The current at the bottom of the river was fierce. Yue Jingming drove his true qi through his body, surged forward, and grabbed Xiao Chunhe by the belt.
Startled, Xiao Chunhe whipped around. The moment he saw it was Yue Jingming, he breathed a sigh of relief and lost the last of his fear. Clinging to Ji Luo, he pulled backward with all his strength.
Lu Yu turned and swept his halberd toward Xiao Chunhe’s face. Yue Jingming sent the Clear Breeze Sword flying to block it. Everyone moved half a beat slower underwater. The sword barely stopped the halberd, only for Lu Yu to produce a longbow from nowhere and fire an arrow at the hand Xiao Chunhe had locked around Ji Luo.
Blood instantly spread through the water. The ghosts caught its scent and swarmed toward them in a frenzy.
Yue Jingming yanked Xiao Chunhe into his arms. Protective golden light blazed around him, forcing the evil ghosts back in unison, but their numbers only continued to grow.
Yue Jingming pointed upward, signaling Xiao Chunhe to surface. Xiao Chunhe shook his head. Man and fox exchanged a look, held their breath, broke through the mass of ghosts, and kept swimming deeper toward the riverbed.
Splash.
Xiao Chunhe burst above the surface and gulped down air, then hurriedly twisted back toward the water. “Yue Jingming!”
Yue Jingming surfaced behind him. “I’m here.”
Xiao Chunhe spun around and cupped his face in both hands. “Are you hurt? You scared me to death.”
“I’m fine.” Yue Jingming caught his hand. “Your injury is the one we should worry about.”
“This little wound is nothing.” Xiao Chunhe wiped the water from his face, and the two climbed ashore together.
They seemed to have entered an underground current beneath the river. Moss-covered rock walls surrounded them, yet strangely, the place was not pitch-black like an ordinary cave. A shimmering blue glow seeped from the stone like ghostfire, and even the air carried a bone-chilling cold that made the scalp prickle for no reason.
Xiao Chunhe felt every hair of his fox fur threatening to stand on end. “This place is horribly sinister.”
Yue Jingming lowered his head and bandaged the wound on Xiao Chunhe’s hand. “The Yingshi Talisman on Ji Luo is still working.”
He took out another talisman and folded it into the shape of an arrow. Its tip wavered in midair, then pointed into the depths of the cave. The two wasted no more time and followed it.
* * *
Faint ghostly weeping echoed from time to time through the twisting cave. Liang Yun hid behind Ye Shijiu and clutched his arm with both hands. “Shijiu, Shijiu, have we already drowned?”
He was soaked through, his eyes squeezed shut, his face even paler than a ghost’s. He was trembling so violently that Ye Shijiu shook along with him.
Ye Shijiu gripped his sword and advanced warily, forcing himself to sound calm. “W-w-what g-g-ghosts could p-possibly exist in this world? D-d-don’t be afraid.”
Liang Yun wailed, “If you’re not afraid, why are you stuttering?”
“I-I-I’m c-c-cold.” Ye Shijiu swallowed.
‘I don’t want to die… I haven’t even gotten to live yet…’
‘Give me back my life…’
‘Boohoo… aaah…’
A yin wind swept past. Liang Yun’s heart had already turned to ashes. In despair, he said, “W-w-we should hurry b-back to shore.”
“D-d-don’t copy me!” Ye Shijiu snapped.
Liang Yun was on the verge of tears. “I-I’m really stuttering because I’m scared. I think I actually saw a ghost just now, and I don’t have willow leaves over my eyes!”
Ye Shijiu stared eye to eye with the female ghost in front of him, whose tongue hung three feet from her mouth. The corner of his eye twitched. He wished time could reverse. Even if beaten to death, he would never have impulsively followed them down here. In a perfectly calm voice, he said, “I-I-I-I want to go back to shore too, b-but I c-can’t find the way.”
“Then let’s hurry and find it—” Liang Yun lifted his head and opened his eyes, just in time to see the female ghost grin. A rotten eyeball dropped from its socket. Even his scream came out trembling. “Aaaaaah! M-mother!”
Ye Shijiu’s vision went black, and he toppled backward with uncanny serenity. Liang Yun clung to him and shook him desperately. “D-d-don’t faint! Ancestor, I’m begging you! There’s a ghost! Mother, save me—!”
The female ghost picked up her own eyeball, leaned closer, and tilted her head curiously. “Where is your mother?”
“…” Liang Yun forced out a twisted smile, nearly crying. “Ha… haha.”
The female ghost sniffed him. “Young master, would you like to stay and keep me company?”
The thought that he had not even married yet abruptly filled Liang Yun with fighting spirit. He groped wildly inside his robes, pulled out the copper spoon, and, screaming all the while, smashed it toward the ghost’s forehead.
Golden light flashed. The female ghost shrieked, clutched her forehead, and fled.
Delighted, Liang Yun raised the copper spoon and kissed it hard. “I knew you were a treasure! Hahahaha!”
A rustling sound came from nearby. He looked up and saw the female ghost floating toward him with more than a dozen other ghosts. Holding her forehead, she complained, “He’s the one who hit me with a spoon!”
Dozens of ghostly souls glared at him and came chattering and shrieking to attack.
Liang Yun screamed, grabbed Ye Shijiu, and ran for his life while shouting, “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me! Let me go! I’ll burn lots and lots of money for all of you from now on! Please!”
A short while later, surrounded on every side by ghosts, Liang Yun stared blankly into space and silently tucked the copper spoon back inside his robe.
“Can you really burn money down for us, young master?”
“Could you burn a paper house for me?”
“Could you burn me a paper wife?”
“Then you have to remember my name.”
“Is your family rich? Are you planning to have children soon? Think I could reincarnate into your family?”
“Haha. Haha.” Liang Yun laughed dryly. “We can discuss all of that. All of it.”
* * *
“The Yingsheng Talisman has lost the trail.” Yue Jingming picked up the fallen talisman paper.
Xiao Chunhe tipped his head back, shock flickering in his eyes. “Jingming, look.”
Yue Jingming followed his gaze. A gate a hundred zhang tall stood alone in the lightless water cave, unsupported before or behind and several zhang thick. A white dragon had been carved into each of its two doors, surrounded by countless little ghosts with blue faces and bared fangs. Dense ranks of eyes stared fixedly at the two people before the gate.
“So there really is a Yin Gate beneath the Weisui River.” Yue Jingming approached and lightly touched it through a layer of true qi. Sinister ghost qi instantly coiled around his wrist. At once, the little cloth fox tucked inside the kerchief tied there popped out, opened its mouth, swallowed the ghost qi whole, and darted back inside.
Yue Jingming turned toward Xiao Chunhe.
Xiao Chunhe hurriedly hauled the little doll out and punched it hard in the stomach. The cloth fox was tiny to begin with and flattened at once. After a long belch, it spat every trace of ghost qi back out.
“You’ll eat anything!” Xiao Chunhe grabbed it and shook it vigorously. “You’re a cloth fox, not a ghost doll!”
The little cloth fox grinned foolishly and wagged its tail at him.
Xiao Chunhe stuffed it into his sleeve and looked back at Yue Jingming. “Well?”
“It’s malignant qi from the ghost gate,” Yue Jingming said. “Ji Luo was most likely taken inside.”
Xiao Chunhe tried pushing the enormous gate. It did not budge. “We’re both alive. I’m afraid it won’t be easy for us to enter.”
“We can try letting our souls leave our bodies,” Yue Jingming said.
Xiao Chunhe frowned anxiously. “What if we can’t come back?”
Yue Jingming pulled out a red thread and tied it around both of their middle fingers, threading three cinnabar-soaked copper coins on one side and seven on the other. “This method can guide the soul back into the body. If our souls haven’t returned within twelve hours, it can forcibly call them back.”
Although Xiao Chunhe was a brave and unruly fox, he cherished his life dearly. Yue Jingming’s boldness shocked him. “That method doesn’t sound like anything from Zushan. If your master finds out, you’ll probably get beaten.”
“Then we won’t let him find out.” Yue Jingming paused. “Saving someone comes first.”
Xiao Chunhe still had reservations, but he was also itching to try. If their safety could be guaranteed, who would not want to take a look around the underworld and broaden their horizons, especially with someone as reliable as Yue Jingming beside them?
“Let’s go!” Xiao Chunhe charged straight through the gate without another moment’s hesitation.
“Xiao Chunhe.” Yue Jingming pasted talismans onto both of their bodies to conceal them, then hurried after him.
The gate, which had seemed solid and immensely thick, turned into a rippling barrier the instant they entered. Their souls passed through easily. Only the red thread around their fingers remained hazily visible, stretching back through the gate behind them.
The moment they passed through the ghost gate, an icy yin wind struck them head-on. Nearly a hundred towering stone statues stood inside. Each depicted a man with a dragon coiled behind him. Dressed in magnificent robes and holding cleavers, they stared ferociously toward the entrance, looking remarkably like the gatekeepers sacrificed in the legend of the Thousand-Dragon Water Festival.
The statues stood at a dead end. Beyond them lay the edge of a cliff. Looking down from above, they saw a murky ocher sky and dark-blue ground covered with buildings of every kind. Farther away, a snow-white river poured from an enormous boulder, rushing endlessly across the entire horizon. Red spider lilies bloomed like fire on both banks. A long arched bridge crossed the river, and a black line slowly crawled across it. On closer inspection, the line was made of countless tiny black specks shaped vaguely like people. They were surely the souls of the dead.
Beyond that expanse of ocher sky, blue earth, and white river rose range after range of mountains. A vast and solemn palace stood atop every peak, dark and oppressive as enormous beasts. Faint manifestations of guardian ghost kings could be seen above them, enough to chill the heart.
Xiao Chunhe squinted at the sight for a while and rubbed his arms hard. “Heavens. This really is the underworld.”
As he spoke, he instinctively pressed close to Yue Jingming, only to discover that Yue Jingming’s “body” felt remarkably soft and cool. A faint layer of golden light even covered his skin, beautiful and dazzling. Xiao Chunhe pinched his cheek. “My good wife, how did you become so pretty and soft?”
He felt like a piece of flawless jade, translucent and yielding.
“It’s because we’re souls.” Yue Jingming paused and caught Xiao Chunhe by the wrist. “You’re also more…”
“More what?” Xiao Chunhe looked down at his own soul and touched himself, then jumped in fright. “How did I turn into this?!”
He clearly still had a human body, yet it felt warm and furry to the touch. It was terrifying!
“A soul is closer to one’s true nature. You are half fox and half human to begin with, so this is normal,” Yue Jingming said.
Xiao Chunhe pinched his own arm, then lowered his head and sniffed himself. Unhappy, he asked, “Why don’t I glow?”
Compared with Yue Jingming, he even looked a little gray and dusty.
“Do more good deeds and acts of kindness in the future, and you’ll naturally accumulate merit.” Yue Jingming could not resist pinching his cheek. Sure enough, it felt furry even though he looked no different from a human. It was quite adorable.
Xiao Chunhe’s eyes rolled. He grabbed a handful of Yue Jingming’s golden light and tried sticking it onto himself. “Accumulating it myself is too much trouble. Dear Rongxi, share some of yours with me instead.”
Unfortunately, the golden light clung to him for only a short while before drifting gently back to Yue Jingming.
Xiao Chunhe was deeply disappointed, but he soon discovered that rubbing against Yue Jingming repeatedly always left a sprinkling of golden dust on him. He therefore spent the entire descent from the mountain gleefully rubbing himself against Yue Jingming whenever he could.
By the time they reached the bottom, Yue Jingming felt as though the fox had warmed him considerably.
Xiao Chunhe was extremely pleased with the golden specks covering him and proudly showed off the results. Yue Jingming said, “If you become Dao companions with someone, you can share a portion of their merit. Then you wouldn’t have to work so hard for it yourself.”
Xiao Chunhe stared at him suspiciously. “Really?”
“Of course,” Yue Jingming replied calmly.
Xiao Chunhe was immediately tempted. “Then if I find some brilliantly golden Dao companion, wouldn’t I be able to—”
“Xiao Chunhe.” Yue Jingming cut him off expressionlessly.
Xiao Chunhe gave a sly smile and rubbed against him again. “Fine, fine. I was teasing you. Even if you didn’t have all this golden light, I couldn’t go become Dao companions with someone else.”
Yue Jingming looked grave. “Disaster comes from careless words. Do not speak recklessly.”
Xiao Chunhe immediately covered his mouth and tilted his head, blinking his beautiful fox eyes at him.
“…” Yue Jingming held his gaze for several breaths, then turned and continued forward. His grip on the red thread between their fingers tightened. “Stay close. Don’t run around.”
Tugged along by the red thread, Xiao Chunhe followed with a grin.
* * *
The ghosts on the street looked no different from ordinary people except for their blue-white, lifeless complexions. Their clothing came in all manner of styles, and quite a few shopfronts lined the road.
Xiao Chunhe looked curiously at an elderly ghost running a roadside fortune-telling stall. “Old sir, you’re already a ghost and you’re still telling fortunes?”
The old ghost did not even lift his eyelids. “Twenty ingots per reading.”
“What can you possibly tell for the dead?” Xiao Chunhe asked.
The old ghost muttered, “How much of your yin lifespan remains, how long you need to accumulate merit, when you can reincarnate, whether you can be reborn into a good family. Want a reading?”
“No. I don’t have any ingots.”
“If you don’t have ingots, why the hell are you asking?” The old ghost flew into a rage. “Get lost and stop disturbing my business!”
Xiao Chunhe rolled up his sleeves. “Hey, old man. You’re dead and still this overbearing? I can’t even ask a question?”
“Chunhe.” Yue Jingming dragged him away.
Xiao Chunhe turned and saw several ghosts rolling their eyes at him. He snapped, “These ghosts have no manners!”
“Some souls are incomplete, which makes their worse tendencies particularly pronounced. There’s no need to argue with them,” Yue Jingming said.
Xiao Chunhe slung an arm around his shoulders. “You’re much cuter.”
Yue Jingming smiled and took his hand, leading him to a clothing shop. The ghost proprietor looked kindly and easy to talk to. Yue Jingming asked, “Forgive the interruption, shopkeeper. Is there a man down here surnamed Lu, named Lu Yu?”
The plump-bellied proprietor knocked ash from his pipe and exhaled a thin stream of smoke. “There are too many people surnamed Lu down here to count. There must be eight hundred if not a thousand called Lu Yu. You won’t find him that way.”
“He is in his twenties, likely drowned in the river sometime within the past two years, and was a native of Zhangzhou in Great An,” Yue Jingming said.
The proprietor shook his head. “Don’t know him. Never heard of him. I can point you toward someone who might. Go to Yellow-Character Street and find the Human-Head Ghost. He can look up just about any human, immortal, or demon who has come to the underworld. But he has a strange temper. Whether he helps you depends entirely on your luck.”
Yue Jingming gave him a cupped-hands salute. “Many thanks, shopkeeper.”
The proprietor smiled. “That fox beside you. Is he for sale? His looks are only so-so, but he can clearly take human form. I’d give you at least a hundred thousand ingots.”
Xiao Chunhe’s fur practically exploded on the spot. “Like hell I’m for sale! I’ll eat you right now and turn you into a headless ghost!”
He suddenly bared his teeth. The proprietor jumped in fright and ducked behind the counter, clutching his head. “Quick, control your fox!”
“He is my friend, not an object,” Yue Jingming explained. “Please offer him an apology, shopkeeper.”
“Oh, forgive me, forgive me. This old man’s eyesight failed him.” The proprietor hurriedly bowed in apology. “Many ghosts down here are accompanied by cats, dogs, cattle, or sheep, usually offerings burned down by their families. My shop happens to need a clever helper who can talk and carry goods. I offended the young master without meaning to.”
Xiao Chunhe scoffed, grabbed Yue Jingming, and hauled him away.
Yue Jingming watched the orange ornaments on Xiao Chunhe’s ears sway with anger. “Don’t be upset. He didn’t know.”
Xiao Chunhe narrowed his eyes. “Fine. Let’s go find the Human-Head Ghost.”
Yue Jingming nodded. Seeing that Xiao Chunhe was still sulking, he shaped some of his golden light into a little ingot for him to play with. Sure enough, Xiao Chunhe immediately brightened at the glittering toy, kneading it back and forth until golden dust coated his fingers.
The fox’s true form was thin and frail, but his human form was beautifully shaped, lean and well-proportioned. His hands were long and elegant, nothing like his round fox paws. They would have been even nicer if he had never used them to gouge out eyes and rip out hearts.
He studied the golden dust on his fingertips, then lowered his head and licked it.
“What are you doing?” Yue Jingming exclaimed, quickly catching his wrist.
Xiao Chunhe smacked his lips and smiled flirtatiously. “Jingming, you taste a little bitter.”
Yue Jingming: “…Utter nonsense.”
“And staring straight at me isn’t nonsense?” Xiao Chunhe raised an eyebrow. “I feel like you’ve practically stripped me bare with that stare.”
Yue Jingming clapped a hand over his mouth and glared at him.
With deliberate wickedness, Xiao Chunhe touched the golden dust on his tongue to Yue Jingming’s palm. Yue Jingming stared in shock, then became visibly annoyed. “Without a physical body restraining it, the soul indulges its true nature more freely. Do not let yourself run wild.”
Xiao Chunhe blinked and was just about to laugh when his gaze suddenly fixed on something. He pulled Yue Jingming’s hand away and stared. “What are those two blobs?”
Yue Jingming turned. Two enormous masses, one blazing with golden light and the other wrapped in dense purple qi, were darting wildly toward them. Several heavily armored underworld guards were chasing behind.
“Stop!”
“You’re living souls! You can’t stay down here!”
“You’re in danger!”
The two masses swept past like a gust of wind. The guards chased until they were panting. One, drenched in cold sweat, said, “This is going to kill us. One of those two ancestors is covered in boundless merit, and the other is blazing with imperial purple qi. How did they even sneak down here?”
“Catch them and send them back up properly, or we’ll lose our jobs,” another guard said.
“Go report this to our superior! If something happens to those two down here, we’re all finished.” The guard looked miserable. “I finally got a break from duty, and now this is enough to make a ghost die of anger!”
Their passage threw ghosts into chaos, shouts rising everywhere. Watching the guards race away, Xiao Chunhe lowered his voice. “We’re not going to get caught too, are we?”
“We used the Soul-Guiding Art. As long as no living person exposes us, the ghosts down here will take us for their own kind,” Yue Jingming said.
He had barely finished speaking when the two masses that had just raced past abruptly doubled back. The purple one called, “I knew it was you! Brother Chunhe, Brother Jingming, we’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
The one so golden it was almost blinding cried happily, “Master! Martial Uncle! I finally found you!”
Yue Jingming: “…”
Xiao Chunhe swatted aside the purple and golden qi in fury. “Liang Yun? Ye Shijiu? How did you two get down here?!”
“That’s a long story, and I can’t make it short,” Liang Yun said. “Let’s run first. These ghost guards are ridiculously clingy.”
Xiao Chunhe ground his teeth. “We weren’t going to be discovered in the first place—”
“There are two more accomplices!” A guard who had caught up raised his blade and shouted. “Four living souls in total! Catch them!”
Ye Shijiu beamed. “This is so much fun! The ghosts down here are all so dumb. They still can’t catch us.”
Yue Jingming let out a laugh.
Ye Shijiu rarely saw him smile and stared in astonishment. “Heavens. Master isn’t actually a stone face?”
Before the words had even left his mouth, a horsetail whisk lashed toward him. Ye Shijiu dodged nimbly, grabbed Xiao Chunhe, and ran. “Martial Uncle, hurry! They’re catching up!”
Liang Yun scattered paper money behind them as he ran. “Brother guards, do us a favor!”
The paper money hit the ground and transformed into copper coins and ingots. The spectator ghosts nearby swarmed over them in a frenzy.
Yue Jingming’s vision went dark again and again. He drew a deep breath, seized Xiao Chunhe and Ye Shijiu with either hand, wrapped his horsetail whisk around Liang Yun, and leaped onto the rooftops. Behind them came a deafening racket of gongs and drums and the furious curses of the ghost guards. It was lively beyond belief.
At this rate, the four of them were probably going to squander every scrap of their hidden virtue.