Chapter Seventy-Five: Rescue and Healing

I sat on the ground for a long time, dazed.
The chill seeped endlessly into my body, so cold that my hands and feet began to stiffen.
Try as I might, I could not think of any good solution.
For now, my only assets were the innate ability my soul possessed—to devour ghosts as ghosts do—and the power to draw the Thunder Symbol.
Other than that, I knew nothing.
Even if I could protect myself in the presence of ghosts and avoid being killed, to save Chan Shu, to rescue my mother, or even to release Lord Wang Jiu’s soul from the Fusion Symbol, I lacked the means.
This thought tightened in my chest; I quickly grabbed the blue-bound book and flipped it open.
On the second page, the Fusion Symbol appeared, with a line of small script beside it:
“Fusion Symbol: outlined with soul, infuse soul into the symbol; the symbol acts as a second self.”
I took up the talisman brush, spread a sheet of paper, my hands trembling as I tried to draw the Fusion Symbol.
But in my memories, I had never witnessed the drawing of the Fusion Symbol. When I first received Lord Wang Jiu’s talisman brush and saw him draw, he had not used blood.
I traced the lines of the Fusion Symbol as instructed, but nothing was left behind—no talisman appeared.
I bit my lip hard. Why was this happening?
I immediately took out the inkstone, bit my tongue and finger to draw blood, and mixed the ink. Then, using the blood ink, I traced the symbol.
Though the lines of the Fusion Symbol appeared, nothing happened. I felt no division of my soul entering the symbol, nor did the talisman stir.
I let the brush fall powerlessly. It was useless.
Why was it useless?
Was it because my memories had not yet touched upon anything related to the Fusion Symbol?
I glanced over at Chan Shu’s nailed corpse. The remaining six nails—I dared not touch them.
For my mother had said earlier that she had helped loosen the Death Soul Nails.
No doubt the soul of the old ghost woman was scattered by my mother years ago; otherwise, the frail Chan Shu could never have managed it alone.
Outside, Wang Erjun’s voice rang out, shouting my name.
A faint consciousness emanated from Chan Shu’s corpse on the wall, making me shudder as I stood up suddenly.
“Go...”
That thought stirred sourness within me.
There was delight, too—Chan Shu still had awareness and could sense my presence, which meant that particular soul had not harmed hers.
Yet the black mist on her face deepened, as if even the effort to urge me to leave had cost her dearly.
I knew well that lingering here would not suddenly grant me the power to save Chan Shu.
On the contrary, I might only worsen her plight.
“I won’t abandon you.”
My voice hoarse, I gathered all my belongings and walked out of the house.
Wang Erjun waited at the courtyard gate, his face anxious and worried.
Old Lady Li had vanished.
When he saw me, his face lit up with joy and he urged me to hurry out.
I left the courtyard.
Wang Erjun hugged me fiercely. “Xie Yuan, you rascal, I thought you’d never come out! You haven’t let that old ghost woman cloud your mind, have you?”
I forced a smile. “You’re the one who’d be bewitched by a rotten orange-faced hag.”
I pushed him aside.
He turned solemn. “Xie Yuan, I don’t know what’s happened to you, but you’re my brother, my best friend. Don’t do anything rash. Remember, you’re the only heir of the Xie family—if you die, the Xie line ends.”
His words hit me hard.
Looking at his round, plump face, I suddenly thought of Li Cangshui, who’d been driven away.
He wanted the method I used to steal longevity, which could rid me of the shadow monkey.
If that couldn’t be done, he said, we’d never get farther than Wang Family Pass.

After leaving the ancestral hall, because of Chan Shu, I drove Li Cangshui away.
That Combat Symbol even injured him badly.
Li Cangshui would not return.
For now, Chan Shu could not be rescued, and Wang Erjun would not leave Wang Family Pass.
A cloud of gloom gathered in my heart.
“What’s wrong, Xie Yuan? Why are you so lost? Old Lady Li has gone to prepare things, said she’ll add an array in the ghost woman’s courtyard, and wants the whole village to help. We should hurry and lend a hand.”
Wang Erjun patted my shoulder.
I snapped out of my reverie.
Taking a deep breath, I said, “You help Old Lady Li. I need to go somewhere.”
Wang Erjun paused. “Where to?”
“Don’t worry, nothing will happen. I’m heading back to the ancestral hall.”
He didn’t press further.
We parted ways, and I walked straight toward the pass.
Before long, I reached the pass.
The night was cold; the mountain road had no trees to block the moonlight, and the light was bright.
Gazing at the other side of the pass—the road that led away from Wang Family Pass, far from Hundred House Village.
I reached up to touch the shadow monkey behind my ear, shivered, and strode toward that path.
I took a few steps forward. No problem at all.
I began to relax, thinking Li Cangshui had exaggerated to scare me.
But then a sharp chill suddenly seized me behind the ear, as if tiny hands were tearing at my skin, yanking and twisting.
The pain made me clutch my ear, my vision swimming with darkness.
It felt as if my ear were being ripped apart.
The agony lasted only a dozen seconds, but when I thought I couldn’t bear it any longer, it finally vanished.
My vision cleared.
My heart skipped a beat.
I found myself kneeling at the pass, halfway out onto the road from Wang Family Pass, as if I’d never actually gone beyond it.
The spot behind my ear felt icy and faintly painful, as if tiny hands were still grasping at something.
I took a few breaths, reached to touch the shadow monkey.
This time, it felt harder, no longer soft, a hard lump with a sting, as if it had grown a mouth—it bit me fiercely when I touched it.
I shook my hand in pain, the gloom in my heart deepening.
I turned to look toward Hundred House Village.
The night was pitch black; I could see nothing.
But unease churned within me.
If Hundred House Village reappeared, with only Wang Erjun and myself as we were now, death would be our fate.
Or we’d become something unimaginable and horrific.
I struggled to stand up, shuffled back to the ancestral hall.
Sitting on the floor of the front room, I emptied everything from the box.
Neither the bronze mirror nor the bundle of peachwood swords gave me any sense of memory or familiarity.
I reopened the blue-bound book. Of the four symbols depicted, only the Thunder Symbol stirred something in my spirit; the others seemed ordinary, even the Combat Symbol I’d drawn felt nothing special.
Chan Shu had told me that unless I recovered that breath within my soul, I could not draw the Combat Symbol.
It seemed the other symbols required something special within the soul as well.
Exhaustion welled up from within, pain began to radiate throughout my body.
I had not rested since returning to Wang Family Pass, always on the move.
Though my mind was clear, my body could not bear it.
I glanced at the hidden door, its spirit tablet untouched.
The corpse at the end of the passage would not escape.

Fatigue overwhelmed me, and I drifted into sleep.
I do not know how long I slept; my consciousness remained muddled.
I had a dream.
I dreamed I saved my mother, but she did not recognize me; she showed no warmth, and even regarded me as an enemy, trying to kill me.
In the dream, I was desperate, unable to fathom why my mother had changed so.
Before that dream could reach an end, another followed.
Chan Shu escaped from the ghost woman’s Death Soul Nails. She nestled against my chest, staring at my right hand, murmuring, “Why isn't it there?”
I didn’t understand and asked her why.
Suddenly, her attitude turned cold; she questioned who I really was and why I had deceived her.
I jolted awake, gasping for breath, clutching my chest, suffocating.
But my clothes were gone!
My upper body was stripped, wrapped in gauze from shoulder to armpit, the wound on my chest tingling as if freshly treated.
My trousers were rolled up; the wounds had been dressed anew.
“Old Lady Li? Erjun?”
Old Lady Li had been busy preparing the talisman array, and Wang Erjun was with her.
How could they be here helping me?
Other than them, I could think of no one else.
Then I discovered the wooden box beside me had vanished.
My heart skipped a beat; the smell of burning wood drifted in from the courtyard, accompanied by flickering firelight.
I stood and hurried to the doorway.
There, a figure sat by a fire, back turned to me.
The wooden box was beside her.
She held the blue-bound book, muttering angrily to herself.
“What a worthless book, clutched so tightly, yet all the pages are blank.”
She tossed the book aside and picked up the bronze mirror, her voice brightening.
“This mirror is far better—it’s the lost Green Reflection Mirror!”
It was a woman.
And she was Li Yue!
Li Cangshui had returned?
My face changed; I could not see the clothes I’d removed, and Li Yue must have taken the skin for longevity while I was unconscious.
These two were not good people, at least not to me—they had their own motives.
She was still fiddling with other items.
A flash of anger crossed my heart, and I crept up behind Li Yue.
She remained oblivious, one hand playing with the mirror, the other tending the fire; a clay pot boiled atop it.
I was right behind her, yet she hadn’t noticed.
I lunged, grabbed her throat with both hands, locked my elbow under her chin, and pulled back fiercely!
Li Yue screamed, panic filling her face. She flailed wildly, her hands clawing at my wound, pain blurring my vision.
My strength failed; I released her in an instant.
Li Yue broke free in terror, ran forward a few steps, cheeks flushed, glaring at me, furious.
“You ingrate! I saved your life, and you repay me like this?”
My leg wound throbbed as if stabbed anew, and I collapsed to the ground, half-kneeling, staring at Li Yue.
Her expression shifted; she gritted her teeth.
“Your wound’s reopened. Do you know what kind of injury this is? Yet you move about as if you’re not afraid of dying!”
I stared at Li Yue, not trusting a word she said.
She bit her lip, looking at me.
“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t mean you any harm. If I’d wanted to kill you, you’d never have woken up. I sneaked away—my master is wounded, but I thought you wouldn’t get out of Wang Family Pass, so I came back for you. I just want to know, why did you promise to give my master what he wanted, and then suddenly refuse? Is it because of that ghost woman who protects you?”
A wave of dizziness swept over me, and I tottered, collapsing.