Gong Qi had not yet returned to where his maternal grandmother, Pei Furen, was staying. Instead, it was Cui Shi who had gone over to speak with her. Lang Jiuchuan could only ask the Pei family’s servant to pass along a message.

Pei Furen heard it and was somewhat surprised. Looking at Cui Shi, she said, “I had not expected it — ninth young miss seems cool and aloof on the surface, yet she seems to get along well with our Gong Qi.”

Cui Shi replied, “They did have a few encounters when he was staying at our household. Coming to find him now, there may be something she needs.”

Her thoughts drifted to the moment she had seen Lang Jiuchuan light the lamp before her father’s memorial tablet. That lamp had ignited without flame — either it was her father watching over her from the afterlife, or it was one of the girl’s abilities, which meant she was by no means as limited as she had previously claimed when she said she had only learned a little of the surface.

And yet she herself had known nothing of it.

A sudden warmth crept over her cold hands. Cui Shi raised her head and looked at Pei Furen. The older woman patted her hand gently. “Are you still thinking about what happened at the birth?”

Cui Shi’s body stiffened. “I am wondering — was I truly in the wrong?”

Pei Furen sighed. “You, child — you have gotten yourself stuck deep in a corner and cannot get back out. Setting everything else aside, just that girl’s eyes and the way she carries herself — the spirit and manner in her — she is the very image of her father, and her features even bear some resemblance to you. How could she not be yours?”

The corners of Cui Shi’s eyes turned red, her voice catching. “I do not know. If it truly was only a delusion I fell into after the birth, then what do I make of all the mistreatment of these years? How could I ever atone for it? And when I face Zhengping in the world to come — how do I face him?”

“Let fate take its course.” Pei Furen sighed softly. “Not every parent and child share the deepest of bonds. People, as they walk through life, ultimately drift apart. To become each other’s mother and daughter is to have fulfilled the affinity of this lifetime. As for how deep or shallow that affinity runs — it depends only on the causes and consequences carried over from the previous life.”

Cui Shi’s expression fell. “But how can I accept it?”

“And what would refusing to accept it change? The rift and estrangement are already formed — they cannot be erased in a matter of moments. Only time can be entrusted with that. And if even time cannot dissolve it, then one can only accept one’s fate, and then make peace with oneself.” Pei Furen drew her close, as she had done when she was small, and soothed her. “Do not try too deliberately to do anything. Let things unfold naturally. A lifetime passes in the blink of an eye — to remain forever bound to the past is to be irresponsible to yourself, and it is simply not worth it. That kind of fixation will prevent you from seeing clearly the people who stand beside you now, and from that, you will lose even more.”

Cui Shi closed her eyes and murmured her agreement.

……

Lang Jiuchuan entered the meditation room and dismissed the servant women. Even Jian Lan was told she need not wait inside. Since she would not be leaving the courtyard, Jian Lan had Xiaoman keep watch in the corridor in case she was needed, then hurried off herself to donate the incense oil money.

With no one in the room, Lang Jiuchuan took out the Vajra Pagoda. She did not know if it was because of being in a place consecrated to the Buddha, but the baleful qi on the pagoda had nearly entirely dissipated. It did not look nearly as ominous as before.

“Gong Qi and his group are also here. If you choose today to purify and re-temper the Vajra Pagoda, once it draws their attention, would that not be walking straight into a wolf’s den?” Jiangche looked at the Vajra Pagoda and said, “It is a supreme treasure of the Feng clan. They will certainly recognize it.”

Lang Jiuchuan said, “Once I have given them news of the demonic evil, do you suppose they will leave this place to investigate? And once they are gone, can I not do as I please? Besides, even with them here, there are still eminent monks in the temple. Come to think of it, there is a monk in Huguo Temple who is of royal lineage — he is of the Tantai family.”

Lang Jiuchuan’s grip tightened. “Why did you not say so earlier.”

“It was you who said Huguo Temple’s incense flames burned more brightly.” Jiangche let out a yelp. “Even if I had told you, you would have come anyway for the sake of the small pagoda. You raving lunatic, you are someone who seeks fortune right in the heart of danger!”

Lang Jiuchuan: “……”

That was correct. She would not argue with it.

For the sake of her pagoda, she would charge through a mountain of blades or a pit of boiling oil. It was, after all, one of the armors that guarded her life — it had to be tempered to its utmost.

“So when the moment comes and there is too much of a commotion, you will need to provide cover for me.”

Jiangche’s fur bristled, and it crossed both forearms over its tiger body. “What are you plotting?”

“As they say — a spiritual beast is sheltered by the grace of Heaven and earth, and carries within it a breath of divine life. Which of the two great paths — Buddhist or Daoist — or any other power under Heaven, would not wish to possess such a thing?” Lang Jiuchuan said. “Take an ordinary household — a hunter, say. He keeps hunting hounds, brings them along when he goes out, using them as helpers. They protect him, and when prey is sighted, they assist in the catch. If ordinary beasts already serve this purpose, what of a spiritual beast? A powerful spiritual beast, once bound by contract, is both a guardian protector for its master and one of the master’s most deadly weapons. Who would not want one?”

Jiangche’s tiger eyes went wide with outrage. “Do not hint at me obliquely — I understand you perfectly!”

Was it not just calling it useless?

A smile played in Lang Jiuchuan’s eyes. She reached up and patted its head. “I am merely pointing out that human greed is boundless. If you make the kind of commotion that announces a spiritual beast appearing in the world, there will naturally be people scrambling to seek it out — which means my side of things will slip by unnoticed, will it not?”

“Hmph. In plain terms, you are using me as bait, without a thought for whether or not your bait will get itself taken off the hook.”

Lang Jiuchuan said, “Not even Gong Qi can perceive your presence as a spiritual consciousness-form. Who of ordinary cultivation could? What is more, you have long since entered into a Heaven-and-Earth contract with me. As long as your root essence is held by me, how could anything harm your foundation?”

If something could harm it, then that would be a force even she could not currently withstand.

And harming Jiangche was the same as harming herself. That, Lang Jiuchuan would not allow.

Jiangche’s bristling fur settled smooth again. Its mouth still grumbled, “The sooner a host body is found, the better. Just a floating mass of spiritual consciousness — I cannot even taste meat properly. What a loss. Once that day comes, we cut all ties.”

“Mm.”

Jiangche: “……”

This raving lunatic truly did not know how to stroke fur the right way. Would it kill her to offer a little reassurance?

Lang Jiuchuan cradled the Vajra Pagoda and examined it carefully. Thinking of the faint flicker of artifact spirit she had sensed before, she took a soul incense stick from her bundle and lit it, drew out a sheet of talisman paper, picked up the jade-bone brush and painted a Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Communication Talisman. She then set the Vajra Pagoda before her, sat cross-legged, formed hand seals, set her intention, and held the talisman between two fingers while the complex seal sequences appeared in her mind of their own accord.

A low sound.

The talisman ignited without flame, drifting and floating down onto the Vajra Pagoda. Lang Jiuchuan poured every last measure of her spiritual consciousness into perception. Her primordial spirit followed the talisman-fire into the Vajra Pagoda, reaching inward, attempting to summon that faint artifact spirit.

The Vajra Pagoda — how long it had been defiled by blood-baleful yin resentment, none could say. Inside was a mass of pitch darkness. The talismanic inscriptions carved throughout the pagoda pulsed with a frigid glow, their jagged forms twisting and shrieking like ten thousand ravening ghosts, unleashing a biting, murderous yin-cold force that gnawed at whoever entered.

Yet there at the very peak of the pagoda — a faint flicker of spiritual energy.

So that was where it hid.

Facing that yin-cold murderous force, Lang Jiuchuan’s primordial spirit moved as though through open air. She was wholly unafraid of the yin-baleful energy that surrounded and pressed in from all sides, gnawing and eroding without restraint. She went straight for the peak.

Jiangche, keeping watch outside, saw Gong Qi approaching and immediately drifted back into the room. One look at Lang Jiuchuan — her entire body had turned black as death, as though she were about to turn corpse-demon. Its expression shifted drastically.

This — in the blink of an eye — how had this raving lunatic turned into a dead person?