Lang Jiuchuan walked out of the Main Hall. The bitter winter wind swept over her, carrying snow, and set her trembling violently.

She pinched the fire talisman she had on her, drawing out the warmth it emanated, then resolutely headed toward the rear mountain of Huguo Temple.

“It’s only because it’s the deep of night and the cold is bone-chilling with no one daring to be out that we can manage this. Otherwise, if anyone ran into us, they’d probably think they’d seen a ghost.” Jiang Che drifted out and perched on her shoulder, keeping her company.

The wooden fish stirred restlessly within the pagoda, then floated out ahead of them and fixed Jiang Che with a sharp stare from where it hovered before Lang Jiuchuan’s shoulder. “A white tiger’s spiritual consciousness — why is it following you? Wait, that foolish cat-like appearance of yours — I find it oddly familiar.”

Every single one of Jiang Che’s hairs stood on end. “Who are you calling foolish? Actually — you hideous wooden fish, where did you even come from? Jiuchuan — has a wooden fish turned into a spirit?”

The wooden fish: “What ‘turned into a spirit’ — I am a spiritual consciousness that arose from the wooden fish that Master Luole used in his daily practice. You foolish cat, do you even have eyes?”

“Venerable Luole’s wooden fish? That should have passed away with the Venerable long ago. How did you generate a spiritual consciousness? And for the record, I am not a foolish cat — I am the great White Tiger King of Mount Taibai.”

The wooden fish let out a scornful laugh. “A White Tiger King who looks just like a tiny little kitten — no fighting spirit whatsoever? That’s enough to make a wooden fish die of laughter.”

“Then you rotten fish, go ahead and die under a cat’s claws!” Jiang Che, goaded beyond endurance, let out a tiger’s roar. Ferocious killing energy surged toward the wooden fish. I’m going to settle this with this fish once and for all.

The wooden fish: “Foolish cat, you insolent creature!”

Bang bang bang bang.

The wooden fish’s knocking was nothing like its usual light, measured, tranquil sound — instead it was rapid and agitated, striking at one’s very soul, making the eyes go dark and the ears ring with sharp pain.

Jiang Che had no choice but to release all of its ferocious killing energy as a defensive barrier, while simultaneously pressing its attack.

“Hey — you foolish cat, you’re actually serious!” The wooden fish’s knocking grew even more frantic.

Lang Jiuchuan, still trudging uphill and panting hard, remarked in a light, offhand tone, “In a moment we’re calling down lightning — if you can’t hold up under the strike, I won’t be helping you. Fight to your hearts’ content. Better to come to blows than to never get to know each other.”

The wooden fish paused. The moment it held back, its spiritual consciousness grew faint and unsteady — it had only just revived, and had only just siphoned some of the incense smoke to restore a little strength. One exchange in battle and it was already faltering.

“A wise fish doesn’t fight with a cat — I’ll remember this!” The wooden fish shrank back into the Little Nine Pagoda to sulk.

Jiang Che let out a cold laugh. “Don’t bother remembering it. One of our group’s founding principles — grudges are not to be carried past nightfall. Come, let’s fight.”

Lang Jiuchuan grabbed it and pulled it back. “Save your breath. We three are all sick, weakened, and broken in some way — let’s not tear each other apart. And I forgot to tell you: the vessel spirit of the Little Nine Pagoda is that wooden fish. It’s the spiritual consciousness that arose from the wooden fish Venerable Luole used in his daily practice — he forged it into the pagoda.”

Jiang Che was baffled. “They say that what kind of master you have determines what kind of magical artifact you get. Someone like Venerable Luole — his wooden fish followed him day and night through scripture recitation and meditation, and should by rights have absorbed Buddhist nature and become peaceful and compassionate. Why is it such an absolute scoundrel? Are you sure it isn’t a fraud?”

“Who are you calling a fraud — who are you calling a counterfeit! You try being eroded by malevolent ghost energy year after year and see if you don’t pick up some of its taint. And I remember you now — you’re that little tiger who used to huddle in the arms of a dying mother tiger, bawling for milk. Back then, you even received guidance from Venerable Luole. How is it that after several hundred years, you’re nothing but a spiritual consciousness without even a physical body?”

Jiang Che writhed in Lang Jiuchuan’s arms. “!”

Let go of it — it wants to get into the pagoda and fight this rotten wooden fish to the death.

“Jiang Che failed its heavenly tribulation, only a trace of its spiritual consciousness remaining undissipated. It also received guidance from a high monk and came to Wu Jing, where it made a covenant with me and sought a new path of cultivation.” Lang Jiuchuan said. “As it said — from now on we are one group. We can quarrel among ourselves as much as we like, but when facing outward, we stand together. No infighting.”

The wooden fish fell silent for a moment inside the pagoda, and then erupted in loud, boisterous laughter. “Failed the heavenly tribulation — doesn’t that mean several hundred years of cultivation went to waste? No wonder you look this foolish — you acted too rashly and eagerly, didn’t you?”

“Better than a certain fish who nearly became an evil vessel along with the Diamond Pagoda and was on the verge of completely disappearing — after all that trouble the Venerable Luole went to, pouring his whole heart into placing you inside the Diamond Pagoda when he forged it. Hmph.” Jiang Che fired back.

Fifty steps mocking a hundred — come then, let’s see who can wound the other more!

The wooden fish: “……”

You insolent cat!

Lang Jiuchuan listened to the two of them squabbling back and forth, and a brightness kindled in her eyes. Argue as they might — she had the feeling that she was no longer trudging forward alone in this world.

How good this was.

Far from Huguo Temple, Lang Jiuchuan found an exceptional site with favorable spiritual geography. The snow-white landscape lit the whole area up in a bright glow. She used jade stones and talisman paper she had brought to lay out a Five Heavenly Thunders Formation, and placed the Little Nine Pagoda within the formation’s center.

“With lightning and fire to temper and wash it, the malevolent nature remaining in the pagoda’s body can be completely purified. The lightning fire’s celestial energy is upright and fierce — no matter what you endured before, how much malevolent energy clung to you, you must endure it. If you truly cannot bear it anymore, then think of Venerable Luole — think of how much thought and care he gave to preserving you, and how he drew you into the pagoda to become its vessel spirit. If you disappear now, would you accept these wasted hundreds of years?” Lang Jiuchuan spoke to the wooden fish inside the pagoda.

The wooden fish replied, “Rest easy. A mere lightning fire — it’s not my first time enduring it. I can bear it. But can you actually summon heavenly lightning?”

To channel the power of heavenly lightning for one’s own use — only one of great virtue and great ability could wield it. She was a young girl, and in this world so lacking in spiritual energy — could she actually accomplish this?

“How would I know without trying?” Lang Jiuchuan answered it, then looked toward Jiang Che.

Jiang Che said, “I know — act as the decoy to keep people from noticing what’s happening here, right?”

“If anything seems off, I’ll give you a heads up.”

Jiang Che let out a proud huff and drifted off into the distance.

Lang Jiuchuan calculated on her fingertips for a moment, then hesitated no longer. She sat cross-legged outside the formation and began forming the Thunder Seal signs. First: heavenly thunder — both thumbs folded into the palm, concealing the nail with the finger of the tiger position. Then: earth thunder. Cloud thunder…

The Five Thunder Seals formed. She then rapidly pressed her hands together in a sequence of signs, murmuring under her breath: “Let heavenly thunder be stirred — let the Five Thunders descend — drive away all evil and corruption — temper the vessel and transform it into treasure — may righteousness and the Dao be at peace — your disciple Jiuchuan, by urgent decree, commands it.”

She summoned the Jade Bone Talisman Brush and drove it with her will to draw the Five Thunders Talisman. A stroke of golden radiance vanished into the void, shooting straight up to the clouds.

All at once, the wind picked up and the clouds surged. Dark clouds gathered on all sides. The sound of thunder rolled in from far away and drew steadily closer. Lightning flickered and flashed within the clouds.

Inside Huguo Temple, the eyebrow of the abbot, the Venerable Xuanneng, twitched. He strode quickly out of his meditation courtyard, looked toward the direction of the rear mountain, and his eyes widened with astonishment. That thunder — was it the Heavenly Thunder Incantation?

Someone in this place was actually activating the Heavenly Thunder Incantation seal?

BOOM.

A bolt of lightning, purple, as thick as an arm, struck straight down, carrying with it the fierce and upright power of lightning and fire.

The lightning fire struck the Little Nine Pagoda. The force of the lightning and fire surrounded it completely, turning it into a blazing tower of fire.

The wooden fish’s spiritual consciousness was swept through by that fierce and righteous force of the lightning — like walking a full circuit through the hellfire of the underworld. The pain was enough to make it wish it had never existed.

And Lang Jiuchuan was not much better off. She was mere inches from the Little Nine Pagoda. The force of the lightning struck her as well. She drew it into her body, and her meridians expanded and strengthened once again.

The lightning fire, stroke by stroke, purified the malevolent energy of the Little Nine Pagoda. The talisman patterns within the pagoda began to transform, drawing the force of the lightning into the body of the pagoda — washing it completely clean, shedding every last remnant of its tarnished past.

Hum.

A radiance blazed to its fullest peak. The pagoda bloomed like a magnificent flower.