By the time Ou Luozhong and Ning Dashun hurried over, Lang Jiuchuan had already washed her hands and was preparing to enter the bedchamber. The two men looked at her face and were taken aback once more.

She had said she would rest for a short while — what wondrous thing had she done in that time? Her complexion was markedly better than before. At least now she no longer looked like a dead person.

Lang Jiuchuan brought Jian Lan inside with her. Seeing that the others still seemed inclined to follow, she said, “I am about to administer needles to a woman.”

Both men stopped in their tracks at once, looking a touch awkward.

Ou Furen then said, “I’ll go in and watch. The rest of you, wait outside.”

At that moment, Ning Qiong had woken, lying weakly in bed, attended by her own nursemaid. Seeing people enter, she stirred with some animation — but perhaps not seeing the person she had hoped to see, a trace of disappointment crossed her eyes.

Ou Furen stepped forward quickly. “Good child, you’ve worked so hard. We’ve already sent someone riding fast to my maternal family’s home to bring Poge back.”

The upcoming grand birthday celebration for the Ou family’s elder patriarch required Ou Po to personally escort a shipment of large goods needed for the banquet — and then, of all times, the household had to fall into such turmoil.

Ning Qiong managed to pull the corners of her mouth into a faint smile and gave a weak sound of acknowledgment.

“Young lady, this is the Ninth Young Lady of the Lang family that this old servant told you about,” said Ning Qiong’s nursemaid, Madam Wei, as she guided Lang Jiuchuan forward. “It was she who saved you and the Little Young Master. She has come now to administer the needles for you.”

Hearing this, Ning Qiong struggled to rise, and then heard a clear, cool voice say, “Don’t move.”

Her body stiffened slightly. She looked toward the speaker. The other’s gaze was as clear and cool as her voice — and commanding in a way that reached straight into one’s heart.

She was just a small girl the same age as her own little sister-in-law, and yet she inspired an inexplicable sense of awe.

“Your body is weak — don’t exhaust yourself. You’ll only suffer for it.” Lang Jiuchuan turned to the others in the room. “So many people aren’t needed here. Everyone out — two attendants will be enough.”

Apart from Jian Lan, Madam Wei sent the others out. She and Ou Furen remained in the room.

Lang Jiuchuan explained what her needle technique was intended to treat and what effect it would produce, then had Madam Wei remove Ning Qiong’s heavy outer garments. She had Jian Lan light a stick of moxa incense, and then spread out the needle kit and the various implements needed for the procedure that the Ou household had prepared.

The silver needles gleamed. Lang Jiuchuan cast one glance over them, then picked one up. Though she had no memories, the moment the needle was in her hand, her first instinct was that there were finer ones — ones she had seen before, or even used before.

“Ordinary Thunder-Fire Divine Needling is in truth a moxibustion technique — using specially prepared moxa sticks to heat and stimulate acupuncture points, thereby dispelling cold and dampness and relieving joint pain. But for the yin poison in your body, that would be of limited effect. My needle technique is also the Thunder-Fire Divine Needling, but instead of moxa, I insert needles directly into the acupoints and chant the Thunder Incantation to draw the intent of thunder-fire and lightning into the needles. This can draw out the malevolent yin poison in your body. It may be somewhat painful — bear with it.”

Ning Qiong gave a faint nod. “I am grateful.”

Everything she had lived through during the delivery had been more than enough to shatter her former understanding of the world. Her spirit had already been shaken to its core. Had she not been born into a military family and trained in martial arts from childhood — making her constitution of mind and will stronger than that of an ordinary nobly-born lady — she might well have been driven half-mad by fright by now.

She was still lucid, but her body was cold and numb, without a trace of warmth. She felt as though the body no longer belonged to her.

Lang Jiuchuan’s words were a great comfort. If recovery was possible, what pain could not be endured?

Selecting the acupoints and inserting the needles required precise hand movements and mastery of technique. The moment the needles were in her hands, Lang Jiuchuan’s mind became extraordinarily clear. As the needle technique surfaced in her awareness, her hands moved with steady and unwavering certainty as she located the points and set the needles, without a moment’s hesitation — as though honed through a thousand sessions of practice.

Everyone in the room held their breath in silence, eyes wide with surprise. She truly knew how to do this.

Jian Lan felt a deep sense of awe rising within her. The abilities that Ninth Young Lady revealed grew more astounding by the day. What else could she do?

Lang Jiuchuan swiftly placed needles at each acupoint. In particular, around the lower abdominal region — the yin of a woman’s body — she set more than ten needles in dense formation. Only when all were in place did she form hand seals with both hands, drawing the energy of heaven and earth into her palms, and began to chant the incantation aloud:

“Officials and generals of thunderclap, the Star of Fire’s virtue — let the medicine manifest its wondrous function, let the needles conceal raging flame, sweep away all demonic miasma. By the command of the Most High Lord Lao, with urgency as the law commands — arise!”

Whoosh.

“Oh—!” Jian Lan clapped a hand over her startled cry.

A brilliant, blazingly bright flame with a purple tinge rose from Lang Jiuchuan’s hands. She passed her flame-wreathed hands over the needles set in Ning Qiong’s body. With a resonant hum, all the needles vibrated and rang out together.

Ning Qiong let out a stifled sound, her brows knitting together. For a brief instant, her pallid face twisted — pain coursed through every part of her body.

She felt as though her entire body had been struck by lightning, with ten thousand ants crawling and gnawing along every inch of her. The sharp, piercing pain made her tremble faintly, and she had no choice but to clench her teeth.

But a moment later, the pain was no longer so savage. In its place, a rush of fire surged through her four limbs and every part of her body. Though there was a scorching ache to it, the warmth it brought made her let out a long, involuntary breath of relief.

The fire in Lang Jiuchuan’s hands had already vanished. Yet Ou Furen stared fixedly at her palms — no talisman paper, nothing at all. With only an incantation spoken, fire had risen.

A marvel beyond all skill.

So this was what a cultivator was capable of.

Such ability, and yet it could not save her son’s daughter’s eyes. Was there anyone in the world who could protect that child’s eyes?

Ou Furen’s heart was wrung with pain.

Her emotions seemed to be sensed by Lang Jiuchuan, who glanced over with a faint, dispassionate look but said nothing.

While the needles were retained, she sat on a nearby stool and asked, “This pregnancy of yours was not yet fully at term, and your constitution has been adequate — what caused you to go into labor so suddenly? Had you been anywhere in particular beforehand?”

A mother-and-child ghost pair, simultaneously setting their sights on a purely yin constitution within the Ou household and an unborn infant almost ready to be born, intending to simultaneously possess both bodies — this could not have been a coincidence.

Had they succeeded, both would have cultivated themselves into ghost cultivators, practicing the ghost path within human bodies. Once fully accomplished, they would not be struck down even by the Heavenly Tribulation, and upon passing through it, they would become ghost immortals.

Quite the scheme.

Ning Qiong shook her head. “Though I hadn’t yet reached term, I was close to nine months along. My nursemaid wouldn’t let me go anywhere, and besides, the weather is so cold — there was nowhere to go. However…”

She glanced toward Ou Furen.

Ou Furen was startled by that look, then recalled something and said, “Today is Miaonan’s birthday. I held a small gathering in the Warm Pavilion by the West Lake — brought the sisters-in-law and several nieces and nephews along to brew tea, admire the snow, and enjoy themselves, as a way of celebrating her birthday.”

Ning Qiong nodded.

“The little gathering was halfway through when a wild gust of wind suddenly rose. Immediately after, Miaonan, who had been building a snow figure with her nephew, let out a cry of terror and fainted. Then, very quickly, she woke up — but she had become a different person entirely.” Ou Furen’s face drained of color as she recalled the scene, still not recovered from the shock of it.

Ning Qiong said, “I was frightened too at the time. Especially when Miaonan turned and gave me a savage grin — I felt a chill run through my entire body, cold and ominous all over, and then almost immediately I started bleeding.”

So this pair of mother-and-child ghosts had burst out from the area near the West Lake. Who knew what they had been lurking in all this while.

“Jiangche…”

Jiangche gave a huff. “Don’t bother saying it. I know what you’re going to say.”

Wasn’t it just sending him off to do the legwork again?