Ye Shijiu used red threads to bind the people trying to throw themselves into the bonfire, while Liang Yun wielded a wooden halberd to knock them unconscious one by one. Unfortunately, with only the two of them, their efforts were no more than a drop in the bucket.
Liang Yun was shoved by the crowd into the bonfire. Just as the tongues of flame were about to engulf him, he shouted, “Shijiu!”
Ye Shijiu split off a red thread and wrapped it around him, but there were simply too many people in front of Liang Yun. The thread cut into Ye Shijiu’s fingers until they bled, stretched taut in the firelight, and looked ready to snap at any moment. Liang Yun closed his eyes in despair.
Yet the searing pain he expected never came. Liang Yun opened his eyes with a tremble and saw a tall figure standing between the crowd and the flames. He immediately lit up. “Brother Yue!”
Yue Jingming turned in surprise at the sound. “You recognize me?”
“A ghost!” Liang Yun screamed, then scrambled away on all fours.
Yue Jingming sighed. He turned back and took out the Cloudsmoke Brush. The instant its tip touched down, a line of words faintly appeared in the firelight: At each stroke, merit fades like clouds and smoke.
So that was it.
He understood now. His true qi was gone, his magic exhausted, and he had nothing left to rely on. The only thing capable of driving the Cloudsmoke Brush was the merit he had accumulated over lifetime after lifetime.
Clumps of black qi seeped from his dantian, transformed into tiny ghosts, and crawled onto his shoulders to whisper in his ears.
“Not worth it, not worth it. You’re going to spend all the merit you cultivated over so many lifetimes saving a group of people who have nothing to do with you. Wouldn’t all that painstaking effort go to waste?”
“Exactly. You have nothing left now. You couldn’t save them in the first place, and no one would blame you.”
“All you have protecting you now is this merit. If even that is scattered away, you’ll truly become a ghost.”
“You were schemed against until you ended up like this. For all you know, the person who harmed you is among the very people you’re trying to save.”
“You’ve cultivated so hard all your life. Can you really bear to lose all your cultivation?”
“Can you bear to leave behind your master and junior brothers and sisters on Zushan?”
“And Xiao Chunhe.”
Yue Jingming lowered his eyes and struggled to draw talismans before the bonfire. At the mention of Zushan and Xiao Chunhe, the Cloudsmoke Brush paused faintly in his hand. A moment later, he began drawing even faster.
So what if both his merit and cultivation were scattered away? He had come into this world clean and empty-handed. Let them go as they would.
The final talisman stroke fell. Brilliant golden light suddenly burst from beneath the brush, extinguishing every trace of ghostfire burning within the bonfire. A warm breeze rose from Yue Jingming and swept gently through the frenzied crowd. The ghost masks on their faces cracked apart and fell piece by piece to the ground, while the true evil ghosts were forcibly driven back, their figures gradually disappearing into the flames.
The people who regained their senses looked at one another in confusion, then stared in terror at the evil ghost blocking their path and fled in panic. Some of the bolder ones picked up wooden halberds from the ground and swung them at him.
A paper fan flew over and knocked the wooden halberds aside. Yue Jingming clumsily turned around and saw Xiao Chunhe standing in front of him with a cold expression. Xiao turned his head, revealed his fox features, and bared his teeth at the crowd.
“A fox demon!”
“It’s a fox demon!”
A fox demon that truly could eat people was apparently far more frightening than evil ghosts from legend. The crowd fled screaming, throwing the brightly lit street into chaos.
The Cloudsmoke Brush dispersed Yue Jingming’s final trace of merit. The towering bonfire slowly died down until only the crackle of charred wood remained.
“Martial Uncle!”
“Brother Xiao!”
Ye Shijiu and Liang Yun ran toward them, only to stop dead a short distance away. Ye Shijiu asked warily, “Martial Uncle, why did you catch another one?”
Liang Yun hid behind Ye Shijiu. “Will it eat people?”
Xiao Chunhe looked at Ye Shijiu. “Can you tell whether he’s human or ghost?”
“Of course he’s an evil ghost,” Ye Shijiu said. “The ghost qi around him is almost solid.”
“But just now, lots of golden light came out of him. Can ghosts have golden light too?” Liang Yun asked in confusion.
“What golden light? Why didn’t I see it?” Ye Shijiu asked.
“Golden light?” Xiao Chunhe frowned. Just now, he had only seen this “evil ghost” drawing something with a brush, and then a gust of wind had blown through and extinguished the fire. He had not seen any golden light at all.
“Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me.” Liang Yun had only vaguely glimpsed a flash of gold himself. Hearing the other two say this made him uncertain.
Ye Shijiu asked, “Where’s Master?”
Xiao Chunhe grabbed the evil ghost’s hand and retied the rope around it. “He had something urgent to take care of and left first. We need to find Lu Yu. Ji Luo and Ji Chen are both in his hands.”
“Why is this fierce ghost like this?” Liang Yun looked close to breaking down. “Does this never end?”
“Most ghosts are like this,” Xiao Chunhe said with a sigh. “They agree nicely at the time, as though all their resentment has dispersed, then sooner or later they come back to haunt you again. Why else do people say restless ghosts never leave and little ghosts are hard to deal with? Ghosts are dead souls to begin with. Unless you find the root of the problem and truly help them pass on, it just keeps happening over and over.”
“So we have to catch Lu Yu again.” Ye Shijiu clutched his head in frustration. “I-I’ve had enough. It was m-more fun in the illusion. Martial Uncle, can’t you lure him into the phantom stone?”
“Illusions work on people, but they barely affect ghosts. I couldn’t trap him just now,” Xiao Chunhe said. “From what Lu Yu said, tonight is extremely important to them. We have to find them before dawn.”
The street was in complete chaos, making it difficult to search for anyone. Xiao Chunhe took out the little cloth fox and tapped it on the head. The tiny doll instantly came alive, tilted its head to sniff the scrap of Ji Luo’s clothing in his hand, then leapt into the crowd.
“Follow it,” Xiao Chunhe said. “If you find Lu Yu, don’t act rashly. Use a Yingshi Talisman to send word.”
“Got it!” Ye Shijiu moved fastest, with Liang Yun close behind.
Xiao Chunhe turned toward the “evil ghost” trudging along behind them and waved a hand in front of his face. “Hey?”
Yue Jingming slowly raised his head, then slowly blinked.
Xiao Chunhe tentatively touched his hideous ghost face. The uneven, icy-cold texture made every hair of fox fur on his body stand on end. He cleared his throat. “You… wouldn’t happen to be Yue Jingming, would you?”
The evil ghost before him lowered his head dejectedly, then slowly raised it again to look at him.
Xiao Chunhe stared suspiciously for a long while before finally understanding. “Are you… nodding?”
The evil ghost lowered his head again even more slowly than before. Impatient by nature, Xiao Chunhe cupped his face and helped lift his head, finally seeing clearly what this ghost looked like.
It was genuinely frightening. His blue-white face was covered in vicious talisman markings, like scars that had grown back after something slashed his face open. His pitch-black, pupil-less eyes held no light and could not express a trace of emotion. His mouth had been stitched shut with white thread. His deformed body was huge and grotesque, and even his clothes were a mess, marked with several dirty footprints.
Xiao Chunhe felt along his sleeve and pulled out a storage pouch. He channeled magic into it and opened it. Sure enough, the Clear Breeze Sword and horsetail whisk were inside. His nose suddenly stung, and his eyes reddened. “Heavens. You really are Yue Jingming.”
Yue Jingming smiled at him, but the corners of his mouth could not move. All he could do was clumsily lower his head again in an attempt to nod.
“All right, all right, I know, I know.” Xiao Chunhe sniffed and carefully cupped his face. “Dear Rongxi, don’t be afraid. I’m right here. I’ll definitely find a way to turn you back.”
The evil ghost in front of him watched him for a long moment before clumsily lifting his arms as though he wanted to hug him. Then he hesitated, lowered them again, and very politely patted Xiao Chunhe on the shoulder.
Xiao Chunhe instead threw his arms around him tightly. “I’m not afraid. Even if you turn into this terrifying ghostly thing, I still like you very much.”
Yue Jingming slowly and happily patted his back.
Xiao Chunhe did not care that he was getting covered in ghost qi. He caught Yue Jingming’s hand and continuously sent his own true qi into Yue Jingming’s dantian. “Ji Chen must have tampered with your dantian while we were in the underworld. The woman who gave him that knife was definitely Feng Qingying. We need to find her.”
As true qi poured into his dried-up dantian, Yue Jingming’s blocked meridians quickly began circulating again. His stiff, heavy body gradually grew lighter, and his blurred consciousness slowly cleared. Seeing Xiao Chunhe’s face full of baleful aura, he caught his sleeve and tugged, signaling him to stop.
“It’s fine. I have plenty of true qi.” Xiao Chunhe lowered his eyes and slowly tightened his grip on Yue Jingming’s hand.
The lanterns by the river swayed in the night wind, their light rocking with them. Yue Jingming’s vision gradually sharpened, and then he saw a tiny drop of water fall from Xiao Chunhe’s chin and land on their clasped hands.
It was warm and light as air. His helplessness at being unable to do anything, his worry over Xiao Chunhe’s wound, the happiness of suddenly being recognized… all those complicated, wordless feelings seemed to be gently wrapped inside that single tear.
So Yue Jingming reached out and embraced the crying fox. He let his heavy, frightening body lean completely against Xiao Chunhe and simply rested his head, which had become exhausting to hold upright, on the other man’s shoulder. At last, he quietly breathed out.
Xiao Chunhe staggered beneath his weight and barely managed to brace him with his own body. At a loss, he asked, “What’s wrong? Where do you feel unwell?”
“Tired,” Yue Jingming said dully. “Chunhe, I scattered all the merit I had.”
Naturally, Xiao Chunhe could not hear what he was saying. But it was rare for him to feel Yue Jingming depend on him like this, so he awkwardly patted his back. “All right, all right. No matter what you turn into, I’ll recognize you. I’ll always stay with you and protect you.”
Yue Jingming’s strained mind finally found room to breathe. Still holding him, he slowly closed his eyes and let his consciousness sink into darkness.
Xiao Chunhe was suddenly crushed to the ground beneath him. “Jingming? Yue Jingming?”
The evil ghost on top of him did not respond. Xiao Chunhe tipped his head back with a sigh, then with a bang transformed into an enormous fox. He gently picked Yue Jingming up in his jaws and placed him on his back.
Although his Daoist now looked pitch-black and rather terrifying, the great fox still adored him beyond measure. He licked Yue Jingming all over until he was certain the man was covered in his scent, then turned his head in satisfaction, sprang into the sky, and vanished into the boundless night.