapping beneath someone''s step.

    In an instant, Xue Xian''s languid form disappeared from the branches. From the movements in the mountains, he had already determined where that noise had come from, and was lightly leaping through the forest toward it.*

    In another instant, he was back by Xuanmin''s side. He opened his fist and a hip ornament made of wood dangled from his finger. "Look familiar?" he asked.

    Frowning, Xuanmin reached into his pouch and extracted the other wooden hip ornament, comparing the two. "Exactly the same," he said.

    The ornament that Xuanmin held had been taken from that man who had cast the "Hundred Soldiers Push the Flow" spell and whom they had found dying in the stone room beneath Xuanmin''s bamboo building. According to that man, the ornament was made of peach tree wood, and had been gifted to him by the Daoist wizard named Songyun, as a marker of discipleship.

    With a hardened face, Xue Xian gestured into the woods with his chin and said, "I followed the sound, but the person instantly disappeared. They must have prepared a transportation spell. From afar, I tried to grab onto them, but all I got was this thing."

    But it was enough. Just this item could tell them where that person came from.

    Initially, he had assumed that the noise had been created by someone coming to pick medicinal herbs or gather firewood. But now it was clear: that person had not had good intentions.

    If they had the hip ornament, then they were associated with the wizard Songyun, and definitely had something to do with Xue Xian''s dragon bones. Xue Xian suspected that those spider silk-like lines from last night had alerted Songyun''s people, and someone had come to investigate.

    Xue Xian took the first ornament from Xuanmin''s hand, then walked to where Twenty-Seven was sitting and crouched down. "Could you please try to see who''s touched these ornaments before, and where they are now?"

    Although Twenty-Seven generally behaved insolently, when it came to important moments, he was straightforward. Without a word, he put down the cake he''d been munching on and brought out his bundle of sticks. After some time spent scribbling on the ground, he pointed west and said, "Straight ahead, there''s a mountain whose peak looks like the head of a horse. On one side of the mountain are five small peaks clustered together, and on the other side is a temple pagoda with six stories."

    "I see. You should put the rest of that cake away. If you eat too much, you might throw up." Xue Xian then made a quick gesture at Xuanmin, grabbed Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven''s collars, transformed into a dragon, and flew into the pink sunrise, toward the west.

    Although Twenty-Seven could not divine the place name, his descriptions were enough, so that as Xue Xian flew, he soon came upon that "horse head mountain".

    Here, the sky was overcast, so he picked a secluded place in which to land. Twenty-Seven immediately did another divination and said, "They''re still in the mountain and haven''t left yet. If you go halfway up this hill¨C¨C oh, weird."

    "What is it?"

    "They suddenly disappeared," Twenty-Seven said, confused.

    "Disappeared?" Xue Xian frowned. "Are so lucky as to have them run away again?"

    "No," Twenty-Seven replied, shaking his head. "By disappear, I don''t mean that they disappeared from the hill, but that... they disappeared from the divination."

    Even as he said it himself, he seemed not to believe it. He cleared away the dust and calculated again, but still frowned and said, "It''s still like that. I can''t find them at all anymore."

    Hearing this, Xue Xian looked over at the hillside and laughed coldly. "Alright, never mind the divination. I''ll go find them myself."

    He sensed from the strangeness of the situation that it was likely dangerous, so he cut open his fingertip and dotted some blood on the backs of Twenty-Seven and Stone Zhang''s hands. In order to make sure the spell worked correctly, he chose places where the two had not been injured and their skin remained clean.

    Then, he gestured into the distance with his chin. "If you take that path that leads toward the nearest town, I saw a tea stall not far from here. You can wait there, or you can go directly into the city. With dragon blood protecting you, nothing can happen to you, and later it''ll be easy for me to find you. The bald donkey and I are going up to see the mountain."

    Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven knew what they were worth, and did not try to insist on being a burden to Xue Xian and Xuanmin. Hearing Xue Xian''s instructions, they simply nodded and said, "Be careful." Then they took the mountain path and began to walk toward the nearest county seat.

    Xue Xian and Xuanmin exchanged glances, then both leapt up to the hillside.

    As they leapt into the air, they were able to see a large swath of their surroundings, and noticed that, hidden deep within the forest, on a relatively flat slope, there as a trail of stone steps, and the steps led to a hut with its door ajar. It did not look like an abandoned temple, nor like a pagoda from which people could rest and admire the view.

    As a breeze blew by, Xue Xian sniffed the air and frowned in disgust. "The smell of dead bodies."

    Without any hesitation, the two strode up the stairs and stood before that open door.

    "The smell is absolutely everywhere..." Xue Xian said. As soon as he''d approached the door, he''d felt the stench slam into him. "What kind of creepy place is this?"

    ---

    * She used the fuckin "dragonfly skidding across water" simile AGAIN here and listen babe it was really cool the first and second time but i''m sick of translating it FIND OTHER SIMILES PLS!!!

 CH 78

    Chapter 78: Funeral Stop (II)

    The hut had an unusually high ceiling, which made it more than half a zhang taller than normal buildings.

    There was a gate in front of the door, but the gate was covered in scrawling talismanic text, and someone had driven nails into its sides, and the entire wooden gate seemed to have been doused in blood, or perhaps simply dipped into a pool of blood, so that the dark wood was still a bit moist. The gate emitted an old, metallic stench of blood, which intermixed with the smell of dead bodies that came from within the room.

    The hut did not have windows on either side as most buildings did, but instead had two small windows at the top of its high walls that seemed to help let air through ¨C¨C they looked like two tiny caverns.

    Because the ventilating windows were so small, the interior of the hut never saw light and was constantly bathed in darkness ¨C¨C a living person, merely approaching the building, would become filled with a sense of unease, let alone try to go into the hut to see what it looked like on the inside.

    Frowning, Xue Xian fanned himself under his nose, but there was nothing he could do about the stench except maintain a neutral expression and hold his breath. He looked around and saw that there was text carved onto boards on both sides of the door, though it had been so long that the boards were now mottled and disintegrating.

    As he studied the text, he discovered that it had six words: Yin souls depart. Yang souls allow.

    It sounded familiar...

    Xue Xian gave Xuanmin a questioning look.

    Based on Xuanmin''s personality, Xue Xian knew that to get him to open his mouth and speak in such a revolting place was less likely than dropping dead right then and there. So, as Xue Xian continued to hold his breath, and just as he''d finished asking Xuanmin his silent question, he felt Xuanmin grab hold of his wrist and hold it up. Silently, the monk used his finger to outline the characters into his palm ¨C¨C Funeral stop.

    Funeral stop?

    Xue Xian had heard of such things: in the regions along the river in the Xiang area, there were men whose job it was to transport the dead to their hometowns to be buried. They only travelled at night and, during the day, needed to avoid all other living people. But often, it was impossible to complete the entire journey in one night, especially if they encountered bad weather. So every dozen li or so in this area, there would be buildings erected specifically for corpse-carriers and the corpses themselves to rest and shelter, and these were called funeral stops.

    Xue Xian had not been witness to such practices, nor had he heard a lot about them, but he remembered hearing that there were many particulars to the corpse-carrying profession. They had to bring the body to its destination before it began to decompose, or else they would sully every place they passed through ¨C¨C never mind the falling chunks of rotten flesh, just the lingering smell would be enough to overwhelm anyone else in the area. Who could tolerate that?

    So for this funeral stop to smell this bad was not normal.

    Grimacing, Xue Xian pinched his nose and paced about in front of the door as his face turned green. In the end, he threw caution to the wind and stepped through the door, automatically glancing back at Xuanmin for a moment.

    At first sight, Xuanmin''s face was ice cold and, except for a faint sense of disgust at the stench demonstrated by a small frown, he did not seem to have any other reaction to the funeral stop. But in those calm, pitch-black eyes, Xue Xian could see an indescribable sense of helplessness.

    When he first noticed that emotion brimming beneath Xuanmin''s eyes, Xue Xian wanted to smile. It wasn''t funny, but coming from Xuanmin, the unexpectedness made it funny. But before he''d even turned up his lips to smile, Xue Xian suddenly realised that there was something wrong¨C¨C

    Xuanmin was normally so collected ¨C¨C he repressed all of his emotions, never to be revealed. Most people could spend hours thinking about it, yet would not be able to guess anything about him. Even Xue Xian found it often impossible to know Xuanmin''s mood or what he was thinking. But now, he could actually tell what Xuanmin was feeling.

    He didn''t even have to investigate ¨C¨C it was as though it were the most natural thing in the world to know Xuanmin''s feelings...

    As soon as Xue Xian thought of the phrase natural, it came to him ¨C¨C the copper coins!

    It was the connection from the copper coin pendant.

    That connection seemed to have deepened yet again after Xue Xian had used the pendant last night, so that now even these subtle shifts to Xuanmin''s emotions could be transferred onto Xue Xian.

    Xue Xian''s half-smile was frozen into something much more complicated: after all, he still couldn''t know if this connection was a good or bad thing ¨C¨C if it became too deep, he may stop knowing whether his happiness was purely his own happiness or somehow affected by the emotions of the other; and if he was sad, whether the sadness had been multiplied by the other person''s sadness.

    The most anxiety-inducing part was, if he could feel Xuanmin''s reactions, then could Xuanmin feel his emotions and feelings too? Especially certain urges that seemed to increasingly surge forth?

    Then they were far too closely enmeshed.

    Just the thought of it made Xue Xian want to die of embarrassment.

    He decided that, as soon as they left this place, he would tell Xuanmin about what was happening. If it was possible, they needed to sever this, or else more unnecessary complications would arise.

    As Xue Xian''s mind floated back to the present, he noticed Xuanmin staring at him, perhaps puzzled by why his face was frozen stiffly in such a strange expression.

    "It''s nothing," Xue Xian said automatically, waving his hand.

    Immediately, he rolled his eyes. All he could feel was his entire body be flooded with the stench.

    Xuanmin said nothing.

    The hut was even emptier than Xue Xian had expected ¨C¨C actually, there was practically nothing inside. Never mind a table, chairs, or altar, there wasn''t even a stone on which to sit. Xue Xian let his eyes adjust to the weak light cast through the minuscule windows by the ceiling, then walked around the room.

    Compared to the totally empty room, the four walls did have more going on. The walls were covered in semi-circular metal hoops around the size of a fist, sometimes clustered tightly together, other times set apart. The two sides of each hoop were nailed into the wall, and the middle rose up in a small curve.

    These hoops were always grouped in pairs, and spaced out next to them were another pair, the strange sequence creating a circle that extended around all four walls.

    Xue Xian studied the hoops intently, and then noticed some frayed fragments of rope tangled on some of them and understood their function ¨C¨C it seemed that when the corpse-carriers rested here, they would use the hoops to tie the body to the wall and keep it upright.

    It both prevented the body from falling over, and protected the integrity of the body.

    But soon, Xue Xian''s steps faltered.

    He saw that the hoop in front of him was stained with a streak of blood, which may have been splashed on or have been a result of someone scratching themselves against the hoop ¨C¨C but the issue was that the blood was wet and sticky... it was obviously left there very recently.

    Without lifting his head, Xue Xian waved at Xuanmin, then pointed at the hoops to show him the blood.

    Xuanmin''s brows furrowed slightly, then relaxed again. He pointed at the corner of the hut where Xue Xian had previously been standing.

    Following his finger, Xue Xian looked over and realised that a pile of rope lay heaped on the ground there, as well as some crumpled paper. He had assumed that the items had been random things left behind by the corpse-carriers, so had not looked too closely and passed by.

    But since Xuanmin had pointed it out, it meant that it was not so simple. But Xue Xian couldn''t think of anything wrong with the items, so he obediently stuck out a hand to Xuanmin, palm facing up.

    At first Xuanmin faltered, but then used his finger to write some more on Xue Xian''s palm.

    "Shifting spell." Naturally, writing on a palm was not as comprehensible as directly speaking, and it was also impossible to write anything too complicated, so Xuanmin had concisely written those two words.

    It didn''t matter what the design had originally been named. After Xuanmin had written down the explanation, Xue Xian understood the design''s function ¨C¨C similarly to the way that stranger at Mt. Lianjiang had instantly disappeared, someone had used this spell to leave this room right before Xue Xian and Xuanmin had arrived.

    As he thought about it, Xue Xian became almost certain that this person was the same stranger he''d been chasing previously.

    But...

    Xuanmin wrote on Xue Xian''s palm again: Not just one person.

    Xue Xian walked over to that pile of rope and paper and crouched down. The floor was steeped in the stench of corpses accumulated over the years, and Xue Xian couldn''t help but frown and pinch his nose again.

    Now that he was close to the floor, he discovered that the strangers had used their blood to draw a circle, and the rope was piled inside the circle. The papers were covered in dried blood and seemed to have been randomly strewn around the blood circle.

    In addition, Xue Xian had also seen something else...

    In the corner outside the circle, right where the two walls intersected, there were several needles on the floor, and they held streaks of blood too. They looked as though they had been melded together and into the ground, so that they were impossible to see unless one looked very, very closely.

    There were far too many uses for such long, thin silver needles, but in that dark and humid funeral stop, and recalling what Twenty-Seven had said about the figure in the divination "suddenly disappearing", Xue Xian immediately thought of one such use¨C¨C

    Some wizards, when faced with imminent danger, used such needles to replace themselves with corpse warriors.

    By corpse warriors, it meant that they would do some magic to a dead body to make it "come back to life" ¨C¨C it would look approximately like a normal person, but it would actually be an empty puppet controlled by the wizard. The person to whom the body belonged had no say.

    And when the wizard had no use for them anymore, they would remove the needles and the corpse warrior would be a dead body again ¨C¨C and dead bodies never appeared in Twenty-Seven''s divinations.

    If this really had been the case here, then it was obvious who the wizard was that had been controlling the body.

    Since he had already come all this way, and would, in a few more steps, find the man who had maimed him and get his revenge, Xue Xian naturally was not going to give up. He grabbed Xue Xian''s hand and wrote, Can the spell still be used?

    Xuanmin replied, Chasing?

    Xue Xian nodded.

    Xuanmin understood. He wrote, The spell is spent, but can be recreated.

    Then, he sliced a gash on his finger so that he began to bleed. Following some obscure sequence, he dripped blood onto those crumpled papers.

    There were the gloomy sounds of blood striking the papers, and those dried streaks of blood suddenly became bright and fresh again, as though reinvigorated.

    Xuanmin waved at Xue Xian, indicating for him to step into the circle.

    The blood circle was tiny, and just big enough for one person ¨C¨C it seemed that the group of strangers had gone in one by one.

    Xue Xian stood in the circle, intending to go ahead first, but as he raised his head to look at Xuanmin, he saw the monk slightly frown as he cast the spell.

    Based on Xuanmin''s nitpicky, clean-freak personality, every extra second spent in this funeral stop was torture. So without another thought, in the instant that Xuanmin cast the spell, Xue Xian reached out and pulled the monk into the circle with him.

    He had put all of his strength into his hands, so as Xuanmin stepped in, he stumbled and collapsed entirely onto Xue Xian.

    A sudden twist of wind rose from all around them, followed by an extended weng sound as their surroundings shifted. But as soon as they were transported, Xue Xian began to regret what he''d just done ¨C¨C

    Xuanmin had slammed into him hard. The two of them half-grasped and half-clawed each other as they floundered backwards.

    Then, there was a thud as Xue Xian crashed into a jagged wall built from broken stones, and Xuanmin in turn crashed into him.

    The feeling of suddenly backing into those rough stones sent a shock wave of pain across Xue Xian''s body, and he couldn''t help but moan. But the back of his head, which was also supposed to have been struck, did not touch the stones at all ¨C¨C instead, it was buttressed by something much softer, which had absorbed all the impact.

    Stunned, Xue Xian realised that, right before they''d slammed into the wall, Xuanmin had automatically reached out to protect his head. And so the thing that cradled his head now was Xuanmin''s hand.

 CH 79

    Chapter 79: Cave of a Hundred Insects (I)

    After a brief moment of faltering, Xue Xian suddenly stood up straight and pulled Xuanmin''s hand away from the wall to look at it.

    This was probably the first time in his life that he was acting with what people called the greatest of care. Although he was well aware that Xuanmin was not like ordinary mortals, nor did he have a paper body that threatened to rip apart with any strain.

    The jagged surface of the stone wall had injured the entire back of Xuanmin''s hand ¨C¨C some of the damage was deep, and other parts had merely been scratched, but overall it looked mangled, and blood immediately seeped across half of his hand.

    It wasn''t like Xue Xian had never seen blood, and indeed he had seen injuries a million times worse than this, and experienced worse injuries too. But when he saw the network of cuts and abrasions across the back of Xuanmin''s hand, he still felt a prickly unhappiness in his heart, and was somehow upset.

    Those times at the beginning, when he''d first met Xuanmin, and had gone out of his way to constantly try and trip up the monk and make his life difficult, now seemed as faraway as a past life, to the point where Xue Xian could barely even remember anymore.

    "It''s nothing," Xuanmin said. Like Xue Xian, he didn''t get fazed by injuries. As he tried to pull his hand away, he reached out his other hand and patted Xue Xian''s shoulder, saying, "Did you hit the bones on your back?"

    "I''m missing a huge chunk of my spine, so how could they be injured? Stop moving your hand," Xue Xian said nonchalantly. He hadn''t thought about his back at all. He pinched Xuanmin''s ring and pinky fingers, the only parts of his hand that hadn''t been wrecked, and brought the hand closer to his face.

    As Xue Xian frowned and lowered his head to peer at the injury, Xuanmin quickly brought his other hand over to block Xue Xian''s forehead, preventing him from looking closer.

    "Stop messing around," Xuanmin said, with a hint of exasperation in his tone.

    "Mess around how?" Xue Xian asked, confused, as he tried to push against Xuanmin''s hand on his forehead. "Why are you blocking me?"

    Xuanmin looked at him with those pitch-black eyes and made to speak, then stopped, and decided to say nothing.

    Xue Xian blinked, then realised what had happened. "You thought I was going to..." Lick your wound like last time?

    Xuanmin''s gaze flickered, though he still said nothing, which meant that Xue Xian had guessed right.

    "In your dreams!" Xue Xian felt a rush of shame, which quickly turned into anger, but as soon as he caught sight of the blood on Xuanmin''s hand, the anger vanished again. He snapped, "I just wanted to look closer so I could think of a way to help with the cuts. Maybe just my dragon breath can heal them, since after all, every part of my body is precious."

    Xuanmin did not reply.

    Xue Xian hadn''t thought there''d been anything wrong with what he''d said, but for some reason something strange flashed across Xuanmin''s gaze, as though he''d just recalled something ¨C¨C but he quickly recovered.

    He yanked his hand back and looked away, then pointed at the path ahead. "It was just a scrape," he said. "It''s not even a real injury. Let''s hurry up and find those people."

    Of course Xue Xian knew that a scrape was completely insignificant to the likes of him and Xuanmin, so he naturally did not insist further on trying to heal it. Besides, apart from dragon spit, he couldn''t actually think of anything else that might help Xuanmin heal faster.

    So he let Xuanmin take his hand back, and followed the monk down the path.

    The two seemed to have been transported to a mountain cave. A stone tunnel wound deeply into the cave, and it was extremely narrow. Its two stone walls were tilted against each other, so that as the walls rose, the space between them became ever tighter until they met at the top.

    As Xuanmin and Xue Xian walked in single file, because both were tall, they had no choice but to bend their heads.

    "Traces of blood," Xue Xian said as they passed more jagged rocks.

    The dark traces had a dull rusted smell and were highly viscous ¨C¨C they were definitely not fresh blood from Xuanmin''s hand. They had to come from the "people" who had arrived here first and who had accidentally scratched themselves on their way in.

    Apart from those traces, the scragged, uneven stone floor was also covered in old blood splatters so that, as they stepped across it, they felt an uncomfortable stickiness.

    "Yes," Xuanmin said as he walked ahead. "The layer of blood on the ground is thick. It seems that many people have walked here."

    More than one person and many people had different meanings. Xuanmin''s tone was solemn ¨C¨C he clearly had not expected to step into a sludge of blood.

    These streaks had not come from one or two people, nor seven or eight people. Even if the previous group had been constantly dripping half-coagulated blood the entire time they were walking, it would still take at least a hundred people to create such a mud-like texture on the ground.

    The spot where Xue Xian and Xuanmin had landed had still had a smudge of daylight, but now that they''d reached the tunnel, that daylight was quickly fading. When they turned the next corner, the tunnel became wider again, but that final trace of daylight was in turn completely blocked, leaving a void of complete darkness before their eyes.

    Thankfully, Xue Xian had highly acute vision, and in the darkness, he could at least make out the contours of their surroundings. He took two steps forward, wanting to overtake Xuanmin, but just as he tried to move past, the monk''s hand shot out and grabbed his wrist.

    Xue Xian was stunned. Do you have eyes on your hands or something? How did you even know I was there?

    But the feeling of Xuanmin constantly noticing what he was doing wasn''t a bad feeling at all, so although he grimaced in irritation, his feet did dutifully slow down and walk side by side with Xuanmin, instead of insisting on going ahead by himself.

    After walking shoulder to shoulder in the dark tunnel for some time, their feet suddenly encountered a set of stairs. In the instant that they took the first step down, the stone walls that had been squeezing them on both sides disappeared, as though suddenly widening in their presence.

    Xue Xian froze.

    He grabbed hold of Xuanmin''s hand, holding back the monk who had been about to take another step, and quickly scribbled a word in his palm: Wait.

    Naturally, Xuanmin obeyed and stopped.

    The two lowered the sound of their breathing as they looked all around them.

    Normally, if they wanted to be completely silent while moving around, it was not a difficult task. But the tunnel covered in blood that they''d just emerged from had been so sticky that, no matter how lightly they''d tried to step, they could not avoid a small amount of noise. And the tunnel was eerily still, so that even the slight ruffle of their clothes was amplified.

    And the soft noises that they made reverberated against the stone walls, creating a chorus of sounds that covered over any other noises in the tunnel.

    As soon as they stopped, the soft whispers of other noises began to emerge, worming their way into their ears.

    The sound was as light and quick as a dragonfly skidding across water*, but repeated itself in succession, one after the other, seemingly to no end. Perhaps because the noise echoed amid the stone walls, or perhaps for some other reason, the sound came at them from not just one place but every direction.

    Whether this was above them, or to their side, or in front of them, that whispering noise gradually became clearer and clearer.

    Xue Xian suddenly remembered something and the blood drained from his face. He turned to Xuanmin and said, "Do you still have fire talismans? Light one."

    Although he had made his voice as low as possible, his voice nonetheless boomed across the tunnel and returned to them threefold, resonating gloomily among the stone.

    As the echo rang out, the whispering noises suddenly stopped, alerted to the new noise, then became manic. As the noise grew frenzied, it seemed even to be accompanied by a buzzing, like... something flapping its wings.

    As Xuanmin took out the talisman, he too had a realisation. So he struck it, and in the same sweeping flick of the hand, threw the flame out ahead of them.

    Hong¨C¨C

    A massive cluster of buzzing noises rose to a nauseating level.

    Countless black shadows emerged from all around them, gathering around that flame. Some of the shadows even brushed past their cheeks, and the wind fanned by those wings carried a humid poisonous smell, as well as some fine, powder-like substance.

    Disgusted, Xue Xian shot out a hand and caught one of the shadows as it flew past in the darkness.

    But just as his fingers came into contact with the shadow, he spluttered and immediately let it go again. As he twisted his wrists, he could feel that the powder from the shadow''s wings had stuck onto his fingers, making them slippery. Scowling, he was about to speak when Xuanmin''s cold voice rose from beside him: "Moths."

    Indeed ¨C¨C moths.

    Earlier, the bean-sized wisp of flame had been quickly put out by an onslaught of thousands of entranced moths, but the light had been enough for Xue Xian to get an impression of where they were¨C¨C

    It was a wider stone cavern with arched walls and ceilings, like a melon placed on top of a stone block.

    There seemed to be some holes along the arched walls, and the countless moths had been perched on the wall or hidden inside the holes or covering the smaller boulders strewn around the room, patiently waiting for someone to come.

    Even when Xue Xian was in his dragon form, he hated having little things disturbing his piece ¨C¨C it wasn''t just moths, but any kind of buzzing insect bothered him to no end.

    And now that he was in his human form, just the thought of those tiny moths brushing against his face made his expression turn dark and hateful.

    The talisman that Xuanmin had thrown out had, while still in the air, been turned into a solid ball of moth dust, and, after some time, following an unnerving pitter-patter noise, dead moths dropped limply to the ground.

    At the same time, another horde of moths appeared from all around them.

    "What kind of place is this?" Xue Xian grumbled.

    "Step back a bit," Xuanmin said as he extracted another match, though this time he unhooked his copper coin pendant too.

    Hiss¨C¨C

    A small flame appeared out of the talisman in Xuanmin''s hand, dimly lighting his slender fingers.

    Hong¨C¨C

    Another deafening chorus of beating wings exploded around them as enormous black shadows in the shape of moths came flying right at them.

    Xuanmin ran his hands across the copper coin pendant, then pressed down on a coin with his thumb, releasing a weng sound as metal clanged against metal and an enormous gust of wind blew out of his wide sleeves. The wind blew across the small flame on the talisman, drawing it out until it erupted into a ball of fire that snaked across the chamber like a dragon, setting everything aflame and leaving the charred bodies of dead moths in its wake.

    The chamber flickered light and dark as the blazing dragon fought the horde of countless moths.

    Xue Xian watched the moths fall on the ground as quick as rain and, disgusted, averted his gaze.

    "Hold on. There''s writing on the wall." As his gaze swept around the chamber under the unstable light cast by Xuanmin''s dragon of fire, he noticed that the holes in which the moths had been hiding were not random holes ¨C¨C but carved text.

    He pulled Xuanmin over to see, and used his finger to follow the vertical rows of characters until he came upon a certain spot and read out the text there: "Cave of a Hundred Insects..."

    Hey ¨C¨C hadn''t he heard of that place before?

    --

    * AAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!

 CH 80

    Chapter 80: Cave of a Hundred Insects (II)

    Right! Wasn''t that where the Spider of the Same Age was supposed to be found?

    Somehow, in blindly following the strangers, they had managed to find their way here without even realising it ¨C¨C what kind of serendipity was that? For a moment, Xue Xian felt that something was strange about it all, but before he could really make sense of that feeling, he automatically swept it away.

    The text on the wall was like some illegible script from the heavens. Apart from Cave of a Hundred Insects, there was not a single other word that Xue Xian could recognise, as though it were a language invented by some ancient clan. Xue Xian quickly ran out of patience and gave up trying to read the rest.

    "All these moths here creep the hell out of me. It''s not a good place to linger," Xue Xian said, grimacing as he gestured at the piles of insect corpses before them. "There''s another tunnel ahead. Let''s go. I don''t care what else is waiting for us, I just never want to touch these powdery things again."

    Xue Xian looked away from the archaic text on the wall and hummed in agreement. He held up his sleeve to block the moths that continued to buzz around them and led Xue Xian across the chamber toward the tunnel on the other side.

    The dragon of fire was as mighty as a thousand soldiers. It blazed across the chamber, killing every last moth.

    Xuanmin glanced back, and just that glimpse of the unending piles of dead insects was enough to make his stomach turn ¨C¨C but upon closer look, something was amiss.

    "Hey ¨C¨C these damn things actually bite," Xue Xian muttered as he angrily slapped the back of his hand. If it wasn''t for the fact that he was a water creature and hated fire, he would long have set the entire chamber aflame with lightning. As he showed Xuanmin the bite on his hand, even he did not realise how meaningful it was that his first instinct had been to complain to the monk.

    By the dim, flickering light of the fire dragon, Xuanmin peered at the two drops of blood on Xue Xian''s hand, then pointed behind him and said, "Some of the moths here are not normal."

    If the Cave of a Hundred Insects really was the breeding ground for magical creatures like the Spider of the Same Age, then naturally it could not be an ordinary cave ¨C¨C perhaps everything inside it was venomous. These moths had clearly made this cave their home for generations upon generations, so it was not surprising that they might begin to mutate.

    But the nature of the moths'' transformation was unnerving ¨C¨C they began to grow bigger, and had decided to become carnivorous.

    "Let''s go, let''s go! If I have to look at them for one more second I''m going to throw up all over you," Xue Xian said darkly as he turned around and began to walk down the tunnel.

    As they penetrated deeper into the cave, the tunnel was becoming taller, so that they no longer needed to bend their heads. Xuanmin brought the dragon of fire along with them, and the flame slithered ahead of them to light the way.

    By now, Xue Xian, who normally hated warm weather, was now starting to appreciate this fire dragon.

    When Xue Xian had been bitten by the moth on the back of his hand, there had been a flash of heat that had quickly died away. He figured that the moth had probably injected some kind of poison into him, and that if he were a normal human, he would either have long died of disgust at the moths themselves, or been killed by that poison.

    Although the fire dragon had burned the moths in the chamber clean, there were still a few perched on the tunnel walls. As Xuanmin had guessed, the moths here were much larger than normal, with the biggest being far bigger than a human hand. It was unclear what it was these insects ate, but their bellies were round and full, and looked heavy.

    But they were still moths, and, naturally, they came toward the flame, with some others being drawn to Xue Xian and Xuanmin''s presence.

    "The more we go in, the weirder the moths are," Xue Xian said as he impatiently batted them away with his sleeve. A gust of sharp wind swept across the horde like a knife, and the moths dropped lifeless to the ground. Then, the wind crashed into the tunnel wall and briefly shook the whole cave. Tiny pebbles began to leak out of the ceiling and covered the two in fine dust.

    Xue Xian was even more annoyed now.

    Of course, being very powerful was not always a good thing. There was no room for him to do anything in this fragile place. Xue Xian angrily muttered to himself, Thank god Xuanmin is here. His magic has range.

    They were deep in the tunnel now, and the moths had stopped throwing themselves idiotically into the flame. They seemed to have become intelligent, and avoided them, flapping their enormous wings further into the darkness as soon as the two came close.

    Maybe Xue Xian was just being paranoid, but he detected something peculiar in the way the moths were flying, as though... they were carrying messages for someone waiting even deeper in the tunnel.

    As he pondered this, he suddenly felt something graze against the pinky finger of his left hand, as though something with tiny legs were climbing up him.

    Frowning, he looked at his hand.

    "An ant," he said.

    There was an ant crawling across his hand, but the ant was more than twice as big as normal ants, and, in the glow of the fire dragon, seemed to gleam red. The insect was fearless: as Xue Xian watched, it opened its jaw and bit him on the finger.

    Xue Xian scoffed. "Another carnivore."

    Impatiently, he flicked the ant away.

    Of course, the strength in his finger was far more powerful than humans'', and as the ant slammed into the wall, it was flattened by the impact, leaking a streak of fishy-smelling liquid onto the stone.

    Just from that smell, it was possible to tell that the ant''s daily sustenance was the rotting flesh of corpses. But were the corpses those of animals that had accidentally wandered in... or humans?

    Before Xue Xian had even shaken himself out of that revolted state, he felt someone thump him hard on the back.

    He turned to see Xuanmin drop his hand. And by his feet laid several ants with their legs twitching emptily in the air... as well as numerous more ants coming his way, crawling across the uneven stone floor or creeping across the jagged stone walls.

    The long line of ants marching toward him was almost awe-inspiring: they seemed to spill endlessly from the darkness beyond the flame''s light.

    This was even worse than the moths ¨C¨C because ants could go from your feet all the way up your body.

    Xue Xian turned to Xuanmin again, and just as he''d thought, the monk''s ice cold expression was cracking and about to turn into shaved ice. There was no way he was going to be able to tolerate ants streaming up him beneath his clothes.

    With his sharp vision, Xue Xian peered farther into the pitch-black tunnel and made a face. The ants coming toward them now were only in a queue, but, deeper inside, they would be teeming all over the ground with no space to step.

    And the ants moved rapidly. They had only stopped for a little while, but the ants were already coming in as relentless as a tide, a dense, infinite mass. In an instant, they would begin climbing up the two''s shoes ¨C¨C it was as though they''d known the two were coming.

    Xue Xian couldn''t help but recall the moths, and wondered if all the creepy-crawlies in this Cave of a Hundred Insects were this intelligent. They were close to becoming magical beasts.

    They couldn''t step on the ground, they couldn''t touch the walls, and even the ceilings were covered in ants now.

    Xue Xian knew what he had to do. He summoned a gust of wind beneath their feet, no longer caring whether he would collapse the cave. He grabbed a handful of Xuanmin''s robe and let the wind carry them forward. With the wind rumbling across the ground, they did not have to touch the ants, and instead stepped lightly above that chittering mass.

    The howling wind was extremely strong and shook the walls of the tunnel. More dust began to fall from the ceiling, scattering tiny pebbles along the stone floor. The wind flung countless carnivorous ants into the wall, where they were instantly flattened, and others were directly ripped apart.

    And the dragon of fire continued to blaze after them, scorching those ants that had survived the wind, so that, as they swept into the tunnel, they left a trail of corpses behind them.

    Xue Xian finally understand what Old Qu had meant by Even hearing the name ''Cave of a Hundred Insects'' will take away half your lifespan from sheer fright. They had only made it to this point because they were Xue Xian and Xuanmin ¨C¨C ordinary people would enter as living beings full of blood and flesh, and walk out as clean white skeletons.

    The tunnel was long and dark, and Xue Xian didn''t know when it would end again. They continued down the tunnel in a tornado of wind and flame for as long as it took for a stick of incense to burn, killing who knew how many more insects...

    "Moths, red ants, centipedes, millipedes, scorpions..." Xue Xian counted the different types of insects they were barrelling through, then looked down at the stone floor and laughed coldly.

    These annoying things were becoming increasingly venomous, increasingly large, and increasingly hard to battle as they dove deeper into the tunnel. Some seemed to struggle extensively against the flame before finally dying.

    But no matter how inconvenient they were, they were ultimately still just bugs to Xue Xian and Xuanmin. All they had to do was step on wind across them ¨C¨C of course they were not going to be defeated here. But this was not why Xue Xian had chuckled.

    The reason was that, as they headed deeper into the cave, the floor began increasingly to be covered not just in the bodies of bugs, but also in human bones.

    Those naked bones were pale yellow in color, and the flesh on them had been completely devoured clean. At first, they seemed to have been here for many years already, but upon closer inspection, Xue Xian could see that the blood streaked on them was fresh and sticky, with a highly familiar stench.

    "Those are the people from the funeral stop," Xue Xian said, holding his nose. They had finally stopped encountering insects, so the wind dissipated and he stepped onto the ground again.

    Frowning, Xuanmin scanned their surroundings, then retraced his gaze. He, too, stepped back onto the ground.

    They were standing at the end of this tunnel: all that lay ahead was a flat wall. But in front of that wall was a spiral staircase that led to an upper level ¨C¨C it was unclear what dynasty the staircase had been constructed, for it was not only small and narrow, but also covered with a thick white cocoon of cobwebs.

    But the intricate layers of cobwebs had been swept aside by someone, and now floated listlessly from the banisters.

    The cobwebs immediately made Xue Xian think of the "Spider of the Same Age" ¨C¨C of course it couldn''t be a coincidence. At the top of the staircase was the place they were looking for.

    "Someone got here first," Xue Xian said as he studied the cobwebs. "Looks like all those people from the funeral stop were human shields."

    Xuanmin replied, "But there were not that many bones along the tunnel. There must still be more of them."

    "Perhaps they''re upstairs." Xue Xian pointed at the staircase.

    The two exchanged glances and, without hesitation, began to walk up the stairs.

    These steps were also covered in that sticky fresh blood, in which were lodged various other filthy substances. The two decided not to actually touch the steps at all, which also meant that they were avoided making the noise that would have come out had they stepped on those substances.

    The staircase wound up and up, taking them ever farther from that tunnel. It seemed to have more than a hundred steps. But the two arrived very quickly at the top.

    An ordinary-looking chamber that seemed to contain two bedrooms was spread out before them. In the middle of the chamber was embedded a pool full of black water, and beside the pool was a copper mirror. The mirror, in turn, was surrounded by puddles of blood, which seeped from the wall all the way to the stone border of the pool.

    And on one of those white stone tiles was were five bloody streaks ¨C¨C a handprint, as though inflicted by someone struggling to stay alive.

 CH 81

    Chapter 81: Cave of a Hundred Insects (III)

    "There''s no one here. They really are good at getting away..." Xue Xian muttered as he took in the chamber, illuminated by Xuanmin''s dragon of fire, then rested his gaze on that white stone tile by the pool again. "Or they''re at the bottom of the water."

    The chamber was far too rectangular to have been created naturally ¨C¨C clearly, someone had carved it in. Apart from the pool of black water and some load-bearing columns, there was, at the back of the chamber, also a block of stone that looked to be a canopy fit for both sitting and sleeping.

    Although it was rock-hard and freezing cold, so was probably not very comfortable.

    "Someone used this place to gently cultivate their spirit," Xuanmin said as he walked into the chamber and looked around.

    Xue Xian turned to him. "What kind of magician can tolerate being somewhere like this?" he asked, pointing behind him.

    Although this chamber did not itself contain tidal waves of venomous creepy-crawlies, that sea of bodies resided nonetheless right beneath the spiral staircase. Who in their right mind would come here to meditate? And cultivate gently?

    But it was there was no doubt that someone really had lived here. Apart from the canopy, the four stone walls were dotted with occasional nooks large enough to put one''s hand in. Xuanmin touched one and immediately took his hand away in disgust. With his other hand, he pinched out a talisman and cast a cleaning spell.

    "What is it?" Xue Xian asked, looking back and forth between the nook and Xuanmin''s hand.

    Frowning, Xuanmin replied, "Lantern oil."

    "Oh." Xue Xian''s first reaction was to absent-mindedly nod, assuming that Xuanmin''s look of disgust was because he hated greasy things. But then he exclaimed, "Oh¨C¨C¨C" as he suddenly realised that lantern oil often came from animals.

    But no matter how disgusted Xuanmin was, after having cleaned the grease from his fingers, he nonetheless brought that long dragon of fire into all of the nooks one by one. Then, with a hiss, the lanterns embedded into the walls began to cast a warm glow into the chamber.

    Now that they had light, Xuanmin could retract the flame talisman. As he ran a finger along the copper coin pendant, he glanced at Xue Xian, whose temples had begun to sweat.

    Without the scorching heat of the fire dragon, and without the annoying bugs, Xue Xian finally felt like he could relax again. He crossed his arms and ambled around the chamber. Mystified, he said, "Apart from those finger-sized ventilation holes, there''s no exit from here..."

    In the end, he stopped in front of the black pool and pointed at the bloody handprint on the white stone tile. He added, "So where did the remaining members of that funeral stop group go? They can''t all be in the water, can they?"

    The pool was only about one zhang in width and length. Just how many people could fit in there? Besides, based on the traces of blood, it seemed that there had been a struggle here. Whether there was a conflict between the group members or a some other change had occurred, whenever there was a fight, there was always a winning side and a losing side.

    It was easy to conclude that the losing side had fallen into the water. But where had the winning side gone?

    "Also, where is the Spider of the Same Age?" Xue Xian said, frowning.

    According to Old Qu, the legendary pill was right here in the Cave of a Hundred Insects. The Cave really did exist, and was indeed full of insects, but Xue Xian and Xuanmin had traversed the entire place, and had seen nothing even close to being a "spider of the same age".

    When he''d walked all around the chamber, Xue Xian had looked as closely as he could, and had searched even the cracks and the ceiling ¨C¨C but he''d found nothing.

    "Perhaps it''ll be mentioned in here," Xuanmin said.

    He was standing by the canopy and looking at the wall against which the canopy stood. Just like the part of the cave where they''d first encountered the moths, this wall was covered in sprawling carved text. Xue Xian had briefly tried to read the text, but apart from becoming dizzy, he''d not been able to get anything out of it. To him, this was some kind of demonic script that made no sense whatsoever. Not a single character was legible ¨C¨C so he did not know what it was that Xuanmin was looking at so intently.

    Since all that text did was give Xue Xian a headache, he left Xuanmin to it. In the meantime, he crouched down by the side of the pool, wondering whether he should go ahead and just suck all the water out of it.

    As he stared at that black water, he realised that he was unable to guess how deep the pool was. From his angle, all he could see was a patch of darkness, and nothing beneath it at all.

    Besides, even if he sucked the water out, where would he put it? As Xue Xian scanned the chamber again, he thought, I''m never going to swallow the water again. Last time at Gravestone Island I almost died of disgust. If I have to do that again, I''ll puke all across this chamber.

    As he contemplated all this, his gaze was drawn to the copper mirror near his feet.

    The mirror had blood stains by it, so it seemed to have been left behind by the group preceding them. Or... they hadn''t even had the time to take it with them. Xue Xian reached out for it, but as his fingers neared the mirror, he noticed the mirror begin to tremble.

    As the metal mirror rubbed gently against the stone tile, it made a clinking noise, and suddenly, without warning, the black water in the pool began to ripple too. It made a gudu noise, as though someone had thrown a pebble into it, breaking the peace of the surface.

    Hearing the sound, Xuanmin turned around and saw Xue Xian by the pool. He came over and crouched down too.

    "What a strange mirror. Look," Xue Xian said, pushing the mirror closer to Xuanmin.

    Frowning, Xuanmin picked up the mirror to inspect it, but as soon as his fingers touched the copper, a more distinct trembling noise rose. But this time, the reaction from the mirror was far stronger than when Xue Xian had tried to touch it. The ripples in the pool began to roll quicker, too, and the entire pool seemed to come to life, sending small waves splashing against the tiled border.

    Automatically, Xuanmin made to drop the mirror, but found that the mirror seemed to be stuck to his fingers, and could not pry it away.

    Next, the blood stains around the mirror suddenly shifted into the form of a yin and yang symbol. Xue Xian watched as Xuanmin''s hand holding the mirror spasmed, and then he seemed to freeze, looking emptily into the black waters of the pool.

    In the same instant, Xue Xian heard a weng noise inside his mind, as though someone had cracked a whip onto the back of his head. He jolted, and his mind went blank for a while.

    When he came back to his senses and was able to move his neck again, he noticed that the water in the pool was no longer black. It seemed to have become itself a mirror: slowly, a scene emerged from beneath the dark surface of the water.

    Although the scene was as vague as a dream, but Xue Xian''s heart began to palpitate as he felt it bewitch him...

    The scene seemed to be set in a mountainous area. There came the ear-splitting noise of howling wind, and, in the background, the mountainscape shook violently. In the sky, a great red wave came rumbling forth like a thousand mighty horses, as though wanting to tear the sky down altogether. The wind brought a chorus of terrified screams and sounds of weeping from some faraway place, turning the cries into fragments of mourning.

    Beneath that hellish wave and the tremors of the mountains, and amid the tumbling loose of boulders and rocks, there were two people kneeling.

    Although the scene was dreamlike and ambiguous, Xue Xian was immediately able to recognise the two figures: they were him and Xuanmin.

    He saw that his hands were dangling by his side and that he was not moving at all, as though turned to stone. His black robe seemed to have been drenched by the wave and was stuck to his body, and, for some reason, emitted a strong yin aura.

    His long hair, soaking wet, was plastered to his neck and face, and his skin was completely white, as though dead.

    And above his neck... a hand covered his eyes.

    That hand was slender and elegant, and normally looked very handsome, but now, it too was drained of blood and seemed even to be grey, like the hand of a corpse.

    It was Xuanmin''s hand, and Xuanmin was lifting his head away from the side of Xue Xian''s face, the monk''s half-closed eyes submerged in shadow and obscured by a layer of thin fog so that it was impossible to see how he was feeling.

    The position the two were in was highly intimate, as though they had just pulled apart from a kiss.

    But as Xue Xian watched the scene from across the fog, he did not even notice this, because, as Xuanmin raised his head, he began to cough relentlessly. Though one hand still rested on Xue Xian''s face, covering his eyes, Xuanmin''s other hand fell limply as he bent over coughing ¨C¨C and his normally snow-white robe was entirely stained with blood...

    Enormous streams of blood were pouring out of Xuanmin''s chest and abdomen and soaking through his robe, and seemed to flow endlessly.

    Xue Xian watched as Xuanmin''s hand blocking his eyes began to weaken as well, and as it was about to slip away, Xuanmin''s entire body began to shiver and a layer of sweat seeped out of his pores. Outside the mirror, Xue Xian''s eyelids twitched and, with a great effort, he dragged himself out of that foggy scene.

    Xue Xian opened his eyes and reeled in shock for some time before the furious buzzing noise in his ears began finally to fade, replaced by a heavy, panicked sound of breathing.

    After some more time, Xue Xian suddenly realised that the breathing, which sounded as though it came from someone who had just woken up in the middle of a nightmare, was the sound of his own breathing. As his vision finally cleared, he saw that the water in the pool remained pitch-black and placid, with no vision lying within it ¨C¨C the scene had vanished.

    And Xuanmin was still crouching beside him, seeming unhurt, with no grey color to his hands, and no blood on his white robe. But his head continued to be turned, and he continued to stare blankly into the pool.

    He seemed also to have been pulled into some scene, but Xue Xian couldn''t know if Xuanmin was seeing the same thing, or something different. As he looked into Xuanmin''s empty eyes, he saw a sliver of emotion held within that gaze.

    Others would have a hard time identifying the emotion, but Xue Xian felt a strange twinge of sadness...

    Xue Xian silently watched Xuanmin''s eyes for a while, then suddenly brought his hand to his own chest and pressed it against his heart. Then he let out a deep breath, and went to pat Xuanmin, whispering, "Bald donkey?"

    Xuanmin seemed unable to hear him at all.

    "Bald donkey, wake up." Xue Xian''s voice was still low and slightly hoarse.

    Still no response.

    Frowning, Xue Xian took his hand from Xuanmin''s shoulder and placed it on the back of the monk''s hand instead, which still held the mirror. His fingers curled around Xuanmin''s fingers.

    With that touch, Xuanmin''s hand finally let go of the copper mirror.

    But all Xue Xian noticed was Xuanmin''s fingers curling around his too. Xue Xian didn''t know whether it was because Xuanmin was enduring great physical pain, or because Xuanmin was feeling some strong emotion, but the monk''s grip was extremely tight, so tight that the bones in Xue Xian''s hand began to hurt.

    But he didn''t take his hand away. He looked up and saw Xuanmin slowly turn his face with shock and confusion in his eyes, and a scowl in his brow.

    Xuanmin''s gaze still seemed unfocused ¨C¨C he stared, dazed, at Xue Xian''s face, then pursed his lips and shut his eyes tightly. After some time, he slowly opened his eyes again.

    "Are you awake now?" Xue Xian asked in a low voice.

    Xuanmin stared at him. His eyes were endlessly deep, and filled with such complicated emotions that Xue Xian could not identify them. After some time, Xuanmin finally looked down and released his grip on Xue Xian''s fingers. "Yes," he said quickly, then, with a sweep of his sleeve, knocked the mirror into the corner of the chamber.

    "Just now, that pool of black water..." Xue Xian began.

    "The copper mirror and the pool came together to form a spell. Because of all the blood, I was reckless and did not check." Xuanmin said mildly. He seemed to have fully recovered.

    "What spell? Heart Demons again?" Xue Xian frowned.

    Xuanmin shook his head and, with a voice full of calm, replied, "It''s to see how you die."

    Xue Xian gasped. "How you die?"

    Xuanmin frowned as though having just remembered something. "Such a spell shouldn''t normally have any effect on a divine creature like a dragon... What did you see?"

    Xue Xian''s mind had been reeling, and, hearing Xuanmin ask this, he figured that he''d made a mistake: since the spell couldn''t possibly work on him, then what he''d seen must have been something else triggered by the spell ¨C¨C not a vision, but an actual dream.

    He went back and forth persuading himself of this, and then finally felt more reassured. Seeing that Xuanmin was still frowning and waiting for him to speak, Xue Xian waved his hand dismissively and said, "I didn''t really see anything. Just that the pool started to ripple violently, and you were unresponsive. That''s why I asked."

    "Really?"

    Xue Xian scoffed. "Not even lightning can strike me down. How the hell would I even die?"

    It was only when Xuanmin studied him and found nothing amiss in his gaze that the monk finally believed him. "Yes," he said. He thought for a while, then added, "Even so, you must be careful."

    Xue Xian ignored the remark and instead asked, "You? What did you see?"

    Xue Xian looked down and stood up. "Nothing. I die of old age."

    As he spoke, he dusted off his sleeves, and seemed not to be lying ¨C¨C but Xue Xian, unable to forget what he''d seen in the pool, couldn''t help but feel an undercurrent of unease. Everything in that scene had been slightly blurred by the thin fog, except for the image of Xuanmin covered in blood, which was carved into Xue Xian''s mind. Each time he thought about it, it sent waves of anxiety through his body.

    But then he thought that, in any case, his own life was extremely long. If Xuanmin ever got into trouble, he''d be able to help out. Thus that thought that had appeared in his mind back when he''d woken up that morning on Mt. Lianjiang came surging back into him, but this time it wasn''t a sudden impulse as it had been before. And because it wasn''t an impulse anymore, he needed to wait until things had calmed down ¨C¨C after all, they were in the middle of a blood-covered chamber and they still had unresolved issues to tend to, so it was not the appropriate time to bring it up.

    He decided to wait until after they''d found the "Spider of the Same Age" and gotten out of this bloodstained, bug-infected cave. Then, he''d ask Xuanmin.

    Just as he thought this, he suddenly felt something beneath his feet move slightly, producing a hushed noise.

 CH 82

    Chapter 82: Spider Mother (I)

    Could it be that surviving insects had made their way up the spiral staircase?

    Xue Xian looked down around his feet but couldn''t see anything crawling around ¨C¨C and that minuscule tremor suddenly stopped, as though knowing that he was looking for its source.

    Frowning, Xue Xian glanced at the staircase, then realised that something was wrong. "When we were burning the tunnel, we were doing it quite quickly and were bound to have missed some of the insects. But how come it''s so clean and quiet in this chamber, with no sign of any bug? Even if those centipedes can''t climb up the staircase, there are also the moths that can fly, and the horde of ants. Why have none of them followed us up here?"

    Xuanmin was reading the text on the wall again, his gaze gliding solemnly across those strange markings, slowly ¨C¨C as though he could read what they said. Without turning to face Xue Xian, he replied, "Perhaps they''re afraid."

    He had guessed the same thing as Xue Xian had. This chamber didn''t even have a barrier, and the only thing between it and the endless mass of insects below was a narrow staircase, yet the difference between upstairs and downstairs was as though these were two entirely separate world: a sea of insects in one, not even a bug''s antler in the other.

    The only explanation was that the bugs somehow feared coming here ¨C¨C even without a barrier, they would not dare come up.

    Spider of the Same Age... Spider of the Same Age... and those cobwebs on the staircase... Xue Xian suddenly realised exactly what it was that the insects downstairs were afraid of, as well as what might have made that slight sound beneath his feet.

    Perhaps because it had seen that Xue Xian hadn''t moved for a while, but, soon, the tremor beneath his feet became brave again.

    The noise that it made was almost imperceptible. If it weren''t for Xue Xian''s acute hearing, the trembling would be totally silent. Still crouching, Xue Xian put his arm on his knee and leaned in to listen. He found where the noise was coming from, then reached out and pressed it with his finger.

    He didn''t put a lot of strength into his hand ¨C¨C if it indeed was what he was looking for, then if he pressed too hard, he might accidentally kill it.

    As he''d expected, beneath his fingertip was a small, bead-like thing, smooth and brittle, as though slightly more pressure would crack its shell. Xue Xian recalled that, beneath the bamboo building at Dustpan Mountain, as he''d broken the Heart Demons spell, he''d heard something roll onto the floor. He smirked and said, "I found something good."

    Because he normally never encountered anything that was a threat to him at all, Xue Xian did not have the caution and instinct that ordinary people had ¨C¨C he was not afraid of poison nor of being attacked. So whenever he wanted to touch something, his hand always moved faster than his brain.

    They say that if you walk along the river every day, you cannot have dry shoes. In the instant that Xue Xian finished speaking to Xuanmin, as the tail end of his sentence still resonated gently in the stone chamber, that marble-like thing beneath his finger suddenly retaliated.

    All Xue Xian felt was something pricking his skin and the strange feeling of his blood being drawn. Next, that brittle marble began to expand ¨C¨C just one mouthful of blood was enough to make it twice as large as it had originally been.

    Then, from the same puncture, some kind of liquid entered his flesh.

    If it wasn''t for the fact that this marble was a highly rare and fragile thing, Xue Xian would have immediately killed it after it''d bitten him. But it was far too precious ¨C¨C so Xue Xian rolled his eyes and grimly picked the marble up from the ground.

    Xuanmin turned and saw that Xue Xian was scowling at something in his hand. He asked, "What did you find? A spider?"

    "Yes." After an extended battle with the slippery marble, Xue Xian finally managed to scoop it into his palm. In order not to let it roll away, he cupped it with both hands.

    Now that he had it in his palm, under the soft glow of the lanterns in the wall, he was able to see that this fragile thing really was a spider: it had a head and a body, exactly eight legs, and thorns on its side as fine as hair.

    The reason why he couldn''t see those details earlier was because the spider''s color and pattern was exactly the same as the stone tile on which it had been standing. If it simply laid there without moving, humans could look as hard as they wanted and would never notice it.

    And now that it was in Xue Xian''s palm, its color was changing before his eyes: soon, it looked as though it were a part of his hand. Its camouflage skills were impressive indeed.

    Xuanmin had only asked to ask ¨C¨C he hadn''t expected Xue Xian really to have caught a spider. Surprised, he now strode over to the pool and warned, "Is it really a spider? Be careful. You must never, under any circumstances, let it bite¨C¨C"

    Before Xuanmin could finish his sentence, he noticed that the finger Xue Xian was using to press down onto the object in his palm was already tipped with a green-black color, and that the stain was travelling up his finger toward the rest of his hand. In the blink of an eye, it reached his wrist.

    It was not a pretty sight: Xue Xian''s hand looked like it had been blackened by fire and then had vegetable juice poured all over it; or like the claw of a black-boned chicken.

    Seeing that Xuanmin was coming over, Xue Xian looked over at him innocently and helplessly, and laughed. "You spoke just a little too late."

    Xuanmin stared at his hand.

    "Ow¨C¨C" Xue Xian hissed in pain.

    Frowning, Xuanmin reached out, wanting to take that venomous thing away from him. "Does it hurt?"

    "No, not that," Xue Xian replied as he grimaced, seeming to want both to laugh and to cry. As he rubbed his pinky and ring fingers, he pushed Xuanmin''s hand away, saying, "This thing is slippery as hell and impossible to catch. No need to let you take it. I''ve already been bitten anyway. But I need you to help me... I can''t move my hand, and it''s getting so itchy that I think I''m going to go insane. Help me scratch it, quickly, hurry..."

    Xuanmin sighed.

    An itch is an unbearable thing, and far worse than mere pain.

    The damn spider venom really was quite strong. Only a few drops had been injected into Xue Xian''s body, but his entire hand had already turned green and the venom seemed intent on spreading up his arm and into his shoulder. If it went all the way up to his face, then that would be a sight.

    And the itchiness, which originated in the bloodstream but affected the entire flesh, made one paralysed with anxiety ¨C¨C someone with a lower tolerance level would long have begun sobbing and rolling around on the floor, wishing they were dead.

    Xue Xian frowned as he put all of his effort into resisting the itch. His feet seemed to begin to float from the ground, and the rims of his eyes began to feel hot, a layer of moisture rising up from them. He took a step toward Xuanmin, wanting to ask him again to help him scratch the itch, but his feet were unsteady and he stumbled.

    Seeing that Xue Xian could not even walk anymore, Xuanmin rushed over, picking him up in his arms and bringing him to the stone canopy. He tried to pry open Xue Xian''s fingers, but the dragon''s claws were tighter than anything, and the spider marble was completely trapped within.

    Xue Xian leant back against the wall and sprawled his legs diagonally across the canopy, looking floppy and uncomfortable. He said, "Hurry. Scratch me. My hand, my hand."

    Normally, dragon blood destroyed all poison, so most poisonous substances did not affect Xue Xian ¨C¨C most wounds would become inflamed or bruised quickly, but would then heal just as quickly.

    Thus it seemed that this spider''s venom was immensely powerful. If even Xue Xian couldn''t resist it, it was impossible to guess what state ordinary people would be in by now.

    Naturally, Xuanmin wasn''t going to go ahead and scratch with abandon: some types of venom would become worse after being scratched. Xuanmin glanced at the patch of green that had already reached Xue Xian''s shoulder joint. He took out two talismanic papers, sliced open a fingertip, and scrawled something on one of them.

    As he stuck that talisman onto the side of Xue Xian''s neck, the venom suddenly stopped there.

    He stuck the second one on the back of Xue Xian''s black-boned chicken claw. Then, he gently took Xue Xian''s chin in his hand and pushed his face to the left. With that movement, the sinews in Xue Xian''s neck tensed and the curve of his collarbone became clear.

    Xuanmin looked down and peeled the right part of Xue Xian''s collar aside. He reached out his index and middle fingers, which faltered for a while before ultimately sliding into the crook of Xue Xian''s neck, where Xuanmin measured his pulse. He pressed his thumb on a spot under Xue Xian''s collarbone and, unhooking his copper coin pendant from his hip, he began to run his other hand against the coins while pushing, hard, into Xue Xian''s skin.

    Xue Xian wheezed.

    As Xuanmin pressed into his collarbone, he felt something flow slowly into his body and slowly make its way through his veins, assuaging all the electrifying sensation in the skin that had been infected by the spider''s venom. With that, a huge chunk of the unbearable itchiness subsided ¨C¨C and Xue Xian''s dragon blood was able to destroy the rest of the poison, so that, after a while, he began to feel much better.

    Lethargically, Xue Xian sat up. Xuanmin stood back up too, but not before Xue Xian kneaded the back of his hand against Xuanmin''s hand, relieving the last hints of itchiness. Taking his hand away now, Xue Xian gestured with his chin at the stone wall against which he''d been leaning and said, "You were looking at this for ages. Have you figured something out? Is the thing in my hand really the Spider of the Same Age?"

    He''d learned his lesson after being bitten by the spider. He shifted his grip on the marble and brought it closer so Xuanmin could see.

    But now, some shift seemed to have occurred in the spider ¨C¨C although its color was still merged expertly with that of Xue Xian''s skin, it now had a blood vessel running across its surface.

    As he saw this, Xuanmin frowned and looked up at Xue Xian seriously. "It took your blood?"

    Xue Xian fidgeted and said, "When it bit me, I gave it blood, and it gave me venom. Kindness demands reciprocity."

    Xuanmin didn''t deign that with a reply.

    "Does the text really discuss the Spider of the Same Age?" Xue Xian was asking now, pointing at the text again with a pursed mouth. "What does it say? Where did this thing come from and why couldn''t we find it before? And what does it mean for the spider to have blood in it now. Am I already linked with it?"

    He paused after all those questions, but decided to add one that had been sitting inside him for a while now. "The text is completely illegible. In all the years I''ve been alive, I''ve never seen such writing before... How come you can read it?"

 CH 83

    Chapter 83: Mother Spider (II)

    Stunned, Xuanmin asked, "You''ve never seen it?"

    Now Xue Xian began to doubt himself. "Could it really be a common writing system? I really haven''t seen it before. Perhaps someone invented it especially. How do I explain... it looks simple and primitive."

    Hearing this, Xuanmin''s expression deepened, as though he were contemplating something. After some time, he looked back up at the text on the wall and said, "I can read these characters. It''s as though I studied it thoroughly in my youth. But I don''t remember who taught it to me."

    Someone taught it to him?

    Xue Xian recalled what he''d seen in Xuanmin''s memories ¨C¨C Xuanmin had been very short so his angle was low, and the vision itself had been too blurry, so all Xue Xian had been able to see was a white robe cascading to the floor. In the memory, Xuanmin had said something: two or three short, simple syllables, like a name.

    Now, Xue Xian wondered... could he have been saying Shifu?

    For a brief moment, Xue Xian got a weird feeling. Xuanmin''s daily demeanor and habits had not suggested that he''d ever been very close to anyone else at all ¨C¨C it had seemed far more fitting to imagine him living alone in that little bamboo building amid poisonous fog.

    Sometimes, Xuanmin gave off the impression of having been born fully formed, someone with no relationship to anyone or anything else in the world. But now, Xue Xian had to accept that Xuanmin had indeed once been a small child who had slowly grown up into the man he was today, that he had had a father and a mother, had had a teacher, had even had his own disciples... disciples, like that child in the fragmented memories who had looked up and asked Xuanmin who he was.

    All of this made Xue Xian realise that what he knew Xuanmin was only one side of many. And the other sides, even Xuanmin didn''t currently know about.

    For a moment, Xue Xian zoned out as he pondered all this. When he came back to reality, he saw that Xuanmin was staring at him, having seemingly misunderstood the reason why Xue Xian had suddenly fallen silent.

    Those black eyes gazed intently into Xue Xian''s. Finally, solemnly, Xuanmin said, "I would never lie to you."

    Startled by the statement, Xue Xian broke eye contact and waved his hand dismissively. "I was just remembering something. I wouldn''t slander you with assumptions that you''re lying. Ordained men never lie. I understand." As he said this, he even winked.

    Xuanmin did not respond.

    "Speaking of," Xue Xian said, "I need to be honest with you for a second." He arranged his robes and straightened his back so that he looked sincere, and looked up at Xuanmin with an embarrassed face. "Your copper coins aren''t very loyal."

    "Disloyal?" Xuanmin looked down automatically at the pendant still danging from his fingers, not understanding what Xue Xian meant.

    "After I began using the pendant to heal my bones, something strange happened." Xue Xian''s tone was a guilty one, but he stopped and thought, It''s not even under my control. Why the fuck do I feel guilty?

    He paused and force himself to repress the feeling of guilt. Then he said, "Perhaps it''s because the effects of the pendant are still in my body, but... it seems to have created some kind of connection between you and me. Some of your emotions and reactions get transferred onto me as well, like with the dragon spit, when you... you know. Well, yes, basically, it''s kind of like that."

    At the beginning, his words had been very serious, but as he''d gone on, he''d lost track of his words. With that final sentence, Xue Xian had had to slam the brakes. Awkwardly scratching his arms, he waited for the moment to pass.

    Xuanmin said nothing.

    "That''s one thing, but the important part is, when the seal broke on the third coin and you got some of your memories back, I saw some of them." Seeing Xuanmin''s grave face, Xue Xian hurriedly added, "But not many! I only saw some really fragmented images, and I didn''t hear anything at all. Besides, it was like trying to admire the flowers on a foggy day. It was so blurry¨C¨C"

    He stopped scratching his arms and pointed at the pendant in Xuanmin''s hand. "It''s that thing''s fault."

    For a moment, Xue Xian saw that Xuanmin''s lip trembled ever so slightly, as though he wanted to ask something ¨C¨C but ultimately, the monk did not ask it. As Xuanmin gazed at Xue Xian, his eyes did not seem resentful, nor was there any other worrying emotion. Finally, after a long moment of silence, Xuanmin said, "It''s fine."

    Then he repeated, "In any case, I would never lie to you. If you saw, then you saw."

    Xuanmin''s complete lack of guardedness against him made the Xue Xian''s heart itch. Still, such a connection was hardly appropriate, so he nonetheless said to Xuanmin, "I believe you. But this connection... if you can, it would be best to break it."

    "We''ll talk about it when we get out," Xuanmin replied, though he did not seem against it.

    Then, Xuanmin lifted his hand and pointed at the writing on the wall. "It says that there are two types of spider here. The other venomous insects downstairs are feed for the spiders, and they also help to strengthen the spell. One generation is born each forty-nine years. Someone some time ago had requested for these spiders to be bred, but once the spiders were born, the person had died. So the spiders were sealed away here."

    "One generation every forty-nine years. When was the original generation? Who knows how many generations have been born between then and now." Xue Xian frowned. He still couldn''t know if the person who had created this cave had been a good or bad person, but based on the fact that they''d been commissioned to do so, it seemed they weren''t motivated by some fundamental evil. "What else does it say?"

    Xuanmin pointed at the third row. "The venomous spider is trapped inside the spell. You cannot see life until you have seen death."

    "All those characters just amount to such a short explanation?" Xue Xian asked, troubled.

    "This is the only line that explicitly addresses the Spider of the Same Age," Xuanmin explained.

    But that was enough, Xue Xian supposed: all those scribbles looked to be a huge block of text, and if he asked Xuanmin to read it all out in full, he''d probably not even have the patience to listen to it all. Picking out the important parts was wisest. Thus Xue Xian nodded and did not ask more. He tapped a finger against the stone canopy and said, "So that''s why..."

    "Hm?"

    "The copper mirror." Xue Xian pointed at the mirror in the corner with his cupped hands and said, "Didn''t you say that the spider was trapped in the cave''s spell, and that you can''t see life until you''ve seen death? When we first got here, we looked everywhere but found nothing ¨C¨C perhaps because the spider was still trapped. But after having seen death through the mirror''s spell, we could see the life, the solution to that death ¨C¨C the spider. That explains a lot. Why would the group that came before us cast the mirror spell? Because once they were brought closer to their deaths, they''d be able to draw out the spider."

    Xuanmin glanced at the mirror and nodded. He pointed at some text two rows away and said, "This line discusses how the spider comes into effect."

    "How?"

    Xuanmin shot a helpless glance at Xue Xian''s finger and said, "The Spider of the Same Age is actually a pair of spiders: mother and son. The son activates the mother, and it comes into effect once they''ve both seen blood. The person giving their life gets bitten by the son, and a blood vessel will appear on the son''s stomach. At the same time, the corresponding mother spider draws blood from the second person, and the spell is cast. The second person''s life becomes tied to the first person: they live while the first person lives, and they die when the first person dies."

    Xue Xian gulped.

    He suddenly stood up from the canopy and began to look all around him. "Where''s the mother spider?"

    That son spider had already bitten him. Whoever was bitten by the mother spider would have their lifespan tied to that of a dragon. If he couldn''t track down that thing right now, if he just let it be, and then he and Xuanmin left this place, and then someone else came in... now that would be a mess.

    If the next person was a kind and good person, then having them live longer wouldn''t be a big deal. But if some evil bastard came in, then wouldn''t Xue Xian be causing a massive disaster with consequences lasting the next thousand years?

    And besides, even if the person bitten by the mother spider was an absolute saint, it still wouldn''t necessarily be a good thing. Not everyone could bear with the idea of living practically forever ¨C¨C it wasn''t a feeling that ordinary mortals could handle.

    Xuanmin said, "The mother and the son are linked. If you''re holding the son, then the mother can''t be far."

    Hearing this, Xue Xian brought his fingers to his lips to shush Xuanmin. Then he crouched down and pressed his ear to the ground, listening.

    These spiders had thin, frail legs, and so made almost no noise at all ¨C¨C only those with supernatural hearing could barely make it out. Xue Xian listened intently for a while, then suddenly looked up and gestured at Xuanmin, and pointed near Xuanmin''s feet.

    The venomous spiders were particularly sensitive to the movement of people. If Xue Xian stood up now to go chase after the mother spider, the creature would probably hide again. So Xue Xian blinked at Xuanmin, signalling for him to catch her.

    Thankfully, Xuanmin wasn''t an ordinary mortal either. Upon receiving Xue Xian''s message, the swept up his robes and silently crouched down. He reached out his hand and hovered it gently across the floor, moving it in a circle until he stopped at a certain spot.

    The spot was very close to the wall, so Xuanmin had no choice but to shuffle toward it. From Xue Xian''s angle, he could now only see Xuanmin''s back.

    He peered over and saw that Xuanmin''s hands had cupped over that spot, and was moving slowly and carefully, seemingly making sure he could not be bitten by the mother spider while trying to catch it. After some time, with a sweep of his sleeve, he finally stood up again.

    Xuanmin seemed not to want to let Xue Xian be bitten again, so he kept the spider inside his own palm. He said, "In my pocket I have a small ceramic bottle."

    Xue Xian blinked, then realised what Xuanmin had meant. "Oh," he said as he walked over to Xuanmin. He shifted the son spider into his left hand and, with his right hand, he reached out to Xuanmin''s waist and paused for a moment. Then he stuck his hand into Xuanmin''s pouch.

    "... Not the one on my hip," Xuanmin said.

    Xue Xian bit the tip of his tongue. Why didn''t you say so earlier? Awkwardly, he took his hand out again and reached into the front of Xuanmin''s robe.

    He suddenly felt a fondness toward the times when he''d rifled around Xuanmin''s hip pouch for needles and silver with no qualms at all. These days, his state of mind was different, so that, despite the layers of clothing, touching Xuanmin''s waist had felt indescribably strange.

    If it wasn''t for the fact that Xuanmin''s full attention had been on the mother spider and that his face had been extremely solemn, Xue Xian didn''t know just how different his state of mind would have become.

    "Found it," Xue Xian said as matter-of-factly as he could. He retraced his hand from Xuanmin''s chest, and in his palm were two tiny little bottles. They were the size of Xuanmin''s thumb and had round bodies, and seemed only big enough to contain some small amounts of medicinal powder ¨C¨C and thus seemed useful in this situation.

    Xue Xian unscrewed one of the bottles, and Xuanmin''s fingers twitched as he produced something from his palm and shoved it directly into the bottle. Seeing that Xuanmin now had a free hand, Xue Xian handed him the second bottle and looked down at that first bottle.

    He saw that, inside the bottle, there was a spherical spider wiggling about. The color of its body was slowly transforming, and it seemed to be camouflaging against the white of the ceramic. This spider seemed at first to be exactly alike to the one that had bitten Xue Xian, except that its blood vessel was across its head and not its body: it corresponded directly with the son spider.

    Without much more thought, Xue Xian shoved the spider in his hand into the bottle as well and capped it, then put it away. As he did so, in the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Xuanmin capping the other bottle too.

    For a split second, he had a doubt: When he had given Xuanmin the bottle just now, had he opened it for him? No, right?

    But in the time it took Xue Xian to raise his head, Xuanmin had already placed that bottle back into his chest pocket and begun to read the text on the wall again. He was frowning, as though he were thinking about something else now.

    "What is it?" Xue Xian did not ponder the bottles further. He gestured at the wall at his chin and said, "Why do you look so serious? Is something wrong?"

    Xuanmin reached out and tapped something at the end of the text. "The name signed here..."

    "That''s a signature?" Xue Xian asked, mystified. "What about it?"

    "I know it," Xuanmin said.

    "Oh? What does it say?"

    Xuanmin paused for some time, then said, "Tongdeng."

 CH 84

    Chapter 84: Mother Spider (III)

    Tongdeng... Tongdeng...

    When Xue Xian heard the name, he was stunned too, and a strange, unplaceable sense of familiarity rose within him. As though he had heard that name somewhere before...

    But that made no sense. If he really had heard it before, then why couldn''t he remember anything about it?

    Xue Xian didn''t have a poor memory, but he had lived very a very long life, and most of the people that he met made no impression on him at all. Despite this, anyone that he had spoken to he would be able to remember for quite a while, and whenever something sounded familiar, he was quickly able to realise why it sounded familiar.

    But this time, it was as though everything associated with the name were shrouded in mist. It seemed so close by, yet he could not get to it.

    After some time, Xue Xian suddenly realised that it wasn''t the word Tongdeng that was familiar ¨C¨C it was because he''d heard someone say it...

    But where...

    Frowning, Xue Xian nudged Xuanmin. "Do you really not remember anything?" he asked.

    Xuanmin shook his head. "The memories I''ve been able to get back don''t mention that name."

    "Those memories are really missing just the right bits of information," Xue Xian said, annoyed. He crossed his arms and absent-mindedly scratched his chin as he scanned the text on the wall again. "Those who invent their own writing system are usually remote clans that live apart from mainstream society. Plus, this Spider of the Same Age is a venomous insect, so that clan must be one with the ability to do witchcraft. Perhaps they come from Nanjiang*..."

    According to Old Qu, he had heard the legend from his ancestors. For someone to be his ancestor, they had to have lived at least a couple hundred years ago.

    Two hundred years ago; Nanjiang; someone that he seemed to know; someone whose name was familiar to Xuanmin... What kind of person would that be?

    Xue Xian''s train of thought began to stray as he tried to remember all the people that he had met around two hundred years ago. But nothing seemed pertinent, and there seemed to be no relationship between those four criteria at all. No one matched them.

    If he couldn''t find anything, then that must mean that he had missed some key points.

    But as he couldn''t come up with anything, Xue Xian finally waved his hand and swept the matter out of his mind. As his hand moved, it suddenly stopped in front of his face and his gaze fell on his ring finger, which he examined intently.

    "What is it?" Seeing that Xue Xian was staring at his own finger, Xuanmin assumed that he had thought of a clue.

    But Xue Xian only shoved the ring finger in front of Xuanmin''s face and said, "Look. I have a mole now."

    The finger was too close to Xuanmin, so he took a step back to look at it: Xue Xian''s finger, which had previously been unblemished, had suddenly become marked by a minuscule red mole. "Did that come from the spider?" Xuanmin asked.

    "Yes." Xue Xian squinted at it admiringly, then jutted his chin out to gesture at Xuanmin''s neck. "It looks quite similar to the mole you have on your neck, near your jawline. I wonder if I''ll start growing blood vessels out of it now, like you do."

    Xuanmin paused, then said, "I don''t think it will for the time being. After all, the mother spider hasn''t bitten anyone yet."

    Until the mother spider sank her fangs into someone, that "same age" would remain between Xue Xian and the son spider, and he would not be bound to anyone.

    Xue Xian poked that little red mole on his finger and said, "What if I killed the spider right now?"

    "It can''t die." Xuanmin tapped the writing on the wall. "Before the spider has bitten a second person and the spell has been cast, the spiders are bound to you. As long as you live, they live."

    Those two motherfuckers. He really couldn''t do anything about them, it seemed. Xue Xian was furious. "So now I have to keep these spiders as pets? Spiders who can live thousands, even tens of thousands of years, now that''ll be a rare sight. After a few times getting struck by lightning with me, maybe they''ll even become intelligent."

    Xuanmin shook his head. He had nothing to say.

    "Is there nothing on here about how to cure it?" Xue Xian asked unhappily. "That''s the reason we came all the way here."

    "Yes," said Xuanmin.

    Xue Xian''s eyes gleamed in the dim light, as though washed.** "Really? Tell me. I don''t mind if it''s hard ¨C¨C as long as it gets rid of that thing on your neck."

    Xuanmin said in a straightforward manner, "The spell is broken upon death."

    Xue Xian was stunned. What the fuck?

    What kind of spell was this? All about the digging and not about what you actually bury. It made no sense!

    Xue Xian glared at the scrawling text on the wall with contempt, and he glared in particular at that signature at the end, as though he could pierce through the name and glare at the person who had bred these spiders too.

    He was also disappointed that he himself could not read the writing, so that he could fully analyse the text and see if he might find some clues as to how to break the spider spell. But then it occurred to him that Xuanmin was meticulous and patient, and that he''d probably already gleaned much more from the next than Xue Xian would''ve been able to anyway. Xuanmin wouldn''t miss anything. Besides, the monk''s own life was at stake.

    Xue Xian got the feeling that he''d gotten the short end of the deal. Before they''d even found a way to cure Xuanmin, he''d gone and given his own life too.

    "Whatever," Xue Xian scoffed. "Since there''s no sign of a cure here, it''s a waste of time to stay here any longer. In any case, I now have both spiders. Maybe somewhere down the line we''ll be able to figure something out from them."

    It seemed that they had now reached the end of the line when it came to the Spider of the Same Age ¨C¨C but that group from the funeral stop who had come here and then left, they could certainly try to track down again.

    Xue Xian thought about it: from it was the hip ornament he''d found, to the corpses, to the mirror spell by the black pool, everything had to be connected to that wizard.

    Back when he''d asked Lu Nineteen to divine his golden marble, Nineteen had said that the wizard had been meditating in a dragon cave in the Shu region. Could it be that the wizard had travelled all the way to here in the meantime? What had made him hurry to Langzhou from the Shu region?

    This was impossible for Xue Xian to deduce ¨C¨C they would just have to find that wizard and ask him.

    Thankfully, one thing about Xue Xian was that he travelled extremely fast. No matter how powerful that wizard was, he had only been gone for a short time, and Xue Xian was confident that he could find him. Besides...

    "That man can''t be far," Xue Xian said. He walked back to the pool of black water and inspected the streaks of blood across the floor.

    "Hm?" Xuanmin finally stopped staring at the text on the wall and came over to Xue Xian, looking down as well.

    "Look¨C¨C" Xue Xian pointed at some of the more distinct fingers of the handprint. "The handprint is so chaotic. It seems that there were multiple struggles here. Earlier, when we''d first seen it, we''d assumed there had only been one fight. But if you look closely, all of the blood marks are confined within one space, and all of the handprints seem to come from one person. So... it seems that someone cast the spell, drew out a pair of spiders, got bitten and experienced immeasurable pain, and then made all these marks."

    Not even dragon blood had been a fair opponent against that spider venom, so what could a mortal without dragon blood do? Plus, this person had bled all over the floor ¨C¨C how healthy could they be now? How could they heal so quickly?

    The longer Xue Xian inspected the blood marks, the more he felt he understood what had happened here. He looked at that one, chilling handprint on the white stone tile, then at the blood stains all around it, and thought for a while. Then, with a swish of his black robe, he knelt down and crept close to the surface of the water, closed his eyes, and listened.

    "I know where he is," Xue Xian said, suddenly opening his eyes.

    Xuanmin met his gaze, then looked at the pool, and understood. "He left via the pool."

    "Indeed." Xue Xian sat up and beckoned at Xuanmin with his finger. "We''re chasing after someone. Naturally, the shortcut is best."

    Xuanmin looked at that black water that had stagnated in that pool for god knew how long, and said nothing.

    "Don''t worry. I hate fire, but I''m very much at home in the water." Xue Xian stood up and dusted himself off, then reached his hand out to Xuanmin.

    As he held Xuanmin''s hand, Xue Xian absent-mindedly took one last glance at the carved text on the wall. Suddenly, he remembered something and asked, "Right. Didn''t you say earlier that there are two types of spiders? One is the Spider of the Same Age... what about the other type? Could it be the one that Old Qu was muttering about... the spider where, once you''re bitten, you can connect three lives?"

    Xuanmin''s head was slightly tilted down, but his eyes looked up at Xue Xian. "You want one?"

    Xue Xian shook his head. "Not that. What do I need it for? Just one of my lives is far longer than three humans'' put together. Besides, does being bitten by that spider feel particularly good or something? I was just asking, since you just glossed over it."

    Xuanmin mildly scanned that wall of text, then looked away again. He shook his head. "It has nothing to do with the three lives. The rumors misunderstood. The spider can simply connect fortune and misfortune."

    There had been something particular on Xue Xian''s mind when he''d asked about a spider that could make a mortal remember everything they felt during three consecutive lives. As for this spider, he had no interest. He listened as Xuanmin described the effects of this new spider, and did not want to ask further, so simply nodded. Then, he grinned at Xuanmin and suddenly pulled at his hand.

    Splash¨C¨C

    The two fell sideways into the dark pool, sending water splashing everywhere ¨C¨C as the black water fell onto the tiles bordering the pool, it made those dried blood stains wet again.

    As they descended into the water, an enormous bubble wrapped itself around them and enclosed them inside. They rapidly sank all the way to the bottom and quickly disappeared from the black water without a trace.

    The waters in that pool had never seen daylight, and so being inside it felt like being submerged in the darkest winter night. In reality, outside, it was not yet noon.

    Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven had not yet arrived at the local town. Instead, they had sat down in the teahouse on the road to the city. The teahouse was not crowded, but was also not empty, which was perfect for these two ¨C¨C there was no danger, and the tables were quite spaced out, so they did not need to be extra careful when speaking to each other. Plus, they had a good view of the mountain.

    "Do you think Master has caught up to the stranger?" Stone Zhang asked. He was sitting right in front of the view, so as he sipped his tea, he stared intently at the mountain path, hoping to see Xue Xian and Xuanmin''s silhouettes any second now. "I don''t know why, but my eyelid has been trembling all morning. It''s stressing me out. But the two are very powerful, and I don''t think anyone would be able to defeat them. Nothing could go wrong, right?"

    Twenty-Seven didn''t have anything to divine, so he simply knocked his bundle of sticks restlessly against the table, as though bored out of his mind ¨C¨C but that small action revealed how anxious he was, too. But Stone Zhang liked to tremble, and Twenty-Seven couldn''t tell him that he was panicking too, or else the stonemason would send the whole table falling over with his shakes. So Twenty-Seven shook his head and snapped, "I don''t know. Maybe you didn''t sleep well."

    The two people sitting at the neighboring table had bamboo sticks with them ¨C¨C they seemed to be getting ready to climb the mountain, and were taking a break for lunch before the journey. As they ate, their casual conversation wormed its way into Stone Zhang''s ears.

    "Did you go by the river this morning?"

    "I did. I don''t know what''s wrong with the water. It rose like mad last night. When I passed by this morning, the surface of the river was almost by my feet, and I could watch it rise."

    "Right. It''s the middle of winter, so why would the river rise? How strange."

    "Strange things happen every year. Perhaps it''ll go down again tonight. You want to talk about strange? Did you see those two groups of people hurrying through town this morning? One group was in grey, and the other was completely in white. They looked so creepy!"

    His friend scoffed. "You''re so na?ve. I didn''t see anyone wearing grey, but I did see the group in white. They''re officials from the Ministry of Ceremonies! They''re very important people. No need to gossip."

    But they suddenly fell quiet ¨C¨C suddenly, a dozen or so men wearing grey appeared in the teahouse. They looked highly peculiar, and wore masks and plaited bamboo hats. They looked as though they''d stepped right out of a temple or a theatre troupe.

    Stone Zhang had been pouring himself more tea, but now he froze.

    He heard one of the men in grey say in a low voice, "All eight characters?"

    "Yes, it''s here," was the response. "However¨C¨C"

    "There''s not that many people here anyway. Reserve the whole place," came another voice.

    Suddenly, a layer of sweat seeped out of Stone Zhang''s forehead. He patted Twenty-Seven on the back, wanting to get out of here away from these strange people, but before he could stand up, he heard a sudden weng¨C¨C sound in his ears. It sounded like a hollow piece of bamboo, yet it rattled him so much that his entire vision went black. His knees buckled and he lost consciousness.

    ---

    * Nanjiang could either be a general "southern border" or the south of Xinjiang -- considering that Xue Xian himself is from Guangdong which is at the south of China, it''s likely this is the latter.

    ** Yeah idk sorry it''s a weird simile but like?? Better than the dragonfly one amirite

 CH 85

    Chapter 85: Valley Spell (I)

    Meanwhile, on a path for horses near the border to Wuchang Prefecture, a long carriage train was galloping along. Everyone in the train wore a robe of pure white, with primitive beasts embroidered on their chests, and their faces were concealed behind fierce but respectful masks. As they hurried along the path, their robes billowed behind them like clouds.

    These were none other than the Taipu and Taizhu''s group of exorcists.

    Before, when they''d been approaching Wuchang Prefecture, they had heard from passersby that two teams of officials from the Ministry had already passed through Wuchang, which had mystified and terrified the locals. They knew that for the Ministry to send all these riders meant that something terrible had happened ¨C¨C if it wasn''t some great disaster, then some danger was threatening the stability of the religious order.

    The past couple of years had already been quite difficult, unlucky ones. The winters and summers had been inconsistent, and there had been both droughts and floods. Midwinter periods were arriving earlier, and lasted longer, as though it had hidden spring and summer within its sleeve. Great blizzards were falling across the land, from the northernmost edge of the Gobi Desert to beyond the Five Ridges, in the very south, and it was impossibly cold. And between the snowstorms were frequent rainstorms. The people felt oppressed by the constant darkness of the sky, and wondered whether this current winter would ever end...

    At first, there had only been vague, unsubstantiated folk rumors, such as the dragon lords being unhappy and causing the earth to fall out of balance ¨C¨C some people believed this, and others did not. But now, the Ministry of Ceremonies had sent officials who seemed in a mighty hurry, and those who had not originally believed the rumors began to doubt themselves. It seemed that a great weight was hanging above them all, threatening to fall upon them at any time, with no way for them to prevent this or protect themselves.

    The Taipu''s group had originally merely been trying to track down the dragon, and had not had any real destination. But after hearing about the other Ministry groups, they, too, decided to head west.

    They had not gone far when they received a dove letter from a Deputy Minister. The letter said that a great disaster was coming in the next two days, and that they had received orders from the Great Priest to go to Dongting Lake. Another group of officials were headed for Mt. Wanshi in Linjiang, Lanzhou. The Deputy Minister asked the Taipu''s group to finish whatever task they''d been doing and await instructions from the Great Priest.

    And just as the Deputy Minister had said ¨C¨C around the time that the group was nearing Yuezhou Prefecture, the Taipu felt a slight heat on the hand that was gripping the reins. Behind her mask, she frowned slightly and made her horse slow down so that she could let go of the reins.

    In the instant that she let go, a yellow flame appeared between her fingers ¨C¨C it was not actually harmful, but it did feel hot.

    A thin sheet of paper appeared from the core of the flame and, as the flame died, the paper became distinct.

    The Taipu made a stop gesture with her hand, and the entire carriage train halted. The long train stood by a fork in the road. The Taizhu turned to the Taipu and said, "What did the Great Priest say?"

    "We are to go to Daze Temple on Jiangsong Mountain." The Taipu handed the slip of paper to the Taizhu.

    "Daze Temple? Isn''t that a haunted temple? There''s not even a priest there anymore. What are we going there for?" the Taizhu asked, confused.

    Yet the Great Priest''s black text on the white paper was clear¨C¨C

    There were only a few simple words on that slip of paper: Arrive at Daze Temple before 1pm; guard spell.

    "Guard spell?" the Taizhu said, stunned.

    Beneath her mask, the Taipu made a face. She paused, then said in a low voice, "Dongting Lake, Mt. Wanshi, Daze Temple... These three locations are hundreds of li apart. We''re off to guard a spell, but what about the others? The same?"

    "I don''t think they are. If they are... Could a spell be that large? I''ve never seen that before," the Taizhu replied.

    "But I feel like..." The Taipu hesitated for some time, then said, "Whatever. Let''s think about it once we''re at the Daze Temple."

    If they wanted to arrive at Daze Temple before 1pm, they needed to hurry. So they did not have the time to delay further to contemplate the Great Priest''s plans. They made a hand signal at the rest of their train and brought a rumbling trail of horses toward Jiangsong Mountain.

    At the same time that the Ministry group was departing from Yuezhou Prefecture, Xue Xian and Xuanmin, encased in an air bubble, finally emerged from some infinitely deep water and were washed by its current into a small spring that lay at the bottom of a mountain stream.

    As the two emerged from the spring, the bubble popped and vanished, letting the cascade of water falling down from the side of the mountain crash into them and drench them completely.

    They leapt onto shore and Xuanmin immediately cast a drying spell on himself and Xue Xian. Within the blink of an eye, the water that had been dripping from their robes evaporated completely, leaving not a single drop. Their robes were light and comfortable, with no stickiness, and even the sweat that had been caused by the heat cast from the dragon of fire was gone.

    Delighted, Xue Xian shook his robe and let the final beads of moisture fall off, then looked around them.

    They were in a deep mountain hollow, but one that was very different from the hollow in which Xuanmin''s bamboo building had stood. From here, all Xue Xian could see were enormous mountain peaks, one after the other, looking like so many fingers curled to encase them within their palm.

    The place looked like a heavenly vault, but with the top cut out ¨C¨C some kind of natural deep well, and they stood at the bottom.

    "There are three peaks," Xue Xian said as he pointed at the mountains in front of them. The peaks were so high that they disappeared into the clouds, and their faces looked as though they had been cut by a knife, with only a hook at the top of the cliffs shaped like an eagle''s beak, whose hooks weighed down heavily. The peaks bore down on them like a series of epidote rocks. "Look familiar?" Xue Xian asked Xuanmin.

    He''d asked it as a question, but his tone was that of a statement ¨C¨C this was precisely the place where Old Qu had told them they could find the Cave of a Hundred Insects.

    Although this legendary entrance had become Xue Xian and Xuanmin''s exit, it still helped them to determine their current location ¨C¨C they were in the Xia Mountain region.

    Ever since they''d leapt out of the spring, Xue Xian had had the feeling that their surroundings were chock-full of yin energy. It didn''t stink like the funeral stop, but there was nonetheless an old rotting smell, as though someone had suddenly flung open the lid to a wooden chest that had been sealed away for a decade ¨C¨C humid air mixed with dry dust always gave off an ancient and negative atmosphere.

    Instinct told Xue Xian that people had died here.

    Many, many people.

    Frowning, Xue Xian looked down at the fresh grass by his feet and nudged it with his toes. Just as he''d thought, the soil welled up with blood.

    "Found it." He tapped Xuanmin on the shoulder.

    But for a while, there was no response.

    Xue Xian looked up at Xuanmin and saw that the monk was quickly retracting his gaze from the meadow of wild grass as though just coming back to his senses from something. Xuanmin looked down at where Xue Xian was pointing with his foot and said, "The blood hasn''t clotted yet."

    "What''s wrong?" Xue Xian said in a low voice as he took back his foot and began listening to the valley for any noise.

    Xuanmin was silent, then finally said, "I think I''ve been here before."

    Hearing this, Xue Xian quickly glanced over at him then looked away. He began to follow the trail of blood, and, forcing himself to pretend to be casual, he joked, "How come you recognise everything?"

    To be honest, Xue Xian had begun to feel a bit uncomfortable during this journey ¨C¨C when he examined his discomfort more closely, he found that it felt as though he had missed out on or was forgetting something major. Something just didn''t feel right... but he always either forgot to think on it or could not think of anything at all.

    He had been feeling this way the whole time, all the way up to now ¨C¨C when he suddenly understood. This discomfort was actually a strange, mysterious sense of danger, as though there were something lurking just around the corner that he had, intentionally or unintentionally, decided to ignore.

    Hearing Xue Xian''s words, Xuanmin did not immediately respond. Instead, he looked down.

    For a brief moment, his face showed a melancholy expression, as though something particularly heavy were weighing on him.

    After some time, Xuanmin shut his eyes tightly, then opened them again. He shook his head and said, "Actually¨C¨C"

    Xue Xian blinked slowly and seemed to want to get ahead of what Xuanmin was about to confess. He interrupted, "Let''s find the stranger first. Your memory is terrible, so of course you can''t just recall it now. Perhaps once another seal on the coins is broken, it''ll become clearer."

    Xuanmin looked at him meaningfully, then strode over to overtake him. "Yes," he agreed.

    In fact, these blood stains very obviously indicated the direction in which the stranger had gone. Without much effort, the two ended up outside a small stone forest. The stone forest was only about ten zhang deep ¨C¨C it wasn''t big at all, but was enough for someone to cast an eight doors spell.

    If someone was hiding inside, they really would be able to delay them for some time. If it wasn''t for Xue Xian....

    "What''s the point of hiding in there?" Xue Xian called lazily into the stone forest. "If you were hiding in the middle of a city, then I''d have to consider bystanders. But since you''re in the middle of nowhere, then I have nothing to worry about. Do you think you can hold me back with a bunch of random rocks?"

    A sweep of his dragon tail and there wouldn''t be much of anything left.

    And the reason why Xue Xian was wasting his time talking to the stranger for so long without doing anything was to see if the stranger had any backup plan. Once he showed his hand, then Xue Xian could finish it all quite quickly.

    Just as he''d thought, after he spoke, there was a moment of silence within the stone forest, and then a muffled, low sound of laughter, which started and stopped, perhaps due to the stranger''s grave injuries. When the laughter died down, a sharp whistling noise rose.

    "Since you''ve come all the way to my door, then I must be a good host to my guests," that low voice said.

    That voice was accompanied by a loud, tragic wail that seemed to cover the whole sky like a rising tide. In the instant that the wail began to ring, the heavenly vault''s door above them suddenly changed color ¨C¨C dark clouds rumbled forth and instantly blocked out all light in the sky, submerging the entire valley in murky darkness.

    Xue Xian suddenly remembered that, a hundred years ago, there had been a great fire in the mountains of Langzhou, caused by lightning. They say that the fire raged for three days and three nights, killing every single person living in the valley and, for the rest of that year, one could always hear the mountains crying.

    In reality, that had not been the mountain crying, but the cries of the thousands of yin ghosts who had died in the blaze. The crying was harrowing, and neverending.

    Xue Xian felt as though the entire land beneath their feet had begun to tremble with that wailing, and that remote, godforsaken valley suddenly filled with the sound of earth splitting apart as those long-buried, century-old corpses rose from the mud, mighty and ferocious. Then, they began to move.

 CH 86

    Chapter 86: Valley Spell (II)

    Controlling thousands of yin corpses was not something just anyone could do. And thus the stranger hiding inside the stone forest could not be some anonymous lackey, but the Daoist priest Songyun himself.

    As this thought crossed Xue Xian''s mind, he suddenly felt a jolt of pain in his spine, one that reminded him of that day post-catastrophe when someone had taken advantage of his fatigue to extract all the bones from his body ¨C¨C it was as though it were happening again.

    But here and now, that pain only made Xue Xian link his current grudge to his previous grudge. Xue Xian took in that nauseating stench and watched the mass of yin corpses who filled the entire valley as well as the stone forest itself, and his face became as cold as frost.

    He stood there calmly and looked out at the incoming wave of corpses. He lightly brushed his robe, and then was shrouded in a cocoon of thick fog.

    In the blink of an eye, an enormous black dragon flew up into the clouds and roared. The mountain peaks began to shake once more, and savage thunder as well as howling wind struck down upon the valley. Bolts of lightning crashed into the earth.

    The dense mass of yin corpses in the valley began to scatter under the lightning like hornets out of a nest. The stone forest exploded under the thunder and, as the shattered stone flew into the air, a silhouette dressed in grey dove to the ground and disappeared into the sea of corpses.

    As he did so, he changed his costume and melded completely with the group of bodies whose flesh was rotting off their limbs, becoming impossible to spot.

    The black dragon pirouetted through the sky, then swept his long tail and sent a great gust of power through the valley that appeared enough to break mountains and split the sea.

    Honglong¨C¨C

    Where the dragon tail had struck the ground, now great vessels of cracks were appearing and spreading out. The piles of yin corpses were swept into the sky by the strong wind, then dropped back down into the ground, where they crumbled into sacks of bones. Countless corpses began to roll into the cracks of the earth.

    At the same time, a dragon of fire also rose into the sky. A long, mighty tongue of fire roared in the chaos of the wind and brought circles of yin corpses into its hungry, blazing mouth.

    In the black clouds above, Xue Xian looked indifferently down at the melee of writhing, crawling corpses ¨C¨C but the wizard Songyun, the one he was really looking for, was hiding among that sea like a rat in the sewers. He wasn''t even above turning himself into a blood-covered skeleton with swaths of flesh dropping away from his body.

    But what was the point of hiding? Was there a difference between dying now and dying a short time later?

    Those threads that connected the shattered bones within Xue Xian''s spine were trembling from sheer rage, and were beginning to destabilise because the magical power invested in them was depleting. Physical pain was not an issue for Xue Xian ¨C¨C but now, all pain only fuelled his anger.

    Soon, half of the mass of corpses in the mountain had been felled by the bolts of thunder and raging flames. Swept up by the power of Xue Xian''s dragon tail, they were swallowed by the earthquake.

    And among the unintelligible groans of the yin corpses, there came a high-pitched scream.

    Xue Xian laughed coldly as he brought his tail crashing into the mountain peak. The side of the mountain emitted a deafening explosion sound before snapping in half, the entire peak sliding down into the valley, bringing countless boulders and shattered rock with it, crashing into the spot where that scream had come from.

    Suddenly, dust rushed into the air and became a suffocating, grey fog.

    Along with that scream, the rest of the yin corpses were also buried beneath the slice of mountain, unable to move.

    Was that it? Had Xue Xian gotten his revenge?

    Xue Xian hadn''t intended to ask the wizard anything. To him, even speaking a single word to that man would be to allow himself to be polluted by Songyun''s evil. Nothing would make him interested in what Songyun had to say, and allowing the man the time to say any extra word was an excess of mercy.

    But to have kicked Songyun so easily and effortless into the abyss? Somehow, that irritated Xue Xian too. He had spent half a year dragging a pair of lame legs all over the place looking for his enemy, and now it had taken, at most, an hour to kill that enemy.

    It was as though he had punched a wall of cotton: it had done nothing for his rage, but now he was more annoyed than anything.

    And in that moment, the body parts and bones scattered across the valley suddenly began to twitch and move beneath the whirling wind. In the blink of an eye, they reconstituted themselves into a sea of yin corpses ¨C¨C and from that infinitely deep crack in the earth, countless of the corpses who had tumbled in were now climbing their way out.

    Lightning could not destroy them; fire could not burn them; boulders crushing them couldn''t prevent them from coming back together; and they could climb back out of any hole.

    These yin souls refused to go away ¨C¨C and Xue Xian, incensed, began to laugh, for in the clattering of the bones coming back to life once more he had heard the sound of someone trying to disguise their breathing, though this sound was no longer coming back from the spot in the valley where he''d brought the mountain crashing down.

    Seeing the yin corpses beginning to march toward him once more, Xuanmin finally moved his fingers to grip that copper coin pendant.

    Heavy yin energy and the sorrow of souls who''d died innocently, after converging in the atmosphere for so many years, had now become like a sticky spider''s web that covered the entire valley. With the corpses'' movement, the atmosphere had become so dense that all bodies were being slowed and impaired. Not even Xue Xian or Xuanmin could prevent this. And the stronger the yin energy, the more it sucked living beings into its embrace ¨C¨C the effect of yin energy was particularly strong on dragons.

    Ever since the beginning of time, yin and yang had pulled and struggled against each other. Nothing could change this.

    The sorrow of these thousands, even tens of thousands of yin corpses could move mountains and divert rivers. Its power was as sharp as a knife, and any ordinary human would long have been whittled down to bone.

    Xue Xian and Xuanmin were skilled in pushing back such negative energies, but even they could not completely destroy them. As the yin corpses reanimated themselves once more and began to lurch forward in waves, small bleeding wounds began to erupt across the two''s skin.

    As though endless thin knives were slashing themselves across their bodies.

    The injuries grew more numerous as time went on, and the yin and sorrowful energies were becoming thicker and more tangible as the corpses continued to return. Each time a blast of Xue Xian or Xuanmin''s magic struck down a group of corpses, the yin and sorrowful energies would only grow stronger, plunging them into a cycle from which they could never escape.

    No matter how many injuries appeared across his skin, Xue Xian did not mind, nor did he pay attention to the ever growing stench of fresh blood ¨C¨C compared to his catastrophe periods, this was nothing.

    He continued to allow that rage simmer calmly within him as he scanned the crowd of corpses for the wizard, bringing strikes of lightning down onto the man every time he spotted him in the valley. In the mess below, Xue Xian suddenly caught sight of Xuanmin, and suddenly faltered, because the monk was looking back at him, too.

    He was in the heavens, and Xuanmin was down in the deep valley. The distance between them was such that they could not even see each other''s faces.

    But in the moment that Xue Xian looked down at Xuanmin, he felt as though Xuanmin''s gaze held some particularly profound feeling within it. He watched as Xuanmin raised his hand to catch something in mid-air, and pinched it between his fingers.

    Xue Xian saw a patch of red bloom on Xuanmin''s hand and suddenly realised that what Xuanmin had caught in the air was Xue Xian''s own blood, falling from above.

    In that instant, some indescribable, unutterable emotion suddenly erupted in Xue Xian''s heart, as though someone had pricked the most vulnerable part of his flesh with a needle.

    That piercing pain had come so out of the blue that, for some moment, as he reeled from it, Xue Xian did not understand where it had come from. Until Xuanmin retraced his gaze and moved his fingers across the copper coin pendant.

    Since neither fire nor lightning was able to harm the yin corpses, Xuanmin took back the dragon of fire. As he muttered some kind of prayer under his breath, the copper coins in his hand began to glimmer with light, as though some long-stagnant magic within it was awakening again.

    Out of the five coins on the pendant, only three had had their seals broken, yet the glow that they cast was so bright that even Xue Xian, behind the clouds, felt it sting his eyes.

    As the copper coins were awakened by Xue Xian''s blood, he began to feel an enormous wave of heat in his spine.

    Stunned, he finally realised that the piercing pain in his heart from before had not been his own pain at all ¨C¨C but Xuanmin''s feelings, transmitted through the copper coins and into Xue Xian''s body, and which had perturbed his senses.

    But before Xue Xian could react, the copper coins were already resonating across the savage swirls of wind. Xuanmin chanted his prayer, rubbing the pendant with one hand and reaching out a finger of his other hand. That finger flicked the air, and suddenly an immense talismanic symbol appeared to hover in that murky air choked by smoke and dust. The talisman emitted a deafening ring as Xuanmin sent it toward the sea of corpses.

    Dang¨C¨C

    In the moment that the talisman rushed into the onslaught, a ripple crossed the sea of corpses as their very souls succumbed to Xuanmin''s magic. As the ringing echoed, the bodies of the corpses began to tremble.

    Indeed: lightning could not destroy them; fire could not burn them; because yin and sorrowful energy could not be vanquished by such forces.

    In that instant, Xuanmin was saving the souls of those tens of thousands of corpses. Xuanmin closed his eyes and calmly prayed, resisting the agony of the cuts that appeared ceaselessly across his skin.

    Dang¨C¨C

    Another ring, and, as though enchanted, the sea of corpses across the valley all froze. Slowly, they turned their bodies, and the yin energies dissipated from Xue Xian''s body, seeming all to be drawn to Xuanmin instead.

    Xuanmin pressed down on those copper coins again and again, and finally that sticky cocoon of yin energy departed from Xue Xian completely. It rushed toward Xuanmin and wrapped itself tightly around his body, while the countless corpses across the valley began to wail manically to the ring of the talisman.

    For a moment, Xue Xian was too stunned to move, but then, with a sweep of his tail, he vanished in a gust of black mist that down glided into the valley toward Xuanmin and crashed into the ground in front of the monk.

    The force of Xue Xian''s impact sent the surrounding corpses flying and the earth shaking once more. The black mist dissolved and Xue Xian, in his black robes, stood before Xuanmin, raising his hand so as to protect Xuanmin from the incoming surge of yin energy.

    But just as Xue Xian moved, he felt another swell of pain knock into his spine. He had spent too much magic and the threads that linked his broken bones, which had required enormous effort to maintain, now appeared to be on the brink of snapping.

    He felt the nerves in his legs pull away from him slightly, and lost his footing.

    At the same time, the blinding light from Xuanmin''s copper coin pendant grew ever brighter, and the coins circled the monk''s palm faster as they began to quiver violently, as though beginning to become restless, or beginning to succumb to some great force pressing down upon them. The dull grey shell around the fourth coin began to crack, and brilliant yellow light shone forth from beneath its seal.

    Dang¨C¨C

    Xuanmin''s eyes were still tightly shut, and he appeared completely unaware of everything around him. His voice as he read his prayer was deep and composed, each word resounding purposefully in Xue Xian''s mind.

    As the yin and sorrowful energies streaked across the sky and consumed the earth, and as those corpses groaned and reached out their mangled hands, the last bit of dullness dropped away from that fourth copper coin, and the coin suddenly jolted.

    Xue Xian suddenly felt a kada sound in his brain, like the opening of a lock.

    He knew that the seal had been broken and that he was receiving echoes of what rang through Xuanmin''s mind. Still, he could not curb the overwhelming effects of the vision ¨C¨C he felt a sudden light-headedness as a veil of darkness fell before his eyes. Then, fragmented scenes began to rush into him like a great tide...

    His point of view in this dream was low ¨C¨C he had been transported into the body of a child. Unable to control his movements, all he could do was follow the child''s gaze and look down at the bottom of the robe of the person standing in front of him.

    The ground was covered in thick snow, which seemed to pass his knees. There was a low desk, across which were spread various books, with a brush leaning against a brush stand. A thin layer of ice encased the tip of the brush.

    He heard a muffled voice come from above him. "You were born with the Buddha''s bones in your body. You must not take this lightly. Today, you will copy sutras here. In the evening, I will come pick you up."

    He himself said nothing. He gripped the brush and dipped it into the inkwell, then brought it to the thin paper before him...

    Suddenly, the sky turned dark, and he could no longer see the marks he was making on the paper. Xue Xian heard a light crunch in the snow beside the desk and slowly looked up to see that the man in the white robes had returned. He still did not look at the man''s face, instead gazing at his hand with deference or some other emotion.

    The hand turned, and retrieved from its wide sleeve a small portable heater. Then, the voice said, "Are you cold?"

    Xue Xian wanted to scoff and ask, Why don''t you stand here all day and see if you''re cold?

    But what he said was, "I''m not cold."

    His own voice sounded fuzzy too ¨C¨C it felt both extremely close, and years apart from him. Yet Xue Xian could hear that this was the voice of a child, though it was so cold and calm that it did not seem childlike at all.

    "Teacher is not trying to hurt you. You have the Buddha''s bones in your body. You mustn''t lead a mediocre life." The man sighed and placed the heater in Xue Xian''s lap, then patted the top of his head like a father figure. He took him from that snow-covered place to a small building in the middle of nowhere...

    These were Xuanmin''s memories.

    Despite the blurriness of the dream scenes, Xue Xian managed to maintain some clarity.

    Another enormous wave of dizziness crashed into his mind. Automatically, he shut his eyes and shook his head. When he opened his eyes again, his vision was assaulted by a series of nonsensical images again ¨C¨C sometimes he was in the hallways of a temple, other times in a pagoda. Sometimes, he was shrouded in silence, but other times he could hear others speaking softly outside the courtyard.

    Sometimes, his point of view was low, and other times high ¨C¨C the memories were not in chronological order.

    Xue Xian felt heat in his spine and some murmuring sound by his ear, and realised that his connection with Xuanmin''s pendant was stabilising again. Those blurred scenes began to become more distinct¨C¨C

    Now, he saw that he was sitting in front of a long desk again. A messenger dove perched dutifully in a corner of the desk, as though taking a rest ¨C¨C it looked peaceful, yet somehow fearful.

    In his hand, he held a piece of paper that he had unfolded. It was covered in text, and as he scanned it, he only caught a glimpse of some of the characters in the letter''s signature. And in those characters, he only saw two clearly before his fingers suddenly moved to fold that paper once more and place it to the side.

    Those two characters were Taichang ¨C¨C the Ministry of Ceremonies.

    He picked up a brush and dipped it in ink, then wrote sparse words on a nearby sheet of paper: We must not delay the Taishan ritual.

    And then he moved his brush to sign the letter with two characters¨C¨C

    Tongdeng.

    Xue Xian''s mind lurched in bewilderment. He thought he must have misread the letter, but before he could check again, the scene before him transformed again¨C¨C

    He was standing on the balcony of a tall pavilion, and a palace lantern nearby cast a warm, vague glow.

    The turmoil from seeing himself write Tongdeng had not yet gone away, so it was a long time before he realised that someone behind him was speaking to him. He had not been able to hear what the other had said, but now he was turning to walk back into the pavilion. He pushed a piece of paper toward him on the stone desk inside the pavilion and casually said something.

    Although the scene was still murky, and although his voice was still not completely distinct, he could still recognise that his voice was Xuanmin''s.

    He heard himself speak in Xuanmin''s cool and collected voice. He said one sentence: "Wuchen year, seventh day of the sixth month."

    After that, Xuanmin spoke some more, or perhaps asked the other person a question, but Xue Xian heard not a word. His ears were ringing and his entire body felt cold as he repeated the sentence that Xuanmin had so casually flung out earlier over and over again in his mind. Each time he repeated it to himself, he felt colder.

    That pain in his spine swelled up again, but Xue Xian was numb.

    Wuchen year was this year, and the seventh day of the sixth month was exactly the day of his catastrophe.

    In other words... that was the day that he had been maimed.

    He could not believe that it was so. He felt a strange sense of heaviness emerge and trap him inside. In his daze, he wanted to look again at the scene, see if there might be someone or something, anything at all, in the vision that might tell him that what he had just heard was only a coincidence.

    But his gaze was fixed on that stone desk, and he seemed to glance at something ¨C¨C in the instant of that glance, a strange, indescribable feeling rose in his chest ¨C¨C a very faint feeling, so faint that Xue Xian suspected it was not his own.

    It seemed to be loathing, or maybe something else.

    Xue Xian did not have the time nor the desire to analyse that feeling further, for he had seen what was placed on the side of the desk. It was two masks: one made of silver and gleaming dimly in the light; the other painted thickly with a design that was solemn and primitive, with two long strands of hair plastered to the side of the mask, like the fur of some beast...

    As Xue Xian stared at the pair of masks, his mind became blank, and the pain in his spine only became more acute.

    That pain was unbearable. It was as though it had followed the length of his spine and tunnelled its way into his heart, and then followed his veins and spread itself all around his body, giving him a false feeling ¨C¨C a feeling of sudden panic and terror, and sadness...

    None of the other flashing images registered in Xue Xian''s mind. Gradually, the copper coins'' ringing sound faded, taking the memories along with it.

    Suddenly, Xue Xian closed his eyes, and did not open them for a long time. When he did, he took in the wilderness of the valley again. The valley was right in front of him, yet felt a world away.

    At some point, Xuanmin had leapt to a low peak nearby. He continued to chant his prayer, which echoed endlessly within the valley. The lifeless groans of the yin corpses had become a mournful crying as the yin and sorrowful energies that had marinated on this land for a hundred years began to dissolve.

    The fog had become so dense in the valley that Xue Xian could not see Xuanmin''s face. He only saw that Xuanmin seemed to look over at him. The magic still pulsed through the monk''s pendant, and more talismanic symbols were appearing in the air, emitting a dim golden glow that looked like a great web covering all of the heavens and all of the earth, encasing the valley inside its cage.

    That dim glow was not bright, yet looking at it made Xue Xian''s eyes hurt. The pain reminded him of that day by the sea, and the golden threads that had appeared in the air to trap him within.

    An intense sadness welled up in his heart, a sadness much, much sadder than he thought he''d feel, and, unlike that net of golden threads, he saw no way out of it; even he was surprised by how heavy it felt...

    And in that moment, somewhere in the valley beneath the piles of white bones, a shocked voice suddenly called out to Xuanmin, "Great Priest? How... how could you be here?"

 CH 87

    Chapter 87: River of Blood (I)

    "Didn''t you send a message that you would meet us at Mt. Jiangsong..." Once he had seen Xuanmin, that wizard that had cowered among the sea of corpses finally revealed his location again. He still had a spell protecting him so that he appeared to look exactly like the other corpses, with chunks of his bleeding flesh having fallen away while he scurried through the crowd to reveal naked, shiny white bones. The skeleton looked as though it''d been reconstituted from disparate bones, and was yellowed already, and emitted a nauseating stench.

    But around him, the real corpses were all writhing on the ground, under the influence of Xuanmin''s golden light. They had collapsed and broken up into fragmented, scattered bones again, with only the last dredges of yin energy attached to their bodies. Standing among them, upright and whole, the wizard was immediately noticeable.

    The only thing left to his face was his skull, which was completely covered in a web of cracks. Old, shrunken skin clung to his skinny skull, and his eyes had become two black holes. With a face like that, it was impossible to tell what he was feeling ¨C¨C but from his wide-open mouth, he seemed so shocked that he had forgotten what situation he was in.

    If Xue Xian acted now, the wizard would probably have no time to react at all.

    But Xue Xian could not even see him anymore. Apart from that golden light, nothing in the valley had anything to do with him anymore. All he knew was that the agony in his spine had pierced into his heart, more painful than any sword. His chest felt only cold: a cold that seeped into his bones; a cold that could freeze the world.

    Between him and Xuanmin were mountains and boulders, was the golden light, was the fog. But he did not raise his hand to try and sweep the fog away. He looked calmly at that white shadow that stood at the low mountain peak from across the murky mist and, in a low voice, repeated, "Great Priest?"

    Details from the past suddenly rushed into his mind, some important, some trivial, some distinct, some muddied, a mess of thoughts and images flashing through him, summoned by that name, Great Priest. They became clearer and clearer¨C¨C

    Unusually powerful; sought after by the authorities; highly particular personality; and the carriage train that they''d run into by Dustpan Mountain...

    Actually, there were constant clues all along that had pointed to Xuanmin''s identity. In recent days, especially ever since they''d travelled to the Cave of a Hundred Insects, that strange, nagging discomfort of Xue Xian''s had been an unconscious unease, even a nervousness.

    He had always known, deep down. But he had, intentionally or unintentionally, ignored it.

    Even now, after having experienced the return of Xuanmin''s memories through the pendant''s connection, he still clung onto that last hope that it might all have been a coincidence. He wanted to ask Xuanmin himself ¨C¨C he was even willing to be stupid, as long as Xuanmin denied it, as long as Xuanmin said the word No...

    "Wuchen year, the seventh month of the sixth day..." Xue Xian repeated as he gazed intently at that white shadow across the gulf.

    He saw that white shadow move, just slightly.

    But the fog was too thick, so he did not know if he had really seen it, or if he''d imagined it.

    "When you said, Wuchen year, the seventh month of the sixth day. What day did you mean..." Xue Xian was finally able to utter a full sentence.

    In his long, almost infinite life, he had felt like this when asking a question, had never cared like this about the response. For a moment, he even regretted asking, wanted to blurt something out to stop this, to take it back.

    He had never been so afraid of hearing the truth.

    Yet the one on the mountain had once told him, I would never lie to you.

    Xuanmin was silent for a long time, so long that the cold that had seeped across Xue Xian''s chest was making him completely numb. Finally, Xue Xian heard that voice, slightly hoarse, say, "A dragon''s catastrophe period..."

    Xue Xian''s eyelids fluttered, and he calmly shut his eyes. When he opened them again, there was no expression on his face. He took one last look back at Xuanmin, and in a terrifying cold voice, said, "Okay."

    *****

    In a temple around ten li from Mt. Jiangsong, a very young-looking Buddhist novice was sitting cross-legged by the window, reading a sutra book. Just as he was about to flip the page, dark clouds suddenly rushed to cover the sky outside, and thunder began to rumble.

    The little novice put his sutra aside and looked out the window.

    Their temple had been built following the flow of the side of a mountain, and was the tallest structure in its ten-li radius. From his angle, he could see that, in the distance, there was another mountain, in front of which was a vast and mighty river. On the mountain, there was a lonely temple.

    These black clouds and lightning had come out of nowhere, and seemed not to intend to go away anytime soon. It was as though god was sad, and was throwing a tantrum.

    The black clouds rumbled forth and, in the blink of an eye, had choked the entire sky from this side all the way to the other side. They pressed down heavily, seemingly almost pushing down on the temple roof itself, as though the little novice could simply reach out and touch them.

    Seeing this, the little novice was mystified, and really did reach out his hand to try and touch them ¨C¨C but before he could, a heavy rain began to fall.

    The rain was extremely strong, and now the novice could no longer see the mountain in the distance anymore, only the slight blur of that lonely temple.

    The raindrops came down so hard that the little novice''s hand began to hurt, and the entire sleeve of his grey monk''s robe began soaked through too, sticking to his arms. Wet clothes against one''s skin is never comfortable, but the little novice did not mind. He only looked, dazed, at that savage tempest.

    For some reason, he got the feeling that the rain was cathartically strong, that the black clouds were letting something off their chests. As he watched the rain, he felt a strange sense of sadness, as though he were trapped within the clouds, suffocating, unable to breathe.

    The little novice was very young, and had lived most of his short life in the mountains. He very rarely felt such strange emotions come out of nowhere. He suddenly recalled the sutra that he had been reading just now, which included a line that he did not understand: Love makes life unhappy; love makes life frightening; those who avoid love feel no unhappiness and no fear.*

    The little novice gazed into the mesmerising storm and zoned out for a long time, until his disciple brother came to ask him to shut the window.

    "Brother, I saw someone inside that temple just now," the little novice said, pointing at that wispy mountain silhouette across the rain.

    "What kind of trick are you using to be able to see so far?" the brother laughed. "No way. That''s Daze Temple, a famous haunted temple. It''s been abandoned for who knows how long. How could there be anyone there?"

    "I really saw it. I saw it before the rain began. A person wearing white, standing at the top of the pagoda, but when I tried to look again, they had disappeared." Then, the little novice said, "Amitofo," seemingly having begun to think about ghosts and spirits.

    Actually, he did not need his disciple brother to tell him that the lonely temple in the distance was Daze Temple.

    He had asked the fellow novices about it when he''d been younger. They said that, many years ago, perhaps one hundred or two hundred years ago, a young man from Nanjiang arrived at Daze Temple and had shaved his head to become a monk. But before he could be initiated into monkhood, a bolt of lightning set the temple on fire, killing all of the monks inside. After that, whenever folk mentioned Daze Temple, they would either sigh with regret, or gossip about whether that youth from Nanjiang had been a star of calamity, who had brought disaster upon everyone and himself.

    Ten years after the fire, people said that a man dressed in white had been seen on Mt. Songjiang. He had met an abandoned orphan by the dilapidated doors of Daze Temple and taken that orphan home.

    The woodcutter who had seen the monk in white had said, in all sincerity, that he had seen the monk roll up his sleeves, and that on his wrist was a totem from Nanjiang.

    Many decades later, a man dressed in white was seen on Mt. Songjiang again. Of course, this time, the monk did not roll up his sleeve, and so they had not seen whether he had had a totem on his wrist. But similarly, that monk found an orphan at the temple and took the child away.

    Of course, these were just unsubstantiated rumors, so they had not spread very far. Today, probably only those who lived at this temple, who could see the shadow of Daze Temple in the distance, discussed these incidents. The little novice recalled that, when his disciple brothers had first mentioned the story, they had also chuckled while adding, Shifu even told us that the craziest rumor he''d heard was that the Nanjiang youth was the monk in white ¨C¨C and that the monk in white later became the Great Priest.

    "What about the orphans? What became of them?" the little novice had asked at the time.

    The disciple brothers had snapped, "Do you really believe these stories? How would I know?"

    Since then, that lonely, haunted temple had been a source of much mystery to the little novice. He had the feeling that anything could happen there.

    "Don''t just stand there. It''s raining unbelievably hard, and this morning I heard that the river running through the county has started to flood. With this rain, the river''s probably going to reach our ankles. Why did you leave the window open so long? This whole room would''ve flooded too," the brother said.

    The little novice nodded along, then reached out to shut the window once and for all. Just as he gripped the windowpane and was about to pull it shut, he absent-mindedly looked out at the sky and froze.

    "Brother..."

    "What is it now? Why is it so hard for you to shut a window?" Laughing, the brother walked over to help the little novice with the window.

    But the novice, shocked, pointed out into the black clouds and muttered, "I think I saw a dragon..."

    Hearing this, the brother got ready to smack the novice in the head, but he suddenly saw a long black shadow glide across the clouds, wrapped in the white flashes of lightning. It was difficult to see what the creature looked like, but based on that shadow, it had to be a dragon!

    "Oh heavens¨C¨C" the brother said, dumbfounded.

    The little novice pointed at Mt. Songjiang and said, "I think... I think it''s headed for Daze Temple!"

    At the same time, inside Daze Temple on Mt. Songjiang, the exorcists from the Ministry of Ceremonies were gathered with their horses within the great hall. The great fire that had raged in the temple all those years ago had not been too destructive, but the temple was rural, with few visitors and few monks, and that lightning had struck in the middle of the night, which was why no one had been able to escape.

    In reality, the fire had only burned the back part of the temple. The front sections had barely been damaged.

    Obeying the Great Priest''s orders, the Taizhu and Taipu brought the hundreds of Chengzi officials with them to the temple''s great hall, where they sat in one great circle. The Taipu was at the head of the circle and the Taizhu was at the end, and on the floor between them, there was a small stone sculpture. The sculpture was carved with complex talismanic text and covered in yellow talismanic paper, and was circled by a trace of blood.

    The Taipu instructed each Chengzi to slit their thumbs and let out a drop of blood. A hundred crimson droplets appeared from a hundred wounds, and just as the blood was about to drop, a sigh came from the great hall. The sigh was very faint, and intermixed with the breeze of the mountain, so that, although the Taipu faltered, no one else seemed to have heard it.

    Frowning, the Taipu looked around cautiously, but recalled that they had thoroughly searched the premises earlier and found no one.

    Had she misheard?

    The Taipu debated with herself, then shook her head as she decided not to think about it anymore. She barked instructions to the officials around her, then reached out and pressed her bleeding thumb onto the floor in front of her. The hundred officials followed suit, and gave their blood too.

    Then, everyone closed their eyes and began to recite a prayer.

    A buzzing sound rose within the great hall and seeped into the tempest outside...

    The Ministry groups at Mt. Wanshi and Dongting Lake did the same: they all sat in a circle around the stone sculpture that the Great Priest had prepared for them, and gave their blood to the spell.

    ---

    * This quote comes from "ÃîÉ«ÍõÇó·¨ÙÊ" (King Miaose requests a Buddhist hymn) which is some kind of Tang dynasty Buddhist manuscript?? But I can''t find any information on who "King Miaose" is, nor what the manuscript really is, or anything like that sorry.

 CH 88

    Chapter 88: River of Blood (II)

    Daze Temple stood on Mt. Jiangsong. At the foot of the mountain was Heishi Shore, a black pebble beach covered with rocks and boulders, some of which were so tall that they seemed to be part of a forest. Past Heishi Shore was the wide river, and the endless horizon.

    Bodies were piled all across Heishi Shore ¨C¨C perhaps two hundred. They were all pale-faced, as though drained of blood. With their eyes tightly shut and their faces pulled into slight frowns, they appeared unconscious. They even looked, at first, to be dead, but their bodies were not rigid.

    Based on the attire of these unconscious bodies, which were mostly ragged and torn, some emitting a sour smell from not having been washed in some time, they were either outright beggars or itinerant, starving migrants.

    But some of them wore beautiful clothing, though the material of their clothes were not of high quality, and, from the split open callouses on their hands and their sun-wrinkled dark skin, they also looked to be poor working people.

    And inbetween these bodies, there were also some that looked like the lives they led were not bad. Perhaps they had gotten lost, or were in the countryside, when they had been kidnapped and brought here. Included in this group were Stone Zhang and Lu Twenty-Seven, who had been waiting for their companions at the teahouse.

    If they were awake now, they would probably be frightened by the scene. Because the two hundred bodies were arranged into circles ¨C¨C circle within circle, all together making up a circular feng shui design.

    In the middle of these concentric circles was a stone sculpture around the size of a person, which had been crudely carved into the form of a monk stepping on a lotus leaf. From the back, this monk looked to be wearing a thin robe that billowed gently in the wind, like a stone Buddha. But, if one went to the front, one would discover that the monk''s face could not be seen, because the monk was wearing a mask in the form of a beast''s face. The mask was solemn and primitive-looking, and emitted a faintly evil aura.

    Even stranger, the monk''s entire robes were carved full of complex talismanic writing, which looked to be similar to the text carved onto the small stone sculptures at Daze Temple, Mt. Wanshi, and Dongting Lake. The only difference was that the text on the monk looked to be mixed in with some other, mysterious script, which seemed to be some simple writing system invented by some bygone clan.

    If Xue Xian were here, he would recognise that script immediately as the exact same script that he had seen carved on the all in the Cave of a Hundred Insects ¨C¨C but the handwriting was different. The difference was in fact minuscule, so that even the owner of the two handwritings might, in an absent-minded moment, mistake the two.

    The lotus leaf part of the sculpture was covered in yellow talismanic papers.

    And beneath the lotus leaf, someone had also used blood to draw a circle around the sculpture.

    The two hundred bodies on Heishi Shore were arranged so that their heads faced the sculpture and their feet faced outward. Apart from this, they were in all sorts of positions, though there was one more thing that was identical ¨C¨C on each of their foreheads, at their life pressure point, they had a small dot of blood, which looked to be a red mole.

    The wind blew hard across the river, sending ripples of water lapping against the shore. On a tempest day like this, each incoming wave threatened to drown Mt. Jiangsong itself.

    The circular design that these two hundred bodies had formed an iron cage around the sculpture, protecting it. The savage wind, strong enough to cut flesh and rip cloth, whirled past furiously, but the fragile talismanic papers on the sculpture did not budge. The pouring rain made the river water steadily rise, but not a single drop landed on the clothes of those two hundred.

    Outside the circle, a group of men in grey all knelt with one knee. They wore masks that looked similar to that of the Great Priest, except the Ministry''s masks were red in color, whereas these masks were primarily green-black. With the Ministry''s masks, these were yin and yang ¨C¨C one light, one dark.

    All the men in grey also wore hip ornaments made of peach tree wood ¨C¨C the exact same as the one that Xuanmin had taken from the man in the stone room at Dustpan Mountain.

    "Eight characters all aligned makes one hundred and eighty people. Not one more, not one less: ninety yin, ninety yang," reported the leader of the men in grey. Beneath the mask, his voice sounded muffled, and his words were broken up by the raging sound of the rain, so that it was almost impossible to hear what he was saying.

    They were kneeling before a man standing between two large black boulders, facing Mt. Jiangsong, with both his hands behind his back. The man wore a snow-white monk''s robe with not a speck of dust. As the splattering storm approached the monk, it suddenly fell completely silent ¨C¨C and even more mysteriously, when the rain fell upon him, it did not make him wet at all.

    This man was very tall, with a slender and elegant frame, so that just from his back he appeared to only recently have left his insular Buddhist realm to enter into human society. He looked utterly unapproachable.

    On his face, he wore a silver mask so that no one could see his appearance ¨C¨C only a pair of black eyes. He was looking up at Mt. Jiangsong, and his cold aloofness seemed also to be mixed with some other feeling.

    As he heard the report from the leader of the men in grey, he rubbed his fingers, yet did not move his gaze.

    The grey leader looked up and glanced at the monk, then quickly looked away again, silently waiting for the monk to speak. Even this brief moment of silence made the men in grey feel uneasy and even ashamed, as though they had done something deeply wrong.

    The monk rubbed his fingers, then finally said, "Did you involve unrelated bystanders?"

    His voice had a fundamental sense of coolness to it, like the icy surface of a frozen pond.

    But this simple question made the men in grey begin to tremble. The leader quickly said, "No, no, we only kidnapped people from marginal areas, and if there were some idle people nearby, we brought them along too. There are no witnesses, and no proof."

    The monk rubbed his fingers again, then said, neither happily nor angrily, "Kidnapped?"

    "No, no, no, invited," the leader hurriedly amended.

    The leader forced himself to appear calm again despite his mistake, but for a long time there were no further words from the monk. Anxiously, the leader glanced at the monk and saw that he was still staring calmly at the peak of Mt. Jiangsong. Although he could not see the monk''s eyes, the leader detected a sense of strong emotion in the monk, as though, somehow, the monk was feeling nostalgic about the mountain.

    Mystified, the leader suddenly felt foolishly brave. He had the audacity to ask, "This is an anonymous place in the middle of nowhere, with nothing special. Great Priest, why have you chosen this location?"

    Immediately, the grey leader wanted to slap himself dead on the spot. He had been raised by the wizard Songyun since childhood, and, from the age of sixteen, had begun to assist Songyun and the Great Priest in small matters. It had been seven or eight years since he''d taken on that role, but the number of times he''d actually met the Great Priest, he could count on the fingers of his hands. He still mostly received orders from Songyun and then would leave to execute them. Yet despite the fact he''d interacted little with the Great Priest, he still knew about the Great Priest''s notorious temper¨C¨C

    The monk had always had abnormal moods, and hated it when those beneath him had the audacity to ask unnecessary questions.

    In terms of what question was ''unnecessary'', the monk had never clarified, so to the men in grey, that meant, "don''t ask any questions."

    No matter what the monk''s plans were, they were bound to be justified. They had no place to interject.

    Yet, when the grey leader had asked his question, the Great Priest had not become angry. In fact, the monk replied, "Many years ago, I met a saint here."

    Now that was.... too many years ago, so long that not even he could remember how old he had been at the time, what he''d looked like, who his parents had been, and why they had abandoned him on this wild mountain. If it had not been for that saint, he would probably have long died and have been resurrected several times by now, and would not be here today.

    Hearing the Great Priest''s answer, the grey leader paused, shocked, then lowered his head and said, "That saint had a most excellent eye, or else we would not have peace on this earth today."

    "A most excellent eye..." The Great Priest seemed to be greatly amused by this phrase, then seemed to tease, "Peace? If the earth was peaceful, we would not have to do all this, and we would not have to come here now, nor invite all these suffering commoners."

    For a moment, the grey leader did not know how to respond. Indeed, the Great Priest was a man of few words, and it was highly rare that he would say so much in one go. If the grey leader did not respond, that would be a great offense. So he thought for a while, then said, "We are the foolish ones, who cannot part from tragedy."

    Hearing this, the Great Priest''s gaze shifted and calmly scanned the grey leader, before turning back to look at Mt. Jiangsong again. Finally, he mildly said, "Everyone has some use. Do not belittle yourself."

    He gazed at the abandoned temple on the mountain, and lifted his hand in Buddhist greeting to it.

    To him, his whole life had begun right here, so it was fitting also to "die" here ¨C¨C it was the only way that things could be whole. Besides, that he was here now was in part a disobedience of that person''s wishes, so to come and repent before he "died" would give him a sense of peace.

    He believed that if the other lived, he would understand his motivations.

    When the Great Priest finished greeting the temple and looked up again, the talismans stuck onto the stone sculpture in the middle of the circle made of hundreds of bodies suddenly began to tremble.

    One was facing Daze Temple, another faced the direction of Dongting Lake, and another faced the direction of Mt. Wanshi.

    Those three talismans trembled simultaneously, emitting a whoosh sound, like the vigorous slap of the wind against a war flag.

    Next, the circle of blood surrounding the sculpted lotus leaf shone with a light, and that blood, which had been drying and becoming brown, suddenly glowed fresh again, and seemed to flow slowly.

    The Great Priest turned. He swept his sleeve, and a gust of wind sliced across the spell. The thumbs of the hundreds of people inside the spell burst and blood began to flow through those wounds and drip onto the ground. As though something were drawing them in, the rivulets of blood began to crawl toward the stone sculpture in the center.

    It was an astonishing sight ¨C¨C those hundreds of thin streams of red blood slowly, calmly making their way to the sculpture, like so many snakes. In the blink of an eye, they had made contact with the foundation of the sculpture.

    Although the men in grey had been prepared for this, they still felt a chill run down their spines as they watched the blood flow. The carved lotus leaf turned blood red in its entirety, then the redness began to crawl up the sculpture''s feet.

    It seemed that the whole sculpture was going to be dyed red.

    How much blood that required, the men in grey did not know. They only knew that the blood in the two hundred bodies laid out for this spell was bound to be drained ¨C¨C and none of these unconscious people would survive.

    As they stared, dazed, the Great Priest glanced at them calmly and sent another gust of wind flying. The men in grey felt a sharp pain in their own thumbs, and then, before they could react, their right hands were slammed to the ground as though suddenly weighed down by an immense force.

    The force was so strong that none of them could fight back. Unable to control themselves, the men in grey crumpled to the floor and could only watch as their own blood was drawn out of their hands, sent crawling toward that stone sculpture, too. And it seemed that it was not only blood being drained out of them, but their very lives.

    At first, they were too stunned to move, but then they began to struggle desperately. But no matter how much strength they expended, and what kinds of tactics they tried, their right hands were locked to the ground, and did not move an inch. Still, the blood flowed.

    The leader of the men in grey suddenly realised something. Shocked, he looked up at the Great Priest, and happened to meet eyes with the monk.

    There was not a ripple nor flicker of empathy in those black eyes. It was as though the monk were not looking out at hundreds of living human beings, but at a patch of grass outside a window.

    As he looked through those serene eyes, the grey leader finally understood the true meaning of what the monk had said: Everyone has some use. Do not belittle yourself.

    He also understood why the Great Priest had divulged so much earlier. To the monk, all this had been equivalent to talking to himself, with no one around to hear... after all, once they were all dead, they would no longer be anyone.

 CH 89

    Chapter 89: River of Blood (III)

    He could feel his own fresh blood pour out of his body, taking all his warmth with it too. He began to feel cold, his vision began to blur, and his mind felt heavy and thick, so that his neck no longer had the strength to hold up his head.

    In that confused state of panic, he suddenly began to remember many, many things, fragmented and disparate memories from bygone times.

    He remembered that all the others who had grown up alongside him in the mountains were now sprawled in the pool of blood as well.

    He remembered the first time he ever met the Great Priest. He was still small, too young to understand things, and had not had any reason to interact with the Great Priest. He had waited until Songyun had been distracted and snuck down from the mountain into the nearest town, where the Taishan ritual procession had been passing through, and, there, he had glimpsed the Great Priest. That day, the streets were full, yet no one dared get too close. He had pushed among the crowd, trying to find a good position from which to see things clearly, but someone had shoved him, and he had stumbled into the street, right into the procession. He had thought he was going to fall face-first on the ground, but instead had seen a white cloud float past his vision and conjure a gust of wind, which had gently blown him upright.

    He had been too young, and had not processed what had just happened to him, instead obediently walking back into the crowd. By the time he''d returned to his senses, that procession had already gone ahead, yet he immediately took notice of the man in white on horseback at the very front...

    The memory was from so long ago that he''d thought he''d long forgotten it. Yet now, he was remembering it again.

    He realised now that, back then, he hadn''t been so utterly afraid of the Great Priest -¨C indeed, he''d even revered him. When had he begun to feel panic, dread, and uncertainty in front of the Great Priest...?

    Following Songyun''s orders, he and his brothers had travelled in the shadows for many years, and could no longer remember all the things he''d done. At the beginning, seeing all those human lives perish by his hand, he''d felt overwhelmed by guilt, and, in search of answers, had gone to Songyun about it.

    Songyun had said that everything they were doing, they were doing for the people. Those small preparations were in order to cast a single enormous spell. The spell was called "Bones Buried in the Rivers and Mountains", and, if it was successful, it could not only prevent great disasters, but also ensure a hundred years of peace in the region.

    Songyun had not taught him the most difficult and profound things, so when it came to the specifics of a great spell such as this, he had no idea. He only remembered Songyun saying something that he had always heard the wizard say: In order for great things to succeed, we must make some sacrifices.

    This had made sense to him, so he had remembered it.

    Until today; until he watched the rivers of blood flow ceaselessly, as he realised that the bridge between life and death was a short one now, looming ahead for him. A deep sense of fear came upon him, and his thoughts suddenly became confused and chaotic.

    He suddenly felt that those words of Songyun had been wrong, and that Songyun had missed out on many things. At least... at least they should have asked those people whether they wanted to be sacrifices.

    Then, his mind lurched again, and, in his daze, he realised that Songyun had not been wrong, but...

    He suddenly wondered if the Great Priest, as aloof and detached as he was, was really acting out of love for the people. The hundreds of people laid out here, the bodies trapped beneath the river, and even more people who had become entangled in all of this... had their deaths been worth it? Had their deaths been inevitable?

    But he no longer had the strength to open his mouth and ask all these questions. He could not even take one last look at the Great Priest. He could only feel himself slowly begin to fall asleep amidst the ever-dimming darkness around him, and then... he would probably never wake up again...

    The blood flowing out of the thumbs of these hundreds of sacrifices finally dyed the entire sculpture blood-red. Not a single patch of the sculpture was bare, not even in the back, and it now exuded an evil energy.

    It seemed as though some devious ritual had begun. In an instant, the entirety of Mt. Jiangsong, even Baishi Shore on which the Great Priest still stood, began to tremble, and great red waves began to appear in the sky, rolling toward the shore, yet stopping just before they crashed against where the Great Priest stood, and receding once more.

    It appeared as though two great forces were fighting each other.

    The Great Priest sat down and put his palms together. He began to murmur a prayer, as though he were delivering funerary rites for lost souls, but the words he was speaking were primitive-sounding and full of strange noises, an uncanny language.

    The towers of black stones behind him crumbled and the great waves in front of him rushed toward him, but created a strange arch shape over his head without hurting him one bit.

    At first, the Great Priest looked perfectly fine, but as he finished a prayer, small pricks of blood began to appear all across his clasped hands, looking highly abnormal. There were at least a hundred wounds.

    Yet he did not stop reciting his prayers, as though he felt no pain at all.

    But it was like those pricks of blood were alive. As the Great Priest prayed, the blood began to crawl across the back of his hand, though every bit that they moved seemed to be done with great difficulty.

    The Great Priest still wore his silver mask, hiding his face. But in the blink of an eye, a thin layer of sweat had appeared across his temples, beside the mask ¨C¨C although he made no noise nor movement, it seemed that he was putting all his effort into his magic.

    Slowly, the blood flowed from the back of his hand into his sleeves and up his arms.

    The wind and waves became more frenzied, and the waves were so large that they seemed to want to swallow the earth whole. In the distance, the little buildings by the river were pummelled mercilessly by the red waves, and quickly collapsed with the sound of crunching and breaking. Another wave hit and washed the buildings cleanly away, into the current.

    At the same time, a golden thread as thin as lightning was swimming across the faraway sky as quick as thunder. Before anyone could react, the thread had gone toward the northeast, had landed somewhere with an enormous noise, and then gone to the southwest, and was now headed here.

    As the thread passed Dongting Lake and Mt. Wanshi and made its way to Daze Temple, the Great Priest saw a faint golden light appear by his feet. And those droplets of blood from his hand had crawled up his arms and were now at his neck.

    It was a terrifying sight: a pure-looking monk, covered in dots of blood all across his neck, and, as he continued to pray, that blood was steadfastly climbing up to his face.

    In the instant that the blood reached his chin, a new circle of blood appeared on Heishi Shore.

    A light flashed amidst this circle and two people appeared within it.

    One wore a white monk''s robe and appeared to have recently stepped out into the common realm: he was very handsome, yet appeared very cold ¨C¨C so cold that he inspired fear and terror, like an infinite void hidden beneath a frozen tundra. He was roughly holding a second man by the collar.

    That second man was covered in blood, and his previously grey robes were full of mud and in tatters. All the visible parts of his skin, from his arms to his neck and even his face, were severely scratched, as though he had been tortured by something invisible and manically scratched himself to a pulp.

    This bloodied man was none other than the wizard Songyun, from the valley.

    And the person who had captured him was Xuanmin.

    Xuanmin''s face was still ice-cold, but his black eyes seemed to have some new emotion in them, something fierce and dark like a storm, and terrifying.

    As the wizard Songyun stepped onto Heishi Shore, he saw the Great Priest sitting with his palms clasped, and suddenly cried out in shock.

    "You''re not ¨C¨C You¨C¨C" Songyun suddenly lurched, wanting to escape from Xuanmin''s grasp, but Xuanmin, with a blank face, moved his hand to clutch the wizard''s neck rather than his collar.

    "You¨C¨C" Songyun had greatly suffered in the Cave of a Hundred Insects, or else he would not have been defeated so easily and ended up in this desolate state. With his neck in Xuanmin''s hands, he spoke slowly and with pain. "You''re the other¨C¨C Ah¨C¨C"

    Before he could finish his sentence, Xuanmin tightened his grasp ¨C¨C though it had not been because Xuanmin was paying attention to what Songyun was saying, but that he had seen the spell on Heishi Shore, as well as the drops of blood across the Great Priest''s neck.

    Back at the valley, when the fourth seal had been broken, Xuanmin had regained another portion of his memories. Those fragmented memories had still been too all over the place, as confusing as if they''d come from a different world, and not something ordinary people could immediately process.

    Before he''d gotten those memories back, Xuanmin had suspected that his relationship with Xue Xian had not been as straightforward as they''d both thought. He''d started to feel that the person he''d been looking for had in fact been Xue Xian all along.

    But it had only been a feeling, and he had continued to have doubts.

    But when he''d seen himself calculate a dragon''s catastrophe date in his own memories, he''d felt as though his entire person had been plunged into an infinite darkness, down and down, never to see the light again.

    Xuanmin had been the one who had maimed Xue Xian. What words could resolve that? So Xue Xian had left without turning back, and Xuanmin could not chase after him ¨C¨C he could only watch as that long shadow rose into the skies and then disappeared into the clouds, without another trace.

    He would probably never see him again.

    But no matter whether Xue Xian wanted to see him again, he had to repay his debt. So he''d captured Songyun and immediately drawn a spell to transport him to where the dragon bones were buried. No matter what he''d done in the past, he now had to completely clear this debt once and for all.

    A bone for a bone.

    If he caused a disaster, he would suppress it. If he cost people their lives, he would repay it.

    But as he finally arrived at Heishi Shore, he realised that things were far different than he''d imagined. That monk in the silver mask sitting across from him, praying ¨C¨C he''d seen the man before.

    When he''d been a child, this monk had punished him by making him copy sutras in the freezing snow, and this monk had also brought him indoors, had given him a small heater to help him warm up again, had lectured him on moral lessons, had tucked him into bed, had made sure, when he left, that the door was shut tightly.

    A very long time ago, he''d called this monk Shifu. But he had not called him that for a dozen years or more.

    Although his memories were still unclear and full of gaps, Xuanmin could remember that, many, many years ago, the first time he had ever called this monk Shifu, the monk had been silent for some time, and then waved his hand dismissively and said, "We are but old friends meeting again. I cannot be your Shifu."

    He had not understood what the monk had meant, and then he had stopped thinking about it.

    Now, he remembered a great deal, but not much of it was related to this monk. When he first laid eyes upon the Great Priest, sitting there, praying, he''d intuitively felt a strange, complex emotion surge forth ¨C¨C he didn''t know what it was, but he knew for sure that it was not an emotion a disciple should have been feeling toward his master.

    In that moment, Xuanmin frowned, and then he understood¨C¨C

    Because this "Shifu" who looked just like him was sitting next to a great spell, and this spell was not one to save lives nor to save the world, but a life exchange spell, one whose only aim was to bring the monk fortune and virtue.

 CH 90

    Chapter 90: Peace for a Hundred Years (I)

    Xuanmin twitched his finger, and accordingly, the wizard Songyun''s eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell unconscious.

    Xuanmin laid down the wizard onto the black pebble shore, then swept his sleeve. The enormous waves rolled through the sky and crashed violently onto that spell design, emitting a deafening clang, but the force field that protected the spell from the wind and the rain did not budge.

    Xuanmin''s magic was so strong that the towers of stone even remotely close to him were instantly pulverised. As he brought the waves into the force field again, slight golden cracks began to appear all along that invisible arch.

    Those cracks rapidly spread everywhere, and, suddenly, the force field seemed about to shatter and explode, yet was somehow suppressed by some other force.

    The Great Priest, sitting on the black pebble beach, stopped his prayer and parted his hands, pushing his palms out toward his spell, and then clasped them together again.

    In that brief instant during which he''d stopped praying, those dots of blood streaming up his neck had also stopped moving ¨C¨C and when he resumed his prayers, the blood began to move again too. The whole sequence of actions had taken place very quickly, but those enormous gusts of wind attacking the spell were even quicker. They changed directions and came charging straight toward the Great Priest.

    Dang¨C¨C

    When, previously, the Great Priest had worn only his monk''s robe and no protective armor, he was now encased within a bronze bell, which repelled the oncoming wind.

    The great force reverberated back onto the powerful red waves, so that they were knocked back the way they came and receded thunderously all the way back across the river.

    Xuanmin grasped his copper coin pendant, then made a tugging movement. The relentless power of those waves were all connected to his one hand, and tore at him so strongly that it seemed about to rip his hand off altogether.

    He felt a searing pain, yet revealed none of it on his face, instead tightening his fingers into a fist and tugging backwards again. Those enormous waves crashing toward the other side of the river stopped in their tracks and were rigidly pulled back. Nor did he let this distract from the spell, which he continued to assault over and over with gusts of savage wind that shattered the surrounding stones and boulders and sent the broken pieces flying through the air.

    As Xuanmin injected more and more strength into his attacks, the force field began to wobble, and the bronze bell around the Great Priest also began to weaken. It appeared that the gusts of wind were about to slice through the Great Priest''s armor.

    Yet, as the force field around the spell threatened to break, Mt. Jiangsong as well as the rest of the chain of mountains alongside it suddenly began to tremble ¨C¨C as though this small circular spell were tied to some larger, greater spell, so that attacks on it sent the whole world quaking.

    Xuanmin frowned. His robes billowed amidst the howling wind all around him, yet no matter how powerful the elements were, they could not penetrate onto Heishi Shore.

    Just as he was about to press his thumb down onto his copper coins again, the Great Priest, encased within his bronze bell, suddenly stopped praying. Casually, the Great Priest said, "Do not continue in your futile efforts. This blood spell is linked to the great spell. If you continue to force it, then there will have been no point in my burying dragon bones beneath this mountain."

    Earlier, when the mountain range had shaken, Xuanmin had faintly seen a thread escape from the silhouette of the mountain, similar to the "spider silk" that they had observed at Mt. Lianjiang ¨C¨C the ones that demonstrated all the locations linked together by a great spell. As he glanced over at the direction in which that thread had gone, Xuanmin understood¨C¨C

    Bones Buried in the Rivers and Mountains.

    The enormous spell that ran through the entire mountain range behind him was a "Bones Buried in the Rivers and Mountains" design. Xuanmin could not yet remember the details about this spell, but he could deduce the basic principles from its design. This spell reached across mountains and rivers in the four cardinal directions, and, similarly to a small spell, it needed some magical item to anchor it. There were many magical items in the world, but to be able to anchor such a vast spell, there were only two.

    Which of the two the Great Priest had chosen was obvious.

    Xuanmin''s gaze glided across that mountain range and knew that the thin thread that had flashed across the mountains earlier had come from the very foundations of the spell ¨C¨C dragon bones.

    As the Great Priest finished speaking, Xuanmin''s thumb nonetheless pressed down upon his coin.

    A deafening, earth-shattering noise emerged, sending a violent jolt across both the force field around the spell and the bronze bell that protected the Great Priest. The silver mask on the Great Priest''s face split in half and clanged to the ground, revealing that pair of long-hidden eyes, which slowly fluttered open.

    He and Xuanmin both wore cloud-like monk''s robes, and looked the same, and appeared the same. One sat, and one stood.

    In the instant that their eyes met, both of their gazes suddenly held a sense of terror, which quickly disappeared.

    In Xuanmin''s sparse memories, he knew that he had only seen this "Shifu" take off his mask once or twice, and that had been when he had been very young. Despite the fact that they had been in the reclusive secret courtyard, where strangers were prohibited, the monk would still rarely reveal his true face. Thus, when it came to this "Shifu"''s appearance, Xuanmin''s impression had always been rather vague.

    Now that he could take a good look at the monk, Xuanmin realised that his impression had been extremely vague, and that he had missed out a great deal.

    Finally, it was the Great Priest sitting on the ground who, after a brief moment of fear and confusion, shook his head and scoffed cynically.

    Although Xuanmin''s impression of him was indistinct, the same could not be said for his impression of Xuanmin. After all, in the beginning, he had been the one to bring Xuanmin home, to raise him from childhood all the way to adulthood.

    At the very least, he could clearly recall what Xuanmin had looked like as a child and as a youth. Even in those years when Xuanmin had inherited his title of Great Priest, he had been able to see Xuanmin''s face.

    The name "Tongdeng" had been taken on by a total of four people up until today, or, more precisely, three people. The so-called Great Priest had never, in fact, been the same man, and the faces of these successive monks had not been identical, though in their childhoods they had all taken magic medicine to alter their appearance and thus looked slightly similar.

    Most of the time, the Great Priest wore a mask, and the number of people who had seen his true face could be counted on the fingers of a hand. Even if someone saw him one day, the next time they saw him may be many, many years later, and would not find his change in appearance abnormal. Besides, no one dared to look straight on at the Great Priest''s face, and most of the time, even when he did wear his mask, those speaking to him would look slightly below his head, afraid to meet his gaze.

    In addition, the Great Priest''s life habits and general aura were highly intimidating and made him unapproachable, so that nobody had the chance to detect if anything was amiss.

    The only thing that these Great Priests needed to pay attention to was the transition period between two Great Priests. During that time, the predecessor would already be quite old, in high contrast to the successor, who would be young and spry. When a Great Priest began to reach middle age, he would begin to use wax masks and human skin masks to control the ageing of his face. When Xuanmin had taken on the role of Great Priest, his face had still been too youthful-looking, and so he, too, had needed to wear masks in order to reduce the differences between his appearance and that of the previous Great Priest.

    At first, the young Xuanmin, out of deep respect for his master, had done all he could to model himself on his predecessor. But afterwards, once Xuanmin had become the dominant Great Priest, the roles had reversed: suddenly, it was the previous Great Priest who began to try to make himself seem more like Xuanmin.

    And after that, too much had happened between the two of them, so that they could no longer take off their masks in front of each other. Now that they were face to face again, they suddenly discovered that the other''s true face was unfamiliar to them. How funny...

    Eventually, Xuanmin''s gaze calmly moved down and settled onto the dots of blood on the Great Priest''s neck. This was the means by which he was transferring the hundreds of people''s fortunes and virtue onto his own body. As long as the blood ultimately clustered at his life pressure point on his forehead and became one small dot, the spell would be a success. And this spell was tightly enmeshed with the "Bones Buried in the Rivers and Mountains" spell. If this spell succeeded, then nothing could change the great spell again either.

    Before, when the Great Priest had stopped praying, the dots of blood would stop moving ¨C¨C but now that the blood had crept up to his face, they seemed invigorated with some new life. Although the Great Priest was no longer praying, the blood continued to crawl slowly up his face.

    As Xuanmin rolled up his sleeve to act, the Great Priest did not hesitate to immediately stand up, still encased within his bronze bell.

    In the moment that they both attacked, a powerful force rippled out onto the spell. The enormous red waves resumed their tide and flowed toward Mt. Jiangsong, covering the entirety of Heishi Shore underneath them.

    In that instant, the earth began to shake and the waves thrashed back and forth.

    But Xuanmin could not get the upper hand: one of the copper coins on his pendant was still sealed, and, for some reason, with each attack, he could feel a strange sense of connection between him and the Great Priest ¨C¨C not the same kind of thought and emotion connection he had with Xue Xian, but he felt that, no matter how hard he attacked the Great Priest, the effect would always be much more subdued.

    Besides, even as they fought, Xuanmin continued to focus some of his attention elsewhere, so that the river would not suddenly flood everything around it and cause a great disaster.

    Of course, just as he could not harm the Great Priest, the Great Priest could not harm him. The two appeared to be equal matches, with no clear winner and no clear loser.

    The copper coin pendant in Xuanmin''s hand began to feel hotter and hotter, and the coin whose seal had not yet been broken was humming and thrumming ceaselessly, glowing so hot that it seared his skin. He felt that just another round of magic would utterly destroy that final seal.

    The red dots of blood on the Great Priest''s face had reached the middle of his face, and were now creeping toward the bottom of his eyes. Even the world''s most beautiful face would become hideous in such circumstances: the Great Priest''s bloodied cheeks appeared evil and terrifying.

    As they fought, Xuanmin kept an eye on those blood stains, and noticed that they were moving increasingly fast. As they reached the middle of the Great Priest''s face, something seemed to have been unlocked within them, and they quickly streamed past his cheekbones.

    And then his eyes.

    And then his brow.

    Suddenly, a shock ran through that final copper coin as its seal shattered. The old, dull shell around it fell broken onto the ground, revealing a shiny, yellow glow beneath it...

    And an overwhelming rush of memories came rushing into Xuanmin''s mind.

    In his memories, he was a child again, still copying sutras in a hall. The desk had been prepared especially for him, and was just the right size for his height. He stood, holding a brush in one hand, writing with a practiced, skilled calligraphy. Although he was but a child, he behaved as though he had already done such a thing thousands of times before.

    In those times, the copying of sutras had not really been to make him memorise them, nor had it been a calming, meditative exercise ¨C¨C indeed, even as a child, he''d been aloof and untalkative. He copied sutras in order to practice his handwriting, so that his handwriting would look exactly the same as the handwriting from which he was copying.

    But the strange part was, even without too much practice, his calligraphy already looked highly similar to the model.

    As he finished a page, he remembered this strange detail. He looked up to the Great Priest, who stood to his side, and asked, "Shifu, who copied these original sutras?"

    The Great Priest, who had been tapping his own copper coin pendant, suddenly stopped and glanced back at him. They stood in a dim room, so Xuanmin could not clearly see the Great Priest''s eyes, and did not know how the monk was feeling. After some silence, the Great Priest finally said, "Tongdeng."

    Xuanmin was stunned. "Tongdeng?"

    "Yes," the Great Priest said as he went back to tapping at his coins.

    That shiny yellow light flashed across the coins, brimming with magical energy.

    Xuanmin did not understand. "Shifu, you copied these sutras?"

    "How many times have I told you not to call me Shifu?" the Great Priest replied without looking up. Then he added, "These books were copied by the previous Tongdeng."

    "The previous?"

    "The role of Great Priest is passed down from generation to generation, but, to outsiders, he remains the same person. Naturally, his Buddhist name does not change, and remains Tongdeng. Of the Tongdengs that have lived, I am the third." The Great Priest paused for a long time, then said, "Someday, you too will be Tongdeng."

    As he said this, his expression continued to be submerged in the shadows, unclear and unknown.

    Xuanmin faltered. He was not a lively child, but he was still a child, full of unbridled curiosity. "So... what was your original Buddhist name?"

    He had wanted to call the Great Priest Shifu as usual, but had remembered what the monk had said, so had decided not to do so.

    The Great Priest mildly replied, "Zuhong. Or perhaps that was someone else''s name. I forget."

    And then Xuanmin remembered the first time he had been called Tongdeng. He had just turned nineteen, and his face had still been that of a green youth. He carefully stuck the human skin mask onto his own face, then placed a silver mask in the shape of a beast''s face on top of that one, and proceeded to lead a long, winding ritual procession to Taishan.

    From then on, he began to take the Great Priest''s place more and more often, as Zuhong had begun to weaken with age, and the time had come for him to take over.

    In those fragmented memories, Xuanmin saw that he had become the overseer of all activities within the Ministry of Ceremonies. It gave him the feeling of looking into an idealised past life. If Zuhong had not changed his mind, Xuanmin would probably have lived out the rest of his days within the Ministry.

    Despite the fact that the Great Priest Zuhong had never wanted to be called Shifu, Xuanmin still considered him to be his master. So when Zuhong continued to postpone his retreat, and then expressed his wish to return to the Ministry, Xuanmin did not say no.

    Indeed, he had never coveted the position of Great Priest. Instead of travelling and administering, Xuanmin preferred to be secluded, alone, in the mountains.

    So after ten or so years as the head of the Ministry, he had given the secret courtyard back to Zuhong and moved himself into the bamboo building in the mountain hollow. Because he had been born with the Buddha''s bones, his innate magical energy was stronger than that of Zuhong, and, for some things, Zuhong still required his help.

    Thus, although he lived alone in the mountains, he continued to maintain relations with the Ministry... until Zuhong asked him to calculate a dragon''s catastrophe date.

    "Why do you need a catastrophe date?" At the time, Xuanmin had been invited back to the secret courtyard. He was standing at the top of the pleasure pagoda, and frowning, as he asked Zuhong this.

    Zuhong, standing by the table, wore a different costume so that, in case anyone happened to see the two together, it would not be suspicious. Zuhong calmly replied, "A few days ago, I divined that a great calamity will occur in three years'' time. It appears to be related to the catastrophe period of a dragon. If I know when that is, I will be able to prepare better, and save lives."

    For a moment, Xuanmin felt that something was off.

    When he had been living alone in the bamboo building, he had detected some things, but had still not been able to confirm anything. And what Zuhong was saying did not sound wrong, so, although he hesitated briefly, he ultimately agreed.

    And much, much later, when he heard that someone had maimed a dragon during its catastrophe period, that gnawing doubt that he''d kept hidden deep in his heart for all those years suddenly burst out. The respect and gratefulness that he''d felt for his master when he''d been young completely disappeared, and all the small hints and clues that had raised his suspicions suddenly became crystal clear. The truth was far worse than he''d ever imagined: the trail of bones that Zuhong now held in his hands seemed to come together into one great whip, utterly destroying the peace in the world.

    Xuanmin had never been an indecisive person. He hid his fury beneath that cold face and strode into the secret courtyard, immediately casting a spell onto Zuhong in order to seal away his magic powers. But the connection between the two engendered by the Spider of the Same Name had been so strong that the effects had spread back into him as well, causing him to lose his memory.

    Before losing all of his memories, he''d hurriedly written a sheet of notes for himself, and had placed a series of seals onto his copper coin pendant, so that it could not be harmful if it fell into someone else''s hands.

    Those chaotic, fragmented memories flew across his mind, taking him from his childhood all the way to the recent past, and filling in all the gaps that he''d previously had. He felt as though he were finally waking up from a deep dream.

    Xuanmin finally understood ¨C¨C everything. Yet the scene before him still made him frown.

    Zuhong held a thunder flag between his fingers, and he suddenly waved it slightly; a dozen flashes of thunder rumbled down from the heavens. Zuhong did not want to kill Xuanmin ¨C¨C instead, the bolts of lightning came together to form a net above Xuanmin''s head.

    Without changing his neutral expression, Xuanmin tried to move.

    He could not escape this thunder attack, and knew that its purpose was to force him back onto flat ground. Earlier, when Xuanmin had been having visions of his memories, Zuhong had drawn a talismanic spell on the ground beneath his feet, knowing he would land there and become trapped.

    The spell was not a lethal one, but a puppet spell. If Zuhong''s thunder drove him down from the air and into the spell, he would lose all control over his faculties and be at the mercy of Zuhong''s control.

    "I would never kill you," Zuhong''s calm voice floated over to him amidst the raging wind. "I just want you to be obedient¨C¨C"

    Just as the thunder was about to push Xuanmin into Zuhong''s spell, there came a deafening roaring sound as a black shadow pierced through the roiling waves. In the blink of an eye, Xuanmin had been swept away from the trap. Then, a long tail like a whip.

    Zuhong stopped speaking, and ducked, barely avoiding this new attack.

    In the next instant, hundreds of bolts of lightning crashed down from the dark clouds above.

    "A thunder flag?" came a sneer. "Child''s play!"

    As the voice reverberated across the tempest, something placed Xuanmin down onto the peak of Mt. Jiangsong. That black shadow suddenly landed onto Heishi Shore, accompanied by more startling, shaking thunder. With one hand, that black-clad figure split the enormous red waves in half and brought them hurtling in Zuhong''s direction.

 CH 91

    Chapter 91: Peace for a Hundred Years (II)

    Those innumerable shafts of lightning struck deep ditches across the surface of the pebble shore, out of which countless cracks began to emanate, some snaking all the way to the river and beneath the water, others headed for the foundations of the mountain. There came the faint, dimmed noises of cracking and breaking from within Mt. Jiangsong that seemed to spread across hundreds of li, a harrowing warning of what was to come.

    As the enormous waves came crashing toward the mountain, some seemed to erode the rock on the mountain itself, causing broken boulders to hurtle down, intermixing with the confusion of the heavy rain and light fog.

    Finally, this great wave finally receded into the river, revealing a vast hole created by its impact ¨C¨C and in the middle of that deep ditch, charred black and grey by the fires of the lightning, Zuhong sat cross-legged, his palms clasped together, focused on his prayers.

    But the bronze bell that had been protecting him had been pulverised, and his white monk''s robes were covered in holes and tears, sticky with fresh blood that seeped out all across his body.

    As Zuhong prayed, he tried to suppress his coughs, but could not stop thin streams of blood from leaking out of his lips ¨C¨C he appeared to have been gravely wounded by the attack. But those dots of blood on his face continued to creep toward the life pressure point on his forehead, appearing urgently close to completing his spell.

    But the attack from Xue Xian seemed to have affected the dots of blood ¨C¨C they had paused in their climb for a while, and were now moving much slower, in fact appearing to require a great amount of effort, as they had been when they''d first appeared on Zuhong''s hands.

    Zuhong coughed again, choking on his prayer. Unable to finish speaking, he opened his eyes. Somehow, despite the state he was in, he appeared not to have lost any hope, and to still have something up his sleeve. An ordinary opponent would hesitate at this moment, and not recklessly rush into another attack, in case it was all a trick.

    But his opponent was not ordinary ¨C¨C it was Xue Xian.

    As Zuhong raised his face to look out, he saw that, beneath the oppressive layer of black clouds in the sky, there stood a man in black, his body covered in crackling lightning, with flashes of light rebounding above his head, illuminating his deathly pale skin and elegant brow. He emitted an dark and perverse aura, and there seemed even to be an air of evil in the curve of his smirk.

    Most importantly, in the depths of his pupils, there was a streak of bright red.

    It had happened; this was evidence ¨C¨C what they called zou-huo-ru-mo, walking through fire to enter evil: when malicious hallucinations took over one''s body and soul.*

    No matter whether one was a mortal practicing magic or a heavenly mythical creature, one was always at risk of ru-mo, entering evil. Perhaps one might begin practicing the wrong kind of magic, or accidentally become trapped in a spell, or take the wrong magic medicine, or have suppressed tyrannical energy for too long ¨C¨C all it took was a spark, and in the blink of an eye, one could have entered evil.

    No matter how one entered evil, the outcome was always the same: terrifying, ruthless, violent ¨C¨C for the original person was no longer in control.

    Zuhong had only just gotten a glimpse of him when countless more bolts of lightning came crashing down onto the monk. As he gritted his teeth through the burning agony of the attacks, Zuhong concentrated all of his magical energy on creating a protective layer within his body and staving off the most lethal effects of the lightning.

    And that completely unravelled-looking man in black began to walk casually down into the ditch, still accompanied by that cluster of savage rain and lightning. From the great height at which he stood, he looked down at Zuhong, then suddenly tilted his head to the side and laughed. "I hear that you''re the one who maimed me?"

    The man in black stared at Zuhong for some time, then crouched down and watched as the lightning he''d summoned continued to pummel the monk. Calmly, he added, "I''m still a sympathetic person, you know. All the bones in your puny body don''t add up to half a bone of mine, but I''ll still call it a fair exchange. Since you extracted bones from my body, I''ll just extract your bones from yours..."

    As he spoke, he raised his hands and pinched his fingers together in anticipation. Those slender, pale fingers were beautiful, and did not look at all like they''d ever been violent. But they clustered together into a tight fist, as though gripping something invisible, and the man in black, expressionless, began to pull that invisible thing back.

    Zuhong grunted and his clasped palms trembled, the fingers of his left hand sliding down to clutch his right fist.

    He felt as though the man in black had pierced through his flesh and reached into his bone, and was slowly pulling them out of his body. The pain was unimaginable and unbearable.

    In that moment, it occurred to Zuhong to take a gamble. The first thing that that man in black had done upon appearing at Heishi Shore was to save Xuanmin from Zuhong''s spell ¨C¨C he appeared still to care deeply about Xuanmin. Of course, the man in black was happy to see Zuhong in pain ¨C¨C but would he feel the same about Xuanmin?

    No one would want their companion to suffer. If he could make the man in black hesitate for just a moment...

    He only needed one chance...

    Zuhong knew what he needed to do. Hoarsely, he eked out, "My fate is connected with his. If I die, he won''t have long to live either. As long as he lives, I can''t die. All of the fleshly pain that I feel, he feels too. Knowing this, are you sure you want to continue?"

    Zuhong could see Xuanmin, still standing on the peak of Mt. Jiangsong. Xuanmin''s right hand clenched into a tight fist, and there was a slight sense of emotion on his face ¨C¨C if it weren''t for the fact that Zuhong knew Xuanmin well, he would not even be able to notice the pain that Xuanmin was feeling.

    Why was Xuanmin suppressing it? What for?

    Perhaps others would be puzzled, but Zuhong knew all too well. He had always known Xuanmin''s personality all too well, but had never revealed this.

    The reason why Xuanmin continued to uphold such a cold, detached face, seemingly without a hint of pain, was so that he would not interrupt the man in black''s revenge. And when it came to revenge, that needed to be done by the person himself ¨C¨C no one else could interfere or help.

    The man in black, hearing Zuhong''s words, glanced over at Mt. Jiangsong, and a sense of confusion and doubt flashed through his eyes. Just as quickly, the evil expression returned to the man in black''s face and he sneered, "Who is he? Am I supposed to know him?"

    He looked back at Zuhong and scoffed. He clenched his fist again, gripping onto that invisible thing, and tugged.

    Xuanmin''s body froze stiffly in agony. He gazed solemnly at Xue Xian, then closed his eyes.

    ******

    After Xue Xian had left the valley, he had headed straight for the "Mt. Jiangsong" that he had heard the wizard Songyun mention. But he had never in his long life experienced such a profound, inescapable sense of sadness, which had refracted across his body as deep pain, mixing in with the grudge of his maiming, and the tyrannical fury that he''d kept within him all those six months as he''d searched for the man responsible. He had felt ripples of pain interject into his heart, over and over and over.

    That pain had felt so much worse, and so different, from the injuries he usually sustained during his catastrophe periods. As his spine throbbed with an aching reminder of his maiming, increasing until he could no longer bear it anymore, he suddenly felt something deep within his consciousness shift.

    It was as though a great fire had swept from the core of his heart into his brain, and had stretched below him to consume his arms and legs too, and that the fire had then died, and left nothing but condensation, and emptiness.

    It was ru-mo: he had entered evil.

    And immediately, with the connection entailed by the copper coin pendant, he had seen some of Xuanmin''s new memories. Those visions flashing into his mind had awakened him from his stupor for only a brief moment ¨C¨C and then he''d plunged back into evil, driven by the raw sense of anger that he''d kept inside him all those months.

    In that brief moment of consciousness, his body had instinctively dived onto Heishi Shore to rescue Xuanmin, and as his evil emotions surged back into him, he had lost control and flung Xuanmin in the general direction of Mt. Jiangsong.

    And when he had heard Zuhong''s words and looked back over at Xuanmin, he had again felt a sudden sense of confusion, as though some memories had suddenly flooded back into him, but something else had also prevented him from hesitating. So he had calmly looked away.

    But for some reason, somehow, when he was extracting that second bone from Zuhong''s body, he couldn''t help but glance back at Mt. Jiangsong again.

    Now, he saw Xuanmin with his head bowed, standing there, and an inexorable sense of sadness welled up in his heart, as vast and as troubled as the red river behind them. It felt alien to Xue Xian, as though it had been brought up by some strange connection between them, something out of his own control.

    These emotions were irritating him. He forced himself to look away again, then brought countless more bolts of lightning down onto Zuhong.

    Zuhong''s body was so burned and bloodied that his once-pristine white robes were now a mess of red, brown, and black. He was unrecognisable.

    Xue Xian stared at him for some time, then couldn''t help but look back at Xuanmin once more. As he caught sight of Xuanmin, he suddenly saw that a patch of fresh blood was blooming across Xuanmin''s chest ¨C¨C he was really feeling the effects from his connection to Zuhong.

    That large patch of blood was so harrowing that Xue Xian felt the sight pierce past his eyes and into his heart. Stunned, he stared at the sheer redness, and then suddenly croaked, "... Bald donkey?"

    Suddenly, Xuanmin opened his eyes. His face and lips were terrifyingly pale, but he kept his voice calm, and said, "Yes." Hands trembling, he took out a talisman and cast a cleaning spell on his robe.

    But not even the cleaning spell could stop the relentless flow of his blood. As soon as he''d cleaned his robe, another patch of red bloomed.

    The crackling lightning that Xue Xian was summoning came to a stop.

    Xue Xian''s mind was still plunged in the depths of confusion and chaos. His pupils were pitch-black, yet still with that streak of red.

    In the moment that Xue Xian was distracted, Zuhong began to whisper a prayer again ¨C¨C all he needed was a little bit longer, so that those dots of blood could reach their destination...

    Those red dots finally arrived at the life pressure point and began to cluster together ominously. The spell on the shore seemed to respond to Zuhong as the stone sculpture in its center began to tremble.

    The spells located on Dongting Lake and at Mt. Wanshi began to react, too, but the officials guarding those spells had long become too dazed and exhausted to notice. In Daze Temple, at the top of Mt. Jiangsong, the spell was also trembling restlessly, and the Chengzi officials guarding the temple had long fainted and were scattered across the floor in piles of bodies. The Taipu and Taizhu were no exception.

    The life-exchange spell would soon succeed. Suddenly, that sighing sound appeared within the hall again.

    The Taipu, half-unconscious, twitched her finger in response. In her daze, she thought she could hear the Great Priest''s voice, yet it was somehow different. As she strained to listen, that voice sighed again, then said, "You get what''s coming for you."

    Perhaps it was the last flash of a dying life, or perhaps it was something else ¨C¨C but the Taipu suddenly felt that she had some remnants of strength again. Panicked, she looked at the puddles of blood all around her and things seemed to click into place.

    Pained and exhausted, she put all of her renewed energy into moving her finger. With the last of the blood in her body, she slowly drew a perpendicular line across the streams of blood on the stone sculpture.

    She had interrupted the spell. If those guarding a spell suddenly did such a thing at such a time, they would be able to throw the entire spell into disorder. Immediately, Dongting Lake, Mt. Wanshi, and Mt. Jiangsong all simultaneously began to shake.

    The dots of blood that were clustering ever closer together on Zuhong''s forehead suddenly dispersed again.

    Shocked, Zuhong reached up to touch his forehead, but before he could understand what was happening, the blood on the stone sculpture also began to recede downwards again.

    To be more precise, it was the blood that he had taken away from the bodies being returned to those bodies again. As the spell was reversed, the flow of the blood toward the sculpture also changed direction and began to feed itself back into the wounded thumbs of the unconscious bodies strewn all along the shore.

    And the interruption of this spell reverberated onto the great "Bones Buried in the Rivers and Mountains" spell.

    Xue Xian and Xuanmin felt the ground beneath them shift as something deep beneath the ground began to rumble and churn. Soon, the energy simmering beneath the ground became so violent that it threatened to completely collapse.

    The ear-shattering trembling sound spread out all across the riverbank, and the red waves of the river suddenly began to surge again, breaking free of all control. Enormous waves began to crash over and over against the shore.

    That great spell, which had been intended to secure peace for the land, was, because of the failure of the life-exchange spell, becoming an extinction-level disaster.

    All eight hundred li of the mountain range began to tremble, and all two thousand li of the river began to churn.

    The flood leapt toward shore and the buildings all around the riverbank began to sink, and the mountains saw hairline cracks run all along their hills, their foundations no longer able to support their great weight. As the prefectures all along the river felt the very earth open up as if to swallow them, the people began to scream and cry, and their wails were blown by the wind all the way back to Heishi Shore.

    The nearby village seemed already about to be drowned. The panicked screams became a mass of horror, pouncing back onto them like those gargantuan waves.

    The great spell had been disturbed; there would be no peace for the rivers and mountains. The dragon bone that had been buried beneath the ground to anchor the spell also felt the effects of the spell''s failure.

    In that moment, Xue Xian felt as though countless stones were pummelling him on his back and crushing his vertebrae to fine dust ¨C¨C but the bone in question was not actually inside his body. And as the mountains around him began to crumble and fall, something within his back that had been under enormous pressure suddenly bent and snapped.

    The threads brought out by the pendant that had been holding his body together had been utterly spent ¨C¨C and now, they were gone.

    Xue Xian suddenly lost feeling in his legs again; it was as though they had been torn away from him. And it wasn''t just his legs, but somehow his five senses had been harmed too, and he felt his hearing become blurred and indistinct, and his vision became blurred, and even his sense of touch became dulled....

    Because his bone had been buried at the core of the spell, it was as though he was now one and the same with the mountains and rivers. The pain that the mountains and rivers felt became his pain too, and the turbulence within the mountains and rivers became turbulence within him too.

    This all came so quickly, too quickly for him even to react or understand. All he knew was that the sky had suddenly turned black, as though endless black clouds had gathered and were pressing down upon him, about to come down to the ground and envelop him entirely.

    Then he realised that this was not the color of the sky darkening ¨C¨C it was his own vision, vanishing.

    The scene in front of his eyes dimmed, and he knew that he was about to be plunged into complete blackness. Automatically, he frantically looked onto Mt. Jiangsong one last time.

    That white smudge in his vision suddenly raised its hand and a dazzling golden light emitted from it, sending threads out of the hand that wove themselves into a net and bound the crumbling mountains within them, stopped the oncoming waves...

    Xuanmin gripped his copper coin pendant with one hand, ignoring the wounds that had split open all along his palm and the blood that leaked ceaselessly onto his white robes. He focused all of his magic onto keeping the mountains and rivers together, closing his other hand into a brusque fist.

    Hong¨C¨C¨C

    Some enormous force collided against the foundations of the mountain.

    The savage wind blew harder and the earthquake became even more frenzied, and the waves above their heads surged and screamed like thousands of war horses. Xuanmin tightened his grip on his pendant and another gush of blood seeped out onto his robes.

    Yet he did not even seem to notice ¨C¨C he continued to pull his other fist.

    Honglonglong¨C¨C

    As he tugged at something invisible over and over, finally, something emerged from the depths of the earth ¨C¨C it was a dragon''s bone.

    With the magical item anchoring it removed, the entire spell began to implode.

    There were only two magical items in the world powerful enough to anchor a spell as vast as this. Zuhong had chosen a dragon''s bone. Xuanmin now chose the Buddha''s bone.

    His entire body began to convulse as he slowly drew out two gleaming white bones from his hip. As the bones left his body, they did not pierce his flesh and seemed to glide through him, but Xuanmin suddenly felt the life force within him begin to evaporate at a terrifyingly quick pace.

    His face was as white as a sheet, yet his eyes were as dark as ink.

    He slammed his thumb into a copper coin and the mountain range trembled, cracking open and creating a massive canyon beneath his feet. He pushed those two Buddha''s bones into the abyss and then brought the mountain back together again, holding it whole.

    In that moment, the red mole on the side of Xuanmin''s neck extended its blood vessels again and quivered like a dying spider. Then, those eight legs returned into the mole.

    The mole began to fade, and finally vanished. Zuhong, sitting cross-legged in the ditch, had lost out on his last chance: as soon as the Spider of the Same Age died, his face quickly grew wrinkles and turned into the wizened face of an old man, and those eyes that had so resembled Xuanmin''s began to dim, as though a grey veil had been drawn across them.

    He had struggled for years, but he ultimately could not escape death.

    Those on their deathbeds always began to think back upon their life, remembering things from so long ago that they''d always thought they''d forgotten. As Zuhong faded away, those lifeless, limp eyes suddenly flickered upwards to the sky and he remembered that, all those years ago, on Mt. Jiangsong, when the saint had brought him home, the weather had also been like this ¨C¨C oppressive black storm clouds, rain so heavy that it blurred the sky, the river restless and violent, about to drown the mountain itself.

    The first time he had met the saint, the monk had looked so pure and divine, as though coated in the soft glow of dawn.

    It was only once the saint had brought him to the secret courtyard that he''d understood: this was the Great Priest. The role of the Great Priest was passed down from generation to generation. The first one had come from Nanjiang, and this saint was the second. And he, the newcomer to the secret courtyard, would one day be the third.

    He''d called that saint Shifu, but the monk had always been cold and detached, and hated to speak. So that, in all the years they''d spent together, he''d never said the name Shifu out loud.

    The time it had taken for him to grow from a small child to a young adult had been extremely long, but had also gone by in a flash.

    Long enough for him to have been lazy when it came to reading sutras, so that he had spent much time zoning out and thinking of other things, although that had never really made time pass quicker. But then suddenly ten years had passed by, and none of those years had made their mark on his Shifu''s face.

    Much, much later, he''d found out that his Shifu had had the Buddha''s bones in his body, so his life was much longer than that of ordinary people, and he aged much slower.

    At the time, he''d been na?ve, and had simply admired this. But later, he''d stopped feeling admiration.

    Because his Shifu, who had been supposed to live a long and fulfilling life, had died when he, the disciple, had only been about twenty years old. Had died to save some lowly commoner.

    So what if Shifu had had the Buddha''s bones in his body? He''d still died before his time.

    When Shifu had died, he had felt sad, perhaps, or some other emotion, he wasn''t sure... he would be standing alone on the highest level of the pleasure pagoda in the secret courtyard one evening, watching the stars, and suddenly remember the previous Great Priest.

    And later, also at the foot of Mt. Jiangsong, he had gone and found his own successor ¨C¨C a small child who also had the Buddha''s bones in his body, and who, despite being so young, looked exactly like his own Shifu.

    To that child, he had given his Shifu''s original Buddhist name: Xuanmin.

    Then, that admiration he''d felt when he''d been young had returned ¨C¨C at first, it had been only a little bit, and as Xuanmin grew up, he admired him more and more.

    In the ten or so years that Xuanmin had spent as the Great Priest, he had tried his best to suppress this feeling, had tried to distance himself from the Ministry. But in the end, he had not been able to resist: as he suddenly found himself ageing at a rapid speed, and realised that he would one day crumble into yellow dust, that intense admiration he''d felt for Xuanmin became something sour, like envy.

    He''d wanted more.

    He''d wanted more...

    Those black clouds became heavier and darker, and his eyelids became heavy too. In the final moments of his life, he suddenly looked up at those great red waves coming toward him and heard those sounds of desperate cries that had drifted toward him from who knew where.

    This had not been what he''d wanted. He''d wanted to help people, and in the process, get something out of it for himself.

    But as he''d gone on, the greed had taken over, and things had gone wrong...

    They say that when one is about to die, one becomes kind to others. Perhaps it was some miracle from the spirit of that saint who had saved him all those years ago, but in those final moments, Zuhong remembered the good intentions with which he''d started out. He wanted to repay that debt, in whatever way he could now...

    In his daze, Zuhong fumbled for his own copper coin pendant, and smudged a drop of blood.

    And then faint, feeble golden threads unfurled from the pendant and stretched out their fingers toward the nearby village and those waves rolling inexorably over...

    But it seemed like it was too late for him to push back the disaster ¨C¨C the savage wind continued to howl angrily in his ears, the mountain range behind him continue to tremble and shake, and those countless panicked screams and tragic wails continued enmesh with the sound of the wind, and the waves thrashed like a horde of wild horses sailing into the skies... ultimately, though, they did not flood onto the shore.

    Because the eight hundred li of mountains and two thousand li of rivers were tightly held together by countless golden threads, woven together into a a net, and the net was pulled taut by Xuanmin''s fingers.

    And Xuanmin was kneeling in front of Xue Xian.

    Xue Xian was still feeling the effect from the dragon bone ¨C¨C he could not see and could not hear, and sat crumpled there with his arms hanging limply, as still as a statue. His long robes were soaked through, as though drenched by the waves, though the waves had never hit him ¨C¨C it was cold sweat, and blood, whose color was invisible against the black of his robe...

    Xuanmin stifled some coughs, but did not look away from Xue Xian''s face. His own cloud-like robe had been dyed crimson by his own blood, and as he raised a hand, it was tinged with a deathly grey hue.

    Slowly, he dissolved the dragon bone he''d extracted from the spell and fed it into Xue Xian''s body.

    Xue Xian''s lifeless eyes seemed to move slightly, and a faint gleam of light seemed to appear again.

    Silently, Xuanmin reached out to cover his frail eyes, and continued to gaze at him. Then, he leaned in and kissed him.

    A coughing fit made Xuanmin double over, but he kept his hand on Xue Xian''s eyes. The sound of his coughing became lower and lower, and weaker and weaker...

    Zuhong, whose fate was tied to Xuanmin''s, finally closed his eyes. His head fell forward, dead.

    And Xuanmin''s hand lost all strength too, and fell away to the ground, revealing Xue Xian''s red-rimmed eyes...

    ---

    * Maybe there is already an English translation for this?? idk

 CH 92

    Chapter 92: Peace for a Hundred Years (III)

    His eyes were wide open now, and if he opened them more, that layer of moisture brimming in his eyes would roll down his cheeks.

    His nose was full of the fishy stench of fresh blood, brought by the wind and across Xuanmin''s hand and fed into his nostrils. It would not go away. His black eyes reflected the shadows of those sky-high red waves and the still-trembling mountains, but his mind remained completely blank.

    His senses were slowly coming back to him, yet he was still not convinced that he could see or hear again.

    Or else why would Xuanmin''s head be bowed this low? Xuanmin, who was always so cold and stiff, who barely ever nodded; his head was bowed so low that he looked like he would never raise his head again; or else why would the two of them be kneeling in front of each other like this, covered in blood, Xuanmin''s hand leaning gently against his face, yet not a word coming out of his mouth...

    The Buddha''s bones finally began to take effect within the spell. Those churning, restless waves began to recede, and the trembling mountains began to ease.

    And the golden threads that had thrown a net against the skies began to fade, too. As the wind continued to whip against their bodies, the copper coins in Xuanmin''s hands quivered, then clattered lifelessly onto the ground, where Xuanmin had drawn a circle of blood.

    It was a small spell that he''d prepared in his last moments. Those copper coins, charged full of his magical power, in combination with the Buddha''s bones, really would help Zuhong''s spell to ensure a hundred years of peace on earth.

    As the copper coin pendant fell to the ground, the patch of earth within the blood circle shifted and created a hole, into which those five gleaming coins slotted before being buried again. A faint golden glow began to seep out of that patch of earth where the coins were buried, and emanated outwards, like serene ripples in a pond, reaching out layer by layer, a hundred li, a thousand li, ten thousand li...

    A light breeze tugged at a corner of Xuanmin''s robe, revealing a small ceramic bottle that he''d been keeping in his sleeve. But the ceramic bottle had long been uncorked, and was empty.

    And as the warm golden glow seeped past Xue Xian''s body, some small red marble not even the size of a grain of rice suddenly fell away from his collarbone. It looked as though it had completed its mission ¨C¨C it eight legs stuck out, stiff and unmoving.

    And where the red spider had been on Xue Xian''s neck, a minuscule red mole smaller than a pinprick was perched. It looked different from the Spider of the Same Age''s bite, and if he touched it with his finger, he would be able to feel that it was slightly raised from his skin.

    But in that moment, Xue Xian did not notice all of that. He sat there frozen, looking in horror at Xuanmin, unable to believe his own eyes.

    But Xuanmin''s face was still on Xue Xian''s face, colder than the snow in the north, so cold that it sent a chill down his spine. The skin on Xuanmin''s wrist betrayed no sign of movement, no heartbeat, not even a tiniest bit ¨C¨C it was terrifyingly still.

    With that enormous dragon bone pushed back into his body, Xue Xian was heating up all over again, and that bloated, scorching feeling was pushing its way down his spine. He should have begun to sweat, but the sweat against his skin felt colder than ice.

    The feeling of his bones being restored was deeply uncomfortable, and not that different from the pain he''d felt when they''d been extracted in the first place. But in that moment, Xue Xian felt none of it, nor could he even feel the gradual return of his life force. He did not think he even had the strength to raise his own hands.

    ......

    Much, much later, he suddenly, finally, felt himself able to move again. A hand shot up to grip Xuanmin''s wrist just as the monk''s hand was about to slip away from Xue Xian''s face. Xue Xian wrapped his fingers tightly around Xuanmin.

    The hotter his own skin felt, the colder and more freezing Xuanmin''s was in comparison.

    "You..." Xue Xian began hoarsely. He''d wanted to call Xuanmin''s name, but could only manage a single syllable before he lost his voice and his words were choked at the bottom of his throat. He''d put too much strength into his grip, so he had not just held Xuanmin''s wrist, but had pulled lightly.

    Now Xuanmin was tipping forward, and Xue Xian had to hold him up stiffly.

    Xuanmin''s chin butted against Xue Xian''s shoulder. One of his hands was grasped by Xue Xian, and the other hung lifeless against his side. From afar, they looked to be embracing, except one of them was dead.

    As Xuanmin''s weight leant into him, Xue Xian felt the tears brimming in his eyes tremble. Expressionless, he shut his eyes tightly, forcing them back.*

    After some time, Xue Xian suddenly remembered something, and his eyes opened again. As he continued to hold Xuanmin against him, he freed up a hand and felt around his chest pocket for something ¨C¨C and found it: the small white ceramic bottle, the one that looked exactly the same as the one that had previously fallen out of Xuanmin''s sleeve, the bottle from the Cave of a Hundred Insects.

    Xue Xian''s fingers worked almost hysterically to uncork the bottle and shake the mother and son spiders out of it, and it took him several tries to pinch out the correct spider between the pair.

    Without delay, he shoved the mother spider onto Xuanmin''s neck and squeezed its shell tightly so as not to let it struggle or escape. As he watched, the mother spider twitched at first, but finally had no choice but to take a bite out of Xuanmin''s flesh.

    Xue Xian refused to blink ¨C¨C he stared intently at the spot where the spider had bitten Xuanmin, stared until his eyes began to feel sore, but found no change, no wound, nothing.

    His entire body was so tense, he had never in his life been so anxious about something. His thoughts raced but he knew he could not keep thinking... he thought he might begin to feel fear.

    The two of them knelt there on the devastated shore, facing one another, a silhouette of black and a silhouette of white. Eventually, the blood stains on the stone sculpture in Zuhong''s spell evaporated completely, and those trails of blood on the ground were receding, too, so that the two hundred bodies laid out around the sculpture no longer looked so utterly grey, and began to flush healthily again.

    They had only been wounded on their hands, and it would never have been fatal had there not been magic drawing out the blood from their bodies. Now that the spell had been broken, everything was going back to the way it had been before. Apart from those small cuts, and the drops of blood on their foreheads, they were safe and sound.

    After a long, long time, Xue Xian began to feel cold, his body brought to a freezing chill by Xuanmin''s lifeless temperature. Finally, Xue Xian saw a blood mole appear weakly and slowly on Xuanmin''s skin.

    But the mole was impossibly faint, so faint that Xue Xian could not guess whether the bite had succeeded or failed.

    In that moment, something with wings suddenly appeared in the sky above them and came hurtling over.

    Xue Xian was still in shock, and did not notice until the black creature thudded onto the ground before him and hopped over to his hand. It opened its beak and let something dirty-looking fall away, then began to peck at Xue Xian''s fingers, desperately trying to draw his attention.

    Finally, Xue Xian stirred from his daze and looked down at the creature ¨C¨C it was Xuanmin''s black crow.

    That magical, almost intelligent bird had somehow made its way all the way here, yet did not appear concerned about its unconscious master. It began to hop up and down and nuzzled its head into Xuanmin''s palm endearingly. Then it looked back at Xue Xian with its head tilted: it seemed that this was not the first time it had experienced such a tragic and hopeless scene.

    Xue Xian stared at the bird for some time, then looked down at the thing that it had dropped from its beak. It was a filthy cloth pouch, and it seemed to have something in it ¨C¨C when the bird had dropped it earlier, it had made a faint knocking noise.

    Seeing that Xue Xian did not intend to move, the crow sighed and hopped to the pouch, nudging and pulling at it with its beak until the item inside could be dragged out.

    Xue Xian was stunned ¨C¨C five copper coins.

    The coins'' design looked the same as the ones Xue Xian had seen Xuanmin use, and even the magic aura tied to them was basically identical to Xuanmin''s coins. Xue Xian did not need to touch them to know this ¨C¨C he just knew. The strange thing was that the magical energy that gave the coins their aura... was also Xuanmin''s.

    The only difference was that the string along which these coins were strung looked bright and vivid, almost like new; but Xue Xian could tell that this was only a trick of the magic, and that these coins were at least a few hundred years old.

    As the copper coins fell out of the pouch and clattered by Xuanmin''s hand, they emitted a low clanging noise, as though, from somewhere across the vastness of time, they had found their master again.

    Suddenly, Xue Xian felt a bit of feeling return to his body. The arrival of the crow and the reaction of these coins had made him come back to his senses, and it occurred to him that... Xuanmin might really never open his eyes again.

    He turned to study the faint mole on Xuanmin''s neck again, and maybe he was lying to himself, but the mark no longer looked as invisible as it had before.

    Maybe it really had worked...

    Xue Xian let go of Xuanmin''s hand and flexed his fingers, realising that he had been gripping the monk''s hand so tightly that, with this sudden release, a sour pain was shooting up his joints and knuckles.

    Instead, he wrapped his arms around Xuanmin, ready to pick him up and take him out of here.

    But as soon as Xue Xian moved, some tiny thing fell lightly out of the folds of his robe, rolled down his arm and hand, and landed on the ground.

    Xue Xuan paused and peered down curiously, scanning the blood-splattered ground around his feet until he finally spotted a red, spherical insect as small as a grain of rice. He frowned...

    Having had the Spider of the Same Age on his mind, he was shocked to see yet another spider. As soon as he noticed its round body, he automatically thought back to the Cave of a Hundred Insects.

    And then he realised that he''d really made a connection, that it wasn''t a coincidence. As he bent down to retrieve the insect and flipped it over in his palm, he saw that its black belly had a streak of blood running across it.

    It couldn''t not have something to do with the Cave of a Hundred Insects.

    But the Spider of the Same Age could camouflage: the color of its shell changed depending on its surroundings. If this was a Spider of the Same Age, then as soon as he''d picked it up in its hand, it should have slowly turned into the same color. But this spider did not change at all, even though it was still alive.

    And... what would a spider from the Cave of a a Hundred Insects be doing all the way here? And why would it fall out of his sleeve, as though it had previously been on his body?

    Xue Xian froze, suddenly remembering what they''d encountered at the Cave¨C¨C

    When they''d captured the Spiders of the Same Age, Xuanmin had had his back to him. Xue Xian had helped the monk retrieve two empty bottles from his pocket, and the whole time, Xuanmin''s hands had been clasped together. Xue Xian hadn''t actually seen the spider.

    Then, Xue Xian had taken one of the bottles and Xuanmin had given him the mother spider that he''d been holding, for Xue Xian to put into the bottle. At the same time, Xuanmin had taken the second bottle.

    What happened next, Xue Xian had no idea ¨C¨C he''d been focused on putting the mother spider into the bottle. And when he''d looked up again, Xuanmin was screwing that second bottle shut.

    Xue Xian had had a moment of confusion: why did the second bottle need to be shut? There was nothing inside it, and it hadn''t been open when Xue Xian had taken it out.

    Now that he was thinking about it again, Xue Xian guessed that Xuanmin had caught more than just that one mother spider. Obviously, this little red spider had been captured in that moment ¨C¨C and not just the one, but it had to have been a pair.

    Back at the Cave, Xuanmin had said that there were two types of spiders being bred. Since this dark red spider was not the Spider of the Same Age, then it had to be the second type.

    He remembered that, at the time, he''d casually asked Xuanmin what the second type was. Xuanmin''s response had been short and simple: he''d explained, but also not explained.

    Xue Xian put the spider away, still unsure what it was. As he held at Xuanmin''s unbreathing body in his embrace, he suddenly wondered if this second spider was Xuanmin''s backup plan, something that would help him...

    But how...

    Xue Xian gazed at Xuanmin; his fingers tightened their grip against Xuanmin''s bloodsoaked robes. He withdrew his chin from Xuanmin''s shoulder where it had been resting, and his lips grazed by Xuanmin''s cold neck, and then the tip of his nose, and finally he buried his face into the crook of Xuanmin''s neck.**

    ---

    * Omg let him cry lol it''s not gay to cry but also they''re literally gay so LET HIM CRY

    ** The position was very hard to decipher here I hope this makes sense??

 CH 93

    Chapter 93: Peace for a Hundred Years (IV)

    Daze Temple, on Mt. Jiangsong, was a small rural monastery that had been built some three hundred years ago. Its location was so remote that it had never truly flourished to gain that permanent cloud of melancholy incense that most temples had. No more than ten monks lived there, and they were mostly calm, simple people, so life was not too difficult. Around two hundred years ago, before the flash of lightning destroyed the temple, the monks numbered five or six. Their backs were hunched with age; they had all lived out their entire lives in that mountain. The only young person in the temple was the new initiate, a youth from Nanjiang.

    To be perfectly honest, at the time, the group of elderly monks would look on with kindness and pity at that Nanjiang youth, thinking, This boy must be extraordinarily stupid. There are so many famous and wealthy monasteries out there ¨C¨C why had he chosen to come to Daze Temple?

    The Nanjiang youth had a handsome, fresh face, with tall brows and shapely cheekbones. His black eyes shone with a calmness and stability unusual for his age.

    With a face like that, any monastery would want him as an initiate. Yet he had to pick the tiny one on Mt. Jiangsong.

    Naturally, the elderly monks did not mind, and were happy to have him ¨C¨C but was he happy? So they''d asked.

    The youth had responded, I''m fated to come to Daze Temple.

    But before he had had the chance to take his oath, that fated Daze Temple of his was struck by a bolt of lightning and caught fire.

    Everyone in the temple died, except for the Nanjiang youth.

    Much, much later, that youth happened to meet another young man around the same age, and the two became intimate friends. Many years after that, the youth moved into the Ministry of Ceremonies and became the Great Priest, charged with protecting the entire empire from disaster and securing good fortune.

    Because that intimate friend of his had a special status: when they''d first met, he''d only been the crown prince; later, he became the emperor.

    Many years after that, the emperor''s life was coming to an end, and the Great Priest unable to accept losing his closest friend, found a way to extend the emperor''s life. But it took him too long to develop the spell: by the time it was ready, the divine son of Heaven had already ascended.

    The Great Priest was inconsolable. But he did not forget the promise that he had made with his closest friend: to protect the land for a hundred years.

    But ordinary people did not live that long, and, in trying to find a way to extend the emperor''s life, the Great Priest had exhausted himself, and his own life was now flickering.

    Thus he did some divinations, then went back to Daze Temple on Mt. Songjiang, where he found his successor.

    He wanted to honor his friend''s wishes, and make sure that, no matter what happened to the imperial dynasty, there would always be a star burning with an eternal flame, lighting the way for the empire, guiding the spirit of the people. He changed his Buddhist name to Tongdeng, which meant lantern companion, and decided to hand it down by the generations.

    But when he''d first brought his successor home from Daze Temple, the successor had still been an infant with no teeth. He couldn''t even speak.

    Tongdeng was too formal a name for a child, and might not be auspicious if he wanted the child to live past infancy. Besides, they still had many years to go until the mantle was passed on. So the Great Priest gave the child a more appropriate Buddhist name: Xuanmin.

    There was something special about Xuanmin. The child had been born with the Buddha''s bones in his body, the sign of having been blessed with great virtue. The Buddha''s bones would stay with him in all of his lives, passed on from life to life.

    Although the Great Priest was a man of few words when it came to his daily affairs, he had in fact much to say to young Xuanmin. Soon, Xuanmin became not just a discipline, but a friend.

    Perhaps it was incidental or perhaps it was the Great Priest''s intention, but as he raised and taught the child over the years, few people ever came into the secret courtyard. Few people got to see the Great Priest''s true face, and even fewer people knew of Xuanmin''s existence.

    Many years later, Xuanmin grew up and successfully took over as Tongdeng. And the Great Priest, who, since the emperor''s death, had had little left to live for, finally passed into nirvana.

    His long life had been somewhat eventful, but if he really thought about it, all he''d had was a single intimate friend, and a single disciple... but it was enough for a full life. Yet some part of him could not let go of Mt. Jiangsong, and Daze Temple...

    Even though the strike of lightning all those years ago really had been a coincidence, and had had nothing to do with him, the rumors about the bad luck he''d brought to the elderly monks had followed him around everywhere. He could not help but feel a faint sense of guilt when he thought of Daze Temple.

    Even after he passed away, he could not let go. So... he ''stayed'' there. Each year, on New Year''s, and during Qingming Festival and Ghost Festival, he would light lanterns for the souls of the elderly monks who had smiled at him kindly, a century ago now.

    He was like a ghost but not a ghost; like a soul but not a soul; like a spirit but not a spirit; no one could see him, not even wizards, nor exorcists, nor fortune-tellers with yin-yang vision.

    So to humans, it looked as though, a few times a year, the temple would suddenly become bathed in light. It terrified them, and no one dared come close, calling it a haunted temple.

    Today was the seventeenth day of the twelfth month. The devastating battle on Mt. Jiangsong felt like it had only taken place yesterday, but in fact, more than half a month had passed.

    The destroyed scene at the foot of the mountain had long been cleared away, and then an enormous blizzard buried all remaining traces that anything had ever happened there. It was a scene of peace again.

    Night fell. In the darkness, the abandoned temple suddenly lit up with exactly six small flames.

    "The ghost flames! The ghost flames are back, brother!" Far from Daze Temple along the mountain range, in the small monastery, the little novice leant by of the window and stuck his head out into the night, looking toward Mt. Jiangsong and gesturing at his disciple brother to come take a look.

    The ghost flames appeared at inconsistent times, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. It was rare to actually catch a glimpse. The little novice had lived at the monastery for more than ten years now, but this was only his second time witnessing the ghost flames.

    The rumors made the ghost flames sound horrifying, but when he actually looked at them, he did not feel any fear at all. The flames glowed with a honey warmth, and not only did they not disturb the viewer, they actually instilled a sense of serenity.

    And in reality, Daze Temple did not contain any negative or demonic energy at all.

    Those six peace lanterns, with those ''flames that appeared on their own'', were in fact being lit by a monk dressed in white robes. He carefully tended to the cores of the flames, but no one could see him do it, except for another person who was in the same situation as he.

    The lantern-lighting monk was none other than the Nanjiang youth who, centuries ago, had climbed the mountain and entered this temple as an initiate, who went on to become the Great Priest: the real Tongdeng.

    And the person who was in the same situation as he, the only person who could see him, was also present in the temple at that moment. This person also wore white monk''s robes, and looked like a ghost without being a ghost; like a soul without being a soul. He sat cross-legged on a prayer mat in the corner of the hall, pale-faced, eyes closed, as though meditating.

    Although he looked like a ghost, the haunted air could not mask the pleasant attractiveness of his face, nor that frost-like aloofness.

    He was Xuanmin.

    Tongdeng finished lighting the lanterns and stood calmly in front of them, clasping his hands together in a Buddhist greeting. Then, with a sweep of his sleeve, he turned around and walked toward Xuanmin. In the dim light of the six lanterns, he glanced over at Xuanmin left hand, resting lightly on his own knee.

    Between two of the fingers on that hand, Tongdeng could see a mole, so small that it looked like the prick of a needle, though it was slightly globulous in form and jutted out from the skin. This mole matched that on Xue Xian''s collarbone.

    "Your mole has appeared," Tongdeng said, glaring at Xuanmin. "I still can''t believe you thought of doing something like that in such a moment. Getting the spider, having it bite you, then having it bite him, all in the time it would take to say a single sentence. You might as well have used that last bit of energy to struggle a bit more, maybe given him some final words, a final request."

    Xuanmin''s eyelids remained shut, and his lips made no movement. It was unclear whether he had heard Tongdeng at all, or if he was simply ignoring his forebear.

    "This spider may not be as poisonous as the Spider of the Same Age, but it''s still not exactly comfortable. Do you let these things bite you for fun these days?" Tongdeng added coolly.

    Xuanmin was silent for a time, then finally, still without opening his eyes, spoke. "You created these spiders."

    Which really meant: So don''t go around warning others about getting bitten.

    After Xuanmin had taken his final breath, he''d fallen unconscious, and when he''d woken up, it had been right here in the abandoned Daze Temple. Around two days ago, he''d succeeded in crafting a bodily form, and it had taken another day for that form to stabilise. In those two days, he had not opened his eyes, nor was it easy for him to speak, but could listen as someone near him spoke.

    As he listened to that voice weave in and out, he discovered that this was the first Great Priest Tongdeng, and his own shifu in his previous life. And the two kinds of spiders that lived in the Cave of a Hundred Insects had been bred by this very monk.

    Xuanmin had only ever previously experienced the bite of the Spider of the Same Age. Many, many years ago, before he''d retreated from the secret courtyard to his small bamboo building, he had realised that something about Zuhong''s fate had changed ¨C¨C the number of years Zuhong had left in life had increased. Although, when inside the secret courtyard, Zuhong had stopped removing his mask, Xuanmin could still tell by the disappearing wrinkles on his predecessor''s neck that Zuhong was getting physically younger.

    At the time, Xuanmin hadn''t known what to think, but he''d wondered if Zuhong''s transformation had had something to do with himself. In that period, whenever Zuhong spoke to him, it was in a profound tone, as though Zuhong felt like he owed Xuanmin something ¨C¨C there was even a slight tinge of gratitude.

    But, at the time, he still greatly respected his master, so even though he had noticed something was amiss, he had not minded it.

    Much later, when Xuanmin came to know the truth about the Spider of the Same Age, Zuhong then went further and greedily extracted those dragon bones ¨C¨C and after that, Xuanmin had lost his memories. So the whole ''confronting Zuhong about ensnaring him with a Spider of the Same Age'' thing had gotten delayed, and had only been resolved at the very end of Zuhong''s life.

    But now he had time to think it all through. Xuanmin had always been an extremely reserved person, and there were very few opportunities for anyone to get close enough to him to plant a spider. The only time was...

    The autumn before he left the secret courtyard for good and allowed Zuhong to replace him as Great Priest. He''d been meditating, and he had accidentally wandered into a meditation trap spell and fallen unconscious for three days and three nights. Back then, he''d trusted Zuhong completely, so if Zuhong had wanted to plant the spider on him, he could very well have done it then.

    But no matter. His physical body was dead. This was all history now, things from his past life.

    Today, the mole on his body was no longer that of the Spider of the Same Age, but a bite from the second type of spider found at the Cave of a Hundred Insects.

    Tongdeng''s original goal had been to develop the Spider of the Same Age; the second type had been an accidental byproduct. This spider represented the depressed and troubled state of mind that Tongdeng had been in when he''d made it, and he hadn''t known what to call the breed, so had settled on Wuming, anonymous.

    In the Cave, Xue Xian had asked offhand what the Wuming Spider did, if it really could link three lives together like in the rumors.

    Xuanmin had said no.

    He hadn''t been lying; the spider really did not have anything to do with three lives.

    The Spider of the Same Age consisted of a mother spider and a son spider; the Wuming Spider was a pair of fortune and misfortune spiders. The red spider signified fortune, and the black spider signified misfortune. The tiny mole on Xuanmin''s hand came from the black spider, and the mole on Xue Xian''s collarbone had come from the red spider.

    Once the moles appeared, this meant that the spell had succeeded: the person bit by the black spider, once dead, would never truly fade away nor lose consciousness, and remain something between a ghost and a soul. The misfortunes destined for the red-spider person would all be transferred to the black-spider person''s life, and all the good karma that the black-spider person had earned in their life would be repaid to the red-spider person...

    The cost was that the dead person could never enter the wheel of life again; this was the end of the road.

    It wasn''t three lives; it was eternity.

    "The mole''s appeared. From now on, it''ll just be you ¨C¨C walking the ends of the earth, alone, forever," Tongdeng said. He stood by the door now, looking out at the moonlit sky. Then he turned back to Xuanmin and added, "Of course, there are good things too. You''ll never lose your memory again. You''ll remember everything you''re supposed to remember. In fact, they''ll become clearer and clearer as the years go by, as though your life had only ended yesterday. The bad part... no matter how well you remember things, you''re invisible to all eyes. Even dragons''. So, do you regret it?"

    For a long time, Xuanmin was silent, as though still unwilling to engage Tongdeng. Now this reminded Tongdeng of his original disciple from centuries ago.

    Finally, Xuanmin calmly responded, "You had the Wuming Spider bite you too. Do you regret it?"

    Tongdeng grunted, then said nothing.

    Regrets?

    The fortunes and misfortunes of one''s fate are no small matter. He''d given it all away, and of course that had been no small decision. He would never regret it, not even if the world turned upside-down.

 CH 94

    Chapter 94: Some sweetness (I)

    The little room on the second floor of the bamboo building in the hollow of Dustpan Mountain was a simple room with simple furnishings, so bare-bones that it barely looked habitable. The only item in the room was a bamboo bed, and it did not seem to have been used very frequently at all.

    Indeed, it did not seem like anyone had ever really used the bedroom. Who knew what kind of life the previous owner had led here? Did they not eat, did they not sleep ¨C¨C were they about to ascend into godhood?

    But no matter how the owner had lived when he''d previously resided here, today, he looked perfectly normal lying there on the bed¨C¨C

    Xuanmin''s body was blanketed by a white robe. His face was pale and grey, with no hint of life. His arms were folded neatly across his chest, and were as cold as ice, unmoving and completely still.

    The first couple of days, Xue Xian had bothered him a lot. Seeing that Xuanmin''s body refused to warm up, remaining as stiff as ice, Xue Xian had surrounded him with a bubble of hot air to try and steam him back to life. But at the end of it, Xuanmin''s skin had still seemed cold, so Xue Xian had wanted to find something to cover him up more.

    He''d looked in every corner of the bamboo building but had not found a single blanket or blanket-like thing, so he''d had to go into the nearby county seat and spend some silver on some winter bedding and a thick cloak.

    Xue Xian had thought of taking off the outer layer of his own robe to cover Xuanmin with, but his pitch-black clothing, which he''d always thought looked pretty good on him, gave Xuanmin an aura of death, making him look even more hopeless ¨C¨C it was too unpleasant.

    Xue Xian had never been superstitious, but now he suddenly wondered if black clothes were taboo.

    For the next couple of days, Xue Xian had gone back and forth, racking his brains. First he''d put the blanket on Xuanmin, then he''d feel that such a thick item didn''t match Xuanmin''s personality, but if he gave Xuanmin the new cloak he''d bought, the cloak''s color just felt wrong too...

    After searching the house again, he''d finally found a pristine white robe, and had put that on Xuanmin instead.

    Having arranged the robe on top of Xuanmin so that it covered him well, Xue Xian began to worry about how uncanny Xuanmin looked lying there with his hands laid out by his side like that ¨C¨C even seeing Xuanmin actually lying down horizontally was extremely strange. In Xue Xian''s memories, Xuanmin was always either meditating cross-legged, or busying away at something with a serious expression on his face.

    Xue Xian had sat there for a while, then become restless again, getting up to help Xuanmin shift position, and had folded Xuanmin''s arms so that they were now placed calmly across his chest.

    Once he''d made sure Xuanmin was comfortable, Xue Xian took a quick trip back to the Cave of a Hundred Insects. He barrelled straight through to the stone chamber at the end and made a rubbing out of all that complicated, archaic text on the wall.

    But he couldn''t read the text, so the rubbing told him nothing new.

    He found some time to go visit Old Qu in the village again, to see if the old man could recognise the script.

    But Old Qu didn''t know either. The villager only said that the script looked similar to that of his ancestor, he''d perhaps seen one or two elders write in that way a handful of times ¨C¨C but no one had truly used the script for at least a few hundred years, and today, anyone who had known how to read it was probably long dead.

    So the text on the wall was temporarily of no use to Xue Xian, and, frustrated, he had to put it away.

    He found a great deal of meaningless small things for himself to do, and kept himself busy doing chores while Xuanmin slept, because he could did not dare to be idle. Every time things were calm, he would be able to sense that Xuanmin''s body beside him was in fact completely emptied of its soul.

    Xue Xian''s eyesight was endowed with the divine: he could not only see things in the material world, but also ghosts and spirits. He had seen Jiang Shining, had seen old mistress Liu, had seen the wounded soldier trapped in the dog tag... he had seen many, many things, living people and dead ghosts, but the one thing he could not see was what had happened to Xuanmin''s soul.

    In the end, he ran out of tasks to complete. After three or four days of activity, he had no other choice but to sit down quietly.

    With the onset of quiet, Xue Xian could spend all day just sitting by the window unmoving, staring at Xuanmin''s lifeless body. Sometimes he was examining Xuanmin intently, trying to see if he could detect a hint of movement or change within the monk; other times, he was simply zoning out.

    The mole left by the Spider of the Same Age on Xuanmin''s neck was still faint and dark, like a long-dried brown bloodstain. Xue Xian did not know when it might turn into a vivid red color again, or perhaps it never would...

    Xue Xian had lived thousands of years alone, and had long gotten used to the peace and quiet that came with solitude. But now, as he watched Xuanmin lie there with his eyes closed, unspeaking, unbreathing, Xue Xian felt a hopeless, overwhelming sense of loneliness...

    Thankfully, he quickly found himself something else to do.

    This was no longer something as meaningless and trite as changing Xuanmin''s covers or position ¨C¨C while rummaging through the bamboo building''s library, Xue Xian had come across an old book.

    That book looked completely hand-calligraphed and hand-bound, and who knew how long ago it had been put together. The pages inside were already weak and withered, as though a single touch might cause them to tear. It had been filed away in a drawer for too long without anyone checking up on it, and the mountain air was humid, so the pages had long begun to curl, and many of the words had faded.

    But this did not dampen Xue Xian''s mood at all ¨C¨C in any case, half of the text in the book was completely illegible to him.

    The book contained none other than the same archaic script that had been carved onto the wall at the Cave of a Hundred Insects. And the other half of the text was an annotation that translated that strange script.

    The contents of the book were extremely thorough and detailed: clearly, the person writing it had had a a balanced and steady personality, with a great deal of patience.

    Xue Xian hurriedly flipped through the pages to the final page, and, in the bottom corner, there it was ¨C¨C the only two characters he''d been taught to read ¨C¨C the author''s signature, Tongdeng.

    Back when he''d ru-mo on Mt. Jiangsong, the connection established by the copper coin pendant had meant that he''d seen some of the final batch of memories that had flooded back into Xuanmin''s mind when the final coin''s seal had been broken. When Xue Xian had regained control, he''d recalled the things he''d seen and more or less pieced together the story of the Great Priest Tongdeng''s inherited identity.

    Based on all that, it seemed that the Tongdeng who''d built the Cave of a Hundred Insects and the Tongdeng who''d written this book were the same person ¨C¨C the first Tongdeng.

    Xue Xian had never met that original Tongdeng, but from this book, he did not seem to be an evil person. He''d at least been a good teacher.

    Having found this book, Xue Xian did not delay further. He took out the rubbing he''d made and, studying the contents of Tongdeng''s book, he matched each character in the archaic script to its modern Chinese equivalent. He did not stop nor rest ¨C¨C four days later, he was able to understand every word of the message on the wall.

    And then he sat by the table in silence for an entire night...

    Someone, without saying a single word, had chosen to bear the burden of all the misfortunes and disasters in Xue Xian''s infinite life so that he would no longer need to feel pain; and had not asked for anything in return.

    If Xue Xian hadn''t happened to figure out what the wall text meant, perhaps he would have spent the rest of his life in the dark as to what Xuanmin had done for him...

    How could he abandon someone like that?

    Even if Xuanmin had passed onto the next life, Xue Xian would be able to find him again. But Xuanmin hadn''t even re-entered the wheel of life; couldn''t. From the tallest point in heaven to the deepest sea, no matter where Xuanmin was, he was going to find him, and bring him back.

    ******

    In the remote mountains, it suddenly began to snow again. This time, it wasn''t the kind that froze one''s heart over, but the kind that fell sheet by sheet, crystal clear and perfect, bringing with it a sense of relief and even a flush of warmth.

    "It''s New Year''s Eve," Tongdeng said, standing by the door with his hands clasped behind his back. As he looked up at the heavens and watched the eddies of snow fall onto the ground, he suddenly asked Xuanmin, "I think I''ve forgotten. What year is this?"

    Xuanmin was still sitting inside the hall, meditating: the pain he''d gone through had been so extreme that it would take him quite some time to fully heal again. For the time being, he could not easily stride over somewhere and pick up a material object at will, as Tongdeng could.

    Although Xuanmin looked to be sitting on the prayer mat, he was actually hovering slightly above it.

    Even the lightest, thinnest needle, if placed in his palm, he would be unable to handle. The needle would fall through his ghostly hand and drop to the floor.

    Hearing Tongdeng''s question, Xuanmin kept his eyes closed and replied, "The twenty-third year of the Tianxi era. After today, it will be the twenty-fourth."

    Tongdeng''s black eyes reflected the shimmer of the pure white snow, and were deep as lakes; he felt as though hundreds of years were passing each time he blinked those eyes of his. After a long silence, Tongdeng said, "Oh, Tianxi..."

    He sounded like he''d wanted to say more, but after having uttered those first words, he fell silent again. Xuanmin did not know what he was thinking ¨C¨C perhaps he was simply going to sigh about how quickly the time was passing.

    "The snowfall looks to last the whole night. Good omen," Tongdeng added. He turned, ready to return into the hall and continue to debate with his disciple, but before he could move, he suddenly heard a mighty sound of thunder ring out from the heavens.

    The thunder came out of nowhere, with no warning. It was so out of the blue that it could not be a natural storm.

    As soon as he heard thunder, Xuanmin suddenly opened the eyes that he had kept closed for weeks of meditation.

    Whenever Xue Xian turned into his dragon form, it had always been accompanied by bolts of thunder, so that by now Xuanmin seemed to have acquired a habit ¨C¨C hearing the sound of thunder automatically made him feel as though Xue Xian were about to appear.

    But then he closed his eyes as resolutely as he''d opened them. He was somewhere between living and dead now, and no one could see him, let alone figure out where he was. Why would Xue Xian come here?

    Suddenly, Tongdeng exclaimed, "This thunder..."

    Before he could finish his sentence, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, its stark white outline coming down from the sky like the zigzagging trail of an earthworm and landing exactly on Daze Temple.

    Tongdeng watched as the strange lightning came straight toward the roof of the building in which they stood, but just as it was about to strike them, something interfered and stopped it in its tracks.

    The lightning had arrived out of nowhere, and now had disappeared out of nowhere. As though it had come to scare them on purpose, or alternatively...

    Tongdeng did not know if it was just his paranoia, but the thunder seemed to be full of some immensely powerful magic. It could not have been summoned by a rain spell or any ordinary magic spell; instead it seemed like the kind of thunder that might appear during a catastrophe. But what kind of human experienced catastrophes?

    So Tongdeng must have gotten it wrong.

    He turned to Xuanmin. "Could it be that dragon of yours?"

    Xuanmin was silent.

    What do you mean, ''that dragon of yours''? Xuanmin couldn''t even be bothered to open his eyes. He wasn''t one to harbor impossible fantasies.

    But Tongdeng didn''t need Xuanmin to reply; he already got his answer¨C¨C

    Because just as he''d finished asking his question, the sound of a dragon''s roar came from the faraway skies. Within the blink of an eye, a black silhouette crash-landed into the doorway, accompanied by a dozen strikes of lightning.

    The disturbance was chaotic, and all too familiar. Xuanmin could not remain indifferent; his eyelids suddenly fluttered open as he peered out of the door.

    Xue Xian looked exactly as he''d looked before, his skin still pale, his face still handsome. But Xuanmin felt as though he had not seem him in many, many years; Xue Xian stood only two zhang away, yet it seemed as though they were separated by the veil between life and death.

    Xuanmin''s gaze pressed upon Xue Xian with the weight of a mountain range, unrelenting.

    Xue Xian looked quizzical. He stood by the doorway and stared into the hall, yet did not seem able to see the two monks inside. Frowning, his gaze swept the hall as he wore a complicated, deep-set expression on his face.

    He couldn''t see.

    He really couldn''t see.

    Xuanmin''s eyes dimmed and a rush of feeling welled into them, his anguish palpable.

    But as Xue Xian''s gaze scanned past him, it suddenly stopped. Xue Xian frowned again as he stared at that spot in the hall, as though sensing something there. Finally, he tentatively asked, "Bald donkey?"

    Tongdeng clicked his tongue.

    But Xue Xian did not seem to notice Tongdeng at all. His gaze rested on Xuanmin, searching.

    Xuanmin said, "Yes."

    Tongdeng clicked his tongue again.

    But Xue Xian could not hear Xuanmin''s voice. All Xue Xian could do was stand there, staring at that spot, waiting until he could wait no longer. Then he took out a thin red string from his sleeve and wound one end of it loosely around his wrist. As he tied it into a knot, it seemed to glow with an inner light, as though suddenly alive.

    "Since you''re not responding, I''ve got no choice," Xue Xian muttered as he fidgeted with the string. Then, he pinched the other side of the string between his fingers, squinted and aimed in Xuanmin''s direction, and let it fly.

    As it soared through the air, the red string seemed to take on a life of its own, gliding straight toward Xuanmin. It hovered for a moment in front of the sitting monk, then, once sure, snaked its way toward his wrist and tied itself around him in a deadly knot.

    As the string caught Xuanmin, Xue Xian''s solemn face suddenly relaxed and bloomed into a grin. "Gotcha."

 CH 95

    Chapter 95: Some sweetness (II)

    Now both Tongdeng and Xuanmin were too shocked to speak.

    What was going on?!

    In all the years that Tongdeng had spent floating around in this temple, he had never seen anything like this. A measly piece of string was enough to capture Xuanmin?

    As soon as the string tied its knot around Xuanmin''s wrist, his form began to emerge in front of Xue Xian''s eyes. Xue Xian''s roving gaze finally stilled and settled on Xuanmin''s face, before looking the monk up and down again.

    For a moment, something seemed to flush in Xue Xian''s eyes, before being forcibly pushed back again.

    He continued to smile, but that profound sense of emotion that had previously been on his face had fully dissipated, and he looked as happy and carefree as he''d always had. He tugged lightly at the red string in his fingers and said, "I gave the bookworm Jiang Shining''s brother-in-law a piece of this string years ago. I hadn''t thought that one day, I''d need it too."

    He wound the loose string around his finger absent-mindedly, pulling it taut, as though trying to draw Xuanmin toward him by the wrist ¨C¨C like an impatient fisherman. As he pulled, he idly added, "Thank god I didn''t throw this out."

    Originally, Xuanmin could not touch anything in the material world, and even thin needles went through his hand. But Xue Xian''s red string was like an arrow shooting through the realm of life and death, and as it pierced Xuanmin''s intangible flesh, the yearning that it carried helped bring him back from the brink.

    As Xuanmin floated above the prayer mat, a rush of magical energy flowed toward him along the red string ¨C¨C he knew that in the blink of an eye, he''d have the strength to touch material objects again.

    Tongdeng, who had taken hundreds of years to build that same strength, looked away in disgust.

    Xue Xian had found the person he''d been looking for, and now the dust had settled, and the all the tragic things that he''d previously experienced no longer mattered. Xue Xian did not step into the hall, but remained standing idly and impishly by the doorway, tugging twice more at the string as if trying to pull Xuanmin up. "Stop sitting there and get over here," he said. "I''m not here to light incense and pray to the Buddha. I''m here to capture you and take you home."

    Xuanmin followed the motion of the string on his wrist, and stood up. "Okay."

    Tongdeng rolled his eyes. You''re okay with getting captured? What a pair.

    Maybe it was the magic of the red string, or maybe it was because the connection from the copper coin pendant had never fully disappeared ¨C¨C as Xue Xian tugged at the string, he suddenly turned and glanced quizzically in Tongdeng''s direction. Then he jutted his chin out at Xuanmin and asked, "Why is there a second white shadow next to you?"

    Xuanmin was stunned. "White shadow?"

    Xue Xian replied, "Before, all I saw of you was a white shadow too. A really unstable one, that would disappear every time I blinked. I thought it was... an eye problem."

    He couldn''t very well say, I thought it was a hallucination from missing you so much. That was far too embarrassing to say out loud.

    Dimly lit by the flickering flame of the temple''s candles, Xuanmin''s gaze rested on Xue Xian.

    Xue Xian smiled again as he stopped pulling at the string and teased, "First, tell me who you''ve got hidden away over there."

    Tongdeng glared at Xuanmin. "That dragon of yours is very rude."

    Xuanmin did not reply.

    There was no need for Xuanmin to explain ¨C¨C Xue Xian had already sensed, through Xuanmin, that the white shadow had spoken, and seemed to have heard what Tongdeng had said, though he had not heard it in its entirety ¨C¨C only the first few words. Bemused, Xue Xian stuck a finger in his ear and deadpanned, "I didn''t really hear. Whose dragon did he say I was? Who in the world would dare to try and tame a dragon?"

    Xuanmin sighed.

    Both were assholes.

    But Tongdeng was astonished. Frowning, he asked, "You can hear me?"

    Now that the string was tied neatly around Xuanmin''s wrist, Tongdeng''s physical form was beginning to reveal itself to Xue Xian too. Xue Xian muttered, "Another bald..."

    He''d never had very good manners, and whenever he saw a monk, his first instinct was to say bald donkey. But before he could say donkey, he suddenly stopped himself and instead said, "Monk."

    Tongdeng glared. You think I don''t know what you were going to say?

    If you went by age or experience, Xue Xian was the most mature of the three. A divine dragon had no need to humble himself in the presence of lesser beings, so even though he was extremely rude, there was nothing anyone else could do or say. It was out of consideration of Xuanmin that Xue Xian had changed his greeting halfway through.

    Xue Xian could now see that this second monk was dressed exactly the same as Xuanmin, with a similarly lofty aura, as though he''d only just entered the common realm. So it wasn''t difficult to guess who this monk really was. Besides, Xue Xian had called Xuanmin bald donkey so often that it was almost a nickname now, and the thought of using it on someone else felt a bit weird.

    So Xue Xian paused, then confidently said, "You''re Tongdeng."

    "Yes," Tongdeng replied. Xue Xian found his voice to be similar to Xuanmin''s too ¨C¨C they really seemed to have been cut from the same cloth. Tongdeng turned back to Xuanmin and calmly said, "He knows quite a lot."

    Yes, his tone was like Xuanmin''s, always so self-serious and calm, but there was an additional layer of mischievousness to Tongdeng.

    Xue Xian found this amusing. After all, this was the first time he was meeting someone from Xuanmin''s past, and it was an extremely important character ¨C¨C Xuanmin''s Shifu ¨C¨C so all this fascinated him. Only, both master and disciple had... ended up in the same shitshow.

    "This shifu of yours also used the Wuming Spider?" Xue Xian asked Xuanmin, with a complex expression on his face now.

    Xuanmin automatically nodded, then froze, stunned. "How do you know about the Wuming Spider?"

    "It''s all explained on the wall text in the Cave of a Hundred Insects," Xue Xian replied.

    "I though you couldn''t read that script?"

    "Yeah. So you thought you could keep me in the dark!" Xue Xian scowled. "Who was the one who kept saying he''d never lie to me? I have a terrible memory. Huh... I don''t remember who that was. Do you remember?"

    "... It was me." Xuanmin looked down, silent, then looked back up and added, "I did not¨C¨C"

    It hadn''t technically been lying. The Wuming Spider had only been about trading fortunes, and had had nothing to do with the linking of three lives. Back at the Cave, Xuanmin hadn''t wanted Xue Xian to become suspicious, so he''d just explained it as vaguely as possible.

    But Xue Xian was only teasing him. Before Xuanmin could finish, he cut in and said, "So you''re telling me that every single thing you said to me back at the Cave was true? You didn''t lie to me once?"

    Xuanmin said nothing.

    He had indeed lied ¨C¨C when he''d said, I die of old age.

    Tongdeng couldn''t help but look over at his disciple and mutter, "Idiot."

    Xue Xian hadn''t meant to make Xuanmin feel bad ¨C¨C there was nothing to blame in anything Xuanmin had done. He just... hadn''t spoken to Xuanmin in so long. Felt the urge to annoy him again.

    Seeing that Xuanmin remained standing by the prayer mat, unmoving, Xue Xian tugged at the string again, making Xuanmin''s wrist bounce up and down. But now Xue Xian wasn''t waiting by the doorway anymore; he began to walk into the hall and strode over to the Buddha statue by Xuanmin, sitting down on its pedestal.

    Tongdeng looked away.

    Xue Xian patted Xuanmin''s shoulder and grumbled, "Could you please ask your honorable Shifu on my behalf not to use heavenly script next time he wants to leave a message? We''re lucky I found that old book of translations in the bamboo building, or else you''d''ve been stuck here for at least a century before I got to you."

    Tongdeng said, "Ask on your behalf? I can hear everything you say."

    "Oh," Xue Xian replied, leaning against Xuanmin with an arm propped up on the monk''s shoulder. "You and your disciple really hate each other, don''t you?"*

    Neither Xuanmin nor Tongdeng had anything to say to that.

    None of them could win an argument against Xue Xian. After all, this was a divine dragon.

    Tongdeng glowered at Xuanmin. "Where did you get this dragon?"

    Xue Xian scoffed and said, "He shovelled me up from the ground using a scrap piece of metal."

    Tongdeng shot back, "Ill-fated relationship."

    Xuanmin said nothing.

    Okay, so now Tongdeng hated Xue Xian, too.

    Tongdeng had been alone for hundreds of years ¨C¨C coming across someone who could actually hear him was ultimately still quite exciting. As the two bickered back and forth, poor Xuanmin thought he was going to explode.

    Thankfully, Xuanmin did not betray a hint of fear in the face of mortal danger. He artfully changed the subject, asking Xue Xian, "How did you find me here?"

    Tongdeng was very curious about this, too. He temporarily stopped glaring daggers at his disciple and waited for Xue Xian to respond.

    Xue Xian said, "So you had the audacity to plant a Wuming Spider on me. I spent days poring over that tattered book of yours to discover the true nature of that damned spider. Correct me if I''m wrong, but the Wuming Spider gives you all of my misfortunes."

    As he spoke, he looked pointedly at Xuanmin.

    But Xuanmin had anticipated this, and was avoiding his eyes.

    It occurred to Xue Xian that the next point of order was to figure out how to undo this spell. He paused, then continued, "So I came up with a way. I''d done this a couple of times before, so I had some experience ¨C¨C I brought the date of my next catastrophe period forward. This Wuming Spider came in handy, actually. I can tell where you are based on where the lightning chooses to strike. And just as the lightning''s about to hit you, I force the catastrophe period back to when it was supposed to be, so you don''t get hit."

    Xuanmin said nothing.

    Neither did Tongdeng.

    The divine lightning of the heavens ¨C¨C especially the kind that struck during a catastrophe period ¨C¨C was not something that a mortal could deal with. But this dragon lord was talking about pushing his catastrophe period''s date forward and backward at will, causing all this pandemonium, all to locate one person...

    His ability to make light of divine laws was terrifying.

    Xue Xian had thought it all through. In the past, he''d been among humanity when his catastrophe period had struck and it would have been a disaster, so he''d forced the date back ¨C¨C that counted as precedence. But as he prepared himself this time, he couldn''t be sure that nothing would go wrong. If something really went wrong, he''d decided that he would simply turn into a dragon and wind his body around Xuanmin''s, covering him entirely. He doubted the divine lightning would be able to go past him and hit Xuanmin.

    But these had just been his own thoughts. There was no need to admit any of it to Xuanmin, knowing that the monk would probably scold him about it.

    Before Xue Xian had landed at Daze Temple, he''d told himself that, as soon as he found Xuanmin, he would take him home without delay! But now, he saw that Xuanmin wasn''t the only itinerant soul at the temple ¨C¨C there was Tongdeng too, and based on what Xue Xian had seen, it seemed like master and disciple had a fairly good relationship.

    It was New Year''s Eve, a time for families and loved ones to gather together. To take Tongdeng''s disciple away at this time and leave him all alone didn''t feel right.

    So Xue Xian had decided to walk into the hall after all and help Xuanmin express piety to his master.

    But before he could do anything, Tongdeng seemed suddenly to think of something, and said, "Before you tied him with the string, it seemed you could already see him? But normally, nobody should be able to see us..."

    Xue Xian suspected it really had been because he''d missed Xuanmin too much, or perhaps they were fated to be together ¨C¨C but there was no way he''d put down his pride and actually admit that. Instead, he patted Xuanmin''s shoulder and wagged his chin at Tongdeng, saying, "Maybe he really wanted to see me, or really wanted to be seen by me."

    Tongdeng rolled his eyes.

    The worst part was, his normally ice-cold, boring disciple had heard these saccharine words and yet said had said nothing ¨C¨C he wasn''t denying it!

    It was New Year''s, and suddenly Tongdeng didn''t want to have to see these two acting all sweet together. He pointed at the doorway, then turned his back to them and calmly said, "Safe travels."

    He remained polite, but he might as well have said, Fuck off.

    ---

    * ?? I''m not gonna lie, I have no idea what this means in this context, like clearly it''s a witty comeback but... in what way?

 CH 96

    Chapter 96: Some sweetness (III)

    Xue Xian and Tongdeng shot words back and forth, and Xuanmin simply stood there, exasperated. What a strange situation they found themselves in.

    Each of them had previously been solitary, lone-wolf types, and although their personalities differed, there were some things they all had in common deep down ¨C¨C one had instituted a secret courtyard where almost nobody had been allowed in; one was so aloof and cold that he could go three days without saying two sentences; and one had lived for hundreds of thousands of years without having all that much to do with the human realm.

    So none of them had expected to become ''rowdy'' as soon as they were united in the same room. And soon the mood heightened, for Xuanmin''s pet bird arrived to join them.

    Following two deep sighing noises, the bird flapped its wings and came hurtling into the hall, carrying a small bamboo basket in its beak. It flew violently around the hall and finally found its target, crashing straight into Xuanmin''s arms.

    Xue Xian raised an eyebrow. "How come you''re everywhere?" he complained.

    The crow squawked at him insolently.

    Tongdeng said, "This bird is still alive?"

    "You know it?" Xue Xian asked, shocked. But then he remembered that the bird had brought him that old copper coin pendant, and could deduce the truth.

    "This bird is older than he is," Tongdeng said, glancing at Xuanmin. "What a spoiled brat."

    The crow should not have been able to hear Tongdeng, nor see him. Yet this godforsaken creature never seemed to obey the laws it was supposed to obey. It was basically some kind of bird god. After Tongdeng spoke, the bird suddenly looked intently in the spot where Tongdeng sat, with its head tilted, as though having heard something or having sensed that an old friend was present.

    Xuanmin looked up at Tongdeng. "Around ten years ago, it landed in the secret courtyard with an injured wing. I rescued it. You''ve seen it before?"

    Ever since he''d become the not-living-nor-dead being that he was now, and had met Tongdeng, Xuanmin had begun to gain memories from his previous life. Though it was mostly still too blurred to decipher, it was as though he were waking up from a dream ¨C¨C some parts were clearer than others.

    Now, he could remember that, at the age of six or seven, he''d had a pet crow. But he''d always assumed that the bird that had appeared in the secret courtyard had merely been a coincidence, and that he''d happened to have wanted to take care of the animal; that that was why the bird had accompanied him for the past ten years.

    But now, Tongdeng seemed to imply that he and the bird''s relationship went back much further than that.

    Tongdeng said, "I''ve not only seen it."

    When the crow had first arrived in the secret courtyard, Tongdeng had still been the Great Priest, and the first Xuanmin had only been around ten years old. At the time, Tongdeng had worried that his studious disciple was too antisocial ¨C¨C the child had always been a little snowman, and did not seem to be about to melt anytime soon.

    Although Tongdeng, too, was not exactly extroverted, he had now gone from being the one who iced others out to being the one being iced out ¨C¨C he didn''t like that. Besides, he''d also worried that little Xuanmin was too aloof, and would grow up unable to sympathise with others'' pain.

    In order to get Xuanmin to warm up a little, he''d thought of different ideas, and had ultimately decided to find him a companion.

    When he''d first brought the crow to the secret courtyard, it had still been an egg. It had broken through its shell exactly at the moment that Tongdeng was presenting it to Xuanmin.

    When it opened its eyes, the first thing it had seen had been Xuanmin. It had immediately taken to its master, throwing itself straight into Xuanmin''s hands.

    At the beginning, it had been like a chick, covered in soft fur and unable to fly. All it could do was hop about on its thin little claws behind Xuanmin, following him everywhere he went. When Xuanmin sat to read, it would pick a sunny spot on Xuanmin''s robes and curl up there, snoozing or else rolling about.

    The chick... the bird chick grew slower than most birds, taking a very long time to learn how to fly. But once it did, it went from ''hopping manically after Xuanmin''s heels'' to ''flapping its wings manically around Xuanmin''s face''.

    Despite Xuanmin''s irredeemably cold personality, he had ultimately accepted the crow as his pet. Every day, he would give it some food and water, but the rest of the time, he would allow it to roam wherever it wanted. Whether the bird disappeared for hours at a time or followed him around shedding its feathers anywhere, he didn''t care.

    At some point, the bird had picked up a strange habit ¨C¨C every once in a while, it would steal one or two enormous magical pills to eat. But as long as it didn''t make itself sick, Xuanmin didn''t care either.

    From Tongdeng''s perspective, Xuanmin ''not caring about the bird'' meant about the same as ''not hating the bird'', which could be taken to mean ''indulging the bird''. After all, in the ten or so years he''d known the child, he had never seen Xuanmin ''like'' anything or anyone.

    Tongdeng had never in his life imagined that, several hundred years after his death, he would now be finding himself watching his disciple with a heart of ice treat another person so kindly.

    Having met Xue Xian, Tongdeng now understood what Xuanmin really was like when he indulged someone.

    It was also because of having met Xue Xian that Tongdeng discovered ¨C¨C his disciple had perhaps never been born to be an ascetic of the cease to struggle, cease to live kind.

    He even suspected that Xuanmin couldn''t not treat Xue Xian well.

    Of course, if Tongdeng ever found out that Xuanmin really could tame Xue Xian ¨C¨C if he ever saw Xuanmin half-seriously, half-affectionately say to Xue Xian, "Still messing around?" ¨C¨C then Tongdeng would surely think his disciple had been poisoned or possessed. Although it was not obvious to strangers, Tongdeng had raised Xuanmin and knew that such a tone, to Xuanmin, was equivalent to ''teasing''...

    Anyway, the bird really was terrifyingly intelligent.

    Xuanmin reached into the bamboo basket it carried and retrieved a small flask of wine and a pouring pot. It was as though the crow had known that Xue Xian would find Xuanmin on this very night, and had somehow gotten its claws on this wine to help them celebrate.

    Xuanmin never drank, so he first paused when seeing the flask of wine, then casually passed it to Xue Xian.

    Xue Xian laughed as he accepted the wine. "What did you feed this bird while it was growing up?" he asked.

    "Magic pills," Tongdeng said, matter-of-fact.

    Xue Xian gaped.

    He brought the wine flask closer and shook it lightly, so that a soft scent came wafting out of it.

    "Qiulubai?" Tongdeng asked mildly.

    Xue Xian nodded. "Seems like it, from the scent. You seem to know your wines."

    "Only this one," Tongdeng said in a faraway voice, as though recalling a memory. "An old friend really loved Qiulubai. Each year on New Year''s Eve, he would make me drink with him."

    He made it sound neutral with a word like with, but in truth, that old friend had gone to lengths to get him to accept the wine, sometimes pranking him, other times begging him, constantly contriving situations in which they ended up together on New Year''s...

    "Wait, no, hold up..." Xue Xian raised an eyebrow at Tongdeng. "Drink? Qiulubai? You?"

    Tongdeng hummed in agreement.

    Xuanmin did not appear surprised by this. Although he still could not remember what his master had been like in his past life, when he''d heard Tongdeng utter the name of the famous Qiulubai wine, he''d felt an anonymous sense of familiarity, as though this was something that Tongdeng used to bring up frequently.

    Xue Xian was shocked. "Monks can drink?"

    Tongdeng moved his hand to his chest and gave a Buddhist greeting, then mildly replied, "Back then, before I could be fully initiated, Daze Temple was destroyed."

    He hadn''t been initiated, so technically he hadn''t had to obey all the rules of Buddhist priesthood. Although Xue Xian wasn''t clear on all the details of religious rites, he did know some of the basics. Hearing this, he scowled and stared at both Xuanmin and Tongdeng for a long time before finally saying, "I get it now. Not only do you deeply hate your disciple, but your disciple deeply hates himself, too."

    Neither master nor disciple is actually a real monk at all! There are no consequences to breaking monk taboos. It''s all based on self-discipline!*

    Xue Xian wanted to sigh in admiration. The Great Priest really was the Great Priest ¨C¨C crazy, to an unfathomable extent.

    He turned and pointed an accusing finger at Xuanmin. "Liar."

    Xuanmin looked back at Xue Xian silently, then glared at Tongdeng.

    "Uh-oh, you don''t look very happy with your Shifu," Tongdeng said. He jutted his chin out and pointed at the door, saying, "There''s the door. Off you go."

    At the end of the day, he wanted Xuanmin and Xue Xian to go away and leave him alone.

    "You''re hurting my old eyes. Go." Tongdeng had no desire to spend New Year''s Eve with this disrespectful brat of a disciple and his pet dragon. "Leave the Qiulubai."

    Xue Xian scoffed. "How depressing. I''m older than you by some eight hundred generations."

    Tongdeng said nothing.

    Seeing that his shifu was about to be driven mad, Xuanmin finally behaved like a real disciple ¨C¨C he nodded at Tongdeng, then tapped Xue Xian on the back of his head and said, "Let''s go."

    Although he looked serious and polite, he gave off the impression of saying, I''m taking this troublesome one home now. Please excuse me.

    Xue Xian did not protest. He turned back around and asked Xuanmin, "So you''re not loitering around here anymore. You''re coming back with me?"

    What does he mean, loitering...

    "Yes," Xuanmin said, gazing back at him.

    Tongdeng scowled and chased the two ¨C¨C and their bird ¨C¨C out of his temple.

    By the time Xue Xian and Xuanmin got back to the bamboo building, the sky was fully dark. And maybe it was thanks to all the magical energy that was flowing from Xue Xian to Xuanmin through the red string, or maybe it was because they were physically closer to each other now, but as he lit a lantern inside the room, Xue Xian suddenly found that the ''neither living nor dead'' Xuanmin finally seemed to be growing a mole on his neck.

    As though the mark from the Spider of the Same Age, prompted by the day''s events, was finally beginning to take effect.

    And as the mole on Xuanmin''s spirit began to appear, something was also happening to his fleshly body on the bed ¨C¨C when before, the mole on that body''s neck had been dark and dull, it seemed now finally to have completed its final stage and began to shimmer, as though the dried blood stain was now fresh blood.

    Before Xuanmin could speak, he suddenly felt himself be wrapped up within a cyclone. The world spun around and around as some great force drew him towards it.

    He felt a sense of dizziness, and a darkness fell before his eyes. In the next instant, as he opened his eyes again, he found that he was now somehow in a horizontal, laying position.

    "It''s finally succeeded..." Xue Xian breathed. It seemed that only now was he truly reassurred.

    Xuanmin lay there, stunned, for a moment, then suddenly sat up. He found that his limbs were extraordinarily heavy, and felt completely different from the floating that he''d gotten used to. He sat on the bamboo bed and looked down at his own hands, then looked up at Xue Xian. "I¨C¨C"

    "From now on, your lifespan is tied to that of a real dragon." Xue Xian announced, slapping the bed. He came closer and looked deeply into Xuanmin''s eyes, and slowly said, "No regrets. You have to hang out with me for hundreds or thousands of years, probably longer. Even if you get tired of me, you can''t undo it."

    Xuanmin looked back at him with those endlessly deep black eyes. He seemed to want to say something, but ultimately simply gazed at Xue Xian intently. Finally, he said, "It''s all I could ever wish for."

    Xue Xian had never heard Xuanmin express himself so directly before. He gaped at him in shock, then suddenly grinned. His grin seemed determined, and slightly evil, as he asked, "So technically, I''ve just saved your life. How do you plan to repay me, huh?"

    ---

    * Mmk so basically the text talks about this thing that is supposed to happen when a Buddhist monk is officially initiated, ½äÌå, ''initiating the body'', which is apparently when your body physically develops an inability to do bad things like drink alcohol because you''re officially a monk now?? It''s like magic?? But I didn''t really know how to / was too lazy to figure out how to explain that smoothly in the text and also can''t find anything about it online to see how it''s been translated before so I''m just not putting it in. Baidu article in Chinese here - https://baike.google.com/item/%E6%88%92%E4%BD%93

 CH 97

    Chapter 97: Some sweetness (IV)

    Xue Xian had just wanted to mess with Xuanmin. Xuanmin could never win against him in an argument, so he''d planned to make Xuanmin pause and think for a bit ¨C¨C Xue Xian had it planned out. Once it became clear Xuanmin had no answer, he would then start making all sorts of unreasonable demands, and see how far Xuanmin would try to fulfil them.

    He just liked seeing the way Xuanmin looked when he made him speechless with frustration.

    But it seemed that he and God just weren''t on the same page. As soon as he''d begun to tease Xuanmin, before he could begin putting on airs, he suddenly heard a very inconvenient grumbling noise.

    Xue Xian fell silent and faltered. Then he wanted to pretend like nothing had happened and continue needling Xuanmin, but immediately heard yet another grumbling sound.

    Xue Xian paused; even his evil smile froze awkwardly. He suddenly pulled himself together and faced Xuanmin, expressionless: "Please tell me that you heard nothing."

    Xuanmin had no qualms about exposing him. Calmly, he said, "You''re hungry."

    Irritated, Xue Xian said, "Bald donkey, let me be perfectly honest with you. If you keep talking like this, you''re going to end up alone."

    "No, I''ve got you," Xuanmin replied breezily. Then he patted Xue Xian on the shoulder and said, "Let me get out of bed. What do you want to eat?"

    Indeed, the bamboo building belonged to Xuanmin, and he was the one familiar with what was edible in the surroundings.

    "I want to eat humans," Xue Xian deadpanned. But his stomach growled yet again.

    "The only thing this mountain lacks is people," Xuanmin said, standing up. But as soon as he got up from the bed, he stumbled, and had to sit back down on the bedside.

    Earlier, he''d behaved completely normally, as though he''d recovered as soon as he''d gone back into his fleshly body; and Xue Xian was used to seeing him as someone indestructible, and really had believed that he''d already fully healed. But now, he realised that Xuanmin was still far from a full recovery.

    After all, Xuanmin hadn''t been on the bed for a quick shuteye; he''d just come back from the dead.

    But Xuanmin himself did not seem to mind. He found a talisman in his robe and brusquely slapped it on himself; immediately, his face looked healthier. He did not seem intent on staying idle for even another moment. He stood up again and looked down at Xue Xian, still sitting by the bed. "Do you really want to eat humans?"

    Xue Xian rolled his eyes. Xuanmin''s tone was so serious that he really couldn''t tell if the monk was joking.

    "Forget eating. I need you to stay in bed and heal." Xue Xian''s hand shot out and grabbed Xuanmin by the wrist, then pulled him back onto the bed.

    It was only now that Xue Xian truly realised how weak Xuanmin was. He hadn''t put any strength into pulling Xuanmin back.

    "Let me find you some food first. I can heal anytime," Xuanmin said.

    "Stop talking," Xue Xian interrupted. He retrieved a copper coin pendant from his sleeve, which seemed to glimmer in the candlelight as his fingers ran across it. "Your pet bird brought me this."

    Swinging the pendant lightly in front of Xuanmin''s face, he added, "I figured this is a pendant you''ve used before. A few days ago, I borrowed it to help digest the last of my dragon bone, so it has some latent magical power in it that''s been reactivate it. You use this, and once you''re healed, we can go get food."

    The copper coin pendant that Xuanmin had been using in this life had been a gift from Zuhong ¨C¨C this was an unwritten rule of the Great Priest''s succession. He''d used that pendant since the age of six, and had never used any other. But that pendant, he''d buried beneath the yellow earth by the river, to use to complete that final spell.

    So this pendant clearly hadn''t been his in this life. He took the pendant and examined it closely, sensing its energy. The most dominant magical aura within the pendant was his own, and there was also some of Xue Xian''s, as well as a tiny sliver of latent, hidden energy, perhaps a leftover from a very long time ago.

    Normally, this third magical aura would be completely unfamiliar to him, but these days he had gotten used to it and could recognise it ¨C¨C it was Tongdeng''s.

    "This must have been gifted to me by Tongdeng in my past life," Xuanmin said.

    Xue Xian raised an eyebrow. "Your past-past life. This life began just now, when you opened your eyes..." Xue Xian said, grinning at him playfully and with an air of insolence. "From the beginning to the end, it all belongs to me."

    Xuanmin turned to gaze at him warmly, his black eyes illuminated by the dim flame. "Okay. It''s all yours."

    It was impossible to truly repay the debt of one''s life being saved.

    "So, no matter what I say, you''ll listen?" Xue Xian asked.

    "Yes," Xuanmin said.

    "Well, right now I want you to hold those copper coins and heal yourself," Xue Xian said solemnly, pointing at the bed.

    In that moment, Xuanmin''s magical bird came tumbling in through the window, flapping its wings manically as it struggled to hold a cloth pouch aloft in its beak.

    It landed in front of Xue Xian and opened its beak, letting the pouch fall onto the bed and unravel, revealing something inside.

    Xue Xian had to admit that this bird was a good bird, one that was clearly attuned to the needs of its master ¨C¨C the pouch was full of food.

    Except...

    Xue Xian glanced inside and rolled his eyes. All fruits.

    Obviously, the bird had gone by its own preferences. Still, this was something to fill his stomach. In order to stop Xuanmin from worrying about him and focus on healing, Xue Xian decided not to complain.

    He sneered and flicked his finger against the bird''s forehead. "Guess I was right to keep you alive."

    Then, he reached his hand into the pouch and began rifling through the goods. He picked out a bright, shiny persimmon and rolled it around between his palms, saying to Xuanmin, "I''ll eat, and you''ll heal. Finding food in the mountains sounds hard, and I''m too lazy to bother with that. In the morning, let''s go into town and have a good, full meal."

    Xuanmin finally agreed. He sat cross-legged on the bed and began to meditate.

    The copper coin pendant had been used by him in his entire previous life, and had been recently reactivated by Xue Xian ¨C¨C it was so powerful that it significantly amplified his healing process. Although his body was covered in the wounds that had killed him, he only needed one night to feel like new again.

    The whole night, Xuanmin could hear all sorts of small sounds around him.

    Sometimes it was the soft crunching noise of Xue Xian munching on some fresh fruit. Other times, he could hear Xue Xian get up, the swish of his robes, his extremely light footsteps making their way out of this room and into another, where, having found a book from some shelf in the library, he then returned.

    Before, Xue Xian had been sitting by a desk next to the window. Now, he moved to sit on the bed.

    So when Xuanmin opened his eyes again, this is what he saw¨C¨C

    Xue Xian sitting by his side, his back leaning against the wall, his two slender legs crossed in front of him, his body leaning diagonally backwards, looking highly relaxed.

    Outside, the sky was already light, and a bright, fresh shaft of sunlight streamed in and fell upon Xue Xian''s body. Xue Xian idly looked up and said in a drawn-out, lazy tone, "Just like that? I''m not even done reading this book yet."

    "Yes," Xuanmin said.

    "You''ve been working hard all night. Are you hungry?" Xue Xian asked, then muttered, "How could a mortal like you be better at staving off hunger than me?" He reached into the pouch and rummaged around. "These persimmons taste pretty good. They''re sweet. Wanna try?" All night long, Xue Xian had been nibbling away at the food in the pouch, and now there were only two fruits left: one of them hadn''t been well-picked by the crow, and seemed to have a worm in it.

    So there was just one edible persimmon left. As Xue Xian offered it to Xuanmin, he made himself sound generous, as though he''d left it to Xuanmin on purpose, instead of just having not gotten around to eating it yet.

    He pushed the rotten persimmon away and retrieved the sweet-looking persimmon from the pouch, and as he looked up to give it to Xuanmin, he noticed the monk gazing at him.

    "What are you looking at me for? Do I have something on my face?" Xue Xian asked, absent-mindedly touching his chin.

    It was all so natural, so matter-of-fact; as though they''d already spent countless such mornings together.

    It suddenly occurred to Xuanmin that the reason why he''d loved living in this remote little bamboo building had been precisely because of peaceful, tranquil days like this.

    Ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years, even ten thousand years ¨C¨C he''d never get tired of it.

    And maybe it was because he''d technically begun a new life as of last night, a life that was tied to Xue Xian''s from the beginning all the way to the end; or maybe his experience crossing the border between life and death had changed him somehow, but he no longer wanted to repress his emotions so rigidly anymore...

    Xuanmin gazed profoundly at Xue Xian some more, then reach out to hold Xue Xian''s wrist, prying it away from his face. Then, with his thumb, he wiped away a small stain on Xue Xian''s chin from the fruit he''d been eating.

    Xue Xian felt Xuanmin''s thumb brush past his chin, then stop.

    Where their skin touched, it was warm. Xue Xian felt something surge within him; he let Xuanmin pinch his chin and squinted, saying in a singsong voice, "If I''m not wrong, that day on Heishi Shore, you did something bad behind my back¨C¨C"

    Xuanmin looked up into his eyes and said, "What did I do?"

    Xue Xian tossed the book aside and grabbed onto Xuanmin''s wrist, using it to pull himself up. He shuffled over to Xuanmin and swiftly planted a kiss by his lips, then fell back against the wall and began to read the book again. Raising an eyebrow, he muttered, "Never mind. We''re even now."

    As he spoke, he swung one of his idle legs, as though what he''d done had been the most natural thing in the world.

    Xuanmin looked down in silence for some time, then suddenly said, "No."

    Xue Xian stopped swinging his legs and asked, "Huh? Did I get it wrong?"

    "You forgot to cover the eyes..."

    Before Xue Xian could react, Xuanmin was already lifting his hand and pressing lightly against Xue Xian''s eyes.

    Xue Xian''s breath quickened; his vision turned dark; he couldn''t see anything.

    Next, he felt Xuanmin''s lips against his...

 CH 98

    Chapter 98: Some sweetness (V)

    That first kiss on Heishi Shore had been as light as a dragonfly across a pond; it could barely even be called a kiss, with no hint of nervousness or intimacy ¨C¨C it had been more of a restrained, poignant farewell, because in that moment, Xuanmin had thought they would be parting forever.

    At the time, Xue Xian''s senses had only just been returning to him, and he had only felt a faint sense of something touching his lips. If it hadn''t been for what he''d seen of Xuanmin''s death scene back at the Cave of a Hundred Insects, he would not even have noticed that touch ¨C¨C after all, he had not been in a state to notice such things.

    So it was only now that Xue Xian truly understood how it felt to be kissed by Xuanmin.

    Normally, Xuanmin always seemed so aloof and unapproachable, like an intimidating ice sculpture, cold and unforgiving. If one did not get close to him and only observed from afar, one might imagine that his entire body was made of snow, that his every breath was laden with frost.

    But his kiss was hot, and brought an overwhelming, indescribable passion, as though all of the intense and intimate emotions he''d ever felt in his life were sealed into that one act.

    For Xuanmin to express such a feeling was a miracle; how could Xue Xian take that on? He was utterly defeated.

    He tilted his head and returned the kiss, enveloped in the passion of the moment. As he brushed against the cool tip of Xuanmin''s nose, his parted lips were still drawn in a smile.

    However... around an hour later, that warm, lazy smile on Xue Xian''s face was utterly gone. Not a single trace of it was left.

    Xue Xian deeply, deeply regretted that moment when he''d opened his mouth to lick Xuanmin''s lips and reach in to touch his tongue. Or else he wouldn''t be here now, with one hand on Xuanmin''s abdomen and the other locked in tightly with Xuanmin''s fingers, straddling him...

    Xuanmin was covered in relentlessly outpouring sweat, and Xue Xian was sweating even more; each and every part of their bodies that were touching were humid and sticky, and even their fingers wound around each other were about to slip out of grasp.

    Maybe it was the devastating power of the dragon spit, or maybe it was the freedom that came with their mutual devotion, but Xue Xian had never imagined that he might one day lose all control like this; those frenzied kisses, the fervent biting, his knees pressed so hard against the rough bamboo bed that it left marks.

    His legs tensed, he brought his hips down brusquely; his half-shut eyes were suddenly clouded with a layer of moisture, and his eyelashes were already wet; he could not help but feel a redness well up in his eyes. His lips, pressed against Xuanmin''s, parted slightly as he let out a long, heavy sigh, the sound of the breath mixed in with a faint, low moan.

    His hand that held Xuanmin''s began to tremble and their fingers finally slid away from the wetness of their sweat, but he quickly caught on to Xuanmin''s tense shoulder.

    As Xue Xian struggled to catch his breath, Xuanmin brought his hand over to his waist and brought it down deeper.

    Xue Xian finally couldn''t help but let out a groan. Xuanmin gazed up at him from half-closed eyes and scanned his face and lips. Xuanmin''s other hand went to pinch his chin, then brought him in for a kiss...

    Many, many centuries ago, Xue Xian had heard the phrase "dragons are erotic creatures" in a folk rumor and had burst out laughing on the spot, mocking the stupidity of mortals. In the countless years he''d lived, he''d never found anything within him that might match him up with a phrase like that.

    But now, he suddenly thought, That phrase does make some sense...

    But it wasn''t his fault. It was the dragon spit.

    Oh, right.... and the copper coin pendant, and the red string.

    Normally, the dragon spit would only mess with Xuanmin. But now that the two were interlinked, Xue Xian couldn''t get away scot-free either.

    Alright, fine. Maybe part of it was his own enthusiasm, too. You reap what you sow.

    All in all, too much had happened between them, and it all added up together to the realisation that he''d be happy to spend the rest of his life in bed.

    But Xuanmin had only just come back from the dead, and before he''d died he''d taken out the Buddha''s bones from his body... although Xue Xian had made sure to check that new bones had grown in their place in Xuanmin''s pelvis, extracting one''s bones was no small matter, and he suspected that Xuanmin was still vulnerable.

    If it wasn''t for Xuanmin''s weak hips, Xue Xian would never have sat down on him so eagerly.

    Not that he minded; of course, it did feel good, and Xue Xian didn''t have any regrets when it came to that alone. But he hated himself for not having waited just another day, so that he could''ve gotten some food beforehand. Or else he wouldn''t be here now, starving, while sweating away all of his inhibition...

    The two of them tumbled and tussled on and off for three days straight; when, finally, utterly satisfied, they began to walk out of the mountain path through the poisonous fog, they were greeted by the sound of Xuanmin''s crow flapping its wings and hurtling into the forest, as though frightened.

    Xue Xian crossed his arms and looked up at the bird now perched in the branches above him, his black robes billowing lightly in the breeze. "This crow must be hundreds of years old, right?" he said to Xuanmin. "Do you think it''s about to die? Why is it suddenly missing so many of its feathers?"

    He reached out to prod the pile of black feathers on the forest floor with his foot and clicked his tongue. "We should buy it some food too. Make sure it leaves this world happy and full."

    Hearing this, the crow was so furious that it lost its balance and fell off the branch onto Xue Xian. Before it crashed into him, it suddenly remembered that it could fly and nervously took to the skies, flapping around in a large circle before coming back to them.

    Xue Xian suspected that the crow had probably tried to come in the previous night and overheard too much. Considering how smart the bird was, Xue Xian guessed that it had shed feathers in shock ¨C¨C though he couldn''t tell if this would''ve been out of fear or worry.

    For some reason, the dragon and the crow just didn''t see eye to eye; but you also couldn''t say that they hated each other ¨C¨C after all, when Xue Xian had been hungry, the crow had brought him food without even being asked. Most likely, the events of the past two weeks had caused them to develop a strange relationship consisting partly of begrudging companionship, partly of mutual disgust.

    In any case, Xuanmin didn''t understand their relationship. He glanced at the crow and decided not to force it into anything. All he said was, "You may follow or not follow. Up to you." Then, he tapped Xue Xian on the shoulder, indicating for them to begin walking out of the forest.

    The bird flapped its wings above them some more, hesitating, but ultimately came along with them. It landed on Xuanmin''s shoulder and prodded him lightly with its claws, then bashfully rubbed its body against his face.

    "Little brat," Xue Xian muttered, glaring at the crow.

    The crow squawked back at him, then hopped over to his shoulder and began rubbing his face, too.

    "Oh, so now you''re playing fair. Leave me alone," Xue Xian scoffed, though he didn''t really mind. But suddenly, Xuanmin raised his hand and grabbed the crow expertly by its claws, bringing it away from Xue Xian.

    The crow scowled.

    Great, it thought. I can''t hang out with either of them anymore without making the other jealous. Assholes.

    The crow wanted attention too. It knew that it wasn''t any ordinary animal. Magical pets needed to be treated according to their status! Huffing up its chest, it batted its wings and slapped them both in the face, then flew off in a tantrum.

    But it only whined once before suddenly changing its tone and beginning to coo in a certain direction.

    Xue Xian and Xuanmin looked up just in time to see a grey messenger dove come flying straight at them.

 CH 99

    Chapter 99: Some sweetness (VI)

    Xuanmin lifted up an arm and let the dove land gracefully on his hand. With its two claws clinging tightly to his fingers, the dove seemed to be experienced and tame ¨C¨C it wasn''t afraid of people at all.

    Xuanmin retrieved the letter tied to the dove''s leg and unrolled it to quickly skim.

    Xue Xian peered over his shoulder and glanced at the signature. "From the Ministry of Ceremonies?"

    "Yes," Xuanmin said. "You already talked to them?"

    The letter was from the Taipu. Instead of asking for clarification on the whole ''two Great Priests'' thing, all she''d written was a report of the things that were now going on at the Ministry, and the peace that had arrived across all the land thanks to Xuanmin''s spell. Everything she''d written was in perfect order, and highly formulaic ¨C¨C clearly, someone had already told them the truth in detail.

    That day, after the fierce waves of the river had receded and the storm had stopped to let in warm sunshine, all the people who had been trapped in Zuhong''s spell ¨C¨C at Daze Temple, Dongting Lake, and Mt. Wanshi, as well as those on Heishi Shore ¨C¨C had all fallen unconscious for days on end. Although they were no longer in mortal danger, there had still been a lot to do.

    While they''d slept, Xue Xian had gone ahead and muddled most of their memories. It wasn''t magic that he knew a lot about ¨C¨C after all, he was usually carefree and didn''t care whether or not mortals saw him ¨C¨C so he hadn''t used such spells much before. So he hadn''t gone in and actually edited the memories, but had simply made them blurred and indistinct, so that they''d all think they''d had some terrifying nightmare.

    All except one.

    And that was the Taipu of the Ministry of Ceremonies. When Xue Xian had gone into Daze Temple, he''d immediately noticed the blood marks and the one perpendicular mark by her finger.

    Based on that, he''d been able to more or less guess what had happened; that she''d been the one to rupture the spell. He''d also remembered that he''d met the Taipu and her group back at Dustpan Mountain, and that their manner of speech and body language when talking to Xuanmin at the time had been highly significant.

    From what he''d seen of Xuanmin''s memories, this girl had only appeared a handful of times, but he''d been able to tell that she was someone with her head screwed on right, someone reliable, who could keep the big picture in mind without forgetting the details.

    So Xue Xian quite liked her, and had decided to let her keep her memories.

    But he hadn''t left her alone, either. He''d entered her dreams and given her instructions for how to clean up the mess, as well as explaining the truth behind the Great Priest''s identity.

    With an ally who knew the whole story, the situation became much easier to deal with.

    And although the Ministry of Ceremonies was generally headed by the Great Priest, that didn''t mean that they needed the Great Priest to direct every single task. So although it had taken Xuanmin more than half a month to come back to life, the Ministry had gone on perfectly well without him and dealt with things smoothly. They had even appeased the officials at the imperial court and quashed all the rumors flying through the land.

    Xuanmin trusted Xue Xian completely. Hearing Xue Xian''s explanation, he nodded and handed the Taipu''s letter over to him.

    Xue Xian had been the one to take care of it all, to give all the guidance from beginning to end, so naturally he should be the one to respond to the letter. So as he gave Xue Xian the letter, Xuanmin picked up a thin twig and fiddled with it until some dark sap leaked out, so that it became equivalent to a brush dipped in ink.

    Then he retrieved a talismanic paper from his pocket and gave that to Xue Xian too, indicating for him to respond.

    Xue Xian gripped the twig and thought for a bit, then, with a flourish of the pen, confidently spelled out three simple words: Good girl. Thanks.

    Xuanmin took the letter back and scanned it, then, without betraying any emotion on his face, crumpled up the paper. He retrieved a new sheet of paper, took the twig from Xue Xian''s hands, and rewrote the letter in its entirety ¨C¨C apart from there also being a word of Thanks, nothing else remained the same.

    Xue Xian watched, blinking, as Xuanmin did all this, then suddenly burst into laughter. He put an arm on Xuanmin''s shoulder and leaned into him, reaching out to scratch his chin. "Hey ¨C¨C I didn''t know you were so fussy."

    They''d already done the most intimate thing, so having one''s chin be scratched was no big deal. Xuanmin let Xue Xian run his claws all over his face as he looked down and lit a match, burning the letter into ash.

    As the last shred of the letter burned, Xuanmin finally looked up at the claw that scratched his chin, then at the claw''s owner Xue Xian, and calmly asked, "You don''t like it?"

    "I like it," Xue Xian replied fondly, scratching Xuanmin''s chin again. "I like it more than anything."

    He watched as Xuanmin let the dove go. The dove flew into the air and followed Xuanmin''s crow as it led it to the best places to drink water and nibble fruits. Xue Xian snickered mischievously and couldn''t help but add, "So, bald donkey, will you do anything as long as it''s what I like?"

    Seeing him smile, Xuanmin thought for a while, then said in a serious voice, "To the extent possible."

    After all, a certain someone was a lord of the skies, and one who was always up to no good at that. A mortal like Xuanmin couldn''t necessarily do it all, and he also wasn''t the type to get into trouble willingly.

    Xue Xian winked at him. "I don''t like the clothes you''re wearing."

    Xuanmin looked down at his white hemp robe. He liked being neat, and preferred his clothing to be completely pristine with not a hint of dust, so he''d always gone for the simple monk''s robe. But if Xue Xian didn''t like it, then he didn''t mind changing it either ¨C¨C after all, these were all material items of no consequence. "What should I change into?" he asked.

    Xue Xian gave him a look and lowered his voice. "It would be best if you just didn''t wear anything. I like seeing you covered in sweat."

    Xuanmin said nothing.

    The crow, who had been flying back to greet them again, suddenly screamed and flew straight into a tree, then dropped limply to the ground. It rolled its eyes and croaked, as though it wanted to be dead. The grey messenger dove, still following, squawked and flapped its wings amidst the branches.

    Seeing Xuanmin''s austere face, Xue Xian buried his face in Xuanmin''s shoulder and giggled.

    "Fine, I''ll temporarily allow you to keep your clothes on. But I have a condition: you pay for lunch." Xue Xian stood up straight and began to walk away away in exaggerated strides, even clasping his hands together behind his back, cocking a single finger and beckoning Xuanmin to follow.

    Xuanmin shook his head, exasperated at Xue Xian''s antics, and followed.

    The mountains loomed tall and majestic around them as they cut through the morning mist, as soft as clouds. Birds fluttered softly between the trees, and, in the distance, they could see the smoke from the nearby village''s chimneys.

    They walked neither slowly nor hastily, their robes swishing lightly back and forth as they strode, carefree, down the winding mountain path. And thus they walked, sometimes stopping, sometimes straying, through the months and years, through the rest of their lives.

 CH 100

    Chapter 100: Some sweetness (VII)

    Another hot and humid July, with respite brought in only by the evenings; the cool breeze from the riverbank carrying a sense of relief after the stickiness of the past two months.

    In the Wolong county seat''s east side, down Hugua Alley, one of the homes was lit up with bright and colorful lanterns and the sound of chatter and laughter rose up from the courtyard ¨C¨C it looked lively and pleasant.

    This home was unique compared to all the others on its street. There were two blocks of stone to either side of the narrow front door, and those blocks had been carved into some kind of abstract form ¨C¨C while they still looked true to their original rock nature, when the blocks were arranged in that way, they did not look chaotic but rather beautiful.

    Above the narrow door hung two brand-new red lanterns, on which had been calligraphed in black ink the single character: Zhang.

    The man who lived in this home was the most famous artisan in all of Wolong County: Stone Zhang. And today was his sixtieth birthday. He''d travelled far and wide in his life and career, and had seen all sorts of sights and met all sorts of people ¨C¨C it had been a good life.

    Usually, when the townspeople celebrated major events, there was a whole list of rituals and formalities to observe. But Stone Zhang didn''t want to have an enormous party; instead, early that morning, he had his still-youthful son and daughter go door-to-door and gift their neighbors juicy, pale birthday peaches ¨C¨C but refused to accept any gift in return.

    For the actual party, he''d only invited close friends and family. There weren''t many guests, and the event was not too formal an affair, but they were all close, and the mood was high.

    But an informal affair didn''t mean a perfunctory feast. Stone Zhang had spent no small amount on hiring the cooks from Wolong County''s famous Tianxiang Hall restaurant to come and spend all afternoon crafting the finest, most delicious of Tianxiang Hall''s specialty dishes.

    Stone Zhang laid out three large tables in the main hall of his compound, and his family members as well as the two apprentices who''d followed him for the past ten years all sat on two of the tables. The third table was strange ¨C¨C it was the same size as the other two, yet it only had four chairs.

    When evening came, Stone Zhang even went so far as getting some people to help him bring a screen into the hall and place it between that table and the other two. He was behaving extremely mysteriously.

    The strangest part was, when the caterers arrived with the dishes, Stone Zhang specifically ordered them to put the vegetarian dishes on one side and the meat dishes on the other. The two types couldn''t mix under any circumstances.

    No one here was a stranger, and the guests didn''t object to any of this, but they were very curious and went to ask Stone Zhang about it.

    Stone Zhang only waved his hand dismissively and cryptically said, "Honored guests."

    As the full moon began to rise in the night sky, there came a loud knock on the front door. Stone Zhang hurried over to greet the newcomers in the courtyard and whooped with laughter. "Twenty-Seven is here!" he exclaimed warmly. "Hey ¨C¨C How come I feel like you''ve gotten taller again?"

    Indeed it was Twenty-Seven standing by the doorway. More than ten years on, he was no longer that skinny young boy. Apart from a small trace of the past on his brow ¨C¨C the mole in the middle of his forehead ¨C¨C he now looked completely different. He was tall and thin, and actually had begun to resemble Jiang Shining, with a studious air about him.

    "I think you''ve just gotten shorter," Twenty-Seven replied. "Last time when I ran into you outside the Li shop, you weren''t all hunchbacked as you are now."

    He still spoke with a cold and detached tone, which shocked most people at first. But Stone Zhang was used to it, and did not mind at all.

    "Well, I''m at that age now. All craftsmen end up hunched over, and I''m just glad it took me this long. I can''t compare to young''uns like you," Stone Zhang replied jovially as he guided Twenty-Seven into the banquet hall. "Where are all your kids?"

    "They spent all afternoon playing, and now they''re exhausted. I can''t take them to an event like this. Maybe in a few years'' time," Twenty-Seven said.

    Maybe it was because Lu Nineteen had been a street child adopted by their parents in the mountains, but now that Twenty-Seven was grown-up, he would every so often come across an orphan abandoned beneath a bridge, and bring them home to raise. He had become famous across the land for his soothsaying, and could afford to feed a few extra mouths.

    When Stone Zhang had initially invited Twenty-Seven to the party, he''d told him to bring the three little ones along, but Twenty-Seven had declined. The children still retained some of their habits from the streets ¨C¨C they were slow to trust, and easily frightened.

    So Stone Zhang hadn''t insisted. But he was a fretful fellow who liked to gossip and get into other people''s business. When he''d first read Twenty-Seven''s letter, he''d begun to worry that the orphans would never truly recover from their experiences on the streets, but then he''d felt reassured again...

    Because this was Twenty-Seven we were talking about.

    Each time Stone Zhang ran into Twenty-Seven throughout the years, the encounter would make him emotional. He was grateful to watch that depressed, distrustful and burdened young boy gradually transform into the man he was today.

    To Stone Zhang, this was proof that kindness and generosity were traits that could be inherited from father to son.

    "Are they still not here?" Twenty-Seven asked as he looked around the hall.

    Even after all this time, his vision was still the same ¨C¨C not technically blind, but also not great. But as he further honed his fortune-telling skills, he''d gotten to the point where his vision no longer encumbered his daily life.

    Stone Zhang looked in the same direction as Twenty-Seven and shook his head. "Might be a little longer."

    The other members of the Zhang, hearing this, looked up with mystified expressions on their faces. Stone Zhang had had his children late in life: the son was a bit older and had passed twenty ¨C¨C was only two or three years younger than Twenty-Seven ¨C¨C but the daughter was still only sixteen, still young and fresh-faced. Thankfully, she took after her mother.

    The daughter looked up and finally couldn''t help but ask Stone Zhang, "Dad, what are you doing staring up at the sky?"

    Stone Zhang doted on that daughter of his ¨C¨C if anyone else had asked, he''d''ve been able to make something up, but when she asked, he instead lowered his voice and admitted, "I''m waiting for the two honored guests."

    The girl stared incredulously. "Dad, do you have food poisoning?"

    Stone Zhang chuckled. "Shut up."

    All Twenty-Seven had to say was, "Your daughter has an auspicious face."

    Stone Zhang frowned at him. Am I supposed to say thank you?

    As they spoke, the sky suddenly clouded over and the low rumble of thunder could be heard.

    The guests gathered in the banquet hall all paused, shocked. "What the hell? This storm has come out of nowhere," someone complained.

    "Whether or not it came out of nowhere, that sounds like the onset of a huge storm. Let''s all get inside," someone else said.

    But both Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven looked up at the sky again.

    "They''re coming..." Stone Zhang said excitedly under his breath.

    All those years ago, the two of them had woken up on Heishi Shore after a near-death experience. They''d said their goodbyes to Xue Xian and returned to Wolong County, and as a farewell gift, Xue Xian had given them each three blank talismanic papers. He''d told them that if they were ever in danger and needed help, they could write a message on the paper and burn it, and he would be able to come to their rescue.

    Once home, Twenty-Seven had put his three sheets of paper away, with no intention ever to use them.

    Stone Zhang hadn''t used any of them either ¨C¨C the first time was this time. But it hadn''t been to ask Xue Xian and Xuanmin for help; instead, he''d just wanted to invite them to spend his birthday together, after twelve years apart.

    Folks had a custom that dictated that, from the sixtieth year onwards, birthdays needed to be well-celebrated. After all, one could not be sure if one might have a seventieth or eightieth. With the years trickling away, if Stone Zhang did not try to see his old friends once more, then he might never be able to.

    But Stone Zhang didn''t want it to be so depressing. The main reason he''d picked this year to celebrate was because this was also the year that his two apprentices were graduating; and from now on, he was no longer taking stonemasonry commissions ¨C¨C he was retiring.

    The last product he ever carved was a small piece of good-luck jade, which he''d only finished a few days prior. He wanted to gift it to his old friends on this occasion.

    A shaft of lightning rang across the dark skies and came crashing down into Hugua Alley. Startled, all the guests went scurrying indoors, but Stone Zhang only gestured at the caterers and had them begin bringing in all the dishes, to open the feast.

    It was just in time.

    Knock, knock, knock, came the front door. Stone Zhang turned around to see two figures, one in white and one in black, standing by the doorway, the figure in black still with his hand in the air, about to knock once more. With a lazy expression on his face, the man in black said, "You''re just getting shorter and shorter."

    Stone Zhang sighed. After all these years, Sir is still so rude.

    The guests were none other than Xue Xian and Xuanmin.

    As soon as they entered the hall, Stone Zhang''s daughter''s eyes lit up.

    The doorway to the hall was rather narrow, so Xue Xian and Xuanmin had to come in one by one. As Xue Xian walked in, the girl''s face turned slack with shock. Her mouth hanging open, she tugged at Stone Zhang''s sleeve and whispered into his ear, "Dad, didn''t you say I had to choose my husband carefully? Can you help me find one as handsome as him?"

    Stone Zhang felt his knees buckle. "Girl, can''t you spare your father?"

    Although she had been whispering, Xue Xian had heard it all. Filled with glee at the compliment, he eyed the girl and said, "This girl is your daughter? She''s as beautiful as a flower."

    He flashed a smile at her, and the girl almost fainted.

    As Xue Xian walked past, Xuanmin emerged from behind him and the girl gasped in shock once more. Soon, she was tugging at Stone Zhang''s sleeve again and saying, "Dad, he looks¨C¨C"

    Terrified that she might say He looks like husband material too, Stone Zhang quickly covered her mouth and grumbled, "Stop it. You''ve got no manners in front of the honored guests. Go now, go find your mother."

    The girl took one last longing look at the two guests and ran back to the other table.

    The third table that sat behind the screen had four chairs, perfect for Xue Xian, Xuanmin, Lu Twenty-Seven, and Stone Zhang.

    Xue Xian sat down and took in the glorious arrangement of dishes on the table. He turned to Stone Zhang and said a rare kind thing: "Looks lovely."

    Not only had the vegetarian and meat dishes been clearly separated, but each and every individual dish was also cooked to the tastes of those sitting at the table. And all the local specialties that Xue Xian had originally mentioned he''d wanted to try were laid out right here, with not a single dish missing.

    "And there''s this wine... A friend of mine has gotten into making wine, and I got this shipment directly from him. Drink up now, before the other guests finish it all." Stone Zhang lifted his cup in his hands and patted the cask of wine by the table, then added, "The wine is flowing tonight. Have as much as you want."

    Of course, he hadn''t forgotten that Xuanmin did not drink. He motioned for a caterer to bring a pot of tea.

    Xue Xian poured himself a cup of wine and took in the scent. This was indeed a potent wine ¨C¨C just the smell of it was enough to make one feel dizzy. "What''s this wine called''" Xue Xian asked. "If it''s good, I''ll get some for myself too."

    Automatically, Stone Zhang replied, "Oh, this wine? It''s called Drunken Dragon Lord."

    Xue Xian stared at him.

    Stone Zhang gulped. Oh, you fool!

    He quickly laughed and explained, "That''s just a random name my friend came up with. You mustn''t take it seriously."

    Xue Xian had never actually been drunk before. Hearing the name of the wine, he grinned and said, "Well, then I have to sample this."

    But he ultimately did much more than sample.

    That wine really lived up to its name.

    At the end of the night, when they left Stone Zhang''s compound, Xue Xian looked vital and healthy, his posture perfect, his face glowing, with no sign of a flush ¨C¨C as though the alcohol had not affected him at all.

    When he bade farewell to Stone Zhang and Twenty-Seven, he did so clearly and articulately, without slurring his speech. Thus, Xuanmin didn''t immediately notice that anything was wrong either. It was only when they walked deeper into Hugua Alley and came upon a dead end, where Xue Xian transformed into a dragon under the cover of darkness and began to fly away, that it became clear that Xue Xian was not completely sober.

    With a puff of white mist, Xue Xian''s human form disappeared and was replaced by a long black shadow shooting into the skies, performing artful pirouettes in the air, but before he could begin flying, he suddenly came slinking back to ground level again ¨C¨C he had been so excited that he had forgotten to bring Xuanmin along with him.

    Xuanmin looked into Xue Xian''s shimmering eyes with suspicion and asked, "Are you sure you''re not drunk?"

    "Of course not!" Xue Xian shook his head. "Do I look like drunk to you?" Then, he suddenly smiled and came closer to lick Xuanmin''s lips.

    He licked Xuanmin tenderly for some time, then stood up straight again, puzzled, and said, "Why do I suddenly feel hot?"

    Xuanmin sighed. And you say you aren''t drunk.

 CH 101

    Chapter 101: Some sweetness (VIII)

    On Dustpan Mountain''s mountain hollow, behind the bamboo building, there was a hot spring. It was not very large ¨C¨C only about two zhang in diameter ¨C¨C and fresh bamboo and wild flowers grew all along its banks. There was even a small bamboo pagoda beside it ¨C¨C it was a pleasant and luxurious secret spot.

    In the past hundred years or so, because of the poisonous fog all around the mountain hollow and the ominous rumors, no one had ever dared come close to this hot spring; the only ones who ever used it were those who lived in the bamboo building nearby. Before, it had only been one person; now, it was two.

    Xue Xian was very drunk, yet insisted that he was completely sober. As he soared through the sky with Xuanmin on his back, he insisted on going higher into the clouds than ever before.

    Xuanmin almost always indulged him, so simply held on as the dragon took them home. But Xue Xian kept taking the wrong turns, and almost took Xuanmin across the borderlands. Thankfully, Xuanmin had enough of a sense of direction for the both of them, and noticed in time to steer them back to Dustpan Mountain, cajoling and placating Xue Xian all the way.

    The easy, straightforward trip ultimately became a long journey fraught with all sorts of weird obstacles. Finally, as the sun rose high in the sky, they caught sight of Dustpan Mountain''s unique shape on the horizon.

    The effects of the dragon spit had been brewing within both of them all night long, and was impossible to bear much longer. Xue Xian did not bother to find the bamboo building, instead following the curve of the mountain until he came across the hot spring, and flying straight into the water. As he dove in, he semi-consciously transformed so that he wouldn''t be bringing his enormous dragon body into the spring.

    Xuanmin emerged from the water with his white robe fanning out around him. He gripped a rock on the banks of the spring and caught sight of a tiny, thin black shadow slithering past him in the water.

    He automatically went to scoop it up...

    A small dragon draped itself all across his fingers, as limp and damp as a piece of rope. Its tail swung back and forth as it burrowed into his palm impatiently.

    Xuanmin sighed.

    He was having trouble holding back the tide of the dragon spit''s effects ¨C¨C especially because a certain someone loved to make it worse on purpose by adding dose after dose. By now, his eyelashes were brimming with moisture as he gazed down at Xue Xian from half-closed eyes, his gaze profound and filled with uninhibited desire.

    He poked the dragon''s head with his thumb, but it only made Xue Xian wiggle lazily once or twice. In a low voice, Xuanmin said, "Wrong form."

    Xue Xian was too drunk to do anything more than rub up against Xuanmin''s hand, but as he heard this, he had to play it over in his head several times before realising what it meant ¨C¨C that he was supposed to have turned into a human, and had instead gone for the tiny dragon form. He snorted unhappily, and transformed once more.

    Usually, when he transformed, he would quickly put on his clothes while the mist was still dissipating. This time, he was halfway through putting his robe on when he realised it would all get taken off soon anyway, so what was the point? So with half the robe dangling off his chest, he brought Xuanmin into his embrace.

    His black robes only looked darker when soaked through, and bloomed in the rippling water like a black flower, the fabric becoming entangled with the white hemp of Xuanmin''s robes as their bodies intertwined.

    Xue Xian came up for air and nipped at Xuanmin''s chin, mumbling, "Maybe this time I could..."

    But then he quickly shook his head and burrowed his face into the crook of Xuanmin''s neck. "Never mind. It took me so long to get you back, so I''ll spare you your life."

    At the time, Xuanmin only blinked, and said nothing.

    But much later, as Xue Xian laid flat against the stone bank, his long, slender legs splayed out beneath his floating black robe and his arms wrapped around Xuanmin''s body, the waves of pleasure welling up within him and close to release ¨C¨C Xuanmin suddenly and stared at Xue Xian''s glazed-over eyes and parted lips, and calmly asked, "What you were saying before. You''re sure you don''t want to try?"

    Xue Xian was far too distracted to know what Xuanmin was referring to. He hooked his arms around Xuanmin''s neck and brought him in for a kiss. With his lips pressed against Xuanmin''s and his short, quick breath coming in and out with the rhythm of their movement, all he could say was, "No, why are you asking that now? Just go faster."

    ......

    At first, hearing the roar of the dragon, Xuanmin''s crow had come flapping by to greet his masters. But as it flew out of the forest and caught sight of the two bodies writhing together in the water, it shrieked and ran away, finding a tree branch from which to hang itself. But as it stood perched on a branch and measured the twines of ivy drooping down from the tree, it just could not find a good hanging spot.

    So it simply keeled over and fainted right then and there.

    Meanwhile, in Hugua Alley, Wolong County, the half-awake Stone Zhang leant sleepily against the doorway and sobbed as he bade farewell to Twenty-Seven.

    Fate among mortals is always strange and ineffable. Originally, they''d had nothing to do with one another and would never even have greeted each other on the street, but suddenly a turn of events had thrown them into the same lot. Although all they''d done on their journey together was bicker and quarrel, they''d still gone through a near-death experience together, and suddenly it seemed as though they were much closer than they''d ever been before. And now that all those years had passed, somehow, they''d become special old friends.

    Stone Zhang didn''t know why he was crying ¨C¨C their journey had been a chaotic and terrifying one, and they''d all almost died more than once. But maybe it was because it had been so dangerous, because it had been the experience of a lifetime, and whenever he thought about it, it made him feel emotional and even nostalgic. He''d reunited with his old friends last night, yes, but that meant that they''d be seeing less and less of each other, until one day, they''d never meet again.

    Lu Twenty-Seven had never said a kind word to him. But now, as he left the Zhang compound, he patted Stone Zhang on the shoulder and said, "What are you crying for? You still have so many years left to your life. And after this life, there''s the next one. Old friends will always remain ¨C¨C at least, those two will always be around. Maybe someday in the next life, you''ll run into them again."

    As Stone Zhang wiped away his tears, he felt himself finally sober up. He awkwardly blew his nose and said goodbye to Twenty-Seven.

    Mornings in Wolong County were never still nor quiet: people were already gathering by the river, with fishermen and ferries making their way back and forth across the water, and in the city, the market stalls were already set up, with cooks warming up their stoves and sending billowing steam and smoke into the fresh morning sky.

    Twenty-Seven could more or less hide the fact that he was half-blind as he did not stumble nor trip, but his gait was still markedly different from that of ordinary people. He walked extremely slowly, with no hurry in his step at all, giving the impression that he was savoring each and every step he took.

    He slowly ambled out of Hugua Alley. Most people would turn right here and go onto the vibrant and crowded main street deeper into the city, and Twenty-Seven did this too.

    On this street was the unparalleled Tianxiang Hall restaurant, which, in the early mornings, often laid out a stall to sell breakfast and famous snacks. Following the sound of the salesman promoting his wares, Twenty-Seven slowly turned out of Hugua Alley and walked to Tianxiang Hall to buy some steamed buns and cakes for the three adopted children waiting for him at home.

    Normally, he would continue down this street ¨C¨C after all, this was the shortest route back home. But as the salesman handed him the buns and cakes, Twenty-Seven suddenly felt the urge to take a different way this time.

    The urge came out of nowhere, and there was nothing to explain it. This would normally be called a ''gut feeling''.

    Twenty-Seven was attuned to magic, so he always took his gut feelings seriously. He did not hesitate at all: he turned on his heels and headed down a narrow alley behind Tianxiang Hall, toward a small path by the river.

    This was a very dilapidated, neglected path. Some rich households would even dump their dry hay or rotten textiles back here, which only made the path look uglier ¨C¨C but it also meant that beggars and migrants liked to visit, in case they found something worth taking home.

    Eventually, this area became known as a hub for local beggars ¨C¨C but in recent years, there were less and less beggars, and hardly any migrant laborers. And on a bright morning like this, the few beggars that remained would not gather here, for the wind from the river was too harsh. Instead, they would venture into the city, looking for money or a bowl of soup.

    Twenty-Seven didn''t care who liked to live here nor what was strewn on the ground. He was only following his gut feeling, which had led him here.

    As approached the foot of a small hill, he suddenly stopped ¨C¨C he could hear the faint, broken sound of someone weeping.

    "Who''s there?" Twenty-Seven asked, peeking his head around the side of the hill.

    Maybe it was because the way he rested his gaze was different than that of ordinary passersby, or maybe it was his thin frame and studious-looking demeanor that made him seem unthreatening, but soon after he''d asked his question, a skinny little silhouette reluctantly stuck its head out from behind the hill.

    It was a child of three or four years old, with ash and dust all over his face, and mud-tattered rags. He also had some cuts and bruises on his arms ¨C¨C he looked like he''d been abandoned here.

    "Where are your parents?" Twenty-Seven asked.

    The child looked back at him with its large, damp eyes for some time, then stared at the mole on his forehead. Finally, the child said, "I don''t have parents."

    "Then why are you here?" Twenty-Seven asked.

    The child thought for some time, then shook his head.

    ......

    Twenty-Seven patiently asked question after question, but none of the answers were satisfactory. It was as though the child had simply appeared here one day, materialising from thin air. Twenty-Seven had already adopted a few children from the streets, and this one was so young that he couldn''t very well leave him here. So he took the child''s hand and brought him to the riverbank, where he helped him clean away some of the dirt on his face.

    Twenty-Seven was about to speak when he noticed that the child was staring at him nervously.

    This child had extremely pale skin, which had previously been obscured by the layers of muck. Those brows and eyes suddenly reminded Twenty-Seven of another child that he knew, many years ago. But what really made Twenty-Seven speechless was the red mole in the center of the child''s forehead.

    It was a tiny mole, and stuck out a bit, and laden with moisture from the river mist. It was right on the Taiyang pressure point ¨C¨C just like the one on Twenty-Seven''s forehead.

    Shocked, Twenty-Seven knelt in front of the child and took his face in his hands, staring at him without remembering to blink.

    "Why are you... crying?" asked the child. He spoke with a trembling, timid voice, with a slight lisp, which only made Twenty-Seven feel a rush of pity.

    Twenty-Seven suddenly blinked hard and let a fat tear drop onto the ground. He took a deep breath and said, "Nothing. I''m just... too happy. I''ve lost control."

    The child stared back at him with those big round eyes and raised a finger to gingerly swipe at the tears in the corner of Twenty-Seven''s eyes, but almost poked him in the eyeball instead.

    Twenty-Seven didn''t mind at all. He blinked several more times and forced himself to push back his tears, then, in a warm and friendly voice, said, "Do you want to come home with me?"

    The child asked, "Will I go hungry?"

    "No. Never again in your life."

    With a serious expression on his face, the chid ''examined'' him for some time, as though trying to figure out if Twenty-Seven was trustworthy. But he was far too young to really be able to come to any conclusion; in the end, he took a long look at the wrapped food in Twenty-Seven''s hands and sniffed the delicious scent coming from it.

    He nodded vigorously, his head bobbing up and down like a chicken eating breakfast. "Okay."

    There''s someone I miss; they''re far away from me.*

    For twelve years, they were separated by the border between life and death, but now the faraway old friend had finally come home.

    ---

    * The first lines of a Bai Juyi poem entitled ''Night Rain'' -- I couldn''t find an English translation that worked so made my own but the Chinese is here: https://baike.google.com/item/%E5%A4%9C%E9%9B%A8/15808327

 CH 102

    Chapter 102: Some sweetness (IX)

    Ten years in the mortal realm take so long to pass; to the man standing alone in the mountain temple, even the flick of a finger took as long as a lifetime, with no end in sight. But time could also pass so quickly; in no time, suddenly the world could turn upside-down and everything within it could be thrown into disarray.

    Life in Daze Temple was thus sometimes painfully quick, sometimes excruciatingly slow. After many years, Tongdeng could no longer remember how long he had spent in here lighting his lanterns; the only way he could tell the passing of time was by the occasional disaster or misfortune visited upon his own body¨C¨C

    That person fell ill, then recovered;

    That person avoided a great tragedy;

    That person''s life ended;

    Human lives were fickle and unpredictable; who could ever know how long one might live? Tongdeng had only assured the fortunes of his old friend''s lives, and not the longevity. So although that person didn''t always get to live a long life, even their death would be one without tragedy nor suffering ¨C¨C just the silent and peaceful closing of eyes.

    A life as an emperor; a life as a mayfly; a life as a beggar; a life as a young Buddhist novice...

    A balance always had to be struck, of course, so that after that person had gotten to be an emperor, his subsequent lives had been short ones. In the centuries that had passed since his death, he''d already been reborn several times. In his previous life as a young novice, he''d lived some thirty-odd years, and the illness that was supposed to have killed him had been given to Tongdeng to bear instead. Still, Tongdeng could not prevent him from dying at that young age; what a shame.

    But in this current life, there seemed to be far fewer misfortunes in his fate. It had been sixteen years already, but Tongdeng had only had to go through one major bout of illness ¨C¨C everything else had been too minor even to mention.

    Although it was a great thing that this life was a more fortuitous one, on the other hand, it also meant that there was far less of a connection between him and Tongdeng.

    These sixteen years, Tongdeng had remained alone in Daze Temple and had almost frozen to stone. If it wasn''t for the occasional visit from Xue Xian and Xuanmin, perhaps he would long have transcended to godhood.

    These years, though, there was an extra person on the remote Mt. Jiangsong. Ever since the great battle on Heishi Shore some thirty years ago now, the Taipu at the Ministry of Ceremonies had learned of how significant Daze Temple was to the Great Priest. Within a few years, a new building cropped up on the mountain, its doors stamped with the imperial seal ¨C¨C a place to house the mountain''s newly-appointed guardian.

    The guardian was an experienced mountain man. He was given a salary, and lived a simple life as a custodian of peace.

    His job was not difficult: he only needed to patrol the mountain at set times and keep an eye on all passersby, making sure that no one got too close to Mt. Jiangsong. After all, the inhabitant of Daze Temple would have to bear someone''s misfortune every once in a while, and if someone accidentally stumbled in, they might get hurt. And if there was a thunderstorm in the mountain, the guardian had to immediately report this to the Ministry officials, to prevent yet another fire.

    Technically the guardian lived on the mountain too, but his patrons were usually at the foot of Mt. Jiangsong, and he never approached the stone steps of the temple, nor did he ever set foot within the temple itself. So the guardian and Tongdeng really had nothing to do with one another, and, after thirty years, Tongdeng had never even met him ¨C¨C he only knew that he existed.

    One spring, in the early morning before the mountain mist had the chance to dissipate, a young man carrying a grey cloth bundle came up the mountain. It was still early spring, and the air remained chilly from the winter. The forest air was humid and cold, but this youth had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing a leanly muscular frame.

    His skin was not pale ¨C¨C clearly, he had grown up doing manual labor beneath the sun. His long hair was tied in a high ponytail with not a single strand out of place, and his shoulders were broad and strong; he looked the part of an energetic, enthusiastic young man.

    He was the previous mountain guardian''s son, here to take over the guardianship.

    The youth stopped at the hut halfway up the mountain and pushed open the door. He took down his bundle and placed it on the bed in the corner, then scanned the room and quickly tidied it up. Then, he shut the door behind him as he went out to explore the forest.

    He''d originally intended to go by the mountain stream and fetch some water, but as he passed the winding stone steps, he stopped.

    He knew what these steps led to ¨C¨C if he followed them up, he would soon reach the peak of the mountain, where the legendary haunted temple was located. For some reason, every time he heard someone whisper about the haunted temple, the youth would always feel an indescribable emotion in his heart.

    He got the strange feeling that, long ago, he himself had looked out of a window past smaller mountain peaks to stare at the silent lanterns being lit up within that haunted, ghostly temple.

    But that was impossible, for he''d grown up in the outskirts of the nearest county seat, and had never spent any time on another mountain. How could he have witnessed such a landscape? Still, for some reason, every time he thought of the haunted temple, that complex emotion would always well up in him.

    Now, as he stood by the stone steps, that emotion surged within him again.

    The youth only hesitated for an instant before stepping onto the stone and following the path up. Rumor had it that the haunted temple had been abandoned for centuries, and no one had ever visited ¨C¨C it was creepy, and lonely. But as the youth neared the temple, he felt his surroundings become increasingly still and serene.

    Any ordinary person would be terrified and want to turn back, but he did not feel any fear at all. He picked up his pace and bounded up toward the peak.

    Daze Temple was less dilapidated than he''d expected, but also far lonelier than he''d expected.

    Less dilapidated, because he could barely see the traces of fire on the walls of the front hall and the pagoda; even the front doors of the temple remained intact, though covered with frost. Far lonelier, because, in this season, the chill of the winter had not yet disappeared, and there had been recent snowfall; in town, people had quickly filled the snow-covered streets with footsteps and horse tracks, and the snow had quickly turned to slush, then melted. But here in the mountain temple, the ground was a pristine, perfect white sheet, and with it came the overwhelming sense of solitude.

    The doors to the temple were ajar. The youth stood by the doorway and peered inside, though he could not see much. And he didn''t know what got into him, but he suddenly reached out and pushed the temple doors open.

    Creak¨C¨C

    The hinges emitted an ear-splitting screeching noise as the scene within the courtyard was revealed to the youth.

    The youth was stunned as he stared, aghast, at a certain spot in the courtyard, and did not know what to say¨C¨C

    He could see that, on the white steps leading up to the pagoda in the center of the courtyard, there was the calm and silent silhouette of a man, tall and thin, wearing a pure white robe. As he stood amidst that stark palette of white, he looked overwhelmingly lonely.

    "You..." the youth muttered. He came back to his senses and found that he had automatically walked into the courtyard and was now standing at the foot of the steps. He lifted his head to look at the white silhouette, frowning, and asked, "Who are you? Why are you inside the haunted temple?"

    The monk in white froze in shock and gazed back at the youth with both comprehension and suspicion: "You can see me?" he asked.

    The youth hesitated, then nodded.

    This was Guimao year, a full seventeen years since the little novice had passed, and a full thirty-seven years since the battle of Heishi Shore, and countless, countless years since Tongdeng had died.

    His life of tedium was ending; here, now, they were being reunited.

    In the distant skies, a few veins of white flashed by, followed by loud, rumbling thunder. The first thunderstorm of the year was here. Soon, the mountains would be covered in vibrant spring flowers again...

    Thousands of li away, the most famous restaurant in Ningyang County, Huizhou Prefecture was brimming with customers.

    Xue Xian and Xuanmin, having just brought the spring rain to the land, stood by the doors to the restaurant, scanning the crowd inside before deciding to step in.

    An hour ago, they were across the river, with Xue Xian busy summoning the rain. After he''d finished his task, he''d felt a bit peckish and had suddenly gotten a craving for Huizhou peach-fried pork*. Xuanmin had no reason nor desire to refuse him, so the two had flown all the way across the land to the Hall of Nine Savours.

    As they entered the restaurant, Xue Xian said to Xuanmin, "Back then, when I first arrived in Ningyang County, all I wanted to eat was the specialty dishes from this restaurant. But I couldn''t move, so I made the bookworm Jiang Shuning go buy me the food. It''s been thirty years, but I wonder if the dishes still taste the same."

    Xuanmin glanced at the restaurant''s stall on the street selling breakfast items and said, "Yes. I remember this place."

    "Huh? You''ve been to this restaurant before?" Xue Xian asked, stunned.

    "That day when I found you at the Jiang compound, it was because the restaurant owner here had asked me to go," Xuanmin explained.

    Xue Xian had lived for hundreds of thousands of years ¨C¨C if he could remember every detail of every day, then his brain would long have exploded. Xue Xian only ever remembered certain interesting events or notable people ¨C¨C for instance, he did remember being captured by Xuanmin in the Jiang compound, and could vaguely remember being surrounded by county officials on their way out, but he had long forgotten what other characters had been part of the story beforehand.

    But now that Xuanmin was bringing it up, Xue Xian thought there was still an impression of it somewhere in his memory. "Maybe there was such a person," he said. "I don''t remember."

    The waiter at the Hall of Nine Savours was extremely friendly. As soon as he saw the two step into the full restaurant, he greeted them with a smile and told them that they could get their food to take away, or else, if they didn''t mind, there were a couple of tables with less customers where they could share a table.

    The bamboo building where Xue Xian and Xuanmin lived was all the way back across the river, at least a thousand li away. They had no intention of taking the food all that way to eat at home. So Xue Xian glanced over at Xuanmin to silently consult the clean freak''s opinion, then waved his hand at the waiter and said, "No worries. We''ll share a table."

    "Great! Sorry about the inconvenience. My boss says, it''s half-off for those willing to share a table." Smiling, the waiter brought the two to a nearby table.

    Indeed, this table was not full ¨C¨C in fact, there was only one occupant. With a clean and calm demeanor, this customer looked like a scholar, but he also wore the clothes of a rich family''s son.

    Maybe it was because Xue Xian couldn''t remember very many of the scholars he''d come across, let alone those he actually got to know well. So every time he did see a scholar, it always reminded him of Jiang Shining.

    Now, he turned to Xuanmin and said, "This guy looks so much like the bookworm."

    Not again...

    Xuanmin only pinched Xue Xian''s chin, indicating for him to shut up and sit down.

    Only one of the scholar''s dishes had arrived, and as he saw them sit down, he flashed them a friendly smile and pointed at his clay-pot chicken, saying, "Sitting together is a happy encounter. You''re welcome to share my food."

    His smile really did look like Jiang Shining''s. Xue Xian felt totally comfortable chatting with him.

    And it seemed that there really was something special between them ¨C¨C at the very least, they had the same taste in food. As the waiter brought dish after dish to the table, the two began to laugh, for they''d ordered the exact same dishes!

    "This must be fate! I have to be honest ¨C¨C when I first saw the two of you, I felt a hint of recognition," the scholar said cheerfully. "As though I''d run into old friends."

    Xue Xian gasped and met eyes with Xuanmin, then turned back to the scholar, grinning. "How funny. We also thought that you looked like an old friend. Maybe we knew each other in our past lives."

    ......

    Xue Xian''s mood was buoyed by that meal. As they parted, he made sure to give the scholar three blank talismanic papers, telling him to contact them in case he ever needed help in the future.

    Even when they returned to the bamboo building, Xue Xian was still smiling.

    "Did you see his face?" he was saying to Xuanmin. "That''s a good face ¨C¨C he''s going to live a long and fortuitous life."

    Xuanmin listened as Xue Xian rambled on and on, only nodding and humming in agreement. Finally, he pinched his chin and sealed his lips with a kiss.

    Seeing them kiss, the crow hightailed it out of there, flying as far away as it could, terrified that it might see something inappropriate again.

    The two of them made love until midnight, then finally settled down and went to sleep.

    As he dozed, visions flashed through Xuanmin''s mind; he suddenly found himself back in the stone room at the bottom of the bamboo building again, with Xue Xian standing by his side, impossibly close to him, his eyes half-shut, saying, "You owe me more than you could ever imagine. Today, all I want from you is your blood. Will you give it to me?" Xue Xian''s face was shrouded with a sense of evil, and his voice betrayed a profound hatred.

    Xuanmin closed his eyes. He did not move away, and allowed Xue Xian to bring his mouth to the side of his neck and for his teeth to pierce his skin, for him to draw his blood.

    When Xue Xian straightened up again, that wicked smirk of his was dripping with a stream of fresh blood, which made his pale face look tyrannical.

    Xuanmin silently raised a hand to wipe the bloodstain from his chin, but another arm grabbed his in mid-air.

    "Did you have the dream again?" a low voice askd him.

    Xuanmin suddenly opened his eyes and saw the face of the man from his dreams looking down at him, though without any of the evil from before ¨C¨C instead, there was a gentle smile on his face.

    Xuanmin faltered, then realised that he had once again dreamt of the Heart Demons spell from all those years ago.

    Ever since the battle of Heishi Shore, that dream had followed him everywhere, occasionally rearing it ugly head in his nightmares while he meditated, prayed, or slept ¨C¨C some lingering, insurmountable fear.

    But after more than thirty years, the Heart Demons gradually appeared less and less often, and in the past few years, he had only dreamt of them a handful of times. Perhaps after another year or two, he might forget it entirely. Some of the past still clung to him, but finally, he was beginning to walk out of those feelings of guilt and longing that had trapped him for so long.

    Because the person most important to him was still there beside him; how much more fortunate could he get?

    Xuanmin gazed up at Xue Xian for some time, then suddenly flipped them around so that he was on top, and kissed Xue Xian with a heavy passion.

    As Xue Xian kissed him back, he complained, "We aren''t going to be able to leave the house for another few days..."

    Once more, with feeling.

    At the end of another breathless conquest, Xue Xian draped himself lethargically across Xuanmin''s chest. Absent-mindedly groping the monk''s chin, he grumbled, "I think I''m discovering that all your seriousness is a fa?ade. All I did was get excited about meeting someone new, and you punish me by making me beg for release..."

    His tone was one of seduction ¨C¨C although he was complaining, it was only teasing pillowtalk.

    But for him to have taken thirty years to realise this simple fact about Xuanmin? What a genius.

    Outside, the crow heard no more noise, so squirrelled out of its hiding place and flew to the windowsill, where it happened to have heard the tail end of Xue Xian''s sentence. It only wished that it were blind and deaf, and flew into the room to spit on him.

    Xue Xian suddenly no longer felt as tired. He pointed an accusing finger at the crow and shouted, "How dare you spit on me? Where did you even learn that from? Why don''t you try again, I dare you. I''m excited to eat roast bird for dinner tonight."

    The crow spat at him again.

    Then immediately flew away for its dear life.

    Xue Xian scowled.

    Xuanmin sat with his back to the wall, watching the two of them bicker.

    And as Xue Xian turned his head, he happened to catch sight of Xuanmin''s lips curving, and then quickly straightening again.

    Xue Xian gasped. "Did you just smile?"

    Xuanmin''s face was set in stone. "No."

    Xue Xian stared at him suspiciously. "I saw it!"

    "No you didn''t," Xuanmin said.

    "... Do it again?"

    Xuanmin silently rearranged Xue Xian''s robes and got out of bed. He tidied up the room, then turned back to Xue Xian and asked, "Do you want to go to Daze Temple?"

    "Fuck no! Not unless you smile for me." Xue Xian leapt off the bed and flexed his arms and legs. In the meantime, the poor crow came flying back into the room.

    This time, it brought a messenger dove with it. The messenger dove carried a letter from the Ministry of Ceremonies.

    Xuanmin unrolled the sheet of paper and skimmed the note.

    Xue Xian shuffled over and asked, "Is something wrong?"

    Xuanmin had spent the past few years gradually reducing the Great Priest''s influence in the imperial court ¨C¨C after all, for the entire land to depend on one person was not appropriate. Besides, it wasn''t as though, without the Great Priest, the land would be in danger.

    And the letters from the Ministry no longer came as frequently. This time, it was only because the Taipu had calculated the next''s year''s fortunes, and was reporting the results to him.

    Xuanmin folded up the letter and told Xue Xian, "Nothing. It''s going to be another auspicious year."

    That was all one could ask for, in the bustling red dust of the world: the ability to repay one''s debts, return one''s favors, keep one''s promises, and nurture one''s love.

    The wind would keep blowing and the rain would keep falling; peace across the rivers and mountains.

    No regrets.

    ---