Everyone stood frozen, staring at Bai Shuixiao’s corpse and the filth she had vomited, unsure whether to clean it up or leave.
It was Qiu Beiying who finally spoke: “What are you all standing around for? Go to sleep if you need sleep, get to work if you have work to do—even the grandest show must eventually end.”
Then she called to Meng Qianzi: “Little Qian, come with me.”
…
Once the two leaders left, the atmosphere relaxed. Meng Jinsong arranged the aftermath, while those not assigned tasks began to disperse in twos and threes. Jiang Lian also followed the flow of people back to his tent. He was quite concerned about Meng Qianzi—as soon as she reached the cliff top, she had exposed the fact that she had brought out the mountain gall.
He remembered her mentioning that her aunts were all people who valued stability, disliked major changes, and did not advocate taking the gall. True, that Fifth Mother might not know exactly what Meng Qianzi had taken, but given how sharp and efficient she was in her speech and actions, she had likely already guessed, and besides, Meng Qianzi wouldn’t hide it from her.
As he pondered this, he suddenly heard someone calling him: “Um… Brother Jiang Lian?”
Looking back, it was Liu Guanguo.
Liu Guanguo handed him the satellite phone, his attitude quite cordial. Though Liu Guanguo wasn’t particularly efficient, he was inherently generous in dealing with guests and matters. Seeing that Jiang Lian was the first to go down to rescue Meng Qianzi when she was in trouble and had now returned with her, his attitude toward Jiang Lian had become even more respectful.
“Your two friends have already moved into Yunmeng Peak. They’ve been thinking about you. Just call back that landline.”
Jiang Lian was indeed concerned about Kuang Meiying and Wei Biao. He took the phone, thanked Liu Guanguo, and went to a spot below the cliff with a better signal to call back.
The landline was answered by the inn’s front desk and quickly handed to Kuang Meiying. Hearing his voice, Kuang Meiying was delighted beyond measure, eagerly asking what method he had used to reconcile with Meng Qianzi.
She had fainted from fear of Meng Qianzi and still felt lingering trepidation.
This wasn’t something he could explain in a few words, so Jiang Lian glossed over it: “We’ll talk about it when there’s time.”
Kuang Meiying didn’t press further. She had more important matters to discuss: “The caregiver told me that Great-Grandfather hasn’t been looking well these past few days. He might be approaching his time.”
Her great-grandfather, who was also Jiang Lian’s godfather, was Kuang Tongsheng.
Jiang Lian made an affirmative sound, feeling no great emotional disturbance. It wasn’t that he had no feelings for Kuang Tongsheng, but rather because they had been psychologically preparing for this inevitable event for so long that they had almost grown weary of it—there had been several dangerous situations where death seemed imminent, and they had even visited potential grave sites.
Kuang Tongsheng was truly too old, so old that living was merely a waste of days, while death would be a release. Even the caregivers privately murmured: the old master now sleeps more than twenty hours a day; if he were to ride the crane westward, it would simply mean sleeping a few more hours each day.
He comforted Kuang Meiying: “Let’s wait for news. If his condition truly doesn’t improve, we’ll return as soon as possible.”
After hanging up, he climbed back up the cliff.
The cliff top was not quiet. Thinking about it, of course it wouldn’t be—after witnessing such a terrifying event, who could sleep? The mountain dwellers gathered in small groups, whispering among themselves.
Shen Gun was mingling among them—truly, he was everywhere.
Jiang Lian, however, didn’t want to join the crowded areas, finding them too noisy.
He walked straight back.
His tent was set in a remote location, and Bai Shuixiao’s incident had occurred in another remote tent. He passed by it on his way back. The tent flap was rolled up, and glancing inside, he could see the corpse covered with a white cloth.
Presumably fearing that this corpse might cause some trouble, there were many guards both inside and outside the tent.
Back in his tent, Jiang Lian fell asleep immediately, then suddenly woke up. Thinking that much time had passed, he checked—it had been less than an hour. The cliff top was still buzzing with voices, but after a while, a fine rain began to fall, gradually quieting the noise.
Shen Gun had also returned, full of energy, updating him on the latest developments: “Little Lian Lian, they say everyone who was on the cliff today must sign a confidentiality agreement.”
Understandable—certain terrifying events, even internally, require controlled dissemination.
Jiang Lian said to him: “Yet you were all chatting passionately out there.”
Shen Gun replied: “That’s different. We’re all insiders. Not talking about it externally doesn’t mean we can’t discuss it internally, otherwise, we’d burst. Little Lian Lian, I circulated among everyone and gathered quite a bit of new information. I’ve been waiting to come back and analyze it with you.”
Jiang Lian was speechless: having witnessed Bai Shuixiao’s eerie death firsthand, coupled with the bad news from Kuang Meiying, he felt nauseated, sick to his stomach, and exhausted, not even wanting to speak.
Yet Shen Gun still had the enthusiasm to discuss.
However, he was somewhat curious about the so-called “new information.”
Jiang Lian grabbed an inflatable pillow, stuffed it behind himself, and reclined sloppily: “Let’s hear it.”
“Remember I told you that the ancestral tablet is like an embryonic body, similar to a human body, capable of housing a human soul, or consciousness,” Shen Gun lowered his voice mysteriously, “what just happened further confirms my view.”
“That ancestral tablet is an embryonic body of unknown material. When alive, it’s extremely hard, impervious to weapons. After being killed by the mountain gall, it becomes like a pile of soft, rotten cotton. Don’t you find the comparison somewhat similar to a human body? When a human body is alive, it has vitality, elasticity, and can move at will; after death, it’s just a pile of decaying flesh, completely lifeless, rotting and stinking, unable to move at all.”
Jiang Lian made an “oh” sound.
Shen Gun was dissatisfied with this reaction and decided to drop some bombshell information: “Inside that ancestral tablet was a man, or more precisely, a man’s soul. In folk terms, it’s called the Cave Spirit; in scientific terms, it’s brain waves. Bai Shuixiao fell in love with such a set of… brain waves.”
Jiang Lian made another “oh” sound. Perhaps when a person is extremely tired and doesn’t want to talk, their level of acceptance for things increases.
Shen Gun was surprised: “You can accept even this?”
Jiang Lian answered lazily: “If this were in ‘Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio,’ wouldn’t it just be falling in love with a ghost? Any Chinese person could accept that.”
Shen Gun was not convinced: “This is different. The ghosts in ‘Strange Tales’ are all beautiful and alluring, visible to people.”
Jiang Lian closed his eyes: “Visible or invisible, what’s the difference? Love, ultimately, is a feeling. Wasn’t there a Song Dynasty poet called ‘Plum Blossom Wife, Crane Son’? As long as the other can give you that feeling, whether it’s male or female, alive or dead, a plum blossom or a statue, a photograph or brain waves, it’s the object of your emotional attachment.”
Shen Gun was stunned for a good while: “Little Lian Lian, your thinking is truly avant-garde.”
Avant-garde?
If this counts as avant-garde, then Shen Gun is also quite avant-garde. After all, hearing this explanation, he didn’t denounce it as nonsense but praised it as “avant-garde.”
Jiang Lian made an affirmative sound: “Somewhat avant-garde, I suppose. Continue what you were saying.”
Shen Gun finally snapped back: “Where was I… oh, ‘mountain gall controls water essence’—this word ‘control’ is used quite euphemistically; it means to kill. No wonder Bai Shuixiao fought to the death to prevent this from happening. Look at it from another angle: once the mountain gall emerges, the Cave Spirit she loves is doomed to die. How could she not go mad? No wonder those guarding her said Bai Shuixiao didn’t think she had done anything wrong, and was even self-righteous, talking about protecting her loved one, saying it was perfectly justified.”
This made sense now, explaining why Bai Shuixiao had such a strong motive, willing to inflict knife wounds on herself without hesitation.
Jiang Lian opened his eyes and murmured: “What grudge does the mountain gall have against the ancestral tablet? Why would it kill the ancestral tablet?”
Shen Gun caught his mistake and wouldn’t let it go: “Wrong! Little Lian Lian, you’ve made a fundamental error.”
A fundamental error?
Jiang Lian didn’t understand what principle was at stake and turned to look at Shen Gun in confusion.
Shen Gun leaned half his body out of the tent, picked up two small stones, and placed one down: “This is the water essence, or the ancestral tablet.”
Then he placed down the other: “This is the mountain gall.”
“These two things, in my view, are unknown substances. They don’t possess consciousness, preferences, or enmities like ‘I want to attack you’ or ‘you want to kill me’—just like water and fire. When they meet, everyone knows what will happen. It’s like how acid can remove rust. Can you say that water wants to kill fire, or acid wants to kill rust?”
“Water essence meeting mountain gall is a natural reaction. The water essence itself doesn’t fear the mountain gall, just as you can’t ask if fire fears water—it’s not fear, just a phenomenon. What truly fears the mountain gall is the Cave Spirit, because water essence is its physical form, like a human body, and when water essence meets mountain gall, it dies, withers, and loses function. When the body is gone, the Cave Spirit has nowhere to dwell. Remember what I said? The law of conservation of energy: when the body dies, it must disappear too.”
Jiang Lian remained silent.
This explanation wasn’t difficult to understand, just like how a knife has no preferences—it depends on whose hand wields it. Water essence is merely a tool; it doesn’t commit evil. The evildoer is the “person” using the tool.
“Also,” Shen Gun was in his element, eyes gleaming, “right next to Xuandan Peak Forest, there was an ancestral tablet placed. The mountain gall is the natural enemy of water essence. Isn’t such an arrangement quite intriguing?”
Jiang Lian remembered something and sat up: “I recall we once discussed that the water essence seemed to be monitoring the mountain gall.”
“Exactly!” Shen Gun was excited. “This way, the entire story fits together.”
He attempted to sort through the events from beginning to end.
“Inside that water essence was a person—let’s call it the Cave Spirit. It was embedded in the cliff cave, the closest place to the mountain gall, like a sentry post, constantly guarding against the escape of its imprisoned natural enemy.”
“What’s the primary condition for its natural enemy to escape? The Mountain Ghosts are taking the gall. In other words, what the Cave Spirit was constantly guarding against was the Mountain Ghosts.”
“Back to the Cave Spirit—it’s just a set of brain waves, a powerful force of thought capable of influencing human brains. But it’s just influence; after all, the human brain isn’t useless. How can it be influenced just because you say so? Meeting someone with a large brain capacity might even result in a counter-kill.”
“We also know that the use of this thought force isn’t anytime, anywhere—it must have water, which enhances this influence. But it’s not that strong—when Water Ghosts go into the water, their entire bodies are immersed, actively pressing their foreheads against the ancestral tablet, yet they’re only controlled for an hour or two.”
Jiang Lian interjected: “And in Xiangxi, even the Water Ghosts don’t have these conditions.”
Xiangxi is deep in the mountains, not near major rivers. To have a watery environment, it can only rely on rain, but rainwater compared to flowing river water… its power is greatly reduced.
Moreover, Water Ghosts opening locks, carrying ancestral tablets into water—these are ancestral commands. But the Cave Spirit doesn’t have as many filial descendants at its disposal.
Little Lian Lian had finally engaged in positive interaction. Shen Gun was excited: “Yes, so it had to find another path, creating… followers it could command. The legend of the Luohua Cave Women in Xiangxi has existed for a long time—could it have originated from this? Firstly, Xiangxi has much rain, and these stone caves have many crevices where water seeps in, creating a suitable environment; secondly, the Luohua Cave Women are often sensitive, fragile, introverted, and imaginative young women. Perhaps such women are more easily bewitched by it, becoming its ears and eyes, helping it gather information.”
Jiang Lian had a thought: “Bai Shuixiao?”
Shen Gun nodded vigorously: “This Bai Shuixiao is talented. I heard there’s a group of people on Broken Person Ridge helping her. Anyway, back to the main topic.”
“Miss Meng’s trip was very high-profile. I heard that before she even arrived in Xiangxi, invitation cards for her banquet had already been sent out. Also, many Mountain Ghost leaders hadn’t been to Xiangxi for years.”
Jiang Lian thought of Duan Wenxi.
Shen Gun seemed to know what he was thinking and waved his hand: “Miss Duan doesn’t count. Her trip was a personal exploration, very quiet, almost nobody knew—Miss Meng’s presence was too grand. The Cave Spirit was already wary of the Mountain Ghosts. If you were the Cave Spirit, hearing about this, wouldn’t you be nervous? Wouldn’t you pay attention? Bai Shuixiao must have been lurking near Yunmeng Peak early on, probably even more attentive than Liu Guanguo.”
Jiang Lian pondered: “But how did she know Miss Meng was coming for the mountain gall?”
Shen Gun thought for a moment: “This can only be explained by the fact that many people talk, and no wall is completely sound-proof—I heard that Meng assistant had instructed Liu Guanguo to bring a large batch of mountain maps to Yunmeng Peak, and all the maps were of the Xuandan Peak Forest area. If you were Bai Shuixiao, already suspicious and paranoid, then learned this news, wouldn’t you know what Miss Meng came for?”
Jiang Lian let out a long breath.
It all made sense now.
After a moment, he smiled: “This was the Cave Spirit’s destined calamity. It was too calculating, thinking too much. At that time, Miss Meng had no intention of taking the gall. If Bai Shuixiao hadn’t exhausted every scheme, the two of us wouldn’t have followed down the cliff, and Miss Meng wouldn’t have taken out the mountain gall.”
Shen Gun also felt a bit emotional: “Indeed, if that Cave Spirit were still alive and knew how things played out, it would regret until its intestines turned blue.”
A typical case of making things worse with every action, doing more and erring more, practically digging its own grave.
Having heard and analyzed the story thoroughly, Jiang Lian wanted to lie back down.
Shen Gun grabbed him: “Wait, Little Lian Lian, we haven’t gotten to the most important part yet.”
Damn, after analyzing the matter to this extent, there was still something most important?
Jiang Lian was puzzled: “What most important part?”
“That Miss Bai’s death…” Shen Gun was ambiguous: “In your opinion, what happened?”
Jiang Lian hadn’t thought deeply: “The mountain gall was getting closer to it. Probably sensing this, the water essence couldn’t hold up, collapsed, and consequently affected Bai Shuixiao.”
Shen Gun shook his head: “No, most people would think like you. I initially thought the same. But thinking it over, it doesn’t make sense.”
“Sensing the mountain gall is probably correct, but there’s a time difference: I asked the people guarding the tent at that time, and Bai Shuixiao had already undergone strange changes before the mountain gall took effect—the saying goes, ‘won’t shed tears until seeing the coffin.’ The Cave Spirit shouldn’t be so fragile that it collapses merely sensing the mountain gall, right? And to say it killed Bai Shuixiao out of anger because all was lost—isn’t that too melodramatic?”
Jiang Lian’s heart skipped a beat.
Probably getting to the most crucial point, Shen Gun’s voice trembled slightly: “If our reasoning is correct, that Cave Spirit was placed there to monitor whether the mountain gall escaped. So, when it monitored this, what would it do?”
Yes, what would it do?
Jiang Lian’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
A sentry post monitoring enemy movements—what would it do? Fight to the death?
No, no, no, it’s duty should be to report, to spread this news.
In this world, there’s more than one ancestral tablet. There’s one here, three in the Water Ghost’s home, and in the Drifting Cave of the Three Rivers Source, there are said to be many.
Would ancestral tablets sense each other?
They might. In Shen Gun’s words, ancestral tablets merely contain souls, or brain waves—brain waves communicating with brain waves probably more convenient than people communicating with people.
And earlier, it was mentioned that when ancestral tablets want to enhance thought force, they need certain environments…
Jiang Lian’s voice sounded strange: “At that time, when we heard the commotion and rushed to the tent with the Mountain Ghosts, did you feel a headache?”
Shen Gun quickly nodded: “Yes, yes.”
After a pause, he added: “It wasn’t exactly a headache, more like a strong discomfort, as if being hit by invisible waves. Unpleasant. Several people even dry-heaved.”
Jiang Lian asked him: “Did it seem like suddenly enhanced thought force? Not enough to control us, but still causing discomfort?”
Shen Gun knew his words had a reason: “So?”
But Jiang Lian suddenly changed the subject: “Did you see Bai Shuixiao’s condition at death?”
Shen Gun was anxious but had to be patient: “Yes.”
“What was it like? Describe it.”
Shen Gun reluctantly said, “It was… shriveled. The whole person withered. They say it was almost visible to the naked eye, suddenly becoming like that. Too terrifying.”
However, Jiang Lian’s next words made him feel more terrified than Bai Shuixiao’s death scene.
He said, “In an adult, water accounts for nearly 70% of body weight. Blood contains water, brain marrow contains water, muscles contain water, even bones… contain water. The swallowed ancestral tablet needed water to enhance thought force and release information externally, and Bai Shuixiao was the closest… small reservoir it could utilize.”
“It sensed the mountain gall, knew it was beyond salvation, and the only thing it could do was to hurriedly, at all costs, notify the people behind it—those who placed it there: the mountain gall has emerged, the natural enemy has appeared.”
Shen Gun’s face changed. Indeed, Bai Shuixiao’s final state resembled a mummy, showing signs of rapid dehydration. The large amount of water in her young body was somehow depleted in such a short time, serving this purpose—he had only suspected the water essence would release information externally, but in Jiang Lian’s words, this had already happened.
He shuddered: “Then… are the Mountain Ghosts in danger? No, I must inform Miss Meng so they can… be prepared.”
He acted immediately, scrambling up and darting away.
Jiang Lian didn’t move.
He didn’t feel the Mountain Ghosts would be in danger from now on.
After all, the Mountain Ghosts were numerous and powerful, and for ancestral tablets to control or brainwash people was a long, difficult process. Besides, the largest force they could command was actually the Water Ghosts: but now the Water Ghosts were all fearful, dreading the ancestral tablets like tigers, already beyond their control.
But since that information had been released, it would inevitably cause some changes.
Jiang Lian instinctively felt that the Drifting Cave, which had hidden the most water essence-like substances, could probably never be found again, just like a person who persists in running outdoors, rain or shine, suddenly being told that a formidable enemy is coming to kill and is waiting along his usual route. Would he still go out running?
No, he would shut his doors, hold his breath, and respond to change with stillness.
At least, using the Water Ghosts’ old methods, it could never be found again.