Chapter Eighty-Six: A Ghost’s Heart in a Human Body

At two o’clock in the morning, Yueyue suddenly seemed to wake from a dream. She stood up and headed home, and Cui Mei and I hurried after her. When we got back, Cui Mei’s husband, Chen Hao, had returned. The moment he saw his daughter in that state, he was beside himself with anxiety.

He pulled me aside. “Master, what on earth is wrong with my daughter?”

He had already been told over the phone that she might be under some evil influence.

I had no choice but to tell him the truth: his daughter might be practicing a sinister art that fed on yin energy. As for whether that was truly the case, I could not be certain yet; we would have to go back, discuss it, and then confirm it.

Chen Hao was horrified when he heard this. He asked how his daughter could possibly be practicing such a thing, and begged me to help break it at once, offering any amount of money I wanted.

So far, I was only guessing. My own ability was not yet enough to be completely certain, so I asked whether Yueyue had anything unusual about her compared with other children.

After thinking for a while, the couple said there was nothing unusual at all, except that Yueyue was not their biological daughter but a child they had taken in. They had been high school classmates, had fallen in love young, married young, but had never been able to have a child, so they adopted one from elsewhere.

Yueyue had cost them one hundred thousand yuan.

According to the intermediary, Yueyue’s birthday was the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month. Nothing else was known.

The moment I heard Chen Hao’s words, a chill ran through me.

The fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month was no ordinary date. It was the day before the Ghost Festival, when the Earth Deity’s great pardon was proclaimed. On that day, many spirits would be released. For that reason, people born on Ghost Festival are often considered inauspicious, and many are said to enter the world carrying ghosts with them from the very first instant of birth. It seemed that Yueyue might well be a pure yin emissary.

I did not dare say these words to Chen Hao. If I told him that his daughter might be the utmost yin emissary, born with a ghost heart and a human body, he would probably be terrified to death.

I called Chen Hao and Cui Mei over and solemnly instructed them to keep a close eye on their daughter and never allow her to go to the graveyard again. If necessary, they could use force. At the very least, one of them should watch her at all times.

Chen Hao nodded and said that under no circumstances would Yueyue be allowed out again.

Early the next morning, I took a bus straight back to Wei Family Village. The first thing I did was go home to see Wang Ying. Her body was still lying there quietly, motionless. Looking at that graceful face, I felt as if my heart had died.

Waner saw that I was in a bad mood and hurried over to comfort me. I told her I was fine, and only asked her to take good care of Wang Ying’s body. I would surely bring Wang Ying’s soul back.

When I went to Wei Qi’s house, he was in the middle of killing a chicken. He said Yingzi had lost a lot of blood and needed nourishment. I told him about Yueyue’s situation, and he was so startled that he even stopped killing the chicken. He said he had never heard of such a thing, threw down the chicken and knife, went to Yingzi’s place to say hello, and then the two of us hurried toward Floating-Coming Mountain.

When we reached Dinglin Temple on Floating-Coming Mountain, Master Xingyun listened to my account without showing much surprise. He merely said that the most important task at present was to take the Dark City and destroy the Dark King. Only then could the safety of the common people be guaranteed. He also said that the so-called yin-devouring great art was merely a legend, and might not even exist.

Hearing him say that, I felt he had a point. After all, I had only heard about it from my second uncle; it might not really exist. But Yueyue’s behavior was indeed suspicious. If she was not a pure yin emissary, and was not practicing some yin-devouring art, then why would she go to the graveyard in the dead of night?

Wei Qi and I stayed at Dinglin Temple and ate a vegetarian meal with Master Xingyun. During the meal, he earnestly instructed us, saying that we were the only ones who had ever been to the Dark City, so we could not give up. We had to gather our strength again and lead everyone back to search for the underworld.

I did not feel much hostility toward the underworld. If the Dark King had not let the two of us go that day, then with only Wei Qi’s and my own abilities, we probably never would have returned. So I did not think the Dark King would truly come to enslave the living; after all, we were not on the same level.

But we also could not refuse. Although Master Xingyun was a strange man, he had been nothing but good to Wei Qi and me. The thunder-summoning technique and the Heaven-Flow Staff had raised our abilities by an entire level. We were no longer comparable to ordinary spirit-walkers. He had shown us kindness, and he was a man of great virtue and reputation, so we still listened to him.

Master Xingyun said that for the time being we would not act. He would first locate the underworld again. Once he found the boundary enclosing it, he would contact everyone and launch an assault together. He said that until the underworld was destroyed, he could not ascend in liberation.

After leaving Dinglin Temple, I asked Wei Qi what we should do. Wei Qi clicked his tongue and said that Master Xingyun seemed a little unwell in the head. Why was he not paying attention to such an important matter, and instead kept thinking about wiping out the underworld?

After discussing it, we decided to call Wei Qi’s master. His answer shocked us both: in this world, there really was a practice called the yin-devouring great art. It was vicious. Once mastered, it would feed on people’s souls, and it was terrifying beyond words.

Wei Qi asked his master what should be done. His master said there was nothing he could do, and that the best course was to find a spirit-walker with a pair of yin-yang eyes to take a look. In general, those who cultivated the yin-devouring great art were beings of utmost yin, with a ghost heart in a human body. A person with yin-yang eyes could tell at a glance.

After hanging up, Wei Qi clicked his tongue and looked at me. “Dachuan, what do you think we should do?”

At that moment, my mind was full of Wang Ying. I did not want to meddle in other people’s affairs. But this was no small matter. If Yueyue really was a pure yin emissary, and if she truly mastered the yin-devouring great art, then disaster would follow.

I said, “Dachuan, why don’t we leave it alone? Let things take their course.”

My heart was heavy, but I also felt that if we did not interfere, it would not matter much. Even the venerable Master Xingyun had said that the yin-devouring great art was only a legend. What business was it of ours to worry?

After we got in the car, Wei Qi clicked his tongue and said, “Dachuan, we have to handle this.”

I gave him a wry smile. “Seventh Uncle, can the two of us really handle it?”

“Whether we can or not, we have to. Once you’ve taken this road, you must walk it properly, and walk it straight. If what my master said is true, then this is a disaster. So we must take care of it.” Wei Qi’s tone was resolute.

By then, I had nothing left to say. In life, there are many choices. In career and in love, one’s eyes are often clouded by profit and selfish desire. To remain clear-minded and keep one’s path straight and true is itself a kind of attainment.

Wei Qi, though called Seventh Uncle in name, was really just a good friend of mine, almost an elder brother to me. He had the wisdom of a great mind concealed beneath seeming simplicity; he was lazy in manner, yet carried the sagacity of a seasoned life, upright and selfless, and I regarded him as a model to learn from. Whatever he said to do, I would do.

“Seventh Uncle, I’ll follow you. Whatever you say, we’ll do.”

“Good. Let’s go find Li Danian. We must ask him to take a look at that girl and see whether she really is a ghost-hearted being in a human body.” Seeing that I agreed with him, Wei Qi immediately started the car.

That afternoon, we arrived at Li Danian’s orchard. After hearing my explanation, Li Danian said nothing at all, and got into Wei Qi’s car to come with us to Forty-Mile Town in Yishui County.

When we reached Chen Hao’s house, the scene before us was a little cruel. In order to stop Yueyue from sneaking out again at midnight, the couple had actually tied her to a chair. This bordered on child abuse. Just as I was about to untie her, Li Danian stopped me.

He came out quickly, his expression grave. “Lao Qi, Dachuan, this is a bit troublesome. This girl is a pure yin emissary. Her heart is a ghost heart, and under an ultrasound it simply cannot be seen.”

My heart turned cold. How could this be? I had imagined that this girl might be a pure yin emissary, but I still refused to believe that this was reality.

“Master, what should we do?” Wei Qi asked anxiously. Like me, he had known about the yin-devouring great art since childhood. Though it was only a legend, the consequences described in those legends were enough to make anyone shudder.

“This girl must die. Her body must be burned, and the ghost heart must be soaked in talisman water and sealed inside a soul urn. Only then can it be prevented from regenerating,” Li Danian said sternly.

My whole body went weak, as if I had been drained dry. A living girl to be killed, her corpse burned, her heart sealed away in taboo rites—how cruel was that? Setting aside the fact that this was a lawful society, it could not even pass the barrier of morality and human sentiment.

Yet Li Danian was second only to Master Xingyun. His words were almost the truth of the spirit-walker world. If we did not act according to what he said, disaster might well descend upon everyone.

The three of us looked at one another, all at a loss for what to do next.