Nan Rao had once settled with her daughter in Kong City’s North District. As they passed through three quiet alleys and by two houses with families gathered around candlelit windows, Nan Yan’s excitement grew with each step.
“I’m worried my mother might have gone out alone again. She hasn’t even been replying to my letters lately…”
Qi Yang listened to Nan Yan’s soft complaints. As they approached the Nan family’s old residence, he finally tore his gaze from the blooming peach trees lining the road. Watching Nan Yan’s increasingly brisk steps, he briefly raised his left hand as if to touch her, but quickly withdrew it.
“This is it. If you need to refine the antidote pill, you can do it here. I’ll give you my small room, and I’ll squeeze in with my mother.”
Nan Yan pushed open the wooden door.
The ancient door creaked open, stirring a cold autumn breeze that swept through the courtyard. Tattered joss paper fluttered across Nan Yan’s face, instantly freezing the smile of the returning child.
“Mother?”
More terrifying and direct than emptiness were the worn white silk in the courtyard and the unburnt joss paper scattered on the ground.
Nan Yan stumbled back two steps, her back bumping into Qi Yang’s supporting hand. Her vision darkened and then cleared, repeatedly confirming that the scene before her was real, not an illusion.
“A Yan.” Qi Yang paused, then said, “Shall I go in and look for you?”
Nan Yan recoiled as if burned, nodded, and sat on the stone steps facing the empty street, lost in thought.
How could this be?
How could this happen?
Her mother was invincible; how could she suddenly leave?
Nan Yan clutched the pearl at her neck, but this time, it failed to calm her emotions even slightly.
“Is that… Neighbor Nan’s A Yan who’s returned?”
Hearing movement next door, an elderly neighbor opened her door with a lantern. Seeing Nan Yan lost in thought, she approached.
“It is A Yan. Ah… if only you had returned three months earlier. Madam Nan came back in deep winter, saying her daughter would return to find her. Even if she… even if she left, she wouldn’t go far.”
“… What happened to my mother?”
“It was still that heart ailment. She refused to see a doctor no matter what. During the day, she could walk around, talking and laughing. But at night, she’d sit alone in the courtyard under that tree. When I came to bring her some sun-dried dates, she had already passed.”
“Then…” Nan Yan sniffled, holding back tears for a long time before asking in a choked voice, “Thank you, Granny. Where is my mother buried?”
“Just three miles outside the city, by Crescent River. From the ferry crossing, count the third grave to the right.”
Nan Yan nodded, thanking her haltingly. At this moment, Qi Yang emerged, holding a letter. Seeing Nan Yan’s state, he said gently:
“The letter says you should seek out your uncle… Never mind, shall I keep it for you for now?”
Nan Yan mumbled in agreement, covering her eyes with her sleeve. After a while, she said, “I want to visit the grave outside the city.”
Qi Yang glanced once more at the nearby peach and plum trees but didn’t hesitate, nodding in agreement.
Nan Yan looked back one last time at the city’s myriad lights, never before finding them so faint. It was as if all the clamor had rushed past her in an instant, leaving only the jade-warm hands beside her, waiting to guide her through this ghostly night…
…
The grave by Crescent River was no different from the others – overgrown with grass, moss-covered tombstone. Only the nearby river’s waves seemed to favor this spot, its gentle lapping making even the autumn cicadas sound tender.
Nan Yan gripped Qi Yang’s hand tightly the whole way, her steps faltering as they neared the cluster of graves in the distance.
Suddenly, Qi Yang stopped.
“Shao Cang?”
Nan Yan looked up to see Qi Yang’s eyes deep in concentration.
“Something’s not right.”
As he spoke, he moved swiftly, stopping at the third grave from the ferry crossing. Nan Yan hurried over to see a stone tablet inscribed with “Tomb of Nan Rao.” Behind the tablet, the grave was split open, the coffin empty.
Her mother’s grave had been excavated, the body missing.
“Mother…”
Nan Yan was stunned. Her mother had always been careless with money, but even grave robbers wouldn’t ignore the fancier stone tombs nearby to target her mother’s grave.
“The grave robber wasn’t after wealth. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have left the coffin so neatly arranged. Unless…” Qi Yang held his hand over the grave, making a grasping motion. Wisps of spiritual energy rose from the soil, quickly dissipating.
“This was done by a cultivator,” Ji Yang stated, stopping Nan Yan as she turned to leave. “You don’t know where the grave robbers went. How would you find them? Calm down and listen to me first.”
Nan Yan shook her head, clutching it as she replied, “I’m a bit confused right now. Go ahead and speak.”
“Cultivators rarely interact with ordinary people. Even evil cultivators prefer to hunt lower-level cultivators. I suspect your mother was already a cultivator. Am I right?”
Though Ji Yang asked rhetorically, Nan Yan remained confused for a while. She recalled her mother’s peculiar behaviors over the years. Despite living in poverty, they had never been bullied. If anyone tried, they wouldn’t dare a second time.
She hadn’t thought much of it before, but now she realized that a widow and orphan couldn’t have lived so peacefully unless her mother had been a cultivator.
“You’ve figured it out,” Ji Yang continued. “If your mother was a cultivator, there are two possibilities for who exhumed her body. First, it could be an evil cultivator who had been watching her for a long time but feared her power. After her death, they might have stolen her body to create a corpse puppet.”
Nan Yan’s pupils constricted, her fingers trembling with anger. “If that’s true…”
“Don’t panic,” Ji Yang said, kneeling. His words carried a calming power. “There’s another possibility. Look at the coffin. Although it was opened, it was done carefully and neatly. Your mother might have come from a noble background, and her original sect may have discovered her fate token had shattered. They might have taken her for a proper burial.”
Nan Yan glanced at the undamaged coffin nearby and gradually calmed down. “Is that possible?”
“Nan Yan,” Ji Yang said softly, lowering his gaze, “have you noticed that your aptitude far surpasses ordinary cultivators?”
In the cultivation world, only a small fraction of people were born with exceptional spiritual roots. Most cultivators relied on accumulated bloodline power from their ancestors. These cultivators, born into powerful families, possessed extraordinary aptitude from birth and were considered nobility in the cultivation world.
Nan Yan, unconcerned with these details, asked urgently, “How should I find out?”
“You are the clue,” Ji Yang replied, gently touching her palm. “A cultivator’s bloodline awakens as their power grows. If you can reach the Foundation Establishment stage and cross the vast sea to the overseas States, you might find clues about your mother’s origins.”
He harbored a hidden motive, wanting Nan Yan to follow her mother’s wishes and pursue immortality. This would give him more time to uncover the truth.
Lost in thought, Ji Yang was brought back to reality when Nan Yan hugged him tightly, resting her head on his shoulder.
“Shao Cang, I miss my mother… I never got to say a proper goodbye.”
She had said this earlier, but her tone now was entirely different.
“Don’t be too disheartened,” he comforted her. “Think positively. Perhaps your mother’s sect saw she could still be saved and took her for treatment?”
“I hope that’s the case,” Nan Yan replied softly.
Knowing these were just words of comfort, she fell silent for a moment before quietly expressing her regrets. Ji Yang listened patiently until her heartbeat steadied. Then she asked, “Shao Cang, you seem to know everything. Is there any celestial technique or elixir that can bring people back to life?”
Ji Yang instinctively wanted to say no, but he changed his mind. “There are ways, but most have harsh conditions. For example, soul possession, a major taboo in the cultivation world, can be used to resurrect someone if not done voluntarily.”
“How does it work?” Nan Yan asked.
Ji Yang explained the process of forcibly transferring a cultivator’s intact spirit into another living person’s body using evil magic. He described how the spirit, influenced by demonic energy, would briefly lose its mind and devour the innocent person’s soul, ultimately taking over the body.
Nan Yan cautiously asked, “What happens to the person whose body is taken?”
“Their three hun and seven po are completely devoured, never to enter reincarnation. They become resentful energy that haunts the original body for life,” Ji Yang replied. “The person who takes over the body often falls into the path of evil cultivation. That’s why anyone discovered to have performed soul possession is hunted down by all in the cultivation world.”
Ji Yang’s tone remained calm, and Nan Yan didn’t notice any hidden meaning in his words.
“No, I won’t do that,” she said. “Even if there’s no hope, I’ll make sure my mother rests in peace.”
After composing themselves, they tidied up Nan Rao’s empty grave. Seeing Nan Yan’s reluctance to leave, Ji Yang carried her on his back as they slowly walked back to the city.
The festival atmosphere in the city was waning. The peach blossoms along the road were no longer in full bloom, their petals scattering as everything returned to normal.
As the moon set in the west, the bustling streets emptied. Only a few merchants remained, counting their copper coins with tired but satisfied smiles, thinking of buying some yellow wine and reuniting with their families.
Soon, a black mechanical butterfly fluttered near, relaying information that surprised Ji Yang.
“What is it? Has my brother gone missing?” Nan Yan asked hoarsely.
“Not missing,” Ji Yang replied, his expression peculiar. “I sent out the mechanical butterfly to find him, but it seems he’s searching for a doctor all over the city.”
“Why?”
Puzzled, Ji Yang set Nan Yan down. They followed the butterfly to a street lined with medical clinics. Most doors were tightly shut, but people peeked out from windows.
A man from a nearby clinic fearfully said, “I couldn’t see clearly, but that must be a demon, right?”
His son excitedly added, “YeAh it’s drunk! Every time it hiccups, furry ears pop out!”
The man’s wife whispered, “The demon is quite handsome, though.”
“Bah!” the man spat. “You must be bewitched by a fox spirit! Stop looking. There’s a crazy Daoist with the demon. Let him handle it. It’s not our business!”
With that, the family closed their window and extinguished their light.
Nan Yan asked, “What do they mean?”
Ji Yang explained, “It seems Zhan Ting encountered a fox demon. He gave it realgar wine, causing it to reveal its true form.”
“My brother isn’t foolish enough to mistake a demon for a person, is he?” Nan Yan questioned.
Ji Yang pondered briefly, forming a strange guess. “Perhaps the fox demon transformed into someone he knows.”
They fell silent for a moment before continuing their search. As they turned a corner, their spiritual sense detected a faint demonic aura mixed with a cultivator’s spiritual energy. They heard a banging sound coming from the alley.
Nan Yan peered around the corner and saw a young man in white fur clothing. His profile was identical to Ji Yang’s, but his drooping beast ears marked him as non-human.
The drunken fox demon clutched a wine jar, mumbling, “Treasure… all mine… all mine…”
Beside him, the seemingly blind Mu was frantically knocking on a clinic door. “Doctor, come out and take a look! How did my brother grow ears after drinking two jin of realgar wine with me?”
Ji Yang and Nan Yan were speechless.
Nan Yan said, “It seems my brother has found his destined fellow eccentric. Let’s not disturb them and head back.”
Ji Yang replied, “… You have a point.”