At noon, Yusang found an excuse to slip away, carefully avoiding everyone in the residence as she made her way to the West Garden, but she didn’t see Yan Qige at all. She waited until the end of the hour and still hadn’t caught sight of him.

Yusang thought this was perhaps Yan Qige toying with her and was about to leave, but after taking a few steps, she felt unwilling to give up. That day, she had seen Lu Shi appear in the garden, so why did that room look like it hadn’t been inhabited for a long time? Where did Lu Shi go at night? What was with that red-headed snake demon under the artificial mountain in the courtyard? Could it be the murderous demon behind the cases in the city?

After thinking it over for a while, Yusang finally decided to go in and investigate. She quietly entered the garden, walking along the pebble path to the flower pond, taking a distant look at the artificial mountain rocks before circling to the outside of Lu Shi’s room.

To be safe, Yusang knocked on the door frame, and indeed, there was no one inside the room. Pushing the door open, she saw a room full of dust. The brocade bedding on the bed had grown moldy, spider webs had formed on the tables and cabinets, and the white candles and paper cuttings on the table were still arranged in their original positions.

“Have you returned?” A voice came from outside the room.

Yusang’s heart jumped in alarm. She recognized this as Magistrate Wang’s voice. Looking around for a hiding place, without time to think much, she crouched down and hid under the bed. Seeing Magistrate Wang’s black official boots step across the threshold, Yusang steadied her nerves and remembered that she was a demon who could easily cast an illusion spell on ordinary mortals like Magistrate Wang.

“Is it you who has returned?” Magistrate Wang walked around the room inquiring, as if there truly was someone else in the room.

After waiting a moment with no sound in the room, Magistrate Wang sighed and walked to the table, reaching out to grasp the white candle on the table. With a forceful twist, the white candle moved, and then four marble floor tiles beside the table shifted away, revealing stone steps leading down underground.

“Since you refuse to come up and see me, then I shall go seek you.”

Magistrate Wang lifted his robes and walked down the steps. Seeing that the marble tiles were about to close, Yusang quickly emerged from under the bed and followed him down.

…

…

The marble blocks behind them closed, and everything around them immediately became pitch black. Magistrate Wang lit the white candle he had brought down from the table and held it up. Only then could Yusang see clearly that she was in a stone stairway passage, surrounded by jagged stone walls. After walking for about the time it takes to eat a meal, the stone steps underfoot became much gentler, and she could vaguely make out what appeared to be a circular pool below, with the water’s surface reflecting the candlelight from Magistrate Wang’s hand in eerie ripples.

Upon reaching the pool, the stone steps also came to an end. Stone walls flanked both sides, and the end of the steps formed a doorway leading to the pool. Yusang discovered water stains seeping down the four walls, converging into thin streams on both sides of the steps. She dipped her finger to smell it – the water had a scent of withered lotus leaves. She surmised that directly above her head must be the flower pond of the West Garden, and above this pool should be the artificial mountain.

“Why have you come?” A hoarse female voice came from within the pool, echoing between the pool and stone walls, making Yusang’s hair stand on end.

“I saw your room door had been opened and thought you had gone up.”

“It wasn’t me. Someone has infiltrated.”

“Who?” Magistrate Wang was startled.

Two strange laughs came from the pool, then suddenly the water surged violently. A gray shadow leaped up several zhang high and pounced directly at Magistrate Wang, saying, “Right behind you.”

Yusang was greatly alarmed, realizing she had been discovered. She quickly turned to run, but the mountain passage was narrow and dark. She had only run a few steps when she tripped and fell. Seeing the shadow had already pounced, she quickly drew her white jade brush from her sleeve to cast a spell to meet it, taking the opportunity to get up and continue running forward.

In the moment she stood up, Yusang also clearly saw that the attacking black shadow was the red snake demon that had attacked her at the mountain entrance that day. Now the snake’s body was emerging from the pool, with dozens of zhang of snake body slithering along the stone steps in pursuit of Yusang.

Yusang ran desperately for her life. Fortunately, the snake’s body was thick and couldn’t move very quickly in the narrow stone passage, giving her time to reach the exit alive. Just as she was worrying about how to open the marble slab exit from inside, the exit seemed to understand her intentions and opened with a whoosh.

Yusang silently recited “Amitabha” twice in her heart, thinking that once she got out, she must offer several sticks of incense to the Buddhist goddesses and venerable ones. But before she could finish thinking, the exit behind her exploded with a bang, and the red snake head extended out, followed by the snake body over a zhang high standing in the room.

At this moment, the sunlight was at its peak. The doors and windows that had been completely closed when she went down were now all opened somehow, with sunlight streaming unobstructed into the room, falling precisely on the entrance in the floor. So when the red snake’s body emerged from the exit, it was caught directly in the light.

The snake let out a wail the instant it touched the sunlight, and flames ignited wherever the sunlight touched its body, quickly setting fire to two curtains in the room.

Originally thinking the snake would quickly retreat back into the stone passage, unexpectedly after swaying a few times, it actually pulled its entire body out of the opening and rolled around burning in the room. Magistrate Wang, who came up from underground after the red snake, was shocked to see this scene, his eyes wide with alarm.

Only then did Yusang understand that this red snake demon had voluntarily exposed its entire body to the sunlight to avoid burning Magistrate Wang who was coming up behind it. Seeing Magistrate Wang drop the candlestick and about to rush toward the red snake, she quickly grabbed him and pulled him toward the door, saying, “This is a demon. If you go over there, you’ll lose your life.”

“Back then, you didn’t let the Taoist capture me, but now you’ve still acted. I said long ago this day would come.” The red snake writhed and rolled in the room, letting out piercing cries, yet there was little hatred in its voice.

“It wasn’t me. I never thought of harming you. This wasn’t my doing.” Magistrate Wang shook his head in denial. Seeing the entire room had been set ablaze by the massive snake body and the beams beginning to creak as if they might collapse at any moment, Yusang couldn’t let him dawdle any longer. She pressed his acupoint and dragged him out of the room.

After leaving Lu Shi’s room by several zhang, Yusang finally stopped and said, “Are you crazy? Are you blind and deaf? You’d risk your life for that demon.”

“I can’t watch him die. Let me go into the room to save her.”

“Truly bewitched.” Yusang was thoroughly angered by Magistrate Wang. Just as she was about to start scolding, she heard a tremendous crash as the room before them collapsed with a roar in the great fire.

Seeing this, Magistrate Wang cried out and fell backward. Yusang quickly grabbed his arm so he wouldn’t hurt his bones too badly when he fell, but she saw he hadn’t fainted. Instead, he stared wide-eyed at that sea of flames.

Yusang turned her head to follow Magistrate Wang’s gaze and saw a white-robed man carrying a lantern walking out of the brilliantly burning sea of fire. Behind him, everything was collapsing and crumbling in the crackling sounds of the fierce flames, yet he seemed oblivious, his expression leisurely as if strolling and admiring flowers.

Though very reluctant to admit it, Yusang still had to acknowledge that in that instant, Yan Qige was magnificent enough to make all the words in the world used to describe nobility or elegance pale in comparison.