"Summoning the soul... such a wicked art, only you could co up with sothing like this!"
Min Ning froze for a mont, then her face turned into one of anger.
Chen Yi’s idea wasn’t just audacious, it was shocking and disregardful of human ethics!
To summon Min He’s already departed soul—what else could this be but disrespect toward the ancestors? According to the laws of Great Yu, desecrating one’s ancestors or ancestral tablets warrants eighty lashes at best, death penalty at worst.
"This is the simplest way: directly call your grandfather out to ask him, and besides..."
Chen Yi spoke as if he were Mara tempting Siddhartha Gautama:
"Don’t you want to see your grandfather one more ti? Don’t you want him to witness Min Ning and Min Yuechi now, young and accomplished, bringing honor to the family na? Don’t you want to hear him praise you once again, don’t you want him to teach you another strike with the blade?"
His words carried an inexplicable allure, and, without realizing, Min Ning began to picture the kind elder in her mind. As sacred teachings have said: the bond between fathers and sons is often distant, but between grandfathers and grandchildren, it is close. Min He, having built the family’s prosperity from scratch, had himself borne the storms that tried to shake the roots of the Min family. Under his protective shadow, the country’s winds and rains could never reach them.
Min Ning’s thoughts began to wander as she paced aimlessly through the courtyard, her gaze shifting erratically.
She was still unable to make up her mind. After all, summoning the soul was sothing so...
So... to hear another praise, to receive another lesson; Min Ning recalled how, after the rain had just cleared, she had practiced martial arts under the pouring skies. Even when she was battered and bruised, her father hadn’t uttered a single word to stop her—it was her grandfather who halted everything. He braved the rain to buy her osmanthus cake, and even though the cake was cloying and not very sweet, it left an indelible mark on her heart.
Min Ning wandered in a haze, her sense of ethics enshed in conflict; she couldn’t shake off her uncertainty and was unable to stop pacing.
Suddenly, Chen Yi’s face appeared abruptly before her.
Fixing his gaze directly onto hers, he spoke in a soft voice:
"Trust . No matter how big the consequences, I’ll shoulder them. However heavy the burden, I’ll share it."
Min Ning’s expression froze at first, her shoulders trembled slightly—it had been twelve years, twelve full spring and autumn cycles... and no one, not a single person, had ever told her sothing like that; no one had ever said they would share the weight she bore.
The woman who had ranked among the top ten martial warriors later murmured in a mont of dazed bewildernt:
"Hmm..."
.........
[West outskirts of the Capital City, Huaisui Village is plagued by a demon ghost. The household unit is requested to eliminate it, per Grand Secretary Lin’s orders. The Wuyong Building will stay.]
Early the next morning, Chen Yi glanced at the note again.
Demon Extermination Day brought forth malicious thoughts and heavy malevolence—ghosts being present in Huaisui Village was hardly surprising.
Yet for Grand Secretary Lin to specially insist on exterminating them, now *that* was not normal.
"If I rember correctly, the wandering ghost inside isn’t simple... it’s a Ghost General."
Chen Yi murmured.
Grand Secretary Lin aspired to ascend, and his Taoist cultivation thod had been procured by the Lin faction from an ancient tomb housing the remains of a True Taoist. It had been presented to him as a gift for his sixtieth birthday. Compared to the Shangqing Taoist skill of slaying the Three Corpses, or Taihua Mountain’s supre emotionless path—which consud decades of effort—this technique expedited the achievent of Taoist immortality.
Legend says this thod was derived from a hermit who practiced both Buddhist and Taoist cultivation, known among contemporaries as the "Chancellor of the Mountain." The principle was straightforward: rather than attaining enlightennt and longevity, it relied on a rit-based magic artifact to gather incense fire wish power, thus achieving ascension. To this end, the Lin faction constructed ancestral shrines for Grand Secretary Lin’s family and perford rituals of worship; locals even called him "Immortal Lin."
But to ascend through rit, the most effective ans was not by being chivalrous or ridding the land of ghosts—it was by keeping bandits and demons alive to enhance his clout, surrounding the Capital City with trapped ghosts, and then obliterating them all on Demon Extermination Day.
To avoid any profound celestial interference, Grand Secretary Lin officially forbade such ghost-trapping practices, but in reality, he "accidentally tolerated" them, issuing annual orders for Eastern Factory elites, skilled agents, and his cleric and monk acquaintances to eradicate the ghosts. All this served to accumulate rit for his rit Box.
Within the Praying Place on Demon Extermination Day, the greatest treasure capable of being obtained was Lin’s rit Box—a top-tier magic artifact. Its twenty years of accumulated incense fire wish power was comparable to that of a genuine deity of the mountains and rivers.
Chen Yi gathered his belongings and soon saw Min Ning’s figure in the courtyard outside.
"Where is your grandfather buried?"
Chen Yi asked.
"Conveniently enough, it’s in the nearby graveyard by Huaisui Village. The late emperor decreed that those implicated in the Grand Councillor case could not have their remains buried in ancestral lands."
Min Ning sighed softly in response.
"Then let’s move out."
Unlike Min Ning, Chen Yi had already prepared in advance.
He had brought two fine horses from the West Factory, and as both mounted their steeds, the pair—one man and one woman—soon headed out of the city. At least during the dayti, there was no need to worry about Huang Liuqing of the White Willow Sect coming after them.
At first, the road was lined with rows of black tiles and blue bricks, but gradually it gave way to sparse thatched cottages and wooden structures.
From the grand, imposing gates of the city, the road extended outward. Along the way, many Taoists and rchants could be seen, so taking the opportunity to enter the city during the Praying Place. A small marketplace had even erged near the gates, where people sold talismans, firecrackers, couplets, black dog blood, and other items used to ward off evil spirits.
Chen Yi leapt off his horse and wandered into the marketplace, leaving Min Ning to wait outside, her expression puzzled.
Before long, Chen Yi returned, carrying an aging, yellowed Door God Peach Talisman back to his horse.
"It was hard to find."
"What are you buying a Peach Talisman for? Planning to put it up at ho?"
Min Ning asked, puzzled.
"There’s more to it than that."
Chen Yi replied with an air of "secrets not to be revealed."
After passing the city gates, they headed toward Huaisui Village. The path gradually grew overgrown with weeds, and as they entered a forest, the road beca rugged, forcing the pair to dismount and lead their horses up the mountain.
Upon arriving at Huaisui Village, the place was eerily quiet, a deathly stillness pervading the air. Gusts of chilling wind cut through the buildings, brushing past their ears, leaving them shivering.
Even though it was broad daylight, Demon Extermination Day deterred everyone; those who could avoid stepping outside stayed deliberately indoors.
From inside their hos, villagers peeked out cautiously, observing the two officers in embroidered uniforms of the imperial guard.
"Another fool who doesn’t value their life has co..."
"I tell you, last year that old cow-nosed Taoist said he’d stake his life here, but even after that, he couldn’t get rid of the Ghost General."
"And then what happened..."
"He kept his promise; he actually did sacrifice his life here."
"But not only was the Ghost General not vanquished, its malevolence grew even heavier. Several families’ Door Gods mysteriously fell down from their walls."
"Old Li’s family insisted on hanging up their Door God, claiming that righteousness would triumph over evil. And what happened? The entire family ended up hanged!"
Inside the hos, clusters of villagers whispered, their words laden with lingering fear and apprehension.
Crossing over a dirt mound brought them into the graveyard of the village. Here, the stench of death was more pungent, and the wild grass grew rampant. Chen Yi stepped forward and realized he had tread on sothing; looking down, he saw a blade partially buried in the dirt.
"This place used to be an ancient battlefield."
Min Ning paused,
"And that’s why the graves here are inexpensive. My family was fined heavily back then; we couldn’t afford a proper grave for my grandfather."
Chen Yi listened, suddenly grasping just how dire the Min family’s situation had been.
After venturing deeper into the graveyard, searching for so ti, Min Ning finally found her grandfather Min He’s tomb. The hill of the grave had grown lush and blended perfectly into its surroundings, while a naless tree sprouted atop the tomb mound.
Min Ning clasped her hands solemnly, knelt before the tombstone, and bowed deeply, then turned to Chen Yi and spoke softly:
"...Begin."
Chen Yi turned to look at her:
"Begin what?"
Min Ning blinked, puzzled:
"Didn’t you say... summoning the soul?"
Chen Yi shrugged and spread his hands:
"I don’t know how to summon souls.
I’m not a Taoist, so how could I possibly summon a soul?"
Min Ning’s face turned an ashen shade of rage as she glared at him. So this was the man speaking so confidently, only to arrive at the mont of truth and declare that he didn’t know how!
"If you don’t know, why did you talk about summoning souls?! You... you... shaless scoundrel! Was your speech back then just to deceive my heart?!"
Facing such furious reproach, Chen Yi still didn’t grow angry; he simply grinned and said:
"Don’t worry, soone else does."
At that mont, a group of Taoists from Shangqing Taoist sect appeared, chatting and laughing as they slowly ascended the mountain.
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