There was a monster in the river inside the city.
The news shocked everyone. Xia Yunzhao gave up on sleeping altogether and immediately ran for the river.
But when they reached the riverbank and searched around the spot Fang Rucheng had described for quite a while, they found nothing.
“A monster? Some kind of giant slaughter beast?” Xia Yunzhao asked doubtfully. “If it was that big, shouldn’t it be easy to find?”
“If it was an aquatic beast…” Zhong Yundu thought for a moment. “A Blackwater Crocodile? A Green-Scaled Giant Eel? An Ink-Armored Elephant Turtle?”
“…” Xia Yunzhao was speechless. Every beast Zhong Yundu had just named was Level Three or above. Any one of them could have eaten Buxianxian clean. By then, the river would have been overflowing with ghosts. Yet aside from Fang Rucheng, they had not seen a second wandering soul.
“Could it have eaten him and left already?” Du Yan raised a hand and tossed out the Heaven-Measuring Ruler. The jade ruler circled over the river several times before returning to his hand without the slightest reaction. He nodded to everyone, indicating that yes, it really seemed to be gone.
Jing Ruyun looked at Fang Rucheng, who wore an oddly peaceful expression. “Or could he be remembering it wrong? Maybe there was never any aquatic beast. Perhaps he fell into the river and accidentally struck a rock?”
“Hmm…” Xia Yunzhao thought it over. That was possible too…
He said, “Should we go back and ask Xiang Moyue?” Before anyone could answer, he rejected the idea himself. “Forget it. I can’t be bothered dealing with that fox. Let’s keep looking.”
The next second, the river in front of them began to churn as though something was about to rise from beneath the surface.
Xia Yunzhao hurriedly looked up and saw familiar little clumps of spiritual power dropping into the river and roiling the water from above to below. Shang Shuangze stood at the riverbank with both hands hanging naturally at his sides as one clump after another fell steadily into the water.
Xia Yunzhao asked him, “Didn’t we search once already? Why are you searching again?”
Shang Shuangze gestured toward the water. “It came out.”
Xia Yunzhao turned and saw a skeleton tangled with aquatic weeds emerging from the churning river.
Fang Rucheng shot to his feet and murmured, “Those are my remains…”
After becoming a wandering soul, he had spent every day in a muddled haze with no clear consciousness. He had even forgotten where his own remains were.
Xia Yunzhao suddenly understood as well. “Right! If we look at his bones, won’t we know how he died?”
The remains were carried to shore on clumps of spiritual power, and several guards hurried forward to clean them. Guang Yun examined them for a moment and called out, “City Lord, these bones really were bitten apart. Look how long the bite marks are!” He held up a hand to show the size.
Liang An added, “The ribs were forced apart too. Whatever it was ate the organs and then threw away the rest of the skeleton…”
Before he had even finished speaking, Xia Yunzhao nodded. “Then it was a Ring-Patterned Hidden-Spine Catfish.” This kind of aquatic beast was only Level Two. It was very large, but its combat ability was not especially strong, at least not by cultivator standards. It liked eating organs and would scavenge carrion when necessary. It was also extremely fast and had no fixed resting place, constantly moving from one spot to another. Its skin could preserve freshness, though, and many spirit-seed pouches were refined from this kind of fish skin.
“If it was a Ring-Patterned Hidden-Spine Catfish, then it really could have eaten him and moved on,” Zhong Yundu agreed.
Everyone relaxed. Good. Better that it had left. Having something like that lurking in the city would have been much more frightening.
By now the sky was already bright, so there was no point sleeping anymore. Fortunately, everyone present was either a cultivator or a ghost, so missing one full night of sleep hardly mattered.
Xia Yunzhao swept a hand grandly. “Come on. Let’s go put on our supernatural act!”
Everyone laughed and followed him back toward the city.
Fang Rucheng already knew what they planned to do and happily led the way. He had lingered in the mortal world for so long that he had wanted to reincarnate for years. Once he saw his family one last time, he would finally go.
They followed him to a small courtyard that was plain but clean. Xia Yunzhao signaled to everyone else to hide.
Only Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze remained in the open, along with Fang Rucheng’s ghost.
Then Xia Yunzhao flicked a hand and pulled a banner from his Hundred-Compartment Pouch: a yellowed piece of old hemp cloth hung from a bamboo pole, bearing six large characters: “Commune with Yin and Yang, Divine Fortune and Misfortune.”
Hidden in the shadows, Zhong Yundu nearly burst out laughing. “Where did he get that thing?”
Su Meng whispered, “He already had it yesterday. The City Lord bought it from those spirit mediums.”
Zhong Yundu rubbed his chin. “He came rather well prepared. Isn’t he getting a little too enthusiastic about this?”
Du Yan fell silent for a moment, then had to tell the truth. “Maybe he just wants to play…”
With the banner in hand, Xia Yunzhao also had Shang Shuangze take out Mingyun and hold it. Together they looked very much like a wandering fraud posing as a Daoist master and the swordsman guard he had hired.
Of course, their faces made the disguise very easy to see through… but never mind. Opportunities like this were rare. They might as well enjoy themselves first.
Xia Yunzhao stepped forward and knocked. Sure enough, a woman around thirty came to open the door. She looked the two of them up and down and asked hesitantly, “Have you gentlemen come to the wrong house?”
The moment Fang Rucheng saw her face, he nearly collapsed. If ghosts could cry, he would already have been sobbing loudly. “Wife!”
Xia Yunzhao adopted an inscrutable expression. “Madam, the aura around your home is turbid. Not only is a yin spirit lingering here, but someone among the living still carries a deep fixation. If this continues, I fear it may affect your household’s fortune.”
The woman hesitated. “Master, when you say there’s a yin spirit…?”
Xia Yunzhao cleared his throat. “Seven years ago, did someone in your household die or go missing?”
The woman jolted, then quickly composed herself and pulled the wooden door open wider. “Master, please come in!”
Xia Yunzhao winked at Shang Shuangze. The meaning was obvious: See? We got in immediately!
Shang Shuangze only thought he was extremely cute.
Fang Rucheng followed behind the two of them, eyes red as he looked around the home he had not seen in seven years.
That one look immediately gave him a shock. A man was chopping firewood in the courtyard. He had a square nose and broad mouth, giving him a rather imposing appearance, and he was extremely sturdy. Clear lines of muscle stood out along his arms every time he swung the axe. It was still early in the morning, yet a whole pile of split firewood already lay beside him. Clearly, the man was not only strong but very hardworking.
Hearing the door, he looked up. The woman walked to his side and quietly said something to him. The two stood very close and looked distinctly intimate.
Fang Rucheng’s eyes went bloodshot. He lunged forward and tried to bite the man. “Chen Leishi! And I treated you like a good brother! Don’t you know a friend’s wife is off-limits?”
Xia Yunzhao’s mouth fell open. Wait, was it really this melodramatic? But then he thought about it again. Seven years was a very long time for mortals. How many seven-year stretches did a person get in one lifetime? It was perfectly normal for Fang Rucheng’s wife to remarry.
Fang Rucheng was only a wandering soul and could not affect the living world at all. The husband and wife speaking quietly together did not notice him in the slightest.
After Chen Leishi heard his wife explain what was going on, he gave a dull nod and said only, “You decide.” Then he went back to chopping firewood.
Jiang E smiled helplessly and reminded him to wipe away his sweat when he finished so he would not catch a chill. Then she led the two visitors inside.
Fang Rucheng’s eyes went red with jealousy as he kept muttering that his wife had never reminded him like that.
Xia Yunzhao looked him over and thought that with Fang Rucheng’s build, he probably could not have chopped this much wood in a single breath anyway…
Jiang E brewed hot tea for the two of them. “Master, when you said there was a yin spirit… has my former husband really already…?”
Xia Yunzhao cleared his throat and nodded. “Yes. He has indeed passed away.”
Jiang E went still, then slowly let out a long breath. “He’s been gone seven years. I did imagine this might be the result. I only kept thinking that if he was alive, I wanted to see the person, and if he was dead, I wanted to see the body…”
Fang Rucheng forgot his jealousy and circled around her anxiously, wanting to say something comforting but not knowing how.
After thinking for a moment, Xia Yunzhao asked, “Madam, if your former husband’s spirit were here right now, would you have anything you wanted to say to him?”
Jiang E froze. “He…”
Xia Yunzhao said, “Only hypothetically.”
Jiang E was silent for a moment before saying, “Rucheng’s portrait has stayed posted on the wall by the gate all these years. The first few months were free, but after that it cost several dozen copper coins every month. For the first two years, I struggled to pay it myself. For the years after that, Leishi paid. Even our child… Leishi has always treated her as his own…”
“W-wait!” Xia Yunzhao exclaimed. “You have a child? Is she yours and your former husband’s?”
“Yes.” A faint smile appeared on Jiang E’s face as she pointed toward a nearby room. “Children sleep late. She isn’t up yet. She’s a girl, six years old this year.”
Only then did Xia Yunzhao notice that the house really did contain many things belonging to a child: a half-worn doll, a pellet drum, and several rather expensive pastries. Jiang E was apparently very skilled at needlework. The little clothes hanging to dry had bright patterns embroidered on them, the sort children liked. This girl had clearly grown up surrounded by her parents’ love.
He sneaked a glance at Fang Rucheng and saw the man staring blankly at that closed door, completely motionless.
Jiang E was a very perceptive woman. She seemed to sense something and also looked in that direction. “Leishi and I married three years ago. I don’t regret marrying Fang Rucheng ten years ago, and I don’t regret remarrying Chen Leishi three years ago. The child and I have lived well these past years. Please tell him to rest in peace.”
* * *
After leaving Jiang E’s home, they reunited with everyone waiting outside.
Everyone saw that Fang Rucheng had completely wilted and would not say a word.
Du Yan, Zhong Yundu, and the others had not gone inside, but cultivators had excellent hearing. Even from outside, they had heard everything clearly.
Guang Yun said, “Brother, don’t be so down. You’re about to reincarnate anyway. Isn’t it more important that your wife and child are living well?”
Liang An nodded. “Exactly. If she insisted on remaining a widow for you, sure, you’d save face, but how hard would it be for her to raise a child alone? A person… no, a ghost can’t be that selfish.”
Fang Rucheng lifted his head listlessly. “That’s not what I was thinking. I just feel like… maybe I wasn’t good enough to my wife.” At least, not as good as Chen Leishi was.
He thought about it. If he were Chen Leishi and a woman had remarried him, would he willingly spend so much money keeping her former husband’s missing-person portrait posted? Absolutely not!
He had always known his wife was upright and kind. But was Chen Leishi really that generous too? Had Fang Rucheng truly treated her that much worse?
Xia Yunzhao walked over to him. “It’s all right.”
Fang Rucheng immediately raised his head, expecting a few words of comfort.
Xia Yunzhao continued, “Just do better in your next life.”
Fang Rucheng: “…”
Xia Yunzhao laughed. “All right. I already told the couple where your remains are. They said they’ll prepare today and collect your bones for burial tomorrow. In the future, your daughter will burn incense for you too. Do you have any other unfinished wishes? The sun hasn’t set yet, so I can help you one more time.”
Fang Rucheng shook his head. Then he suddenly remembered something and said, “Master, thank you for waking me up and bringing me to see my family. I don’t have anything I can use to repay you, so how about I recommend a few really good restaurants in the city…” Before the final word even left his mouth, Xia Yunzhao’s eyes had already lit up.
The great master loosely clasped Fang Rucheng’s hand, no longer afraid of the ghost at all, and said solemnly, “Please do repay me properly!”
Fang Rucheng: “…”
Fang Rucheng had once been a day laborer in the city. That did not mean he had nothing to do. Rather, men like him waited by the foot of the city wall every day, and whenever a household needed extra hands, they would come hire them. That was how he and Chen Leishi had met, both waiting by the wall.
Most day laborers had their own specialties. Chen Leishi, for instance, was extremely strong and could carry heavy loads without trouble. Fang Rucheng’s strength was how well he knew the city. Which shop had the best goods, which tavern had the best wine, which restaurant served the best dishes, he knew it all.
As Xia Yunzhao listened to his endless recommendations, he felt profound regret. If only they had woken Fang Rucheng sooner! These past few days in Buxianxian had practically been wasted!
The group ate their way from the south of the city to the north. Fortunately, cultivators had enormous appetites. Otherwise, eating like this would have given the whole group stomach trouble the next day.
Fang Rucheng was enjoying himself too. Seven years had passed and much of the city had changed, so he found plenty to marvel at. Pointing ahead, he said, “That’s the Yu family’s shop. The husband and wife run it together. Their candied fruit and meat jerky are the best in the whole city. We came late today, so I don’t know whether they’ve sold out.”
Xia Yunzhao immediately said, “Doesn’t matter. If they’re sold out, I’ll come back tomorrow! What time do they open in the morning?”
Fang Rucheng said, “Around the Chen hour… Huh? Seven years have passed, but the Yu couple hardly look any older. Good business really does keep people young.”
Xia Yunzhao was about to follow his gaze when his wrist suddenly tightened. Looking up, he saw Shang Shuangze gripping him firmly while staring in a particular direction.
Xia Yunzhao followed his gaze… and his heart jolted. Spiritual power! It had only flashed for an instant, but he had definitely felt a fluctuation of spiritual power.
He turned and saw Du Yan and Zhong Yundu both nodding at him. They had felt it too.
Xia Yunzhao frowned slightly and looked more carefully. There was a modest residence there, nothing unusual at first glance. He asked Fang Rucheng, “What place is that?”
Fang Rucheng looked up. “That’s the Yu residence. It’s where the couple who own the shop live.”
“I see…” Xia Yunzhao nodded and looked toward the Yu family’s shop.
Behind the counter, a young couple were busy working. Both were pleasant-looking. The wife was quick-witted and articulate, drawing in customers, taking payment, and weighing purchases out front, while the husband chopped and mixed things in the back and occasionally came forward to lend a hand.
They looked no different from any other husband-and-wife shop nearby.
Fang Rucheng looked at them and inexplicably felt something was wrong. “What is it?”
Xia Yunzhao shook his head and joined the queue. Before long, he came away with one serving of meat jerky and one serving of preserved peach.
Fang Rucheng kept muttering beside him. “Their preserved wild fruit is the best, but unfortunately they’ve already sold out. If you come back tomorrow, you have to try it!”
Xia Yunzhao promised he would remember, then told him, “It’s about time. You should head back.”
Jiang E had said she would collect his bones the next day. Such things were usually done before dawn, so Fang Rucheng needed to return early and wait.
Only after Fang Rucheng left did Du Yan ask, “Well?”
Xia Yunzhao checked the jerky and preserved fruit one by one. Truly, Fang Rucheng’s recommendations lived up to their reputation. The preserved fruit was plump, brightly colored, and looked delicious. “There’s nothing wrong with the fruit. But did any of you notice the bamboo baskets they’re using to hold it?”
The bamboo baskets?
Everyone looked up.
They were across the street from the Yu family’s shop, but cultivators had excellent eyesight, so the distance was no obstacle. The shop was very orderly. The counter had two levels, with preserved fruit on top and jerky below. Everything sat in clean bamboo baskets arranged side by side. Customers stood outside and pointed to what they wanted, and the woman used a wooden scoop to serve it.
Everyone focused on the baskets. The moment they saw them clearly, their expressions changed.
Su Meng said ashamedly, “I don’t think I see anything wrong…”
Du Yan patted his head. “Don’t look at the top. Look underneath the baskets.”
Underneath…
Su Meng looked again. The baskets were woven from bamboo, so the outsides were all the natural color of bamboo. But the bottoms were different, as though a layer of cloth had been sewn there. The fabric had a strange pattern: a gray background covered with bluish-purple rings. It looked rather unsettling.
Fortunately, the cloth was stitched to the underside, where ordinary customers would never crouch down to see it. If it had been sewn somewhere visible, it would have ruined anyone’s appetite.
Su Meng was just about to complain, “Why would they sew on such an ugly piece of cloth?” when understanding suddenly struck him. “Ah! Ring-Patterned Hidden-Spine Catfish!”
Zhong Yundu ruffled his head as though petting a puppy. “Not bad. You’re not completely stupid.”
With his hair now in a mess, Su Meng shuffled over to Xia Yunzhao and whispered, “City Lord, so the Ring-Patterned Hidden-Spine Catfish didn’t leave. They killed it? But aren’t they mortals? How could mortals kill a Level-Two aquatic beast?”
Xia Yunzhao narrowed his eyes. “We’ll have to ask them that ourselves.”
The sun was still high in the sky when the Yu family’s shop sold out. Several customers who had not reached the counter left looking deeply disappointed.
The Yu couple massaged each other’s shoulders and backs, cleaned up the shop, then went to the market to buy vegetables and a fresh fish before returning home.
Xia Yunzhao’s group followed them the entire way, concealed their figures, and slipped inside.
The Yu residence was not large, only two courtyards deep with a small garden. The young man put down the basket, carried the fish into the garden, and called, “Mimi, dinner!”
The people hidden behind him all tensed. There it was! That spiritual power!
The grass in the garden rustled, and an extremely imposing long-haired calico cat emerged. It stretched luxuriously and walked over to the man.
The man put down the fish. The calico smacked it with one paw, and the still-flopping fish immediately went limp. Then the cat began tearing into it bite by bite.
Looking at the blood on the ground, the man said worriedly, “Maybe next time we should try cooked food. We don’t live up in the mountains anymore. If you keep eating things raw, you might scare someone.”
The calico’s ears flicked twice. It clearly did not care.
From the shadows, Xia Yunzhao’s eyes went wide. “Wait, this cat is a spirit beast? It looks exactly like an ordinary calico! It’s just a little bigger! What kind of spirit beast is it?”
Shang Shuangze leaned close to his ear. “Probably a mixed-blood offspring of a spirit cat and an ordinary house cat.”
Xia Yunzhao understood. “So that’s it. Its level isn’t low either. It’s a full Level Two. Could it have killed the Ring-Patterned Hidden-Spine Catfish?”
Everyone thought it was possible and was about to nod when the cat suddenly whipped around toward the place they were hiding, let out a fierce hiss, and lunged straight at them!
None of them wanted to hurt it, so they all turned aside and dodged.
In an instant, several extra people appeared in the courtyard.
The young man was stunned. “Y-you… who are you?”
The calico sprang back and planted itself in front of him, baring its teeth at them with a low growl.
Hearing the commotion, the woman ran out of the house and jumped at the sight before instinctively raising a hand. “Several gentlemen breaking into a private residence at night. What business do you have here?”
Xia Yunzhao saw the way both of them moved and raised a brow. “I thought you were ordinary mortals who had accidentally raised a spirit beast. But from the looks of it, you two are cultivators too? Why can’t I sense your cultivation?”
The couple panicked. “What cultivators? Buxianxian doesn’t allow cultivators to settle here. Don’t make baseless accusations!”
Xia Yunzhao said, “Um, we don’t mean you any harm. We sensed spiritual power here and were worried it might endanger the nearby mortals, so we came in to investigate. See? We didn’t hurt your cat just now.” As he spoke, he signaled Shang Shuangze and Zhong Yundu, and the three released a trace of Golden Core pressure.
The couple’s expressions immediately improved. Three Golden Core cultivators could kill them eighteen times over. There was no need for people that strong to deceive them.
The young man said cautiously, “Seniors, my wife and I truly are cultivators. But our cultivation is low, we have nowhere else to go, and we don’t intend to continue cultivating. That’s why we settled in Buxianxian. We have never harmed the mortals in the city. Please let us go!”
There it was again, that familiar feeling of somehow having become the villain.
Xia Yunzhao rubbed his nose. “Let’s not talk about whether we’re letting you go yet. First tell me why you gave up cultivating. I don’t mean to pry into your private affairs, but that doesn’t really make sense.”
He had seen cultivators living among mortals before. Yanhuo Studio in Xiangqu and the tailor shop across from it both belonged to very down-to-earth traditions. One liked cooking and the other liked making clothes. They were among the rare cultivators who did not look down on mortals.
But even so, they had never given up cultivating. Not only had they kept going, Lu Shi and Tailor Huang were both very strict about their disciples’ progress. Fall behind and there would be punishment.
Across from him, the couple knew their explanation did not quite add up. They exchanged a glance and gave bitter smiles, just about to speak, when Zhong Yundu said, “You two… are you from the Golden Body Sect and Myriad Beast Mountain?”
Xia Yunzhao immediately made a sound of surprise. “Golden Body Sect and Myriad Beast Mountain? Aren’t those two mortal enemies?”
The couple sighed, and the female cultivator said, “This senior is correct. I was a low-tier cultivator of the Golden Body Sect, while my husband was an outer disciple of Myriad Beast Mountain. Many years ago, we met in the wilderness and privately pledged ourselves to one another. Neither sect would tolerate us, so we truly had nowhere else to go.”
Xia Yunzhao’s eyes went rounder than the calico’s. Was there something wrong with Buxianxian’s feng shui? Why did every situation they encountered get more melodramatic than the last? This was practically the cultivation-world version of Romeo and Juliet!
“So,” Xia Yunzhao asked, “you’re afraid the Golden Body Sect and Myriad Beast Mountain will find you, so you don’t dare cultivate?”
“Half and half.” The male cultivator sighed. “Neither of us was especially talented to begin with. We both have Yellow-grade spirit roots. Even if we cultivated, Foundation Establishment would probably be our limit. And who knows when we might die while fighting over resources? Even if we could live another hundred years, how could that compare with spending an entire lifetime beside the person we love?”
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze looked at each other. Both had the same thought at once: if they had no talent for cultivation either, they would probably choose a small city and grow old there together. Whether they pursued the Great Dao or lived a quiet life, they would never part.
Shang Shuangze reached out, took Xia Yunzhao’s hand, threaded their fingers together, and held tightly.
The couple both noticed the gesture. Somehow, they relaxed a little.
Xia Yunzhao continued, “The Ring-Patterned Hidden-Spine Catfish in the river. Did you kill that too?”
The male cultivator nodded. He looked a little puzzled as to how these seniors knew about the catfish, but answered honestly anyway. “That happened several years ago. There was a casual laborer in the city who often brought customers to buy jerky from us. One day, I suddenly smelled the aura of an aquatic beast on him.”
He rubbed his nose. “You may not know this, but Myriad Beast Mountain has its own methods for tracking spirit beasts and slaughter beasts.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded for him to continue.
The male cultivator went on. “I meant to wait until he came back the next day and warn him. But after that, he vanished. His portrait was posted on the wall at the City Lord Residence, so we guessed something had probably happened to him. A-Wei and I took Mimi, followed his scent to the river, found that Ring-Patterned Hidden-Spine Catfish, and killed it.”
Everyone’s doubts finally cleared. So that was what had happened.
Xia Yunzhao cupped his hands toward the two of them. “Sorry. We misunderstood you. We even barged into your home. That really was our fault. We were too impulsive. Um… is there any pill you want? I could give you a few. Or some silver?”
The male cultivator hurriedly moved aside, too frightened to accept the courtesy. “You’re being far too gracious…”
The female cultivator suddenly tugged at his sleeve. The two exchanged a look, seeming to remember something at the same time. Both of them hesitated.
It was obvious they had something they wanted to say. Xia Yunzhao waved a hand expansively. “If you want to say something, just say it. If you need help, that’s fine too. Consider it compensation!”
The two of them simultaneously let out a breath of relief and bowed. “There is, in fact, one matter we would like to ask the seniors for help with.”
Elio’s Notes:
- The Chen hour (辰时). The traditional two-hour period from about 7:00 to 9:00 a.m.